1 Chronicles 16:8 — LETTER TO JULIUS AFRICANUS 21
In the first book of Chronicles the psalm praising the Lord attributed to Asaph and his brothers, which begins "O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name," is, for the most part, the same as Psalm 104, down to the words "Do my prophets no harm!" After that it is almost identical to Psalm 95 from the beginning, "Sing to the Lord, all the earth!"
1 Chronicles 16:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
The sixth is the song in the first book of Chronicles, where David appointed Asaph and his brothers at the beginning to praise the Lord, and the beginning of this song is such: "Praise the Lord and give thanks and call upon him in his name, make known his wishes among the peoples, sing to him, and speak a hymn, recount all his devisings which the Lord has made," etc. It must be known, however, that the song which is in the second book of Kingdoms is very like the sixteenth psalm. But that which is in the first book of Chronicles, in its beginnings indeed, up to that place where it says: "And among the prophets do not deal maliciously," is like the one hundred and fourth psalm. But the latter portions, from this place on, bear a likeness to the first parts of the ninety-fifth psalm, where it is said: "Sing to the Lord, all the earth," up to that place where it says: "For he comes to judge the earth."
1 Chronicles 16:22 — AGAINST CELSUS 6.79
There was no need that there should everywhere exist many bodies and many spirits like Jesus, in order that the entire humankind might be enlightened by the Word of God. For the one Word was enough, having arisen as the "Sun of righteousness," to send forth from Judea his coming rays into the souls of all who were willing to receive him. But if anyone desires to see many bodies filled with a divine Spirit, similar to the one Christ, ministering to the salvation of people everywhere, let him take note of those who teach the Gospel of Jesus in all lands in soundness of doctrine and uprightness of life and who are themselves termed "christs" by the holy Scriptures in the passage "Do not touch my anointed, and do not harm my prophets." For as we have heard that Antichrist comes and yet have learned that there are many antichrists in the world, in the same way, knowing that Christ has come, we see that, owing to him, there are many christs in the world, who, like him, have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and therefore God, the God of Christ, anointed them also with the "oil of gladness."
1 Chronicles 22:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.257
As a man of blood, David was prevented from constructing it; he seems, at least, to have been occupied concerning the gathering of the material of the temple.
1 Chronicles 28:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.4-5
Consider whether the story about David and Solomon concerning the temple hints at something like this. For when David, who wages the wars of the Lord and stands firm against many personal enemies and enemies of Israel, wishes to build a temple for God, he is prevented by God through Nathan, who says to him, "You shall not build me a house, because you are a man of blood."Solomon, however, who saw God in a dream and received wisdom in a dream (for the reality [of God] was reserved for him who said, "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here"), who enjoyed the profoundest peace so that each person at that time rested under his own vine and under his own fig tree and who was named after the peace in his time (for Solomon means "peaceful"), because of this peace has time to construct the famous temple for God. The temple for God is also rebuilt in the times of Esdras, when the truth overcomes wine along with the hostile king and the women.
1 Corinthians 1:2 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.1.7
Why did Paul write "to those called to be saints" as well as to those who are already "sanctified" and in the church? Surely this means that the letter is addressed not only to those who are already cleansed from their sins but also to those who still await cleansing, though they are among those whom God has called.
1 Corinthians 1:2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
For just as not only fornication but also second marriages exclude a man from ecclesiastical dignities — for neither a bishop nor a presbyter nor a deacon nor a widow can be twice-married — so perhaps the twice-married man will also be cast out from the assembly of the "firstborn and undefiled", the "Church, which has no spot or wrinkle"; not that he is sent into the eternal fire, but that he has no part in the kingdom of God. I recall that, when I was interpreting that which is written to the Corinthians: "to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all who call upon him", I said that there is a distinction between the "church" and those "who call upon" the name of the Lord. For I think that the man of one marriage and the virgin and he who perseveres in chastity belong to the church of God, but that he who is twice-married, although he may have had a good manner of life and abound in the other virtues, nevertheless does not belong to the "church" and to that number which "has no wrinkle or spot, or any such thing", but belongs to a second rank and to those "who call upon" the name of the Lord, and who are indeed saved in the name of Jesus Christ, yet are by no means crowned by him: to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Corinthians 1:4 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.2.1-15
Paul does not just give thanks for the Corinthians some of the time, nor only when they do good. He puts himself in the position of a father, who is thankful for his children all the time, whatever they may have done.
1 Corinthians 1:5 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.2.29-30
Knowledge shows what there is to know. Speech goes further and explains it.
1 Corinthians 1:6 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.2.35-40
The testimony of Christ is confirmed in us if we can say, like the apostle Paul, "I am persuaded that neither life nor death etc. can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" [Rom 8:38-39]. But if we are upset by every little thing that happens, then Christ's testimony has not been confirmed in us at all.
1 Corinthians 1:7 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.2.48-51
In this life the righteous person does not yet enjoy what he hopes for but rather endures suffering and danger. He is waiting for the revelation of Christ to come.
1 Corinthians 1:8 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.2.52-54
Who sustains us? Christ Jesus, the Word and Wisdom of God. Moreover, he sustains us not merely for a day or two, but forever.
1 Corinthians 1:9 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.3
Believe in Christ always, because you were called for no other purpose than to be one with us in him.
1 Corinthians 1:10 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.4
The visible church is a mixed body, consisting of both righteous and unrighteous people. This is why Paul praises some of its members and criticizes others. The person who agrees with the right doctrine and the church's teaching concerning the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as with the dispensation concerning us, with resurrection and judgment, and who follows the rules of the church is not in schism.
1 Corinthians 1:18 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.6.8-12
Who was capable of destroying the plague of ignorance, darkness and destruction? Not a prophet, nor an apostle, nor any other righteous man. Rather there had to be a divine power coming down from heaven, capable of dying on behalf of us all, so that by his death there might be a defense against the devil.
1 Corinthians 1:20 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.7.1-7
The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God are not the same thing. God's wisdom is the true one, without any additives to corrupt it. The world's wisdom is foolish, even though the simplicity of God's wisdom makes those who have it appear foolish in the eyes of the world. Believers have received this divine wisdom and thus in this world appear to be fools.
1 Corinthians 1:23 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.8.1-4
What has empowered us is belief in Christ crucified. To the extent that we are lacking something in our faith, then we are missing out on what the power of God has to offer us.
1 Corinthians 2:4 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.7
If our Scriptures had persuaded people to believe because they had been written with rhetorical art or philosophical skill, there is no doubt that our faith would be said to depend on the art of words and on human wisdom rather than on the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:6-8 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
Look also in another Scripture, and you will find that it was Christ's will that the devil should not know the coming of the Son of God. For the Apostle, affirming that the opposing powers did not know his passion, says: "we speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who are brought to nothing; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory". The mystery of the Savior, therefore, was hidden from the princes of this world.
1 Corinthians 2:6 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.3.1
When Paul talks about the wisdom of the rulers of this world he seems to be talking not about one wisdom common to them all but about different kinds of wisdom which are peculiar to each.
1 Corinthians 2:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.4
From this we may gain an idea of how great the splendor, the beauty and the brightness of a spiritual body is.
1 Corinthians 2:10 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.10.6-10
Only the Spirit can search everything. The human soul cannot do this, which is why it needs to be strengthened by the Spirit if it is ever going to penetrate the depths of God.
1 Corinthians 2:11 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The salvation of the human spirit is annulled — the spirit concerning which the Apostle speaks: "no one among men knows what is in man; only the spirit of man, which is in him." Since the Savior desired to save the spirit of man, concerning which the Apostle spoke in this manner, He took up also the spirit of man.
1 Corinthians 2:15 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.11.44-45
The spiritual man is able to judge everything, whether it is Greek or barbarian, wise or foolish. He cannot be judged by anyone because of the depth of his understanding and his responses.
1 Corinthians 3:2 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.12.17-23
In spiritual matters, "solid food" means the teaching about the Father and the Son. In the Old Testament, solid food appears under the guise of typology, as, for example, when we read about the serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness. This serpent was a picture, or type, of Christ, which explains why it was that the people were saved when they looked at it.
1 Corinthians 3:10 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.15.18-20
This warning applies to you and me as well. If I do not build properly on the foundation already laid for me, then the fire will consume my work on the day of judgment.
1 Corinthians 3:11 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.15.41-42
The other apostles laid this foundation among the Jews, while Paul and Barnabas laid it among the Gentiles.
1 Corinthians 3:12 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 1.15.46-55
If we think what is right and good, then we are building on a foundation of gold. If we repeat every holy word that has been spoken without corrupting it, then we are building on a foundation of silver. If all our works are good, then we are building on precious stones. But if I sin after laying the foundation, then I am building on wood; if I continue, I am building on hay, and finally, if I still go on, I am building on straw.
1 Corinthians 3:21 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.17.12-14
The believer owns everything there is, but the unbeliever is effectively penniless. Anything he may have has been stolen.
1 Corinthians 4:1 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.18.10-16
There is a big difference between being a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God. Anyone who has read the Bible can be a servant of Christ, but to be a steward of the mysteries one must plumb their depths. Paul was acting as a steward of the mysteries when he commissioned Luke, for example, to write his Gospel, and when he sent Timothy to sort out the Ephesian church. I would even dare to say that in Corinth Paul acted like a servant of Christ, whereas in Ephesus he became a steward of the mysteries of God.
1 Corinthians 4:2 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.18.25-27
If Paul can say this of people like himself, Peter and Apollos, how much more will it be true of us? We ought to be on our guard to make sure that we are found to be trustworthy stewards.
1 Corinthians 4:4 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.18.49-51
Paul knew that even if his heart was still prone to sin, his deeds were upright.
1 Corinthians 4:5 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.18.106-12
Why does Paul mention only commendation from God and say nothing about condemnation? The reason seems to be that only that which is commendable will reach God's ears; the rest will be passed over in silence. I would even go so far as to say that it is God who receives the commendable things we have done, whereas the rest goes straight to the devil.
1 Corinthians 4:15 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.21.9-11
The father is the one who has sown the seed of the gospel in their souls. The guides are those who have taken the child later on and helped him develop.
1 Corinthians 4:16 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.21.12-14
Paul is saying to the Corinthians: "Be humble as I am humble, suffer as I suffer. It is by your sufferings, not by your gifts, that you will be rated."
1 Corinthians 4:17 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.21.20-22
By "ways in Christ" Paul means his embodied good deeds. He tells the Corinthians to remember them, because they are self-evident and do not need to be taught.
1 Corinthians 4:20 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.22.6-8
It is not smooth talk that reveals the presence of the kingdom of God, but power. When there is power in the words, then the kingdom is present in them.
1 Corinthians 4:21 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.23.6-8
The rod does not mean that there is no love, but love is hidden behind its blows and is not perceived by the one who is on the receiving end.
1 Corinthians 5:1 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.23.15-20
We learn from this that there are different kinds of immorality, some of which are more serious than others. When God judges it, he will take extenuating factors into account and vary the punishment accordingly. In this case, Paul is teaching us that even when there has been a legal marriage ceremony, if it goes against the law of God, it is immoral and will be condemned accordingly.
1 Corinthians 5:5 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
Hear, then, himself saying of him who had sinned: "I have delivered", he says, "such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved". You see, then, that even now not only through his Apostles does God "deliver" transgressors "into the hands of enemies", but also through those who preside over the church and have the power not only of loosing, but also of binding, sinners "are delivered into the destruction of the flesh", when for their offenses they are separated from the body of Christ. And, as it seems to me, even now men are delivered from the church into the power of the devil in two ways: in this manner which we spoke of above, when his offense becomes manifest to the church and he is driven from the church by the priests, so that, marked out by men, he may blush, and being converted there may befall him that which follows: "that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ"; but in another way one is "delivered to the devil" when his sin does not become manifest to men, yet God, "who sees in secret", perceiving his mind and his soul serving vices and passions, and that in his heart it is not he who is worshipped, but either avarice or lust or vainglory or other such things — such a one the Lord himself "delivers to Satan".
1 Corinthians 5:10 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.26.23-26
Immoral unbelievers cannot harm the church, but immoral believers corrupt it from within, which is why they must be avoided and expelled.
1 Corinthians 5:12 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Jesus alone was empowered to distinguish among the hearers His own from the outsiders, so as to speak to the outsiders in parables, but to explain the parables to those who entered with Him into the house. The outsiders and those who entered into the house have a mystical meaning. For "why should I judge outsiders?" Every sinner is an outsider. This is why the outsiders are addressed in parables: so that they might be able to leave the outer and enter the inner. Entering the house has a mysterious meaning: he who enters the house of Jesus becomes His true disciple.
1 Corinthians 5:13 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.26.57-59
Do all you can to expel the wicked person, for once he is gone, Christ will dwell in you.
1 Corinthians 6:5 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.27.20-22
Paul attacks the Corinthians because, although they are right in the middle of Greece, they have no truly wise people in their midst, even though many had gone to preach wisdom to them.
1 Corinthians 6:6 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.27.27-28
We have rulers of the church to whom we should take our disputes, so that we will not be summoned before the law courts of unbelievers.
1 Corinthians 6:9 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The Apostle set alongside these vile, dishonorable, and criminal deeds those transgressions which we most often acknowledge as insignificant. What then does he say? "Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers — shall inherit the Kingdom of God." You see that together with such grave malefactors as the sodomite, the effeminate man, the adulterer, the fornicator, he lists the drunkard and the reviler — sins which we all acknowledge to be insignificant — in order to teach us that it is not on account of grave sins alone that we are deprived of the Kingdom of God, but also on account of those which we customarily regard as less serious.
1 Corinthians 6:9 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.27.48-49
Let no one say: "I was young. Before I got married, I slept with prostitutes." Why did you not get married instead?
1 Corinthians 6:10 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 2.27.67-69
The kingdom of God must be purified of all sin and immorality, so that God may reign in it.
1 Corinthians 6:17 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The Apostle says that the righteous man is one with Christ, but he is distinct from Christ: "And he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him." Is it not true that one of them has a lower nature, transient and fleeting, while the nature of Christ is more divine and glorious and blessed? And notwithstanding this, are they no longer two? Yes, for man and woman are no longer two, but one flesh, and the righteous man and Christ are one spirit. … When the righteous man cleaves to Christ, the fitting word is spirit. But when Christ is one with the Father, the fitting word is neither flesh nor spirit, but the more worthy one — God.
1 Corinthians 6:17 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.3
The soul of Jesus clung to God from the beginning of the creation in a union inseparable and indissoluble, as the soul of the wisdom and word of God, and of the truth and the true light. Receiving him wholly and itself entering into his light and splendor, it was made one spirit with him in a preeminent degree. This is what the apostle promises to those who imitate Jesus.
1 Corinthians 6:17 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 36
"He who cleaves to the Lord becomes one spirit" with him. If, then, "he who is joined to the Lord", though he was natural, is by that very thing turned into a spiritual man and "is one spirit", let us too lose our soul, so that, cleaving to the Lord, we may be transformed into one spirit.
1 Corinthians 7:2 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.33.23-25
You have given up your wife, to whom you are bound. This is a big step you have taken. You are not abusing her, you say, but claiming that you can be chaste and live more purely. But look how your poor wife is being destroyed as a result, because she is unable to endure your purity! You should sleep with your wife, not for your sake but for hers.
1 Corinthians 7:4 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.33.41-46
If this is so, a man should be able to refrain from exercising his authority [to receive his spouse's body]. And isn't a woman capable of doing likewise?
1 Corinthians 7:5 — ON PRAYER 2.2
The mysteries of marriage ought to be performed with holiness, deliberately and without disorderly passions.
1 Corinthians 7:7 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.34.42-45
Marriage is a spiritual gift, but not if it is contracted with unbelievers. The Spirit of God is not given to dwell in those who are not believers.
1 Corinthians 7:14 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.36.2-5
Husband and wife are one in the same way that wine and water are one when they are mixed together. Just as the believing partner sanctifies the unbelieving one, so the unbelieving partner corrupts the believing one. This is why a man who is not yet married should consider very carefully and either not marry at all or marry only in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 7:20 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.37.35-43
In itself, the state in which we are called is a matter of indifference. An unmarried man, for example, can live a life of purity, but he may also be deeply involved in sin. The same is true for a married man as well. If it were only Christians who practiced celibacy, then it would be possible to say that it was a pure and divine state. But the Marcionites also practice it, though not in the same way as Christians. Christians do it in order to please God, but the Marcionites do it in order not to succumb to the Creator. Celibacy is honorable only when it is clothed with the life and behavior of the church, with pure knowledge and truth.
1 Corinthians 7:21 — HOMILIES 13
I am a slave of that affair and care to which I am bound. For I know that it is written that whatever one is conquered by, to that he is delivered as a slave.… Who will free me from this most unseemly slavery except him who said, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed".?
1 Corinthians 7:23 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
And it is certain, they say, that each one buys that which is not his own; for the Apostle says: "you were bought with a price." But hear what the prophet says: "By your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I dismissed your mother." You see, then, that we are indeed all the creature of God, but each one is sold by his own sins and for his own iniquities departs from his own creator. We are, therefore, God's, according as we were created by him; but we became slaves of the devil, according as we were sold by our sins. But Christ, coming, "redeemed us," while we were serving that lord to whom we had sold our very selves by sinning. And so he seems to have received back as his own those whom he had created, but to have acquired as aliens those who by sinning had sought for themselves an alien lord.
1 Corinthians 7:25 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.39.2-6
Some rules are given as commandments of God, while others are more flexible and left by God to the decision of the individual. The first kind are those commandments which pertain to salvation. The others are better, because even if we do not keep them, we shall still be saved. There is no merit in doing what is obligatory, but there is in doing that which is optional.
1 Corinthians 7:28 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.39.51-52
The virgin is spared earthly troubles and set free by her purity, as she awaits the blessed Bridegroom.
1 Corinthians 8:4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
But that man has made an "idol" who, according to the Apostle who says that "an idol is nothing", makes what is not. And what is it that is not? A shape which the eye has not seen, but which the mind itself fashions for itself. For example's sake: as if one should form, upon human limbs, the head of a dog or of a ram, or again should fashion two faces on one human form, or join to a human breast the hinder parts of a horse or of a fish. He who makes these things and things like them makes not a likeness, but an idol. For he makes what is not, nor has it anything like itself. And therefore, knowing this, the Apostle says: "for an idol is nothing in the world"; for the shape is not taken from any of the things that exist, but is what the idle and curious mind has itself devised for itself.
1 Corinthians 8:5-6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
From this, I think, the Apostle Paul also took what he writes to the Corinthians, saying: "for even if there are those that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth". And he adds: "as indeed there are many gods and many lords, but for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things and we unto him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him".
1 Corinthians 9:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.4.2
God's care was not only for the oxen but moreso for the apostles, for whose sake he uttered these words.
1 Corinthians 9:15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.6
"For it is better for me to die" than that they should snatch and plunder any of my brothers and, by the clever theft of words, lead away captive "the little ones" and those still nursing in Christ.
1 Corinthians 9:16 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 66
But if, on account of that which is written, that such a one is sent "into the outer darkness", what is said displeases you — if on account of the fact that someone did not teach he is judged as one who did not use the capacity given to him for the profiting of souls — recall the apostolic saying which says: "for woe is me if I shall not have preached the Gospel". For not on account of any other blameworthy conduct of his, but on account of this alone, if he shall not have preached the Gospel, does he confess that woe will be to him. For it manifestly appears that that man expected to hear: "wicked and slothful servant", and the rest, unless he had preached the Gospel, although the other things of his life had been upright.
1 Corinthians 9:17 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.1
What then shall I do, to whom the dispensation of the word has been entrusted? Though I am an "unprofitable servant," I have nevertheless received from the Lord "the measure of wheat to be distributed to the Lord's household."
1 Corinthians 9:19 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.43.1-5
The fact that he is completely free makes Paul the exemplary apostle. For it is possible to be free of immorality but a slave to anger, to be free of greed but a slave to boasting, to be free of one sin but a slave to another.
1 Corinthians 9:23 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 3.43.49-50
Only someone as mature in faith as the apostle Paul could say this. A sinner could never talk in this way.
1 Corinthians 9:27 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 81
But he who is not yet perfect doubts concerning himself, as though he too could fall; according to which human weakness Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said: "but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate". And see: what he says, "lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate", he so pronounces as one fearing, lest perhaps he too could both fall and become reprobate; but what he said, "I am confident that neither death nor life" and the rest, is of a confident and firm man on account of his perfection, since a thousand contrary things have not the strength to separate him "from the love of Christ". And to such as these it is not unfitting to say always: "do not glory in the Lord, for you do not know what the coming day may bring forth". But recalling all these things, that we do not know "what the coming day may bring forth" for us, we shall not be puffed up, nor be proud, nor ever glory, although we know that we have many good things.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
"The teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth," the Apostle Paul, handed down to the Church which he gathered from among the Gentiles how it ought to attend to the books of the Law, which it had received from others and which had formerly been unknown to it and altogether foreign, lest, in taking up institutions foreign to it and being ignorant of the rule of those institutions, it should tremble amid an alien instrument. Therefore he himself, in a number of passages, hands down examples of the understanding, so that we too may observe things similar in the rest, lest perchance, on account of the likeness of the reading and of the instrument of the Jews, we should believe that we have been made their disciples. This, then, is what he wishes to distinguish between the disciples of Christ and the disciples of the synagogue: that the Law which they, by understanding it badly, did not receive Christ, we, by understanding it spiritually, may show to have been rightly given for the instruction of the Church. The Jews, then, understand only this: that "the children of Israel departed" from Egypt, and that their first departure was "from Rameses," and that departing thence they came "to Succoth," and that "departing from Succoth" they came "to Othon" by Epauleum near the sea; then, further, that there the cloud went before them and that "the rock" followed, from which they drank water, and that they also passed through the Red Sea and came into the desert of Sinai. But let us see what rule of understanding concerning these things Paul the Apostle has handed down to us. Writing to the Corinthians, he says in a certain place thus: "For we know that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ." You see how much Paul's tradition differs from the historical reading: what the Jews think a crossing of the sea, Paul calls baptism; what they reckon a cloud, Paul sets down as the Holy Spirit; and he wishes that to be understood as like this which the Lord commanded in the Gospels, saying: "unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdoms of heaven." And again the manna, which the Jews reckon food for the belly and satiety for the gullet, Paul names "spiritual food." And not only Paul, but the Lord Himself in the Gospel says concerning the same thing: "your fathers ate manna in the desert, and they died. But whoever shall eat of the bread which I give him shall not die for ever." And after this He says: "I am the bread which came down from heaven." Then, further, concerning "the rock that followed" Paul openly declares and says: "and the rock was Christ." What, then, must we do, who have received from Paul, the teacher of the Church, institutions of understanding of this kind? Does it not seem just that we should keep the rule of this kind handed down to us by a like example in the rest? Or shall we, as certain people wish, forsaking these things which so great and such an Apostle handed down, turn back again to "Jewish fables"? For my part, if I should expound these things otherwise than as they seem to Paul, I think this is to give a hand to the enemies of Christ, and this is what the prophet says: "Woe to him who gives his neighbor to drink with turbulent overthrow!" Having therefore received from the blessed Apostle Paul the seeds of spiritual understanding, let us cultivate them, insofar as the Lord shall deign to enlighten us through your prayers.
1 Corinthians 10:5 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.45.2-5
Paul wants to remind us that we are not saved merely because we happen to have been the recipients of God's free grace. We have to demonstrate that we are willing recipients of that free gift. The children of Israel received it, but they proved to be unworthy of it, and so they were not saved.
1 Corinthians 10:6 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.46
These things were written as examples for us, so that when we read about their sins we shall know to avoid them.
1 Corinthians 10:13 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.3
Many do not bear it but are conquered by temptation. What God gives us is not the certainty that we shall bear it but the possibility that we may be made able to bear it.
1 Corinthians 11:3 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
But the eyes of the wise man, of which it is said that they are enlightened by the commandments of God, are in his head, in Christ, because "the head of the man is Christ," says the Apostle. The capacity to think proceeds from Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:13 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.7
Here then we see the just judgment of God's providence, that diversity of conduct is taken into account and that each is treated according to the deserts of his departure and defection from goodness.
1 Corinthians 12:3 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.47.2-3
There are so many different kinds of spirit that without the gift of discernment, who can know which is which?
1 Corinthians 12:10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
Whence it seems to me to be no small grace to discern the mouth which the devil opens. It is not without the grace of the Holy Spirit to distinguish a mouth of this kind and its words; and therefore in the distribution of spiritual graces this too is added, that to some is given "the discernment of spirits". It is therefore a spiritual grace by which the spirit is discerned, as also elsewhere the Apostle says: "test the spirits, whether they be of God".
1 Corinthians 12:21 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7
If the eye is healthy and one can see clearly, what joy will it have if the other members of the body are missing? How would it appear to be perfect without the hands, the feet or the other parts of the body?
1 Corinthians 13:8 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.52
"Tongues will cease" when I express what I want to say with my mind.
1 Corinthians 13:9-12 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 7
But just as among "children" some are more eager than others and more quickly attain the things handed down to them, so, I say, Moses and the prophets, and also the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, were made like gifted "children." Therefore, being aware of themselves — that, even if they made progress, they made the progress of "children" — they said: "We know in part and we prophesy in part." For they did not yet behold the realities of truth, but the shadows of the realities, nor the full light, but a dim image; and so they repeated, saying: "For now we see through a glass and in a riddle, but then face to face." Who then, reading and understanding these things, will be puffed up and exalt himself over his knowledge, or over any of the gifts? For since the things which have come to "children" are far inferior to those which are reserved for grown men, those who seem among the "children" to be of keener and quicker wit ought not to be lifted up and grow proud.
1 Corinthians 13:12 — ON PRAYER 11.2
If the knowledge manifested to those worthy of it comes through a mirror and is an enigma in the present age and will be fully revealed only "then," it is foolish to suppose that it will not be the same for the other virtues as well.
1 Corinthians 14:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence one comes to Mount Shepher, which is called "trumpet-blowing." The trumpet is the sign of war. Therefore, where it perceives itself armed with such and so great virtues, of necessity it advances to war, which is for it against the principalities and powers, and against the rulers of this world; or else certainly it sounds the trumpet in the word of God, that is, of preaching and of doctrine, that it may "give a distinct sound by the trumpet," so that he who hears it may be able to prepare himself for war.
1 Corinthians 14:13 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.61-62
If the one who speaks in tongues does not have the power to interpret them, others will not understand, but he will know what he was moved by the Spirit to say. When this is understood by others as well, there will be fruit from it. Here as elsewhere, we are taught to seek the common good of the church.
1 Corinthians 14:14 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5
If you have brought a word in praise of God, not new and fresh from the learning of the spirit, from the teaching of God's grace, your mouth indeed offers "a sacrifice of praise," but your mind is accused on account of the sterility of yesterday's flesh.
1 Corinthians 14:15 — ON PRAYER 4
For our mind would not even be able to pray unless the Spirit prayed for it as if obeying it, so that we cannot even sing and hymn the Father in Christ with proper rhythm, melody, measure and harmony unless the Spirit who searches everything, even the depths of God, first praises and hymns him whose depths he has searched out and has understood as far as he is able.
1 Corinthians 14:21 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.65
Note that Paul refers to the prophetic writings also as the "law." In this passage he is quoting Isaiah [28:11] according to Aquila's translation, and not according to the Septuagint.
1 Corinthians 14:34 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.74.6-16
If this was the case, what are we to make of the fact that Philip had four daughters who prophesied? If they could do it, why can we not let our own prophetesses speak? We may answer this question as follows. First, if our prophetesses have spoken, show us the signs of prophecy in them. Second, even if the daughters of Philip did prophesy, they did not do so inside the church. Likewise in the Old Testament, although Deborah was reputed to be a prophetess, there is no indication that she ever corporately addressed the people in the way that Isaiah or Jeremiah did. The same is true of Huldah..
1 Corinthians 14:40 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.4-5
Therefore he wants all these to be set in order by you, nothing disordered, nothing restless, nothing indecent.… Therefore, now our true high priest, Christ, also wants his hands to be filled "with finely composed incense.".
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 — Contra Celsum, Book II, Chapter 63
After these points, Celsus proceeds to bring against the Gospel narrative a charge which is not to be lightly passed over, saying that "if Jesus desired to show that his power was really divine, he ought to have appeared to those who had ill-treated him, and to him who had condemned him, and to all men universally." For it appears to us also to be true, according to the Gospel account, that He was not seen after His resurrection in the same manner as He used formerly to show Himself — publicly, and to all men. But it is recorded in the Acts, that "being seen during forty days," He expounded to His disciples "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." [Acts 1:3] And in the Gospels it is not stated that He was always with them; but that on one occasion He appeared in their midst, after eight days, when the doors were shut [John 20:26], and on another in some similar fashion. And Paul also, in the concluding portions of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in reference to His not having publicly appeared as He did in the period before He suffered, writes as follows: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto the present time, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." [1 Corinthians 15:3-8] I am of opinion now that the statements in this passage contain some great and wonderful mysteries, which are beyond the grasp not merely of the great multitude of ordinary believers, but even of those who are far advanced (in Christian knowledge), and that in them the reason would be explained why He did not show Himself, after His resurrection from the dead, in the same manner as before that event.
1 Corinthians 15:5 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.77
Evidently Matthias was chosen to replace Judas before Jesus ceased appearing to the disciples after his resurrection..
1 Corinthians 15:5-8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 129
The divine dispensation raised him up and made not only two or three to be witnesses of his resurrection, but far more. For "he was seen by Cephas, then by the eleven, then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once", "and last of all" by Paul. And it was no small sign of his resurrection, that he was seen by so many — by those who took up the danger of proclaiming him alive among the peoples who had demanded him for the cross.
1 Corinthians 15:23 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.3
But since the merit of all is not one, nor is the advancement in faith one, therefore the ark too does not furnish one and the same dwelling to all these, but the lower parts are double-chambered and the upper parts triple-chambered, and nests are distinguished in it, so as to show that in the Church also, although all are contained within one faith and are washed by one baptism, nevertheless the advancement is not one and the same for all, "but each in his own order."
1 Corinthians 15:24 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.8
When Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, then those living beings, because they have before this been made part of Christ's kingdom, shall also be delivered up along with the whole of that kingdom to the rule of the Father, so that, when "God shall be all in all," they also, since they are a part of all, may have God even in themselves, as he is in all things.
1 Corinthians 15:26 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.5
For the destruction of the last enemy must be understood in this way: not that its substance which was made by God shall perish, but that the hostile purpose and will which proceeded not from God but from itself will come to an end. It will be destroyed, therefore, not in the sense of ceasing to exist but of being no longer an enemy and no longer death.… We must not think, however, that it will happen all of a sudden, but gradually and by degrees, during the lapse of infinite and immeasurable ages, seeing that the improvement and correction will be realized slowly and separately in each individual person.
1 Corinthians 15:27 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.9
Christ the Lord himself will instruct those who are able to receive him in his character of wisdom, after their preliminary training in his holy virtues, and will reign with them until such time as he subjects them to the Father who subjected all things to him. When they have been rendered capable of receiving God, then God will be to them "all in all."
1 Corinthians 15:28 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 55
But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone. These words seem to refute those who promise that they can comprehend the consummation and destruction of the world and who declare "as though the day of the Lord were at hand" — such as certain people are said to have been at Thessalonica in the time of the Apostle, of whom he writes: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon moved from your mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as though from us, as though the day of the Lord were at hand." Perhaps because among the Jews there were certain persons professing, whether through the scriptures, that they knew of the times of the consummation or of hidden things, therefore he writes these things, teaching his disciples that they should believe no one who professes such things. And the Savior, according to this passage, joins himself to those who are ignorant of that day and hour. And it must reasonably be asked how he who is confident that he knows the Father, saying: "No one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal him", knows the Father indeed, yet does not know the day and hour of the consummation, and why the Father hid this from the Son. For there must certainly be some reason why the time of the consummation is hidden even from the Savior and why he is ignorant concerning it. But someone will dare to say that the man who exists according to the Savior is understood to be advancing "in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men", who in advancing did indeed advance above all in knowledge and wisdom, yet not so that there had already come to him that which was perfect, before he fulfilled his own dispensation. It is therefore no wonder if this alone he did not know out of all things, that is, the day and hour of the consummation. But perhaps also, when he said that he did not know the day and hour of the consummation, he said this before his dispensation, because no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son, but the Father alone; but after his dispensation was fulfilled he by no means said this, after "God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name". For afterward the Son too came to know it, receiving knowledge from the Father even concerning the day of the consummation and the hour, so that now not only the Father might know concerning it but also the Son. And indeed in the Acts of the Apostles the apostles "coming together questioned him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? But he said to them: It is not for you to know the times or the moments which the Father hath set in his own power". And since he "set in his own power the times and moments" of the consummation of the world and of the restitution of the kingdom of Israel, therefore what had not yet been predefined by God no one could know. But each of the things which he predefines, he does not predefine from anything inexperienced (for this is impossible); but what he predefines, he predefines by making a beginning of predefining. And if this is so, he predefined indeed to bring about the consummation of the world, but he did not also predefine the "times and moments which he set in his own power", so that, if he wished to increase them, judging thus he might increase them, but if to shorten them, he might shorten them, no one knowing it. And therefore he set the times and moments of the consummation of the world in his own power, so that accordingly he might determine the due judgment for the human race (established in its own free will) acting in this way or that. Many things too are to be found in the prophets, written for the benefit of the hearers, in precepts and denunciations, as though God were not predefining anything about them, but punishing indeed if they should sin, and saving if they should keep t…
1 Corinthians 15:28 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.5.7
But the heretics, not understanding (I cannot tell why) the apostle's meaning contained in these words, deprecate using the term subjection in regard to the Son.… Such men do not understand that the subjection of Christ to the Father reveals the blessedness of our perfection and announces the crowning glory of the work undertaken by him.
1 Corinthians 15:28 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.4
As long as I am not subjected to the Father, neither is he said to be "subjected" to the Father. Not that he himself is in need of subjection before the Father, but for me, in whom he has not yet completed his work, he is said not to be subjected, for "we are the body of Christ and members in part.".
1 Corinthians 15:28 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.3
God will be all things in each person in such a way that everything which the reasoning mind can feel or understand or think will be all God. When purified from all the dregs of its vices and utterly cleared from every cloud of wickedness, the mind will no longer be conscious of anything besides or other than God. That mind will think of God and see God and hold God. God will be the mode and measure of its every movement. In this way God will be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:28 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.6
When "he shall have completed" his "work" and brought his whole creation to the height of perfection, then he is said to be "subjected" in these whom he subjected to the Father. In these "he finished the work that God had given him that God may be all in all."
1 Corinthians 15:33 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.5
We see quiet and respectable men who, when they have become associated with turbulent and shameless people, have their good manners corrupted by evil conversations. They are turned into men of the same sort as those who are steeped in every kind of witness. This sometimes happens to men of mature age, who prove that they have lived more chastely in youth than when advanced years had granted them the opportunity of a freer life.
1 Corinthians 15:37 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.10.3
The power which exists in a grain of wheat refashions and restores the grain, after its corruption and death, into a body with stalk and ear.
1 Corinthians 15:40 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.3
Even among earthly bodies there are no small differences. Take the human race, for example. Some are Greeks and some are barbarians, and among the barbarians, some are wilder than others. Some have higher laws. Some lower ones, and some follow savage customs which are not laws at all.
1 Corinthians 15:44 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Since our Savior and Lord took on a body, let us investigate what this body was. … Since the firstfruits was raised from the dead, the dead too must be raised. The firstfruits is Christ; therefore His body became a corpse. For if His body had not become a corpse, it would not have become capable of being wrapped in a shroud, of being anointed with myrrh and all that is used in the burial of the dead, of being buried in a tomb — all those things which a spiritual body could not have undergone. For it is absolutely impossible for the spiritual to become dead, just as it is impossible for the spiritual to be deprived of sensation. For if it were indeed possible for the spiritual to become dead, it would be necessary to fear that after the resurrection, when our body has been raised, as the Apostle says, "the natural is sown, the spiritual rises," — we should all die.
1 Corinthians 15:44 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.10.1
It is from the natural body that the power and grace of the resurrection calls forth the spiritual body, when it changes it from dishonor to glory.
1 Corinthians 15:44 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.4
The quality of a spiritual body is something such as will make a fitting habitation not only for all saints and perfected souls but also for that "whole creation" which is to be "delivered from the bondage of corruption."
1 Corinthians 15:44 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.6
In regard to our bodily nature we must understand that there is not one body which we now use in lowliness and corruption and weakness and a different one which we are to use hereafter in incorruption and power and glory. Rather this same body, having cast off the weaknesses of its present existence, will be transformed into a thing of glory and made spiritual, with the result that what was a vessel of dishonor shall itself be purified and become a vessel of honor and a habitation of blessedness.
1 Corinthians 15:48 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.2
You see what he shows, that, if you remain in that which is first, which is of the earth, you will be reprobated, unless you change yourself, unless you are converted, unless, having been made "heavenly," you receive "the image of the heavenly."
1 Corinthians 15:49 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.4
But you indeed then bore "the image of the earthly"; now, however, having heard these things, cleansed by the Word of God from all that earthly mass and oppression, make "the image of the heavenly" shine forth in you.
1 Corinthians 15:49 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
For just as a coin or denarius bears the image of the emperors of the world, so he who does the works of "the ruler of these darknesses" bears the image of him whose works he has: which image Jesus here commanded to be rendered back and cast off from our face, and that image to be taken up according to which from the beginning we were fashioned to the likeness of God. The logical sequence of these things Paul too has expressed, saying: "as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly". So then, what he says: "render what is Caesar's to Caesar", this he means: lay aside the person of the earthy, cast off the earthly image, so that, putting upon yourselves the person of the heavenly, you may be able to render "what is God's to God".
1 John 1:1 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Concerning this more gracious touch John speaks: "...and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life."
1 John 1:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.7
God is light, according to John. The only-begotten Son therefore is the brightness of that light, proceeding from God without separation, as brightness from light, and lightening the whole creation.
1 John 2:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.7.4
Let us consider whether the title advocate ("paraclete") means one thing when applied to the Savior and another when applied to the Holy Spirit. In regard to the Savior "paraclete" seems to mean intercessor, for in Greek it bears both meanings, comforter and intercessor, but according to the phrase which follows, in which it is said that he is the propitiation for our sins, it seems that it must mean intercessor, because he intercedes with the Father for our sins. When used of the Holy Spirit, however, the word paraclete ought to be understood as comforter, because he provides comfort for the souls to whom he opens and reveals a consciousness of spiritual knowledge.
1 John 2:1 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 1.241
How could Jesus have become an advocate and propitiation without the power of God which completely destroys our weakness, a power furnished by Jesus which flows in the souls of believers?
1 John 2:11 — SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 13.2.4
Whoever does evil and hates his brother has extinguished the lamp of love, and therefore he walks in darkness.
1 John 2:14 — CATENA
In my opinion, if someone is a child inside, then he will appear to be a child on the outside as well, however old he is. The same is true of someone who is an overgrown teenager. But it also follows from this that anyone can be an adult and parent on the inside, whatever age they may be.
1 John 2:18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 33
John in his epistle says: "and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, now many Antichrists have arisen; whence we know that it is the last hour". By these words he teaches that every word which is foreign to the truth and asserts itself to be the word of God is Antichrist; for it is thus possible to understand what he says: "and now many Antichrists have arisen", since there is one thing that is true. But as the record of the readings makes plain, there were not many men in the time of the apostles who said that they were Christs, unless perhaps Dositheus the Samaritan — whence they are also called Dositheans — and Simon, of whom the Acts report, who proclaimed himself to be the great power of God. Besides these, there were none either before or afterward, so far as my knowledge goes. But every discourse which professes an exposition of the Scriptures and faith in them, yet does not have the truth, is rightly to be understood to be Antichrist, coming in the name of Christ and saying that I am the Christ, lying and by no means able to display in itself the form of truth. And since to those who examine the words of Scripture, in order to find its meaning, there frequently occur certain interpretations as if true when they are not true, and sometimes they are drawn also by other plausible, specious discourses, so that it is not easy to find which is the true meaning before against the lying estimations the truer and firmer meaning has been found — for this reason I think that Christ, to the question of his disciples, answered thus: See that no one seduces you. For many will come in my name saying: I am the Christ, and they will seduce many.
1 John 3:8 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 20.103-4
Insofar as we commit sins, we have not yet put off the generation of the devil, even if we are thought to believe in Jesus. Everyone who is not of the devil does not commit sin.
1 John 3:9 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
Just as, then, the seed of God is said to remain in us, when, keeping the word of God, we do not sin in ourselves, as John says: "but he who is of God does not sin, because the seed of God remains in him", so also, when we are persuaded by the devil to sin, we receive his seed. But when we even fulfill in deed what he has counseled, then indeed he has also begotten us; for we are born his sons through sin.
1 John 3:13 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 41
If we have passed from death to life by passing from unbelief to faith, let us not be surprised if the world hates us. For no one who has failed to pass from death to life, but has remained in death, can love those who have left the darkened house of death.
1 John 5:16 — SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 11.2.6
Since there are sins "unto death," it follows that anyone who commits one of them will die as a result.
1 Kings 2:5-9 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 19
It is inquired how David — who bears no grudge and is gentle — having pardoned Shimei, charges Solomon to kill him, and Joab too, who had toiled alongside him. Why, then, was this so arranged? Being wise, David knew that Solomon would not allow Shimei to live, for fear of an uprising — since, as from a royal dignity, he was going to fight Solomon over the kingdom — nor Joab, as one who, apart from David's judgment, had established David's son as king, and who moreover had killed Abner, though he had toiled alongside the father in many wars and had achieved success. Foreseeing these things, David charges Solomon beforehand to do what Solomon would in any case have done of himself, so that when the aforementioned men are killed by him — that is, by Solomon — Solomon might have excuse, as having fulfilled his father's will and not having been moved against them of his own accord.
1 Kings 4:29-34 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
These, then, as it seems to me, the wise men among the Greeks, having taken them from Solomon — inasmuch as he, being far prior to them in age and time, had learned these things earlier through the Spirit of God — put forward as though they were their own discoveries, and, having comprised them in the volumes of their teachings, left them to be handed down to posterity. But these things, as we have said, Solomon discovered before all others, and taught them through the wisdom which he received from God, as it is written: "And God gave prudence to Solomon, and wisdom exceeding much, and breadth of heart like the sand which is on the shore of the sea; and wisdom was multiplied in him above all the ancient sons of men, and above all the wise men of Egypt." Solomon, therefore, wishing to distinguish and separate from one another these three which we have said above to be general disciplines — that is, the moral, the natural, and the inspective — set them forth in three little books, each of them also fitted in its own order consequently. First, then, in Proverbs he taught the moral part, composing the rules of life, as was fitting, in concise and brief maxims. But the second, which is called natural, he comprised in Ecclesiastes: in which, discoursing much concerning natural things, and separating the empty and vain from the useful and necessary, he admonishes that vanity is to be abandoned, and that the useful and right things are to be pursued. The inspective part also he handed down in this little book which is in our hands, that is, in the Song of Songs, in which he instills into the soul the love of heavenly and divine things under the figure of the bride and bridegroom, teaching that one must come to fellowship with God by the ways of charity and love.
1 Kings 4:29-34 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.45
But that the object of Christianity is that we should become wise can be proved from the ancient Jewish writings, which we also use, as well as from those that were composed after the time of Jesus and that are believed among the churches to be divine. Now, in the fiftieth psalm, David is described as saying in his prayer to God these words: "The unseen and secret things of your wisdom you have manifested to me." Solomon, too, because he asked for wisdom, received it; and if anyone were to peruse the Psalms, he would find the book filled with many maxims of wisdom; and the evidences of Solomon's wisdom may be seen in his treatises, which contain a great amount of wisdom expressed in few words, and in which you will find many praises of wisdom and encouragements towards obtaining it. So wise, moreover, was Solomon, that the queen of Sheba, having heard his name and the name of the Lord, came to try him with difficult questions and spoke to him all things, whatsoever were in her heart; and Solomon answered her all her questions. There was no question omitted by the king that he did not answer her. And the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the possessions that he had, and there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, "The report is true that I heard in my own land regarding you and your wisdom; and I did not believe them who told me, until I had come, and my eyes have seen it. And, lo, they did not tell me the half. You have added wisdom and possessions above all the report that I heard." It is also recorded of him that "God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles and fish. People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; they came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom."
1 Kings 6:7 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 27(50).1-2
How, he says, "was the hammer of the whole earth broken and crushed? How was Babylon brought to destruction?" One needs to enquire here who is the "hammer of all the earth" or in what way its brokenness is prophesied, since it was "broken" before it was "crushed," so that after bringing together what has been written elsewhere about the "hammer," when we find its name, we will also investigate the meaning of the name from these examples that we have brought forth.At one time there was constructed a "house of God," according to the third book of Kings, and it was Solomon who built and erected it; and it was said here, as if in praise, about the "house of God," that "hammer and axe were not heard in the house of God." Therefore as the "hammer is not heard in the house of God," since the "house of God" is the church, so the "hammer is not heard" in the church. Who is this "hammer" who wants to obstruct, insofar as he can, the stones for building the temple, so that, "broken," they are not suited for its foundations? See with me if the devil is not the "hammer of the whole earth."
1 Kings 10:4 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 38
The scripture marvels that the queen of Sheba came "from the ends of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and she, when she had seen the banquet and the furnishing and the ministries of his house, was astonished and was wholly in wonder. If we do not gladly embrace such great riches of our Lord, such furnishing of the word and abundance of teachings, if we do not eat the "bread of life", if we do not feed on the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood, if we despise the feasts of our Savior, we ought to know that God has both "kindness and severity"; and of these we ought rather to pray for his kindness, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Kings 12:25 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.20-21
The Scriptures tell us that God chose a certain nation on the earth, which they call by several names. For the whole of this nation is termed Israel and also Jacob. And when it was divided in the times of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the ten tribes subject to him were called Israel, while the remaining two, along with the tribe of Levi, being ruled over by the de¬scendants of David, were named Judah. And the whole of the territory which the people of this nation inhabited, being given to them by God, received the name of Judea, the metropolis of which is Jerusalem—a metropolis, namely, of numerous cities, the names of which lie scattered about in many other passages of Scripture but which are enumerated together in the book of Joshua the son of Nun. Such, then, being the case, the apostle, elevating our power of discernment above the letter, says some¬where, "Behold Israel according to the flesh," as if there were an Israel "according to the Spirit." And in another place he says, "For they who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God" nor are "they all Israel who are descended from Israel."
1 Kings 12:25 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4.2
The people were divided in those times into the kingdom of ten tribes under Jeroboam and the kingdom of two tribes under Rehoboam. And those under Jeroboam were called Israel, and those under Rehoboam Judah. And the division of the people persisted, according to the history, until today. For we know of nothing in the history that united Israel and Judah "into the same nation." Then Israel first, under Jeroboam and under his successors, sinned excessively, and Israel sinned so much beyond Judah that they were sentenced by Providence to become captives "to the Assyrians until the sign," as the Scripture says. After this, the sons of Judah also sinned, and as captives they were sentenced to Babylon, not until a sign, as Israel, but for "seventy years," which Jeremiah prophesied and Daniel also mentioned.
1 Kings 14:12 — AGAINST CELSUS 1.36
There is therefore no absurdity in the prophets [of the Jews] having uttered predictions even about events of no importance, to soothe those who desire such things, as when Samuel prophesies regarding three donkeys that were lost, or when mention is made in the third book of Kings respecting the sickness of a king's son. And why should not those who desired to obtain auguries from idols be severely rebuked by the administrators of the law among the Jews, as Elijah is found rebuking Ahaziah and saying, "Is it because there is not a God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baalzebub, god of Ekron?"
1 Kings 18:10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 134
As to my saying over the whole earth of Judea or Jerusalem, so that we may not understand every element of the earth, this is the proof, which is written in the third book of Kingdoms, where Obadiah the steward of Ahab said to Elijah: "what have I sinned, that you have given your servant into the hands of Ahab, that he may put me to death? As your God lives, if there is a nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you, and I said: he is not here, and he burned the kingdom and its regions, because he did not find you". For who would be so stony, reading these things, as to suppose that Ahab king of Israel sent into every nation of the world and into every kingdom of the whole earth seeking Elijah, and burned wherever it was said: Elijah is not here? But without doubt those things were said hyperbolically, showing that he sought him abundantly among the nations that were around Judea, according as he was able to seek.
1 Kings 18:33-34 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.125
And what is the source of your belief that Elijah who is to come will baptize? Did he not even baptize the wood on the altar in the times of Ahab, when it required a bath that it might be burned up when the Lord appeared in fire? He commanded the priests to do this, and not only once, for he says, "Do it a second time, when also they did it a second time," and "Do it a third time, when also they did it a third time." How, then, will he who did not himself baptize at that time, but gave the task to others, baptize when he has come in fulfillment of the things said by Malachi? Christ, therefore, does not baptize in water, but his disciples. He reserves for himself the act of baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire.
1 Kings 19:5-7 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 20
"And turning," it says, "he slept. And the angel of the Lord returned a second time and touched him." Perhaps they were symbols of powers ministering to the prophet food befitting one who withdraws from human affairs and is worthy of the teaching that comes from such powers, so that afterward he might be able to hear, "Arise and eat," and might find at his head ineffable mysteries, of which the cake baked in the ashes was a type. Does he not also a second time partake, according to the command of the angel who said, "Arise, eat, for the journey is far from you"? "Loaves," then, "the ravens brought to Elijah in the morning" (corresponding to the things spoken by the Lord to Moses, among which was, "In the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God"), and "flesh in the evening" (similarly, "Toward evening you shall eat flesh").
1 Kings 19:18 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.13
[The apostle Paul], treating of those who belong to the circumcision, says, "Those who serve to the example and shadow of heavenly things." Now perhaps, through these illustrations, no doubt will be entertained regarding the five books of Moses by those who hold the writings of the apostle as divinely inspired. And if they require, with respect to the rest of the history, that those events that are contained in it should be considered as having happened for an example to those of whom they are written, we have observed that this also has been stated in the epistle to the Romans, where the apostle adduces an instance from the third book of Kings, saying, "I have left me seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal"; which expression Paul understood as figuratively spoken of those who are called Israelites according to the election, in order to show that the advent of Christ had not only now been of advantage to the Gentiles but that very many even of the race of Israel had been called to salvation.
1 Kings 22:16 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 110
And indeed in the Law we find the practice of adjuring used on several occasions. For in Numbers the Law says that "the priest shall adjure her" (that is, that woman in whose husband there has arisen "a spirit of jealousy"), "and shall say to the woman" (this is, the priest): "if no one has lain with you, and unless you have transgressed so as to be defiled by a man not your own, you shall be innocent of this cursed water of accusation". And after a few words: "and the priest", he says, "shall adjure the woman with the adjurations of this curse". Likewise in the third book of Kingdoms king Ahab says to Micaiah: "Yet twice more do I adjure you, that you speak to me the truth in the name of the Lord". Now the king adjured the prophet, and he adjured not as the priest in Numbers; for the latter did so from the precept of the Law, but the former of his own choice. And now in the present passage the priest adjures Jesus by the living God. But I judge that it is not fitting for a man who wishes to live according to the Gospel to adjure another.
1 Kings 22:21-22 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.257-62
I think every evil and deceitful spirit is a lie, and whenever anyone of these speaks, it speaks from its own resources and by no means from the resources of God. And the father of these [spirits] is the liar, the devil. We will now present what moved us to say that every inferior spirit is false. It is written in the third book of Kings that at the time Micaiah was called by Ahab to prophesy concerning whether he should go to Ramoth-gilead for war or stay, he said, "I saw the God of Israel sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven stood around him on his right and on his left. And he said, 'Who will deceive Ahab, king of Israel, and he will go up and fall in Ramoth-gilead?' " And he spoke in this manner. And a spirit came forth and stood before the Lord and said, "I will deceive him." And the Lord said to him, "By what means?" And he said, "I will go forth and will be a false spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours.' "And in the second book of Paralipomenon, the same Micaiah says to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, "Hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and every power of heaven stood at his right and at his left. And the Lord said, 'Who will deceive Ahab, king of Israel, and he will go up and fall in Ramoth-gilead?' " And he spoke in this manner. And a spirit came forth and stood before the Lord and said, "I will deceive him." And the Lord said, "By what means?" And he said, "I will go forth and be a false spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." These words show clearly, then, that if any spirit is the lying spirit, all similar spirits would be lying spirits, indebted to their lying father for being lying spirits in accordance with their falsehood and evil, not because this belongs to their essence.
1 Peter 1:2 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.4
We must not suppose that the Spirit knows God as we do, only through the historic revelation of the Son. For if the Holy Spirit knows God only in this way, then he has passed from ignorance to knowledge, and it is certainly as impious as it is foolish to confess him as the Holy Spirit and then ascribe a prior ignorance to him.
1 Peter 1:4 — CATENA
For God foresaw that the faith and behavior of people would be put right by the teaching of the gospel, and so he chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinating them to be his children by partaking of the Spirit of sonship. For foreknowledge means no more than seeing what is inside a person. It is now no longer foreknowledge in effect but knowledge of something real which has been foreseen. Those to whom Peter is writing were chosen according to foreknowledge, but the calling does not come to people who are hidden from view, for their innate awareness removes any doubt about their true nature.
1 Peter 1:6 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 39
Read "grieve" in this verse in the sense of "suffer," as in "in grief you shall bring forth children." For a woman experiences grief not in bearing children but rather in suffering before birth.
1 Peter 1:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.8.3
If it is the mind which prays and sings in the spirit and the mind which receives perfection and salvation, how is it that Peter says: "As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls"? If the soul neither prays nor sings with the spirit, how shall it hope for salvation?
1 Peter 2:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.11.3
Even though a man may have departed out of this life insufficiently instructed but with a record of acceptable works, he can be instructed in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints, that is, he can be taught and informed and fashioned into a "living stone," a stone precious and elect, because he has borne with courage and endurance the trials of life and the struggle for piety.
1 Peter 2:5 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 10.266
We learn from Peter that the church is a body and a house of God built from living stones.
1 Peter 2:9 — SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 9.9
Because you are a priestly race you are able to approach the sanctuary of God.
1 Peter 2:9 — SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 4.6
If you want to exercise the priesthood of your soul, do not let the fire depart from your altar.
1 Peter 2:10 — SERMONS ON GENESIS 3.5
O people of God, chosen to expound the virtues of the Lord: take up the circumcision worthy of the Word of God in your ears, on your lips, in your heart and in the foreskin of your flesh, as well as in every part of you.
1 Peter 3:18-19 — Commentary on Romans, Book 5, Section 37
If, on the other hand, as it reads in some manuscripts, "even in those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression," this death, namely that which was keeping souls bound in the underworld, is said to exercise dominion, then we shall understand it to mean that even the saints had fallen prey to that death certainly under the law of dying, even if not under the punishment of sin. But it was on this account that Christ descended into the underworld, not only because he would not be held by death [Acts 2:24], but also in order that he might release those who were held there, as we said, not so much through the crime of transgression as much as by the condition of dying. As it is written, "Many bodies of saints who were sleeping were resurrected with him and entered into the holy city." [Matthew 27:52-53] In this as well the prophet's sayings were fulfilled, in which he said of Christ, "In ascending on high he led captivity captive." [Ephesians 4:8-9] Thus by his own resurrection he has already destroyed the dominions of death, which is also why it is written that he set captivity free.
1 Peter 3:19 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.174-76
If the passage about John the Baptist not being worthy to untie Jesus' shoes possesses a hidden meaning, we ought not to pass over it. I think that the incarnation, when the Son of God takes on flesh and bones, is one of the shoes, and the descent into hell is the other. It is said in Psalm 16: "You will not leave my soul in hell." And Peter, in his general epistle, mentions Jesus' descent into hell. Therefore the one who can show the meaning of both sojourns in a worthy manner is able to unloose Jesus' shoes.
1 Peter 4:6 — Commentary on Romans, Book 5, Section 37
If, on the other hand, as it reads in some manuscripts, "even in those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression," this death, namely that which was keeping souls bound in the underworld, is said to exercise dominion, then we shall understand it to mean that even the saints had fallen prey to that death certainly under the law of dying, even if not under the punishment of sin. But it was on this account that Christ descended into the underworld, not only because he would not be held by death [Acts 2:24], but also in order that he might release those who were held there, as we said, not so much through the crime of transgression as much as by the condition of dying. As it is written, "Many bodies of saints who were sleeping were resurrected with him and entered into the holy city." [Matthew 27:52-53] In this as well the prophet's sayings were fulfilled, in which he said of Christ, "In ascending on high he led captivity captive." [Ephesians 4:8-9] Thus by his own resurrection he has already destroyed the dominions of death, which is also why it is written that he set captivity free.
1 Samuel 1:1 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.4
"There was, it says, one man of Ramathaim, of Mount Ephraim." It does not escape me that in the first place, in some copies it stands: "There was a certain man"; but in those copies which we have approved as more correct it stands thus: "There was one man." And in this the Hebrews too, who contradict us in other things, agree with us. There was, then, one man. See whether this very thing does not pertain to the praise of the righteous man, that it is said of him: "There was one man." We who are still sinners cannot acquire this title of praise, because each one of us is not one, but is many. For observe the countenance of someone now angry, and again sad, and a little later once more rejoicing, and again troubled, and again gentle; at one time consulting about divine things and the acts of eternal life, but a little after contriving the things that pertain either to avarice or to the glory of the world. You see how he who is thought to be one is not one, but there seem to be as many persons in him as there are moods, because also, according to the Scriptures, "the fool is changed as the moon." Whence the moon too, although it seems to be one, through the changing of its substance is nevertheless always other than itself and always different; and so even in it there stands the fact that the one is many. So then we also, who are still foolish and imperfect, because we are always changing our opinions and always desiring and perceiving different things, cannot be called one. But of the righteous, not only is each singly called one, but even all together are fittingly called one. And why should not all be called one, whose heart and soul are described as being one? They all meditate always one wisdom, they savor one thing, they perceive one thing, they venerate one God, they confess one Lord Jesus Christ, they are filled with one Spirit of God. Whence deservedly they too all are called, not only one thing, but even one man, as the Apostle also indicated when he said: "All indeed run, but one receives the prize." You see plainly that of all the righteous, it is one who receives the prize. For the righteous man who is such truly imitates the one Lord. For, as I judge, that saying too which is spoken through the prophet, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God," designates him as one not merely in number—he who assuredly is to be believed to be above all number—but rather is to be understood to be called one for this reason, that he is never made other than himself, that is, is never changed, is never turned into anything else, as David also testifies of him, saying: "But thou art the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail." But that too looks to this sense which is written: "I am the Lord your God, and I am not changed." Unchangeable, therefore, is God: and for this reason he is called one, that he is not changed. So then the righteous man too, the imitator of God, who has been made to the image of God, is himself also called one when he has come to perfection, because he too, when he stands in the summit of virtue, is not changed, but remains always one. For as long as each one is in wickedness, he is divided through many things and scattered into diverse things; and while he is in the many kinds of wickedness, he cannot be called one. Therefore, since according to this wonderful unity the righteous man is one, indeed since even many righteous are one, for this reason also the holy Apostle exhorts the whole Church, saying: "That ye all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you, but that ye be perfected in the same mind and in the same knowledge." Therefore also in the Acts of the Apostles the heart and soul of the believers is said to be one. But if we wish to consider something still more subtle, we can find another unity as well. For example, if I have so mortified my members that the flesh no longer lusts against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh; if there be no longer another law in my members w…
1 Samuel 1:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 11.2
Thus, therefore, I think it more worthy to interpret the marriages of old men, thus beautifully do I regard the marriages of the patriarchs entered into in their last and now-failing age, thus I reckon their necessary begetting of sons is to be counted. For to such marriages and to offspring of this kind, not the young so much as the old are suited. For the more a man is wearied in the flesh, the more he will be robust in the virtue of the soul and more fit for the embraces of wisdom. So too that just man in the Scriptures, Elkanah, is reported to have had two wives at once, of whom one was called Peninnah, the other Hannah, that is, 'conversion' and 'grace.' And first indeed he is said to have received sons from Peninnah, that is, from conversion, and afterward from Hannah, who is grace. For Scripture figuratively designates the progress of the saints through marriages. Hence you too can, if you wish, become the husband of marriages of this kind, and, for example, if you gladly practice hospitality, you will seem to have taken this as your wife. If to her you add care for the poor, you will seem to have obtained a second wife. And if you join to yourself patience and gentleness and the other virtues, you will seem to have taken as many wives as the virtues in which you rejoice. Hence, then, it is that Scripture records that some of the Patriarchs had several wives at once, others took other wives when the former had died; so that this may be figuratively indicated, that certain men can exercise several virtues at once, while others do not begin those that follow before they have brought the former to perfection.
1 Samuel 1:2 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.5
This praiseworthy man of two wives, then—first of all let us see whence he is: "Of Mount Ephraim," it says. Therefore the righteous man is not of the valleys, nor of the plains, nor of any lower places, nor even of the hills. Of the mountain, it says, he is. Of what mountain? Of Mount Ephraim, which is interpreted 'fruitfulness.' Therefore he is of a fruitful mountain, and his place is fruitful. See also the Scripture, what praise it speaks to the mountains: "God," it says, "is the God of the mountains, and not of the valleys." But the name too of this righteous man is Elkanah, which is interpreted 'possession of God.' It is certain that he of whom it was said that he was one man is a possession of God and not a possession of demons. For him whom demons possess is not one, but many: as the demons themselves also answered concerning him whom they possessed, that Legion is his name. But Elkanah is one, who is a possession of God, who also has for his fatherland Mount Ephraim, the fruitful mountain. This man, then, so praiseworthy, had two wives. The name of the one Hannah, and the name of the second Peninnah. But he had sons of the second, Peninnah: the former wife was barren, she who was also the nobler. Similar things you will find also in Genesis. For divine Scripture is akin to itself. You will find there that the first wife of Abraham, Sarah, was the nobler, but the second, the Egyptian Hagar, was ignoble; and that Abraham became a father of the ignoble one before he did of the noble one. But afterward he becomes a father also of the noble spouse. So then now too Elkanah here, who is a possession of God, first becomes a father of the second wife, since indeed God had shut up the womb of Sarah. But after the many childbearings of Peninnah, the womb of Hannah too is opened by prayers and entreaties, and she too becomes the mother of a son, whom she offered to God. What then these things contain in themselves of the sacrament, let us see. Peninnah is interpreted 'conversion,' but Hannah is interpreted 'grace.' Each one of us, therefore, who wishes to be made a possession of God, let him join to himself these two wives, and celebrate his nuptials with them. Let him join to himself first her who is the nobler and more well-born, grace. This is joined to us first through faith, as the Apostle also says: "By grace ye are saved, through faith." But let him be joined secondly to Peninnah, that is, to conversion: because after the grace of belief there comes the amendment of morals and the conversion of life. But although this is the order of the nuptials, another order of procreation comes about. For Peninnah first bears us sons, because we bring forth the first fruits from conversion, and we procreate the first germinations of righteousness from our acts and works. For the first work of righteousness is to be converted from sins: because unless we first are converted and turn aside from evil, we shall be able neither to be made fathers of Hannah, nor to beget sons from grace. Let us see, then, now the differences of each. Peninnah has sons, but such as do not attend upon God. For the sons of conversion cannot be such as to attend and cleave to God. Nor yet are they empty and wholly alien from the things of God. For they receive portions of the divine sacrifices, and eat of the victims of God. Each one of us, therefore, first is converted from sin, and out of conversion begets works of righteousness. But afterward, Hannah being roused up in us through zeal and emulation of the good, pours forth a prayer to God, that she too may beget sons. What sons, then, does Hannah, who is grace, beget? Such as sit beside God. "For grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." This, then, is the son of grace, who is free for God and for the word of God. But do you wish me to show you a more evident form of this kind of understanding even in the Gospels—a form which in the Law indeed is adumbrated through wives, but in the Gospels is already described as…
1 Samuel 1:3 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.6
But let us see also to what place Elkanah came together with his wives, "to sacrifice, it says, to the Lord in Shiloh. But there were, it says, Eli, and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the Lord." Shiloh is the name of the place in which sacrifices were offered to the Lord, before the temple was built in Jerusalem. In this place, then, which is called Shiloh, victims for sins were offered, and there was made the purgation of sins. Now Shiloh is interpreted 'avulsion' or 'unshoeing,' that is, the loosing of the sandal, and either sense is fittingly applied. For the place in which sins are purged is rightly named avulsion, where the heart of stone is torn away, and a heart of flesh is inserted: or unshoeing, because all of us, until we come to the holy place, are unshod; but when we have arrived at it, we are commanded to be unshod. So it is said to Moses: "Loose the strap of thy sandal. For the place in which thou standest is holy ground." And do we suppose that in these things there was not something of mystery hidden, but that God abhorred the bodily sandals of Moses, and therefore these things were commanded? Or is this rather to be supposed, that when he came out of the land of Egypt, he had sandals of dead skins, and was, as it were, bound about with a certain mortality: but when he began to advance toward virtue and to ascend the mountain of God, and there to minister immortal mysteries, then he says to him that he should cast off the tokens of mortality, which are designated in the sandals of skin? I think that for this reason too the Savior commanded his apostles not to have sandals on their feet, so that their feet, which ran to announce eternal life, should lack every token of mortality: inasmuch as they trod that way which says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." For no one treads the way of life with a token of mortality. Such, then, is that place likewise where Eli is, a man less praiseworthy. For on account of sin, falling backward, he expired. And let us not suppose that he alone, falling backward, expired, but even now, if anyone falls backward, if anyone turns back from faith and truth, it is necessary that he fall, and that he straightway die. But in Deuteronomy too a threat is aimed at sinners, when it is said: "And an incurable opisthotonos." Now opisthotonos signifies a sickness of the back and of the hinder parts, and assuredly not without cause, when there are so many kinds of human ailment, is this kind of ailment above all ascribed to the sinner. For in Genesis too the wife of Lot, who was turned back, is said to have transgressed the divine precept, by which it had been commanded her that she should not look backward, nor stand in all the region round about; and therefore she was made a little pillar of salt. Our Lord and Savior too in the Gospel: "No one, he says, putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." And moreover, when he had taught concerning many things, he adds this also, saying: "Remember Lot's wife." It is best, therefore, to forget the things that are before, to forget the things that are past, so that the opisthotonos, the incurable ailment, may not seize us, and that we may not fall backward like Eli, and die.
1 Samuel 1:3 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.7
Now there were there the two sons of Eli. Eli is interpreted 'Arab,' or 'outsider.' For he is an outsider from God who does not maintain discipline, who does not chastise the offending son, does not reprove him that he may amend, who is indulgent to vices, who does not punish faults, as the Apostle also says: "But if ye are without discipline, of which all are made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." This, then, is Eli, who on account of these things is punished by God. But let us see who his sons also are. Hophni, it says, and Phinehas. Now Hophni is interpreted 'excess of conversion.' Of Peninnah we said a little before that she was conversion: but this one, who exceeds, and is made far from amendment, and will not be converted to the Lord, therefore remains impious. But also, whoever he be, whom we see after sin not converted to the Lord, and not doing penance, nor receiving the desert of the future judgment, and of the divine word that commands: "Doth not he who falls add to rise again? Or he who is turned away, shall he not return?"—of him too we rightly say that he is Hophni, and exceeding beyond conversion. But the other son of his is called Phinehas. We know two in the Scriptures called by this name, that Phinehas the righteous, the son of Aaron, and this unrighteous one, the son of Eli. Whence fittingly too we find two interpretations of this name. For Phinehas signifies in our tongue 'obturation of the mouth,' or 'sparing the mouth.' The sinner, therefore, and he who has not firmness, has his mouth obstructed for speaking: but the righteous man spares his mouth. Today too among the priests of the Lord there is found either Phinehas; there is found also Eleazar, who in the Scriptures is the first named bishop, as it is written in Numbers. There are, then, today too among the priests those who spare their mouth, and no evil word by any means proceeds from their mouth. There are priests from whose mouth no scandal, no lie, no guile, nor any falsehood is uttered, and these are deservedly compared to that Phinehas the son of Aaron. But there are also some priests according to that Phinehas the son of Eli, who have their mouth obstructed, whether by the vice of ignorance, or by the conscience of sins. But this is what I entreat, that if there is anyone who sees himself admitted into the priestly order, let him take pains to give heed to instruction and amendment, and let him hasten to be made of that number of the blessed, lest perhaps he be found among those priests who are both reprobate and punished by God.
1 Samuel 1:24 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.8
But it is now time to recall also a few things concerning the prayer of Hannah, which she poured forth when offering to God Samuel, whom she had weaned from the milk. In which, first indeed, we say this, that the boy who is offered to God could not be offered before he was weaned from the milk. In which it is shown that no one can be consecrated to God who is still nourished with milk, and is a boy in his senses, and is without part in the word of righteousness, nor can he administer the priestly sacraments unless he desists from childish things, and ascends to greater things from those to whom the Apostle says: "Milk I gave you to drink, not meat. For ye were not yet able." Otherwise, according to the letter, what does it seem worth the trouble that a little boy lately weaned from the milk should be offered to God, where the mother will not be present, nor nurses cherish him, nor any supports for the rearing of the boy be at hand? But see that the discourse of Scripture is so apt that it teaches figuratively that everyone who is first converted to the faith is nourished with milk and not with strong food, of whom in another place it is said: "And ye have become such as have need of milk, and not of strong food. For everyone who is nourished with milk is a stranger to the word of righteousness. For he is a little child. But solid food is for the perfect, who, according to their capacity for taking it, have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil." Therefore whoever is not yet weaned from the milk, but is a little child, cannot ascend to the temple of the Lord, cannot ascend to the ministries of the priests, nor be present at the sacrifices; but neither does his mother ascend, though she is able to ascend. For Hannah, his mother, is grace, who keeps and guards him and nourishes him, so that at the fitting time she may ascend together with him. And when she has seen that the time is at hand for him, so that now, departing from the milk, he uses solid and strong foods, so that he may be able both to be present with the priests and to eat of the sacrifices of the altar, then she consecrates him to God. See whether in another place in the holy Scriptures you find someone signified as weaned from the milk. I, however, so far as memory suggests for the present, remember Isaac: of whom it is written that Abraham made a great banquet on that day on which Isaac his son was weaned from the milk. Among the men of this age indeed, parents are wont to celebrate the birthday of their sons: but Abraham does not celebrate the birthday of Isaac his son, but he keeps that day as a feast, and reckons it for gladness, and celebrates banquets, when he weans him from the milk, and applies him to strong and solid foods, as though through these Isaac were saying: "When I became a man, I put away the things that were of a child." It is fitting, therefore, that such should be he who is offered to God, that he may dwell among the holy things, who can feed on holy flesh, of which it is written: "Be sanctified, that ye may eat flesh."
1 Samuel 2:1-10 — FRAGMENT ON HANNAH'S SONG
Through this ode also he teaches the one who comes to God to place his hopes in him alone and to boast in him — not to boast greatly, but to be humble-minded. Inasmuch as he, being God, has the knowledge of all things, he renders to each according to his practices. And he himself is master of both death and life. And he exhorts us to know the Lord — clearly, that is, through good deeds — wherefore he adds the "to do judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth." Inasmuch as he is a righteous judge of all the earth, he himself is strength, he himself is exaltation, he himself is a horn of salvation for those who love him.
1 Samuel 2:1 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.9
But let us see with what kind of prayer Hannah, that is, grace, consecrates him to God. For we shall observe something new in the very beginnings. For she says: "And Hannah prayed, and said." And nowhere do I find her, as it were, praying to God, or speaking, except through two words only, where she says: "I rejoiced in thy salvation," and the other: "Because there is none beside thee." But the beginning has it thus: "My heart exulted in the Lord." She did not say, My heart exulted in thee. For if it were a prayer, it were consistent to speak thus: My heart exulted in thee. And again in the following verse of hers she says: "My horn was exalted in God." She did not say: My horn was exalted in thee, but in God. "My mouth was enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoiced in thy salvation." One utterance, as I said, contains a prayer: "I rejoiced in thy salvation," and in what follows she does not say that there is none holy but thou, but, "There is none holy as the Lord," and, "There is none beside thee." This utterance does not seem to have kept the order of prayer. But at the very last, in the manner of a long supplication, she introduces even certain agitations, saying: "Do not multiply to speak evil things, neither let evil-speaking come out of your mouth, because the Lord is strong in knowledge." In which she does not even seem to be any longer speaking to the Lord. What, then, shall we say of these things? When I once read in the Apostle that he said: "Pray without ceasing," I asked whether this precept could possibly be fulfilled. For who can never cease from prayer, so that he has no time either for taking food or drink? Since indeed, if these things be done, prayer seems to have to be interrupted. But neither does prayer, commonly understood, grant, according to this precept, leave for sleeping or for doing anything else of human use. Let us see, then, whether perhaps all the acts of him who is engaged in the divine office, and all the deeds or words which he does and speaks according to God, are reckoned toward prayer. For if prayer be understood as only that which we commonly know, then neither will Hannah seem to have prayed in these words, and never can any of the righteous, according to the Apostle's precept, pray without ceasing. But if every act of the righteous man, which he does according to God and according to the divine commandment, is reckoned prayer, then, because the righteous man without ceasing does the things that are righteous, through this the righteous man will pray without ceasing, nor will he ever cease from prayer unless he cease to be righteous. For when we do something unrighteous or offend, it is certain that at that time we also cease from prayer. I think that we are taught this too in the Psalms, when it is said: "The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice." For I do not think that, if anyone should lift up or stretch out his hands to heaven (as is wont to be the posture of those who pray), he has straightway offered a sacrifice to God. But let us see whether perhaps this is what the word of God there indicates, that by the hands works are understood. He lifts up his hands who lifts up his acts from the earth, and whose conversation, while yet he walks on earth, is in the heavens. Lofty acts, therefore, and sublime, which men seeing magnify the heavenly Father, are called the lifting up of the hands, and an evening sacrifice. Was not this too taught through a mystery in the Law, when, as Moses lifted up his hands, Israel was conquering; but when he let them down and cast them downward, Amalek was conquering? And if "all these things happened to them figuratively, but were written for our sakes, upon whom the ends of the ages have come," then we ought to understand that, so long as the servant of God lifts up his acts to God, the people of God conquers: but when he has cast down and let down his hands, that is, his acts, Amalek, the enemy of God, conquers. Or what does it seem? (for I…
1 Samuel 2:1 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.10
Let us see, then, what this reasoning of Hannah's prayer means, which if we shall have learned, perhaps we too shall be able to pray likewise. "My heart, it says, exulted in the Lord." Necessarily she added: "In the Lord." For there is an exultation which is not in the Lord, as that too is said: "Rejoice in the Lord." For a man can rejoice in carnal things, and not in the Lord. For if I rejoice because I have found a visible treasure, that is a joy of the flesh, and not in the Lord. If I rejoice because men praise me, and perhaps not according to desert, this is not to rejoice in the Lord. If I rejoice in things frail and perishing, all these have no praiseworthy joy. But if I rejoice because I have been held worthy to suffer injury for the name of the Lord, that joy is in the Lord, because he himself said concerning these things: "Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in the heavens." If I rejoice when unjust hatreds are exercised against me, if I rejoice when I am assailed on account of the word of God, if I rejoice when I am chastised in ailments, in persecutions, in straits—if I receive all these things gladly, that joy is in the Lord. And therefore the Scripture teaches us that, casting away earthly joys, frail and perishing, we should exult in the Lord over eternal joys, so that we may deservedly say what Hannah said: "My heart exulted in the Lord." And since, while these things are being said, a certain one of the bystanders has been filled with an unclean spirit, and has cried out so that there was a running-together of the people, let us too say with Hannah, who says: "My heart exulted in the Lord." The contrary spirit could not bear our exultation in the Lord, but wishes to change it, so that, this being taken away, it may introduce sadness, and prevent us from saying, "My heart exulted in the Lord." But let us not be hindered, but rather more and more say: "My heart exulted in the Lord:" and for this very thing, that we see the unclean spirits scourged, let us rejoice, because through these things too many are converted to the Lord, many are amended, many come to the faith; and there is nothing that the Lord does without cause, nor does he permit anything to be done in vain. For since there are many who do not believe the word, nor receive the reason of the teaching, when the demon has leaped upon them, then they are converted, so that where the offense abounded, grace may superabound: and where the malign power has worked, there afterward the grace of the Lord may work the more: because when the grace of the Lord has expelled the malign spirit, it introduces the Holy Spirit: and the soul which had been filled with an unclean spirit is afterward filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore for all these things let us say: "My heart exulted in the Lord. And my horn was exalted in my God." There are certain horns of the righteous which they use either in doing something or in speaking, as when they say: "In thee we will toss our enemies with the horn." In the Greek it is said keratioumen, which is, We will strike with the horn, or, We will toss. But elsewhere too it is said: "And the horns of the righteous shall be exalted." We ought, therefore, to have those horns, which are conferred on the righteous, for just causes, by the points of the cross of Christ, so that with them we may destroy and cast down the adversary powers from our soul, which being laid low and expelled, a vineyard may be able to be planted in us, because "a vineyard was made to the beloved on a horn, in a fruitful place." Exalted, therefore, is the horn both of this righteous grace, and of every righteous man, in the Lord. "My mouth was enlarged over my enemies." It is written: "Enlarge thy mouth, and I will fill it," and now this righteous woman says: "My mouth was enlarged." If I have been made fit and strong in the word, and mighty in wisdom, so that not with narrow assertions, but with enlarged and abounding ones, I may be able to confute e…
1 Samuel 2:2 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.11
"Because I rejoiced in thy salvation." If I have rejoiced in the salvation of God, then my mouth was enlarged over my enemies. "There is none holy as the Lord." If it were written, There is none holy but the Lord, it would follow that we all renounce ourselves from this hope of being made holy: but now she uses a necessary distinction and says: "There is none holy as the Lord"; that is, although there be many holy, yet none is so holy as the Lord. Many, therefore, can become holy, as the commandment of God also says: "Be ye holy, because I too am holy." But however much anyone advances in holiness, however much of purity and sincerity he acquires, a man cannot be so holy as the Lord; because he is the giver of holiness, this one the receiver; he is the fountain of holiness, but this one the drinker of the holy fountain; he is the light of holiness, this one the beholder of the holy light; and therefore "there is none holy as the Lord, and there is none beside thee." What it is that she says, "there is none beside thee," I do not plainly grasp. If she had said, There is no God beside thee, or, There is no creator beside thee, or had added some such thing, nothing would have seemed to need inquiry; but now, because she says, "there is none beside thee," it seems to me that in this place there is designated this: that none of the things that are has this very thing, that they are, naturally. Thou alone art he to whom what thou art was given by no one. For we all, that is, the whole creation, were not before we were created, and therefore what we are is the will of the Creator. And because at one time we were not, it is not accurate if it be said of us that we are, so far as regards that time when we were not. But God alone is he who has always had what he is, and did not receive that he should be a beginning. In short, when Moses wished to learn from God what his name was, God, teaching him, said: "I am he who is, and this is my name." If, then, anything else among the creatures could be called by this name or with this signification, never would the Lord say that this was his name. For he knew that he alone was, but that the creatures had received from him that they should be. For a shadow, in comparison with the body, is not; and smoke, in comparison with fire, is not. So then also the things that are in the heavens and the things that are on earth, visible and invisible, so far as regards the nature of God, are not; so far as regards the will of the Creator, they are that which he who made them willed them to be. Therefore it is said, that "beside thee, there is none."
1 Samuel 2:2 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.12
"There is none mighty as God, our God." This is similar to that which was said above, that there is none holy as the Lord. For just as there she did not say that there is not anyone holy, but that there is none holy as the Lord, so that she might show that although there are holy ones, yet none is so holy as the Lord is: so also in this place, although there be someone mighty, "there is none, she says, mighty as our God."
1 Samuel 2:3 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.14
"Let not great speech come out of your mouth." See what was said by the Apostle: "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This is fittingly said of every man. For wretched is the race of mortals: since indeed we are in peril not only in evils, but even in good things. For example, I have seen certain good visions, and they have become to me an occasion of elation. Signs and wonders have been fulfilled through me, and I have become proud in good things. I have kept righteousness, continence, virtue, but in these I am in peril. For when the Devil has done nothing else, for all these he stirs up pride in me, so that afterward I may have an angel of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted and great speech come out of my mouth, that is, lest I speak great things of myself, since indeed the Lord exterminates deceitful lips, and the boastful tongue of those who said: "We will magnify our tongue." Let not, therefore, great speech come out of your mouth, because the Lord is strong in knowledges.
1 Samuel 2:3 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.13
"Do not multiply to speak lofty things." Why did she not say: Do not speak lofty things? Therefore it is permitted me to speak some lofty things, but to multiply lofty and arduous things is not permitted me; for this seems to be designated by that which was said: "Do not multiply to speak lofty things." What, then, is indicated by this, let us consider. It is not permitted to human nature to speak many lofty things, nor to understand many lofty things. For Solomon too says: "Seek not the things too high for thee, and search not the things too strong for thee, but of the things that are commanded thee, these understand." Therefore in this place too it is said "lofty things," not that thou shouldst not seek at all, but that thou shouldst not multiply questions concerning them. For to one who looks to the weakness of the human condition, let it suffice thee to have either inquired or spoken concerning the lofty and arduous things such things as give life to those who inquire or speak. But what are the things in which it is necessary for me to speak lofty things? When I speak of the omnipotence of God, of his invisibility and everlastingness, I speak lofty things. When I pronounce concerning the co-eternity of his Only-begotten and his other mysteries, I speak lofty things. When I discourse of the magnificence of the Holy Spirit, I speak lofty things. In these things only is it granted us to speak lofty things. After these three, speak thou nothing lofty any longer. For all things are lowly and cast down, so far as regards the loftiness of this Trinity. Do not, therefore, multiply to speak lofty things, except concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And that what we say may be more fully manifest, let us use still, if it seems good, examples. For instance, the gentiles introduce many gods. These multiply to speak lofty things. Certain of the heretics, abandoning the creator of the world, and his Son, feign for themselves some other, I know not what, loftier god, and introduce others likewise, whether those whom they call aeons, or those whom they call gods. These too, then, multiply to speak lofty things.
1 Samuel 2:3 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.15
"And they did not amend, making excuses;" as it was also said there: "Let not thy heart incline to evil words, to make excuses for excuses in sins with men that work iniquity." And in the Proverbs it is said: "The sluggard takes occasions and says: There is a lion in the way, and murderers in the streets." We find, therefore, that sinners are such as accuse everything rather than themselves, and feign for themselves occasions of excuses, when they say: The Devil supplanted me, the woman seduced me, that man furnished me an occasion to sin—when assuredly one ought to remember the precept that says: "Declare thou thy sins first, that thou mayest be justified": for excuses do not amend, neither here nor in the future, if we have done evil. But that too seems necessarily to occur in passing. For it contains a wonderful sense, that it is written: "The righteous man is his own accuser in the beginning of his speech," whereas nevertheless the unrighteous is not his own accuser but of others. Just as the Devil too is indeed an accuser, but an accuser not of himself, but of the brethren. Meanwhile, it is necessary that all be accused; but if indeed I shall be righteous, I do not wait for another to accuse me, but I myself stand forth as my own accuser. Yet I should like to discuss more fully how the righteous man can be his own accuser. It is certain that as long as anyone sins and remains in offenses, he is neither righteous, nor his own accuser. For he does not accuse what he does. But when he has repented of his offenses, then he is made righteous, and stands forth as the accuser not of another, but of himself.
1 Samuel 2:4 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.16
"The bow of the mighty was made weak." The darts of the malign one, which are called fiery, are sent forth through the bow of the mighty. Now by the mighty are meant the adverse powers, of which it is said, "for behold, the sinners have bent the bow, and in it have prepared vessels of death." And again: "He made his arrows for them that burn." But now too it is said, that "the bow of the mighty was made weak." For if thou be clothed with the arms of God, if thou be fortified with the shield of faith and covered with the helmet of salvation, and with the breastplate of charity, and girded with the sword of the spirit, the bow of the mighty against thee, because of such defenses, will be made weak. For if he have hurled against thee some one fiery dart, it, received on the shield of faith, is straightway extinguished. He has cast another dart also, and it too is repelled by the breastplate of righteousness. He has cast a third also, and it too is cut off by the sword of the spirit. He sends perhaps a fourth also, which likewise is thrown off by the helmet of salvation. And when, through all these, the man of God who is assailed has remained invulnerable, then by the bow of the mighty he will by no means, though so many darts be aimed, be made weak.
1 Samuel 2:4 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.17
"And the weak were girded with strength." If we see how "God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might confound the wise, and the weak things of the world, that he might confound the strong," thou understandest how the weak were girded with strength. Weak was the gentile people, inasmuch as it was a stranger to the covenant of God: this obtained strength. What strength? "My strength and my praise is the Lord, and he is become to me for salvation." My strength, therefore, is Christ the Lord himself, with whom we were girded, we who were once strangers to the covenant of God, and without God in this world.
1 Samuel 2:5 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.18
"They that were filled with loaves were led into servitude." She shows that it is blameworthy to be filled with loaves, because Jacob ate and drank, and was filled, and grew fat, and the beloved kicked. "They that were hungry were forsaken." She means those who had been filled with loaves, because they forsook the hungry. There came a famine, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. Therefore "they that were hungry were forsaken, until the barren bore seven, and she that was fruitful in sons was made weak. For many are the sons of the deserted, more than of her that hath a husband." Barren is our mother the Church; she bore seven, that is, the number seven, to which rest is ascribed. "And she that was fruitful in sons was made weak." I should like to see how the Jews, the patrons of the letter, assert that she who is fruitful in sons is made weak, and how the barren bore seven: but, their fables despised, let us consider, whether perhaps each one of us may have within himself the barren woman who bore seven, and may have also the woman fruitful in sons who is made weak. Fruitful in offspring was my flesh, having very many fruits of the flesh: fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, provocations, dissensions; these were the numerous progeny of our flesh. But when we came to the faith of the cross of Christ, and to the mortification of Jesus, we began to carry about in our body, and to mortify our members which are upon the earth, and to present them to serve righteousness and sobriety: then the fecundity of this shameful generation was shut out, and in this way she that was fruitful in sons was made weak. But how the barren woman bears seven, let us see. Barren in me was my soul, it brought no fruits of righteousness: but now, when through the faith of Christ it merited the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding filled it, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of righteousness and mercy, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord filled it: it is certain that the barren woman bore seven, and she that was fruitful in sons was made weak.
1 Samuel 2:6 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 1.19
"The Lord kills and makes alive." Whom does the Lord kill, and whom does he make alive? Me myself he kills, when he makes me be dead to sin. And me myself he makes alive, when he makes me live to God. I was a sinner, and lived in offenses: he killed me from sins, he made me die to my former life, and he will make me alive, that I may live in his fear, that I may stand in his faith, that I may live no longer to sin, but to God, who raised me from the dead, that I may walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
1 Samuel 2:25 — ON PRAYER 28.9
The law prohibits priests in the case of certain sins from offering a sacrifice to gain people forgiveness for the transgressions for which sacrifices are made. For though the priest has authority to make an offering for certain inadvertent sins or transgressions, nevertheless he does not offer a burnt offering and a sin offering for adultery, deliberate murder, or any other graver fault. Therefore, it is in the same way that the apostles and those like the apostles, since they are priests according to the great High Priest, have received knowledge of God's healing and know, since they are taught by the Spirit, for what sins sacrifice must be offered and when and how; and they know for what sins it is wrong to do this. Thus, Eli the priest, when he knew that his sons Hophni and Phinehas were sinning, realizing he could in no way contribute to the forgiveness of their sins, acknowledged it as a hopeless case and said, "If a man sins against a man, they will pray for him; but if he sins against he Lord, who will pray for him?"
1 Samuel 3:11-21 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 1
Since the divine Scripture was about to foretell the destruction of the sons of Eli, and that the ark of God would be taken by the foreigners, it first prepares the hearer beforehand, lest anyone should suppose God to be harsh. For this reason, as I said, it relates that the wickedness and the sin of the sons of Eli were not lessened by the threat and by the prediction against them, but rather increased.
1 Samuel 4:11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
Or indeed how will it be true that it is said of this tabernacle that none dwells in it except the "innocent in hands and clean in heart, who hath not taken his soul in vain", when the history of the Kingdoms discloses that most wicked priests, "sons of pestilence", dwelt in the tabernacle of God, and that the very ark of the testament, captured by the Allophyli (Philistines), was held among the impious and profane? From all which it stands firm that the prophet thinks with a far other sense concerning this tabernacle, in which he says that none dwells except the "innocent in hands and clean in heart, and who hath not taken his soul in vain, nor done evil to his neighbor, and hath not received reproach against his neighbor". Such, then, must be the dweller of this tabernacle, which the Lord fixed and not man.
1 Samuel 4:13 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 2
Eli was pious in himself; for he was not anxious primarily about the salvation of his children, but about the ark, lest it should come to be under the foreigners — which indeed also happened.
1 Samuel 5:3 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 3
This was so that the foreigners might know that God had neither been defeated through the Israelites, nor had they conquered him by their own power, but that the sins and impieties of the Jews had brought about the defeat. And Dagon fell before the ark, not in order to worship — for he was not worthy — but in order to be crushed; which indeed also came to pass.
1 Samuel 12:16-18 — ON PRAYER 13.5
That mighty deed Samuel is said to have accomplished through prayer is something that everyone who genuinely relies on God can accomplish spiritually even now, since he has become worthy of being heard.… For every saint and genuine disciple of Jesus is told by the Lord, "Lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life." In this time of harvest the Lord does "a great thing" before the eyes of those who hear the prophets. For when the one adorned with the Holy Spirit calls to the Lord, God gives from heaven thunder and rain that waters the soul, so that he who once was in evil may stand in great awe of the Lord and his minister of goodness, manifested as venerable and august by the requests that are heard. And Elijah, who shut up heaven for the wicked for three and a half years, later opened it. This, too, is always accomplished for everyone who through prayer receives the rain of the soul, since the heavens were previously deprived of it because of his sin.
1 Samuel 15:9-11 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 4
Just as in the case of human beings "hand" and "foot" and "eye" and "ear" and anything else so named are indicative of the members of our body, but in the case of God "hand" means his creative power, "eye" his power of oversight, "ear" his power of hearing, and "foot" the power of his presence whenever he is at work upon something: so also God's "wrath" is said to be the discipline exercised against those who err, and not a passion of God; and "repentance" is the transference of God's dispensation from one course of action to another. For what we do when we repent — that is, we flee the things for which we felt regret, and pursue other, better things — this is what is called God's "repentance." Why? Because it was necessary for the prophets to discourse about God in a more bodily manner to those of the dullest understanding, so that it might be grasped. For those who supposed the images which they carved and cast to be gods — indeed, even irrational things — how could they have grasped what is said about God through spiritual concepts and words? If God foreknows all things, and is not angered or brought to repentance on the basis of things he comes to know afterward, then anger or repentance is not a passion of God; rather, the work of the "wrath" is punishment, and likewise the work of the "repentance" is a withdrawal from the former course and a transference to the other dispensation. So too it is said concerning the sword: "Sword, be sharpened and slay"; so too a "hand of iron" is named (Solomon: "that it may deliver you from the hand of iron") and "of a sword" (as David says: "into the hands of the sword"). So too God's wrath is said "to be angry," and sin to "have a face," according to David, and God's wrath to have "a face," as in the thirty-seventh Psalm, and the rivers to "clap with their hands." But neither do rivers have hands nor do sins have a face. Let us not, then, on account of the things said in a bodily way about God — as the ancients were able to receive them — suppose God to be a body, or that he is filled with passions. The changeableness of human judgment must not be attributed to God; for it is we ourselves who, in our own case, bring about the turns of the divine dispensation that justly come upon us, showing ourselves through our deeds unworthy of the honor granted by God. So then, having condemned Saul and wishing to hand over the affairs of rule to David and to preserve the kingdom for his seed — on account of the King of all creation who was to be born from him according to the flesh — God used human words, speaking to human beings, and said, "I have repented that I anointed Saul as king," instead of, "I wish to give the rule of the kingdom to another, and to make this one cease from his dominion." The "I have repented" on account of Saul means this: he made himself so unworthy of the kingdom that, if indeed I had a nature that repents, I would have changed my mind about him. Why, then, was he anointed? Because at that time he was worthy. But having turned, he again became unworthy.
1 Samuel 15:11 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 5
From these things is shown what I said before: that God's "repentance" is the name for the transference of God's dispensation from one course of action to another. The passage shows that even a prophet and a righteous man, when he prays on behalf of others, is not otherwise heard unless that other person demonstrates repentance by his deed. For in this way the petition of the righteous man is effective when it is worked out through the one who has sinned. Therefore, in order that the matter may be brought to completion, both must run together: both the prayer of the righteous man and the deed of the one who repents.
1 Samuel 15:22 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 4.5.6
Therefore, when different prophets or different apostles should give to those who sin the counsel by which they can correct or amend the sin, they rightly will seem to have sold rams to them for sacrifice. But how much do they charge the buyers? It is, I think, the cost of reading zealously, of hearing with vigilance the word of God, and above all, I think, the most diligent obedience, about which the Lord says, "I prefer obedience to sacrifice; and hearing what I say rather than whole burnt offerings."
1 Samuel 16:12 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 6
Esau was "ruddy, hairy as a hide," having the deadness that comes from sin and thirsting for murder against Jacob. But David was ruddy together with beauty of eyes, so as to indicate David's power of discernment.
1 Samuel 16:18 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 7
How was he "a man," and how "prudent in speech," and how also "a warrior," while he was still shepherding sheep? He did not, then, speak of himself in saying this, but foretold the things to come as though present, and he testifies concerning David to the things which were going to be — except for the "the Lord is with him" and the "good in appearance," which belonged to him from childhood and remained with him, the one by nature, the other by grace.
1 Samuel 17:35 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 28.1
But as David who took hold of the beard seized the lion, so let us beg the spiritual David, Christ, when taking hold of the lion, to abolish also every Sanhedrin of beasts.
1 Samuel 19:20-24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.175-76
Now, it seems to me that fortuitous circumstance also is sometimes the cause of prophesying, as is true in the present case of Caiaphas. He was high priest of that year [in which] Jesus was to die for the people that the whole nation might not perish. For although others were high priests … no one prophesies except the high priest of the year in which Jesus was to suffer.And it was fortuitous circumstance that caused the messengers of Saul to prophesy when they were sent to David, along with Saul himself. For it is as if the fact that they were seeking David became the cause of their prophecy, such as it was, as has been recorded.
1 Samuel 19:23-24 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 8
Since Saul was powerful, having a multitude to help him wickedly against David, while the two alone were pursued — Samuel and David — the grace of God makes Saul prophesy not only whatever was against him, but also the things on David's behalf; and it casts him down naked, signifying beforehand that he would be stripped of the kingdom.
1 Samuel 21:4 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 9
By "profane" he now means not the unclean, but those who are not holy, in contradistinction to the holy loaves set out upon the table. For the table continually held six loaves, being exchanged, on behalf of the twelve tribes of Israel, which they called the loaves "before the Lord," so that each of the loaves was offered on behalf of two tribes, and all of them on behalf of the twelve tribes. What good, then, came from this? That the tribes of Israel were joined together in concord. And what greater thing was signified beforehand? That the blessed apostles were sent out two by two by the Savior to preach first among the tribes of Israel, so that of the twelve disciples the number came to six pairs at once. "Lay" bread: not because those who are not holy are profane, but because they are being compared with what is holy.
1 Samuel 21:5-6 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 10
"Today it shall be sanctified because of the vessels" — he said this rather obscurely, but it means this: "My young men have been sanctified and have kept themselves from a woman both yesterday and the day before" — for this is what his saying that the young men were purified amounts to. And if it were not so, in any case it would be sanctified through the eating of the bread of the setting-forth. Persuaded by what was said, the priest gives David some of the loaves, which none other ought to eat except the priests alone. And this belongs to the prophecy that reveals through deeds: that, although the royal tribe was one, that is, that of Judah, and the priestly tribe was another, I mean the Levitical, the priestly dignity and the royal were going to be joined together and made one in the coming of our Savior descended from David, priest and king at once, the one "according to the order of Melchizedek."
1 Samuel 21:7 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 12
Saul bears the type of the evil spirit, when Israel, then taking rule to itself, said, "We have no king." For indeed the people of old, having despised the Lord who reigned over them, asked that Saul be given to them as ruler.
1 Samuel 21:7 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 11
"The Neessar": this indicates either that Doeg the Edomite was detained on account of sin, being tended before the Lord and making confession, or that, being demon-possessed like Saul, he was not out pasturing the she-mules.
1 Samuel 25:22 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 13
No one urinates standing, and that against a wall, unless he is at leisure. This, then, is what he means: also the man who is carefree and expects to suffer nothing — provided he belongs to Nabal.
1 Samuel 28:11 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.2
Some narratives do not touch us, but some are necessary for our hope. I have spoken of "narratives" in this way, since we have not yet arrived at the matters of the spiritual interpretation — matters useful to everyone who knows how to interpret spiritually or to hear things being so interpreted. Of the things of the narrative, then, some are useful to all, but some not to all. For instance, by way of example: the narrative concerning Lot and his daughters — whether it has anything useful according to the spiritual interpretation, God knows, and he to whom God grants to examine those words; but if you take it according to the narrative, you might well inquire: for what benefit is there to me from the narrative concerning Lot and his daughters? Likewise, what benefit to me is the narrative of Judah and Tamar and the things concerning her, if it is told simply as history? Since, however, the narrative concerning Saul and the witch of Endor touches everyone, it is a necessary truth according to reason. For who, when released from this life, wishes to be under the authority of a demon, so that a witch of Endor might bring up — not just any random one of the believers, but Samuel the prophet? Concerning Samuel God says through Jeremiah: "Not even if Moses and Samuel stood before my face, not even to these would I hearken"; concerning him the prophet says in the hymns: "Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name; they called upon the Lord, and he hearkened to them; in a pillar of cloud he spoke to them"; and elsewhere: "If Moses and Samuel stand and pray," and so forth. If, then, so great a man was under the earth and the witch of Endor brought him up, does a demon have authority over a prophetic soul? What shall we say? These things are written: are they true, or are they not true? To say that they are not true urges toward unbelief (it will come down upon the heads of those who say it); but to say they are true furnishes us with inquiry and perplexity.
1 Samuel 28:11-12 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 14
The witch of Endor did not bring up Samuel, for that is impossible; nor did the one who came up speak the truth. But who this was, and by what power he came up, inquire.
1 Samuel 28:11 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.3
And indeed we know some of our own brethren who have looked askance at the Scripture and say: I do not believe the witch of Endor. The witch of Endor says she saw Samuel — she lies. Samuel was not brought up; Samuel does not speak. But just as there are certain false prophets who say, "Thus says the Lord," when "the Lord has not spoken," so also this demon lies, promising to bring up the one whom Saul commanded. For "whom shall I bring up?" it says; "Bring me up Samuel." And these things are said by those who assert that this narrative is not true: Samuel in Hades? Samuel brought up by a witch of Endor — the choice one of the prophets, the one dedicated to God from his birth, the one said before his birth that he would be in the temple, the one who, as soon as he was weaned, put on an ephod and was clothed with a double cloak and became a priest of the Lord, the one to whom, while he was still a child, the Lord gave oracles, speaking to him? Samuel in Hades? Samuel among those below — he who succeeded Eli when Eli was condemned by Providence on account of his children's sins and transgressions? Samuel in Hades — he whom God heard in the time of the wheat harvest, and gave rain to come from heaven? Samuel in Hades — he who spoke so boldly, asking whether he had taken the desired possession of anyone? He took not the calf, he took not the ox; he judged and condemned the people while remaining poor; never did he desire to take anything from so great and so numerous a people. Why should Samuel be in Hades? Do you see what follows for Samuel being in Hades? Samuel in Hades? Why not also Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in Hades? Samuel in Hades? Why not also Moses, who is yoked with Samuel according to what is said: "Not even if Moses and Samuel stand, not even to those would I hearken"? Samuel in Hades? Why not also Jeremiah in Hades, to whom it is said: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you"? In Hades also Isaiah, in Hades also Jeremiah, in Hades all the prophets, in Hades.
1 Samuel 28:12-14 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.4
These things, then, he will say who does not wish to accept the contest — namely, the one who denies that it is truly Samuel who was brought up. But since one must be fair-minded in listening to the Scriptures, now that the objector's argument has plausibly thundered against us and is truly able to trouble and shake us, let us see whether the Scripture has ever been rightly understood by the one who does not accept this, or whether he sets out from plausible premises but says things contrary to what is written. For what are the things written? "And the woman said: Whom shall I bring up to you?" Whose is the voice that says, "the woman said"? Is it the person of the Holy Spirit, from whom the Scripture is believed to have been written, or the person of some other? For the narrative voice everywhere (as those who have busied themselves with all sorts of discourses know) is the person of the writer; and the writer of these words is believed to be not a human being — the writer is the Holy Spirit who moved the human beings. Therefore it is the Holy Spirit who says: "And the woman said: Whom shall I bring up to you? And he said: Bring me up Samuel." Who is it that says, "And the woman saw Samuel, and the woman cried out with a loud voice, saying"? We will say to that one who has thundered so much against us and said countless things — that Samuel was not in Hades: "the woman saw Samuel" — the narrative voice said this — "and the woman cried out with a loud voice and said to Saul: Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul. And the king said to her: What is it? Do not fear. What have you seen? And the woman said to Saul: I saw gods coming up out of the earth. And he said to her: What is their form? And she said to him: An aged man coming up, and he is clothed with a double cloak, an ephod." It says that she saw also the priestly garment. But I know that the one on the opposing side of the argument says: "No wonder; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. It is no great thing, then, if his servants too are transformed as servants of righteousness." But what is it that "the woman saw"? "Samuel." And why is it not said: the woman saw a demon that pretended to be Samuel? But it is written that "Saul knew that it was Samuel." If it had not been Samuel, it ought to have been written: and Saul thought that it was Samuel; but as it is, it is written: "Saul knew" — and no one knows that which does not exist; therefore "Saul knew that it was Samuel." "And he fell upon his face to the ground and did obeisance." Then again the voice of the Scripture: "And Samuel said to Saul: Why have you provoked me by bringing me up?" "Said" (says the Scripture, which one must believe) — "Samuel said: Why have you provoked me by bringing me up?" Then to this Saul answers: "The foreigners war mightily against me, and God has departed from me and has answered me no more, neither by the hand of the prophets nor in dreams; I called for you to show me what I should do." Again the Scripture did not speak otherwise, but says that Samuel himself said: "And why have you questioned me? For the Lord has departed from you." Does he speak truly or falsely when he says: "The Lord has departed from you and has become an adversary against you and has made for himself another, in the manner that he spoke by my hand, and he will rend the kingdom from your hand" — and is it really a demon that prophesies concerning the kingdom of Israel? What does the opposing argument say? See how great a contest there is in the word of God, needing also hearers able to hear holy words, great and ineffable, concerning the departure from this life — while the former matters are still perplexing and the latter are not yet clear.
1 Samuel 28:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.393
They [the Jews] reflected on the death of Abraham and the prophets, understanding that Samuel, too, when he was under the earth because of death, was brought up by a medium who thought the gods were somewhere below the earth and who said, "I saw gods ascending from the earth." They had not, however, comprehended the life of Abraham and the prophets, nor that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was not the God of them as men who were dead, but as men who were alive.
1 Samuel 28:13 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.7
Then I wish to say also something else from the Scripture itself. Samuel comes up — and what does the woman tell Saul she has seen? She does not say she saw a human being; she cowered before this one whom she saw. Whom does she see? "I," she says, "saw gods, gods coming up from the earth." And perhaps Samuel did not come up alone even then to prophesy to Saul; but it is likely — just as here "with the holy you will be holy, and with the innocent man you will be innocent, and with the chosen you will be chosen," and here there are associations of holy ones with holy ones, and not of holy ones with sinners (and if ever there is an association of the holy with sinners, it is for the sake of saving the sinners also) — so perhaps also, as Samuel was coming up, there came up together with him either holy souls of other prophets, or angels were there who had come up together with the spirits. Perhaps you will inquire whether angels were set over their spirits? The prophet says: "The angel who speaks in me." And every place is filled with those who need salvation, and "all are ministering spirits sent forth for service on account of those who are about to inherit salvation." Why do you fear to say that every place needs Jesus Christ? He who needs Christ needs the prophets; for he does not need Christ only and yet not need those who prepare the coming and sojourn of Christ. And John — than whom no one among those born of women was greater, according to the testimony of our Savior, who says, "Among those born of women there is none greater than John the Baptist" — do not fear to say that he too descended into Hades, proclaiming beforehand my Lord, that he might announce him as about to descend. For this reason, when he was in prison and knew the departure that lay upon him, he sent two of his disciples and inquired — not, "Are you the coming one?" (for he knew), but, "Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?" He had seen his glory, he had spoken much about his marvelousness, he had borne witness to him first: "The one coming after me has come to be before me"; he had seen his glory, "glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Having seen such great things concerning Christ, does he hesitate to believe? Does he doubt and not say: Tell him, Are you the Christ? For now some, not understanding the things said, say: John, so great a man, did not know Christ, but the Holy Spirit had departed from him. And yet he did know this one, to whom he bore witness before his birth and over whom he leaped for joy, when Mary too came to him, as his mother testified to him, saying: "For behold, as the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the babe leaped for joy in my womb." This John, then, who leaped for joy before his birth, who said, "This is he concerning whom I said, The one coming after me has come to be before me," and, "He who sent me said to me, Upon whomever you see the Spirit descending and remaining, this is the Son of God" — this one, they say, no longer knew Jesus Christ? For in the womb he knew him. But through excess of glory he did something similar to what Peter did. What similar thing? This one knew something great concerning Christ. Who am I? "Whom do men say that I am?" And he answered: this and that. But you, what do you say? "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"; for which he is also blessed, because "flesh and blood did not reveal it" to him, "but the Father who is in the heavens." Since, then, he had heard great things concerning Christ and supposed great things and did not accept the divine cry made to him — "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and it shall be accomplished," and, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the chief priests and elders, and be killed, and on the third day rise" — he says, "God be merciful to you, Lord." He knew great things concerning Christ; he was unwilling to accept the lowlier things concerning him. Understand John, too, as someon…
1 Samuel 28:15 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.8
I have not digressed, nor have I forgotten the matter at hand; but this is what we wish to establish: that if all the prophets of Christ descended into Hades before Christ, as forerunners of Christ, so also Samuel descended there — not simply, but as a holy one. Wherever the holy one may be, he is holy. Is Christ no longer Christ, because he was once in Hades? Was he no longer the Son of God, because he came to be in the region below, "that every knee should bow in the name of Jesus Christ, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth"? Thus Christ was Christ even when he was below; and, so to speak, though being in the region below, in purpose he was above. So also the prophets and Samuel: even if they descend where the souls below are, they can be below in place, but they are not below in purpose. And I inquire: did they prophesy the things above the heavens? Yet I cannot grant to a demon such great power, that it prophesies concerning Saul and the people of God, and prophesies concerning the kingdom of David that he is about to reign. Those who say these things will come to know the truths regarding the passage; they will not find how to establish that a holy one would not come, for the salvation of those who are sick, into the place of those who are sick. Let physicians go into the places of the wounded soldiers, and let them enter where the stenches of their wounds are; this is what the physicians' love of humankind prompts. In this way the Word has prompted the Savior and the prophets both to come here and to descend into Hades.
1 Samuel 28:15 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.10
There is, then, no stumbling block regarding the passage, but all things have been wondrously written and understood by those to whom God may reveal them. But we who have come at the consummation of the ages have something more. What more? If we depart from here, having become good and noble, not bringing with us the burdens of sin, we too shall pass through "the flaming sword," and shall not descend into the region where those who slept before his coming awaited Christ; rather we shall pass through, in no way harmed by the flaming sword. "And each one's work, of what sort it is, the fire itself will test. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." We shall pass through, then; and we have something more, and we cannot, having lived well, depart badly. The ancients did not say — nor the patriarchs, nor the prophets — what we can say, if we live well: "For it is better to depart and to be with Christ." Therefore, having thus something more and much gain in having come at the consummation of the ages, we first receive the denarius; for hear the parable, that "beginning, he gave the denarius from the last; but the first thought that they would receive something more." You, then, who are first, having come last, receive the wages from the householder in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
1 Samuel 28:15 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.9
And this too must be added to the argument: that if Samuel was a prophet, and when he departed the Holy Spirit left him, and prophecy left him, then the apostle does not speak truly who says: "Now I prophesy in part, and I know in part; but when the perfect comes, then that which is in part shall be done away." Therefore the perfect is after this life. And if Isaiah prophesied anything, he prophesied in part, with all boldness; but the things here are testified of David as pointing to the perfection of prophecy. Samuel, then, did not cast away the prophetic grace. And to show that he did not cast it away: did he use it in such a way — like those who speak in tongues — as to say, "My spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful"? And yet the one who speaks in a tongue does not build up the church; for Paul says that the one who prophesies builds up the church, saying in these very words: "But the one who prophesies builds up the church." Now if "the one who prophesies builds up the church," and Samuel had the prophetic grace (for he had not lost it, since he had not sinned; for only he loses the prophetic grace who, after prophesying, has done things unworthy of the Holy Spirit, so that the Spirit forsakes him and flees from his governing faculty — which David too feared then, after his sin, and said: "And take not your Holy Spirit from me") — if, therefore, the Holy Spirit prophesies, and Samuel was a prophet, and "the one who prophesies builds up the church," whom does he build up? Does he prophesy to heaven? To whom? To angels, who have no need? "They have no need, those who are strong, of physicians, but those who are sick." Some need his prophecy; for the prophetic grace is not idle — no gift of those given in the Holy Spirit is idle. Of the prophetic grace, then, the souls of those who sleep had need (that I may dare even to say it). But here Israel had need of the prophet; and the one who sleeps also, the one released from life, had need of the prophets, that again the prophets might proclaim to him the coming of Christ. Besides, before the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ it was impossible for anyone to pass where the tree of life is; it was impossible to pass those appointed to guard the way of the tree of life: "He stationed the Cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way of the tree of life." Who was able to make a way? Who was able to make anyone pass through the flaming sword? Just as it belonged to no one to make a way through the sea except to God and to the pillar of fire, the pillar of light from God; just as it belonged to no one to make a way through the Jordan except to Joshua (that Joshua was a type of the true God) — so through the flaming sword Samuel was not able to pass, nor Abraham. For this reason Abraham too is seen by the one being punished, and "being in torments, the rich man, lifting up his eyes, sees Abraham," even though "he sees from afar," yet he sees, "and Lazarus in his bosom." They awaited, then, the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ — both patriarchs and prophets and all — that this one might open the way. "I am the way," "I am the door." There is a way to the tree of life, so that it may come to pass: "If you pass through fire, the flame shall not burn you." What fire? "He stationed the Cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way of the tree of life." So for this reason the blessed ones waited there, carrying out a dispensation and not being able to come where the tree of life is, where the paradise of God is, where God is husbandman, where the blessed and chosen and holy ones of God are.
1 Samuel 28:15 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.6
These things, then, show that the things written are not false, and that it is Samuel who has come up. What, then, does a witch of Endor do here? What does a witch of Endor do concerning the bringing up of the soul of the righteous man? That man fled, the one who spoke the first argument (so that he might not seem to have a contest over the many other things sought regarding the passage), and says: It is not Samuel; the demon lies, since the Scripture cannot lie. But the words of the Scripture are not from the person of the demon, but from the person of the Scripture itself: "And the woman saw Samuel," "Saul said" … the things spoken by Samuel. How, then, will the matters concerning the witch of Endor appear, once the things regarding the passage are resolved? I inquire of the one who spoke the former things (Samuel in Hades? and the rest), and let him answer to what is asked: Who is greater, Samuel or Jesus Christ? Who is greater, the prophets or Jesus Christ? Who is greater, Abraham or Jesus Christ? Here no one of those who have once come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, will dare to say that Christ is not greater than the prophets. When, then, you have confessed that Jesus Christ is greater — was Christ in Hades, or did he not come to be there? Is not the saying in the Psalms true, interpreted by the apostles in their Acts concerning the Savior's having descended into Hades? It is written that there is borne upon him the saying in the fifteenth Psalm: "For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption." Then is Jesus Christ in Hades, but you fear to say that yes, even there he descends to prophesy and to come to the other souls? Then after this, if he answers that Christ has descended into Hades, I will say: Christ has descended into Hades to do what? To conquer, or to be conquered by death? And he has gone down into those regions not as a slave of those there, but as a master, to wrestle — as we said earlier when expounding the twenty-first Psalm: "Many calves surrounded me, fat bulls encircled me; they opened their mouth upon me, as a ravening and roaring lion. My bones were scattered." We remember, if indeed we remember the sacred writings; for I remember them being said with reference to the twenty-first Psalm. Therefore the Savior descended to save; did he descend there proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, or not? Was he here proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, but elsewhere descends not through prophets? Moses too proclaims him as about to sojourn among the race of human beings, so that it is well said by our Lord and Savior: "If you had believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote concerning me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" And Christ has sojourned in this life, and Christ is proclaimed beforehand as sojourning in this life. But if Moses prophesies him here, do you not wish that he had also descended there, to prophesy that Christ would come? What then? Moses yes, but the prophets after him not? And Samuel not? What is absurd about physicians going down to those who are sick? And what is absurd about the chief physician also going down to those who are sick? Those were many physicians, but my Lord and Savior is the chief physician; for indeed the inward longing, which cannot be healed by others, he himself heals; that which "could not be healed by any" of the physicians, Christ Jesus heals. Do not fear, do not be amazed: Jesus has come to be in Hades, and the prophets before him, and they proclaim beforehand the coming of Christ.
1 Samuel 28:17-19 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.5
But the argument is still under examination. And I say that both the narrative and the examination concerning it are necessary, so that we may see what awaits us after our departure. "He has spoken by my hand, and the Lord will rend the kingdom from your hand and give it to your neighbor, to David." But a demon cannot know the kingdom of David that was appointed by the Lord. "Because you did not hearken to the voice of the Lord, you did not execute the anger of his wrath upon Amalek." Are these not the words of God? Are they not true? For truly Saul did not do the will of the Lord, but "preserved the king of Amalek alive," for which also, before his death and at his departure, Samuel reproached Saul: "And on account of this word the Lord has done this to you on this day; and the Lord will give Israel also into the hand of the foreigners." Can a demon prophesy about the whole people of God — that the Lord is about to hand over Israel? "The Lord will also hand over the camp of Israel into the hand of the foreigners. But hasten, Saul: tomorrow both you and your sons shall be with me." And can a demon know this — concerning a king anointed together with a prophet — that tomorrow Saul was about to depart from life, and his sons with him? "Tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me."
1 Thessalonians 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.1
Two made a symphony, Paul and Sosthenes, when writing the first epistle to the Corinthians. After this Paul and Timothy sang in harmony when they wrote their second letter to the same church. And even three made a symphony when Paul and Silvanus and Timothy gave instruction by letter to the Thessalonians.
1 Thessalonians 2:7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.29
But another might say that the perfect man is here called little, applying the word, "For he that is least among you all, the same is great." He will affirm that he who humbles himself and becomes a child in the midst of all that believe, though he be an apostle or a bishop, and becomes such "as when a nurse cherishes her own children," is the little one pointed out by Jesus. He will also affirm that the angel of such a person is worthy to behold the face of God. The little are here called perfect, according to the passage "He that is least among you all, the same is great." Paul said, "Unto me who am less than the least of all saints was this grace given." These are in harmony with the saying, "Whoever shall cause one of these little ones to stumble," and "So it is not the will of my Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
1 Thessalonians 2:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.18
"But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country." We must inquire whether the expression has the same force when applied universally to every prophet (as if all prophets are dishonored in their own country). Or, it may be the case that because the expression "a prophet" is in the singular, these things were said only about one. If, then, these words are spoken about one person, these things which have been said suffice, if we refer that which was written to the Savior. But if it is a general principle in view, it is not historically true; for Elijah was not dishonored in Tishbeth of Gilead, nor Elisha in Abelmeholah, nor Samuel in Ramathaim, nor Jeremiah in Anathoth. But figuratively interpreted, it is absolutely true; for we must think of Judea as their country and Israel as their kindred and perhaps of the body as the house. For all suffered dishonor in Judea from the Israel which is according to the flesh, while they were yet in the body. Thus it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, as Stephen censured the people, "Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute, who appeared before of the coming of the Righteous One?" And Paul says similar things in his first letter to the Thessalonians: "For you brethren became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus, for you also suffered the same things of your own countrymen even as they did of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and please not God, and are contrary to all men."
1 Thessalonians 4:16 — Commentary on John 20.232-33
We think that those who have been perfected and who no longer commit sin are alive in Christ. The dead in Christ are those who are favorably disposed to the Christian faith and who prefer to live a good life but who have not, in fact, actually succeeded, but still sin, either in ignorance of the accurate true word of justice or in weakness, because their decisions are overcome by the flesh, which lusts against the spirit. And it is in conformity with these matters that Paul, conscious of himself, says, because he has already succeeded, "We who are alive." But those whom we spoke of as dead have special need of the resurrection, since not even those who are alive can be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air before the dead in Christ first rise. This is why it has been written, "The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive," etc.
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 56
For as it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For those who understand the plain text of the present words, whether they wish to understand it spiritually or simply, it is consistent to say concerning the consummation of this world that "it shall come suddenly," like one who has already fallen sick beforehand with a sickness fit to make manifest his coming corruption. For this is shown especially from what he says, that the coming of the Son of man will be like the days of Noah; for then all things that were upon the earth suddenly perished. But whoever wishes to say that the consummation of the world will happen gradually will say that likewise it happened in the days of Noah. For with the rain descending for forty days and forty nights, it followed that those first perished who dwelt in the lower parts of the earth, and after them those who dwelt somewhat in the higher parts, and thus last of all those who dwelt in the highest mountains. So too (he says) in the consummation of the world, when the fire has descended, it will indeed begin from the more elevated places and gradually descend to the lower. But Luke, subjoining also the similitude of the fire of Sodom, gives us occasion to understand that the consummation is to come suddenly. But someone will say that by this it is declared that that rain, or that fire, did not happen according to the order of nature, but on account of the abundance of the sins of men. In two ways, then, is the coming corruption of the world reckoned: in one way according to a natural descent of fire, in another according to the judgment of God. But the Gentiles do not say that those sins were the burning, or the cause of that burning, but that it was the power of fire. The divine discourses, however, teach that all things are held and governed by God, and they do not blame the violence of fire, but proclaim it the will of God — of God who saves upon the earth those who are worthy of salvation in it, but destroys those in whom, on account of the abundance of iniquity, "charity grows cold." For the comparison with the fire of Sodom teaches most manifestly that the corruption of the world will be sudden. This is clear from what the angel said to Lot: "behold, I have admired your face in this word, that I will not destroy the city of which you have spoken; hasten therefore to be saved there; for I cannot do anything until you go thither." You see that that fire which was sent upon Sodom was held back by the divine will, until Lot entered into Zoar. So I think it will be also in the consummation (according as Lot too was saved), that then that fire of the consummation will lay hold of the world according to the judgment of God, when the saved righteous shall shine "as the sun in the kingdom of their Father": then "they will gather the wicked out of the kingdom of Christ and cast them into the furnace of fire." For how is it not manifest that the corruption of the world will be sudden, from what he says: they will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, which are signs of peace and security? For famines and pestilences will perhaps be some time before the consummation; but around the consummation itself there will be neither famine nor war. And how are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, buying and selling to be understood, unless it is so ordered? But this too makes it manifest, what the Apostle says: "that the day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night. When they shall say: peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pain of childbirth upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape"; for he teaches us that the day of c…
1 Thessalonians 5:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.37
If you wish to see Jesus transfigured before those who went up on the mountain with him, behold with me the Jesus in the Gospels as more simply understood. This is Jesus, as one might say, known "according to the flesh" by those who do not go up through uplifting words and works to the holy mountain of wisdom. Behold him with me as known in his divinity by means of all of the Gospels, beheld in the form of God according to the knowledge that his companions had. For before them Jesus is transfigured, but not to any of those who are below. But when he is transfigured, his face also shines as the sun, so that he may be manifested to the children of light. These have put off the works of darkness and have put on the armor of light and are no longer the children of darkness or night, but have become sons of the day and walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, he will shine for them not only as the sun, but as the son of righteousness.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 32.313
But if we must also examine the statement, "And it was night," so that it has not been interjected to no purpose by the Evangelist, we must say that the perceptible night at that time was symbolic, an image of the night that was in Judas's soul when Satan, the darkness that lies over the abyss, entered him. "For God called the darkness night," of which night, indeed, Paul says we are not children, nor of darkness, when he says, "Therefore, brothers, we are not of the night, nor of darkness," and, "But let us who are of the day be sober."
1 Thessalonians 5:23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.3
In the wicked sin reigns over the soul, being settled as on its own throne in the mortal body, so that the soul obeys its lusts … but in the case of those who have become perfected, the spirit has gained the mastery and put to death the deeds of the body. It imparts to the body of its own life and there arises a concord of the two, body and spirit, on the earth.… But still more blessed is it if the three [i.e., body, soul and spirit] be gathered together in the name of Jesus, that this may be fulfilled, "May God sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Thessalonians 5:23 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
From the Holy Scriptures we are taught that man is a composite being. And the Apostle confirms it: "May God sanctify your spirit and soul and body," and: "may He sanctify you wholly, and may your whole being, spirit and soul and body, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." … And so our Lord and Savior, desiring the salvation of man, wished … to save the body, just as He wished to save also the soul and the remaining part of man — the spirit. Man would not be saved entirely if he were not taken up entirely. … These three parts were divided at the time of the sufferings. These three parts were reunited at the time of the resurrection. At the time of the sufferings they were divided. In what way? The body in the tomb, the soul in hell, the spirit was given up to the Father.
1 Timothy 1:4 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.2
Moreover, the commandment, "Do not bear a burden on the sabbath day," seems to me impossible. For by these words the Jewish teachers have fallen into "endless fables," as the apostle says, by saying that it is not reckoned a "burden" if someone has shoes without nails, but that it is a "burden" if someone has gallic shoes with nails. And if someone carries something on one shoulder, they judge it a "burden," but if he carries it on both shoulders, they will deny it is a burden.
1 Timothy 1:9 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 4.2
If they who are weak and incapable of the deeper mystery are edified by the letter, let them understand that if "anyone neglects the teachings of the Lord and lies to his neighbor over a deposit, or by a partnership, or by robbery, he is declared guilty of a great sin. But let this be absent from the church of God.… For I say boldly concerning you that "you did not so learn Christ" nor "were you so taught." Besides, the law itself does not teach these things to the saints and the faithful. Do you want to know that these are not said about the saints and the faithful? Hear the apostle when he distinguishes between them, "The law was not laid down for the just but for the unjust and for those not subject, for the wicked and the impure, for the father-killers and for the mother-killers," and for those similar to these. Because, therefore, for such men as this the apostle says, "the law was imposed," the church of God, having left behind the letter, is built up to greater holiness by the spirit, since heaven forbid that it would ever be polluted with such misdeeds.
1 Timothy 1:15 — AGAINST CELSUS 1.63
Moreover, Paul says in the epistle to Timothy, even though he himself had later become an apostle of Jesus, "this is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." For some unknown reason he [Celsus] forgot or did not think of saying anything about Paul, who after Jesus established the churches in Christ.… Why then is it outrageous if Jesus, wanting to show mankind the extent of his ability to heal souls, chose infamous and most wicked men and led them on so far that they were an example of the purest moral character to those who were converted by them to the gospel of Christ?
1 Timothy 2:1 — LETTERS 149.2.16
I think that supplication is a prayer offered with a special request for something a person lacks. From this is distinguished prayer which is more plainly offered with simple praise, not to obtain a request but simply to praise the nobility of great things. And I think that intercession is a petition for certain things addressed to God by someone who has some greater boldness, while thanksgiving is a statement of gratitude made with prayers for receiving good things from God, either when it is a great thing that is received and acknowledged with gratitude or when the greatness of the benefit is apparent only to the one who has benefited. ON PRAYER 14.2.Ambrosiaster: "Supplications" are on behalf of secular rulers, that they may have obedient subjects, and thus peace and tranquillity. "Prayers" are for those to whom power has been entrusted, that they may govern with justice and truth, so that all may prosper. "Intercessions" are for those in dire necessity, that they may find help. And "thanksgivings" refer to gratitude for God's daily providences. Commentary on the First Letter to Timothy. Theodore of Mopsuestia: Here supplications express the desire for good things from God. Prayers express the desire to be released from various evils. Intercessions ask for freedom from undeserved consequences. And thanksgivings express gratitude for blessings. Commentary on 1 Timothy. Augustine: I prefer to understand by these words what the entire, or almost the entire, church observes: that we take as supplications those prayers which are said in celebrating the mysteries, before we begin to consecrate what lies on the table of the Lord. Prayers are said when it is blessed and sanctified and broken for distribution; and the whole church, for the most part, closes this complete petition with the Lord's Prayer. The original Greek word helps us to understand this distinction: the Scripture seldom uses the word euche in the sense of oratio, but generally and much more frequently euchē means votum; whereas proseuchē,the word used in the passage we are treating, is always rendered by oratio.… Now, all the things which are offered to God are vowed, especially the oblation at the holy altar, for in this sacrament we show forth that supreme offering, by which we vow to abide in Christ, even to the union of the body of Christ. The outward sign of this is that "we, being many, are one bread, one body." Consequently, I think that at this consecration and this preparation for Communion the apostle fittingly wishes that proseuchas, that is, prayers, should be made, or, as some have unskillfully rendered it, adoration, that is, what takes place at the offering, although this is more commonly expressed in Scripture by euchē. Intercessions, however, or, as your texts have it, requests, are offered while the blessing is being given to the people, for at that time, by the laying on of hands, the bishops, as intercessors, offer the members of their flock to the most merciful Power. When this is completed and all have received the holy sacrament, the whole is ended by thanksgiving, and this last is the very term called to our notice by the apostle.
1 Timothy 2:2 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.73
Then Celsus next exhorts us to help the emperor with all our power, and cooperate with him in all that is right, and fight for him, and be fellow soldiers if he presses for this, and fellow generals with him. We may reply to this that at appropriate times we render to the emperors divine help, if I may so say, by taking up even the whole armor of God. And this we do in obedience to the apostolic utterance which says, "I exhort you, therefore, first to make prayers, supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings for all men, for emperors, and all that are in authority." Indeed, the more pious a man is, the more effective he is in helping the emperors—more so than the soldiers who go out into the lines and kill all the enemy troops that they can.
1 Timothy 2:4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
Because, therefore, God is merciful and "wishes all men to be saved", for this reason he says: "I will visit their misdeeds with a rod of iron and their sins with scourges. But my mercy I will not take away from them". The Lord, then, visits and requires the souls which this most evil father has begotten by persuasion to sin, and says to each one of them: "hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father".
1 Timothy 2:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
since indeed through it the Church seems to be joined to Christ and to have been able to receive a share of the Word of God, according to which he is called the mediator of God and men, and according to which the Apostle says: "For in him we have access through faith into the hope of the glory of God."
1 Timothy 2:7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
"The teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth," the Apostle Paul, handed down to the Church which he gathered from among the Gentiles how it ought to attend to the books of the Law, which it had received from others and which had formerly been unknown to it and altogether foreign, lest, in taking up institutions foreign to it and being ignorant of the rule of those institutions, it should tremble amid an alien instrument. Therefore he himself, in a number of passages, hands down examples of the understanding, so that we too may observe things similar in the rest, lest perchance, on account of the likeness of the reading and of the instrument of the Jews, we should believe that we have been made their disciples. This, then, is what he wishes to distinguish between the disciples of Christ and the disciples of the synagogue: that the Law which they, by understanding it badly, did not receive Christ, we, by understanding it spiritually, may show to have been rightly given for the instruction of the Church.
1 Timothy 2:8 — ON PRAYER 31.4
Now concerning the place, let it be known that every place is suitable for prayer if a person prays well. For "in every place you offer incense to me … says the Lord" and "I desire then that in every place men should pray," But everyone may have, if I may put it this way, a holy place set aside and chosen in his own house, if possible, for accomplishing his prayers in quiet and without distraction.
1 Timothy 2:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
And do not wonder if by these faults she who is gathered from the dispersion of the nations, and is now prepared as a bride for Christ, may sometime seem to have been liable. Recall how the first woman was seduced and made a transgressor: who is said to be saved in no other way than through the bearing of children — of those, at least, who remain in faith and charity with holiness. This, then, which is written of Adam and Eve, the Apostle thus affirms: "It is a great mystery in Christ and in the Church"; who so loved her that he gave himself up for her, while she herself was still ungodly, as he himself said: "For while we were still according to the time ungodly, Christ died for us." And again: "For while we were still unbelieving, Christ died for us."
1 Timothy 2:14-15 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 43
That there are also some souls that conceive offspring, the prophet made clear when he said: "from fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation which you made upon the earth". For just as in those who are pregnant the seed is formed and shaped, so also in the soul that receives the word, the conception of the word is gradually formed and shaped within it. And this I think is what Paul says to the Galatians: "my children, whom I again bring forth in travail until Christ be formed in you", which is as though he were to say: until the word be formed and made manifest in you. In the epistle to Timothy he says likewise that a woman shall be saved "through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". But who is this woman, if not the soul that conceives the word of God and of truth, and gives birth to good works like to Christ? But it is irrational to suppose that what he says was said of a bodily bearing: "the woman, being seduced, fell into transgression; but she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". Therefore the souls that have newly received the word and, being still established as pregnant, have not yet borne fruit in it, having it intelligibly in the womb, cannot endure the discourse that stands "in the holy place" opposing the truth, nor stand firm so as not to be seduced by its persuasions.
1 Timothy 2:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
This love, therefore, the present Scripture speaks of, by which the blessed soul makes use of and is inflamed toward the Word of God; and it sings this wedding song through the spirit, by which the Church is joined and united to her heavenly bridegroom Christ, desiring to be mingled with him through the Word, that she may conceive from him, and may be able to be saved through this chaste generation of children, when they shall have remained in faith and holiness with sobriety: inasmuch as they are conceived from the seed indeed of the Word of God, but brought forth and begotten either by the immaculate Church, or by the soul that requires nothing corporeal, nothing material, but burns with the love of the Word of God alone.
1 Timothy 3:7 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6.3.1
Therefore let us see by what order the high priest is appointed. It says, "Moses called together the congregation and said to them, 'This is the Word that the Lord commanded.' " Although the Lord had given them commands about appointing the high priest and had made his choice, the congregation was still called together. For in ordaining a priest, the presence of the people is also required that all may know and be certain that from all the people one is chosen for the priesthood who is more excellent, who is more wise, who is more holy, who is more eminent in every virtue, lest afterwards, when he stands before the people, any hesitation or any doubt should remain. This is also what the apostle taught when he spoke about the ordination of a priest: "It is necessary to have a good witness from those who are outside."
1 Timothy 3:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
For the soul, the bride of the Word, which abides in the royal house — that is, in the Church — is taught by the Word of God, who is her Bridegroom, whatever things have been laid up and stored away within the royal hall and the king's chamber. In this house, which is the Church of the living God, she learns also the cellars of that wine which has been gathered from the holy winepresses — cellars of wine not only new but also old and sweet, which is the teaching of the law and the prophets.
1 Timothy 3:16 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
See, then, the greatness of the Savior, how it has been poured out over the whole world — and certainly I have not yet set forth his true greatness. Ascend into the heavens and see him, how he has filled the heavenly places: for indeed "he appeared to the angels". Descend in thought into the depths, and you will see that he descended there also. For "he who descended is the same also who ascended, that he might fill all things", "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth". Consider the power of the Lord, how he has filled the world — that is, the heavenly and the earthly and the infernal things — how he has penetrated heaven itself and ascended to the things above.
1 Timothy 4:3 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 10.2
Do you still want me to show you what kind of fast it is appropriate for you to practice? Fast from every sin, take no food of malice, take no feasts of passion, do not burn with any wine of luxury. Fast from evil deeds, abstain from evil words, hold yourself from the worst evil thoughts. Do not touch the secret loaves of perverse doctrine. Do not desire the deceptive foods of philosophy which seduce you from truth. Such a fast pleases God. But "to abstain from the foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful" and to do this with those who crucified Christ cannot be acceptable to God.… However, we do not say this that we may loosen the restraints of Christian abstinence.
1 Timothy 4:3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.16
The Savior then commanded, "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder." But man wishes to put asunder what God has joined together. He does this when, "falling away from the sound faith, he gives heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron, and by forbidding" them not only to commit fornication but even "to marry." In this way he dissolves even those who before had been joined together by the providence of God.
1 Timothy 4:7 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.3
Let the Church of God, therefore, so understand its births, so receive its generations, so uphold the deeds of the fathers with a fitting and honorable interpretation, so not disfigure the words of the Holy Spirit with foolish and Jewish fables, but assign them full of honor, full of virtue and usefulness.
1 Timothy 4:10 — AGAINST CELSUS 4.28
Our reply to this is that he attributes to us statements which we do not make. For we both read and know that God "loves everything that exists and hates nothing that he has made; for he would never have made anything if he had hated it." … He is also called "Savior of all men, especially of those who believe," and his Christ is "a propitiation for our sins, but not for ours only, but also for the whole world." … But now, according to our preaching, Jesus who is called the Christ of God by a certain traditional usage in the Bible has come on behalf of sinners in all places, that they may forsake their sin and entrust themselves to God.
1 Timothy 4:13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.15
Now "every scribe who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder who brings forth out of his treasury things new and old." Therefore, it clearly follows by "conversion of the proposition," as it is called, that every one who does not bring forth out of his treasury things new and old is not a scribe who has been made a disciple for the kingdom of heaven. We must endeavor, therefore, in every way to gather in our heart, "by giving heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching" and by "meditating in the law of the Lord day and night." We must observe not only the new oracles of the Gospels and of the apostles and their revelation but also the old things in the law "which has the shadow of the good things to come" and in the prophets who prophesied in accordance with them.
1 Timothy 5:9 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
It is good and best, if any woman is able to possess the grace of virginity; but if she has not been able to do this, and it has befallen her to lose her husband, let her remain a widow. And this she ought to have in mind not only after the death of her husband, but even while he lives, so that, even if her own will and resolve do not come to pass, she may be crowned by the Lord and may say: this I vow and promise, that if anything human, which I do not wish for, should befall me, I will do nothing else than remain undefiled and a widow. But now second and third and fourth marriages — to say nothing of more — are found in the Church, and we are not unaware that such a union will cast us out of the kingdom of God. For just as not only fornication but also second marriages exclude a man from ecclesiastical dignities — for neither a bishop nor a presbyter nor a deacon nor a widow can be twice-married — so perhaps the twice-married man will also be cast out from the assembly of the "firstborn and undefiled", the "Church, which has no spot or wrinkle"; not that he is sent into the eternal fire, but that he has no part in the kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 5:10 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 32.131-33
It is possible, however, that even one who is a saint needs the washing of feet, since even the widow who is enrolled into ecclesiastical honor is examined, along with her other good works, also about this, "If she has washed the feet of saints."... Consequently, the faithful are obliged to do this in whatever station of life they happen to be, whether bishops and presbyters, who seem to be in ecclesiastical prominence, or even those in other positions of honor in the world. This means that the master comes to wash the feet of the believing servant, and parents the feet of their son.
1 Timothy 6:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.9
In appearance Judas championed the cause of the poor and said with indignation, "This ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor." But in reality he "was a thief, and having the bag took away what was put in it." If, then, anyone in our time who has the bag of the church speaks like Judas on behalf of the poor but takes away what is put in it, let there be assigned to him the portion along with Judas who did these same things.
1 Timothy 6:12 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.8
For they themselves hold as it were the charge of our souls, to whom, "while we are yet little ones," we are committed as to "guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father." They themselves therefore now say of the progress of each one of us: "for now I have known that you fear God." For the sake of example, I have the resolve of martyrdom—from this the angel will not be able to say to me: "for now I have known that you fear God"; for to God alone is the resolve of the mind known. But if I shall have come to the contests, brought forth "the good confession," and steadfastly undergone all the things that are inflicted, then the angel can say, as though confirming and strengthening me: "now I have known that you fear God."
1 Timothy 6:16 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
How is it possible for it to be said by the Apostle concerning God: "the Only One who has immortality"? Let us investigate, and we shall discover, that Christ Jesus tasted death for everyone, except for God. This is how the one God has immortality.
1 Timothy 6:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
It must therefore be understood that this charity which is God, when it has been in anyone, loves nothing earthly, nothing material, nothing corruptible. For it is contrary to its nature to love anything corruptible, since it is itself the fount of incorruption. For it alone is that which has immortality: seeing that God is charity, who alone has immortality, dwelling in light inaccessible.
1 Timothy 6:16 — Commentary on John 2.123
To be fully alive belongs to God, more fully than to any creature. The apostle considered the superiority of the life of God to be beyond comparison. It is with this in mind that Scripture says "Surely as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord." This is God, "Who alone has immortality," because none of the living beings with God has the life whose aliveness is absolutely unchangeable and immutable.
1 Timothy 6:20 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.11
Celsus also says that "they were of one mind," not seeing even here that from the outset there were disagreements among the believers about the interpretation of the books regarded as divine.… In the epistles of Paul, who was contemporary with those who had seen Jesus, there are some statements to be found which concern certain disputes about the resurrection, and about the view that it had already occurred, and about the question whether the day of the Lord was already present or not. Moreover, the words "Turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge falsely so-called, which some have professed and made shipwreck concerning the faith" show that from the beginning there were certain varieties of interpretation.
1 Timothy 6:20 — Commentary on John 13.343
To go into the way of the Gentiles is to adopt some Gentile teaching which is foreign to the "Israel of God" and to walk according to it. And to enter a city of the Samaritans is to be engaged in some knowledge falsely so-called of those who claim to devote themselves to the words of the law or the prophets or the Gospels or the apostles.
1 Timothy 6:20 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 4.3
What is "the deposit" that each one of the faithful receives? For my part I think that we receive our soul itself and the body as a deposit from God. And do you want to see another greater "deposit" that you received from God? God entrusted "his own image and likeness" to your own soul. That deposit, therefore, must be restored by you just as intact as it was received by you. For if you are merciful, "as your Father in heaven is merciful," the image of God is in you and you preserve the "deposit" intact. If you are perfect, "as your Father in heaven is perfect," the deposit of God's image remains in you. In like manner, in all other things, if you are pious, if you are just, if you are holy, if you are "pure in heart," and if all things which are present in God through nature remain in you by imitation, "the deposit" of the divine image is safe within you.
2 Chronicles 1:10 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 11.2
Hence, finally, Solomon is reported to have had several wives at once, to whom the Lord had said: "There has not been a wise man like you before you, and after you there shall not be." Because, therefore, the Lord had given him a multitude of prudence, "like the sand of the sea," that he might judge his people "in wisdom," therefore he was able to exercise several virtues at once.
2 Corinthians 1:5 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 42
If as the sufferings of Christ abound so also comfort abounds through Christ, let us welcome the great encouragement of Christ's sufferings and let them abound in us, if we indeed yearn for the abundant comfort with which all who mourn will be comforted, though perhaps it will not be alike for everyone. For if the comfort were alike for everyone, it would not be written, "As the sufferings of Christ abound for us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." Those who share in sufferings will share also in the comfort in proportion to the suffering they share with Christ. And we learn this from the one who made such statements with unshaken conviction, for "we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort."
2 Corinthians 2:15 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The outer man has nostrils, to smell, and by means of them to distinguish fragrance and foul odors; so too the inner man, in order to distinguish the fragrance of righteousness from the stench of sinfulness, has other nostrils. Concerning the fragrance the Apostle teaches us in the words: "We are the fragrance of Christ to God … among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to some an odor from death and unto death, to others an odor from life and unto life."
2 Corinthians 2:15 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
For, as the Apostle says, we are the "good odor" of Christ; but, he says, "to some an odor from life unto life, but to others an odor from death unto death". So the prophetic word too is a "sweet odor" to those who believe, but to the doubtful and unbelieving, and to those who confess themselves to be the people of Pharaoh, it becomes an abominable odor.
2 Corinthians 3:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.11.4
Now we have not received this longing from God on the condition that it should not or could not ever be satisfied.… So when even in this life men devote themselves with great labor to sacred and religious studies, although they obtain only some small fragments out of the immeasurable treasures of divine knowledge, yet [they gain this advantage, that] they occupy their mind and understanding with these questions and press onward in their eager desire. Moreover they derive much assistance from the fact that by turning their mind to the study and love of truth they render themselves more capable of receiving instruction in the future. For when one wishes to paint a picture, if he first sketches with the faint touch of a light pencil the outlines of the proposed figure and inserts suitable marks to indicate features afterward to be added, this preliminary drawing with its faint outline undoubtedly renders the canvas more prepared to receive the true colors. So it will be with us, if only that faint form and outline is inscribed "on the tablets of our heart" by the pencil of our Lord Jesus Christ.… It is clear, then, that to those who have now in this life a kind of outline of truth and knowledge there shall be added in the future the beauty of the perfect image.
2 Corinthians 3:6 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.5.5
For even in the Gospels, it is "the letter" that "kills." Not only in the Old Testament is "the letter that kills" found; there is also in the New Testament "the letter that kills"—that one who does not spiritually perceive what is said. For, if you follow according to the letter that which is said, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood," this "letter kills." Do you want me to bring out of the gospel for you another "letter" that "kills"? He says, "Let the one who does not have a sword sell his tunic and buy a sword." Behold, this is the letter of the gospel, but "it kills." But, if you take it spiritually, it does not kill, but there is in it "a spirit that gives life." For this reason, receive spiritually what is said either in the law or in the Gospels because "the spiritual one judges all things but that one is not judged by anyone."
2 Corinthians 3:6 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.2
The letter means what is material and the spirit what is intellectual, which we also call spiritual.
2 Corinthians 3:7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
Now the Apostle, expounding these things with that magnificent understanding which he employs in the rest, of which he said: "but we have the mind of Christ," says: "for if the ministry of death, formed in letters upon stones, was in glory, so that the sons of Israel could not gaze upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is done away: how shall not the ministry of the spirit be rather in glory?" And again a little later he says: "and not as Moses put a veil over his face, that the sons of Israel might not gaze upon the face of his countenance. For their perceptions were dulled; for until this present day, when Moses is read, the veil is placed over their heart." Who would not marvel at the greatness of the mysteries? Who would not be filled with dread at the mark of the dulled heart? The face of Moses was glorified, but the sons of Israel could not "gaze upon the face of his countenance," the people of the synagogue could not "gaze" upon it. But if anyone can have a manner of life and a way of living more eminent than the rest of the common crowd, he is able to behold the glory of his countenance. For even now, as the Apostle says, "a veil is placed over the reading of the Old Testament," and even now Moses speaks with glorified countenance, but we cannot behold the glory that is in his countenance. And the reason we cannot is that we are still the common people and have no more of zeal, no more of merit, than the rest of the multitude. But since the holy Apostle says: "yet the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament," the pronouncement of so great and such an Apostle would cut off from us every hope of understanding, had he not added: "but when anyone shall have turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." Therefore he says that the cause of the veil's removal is our turning to the Lord. From which we ought to gather these indications: that so long as, when we read the divine Scriptures, the understanding lies hidden from us, so long as the things that are written are obscure and closed to us, we have not yet turned to the Lord. For if we had turned to the Lord, without doubt the veil would be taken away.
2 Corinthians 3:7 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6
The apostle briefly indicates the reason that these words that were read to us can be understood or not understood when he says that "the veil of the Old Testament" can "be removed" from the eyes of the one "who has been converted to the Lord." From this, he wanted it understood that these things are less clear to us to the same degree as our conversion to the Lord is less complete. And for that reason, this must be worked at with all our strength so that, free from secular occupations and mundane deeds, and if possible leaving behind these unnecessary fables of friends, we may apply ourselves to the Word of God and "meditate on his law day and night." The result will be the conversion of the entire heart. Then we can see the face of Moses, opened and unveiled.
2 Corinthians 3:14-16 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 139
And the earth was shaken and the rocks were split and the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who were sleeping rose again; and going out from the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared to many (27, 51ᵇ—53). And the earth was shaken, that is, all flesh, when the new word and new things according to the new covenant, and the new song, and all things new and heavenly came upon it, as the prophet too says in a certain place about this very thing: "all who saw them were confounded", that is, the disciples of Christ, "and every man feared". Likewise through another prophet the Lord says: "yet once more I will move the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land". But having said a little about the shaking of the earth, let us not unprofitably speak again also about the rocks split in the passion of the Lord the Savior, which were a mystery (as I think) of the prophets; for the law and the prophets were made manifest at the coming of Christ; and for this reason, when men "turn to the Lord" "while Moses is read, the veil which had been placed over their heart is taken away", and because "in the reading of the old covenant a veil had been placed, in Christ it is abolished". Now therefore the rocks have been opened and split, that we may see the spiritual mysteries placed in their depths. And we prove that the rocks then split are the prophets, first indeed from the fact that "Christ" is called the spiritual "rock", and it stands to reason that all imitators of Christ are likewise called rocks. Just as they are also called "the light of the world" from the fact that their Lord himself is the "light" of the "world", and next from the fact that Peter too was called a rock by the Lord himself, when it is said to him: "you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". But this is shown most of all from the fact that all those against whom the "gates of hell" do not prevail, who have in themselves the work of the name of rock (that is, the apostles and the prophets) are themselves also rocks, and are the foundations of those who are built upon them, according to what the apostle says: "built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ our Lord himself being the highest cornerstone". But those are built up upon the apostles and prophets most of all who are of the immaculate Church and who admire the apostles of Christ and do not despise the prophets, but examine also their scriptures.
2 Corinthians 3:15 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.2
The apostle also says, "Even until this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts; but when a man shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." For so long as a man does not attend to the spiritual meaning "a veil lies upon his heart," in consequence of which veil, in other words his duller understanding, the Scripture itself is said or thought to be veiled. This is the explanation of the veil which is said to have covered the face of Moses when he was speaking to the people, that is, when the law is read in public. But if we turn to the Lord, where also the Word of God is and where the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual knowledge, the veil will be taken away, and we shall then with unveiled face behold in the holy Scriptures the glory of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:15 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.3
Further, if any one ponders over the prophetic sayings with all the attention and reverence they deserve, it is certain that in the very act of reading and diligently studying them his mind and feelings will be touched by a divine breath. He will recognize that the words he is reading are not human utterances but the language of God; and so he will perceive from his own experience that these books have been composed not by human art or mortal eloquence but, if I may so speak, in a style that is divine. The splendor of Christ's advent has, therefore, by illuminating the law of Moses with the brightness of the truth, withdrawn the veil which had covered the letter of the law and has disclosed, for everyone who believes in him, all those "good things" which lay concealed within.
2 Corinthians 3:16 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
Let us see, then, whether not only "when Moses is read," but also when Paul is read, "a veil" may be "placed over" our "heart." And plainly, if we hear negligently, if we bring no zeal to erudition and understanding, not only the Scripture of the law and the prophets, but even that of the Apostles and the Gospels is covered from us with a great veil. But I fear lest, through excessive negligence and dullness of heart, the divine volumes be for us not only veiled but even sealed, so that, "if a book to be read is given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, he says: I do not know letters; if it is given into the hands of a man who knows letters, he says: it is sealed." Whence it is shown that we must not only apply zeal to learning the sacred letters, but must also entreat the Lord and "day and night" beseech him, that the Lamb "from the tribe of Judah" may come and himself, taking the "sealed book," may deign to open it. For he it is who, "opening the Scriptures," kindled the hearts of the disciples, so that they said: "was not our heart burning within us, when he opened to us the Scriptures?" May he, therefore, even now deign to open to us what it is that he inspired his Apostle to say: "now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
2 Corinthians 3:16 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 1.4
For thus the apostle said, "If anyone turns to the Lord, the veil will be removed; for where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Therefore, the Lord himself, the Holy Spirit himself must be entreated by us to remove every cloud and all darkness which obscures the vision of our hearts hardened with the stains of sins in order that we may be able to behold the spiritual and wonderful knowledge of his law, according to him who said, "Take the veil from my eyes and I shall observe the wonders of your law."32.
2 Corinthians 3:16 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 1
The Lord himself, the Holy Spirit himself, must be entreated by us to remove every cloud and all darkness which obscures the vision of our hearts, hardened with the stains of sins, in order that we may be able to behold the spiritual and wonderful knowledge of his law.
2 Corinthians 3:18 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
But if you seek confirmation that we are able to change and to cease being serpents, swine, or dogs, let us turn to the words of the Apostle, that the transformation depends on us. For he speaks thus: "And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into His very image." If you were like a barking dog, and the Word molds and changes you, then you will cease to be a dog and will be a man. If you were unclean, and the Word touched your soul, and you have handed yourself over to the transforming Word, then you will cease to be a swine and will be a man.
2 Corinthians 4:4 — ON PRAYER 25.1
For the Son of God is Word and Righteousness. But every sinner is under the tyranny of the prince of this age, since every sinner is made a friend of the present evil age. For he does not hand himself over to the One who gave "himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age" and to deliver us "according to the will of our God and Father," according to the verse in the letter to the Galatians. And the one who by voluntary sin is under the tyranny of the prince of this age is also ruled by sin. That is why we are commanded by Paul no longer to be subjected to sin that wishes to rule over us. We are so ordered through the following words, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.".
2 Corinthians 4:4 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.10
But if anyone dares to attribute corruption of substance to what was made according to the image and likeness of God, in my opinion he extends the charge of impiety also to the Son of God himself, since he is also called in Scripture "the image of God." At least the one who holds the opinion will certainly find fault with the authority of Scripture, which says that humanity was made after the image of God. And the traces of the divine image are clearly recognized not through the likeness of the body, which undergoes corruption, but through the intelligence of the soul, its righteousness, temperance, courage, wisdom, discipline, and through the entire chorus of virtues that are present in God by substance and can be in humankind through effort and the imitation of God. The Lord points this out in the Gospel when He says, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful" and "Be perfect, as your Father is perfect." Consequently, it is quite clear that in God all these virtues can never enter or leave, but they are acquired by us little by little and one by one.
2 Corinthians 4:7 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1
But just as divine providence is not proved to be a fiction, particularly for those who are convinced of its existence, because its workings and arrangements are beyond the comprehension of human minds, so neither will the divine inspiration of holy Scripture, which extends through its entire body, be supposed to be nonexistent because the weakness of our understanding cannot discover the deep and hidden thoughts in every sentence. For the treasure of divine wisdom is concealed in vessels of poor and humble words, as the apostle points out when he says: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the greatness of the divine power may shine forth the more," when no taint of human eloquence is mingled with the truth of the doctrines.
2 Corinthians 4:8 — ON PRAYER 30.1
For God delivers us from afflictions not when we are no longer in affliction (… Paul says "we are afflicted in every way," as though there were never a time when we were not afflicted), but when in our affliction we are not crushed because of God's help. "To be afflicted," according to a colloquial usage of the Hebrews, has the meaning of a critical circumstance that happens to us without our free choice, while "to be crushed" implies our free choice and that it has been conquered by affliction and given into its power. And so Paul is right when he says, "We are afflicted in every way but not crushed."
2 Corinthians 4:8 — ON PRAYER 29.4
And unless we understand something that has escaped the notice of the many concerning praying not to enter into temptation, it is time to say that the apostles sometimes prayed and were not heard. How many thousand sufferings did they experience throughout their lifetimes with far greater labors, with far more beatings, with countless imprisonments, and often near death? Paul on his own received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one, was beaten with rods three times, was stoned once, was shipwrecked three times, was adrift at sea a night and a day. He was in every way afflicted, perplexed, persecuted and struck down.
2 Corinthians 4:16 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Scripture says that in man there are two: "For though our outer man is being destroyed, yet our inner man is renewed day by day"; and also: "I delight in the law of God according to the inner man." The Apostle everywhere presents these two men as distinct. It seems to me that he does not presume to invent this teaching for himself, but rather, releasing what is expressed obscurely in the Scriptures, he sets it forth openly.
2 Corinthians 4:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
For this present, momentary, and light tribulation is not spoken of for all, but for Paul and for those who are like him: because they have the perfect charity of God in Christ Jesus poured out in their heart through the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.6
In regard to our bodily nature we must understand that there is not one body which we now use in lowliness and corruption and weakness and a different one which we are to use hereafter in incorruption and power and glory, but that this same body, having cast off the weaknesses of its present existence, will be transformed into a thing of glory and made spiritual. The result is that what was a vessel of dishonor shall itself be purified and become a vessel of honor and a habitation of blessedness. And we must believe that our body remains in this condition forever unchangeably by the will of the Creator. We are made certain of this fact by the statement of the apostle Paul in which he says, "We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
2 Corinthians 5:6-7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 65
We can also say the following about this passage: it is in no way contrary that this same Jesus, according to one understanding, should be everywhere, but according to another should journey abroad. For if we, "while we are in the body, journey abroad away from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight)", then in all who are in the body and journey abroad away from the Lord, the Lord also journeys abroad from them as they walk "by faith", "not by sight". But if we journey abroad "from the body" toward the Lord, then he too will be with us, and in return for the fact that we have walked "by faith", it will come about that afterward we may also walk "by sight". And by "sight" we mean the sight of the Word and of wisdom and of truth and of righteousness and of peace and of everything whatsoever that is the only-begotten of God.
2 Corinthians 5:6 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Let us hasten to this life, groaning and lamenting that we are in this tent, that we abide in the body. "As long as we dwell in the body, we are away from the Lord." Let us prefer to leave the body and take up our dwelling with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
"As long as we dwell in the body, we are away from the Lord." Let us prefer to leave the body and take up our dwelling with the Lord, so that, living with Him, we may be united with the God of the universe and see His only-begotten Son, obtaining full salvation and blessedness, in Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
2 Corinthians 5:8 — AN EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 4
I pray that our souls may never be disquieted, and even more that in the presence of the tribunals and of the naked swords drawn against our necks they may be guarded by the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and may be quieted when they consider that those who are foreigners from the body are at home with the Lord of all.
2 Corinthians 5:10 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.5
Why do we ourselves not believe that we all will stand "before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may obtain the things proper to the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil"? If we would believe these things entirely, there would be applied to us what was written, "Redemption of a man's soul is his wealth." But how can we either know or believe or understand these things when we indeed do not come together to hear them? For who of you, when the Scriptures are read, really pays attention? God through the prophet threatens indeed in great anger, "I will send famine upon the earth; not a famine of bread or the thirst of water but a famine of hearing the word of God." But now God has not sent "a famine" upon his church nor "a thirst to hear the word of God." For we have "living bread which came down from heaven." We have "living water springing up into eternal life." Why in this time of fruitfulness do we destroy ourselves by famine and thirst? It is the mark of a lazy and lingering soul to suffer want in all this abundance.
2 Corinthians 6:8 — AN EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 43
If we have lived a life deserving "good repute" and have been spoken well of, now let us also bear up under "ill repute" from the ungodly. Still more, if we have been admired as "true" by those who love truth, now let us laugh at being called "imposters." During the many dangers from which we have been delivered many said that we were "well known" by God; now let the one who wishes call us "unknown," when we are probably better known. Thus, in bearing what has happened to us we are "punished" and yet "not killed," and though "rejoicing," we resemble those who are "sorrowful."
2 Corinthians 8:9 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 8.4.3
But in this the truth is also shown to be what was written, that Jesus Christ, "although he was rich, became a poor man." Therefore, for this reason, he chose both a poor mother, from whom he was born, and a poor homeland, about which it is said, "And you, Bethlehem, you are the least among the tribes of Judah" and the rest.
2 Corinthians 11:2 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12.5
The apostle Paul says, "But I want you all to present yourselves as a pure virgin to one man, Christ. For I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ." Therefore, Paul wants "all the Corinthians" to present themselves as a pure "virgin to Christ"; certainly he would never want that unless it would seem possible. Whence also it would appear wonderful how these, who although corrupted by diverse sins, came to the faith of Christ, all at once are called "a pure virgin"; a virgin which is so holy and so pure that she is worthy also to be joined in marriage to Christ. However, since we cannot refer these things to the chastity of the flesh, it is sure that they refer to the chastity of the soul, whose "simplicity of the faith which is in Christ," according to the understanding of Paul himself, was called his virginity.
2 Corinthians 12:4 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.7.4
This means that they cannot be expressed in a human language.
2 John 1:12 — SERMONS ON EXODUS 4.2
Because of the incapacity of his hearers, John did not think it right to entrust the solutions of secrets of this kind to paper and ink.
2 Kings 2:8-9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.238-39
We must note in addition that when Elijah was about to be taken up in a whirlwind as into heaven, he took his sheepskin and rolled it up and struck the water, and it was divided on this side and that, and both crossed, that is to say, himself and Elisha. He was better prepared to be taken up after he was baptized in the Jordan, since Paul, as we explained previously, called the more incredible passage through water a baptism. It is because of this same Jordan that Elisha is capable of receiving the gift that he has desired through Elijah, for he said, "Let a double portion come on me in your spirit." Perhaps he received the gift in the spirit of Elijah in a double measure on himself because he crossed the Jordan twice, once with Elijah, and a second time when he took the sheepskin of Elijah and struck the water and said, "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? And he struck the waters, and they divided on this side and that."
2 Kings 2:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 13.2
But do not marvel in regard to what is said about Elijah, if, just as something strange happened to him different from all the saints who are recorded, in respect of his having been caught up by a whirlwind into heaven, so his spirit had something of choice excellence, so that not only did it rest on Elisha but also descended along with John at his birth; and that John, separately, "was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb," and separately "came before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah." For it is possible for several spirits not only worse, but also better, to be in the same person. David accordingly asks to be established by a free spirit and that a right spirit be renewed in his inward parts. But if, in order that the Savior may impart to us of the "spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and reverence," he was filled also with the spirit of the fear of the Lord; it is possible also that these several good spirits may be conceived as being in the person. And this also we have brought forward, because of John having come before Christ "in the spirit and power of Elijah," in order that the saying "Elijah has already come" may be referred to the spirit of Elijah that was in John; as also the three disciples who had gone up with him understood that he spoke to them about John the Baptist. On Elisha, then, only the spirit of Elijah rested, but John came before, not only in the spirit but also in the power of Elijah. Wherefore, also, Elisha could not have been called Elijah, but John was Elijah himself. But if it is necessary to adduce the Scripture from which the scribes said that Elijah must first come, listen to Malachi, who says, "And behold, I will send to you Elijah the Tishbite," down to the words "Lest I come and strike the earth utterly." And it seems to be indicated by these words that Elijah was to prepare for the glorious coming of Christ by certain holy words and dispositions in their souls, those who had been made fittest for this, which those on earth could not have endured, because of the excellence of the glory, unless they had been prepared beforehand by Elijah. And likewise, by Elijah, in this place, I do not understand the soul of that prophet but his spirit and his power; for these it is by which all things shall be restored, so that when they have been restored, and, as a result of that restoration, become capable of receiving the glory of Christ, the Son of God who shall appear in glory may sojourn with them. But if also Elijah is in some sort a word inferior to "the word who was in the beginning with God, God the Word," this word also might come as a preparatory discipline to the people prepared by it, that they might be trained for the reception of the perfect Word.
2 Kings 2:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 13.2
I have thought it necessary to dwell some time on the examination of the doctrine of transmigration, because of the suspicion of some who suppose that the soul under consideration was the same in Elijah and in John, being called in the former case Elijah, and in the second case John; and that, not apart from God, had he been called John, as is plain from the saying of the angel who appeared to Zacharias, "Fear not, Zacharias, for thy supplication is heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John;" and from the fact that Zacharias regained his speech after he had written in the tablet, that he who had been born should be called John. But if it were the soul of Elijah, then, when he was begotten a second time, he should have been called Elijah; or for the change of name some reason should have been assigned, as in the case of Abram and Abraham, Sarah and Sarrah, Jacob and Israel, Simon and Peter. And yet not even thus would their argument in the case be tenable; for, in the case of the aforesaid, the changes of name took place in one and the same life. But some one might ask, if the soul of Elijah was not first in the Tishbite and secondly in John, what might that be in both which the Saviour called Elijah? And I say that Gabriel in his words to Zacharias suggested what the substance was in Elijah and John that was the same; for he says, "Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God; and he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah." For, observe, he did not say in the "soul" of Elijah, in which case the doctrine of transmigration might have some ground, but "in the spirit and power of Elijah." For the Scripture well knows the distinction between spirit and soul, as, "May God sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and the passage, "Bless the Lord, ye spirits and souls of the righteous" as it stands in the book of Daniel, according to the Septuagint, represents the difference between spirit and soul. Elijah, therefore, was not called John because of the soul, but because of the spirit and the power, which in no way conflicts with the teaching of the church, though they were formerly in Elijah, and afterwards in John; and "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets," but the souls of the prophets are not subject to the prophets, and "the spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha."
2 Kings 2:16 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 21
The power of Christ Jesus is what makes men into sons. And if anyone is a man of power, he is clearly a son of Christ. But sometimes the powers under Christ cannot make sons; and if they do make them, they do not make men but infants.
2 Kings 5:10-11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.242-45
But in addition, that we may accept the interpretation of the Jordan, that river that is so fresh and grants so much grace, it is useful to present both Naaman the Syrian, who was cleansed from leprosy, and the comments made about the rivers by the enemies of religion. It is written of Naaman, therefore: "He came with his horse and chariot and stood at the doors of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 'Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will return to you, and you will be cleansed.' " Then Naaman becomes angry because he does not perceive that it is our Jordan, and not the prophet, that removes the uncleanness of those who are unclean because of leprosy and heals them. For the work of a prophet is to send one to that which heals. Since, therefore, Naaman does not understand the great mystery of the Jordan, he says, "Behold, I said that he will assuredly come out to me and will stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and will place his hand on the place and the leprosy will recover," for placing the hand on leprosy and cleansing it was the work of my Lord Jesus alone. To the man who asked with faith, "If you will, you can make me clean, he not only said "I will, be made clean," but in addition to the word that he spoke, he also touched him, and he was cleansed from leprosy.
2 Kings 5:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.242-45
But that we may receive the right interpretation about this Jordan, so good to drink, so full of grace, it may be of use to compare the cleansing of Naaman the Syrian from his leprosy, and what is said of the rivers of religion of the enemies of Israel. It is recorded of Naaman that he came with horse and chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall come again unto thee, and thou shalt be cleansed." Then Naaman is angry; he does not see that our Jordan is the cleanser of those who are impure from leprosy, from that impurity, and their restorer to health; it is the Jordan that does this, and not the prophet; the office of the prophet is to direct to the healing agency. Naaman then says, not understanding the great mystery of the Jordan, "Behold, I said that he will certainly come out to me, and will call upon the name of the Lord his God, and lay his hand upon the place, and restore the leper." For to put his hand on the leprosy and cleanse it is a work belonging to our Lord Jesus only; for when the leper appealed to Him with faith, saying, "If Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean," He not only said, "I will, be thou clean," but in addition to the word He touched him, and he was cleansed from his leprosy. Naaman, then, is still in error, and does not see how far inferior other rivers are to the Jordan for the cure of the suffering; he extols the rivers of Damascus, Arbana, and Pharpha, saying, "Are not Arbana and Pharpha, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Shall I not wash in them and be clean?" For as none is good but one, God the Father, so among rivers none is good but the Jordan, nor able to cleanse from his leprosy him who with faith washes his soul in Jesus.
2 Kings 7:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.3
Similar things too you will find even in the times of Elisha, when the son of Hadad, king of Syria, went up against Samaria and besieged it: "and there was," it says, "a great famine in Samaria, until an ass's head was worth fifty shekels of silver, and a fourth part of a cab of dove's dung five pieces of silver." But suddenly through the word of the prophet a marvelous change comes about, as he says: "hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: as at this hour tomorrow, a measure of fine flour shall be for one shekel and two measures of barley for one shekel in the gates of Samaria." You see, then, from all these things what is gathered: that, when the famine prevails over the earth, not only does it not prevail over the just, but rather through them a remedy is brought to the disaster that threatened.
2 Kings 13:21 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 3.3.1
After this, another law is published. It says, "Whatever soul touches anything unclean, or the carcass of unclean beasts, and conceals it and is defiled, or if he touches the uncleanness of [a person] or anything unclean by which he is defiled," and so forth. These, to be sure, are observed by the Jews indecently and uselessly enough. And why should one who, for example, touches a dead animal or the body of a dead person be held to be impure? What if it is the body of a prophet? What if it is the body of a patriarch or even the body of Abraham himself? What if he touches the bones, will he be unclean? What if he should touch the bones of Elisha, which raise a dead person? Will that one be unclean who touches the bones of the prophets and likewise do they make that one himself unclean whom they raise from the dead? See how unsuitable the Jewish interpretation is.
2 Kings 16:10-14 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 7.3.1
"And when you say, 'Why did the Lord God do all of these bad things to us?' And you will say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served other gods in your land, so you shall serve in a land not your own.' " Let one consider the literal sense, and it will suffice at the present to refresh the memory from the literal sense for those who can understand. Surely then, the people of Israel possessed the holy land, the temple, the house of prayer. They ought to have served God, but when they transgressed the divine commandments they served idols, both the idols acquired from Damascus, as it is written in Kings, and the other idols brought from other pagan nations into the holy land. Due to the fact that they received these pagan idols, they made themselves worthy to be rejected to the land of the idols, to dwell there where they worship the idols.
2 Kings 17:20-23 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4.1.1-2
"Faithless Israel has shown itself less guilty than false Judah." The letter of the text just read has something unclear that we need to understand first. Then, after this, if God wills, we shall know his mystical plan. He wants us then to know in these words, just as it is written in Kings, that the people were divided in those times into the kingdom of ten tribes under Jeroboam and the kingdom of two tribes under Roboam. And those under Jeroboam were called Israel, and those under Roboam Judah. And the division of the people persisted, according to the history, until today. For we know of nothing in the history that united Israel and Judah "into the same nation." Then Israel first, under Jeroboam and under his successors, sinned excessively, and Israel sinned so much beyond Judah that they were sentenced by providence to become captives "to the Assyrians until the sign," as the Scripture says. After this, the people of Judah also sinned, and as captives they were sentenced to Babylon, not until a sign, as Israel, but for "seventy years," as Jeremiah prophesied and Daniel also mentioned.
2 Kings 17:20-23 — FRAGMENTS FROM THE CATENA ON JEREMIAH 28.2
[The Lord] takes hold of two principal lions, the Assyrians and the Babylonians. According to the history in the fourth book of Kings, there are two. For Assyria removed the sons of Israel to Assyria "until today," but Babylon removed the sons of Judah "to Babylon." Except he did not say here first and second, but first and last. For the first lion is the antagonistic devil; he is a murderer. The very last lion at the completion of the age is "the man of sin, the son of perdition, who exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship."
2 Kings 17:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.321
The Hebrews, however, call a guard somer, and thus they also hand on in their tradition that the Samaritans first received this name because the king of the Assyrians sent them to be guards of the land of Israel after the captivity, that is, that other Israel besides Judah, which was taken captive into Assyria because of their many sins.
2 Kings 20:18 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 22
"Spadones" are eunuchs. And he says this concerning the three young men and Daniel, since they were descended from this Hezekiah.
2 Kings 25:27-30 — FRAGMENTS FROM THE CATENA ON JEREMIAH 14
Jeremiah calls this son of Jehoiakim Jeconiah, and the Pharaoh Neco called the father of this man, though named Eliakim, Jehoiakim, whom Babylon, having carried off, cast forth before the gate, as the present prophet and Josephus in the tenth book of his Antiquities says. And the other editions have given the signet ring as a seal. And every person who through repentance makes shine again what is according to the image becomes a seal, a ring on the "right hand of God." For good works are understood as the part on the right of God, who places "the sheep at the right." The father gave this kind of seal to the profligate son who returned. If Jeconiah had become this way, he would have been a model for those who are subjects of devotion. But that did not happen. Yet he seemed to be persuaded by what the prophet said: "He who goes out to surrender to the Chaldeans who besieged you shall live." For after he brought with him his mother and the mighty men, he left, deserting to the Babylonians. But if he also displays mature repentance, so that he becomes "a seal of righteousness in circumcision." So that, according to this, he seems to be on the right hand of God, he would be delivered, since he did pay a penalty for his recent sins, though one more moderate. For in Babylon, after he chastised in prison and in chains, due to Evil-merodach, he was then set free, becoming one who ate with the king, and thus in a foreign land he finished life.
2 Peter 1:4 — SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 4.4.2
What is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit? Peter describes this by calling it "sharing in the divine nature."
2 Samuel 5:6-8 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 15
David was besieging Jebus. Jebus was the name of what is now Jerusalem, when it was under the foreigners. So the Jebusites, knowing that David was a lover of the poor, set the blind and the lame up above upon the wall to insult him. But he, when he had taken possession of Jerusalem, was so far from treating badly those who were maimed in body that he even established a law of death for his own soldiers, if anyone should attempt to kill a blind or a lame man. For "everyone who strikes a lame or blind Jebusite," he says, "let him assail him with a dagger" — that is, let him be put to death. For even though they had hated David's life, yet they meet with mercy. Therefore he is deemed worthy of honor from all — those who had insulted David, whom he spared, being the ones of whom it is said, "The lame and the blind shall not enter into the house of the Lord."
2 Samuel 5:14 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 16
It should be noted that Nathan the son of David is born to him after he had captured and settled in Jerusalem. And this is the Nathan whom the blessed Luke sets in the genealogy, while the blessed Matthew sets in the genealogy Solomon his brother. And from this point — I mean from the aforementioned sons of David — the one line is traced through one genealogy, and the other through another.
2 Samuel 6:4-5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 14.1
"Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them." Strictly speaking, the word symphony is used by musicians for the voices of harmony. For among musical tones, some harmonize with each other and others do not. But the Gospel is also familiar with this term as applied to music where it says, "He heard music [symphōnias] and dancing." For it was fitting that, at the harmony that resulted between the father and his son who had been lost but was now found through his repentance, a symphony should be heard on the occasion of the rejoicing of the house.… Akin to this kind of symphony is what is written in the second book of Kings [Samuel] when the brothers of Aminadab "went before the ark, and David and the sons of Israel were playing before the face of the Lord on well-tuned instruments and in power and in songs." For the "well-tuned instruments in power and in song" have in them that harmony of tones which is of such power that if only two people bring before the Father in heaven any request with that symphony which is found in divine and spiritual music, the Father grants it to them—which is most remarkable.
2 Samuel 16:10-12 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 17
So that from this also it is shown that what God does not do, but permits to happen, he is said to have done. It is agreed, then, that the uprising of Absalom, and the reviling of Shimei, and his throwing stones at David, were not God's work. And David makes what I say clearer by saying, "Let him curse, because the Lord has told him to, so that he may look upon my humiliation, and the Lord will repay me good things in return for his cursing on this day." For it is evident that what was happening did not please God; and what did not please him, he would not have commanded to be done.
2 Samuel 21:2-11 — FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 18
If Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, attempted to kill the Gibeonites — with whom Joshua the son of Nun and all the people had made covenants — and on account of this seven of Saul's descendants, those born from his daughters, were killed, why is it that not the tribes, who were at fault, but those who had done no wrong, paid the penalty? For this is unjust. Unless, perhaps, someone should say that Saul, being king, was unable to withstand the Israelites and the tribe of Judah, and to break the fathers' covenants with the Gibeonites. But I would add to these considerations that it was God's dispensation that the whole family of Saul should be consumed — all that was ever suspected of laying claim to the royal dignity, and on account of this of rising up against David and against his children. And the "the Gibeonites exposed them to the sun before the Lord on the mountain" stands instead of saying that they did not bury the slain, but left them to lie under the sun. "And they were dissolved," it says, "and Dan the son of Joah, of the descendants of the giants, took them." It surely means to say that the giant, taking those who had been placed under the sun, carried off those who had already been dissolved by the sun's flame. The account concerning the Gibeonites remains obscure, unless perhaps we should say that, when he sat at Gibeah to make war, Saul both routed the foreigners and destroyed, along with them, the Gibeonites also. And the narrative is in the thirty-second and thirty-third section, and the thirty-seventh, of the First book of Kingdoms, where it says, "And he warred round about against all his enemies," and what follows. And what the text says is this: Saul did wrong against him, and from his house came the avenging of the wrong done against Joshua. But those who obtained their being from that one are not wronged in being taken away together with the one who was at the beginning. For from the source whence they had their being, from there also they have their non-being; but if they were worthy of any good thing for their own sake, they receive this later.
2 Samuel 22:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
The fifth song after these is in the second book of Kingdoms, when David spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day in which the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he said: "The Lord is my rock and my fortress, the Lord my deliverer, my God shall be my keeper." If, then, you too can consider who are the enemies of David whom he overcomes and lays low in the first and second book of Kingdoms … then you too will be able to sing that fifth song.
2 Samuel 22:44-45 — AGAINST CELSUS 2.78
"Did Jesus come into the world for this purpose, that we [the Jews] should not believe him?" To which we immediately answer that he did not come with the object of producing unbelief among the Jews; but knowing beforehand that such would be the result, he foretold it and made use of their unbelief for the calling of the Gentiles. For through their sin salvation came to the Gentiles, respecting whom the Christ who speaks in the prophecies says, "A people whom I did not know became subject to me: they were obedient to the hearing of my ear"; and, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I became manifest to those who did not inquire after me."
2 Thessalonians 2:1 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.11
At least, when the apostles were preaching and the eyewitnesses of Jesus were teaching his precepts, no minor dispute in the church took place among Jewish believers about those of the Gentiles who were converted to the faith; the question was whether they ought to keep the Jewish customs or if the burden of clean or unclean meats ought to be taken away so that it would not be a load upon those Gentiles who abandoned their traditional customs and believed in Jesus. Furthermore, in the epistles of Paul, who was contemporary with those who had seen Jesus, there are some statements to be found which concern certain disputes about the resurrection, and about the view that it had already occurred, and about the question whether the day of the Lord was already present or not.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 — AGAINST CELSUS 6.45
As Celsus also objects to the doctrine about the figure called Antichrist, though he has read neither the passages about him in Daniel, nor those in Paul, nor the Savior's prophecies in the Gospels concerning his coming, we have to say a little about this also. "Just as faces are unlike other faces, so also the hearts of men are unlike one another." Obviously differences exist in the hearts of men, both among those who have inclined to goodness, since they have not all been molded and shaped equally and similarly in their propensity toward good, and among those who because of their neglect of what is good rapidly pass to the other extreme. For among the latter there also are some who have been overwhelmed by the flood of evil, while others have sunk less far. Why, then, is it absurd that among men there should be two extremes, if I may so say, the one of goodness, the other of the opposite, so that the extreme of goodness exists in the human nature of Jesus, since from him the mighty work of conversion, healing and improvement flowed to the human race, whereas the opposite extreme exists in him who is called Antichrist? God understood all this through his foreknowledge. Seeing that there were these two extremes, he willed to tell men about these things through the prophets, in order that those who understood their words might be made lovers of what is better and be on their guard against the opposite. It was right, also, that one of the extremes, the best, should be called Son of God because of his superiority, and that the one diametrically opposed to him should be called son of the evil demon, who is Satan and the devil.
2 Thessalonians 2:4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 40
And where are they "who say they are Jews and are not"? who say: The Jerusalem which is below shall be built, before the consummation of the age comes to pass? "The consummation", he says, "shall be given upon its desolation". But if the temple shall also be built, it shall be built for him "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in a temple" of this kind, "showing himself as though he were God": "whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the illumination of his coming". Whether therefore it pleases some that this Jerusalem be built upon the earth, nevertheless it will not be false which is said, that the consummation is to be given "upon its own desolation".
2 Thessalonians 2:4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 31
That the Scripture is a temple was expounded by someone before us. And since the Antichrist — "he who opposes and exalts himself above everything that is called God", who sits in the temple of God — is the false word that is held in the Scriptures — which counterfeits the truth by bringing forward, out of the Scriptures, testimonies of impious teachings, when men are unwilling to be won over from any other source; and this very thing is "that which opposes", and it sits both upon the seat of the Scriptures and upon their building, "displaying itself as though it were God". And one may always see the words of the heresies, as Antichrists, sitting in the temple of the Scriptures and wishing, out of those very Scriptures, to win over those who hear them, as though each one of these were itself God the Word in the Scriptures.
2 Thessalonians 2:8 — Commentary on John 2.54-55
Now just as it is said that the task of the Word is to judge with justice, so also the Word's task is to fight with justice, that by thus fighting the soul's enemies with reason and justice, he may dwell in the soul, justifying it when the irrational elements and injustices are destroyed. He casts out the hostile elements from that soul which, if I may speak in this way, has been taken captive by Christ for salvation. The war that the Word wages is seen even more clearly when we compare it to the war waged by he who pretends to be the Word. This one proclaims himself the truth when he is not the truth but a lie, declaring that he is the truth. For then the Word, having fully armed himself against the lie, "destroys it with the breath of his mouth and annihilates it by the appearance of his presence."
2 Timothy 1:3 — AGAINST CELSUS 5.61
We grant that there are some among us who may deny that the God of the Jews is truly God. Yet that is no reason to criticize those who prove from the same Scriptures that there is one and the same God for Jews and Gentiles. So also Paul, who came to Christianity from the Jews, says clearly, "I thank my God whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience."
2 Timothy 2:3 — Commentary on John 6.32
The true soldiers of Christ must, in every way, form a fortification for truth and nowhere permit an opening for persuasive falsehood, so far as they are able.
2 Timothy 2:4 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11.1
If you have understood how either an animal or a vessel or a garment is called holy, understand too that a person is also called holy by these observances and laws. For if anyone should devote himself to God, if anyone should not entangle himself in secular affairs, "in order to please him who appointed him," if anyone was separated and set apart from the rest of men who live carnally and are bound with mundane affairs and does not seek things which are upon the earth but which are in heaven, that person is deservedly called holy.
2 Timothy 2:5 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.56
We who are concerned with the business of our Creator will live according to the laws of God. We have no desire to serve the laws of sin.… If necessary, we will also partake of the joys of this life and endure the appointed evils as trials of the soul.… In them the soul of the man who is being tested, like gold in the fire, is either convicted of failure or is manifested as reliable.… Moreover, no one is crowned unless he strives lawfully even here upon earth with the body of humiliation.
2 Timothy 2:11 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
This very thing the Savior first grants to you as well, that you may fall. You were a heathen — let the heathen fall in you; you loved harlots — let the fornicator first perish in you; you were a sinner — let the sinner fall in you, that you may thereafter rise again and say: "if we have died with him, we shall also live with him", and: "if we have been made conformable to his death, we shall be conformable also to his resurrection".
2 Timothy 2:15 — AGAINST CELSUS 5.1
But it is God's work to dwell invisibly by his spirit and by the Spirit of Christ in those whom he judges it right to dwell. Whereas it is our task, since we try to confirm faith by arguments and treatises, to do all in our power that we may be called "workmen who need not to be ashamed, handling rightly the word of truth."
2 Timothy 2:19 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.6
The Lord knows his own, but the wicked and the impious he does not know. Hear the Savior saying: "Depart from me all you workers of iniquity, I have not known you." And again Paul says: "If anyone among you is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write are the Lord's. But he who is ignorant, is ignored." But we say these things not perceiving anything blasphemous about God, as you do, nor ascribing ignorance to him, but we understand it thus, that those whose deed is unworthy of God are also deemed unworthy of the knowledge of God. For God does not deign to know him who is turned away from him and is ignorant of him. And therefore the Apostle says that "he who is ignorant, is ignored."
2 Timothy 2:19 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 19.22, 25
Those who have been made one with and united with something know that with which they have been made one and have been united. Yet before such unity and participation, even if they objectively grasp something of the explanations given about a thing, they still do not know it.… For, in our view, the Lord has known those who are his because he has been made one with them and has given them a share of his own divinity and has taken them up, as the language of the Gospel says, into his own hand, since those who have believed in the Savior are in the Father's hand. For this reason also, unless they fall from his hand—thereby removing themselves from the hand of God, they will not be snatched away, for no one snatches anyone from the Father's hand.
2 Timothy 2:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.6
God who from the beginning felt it just to arrange his creation according to merit gathered the diversities of minds into the harmony of a single world, so as to furnish, as it were, out of these diverse vessels or souls or minds one house. In this house there must be "not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some unto honor and some unto dishonor."
2 Timothy 2:21 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.8
Whoever purges himself when placed in this life will be prepared for every good work in the future.
2 Timothy 3:12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
Fleeing therefore from Egypt, you come to these places, you come to these ascents of works and of faith, you come to the building of the tower, you come also to the sea, and the waves meet you. For the journey of life is not made without the waves of temptations; as the Apostle also says: "all who wish to live piously in Christ shall suffer persecution." But Job likewise declares that: "our life upon the earth is a temptation." This, then, is to have come to the sea.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 — FRAGMENT ON LUKE 216
You can understand the desire of the prodigal son to be sated with pods in this way. When rational nature exists in irrationality, it simply desires. If it does not get more convincing reasons, then it accepts any reason at all. Since the pods taste sweet and make the body fat, they do not bind the bowels. They are the specious words of lovers of matter and the body, who say that pleasure is a good, "itching at their ears and running after myths."
Acts 1:3 — Contra Celsum, Book II, Chapter 63
After these points, Celsus proceeds to bring against the Gospel narrative a charge which is not to be lightly passed over, saying that "if Jesus desired to show that his power was really divine, he ought to have appeared to those who had ill-treated him, and to him who had condemned him, and to all men universally." For it appears to us also to be true, according to the Gospel account, that He was not seen after His resurrection in the same manner as He used formerly to show Himself — publicly, and to all men. But it is recorded in the Acts, that "being seen during forty days," He expounded to His disciples "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." [Acts 1:3] And in the Gospels it is not stated that He was always with them; but that on one occasion He appeared in their midst, after eight days, when the doors were shut [John 20:26], and on another in some similar fashion. And Paul also, in the concluding portions of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in reference to His not having publicly appeared as He did in the period before He suffered, writes as follows: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto the present time, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." [1 Corinthians 15:3-8] I am of opinion now that the statements in this passage contain some great and wonderful mysteries, which are beyond the grasp not merely of the great multitude of ordinary believers, but even of those who are far advanced (in Christian knowledge), and that in them the reason would be explained why He did not show Himself, after His resurrection from the dead, in the same manner as before that event.
Acts 1:6-7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 55
But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone. These words seem to refute those who promise that they can comprehend the consummation and destruction of the world and who declare "as though the day of the Lord were at hand" — such as certain people are said to have been at Thessalonica in the time of the Apostle, of whom he writes: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon moved from your mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as though from us, as though the day of the Lord were at hand." Perhaps because among the Jews there were certain persons professing, whether through the scriptures, that they knew of the times of the consummation or of hidden things, therefore he writes these things, teaching his disciples that they should believe no one who professes such things. And the Savior, according to this passage, joins himself to those who are ignorant of that day and hour. And it must reasonably be asked how he who is confident that he knows the Father, saying: "No one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal him", knows the Father indeed, yet does not know the day and hour of the consummation, and why the Father hid this from the Son. For there must certainly be some reason why the time of the consummation is hidden even from the Savior and why he is ignorant concerning it. But someone will dare to say that the man who exists according to the Savior is understood to be advancing "in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men", who in advancing did indeed advance above all in knowledge and wisdom, yet not so that there had already come to him that which was perfect, before he fulfilled his own dispensation. It is therefore no wonder if this alone he did not know out of all things, that is, the day and hour of the consummation. But perhaps also, when he said that he did not know the day and hour of the consummation, he said this before his dispensation, because no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son, but the Father alone; but after his dispensation was fulfilled he by no means said this, after "God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name". For afterward the Son too came to know it, receiving knowledge from the Father even concerning the day of the consummation and the hour, so that now not only the Father might know concerning it but also the Son. And indeed in the Acts of the Apostles the apostles "coming together questioned him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? But he said to them: It is not for you to know the times or the moments which the Father hath set in his own power". And since he "set in his own power the times and moments" of the consummation of the world and of the restitution of the kingdom of Israel, therefore what had not yet been predefined by God no one could know. But each of the things which he predefines, he does not predefine from anything inexperienced (for this is impossible); but what he predefines, he predefines by making a beginning of predefining. And if this is so, he predefined indeed to bring about the consummation of the world, but he did not also predefine the "times and moments which he set in his own power", so that, if he wished to increase them, judging thus he might increase them, but if to shorten them, he might shorten them, no one knowing it. And therefore he set the times and moments of the consummation of the world in his own power, so that accordingly he might determine the due judgment for the human race (established in its own free will) acting in this way or that. Many things too are to be found in the prophets, written for the benefit of the hearers, in precepts and denunciations, as though God were not predefining anything about them, but punishing indeed if they should sin, and saving if they should keep t…
Acts 1:9-11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 50
But you will understand still more of what the text speaks. Taking from the Acts, which reads thus: "and when he had said these things, while they beheld, he was lifted up, and a cloud received him from their eyes. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold two men stood by in white garments, who also said: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has been received up from you into heaven, will so come in the manner in which you saw him going into heaven". For if we believe these men, by whom a cloud is said to have received him and borne him up into heaven, how will he not, according to the text, come from heaven, just as his disciples saw him "going into heaven"? And in the Revelation John likewise says: "behold he will come with the clouds, and every eye will see him and whoever pierced him". But let him understand who can, whether it is the very same thing—for him to come upon the clouds of heaven and to come "with the clouds"—or whether the clouds upon which he will come are one thing, and those "with which" he will come another.
Acts 2:17-18 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.7.2
I see, however, that the special coming of the Holy Spirit to people is declared to have happened after Christ's ascension into heaven rather than before his coming into the world. Before that time the gift of the Holy Spirit was bestowed on prophets only and on a few others among the people who happened to have proved worthy of it.
Acts 2:24 — Commentary on Romans, Book 5, Section 37
If, on the other hand, as it reads in some manuscripts, "even in those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression," this death, namely that which was keeping souls bound in the underworld, is said to exercise dominion, then we shall understand it to mean that even the saints had fallen prey to that death certainly under the law of dying, even if not under the punishment of sin. But it was on this account that Christ descended into the underworld, not only because he would not be held by death [Acts 2:24], but also in order that he might release those who were held there, as we said, not so much through the crime of transgression as much as by the condition of dying. As it is written, "Many bodies of saints who were sleeping were resurrected with him and entered into the holy city." [Matthew 27:52-53] In this as well the prophet's sayings were fulfilled, in which he said of Christ, "In ascending on high he led captivity captive." [Ephesians 4:8-9] Thus by his own resurrection he has already destroyed the dominions of death, which is also why it is written that he set captivity free.
Acts 3:6 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.5
You see the riches of the priests of Christ, you see, having nothing, how great and what kind of things they bestow. Such wealth an earthly possession cannot bestow.
Acts 3:21 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.72
Everything endowed with reason will come under one law.… If we must refer to this subject, it will be with great brevity. The Stoics, indeed, hold that, when the strongest of the elements prevails, all things shall be turned into fire. But our belief is that the Word will prevail over the entire rational creation and change every soul into his own perfection. In this state all, by the mere exercise of his power, will choose what he desires and obtain what he chooses. For although, in the diseases and wounds of the body, there are some which no medical skill can cure, yet we hold that in the mind there is no evil so strong that it may not be overcome by the supreme Word and God. For stronger than all the evils in the soul is the Word and the healing power that dwells in him. This healing he applies, according to the will of God, to everything. The consummation of all things is the destruction of evil, although as to the question whether it shall be so destroyed that it can never anywhere arise again, it is beyond our present purpose to say. Many things are said obscurely in the prophecies on the total destruction of evil and the restoration to righteousness of every soul; but it will be enough for our present purpose to quote the following passage from Zephaniah: "Prepare and rise early; all the gleanings of their vineyards are destroyed. Therefore wait upon me, says the Lord, on the day that I rise up for a testimony. For my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kings, to pour upon them my indignation, even all my fierce anger. For all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I bring about a transformation of pure language among the people, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring my offering. In that day you will not be ashamed for all your sinful deeds of transgression against me. For then I will take away out of your midst them that rejoice in your pride; and you will be haughty no more because of my holy mountain. I will also leave in your midst an afflicted and poor people, and they will trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel will not commit iniquity nor speak lies. Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid."
Acts 4:24 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.4.2
Let us, however, touch briefly on the Acts of the Apostles, where Stephen and the apostles direct their prayers to that God "who made heaven and earth" and who "spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets," calling him "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," the God who led his people out of the land of Egypt. These expressions undoubtedly direct our minds to faith in the Creator and implant an affection for him in those who have piously and faithfully accepted this truth in him.
Acts 7:22 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
So long as Moses was in Egypt and "was being instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians", he was not "of a thin voice" nor "slow of tongue", nor did he profess himself to be lacking in eloquence. For, as far as the Egyptians were concerned, he was both of a sonorous voice and of incomparable eloquence. But when he began to hear the voice of God and to receive the divine utterances, then he perceived his own voice to be feeble and thin, and he understood his tongue to be slow and hampered; then he pronounces himself mute, when he began to recognize that true Word which "was in the beginning with God". But that what we are saying may more readily be grasped, let us make use of a comparison of this kind. If a rational man, however unskilled and untaught, be compared with dumb animals, he will seem eloquent in comparison with those which are devoid both of reason and of voice; but if he be set beside learned and eloquent men, men most approved in all wisdom, he will seem inarticulate and mute. And if someone should contemplate the divine Word itself and look upon the divine wisdom itself, then, however great his learning and however great his wisdom, he will profess himself before God a mute animal, far more than the beasts are before us.
Acts 8:16 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.2
From all of which we learn that the person of the Holy Spirit is of so great authority and dignity that saving baptism is not complete except when performed with the authority of the whole most excellent Trinity, that is, by the naming of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:17 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.7
This is why the passage fitly applies to the Holy Spirit, because he will dwell not in all people or in those who are flesh but in those whose "earth has been renewed." Finally, it was for this reason that the Holy Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands after the grace and renewal of baptism.
Acts 10:9 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.4.4-6
But the apostle Peter, when he was in Joppa and "wanted to pray, ascended into the upper part" [of the house]. Immediately, I take these words to be not in vain, that he did not pray in lower places but "ascended to the higher." For the reason that so great an apostle chose to pray "in a higher place" is not superfluous, but rather, I believe, to show that Peter, because "he had died with Christ, was seeking the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God" and "not the things upon the earth." "He ascended" there, to that "roof," to those heights about which the Lord also says, "Let the one who is on the roof not go down to remove anything from the house." Then, so that you may know that we do not say these things suspiciously about Peter because "he ascends to the higher," you will confirm it from the following. It says, "He went up to the higher place to pray, and he saw the heavens open." Does it not yet appear to you that Peter had gone up "to the higher," not only in the body but also in mind and spirit?…It is appropriate that Peter stays "at the house of a tanner," that one, perhaps, about whom Job says, "you clothed me with skin and flesh."
Acts 10:16 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.4.5
For the things made clean are made clean not by a single invocation nor by a second, but unless a third invocation is pronounced, no one is cleansed. For unless you were cleansed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you could not be clean.
Acts 10:44 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 6.13
Do you want to know that it is not just Jesus alone in his speaking who transmits the Holy Spirit to his hearers, but that everyone who speaks God's word in his name actually hands on the Spirit of God to those who listen? See then, how in the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter is speaking to Cornelius, Cornelius himself and those with him were filled with the Holy Spirit. Hence, if you speak God's word and do so faithfully with a pure conscience, it can come about that while you are speaking the fire of the Holy Spirit will inflame the hearts of your hearers and immediately make them warm and eager to carry out all you are teaching in order to implement what they have learned.
Acts 11:16 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 24
The people received John, who was lesser than Christ, supposing and pondering "whether perhaps he himself were the Christ"; but him who came as "greater" than John they did not receive. Do you wish to know the reason? Learn it: John's baptism was visible, Christ's baptism was invisible. "For I", he says, "baptize you with water; but he who comes after me is greater than I, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". When does Jesus baptize "with the Holy Spirit", and again, when does he baptize "with fire"? Does he baptize both "with the Spirit and with fire" at one and the same time, or at a distinct and different time? "But you", he says, "shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence". The apostles were baptized "with the Holy Spirit" after his ascension into the heavens; but that they were baptized "with fire", Scripture does not record. But just as John, beside the river Jordan, awaited those coming to the baptism, and drove others away, saying: "brood of vipers" and the rest, while those who confessed their vices and sins he received, so the Lord Jesus Christ will stand in the river of fire beside the "flaming sword", so that whoever, after the departure from this life, desires to pass over to paradise and has need of cleansing, he may baptize with that stream and send across to the things longed for; but him who does not have the sign of the earlier baptisms he will not baptize with the fiery washing. For it is fitting that one first be baptized "with water and the Spirit", so that, when he comes to the fiery river, he may show that he has kept both the washings of water and of the Spirit, and then may deserve to receive also the baptism of fire in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Acts 11:25 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.18
Now it is good to read through the history what Jeremiah suffered among the people, in reference to whom he said, "I said: No more shall I speak or name the name of the Lord," and again elsewhere, "I have unceasingly been an object of derision." But whatever he also suffered at the hand of the reigning king of Israel has been written in his prophecy. But that those from among the people came frequently to stone even Moses has also been written, and the stones of that place were not his homeland, but those following him were, that is, the people, by whom he too was dishonored. And Isaiah is reported to have been cut up by the people. Now, if someone does not accept this report because it is found in the apocryphal Isaiah, let him believe in what is written in the letter to the Hebrews: "They were stoned, cut up, put to the test." The "cut up" is referred to Isaiah, just as the verse "they were murdered by the sword" applies to Zechariah, who was murdered "between the temple and the altar," as the Savior taught bearing witness, I believe, to a writing not contained in the shared and publicly accepted books but to one that is probably apocryphal. But they were dishonored by the Jews and went about "in sheepskins, in goatskins, impoverished, suffering tribulation" and the following. For "all who desire to live uprightly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." Now it is probably because he learned that a prophet cannot have honor "in his homeland," that Paul, having proclaimed the word in many other places, did not preach in Tarsus.
Acts 13:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.17
It must be said, on the one hand, that the Old [Testament] is not a Gospel since it did not show "the one coming" but announced him beforehand, and on the other that the entire New [Testament] is the gospel, speaking not just in a way similar to the beginning of the Gospel, "Behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," but encompassing manifold praises and teachings of the one on whose account the Gospel is the gospel.
Acts 13:25 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.18
If the passage about the sandals has a mystic meaning we should not reject an investigation of it. Now I consider that the full humanization, when the Son of God assumes flesh and bones, is seen in one of his shoes. The other humbling is the descent to Hades, whatever that Hades might be, and the journey with the Spirit to the prison. As to the descent into Hades, we read in the sixteenth psalm, "You will not abandon my soul to Hades." As for the journey in prison with the Spirit, we read in Peter in his Catholic epistle, "Put to death," he says, "in the flesh but quickened in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, which at one time were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God once waited in the days of Noah while the ark was in preparation." He, then, who is able worthily to set forth the meaning of these two journeys is able to untie the strap of the sandals of Jesus. Such a one is whoever bends down in his mind and goes with Jesus as he goes down into hades, and whoever descends from heaven and the mysteries of Christ's divinity to the advent that he had to spend with us when he took on humanity (as his sandals). Now he who put on humanity also put on the dead, since "for this end Jesus both died and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living." This is why he put on both the living and the dead, that is, the inhabitants of the earth and those of hades, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. Who, then, is able to stoop down and untie the latchet of such sandals, and having untied them not to let them drop, but by the second faculty he has received to take them up and bear them, by bearing the meaning of them in his memory?
Acts 13:31 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.23-24
By comparing what the prophetic Scriptures tell us of Jesus with what his history tells us, we find nothing dissolute about him recorded. For even those who conspired against him and looked for false witnesses to aid them did not find any plausible grounds for advancing a false charge of licentiousness against him. His death was indeed the result of a conspiracy and bore no resemblance to the death of Asclepius by lightning. And what is venerable about the madman Dionysus, clothed in female garments, that he should be worshiped as a god? If those who defend such beings resort to allegorical interpretations, we must examine each individual allegory to ascertain whether it is well founded and whether those beings who were torn down by the Titans and cast from their heavenly throne can have a real existence and deserve respect and worship. But when our Jesus "appeared to the members of his own troop"—for I will take the word that Celsus employs—he really did appear. But Celsus makes a false accusation against the gospel, saying that what appeared was a shadow. Let their histories and that of Jesus be carefully compared. Will Celsus hold that the former are true, but the latter are inventions, even though the histories of Jesus were recorded by eyewitnesses who showed that they clearly understood the nature of what they had seen by their actions and who manifested their state of mind by what they cheerfully underwent for the sake of his gospel? Now who, desiring to act in conformity with right reason, would yield assent at random to what is related in their histories and without examination refuse to believe what is recorded of Jesus? Again, when it is said of Asclepius that a great multitude both of Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge that they have frequently seen and still see no mere phantom but Asclepius himself healing and doing good and foretelling the future, Celsus expects us to believe this; and he finds no fault with believers in Jesus, when they express their belief in such stories. But when we give our assent to the disciples who were eyewitnesses of the miracles of Jesus and who clearly manifested the honesty of their convictions (because we see their guilelessness, as far as it is possible to see the conscience revealed in writing), we are called by him a set of "silly" individuals.
Acts 13:32 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.2
Let Celsus, and those who agree with him, tell us whether it is at all like "an ass's shadow" that the Jewish prophets predicted the birth place of him who became the ruler of those who had lived righteous lives and are called the "heritage" of God, that Emmanuel was conceived by a virgin, that such signs and wonders were performed by him who was the subject of prophecy, that his word spread so speedily that the voice of his apostles went forth into all the earth, that he suffered after his condemnation by the Jews, and that he rose again from the dead. For was it by chance that the prophets made these announcements with no conviction of the truth in their minds, moving them not only to speak but to believe their announcements should be committed to writing? And did so great a nation as that of the Jews, who had long ago received a country of their own to dwell in, recognize certain men as prophets and reject others as false prophets, without any conviction of the soundness of the distinction? And was there no motive that induced them to class the words of those persons who were later deemed to be prophets with the books of Moses, which were held as sacred? And can those who charge the Jews and Christians with folly show us how the Jewish nation could have continued to exist had there not been among them a promise of the knowledge of future events? And how, while each of the surrounding nations believed in agreement with their ancient institutions that they received oracles and predictions from those whom they accounted gods, this people alone—who were taught to view with contempt all those who were considered gods by the heathen as not being gods, but demons, according to the declaration of the prophets, "For all the gods of the nations are demons"—had among them no one who professed to be a prophet and who could dissuade those with a desire to know the future from deserting to the demons of other nations? Judge, then, whether it was necessary that the whole nation that had been taught to despise the deities of other lands should have an abundance of prophets, who made known events that were of far greater importance in themselves and that surpassed the oracles of all other countries.
Acts 14:15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 24.2
For to offer a son or a daughter or cattle or an estate — all this is outside of us; but to offer oneself to God, and to please him not by another's labor but by one's own, this is more perfect and more excellent than all vows; and he who does this is an imitator of Christ. For he gave to man the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; he gave them for his service, and he granted heaven, the sun also and the moon and the stars, to the ministry of men; rains, winds, and all whatsoever is in the world, he bestowed upon men. But after all these things he gave himself; for thus God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son for the life of this world. What great thing therefore will man do if he offers himself to God, to whom God himself first offered himself?
Acts 15:1 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.10-11
Observe what he alleges as a proof of his statement: "Christians at first were few in number and held the same opinions, but when they grew to be a great multitude, they were divided and separated, each wishing to have his own individual party. This was their object from the beginning." That Christians at first were few in number, in comparison with the multitudes who subsequently became Christian, is no doubt true.…He also says that "all the Christians were of one mind," not noticing, even in this particular, that from the beginning there were differences of opinion among believers regarding the meaning of the books held to be divine. At all events, while the apostles were still preaching and eyewitnesses of Jesus were still teaching his doctrine, there was no small discussion among the converts from Judaism regarding Gentile believers and whether they ought to observe Jewish customs or reject the burden of clean and unclean meats as not being obligatory on those who had abandoned their ancestral Gentile customs and had become believers in Jesus.
Acts 15:20 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 2.13
"Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the sons of Israel, and tell them: If anyone who is from among the sons of Israel or from among foreigners, who happens to be among you, eats any blood, I shall place my spirit over the spirit which shall have eaten the blood, and I shall abolish it from among the people, since the spirit of every flesh is its blood. To you I have also given the blood so that by it upon the altar there might be propitiations for your spirits, since the blood will make expiation for the spirit. Therefore, I have said to the sons of Israel: Every spirit among you shall not eat blood, and any foreigner among you shall not eat blood." You see, therefore, that this law regarding blood, given equally to both the sons of Israel and to foreigners, is even observed by us from among the Gentiles who believe in God through Jesus Christ. Scripture tends to call proselytes foreigners, as when it says, "The foreigner who is among you will rise up above you, while you descend below. He shall be your head, and you shall be his tail." Therefore, even the church of the Gentiles took in common with the people of Israel the law regarding blood, for that blessed council of the apostles, understanding that these things had been so written in the law, then ordered and decreed in writing the teachings for the Gentiles that they abstain not only from what had been sacrificed to idols and from fornication, but also from blood and from what had been suffocated. Now perhaps you will ask, "If Scripture was so clear with regard to blood, should it not also teach clearly about what has been suffocated, whether a law was given as common to the people of Israel and to foreigners, since the teachings of the apostles decree that Gentiles also observe this law?" Listen how observantly even this is guarded against in the laws of God: "If a man, any man," it says, "from the sons of Israel and from the foreigners among you, hunts a beast or a bird, let him pour out its blood and cover it with earth, for the spirit of every flesh is its blood."
Acts 15:29 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 9.28
Now in these precepts where it says that no other burden ought to be imposed on Gentile believers except abstinence from the sacrifices of idols, from blood, from what has been suffocated and from fornication, homicide is not forbidden, nor adultery, nor theft, nor homosexual acts, nor other crimes that are punished by divine and human laws. But if it is saying that Christians must observe only that which it has recounted, it will appear to some that it granted license concerning the rest. But consider how the Holy Spirit manages affairs: since other crimes are avenged by laws of the world, it seemed superfluous for those things, which are sufficiently covered by human law, also to have been forbidden by divine law. It only decreed those things about which human law had said nothing and which seemed proper to religion.
Acts 16:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.111
[But] perhaps it has been recorded at some time or other with good reason that even the true worshiper who worships in spirit and truth performs certain symbolic acts so that, by acting in a most accommodating manner, he might free those who are enslaved to the symbol and bring them to the truth that the symbols represent. Paul appears to have done this in the case of Timothy, and perhaps also in Cenchrea and Jerusalem, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles.
Acts 16:9 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 12
If one ought to ascend to a more hidden understanding, I would say that there were certain shepherds — angels who governed human affairs — and that, while each one of these was preserving his own charge and, keeping watch by day and by night, could now no longer bear the labor, and was industriously doing this, that he might govern the nations that had been entrusted to him, an angel came, when the Lord was born, and announced to the shepherds that the true Shepherd had arisen. For example, to come to an illustration, there was a certain shepherd of Macedonia; this one had need of the Lord's help; and therefore there appeared to Paul in his sleep a man of Macedonia, "saying: Cross over into Macedonia and help us". But why do I speak of Paul, when it was not to Paul, but to him who was in Paul, that Jesus spoke this? And so the shepherds have need of the presence of Christ.
Acts 16:17 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.7
For this reason our Lord Jesus too does not deign to receive testimony from demons, but says: "Be silent and come out of him." His own apostle Paul too, imitating him, "grieving," it says, "turned and said to the spirit of Python: I command you in the name of Jesus Christ; depart from her." In which you may perhaps ask why Paul, grieving, rebukes the spirit of Python. Had it said anything blasphemous? For "a woman," it says, "having a spirit of Python followed Paul and those who were with him, and cried out, saying: These men are servants of the Most High God, who announce to you the way of salvation. And she did this for many days." Whence it is shown that Paul grieved not because of blasphemy, but because he judged it unworthy that testimony be given to his preaching by a spirit of Python.
Acts 17:27 — PALESTINIAN CATENA ON PSALM 118.151
"You are near, Lord, and all your commandments are truth." God says elsewhere, "I am a God who is near and not a God who is far away, says the Lord." For the power of God is everywhere according to the word of creation and providence. Knowing this, Paul, addressing the Greeks as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, says, "We do not seek God far from us, for in him we live and move and are," and "the Spirit of the Lord has filled the earth." He is thus, for his part, close, but if we ourselves make no effort, though he be close, to draw near to him, we will not enjoy his nearness. For this reason, sinners are far from God: "Behold, those who distance themselves from you perish." But the just ones strive to approach God, for he is not present to them just as a creator, but he even shares himself with them: "And Moses alone draws near to God, but the rest do not draw near." According to the degree of will and perfection, the one who approaches God is that one about whom Paul says, "The one joined to the Lord is one spirit."
Acts 17:28 — COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 43
"Being as one outside the law to those outside the law." He came to Athens, he found philosophers, and he did not use the words of the prophets or from the law, but as one perhaps recalling this pagan teaching from a school of rhetoric he spoke to the men of Athens. For [Paul] said, "Just as some of your poets have said, 'For we are his offspring too.' " In this place, he was as one outside the law to those outside the law, in order to gain the lawless. It is as if he were to say "I was doing nothing contrary to the law in making this concession to them, but I was keeping myself bound by the law of Christ, in order to gain the lawless."
Acts 18:3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 17.4
But the tents can be referred to perfect souls, to which the name Israel too fits, from seeing God. But these tents are, he says, "like shady groves, and like gardens beside rivers, and like the tents which the Lord has pitched." Therefore he shows that there are other tents which the Lord has pitched, to which the tents of Israel are like. It befits me to go forth outside this world, in order that I may see what are the tents which the Lord has pitched—those, no doubt, which he showed to Moses, when he was building the tabernacle in the desert, saying to him: "See," he says, "that you make all things according to the type which was shown you on the mountain." Therefore, in imitation of these tents which the Lord pitched, Israel ought to make tents, and each one of us to prepare and construct his own tent. Hence it seems to me not to have happened by chance that Peter indeed and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee were found fishermen by trade, but Paul a tentmaker by trade. And since those, called from the trade of catching fish, are changed and become fishers of men, the Lord saying: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men," there is no doubt that Paul too, since he also was called an Apostle through my Lord Jesus Christ, was changed by a similar transformation of his trade, so that, just as they from fishers of fish were made fishers of men, so this man too was transferred from making earthly tents to constructing heavenly tents. For he constructs heavenly tents, teaching each one the way of salvation and showing the road of the blessed mansions in the heavens. Paul makes tents when, from Jerusalem round about as far as Illyricum, he fills up the Gospel of God by constructing churches; and in this manner he too makes tents after the likeness of the heavenly tents which God showed to Moses on the mountain.
Acts 19:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.2
Of the existence of the Holy Spirit … we are taught in many passages of Scripture. For instance, David says in the fiftieth psalm, "And take not your Holy Spirit from me," and in Daniel it is said, "The Holy Spirit, who is in you." But in the New Testament we have proofs in abundance, as when the Holy Spirit is related to have descended upon Christ, and when the Lord breathed on his apostles after the resurrection and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," and the angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you," and Paul teaches us that "no one can say that Jesus is the Lord except in the Holy Spirit," and in the Acts of the Apostles "through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given" in baptism. From all of which we learn that the person of the Holy Spirit is of so great authority and dignity that saving baptism is not complete except when performed with the authority of the whole most excellent Trinity, that is, by naming the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Acts 20:29 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 3.3.5
If you touch "what is seized by a wild beast," you will be unclean. Which wild beast? Is it a lion or a wolf that ravishes persons or animals? I believe that beast is the one about whom the apostle Peter says, "your adversary, the devil, goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. Resist him, strong in the faith." And again, the apostle Paul says concerning these, "For after my departure, fierce wolves will come in, not sparing the flock." If you see one made captive by these beasts, do not follow him, do not touch him, lest you also be made unclean. Furthermore, there are also other unclean animals whose carcass it is forbidden to touch. Unclean animals are people who are without Christ, in whom there is neither reason nor anything religious. Therefore, if you see the "carcasses," that is, the sins of all these, the lawgiver tells you not to take hold, not to touch, not to handle.
Acts 21:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 16.1
"When he was about to go up to Jerusalem, Jesus took the twelve aside and spoke to them on the road, 'Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall sentence him to death, and they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and beaten and crucified, and on the third day he shall rise." Paul both contemplated Christ, in the face of manifest dangers, proceeding and eagerly going up to Jerusalem with the foreknowledge that he would be handed over to the chief priests and scribes and sentenced to death, and he exhorted us to imitate him as he imitated Christ, as he says, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ." And he did something similar to what Christ did when he took his disciples aside. For Agabus, taking his belt and girding himself about the hands and feet, said, "These things the Holy Spirit says: they will bind in this way the man who owns this belt" when he goes off to Jerusalem. When Paul learned of this, in imitation of his teacher, he went up eagerly to Jerusalem.
Acts 22:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.12
It ought not to be forgotten that in such a Gospel as this there is embraced every good deed that was done to Jesus; as, for example, the story of the woman who had been a prostitute and had repented, and who, having experienced a genuine recovery from her evil state, had grace to pour her ointment over Jesus so that every one in the house smelled the sweet savor. Hence, too, the words, "Wherever this gospel shall be preached among all the nations, there also this that she has done shall be spoken of, for a memorial of her." And it is clear that whatever is done to the disciples of Jesus is done to him. Pointing to those of them who met with kind treatment, [Jesus] says to those who were kind to them: "What you did to these, you did to me." So that every good deed we do to our neighbors is entered into the gospel, that gospel that is written on the heavenly tablets and read by all who are worthy of the knowledge of the whole of things. But on the other side, too, there is a part of the gospel that is for the condemnation of the doers of the evil deeds that have been done to Jesus. The treachery of Judas and the shouts of the wicked crowd when it said, "Away with such a one from the earth," and "Crucify him, crucify him," the mockings of those who crowned him with thorns, and everything of that kind, is included in all the Gospels. And as a consequence of this we see that everyone who betrays the disciples of Jesus is reckoned as betraying Jesus himself. To Saul, when still a persecutor it is said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" and, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." There are those who still have thorns with which they crown and dishonor Jesus, those, namely, who are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and though they have received the word of God, they do not bring it to perfection. We must beware, therefore, lest we also, by crowning Jesus with thorns of our own, should be entered in the gospel and read of in this character by those who come to know how Jesus, who is in all and is present in all rational and holy lives, is anointed with ointment, is entertained, is glorified, or how, on the other side, he is dishonored and mocked and beaten. All this had to be said; it is part of our demonstration that our good actions, and also the sins of those who stumble, are embodied in the gospel, either to everlasting life or to reproach and everlasting shame.
Acts 23:2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 19.12
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that someone, ordered by Ananias the high priest, struck Paul because he said, "God will strike you, oh whitewashed wall." And even to this day, the Ebionites, under orders from their illegitimate high priest, strike the apostle of Jesus Christ with their calumnies, and Paul says to such a high priest of the Word, "God will strike you," and such a high priest is beautiful from without and a whitewashed wall but "within full of dead bones and every filth." But why do I speak about Paul …? It is my Lord, Jesus Christ, himself who speaks: "I have given my back to scourgings, and my cheeks to slaps, and my face I did not turn from the shame of being spit upon." The simple know of these things as happening at one particular time, when Pilate scourged him, when the Jews plotted against him. I, however, see Jesus daily giving his back to scourgings: go into synagogues of the Jews, and see Jesus scourged by their blasphemous speech. See those gathered from among the nations plotting against the Christians, how they seize Christ, and he gives his back to scourgings. Consider the Word of God insulted, reviled, hated by unbelievers. See that he gave his cheeks to be slapped, and after he taught "Should someone slap you on one cheek, offer him the other," that he himself did the same.
Acts 23:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.5
For he says: "do not fear to go down into Egypt," that is to say: as you are about to engage "against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world" — which is figuratively called Egypt — do not fear, do not tremble. And if you also wish to know the reason why you ought not to fear, hear my promise: "for I will make you into a great nation there, and I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will call you back thence at the end." He does not, then, fear "to go down into Egypt," he does not fear the contests of this world and to undergo the struggles of the opposing demons, with whom God has gone down into the contests. In short, hear the Apostle Paul saying: "I labored more," he says, "than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." But also in Jerusalem, when the sedition had been stirred up against him and he was sweating out a most glorious contest for the word and preaching of the Lord, the Lord stood by him and said the same things which are now said to Israel: "do not fear," he says, "Paul, because, as you have testified concerning me at Jerusalem, so must you give testimony also at Rome."
Acts 27:23 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.3
That both good angels are present to men and adverse ones; that it was surely not by chance and without judgment that that angel was allotted to be the guardian of that soul, for example of Peter, and another of Paul, or another of one infant of the Church, concerning whose angels the Lord says that they "always behold the face of their Father who is in heaven." Concerning whom there is surely no room to doubt that, by the judgment of God—who clearly perceives both their worthiness and the quality of our soul—they are allotted the guardianship of each one of us by a certain mystical lot directed by the dispensation of Christ.
Amos 3:2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20:3
And each of us thinks, since he has not been an idolater, since he has not been immoral—would that we were pure in such areas—that after he has been set free from this life, he will be saved. We do not see that "all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive either good or evil according to what he has done in the body." We do not hear what has been said: "You especially have I known out of all the tribes on the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all"—not just some and not others—"of your iniquities."
Amos 5:18 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12
Perhaps we will understand what has been written if we deal with a Gospel text spoken by the Savior, which expresses it in this way: "Work while it is day. The night comes when no one can work." He has named here as this age the day—but of necessity I have added the word here, for I know that in other passages other meanings are revealed—so he has called this age the day, but the darkness and the night the consummation because of punishments. For "why do you desire the Day of the Lord? And it is darkness and not light," says the prophet Amos. If you can envision after the consummation of the world what the gloom is, a gloom that pursues nearly all of the race of humans who are punished for sins. The atmosphere will become dark at that time, and no longer can anyone ever give glory to God, since the Word has given orders to the righteous saying, go, "my people, enter into your rooms, shut the door, hide yourself for a little season, until the force of my anger has passed away."
Amos 7:7 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 27:3
I will also proclaim confidently that there is someone who cannot be affected very much by the "hammer of the whole earth." And since the example was offered of a perceptible "hammer," I will seek a material stronger than the "hammer" which does not feel the blows from it. In searching for it I find it too in what was written: "Behold a man standing above the adamant walls, and in his adamant." History records about "adamant" that it is stronger than every "hammer" striking it, remaining unbroken and unyielding. Even if the "hammer," the devil, stands above, and the serpent, who "as an indomitable anvil," may position himself below, still "adamant" endures nothing when it is resting "in the hand of the Lord" and in his regard. Thus the two opposites to this "adamant" are the "hammer" and the immovable "anvil." Yet there is indeed among the nations a much-used proverb in the common language concerning those who are pressed by anxieties and extremely bad situations; they say, "They are 'between a hammer and an anvil.' " Still you can say that this refers to the devil and the serpent, who are always signified by names of this sort in the Scriptures for a variety of purposes. And you can say that the holy person, who is an "adamant wall" or is "adamant in the hand of the Lord," is not affected either by the "hammer" or by the "anvil," but the more one is struck, the brighter will his virtue shine.
Amos 8:11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10:3
It is prophesied, "Their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and daughters will perish in famine." Those who hindered Jesus from teaching have not simply perished by the sword. But now, after the advent of the Lord, a more profound famine has come upon them. It is "not a famine of bread or thirst of water, but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord." For the "Lord almighty" no longer "speaks" with them. This famine portends that prophecy would cease. And why do I say prophecy? The Lord ceased teaching them. Even if they bear the title sage a thousand times with them, the Word of the Lord is still not among them, since the verse has been fulfilled: "The Lord took away from Judea and Jerusalem the strong man and strong woman, the giant and the strong man, and the soldier and judge and prophet and diviner and elder and captain of fifty and the admirable adviser and master builder and intelligent pupil." For he is no longer able to say, "Like a master builder I laid a foundation." The builders have passed over, have come to the church, have laid the foundation, Jesus Christ. Those who came after them have also built on him.
Amos 8:11 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 28
But this also, which he says, "about thirty years old", must be considered. "Joseph was thirty years old" when he was released from his chains and, having interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, was made ruler of Egypt, and in the time of plenty gathered wheat, so that in the time of famine he might have what he could distribute. I think that the thirty years of Joseph went before, as a type of the thirty years of the Savior. For this Joseph gathered not such wheat as that Joseph in Egypt, but true and heavenly wheat, so that, the wheat having been gathered in the time of plenty, he might have what he could distribute when famine had been sent into Egypt, "not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God". And so he gathers from the prophets, from the law, from the apostles the words of abundance, so that when now no more books are written, nor is any new instrument composed, nor are apostles sent, then he may distribute those things which had been brought together by Jesus into the storehouses of the apostles — that is, into their souls and the souls of all the saints — and may nourish Egypt, imperiled by famine, and especially his brothers, of whom it is written: "I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the church I will sing to you". Other men too have words of patience and words of justice and the words of the remaining virtues; this is the wheat which Joseph distributed to the Egyptians. But the grain which he gives to his brothers, that is, to his disciples, is another kind, from the land of Goshen, from that land which looks toward the east: the wheat of the Gospel, the wheat of the apostles.
BAR 3:9 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
It seems to me that he sets forth with what purpose the "ordinances of righteousness and judgments" and the testimonies of the law were given: "that he might test them", it says, "whether they would hear the voice of the Lord and keep the things which were commanded". For as regards the former people, what good or perfect thing could be commanded to those who murmured and contradicted? Indeed, a little later they even turn to idols, and forgetful of the benefits and wonders of God they set up the head of a calf. For this reason, therefore, precepts are given to them, in which they may be tested. Hence it is that also through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says to them: "I gave you precepts and ordinances that were not good, in which you shall not live by them"; for being tested in the precepts of the Lord they are not found faithful. Therefore "the commandment which was unto life was found to be unto death for them", because one and the same commandment, if it is kept, produces life, if it is not kept, produces death. According to this, therefore, that for those who do not keep it it produces death, they are called "commandments not good, in which they shall not live by them". But because he mingled with them the tree of the cross of Christ and they were turned into sweetness, and being understood spiritually they are kept, these same commandments are called "commandments of life", just as he says also elsewhere: "hear, O Israel, the commandments of life".
Colossians 1:20 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
And why do I speak of the patriarchs? Following the authority of the Scriptures, I will boldly ascend to higher things, since the presence of the Lord Jesus and his dispensation profited not only things earthly but also things heavenly. Whence the Apostle also says: "making peace through the blood of his cross, whether upon the earth or in the heavens". But if in heaven and on earth the presence of the Lord was of profit, why should you be afraid to say that his coming profited even the greater ones, so that this might be fulfilled which is said: "to show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father"?
Colossians 3:3-4 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
"Now our life is hidden with Christ; but when Christ, your life, shall be manifested, then you too shall be manifested with Him in glory." Let us hasten to this life, groaning and lamenting that we are in this tent, that we abide in the body.
Colossians 3:5 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
Or did not the whole error of the heathen take its beginning from this, when they will that those things which men greatly love should be gods, and ascribe the divine name to any human vices and desires? For those greedy for money and burning with the love of avarice call Mammon, as among the Syrians, the god of that greed; the lovers of lust and pleasure ascribe to themselves Venus as the goddess of this vice by which they are driven. Likewise in the other vices too they have made this very affection, by which they are urged on, their God. Whence the Apostle also says the same thing; for he says: "and avarice, which is the worship of idols". You see, then, that not only to adore an idol, but even to be devoted to "avarice" is reckoned "the worship of idols" and slavery. So therefore we too, when we are so given over to certain vices that we "love them with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength", are said to adore idols and "to have gone after strange gods".
Colossians 3:9-10 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
That which is created after the image of God is understood as immaterial and surpassing every corporeal substance not only by Moses, but also by the Apostle, as is clear from the following words: "...having put on the new man, who is renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him who created him." Therefore in each of us there are two men.
Daniel 1:17 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:7
In regard to the prophets among the Jews, some of them were wise men before they became divinely inspired prophets, while others became wise by the illumination that their minds received when divinely inspired. They were selected by divine providence to receive the divine Spirit and to be the depositaries of his holy oracles, on the ground of their leading a life of almost unapproachable excellence, intrepid, noble, unmoved by danger or death.
Daniel 2:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 1:12
Many other things may also be called gifts of God, such as riches and bodily strength, physical beauty and earthly power. These things are also given by God, as Daniel says: "He deposes kings and sets up kings," but they are not spiritual gifts.
Daniel 2:34-35 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
But I think this is more rightly to be understood of the incarnation of the Lord. "For it was not made by the hand of men," that is, not by human work is the temple of the flesh built in the Virgin; but, as Daniel had foretold, "a stone cut out without hands grew, and became a great mountain." This is the "sanctuary" of the flesh assumed and "without hands," that is, apart from the work of men, "cut out" from the mountain of human nature and the substance of the flesh.
Daniel 3:4 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 32-33
And we know that once we have been persuaded by Jesus to abandon idols and the atheism of worshiping many gods, the enemy cannot persuade us to commit idolatry, though he tries to force us. That is why he empowers those over whom he has authority to do such things.…It is not just of old that Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold was set up or only then that he threatened Ananias, Azarias and Misael that he would throw them into the burning fiery furnace unless they worshiped it. Even now Nebuchadnezzar says the same thing to us, the true Hebrews in exile from our homeland. But as for us, let us imitate those holy men so that we may experience the heavenly dew that quenches every fire that arises in us and cools our governing mind.
Daniel 6:13 — ON PRAYER 12:2
And he prays "constantly" (deeds of virtue or fulfilling the commandments are included as part of prayer) who unites prayer with the deeds required and right deeds with prayer. For the only way we can accept the command to "pray constantly" as referring to a real possibility is by saying that the entire life of the saint taken as a whole is a single great prayer. What is customarily called prayer is, then, a part of this prayer. Now prayer in the ordinary sense ought to be made no less than three times each day. This is evident in the story of Daniel, who prayed three times each day when such great peril had been devised for him.
Daniel 7:9 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Libnah, which is interpreted "whitening." I know that in other places whitening is set down blameworthily, as when it is said "whitewashed wall" and "whitewashed tombs." But here that whitening is meant, of which the prophet says: "You shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow"; and again Isaiah: "If your sins be as scarlet, I will whiten them as snow, and make them white as wool"; and likewise in the psalm: "They shall be whitened with snow in Salmon"; and the hairs of the Ancient of days are said to be white, that is, white as wool. So therefore this whitening is to be understood as coming from the splendor of the true light and as descending from the brightness of heavenly visions.
Daniel 7:10 — AGAINST CELSUS 8:34
And to him to whom we offer firstfruits we also send up our prayers, "having a great high priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God," and "we hold fast this profession" as long as we live; for we find God and his only-begotten Son, manifested to us in Jesus, to be gracious and kind to us. And if we would wish to have besides a great number of beings who shall ever prove friendly to us, we are taught that "thousand thousands stood before him, and ten thousand times ten thousand ministered to him." And these, regarding all as their relations and friends who imitate their piety toward God and in prayer call on him with sincerity, work along with them for their salvation, appear to them, deem it their office and duty to attend to them, and as if by common agreement they visit with all manner of kindness and deliverance those who pray to God, to whom they themselves also pray. "For they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation."
Daniel 7:10 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:13
But as it is in the mockery that Celsus says we speak of "God coming down like a torturer bearing fire" and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defense that disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us, and then we shall turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is "a consuming fire" and that "he draws rivers of fire before him"; no, that he even enters in as "a refiner's fire and as a fuller's herb," to purify his own people. But when he is said to be a "consuming fire," we inquire what are the things that are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that they are wickedness and the works that result from it and that, being figuratively called "wood, hay, stubble," God consumes as a fire. The wicked person, accordingly, is said to build up on the previously laid foundation of reason, "wood and hay and stubble." … And, in like manner, "rivers of fire" are said to be before God, who will thoroughly cleanse away the evil that is intermingled throughout the whole soul.
Daniel 8:17 — SELECTIONS IN PSALMS
The first definite person we find named in Scripture "son of man" is, speaking at the moment from memory, Daniel. And after him, Ezekiel. They were prophets in the captivity, so far as our researches go in the undisputed books that pass currently as inspired, there is no one named by this title.… It was, as we think, because the people of captivity were sinners that Daniel alone, to their reproach, because they preserved the dignity of human nature, made according to the image and the likeness, was addressed as the son of man. As much may be said also of Ezekiel. For the name "man" was first given to him who was made by God according to his image and likeness, so that he would be man in the true sense.
Daniel 9:24-27 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 40
The words of the prophet which he spoke concerning the abomination of desolation that was to come are these: "and he shall confirm the covenant to many for one week, and in the middle of the week the sacrifice and the offering shall be taken away, and upon the temple there shall be an abomination of desolation, and even unto the consummation of the time the consummation shall be given upon the desolation". Truly indeed to grasp the sayings of Daniel belongs to no other than the Holy Spirit who was in Daniel, so as to make plain the whole discourse concerning the weeks and concerning the abomination of desolation spoken by him. But if it behooves us also to set forth a few things, according to what seems good to us, about this passage, it must be said that the discourse seems to indicate the seventy years which were after the coming of our Savior. For this week, which because of the seven decades of years is called a week, confirmed the covenant to many, when the apostles of Christ also, after his ascension, being intent upon prayer and the word, were illumined by God into all knowledge of the will of the divine Scriptures by the Holy Spirit. But in the middle of the week, that is, in three and a half decades of years, the sacrifice of the altar was taken away, that is, in thirty-five years was fulfilled what had been written: "in the middle of the week the sacrifice and the offering shall be taken away". And then also upon the temple which was in Jerusalem was made the abomination of the desolation of the temple and of the city, namely at that time "when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by an army", so that (according to what the Savior had prophesied concerning it) they might recognize "that its desolation had drawn near". And this abomination of desolation made upon the temple by the army surrounding Jerusalem, the prophet says remains "until the time of consummation", so that the consummation of the world may come upon the desolation of Jerusalem and of the temple which is in it. And where are they "who say they are Jews and are not"? who say: The Jerusalem which is below shall be built, before the consummation of the age comes to pass? "The consummation", he says, "shall be given upon its desolation". But if the temple shall also be built, it shall be built for him "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in a temple" of this kind, "showing himself as though he were God": "whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the illumination of his coming". Whether therefore it pleases some that this Jerusalem be built upon the earth, nevertheless it will not be false which is said, that the consummation is to be given "upon its own desolation". But if it behooves us also to say something about the times, we say that in the Chronicles of a certain Phlegon it is said (if however we ought to accept even this man as speaking truly about the temple) that around the fortieth year from the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple which was in it took place. Deduct therefore about three years of the Lord's preaching and the time of his resurrection, when "appearing to them for forty days" he taught "them concerning the kingdom of God", and you will find perhaps more or less that around the middle of the "week" (reckoning by decades of years) was fulfilled what was said: "my sacrifice and offering shall be taken away", when also "upon the temple the abomination of desolation" was made, which desolation will remain until the time of consummation; for the "consummation", according to what we have said, "shall be given upon the desolation". But if such a tradition of the "week" is established for us, we saying (as far as concerns the saying) that there has been fulfilled what was said, not only: "my sacrifice and offering shall be taken away", but also that which is written, that the abomination of desolations…
Daniel 10:13 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:3.2
Accordingly we find in the holy Scriptures that there are rulers over individual nations, as for instance, we read in Daniel of a certain "prince of the kingdom of the Persians" and another "prince of the kingdom of the Greeks," who, as is clearly shown by the sense of the passage itself, are not humans but powers.
Daniel 13:3 — STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:3)
It is well to make use of this testimony in order to exhort parents to educate with the divine law and testimony of God not only their sons but also their daughters.
Daniel 13:5 — STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:5a)
A Hebrew informed us that they were Achiah and Zedekiah, those whom "the king of Babylon roasted in the fire because their conduct in Israel was an outrage, having committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors."
Daniel 13:7 — STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:8b-9)
"In the morning" Susanna went to take a walk. It is not at all out of place (in order to pacify those who find examples in the sacred writing for everything that we do) to take a walk at a time such as this, for example, since back then one did well to take a walk in order to keep his own body healthy.
Daniel 13:8-9 — STROMATEIS 10 (via ON DANIEL 13:8b-9)
The Greek word pathos is better rendered for us with the term "disturbance" rather than with the term "passion." Therefore this disturbed and covetous desire stimulated, or rather it churned violently, in the heart of the elders. But because their souls were like plowed soil and they could only think about getting what they desired, their own feelings became perverted, and, once perverted, their eyes were turned toward earth so that they did not see the celestial truths, and they forgot about sound judgment, they forgot about God, about honesty, about the nature oriented toward the good inborn in every person.
Daniel 13:22 — STROMATEIS 10 (VIA ON DANIEL 13:22)
He calls sin death. In the same way, therefore, that for the one who commits adultery, adultery is death, so every sin that leads to death must be called death. And we are convinced that we die every time we sin mortally, whereas we rise again and recover life every time we do works worthy of life.
Daniel 13:56 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.6
Let us therefore take heed, just as Jesus here also says, that we may prevail against the Canaanites, lest, if perchance they grow strong over us and overpower us, they make Canaanites of us out of Israelites, just as that man too became one whom the enticement of the flesh had overcome, to whom it is said by the prophet: "seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you." Let it not befall us, then, to hear "seed of Canaan," for: "cursed be the boy Canaan; he shall be a servant to his brothers." But may the Lord grant us that we be sons of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, "heirs according to the promise," and for this "raised up out of the stones," that we may be sons of Abraham, by Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Deuteronomy 1:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.3.12
And here this other fact will not appear to be without significance, that it is Moses who hears from God all that is written down in the law of Leviticus, whereas in Deuteronomy it is the people who are represented as listening to Moses and learning from him what they could not hear from God. This indeed is why it is called Deuteronomy, meaning the second law. A fact which some will think points to this [is] that when the first law given through Moses came to an end, a second legislation was apparently composed, and this was specially delivered by Moses to his successor Joshua. And Joshua is certainly believed to be a figure of our Savior, by whose second law, that is, by the precepts of the Gospels, all things are brought to perfection.
Deuteronomy 1:31 — HOMILY 18.3
See what we are generally taught about God: "God is not as a man to be deceived nor as the son of man to be threatened," and we learn that God is not as man. But other texts say that God is as a man: "For the Lord your God has taught you as a man teaches his son," and again, "As a man he takes on the manners of his son." Hence, wherever the Scriptures speak theologically about God in relation to himself and do not involve his plan for human matters, they teach that he is "not as a man." For "there will be no limit to his greatness," and "he is more feared than all of the gods," and "praise him, all you angels of God; praise him, all his hosts; praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all stars and light." You can find many other passages in the sacred Scriptures to which you can relate the words "God is not as a man."
Deuteronomy 4:16 — AGAINST CELSUS 4.31
The intention of the law was that in everything they should look toward what is real. They should not make up things which are different from reality or misrepresent what is truly male or what is really female, or the nature of beasts or the species of birds or creeping things, or fishes.
Deuteronomy 4:19 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 7
It is quite likely that the enemy will want to induce us by every possible trick down to "the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven." But we shall reply that the Word of God did not command us to do so. For in no way may we bow down to the creature in the presence of the Creator who sustains all and anticipates their prayer. Not even the sun would wish that any friend of God or anyone else, it would seem, should bow down to it. It imitates him who says, "Why do you call me good? None is good but one, that is God" the Father.
Deuteronomy 4:19 — AGAINST CELSUS 5.6
It is clear then that since those who live according to the law reverence the One who made the heaven, they do not reverence the heaven as if God. Furthermore, none of those who serve the Mosaic law worship the angels in heaven. And in the same way that they do not worship the sun, moon, and stars and "the world of heaven." They avoid worshiping heaven as such or the angels in it.
Deuteronomy 4:24 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5.3
Hear what is written: "Our God is a consuming fire." What does the God of fire consume? Will we be so senseless as to think that God consumes the firewood or straw or hay? But the God of fire consumes human sins. He consumes them, devours them, purges them, as he says in another place, "I will purge you with fire for purity."
Deuteronomy 4:24 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
"God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth". Our God too "is a consuming fire". God, therefore, is called by two names: both "spirit" and "fire": spirit for the righteous, fire for sinners.
Deuteronomy 4:38 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.8
If we rightly understand the matter, this is the statement of Moses at the beginning of his book: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." For this is the beginning of all creation; to this beginning the end and consummation of all things must be recalled, in order that this heaven and this earth may be the habitation and resting place of the pious. So all the holy ones and the meek obtain an inheritance in that land, since this is the teaching of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels.
Deuteronomy 5:31 — AGAINST CELSUS 6.64
[Celsus] continues by making further remarks as if they were what we should agree to, although none of those Christians who have any intelligence would agree to them. Not one of us says that "God participates in shape or color." Nor does he "partake of movement"; because it is his nature to be established and firm, he calls the righteous man to imitate him in this respect when he says, "But as for you, stand with me." If, however, some texts suggest that there is movement of some sort on his part, as for example that which says "They heard the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening," we should understand such sayings in the sense that God is regarded as being moved by those who have sinned. Or we should interpret such texts in the same way as we do when there is a figurative reference to God's sleep or his anger or anything of this sort.
Deuteronomy 6:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 67
Something of this kind is shown also concerning the commandment of love toward God and toward the neighbor, when it says thus: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength". For without doubt, when anyone shall have loved God "with his whole heart" "and with his whole soul" "and with his whole strength", he has such a reward of love as the one who had a greater heart, or who has a more eminent soul, or who received greater strength. For this alone is sought, that whatever a man may have from God, he should use the whole of it for the glory of God.
Deuteronomy 6:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2
The great and first commandment in the law, therefore, is this: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. But whoever subtracts anything from that whole commandment — that is, either from what it says with your whole heart or with your whole soul or with your whole mind — subtracts from its magnitude and from its primacy. And perhaps all who love their Lord God, unless they also fulfill the parts that follow and love him with their whole heart and with their whole soul and with their whole mind, keep the commandment only in part; but those alone take up its magnitude and primacy within themselves who not only love their Lord God but have also taken up those three — that is, so that with their whole heart they store up within themselves that whole one and his works and his thoughts, and with their whole soul, that is, so that they are ready to lay it down for the piety of God who created all things, when the usefulness of the word demands it, out of the fact that with the whole soul one loves God, in such a way that no part of the soul is torn away toward any thing that is foreign to the faith, and in our whole mind thinking or bringing forth nothing else but "the things that are of God". And see whether you can take heart to mean the intellect, which gazes upon intelligible things and shows the source and beginning of them, which is God, and mind to mean the bringing forth of things (for it is with the mind that we bring forth individual things, and through each thing that is signified we walk about, as it were, with our mind and bring it forth). And if anyone should understand ingeniously the commandment which was laid down concerning love in all those three things that have been named, and should consider in each of the several faithful the love of God, he will perhaps find the whole commandment either in one, or perhaps the second or the third (and this if it should be granted), but in all of them the love of God having less — whether a little or more — either from what it says with your whole heart or from what it says with your whole soul or with your whole mind.
Deuteronomy 6:5 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
Whatever each one worships above the rest, whatever he admires and loves above all things, this is his God. Indeed, this is what before all things and above all things God demands of man by his commandment: "you shall love", he says, "the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" — desiring in a manner to lay first claim to himself upon all the affections of the human mind, and knowing that whatever one "loves with all the heart and with all the soul and with all the strength", this is his God. Let each one now examine himself and silently reckon up from his own heart what flame of love above all else and beyond all things burns hottest in him, what affection is cherished in him more ardent than the rest. Do you yourselves hold judgment concerning these things, weigh them on the balance of your own examination, and if there be anything that outweighs in the scale of love, this is your God. But I fear that in very many the love of gold outweighs, and that the weight of avarice, pressing the scale down enough, sinks it. And to such a one it will surely be said: "you cannot serve God and mammon" — that is, avarice.
Deuteronomy 6:8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11
It must be understood in these matters that it is written in the law concerning the divine words, saying: "bind them upon your hand, and they shall be moving before your eyes". Those, therefore, who do all things in order to be seen by men, the scribes and Pharisees, writing certain sayings of the law on two cut pieces of parchment, bind them, and one indeed they carry on their houses, as it were placing upon their heads as a crown that which is written according to the forehead. But the other upon the arm of their hand; and they call them "phylacteries". Similarly, finding something also about the fringe in Deuteronomy, they suppose that they keep the law by making some fringe on some part of the garments which they wear. But the disciples of Jesus do all their works in order to be seen by God alone; for they bind the law of God upon their hand, spiritually upon their good work, and by meditation on the divine teachings, ever moving them, they make the divine precepts moving before the eyes of their souls, and the fringe full of the virtue of Jesus — in this, that they imitate the Master.
Deuteronomy 9:9 — ON PRAYER 27.4
Every form of nourishment is called "bread" in the Scriptures. This is clear from what is written concerning Moses: for forty days he neither ate "bread" nor drank water. The word that nourishes is multidimensional and varied. Not everyone can receive the solid and strong nourishment of God's teachings. Therefore, wishing to give an athlete's nourishment suitable to the more perfect, [Christ] says, "The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Deuteronomy 10:12 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
God demands us back. What does he demand back? Read Moses: "and now what does the Lord your God demand back from you?" and the rest that follows. God therefore requires of us and beseeches us, not because he has need of anything that we might bestow upon him, but so that, after we have given it to him, he may bestow that very thing upon us for salvation.
Deuteronomy 12:23 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The troubling utterance is the following: "The soul of all flesh is the blood" — behold an extremely difficult passage, which has shaken those who did not understand it! And also: "Do not eat the soul together with the meat. Strictly observe that you do not eat the blood; do not eat the soul together with the meat." Such are the truly difficult passages, since the others, though numerous, are less striking. … Do not doubt, then, also concerning the blood, homonymous with the sentient blood, which, like the other parts of the body, the inner man has. It is precisely this blood of which the soul of the sinner is deprived.
Deuteronomy 16:10 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 2.2.5
An offering of "first fruits," that is, from the beginning of the harvest, is commanded. If you remember well, the law commands this is to be done on the day of Pentecost. This was obviously given to them as a "shadow," but the truth was reserved for us. For on the day of Pentecost, after they offered up the sacrifice of prayers, the church of the apostles received the first fruits of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Deuteronomy 18:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.90
It is written in Deuteronomy, "[The Lord] your God will raise up a prophet like me for you from your brothers. You shall hear him; and it shall be that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from his people." Therefore some prophet was specially expected who would be similar to Moses in some respect, to mediate between God and humanity, and who would receive the covenant from God and give the new covenant to those who became disciples. And the people of Israel knew so far as each of the prophets was concerned that no one of them was the [special] one announced by Moses.
Deuteronomy 18:20 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 8
We can be prepared to find some prophet even of impiety—and perhaps not just one but several—who will tell us of a word of the Lord, which the Lord has not at all commanded, or a "word of wisdom" which has nothing whatever to do with wisdom. His purpose is to slay us by the word of his mouth.
Deuteronomy 19:16-21 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 10
It should indeed be known that some portion of these matters, of which we must treat, is set down in the Gospel according to Matthew, the Lord speaking in this manner: "you have heard that it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not resist evil. But if anyone strike you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." But perhaps one who reads the Scriptures more attentively may say that the words we have recalled as written in the Gospel are not taken from this passage of Exodus, but rather from Deuteronomy, where nonetheless certain things are recorded as written in this manner: "but if," it says, "an unjust witness should stand, bearing testimony against a man concerning impiety, both men who are in controversy shall be set before the Lord and before the priests and before the judges, whoever they may be in those days, and the judges shall examine diligently and investigate. And behold, they shall find that the unjust witness has testified unjustly, that he has risen up against his brother; and you shall do to him as he himself attempted to do to his brother, and you shall remove the malignant one from your midst, that the rest, hearing, may have fear, and may not go on further to do according to this evil word among you. Your eye shall not spare over him: life for life, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Similar things indeed seem to be said in both places; yet it is not plainly shown from which passage in particular the words set down in the Gospel seem to be taken, where he said: "you have heard that it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth." Yet each of these particulars seems to me not to admit of an easy solution even in the passages of Deuteronomy, where similar things are recorded as written. For let us suppose there too that "an unjust witness has risen up" speaking false testimony against a man concerning impiety. Let both be brought to judgment, let the judges inquire diligently, let them detect that that accuser or witness has spoken falsely: how shall the judge, who ought not to spare the false witness and to condemn the life of the guilty party for the life of an innocent one—how, I say, shall he also be able to take out "eye for eye"? As though indeed the one who was being unjustly accused was to have been injured in his eye by the accuser, or in tooth or hand or foot. But these things have been said by us because we wish to show that in both passages the things written cannot easily be expounded. For it was fitting for us first to examine according to the history the things that are read, and thus, since "the law is spiritual," to seek the spiritual understanding in them.
Deuteronomy 21:10-11 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.6.7
But nevertheless I also intellectually have "gone out to war against my enemies, and I saw there" in the plunder "a woman with a beautiful figure." Whatever we find said well and reasonably among our philosophical enemies, or we read anything said among them wisely and knowingly, we must cleanse it. We must remove and cut off all that is dead and worthless. It is as if one were trimming the hairs of the head and the nails of the woman taken from the spoils of the enemy. Only then would you take her as a wife.
Deuteronomy 22:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.7
When you build a house, you do not quit before building the protective parapet of the house. It is this parapet that prevents one who has ascended onto the house from falling. So it is with the house of the Word. Consequently those who fall because of unfinished buildings fall only from houses which lack the parapet. Those architects and builders bear the blame for such slaughters and falls.
Deuteronomy 25:9 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 113
But that the injury of spittings is taken as the extreme injury, is manifest also in the law, in which it is written that the wife of a deceased man, if the brother of her husband will not take her, going to him who refused to take her to himself as wife, in the presence of the elders shall unshoe "one of his sandals from his feet and shall spit in his face and shall say: so shall it be done to the man who has not built up the house of his brother". Therefore Christ did not turn away his face "from the confusion of spittings", that his countenance might be more glorified than the countenance of Moses was glorified, with so great and such glory that (by comparison with this glorification) the glorification of that countenance is done away, just as in the sight of the sun the light of a lamp is done away, and just as the knowledge which is in part is done away "when that which is perfect has come".
Deuteronomy 29:23 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18.6.7
He pretends then that he does not see your future so that he may preserve your self-determination by not foretelling or foreknowing whether you will repent or not. So he says to the prophet, "Speak, perhaps they will repent." You will find numerous other passages where Scripture talks about God "taking on the manners of" man. If you hear of the anger of God and his wrath, do not suppose that anger and wrath are passions of God. The purposes of using this way of speaking are for converting and educating the infant, since we also use a fearful expression with children, not from an actual state of mind but because of a purpose to cause fear.
Deuteronomy 30:14 — ON PRAYER 25.1
The "kingdom of God," according to the word of our Lord and Savior, "comes not with observation"; and "neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there"—but "the kingdom of God is within us" (for "the Word is very nigh unto" us, "in our mouth and in our heart"). So it is clear that he who prays for the coming of the kingdom of God rightly prays that the kingdom of God might be established and bear fruit and be perfected in himself.
Deuteronomy 30:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.269
But consider if perhaps all people participate in him insofar as he is Word. This is why the apostle teaches us that he is sought within the seekers by those who choose to find him. He says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who shall ascend into heaven?' that is, to bring Christ down; or, 'Who shall descend into the deep?' that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart." This is as though Christ and the Word which is sought are the same.
Deuteronomy 30:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.77
But what does Scripture say? The Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart. And to these the Savior also kindly points out the matters pertaining to the kingdom of God, that they may not seek it outside themselves or say, "Behold here or behold there." For he says to them, "The kingdom of God is within you."
Deuteronomy 30:15 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Therefore, let us acquire eternal life. Let us acquire what is available to us. God does not give it to us; He offers it to us: "Behold, I have offered you life." It is available to us to stretch out our hands to good deeds, to take possession of life and to keep it in our soul.
Deuteronomy 32:2 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16.2.3.See also AMBROSE ON DEUTERONOMY 28:12
Therefore let us seek in the Scriptures what is "the rain" which is given only to the saints and concerning which "it is commanded to the clouds that they do not pour their rain" upon the unjust. Therefore Moses and the Lawgiver himself teach us what this rain is. For he himself says in Deuteronomy, "Consider, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words from my mouth; let my speech be awaited like rain." Are these words my speech? Do we pervert violently the meaning of divine law by arguments of rhetoric? Is it not Moses who says that it is "rain" of which he speaks? He says, "Let my speech be awaited like rain and my words descend as dew, as a storm upon the grass and as snow upon the hay."
Deuteronomy 32:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.49
But he who is on the white horse is called "faithful," not so much because he trusts as because he is trustworthy, that is, he is worthy of being trusted. According to Moses, the Lord is faithful and true. For he is also true in contradistinction to a shadow and a type and an image, since the Word that powers from heaven is true. For the Word on earth is not like the Word in heaven, inasmuch as he has become flesh and is expressed by means of a shadow and types and images.
Deuteronomy 32:6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
But if the Lord himself is the creator of all things, it must be seen how here he is said to have "acquired" those which there is no doubt are his own — for it is said also in the other song, that of Deuteronomy: "Is not this same one your God, who made you and created you and acquired you?" —; for each one seems to acquire that which was not his own. Hence finally the heretics too say of the Savior that those whom he "acquired" were not his own; for, a price being given, he purchased men whom the creator had made. And it is certain, they say, that each one buys that which is not his own; for the Apostle says: "you were bought with a price."
Deuteronomy 32:8-9 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
For the same Moses says in the canticle of Deuteronomy: "when the Most High divided the nations" he says "and scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance, Israel". It is established, then, that the angels to whom the Most High committed the nations to be governed are called either gods or lords: gods, as though given by God, and lords, as being those who received their power by lot from the Lord.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
"When you go to the ruler". Who then is this ruler? "When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God, and the Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel". Therefore from the beginning the earth was divided among the rulers, that is, the angels. For Daniel more plainly testifies that those whom Moses had named "angels" are "rulers", saying: "the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians" and "the ruler of the kingdom of the Greeks" and "Michael your ruler"; and so there are rulers of the nations. And each one of us has an adversary clinging to him, whose work it is to lead us to the ruler and to say: O ruler — for example, of the kingdom of the Persians — this man, who was under you, I have kept for you as he was; none of the remaining rulers was able to lead him over to himself, not even that one who boasted that he had come for this purpose, to snatch men from all the inheritances of the Persians or the Greeks and of all the nations and make them subject to the inheritance of God. Christ our Lord conquered all the rulers and, passing beyond their boundaries, carried over the captive peoples to himself for salvation. And you were of the portion of some ruler: Jesus came and snatched you from the perverse power and offered you to God the Father.
Deuteronomy 32:21 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 2
Yet what is it that she, among whom the law was both born and nursed, receives the wages of her nursing from the daughter of Pharaoh? What is it that the synagogue receives from the church? I think it can be understood as that which the same Moses writes, saying: "I will lead you into jealousy over that which is no nation, over a foolish nation I will provoke you to wrath." The synagogue, then, receives this as its wages from the church, that it no longer worship idols. For seeing those who are of the nations so converted to God that they no longer know idols, and venerate no one except the one God, she herself is ashamed any longer to worship idols. This benefit, therefore, the synagogue receives from the church, in that she was seen to have nursed the law as a little one.
Deuteronomy 32:22 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
Something like this is also written concerning God: "a fire is kindled in my fury", not as far as heaven, but "as far as hell beneath", and "it shall devour" not heaven, but "the earth and its produce". To what end have I recalled these things? Because the baptism too, with which Jesus baptizes, is "in the Holy Spirit" and "in fire". If you are holy, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit; if a sinner, you will be plunged into fire; and one and the same baptism will be turned, for the unworthy and for sinners, into condemnation and fire, but to those who are holy and turn to the Lord with their whole faith, the grace and salvation of the Holy Spirit is to be granted.
Deuteronomy 32:32 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.28
It was the work of the good God, indeed, to destroy the land of the Sodomites and to dry up all its remaining moisture, so that there might no longer be a vineyard of the Sodomites, or a vine branch of Gomorrah, or grapes of gall, or a cluster of bitterness, or wine, the wrath of dragons and the incurable wrath of asps.
Deuteronomy 32:39 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 16
There is also something deeper to be understood against those especially who bark against the Creator, and, gathering together from here and there out of the Old Testament testimonies which they do not understand, "deceive the hearts of the simple". For they say: behold, the God of the Law and the Prophets, see what sort he is. "I", he says, "will kill, and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none who can deliver out of my hands". They hear: "I will kill", and they do not hear: "I will make alive"; they hear: "I will strike", and they disdain to hear: "and I will heal". On occasions of this kind they slander the Creator. Therefore, before I interpret what sense there is in: "I will kill and make alive, I will strike and heal", I will set against them a testimony of the Gospel and will say against the heretics — for there are countless heresies which receive the Gospel according to Luke —: If the Creator is bloodthirsty and only a judge and cruel because he says: "I will kill and make alive, I will strike and heal", it is most manifest that Jesus too is his son; for the same things are written of him: "behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel", not "for the rising" only, but also "for the fall". … But I, who desire to be of the Church and to be named and to bear a name not from any heresiarch, but from the appellation of Christ, and to have a name that is blessed upon the earth, and long to be and to be called a Christian both in work and in thought, seek an equal principle both in the old and in the new law. God speaks: "I will kill"; I am glad that God kills. For when the old man is in me and I still live as a man, I long that God may kill in me the old man and make me alive from the dead. For, he says, "the first man was of the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly".
Deuteronomy 32:39 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
What then do the divine Scriptures intend to say, for example, here: "Before Me there was no God, and after Me there shall be none," and "I am, and there is no God besides Me"? Do not suppose that in these utterances the unity is applied to the God of the universe … apart from Christ, and, of course, not to Christ alone apart from God. But let us speak of this as Jesus Himself taught: "I and the Father are one."
Ecclesiastes 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
why is it that Solomon, who in these three little books seems to comply with the will of the Holy Spirit, is in Proverbs indeed called "Solomon the son of David, who reigned in Israel"; whereas in the second book he is not written down as Solomon, but it says, "the words of the Preacher (Ecclesiastes), the son of David, king of Israel in Jerusalem" … That in very many places Solomon bears the type of Christ … And again he is himself the true Ecclesiastes, who, when he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, that he might gather together the Church … Therefore in the first book, that of Proverbs, when he instructs us in moral disciplines, he is said to be king in Israel, but not yet in Jerusalem … then already Christ himself becomes for us also Ecclesiastes, and is said to reign not only in Israel, but also in Jerusalem.
Ecclesiastes 1:2 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:7.5
Let us see what is the "vanity" to which the creation was subjected. My own opinion is, that this is nothing else than the possession of bodies, for even though the stars are composed of ether they are nevertheless material. This, it seems to me, is the reason why Solomon arraigns the whole bodily universe as being in a way burdensome and as impeding the activity of spirits, thus: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, said the Preacher; all is vanity." "For," he adds, "I looked and I saw all things that are under the sun, and behold, all is vanity."
Ecclesiastes 1:4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 54
Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Let us see what this generation is, of which Christ speaks. And the simple, indeed, refer these words to the destruction of Jerusalem; and they suppose it was said of that generation which existed in the time of Christ and looked upon his suffering, a generation that would not pass away before the destruction of that city came to pass. But I do not know whether they can expound word for word what he says: "do you not see all these things? amen I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be destroyed" down to that which he says: it is near, at the door. For perhaps in some points they will be able, but in others they will not be able at all, and, sufficiently hemmed in, I do not know whether they will have been able to say anything. But we, observing in many passages the word "generation," take it in two ways. For we hold that there are two generations, one indeed of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles. Thus we understand also Ecclesiastes saying: one generation passes away and another generation comes, and the earth stands forever. For, prophesying of the people of the Jews, who were to pass away, he says one generation passes away; but of the people of the Gentiles, who were to believe, he said another generation comes. Something of this kind I think is said also in the eighty-ninth Psalm by Moses in his prayer: Lord, thou hast become a refuge for us from generation to generation. For God is the refuge of the two generations, since there is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And since God is the God not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, therefore the generation shall not pass away of the new testament, which is in the face of the Savior, nor shall it depart to those blessed promises of that age, until all things be done which Christ has spoken. For to each one of us it is fitting that all things be done which have been foretold, as we have handed down through the several expositions. There is, therefore, one generation of the Church, which began from the teaching of the Lord the Savior and lasts until the consummation. And this same generation will indeed at some time pass through this whole age (and it will pass through it, so as to inherit that age which is to come), yet until all these things be done, it shall not pass away; but when it shall have been sufficient in all these things and shall have remained impassible until the glorious coming of Christ, then it shall pass through. Yet until all these things be done (not some of the things that have been said, while others are not), those things are not to be; nevertheless this generation shall pass away, when all these things shall have been done, when there shall have passed away not only the earth, but also the heaven, that is, not only those men whose life is earthly, and who for that reason are called earth, but also those whose "citizenship is in the heavens", and who therefore are called heaven. And they shall pass to the things to come, along with all their states, so that they may come to more eminent and better things. For the revelation of these (since they are sons of God) the expectation of the creature awaits, and "every creature groans together with them and is in pain", until, conceiving in the womb from the fear of the Lord, they bring forth "the spirit of salvation", making their own offspring; and then shall pass away the generation of which Christ speaks, and the heaven according to what we have expounded, and the earth according to what we have handed down. But the words which were spoken by the Savior shall not pass away, since the things which are proper to them they work both now and shall always work. But the perfect, and those who do not receive so that they may now be made better, pass…
Ecclesiastes 1:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:4.5
It is probably in this way that, so far as our weakness allows, we shall maintain a reverent belief about God, neither asserting that his creatures were unbegotten and coeternal with him nor that he turned to the work of creation to do good when he had done nothing good before. For the saying that is written, "In wisdom you have made all things," is a true one. And certainly if "all things have been made in wisdom," then since wisdom has always existed, there have always existed in wisdom, by a prefiguration and preformation, those things which afterwards have received substantial existence. This is, I believe, the thought and meaning of Solomon when he says in Ecclesiastes, "What is it that has been made? The same that is to be. And what is it that has been created? The same that is destined to be created. And there is nothing fresh under the sun. If one should speak of anything and say, Behold, this is new: it already has been, in the ages that were before us." If then particular things which are "under the sun" have already existed in the ages which were before us—since "there is nothing fresh under the sun"—then all universal categories have forever existed, and some would say even individual things; but either way, it is clear that God did not begin to create after spending a period in idleness.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:5.3
We say that not then for the first time did God begin to work when he made this visible world; but as, after its destruction, there will be another world, so also we believe that others existed before the present came into being. And both of these positions will be confirmed by the authority of Holy Scripture. For that there will be another world after this is taught by Isaiah, who says, "There will be new heavens, and a new earth, which I shall make to abide in my sight, says the Lord." And that before this world others also existed is shown by Ecclesiastes, in the words "What is that which has been? Even that which shall be. And what is that which has been created? Even this which is to be created: and there is nothing altogether new under the sun. Who shall speak and declare, Lo, this is new? It has already been in the ages which have been before us." By these testimonies it is established both that there were ages before our own and that there will be others after it. It is not, however, to be supposed that several worlds existed at once but that, after the end of this present world, others will take their beginning.
Ecclesiastes 1:14 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:7.5
This then is the "vanity" to which the creation was subjected, and above all that creation which is certainly the greatest thing in this world and which holds a distinguished preeminence by reason of its function. That is, the sun, moon and stars are said to have been subjected to vanity, because they were clothed with bodies and set to perform the task of giving light to the human race. And this creation, Scripture says, was subjected to vanity "not of its own will." For it did not undertake a service to vanity by the exercise of free will but in obedience to the wish of him who was subjecting it, because he who subjected it promised those who were being given over unwillingly to vanity that on the fulfillment of their splendid work of service they should be delivered from this bondage of corruption and vanity, when the time of redemption "of the glory of the sons of God" should have come. Having received this hope, and looking for the fulfillment of this promise, the entire creation now in the meantime "groans together" with us (for it even has sympathy with those whom it serves) and "is in pain together," while in patience it hopes for what has been promised.
Ecclesiastes 2:14 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
In Ecclesiastes there is a curious saying. To the undiscerning it will seem meaningless, but it is precisely for the wise man that Ecclesiastes says: "The wise man's eyes are in his head." In what head? Every man, even a madman and a fool, has fleshly eyes on his fleshly head. But the eyes of the wise man, of which it is said that they are enlightened by the commandments of God, are in his head, in Christ, because "the head of the man is Christ," says the Apostle. The capacity to think proceeds from Christ.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10:10
"To everything then is its season, and a time for everything under heaven," a time to gather the goodly pearls, and a time after their gathering to find the one precious pearl, when it is fitting for a person to go away and sell all that he has in order that he may buy that pearl.
Ecclesiastes 4:14 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
For in Ecclesiastes too it is written of the righteous man who successfully struggled and conquered, having freed himself from the bonds of the flesh: "From the prison he will go forth to a kingdom."
Ecclesiastes 5:2 — ON PRAYER 23:4
The passage in Ecclesiastes "Be not in haste to utter speech before God, because God is in heaven above and you on earth below" is intended to show the gap which separates those who are in the "body of humiliation" from him who is with the angels exalted by the help of the Word and from the holy powers with Christ himself. For it is not unreasonable that he should be strictly "at the Father's throne," allegorically called heaven, while his church, termed earth, is a footstool at his feet.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 1:1
[It might be that] a person dedicates himself rashly, without comprehending what is esoteric of the wisdom of God and of the Word who is "in the beginning with God" and who is himself God. And … it is by means of the Word and God and by means of the wisdom with him that one must examine and discover these things. [Then] it must happen that he, by falling into myths and nonsense and fictions, submits himself to the danger that surrounds impiety. For that reason one must remember also the commandment from Solomon in Ecclesiastes concerning such things, which says, "Do not hasten to express a word before the face of God. For God is in the heaven above, and you are on the earth below. Therefore let your words be few."
Ecclesiastes 7:16 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 25
But neither these, who love more, nor those, who hate, hold to the rule of truth, and the ones lie through love, the others through hatred. Whence it is fitting to put reins upon love also, and to permit it only so much liberty of roaming as will not let it plunge over precipices. It is written in Ecclesiastes: "Be not overly just, nor think things greater than yourself, lest perhaps you be struck senseless". Following this example, I can say something similar: do not love a man "with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength"; do not love an angel "with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole strength", but keep this precept, according to the word of the Savior, for God alone. For "you shall love", he says, "the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength".
Ecclesiastes 7:19 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8:1.3
The inhabited world arises in no other way than in the wisdom of God. For "wisdom gives strength to the wise beyond ten rulers who live in the city." "And the one who despises wisdom and instruction is miserable, and his hope empty, and his labors unprofitable, and his works useless," says the Book of Wisdom ascribed to Solomon. Hence insofar as possible, since the inhabited world is set aright in the wisdom of God, let us ourselves desire that our inhabited world, which perhaps has fallen, be set aright. For this inhabited world has fallen whenever we went to the place of affliction. This inhabited world has fallen whenever "we sinned, did wrong, acted wickedly," and it has need of being set aright.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20:328
And it is likely also that in countless other things demons delude us and influence us to act according to their will. And it is possible that, just as no one among us is "clean from defilement," and there is no "just person on the earth who will do good and will not sin," so also there is no one who has always been free of demons and has never fallen victim to their influence.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12:3.2
If you wish to recall some other of the saints, the word of Scripture replies to you, saying, "There is no one upon the earth who does good and sins not." Therefore only Jesus rightly "has perfect hands"; who alone "does not sin," that is, who has perfect and whole works of his hands.
Ecclesiastes 8:11 — AGAINST CELSUS 8:52
Let them rest assured that punishment shall be inflicted on the wicked, and rewards shall be bestowed upon the righteous, by him who deals with everyone as each deserves, and who will proportion his rewards to the good that each has done, and to the account of himself that he is able to give. And let all know that the good shall be advanced to a higher state, and that the wicked shall be delivered over to sufferings and torments, in punishment of their licentiousness and depravity, their cowardice, timidity, and all their follies.
Ecclesiastes 9:8 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
No one, then, can hear the word of God unless he has first been sanctified, that is, unless he is "holy in body and spirit", unless he has washed his garments. For he is about, a little later, to enter to the wedding supper, he is about to eat of the flesh of the lamb, he is about to drink the cup of salvation. Let no one enter to this supper with soiled garments. For this too wisdom commanded elsewhere, saying: "at every time let your garments be clean". For your garments have been washed once: when you came to the grace of baptism, you were purified in body, you were cleansed from all defilement of flesh and spirit.
Ecclesiastes 12:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2
All the Scriptures are "words of the wise like goads, and as nails firmly fixed which were given by agreement from one shepherd," and there is nothing superfluous in them. But the Word is the one Shepherd of things rational which may have an appearance of discord to those who have not ears to hear but are truly at perfect concord.
Ecclesiastes 12:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14:4
And likewise it is a pleasant thing to endeavor to understand and exhibit the fact of the concord of the two covenants—of the one before the bodily advent of the Savior and of the new covenant. For among those things in which the two covenants are at concord so that there is no discord between them would be found prayers, to the effect that about anything whatever they shall ask it shall be done to them from the Father in heaven. And if also you desire the third that unites the two, do not hesitate to say that it is the Holy Spirit. For "the words of the wise," whether they be those before the advent, or at the time of the advent, or after it, "are as goads, and as nails firmly fixed, which were given by agreement from one shepherd."
Ecclesiastes 12:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5, PREFACE
I, for my part, am inclined to shrink from toil and to avoid that danger which threatens from God those who give themselves to writing on divinity; thus I would take shelter in Scripture in refraining from making many books. For Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, "My son, beware of making many books; there is no end of it, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." For we, except that text have some hidden meaning which we do not yet perceive, have directly transgressed the injunction; we have not guarded ourselves against making many books.
Ecclesiastes 12:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5:4
First of all, we set forth the command from Ecclesiastes: "My son, beware of making many books." I juxtapose for comparison with this the saying from the Proverbs of the same Solomon, who says, "In a multitude of words you will not escape sins, but you will be wise if you restrain your lips." And I inquire, therefore, if speaking many words, regardless of what they are, is being loquacious, even if the many words are holy and pertain to salvation? For if this is the way things are, and if he who expounds many beneficial things is loquacious, Solomon himself has not escaped the sin.
Ephesians 1:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
All their error, therefore, has crept in from the reading of the prophets, which they do not understand — among which is that passage in Isaiah: "my chosen ones will not have children for a curse", and in Deuteronomy among the blessings: "blessed are the children of your womb" — and they suppose that these things are to be in the resurrection, not understanding that spiritual blessings were foretold. For Paul, "the vessel of election", interpreting spiritually all these blessings that are set down in the law, and knowing that they are not carnal, speaks to the Ephesians: "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing". And so all these blessings will be spiritual, when, rising from the dead, we attain eternal blessedness.
Ephesians 1:4 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
One might ask if this is not contradicted by the prophetic saying "In your sight shall no living being be justified." … One may answer, taking refuge in the double meanings of prophecy, that … no one is in all respects and throughout his whole life justified in God's sight, since he will of course have sinned at some time. But this would not prevent some from being at times holy and blameless before him if they have become so through correction.
Ephesians 1:7 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
Forgiveness of sins follows redemption, for there would be no forgiveness of sin for anyone before redemption occurs. First then we need to be redeemed, to be no longer subject to our captor and oppressor, so that having been freed and taken out of his hands we may be able to receive the benefit of remission of sins. Once our wounds have been healed we are called to live in accord with piety and the other virtues.
Ephesians 1:9 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
We must examine the possibility that predestination and purpose differ so that purpose is presupposed in predestination. Thus, as it were, the predestination is in the thought of God and the purpose unfolds in accordance with things predestined, so that then they become realities and actualize the predestination.
Ephesians 1:21 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 7.13
The One who is above all by definition has no one above him. He is not temporally following after the Father but eternally from the Father. This same thing is said of the Holy Spirit, according to the Wisdom of God, when it says "the Spirit of God has filled the world." If therefore the Son of God is said to be above all and the Holy Spirit is said to contain all, while God the Father is the one far above all names, it is plainly demonstrated that the nature and substance of the Trinity is one, which is above all.
Ephesians 1:21 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
Under one Lord there may be many subordinate powers and lordships, who may themselves delegate a portion of their own power, some operating in this age and some in that which is to come. But none of these has an authority equal to the Son's. All authorities must be subject to his authority. All subordinate powers are rightly exercised under that of Christ, since God's power is superior to every other power.
Ephesians 1:22-23 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
The church is called the body of Christ. We inquire whether as the body is distinguished from the head so we should think of [the church] here as an organ of its Head. Or should we rather think of the head as an aspect of the body of a person, so the whole church of Christ is Christ's body in that he ensouls it with his Godhead and fills it with his Spirit. Or perhaps it should be interpreted in another way. But even if the second is true, the more human part of it is by itself a subservient aspect of the whole body, while the divinity that gives life to the whole church is, as it were, the divine power that enlivens it.
Ephesians 2:6 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 5.8
What Paul is saying then is: If you believe that Christ is risen from the dead, believe also that you too have risen with him. If you believe that he sits at the Father's right hand in heaven, believe that your place too is amid not earthly but heavenly things.
Ephesians 2:13 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
Paul is responding to those who think that believers in Christ may enter into the commonwealth of Israel but that it is some entirely different one that has nothing in common with the history of Israel.… It is those who know the spiritual law and live in accordance with it who are made dwellers in the commonwealth of Israel, more so than those who are Israelites in the body only.
Ephesians 2:20 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 139
And the earth was shaken and the rocks were split and the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who were sleeping rose again; and going out from the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared to many (27, 51ᵇ—53). And the earth was shaken, that is, all flesh, when the new word and new things according to the new covenant, and the new song, and all things new and heavenly came upon it, as the prophet too says in a certain place about this very thing: "all who saw them were confounded", that is, the disciples of Christ, "and every man feared". Likewise through another prophet the Lord says: "yet once more I will move the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land". But having said a little about the shaking of the earth, let us not unprofitably speak again also about the rocks split in the passion of the Lord the Savior, which were a mystery (as I think) of the prophets; for the law and the prophets were made manifest at the coming of Christ; and for this reason, when men "turn to the Lord" "while Moses is read, the veil which had been placed over their heart is taken away", and because "in the reading of the old covenant a veil had been placed, in Christ it is abolished". Now therefore the rocks have been opened and split, that we may see the spiritual mysteries placed in their depths. And we prove that the rocks then split are the prophets, first indeed from the fact that "Christ" is called the spiritual "rock", and it stands to reason that all imitators of Christ are likewise called rocks. Just as they are also called "the light of the world" from the fact that their Lord himself is the "light" of the "world", and next from the fact that Peter too was called a rock by the Lord himself, when it is said to him: "you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". But this is shown most of all from the fact that all those against whom the "gates of hell" do not prevail, who have in themselves the work of the name of rock (that is, the apostles and the prophets) are themselves also rocks, and are the foundations of those who are built upon them, according to what the apostle says: "built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ our Lord himself being the highest cornerstone". But those are built up upon the apostles and prophets most of all who are of the immaculate Church and who admire the apostles of Christ and do not despise the prophets, but examine also their scriptures.
Ephesians 2:20 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
These are fitting words to cite against those who would divide the Godhead and think that the prophets belong to one God and the apostles to another.
Ephesians 3:13 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
One person will say that he attaches the words "which is your glory" to the tribulations … another to the boldness or else to the access or the faith. For boldness [or freedom of speech] is the glory to the one who possesses it, and access can be called the glory of the one who has access to God and faith the glory of the one with faith.
Ephesians 3:14-15 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
He departed to his fathers. To what fathers? Those of whom Paul speaks: "Therefore I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every fatherhood receives its name."
Ephesians 4:6 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.4.31
It is impossible to speak of any parts or division in the incorporeal, but he is "in all and through all" … insofar as he is understood as either Wisdom or Word or life or truth, an interpretation which undoubtedly excludes all local confinement.
Ephesians 4:6 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
He is "God and Father of all" by being the God but not the Father of some and both God and Father of others. It is as if, picking out ten men of whom five were someone's sons and five his slaves, one said, "this is the lord and father of all ten."
Ephesians 4:8-9 — Commentary on Romans, Book 5, Section 37
If, on the other hand, as it reads in some manuscripts, "even in those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression," this death, namely that which was keeping souls bound in the underworld, is said to exercise dominion, then we shall understand it to mean that even the saints had fallen prey to that death certainly under the law of dying, even if not under the punishment of sin. But it was on this account that Christ descended into the underworld, not only because he would not be held by death [Acts 2:24], but also in order that he might release those who were held there, as we said, not so much through the crime of transgression as much as by the condition of dying. As it is written, "Many bodies of saints who were sleeping were resurrected with him and entered into the holy city." [Matthew 27:52-53] In this as well the prophet's sayings were fulfilled, in which he said of Christ, "In ascending on high he led captivity captive." [Ephesians 4:8-9] Thus by his own resurrection he has already destroyed the dominions of death, which is also why it is written that he set captivity free.
Ephesians 4:13-14 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 20
Two ages are spoken of in the Scriptures: one of the body, which is not in our power but in the law of nature; the other of the soul, which properly lies within us, and according to which, if we will, we daily grow and come to its summit, "so that we may be no longer little children, tossed about and carried around by every wind of doctrine", but, ceasing to be "little children", may begin to be "men" and may say: "when I became a man, I destroyed the things that belonged to a little child". Of this age, as I said, the advancement, which is the increase of the soul, is in our power. But if this testimony is not enough, let us take yet another example from Paul: "until we all attain", he says, "to a perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of the body of Christ". It is in us, therefore, that we should "attain to the measure of the age of the body of Christ"; and, if it is in us, let us strive with all effort to lay aside the little child and to destroy him and to come to the remaining ages.
Ephesians 4:17 — PALESTINIAN CATENA ON PSALM 118.37
Consider what Paul calls "futility of mind." This occurs when someone has a mind but does not use it for contemplation, instead surrendering it to captivity under Satan.
Ephesians 4:22 — ON PSALM 91.12-13
The "old man" includes all born as earthly men in their old nature. It is this "old man," this ancient condition of humanity, that is put off in Christ. Although his body continues, he nonetheless undergoes a change to new life engendered by living baptism. What he was has been "put off." His old life is renewed by the holy water and the copious mercy of the anointing. He becomes new rather than old, whole rather than corrupt, fresh rather than enfeebled, an infant rather than an old man, eternal rather than ephemeral.
Ephesians 4:23 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
As there are many spirits, each has its proper abode. There is a spirit proper to your mind. When your mind is detoxified and expels confusions, the spirit of your mind renews you by taking up its dwelling within you.
Ephesians 4:27 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.4
He is showing us how an opportunity is being given to the devil by these acts and desires. Once he has entered our body, he takes full possession of us. Or if he cannot take full possession, he at least pollutes the soul, having stuck his flaming darts into us unawares. At times these pierce us with a wound that goes down very deep. At other times we are merely temporarily inflamed. But it is indeed seldom that these burning darts are easily extinguished. They find their place to wound.
Ephesians 4:31 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
People who insult others are said to slander or blaspheme against those whom they insult.… One blasphemes when one makes a true doctrine appear false or a false one true, especially when one speaks of God or matters pertaining to God.
Ephesians 5:3 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
Fornication in the strict sense is consorting with prostitutes. Impurity is the generic name, in the maelstrom of our bodily existence, not only for adultery and pederasty but also all the other inventions of sexual licentiousness in all their many and diverse practices. Greed can be taken either straight-forwardly or, as I have established [with regard to 1 Thess 4:4-6], in the sense of "adultery."
Ephesians 5:9 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
Where there is goodness, there is righteousness. Where there is truth, there you will find righteousness. For both goodness and truth belong to God alone. So righteousness is always found with him and no other.
Ephesians 5:27 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2
To be without sin is understood in the Scriptures in two ways: the one, never to have sinned at all; the other, to have ceased from sinning. For it can come about that one who has sinned before, when he ceases from sinning, is said to be without sin. Thus also our Lord Jesus Christ "presented to himself a glorious Church, not having spot", not because the churchly man has never had a spot, but because he is by no means spotted any longer: "not having wrinkle", not that the wrinkle "of the old man" was never at some time in him, but that he has ceased to have it. In this manner also that which follows is to be understood: "that it may be holy and unspotted", not that from the beginning it was unspotted — for this indeed cannot be supposed of a man, that his soul was not spotted — but that it is reckoned pure and sincere, having ceased to be spotted any longer. We say these things for this reason, that we might teach that a man can, on the ground that he has ceased to sin, be called without sin and "unspotted".
Ephesians 6:10 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
To be "strong in the Lord" is to be strengthened in word and wisdom and the contemplation of truth. All these qualities are encompassed in the titles applying to Christ. The greatest of these is the strength of his might, which is stronger than all human virtues combined. Moral corruption lacks power in his presence. This one virtue, being strong in the Lord, is inconceivably powerful. Those who are wise in these matters call it the strength of his might. It has some analogy with bodily might but far exceeds it. This strength is beautiful, as a strong body is beautiful.
Ephesians 6:12 — PALESTINIAN CATENA ON PSALM 118.119
Some spiritual creatures have sinned in heaven. It is against these that we now struggle, "against the spirits of iniquity in high places." They first sinned in heaven. Now they are doing it again on earth.
Ephesians 6:12 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
From what ancient Scripture is Paul drawing when he speaks of "the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places?" My conjecture is that it comes out of the narratives written in Israel about wars and particular combats, like those of David and Goliath, and about the battles of the children of Israel against their enemies.… In each of these narratives there is some implication of the vanquishing and overcoming of demonic spiritual powers.
Ephesians 6:19 — EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS
Boldness of speech is a possibility only and always for those who have a heart that does not condemn them … and therefore the one who boldly makes known the mysteries is rare, because those who have boldness before God are rare.
Esther 4:16-17 — ON PRAYER 13.2
But what use is there to recall all the examples of those who, because they prayed as they ought, received great favours from God? Everyone can choose for himself many examples from the Scriptures. Anna obtained the birth of Samuel, who was reckoned with Moses, because when she was barren she prayed to the Lord with faith. And Ezechias, being still childless and having learned from Isaias that he was about to die, prayed and was included in genealogy of the Saviour. Again, when, as a result of a single order arising from the intrigues of Aman, the people were about to be destroyed, the prayer and fasting of Mardochai and Esther were heard, and hence there arose, in addition to the feasts ordained by Moses, the festival of Mardochai for the people.
Exodus 1:1-5 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 1
It seems to me that each utterance of divine Scripture is like some kind of seed, whose nature is this: that when it has been cast into the earth, it is regenerated into an ear of grain or into whatever other form of its own kind, and is spread abroad manifold — and the more abundantly, the more either a skilled farmer expends greater labor upon the seeds, or grants the benefit of more fertile soil. So then it comes about that by diligent cultivation a tiny "seed", for example "of mustard, which is the least of all, becomes greater than all herbs and turns into a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and dwell in its branches". So too this utterance, which has now been read to us from the divine volumes, if it finds a skilled and diligent husbandman — though at first touch it may seem meager and brief — once it begins to be cultivated and to be handled with spiritual art, grows into a tree, spreads out into branches and into shoots: so that there can come "the disputers and rhetoricians of this world", who like "the birds of heaven" with light wings, that is, with mere pomp of words, pursue lofty and steep things, and, captivated by the reasonings, wish to dwell in these branches, in which there is no elegance of speaking but a rule of living. What then shall we too do with these things that have been read to us? If the Lord should deign to grant me the discipline of spiritual agriculture, if He were to bestow skill in cultivating the field, a single utterance of those that have been recited could be spread out so far and wide — if only the capacity of the hearers permitted — that the day would scarcely suffice us for expounding it. Nevertheless we shall attempt, according to our strength, to discourse on some things, even if it is possible neither for us to explain all things nor for you to hear them all. For to recognize this very thing, that the knowledge of these matters is beyond our strength, I judge to be no small skill. Let us see, then, what the reading contains right at the very beginnings of Exodus, and let us pursue it — with what brevity we can, so far as suffices for the edification of the hearers; if only you help with your prayers that the word of God may be present to us and that He Himself may deign to be the leader of our discourse. "These are", it says, "the names of the sons of Israel who entered into Egypt together with Jacob their father; each one with his whole household they entered: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah" and the rest of the patriarchs. "But Joseph", it says, "was in Egypt. And all the souls from Jacob were seventy-five". I think that something like this mystery is also that which is said through the prophet, if anyone is able to notice it: "into Egypt my people went down, to dwell there, and by force they were led away to the Assyrians". If anyone, then, is able to compare these things with one another, and from those things which have been discussed either by our predecessors, or even by our contemporaries, and also sometimes by ourselves, to understand what "Egypt" is, into which the people of God went down not so much to dwell as to sojourn, and who also the "Assyrians" are who led them away by force — he will consequently notice what is the number and order of the patriarchs, and what "households" and families of theirs are designated, which are said to have "entered into Egypt together with Jacob their father". For it says: "Reuben with his whole household, and Levi with his whole household", and likewise all the rest. "But Joseph was in Egypt" and took a wife from Egypt, and, though placed there, is nevertheless reckoned in the number of the patriarchs. If anyone, then, is able to examine these things spiritually and to follow the mind of the Apostle, by which he distinguishes and separates Israel and says that there is a certain "Israel according to the flesh", so that without doubt he indicates that there is another according to the spirit; and if anyone also considers more carefully…
Exodus 1:6-7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 1
"Joseph died", it says, "and all his brothers and all that generation. But the sons of Israel grew and were multiplied, and were spread abroad in a great multitude, and grew exceedingly strong; for the land multiplied them". As long as Joseph lived, it is not reported that the sons of Israel were multiplied, nor is anything at all mentioned in these matters concerning increases and multitude. I, believing the words of my Lord Jesus Christ, do not think that in the Law and the prophets even "one iota or one tittle" is empty of mysteries, nor do I think that "any of these things can pass away until all be accomplished". But since we are of meager capacity, let us now knock only at those things by which we may proceed more safely. Before our Joseph died — he who was sold for thirty pieces of silver by one of his brothers, Judah — the sons of Israel were very few. But when for all men He tasted death, through which "He destroyed him that had the empire of death, that is, the devil", the people of the faithful was multiplied, "and the sons of Israel were spread abroad, and the land multiplied them, and they grew exceedingly". For unless, as He Himself said, "the grain of wheat had fallen into the earth and died", the Church would surely not have brought forth this abundant fruit of the whole world. Therefore, after "the grain fell into the earth and died", all this crop of the faithful arose from it, "and the sons of Israel were multiplied and grew exceedingly strong". For "into all the earth went forth the sound" of the Apostles "and unto the ends of the world their words", and through them, as it is written, "the word of the Lord grew and was multiplied". This much pertains to the mystical understanding. But let us not omit in these things the moral sense also; for it edifies the souls of the hearers. Therefore in you too, if Joseph should die — that is, if you take up "the mortification of Christ in" your "body" and mortify your members to sin — then in you "the sons of Israel are multiplied". By "the sons of Israel" are understood the good and spiritual senses. If, therefore, the senses of the flesh are mortified, the senses of the spirit grow, and as the vices die daily in you, the number of virtues is increased; and "the land" too "multiplies" you in good works, which are administered through the service of the body. But if you wish me to show you from the Scriptures who it is "whom the land has multiplied", look at the Apostle Paul, how he says: "but if to live in the flesh, this is for me the fruit of labor, and what I should choose I know not. For I am hard pressed from the two, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, for it is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake". You see how "the land multiplies" this man? For while he remains on the land, that is, in his own flesh, he is multiplied by founding churches, he is multiplied by acquiring a people for God, and "by preaching the Gospel of God from Jerusalem round about as far as Illyricum". But let us see what is added in what follows.
Exodus 1:8-11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 1
"But there arose", it says, "another king in Egypt, who knew not Joseph. And he said to his people: behold, the race of the sons of Israel is a great multitude, and is stronger than we". First of all I wish to inquire who is the king in Egypt who knows Joseph, and who is the one who knows him not. For while that one reigned who knew Joseph, the sons of Israel are not reported to have been afflicted, nor consumed "in clay and brick", nor were their males killed and their females kept alive. But when that one arose who had not known Joseph and himself began to reign, then all these things are reported to have been done. Who then is this king, let us see. If the Lord governs us, and the sense of our mind, illuminated by the Lord, always holds the memory of Christ, doing that which Paul writes to Timothy: "be mindful that Christ Jesus has risen from the dead" — while he remembers these things in Egypt, that is, in our flesh, our spirit holds the kingdom with righteousness and does not consume the sons of Israel, whom we said above to be the rational senses or the virtues of the soul, "in clay and brick", nor wear them down with earthly cares and anxieties. But if our sense has lost the memory of these things, has turned away from God, has come to know Christ no longer, then the wisdom of the flesh, which is an enemy to God, succeeds to the kingdom and addresses its own people, the bodily pleasures, and, with the leaders of the vices called together to counsel, deliberation is entered upon against the sons of Israel — how they may be circumvented, how they may be oppressed, so that they may be afflicted with "clay and bricks", so that they may expose the males, rear the females, so that they may build the cities of Egypt and "fortified cities". These things have not been written for us as history, nor is it to be thought that the divine books narrate the deeds of the Egyptians; but the things that have been written "have been written for our" instruction and "admonition", so that you who hear these things — if perhaps you have already obtained the grace of baptism and have been numbered among the sons of Israel and have received God as king within you, and after this you should wish to turn aside, to do the works of the age, to carry out the deeds of earth and to fulfill muddy services — may know and recognize that "there has arisen in you another king, who knows not Joseph", the king of Egypt, and he himself drives you to his works, he himself makes you labor at brick and clay for him. He it is who, having set taskmasters and drivers over you, urges you with scourges and blows to earthly works, that you may build cities for him. He it is who makes you run to and fro through the age, to trouble the elements of sea and land for the sake of greed. He it is, this king of Egypt, who makes you beat upon the law-court with lawsuits and, for a paltry clod of earth, to wear out your neighbors with quarrels — not to mention lying in wait for chastity, deceiving innocence, committing foul things at home, cruel things abroad, and shameful things within the conscience. When, therefore, you see your deeds to be such, know that you are serving as a soldier for the king of Egypt, which is to be driven by the spirit of this world. But if something is to be understood in this matter more deeply still, this "king who knows not Joseph" can be seen to be the devil, that "fool" who "said in his heart: there is no God", conversing with his people, that is, the apostate angels, and saying: "behold, the race of the sons of Israel is a great multitude" — namely of those who are able to see God with the mind — "and is more powerful than we. Come therefore, let us circumvent them, lest perchance they increase, and, when war befalls us, these too consent with our adversaries, and, overpowering us, they go forth out of our land". But whence does the devil perceive this? Whence does he understand that Israel is a great nation and stronger than they themselves,…
Exodus 1:14 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.2
In Egypt were the children of Israel; they were afflicted in the works of Pharaoh the king with clay and brick, until, groaning, they cried out to the Lord, and He, hearing their groaning, sent to them His word through Moses and led them out of Egypt. And we too, therefore, when we were in Egypt — I mean in the errors of this world and in the darkness of ignorance, working the works of the devil in the desires and pleasures of the flesh — the Lord had mercy on our affliction and sent His Word, His only-begotten Son, to rescue us from the ignorance of error and lead us to the light of the divine law.
Exodus 1:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
According to these things, therefore, God is perhaps said also to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, namely because the material of his heart was such that it received the presence of the Sun of justice not on that side by which it illumines, but on that by which it burns and hardens: on this account, without doubt, that he too was afflicting the life of the Hebrews in hard works, and was making them work with clay and brick. … And as this visible sun binds fast and hardens the material of clay, so the Sun of justice, by these same rays with which he was illumining the people of Israel, was hardening the heart of Pharaoh, in which were clayey thoughts, according to the very qualities of its own motions.
Exodus 1:15-17 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 2
This "king, who did not know Joseph," devises many things against the people of God, and is forever seeking new arts of doing harm. But now his cunning surpasses all measure, when through the ministry of the midwives he attempts to destroy the offspring of that people — by the very art through which life is usually preserved. For what does he say? "And the king of the Egyptians said," it says, "to the midwives of the Hebrews, to one of them whose name was Sephora, and the name of the other was Phua, and he said: when you deliver the Hebrew women and they are near the birth, if it be a male, kill him; if a female, let it live." But to these words there is joined in what follows: "but the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, and they let the males live." If the things that are written were to be taken according to the narrative of the history, then what Scripture says — that "the midwives did not do according to what the king of Egypt commanded them" — would seem unable to stand. For the midwives are not found to have failed to let the females live, whom the king of Egypt commanded to be let live. For thus he says: "if indeed it is a male, kill him; if a female, let it live." And if "the midwives did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded," then surely, just as they "let the males live" against the king's command, so too they ought to have killed the females, that this also might be against the king's command. For to have let the females live was to have done according to Pharaoh's command. These things for the moment I say on account of those who are friends of the letter, and do not think the law to be spiritual and to be understood spiritually. But we, who have learned that all the things that are written were written not as accounts of antiquities, but for our instruction and profit, perceive that these things which are read even now come to pass, not only in this world, which is figuratively called Egypt, but also in each one of us. Let us inquire, then, how the king of Egypt, who is "the prince of this world," does not wish the males to live, but wishes the females to live. If you remember, we have often shown in our discussions that in the females the flesh and the affection of the flesh is signified, but the male is the rational sense and intellectual spirit. The rational sense, therefore, which can have a taste for heavenly things, which can understand God and "seek the things that are above" — this Pharaoh, king and prince of Egypt, hates; this he desires to be slain and destroyed. But he desires that whatever things are of the flesh should live, and the things that pertain to bodily matter — these he desires not only to live, but even to be increased and cultivated. For he wishes that all should have a taste for carnal things, should desire temporal things, should seek "the things that are upon the earth," that no one "lift up his eyes to heaven," that no one inquire whence he came here, that no one call to mind his homeland, paradise. When, therefore, you see men leading their life in pleasures and delights, awash in luxury, giving their labor to feasts, wine, banquets, beds, and unchaste acts — know that in these the king of Egypt is slaying the males and letting the females live. But if you see some rare person, "one out of a thousand," turning to God, lifting his eyes upward, seeking the things that are perpetual and eternal, contemplating not the things "that are seen, but the things that are not seen," hating delights, loving continence, fleeing luxury, cultivating virtue — this one, as a male, as a man, Pharaoh desires to be slain, persecutes, harries, and fights against with a thousand devices. He hates such men, he does not allow them to live in Egypt. Hence, then, it is that in this world the servants of God and all who seek God are held in disdain and contempt. Hence they are exposed to insults, hence they are filled with reproaches, hence hatreds and persecutions…
Exodus 1:21 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 2
But what does Scripture say? "The midwives feared God," it says, "and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them." Certain men before us have said that these midwives hold the pattern of rational learning. For midwives are, as it were, in the middle, and tend both the males and the females at their birth. This learning, then, of common rational knowledge reaches to nearly every faculty, instructs all, tends all. If anyone in it be of manly spirit and wish to seek heavenly things and to pursue divine things, he will come, as though healed and warmed by learning of this kind, better prepared for the understanding of divine things. For there is one, as it were the sparrow, which teaches the loftier things and, with the rational wings of doctrine, summons souls to fly on high. The other, which is ruddy or modest, is moral, orders behavior, teaches modesty, instills honesty. To me, however, since Scripture says of these that "because they feared God, they did not do the command of the king of Egypt," these two midwives seem to preserve the figure of both testaments: "Sephora," which is interpreted sparrow, may be compared to the law, which "is spiritual"; but "Phua," which is ruddy or modest, indicates the Gospels, which are ruddy with the blood of Christ and throughout the whole world glow red with the gore of his passion. By these, then, as by midwives, the souls that are born in the church are healed, because from the reading of the Scriptures all the medicine of learning is bestowed upon them. Yet Pharaoh attempts through these things to slay the males of the church, when he suggests heretical notions and perverse doctrines to any who are studious in the divine Scriptures. But the foundation of God stands immovable. For "the midwives fear God," that is, they teach the fear of God, because "the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." Thus, finally, I think there is fitted still more suitably that which is written in the later passage, where it says: "because the midwives feared God, they made themselves houses." This saying can have no coherence according to the letter. For what order of reasoning is it, that it should say: "because the midwives feared God, they made themselves houses"? — as though a house should come to be for the reason that God is feared. If this is taken as it is written, it will seem to have not only no coherence, but also very great emptiness. But if you see how the Scriptures of the new and old testament, teaching the fear of God, make houses for the church and fill the whole circle of the earth with houses of prayer, then what is written will seem to be written reasonably. Thus, then, these midwives, because they fear God and teach the fear of God, do not carry out the command of the king of Egypt, but let their males live. Nor yet is it said that they obeyed the command of the king so as to let the females live. I dare confidently to say, according to the sense of Scripture: these midwives do not let the females live. For neither are vices taught in the churches, nor is luxury proclaimed, nor are sins nourished — for this is what Pharaoh wishes, when he commands the females to be let live — but virtue alone is cultivated, and virtue alone is nourished. But let us refer these things also to each one of us. And you too, if you fear God, do not carry out the command of the king of Egypt. For he commands you to live in delights, to love the present age, to covet present things. But you, if you fear God and exhibit the office of a midwife toward your soul, if you desire to confer salvation upon it, do not do these things, but let live the male that is in you, tend and cherish your inner man, and through good acts and understandings win for it eternal life.
Exodus 1:22 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 2
But after this, when Pharaoh saw that through the midwives he could not slay the males of Israel: "he commanded," it says, "all the people, saying: every male whatsoever that shall be born to the Hebrews, cast into the river, and every female let live." See what "the prince of this world" commands his own, that they may seize our infants, that they may cast them into the river, and, lying in wait for the very first birth of our own, may straightway, as soon as they have touched the first breasts of the church, rush upon them, tear them away, persecute them, and overwhelm them with the waves and billows of this age. "See what you hear"; the wisdom of God through Solomon says: "understand intelligently the things that are set before you." See, as soon as you are born — nay rather, as soon as you are reborn — what threatens you. This is that which you read in the Gospel, that Jesus, as soon as he came up from baptism, "was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil." This, then, is what in this passage too Pharaoh commanded his people: to fall upon the Hebrew infants, as soon as they were born, to tear them away, to drown them in the waters. This is perhaps also what is said through the prophet: "for the waters have entered even to my soul. I am sunk fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no substance." But for this reason Christ overcame and conquered, that he might open for you the way of conquering. For this reason, by fasting, he conquered, that you too might know that "a kind of demons of this sort" is to be overcome "by fastings and prayers." For this reason also he despised all the kingdoms of the world and their glory when they were offered to him, that you too, despising the glory of the world, might be able to overcome the tempter. The Egyptians, therefore, to whom Pharaoh gave commands, let only the females live, they hate the males; for they hate the virtues, and nourish only vices and pleasures. And now, therefore, the Egyptians lie in wait, in case perchance some male be born to the Hebrews, so that they may straightway persecute and kill him, unless they take heed, unless they watch and hide the male seed. Finally, Scripture relates that "one of the tribe of Levi, who begot a male and saw that the infant was comely, hid him for three months." See whether it is not for this reason that we are commanded not to perform our good acts in public, not to "do our righteousness before men," but rather, "with the door shut, to pray to the Father in secret," and that "what our right hand does, our left hand should not know." For unless it be in secret, it will be torn away by the Egyptians, it will be assailed, cast into the river, drowned in the waves and billows. Therefore, if I give alms, because it is a work of God, I beget a male. But if I do it so that it may become known to men, and I seek praise from men and do not hide it, my alms has been snatched away by the Egyptians and drowned in the river, and with such great labor and such great zeal I have begotten a male for the Egyptians. Therefore, O people of God, who hear these things, do not think, as we have already often said, that the tales of the ancients are being recited to you, but that you are being taught through these things, so that you may recognize the order of life, the discipline of morals, the contests of faith and virtue.
Exodus 2:2-10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 2
"Seeing," then, these of the tribe of Levi "that the infant was comely, they concealed him for three months. And when they could no longer conceal him, his mother took," it says, "an ark and daubed it with bitumen and placed the infant in it and set it in the marsh beside the river. And his sister watched from afar, to see what would happen to him. But the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself in the river, and she heard the infant crying, and she sent," it says, "and took him up, and the daughter of Pharaoh said that this is of the infants of the Hebrews." After this it is then related how his sister spoke, that she might call the mother of the boy to nurse him. "And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her," it says, "keep this infant for me, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. And when she had nursed him, as he grew stronger, she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became to her a son, and she named his name Moses, saying: because I took him up out of the water." Each of these things is filled with immense mysteries and demands a great length of time, and if we should spend the space of a whole day upon them, it would perhaps scarcely suffice. Yet briefly some things must be knocked upon by us for the edification of the church. I think the daughter of Pharaoh can be seen as the church, which is gathered from the nations, which, although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet to her it is said through the prophet: "hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father, because the king has desired your beauty." This, then, is she who goes out from her father's house and comes to the waters, that she may be washed from the sins she had contracted in her father's house. Finally, straightway she takes up "the bowels of mercy" and has compassion on the infant. This church, therefore, coming from the nations, finds Moses lying in the marsh, cast off by his own and exposed, gives him to be nursed, he is nursed among his own, there he passes his infancy. But when "he has grown stronger," then he is brought to her and adopted as a son. That Moses is called the law has already often been treated in many places. Coming, therefore, to the waters of baptism, the church received also the law — the law, however, which was shut up within an "ark," daubed with pitch and "bitumen." An "ark" is a kind of covering woven from twigs or from papyrus, or even formed from the bark of trees, within which the infant, once placed in it, appeared exposed. The law, therefore, lay shut up within coverings of this kind and daubed with pitch and "bitumen"; hedged about by the base and foul senses of the Jews, it lay in squalor, until the church should come from the nations and take it up out of the muddy and marshy places and receive it within the halls of wisdom and the royal roofs. This law, nevertheless, passes its infancy among its own. For among those who do not know how to understand it spiritually, it is a little one and an infant, having the food of sucklings; but when it comes to the church, when it enters the house of the church, Moses is stronger and more robust. For once the veil of the letter is removed, "perfect" and "solid food" is found in the reading of it. Yet what is it that she, among whom the law was both born and nursed, receives the wages of her nursing from the daughter of Pharaoh? What is it that the synagogue receives from the church? I think it can be understood as that which the same Moses writes, saying: "I will lead you into jealousy over that which is no nation, over a foolish nation I will provoke you to wrath." The synagogue, then, receives this as its wages from the church, that it no longer worship idols. For seeing those who are of the nations so converted to God that they no longer know idols, and venerate no one except the one God, she herself is ashamed any longer to worship idols. This benefit, therefore, the synagogue receives from…
Exodus 2:23 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 5
In Exodus something of this kind is written: "and it came to pass after many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned, and their cry went up to God". As long as Pharaoh lived, the "children of Israel" did "not groan", and, placed under punishments, they did not even have the free faculty of "groaning"; for the king was alive, who commanded them to make "bricks and straw". As long as Pharaoh lived, they did "not groan to God"; when Pharaoh died, then they had the strength to lift up their faces wet with weeping. The wicked king lives in our breast as long as Pharaoh the devil lives. Then we labor at "bricks" and "straw", then we swallow our tears in silence and do the first works of iniquity; but when he has died, at the visitation of the Lord our God, then we "groan to the Lord".
Exodus 3:3 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.2
Moses, when he had seen the bush burning and not consumed, marveling at the sight said: "I will pass over and behold this sight." Certainly he too was not signifying that he would traverse some span of earth, nor climb mountains nor go apart into the steep places of the valleys. The vision was close to him, in his mouth and in his eyes. But he says: "I will pass over," to show that, admonished by the heavenly vision, he ought to ascend to a higher life and to cross over from those things in which he was to better things.
Exodus 3:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.68
If the God of the universe, having been made familiar to the saints, becomes their God, the being named the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, by how much more will it be possible for the Holy Spirit, having been made familiar to the prophets, to be called their spirit, that the Spirit might thus be said to be the spirit of Elijah and the spirit of Isaiah?
Exodus 3:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.143
God has been recorded indeed to be the God "of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." He indeed who wishes the light to belong to none other than men (because it is said, "The life was the light of men") will think, according to this analogy, that the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob is the God of no one except these three fathers alone. But he is at least also the God of Elijah, and, as Judith says, the God of her father Simeon, and he is God of the Hebrews. Wherefore, according to the analogy, if nothing prevents him from being the God of others also, nothing prevents the light of men from also being the light of other creatures besides men.
Exodus 3:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
Abraham sets forth, as it were, moral philosophy, through obedience. For so great was his obedience and observance of the commandments that, when he heard: "Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and from the house of your father," he did not delay, but did it at once … For hearing that he should sacrifice his son, not even then does he doubt, but he obeys the precept: and, to give to posterity an example of the obedience which is moral philosophy, he did not spare even his only son. Isaac also holds to natural philosophy, since he both digs wells and searches out the depths of things. But Jacob too holds the inspective place, inasmuch as he was named Israel on account of the contemplation of divine things, and saw the camps of heaven, and beheld the house of God and the ways of the angels — that is, the ladder stretched out from earth to heaven.
Exodus 3:14 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.6
That the activity of the Father and the Son is to be found both in saints and in sinners is clear from the fact that all rational beings are partakers of the word of God, that is, of reason, and so have implanted within them some seeds, as it were, of wisdom and righteousness, which is Christ. And all things that exist derive their share of being from him who truly exists, who said through Moses, "I am that I am"; which participation in God the Father extends to all, both righteous and sinners, rational and irrational creatures and absolutely everything that exists.
Exodus 4:6-7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.268
It is difficult to see what this sign can symbolize for us. But since we must not stop seeking and must deliver to the reader what occurs to us as an interpretation, we will say that in many passages the hand is a symbol of deeds. Now the bosom of Moses has two meanings. The first, in accordance with the sense of the letter, makes the deed of the doer like snow, as it says in the Hebrew, and leprous. The second, however, in accordance with the spiritual law, shows that the conduct is pure and that it is restored to the will of the nature of the Word.
Exodus 4:10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
So long as Moses was in Egypt and "was being instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians", he was not "of a thin voice" nor "slow of tongue", nor did he profess himself to be lacking in eloquence. For, as far as the Egyptians were concerned, he was both of a sonorous voice and of incomparable eloquence. But when he began to hear the voice of God and to receive the divine utterances, then he perceived his own voice to be feeble and thin, and he understood his tongue to be slow and hampered; then he pronounces himself mute, when he began to recognize that true Word which "was in the beginning with God". But that what we are saying may more readily be grasped, let us make use of a comparison of this kind. If a rational man, however unskilled and untaught, be compared with dumb animals, he will seem eloquent in comparison with those which are devoid both of reason and of voice; but if he be set beside learned and eloquent men, men most approved in all wisdom, he will seem inarticulate and mute. And if someone should contemplate the divine Word itself and look upon the divine wisdom itself, then, however great his learning and however great his wisdom, he will profess himself before God a mute animal, far more than the beasts are before us. This surely was what the blessed David also, gazing upon it and weighing himself in such a manner against the divine wisdom, was saying: "I became as a beast of burden before you". According to this, therefore, Moses too, the greatest of the prophets, says to God in the present reading that he is "of a thin voice" "and slow of tongue", and that he is not eloquent. For all men, in comparison with the divine word, are to be reckoned not only inarticulate, but even mute.
Exodus 4:10 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5
And of old indeed Moses said: "but I am ἄλογος (without speech or reason)" — which, though the Latin has rendered it otherwise, can nevertheless be more properly translated: "without speech or reason" —, and after he said this, he received reason or speech, which he had confessed that he did not before possess. But the people of Israel in Egypt, before it received the law, was in a certain way "mute", without speech and reason; then it received speech, of which Moses was an image. This people, therefore, does not now confess what it then confessed in Moses, namely that it is "mute" and ἄλογος, but by nods and silence indicates that it does not have speech and does not have reason. Does it not seem to you to be a confession of foolishness, when none of them can render a reason for the legal precepts and the prophetic oracle?
Exodus 4:10 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.5
But I will bring forward to you yet another thing, which you cannot contradict. In Exodus, where we in the books of the Church have it written that Moses answered the Lord and said: "Provide, Lord, another whom you may send. For I am of a thin voice and slow of tongue," you in the Hebrew copies have: "but I am uncircumcised in lips." Behold, you have circumcision of the lips according to your copies, which you say are truer. If, then, according to you Moses says he is still unworthy, because he is not circumcised in lips, it is certain that he thereby indicates this, that he is worthier and holier who is circumcised in lips. Apply, then, the sickle also to your lips and cut away the coverings of your mouth, since such an understanding in the divine letters pleases you. But if you recall the circumcision of the lips to allegory, and likewise call the circumcision of the ears allegorical and figurative, how do you not also seek an allegory in the circumcision of the foreskin?
Exodus 4:11 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 16
Thus I understand also that which God says: "Who made the mute and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Was it not I, the Lord God?" There is an eye of the body, with which we behold these earthly things, an eye according to the sense of the flesh, of which the Scripture says: "walking vainly, puffed up by the sense of the flesh". To this we have another, contrary and better, that savors of divine things; and because it was blind in us, Jesus came to make it see, that those who did not see might see, and those who saw might be made blind.
Exodus 4:12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
Because, therefore, he had advanced so far in understanding as to recognize his own self—in which lies the greatest part of wisdom—the divine favor rewards him. Hear with what rich and magnificent gifts. "I," he says, "will open your mouth, and will instruct you in what you ought to speak". Blessed are those whose mouth God opens, that they may speak. To the prophets God opens the mouth and fills it with his own utterance, as he says in the present passage: "I will open your mouth and will instruct you in what you ought to speak". But through David also God says: "Enlarge your mouth, and I will fill it". Likewise Paul too says: "that speech may be given me in the opening of my mouth". The mouth, therefore, of those who speak the words of God, God opens. But I fear that there may be some whose mouth, on the contrary, the devil opens. For whoever speaks a lie, it is certain that the devil has opened his mouth, that he might speak the lie. Whoever gives false testimony, whoever utters buffooneries, whoever brings forth filthy things and the rest of this kind out of his mouth—the devil has opened their mouth. I fear that the devil opens also the mouth "of whisperers and detractors", and also of those who "utter idle words, of which an account is to be rendered in the day of judgment". And indeed, as for those who "speak iniquity on high", "who deny that my Lord Jesus Christ has come in the flesh", or "who blaspheme the Holy Spirit", to whom "it shall be forgiven neither in the present nor in the age to come"—who doubts that the devil opens their mouth? Do you wish me to show you this also from the Scriptures, how the devil opens the mouth to men of this kind, who speak against Christ? See what is written of Judas, how it is related that "Satan entered into him", and that "the devil put it into his heart to betray him". He, then, opened his mouth, that "he might confer with the chief priests and Pharisees how he might betray him" for money received. Whence it seems to me to be no small grace to discern the mouth which the devil opens. It is not without the grace of the Holy Spirit to distinguish a mouth of this kind and its words; and therefore in the distribution of spiritual graces this too is added, that to some is given "the discernment of spirits". It is therefore a spiritual grace by which the spirit is discerned, as also elsewhere the Apostle says: "test the spirits, whether they be of God". But as God opens the mouth of the saints, so I think that God opens also the ears of the saints to hear the divine words. For thus says the prophet Isaiah: "The Lord will open my ear, that I may know when the word ought to be spoken". So too the Lord opens the eyes, as "the Lord opened the eyes of Hagar, and she saw a well of living water". But Elisha the prophet also says: "Open, Lord, the eyes of the servant, that he may see that there are more with us than with the adversaries. And the Lord opened," he says, "the eyes of the servant, and behold, the whole mountain was full of horsemen and chariots and heavenly aids". For "the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and will deliver them". God therefore opens, as we have said, both the mouth and the ears and the eyes, that we may either speak or discern or hear the things that are God's. But that also I do not take idly, which the prophet says: "the instruction," he says, "of the Lord opened my ear". This seems to me to pertain to us, that is, in common to the whole Church of God. For if we are engaged in "the instruction of the Lord", "the instruction of the Lord" opens the ear for us also. But the ear which is opened through "the instruction of the Lord" is not always open, but at one time open, at another closed. Hear the lawgiver saying: "you shall not receive a vain report". If, then, at any time vain things are spoken, if at any time empty, foolish, base, profane, wicked things are brought forth, he who knows "the instruction of the Lord" closes his ears and tur…
Exodus 4:15 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
But not to Moses only is it promised that his mouth shall be opened by the Lord, but to Aaron also. For it is said concerning him too: "I will open your mouth and his mouth, and will instruct you in what you are to do".
Exodus 4:21 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.7
Now many have been troubled by the story of Pharaoh, in dealing with whom God says several times, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart." For if he is hardened by God and through being hardened sins, he is not himself responsible for the sin; and if this is so, Pharaoh has no free will. And someone will say that in the same way those who are lost have no free will and will not be lost on their own account. Also the saying in Ezekiel, "I will take away their stony hearts and will put in them hearts of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments," might lead one to suppose that it was God who gave the power to walk in the commandments and to keep the judgments, by his removing the hindrance, the stony heart, and implanting something better, the heart of flesh.
Exodus 4:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.185
And is there anything more profound to say of Israel, not of nature but of grace, of whom it was written, "Israel is my firstborn son," when Israel was in dispersion? You yourself will also understand that these are the scattered children of God for whom Jesus was to die in order to gather them together into one.
Exodus 4:22 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.9
Why too does he blame Pharaoh, saying, "You will not let my people go; behold, I will smite all the firstborn in Egypt, even your firstborn," and all the rest that is recorded as being said by God through Moses to Pharaoh? It is incumbent on him who believes that the Scriptures are true and that God is just, if he is a thoughtful man, to take pains to show how God, in using such expressions as these, can be clearly conceived to be just.
Exodus 4:24 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.1
We must also inquire who that being was of whom it is said in Exodus that he wished to kill Moses because he was setting out for Egypt. And afterwards, who is it that is called the "destroying angel," and who also is he who in Leviticus is described as Apopompeus, that is, the Averter, of whom the Scripture speaks thus: "One lot for the Lord, and one lot for Apopompeus"?
Exodus 4:27 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
For Aaron also "met" Moses, and he went out of Egypt. But "he met" him where, in what kind of place? For it matters where "he meets" him—Moses, that is, whose mouth is to be opened by God. "He met him," he says, "in the mountain of God". You see that his mouth is deservedly opened, who is able to "meet in the mountain of God". Peter and James and John ascended the mountain of God, that they might be counted worthy to see Jesus transfigured and to see Moses with him and Elijah in glory. And you too, therefore, unless you ascend to "the mountain of God" and there "meet" Moses—that is, unless you ascend to the lofty sense of the law, unless you win your way up to the summit of spiritual understanding—your mouth is not opened by the Lord. If you stand in the lowly place of the letter and bind the text of the history to Jewish narratives, you have not met Moses "in the mountain of God", nor has God "opened your mouth" nor "instructed you in what you ought to speak". Unless, then, "Aaron had met Moses in the mountain", unless he had seen his lofty and arduous sense, unless he had discerned his exalted understanding, Moses would never have spoken to him the words of God, nor handed over to him the power of signs and wonders, nor associated him as a partaker of so great a mystery.
Exodus 5:1 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
But since it is a long matter to speak of each thing in order, let us see what "Moses and Aaron", "having gone in" to Pharaoh, say: "Thus says the Lord: let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness". Moses does not will that the people, while placed in Egypt, should serve the Lord, but that it should go out into the desert and there serve the Lord. This is without doubt what he shows: that so long as anyone remains in the dark deeds of the world and is engaged in the obscurity of affairs, he cannot "serve the Lord"; for he cannot "serve two masters", he cannot "serve the Lord and mammon". We must, therefore, go out of Egypt; the world must be forsaken, if we wish to "serve the Lord". But it must be forsaken, I say, not in place, but in mind; not by setting out on a journey, but by advancing in faith. Hear John saying these same things: "little children, do not love the world nor the things that are in the world; for all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes".
Exodus 5:2 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
But Pharaoh resists; "the ruler of these darknesses" does not wish to release you; he does not wish you to be drawn away from his darkness and led to the light of knowledge. And hear what he says: "who is he," he says, "whose voice I should hear? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go". You hear what "the prince of this world" answers: he says that he does not know God. Do you see what raw pride does? So long as "he is not in the labors of men and is not scourged with men", for that reason pride held him fast. Then, a little later, you will see how much he profits under the scourges, how much better he is made when beaten. He who now says: "I do not know the Lord", afterward, when he has felt the force of the blows, is going to say: "pray the Lord for me"; and not only this, but even, when his own magicians testify, he will confess that "it is the finger of God" in the power of the signs. Let no one, then, be so untaught in divine discipline as to think the divine scourges a ruin, as to believe the blows of the Lord a punishing destruction. Behold Pharaoh too, most hardened; yet he profits when beaten. Before the blows he does not know the Lord; when beaten, he asks that the Lord be entreated for him. It is an advance under punishments to recognize this very thing—why you have deserved the punishment. "I do not know," then, he says, "the Lord, and I do not let Israel go". But see in the Gospels how, when beaten, he amends this saying. For it is written that the demons cried out to the Lord and said: "why have you come before the time to torment us? we know you, who you are: you are the Son of the living God". When they have felt the torments, they know the Lord. Before the scourges he says: "I do not know the Lord, and I do not let Israel go"; but he will both let Israel go, and not only let it go, but will himself urge it to go out. For there is no "fellowship of light with darkness"; no "part of the faithful with the unfaithful".
Exodus 5:3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
And yet what does he say? Let us see how or how far he bids us set out from Egypt: "we will go," he says, "a journey of three days into the wilderness, and there we will sacrifice to the Lord our God". What is "the way of three days" which we must travel, that, going out from Egypt, we may be able to arrive at the place in which we ought to sacrifice? I understand that way to be he who said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life". This way must be traveled by us in three days. For whoever "shall confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in his heart that God raised him from the dead" on the third day, "shall be saved". This, then, is the "three days' way" by which one arrives at the place where one may sacrifice to the Lord and render "the sacrifice of praise". This, as far as pertains to the mystical understanding. But if we seek also the moral sense, which is most useful to us, we set out "a three days' journey" from Egypt if we so preserve ourselves from every defilement of soul, body, and spirit that, as the Apostle said, "our spirit whole, and soul, and body, may be kept in the day of Jesus Christ". We set out "a three days' journey" from Egypt if, taking away rational, natural, and moral wisdom from worldly things, we turn it to the divine ordinances; we set out "a three days' journey" from Egypt if, purifying in ourselves words, deeds, and thoughts—for these are the three by which men can sin—we are made "pure in heart", that we may be able to "see God". But do you wish to see that such are the things which the Holy Spirit indicates in the Scriptures? This Pharaoh, who is the prince of Egypt, when he sees himself more vehemently pressed to let the people of God go, in the second place desires to obtain this, "that they should not go far off", that they should not set out the whole three days, and he says: "do not go far off". He does not want the people of God to be made "far" from himself; he wants it, if not in deed, at least to sin in word; if not in word, at least to offend in thought. He does not want them to set out from him the whole three days. He wants to have at least one of his days in us; in others two, in others he possesses the whole three days. But blessed are those who withdraw from him the entire three days, and he possesses no day of his own in them. Do not think, then, that Moses led the people out of Egypt only at that time: now too Moses, whom we have with us—"for we have Moses and the prophets"—that is, the law of God, wishes to lead you out of Egypt; if you hear it, it wishes to make you "far" from Pharaoh; it desires to rescue you from the work of mud and straw, if only you hear the law of God and understand it spiritually. It does not want you to remain in the deeds of the flesh and of darkness, but to go out to the wilderness, to come to a place empty of the disturbances and waves of the world, to come to the quiet of silence. For "the words of wisdom are learned in silence and quiet". When, therefore, you come to this place of quiet, there you will be able "to sacrifice to the Lord", there to recognize the law of God and the power of the divine voice. For this reason, then, Moses desires to cast you out from the midst of tossing affairs and from the midst of clamoring peoples. For this reason he desires you to go out of Egypt, that is, out of the darkness of ignorance, that you may hear the law of God and receive the light of knowledge.
Exodus 5:4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
But what does he yet add in his answers? "Why," he says, "O Moses and Aaron, do you turn my people away from their works? Depart, each one of you to your work". So long as the people is with him and works "mud" and "brick", so long as it is occupied in "straw", he does not think it perverted, but that it walks in the right path. But if it should say: I wish to go "the way of three days" and "to serve the Lord", he says that the people is perverted by Moses and Aaron. This indeed "was said to the ancients". But even today, if Moses and Aaron—that is, the prophetic and the priestly word—should rouse the soul to the service of God, invite it to go out of the world, to renounce all that it possesses, to give heed to the divine law and follow the word of God, immediately you will hear it said by those who are of one mind with Pharaoh and his friends: 'see how men are seduced and perverted—what young men, that they may not toil, may not do military service, may not do anything that would profit them, forsaking necessary and useful things pursue trifles and idleness. What is it to serve God? They do not wish to labor and seek occasions for slothful idleness.' These were the words of Pharaoh then, and these his friends and intimates speak now too.
Exodus 5:6-14 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
The matter is carried on not by words only; blows follow too—he orders the scribes of the Hebrews to be scourged, straw not to be given, the work to be exacted; these things the fathers endured, in the figure of whom the people of God also, which is in the Church, often suffers as well. For you will find, if you consider them, that those who have wholly handed themselves over to "the prince of this world" act with prosperous successes, that everything, as they themselves think, turns out happily for them; but that to the servants of God often not even these humble and small things of human sustenance turn out well. For these things I think seem to be the straw that is furnished by Pharaoh. It often happens, then, that those who fear God lack even this cheap sustenance, like straw; often too they endure the persecutions of tyrants, they bear tortures and savage torments, so that some, worn out, say to Pharaoh: 'Why do you afflict your people?' For some, overcome by the blows, fall away from the faith and confess themselves to be the people of Pharaoh. "For not all who are of Israel are Israelites; nor because they are the seed are they all sons as well".
Exodus 5:21 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
These, then, who are doubtful and are worn out in tribulations, even speak against Moses and Aaron and say: 'from the day you go in and go out to Pharaoh, you have made our odor abominable before him.' These men speak truly, though perhaps they know not what they say, just as that Caiaphas too spoke truly that "it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people", but he knew not what he was saying. For, as the Apostle says, we are the "good odor" of Christ; but, he says, "to some an odor from life unto life, but to others an odor from death unto death". So the prophetic word too is a "sweet odor" to those who believe, but to the doubtful and unbelieving, and to those who confess themselves to be the people of Pharaoh, it becomes an abominable odor.
Exodus 5:23 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
But Moses himself too says to the Lord: "from the time I spoke with Pharaoh, he has afflicted your people". For it is certain that, before the word of God is heard, before the divine preaching is made known, there is no tribulation, there is no temptation, because, unless the trumpet sound, battle is not joined; but when the trumpet of preaching has given the signal of war, there affliction follows, there all the fighting of tribulations rises up. From the time Moses and Aaron began to speak to Pharaoh, the people of God is afflicted. From the time the word of God is brought into your soul, of necessity a struggle is stirred up within you, of the virtues against the vices; but before the word came which would rebuke, the vices endured within you in peace; but when the word of God began to make the distinction of each, then a great disturbance rises up and war is born without treaty. "For when can iniquity accord with justice", unchastity with sobriety, falsehood with truth? And therefore let us not be greatly disturbed if our "odor" seems to be abominable to Pharaoh; for virtue is a thing of abomination to the vices. Nay rather, as he says in what follows, that Moses stood "before Pharaoh", let us too stand "against Pharaoh" and not be bent nor bowed, but let us stand "girt about our loins in truth and our feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace". For thus the Apostle exhorts us, saying: "stand, therefore, and do not again cleave to the yoke of servitude". And again he says: "in which we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of God". But we stand confidently if we beseech the Lord to "set our feet upon a rock", lest that befall us which the same prophet says: "but my feet were almost moved, and my steps were almost poured out". Let us stand, then, "before Pharaoh", that is, let us resist him in the struggle, as the Apostle Peter too says: "resist him, strong in faith". But Paul likewise says: "stand in faith and act manfully". For if we stand bravely, that too follows which Paul prays for his disciples, saying: "God will crush Satan under your feet speedily". For the more constantly and bravely we stand, the weaker and more feeble will Pharaoh be; but if we begin to be either weak or doubtful, he will become stronger and more constant against us. And truly that is fulfilled in us of which Moses gave a figure: for when he himself "lifted up his hands", Amalek was overcome; but if, as though they were weary, he "let them down" and laid low his feeble arms, "Amalek prevailed". So, then, let us too, in the power of the cross of Christ, lift up our arms and "raise up" in prayer "holy hands in every place without wrath and disputation", that we may deserve the help of the Lord. For this same thing the Apostle James too exhorts, saying: "but resist the devil, and he will flee from you". Let us act, then, with all faith, that Satan may not only "flee from us", but also "be crushed under our feet", just as Pharaoh too was sunk in the sea and extinguished in the deep of the abyss. But we, if we withdraw from the Egypt of the vices, will escape the waves of the world as though by a solid road, through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is the glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen".
Exodus 6:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 14.1
For though there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the book of Exodus—Aser, which is, by interpretation, "instruction," and the second Elkana, which is translated "possession of God," and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered "congregation of the father"—yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit and one voice and one soul, which worked in true harmony. And the three speak as one, "As the hart pants after the springs of the water, so pants my soul after you, O God."
Exodus 7:8-10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
The narrative that has been read to us is indeed most renowned, and, by reason of its greatness, is known to the whole world; through it is signified how Egypt, together with king Pharaoh, was chastised by the mighty blows of signs and wonders, so that it might restore to its native liberty the Hebrew people, which, though born of free forefathers, it had "by violence" reduced to servitude. But the account of these deeds is so interwoven that, if you inspect the several details carefully, you will find more matters in which the understanding sticks fast than in which it can extricate itself. And because it is a long task to set forth each thing said by Scripture in its order, let us review the substance of the whole history in a more compendious way. So then, at the first sign "Aaron cast down his rod, and it became a dragon"; and the enchanters and sorcerers of the Egyptians were summoned, and "they did likewise" out of their rods, making dragons. But the dragon that had been made from Aaron's rod swallowed up the dragons of the Egyptians. And whereas this ought to have caused Pharaoh astonishment and to have profited toward belief, it was turned to the contrary. For Scripture says that: "the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not hearken to them". And here indeed it says that "the heart of Pharaoh was hardened"; but no less in the first plague also, where the water is turned into blood, it is written in like manner, and in the second when the frogs bubble up, and also in the third when the gnats come on; in the fourth too when the dog-fly is brought forth, and in the fifth, where "the hand of the Lord comes upon the cattle" of the Egyptians, things equal and similar are said on this point. But in the sixth, where Moses "took ashes of the furnace" "and sprinkled them, and there arose sores and burning blisters upon men and upon the four-footed beasts, and now the sorcerers could not stand in the presence of Moses", it is not said that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, but something more terrible is added; for it is written that: "the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not hear them, even as the Lord had appointed". Again in the seventh, when hail and fire lay waste all Egypt, "the heart of Pharaoh" is indeed "hardened", but not by the Lord. But in the eighth, where the locust is brought forth, "the Lord" is said "to harden the heart of Pharaoh". And in the ninth also, when "palpable darkness comes over the whole land of Egypt", "the Lord" is written "to harden the heart of Pharaoh". And at the very last too, when, the firstborn of the Egyptians having been destroyed, the Hebrew people had departed, after many things it is thus said: "and the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and of his servants, and he pursued after the children of Israel". Moreover, when Moses is sent from the land of Midian to Egypt and is commanded "to do all the wonders which the Lord had put into his hands", it is added: "thou shalt do them", he says, "in the presence of Pharaoh. But I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, and he will not let the people go". Here first it was said by the Lord: "I will harden the heart of Pharaoh". And a second time also, where the princes of Israel have been enumerated, after a little he adds in the person of the Lord: "I", he says, "will harden the heart of Pharaoh, and I will multiply my signs". But if we believe these letters to be divine and written by the Holy Spirit, I do not think that we should feel so unworthily of the divine Spirit as to suppose that in so great a work this variation was made by chance — that now indeed God is said to have "hardened the heart of Pharaoh", but now it is said to have been hardened not by God, but as it were of its own accord. For my part, I confess myself too little fit and too little capable to be able to search out the secrets of the divine wisdom amid variations of this kind. Yet I see Paul the Apostle, who, because of the Spirit of God dwelling…
Exodus 7:10-12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
I think therefore, so far as I am able to perceive, that Moses coming to Egypt and bearing the rod with which he chastises and beats Egypt with ten plagues — this Moses is the law of God, which has been given to this world, that it may correct and amend it with ten plagues, that is, with the ten commandments which are contained in the Decalogue; but the rod, through which all these things are wrought, through which Egypt is subdued and Pharaoh is overcome, is the cross of Christ, through which this world is conquered and "the prince of this world" with his principalities and powers is triumphed over. And that the rod, when cast down, becomes a dragon or serpent and devours the serpents of the Egyptian magicians, who had done "likewise" — that the serpent is put for wisdom or prudence the Gospel word indicates, when it says: "be prudent as serpents", and elsewhere: "the serpent was more prudent than all the animals and beasts that were in paradise". The cross of Christ, therefore, whose preaching seemed "foolishness", which Moses, that is the law, contains, as the Lord said: "for he wrote of me" — this cross, I say, of which Moses wrote, after it was cast down upon the earth, that is, after it came to the belief and faith of men, was turned into wisdom, and into so great a wisdom that it should devour all the wisdom of the Egyptians, that is, of this world. For behold how "God made foolish the wisdom of this world", after he manifested "Christ, who was crucified, to be the power of God and the wisdom of God", and now the whole world has been caught by him who said: "catching the wise in their own craftiness".
Exodus 7:20-21 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
But that the waters of the river are turned into blood is fitted suitably enough. First indeed, so that that river, to which they had handed over the little ones of the Hebrews by cruel slaughter, might render to the authors of the crime a cup of blood, and that by drinking they might feel the gore of the polluted flood, which they had stained with parricidal killing. Then next, so that nothing might be lacking to the allegorical laws also, the waters are turned into blood and its own blood is given to Egypt to drink. The waters of Egypt are the wandering and slippery doctrines of the philosophers; because these have deceived all who are little ones in perception and children in understanding, when the cross of Christ showed the light of truth to this world, they are required to pay the penalties of their slaying and the guilt of blood. For thus also the Lord himself says that: "all the blood which has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just unto the blood of Zachariah, shall be required of this generation".
Exodus 8:5-6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
But by the second plague, in which the frogs are brought forth, I judge that the songs of the poets are figuratively indicated, who, by a certain empty and inflated modulation, like the sounds and songs of frogs, have brought upon this world the fables of deception. For that animal is useful for nothing else except that it renders the sound of its voice with wicked and importunate clamors.
Exodus 8:8 — ON PRAYER 3.2-3
One should also observe that the term prayer,which often differs in meaning from "invocation," is here employed in the case of one who promises in a vow to do certain things if God grants him certain other things. But the term is also used in the ordinary way. For example, we found this to be so in Exodus after the description of the plague of the frogs, which was the second of the ten plagues: … "But Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said to them: 'Pray to the Lord on my account to take away the frogs from me and my people; and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.' " When Pharaoh employs the word prayer the habitual meaning of "prayer" is conveyed in addition to the above meaning. If anyone finds this difficult to see, it becomes clear in what follows, namely: "And Moses said to Pharaoh: 'Set me a time when I shall pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs may be driven away from you and from your house and from your people, and may remain only in the river.' "We noted, however, that in the case of the sciniphs, the third plague, Pharaoh does not ask that prayer be made, nor does Moses pray. And in the case of the flies, the fourth plague, he says, "Pray therefore for me to the Lord." And then Moses said, "I will go out from you and will pray to the Lord. And the flies shall depart from Pharaoh, and from his servants, and from his people tomorrow." And a little further on we read: "So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to God." Again in the case of the fifth and also of the sixth plague Pharaoh did not ask that prayer be made, nor did Moses pray. In the seventh plague "Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, saying to them, 'I have sinned this time. The Lord is just, but I and my people are wicked. Pray to the Lord, that the thunderings of God and the hail and the fire may cease.' " And a little further on we read: "And Moses went from Pharaoh out of the city and stretched forth his hands to the Lord; and the thunders … ceased." We shall discuss more suitably at another time why it is not said as on the previous occasions that "he prayed" but rather that "he stretched forth his hands to the Lord." And in the case of the eighth plague Pharaoh says, "And pray to the Lord your God, that he take away from me this death. And Moses going forth from the presence of Pharaoh, prayed to the Lord."
Exodus 8:16-17 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
After this the gnats are brought forth. This animal is indeed suspended by its wings, flitting through the air, but it is so subtle and minute that it escapes the sight of the eye unless one sees sharply; yet when it has settled on the body, it bores in with a most bitter sting, so that the one whom a man is not able to see flying, he feels stinging. This kind of animal therefore I think most fittingly compared to the art of dialectic, which bores through souls with minute and subtle stings of words and circumvents them with such craftiness that the deceived man neither sees nor understands whence he is deceived.
Exodus 8:21-24 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
And in the fourth place I would compare the dog-fly to the sect of the Cynics, who, among the rest of the wicked doings of their deception, even proclaim pleasure and lust to be the highest good. Since therefore through each of these the world was previously deceived, the word and law of God, coming, convicts it with corrections of this kind, so that from the quality of the punishments it may recognize the qualities of its own error.
Exodus 8:28 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 3
This Pharaoh, who is the prince of Egypt, when he sees himself more vehemently pressed to let the people of God go, in the second place desires to obtain this, "that they should not go far off", that they should not set out the whole three days, and he says: "do not go far off". He does not want the people of God to be made "far" from himself; he wants it, if not in deed, at least to sin in word; if not in word, at least to offend in thought. He does not want them to set out from him the whole three days. He wants to have at least one of his days in us; in others two, in others he possesses the whole three days. But blessed are those who withdraw from him the entire three days, and he possesses no day of his own in them.
Exodus 9:3-6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
But that in the fifth place Egypt is beaten by the slaying of the animals or cattle, in this there is convicted the madness and folly of mortals, who, like irrational cattle, imposed the worship and the name of God upon the figures not only of men but also of cattle, stamped upon wood and stones, venerating Ammon-Jupiter in a ram and Anubis in a dog, worshipping Apis also in a bull, and the rest of the monstrous gods which Egypt marvels at, so that in the very things in which they believed a divine worship to reside, in these they might see pitiable torments.
Exodus 9:9-11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
After these, sores and blisters with burning are brought forth in the sixth blow. And it seems to me that in the sores there is convicted deceitful and festering malice, in the blisters swelling and inflated pride, in the burning the madness of anger and fury. Thus far the torments are tempered to the world through the figures of its own errors.
Exodus 9:23-24 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
But after these blows come from on high "voices", it says — of thunder without doubt — "and hail and fire running about in the hail". See the temperateness of the divine correction: it does not beat in silence, but gives voices and sends teaching from heaven, through which the chastised one may be able to recognize his own fault. It gives also hail, through which the still tender growths of the vices may be laid waste. It gives also fire, knowing that there are "thorns and thistles" which that fire ought to feed upon, concerning which the Lord says: "I came to send fire upon the earth"; for through this the incentives of pleasure and lust are consumed.
Exodus 9:27 — ON PRAYER 29.16
See whether it is for this reason that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, so that at a moment when he was not hardened he could say, "The Lord is just: I and my people are wicked." His heart has to be hardened further, and he has to suffer more, that he may not, because he has been freed of his hardheartedness too quickly, think too lightly of that hardheartedness and so may have to have his heart hardened over and over again.
Exodus 10:7 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.11
And the briefly recorded fact that the heart of Pharaoh experienced a kind of softening when he said, "But you shall not proceed far; you shall go a three days' journey and leave your wives behind," and whatever else he spoke when yielding before the marvelous works makes it clear that these signs had some effect even on him, though they did not entirely accomplish their object. Yet not even this would have happened if the idea held by most people about the words, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart," rightly represented what was wrought by him, that is, by God.
Exodus 10:13-15 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
But that mention is made of locusts in the eighth place, I think that through this kind of plague the inconstancy of the human race, ever at variance with itself and discordant, is confuted. For the locust, though it has no king, as Scripture says: "leads forth its army arrayed in one battle-line"; but men, though made rational by God, have been able neither to govern themselves in ordered fashion nor to bear patiently the guidance of God their king.
Exodus 10:22-23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 134
We say, lest perhaps also the "palpable darkness" in Egypt was made in this manner for "three days", not from an eclipse of the sun, but either because dark clouds ran together into one, or because the air there then became thicker over the Egyptians only — for "to all the sons of Israel", as the scripture testifies, "there was light in all the places in which they were dwelling". For it is also impossible in an eclipse of the sun, which happens from the coming together of the moon to the sun, for darkness to be made for "three" continuous "days"; and it would be believed that there was some other cause of the darkness in Egypt, if the sun had even been named, or as though darkened at that time. But now the scripture of Exodus says nothing else except that "Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and there was darkness and gloom and the rest over the whole land of Egypt for three days; and no one saw his brother, nor did anyone rise from his bed for three days". And just as, when Moses stretched out his hand "to heaven", "darkness was made over the Egyptians", who held the servants of God in servitude, an image of the future darkness which was to seize the Egyptians, similarly also when Christ at the sixth hour stretched out his hands on the cross to heaven over the people who had cried out: "take this man from the earth", and "crucify, crucify him", darkness was made, and they were deprived of all light. Likewise under Moses "there was darkness and gloom over the whole land of Egypt for three days; and no one saw his brother, nor did anyone rise from his bed for three days; but to all the sons of Israel there was light in all the places in which they were dwelling". But under Christ darkness fell over the whole earth of Judea for three hours, but there was light over all the rest of the earth. Which everywhere illumines the whole Church of God in Christ.
Exodus 10:22-23 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
The ninth plague is darkness, whether so that the blindness of their mind may be convicted, or so that they may understand that the reasons of the divine dispensation and providence are most obscure. For "God has made darkness his hiding-place", which they, desiring boldly and rashly to search out, and asserting one thing from another, have been rolled down into the thick and "palpable darkness" of errors.
Exodus 11:3 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12.2.5
About Isaac it is said that "he grew strong until he became great, exceedingly great." Moses was called "great," and John the Baptist was called "great," and now Jesus is called "great," and after this no one is any longer called "great." For before he who is truly "great" had come, in comparison with the rest of men, the saints whom we mentioned earlier were called "great."
Exodus 11:3 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.7
Moses, when he had come to the place that God showed him, is not permitted to ascend, but before that it is said to him: "loose the strap of the sandal from your feet." To Abraham none of these things is said, nor to Isaac, but they ascend and do not put off their sandals. In which perhaps this is the reason: that Moses, although he was "great," yet was coming from Egypt, and there were certain bonds of mortality knotted to his feet. But Abraham and Isaac have none of these things, but come to the place.
Exodus 11:4-7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
At the last the destruction of the firstborn is brought on, in which there is perhaps something above our understanding, namely what seems to have been committed by the Egyptians against "the church of the firstborn, which is enrolled in heaven". Whence too the destroying angel is sent to a ministry of this kind, to spare only those who shall be found to have both doorposts marked with the blood of the lamb. Meanwhile the firstborn of the Egyptians are destroyed, whether we say they are the "principalities and powers" and "the rulers of the darkness of this world", whom Christ at his coming is said to have "led forth", that is, to have led captive "and to have triumphed over on the wood of the cross"; or whether we say they are the authors and inventors of the false religions which have been in this world, which the truth of Christ has extinguished and destroyed together with their authors. This much as regards the mystical sense.
Exodus 12:2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 28
In Matthew it is not written: "he was beginning"; but here, because he was about to ascend from baptism, "he was beginning" is read, Scripture relating: "and this same Jesus was beginning". For when he was baptized and took up the mystery of the second birth, so that you too might destroy your former nativity and be born in the second regeneration, then he is said "to have begun". And just as the people of the Jews, when they were in Egypt, did not have a beginning of months, but when they had gone out of Egypt, then it is said to them: "this month, the beginning of months, shall be the first for you among the months of the year", so he who is not yet baptized is not narrated "to have begun". For let us not suppose that it was added in vain to that which is said, "this same was Jesus", what follows: "beginning".
Exodus 12:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.10
Finally, the unleavened bread too is commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs; nor is it possible to reach the land of promise unless we pass through bitter things. For just as physicians insert certain bitter ingredients into their medicines with a view to the safety and health of the sick, so too, with a view to our safety, the physician of our souls has willed us to suffer the bitter things of this life in various trials, knowing that the end of this bitterness gains for our soul the sweetness of salvation; just as, on the contrary, the end of the sweetness which is in bodily pleasure, as the example of that rich man has taught, yields a bitter end in the hell of punishments.
Exodus 12:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.99-101
And we must eat the meat roasted with fire with unleavened bread. For the Word of God is not only flesh. He says, indeed, "I am the bread of life," and "This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever."36We must not, however, fail to remark that all food is loosely said to be bread, as it is written in the case of Moses in Deuteronomy: "He did not eat bread for forty days, and he did not drink water," instead of saying he partook of neither dry nor wet nourishment. Now I have noted this because it is also said in the Gospel according to John, "And also the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Exodus 12:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.102
But we eat the flesh of the lamb and the unleavened bread with bitter herbs either by being grieved with a godly grief because of repentance for our sins, a grief which produces in us a repentance unto salvation which brings no regret, or by seeking and being nurtured from the visions of the truth which we discover because of our trials.
Exodus 12:8 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.3
Christians every day eat the flesh of the Lamb, that is, they daily take the flesh of the word. "For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed." And because the law of the Passover is such that it should be eaten in the evening, therefore the Lord suffered in the evening of the world, so that you may always eat of the flesh of the word, because you are always in the evening, until the morning comes. And if in this evening you are watchful and lead your life "in weeping and fastings" and in every labor of righteousness, you too will be able to say: "Weeping shall tarry until the evening, and joy until the morning." For you will rejoice in the morning, that is, in the age to come, if in this age you gather "the fruit of righteousness" in weeping and labor.
Exodus 12:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.103-4
One must not therefore eat the flesh of the lamb raw, as the slaves of the letter do in the manner of animals which are irrational and quite savage. In relation to men who are truly rational through their desire to understand the spiritual aspects of the world, the former [slaves of the letter] share the company of wild beasts.We must strive, however, in transforming the rawness of Scripture into boiled food, not to transform what has been written into what is flaccid, watery and limp. This is what they do who "have itching ears and" turn them away "from the truth" and transform the anagogical meanings so far as they are concerned to the carelessness and wateriness of their manner of life.
Exodus 12:10 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5.8.2
Consequently let us compare the divine Scripture with itself and follow the path of the solution that it would open to us. For we find in the sacrifice of the Passover that it is ordered to be offered "in the evening." In like manner, the command is given that "nothing will remain of the flesh until morning." It is not insignificant that the divine word wants us to eat not yesterday's meat, but always fresh and new, particularly those who offer to God the Passover sacrifice or "the sacrifice of praise." It commands them to eat this new and fresh meat of the same day. It prohibits yesterday's meat. I remembered the prophet Ezekiel said something similar when the Lord had commanded him to bake cakes for them in "human dung." For he answered the Lord and said, "O Lord, never was my soul contaminated, and dead or unclean things did not enter my mouth. Even yesterday's meat never entered my mouth." In this case I was often asking myself what this exultation of the prophet was that as something great he brought mean before the Lord and said, "I never ate yesterday's meat." But as I see from this place, taught and instructed by these mysteries, this prophet spoke to the Lord saying, I am not a priest so cast down and ignoble that "I eat yesterday's meat," that is, old meat.
Exodus 12:23 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.1
We must also inquire who that being was of whom it is said in Exodus that he wished to kill Moses because he was setting out for Egypt. And afterwards, who is it that is called the "destroying angel"? And who also is he who in Leviticus is described as Apopompeus, that is, the Averter, of whom the Scripture speaks thus: "One lot for the Lord, and one lot for Apopompeus"?
Exodus 12:23 — AGAINST CELSUS 6.43
And who else could be the destroyer in Exodus, which Moses wrote, except the one who is the cause of destruction to those who obey him and who do not resist and struggle against his wickedness?
Exodus 12:37 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
"The teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth," the Apostle Paul, handed down to the Church which he gathered from among the Gentiles how it ought to attend to the books of the Law, which it had received from others and which had formerly been unknown to it and altogether foreign, lest, in taking up institutions foreign to it and being ignorant of the rule of those institutions, it should tremble amid an alien instrument. Therefore he himself, in a number of passages, hands down examples of the understanding, so that we too may observe things similar in the rest, lest perchance, on account of the likeness of the reading and of the instrument of the Jews, we should believe that we have been made their disciples. This, then, is what he wishes to distinguish between the disciples of Christ and the disciples of the synagogue: that the Law which they, by understanding it badly, did not receive Christ, we, by understanding it spiritually, may show to have been rightly given for the instruction of the Church. The Jews, then, understand only this: that "the children of Israel departed" from Egypt, and that their first departure was "from Rameses," and that departing thence they came "to Succoth," and that "departing from Succoth" they came "to Othon" by Epauleum near the sea; then, further, that there the cloud went before them and that "the rock" followed, from which they drank water, and that they also passed through the Red Sea and came into the desert of Sinai. But let us see what rule of understanding concerning these things Paul the Apostle has handed down to us. Writing to the Corinthians, he says in a certain place thus: "For we know that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ." You see how much Paul's tradition differs from the historical reading: what the Jews think a crossing of the sea, Paul calls baptism; what they reckon a cloud, Paul sets down as the Holy Spirit; and he wishes that to be understood as like this which the Lord commanded in the Gospels, saying: "unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdoms of heaven." And again the manna, which the Jews reckon food for the belly and satiety for the gullet, Paul names "spiritual food." And not only Paul, but the Lord Himself in the Gospel says concerning the same thing: "your fathers ate manna in the desert, and they died. But whoever shall eat of the bread which I give him shall not die for ever." And after this He says: "I am the bread which came down from heaven." Then, further, concerning "the rock that followed" Paul openly declares and says: "and the rock was Christ." What, then, must we do, who have received from Paul, the teacher of the Church, institutions of understanding of this kind? Does it not seem just that we should keep the rule of this kind handed down to us by a like example in the rest? Or shall we, as certain people wish, forsaking these things which so great and such an Apostle handed down, turn back again to "Jewish fables"? For my part, if I should expound these things otherwise than as they seem to Paul, I think this is to give a hand to the enemies of Christ, and this is what the prophet says: "Woe to him who gives his neighbor to drink with turbulent overthrow!" Having therefore received from the blessed Apostle Paul the seeds of spiritual understanding, let us cultivate them, insofar as the Lord shall deign to enlighten us through your prayers.
Exodus 13:2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
The males which were holy from the fact that they had opened their mother's womb were offered before the altar of the Lord: "every male," it says, "that opens the womb", sounds something sacred. For whatever male you may say has been poured forth from the womb, he does not open his mother's womb as the Lord Jesus does, because in all women it is not the birth of the infant, but the intercourse of the man, that unlocks the womb. But the womb of the Lord's mother was unlocked at that time at which the birth also was brought forth, because before the birth of Christ no male at all touched that holy womb, to be venerated with all reverence.
Exodus 13:2 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11.1.2
Therefore let us draw together from the divine Scriptures instances in which we find "holy" used, and discover not only persons but also mute animals that are called "holy," and also find both "the vessels" of the ministry that are called "holy," and the garments which are said to be "holy," and even the places which were located in cities and suburbs and counted as priestly. Indeed, among the brute animals it is commanded through the law that "the firstborn" of calves or cattle be sacrificed to the Lord, and it says, You will not do any work with them because they have been consecrated to the Lord.
Exodus 13:20-21 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
But one must not stand still even in this; the departure must be pressed on, the camp must be moved even "from Succoth," and one must hasten to come "to Othon." Now they say that "Othon" is turned into our language as signs to them. And rightly so, for here you will hear it said that: "God went before them, by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire"; you do not find this done at Rameses nor at Succoth, which are called the second camp for those departing, but it is the third camp in which divine signs come to pass. Recall what was read above, when Moses said to Pharaoh: "we will go a journey of three days into the desert, and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God." This, then, was the three days' space to which Moses hastened and which Pharaoh opposed; for he said: "do not go farther." Pharaoh did not permit the children of Israel to arrive at the place of signs, he did not permit them to advance so far as to be able to enjoy the mysteries of the third day. For hear what the prophet says: "God will raise us up after two days, and on the third day we shall rise again and shall live in his sight." The first day for us is the passion of the Savior, and the second, on which he descended into hell, but the third is the day of the resurrection. And therefore on the third day "God went before them, by day in a pillar of cloud, by night in a pillar of fire." But if, according to those things which we said above, the Apostle rightly teaches us that the mysteries of baptism are contained in these words, it is necessary that "those who are baptized in Christ should be baptized in his death, and be buried together with him," and rise again with him on the third day from the dead, whom also, according to that which the Apostle says: "he raised up together with himself, and made to sit together in the heavenly places." When, therefore, the mystery of the third day has been received by you, God will begin to lead you forth and Himself to show you the way of salvation.
Exodus 14:2-3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
But let us see what is said to Moses after these things, what way is enjoined to be chosen. "From Othon," it says, "turn back and make your journey between Epauleum and Magdolum, which is over against Beelsephon." Now these are interpreted thus: "Epauleum" indeed a winding ascent, "Magdolum" a tower, "Beelsephon" the ascent of a watchtower, or having a watchtower. You perhaps believed that the way which God shows was level and soft and had absolutely no difficulty or labor: it is an ascent, and a winding ascent. For the way by which one strives toward the virtues is not downhill, but one ascends, and ascends narrowly and with difficulty. Hear also the Lord in the Gospel saying how "strait and narrow is the way that leads to life." See, then, how greatly the Gospel agrees with the Law. In the Law the way of virtue is shown to be a winding ascent; in the Gospels it is called "the strait and narrow way that leads to life." Cannot even the blind openly see this, that one and the same Spirit wrote the Law and the Gospels? It is, then, a journey which they travel, a winding ascent and the ascent of a watchtower, or having a watchtower; the ascent pertains to deeds, the watchtower to faith. He shows, therefore, that both in deeds and in faith there is much difficulty and much labor. For many temptations arise, many stumbling-blocks for those who wish to do the things that are of God. Then, further, in faith you will find many winding things, very many questions, many objections of heretics, many contradictions of unbelievers. This journey, then, must be made by those who follow God; but there is also a tower on this journey. What is that tower? That one, surely, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: "which of you, wishing to build a tower, will not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has the means to complete it?" This, then, is the tower, the steep and lofty seat of the virtues. But see what Pharaoh says, beholding these things: 'they are wandering astray,' he says, 'these people.' In Pharaoh's judgment, he who follows God is said to wander astray; because, as we said, the way of wisdom is winding, having many bends, many difficulties, very many turnings. In short, when you confess one God, and by the same confession affirm the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one God, how winding, how difficult, how inextricable this seems to be to unbelievers! Then, further, when you say that "the Lord of majesty" was crucified and that he is the Son of Man "who came down from heaven," how winding these things seem and how difficult! He who hears, if he does not hear with faith, says that these people are wandering astray; but be you fixed and do not doubt concerning faith of this kind, knowing that God has shown you this way of faith. For He Himself said: "taking up the camp from Othon, pitch it between Epauleum and Magdolum over against Beelsephon." Fleeing therefore from Egypt, you come to these places, you come to these ascents of works and of faith, you come to the building of the tower, you come also to the sea, and the waves meet you. For the journey of life is not made without the waves of temptations; as the Apostle also says: "all who wish to live piously in Christ shall suffer persecution." But Job likewise declares that: "our life upon the earth is a temptation." This, then, is to have come to the sea.
Exodus 14:11-12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
And you too, therefore, if you withdraw from the Egyptians and flee from the power of demons, see how great the helps are that are divinely prepared for you, see how great the helpers are whom you employ. Only let it be that you remain strong in faith, and that neither the cavalry and the terror of the chariots of the Egyptians strike you with dread, nor that you cry out against the Law of God, against Moses, and say, as certain of them said: "as though there were no graves in Egypt, so you have led us out, that we might die in this desert. It were better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this desert." These are the words of a soul fainting in temptation. But who is so blessed that he so disburdens himself of the weight of temptations that no thought of uncertainty creeps into his mind? See what is said by the Lord to that great foundation of the Church and most solid rock, upon which Christ founded the Church: "O you of little faith," He says, "why did you doubt?" Yet nevertheless, in that they say: "it were better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness," these are the words of temptation and of frailty; otherwise it is false; for it is far better "to die in the wilderness" than "to serve the Egyptians." For he who dies in the wilderness, by this very fact that he has been separated from the Egyptians and has departed from "the rulers of the darkness" and from the power of Satan, has had some advance, even if he was not able to arrive at completeness. For it is better to die on the way while seeking the perfect life than not even to set out to seek perfection. Whence also the opinion of those seems to be mistaken who, while they set forth the way of virtue as too steep, and while they enumerate its many difficulties and many dangers and falls, judge that it is not even to be entered upon or begun. But it is much better for me even to die on this journey, if so it must be, than, remaining among the Egyptians, to be slain and overwhelmed by the salt and bitter waves.
Exodus 14:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.101
But if the mental voice of those who pray should not be extremely loud, though it is not weak, and should they not raise a cry and shout, God still hears those who pray thus. For it is he who says to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me?" when he had not cried out audibly (for this is not recorded in Exodus), but through prayer he had cried out loudly in that voice which is heard by God alone.
Exodus 14:15 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
But meanwhile Moses cries out to the Lord. How does he cry out? No voice of his crying is heard, and yet God says to him: "why do you cry out to me?" I would like to know how the saints cry out to God without a voice. The Apostle teaches that: "God gave the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father!" And he adds: "the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings." And again: "but he who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because he asks for the saints according to God." Thus, then, when the Holy Spirit intercedes with God, through the silence of the saints a cry is heard.
Exodus 14:19-20 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
But if, following Moses—that is, the Law of God—you make this journey, the Egyptian indeed pursues and hounds you, but see what happens: "the angel of the Lord," it says, "who went before the camp of Israel, raised himself up and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud also lifted itself from before their face, and stood behind them, and entered between the camp of the Egyptians and of the Israelites." This "pillar of cloud" is made a wall for the people of God, but upon the Egyptians it imposes obscurity and darkness. For the pillar of fire is not transferred to the Egyptians, that they may see the light, but they remain in darkness, because "they loved darkness rather than light."
Exodus 14:22 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.10
How troublesome a trial it is to pass through the midst of the sea, to see the waves rising up in a heap, to hear the roar and crash of the raging billows; but nevertheless, if you follow Moses, that is, the law of God, the waters will become for you a wall on the right hand and on the left, and you will find a path through dry ground in the midst of the sea. But that heavenly journey too, which we have said the soul makes, may perhaps have some waters as well; it may be that there too waves are found; for there is a certain portion of waters above the heaven and a certain portion beneath the heaven, and we for the present endure the waves and billows of these waters that are beneath the heaven.
Exodus 14:22 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
And what after this? Moses is commanded to strike the sea with his rod, so that it may split apart and give way to the people of God as they enter, and so that the obedient service of the elements may serve the divine will, and that the waters, which were feared, being made "a wall on the right hand and on the left" for the servants of God, may not only know no ruin, but may even present a defense. The wave, therefore, is forced into a heap, and the surge, checked upon itself, is curved. The liquid takes on solidity, and the floor of the sea is dried into dust. Understand the goodness of God the Creator; if you obey His will, if you follow His Law, He compels the very elements to serve you even against their own nature. I have heard it handed down by the elders that in that parting of the sea individual divisions of the waters were made for each and every tribe of the children of Israel, and that a way was opened in the sea proper to each tribe, and that this is shown from that which is written in the Psalms: "who divided the Red Sea into divisions." By which it is taught that many divisions were made, not one. But also by that which is said: "there is Benjamin the younger in amazement, the princes of Judah their leaders, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali," no less does a proper entrance seem to be enumerated for each tribe. These things, observed by the elders in the divine Scriptures, I have thought it a religious duty not to pass over in silence. What, then, are we taught through these things? We have already said above what the Apostle's meaning is in these matters. This he names "a baptism accomplished in Moses in the cloud and in the sea," so that you too, who are baptized in Christ, in water and in the Holy Spirit, may know that the Egyptians indeed pursue after you and wish to recall you to their servitude—namely "the rulers" of this "world" and the "spiritual wickednesses," to which formerly you were enslaved. These indeed try to pursue, but you go down into the water and come out unharmed, and, the filth of your sins being washed away, you ascend "a new man" ready "to sing a new song." But the Egyptians, pursuing after you, are drowned in the abyss, even though they seem to beg Jesus not to send them meanwhile into the abyss.
Exodus 14:30 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
But we can also derive another understanding from these things. If you flee Egypt, if you leave the darkness of ignorance and follow the Law of God, Moses, and the sea meets you, and the wave of those who contradict runs against you, do you strike the struggling waves with the rod of Moses—that is, with the word of the Law and the vigilance of the Scriptures—and by disputing open for yourself a way through the adversaries; the waves will give way at once, and the conquered surges will yield place to the victors, and while those who a little before were opposing you marvel and are astonished and are fixed in stupor, you, along the lawful lines of disputations, will cut the straight way of faith and will make such progress by the word of teaching that your hearers, whom you have instructed by the rod of the Law, may themselves now rise up against the Egyptians like the waves of the sea, and not only assail them, but also overcome and extinguish them. For he extinguishes the Egyptian who does not do "the works of darkness"; he extinguishes the Egyptian who lives not carnally but spiritually; he extinguishes the Egyptian who either drives away from his heart filthy and impure thoughts or does not receive them at all, as the Apostle also says: "taking up the shield of faith, that we may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one." In this way, then, we can even today "see the Egyptians dead and lying on the shore," and their chariots and horses submerged. We can even see Pharaoh himself submerged, if we live with such faith that "God may crush Satan under our feet swiftly" through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
Exodus 15:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
As a perfect bride, therefore, of a perfect man, she has received the words of perfect doctrine. The first song, then, Moses and the children of Israel sang to God when they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore, and when they saw the strong hand and the exalted arm of the Lord, and they believed God and his servant Moses. Then they sang, saying: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously glorified." But I judge that no one can come to that perfect and mystical song, and to that perfection of the bride which is contained in this Scripture, unless he first walk through the dry ground in the midst of the sea … And by Moses I mean the Law and the Gospels and all the divine Scriptures; for then he will rightly sing and say: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously glorified."
Exodus 15:1 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
We read that many songs were made in the divine Scriptures, yet the first of them all is this song, which the people of God sang after their victory, when the Egyptians and Pharaoh had been drowned. For it is the custom of the saints, whenever an adversary is conquered, to offer God a hymn of thanksgiving, as those who know that the victory was won not by their own power but by the grace of God. And as they sing the hymn, they take up timbrels also in their hands, as is related of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. And you too, therefore, if you cross the Red Sea, if you see the Egyptians drowned and Pharaoh extinguished and cast down into the depth of the abyss, you can sing a hymn to God, you can send forth the voice of thanksgiving and say: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified; the horse and the rider he has cast into the sea." But you will say these things better and more worthily if you have a timbrel in your hand — that is, if you have "crucified your flesh with its vices and desires," and if you have "mortified your members which are upon the earth." And yet let us see what he says: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified"; as though it were not enough to say "he has been glorified," so he added "he has been gloriously glorified." For my part, so far as I can conjecture, it seems to me that to be glorified is one thing, and to be gloriously glorified is another. For my Lord Jesus Christ, when he took flesh from the Virgin for our salvation, was indeed glorified, because "he came to seek what had perished," yet he was not "gloriously glorified." For it is said of him: "We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, and his countenance was ignoble beyond the sons of men." He was glorified also when he came to the cross and endured death. Do you wish to know that he was glorified? He himself said: "Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." The passion of the cross, then, was also a glory to him; but this glory was not glorious, but lowly. Finally it is said of him: "He humbled himself even unto death, even the death of the cross," concerning which too the prophet had foretold: "Let us condemn him with a most shameful death." And Isaiah also says of him: "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away." In all these things, therefore, the Lord was glorified, but, so to speak, humbly, not "gloriously glorified." But because "it behooved Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his glory," "when he shall come in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels," "when he shall come in his majesty" "to judge the earth," when he shall also "slay the true Pharaoh, that is, the devil, with the spirit of his mouth," when therefore he shall shine forth in "the majesty of his Father" and, after the coming in humility, shall show us a second coming in glory — then not only is the Lord glorified, but he is also "gloriously glorified," when "all so honor the Son as they honor the Father."
Exodus 15:2 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"This is my God, and I will honor him; the God of my father, and I will exalt him." This one, then, is both "my" "God" and the God "of my father." Our Father, who made us and begot us, is Christ, and he himself says: "I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God." If, therefore, I recognize that God is "my" "God," I will glorify him; but if I also recognize this, in what way he is the "God" of Christ "my father," I will exalt him: for it is a loftier understanding, in what way Christ, in order to bind fast and safeguard the truth of the one God, calls him his God whom by nature he calls Father.
Exodus 15:3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"The Lord who crushes wars, the Lord is his name." I would not have you think that the Lord "crushes" only visible battles, but he "crushes" also those which are for us "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world." For "the Lord is his name": and there is no creature of which he is not Lord.
Exodus 15:4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he has cast into the sea, the chosen riders, the three officers he has sunk in the Red Sea." Pharaoh, as one more powerful in wickedness and holding the kingdom of iniquity, drives "chariots." It is not enough for him to mount one horse; he drives many at once, he compels many at once with the blows of the twisted lash. Whomever you see more shameful in luxury, more savage in cruelty, more foul in avarice, more disgraceful in impiety, know that these belong to the chariots of Pharaoh; upon these he sits, these he yokes to his chariot, on these he is borne and flies about, and through the open fields of crimes he drives them with loosened reins. There are others, "chosen riders" — chosen, without doubt, for wickedness. But we have already spoken above about the riders; now let us also see who the "three officers" are. It seems to me that "three officers" are so called because there is a threefold way of sinning for men; for one sins either in deed or in word or in thought. And therefore "three officers" are said to be assigned to each and every one, who besiege these three ways of sinning within us and are always on the watch and lie in ambush, so that the one may draw an evil word out of the wretched man, or another may wring out an unjust deed, or another may snatch up a wicked thought. Finally, where the seed of the word of God falls and perishes, the place is described as threefold; one is said to be "beside the way," which is trodden down by men; another "among thorns," another "on rocky ground." And on the contrary the "good ground" is said to bring forth threefold fruit, either "a hundredfold" or "sixtyfold" or "thirtyfold." For there is also a threefold way of acting well; for nonetheless something good is done either by deed or by thought or by word. This same thing the Apostle also signifies when he says: "But he who builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones," indicating a threefold way of good things. He adds nonetheless a threefold way of evil things also, when he says: "wood, hay, stubble." These "three officers," then, are the wicked angels of Pharaoh's army, who stand in ways of this kind, watching each one of us to drive us through these into sin; whom the Lord will sink in the Red Sea and hand over to the fiery waves on the day of judgment and cover with a sea of punishments, if you, following God, withdraw yourself from their power.
Exodus 15:5 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"They went down into the deep like a stone." Why did "they go down into the deep like a stone"? Because they were not such "stones as those from which sons of Abraham could be raised up," but such as loved the deep and cherished the liquid element — that is, who seized the bitter and fleeting pleasure of present things.
Exodus 15:10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
Whence it is said of them: "They were sunk like lead in the mightiest water." Sinners are heavy. Finally, iniquity too is shown "to sit upon a talent of lead," as the prophet Zechariah says: "I saw," he says, "a woman sitting upon a talent of lead, and I said: what is this? And he answered: iniquity." Thence it is, therefore, that the wicked "were sunk into the deep, like lead in the mightiest water." But the saints are not sunk; rather they walk upon the waters, because they are light and are not weighed down by the burden of sin. Finally the Lord and Savior "walked upon the waters"; for he it is who truly knows no sin. His disciple Peter also "walked," although he trembled a little; for he was not so great and of such kind as to have nothing at all of the nature of lead mixed within him. He had some, though little. On account of which the Lord says to him: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Therefore he who is saved is saved through fire, so that, if perchance he should have anything of the nature of lead mixed in, the fire may boil it away and dissolve it, so that all may be made good gold — because "the gold of that land" is said "to be good," which the saints are to possess, and "as the furnace tests gold," so temptation tests just men. All must come, then, to the fire; all must come to the smelting-furnace; "for the Lord sits and smelts and purges the sons of Judah." But when one comes there, if anyone has brought many good works and but a little of iniquity, that little is dissolved by the fire "like lead" and is purged, and the whole remains pure gold. And if anyone has brought there more lead, he is burned more, so that he may be boiled longer, so that, even if there be but a little gold, it may nevertheless remain purified. But if anyone comes there wholly of lead, there will befall him that which is written: he will be sunk "into the deep, like lead in the mightiest water." But it is a long matter, if we should wish to expound in order; it is enough to touch on a few points briefly.
Exodus 15:11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"Who," he says, "is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you? Glorious among the saints, wonderful in majesties, working prodigies." When he says "who is like you among the gods?", he does not compare God to the idols of the nations, nor to the demons who falsely claim for themselves the name of gods, but he calls those gods who are called gods through the grace and participation of God. Concerning whom Scripture also says elsewhere: "I said: you are gods," and again: "God stood in the assembly of the gods." But these, although they are capable of God and seem to be granted this name through grace, yet none is found like to God either in power or in nature. And although John the Apostle says: "little children, we do not yet know what we shall be; but if he shall be revealed to us" — speaking, of course, of the Lord — "we shall be like him," yet this likeness is referred not to nature but to grace. For example, as if we should say that a picture is like him whose image is seen expressed in the picture: as far as pertains to the grace of sight, it is called like; as far as pertains to substance, it is far unlike. For that is the form of flesh and the beauty of a living body, this is a tinting of colors and wax laid upon boards devoid of feeling. None, therefore, "among the gods is like the Lord"; for none is invisible, none incorporeal, none immutable, none without beginning and without end, none the creator of all things, save the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Exodus 15:12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"You stretched out your right hand, the earth devoured them." The earth indeed devours the impious even today. Or does it not seem to you that the earth devours him who always thinks of earth, who always has earthly deeds, who speaks of earth, disputes about earth, desires earth, and places all his hope in earth? — who does not look to heaven, who does not think of things to come, who does not fear the judgment of God nor desire his blessed promises, but always thinks of things present, and sighs after things earthly? When you see such a man, say that "the earth has devoured him." But also if you see anyone given over to the luxury of the flesh and the pleasures of the body, in whom the mind avails nothing, but the lust of the flesh has taken possession of the whole, say also of this one that "the earth has devoured him." It still moves me that he says: "you stretched out your right hand, and the earth devoured them," as though this were the cause of their being devoured by the earth, that "the Lord stretched out his right hand." If you consider how the Lord, exalted upon the cross, "all the day stretched out his hands to a people that did not believe and that contradicted him," and how the death of the crime committed crushed the unbelieving people who cried out: "Crucify, crucify him!" — you will evidently find how "he stretched out his right hand and the earth devoured them." And yet one must not utterly despair. For it is possible that, if perchance he who has been devoured should come to his senses, he may again be vomited forth, as Jonah was. But I think that all of us too, once devoured by the earth, were held in the inner recesses of hell; and therefore our Lord descended not only as far as the lands, but even as far as "the lower parts of the earth"; and there he found us devoured and "sitting under the shadow of death," and leading us thence he prepares for us no longer a place of earth, lest we be devoured again, but a place of the kingdom of heaven.
Exodus 15:13 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"You have led forth this your people in your righteousness, whom you have set free. You have comforted them by your power in your holy rest." The Lord leads forth "in righteousness" his people whom "he set free through the laver of regeneration," and he comforts them also through the consolation of the Holy Spirit in "his power and in his rest." For the hope of things to come brings rest to those who labor; just as, for those set in the contest, the hope of the crown soothes the pain of wounds.
Exodus 15:14-16 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"The nations heard and were angry; pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the leaders of Edom hastened, and the princes of the Moabites; trembling took hold of them. All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away." As far as pertains to the history, it is established that none of these nations was present at the marvels which were done; how, then, will they seem to be terrified with trembling, or to have "hastened," as he says, or the "Philistines" and "Moabites" and "Edom" and the rest of the nations which he enumerates, to be "angry"? But if we return to the spiritual understanding, you will find that "Philistia" — that is, falling peoples — and "Edom," which is interpreted earthly, tremble, and the princes of all these run about and are afraid, gripped by pangs, when they see their kingdoms, which are in hell, penetrated by him "who descended into the lower parts of the earth," that he might rescue those who were possessed by death. Hence "fear and trembling seized them," because they felt "the greatness of his arm." Hence too "all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away," who are interpreted as changeable and moveable, when they see their kingdoms moved, "the strong one bound and his vessels plundered." "Let" therefore "fear and trembling at the greatness of your arm come upon them." What do the demons fear, what do they tremble at? Without doubt the cross of Christ, in which "they were triumphed over, in which their principalities and powers were stripped." "Fear," then, "and trembling shall fall upon them," when they see the sign of the cross faithfully fixed in us, and "the greatness of the arm" of him which the Lord stretched out upon the cross, as he says: "All the day I stretched out my hands to a people that did not believe and that contradicted me." They will not, then, fear you otherwise, nor will "your trembling come upon them otherwise," unless they see in you the cross of Christ, unless you too can say: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world."
Exodus 15:16 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22
I will yet set down one testimony concerning stones, since indeed in the canticle of Exodus it is written: "let them be turned into stones, until your people pass over, O Lord, until this your people pass over, whom you have possessed". And so God is asked that for a little while the Gentiles be turned into stones—for the Greek word sounds this more pointedly, "ἀπολιθούντωσαν" (let them be petrified)—"until the people" of the Jews "pass over". There is no doubt that, after those have passed over, the Gentiles will cease to be stony and, in place of a hard heart, will receive in Christ a human and rational nature: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Exodus 15:16 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"Let them become like stone, until your people pass over, O Lord, until this your people pass over, whom you have acquired." "To become like stone" is not to be by nature a stone; for it would not become that which it was not. This we say on account of those who say that Pharaoh or the Egyptians were of an evil nature and were not led into these things by the freedom of the will; and also on account of those who accuse God the creator as savage, because he turns men into stones. Let these, therefore, before they blaspheme, consider with the utmost weighing the things that are written. For he did not say "let them become like stone" and fall silent, but he set a time and decreed a measure of the condemnation. For he says: "until your people pass over," namely so that after the passing of the people they may not be "like stones." In which it seems to me that something of prophecy lies hidden. For I see that the former people, who were before us, became "like a stone," hard and unbelieving; yet not so far as to remain in the nature of a stone, but "until this people pass over, the people whom he has acquired": for "blindness in part happened in Israel" — that Israel according to the flesh — "until the fullness of the nations should enter in." For when "the fullness of the nations shall have entered in," then also "all Israel," which through the hardness of unbelief had become "like a stone," "shall be saved." And do you wish to see how it "shall be saved"? "God is able," he says, "from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham." Now, therefore, they remain stones, "until your people pass over, O Lord, this your people whom you have acquired." But if the Lord himself is the creator of all things, it must be seen how here he is said to have "acquired" those which there is no doubt are his own — for it is said also in the other song, that of Deuteronomy: "Is not this same one your God, who made you and created you and acquired you?" —; for each one seems to acquire that which was not his own. Hence finally the heretics too say of the Savior that those whom he "acquired" were not his own; for, a price being given, he purchased men whom the creator had made. And it is certain, they say, that each one buys that which is not his own; for the Apostle says: "you were bought with a price." But hear what the prophet says: "By your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I dismissed your mother." You see, then, that we are indeed all the creature of God, but each one is sold by his own sins and for his own iniquities departs from his own creator. We are, therefore, God's, according as we were created by him; but we became slaves of the devil, according as we were sold by our sins. But Christ, coming, "redeemed us," while we were serving that lord to whom we had sold our very selves by sinning. And so he seems to have received back as his own those whom he had created, but to have acquired as aliens those who by sinning had sought for themselves an alien lord. But perhaps it is rightly said that Christ redeemed us, who gave his own blood as our price — but what did the devil give of such a kind, that he might purchase us? Therefore, if it seems good, give heed. Murder is the devil's money; for "he is a murderer from the beginning." You have committed murder: you have received the devil's money. Adultery is the devil's money; for on it is the devil's "image and superscription." You have committed adultery: you have received a coin from the devil. Theft, false testimony, rapacity, violence — all these are the devil's wealth and the devil's treasure; for such money proceeds from his mint. With this money, therefore, he buys those whom he buys, and makes his slaves all who receive from his wealth of this kind even the least amount. But I fear lest even some of those who are in the church, some of those standing by, while we do not know, the devil secretly purchases; lest to some of our own also he presses this money which we enumerated above,…
Exodus 15:17 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"Leading them in, you planted them on the mountain of your inheritance." God does not will to plant us in Egypt, nor in low and lowly places, but he wills to plant "on the mountain of his inheritance" those whom he plants. Then, besides, that he added "leading them in, you planted them" — does it not seem to you as though he were speaking of children, who are led in to schools, led in to letters, led in to all learning? Understand, therefore, through these words, if only you have "ears to hear," how God plants — lest perhaps, when you hear that he leads in and plants, you should think that he is setting fig trees or other shrubs of this kind in the ground. Hear also elsewhere how God plants. The prophet says: "You transferred a vine out of Egypt, you cast out the nations and planted it. You made a way passable before it, you planted its roots, and it filled the earth. Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God." Do you now notice how God plants and where he plants? He does not plant in the valleys, but on the mountains, in high and lofty places. For those whom he leads out of Egypt, whom he brings from the world to faith, he does not will to place again in lowly places, but he wills their manner of life to be lofty. He wills us to dwell on the mountains; but even on these very mountains nonetheless he does not will us to creep along the ground, nor does he will his vine to have its fruits cast down further upon the ground, but he wills its shoots to be led upward, to be set on high, to become layered branches — and layered branches not upon any lowly trees whatever, but upon the high and loftiest cedars of God. "The cedars of God" I take to be the prophets and the Apostles, to whom if we, the vine which God "transferred out of Egypt," be joined, and through their branches our shoots be spread abroad, and, resting upon them, we become as it were certain layered branches bound together by mutual bonds of charity, we shall without doubt bring forth very much fruit. For "every tree that does not bear fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire." "In your prepared habitation, which you have prepared, O Lord." See the goodness of the merciful Lord: he does not will to lead you into labor, he does not will that you should make yourself a dwelling; already he leads you to a "prepared habitation." Hear the Lord saying in the Gospel: "Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." "The sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have prepared." The tabernacle of God or the temple is called a "sanctuary" from this, that it sanctifies those who approach. This he says was "not made by the hand of man," but by the hand of God. What then? On your account God both plants and builds, becomes a farmer, becomes a builder, lest anything be lacking to you. Hear Paul also saying: "You are God's tillage, God's building." What, then, is this "sanctuary," which was "not made by the hand of men," but prepared by the hands of God? Hear Wisdom saying that she "built herself a house." But I think this is more rightly to be understood of the incarnation of the Lord. "For it was not made by the hand of men," that is, not by human work is the temple of the flesh built in the Virgin; but, as Daniel had foretold, "a stone cut out without hands grew, and became a great mountain." This is the "sanctuary" of the flesh assumed and "without hands," that is, apart from the work of men, "cut out" from the mountain of human nature and the substance of the flesh.
Exodus 15:18 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"O Lord, who reign unto the age and unto the age and still." As often as "unto the age" is said, a length of time indeed is indicated, but some end; and if it is said unto another age, there is set, without doubt, some longer end, yet an end; and as often as "the ages of the ages" are named, perhaps, though unknown to us, yet some limit appointed by God is indicated. But that which he added in this place, "and still," left no sense of any limit or end. For whatever you conceive, in which you think an end can consist, the prophetic word always says to you: "and still," as if it should speak to you and say: do you think the Lord will reign unto the age of the age? "And still." Do you think "unto the ages of the ages"? "And still." And whatever you say of the spans of his kingdom, the prophet always says to you: "and still."
Exodus 15:19 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"For the cavalry of Pharaoh entered with chariots and riders into the sea, and the Lord brought the water of the sea upon them; but the sons of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea." And you too, if you are a "son of Israel," can walk "on dry ground in the midst of the sea"; if you are "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation like the light of the sun, holding the word of life unto glory," it can come to pass that, as you walk in the midst of sinners, the moisture of sin does not soak you; it can come to pass that, as you pass through this world, no wave of lust bespatters you, no heat of desire beats upon you. But he who is an Egyptian and follows Pharaoh is drowned in the waves of the vices. But he who follows Christ and, as he walked, so walks himself, for him the "waters" become "a wall on the right hand and on the left," while he himself goes forward on the middle way "on dry ground." He "turns aside neither to the right nor to the left," until he comes forth to liberty and sings to the Lord a hymn of victory, saying: "I will sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified," through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Exodus 15:23-25 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
After the crossing of the Red Sea and the hidden things of its great and magnificent mystery, after the choruses and the timbrels, after the triumphal hymns, one comes to Marah. Now the water of Marah was bitter, and the people could not drink it. Why then, after such great and such magnificent wonders, is the people of God brought to bitter waters and the peril of thirst? For it says: "and the children of Israel came to Marah, and they could not drink the water from Marah, because it was bitter; and for this reason the name of that place was called bitterness". But what does it add after these things? "Moses", it says, "cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, and he cast it into the water, and the water was made sweet. And there", it says, "God set for him ordinances of righteousness and judgments". There, where there was bitterness, where there was thirst, and what is more grievous, thirst amid an abundance of waters, there "God set for them ordinances of righteousness and judgments". Was there no place more worthy, more fitting, more fruitful, but this one, in which there is bitterness? Then furthermore, as to what it said: "the Lord showed him a tree, and he cast it into the water, and the water was made sweet", it is exceedingly strange that God should show Moses a tree that he might cast into the water and make it sweet. As though indeed God could not have made the water sweet without a tree. Or was Moses ignorant of the tree, that God had to show it to him? But we must see what beauty the inner sense holds in these things. I think that the law, if it is taken according to the letter, is bitter enough and is itself Marah. For what is so bitter as that a boy on the eighth day should receive the wound of circumcision and that tender infancy should suffer the hardness of iron? Bitter enough and most bitter is this sort of cup of the law, so much so that the people of God — not that people which was baptized "into Moses" "in the sea and in the cloud", but this people which is baptized "in the Spirit" and "water" — cannot drink of that water; nay, it cannot even taste of the bitterness of circumcision, nor is it able to bear the bitterness of the sacrifices, nor the observance of the sabbath. But if "God shows a tree" which is cast into this bitterness, so that the "water" of the law becomes "sweet", then it can drink of it. What that "tree" is which "the Lord showed", Solomon teaches us, when he says of wisdom that "it is a tree of life to all who embrace it". If therefore the tree of the wisdom of Christ has been cast into the law and has shown us how circumcision ought to be understood, how the sabbaths, how the law of leprosy is to be kept, in what manner the distinction of clean and unclean is to be held, then the water of Marah is made sweet, and the bitterness of the letter of the law is turned into the sweetness of spiritual understanding, and then the people of God can drink. For if these things are not interpreted spiritually, the people, which has abandoned idols and fled to God, if it hears the law prescribing concerning sacrifices, immediately recoils and cannot drink; for it perceives this to be bitter and harsh. "For if", it says, "he builds again the things which he destroyed, he makes himself a transgressor". In this bitterness of Marah, therefore, that is, in that letter of the law, "the Lord set ordinances of righteousness and testimonies". Does this not seem to you to say that God has stored up the treasures of his wisdom and knowledge in the letter of the law, as in some vessel? This then is what it says: "and there God set for them ordinances of righteousness and testimonies". This was what the Apostle also was saying: "but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the sublimity of the power may be of God, and not from us". So that this water from Marah could be drunk, "God showed a tree" which might be cast into it, so that he who drinks might not die, might not perceive the bitterne…
Exodus 15:26 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
But what does it add to them? After "God set for them ordinances of righteousness and judgments": "and there", it says, "he tested him, saying: if you will hear with hearing the voice of the Lord your God, and will do openly the things that please him, and will hear his precepts and keep them, every infirmity which I brought upon the Egyptians I will not bring upon you. For I am the Lord who heals you". It seems to me that he sets forth with what purpose the "ordinances of righteousness and judgments" and the testimonies of the law were given: "that he might test them", it says, "whether they would hear the voice of the Lord and keep the things which were commanded". For as regards the former people, what good or perfect thing could be commanded to those who murmured and contradicted? Indeed, a little later they even turn to idols, and forgetful of the benefits and wonders of God they set up the head of a calf. For this reason, therefore, precepts are given to them, in which they may be tested. Hence it is that also through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says to them: "I gave you precepts and ordinances that were not good, in which you shall not live by them"; for being tested in the precepts of the Lord they are not found faithful. Therefore "the commandment which was unto life was found to be unto death for them", because one and the same commandment, if it is kept, produces life, if it is not kept, produces death. According to this, therefore, that for those who do not keep it it produces death, they are called "commandments not good, in which they shall not live by them". But because he mingled with them the tree of the cross of Christ and they were turned into sweetness, and being understood spiritually they are kept, these same commandments are called "commandments of life", just as he says also elsewhere: "hear, O Israel, the commandments of life". But let us see what is promised, if they are kept. "If", it says, "you keep my precepts, I will not bring upon you all the sicknesses which I brought upon the Egyptians". What does it seem to say? that, if anyone keeps the commandments, he will suffer no sickness, that is, neither be feverish nor bear other pains of the body? I do not think that these are the things which are promised to those who keep the divine commandments. Otherwise Job is an indication for us, most righteous and most observant of all piety, who "from head to foot" is filled "with the worst sore". Therefore those who keep the commandments are not said to lack these infirmities, but they will not have those infirmities which the Egyptians have; for Egypt is figuratively called the world. "To love" therefore "the world and the things that are in the world" is the Egyptian sickness. "To observe days and months and seasons", to seek after signs, to cling to the courses of the stars, is the Egyptian sickness. To be a slave to the luxury of the flesh, to devote effort to pleasures, to have leisure for delights, is the Egyptian sickness. He therefore who keeps the commandments has lacked these infirmities and sicknesses.
Exodus 15:27 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
After this it says that: "they came to Elim, and there were there twelve fountains of waters and seventy palm trees". Do you suppose it has no reason that the people is not led first "to Elim", where "there were twelve fountains of waters", in which there was no bitterness, but rather where there was very great pleasantness from the density of the palms, but is led first to salt and bitter waters, which, being made sweet through the tree shown by the Lord, one afterward comes to the fountains? If we follow the history alone, it does not much edify us to know to what place they came first and to what second; but if we search out the mystery lying hidden in these things, we find the order of faith. For first the people is led to the letter of the law; from this, so long as it remains in its bitterness, it cannot depart; but when it has been made sweet through the "tree of life" and the law has begun to be understood spiritually, then one passes over from the old testament to the new and comes to the twelve apostolic fountains. There also will be found "trees of seventy palms". For not only did the twelve Apostles preach the faith of Christ, but also seventy others are reported to have been sent to preach the word of God, through whom the world would come to know the palms of Christ's victory. It is not enough, therefore, for the people of God to drink the water of Marah, although it has been turned into sweetness, although "through the tree of life" and the mystery of the cross all the bitterness of the letter has been driven away. The old instrument alone is not sufficient for drinking; but one must come also to the new testament, from which one drinks without scruple, is given drink without any difficulty. The Jews even now are at Marah, even now they sit beside the bitter waters; for "God" has not yet "shown them the tree" through which their waters might be made sweet. For indeed the prophet foretold to them that: "unless you believe, neither will you understand".
Exodus 16:1-3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
After this it is written: "in the second month", it says, "after they had set out from Egypt, on the fifteenth day of the month, the people murmured against Moses, saying: would that we had died in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the pots of flesh and ate bread to our fill, for you have led us out into this desert, to kill the whole synagogue with hunger". Granted, for the correction of readers let the sin of the people be indicated, that it murmured and was ungrateful for the divine benefits, when it was receiving the heavenly manna; but why is even the day written, on which day "the people murmured"? "In the second month", it says, "on the fifteenth day of the month"; which surely is not written without reason. Recall the things which were said concerning the laws of the Passover, and you will find that this is the time which is appointed for keeping the second Passover by those who were "unclean in soul" or occupied with journeys abroad. Those therefore who were not "unclean in soul" or were not "journeying far", kept the Passover "on the fourteenth day of the first month". But those who "were journeying far and were unclean", keep the second Passover at this time, at which the manna also came down from heaven. On the day on which the first Passover is kept, the manna did not come down, but on this, on which the second Passover is kept. Let us now see, therefore, what the order of the mystery in these things is. The first Passover is of the first people; the second Passover is ours. For we were "unclean in soul", we who "worshiped wood and stone" and "not knowing God served those who by nature were not gods". We also were those who "were journeying far", of whom the Apostle says that we were "strangers and sojourners from the covenants of God, having no hope and without God in this world". Nevertheless the manna is not given from heaven on that day on which the first Passover is kept, but on that on which the second is kept. For the "bread which came down from heaven" did not come to those who celebrated the first solemnity, but to us, who received the second. "For our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed", who is for us the true "bread that came down from heaven". But meanwhile let us see what it is that is shown to have been done on this day. "On the fifteenth day", it says, "of the second month the people murmured and said that it had been better for us to die in Egypt, when we sat over the pots of flesh". O ungrateful people: it desires Egypt, it that saw the Egyptians destroyed! it seeks after the flesh of Egypt, it that saw the flesh of the Egyptians given to the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven! They raise a murmur therefore against Moses, nay, against God. But this indeed is forgiven the first time, forgiven also the second, perhaps even the third; but if they do not cease and persist, hear what follows the murmuring people after these things. In the book of Numbers it is related, which the Apostle also rehearsed in his writings, saying: "neither murmur, as some of them murmured and perished from the serpents". The murmuring people is fed upon by the venomous bite of the serpents in the wilderness. Let us see, we who hear these things, we, I say, for whom they were written: "for they happened to them for correction, but they were written on account of us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come". If we do not cease from murmuring, if we do not desist from our complaints, which we frequently have against God, let us take heed lest we incur a like example of offense. For indeed when we make complaint about the intemperance of the sky, about the barrenness of the fruits, about the scarcity of rains, about the prosperities of others and about the ill-fortune of others, this is to raise up a murmur against God. But these things are forgiven those who are at the beginnings; but upon those who do not cease, it is grievously avenged. For serpents are sent upon them, that is, they are handed over to unclean spir…
Exodus 16:4-5 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
But what was recited after these things? "The Lord said", it says, "to Moses: behold, I will rain for you bread from heaven, and the people shall go out and gather of one day in a day, that I may test them, whether they walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day, they shall prepare whatever they bring in; and it shall be double whatever they bring in daily in a day". I indeed would first wish to have discourse with the Jews concerning this scripture, to whom "the oracles of God" are said to have been "entrusted", what seems to them concerning that which it says: "for six days continuously you shall gather, but on the sixth day you shall gather double". It appears therefore that the sixth day is named as that which is set before the sabbath, which among us is called the preparation. But the sabbath is the seventh day. I ask therefore on what day the manna began to be given from heaven, and I wish to compare our Lord's day with the sabbath of the Jews. For from the divine scriptures it appears that the manna was first given upon the earth on the Lord's day. For if, as Scripture says, it was gathered for six continuous days, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, there was a cessation, without doubt its beginning was from the first day, which is the Lord's day. But if from the divine scriptures this is established, that on the Lord's day God rained the manna and on the sabbath he did not rain it, let the Jews understand that even then our Lord's day was preferred to the Jewish sabbath, that even then it was indicated that on their sabbath no grace of God came down to them from heaven, that no heavenly bread, which is the word of God, came to them. For the prophet says also elsewhere: "for many days the children of Israel shall sit without king, without prince, without prophet, without victim, without sacrifice, without priest". But on our Lord's day the Lord always rains manna from heaven. And I say that even today the Lord rains manna from heaven. For heavenly are these oracles which have been read to us, and the words which have been recited to us have come down from God, and therefore to us, who have received such manna, manna is always given from heaven; those unhappy ones grieve and sigh and call themselves wretched, because the manna, as their fathers received it, they themselves do not deserve to receive. They never eat manna; for they cannot eat that which is "fine as the seed of coriander and white as hoarfrost". For they perceive nothing "fine" in the word of God, nothing subtle, nothing spiritual, but everything gross, everything coarse; "for the heart of that people has been made gross". But the interpretation of the name also sounds this same thing; for manna is interpreted 'what is this?' See whether the very force of the name does not summon you to learn, so that, when you hear the law of God recited, you may always inquire and ask and say to the teachers: what is this? For this is what manna indicates. You therefore, if you wish to eat manna, that is, if you desire to receive the word of God, know that it is "fine and very subtle as the seed of coriander". For it has something in it also of the herb, by which it can nourish and refresh the weak, because "he who is weak eats herbs". It has also something of hardness, and therefore it is "as hoarfrost". But of whiteness and sweetness it has very much. For what is whiter, what more splendid than divine instruction? What is sweeter, or what more pleasant than the oracles of the Lord, which are "above honey and the honeycomb"? But what is it that it says, "that on the sixth day double be gathered" in store, as much as suffices even for the sabbath? This, according to our understanding, we ought not to pass over idle or unconcerned. The sixth day is this life in which we now are ("for in six days God made this world"); on this day therefore we ought to lay up and store away as much as suffices also in the day to come. For if you acquire here anything…
Exodus 16:6-7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
But what further does the divine word teach us? "And at evening", it says, "you shall know that I am the Lord, but in the morning you shall see the majesty of the Lord". And concerning this I would wish the Jews to answer me, how "at evening" the Lord is recognized, but "in the morning" his majesty is seen. Where was the Lord recognized "at evening" and his majesty seen "in the morning"? Answer us, you who are instructed from infancy to old age, "always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth": why do you not understand that these things are said prophetically? But if you wish to understand these things, you cannot except through the Gospel. For there you will find it written that: "on the evening of the sabbath, which dawns toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and Mary of James to the tomb, and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher", an earthquake having occurred, the sepulchers broken open, the centurion and the soldiers, who had been set for the guard, "saying: truly this was the Son of God". Through these things, therefore, the Lord was recognized in the evening, because he himself was the Lord; he was recognized in the power of the resurrection. But how was his glory seen "in the morning"? When the other women had come "early in the morning on the first day of the week", they found angels with immense brightness sitting at the sepulcher and saying: "he is not here, he has risen from the dead. Come and see the place in which he was laid, and go, tell his disciples that he has risen and goes before you into Galilee". Therefore "the majesty of the Lord was seen in the morning", when through the angels the resurrection was announced.
Exodus 16:12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
And it is added in what follows: "at evening", it says, "you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with loaves". And concerning this I would wish to know in what manner the Jews receive the sayings of the prophet. For what consistency will it seem to have, that either "at evening" they should eat flesh without loaves, or "in the morning" eat loaves without the addition of a relish? What of the divine gift, what of the tempering of the heavenly grace do you show in this? Is this the thing in which you place the recognizing of God, that the flesh at evening is eaten without loaves, and do you say that the majesty of God appears, if again loaves are eaten without flesh? But keep these things for yourselves and for those who, acquiescing to you, think that God can be recognized in the quails. But we, for whom at the end of the age and at the evening of the world "the Word was made flesh", say that the Lord is recognized in that flesh which he took from the virgin. For no one ate this flesh of the Word of God either in the morning or at midday, but at evening. For the coming of the Lord in the flesh took place at evening, just as John also says: "children, it is the last hour". But "in the morning", it says, "you shall be filled with loaves". For us the bread also is the word of God. For he himself is "the living bread, which came down from heaven and gives life to this world". But as to what it says, that this bread is given "in the morning", since we have said that his coming in the flesh took place at evening, I think it is to be understood in this way: that the Lord came indeed at the evening of a world declining and set near the end of its course, but by his coming, since he himself is the "sun of righteousness", he restored a new day for believers. Because therefore he kindled a new light of knowledge for the world, he made his day in a certain manner morning, and brought forth his morning as the "sun of righteousness", and in this morning those are filled with loaves who receive his precepts. And do not wonder that the word of God is called both "flesh" and "bread", and is called "milk" and is called "herbs", and is named diversely according to the measure of believers or the capacity of those receiving. Yet this too can be understood, that after his resurrection, which we showed took place in the morning, he filled believers with loaves in this, that he gave us the books of the law and the prophets, before unknown and unrecognized, and granted these instruments of the Church for our instruction, so that he himself is the bread in the Gospel, but the other books of the law or the prophets or the histories are called many loaves, from which those "who believe from the nations" are filled. Yet we teach that this took place not without prophetic authority. For the prophet Isaiah had foretold in this manner: "they shall ascend into the mountain, they shall drink wine, they shall be anointed with ointment. Deliver all these things to the nations; for this is the counsel of the Lord almighty". Thus therefore fittingly we both receive flesh at evening and shall be filled with loaves in the morning, because neither was it possible for us to eat flesh in the morning, for the time was not yet, nor could we at midday. For scarcely do the angels eat flesh at midday, and to that order perhaps the midday time is granted. Moreover we can understand this also, that for each of us the morning and the beginning of the day is that time in which we are first illuminated and come to the light of faith. In this time, therefore, in which we are still in our beginnings, we cannot eat the flesh of the word, that is, we are not yet accounted capable of perfect and consummated doctrine. But after long exercises, after very great progress, when we are now near to evening and are urged on to the very end of perfection, then at last we can become capable of more solid food and of the perfect word. Now therefore let us hasten to receive…
Exodus 16:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 1
But if there are any who have gone out of Egypt, and, having followed the pillar of fire and cloud, have come into the wilderness, he descends to them from heaven, furnishing them a minute and subtle food, like to that of the angels, so that man eats the bread of angels.
Exodus 16:20-24 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
Finally it is thus also written that those who were unfaithful, "kept", it says, "of the manna, and worms bubbled up out of it, and it rotted". But that which was laid up for the sabbath day was not corrupted, nor "did worms bubble up in it", but it remained whole. And you therefore, if you treasure up only for the sake of the present life and for the love of the world, immediately "worms bubble up". How do "worms bubble up"? Hear concerning sinners and those who love the present world, what the prophet's sentence is: "their worm", it says, "shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched". These are the worms which greed produces, these are the worms which the blind desire of riches produces for those who have money and, seeing their brothers in need, "shut up their bowels from them". For this reason the Apostle also says: "but charge the rich of this world not to be proud in mind nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but let them be rich in good works, give readily, share, and treasure up for themselves the true life". But someone says: if you say that the manna is the word of God, how does it produce worms? Nor do worms arise in us from anywhere except from the word of God. For he himself says thus: "if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin". After the word of God has been received, therefore, if anyone sins, that very word becomes for him a worm, which always digs at his conscience and gnaws the secret places of his breast.
Exodus 16:29 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.3.2
Moreover in regard to the celebrated sabbath, a careful reader will see that the command, "You shall sit each one in your dwellings; let none of you go out from his place on the sabbath day," is an impossible one to observe literally, for no living creature could sit for a whole day and not move from his seat.
Exodus 16:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
For the Word of God becomes all these things to each one, according as the measure or the desire of the partaker demands: even as the manna also, though it was a single food, yet rendered to each one the flavor of his own desire. He offers himself, then, not only as bread to the hungry and wine to the thirsty, but also, to those who wish to take delight, he presents himself as fragrant fruits.
Exodus 17:1 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
Since "everyone who wishes to live devoutly in Christ suffers persecution" and is assailed by enemies, he who walks the road of this life ought always to be armed and always to stand within the camp. Therefore it is also related concerning the people of God: "the whole synagogue of the sons of Israel set out" it says "from the desert of Sin according to their camps, by the word of the Lord". There is, then, one synagogue of the Lord, but this is divided into four camps. For four camps are described as positioned around the tabernacle of the Lord, as is related in the book of Numbers. And you too, therefore, if you are always watchful and always armed and know that you serve as a soldier in the camps of the Lord, observe that commandment which says that "no one serving as a soldier for God entangles himself in worldly affairs, that he may please Him to whom he has proved himself", because, if you so serve as a soldier that you are free from worldly matters and always keep watch in the camps of the Lord, it will also be said of you that by the word of the Lord you go out "from the desert of Sin" and come "to Rephidim"; for Sin is interpreted as temptation, but Rephidim as soundness of judgment. He who comes well out of temptation, and whom temptation renders approved, this man comes to soundness of judgment; for on the day of judgment he will be sound, and soundness will be with him who was not wounded in temptation, as it is also written in the Apocalypse: "but to him who conquers, I will give of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God". He comes, then, to soundness of judgment, who well "orders his words in judgment".
Exodus 17:3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
But what is it that follows? "The people thirsted" it says "for water, and they murmured against Moses". It might perhaps seem to be said superfluously, that he said that "the people thirsted for water"; for it would have sufficed to say that "they thirsted"; what need was there to add: "they thirsted for water"? The addition is not superfluous; for there are diverse thirsts, and each one has his own thirst. Those who are blessed, according to the word of the Lord, "thirst for righteousness"; and others no less say: "my soul has thirsted for you, O God". But those who are sinners suffer "not a thirst for water nor a hunger for bread, but a thirst for hearing the word of God". For this reason, therefore, here too he adds that "the people thirsted for water", who ought to have thirsted for God, who ought to have "thirsted for righteousness".
Exodus 17:5-6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
But since God is truly the "instructor of infants" and the "teacher of the foolish", He corrects faults and amends errors, and He says to Moses that he should take the rod and, striking the rock, bring forth waters for them. For He wishes them now to drink "from the rock", He wishes them to advance and to come to the inner mysteries. For "they murmured against Moses", and therefore the Lord commands that Moses show them a rock from which they may drink. If there is anyone who, reading Moses, murmurs against him, and the law which is written according to the letter displeases him, because in many things it does not seem to preserve consistency, Moses shows him the rock, which is Christ, and leads him to it, that he may drink from there and refresh his thirst. But this rock, unless it be struck, will not give waters; but when struck it brings forth fountains. For Christ, when struck and driven to the cross, brought forth the fountains of the New Testament; and therefore it was said of Him that "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered". It was necessary, then, that He be struck; for unless He had been struck and "water and blood had come forth from His side", we should all suffer "a thirst for the word of God". This, then, is what the Apostle also interpreted, that "they all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed; and the rock was Christ". Observe, however, what God said in this place to Moses: "go before the people, and take with you the elders, that is, the presbyters of the people". Not Moses alone leads the people to the waters of the rock, but also the elders of the people with him. For not the law alone announces Christ, but also the prophets and the patriarchs and all the "elders".
Exodus 17:9 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
After this the war waged with the Amalekites is described; the people is related to have fought and conquered. Before it ate bread from heaven and drank water from the rock, the people is not related to have fought, but it is said to it: "the Lord will fight for you, and you will keep silent". There is, then, a time when the Lord fights for us and "does not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able", nor allows us, unequal in strength, to come to a contest with one "strong". So too Job at last, now made "perfect", completed that most renowned struggle of his temptation. And you too, therefore, when you have begun to eat manna, the heavenly bread of the word of God, and to drink water from the rock, and when you have approached the inner things of spiritual doctrine, expect a battle and prepare yourself for war. Since the battle is imminent, then, let us see what Moses commands: "he said" it says "to Jesus: choose for yourself men, and go out, and fight with Amalek tomorrow". Up to this place no mention has anywhere been made of the blessed name of Jesus; here for the first time the splendor of this name shone forth, here for the first time Moses called Jesus and said to him: "choose for yourself men". Moses calls Jesus, the law calls upon Christ, that He may choose for Himself "mighty men" from the people. Moses could not choose, but Jesus alone is He who can choose "mighty men", who said: "you did not choose me, but I chose you". For He Himself is the leader of the chosen, He Himself the prince of the mighty, He Himself is the one who fights with Amalek. For He Himself is the one who "enters into the house of the strong man and binds the strong man and plunders his goods".
Exodus 17:10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
But meanwhile let us see what the present history now unfolds: "Moses went up" it says "to the top of the hill". He does not yet go up to the top of the mountain, but "to the top of the hill". For it was reserved for him to go up to the top of the mountain then, when Jesus was to go up, and Moses with Him, and Elijah, and there be transformed into glory. Now, therefore, as one not yet glorified from the transformation of Jesus, he does not go up to the top of the mountain, but "he goes up to the top of the hill".
Exodus 17:11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
"And it came to pass" it says "that when Moses raised his hands, Israel became superior". Moses indeed raises his hands, he does not stretch them out; but Jesus, who, lifted up on the cross, was to embrace the whole circle of the earth with His arms, says: "I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and that contradicts me". Moses, then, raises his hands, and when he raised his hands, Amalek was conquered. To raise the hands is to raise one's works and deeds to God, and not to have one's deeds cast down and lying on the ground, but pleasing to God and lifted up to heaven. He raises his hands, therefore, who "lays up treasure in heaven"; for "where his treasure is", there also is his eye, there also his hands. He also raises his hands who says: "the lifting up of my hands is the evening sacrifice". If, then, our deeds are lifted up and are not upon the earth, Amalek is conquered. But the Apostle also commands us "to lift up holy hands without anger and dispute", and to certain ones it was said: "lift up the drooping hands and the loosened knees, and make straight steps for your feet". If, then, the people keeps the law, Moses raises his hands and the adversary is conquered; if it does not keep the law, Amalek grows strong. Since, therefore, "for us too the struggle is against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world", if you wish to conquer, if you wish to prevail, lift up your hands and lift up your deeds, and let your conduct be not on the earth, but, as the Apostle said: "walking upon the earth, we have our conduct in heaven". And thus you will be able to overcome the people that opposes you, Amalek, so that it may be said even of you: "that with a hidden hand the Lord fought against Amalek". Lift up your hands too to God, fulfill the commandment that the Apostle gives: "pray without ceasing", and then that will come to pass which is written: "as a calf licks up the green grass in the fields, so this people will lick up the people that is upon the earth". By which, as we have received from our forebears, it is said to be indicated that the people of God fought not so much with hand and arms as with voice and tongue, that is, pouring out prayer to God it laid low its enemies. So, then, you too, if you wish to conquer your enemies, lift up your deeds, cry out to God, as the Apostle says: "being urgent in prayer and watchful in it". For this is the battle of the Christian, by which he overcomes the enemy. But I think that by this figure Moses also designates the form of two peoples, and shows that there is one people from the nations, which lifts up the hands of Moses and raises them, that is, which lifts on high the things that Moses wrote and sets their understanding in the heights, and through this conquers; and that there is another, which, since it does not lift up the hands of Moses nor raise them from the earth, nor considers anything lofty and subtle in him, is conquered by its adversaries and laid low.
Exodus 17:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.37
For in this way, when the eyes are lifted up through thought and contemplation and the hands are lifted up in deeds which lift up and exalt the soul, as Moses lifted up his hands, one may consequently say, "The lifting up of my hands is as the evening sacrifice." In this way the Amalekites and all the unseen enemies will be worsted, and the Israelite reasonings in us will prevail.
Exodus 18:5-7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
After this Moses comes to the mountain of God, and there Jethro his father-in-law meets him. And he "went out to meet him" from the camp, and does not lead him to the mountain of God, but "leads him to his own tent". For the priest of Midian could not go up to the mountain of God, nor could he go down into Egypt—neither he himself nor the wife of Moses—but now he comes to him with his sons. For no one can go down into Egypt and undergo the Egyptian contests, unless he be an approved athlete and such a one as the Apostle describes, that: "everyone who strives in the contest is temperate in all things; and they indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I therefore run thus, not as toward something uncertain; I fight thus, not as one beating the air". Moses, then, because he was a great and mighty athlete, went down into Egypt, went down to the contests and exercises of the virtues. But Abraham too went down into Egypt, because he also was a great and mighty athlete. For what shall I say of Jacob, who by his very name is an athlete? For he is interpreted as a wrestler and supplanter. And therefore, when Jacob had gone down into Egypt with "seventy-five souls", he became "as the stars of heaven in multitude". But not all who go down into Egypt so fight and so accomplish the contests that they become "a multitude" and are multiplied "as the stars of heaven". For others, to have gone down into Egypt turns out to the contrary. I know that Jeroboam, fleeing from Solomon, went down into Egypt, and not only did not grow "into a multitude", but even tore apart and corrupted the people of God, because, going down into Egypt, he received from King Shishak "the sister of Tahpenes his wife as a wife".
Exodus 18:12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
But meanwhile Jethro comes to Moses, bringing with him his daughter, the wife of Moses, and his sons. "And Aaron came" it says "and all the presbyters of Israel, to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses in the sight of God". Not all eat bread "in the sight of God", but those who are "presbyters", who are elders, who are perfect and proved by their merits, they eat bread "in the sight of God"; those who observe that which the Apostle says: "whether you eat, or drink, or do anything else, do all to the glory of God". Everything, therefore, that the saints do, they do "in the sight of God"; the sinner flees from the sight of God. For it is written that Adam, after he sinned, fled "from the sight of God" and, when questioned, answered: "I heard" he said "your voice, and I hid myself, because I was naked". But Cain too, after he was condemned by God for fratricide, "went out" it says "from the face of God, and dwelt in the land of Nod". He "went out", then, "from the face of God", who is unworthy of the sight of God. But the saints both eat and drink "in the sight of God", and all things that they do, they do "in the sight of God". As I examine the present passage still further, I see that those who receive a fuller knowledge of God and are more fully imbued with the divine disciplines, these, even if they do evil, do it before God and do it in His sight, like the one who said: "against you alone have I sinned, and I have done evil before you". What more, then, does he have who does evil before God? That he immediately repents and says: "I have sinned". But he who departs from the sight of God knows not how to turn back and to purge his sin by repenting. This, then, is the difference between doing evil before God and having departed from the sight of God while sinning.
Exodus 18:21-22 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
But, as I see, Jethro did not come to Moses in vain, nor in vain did he eat bread with the elders of the people "in the sight of the Lord". For he gives Moses counsel quite fitting and useful, that he should choose men and appoint as princes of the people "men who worship God, mighty men and hating pride". For such ought the princes of the people to be, who are not only not proud, but even hate pride, that is, that they should not only themselves be without vice, but should also hate vices in others; I do not say hating men, but vices. "And you shall appoint them" it says "as tribunes and centurions and leaders of fifty and leaders of ten, and they shall judge the people at every hour. But the matter that is weightier, they shall refer to you". Let the princes of the people and the presbyters of the plebs hear that they ought to judge the people at every hour, always and without ceasing to sit in judgment, to settle disputes, to reconcile those who are at variance, to bring back into favor those in discord. Let each one learn from the holy scriptures his own office. Moses, it says, is to be in those things which pertain to God and to expound the word of God to the peoples, but the other princes, whom they call "tribunes"—for tribunes are so called because they preside over a tribe—the other "tribunes", then, or "centurions", or "leaders of fifty" are to preside over lesser judgments, which pertain to individuals, settling them. But I think this very figure was given to the Church not only in the present age, but is also to be preserved in the age to come. Hear at last what the Lord says in the Gospel: "when the Son of man shall sit" it says "upon the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel". You see, then, that not only does the Lord judge, to whom the Father "has given all judgment", but He appoints for Himself also other princes, who may judge the people concerning lesser causes, "but the matter that is weightier, they shall refer" to Him. Therefore the Lord too said of a certain one that "he will be liable to the council", but of another: "he will be liable to the judgment", and of another: "he will be liable to the gehenna of fire". But we are said to be about to render an account even for an idle word, and He did not say that we shall render an account to God, just as concerning perjury He says: "but you shall render to the Lord your oaths". Moreover "the queen of the South will rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them": behold, yet another kind of judgment. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". For all these things are a type and "shadow" of heavenly things and an image of "the things to come".
Exodus 18:24 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
But just as we read written that "the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing", so we too cannot be satisfied in beholding and considering the things that are written, from how many sides they build us up, in how many ways they instruct us. For indeed, when I perceive that Moses, a prophet full of God, to whom God spoke "face to face", received counsel from Jethro, a priest of Midian, I fall into an amazement of mind out of exceeding wonder. For the Scripture says: "and Moses heard the voice of his father-in-law, and did whatever he said to him". He did not say that 'God speaks to me, and what I ought to do is conveyed to me by heavenly discourse', and 'how shall I accept counsel from a man, and from a gentile man, a stranger to the people of God?', but he hears his voice and does all that he says, and he listens not to who says it, but to what he says. Wherefore we too, if perhaps we sometimes find something said wisely by the gentiles, ought not straightway to spurn both the sayings along with the name of the author; nor, because we hold the law given by God, is it fitting that we swell with pride and spurn the words of the prudent, but as the Apostle says: "proving all things, holding fast that which is good". But who today among those who preside over the peoples—I do not say, if some things have already been revealed to him by God, but if he has some merit in the knowledge of the law—deigns to accept the counsel even of a lesser priest, not to say of a layman, still less of a gentile? But Moses, who was "a man meek above all men", accepted the counsel of a lesser man, both to give the princes of the peoples a form of humility and to designate the image of a future sacrament. For he knew that it would sometime come to pass that the gentiles would bring forward good counsel to Moses, that they would bring a good and spiritual understanding to the law of God; and he knew that the law would hear them and would do all things as they say. "For the law cannot do", as the Jews say, because "the law is weakened in the flesh", that is, in the letter, and can do nothing according to the letter: "for the law brought nothing to perfection". But according to this counsel, which we bring to the law, all things can be done spiritually, and sacrifices too can be offered spiritually, which now cannot be done carnally; the law of leprosy too can be kept spiritually, which cannot be kept according to the letter. So, then, in the way that we understand, in the way that we perceive and give counsel, the law does all things; but according to the letter it does not do all things, but only very few.
Exodus 19:10-11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
But after this, when Jethro had departed and Moses had come "from Rephidim into the desert of Sinai", and there the Lord had descended to Moses "in a pillar of cloud", so that the people, seeing, might believe him and hear his words, the Lord said to Moses: "go down, testify to the people and purify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and let them be ready for the third day". If there is anyone who comes together to hear the word of God, let him hear what God commanded: he ought to come sanctified to hear the word, he ought to wash his garments. For if you bring garments here soiled, you too will hear: "friend, how did you enter here, not having wedding garments?" No one, then, can hear the word of God unless he has first been sanctified, that is, unless he is "holy in body and spirit", unless he has washed his garments. For he is about, a little later, to enter to the wedding supper, he is about to eat of the flesh of the lamb, he is about to drink the cup of salvation. Let no one enter to this supper with soiled garments. For this too wisdom commanded elsewhere, saying: "at every time let your garments be clean". For your garments have been washed once: when you came to the grace of baptism, you were purified in body, you were cleansed from all defilement of flesh and spirit. "What" therefore "God has cleansed, do not you make unclean".
Exodus 19:15 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
Hear, then, now also the kind of sanctification: "do not approach" it says "a woman today and tomorrow, that on the third day you may hear the word of God". This is what the Apostle also says: "it is good for a man not to touch a woman", with the remedy preserved, however, for those who because of their weakness need the remedy of marriage. But let us nevertheless hear the counsel of the Apostle who says: "because the time is short, it remains that both those who have wives be as though not having them, and those who buy as though not possessing, and those who use this world as though they use it not. For the fashion of this world passes away", the temporal kingdom passes away, that the perpetual and eternal may come, as we are also bidden to say in prayer: "your kingdom come", in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen".
Exodus 19:16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.4
Yet the third day is always made fitting for sacred mysteries. For when the people had gone out of Egypt, on the third day it offers sacrifice to God, and on the third day it is purified; and the resurrection of the Lord is on the third day; and many other mysteries are enclosed within this day.
Exodus 19:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 4
But also, when she has become worthy that it may be said of her as it was said of Moses, that "Moses spoke, and the Lord answered him," then is fulfilled in her that which He says: "Make me hear your voice." … But a great praise of her is shown in what is said: Your voice is sweet. For thus the most wise prophet David spoke: "May my discourse be sweet to him." And the voice of the soul is sweet when it speaks the word of God, when it expounds concerning faith and the doctrines of truth, when it explains the dispensations of God and his judgments.
Exodus 19:19 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
But that an answer signifies not the alternation of conversing but teaching in the holy scriptures, let the divine law teach you. "Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice". That answer was concerning the matters about which the Lord was instructing the ignorant Moses.
Exodus 20:2 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
Everyone who has learned to despise the present age, which "is figuratively called Egypt", and who through the word of God has—to speak according to the Scriptures—"been translated, and is not found", because he hastens and presses on toward the age to come: concerning a soul of this kind God says, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt". These things, therefore, are not said only to those who set out from Egypt, but much more to you who now hear them, if only you set out from Egypt and no longer serve the Egyptians; to you God says these things: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage". See whether the affairs of the world and the deeds of the flesh are not a "house of bondage", just as, on the contrary again, to leave behind worldly things and to live according to God is a house of liberty, as the Lord also says in the Gospels: "if you abide in my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free". Therefore Egypt is a "house of bondage", but Judaea and Jerusalem are a house of liberty. Hear also the Apostle proclaiming concerning these things "according to the wisdom which had been given to him in his ministry": "but the Jerusalem" he says "which is above is free, which is the mother of us all". Just as, therefore, Egypt, that earthly region, is called for the children of Israel a "house of bondage" in comparison with Judaea and Jerusalem, which are made for them a house of liberty, so in comparison with the heavenly Jerusalem, which is, so to speak, the mother of liberty, this whole world and all things that are in this world are a "house of bondage". And since from the paradise of liberty, as a penalty for sin, there had been a coming into the bondage of this world, for that reason the first utterance of the Decalogue, that is, the first voice of God's commandments, is brought forth concerning liberty, saying: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage". This voice, while set in Egypt, you could not hear, even if it be enjoined upon you to keep the Passover, even if you "gird your loins" and take "sandals on your feet", even if you hold "a staff in your hand" and "eat unleavened bread with bitterness". And why do I say that, set in Egypt, you could not hear these things? Nay, not even having set out from there could you hear these things at your very first halting-place, nor at the second, nor at the third, nor when you crossed the Red Sea; even if you come to Marah and the bitterness be turned for you into sweetness, even if you come to Elim to the "twelve fountains of waters and seventy palm trees", even if you pass Rephidim and ascend through the remaining stages, you are not yet judged fit for words of this kind—but only when you come to Mount Sinai. Therefore, after many labors have first been accomplished, after many hardships and temptations have been overcome, hardly at length will you be made worthy to receive the precepts of liberty and to hear from the Lord: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage". Yet this utterance is not yet the utterance of a commandment, but it shows who it is that commands. Now, therefore, let us see what is the beginning of the ten commandments of the law, and, if we do not reach them all, let us at least unfold the beginnings, according as the Lord may grant.
Exodus 20:3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
The first commandment, then, is: "there shall be for you no other gods besides me". And after this there follows: "you shall not make for yourself an idol nor any likeness, whatever things are in heaven above and whatever are in the earth below and whatever are in the waters under the earth; you shall not adore them nor worship them. For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, who repay the sins of the fathers upon the sons, unto the third and fourth generation, upon those who hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands to those who love me and who keep my precepts". All these things together some suppose to be one commandment. But if it be so supposed, the number of ten commandments will not be filled out—and where then will be the truth of the Decalogue? But if it be divided in the manner in which we too distinguished it in the utterance above, the whole number of ten commandments will appear. Therefore the first commandment is: "there shall be for you no other gods besides me", and the second: "you shall not make for yourself an idol nor any likeness", and the rest. Let us begin, then, with the first commandment. But I too have need of the help of the very God who gave these precepts, in order to speak, and you have need of purer ears in order to hear. If, therefore, any of you has "ears to hear", let him hear how it was said: "there shall be for you no other gods besides me". If he had said: there are no gods besides me, the utterance would seem more absolute. But now, since he says: "there shall be for you no other gods besides me", he did not deny that they exist, but he restrained them from being gods for him to whom these precepts are given. From this, I think, the Apostle Paul also took what he writes to the Corinthians, saying: "for even if there are those that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth". And he adds: "as indeed there are many gods and many lords, but for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things and we unto him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him". But in many other places of Scripture also you will find gods named, as there too: "for the Lord is most high, terrible, a great king over all gods", and: "the God of gods, the Lord, has spoken", and: "in the midst he distinguishes gods". Concerning lords the same Apostle says: "whether thrones, or dominions, or powers, all things were created through him and in him". But dominions are nothing other than a certain order and multitude of lords. In which, as it seems to me, the Apostle Paul made the sense of the law clearer. For what he says amounts to this: although there are "many lords" who rule over other nations, and "many gods" who are worshiped by others, "yet for us there is one" "God and one Lord". But what is the cause of there being "many gods" or "many lords", if you listen intently and patiently, Scripture itself will be able to teach us. For the same Moses says in the canticle of Deuteronomy: "when the Most High divided the nations" he says "and scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance, Israel". It is established, then, that the angels to whom the Most High committed the nations to be governed are called either gods or lords: gods, as though given by God, and lords, as being those who received their power by lot from the Lord. Hence the Lord too said to the angels who did not keep their princedom: "I said: you are gods, and all sons of the Most High. But you shall die as men, and shall fall like one of the princes"—imitating, that is, the devil, who was made prince of all unto ruin. Hence it is established that transgression, not nature, made those accursed. To you, therefore, O people of Israel, who are "the portion of God", who have been made "the cord of his inheritance", he says: "there shall be for you no other gods besides me", because t…
Exodus 20:4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
After these things let us see what the second commandment also seems to contain: "you shall not make for yourself an idol nor any likeness of the things that are in heaven or that are in the earth or that are in the waters under the earth". Idols are one thing, and gods far another, as the Apostle himself likewise teaches us. For concerning gods he said: "as there are many gods and many lords"; but concerning idols he says: "for an idol is nothing in the world". Hence it seems to me that he read what the law says not carelessly. For he saw the difference between gods and idols, and again the difference between idols and likenesses; for he who said of idols that they do not exist did not add that likenesses also do not exist. But here it says: "you shall not make for yourself an idol nor a likeness of any things". It is one thing, then, to make an "idol", another to make a "likeness". And if indeed the Lord deign to enlighten us as to the things that must be said, I think it should be understood thus: that, for example's sake, if someone in any metal of gold or silver, or of wood or of stone, make the shape of some quadruped, or of a serpent, or of a bird, and set it up to be adored, he has made not an idol, but a likeness; or even if he set up a painting for this very purpose, he must nonetheless be said to have made a likeness. But that man has made an "idol" who, according to the Apostle who says that "an idol is nothing", makes what is not. And what is it that is not? A shape which the eye has not seen, but which the mind itself fashions for itself. For example's sake: as if one should form, upon human limbs, the head of a dog or of a ram, or again should fashion two faces on one human form, or join to a human breast the hinder parts of a horse or of a fish. He who makes these things and things like them makes not a likeness, but an idol. For he makes what is not, nor has it anything like itself. And therefore, knowing this, the Apostle says: "for an idol is nothing in the world"; for the shape is not taken from any of the things that exist, but is what the idle and curious mind has itself devised for itself. But a likeness is when something is formed from those things which are "either in heaven or in earth or in the waters", as we said above. Nevertheless, it is not as ready at hand to pronounce concerning heavenly things as concerning the likenesses of those things which are in the earth or in the sea—unless one should say that this can be perceived concerning the sun and moon and stars; for indeed the heathen are wont to express the forms of these too. But because Moses "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians", he desired to prohibit also those things which among them were among their hidden and secret matters; as, for example's sake, so that we too may use their own appellations, the one they call Hecate and other forms of demons, which the Apostle calls "the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places". Concerning which perhaps the prophet also says: "my sword has been made drunk in heaven". For with these forms and likenesses it is the custom to invoke demons for those who have such matters as their concern, whether to repel or even to invite evils; all of which the word of God, embracing them all together, at once abjures and casts away, and forbids not only that an idol be made, but also "a likeness of all things that are in the earth, and in the waters, and in heaven".
Exodus 20:5 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 9
When men try to seduce us to apostasy, it is useful to reflect upon what God wishes to teach us when he says, "I am the Lord your God, jealous." In my view, just as the bridegroom who wishes to make his bride live chastely so as to give herself entirely to him and beware of any relationship whatever with any man other than her husband, pretends, though he be wise, to be jealous—he uses this pretense as a kind of antidote for his bride—so the Lawgiver, especially when he reveals himself as "the firstborn of every creature," says to his bride, the soul, that he is a jealous God. In this way he keeps his followers from any fornication with demons and pretended gods.
Exodus 20:5 — AGAINST CELSUS 5.6
It is obvious that the Jews follow the law where God is represented as saying, "You shall have none other gods but me; you shall not make for yourself an idol nor any likeness of anything in the heaven above and in the earth beneath and in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor worship them." And they worship none other than the supreme God who made heaven and everything else. It is clear then that since those who live according to the law reverence him who made the heavens, they do not reverence the heavens together with God. Furthermore, none of those who serve the Mosaic law worship the angels in heaven. And in the same way that they do not worship the sun, moon and stars, "the world of heaven," they avoid worshiping heaven and the angels in it.
Exodus 20:5 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
He adds, moreover, and says: "you shall not adore them nor worship them". To worship is one thing, to adore another. A person can sometimes adore even unwillingly, as some, flattering kings, when they have seen them given over to devotions of this kind, feign that they adore idols, though in their heart it is certain that an idol is nothing; but to worship is to be enslaved to these things with the whole affection and zeal. Both, therefore, the divine word cuts away, so that you neither worship with affection nor adore in outward show. Yet it must be known that, when you have resolved to keep the charge of this precept and to repudiate all the other gods and lords, and to have besides the one God and Lord no one as either god or lord, this is to have declared war without treaty upon all the rest. When, therefore, we come to the grace of baptism, renouncing all other gods and lords, we confess God the Father alone and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But confessing this, unless we "love the Lord our God with the whole heart and with the whole soul" and cleave to him "with the whole strength", we have not been made "the Lord's portion", but, set as it were on a certain border, we both suffer offense from those we have fled, and do not render favorable the Lord to whom we have fled, whom we do not love "with the whole and entire heart". And therefore the prophet mourns over us, whom he sees wavering with inconstancy of this kind, and says: "woe to the double-minded", and again: "how long do you go lame on both your knees?" But the Apostle James also says: "a double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways". We are, then, we who follow our Lord with a faith neither whole nor perfect, and have withdrawn from alien gods, set as it were in a certain middle border, and by those we are struck at as fugitives, and by our own Lord, as unstable and doubtful, we are not defended. Or is this not what the prophets too spiritually figure concerning the lovers of Jerusalem, when they say: "your lovers themselves have become your enemies"? So, then, understand that your soul too has had many lovers, who delighted in her beauty, with whom she played the harlot. Concerning whom she also said: "I will go after my lovers, who give me my wine and my oil", and the rest. But now she has come to that time when she says: "I will return to my former husband, because it was better for me then than now". You have returned, then, to your former husband; without doubt you have given offense to your lovers, with whom you were committing adulteries. Unless, therefore, you now abide with your husband in whole faith, and are glued to him with your whole love, out of the many crimes which you have committed every movement of yours and glance of yours is suspect to him, and your very gait, if it be too careless. He can see nothing further in you that is wanton, nothing dissolute and prodigal. But when you turn your eyes even a little away from your husband, at once there must needs come a remembrance of former things. Therefore, that you may both blot out former things and that trust may be able to be had in you for the rest, you must not only do nothing unchaste, but not even think it. For see what is written: "When" it says "an unclean spirit has gone out from a man, it goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. And then it says: I will return into my house, whence I came out. And if, coming, it finds it empty, swept, and adorned, it goes and brings with it seven other spirits worse than itself, and entering into that house it dwells therein. And the last state of that man shall be worse than the first". If we heed these things, how can we give even in a small matter a place to negligence? For an unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ, when still, as I said above, our soul was fornicating away from God and was with its lovers, the demons. But after she said: "I will return to my former husband" and came to Christ, who fro…
Exodus 20:5 — AGAINST CELSUS 7.64
Christians and Jews are led to avoid temples and altars and images by the command "You shall fear the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." … And not only do they avoid them, but when necessary they readily come to the point of death to avoid defiling their conception of the God of the universe by any act of this kind contrary to his law.
Exodus 20:5-6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
Let us now see also what follows, how the "sins of the fathers" are said to be repaid "upon the sons unto the third and fourth generation". For in this saying the heretics are wont to jeer at us, that it is not the saying of a good God, who says that one is punished for the sins of another. But even according to their own reasoning, who say that the God who commanded these things in the law is, though not good, yet just, not even they can show how, according to their own sense of justice, it seems to accord that one should be punished when another sins. It remains, therefore, that we beseech the Lord to show us how these precepts accord with a just and good God. We have often said already that the divine Scriptures speak not everything to the outer man, but very much to the inner. Our inner man, therefore, is said either to have God as father, if he lives according to God and does the things that are God's, or the devil, if he be in sins and does his wills; as the Savior evidently shows in the Gospels, when he says: "you are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth". Just as, then, the seed of God is said to remain in us, when, keeping the word of God, we do not sin in ourselves, as John says: "but he who is of God does not sin, because the seed of God remains in him", so also, when we are persuaded by the devil to sin, we receive his seed. But when we even fulfill in deed what he has counseled, then indeed he has also begotten us; for we are born his sons through sin. But since it scarcely almost happens that we who sin should sin without a helper, but we always require either ministers or helpers of sin—for example's sake, if someone contrives adultery, he cannot accomplish this alone, but there must needs be also an adulteress as partner and companion of the sin; and moreover, even if not several, yet there must needs be some man or some woman in the services and companionship of the sin; all of whom, begotten as it were one from another according to the order of persuasion, "from their father the devil" draw the progeny of a harmful birth. And, to come to the things that are written, the "Lord of majesty", Jesus Christ our Savior, was crucified. The author of this crime and the father of the wickedness is without doubt the devil. For thus it is written: "but when the devil had entered into the heart of Judas Iscariot, that he should betray him". The father of the sin, then, is the devil. He, in this wickedness, first begets a son, Judas; but Judas alone could not accomplish this. What, then, is written? "Judas went" it says "to the scribes and Pharisees and to the chief priests, saying to them: What will you give me, and I will betray him to you?" There is born, then, from Judas a third and fourth generation of sin. And you will be able to detect this order in each single sin as well. Now, therefore, let us see, according to this progeny of which we have spoken, how God "repays the sins of the fathers upon the sons and unto the third and fourth generation", and does not repay upon the fathers themselves; for he said nothing about the fathers. The devil, then, who has already exceeded the measure of sinning—as the prophet says, "as a garment congealed in blood shall not be clean", so he too shall not be clean in this age, nor is he rebuked for his sin, nor scourged; for all things are reserved for him unto the future. Hence he himself too, knowing that a set time of punishments is appointed for him, said to the Savior: "why have you come to torment us before the time?" While, therefore, this world stands, the devil, who is the father of those who sin, does not receive his sins; but they are repaid upon the sons, that is, upon those whom he begot through sin. For men, set in the flesh, are rebuked by the Lord, are beaten, are scourged. For "the Lord does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he should return and live". And t…
Exodus 20:5 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 6
[God] warns a man inclined to idolatry not to practice it. But when a man who is not so inclined but yet through cowardice, which he calls "accommodation," pretends to worship idols as the masses do, he does not, it is true, worship idols, but he does bow before them. And I would say that they who abjure Christianity in the courtroom or even before they are brought there do not worship idols, but they do bow down before them; for they apply to inanimate and unheeding matter the name of the Lord God, namely "God".
Exodus 20:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.221
Now Christ is especially jealous for the house of God in each of us, not wishing it to be a house of merchandise or that the house of prayer become a den of thieves, since he is Son of a jealous God. This is the case if we understand such words from the Scriptures in a reasonable manner, which were spoken metaphorically from the human viewpoint to set forth the fact that God wishes nothing alien to his will to be mingled with the soul of any, but especially with the soul of those who wish to receive [the teachings of the] most divine faith.
Exodus 20:7 — ON PRAYER 24.2-3
Although making a variety of suppositions about him, we all know something of God but do not all know what he is, for few indeed and fewer (if I may say so) than few are they who grasp his holiness in all things. Thus we are rightly taught to pray that our concept of God may be hallowed among us. Thus we shall see his holiness in creating, in providing, in judging, in choosing and abandoning, in accepting and rejecting, in rewarding and punishing each one according to his merits.In these activities and others like them is found, so I may say, the stamp of the personal character of God, that which in my opinion is called in Scripture the "name of God." So in Exodus: "You shall not take the name of your God in vain."
Exodus 20:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 11.9
And God said, "Honor your father and your mother," teaching that the child should pay the honor which is due to his parents. Of this honor to parents one part was to share with them the necessaries of life, such as food and clothing, and if there was any other thing in which it was possible for them to show favor toward their own parents.
Exodus 20:12 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.3.4
And again, who would deny that the command which says, "Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you," is useful quite apart from any spiritual interpretation and that it ought certainly to be observed, especially when we remember that the apostle Paul has quoted it in the same words?
Exodus 21:22-25 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 10
"But if two men should be fighting and strike a pregnant woman, and her infant should come forth not yet formed, he shall suffer loss, as much as the woman's husband shall impose, and he shall pay with honor. But if it be fully formed, he shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." First of all, in these matters, I think we must inquire under what heading of the law statutes of this kind are reckoned. For it is not, as it seems to the simpler sort, that everything which is enacted is called "law"; rather, some things are indeed called law, some testimonies, others commandments and acts of righteousness, and some are called judgments. This the eighteenth Psalm teaches more plainly, gathering them together in one place, when it says: "the law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, granting wisdom to little ones. The acts of righteousness of the Lord are upright, gladdening hearts; the precept of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring unto the age of the age; the judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves." Since, then, these diversities exist among the things enacted in the law, the passage now in hand is written under the heading of acts of righteousness or justifications. For thus it says above: "and these are the acts of righteousness which you shall set openly before them." But it is not for the present occasion to set forth the differences of each of these, for we are called upon to explain the things which have been read. It should indeed be known that some portion of these matters, of which we must treat, is set down in the Gospel according to Matthew, the Lord speaking in this manner: "you have heard that it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not resist evil. But if anyone strike you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." But perhaps one who reads the Scriptures more attentively may say that the words we have recalled as written in the Gospel are not taken from this passage of Exodus, but rather from Deuteronomy, where nonetheless certain things are recorded as written in this manner: "but if," it says, "an unjust witness should stand, bearing testimony against a man concerning impiety, both men who are in controversy shall be set before the Lord and before the priests and before the judges, whoever they may be in those days, and the judges shall examine diligently and investigate. And behold, they shall find that the unjust witness has testified unjustly, that he has risen up against his brother; and you shall do to him as he himself attempted to do to his brother, and you shall remove the malignant one from your midst, that the rest, hearing, may have fear, and may not go on further to do according to this evil word among you. Your eye shall not spare over him: life for life, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Similar things indeed seem to be said in both places; yet it is not plainly shown from which passage in particular the words set down in the Gospel seem to be taken, where he said: "you have heard that it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth." Nevertheless, our discourse must now be turned to the things written in Exodus, where two men are fighting and strike a pregnant woman, and strike her in such a way that the infant comes forth from her either "already formed" or "not yet formed." First indeed let us consider concerning the one who has come forth "not yet formed": how is it that one of those who are fighting is commanded to be struck with a monetary loss, when by Scripture the guilt of the quarrel is referred not to one, but to both? What too is the meaning of the fact that the woman's husband "imposes" or lays it upon him and not upon them, and that he "shall pay" and not rather that they shall pay "with honor"? And what is this honor? But if the infant has come fo…
Exodus 21:24 — AGAINST CELSUS 7.25
Celsus does not quote any passages from the law which are apparently in contradiction to what stands in the gospel, so that we might compare them. He says, "And to a man who has struck one once one should offer oneself to be struck again." But we will say that we are aware that "it was said to them of old time, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' " and that we have read also the words "But I say unto you, to him that strikes you on one cheek offer the other one also." However, I imagine that Celsus derived some of his vague notions from those who say that the God of the gospel is different from the God of the law and so made remarks like this. I would reply to his objection that the Old Testament also knows the doctrine that to him that strikes you on the right cheek you should offer the other one also. At any rate, it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah: "It is good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth, he will sit alone and in silence when he has taken it on himself. He will give a cheek to the man who smites him and shall be filled with reproaches." The gospel then does not lay down laws in contradiction to the God of the law, not even if we interpret literally the saying about a blow on the jaw. And neither Moses nor Jesus "is wrong." Nor did the "Father forget when he sent Jesus the commands which he had given to Moses." Nor did he "condemn his own laws, and change his mind and send his messenger for the opposite purpose."
Exodus 22:2-3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 59
Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. Not giving "sleep to the eyes" of our soul nor "slumber to the eyelids," so that we may await either our own end or the end of the age, whether that we should depart from this life or that this world should be brought to its consummation for us. But someone will ask how the Lord, established as present among the disciples, speaks thus, as though not present but about to come, saying to them: watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. And the one who is more simple will say that he spoke this discourse concerning the second coming, in which he was to come. But another will say that he was speaking of the intelligible coming of the Word, still to come into the understanding of the disciples, because it was not yet in their understanding in the way it was going to be: since (as he shows through this passage) in those who watch he works the day of his coming in the soul of those who are illumined by the true light of him who comes to their souls. Now the householder is the understanding of the man, and his house is his soul; but the thief, who comes suddenly while the householder sleeps and breaks into the house, is, I think, the devil or every contrary word, according to what the evangelist John teaches us, saying in this manner: "amen amen I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs up another way, that man is a thief and a robber". As, therefore, he who "enters through the door into the sheepfold" is "the shepherd of the sheep", for whom "the doorkeeper opens", but "he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber", so the lord of the house enters into it confidently "through the door" when he wills, rewarding the one who watches; but the thief, being a thief, does not enter into the house to the soul of the negligent by the natural entrance, but (as one who has already broken into it) first destroying certain natural buildings of his soul and natural understandings, in him who has not watched — the things which God the Word had built. And having entered through that very breach, the thief plunders it, disarming the understanding, when, despoiling the householder who does not watch, "he will distribute his spoils". But sometimes someone catches the thief in the very act of breaking in, and seizing him as one having his own weapons, he strikes the thief, and, confuting the word that breaks in, he kills it, when, though killing, he is not reckoned a murderer, killing it without any delay. But if not in his own presence, yet in the presence of him who makes all hidden things manifest, someone catches him who has stolen his goods, and understands him and refutes him (that is, kills him), he has no pardon, the thief being dead and made manifest: for he too will die. And see whether perhaps the law of Moses signifies some such thing, saying: "but if the thief is found in the very breaking in and, being struck, dies, there is no bloodguilt for him; but if the sun has risen over him, he is guilty: he shall die for it". For he who, before he does the evil, recognizes the evil and crushes it in himself, is the one who catches and kills it in himself, while it is being broken in upon by it. But he who, after he has done the evil, although he refutes it, is seen to have caught the evil outside himself and to have killed it outside his house — it profits him nothing, for he has been made guilty of death. For after any man has sinned and turned back into himself, the divine understanding which is in us illumines him like a light, so that we may understand that the evil we have committed was to our own condemnation, not to our salvation. Yet in the text of this Gospel of which we are speaking, the thief comes not by day, when the soul of the earnest man has been illumined by the sun of righteousness, but by night and in the time while malice still remains.
Exodus 22:20 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 45
Some people give no thought to the question of demons, that is to say, to the fact that these demons, in order to be able to exist in the heavy atmosphere that encircles the earth, must have the nourishment of exhalations and consequently are always on the lookout for the savor of burnt sacrifices, blood and incense. Since they attach no importance to the matter of sacrifice, we would express ourselves also on this subject. If men who give sustenance to robbers, murderers and barbarian enemies of the great king are punished as criminals against the state, how much more will they be punished justly who through offering sacrifice proffer sustenance to the minions of evil and thus hold them in the atmosphere of the earth! And this holds true especially if knowing the text, "He that sacrifices to gods other than the Lord alone will be destroyed utterly," they nevertheless sacrifice to these authors of evil on earth. In my opinion, when there is question of crimes committed by these demons operating against men, they who sustain them by sacrificing to them will be held no less responsible than the demons themselves that do the crimes. For the demons and they that have kept them on earth, where they could not exist without the exhalations and nourishment considered vital to their bodies, work as one in doing evil to mankind.
Exodus 23:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
In accordance with this we also note that saying: "The barren has borne seven, and she who was fruitful in children has grown weak." And as it is said among the blessings: "There shall not be among you one without children nor a barren woman." Therefore, if these things are so, just as there is said to be a certain carnal love, which the poets have also called Cupid, according to which he who loves sows in the flesh; so also there is a certain spiritual love, according to which that inner man who loves sows in the spirit. And to say it more plainly, if there is anyone who still bears the image of the earthly according to the outer man, he is driven by an earthly desire and love. But he who bears the image of the heavenly according to the inner man is driven by a heavenly desire and love.
Exodus 25:2-40 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
If anyone should worthily understand either the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt or the crossing of the Red Sea, and indeed this whole road that is traveled through the desert and each of the several encampments of the camp; if he should prove so capable of these things that he even receives the law of God "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God"; if anyone, I say, should so come to these things through the order of the journeyings, that, fulfilling each one in the spirit, he attains also those increases of the virtues which are indicated in them, then he can consequently arrive also at the vision and understanding of the tabernacle. Concerning this tabernacle the divine Scriptures make mention indeed in many places and seem to indicate certain things which human hearing could scarcely be capable of; yet above all the Apostle Paul, concerning the understanding of the tabernacle, discloses to us certain tokens of a more exalted knowledge, but, in some way — perhaps regarding the frailty of his hearers — he in a manner closes up the very things that he opens. For he says, writing to the Hebrews: "For the first tabernacle was made, in which were the candlestick and the setting-forth of the loaves, which was called the holy of holies. But after the second veil the tabernacle, which is called holy, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the testament, and within it the two tables, and the manna and the rod of Aaron, which had put forth leaves". But to these things he added: "of which it is not now to be spoken one by one". Now that he says, "of which it is not now to be spoken", some refer to that time at which he was writing the epistle to the Hebrews; but to others it seems that, on account of the greatness of the mysteries, he denies that all the time of the present life is fit for explaining these things. Yet the Apostle does not leave us wholly sorrowful, but, as is his custom, he opens a few things out of many, so that it may indeed be closed to the negligent, but found by those who seek, and opened to those who knock. He resumes therefore again concerning the tabernacle and says: "For Jesus entered not into the holy places made by hand, the copies of the true, but into heaven itself, that he may now appear before the face of God through the veil, that is, through his own flesh". He therefore who interpreted the veil of the inner tabernacle as the flesh of Christ, and the holy places themselves as heaven or the heavens, and the Lord Christ indeed as the high priest, and says that he entered "once into the holy places, having found eternal redemption" — if from these few words anyone knows how to understand the sense of Paul, he can perceive how great a sea of understanding he has opened up to us. But those who love the letter of the law of Moses well enough, yet flee its spirit, hold the Apostle Paul under suspicion for bringing forth interpretations of this kind. Let us therefore see whether some also of the ancient saints did not hold an opinion of the tabernacle far other than these men now reckon. For hear how magnificently David, that surpassing one among the prophets, thinks concerning the tabernacle: "While it is said" he says "to me every day: Where is thy God? these things have I remembered, and I have poured out my soul within me, for I shall enter into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even unto the house of God". And again in the fourteenth Psalm he says: "Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy mountain? He that entereth without spot and worketh righteousness" and the rest. What then is this "place of the wonderful tabernacle", from which one comes "even unto the house of God", whereof, because he was made mindful, his soul was poured out within him and he was as it were dissolved by some intolerable longing? Is it then finally to be believed that this tabernacle, which was made up of skins and curtains and coverings of goats' hair and other…
Exodus 25:10 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.2.2
But when the passage about the equipment of the tabernacle is read, believing that the things described therein are types, some seek for ideas which they can attach to each detail that is mentioned in connection with the tabernacle. Now so far as concerns their belief that the tabernacle is a type of something they are not wrong. But in rightly attaching the word of Scripture to the particular idea of which the tabernacle is a type, here they sometimes fall into error.
Exodus 25:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
But also the oracles of the Lord, "the chaste oracles," are called "silver tried by fire." And likewise in another place the tongue of the just man is spoken of as "kindled silver." But the cherubim are called golden, since indeed they are interpreted as "the fullness of the knowledge of God." But also the candlestick in the tabernacle of the testimony was commanded to be set up golden and solid; which seems to me to hold the form of the natural law, in which the law of knowledge is held. … that gold is to be referred to the sense and the mind, but silver is to be referred to the word and to oracles?
Exodus 25:40 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.8
Moreover it was said to Moses himself, "See that you make all things according to the form and likeness which was shown to you in the mount." It seems to me, therefore, that … in this earth the law was a kind of schoolmaster to those who by it were appointed to be led to Christ and to be instructed and trained in order that after their training in the law they might be able with greater facility to receive the more perfect precepts of Christ. So also that other earth, when it receives all the saints, first imbues and educates them in the precepts of the true and eternal law in order that they may with greater facility accept the precepts of heaven which are perfect and to which nothing can ever be added. And in heaven will truly exist what is called the "eternal gospel" and the Testament that is always new, which can never grow old.
Exodus 26:33 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.9.3
If the ancient custom of sacrifices is clear to you, let us see what these things also contain according to the mystical understanding. You heard that there were two sanctuaries, one, as it were, visible and open to the priests; the other, as it were, invisible and inaccessible. With the exception of the high priest alone, the others were outside. I think this first sanctuary can be understood as this church in which we are now placed in the flesh, in which the priests minister "at the altar of the whole burnt offerings," with that fire kindled about which Jesus said, "I came to send fire unto the earth, and how I wish it to be ignited." And I do not want you to marvel that this sanctuary is open only to the priests. For all who have been anointed with the chrism of the sacred anointing have become priests, just as Peter also says to all the church, "But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy people." Therefore you are "a priestly race," and because of this you approach the sanctuary.
Exodus 29:41 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 13.5.2
For do not think that the omnipotent God commanded this and consecrated this in the law that incense be brought to him from Arabia. But this is the incense that God seeks to be offered by human beings to him, from which he receives "a pleasing odor," prayers from a pure heart and good conscience in which God truly receives a pleasing warmth.
Exodus 30:10 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:8-9
Therefore, if I should consider how the true "high priest," my Lord Jesus Christ, having indeed been placed in the flesh, was with the people all year, that year about which he himself says, "He sent me to proclaim good news to the poor and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of forgiveness," I perceive how "once" in this "year" on the Day of Atonement he enters into "the Holy of Holies." That is, when with his dispensation fulfilled "he penetrates the heavens" and goes to the Father to make atonement for the human race and prays for all those who believe in him. Knowing this atonement by which he propitiates the Father for humans, the apostle John says, "I say this, little children, that we may not sin. But if we should sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the just; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins." But Paul also in a similar way mentions this atonement when he says concerning Christ, "Whom God appointed as a propitiator by his blood through faith." Therefore the Day of Atonement remains for us until the sun sets; that is, until the world comes to an end.
Exodus 32:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.80
Therefore just as the people are God's when they do not sin but are no longer said to be his when they sin, so also the feats are the feats of sinners when they are hated by the Lord's soul, but when they are ordained by the Lord, they are called the Lord's.
Exodus 33:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 4
Like to this also is that which is said by God through Moses: "Behold, I have set you in a hole of the rock, and you shall see My back parts." Therefore this rock, which is Christ, is not closed on every side, but has a hole. And the hole of the rock is that which reveals God and makes Him known to men. No one, then, sees the Father except the Son; no one, then, sees the last things of God — that is, the things which come to pass in the last times — except one placed in the hole of the rock, namely when he has learned those things by the revelation of Christ.
Exodus 33:23 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.3
For it is well known that he, that is, the one who gave the oracles to Moses, says, "You shall not see my face but my back." Certainly these statements must be understood by the aid of that symbolism which is appropriate to the understanding of divine sayings, and those old wives' fables, which ignorant people invent on the subject of the front and back parts of God, must be utterly rejected and despised. Nor indeed must anyone suppose that we have entertained some impious thought in saying that the Father is not visible even to the Savior, but he must consider the exact meaning of the terms we use in controverting the heretics. For we have said that it is one thing to see and be seen, another to perceive and be perceived or to know and be known. To see and be seen is a property of bodies, which it would certainly not be right to apply either to the Father or to the Son or to the Holy Spirit in their relations one with another. For the Trinity by its nature transcends the limits of vision, although it grants to those who are in bodies, that is, to all other creatures, the property of being seen one by another. But incorporeal and above all intellectual nature is capable of nothing else but to know and be known, as the Savior himself declares when he says, "No one knows the Son save the Father, neither does any know the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him." It is clear then that he did not say, "No one sees the Father save the Son" but "No one knows the Father save the Son."
Exodus 34:29-35 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
A reading from Exodus has been recited to us, one that may either spur us on to the search for understanding or drive us back from it. It spurs on minds that are studious and free; it drives back those that are idle and preoccupied. For it is written: "Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and his face was glorified and the color of his countenance, and they were afraid to approach him." And a little after: "Moses," it says, "placed a veil over his face. But when he entered into the sight of the Lord, to speak with him, he laid the veil aside." Now the Apostle, expounding these things with that magnificent understanding which he employs in the rest, of which he said: "but we have the mind of Christ," says: "for if the ministry of death, formed in letters upon stones, was in glory, so that the sons of Israel could not gaze upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is done away: how shall not the ministry of the spirit be rather in glory?" And again a little later he says: "and not as Moses put a veil over his face, that the sons of Israel might not gaze upon the face of his countenance. For their perceptions were dulled; for until this present day, when Moses is read, the veil is placed over their heart." Who would not marvel at the greatness of the mysteries? Who would not be filled with dread at the mark of the dulled heart? The face of Moses was glorified, but the sons of Israel could not "gaze upon the face of his countenance," the people of the synagogue could not "gaze" upon it. But if anyone can have a manner of life and a way of living more eminent than the rest of the common crowd, he is able to behold the glory of his countenance. For even now, as the Apostle says, "a veil is placed over the reading of the Old Testament," and even now Moses speaks with glorified countenance, but we cannot behold the glory that is in his countenance. And the reason we cannot is that we are still the common people and have no more of zeal, no more of merit, than the rest of the multitude. But since the holy Apostle says: "yet the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament," the pronouncement of so great and such an Apostle would cut off from us every hope of understanding, had he not added: "but when anyone shall have turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." Therefore he says that the cause of the veil's removal is our turning to the Lord. From which we ought to gather these indications: that so long as, when we read the divine Scriptures, the understanding lies hidden from us, so long as the things that are written are obscure and closed to us, we have not yet turned to the Lord. For if we had turned to the Lord, without doubt the veil would be taken away. But let us see also what this very thing, "to turn to the Lord," may be. And that we may know more plainly what it is to be turned, we must first say what it is to be turned away. Everyone who, when the words of the law are recited, is occupied with common tales, is turned away. Everyone who, "when Moses is read," carries anxiety about the affairs of the world, about money, about profits, is turned away. Everyone who is bound tight by cares for possessions and stretched out by desire for riches, who is eager for the glory of the age and the honors of the world, is turned away. But even one who seems indeed a stranger to these things, yet stands by and hears the words of the law and is intent in face and eyes, yet wanders in heart and thoughts, is turned away. What then is it to be turned? If we turn our backs on all these things and, in zeal, in deeds, in mind, in solicitude, give our labor to the word of God, if we "meditate on his law day and night," if, setting all else aside, we are at leisure for God and exercise ourselves in his testimonies—this is to be turned to the Lord. If you wished your son to know the letters that men call liberal, to know the discipline of grammar or of rhetoric, would you not render him free and…
Exodus 34:33 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.2
For so long as a man does not attend to the spiritual meaning "a veil lies upon his heart," in consequence of which veil, in other words his duller understanding, the Scripture itself is said or thought to be veiled. This is the explanation of the veil which is said to have covered the face of Moses when he was speaking to the people, that is, when the law is read in public. But if we turn to the Lord, where also the Word of God is and where the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual knowledge, the veil will be taken away, and we shall then with unveiled face behold in the holy Scriptures the glory of the Lord.
Exodus 35:4-10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
We had indeed already spoken before about the tabernacle, to the best of our ability; but since the description itself is often repeated in the book of Exodus — for it is set forth both when God commanded Moses how it ought to be made, and again when Moses commanded the people to offer materials for the work to be constructed, as this reading contains, which has just now been recited to us; but also afterwards the individual items are enumerated, when they are fashioned by Bezalel and the other wise men, and again when they are brought into the sight of Moses, and once more when they are dedicated by the Lord's command. Moreover, a mention of these things is made also in other books or places, and it is frequently repeated, inasmuch as it is necessarily brought to mind. Now, then, that discourse has been recited to us where it says: "and Moses said to all the synagogue of the sons of Israel, saying: this is the word which the Lord commanded, saying: take from among your own selves a redemption for the Lord. Everyone who has conceived it in his heart, let him bring the first offerings to the Lord: gold, silver, bronze, hyacinth, purple, doubled scarlet, and twisted fine linen, goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red and hyacinthine skins, imperishable woods, and sardius stones and stones for carving on the shoulder-piece and on the full-length robe; and let everyone wise in heart among you come and work all the things which the Lord has commanded". When I consider myself first and examine myself, I am loath to set my hand to opening these things. For I fear that perhaps, even if the Lord should deign to reveal them, if indeed He deigns to reveal them to anyone — for concerning myself I have not dared to say it — I fear, I say, and I greatly doubt, whether he will find hearers; and since this is so, lest perhaps it be required of him who shall attempt to explain, where or how or before whom the Lord's pearls are cast. But since you greatly expect that some of the things which have been read should be discussed, and since my Lord has commanded me, saying: "you ought to have put my money at the table, and I, when I came, would surely have exacted it with interest", I will ask Him that He deign to make my word His own money, so that I may lend to you not my money, not my gold, but His own; that I may speak to you by His word and by His "understanding", and bring these things to the table of your hearing. See you now to it, as you receive the Lord's money, how you may prepare its interest for the Lord when He comes. Now the interest of the word of God is to have in the practice of life and of deeds those things which the word of God has commanded. If therefore, hearing the word, you make use of it and act according to the things you hear, and live according to these things, you are preparing interest for the Lord; and it can come to pass that each one of you may make from "five talents" ten, and may hear from the Lord: "well done, good and faithful servant, you shall be having power over ten cities". Only see to this, that none of you either gather up the money he has received "in a napkin" or bury it "in the earth", for you well know what the outcome of such a man is at the coming of the Lord. We shall therefore attempt a few things out of many, indeed even fewer out of the few, seeing that both our discourse must be weighed and your hearing.
Exodus 35:5-6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
What shall we say about the rest? For they are many, and to discuss each one is a huge task. But what will it profit, that they be spoken with our own huge labor, yet be spurned and perish, spurned by preoccupied hearers who attend upon the word of God for scarcely the point of a single hour? For "unless the Lord builds the house, they have labored in vain who build it". Nevertheless we, as has already been said above, deliver the Lord's money to the table; let each one of the hearers see how he receives the things that are delivered. "Let each one", he says, "according as he has conceived it in his heart, bring the first offerings to the Lord". As for what he called "first offerings", I ask what are the first offerings of gold, or what the first-fruits of silver? And how do first-fruits seem to be contributed from scarlet and purple and fine linen? Or how does one offer "according as he has conceived it in his heart"? This now strikes each one of us; let us see at the same time also how we have conceived in our heart, as many of us as are here present just now, and the word of God is being expounded. There are those who conceive in their heart the things that are read; there are those who do not at all conceive the things that are said, but their mind and heart is either in business or in the affairs of the world or in the reckonings of gain; and especially the women — how, do you think, do they conceive in their heart, who chatter so much, who make such an uproar with their tales that they do not permit there to be silence? Now what shall I discuss concerning their mind, what concerning their heart, if they are thinking either of their infants or of wool or of the necessities of the house? I truly fear that they may follow those women of whom the Apostle says: "who learn to go about the houses, not only talkative, but also curious, speaking the things that are not fitting". How, then, do such women as these conceive in their heart? One does not conceive in his heart unless he is empty in heart, unless he is free in mind and wholly attentive; unless he keeps watch in his heart, he cannot conceive in his heart and offer gifts to God. And even if we have neglected this hitherto, from this time at least let us be more attentive and diligently intent, that we may be able to conceive with the mind. For it is just that each one be found to have his own portion in the tabernacle of the Lord. For it does not escape the Lord what each one offers. How glorious it is for you, if it be said in the tabernacle of the Lord: that gold, for example, with which the ark of the covenant is overlaid, is his; the silver, from which the bases and columns are, is his; the bronze, from which the rings and the basin and some of the bases of the columns were made, is his; but also those stones of the shoulder-piece and of the oracle are his; the purple with which the high priest is adorned is his, and the scarlet is his, and each of the rest, one by one. And again, how unseemly, how wretched it will be, if the Lord, coming to inspect the building of the tabernacle, should find in it nothing of your gift, should recognize nothing offered by you. Have you lived so undevout, so unfaithful, that you have longed for nothing of your memorial to be in the tabernacle of God? For just as "the prince of this world" comes to each one of us and seeks whether he may find in us anything of his own deeds, and, if indeed he finds it, claims us for himself; so also, on the contrary, if the Lord, coming, should find anything of yours in His tabernacle, He defends you for Himself and calls you His own. Lord Jesus, grant me that I may deserve to have some memorial in Your tabernacle. I would wish, if it could be, that there be something of mine in that gold from which the mercy-seat is fashioned, or from which the ark is overlaid, or from which the lampstand of light and the lamps are made. Or if I have no gold, that I may at least be found to offer something of silver, t…
Exodus 35:5 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
First of all, then, let us see what it is that Moses says to the sons of Israel: "take from among your own selves a redemption for the Lord; everyone who has conceived it in his heart, let him offer the first offerings to the Lord". Moses does not wish you to offer to God something that is outside you: "from your own selves", he says, "take, and bring the first offerings to the Lord, according as each one has conceived it in his heart". Gold and silver are commanded to be brought, bronze and the other materials; how can I bring this from my own self? Surely gold is not born within me, or silver and the other things that are commanded? Does not each one bring these forth from his storerooms and from his chests? What is it, then, that Moses says: "bring from your own selves, and each one according as he has conceived it in his heart"? That gold indeed and silver and the other materials, from which the tabernacle was constructed, are agreed to have been brought forth from the chests and storerooms of each one; but the spiritual law requires gold for the tabernacle which is within us, and silver which is within us, and demands all those remaining materials which we both can have within us and bring forth from ourselves. For the Scripture says that: "the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; for, if you confess the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved". If therefore "you have believed in your heart", your heart and your understanding is gold; you have therefore offered gold to the tabernacle, the faith of your heart; but if you have also "confessed" with speech, you have offered the word of confession, silver. For this reason, then, Moses, who is the spiritual law, says: "take from your own selves". These things you take from your own self, these are within you, these, even if you are naked, you can have. But also what he added: "each one according as he has conceived it in his heart", looks to this. For you will not be able to offer anything to God from your understanding or from your word, unless first you have conceived in your heart the things that are written; unless you have been attentive and have listened diligently, your gold cannot be genuine, nor your silver; for it is required that it be "tested". Hear the Scripture saying: "the words of the Lord, chaste words, silver tested by fire, purified sevenfold". If therefore you have conceived in your heart the things that are written, your gold, that is, your understanding, will be genuine, and your silver, which is your word, genuine. What, too, shall we say about bronze? Bronze is also needed for the construction of the tabernacle. Bronze indeed seems able to be taken for strength and to be set in place of fortitude and constancy; but lest anyone say: this is to divine rather than to explain, where what is said is not fortified by the authority of the Scriptures, I think, then, that bronze can be taken for the voice. For speech is one thing, the voice another. Speech is called an utterance grounded upon reason; but the voice is, for example, whether one speaks in Latin, whether in Greek, whether more loftily, whether more subdued. But you demand that we prove these things too from the Scriptures, as is necessary. Hear what the Apostle says: "if", he says, "I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not charity, I am one thing, as sounding bronze or a tinkling cymbal". So then, to speak with tongues and to translate from one language into another is an offering of bronze. For the tabernacle of the Lord must have all things, and nothing must be lacking in the house of God. There is, therefore, as we said, an offering of bronze, the voice. Now the voice is that which turns the meaning of another into another language; but speech is that which brings forth one's own meaning. Let all these things, therefore, be offered to God; let the understanding be offered to God, and the speech, and the voice.
Exodus 35:6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
But I think this must be considered, that, whereas Moses spoke of the rest simply, he added to scarlet alone "doubled", and to fine linen "twisted". It is asked, therefore, why the other materials, by which the remaining elements are indicated, he named simply, but scarlet, by which fire is designated, he alone set down as "doubled". These things are difficult to understand and much more difficult to expound. Nevertheless, as the Lord shall grant, we shall attempt to explain. For some things must be spoken and some things kept in reserve. Let us see, then, for what reason he called "scarlet doubled". This color, as we said, indicates the element of fire. Now fire has a twofold power, one by which it illuminates, another by which it burns. This is the reasoning of the literal sense; let us come also to the intellectual meanings. Even in these matters fire is twofold; there is a certain fire in this age, and there is one in the age to come. The Lord Jesus says: "I have come to send fire upon the earth": this fire illuminates. The same Lord again says in the age to come to the "workers of iniquity": "go into the eternal fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels": that fire burns. Nevertheless this fire, which Jesus came to send, indeed "illuminates every man coming into this world", yet it has also something that burns, as those confess who say: "was not our heart burning within us, when He opened the scriptures to us?" At the same time, therefore, it both burned and illuminated in "opening the scriptures". But I do not know whether that fire also in the age to come, which burns, has anything too that illuminates. There is, therefore, as we have shown, a twofold nature of fire, and for this reason "doubled scarlet" is commanded to be offered. Let us see, then, how we can offer this doubled fire for the building of the tabernacle. If you are a teacher, you build the tabernacle by constructing the church of God; God therefore says also to you what He said to Jeremiah: "behold, I have given my words in your mouth as fire". If therefore, teaching and building the church of God, you only rebuke and censure and chastise and reproach the sins of the people, but bring forth no consolation from the divine scriptures, explain nothing obscure, touch nothing of deeper knowledge nor open anything of more sacred understanding, you have indeed offered scarlet, but not doubled. For your fire only burns and does not illuminate. And again, if, teaching, you open the mysteries of the law, discuss the secrets of hidden things, but do not reprove the sinner, do not correct the negligent, do not maintain the severity of discipline, you have indeed offered scarlet, but not doubled. For your fire only illuminates, it does not kindle. He therefore who "offers rightly" and "divides rightly" offers doubled scarlet, so that with the light of knowledge he mingles a little fire of severity.
Exodus 35:7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
Rams' skins also are offered. Certain men before us have also set the ram for fury. And because the skin is a token of a dead animal, he who offers rams' skins to the Lord shows fury dead in himself.
Exodus 35:22 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
After these things: "and the men", he says, "took from their women, all to whom it seemed good in their understanding, and brought gems and earrings and rings and hair-clasps and armlets". You see here too how those bring gifts to God who see with the heart, who conceive understanding in the heart, who have the mind intent and devoted to the word of God. These, then, bring gifts, and they bring them even from their women: "earrings", he says, "and gems and armlets". We have already often said that, according to the allegorical interpretation, the woman is taken as the flesh and the man as the rational sense. Good, therefore, are these women who obey their husbands; good is the flesh which no longer fights against the spirit, but complies and consents, and therefore "if two or three of you agree, concerning whatever thing you shall ask, it shall be done for you", the Lord said. They offer, therefore, "earrings from their women". You see how the hearing is offered to the Lord. But armlets too are offered to the Lord: right works and good works, which are performed through the flesh. These the rational sense offers to the Lord. But hair-clasps also are offered. He offers hair-clasps who knows well to discern what is to be done, what is to be avoided, what pleases God, or what displeases, what is just, what is unjust. These are the hair-clasps that are offered to the Lord. Here, then, the women offer earrings to the Lord, because they are wise women. For there came, he says, wise women, and made whatever things were necessary for the vestments of the high priest. But those women who offered their earrings that the calf might be made were foolish, women who "turned away their hearing indeed from the truth, but turned it to fables and impiety"; and therefore they offered their earrings that the head of a calf might be made. But in the book of Judges too we find likewise another idol made from women's earrings. These, then, are blessed women, blessed is that flesh, which offers to the Lord its earrings and its armlets and its rings and all the works of its hands which it performs in the commandments of the Lord.
Exodus 35:24 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
It is added after these things that "he too with whom imperishable woods were found", brought them to the Lord. If anyone "loves Christ the Lord in incorruption", he offers imperishable wood to God. Blessed, therefore, is he with whom is found either an incorrupt understanding or an incorrupt body, and offers this to God. Hence too he said very well: "with whom imperishable woods were found". For "imperishable woods" are not found with everyone. Of gold he did not say, nor of silver, with whom it was found; for understanding and speech can be found with everyone. But neither did he say this of the four colors; for it belongs to all to consist, according to the body, of four elements. But "imperishable woods", that is, the grace of incorruption and virginity, can be found with only a rare one, as the Lord too says: "not all receive this word, but those to whom it is given".
Exodus 35:27 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
But also the "princes", he says, "offered" their gifts. What are these gifts which the princes offer? "Gems", he says, "they offered, emerald stones and stones of filling and stones for the shoulder-piece". Stones of filling are called those which are placed in the oracle, that is, which are set on the breast of the high priest, inscribed with the names of the tribes of Israel. This which is called the oracle, that is, the rational, which is set on the breast of the high priest, has the form of the rational sense which is in us. In this are said to be placed the "stones of filling", which yet cling and are connected to the shoulder stones and are held bound together by these. The adornment of the shoulder-piece is a token of good deeds. Deeds, therefore, are joined with reason and reason with deeds, so that there may be a harmony in both: "for he who shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven". Let there be in us, therefore, speech depending upon deeds, and let deeds adorn the speech; for this refers to the adornment of the high priest. But to accomplish these things princes are required; this adornment belongs to those who have advanced so far that they deserve to preside over peoples.
Exodus 35:28 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
The princes also offer oil, to serve for a twofold use, for the lamps and for the anointing. For the lamp of those who preside over peoples ought not to be hidden or "put under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house". But the princes also offer "the composition of incense", which is to be compounded by Moses "for a sweet odor to the Lord", so that they too may say that "we are a good odor of Christ".
Exodus 36:2 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 13
And after the people had offered, "Moses", he says, "called every wise man" for the fashioning, and the architect, that they might put together and fashion each of the things that are written. "But also the women", he says, "the wise women he called", that they might make the things which were suitable in the tabernacle of the Lord. You see, then, that all the things which are made are made by wise persons; both women are called wise and men are called wise. For "all the works of the Lord" are made "in wisdom". Each one, therefore, comes "wise in understanding" and makes the works of the Lord. It does not suffice for us if we only offer, but there is need that we also work with wisdom those things that are in us, that we may know how to mingle gold with fine linen and to double scarlet or to mingle it with purple. For what does it profit you, if you have these things and know not how to use them, nor recognize how you ought to fit and bring forth each thing in its own time and in its own place? And therefore we must give effort to being wise and being able to bring forth these things which we hear from the holy scriptures in their time and to fit and to compose them, and from these to adorn "the tabernacle for the God of Jacob", through Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is "glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen".
Ezekiel 1:1 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:7
It was not enough for one heaven to be opened; a greater number was opened, so that the angels descended not from one, but from all the heavens on those who were to be saved.
Ezekiel 1:3 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:10
If you want to understand that this word is said about the Savior, do not hold back. The allegory has its own meaning as well, in this way: the Word of God comes to us as he who was born of the virgin, that is, man; as the Word who lives always in the Father.
Ezekiel 1:4 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:12
When you have been purified by the sweeping wind, to the extent that it has swept away every evil from you and everything of evil character in your soul, then you will begin to benefit from the great cloud that envelopes the sweeping wind.
Ezekiel 1:5 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:15
The cherubim are interpreted as the fullness of knowledge. Whoever is full of skill becomes a cherub that God drives.
Ezekiel 1:16 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:16
If you consider the way in which the universe moves in different and contrary ways, whether you think it is in error or whether you think it is of a different nature from us, you see the meaning of "a wheel within a wheel." But as far as all that is concerned, the God of the whole universe directs everything and makes everything to move where he wills, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Ezekiel 1:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:23
It is clear … that Ezekiel saw the cherubim and their course, and the firmament above them and the one seated on the throne. What could be more glorious and exalted than these things?
Ezekiel 2:6 — AGAINST CELSUS 2:76
Are there not revilings in Ezekiel directed against the people, when the Lord says, "you dwell among scorpions"?
Ezekiel 2:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5:7
I take it to be similar in the case of the book mentioned by Ezekiel, in which had been written lamentation, mourning and woe. The whole book contains the "woe" of those perishing, and the "mourning" of those being saved and the "lamentation" of those in between. John, too, who eats one roll on which there is writing on the back and the front, considered the whole Scripture as one book, which is thought to be sweet at the start, when one chews it, but bitter in the perception of each of those who come to know it.
Ezekiel 10:4 — EXCERPTS ON EZEKIEL 10
The prophet did not see the throne but the likeness of the throne, just as he said earlier that he did not see the glory of the Lord but the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
Ezekiel 11:19-20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:1.7
This might lead one to suppose that it was God who gave the power to walk in his commandments and to keep his judgments, if it was he who removed the stony heart, which hindered them from keeping the commandments, and who implanted in them the better and more sensitive one, which is here called a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 11:19-20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:1.15
Now this is what is said by those who wish to prove by the authority of Scripture that nothing lies within our own power. We shall reply to them that these words must not be understood in that sense but as follows. It is as if an uneducated and uninstructed person becoming conscious of the disgrace of his condition, whether by being stirred at the exhortation of another or by a desire to rival those who are wise, should entrust himself to one by whom he is confident that he can be carefully trained and competently instructed. If then he, who had formerly hardened himself in ignorance, entrusts himself, as we have said, with full purpose of mind to a master and promises to obey him in everything, the master, on seeing clearly his purpose and determination, will on his part undertake to take away from him his lack of education and to implant in him education, not promising, however, to do this if the disciple withholds his assent and co-operation but only if he offers and pledges himself to entire obedience.
Ezekiel 13:1 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:1
There is no kind of sin about which Scripture is silent and about which it does not teach its readers.
Ezekiel 13:2 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:1
False prophets are teachers of the church whose words or life do not properly accord with the doctrine that they preach.
Ezekiel 13:2 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:2
If the Word of God accuses me, I will try to be converted.
Ezekiel 13:3 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:3
In the same way that a saint prays with the Spirit and prays with understanding and sings with the spirit and sings with understanding, so the false prophet prophesies according to his own heart and follows not the Spirit of God but his own spirit.
Ezekiel 13:4 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:4
The fox is an animal good for nothing, sly, wild, ferocious.
Ezekiel 13:6 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:5
All that they want is false, and they can never see the truth. Take an example. To read the Scripture and to hear something other than what is written is to have an untruthful picture of Scripture; but to hear Scripture and interpret it in accordance with the truth, that is to see the truth.
Ezekiel 13:7 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 2:5
Pray for us that our words may not be false.
Ezekiel 13:17 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:3
Soft are the souls and intentions of those leaders who always compose resonant and harmonious words.
Ezekiel 13:17 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:1
This face, that is to say the ruling faculty in our soul, if it is not fixed toward what it should understand in the manner that it sees, it announces to its hearers that what it looks at has not in fact been seen.
Ezekiel 13:18 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:4
Allow me, O Christ, to break all pillows made for the luxury of souls.
Ezekiel 13:18 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:3
The Word of God must proclaim what is for the salvation of the hearer, what exhorts him to continence, to the practice of sensible actions, to all the things to which the person who is assiduous in works and not pleasures must apply himself in order to be able to obtain what God has promised.
Ezekiel 13:21 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:5
We flee what is bitter, even though it is good for us, and we do not want to labor, because we are softened by pleasures, because we do not know that it is impossible to be a friend of pleasure and at the same time a friend of God.
Ezekiel 13:22 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:6
Let us pray that God will deliver us even from the hand of such leaders who, wherever they are, speak to please their hearers and cut and divide the church, because many are more fond of pleasures than they are of God.
Ezekiel 14:3 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:7
No one among us thinks that tortures are inflicted by anyone other than ourselves.
Ezekiel 14:3 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 3:8
When the interior person perseveres according to the image of the Creator, then a person is born, and twice is the person made a person according to the exterior and the interior kind.
Ezekiel 14:13 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 5:1
As the experts in medical art put it, in order to perform certain healings in the body, it is necessary to inflict not only a cut but also a burn.
Ezekiel 14:13 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:3
Even though it is a punishment of the mother to be sent into exile, to be deprived of her children or at least to see her children bound for another province, in the same sort of way our mother the earth is chastised for her sins by God when people and beast are removed from her.
Ezekiel 14:13 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:1
Do you think it is true that the word applies not to the inhabitants of the earth but to the earth itself?
Ezekiel 14:14 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:4
Those who are of Abraham are not children of Abraham; although they are of his seed, they are not his children, because they are sinners. In the same way those whose actions resemble the wonder of Daniel are of Daniel, and those who imitate the patience of Job become Job.
Ezekiel 14:21 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 5:4
All those who are sinners in the church, who have tasted the Word of God and have transgressed it, deserve prayers, but each one will be punished in accordance with his or her degree.
Ezekiel 16:2 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:1
Why is it that I admire Ezekiel? Because the order was given him to make known to Jerusalem its abominations, and he did not place before his eyes any danger that would result from his preaching, but in order to keep only the precepts of God, he spoke whatever he was told. Let us realize that there was a mystery, that there was the revelation of a mysterious kind on the subject of Jerusalem and all that is said against it. Nevertheless, he prophesied, and accused it of fornication.
Ezekiel 16:3 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:3
Which of the cities in the world were so elevated and so deep in knowledge as the city of God?
Ezekiel 16:4 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:6
It is a great work to be rubbed with salt. If we are seasoned with salt, we are full of grace.
Ezekiel 16:4 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:5
Not everyone is washed for salvation. We who have received the grace of baptism in the name of Christ are washed, but I do not know who is washed for salvation.
Ezekiel 16:6 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:7
But see the mercy of God, see his extraordinary goodness. Even though Jerusalem was thrown into the open field, he does not look down on it as thrown out forever, he does not leave it in a state of perversion as entirely forgotten, as not in the end to lift up the fallen. You were thrown out, but I still return to you; my visit is not lacking after your ruin."
Ezekiel 16:8 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:9
Let us pray that the mercy of God will come on us and wash away the blood from our souls.
Ezekiel 16:8 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:8
When we are of a greater age and can therefore sin, angels look for a chance to influence us, and that is as true of the angels of God as it is of the angels of Satan.
Ezekiel 16:12 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:10
Almighty God, grant to us to be worthy of the crown and glory on our head.
Ezekiel 16:17 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:2
The golden and silver vase, the censers, the cups and the rest of that kind we have in the holy Scriptures. But when we turn the meaning of Scripture into another that is contrary to the truth, we kindle the divine words and turn the things of God into other images.
Ezekiel 16:18 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:3
These various clothes and beautiful garments that God has bestowed on us, if we cut them up and rip them and surround them with false teaching to deceive human beings, there is no doubt that we are covering idols with different clothing.
Ezekiel 16:18 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:5
Whoever is born in the teaching of heretics and has taken these principles for his own faith is a child of Jerusalem the fornicator and sinner.
Ezekiel 16:18 — EXCERPTS ON EZEKIEL 16:18
Incense and oil are the prayer that is offered to God with understanding and in which God delights.
Ezekiel 16:23 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:6
Their bodies are corrupted, and the soul is wounded.
Ezekiel 16:25 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:7
Possessing these things, she is of great beauty, but she is corrupted by the divisions of heretics and foreign religious systems.
Ezekiel 16:26 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:8
You see that she is handed over to the souls of strangers, she who is unworthy to practice the law and the words of God.
Ezekiel 16:28 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:9
When God makes covenants with us and we consent to them, we are blessed. But when we prostitute ourselves to the spirits of evil, then we turn the covenants of God into the land of Canaan, and we make a pact with her.
Ezekiel 16:30 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:10
As the law is not made for the just but for the lawless and those who are not subjected to God, so the teaching that warns us away from fornication does not become chaste but is for the lawless and the fornicators and the disobedient.
Ezekiel 16:30 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 8:1
There is no doubt that the word of the orator provokes the hero to worse things when a heretic builds up his hero in the perversions of heresy by what he says.
Ezekiel 16:31 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 8:2
Ecclesiastics who are leaders in the church build the house of God, the church, in their own way of life as well as those of their faithful, and their work is the building of God.
Ezekiel 16:33 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 8:3
The husband of the soul is the word of God, a spouse truly loving, who has given her chastity, justice and all the other gifts.
Ezekiel 16:42 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
But if, chastised, you do not come to your senses, if, rebuked, you are not amended, if, scourged, you despise it, know that, if you have so far advanced in sinning, his jealousy will depart from you, and that will be said to you which through the prophet Ezekiel is said to Jerusalem: "therefore my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be angry over you no more".
Ezekiel 16:45 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 9:1
Where there are sins, where there are multitudes of people, there are schisms, there are heresies, there are dissensions. But where there is virtue, there is unity, union, from which the single heart and spirit of all believers were made.
Ezekiel 16:45 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:9
As the Father and Son are one, so those who have one Spirit are brought together in unity.
Ezekiel 16:46 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 9:1
Virtue makes me to have Christ as my brother, so that I may be both good and well-mannered.
Ezekiel 16:49 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 9:5
Often having a fullness and an abundance of bread is the cause of arrogance. But often the sin of pride also arises over spiritual gifts, and discernment is needed to distinguish the one from the other.
Ezekiel 16:49 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 9:2
To know that sins are unequal you only have to look at the teaching of the Scriptures, which will leave you in no doubt.
Ezekiel 16:51 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 9:3
My Lord Jesus Christ is justified according to the dispensation of the flesh that he purified for our salvation, by Abraham, by Isaac, by Jacob and by the rest of the prophets.
Ezekiel 16:52 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 10:2
The more we come very near to God the more we come near the beatitude; and when we have sinned, we shall be far from it and very near terrible and very great punishments.
Ezekiel 16:52 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 10:1
O you who are subject to pain, do not go into exile with mourning.
Ezekiel 16:53 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 10:2
Anger is something other than God himself, so that it is never part of him, nor does he share in it in any way.
Ezekiel 16:54 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:5.3
It is plain that the just and good God of the law and the gospels is one and the same and that he does good with justice and punishes in kindness, since neither goodness without justice nor justice without goodness can describe the dignity of the divine nature.
Ezekiel 16:61 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 10:5
After receiving the price of my sins and being re-established, and the covenant made with me, then do I understand my evil deeds, and I am confounded, and within I punish myself.
Ezekiel 17:3 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 11:5
He came to that Lebanon, which is the church, where the offerings of God and the incense of his prayers are celebrated, that great true evil, Nebuchadnezzar, that is, the devil, and he sees it.
Ezekiel 17:6 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 11:4
As long as it was on holy ground, the vine was huge; but when it was taken to the land of sinners, it was made infirm and small.
Ezekiel 17:7 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 11:2
Another crowd was taken by him, and it became a vine, less vigorous than it was when it was in the vineyard of God and on holy ground, where the sacrifices of God are celebrated, but it was transferred to Babylon as a weak vine.
Ezekiel 17:8 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 11:2
One who was condemned by God does not escape his sentence and does not want to change the will of he who judges him, but he will bear it with all patience until God frees the one who he has condemned.
Ezekiel 17:8 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 11:3
When the association of such different natures is made in faith in Christ, the lion will no longer be impure, and all the animals called impure in the law of God will receive the purity of their former condition.
Ezekiel 17:12 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 12:1
I am inclined to think that by the good quality of their conduct they increase yet more the agreeableness of the words of God, mixing the sweetness of the life with the sweet savor of the word.
Ezekiel 17:12 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 12:2
If we who appear to stand over the church have sinned and given place to the devil against the teaching of Paul when he says "do not give any place to the devil," in the same way the faults committed at Jerusalem mean that we provide Nebuchadnezzar with the chance to enter into the holy city and to take away those whom he chooses.
Ezekiel 17:13 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 12:3
If you have the covenant with us in a blessing, Nebuchadnezzar cannot make a covenant with you.
Ezekiel 17:16 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 12:3
As holy Scripture tells us, God intends that the covenant with Israel is an abuse against Nebuchadnezzar.
Ezekiel 17:22 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 12:4
There is one who dishonors the judgment of God; there is another who honors it.
Ezekiel 17:23 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 12:5
Consider the sublime grandeur of the church of Christ, to understand that according to the promise of God the word has been realized.… It will become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.
Ezekiel 18:4 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
I know also another kind of death, in which a man dies for God; of it it is said: "The soul that sins shall itself die."
Ezekiel 20:25 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
For as regards the former people, what good or perfect thing could be commanded to those who murmured and contradicted? Indeed, a little later they even turn to idols, and forgetful of the benefits and wonders of God they set up the head of a calf. For this reason, therefore, precepts are given to them, in which they may be tested. Hence it is that also through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says to them: "I gave you precepts and ordinances that were not good, in which you shall not live by them"; for being tested in the precepts of the Lord they are not found faithful.
Ezekiel 20:25 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:20
We hold, then, that the law has a twofold sense—the one literal, the other spiritual—as has been shown by some before us. Of the first or literal sense it is said, not by us but by God, speaking in one of the prophets, that "the statutes are not good, and the judgments not good"; whereas, taken in a spiritual sense, the same prophet makes God say that "his statutes are good, and his judgments are good."
Ezekiel 20:32 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
The first Passover is of the first people; the second Passover is ours. For we were "unclean in soul", we who "worshiped wood and stone" and "not knowing God served those who by nature were not gods". We also were those who "were journeying far", of whom the Apostle says that we were "strangers and sojourners from the covenants of God, having no hope and without God in this world".
Ezekiel 28:2 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 13:1
The bishops have directed that the case of the prince of Tyre should be examined, to say something about merits and faults, and they have ordered also that I should return to the subject of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, on certain points.
Ezekiel 28:2 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3:3.2
In the prophet Ezekiel the "prince of Tyre" is most plainly pictured as a certain spiritual power. When these, therefore, and other similar princes of this world, each having his own individual wisdom and formulating his own doctrines and peculiar opinions, saw our Lord and Savior promising and proclaiming that he had come into the world for the purpose of destroying all the doctrines (whatever they might be) of the "knowledge falsely so called," they immediately laid snares for him, not knowing who was concealed within him. For "the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ." But their snares became known, and the plots that they had contrived against the Son of God were understood when they "crucified the Lord of glory." Therefore the apostle says, "We speak a wisdom among the perfect; yet a wisdom not of this world or of the rulers of this world, which are coming to naught … a wisdom that none of the rulers of this world knew. For had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory."
Ezekiel 28:11 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:5.4
We now find in the prophet Ezekiel two prophecies addressed to the prince of Tyre, the first of which might appear, before one had heard the second, to be spoken of some man who was prince of the Tyrians. For the present, therefore, we shall take nothing from the first one. But since the second is most evidently of such a kind that it cannot possibly refer to a man but must be understood of some higher power that fell from higher places and was cast down to lower and worse ones, we shall conclude that as an illustration that most clearly proves that these opposing and wicked powers were not so formed and created by nature but came from better conditions and changed for the worse; and [we shall conclude] that the blessed powers also are not of such a nature as to be unable to admit qualities the opposite of their own, supposing one of them should desire to do so and should become negligent and fail to guard with the utmost caution the blessedness of his condition. For when he who is called "prince of Tyre" is said to have been "among the holy ones" and "without stain" and set "in the paradise of God," "adorned with a crown of honor and beauty," how, I ask, can we suppose such a being to have been inferior to any of the holy ones? He is described as having been "a crown of honor and beauty" and as having walked "in the paradise of God" "without stain." How then can anyone possibly suppose that such a being was not one of those holy and blessed powers that, dwelling as they do in a state of blessedness, we must believe are endowed with no other honor than this?… Who is there that, hearing such sayings as this, "You were a signet of likeness and a crown of honor in the delights of the paradise of God," or this, "from the time you were created with the cherubim, I placed you on the holy mount of God," could possibly weaken their meaning to such an extent as to suppose them spoken of a human being, even of a saint, not to mention the prince of Tyre? Or what "fiery stones" can he think of, "in the midst" of which any person could have lived? Or who could be regarded as "stainless" from the very day he was created and yet at some later time could have acts of unrighteousness found in him and be said to be "cast forth into the earth"? This certainly indicates that the prophecy is spoken of one who, not being on the earth, was "cast forth into the earth," whose holy places also are said to be polluted. These statements, therefore, from the prophet Ezekiel concerning the prince of Tyre must relate, as we have shown, to an adverse power, and they prove in the clearest manner that this power was originally holy and blessed, and that he fell from this state of blessedness and was cast down into the earth "from the time that iniquity was found in him" and that his fallen condition was not due to his nature or creation. We consider, therefore, that these statements refer to some angel, to whom had been allotted the duty of supervising the Tyrian people, whose souls also were apparently committed to his care. But what Tyre, or what souls of Tyrians we ought to understand—whether it is the city that is situated in the territory of the province of Phoenicia or some other city of which the one we know on earth is a figure, and whether the souls are those of the actual Tyrians or of the inhabitants of that Tyre that we understand spiritually—there seems no need to inquire here. For we should appear to be investigating, in a casual manner matters whose importance and obscurity certainly demand a work and treatment of their own.
Ezekiel 28:13 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:8.3
He had in himself the power of admitting either good or evil. Falling away from good, he turned with his whole mind to evil. There are other created beings who, while possessing the power to choose either, by the exercise of free will flee from evil and cleave to the good.
Ezekiel 33:6 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
And: "From the hand of the watchman I will require your blood." What blood does God demand from the hand of the watchman, if not that of which the sinner is deprived? So the heart of the foolish one is destroyed, according to the saying: "Listen to Me, you who have lost heart!" — because the sinner is deprived of the blood and vital force of the soul.
Ezekiel 34:17 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, PREFACE
We who desire to be flocks of the shepherd must never try to escape from being fed even by the very things that seem to diverge from Scripture and are trampled on because of the discordance of what is said by those who neither want nor can use the nourishment that Scripture gives in all its fullness.
Ezekiel 34:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:146
David also is called the Christ, as when Ezekiel prophesied to the shepherds and added, in the person of God, "I will raise up David my servant, who will shepherd them." For the patriarch David will not be raised up to shepherd the saints, but Christ.
Ezekiel 37:1-14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:233
The mystery of the resurrection is great and difficult for many of us to understand. It is mentioned also in many other passages of the Scriptures and is proclaimed no less through these words in Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 37:1-14 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7:2.9
If there is some excellent glory in the eye, it is particularly in this: that either it is the leader of the body or it is not abandoned by the functions of the other members. I think this is what is taught to us through that vision of the prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 44:2 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 14:2
There is a key of knowledge to open what is closed.
Ezekiel 44:2 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 14:1
The Lord God, maker of the universe, enters and departs through one gate, made from sensible material and always closed.
Ezekiel 44:3 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 14:3
As the priest does not eat his food in the house or in any other place, except in the Holy of Holies, so does my Savior eat the bread, and no one can eat with him.
Ezekiel 44:9 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.6
But also he who holds heretical thoughts in his mind and arranges blasphemous assertions against the knowledge of Christ in his heart, this man is "uncircumcised" in "heart." But he who guards a pure faith in the sincerity of conscience, he is circumcised in heart; of whom it can be said: "blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."
Galatians 1:19 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book X), 17
And depreciating the whole of what appeared to be His nearest kindred, they said, "Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?" [Matthew 13:55-56] They thought, then, that He was the son of Joseph and Mary. But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is entitled, or "The Book of James," that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honour of Mary in virginity to the end, so that that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word which said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," [Luke 1:35] might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Ghost came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the purity which consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity. And James is he whom Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians that he saw, "But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." [Galatians 1:19] And to so great a reputation among the people for righteousness did this James rise, that Flavius Josephus, who wrote the "Antiquities of the Jews" in twenty books, when wishing to exhibit the cause why the people suffered so great misfortunes that even the temple was razed to the ground, said, that these things happened to them in accordance with the wrath of God in consequence of the things which they had dared to do against James the brother of Jesus who is called Christ. And the wonderful thing is, that, though he did not accept Jesus as Christ, he yet gave testimony that the righteousness of James was so great; and he says that the people thought that they had suffered these things because of James. And Jude, who wrote a letter of few lines, it is true, but filled with the healthful words of heavenly grace, said in the preface, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James." [Jude 1]
Galatians 1:19 — Against Celsus, Book I, Chapter 47
Now this writer [Josephus], although not believing in Jesus as the Christ, in seeking after the cause of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, whereas he ought to have said that the conspiracy against Jesus was the cause of these calamities befalling the people, since they put to death Christ, who was a prophet, says nevertheless—being, although against his will, not far from the truth—that these disasters happened to the Jews as a punishment for the death of James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus (called Christ),—the Jews having put him to death, although he was a man most distinguished for his justice. Paul, a genuine disciple of Jesus, says that he regarded this James as a brother of the Lord, not so much on account of their relationship by blood, or of their being brought up together, as because of his virtue and doctrine.
Galatians 2:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.4.29
Since Christ was in Paul, who will doubt that he was also likewise in Peter and John and in every individual among the saints, and not only in those who are on earth but also in those in heaven? For it is absurd to say that Christ was in Peter and Paul but not in the archangel Michael or Gabriel.
Galatians 2:20 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22
For what does it profit you, if Christ once came in the flesh, unless he has also come to your soul? Let us pray that his coming may be made to us daily, and that we may be able to say: "But I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me". For if Christ lives in Paul and does not live in me, what will it profit me? But when he has come also to me and I have had enjoyment of him, just as Paul had enjoyment of him, then I too shall speak like Paul: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me".
Galatians 4:6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
I would like to know how the saints cry out to God without a voice. The Apostle teaches that: "God gave the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father!" And he adds: "the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings." And again: "but he who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because he asks for the saints according to God." Thus, then, when the Holy Spirit intercedes with God, through the silence of the saints a cry is heard.
Galatians 4:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 43
That there are also some souls that conceive offspring, the prophet made clear when he said: "from fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation which you made upon the earth". For just as in those who are pregnant the seed is formed and shaped, so also in the soul that receives the word, the conception of the word is gradually formed and shaped within it. And this I think is what Paul says to the Galatians: "my children, whom I again bring forth in travail until Christ be formed in you", which is as though he were to say: until the word be formed and made manifest in you. In the epistle to Timothy he says likewise that a woman shall be saved "through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". But who is this woman, if not the soul that conceives the word of God and of truth, and gives birth to good works like to Christ? But it is irrational to suppose that what he says was said of a bodily bearing: "the woman, being seduced, fell into transgression; but she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". Therefore the souls that have newly received the word and, being still established as pregnant, have not yet borne fruit in it, having it intelligibly in the womb, cannot endure the discourse that stands "in the holy place" opposing the truth, nor stand firm so as not to be seduced by its persuasions.
Galatians 4:19 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 10
The pregnant woman is said to be the soul which has recently conceived the word of God. Now concerning such a conception we read it written also in another place: "from fear of you, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb, and we have given birth." Those, therefore, who conceive and immediately give birth—these are to be reckoned not as women, but as men, and perfect men. Hear, finally, also the prophet saying: "if the earth has given birth in one day, and a nation has been born at once." This is the generation of the perfect, which is born immediately, on the same day, as soon as it has been conceived. But lest it seem new to you that we have said men give birth, we have already long since set forth how you ought to take the names of the members, that you may withdraw from bodily senses and grasp the understanding of the inner man. But if you wish that I satisfy you still further in this also from the Scriptures, hear the Apostle saying: "my little children, whom I again bring forth in travail, until Christ be formed in you." Perfect, therefore, and strong men are those who immediately, as soon as they conceive, give birth—that is, those who bring the conceived word of faith forth into works. But the soul which conceives and retains in the womb and does not give birth, this one is called a woman, just as the prophet also says: "the pains of childbirth have come upon her, and the power of giving birth is not in her." This soul, then, which now on account of its weakness is called a woman, when two men are quarreling with one another and in the contest bringing forth stumbling-blocks—which the contention of words is always wont to have—is struck and scandalized, so that it casts out and loses the word of faith which it had faintly conceived; and this is the quarrel and contention "unto the subversion of the hearers." If, therefore, the soul which has been scandalized casts out the word not yet formed, he who scandalized it is said to suffer loss. Do you wish to know that in some the word is formed, in some not yet formed? The word of the Apostle plainly teaches us, which we recalled above, when he says: "until Christ be formed in you"; but Christ is the Word of God. By this he shows that at the time when he was writing, the Word of God was not yet formed in them; if, therefore, it comes forth not yet formed, he shall suffer loss.
Galatians 4:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 65
And by "sight" we mean the sight of the Word and of wisdom and of truth and of righteousness and of peace and of everything whatsoever that is the only-begotten of God. And you will understand the sight of the Word and the sight of wisdom when you have understood what the Apostle says: "my children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you". For understanding Christ formed in someone, you will consequently, according to a formation of this kind, see also the sight of Christ.
Galatians 4:26 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
Hear also the Apostle proclaiming concerning these things "according to the wisdom which had been given to him in his ministry": "but the Jerusalem" he says "which is above is free, which is the mother of us all". Just as, therefore, Egypt, that earthly region, is called for the children of Israel a "house of bondage" in comparison with Judaea and Jerusalem, which are made for them a house of liberty, so in comparison with the heavenly Jerusalem, which is, so to speak, the mother of liberty, this whole world and all things that are in this world are a "house of bondage".
Galatians 5:13 — STROMATA 10.1
One who is free and follows the spirit and the truth in the higher sense may look beyond the mere letter of Scripture with its types and precursors. But he should not therefore despise the less mature nor give some cause to lose hope to those who cannot grasp the deeper sense. For even if they are weak and fleshly in comparison with those who are spiritual, they remain the body of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 10.6
By "burdens" he means the needs of the body. So to the extent that anyone is richer in resources, he is called to bear the poor person's burden and relieve poverty by his abundance.
Galatians 6:8 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 7
There is a time when we sow and the enemies cannot corrupt the seeds that we sow, they cannot lie in wait for our husbandry; but there is also a time when we sow and what we sow is corrupted. Let Paul the Apostle teach us about this difference in sowing. Hear, then, what he himself says: "he who sows," he says, "in the flesh, of the flesh shall reap corruption, and he who sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life eternal." These, then, are they whose seeds the Midianites corrupt, who "sow in the flesh." These are they whose "fruits are destroyed" and perish. But those seeds which "are sown in the spirit" the Midianites cannot corrupt. For the adversary powers cannot ascend to the spiritual fields and defile the fresh-broken ground of the spirit belonging to those who "do not sow upon thorns, but break up for themselves fresh ground." But this too must be added; for I wish to admonish both myself along with you concerning wariness over the seeds and diligence over the spiritual fruits. It frequently happens that someone, toiling much in spiritual work, has produced very many fruits and filled his barns with the crops of righteousness and stored up many good works in the inner chamber of his conscience; but afterward, if he grows negligent and after his labor inclines too readily toward pleasures and self-indulgence, all those seeds of good things and the fruits of holy work will be corrupted under the dominion of lust.
Galatians 6:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 32
The second coming is the coming of Christ among perfect men, concerning whom the steward of his word says: "but we speak wisdom among the perfect". And these perfect ones have become lovers of his beauty and beseech the Word, that he gird upon himself his rational sword and set it about the mystery of the fleshly nativity, which is called mystically the thigh. For disciples of this kind praise the beauty and comeliness of the Word, and to this second coming is joined the consummation of the age in the man coming to perfection and saying: "but far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world". For if the world has been crucified to the just, to whom "the world has been crucified", then the consummation of the world has also been made for them. Necessarily, therefore, those who have the confidence of approaching privately to Christ wish to learn the sign of the coming of Christ and of the consummation of the age, so that, being benefited by this—that they have learned the coming of Christ and the consummation—they may show themselves worthy to see his second coming and the consummation of the age.
Galatians 6:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 56
For as it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For those who understand the plain text of the present words, whether they wish to understand it spiritually or simply, it is consistent to say concerning the consummation of this world that "it shall come suddenly," like one who has already fallen sick beforehand with a sickness fit to make manifest his coming corruption. For this is shown especially from what he says, that the coming of the Son of man will be like the days of Noah; for then all things that were upon the earth suddenly perished. But whoever wishes to say that the consummation of the world will happen gradually will say that likewise it happened in the days of Noah. For with the rain descending for forty days and forty nights, it followed that those first perished who dwelt in the lower parts of the earth, and after them those who dwelt somewhat in the higher parts, and thus last of all those who dwelt in the highest mountains. So too (he says) in the consummation of the world, when the fire has descended, it will indeed begin from the more elevated places and gradually descend to the lower. But Luke, subjoining also the similitude of the fire of Sodom, gives us occasion to understand that the consummation is to come suddenly. But someone will say that by this it is declared that that rain, or that fire, did not happen according to the order of nature, but on account of the abundance of the sins of men. In two ways, then, is the coming corruption of the world reckoned: in one way according to a natural descent of fire, in another according to the judgment of God. But the Gentiles do not say that those sins were the burning, or the cause of that burning, but that it was the power of fire. The divine discourses, however, teach that all things are held and governed by God, and they do not blame the violence of fire, but proclaim it the will of God — of God who saves upon the earth those who are worthy of salvation in it, but destroys those in whom, on account of the abundance of iniquity, "charity grows cold." For the comparison with the fire of Sodom teaches most manifestly that the corruption of the world will be sudden. This is clear from what the angel said to Lot: "behold, I have admired your face in this word, that I will not destroy the city of which you have spoken; hasten therefore to be saved there; for I cannot do anything until you go thither." You see that that fire which was sent upon Sodom was held back by the divine will, until Lot entered into Zoar. So I think it will be also in the consummation (according as Lot too was saved), that then that fire of the consummation will lay hold of the world according to the judgment of God, when the saved righteous shall shine "as the sun in the kingdom of their Father": then "they will gather the wicked out of the kingdom of Christ and cast them into the furnace of fire." For how is it not manifest that the corruption of the world will be sudden, from what he says: they will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, which are signs of peace and security? For famines and pestilences will perhaps be some time before the consummation; but around the consummation itself there will be neither famine nor war. And how are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, buying and selling to be understood, unless it is so ordered? But this too makes it manifest, what the Apostle says: "that the day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night. When they shall say: peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pain of childbirth upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape"; for he teaches us that the day of c…
Genesis 1:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.1
"In the beginning God made heaven and earth." What is the beginning of all things except our Lord and "the Savior of all," Jesus Christ, "the firstborn of all creation"? In this beginning, then, that is, in his Word, "God made heaven and earth," just as the Evangelist John also says at the beginning of his Gospel, declaring: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made." Here, then, he does not speak of some temporal beginning, but he says that "in the beginning," that is, in the Savior, heaven and earth and all things that were made were made.
Genesis 1:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.1
"But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss, and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters." "The earth was invisible and unformed" before God said, "Let there be light," and before "he divided between the light and the darkness," according to what the order of the account declares. But since in what follows he commands the firmament to be made and calls this heaven, when we come to that very passage, there the reasoning for the difference between heaven and firmament will be stated, why the firmament too was called heaven. But now he says: "Darkness was over the abyss." What is "the abyss"? That one, surely, in which "the devil and his angels" will be. Indeed, this is most clearly indicated in the Gospel as well, when it is said of the Savior: "And the demons, which he was casting out, begged him not to command them to go into the abyss."
Genesis 1:2 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
Those things, therefore, that are written—"in the beginning God made heaven and earth. But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss; and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters"—these are apprehended; those "waters", over which the "Spirit of God" brooded, belonged to the world. But also the "darkness", which "was over the abyss", is not unbegotten; for both were created out of nothing. Hear God saying in Isaiah: "I am God, who framed light and made darkness". Hear wisdom proclaiming in Proverbs: "before all the abysses I was born". These were not unbegotten; but when or how they were born, I do not know.
Genesis 1:3-5 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.1
Therefore God dissolved the darkness, as Scripture says: "And God said: Let there be light, and light was made. And God saw the light, that it is good; and God divided between the midst of the light and the midst of the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." According to the letter, God calls both the light day and the darkness night. But according to the spiritual understanding let us see what it is that, although God in that beginning of which we spoke above "made heaven and earth," also said that "light should be made," and "divided between the midst of the light and the darkness, and called the light day, and the darkness night," and said that "there was evening, and there was morning," he did not say: the first day, but he said: "one day." Because time did not yet exist, before the world existed. But time begins to exist from the days that follow. For the second day and the third and the fourth and all the rest begin to designate time.
Genesis 1:6-8 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.2
"And God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be dividing between the midst of water and water. And it was made so. And God made the firmament." Since God had already before made heaven, now he makes the firmament. For he made heaven first, of which he says: "Heaven is my seat." But after that he makes the firmament, that is, the corporeal heaven. For every body is without doubt firm and solid; and this is what "divides between the water which is above heaven and the water which is below heaven." For since all the things that God was going to make consisted of spirit and body, for this reason "in the beginning" and before all things heaven is said to have been made, that is, every spiritual substance, upon which, as upon a kind of throne and seat, God rests. But that heaven, that is, the firmament, is corporeal. And therefore that first heaven, which we called spiritual, is our mind, which is itself also spirit, that is, our spiritual man who sees and beholds God. But that corporeal heaven, which is called the firmament, is our exterior man, who beholds bodily. Just as, then, the firmament was called heaven from the fact that it divides between those waters which are above it and those which are below it, so also the man who is placed in the body, if he is able to divide and discern which are the waters that are higher "above the firmament" and which are those that are "below the firmament," will himself also be called heaven, that is, a heavenly man, according to the sentence of the Apostle Paul who says: "But our citizenship is in heaven." Thus, then, the very words of Scripture continue: "And God made the firmament, and divided between the midst of the water which is below the firmament, and the midst of the water which is above the firmament. And God called the firmament heaven. And God saw that it is good; and there was evening, and there was morning, the second day." Let each one of you, then, strive to become a divider of that water which is above and which is below, so that, namely, receiving the understanding and participation of the spiritual water which "is above the firmament," he may bring forth "from his belly rivers" of "living water" "leaping up into eternal life," being without doubt set apart and separated from that water which is below, that is, the water of the abyss, in which darkness is said to be, in which "the prince of this world" and the adversary "the dragon and his angels" dwell, as was indicated above. By participation, then, in that upper water, which is said to be above the heavens, each of the faithful is made heavenly, that is, when he holds his mind on lofty and exalted things, thinking nothing of earth but everything of heavenly things, seeking "the things that are above," where Christ is at the right hand of the Father. For then he too will be held worthy by God of that praise which is here written, when it says: "And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:9 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.2
Indeed, the things too which are described in what follows about the third day agree with this same understanding. For it says: "And God said: Let the water which is below heaven be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear. And it was so." Let us, then, labor to gather "the water which is below heaven," and to cast it away from us, so that, when this has been done, "the dry land" may appear, which are our works done in the flesh, "so that, namely, men seeing our good works may glorify our Father who is in heaven." For if we do not separate from ourselves those waters which are below heaven, that is, the sins and vices of our body, our dry land will not be able to appear nor to have confidence to come forth into the light. "For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his works may be made manifest, and it may be seen whether they are done in God." This confidence surely will not otherwise be given, unless we cast away as it were the waters from ourselves and set apart the vices of the body, which are the matter of sins. When this is done, our dry land will no longer remain "dry," as is shown from what follows.
Genesis 1:10 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.2
"And the water which is below heaven was gathered into its gatherings, and the dry land appeared. And God called the dry land earth, and the gatherings of the waters he called seas." Just as, then, this dry land, when the water was separated from it, as we said above, no longer remained "dry," but is now named "earth," in this way also our bodies, if this separation from those waters be made, will no longer remain "dry," but will be called "earth" from the fact that they will now be able to bear fruit to God. For "in the beginning God made heaven and earth," but afterward he made "the firmament" and "the dry land"; and "the firmament" indeed he "called heaven," granting to it the name of that heaven which he had created before, but "the dry land" he called "earth" for the reason that he bestowed on it the capacity of bearing fruits. If, then, anyone by his own fault still remains dry and bears no fruit, but "thorns and thistles," carrying as it were fuel for fire, according to the things which he has brought forth from himself, he too is made "fuel for fire." But if by his own zeal and diligence, the waters of the abyss having been separated from himself, which are the senses of demons, he has shown himself to be fruitful earth, he ought to hope for like things, that he too may be led by God into "the land flowing with milk and honey."
Genesis 1:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.3
But let us see from what follows what are the fruits which God commands that earth to produce to which he himself granted this name. "And God saw," it says, "that it is good, and God said: Let the earth bring forth the grass of hay sowing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit-bearing tree making fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its likeness upon the earth. And it was made so." According to the letter, the fruits are evident which the "earth" that is not "dry" produces. But again let us refer this also to ourselves. If we have now become "earth," if we are no longer "dry," let us bear abundant and varied fruits to God, so that we too may be blessed by the Father who says: "Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed," and so that what the Apostle says may be fulfilled in us: "For the earth which receives the rain that frequently comes upon it, and brings forth grass suitable for those by whom it is cultivated, will receive blessings from God. But that which brings forth thorns and thistles is rejected and near to a curse, whose end is in burning."
Genesis 1:12-13 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.4
"And the earth brought forth the grass of hay sowing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit-bearing tree making fruit, whose seed is in itself making fruit according to its kind upon the earth. And God saw that it is good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day." He commands the earth not only to bring forth "the grass of hay," but also to bring forth "seed," so that it may always be able to bear fruit. And he commands not only "the fruit-bearing tree," but also that which "makes fruit whose seed is in itself, according to its kind," that is, so that it may always be able to bear fruit from these seeds which it has in itself. And we too, then, ought thus both to bear fruit as fruit and to have seeds in our very selves, that is, to contain in our heart the seeds of all good works and of all virtues, so that, having these fixed in our minds, we may from them now carry out according to justice all the acts which come upon us. For these are the fruits of that seed, our acts, which are brought forth "from the good treasure of our heart." But if we indeed hear "the word" and from the hearing "immediately" our earth produces grass, and this grass, before it comes to maturity or to fruit, "withers," our earth will be called "rocky." But if the things that are said rest on deeper roots in our heart, so that they both "bear fruit" of works and have in themselves the seeds of future ones, then truly the earth of each one of us bears fruit according to its power, one "a hundredfold," another "sixtyfold," another "thirtyfold." But we have thought it necessary to give this warning also, that our fruit nowhere have "tares," that is, nowhere have "darnel," so that it may not be "along the way," but may be sown in the very way, in that which says: "I am the way," so that "the birds of heaven" may not eat our fruits nor our vineyard. Yet if any of us has deserved to be a vineyard, let him see that he does not bear "thorns" instead of grapes; and on account of this it will then "neither be pruned, nor dug, nor committed to the clouds that they should rain rain upon it," but on the contrary it will be left "deserted," so that "thorns" may grow up upon it.
Genesis 1:14-15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.5
But after these things the firmament now deserves to be adorned also with luminaries. For God says: "Let there be luminaries in the firmament of heaven, that they may give light upon the earth, and divide between day and night." Just as in that firmament, which had now been called heaven, God commands luminaries to be made, that "they may divide between the midst of day and night," so also it can be done in us, if only we too strive both to be called and to be made heaven; we shall have luminaries in us which enlighten us, Christ and his Church. For he himself is "the light of the world," who also enlightens the Church with his light. For just as the moon is said to receive light from the sun, so that through it even the night can be enlightened, so also the Church, having received the light of Christ, enlightens all who dwell in the night of ignorance. But if anyone advances in this so that he now becomes "a son of God," "so as to walk honorably as in the day," as "a son of the day and a son of light": this one is enlightened by Christ himself, as the day by the sun.
Genesis 1:14-15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.6
"And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years; and let them be for giving light in the firmament of heaven, that they may give light upon the earth. And it was made so." Just as these luminaries of heaven which we see are set "for signs and for seasons and days and years," that they may give light from the firmament of heaven to those who are upon the earth, in this way also Christ, enlightening his Church, gives signs through his precepts, so that one may know how, having received the sign, he may flee "from the wrath to come," so that "that day may not seize him like a thief," but that he may rather be able to attain to "the acceptable year of the Lord." Christ, then, is "the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world," from whose light the Church, being enlightened, is itself also made "the light of the world," enlightening those "who are in darkness," as Christ himself also testifies to his disciples, saying: "You are the light of the world." From which it is shown that Christ indeed is the light of the Apostles, but the Apostles are "the light of the world." For they themselves are "having no stain or wrinkle or anything of the kind," the true Church, as the Apostle also says: "That he might present to himself a glorious Church having no stain or wrinkle or anything of the kind."
Genesis 1:16-19 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.7
"And God made two great luminaries, the greater luminary for the rule of the day, and the lesser luminary for the rule of the night, and the stars. And God set them in the firmament of heaven, that they may give light upon the earth, and have power over the day and the night, and divide between the midst of the light and the midst of the darkness. And God saw that it is good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day." Just as the sun and moon are said to be the great luminaries in the firmament of heaven, so also in us are Christ and the Church. But since God also set stars in the firmament, let us see which are the stars also in us, that is, in the heaven of our heart. Moses is a star in us, which shines and enlightens us by his acts. And Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and David and Daniel and all to whom Holy Scripture has given testimony that they pleased God. For just as "star differs from star in glory," so also each one of the saints, according to his greatness, pours his light into us. And just as the sun and moon enlighten our bodies, so also our minds are enlightened by Christ and the Church. Yet we are enlightened thus, if we are not blind in our minds. For just as the sun and moon, although they shine upon those who are blind in bodily eyes, yet those cannot receive the light, so also Christ furnishes his light to our minds; but he will then enlighten us only if in no way blindness of mind hinders. And even if this should happen, first it behooves those who are blind to follow Christ, saying and crying out: "Have mercy on us, son of David," so that, receiving also their sight from him, they may thereafter be able to be irradiated by the splendor of his light too. But not all who see are equally enlightened by Christ, but each is enlightened according to that measure by which he is able to receive the force of the light. And just as the eyes of our body are not equally enlightened by the sun, but the higher one ascends into lofty places and beholds its rising by the gazing of a more elevated watchtower, so much the more will he receive both of its splendor and its heat; so also our mind, the more loftily and highly it approaches Christ and presents itself nearer to the splendor of his light, so much the more magnificently and clearly will it be irradiated by his light, as he himself also says through the prophet: "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you, says the Lord." And again he says: "I am a God drawing near, and not a God from afar." Yet we do not all come to him in the same way, but each one "according to his own power." For either we come to him with the crowds, and he refreshes us through parables only to this end, that we may not faint from much fasting "on the way"; or else we sit always and unceasingly at his feet, being free for this alone, that we may hear "his word," in no way troubled "about much serving," but choosing "the best part, which shall not be taken away" from us. And surely those who thus approach him obtain much more from his light. But if, like the Apostles, we are never at all moved away from him, but always remain with him in all his tribulations, then he expounds to us in secret the things which he had spoken to the crowds and "dissolves" them, and enlightens us much more clearly. But if anyone is even such that he can also ascend into the mountain with him, like Peter and James and John, this one will be enlightened not only by the light of Christ, but also by the voice of the Father himself.
Genesis 1:20 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.8
"And God said: Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls and flying things flying over the earth according to the firmament of heaven. And it was made so." According to the letter, by the command of God there are brought forth from the waters "creeping things" and "flying things," and we know by whom these things which we see were made. But let us see how, according to our own firmament of heaven, that is, the solidity of our mind or heart, these same things come to be. I think that, if our mind has been enlightened by our sun, Christ, it is afterward commanded to bring forth from the waters which are in it "creeping things" and "flying things flying," that is, to bring forth into the open good or evil thoughts, so that a distinction may be made of the good from the evil, both of which surely proceed from the heart. For from our heart, as from waters, there are brought forth both good thoughts and evil ones. But let us by the word and precept of God bring forth both into the sight and judgment of God, so that with his enlightenment we may be able to discern from the good what is evil, that is, so that we may separate from ourselves the things that creep upon the earth and carry earthly cares; but the things that are better, that is, "the flying things," let us allow to fly not only "over the earth," but also "according to the firmament of heaven"; that is, so that we may treat within ourselves the meaning and reason both of earthly and of heavenly things, and may also be able to understand which in us are harmful among the creeping things. If we look "upon a woman to lust after her," that is in us a venomous reptile; but if there is in us the sense of sobriety, even if the Egyptian mistress falls in love with us, we are made birds and, leaving the Egyptian garments in her hands, we shall fly away from the obscene snares. If there is in us a sense provoking us to steal, that is a most wicked reptile; but if there is in us a sense that, even if we have "two mites," we may offer these very things out of mercy "into the gifts of God," this sense is a bird, thinking nothing of earthly things, but tending by its flights to the firmament of heaven. If there comes to us a sense persuading us that we ought not to endure the torments of martyrdom, that will be a venomous reptile; but if there ascends in us such a sense and thought that we should strive even unto death for the truth, this will be a bird striving from earthly things to the things above. Similarly also concerning the other kinds either of sins or of virtues one must judge and discern which are "creeping things" and which are "flying things," which our waters are commanded to bring forth for discernment in the sight of God.
Genesis 1:21 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.9
"And God made the great whales, and every soul of the creeping animals which the waters brought forth according to their kind, and every winged flying thing according to its kind." And concerning these too, as concerning those which we spoke of above, one must judge that we ought to bring forth also "the great whales" and "the soul of the creeping things according to their kind." By these great whales I think there are indicated impious thoughts and any wicked senses against God. All of which nevertheless must be brought forth before the sight of God and placed before him, so that we may divide and separate the good from the evil, so that to each its own place may be assigned by the Lord, as is shown from the things that follow.
Genesis 1:22-23 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.10
"And God saw that they are good, and blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters which are in the sea, and let the flying things be multiplied over the earth. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day." In the sea indeed he commands "the great whales" and "every soul of the creeping animals which the waters brought forth" to dwell, where "that dragon too, whom God formed to mock them," inhabits. But the birds he commands to be multiplied over the earth, which once was "dry," but now is already called "earth," as we explained above. But someone asks how the great whales and the creeping things are taken in an evil sense and the flying things in a good sense, when it was said of all together: "And God saw that they are good"? To the saints themselves those things are good which are opposed to them, because they can conquer them, and, when they have conquered them, they are made of greater glory before God. Indeed, when the devil had asked that power be given him against Job, the adversary, assailing him, became for him the cause of a double glory after victory. This is shown from the fact that the things which he had lost in the present he received in double, being about to receive them in like manner also, without doubt, in the heavenly things. And the Apostle says that "no one is crowned unless he has striven lawfully." And indeed how will there be a contest, if there is no one who resists? How great is the beauty and splendor of light would not be discerned, unless the obscurity of night came between. Whence are some praised for chastity, unless because others are condemned for unchastity? Whence are brave men magnified, unless there existed the unwarlike and the timid? If you apply something bitter, then the sweet becomes more praiseworthy. If you consider the black, the things that are bright will seem more pleasing to you. And to say it briefly, from the consideration of evils the beauty of good things is shown more brightly. Therefore, then, concerning all these things Scripture says: "And God saw that they are good." Yet why is it not written: And God said that they are good, but: "God saw that they are good"? That is, he saw their usefulness and that reason by which, although they were in themselves such, they could nevertheless make good men best. Therefore, then, he said: "Increase and multiply, and fill the waters which are in the sea, and let the flying things be multiplied over the earth," that is, so that the great whales indeed and the creeping things should be in the sea, as we explained above, and the flying things over the earth.
Genesis 1:24-25 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.11
"And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, four-footed things and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kind. And it was made so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kind, and all the creeping things of the earth according to their kind. And God saw that they are good." According to the letter indeed there is no question. For it is plainly said that either the animals or the four-footed things or the beasts or the serpents upon the earth were created by God. But to fit these to the things which we explained above, according to the spiritual understanding, is not an idle matter. There indeed it was said: "Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls and flying things flying over the earth according to the firmament of heaven," but here it says: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, four-footed things and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kind." And those things indeed which were brought forth from the waters, we said, ought to be understood as the movements and thoughts of our mind, which are brought forth from the depth of the heart. But now this which is said: "Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, of the four-footed things and creeping things and beasts upon the earth according to their kind," I think indicates the movements of our exterior man, that is, of the carnal and earthly man. Indeed he indicated nothing flying among those things which he speaks of concerning the flesh, but only "four-footed things" and "creeping things" and "beasts of the earth." According indeed to that which was said by the Apostle, that "there dwells no good in my flesh" and that "the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God," these surely are the things which the earth, that is, our flesh, brings forth, concerning which the Apostle again instructs, saying: "Mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, unchastity, avarice, idolatry," and the rest. When, therefore, all these things which are seen came to be by the command of God through his Word, and this immense visible world was being prepared, and at the same time it was being shown through the figure of allegory what the things were that could adorn the lesser world, that is, man, then man himself is now created according to the things which are declared in what follows.
Genesis 1:26 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
When man was created, this was originally man created after the image. In him there was nothing material. He who is after the image is not from matter. And God said: "Let us make man after Our image and after Our likeness, and let them have dominion..." and so forth. … That which is created after the image of God is understood as immaterial and surpassing every corporeal substance not only by Moses, but also by the Apostle, as is clear from the following words: "...having put on the new man, who is renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him who created him."
Genesis 1:26 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.1
In recording the first creation of man, Moses before all others says, "And God said, Let us make man in our own image and likeness." Then he adds afterwards, "And God made man; in the image of God made he him; male and female made he them, and he blessed them." Now the fact that he said "he made him in the image of God" and was silent about the likeness points to nothing else but this, that man received the honor of God's image in his first creation, whereas the perfection of God's likeness was reserved for him at the consummation. The purpose of this was that man should acquire it for himself by his own earnest efforts to imitate God, so that while the possibility of attaining perfection was given to him in the beginning through the honor of the "image," he should in the end through the accomplishment of these works obtain for himself the perfect "likeness."
Genesis 1:26 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.12
"And God said: Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let him hold rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the animals and all the earth and all the things that creep upon the earth." Consequently, according to the things which we explained above, he wills such a man as we have described to hold rule over the aforesaid beasts and birds and creeping things and four-footed things and all the rest. How these ought to be understood through allegory we have explained, when we said that the water, that is, his mind, is commanded to bring forth the spiritual sense and the earth to bring forth the sense of the flesh, so that the mind may rule over them and they may not rule over it. For God wills that this great "handiwork" of God, man, for whose sake also the whole world was created, be not only unstained by those things which we spoke of above, and immune from them, but also that he rule over them. But now let us consider from the very words of Scripture what kind of animal man is. All the other creatures come to be by the command of God, as Scripture says: "And God said: Let there be a firmament," "And God said: Let the water which is below heaven be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear," "And God said: Let the earth bring forth the grass of hay." So also in the rest he speaks. But let us see which are the things that God himself made, and through these let us observe how great the greatness of man is. "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." Similarly he says: "And he made two great luminaries," and now again: "Let us make man." In these alone the handiwork of God himself is ascribed, but in no others; but only heaven and earth, sun and moon and stars, and now man were made by God, but all the rest are said to have been made by his command. From this, then, consider how great is the greatness of man, who is made equal to such great and such preeminent elements, who has the honor of heaven, on account of which "the kingdom of heaven" too is promised to him. He has also the honor of earth, since indeed he hopes to enter into the good land and "the land of the living flowing with milk and honey." He has the honor of the sun and moon, having the promise that he will shine "like the sun in the kingdom of God."
Genesis 1:26 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
There are two images in man: one, which he received from God when he was made in the beginning, as it is written in Genesis: "according to the image and likeness of God"; the other of the earthy, which afterward, when he had been cast out of paradise because of disobedience and sin, he took on, persuaded by the enticements of "the prince of this world". For just as a coin or denarius bears the image of the emperors of the world, so he who does the works of "the ruler of these darknesses" bears the image of him whose works he has: which image Jesus here commanded to be rendered back and cast off from our face, and that image to be taken up according to which from the beginning we were fashioned to the likeness of God.
Genesis 1:27 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.13
This indeed I see as even more eminent in the condition of man, which I do not find said elsewhere: "And God made man, according to the image of God he made him." Which we find ascribed neither to heaven nor to earth nor to the sun or moon. This man, surely, whom he says was made "according to the image of God," we do not understand to be corporeal. For the fashioning of the body does not contain the image of God, nor is the corporeal man said to have been made, but formed, as is written in what follows. For it says: "And God formed man," that is, molded him "from the mud of the earth." But he who was made "according to the image of God" is our interior man, invisible and incorporeal and incorrupt and immortal. For in such things as these the image of God is more rightly understood. But if anyone thinks that he who was made "according to the image and likeness of God" is corporeal, he seems to introduce God himself as corporeal and of human form; which to think concerning God is most manifestly impious. Indeed these carnal men, who are ignorant of the understanding of divinity, if anywhere in the Scriptures they read concerning God that "heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet," suspect that God is of so huge a body that they think he, sitting in heaven, stretches out his feet all the way to the earth. But they think this because they do not have those ears which can worthily hear the words of God concerning God which are reported through Scripture. For that which says: "Heaven is my seat," is thus worthily understood concerning God, so that we may know that in those whose "citizenship is in heaven" God rests and resides. But in those who still bear an earthly purpose, the last part of his providence is found, which is figuratively indicated in the appellation of feet. If any of these perhaps take up zeal and desire to be made heavenly by the perfection of life and the height of understanding, they too are made seats of God, having first become heavenly through their warfare and manner of life; who also say: "He raised us up with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." But those too whose "treasure is in heaven" can be called heavenly and seats of God, since "there is their heart, where their treasure is." And God not only rests upon them, but also dwells in them. But if anyone can become so great that he can say: "Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?", in this one God not only dwells, but also walks about. And therefore all the perfect, having become heavenly or made heavens, "declare the glory of God," as it says in the Psalm. Indeed for this reason the Apostles too, who were heavens, are sent to declare the glory of God, and receive the name "Boanerges," "which is sons of thunder," so that through the power of thunder we may believe that they are truly heavens. "God made," then, "man, according to the image of God he made him." It behooves us to see what this image of God is, and to inquire to the likeness of whose image man was made. For he did not say: God made man according to his own image or likeness: but: "according to the image of God he made him." What, then, is that other image of God, to the likeness of whose image man was made, except our Savior? who is "the firstborn of all creation"; concerning whom it is written that he is "the splendor of eternal light, and the express figure of the substance of God"; who also himself says concerning himself: "I in the Father, and the Father in me," and "He who has seen me has seen the Father also." For just as he who has seen someone's image sees him whose image it is, so also through "the Word of God," which is the image of God, one sees God. And thus it will be true, which he said: "He who has seen me has seen the Father also." To the likeness of this image, then, man was made, and therefore our Savior, who is the image of God, moved with mercy for man, who had been made to his likeness, seeing him, his own image ha…
Genesis 1:27 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.15
But let us also see through allegory how man, made according to the image of God, is male and female. Our interior man consists of spirit and soul. The spirit is called male, the soul can be named female. If these have concord and agreement between themselves, being in harmony with each other, they increase and multiply and beget sons, good senses and useful understandings or thoughts, through which they fill the earth and have dominion over it; that is, they convert the sense of the flesh, subjected to them, to better instituted ways and rule over it, namely when the flesh in no way grows insolent against the will of the spirit. But now if the soul, joined to the spirit and coupled, so to speak, in its marriage, sometimes turns aside to bodily pleasures and inclines its sense to the delight of the flesh, and sometimes indeed seems to obey the salutary admonitions of the spirit, but sometimes yields to carnal vices, such a soul, as though stained by the adultery of the body, is said neither to increase nor to multiply lawfully, since indeed Scripture designates the sons of adulterers as imperfect. For such a soul, which, having deserted the conjunction of the spirit, prostrates itself wholly to the sense of the flesh and to bodily desires, as though turned away from God will impudently hear that "you have made yourself the face of a harlot, you have become without shame toward all." Therefore as a harlot she will be punished, and her sons are commanded to be prepared for slaughter.
Genesis 1:27 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.14
"Male and female he made them, and God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it." It seems worthy in this place to inquire according to the letter how, the woman not yet having been made, Scripture says: "Male and female he made them." Perhaps, as I think, on account of the blessing with which he blessed them, saying: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth," anticipating what was going to be, he says: "Male and female he made them," since indeed man could not otherwise increase and multiply except with the woman. Therefore, so that his blessing might without doubt be believed to be about to be, he says: "Male and female he made them." For in this way man, seeing that the consequence of increasing and multiplying was from the fact that a woman was joined to him, could bear a more certain hope in the divine blessing. For if Scripture had said: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it," without adding this, that "male and female he made them," surely he would have proved incredulous of the divine blessing, just as Mary too, at that blessing with which she was blessed by the angel, said: "How shall I know this? since I do not know a man." Or perhaps because all things that were made by God are said to be joined and fitted together, as heaven and earth, as sun and moon: so, then, that it might be shown that man too is the work of God and was not brought forth without harmony or fitting conjunction, therefore anticipating he says: "Male and female he made them." These things indeed have been said to that question which can be raised according to the letter.
Genesis 1:28 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 11
That which God commands: "increase and multiply" — those who take it simply and according to the letter, I do not know how they can explain it. For granted that "multiply" refers to number, so that, while they become more than they were before, the multiplication has its place: yet what follows, "increase", is not in our power. For what person would not wish "to add to his stature", so as to become taller? If therefore something is commanded for this purpose, that it may come to pass — since it is foolish to command what he to whom you give the command cannot do — and it is commanded us that we should increase, then surely that is commanded which we are able to do. Do you wish to know how "increase" is to be understood? Hear what Isaac did, of whom it is said: "Isaac went forward and became greater, until he became great, or exceedingly great indeed". For his will, ever stretching itself toward better things, had its advances, his mind contemplated something more divine, and he exercised himself in memory, so as to store up more things in his treasury and retain them more firmly. And in this manner it comes about that whoever has cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul fulfills the commandment enjoining: "increase".
Genesis 1:28 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.16
"And have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the beasts of burden and all the things that are upon the earth, and the creeping things which creep upon the earth." These things have already been interpreted according to the letter, when we spoke of what God said: "Let us make man," and the rest, where he says: "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven," and so on. Yet according to allegory, in the fish and the flying things or the animals and the creeping things of the earth there seem to me to be indicated those things concerning which we spoke nonetheless above, that is, either those which proceed from the sense of the soul and the thought of the heart, or those which are brought forth from bodily desires and the movements of the flesh; of which all the saints, keeping also the blessing of God in themselves, exercise dominion, driving the whole man according to the will of the spirit; but over sinners those things rather have dominion which are brought forth from the vices of the flesh and the pleasures of the body.
Genesis 1:29-30 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.17
"And God said: Behold, I have given you all the seed-bearing hay which sows seed, which is over all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed-bearing seed, it shall be to you for food, and to all the beasts of the earth and to all the birds of heaven, and to all the creeping things which creep upon the earth, which have in themselves the soul of life." The history of this passage plainly indicates that the use of foods was first permitted by God from herbs, that is, vegetables and the fruits of trees. But afterward, when the testament was made to Noah after the flood, the faculty of eating flesh is given to men. For which reasons indeed it will be more rightly explained in their proper places. Yet according to allegory the herb of the earth and its fruit, which is granted to men for food, can be understood of the bodily affections; for example, anger and concupiscence are a shoot of the body. The fruit of this shoot, that is, the work, is common to us rational beings and to the beasts of the earth. For when we are angry toward justice, that is, toward the correction of the offender and the amendment of his salvation, we feed on this fruit of the earth, and our food becomes bodily anger, through which we repress sin, we restore justice. And lest we seem to you to bring these things forth rather from our own understanding than from the authority of divine Scripture, return to the book of Numbers and recall what Phinehas the priest did, who, when he had seen a harlot of the Midianite nation clinging in impure embraces with an Israelite man before the eyes of all, filled with the anger of divine zeal, seized a sword and drove it through the breast of both. Which work was reckoned to him by God unto justice, the Lord saying: "Phinehas has assuaged my fury, and it shall be reckoned to him unto justice." This earthly food of anger, then, becomes our food, when we use it rationally unto justice. But if anger is exercised irrationally, so as to punish the innocent, so as to boil over against those who commit no offense, this will be the food of the beasts of the field and of the serpents of the earth and of the birds of heaven. For with these foods the demons too are nourished, who are both fed by our evil acts and favor them. For the token of this work is Cain, who deceived his innocent brother through the anger of envy. Similarly also concerning concupiscence and concerning each of the affections of this kind one must judge. For when "our soul concupisces and faints for the living God," concupiscence is our food. But when we either look upon another's wife to lust after her or covet some of the things of our "neighbor," concupiscence is made a bestial food; as concupiscence can be exemplified by Ahab and the deed of Jezebel concerning the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. Surely the caution of Holy Scripture must be observed also in the reasoning of its words, which, when it had said concerning men that God said: "Behold, I have given you all the seed-bearing seed which is upon the earth, and every tree which is upon the earth, it shall be to you for food," concerning the beasts did not say: that I have given them all these things for food, but: "it shall be to them for food," so that, according to the spiritual reasoning which we have explained, these affections may be understood to have been given by God to man indeed, yet foretold by God that they will also be for food to the beasts of the earth. Therefore, then, divine Scripture used most cautious language, which to men indeed says that God says: "I have given you these things for food," but where it comes to the beasts, it speaks not with the signification of one commanding, but as of one foretelling, that these things will also be for food to the beasts and the birds and the serpents. But let us, according to the sentence of the Apostle Paul, attend to the reading, so that we may be able, as he himself says, to receive "the mind of Christ" and to know "th…
Genesis 2:7 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Some see only a repetition of the narrative when, in the history of the creation of the world, after the creation of man, they read: "God took dust from the earth and created man." According to such an interpretation one must conclude that the following, "after the image," refers to the flesh, and that a human likeness is attributed to God, or that the image of God is like the human outward appearance. But we will not be so mad as to speak of God either as composed in His fullness of a subordinate and a governing element … or that the creation after the image was effected preferentially in the subordinate element, but not in the governing one. … When man was created, this was originally man created after the image. In him there was nothing material. He who is after the image is not from matter. … And when God created man, He took not the dust of the earth, as the second time, but created him after the image of God. That which is created after the image of God is understood as immaterial and surpassing every corporeal substance.
Genesis 2:15 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 13.240-41
How would God have placed what was altogether imperfect in paradise to work and guard it? For he who is capable of tending "the tree of life" and everything that God planted and caused to spring up afterwards would not reasonably be called imperfect. Perhaps, then, although he was perfect, he became imperfect in some way because of his transgression and was in need of one to perfect him from his imperfection. And the Savior was sent for these reasons.
Genesis 2:23 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 1
In short, right at the beginnings, what does Adam himself say? "This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh", and yet he does not add: and soul of my soul. But I would have you tell me, O Adam: if you recognized "bone of" your "bones" and perceived "flesh of" your "flesh", why did you not understand that a soul too had proceeded from your soul? For if you handed over all the things that were in you, why do you not make mention of the soul as well along with the rest, which is the better part of the whole man? But it seems that by these words he gives to those who understand an indication that, when he says "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh", he professes those things which are of the earth to be his own, but does not dare to call his own the things which he knows are not of the earth. But Laban likewise, when he says to Jacob that "you are my bone and my flesh", he too does not seem to dare to call anything more his own than what he recognizes as of earthly kinship. For there is another kinship of souls, which is either associated with Jacob as he goes down into Egypt, or is ascribed to the rest of the patriarchs and saints under the enumeration of a mystical posterity.
Genesis 2:24 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Indeed, in the Scriptures two are often spoken of as one. What passages of Scripture are these? Adam is one man, his wife is another. Adam is distinct from the woman, and the wife is distinct from the man. Yet in the account of the creation of the world it is straightway said that the two were one: "and the two shall be one flesh." Consequently it is possible sometimes for two fleshes to be one. Note, however, that in the case of Adam and Eve it is not said that these two are to become one spirit, nor that they are to become one soul, but: the two shall be one flesh. And again, the Apostle says that the righteous man is one with Christ, but he is distinct from Christ: "And he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him." … In turn, our Savior and Lord, in relation to the Father and God of all, is neither one flesh nor one spirit, but something higher than one flesh, than one spirit — one God. When people are united with one another, the fitting word is flesh. When the righteous man cleaves to Christ, the fitting word is spirit. But when Christ is one with the Father, the fitting word is neither flesh nor spirit, but the more worthy one — God. From this we also understand the saying: "I and the Father are one."
Genesis 3:6-7 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 16
We all have in ourselves both sight and blindness. Adam both saw and did not see. Eve too, before her eyes were opened, is described as having seen: "the woman saw", it says, "the tree, that it was good for eating and most delightful to the eyes for seeing: and taking of the fruit of the tree she ate, and gave to her husband, and they ate". Therefore they were not blind, but saw. Then it follows: "and their eyes were opened". Therefore they had been blind and did not see, whose eyes were afterward opened; but those who had seen well before, after they transgressed the commandment of the Lord, began to see badly, and afterward, as the offense crept in, they lost the sight of obedience.
Genesis 3:7 — AGAINST CELSUS 7.39
The eyes of sense were then opened, which they had done well to keep shut, that they might not be distracted and hindered from seeing with the eyes of the mind. It was those eyes of the mind which in consequence of sin, as I imagine, were then closed. To that time they had enjoyed the delight of beholding God and his paradise. This twofold kind of vision in us was familiar to our Savior, who said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who see not might see and that those who see might be made blind"—meaning by "the eyes that see not" the eyes of the mind, which are enlightened by his teaching; and "the eyes that see," meaning the eyes of sense, which his words render blind.
Genesis 3:19 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.5
Our flesh indeed is considered by the uneducated and by unbelievers to perish so completely after death that nothing whatever of its substance is left. We, however, who believe in its resurrection, know that death only causes a change in it and that its substance certainly persists and is restored to life again at a definite time by the will of its Creator and once more undergoes a transformation. What was at first flesh, "from the earth, a man of dust," and was then dissolved through death and again made dust and ashes—for "dust you are," it is written, "and unto dust shall you return"—is raised again from the earth. Afterwards, as the merits of the indwelling soul shall demand, the person advances to the glory of a spiritual body.
Genesis 3:19 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.2.3
Scripture says, "A consecrated linen tunic will be put on." Think of flax thread that comes from the earth. Imagine that the flax thread becomes a sanctified linen tunic that Christ, the true high priest, puts on when he takes up the nature of an earthly body. Remember that it is said about the body that "it is earth and it will go into the earth." Therefore, my Lord and Savior, wanting to resurrect that which had gone into the earth, took an earthly body that he might carry it raised up from earth to heaven. And the assertion in the law that the high priest is clothed "with a linen tunic" contains this mystery. But that it added "consecrated" must not be heard as superfluous. For the "tunic" that was the flesh of Christ was "consecrated," for it was not conceived from the seed of man but begotten of the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 3:21 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6.2.7
It is said that God made those miserable garments with which the first man was clothed after he had sinned. "For God made skin tunics and clothed Adam and his wife." Therefore, those were tunics of skin taken from animals. For with such as these, it was necessary for the sinner to be dressed. It says, "with skin tunics," which are a symbol of the mortality that he received because of his skin and of his frailty that came from the corruption of the flesh. But if you have been already washed from these and purified through the law of God, then Moses will dress you with a garment of incorruptibility so that "your shame may never appear"and "that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life."
Genesis 3:24 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 36
Throughout martyrdom Jesus is with you to show you the way to the paradise of God and how you may pass through the cherubim and the flaming sword that turns every way and guards the way to the tree of life. For both, even if they guard the way to pass through to the tree of life, guard it so that no one unworthy may turn that way to pass through to the tree of life. The flaming sword will hold fast those who have built upon the foundation that is laid, Jesus Christ, with wood, hay or straw, and the wood of denial, if I may call it that, which catches fire very easily and burns all the more. But the cherubim will receive those who by nature cannot be held by the flaming sword, because they have built with nothing that can catch fire. They will escort them to the tree of life and to all the trees God planted in the east and made to grow out of the ground.
Genesis 4:5 — ON PRAYER 29.18
In the case of Cain his wickedness did not begin when he killed his brother. For even before that God, who knows the heart, had no regard for Cain and his sacrifice. But his baseness was made evident when he killed Abel.
Genesis 4:10 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 50
We also know that what was said of Abel, when he was slain by the wicked murderer Cain, is suitable for all whose blood has been shed wickedly. Let us suppose that the verse "The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground" is said as well for each of the martyrs, the voice of whose blood cries to God from the ground.
Genesis 5:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.6
Christ is the invisible image of the invisible God, just as according to the Scripture narrative we say that the image of Adam was his son Seth. It is written thus: "And Adam begot Seth after his own image and after his own kind." This image preserves the unity of nature and substance common to a father and a son. For "whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise." In this very fact—that the Son does all things just as the Father does—the Father's image is reproduced in the Son, whose birth from the Father is as it were an act of his will proceeding from the mind.
Genesis 5:5 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
I know also of a third kind of death, which we usually suppose in those released from the body. For example, "Adam lived nine hundred thirty years and died." … By the death that is morally indifferent all people die. This is what we call dissolution. By this death no human soul dies.
Genesis 5:29 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.3
But now, first beseeching Him who alone can take away the veil from the reading of the Old Testament, let us try to inquire what this magnificent construction of the ark also contains of spiritual edification. I think, then, so far as I for the smallness of my understanding am able to attain it, that that flood, by which an end was then almost given to the world, holds the figure of that end of the world which will truly come. This the Lord Himself also declared, saying: "For as in the days of Noah they bought, sold, built, married, and gave in marriage, and the flood came, and destroyed all: so also shall be the coming of the Son of man." In which He evidently designates one and the same figure of the flood which preceded and of the end of the world which He says will come. As, therefore, it was then said to that Noah, that he should make an ark and bring into it with himself not only his sons and his kinsmen, but also animals of diverse kinds, so also to our Noah, who alone is truly just and alone perfect, the Lord Jesus Christ, it was said by the Father, at the consummation of the ages, that He should make for Himself an ark out of squared timbers and give it measures filled with heavenly mysteries. For this is designated in the Psalm, where it says: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession." He builds, therefore, the ark and makes in it nests, that is, certain storerooms, in which animals of diverse kinds may be received. Of which the prophet also says: "Go, my people, enter into your storerooms, hide yourself for a little while, until the fury of my wrath passes by." This people, then, which is saved in the Church, is compared to all those, whether men or animals, which were saved in the ark. But since the merit of all is not one, nor is the advancement in faith one, therefore the ark too does not furnish one and the same dwelling to all these, but the lower parts are double-chambered and the upper parts triple-chambered, and nests are distinguished in it, so as to show that in the Church also, although all are contained within one faith and are washed by one baptism, nevertheless the advancement is not one and the same for all, "but each in his own order." Those indeed who live by rational knowledge and are fit not only to govern themselves, but also to teach others, since they are found to be very few, hold the figure of the few who are saved with Noah himself and are joined to him by the nearest kinship, just as our Lord too, the true Noah, Christ Jesus, has few kinsmen, few sons and relatives, who are partakers of His word and capable of His wisdom. And these are they who are placed in the highest rank and are settled in the top of the ark. But the rest, the multitude of irrational animals or even beasts, is held in the lower places, and most of all those whose savage ferocity not even the sweetness of faith has softened. But somewhat above these are those who, though they keep less of reason, keep nevertheless very much of simplicity and innocence. And thus, as one ascends through the individual ranks of dwellings, one arrives at Noah himself, who is interpreted as 'rest' or 'just,' who is Christ Jesus. For it does not fit that Noah what his father Lamech says: "for this one," he says, "will give us rest from the works and from the sorrows of our hands and from the earth which the Lord God cursed." For how will it be true that that Noah gave rest to that Lamech or to the people who were then held on the earth, or how did the sorrows and toil cease in the times of Noah, or how was the curse of the earth, which the Lord had given, taken away, where rather both the divine anger is shown to be greater and God is related to say, "It repents me that I made man upon the earth," and again He says, "I will destroy all flesh which is upon the earth," and above all the sign of the highest offense, the destruction of the living, is given? But if you look to o…
Genesis 5:29 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 45
Pray that your flight may not happen in winter or on the Sabbath. God made the works of the world in six days and rested on the Sabbath (but he "rested from the works" of the world which he had begun to make); yet the works of righteousness he always works, without beginning, and will work without end. So too, before the coming of Christ, the whole race of men wrought all the works of the world, and no one rested from them, keeping a perpetual Sabbath from good works. But when our Lord came—our Sabbath and our rest—he brought to us the rest of his Sabbath, so that, just as he rested on the Sabbath from the works of the world, yet did not rest from the works of righteousness, so too we, through him, might keep Sabbath from the worldly and carnal and harmful works, but might always practice the works of righteousness. And that he himself was going to bring us a Sabbath of this kind, in which we do no servile work, he himself bears witness through the prophet, speaking thus of the unworthy Jews: "until I swore in my wrath: they shall not enter into my rest". And again Lamech, in imposing on his son the name Noah in a mystery of Christ, spoke thus of him: "and he called his name Noah, saying: this one shall give us rest from our sorrows and from the works of our hands and from the earth, which the Lord has cursed". Everyone, therefore, who lives in Christ always lives in the Sabbath and rests in rest, resting from evil works, but he works the works of righteousness without ceasing. But many, having the name of Christ, not the grace, on the contrary keep Sabbath from good works, but work evil works. And the middling sort sometimes give up the Sabbath-keeping of evil works and keep Sabbath from good works, not working good things but evil. But certain ones both keep Sabbath from evil works, yet do not practice good works, whereas one ought not only to flee evil things but also to practice good ones. On such a Sabbath, then, of good works—when the Christian man does not do good works—Christ commands us to pray that our flight may not happen on it. For when you cease from good works, if indeed you stand before the face of the abomination and of your own accord submit yourself to it, you have willingly died by the sword of the lying word. But if you should wish to flee and the abomination of desolation should pursue you: either it will break you by its persecutions, because your good works do not work in you the virtue of patience; or it will capture you by its seductions, because your good works do not work in you the light of understanding. For no one in such a peril of false doctrine is easily overcome and deceived, except one who is stripped of good works. Therefore the Apostle too says concerning this very peril: "because they did not receive the love of the truth, he will give them the working of error, that they may believe the lie, that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but consented to iniquity". But when we shall have seen "the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place", we shall also see a great tribulation at hand, such as was not made from the beginning of the world until that very one, nor shall be afterward. For what greater tribulation is there than to see our brothers seduced, on account of the holy place, by the abomination of desolation standing in it? And if indeed the bodily death of some friend or neighbor works great tribulation for one who has not been prepared to endure it, what tribulation do you suppose comes to be for him who suffers-together, when one member has suffered, and for him who is even set on fire, when some brother has been made to stumble? But if anyone should see himself moved and disturbed by the abomination "of desolation" as though it were not the abomination of desolation, and should see himself imperiled on account of the love which he has for the holy place, so that he almost consents to that abomination as though it w…
Genesis 6:2 — Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 13
Not only man, but also the "sons of God, seeing the daughters of men that they are fair, took for themselves wives of all whom they chose," and consistently all those who left "their own dwelling" and did not preserve their own principality—and by "principality" I mean not in reference to power but to the beginning and foundation; just as for man, the beginning was to be in paradise, but the end perhaps due to transgression in Hades below or some such place, so also for each of the fallen ones a particular beginning is given.
Genesis 6:14 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.3
But now, first beseeching Him who alone can take away the veil from the reading of the Old Testament, let us try to inquire what this magnificent construction of the ark also contains of spiritual edification. I think, then, so far as I for the smallness of my understanding am able to attain it, that that flood, by which an end was then almost given to the world, holds the figure of that end of the world which will truly come. This the Lord Himself also declared, saying: "For as in the days of Noah they bought, sold, built, married, and gave in marriage, and the flood came, and destroyed all: so also shall be the coming of the Son of man." In which He evidently designates one and the same figure of the flood which preceded and of the end of the world which He says will come. As, therefore, it was then said to that Noah, that he should make an ark and bring into it with himself not only his sons and his kinsmen, but also animals of diverse kinds, so also to our Noah, who alone is truly just and alone perfect, the Lord Jesus Christ, it was said by the Father, at the consummation of the ages, that He should make for Himself an ark out of squared timbers and give it measures filled with heavenly mysteries. For this is designated in the Psalm, where it says: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession." He builds, therefore, the ark and makes in it nests, that is, certain storerooms, in which animals of diverse kinds may be received. Of which the prophet also says: "Go, my people, enter into your storerooms, hide yourself for a little while, until the fury of my wrath passes by." This people, then, which is saved in the Church, is compared to all those, whether men or animals, which were saved in the ark. But since the merit of all is not one, nor is the advancement in faith one, therefore the ark too does not furnish one and the same dwelling to all these, but the lower parts are double-chambered and the upper parts triple-chambered, and nests are distinguished in it, so as to show that in the Church also, although all are contained within one faith and are washed by one baptism, nevertheless the advancement is not one and the same for all, "but each in his own order." Those indeed who live by rational knowledge and are fit not only to govern themselves, but also to teach others, since they are found to be very few, hold the figure of the few who are saved with Noah himself and are joined to him by the nearest kinship, just as our Lord too, the true Noah, Christ Jesus, has few kinsmen, few sons and relatives, who are partakers of His word and capable of His wisdom. And these are they who are placed in the highest rank and are settled in the top of the ark. But the rest, the multitude of irrational animals or even beasts, is held in the lower places, and most of all those whose savage ferocity not even the sweetness of faith has softened. But somewhat above these are those who, though they keep less of reason, keep nevertheless very much of simplicity and innocence. And thus, as one ascends through the individual ranks of dwellings, one arrives at Noah himself, who is interpreted as 'rest' or 'just,' who is Christ Jesus. For it does not fit that Noah what his father Lamech says: "for this one," he says, "will give us rest from the works and from the sorrows of our hands and from the earth which the Lord God cursed." For how will it be true that that Noah gave rest to that Lamech or to the people who were then held on the earth, or how did the sorrows and toil cease in the times of Noah, or how was the curse of the earth, which the Lord had given, taken away, where rather both the divine anger is shown to be greater and God is related to say, "It repents me that I made man upon the earth," and again He says, "I will destroy all flesh which is upon the earth," and above all the sign of the highest offense, the destruction of the living, is given? But if you look to o…
Genesis 6:14-16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.1
As we begin to discuss the ark that was built by Noah according to God's command, let us first of all see what things are related about it according to the letter, and, setting forth the questions that are commonly raised as objections by very many people, let us also seek the resolutions of them from those things which have been handed down to us by our predecessors, so that, when we have laid foundations of this kind, we may be able to ascend from the text of the narrative to the mystical and allegorical sense of spiritual understanding, and, if anything hidden is contained in these things, to open it up, the Lord revealing to us the knowledge of His word. First, therefore, let us set forth these very things which are written. "And the Lord said to Noah," it says, "the time of every man has come before me, since the earth has been filled with iniquities by them; and behold, I will destroy them and the earth. Make therefore for yourself an ark out of squared timbers, you shall make nests in the ark, and you shall pitch it within and without with pitch. And thus shall you make the ark: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, and fifty cubits the breadth, and thirty cubits its height; gathering it together you shall make the ark, and to a cubit you shall finish it at the top. But the door of the ark you shall make in the side; the lower parts double-chambered and the upper parts triple-chambered you shall make them." And after a little: "Noah did everything, whatsoever the Lord God commanded him, so he did." First, therefore, it is asked what sort of shape and form the ark itself ought to be understood to have. This ark I think, so far as appears from the things that are described, rose up on four corners from the bottom, and, these same corners being drawn in gradually into a narrow point right up to the top, was gathered into the space of a single cubit. For it is related thus, that in its foundations three hundred cubits were set in length, but fifty in breadth, and thirty were built up in height, yet gathered together into a narrow summit, so that there is a cubit of its breadth and length. Now indeed, within, those parts which are called its lower ones are set down as double-chambered, that is, containing a double dwelling, but the upper parts as triple-chambered, as if we should say built with triple upper rooms. But these distinctions of dwellings seem to have been made for this purpose, that the diverse kinds of animals or beasts might more easily be separated by individual quarters, and that all the tame and sluggish ones might be set apart from the wild beasts. These separations of dwellings, then, are called nests. And the timbers are related to have been squared, so that one might both more easily be fitted to another, and, when the flood overflowed, the whole onrush of the waters might be kept off, since the joint, smeared within and without with pitch, would be fortified. It has indeed been handed down to us, and not without probability, that the lower parts which we spoke of above, built in double fashion, which were also separately called double-chambered — apart from the upper parts, which are called triple-chambered — were double in this manner for the reason that all the animals spent an entire year in the ark, and certainly for a whole year it was necessary that foods be provided, and not only foods, but also that places for the digestions be established, so that neither the animals themselves, and especially the men, might be troubled by the stench of dung. They hand down, therefore, that the lowest region itself, which is at the bottom, was assigned and set apart for necessities of this kind, but that the part above this and adjoining it was appointed for preserving the fodder. For it seemed necessary that for those beasts to which nature has given the eating of flesh, animals should be brought in from without, on whose flesh, feeding, they might be able to preserve their life for the sake of restoring…
Genesis 6:14-16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.6
But since the ark, which we are attempting to describe, is commanded by God to be built not only double-chambered but also triple-chambered, let us too give our effort, according to God's command, to join a third exposition as well to this double one which has preceded. For the first, which preceded, is the historical, placed as it were as a kind of foundation in the lower parts. This second, the mystical, was higher and loftier. Let us try, if we can, to add a third, the moral — although this very thing too, that it neither said "double-chambered" alone and kept silent, nor "triple-chambered" only and stopped, but, when it had said "double-chambered," added also "triple-chambered," does not seem to be without the mystery of this very exposition which we have in hand. For the triple-chambered designates this triple exposition. But because the historical sequence cannot always stand in the divine Scriptures, but sometimes fails — as, for example, when it is said, "thorns will grow in the hand of the drunkard," and when in the temple built by Solomon it is said, "the sound of the hammer and the axe was not heard in the house of God," and again in Leviticus, when "the leprosy of the wall and of the little skin and of the warp is commanded to be inspected by the priests and to be cleansed" — for these reasons, then, and for others like them, the ark is woven together not only "triple-chambered," but also "double-chambered," so that we may know that in the divine Scriptures the sense of exposition inserted is not always triple, because the history does not always follow us, but sometimes only double. Let us try, therefore, to discuss the third exposition also, according to the moral topic. If there is anyone who, while evils increase and vices overflow, is able to turn himself away from fluid and perishing and falling things and to hear the word of God and the heavenly precepts, this one builds within his heart an ark of salvation and consecrates within himself, so to speak, a library of the divine word, and places in it length and breadth and height — faith, charity, and hope. He stretches the faith of the Trinity to the length of life and immortality, he founds the breadth of charity by the affection of pardon and kindness, he raises the height of hope to the heavenly and lofty things; for, walking upon the earth, he has his "conversation in the heavens." But the sum of his acts he brings back to one. For he knows that "all indeed run, but one receives the prize" — namely, the one who has not been manifold through the variety of thoughts and the instability of mind. But this library he builds not out of rough and unpolished timbers, but out of squared ones directed according to the line of equity — that is, not out of the volumes of secular authors, but out of the prophetic and Apostolic ones. For these are the ones who, hewn by diverse temptations, with all vices cut away and excised, keep a squared life balanced on every side. For the authors of secular books can indeed be called "lofty timbers" and "shady timbers" — for "under every lofty and leafy tree" Israel is accused of having committed fornication — because they indeed speak lofty things and use flowery eloquence, yet they did not act as they spoke; and therefore they cannot be named "squared timbers," because in them life and word by no means balance out. You therefore, if you make an ark, if you gather a library, gather it out of the prophetic and Apostolic discourses, or of those who followed them with the right lines of faith, make it "double-chambered" and "triple-chambered." From it learn the historical narratives, from it acknowledge "the great mystery" which is fulfilled in Christ and in the Church; from it also understand how to amend your morals, to cut away vices, to purge the soul and to strip it of every bond of captivity, placing in it "nests" and "nests" of diverse virtues and advancements. Indeed, you shall pitch it "within" and "without" — bearing faith…
Genesis 6:14 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.4
Let us see, then, what the squared timbers are. That is squared which totters on no side, but, wherever you turn it, stands with faithful and solid stability. These are the timbers which bear all the weight, whether of the animals within or of the waves without. These I judge to be the teachers in the Church and the masters and the zealots of the faith, who both console the peoples placed within by the word of admonition and by the grace of teaching, and, by the power of the word and the wisdom of reason, withstand those attacking from without — whether pagans or heretics — and stirring up the waves of questions and the storms of contests. But do you wish to see that divine Scripture knows of rational timbers? Let us review what is written in the prophet Ezekiel: "And it came to pass," it says, "in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: to whom do you liken yourself in your exaltation? Behold, Assur is a cypress in Lebanon, beautiful in branches and dense in shade and lofty in height. Among the midst of the clouds its top was set, water nourished it and the deep exalted it and led all its rivers around it and sent forth its gatherings to all the timbers of the field. Therefore its height was exalted above all the timbers of the field." And after a little it says: "The many cypresses in the paradise of God, and the pines were not like its branches, and the firs were not like them. No timber in the paradise of God was likened to it, and all the timbers of the paradise of the delights of God envied it." Do you notice of which and of what sort of timbers the prophet speaks? how he describes the cypress of Lebanon, to which all the timbers that are in the paradise of God cannot be compared? And he adds this too at the last, that all the timbers that are in the paradise of God envied it, evidently showing that, according to spiritual understanding, the timbers that are in the paradise of God are called rational, seeing that in them he describes there to be a certain envy against those timbers that are in Lebanon. Whence, that we may say this too in passing, consider whether perhaps that also which is written, that "cursed by God is everyone who hangs on a tree," ought to be understood in the same way as that which is said elsewhere, "cursed is the man who has his hope in man." For we ought to hang on God alone and on no other, even if someone should be said to proceed from the paradise of God, just as Paul too says: "even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you otherwise than we have preached to you, let him be anathema." But these things at another time. Meanwhile you have seen what the squared timbers are, which, like a kind of wall and defense, are set in place by the spiritual Noah for those who are within against the waves that come over from without; which timbers are smeared "within and without" with pitch. For Christ, the architect of the Church, wishes you not to be such as those "who indeed appear outwardly to men to be just, but within are sepulchers of the dead," but He wishes you to be both holy in body without and pure in heart within, guarded on every side and fortified with the virtue of chastity and innocence, that is, to be smeared within and without with pitch.
Genesis 6:15-16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.5
After these things mention is made of the length and breadth of the ark and of the height, and certain numbers are set down in them, consecrated with mighty mysteries. But before we discuss the numbers, let us see what sort of thing it is that it speaks of length and breadth and height. The Apostle in a certain place, when he was speaking more sacredly of the mystery of the cross, says thus: "that you may know what is the length and breadth and depth." Now depth and height signify the same thing, only that height seems to measure the space from the lower parts to the upper, but depth to begin from the upper parts and descend to the lower. Consequently, then, the Spirit of God, both through Moses and through Paul, sets forth figures of mighty mysteries. For Paul, since he was preaching the mystery of Christ's descent, named depth, as of one coming from the upper parts to the lower; but Moses, because he designates the restoration of those who through Christ are called back from the destruction and perdition of the world — as it were from the death of the flood — from the lower parts to the things above and heavenly, in the measure of the ark does not mention depth, but height, as where one ascends from earthly and lowly things to heavenly and lofty ones. Numbers too are set down: three hundred cubits of length, fifty of breadth, thirty of height. Three hundred is three times a hundred, and the number one hundred is shown to be full in all things and perfect, and containing the mystery of the whole rational creation, as we read in the Gospels, where it says that "a certain man having a hundred sheep, when one of them had perished, leaving the ninety-nine in the mountains, went down to seek the one that had perished, and, when he had found it, carried it back on his shoulders, and placed it with those ninety-nine which had not perished." This hundred, then, being the number of the whole rational creation, since it does not subsist from itself, but descends from the Trinity and has received length of life — that is, the grace of immortality — from the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit, is therefore set down tripled, inasmuch as it is increased to perfection through the grace of the Trinity, and so that it may restore into three hundred the one who has fallen from the hundred through ignorance, by the acknowledgment of the Trinity. The breadth holds the number fifty, which number is consecrated to remission and pardon. For according to the law, in the fiftieth year there was remission — that is, that if anyone had sold away a possession, he should receive it back; if a free man had come into servitude, he should receive back his freedom; the debtor should receive pardon, the exile should return to his fatherland. The spiritual Noah, therefore, Christ, in His ark, in which He frees the human race from destruction — that is, in His Church — has placed this number fifty of remission in the breadth. For unless He had granted the remission of sins to those who believe, the breadth of the Church would not have been spread throughout the circle of the earth. But the number thirty of the height contains a mystery similar to the three hundred. For what a hundred does there, ten multiplied by three does here. But the sum of the whole construction is brought back to one, because "there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord," and "the faith of the Church is one, one baptism, one body and one spirit," and all things hasten to the one end of God's perfection. But you too, who hear these things, if you attend to the holy Scriptures in your leisure, will find very many deeds of great matters contained under the number thirty or fifty. At thirty years of age Joseph is brought out of prison and receives the sovereignty of all Egypt, that by divine foresight he might drive off the ruin of the impending famine. Jesus is related to be of thirty years when He came to the baptism and "saw the heavens divided and the Spiri…
Genesis 6:15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.2
But although all these things have been composed with such great skill, certain people raise questions as objections, and especially Apelles, who was indeed a disciple of Marcion, but the inventor of another heresy rather than of the one which he received from his master. He then, while he desires to represent that the writings of Moses contain in themselves nothing of divine wisdom and nothing of the work of the Holy Spirit, exaggerates sayings of this kind and says that it could in no way have come about that so small a space could have held so many kinds of animals and their foods, which would suffice through a whole year. For since "two by two" of the unclean animals — that is, two males and two females (for this is what the repeated word indicates) — but "seven by seven," which is seven pairs, of the clean, are said to have been led into the ark, how, he asks, could this space that is written of have come about, so as to be able to hold at least four elephants alone? And after he opposes it in this manner through the individual species, he adds over all things in these words: it is established, therefore, that the tale is a fiction; and if this is so, it is established that this writing is not from God. But to these things we will bring to the notice of our hearers the things which we have learned from prudent men and those acquainted with the Hebrew traditions and from the ancient teachers. Our predecessors said, then, that Moses, who, as Scripture testifies concerning him, "had been instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," set down the number of cubits in this place according to the geometric art in which the Egyptians are especially skilled. For among geometers, according to that reckoning which among them is called "power," from a solid and a square either one is reckoned as six cubits, if taken generally, or as three hundred, if it is reduced in detail. And if this reckoning is indeed observed, in the measure of this ark there will be found such great spaces both of length and of breadth as could truly hold the seeds of the whole world to be restored and the reviving seed-plots of all living creatures. Let these things, so far as pertains to the reckoning of the narrative, be said against those who strive to attack the writings of the Old Testament as though they contained certain impossible and irrational things.
Genesis 9:5 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
And so, everything that is in the sentient flesh you can find also in the inner man. Do not doubt, then, also concerning the blood, homonymous with the sentient blood, which, like the other parts of the body, the inner man has. It is precisely this blood of which the soul of the sinner is deprived. For it is said: "The blood of your souls will be required." It is not said "your blood," but "the blood of your souls."
Genesis 11:1-9 — Contra Celsum, Book IV, Chapter 21
But I do not understand how he can imagine the overturning of the tower (of Babel) to have happened with a similar object to that of the deluge, which effected a purification of the earth, according to the accounts both of Jews and Christians. For, in order that the narrative contained in Genesis respecting the tower may be held to convey no secret meaning, but, as Celsus supposes, may be taken as true to the letter, the event does not on such a view appear to have taken place for the purpose of purifying the earth; unless, indeed, he imagines that the so-called confusion of tongues is such a purificatory process. But on this point, he who has the opportunity will treat more seasonably when his object is to show not only what is the meaning of the narrative in its historical connection, but what metaphorical meaning may be deduced from it. Seeing that he imagines, however, that Moses, who wrote the account of the tower, and the confusion of tongues, has perverted the story of the sons of Aloeus, and referred it to the tower, we must remark that I do not think any one prior to the time of Homer has mentioned the sons of Aloeus, while I am persuaded that what is related about the tower has been recorded by Moses as being much older not only than Homer, but even than the invention of letters among the Greeks. Who, then, are the perverters of each other's narratives? Whether do they who relate the story of the Aloadæ pervert the history of the time, or he who wrote the account of the tower and the confusion of tongues the story of the Aloadæ? Now to impartial hearers Moses appears to be more ancient than Homer. The destruction by fire, moreover, of Sodom and Gomorrha on account of their sins, related by Moses in Genesis, is compared by Celsus to the story of Phæthon — all these statements of his resulting from one blunder, viz., his not attending to the (greater) antiquity of Moses. For they who relate the story of Phæthon seem to be younger even than Homer, who, again, is much younger than Moses. We do not deny, then, that the purificatory fire and the destruction of the world took place in order that evil might be swept away, and all things be renewed; for we assert that we have learned these things from the sacred books of the prophets. But since, as we have said in the preceding pages, the prophets, in uttering many predictions regarding future events, show that they have spoken the truth concerning many things that are past, and thus give evidence of the indwelling of the Divine Spirit, it is manifest that, with respect to things still future, we should repose faith in them, or rather in the Divine Spirit that is in them.
Genesis 15:15 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
So too the soul of Abraham heard these words: "You will go to your fathers in peace and will be buried in a good old age." He departed to his fathers. To what fathers? Those of whom Paul speaks: "Therefore I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every fatherhood receives its name."
Genesis 17:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.2
Just as we profess that God is incorporeal and almighty and invisible, so also we confess by a sure and unshakable doctrine that He cares for mortal things and that nothing is carried out apart from His providence, neither in heaven nor on earth. Remember that we said nothing is carried out without His providence, not: without His will. For many things are carried out without His will, nothing without His providence. For providence is that by which He looks after and manages and provides for the things that are done, whereas will is that by which He wills something or does not will it. But of these things elsewhere; for that treatment is longer and more diffuse. According, then, to this, that we profess God to be the provider and manager of all things, it follows that He should indicate what He wills or what is expedient for human beings. For if He does not indicate it, He will neither be the provider of man nor be believed to care for mortal things. When therefore God indicates to human beings what He wills them to do, by what affection above all is He to be said to indicate it? Is it not by that which is in the use and knowledge of human beings? For if, for the sake of argument, we should say that God is silent—which is believed to befit His nature—how will anything be thought to have been indicated by Him through silence? But now He is said to have spoken for this reason, that human beings, knowing that by this ministry the will of one is made known to another, may recognize that those things which are conveyed to them through the prophets are indications of the will of God. In which things assuredly the will of God is not understood to be contained unless He is said to have spoken them, because it is neither perceived nor understood that among human beings the will can ever be indicated through silence. But again these things we say, not according to the error of the Jews, or even of some of our own who err along with them, so far as to suppose—because human frailty cannot hear otherwise about God than as the things themselves and their names are known to it, and therefore we should suppose that God acts with these members like our own and with a human form. This is foreign to the faith of the Church. But this very thing, that He either breathes into the heart of each of the saints or causes the sound of a voice to reach his ears, is what is meant when God is said to have spoken to a man. So also, when He indicates that the things which each one either speaks or does are known to Him, He is said to have heard; and when He indicates that something unjust is being done by us, He is said to be angry; when He convicts us of being ungrateful for His benefits, He is said to repent, indicating these things indeed by those affections which are in use among human beings, yet not administering them by those members which belong to a corporeal nature. For that substance is simple and composed neither of any members nor of joints and affections, but whatever is carried out by the divine powers, this—that human beings may be able to understand it—is either set forth under the name of human members or is expressed by common and known affections. And in this way God is said either to be angry or to hear or to speak. For if the human voice is defined as struck air, that is, air beaten back by the tongue, God's voice too can be called air struck either by divine force or by divine will. And hence it is that, if at any time a voice is divinely given, it glides not to the ears of all, but to those whose hearing it concerns, so that you may recognize the sound to be rendered not by the beating of a tongue—otherwise the hearing would be common to all—but governed by the direction of the heavenly command. Although it is reported that often to the prophets and patriarchs and the rest of the saints the word of God came even without the sound of a voice, as we are abundantly taught from all the sacred volumes. In which, to speak briefly, the mind,…
Genesis 17:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.1
Since in many places of the divine Scriptures we read that God speaks to human beings, and because of this the Jews indeed, but also some of our own people, have thought that God is to be understood as though a man—that is, as marked out with human limbs and bodily form—while the philosophers, on the other hand, look down upon these things as fabulous and shaped after the likeness of poetic fictions; it seems to me that I must first speak a few words about these matters, and then come to the things that have been read out. First, then, let my discourse be addressed to those who, set outside, arrogantly clamor around us, saying that it does not befit that lofty and invisible and incorporeal God to make use of human affections. For if you grant Him, they say, the practice of speaking, without doubt you will also grant Him a mouth and a tongue and the other members by which the function of speaking is fulfilled. And if this be so, then there has been a departure from the invisible and incorporeal God; and stringing together many things similar to these, they weary our people. To these things, then, if we are helped by your prayers, we shall briefly reply, in the measure the Lord shall grant.
Genesis 17:5 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.3
Many responses are given by God to Abraham, but they are not all conveyed to one and the same person. For certain of them are to Abram, certain to Abraham, that is, some after the change of name and others while he was still reckoned by his native appellation. And first indeed there is conveyed by God to Abram, before the change of name, that oracle which says: "Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house," and the rest. But in this nothing is enjoined concerning the covenant of God, nothing concerning circumcision. For he could not, while he was still Abram and bore the name of his carnal birth, receive the covenant of God and the mark of circumcision. But when "he went out from his land and from his kindred," then more sacred responses are now conveyed to him, and first it is said to him: "You shall no longer be called Abram, but Abraham shall be your name." Then at last he both received the covenant of God and accepted circumcision, the seal of faith, which he could not receive while he was in his father's house and in carnal kinship and while he was still called Abram. But neither was he himself and his wife called "presbyter" as long as he was in his father's house and dwelt with flesh and blood; but after he had set out from there, he merited both to be called "Abraham" and to be called "presbyter": "for they were both," it says, "presbyters," that is, old, namely Abraham and his admirable wife, "and advanced in their days." How many before them led their life over longer spans of years—for nine hundred years and more, and some, not much less, lived until the flood—and none of these were called presbyters. For by this name in Abraham not the old age of the body, but the maturity of the heart, was named. So also the Lord says to Moses: "Choose for yourself presbyters, whom you yourself know to be presbyters." Let us look more diligently at the Lord's word—what that addition may mean, by which He says: "whom you yourself know to be presbyters." Surely he who bore the senile age of the body was not manifest to the eyes of all as being a presbyter, that is, an old man? Why then is this special inspection enjoined upon Moses alone, so great and so notable a prophet, that those be chosen not whom other men know, not whom the untrained crowd recognizes, but whom the prophet full of God shall have chosen? For the judgment concerning them is not about the body, not about age, but about the mind. Such, then, were these blessed presbyters Abraham and Sarah. And first of all their native names, which carnal birth had given them, are changed. "For when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and said: I am God, be well-pleasing before me, and be blameless, and I will set my covenant between me and you. And Abraham fell upon his face and adored God, and God spoke to him, saying: I am, behold my covenant is with you, and you shall be father of a multitude of nations, and in you all the nations shall be blessed, and your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham." And when He had given this name, He immediately adds: "and I will set my covenant between me and you, and your seed after you. And this is the covenant which you shall keep between me and you, and between your seed after you." And after these things He adds: "every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin."
Genesis 17:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.5
But I shall seem to be caught by my own evidences. For by this testimony of the prophet the Jew straightway constrains me and says: behold, the prophet designates both circumcisions, of flesh and of heart; there is no room left for allegory, where both kinds of circumcision are required. If you help me by your prayers, that the "word of the living God" may deign to be present "at the opening of our mouth," we shall be able, with Him as guide, to go out through this narrow path of the question to the breadth of the truth, since not only are the carnal Jews to be refuted by us concerning the circumcision of the flesh, but also some of those who seem to have taken up the name of Christ and yet think that carnal circumcision is to be received, such as the Ebionites and any who wander astray with a poverty of understanding similar to theirs. Let us therefore make use of the testimonies of the old instrument, which they willingly allow. It is written in the prophet Jeremiah: "behold, this people is uncircumcised in its ears." Hear, O Israel, the prophetic voice; a great reproach is spoken to you, a great fault is charged against you. Your accusation is brought forward, that you are uncircumcised in your ears. And why, on hearing this, did you not apply iron to your ears and cut them? For you are blamed by God and condemned, because you do not have circumcised ears. For I do not permit you to take refuge in our allegories, which Paul taught. Why do you cease to circumcise? Cut off your ears, cut away the members which God created for the usefulness of the senses and for the adornment of the human condition; for so you understand the divine words. But I will bring forward to you yet another thing, which you cannot contradict. In Exodus, where we in the books of the Church have it written that Moses answered the Lord and said: "Provide, Lord, another whom you may send. For I am of a thin voice and slow of tongue," you in the Hebrew copies have: "but I am uncircumcised in lips." Behold, you have circumcision of the lips according to your copies, which you say are truer. If, then, according to you Moses says he is still unworthy, because he is not circumcised in lips, it is certain that he thereby indicates this, that he is worthier and holier who is circumcised in lips. Apply, then, the sickle also to your lips and cut away the coverings of your mouth, since such an understanding in the divine letters pleases you. But if you recall the circumcision of the lips to allegory, and likewise call the circumcision of the ears allegorical and figurative, how do you not also seek an allegory in the circumcision of the foreskin? But let us pass over those who, after the manner of idols, "have ears and hear not, and have eyes and see not." But you, O "people of God, and people chosen as a possession to declare the virtues of the Lord," take up the worthy circumcision of the word of God in your ears and in your lips and in your heart and in the foreskin of your flesh and in absolutely all your members. For let your ears be circumcised according to the word of God, that they may not receive the voice of the slanderer, that they may not hear the words of the reviler and blasphemer, that they may not lie open to false accusations, to lying, to provocation. Let them be stopped up and closed, "lest they hear the judgment of blood" or lie open to unchaste songs and theatrical sounds. Let them receive nothing obscene, but let them be turned away from every stage of corruption. This is the circumcision by which the Church of Christ circumcises the ears of her infants. These, I believe, are the ears which the Lord required in His hearers, saying: "he who has ears to hear, let him hear." For no one can, with uncircumcised and unclean ears, hear the clean words of wisdom and truth. Let us come, if you will, also to the circumcision of the lips. I think that he is "uncircumcised in lips" who has not yet ceased from foolish speech, from scurrility, who disparag…
Genesis 17:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.6
But now, according to our promise, let us see in what manner the circumcision of the flesh also ought to be received. That this member, in which the foreskin is seen to be, serves the natural functions of intercourse and generation, no one can doubt. If, then, anyone should exist who is not importunate with regard to motions of this kind, and neither exceeds the limits divinely appointed to him, nor knows any other woman than his lawful wife, and even with her acts for the sake of posterity alone at fixed and lawful times, he is to be said to be circumcised in the foreskin of his flesh. But he who rushes into every wantonness, and hangs everywhere upon diverse and illicit embraces, and is borne unbridled into every whirlpool of lust, he is uncircumcised in the foreskin of his flesh. But the Church of Christ, strengthened by the grace of Him who was crucified for her, refrains not only from illicit and abominable beds, but even from those that are granted and lawful, and, as a virgin bride of Christ, flourishes with chaste and modest virgins, in whom the true circumcision of the flesh of the foreskin has been made, and truly the covenant of God and the eternal covenant is kept in their flesh. It remains for us to designate also the circumcision of the heart. If there is anyone who burns with obscene desires and foul cravings, and, to speak briefly, who "commits adultery in the heart," this man is "uncircumcised" in "heart." But also he who holds heretical thoughts in his mind and arranges blasphemous assertions against the knowledge of Christ in his heart, this man is "uncircumcised" in "heart." But he who guards a pure faith in the sincerity of conscience, he is circumcised in heart; of whom it can be said: "blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." But I dare, from a like comparison, to add these things also to the prophetic voices, that, just as it behooves us to be circumcised in ears and lips and heart and the foreskin of the flesh according to the things we have said above, so perhaps our hands too need circumcision, and our feet and sight and smell and touch. For that the man of God may be perfect in all things, all the members must be circumcised—the hands indeed from plunderings, from thefts, from murders, and to be opened out for the works of God alone. The feet must be circumcised, that they be not "swift to shed blood," and that they enter not "into the counsel of the malignant," but that they go about only for the commandments of God. Let the eye too be circumcised, that it covet not what is another's, that it not look "to lust after a woman." For the gaze which wanders wantonly and curiously about the forms of women, this is uncircumcised in eyes. But also, if there is anyone who, whether he eat or drink, as the Apostle enjoins, "eats and drinks to the glory of God," he is circumcised in taste; but "whose God is the belly" and who serves the pleasures of the gullet, of him I would call the taste uncircumcised. If anyone takes in the "good odor of Christ" and in works of mercy seeks the "odor of sweetness," of him the smell is circumcised; but he who walks "anointed with the first ointments," he is to be called uncircumcised in smell. But also each and every one of the members, if they serve in the offices of the commandments of God, are to be called circumcised; but if they run riot beyond the laws divinely prescribed for them, they are to be reckoned uncircumcised. And this, I think, is what the Apostle said: "for as you presented your members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." For when our members served iniquity, they were not circumcised, nor was the covenant of God in them; but when they have begun to serve "righteousness unto sanctification," the promise which was made to Abraham is fulfilled in them. For then the law of God and His covenant is sealed in them. And this is truly the "sign of faith," which contains the compac…
Genesis 17:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.4
Therefore, since we have come to these passages, I wish to inquire whether the almighty God, who holds the dominion of heaven and earth, in willing to set a covenant with a holy man, placed the sum of so great a matter in this, that the foreskin of his flesh and of the offspring to come from him should be circumcised. "For my covenant," He says, "shall be upon your flesh." Was this what the "Lord of heaven and earth" conferred, as the gift of an eternal covenant, upon the one whom alone He had chosen out of all mortals? For these are the only things in which the masters and teachers of the synagogue place the glory of the saints. But the Church of Christ, which had said through the prophet: "But to me your friends have been made exceedingly honorable, O God," how she honors the friends of her Bridegroom and how great a glory she confers on them, when she unfolds their deeds—let them come, if it seem good, and hear. We therefore, instructed through the Apostle Paul, say that, just as many other things were done in figure and image of the truth to come, so also that carnal circumcision bore the form of the spiritual circumcision, concerning which it was both worthy and fitting that the "God of majesty" should give precepts to mortals. Hear, then, how Paul, "the teacher of the nations in faith and truth," teaches the Church of Christ concerning the mystery of circumcision. "See," he says, "the concision"—speaking of the Jews, who are cut in the flesh—"for we are," he says, "the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit and place no confidence in the flesh." This is one of Paul's opinions concerning circumcision. Hear also another: "For it is not he who is a Jew in the open," he says, "nor that which is circumcision manifestly in the flesh, but he who is a Jew in secret, by the circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not the letter." Does not such a circumcision seem to you more worthy to be spoken of in the saints and friends of God than the mutilation of the flesh? But perhaps the novelty of the saying may deter not only the Jews but also some of our brethren. For Paul seems to presume impossible things, in that he introduces "circumcision of the heart." For how can it come about that a member be circumcised which, hidden by the inner organs, lies concealed even from the very sight of men? Let us return, then, to the prophetic utterances, so that, while you pray, these matters about which we inquire may from there become clear. The prophet Ezekiel says: "Every stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall not enter into my sanctuary." And likewise elsewhere the prophet, reproaching them no less, says: "all the strangers are uncircumcised in flesh, but the sons of Israel are uncircumcised in heart." It is signified, therefore, that unless one has been circumcised in heart and circumcised in flesh, "he shall not enter into the sanctuary" of God.
Genesis 17:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.7
But I come also to the new testament, in which is the fullness of all things, and from there I wish to show how we too can have the "covenant" of our Lord Jesus Christ "upon our flesh." For it does not suffice that these things be said by name and word alone, but they ought to be fulfilled in deeds. For John the Apostle says: "every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is of God." What then? If someone who sins and does not act rightly "confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh," will he be seen to confess in the spirit of God? This is not to have the covenant of God in the flesh, but in the voice. It is said to him, therefore, straightway: you err, O man, "the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power." How then "will the covenant of Christ be upon my flesh," I ask. If "I shall have mortified my members which are upon the earth," I have the covenant of Christ upon my flesh. If "I always carry about the death of Jesus Christ in my body," the covenant of Christ is in my body, because "if we suffer together, we shall also reign together." If "I shall have been planted together in the likeness of His death," I show "His covenant" to be "upon my flesh." For what does it profit, if I say that Jesus came only in that flesh which He took from Mary, and do not show also in this flesh of mine that He has come? But I show it only thus, if, just as before "I presented my members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, now I turn them and present them to serve righteousness unto sanctification." I show the covenant of God to be in my flesh, if I can say according to Paul: "I am crucified together with Christ; but now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me," and if I can say, as he himself said: "but I carry the stigmata of my Lord Jesus Christ in my body." But truly he showed the "covenant" of God to be "upon his flesh," who said: "who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Tribulation, or distress, or peril, or the sword?" For if we confess the Lord Jesus by voice only, and do not show "His covenant to be upon our flesh," according to these things which we have expounded above, we too shall be seen to do something similar to the Jews, who by the sign of circumcision alone think they confess God, but by their deeds deny Him. But may the Lord grant us "to believe with the heart, to confess with the mouth, to prove by works" that the covenant of God is in our flesh, so that "men, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father who is in heaven," through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 18:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.3
But let us now see what is also said in what follows. "But Abraham himself," it says, "was standing by them under the tree." For narratives of this kind we require circumcised ears. For it is not to be believed that it was of the greatest concern to the Holy Spirit to write in the books of the law where Abraham stood. For what does it profit me, who have come to hear what the Holy Spirit teaches the human race, if I should hear that "Abraham was standing under a tree"? But let us see what this tree is, under which Abraham was standing and displaying a banquet to the Lord and to the angels. "Under the tree," it says, "of Mamre." "Mamre" in our language is interpreted as vision or clear-sightedness. Do you see who and what kind is the place in which the Lord can hold a banquet? The vision and clear-sightedness of Abraham delighted him. For he was pure in heart, so that he could see God. In such a place, therefore, and in such a heart, the Lord can hold a banquet with his angels. Finally, in earlier times the prophets were called seers.
Genesis 18:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.2
But let us now for the present pursue what Abraham does with the three men who "stood over him." See this very thing, what kind of thing it is, that they come "over him," not against him. For he had subjected himself to the will of God, and therefore God is said to stand "over him."
Genesis 18:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.1
Let us first compare, if it seems good, this vision with the one that took place with Lot. "Three men" come to Abraham and stand "over him"; to Lot "two" come and sit "in the street." See whether the matters are not carried out by the dispensation of the Holy Spirit according to merits. For Lot was far inferior to Abraham. For unless he had been inferior, he would not have been separated from Abraham, nor would he have said to him: "If you go to the right, I will go to the left; if you go to the left, I will go to the right." And unless he had been inferior, the land and dwelling of Sodom would not have pleased him. Therefore three men come to Abraham at midday, and to Lot two come, and in the evening. For Lot could not contain the greatness of the midday light; but Abraham was capable of receiving the full radiance of the light. Let us now see how Abraham received those who came and how Lot did, and let us compare what the hospitality of each was. But first observe that with Abraham, together with the two angels, the Lord also was present, whereas to Lot only two angels proceed. And what do they say? "The Lord has sent us to crush the city and to destroy it." That one, therefore, received those who would give it over to destruction; he did not receive the one who would save; but Abraham received both the one who saves and those who destroy.
Genesis 18:4 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.2
But how does he add again, as though speaking to men: "Let water be taken," he says, "and let your feet be washed"? Through these things indeed Abraham, the father and teacher of the nations, teaches you how you ought to receive guests and that you should wash the feet of guests; yet this too is said in a mystery. For he knew that the dominical sacraments are not to be consummated except in the washing of feet. But neither did the weight of that precept escape him, in which it is said by the Savior: "If any will not receive you, shake off even the dust which has clung to your feet, as a testimony against them. Amen I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for that city." He wished therefore to anticipate and to wash their feet, lest perhaps any dust should remain which, shaken off as a testimony of unbelief, could be reserved "for the day of judgment." Therefore the wise Abraham says: "Let water be taken and let your feet be washed."
Genesis 18:6 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.1
He says therefore to his wife Sarah: "Hasten to the tent, and sprinkle three measures of fine flour, and make loaves baked in the ashes." This in Greek is called ἐγχρυφίας, which indicates hidden or concealed loaves.
Genesis 18:6 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.2
He sets forth therefore loaves sprinkled with "three measures of fine flour." He received three men, he sprinkled loaves with "three measures of fine flour." The whole of what he does is mystical, the whole is filled with sacraments.
Genesis 18:7 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.1
"But he himself ran," it says, "to the cattle and took a calf." What kind of calf? Perhaps the one that could happen to run up first? It is not so, but a "good and tender" calf. And although he hastens in all things, yet he knows what things, being chief and great, are to be offered to the Lord or to the angels. He took therefore, or rather chose, from the herd a "good and tender" calf and handed it to the servant boy. "The boy," it says, "hastened to prepare it." He himself runs, the wife hastens, the boy makes speed; no one is sluggish in the house of the wise man. He sets forth therefore the calf and together with it the loaves and the fine flour, but also milk and butter. These are the duties of hospitality of Abraham and Sarah. Now let us see also what Lot does. This one has neither fine flour nor clean bread, but meal. He knows neither three measures of fine flour, nor is he able to set before those who come ἐγχρυφίας, that is, hidden and mystical loaves.
Genesis 18:7 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.2
A calf is set forth—behold, another sacrament. The calf itself is not tough, but "good and tender." And what is so tender, what so good as he who "humbled himself" for us "even unto death" and "laid down his soul" "for his friends"? That "fatted calf" which the father slaughters for the son received back in repentance. "For God so loved this world, that he gave his only Son" for the life of this world. Yet it does not escape the wise man whom he had received. He meets three and adores one and speaks to one, saying: "Turn aside to your servant and refresh yourself under the tree."
Genesis 18:9-11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.4
What then does the Lord say to Abraham? "Where is," he says, "Sarah your wife? And he: behold, he says, in the tent. And the Lord said: coming I will come to you in season according to this time, and Sarah your wife shall have a son. But Sarah was listening, standing behind the door of the tent, behind Abraham." Let women learn by the examples of the patriarchs, let women, I say, learn to follow their husbands. For it is not without cause written that "Sarah was standing behind Abraham," but so that it might be shown that if the husband goes before to the Lord, the wife ought to follow. What I say, that the wife ought to follow, is in this: if she sees her husband standing before God. Otherwise let us ascend to a higher grade of understanding and let us say that the husband in us is the rational sense, and the wife, who is joined to it as to a husband, is our flesh. Let the flesh therefore always follow the rational sense, nor let it ever come to such sloth that the rational sense, brought into subjection, obeys the flesh flowing loose in luxury and pleasures. "Sarah" therefore "was standing behind Abraham." But we can also perceive something mystical in this passage, if we see how in Exodus "God went before in a pillar of fire by night and in a pillar of cloud by day," and the synagogue of the Lord followed after him. Thus therefore I understand that Sarah too followed, or stood, "behind Abraham." What is said after these things? "And they were both," it says, "elders"—that is, old—"and advanced in their days." As far as pertains to the age of the body, many before them had led a life of more numerous years, yet none was called an elder. Whence it seems that this name is ascribed to the saints not by reason of longevity, but of maturity.
Genesis 18:21 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.5
What then after so great and such a banquet, which Abraham displayed to the Lord and to the angels under the tree of vision? The guests set out. "Abraham however was escorting" it says "them and was walking with them. But the Lord said: I will not hide from Abraham my servant what I am going to do. For Abraham shall become a great and numerous nation, and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. For he knew that he would command his sons, and they will keep the ways of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may fulfill for Abraham the things which he indicated to him. And he said: the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is filled up, and their sins are exceedingly great. I have therefore come down, to see whether they are being consummated according to their cry which comes to me; but if not, that I may know." These are the words of the divine Scripture. Let us therefore now see what in these things is worthy to be understood. "I have come down," he says, "that I may see." When responses are conveyed to Abraham, God is not said to come down, but to stand over him, as we expounded above: "three men stood," it says, "over him." But now, because the cause of sinners is being dealt with, God is said to come down. See that you do not perceive an ascent and descent of place. For frequently this is found in the divine letters, as in the prophet Micah: "behold," he says, "the Lord has gone out from his holy place and has come down and will tread upon the high places of the earth." God therefore is said to come down, when he deigns to have care of human frailty. Which is to be understood more especially of our Lord and Savior, who "did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." He came down therefore. "For no one else has ascended into heaven, except him who came down from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven." For the Lord came down not only to care for, but also to bear, the things which are ours. "For he took the form of a servant," and although he himself is of invisible nature, as being equal to the Father, yet he took a visible appearance, "and was found in appearance as a man." But even when he came down, to some he is below, but to others he ascends and is above. For to the chosen Apostles he ascended "into a high mountain, and there he is transformed before them." To those therefore whom he teaches about the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, he is above; but to the crowds and the Pharisees, whom he reproaches for their sins, he is below and is there with them, where there is hay. But he could not be transformed below, but ascended above with those who could follow him, and there he is transformed.
Genesis 18:21 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.6
"I have come down therefore," he says, "that I may see whether they are being consummated according to their cry which comes to me. But if not, that I may know." From this saying the heretics are accustomed to assail my God, saying: behold, the God of the law did not know what was being done in Sodom, unless he had come down to see, and had sent those who might find out. But let us, who are commanded to fight the battles of the Lord, sharpen against them "the sword of the word of God" and meet them for battle. Let us stand in the battle line "girded in our loins with truth," and at the same time "bearing before us the shield of faith," let us receive their venomous darts of disputations and, aiming them back more carefully, hurl them against those very men. For such are the battles of the Lord which David and the rest of the patriarchs fought. Let us stand against them on behalf of our brothers. "For it is better for me to die" than that they should snatch and plunder any of my brothers and, by the clever theft of words, lead away captive "the little ones" and those still nursing in Christ. But with the perfect they will be able neither to join hand nor will they dare to come into the contest. We therefore, first entreating the Lord and aided by your prayers, will undertake against them the battle of the word. We say therefore with confidence that according to the Scriptures God does not know all. God does not know sin, and God does not know sinners; those estranged from himself he does not recognize. Hear the Scripture saying: "The Lord has known those who are his, and: let everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." The Lord knows his own, but the wicked and the impious he does not know. Hear the Savior saying: "Depart from me all you workers of iniquity, I have not known you." And again Paul says: "If anyone among you is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write are the Lord's. But he who is ignorant, is ignored." But we say these things not perceiving anything blasphemous about God, as you do, nor ascribing ignorance to him, but we understand it thus, that those whose deed is unworthy of God are also deemed unworthy of the knowledge of God. For God does not deign to know him who is turned away from him and is ignorant of him. And therefore the Apostle says that "he who is ignorant, is ignored." Under such an appearance, therefore, it is now said also concerning those who dwell in Sodom, that, if indeed "their deeds are being consummated according to the cry" which ascends to God, they are deemed unworthy of his knowing; but if there is in them any conversion, if even ten just men be found in them, then at last God knows them. And therefore he said: "but if not, that I may know." He did not say, that I may know what they do, but that I may know them and make them worthy of my knowledge, if I should find any just among them, if I should find any repenting, if any such as I ought to know. Finally, because no one who repented, no one who was converted, was found other than Lot, he alone is recognized, he alone is delivered from the burning. Neither do the kindred follow though admonished, nor the neighbors, nor those nearby; no one wished to recognize the clemency of God, no one to flee to his mercy; and therefore no one is recognized. These things indeed against those who "speak iniquity on high." But let us give effort that our deeds be made such, our manner of life such, that we may be held worthy of the knowledge of God, that he may deign to know us, that we may be held worthy of the knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ and of the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, so that, recognized by the Trinity, we too may deserve to recognize the sacrament of the Trinity fully and wholly and perfectly, the Lord Jesus Christ revealing it to us, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 19:1 — SELECTIONS ON GENESIS
Lot was not inside Sodom "but at the gate." I might have said, just as Abraham was sitting outside his tent, out of hospitality, even at an inconvenient time (for it was the middle of the day) on the lookout for travelers, so his relative and the imitator of his morality "was sitting at the gate" ready to invite those passing through the land, even though evening had now come. For he surely knew the impiety of the Sodomites and that there was no rest for the stranger in that place.
Genesis 19:17-22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 56
For as it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For those who understand the plain text of the present words, whether they wish to understand it spiritually or simply, it is consistent to say concerning the consummation of this world that "it shall come suddenly," like one who has already fallen sick beforehand with a sickness fit to make manifest his coming corruption. For this is shown especially from what he says, that the coming of the Son of man will be like the days of Noah; for then all things that were upon the earth suddenly perished. But whoever wishes to say that the consummation of the world will happen gradually will say that likewise it happened in the days of Noah. For with the rain descending for forty days and forty nights, it followed that those first perished who dwelt in the lower parts of the earth, and after them those who dwelt somewhat in the higher parts, and thus last of all those who dwelt in the highest mountains. So too (he says) in the consummation of the world, when the fire has descended, it will indeed begin from the more elevated places and gradually descend to the lower. But Luke, subjoining also the similitude of the fire of Sodom, gives us occasion to understand that the consummation is to come suddenly. But someone will say that by this it is declared that that rain, or that fire, did not happen according to the order of nature, but on account of the abundance of the sins of men. In two ways, then, is the coming corruption of the world reckoned: in one way according to a natural descent of fire, in another according to the judgment of God. But the Gentiles do not say that those sins were the burning, or the cause of that burning, but that it was the power of fire. The divine discourses, however, teach that all things are held and governed by God, and they do not blame the violence of fire, but proclaim it the will of God — of God who saves upon the earth those who are worthy of salvation in it, but destroys those in whom, on account of the abundance of iniquity, "charity grows cold." For the comparison with the fire of Sodom teaches most manifestly that the corruption of the world will be sudden. This is clear from what the angel said to Lot: "behold, I have admired your face in this word, that I will not destroy the city of which you have spoken; hasten therefore to be saved there; for I cannot do anything until you go thither." You see that that fire which was sent upon Sodom was held back by the divine will, until Lot entered into Zoar. So I think it will be also in the consummation (according as Lot too was saved), that then that fire of the consummation will lay hold of the world according to the judgment of God, when the saved righteous shall shine "as the sun in the kingdom of their Father": then "they will gather the wicked out of the kingdom of Christ and cast them into the furnace of fire." For how is it not manifest that the corruption of the world will be sudden, from what he says: they will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, which are signs of peace and security? For famines and pestilences will perhaps be some time before the consummation; but around the consummation itself there will be neither famine nor war. And how are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, buying and selling to be understood, unless it is so ordered? But this too makes it manifest, what the Apostle says: "that the day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night. When they shall say: peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pain of childbirth upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape"; for he teaches us that the day of c…
Genesis 19:17-22 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.1
The angels sent for the overthrow of Sodom, though they were eager to hasten the business enjoined upon them, first take care of Lot their host, so that out of regard for his hospitality they might rescue him from the impending destruction by fire. Hear this, you who shut your houses against strangers; hear this, you who shun a guest as though he were an enemy. Lot dwelt in Sodom. We do not read of other good deeds of his; his hospitality alone, arising from habitual practice, is recorded. He escapes the fires, he escapes the flames, for this reason alone, that he threw open his house to guests. The angels entered a hospitable house; the fire entered the houses shut against guests. Let us see, then, what the angels say to their host in return for the offices of hospitality. "On the mountain," he says, "save your soul, lest perhaps you be caught." Lot was indeed hospitable, and, as Scripture bore witness to him, he escaped destruction by receiving the angels into his lodging. But he was not so perfect that, upon coming out of Sodom, he could at once ascend the mountain; for it belongs to the perfect to say: "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall come my help." This man, therefore, was neither such a one as ought to perish among the Sodomites, nor was he so great that he could dwell with Abraham in the loftier places. For if he had been such, Abraham would never have said to him: "If you go to the right, I will go to the left, or if you go to the left, I will go to the right," nor would the dwellings of Sodom have pleased him. He was, therefore, a kind of middle sort between the perfect and the lost. And knowing that it was not suited to his strength to ascend the mountain, he devoutly and humbly excuses himself, saying: "I cannot be saved on the mountain, but behold this city is small, here I shall be saved, and it is not small." And having entered Segor, the small city, he is saved in it. And after this he ascended into the mountain with his daughters. For he could not have ascended into the mountain from Sodom, although it is written of the land of Sodom, before it was overthrown, at the time when Lot chose it for his dwelling, that it "was like the paradise of God and like the land of Egypt." And yet — to make use of a small digression — what likeness can there seem to be between the paradise of God and the land of Egypt, that Sodom should be compared equally to both? But I think this: that before Sodom sinned, while it still kept the simplicity of an uncontaminated life, it was "like the paradise of God"; but when it began to be discolored and darkened by the stains of sins, it became "like the land of Egypt." But we also inquire into this: since indeed the prophet says that "your sister Sodom shall be restored to her former state," whether her restoration also admits of this, that she be "like the paradise of God," or only "like the land of Egypt." For my part I doubt whether the sins of Sodom can be boiled down so far and her crimes purged to such a degree that their restoration be so great as to be compared not only to the land of Egypt but even to the paradise of God. Yet those who wish to affirm this will press us, chiefly from that phrase which seems to be added to this promise; for he did not say "Sodom shall be restored" and stop there, but he said: "Sodom shall be restored to her former state." And they will maintain that her former state was not "like the land of Egypt," but "like the paradise of God."
Genesis 19:26 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.2
But let us return to Lot, who, fleeing the destruction of Sodom with his wife and daughters, having received from the angels the command not to look back, was making his way toward Segor. But his wife becomes forgetful of the precept, "she looks back," she breaks the law imposed upon her, "she is made a pillar of salt." Do we suppose there was so much wickedness in this deed committed, that, because the woman looked back after herself, she incurred the destruction which by the divine favor she seemed to have escaped? For what great crime was there, if the anxious mind of the woman looked back to where she was terrified by the excessive crackling of the flames? But because "the law is spiritual" and the things that befell the ancients "befell them as a figure," let us see whether perhaps Lot, who did not look back, is the rational sense and the manly spirit, while the wife here holds the image of the flesh. For it is the flesh that always looks back to vices, which, when the spirit strives toward salvation, looks back and seeks after pleasures. Hence indeed the Lord also said: "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God," and he adds: "Remember Lot's wife." And that "she is made a pillar of salt" seems set forth as an indication of her folly. For salt is put in place of prudence, which she lacked. Lot, therefore, pressed on to Segor, and there, having for a little while gathered the strength which he could not have in Sodom, he ascended into the mountain and dwelt there, as Scripture says, "he and his two daughters with him."
Genesis 19:30-38 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.5
But I know that some, as far as concerns allegory, have drawn Lot to the person of the Lord and his daughters to the two testaments. But whoever knows what Scripture says about the Ammonites and Moabites, who descend from the race of Lot, I do not know whether he would gladly accept this. For how will he be able to fit to Christ the fact that those who are begotten of his seed "even unto the third and fourth generation shall not enter into the church of the Lord"? But we, as far as we are able to understand, set Lot as a figure of the law. And let it not seem incongruous that among us the law is declined in the feminine gender, since it keeps the masculine gender in Greek. His wife we set as that people which, having gone forth from Egypt and been freed from the Red Sea and the persecution of Pharaoh as though from the fires of Sodom, again looked back, longing for the flesh and "the pots and onions of Egypt and the cucumbers," and fell in the desert, having itself also become a memorial of concupiscence in the wilderness. So then the law lost that first people as it looked back like Lot, and left its wife behind. Coming from there, Lot dwells in Segor, of which he says: "This city is small, and my soul shall be saved in it, and it is not small." Let us see, then, what, as far as concerns the law, is the "city small and not small." A city is so called from the association of many, in that it brings together and holds in one the lives of very many. These, therefore, who dwell in the law, have a small and petty way of life, so long as they understand the law according to the letter. For there is nothing great in observing carnally the sabbaths and new moons and the circumcision of the flesh and the distinctions of foods. But if anyone begins to understand spiritually, those very observances, which according to the letter were small and petty, according to the spirit will not be small but great. After these things, therefore, Lot ascends into the mountain and there "dwells in a cave," as Scripture says, "he and his two daughters." And the law too must be thought to have ascended, in that adornment came to it through the temple built by Solomon, when it was made indeed "the house of God, the house of prayer," but evil inhabitants made it "a den of robbers." "Lot dwelt," therefore, "in a cave, and his two daughters." These two daughters the prophet plainly describes, saying that Oolla and Ooliba are two sisters, and that Oolla is "Judah" and Ooliba is "Samaria." The people, therefore, divided into two parts, made two daughters of the law. These, eager that a carnal offspring be propagated and that the strength of an earthly kingdom be fortified by a numerous posterity, lulling their father asleep and bringing sleep upon him — that is, covering and overshadowing his spiritual sense — draw from him only the understanding of the flesh. Thence they conceive, thence they bring forth such sons as the father would neither perceive nor acknowledge. For neither was this the meaning nor this the will of the law, that it should beget carnally, but the law is lulled to sleep, that such a posterity may be begotten as "may not enter into the church of the Lord." "For the Ammonites," it says, "and the Moabites shall not enter into the church of the Lord even unto the third and fourth generation and unto the age"; signifying that the carnal generation of the law does not enter into the church of Christ, neither in the third generation for the Trinity, nor in the fourth for the Gospels, nor unto the age, unless perhaps after the present age, when "the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, and so all Israel shall have been made safe." These things, as far as we could, we have carved out according to the allegorical understanding concerning Lot and his wife and his daughters, prejudging nothing against those who may have been able to understand something more sacred about this.
Genesis 19:30-38 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.6
But in that, in the moral treatment above, we drew Lot himself to the rational sense and the manly spirit, but his wife, who looked back, we called the flesh given over to concupiscences and pleasures — do not, O hearer, take these things carelessly. For you ought to observe that perhaps even when you have fled the flames of the world and escaped the fires of the flesh, even when you have surpassed "the small and not small city of Segor," which is a kind of middle and civic advance, and have ascended to the height of knowledge as it were to certain peaks of the mountain: see lest those two daughters lie in wait for you, who do not depart from you but follow you even when you ascend to the mountain — that is, vainglory and her elder sister, pride. See lest those daughters, while you are lulled and sleeping, while you seem to yourself neither to perceive nor to understand, clasp you in their embraces. They are for this reason called daughters, because they do not come upon us from without, but proceed from us and from a kind of integrity, as it were, of our own deeds. Watch, therefore, as much as you can, and take care that you do not beget sons from these, because those who are born of these "shall not enter into the church of the Lord." But you, if you wish to beget, beget in the spirit, since "he who sows in the spirit shall reap of the spirit life eternal." If you wish to embrace, embrace wisdom and "say that wisdom is your sister," that wisdom too may say of you: "He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, this one is my brother and sister and mother." Which wisdom is Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 19:31-32 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.4
But I think the purpose of his daughters also must be more carefully considered, lest perhaps they too deserve to receive not so much blame as is supposed. For Scripture relates that they said to one another: "Our father," it says, "is old, and there is no one upon the earth to come in to us, as befits all the earth. Come and let us make our father drunk with wine and let us sleep with him and raise up seed from our father." As far as concerns the things which Scripture says about them, it seems in some way to make satisfaction even on their behalf. For it appears that the daughters of Lot had learned certain things about the consummation of the world which was to threaten through fire, but, being girls, they had not learned it wholly and perfectly; they did not know that, when the regions of Sodom were laid waste by fire, much space still remained untouched in the world. They had heard that at the end of the age the earth and all the elements were to be boiled away by the burning of fire. They saw the fire, they saw the sulphurous flames, they saw all things laid waste. They saw too that their own mother had not been saved; they suspected that some such thing had happened as they had heard of in the times of Noah, and that they alone had been preserved with their parent for the restoring of the posterity of mortals. They therefore conceive a desire for the recovery of the human race and suppose that from themselves must be given the beginning of restoring the age. And although the stealing of intercourse with their father seemed to them a great crime, yet a graver impiety seemed to them to be, if by keeping their chastity they should destroy the hope, as they thought, of human posterity. For this reason, therefore, they enter upon a plan with less blame, as I judge, though with a greater hope and reasoning: they soften and dissolve their father's sadness or sternness with wine. Entering on separate nights, each singly receives conception from the man who is unaware; they do not repeat it further, they do not seek it again. Where here is the fault of lust, where is the crime of incest shown to be? How shall that be attributed to vice which is not repeated in the deed? I fear to speak out what I feel; I fear, I say, lest the incest of these women may have been chaster than the chastity of many. Let women placed in marriages examine and question themselves, whether they approach their husbands for this reason alone, that they may receive children, whether after conception they desist. For these women, who seem to be accused of incest, once they had obtained conception, did not approach their husband's bed any further. But some women — for we do not brand all alike, but there are certain ones who, like animals without any discretion, unceasingly serve their lust — such women I would not compare even to the dumb beasts. For the cattle themselves also know, when they have conceived, no longer to grant the males intercourse with them. Divine Scripture too marks such women, when it says: "Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding," and again: "They have become stallion horses." But you, O people of God, "who love Christ in incorruption," understand the word of the Apostle, by which he says: "Whether you eat, or drink, or do anything else, do all to the glory of God." For in that, after eating and drinking, he says: "or do anything else," he marked with a modest expression the immodest affairs of marriage, showing that these too are conducted to the glory of God, if they are managed with a view to posterity alone. We have pursued, as far as we could, both the faults of Lot and his daughters and again their excuses.
Genesis 19:33-35 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.3
After these things there is now related that most notorious tale, in which it is written that his daughters by craft stole intercourse with their father. In which matter I do not know whether anyone can so excuse Lot as to make him free from sin. Nor again do I think he should be so accused that he must be made guilty of so grave an incest. For I do not find that he lay in wait or violently seized the chastity of his daughters, but rather that he suffered a snare and was circumvented by craft. Yet neither again would he have been ensnared by the girls, had he not been able to be made drunk. Whence he seems to me to be found partly blameworthy, partly excusable. For he can be excused, in that he is free from the crime of concupiscence and pleasure, and because he is neither shown to have wished it himself nor to have consented to those who wished it; but he is subject to blame, in that he could be deceived, in that he indulged too much in wine, and did this not once but a second time. For Scripture itself too seems to me in some way to make satisfaction on his behalf, when it says: "For he did not know when he slept with them and when he arose." This is not said of the daughters, who by design and craft deceive their father. He, however, was so lulled to sleep by the wine that he did not know that he had slept with the elder daughter nor with the younger. Hear what drunkenness does; hear how great a crime intemperance procures. Hear and beware, you for whom this evil is not a matter of accusation but of habit. Drunkenness deceived him whom Sodom did not deceive. He is burned by the flames of women, whom the sulphurous flame did not burn. Lot, therefore, was deceived by craft, not by will. Therefore he is a kind of middle sort between sinners and the just; seeing that he descended indeed from the kindred of Abraham, yet dwelt in Sodom. For even this, that he escapes from Sodom, as Scripture indicates, pertains more to the honor of Abraham than to the merit of Lot. For thus it says: "And it came to pass," it says, "when God was destroying the cities of Sodom, God remembered Abraham and cast Lot out of that land."
Genesis 20:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.1
The history of the book of Genesis has been read to us, where it is related that, after the appearance of the three men, after the overthrow of Sodom, and after Lot was preserved either by the merit of hospitality or for the sake of his kinship with Abraham, "Abraham set out from there," it says, "toward the southwest," and came to the king of the Philistines. It is also related that he made a compact with Sarah his wife, that she should not say she was Abraham's wife, but his sister; and that king Abimelech took her, but God came to Abimelech by night and said to him: "Because you have not touched this woman," he says, "and I did not permit you to touch her," and the rest. But after this Abimelech gave her back to her husband, and at the same time rebuked Abraham, because he had not confessed the truth to him. It is also related that Abraham, as a prophet, prayed for Abimelech, "and the Lord healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants." And it was a care to the almighty God that he should heal even the maidservants of Abimelech, "since indeed," it says, "in closing he had closed up their wombs, that they might not bear children." But they began to bear children on account of the prayer of Abraham. If anyone wishes to hear and understand these things according to the letter alone, he ought to have his audience with the Jews rather than with the Christians. But if he wishes to be a Christian and a disciple of Paul, let him hear him saying that "the law is spiritual" and, when he was speaking of Abraham and his wife and sons, declaring these things to be "allegorical." And although it is not easy for any of us to find out what sort of allegories they ought to contain, nevertheless he ought to pray that "the veil may be taken away from his heart, if there be anyone who endeavors to be converted to the Lord" — "for the Lord is a spirit" — so that he himself may take away the veil of the letter and open up the light of the spirit, and we may be able to say that "beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord."
Genesis 20:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.1
I think, therefore, that Sarah, who is interpreted 'princess' or 'one exercising rule', holds the figure of ἀρετή, which is the virtue of the soul. This virtue, then, is joined and cleaves to a wise and faithful man, just as also that wise man who said concerning wisdom: "I sought to bring her to me as my bride." Therefore for this reason it is said by God to Abraham: "in all things whatsoever Sarah shall say to you, hearken to her voice." Which surely is not fittingly said in a bodily marriage, since indeed that sentence was uttered by divine authority which says to the woman concerning the man: "your turning shall be to him, and he shall have dominion over you." If, then, the man is said to be lord of the woman, how could it in turn be said to the man: "in all things whatsoever Sarah shall say to you, hearken to her voice"? If, then, anyone has taken virtue to himself in marriage, let him hearken to her voice in all things in which she gives him counsel. Therefore Abraham no longer wishes his wife to be called virtue. For so long as virtue is called a wife, she is one's own and can be shared with no one. And it is fitting that, until we come to perfection, the virtue of the soul should be within us and be our own; but when we have come to perfection, so that we are fit to teach others also, then we no longer shut virtue up within our bosom as a wife, but join her also, as a sister, to others who wish for her. To these, finally, who are perfect, the divine word will say: "say that wisdom is your sister." According to this, therefore, Abraham also said that Sarah was his sister. He permits, then, as one now perfect, that whoever wishes may have virtue.
Genesis 20:4 — SELECTIONS ON GENESIS
The expression "had not touched" is emphatic, like the statement "it is good for a man not to touch a woman," which means, even apart from sexual union, in no other way either to gaze at or to touch a woman with passion. God, of course, did not permit Abimelech to touch Sarah, though perhaps too because he had perfect self-control in all matters. Such a quality is truly a divine gift.
Genesis 20:5 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.2
Yet Pharaoh too once wished to take Sarah, but he did not wish it "with a clean heart"; and virtue cannot come together with anything except purity of heart. Therefore, then, Scripture reports that "the Lord afflicted Pharaoh with great and grievous afflictions." For virtue could not dwell with an exterminator — for this is what Pharaoh means in our tongue. But let us see what Abimelech said to the Lord. "You know, Lord," he says, "that I have done this with a clean heart." This Abimelech acts far otherwise than Pharaoh. He is not so ignorant and foul, but knows that he must prepare a "clean heart" for virtue. And because with a pure heart he wished to receive virtue, therefore God heals him when Abraham prays for him. And not only him, but He heals his maidservants too.
Genesis 20:6 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.2
But what is it that Scripture added: "and the Lord," it says, "did not permit him to touch her"? If Sarah holds the figure of virtue and Abimelech wished to receive virtue "with a clean heart," what is the meaning of the saying that "the Lord did not permit him to touch her"? Abimelech is interpreted 'my father is king.' It seems to me, then, that this Abimelech holds the figure of the studious and wise of the world, who, giving their labor to philosophy, although they have not attained the whole and perfect rule of piety, have nevertheless perceived that God is the father and king of all, that is, one who has begotten and governs all things. These men, then, as far as ethics — that is, moral philosophy — is concerned, are proved to have to some extent given their labor even to purity of heart, and with their whole mind and whole zeal to have sought the inspiration of divine virtue. But this "God did not permit" them "to touch." For this grace was being prepared to be handed on to the nations not through Abraham, who, although he was great, was nevertheless a servant, but through Christ. Therefore, then, although Abraham hastened for that to be fulfilled through himself and in himself, which was said to him, that "in you all the nations shall be blessed," nevertheless the promise is set for him in Isaac, that is, in Christ, as the Apostle says: "He did not say: and to seeds, as in many, but as in one: and to your seed, who is Christ." Yet "the Lord heals Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants."
Genesis 20:17-18 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.3
But it does not seem to me pointless that mention is made not only of Abimelech's wife but also of his female servants, especially in this, that it says: "God healed them and they were bearing children. For he had closed them up, that they should not bear." As far as we are able to perceive in such difficult passages, we suppose that Abimelech's wife can be called natural philosophy, but his maidservants the diverse and varied inventions of dialectic according to the character of the several schools. Meanwhile Abraham desires to impart the gift of divine power even to the nations, but the time has not yet come for the grace of God to pass over from the former people to the nations. For the Apostle too, though under another guise and another figure, nevertheless says: "that a woman is bound to the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is freed from the law, so that she is no longer an adulteress if she be with another man." Therefore the law of the letter must first die, so that at last the soul, now free, may wed the spirit and obtain the marriage of the new testament. But this present time, in which we now are, is the time of the calling of the nations and of the death of the law, in which free souls, now released from the law of the husband, may wed a new husband, Christ. But if you wish to be taught how the law is dead, consider and see: where now are the sacrifices, where now the altar, where the temple, where the purifications, where the solemn feast of the Passover? Is not the law dead in all these things? Or, if these friends and defenders of the letter are able, let them keep the letter of the law. According to this order of allegory, then, Pharaoh, who is an unclean man and a destroyer, could by no means receive Sarah, that is, virtue. Further, Abimelech, that is, one who lived purely and philosophically, could indeed receive her, because he sought "with a pure heart," but "the time had not yet come." Virtue therefore remains with Abraham, remains in circumcision, until the time comes when, in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom "dwells all the fullness of the deity bodily," whole and perfect virtue may pass over to the Church of the nations. Then, therefore, both the house of Abimelech and his maidservants, whom the Lord healed, will bear children for the Church. For this is the time in which "the barren woman" bears, and in which "the children of the desolate are many, more than of her who has a husband." For the Lord opened the womb of the barren woman and she was made fruitful, so that she bears a nation "at once." But the saints also cry out and say: "Lord, out of fear of you we have conceived in the womb and have given birth; we have wrought the spirit of your salvation upon the earth." Whence Paul likewise says: "my little children, of whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you." Such children, then, does every Church of God travail with and beget. For "he who sows in the flesh shall also reap corruption from the flesh." But these are children of the spirit, of whom the Apostle also says: "that a woman shall be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith and chastity." Let the Church of God, therefore, so understand its births, so receive its generations, so uphold the deeds of the fathers with a fitting and honorable interpretation, so not disfigure the words of the Holy Spirit with foolish and Jewish fables, but assign them full of honor, full of virtue and usefulness. Otherwise, what edification will there be for us who read that Abraham, so great a patriarch, not only lied to King Abimelech, but also betrayed the chastity of his wife? What does the wife of so great a patriarch edify us, if she be thought to have been exposed to defilements through her husband's connivance? Let the Jews suppose these things, and any who are with them friends of the letter, not of the spirit; but let us, "comparing spiritual things with spiritual," be made spiritual b…
Genesis 21:4 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 7.1
Moses is read to us in the church. Let us beseech the Lord that, according to the word of the Apostle, it may not be that even among us, "when Moses is read, a veil is placed over our heart." For it was read that Abraham begot a son, Isaac, when he was a hundred years old. "And Sarah said," it says, "who will announce to Abraham that Sarah is nursing a boy?" "And then," it says, "Abraham circumcised the boy on the eighth day." Abraham does not celebrate this boy's birthday, but he celebrates the day of his weaning from milk, "and he makes a great feast." What then? Do we suppose that it was the Holy Spirit's purpose to write and narrate histories, how a boy was weaned from milk and a feast was held, how he played and did the other things children do? Or is it rather to be thought that through these things He wishes to lead us to something divine and worthy for the human race to learn from the words of God?
Genesis 21:6 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 7.1
Isaac is interpreted as 'laughter' or 'joy'. Who then is he who begets such a son? Surely that one who said of those whom he had begotten through the gospel: "for you are my joy and my crown of boasting." Over sons of this sort, when they have been weaned from milk, there is a feast and great gladness—over those who "no longer need milk, but strong food, who by reason of their capacity to receive it have their senses exercised to discern good or evil." Over such as these, when they are weaned from milk, a great feast is held. But over those a feast cannot be presented nor gladness had, of whom the Apostle says: "I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for you were not yet able, but neither indeed are you able even now. And I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to little ones in Christ." Let those tell us, who wish the divine scriptures to be understood simply, what this means: "I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to little ones in Christ; I gave you milk to drink, not meat"? Can these things be taken simply?
Genesis 21:8 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.1
"Isaac," says the Scripture, "was growing" and being strengthened — that is, Abraham's joy was growing as he looked not "at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." For Abraham did not rejoice over things present, nor over the riches of the world and the doings of this age. But do you wish to hear from what source Abraham rejoiced? Hear the Lord saying to the Jews: "Abraham your father desired to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." Through this, therefore, "Isaac was growing" — through that vision of Abraham's by which he saw the day of Christ, and by the hope that is in him, which heaped up his joys. And would that you too might become Isaacs and be a joy to your mother the Church.
Genesis 21:9-10 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 7.2
But for the meantime let us return to the point from which we digressed. Abraham rejoices "and makes a great feast on the day on which he weaned Isaac his son from milk." After these things Isaac plays, and he plays with Ishmael. Sarah is indignant that the son of the slave-woman plays with the son of the free-woman, and she judges that play to be a ruin, gives counsel to Abraham, and says: "Cast out the slave-woman and her son. For the son of the slave-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac." How these things ought to be understood, I will not now expound. The Apostle discoursed thus, saying: "Tell me, you who have read the law, have you not heard the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one of the slave-woman, and one of the free-woman. But he indeed who was of the slave-woman was born according to the flesh; but he who was of the free-woman, through the promise. Which things are allegorical." What then? Was Isaac not "born according to the flesh"? Did Sarah not bear him? Was he not circumcised? This very thing, that he played with Ishmael, did he not play in the flesh? For this is what is marvelous in the Apostle's understanding, that of things which cannot be doubted to have been done according to the flesh, he says that these are "allegorical"; so that we may know what is to be done in the rest, and especially in those things in which the historical narrative seems to indicate nothing worthy of the divine law. Ishmael therefore is born the son of the slave-woman "according to the flesh." But Isaac, who was "the son of the free-woman," is not born "according to the flesh," but "according to the promise." And the Apostle says of them that "Hagar begot into servitude" the carnal people; but Sarah, who was free, begot a people who is not "according to the flesh," but has been called into liberty, with which "liberty Christ freed him." For he himself said: "if the Son shall free you, you shall be truly free." But let us see what the Apostle adds to these things in his exposition: "but as then," he says, "he who was according to the flesh persecuted him who was according to the spirit, so also now." See how the Apostle teaches us that in all things the flesh is opposed to the spirit, whether that carnal people is opposed to this spiritual people, or even among ourselves, if anyone is still carnal, he is opposed to the spiritual. For you too, if you live "according to the flesh" and conduct yourself "according to the flesh," are a son of Hagar and therefore are opposed to those who live "according to the spirit." Or even if we search within ourselves, we find "the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these opposed to one another in turn," and we find "a law in our members warring against the law of our mind and leading us captive in the law of sin." Do you see how great are the battles of the flesh against the spirit? There is still yet another battle, more violent than almost all these, namely that those who understand the law "according to the flesh" are opposed to those who perceive "according to the spirit" and persecute them. Why? Because "the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God. For it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually discerned." And you therefore, if you have in yourself "the fruit of the spirit, which is joy, love, peace, patience," can be Isaac, not "born according to the flesh," but "according to the promise," and you are "the son of the free-woman," if however you too can say according to Paul: "for walking in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty unto God for the destruction of fortifications), destroying counsels and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." If you can be such that even that saying of the Apostle may worthily be fitted to you, which says: "but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit,…
Genesis 21:9-10 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 7.4
There are therefore two sons of Abraham, "one of the slave-woman and one of the free-woman," yet both are sons of Abraham, although both are not also of the free-woman. Therefore he too who is born of the slave-woman does not indeed become heir with the son of the free-woman, yet he receives gifts and is not dismissed empty. He too receives a blessing, but "the son of the free-woman" receives the promise. That one too is made "into a great nation," but this one into a people of adoption. Spiritually therefore all indeed who come through faith to the knowledge of God can be called sons of Abraham; but among these there are some who cleave to God out of love, others out of dread and fear of the judgment to come. Whence also the Apostle John says: "he who fears is not perfect in love; but perfect love casts out fear." That one therefore who "is perfect in love" is both born of Abraham and is "the son of the free-woman." But he who keeps the commandments not with perfect love, but with dread of future punishment and fear of torments, is indeed himself also a son of Abraham, and receives gifts himself too, that is, the reward of his work (because also "he who shall give only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, his reward shall not perish"), yet he is inferior to that one who is perfect not in servile fear, but in the liberty of love. Something of this kind the Apostle also shows, when he says: "as long indeed as the heir is a little one, he differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, but he is under guardians and stewards, until the time appointed by the father." A "little one" therefore is he who is nourished with "milk" and "is without share in the word of righteousness" and cannot receive the "solid food" of divine wisdom and the knowledge of the law, who cannot "compare spiritual things with spiritual," who cannot yet say: "but when I became a man, I put away the things that were of a little one." That one therefore "differs nothing from a servant." But if, "leaving the word of the beginning of Christ," he is borne toward perfection and "seeks the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not the things that are upon the earth" and "contemplates not the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen," nor in the divine scriptures follows "the letter that kills," but "the spirit that gives life": he will be without doubt of those who do not receive "the spirit of servitude again in fear, but the spirit of adoption, in which they cry Abba, Father."
Genesis 21:9-10 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 7.3
And yet, according to the things that are written, I do not see what moved Sarah to order the son of the slave-woman to be expelled. He was playing with her son Isaac. What harm had he done or what injury, if he was playing? As though this ought not to have been even pleasing at that age, that the son of the slave-woman should play with the son of the free-woman. Then next I also wonder at the Apostle, who pronounced this play a persecution, saying: "but as then he who was according to the flesh persecuted him who was according to the spirit, so also now," since indeed no persecution of Ishmael stirred up against Isaac is recorded; unless it be this one play of infancy alone. But let us see what Paul understood in this play and at what Sarah was indignant. Above, expounding spiritually, we placed Sarah in the position of virtue. If therefore the flesh, whose person Ishmael bears, who is born according to the flesh, flatters the spirit, which is Isaac, and deals with him in enticing deceptions, if it allures with delights, softens with pleasures, this sort of play of the flesh with the spirit offends Sarah most of all, who is virtue, and Paul judges enticements of this sort to be a most bitter persecution. And you therefore, O hearer of these things, do not think that persecution alone which occurs when by the fury of the gentiles you are compelled to sacrifice to idols; but if perchance the pleasure of the flesh allures you, if the enticement of lust plays with you, flee these, if you are a son of virtue, as the greatest persecution; for this reason too the Apostle says: "flee fornication." But also if injustice flatters you, so that "receiving the person of the powerful" and bent by favor toward him you bear a judgment that is not right, you ought to understand that under the appearance of play you suffer a flattering persecution from injustice. Indeed, throughout the individual kinds of malice, even if they are soft and delicate and like play, count it a persecution of the spirit, because in all these things virtue is offended.
Genesis 21:14 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 7.5
Let us see meanwhile what Abraham does, after Sarah was indignant. He casts out the slave-woman and her son, but nevertheless gives her a skin of water. For his mother does not have a well of living water, nor could the boy draw water from a well. Isaac has wells, for which he even endures conflicts against the Philistines; but Ishmael drinks water from a skin, but this skin, as a skin, fails, and therefore he thirsts and does not find a well. But you, who are "according to Isaac" a son "of the promise," "drink waters from your own fountains, and let not the waters from your wells flow forth outside, but let your waters run in your streets." But that one, "who was born according to the flesh," drinks water from a skin, and the water itself fails him and fails in many things. The skin is the letter of the law, from which that carnal people drinks, and thence takes understanding; which letter frequently fails him and cannot explain itself; for in many things the historical understanding suffers failure. But the Church drinks from the Evangelical and Apostolic fountains, which never fail, but "run in their streets," because in the breadth of the spiritual interpretation they always abound and flow. It drinks also "from wells," when it draws and searches out whatever deeper things there are from the law. On account of this mystery, I think, our Lord and Savior too said to the Samaritan woman, where, as if he were speaking with Hagar herself, he said: "everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but he who drinks of the water which I give him shall not thirst forever." But she says to the Savior: "give me, Lord, this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." After these things the Lord says to her: "he who believes," he says, "in me, there shall be made in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life."
Genesis 21:15-19 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 7.6
Hagar therefore "was wandering through the desert" with the boy, and the boy was weeping, and Hagar cast him away, saying, "let me not see the death of my son." After these things, when, being cast off, he had been as if about to die and had wept, the angel of the Lord is present to her "and opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well of living water." How can these things be referred to the history? For where do we find that Hagar had her eyes closed and that they were opened afterward? Is not the spiritual and mystical understanding in these things clearer than light, that the people who is "according to the flesh" has been cast off, and lies so long in hunger and thirst, enduring "not a hunger of bread nor a thirst of water, but a thirst for the word of God," until the eyes of the synagogue are opened? This is what the Apostle says is a "mystery," namely that "blindness has happened in part in Israel, until the fullness of the gentiles should enter in, and then all Israel should be saved." This then is the blindness in Hagar, who begot "according to the flesh," which remains in her so long, until "the veil of the letter be taken away" by the angel of God and she see "the living water." For now the Jews lie around the well itself, but their eyes are closed and they cannot drink from the well of the law and the prophets. But let us too beware, because frequently we too lie around the well "of living water," that is, around the divine scriptures, and we wander in them. We hold the books and we read, but we do not reach the spiritual sense. And therefore there is need of tears and unceasing prayer, that the Lord may open our eyes, because those blind men too who sat in Jericho, unless they had cried out to the Lord, their eyes would not have been opened. And why do I say, that our eyes may be opened, which are already open? For Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind. Our eyes therefore are open, and from the letter of the law the veil has been taken away. But I fear lest we ourselves close them again with a deeper sleep, while we do not keep watch in the spiritual understanding nor are anxious to shake off sleep from our eyes and contemplate the things that are spiritual, lest, being placed with the carnal people around the water itself, we wander; but rather let us keep watch and say with the prophet: "if I shall give sleep to my eyes, and slumber to my eyelids, or rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob." "To him be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 22:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.1
Lend your ears here, you who have drawn near to God, you who believe yourselves to be faithful, and consider more diligently how the faith of the faithful is proved by these things that have been read to us. "And it came to pass," it says, "after these words, God tempted Abraham and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he said: here I am." Observe each and every thing that is written. For in each single thing, if someone knows how to dig deep, he will find a treasure, and perhaps even where it is not expected the precious jewels of the mysteries lie hidden. This man was formerly called Abram, and nowhere do we read that God called him by this name or said to him: Abram, Abram. For he could not be called by God by a name that was to be abolished, but he calls him by this name that He Himself had bestowed, and He does not only call him by this name, but even doubles it.
Genesis 22:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.3
What after these things? "Go," He says, "into the high land, into one of the mountains that I will show you, and there you shall offer him as a burnt offering." Behold through each detail how the increases of the temptation come about. "Go into the high land." Could not Abraham have been led first with the boy to that high land and set first upon the mountain, whichever the Lord had chosen, and there be told to offer his son? But first he is told that he must offer his son, and then he is ordered to go "into the high land" and to ascend the mountain. To what does this look? So that while he walks, while he makes the journey, he may be torn apart along the whole way by his thoughts, so that here, with the command pressing hard, and there, with the affection for his only son struggling against it, he may be tortured. Therefore for this reason both the journey is enjoined and the ascent of the mountain, so that in all these things the affections and faith, the love of God and the love of the flesh, the pleasure of things present and the expectation of things to come, might receive room for the contest. He is sent therefore "into the high land," and the high land is not enough for the patriarch who is to accomplish so great a work for the Lord, but he is also ordered to ascend the mountain, namely so that, uplifted by faith, he may leave behind the earthly things and climb up to the things above.
Genesis 22:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.1
And when the other had answered, "here I am," He says to him: "take your most beloved son, whom you love, Isaac, and offer him to me. Go," He says, "into the high land, and there offer him as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will show you." Why God bestowed this name upon him and called him Abraham, He Himself has interpreted: "because," He says, "I have set you as a father of many nations." God gave him this promise when he had a son, Ishmael, but He promised him that in the son who would be born of Sarah this promise would be fulfilled. He had therefore kindled Abraham's own spirit into love of that son, not only for the sake of posterity, but also by the hope of the promises. But this son, in whom these great and marvelous promises were placed for him—this son, I say, in whom his name was called Abraham—he is commanded to offer as a "burnt offering" to the Lord upon one of the mountains. What do you say to this, O Abraham? What and what sort of thoughts are stirred in your heart? A voice has been uttered by God that would shake and prove your faith. What do you say to this? What do you think? What do you reconsider? Do you suppose you turn over in your heart the thought that, if in Isaac the promise was given to me, but I offer this one as a burnt offering, it remains that that promise is not to be hoped for? Or rather do you think these things and say that it is impossible for Him who promised to lie; whatever it may be, the promise will stand firm? But since I "am the least," I am not able to search out the thoughts of so great a patriarch, nor can I know what thoughts the voice of God, which had gone forth to tempt him, stirred in him, what feeling it brought when he was ordered to slay his only son. But since "the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets," Paul the Apostle, who through the spirit had learned, I believe, what mind, what counsel Abraham had carried out, indicated it, saying: "by faith Abraham did not hesitate, when he offered his only son, in whom he had received the promises, considering that God is able to raise him even from the dead." The Apostle therefore has disclosed to us the thoughts of the faithful man, that faith in the resurrection had already then begun to be held in Isaac. Abraham therefore hoped that Isaac would rise again and believed that would come to pass which had not yet been done. How then are they "sons of Abraham" who do not believe as accomplished in Christ what he believed as future in Isaac? Nay rather, that I may speak more openly, Abraham knew that he was prefiguring the image of the future truth; he knew that Christ would be born of his seed, who was both to be offered as the truer victim of the whole world and to rise again from the dead.
Genesis 22:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.2
But now meanwhile "God was tempting," it says, "Abraham, and He says to him: take your most beloved son, whom you love." For it had not been enough to say "son," but "most beloved" is also added. Let this be so too: why is "whom you love" still added further? But see the weight of the temptation. By dear and sweet appellations repeated again and often, the paternal affections are aroused, so that, with the memory of love awakening, the paternal right hand might be delayed from immolating the son, and the whole warfare of the flesh might fight back against the resolve of the mind. "Take," therefore, He says, "your most beloved son, whom you love, Isaac." Be it so, Lord, that You remind the father of his son; You add also "most beloved," the one You command to be slain. Let this suffice for the father's torment; You add again also "whom you love." Let there be for the parent in this too a threefold torment. What need is there yet that You should also mention "Isaac"? Did Abraham not know that this most beloved son of his, the one whom he loved, was called Isaac? But why is this added at this moment? So that Abraham might recall that You had said to him: "that in Isaac shall your seed be called and that in Isaac shall be your promises." A mention is made also of the name, so that the despair of the promises too, which were made under this name, might come upon him. But all these things, because God was tempting Abraham.
Genesis 22:3 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.4
"Abraham therefore rose in the morning, and saddled his she-ass, and cut wood for the burnt offering. And he took his son Isaac and two servants, and came to the place that God had told him, on the third day." Abraham rose in the morning (in that he added "in the morning," he wished perhaps to show that the beginning of light was shining in his heart), saddled his she-ass, prepared the wood, took his son. He does not deliberate, he does not reconsider, he does not share his counsel with any of men, but at once he sets out on the journey. "And he came," it says, "to the place that the Lord had told him, on the third day." I pass over now what sacred meaning "the third day" contains; I look at the wisdom and counsel of the One who was tempting. Was there thus no mountain nearby, since the whole thing was being done among the mountains, but the journey is drawn out over three days, and through the whole three days the paternal heart is tortured by cares that keep coming back, so that through all this space so prolonged the father might gaze upon his son, take food with him, and for so many nights the boy might hang in the embraces of his father, cling to his breast, lie in his lap? See to how great a degree the temptation is heaped up.
Genesis 22:4 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.4
Yet the third day is always made fitting for sacred mysteries. For when the people had gone out of Egypt, on the third day it offers sacrifice to God, and on the third day it is purified; and the resurrection of the Lord is on the third day; and many other mysteries are enclosed within this day.
Genesis 22:5 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.5
"Abraham," it says, "looking up saw the place from afar and said to his servants: sit here with the she-ass, but I and the boy will go as far as there, and when we have worshipped, we will return to you." He dismisses the servants. For the servants could not ascend with Abraham to the place of the burnt offering, which God had shown. "You," therefore, he says, "sit here, but I and the child will go; and when we have worshipped, we will return to you." Tell me, Abraham, do you truly say to the servants that you will worship and return with the child, or do you deceive? If you speak the truth, then you will not make him a burnt offering. If you deceive, it does not befit so great a patriarch to deceive. What state of mind, then, does this speech indicate in you? I speak the truth, he says, and I offer the boy as a burnt offering. For this reason I both carry the wood with me and return with him to you. For I believe, and this is my faith, that "God is able to raise him even from the dead."
Genesis 22:6 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.6
After these things, "Abraham took," it says, "the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son, and took the fire in his hands and the sword, and they went together." That Isaac himself carries for himself "the wood for the burnt offering," this is a figure that Christ also "Himself bore the cross for Himself," and yet to carry "the wood for the burnt offering" is the office of the priest. He becomes therefore himself both the victim and the priest. But also that which is added, "and they both went together," refers to this. For when Abraham as one about to sacrifice carried the fire and the knife, Isaac does not go after him, but with him, so that it might be shown that he performs the priesthood equally together with him.
Genesis 22:7 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.6
What after these things? "Isaac said," it says, "to Abraham his father: Father." And this too, uttered by the son at that moment, is a voice of temptation. For how do you think the son, about to be immolated, shook the father's heart by this voice? And although Abraham was rather rigid for faith's sake, yet he too returns the voice of affection and answered: "what is it, son?" And the other: "behold," he says, "the fire and the wood, where is the sheep for the burnt offering?"
Genesis 22:8 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.6
To this Abraham answered: "God will Himself provide for Himself a sheep for the burnt offering, son." Abraham's answer, sufficiently careful and cautious, moves me. I know not what he was seeing in the spirit, for he speaks not of the present but of the future: "God will Himself provide for Himself a sheep"; he answered with things future to the son asking about things present. For "the Lord will Himself provide for Himself a sheep" in Christ, because "wisdom itself has built itself a house" and "He Himself humbled Himself even unto death"; and whatever things you read of Christ, you will find done not by necessity but of His own accord.
Genesis 22:9 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.7
"They both went on therefore and came to the place that God had told him." Moses, when he had come to the place that God showed him, is not permitted to ascend, but before that it is said to him: "loose the strap of the sandal from your feet." To Abraham none of these things is said, nor to Isaac, but they ascend and do not put off their sandals. In which perhaps this is the reason: that Moses, although he was "great," yet was coming from Egypt, and there were certain bonds of mortality knotted to his feet. But Abraham and Isaac have none of these things, but come to the place; Abraham builds the altar, lays the wood upon the altar, binds the boy, prepares himself to slay him. Many of you are fathers in the Church of God, who hear these things. Do you suppose that some one of you acquires from the very narration of the history so much constancy, so much strength of soul, that, when perchance a son is lost by the common death owed to all, even if he be an only son, even if he be beloved, he may bring Abraham to himself as an example and set his greatness of soul before his eyes? And indeed that greatness of soul is not demanded of you, that you yourself should bind your son, yourself constrain him, yourself prepare the sword, yourself slay your only son. All these ministries are not required of you. Be at least constant in your resolve and mind, and fixed in faith offer your son to God with joy. Be the priest of your son's soul; but it does not befit a priest immolating to God to weep. Do you wish to see that this is demanded of you? In the Gospel the Lord says: "if you were sons of Abraham, you would surely do the works of Abraham." Behold, this is the work of Abraham. Do the works that Abraham did, but not with sadness; "for God loves a cheerful giver." But if you too shall be so ready toward God, it will be said to you also: "ascend into the high land and to the mountain that I will show you; and there offer me your son." Not in the depths of the earth nor "in the valley of weeping," but on the high and lofty mountains "offer your son." Show that faith in God is stronger than the affection of the flesh. For Abraham loved, it says, Isaac his son, but he preferred to the love of the flesh the love of God, and he was found not in the bowels of the flesh, but "in the bowels of Christ," that is, in the bowels of the Word of God and of truth and of wisdom.
Genesis 22:12 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.8
"And Abraham stretched out," it says, "his hand to take the sword, and to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called him from heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham. And he said: here I am. And He said: do not lay your hand upon the boy, neither do to him anything. For now I have known that you fear God." In this saying it is wont to be objected to us that God says He has now come to know that Abraham fears God, as though He had been ignorant before. God knew, and it did not lie hidden from Him, seeing that He "knows all things before they come to pass," but these things are written for your sake, because you too indeed have believed God, but unless you fulfill "the works of faith," unless you obey in all the commandments even the more difficult ones, unless you offer the sacrifice and show that you prefer neither father nor mother nor sons to God, you will not be recognized as fearing God, nor will it be said of you: "for now I have known that you fear God." And yet it must be considered that the angel is reported to have spoken these things to Abraham, and that in what follows this angel is evidently shown to be the Lord. Whence I think that, just as among us men He "was found in appearance as a man," so also among the angels He was found in appearance as an angel. And following His example the angels in heaven rejoice "over one sinner doing penance" and glory in the progress of men. For they themselves hold as it were the charge of our souls, to whom, "while we are yet little ones," we are committed as to "guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father." They themselves therefore now say of the progress of each one of us: "for now I have known that you fear God." For the sake of example, I have the resolve of martyrdom—from this the angel will not be able to say to me: "for now I have known that you fear God"; for to God alone is the resolve of the mind known. But if I shall have come to the contests, brought forth "the good confession," and steadfastly undergone all the things that are inflicted, then the angel can say, as though confirming and strengthening me: "now I have known that you fear God." But let these things be said to Abraham, and let him be pronounced to fear God. Why? Because he did not spare his son. But let us compare these things with the Apostle's words, where he says of God: "who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." See God contending with men in magnificent generosity: Abraham offered to God a mortal son who was not to die; God delivered up His immortal Son to death for men. What shall we say to these things? "What shall we render to the Lord for all the things that He has rendered to us?" God the Father for our sake "did not spare His own Son." Which of you, do you suppose, will ever hear the voice of the angel saying: "now I have known that you fear God, because you did not spare your son" or your daughter or your wife, or you did not spare money or the honors of the world and the ambitions of the world, but despised all things and "counted all things as dung, that you might gain Christ," "sold all things, and gave to the poor, and followed the word of God"? Which of you, do you suppose, will hear from the angels a voice of this kind? Meanwhile Abraham hears this voice, and it is said to him: "because you did not spare your beloved son for my sake."
Genesis 22:13 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.9
"And Abraham looking up," it says, "with his eyes saw, and behold, a ram was held by its horns in the thicket Sabech." We said, I think, in what preceded that Isaac bore the figure of Christ, but the ram here too nonetheless seems to bear the figure of Christ. But how each fits Christ, both Isaac, who was not slain, and the ram, who was slain, is worth knowing. Christ is "the Word of God," but "the Word was made flesh." One thing therefore in Christ is from the things above, the other taken from human nature and from the virginal womb. Christ therefore suffers, but in the flesh; and He endured death, but it was the flesh, of which this ram is the figure; just as John also said: "behold, the Lamb of God, behold, He who takes away the sin of the world." But the Word remained "in incorruption," which is Christ according to the spirit, of whom Isaac is the image. Therefore He Himself is both victim and high priest. For according to the spirit He offers the victim to the Father, according to the flesh He Himself is offered on the altar of the cross, because, just as it was said of Him, "behold, the Lamb of God, behold, He who takes away the sin of the world," so it was said of Him: "you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." "The ram therefore is held by its horns in the thicket Sabech."
Genesis 22:14 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.10
"And he took," it says, "the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of Isaac his son, and Abraham called the name of that place: the Lord has seen." To those who know how to hear these things, the way of spiritual understanding is opened plainly. For all the things that were done arrive at a vision; for it is said that "the Lord has seen." But the vision, which "the Lord has seen," is in the spirit, so that you too may see these things that are written in the spirit and, just as in God there is nothing corporeal, so also you may perceive nothing corporeal in all these things, but in the spirit may you too beget a son Isaac, when you shall have begun to have "the fruit of the spirit, joy, peace." Yet you will only then beget that son if, as it is written of Sarah that "the things of women had ceased for Sarah" and then she bore Isaac, so also the things of women may cease in your soul, so that you may have nothing any longer womanly and effeminate in your soul, but may "act manfully" and manfully "gird up your loins," if your breast be "fortified with the breastplate of righteousness," if you be girded with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit. If therefore the things of women cease to be done in your soul, you beget a son from your spouse, from virtue and wisdom, joy and gladness. And you beget joy if you "count it all joy when you fall into various temptations" and offer that joy in sacrifice to God. For when you have come to God with joy, He again renders back to you what you have offered, and says to you: "again you shall see me, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you." Thus therefore what you have offered to God, you will receive multiplied. Something of this kind, though under another figure, is reported in the Gospels, when in a parable it is said that someone received a mina, that he might trade with it and seek money for the master of the household. But if you bring five multiplied into ten, they are given to you yourself, they are granted to you. For hear what He says: "take," He says, "the mina from this one and give it to him who has ten minas." Thus therefore we seem indeed to trade for the Lord, but the profits of the trade fall to us; and we seem to offer victims to the Lord, but the things we offer are given back to us. For God needs nothing, but wills us to be rich, and desires our progress in each and every thing. This figure is shown to us also in those things that were done concerning Job. For he too lost all things for God's sake, since he was rich. But because he bore well the contests of patience and in all the things that he suffered was magnanimous and said: "the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it has pleased the Lord, so has it been done, blessed be the name of the Lord," see at the last what is written of him: "he received," it says, "double all the things that he had lost." You see what it is to lose something for God, that is, to receive it multiplied for yourself. But the Gospels promise you something even greater; they promise you "a hundredfold," and moreover also "eternal life" in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 22:15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.1
These words require an attentive and intent hearer. For it is something new that it says: "and the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven." What it adds, however, is not new. For "blessing I will bless you" had already been said before too, and "multiplying I will multiply you" was promised before, and "your seed shall be as the stars of heaven, and as the sand of the sea" had also been declared earlier. What then is there now that is more, which is cried out from heaven a second time? What new thing is added to the old promises? What greater reward is given in that it says: "because you have done this word," that is, because you offered your son, because you did not spare your only son? I see nothing added; the same things are repeated that had earlier been promised. Will it then seem superfluous to go over the same things more often? On the contrary, it is necessary. For all the things that are done are done in mysteries. If Abraham had lived only "according to the flesh" and had been the father of one people, whom he begot "according to the flesh," one promise would have sufficed. But now, in order to show that he was to be first the father of those who "according to the flesh" are circumcised, at the time of his circumcision there is given to him a promise, which ought to pertain to the people of circumcision. Secondly, because he was to be the father also of those who "are of faith" and who come to the inheritance through the passion of Christ, at the time of Isaac's passion the promise is nonetheless renewed, which ought to pertain to that people which is saved by the passion and resurrection of Christ. And indeed the same things seem to be repeated, but they are far different. For those things which were said earlier and pertain to the earlier people were said on earth. For thus Scripture says: "and he led him out"—out of the tent, that is—"and said to him: look at the stars of heaven, if they can be numbered for their multitude. And he added: so shall your seed be." But where the promise is repeated a second time, it indicates that he spoke to him "from heaven"; and the first promise is given from the earth, the second "from heaven." Does it not here plainly seem to indicate that which the Apostle says: "the first man from the earth, earthy; the second man from heaven, heavenly"? This promise, therefore, which pertains to the faithful people, is made "from heaven," that other one from the earth.
Genesis 22:16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.1
In the former there was only speech, here an oath is interposed, which the holy Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, interprets, saying in this manner: "God," he says, "wishing to show to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his purpose, interposed an oath." And again: "men," he says, "swear by one greater than themselves." "But God, since he had no one greater by whom he might swear," "by myself I swear, said the Lord." Not that any necessity of an oath pressed upon God (for who would exact an oath from him?), but, as the Apostle Paul interpreted it, that by this he might "designate the immutability of his purpose to his worshippers." So too elsewhere it is said through the prophet: "the Lord has sworn and he will not repent: you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Then, further, in the first promise it does not have set down a cause why the promise was given, only that he led him out and "showed him," it says, "the stars of heaven, and said: so shall your seed be." But now it adds the cause on account of which by an oath it confirms that the promise will be firm. For it says: "because you have done this word and have not spared your son." It shows, therefore, that the promise is firm on account of the offering or passion of the son, evidently indicating that on account of the passion of Christ the promise remains firm for the people from the nations, "which is of the faith of Abraham." And is it only in this that the second things are firmer than the first? In many things of this kind you will find mysteries adumbrated. The first tablets of the law Moses broke in the letter and cast away; the second law he received in the spirit, and the second are firmer than the first. Again, this same man, when he had comprised the whole law in four books, writes Deuteronomy, which is called the second law. Ishmael is first, Isaac second, and in the second a like form of preferment is kept. This too you will find adumbrated in like manner in Esau and Jacob, in Ephraim and Manasseh, and in a thousand others.
Genesis 22:17 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.1
It is written in the prophet, speaking in the person of the Lord: "and in the hands of the prophets I was made like." This saying indicates that, although our Lord Jesus Christ is one according to his substance and is nothing other than the Son of God, nevertheless in the figures and forms of the Scriptures he is displayed as varied and diverse. For example, as I recall we set forth in earlier passages that he himself was in the type of Isaac, when he was being offered for a holocaust, yet he himself also held the form of the ram. I say further that he is also displayed in the angel who spoke to Abraham and says to him: "do not lay your hand upon the boy" — since again he says to him: "because you have done this thing, in blessing I will bless you." He is called the sheep or the lamb that is sacrificed at the Passover, and he himself is signified as the shepherd of the sheep; and the high priest who offers the sacrifice is nonetheless described as he himself.
Genesis 22:17 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.2
Let us now return to ourselves and treat the moral sense point by point. The Apostle says, as we have already mentioned above: "the first man from the earth, earthy; the second man from heaven, heavenly. As is the earthy, such also are the earthy, and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthy, let us bear also the image of the heavenly." You see what he shows, that, if you remain in that which is first, which is of the earth, you will be reprobated, unless you change yourself, unless you are converted, unless, having been made "heavenly," you receive "the image of the heavenly." This is the same as what he says elsewhere too: "putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is created according to God." This same thing he writes in another place also: "behold, the old things have passed away, all things have been made new." For this reason, therefore, God renews his promises, that he may show you that you too ought to be renewed. He does not remain in the old things, lest you too remain "the old man"; he speaks these things "from heaven," that you too may receive "the image of the heavenly." For what will it profit you if God renews his promises and you are not renewed? If he speaks "from heaven" and you hear from the earth? What does it profit you if God binds himself by an oath and you pass over these things as though hearing a common tale? Why do you not consider that for your sake God embraces even those things which seem least suited to his nature? God is said to swear, so that you, hearing, may be afraid and tremble and, dismayed with fear, may inquire what that great thing is for which God is said to swear. These things, then, are done so that you may become attentive and solicitous, and, hearing that a promise is being prepared for you in the heavens, may be watchful and may seek in what way you may prove yourself worthy of the divine promises. Nevertheless, the Apostle interprets this passage too, saying that: "God promised to Abraham and to his seed. He did not say: and to seeds, as in many, but as in one: and to your seed, who is Christ." Concerning Christ, therefore, it is said: "multiplying I will multiply your seed, and they shall be as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is on the shore of the sea." Who now needs an exposition to know how the seed of Christ is multiplied, who sees the preaching of the gospel propagated from the ends of the earth "to the ends of the earth," and that there is now scarcely any place which has not received the seed of the word? For this was indeed prefigured also in the beginnings of the world, when it was said to Adam: "increase and multiply." And this very thing the Apostle says is "said in Christ and in the Church." But as to what it said: "as the stars of heaven in multitude," and added: "and as the sand which is on the shore of the sea, innumerable," perhaps indeed someone may say that the figure of the heavenly number suits the people of the Christians, that of the sand of the sea the Jewish people. I, however, think this rather, that each example can be fitted to each people. For in that people too there were many righteous men and prophets, to whom the example of the stars of heaven is deservedly compared; and in our people there are many who "are wise in earthly things" and whose folly "is heavier than the sand of the sea," among whom I think the crowds of the heretics especially are to be reckoned. But let us not even be secure; for so long as any one of us does not lay aside "the image of the earthy" and put on "the image of the heavenly," he is compared to earthly examples. Whence the Apostle too, moved by these things, as I suppose, in the heavenly and earthly bodies forms an image of the resurrection, saying: "one indeed is the glory of the heavenly, but another that of the earthly. And star differs from star in glory; so also shall be the resurrection of the dead." But the Lord too,…
Genesis 22:17 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.11
To be able to find [these treasures], we need the help of God who alone can "break in pieces the doors of bronze" by which they are shut up and hidden and who "cuts asunder the bars of iron" and the bolts by which access was prohibited for attaining all the truths that were written and hidden in Genesis. [These truths are] concerning the different kinds of souls, concerning the seeds and generations that either pertain directly to Israel or are separated much further from his offspring.
Genesis 22:17 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.3
But that Christ is the seed of Abraham and the son of Abraham, if you wish to learn it more plainly from the words of Scripture, hear how it is written in the gospel: "the book," it says, "of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." In this, then, that word also is fulfilled which it says: "your seed shall take by inheritance the cities of the adversaries." How did Christ take "by inheritance the cities of the adversaries"? By this, without doubt, that "into all the earth went out the sound" of the Apostles, and "into the ends of the world their words." Whence also those angels were stirred to wrath who held each single nation under their power. "For when the Most High divided the nations according to the number of the angels of God, then his portion became Jacob and the cord of his inheritance Israel." For Christ, to whom the Father had said: "ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and for your possession the ends of the earth," driving those angels out of the power and dominion which they had over the nations, provoked them to wrath. And therefore it says that "the kings of the earth stood up and the princes were gathered together in one against the Lord and against his Christ." Therefore they oppose us too and stir up struggles and contests against us. Hence too the Apostle of Christ: "the wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of this world." Therefore we must be watchful and act carefully, because "our adversary as a roaring lion goes about, seeking whom he may devour." If we do not resist him "strong in faith," he will call us back again into captivity. And if this should happen to us, we shall render ungrateful the work of him who "fixed to his cross the principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself with confidence" and who came "to release the captives unto remission." Rather, then, following the faith of Christ, "who triumphed over them," let us break asunder their bonds, by which they had bound us to their power. But the bonds by which they bind us are our passions and vices, in which we are entangled so long, until "we crucify our flesh with its vices and concupiscences," and thus at last "break asunder their bonds and cast their yoke from us." Therefore the seed of Abraham has occupied "the cities of the adversaries," that is, the seed of the word, which is the preaching of the gospel and the faith of Christ. But I say: did the Lord use iniquity in order to snatch the nations from the power of the adversaries and to recall them to his own faith and dominion? By no means. For Israel was once "the portion of the Lord," but they made Israel to sin against his God, and on account of their sins God said to them: "behold, you have been sold off by your sins, and on account of your sins you have been scattered under the whole heaven." But again he says to them: "if your dispersion be from the end of heaven unto the end thereof, from there I will gather you, says the Lord." Because, therefore, the first "princes of this world" had invaded "the portion of the Lord," the "good shepherd" had need, leaving the ninety and nine on high, to descend to the earth and to seek the one sheep which had perished, and, having found it and carried it back on his shoulders, to recall it to the heavenly sheepfold of perfection. But what does it profit me, if the seed of Abraham, "which is Christ," possess "by inheritance the cities of the adversaries" and possess not my city? if in my city, that is in my soul, which is "the city of the great king," neither his laws nor his ordinances be kept? What does it profit me that he has subjected the whole world and possesses the cities of the adversaries, if he does not conquer his adversaries in me also, if he does not destroy "the law which is in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin"? So, then, let each one of us take pains…
Genesis 24:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.4
"In the evening," then, she came to the waters. Concerning the evening we have already spoken above. But observe the prudence of the servant: he does not wish to take a bride for his lord Isaac unless he finds one comely and beautiful of face, a virgin — and not only a virgin, but one whom no man has touched — and unless he finds one drawing water; he does not wish to betroth any other to his lord. He does not give her ornaments unless she is such a one; he does not give "earrings," he does not give "bracelets"; she remains unadorned, untaught, uncombed. Do we suppose that Rebekah's father, a rich man, did not have bracelets and earrings to place upon his daughter? Was there such negligence or avarice in him that he would not give ornaments to his daughter? But Rebekah does not wish to be adorned with the gold of Bethuel. The ornaments of a barbarous and unskilled man are not worthy of her; she seeks necklaces from the house of Abraham, because patience is adorned from the house of the wise. Therefore Rebekah's ears could not receive their proper adornment unless Abraham's servant came and himself adorned them; nor do her hands receive ornaments except those which Isaac has sent. For she wishes to receive golden words in her ears and to have golden deeds in her hands. But these she could not first receive nor deserve, unless she had come to the wells to draw waters. You who do not wish to come to the waters, who do not wish to receive in your ears the golden words of the prophets, how will you be able to be adorned in doctrine, adorned in deeds, adorned in character?
Genesis 24:13 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.3
Come, then, and let us too, while there is time, drink from the "well of vision," where Isaac "walks about" and where he goes forth to exercise. Observe how many things are done at the waters, that you too may be invited to come daily to the waters of the word of God and to attend at his wells, just as Rebekah also did, of whom it is said: "She was a virgin, very beautiful, a virgin, no man had known her." "And she," it says, "went out late to draw water."
Genesis 24:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.179
Here, then, a woman proclaims Christ to the Samaritans, and at the end of the Gospels also the woman who saw him before all the others tells the apostles of the resurrection of the Savior.
Genesis 24:15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.2
"Rebekah," it says, "was coming with the daughters of the city to draw water from the well." Rebekah came daily to the wells, daily she drew water. And because she was daily free to be at the wells, therefore she could be found by Abraham's servant and joined in marriage to Isaac. Do you suppose these are fables, and that the Holy Spirit is narrating mere histories in the Scriptures? This is the instruction of souls and spiritual teaching, which trains you and teaches you to come daily to the wells of the Scriptures, to the waters of the Holy Spirit, and always to draw and carry home a full vessel, just as holy Rebekah also did, who could not otherwise have been joined to so great a Patriarch as Isaac, who "was born of promise," except by drawing waters, and by drawing them in such abundance that she could give drink not only to those who were at home, but also to Abraham's servant — and not only to the servant, but that she abounded so far in the waters she drew from the wells that she could also water the camels, "until," it says, "they left off drinking." All the things that are written are mysteries: Christ too wishes to betroth you to himself; for he speaks to you through the prophets, saying: "I will betroth you to myself forever, and I will betroth you to myself in faith and in mercy, and you shall know the Lord." Because, therefore, he wishes to betroth you to himself, he sends this servant ahead to you. This servant is the prophetic word, which, unless you first receive it, you will not be able to be wedded to Christ. Know, however, that no one untrained and unskilled receives the prophetic word, but only one who knows how to draw water from the depth of the well and who knows how to draw it in such abundance that it suffices even for those who seem irrational and perverse, whose figure the camels bear — so that he too may be able to say that "I am a debtor to the wise and to the unwise." Indeed, this servant had thus spoken in his heart: "of these virgins," he says, "who come to the water, whichever shall say to me, 'Drink, and I will water your camels,' she it is who shall be the bride of my lord." So then Rebekah, whose name means patience, when she saw the servant and beheld the prophetic word, "lets down" the "water-jar" from her shoulder. For she lets down the lofty arrogance of Greek eloquence, and, inclining herself to the humble and simple prophetic word, she says: "Drink, and I will water your camels."
Genesis 24:15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.3
But perhaps you say: if the servant bears the figure of the prophetic word, how is he given drink by Rebekah, whom he himself ought rather to give drink to? Consider, then, whether perhaps, just as the Lord Jesus also — although he himself is the "bread of life" and himself feeds hungering souls — himself again confesses that he hungers, when he says, "I hungered, and you gave me to eat," and again, although he himself is "living water" and gives drink to all who thirst, himself again says to the Samaritan woman, "Give me to drink" — so also the prophetic word, although it itself gives drink to those who thirst, is nevertheless itself said to be given drink by these, when it receives the exercises and vigils of the diligent. This soul, then, such a one, which does all things patiently, which is so ready and supported by such great learning, which has been accustomed to draw the streams of knowledge from the depths — this soul can be united in the marriage of Christ. Unless, therefore, you come daily to the wells, unless you daily draw waters, not only will you be unable to give others to drink, but you yourself also will suffer "thirst for the word of God." Hear the Lord too saying in the Gospels: "Let him who thirsts come and drink." But you, as I see, "neither hunger nor thirst for righteousness"; and how will you be able to say: "As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before his face?"
Genesis 24:16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.4
Nor was this written about her in vain. Yet it moves me, what is meant by what is said: "She was a virgin, a virgin, no man had known her," as though a virgin were anything other than one whom no man has touched. And what does the addition in the case of a virgin seem to mean, that it should be said that "no man had known her"? For is there some virgin whom a man has touched? I have already often said that in these things histories are not narrated, but mysteries are woven together. I think, therefore, that something of this sort is indicated here. Just as Christ is called the husband of the soul, to whom the soul is wedded when it comes to faith, so too there is that husband contrary to him, to whom the soul is wedded when it turns aside to faithlessness — that very one who is also called "the hostile man," when he "sows tares over the wheat." It is not enough, therefore, for the soul to be chaste in body; it is necessary that this most wicked husband also "has not known her." For it can happen that someone has virginity in the body and yet, knowing that most wicked husband the devil and receiving from him the darts of concupiscence in the heart, has lost the chastity of the soul. Because, therefore, Rebekah was a holy virgin in body and spirit, on that account it doubles her praise and says: "She was a virgin, no man had known her."
Genesis 24:63-64 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.5
Rebekah, having followed the servant, came to Isaac; for the Church, having followed the prophetic word, came to Christ. Where did she find him? "Walking about," it says, "by the well of the oath." Nowhere is there any withdrawal from the wells, nowhere any ceasing from the waters; Rebekah is found "at the well," and again Rebekah "at the well" finds Isaac; there she beholds her first sight of him, there she "gets down from the camels," there she sees Isaac pointed out to her by the servant. Do you suppose these things alone are recounted about wells? Jacob too came to a well and there found Rachel, there Rachel becomes known to him, "good of eyes and comely of aspect." But Moses also at a well found Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel. Are you not yet moved to understand that these things are spoken spiritually? Or do you suppose that it always happens by chance that the Patriarchs come to wells and obtain marriages at the waters? Whoever thinks thus is "the animal man," and "does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God." But let whoever wishes remain in these things, let him remain "animal"; I, following Paul the Apostle, say that these things are "allegorical," and I say that the marriages of the saints are the joining of the soul with the word of God: "for he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit." But this joining of the soul with the word, it is certain, cannot come about otherwise than through the instruction of the divine books, which are figuratively called wells. If anyone comes to these and draws waters from them — that is, by meditating on these things receives a deeper sense and understanding — he will find a marriage worthy of God; for his soul is joined with God. She also "gets down from the camels," that is, she departs from the vices, casts off the irrational senses, and is joined to Isaac; for it is fitting that Isaac should pass "from virtue to virtue." He who is the son of virtue, of Sarah, is now joined and united to patience, which is Rebekah. And this is to pass "from virtue to virtue" and "from faith to faith." But let us come also to the Gospels. When the Lord himself had been "wearied from the journey," let us see where he seeks rest. "He came," it says, "to a well, and sat upon it." You see the mysteries everywhere agreeing with one another, you see the concordant forms of the new and old testaments. There men come to the wells and to the waters, that brides may be found; and the Church is joined to Christ in the laver of water. You see how great a heap of mysteries presses upon us; how many things there are that occur to us, which we cannot unfold: at least these things ought to spur you to hear, to gather together, so that, even if we run past some things for the sake of brevity, you, when you read them over again and search, may yourself also examine and find — or at any rate remain in the inquiry of these things — so that the word of God, finding you too, may take you up to the water and join you to itself, that you may become with him "one spirit" in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 25:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 11.1
The holy Apostle always furnishes us with occasions for spiritual understanding and, though few, nevertheless shows to the diligent the necessary indications by which it may be recognized in all things that "the law is spiritual." He himself, then, in discussing Abraham and Sarah, says in a certain place: "He was not weakened in faith," he says, "when he considered his own body, now dead, since he was nearly a hundred years old, and the dead womb of Sarah." This man, therefore, whom he says was of a dead body at the number of a hundred years and who begot Isaac more by the power of faith than by the fruitfulness of his body, Scripture now reports to have taken a wife named Keturah and to have begotten from her very many sons, though he seems to have been nearly a hundred and thirty-seven years old. For his wife Sarah is written to have been ten years younger than he, and she, having died in her one hundred and twenty-seventh year, indicates that Abraham was over a hundred and thirty-seven years old when he took Keturah as his wife. What then? Are we to suppose that in so great a Patriarch the incitements of the flesh flourished throughout that same span of time? And shall he who is long since said to be dead as to his natural motions now be thought revived unto lust? Or, as we have already often said, do the marriages of the Patriarchs signify something mystical and sacred? Just as does that man too who said concerning wisdom: "This one I resolved to bring home to myself as a wife." Perhaps, then, already at that time Abraham too thought of something similar and, although he was wise, yet by this very fact he knew that of wisdom there is no end, nor does old age impose a limit upon learning. For he who is accustomed to obtain a marriage in that manner which we indicated above concerning him — that is, he who is wont to have virtue in his marriage — when can he cease from a marriage of this kind? For the falling asleep of Sarah is to be understood as the consummation of virtue. But he who is of consummated and perfect virtue must always be engaged in some learning; and this learning the divine word calls his wife. According to this, I think that in the law the celibate and the barren man lies under a curse; for it says: "Cursed is he who has not left seed in Israel." But if these words are thought to be spoken of carnal seed, all the virgins of the church will seem to be placed under a curse. And why do I speak of the church's virgins? John himself, than whom "there was none greater among those born of women," and very many others of the saints left no seed according to the flesh, since they are reported not even to have entered into marriages. But it is certain that they left spiritual seed and spiritual sons and that each had wisdom as his wife, just as Paul too begot sons through the gospel. So then, the old man Abraham, of a body now dead, took Keturah as his wife. I think, according to the reasoning which we set forth above, that a wife is better taken then, when the body is dead, when the members are mortified. For there is a greater capacity for wisdom in our senses when "the mortification of Christ is carried about in our" mortal "body." Finally, Keturah, whom the aged Abraham now obtains in marriage, is interpreted as thymiama, which is incense or a good odor. For he too used to say, as Paul said, that "we are the good odor of Christ." But let us see how anyone is made "the good odor of Christ." Sin is a foul-smelling thing. Indeed, sinners are compared to swine, who wallow in their sins as in foul dung. And David, in the person of the penitent sinner, says: "My scars have rotted and been eaten away."
Genesis 25:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.67
[One] who wishes to show himself to be a child of Abraham by doing the works of Abraham in accordance with the Savior's explanation need not literally have sexual intercourse with a handmaid or take another wife in old age after the death of his wife. We also learn from this quite clearly that we must interpret the whole story of Abraham allegorically and make each thing he did spiritual, beginning with the command, "Go forth from your land, your kindred, and your father's house, into the land that I will show you." This statement is made not only to Abraham but also to everyone who will be his child.
Genesis 25:1 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 11.2
If, therefore, there is anyone of you in whom there is now no odor of sin, but the odor of righteousness, the sweetness of mercy, if anyone by praying "without ceasing" always offers incense to the Lord and says: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight, the lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice," this man has taken Keturah as his wife. Thus, therefore, I think it more worthy to interpret the marriages of old men, thus beautifully do I regard the marriages of the patriarchs entered into in their last and now-failing age, thus I reckon their necessary begetting of sons is to be counted. For to such marriages and to offspring of this kind, not the young so much as the old are suited. For the more a man is wearied in the flesh, the more he will be robust in the virtue of the soul and more fit for the embraces of wisdom. So too that just man in the Scriptures, Elkanah, is reported to have had two wives at once, of whom one was called Peninnah, the other Hannah, that is, 'conversion' and 'grace.' And first indeed he is said to have received sons from Peninnah, that is, from conversion, and afterward from Hannah, who is grace. For Scripture figuratively designates the progress of the saints through marriages. Hence you too can, if you wish, become the husband of marriages of this kind, and, for example, if you gladly practice hospitality, you will seem to have taken this as your wife. If to her you add care for the poor, you will seem to have obtained a second wife. And if you join to yourself patience and gentleness and the other virtues, you will seem to have taken as many wives as the virtues in which you rejoice. Hence, then, it is that Scripture records that some of the Patriarchs had several wives at once, others took other wives when the former had died; so that this may be figuratively indicated, that certain men can exercise several virtues at once, while others do not begin those that follow before they have brought the former to perfection. Hence, finally, Solomon is reported to have had several wives at once, to whom the Lord had said: "There has not been a wise man like you before you, and after you there shall not be." Because, therefore, the Lord had given him a multitude of prudence, "like the sand of the sea," that he might judge his people "in wisdom," therefore he was able to exercise several virtues at once. Indeed, besides what we are taught from the law of God, if we also touch upon some of those branches of learning which seem to be outside, in the world — for example, as is the learning of letters or of the grammatical art, as is geometrical instruction or the theory of numbers or even the discipline of dialectic — and if we bring all these things, sought from outside, to our institutions and adopt them into the confirmation of our law, then we shall seem either to have taken foreign women in marriage or even "concubines." And if by disputing, discoursing, and refuting our opponents concerning marriages of this kind we are able to convert some to the faith, and if, overcoming them by their own reasonings and arts, we persuade them to take up the true philosophy of Christ and the true piety of God, then out of dialectic or rhetoric we shall seem to have begotten sons as though from some foreign woman or concubine. Therefore, from such marriages, or from begetting sons of this kind through old age, no one is excluded; rather, this chaste offspring is more befitting to mature age. Just as now too Abraham, advanced in years and, as Scripture says, "old and full of days," takes Keturah as his wife. But not even this ought to escape us from the things that are reported through the history, namely what and of what kind are the generations that are propagated from her. For if we remember these, we shall more easily be able to recognize the things that are said in the scriptures about various nations; for example, as when it is said that Moses took as his wife the daughter of Jethro the priest of Midi…
Genesis 25:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 11.3
"And it came to pass," it says, "after Abraham died, the Lord blessed Isaac his son, and he dwelt at the well of vision." Concerning the death of Abraham, what more must we say than what the word of the Lord in the gospels contains, saying: "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read how he says in the bush: The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? Now God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. For all those live." Let us too, therefore, choose a death of this kind, as the Apostle also says, that "we may die to sin, but live to God." For such is the death of Abraham to be understood, which so widened his bosom that all the saints who come from the four quarters of the earth are "carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." But let us now see how, after his death, "the Lord blessed Isaac his son," and what that blessing is. "The Lord blessed Isaac," it says, "and he dwelt at the well of vision." This is the whole blessing with which the Lord blessed Isaac, that he should dwell "at the well of vision." To those who understand, this is a great blessing. Would that the Lord might grant this blessing to me too, that I might deserve to dwell "at the well of vision." Who can know and understand what is the vision "which Isaiah the son of Amos saw"? Who can know what is the vision of Nahum? Who can understand what that vision contains which Jacob saw in Bethel, when he was going into Mesopotamia, where he said: "This is the house of God and the gate of heaven"? And if anyone is able to know and understand each and every vision, whether those that are in the law or those that are in the prophets, he dwells "at the well of vision." But consider this too more carefully, that Isaac deserved to receive so great a blessing from the Lord, that he should dwell "at the well of vision"; but we — when shall we be able to deserve enough, if perchance we might be able to have a passage through "the well of vision"? He deserved to remain and to dwell in vision, while we, but a little illuminated through the mercy of God, can scarcely perceive or surmise anything about any single vision. If nevertheless I am able to perceive some one understanding concerning the visions of God, I shall seem to have made one day "at the well of vision." But if I am able to attain something not only according to the letter but also according to the spirit, I shall seem to have made two days "at the well of vision." And if I touch upon the moral sense, I shall have made three days. Or certainly, even if I cannot understand everything, yet I sit beside the divine scriptures and "meditate on the law of God day and night," and I never at all cease from inquiring, discussing, treating, and certainly, what is greatest, from praying to God and asking understanding from him "who teaches man knowledge," then I too shall seem to dwell "at the well of vision." But if I neglect it and neither exercise myself at home in the word of God nor frequently enter the church to hear the word — as I see some among you do, who come to church only on solemn days — those who are of this kind do not dwell "at the well of vision." But I fear that perhaps those who are so negligent, even when they come to church, neither drink of the well of life nor are refreshed, but are occupied with the concerns of their heart and the thoughts which they carry with them, and depart nonetheless still thirsting from the wells of the scriptures. Hasten, therefore, and take sufficient care that this blessing of the Lord may come to you, by which you may be able to dwell "at the well of vision," that the Lord may open your eyes and you may see "the well of vision" and receive from it "living water," which may become in you "a fountain of water springing up into eternal life." But if anyone comes rarely to church, rarely draws from the fountains of the scriptures, and, departing at once and occupied with other business, lets go what he hears, this man does not dwel…
Genesis 25:21-23 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.1
At every single reading, "when Moses is read," we must pray to the Father of the Word, that He may fulfill even in us that which is written in the Psalms: "unveil my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law." For unless He Himself opens our eyes, how shall we be able to see these so great mysteries that are shaped in the Patriarchs, which are figured now in wells, now in marriages, now in childbearings, now even in barrennesses? For the present reading recounts that "Isaac prayed for Rebekah his wife, because she was barren; and God heard him, and she conceived. And the children," it says, "leaped in her womb." First of all, consider what this means, that very many of the holy women in the scriptures are said to have been barren, as Sarah herself, and behold now Rebekah as well. But Rachel too, beloved of Israel, was barren. Hannah also, the mother of Samuel, is written to have been barren. But in the Gospels too Elizabeth is recorded to have been barren. And in all these women this one heading is signified: that after barrenness they all brought forth a holy childbirth. So therefore this Rebekah too is now said to have been barren, but "Isaac prayed," it says, "to the Lord for her, and He heard him, and she conceived. And the children," it says, "leaped in her womb." Behold, what did this barrenness conceive? The sons of the barren woman, before they are born, leap for joy, and she who had despaired of offspring bears nations and peoples in her womb. For thus it says: "Rebekah went," it says, "to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her: two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your belly." It would be a long task if we should now wish to examine thoroughly the leaping for joy of the children still dwelling in the womb. It would be a long task if we should bring forward the interpretations and riddles concerning these things which the Apostle wrote, what mystery, what cause they contain, why, "before the children are born or do anything good or evil in this world," it is said of them that: "people shall overcome people, and the elder shall serve the younger"; why, before they came forth from their mother's womb, it is said through the prophet that: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." These things are both beyond our tongue and beyond your hearing.
Genesis 25:22 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.2
Now meanwhile let us see what this means that is said: "Rebekah went to inquire of the Lord." "She went." Where did she go? From that place in which the Lord was not, did she go to that place in which He was? For this seems to be indicated when it is said: "she went to inquire of the Lord." Is not the Lord everywhere? Did He not Himself say: "I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord"? Where then did Rebekah go? I think that she did not go from place to place, but passed over from life to life, from act to act, that she crossed over from good things to better, that she pressed on from useful things to more useful, that she hastened from holy things to holier. For it is absurd if we should think Rebekah so unskilled and untaught—she who had been instructed in the house of the wise Abraham under the most learned husband Isaac—as to suppose the Lord shut up within some place, and to go thither to inquire what the leaping of the little ones within the womb signified. But do you wish to see that this comes to the saints by custom, that, when they have seen something shown to them by God, they say that they either go away or cross over? Moses, when he had seen the bush burning and not consumed, marveling at the sight said: "I will pass over and behold this sight." Certainly he too was not signifying that he would traverse some span of earth, nor climb mountains nor go apart into the steep places of the valleys. The vision was close to him, in his mouth and in his eyes. But he says: "I will pass over," to show that, admonished by the heavenly vision, he ought to ascend to a higher life and to cross over from those things in which he was to better things. So therefore now too it is recounted of Rebekah that: "she went to inquire of the Lord"—she who, as we have said, is to be reckoned to have gone not by the steps of her feet, but by the advances of her mind. And you therefore, if you begin to behold not those things "which are seen, but those which are not seen," that is, not the carnal but the spiritual, not the present but the future, you will be said to have gone "to inquire of the Lord." If you tear yourself away from your old manner of life and from the company of those with whom you had lived shamefully and notoriously, and join yourself indeed to honorable and religious acts, when you are sought among the comrades of baseness and are by no means found in the troops of the guilty, it will be said of you too that: "he went to inquire of the Lord." So therefore the saints go away not from place to place, but from life to life, from their first practices to better practices.
Genesis 25:23 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.3
The Lord therefore said to her: "two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your belly. And people shall overcome people, and the elder shall serve the younger." How "people has overcome people," that is, the Church the synagogue, and how "the elder serves the younger," is known even to the Jews themselves, though they do not believe. Concerning these things therefore, which are plain and very well worn to all, I think it superfluous to speak. Let us add this, if it please, which may be able to edify and instruct each one of us who hears these things. I think that this can be said also of each one of us, that "two nations and two peoples" are within us. For both a people of virtues is within us and no less a people of vices is within us: "for from our heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies," but also "deceits, contentions, heresies, envyings, revelings, and things similar to these." Do you see how great a people of evils is within us? But if we deserve to speak that voice of the saints: "from your fear, O Lord, we conceived in the womb, and we brought forth, we made the spirit of your salvation upon the earth," then another people also is found within us, begotten in the spirit. For "the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control, chastity" and things similar to these. You see another people, which is itself also within us; but this one is the lesser, that one the greater. For always the evil are more numerous than the good, and vices more numerous than virtues. But if we be such as Rebekah was, and deserve to have conception from Isaac, that is, from the Word of God, in us too "people shall overcome people and the elder shall serve the younger"; for the flesh shall serve the spirit, and vices shall yield to virtues.
Genesis 25:24 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.3
"And her days were fulfilled," it says, "that she should bring forth, and there were twins in her belly." This saying, that is, "her days were fulfilled that she should bring forth," is almost never written except of holy women. For this was said of this Rebekah, and of Elizabeth the mother of John, and of Mary the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whence it seems to me that a childbirth of this kind shows forth something excellent and beyond other human beings, and that the fullness of days indicates the birth of a perfect offspring.
Genesis 25:25-26 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.4
"And the firstborn son came forth," it says, "ruddy, and all hairy like a hide. And she called his name Esau. And afterward his brother came forth, and his hand was entwined about the heel of Esau; and he called his name Jacob." Another Scripture recounts of these that "Jacob supplanted his brother in the womb," and the indication of this thing is that his hand was entwined about the heel of his brother Esau. This Esau came forth from his mother's womb "all hairy like a hide," but Jacob smooth and simple. Whence Jacob received his name from wrestling or supplanting; but Esau—as those say who interpret the Hebrew names—seems to be called either from redness or from earth, that is, ruddy or earthy, or, as it has seemed to others, "a making." But what these privileges of birth may be, why the one "supplanted his brother" and was born smooth and simple, when assuredly, as the Apostle says, the conception of both sons was "from our one father Isaac," or why the one was born "all hairy" and rough and, so to speak, surrounded with the squalor of sin and wickedness—this is not mine to discuss. For if I should wish to dig into the deep and to open the hidden veins of "living water," immediately the Philistines will be present and will contend with me, will stir up quarrels and slanders against me, and will begin to fill my wells with their earth and mud. For assuredly, if these Philistines would permit it, I too was wishing to approach my Lord—the most patient Lord, who says that "I do not cast out the one who comes to me"—I was wishing to approach, and just as the disciples said to Him: "Lord, who sinned? this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?", I too was wishing to inquire of Him and to say: "Lord, who sinned"—this Esau or his parents, that he should thus be born "all hairy" and rough, that he should be supplanted by his brother in the womb? But if I should wish to inquire and search out concerning these things from the Word of God, at once the Philistines stir up lawsuits and slanders against me. And therefore, leaving this well and calling it 'enmity,' let us dig another.
Genesis 25:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.260
In addition, because [Christ] supplanted the activity of the adversary and because he alone sees the Father, he is "Jacob" and "Israel" when he has become man. As we become light because he is the light of the world, so we become Jacob because he is called "Jacob" and Israel because he is named "Israel."
Genesis 26:12 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.5
After these things it says "Isaac sowed barley, and found a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man was magnified, and by his advance he became greater, until he became exceedingly great." What is this, that Isaac "sowed barley" and not wheat, and is blessed in that he sows "barley" and is magnified, "until he becomes great"? It appears therefore that he was not yet great, but after he "sowed barley" and gathered "a hundredfold," then "he became exceedingly great." Barley is especially the food of beasts of burden or of country slaves. For it is a rougher kind, and one which seems to prick the one touching it as if with certain points. Isaac is the word of God, which word in the law sows barley, in the Gospels wheat. For it prepares that food for the more perfect and spiritual, this for the more unskilled and animal, because it is written: "men and beasts you will save, O Lord." Isaac therefore, the word of the law, sows barley, and nevertheless in that very barley finds "a hundredfold fruit." For you find in the law also martyrs, whose is "the hundredfold fruit." But our Lord too, the Isaac of the Gospels, spoke all the more perfect things to the Apostles, but to the crowds plain and common things. But do you wish to see that He too sets forth the foods of barley for beginners? It is written in the Gospels that He fed the crowds a second time. But those whom He feeds first, that is, the beginners, He feeds with "barley loaves." But afterward, when they had now advanced in the word and in doctrine, He sets forth wheaten loaves for them.
Genesis 26:13 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.5
But after this "the Lord," it says, "blessed Isaac, and he became exceedingly great." Isaac was small in the law, but by the advance of time he becomes great. He becomes great by the advance of time in the prophets. For when he is in the law alone, he is not yet great, seeing that it is also covered with a veil. He grows therefore already in the prophets; but when he has come even to this, that he casts off the veil also, then he will be "exceedingly great." When the letter of the law begins to be separated out like the chaff of its barley, and it appears that "the law is spiritual," then Isaac will be magnified and will become "exceedingly great." For see that in the Gospels also the Lord breaks a few loaves, and how many thousands of peoples He refreshes "and how many baskets" of leftovers remain over. So long as the loaves are whole, no one is filled, no one is refreshed, nor do the loaves themselves seem to be increased. Consider therefore now how we break a few loaves: from the divine scriptures we take up a few sayings, and how many thousands of people are filled. But unless these loaves have been broken, unless they have been crumbled into parts by the disciples—that is, unless the letter has been minutely examined and broken—its meaning cannot reach to all. But when we have begun to handle them and to examine each single thing, then the crowds indeed will take up as much as they can. But that which they have not been able to take, is to be gathered and reserved, "lest anything perish." Do we too therefore save whatever the "crowds" cannot take, and gather it up again in "baskets" and "hampers"? Indeed, a little while ago, when we had broken the loaf concerning Jacob and Esau, how many fragments remained over from that loaf? Which we diligently gathered up again, lest they perish, and we save in "hampers" or "baskets," until we see what the Lord commands to be done even with them. But now, as far as is possible, let us either eat of the loaves or draw from the wells. Let us attempt to do also that which wisdom admonishes, saying: "drink waters from your own springs, and from your own wells, and let your own fountain be your own." Attempt therefore, you also, O hearer, to have your own well and your own fountain; that you too, when you have taken hold of the book of the scriptures, may begin even from your own understanding to bring forth some meaning, and according to those things which you have learned in the church, attempt you also to drink from the fountain of your own natural ability. There is within you the nature of "living water," there are perennial veins and irrigating streams of rational understanding, if only they be not filled up with earth and rubble. But be diligent to dig your earth and to purge the filth, that is, to remove the sloth of your natural ability and to shake off the torpor of your heart. For hear what the Scripture says: "prick the eye, and it will bring forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding." Purge therefore your natural ability also, that one day you too may drink from your own springs and draw "living water" from your own wells. For if you have received into you the Word of God, if you have received from Jesus "living water" and have received it faithfully, there will be made in you "a fountain of water springing up into eternal life," in that same Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 26:13 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 11
Do you wish to know how "increase" is to be understood? Hear what Isaac did, of whom it is said: "Isaac went forward and became greater, until he became great, or exceedingly great indeed". For his will, ever stretching itself toward better things, had its advances, his mind contemplated something more divine, and he exercised himself in memory, so as to store up more things in his treasury and retain them more firmly. And in this manner it comes about that whoever has cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul fulfills the commandment enjoining: "increase".
Genesis 26:15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.2
There are, then, wells which the servants of Abraham dug, but these the Philistines had filled with earth. These, therefore, Isaac first sets about to cleanse. The Philistines hate waters, they love earth; Isaac loves waters, he always seeks wells, he cleanses the old, he opens the new. Behold our Isaac, who "was offered as a victim for us," coming into the valley of Gerar, which is interpreted as "a wall" or "a hedge"—coming, I say, that he might "break down the middle wall of the hedge, the enmities in his flesh"—coming to take away the wall, that is, sin, which separates between us and God, the wall which stands between us and the heavenly powers, that he might make "both one" and carry back the sheep that had strayed "upon his shoulders" to the mountains and restore it to the other "ninety-nine that had not strayed." This Isaac, then, our Savior, when he had come into that valley of Gerar, wills first of all to dig those wells which the servants of his father had dug; that is, he wills to renew the wells of the law and the prophets, which the Philistines had filled with earth. Who are these who fill the wells with earth? Those, without doubt, who place an earthly and carnal understanding in the law and shut up the spiritual and mystical, so that neither do they themselves drink nor permit others to drink. Hear our Isaac, the Lord Jesus, saying in the Gospels: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because you have taken away the key of knowledge, and neither did you enter yourselves nor did you permit those who wished." These, then, are they who filled with earth the wells "which the servants of Abraham had dug," who teach the law carnally and defile the waters of the Holy Spirit; who have wells for this purpose, not that they may bring forth water, but that they may put earth in. These wells, then, Isaac sets about to dig. And let us see how he digs them. When Isaac's servants, who are the Apostles of our Lord, were passing, it says, through the grainfields on the sabbath, "they plucked the ears and, rubbing them with their hands, ate them." Then these men, who had filled with earth his father's wells, said to him: "Behold, your disciples do on the sabbath what is not lawful." He, that he might dig their earthly understanding, says to them: "Have you not read what David did, when he himself was hungry and those who were with him—how he entered to Abiathar the priest, and ate the bread of the presentation, he and his servants, which it was not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?" And to these words he adds: "If you had known what this is: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, you would never have condemned the innocent." But what do they reply to these things? They quarreled with his servants and say: "This man is not from God, who does not keep the sabbaths." In this manner, then, Isaac digs the wells "which the servants of his father had dug." A servant of his father was Moses, who had dug the well of the law; servants of his father were David and Solomon and the prophets, and any others who had written the books of the Old Testament, which the earthly and sordid understanding of the Jews had filled up. When Isaac wished to cleanse this understanding and to show that whatever "the law and the prophets" said, they said concerning himself, the Philistines quarreled with him. But he departs from them; for he cannot be with those who wish to have not water in the wells but earth; and he says to them: "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." Isaac digs, then, new wells also—rather, Isaac's servants dig them. Isaac's servants are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; his servants are Peter, James, Jude; his servant is the Apostle Paul; who all dig the wells of the New Testament. But over these too do they wrangle who "are wise in earthly things" and neither suffer new ones to be established nor old ones to be cleansed. They contradict the Gospel wells, they oppose the Apostolic ones. And since in all things they contradict, in all…
Genesis 26:19 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.1
We find that the exercises of the Patriarchs concerning wells are always the customary ones. For behold, Scripture relates that Isaac, after "the Lord blessed him and he was made exceedingly great," undertook a great work. And he began, it says, to dig wells, "the wells which his father Abraham's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up and filled them with earth." First, then, "he dwelt by the well of vision," and, illumined by the well of vision, he set about opening other wells—and not first new wells, but those that his father Abraham had dug. And when he had dug the first well, "the Philistines," it says, "envied him." Yet he was not frightened by their envy nor did he yield to their spite, but "again," it says, "he dug the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug, and which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of his father Abraham; and he gave them names according to the names his father had given them." He dug, then, those wells which his father had dug and which through the malice of the Philistines had been filled with earth. He dug also others, new ones, "in the valley of Gerar"—not indeed he himself, but his servants—"and he found there," it says, "a well of living water. But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Isaac, saying that the water was theirs; and he called the name of the well 'iniquity.' For they had dealt iniquitously with him." But Isaac withdraws from their malice and "dug again another well, and over this one nonetheless," it says, "they wrangled, and he called its name 'enmity.' And he departed from there and dug yet another well, and they did not quarrel over it; and he called its name 'breadth,' saying: because now God has enlarged us and increased us upon the earth." Well does the holy Apostle, considering in a certain place the greatness of the mysteries, say: "And for these things who is sufficient?" In like manner—rather, in far unlike manner, by as much as we are far inferior to him—we too, seeing so great a depth in the mysteries of the wells, say: "And for these things who is sufficient?" For who could worthily be able to unfold either the sacraments of such great wells or the things that are reported as having been done over the wells, unless we call upon the Father of the living Word, and he himself deign to give a word in our mouth, so that for you who thirst we may be able to draw a little "living water" out of these wells so copious and manifold?
Genesis 26:22 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.4
If, therefore, you too, hearing these things today, receive the hearing faithfully, Isaac works also in you, he cleanses your hearts from earthly senses, and, seeing that such great mysteries as these lie hidden in the divine scriptures, you advance in understanding, you advance in spiritual senses. You will begin even yourselves to be teachers, and "rivers of living water" will proceed from you. For the Word of God is present, and this now is his operation, that he may remove the earth from the soul of each one of you and open your fountain. For he is within you and does not come from without, just as "the kingdom of God also is within you." And that woman who had lost the drachma did not find it outside, but in her own house, after she "lit a lamp and cleansed the house" of the filth and uncleannesses which the sloth and dullness of long time had heaped up, and there she found the drachma. And you too, then, if you light a lamp, if you apply to yourself the illumination of the Holy Spirit and "in his light see light," you will find the drachma within you. For within you is placed the image of the heavenly King. For when God made man in the beginning, "he made him to his own image and likeness"; and this image he placed not without, but within him. This could not be seen in you while your house was sordid, filled with uncleannesses and rubble. That fountain of knowledge was situated within you, but it could not flow, because the Philistines had filled it with earth and had made in you "the image of the earthly." But you indeed then bore "the image of the earthly"; now, however, having heard these things, cleansed by the Word of God from all that earthly mass and oppression, make "the image of the heavenly" shine forth in you. This, then, is the image of which the Father said to the Son: "Let us make men to our image and likeness." The Son of God is the painter of this image. And because the painter is such and so great, his image can be obscured through neglect, but it cannot be destroyed through malice. For the image of God abides forever, even though you draw over yourself "the image of the earthly." This picture you paint upon yourself. For when lust has darkened you, you have laid on one earthly color; but if you also burn with avarice, you have mixed in another. And also when anger makes you bloody, you add nonetheless a third color. To pride too another dye is added, and another to impiety. And thus, through each and every kind of malice, as though by diverse colors gathered together, you paint upon yourself this "image of the earthly," which God did not make in you. Therefore he is to be entreated by us who says through the prophet: "Behold, I blot out your iniquities as a cloud, and your sins as a mist." And when he has blotted out in you all those colors which were taken from the dyes of malice, then there shines forth again in you that image which was created by God. You see, then, how the divine scriptures introduce forms and figures by which the soul may be taught unto the acknowledgment or the cleansing of itself. Do you wish to see yet another form of this image? There are certain letters which God writes, certain letters which we write. The letters of sin we write. Hear the Apostle saying: "blotting out," he says, "the handwriting that was against us in the decrees, which was contrary to us, he took it out of the way, fastening it to his cross." This which he calls the handwriting was the bond of our sins. For each one of us, in the things wherein he offends, becomes a debtor and writes the letters of his own sin. Since also in the judgment of God, which Daniel describes as having taken its seat, he speaks of "books opened," without doubt such as contained the sins of men. These things, then, we write for ourselves through the things wherein we offend. For of this matter there is also that image which is spoken of in the Gospel concerning "the steward of iniquity," who says to each debtor: "Take your bond, and…
Genesis 26:22 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.3
After this, then, Isaac digs a third well and "called the name of that place 'breadth,' saying: because now the Lord has enlarged us and increased us upon the earth." For truly now Isaac has been enlarged, and his name has been increased over all the earth, since he has fulfilled in us the knowledge of the Trinity. For then only "in Judea was God known" and in Israel his name was named, but now "into all the earth their sound has gone forth, and their words unto the ends of the world." For Isaac's servants, going forth throughout the whole world, dug wells and showed "living water" to all, "baptizing all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." For "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." But each one of us also, who ministers the word of God, digs a well and seeks "living water," from which to refresh his hearers. If, then, I too begin to examine the sayings of the ancients and to seek the spiritual sense in them, if I attempt to remove the veil of the law and to show that the things written are "allegorical," I indeed dig wells, but at once the friends of the letter will stir up calumnies against me and will lie in wait for me, they will straightway prepare enmities and persecutions, denying that the truth can stand except upon earth. But we, if we are Isaac's servants, let us love "the wells of living water" and the fountains; let us withdraw from the contentious and the calumniators, and leave them in the earth which they love. But let us never cease from digging "wells of living water," and, examining now the old, now also the new, let us become like that Gospel scribe of whom the Lord said: "he brings forth from his treasures things new and old." But if any of those who knows secular letters now hears me disputing, he perhaps says: these things you say are ours, and it is the learning of our art; this very thing by which you dispute and teach is our eloquence. And he moves suits against me like a certain Philistine, saying that you have dug a well in my ground, and he will think he rightly lays claim to the things that belong to his own earth. But to these things I will reply that every earth has waters, but he who is a Philistine and "is wise in earthly things" does not know how to find water in every earth, does not know how to find in every soul a rational sense and the image of God, does not know that faith, piety, and religion can be found in all. What does it profit you to have learning and not to know how to use it, to have speech and not to know how to speak? This work belongs properly to Isaac's servants, who in every earth dig "wells of living water," that is, to every soul they speak "the word of God" and find fruit. Finally, do you wish to see how many wells a single servant of Isaac dug in the land of strangers? See Paul, who "from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum filled up the Gospel of God." But over each of these wells he suffered persecutions of the Philistines. Hear him saying: "What great things befell me at Iconium, at Lystra"—how great at Ephesus? How often was he beaten, how often stoned? How often did he fight with beasts? But he persevered until he came out into "breadth," that is, until he set up churches in the breadth of the whole world. Thus, then, the wells which Abraham dug, that is, the scriptures of the Old Testament, were filled with earth by the Philistines—whether by evil teachers, scribes, and Pharisees, or even by adversary powers; and their veins were stopped up, that they might not offer drink to those who are of Abraham. For that people cannot drink from the scriptures, but suffers "thirst" for "the word of God," until Isaac comes and opens them, that his servants may drink. Thanks, then, to the Son of Abraham, Christ, of whom it is written: "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham," who came and opened the wells for us. For he was opening them for those who said: "Was not our heart burning wit…
Genesis 26:23-24 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.2
"Isaac therefore went up to the well of the oath, and the Lord appeared to him." The going up of the Law we have said even before to be the ornament of the temple and of those divine services which were performed there. The increase of the prophets too can be named a going up of the Law; and for that reason perhaps he is said to have gone up to the well of the oath and there the Lord to have appeared to him. For through the prophets "the Lord swore, and will not repent, that he himself is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." "At the well" therefore "of the oath" God was seen by him, confirming the promises to come upon him.
Genesis 26:23-24 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.1
It is written in the prophet, speaking in the person of the Lord: "and in the hands of the prophets I was made like." This saying indicates that, although our Lord Jesus Christ is one according to his substance and is nothing other than the Son of God, nevertheless in the figures and forms of the Scriptures he is displayed as varied and diverse. For example, as I recall we set forth in earlier passages that he himself was in the type of Isaac, when he was being offered for a holocaust, yet he himself also held the form of the ram. I say further that he is also displayed in the angel who spoke to Abraham and says to him: "do not lay your hand upon the boy" — since again he says to him: "because you have done this thing, in blessing I will bless you." He is called the sheep or the lamb that is sacrificed at the Passover, and he himself is signified as the shepherd of the sheep; and the high priest who offers the sacrifice is nonetheless described as he himself. He is named the bridegroom, inasmuch as he is the Word of God, and again, inasmuch as he is wisdom, he himself is named the bride; as the prophet also says in his person: "as on a bridegroom he set a mitre upon me, and as a bride he adorned me with ornament," and many other things, which it would be long to pursue for now. Just as, therefore, the Lord himself, according to place and time, accommodates the form of himself to each and every occasion, so also the saints, who bore his type, are to be believed to have enacted the figures of mysteries according to places and times and occasions; as we now also see happening in Isaac, concerning whom it has been read to us: "he went up," it says, "from there to the well of the oath, and the Lord appeared to him that night, and said: I am the God of Abraham your father, fear not. For I am with you, and I will bless you, and I will multiply your seed on account of Abraham your father." The Apostle Paul has set forth for us two figures of this Isaac: one, by which he said that Ishmael indeed, the son of Hagar, held the form of the people according to the flesh, but Isaac the form of the people which is from faith; the other, by which he says: "he did not say: and to seeds, as in many, but: to your seed, as in one, which is Christ." Isaac therefore holds both the figure of the people and of Christ. But that Christ, inasmuch as he is the Word of God, speaks not only in the Gospels but also in the Law and the Prophets, is certain. Yet in the Law he teaches those beginning, in the Gospels those who are perfect. And so Isaac now holds the form of the Word which is in the Law or the Prophets.
Genesis 26:25 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.2
"And Isaac built there an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched there his tent. And the servants of Isaac dug there a well." Isaac indeed builds an altar even in the Law and pitches his tent; but in the Gospels he does not pitch a tent, but builds a house and lays a foundation. For hear Wisdom saying of the Church: "wisdom," it says, "built herself a house, and set up seven columns." Hear also Paul saying of this: "for no one can lay a foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus." Where therefore there is a tent, even if it be pitched, without doubt it must be dissolved; but where there are foundations and the house is built "upon the rock," that house is never dissolved, "for it has been founded upon the rock." Nevertheless Isaac there too digs a well, and never ceases from digging wells, until there arises "a fountain of living water" and "the rush of the river gladdens the city of God."
Genesis 26:26-29 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.3
But "Abimelech" also (he who long ago had honored Abraham) now "came" with his friends "from Gerar" to Isaac: "and Isaac says to them: why have you come to me? For you have hated me and cast me out from you. To this they answer: seeing," it says, "we have seen that the Lord is with you, and we said: let there be an oath between us and you, and let us establish a covenant with you, that you do no evil with us," and the rest. This Abimelech, as I see it, does not always have peace with Isaac, but sometimes is at variance, sometimes seeks peace. If you remember how we said in earlier passages about Abimelech that he holds the person of the studious and wise of the world, who through the learning of philosophy have grasped many things even from the truth, you can understand how here with Isaac, who holds the figure of the Word of God which is in the Law, he can neither be always in dissension nor always in peace. For philosophy is neither in all things contrary to the Law of God nor in all things in agreement. For many of the philosophers write that there is one God, who created all things. In this they agree with the Law of God. Some have also added this, that God both made and governs all things through his Word, and that there is a Word of God by which all things are steered. In this they write things in agreement not only with the Law, but with the Gospels. But the moral and the physical, as it is called, philosophy — nearly all of it perceives the things that are ours. Yet it is at variance with us, when it says that matter is co-eternal with God. It is at variance, when it denies that God cares for mortal things, but confines his providence above the spaces of the lunar sphere. They are at variance with us, when they make the lives of those being born depend on the courses of the stars. They are at variance, when they say that this world is perpetual and to be closed by no end. But there are also very many other things, in which they are either at variance or in accord with us. And therefore Abimelech, according to this figure, is written to be sometimes at peace with Isaac, sometimes at variance. But this too I do not think it was without purpose a matter of care to the Holy Spirit, who writes these things, to include: that two others came with Abimelech, that is, "Ahuzzath his son-in-law and Phicol the commander of his army." Now Ahuzzath is interpreted 'holding,' and Phicol 'the mouth of all,' but Abimelech himself 'my father is king.' These three, as I judge, hold the image of the whole of philosophy, which among them is divided into three parts, logic, physics, ethics, that is, rational, natural, moral. Rational is that which confesses God the Father of all, as is Abimelech. Natural is that which is fixed and holds all things, as if relying on the powers of nature itself, which Ahuzzath professes, who is called 'holding.' Moral is that which is in the mouth of all and pertains to all and, by reason of the likeness of common precepts, is turned about in the mouth of all, which this Phicol designates, who is interpreted 'the mouth of all.' These, therefore, all instructed in learning of this kind, come to the Law of God and say: "seeing we have seen that the Lord is with you, and we said: let there be an oath between us and between you, and let us establish a covenant with you, that you do no evils with us, but just as we have not cursed you, so also may you be blessed of the Lord." These three indeed, who seek peace from the Word of God and desire to anticipate his fellowship by a covenant, can hold the figure of the magi, who come from the regions of the East, learned in their ancestral books and in the instruction of their forefathers, and say that: "seeing we have seen" "a king born," "and we saw that God is with him," "and we have come to adore him." But also, if anyone is instructed in learning of this kind, seeing that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" and marvelling at the majesty of his works,…
Genesis 26:30 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.4
But what do they ask? "Do not do," they say, "evils with us; but as we have not cursed you, so also may you be blessed of the Lord." They seem to me through these words to be demanding remission of sins, that they may not receive evils. They ask for a blessing, not for retribution. Finally, see what follows. "And Isaac made for them," it says, "a great feast: and they ate and drank." For it is certain that he who ministers the word "is a debtor to the wise and the unwise." Since therefore here he provides a feast for the wise, for that reason it is said that he made not a small, but a "great feast." And you too, if you are not yet a "little one" and in need of "milk," but bring "practised senses" and, with much learning sent ahead, come more capable for the understanding of the word of God, a "great feast" is made for you too. There will not be prepared for you the food of the feeble, "herbs," nor will you be nourished with "milk," with which "little ones" are nourished, but the minister of the word will make for you a "great feast." He will speak to you "wisdom," which is brought forth "among the perfect," he will bring forth to you "the wisdom of God hidden in mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew." He will reveal to you Christ, according to this, that in him "all the treasures of wisdom are hidden." He makes for you therefore a "great feast" and he himself feasts with you, if he does not find you such that he must say to you that: "I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal; as to little ones in Christ." This he says to the Corinthians, to whom he also adds: "for since there are contentions and dissensions among you, are you not carnal, and do you walk according to man?" For these Paul "did not make a great feast," to such a degree that, when he was among them and was in need, he was a burden to none, nor ate bread freely from anyone; but his own hands, labouring night and day, ministered to himself and to all who were with him. So far, therefore, were the Corinthians from having a "great feast" made for them, that the preacher of the word of God could not have among them even the least or slightest feast. But those who know how to hear more perfectly, who bring learned and "practised senses" to the hearing of the word of God, for these a "great feast" is made, with these Isaac feasts, and not only feasts, but also, rising up with an oath, promises them peace concerning things to come. Let us therefore also pray to approach the hearing of the word of God with such a mind, with such faith, that he may deign to make for us a "great feast." For "Wisdom has slain her victims, has mingled her wine in the bowl, and has sent her servants," that they may lead to her feast all, as many as they may find. Only let us, having entered the feast of wisdom, not again bring with us the garments of foolishness, not clothed about with the garment of unfaithfulness, not darkened with the stains of sins, but in simplicity and purity of heart let us embrace the word and serve the divine wisdom, which is Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 27:42-45 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 42
But falsehood cannot seize those who flee from the Judea of the letter to the spiritual and intelligible things and the sublime mountains of truth. And that we may understand let them flee into the mountains, take as an example what is said manifestly of a praiseworthy flight, such as what the Apostle says: "flee fornication", and what Wisdom says: "as from the face of a serpent, flee sin", or such as what Rebecca says to Jacob in a mystery: "behold, Esau thy brother threatens to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, hear my voice, and rising up flee to Laban my brother in Haran; and dwell with him some days, until the wrath of thy brother be turned away". And everyone (I think) who is a son of Jacob, completing the works of Jacob, understanding every disposition hateful to God, which is Esau, flees as one who understands. But if he does not flee it, he is a fornicator and defiled like Esau, and, as one not fleeing Esau but dwelling together with him, he does not become a son of Jacob, who had fled it. But Jacob himself, dwelling with Laban usefully for himself and for the dispensation which was according to God, "hid the heart of the Syrian, so that he did not announce to him that he was fleeing", and he himself was fleeing "and all that was his". It is good, therefore, to flee even from Laban, from the counselor of carnal qualities, in which one who dwells ought not to remain, but to flee with his whole household. For even if he should wish to pursue after him, God will turn him away from those fleeing him, so that, even if he should afterward at some time seize him, he can do him no evil while he confidently declares and says: "with whomsoever thou shalt find thy gods, let him not live in the sight of our brethren: recognize what of thine is with me, and take it"; for nothing can be recognized among Jacob of the things of Laban.
Genesis 41:46 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 28
But this also, which he says, "about thirty years old", must be considered. "Joseph was thirty years old" when he was released from his chains and, having interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, was made ruler of Egypt, and in the time of plenty gathered wheat, so that in the time of famine he might have what he could distribute. I think that the thirty years of Joseph went before, as a type of the thirty years of the Savior. For this Joseph gathered not such wheat as that Joseph in Egypt, but true and heavenly wheat, so that, the wheat having been gathered in the time of plenty, he might have what he could distribute when famine had been sent into Egypt, "not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God". And so he gathers from the prophets, from the law, from the apostles the words of abundance, so that when now no more books are written, nor is any new instrument composed, nor are apostles sent, then he may distribute those things which had been brought together by Jesus into the storehouses of the apostles — that is, into their souls and the souls of all the saints — and may nourish Egypt, imperiled by famine, and especially his brothers, of whom it is written: "I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the church I will sing to you". Other men too have words of patience and words of justice and the words of the remaining virtues; this is the wheat which Joseph distributed to the Egyptians. But the grain which he gives to his brothers, that is, to his disciples, is another kind, from the land of Goshen, from that land which looks toward the east: the wheat of the Gospel, the wheat of the apostles.
Genesis 45:25 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.1
We who read the holy Scriptures must observe how in each and every place "going up" and "going down" are set down. For if we consider more carefully, we shall find that scarcely ever is anyone said to have gone down into a holy place, nor is anyone recorded to have gone up to a blameworthy one. These observations show that the divine Scripture is not, as it seems to very many, composed in an untutored and rustic manner of speech, but is fashioned according to the discipline of divine learning, serving not so much historical narratives as mystical realities and meanings. You will find, then, that it is written that those who are born from the seed of Abraham went down into Egypt, and again that the sons of Israel went up out of Egypt. Then, too, concerning Abraham himself it is said thus: "And Abraham went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that was his, and Lot with him, into the desert." And then also concerning Isaac it is said that "the Lord appeared to him and said to him: do not go down into Egypt." But even the Ishmaelites, who were carrying incense and resin and myrrh, who themselves also came from the seed of Abraham, are reported to have gone down into Egypt, and with them Joseph too is said to have gone down into Egypt. And after these things also: "Jacob," it says, "seeing that there was a trade of grain in Egypt, said to his sons: why are you idle? Behold, I hear that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy us food, that we may live and not die." And a little later: "the brothers of Joseph," it says, "went down into Egypt to buy grain." Indeed, when Simeon had been detained in Egypt and his nine brothers were sent back and returning to their father, it is not written that they went up out of Egypt, but: "loading," it says, "the grain upon their asses, they departed." For they could not worthily be said to go up, whose brother was held bound in Egypt, with whom they too, anxious in mind and heart, were tormented, held fast as it were by certain bonds of love. But when, their brother received back and Joseph recognized, and Benjamin too set before his eyes, they return with joy, then it is said that "they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father." That is when they also say to their father that: "Joseph your son is alive, and he himself holds the rule over the whole land of Egypt." For necessarily are they said to ascend from the lowest and humble things to the steep and lofty, who announce that Joseph lives and holds the rule of all Egypt. These things, for the present, have been able to occur to us concerning going up and going down; from which any who are studious can find occasions to gather more proofs from the holy Scriptures in support of an assertion of this kind.
Genesis 45:26 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.2
Let us indeed see how we ought to hear that which is written, that "Joseph your son is alive." I do not take these words as spoken in a common sense. For if, for the sake of argument, we should suppose that he could have been overcome by lust and had sinned with his master's wife, I do not think that this would have been announced by the patriarchs concerning him to his father Jacob, that "your son Joseph is alive." For if he had done this, without doubt he was not alive. For "the soul that sins, it shall die." But Susanna also teaches the same thing, when she says: "straits are on every side for me. For if I do this" — that is, if I sin — "it is death to me; and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands." You see, then, that she too placed death in sin. But the sentence pronounced by God upon the first man also contains the same thing, when he says: "but on the day you eat of it, you shall die the death." For immediately, as he transgressed the commandment, he died. For the soul died, which sinned, and the serpent is convicted of having deceived, who said: "you shall not die the death." And these things concerning that which was said by the sons of Israel to Jacob, that "Joseph your son is alive." To which things similar things are also reported in what follows, when it is said: "and the spirit of Jacob their father was revived. And Israel said: it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive." What is said in Latin "the spirit was revived," in Greek is written ἀνεζωπύρησεν. Which signifies not so much to revive as, so to speak, to rekindle and to re-ignite. Which is wont to be said when perhaps in some material a fire fails to the point that it seems to be extinguished; and if perhaps by applied kindling it is restored, it is said to be rekindled. Or if the light of a lamp reaches the point that it is thought to be extinguished, if perhaps by oil poured in it is revived, it is said — though in a less polished manner of speaking — that the lamp is rekindled. Similarly also of a torch or other lights of this kind it will be so called. Some such thing, then, this word seems to indicate also in Jacob, namely that, so long as he was far from Joseph and it had not been announced to him about his life, his spirit had as it were failed in him, and the light which was in him, its kindling failing, had already been obscured; but when they came who might announce to him about his life, that is, who might say that "the life was the light of men," he rekindled his spirit within himself and the splendor of the true light was restored in him.
Genesis 45:27 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.3
But that the divine fire can sometimes be extinguished even in the holy and faithful, hear the Apostle Paul instructing those who were meriting to receive the gifts of the Spirit and grace, and saying: "do not extinguish the Spirit." As though, then, Jacob had suffered some such thing as Paul instructed ought not to happen, and had restored himself through the things which had been announced to him about the life of Joseph, it is said of him: "and Jacob rekindled his spirit and Israel said: it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive." But this too is to be observed, that he who "rekindles his spirit," namely that spirit which seemed almost extinguished, is called Jacob; but he who says: "it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is alive," as one understanding and seeing that great is the life which is in the spiritual Joseph, this one is now written not Jacob, but Israel, as one who sees with the mind the true life, which is the true God, Christ. But he was moved not only by this, that he heard "Joseph his son is alive," but especially by that which was announced to him, that it was he who held "the rule of all Egypt." For this truly is a great thing for him, that he brought Egypt back under his own dominion. For to trample lust, to flee luxury, and to press down and bridle all the pleasures of the body, this is to hold "the rule of all Egypt." And this is what among Israel is accounted great and held in admiration. But if there is anyone who indeed subdues some vices of the body, but yields and lies subject to others, of him it is not said wholly that he holds "the rule of the whole land of Egypt," but, for the sake of argument, he will be seen to hold the rule perhaps of one or two or three cities. But Joseph, over whom no lust of the body held dominion, was prince and lord "of all Egypt." Therefore not now Jacob, but Israel, his spirit rekindled, says: "it is a great thing for me, if Joseph my son is alive. I will go and see him before I die." But not even this is to be left idly aside, that he says not the soul, but the spirit, as the better part of himself, was revived or rekindled. For the splendor of the light which was in him, even if it was not then wholly extinguished, when his sons brought forward Joseph's tunic stained with the blood of a kid and he could be deceived by their lie, so that he "rent his garments and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned his son, and would not at all be consoled," but said: "because I go down to my son mourning into hell," then even if, as we said, the light was not wholly extinguished in him, yet for the greatest part it had been obscured — that he could be deceived, that he rent his garments, that he mourned falsely, that he implored death, that he desired by mourning to go down into hell. On account of these things, therefore, he now revives and "rekindles his spirit," because it was fitting that the light, which the fraud of the lie had obscured in him, the hearing of the truth should rekindle and cherish anew.
Genesis 45:28 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.4
But since we have said that it is Jacob who "rekindles his spirit," but Israel who says: "it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive," you too, who hear these things, beginning from that place where it is written that "he said to him: your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have prevailed with God, and with men you have been made mighty," running through all Scripture, can find the difference of this appellation. For example, as when he says: "announce to me your name," here the one who does not know the name is not said to be Israel, but Jacob. But where "they do not eat the sinew that grew numb in the breadth of the patriarch's thigh," they are said to be not the sons of Jacob, but the sons of Israel. But he who, looking up, saw Esau coming and with him four hundred men, and worshiped seven times the fornicator and profane one, and him who for one meal "sold his birthright," is called not Israel, but Jacob. And also when he offers him gifts and says: "if I have found favor before you, receive these presents from my hands, because I have seen your face, like one who sees the face of God," here he was not Israel, but Jacob. And where he heard that Dinah his daughter had been defiled "and Jacob held his peace until his sons should come," he is not called Israel. But you too, as I said, if you observe, will find similar things. In the present reading, therefore, not Jacob, but Israel says: "it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive." But also when he comes to the well of the oath and "offers a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac," he is called not Jacob, but Israel. But if you should ask why, speaking to him by night in a vision, God does not say "Israel, Israel," but "Jacob, Jacob," it is perhaps because it was night and he still merited to hear the voice of God through a vision and not yet openly. And when he enters Egypt, he is called not Israel, but Jacob "and his sons with him," and when he stands "before Pharaoh," to bless him, he is named not Israel, but Jacob; for Pharaoh did not receive the blessing of Israel. And it is Jacob, not Israel, who says to Pharaoh that "the days of his life are few and evil." Which indeed Israel would never say. But after these things it is said not of Jacob, but of Israel, that: "he called his son Joseph and says to him: if I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh, and you shall do upon me mercy and truth." And he who worshiped upon the top of Joseph's staff was not Jacob, but Israel. Then again, when he blesses the sons of Joseph, he is called Israel. And when he calls together his sons, he says: "come together, that I may announce to you what shall befall you in the last days. Be gathered, sons of Jacob, and hear Israel your father." But perhaps you may ask why they who come together are called "sons of Jacob," but he who blesses them is called "Israel." See whether perhaps this is indicated, that they had not yet advanced so far as to be equaled to Israel in merits. And therefore they are called "sons of Jacob," as inferiors, but he who was already perfect and gave the blessings, conscious of things to come, is called "Israel." Indeed, that it is said that the "buriers" of Egypt buried not Jacob, but Israel, will seem to be a great question. But I judge that in this their vice is set forth, for whom, because every understanding of good things and all clear-sightedness of heavenly intelligence was hateful, Israel is said to be buried by them, because among the impious the holy die and are buried. Let these things, as far as could occur for the present, be recorded by us concerning the difference of Jacob and Israel.
Genesis 46:3 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.5
It seems worthy indeed, after these things, to look at and perceive what God speaks to Israel himself through a vision, and how he sends him to Egypt, strengthening and exhorting him as one setting out to certain contests. For he says: "do not fear to go down into Egypt," that is to say: as you are about to engage "against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world" — which is figuratively called Egypt — do not fear, do not tremble. And if you also wish to know the reason why you ought not to fear, hear my promise: "for I will make you into a great nation there, and I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will call you back thence at the end." He does not, then, fear "to go down into Egypt," he does not fear the contests of this world and to undergo the struggles of the opposing demons, with whom God has gone down into the contests. In short, hear the Apostle Paul saying: "I labored more," he says, "than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." But also in Jerusalem, when the sedition had been stirred up against him and he was sweating out a most glorious contest for the word and preaching of the Lord, the Lord stood by him and said the same things which are now said to Israel: "do not fear," he says, "Paul, because, as you have testified concerning me at Jerusalem, so must you give testimony also at Rome."
Genesis 46:4 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.6
But each one of us also, by the same order and by the same way, enters Egypt and the contests, and, if he merits that God always remain with him, he will make him "into a great nation." For a great nation is the number of the virtues and the multitude of righteousness, in which all the saints are said to be multiplied and to increase. That also is fulfilled in him which was said: "I will call you back thence at the end." For the end is set down as the perfection of things and the consummation of the virtues. On account of this, in short, another of the saints also said: "do not call me back in the midst of my days." And again Scripture bears witness to the great patriarch Abraham, that "Abraham died full of days." This, then, is "I will call you back thence at the end," as though he said: since "you have fought the good fight, you have kept the faith, you have finished the course," I will now call you back from this world to the future blessedness, to the perfection of eternal life, to "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will render at the end of the ages to all who love him."
Genesis 46:4 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.5
But I judge that something more of mystery yet lies hidden in this place. For it moves me that he said: "I will make you into a great nation, and I will go down with you into Egypt, and thence I will call you back at the end." Who is it who was made "into a great nation" in Egypt and was called back "at the end"? As far as concerns that Jacob, of whom it is thought to be said, it will not seem to be true. For he was not called back "at the end" from Egypt, since indeed he died in Egypt. And it will be absurd if anyone says that Jacob was called back by God in this, that his body was carried back. And if this be accepted, it will not be true that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." It does not, then, befit that these things be understood of a dead body, but that they be confirmed regarding the living and the vigorous. Let us see, therefore, whether perhaps a figure is formed in this either of the Lord descending into this world and "into a great nation," that is, into the Church from the nations, and, all things done and consummated, returning to the Father, or of the "first-formed man," who descends into contests in Egypt, when, cast out from the delights of paradise, he is led to the labors and hardships of this world, a contest with the serpent being set before him, when it is said: "you shall watch his head and he shall watch your heel," and again when it is said to the woman that: "I will put enmities between you and him, and between your seed and his seed." Nor yet does God forsake them, placed in this contest, but he is always with them. He is well pleased in Abel, he rebukes Cain; invoked, he is present to Enoch; he commands Noah to build the ark of salvation in the flood; he leads Abraham out "from the house of his father" and "from his kindred"; he blesses Isaac and Jacob; he leads the sons of Israel out of Egypt. Through Moses he writes the law of the letter; through the prophets he fulfills what was lacking. This is to be with them in Egypt. But that he says: "I will call you back thence at the end," this I judge to be, as we said above, that at the end of the ages his only-begotten Son descended for the salvation of the world even into the lower regions and thence called back the "first-formed man." For that which he said to the robber: "today you shall be with me in paradise," understand this to be said not to him alone, but also to all the saints, for whom he had descended into the lower regions. In this, then, more truly than in Jacob, will that be fulfilled which was said: "I will call you back thence at the end."
Genesis 46:4 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.7
But let us see also what is to be thought from this, that he says: "and Joseph will put his hands upon your eyes." I judge indeed that many sacraments of hidden understanding are covered beneath the veil of this word, which to touch upon and knock at belongs to another time. For now, in the meantime, it will not seem to be said without reason — as it also seemed to certain of our predecessors — that a certain prophecy is seen to be designated in this; since indeed of the tribe of Joseph was that Jeroboam who made two golden cows, that he might seduce the people to worship them, and through this, as it were by laying on his hands, blinded and closed the eyes of Israel, that they might not see his impiety, of which it was said: "on account of the impiety of Jacob are all these things, and on account of the sin of the house of Israel. But what is the impiety of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?" But if perhaps someone should deny that those things which under the appearance of piety were said by God as future ought to be bent to a blameworthy sense, we shall say that the true Joseph, our Lord and Savior, just as he put his bodily hand upon the eyes of the blind man and restored to him the sight which he had lost, so also put his spiritual hands upon the eyes of the law, which had been blinded through the bodily understanding of the Scribes and Pharisees, and restored to them sight, so that to those to whom the Lord opens the Scriptures the spiritual sight and understanding in the law might appear. And would that the Lord Jesus might lay also upon us "his hands upon our eyes," that we too might begin to look not at those things "which are seen," but at those "which are not seen," and might open for us those eyes which behold not present things, but future, and might reveal to us the sight of the heart, by which God is seen in spirit, through the same Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is "glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 47:20 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.3
After these things follows: "the Egyptians," it says, "sold their land to Pharaoh, for the famine prevailed over them." It seems to me that in this too a reproach of the Egyptians is contained. For you would not easily find it written of the Hebrews that "the famine prevailed over them." For although it is written that "the famine grew strong upon the earth," yet it is not written that the famine prevailed over Jacob or his sons, as it is said of the Egyptians that "the famine prevailed over them." For although famine comes even to the just, yet it does not prevail over them; on account of which they even glory in it, just as Paul is found gladly to rejoice in sufferings of this kind, when he says: "in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness." What therefore is for the just an exercise of virtue, this is for the unjust the punishment of sin. Finally in the times of Abraham too it is written that: "there was a famine upon the earth, and Abraham went down into Egypt to dwell there, because the famine had grown strong upon the earth." And certainly, if, as some think, the word of the divine Scripture were composed incautiously and unskillfully, it could have said that Abraham went down into Egypt to dwell there, because the famine had grown strong upon him. But observe with how great a distinction the divine word makes use, with how great caution. When it reports of the saints, it says the famine grew strong "upon the earth"; when of the unjust, it says they themselves were prevailed over by the famine. Neither Abraham, then, nor Jacob, nor their sons does the famine prevail over. But even if it grows strong, it is said to grow strong "upon the earth." And in the times of Isaac likewise it is written that: "there was a famine upon the earth, besides that former famine which occurred in the times of Abraham." And so far is the famine unable to prevail over Isaac that the Lord says to him: "do not go down into Egypt, but dwell in the land whatsoever I shall show you, and dwell in it, and I will be with you." According to this observance, as I judge, the prophet long after those times was saying: "I have been young and now am old, and I have not seen the just man forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread." And elsewhere: "the Lord will not slay the just soul with famine." From all of which it is declared that the earth indeed can suffer famine, and those "who are wise in earthly things." But those whose food it is to "do the will of the Father who is in heaven," and whose soul that "bread which came down from heaven" nourishes, can never labor from the want of famine. Therefore, then, the divine Scripture observantly does not say that those are prevailed over by famine to whom it knows there is the knowledge of God and the food of heavenly wisdom is furnished. But in the third book of Kingdoms also you will find that a similar caution was held concerning the report of famine, where, when the famine had grown strong upon the earth, as Elijah said to Ahab: "the Lord God of powers lives, the God of Israel, in whose sight I have stood, if in these years there shall be dew or rain upon the earth, except by the word of my mouth," after these things it is commanded by the Lord to the ravens that they feed the prophet, and that he drink water from the torrent Cherith. And again in Zarephath of Sidon a widow woman is commanded to feed the prophet, so that she, to whom there remained no more than one day's sustenance, by giving generously might become unfailing and, exhausted, might abound manifold. For the "jar of meal" and the "cruse of oil," according to the word of the Lord, did not fail in feeding the prophet. Similar things too you will find even in the times of Elisha, when the son of Hadad, king of Syria, went up against Samaria and besieged it: "and there was," it says, "a great famine in Samaria, until an ass's head was worth fifty shekels of silver, and a fourth part of a cab of dove's dung five pieces of silver." But suddenly through…
Genesis 47:20 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.4
When therefore you see an observance of this kind kept entire in almost all the places of the holy Scripture, turn these things to the tropological and allegorical sense, which we are taught nonetheless by the words of the prophets themselves. For one of the twelve prophets openly and evidently declares in bare speech that a spiritual famine is meant, saying: "behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will send forth a famine upon the earth, not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." You see what the famine is that prevails over sinners? You see what the famine is that grows strong upon the earth? For those who are of the earth and "are wise in earthly things" and cannot "perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God" suffer "a famine of the word of God," they do not hear the commandments of the law, they know nothing of the reproofs of the prophets, they are ignorant of the Apostolic consolations, they do not feel the medicine of the Gospel. And therefore it is rightly said of these that: "the famine grew strong upon the earth." But for the just and for those "meditating on the law" of the Lord "day and night," "wisdom prepares her table, slays her victims, mixes her wine in the bowl, and cries out with the loudest voice" — not that all should come, not the abounding, not the rich, nor that the wise of this world should turn aside to her, but "if any are," she says, "lacking in sense, let them come to me"; that is, if any are "humble of heart," who have learned from Christ "to be meek and humble of heart" (which elsewhere is called "poor in spirit"), but rich in faith, these come together to the banquet of wisdom, and refreshed by her feasts they drive away the famine which "grows strong upon the earth." See therefore, you too, lest perchance you be found an Egyptian and the famine prevail over you, lest perchance, occupied by the deeds of the world, or bound tight by the chains of avarice, or dissolved by the effusion of luxury, you become a stranger to the foods of wisdom which are always displayed in the churches of God. For if you turn your hearing away from those things which are either read in the church or debated, without doubt you will suffer "a famine of the word of God." But if you descend from the stock of Abraham and keep the nobility of the Israelite race, the law always feeds you, the prophets feed you, and the Apostles too display for you opulent banquets. In the bosoms too of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, "in the kingdom of the Father," the Gospels will invite you to recline, that there you may eat "of the tree of life" and drink wine of "the true vine," "the new wine with Christ in the kingdom of his Father." For from these foods "the sons of the bridegroom" cannot fast nor suffer famine, "as long as the bridegroom is with them."
Genesis 47:21 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.2
If, then, we understand these things spiritually — what the servitude of the Egyptians is — we recognize that to serve the Egyptians is nothing other than to become liable to carnal vices and to be subject to demons. Into which, certainly, no necessity brought in from without compels anyone, but the sluggishness of the mind and the lust and pleasure of the body subdues him, to which the mind subjects itself through slothfulness. But he who takes care for the liberty of his soul and ennobles the dignity of his mind with heavenly thought, this man is of the children of Israel. He, even if he be oppressed "by force" for a time, does not nevertheless lose his liberty forever. Finally our Savior too, discoursing in the Gospel about liberty and servitude, speaks thus: "everyone," he says, "who sins is a slave of sin." And again he says: "if you abide in my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." But if perchance someone should say to us: how then, through Joseph, is all the land handed over into Pharaoh's possession, and all this servitude, which we expounded above as taken on from the condition of sin, is said to be ministered to Pharaoh through a holy man? — we can answer to these things that the very word of Scripture excuses the ministry of the holy man, when it says that the Egyptians sold themselves and their possessions. The fault, then, is not reflected back upon the one who dispenses, where things worthy of the recipients' merits are provided. For you will find something of the kind done even by Paul, when by him the man who, through the foulness of his deeds, made himself unworthy of the fellowship of the saints is handed over to Satan, "that he may learn not to blaspheme." In which certainly no one would say that Paul acted harshly, who cast the man out of the church and handed him over to Satan. But without doubt the fault is referred to that man who by his own deeds deserved this, that there should be no place for him in the church, but that he should deserve to be joined to the fellowship of Satan. So then Joseph also, since he saw nothing of Hebrew liberty, nothing of Israelite nobility in the Egyptians, joined worthy servitudes to a worthy dominion. I say even something more. You will find in the divine dispensations also that something of the kind was done, in that which Moses says: "when the Most High divided the nations and separated the borders of the nations, he set them according to the number of the angels of God, and the Lord's portion became Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel." You see, then, that according to their merits a principality of angels is appointed to each nation, but the nation of Israel is made "the Lord's" "portion."
Genesis 47:21 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.1
According to the testimony of Scripture no Egyptian is free. For "Pharaoh reduced the people into servitude to himself" and left no one within the borders of the Egyptians free, but throughout the whole land of Egypt liberty was taken away. And perhaps it is for this reason that it is written: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Egypt, then, has become a house of bondage, and — what is more unhappy — of voluntary bondage. For concerning the Hebrews, although it is reported that they were reduced into servitude and that they bore the yoke of domination with their liberty snatched away, they are nevertheless recorded to have been brought into this "by force." For it is written that: "The Egyptians abhorred the children of Israel, and the Egyptians by their power oppressed the children of Israel by force, and afflicted their life with hard labors, with clay and brick, and with all the works that were in the fields, in all of which they were reducing them into servitude with violence." Attend then more diligently, how the Hebrews are written to have been reduced "by force" into servitude — men in whom there was an inborn liberty, which was extorted from them not easily or through some deception, but with violence. Pharaoh, however, easily reduced the Egyptian people into servitude to himself, nor is it written that he did this with violence. For the Egyptians are prone to a degenerate life and quickly fall down into every enslavement to vices. Look back to the origin of their race and you will find that their father Ham, who had laughed at his father's nakedness, deserved a sentence of this kind, that his son Canaan should be a servant to his brothers, so that in him the condition of servitude might convict the wickedness of his morals. Not without reason, then, does the discolored posterity imitate the ignobility of the race. But the Hebrews, even if they are reduced into servitude, even if they suffer tyranny from the Egyptians, suffer it "by force" and by necessity. Therefore they are freed "from the house of bondage" and are recalled to their former liberty, which they had lost against their will. Finally it is even provided by the divine laws that, if perchance someone should buy a Hebrew boy, he should not possess him in perpetual servitude, but that he should serve him for six years, and in the seventh year go out free. Concerning the Egyptians nothing of the kind is decreed, nor anywhere does the divine law take care for Egyptian liberty, because they had lost it of their own accord, but it leaves them to the eternal yoke of their condition and to perpetual servitude.
Genesis 47:22 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.5
It is indeed reported in what follows that the land of the priests of the Egyptians was not reduced into servitude to Pharaoh, nor did they sell themselves along with the other Egyptians, but that they received from outside either grain or gifts not from Joseph, but from Pharaoh himself, and "for this reason," as being more intimate than the rest, "they did not sell their land" to Pharaoh. But by this they are shown to be worse than the rest, who, on account of the excessive intimacy which they have with Pharaoh, receive no change, but remain in an evil possession; and just as to those who had advanced in faith and holiness the Lord says: "now I no longer call you servants, but friends," so Pharaoh too says to these, as to those who have ascended to the highest degree of wickedness and to the priesthood of perdition: "now I no longer call you servants, but friends." Finally, do you wish to know what is the difference between the priests of God and the priests of Pharaoh? Pharaoh grants lands to his priests; but the Lord grants his priests no portion in the land, but says to them: "I am your portion." Observe therefore, you who read these things, all you priests of the Lord, and see what the difference of priests is, lest perchance those who have a portion in the land and are occupied with earthly cultivations and pursuits should seem to be priests not so much of the Lord as of Pharaoh. For it is he who wishes his priests to have possessions of lands and to exercise the cultivation of the field, not of the soul, to give their labor to the country and not to the law; but let us hear what Christ our Lord enjoins upon his priests. "He who does not," he says, "renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple." I tremble as I say these things. For first of all my own — mine, I say — I stand forth as my own accuser, I speak my own condemnations. Christ denies that he is his disciple whom he shall have seen possessing anything, and him who does not "renounce all that he possesses." And what are we doing? How do we either read these things ourselves or expound them to the peoples, we who not only do not renounce those things which we possess, but even wish to acquire those things which we never had before we came to Christ? Can it be that, because our conscience convicts us, we are able to conceal and not bring forth the things that are written? I do not wish to become guilty of a doubled crime. I confess, and I confess openly with the people listening, that these things are written, even though I know I have not yet fulfilled them. But at least, admonished by this, let us hasten to fulfill them, let us hasten to pass over from the priests of Pharaoh, who have earthly possession, to the priests of the Lord, who have no portion in the land, whose "portion is the Lord." For such was that man too who said: "as needy, yet enriching many, as having nothing and possessing all things." This is Paul, who glories in such things. Do you wish to hear what Peter too declares about himself? Hear him together with John professing alike and saying: "gold and silver I do not have, but what I have, this I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ rise and walk." You see the riches of the priests of Christ, you see, having nothing, how great and what kind of things they bestow. Such wealth an earthly possession cannot bestow.
Genesis 47:24 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.6
We have compared priests with priests; now, if it seems good, let us also compare the Egyptian people with the Israelite people. For it is said in what follows that after the famine and the servitude the Egyptian people offer a fifth part to Pharaoh; but on the contrary the Israelite people offer tithes to the priests. See in this too that the divine Scripture is supported by a mighty reason. See the Egyptian people paying tribute by the number five: for the five bodily senses are designated, to which the carnal people is enslaved; for the Egyptians always give obedience to visible and corporeal things. But the Israelite people honors the number ten, the number of perfection; for it received the ten words of the law and, bound by the power of the Decalogue, took up by divine largess the divine mysteries unknown to this world. But in the New Testament also the number ten is likewise venerable, just as the fruit of the Spirit too is set forth as germinating in ten virtues, and the faithful servant offers to the Lord ten minas from the gains of his trading and receives power over ten cities. But because there is one author of all and one fount and "beginning," Christ, therefore the people indeed renders tithes to the ministers and priests, but offers the firstborn to "the firstborn of all creation" and the first-fruits to the "beginning" of all, of whom it is written: "who is the beginning, the firstborn of all creation." See therefore from all these things the difference of the people of the Egyptians and the people of Israel, and the difference of the priests of Pharaoh and the priests of the Lord, and, examining yourself, discern of which people you are and of what order you hold the priesthood. If you still serve the carnal senses, if you still pay tribute by the number five and look to those things which are "visible" and "temporal," and do not look to those things which are "invisible" and "eternal," know that you are of the Egyptian people. But if you always have before your eyes the Decalogue of the law and the ten of the New Testament, which we expounded above, and offer tithes of these, and immolate the firstborn of your sense in faith to "the firstborn from the dead," and refer your first-fruits to the "beginning" of all, you are "a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile." But the priests of the Lord too, if they examine themselves and are free from earthly deeds and from worldly possession, can truly say to the Lord that: "behold, we have left all things, and have followed you," and hear from him that: "you who have followed me, in the regeneration of all things, when the Son of Man shall have come in his kingdom, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Genesis 47:27 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.7
After these things let us see what Moses says: "and Israel dwelt," he says, "in Egypt, in the land of Goshen." Now Goshen is interpreted 'proximity' or 'nearness.' By which it is shown that, even if Israel dwells in Egypt, he is nevertheless not far from God, but is near to him and joined to him, just as he himself also says that: "I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will be with you." And we too, therefore, even if we seem to have gone down into Egypt, even if, placed in the flesh, we sustain the struggles and contests of this world, even if we dwell among those who are enslaved to Pharaoh, yet if we are near to God, if we are engaged in the meditation of his commandments and search out "his precepts and judgments" — for this is to be near to God: always to think the things that are God's, "to seek the things that are God's" — then God too will always be with us, through Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Genesis 49:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.5.1
And as for the consummation of the world, Jacob is the first to refer to this when, in giving his testament to his sons he says, "Gather to me, you sons of Jacob, that I may tell you what shall be in the last days," or, "after the last days." If then there are "last days," or a time "after the last days," it follows of necessity that the days that had a beginning also come to an end.
Habakkuk 2:15 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
What, then, must we do, who have received from Paul, the teacher of the Church, institutions of understanding of this kind? Does it not seem just that we should keep the rule of this kind handed down to us by a like example in the rest? Or shall we, as certain people wish, forsaking these things which so great and such an Apostle handed down, turn back again to "Jewish fables"? For my part, if I should expound these things otherwise than as they seem to Paul, I think this is to give a hand to the enemies of Christ, and this is what the prophet says: "Woe to him who gives his neighbor to drink with turbulent overthrow!" Having therefore received from the blessed Apostle Paul the seeds of spiritual understanding, let us cultivate them, insofar as the Lord shall deign to enlighten us through your prayers.
Habakkuk 3:2 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:3.4
And we think that the expression also which occurs in the hymn of Habakkuk, "In the midst either of the two living things, or of the two lives, you will be known," ought to be understood of Christ and the Holy Spirit. For all knowledge of the Father is obtained by revelation of the Son through the Holy Spirit, so that both of these beings which, according to the prophet, are called either "living things" or "lives" exist as the grounds of the knowledge of God the Father. For it is said of the Son that "no one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." The same also is said by the apostle of the Holy Spirit, when he declares, "God has revealed them to us by his Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." And again in the Gospel, when the Savior speaks of the divine and profounder parts of his teaching, which his disciples were not yet able to receive, he thus addresses them: "I cannot bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is come, he will teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." We must understand, therefore, that as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals him to whom he will, so the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God, reveals God to whom he will: "For the Spirit blows where he lists." We are not, however, to suppose that the Spirit derives his knowledge through revelation from the Son.
Habakkuk 3:8 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"The horse and the rider he has cast into the sea; he has become for me a helper and protector unto salvation." The men who pursue us are horses, and, so to speak, all who are born in the flesh are figuratively horses. But these have their riders. There are horses which the Lord mounts, and they go about the whole earth, concerning which it is said: "And your cavalry is salvation." But there are horses which have as their riders the devil and his angels. Judas was a horse, but so long as he had the Lord as his rider, he belonged to the cavalry of salvation. For along with the other Apostles he was sent and bestowed salvation on the sick and health on the ailing; but when he laid himself down beneath the devil — for "after the morsel Satan entered into him" — Satan became his rider, and, led by his reins, he began to ride against our Lord and Savior. All, therefore, who persecute the saints are neighing horses, but they have riders by whom they are driven, the evil angels, and for that reason they are fierce. If, therefore, you should ever see your persecutor raging too savagely, know that he is being goaded by his rider the demon, and for that reason he is savage, for that reason he is truculent.
Haggai 1:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:144-45
In the whole sequence of Scripture, at any one time they are said to be men and at another time angels. But the one who thinks this will say that just as there are angels among those who are admittedly men, as Zechariah, who says, "I am with you as an angel of God, says the Lord almighty," and John, of whom it has been written, "Behold, I send my angel before your face," so also the angels of God, when they are called "men," are called this because of their work and not because of their nature.
Hebrews 1:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.5
The apostle Paul says, that the only begotten Son is … "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." Now, we find in the treatise called the Wisdom of Solomon the following description of the wisdom of God: "For she is the breath of the power of God, and the purest emanation of the glory of the Almighty." Nothing that is polluted can therefore come upon her, for she is the splendor of the eternal light, the stainless mirror of God's working and the image of his goodness. Now we say, as before, that Wisdom has her existence nowhere else but in him who is the beginning of all things, from whom also is derived everything that is wise, because he himself is the only one who is by nature a Son, and is therefore called the Only Begotten.
Hebrews 1:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.8
In order … to more completely understand how the Savior is the figure of the person or subsistence of God, let us use an illustration. While it does not describe the subject of which we are treating either fully or appropriately, it may nevertheless be employed for this purpose only: to show that when the Son of God, who was in the form of God, emptied himself, his object was to display to us by this very emptying the fullness of his deity. For instance, suppose that there were a statue of so enormous a size as to fill the whole world, and because of this could be seen by no one. If another statue were formed altogether resembling it in the shape of the limbs, and in the outline of features, and in form and material, but without the same immensity of size, then those who were unable to behold the one of enormous proportions, should, on seeing the latter, acknowledge that they had seen the former, because it preserved all the features of its limbs and appearance, and even the very form and material, so closely as to be altogether undistinguishable from it.
Hebrews 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.353
In my opinion, the Son is the reflection of the total glory of God, according to Paul who said, "He reflects the glory of God," anticipating, however, a partial reflection on the rest of the rational creation from this reflection of the total glory. For I do not think that anyone except the Son can contain the whole reflection of the full glory of God.
Hebrews 1:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1
Now this Son was begotten of the Father's will, for he is the "image of the invisible God" and the "effulgence of God's glory and the impress of God's substance." … Let those who dare to say, "There was a time when the Son was not" understand that this is what they are saying: "Once wisdom did not exist, and word did not exist, and life did not exist." But it is not right, nor is it safe for us, in our weakness to rob God … of God's only begotten Word, who ever dwells with God, who is God's wisdom, in whom God rejoiced. For if we do this, we shall think of God as not always rejoicing.
Hebrews 1:5-7 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 31
Let us see, then, what the devil speaks to the Lord from the Scriptures: "For it is written, that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." See how, even in the testimonies themselves, he is shifty. For he wishes to diminish the glory of the Savior, as though he needed the help of the angels, being about to dash his foot unless he were lifted up by their hands. He takes up a testimony and interprets of Christ that which was written not of Christ, but of the saints generally. For freely and with all confidence I contradict the devil, that this cannot be understood of the person of Christ. For he does not need the help of the angels, who is greater than the angels and has obtained by inheritance a name better than they. To none of the angels did God ever say: "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you." To none of them did he speak as to a son, "he who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire," but to his own proper Son, of whom he speaks innumerable things in the prophets. He does not need, I say, the help of the angels, the Son of God. Nay rather, learn, O devil, that, unless Jesus should help the angels, they dash their own foot. And if any of the angels has seemed to dash his foot—of whom it was read a little while ago: "that we shall judge angels"—he dashes it for this reason, that he did not stretch out his hand to Jesus, so that, being grasped by him, he might not dash it. For when anyone, trusting in his own strength, does not call upon the protection of Jesus, he dashes his foot and falls.
Hebrews 1:14 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.3.6
On this account our heart must be kept with all carefulness both by day and night, and no place be given to the devil. But every effort must be used that the ministers of God—those spirits who were sent to minister to those who are called to be heirs of salvation—may find a place within us, and be delighted to enter into the guest-chamber of our soul. And, dwelling within us [they] may guide us by their counsel; if, so, they shall find the habitation of our heart adorned by the practice of virtue and holiness.
Hebrews 1:14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.3
That both good angels are present to men and adverse ones; that it was surely not by chance and without judgment that that angel was allotted to be the guardian of that soul, for example of Peter, and another of Paul, or another of one infant of the Church, concerning whose angels the Lord says that they "always behold the face of their Father who is in heaven." Concerning whom there is surely no room to doubt that, by the judgment of God—who clearly perceives both their worthiness and the quality of our soul—they are allotted the guardianship of each one of us by a certain mystical lot directed by the dispensation of Christ.
Hebrews 2:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.4
The design of Judas, also, respecting the betrayal of our Lord and Saviour, did not originate in the wickedness of his mind alone. For Scripture testifies that the "devil had already put it into his heart to betray Him." And therefore Solomon rightly commanded, saying, "Keep thy heart with all diligence." And the Apostle Paul warns us: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest perhaps we should let them slip." And when he says, "Neither give place to the devil," he shows by that injunction that it is through certain acts, or a kind of mental slothfulness, that room is made for the devil, so that, if he once enter our heart, he will either gain possession of us, or at least will pollute the soul, if he has not obtained the entire mastery over it, by casting on us his fiery darts; and by these we are sometimes deeply wounded, and sometimes only set on fire.
Hebrews 2:9 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
How is it possible for it to be said by the Apostle concerning God: "the Only One who has immortality"? Let us investigate, and we shall discover, that Christ Jesus tasted death for everyone, except for God. This is how the one God has immortality.
Hebrews 2:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.255-58
We understood the Christ to be the creator, but the Father is greater. He, indeed, who is such great things as "the advocate," "the expiation," "the propitiatory," because he showed compassion "on our weaknesses" in experiencing temptation "in all things" human "in our likeness, without sin," is a "great high priest" who offered himself as the sacrifice offered once for all, not for humans alone, but also for every spiritual being. For "apart from God he tasted death for all." This appears in some copies of the epistle to the Hebrews as "by the grace of God."But whether "apart from God he tasted death for all," he died not only for humans but also for the rest of the spiritual beings, or "by the grace of God he tasted death for all," he died for all apart from God, for "by the grace of God he tasted death for all." And, indeed, it would be strange to declare that he tasted death for human sins but not also for any other creature, besides man, that happened to be in sin—for instance, for the stars, since not even the stars are absolutely pure before God. As we have read in Job, "And the stars are not clean in his sight," unless this was said hyperbolically. For this reason he is a "great high priest," since he restores all things to the kingdom of the Father, causing the things that are lacking in each of the creatures to be supplied, that they may be able to receive the Father's glory.
Hebrews 2:11 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
It does not suffice for them to cry 'Holy!' once, nor twice, but they take up the perfect number of the Trinity, that they may manifest the multitude of the holiness of God, which is the repeated commonalty of a threefold holiness; to the holiness of the Father is joined the holiness of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. "For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one". He who "sanctifies" is the Savior, according to this—that as a man He receives holiness from God the Father.
Hebrews 2:14-15 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 7
The Apostle, recalling this saying, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me," then goes on and expounds: "Since therefore the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs, that through death he might destroy him who had the dominion of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were, throughout their whole life, subject to the guilt of bondage." Therefore, "since the children were made partakers of blood and flesh," our Savior too "shared in blood and flesh." For it was foreign to his nature and his divinity to take up "blood and flesh"; but for our sake he took up those things which were foreign to him, that he might make us his own household, who had been made foreign through sin. And the Apostle indeed expounded it thus, saying: "Since therefore the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs"; but I would say that, just as "since the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs," so, since the "children" cannot hear the stronger discourses — for they must, as "children," hear the words of God — for this reason, having been "made present" in the "blood of the children" for the sake of those who "shared in flesh and blood," speaking "as to little ones," he speaks not divine and unutterable things, but only such things as "little ones" can grasp.
Hebrews 4:12 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 37
Jesus endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and therefore is seated at the right hand of God. And those who imitate him by disregarding the shame shall sit with him and rule in the heavens with him, who came not to bring peace upon the earth but upon the souls of his followers and to bring a sword upon the earth. Since "the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart," this word above all now bestows on our souls the prize of that peace which surpasses all understanding, which he left to his apostles. And it brings a sword between the earthly image and the heavenly in order that when he receives our heavenly image we may be made fully heavenly, if we are worthy not to be cut in two.
Hebrews 4:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.229
The texts of the New Testament, which we have discussed, are things said by Himself about Himself. Isaiah, however, He said that His mouth had been set by His Father as a sharp sword, and that He was hidden under the shadow of His hand, made like to a chosen shaft and kept close in the Father's quiver, called His servant by the God of all things, and Israel, and Light of the Gentiles. The mouth of the Son of God is a sharp sword, for "The word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart." And indeed He came not to bring peace on the earth, that is, to corporeal and sensible things, but a sword, and to cut through, if I may say so, the disastrous friendship of soul and body, so that the soul, committing herself to the spirit which was against the flesh, may enter into friendship with God. Hence, according to the prophetic word, He made His mouth as a sword, as a sharp sword. Can any one behold so many wounded by the divine love, like her in the Song of Songs, who complained that she was wounded: "I am wounded with love," and find the dart that wounded so many souls for the love of God, in any but Him who said, "He hath made Me as a chosen shaft."
Hebrews 4:14 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 13
You will ascertain a right understanding of this Scripture and others if in Christ you are fond of learning and you rise above learning "through a mirror" and "in an enigma," desiring to rush to him who calls. And you will approach knowing "face to face," as friends of your Father and teacher in heaven. For friends learn not through enigmas but by what is seen or by wisdom stripped of sounds, speech, symbols and types, attending to the nature of things perceived and the beauty of truth. If you believe that Paul was caught up to the third heaven and was caught up in paradise and heard what cannot be expressed, which no one may utter, you will then know the unexpressed things which were revealed to Paul when he descended from the third heaven. At once you will know more and greater things, after the revealing and descent, if you take up the cross and follow after Jesus, in whom we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. And you yourselves will pass through the heavens if you do not fail to follow him, rising above not only the earth and the mysteries of earth, but also heaven and its mysteries. For in God there are many greater things treasured up than these visions, which no bodily nature can attain unless it first is set free from all that is corporeal. For I am persuaded that God has stored up and keeps for himself many greater things than these, which the sun and moon and company of stars and even the holy angels know of, which God made by wind and flame of fire. He has done this so that he may reveal them, when all creation is set free from slavery to the enemy and obtains the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Hebrews 4:14 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.11.6
I think that the saints, as they depart from this life, will remain in some place situated on the earth that the divine scripture calls "paradise." This will be a place of instruction and, so to speak, a lecture room or school for souls, in which they may be taught about all that they had seen on earth. They may also receive some indications of what is to follow in the future, just as … in this life they had obtained certain indications of the future, seen indeed "through a glass darkly" and truly "in part," which are revealed more clearly and brightly to the saints in their proper times and places. If any are "pure in heart" and of unpolluted mind and well-trained understanding, they will make swifter progress and quickly ascend to the region of the air until they reach the kingdom of the heavens, passing through the series of those "rooms," if I may so call them, which the Greeks have termed spheres, that is, globes, but which the divine Scripture calls heavens. In each of these they will first observe all that happens there and then learn the reason why it happens; and thus they will proceed in order through each stage, following him who has "passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God," and who has said, "I desire that they also may be with me where I am." Further, he alludes to this diversity of places when he says, "In my Father's house are many rooms." He himself, however, is everywhere and runs through all things. And we are no longer to think of him as being confined within those narrow limits in which he once lived for our sakes, that is, in that circumscribed condition which was his when he dwelt on earth among humans in a body like ours, so that it was then possible to think of him as being enclosed in some one place.
Hebrews 5:12-13 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.52
For we do everything in our power to see that our gathering consists of intelligent people, and we dare to bring forward in common discourse at the time of our gathering our most noble and divine beliefs when we have an intelligent audience. But we conceal and pass over the more profound truths whenever we see that the meeting consists of simple-minded folk who are in need of that teaching which is figuratively called milk.
Hebrews 5:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
For in the words of the Song of Songs there is that food of which the Apostle speaks: "But solid food belongs to the perfect" … And indeed the little ones whom we have mentioned, if they should come to these passages, it may be that they will gain nothing from this Scripture, yet neither will they be greatly harmed … For, not knowing how to hear the names of love with pure and chaste ears … For this reason, therefore, I give warning and counsel to everyone who is not yet free from the troubles of flesh and blood … that he abstain wholly from the reading of this little book … For they say that among the Hebrews this too is observed: that unless a man has arrived at a perfect and mature age, he is not even permitted to hold this little book in his hands … together with those which they call deuteroseis, these four things are reserved to the last — that is, the beginning of Genesis … and the beginnings of the prophet Ezekiel … and the end, in which the building of the temple is contained; and this book of the Song of Songs.
Hebrews 6:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.7
But just as the doctrine of providence is not at all weakened because of those things which are not understood by those who have once honestly accepted it, so neither is the divine character of Scripture, which extends to the whole of it, lost because our weakness cannot discover in every expression the hidden splendor of the doctrines concealed in common and unattractive style. For "we have the treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power of God may shine forth" and may not be reckoned as coming from us who are but human beings.… Therefore, since a celestial or even a supercelestial power compels us to worship the only Creator, let us leave the doctrine of the beginning of Christ, i.e., the elements, and "endeavor to go on to perfection," in order that the wisdom spoken to the perfect may be spoken also to us.
Hebrews 6:4-6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.54-56
Now we ought to be aware that there are some Lazaruses even now who, after having become friends of Jesus, have become sick and died. As dead persons they have remained in the tomb and the land of the dead with the dead.… Consider the one who has fallen away from Christ and returned to the Gentiles' life after he has received knowledge of the truth. He has been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and become a partaker of the Holy Spirit … yet now is in hades with the shades and the dead and to be in the land of the dead or the tombs.Whenever, therefore, on behalf of such a person, Jesus comes to his tomb and, standing outside it, prays and is heard, he asks that there be power in his voice and words, and he cries out with a loud voice to summon him who was his friend to the things outside the life of the Gentiles and their tomb and cave.
Hebrews 6:7-8 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.10
Let us see then whether by an illustration used by the apostle in the epistle to the Hebrews, we are able to prove that by one operation God has mercy upon one while he hardens another. It is not God's intent to harden, but while having a good purpose, hardening follows as a result of the inherent principle of wickedness in such persons, so that he is said to harden him who is hardened. … As regards the rain there is one operation, but the ground which is cultivated produces fruit, while that which is neglected and is barren produces thorns.
Hebrews 6:7-8 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16.2.4-6
Our earth, that is, our heart, receives blessings if it receives "the rain" of the doctrine of the law "that often falls upon it" and brings forth the fruit of works. But if it does not have a spiritual work but "thorns and thistles," that is, cares of the world or the desire of pleasures and riches, "it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned." For that reason, each one of the hearers, when he assembles to hear, receives "the shower" of the Word of God; and, if one indeed brings forth the fruit of a good work, one will obtain "a blessing." But if a person disdains the received Word of God and frequently neglects to hear it and subjects himself to the care and passion of secular affairs, as one who would suffocate the Word "with thorns," he will procure "a curse" for a blessing, and, instead of receiving a blessing, his "end is to be burned." Therefore, he says, "I will give you your rains in their season."
Hebrews 7:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.1, 1.10-11
Just as the people of old, who were called the people of God, were divided into twelve tribes plus the levitical order, and this order itself, which engaged in service of the Divine, was divided into additional priestly and levitical orders, so, I think, all the people of Christ according to "the hidden person of the heart," who bear the name "Jew inwardly" and who have been circumcised "in spirit," possess the characteristics of the tribes in a more mystical manner.…Most of us who approach the teachings of Christ, since we have much time for the activities of life and offer a few acts to God, would perhaps be those from the tribes who have a little fellowship with the priests and support the service of God in a few things. But those who devote themselves to the divine Word and truly exist by the service of God alone will properly be said to be Levites and priests in accordance with the excellence of their activities in this work. And, perhaps, those who excel all others and who hold, as it were, the first places of their generation will be high priests according to the order of Aaron, but not according to the order of Melchizedek. If someone should object to this, thinking that we are impious when we prescribe the title of high priest for humans, since Jesus is proclaimed as great priest in many places—for we have "a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God"—we would have to say to him that the apostle indicated this when he said that the prophet said of Christ, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," and not after the order of Aaron. On this basis, we too say that humans can be high priests according to the order of Aaron, but only the Christ of God according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 7:18-19 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
Consider also of what sort this is: that in the law the face of Moses is indeed reported as glorified, though it be covered with a veil; but his hand, put "within his bosom," is recorded as "made leprous like snow." In which there seems to me to be most fully depicted the form of the whole law; for in his face is designated the word of the law, in his hand its works. Since, therefore, "by the works of the law no one was to be justified," nor could the law bring anyone "to perfection," for that reason the hand of Moses is made "leprous" and is hidden away "in his bosom," as though destined to have no perfect work; but his face is glorified, yet is covered with a veil, because his word has the glory of knowledge, but hidden.
Hebrews 7:25 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.2
Jesus now stands "before the face of God interceding for us." He stands before the altar to offer a propitiation to God for us. As he was about to approach that altar, moreover, he was saying, "I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you." Therefore, he expects us to be converted, to imitate his example, to follow his footsteps, that he may rejoice with us and "drink wine with us in his Father's kingdom." For now, because "the Lord is merciful and gracious," he "weeps with those who weep and desires to rejoice with those who rejoice" with greater feeling than this apostle. And how much more "this one mourns over many of those who sinned before and have not repented." For we must not think that Paul is mourning for sinners and weeping for those who transgress, but Jesus my Lord abstains from weeping when he approaches the Father, when he stands at the altar and offers a propitiatory sacrifice for us. This is not to drink the wine of joy "when he ascends to the altar" because he is still bearing the bitterness of our sins. He, therefore, does not want to be the only one to drink wine "in the kingdom" of God. He waits for us, just as he said, "Until I shall drink it with you." Thus we are those who, neglecting our life, delay his joy.
Hebrews 8:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.298-300
Since, however, "when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken," we must admit, as far as the literal meaning is concerned, that, after the Lord was raised from the dead, the disciples understood that the things said about the temple refer to his passion and resurrection, and they recalled that the saying, "in three days I will raise it up" indicated the resurrection. It was then that "they believed both the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken," since there is no earlier testimony that they had believed the Scripture or this word which Jesus spoke. For faith is, strictly speaking, the acceptance with one's whole soul of the object of faith at baptism. But as for the anagogical meaning, since we previously mentioned the resurrection from the dead of the whole body of the Lord, we must know that the disciples—once they were reminded through the fulfillments of the Scripture which they had not thoroughly understood when they were in this life and once it was brought before their eyes and made manifest that it contained an example and shadow of certain heavenly things—believed what they formerly did not believe, and believed the word of Jesus as he who spoke it intended, which they had not understood before the resurrection.For how can one be said to believe the Scripture in the proper sense, when one does not perceive the meaning of the Holy Spirit in it which God wants to be believed, rather than the intent of the letter? According to this, we must say that none of those who walk according to the flesh believe in the spiritual meanings of the law, whose first principle they do not even imagine.
Hebrews 8:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.146
But who could more properly speak to us about who God is than the Son? "For no one knows the Father except the Son." We too aspire to know how God is Spirit as the Son reveals it and to worship God in the Spirit that gives life and not in the letter that kills. We want to honor God in truth and no longer in types, shadows and examples, even as the angels do not serve God in examples and the shadow of heavenly realities but in realities that belong to the spiritual and heavenly order, having a high priest of the order of Melchizedek as leader of the saving worship for those who need both the mystical and secret contemplation.
Hebrews 8:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.6.7
The apostle says with reference to the law that they who have circumcision in the flesh "serve as the copy and shadow of heavenly things." And in another place, "is not our life on earth a shadow?" If then both the law that is on the earth is a "shadow" and all our life that is on earth is the same, and we live among nations under the "shadow of Christ," we must consider whether the truth of all these shadows will be learned in that revelation when, no longer "through a mirror and darkly," but "face to face" all the saints shall be counted worthy to behold the glory of God and the causes and truth of things. And the pledge of this truth being already received through the Holy Spirit, the apostle said, "Even if we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth we know him no more.
Hebrews 8:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.8
Now if we correctly understand it, this is the statement Moses writes in the beginning of his book, when he says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." For this is the beginning of all creation: to this beginning the end and consummation of all things must return. That is, that heaven and earth may be the dwelling place and rest of the pious, so that all the saints and the meek may first obtain an inheritance in that earth, for this is the teaching of the law and the prophets and the gospel. In that earth I believe there exist, the true and living forms of worship which Moses handed down under the shadow of the law. For it is said that "they serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary"—that is, those who were in subjection in the law. To Moses himself it was also said, "See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." It seems to me, therefore, that on this earth the law was a kind of schoolmaster to those who by it were to be led to Christ and to be instructed and trained in order that, after the training of the law, they might more easily receive the more perfect precepts of Christ. So also that other earth, which receives into it all the saints, may first imbue and mould them by the precepts of the true and everlasting law, that they may more easily gain possession of those perfect precepts of heaven, to which nothing can be added. And in heaven there will truly be what is called the "eternal gospel" and that testament that is always new, which shall never grow old.
Hebrews 9:2 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
Concerning this tabernacle the divine Scriptures make mention indeed in many places and seem to indicate certain things which human hearing could scarcely be capable of; yet above all the Apostle Paul, concerning the understanding of the tabernacle, discloses to us certain tokens of a more exalted knowledge, but, in some way — perhaps regarding the frailty of his hearers — he in a manner closes up the very things that he opens. For he says, writing to the Hebrews: "For the first tabernacle was made, in which were the candlestick and the setting-forth of the loaves, which was called the holy of holies. But after the second veil the tabernacle, which is called holy, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the testament, and within it the two tables, and the manna and the rod of Aaron, which had put forth leaves". But to these things he added: "of which it is not now to be spoken one by one". Now that he says, "of which it is not now to be spoken", some refer to that time at which he was writing the epistle to the Hebrews; but to others it seems that, on account of the greatness of the mysteries, he denies that all the time of the present life is fit for explaining these things. Yet the Apostle does not leave us wholly sorrowful, but, as is his custom, he opens a few things out of many, so that it may indeed be closed to the negligent, but found by those who seek, and opened to those who knock. He resumes therefore again concerning the tabernacle and says: "For Jesus entered not into the holy places made by hand, the copies of the true, but into heaven itself, that he may now appear before the face of God through the veil, that is, through his own flesh". He therefore who interpreted the veil of the inner tabernacle as the flesh of Christ, and the holy places themselves as heaven or the heavens, and the Lord Christ indeed as the high priest, and says that he entered "once into the holy places, having found eternal redemption" — if from these few words anyone knows how to understand the sense of Paul, he can perceive how great a sea of understanding he has opened up to us. But those who love the letter of the law of Moses well enough, yet flee its spirit, hold the Apostle Paul under suspicion for bringing forth interpretations of this kind.
Hebrews 9:8-10 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 10.1.1-4
We indeed who are of the church rightly receive Moses and read his writings, believing that he is a prophet who wrote down the future mysteries which God revealed to him in symbols, figures and allegorical forms, which we teach were fulfilled in their own time. But whoever does not receive such an understanding in him, whether one of the Jews or even one of us, certainly cannot teach that he is a prophet. For how will he prove he is a prophet whose writings he asserts to be common, containing no knowledge of the future or anything of a hidden mystery? Whoever thinks thus the divine word censures, saying, "Do you understand what you are reading?"Therefore, the law and all the things that are in the law are, according to the opinion of the apostle, "imposed until the time of reformation." … Those whose craft is to make tokens from copper and to pour statues, before they produce a true work of copper or of silver or of gold, must first form figures from clay to the likeness of the figure image. (The model is necessary only until the work that is principal is completed, for when that work for which that image was made of clay is completed, its use is no longer sought.) [Thus we] understand also something like this in these things which were written or done "in a type" and in a figure of the future in the law and prophets. For the artist and creator of all himself came and transformed "the law which has but a shadow of the good things to come" to "the true form of these realities." But lest perhaps the things we say appear difficult for you to be able to prove, examine them one by one. First, there was Jerusalem, that great, royal city, where the most renowned temple had been constructed for God. But after that, one who was the true temple of God came and said about the temple of his body, "Destroy this temple," and began to open the mysteries "of the heavenly Jerusalem." This earthly place was destroyed, and the heavenly became visible, and in the temple "stone" did not remain "upon stone" from the time when the flesh of Christ was made the true temple of God. First there was a high priest who purified the people "by the blood of bulls and goats"; but when the true high priest who "sanctifies" believers "through his own blood" came, that first high priest existed no more, and neither was any place left for him. First there was the altar, and sacrifices were being celebrated; but when the true Lamb came who "gave himself up as an offering to God," all these other, as it were, temporary institutions ceased. Therefore, does it not seem to you that, according to the figure set forth above, there were some models made from clay, as it were, through which true images were represented? Finally, for this reason, the divine dispensation provided that the city and the temple and all those as well be overthrown, lest he who is perhaps still "a child and feeding on milk of the faith" be enraptured by the view itself of the diverse forms, if he should see them standing and be astonished and amazed during the ritual of sacrifices and during the order of the services. But God, watching out for our weakness and desiring his church to be multiplied, made all these to be overthrown and taken away completely, so that without any hesitation, when those ceased, we might believe these to be true for which the type was contained in advance in them.
Hebrews 9:11 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 4.6.4-5
It ought to be observed that the priest uses certain clothes while he is in the ministry of sacrifices and other clothes when he goes out to the people. Paul, the wisest of the high priests and the most knowledgeable of the priests, used to do this. When he was in the assembly of the perfect or, as it were, placed in the "Holy of Holies," having put on the robe of perfection, he used to say, "Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God.… None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." But nevertheless, after all these things, "going out to the people," he changes his robe and puts on another one, greatly inferior to that one. And what does he say? "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." You see, therefore, how this most learned priest, when he is among the perfect ones as in "the Holy of Holies," uses one robe of doctrine. But when "he goes out" to those who are not capable, he changes the robe of the word and teaches lesser things. And he gives to some "milk" to drink as "children," to others he gives "solid food," of course, for those who, insofar as they are able, "have their faculties trained to distinguish good from evil." Thus, Paul knew how to change robes and to use one with the people, another in the ministry of the sanctuary.But the high priest of high priests, and the priest of priests, is our Lord and Savior, about whom the apostle said, "He is a high priest of the good things that have come." Hear how first he did these things and so left them for his disciples to imitate. The Gospel refers to this, saying, "In parables he spoke to the crowds, and without parables he did not speak to them. But separately he explained them to his disciples." You see how he taught that the high priest ought to use certain garments when he went out "to the crowds" and others when he ministered to the experienced and "perfect" in the sanctuary. So we must choose and do, lest Jesus find us so unprepared and bound to the cares of the world that he speaks to us as to the crowds "in parables," that, "seeing, we may not see, and, hearing, we may not hear." Rather, let us be worthy to be found among those to whom he says, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven."
Hebrews 9:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 3.3
These are the things that the letter of the law sets forth for us, so that, gathering from them the seeds of the sacred mysteries, we may ascend as by certain steps from lowly things to lofty ones and from earthly things to heavenly ones. Ascend therefore now, O hearer, if you can, and be lifted up from earthly senses by the gaze of the mind and the keenness of the heart. Forget earthly things for a little while, and walk with the step of the mind above the clouds and above the very heaven. There seek the tabernacle of God, where as a forerunner for us Jesus entered and now stands before the face of God, interceding for us. There, I say, seek those fourfold orders and stations of the camps, there behold the Israelite ranks and the watches of the saints, and there examine those mysteries of the firstborn which we now seek here.
Hebrews 9:24 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.9.3-5
If the ancient custom of sacrifices is clear to you, let us see what these things also contain according to the mystical understanding. You heard that there were two sanctuaries: one, as it were, visible and open to the priests; the other, as it were, invisible and inaccessible. With the exception of the high priest alone, the others were outside. I think this first sanctuary can be understood as this church in which we are now placed in the flesh, in which the priests minister "at the altar of the whole burnt offerings" with that fire kindled about which Jesus said, "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled." And I do not want you to marvel that this sanctuary is open only to the priests. For all who have been anointed with the chrism of the sacred anointing have become priests, just as Peter says to all the church, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." Therefore you are a priestly race, and because of this you approach the sanctuary.… Therefore the priesthood is exercised in this way in the first sanctuary and the offerings are offered. And from this sanctuary the high priest, dressed in the sanctified garments, proceeds and enters into the interior of the veil just as we already pointed out above in citing the words of Paul, "Christ has entered not into a sanctuary made with hands but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." Therefore, the place of heaven and the throne itself of God are designated by the figure and the image of the interior sanctuary.
Hebrews 9:24 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.2
Paul, writing to the Hebrews—those, of course, who were indeed reading the law and had meditated on these things and were examining them well but lacked understanding as to how the sacrifices should be understood—says, "For Christ has entered not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." And again he says about the offerings, "He did this once for all when he offered up himself." But why do we seek testimonies from these one by one? If anyone examines the entire epistle written to the Hebrews—and especially this place, where he compares the high priest of the law with the high priest of the promise, of whom it is written, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek"—he will find how this entire passage of the apostle shows that those things which were written in the law are "copies" and "forms" of living and true things.
Hebrews 9:26 — ON PRAYER 27.15
In trying to reconcile two apostolic passages it has often occurred to me to raise the question of how there can be a consummation of ages at which Jesus has been manifested once for all to do away with sin if there are going to be ages following this age. The passages are these: In Hebrews, "But now at a consummation of the ages he has been manifested once for all to do away with sin through his sacrifice," but in Ephesians, "In order that he may show forth in the years following, the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us." Well, conjecturing on a matter so great, I believe that, just as the year's consummation is its last month after which arises another month's beginning, so probably the present age is a consummation of numerous ages completing as it were a year of ages, and after it certain coming ages will arise whose beginning is the coming age. In those coming ages God shall show forth the riches of his grace in kindness, when the greatest sinner, who for having spoken ill against the Holy Spirit is held fast by his sin throughout the present age and the coming one from beginning to end, shall after that, I know not how, receive a dispensation.
Hebrews 9:26 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.3.5
But this world, which is itself called an "age," is said to be the end of many ages. Now the holy apostle teaches that in the age that was before this, Christ did not suffer, nor even in the age before that; and I do not know that I am able to enumerate the number of previous ages in which he did not suffer. I will show, however, the statements of Paul from which I have arrived at this understanding. He says, "He has appeared once for all at the end of the age to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself." He says that Christ was made a "sacrifice" once, and "at the end of the ages has appeared to take away sin." Now after this age, which is said to be made for the consummation of other ages, there will be other ages again to follow; for we have clearly learned this from Paul himself, who says, "that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness toward us." He did not say "in the age to come" or "in the two ages to come" but "in the ages to come." I think, therefore, that by his language many ages are indicated.
Hebrews 10:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.9
But if in every detail of this outer covering, that is, the actual history, the sequence of the law had been preserved and its order maintained, we should have understood the Scriptures in an unbroken course and should certainly not have believed that there was anything else buried within them beyond what was indicated at a first glance. Consequently the divine wisdom has arranged for certain stumbling blocks and interruptions of the historical sense to be found therein, by inserting in the midst a number of impossibilities and incongruities. [This was done] in order that the very interruption of the narrative might as it were present a barrier to the reader and lead him to refuse to proceed along the pathway of the ordinary meaning. And so, by shutting us out and debarring us from that, [the writers] might recall us to the beginning of another way, and might thereby bring us, through the entrance of a narrow footpath, to a higher and loftier road and lay open the immense breadth of the divine wisdom.… The aim of the Holy Spirit was chiefly to preserve the connection of the spiritual, meaning, both in the things that are yet to be done and in those which have already been accomplished. [Thus] whenever he found that things which had been done in history could be harmonized with the spiritual meaning, he composed in a single narrative a texture comprising both kinds of meaning, always, however, concealing the secret sense more deeply. But wherever the record of deeds that had been done could not be made to correspond with the sequence of the spiritual truths, he inserted occasionally some deeds of a less probable character or which could not have happened at all, and occasionally some that might have happened but in fact did not. Sometimes he does this by a few words, which in their bodily sense do not appear capable of containing truth and at other times by inserting a large number.This is found to happen particularly in the law, where there are many things that as literal precepts are clearly useful, but also a considerable number in which no principle of utility whatever is disclosed, while sometimes even impossibilities are detected. All this, as we have said, the Holy Spirit supervised, in order that in cases where that which appeared at the first glance could neither be true nor useful we should be led on to search for a truth deeper down and needing more careful examination. And [we] should try to discover in the Scriptures which we believe to be inspired by God a meaning worthy of God. And not only did the Holy Spirit supervise the writings which were previous to the coming of Christ, but because he is one and the same Spirit and proceeds from the one God, he has acted similarly in regard to the Gospels and the writings of the apostles. For even the narratives that he inspired through them were not woven together without the spell of that wisdom of his, the nature of which we explained above. And so it happens that even in them the Spirit has mingled not a few things by which the historical order of the narrative is interrupted and broken, with the object of turning and calling the attention of the reader, by the impossibility of the literal sense, to an examination of the inner meaning.
Hebrews 10:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.6
That the first "sense," which we have called the literal one, is profitable in that it is capable of imparting edification is witnessed by the multitude of those believers who accept the faith genuinely and simply. But of that interpretation which is referred back to the "soul," there is an illustration in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. He says, "You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain." Then he adds, "Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was for our sake, no doubt, that this was written: that the plowman should plough in hope, and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop." And there are numerous interpretations adapted to the multitude which are in circulation, and which edify those who are unable to understand the higher meanings, which have something of the same character. But the interpretation is "spiritual" when one is able to show of what heavenly things the Jews "according to the flesh" served as a copy and a shadow, and of what future blessings the law has a shadow. And, speaking generally, we must investigate, according to the apostolic promise, "the wisdom in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world for the glory" of the righteous, which "none of the rulers of this world knew." And the same apostle says somewhere, after mentioning certain events from Exodus and Numbers, "that these things happened to them as a warning, but that they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come." He also gives hints to show what things these were figures of, when he says, "For they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ."11And in another epistle, when outlining the various matters relating to the tabernacle, he used the words: "You shall make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." Further, in the epistle to the Galatians, as if reproaching those who think that they are reading the law and yet do not understand it, judging that those do not understand it who do not believe that allegories are contained under what is written, he says: "Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written, Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise. Now this is an allegory: for these women are the two covenants," and so on. Now we must carefully mark each word spoken by him. He says: "You who desire to be under the law" (not "You that are under the law"), "do you not hear the law?"—"hearing" being understood to mean "understanding" and "knowing." And in the epistle to the Colossians, briefly epitomizing the meaning of the entire system of the law, he says, "Therefore let no man judge you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of things to come." Further, in the epistle to the Hebrews, when discoursing about those who belong to the circumcision, he writes, "They serve a copy and shadow of heavenly things." Now it is probable, from these illustrations, that those who have once admitted that the apostle is divinely inspired will entertain no doubt with respect to the five books of Moses; but they wish to know if the rest of the history also "happened figuratively." We must note, then, the expression in the epistle to the Romans, "I have left to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal," quoted from the third book of Kings. Paul has understood this to stand for those who are Israelites according to election, for not only are the Gentiles benefited by the coming of Christ, but also some who belong to the divine race.
Hebrews 10:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.39-40
We must also know that just as there is a "law" which contains a "shadow of the good things to come," which have been revealed by the law proclaimed in accordance with truth, so also the gospel, which is thought to be understood by all who read it, teaches a shadow of the mysteries of Christ.And that which John calls an eternal gospel, which would properly be called a spiritual gospel, clearly presents both the mysteries presented by Christ's words and the things of which his acts were symbols, to those who consider "all things face to face" concerning the son of God himself.
Hebrews 10:1 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 10
The law, then, and everything in the law, being inspired, as the apostle says, until the time of amendment, is like those people whose job it is to make statues and cast them in metal. Before they tackle the statue itself, the one they are going to cast in bronze, silver or gold, they first make a clay model to show what they are aiming at. The model is a necessity, but only until the real statue is finished. The model is made for the sake of the statue, and when the statue is ready the sculptor has no further use for the model. Well, it is rather like that with the law and the prophets. The things written in the law and the prophets were meant as types or figures of things to come. But now the artist himself has come, the author of it all, and he has transferred the law, which had only the shadow of the good things to come, to the very image of the things.
Hebrews 10:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
And there is a certain advancement to come from the shadow of the law to the shadow of Christ; so that, because Christ is life, and truth, and the way, we may be made first in the shadow of the way, and in the shadow of life, and in the shadow of truth, that we may comprehend in part, and in a mirror and in an enigma, so that after these things, if we walk along this way, which is Christ, we may be able to arrive at this, that we may comprehend face to face those things which before we had seen as though in a shadow and in an enigma.
Hebrews 10:1 — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 38.2.2
Paul distinguishes three levels in the law: the shadow, the image and the truth.… The law contains the shadow of future good things but not the very image of the realities, and this clearly shows that the image of the realities is different from what is designated as the shadow of the law. If anyone can describe the ceremonies of the Jewish worship, let him view the temple as not having had the image of realities but only their shadow. Let him see the altar as a mere shadow, and the rams and the calves brought to sacrifice also as a shadow. According to the Scripture, "our days on the earth are like a shadow."If someone wishes to go beyond this shadow, let him come to the image of the realities, and let him behold the coming of Christ made flesh. Let him contemplate him in his role as high priest, offering victims to the Father henceforth and in the future; let him understand that all this is an image of spiritual realities and that heavenly functions are denoted by corporeal functions. We employ the term image to refer to that which is intelligible at present and which human nature can observe. If you can penetrate the heavens with your understanding and your mind and follow Jesus, who has penetrated the heavens and who stands as our intercessor before the face of God, you will find there those good things whose shadow the law contained and whose image Christ revealed through his incarnation. Those good things … have been prepared for the blessed, which neither eye has seen nor ear heard, and which no person has ever even imagined or thought of.
Hebrews 10:1 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1. [4.1.11]
The way which seems right to us for understanding the Scriptures and the investigation of their meaning, we consider to be the following: we are instructed by Scripture itself regarding the ideas that we ought to form of it. In the Proverbs of Solomon we find just such instruction for the examination of holy Scripture. "For your part," he says, "describe these things to yourself in a threefold manner in counsel and knowledge, that you may answer words of truth to those who question you." Each one, then, ought to describe in his own mind, in a threefold manner, the understanding of the divine letters, that is, so that the simple may be edified, so to speak, by the very body of Scripture; for that is what we call the common and historical meaning. But if some have begun to make considerable progress and are able to see something more than that, they may be edified by the very soul of Scripture. And those who are perfect and resemble those of whom the apostle says, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are doomed to pass away. But we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, which God has decreed before the ages for our glorification." Such people may be edified by the spiritual law which has a shadow of the good things to come, edified as if by the Spirit. For just as man is said to consist of body, and soul and spirit, so also does sacred Scripture, which has been granted by God's gracious dispensation for the salvation of man.
Hebrews 10:28-29 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11.2
According to the law, "the adulterer and the adulteress were put to death." They could not say, "We seek repentance and we pray for mercy." There was no place for tears, and no opportunity was granted for any correction, but in every way it was necessary for those who had contravened the law to be punished. This was observed in certain individual offenses for which the death penalty was ascribed. But among Christians, if adultery has been committed, the precept is not that "the adulterer and adulteress" be punished by the destruction of the body. No power was given to episcopal authority to sentence an adulterer to immediate death, as had happened earlier according to the levitical law who gave this power to elders. What does this mean? That while the law of Moses takes adultery seriously enough to punish it unmercifully, the gospel of Christ through gentleness frees the adulterer to go from bad to worse? It is not so. For this reason, we brought forth the word of Paul, saying above, "How much worse punishment will be deserved by one who has spurned the Son of God," etc. Hear, therefore, how neither was the law cruel then, nor does the gospel now appear dissolute because of the abundance of mercy, but in both instances the benevolence of God is held in a different dispensation.
Hebrews 10:29 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.6
But if you sin again, again the old reproaches are rolled back upon you, all the more so as it is a much greater crime "to trample the Son of God underfoot and to count the blood of the covenant a polluted thing" than to neglect the law of Moses.
Hebrews 11:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.17-18
The saints who preceded Jesus' bodily sojourn, who had a somewhat greater mental grasp than the majority of believers, perceived the mysteries of divinity because the word of God was teaching them even before he became flesh, for he was always working, being an imitator of his Father of whom he says, "My Father is working still."He says, perhaps to the Sadducees who do not believe in the doctrine of the resurrection, "Have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living." If, therefore, God "is not ashamed to be called the God" of these people, and they are numbered among the living by Christ, and all the believers are sons of Abraham, since all the nations are blessed in the faithful Abraham whom God appointed father of the nations, are we hesitant to accept that the living have known the lessons of the living, since they were instructed by Christ, who has existed before the morning star, before he became flesh?
Hebrews 11:17-19 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 8.1
Lend your ears here, you who have drawn near to God, you who believe yourselves to be faithful, and consider more diligently how the faith of the faithful is proved by these things that have been read to us. "And it came to pass," it says, "after these words, God tempted Abraham and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he said: here I am." Observe each and every thing that is written. For in each single thing, if someone knows how to dig deep, he will find a treasure, and perhaps even where it is not expected the precious jewels of the mysteries lie hidden. This man was formerly called Abram, and nowhere do we read that God called him by this name or said to him: Abram, Abram. For he could not be called by God by a name that was to be abolished, but he calls him by this name that He Himself had bestowed, and He does not only call him by this name, but even doubles it. And when the other had answered, "here I am," He says to him: "take your most beloved son, whom you love, Isaac, and offer him to me. Go," He says, "into the high land, and there offer him as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will show you." Why God bestowed this name upon him and called him Abraham, He Himself has interpreted: "because," He says, "I have set you as a father of many nations." God gave him this promise when he had a son, Ishmael, but He promised him that in the son who would be born of Sarah this promise would be fulfilled. He had therefore kindled Abraham's own spirit into love of that son, not only for the sake of posterity, but also by the hope of the promises. But this son, in whom these great and marvelous promises were placed for him—this son, I say, in whom his name was called Abraham—he is commanded to offer as a "burnt offering" to the Lord upon one of the mountains. What do you say to this, O Abraham? What and what sort of thoughts are stirred in your heart? A voice has been uttered by God that would shake and prove your faith. What do you say to this? What do you think? What do you reconsider? Do you suppose you turn over in your heart the thought that, if in Isaac the promise was given to me, but I offer this one as a burnt offering, it remains that that promise is not to be hoped for? Or rather do you think these things and say that it is impossible for Him who promised to lie; whatever it may be, the promise will stand firm? But since I "am the least," I am not able to search out the thoughts of so great a patriarch, nor can I know what thoughts the voice of God, which had gone forth to tempt him, stirred in him, what feeling it brought when he was ordered to slay his only son. But since "the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets," Paul the Apostle, who through the spirit had learned, I believe, what mind, what counsel Abraham had carried out, indicated it, saying: "by faith Abraham did not hesitate, when he offered his only son, in whom he had received the promises, considering that God is able to raise him even from the dead." The Apostle therefore has disclosed to us the thoughts of the faithful man, that faith in the resurrection had already then begun to be held in Isaac. Abraham therefore hoped that Isaac would rise again and believed that would come to pass which had not yet been done. How then are they "sons of Abraham" who do not believe as accomplished in Christ what he believed as future in Isaac? Nay rather, that I may speak more openly, Abraham knew that he was prefiguring the image of the future truth; he knew that Christ would be born of his seed, who was both to be offered as the truer victim of the whole world and to rise again from the dead.
Hebrews 11:31 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.5
This command too is given to her who was once a "harlot": "All," she says, "who shall be found in your house shall be saved. But those who go out of the house — we are free from this oath of yours." If anyone, therefore, wishes to be saved, let him come into this house of her who was once a "harlot." Even if someone from that people wishes to be saved, let him come to this house, that he may be able to obtain salvation. Let him come to this house, in which the blood of Christ is the sign of redemption. For among those who said, "his blood be upon us and upon our children," the blood of Christ is unto condemnation. For Jesus "was set for the fall and for the rising again of many," and therefore, to those who contradict his "sign," "his blood" is made unto punishment, but to those who believe, unto salvation. Let no one, therefore, persuade himself, let no one deceive himself: outside this house, that is, outside the Church, no one is saved; if anyone goes outside, he becomes guilty of his own death. This is the sign of the blood, because here too is the purification which is established through the blood.
Hebrews 11:31 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.4
Our "Jesus sends" spies to the "king of Jericho," and they are received into lodging by a "harlot." But that harlot, who received the spies sent by Jesus, received them for this reason, that she might no longer be a "harlot." But also the soul of each one of us was a harlot, so long as it lived in the desires and lusts of the flesh. But it received the spies of Jesus, "the angels whom he sent before his face, that they might prepare his way." Yet if each soul received them out of faith, it places them not in lowly places nor in lower ones, but in the higher and lofty ones, because we have received Jesus the Lord not as lowly and earthly, but as one proceeding from the Father and coming from the heavens.
Hebrews 11:37 — LETTER TO AFRICANUS 9
Whatever they feared might bring blame upon the elders, rulers and judges they kept from the knowledge of the people. But some of these things have been preserved in the apocryphal books. For an example we shall give the story about Isaiah, witnessed by the epistle to the Hebrews but not written in any of the canonical books of the Old Testament.
Hebrews 11:39-40 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.2.8-9
For indeed, even the apostles have not yet received their joy, but they also wait that I may be a partaker of their joy. For the saints, when they leave this place, do not immediately obtain the whole rewards of their merits. They also wait for us, though we delay, even though we remain. For they do not have perfect delight as long as they grieve for our errors and mourn for our sins. Perhaps you do not believe me when I say this. For who am I that I am so bold to confirm the meaning of such a doctrine? But I produce their witness about whom you cannot doubt. For the apostle Paul is "a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." Therefore, in writing to the Hebrews, after he had enumerated all the holy fathers who were justified by faith, he adds after all that, "all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." You see, therefore, that Abraham is still waiting to obtain the perfect things. Isaac waits, and Jacob and all the prophets wait for us, that they may lay hold of the perfect blessedness with us.For this reason, therefore, that mystery of the delayed judgment is also kept until the last day. For there is "one body" that is waiting to be justified. There is "one body" that is said to rise from the dead in judgment. "As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you.' "
Hebrews 12:5-6 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
This "jealous God", then—if he requires and desires your soul to cleave to him, if he keeps you from sin, if he rebukes, if he chastises, if he is indignant, if he is angry and, as it were, uses a certain jealousy toward you—recognize that there is for you hope of salvation. But if, chastised, you do not come to your senses, if, rebuked, you are not amended, if, scourged, you despise it, know that, if you have so far advanced in sinning, his jealousy will depart from you, and that will be said to you which through the prophet Ezekiel is said to Jerusalem: "therefore my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be angry over you no more". See the mercy and the loving-kindness of the good God. When he wishes to have mercy, he says that he is indignant and angry, as through Jeremiah he says: "with grief and with scourge you shall be chastised, Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you". If you understand these things, it is the voice of a God who has mercy, where he is angry, where he is jealous, where he applies griefs and scourges. "For he scourges every son whom he receives".
Hebrews 12:6 — SELECTIONS FROM EXODUS 127
"I will punish with the rod" your saints; "I will visit with a whip their sins." Why? So that "I may not take my mercy from them." For when he leaves someone, he no longer punishes or whips them, since he does not whip everyone, but "every son the Lord receives."
Hebrews 12:12 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.9
Nevertheless, with Jesus reciting the law to you and revealing to your hearts the spiritual understanding: neither do you, proselytes, that is, catechumens, remain catechumens any longer, but hasten to receive the grace of God, that you too may be numbered in the assembly of the children of Israel; and you, "children," "do not become boys in your understanding, but in malice be little ones, yet in your understanding be perfect," as the Apostle too says to the Hebrews: "leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be borne on to perfection"; but you also, who under the name of "women" are weak and slack and languid, be admonished, so that you may "raise up the slackened hands and the loosened knees," that is, so that you may rouse your negligent and slothful minds and take up a manly constancy in fulfilling the precepts of the law and the Gospel, and may quickly press on to the perfection of strong men.
Hebrews 12:29 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.8.3
In sacred language God is called a fire, as when Scripture says, "Our God is a consuming fire." Concerning the substance of the angels, it also speaks as follows: "Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire." And in another place, "The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush." In addition, we have received a command to be "fervent in spirit" by which expression undoubtedly the word of God is shown to be hot and fiery. The prophet Jeremiah also hears from him who gave him oracles, "Behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire." As God, then, is a "fire" and the angels are "flames of fire" and all the saints are "fervent in spirit," so, on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God are undoubtedly said to have cooled in their affection for God and to have become cold.
Hebrews 12:29 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.123-131
Many have produced lengthy discussions of God and God's essence. Some have even said that God has a bodily nature that is composed of fine particles and is like ether. Others have said that God is incorporeal and is of a different essence that transcends bodies in dignity and power. For this reason it is worthwhile for us to see if we have resources from the divine Scriptures to say something about God's essence. In John 4:24 it is stated as if God's essence were spirit, for it says, "God is spirit." But in the law, it is instead as if God's essence were fire, for it is written, "Our God is a consuming fire." In John, however, it is stated as if God were light, for John says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." If, then, we should listen to these words literally, making no inquiry beyond the letter, we would have to say that God is a body.… But because we do not see the consequences if we attribute a body to God when we say, even on the basis of Scripture, that God is some such body as spirit, or consuming fire, or light, unless we accept the conclusions that necessarily follow these assertions, we will disgrace ourselves as foolish and contradicting the obvious. For every fire is subject to extinction because it needs fuel; and every spirit, even if we take the spirit to be simple, because it is a body, admits of change to what is coarser in its own nature. In these matters, then, we must either accept so many absurd and blasphemous things about God in preserving the literal meanings, or, as we also do in many other cases, examine and inquire what can be meant when it is said that God is spirit or fire or light. First we must say that just as when we find it written that God has eyes, eyelids, ears, hands, arms, feet, and even wings, we change what is written into an allegory, despising those who bestow on God a form resembling humans; and we do this with good reason. So also must we act consistently with our practice in the case of the names mentioned above.
Hebrews 13:8 — ON PRAYER 27.13
And if "today" means the whole present age, "yesterday" is probably the bygone age. This what I have understood to be the meaning in the psalm and in Paul's epistle to Hebrews. In the psalm it says: "A thousand years are in your eyes as a yesterday that has passed." Whatever the much talked of millennium means, it is likened to yesterday as opposed to today. And in the apostle writes, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." No wonder that the whole of an age counts with God as the space of a single day with us, and I think even less.
Hebrews 13:8 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 94.8
The "today" signifies this life; for it says, "Jesus Christ yesterday and today and forever" and again "while it is called today."
Hosea 2:7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
So, then, understand that your soul too has had many lovers, who delighted in her beauty, with whom she played the harlot. Concerning whom she also said: "I will go after my lovers, who give me my wine and my oil", and the rest. But now she has come to that time when she says: "I will return to my former husband, because it was better for me then than now". You have returned, then, to your former husband; without doubt you have given offense to your lovers, with whom you were committing adulteries. Unless, therefore, you now abide with your husband in whole faith, and are glued to him with your whole love, out of the many crimes which you have committed every movement of yours and glance of yours is suspect to him, and your very gait, if it be too careless. He can see nothing further in you that is wanton, nothing dissolute and prodigal. But when you turn your eyes even a little away from your husband, at once there must needs come a remembrance of former things. Therefore, that you may both blot out former things and that trust may be able to be had in you for the rest, you must not only do nothing unchaste, but not even think it.
Hosea 2:9 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
For an unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ, when still, as I said above, our soul was fornicating away from God and was with its lovers, the demons. But after she said: "I will return to my former husband" and came to Christ, who from the beginning "created her according to his own image", the adulterous spirit necessarily gave place when it saw the lawful husband. We have been received, then, by Christ, and our house has been "cleansed" from former sins and "adorned" with the ornaments of the sacraments of the faithful, which those who have been initiated know. But this house does not at once merit to have Christ as its inhabitant, unless its life and conduct be so holy, so pure and undefiled, that it may merit to be a "temple of God". For it must be no longer a house, but a temple, in which God may dwell. If, then, it neglect the grace received and entangle itself in worldly affairs, straightway that unclean spirit returns and claims for itself the empty house.
Hosea 2:23 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9:4
Next the promise of God is said for those who hear; if they do what is "commanded: And you will be my people and I will be your God." Not everyone who says they are a people of God are "a people" of God. Hence, that people who were proclaimed to be a people of God heard, "You are not my people," in the passage, "Therefore you are not my people." And it has been said to that people you are "not my people." Elsewhere this people was called a "people," for "they have provoked me to jealousy with what is not God"—he speaks concerning the former—"they have provoked me with their idols. So I will provoke them to jealousy with those who are not a people, with a senseless nation I will provoke them."
Hosea 3:4 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:1.3
For the prophecy was fulfilled that had declared, "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king and prince. There shall be no victim, nor altar, nor priesthood, nor answers." These testimonies, accordingly, we employ against those who presume to assert that what is spoken in Genesis by Jacob refers to Judah. They say that there still remains a prince of the race of Judah—he, namely, who is the prince of their nation, whom they style patriarch—and that there cannot fail [a ruler] of his seed, who will remain until the advent of that Christ whom they picture themselves. But if the prophet's words are true when he says, "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, without prince; and there shall be no victim, nor altar, nor priesthood," and if, certainly, since the overthrow of the temple, victims are neither offered, nor any altar found, nor any priesthood exists. So it is most certain that, as it is written, princes have departed from Judah and a leader from between his thighs, until the coming of him for whom it has been reserved. It is established, then, that he has indeed come from whom it has been reserved and in whom is the expectation of the Gentiles. And this manifestly seems to be fulfilled in the multitude of those who have believed in God through Christ out of the different nations.
Hosea 3:4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
I ask therefore on what day the manna began to be given from heaven, and I wish to compare our Lord's day with the sabbath of the Jews. For from the divine scriptures it appears that the manna was first given upon the earth on the Lord's day. For if, as Scripture says, it was gathered for six continuous days, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, there was a cessation, without doubt its beginning was from the first day, which is the Lord's day. But if from the divine scriptures this is established, that on the Lord's day God rained the manna and on the sabbath he did not rain it, let the Jews understand that even then our Lord's day was preferred to the Jewish sabbath, that even then it was indicated that on their sabbath no grace of God came down to them from heaven, that no heavenly bread, which is the word of God, came to them. For the prophet says also elsewhere: "for many days the children of Israel shall sit without king, without prince, without prophet, without victim, without sacrifice, without priest". But on our Lord's day the Lord always rains manna from heaven.
Hosea 4:8 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5:2
The text wants you to make a more daring assertion if your hearing will still follow. What is the "sacrifice" that is offered "for sin" and is "very holy" except "the only begotten Son of God," Jesus Christ my Lord? He alone is the "sacrifice for sins," and he is "a very holy offering." But since it added that "the priest who offers it will eat it," it seems to be hard to understand. For that which it says must be eaten seems to be referring to the sin, just as in another place the prophet says concerning the priests that "they will eat the sins of my people." This also shows that the priest ought to eat the sin of the one who is offering. We frequently show from holy Scripture that Christ is also the sacrifice that is offered for the sin of the world and the priest who brings the offering.
Hosea 4:14 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
But do you wish to hear the terrible voice of an indignant God? Hear what he says through the prophet: when he had enumerated the many wicked things which the people had committed, he adds also these: "and for this reason" he says "I will not visit upon your daughters when they fornicate, nor upon your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery". This is the terrible thing, this the extremity: when we are no longer rebuked for our sins, when we are no longer corrected when we transgress. For then, when we have exceeded the measure of sinning, the "jealous God" turns his jealousy away from us, as he said above: "for my jealousy shall be taken away from you, and I will be angry over you no more". So much concerning that which was said: "a jealous God".
Hosea 6:2 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
For hear what the prophet says: "God will raise us up after two days, and on the third day we shall rise again and shall live in his sight." The first day for us is the passion of the Savior, and the second, on which he descended into hell, but the third is the day of the resurrection. And therefore on the third day "God went before them, by day in a pillar of cloud, by night in a pillar of fire." But if, according to those things which we said above, the Apostle rightly teaches us that the mysteries of baptism are contained in these words, it is necessary that "those who are baptized in Christ should be baptized in his death, and be buried together with him," and rise again with him on the third day from the dead, whom also, according to that which the Apostle says: "he raised up together with himself, and made to sit together in the heavenly places." When, therefore, the mystery of the third day has been received by you, God will begin to lead you forth and Himself to show you the way of salvation.
Hosea 7:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 11:15
Therefore each one must keep his heart with all watchfulness, for when the Lord comes in the day of judgment, "He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts," "all the thoughts of men meanwhile accusing or else excusing them," "when their own devices have beset them about." But of such a nature are the evil thoughts that sometimes they make worthy of censure even those things which seem good and which, so far as the popular judgment is concerned, are indeed worthy of praise.
Hosea 7:4 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5:2
But where shall I find an approach to the divine Scripture that teaches me what "an oven" is? I must call upon Jesus my Lord, that he may make me the seeker find and may open to the one knocking, that I may find in Scriptures "the oven" where I can rightly bake my sacrifice that God may accept it. Indeed, I think I have found it in Hosea the prophet, where he says, "All adulterers are as an oven ignited for burning." And again he says, "Their hearts glowed as an oven." The human heart therefore is "an oven." But this heart, if vices ignite it or the devil inflames it, will not bake, but it will burn up. But if that one who said, "I came to send fire into the earth" should ignite it, the loaves of the divine Scriptures and of the words of God which I receive in my heart, I do not burn up for destruction, but I bake for sacrifice.
Hosea 7:6 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5:2
But where shall I find an approach to the divine Scripture that teaches me what "an oven" is? I must call upon Jesus my Lord, that he may make me the seeker find and may open to the one knocking, that I may find in Scriptures "the oven" where I can rightly bake my sacrifice that God may accept it. Indeed, I think I have found it in Hosea the prophet, where he says, "All adulterers are as an oven ignited for burning." And again he says, "Their hearts glowed as an oven." The human heart therefore is "an oven." But this heart, if vices ignite it or the devil inflames it, will not bake, but it will burn up. But if that one who said, "I came to send fire into the earth" should ignite it, the loaves of the divine Scriptures and of the words of God which I receive in my heart, I do not burn up for destruction, but I bake for sacrifice.
Hosea 8:4 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 4
Not always is the prince of the people and judge of the Church given by the judgment of God, but according as our merits demand. If our deeds are evil and we "work evil in the sight of God", princes are given to us according to our heart; and this I will prove to you from the Scriptures. For hear what the Lord says: "They made themselves a king and not by me, and a prince and not by my counsel". And this seems to be said of that Saul, whom indeed the Lord himself had chosen and had commanded to be made king; but because he had been chosen not according to the will of God, but according to the merit of a sinful people, he denies that he was appointed with his will or counsel.
Hosea 10:12 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6:4.4
Observe how holy and how marvelous is the sequence of things. Do not imagine that wisdom will come before its enactment in deeds. The deeds ought to come first, and wisdom sought afterwards.… We ought not teach others before we ourselves are instructed and rational. After these things, however, "truth" is added because "truth" is the highest wisdom. The prophet also preserves this same order when he says, "Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of life; illuminate yourselves with the light of knowledge." See how he does not first say, "Illuminate yourselves with the light of knowledge," but first, "Sow for yourselves righteousness." It is not sufficient just to sow, but he says, "reap the fruit of life" so that after these you can fulfill what follows, "illuminate yourselves with the light of knowledge."
Hosea 14:9 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 28:5
If any reader is "a spiritual man who judges all things and he is judged by no one," not only will he allegorize the major regions as Judea and Egypt and Babylon but also areas of the earth. And just as in Judea is Jerusalem and Bethlehem and other cities, so in Egypt when he reads, "Diospolis, Bubastis, Taphnis, Memphis, Syene," he will understand the meaning of things figuratively. "Who is wise and understands these things? Or who is understanding and will know them?"
Hosea 14:9 — AGAINST CELSUS 3:45
And to such a degree does the gospel desire that there should be wise people among believers, that for the sake of exercising the understanding of its hearers, it has spoken certain truths in enigmas, others in what are called "dark" sayings, others in parables, and others in problems. And one of the prophets—Hosea—says at the end of his prophecy, "Who is wise, and he will understand these things? Or prudent, and he shall know them?"
Isaiah 1:2 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 44:8
All that exists was created by God, and there is nothing uncreated except the nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God, who is good by nature, wishing to have those whom he might benefit and who might enjoy the benefits received from him, made creatures worthy of himself, that is, who could receive him worthily.
Isaiah 1:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 13
That was the manger of which the prophet prophesied, saying: "the ox knew its owner, and the ass the manger of its lord". The ox is a clean animal, the ass an unclean animal. "The ass knew the manger of its lord". It was not the people of Israel who knew the manger of their lord, but an unclean animal from among the Gentiles: "but Israel", he says, "has not known me, and my people has not understood me". Understanding this manger, let us strive to know the Lord and to become worthy of the knowledge of him, and to take up not only the nativity and resurrection of his flesh, but also the renowned coming of his second majesty: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Isaiah 1:6 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 8:5.5
Isaiah teaches that there are certain wounds of the soul.… Without doubt, he is speaking about the transgressions of the people, because there are some to whom the medicine of the poultice must still be applied. Others may be sinners in such a degree that no cure can be found for them.
Isaiah 1:6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2:2
And just as there are some wounds that are cured by emollients, others that are cured by oil and others that need a bandage, there are still other wounds about which it is said, "It is not emollients or oil or bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire." So there are some sins that pollute the soul, and for those sins one needs the lye of the Word, the soap of the Word. Yet some sins are not cured this way, because they do not pollute the soul.
Isaiah 1:7-8 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5
Christ has ceased to be in them, speech has abandoned them, and that has been fulfilled which is written in Isaiah: "the daughter of Zion shall be left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a lodge in a cucumber-field, like a city that is stormed". These being abandoned, salvation has been transferred to the nations, that those others might be stirred up to jealousy. Beholding, therefore, the dispensation and the hidden purpose of God, how Israel has been cast off unto our salvation, we ought to take care lest perhaps those others have been cast out for our sake, and we be worthy of greater punishment — we for whose sake others also have been abandoned, and we have done nothing worthy of God's adoption and of his mercy, who adopted us and reckoned us among his own sons in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Isaiah 1:13 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 10.3
Tell me, you who gather to church only on feast days: are the other days not festal? Are they not days of the Lord? It belongs to the Jews to observe certain rare days as solemn feasts; and therefore God says to them that "your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I do not endure. Your fasting and holidays and feast days my soul hates." God therefore hates those who think that the feast day of the Lord is on one day only.
Isaiah 2:8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 16:9.1
Not only do human beings "make gods for themselves" from statues, but you will also find them "making gods for themselves" from their imaginations. For such people can imagine another god and creator of the world in a system different from the divine plan of the world recorded by the Spirit, other than the true world. These all have "made gods for themselves," and they have "worshiped the works of their hands." So, too, I believe is the case either among the Greeks who generate opinions, so to speak, of this philosophy or that, or among the heretics, the first who generate opinions. These have "made idols for themselves" and figments of the soul, and by turning to them "they worship the works of their hands," since they accept as truth their own fabrications.
Isaiah 3:12 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
As individuals we have our own officers, but the whole multitude is handed over to several, according to that which is written in Isaiah: "my people, your officers plunder you, and those who are powerful lord it over you" — the officers lord it over us, if we owe anything.
Isaiah 4:1 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 3
The "seven women" suffer "reproach" and go about seeking to receive the one who is able to "take away their reproach". These same "seven women" make a promise, that they will "eat their own bread and be clothed with their own garments". They have no need of the "bread" of him who "takes away their reproach"; they do not lack the "garments of a man" whom they "take". They have better "garments" than a "man" can supply to them; they have more sumptuous foods than the human condition can bestow. It is therefore worth considering whose these "seven women" are and what their "reproach" is. The "seven women" are one; for they are the "Spirit of God". And this one is seven; for the "Spirit of God" is "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of the Lord". This "wisdom" suffers "reproach" from the many wisdoms that rise up against it; this true "understanding" bears "reproach" from false understandings; this great "counsel" is reproached by many counsels that are not good; this "might" is reviled by a certain thing which, though it is not "might", promises that it is "might"; this "knowledge" suffers "reproach" from a certain "knowledge" of false name that filches its name; this "piety" is reproached by that which, though it calls itself "piety", is impiety and instructs the impious; this "fear" suffers "reproach" from that which is thought to be "fear"; for many promise a divine dread, but they do not fear "with knowledge". Let us therefore consider in what way these "seven" suffer "reproach". See the "wisdom of this world", see the "wisdom of the princes of this world", how they reproach the "wisdom" of my Christ, how they reproach the "wisdom" of the true Judaism, according to which we are circumcised spiritually, while those others are cut off. Understand, then, how the "wisdom of this world and of the princes of this world" reviles "wisdom"; and on this account a "man" is sought who may be with these "seven" spiritual "women", that he may "take away their reproach". Properly there is "one" "man" who may "take away their reproach". Who is this "man"? Jesus, who "came forth according to the flesh" "from the root of Jesse", "made of the seed of David according to the flesh, predestined the Son of God in power according to the spirit of justification". For "there came forth a rod from the root of Jesse". The "rod" is not "the firstborn of all creation", the "rod" is not "he who in the beginning was with God, God the Word", but "a rod from the root of Jesse", who "was born according to the flesh". "There came forth", therefore, "a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower ascended from his root". What is the "flower" and what is the "root"? For both are one in him who lies beneath; but the difference is one of dealings. For if you are a sinner, there is no "flower" for you, nor will you see the "flower which is from the root of Jesse"; for the "rod" will come even to you, just as the disciple speaks of the "rod" and the "flower". Of the "rod" indeed he says: "what do you wish? shall I come to you with a rod?", but of the "flower": "or in the love of God and the spirit of gentleness?". "There came forth", therefore, "from the root of Jesse a rod" for him who is punished with penalties, a "rod" for him who needs rebuke, a "rod" for him who has need to be reproved; but a "flower" for him who is already instructed and does not need harsh correction, or at least does not need punishments, but is now strong enough to begin to flower toward perfect fruit. For first the "flower" is shown, and then after the "flower" it becomes a "rod" unto fruit. "There came forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower ascended from his root. And the seven women shall rest, the Spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him". For the "spirit of wisdom" did "not rest" in Moses, the "spirit of wisdom" did "not rest" in Joshua son of Nun, the "…
Isaiah 4:4 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
Then there follows: "when the days of their purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, they brought him to Jerusalem". On account of the purification, he says, "of them". Of whom, "of them"? If it had been written: on account of her purification, that is, of Mary, who had given birth, no question would arise, and we would boldly say that Mary, who was human, had need of purification after childbirth. But now, in that it says: "the days of their purification", it seems to signify not one, but another or several. Did Jesus, then, have need of purification and was he unclean, or defiled with some filth? Perhaps I seem to speak rashly, but I am moved by the authority of the Scriptures. See what is written in Job: "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life should be of a single day". He did not say: "no one is clean from sin," but: "no one is clean from filth". For filth and sins do not signify the same thing; and that you may know that filth means one thing and sin another, Isaiah teaches most plainly, saying: "the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst, by the spirit of judgment the filth and by the spirit of burning the blood". Every soul that has been clothed with a human body has its own "filth". And that you may know that Jesus too was made filthy by his own will, because for our salvation he had assumed a human body, listen to the prophet Zechariah saying: "Jesus was clothed with filthy garments".
Isaiah 4:4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2:2
When one has recognized the differences in sins, one can see how the Lord says in Isaiah, "The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning." Filth is washed away by a spirit of judgment. Blood is washed away by a spirit of burning. Even if you have not committed a sin that leads to death, you have still sinned and have thereby become filthy. The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and he will cleanse the blood from among them. A spirit of judgment will be the recompense for filth, and a spirit of burning will be a recompense for the blood. Whenever we commit heinous sins, we do not need lye or washing with soap; rather we need the spirit of burning.
Isaiah 5:1 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
And truly he was "a horn of salvation in the house of David", because this prophecy is sung in harmony: "For a vineyard was made on a horn". On what horn? On Christ Jesus, on him of whom it is now written: "he raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets".
Isaiah 5:4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1:4
See then how very bad sinning is, that they may be delivered to Satan, who holds captive the souls of those forsaken by God—though God does not forsake without cause or judgment those whom he has abandoned. For when he sends the rain for the vineyard and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what else will God do except order the clouds not to sprinkle rain on the vineyard?
Isaiah 5:6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1:4
See then how very bad sinning is, that they may be delivered to Satan, who holds captive the souls of those forsaken by God—though God does not forsake without cause or judgment those whom he has abandoned. For when he sends the rain for the vineyard and the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what else will God do except order the clouds not to sprinkle rain on the vineyard?
Isaiah 6:1 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 1
So long as "King Uzziah" lived, the prophet Isaiah could not "see the vision". For "Uzziah" was a sinner, "doing what was wicked before the sight of the Lord", and acting against the will of the divine law. "He entered the temple" and the holy of holies, and for this reason he was covered with "leprosy on his forehead", so that, going outside the city, he was reckoned among the unclean. Such a ruler of the soul, therefore, must die, that we may be able "to see the vision" of God; for not in vain is it written: "and it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord". For each one of us "Uzziah" is alive, or Pharaoh, and we do not "groan" while doing the "works" of Egypt. But if he "dies", then we "groan", as it is written in Exodus. If "Uzziah" lives, we do not "see the glory of God"; but if he "dies", then we "see"—as soon as "Uzziah dies"—"the glory of God", provided only that the Word "reign" in us, the Word who said: "but I have been appointed king by him", and that wrath does not "reign". Indeed there is also a "king" of "sin"; the Apostle, knowing this, says: "let sin therefore not reign in your mortal body". Wretched is that man in whom "sin reigns", who hands himself over to such a "king", despising the kingdom of God and subjecting himself to pleasure. Therefore the lover of pleasure is not a lover of God, and according to the Apostle it is said of certain persons: "loving pleasure more than God". And indeed this very thing was said not of those who are entirely unbelievers, but of those who dwell within, "loving pleasure more than God, having a semblance of piety but denying its power". These things are said on account of the death of "King Uzziah", after whose demise the prophet says he "saw the vision". But what is the "vision"? "I saw the Lord seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". Not everyone who "sees the Lord" "sees" him "seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". I know that another prophet "saw the Lord" and "saw" him "seated upon a throne", but not "lofty" nor "exalted". Expounding the Scripture, Daniel says: "thrones were placed", and that "throne" was not "lofty". And: "I will come to sit in judgment over the people in the valley of Jehoshaphat". Therefore here he "sat in the valley", and "in the valley" when he is about "to judge", when he is about to condemn. But it is another thing "to see him seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". And in Micah "God goes forth and descends". And in order to see Sodom, "he descends": "Descending", he says, "I will see whether they have carried out to the full according to the cry of them that comes to me". God, therefore, is sometimes seen above, sometimes below, according to the dignity of the matters at hand. "I saw the Lord", then, Isaiah says, "seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". If I "see God" reigning over those who are here, I do not "see" him "upon a throne lofty and exalted"; if I "see" him "reigning" over the heavenly powers, I "see" him "upon a throne lofty and exalted". What do I mean by the heavenly powers? "Thrones, dominions, principalities, powers" are the heavenly powers. And if I "see" him, how he "reigns" over these in the Word, "I saw the Lord seated upon a throne lofty and exalted". "And the house was full of his glory". On high, where his "throne" is "exalted", "the house is also full of his glory". I do not think that this house which is on earth "is full of glory". "The Lord's is the earth and the fullness thereof". But the "fullness of the glory of God" you will not find in the present; yet if anyone builds a temple to God, the "glory of God" will be seen, and if he keeps what has been said, "the house" will be seen to be "full of the glory of God". But I do not know whether the "house" is filled with "glory" in this way. And in Leviticus, insofar as concerns the present, not yet—but, God granting, it will be read in the assembly that follows—it is said that the Lord commanded certain things to be done, that the "glory…
Isaiah 6:1 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 5
"It came to pass", he says, "in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up". The "vision" is recorded; why is the time of the king signified? Give heed to when the "vision" arose: when "King Uzziah died", Isaiah "saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up". If any of us knows who "Uzziah" was and what he did, he can know what the prophet taught through the Spirit, what the divine word sets forth for us. I will go to the life of "King Uzziah" and inquire from the books of Kingdoms and from the history of Chronicles concerning "Uzziah", and there I see that it is necessary, if it is to come to pass that "I should see the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up", that "King Uzziah" must "die" for me. This "Uzziah", descending from the seed of David and "reigning" over the people of Judah, as long indeed as "Zechariah, who had understanding" lived — for so it is written in the second book of Chronicles — "did what was right in the sight of the Lord". And not content with this, he made great lights for the Lord and set the temple of God in order, and many were his virtues in religion. But when "Zechariah who had understanding" died, then he did evil. Do you wish to know this evil that he did? He was a king, not a priest (one is the royal order, another the priestly order); he wished to "enter into the temple" and to perform the place of a priest and to do a work which had not been granted to him; he "entered in", forestalling the priests, and took the "vessel of libation". But there entered also the "chief of the priests" who was at that time, "and eighty priests with him"; "the chief of the priests said to him": are you not Uzziah, and not a priest? He violently persisted, "and leprosy went up upon his forehead"; he was cast out as dead, he "went out" of the temple, the Lord led him out. Therefore he became a "leper" because of his transgression of the law. Each one is under a kingdom, whether of "sin" or of righteousness. If "sin reigns" in me, I am one of the kings of Israel who "entered the temple" violently; if I am righteous according to the measure of my progress and do what is right and persevere before the sight of God, righteousness "reigns" in me. But as long as the "leper" lived, Isaiah had "unclean lips"; as long as the wicked man lived, Isaiah could not "see the Lord of Sabaoth" and had "unclean lips"; for he was under a wicked king. But when does he begin to "see the vision" of God? "In the year in which Uzziah died". Things similar to these you will be able to learn also from many scriptures, God granting it. In Exodus something of this kind is written: "and it came to pass after many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned, and their cry went up to God". As long as Pharaoh lived, the "children of Israel" did "not groan", and, placed under punishments, they did not even have the free faculty of "groaning"; for the king was alive, who commanded them to make "bricks and straw". As long as Pharaoh lived, they did "not groan to God"; when Pharaoh died, then they had the strength to lift up their faces wet with weeping. The wicked king lives in our breast as long as Pharaoh the devil lives. Then we labor at "bricks" and "straw", then we swallow our tears in silence and do the first works of iniquity; but when he has died, at the visitation of the Lord our God, then we "groan to the Lord". Therefore let us pray that the kingdom of "sin, which is in our mortal body", may die. For it says: "sin was dead, but I lived"; and again: "sin revived, but I died". When "Uzziah", who holds the kingdom of "sin", "dies", Pharaoh too "dies". When the most wicked "king dies", I lift my eyes to heaven and God hears my voice, as he did for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; and "I see the Lord of Sabaoth sitting" and reigning "upon a high throne", whom the people did not see; for "Uzziah had not yet died". I wish to insert…
Isaiah 6:2 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
It is impossible to find the beginning of God. The beginning of God's movement you can nowhere grasp—not you, I say, and not anyone else, nor any other of the things that have subsistence. The Savior alone and the Holy Spirit, who have always been with God, see His "face"; and perhaps also the "angels", who "continually see the face of the Father who is in heaven", see also the beginnings of His works. And so too before men "the Seraphim hide their feet"; for the "last things", such as they are, cannot be recounted. "Who has announced concerning the last things?" says the Scripture. The things that we see—granting even that we do see something—are the middle things. What existed before the world we do not know; yet certain things did exist before the world. What is to follow after the world we do not apprehend for certain; yet other things will be after the world. Those things, therefore, that are written—"in the beginning God made heaven and earth. But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss; and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters"—these are apprehended; those "waters", over which the "Spirit of God" brooded, belonged to the world. But also the "darkness", which "was over the abyss", is not unbegotten; for both were created out of nothing. Hear God saying in Isaiah: "I am God, who framed light and made darkness". Hear wisdom proclaiming in Proverbs: "before all the abysses I was born". These were not unbegotten; but when or how they were born, I do not know. For by the "Seraphim" are "veiled" the first of God's works, that is, the "face of God"; and likewise also the "feet". The things that after the last age are to be for ages of ages, who can expound? It belongs to garrulous men to promise knowledge of these things—men who do not know that a human being can grasp only those things that are the middle things. And the things that after the world, up to the consummation, are to be in the judgment—concerning the punishments, concerning the recompense—of these too many things are hidden from us. This is because of what is written: "with two they veiled the face". But not only did they "veil", they also "covered over", that is, "veiled", so that neither might even a little of the first things be seen—I mean of the "face"—nor might even a little of the "last things" be recognized, that is, of His "feet". "And with two they were flying". The middle things are laid open for contemplation.
Isaiah 6:2-3 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 1
"And the Seraphim stood round about him, six wings to the one, and six wings to the other". I see two "Seraphim", each of them having in itself "six wings". Then the arrangement of the "wings". "And with two wings indeed they covered the face"—not their own, but God's—"and with two wings they covered the feet"—not their own, but God's—"and with two wings they were flying". According to what is written, it seems contradictory: if they "stood", they could not "fly". But it is written: "they stood round about him, six wings to the one and six wings to the other; and with two they covered the face and with two they covered the feet, and with two they were flying; and they cried one to another". Truly these "Seraphim", who are around God, who by knowledge alone say: "Holy, Holy, Holy!", on this account keep the mystery of the Trinity, because they too are holy; for among all the things that are, nothing is holier than these. And not lightly do they say "one to another": "Holy, Holy, Holy!", but they proclaim with a cry the confession that is salutary for all. What are these two "Seraphim"? My Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And do not think that the nature of the Trinity is divided, if the functions of the names are preserved. "They covered the face" of God; for the beginning of God is unknown. But also the "feet"; for what last thing is comprehended in our God? Only the middle things are seen; what was before these, I do not know. From the things that are, I understand God; what will come after these, insofar as they are to come, I do not know. "Who has declared it to him?" said Ecclesiastes. "Announce to me the first things and the last things that shall be, and I will say that you are gods", said Isaiah. From which, if anyone should tell the "past things" and be able to tell the "last things", he is "God"; who, then, can tell them except the "Seraphim"? Who can say: "Holy, Holy, Holy!" except the "Seraphim"? But they laid bare which part of God, so to speak—his middle—and "they cried one to the other", standing beside God "and saying": "Holy, Holy, Holy!". They "stand", therefore, and are moved; they "stand" with God, they are moved in making God known; for understand that "they cover the face, they cover the feet"—they do not move the things that are covered, they do not "cover" the things with which "they fly". And they say: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of his glory". The coming of my Lord Jesus Christ is announced; and so now "the whole earth is full of his glory". Or else it is not yet "full", but it is to come to pass that it be filled, when that prayer shall have been fulfilled by which the Lord himself commanded us to "pray" to the "Father", saying: "when you pray, say: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name! Thy kingdom come! Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth!". As yet the "will" of the "Father" is "in heaven"; "on earth" his "will" is not yet fulfilled; and Jesus himself, according to the dispensation of the flesh which he had put on, says: "he gave me all power, as in heaven so on earth"—not that he did not have "power on earth", he who had it "in heaven", and that he received something of the world, he who "had come into his own", but that God might so be believed "on earth" as he was believed "in heaven"; therefore the man Christ received "power" which before he did not have, and up to the present he does not yet have "power" over all "on earth". For over those who sin he does not yet reign; but when the "power" over these too has been given to him, when "all things have been made subject" to him, then the "power" will be complete and he will go about "subjecting all things to himself". But some do not yet wish to be "made subject" to him, but as yet are "subjected" to his enemies. Let us, moreover, say: "shall not my soul be made subject to God? for from him is my salvation".
Isaiah 6:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:3
My Hebrew teacher also used to teach as follows, that since the beginning or the end of all things could not be comprehended by any except our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, this was the reason why Isaiah spoke of there being in the vision that appeared to him two seraphim only, who with two wings cover the face of God, with two cover his feet and with two fly, crying one to another and saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of your glory." For because the two seraphim alone have their wings over the face of God and over his feet, we may venture to declare that neither the armies of the holy angels, nor the holy thrones, nor the dominions, nor principalities nor powers can wholly know the beginnings of all things and the ends of the universe.
Isaiah 6:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:3
My Hebrew master used to say that the two seraphim, which are described in Isaiah as having six wings each and as crying one to another and saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts," were to be understood to mean the only-begotten Son of God and the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 6:3 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
"And they cried out one to another", not "one" to many, but "one to another". For to hear the holiness of God, which is announced by the Savior, according to the dignity of the matter no one can except the Holy Spirit; just as, in turn, to indwell the sanctity of God, which is announced by the Holy Spirit, no one can except the Savior alone. On this account "they cried out one to another and said: Holy, Holy, Holy!" It does not suffice for them to cry 'Holy!' once, nor twice, but they take up the perfect number of the Trinity, that they may manifest the multitude of the holiness of God, which is the repeated commonalty of a threefold holiness; to the holiness of the Father is joined the holiness of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. "For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one". He who "sanctifies" is the Savior, according to this—that as a man He receives holiness from God the Father. And so they say: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth!". And "Sabaoth" is interpreted, as Aquila has handed down, the Lord of armies. "The whole earth is full of His glory". Once the "house" was full of "glory", but now to those who are upon the "earth" it is prophesied by the Seraphim that it shall come to pass that Christ will fill "the whole earth" with the "glory" of God. For in all who by their manner of life glorify God, there is "His glory", and thus "the whole earth is full of the glory" of God. Once "the whole earth was" not "full of the glory" of God, but one corner of the earth, when it was said: "God is known in Judea, in Israel His name is great". Glory be to God, "who sent His Son", that "the whole earth might become full of His glory". But what does it profit you if the "earth" is "full" of the "glory" of God because of the churches of the blessed who are everywhere, but you yourself are not a partaker of the "glory" of the "fullness of God"? You too, therefore, labor and strive in all things, seeking the "glory" of God, that it may dwell and find a place also in you, and that you too may become, together with "the whole earth" in which is the "glory" of God, "full of His glory". How does the fullness of the "glory" of God come about through each one of us? If the things I do, the things I speak, are done unto the "glory" of God, then my word and my act become "full" of the "glory" of God. If both my going out and my coming in are unto the "glory" of God, if my food, if my drink, if "all" that I do "is done unto the glory of God", then I too am a partaker of this saying: "the earth is full of His glory".
Isaiah 6:4 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
When therefore I have done all these things, "the lintel was lifted up by the voice with which they cried out". It is a blessed thing, then, for each one of us so to labor that he may become a partaker of the door and of the "lintel" of the door, which is according to the understanding of Christ God. For it is not, I think, unseemly to say that the flesh is called the door and the Word the "lintel". "The lintel was lifted up by the voice with which they cried out, and the house was filled with smoke", with that good "smoke" from the "glory" of God.
Isaiah 6:4 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 1
"And with two they were flying, and they said one to another: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the lintel was lifted up by the voice with which they cried", by the "voice" of Jesus Christ and the "voice" of the Holy Spirit. If any one of us hears the "voice" of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit "crying out", the "lintel is lifted up" and becomes higher than at that time when "it was lifted up" and when it was said: "lift up the gates, your princes, and be lifted up, everlasting gates, and the king of glory shall enter in". "And the house was filled with smoke". From the remission of the fire the whole "house was filled". And "smoke" is the vapor of fire.
Isaiah 6:5-7 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 1
"And I said: O wretched me, for I am pierced with remorse, since, although I am a man and have unclean lips". I cannot suppose that Isaiah humbled himself; rather, the Scripture says and gives testimony that his "lips are cleansed" by "one of the Seraphim", who "was sent" to "take away his sins". And "one" of the "Seraphim" is my Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent by the Father to "take away" our "sins", and he says: "behold, I have taken away your iniquities and have cleansed away your sins". And do not think it an affront to his nature, if the Son is sent by the Father. Indeed, that you may recognize the unity of the deity in the Trinity, Christ alone in the present reading now forgives "sins", and yet it is certain that "sins" are forgiven by the Trinity. For he who has believed in one, believes in all. Let there be brought to me, then, from the heavenly altar the "tongs", that it may touch my lips. If the "tongs" of the Lord touch "my lips", it "cleanses" them. And if it "cleanses" them and "cuts away" their vices, as we said just now, I shall open my mouth to the Word of God, and no longer shall an "unclean" word go forth from my mouth, "since, although I am a man and have unclean lips, I also dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips". The "Seraphim" that was sent cleansed the "lips" of the prophet, but did not "cleanse the lips of the people". For he himself confessed that "he had unclean lips and dwelt in the midst of a people that has unclean lips". But this "Seraphim" that "was sent" did not judge any of the "people" worthy to have "their lips" too "cleansed", and therefore they still act impiously, therefore they still repudiate my Lord Jesus Christ, still curse him with "unclean lips". But I pray that the "Seraphim" may come and "cleanse" my "lips".
Isaiah 6:5-7 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 5
"And it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, that I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up; and the house was full of his glory. And the Seraphim stood round about him, six wings to the one and six wings to the other; and with two they veiled his face, and with two they veiled his feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of his glory", and the rest. But in order that we too may see the "vision" which Isaiah "saw", let us call upon Jesus, who has bestowed eyes upon those who do not see. For even now he can come and bring it about that we may behold with opened eyes the things that have been spoken in the reading of the sacrament; let us promise him that from now on we will no longer make "the body of Christ the body of a harlot", nor do works worthy of mourning. Let each one of us speak these things in his heart to God, and let us pray that his coming may take place even now; for if Jesus does not come, we cannot see these things. I pray that "a Seraph may be sent to me too", and that, "taking a coal with the tongs, he may cleanse my lips"; and why do I say "lips"? Isaiah was holy, and therefore only his "lips" were "cleansed", because he had offended only with his "lips", that is, in speech. But I am not such that I can say: "I have unclean lips"; I fear that I have an "unclean" heart, "unclean" eyes, "unclean" ears, an "unclean" mouth. As long as I sin in all these, I am wholly "unclean". If "I have looked upon a woman to lust after her, I have committed adultery with her in my heart". Behold, "unclean" eyes. If "out of my breast there go forth evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, false testimonies", behold, an "unclean" heart. "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the gospel of peace, who bring the gospel of good things!". But I fear that, running toward evil, I have "unclean feet". "I stretch out" my "hands" to God, and perhaps "turning away his face" he says: "if you stretch out your hands, I will turn my face away from you". Who, then, cleanses me? Who "washes my feet"? Come, Jesus; I have filthy "feet"; for my sake become a servant, "pour your water into your basin", come, "wash my feet". I know that what I say is rash, but I fear the threat of him who says: "if I do not wash your feet, you will have no part with me". Therefore "wash my feet", that "I may have part with you". But why do I say: "wash my feet"? Peter can say this, who had need only that "his feet be washed"; for he was wholly clean. But I, since I have been washed once, need that baptism of which the Lord says: "I have another baptism to be baptized with". Why have we said these things? I am preparing both myself and my hearers for greater mysteries, if indeed the word of God comes, if it descends to us; for I fear that it may flee from me, that it may even disdain to bless me. The word once fled from the people because of "Achar", one sinner; the word fled, I say, from the people because of one sinner, "Achar the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah", from the "tribe of Judah", who was disobedient to God and therefore was "made anathema". And since now there is a multitude of people because of the preparation-day, and especially on the Lord's day, which is the commemoration of Christ's passion — for the resurrection of the Lord is not celebrated once a year, but always after every eighth day — pray to almighty God, that his word may come to us. Even if you are sinners, pray; God hears sinners. But if you fear that which is said in the Gospel: "we know that God does not hear sinners", do not be afraid, do not believe it: he who said this was "blind". Rather believe him who speaks and does not lie: "even if your sins be as scarlet, I will whiten them as wool; and if you are willing and hear me, you shall eat the good things of the earth". If you are "willing" even now to "hear", let us pray in common to the Lord, that at least n…
Isaiah 6:5 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
"And I said: O wretched me, for I am pricked with compunction!". Before you "see the vision", do you not confess yourself to be "wretched", O Isaiah? He does not say: so long as "Uzziah" lived did it never come into my mind that I was "wretched"; for I begin to know that I am "wretched" when I "see the vision", when "Uzziah the leprous king" is "dying" for me, and I say: "O wretched me!"? Now I too begin to confess to the Lord and to say of my very self: "O wretched me!", as Isaiah says: "O wretched me!". And close to this the Apostle too says: "wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?". It is a blessed thing, then, that I should confess myself "wretched". If I humble myself and, repenting, weep over my sins, God will hear me and give me a deliverer, and I say: "thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!". In truth let us say from the heart: "wretched me". Let each one call to mind the causes of his miseries and his offenses, and let us say, rising to prayer, mindful indeed as though confessing, but forgetful as though no longer committing them, and let us say: "wretched me, for I am pricked with compunction!". He is not "pricked with compunction" before he "saw the vision", before "Uzziah died"; when he begins to do penance, at once he says: "for I am pricked with compunction". If anyone is without feeling "in respect of the inner man", though he be a sinner, he is not "pricked with compunction"; but just as, though you apply a goad to the outer members, the dead body does not feel it, in the same way also, even if you apply the divine words to a sinner who has been put to death through sin and does not do penance, he is neither sorrowful nor repentant, nor has he "the sorrow that works confession, the sorrow that is according to God". But if anyone wishes to be saved and hears the words of one reproving and correcting him, at once he says: "O wretched me". Nor does it suffice to say: "wretched me"; there must be added to it: "because I am pricked with compunction". And would that he might be "pricked with compunction" yet more! For the more we are "pricked with compunction", the more the bonds of our sins are loosed from us. On this account that Ahab gained no great profit, because he was not much "pricked with compunction", but he was indeed "pricked with compunction", yet only once. For which reason it was said: "have you seen how Ahab has been pricked with compunction!" But if anyone be such that he does not cease to be "pricked with compunction", he says likewise as the Apostle: "I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God", and: "to me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given", and: "faithful is God, for Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first". Do you see that he was much "pricked with compunction", not once but always—that in writing and speaking and acting he was "pricked with compunction"? As also Isaiah in the present passage, who says: "O wretched me, for I am pricked with compunction, because, since I am a man and have unclean lips, I dwell also in the midst of a people that has unclean lips". Note also another thing: that the sins of Isaiah were not also in deeds, but only in words; for which reason he says: "because, since I am a man and have unclean lips". But there was also "a people having unclean lips"; it did not befit him to accuse the "people" and to say that there were more sins in it than of "unclean lips".
Isaiah 6:6 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
"And I saw with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth". If ever we have thought about God while we are still sinners, we too say what the prophet now says: "and one of the Seraphim was sent to me". How good is God! Because, He says, I hear Isaiah confessing—for he said: "O wretched me!"—because I hear him repenting—for he says: "I am pricked with compunction"—because he has declared his own offenses, saying: "since I am a man and have unclean lips, I dwell also in the midst of a people having unclean lips", I too, "while he is yet speaking, say: behold, I am present". "And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he had a coal". A "coal" is brought to the prophet, that through the burning of fire his "lips" might be purged, which had at some time sinned. Who is this "one of the Seraphim"? My Lord Jesus Christ: He, according to the dispensation of the flesh, was sent, having in His hand a "coal" and saying: "I came to send fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled!" "And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he had a coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar". Not by just any "fire" simply and by chance is the prophet purged, but by that which is "from the altar" of God. If you have not been purged by the "fire" of the "altar", there remains for you that fire of which it was said: "depart from me into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels". Not such is the "fire" that is "from the altar". All are to be delivered to the "fire", but not all to one "fire": some the "fire" "from the altar" awaits, others "that" which "is prepared for the devil and his angels".
Isaiah 6:7 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:7.2
We read also in Isaiah that the prophet is purified with fire by "one of the seraphim which was sent to him, when he took with a pair of tongs one coal from those which were upon the altar; and he touched the lips of the prophet and said, Behold, I have taken away your iniquities." These appear to me to be mystical and to indicate that the coals are put on the members of each in proportion to his sins, if he is worthy to be purified. For since the prophet says here, "I have unclean lips; also I dwell in the midst of a people who have unclean lips." For this reason, "a coal taken up with a pair of tongs" by the seraphim cleanses his lips.… The cleansing of his lips indicates that Isaiah's sin continually would be found only in words, but he would not have sinned in any act or deed. Otherwise, he would have said since I have an unclean body or I have unclean eyes, if he had sinned in desiring what belongs to something other than his lips. He would have said I have unclean hands, if he had polluted these with unjust deeds. But now since possibly he was aware of his transgression in word alone, about which the Lord says, "Likewise, you will give an account for every useless word on the day of judgment"; because it is difficult even for the perfect to escape the fault of the word, the prophet was likewise in need only of a purification of his lips.
Isaiah 6:7 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 4
Let the reproving word, therefore, touch the "lips" of our mind and soul, that we too may say: "and it touched my mouth". If I shall have cleansed "my mouth", so that I speak nothing idle, nothing foolish, nothing base, nothing scurrilous—to name them all at once—nothing of those things that are forbidden, then I can say: "it touched my mouth". But so long as I "have unclean lips" and carry on unclean affairs, because of the words of sin "the fire from the altar does not touch me", nor "is one of the Seraphim sent to me". "And He said: behold, this has touched your lips, and it has taken away your iniquities, and has purged your sins round about". Let the divine word bite us, let it burn up our souls, and let us say as we hear: "was not our heart burning within us?", that "our iniquities and sins may be taken away", and that, made clean, with clean mouth and clean heart and a whole clean conscience, we may give thanks to almighty God in Christ Jesus, "to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen!"
Isaiah 6:8 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 6
Isaiah, "seeing the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon a lofty and lifted-up throne", and "seeing" also "the Seraphim standing about him", and receiving the remission of sins through that fire which, brought "from the altar", "cleansed" his "lips" by its touch, says that "he heard the voice of the Lord" — not commanding, but rousing and "saying": "whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?" Then he says that "he answered" the Lord: "behold, it is I, send me". But when I take my place here and search into what is written, I find that Moses did one thing and Isaiah another. For Moses, chosen for the leading-out of the people from the land of Egypt, says: "provide another whom you may send", and he seems to contradict God; but Isaiah, not chosen, but "hearing": "whom shall I send, and who will go?", says: "behold, it is I, send me". It is worthwhile, therefore, for one "comparing spiritual things with spiritual" to inquire which of the two did better: Moses, who, after he was chosen, refused, or Isaiah, who, without even being chosen, offered himself to be "sent to the people". For I do not know whether anyone, attending to that contrariety of the affairs which appears in each, can say that Moses did the very same thing as Isaiah. So then I boldly make a comparison of these two holy and blessed men, and I decide and declare that Moses acted more modestly than Isaiah. For Moses was considering the magnitude of presiding over the people so as to lead them out of the land of Egypt, of contending against the "incantations" and sorceries of the Egyptians; on this account he says: "provide another whom you may send". But this man, not waiting to hear what would be enjoined upon him to say — even if he had been chosen — says: "behold, it is I, send me". Hence, because, being ignorant of what would be enjoined upon him, he says: "behold, it is I, send me", he is commanded to say those very things which were unwished-for by the one who was to say them. Or was it not undesirable, having been immediately bidden to prophesy, to begin from curses, saying: "with the ear you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will perceive and not see; for the heart of this people has been thickened" and the rest? Perhaps, then — if indeed it is expedient to say it boldly — he received as the wage of his rashness and boldness that he was commanded to say the very things which he was unwilling to prophesy. But since we have compared Isaiah and Moses, let us set up also another comparison closely akin, Isaiah and Jonah. The latter is sent "to preach" the overthrow of the Ninevites after "three days", and it irks him, unwilling to set out, to be the cause of evils for the city. But this man, not waiting for what would be commanded him to say, says: "behold, it is I, send me". It is good not to leap forward toward those dignities and offices of rule and ministries of the Church which are from God; would that we imitated Moses and said with him: "provide another whom you may send". For he who wishes to be saved comes to the rule of the Church not to lordship — even though he presides — but to servitude, if one must speak also from the Gospel: "the princes of the nations indeed lord it over them, and those who have power over them are called magistrates; but it shall not be so among you". For neither do "the princes lord it over you", but "whoever of you wishes to be greater shall be least of all"; "whoever wishes to be first shall be last of all". He, therefore, who is called to the episcopate is called not to lordship, but to the servitude of the whole Church. If you wish to believe from the scriptures that in the Church he who presides is the servant of all, let the Savior and Lord himself persuade you: such and so great a one became "in the midst of the disciples not as one reclining, but as one serving". For "taking a towel", after "he had laid aside his garments, he girded himself and, pouring water into a basin, began to wash the feet of the discipl…
Isaiah 6:8 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 9
"And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said: behold, here I am; send me. And he said: go and say to this people: with hearing you shall hear and you shall not understand" and the rest. Concerning this discourse of the prophet Isaiah which has now been read, let us pray to God that he may grant us grace and that we may be able to expound things worthy of the prophetic spirit. "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: whom shall I send?" After the prophet's "lips" had been cleansed, being prepared he took up the ministry of God and says: "behold, here I am, send me". But that he might be the more prepared for this, he remembered the voice of Moses. For Moses too, using the same words: "send me", was made "ruler of the people" and judge and was called "the servant of God".
Isaiah 6:9 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 6
But let us look also at those things which the Lord commanded to be "said to the people": "go, and say to the people: with the ear you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will perceive and not see. For the heart of this people has been thickened, and with their ears they have heard heavily and have closed their eyes, lest at any time they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn back, and I heal them". Knowing that the hearing of words is twofold and recognizing a double constitution — that is, one of them bodily, the other spiritual — he says to "the people", prophesying about those things which were to be at the coming of Christ, that there would be a time when "they would hear and not understand" them, seeing that, when "they heard" my Lord Jesus Christ, they "heard" only the voice of the sayings, not the sense. And this is manifest from the fact that "he spoke in parables" "outside" to "the people", but "to the disciples in secret he unfolded" them. And he prophesies what came to pass: "with the ear you will hear and not understand". Further, that this was "prophesied" "to the people" about the coming of the Lord, the Savior himself says: "well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: "with the ear you will hear and not understand"". Let us grant, then, that "the people", listening to the words of the Lord, could not know what was said. But let us see what this is, which follows: "and seeing you will see and not know". Not everyone who "saw" those things which the Savior did was straightway, by "seeing", able to "understand" why they were done. Let us take, for example, "he washed the feet of the disciples", and they indeed "saw" well how the master "washed the feet" of "the disciples"; but others too who were present "saw" — yet only what was being done, not also why it was being done. For there was a likeness in the washing of "the feet" with which the Word of God "washed the feet of the disciples"; therefore the Savior says to Peter, who refused and said: "you shall not wash my feet", what does he say? "What I do you do not know now, but you shall know afterward". What, then, do "you do" now? says Peter; I see you "washing" our "feet", and the "basin" set, you "girded with a towel" and serving us and "wiping" our "feet". But because this was not the whole business — for indeed the Savior, stripped, "pours" spiritual "water into a basin" according to the scriptures and "washes the feet of the disciples", so that, when they have been made "clean", they may ascend to him who says: "I am the way", and not be full of the "dust" which he willed to be "shaken off" upon the unworthy and upon those who did not receive peace nor were worthy of the things which were spoken — and because this was what was signified, therefore he says: "what I do you do not know now, but you shall know afterward". And this was what was said in the rest: "you call me master and Lord, and you say well; for so I am. If then I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet". Does he then say this, that the bishop, "pouring water into a basin and having laid aside his garments and being girded with a towel", should "wash" my "feet" as I stretch them out, seeing that "you", he says, "ought to wash one another's feet"? If this is what is meant, none of us will keep the commandment; for no deacon or presbyter or bishop, "taking a towel", has "washed the feet" of any and all who come. But if you understand what is written, those who are truly blessed bishops, serving the Church, "pour water" from the scriptures into the "basin" of the soul, which is according to the scriptures, and attempt to "wash" and cleanse away and cast off the filth of "the feet of the disciples". And thus the bishops keep the commandment, imitating Jesus, and thus also the presbyters. Would that I too might now receive "water" which could "wash the feet" of your soul, so that each one of you,…
Isaiah 6:9 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 9
Now I heard a certain Hebrew expounding this passage and saying that the prophet indeed willingly and readily took up the prophecy to the people, not knowing what he would have to say to them; but then, hearing the sad things that had to be announced to the people—that is: "with hearing you shall hear and you shall not understand" and the rest—in what follows he becomes more reluctant; and when the voice of God says to him: "cry out", he answers him and says: "what shall I cry?". But I think these things are prophesied concerning the Savior, because it was to come to pass that "hearing they should not hear and seeing they should not see". Moreover, what is said will become plainer if we consider a little the passage: "perceiving you shall look and you shall not see". It is of this kind. The Jews indeed at that time "saw" the blind receiving their sight, but the reason of the sight they did not know; they "heard" the "parables" which the Savior "unfolded to his disciples in secret", but they themselves "did not hear", not knowing the things that were said; on account of this, bearing witness against them, he said: "he who has ears to hear, let him hear!". For they were not deprived of these "ears", so that they "should not hear", but their inner "ears" were dulled for hearing. On account of this he preaches to them and through the prophet foretells the things to come, saying: "with hearing you shall hear and you shall not understand, and perceiving you shall look and you shall not see. For the heart of this people has been made fat".
Isaiah 6:10 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 6
But what is the cause that the one hearing "does not understand and the one seeing does not see"? "The heart of this people", he says, "has been thickened". Since indeed this too must be understood, whence it comes, bodily and spiritual fatness are not the same, nor are bodily and spiritual thinness the same. For that which is bodily thick comes to be in the flesh, and a "fleshly heart" does me no harm if "it be thickened", nor does it profit if by illness or by whatever cause it be made thin. And I suppose that the fleshly "heart" of those who are held by fear becomes such. For as they waste away entirely from sickness, so they say that the thickness too, and whatever is fat about their "heart", is thinned out. What harm, then, does it do me if my bodily "heart" "be thickened"? And suppose too my "heart" be made thin — what profit do I have from that? But by a shared term with the bodily "heart", the ruling part of our soul is named, as is manifest from what is said in the Gospel: "blessed are the clean of heart"; for those are not "clean of heart" who have not within them blood or any bodily matter. But it was said: "blessed are the clean of heart" in the sense of "blessed" are those who have "a clean heart", the ruling part of the soul being named instead of "heart". Since, therefore, the ruling part of our soul, which is said to be in the bodily "heart", is either "clean" or unclean — and our "heart" is unclean indeed when "the worst thoughts go forth from" it, "murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, blasphemies", but "clean" when there are holy thoughts and divine understandings and a pure mind — on this account it must be judged that it is said to be made thin by the "thin" and holy Spirit of him who is saved, but "thickened" by malice and choked in him who sins. For it is said of the "Holy Spirit", who is according to "wisdom", that he is "only-begotten, manifold, thin, mobile", and that the just man receives this "subtle spirit"; for this "spirit" differs from "all intellectual, clean, subtle spirits". The ruling part of the heart, therefore, is "thin" indeed insofar as it is spiritual, but fat insofar as it is concreted from the vice of bodily matter, full of bodily thoughts, which are under reproach. Thus it is said: "the heart of this people has been thickened". Understand: from this "the heart has been thickened", that there is nothing in it besides human and fleshly cares; for just as the matter of the body is fat, in the same way also are bodily understandings and thoughts. Wherefore, since two things are set before us — that the "heart is thickened" from worldly cares and made thin from spiritual solicitude, when one thinks of the things which are the Lord's, casting off the fatness from the "heart" and knowing that, if his "heart be thickened", he will neither receive the words of God nor see the sacrament of salvation — let us lay aside the thickness and take up that thinness which has been spoken of, so that we too may say, as the prophet: "my soul has thirsted for you; how manifoldly does my flesh thirst for you, in a land desert and pathless and waterless, so in the holy place have I appeared to you" — not as though I were "holy" by nature, but if the prudence "of the flesh" wastes away, and if the prudence "of the flesh" has been wasted, then "in the holy place I shall appear to you". These things in explanation of that which was said: "for the heart of this people has been thickened". There follows: "and with their ears they have heard heavily". It does me no harm if I "hear heavily" bodily, nor does this become for me a cause that I should not hear the words of God. For just as bodily blindness does me no harm, if my soul has not been blinded, so neither does lightness nor heaviness of bodily hearing hinder me. But there is a certain heaviness of hearing which harms the soul of man. What is this heaviness which is in the hearing of the soul? Sin, according to the scriptures, is "heavy". On which ac…
Isaiah 6:10 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 9
Let us examine what this means, which is said: "for the heart of this people has been made fat". Everyone who is occupied in the cares of the present life has "a heart made fat"; for those who dwell among worldly things the "heart is made fat" no otherwise than as if they were being choked by thorns. For this reason the "heart" grows fat and cannot receive the notions of the more subtle spirit. Let us therefore flee from such cares, so that our heart, made thin, may become acceptable to God. Let us flee earthly business; for these are the things by which the "heart is made fat". On account of this the discourse of Moses was subtle (as is written of him in Exodus), because he said that whoever, on account of such subtlety, shall be "pure in heart, they shall see God". For by such eyes God is seen. There are three things that are said: "for the heart of this people has been made fat" and "with their ears they have heard heavily" and "they have closed their eyes". But the things said in this passage can also be understood otherwise, more plainly. For many people think, when they look upon the creatures and contemplate this world, that they see them. And why do I speak of people? Behold, the birds and the four-footed beasts see the sun and the moon and the whole heaven together with the choir of stars, but they do not understand their reasons; only the just and holy, comprehending them through the reason of the wisdom of God, look upon them. Therefore in the eighth Psalm David says: "for I shall see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have founded". For does the prophet not now "see the heaven and the moon"? But this, that he says: "I shall see", if we consider it, we shall be able to understand.
Isaiah 7:11-14 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 2
As far as the wording goes, Ahaz acted modestly when he had been commanded to "ask a sign in the depth or in the height"; and he gave a reason why he was unwilling to "ask," for he said: "I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord." And yet for this modesty he is blamed, and it is said to him: "Hear now, O house of David: is it a small thing for you to offer a contest to men, and how do you offer a contest to the Lord?" Then this promise is spoken: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel." Let these things be expounded, and as for the rest we shall look at them as we have need, and in those matters too the grace of God, that they may be made manifest. He is bidden to "ask a sign," not simply, but "for himself"; for the word says: "ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God in the depth or in the height." The "sign" set before him is "the Lord," my Jesus Christ. For this is the "sign" which he is bidden to "ask for himself in the depth or in the height." "In the depth" indeed, because "he who descended is the very same"; but "in the height," because "he who ascended above all the heavens is the very same." Yet to me this "sign" that is set before me, my "Lord" Jesus Christ, "in the depth and in the height," is of no profit, unless the mystery concerning his "depth" and "height" comes to be for me. For when I have received the mystery concerning Christ Jesus, concerning his "depth" and "height," then I shall receive the "sign" according to the commandment of the Lord, and it will be said to me, as to one having in himself "the depth and the height": "Say not in your heart: who shall ascend into heaven? — that is, to bring Christ down. Or who shall descend into the abyss? — that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. The word is near you, mighty in your mouth and in your heart." Therefore it is enjoined upon us all that we "ask" this "sign" for ourselves, that the "sign" which "the Lord God gives in the depth and in the height" may become useful to us. But if there is anyone who knows how to use reasonable contemplation, let him recognize this, that what is said, "in the depth and in the height," is not said disjunctively; for it signifies this, that he is able to be both. "Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord in the depth and in the height." And in the promise too the Apostle said: "that we may know what is the depth and the height and the breadth and the length." "And Ahaz says: I will not ask." He was unbelieving; for it was said: "ask for yourself." But the people even to this day does not "ask a sign," and therefore does not have him, and the people "offers a contest to the Lord" — the people that does not receive my Lord Jesus Christ. Then another question follows. For when this man says: "I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord," and reckons it to be a temptation if he "should ask a sign," it is said: "Hear now, O house of David: is it a small thing for you to offer a contest to men, and how do you offer a contest to the Lord?" But he does not "offer a contest to the Lord," nor do I think that he "offers a contest" even "to men," the one who "asks a sign in the depth or in the height." For the "contest" is God's, namely how he may save man. Therefore he does not "offer a contest to the Lord" who "takes refuge in salvation"; but he who, while the Lord contends to save man, flees from salvation and withdraws far from the Lord, "offers a contest to the Lord." "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel." The true text of the copies of this prophet says: "you shall call." Moreover in Matthew we know it is read: "and they shall call his name Emmanuel." We cannot say that we ought to make anything less of the prophet. But how does the Gospel have this reading? Whether it was by someone who did not understand and ran…
Isaiah 7:15 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 2
"Butter and honey shall he eat." How is it prophesied that Christ "shall eat butter and honey"? And even if this be expounded by the Lord's bestowing it, again the things that follow will press upon us other questions. And would that we all did that which is written: "Search the scriptures." Many things drawn from bodily foods are named in the scriptures for spiritual nourishment. "As newborn babes, desire the reasonable milk that is without guile." Therefore there is without doubt a "reasonable milk," and we ought to seek such "milk." Again, in Proverbs it is written concerning "honey": "finding honey, eat what is enough, lest perchance being full you vomit it up." And did the Holy Spirit take care about that "honey" which is commonly known, "lest perchance" we "eat" too much? But the Holy Spirit, surely knowing spiritual "honey," says: "finding honey, eat what is enough." But with what understanding did the Holy Spirit enjoin upon us that, "if we have found honey" — since "honey" is indeed findable — "we should eat what is enough"? "Go," he says, "to the bee and learn how she is a worker." And the prophets are found to be "bees," for they fashion wax and make "honey," and, if it is fitting for me to venture to say it, their "honeycombs" are the scriptures which they have left behind. And if you are willing, come to the scriptures and you will find "honey." But also: "eat honey," and again in Proverbs it is said: "for a honeycomb is good, that your throat may be sweetened." Do you suppose the Holy Spirit says this — "eat honey" — of that which is in common use, "for it is good"? I do not dare to say that the Holy Spirit enjoins upon me concerning bodily "honey": "eat honey." Behold, I do not have it, or else I am of such a nature that I cannot "eat honey"; by what reasoning does he say to me: "eat honey," and do not "eat" flesh, but "eat, my son, honey, for it is good"? If you see that the prophets are "bees" and their work "honey" or "honeycombs," then you will see how, in a manner worthy of the Holy Spirit, you may understand "eat, my son, honey, for it is good." If anyone meditates on the divine oracles and is nourished by the words of the scriptures, he fulfills the command that bids: "eat, my son, honey," and, doing what is commanded, he takes possession of the word that follows: "for it is good," because "good" is this "honey" which is found in the scriptures. And what is said, "go to the bee," is of this kind. There is, so to speak, a certain "bee" above the bees; and just as among bees there is a certain king who is named to be king, so the prince of the bees is my Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the Holy Spirit sends me, that "I may eat honey, for it is good, and his honeycombs, that my throat may be sweetened." And perhaps the finer letters will be "honeycombs"; but the "honey" is the understanding that is in them. This one, moreover, who is born of the "virgin, Emmanuel, eats butter and honey" and seeks from each one of us "to eat butter." How he seeks "butter" and "honey" from each of us, the word will teach. Our sweet works, our words most pleasant and useful, are "honey" which "Emmanuel eats," which this one "eats" who was born of the "virgin." But if our words are full of bitterness — anger, animosity, sadness, filthy speech, vices, contention — they have put gall in my mouth, and the Savior does not "eat" of these words. But the Savior "will eat" of the words that are among men, if their words are "honey." Let us confirm this from the scriptures. "Behold, I have stood before the door and I knock; if anyone opens the door to me, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me." Therefore he himself promises that he "will sup with us" from our own things. And it is certain that we too "sup with" him, if we "sup upon him." For "eating" of our good words, works, and understanding, he feeds us again with his own spiritual and divine and better foods. Therefore, since it is a blessed thing to receive the Savior, l…
Isaiah 8:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:1.5
And what the same prophet said has been fulfilled. "God is with us. Know this, O nations, and be conquered." For we who are from the nations have been conquered and overcome. And we who bend our necks beneath his grace stand forth as a kind of spoils of his victory.
Isaiah 8:18 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 7
"Give a wise man an occasion, and he will be the wiser," said the divine saying. Taking, then, our "occasion" from the most sacred Apostles for the understanding of the prophetic words, let us pray to God that we may receive wisdom and be able to become "the wiser" through the "occasion" of the Apostles for expounding the prophets. The Apostle, recalling this saying, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me," then goes on and expounds: "Since therefore the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs, that through death he might destroy him who had the dominion of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were, throughout their whole life, subject to the guilt of bondage." Therefore, "since the children were made partakers of blood and flesh," our Savior too "shared in blood and flesh." For it was foreign to his nature and his divinity to take up "blood and flesh"; but for our sake he took up those things which were foreign to him, that he might make us his own household, who had been made foreign through sin. And the Apostle indeed expounded it thus, saying: "Since therefore the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs"; but I would say that, just as "since the children shared in blood and flesh, he too became near to them, being made a partaker of theirs," so, since the "children" cannot hear the stronger discourses — for they must, as "children," hear the words of God — for this reason, having been "made present" in the "blood of the children" for the sake of those who "shared in flesh and blood," speaking "as to little ones," he speaks not divine and unutterable things, but only such things as "little ones" can grasp. And "little ones" are all men, if you compare them to the perfection of the Word; you may name Moses, you may name one of the prophets, you may name John, than whom "there was none greater among those born of women," you may come to the Apostles, to Peter, against whom "the gates of hell shall not prevail," or to Paul, who "was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words" — you do not lower their glory by saying that they too, in the things they understood, in comparison with the things they did not understand, were trained in the disciplines of "little ones," which are handed down to men. The Savior therefore speaks not of those whom Paul calls "little ones" in Christ and declares must be "given milk to drink" and not "solid food," but of all men together: "Behold, I and my little ones, whom God has given me." But just as among "children" some are more eager than others and more quickly attain the things handed down to them, so, I say, Moses and the prophets, and also the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, were made like gifted "children." Therefore, being aware of themselves — that, even if they made progress, they made the progress of "children" — they said: "We know in part and we prophesy in part." For they did not yet behold the realities of truth, but the shadows of the realities, nor the full light, but a dim image; and so they repeated, saying: "For now we see through a glass and in a riddle, but then face to face." Who then, reading and understanding these things, will be puffed up and exalt himself over his knowledge, or over any of the gifts? For since the things which have come to "children" are far inferior to those which are reserved for grown men, those who seem among the "children" to be of keener and quicker wit ought not to be lifted up and grow proud. And these "children" he calls all men, whom the Savior also pointed out, saying: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." The Savior too received a gift from God; for "no one comes to" him, "unless he who sent" him "has drawn" the one coming to the Savior, as we have learned in the Gospel which is according to John. And because he received from the Father, as a gift, those who…
Isaiah 8:19 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 7
"And if they say to you: seek out ventriloquists and those who cry out from the earth, who speak empty things, who cry out from the belly — does not a nation seek to its own God? Why do they seek the dead among the living?" Attend, for these things are spoken obscurely, and the meaning must, by God himself granting and revealing it, cohere with what went before. He teaches us therefore not to be disciples of any discourses save the heavenly and the good. For there are certain men "who speak" and who promise true teaching, who "speak" not heavenly but earthly things. "He who is of the earth speaks of the earth; he who comes from heaven is above all; what he has seen and heard, that he testifies." If anyone, he says, to the "children" who believe in me "shall say: seek out ventriloquists and those who cry out from the earth, who speak empty things, who cry out from the belly" — as if to say "seek out" demons (for from the single kind of the "ventriloquist" demon he named, τροπικῶς [figuratively], all demons) — "if they say to you: seek out ventriloquists," that is, "seek" from demons either divination or truth or sacred contemplation, answer them these things which I say. What are the things he teaches them? He says in what follows. And there are certain men who send you — and rather the catechumens, so far as in them lies — to the "ventriloquists." For those who wish you to go to idols, of which it is written "all the gods of the nations are demons," wish you to go not only to "ventriloquists" but to every kind of demon. Yet may "our God, who does what he wills in heaven and on earth," tear us away from demons and make us his own household through our Savior Jesus Christ. See, then, lest at any time the soul of one of you be deceived and still waver and doubt, when it hears that such and such a man in that idol had a demon cure that ailment, or that it divined this thing and that; all these are idols of demons and of men not knowing the truth. Ascend in mind to him who is the "creator of all," and compare this true piety with every piety that is announced to be piety and is not piety, and see that you are blessed. For "who is like you, O people saved by the Lord?" And "blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord its God, the people whom he has chosen for his inheritance." For the nation of the Jews was once a "blessed nation," but it lost its blessedness and was cast out from its place, because him who was sent and had the testimony of the Father — not only through the law and the prophets, but also through "signs and wonders" — it plotted against and slew. The blessedness therefore has passed over to us, the disciples of Jesus Christ, and we believe in him, living unshaken and steadfastly according to that which we have been taught.
Isaiah 8:20 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 7
O you, who could not be persuaded to "seek" those things from the "ventriloquists" and "from those who cry out from the earth" empty discourses — attend to the word of truth and the "law," receiving it "for a help to your law." In your "law" it is written: "you shall not" follow "idols"; acting according to the "law," do not attend to "ventriloquists," nor to "those who cry out from the earth." "For he gave the law for a help, that they may say: not like this word, for which no gifts are to be given." For he who has taken up the "law" and has come to know that "the law is for a help" and above all "spiritual" — the law which forbids "ventriloquists" and auguries — he, when he has understood the "law," ought in wonder to say that there is no word in the world, among Greeks or Barbarians, such as is the word of the "law"; for from every word, from all teaching which promises truth, the "law" differs — the law which was given to us by God. "For he gave the law for a help, that they may say: not like this word." What is it that "is not like this word"? There are many words, but "not like this word." For there is no word after the "word" of Moses, after the "word" of the prophets, and much more after the "word" of Jesus Christ and his Apostles. See whether the mind of God has not "cried out" in what has been said: "For he gave the law for a help, that they may say" — those who have received the "law for a help" — "it is not like this word," such as Moses spoke in "the law enacted through angels in the hand of a mediator." But far more worthily can the Church say this: "It is not like this word," which "was made flesh," which "dwelt among us," whose "glory we beheld," not veiled "as Moses" was with a veil, but "glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." "It is not like this word," which the Church has received, in which it believes, "through which also it shall be saved," the "word" which "in the beginning was with God, God," the "word" "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Isaiah 9:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:134
Now the expression darkness will likewise be used to refer to two corresponding concepts. The statement "And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night" is an example of the more common meaning. An example of the spiritual meaning occurs in the statement "The people who sat in darkness … and in the shadow of death, light has dawned on them."
Isaiah 10:10-11 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 8
Long ago, indeed, when the former people sinned, Judah fell away from religion and fashioned "graven images in Jerusalem," and he who was called Israel did so "in Samaria". But if now too someone should consider, out of the multitude of those sinners who are gathered together, he will not be reluctant to say that each one who makes for himself a god — whatever he reckons to be good — and serves sin, is accursed, making a "graven image" and casting a work of the craftsman's hands and setting it up in secret; for in the secret place of the heart we make many idols, if we sin. Hence the word teaches us to do penance and to "wail over the graven images" and idols that are "in Jerusalem and Samaria". And if indeed we sin, we who desire to be of the Church, we make "graven images in Jerusalem"; but if those who are established outside the Church — as heretics — sin, they make "idols in Samaria". Nevertheless God, according to his goodness, calls all to penance, saying: "Wail, you graven images in Jerusalem and in Samaria; for just as I did to Samaria and to the works of its hands, so will I do also to Jerusalem and to its idols". He threatens that whatever things "he did to the Samaritans" he will do also to those who are of the Church.
Isaiah 10:12 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 8
"But when the Lord has finished doing all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring judgment upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes". We are taught what shall come to be for our enemy the devil, whom the prophecy has now called a certain "great mind". For just as "the serpent was wiser than all the beasts that are upon the earth", and "the sons of this age are wiser than the sons of light in their generation", and "the steward of iniquity acted wisely" according to a wisdom that is not good, in the same way this one, who is figuratively called "the prince of the Assyrians", is a "great mind", and one may marvel at the greatness of his "mind"; which he has misused for the instructing of the wise of this world, who compose the falsehood of their sects with every appearance of truth and with all their power, and put it on display. "When" therefore "God has done all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem" and has rendered those things which have been promised to the just, then "he will bring judgment upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes". The word knows him to be "wise" as to "high things", and that the beginning of his ruin took its start from being puffed up. Hence, if we too have been puffed up, we "fall into the judgment of the devil", "into" which "the devil himself fell".
Isaiah 10:13 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 8
But let us also see how great his self-inflation is, that we may guard against it and not permit him to speak true things over us. What, then, does he say? "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations". He reckons that by his own might he is able to accomplish in us whatever he wishes. And truly, if we are conquered and after these words we sin — if after the Church we go again into the circus and to the horse-races and to the assemblies of the Gentiles — what else happens than that he possesses us as those he has overcome? And what the devil said, "By my strength I will act," comes to pass in us who sin, as he threatened. And also, if we commit fornication after chastity of long duration, after much holiness, what else happens than that he is proved to have spoken true things over us, he who said: "By my strength I will act"? But let us look at what else this boaster promises. "And by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations". He promises some kind of "wisdom" or other — the wisdom of which the prophet also speaks: "there is a certain alien wisdom in them". There is a certain "wisdom estranged" from the truth, which God destroys. Having this, he reckons himself to be "wise" and says: "By the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations, and I will feed upon their strength". For his working has reached to all the "nations", but the Savior, sending his words into all the "nations", rescues those who by the devil were held captive among all the "nations". "And I will feed upon their strength". He threatens that he will go to plunder our "strength" and to hand it over to those who war against us. And truly one may see him doing this to certain people. For when someone is conquered by the devil and handed over to demons, to most wicked spirits, to the opposing powers, what else has happened than that he who had said, "and I will feed upon their strength", has taken our "strength" and "fed upon" us? "And I will shake the cities that are inhabited". This too the devil threatens: he perceives that the "cities" — the churches of God built in Christ the Lord — are "inhabited", and he gives out that he will "shake" these. And frequently indeed he has shaken the "inhabited cities" with persecutions, frequently he has shaken them with scandals. But let us strive, having our "foundation upon the rock", to become such that this one who says, "I will shake the cities that are inhabited", may not be able to "move" us by his storms nor by his adverse spirits, but that we may persevere steadfast against all things that may befall, inasmuch as we have our edifice "upon the rock," Jesus "Christ", "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Isaiah 11:1-2 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 3
On this account a "man" is sought who may be with these "seven" spiritual "women", that he may "take away their reproach". Properly there is "one" "man" who may "take away their reproach". Who is this "man"? Jesus, who "came forth according to the flesh" "from the root of Jesse", "made of the seed of David according to the flesh, predestined the Son of God in power according to the spirit of justification". For "there came forth a rod from the root of Jesse". The "rod" is not "the firstborn of all creation", the "rod" is not "he who in the beginning was with God, God the Word", but "a rod from the root of Jesse", who "was born according to the flesh". "There came forth", therefore, "a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower ascended from his root". What is the "flower" and what is the "root"? For both are one in him who lies beneath; but the difference is one of dealings. For if you are a sinner, there is no "flower" for you, nor will you see the "flower which is from the root of Jesse"; for the "rod" will come even to you, just as the disciple speaks of the "rod" and the "flower". Of the "rod" indeed he says: "what do you wish? shall I come to you with a rod?", but of the "flower": "or in the love of God and the spirit of gentleness?". "There came forth", therefore, "from the root of Jesse a rod" for him who is punished with penalties, a "rod" for him who needs rebuke, a "rod" for him who has need to be reproved; but a "flower" for him who is already instructed and does not need harsh correction, or at least does not need punishments, but is now strong enough to begin to flower toward perfect fruit. For first the "flower" is shown, and then after the "flower" it becomes a "rod" unto fruit. "There came forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower ascended from his root. And the seven women shall rest, the Spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him". For the "spirit of wisdom" did "not rest" in Moses, the "spirit of wisdom" did "not rest" in Joshua son of Nun, the "spirit of wisdom" did "not rest" in each of the prophets, in Isaiah, in Jeremiah. But do not stone me as though I were blaspheming, while I desire to glorify my Lord Jesus Christ; rather, bearing with me, consider what is said, and you will see that in none of them did the "spirit rest", not because it came to none, but because it "rested" in none. It came "upon" Moses, and Moses does not believe after the "spirit of wisdom" that came to him. For he says: "Hear, you rebels: shall I bring forth water for you out of this rock?" It came "upon" all the just, it came also "upon" Isaiah. But what does he say? "Having unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips". The "spirit of wisdom" came after that "tongs" and fire, it came to him "having unclean lips", but it did "not rest". It used him indeed as a minister, but it did "not rest"; it is troubled, to whatever of men it comes. For every man sins, "there is no just man upon the earth who does good and does not sin"; "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life be of one day, but his months are numbered". Therefore it "rests upon" none. We can also prove from the Gospel that the "spirit came upon" many and "did not remain in" them. A little while ago it was read: "my spirit shall not remain in these men forever"; he does not say: it shall not be, but: "it shall not remain". John saw one alone in whom it "remained", and this was the sign: "upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the Son of God". A certain one ministered to the Word of God when the "spirit descended"; a little after he "sins", a little after he speaks an "idle word". But I do not know whether he even remains without sin; do you think that, with the "spirit" present, it is granted to sin? "Upon" none, therefore, did "the Spirit of God rest", according to what is written: "there came forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower ascended from his root,…
Isaiah 13:9-11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 48
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (24, 29—30ᵃ). Since we consider that greater themes here come under discussion than lie within the grasp of human understanding — even of those who have advanced in wisdom far beyond others — let us come and examine the passage: first inquiring into those things which can readily be admitted for an exposition of the Gospel text, as though the Lord Himself were prophesying in it; and afterward we shall look for what the truth of these words may be according to those who judge that there is something deeper and more subtle in the words, keeping to the sequence of the moral traditions in these matters as well, in the same manner as above. Someone, then, will say: just as when great fires begin to be kindled a darkness seems to be raised up out of the abundant smoke, so at the consummation of the world, by the fire which is to be set alight, even the "great lights" shall be darkened, so that, the sun being darkened, and in consequence of the darkening of the sun, the moon too, hindered by the sun from receiving light, is not permitted even to give its own light. And thus of necessity a great darkness must first take hold of the nature of the world. And so, when the light of the stars has thus withered away, the remaining body of them, having become grosser, since it cannot be borne aloft as at first when it was lifted up carried by the light itself, will fall from heaven. And when these things happen, it follows that the rational powers of the heavens, suffering amazement, undergo a certain commotion and are troubled, being, that is, removed from their former functions. So he who understands these things to be thus will add that the sign of the Son of man, in whom "the things that were in the heavens and the things that were on earth" were made heavenly, shall then appear: namely, the power which the Son of man wrought when He was hung upon the tree; and in heaven above all shall His sign shine forth. And men out of all the tribes, who formerly did not believe in the Christianity that was proclaimed but even spoke evil of it, then, recognizing it through that sign made manifest, shall mourn and lament because of their ignorance and their sins, in that they did not receive the word of the Lord. But another will judge otherwise concerning these words, holding that (as these words themselves show) the destruction of the world will not come about by fire, but by its own failing. And he will make use of such an illustration: that just as, when the light of a lamp fails, the light is little by little diminished, so, when the nourishment of the heavenly lights fails, the sun shall be darkened, no longer having the breaths that come to it from them coming upon it. And when the greater light suffers this, all the more will the moon too be unable to display that fiery splendor which appears according to its own phases. When, therefore, these things befall the sun, the light of the stars too will fail, so that what has remained in them, being as it were earthy, falls from heaven, and, these things happening, all the powers of the heavens shall be moved. For just as, in the dispensation of the cross, "when the sun failed, darkness came over all the earth", so also, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, the light of the sun and of the moon shall fail, and yet more that of the stars, as though consumed by the great power of that sign; and when it appears, the tribes that shall then have remained on the earth shall mourn. For these things he will use the illustration of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in this manner: "For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of wrath and fury, to make the circle of the earth a desert and…
Isaiah 14:4 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:43
According to Isaiah, in which lament is offered on behalf of the king of Babylon, much can be learned about the origin and beginning of evil. Evil derived its existence from some who had lost their wings by following the one who was first to lose his own wings.
Isaiah 14:12 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:5
It is most clearly proved by these words that he who formerly was Lucifer and who "arose in the morning" has fallen from heaven. For if, as some suppose, he was a being of darkness, why is he said to have formerly been Lucifer or lightbearer? Or how could he "rise in the morning" who had in him no light at all?… So he was light once … when "his glory was turned into dust."
Isaiah 14:12 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:3.9
How can we possibly suppose that what is said in many places by Scripture, especially in Isaiah, about Nebuchadnezzar is said about a human being? For no human being is said to have "fallen from heaven" or to have been "Lucifer" or the one who "arose every morning."
Isaiah 19:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 50
Consider also, in the vision of Egypt, Isaiah saying: "behold the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and he will come into Egypt", whether he means this Egypt which is commonly understood, or the whole world. For according to John himself, the place "in which their Lord was crucified" "is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt", whether the whole world or Judea is called Sodom and Egypt. But he who upon a light cloud will come into Egypt, will first make his ascent into Judea (for it is according to reason that, when he comes again, it should first happen there). But it is called "Sodom" "where their Lord was crucified", just as also once it was said to that people and their princes: "hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom; attend to the law of God, people of Gomorrah".
Isaiah 26:18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 43
That there are also some souls that conceive offspring, the prophet made clear when he said: "from fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation which you made upon the earth". For just as in those who are pregnant the seed is formed and shaped, so also in the soul that receives the word, the conception of the word is gradually formed and shaped within it. And this I think is what Paul says to the Galatians: "my children, whom I again bring forth in travail until Christ be formed in you", which is as though he were to say: until the word be formed and made manifest in you. In the epistle to Timothy he says likewise that a woman shall be saved "through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". But who is this woman, if not the soul that conceives the word of God and of truth, and gives birth to good works like to Christ? But it is irrational to suppose that what he says was said of a bodily bearing: "the woman, being seduced, fell into transgression; but she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". Therefore the souls that have newly received the word and, being still established as pregnant, have not yet borne fruit in it, having it intelligibly in the womb, cannot endure the discourse that stands "in the holy place" opposing the truth, nor stand firm so as not to be seduced by its persuasions.
Isaiah 26:20 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.3
He builds, therefore, the ark and makes in it nests, that is, certain storerooms, in which animals of diverse kinds may be received. Of which the prophet also says: "Go, my people, enter into your storerooms, hide yourself for a little while, until the fury of my wrath passes by." This people, then, which is saved in the Church, is compared to all those, whether men or animals, which were saved in the ark.
Isaiah 27:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 141
And there were many women there, watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee (27, 55. 56). They report that Isaiah prophesied concerning these women when he said: Women coming to the spectacle, come; for it is not a people having wisdom. For he calls women those who had been from afar and from afar were watching Jesus; he calls them to the word, that they may indeed forsake the senseless and forsaken people and come to the new covenant. And I judge those women to be blessed who are built up unto blessedness by the spectacle of the word and by the death of the body of Jesus; for everything that is in Christ, if it be truly seen, makes the beholder blessed. Therefore they look upon the mortification of the body of Jesus and the manner in which he commended "his spirit" to the Father by his prayers. These first followed him from Galilee, and — that I may say it boldly (using the authority of the Scripture that teaches it) — they followed him from Galilee "of the Gentiles", not from a straight nor a firm one, but from one having a certain circuit (for this is what Galilee is understood to mean, that is, ROLLING or WHIRLING); and leaving this, they followed Jesus, not idly, but doing the things that were commanded by him, and they delighted him; for they followed him ministering. And every soul that shares in some distribution of graces and in the Lord himself ministers to Jesus a ministry like the ministries of the angels, concerning whom it is written that "the angels, approaching, ministered to him". Many therefore were watching Jesus then, but the chief ones are named, as being those who watched more attentively and ministered more fully and followed better: Mary Magdalene, more fitting to the interpretation of the name of her homeland, which is called Magdala (and that place is interpreted MAGNIFICATION). And this Mary Magdalene was of magnification for no other reason than that she had followed Jesus and had ministered to him and had watched the mystery of his passion. And among the chief ones there was also Mary the mother of James and Joseph, or (as Mark says) "the mother of James the less and of Joseph", according to the name of the patriarch Jacob, the SUPPLANTER of his brother, and of Joseph, over whom, when he was born, his mother said: "may the Lord add to me another son". This one too, therefore, following the Lord and ministering and watching the dispensation of his passion, was so because she had been the mother of some faithful person — not of anyone great (such as the patriarch Jacob had been), but of a lesser one, and of another Joseph. And among the women there was also the mother of the sons of Zebedee, perhaps some woman established in the ministry of THUNDER on account of her faith and holy life, and because she followed the Lord and ministered to him and had been a beholder of all the things that had been done concerning him, for the sons of Zebedee were called "SONS OF THUNDER". For his sons were John and James: therefore John heard the words of the seven thunders, which, as being more eminent than all Scripture, he received a command not to write. But if it is proper also to conjecture and to state the name of the mother of the sons of Zebedee, I say that this very woman had been called Salome, which means PEACEABLE. And I have conjectured this seeing that in Matthew and Mark three chief women are named, concerning whom the present discourse is held; and the present evangelist sets forth that two of them are "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James", but that the third is called the mother of the sons of Zebedee; whereas in Mark that third one is called "Salome". And according to Mark, those who had followed Jesus from Galilee "went up to Jerusalem" with Christ. For this is the end of those who forsake the Galilee "of the Gentiles" and follow Jesus, th…
Isaiah 28:16 — FRAGMENTS FROM THE PHILOCALIA 10:1
If at any time in reading the Scripture you stumble at something which is a fair stone of stumbling, and rock of offence, blame yourself; for you must not despair of finding in this stone of stumbling and rock of offence thoughts to justify the saying, "He that believeth shall not be ashamed." First believe, and thou shalt find beneath what is deemed a stumbling-stone much gain in godliness. For if we really received a commandment to speak no idle word, because we shall give account of it in the day of judgment; and if we must with all our might endeavour to make every word proceeding out of our mouths a working word both in ourselves who speak and in those who hear, must we not conclude that every word spoken through the Prophets was fit for work? and it is no wonder if every word spoken by the Prophets had a work adapted to it. Nay, I suppose that every letter, no matter how strange, which is written in the oracles of God, does its work. And there is not one jot or tittle written in the Scripture, which, when men know how to extract the virtue does not work its own work.
Isaiah 29:8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10
And those who sleep are those who, when they ought to be taking heed and watching with the soul, are not doing this. But by reason of great want of attention they are nodding in resolution and are drowsy in their reflections, such as "in their dreaming defile the flesh, and set at nothing that which is highest in authority, and rail at dignities." And these, because they are asleep, live in an atmosphere of vain and dreamlike fancies concerning realities. [They do not admit] the things that are actually true, but [they are] deceived by what appears in their vain imaginations. In regard to [them] it is said in Isaiah, "Like as when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but when he has risen up is still thirsty, and his soul has cherished a vain hope, so shall be the wealth of all the nations, as many as have warred in Jerusalem."
Isaiah 29:11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
And plainly, if we hear negligently, if we bring no zeal to erudition and understanding, not only the Scripture of the law and the prophets, but even that of the Apostles and the Gospels is covered from us with a great veil. But I fear lest, through excessive negligence and dullness of heart, the divine volumes be for us not only veiled but even sealed, so that, "if a book to be read is given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, he says: I do not know letters; if it is given into the hands of a man who knows letters, he says: it is sealed." Whence it is shown that we must not only apply zeal to learning the sacred letters, but must also entreat the Lord and "day and night" beseech him, that the Lamb "from the tribe of Judah" may come and himself, taking the "sealed book," may deign to open it. For he it is who, "opening the Scriptures," kindled the hearts of the disciples, so that they said: "was not our heart burning within us, when he opened to us the Scriptures?"
Isaiah 30:6 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 37
It is written in Isaiah: "the vision of the quadrupeds in tribulation and distress", and the rest, up to the place where he says: "the riches of the asps will not profit them". Let each one of us consider how great wealth of asps he has borne before this, how great riches of beasts, and how a rational man never sat upon our donkey — not the word of Moses, not of Isaiah, not of Jeremiah, nor of all the rest of the prophets — and he will see that the word of God and reason then sat upon us, when the Lord Jesus came and commanded his disciples that, going, they should untie "the colt of a donkey", which before had been tied up, so that it might walk free.
Isaiah 35:6 — AGAINST CELSUS 2:48
That [Jesus] healed the lame and the blind, and that therefore we hold him to be the Christ and the Son of God, is manifest to us from what is contained in the prophecies: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened."
Isaiah 40:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:103
Now the way of the Lord is made straight in two ways: by contemplation, which is clarified by truth unmixed with falsehood, and by activity, which follows sound contemplation of the appropriate action to be taken, which is conformed to the correct sense of these things to be done.
Isaiah 40:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 21
But this very thing, which is now set down from the old instrument, we read written in the prophet Isaiah. For there it is said: "The voice of one crying in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight". The Lord wishes to find ways in you—he who, that he may be able to enter into your souls and make his journey, prepare for him the path of which it is said: "make his paths straight". "The voice of one crying in the desert". "The voice" cries: "prepare the way"; for first "the voice" reaches the ears, then after the voice—rather, together with the voice—the word penetrates the hearing. According to this sense Christ was announced by John. Let us see, therefore, what "the voice" announces concerning the word. "Prepare", it says, "the way for the Lord". What "way for the Lord" are we to prepare? Surely not a bodily one? Or can the word of God travel by such a road? Or is the way to be prepared for the Lord within, and straight and even paths to be laid out in our heart? This is the way by which the word of God enters, which consists in the capacity of the human heart. Great is the heart of man, and spacious and capacious, if only it be clean. Do you wish to know its greatness and breadth? See how great a magnitude of divine perceptions it can contain. It itself says: "he gave me true knowledge of the things that are: to know the constitution of the world and the operations of the elements, the beginning and the end and the middle of the ages, the changes of the seasons and the transitions of the months, the circuits of the years and the positions of the stars, the natures of living creatures and the ragings of beasts, the violences of spirits and the thoughts of men, the diversities of trees and the power of roots". You see that the heart of man is not small, which can contain so much. And understand its greatness not in the quantity of the body, but in the strength of perception, which can contain so great a knowledge of the truth. But that I may also lead the simpler folk by everyday examples to believe that the heart of man is great, let us look at what follows. Whatever cities we have passed through, we have them in our mind, and the qualities and situations of the streets and the walls and the buildings are turning over in our heart. The road that we have entered upon we retain in the picture and description of memory; the sea that we have sailed we embrace in silent thought. It is no small thing, as I have said, the heart of man, which can contain so much. But if it is no small thing, containing so much, consequently in it the way of the Lord is prepared and a straight path is made, so that the word of God and wisdom may walk in it. Prepare the way for the Lord through good conduct, and by outstanding works wear smooth the path, so that the word of God may walk in you without any stumbling and may grant you the knowledge of his mysteries and of his coming: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Isaiah 40:6 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11:3
And [Christ] commanded all the multitudes to sit down on the grass because of what is said in Isaiah, "All flesh is grass." That is to say, he commanded them to subjugate the flesh and to keep in subjection "the mind of the flesh," so that one might be able to partake of the loaves that Jesus blesses.
Isaiah 40:15 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
For it was fitting that (since all the nations are reckoned as a droplet of the bucket) he who for the salvation of all became all things should become also a droplet, to set them free. For what did he not become for our salvation? We are empty; and he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. We are a foolish people and not wise; and he became the foolishness of preaching, that the foolishness of God might be made wiser than men. We are weak; the weakness of God was made stronger than men.
Isaiah 40:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:274
In many places in scripture is the phrase "Lift up your eyes" set forth by the divine word, urging us to elevate and raise our thoughts and our vision, which is cast down and stooped, unable to fully look up and to rise on high; just as in Isaiah: "Lift up your eyes on high and see: who has created these things?" And the Savior, when about to proclaim the Beatitudes to those gathered on the plain, lifted up his eyes to his disciples and said, "Blessed are they" and so forth; for no true disciple of Jesus is below, just as neither is the one resting in Abraham's bosom. Thus the rich man, being in torments, lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom. Moreover, the woman "bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself" was straightened by Jesus so that she might lift up her eyes. And no one involuntarily afflicted or attached to the flesh or immersed in material things has kept the commandment that says, "Lift up your eyes," whence such a one shall not see the fields even if they are "already white to harvest." Yet again, no one working the deeds of the flesh has lifted up their eyes.
Isaiah 41:2 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 5
The prophet declares that "righteousness" is a living thing and alive, and we used to think that it had been said by the Apostle alone that Christ is "righteousness and sanctification and redemption and wisdom". But perhaps the Apostle too, instructed by the prophets, knew "righteousness" to be a living being and alive. What is this "righteousness"? "The only-begotten God". But that it did not originate with the Apostle that Christ is "righteousness", and a living and subsisting "righteousness", but rather that, finding it in the prophetic words, he set forth this mystery for us, is certain from the chapter at which our reading has now come to rest. For it says: "Who made righteousness rise up from the east, and called it to his feet?". He "called" "righteousness"; it is plain that it is a living being, if it walks when "called". And the Father "called" Christ, because for our salvation he had made his way to us and had "come down from heaven" to us: "for no one has ascended into heaven except him who came down from heaven, the Son of man". He "called" him "from the east", not from this sensible east, but "from the east" of the true light. Wherefore it is written: "Who made righteousness rise up from the east, and called it to his feet?". The Father "called" the Son — or rather, to speak truly, God called man — he "called righteousness to his feet", that is, the incarnation of his Son. Therefore also "we adore the footstool of his feet", according to what is written: "Adore the footstool of his feet, for it is holy", since indeed the flesh of the Lord takes on the honor of the Godhead. But because the beginning of the reading requires a loftier exposition, let us pray to the highest King, that the word, which had gone away "called", may return to us again, and let us set forth a few things according to our ability.
Isaiah 42:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:3.4
It says, "He who gives spirit to the people who are on the earth, and spirit to them who walk on it." For undoubtedly every one who walks on the earth, that is, every earthly and corporeal being, is a partaker of the Holy Spirit that he receives from God.
Isaiah 42:10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
These indeed try to pursue, but you go down into the water and come out unharmed, and, the filth of your sins being washed away, you ascend "a new man" ready "to sing a new song." But the Egyptians, pursuing after you, are drowned in the abyss, even though they seem to beg Jesus not to send them meanwhile into the abyss.
Isaiah 42:18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11:18
Now the blind see when they see the world, and from the exceedingly great beauty of things that have been created they contemplate the Creator corresponding in greatness and beauty to them. And when they see clearly "the invisible things of God from the creation of the world, which are perceived through the things that are made," [then] they see and understand with attentiveness and clarity.
Isaiah 42:18 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
And since the keenness of the inner hearing is in our power, the prophet says: "Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is so deaf as My servants, and who is so blind as those who rule over them?" Even the servants of God are blinded.
Isaiah 43:2 — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.9
There is a way to the tree of life, so that it may come to pass: "If you pass through fire, the flame shall not burn you." What fire? "He stationed the Cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way of the tree of life." So for this reason the blessed ones waited there, carrying out a dispensation and not being able to come where the tree of life is, where the paradise of God is, where God is husbandman, where the blessed and chosen and holy ones of God are.
Isaiah 43:10 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
What then do the divine Scriptures intend to say, for example, here: "Before Me there was no God, and after Me there shall be none," and "I am, and there is no God besides Me"? Do not suppose that in these utterances the unity is applied to the God of the universe … apart from Christ, and, of course, not to Christ alone apart from God. But let us speak of this as Jesus Himself taught: "I and the Father are one."
Isaiah 43:25 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 3:4.5
For now the devil urges us to sin and also accuses us when we do sin. If, therefore, in this life we anticipate him and are ourselves our own accusers, we escape the wickedness of the devil, our enemy and our accuser.… Does he [the prophet] not evidently show the mystery that we are dealing with when he says, "you speak first" to show you that you ought to anticipate him who was prepared to accuse you?
Isaiah 44:22 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.4
And thus, through each and every kind of malice, as though by diverse colors gathered together, you paint upon yourself this "image of the earthly," which God did not make in you. Therefore he is to be entreated by us who says through the prophet: "Behold, I blot out your iniquities as a cloud, and your sins as a mist." And when he has blotted out in you all those colors which were taken from the dyes of malice, then there shines forth again in you that image which was created by God. You see, then, how the divine scriptures introduce forms and figures by which the soul may be taught unto the acknowledgment or the cleansing of itself.
Isaiah 45:3 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:3.11
The higher and profounder spiritual meaning is the "hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge," which the Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah calls "dark and unseen and concealed treasures." These treasures require for their discovery the help of God, who alone is able to "break in pieces the gates of brass" by which they are shut in and concealed and to burst the iron bolts and bars that prevent us from entering in and reaching all those truths written in veiled language in Genesis concerning the various races of souls and the seeds and generations named there, whether closely akin to Israel or widely separated from his posterity.
Isaiah 45:7 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:56
In the same way also we explain the expressions, "I, who make peace and create evil"; for he calls into existence "corporeal" or "external" evils, while purifying and training those who would not be disciplined by the word and sound doctrine. This, then, is our answer to the question, "How is it that God created evil?"
Isaiah 46:12 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The inner man possesses a heart. "Listen to Me, you who have lost heart!" Those to whom the prophet is speaking have a heart by the flesh: it cannot be lost. But when a man is careless about the cultivation of his intellectual being, then, on account of much idleness, the faculty of thought evaporates from him, he loses his heart, and it is precisely of such people that it is said: "Listen to Me, you who have lost heart!"
Isaiah 47:15 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:5.3
And when God afflicts those who deserve punishment, how else is it intended except for their good? It is he who says to the Chaldaeans, "You have coals of fire; sit on them. They shall be a help to you." Further, let them hear what is related in the seventy-seventh psalm, which is ascribed to Asaph, about those who fell in the desert. It says, "When he slew them, then they sought him." It does not say that some sought him after others had been killed but that those who were slain perished in such a manner that when put to death they sought God. From all these illustrations it is plain that the just and good God of the Law and the Gospels is one and the same and that he does good with justice and punishes in kindness, since neither goodness without justice nor justice without goodness can describe the dignity of the divine nature.
Isaiah 48:9 — AGAINST CELSUS 5:15
But we say that God brings fire on the world, not like a cook [pace Celsus] but like a God who is the benefactor of those who stand in need of the discipline of force. This is confirmed by the prophet Isaiah.… Now the Scripture is appropriately adapted to the multitudes of those who are to peruse it, because it speaks obscurely of things that are sad and gloomy, in order to terrify those who cannot by any other means be saved from the flood of their sins, although even then the attentive reader will clearly discover the end that is to be accomplished by these sad and painful punishments on those who endure them. It is sufficient, however, for the present to quote the words of Isaiah: "For my name's sake will I delay my anger, and my glory I will bring on you, that I may not destroy you."
Isaiah 48:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:79.81
According to Isaiah the Lord has sent Christ and his Spirit.… It is also possible there to allege of the Spirit that sent the Christ that he does not excel him in nature but that the Savior was made to seek greater lowliness because of the plan of the incarnation.
Isaiah 48:16 — AGAINST CELSUS 1:46
Did the Father and the Holy Spirit send Jesus, or did the Father send both Christ and the Spirit? The latter is correct. For, because the Savior was sent, afterwards the Holy Spirit was sent also, that the prediction of the prophet might be fulfilled.
Isaiah 49:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
Therefore, if anyone can with a capacious mind conceive and consider the beauty and comeliness of all these things which were created in Him, being struck by the very loveliness of things and pierced by the magnificence of their splendor as by a chosen arrow, as the prophet says, he will receive from Him a saving wound, and will burn with the blessed fire of His love.
Isaiah 49:8 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 42
God says through the prophet, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." What other time, then, is more acceptable than when for piety toward God in Christ we are led under guard in procession before the world, celebrating a triumph rather than being led in triumph? For the martyrs in Christ disarm the principalities and powers with him, and they share his triumph as fellows of his sufferings, becoming in this way also fellows of the courageous deeds wrought in his sufferings. These deeds include triumphing over principalities and powers, which in a short time you will see conquered and put to shame. What other day is so much a day of salvation as the one when we gain such deliverance from them?
Isaiah 50:1 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
But hear what the prophet says: "By your sins you were sold, and for your iniquities I dismissed your mother." You see, then, that we are indeed all the creature of God, but each one is sold by his own sins and for his own iniquities departs from his own creator. We are, therefore, God's, according as we were created by him; but we became slaves of the devil, according as we were sold by our sins. But Christ, coming, "redeemed us," while we were serving that lord to whom we had sold our very selves by sinning. And so he seems to have received back as his own those whom he had created, but to have acquired as aliens those who by sinning had sought for themselves an alien lord.
Isaiah 50:2-6 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 113
They were ignorant of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied these very same things concerning him, and said in the person of the Lord and Savior himself: "what, that I came, and there was no man? I called, and there was none who would obey? Is my hand not able to rescue? Or can I not deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert. And their fish shall be dried up because they have no water, and shall die of thirst. And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering like sackcloth. The Lord gives me the tongue of instruction, that I may know how it behooves me to speak the word; he set me in the morning, he applied to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord shall open my ears; but I am not unbelieving, nor do I contradict. I offered my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the palms of hands, but I did not turn away my face from the confusion of spittings, and the Lord God became my helper". For all who are of the Church confess him to be Christ who says: "the Lord, the Lord gave me the tongue of instruction" and the rest which I have expounded. But I have fittingly expounded also those things which above were joined to these, wishing to show that this was prophesied concerning that glorious one, that he should be spat upon and buffeted. For to what other does it fit to say: "I came", except to Christ who came into the world? Or whom did it befit to say: "I called, and there was none who would obey", except him who came to call the people of the Jews and was not heard, and therefore did not rescue the people nor deliver it, but forsook it? And it is Christ who says: "behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert", who is to bring about the consummation of the world. For it is he who will clothe the heaven with "darkness" and clothe it "as with sackcloth", and, receiving from the Father the "tongue of instruction", knew how "it behooved him to speak the word" which God had entrusted to him; and "he applied to him an ear", that he might hear more than all who hear, and the "instruction" of the Father opened his ear, because he was not unbelieving to the Father who sent him nor contradicting, and by the very deed he taught those desiring to learn meekness and praiseworthy humility. And there was a work in this, that he taught these things by deeds, offering his "back to the scourges and his cheeks to the palms of hands" and not turning away his face "from the confusion of spittings", so that us (as I judge), who had all been worthy to suffer these disgraces, he himself might rescue by suffering them for us. For he did "not die for us", that we might not die, but that we might not die for ourselves; and he was struck with blows for us and was spat upon, so that we, who had been worthy of all these things on account of our sins, might not suffer them, but that, suffering them for righteousness, we might receive them gladly.
Isaiah 50:11 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:10.4
If then this is the character of the body that rises from the dead, let us now see what is the meaning of the threatened "eternal fire." Now we find in the prophet Isaiah that the fire by which each person is punished is described as belonging to himself. For it says, "Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled for yourselves." These words seem to indicate that every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire and is not plunged into a fire that has been previously kindled by someone else or that existed before him.
Isaiah 50:11 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:8.1
This "fire" is not "from the altar." The fire that is "from the altar" is the fire of the Lord. But that which is outside the altar is not of the Lord but is properly of each one who sins.… This fire is of those who have ignited it, just as it also was written in other places, "Walk in your fire and in the flame which you kindled for yourselves." But to Isaiah his own fire was not applied but the fire of the altar that "will cleanse his lips."
Isaiah 52:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:11
"How are beautiful are the feet of those who announce good things!" Since Isaiah perceived the beautiful and opportune preaching of the apostles who follow the One who said, "I am the way," he praises the feet that proceed over the intelligible way, which is Christ Jesus, and go in to God through the door. Those whose feet are beautiful announce Jesus as "good tidings."
Isaiah 52:11 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11:5-6
It says, "you who carry the vessels of the Lord be separated and depart from their midst, says the Lord." "Separate yourself" from earthly deeds; "separate yourself" from the desire of the world.… Moreover, we say to be set apart not from places but from deeds, not from regions but from ways of life.
Isaiah 53:2 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:75
There are, indeed, admitted to be recorded some statements respecting the body of Jesus having been "ill-favored"; not, however, "ignoble," as has been stated, nor is there any certain evidence that he was "little."
Isaiah 53:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 32
It is possible also in another way to see a twofold coming of Christ, that is, the coming of the Word into the soul. First indeed the untrained and those then beginning to know Christ, because they cannot see the brightness of his beauty, say: "we saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness, but his appearance was without honor". Now the unhonored appearance of the Word is the foolish preaching about Christ, when we preach Christ born and crucified. But the second coming is the coming of Christ among perfect men, concerning whom the steward of his word says: "but we speak wisdom among the perfect". And these perfect ones have become lovers of his beauty and beseech the Word, that he gird upon himself his rational sword and set it about the mystery of the fleshly nativity, which is called mystically the thigh. For disciples of this kind praise the beauty and comeliness of the Word, and to this second coming is joined the consummation of the age in the man coming to perfection and saying: "but far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world".
Isaiah 53:7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 70
Now those who are saved are called sheep because of their meekness, which they learned from him who says: "learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart," and because "even unto slaughter" they were ready to come, imitating Christ, who "was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the one shearing it, without voice" — and not simply "without voice," but "before the one shearing it, without voice," that is, before the one taking away what is his own and plundering it.
Isaiah 54:1 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 3:3
So when he was not a desert or a land made dry to Israel, he was, with respect to what is particular, a desert and land made dry to the pagan nations. But when he turned away from Israel and became to that Israel like a desert and land made dry, then grace was poured forth on the pagan nations, and Jesus Christ became now to us not a desert but abundance, and not a land made dry but one that bears fruit.
Isaiah 54:12 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:30
It seems to me also that that fancy of Plato, that those stones that we call precious stones which derive their luster from a reflection, as it were, of the stones in that better land, is taken from the words of Isaiah in describing the city of God: "I will make your battlements of jasper, your stones shall be crystal and your borders of precious stones."
Isaiah 60:1 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:5
And the Logos, exhorting us to come to this light, says, in the prophecies of Isaiah, "Enlighten yourself, enlighten yourself, O Jerusalem, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen on you." Observe now the difference between the fine phrases of Plato respecting the chief good and the declarations of our prophets regarding the light of the blessed; and notice that the truth as it is contained in Plato concerning this subject did not at all help his readers to attain to a pure worship of God, or even himself, who could philosophize so grandly about the chief good, whereas the simple language of the Scriptures led to their honest readers being filled with a divine spirit; and this light is nourished within them by the oil, which as a certain parable is said to have preserved the light of the torches of the five wise virgins.
Isaiah 60:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:294
And they will be called the city of the Lord, Zion of holy Israel. On account of your being trapped and despised when there was no help, I will give you eternal rejoicing and joy for ages to come. And though you desire the milk of the nations and to consume the riches of kings, so that you might know that I am the Lord who saved you and led you out of Israel, "I will render for you gold instead of brass, and silver instead of steel … and I will give you rulers in peace and your bishops in justice, and injustice will no longer be heard in your land."
Isaiah 60:19-20 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:51
We must keep in mind, however, that the Word promises to the righteous through the mouth of Isaiah that days will come when not the sun but the Lord will be to them an everlasting light, and God will be their glory. And it is from misunderstanding, I think, some pestilent heresy that gave an interpretation to the words "let there be light," as if they were the expression of a wish merely on the part of the Creator, that Celsus made the remark, "The Creator did not borrow light from above, like those persons who kindle lamps at those of their neighbors."
Isaiah 61:1-2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 32
Let us therefore contemplate what those things are which he spoke in the prophet and afterward sounds forth about himself in the synagogue. "He sent me", it says, "to evangelize the poor". The "poor" signifies the nations; for these were "poor", possessing nothing at all, not God, not the law, not the prophets, not justice and the remaining virtues. For which cause God sent him to announce to the poor: "to preach release to the captives". Captives we were, whom for so many years Satan had bound, holding us captive and subject to himself. Jesus came "to preach release to the captives and to the blind, that they might see"; for indeed by the word and preaching of his teaching the blind see. Let the preaching therefore be understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ (in common), not only over the captives, but also over the blind. "To send forth the broken into liberty". What was ever so broken and crushed as man, who was released and healed by Jesus? "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord". According to the simple understanding they say that the Savior preached the Gospel in Judea for one year, and that this is what is said: "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution", unless perhaps the divine word signifies something of a mystery in the preaching of the year of the Lord. For there are to be other days, not such as we now discern in the world, and other months, and a different order of the Kalends. Just therefore as those are other, so also the year of the Lord to come is pleasing. But all these things have been foretold, that after sight from blindness, after liberty from chains, after health from diverse wounds, we may come to the "acceptable year of the Lord".
Isaiah 63:1 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 7
Blessed is that soul which, by the gore of blood poured out in martyrdom, casts down the airy throngs of demons that meet it. Blessed is he of whom, as he goes to heaven, the angels speak that prophetic word: "Who is this that comes up from Bozrah?"—that is, who ascends from the flesh to heaven. "Who is this that comes up from Bozrah, the redness of his garments?"—by the "redness of his garments" signifying the gore of blood. Blessed, then, are the souls that so follow Christ as Christ went before them. And therefore, because they so follow, they arrive even at the very altar of God, where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is, the "high priest of the good things to come," "to whom is glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Isaiah 65:11 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 40
If a person, because he is too tenacious of life or too weak in the face of suffering, or because of the apparently convincing arguments of such as seek to induce us to accept the evil choice, has denied the one and only God and his Christ and borne testimony to demons or goddesses of fortune, then this person must realize that in doing this he is "setting," as it were, "a table for the demon and offering libations" to Fortune, "forsaking the Lord" and "forgetting his holy mount." He will incur the reproaches written in Isaiah.
Isaiah 65:17 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:6.4
Isaiah also, declaring prophetically that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, undoubtedly suggests a similar view. For this renewal of heaven and earth, and this transformation of the form of the present world and this changing of the heavens will undoubtedly be prepared for those who are walking along and are tending to that goal of happiness to which, it is said, even enemies themselves are to be subjected and in which God is said to be "all in all." And if anyone imagines that at the end, material, that is, bodily nature will be entirely destroyed, he cannot in any respect meet my view, how beings so numerous and powerful are able to live and to exist without bodies, since it is an attribute of the divine nature alone.… Another, perhaps, may say that in the end every bodily substance will be so pure and refined as to be like the ether and of a celestial purity and clearness. How things will be, however, is known with certainty to God alone and to those who are his friends through Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 66:2 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6:2.5
If you are not "humble and peaceful," the grace of the Holy Spirit cannot live within you, if you do not receive the divine words with fear. For the Holy Spirit departs from the proud and stubborn and false soul. Therefore, you ought first to meditate on the law of God that, if perhaps your deeds are intemperate and your habits disordered, the law of God may correct you and reform you.
James 1:2 — SERMONS ON GENESIS 8.10
If you count it all joy when you fall into various temptations, you give birth to joy, and you offer that joy in sacrifice to God.
James 1:8 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
And therefore the prophet mourns over us, whom he sees wavering with inconstancy of this kind, and says: "woe to the double-minded", and again: "how long do you go lame on both your knees?" But the Apostle James also says: "a double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways". We are, then, we who follow our Lord with a faith neither whole nor perfect, and have withdrawn from alien gods, set as it were in a certain middle border, and by those we are struck at as fugitives, and by our own Lord, as unstable and doubtful, we are not defended.
James 1:17 — HOMILY 27 ON NUMBERS 6
The soul gradually ascends to the heavens after the resurrection. It does not reach the highest point immediately but goes through many stages during which it is progressively enlightened by the light of Wisdom, until it arrives at the Father of lights himself.
James 2:17 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 19.152
If someone dies in his sins he has not truly believed in Christ, even if he has made a profession of faith in him, and if faith is mentioned but it lacks works, such faith is dead, as we have read in the epistle which circulates as the work of James.
James 3:18 — SERMONS ON GENESIS 10.3
You shall rejoice in the morning, that is, in the world to come, if you have gathered the fruits of righteousness by weeping and labor in this world.
James 4:4 — CATENA
Since evil forms a friendship with the world and virtue a friendship with God, virtue and evil cannot coexist.
James 5:20 — SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 2.4
A man who converts others will have his own sins forgiven.
Judges 2:7 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 1
The reader of the present lesson was reading it thus: "and the people feared the Lord all the days of Joshua", but we have: "and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of their elders, who were of longer days after Joshua". We must therefore understand that each one of us secures it for himself, whether he be in good days or in evil, and whether he have "the days of Joshua" — that is, the days of the righteous — or have the days of the impious. For if we understand "the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world", and offer it our souls to enlighten, or if "the sun of righteousness" rise upon us and "enlighten the world" of our soul, then we too have "the days of Jesus" Christ, the days of salvation. But if anyone offers his soul to receive that light which "shall be extinguished", the light contrary to the truth, and is enlightened by it, he too shall have days, but evil ones, and he will not be among the days of Joshua, but will be among the days of Manasseh, or among the days of Pharaoh, or among the days of some other most wicked man. Therefore, in short, in the days of Ahaz, that iniquitous and most wicked king, Isaiah could not see a vision, could not "see the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon a throne high and lifted up". But from the time that the wicked king died, whose were "the evil days", then the prophet could see the vision of God. And do you wish to know that these days, when they are spoken of in the scriptures as belonging to this man or that, do not signify the span of the life of the one who is spoken of, or of his bodily presence? Hear what the prophet foretold concerning the days of our Lord Jesus Christ: "there shall arise", he says, "in his days righteousness and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away". If we take this thus, that "in the days" in which the Savior tarried on earth there were days "of righteousness" and days "of peace", how shall we prove that days "of righteousness" arose for those who crucified him and who did not receive his coming and the faith? Or how will "the abundance of peace in his days" be seen to have been among those who delivered him to death by false accusations? How to these will "days of righteousness and" days "of peace" be seen to have arisen, in whose minds the darkness of iniquity and of fury was at work? And again, if this which is written — "there shall arise in his days righteousness and abundance of peace" — be referred to those days which the Savior spent in the flesh, then now, since those days are not present, therefore "his righteousness does not arise" nor is the "abundance" of Christ's "peace" found among the faithful and the religious. Rather, then, each one according to his own acts and manner of life acquires for himself "days" either of iniquity and of war, or "of righteousness" and "of peace". Hear, in short, the prophet saying: "to those who fear my name", he says, "shall the sun of righteousness arise", doubtless that it may make for them "days of righteousness", "days of Jesus". But of the impious he says that "the sun of righteousness" will set for them — doubtless for those in whom righteousness sleeps, and for whom the darkness of iniquity has arisen. And do you wish likewise to learn from the prophet who they are that have "the abundance of peace"? Hear how he says in the psalms: "much peace to those who love your name, and there is no stumbling-block for them". "Days" therefore "of righteousness and abundance of peace shall arise" for "those who love the name of the Lord". But the impious too have their own light, from which doubtless "evil days" arise for them. And do you wish this too to be proved to you from the scriptures? Hear what is written: "light", it says, "is for the righteous always, but the light of the impious shall be extinguished". You see, then, that there is a certain "light proper to the impious", which "shall be extinguished", and a "light of the righteous", which remains "fo…
Judges 2:8 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
The death of Jesus too has been read to us. That he, indeed, "the son of Nun", "died" is no wonder; for he paid what was owed to nature. But since we had undertaken to refer these things, which were read concerning the son of Nun, to our Lord Jesus Christ, we must see how it may fittingly be said even of him that: "Jesus died". I think — speaking this too, however, according to the authority of Scripture — that in some Jesus lives, but in some he has "died". In Paul Jesus lives, and in Peter, and in all those who can deservedly say: "and now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me". And again he says: "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". In such men as these, therefore, Jesus is deservedly said to "live". But in whom has "Jesus died"? In those, without doubt, who by repenting often and again transgressing are said as it were to insult the death of Jesus; concerning whom the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: "crucifying again to themselves the Son of God and holding him up to mockery". You see, then, that in those who sin "Jesus" is said not only to "die", but is even asserted to be "crucified" by them and "mocked". But do you yourself also consider within yourself, whether, when you think of avarice and desire to plunder what belongs to others, you can then say that "Christ lives in me". Or if you think of debauchery, if you are driven by rage, if you are inflamed with spite, if you are goaded by envy, if you rave in drunkenness, if you are lifted up with pride, if you rush on in cruelty — can you in all these say that: "Christ lives in me"? Thus, therefore, "Christ dies" in those who sin, in that righteousness works nothing in them, patience nothing, truth nothing, nor all those things which Christ is. But whatever the saints do, it is Christ who is said to work these things, just as the Apostle also says: "I can do all things in him who strengthens me, Christ". And the Lord himself too gave a most beautiful distinction concerning this in the Gospels, when he says: "whoever confesses in me before men, I also will confess in him before my Father, who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father". You have seen that of those who "confess in himself" he said "he confesses", as one who himself lives in them and works the works of life. But in those "who deny" he did not keep the same likeness of the word, so as to say that whoever denies in me, I too will deny in him, but "whoever denies me before men, I too will deny him before my Father", to show that he who indeed "denies" is outside of himself, whereas he who "confesses" is in himself. Therefore for this reason here too Scripture says that, when "Jesus had died", "there arose another generation after those, who did not know Jesus and the works which he did in Israel".
Judges 2:10 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
"And the children of Israel did what was wicked before God". Almighty God, our ruler, grant that it may never happen to us that Jesus Christ, after he has risen from the dead, should again die in us. For what does it profit me if in others he lives by virtue and in me he dies by the weakness of sin? What does it profit me if in me and in my heart he does not live, and if in me he does not accomplish the works of life? What does it profit me if in another he is nourished and refreshed by good pursuits, by good faith, by good works, but in me and in my heart he is in a manner suffocated and slain by evil thoughts and unspeakable desires, by the worst pursuits? For see what Scripture adds, that: "there arose", it says, "another generation, which did not know Jesus and the great works which he did". That "generation, which did not know" the Lord "Jesus", is the one of "evil thoughts" and the worst desires, which "proceeds from the heart". This is the "generation which does not know" the Lord "Jesus", nor "the great work which he did in Israel". You see that sinners come to such a point that they even forget that "great" and glorious "work which the Lord did", that he was crucified "for our sins, and rose again for our justification". Whence I believe that, fearing this forgetfulness, the Apostle said to his disciple Timothy, whom he held as especially dear: "be mindful that Christ Jesus has risen from the dead". For he knew that of this so great a work, that "he rose from the dead", forgetfulness could come to be, if a sinful generation should arise in the heart. "There did" therefore "what was wicked before the Lord" "another generation, which knew not Jesus" nor the elders.
Judges 2:11 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
"And it served", it says, "the Baalim, and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers". These things indeed the ancients did, but since the things that are written are said to have been written not for their sake, but "for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come", let us see whether these things may seem to be said in greater part of us than of them. And do you wish to see that not by me, but by the Apostle these things are expounded as being about us? Hear himself what he says: "but in Elijah what does the Scripture say, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee to Baal" — and he adds: "so therefore", he says, "also at this present time a remnant according to the election of grace has been made safe". You see, then, that those who "bent the knee to the Baalim" and "those who did not bend it" he interprets of the remnant of believers and of the multitude of unbelievers. And this he shows: that those who in the time of the Savior proved unbelieving and impious "bent the knee to the Baalim" and adored idols, but those who believe and fulfill the works of faith "did not bend the knee to the Baalim". For nowhere is it reported in the histories or in the Gospels or in any other writings whatever that anyone in the time of the Savior bent the knee to idols, but assuredly this is said of those who, bound and as it were fettered by their sins, were held fast. Whence it is evident that we too, as often as we sin and "are led captive in the law of sin", "bend our knees to the Baalim". But we were not called to this, nor did we believe for this, that we should again serve sin and again "bend the knee" to the devil, but that we should "bend the knee in the name of Jesus", because "in the name of Jesus every knee is bent, of things in heaven and things on earth and things beneath the earth", and that we should bend "our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named". But what does it profit me if I "bend the knees" of my body to God, coming to prayer, and "bend the knees" of my heart to the devil? For if I do not "stand firm against the wiles of the devil", I have "bent my knees" to the devil. And if I do not "stand" steadfastly "against" anger, I have "bent my knees" to anger. Likewise, if I do not steadfastly resist lust, I have "bent" the "knees" of my heart to lust. And in each single thing that is contrary to God I shall be seen to do this, unless I "stand" steadfastly and bravely, just as those also did who "worshipped the Baalim and forsook the God of their fathers", who "brought them out of the land of Egypt". Let us not therefore suppose that, because we seem not to worship idols, these things for that reason do not pertain also to some of us. Whatever each one worships above the rest, whatever he admires and loves above all things, this is his God. Indeed, this is what before all things and above all things God demands of man by his commandment: "you shall love", he says, "the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" — desiring in a manner to lay first claim to himself upon all the affections of the human mind, and knowing that whatever one "loves with all the heart and with all the soul and with all the strength", this is his God. Let each one now examine himself and silently reckon up from his own heart what flame of love above all else and beyond all things burns hottest in him, what affection is cherished in him more ardent than the rest. Do you yourselves hold judgment concerning these things, weigh them on the balance of your own examination, and if there be anything that outweighs in the scale of love, this is your God. But I fear that in very many the love of gold outweighs, and that the we…
Judges 2:12 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
"And they adored", it says, "strange gods, the gods of the nations who were round about them, and they provoked the Lord to anger". See how much sins accomplish, that we who sin are said to provoke to anger him in whom there is not only no affection of anger, but not even any other passible movement. Truly he remains unchangeable in his nature and is never disturbed by the affections of anger; but I, through the things in which I transgress, decree anger for myself, just as the Apostle says, teaching this very thing: "but according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up", he says, "for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works".
Judges 2:13-14 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
Therefore "they provoked the Lord to anger, and forsook the Lord, they worshipped Baal and Astarte. And the Lord was angry with fury against Israel, and delivered them into the hands of plunderers". As long as one serves God, he is not "delivered into the hands of plunderers". But when he has "forsaken the Lord" and has begun to serve his own passions, then it is said of him that: "God delivered them into passions of ignominy", and again: "he delivered them into a reprobate mind, that they should do those things which are not fitting". Why? Because "they are filled", he says, "with all iniquity, wickedness, fornication, avarice", and all the rest that are named — just as here too now, since "they served", it says, "and adored the Baalim and Astarte, God delivered them into the hands of plunderers; and it came to pass in the hands of their enemies". For these things, as I have already often said, the Jews read as histories of deeds done and past. But "we", "for whose sake these things" are said to be "written", ought to know that, if we have sinned against the Lord and worship the pleasures of our soul and the desires of the flesh as it were as God, we too are delivered up, and by apostolic authority are handed over into the hands of the devil. Hear, then, himself saying of him who had sinned: "I have delivered", he says, "such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved". You see, then, that even now not only through his Apostles does God "deliver" transgressors "into the hands of enemies", but also through those who preside over the church and have the power not only of loosing, but also of binding, sinners "are delivered into the destruction of the flesh", when for their offenses they are separated from the body of Christ. And, as it seems to me, even now men are delivered from the church into the power of the devil in two ways: in this manner which we spoke of above, when his offense becomes manifest to the church and he is driven from the church by the priests, so that, marked out by men, he may blush, and being converted there may befall him that which follows: "that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ"; but in another way one is "delivered to the devil" when his sin does not become manifest to men, yet God, "who sees in secret", perceiving his mind and his soul serving vices and passions, and that in his heart it is not he who is worshipped, but either avarice or lust or vainglory or other such things — such a one the Lord himself "delivers to Satan". How does he "deliver him to Satan"? He departs from his mind and turns himself away and flees from his evil thoughts and unworthy desires and leaves the "house" of his heart "empty". And then there shall be fulfilled in that man what is written: "but when the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, he goes about through dry places: and if he does not find rest, he returns to his own house; and finding it vacant and swept, he takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering he dwells in that house; and then the last state of that man becomes worse than the first". In this manner, then, it must be understood that God "delivers up" those whom he delivers, not that he himself delivers anyone, but from the fact that he forsakes the unworthy — those, namely, who do not so cultivate themselves and purge themselves from vices that God should gladly dwell in them. When he himself flees and turns away from a soul which is set in uncleanness and vices, it is said to be delivered up from the fact that it is found empty of God and is invaded by the wicked spirit. And therefore let us with the utmost zeal be watchful and hasten to purge ourselves from vices and evil desires, that we may be able to hold God within us and that he may deign to dwell in us, while he is delighted both with our acts and our words and our thoughts, if we conduct according to his will all things that we do, so that, "whether we ea…
Judges 3:7-8 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
When "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of God, and forgot the Lord their God," and, forsaking him, "served the Baalim and the groves" of the nations, then, "storing up wrath for themselves," they "were handed over," by the just judgment of God, "into the hands of their enemies," according to what the present reading has declared: "into the hands," it says, "of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia." Now Cushan-rishathaim is interpreted as "their humiliation". They "were handed over," therefore, "into the hands" of him who would humiliate them. And because they themselves were acting impiously against the Most High upon the high places of the mountains, for that reason they are handed over by him into humiliation. But I would not have you think that this divine providence was directed only toward the ancients — namely, that it handed over those who impiously exalted themselves to be humbled, and by a saving method of medicine cured contraries with contraries — while now the omnipotent God lacks toward his Church such a saving providence. There is even now a "Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia," to whom are handed over to be humbled and afflicted the souls that, despising Christian humility, have given themselves over to pride and arrogance. The vice of pride is exceedingly hateful in the sight of God, since, as Scripture says: "the beginning of departing from God is pride," and again elsewhere Scripture says: "God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace." If, therefore, anyone, despising the humility of Christ — who for our sake, "though he was God, was made man and humbled himself even unto death" — is lifted up and exalted, leaps forward toward the powers and dignities of the world, and does not shrink or shudder at the arts by which he strives to attain these things, even though they be against faith and religion, provided only he obtain what he desires, it comes about thereby that he "does evil in the sight of the Lord"; and after he has gained the highest insignia of the powers and has climbed to the very topmost heights of pride, cast down from there he "is handed over" to this "Cushan-rishathaim," that is, to one of the "airy princes" — as elsewhere Pharaoh, and elsewhere Hiram — that he may humble the one who had been too greatly exalted, that he may afflict and crush him, until he comes to his senses and seeks the Lord; because, while he was set in pride and elation, he did not know God.
Judges 3:9 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
Now he calls Othniel the Savior, who is interpreted as "the time of God for me". Through this Othniel, therefore, that former people was snatched from the servitude of humiliation, and peace was restored to the people — the peace which pride and the various crimes of the people had for a while put to flight. But since we have said that a certain Cushan-rishathaim can be understood spiritually, both as a king and as one of the adversaries and a prince among the "airy powers," so it seems to me consequent that this Othniel too, who was raised up to deliver the people, is some one of the "heavenly host" and of the archangelic troops which "are sent as a help to those who obtain the inheritance of salvation"; and there are saving angels who are designated under the figure either of Othniel or of Ehud, because, as we have often shown, we are not only assailed by the contrary powers, but the divine and good powers too are sent by the Lord for our help. Let us see, nevertheless, who this Othniel was, of what family, of what nobility. "The son," it says, of Kenaz, "the brother of Caleb" — that praiseworthy and admirable man Caleb, who was the companion and comrade of Joshua son of Nun, concerning whom, as far as we were able, we have discoursed in their proper places, as seemed good.
Judges 3:10 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
What, then, does Scripture say concerning this Othniel? After it had said that "the children of Israel cried out to the Lord," "the Spirit of the Lord came," it says, "upon Othniel, and he judged Israel." Do you suppose there is among us anyone who so "sends forth to the Lord a cry" so strong and so just that he is worthy to be heard, and the people deserve to receive a judge — and such a judge, one whom the "Spirit of God" may fill, that he may be able to hold to right judgment? Whence also the book itself is called the book of Judges, and in it are described the judges who judged the people. For just as other books are called the books of Kings, or of Kingdoms, in which is described each of the kings, how he reigned and what he did, so also in this little book the deeds of the Judges are recounted, and there is described not only whatever was done rightly and usefully by them, but also whatever was blamably committed. Yet if you ask why both are described, it is this: that now the leaders or judges of the Church, perceiving those things which were done praiseworthily by them, may follow the examples of the former ones; but if any things in them are blamed, that these may beware and turn aside. Great praise, therefore, of this first judge Othniel is recounted, in that "the Spirit of God came upon him" and through the Spirit of God he "judged Israel," which I do not well remember to have been said of any other. There are therefore even today very many judges of all the churches which are under heaven, to whom has been given the judgment not only of deeds done, but also of souls. But I do not know whether there is any such judge of the Church whom "God makes worthy to fill with his Spirit," so that, just as this Othniel was adorned with the testimony of Scripture, so also they themselves, for whom we wish this, may deserve the testimony of God. He says therefore: "and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to war, and the Lord handed over into his hands Cushan-rishathaim the king." Why this? Because the "Spirit of the Lord" was in him, and "his hand was strengthened over Cushan-rishathaim."
Judges 3:11 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
And after this it says: "the land had rest under him as judge for forty years." You see how bountiful is the divine clemency. "For eight years the children of Israel had served" for the offenses of many; "for forty years" they endure in peace for the righteousness of one.
Judges 3:12-13 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
But what is said after this? "And Othniel," it says, "the son of Kenaz, died." I see a perilous matter. "Othniel died." Why? Because the people was now unworthy to have such a judge. Then in what follows, after he had died, it says: "and the children of Israel added," it says, "to do evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel." Consider that, because they were now unworthy to have such a leader, for that reason the good judge is taken away from them. And because they "did evil in the sight of the Lord," there is stirred up against them a most wicked enemy, "Eglon king of Moab." You see that our sins supply strength to our enemies, and that, when we "do evil in the sight of the Lord" and transgress, then our adversaries "are strengthened by the Lord," then strength is given to the contrary powers. Whether you seek this according to the letter, you will find it so, that the enemies would not grow strong unless our offenses conferred strength upon them; or whether you consider it in spiritual things, likewise the contrary powers would not grow strong against us, nor would the devil himself prevail at all in us, unless we supplied him strength out of our vices; he would be very weak against us, unless we made him strong in sinning, and unless through our sins he found a place of entering and of dominating within us. For this reason, finally, the Apostle too gives warning beforehand, saying: "do not give place to the devil," just as here too we have just now read that, after "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord," they "gave place to the devil." For "the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab, and joined to him all the sons of Ammon and Amalek." Not only, it says, was he himself "strengthened" out of the sins of the children of Israel, but there are joined to him wicked allies "from the sons of Ammon and Amalek," who together with him assail Israel.
Judges 3:14 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
"And the children of Israel served," it says, "Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years." Observe that divine Scripture indicates even the measures of the punishment; there it says "for eight years" and here "for eighteen." Now it is certain that according to the measure of the sin and the delay of our conversion the times of chastisement too are determined.
Judges 3:15 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
For these "eighteen years" of servitude also passed, and it is not recounted that "they cried out to the Lord" or were converted from their wickedness, but after eighteen years it is again said that: "the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a Savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the son of Gemini, a man ambidextrous." Behold what manner of man this is who is raised up to save Israel! He has nothing left-handed in himself, but has both hands as a right hand; for this is what is meant by "ambidextrous." Truly a worthy leader of the people and judge of the Church, who does nothing left-handed, whose "right hand knows not what his left hand does," who is right-handed on either side — right-handed in faith, right-handed in deeds — who has nothing of those who are placed "on the left," to whom it is said: "depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I know you not; go into the eternal fire which God has prepared for the devil and his angels." And if in such matters it is permitted to presume from what is similar, I think that according to the spiritual understanding all the saints too are called "ambidextrous," and on the contrary the devil and his princes, if it may be said, are called ambi-sinistrous. For all that they do is left-handed, all perverse, all consigned to the eternal fire together with those who are "on the left."
Judges 3:15-21 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 4
To the rule of Ehud the ambidextrous is joined the rule of Shamgar. But let us see how Ehud, who is interpreted "praise," brought his rule to a close. The narrative has taught us those things which are written concerning Eglon the king, how this most wise Ehud, using a certain artifice and, so to speak, a cunning but praiseworthy deception, slew Eglon the tyrant, who is interpreted "whirling" or "of the wheel-track." Such, then, ought the judges of our people also to be, as was that Ehud who is interpreted "praise," so that they may cut down all the whirling motions and wheel-tracks of the evil path and destroy the king of the Midianites. Now the Midianites are interpreted "flowing" or "outpouring." Who, then, can be seen or understood to be the prince or leader of this fluid and dissolute nation, other than the discourse of that philosophy which judges pleasure to be the highest good — whom the Gospel discourse, which is compared to a sword, may slay and destroy? And let the prophetic word itself be shut up in their belly and in the innermost vitals by the disputations of the "ambidextrous" teacher, so that, confining them by the assertion of truth, he may extinguish every "thought" of a depraved doctrine and gross understanding "that exalts and raises itself up against the spiritual knowledge of Christ"; so that, doing thus and contending in the word of God, each judge of the Church may himself also become that praiseworthy Ehud, of whom the Lord may say: "Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things".
Judges 3:16 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 3
But let us see what this "ambidextrous" judge does. "The children of Israel sent," it says, "gifts to Eglon king of the Moabites by the hand of Ehud"; "and Ehud made himself a sword sharpened on both sides, of the length of an extended palm, and girded it to himself upon his right thigh." You see that everything is right-handed which this "ambidextrous" "Ehud" carries out: he is right-handed both in hands and right-handed in feet. For he carries the sword on his right thigh, that he may come to the "king of Moab" and slay him. We had said above that these whom God is said to raise up for the salvation of the people and for the delivering of the children of Israel — the saviors or judges — bear the image of certain princes from the "heavenly host" and of the supernal powers, which God sends forth for the aid of those who cry out to him with their whole heart and by the conversion of repentance have bent the divine clemency toward themselves. But lest this seem to have been presumed by us in the eyes of our hearers, we ought to establish it from the authority of the Scriptures. It is written in Exodus that our fathers the children of Israel, when for a long time they had served the Egyptians and Pharaoh, that most harsh king, in the making of "mud and brick," "cried out," it says, "to the Lord," so that the Lord himself said: "the cry of the children of Israel has ascended to me," and, having sent Moses, he led them out visibly. But Scripture recounts that an exterminating angel was sent, who indeed laid waste all the firstborn of Egypt, but touched none of the Israelites. And thus it is declared that it was a heavenly power which, after the Egyptians had been laid waste and cast down, led the children of Israel out from the yoke of servitude. Something similar is also recounted in the histories, that under Sennacherib king of the Assyrians "an angel of the Lord" is sent, who, having slain and cast down in a single night "one hundred and eighty-five thousand" of the enemy, delivered both the city from the siege and the people from imminent destruction. So therefore even now we ought to observe the same consequence, that, if ever for our sins we are handed over into captivity, we should "cry out to the Lord." But let us cry out not with the mouth, but with the mind, so that the grief of the heart may "bring forth a fountain of tears from the eyes," like him who said: "every night will I wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears." If we are so converted from evils that we no longer touch evils, if we so cease from pride that we no longer relish anything proud, anything arrogant, the Lord will send us too his heavenly power, through which we may be delivered from the yoke of diabolical servitude; a power which may do all things for us right-handed and prosperous, which may make us forsake the "left-hand way, which leads to perdition," and call us back to the true "way," him who says: "I am the way and the truth and the life," Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Judges 3:31 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 4
But having briefly gone back over these matters from the earlier reading — that is, over the end of Ehud — let us now see what sort the beginning of Shamgar is also, who is there interpreted "stranger." For it is true that all who are men of God are strangers in this world and sojourners upon the earth, just as was also he who said that: "I am a sojourner with thee upon the earth and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were". And so the Holy Spirit there calls this Shamgar too a sojourner — that is, here. For what is "there" to the Holy Spirit, who is in the heavens, is "here" to us. What, then, is said of Shamgar? "He smote", it says, "the Philistines, six hundred men, with the handle — or "foot" — of a plow". I see another kind of praise in Shamgar: this one fights with a "plow". Ehud was fighting with a sword, this one with a plow. Yet this one too conquers, overcomes, and lays low the Philistines. It can happen, therefore, that a judge of the Church does not always bring forth the sword — that is, does not always use the austerity of the word and the sharpness of correction — but sometimes also imitates the farmer, and, as it were plowing the soil of the soul and often cutting it open with a gentle admonition, prepares it, fit for receiving the seeds. Thus the Philistines will be slain in this way too, when we use not arguments and sharpness against our adversaries, but drive out vices and sins from the souls of our hearers by a rustic and simple admonition. But you also yourself, O hearer, be the farmer of your own soul; use this plow which Shamgar uses. But when "you have put your hand to the plow", do not "look back" — that is, after "you have taken up your cross and followed Christ", after you have renounced the world and the things which are in the world, do not "look back", do not seek again those things which "for the sake of Christ you had counted as dung", because, if you always keep your "hand upon this plow", so that you may confidently say: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world", then, as you say these things, "there shall fall at your right hand ten thousand, and at your left hand a thousand, but unto you they shall not come near". But this very thing also that it said, that "Shamgar smote the Philistines, six hundred of them", does not seem to me to have been said idly. For what need was there to designate even the number? Unless perhaps in the number itself it indicated more plainly those things of which we spoke above. For the number six, which multiplied comes to six hundred, holds the figure of this world, which is said to have been completed in six days. "Six hundred", therefore, he is said "to have smitten with the plow", he to whom "through the cross of Christ the world is crucified".
Judges 4:1 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 4
But what is added after this? "And the children of Israel", it says, "added to do evil in the sight of the Lord; and Ehud was dead". Undoubtedly in these matters too there is preserved that observation which we pointed out in the preceding passages: that for the sins of the people the good leader of the people dies. For when they have been made unworthy and have "done evil in the sight of God", the man of God will be taken away from them. But perhaps our people will say: when is the Church of God without a judge? Even if the former departs, another is supplied. Perhaps we shall say something bold, yet we say what is written. Not always is the prince of the people and judge of the Church given by the judgment of God, but according as our merits demand. If our deeds are evil and we "work evil in the sight of God", princes are given to us according to our heart; and this I will prove to you from the Scriptures. For hear what the Lord says: "They made themselves a king and not by me, and a prince and not by my counsel". And this seems to be said of that Saul, whom indeed the Lord himself had chosen and had commanded to be made king; but because he had been chosen not according to the will of God, but according to the merit of a sinful people, he denies that he was appointed with his will or counsel. Let us understand, then, that some such thing happens in the churches also, that according to the merits of the people either a ruler of the Church powerful in word and deed is granted by God or, if "the people do evil in the sight of the Lord", such a judge of the Church is given under whom the people may suffer "hunger and thirst", "not a hunger of bread nor a thirst of water, but a hunger of hearing the word of God". So, then, let us act, and so let us pray, that the divine displeasure may never condemn us in a "hunger of the word" and a "thirst", that there may never be taken away from us one who may instruct us in word and deed, who may furnish to the peoples out of himself a perfect example in conduct and integrity, in patience and meekness. For if we "do evil in the sight of the Lord" — that is, if we act wickedly, if we do our own will and not God's — then "Ehud dies" for us also, Shamgar is taken away, and our praise will be darkened, and we will be "delivered into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan". Now "Jabin" is interpreted "sense" or "prudence." If, therefore, we "do not approve to have God in our knowledge, God delivers us up unto a reprobate sense, filled", it says, "with iniquity, wickedness, fornication, covetousness, full of envy, murders, contention, deceit, whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, injurious, proud, haughty, disobedient to parents, disorderly, without affection, without mercy". You see who and of what sort are they who "are delivered up unto a reprobate sense", who "are delivered up to Jabin the prince of the Canaanites".
Judges 4:2-3 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 4
"And the prince", it says, "of the army of Jabin was Sisera, and he himself dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles, and he had nine hundred iron chariots. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord". In this too there is likewise kept that observation which we designated above: that the children of Israel do not know how "to cry out to the Lord", except when "they have been delivered into the hands of Jabin", or when they are afflicted through his "prince of the army, Sisera", who "had", it says, "nine hundred iron chariots", by which of course the people of stiff neck was afflicted. Now "Sisera" is interpreted "vision of a horse." For he is the "animal" and not the "spiritual" man, who sees nothing except those things which are "animal"; that is his vision, that is ever his gaze. And therefore the "animal man" and "he who is according to the flesh" always "persecutes him who is according to the spirit", until the "spiritual" man understands and "examines all things" and understands whence help is to be sought for himself, and "cries out to the Lord", until, for that soul which "has cried out to the Lord", there is raised up prophecy, which is in the figure of Deborah, and according to the grace and understanding of prophecy either the people of the Church may be governed or even the sense of each mind and soul may be ruled, through Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".
Judges 4:4 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 5
Let us see, then, whether perhaps through these things we may be taught something worthy, as also from the other Scriptures, concerning the more hidden mysteries. First, this very fact that, although many men are reported to have been judges in Israel, of none of them is it said that he was a "prophet" except of "Deborah the woman." Even the very first surface of the letter itself furnishes no small consolation to the female sex in this, and it summons them, that they should by no means despair, on account of the weakness of their sex, of being able to become capable even of the grace of prophecy, but that they should understand and believe that purity of mind, not diversity of sex, merits this grace. But let us see what secret of the inner understanding also breathes forth here. "Deborah" is interpreted as "bee or speech". But we have already said in the earlier passages too that Deborah is to be taken as a figure of prophecy, which is the bee. For it is certain that all prophecy composes the sweet honeycombs of heavenly doctrine and the sweet honey of the divine utterance. Whence David also sang, saying: "how sweet are your utterances to my throat, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth!" And again elsewhere he says "that the judgments of God are precious above gold and the precious stone exceedingly, and sweeter above honey and the honeycomb."
Judges 4:4-5 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 5
We pass from questions to questions and from mysteries to mysteries, and while we can scarcely and with difficulty explain each of the first things, more difficult matters follow upon the difficult ones — matters which do not so much require the eloquence of human talent as they demand the inspiration of divine grace. For without doubt the hearer will ask — since indeed there is that saying of the Apostle Paul which declares: "all Scripture divinely inspired is useful for teaching, for reproof, for instruction which is in righteousness" — what this Scripture has in itself (which we likewise without doubt confess to be divinely inspired) that may yield to us "for instruction," that may yield "for reproof," that may yield "for discipline," that may yield "for righteousness." For what is conferred upon us from this, if we read what has just been recited — that is, that "Deborah," it says, "a woman, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she herself judged Israel at that time; and she," it says, "Deborah, sat under a palm tree between the middle of Ramah and the middle of Bethel, on Mount Ephraim, and the sons of Israel went up to her, that they might be judged"? And then, what erudition or teaching or righteousness do those things confer upon us which follow, whether concerning Barak or concerning Jael or even concerning Sisera, "the commander of the army of Jabin"?
Judges 4:5 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 5
But let us also consider this — where the prophecy is said to "reside" and where its place is described. "Under a palm tree," it says, "between the middle of Ramah and the middle of Bethel." Prophecy has its seat "under a palm tree," because "the righteous man," says David, "will flourish like a palm tree" — through this, that prophecy leads the one instructed by its teachings to the "palm of the heavenly calling of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord." And it is said to sit "between the middle of Ramah and the middle of Bethel." "Ramah" is interpreted as "heights". "Bethel," however, as "the house of God". See in what places "prophecy" is said to "reside" — between the heights and the house of God. For nothing lowly, nothing cast down, nothing base can be found near the seat of prophecy; just as Solomon likewise, describing the seat of wisdom, says of it that she either "stands at the gates of the cities" or dwells "on the ramparts of the walls" or "acts freely" in the high towers. In this way, then, prophecy, which is now described in Deborah, is said to dwell between the house of God and the heights. For it does not teach us "to seek the things that are upon the earth, but the things that are in the heavens and in the heights, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God": thither prophecy exhorts us to ascend, thither it strives to set its disciples.
Judges 4:6-9 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 5
This prophecy, therefore, first of all, it says, "sent and called Barak to herself." Now "Barak" is interpreted as "flashing". But a flashing is that which has light indeed, but not lasting; for it shines forth for a little while and ceases. This Barak, therefore, seems to me to bear the figure of the former people, who first of all was called through prophecy and invited to hear the utterances of God and to receive the gifts of the divine law — who indeed shone and flashed in the splendor of the law for a brief time, but did not long endure nor was able to obtain the continuous brightness of the light. When, therefore, Deborah had said to Barak — that is, prophecy to the former people — that: "the Lord God of Israel has commanded you, and do you go up onto Mount Tabor, and take ten thousand men" and the rest that is written, let us see what Barak, in the person of the people, answered to prophecy: "I will not go up," he says, "unless you also go up with me, because I do not know the day on which the Lord will send his angel with me." You see, then, how prophecy delivered to those former ones the utterances of God and says that the commands were given to them, that they should "go up onto the mountain"; but they excuse themselves and say: "I will not go up unless you too go up with me." And as regards the excuse it is indeed true, but as regards the promise it is false. For that they "did not go up" onto the mountain of God is certain; but that they promise they will go up together with prophecy is false. For they did not follow prophecy, so as to believe in him concerning whom all prophecy was written beforehand, Christ. Therefore, then, Deborah says to him: "I will go with you. Nevertheless know that the primacy will not be yours on this way which you tread, but into the hand of a woman the Lord will deliver Sisera." She clearly shows that "the primacy will not be" with that people, nor will the palm of victory abide with it, "but into the hand of a woman," whose name was Jael, "Sisera will be delivered."
Judges 4:17-22 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 5
Now it is described that, when according to the admonition of Deborah — that is, of prophecy — Barak pursued Sisera the leader of the Philistines, he himself indeed could not seize him, but there met him "as he fled" a foreign woman, Jael, which woman had previously held a covenant of friendship with him; "to whom," when he had "turned aside" for the sake of hiding, he asked for water to drink, but by her "he was given milk to drink"; and when she had placed him "in hiding" and had covered him with skins, after this she drove a stake, driven in "with a mallet," through his cheeks — or "jaws" — and fixed it fast: and then, "meeting" Barak as he pursued, she "showed Sisera" "now dead" and laid low.
Judges 4:19 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 5
But if from this too something seems worthy of being asked by diligent hearers — namely that he is said to have "given him milk to drink" when he had asked for "water" — let us see whether perhaps, according to the mystical or allegorical laws, something of this kind can also be shown concerning this. The food of "milk" is said in the holy Scriptures to be this first moral instruction, which is delivered to beginners as though to "little ones." For at the beginnings the deep and more hidden mysteries are not at once to be delivered to disciples, but the correction of morals, the amendment of discipline, the first elements of religious conduct and of simple faith are delivered to them. This is the "milk" of the Church, these are the first elements of the "little ones" who are beginning. But this food indeed bestows life and salvation upon those who bear the purpose of advancing toward the good; whereas upon those to whom contrary things are pleasing, to whom luxury, lust, avarice, and all impiety are dear, doctrine of this kind furnishes death and destruction. Thus, then, it comes about that from these same foods by which the good are nourished, the evil are choked, and where for the pious there is life, there for the impious there is death. Finally, that the matter of which we speak may become plainer by an example: wine helps the healthy and those living suitably and, as Scripture says, "gladdens the heart of man" — of the healthy man at least — but to the feverish, if they take it, it straightway brings ruin and destruction. So it comes about that the same thing, taken in the same way, confers on one indeed life, but on another death. Thus, then, it is also to be understood that this Sisera, the "animal man" and prince of vices, was extinguished through the doctrine of the Church, which he did not receive in faith. But let each and every soul also strive to lull to sleep and extinguish Sisera within itself by this evangelical and apostolic milk. For if anyone, taught through these things, has "mortified his members which are upon the earth, avarice, fornication" and the rest which the holy Apostle enumerates, he will be seen to have slain Sisera within himself — so that these things may be shown to be accomplished not only in the person of the Church, but also that each one may show them to be fulfilled in his own soul. Since, therefore, as we have said, Sisera indeed began to be pursued by the former people, but was slain by a woman — this Church of the nations — and into her hand was given the palm of victory, at the consummation of all things, that is, at the end of the age, a song too will be sung to the Lord through Deborah, in which the "primacy" will indeed be given to Jael, the Church of the nations, nor yet will Barak's praise be passed over in silence, but one and the same reward of victory will be given to both the first and the last, through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Judges 5:1-3 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
The fourth song is in the book of Judges, concerning which it is written: "And Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying: When the leaders in Israel began, in the purpose of the people, bless ye the Lord. Hear, O kings, and give ear," and the rest. But she who sings these things ought to be a bee, whose work is such that both kings and ordinary folk use it for health. For Deborah, who sings this song, is interpreted "a bee," and Barak too along with her: and Barak is interpreted "lightning-flash." And this song is sung after victory, because no one can sing what is perfect until he has conquered his adversaries. So, finally, in the song itself it is said: "Arise, arise, Deborah, rouse up the thousands of the people. Arise, arise, sing a song, arise, Barak." But concerning these things too you will find matters more fully discussed in those little discourses which we have published on the book of Judges.
Judges 5:2 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 6
Sisera, together with his army and his "iron chariots", with which he was assailing the people of God, was overcome, as prophecy had foretold would come to pass through Deborah. And after the victory was accomplished "by the hand of a woman", Deborah is recorded to have sung this song as, so to speak, the very praise of that victory. But if we remember the things that were said in the earlier passages — namely, according to the mystical pattern, what figure Deborah is, and Barak likewise, what image the woman Jael holds, who alone cast down the adversary of God's people, what image Sisera himself is, who was laid low by a foreign woman through the power of wood — we understand that all these are sacraments which are brought to completion in the last times and at the end of the age through the Church, and that in this song is described, as it were, its triumph-song, that is, the praise of the victory, of that time namely when "the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed". For then Deborah shall exult, that is, the glory of prophecy shall be made illustrious, because the things which she foretold have been fulfilled. Then Jael the Church shall overcome the common enemy of all, and, "after the fullness of the nations has entered in", then Barak too, that is, "the remnant of Israel shall be saved" and shall be received into fellowship of the victory. Then therefore, if we have been worthy, we too shall sing this song filled with mystical and prophetic sacraments; and since to examine everything of it point by point is not for the time available — for the hearers of the Church love brevity — yet, discoursing on a few things either of its beginnings or picking out here and there little flowers from it, we shall try to bring some consolation to the hearers, or at least to train and exercise ourselves, that we may be made fit to sing out Deborah's song.
Judges 5:3 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 6
After this it says: "hear, O kings, and give ear, O satraps: to the Lord I will sing, I will sing praise to the God of Israel". "Hear", it says, "O kings". It calls "kings" those who are summoned to hear the word of God. Exult, O people of God, hearing the insignia of your nobility. You are called to hear the word of God, and you are called not as the common crowd, but as a king. For to you it has been said: "a royal priestly race, a people for acquisition". Therefore, because you are "kings", deservedly is our king Christ the Lord called "king of kings and lord of those who rule". But just as you have exulted over the title of your nobility, so ought you to learn what each of you must do to become a king. Which I will define for you thus, briefly. It makes you a king over all, if Christ reigns in you; for a king is so called from ruling. If therefore in you too the mind reigns and the body obeys, if you send the desires of the flesh under the yoke of your dominion, if you press down the nations of the vices with the tighter reins of your sobriety, deservedly are you called a "king", who have known how to rule yourself rightly. When therefore you have been made such, worthily, as a king, will you be called to hear the divine words. But this which follows indicates something more corporeal, where it says: "give ear, all you satraps". For just as a satrap is lower than a king, so also to give ear seems to be something lower than to hear. For to hear pertains to the inner man, as the Lord too said: "he who has ears to hear, let him hear"; but to give ear regards the outer and bodily hearing. Therefore here too those who ought to "hear" are called "kings", but those who are to "give ear" are called "satraps". "I to the Lord will sing, and I will sing praise to the God of Israel". Blessed are those who are able "to sing a song to the Lord". When we return to the Scriptures, we find many songs committed to the sacred volumes. We have a whole volume written about the Songs of Songs. Behold, in this book of Judges too we have a song, and in Numbers a song is written, and in Deuteronomy, and in Exodus, and in the first book of Kingdoms; in the first book of Chronicles too, and in many other places, you will find that divine songs are recorded. Here therefore the voice of the just man says: "I to the Lord will sing, and I will sing praise to the God of Israel". Who, do you think, is of so tuneful a voice and of a spirit so pure and a mind so sincere, that his singing can delight the divine hearing? He assuredly is the one who has in himself no hoarse sound of sin, who bears nothing of offense on his tongue, nothing of grossness in his spirit — he can rightly say: "I to the Lord will sing, I will sing praise to the God of Israel".
Judges 5:9 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 6
But since we do not undertake to expound the continuation of the song point by point, let us at least, skipping over the sequence of the reading, see what it means where it says: "my heart is toward the things that have been appointed for this Israel". This seems to me to be what it means: my heart and my soul and my sense and my whole mind is bent toward that and looks forward to that "which has been appointed" and which has been prepared "for Israel"; I look forward with my whole mind to that which is to come. For if I bend my mind toward that, all the things that are in this world "I will count as dung, that I may gain Christ", who "has prepared" all those things "which eye has not seen and ear has not heard nor has ascended into the heart of man, for those who love him". "My heart", therefore, it says, "is stretched out toward those things". For I no longer bear a human heart, nor do I think the things I think according to man; but because, according to the Scripture, those "to whom the word of God comes are gods", I too look upon these things not with a human but with a divine mind.
Judges 5:10 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 6
"O mighty ones of the people, bless the Lord, you who have mounted upon beasts of burden". What is it "to have mounted upon a beast of burden"? This body of mine is a "beast of burden"; for it was given for the aid of the soul and for its ministry; but it is I, that is, the inner man, "who have mounted upon" this "beast of burden", to whom it is said that I should "bless the Lord". If therefore you have truly mounted upon the body and have been made superior to bodily desires, and the motions of your body are governed by the bridle of the mind and by the direction of the inner man, it is said of you that you "have mounted upon a beast of burden", that you may "bless the Lord". But what is it that follows? "You who sit upon vehicles", it says, "and shine upon she-asses". What do "shining she-asses" seem to be? For the Scripture says that "those who sit upon vehicles and upon shining she-asses" ought "to bless the Lord". To me, as in places so difficult, something of this sort seems the case: when this beast of burden, that is, my body, has come under the yoke of the word of God, then the "vehicle" of my body will begin "to shine", and this "she-ass", that is, my flesh, will then be said "to shine" when it has been adorned with the splendor of chastity and modesty. And thus it is rightly said that the soul "sitting upon a shining she-ass blesses the Lord" and praises him in the midst of those who rejoice.
Judges 5:11 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 6
"There they shall render acts of righteousness to the Lord". That sacrifice is acceptable to the Lord which is offered to God in righteousness and equity, and therefore it is said: "the just have been strengthened in Israel". Among the other nations, indeed, those who are stronger in bodily might are called "mighty" in battle; but in Israel, those who are more just are themselves called the more powerful in wars, because righteousness, even if it be weak in strength, conquers, whereas unrighteousness, even if it have many and strong defenders, is overcome. So therefore in this nation of ours, that is, in the people of God, either through righteousness we overcome or through unrighteousness we are conquered.
Judges 5:12 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 6
"Arise, Deborah, arise and rouse up the ten thousands of the people". When does prophecy "arise"? Assuredly at the coming of Christ, and not only does it itself "arise", but it also "rouses up" the peoples to believe. "Lead captivity captive, O son of Abinoam". "Abinoam" is interpreted as "the answer of the father". His son is Barak. He "will take captivity" from the enemies, who has kept the answers of the heavenly Father.
Judges 5:13 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 6
"O Lord, humble for me those stronger than I". This is the voice of the faithful, who confess simply that their enemies are stronger, against whom is our struggle and battle, because "our battle is not against flesh and blood" — otherwise our adversary would not be stronger — but since "our wrestling is against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against the spiritual forces of wickedness", therefore the prophet says: "O Lord, humble for me those stronger than I". For how should this so great force of spirits not be far more powerful than human frailty? But in this God "helps our weakness", in that the Apostle says: "I can do all things in him who strengthens me, Christ". These powers, then, are indeed stronger than we; but again, "Christ", who is in us and "strengthens" us, is stronger than all, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".
Judges 6:1 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 7
"The land rests" as long as sin rests. But the land is said to be moved—that is, those who dwell in the land—when sins have begun to move and disturb the souls of men. And this is why what the present reading now contains has been written. "And the land rested," it says, "for forty years. And the children of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian for seven years. And Midian prevailed over Israel." So then, as long as there was righteousness in the land—that is, in those who dwelt in the land—"the land" is said "to have rested"; but when iniquity increased and "they did evil in the sight of the Lord," then, it says, "the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian for seven years." Nor are the Midianites said to have prevailed over the people of the Lord as long as the people kept the Lord's precepts. But when it began to neglect the divine commandments, the hand of the enemy became stronger and mightier against it. And against that former people bodily enemies rose up when it had transgressed; but against us, who are called Israel according to the spirit, a spiritual enemy without doubt rises up, and when we neglect the commandments of God, when we despise the precepts of Christ, the hand of demons is made mightier against us, and we too are handed over to our enemies when we are deserted by grace.
Judges 6:2-4 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 7
But let us see what befalls those who are handed over for their sins. "And the children of Israel made for themselves," it says, "because of the face of Midian, dens in the mountains and in the caves and in the strongholds; and it came to pass, when a man of Israel had sown, that Midian and Amalek and the sons of the East came up against them; and they came upon them and destroyed all the fruits of the land, until one came to Gaza." These things, indeed, that one suffered who was Israel according to the flesh; he sowed the land, but because he had been handed over for his sins to the enemies rising up against him, instead of crops "he reaped corruption." But as for us, who are named Israel according to the spirit, let us consider what such thing can befall us. There is a time when we sow and the enemies cannot corrupt the seeds that we sow, they cannot lie in wait for our husbandry; but there is also a time when we sow and what we sow is corrupted. Let Paul the Apostle teach us about this difference in sowing. Hear, then, what he himself says: "he who sows," he says, "in the flesh, of the flesh shall reap corruption, and he who sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life eternal." These, then, are they whose seeds the Midianites corrupt, who "sow in the flesh." These are they whose "fruits are destroyed" and perish. But those seeds which "are sown in the spirit" the Midianites cannot corrupt. For the adversary powers cannot ascend to the spiritual fields and defile the fresh-broken ground of the spirit belonging to those who "do not sow upon thorns, but break up for themselves fresh ground." But this too must be added; for I wish to admonish both myself along with you concerning wariness over the seeds and diligence over the spiritual fruits. It frequently happens that someone, toiling much in spiritual work, has produced very many fruits and filled his barns with the crops of righteousness and stored up many good works in the inner chamber of his conscience; but afterward, if he grows negligent and after his labor inclines too readily toward pleasures and self-indulgence, all those seeds of good things and the fruits of holy work will be corrupted under the dominion of lust. For when sin has entered in secretly and taken captive the mind of a man, so that he no longer looks to the commandments of God nor willingly climbs the steep road of virtue, all the things that had before been gathered into the barns of conscience perish. Therefore, then, we must keep the admonition of the holy Scripture which says: "with all watchfulness guard your heart." "The heart must" therefore "be guarded" from every sin, and especially in the time of persecution. For if it should befall someone that at a certain time he gather the fruits of righteousness, seek out the works of the virtues, and cultivate himself with all the most approved disciplines, but in the time of persecution deny the faith, that man has emptied out all his stores, and out of all his goods he is suddenly rendered naked and empty, because the whole labor that was long sought and gathered only with much sweat is suddenly poured out, and, as the prophet says, "all his righteous deeds which he did shall not be remembered." Therefore, then, brothers, let us beseech the Lord, confessing to Him our weakness, that He "hand us not over into the hands of Midian," that He "hand not over to the beasts a soul that confesses to Him," that He hand us not over into the power of those who say: When will the time come that power be given us against the Christians, when will these be handed over into our hands who say that they have or know God? And even if we should be handed over and they receive power over us, let us pray to receive strength from God, that we may be able to endure, that our faith may become brighter amid pressures and tribulations, that through our patience their shamelessness may be overcome, and, as the Lord said, "in our patience we may gain our souls," because "tr…
Judges 6:3 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
Granted, the Midianites have gathered against Israel, they who are interpreted as "outside judgment." Granted, these have gathered against Israel, who are outside the judgment of God and "who have sinned outside the law and will perish outside the law." Granted, Amalek too has gathered, who himself is likewise interpreted as "a people that licks up." Granted, this nation too, earthly and given over to the belly and the gullet, has come to make war — a carnal Israel against the spiritual Israel. But what is this, that even the "sons of the East" are mingled with them and are said to come with them to make war on Israel? For my hearer says to me: if it had been written that the "sons" of the West "gathered with them," I would ask nothing; for you would tell me by the laws of allegory that the sons of the West are the sons of darkness, and that they join themselves to those nations, whether such as are outside the judgment of God or such as, given over to the belly, make war on those who strive to see God with the mind. But now, when it is said that the "sons of the East came with Midian and Amalek," how can these things be fittingly expounded? Let us see, then, whether in passages of Scripture so difficult we can find some sense worthy of the divine pages. Everyone who in any manner takes upon himself the name of Christ becomes a "son" "of the East." For thus it is written of Christ: "behold a man, the East is his name." Everyone, therefore, who takes the name of Christ is said to be a "son" "of the East"; but not always do those who receive the name of Christ also remain in the Church of Christ. If therefore you should see heretics who are indeed reckoned by the name of Christ, yet assail the Church of Christ and bring their arms against the faith of Christ, make war on the people of the Lord, and stir up wars against the catholic faith — do not hesitate to say of these that they are indeed "sons of the East," but that they come with the Midianites and with Amalek to assail the people of God, because together with pagans and with Jews the heretics too persecute the Church of God. And I think that it is these who are designated in the "sons of the East."
Judges 6:33 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
"All Midian, therefore," it says, "and Amalek and the sons of the East gathered together and went up and came upon them and pitched their camp in the valley of Jezreel." These, who wish to assail the people of God, "pitch their camp in the valleys," in low and lowly places, "in the valley," it says, "of Jezreel." Now we find that Jezreel is interpreted as "the seed of God." Do you see where the adversaries "pitch their camp"? They did not dare to go there where the "fruits of the Spirit" are seen to have already been born, but where the seed of God still lies, where the fruit has not yet come up. For he who "went out to sow" "sows the word" over every place, but hear the Lord himself saying what the seed of God is wont to suffer: "some," he says, "fell by the wayside, and the birds of heaven come and snatch it away." Which, interpreting in what follows, he himself says: "but those who were sown by the wayside are they who hear the word of God and receive it with joy; but the devil comes and takes away from their heart what was sown." So therefore these too now come to the seed of God and wish to "take it away from the heart of those in whom it was sown," because they find them placed in the valleys and pursuing all that is lowest. For they belong to those who receive the word of God humbly and unworthily and, so to speak, with a Jewish understanding, and therefore the demons are able to "snatch it away from their heart." But he who ascends from the humility of the letter to the heights of the spirit, and, fleeing carnal understanding, pursues among the loftier things those which are of the Spirit of God — from him neither the Midianites nor the Amalekites can snatch anything, nor indeed will the "sons of the East" themselves be able to plunder him, set as he is upon the lofty summit of spiritual understanding.
Judges 6:34-35 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
They, therefore, "pitch their camp in the valleys." "But the Spirit," it says, "of God strengthened Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, upon the horn of the trumpet, and called Abiezer after him." The continuity of the exposition, indeed, required a different order, but because we are now speaking not so much to comment on the Scriptures as to console the people concerning those things which have been read, we treat here and there, as they occur, of individual points. "He called," it says, "Abiezer after him," who indeed was nowhere at all. Now "Abiezer" is interpreted as "the help of my father." Therefore Gideon seems to have called upon not some man, but the help of the highest Father. Meanwhile he also sends to summon reinforcements. The peoples come together, and the whole army is gathered to Gideon.
Judges 6:36-40 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
"And then," it says, "Gideon said to God: if you save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, behold, here I am, and I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; and if indeed dew falls upon the fleece and there is dryness upon all the earth, I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken. And it was done so." Since there are so many and innumerable signs or prodigies which Gideon could have asked from God to confirm God's promise, why did it seem good to him, after the angelic voice and the heavenly promise, to ask of God this so novel a sign? For he says: "I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor, and if there is dew upon the fleece only and dryness upon all the earth, I shall be confident that you will save Israel by my hand." And when Gideon had asked this sign of God, he obtained its fulfillment. But granted, O Gideon, that you have obtained the efficacy of the sign; why do you also take the "fleece of wool" and "wring it out into a basin"? What moved you to do this? But granted that you obtained the first sign, why did you ask that a second sign also be given, in a reversed and altered order? For perhaps someone of those who listen more attentively to what is read says that these things do not seem to agree with what is written: "you shall not tempt the Lord your God," which the law commanded. But the outcome of the matter teaches that nothing was done against the commandment; for neither would God hear a petition demanding something against the law. But now, when we see that in the first sign "dew fell upon the fleece of wool, but on all the earth there was dryness," and in the second "dew fell upon all the earth, but there was dryness in the fleece" — in which Gideon also received confidence that the Lord would by his hand save Israel — the meaning of this mystery must be considered. Concerning it I recall that one also of our predecessors, in his little books, called the "fleece of wool" the people of Israel, and set down the rest of the earth as the rest of the nations, and said that the "dew" which fell "upon the fleece" is the word of God, which had been granted from heaven to that people alone. For upon Israel alone had come the "dew" of the divine legislation; but "dryness" held all the nations, because no moisture of the divine utterance was poured into them. But the meaning of the second sign, altered to the contrary, in which he says: "that upon all the earth the dew should descend, but upon the fleece dryness should remain" — such a meaning is discovered. Behold this whole people which throughout all the earth has been gathered from the nations, now having in itself the divine dew; behold it watered with the dew of Moses, bedewed with the writings of the prophets; behold it growing green also with the moisture of the Gospel and of the apostles; but that fleece, that is, the Jewish people, suffering the dryness and aridity of the word of God, according to what is written: "the children of Israel shall be a long time without a king, without a prince, without a prophet; there shall be no altar nor victim nor sacrifice." You behold how great a "dryness" abides among them, how great an "aridity" of the divine discourse befalls them. These things, indeed, as it is fitting to confess, have been furnished to us from the labor of our elders; but since we too, having heard a word from the wise, as it is written, ought to commend it and add to it, let us see what we too may build up upon such things. For indeed, when I was often examining the seventy-first psalm within myself, this moved me: that, when it describes the coming of Christ in it, in that very psalm it also asserts that this shall come to pass: "and he shall descend," it says, "like rain upon a fleece, and like raindrops dripping upon the earth." A "fleece" is named here, a "fleece" is written also in the psalms. For "he shall descend like rain," it says, "upon a fleece." He "descended," therefore, "upon" that "flee…
Judges 6:37-38 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
But that also, which Gideon says: "I will place the fleece" — not just anywhere, not in a field nor in a woodland, but "on the threshing-floor" — how does it seem to you? "On the threshing-floor," where the "harvest" is: "for the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." "I will place," he says, "the fleece" there, where the "harvest" is. What had moved the holy man Gideon, or what had seemed good to him, that he should do this? For he foresaw through the Spirit that Christ "gathers" his people "into the threshing-floor" and there cleanses him, "holding the winnowing-fan in his hand," and there separates the "chaff" from the wheat. Not without cause, therefore, did so great and such a man — of whom the holy Apostle too, writing to the Hebrews, makes mention in the catalogue of the prophets — choose the threshing-floor for placing the fleece; nor without cause did he "wring out the fleece into a basin and fill it with water." Let us seek concerning this also in the holy Scriptures, whether any occasion of this understanding too is afforded us. Let us come to the Gospel. We find there our Lord and Savior "putting off his garments, and, girded with a linen cloth, pouring water into a basin, and washing the feet of his disciples." You see, then, that the prophets foreshadowed these things, which were to be fulfilled in the last times through the Lord. That "water," therefore, which "Jesus poured into the basin," was the dew of heavenly grace, with which "he washed the feet of his disciples." Whence also he rightly said to them: "but you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." But we too, if only we offer our feet, the Lord Jesus is ready to "wash the feet" of our soul and to cleanse them with the heavenly dew, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the word of doctrine. For he willed that not the Apostles alone should be "clean," but also all who believe through his word. And to all believers he says that which he said to Peter: "unless I wash you, you shall have no part with me." For it is certain that no one "has part with Christ" unless he has been washed and made "clean." Come, I beseech you, Lord Jesus, Son of God, "put off the garments" which you put on for my sake, and gird yourself for my sake, and "pour water into a basin and wash the feet" of your servants, wash away the filth of your sons and daughters. "Wash the feet" of our soul, that we, imitating you and following you, may "put off" our old "garments" and say: "by night I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on?", and may say again: "I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them?". For as soon as you "wash" my "feet," may you also make me recline with you, that I may hear from you: "you call me Lord and master; and you say rightly, for I am. If therefore I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you too wash one another's feet." I too, therefore, now wish to "wash the feet" of my brethren, to "wash the feet" of my fellow-disciples. And for that reason I take the water which I draw from the fountains of Israel, or rather which I "wring out" from the Israelite "fleece." For I now "wring out" water from the "fleece" of the book of Judges, and at another time water from the "fleece" of the Kingdoms, and water from the "fleece" of Isaiah or Jeremiah; and I "pour" it "into the basin" of my soul, conceiving the sense in my heart, and I take the feet of those who offer and prepare themselves for washing, and, so far as I am able, I desire to "wash the feet" of my brethren and to fulfill the commandment of the Lord, that by the word of doctrine the hearers may be cleansed from the filth of their sins, that they may cast away from themselves all the uncleanness of their vices and have clean "feet," with which they may rightly walk "to the preparation of the Gospel of peace," so that all of us together, purified in Christ through the word, may not be cast out from the bridal chamber of the bridegroom on account of filthy garments, but, whit…
Judges 7:2 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 9
Vast was the multitude that had been gathered against Israel, so great that for its number it was compared to "locusts". "And their camels", it says, "were like the sand which is beyond number upon the shore of the sea". Let us see, then, how so countless a multitude of enemies could be overcome: there went out, it says, thirty-two thousand armed men from the sons of Israel with Gideon to fight against all that multitude. And God gave answer to Gideon, saying: "The multitude that is with you is great". And what if "the multitude is great"? Does not a more numerous army in wars afford safer defenses? By no means, He says, for divine battles are not carried out as human ones are. The work of the divine power is not made illustrious if it is propped up by human supports, because: "a king is not made safe by the greatness of his own power". Therefore, lest perhaps Israel should boast and in its vaunting claim a share of the victory, the Lord says to Gideon: "The people with you are many; I will not deliver Midian into their hands, lest perhaps Israel exult against Me, saying that my own hand has saved me."
Judges 7:3 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 9
Therefore speak in the ears of the people, saying: Whoever is timid and fearful of heart, let him return. And there returned from Mount Gilead, out of the people, twenty-two thousand men, and there remained ten thousand. Let us see, then, first, what it means that He says: "timid and fearful of heart"; for two things are named by which human frailty is convicted, that is, the "timid" and the "fearful" of heart. He may seem "timid" who at the first sight trembles at the encounter, yet is not terrified with his whole heart, but can be restored and heartened again. But the fearful man is he who, the vice as it were now taking root, is terrified by thought alone even before he sees the evils, rolling an icy dread through his limbs, so that he is unmanned not so much by the sight of evils as by the very hearing and expectation of them; and therefore He added: "fearful of heart"; for this vice, now in the "heart", remains fixed even in the inner parts of the soul. What then? Do we say that only at that time did Gideon say to the people: "If anyone is timid and fearful of heart", let him depart from the battles, forsake the wars, abandon the contests of brave men? Or does even today the "commander of our army", our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, cry out to His soldiers and say: "If anyone is timid and fearful of heart", let him not come to My wars? For this is what, in other words indeed but in the same sense, He says in the Gospels: "He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me", and: "He who does not hate his father and his mother, and his brothers and sisters, and moreover even his own soul, is not worthy of Me", and again: "He who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be My disciple". Does not Christ in these words plainly separate and set apart the "timid and fearful" from His camp? All of you, then, who wish to follow the warfare of Christ, who desire to be in His camp, banish far from you the fear of the mind, banish far the dread of the heart, so that with confidence the soldier of Christ may say: "If camps stand together against me, my heart shall not fear; if battle rise up against me, in this will I hope", and may confidently say: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I tremble?". But do not let such warfare deter you: it contains nothing difficult in itself, nothing arduous or impossible. Do you wish to know how easy it is to fulfill these things for those who wage war out of faith? In these camps even women too are often accustomed to conquer, because the fighting is done not by the strength of the body but by the power of faith. In what went before, in this very little book of Judges, we read of the triumphs of the woman Deborah, and no unbelieving dread disturbed her womanly mind. And why should I recall that magnificent Judith, most noble of all women? who, when affairs were already almost lost, did not tremble to come to the rescue alone, and alone to expose herself and her own head to the slaying of the utterly monstrous Holofernes, and went forth to war relying not on arms nor on war-horses nor on military supports, but on strength of soul and the confidence of faith; by counsel together with daring she destroyed the enemy; and the liberty of the fatherland, which the men had lost, a woman restored. And why do we unroll for you examples of the ancients from so far off? Before our own eyes we have often seen it done, that women and girls still of tender age have borne for the sake of martyrdom the tyrant's torments, to whom, added to the weakness of their sex, was the frailty of their still youthful life. So then, in those who wage war for the truth, and also those who wage war for God, not bodily but spiritual fortitude is required, because the victory is sought not by iron javelins but by the darts of prayers, and it is faith that furnishes endurance in the contest. Whence also the holy Apostle equips the soldie…
Judges 7:4 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 9
But after these "twenty-two thousand departed", the divine discourse adds still further and "says to Gideon": "Still", it says, "the people are many; bring them down to the water, and there I will test them for you". As I see it, those who were first rejected had not even gone down "into the water", but were still marking themselves out as catechumens, and were so deterred by the vice of dread that they did not even go down to the saving washing: those, then, were rejected in this way. But these second ones come "to the water", that they may be tested there. And how they are tested, let us see:
Judges 7:5-7 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 9
"And the Lord said", it says, "to Gideon: everyone who shall lap the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set him apart; and everyone who shall bend his knees to drink, you shall set him aside. And the number", it says, "of those who lapped the water in their hand or with the tongue was three hundred men, but all the rest bent their knees to drink the water. And the Lord said to Gideon: by these three hundred men who lapped I will save you and deliver Midian into your hand". In almost all the deeds of the ancients vast mysteries are signified, as we see happening also in this passage, because those who go down "to the water", that is, who come to the grace of baptism, ought not to fall down to the earth nor "bend their knees" and yield to the temptations that are to come, but to stand bravely and steadfastly, as the prophet also said: "Lift up the hands that hang down and the loosened knees", and: "Make straight the going of your paths". You have come to the water of baptism; this is the beginning of the contest and of the spiritual battle, from here arises for you the commencement of the fight against the devil. If you are the more slack, if you can easily be made to bend, how will you fight, how will you stand against the wiles of the devil? Therefore the Apostle also cries out: "Stand therefore, and do not again cling to the yoke of bondage", and again he says: "Stand in the Lord", and a third time he says: "For we now live, if you stand in the Lord". That one, then, is approved, that one is chosen, who, after coming to the waters of baptism, knows not how to be bent toward earthly and bodily necessities, who does not indulge the vices nor is laid prostrate through thirst for sin. But as for its saying that they "lapped the water with the hand or the tongue", this seems to me written not without a certain significance of a mystery, namely that the soldiers of Christ ought to work with hand and tongue, that is, by deed and by word, because "he who teaches and does, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven". And that Scripture also set down the likeness of a dog lapping — this animal seems to me to be named in this place for the reason that above all other animals it is said to keep love for its own master, and neither by time nor by injuries is its affection reported to be blotted out in it. Three hundred only, then, who prefigured the image of this mystery, these are the chosen, these the approved, these consecrated to victory, who by the very mystery of the number could prevail over the adversaries. For they are three hundred, who multiply a hundred by three and bear the number of the perfect Trinity, under which number the whole army of Christ is reckoned. Among whom let us wish that we too may deserve to be enrolled.
Judges 7:16-20 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 9
Yet how do these fight? "Pitchers", it says, they carry, "and lamps and horn trumpets in their hands", and thus, it says, they come against those countless multitudes of the enemy, among whom were "camels like the sand of the sea". And when they had come to the battle, "with the horn trumpets", it says, "they sounded". And they let go the "pitchers" from their hands, and "they were shattered". But then, snatching up the lamps, they rush upon the adversaries, and at the same time crash out with the trumpets. See how the chosen soldiers of God fight with lamps. For thus had Christ armed them, saying: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning", and again: "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven". With such lamps kindled, then, it befits the soldiers of Christ to fight, shining with the light of their works and with the splendor of their deeds. But what are the "horn trumpets" on which "they blow the trumpet"? He who speaks of heavenly things, who discourses of spiritual things, who reveals the "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven", he sounds the "trumpet"; he speaks of the "trumpet" who speaks of great and greatest things, who lays open the knowledge of Christ to human ears. But why is the "trumpet" also called "of horn"? Because it is also said of the holy one: "his horn shall be exalted in glory". Whence also each man's "trumpet" is called "of horn" in this, that he discourses the manifold knowledge of Christ and the mysteries of His cross, which is signified in the horn. Warring, then, with this "trumpet", and fighting with this, we overcome the strangers and turn the enemies to flight, even if "their multitude be like locusts". For to "locusts" is compared the multitude of demons, who have a seat neither in heaven nor on the earth. Let there go before us also in this battle the light of works, the power of knowledge, the preaching of the divine word. Let us too fight, singing together in "hymns and psalms and spiritual songs" and "crying out to God", that we may deserve to obtain from Him the victory in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".
Judges 11:35-36 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.276-78
The remaining sacrifices, of which those relating to the law are a symbol, are akin to this sacrifice. But in addition, the other sacrifices akin to this sacrifice seem to me to be the shedding of the blood of the noble martyrs. It was not in vain that the disciple John saw them standing beside the heavenly altar. "But who is wise, that he shall understand these things? Or intelligent, and he shall know them?"3Now comprehend, even if to a limited extent, the more spiritual sense of such sacrifices which cleanse those for whom they are offered; one must understand the sense of the sacrifice of the daughter of Jephthah who was offered as a burnt offering because of the vow of him who conquered the children of Ammon. She who was offered as a burnt offering consented to this vow, for, when her father said, "I have opened my mouth to the Lord against you," she said to him, "And if you have opened your mouth to the Lord against me, perform your vow." Such accounts give an appearance of great cruelty to God to whom such sacrifices are offered for humanity's salvation. We need a generous and perceptive spirit in order to refute the reproaches made against providence and, at the same time, to make a defense of all the sacrifices insofar as they are rather mysterious and beyond human nature.
Judges 16:30 — ON PRAYER 14.5
The Spirit, therefore, "asks" and "intercedes," but we "pray." And Joshua's words commanding the sun to stand over [Gibeon] seem to me to be an intercession also.… And in Judges, Samson in my opinion said in intercession: "Let me die with the foreigners—when he bent in his strength and the house fell upon the princes and all the people that were there." Even though it is not written that Joshua and Samson "interceded" but that they "said," nevertheless their words seem to be an "intercession," which we must judge to be different from a "prayer," if we are to give words their proper meaning.
Jeremiah 1:2-3 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1
God is ready at hand to do good, but slow to punish those who deserve punishment. Indeed, though He is able to bring punishment upon those condemned by Him in silence, without giving warning beforehand, He by no means does this; but even when He condemns, He speaks, since His purpose in speaking is that the one about to be condemned may turn back from the condemnation. Of these things one can take many examples from the Scriptures, but a few of those that fall to hand in the present suffice, so that we may also come to the aim of the passages set before us. For the Ninevites had become sinners and were condemned by God: "Yet three days, and Nineveh was about to be overthrown." God did not wish to condemn her in silence, but, giving them a place for repentance and conversion, He sent a Hebrew prophet, so that, when he had said, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," those who had been condemned might not be condemned, but, having repented, might obtain the mercy of God. Those in Sodom and Gomorrah had been condemned, as is clear from the words of God to Abraham; but nevertheless the angels did their own part, wishing to save those who did not wish to be saved, saying to Lot: "Are there for you here any sons-in-law, or sons, or daughters?"—not being ignorant that those men would not follow Lot, but doing what belonged to their own kindness and love for humanity, and at the same time to that of Him who sent them. You will find the like also in the matters concerning Jeremiah. The time of his prophecy is recorded, when it began and until when he prophesied. Then the one who reads, if he does not attend to the reading nor examine the intent of the passages written, will say that it is a mere narrative, and that it has been recorded when Jeremiah began to prophesy and after how long a time of prophesying he ceased prophesying. What, then, is this narrative to me? I have read it, I have learned that he began to prophesy "in the days of Josiah the son of Amos, king of Judah, until the thirteenth year of his reign"; then "it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah," that he prophesied "until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah." And I have learned that his prophecy extended through three kings "until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month." What, then, are we taught through these things, if we attend to the reading? God condemned Jerusalem because of her sins, and they had been judged to be abandoned into captivity. Nevertheless the God who loves humanity, when the appointed time had drawn near, sends also this prophet before the third reign, the one under which the captivity fell, so that those who were willing, having understood, might repent through the prophetic words. He sent forth a prophet to prophesy also under the second king after the first, and under the third, up to the very times of the captivity. For the long-suffering God gave a reprieve even, as one might say, up to a single day before the captivity, urging those who heard to repent, so that the sorrows of the captivity might cease; whence it is written that "until the captivity of Jerusalem Jeremiah prophesied, until the fifth month." The captivity began, and still he prophesied, as if to say: You have become captives; even so, repent; for if you repent, the affairs of the captivity will not go forward, but the mercy of God will be established over you. We have, then, something useful from the record that contains the times of the prophecy, namely, that God, according to His love for humanity, urges those who hear not to suffer the things of the captivity. Such things concern us too. If we sin, we also are going to become captives. For the "handing over of such a one to Satan" differs in no way from handing over those from Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar; for as they were handed over to him because of their sins, so we are handed over because of our sins to Satan, who is a Neb…
Jeremiah 1:5 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1
Now after the prologue it is written that "the word of the Lord came to him," clearly to Jeremiah. And what does the word of the Lord say to him? Something exceptional beyond what was said to the rest of the prophets. For this we have found said to none of the prophets. Abraham was declared a prophet in the words, "he is a prophet and will pray for you," and yet God did not say to him: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you." But Abraham was sanctified at some later point, when he came forth from his land and from his kindred and from his father's house; from the promise Isaac was born, and we have not found even to him this saying spoken. And what need have I to enumerate what follows? Jeremiah obtained an exceptional gift, that of "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you."
Jeremiah 1:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:167-68
We forget that the words "Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness" apply to each person. When we fail to remember the one who formed a person in the womb, and formed all people's hearts individually and understands all their works, we do not perceive that God is a helper of those who are lowly and inferior, a protector of the weak, a provider of shelter of those who have been given up in despair and Savior of those who have been given up as hopeless.
Jeremiah 1:5-10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1
We are not ignorant that some refer these things, as being too great for Jeremiah, to our Savior and Lord; and one must know that most of them are in accord with Him and can be referred to the Savior, which I will set forth; but a few of the things said to Jeremiah press hard upon the argument, being unable, as they can with respect to the many, to be fitted to the Savior. What, then, are the things that fit the Savior? "To all to whom I shall send you, you shall go, and according to all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid before their face, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." These would not yet seem to be referred to the Savior; but what follows—"and the Lord stretched out His hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down"—presses hard upon the interpretation concerning Jeremiah. What nations did Jeremiah root out, what kingdoms did he overthrow? For it is written: "Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down." And what authority did Jeremiah have "to destroy," which is said as if to Jeremiah in the phrase "and to destroy"? And how many so great did Jeremiah build up, that it should be said "and to build"? Jeremiah says: "I have not benefited, nor has anyone benefited me." How then has "to build and to plant" been given to him? How will "to plant" fit Jeremiah? These things, referred to the Savior, do not press hard upon the interpreter, since Jeremiah in these matters is a symbol of the Savior. But the things that are to be set forth press hard, even upon the very most intelligent man who wishes to show how these too can fit the Savior: "And I said: O You who are, Master, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak." He who is wisdom, who is the power of God, who has brought to us "the fullness of the Godhead, which dwelt in Him bodily"—how, then, can "I do not know how to speak" fit the Savior? But also "I am young" is forbidden with respect to the Savior, as though He spoke it not rightly. For if the Lord says to him, "Do not say this," it is clear that He forbids it as being not rightly said. These things, then, do not fit the Savior. But those others do not seem to abash us when referred to the Savior. Now to say that these things are referred to Jeremiah, while those others are referred to the Savior, is not difficult. Yet the fair-minded man will be very much pressed at this point, seeing that to cut, within a sequence of words, the words spoken whether to Jeremiah or to the Savior, and to say that these, since they are lesser, fit not Christ but Jeremiah, and those, since they are greater than Jeremiah, fit not Jeremiah but Christ—this is the mark of the ill-disposed. Let the whole, then, be referred to Jeremiah; and let these things that seem to be too great for Jeremiah also be interpreted.
Jeremiah 1:6-8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1
Someone of those who hear will say to me: Exercise the other argument as well, and try to present all the things written as fitting the Savior. Concerning the second matters, do not be anxious; for it is evident that the Savior rooted out the kingdoms of the devil and pulled down the nations, having destroyed the heathen life. Here, in what seems ill-omened as regards the Savior, exercise the argument somehow, how the Savior can say: "I do not know how to speak, for I am young," and what follows. Do you see that the argument is hard pressed? We know the Savior as Lord. We seek, according to the worth of the passage and according to the truth, to refer these things to the Savior. We must take the Scriptures as witnesses; for our undertakings are without witnesses, and expositions without witnesses are untrustworthy. And "By the mouth of two and three witnesses shall every word stand" fits the case of expositions rather than of human beings, so that I may establish the words of the interpretation by taking two witnesses from the New and Old Testament, and by taking three witnesses from the gospel, from a prophet, from an apostle; for thus shall every word stand. How, then, are we able to refer these things to the Savior? Bring the Old Testament as a witness: "For before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness so as to choose the good." And these things are said outright concerning the Savior in Isaiah: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." And there it is added: "Before the child knows." But if we must also take an example from the gospel—Jesus, not having become a man, but while still being a child, since He "emptied Himself," was advancing (for no one who has been perfected advances, but he advances who is in need of advancement); therefore "He advanced in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men," coming down here, and having emptied Himself, He received again those things from which "He emptied Himself," having willingly emptied Himself. What is strange in His having also advanced "in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men," and in that being truly said of Him: "Before he knows good or evil he shall choose the good and refuses wickedness," and the things I set forth from Isaiah? But someone will say: Even if you can refer "he does not know" to the Savior, and can say such a thing of the Savior and take Him to be a child, does it not offend you to say these things concerning the Only-begotten, concerning the firstborn of all creation, concerning Him who before conception was announced by good tidings according to the words, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you"—and do you say: He does not know how to speak? See whether you can behold anything worthy of note and great concerning the Savior in this passage: that, not knowing certain things, He is greater in not knowing them than in knowing them. And I make use of His own voice testifying that He does not know certain things. He says, at any rate, to those who assert to Him: "Did we not eat in your name, and drink in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works?"—"Depart from me, I never knew you." Does, then, the saying "I never knew you," said there by the Savior, present His power as lesser, or as greater and more wonderful, in that He did not know the worse and those who are perishing? For He knew the superior and better things, and "the Lord knew those who are His," and "if anyone is ignorant, he is not known." Therefore the sinner is not known by God. Someone of the hearers will say to me: You have shown that He does not know the sinners, you have shown that He does not know those who work lawlessness; for they are not worthy of His knowledge. How then will you present as great and glorious the saying "I do not know how to speak," said by the Savior? To speak is a human thing; to speak is to make u…
Jeremiah 1:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:184
But our present question may, perhaps, be solved in this way, that as every man is a man of God, simply because God created him, but not every man is called a man of God, but only he who has devoted himself to God, such as Elijah and those who are called men of God in the Scriptures, thus every man might be said in ordinary language to be sent from God, but in the absolute sense no one is to be spoken of in this way who has not entered this life for a divine ministry and in the service of the salvation of mankind. We do not find it said of any one but the saints that he is sent by God. It is said of Isaiah as we showed before; it is also said of Jeremiah, "To whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go"; and it is said of Ezekiel, "I send thee to nations that are rebellious and have not believed in Me." The examples, however, do not expressly speak of a mission from the region outside life into life, and as it is a mission into life that we are enquiring about, they may seem to have little bearing on our subject. But there is nothing absurd in our transferring the argument derived from them to our question. They tell us that it is only the saints, and we were speaking of them, whom God is said to send, and in this sense they may be applied to the case of those who are sent into this life.
Jeremiah 1:9 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:1
We pray that words may be given us, as it is written in the book of Jeremiah that the Lord said to the prophet: "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth as fire. See, I have set you this day over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build and to plant."
Jeremiah 1:9 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1
"For I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. And the Lord stretched out his hand toward me, and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me." Observe the differences between Jeremiah and Isaiah. Isaiah says, "Having unclean lips, in the midst of a people having unclean lips I dwell, and I saw with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth." And since he confessed that he had no unclean deeds, but only trifling words (for up to that point he was a sinner), the Lord did not "stretch out his hand," but "one of the Seraphim touched his lips with his hand, and said: Behold, I have taken away your iniquities." But since this man was sanctified "from the womb," neither are tongs sent to him, nor a coal "from the altar" (he had nothing worthy of the fire), but the very hand of the Lord touched him. Therefore he says: "The Lord stretched out his hand toward me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Behold, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root up."
Jeremiah 1:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:8.3
In sacred language God is called a fire. For instance, Scripture says, "Our God is a consuming fire." It also speaks as follows concerning the substance of the angels when it says, "He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire." In another place, "The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush." We have, moreover, received a commandment to be "fervent in spirit," which undoubtedly means that the Word of God is hot and fiery. The prophet Jeremiah also hears from him who gave him his answer, "Behold, I have put my words into your mouth like a fire." Since God, then, is a fire, and the angels a flame of fire and all the saints are fervent in spirit, so, on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God are undoubtedly said to have cooled in their affection for him and to have become cold. For the Lord also says that "because iniquity has grown, the love of many will grow cold."
Jeremiah 1:10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 1
Everyone who has received words from God and has the grace of the heavenly words has received them for the purpose of "rooting out and pulling down nations and kingdoms." But if it is said that everyone who has received words from God "roots out" "nations and kingdoms," do not understand the nations and the kingdoms in a bodily sense for me, but, having observed that human souls are ruled over by sin according to what is said by the apostle—"Let not sin therefore reign in our mortal body"—and seeing also the many kinds of sins, interpret figuratively the nations and the kingdoms as well, that is, the evil things that are in the souls of human beings, which are rooted out and pulled down by the words of God given whether to Jeremiah or to anyone whatever. And one can fit both the first things, those that press hard as regards the Savior, to Jeremiah, and the second things to Jeremiah, who knew how to interpret figuratively.
Jeremiah 1:13 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
But let it set this candlestick of lamps in the south, that it may look toward the north. For, the light being kindled, that is, with a watchful heart, it ought always to look toward the north and to observe "him who is from the north"; just as the prophet also says that he sees "a kindled cauldron, or pot, and its face from the face of the north"; for "from the north are kindled the evils of all the earth". Let it therefore, watchful and solicitous and burning, ever behold the cunning devices of the devil and ever look from what quarter temptation is about to come, from what quarter the enemy rushes in, from what quarter the foe creeps up. For the Apostle Peter also says that "your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour".
Jeremiah 2:21-22 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.6
Let us try, therefore, to discuss the third exposition also, according to the moral topic. If there is anyone who, while evils increase and vices overflow, is able to turn himself away from fluid and perishing and falling things and to hear the word of God and the heavenly precepts, this one builds within his heart an ark of salvation and consecrates within himself, so to speak, a library of the divine word, and places in it length and breadth and height — faith, charity, and hope. He stretches the faith of the Trinity to the length of life and immortality, he founds the breadth of charity by the affection of pardon and kindness, he raises the height of hope to the heavenly and lofty things; for, walking upon the earth, he has his "conversation in the heavens." But the sum of his acts he brings back to one. For he knows that "all indeed run, but one receives the prize" — namely, the one who has not been manifold through the variety of thoughts and the instability of mind. But this library he builds not out of rough and unpolished timbers, but out of squared ones directed according to the line of equity — that is, not out of the volumes of secular authors, but out of the prophetic and Apostolic ones. For these are the ones who, hewn by diverse temptations, with all vices cut away and excised, keep a squared life balanced on every side. For the authors of secular books can indeed be called "lofty timbers" and "shady timbers" — for "under every lofty and leafy tree" Israel is accused of having committed fornication — because they indeed speak lofty things and use flowery eloquence, yet they did not act as they spoke; and therefore they cannot be named "squared timbers," because in them life and word by no means balance out.
Jeremiah 2:21 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2
"God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; for he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are salutary, and in them there is no poison of destruction, nor is the kingdom of Hades upon the earth." Then, passing over a little of the text, I will say whence death entered: "but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world." If, then, God has made everything that is best concerning us, while we ourselves have created for ourselves wickedness and sins — for this reason here too the beginning of the reading in the prophet says, as it were in a manner of raising a difficulty, to those who have acquired in their soul a bitterness contrary to the sweetness which God fashioned for it: "How were you turned to bitterness, O alien vine?" As if it said: God did not make lameness, but made all men sound of foot; what, then, has become the cause of those who are lamed? And God made all the members sound at the outset, but what has become the cause of some suffering harm? In the same way the soul came to be "according to the image" not of the first man only, but of every man. For the words "let us make man according to our image and likeness" reach unto all men. And just as in Adam there is that which is prior — which most people understand as the "according to the image" of what was taken up together with him, when because of sin he bore "the image of the man of dust" — so in all men the "according to the image of God" is prior to the worse image. We, being sinners, "have borne the image of the man of dust"; let us, repenting, "bear the image of the heavenly man." Yet the creation came to be in the image of the heavenly man. Here, then, the word is at a loss, speaking reprovingly to those who sin: "How were you turned to bitterness, O alien vine? For I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true." It has been said in what precedes, and taking up a few points again I will persuade you that God planted a good vine, the soul of man, but each one, having turned aside, has become contrary to the will of the one who created him. "But I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly" — not "true" in part, nor partly true and partly false, but — "I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true; how were you turned?" — When I made you wholly a true vine, how were you turned to bitterness and become an alien vine?
Jeremiah 2:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
Just as Paul too glories that the observances of the law, and all the glory of the Jewish institution, were to him only as dung, that he might be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God. As Paul, therefore, having received the faith of Christ, did not keep his own vineyard — namely, the observances of the Jewish tradition; and perhaps he did not keep it because, when the true vine had been planted by God, it was turned into the bitterness of a strange vine, and their vineyard was already the vine of Sodom, and their branch from Gomorrah, and the cluster of bitterness in them, and their wine the fury of dragons, and the incurable fury of asps.
Jeremiah 2:21-22 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 3:2.1
The God who "brings forth the sun on the evil and the good" is a desert to no one. To no one is he who "rains on the just and unjust" ever a land made dry. How is he a desert, when he brings forth the day and causes the night to rest? How is he a desert, when he causes the land to bear fruit? How is he a desert, when he provides for each person in his soul so that it is endowed with reason, so that it can grasp knowledge and exercise its intelligence, and in the body so that it has healthy sense faculties? And so with respect to the way of what is universal, God is not a desert.
Jeremiah 2:22 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2
After this let us look at the words: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord." Did some sinful soul suppose that, by taking nitre and washing herself with perceptible nitre, she would cease from the stain and cease from sin? And did someone imagine that, by taking this soapwort which springs up from the earth, and washing and scrubbing himself with it, his soul would be cleansed — since here the word says to her who was turned to bitterness and became an alien vine: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord"? But one must know that the word has every power; and just as it has the power of every writing, so the word has the power of every medicine, and it is the power of everything that cleanses, and is most effective for scouring: "for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword." And whatever you may say, where there is need, this lies in the power of the word. There is, then, a certain word that is nitre, and there is a certain word that is soapwort, which, when spoken, cleanses such filth. But since not every sin is healed by such a word which is nitre, and by such a word which is soapwort — but there are sins that need neither nitre nor soapwort — it is said to her who thinks she has sins such as can be washed away by nitre and soapwort: "though you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soapwort for yourself, you are stained before me in your iniquities, says the Lord." And just as of wounds there are some that are healed with a poultice, and others healed with oil, and others need a bandage and are thus made whole, but there are other wounds concerning which it is said: "there is no poultice to apply, nor oil, nor bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire" — so there are certain sins which defile the soul, and for these sins a man needs a word of nitre, a word of soapwort; but there are certain sins which are not healed in this way, for they are not even comparable to filth. Therefore the Lord in Isaiah, knowing the differences of sins, see how he says: "the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse away the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning." Filth and blood: filth by a spirit of judgment, blood by a spirit of burning. If you have sinned, though not "unto death," you are defiled. "The Lord will wash away," then, "the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse away the blood from their midst." Then there is the correspondence: for "the filth" a "spirit of judgment," and for "the blood" a "spirit of burning"; and the many of us, when we commit worse sins, have need not of nitre nor of multiplying soapwort, but of the spirit of burning. For this reason Jesus baptizes (perhaps now I find the meaning) "in [the] Holy Spirit and fire." Not that he baptizes the same person "in the Holy Spirit and fire," but the holy one "in the Holy Spirit," while the one who, after believing, after being counted worthy of the Holy Spirit, has again sinned, he washes in "fire" — so that the same person is not baptized by Jesus "in the Holy Spirit and fire." Blessed, then, is the one baptized in the Holy Spirit and having no need of the baptism that comes from fire. But thrice-wretched is that one who has need to be baptized with fire. Yet Jesus has both. For "there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up out of the root." A "rod" upon those who are punished, a "flower" upon the righteous. Thus "God is a consuming fire," and "God is light": a consuming fire to sinners, light to the righteous and holy. And "blessed is the one who has a part in the first resurrection," the one who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who is the one saved in another resurrection? The one who has need o…
Jeremiah 2:31 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 3
At the beginning of what has been read, the Lord says concerning Israel that he did not become a "wilderness" to him, nor "a parched land." Who then, coming to this passage, would not inquire, examining the intention of what is written? Grant that God did not become a wilderness in Israel, that he did not become in Israel a parched land: has the Lord then become a wilderness to Israel today, or is he now to him a parched land? And what of this: when to Israel he was neither a wilderness nor a parched land, was he to the nations a wilderness and a parched land? For if to all he is always not a wilderness, and to all he is always not a parched land, what need was there for it to be said to Israel in particular and by way of exception, "Have I become a wilderness to the house of Israel, or a parched land?" But it is possible to come first to the universal benefactions of God, and then, after his universal benefactions, to the particular ones. To no one is God a wilderness, "making his sun to rise upon the wicked and" — and to no one is he a parched land, "sending rain upon" the just "and the unjust." How is he a wilderness, who makes the day to rise and the night for rest? How is he a wilderness, who makes the earth to bear fruit? How is he a wilderness, who administers each person according to the soul, that it may be rational, that it may take up knowledge, that its faculty of understanding may be trained with respect to the body, that it may have "the organs of perception" in vigor? Therefore, as regards the universal account, God is a wilderness to no one. But as regards the particular account, I come to the affairs of Israel and say: he was neither a wilderness nor a parched land, when in Egypt he was working the signs and the wonders for the people. But if there was any time when they were forsaken, he became, as it were, a wilderness to them — though he himself was not a wilderness. When, however, to Israel he was not a wilderness nor a parched land, to the nations, according to the particular account, he was a wilderness and a parched land. But when he turned away from Israel and became to that Israel a wilderness and a parched land, then the grace was poured out upon the nations, and Christ Jesus has now become to us not a wilderness but full, and not a parched land but bearing fruit; for "many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her that has the husband." And he threatens those to whom he did not become a wilderness nor a parched land, saying: I indeed have not become to you "a wilderness" nor "a parched land," but you have said, "We will not be lorded over; we will not come to you any longer." Have the sons of Israel then said, in their reckless folly, according to the wording, "We will not be lorded over" […]
Jeremiah 3:1-2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.15
since indeed Scripture designates the sons of adulterers as imperfect. For such a soul, which, having deserted the conjunction of the spirit, prostrates itself wholly to the sense of the flesh and to bodily desires, as though turned away from God will impudently hear that "you have made yourself the face of a harlot, you have become without shame toward all." Therefore as a harlot she will be punished, and her sons are commanded to be prepared for slaughter.
Jeremiah 3:6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4
If, then, he says that first I sent away Israel because of its sins and sent it into deportation, but Judah, hearing what had happened to Israel, did not turn back, he speaks concerning our own sins. Since the things that befell Israel are read, and the transgressions concerning that people, we ought to fear, and: "if he did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us either; if that One who is both kind and at the same time loving to mankind, God, did not spare but cut off those who boasted to be a 'cultivated olive tree,' those rooted in 'the root' of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, how much more will he not spare us." For he is not kind and yet not severe, nor severe and yet not kind. For if he were only kind but not severe, we would to a greater degree despise "his kindness." If he were severe but not kind, perhaps we would even despair over our sins. But as it is, as God — for we human beings need his kindness when we repent, but his severity when we persist in our sins — God is both kind and severe, and he speaks to us through the prophets and says: "Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me?" Understand that Israel to be that people of mine: "She went up upon every high mountain and beneath every shady tree." If you see the Pharisee going up into the temple boastfully and not beating his own breast nor being anxious about his own evils, but saying: "I thank you that I am not as the rest of mankind, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-collector; I fast twice on the sabbath, I tithe my possessions" — you will see that he has gone up "upon every high mountain" in a blameworthy manner, having loved high-mindedness, and, according to his boasting and according to his arrogance, upon every high hill, and he has come to be "beneath every tree" that is not fruitful, but "leafy"; for the leafy tree is one thing, and another is the tree that men plant into groves. When they plant trees into groves, they plant not the fruit-bearing ones, not a fig tree nor a vine, but only barren trees for the sake of delight. Such you will find the words of the heterodox and the beauties of their persuasive arguments, which do not turn back those who hear. Whenever, then, someone gives himself over to such words, he has gone "beneath every leafy tree." He did not say "every tree" and fall silent, nor again did he add: every fruitful tree, but he said "beneath every leafy tree." Because of this you will understand what indeed the lawgiver means when he says: "You shall not plant any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall not make a grove"; for you have also the very name of the grove forbidden.
Jeremiah 3:6-11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4
The very wording of the passage that has been read has something obscure in it, which must first be understood; and after this, if God grants it, we shall come to know his mystical intent. Now he wants us to know this: that, as is written in the books of Kingdoms, the people were divided in the times of Rehoboam into the kingdom of the ten tribes under Jeroboam and into that of the two tribes under Rehoboam; and those under Jeroboam were called Israel, but those under Rehoboam Judah. And this division of the people has remained, so far as concerns the historical record, down to the present; for we know of no historical account that has gathered Israel and Judah together into one. Now Israel sinned first and more grievously — the people under Jeroboam and his successors — and sinned so much beyond Judah that they were condemned by Providence to become captives "into Assyria," as the Scripture says, "unto this day." After this the sons of Judah also sinned and were condemned to captivity into Babylon, not "unto this day" as Israel, but for "seventy years," concerning which Jeremiah prophesied, and which Daniel also mentioned. If we understand these things as spoken with reference to that people of that time, look at the words of the prophet, whether they do not indicate something of this sort. For he accuses, as it were, the sins of Israel, and says that, when so many sins had been committed by Israel, the congregation of Judah, having heard of their transgressions and in what manner I made them come to be in captivity, was not instructed but added to its sins, so that, because of this addition of sins when compared with the sins of Israel, righteousness was found in Israel over against Judah. Then, upon these things, the prophet is commanded to prophesy, since Judah had become worse than Israel, in order that after its sins it might turn back. So after the prophecy addressed to Israel commanding it to turn back, the prophet prophesies that Israel and Judah are going to come together and that there is at some time to be one kingdom of them both. Let whoever is concerned with the readings take up the words of the whole of today's reading, and then he will see that these meanings have been made plain. "And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me" — not Judah, but Israel first? "She went up upon every high mountain and beneath every leafy tree and there played the harlot; and I said, after she had committed all this fornication: Turn back to me; and she did not turn back. And the faithless Judah saw her faithlessness," the faithlessness of the congregation of Israel. "And they saw" — those of Judah — "that for all the things in which the house of Israel had been caught, in which she committed adultery, I also sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce." Judah ought to have been instructed — for I sent away Israel, the congregation of Israel, I cast them out into the Assyrians "and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands" — "and the faithless Judah did not fear." But after so many things as I did to Israel, sending her away, giving her a bill of divorce, when the congregation of Judah ought to have been instructed by what those others suffered, they not only were not instructed but added to their sins, so that the sins of the congregation of Israel, by comparison with the sins of the congregation of Judah, seemed to be righteousness. "And I gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and the faithless Judah her sister did not fear, and she went and played the harlot herself also, and her fornication became as nothing to her, and she committed adultery with wood and stone. And in all these things the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood" she turned to me. She was not ashamed before me for what I had done to Israel, so as to turn completely; but though she ought to have turned in truth, she instead turned in falsehood. "And in al…
Jeremiah 3:7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
For this is a new kind of his goodness, that even after adultery he receives the soul, provided she returns and repents from the heart; as he himself also says through the prophet: "if a woman go out from her husband and sleep with another man, shall she return again to her husband? Shall she not be defiled with defilement? But you have fornicated with many shepherds, and yet you were returning to me". Likewise elsewhere he says: "and after you had fornicated in all these things, I said: return to me; and not even so did you return, says the Lord".
Jeremiah 3:7-8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4
"And she played the harlot there. And I said, after she had committed all this fornication: Turn back to me; and she did not turn back, and the faithless Judah saw her faithlessness." We too have been reproached — I mean those of us who sin and do not keep the covenants of God, nor look to the fact that those others destroyed the covenant though they were nobly born, being of Abraham, having received the promise. We ought, then, to reckon that, since those others fell out of the blessings and the promises and it profited them nothing to be from the fathers, how much more shall we, when we sin, be forsaken. "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham," the Savior says to them. And again John: "Do not begin to say among yourselves, We have Abraham as father; for I tell you that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham" — hinting by "stones" at us who have the stony heart and are hardened against the truth. And truly the powerful God has raised up children to Abraham from the stones, if we remain in the childbearing and keep the spirit of adoption. So the "faithless Judah" saw "her faithlessness," the faithlessness of the house of Israel — she who did not keep the covenants toward God — and she saw "that for all the things in which that one had been caught" (for we, who are Judah, behold all these things, if we read the Scripture): that concerning the things in which the house of Israel had been caught, in which she committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce. We ought to be instructed by what he did to those others when he judged them according to their sins, forsaking them and delivering them into captivity and delivering them to slaughter and delivering them to their enemies; from these things we ought to turn back, and each of us ought to reckon that, if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us. If he thus drove out those from the fathers when they became sinners, what shall we who have been called from the Gentiles suffer — we who reckoned none of these things, though we were called in order that that people might be provoked to jealousy, seeing the slave honored, beholding the base-born one drawn near? And if those others suffered so many things, how much more, if we sin, shall we be forsaken? "In the things in which the house of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands; and the faithless Judah did not fear" the things I had done to the house of Israel, namely that "I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce." She "did not fear" because of what had happened to those others. Someone entered into the house of a master of a household; he is newly bought, he inquires which of the former household servants the master honored and why, which of the servants he dishonored and why. Having carefully considered, if he wishes to remain in the house of the master, he guards against falling into those things which the former slaves did who sinned and were cast out and delivered over to punishment. Then, having learned what the former slaves did who were well approved, and upon what terms they obtained their freedom, he emulates those. And we too were not slaves of God, but of idols and demons, Gentiles; yesterday and the day before we drew near to God; let us read the Scripture, let us see who was justified, who was condemned, let us imitate those who were justified, let us guard against falling into those things into which those fell who were taken captive, who were cast out from God.
Jeremiah 3:8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4
"Go," therefore, "and read these words toward the north." If the wording has been understood, let us see what it means to make plain in these things. The calling of the Gentiles took its beginning from the transgression of Israel, and the apostles, when they preached to the synagogues of the Jews, say: "To you the word of salvation was sent; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." And the apostle, knowing what he knows about these matters, says: "By their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy." So then the many sins of that people brought about that they were forsaken and that we came to the hope of life — we who were strangers to the covenants, aliens to the promises. For how does it come to me, who wherever I chanced to be born was a stranger to what is called the holy land, now to discourse about the promises of God, and to believe in the God of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and by the grace of God to receive Jesus Christ who was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets? If you understand these two peoples, the one from Israel and the one from the Gentiles, consider for me the deportation of Israel with regard to that people of Israel, and understand it written concerning that people: "I have sent her away and given her a bill of divorce"; for God sent away that people and gave it a bill of divorce. This is something of the following sort in the case of those who have married: if the wife is displeasing to the husband, the law of Moses says, a "bill of divorce" was made out from the husband and the wife was sent away, and it was permitted to the one who had sent away his former wife, because she seemed to have behaved unseemly, to marry another woman. Thus in the spiritual sense behold those people receiving a bill of divorce. And since they received the bill of divorce, therefore they were utterly forsaken. For where are there prophets any longer among them? Where are signs any longer among them? Where is the manifestation of God? Where is the worship, the temple, the sacrifices? They were cast out from their own place; so he gave Israel a "bill of divorce." Then we, being Judah (and Judah because of the Savior who arose from the tribe of Judah; for it is plain that our Lord has arisen out of Judah), have turned to the Lord, and our last state — which may it not now already be — seems to be becoming much like their last state, if indeed it is not even worse. For that such things will be also in our own case at the consummation of this age is plain from what was said by the Savior in the Gospel, in which he says: "Because iniquity is multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end, he shall be saved"; and: "He will do signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." Such will our own case be, so that the Savior says concerning his own coming, since among so many churches a faithful one is scarcely to be found: "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he indeed find faith upon the earth?" And truly, if we judge matters by truth and not by crowds, and if we judge matters by moral choice and not by seeing many gathered together, we shall see that now we are not faithful. But they were faithful then, when the noble martyrdoms were taking place, when, having escorted the martyrs from the burial-places, we came to the assemblies, and the whole church attended, unafflicted, and the catechumens were catechized amid the martyrdoms and amid the deaths of those confessing the truth "unto death," "not frightened" nor troubled "before the living God." Then we know that they had also seen paradoxical signs and marvels. Then there were faithful — few indeed, but truly faithful — journeying the narrow and afflicted way that leads "unto life." But now, when we have become many, since it is not possible for the elect to be many (for he does not lie who said, Jesus: "Many are called, but few are ch…
Jeremiah 3:8-10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4
"And the faithless Judah did not fear, and she went and played the harlot herself also." Israel having played the harlot first, Judah too played the harlot afterward. "And her fornication became as nothing, and she committed adultery with wood and stone." Whenever we sin, we do nothing else than, becoming stony-hearted, commit adultery with "the stone." Whenever we sin and play the harlot "beneath every leafy tree," we too commit adultery with "the wood." "And the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood." If we turned to God, but deficiently, we are charged as not having turned "with the whole heart." Therefore "the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart." He did not say: and the faithless Judah turned, and stood firm, but: "and the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood" she turned. The true conversion, then, is to read the things of old, to know those who were justified, to imitate them, to read those things, to see those who were blamed, to guard against falling into those blames, to read the books of the New Testament, the words of the apostles, and after reading to write all these things upon the heart, to live according to them, so that a bill of divorce may not be given to us also, but that we may be able to come to the holy inheritance, and, when the fullness of the Gentiles has been saved, then Israel may be able to enter in; for if the fullness of the Gentiles enters in, then all Israel shall be saved, "and they shall become one flock, one shepherd," teaching us to glorify God the Almighty in Christ Jesus himself, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 3:22 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
It is clearly written in the Acts of the apostles that the apostles first went into the synagogue of the Jews, proclaiming to them, as to kinsmen through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the things written concerning the coming of Jesus Christ. But when, since those men would not receive what was said, it was necessary that there should be other hearers of what was spoken, then, having defended their cause to them, they left them behind; for it is written: "It was necessary that the word of God should be proclaimed to you; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the nations." And this thing, though it is clearly stated in the Acts of the apostles, is in effect said in many places also by the prophets. For the Holy Spirit first speaks through the prophets to those of that people, but if ever, after it has said much, it is not heard, it prophesies the word that is proclaimed to the nations. And this very thing has come about at the beginning of today's reading, since before it there is said, to those of Israel, the words: "Even if you call me Father, yet from me you shall not be turned away. But as a wife plays false against him who is with her, so has the house of Israel played false against me, says the Lord." And when these things concerning Israel had been said first, and the sons of Israel had heard "that they did wrong in their ways and forgot God their holy one," next the Holy Spirit transfers the word to us who are of the nations and says: "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures." For we are the ones filled with fractures — so each might say, even if now he has been cleansed and healed from the fractures — "for we too were once foolish, foolish, going astray, enslaved to lusts and to many and various pleasures, passing our lives in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another; but when the kindness and love toward man of God our Savior appeared, through the washing of regeneration he poured out his mercy upon us." And yet, having once mentioned that apostolic saying, I will try to set it forth more plainly. For he did not say: "we were once foolish, disobedient" (only of the nations); but Paul, the apostle, the one from Israel, the one who "became blameless as regards the righteousness that is in the law," says: "for we too" (those from Israel) "were once disobedient, foolish"; so that not only those of the nations were foolish, nor were those of the nations alone disobedient, nor were those alone sinners, but we also who have been taught the law happened to be such before the coming of Christ. Therefore, after the things spoken to Israel, it is said to us who are of the nations: "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures." But someone will say: these things were spoken to Israel, and you are dragging them over onto those of the nations. We wish to show that not after many words, but immediately, wherever he wishes to speak to Israel the things concerning turning back, he adds the name of Israel. In what follows, at any rate, it is said: "If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, then he shall be turned back; and if he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall be blessed in him." The first words, then, were spoken to those of the nations; and then, since, "when the fullness of the nations enters, then all Israel shall be saved," according to what is said by the apostle in the Epistle to the Romans. Notice in what manner God on the one hand exhorts us who are turning to turn back completely, promising that if, "turning," we turn back to him, he will heal our "fractures" through Jesus Christ; and we on the other hand, answering — we who do not delay nor are slow concerning salvation as that Israel was — say: "Here we are, we will be yours." God said: "Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your fractures"; and those of the nati…
Jeremiah 3:23 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
Then, having condemned our former evils — when we thought the idols great and lofty things, and worshipped and regarded as wonderful the things we served; but now have condemned them, judging that all those things were false and were nothing — we say, turning back: "Truly the hills were for a lie," we too having condemned our former lofty things and our former wonders. And perhaps, if we exercise some skill, we shall find the difference between the hills and the mountains among the nations, which, having forsaken, those who said "Behold, here we are, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God" accuse them as false, both the hills and the mountains. What, then, is the difference between the mountains and the hills among the nations, which, having condemned, we say: "Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains"? This we say, having condemned our former things. Of the objects of worship among the nations, some are worshipped as gods, and some as heroes. For they themselves confess concerning certain of them that they were formerly men and were deified. They worship Heracles not as a god by birth, but as one changed from a man into a god; they worship Asclepius as one who, from among men, on account of virtue, was changed into a god. But whenever they worship the fathers of these, named gods among them, they worship them not as having changed from men into gods, but, as those men suppose, as being gods from the beginning. Those, then, who are reckoned by the nations to be gods from the beginning will be the mountains and "the power of the mountains," while those reckoned among them now to be gods, but formerly to have been men, these are "the hills." Having come to know, then, both ranks of the objects of worship, "truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains." For those who serve them do not suppose that these things are false. On this account they think that the oracles and the cures are true cures, not seeing the difference between all "power and signs and wonders of falsehood, in all deceit of unrighteousness among those who are perishing," and every power of signs and wonders of truth. For the things which Christ Jesus did, these were signs of truth, and, before him, the things which Moses did were a power of truth. But the things which the Egyptians did were indeed signs and wonders, but of falsehood. And so also the things which Simon the magician did after Jesus, so as to lead astray the nation of Samaria and to be reckoned to be a power of God — these too were signs and wonders of falsehood. When, therefore, we condemn those things, we who have condemned them say: "Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains." Then, since we who are of the nations know that "by the trespass of Israel we received a way of salvation," and that they have been cast outside until our fullness enters, and since we know that if "the fullness of the nations enters, after this all Israel shall be saved," for this reason we say first the words "truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains," and second, concerning Israel who shall be saved after the fullness of the nations: "yet through the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." And since we once mentioned the apostolic text which says that "by the trespass by which Israel fell aside, salvation has come to the nations," and that when "the fullness of the nations enters," while Israel remains outside, after the entering fullness of the nations "then all Israel shall be saved," come, let us unfold the matters touching these passages. There was an Israel being saved. The greater part of Israel fell away, but "a remnant according to the election of grace has come to be," concerning which remnant it is mystically said "in Elijah": "I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee to Baal." And, interpreting concerning this remnant, the apostle says: "So then also in the present time a remnant according…
Jeremiah 3:24 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
Therefore we who are of the nations say, concerning ourselves, repenting over the false things which we thought to be true: "Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains"; and concerning Israel who shall be saved after us: "yet through the Lord our God is the salvation of the house of Israel." Then, confessing concerning the sins in which both our fathers came to be and we ourselves, worshipping idols, we say: "But shame has consumed the toils of our fathers from their youth, their sheep and their oxen, their sons and their daughters." "Shame has consumed the toils of our fathers," and the rest of what is said. If, then, the wretched toil and the false work of the fathers is to be consumed, shame must come about; for before shame the toil of the fathers is not consumed, and the things brought in after. On this account let us consider the differences of those who sin. There are those who sin and are not ashamed nor feel any shame over their sins, nor blush. Such are those who have become past feeling and have given themselves over to all licentiousness and all uncleanness. For look at those of the nations, in what manner they at times recount their fornications and their adulteries as though they were deeds of valor, not even ashamed to confess that they have done such things, and they do not call them sins. Insofar as they are not ashamed, their toils are not consumed. Their sins are not consumed. It is the beginning of good things that a man be ashamed of the things of which he was not ashamed. On this account I do not think that a curse is being spoken in the prophets in the words "Let all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back." For he prays that those who are without perception of the works of shame may come to a sense of it, so that, being ashamed, they may be able to consume their toils and their sins. And the irrational motions of the fathers he called "sheep" and "calves." For not all irrational things are praiseworthy; but there are certain irrational things that are blameworthy, such as the sheep of the fathers who have sinned; and there are certain irrational things that are praiseworthy, as: "My sheep hear my voice." These too were sheep, to which we have reason analogous, having the good shepherd in our souls. For whenever the Savior says, "I am the good shepherd," I do not hear it only as all hear it, that he is a shepherd of those who believe (for this too is sound and true), but also in my own soul I ought to have Christ within me, within me the good shepherd, shepherding the irrational motions within me, so that they may no longer go out to pasture at random, but, being led by the shepherd, these things which once chanced to be alien to him may become his own. On this account now, if the shepherd is in me, he rules over my senses; they are no longer under an alien mind, or under Pharaoh, or under Nebuchadnezzar, but under the good shepherd. "Shame," then, "has consumed the toils of our fathers from their youth, their sheep and their oxen." There is something in us that farms us, whether farming us badly — to speak of the "badly" as concerning the one farming — or farming well. If, then, it farms badly, it is a toil of the fathers being consumed by their shame; but if it farms well, it is not a toil of the fathers; rather it is a toil from which the firstfruits are brought up upon the altar of God. "Their sons and their daughters," these say. Whose sons and daughters, save "the fathers'," are consumed by their shame, and the daughters? Often we have said that the offspring of the soul, that the thoughts are sons, and the works and the deeds done through the body are daughters. Since, then, there are certain wretched thoughts, such as those of the nations thought, and there are also wretched works, on this account sons and daughters are consumed from those who have made them, so that shame may arise in them concerning the things sinned. But may it not be ours to make sons and daughters…
Jeremiah 3:25 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
After these things, these who make confession say: "We have lain down in our shame"; and after this they say: "and our dishonor has covered us over." Concerning the veil that lies upon the face of those who do not turn back to the Lord it has often been said by us. Because of this veil, "if Moses is read," the sinner does not understand him; for "a veil lies upon his heart." Because of this veil, if the old covenant is read, the hearer will not understand. Because of this veil the Gospel too is veiled to those who are perishing. We were saying, then, concerning the veil, that the shame is the veil. For insofar as we have "the works of shame," it is clear that we have the veil, according to what is said somewhere in the forty-third Psalm: "and the shame of my face has covered me." I set forth that he who does not have works of shame does not have a veil; such was Paul, saying: "But we all, with unveiled face, behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." Paul, then, has an unveiled face; for he does not have works of shame. He who is not as Paul has a veiled face. As, then, there "the shame of my face has covered me" is said in the forty-third Psalm, in the same manner it is said here: "our dishonor has covered us over." Insofar as we work works of dishonor, we have a veil lying upon our heart. If we wish to lay aside the veil that is from dishonor, let us arrive at the works of honor and let us understand that saying of the Savior, "that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father," and let us understand also that which is said by the apostle: "Through the transgression of the law you dishonor God. The righteous man, as he honors the Father, honors the Son." The dishonor, whenever I dishonor the Son — that very dishonor by which I dishonor the Father or the Son — becomes a covering of my face, and I say: "and our dishonor has covered us over." On this account, having understood the veil that lies upon us from the works of shame, from the deeds of dishonor, let us take away the veil. It is in our power for the veil to be taken away; it belongs to no other. For "when Moses turned back to the Lord, the veil was taken away." Do you see how Moses is sometimes taken also as representing the people? Insofar as he did not turn back to the Lord, being a symbol of the people that does not turn back to the Lord, he had a veil lying upon his face; but when he turned back to the Lord, becoming a symbol of those who turn back to the Lord, then "the veil was taken away." And it is not that God commanded him: put on the veil (for the Lord did not say to Moses, put on the veil), but Moses, seeing that the people could not look upon his glory, then put "the veil upon his face," and did not wait for God to say, take off the veil, "when he turned back to the Lord." This, then, was written so that you too, who put the veil upon your face through the works of dishonor and the works of shame, might yourself also work the taking away of the veil. If you turn back to the Lord, then you take away the veil, and you will no longer say the words "our dishonor has covered us over." For instance, anger lying upon our soul against someone lies as a veil upon our face. On this account, if we wish, while praying, to say, "The light of your face has been marked upon us, O Lord," let us take away the veil and let us do that apostolic thing, "I wish, then, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger and disputings." If we take away the anger, we have taken away the veil; if we take away all the passions. But insofar as these things are in our mind, in our reasoning, there lies upon the inner face, upon our ruling faculty, the veil and the dishonor, so that we do not behold the glory of God shining. It is not God who hides his glory from us, but we, putting the veil that comes from wickedness upon the ruling faculty. "Because before our God we have sinned, we and our fathers." Would that we too might say, as these do according t…
Jeremiah 4:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
Upon these things God says concerning Israel: "If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, then he shall be turned back"; that is, if he turns completely, then he shall be turned back with a turning — not if he as it were begins to turn. Then he says: "and if he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall be blessed in him." If they do these things, "the nations shall be blessed in him." But what are these things they are to do, so that the nations may be blessed in him? "If he removes his abominations out of his mouth." And what is it to remove the abominations out of the mouth? Whatever we speak badly are abominations in our mouth. Let us therefore remove the abominations out of our mouth, taking away slanders, vain words, idle words that are going to cause us to be accused "in the day of judgment; for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." If, then, we wish that the words "and the nations shall be blessed in him, and in him they shall praise God in Jerusalem" should meet us, let us do the things said from the beginning. And which first? To remove "the abominations out of our mouth." Next is also the "you shall stand in awe before my face." As the second thing let us do this, not simply that we may stand in awe; for perhaps there is an awe that comes about, but not from the face of God. Those, at any rate, who fear without knowledge, but set themselves to fear, do not stand in awe from the face of God; but as many as stand in awe with knowledge, by ever beholding and picturing to themselves "the face of God that comes upon those who do evil things, to cut off from the earth the memory of them," these are the ones who stand in awe from the face of God. "If he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness." Let us look at ourselves who swear, in what manner we swear not in judgment but without judgment, so that our oaths come about by custom rather than by judgment. We are carried away, at any rate, and, reproving this, the word says: "and if he swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness." We know that it was said in the Gospel by the Lord to the disciples: "But I say to you, do not swear at all"; but let us look also at this text; and, if God grants it, both will be examined together. For perhaps one must first swear "in truth and in judgment and in righteousness," so that after this, having advanced, one may become worthy of not swearing at all, but of having a "yes" that needs no witnesses that this is so, and of having his "no" that needs no witnesses that it is truly "no." "And he swears," then, "'The Lord lives,' in truth." In the one who swears I first seek that there be no falsehood, but the truth, so that he may swear with truth; but we wretches even swear falsely. But let it be "with truth" — not even so does the oath come about well, but "in judgment." For grant that I swear by custom: I do not swear "in judgment." If one must take up, for such an oath, the God of the universe, and his Christ, over this matter, how great must the matter be, that I should set my knees and swear? In view of unbelief arising in some concerning my word, tending it as a physician, I might perhaps do this at some time; but if I should swear at random, if I should swear thus, I would sin. "If," then, "he swears, 'The Lord lives,' with truth and in judgment" — not without judgment — "and in righteousness" — not unrighteously — "then the nations shall be blessed in him." He united both, those of the nations and Israel. He spoke concerning the nations, he spoke also concerning Israel.
Jeremiah 4:3 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
He adds: "And the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him they shall give praise to God in Jerusalem. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem." He has spoken to those from the nations, he has spoken also to those from Israel, and he now speaks to those from Judah. I remember the figurative interpretations spoken earlier concerning Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem. For we too dwell in Jerusalem, if God grants it. Since "where the treasure is, there also is the heart," if we lay up treasure in heaven, we also have our heart in the Jerusalem above, concerning which the apostle says: "But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother, as it is written," and what follows. "Thus," then, "says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem: Break up for yourselves fresh ground, and do not sow among thorns." This saying is spoken above all to those who teach, that they should not first entrust the things they say to their hearers before they have made fresh ground in their souls. For when, having "put their hand to the plow," they have made fresh ground in the souls, then, since these hear according to "the good and fair land," when they sow, they do not sow among thorns. But if, before the plow and before making fresh ground in the ruling faculty of the hearers, someone takes the holy seeds—the word about the Father, the word about the Son, the word about the Holy Spirit, the word about the resurrection, the word about punishment, the word about rest, the word about the law, the word about the prophets, and in a word about each of the things written—and sows them, he transgresses the commandment that says, first, "Break up for yourselves fresh ground," and second, "and do not sow among thorns." But one of the hearers will say: I do not teach, I am not subject to this commandment. Then you too, become a farmer of yourself, and do not sow among thorns, but make fresh ground of the field for me, which God of all has entrusted to you. Consider the field, see where the thorns are, where are "the cares of this life and the deceit of riches" and love of pleasure. And having considered the thorns in your soul, seek the rational plow, concerning which Jesus says: "No one who has put his hand to the plow and turned back is fit for the kingdom of God." Having sought it and found it, having gathered from the Scriptures the working oxen that are clean, plow and break up the ground anew, and, so that it may no longer be old, make it new: "having put off the old man with his deeds and having put on the new man who is renewed unto knowledge," you will make fresh ground for yourself; and if you make the fresh ground, take seeds from those who teach, take seeds from the law, take from the prophets, from the writings of the gospel, from the apostolic words; and having taken these seeds, sow your soul through memory and meditation. These will seem to spring up of themselves; but in truth it is not they that will spring up after the memory of them, but God will make them grow: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." And if anyone has been able to consider the Scriptures, this man has made fresh ground, and having made fresh ground he has sown not among thorns. These seeds are ordered by God not to become an ear of grain suddenly, but, as in the Gospel according to Mark, "first the blade, then the ear, then it becomes ripe." When it becomes ripe for harvest, those who are sent out for the harvest will come; when it becomes ripe for harvest, they will come, to whom the word says: "Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white for harvest." He says to us, then: "Break up for yourselves fresh ground, and do not sow among thorns." But if, before you have cleansed your soul, while you still have thorns, you approach one who teaches—whether one who is able, or one reputed to be so—or even ask for lessons and spiritual seeds, you transgress the comm…
Jeremiah 4:4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4:4.2
Note the kindness and severity of God. For he is not kind without being severe or severe without being kind. For if he were only kind and not severe, we would not think much of his kindness. If he were severe and not kind, perhaps we would also despair in our sins. But God is both a kind and a severe God—for we who repent need his kindness, but those of us who persist in sins need his severity.
Jeremiah 4:4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
And next to this it is said: "Be circumcised to your God, circumcise the foreskin of your heart." "Be circumcised to your God"—of necessity is added "to your God." You will understand this from the perceptible example: they are circumcised, I mean according to the perceptible sense, not only those of the circumcision according to the law of Moses, but also many others. Among the Egyptians the priests of the idols are circumcised, but that circumcision is a circumcision to idols and is not a circumcision made to God; whereas that of the Jews was perhaps, but at all events then, made to God. If, then, the word says, "Be circumcised to your God," having understood the literal sense, pass over also to the figurative interpretation, so that you may find how, among those circumcised figuratively (so that perhaps some of them might say, "We are the circumcision"), some are circumcised to God, while others are indeed circumcised, but not to God. For there are indeed other words besides the word of truth, besides the word of the Church. They circumcise the manners and the heart, so to speak they bring to sober-mindedness, those who philosophize; they bring to sober-mindedness, those from the heresies, and a circumcision comes about for them. But it is indeed a circumcision, yet not to God; for among them a circumcision comes about by a false word. But when, according to the ecclesiastical rule, according to the purpose of sound teaching, you are one who shares in the common life, you are not only circumcised, but you are circumcised "to God." "Be circumcised," then, to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart." Who does not pass over these words as though they were plain? Yet there is a certain foreskin of the heart, and this must be circumcised. He who has examined the word precisely, seeking such things in this passage, will inquire: the foreskin is born with us, the circumcision is acquired, and what has come from birth, this the circumcision removes. If, then, the word commands the removal of "the foreskin of the heart," there must be something born together with the heart, which it calls a foreskin, which must be removed, so that one may be circumcised as to "the foreskin of the heart." If anyone understands "we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest," if anyone understands "the body of our lowliness" in which we were born, if anyone understands "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life be but a single day; and his months are numbered," he will see in what manner we were born with the uncleanness and foreskin of our heart. But that it may be spoken by the simpler example that is able to bring you to see "the foreskin of the heart," I will set forth that in the first age false opinions altogether arise in the soul; for it is not possible for a man from the beginning to receive true and pure doctrines. But the divine word made provision beforehand for history and for the writing according to the letter, so that it might nourish the one born according to the flesh to Abraham in the words that are according to the flesh first, and that the one from the slave-girl might become first, in order that after him could be born the son of "the free woman" and the one through the promise. If it be understood why this was included, the foreskin of the heart can be understood as coming before the circumcision. There is need, then, for us to receive the word that purifies the doctrines and removes all the things that have arisen in us according to false opinion. This, then, is to put away the foreskin of our heart; for if the heart is that which has in us the ruling faculty, where the thoughts are, whence "the reasonings come forth" that are evil, he who removes the evil reasonings removes "the foreskin of the heart"; he who puts away the false opinion has circumcised "the foreskin of his heart" and becomes "a man of Judah and one dwelling in Jerusalem," being circumcised. But if anyone does not put away "the fore…
Jeremiah 4:5 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
"Declare it in Judah, and let it be heard in Jerusalem; say, declare, signal with a trumpet upon the earth, and cry aloud." These things, he says, which are announced, say in Judah, to those from the tribe of Judah of Christ; "for it is evident that our Savior arose out of Judah." "Signal with a trumpet upon the earth." The lofty word, which rouses the hearer, which prepares him for the war against the passions, for the war against the workings of the adversaries, which prepares him for the heavenly feasts—for it is spoken with reference to both of these—is taken as a trumpet. In Numbers such a word is a trumpet; for instance, the word commands me, and if it is given to anyone else (it is given to the one who wishes and who has sought the meaning of the Scriptures), it commands to make "trumpets of hammered silver." Thus the word says: "Signal with a trumpet upon the earth, and cry aloud; say: Gather together and let us enter into the walled cities." The word of God does not wish us to enter into an unwalled city, but into the church of the living God, walled about by the word of the Lord (for this is the wall)—it stands in the seventeenth Psalm, that God also is a wall.
Jeremiah 4:6-7 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
"Take up your baggage and flee to Zion"; as many of you as are outside Zion, "take up your baggage and flee to Zion; hasten, do not stand still," you who are in progress hasten to the Watchtower, "for I bring evils from the north and great destruction"—of the evils brought "from the north," from the north of the adversary, as has often been said; and whoever is found not to have hastened, nor to have entered "into the walled cities," not having come to be in "the churches of God," but standing outside, he himself, being seized by the enemies, will be destroyed. And who is the enemy? Let us see from what follows in what manner it is said: "A lion has gone up from his lair, destroying he has cut off nations." This is the enemy, whom we must flee. A lion pursues us. Who is this? Peter teaches us, saying: "Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, firm in the faith." And according to the ninth Psalm, "he lies in wait in secret, he lies in wait like a lion in his lair." And this lion lies in wait not by day, but when night comes; for according to the hundred and third Psalm: "You appointed darkness, and it became night. In it all the beasts of the forest will pass through, young lions roaring to seize and to seek their food from God."
Jeremiah 4:7-8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5
"A lion has gone up," then, "from his lair." Where? When? He is fallen below, he has gone down into the lowest parts of the earth. "A lion has gone up from his lair." You are a man, you are higher than the devil; for you are stronger than he, whatever sort you may be; he, because of his wickedness, is below. "A lion has gone up," then, "from his lair, destroying he has cut off nations"; having gone up "from his lair," from the place proper to his own punishment, "destroying he has cut off nations; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a desolation." He wishes to enter into your land, concerning which we were speaking a little while ago. He wishes to feed upon each of us. He comes, then, "to make your land a" desolation, that the lion may trample down the seeds, that he may make your land desolate. "And your cities shall be pulled down so that they are not inhabited. For these things gird yourselves with sackcloth." Since, then, a lion has gone up and a lion threatens you and wishes to destroy your land, gird yourself with sackcloth, weep and mourn, through prayers entreat God, that he may utterly destroy this lion from you and that you may not fall into his mouth. For "just as when the shepherd snatches out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a lobe of an ear"—this lion seeks to take you by the ears, so that through your greediness, casting false words upon you, he may remove you from the truth; he wishes to snatch your feet away from the truth and devour them. But do you gird yourselves with sackcloth and beat your breast and weep and wail, seeing the enemy who is at hand, that "the fierceness of the Lord's anger" may be turned away from you, and, when the wrath has been turned away, you may be able, coming to be in freedom from care, the lion no longer creeping in upon you, because you have entered into the walled city, to glorify God who delivers you in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 4:19 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
"My belly! my belly aches!" — cried Jeremiah. What belly of his aches? That belly aches which we too have, and which aches when it brings people into the world. But the feelings cause pain of a different order: they are the pain of my heart.
Jeremiah 5:3-4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6
"They made their faces harder than rock." This too you will understand from things more bodily. Of those who sin, some, hearing words of rebuke over their sin, blush and shrink back and give way, when the rebuking word touches them; but others are of such a kind that they are shameless, feeling no shame over the things for which they are rebuked, for the things in which they have sinned. You might therefore say concerning these who feel no shame, "They made their faces harder than rock." If you have understood this in bodily terms, pass over with me in thought to the soul, understanding the "face" concerning which it is said, "but then face to face." And behold a hardened soul, such as was the hardened heart of Pharaoh, so that it stands unyielding against the things announced to it and, as it were, casts off what is said, not being molded according to the things announced. For there you will find that the words fit, "They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to turn back. And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they did not wish to know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God. I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Having understood these things concerning those who do not wish to be instructed, who take no notice of God's scourges, he speaks having understood the cause of these things. Poor is their soul. "And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they were not able, because they did not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God."
Jeremiah 5:3 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6
"Lord," he says, "your eyes are toward faithfulness," just as "the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous," for he turns them away from the unrighteous; so too the eyes of the Lord are toward faithfulness, for he turns them away from faithlessness. Therefore it is well said, by one who understands what he is saying in his prayer, "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." Now what is written here is "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." But since "if a man of understanding hears a wise word, he will praise it and add to it," see how many things it is possible to make out of the words "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness." Paul says, "But now these three abide: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love." Just as the eyes of the Lord are toward faithfulness, so the eyes of the Lord are toward hope, the eyes of the Lord are toward love. And since there is "a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline," the eyes of the Lord are toward love, and so the eyes of the Lord are toward power, and so the eyes of the Lord are toward self-discipline […] the eyes of the Lord toward righteousness. In this way the eyes of the Lord are upon all the virtues. If, then, you too wish the rays of the spiritual eyes of God to reach as far as you, take up the virtues. And it will be that, just as "Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness," so "Lord, your eyes" are toward each of the good things you may acquire. And if you become so great that the eyes of the Lord shine upon you, you will say, "The light of your countenance has been marked upon us, O Lord."
Jeremiah 5:5 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6
"I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Those who are great in soul are spoken of in praise. For among the Greeks too "greatness" (to hadron) is continually used to name the grandeur of the rational soul. For whenever someone undertakes great matters and has purposes worthy of account and always considers what is fitting — how he may live according to right reason, wishing and looking upon nothing lowly and small — such a one has the greatness and grandeur in his soul. These men, then, since they were poor — the former ones whom the word blamed — did not listen, says the prophet. For this reason they did not listen, because they are poor. "I will go to the great ones and speak to them." And if it is a blessed thing to speak "into the ears of those who hear," it is a blessed thing if one meets with a great and mighty hearer. Therefore, since these things are so spoken, knowing that it is no loss to those who speak, so much as to those who hear, not to accept the things announced, and that it accuses the poverty of their mind and of their understanding, let us beseech to receive from God, as the word increases greatness and grandeur in us in Christ Jesus, that we may be able to hear the sacred and holy words — to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 5:18 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 7
God, who judges "little by little," gives to those being chastised room for repentance, and does not, in punishing at the very moment of sin, bring the full completion of the punishment upon the one who has sinned. For this reason, "judging little by little," he chastises. And an example of this is in Leviticus; for in the curses against those who transgress the Law it is written, after the earlier punishments: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, says the Lord, I too will add to you seven plagues." And again he recounts another punishment: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, but walk toward me crookedly, I too will walk with you in crooked wrath." And you will find God measuring out punishments with sparing restraint, since he wishes to lead the one who has sinned to conversion, and does not repay them all at once. Such things, then, so far as the letter goes, had come about concerning the people; and the word, threatening them with what they will suffer, says after those things: "And it shall be in those days, says the Lord your God, I will not strike you unto complete destruction." But whether these things especially reach even to the punishments that are to come — if not, let the one who is able pass over from the things that befell the people in this life to those punishments as well; for I, being persuaded, would say that just as "they serve a copy and shadow of heavenly things," so it was with a copy and shadow of the true punishments that that people was punished for their own sins, so that every punishment according to the Law and the Prophets which concerns the people contains a shadow of the true punishments. If, then, for those people no complete destruction came upon them for their sins, but at some point in the end there would be — nor will there ever fail to be, even after the departure, a punishment upon those who have sinned. But the complete destruction came upon Jerusalem when the captivity is that of Nebuchadnezzar. And yet someone will say that not even then was there complete destruction, nor even in the times of the Maccabees. But the complete destruction came upon the people at the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ. For as long as the Savior was not saying to them, "Behold, your house is forsaken to you," it was not forsaken. But when he wept over Jerusalem, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to her, how often have I wished to gather together your children, in the way a hen gathers together her chicks under her wings, and you would not? Behold, your house is left to you desolate," the house was forsaken, "Jerusalem was surrounded by armies," as the house had been forsaken, and "her desolation drew near." Then, after their transgression, salvation came to us. So those people were being chastised, and complete destruction did not reach them until the sojourn of my Lord Jesus. But I consider whether such things may also be the case concerning us, and whether certain punishments come about, so that these here have no experience of second punishments but are content with the former, while others come even to the second, though not also to the third, and others will come even to the fourth. For the phrase "I will add seven plagues" indicates some mystery, since one plague comes, and a second, and a third, up to the seven that have been mentioned, upon certain people. But not all are struck with seven plagues; rather, I think some will be struck with six plagues, others five, others four, others three or two, while those most inferior of all in punishments I suppose will be struck with one plague. God, then, knows the things concerning the plagues as well. Therefore it is written here at the beginning of the reading: "And it shall be in those days," those concerning the things spoken of, "I will not make you unto complete destruction." But it is not in those days that complete destruction comes; for there are certain d…
Jeremiah 5:19 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 7
"And it shall be, when you say, 'For what reason has the Lord our God done to us all these evils?' — and you shall say to them, 'Because you forsook me and served other gods in your land, so shall you serve in a land not your own.'" Let the letter be understood, and it suffices for the present to set forth the reminder from the letter for those able to hear. So then, the sons of Israel had the holy land, the temple, the house of prayer. They ought to have served God. But transgressing the divine commandments, they both practiced idolatry and took up the idols of Damascus, as it is written in the books of Kingdoms, and they took up other idols of the nations into the holy land. Through the idols of the nations which they took up, they made themselves worthy to be cast down into the land of the idols, to end up there where they worshiped the idols. So the word says to them according to the letter: "Because you forsook me and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve foreign gods in a land not your own." Everyone who deifies anything serves foreign gods. Do you make a god of foods and drinks? Your god is "the belly." Do you honor silver as a great good, and the wealth here below? Your god and lord is mammon. For Jesus called it lord of the lovers of money, saying: "You cannot serve God and mammon; no one can serve two lords." Therefore the one who honors silver and admires wealth and considers it to be a good, and welcomes the rich as gods, while despising the poor as not having their God — this one deifies silver. If anyone, being in the land of God, the Church, worships foreign gods, deifying the things not worthy to be deified, he will be cast out into a foreign land, and let him worship the gods whom he worshiped within. Let the lover of money be outside, cast out from the Church; let the glutton be outside, having been put out of the Church. These things according to one figurative interpretation, so that I may not now busy myself with what is beyond me — concerning the land, about which the Savior said, "Who will give you what is our own?" — and that, when worship has taken place in someone's land, God so arranged that some should be cast out from his own land and come to the land about which it is written: "Hear, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies? You were reckoned together with those going down into Hades. You forsook the fountain of life, the Lord. If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace for time everlasting." Now, then, we are in a foreign land, and we pray to do the opposite of what the sons of Israel did in the holy land. For they worshiped foreign gods in the holy land; but we, in a foreign land, worship the God who is foreign to the land, foreign to the affairs upon the earth. For the ruler of this age rules here, and God is foreign to his sons. But when I say "foreign," I do not mean this — not that he did not create the world, but that he is foreign to the lord of wickedness, foreign to the present sins. And yet, even wishing to worship the God who is foreign to the affairs of sin in this land of affliction, let us see what we do. Do we not say, "How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" But rather: How shall we sing the song of the Lord not in a foreign land? We seek a place for this, of singing the song of the Lord, a place for worshiping the Lord our God in a foreign land. What, then, is the place? I have found it: he came to this land bearing the body that saves, taking up "the body of sin" "in the likeness of the flesh of sin," so that in this place, because of Christ Jesus who has sojourned here and abolished the ruler of this age and abolished sin, I might be able to worship God here, and after this I shall worship in the holy land. For if one who worshiped the idols in the holy land departed into the foreign land, one who has worshiped God in the foreign land will depart to the holy land in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory…
Jeremiah 6:8 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
See the mercy and the loving-kindness of the good God. When he wishes to have mercy, he says that he is indignant and angry, as through Jeremiah he says: "with grief and with scourge you shall be chastised, Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you". If you understand these things, it is the voice of a God who has mercy, where he is angry, where he is jealous, where he applies griefs and scourges. "For he scourges every son whom he receives".
Jeremiah 7:17-18 — AGAINST CELSUS 5:8
You will find at least in the book of Jeremiah the words of God censuring by the mouth of the prophet the Jewish people for doing obeisance to such objects and for sacrificing to the queen of heaven and to all the host of heaven. The writings of the Christians, moreover, show, in censuring the sins committed among the Jews, that when God abandoned that people on account of certain sins, these sins of idol worship also were committed by them.
Jeremiah 7:18 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
For "God" is "jealous" and does not wish the soul which he has betrothed to himself in faith to remain in the defilement of sin, but wishes her quickly to be purged, wishes her swiftly to cast off all her uncleannesses, if perhaps anything has stolen upon her. But if she remain in sins and say: we will not hear the voice of the Lord, but doing we will do our own wills and will burn offerings "to the queen of heaven", as is reproached through the prophet: then she too is reserved for that sentence of wisdom which says: "since indeed I called and you would not hear, but mocked my words; therefore I too will laugh at your destruction", or for that which is set before them in the Gospel, the Lord saying: "depart from me into eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels".
Jeremiah 9:21 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
One window is one sense: through this the bridegroom looks. Another window is another sense: and through this too the bridegroom carefully gazes. For through what senses does the word of God not look? But what it is to look through the windows, and how the bridegroom gazes through them, the following example will teach. Where the bridegroom does not look, there death is found climbing up, as we read in Jeremiah: Behold, death has climbed up through your windows. When you have looked upon a woman to lust after her, already death has climbed up through your windows.
Jeremiah 9:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
But we may understand the windows to be the bodily senses, through which either death or life enters into the soul; for so does it signify when the prophet Jeremiah speaks concerning sinners, saying: "Death has climbed up through your windows." How does death climb up through the windows? If the eyes of a sinner should look upon a woman, and he should commit adultery with her in his heart, thus death has entered into the soul through the windows of the eyes.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17:5
The only true salvation is if Christ saves me, for then I will be saved. The horse is a false hope for deliverance. False also are all others besides God for salvation. On account of this I might say to him, "Save me, Lord, and I will be saved," and I say this if I can say also the next words after every boast that is renounced. For you are my boast or when I fulfill the commandment that says, "Let not the wise person boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong person boast in his strength, or the rich person in his riches; let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and know that I am Lord." Blessed is one who has renounced every boast here below, such as in so-called noble birth and in beauty and in corporeal things, in riches, in vainglory, since he is content with one boast, that he may say, For you are my boast.
Jeremiah 9:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 10:19
"Let not the wise person glory in his wisdom or the strong person in his strength," for that which is worth boasting about is not ours but is the gift of God. The wisdom is from him, and the strength is from him and so with the rest.
Jeremiah 9:26 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.4
But perhaps the novelty of the saying may deter not only the Jews but also some of our brethren. For Paul seems to presume impossible things, in that he introduces "circumcision of the heart." For how can it come about that a member be circumcised which, hidden by the inner organs, lies concealed even from the very sight of men? Let us return, then, to the prophetic utterances, so that, while you pray, these matters about which we inquire may from there become clear. The prophet Ezekiel says: "Every stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall not enter into my sanctuary." And likewise elsewhere the prophet, reproaching them no less, says: "all the strangers are uncircumcised in flesh, but the sons of Israel are uncircumcised in heart." It is signified, therefore, that unless one has been circumcised in heart and circumcised in flesh, "he shall not enter into the sanctuary" of God.
Jeremiah 10:12 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8
The prophet of God, having taken up as it were three excellences of His—His strength, His wisdom, and His understanding—assigns to each of them a work proper to it: to the strength the earth, to the wisdom the inhabited world, and to the understanding the heaven. For listen to the passage as it says: "The Lord who made the earth in His strength, who set upright the inhabited world in His wisdom, and in His understanding stretched out the heaven." And we too, as regards our earth (for it was said to Adam, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart"), have need of the strength of God, and apart from the power of God we are not able to accomplish these things, all that is not according to "the mind-set of the flesh." And when "the members that are upon the earth" have been put to death, then there will be what is according to the will of the Spirit, since "by the Spirit the deeds of the flesh," according to the apostle, are put to death. "The Lord," then, "who made the earth in His strength." And if you come also to this earth, if you are able to see what is written in Job, as we found in the more accurate copies, that He set it "upon nothing," you will see that by the strength of God it lies at the very midmost point. I come also to the inhabited world. I know of a soul that is inhabited, I know of a soul that is desolate. For if it does not have God, if it does not have Christ, who said, "I and my Father will come to him, and we will make our abode with him," if a soul does not have the Holy Spirit, it is desolate. But it is inhabited when it has been filled with God, when it has Christ, when the Holy Spirit is in it. And these things are said in the Scriptures in various and diverse ways—that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are in the soul of a human being. David, at any rate, in the psalm of confession, asks the Father concerning these spirits, saying: "With a governing spirit uphold me," "renew an upright spirit in my inward parts," "and take not your Holy Spirit from me." What are these three spirits? The governing one is the Father, the upright one is Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit—these to establish that the inhabited world is inhabited in no other way than in the wisdom of God. For "wisdom will help the wise man more than ten rulers who are in the city." "But he who despises wisdom and instruction is wretched, and his hope is empty, and his labors are unprofitable, and his works are useless," says the Wisdom inscribed to Solomon. On this account, so far as is possible, since the inhabited world is set upright in the wisdom of God, let us ourselves also wish to have our own inhabited world set upright, which has perhaps fallen. For this inhabited world has fallen when we came to the place of affliction; this inhabited world has fallen when "we sinned, we acted impiously, we did wrong," and it needs to be set upright. It is God, then, who has set upright the inhabited world. But if you do not take "who has set upright the inhabited world" in this way, but understanding the inhabited world more commonly, seek from what condition He is the one who set the inhabited world upright, seek the fall of the inhabited world, so that having found its fall you may see its being set upright. If, then, anyone is in this inhabited world, if you understand the inhabited world in that way, before being set upright it had fallen. And if it has fallen, it is clear that it needs to be set upright, but no one who has not fallen needs to be set upright. And if it was set upright, let us see—it is clear that each of those in the inhabited world has fallen from sin. And "the Lord is the one who sets upright those who have been broken down," and "He supports all who are falling," "in Adam all die," and thus the inhabited world has fallen and needs to be set upright, so that "in Christ all" may be made alive. So then I have rendered the matters concerning the inhabited world in two ways, in one place showing with resp…
Jeremiah 10:13 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8
"And He brought up clouds from the end of the earth." This saying fell to us recently also in the psalm, and we were saying how God "brought up clouds from the end of the earth." Which things it is necessary to take up again—for those who know, for the clarification and reminder of what has been said, but for those who have forgotten or were not present, for the plain understanding of this, whether it be revealed and made manifest or however it may be understood. And we were saying that the saints are clouds. For the phrase "your truth is unto the clouds" cannot be referred to the lifeless clouds; but the truth of God is unto the clouds, which hear the commandment of God and know where they should send forth rain and from what places they should withhold it. For, as of clouds which exist, to which God gives command not to rain or to rain, it is written, "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." Now in the case of these clouds, when there is no rain, God does not command the clouds not to rain rain upon the vineyard or upon the land, but no cloud appears at all, as is written in the third book of Kingdoms, where, during the time of the drought, no cloud appeared; but when, according to the word of the prophecy of Elijah, the rain was about to come, a trace of a cloud appeared "like the trace of a man," and it became a cloud producing the rain. But as of clouds that do exist, yet are ordered not to rain when the soul happens to be unworthy of the rain, it is said, "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." Therefore each of the saints is a cloud. Moses was a cloud, and as a cloud he said: "Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my utterance be awaited like rain." If he were not a cloud, he would never have said, "Let my utterance be awaited like rain, and let my words come down like dew." As a cloud he says: "As a shower upon the grass, and as snowfall upon the herbage; because I have called upon the name of the Lord." Thus, as a cloud, Isaiah too says: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, because the Lord has spoken." And since he too was a cloud, and called those who prophesied together with him clouds, he says, prophesying: "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." And if it has been understood by us who the clouds are, let us see how God is the one who brings up "clouds from the end of the earth." How from "the end of the earth"? The Savior says, "He who wishes to be first among you shall be last of all." Paul kept this commandment, and he was last in this world. Therefore he says: "For I think that God has exhibited us the apostles as last, as men doomed to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men." If, then, anyone keeps the commandment of the Savior and becomes last as regards this life, this man becomes a cloud. And God brings up clouds not from the foremost of the earth, not from men of consular rank does He bring up clouds, not from rulers does He bring up clouds, not from the rich; for "blessed are the poor, because yours is the kingdom of God." Do you see how from the last God brings up and gives bodily form to the clouds? On this account, if we wish to become clouds, upon which the truth of God arrives, let us become last of all and say, in works and in disposition, "For I think that God has exhibited us the apostles as last"; and even if I am not an apostle, it is possible for me to become last, so that God, bringing up clouds from "the end of the earth," may bring me up. "And He made lightnings into rain." Those skilled in these matters say that the generation of lightnings comes from the clouds rubbing against one another. For what happens with the fire-striking stones on the earth, so that when two stones strike together fire is produced, this they say happens also in the case of the clouds. When the clouds strike together during storms, the lightning is produced. Therefore, for the most…
Jeremiah 10:14 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8
"Every man was made foolish from knowledge." If every man was made foolish from knowledge, and Paul too is a man, Paul was made foolish from knowledge; for "knowing in part and prophesying in part," he was made foolish from knowledge; "seeing through a mirror," seeing in an enigma, seeing and grasping a small fraction, and, if one may say so, an infinitesimal fraction of things. But you will understand from the contrary "every man was made foolish from knowledge." There are sins of Jerusalem, and sins also of Sodom, but by comparison with the worse sins of Jerusalem, the sins of Sodom are righteousness; for it says, "Sodom was justified from you." As, then, the sins of Sodom are not righteousness but injustice, yet as compared with the greater injustice it is righteousness, so, from the contrary, knowledge—the knowledge that belongs to Paul—as compared with that knowledge which is in the heavens, as compared with the perfect knowledge, is foolishness. On this account "every man was made foolish from knowledge." Some such thing, I think, Ecclesiastes was grasping when he said: "I said, I will become wise; and it withdrew from me, far beyond what it was, and a deep depth—who will find it?" The discourse is about to venture something and to say that the one who came to sojourn in this life emptied himself, so that by his emptying the world might be filled. And if that one who came to sojourn in this life emptied himself, that very emptying was wisdom. "For the foolish thing of God is wiser than men." If I had said, "the foolish thing of God," how would the fault-finders have accused me? How would they have blamed me? How would I have been charged—while the other things said, which are reckoned even by them to be noble, were approved, but this, as they suppose, not being nobly said—because I said "the foolish thing of God"? But now Paul, as one who is wise and has apostolic authority, dared to say that all the wisdom upon earth, both that in himself and that in Peter and the apostles, all that has come to sojourn in the world, is "the foolish thing of God." For as compared with that wisdom which no place upon earth can contain, as compared with that supra-celestial wisdom, this thing that has come to sojourn is the foolish thing of God. But this "foolish thing of God is wiser than men." Than which men? I do not mean than the foolish, but it is wiser even than the wise men. And even if you name the wise men of this age, whether rulers or prophets, than the rulers of this age "the foolish thing of God," which I have expounded, "is wiser than men." The discourse is about to say something paradoxical, that "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God," and "God made foolish the wisdom of the world." Did He, then, in wisdom make foolish the wisdom of the world? And can the wisdom of the world contain the wisdom, so as to be proved foolish? For does the wisdom of God contend against the wisdom of the world, in order to be tested against it? But there is need of some little thing, which is the little foolish thing of God, so that by this small foolish thing of God the wisdom of the world may be made foolish and refuted; for the wisdom of this world did not endure the wisdom of God. As, for example—so that you may understand that "the foolish thing of God" "made foolish the wisdom of the world"—let it be granted that I am contending, I who seem to know many things and more, against someone senseless and uninstructed and understanding nothing and not contending on behalf of noble words of any sort whatever. Do I, then, have need of dialectic against that man, or of deeper speculations, if his notions are foolish? Do I not have need of one little word slightly sharper than his diction, so that I may be able to refute his foolishness? Thus, in order that the wisdom of this world may be made foolish, there is no need of the wisdom of God contending against it (for it itself is below), but the foolish thing of God suffices, since "the fo…
Jeremiah 11:1 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
According to the recorded coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, His sojourn came about bodily in a certain universal way, shining upon the whole world, when "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." For "there was the true Light which enlightens every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Yet one must know that even earlier He sojourned, though not bodily, in each of the saints, and that after this His visible coming He sojourns among us again. And if you wish to receive a demonstration of these things, attend to the passage: "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Hear," and what follows. For what is "the word which came from the Lord," whether to Jeremiah or to Isaiah or to Ezekiel or to whomever, other than He who was in the beginning with God? I know of no other word of the Lord than this, concerning which the evangelist has said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And this too we must know, that it is above all when it is possible to profit from them that the coming of the Word is to each one. For what benefit is it to me if the Word has sojourned in the world, but I do not have Him? On the contrary, even if He has not yet sojourned in the whole world, grant that I have come to be among the prophets—I have the Word. And I would say that Christ came to Moses, to Jeremiah, to Isaiah, to each of the righteous, and that what was said by Him to the disciples, "Behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age," was in fact fulfilled and came to pass even before His coming; for He was with Moses and He was with Isaiah and with each of the saints. How could those men have spoken the word of God if the Word of God had not sojourned in them? These things are especially necessary to be known by us who belong to the Church, who wish the God of the Law and of the Gospel to be the same, and Christ to be the same both then and now unto all ages. But there will be those who sever the Godhead older than the coming of the Savior—so far as their own supposition goes—from the Godhead proclaimed by Jesus Christ. But we know one God both then and now, one Christ both then and now. These things because of "the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying."
Jeremiah 11:2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
What then are we also to hear? "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." We are men of Judah because of Christ; for it is plain that our Lord "has arisen out of Judah," and if I establish, according to Scripture, that the name of Judah refers to Christ, then the men of Judah will not be the Jews who disbelieve in Christ, but ourselves, as many as believe in Christ. "Judah, may your brothers praise you. Your hands are upon the back of your enemies"—"may they praise you." His brothers did not praise that Judah, the son of Jacob. But this Judah his brothers will praise, since this Judah says, "I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the church I will hymn you." It is not said with reference to that Judah. "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies": where is that Judah found laying his hands upon the back of his enemies? The narrative has recorded nothing of the sort concerning him. But if you understand the coming of the Lord Jesus abolishing the devil, stripping off "the principalities and powers" and making a show of them and triumphing over them in the wood, you see how upon this Judah the prophecy that says this has been fulfilled: "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies." If this is so, and the word now speaks "to the men of Judah," to whom would it be speaking except to those who believe in Christ, called in a certain manner Judah too because of the tribe of Judah? "To the men of Judah" the word is spoken, and "to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." This is the church. For the city of God is the church, the Vision of peace; in her is the peace which He brought us, if indeed we are children of peace, and it is multiplied and seen.
Jeremiah 11:3 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
"Hear," then, "the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of the covenant which I commanded your fathers." Who most of all hears "the words of the covenant which God commanded the fathers"? Is it those who believe in Him, or those who are shown not even to believe Moses by the very fact that they have not believed in the Lord? For the Savior says to those men: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote concerning me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" Therefore those men have not believed in Moses, but we who believe in Christ believe the covenant given through Moses, and it is spoken to us, that we may not become accursed: "Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of the covenant which I commanded the fathers." Those men, then, have this—to be accursed. For they did not hear "the covenant which God commanded the fathers."
Jeremiah 11:4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
"In the day," He says, "when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace." Us too God has led out "of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace," especially according to him who has understood what is written in the Revelation of John, that the place "where their Lord was crucified is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt." For if it "is called spiritually Egypt," and this Egypt is not that Egypt which is spiritually called Egypt, for this one is perceptible to the senses, it is clear that if you understand the Egypt which is spiritually so called and go out from it, you are the one who has gone out "of the land of Egypt and out of the iron furnace," and it is said to you: "Hear my voice and do according to all" these things. Then there is a promise of God to those who hear, if they do what He has commanded, saying: "And you shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God." Not everyone who says he is the people of God is the people of God; that people, then, which had promised to be the people of God, heard "you are not my people" in the words "for you are not my people," and it was said to that people "not my people," and again this people was called a people. For "they moved me to jealousy with what is no god"—and He speaks concerning those men—"they provoked me to anger with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with what is no nation, with a nation without understanding I will provoke them to anger." We, then, have become a people to God, and "the righteousness of God is to the people," to the people from the nations. For this people is born all at once, as it is also said in the prophet: "Has a nation been born at once?" And a nation was born at once, when the Savior had come and in one day five thousand believed, and on another day three thousand were added. And it is possible to see a whole people being born by the word of God, and the barren woman, who formerly did not bear, bearing all at once, to whom it is said: "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear, break forth and cry out, you who are not in travail, for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has the husband." The church is desolate—desolate of the law, this one was desolate of God. But that synagogue was said to have a husband, the law.
Jeremiah 11:5 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
What then does God promise me? "You shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God." He is not the God of all, but only of those to whom He grants Himself, just as He granted Himself to that patriarch to whom He said, "I am your God," and again to another, "I will be your God," and concerning others, "I will be their God." When, then, do we attain—I speak of each individual—to God being our God? But if you wish to learn whose God He is and to whom He grants the invocation of Himself, "I," He says, "am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." And the Savior, expounding this very thing, says: "God is not the God of the dead but of the living." Who is the dead? The sinner, who does not have the One who said, "I am the Life," the one who has dead works, the one who has not yet repented from dead works, concerning which the apostle says: "Not again laying a foundation of repentance from dead works." If, then, "God is not the God of the dead but of the living," and we know who is the living one—that it is he who lives his life according to Christ and abides with Him—then, if we wish that God may be ours, let us renounce the works of deadness, that He may fulfill His promise which says: "And I will be to you a God, that I may establish my oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey." For observe that He says: "I will establish my oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey," as though He had not yet given them "the land flowing with milk and honey." For this is not the land which God promised "flowing with milk and honey," but it is that one concerning which the Savior taught, saying: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
Jeremiah 11:6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
"And the Lord said to me: Read these words in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem." And to those outside we read the words of God, calling them to salvation. "Hear the words of this covenant and do them."
Jeremiah 11:9 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
"And they did not do them. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Are we going to repent over the sins spoken of concerning the men of Judah, knowing that we are men of Judah because of Christ who was prophesied and spoken of? For perhaps, since there are among us certain sinners who act contrary to right reason, for this reason the prophet says: "A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem." For when there is found, in certain persons who bear the name of the church, a bond of injustice and a bond of sins, so that to them may be applied what is said of the sinner, "and each one is bound tight by the cords of his own sins," God would say: "A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah." But let no conspiracy be found among us. And how is a conspiracy not found among us, even if until now there is a conspiracy in certain persons? "Loose every bond of injustice, undo the knots of forced dealings, tear apart every unjust contract. Break your bread for the hungry."
Jeremiah 11:10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9
"A conspiracy," then, "has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." "They have turned back to the injustices"—of whom? He does not say simply "of the fathers." What is the addition? "They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." We were saying that these things are spoken to us and to those among us who sin. How then have those among us who sin turned back not "to the injustices of the fathers," but "of their fathers of former times"? Perhaps, then, our fathers are twofold, and there is among us the worse kind of fathers; for before we believed we were sons, so to speak, of the devil, as the evangelic word shows, saying: "You are of your father the devil," but when we believed, we became sons of God. When, therefore, we sin, we turn back to the injustices not simply of the fathers, but of the former fathers. And to establish that our fathers are twofold, I will make use of statements from the forty-fourth Psalm which run thus: "Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father." He calls Him father, "forget the house of your father"; for as a father He says, "Hear, O daughter." Therefore our fathers are twofold. But "forget the house of your father," the former one. If, having forgotten your former house, you again turn back to the sins, you have done the sins here spoken of. "They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." I was saying that the devil too was formerly our father, before God became our father, if indeed even now the devil is not our father; which we will also establish from the catholic epistle of John, in which it is written: "Everyone who commits sin has been begotten of the devil." If "everyone who commits sin has been begotten of the devil," then, as it were, we have been begotten of the devil as many times as we sin. Wretched, then, is this one who is always being begotten of the devil, just as, on the other hand, blessed is he who is always being begotten by God. For I will not say that the righteous man has been begotten by God once, but that he is always being begotten at each good deed, in which God begets the righteous man. If, then, I direct you to the Savior—that the Father did not beget the Son and then release Him from His begetting, but always begets Him—I will establish something similar also in the case of the righteous man. Let us see who our Savior is. "The radiance of glory." The radiance of the glory has not been begotten once and is not being begotten; but insofar as the light is productive of the radiance, to that extent the radiance of the glory of God is begotten. Our Savior is the wisdom of God. And wisdom is "the radiance of eternal light." If, then, the Savior is always begotten, and for this reason He says, "Before all the hills He begets me"—not "before all the hills He has begotten me," but "before all the hills He begets me"—and the Savior is always begotten by the Father, so also you, if you have the spirit of adoption, God always begets you in Him at each deed, at each thought, and being thus begotten you become ever a son of God being begotten in Christ Jesus; to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 11:11-12 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 7
Though God justly does not hear those who do not hear him, the demons will be unable to save the just in those who burn incense to them, whenever the time of troubles arrives. Thus, whenever God does not listen, it is dangerous to seek help from demons. But one must depend on God, who has turned away from us due to sins, yet who does not disregard the great and lasting refuge in himself.
Jeremiah 11:18 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
If there are oracles of God in the Law and the Prophets, in the Gospels and the Apostles, then whoever is being made a disciple by the oracles of God will need to inscribe God as his teacher; for "he who teaches man knowledge" is God, as it is also written in the Psalms. And the Savior too testifies that no one should be inscribed as a teacher upon the earth, saying, "And do not call anyone teacher upon the earth; for one is your teacher, the Father who is in the heavens." But "the Father who is in the heavens" teaches either by himself, or through Christ, or in the Holy Spirit, or through Paul, let us say, or through Peter, or through some other of the saints — only let the Spirit of God and the Word of God be present and teach. And for what purpose have I said these things? Because the prophet says, "Make it known to me, Lord, and I will know"; for I will not know unless you make it known to me; but if, when you make it known to me, I know, "then I will see their practices" and I will understand what each one does and of what disposition he is.
Jeremiah 11:19 — COMMENTARY ON ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:35
If we examine the declaration about Jesus who is pointed out by John in the words, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," from the standpoint of the dispensation itself of the bodily sojourn of the Son of God in the life of people, we will assume that the lamb is none other than his humanity. For he was "led as a sheep to the slaughter and was dumb as a lamb before its shearer," saying, "I was as an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed."
Jeremiah 11:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:23
The careful student of the sacred books, moreover, may gather not a few similar passages from the prophets, as where He calls Himself a chosen shaft, and a servant of God, and a light of the Gentiles. Isaiah also says, "From my mother's womb hath He called me by my name, and He made my mouth as a sharp sword, and under the shadow of His hand did He hide me, and He said to me, Thou art My servant, O Israel, and in thee will I be glorified." And a little farther on: "And my God shall be my strength, and He said to me, This is a great thing for thee to be called My servant, to set up the tribes of Jacob and to turn again the diaspora of Israel. Behold I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the end of the earth." And in Jeremiah too He likens Himself to a lamb, as thus: "I was as a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter." These and other similar sayings He applies to Himself. In addition to these one might collect in the Gospels and the Apostles and in the prophets a countless number of titles which are applied to the Son of God, as the writers of the Gospels set forth their own views of what He is, or the Apostles extol Him out of what they had learned, or the prophets proclaim in advance His coming advent and announce the things concerning Him under various names. Thus John calls Him the Lamb of God, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."
Jeremiah 11:19 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
These are the prophet's words. Then let us see what the Savior says in the prophet: "I, like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, did not know. Against me they devised a device, saying, Come and let us cast wood into his bread, and let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name shall no more be remembered." As the prophet Isaiah also says, Christ "was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth." There, then, Isaiah speaks about him, but here Christ says about himself, "I, like an innocent lamb led to slaughter to be sacrificed, did not know." He did not say what he did not know. For he has not said, "I did not know evils"; he has not said, "I did not know good things"; nor has he said, "I did not know sin"; but simply, "I did not know." To you, then, he has left it to examine what he did not know. And learn what he did not know from this: "the one who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf"; for to know sin is to sin, just as to know righteousness is to act righteously. Therefore the one who proclaims the things concerning righteousness and does not act righteously has not known righteousness. "Against me they devised a device, saying, Come and let us cast wood into his bread." That the Jews crucified him is clear, and we proclaim this with boldness. But how you are to fit this to "they devised a device against me, saying, Come and let us cast wood into his bread" is a work to understand. The bread of Jesus is the word by which we are nourished. Since, therefore, while he was teaching among the people, they wished to add the stumbling-block to his teaching by crucifying him, they said, "Let us cast wood into his bread." For whenever the crucifixion of the teacher is attached to the word of Jesus' teaching, wood has been cast into his bread. Let those men, then, having plotted out of conspiracy, say, "Come and let us cast wood into his bread." But I will say something more paradoxical: the wood cast into his bread has made the bread better. I take an example from the Law of Moses: the wood cast into the bitter water made it sweet. Thus the wood of the passion of Jesus Christ, coming into the word, has made his bread sweeter. Indeed, before the wood came into his bread, when it was only bread and there was no wood in his teaching, "his voice did not go out into all the earth." But since the bread took on power through the wood cast into it, on account of this the word of his teaching has been distributed throughout the whole inhabited world. And then the wood was the symbol of the passion of Jesus, through which the bitter water becomes sweet; for I say that the Law, when it is not understood, is bitter water, but if the wood of Jesus comes and the teaching of my Savior arrives, the Law of Moses, when it is read and understood, is sweetened and becomes most delightful. They said, then, "Come and let us cast wood into his bread." And they also say, "Let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name shall no more be remembered." Thus they killed him, as though obliterating his name. But Jesus knows how he dies and for what reason. Therefore he says, "Unless the grain of wheat, falling into the earth, dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit"; so that the death of Jesus becomes an ear of wheat, making what was sown many times multiplied and abundant. So that, if by hypothesis he had not been crucified nor died, the grain of wheat would have remained alone, and many would not have come from it. Attend, then, to his wording, whether he did not mean to say this: "The grain of wheat, unless it falls into the earth and dies, remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." The death of Jesus bore all these as fruit; and if his death bore so many as fruit, how many will the resurrection bear as fruit?
Jeremiah 11:20 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"Lord of the powers, who judge righteous things, who test the reins and hearts, may I see the vengeance from you upon them." Prophetically he prays these things, to see the vengeance from God upon them; for "Jerusalem is encircled by armies, and its desolation has drawn near," and it has been said to her, "Behold, your house is left to you." "May I see," then, "the vengeance from you upon them, because to you I have revealed my case."
Jeremiah 11:21-23 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"Therefore thus says the Lord against the men of Anathoth who seek my life, who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and if you do, you shall die in our hands. Behold, I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine. And there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring evils upon the inhabitants of Anathoth in the year of their visitation." For the sake of a figure the name of Anathoth is here taken up. And the whole Jewish mystery is spoken in it figuratively; for Anathoth is interpreted "Hearkening." Since, then, a hearkening of God was in that people, as also the kingdom of God, and it came to pass concerning the kingdom that "the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits," according to this it also came to pass that "the men of Anathoth," those who are in the Hearkening, "seek the life" — not of Jeremiah (for neither does the history say that men of Anathoth sought the life of Jeremiah. We have the books of Kingdoms; Scripture makes mention there of Jeremiah, yet nothing of the sort is said in them, nor in the books of Chronicles; for we have the very book of the prophet, and the men of Anathoth have said nothing) — but these things are said concerning Christ. "Those who seek my life, those who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord." The Jews hindered Jesus from teaching. "And if you do, you shall die in our hands. Behold, I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine." They did not then perish by the sword, but after the coming a famine has now come upon them — "not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord"; for no longer is "thus says the Lord Almighty" spoken among them. This is the famine, that prophecy should be no more — and why do I say prophecy? not even teaching. Even if ten thousand times over there are those among them who pass for wise men, there is no longer a word of the Lord among them, since there was fulfilled the saying, "The Lord will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem a mighty man and a mighty woman, a giant and a strong one and a man of war and a judge and a prophet and a diviner and an elder and a captain of fifty and a wonderful counselor and a wise architect and an intelligent hearer." No longer is there among them one able to say, "As a wise architect I have laid a foundation"; the architects have gone over, they have come to the Church, they have laid the foundation, Jesus Christ. Upon this both those after them build. "In famine," then, that people have been left abandoned; for "I will bring" upon them "evils, upon the inhabitants of Anathoth in the year of their visitation."
Jeremiah 12:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"You are righteous, Lord, that I shall make my defense before you. Yet I will speak judgments to you. Why is it that the way of the ungodly prospers? All those who deal treacherously in treacheries have flourished." We still inquire whether God, who has given the Law and the Prophets, is good, seeing that "the way of the ungodly prospers" and he does not punish the ungodly. "All those who deal treacherously in treacheries have flourished." Those very ones who speak against the Creator, who blaspheme him, "have flourished, they have been planted and rooted, they have begotten children and have produced fruit." How much fruit has Marcion produced by begetting children, how much Basilides, how much Valentinus? For this is what is prophesied concerning the ungodly and said in the words "they have begotten children and produced fruit." "You are near to their mouth, but far from their reins": they name the name of Jesus, but they do not have Jesus; for they do not confess him as they ought.
Jeremiah 12:3 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"And you, Lord, know me, you have seen me, you have tested my heart before you; purify them for the day of their slaughter." What shall I do, that I may make these things clear? He calls the punishments a purification of those being punished; for "purify them," he says, "for the day of their slaughter." Through their being slaughtered, purify them; for "whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives."
Jeremiah 12:4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"How long shall the land mourn and the grass of the field be dried up from the wickedness of those who dwell in it?" As though of a land that has a soul, here too the prophet discourses, saying that the land mourns because of the wickedness of those who tread upon it. In the case of each one of us, then, the land either mourns or rejoices; for it either mourns "from the wickedness of those who dwell in it," or it rejoices from the virtue of those who dwell in it. In the case of each one of us, then, the very element either rejoices or mourns. And if the land, then perhaps the remaining elements too. I will say likewise both the water and the angel appointed over the water, that I may explain also the land that mourns or does not mourn; for it is not this body, "the land," that mourns "from those who dwell in it," but understand for me that, in addition to the ordering of the whole, a certain angel is appointed over the land, and another appointed over the waters, and another over the air, and a fourth over the fire. Thus ascend for me by reasoning to the whole ordering that is in animals, that is in plants, that is in the heavenly stars. A certain angel is appointed both over the sun, and another over the moon, and another also over the stars; these angels, then, with whom we are — insofar as we are of earth — either rejoice if we act righteously, or mourn over us when we sin. The land mourns, he says, from those who dwell in it. By homonymy he called the angel "land" with the very land itself. For just as "the handmade thing is accursed, both it and the one who made it" — not that the lifeless thing itself is accursed, but that which sits beside the lifeless image and passes under that name is called "handmade" — so also I will say that the angel appointed over land is called "land," and the angel appointed over water is called "water," according to what has been said: "The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and were afraid, the depths were troubled by the multitude of the sound of the waters, the clouds gave a voice, for indeed your arrows pass through."
Jeremiah 12:7 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of its enemies." Behold for me the one who exists "in the form of God," being in the heavens; behold his house, above the heavens. And if you wish to see something yet higher (that he is "in the Father"), behold that his house is God. He leaves "the father and the mother," the "Jerusalem above," and comes to the earthly place and says, "I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance." For that was his inheritance, the regions with the angels, the rank with the holy powers. "I have given my beloved soul into the hands of its enemies." He delivered his soul into the hands of the enemies of the soul, into the hands of the Jews who killed him, into the hands of the rulers gathered together against him, into the hands of kings, when "the kings of the earth stood by and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ."
Jeremiah 12:8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"My inheritance became to me as a lion in a thicket." This inheritance of his upon the earth, which he had received as inheritance, turned savage against him, and the inheritance — the Jews — became wild against him "as a lion in a thicket." It is no wonder if then his inheritance became "as a lion in a thicket"; even now there are still lions in the thicket wishing to curse Jesus and blaspheming him and plotting against those who believe in him. "My inheritance," then, "became to me as a lion in a thicket. It uttered its voice against me; therefore I hated it."
Jeremiah 12:9 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10
"Is my inheritance to me a hyena's den?" He prophesies concerning this inheritance: has my inheritance perhaps become a hyena's den, a hyena's den — of the most savage beast, the corpse-eater, the one about the tombs, the one that eats the dead bodies? "Is my inheritance to me a hyena's den? Or a cave round about it on every side? Go." Since they have become such, I command you, the angels, to go and gather the beasts and deliver them to the beasts. "Go and gather all the beasts of the field, and let them come to devour it." The beasts of the field have come; they devour that people. See their hearts being devoured by the opposing powers. If Jesus did not spare those, but said, "Go, gather the beasts," how much more will he not spare us? If we do not do the Law of God, the word of the Gospel, he will say again: Go, gather the beasts and deliver it up. But we have boldness to say in our prayers: "Do not deliver to the beasts a soul that confesses to you." Let us confess concerning our transgressions, repenting, and we shall not be delivered to the beasts, but to holy angels who will be nurses, bearing us upon their bosoms, transferring us from this age to the age to come in Christ Jesus, to whom is the power and the glory unto the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 12:11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 11
Who is it that says, "Because of me the whole earth has been laid utterly waste"? Christ says these things, before whose coming many sins had indeed been committed by the people, but not such sins as to cause them to be utterly forsaken and handed over into a captivity of long duration. But when they had filled up "the measure of their fathers" and had added, to the killing of the prophets and the persecuting of the righteous, the slaying of "the Christ of God," then came to pass the word, "Your house is left to you." And it is because of him that they have suffered these things, and "the whole earth has been laid utterly waste." But if you wish also to hear in a loftier sense the words, "Because of me the whole earth has been laid utterly waste," look at the earth within you, in what manner it was laid waste when Jesus came; for it was laid waste "when the members that are upon the earth were put to death," and the earth no longer works its own works, no longer are there produced in the righteous person the works of the flesh in which the flesh once flourished — no longer fornication, no longer uncleanness, not licentiousness, not idolatry, not sorcery, and the rest. And the Savior too says, "Do you think that I came to cast peace upon the earth? I did not come to cast peace, but a sword." For truly, before he came, there was no sword upon the earth, nor did "the flesh lust against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh"; but when he came and we were taught which things are of the flesh and which are of the spirit, the teaching, having become as it were a sword upon the earth, divided the flesh and the earth from the spirit; and "the earth was laid waste" when we carry about the dying of Jesus in the body, and we no longer live according to the flesh but the spirit lives, and we sow nothing unto the flesh but all things unto the spirit, so that we may not reap corruption from the flesh but from the spirit eternal life.
Jeremiah 12:13 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 11
And it is said to those who have sinned, "You sow wheat and you reap thorns"; for even if they discourse in the oracles of God, those who do not discourse rightly in them, nor live in the way they ought, nor believe, are sowing wheat and reaping thorns. And these things are most of all to be understood with reference to the heterodox, who engage with the Scriptures and reap thorns not from the Scriptures but from their own inventions. "Their lots will not profit them." These things others also have expounded. And since we do not reject their exposition, we in good conscience bring it forward into the midst, not as though we had found it ourselves, but as having learned a good lesson. This word will profit both you and us, if we attend to what is written — we who seem to be certain persons appointed from the clergy and set over you, so that some desire to come to this clerical order. But know that the clerical order does not by any means save; for many even among the presbyters will perish, and many even among the laity will be shown to be blessed. Since, then, there are some in the clergy who do not live in such a way as to be profited and to adorn the clerical order, for this reason, say those who have expounded, it is written, "Their lots will not profit them." For that which profits is not the mere sitting in the presbytery, but the living worthily of the place, as the word demands. The word demands that both you live well and we. But, if it must be so put, "the mighty shall be mightily tested"; more is demanded of me than of the deacon, more of the deacon than of the layman, and he to whom has been entrusted the rule over all of us, the very rule of the Church, is required to give account still more. For this reason the apostle, to whom the great things have been entrusted, listen, says: "Let a man so account of us, as of ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here, moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." And so it is a rare thing to be found a faithful and good steward. Jesus, "who knows all things before their coming to be," says, "Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their measure of grain in due season?" Then he blames certain stewards and says, "But if the wicked servant begin to say, My lord delays his coming, and begin to beat his fellow-servants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and be drunken, the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he does not expect and in an hour that he does not know, and shall cut him in two, and shall appoint his portion with the unbelievers." So much, then, for the words "Their lots will not profit them." But let us look also at what follows, a necessary rebuke, which it is good to take up under the moral head, saying, "Be ashamed of your boasting, of the reproach before the Lord." There are certain things in which, through folly, we boast, though they are not worthy of boasting. For instance, if someone boast that he is rich and has acquired much, it may be said to him, "Be ashamed of your boasting." If someone boast in this outward nobility, it will be said to him, "Be ashamed of your boasting." If someone boast in the costliness of garments, in the building of a richly furnished house, such boasting is foreign to the boasting of the saints; therefore it will be said to such a one, "Be ashamed of your boasting." Hear the word of the prophet Jeremiah bidding us not to boast, not even in wisdom; for "let not," he says, "the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches, but let him that boasts boast in this, to understand and to know that I am the Lord." Do you wish to boast, and while boasting not to hear, "Be ashamed of your boasting"? Boast as the apostle does, and say, "But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the…
Jeremiah 13:1-11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 11
After these things let us look at what concerns the loincloth. For "Thus," it says, "says the Lord: Go and acquire for yourself a linen loincloth, and put it around your loins, and do not pass it through water. And I acquired a loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it around my loins. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take the loincloth that is around your loins, and arise and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in the cleft of the rock." After some days he comes there, and finds this loincloth rotted through. And the Lord adds to it, giving the occasion for the interpretation of the loincloth, saying: "Just as the loincloth clings to the loins of a man, so did I cause the house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to myself, says the Lord, that they might become for me a renowned people and a boast and a glory, and they did not listen to me." Therefore the prophet is taken up in the place of God, girding around his loins the linen loincloth, as God girds the people; for "I caused to cling to myself," he says, "this people," meaning that the people, as it were, becomes God's loincloth. But why does the people become God's loincloth around his loins? Let him who is able, reading Ezekiel and beholding God, as it were, given a bodily form by the word — and in what manner the parts of him from the loins downward are fire, but the parts from the loins upward are amber — let him search out the word, why the lower part of God is fire. The things from the loins and from generation, these are fire. For all things that are in generation have need of the purification that comes from fire, all things in generation have need of chastisement. But the things above the loins and beyond generation, these are matter as in its purest and most precious state; for amber is said to be more precious than gold. Since, then, the Scripture uses these figures, that it may teach that the upper body of God is more precious and the lower body more inferior, for this reason it introduced God as composed of fire and amber. Each of us is fire while in generation; we are not the amber; but if we ascend and make progress (for it is possible to pass from being today among the lower parts, so as to become the upper body of God), then, having passed through the fire, we shall be amber, the amber about the higher body of God. He clings, then, around his loins, the linen loincloth. To what end? That it may be shown that the people is, as it were, a covering of God; for against those who wish to accuse God the people stands, and as it were shields him and does not permit anything absurd to be said in matters concerning God. But when we sin, then, just as the prophet lays aside this loincloth and condemns it to the river Euphrates that it may there be destroyed, so the sinner is cast off from the loins of God and, being cast out, is cast out into the river Euphrates, the river of Mesopotamia, where the Assyrians are enemies to Israel, where the Babylonians are, and there he is destroyed. For though there are so many rivers, the prophet is sent from Judea to the river Euphrates to transact this business and to carry away a little linen loincloth. But why also "linen"? Because it has its origin from the earth; for it is a plant springing up from the earth, then, after being cultivated, carded and washed and scoured and worked much, that it may become such as to become a loincloth or whatever else. And we too, then, all of us have our origin as the loincloth of God, and having our origin from the earth, we have need of much working, that we may be carded, that we may be washed, that we may cast off the color of the earth; for one is the color of the linen at its origin, another that which comes from the working. For the color of the linen at its origin is rather black, but from the working it becomes most brilliant. Some such thing, then, comes upon us also who are in generation. We are black at the beginning of our believing, whe…
Jeremiah 13:12 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12
What the prophet is commanded by God to say ought to be worthy of God, [yet] it appears that it is not worthy of God so long as we remain at the level of the letter, so that someone else, on hearing the letter, might say: "These letters are folly." But it is the unspiritual man (psychikos) who will say this; for "the unspiritual man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him." Look, then, at what the wording says: "And you shall say to this people: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel" — what "the Lord, the God of Israel" says, let it be worthy of the Lord, the God of Israel — "Every wineskin shall be filled with wine. And it shall be, if they say to you: Do we not surely know that every wineskin shall be filled with wine?" And those who answer, if they take their stand on the literal statement and say these things, claiming to have known that "every wineskin shall be filled with wine," are lying. For it is not the case that "every wineskin shall be filled with wine." There are, at any rate, wineskins filled with oil or with some other liquid substance, and some even remain empty. They lie, then; for not every wineskin shall be filled with wine. And the people answer, saying: "Do we not surely know that every wineskin shall be filled with wine?" These words will receive from us, as far as we are able, an interpretation of the following sort. If we know the differences among wines and the things said about them, then in consequence we shall see, concerning the wineskins, that it is true that "every wineskin shall be filled with wine." For whether someone is a good wineskin, so to name it, among wineskins, it shall be filled with wine according to its own goodness; or whether, in comparison with wineskins and in the judgment concerning them, it is a wretched one, it too according to its wretchedness shall be filled with wretched wine. How, then, is it possible to gather from Scripture concerning the different wines? Concerning the worse ones this is written: "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their branch from Gomorrah. Their grape is a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness to them; their wine is the wrath of dragons, and the incurable wrath of asps." But concerning the better ones: "Your cup that inebriates me, how excellent it is," and Wisdom summons to her own bowl, saying: "Come, eat my bread, and drink wine which I have mingled for you." There is, then, a wine from Sodom, and there is a wine which Wisdom mixes. And again: "A vineyard came to be for the beloved on a horn, in a fertile place," planted by God, the vine called Sorek, which is a certain Chosen and Wondrous one. And there is also a certain vine of the Egyptians, which God strikes according to what is written: "God struck their vine with hail, and their mulberry trees with frost." Consider for me, then, that all human beings are now, figuratively, capable of holding wine. And I name them for this reason wineskins, and I say that the base man is filled "with wine of the vine of Sodom," is filled with Egyptian wine and with the wine of the enemies of Israel, whereas the holy man who has been benefited is filled with wine from the vine Sorek and with the wine concerning which it is written: "Your cup that inebriates, how excellent it is," and again the holy man is filled with wine from that which Wisdom mixed. Let these things, then, be understood by me according to vice and virtue, so that the "every wineskin is filled with wine" may be contemplated. But if we must also see the things that come through vice and through virtue — punishments through vice, but blessings and promises through virtue — let us demonstrate from the sacred writings in what manner the punishments and the promises are called wine: "Take the cup of this unmixed wine, and you shall give all the nations to drink, to whom I shall send you." Jeremiah says these things; to which he adds: "And they shall drink and vomit and go mad and fall." So then he…
Jeremiah 13:13 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12
Then he teaches, on account of those who had sinned — as far as the literal sense goes — in Jerusalem at that time and in Judea, with what sort of wine God is about to fill these wineskins, the sinners. For it is written: "If they say to you: Do we not surely know that every wineskin shall be filled with wine? then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings who sit as sons of David upon his throne, and the priests." He who is about to punish spares no one. Not because someone bore the title of prophet, yet has sins, will he not be filled with the threats that are spoken. Not because someone bore the title of priest and seemed to hold the preeminence of a more honorable name among the people does God spare him, so that he should not be punished when he has sinned. But the things recorded concerning those people, the apostle says, were written for our sake, "upon whom the ends of the ages have come." If, then, anyone even among these priests (and I point to us, the presbyters), or among these Levites who surround the people (I mean the deacons), sins, he will have this punishment; just as, again, there are certain priestly blessings, concerning which, God granting it, not far off but after the examination of the prophetic word, we shall learn when Numbers is read; for concerning priests certain things are about to be said there.
Jeremiah 13:14 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12
"And the priests," then, "and the prophets and Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem" God says he will fill "with drunkenness" and will scatter "them, a man and his brother, and their fathers and their sons." And let us understand these things also thus: the righteous God gathers together, but the sinners he scatters. For this reason, at the time when men did not move from the east, God did not scatter them; but when they moved "from the east" and "a man said to his neighbor: Come, and let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, whose top shall be up to heaven," God says concerning these: "Come, and going down let us confound their language there," and each one is confounded and is scattered to some place of the earth. And the people of Israel too, so long as they did not sin, were in Judea, but when they sinned they are scattered thereafter from the inhabited world and dispersed everywhere. Understand something of this sort for me concerning all of us as well. There is a certain church of the firstborn who are enrolled in the heavens, where is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The blessed will be gathered together there, so that they may be together. But in this very thing the sinners are punished, in not being with one another. I know of some in this life who, for the sake of punishment, wish to hand over to some island, and for the sake of torment scatter the household of one who has offended the kingdom — the wife here, one son here, then the other elsewhere — so that not even in their misfortune may the mother enjoy the company of the son, or the brother of the brother. Understand something of this sort also in the case of the unjust. It is necessary that you, the sinner, taste something more bitter, being managed by God, so that being disciplined you may be saved. And just as you punish the household servant or son who is punished by you, not simply wishing to torture him, but that you may turn him back by the sufferings, so also God will discipline with the sufferings that come from afflictions those who do not turn back at the word, who have not been healed. He casts about, for the sake of discipline, the things he casts about, according to what is said: "Continually with suffering and scourge you shall be disciplined, Jerusalem." So then, in order that the disciplining suffering may increase, those who suffer are scattered from one another, so that this one and that one may not be together. For the intensity of the suffering would be relaxed through the consolation of each one toward the other. But if we must add to the discussion yet another cause of the scattering, this too I shall set forth. Wicked men, being together with one another, contemplate evils and increase them, just as good men, being together with the good, deliberate about good things. [And] therefore the evil counsel is dissolved and divided — which would have prevailed with those like it — when the wretched are scattered from one another. For this reason God arranges that the base should not be with one another, perhaps even taking forethought for them, so that their wickedness may not grow together, but may be diminished by being dissolved. These things because of the "I will scatter them, a man and his brother, and their fathers and their sons together. Says the Lord." "I will not long for them, and I will not spare, and I will not have pity, from their destruction." Those from the heresies pounce upon such literal statements, saying: Do you see what sort the Demiurge is? The God of the prophets, who says: "I will not spare and I will not have pity, from their destruction"? How can this one be good? But if I take as an example the judge who, for the sake of the common good, does not have pity, and the magistrate who rightly does not show mercy, I shall be able from the example to persuade that God, in sparing many, does not spare one. And I shall take as an example also a physician, showing that in spari…
Jeremiah 13:15 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12
Now that the one section has been circumscribed, let us see also what the other teaches us: "Hear and give ear, and be not lifted up, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord our God before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble upon dark mountains; and you will wait for light, and there will be a shadow of death there, and they will be set in darkness. But if you do not hear secretly, your soul will weep before the face of insolence, and your eyes will bring down tears, because the flock of the Lord has been crushed." He wishes these same people to hear and to give ear, being satisfied neither with their merely hearing nor with their merely giving ear. Therefore he says: "Hear and give ear." Then, after this, he commands them not to be lifted up, and teaches what must be done. What, then, is "to hear" and what is "to give ear," let us consider from the very wording. The "give ear" is "receive into the ears," and the "hear," if it is said in contradistinction to the "give ear," perhaps is "receive into the understanding." And among the things said in the Scriptures, some are more secret and more mystical, but others are useful straightaway to those who understand. Concerning the more secret things, I think, the "hear" is said, but concerning the things that are useful straightaway and able to benefit the hearer without interpretation, the "give ear"; if, then, we examine the whole of Scripture, we shall say, "having become approved money-changers": this, on the one hand, hear; this, on the other hand, give ear to. Then, when we have heard and given ear, he commands us: "And be not lifted up." For "everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled." And the Savior too, in saying: "Learn from me, that I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls," teaches us not to be lifted up. For along with the other human evils, this sin too is much in us — at one time when we are lifted up quite unreasonably, and over that for which one ought not to be lifted up even to any degree, but at another time with plausibility, because that over which we are lifted up is reasonable, and yet the being lifted up even over that is not sound. What I mean will be clear thus: there are some who are lifted up because they are sons of governors and because they are of a family among those of great worldly dignities. Such men, being lifted up over a matter that lies outside their choice and is indifferent, do not have even a reasonable plausibility that is brought forward to lead them toward being lifted up. There are those who are lifted up because they have authority to put men to death, and lifted up because they have received among themselves the advancement, so called, of such a kind as to cut off the heads of men. "The glory" of such men "is in their shame." Others are lifted up over wealth — not the true wealth but the lower — and others are lifted up, for example, over having a fine house or many fields. None of these things is worthy of account; one ought not to be lifted up over any of these. But the plausible occasion for being lifted up is when someone is lifted up because he is wise, and is lifted up conscious to himself that already from the age of ten he has not touched sexual pleasures, or even from boyhood has not touched them; and again another is lifted up because he has worn bonds for Christ's sake. There is here a plausibility suggesting that one is reasonably lifted up; yet not even over these things, as regards the true reckoning, is one reasonably lifted up. Thus it is not reasonable to be lifted up even over these things. Paul had the material for being lifted up on account of the visions, on account of the sights, on account of the wonders and signs, on account of the labors which he labored for Christ, on account of the churches which he founded, being ambitious, where Christ had not been named, to lay the foundation of a church. All these were material for him — if one must speak with the plaus…
Jeremiah 13:16 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12
And let us see also what he bids us do after these things: "Give," he says, "to the Lord our God glory before it grows dark, before your feet stumble upon dark mountains; and you will wait for light." He wishes the one who gives "glory to God" to give "glory to God" while there is light, since the glory of God cannot be proclaimed once it has grown dark and darkness has come. When, then, does it grow dark, and when does the darkening not occur? "Work while the light is in you." "The light is in" you if you have in you the one who said: "I am the light of the world." As long as this rises for you, glorify God; but know that a certain darkening can occur, and one must not let this darkening remain, but must give glory to God before it grows dark. Perhaps we shall understand what is written by using an evangelical saying spoken by the Savior which runs thus: "Work while it is day; night comes when no one is able to work." He named there this present age "day" (but I necessarily added the "there"; for I know that in other places other things again are indicated) — he named, then, this present age "day," but darkness and night the consummation, because of the punishments. For "why do you desire the day of the Lord? And this is darkness and not light," says the prophet Amos. If you see what the gloom is after the consummation of the world, that which follows when almost the whole race of men is punished for the things they have sinned, you will see that then that which surrounds has grown dark, and no one any longer is able to glorify God, seeing that the word of God commanded even the righteous, saying: "Go, my people, enter into your chamber, shut your door, hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath of my anger pass by." And at the same time, in these words, let anyone who is able observe that he said: "a little while." But that "little while" is little for God; it is not little for a man; for one must see that for each thing there is something little and something great. And from an example I shall demonstrate that for each thing there is something little or great. For every animal such-and-such an amount of food is little in comparison with its constitution, and such-and-such an amount of food is much again in comparison with its constitution. And thus what is little for a man is great for another animal. What is little, for example, for a man is much for a child. Thus the whole time of human life is little, even the time of the long-lived man, in comparison with the whole of the entire present age. So indeed the "little" of God is much in comparison with us, and a whole age is the "little" of God. If, then, it is said: "Go, my people, enter into your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a little while," that "little" must be thought to be spoken not in relation to the condition of the one commanded to go and to enter into his chambers, but in relation to the condition of the one who commands these things, for whom that which is much for this man is little. For if, "until the wrath of the anger" of God "pass by," some must enter into their chambers, and there are those for whom "the sins are not forgiven, not only throughout this whole age but also throughout the whole age to come," it is clear that the "little" is extended alongside the things that have been said. "Give," therefore, "glory to the Lord our God." How do we give glory to the Lord our God? It is not in voices and little phrases that I seek the giving of glory to the Lord our God, but in deeds the one who gives glory to the Lord God gives glory to him. Glorify God in self-control (sōphrosynē), in righteousness, in doing good glorify God; give glory to God in courage and endurance, give glory to God in piety and holiness and the remaining virtues. And if these things are so, and one glorifies God in this way, then if I state the opposite, do not think that I am blaspheming; for I will bring forward the Scripture as a witness of those things too. The…
Jeremiah 13:17 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12
"But if you do not hear in secret, your soul shall weep before the face of insolence." Of those who hear, some hear in secret, but others, even if they hear, do not hear in secret. What then is it to hear in secret, other than "but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory"? And again elsewhere it is said that "the greater part of the works of God are in hidden things." If I hear the law, either I hear in secret or I do not hear in secret. The Jew does not hear the law in secret; therefore he is circumcised openly, not knowing that "the Jew is not the one in the open, nor is circumcision that which is in the open in the flesh." But he who hears about circumcision in secret shall be circumcised in what is hidden; he who hears in secret the things enacted by law concerning the Passover eats of the lamb Christ (for "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed"), and knowing what sort of thing the flesh of the Word is, and knowing that "it is true food," he partakes of it; for he heard about the Passover in secret. But this great mass of the Jew, for this reason, killed the Lord Jesus and is even today guilty of the murder of Jesus, since he heard neither the law nor the prophets in secret. If you read about the unleavened bread, it is possible to hear in secret, it is possible to hear the commandment openly. As many of you (for the Passover is near) as keep the unleavened bread, the bodily unleavened bread, do not hear the commandment that says: "If you do not hear in secret, your soul shall weep." And concerning the Sabbath, women who have not heard the prophet do not hear in secret, but hear openly. They do not wash on the day of the Sabbath, they return "to the poor and weak elements," as though Christ had not sojourned among us, the one who perfects us and carries us over from the elements of the law to the perfection of the Gospel. Therefore let us take heed as we read the law and the prophets, lest we ever fall under the prophecy that says: "But if you do not hear in secret, your soul shall weep before the face of insolence." As many of you as observe the Jewish fast, as though not understanding the day of atonement, keep it after the sojourn of Jesus Christ. You did not hear about the atonement in secret, but you heard openly; for to hear about the atonement in secret is to hear how God made Jesus a propitiation concerning our sins, and that "he is the propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the whole world." And even if evangelical parables are read and the hearer is of those outside, he will not hear them in secret. But if the hearer is an apostle or one of those who enter "into the house" of Jesus, he approaches Jesus, and he inquires also about the obscurity of the parable, and Jesus interprets it, and that hearer of the Gospel comes to hear it in secret, so that his soul may not weep; for the soul of those who do not hear in secret weeps. Why, marvelously, did he not say: you shall weep, if you do not hear in secret, but rather: "your soul shall weep"? There is a certain weeping of the soul alone weeping, and perhaps the Savior teaches us that weeping when he says: "There shall be the weeping." And even if he says: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep," he speaks concerning that weeping, which the prophet here also threatens, saying: "But if you do not hear in secret, your soul shall weep before the face of insolence." For when you are treated with insolence, then you shall weep and your eyes shall bring down tears, "because the flock of the Lord has been crushed." If someone now looks at the affairs of the Jews and compares them with the ancient things, he will see in what manner "the flock of the Lord has been crushed." For this was once the flock of the Lord, and since they judged themselves unworthy, the word was turned to the nations. If, then, that flock of the Lord was crushed, oug…
Jeremiah 14:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:1
It will serve us to remember that what is called the Word came to certain persons, as "the word of the Lord which came to Hosea, the son of Beeri," and "the word which came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem," and "the word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought." We must inquire how this Word came to Hosea, and how it came also to Isaiah the son of Amoz, and again to Jeremiah concerning the drought. The comparison may enable us to find out how the Word was with God. We will generalize by simply looking at what the prophets said, as if that were the Word of the Lord or the Word that came to them. May it not be … that … the Son, the Word, of whom we are now theologizing, came to Hosea, sent to him by the Father, historically, that is to say, to the son of Beeri, the prophet Hosea.… Similarly the Word comes also to Isaiah, teaching the things that are coming on Judea and Jerusalem in the last days. So also it comes to Jeremiah lifted up by a divine elation.… Thus to find out what is meant by the phrase "the Word was with God," we have adduced the words used about the prophets, how he came to Hosea, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah.… We have to add that in his coming to the prophets he illuminates the prophets with the light of knowledge, causing them to see things that had been before them but that they had not understood until then.
Jeremiah 14:22 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 32
What a state the person is in who has deserted the easy yoke and the light burden of Christ to subject himself once again to the yoke of demons and to bear the burden of the heaviest sin! How can this be after we have known that the heart of those who worship idols is ashes and their life more worthless than clay, and after we have said, "Our ancestors possessed false idols, and none of them can bring rain"?
Jeremiah 15:5 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 13
We wish to understand the words spoken to Jerusalem with much menace, which run thus: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? Or who will be sorrowful for you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your peace? You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You shall go backward, and I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you, and I will no longer let you go. And I will scatter them in a dispersion." Then: "I have been made childless." Perplexity has seized me. I take as an illustration a man who has been declared an enemy of the one who reigns upon the earth, because for such a person it is not permitted even to impart mercy, lest anyone seem to give offense to the king who has condemned him. And it is not permitted even to show mercy to such a one; some go still further and do not even show sorrow over him, lest by showing sorrow they seem to be displeased with the sentence passed by the king. If you have grasped this, look with me at the one condemned by God on account of his own many sins, and consider such a person: though there are legions of angels appointed to help the nature of human beings, he is pitied by none. For each of the angels, seeing that the one who has condemned him is God, that the one from whom he has turned away is the Creator, that the nature of the sins is such that the good God was compelled — so to speak — to bring the verdict against the one who has sinned, each of those who see does not spare, does not show sorrow, does not pity, does not turn back to intercede for peace toward such a one. Let this Jerusalem, then (for so it shall be spoken according to the letter), have sinned against my Jesus, and have done such things, that Jesus should say concerning her: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left to you." Let this Jerusalem be forsaken, as she has been forsaken. Let the angels who ever help Jerusalem — through whom also the law of Moses was ordained, "ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator" — let them forsake Jerusalem and say: her sins have become great, they have killed Jesus, they have laid their hands upon Christ. As long as the sins were still smaller, we could still make request and intercede concerning them, we could spare Jerusalem; who will spare her in this case? "If a man sinning sins against another man, then they shall pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who shall pray for him?" "Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore she has become an object of tossing." And it is said to this very one first: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?" We do not show sorrow over Jerusalem and over her calamities and over the things that befell all that people; "for by their trespass salvation has come to us, to provoke them to jealousy." Since their trespass became so great a sin that it was said by the voice of the Lord, "Who then will spare you" — I too say to her who killed my Jesus — "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? And who will be sorrowful for you?" I pass over from the letter — although I have had a road, which the word has given — to each soul that has already been counted worthy to see peace; for after the divine lessons you have become Jerusalem, having formerly been Jebus. The history says that the name of that place was Jebus, and afterward it changed its name and became Jerusalem. Jebus, the children of the Hebrews say, is interpreted "trodden down." Jebus, then, the soul trodden down by the opposing powers, has been changed and become Jerusalem, "Vision of peace." If, then, when you have been changed from Jebus into becoming Jerusalem, you have sinned and "trodden down the Son of God and counted the blood of the new covenant a common thing" (as she did, so also you), and are in grievous sins, it will be said also concerning you: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem?…
Jeremiah 15:6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 13
And to each interpretation of Jerusalem what follows will also fit: "You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You shall go backward." That you have turned away from the Son of God, and because of having turned away from the Son of God you have turned away from God — what need is there even to say it? And since Jerusalem in Judea turned away from Christ — from which we must understand all the Jews — for this reason "you shall go backward." For there was a time when she did not go backward, but forward; but now she goes backward, and "they turned in their hearts to Egypt," clearly so that they might go backward. But concerning what "you shall go backward" means, or what it is to reach forward to the things that are ahead, we shall present it thus. The righteous man "reaches forward to the things that are ahead, forgetting the things that are behind." Clearly the one disposed contrary to the righteous man remembers the things behind and does not reach forward to the things that are ahead. But he who remembers the things behind disobeys Jesus who teaches and says: "Let him not turn back to take up his garment"; he disobeys Jesus who says: "Remember Lot's wife"; he disobeys Jesus who says: "No one who has put his hand to the plow and turned back to the things behind is fit for the kingdom of God." And in the law also it is written that the angels said to Lot who had gone out from Sodom: "Do not look around to the things behind, nor stand in all the surrounding country; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away with them." And this too has a meaning worthy of an angelic spirit: "Do not look around to the things behind" — ever reach forward to the things ahead. You have left Sodom, do not turn to Sodom. You have left vice and sin, do not turn back to it, "nor stand in all the surrounding country." And even if you keep the first commandment which says, "Do not look around to the things behind," it does not suffice you for salvation, unless you also hear the second commandment which says, "Nor stand in all the surrounding country." For one who has begun to make progress must not stand in the surrounding country of Sodom, even if he has passed beyond Sodom, but having passed beyond standing in the surrounding country he must be saved to the mountain, according to the "Do not look around to the things behind, nor stand in all the surrounding country; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away with them." If you wish not to be swept away with the Sodomites, never turn to the things behind, nor stand in the surrounding country of Sodom, nor be anywhere else than at the mountain; for there alone is it possible to be saved. And the mountain is the Lord Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 15:10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
Physicians of bodies, being present with the sick and always devoting themselves to the care of the ailing according to the intent of the medical art, look upon dreadful things and touch loathsome ones; from the misfortunes of others they reap their own griefs, and their life is always in the midst of hardship. For they are never with the healthy, but always with the wounded, with those who have festering sores, with those full of pus, of fevers, of manifold diseases. And if anyone wishes to make ready the practice of medicine, he will not be indignant nor neglect the intent of the art which he has taken up, whenever he is among such people as we have described. I have spoken this preface because the prophets too are, as it were, physicians of souls, and they always spend their time where those who need healing are; for "it is not the healthy who have need of a physician, but those who are ill." And what physicians suffer at the hands of the intemperate sick, this the prophets and the teachers also suffer at the hands of those who do not wish to be healed. For thence they are hated, as though they gave orders contrary to the preference of the desire of the sick, as though they hindered from luxury and pleasure those who, even in their sicknesses, wish not to receive what befits their sicknesses. So the intemperate among the sick flee from their physicians, often even reviling them and speaking evil of them and doing every possible thing that an enemy might do to an enemy. For these people forget that the physicians come as friends, since they look only at the toilsomeness of the regimen, at the toilsomeness of the physicians' stroke with the iron, and not at the end that comes after the toil; and they hate them as fathers of toils only, and not of toils that bring those who are treated to health. That people, then, was sick; manifold diseases were in the people that had been called the people of God. God sent them physicians, the prophets. One of the physicians was Jeremiah too; he reproved the sinners, wishing to turn back those who were doing evil. But they, when they ought to have listened to what was said, accused the prophet, and accused him before judges who were much like themselves. And the prophet was always in lawsuits at the hands of those who, so far as his prophecy was concerned, were being healed, but who, because of their own disobedience, were not being healed. Concerning these things he says at one point: "And I said, I will not speak, nor will I name the name of the Lord. And it became like a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am unstrung on every side and cannot bear it." And at another point he says, seeing himself always brought to trial, reviled, accused, borne false witness against: "Woe is me, mother, as what have you borne me?" He said "a man" not judging but "being judged," and not passing judgment but "being disputed against by all the earth." And since the sick did not listen to him when he counseled them well and after the manner of a physician, he says, "I did not profit." And since, when he was lending the spiritual silver pieces, those to whom he spoke were unwilling to listen, that they might be profited by what they heard, he says, "Neither did anyone owe me, nor did I owe." But I have said these things by way of anticipation, before I expound the words "I did not owe, nor did anyone owe me." For the text is twofold: in most copies it reads "I did not profit, nor did anyone profit me," but in the most accurate ones, which agree with the Hebrew, it reads "I did not owe, nor did anyone owe me." One must therefore both expound what is worn smooth by use and current in the churches, and not leave unexpounded what comes from the Hebrew Scriptures. He was proclaiming the word, then, and no one accepted what was said. Like a physician he was expending his remedies, though the sick were intemperate and fulfilling their own desires. As if he too were saying, "I did not profit, nor did anyone p…
Jeremiah 15:10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 15
Those who call the prophets blessed, and who by calling them blessed pray to have their portion with the prophets, gather from the prophetic words the choicest features of their prophecy. Seeking, then, they might be persuaded—if they should live according to these things (even if it should turn out hard for them in this life to imitate the prophetic life)—that they will attain rest and blessedness together with the prophets. Now it is possible from many sources to gather the choice qualities of the prophets: their freedom, their vigor, their wakefulness, their alertness—that they were not anxious when they found themselves in dire circumstances, because of their freedom, their only concern being to reprove, to convert, as prophets do, by speaking the word of God with boldness, rebuking the sinners, even though those being reproved seemed to have great power. But even if it is possible to do this from every source, let us look also at the passages read today. The prophet reproved many, and the prophet spoke to many; for he indeed lived among people who had become sinners, as is clear from the fact that the captivity occurred in his days. Having reproved many, and being judged by many, he utters words of this kind. For first let us look at it from the prophetic word, and then also according to the anagogical sense, if we first take up the vigor and freedom and power and boldness of a prophet. "Woe is me, mother, that you have borne me such a man—one contending in judgment and disputed with in all the earth!" O mother, why have you borne me a man contending in judgment against all who are upon the earth, and being disputed with against all who are upon the earth? For it was set before this prophet, and before Isaiah, and before the rest, to fulfill the prophetic office: to teach, to reprove, and to convert. It was therefore set before this prophet also to distinguish, to reprove, being able to contend in judgment and to be contended with among the sinners, to reprove the sins of the people. And as for all that the members of the people did to them, what need is there even to speak of it? One they stoned, one they sawed asunder, one they killed "between the temple and the altar," and this one, when he reproved them, they threw into a pit of mire. And above all our Savior did this, and better indeed than they, inasmuch as he is Lord of the prophets. For indeed, though he himself was scourged and crucified and handed over by the Jews or by the teachers of the Jews and the ruler of the people, he said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; and he adds in each case "woe" and "because of this" such-and-such and such-and-such. Let us therefore also, if we are eager for the beatitudes of the prophets, do these same things, so that, because of speaking and because of being brought to judgment against many people, we too may say, "Woe is me, mother, that you have borne me such a man—one contending in judgment and disputed with in all the earth!" This prophetic saying can more properly be referred to the Savior. For grant that the prophet says this—but he will not say it truly, but perhaps hyperbolically; for he was not disputed with against all the earth. But if I come to my Savior and Lord, and especially because of "he shall come to judgment" and "so that you may be justified in your words, and may prevail when you are judged," I shall see that my Savior and Lord is going to stand before the Father, being judged together with all of us human beings. And he is judged together with all human beings. I say: he is judged, he too is examined, and he stood as one vindicating the truth, yet not as an accuser. "Woe is me, mother, that you have borne me such a man—one contending in judgment and disputed with in all the earth!" A prophet cannot say "in all the earth." But some who love our Lord grow indignant and say that it is not the Savior who speaks, that the voice is not fitting for the Son of God. But it must be shown that "W…
Jeremiah 15:11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
"So be it, Lord, when they set straight their way; did I not stand by you in the time of their evils?" What is "So be it, Lord"? Let the one who is able gather such a meaning for himself. [The "So be it"—] "Master, Lord, when they set straight their way"—may the strength that fails among those who curse come to be, when, having repented after speaking evil of me, they turn to the straight path and travel it. "So be it, Master, when they set straight their way; did I not stand by you?" Then he pleads his cause concerning those who speak evil of him, saying: "Did I not stand by you in the time of their evils?" He stood by the Father, ⟨being a propitiation for our sins,⟩ and interceded concerning them in that very time of our evils. For he did not stand by after the time of our evils, but "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us"—"Did I not stand by you in the time of their evils, in the time of their afflictions, for good against the enemy?" And in the time of their affliction, he says, of the affliction against the enemy, I stood by you on their behalf. And who is the enemy but "our adversary the devil," who afflicted us? And clearly in the time of that one's enmity against men, our Savior stood by the Father and made petition concerning our captivity, that we might be ransomed and rescued from the enemy. Let the Savior, or the prophet, have said these things; for the prophet too can have said such things and have prayed on behalf of the people in the "time of their evils."
Jeremiah 15:12 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
Upon these things [what] does God answer to the people that was accused by the prophet or by Christ, and he says these things to it: "Iron and a covering of bronze is your strength"—hard, unyielding, not to be hammered out. "Iron and a covering of bronze is your strength," that is, your strength is something cutting and dividing, a strength not existing for good.
Jeremiah 15:13 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
"And I will give your treasures for plunder, as an exchange for all your sins." What "treasures" of the sinners does God give "for plunder," and give them "as an exchange for all their sins"? Is it perchance those treasured up for themselves on earth? For each of men treasures up: if he is base, upon earth; but if he is refined, in heaven, as we were taught from the Gospel. Or does he say to that people, that I am about to give your treasures for plunder because of your sins? What treasures of that people were given for plunder? Behold, one of the treasures is Jeremiah, another treasure is Isaiah, a treasure was Moses too. These treasures God took from that people, and through Christ—who said, "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation producing its fruits"—he gave to us. "I will give," then, "because of your sins your treasures for plunder." And he gave the treasures of that people to us; ⟨for first those were entrusted with the oracles of God,⟩ then after them we were entrusted, the oracles of God having been taken from them and given to us. And we say that the "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation producing its fruits" was spoken by the Savior and has been fulfilled. Not that the Scripture was taken from them, but that now they no longer have the law and the prophets, in that they do not perceive the mind that is in them. For they have the books, but how has the kingdom of God been taken from them? The mind of the Scriptures has been taken from them. No longer is a legal or prophetic exposition preserved among them. But they are people reading and not understanding; for through the coming of Christ there has been fulfilled the "I said to that people: With hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people has grown thick." There has been fulfilled also what was said by Isaiah, that "the Lord will remove from Judea and from Jerusalem the mighty man and the mighty woman, the giant and the man of war, the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the wise master-builder and the intelligent hearer." All these things God removed from them and gave, if indeed we receive them, to us who are from the nations. These things follow from the "And your treasures I will give for plunder." "As an exchange for all your sins and in all your borders." As if he said: because of your sins that have reached upon all your borders; for there is no border of that people which has not been filled with sins. And how was not every border of theirs going to be filled with sins [upon them], since, so far as lay in them, they killed righteousness, if Christ is righteousness; killed wisdom, if Christ is wisdom; killed truth, if Christ is truth? For through having condemned the Son of God to death, they cast away and destroyed all these things. And my Lord Jesus, having risen from the dead, no longer appeared to those who killed him; for we do not have in the history that he appeared to those who killed him, but he appeared, risen from the dead, only to those who believe.
Jeremiah 15:14 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
"And I will make you a slave among all your enemies in the land which you did not know." That people has been enslaved among its enemies, and has come to be in the land which it did not know. "Because a fire has been kindled out of my wrath; it shall be burned upon you."
Jeremiah 15:15 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
After these things and the words of the threats spoken to the people, the one who prayed above completes his prayer and joins to the aforesaid these words: "You know, Lord; remember me and visit me, and acquit me from those who persecute me, not unto long-suffering." And let the prophet say these things, persecuted by those he reproved, hated by those who cannot contain the truth; for he became an enemy to his hearers by speaking the truth to them. And let our Savior too say these same things, who was also persecuted by the people and says: "not unto long-suffering." What is the "not unto long-suffering"? You have always been long-suffering toward the people over their sins, but over the things dared against me do not be long-suffering. And truly God was not long-suffering. If you examine the times of the passion and of the fall of Jerusalem and of the razing of the city, and in what manner God abandoned that people, since they killed Christ, you will see that he no longer used long-suffering toward the people. And if you wish, listen: from the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar to the razing of the temple, forty-two years are completed. For it was necessary that some little time be granted for repentance, especially for the sake of those from the people who were going to believe from the signs and wonders that would be worked by the apostles. "Know that for your sake I have received reproach from those who set at nought your words." Let it be the prophet who speaks, both the one who was despised for the things he said, set at nought by the sinners; for he himself says: "I have continued being mocked." He was therefore reproached by those who set at nought the words spoken through him by God, and he prays, on account of having been reproached, to be helped by God, saying: "Know that for your sake I have received reproach from those who set at nought your words; make an end of them." Let the prophet say it — but the "make an end of them" is more fittingly said by the Savior; for a consummation came upon Jerusalem and the people, on account of the things that happened out of the people's plot against our Savior. After this it is necessary, on account of the many things the prophets suffered while reproving and serving as ambassadors of the word and speaking the things commanded by God, to remind the hearers concerning their life and their promises and our own resolve, so that, as far as is possible for us, if we wish to have rest together with the prophets, we may emulate the works of the prophets. And what I say is this: often in our prayers we say, "God Almighty, grant our portion with the prophets, grant our portion with the apostles of your Christ, that we may also be found with Christ himself." But saying these things we do not perceive what we are praying; for in effect we are saying: grant us to suffer what the prophets suffered, grant that we too be hated as the prophets were hated, grant us such words for which we shall be hated, grant that we fall into as many hardships as the apostles did. For to say, "Grant me a portion with the prophets," when one has not suffered the things of the prophets and is not willing to suffer them, is unjust. To say, "Grant me a portion with the apostles," when one is not willing, out of the disposition of Paul, to say truthfully, "in labors more abundant, in stripes more abundant, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often," and what follows — this is the most unjust of all. If, then, we wish to come to be with the prophets, consider the lives of the prophets, that out of reproving, out of rebuking, out of chastising, they were brought to trial, put on judgment, condemned. "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they died by the slaughter of the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts," while there were many synagogues of the Jews; and these men were "wandering in deserts and in mountains a…
Jeremiah 15:16 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
"And your word shall be to me for gladness." It is not now, but "shall be"; for since at present your word is to me for imprisonments, for trials, for troubles, for defamations, for pains — yet the end of these shall be gladness. "And your word shall be to me for gladness and joy of my heart, because your name has been called upon me, Lord Almighty." And if Christ says it, the name of the Father has been called upon him.
Jeremiah 15:17 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
"I did not sit in the assembly of them when they made sport." If ever the prophet saw the assembly not of those in earnest but of those making sport, he fled from being gathered together rather than hastened toward the gathering of those making sport. You must, then, understand the difference between an assembly of those making sport and of those in earnest. This assembly is earnest and does all things with earnestness and things worthy of earnestness, and according to the saying: the word is earnestness, the life is earnestness, and altogether the assembly is not of those making sport, but of those in earnest. But whenever the assembly, forsaking the earnestness about necessary things, gives its leisure to the playthings of this age and to the playthings that come from wickedness, it becomes an assembly of those making sport. This one, then, says: "I did not sit in the assembly of them when they made sport, but I was in awe before the presence of your hand." Two things being set before me — to sit in the assembly of those making sport and to give offense to you the God and not to please you, or to rise up from the assembly of those making sport and to do the things that were dear to you — I chose rather to rise up from the assembly of those making sport and to be a friend to you, than, doing the contrary, to become an enemy to your blessedness. "I did not sit in the assembly of them when they made sport, but I was in awe before the presence of your hand." And our Savior did not sit "in the assembly of them when they made sport," but rose up away from them. And a sign that the Savior had risen up from the assembly of those making sport is his having said: "Your house is left to you desolate." For the word of God has forsaken the assembly of the Jews and has made for himself another assembly and church, the one from the nations. "I sat alone." And here too the words are ordered by design. When there is a multitude of sinners and they do not bear the righteous man living righteously, it is nothing strange that one fleeing the assembly of wickedness should imitate him who said, "I sat alone," and should imitate also Elijah who says, "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars, and I am left utterly alone, and they seek my life, to take it." And perhaps too, if you examine "I sat alone" more deeply, you will find a certain sense worthy of prophetic depth. Whenever we imitate the life of the many, so that it is not withdrawn and better and select beyond the many, I cannot say, "I sat alone," but: I sat with many. But when my life becomes hard to imitate, so that I become so great that no one is near to me in character, in word, in deeds, in wisdom, then I can say, from being alone in being such and from no one imitating me, "I sat alone." It is possible, then, even for you who are not a presbyter and are not a bishop nor honored with any ecclesiastical honor, to say this — to emulate "I sat alone" and to take up a life such that you may say, "I sat alone." "Because I was filled with bitterness." If "narrow and afflicted is the way" that leads to life, you must be filled with bitterness in this life; you can enjoy nothing sweet. Or do you not know that your feast is made with bitter herbs? For when you feast, it says, "you shall eat unleavened bread upon bitter herbs." What the word means when it says that the one feasting to God must eat "unleavened bread upon bitter herbs" must be considered. The unleavened bread the apostle has expounded — the interpretation is not mine; but that which follows in the interpretation must necessarily be close to the apostolic exposition. The apostle expounded the things concerning the unleavened bread, saying: "Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." It is fitting, then, to render the account concerning the bitter herbs in a manner following upon the unleavened bread's…
Jeremiah 15:18 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
"Why do those who hate me prevail?" He had many troubles; he suffered from those who did not wish to hear the truth, and those men were more powerful than he here in this age, since the kingdom of God is not from this age, but from the better regions, as the Savior says: "If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have striven, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." Those, then, who grieved the prophet prevailed over him in this world. For that they do prevail, look at the martyrs. The judge sits giving judgment and living luxuriously in the tribunal; the Christian, in whom Christ is being judged, was filled with bitterness and is overpowered by the unjust man and is condemned. "My wound is firm, whence shall I be healed?" Those who prevail over me strike me, and my wound is firm. Whether he prophesies the cross of the Lord (for the cross is a firm wound, so far as concerns those who crucify him), or whether it is said concerning all the righteous in whom a firm wound is received, or whether you hear this also of the prophet (for he too suffered the things recorded in the prophecy) — it admits the same sense according to the expression that says: "My wound is firm." "Whence shall I be healed?" And if the Savior says, "Whence shall I be healed," he prophesies the resurrection from the dead after the firm wound; and if it is taken of the righteous man too, after the wounds there comes healing again. "Becoming, it became to me as deceitful water that has no faithfulness"; for the wound does not remain, but passes away.
Jeremiah 15:19 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
"Therefore thus says the Lord: If you return, then I will restore you." These things again are said to each one whom God shall exhort to return to him. And a mystery seems to me to be indicated here in the "I will restore you." No one is restored to a place in which he has in no way ever been, but the restoration is to what is one's own. For instance, if a limb of mine becomes dislocated, the physician tries to make a restoration of what is dislocated. When someone comes to be outside his homeland, whether justly or unjustly, and then recovers the ability to be again in the homeland according to the laws, he has been restored to his own homeland. Understand the same for me also in the case of a soldier who has been cast out from his own ranks and is restored. He says, then, here to us who have turned away, that if we return, he will restore us. For the end of the promise is such, as is written in the Acts of the Apostles in the words, "until the times of the restoration of all things which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old," in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 16:16 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 16
It is recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew that our Savior came alongside the Sea of Galilee and saw "Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen." Then the text says that the Savior, seeing them, said: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they left their nets and followed him." And Jesus made them take up the work of fishing for men. And "he found two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with their father, mending their nets; and these too he called" to the same skill, and he made these also fishers of men. And if anyone has considered those who have from God the grace of a word woven together like nets and composed out of the sacred Scriptures like a casting-net, so that the mesh is thrown around the souls of the hearers, and has considered too that this is done skillfully according to the art, he will see in a certain manner that not only then but also now our Savior sends out fishers of men, having trained them, so that we may be able to come up from the sea and to flee its bitter waves. But those fish, the soulless ones, when they come up in the dragnets and in the casting-nets and in the nets or on the hooks, die a death in which life does not succeed death. But the one caught by the fishermen of Jesus and brought up from the sea also himself dies, yet he dies to the world, he dies to sin, and after dying to the world and to sin he is made alive by the Word of God and takes up another life. As if, for the sake of argument, you could conceive of the soul of the fish changing after it goes out from the body of the fish and becoming something better than a fish (I have taken an illustration; let no one seize on it as a pretext † as though he had not heard), then you will conceive of something of this sort. You have come up from the sea, having fallen under the nets of the disciples of Jesus; having gone out, you change your soul, you are no longer a fish spending its time in the salty waves of the sea, but immediately your soul changes and is transformed and becomes something better and more divine than what it was before. And that it is transformed and changed, hear Paul saying: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." And when he has been transformed, this fish caught by the fishermen of Jesus, leaving behind his haunts in the sea, makes his haunts in the mountains, so that he no longer has need of the fishermen who bring him up from the sea, but of certain others, who are named hunters, who hunt "from every mountain and from every hill." Having therefore come up from the sea and been caught in the nets of the disciples of Jesus, change from the sea, forget it, come to the mountains, the prophets, and to the hills, the righteous, and make your haunts there, so that afterward, when the time of your departure comes upon you, you may be hunted by the hunters. And who would these be but those appointed over receiving the souls that are on the hills, those not lying below? And see whether the prophet does not cry out mystically in saying these things and presenting this meaning in the words: "Behold, I send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall fish for them; and after this I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill." If, then, you wish to be caught by the hunters, see that you do not make your haunts in the hollows, nor spend your time somewhere below, but seek out the mountains. Go up to the mountain where Jesus was transfigured, go up to the mountain onto which "seeing the crowds Jesus went up," and the disciples followed him, where "opening his mouth he taught, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and the beatitudes that follow these. And it is not permitted for these hunters to catch from any…
Jeremiah 16:17 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 16
For "my eyes," he says, "are upon all their ways." Upon such as these, who make their haunts in the mountains and in the hills and in the clefts of the rocks, upon all their ways God has his eyes. "And they were not hidden from my face," such as these; for the wicked are hidden from the face of God. Adam, after the transgression, heard "the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening" and hid himself; but the holy one is not hidden, but has a heart with boldness before God in accordance with the holy conduct of life. For "if our conscience does not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and whatever we ask we receive from him." Now Adam, even if he sinned, did not sin a sin exceeding in grievousness; on this account he hid himself "from the face of God." But Cain, more sinful than he and most impious, the fratricide, what did he do? "He went out from the face of God." So that, by comparison of evils, to be hidden from the face of God is the lesser; for this one hides not shamelessly, but out of reverence for God. "They were not hidden," then, "from my face." These, who did these things, were once in sins and were fished up from the sins that are in the sea. Therefore, that those who were fished up and afterward came to the mountains might not suppose that these things came about for them out of righteousness, the word reminds not only them but also us of our former sins. Therefore, after the benefits, it is said: "And their wrongdoings were not hidden from before my eyes."
Jeremiah 16:18 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 16
The following words are going to produce a struggle for us. For whether we understand them as consequent, we shall take careful thought concerning the recompense of sins; or whether they seem not to be consequent upon the things previously set forth concerning those fished up and hunted, in that way too they cast us into no ordinary struggle. For he says: "And I will first repay double their iniquities and their sins, whereby they profaned my land with the carcasses of their abominations and with their lawlessnesses, with which they filled my inheritance." Whether some, not understanding it, removed the word "first" from what was written, or whether the Seventy managed to remove it, God would know. We, however, comparing with the remaining editions, found it stands written: "And I will first repay double their iniquities," so that it may be made clear that, even if they should be worthy of blessedness on account of their later works, since they are human beings and have been in sins, they must first receive back their sins. And see whether the word is not true. Who will not receive back his sins except the one who, after believing and receiving forgiveness of sins (so as to hear Jesus saying: "Your sins are forgiven you"), no longer sins? But if after the forgiveness of sins and the dispensation of the washing of regeneration we should sin, as we, the many, who have not been perfected like the apostles, and after sinning and along with sinning we should also do some things duly, what awaits us must be considered. Then, if we depart from life having sins, but having also brave deeds, shall we be saved on account of the brave deeds, but released concerning the things sinned in knowledge? Or shall we be punished on account of the sins, but nowhere receive a reward for the brave deeds? But neither the one — I mean receiving back the worse things but not receiving the better — is in accordance with a just God, nor the other — I mean receiving back the better things but not receiving the worse — is in accordance with a just God, who wishes to purge and cut out wickedness. For suppose that you have built, upon the foundation Christ Jesus which you were taught, not only "gold and silver and precious stone" — if indeed you have gold, and much gold or little; suppose that you have silver, precious stone, and I say not these alone, but suppose that you have also "wood and hay and stubble" — what do you wish to happen to you after your departure? Whether at some point to enter into the holy places with your wood and with your hay and stubble, so that you may defile the kingdom of God? But again, do you wish to remain behind on account of the hay, on account of the wood, on account of the stubble in the fire, and to receive nothing for the gold and silver and precious stone? Neither is this reasonable. What, then? First it follows that, on account of the wood, one receives back the fire that consumes the wood and the hay and the stubble; for our God is said in his essence, to those who are able to understand, to be a consuming fire. And the prophet was silent as to what it consumes when he said: "Our God is a consuming fire," but he left it to us to understand. When he said: "God is a consuming fire," there is something that is consumed. What, then, is that which is consumed? For he does not consume that which is according to his image and likeness, he does not consume his own creation, but the hay that was built upon, the wood that was built upon, the stubble that was built upon. The passage was exceedingly hard to expound. There were promises, and after the promises he says: "And I will first repay double their iniquities." Of necessity the word "first" is added; for first the things of iniquity, then the things of righteousness are repaid, for God does not repay in reverse order. If he first repaid the good things, so that we might receive back the good things, but now he repays the evil things, the good things would have to cease, so…
Jeremiah 16:19 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 16
"Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils; to you the nations shall come from the end of the earth and shall say: As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them." From the end of the earth the nations came to God, and the nations have said: "As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them"? How "from the end of the earth"? There are some who are first of the earth and there are some who are last of the earth. Who are the first? "The wise of the world" are first of the earth, not simply first; "the wise of the world, the well-born," the rich, the men of rank. Who are the last? "The foolish things of the world God has chosen, the base things, the things despised, the things that are not." "The nations shall come," then, "from the end of the earth," as if he said: from the last of the human beings on earth, from the foolish, from the base, from the despised, "and they shall say: As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them." Not that there are some true idols, in contradistinction to which the false ones are spoken of, but idols which are by nature false; "and there is no profit in them."
Jeremiah 16:20-21 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 16
"Shall a man make gods for himself?" Not only from images do human beings make gods for themselves, but you will find human beings making gods for themselves also from fabrications; for as many as are able to fabricate another god and another cosmogony besides the one recorded by the Spirit, a dispensation of the world besides the true world, all these have made gods for themselves and have worshiped the works of their hands. For instance, conceive for me, whether among the Greeks those who begot doctrines, say, of this philosophy or of that, or among the heresies those who first begot doctrines, these have made for themselves idols and fabrications of the soul, and turning aside have worshiped the works of their own hands, having accepted their own fabrications as truth. Convicting, then, all those who make gods for themselves both perceptibly and intelligibly, the word says: "Shall a man make gods for himself, and are these not gods? Therefore, behold, I will show them my hand at this time, and I will make known to them my power." At what time but this? And indicating the time of the coming of the Lord: "And they shall know," he says, "that my name is Lord."
Jeremiah 17:1 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 16
Then there is another prophecy, which — I do not know how — we did not find among the Seventy, but we found in the remaining editions, clearly lying in the Hebrew, and it is filled with matters most necessary, able, if we attend, to turn our soul back. And the words are thus: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with an adamantine point engraved upon the breast of their heart." It is possible to give oneself over to the easier course and to say: these things are written concerning the Jews, that their sin "is written." But if you see, as we have often shown, Judah spoken of figuratively as Christ, perhaps "the sin of Judah" is ours who believe on Christ who is from the tribe of Judah. But if you are able to hear otherwise, in a more mystical way, perhaps he prophesies concerning Judas the betrayer, so that the prophecy is concerning him, saying: "The sin of Judas is written with a pen of iron, with an adamantine point engraved upon the breast of the heart"; but again the word "their" does not follow with respect to that man. Perhaps, then, he was speaking with reference to us, that, if we become sinners, these prophesied things overtake us. We have sinned, and our sin is not written outside us, but in our heart, and it is written "with a pen of iron, with an adamantine point." And that the sins which we sin are inscribed into us through the sinning, the matter itself will present. I was not conscious to myself of this or that matter or of this or that sin. Having done it, I have an imprint of it, and, as it were, there is written the imprint of my sin that has been sinned in my soul. And if my sin were written with ink, I would have wiped it out; but as it is, it is written "with a pen of iron," it is written "with an adamantine point," it is written "upon the breast of the heart" of ours, so that I may come to the tribunal and the prophecy be fulfilled that says: "There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest, and nothing covered that shall not be revealed." My breast was laid bare, and my heart having the letters of sin inscribed "with the pen," upon my breast and in my heart the imprints of my sins. "For there is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest," but "amid one another the reasonings accusing or even defending," and "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts." To whom will he make them manifest? Not to himself; for he himself knows "all things before their coming to be." But to whom, then, will he make them manifest? To all those who are going to see, on account of their own purity, the sin of the one who has sinned, so that the sinners "may rise up to reproach and to everlasting shame"; from which may the God of all deliver us, so that we may rise up to the glory that is in Christ, to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 17:5 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 15
Then, since many words have been gone through, there was indeed something to say about each of the things spoken, but time does not allow, as it presses upon us. Let us therefore speak on the passage read next: "Cursed is the man who has his hope on man." From this †, against those who suppose that the Son of God, the Savior, was but a man of God (for they dared, along with many of the evils of men, to say this also, that "the only-begotten," "the firstborn of all creation," is not God); for "cursed is he who has his hope on man." It is clear that they are cursed who have their hope on man. I would say that I do not have my hope on man, since, hoping on Christ Jesus, I do not know a man. Not only do I not know a man, but I know Wisdom, righteousness-itself, a man through whom "all things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, whether visible or invisible, whether principalities or authorities." "Cursed is the man who has his hope on man." Even if the Savior bears witness that the one he wore was a man—yet even if he was a man, still now he is by no means a man. For "even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer," says the apostle. I, through him, am no longer a man, if I follow his words; but he says, "I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High." Therefore, just as he is "the firstborn from the dead," so he has become the firstborn of all men, having been transformed into God. "Cursed," then, "is the man who has his hope on man, and will make the flesh of his arm his support"—whoever ratifies the things of the flesh, whoever acquires bodily strength and wages war according to the flesh. But the holy man is not so; for "he does not make the flesh of his arm his support," since he "always" bears "the dying of Jesus in his body," and he mortifies "the members that are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness." Having mortified these, he "does not make the flesh of his arm his support." "Cursed is he who has his hope on man." And at the same time this is against those who hope in dignities of rank. So-and-so is my friend, a centurion; he is a procurator; so-and-so is my friend and is rich and provides for me. Then to such a one also this is said: "Cursed is the man who has his hope on man." On no man do we hope, even if they seem to be our friends; for we hope not on them but on our Lord, who is Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 17:11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17
On the notorious question we have come to see who the partridge is, concerning which Scripture now says: "The partridge cried out, it gathered what it did not bring forth, making its wealth not with judgment. In the midst of his days they shall forsake him, and at his end he shall be a fool." From the study of the nature of animals we must take up what has been recorded about the partridge, so that, knowing the facts about the animal, we may know whether the partridge now spoken of ought to be assigned to a better rank or to a worse one. It is said, then, to be a most malicious and crafty and cunning animal, one that wishes to deceive those who hunt it and that often rolls about the feet of the hunter, so as to draw him away, since the animal is nearby, in order that he may not come to the nest. And whenever it guesses that it has drawn the hunter off and that the chicks have fled, then it too flies away. And the animal is so utterly unclean that the males fight one another in single combat over mating, and male mounts male. If, then, this animal is both malicious and unclean, both cunning and deceitful, it is clear that to assign it to a better rank and to say that it can be referred to the Savior appears to be impious. We must therefore see, if we wish to interpret it of the adversary, whether the whole interpretation follows consistently for us. The mother partridge cried out; she gathered what she did not bring forth. So then, the devil does not gather his own creatures; he does not gather what he begot, but whenever he cries out, he gathers the creatures of another and makes them his own. The partridge cried out through Valentinus, the partridge cried out through Marcion, it cried out through Basilides, through all the heterodox; for none of those men could utter the voice of Jesus: "My sheep will hear my voice." But the voice of Jesus is in Paul and Peter; wherefore Paul said, "If you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me?" And the voice of the partridge, which gathered what it did not bring forth, is among those who lead astray and deceive the simpler among believers because of their innocence and their unpreparedness. "The partridge," therefore, "cried out, she gathered what she did not bring forth, making her wealth not with judgment." The partridge grew rich. See how many are her myriads: many have become the partridge's own, the myriads of the opposing power. And she made her wealth without taking thought for judgment, nor having any judgment, but acting without discrimination. Wherefore it is said that the partridge is "making her wealth not with judgment." But my Savior makes his wealth with judgment, and his wealth is judged and chosen out. "In the midst" of "his days they will forsake him." We all who were once under the partridge that cried out — for it cried out not only through the things previously mentioned, but also through absolutely all who deceive and, as though summoning to piety, call people to godlessness, to doctrines contrary to the truth — but "in the midst of his days" we have forsaken him. For all his days are the days of this age; but since Christ Jesus has delivered "us out of the present evil age," for this reason "in the midst of his days" we have forsaken him. "And at his end he will be a fool." For when was he ever prudent, that at his end he should become a fool? But we will say that he was prudent; for "the serpent was the most prudent of all the beasts upon the earth which the Lord God had made." He was prudent according to what is said in Isaiah: "For I will bring punishment upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians. For he said: By strength I will act, and by wisdom…" …you may receive: "If anyone," he says, "seems to himself to be wise among you in this age, let him become a fool." He resolves it who earlier cried out: be foolish and stupid, that you may become wise. If, therefore, there is a certain blameworthy wisdom, according to which "the sons of this age are wiser t…
Jeremiah 17:12 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17
Now the beginning of the second chapter, which was read, is this: "A throne of glory exalted from the beginning is our place, our sanctification, our support, the support of Israel. O Lord, let all who have forsaken you be put to shame; departing, let them be written upon the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of life." The blessed prophet Isaiah said, seeing the Lord and his kingdom: "I saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne lofty and lifted up." Jeremiah too saw how God reigns, on account of which, glorifying him, he says: "A throne of glory exalted from the beginning is our place, our sanctification." Whether you should wish to understand these words of Christ, you will not err, or of the Father, you will not think impiously: for the Savior is a lofty throne of glory and is from the beginning. "A throne of glory," because of which his kingdom is exalted; "our sanctification." [Our sanctification] is Christ; for "both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one."
Jeremiah 17:13 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17
"The endurance of Israel." Just as the Savior is righteousness-itself, truth-itself, sanctification-itself, so also he is endurance-itself. And it is not possible either to be righteous apart from Christ, or holy apart from him, or to endure without having Christ. For he himself is the endurance of Israel. And even if you refer it to God, not even so will you be committing impiety. "O Lord, let all who forsake you be put to shame, having departed from you." Each one of us, whenever he sins, through the things by which he sins forsakes Christ, and having forsaken Christ he forsakes God. For in doing wrong he forsakes righteousness, and in becoming profane he forsakes sanctification, and in making war he forsakes peace, and in coming to be under the enemy he forsakes redemption, and in being outside the wisdom of God he forsakes wisdom. To all, then, who forsake God the prophet utters an imprecation, teaching us what will befall them, saying, "Let all who forsake you be put to shame." As far as they have departed, let them be put to shame just so far. "Let them be written upon the earth." All human beings are written: the saints in heaven, but the sinners upon the earth. It is said to the disciples by Jesus, "Rejoice that your names are written in the heavens." Therefore one ought to rejoice, if he becomes such a person that his name is inscribed in the heavens. And just as the name of the saints is inscribed in the heavens, so the names of those who conduct their lives in an earthly manner — those who do not pass by the land of Edom but hold the fields of the land of Edom and the vineyards — are written, as of those who forsake God, upon the earth. For it says, "Let them be put to shame, having departed; let them be written upon the earth." For indeed, "with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you." Each is the cause to himself of his being written. So if you seek the things upon earth, you do not seek the things of heaven. If your soul has inclined toward the affairs of this place, you become the cause to yourself, since Jesus says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Do you lay up treasure in heaven? You are the cause to yourself of your name being inscribed in the heavens. These things are on account of the phrase "Let them be written upon the earth." And he states the reason: "Because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of life." And at the beginning the same prophet said, in the person of God, "They have forsaken me, the fountain of the water of life," and now, "They have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of life." Let us too, then, say — if indeed we wish not to forsake the Lord, the fountain of life — the utterance of the genuine disciples of Jesus, which they spoke to the teacher when he said to them, "Do you also wish to go away?" What, then, shall we say? "Lord, to whom shall we go away? You have the words of eternal life."
Jeremiah 17:14 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17
Then again there is a prayer that runs thus: "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my boast. Behold, they say to me, 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come.' But I have not grown weary in following after you, and I have not desired the day of man, you know it." To him alone who came for the sake of those who are sick, the physician who says, "Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," everyone who wishes to be cured of the sickness of his soul may confidently say, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed." But if anyone else besides him professes the healing of souls, you would not be speaking truly if you said to that one, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed." For that woman too who "had a flow of blood" spent "all that she had" on the physicians, and "was not able to be healed by any of them"; for to none of those was it reasonable to say, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed," but only to the one whom it suffices to touch "the fringe of his garment." I say therefore to this one: "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed"; for if you heal, the end will follow upon the healing that comes from you, the cure, so that I may be saved. But however many others may save, I shall not be saved; but the only and true salvation is if Christ saves, since then I shall be saved. "A horse is false for salvation," and false too are all the other things apart from God for salvation. Therefore I would say to him: "Save me, O Lord, and I shall be saved." And I say this, if I am also able to say what follows by having renounced every boast, so that I may say, "For you are my boast," or when I fulfill the commandment that says, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches, but rather let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and to know that I am the Lord." Blessed therefore is he who has renounced all boasting here below, such as in what is called nobility of birth and in beauty and in bodily things, in wealth, in glory, and who is content with one boast, so that he may say, "For you are my boast."
Jeremiah 17:16 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17
"Behold, they say to me, 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come.' But I have not grown weary in following after you." Jesus says to you, "Take up your cross, and follow me," and "Leave all things, and follow me," and "Whoever will not forsake his father and his mother and follow after me is not worthy to be my disciple." If, then, you become such a one as to follow Jesus always, you will indeed follow, and however far you follow you will not grow weary; for "there shall be no toil in Jacob, nor shall trouble be seen in Israel." There is no weariness for the one who follows Jesus; the very act of following takes away the weariness. For this reason he himself says—so that we may toil no longer, having toiled before we began to follow him—"Come to me, all you who toil and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If, then, though toiling we come to him and follow him, we shall say, "But I have not grown weary in following after you." And to this it follows that we should also speak of the words "I have not desired the day of man." There is a certain day of man, and there is a certain day of God. Let each one of us desire the day of the resurrection of the saints, not that day of which it is written: "Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord; and this day is darkness and not light." Who is it that says, "And I have not desired the day of man"? The plain sense of the passage will convict us, that we have desired the day of man. Often, when we have fallen sick and have come to imagine death upon our departure, we entreat the brethren who watch over us and say: Ask for me a respite, ask that I may remain in this life. In saying these things we do not desire the holy day of God, but the day of man. Wherefore, having laid aside the love of life and the desiring of a human day, let us seek to see that day in which we shall attain the blessedness that is in Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 18:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
There are two visions of Jeremiah that have just been read, one following the other. The former of these contains what concerns the clay vessel in the potter's hand, which admits of restoration after being broken (for it is possible for it to be remolded); but the other vision contains what concerns the earthen jug, which, once shattered, admits of no cure. For when it was clay, if it was broken — even if it had already been given its shape — since it was clay, it was possible for it to become a second lump and to be fashioned a second time; but when, after being clay, it has already become earthenware and has been hardened by fire, then it was not possible, after the shattering of the earthenware, for any cure to come to it. What, then, these things intend, let us first consider by way of reflection, and then, if it be granted, let us examine them according to the letter. As long as we are in this life, we are being shaped — that I may so name it, on account of our clay vessel — in a potter's fashion, and we are shaped either according to vice or according to virtue. Yet we are shaped in such a way as to admit both that our vice may be shattered, so that a new and better creature may come to be, and that our progress may be dissolved after its shaping into a clay vessel. But when, after the present age, we arrive, having come to the end of life, and then, once fired — whether by the fire of the flaming darts of the evil one we become whatever we become, or by the divine fire (since indeed "our God is a consuming fire") — if, I say, we come to be under such or such a fire, whatever we become, if we are shattered, whether we were shattered and have perished from having become good vessels, or from having become wretched vessels, we are not created anew, nor does our structure admit of improvement. For this reason, as long as we are here, being as it were in the potter's hand, even if the vessel falls from his hands, it admits of cure and of being created anew. Let this much, then, be said somewhat more readily at hand, before we examine in argument what remains, concerning the two kinds of vessels: the clay one, not yet turned to potsherd, and the second, which has already become a potsherd. But let us look, from the wording itself, at what is said about the clay vessel in the potter's hand, and how the very Word in the prophet, the Lord who prophesies in him, gives occasions — and others not slight — for the interpretation of the things concerning the molded thing in the potter's hand. "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Arise and go down to the house of the potter." Jeremiah is above; he has ascended beyond the clay vessels. The clay vessels are below, and the nature that governs the clay vessels, condescending together with the things governed, is below. For this reason the word spoken to Jeremiah from the Lord says to him: "Arise and go down to the house of the potter, and there you shall hear my words." To Moses it is said, "Go up onto the mountain and hear"; to Jeremiah it is said, "Go down to the house of the potter and hear." For each of those who hear a word is either taught about the things above or learns about the things below. If I am taught the lower things, I descend by the word, that I may see the lower things; but if I learn the higher things, I ascend by the word to the higher things, that I may behold the things there. But that all of you, so far as you are able, may follow along for yourselves with what is being said, I shall use an example, and one from Scripture, and in addition to the example I shall set forth a clarity that brings light to the interpretation that has been given. "In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things heavenly and things earthly and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is unto the glory of God the Father." And there is a certain wisdom concerning each of these: a wisdom concerning the heavenly things, how the…
Jeremiah 18:3-4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
The prophet, then, goes down to the house of the potter and recounts what he beheld, saying: "And behold, he was doing a work upon his hands, and the vessel which he was making of the clay fell apart in his hands; and again he made it into another vessel, as it pleased him to make it." But I do not know what the prophet saw when he came to the potter. For he saw the potter working; the vessel that had been made was of clay; the vessel fell apart. Why did he not say precisely: he let the vessel go out of his hand — nor did he lay the cause upon the potter? But since the word is about ensouled vessels, which fall apart of themselves, for this reason it is said: "the vessel fell apart from his hands." Take heed, then, to yourself as well, lest, while being in the potter's hand and still being molded, you fall apart from his hands by your own doing. For "no one snatches out of his hands," according to what is said in the Gospel according to John. Yet it is not written that, as no one snatches, so no one falls apart out of his hands; for free will is free. And I say: no one shall snatch out of the shepherd's hand, no one is able to take us out of God's hand; but we ourselves, by being negligent, are able to fall apart from his hands.
Jeremiah 18:5-6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
"And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Shall I not be able to do to you as the potter, O house of Israel? says the Lord." Each one understands the things written according to his ability, the one more superficially, as though drawing his understanding from them from a surface spring, the other more deeply, as one drawing up from a well. And both can be helped, since the same thing is for one a spring and for the other a well. The Gospel bears witness, when it recounts the things concerning the Samaritan woman; for there the same thing is named "spring" and "well," and in turn it is sometimes called a spring and sometimes a well. Let him who is able take note, that he may know that the same thing in its substance is for the superficial one a spring, but for the deeper one a well. This is for me a preface to the account that is coming, concerning the clay vessel that fell apart from the potter's hand and was again molded. Some have viewed these things more simply and have understood them. I shall set before you their account and interpretation; after this, if we have anything deeper, this too we shall recount. It is possible, they say, that here the things concerning the resurrection are indicated. For if the clay vessel fell apart from the potter's hands, and from the same material of the same clay he makes "it into another vessel as it pleased him before him," then the potter — God — of our bodies, the Craftsman of our structure, when this falls apart and is shattered for whatever cause, is able to take it up and renew it and make it a more beautiful and better "other vessel, as it pleased him before him to make." Let this account too have its charm.
Jeremiah 18:7-10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
But let us hear the Lord himself recounting and saying: "Shall I not be able to do to you as the potter, O house of Israel? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay of the potter, so are you in my hands. At the end I will speak against a nation and a kingdom, to remove them and to destroy them; and that nation shall turn from their evils of which I spoke against it, and I will repent of the evils which I purposed to do to them. And at the end I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, to build it up and to plant it, and they shall do wicked things before me, so as not to hear my voice, and I will repent concerning the good things which I said I would do to them, says the Lord." This concerning the house of the potter we see to be referred not to any of the individuals, but to two nations; for, beginning, he says that he is going to speak about nations, that he may suggest something to those able to hear hidden mysteries: "At the end I will speak against a nation." Seek both the end and the former nation, against which he speaks the things of destruction on account of their sins; and having spoken the things of destruction on account of the sins, he nonetheless promises that if they repent, he will repent concerning the evils which he said he would do to them. And again he speaks concerning another, a second nation, that a whole nation be "built up and planted"; and since this nation that is built up and planted has a good promise, but is able to sin, he says, after speaking these things, if they should depart from the good works: "I will repent concerning the good things which I said I would do to them." What, then, are the two nations — the one first named, to which the word threatens, and the second, to which it promises? Yet he threatens in such a way that, if it should repent, he does not carry out the things of the threat. He promises in such a way that, if the second nation should fall away and become unworthy of the promises, they should not obtain them. Concerning two nations especially is set forth the whole economy of God for the human beings in the world. That first nation, Israel, came to be first; second, from the sojourn of Christ, this present nation. To the former God threatened what he threatened, and we see the things of the threat against the former nation: it has come to be in captivity, their city was razed, the sanctuary was destroyed, the altar has been thrown down, nothing is any longer preserved of the things once held holy among them. For God said to that nation: Repent — and they did not repent. After these things were said to them, God speaks to this second nation the things concerning its being built up. But he sees that this nation too are human beings, able again to fall away. For this reason he threatens this one also and says: Even though I foretold the things concerning the building and the things concerning the planting and the husbandry, yet this nation too is going to sin, and to this one, having sinned, the same things will befall which were said to those others on account of the sins, and they will suffer them if they do not repent. Search the whole Scripture, and you will find most things spoken concerning these two nations. God chose the fathers, gave them a promise, led out a people from the race of the fathers out of Egypt, was long-suffering with them as they sinned, disciplined them as a father, brought them in, gave them a land of promise, sent them prophets at various times, disciplined them and turned them back from their sins. He was ever long-suffering, sending those who would heal, until the chief physician should come — the prophet surpassing prophets, the physician surpassing physicians. When he had come, they betrayed and killed him, saying, "Away, away with such a one from the earth; crucify, crucify him." Immediately a visitation came upon the nation; the place where my Jesus was crucified was made desolate; God chose another nation. See how great is the harvest, even if…
Jeremiah 18:10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
"At the end I will speak against a nation or also against a kingdom." It will seem that "the end" is said simply. But it is said in this way. In the "I will speak against a nation or a kingdom," the "end" is of this sort: "I will raze" is said to the former nation as the "end"; to the second nation, "I will build you up." And again, "I will uproot" is said to the former ones, and "I will plant" to the second. Is it, then, that because the "end" has been spoken, the end must come to pass? God, though he does not repent, is said in Scripture to repent. And let us attend to the wording, that if we are able to give a defense of how these things are said, we may accept the account. "At the end I will speak," he says, "against a nation or against a kingdom, to remove them and to destroy them; and if that nation should turn from their evils of which I spoke against it, then I will repent concerning the evils which I purposed to do to them. And at the end I will speak concerning a nation or a kingdom, to be built up and to be planted, and they shall do wicked things before me, so as not to hear my voice, and I will repent concerning the good things which I said I would do to them." Concerning the repentance of God we are required to give a defense; for it seems to be a thing to be censured and unworthy — not only of God but even of the wise man — to repent. For I do not conceive of a wise man repenting; but the one who repents, so far as the customary use of the word goes, repents over not having deliberated well. But God, being foreknower of the things to come, cannot deliberate ill and, on account of this, repent. How, then, has the Scripture introduced him saying "I will repent" — not yet do I speak of what is said in the Books of Kingdoms in the "I repent that I anointed Saul as king," and what is said of him generally: "and repenting over the evils." But see what we are taught concerning God generally. In one place, "God is not as a man, to be torn apart, nor as a son of man, to be threatened," and we learn through this wording that God is not as a man; but through another, which says that God is as a man: "that the Lord your God disciplined you, as if a man should discipline his son," and again, "he bore with the ways of his son as a man does." So then, when the Scriptures speak of God theologically in himself and do not interweave his economy with human affairs, they say that he is not as a man. For "of his greatness there shall be no end," and "he is fearful above all gods," and "praise him, all you angels of God; praise him, all his hosts; praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you stars and light." And gathering countless other passages from the sacred writings you would find those to which you will fit the "God is not as a man." But when the divine economy is interwoven with human affairs, it bears the human mind and manner and expression. And just as we, if we converse with a two-year-old child, lisp on account of the child — for it is not possible for us, keeping the dignity of the mature man's age and speaking to children, without condescending to their speech, to understand the children — understand something of this sort for me concerning God also, when he orders the affairs of the human race, and especially of those who are still infants. See how we mature men also alter our words toward babies, and we name bread to them in a peculiar way, and we name the act of drinking by another expression, not using the mature speech which we use toward our grown-up peers, but some other childish and infantile expression. And if we name garments to the children, we assign to them other names, as it were fashioning a childish name. Are we, then, at that time imperfect? And if someone should hear us conversing with children, will he say that this old man has become foolish, that this man has forgotten his beard, the age of a man? Or is it granted, by way of accommodation, that one conversing with a child should not speak with th…
Jeremiah 18:11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
Next, after the discourse concerning the two nations — the former, to which the threat is given, and the second, to which the promise is given — he says (he said, that is, to the former ones): "And now I have spoken to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem; thus says the Lord: Behold, I am molding evils against you." Because these things which I am molding against you are in my hand, they can fall apart. Make these things fall apart from my hand, so that the evils which I am molding against you I may change and make into good things. You would not find, "Behold, I am molding good things against you," and the things said correspondingly after them, so that after this he might make manifest that the good things which he molds he releases from his hands, that he may make them evil. But he molds evils according to the example that has been mentioned, and, molding evils, he orders them wisely (apart from the interpretation that has been given for the "it fell from my hands"), so that, if it should fall, even the end of the evils being molded may come to be of a kind I do not know.
Jeremiah 18:11-13 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
"Let each one turn back, then, from his evil way, and make your practices better." Sometimes the more simple-minded say: blessed were the men of old, because they heard the Lord through the prophet saying, "and the Lord spoke to them." And to us now the Lord speaks through the things that are written: "Let each one turn back from his evil way"; the Lord himself converses with you, declaring, "and make your practices better." But those to whom the hortatory words concerning repentance were spoken made an answer, and let us see what they answered, so that we too may not answer in such a way. What, then, do they say in reply? "We will play the man, for we will go after our own backslidings, and each of us will do the pleasing things of his evil heart." And even if you do not say it in words, but your life is such that you sin, you too in effect say, through your evil deeds after the hortatory words, "We will play the man, for we will go after our own backslidings, and each of us will do the pleasing things of his evil heart." And what is "we will go after our own backslidings"? Those who have begun to put "their hand to the plow" and "who stretch forward to the things that are before" in their plowing, while "forgetting the things behind," have turned away from base things. Whenever, then, someone who has put "his hand to the plow" turns to the things behind, he will go "after his own backslidings"; for he will go after those things from which he turned away, and he runs back again to those sins which he had left behind. And so, of those who hear these things — whether catechumens who have left behind the gentile life, or believers who have already advanced in "stretching forward to the things that are before" — if the life has become depraved, they say nothing else than this very thing: "we will go after our own backslidings, and each of us will do the pleasing things of his heart" — not simply, but "of his evil heart, we will do." For there is an evil heart, and there is a good heart. Let no one, then, go "after his own backslidings," nor let him do "the pleasing things of his evil heart." "Therefore," to those who answer thus, "the Lord says: Ask now among the nations: who has heard such dreadful things as the virgin Israel has done exceedingly?" And these things too will seem to have been said simply. But if the Church from among the nations turns to God in the manner it ought, it will be said: "Ask now among the nations: hear the dreadful things which the virgin Israel has done exceedingly." For let us compare the life of those who sinned with the life of those who turned back and believed, and we shall know that the former did dreadful things in killing "the Lord of glory," while the latter, when those had done dreadful things, turned to him who was taken away and put to death by them for the sins of the world. "Ask," then, "among the nations: who has heard such dreadful things as the virgin Israel has done exceedingly?"
Jeremiah 18:14-16 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
"Shall the breasts fail from the rock, or the snow from Lebanon? Or shall water be turned aside that is borne violently by the wind? For my people have forgotten me; they have burned incense in vain, and they shall grow weak in their ways, the everlasting paths, so as to walk in tracks that have no way for journeying, so as to make their land a desolation and a perpetual hissing." He has here spoken of differences of waters: first in "shall the breasts fail from the rock?"; second in "or the snow from Lebanon?"; third in "or shall water be turned aside that is borne violently by the wind?" These three kinds of waters are the springs of the waters which the soul of the righteous, likened to the deer, longs for, so that each one may say: "As the deer longs for the springs of the waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." Who, then, has become a deer, an enemy to the race of serpents, suffering nothing from their venom, as is recounted concerning the deer? Who has so thirsted for God as to say, "My soul thirsted for the living God"? Who has so thirsted for the breasts of the rock? "And the rock was Christ." Who has so thirsted for the Holy Spirit as to say, "As the deer longs for the springs of the waters, so my soul longs for you, O God"? If we do not thirst for the three springs of the waters, we shall find not even one spring of the waters. The Jews seemed to have thirsted for one spring of the waters, God; but since they did not thirst for Christ and the Holy Spirit, they cannot drink even from God. Those from the heresies seemed to have thirsted for Christ Jesus; but since they did not thirst for the Father, who is the God of the Law and the Prophets, therefore they do not drink even from Jesus Christ. And those who keep one God, but set at naught the prophecies and did not thirst for the Holy Spirit that is in the prophets, therefore do not drink even from the paternal spring, nor from him who cried out in the temple and said, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink." Therefore "the breasts from the rock" do not fail. But those men "forsook the spring of the water of life"; it was not the spring of the water of life that forsook them; for God removes himself far from no one, but "those who remove themselves far from him shall perish"; rather God draws near to some and meets the one who comes to him. When, at any rate, the son who had devoured the substance returned, the father met him. And he promises through the prophets, saying, "I will be nearer to them than the tunic to their skin." For "I am a God who draws near," he says, "and not a God from afar off, says the Lord." Therefore "the breasts shall not fail from the rock," the waters of Jesus, "nor the snow from Lebanon," the paternal waters. For frankincense (libanos) too is a sacred incense according to the Law of God, and it is offered upon the altar, "clear frankincense, equal part to equal part." And the mountain is called by the same name as this frankincense, and there is snow coming down from Lebanon, just as the water of the Holy Spirit, concerning which it is said, "Shall water be turned aside that is borne violently by the wind?" For indeed it is borne by the wind. The water of the Holy Spirit is not "turned aside," it does not flee, but each of us, by sinning, himself becomes a fugitive from drinking of the Holy Spirit.
Jeremiah 18:15 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18
"For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense in vain." Everyone who sins has forgotten God, but the righteous one says, "All these things have come upon us, and we have not forgotten you, nor have we done wrong" — and he burned incense in vain. But what "they have burned incense in vain" means must be considered. If we take up again the things said earlier upon the hundred and fortieth Psalm, we shall understand what "they have burned incense in vain" is. Now there was in the Psalm something of this sort said: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you." Therefore my prayer, being composed of a fine heart — when our heart is not made gross — being sent up, becomes as incense before God. If, then, the prayer of the righteous is incense before God, the prayer of the unrighteous is indeed incense, but such incense that it may be said concerning it and concerning the unrighteous who prays, "they have burned incense in vain"; as is written concerning Judas, "Let his prayer become sin." That man, in his praying, burned incense in vain. And who it is that burns incense in vain, let us consider still further in this way. "Three times in the year," it says, "shall every male of yours appear before the Lord your God," to which is immediately added, "You shall not appear before me empty."
Jeremiah 19:11 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 31
The apostle also knows vessels of wrath "made for destruction so that he might make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy." God has divided all people into these two vessels, those of wrath, those of mercy, those like Pharaoh and the Egyptians, those like Paul and those who have believed. But what is the treasury of the Lord in which are the vessels of wrath? Perhaps it is the church, in which such often go unnoticed. But there will be a time when he opens the church. For now they have been shut up, and the vessels of wrath share space with the vessels of mercy, and the chaff are with the wheat. In one net are the worthless and the chosen fish. The Lord opens up his treasury in the time of the judgment, when the vessels of wrath are thrown out. He who is a vessel of mercy may reasonably say, "They have gone out from us, for they were not from us." Outside the treasury the vessels who sin are not yet the vessels of wrath, but inferior. For they are servants who did not know the will of their Lord and did not do it. So they are vessels who are simply kept for other purposes.
Jeremiah 20:1-6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 19
…of the mind of the Scripture, which comes to be present to an eye that has room for the clarity of the sacred writings. These things I have said by way of preface, rousing and awakening both myself and my hearers to attend to what has been read, so that we may ask Jesus to come and to appear to us and to teach us now the things written here. "Jeremiah prophesied; and Paschor son of Emmer the priest heard the words of the prophecy." And although in all likelihood many, so far as the mere sequence of the prophecy goes, had heard Jeremiah, no other hearer is quickly recorded except Paschor. But the Scripture took care to say also whose son he was, that he was son of Emmer, and that he held the office of priest, and what rank he had among the people—that he had been appointed governor of the house of the Lord at the time when Jeremiah was prophesying these words. And it is recorded that, having heard the words of this prophecy, Paschor struck Jeremiah; and he was not content with having struck him, but he also cast him into a certain dungeon (katarraktēs). The Scripture took care to say also where this dungeon was—at the gate of Benjamin—and that the dungeon was in a place where there was an upper chamber, and an upper chamber of nothing else than of the house of the Lord. These things the Holy Spirit recorded to have come upon Jeremiah in connection with the prophecy, and to have come from Paschor. Then it says: on the next day Paschor brought Jeremiah out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah, having been brought out, said to Paschor that the Lord had not called your name this name, Paschor; another name has been laid upon you—as to Jacob Israel, as to Abram Abraham, as to Sarai Sarah, so upon you he has laid the name Exile (Metoikos). And for this reason he has called you Exile, since the Lord says: behold, I give you into exile with all—with whom? not with your wife and your sons and your daughters, but with your friends. And when you are given into exile, your friends shall fall by the sword. Then, as though there were a difference for those who fall by the sword—whether they fall by the sword of enemies or by the sword of others—he says that the friends of the one who cast Jeremiah into the dungeon shall fall by the sword of their enemies. And your eyes, he says, shall see these things that are prophesied. And I will give you and all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, after your friends have suffered these things, and they shall deport them to Babylon and cut them down; for the king of Judah and those of Judah they shall cut down with the sword, and no longer is "of their enemies" added, as in the case of the former, who are said to be friends of Paschor. Then it says: and I will give all the strength of this city and all the treasures of the king of Judah and all the labors of this city into the hands of their enemies, so that the enemies may plunder the treasures and take the aforesaid things and lead Judah and its king away to Babylon. But you, O Paschor, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied lies. It was necessary both to cut short the whole passage and to make it clear—not yet its deep meaning (if indeed we have room for it), but rather the wording and the plain sense itself, which even any ordinary person who attends carefully to the writings and not in a perfunctory way can, even so, understand. What then do these things intend? Here the struggle is to set forth the intention of these writings. And indeed I confess for my own part that I am unable to expound them, but that I need, as I said before, the appearing of the power of Jesus—inasmuch as he is Wisdom, inasmuch as he is Word, inasmuch as he is Truth—so that his appearing may make light upon the face of my soul.
Jeremiah 20:2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 19
…The enchanters of the Egyptians also had rods, rods that wished to slander the rod of Moses and that of Aaron as though they were not from God. But those from God overturn those of the sophists and enchanters: "the rod of Aaron swallowed them up"; for this rod sufficed for this even without the rod of Moses. So Paschor "struck Jeremiah the prophet," and with emphasis: "and he struck Jeremiah the prophet." "The prophet" is added. Here, then, the one who struck struck Jeremiah the prophet. But it is recorded in the Acts that someone struck Paul, being ordered to do so by Ananias the high priest. Wherefore Paul said: "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall." And even now the Ebionites, ordered by a transgressing high priest of the word, strike the apostle of Jesus Christ with blasphemous words. And Paul says to such a high priest of the word: "God is going to strike you." And such a high priest is on the surface fair and a whitewashed wall, but "within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." But why do I speak concerning Paul and Jeremiah? My Lord Jesus Christ himself says: "I gave my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting." The simple know these things as belonging only to that time then, when Pilate scourged him, when the Jews took counsel against him. But I see Jesus daily "giving his back to scourges." Enter into the synagogues of the Jews, and see Jesus scourged by them with the tongue of blasphemy. See those gathered from the nations, taking counsel against Christians—in what manner they seize Jesus—and he "gives his own back to scourges." Consider the Word of God insulted, spoken against, hated by the unbelievers. See that "he gave his cheeks to blows," and having taught that if anyone strike "you on the cheek, turn to him the other also," he himself does this. So many strike him and scourge him, and he is silent and does not speak. For it is recorded that he did not speak while being scourged. And "his face until now Jesus has not turned away from the shame of spitting." Which of those who make light of the teaching does not, as it were, spit even until now upon the Jesus who endures it? It followed, after the prophet had been struck, to recount those who were struck—as, for instance, to speak of the apostle and if any other has been struck, and to set forth also the things concerning Jesus himself. So "Paschor struck Jeremiah the prophet, and cast him into the dungeon which was in the gate of Benjamin of the upper chamber." The dungeon of the upper chamber was Benjamin's. Jerusalem is the allotted inheritance of Benjamin, in which is the temple of God, as one able to hear the divine readings will find from the inheritance recorded in the book of Nun (Joshua). Since, then, the temple was in the inheritance of Benjamin, which is interpreted "Son of the right hand" (for there is nothing on the left concerning the temple of God), for this reason this man casts him "into the dungeon which was in the gate of Benjamin of the upper chamber of the house of the Lord." Though an "upper chamber in the house of the Lord" was present, "he cast" the prophet "into the dungeon." And let us too exhort, that having now taken Jeremiah we may bring him up to the upper chamber "in the house of the Lord." And I will show from the Scripture that the upper chamber is the lofty and exalted mind, when it bears witness to the saints that they received the prophets into the upper chambers. In the third book of Kingdoms there is recorded a widow who received Elijah the prophet in Sarepta of Sidonia, who lodged the prophet "in her upper chamber." And in the fourth book, the woman who received Elisha prepared for him a house in the upper chamber. But the sinner Ochozias fell from the upper chamber. And Jesus enjoins you also not to come down from the housetop. For "when," he says, such and such things happen, "then" "let him who is on the housetop not come down to take the…
Jeremiah 20:3-6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 19
"And it came to pass on the next day that Paschor brought Jeremiah out of the dungeon." O Lord Jesus, come again, make clear to me these things also, and to those who have come for the spiritual nourishment. How does he "on the next day" himself bring "Jeremiah out of the dungeon"? For as long as the present day stands (and today is all this present age), the sinner casts the prophet down into the dungeon; but if the present day cease and the morrow come, then, having repented, he brings him out of the dungeon. Then Jeremiah tells him what Paschor will suffer. What does he say to him? "The Lord did not call your name Paschor, but Exile. For thus says the Lord." This Paschor is going to be deported, according to the desert of his sins, to Babylon—not alone, but also with his friends. For he is handed over to Nabuchodonosor and departs into the Confusion (Sygchysis) and is punished for his sins, since "he cast the prophet into the dungeon." Who then are the friends of Paschor, whose name is that of Blackness (Melania) of the mouth? All those who have received his words, those who have been blackened together with his blackened mouth, those who have received doctrines of blackness. "And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies." Those set over the punishments—these are the ones who have the swords and make them fall; concerning whom the word prophesies and says: "and your eyes shall see." These things, he says, that are prophesied, "your eyes shall see." "And I will give you and all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon." Whoever of Judah is caught being so much a sinner as to be worthy of the king of Babylon, of the Confusion, shall be handed over to him. And the king of Babylon takes those who sin. And the king of Babylon is, according to the history, Nabuchodonosor, but according to the anagogical sense, the evil one. And to him the sinner is handed over, since he is both things, both enemy and avenger. And that the sinner is handed over to him, let Paul teach you: in one place saying concerning Phygelus and Hermogenes, "whom I handed over to Satan, that they might be instructed not to blaspheme"; and in another place, concerning the man who had committed fornication: "when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, I have judged to hand over such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ." Thus is this Paschor, the Blackness of the mouth, handed over into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they deport him to Babylon. "And they shall cut them down with the sword. And I will give all the strength of this city." It is easy to say that these things are prophesied concerning Jerusalem; for all her strength and the things then brought upon her were handed over to the king of the Babylonians. It is easy to say that these things are prophesied concerning "this city," which in the times of the Savior was handed over to the enemies. And the sons of Jerusalem went off into captivity, and the city was razed. But if you examine the matters and look upon a city not as the stones but as the men, you will see that that Jerusalem too, the men, were handed over "into the hands of the king of Babylon" because of their impiety and sin against the Christ. And you too are now Jerusalem. If, then, the word now threatens Jerusalem, be afraid lest ever you too, if you sin, be a sinful Jerusalem and be handed over, so that you may no longer be Jerusalem but become Babylon and Confusion, Nabuchodonosor the king of the Babylonians having taken you. "And all the labors" of Jerusalem he hands over. How does he hand over "all the labors"? If, after contending and struggling, you fall away and sin, all your labors have come into the hands of Nabuchodonosor. How, all your labors? It will be said to you, if you fall after having toiled much on behalf of truth: "Did you suffer so many things in vain?" Especially those who are conscious of ha…
Jeremiah 20:7 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20
All the things written about God, even if they seem inappropriate on their face, must be understood to be worthy of a good God. For who will not say that it is unfitting for such things to be referred to God — that He has anger, that He employs wrath, that He repents, and indeed even that He sleeps? Yet each of these, in the judgment of one who knows how to "hear dark sayings," will be found worthy of God. For His anger is not fruitless, but as His word instructs, so also His anger instructs; for those who are not instructed by the word He instructs by anger. And it is necessary for God to make use of what is called anger, just as He makes use of what is named "word"; for neither is His word such as is the word of all others. For no one's word is a "living being," no one's word is "God," no one's word "was in the beginning" with Him with whom the Word was, even if He alone † be from some beginning. So too the anger of God is called anger, but not as is the anger of just anyone. And just as the Word of God has something foreign to it beyond every word of anyone whatsoever, and has, foreign to it, the being God, and the being a living being while being Word, the subsisting according to itself, the ministering to the Father — so, since the so-called anger of God has once been named, it too has something foreign and alien to all the anger of the one who is circumscribed. So also His wrath has something proper to it; for it is the wrath of the purpose that reproves, wishing to turn the one reproved through the reproof. The word also reproves, as the word instructs; but the word does not reprove in the way that wrath reproves. For those who are not benefited by the reproof that comes from the word will need the reproof that comes from wrath. We were saying that there is also a certain repentance of God that on its face seems inappropriate, since it is written: "I have repented that I anointed Saul to be king." And you will inquire worthily also into the repentance, and do not suppose that His repentance has any kinship with the repentance of those who repent. For as His word had something exceptional, His anger something, His wrath something surpassing, and none of these had any kinship with the things of the same name, in the same manner also His repentance is homonymous with our repentance; and things are homonymous of which the name alone is common, but the account of the essence corresponding to the name is different. Only the name, therefore, is common to the wrath of God and the wrath of anyone whatsoever, and only the name is common to the anger of anyone whatsoever and the anger of God. So too it must be understood in the case of repentance. And whoever is able will inquire what the repentance of God accomplishes, what it accomplished. It cast down Saul, who was reigning lawlessly, and raised up as king for the people the man after God's own heart; for He said, on account of that good repentance: "I have found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse." But all these are for me a preamble, because the beginning of the reading from Jeremiah runs thus: "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived." For we inquire whether perhaps, as the wrath of all others is evil but that of God is reproving, and the anger of all others is grievous but that called God's is instructive, and the repentance of all of us accuses the weakness of the reasoning that preceded the repentance, whereas in the case of God His repentance does not accuse God, but the external circumstances in view of which the repentance is taken up — so too must one understand that the deception of God is also of a different kind from our deception, by which we deceive. What then is the deception on God's part, which the prophet, having understood it — when he ceased being deceived, having come to know the benefit that comes from having been deceived — utters, "You have deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived"? And first I will make use of a Hebrew tradition, w…
Jeremiah 20:7 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 19
And indeed the one passage has been completed; but now let us begin the second also; for it too has matters, right from its first phrase, that are not trivial. And attending to the phrasing, let us again ask Jesus to come, and let us exhort him to come more manifestly and more brightly, so that coming he may teach us all whether the prophet spoke truthfully—as is fitting to think concerning a prophet—the things that follow, or falsely, which it is not lawful to say concerning a holy prophet. He says to God: "You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived; you prevailed and were mighty; I became a laughingstock, all the day long I continued being mocked; because with a bitter word of mine I will laugh, I will call upon faithlessness and misery; because the word of the Lord became to me a reproach and a derision all the day. And I said: I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak upon his name. And it became in my heart as a burning fire blazing in my bones, and I am utterly loosened on every side and I am unable to bear it, because I heard the reviling of many gathering round about," and evidently "saying": "Conspire, and let us conspire against him, we his friends; watch his intention, whether he will be deceived, and we shall prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him." But while they say these things, the prophet says: "And the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior; therefore they persecuted and could not understand; they were exceedingly ashamed, because they did not perceive their dishonor, which through the age shall not be forgotten." This is the second passage of the reading. How then does the prophet say: "You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived"? Does God deceive? How I am to dispose of the saying, I am at a loss. For if, on account of God and his word, I look at all into it, what is to be said requires a noble disposition. Having ceased from being deceived, the prophet says: "You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived"—as though his elementary instruction and introduction had come to him in deception, since he could not be given his elements and be introduced into the fear of God unless he were first deceived, so that he might come afterward to a joint perception of the deception. But it suffices only to give one example useful for the things before us. We speak to little children in guiding the children, and we do not speak to them as to the perfect, but as to little children needing instruction we speak to them, and we deceive the children by frightening them, so that they may cease from the lack of instruction that is in children; and we frighten the children, speaking words of deception because of what underlies their infancy, so that through the deception we may make them afraid and resort to teachers and report and do the things that pertain to the progress of children. We are all little children to God and we need the guidance of children. For this reason God, sparing us, deceives us (even if we do not perceive the deception beforehand), so that we may not, as having passed beyond infancy, be instructed any longer through deception, but through the realities. In one way the little child is led to fear, in another way the one who has advanced in age and passed through the childish age. For if I am able, guiding it through deception, so that the God who deceives may say: "I will instruct them in the hearing of their affliction." I will set before you histories, how God deceives for the sake of salvation and says certain things, so that the sinner may cease from doing what he would have done had he not heard these certain words. He who says, "Yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown"—was he speaking truthfully, or not truthfully and deceiving with a deception that turns one back? Which turning back, if it had not occurred, the thing said would no longer be a deception but already truth, and the overthrow would have followed for Nineveh. It lay with the hearers either, having been d…
Jeremiah 20:8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20
"Because with my bitter word I shall laugh." There is a certain laughter that is promise, of which promise the patriarch Isaac is the namesake; for he is interpreted "Laughter." And that laughter is promise is clear from the words "Blessed are those who weep now"; and the promise is "for they shall laugh." Just as it is a promise that "they shall be called sons of God," and "they shall see God," and "they shall inherit the earth," and "theirs is the kingdom of heaven," so laughter is a promise; to which promise the contrary is the weeping that is called blessed. And you will inquire whether, with this good laughter, according to one and another conception, the weeping that is called blessed sings in harmony, while there is opposed to it another weeping, laid up, over which those bewailed with the contrary woes lament. For "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep"; for one is the weeping that is called blessed, another the weeping laid up for those who have lived badly. But whether that one too has some beneficial end, I do not know. What do I say? Hear Paul. When he taught, he set himself to grieve his hearers by his speaking. And he confesses that he was then most of all gladdened, when someone was grieved by him; for he says: "And who is it that gladdens me, if not the one grieved by me?" And if anyone is competent to move the soul of a hearer, especially of one who has sinned, he prays to speak such words as, being announced from power and array and divinity and holy conceptions, will shake the soul of the hearer and move it to mourning and to weeping and to tears, so that the speaker rejoices, † when he sees the audience delighted and full because of what is said. For where he leads to promises, as "through the narrow and afflicted way of being grieved unto life," also through weeping he leads to the laughter that is called blessed. But when he does not accomplish this, I fear lest he should say such things as: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." And to what purpose has this been said by me, save that, wishing to hint that he says, "with my bitter word I shall laugh," I might also set forth a laughter of weeping, and that weeping which those who laugh here shall weep — God perhaps contriving to engender weeping in them? For "there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." And this God contrives, seeing that the one who weeps over his own sins, the one who laments over his own transgressions, has already come to a perception of his own evils. Would that each of us, at each sin, said: "I will wash my bed every night, with my tears I will drench my couch." Would that each of us said, weeping over his own sins: "My tears became bread to me by day and by night." If my word here is rather bitter — and bitter because I am afflicted on account of it — the hearers are displeased. Those who are reproved, when they are burdened at the speaker, I know that upon my bitter word the end is to laugh, and to laugh the laughter of those who are called blessed. And knowing this perhaps the prophet said: "Because with my bitter word I shall laugh"; already "a bitter word," but I do not laugh already, but "with my bitter word I shall laugh." "Faithlessness and misery I will call upon." The righteous man calls upon God, and the unrighteous man too calls upon wisdom; for it says, "It shall be, when you call upon me, but I will not hearken to you." There it is the unrighteous; but the righteous too clearly at times call upon wisdom: "and everyone who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But here the prophet says, "Faithlessness and misery I will call upon," calling upon faithlessness as one calls upon God, calling upon misery as one calls upon the Lord. Is it then a good thing that you call upon, Jeremiah, when you proclaim and say, "Faithlessness and misery I will call upon"? But we must consider the compacts that we make and the breaking of them (their "faithlessnesses"), that it is…
Jeremiah 20:8-9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 10:18
And so far as the literal truth is concerned, it is useful to recount what things Jeremiah suffered among the people, with respect to which he said, "And I said, I will not speak, nor will I call on the name of the Lord." And again, elsewhere, "I was continually being mocked." And how great sufferings he endured from the then king of Israel are written in his prophecy. And it is also written that some of the people often came to stone Moses to death. His homeland was not the stones of any place but was instead the people who followed him, among whom also he was dishonored.
Jeremiah 20:9 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20
Then consider how the prophets are right-minded men, and do not hide their own sins as we also do, and speak not only concerning those then living, but concerning all the generations, if they have sinned. And I hesitate to confess my sins before these few here, since those who hear will be about to condemn me. But Jeremiah, having suffered something sinful, was not ashamed, but recorded his own sin; for it was a sin, what was brought in with the words, "And I said: I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name." You were taught "to do all things in the name of the Lord," to act in the name of God; and yet you say, "May I not name the name of the Lord"? But what sort of name are you about to name? "The name of other gods you shall not call to remembrance in your hearts," and you say, "I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name"? He speaks then having suffered something human, which we too are often in danger of having suffered. And especially if anyone is conscious that, on account of teaching and the word, he once was miserable and suffered and was hated, he often says: I withdraw; what have I to do with troubles? If from this I am even involved in troubles—from teaching, from putting forth the word—why do I not rather withdraw to the desert and to quiet? Something of this sort the prophet also suffered, saying, "And I said: I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name." But herein the Lord is good, who prevents such sins in men of such stature. He did not permit the prophet to speak truly in saying what lies before us, but in this too he made Jeremiah call upon faithlessness and break what had been said. For he said, "I will not name [any longer in his name] the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name." But he says, "It became in my heart as a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it." The word of the Lord became a fire burning his heart. "And it became in my heart as a blazing fire, burning in my bones." He cast off the sin which he had committed in saying, "I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name," and Jeremiah cast off the sin at the very moment of speaking. Would that I too, at the very moment of sinning and speaking a sinful word, might perceive that "a fire has come to be in my heart, burning and blazing, so that I cannot bear it." The word is about to venture something, but I do not know whether it is expedient for such an audience and such a one: it has said that there is a kind of fire, a fire not perceptible to the senses, that chastises the one chastised with pain to the point of his not bearing it. For he said, "It became in my heart as a blazing fire" and "burning" not in my heart only but also "in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it." I fear lest such be what is laid up for us, becoming a fire, as it came to be in the heart of Jeremiah. But we have not suffered it. If we had suffered this, and the two fires were set before us—this fire and the outer fire which we see upon those burned by the rulers of the nations—we would choose that fire rather than this. For that fire burns the surface, but this burns the heart, and beginning from the heart it penetrates to all the bones, and penetrating to the bones it comes upon the whole of the one being burned, and it comes in such a way that the one being burned cannot bear it. Who, upon this fire, can say, "and I cannot bear it"? I know that even robbers have been able to endure this fire, the pain from this fire. Another is the pain from the fire which Jeremiah described, saying, "And it became in my heart as a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it." That fire the Savior kindles, who said, "I came to cast fire upon the earth." And since the Savior kindles that fire, therefore for those who are beginning to hear him he…
Jeremiah 20:9 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 14
That people, then, was sick; manifold diseases were in the people that had been called the people of God. God sent them physicians, the prophets. One of the physicians was Jeremiah too; he reproved the sinners, wishing to turn back those who were doing evil. But they, when they ought to have listened to what was said, accused the prophet, and accused him before judges who were much like themselves. And the prophet was always in lawsuits at the hands of those who, so far as his prophecy was concerned, were being healed, but who, because of their own disobedience, were not being healed. Concerning these things he says at one point: "And I said, I will not speak, nor will I name the name of the Lord. And it became like a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am unstrung on every side and cannot bear it." And at another point he says, seeing himself always brought to trial, reviled, accused, borne false witness against: "Woe is me, mother, as what have you borne me?" He said "a man" not judging but "being judged," and not passing judgment but "being disputed against by all the earth." And since the sick did not listen to him when he counseled them well and after the manner of a physician, he says, "I did not profit." And since, when he was lending the spiritual silver pieces, those to whom he spoke were unwilling to listen, that they might be profited by what they heard, he says, "Neither did anyone owe me, nor did I owe."
Jeremiah 20:10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20
"And it became in my heart as a burning fire, blazing in my bones, and I am utterly enfeebled and cannot bear it, because I heard the blame of many gathered round about." The blameless, the blessed Jeremiah (I speak with exception of this small sin and if he committed any other slight thing) was blamed by many. But the blame from the many was for him a commendation with God. For those who blamed him said, "Conspire, and let us all conspire against him, all the men his friends; watch his design, and he will be deceived." They wished to deceive him with another deception, a destructive one, opposite to the deception concerning which he said, "You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived." And these who conspire against him say, "And we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our vengeance upon him." Those convicted for their own sins think they have been wronged, and therefore, supposing they have been wronged, they say, "We shall take our vengeance upon him." Something of this sort those also did who sawed Isaiah asunder; for as though wronged (since the prophecies turned them about and chastised them, convicted them, rebuked them) they sawed him and condemned upon him a sentence of death.
Jeremiah 20:11 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20
But Jeremiah says concerning these who conspire, "And the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior." If we become such as we ought to be, and receive that fire coming upon us for our sins, as upon Jeremiah and those like him, the Lord thereafter becomes with us "as a mighty warrior." And "therefore they persecuted and could not understand" [the Jews who persecuted him: "they were greatly ashamed and did not perceive their disgrace," being for so long a time disgraced they do not confess their own sins], because the Lord was with the persecuted one, and the persecuted one cannot come under their power. May it not then be, since many things of Jeremiah are referred to the Savior, that this too can be such? For "Conspire, and let us conspire against him" is said also concerning the Savior. And "the Lord" was with him "as a mighty warrior; therefore they persecuted and could not understand," the Jews who persecuted him; "they were greatly ashamed and did not perceive their disgrace," being for so long a time disgraced they do not confess their own sins, "which through the age shall not be forgotten," but they suppose that in this age their iniquities shall be forgotten. But we see that through the age their iniquities shall not be forgotten, and seeing this we remember the saying, "Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more" the unnatural ones "will he not spare?"
Jeremiah 20:12 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20
"The Lord," then, "of hosts" is with us, "who tests just things, understanding reins and hearts." The Lord tests just things and rejects unjust things, and he is, so to name it, a moneychanger of just and unjust things; and this Lord is also "one who understands reins and hearts." I inquire how "to understand reins and hearts" differs, and "to examine hearts and reins" is another thing. He does not examine the hearts and reins of all, but of those who have sinned; for I attend to the meaning of "examine," which is used in this life concerning those who are tortured. In the courts some examine, others are examined, and there are those also in the heaviest pains. But the Lord alone has a new manner of examinations, for he is one who examines hearts, and to the Lord alone belongs the examining of hearts and reins. Robbers here are examined in their sides at the command of a ruler, but there it is not by command of God, but by the Lord himself that one is examined as to reins and hearts—unless indeed I here say that the one commanded is the Son, and the one commanding is the Father, and that the Word is the one who examines hearts and reins. And of all tortures, I think, of all pains, heavier are those from the Word, when it examines both hearts and reins. Therefore let us do all things, so that we may not be handed over to that examination. Than which examination I think those handed over to those called in the Gospel the tormentors suffer less; for they are handed over to many, perhaps to more tormentors at the beginning, not yet becoming worthy to be handed over to the one Word that examines hearts and reins. That rich man was not yet worthy to be handed over to the one who examines hearts and reins; therefore he was tormented by more. But later, whether that one too suffers this or not, let him who is able examine. Nevertheless, what awaits us are tormentors and one who examines the hearts and reins for our sins; from which sins, if we are not more quickly delivered, in these we shall be. Therefore, having risen up, let us ask for the help that comes from God, that we may be blessed in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory unto the ages. Amen.
Jeremiah 22:13 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 12
The apostle indicated the one who builds a house with righteousness when he said, "You are a field of God, a building of God." But he also says that no one can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds, and so on. Therefore, through the one who taught him, the believer has Christ Jesus as a foundation. And if any person builds well, it is with gold, the teachings of truth; silver, the saving word; precious stones, a structure built from virtues. And if anyone builds in an evil way by building what is bad for Jesus—I mean wood, hay and stubble—how is he not impious? It is for him that the threat comes: Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness! The one who makes a structure up high, yet not according to reason and truth of God, does not make the upper chambers in judgment. And similarly one can also view those who teach either a true or a falsely called knowledge. Paul builds the house, the church, with righteousness, he builds the upper chambers; Timothy and Luke and those such as them, in judgment.
Jeremiah 23:20 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 52
It is the custom in Scripture, after what is bitter, to say kind things for encouragement, and after what is good to say more bitter words. Scripture does this in order that, when they have disdained the wealth of the goodness of God, they may not store up for themselves anger in a day of anger. Hence God said, "If anger comes, it will not withdraw unless God has accomplished what he wants." And if God wants, anger also occurs, in order that what God wants does occur. For if anyone does not want to be in the will of the Word of God, the anger is unleashed on him. Thus let us not show a need for an anger or wrath that disciplines.
Jeremiah 23:23 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.7
so also our mind, the more loftily and highly it approaches Christ and presents itself nearer to the splendor of his light, so much the more magnificently and clearly will it be irradiated by his light, as he himself also says through the prophet: "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you, says the Lord." And again he says: "I am a God drawing near, and not a God from afar."
Jeremiah 23:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:202
And how will it be possible to set the text, "Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord," side by side with the whole world understood as Jesus' shoe? It is worthwhile, however, to give attention to whether we must understand the words in relation to the fact that the Word and Wisdom have permeated the whole world, and the Father is in the Son, as we presented it, or he who first girded himself with all creation, because the Son was in him, granted to the Savior, since he was second after him and God the Word, to pervade the whole creation.
Jeremiah 23:30 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 19
Since the false prophets also avail themselves of the phrase "thus says the Lord," pretending to be the true prophets, there is need of signs that distinguish each of them. Therefore there was, according to the apostle, a gift of distinguishing spirits, and one who possessed this gift distinguished spirits, both the divine and the bad ones, just as a moneychanger distinguishes genuine currency from counterfeit. But aside from this general knowledge, what was just said also suffices for distinguishing. For, my word, he says, is not empty and a nourishment for what is irrational, but it is like wheat and nourishment for what is rational.
Jeremiah 24:6 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 23
Christ is a builder and architect, about whom it has been said in the prophets: "He will build my city, and he will turn back the captivity of my people." Thus the Lord said, "And I will build them up, and I will not tear them down." For the God who is good takes down certain buildings. For it is necessary that the building of unclean spirits be destroyed in us, and a temple to God be built in this way from virtues and right teachings so that his glory can be seen in it.
Jeremiah 25:15 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:10.6
In the same way in which physicians apply remedies to the sick, in order that by careful treatment they may recover their health, God so deals toward those who have lapsed and fallen into sin, is proved by this, that the cup of God's fury is ordered, through the agency of the prophet Jeremiah, to be offered to all nations, that they may drink it, and be in a state of madness and vomit it forth. In doing which, God threatens them, saying that if anyone refuses to drink, he shall not be cleansed. By this certainly it is understood that the fury of God's vengeance is profitable for the purgation of souls.
Jeremiah 25:15 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 95
It is clear that Jesus wished to drink the cup of the passion. For by comparison it was better that it should pass because of his drinking of it than that it should not pass because he had not drunk it. For suppose the Lord had not drunk that cup and for this reason it had not passed from him: without doubt neither would the spirits working sins have passed from the human race, and fittingly neither would the penalties have passed which were owed for the sins. Therefore it was expedient for all that the cup should pass from him, because the Savior drank it, so that all of us who believe in him who drank it may not drink that cup "of unmixed wine", which gives to drink and is going to give to drink to "all the nations", so that those drinking it "may become drunk and vomit, and cease to rage". For just as "he died for us all", so that the death hostile to Christ might pass us by, so for us all (who were "debtors", bound to drink forever) he drank that cup, so that by this very thing—that the cup passes from him—it might pass also from us who do not drink it. Concerning this cup Jeremiah says: "The Lord God of Israel said to me: Take this cup of unmixed wine from my hand, and you shall give it to drink to all the nations to which I send you, and they shall drink and vomit and cease to rage before the sword which I send into the midst of them". Those, therefore, who hear the Lord and live according to his word and are cleansed through faith in him, no longer have need of that cleansing which comes about through that cup of wrath. For just as those who have been washed have no need to be washed, because they are clean (because they are Christ's disciples), so those who are not clean have need of that cup, the Lord exhorting them: "Drink and be drunk and vomit". For hear how Jeremiah speaks (or rather God in Jeremiah), exhorting those who have need of such a cup, since they ought willingly to drink it who have need of such a cleansing. And since God says these things exhorting them to drink, consider what he says further below: "And it shall be", he says, "when they are unwilling to receive the cup from your hand to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall drink, for in the city upon which my name has been invoked, upon it I will begin to bring evils, and you shall be cleansed with cleansing".
Jeremiah 25:28 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:10.6
In the same way in which physicians apply remedies to the sick, in order that by careful treatment they may recover their health, God so deals toward those who have lapsed and fallen into sin, is proved by this, that the cup of God's fury is ordered, through the agency of the prophet Jeremiah, to be offered to all nations, that they may drink it, and be in a state of madness and vomit it forth. In doing which, God threatens them, saying that if anyone refuses to drink, he shall not be cleansed. By this certainly it is understood that the fury of God's vengeance is profitable for the purgation of souls.
Jeremiah 50:6 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 28
He said the sheep is like one who has gone astray. And also in the Gospel he said, "The Son of man came to search for and save the lost." And also in the parable only one is lost out of the hundred that the shepherd who dwelled with them came to find, who also, after laying it on his shoulders, returned it to the ninety-nine. For we are all one body and one sheep. He who is the feet and the head and the rest is the shepherd who, after he came, brought together bone with bone and joint with joint, and after he united them, he took them up to his country. And the unity arises through love and truth and the choice of good. Thus to his own Word he united all. But if some who are disobedient have appeared, they have acquired an incurable condition. Thus every Israelite is one according to the true relationship. For we are all one body and one loaf of bread, and we partake of one spirit. But a sheep that goes astray is one who in word and practice does not join the hunt of what is proper, either by not seeking or by not finding. And the one who knows and does what concerns knowledge does not go astray. But the one who goes astray is driven out by lions. For your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And also already young lions roaring to seize and seek from God food for themselves lay snares for the righteous.
John 1:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. i. in Joan. c. 16. et sq.) There are many significations of this word beginning. For there is a beginning of a journey, and beginning of a length, according to Proverbs, The beginning of the right path is to do justice. (Prov. 16. Vulg. Job. 40:19) There is a beginning too of a creation, according to Job, He is the beginning of the ways of God. Nor would it be incorrect to say, that God is the Beginning of all things. The preexistent material again, where supposed to be original, out of which any thing is produced, is considered as the beginning. There is a beginning also in respect of form: as where Christ is the beginning of those who are made according to the image of God. And there is a beginning of doctrine, according to Hebrews; When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God. (Heb. 5:12) For there are two kinds of beginning of doctrine: one in itself, the other relative to us; as if we should say that Christ, in that He is the Wisdom and Word of God, was in Himself the beginning of wisdom, but to us, in that He was the Word incarnate. (c. 22). There being so many significations then of the word, we may take it as the Beginning through Whom, i. e. the Maker; for Christ is Creator as The Beginning, in that He is Wisdom; so that the Word is in the beginning, i. e. in Wisdom; the Saviour being all these excellences at once. As life then is in the Word, so the Word is in the Beginning, that is to say, in Wisdom. Consider then if it be possible according to this signification to understand the Beginning, as meaning that all things are made according to Wisdom, and the patterns contained therein; or, inasmuch as the Beginning of the Son is the Father, the Beginning of all creatures and existencies, to understand by the text, In the beginning was the Word, that the Son, the Word, was in the Beginning, that is, in the Father. (Hom. ii. divers. loc.) The verb to be, has a double signification, sometimes expressing the motions which take place in time, as other verbs do; sometimes the substance of that one thing of which it is predicated, without reference to time. Hence it is also called a substantive verb. (Hom. ii. in Joan. c. 1) It is worth while noting, that, whereas the Word is said to come [be made] to some, as to Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, with God it is not made, as though it were not with Him before. But, the Word having been always with Him, it is said, and the Word was with God: for from the beginning it was not separate from the Father. (tom. ii. in Joan. in princ.) We must add too, that the Word illuminates the Prophets with Divine wisdom, in that He cometh to them; but that with God He ever is, because He is Goda. For which reason he placed and the Word was with God, before and the Word was God.
John 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.109-11, 289
Although so many meanings of "beginning" have occurred to us at the present time, we are investigating how we ought to take the statement "In the beginning was the Word." It is clear that we are not to understand it in its meaning related to change or a way and length. And we should certainly not take it in its meaning related to creation.But it is possible that he is the "by which," which is effective, since "God commanded and they were created." For Christ is perhaps the creator to whom the Father says, "Let there be light" and "Let there be a firmament." But it is as the beginning that Christ is Creator, according to which he is wisdom. Therefore as wisdom he is called the beginning. For wisdom says in Solomon, "God created me in the beginning of his ways for his works," that "the Word might be in the beginning," in wisdom. It is wisdom that is understood, on the one hand, taken in relation to the structure of contemplation and the thoughts of all things, but it is the Word that is received, taken in relation to the communication of the things that have been contemplated to spiritual beings... Since, then, our purpose is to perceive clearly the statement, "In the beginning was the Word," and wisdom, with the aid of testimonies from the Proverbs, has been explained to be called "beginning," and wisdom has been conceived as preceding the Word that announces it, we must understand that the Word is always in the beginning, that is, in wisdom. Being in wisdom, however, which is called "beginning," does not prevent the Word from being "with God," and himself being God and not merely being "with God," but since he is "in the beginning," that is in wisdom, that Word is "with God."
John 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.9, 11
The same verb, "was," is predicated of the Word when he "was in the beginning" and when he "was with God." He is neither separated from the beginning, nor does he depart from the Father. And again, he does not "come to be" "in the beginning" from not being "in the beginning," nor does he pass from not being "with God" to coming to be "with God," for before all time and eternity "the Word was in the beginning," and "the Word was with God." … Perhaps John, seeing some such order in the argument, did not place "the Word was God" before "the Word was with God," so that we might not be hindered in seeing the individual meaning of each proposition in the affirmation of the series.
John 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.90-91, 95, 101-4, 106-7
One will discover many different meanings of the expression ["beginning"] even in the Word of God. One meaning involves change that has to do with a way or a length, as revealed in Scripture, "The beginning of the right path is to do justice." … There is also a "beginning" of creation … in the statement "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." But I think what is meant is more clearly stated in Job, "This is the beginning of the Lord's creation." … We can also understand what is meant by the beginning of creation in Proverbs: "For God," [Wisdom] says, "created me the beginning of his ways for his works." …But someone will say with good reason that the God of all things is clearly a beginning too, proposing that the Father is the beginning of the Son, and the Creator is the beginning of the things created and, in general, God is the beginning of the things that exist.… And third, that from which something comes, as the underlying matter is thought to be a "beginning" by those who understand matter to be uncreated.… In addition to these definitions, that "according to which" something is made, as according to its form, is also a "beginning." … Christ, for instance, is the beginning of those made according to the image of God.… There is also a beginning that pertains to doctrine … where the apostle says, "Although, because of the time, you should be teachers, you need for someone to teach you again the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God." Now there are two kinds of beginning pertaining to doctrine. One involves its nature, and the other its relation to us.… We say that in nature Christ is the beginning of doctrine insofar as he is "the wisdom" and "power of God." But in his relation to us the beginning of doctrine is "the Word became flesh," that he might dwell among us who are able to receive him only in this way at first.
John 1:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.34-35
After the Evangelist has taught us the three orders through the three propositions that were previously mentioned, he sums up the three under one head, saying, "The same was in the beginning with God."Now we have learned from the three propositions first, in what the Word was, namely, "in the beginning," and with whom he was, namely, "God," and who the Word was, namely, "God." It is as if, therefore, he indicates the previously mentioned God the Word by the expression "the same" and gathers the three, "in the beginning was the Word" and "The Word was with God, and the Word was God," into a fourth proposition and says, "The same was in the beginning with God."
John 1:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. ii. in Joan. c. 4) Or thus, the Evangelist having begun with those propositions, reunites them into one, saying, The Same was in the beginning with God. For in the first of the three we learnt in what the Word was, that it was in the beginning; in the second, with whom, with God; in the third who the Word was, God. Having, then, by the term, The Same, set before us in a manner God the Word of Whom he had spoken, he collects all into the fourth proposition, viz. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; into, the Same was in the beginning with God. It may be asked, however, why it is not said, In the beginning was the Word of God, and the Word of God was with God, and the Word of God was God? Now whoever will admit that truth is one, must needs admit also that the demonstration of truth, that is wisdom, is one. But if truth is one, and wisdom is one, the Word which enuntiates truth and developes wisdom in those who are capable of receiving it, must be One also. And therefore it would have been out of place here to have said, the Word of God, as if there were other words besides that of God, a word of angels, word of men, and so on. We do not say this, to deny that It is the Word of God, but to show the use of omitting the word God. John himself too in the Apocalypse says, And his Name is called the Word of God. (Rev. 19:13)
John 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.94, 99
So far as the meaning of "nothing" and "not being" are concerned, they will appear to be synonyms. "Not being" would be meant by "nothing," and "nothing" by "not being." The apostle indeed appears to use the expression "those things that are not" not for things that exist nowhere but for things that are wicked, considering "those things that are not" to be things that are bad. For he says, "God called those things that are not as those that are." … "Not being" and "nothing" are synonyms, and for this reason those "who are not" are "nothing," and all evil is "nothing," since it too is "not being." And evil, which is called "nothing," has been made without the Word, not being included in "all things." We have presented then to the best of our ability, what the "all things" are that have been made through the Word, and what that is which was made without him, and, because it never was, is also for this reason called "nothing."
John 1:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. ii. c. 8) Here too Valentinus errs, saying, that the Word supplied to the Creator the cause of the creation of the worlde. If this interpretation is true, it should have been written that all things had their existence from the Word through the Creator, not contrariwise, through the Word from the Creator. And without him was not any thing made (Hom. iii. in div. loc.): Or thus, that thou mightest not think that the things made by the Word had a separate existence, and were not contained in the Word, he says, and without Him was not any thing made: that is, not any thing was made externally of Him; for He encircles all things, as the Preserver of all things. (in Joh. tom. ii. c. 7) If all things were made by the Word, and in the number of all things is wickedness, and the whole influx of sin, these too were made by the Word; which is false. Now 'nothing' and 'a thing which is not,' mean the same. And the Apostle seems to call wicked things, things which are not, God calleth those things which be not, (Rom. 4:17) as though they were. All wickedness then is called nothing, forasmuch as it is made without the Word. Those who say however that the devil is not a creature of God, err. In so far as he is the devil, he is not a creature of God; but he, whose character it is to be the devil, is a creature of God. It is as if we should say a murderer is not a creature of God, when, so far as he is a man, he is a creature of God. (tom. ii. c. 8) Valentinus excludes from the things made by the Word, all that were made in the ages which he believes to have existed before the Word. This is plainly false; inasmuch as the things which he accounts divine are thus excluded from the "all things," and what he deems wholly corrupt are properly 'all things!' (tom. ii. c. 9) If 'the word' be taken for that which is in each man, inasmuch as it was implanted in each by the Word, which was in the beginning, then also, we commit nothing without this 'word' [reason] taking this word 'nothing' in a popular sense. For the Apostle says that sin was dead without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived; for sin is not imputed when there is no law. But neither was there sin, when there was no Word, for our Lord says, If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. (John 15:22) For every excuse is withdrawn from the sinner, if, with the Word present, and enjoining what is to be done, he refuses to obey Him. Nor is the Word to be blamed on this account; any more than a master, whose discipline leaves no excuse open to a delinquent pupil on the ground of ignorance. All things then were made by the Word, not only the natural world, but also whatever is done by those acting without reason.
John 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.91-92
Now let us see why the statement "And without him was not anything made" is added. Some might think it superfluous to subjoin "without him was not anything made" to "all things were made through him." For if every conceivable thing has been made "through the Word," nothing has been made "without the Word." That all things have been made through the Word, however, does not now follow from the assertion that nothing has been made without the Word. It is possible that not only have all things been made through the Word but also that some things have been made by the Word.We must know, therefore, how the expression "all things" is to be understood and how "nothing" should be understood. For it is possible, if both expressions have not been made clear, to take it to mean that if all things were made through the Word, and evil and all the profusion of sin and wickedness belong to the "all things," that these too, were made through the Word. But this is a false conclusion. For … it is not surprising that all creatures have been made through the Word … but this does not now follow also for acts of sin and falling away.
John 1:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.128-32
Our Savior is said to be some things not for himself but for others; others again, both for himself and others.… When it is said then, "That which was made in him was life" … we must inquire whether the life is for himself and others or for others only; and if for others, for whom? Now the Life and the Light are both the same person: he is "the light of men [humanity]"; he is therefore their life. The Savior is called Life here, not to himself but to others whose Light he also is.…This life is inseparable from the Word, from the time it is added on to it. For Reason or the Word must exist before in the soul, cleansing it from sin, till it is pure enough to receive the life, which is thus engrafted or inborn in everyone who renders himself fit to receive the Word of God. And so, observe … that though the Word itself in the beginning was not made—the beginning never having been without the Word—yet the life of people was not always in the Word. This life of people was made in the sense that it was the light of people. And this light of people could not be before humankind was; the light of people being understood relatively to people.… And therefore he says, "that which was made in the Word was life," and not "that which was in the Word was life." Some copies read, and perhaps not without credibility, "that which was made, in him is life." If we understand the life in the Word, to be he who says below, "I am the life," we shall confess that none who believe not in Christ live, and that all who live not in God, are dead.
John 1:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.153, 156-57
Let us not fail to notice that while it could have been written, "What was made in him was the light of men, and the light of men was life," John has done the reverse. For he places "the life" before the "light of men," although "life" and "light of men" are the same.…Why isn't the "Word" said to be the "light of men," instead of the "life" that was made in the Word?… The "life" mentioned there is not that life that makes both rational and irrational beings [alive]. It is instead the life that is added to the Word, which is completed in us when a share from the first Word is received. And so, when we turn away from what seems to be life but really is not and we yearn to truly possess life—that is when we first share in it. Once this [kind of] life exists in us, it also becomes the foundation of the light of knowledge. And perhaps this life is light potentially (and not actually) for those who really do not want to learn, but with others it becomes light also in actuality.
John 1:4 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. ii. c. 9) If 'the word' be taken for that which is in each man, inasmuch as it was implanted in each by the Word, which was in the beginning, then also, we commit nothing without this 'word' [reason] taking this word 'nothing' in a popular sense. For the Apostle says that sin was dead without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived; for sin is not imputed when there is no law. But neither was there sin, when there was no Word, for our Lord says, If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. (John 15:22) For every excuse is withdrawn from the sinner, if, with the Word present, and enjoining what is to be done, he refuses to obey Him. Nor is the Word to be blamed on this account; any more than a master, whose discipline leaves no excuse open to a delinquent pupil on the ground of ignorance. All things then were made by the Word, not only the natural world, but also whatever is done by those acting without reason. (Hom. ii. in div. loc. ante med.) It may also be divided thus: That which was made in him; and then, was life; the sense being, that all things that were made by Him and in Him, are life in Him, and are one in Him. They were, that is, in Him; they exist as the cause, before they exist in themselves as effects. If thou ask how and in what manner all things which were made by the Word subsist in Him vitally, immutably, causally, take some examples from the created world. See how that all things within the arch of the world of sense have their causes simultaneously and harmoniously subsisting in that sun which is the greatest luminary of the world: how multitudinous crops of herbs and fruits are contained in single seeds: how the most complex variety of rules, in the art of the artificer, and the mind of the director, are a living unit, how an infinite number of lines coexist in one point. Contemplate these several instances, and thou wilt be able as it were on the wings of physical science, to penetrate with thy intellectual eye the secrets of the Word, and as far as is allowed to a human understanding, to see how all things which were made by the Word, live in Him, and were made in Him. (t. ii. c. 12, 13.) Or thus: Our Saviour is said to be some things not for Himself, but for others; others again, both for Himself and others. When it is said then, That which was made in Him was life; we must enquire whether the life is for Himself and others, or for others only; and if for others, for whom? Now the Life and the Light are both the same Person: He is the light of men: He is therefore their life. The Saviour is called Life here, not to Himself, but to others; whose Light He also is. This life is inseparable from the Word, from the time it is added on to it. For Reason or the Word must exist before in the soul, cleansing it from sin, till it is pure enough to receive the life, which is thus ingrafted or inborn in every one who renders himself fit to receive the Word of God. Hence observe, that though the Word itself in the beginning was not made, the Beginning never having been without the Word; yet the life of men was not always in the Word. This life of men was made, in that It was the light of men; and this light of men could not be before man was; the light of men being understood relatively to menk. And therefore he says, That which was made in the Word was life; not That which was in the Word was life. Some copies read, not amiss, "That which was made, in Him is life." If we understand the life in the Word, to be He who says below, 'I am the life,' we shall confess that none who believe not in Christ live, and that all who live not in God, are dead. (John 11:25; 14:6) And the life was the light of men. (non occ.) We must not omit to notice, that he puts the life before the light of men. For it would be a contradiction to suppose a being without life to be illuminated; as if life were an addition to illumination. (tom. ii. c. 16). But to proceed: if the life was the light of men, mean…
John 1:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(non occ.) We must not omit to notice, that he puts the life before the light of men. For it would be a contradiction to suppose a being without life to be illuminated; as if life were an addition to illumination. (tom. ii. c. 16). But to proceed: if the life was the light of men, meaning men only, Christ is the light and the life of men only; an heretical supposition. It does not follow then, when a thing is predicated of any, that it is predicated of those only; for of God it is written, that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and yet He is not the God of those fathers only. In the same way, the light of men is not excluded from being the light of others as well. (c. 17). Some moreover contend from Genesis, (Gen. 1:26) Let us make man after our image, that man means whatever is made after the image and similitude of God. If so, the light of men is the light of any rational creature what ever. (in Joan. t. ii. c. 14) This kind of darkness however is not in men by nature, according to the text in the Ephesians, Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord1. (Eph. 5:8) (Hom. ii. in div. loc.) Or thus, The light shineth in the darkness of faithful souls, beginning from faith, and drawing onwards to hope; but the deceit and ignorance of undisciplined souls did not comprehend the light of the Word of God shining in the flesh. That however is an ethical meaning. The metaphysical signification of the words is as follows. Human nature, even though it sinned not, could not shine by its own strength simply; for it is not naturally light, but only a recipient of it; it is capable of containing wisdom, but is not wisdom itself. As the air, of itself, shineth not, but is called by the name of darkness, even so is our nature, considered in itself, a dark substance, which however admits of and is made partaker of the light of wisdom. And as when the air receives the sun's rays, it is not said to shine of itself, but the sun's radiance to be apparent in it; so the reasonable part of our nature, while possessing the presence of the Word of God, does not of itself understand God, and intellectual things, but by means of the divine light implanted in it. Thus, The light shineth in darkness: for the Word of God, the life and the light of men, ceaseth not to shine in our nature; though regarded in itself, that nature is without form and darkness. And forasmuch as pure light cannot be comprehended by any creature, hence the text: The darkness comprehended it not. (tom. ii. in Joan. c. 19) But they ask, why is not the Word Itself called the light of men, instead of the life which is in the Word? We reply, that the life here spoken of is not that which rational and irrational animals have in common, but that which is annexed to the Word which is within us through participation of the primæval Word. For we must distinguish the external and false life, from the desirable and true. We are first made partakers of life: and this life with some is light potentially only, not in act; with those, viz. who are not eager to search out the things which appertain to knowledge: with others it is actual light, those who, as the Apostle saith, covet earnestly the best gifts, (1 Cor. 12:31) that is to say, the word of wisdom. (c. 14.). (Ifk the life and the light of men are the same, whoso is in darkness is proved not to live, and none who liveth abideth in darkness.) (tom. ii. c. 20) As the light of men is a word expressing two spiritual things, so is darkness also. To one who possesses the light, we attribute both the doing the deeds of the light, and also true understanding, inasmuch as he is illuminated by the light of knowledge: and, on the other hand, the term darkness we apply both to unlawful acts, and also to that knowledge, which seems such, but is not. Now as the Father is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, so is the Saviour also. Yet, inasmuch as he underwent the similitude of our sinful flesh, it is not incorrectly sai…
John 1:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.166-70
Christ, because of the benefit that follows for humankind, took our darkness on himself that by his power he might destroy our death and completely destroy the darkness in our soul so that what Isaiah said might be fulfilled: "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light."69This light, indeed, that was made in the Word, which also is life, "shines in the darkness" of our souls. It has come to stay where the world rulers of this darkness live. They by wrestling with the human race struggle to subject those who do not stand firm in every manner to darkness. He comes that, when they have been enlightened, they may be called children of light. And this light shines in the darkness and is pursued by it, but it is not overcome.… The darkness pursued this light, as is clear from what our Savior and his children suffer. The darkness fighting against the children of light wanted to chase the light away. However, if "God is for us," no one will be able to be "against us." … Now there are two ways that the darkness did not overcome the light. The darkness is either left very far behind it and, because it is slow, cannot keep up with the swiftness of the flight of light even to a limited extent, or, perhaps the light wanted to set an ambush for the darkness and awaited its approach and when the darkness drew near the light it was destroyed.
John 1:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.134
People are not [darkness] by nature, since Paul says, "For we were once darkness but now are light in the Lord," and this is especially the case if we are now called saints and spiritual. Just as Paul, although he was darkness, became capable of becoming light in the Lord, so may anyone who was once darkness.
John 1:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.180, 193-94
The fact that John was filled with the Holy Spirit while he was still in his mother's womb is an even more striking argument for John to have been sent from some other region when he was placed in a body with no other purpose for his sojourn in life than his testimony to the light. Gabriel mentions that John was filled with the Spirit while still in his mother's womb when he announces the birth of John to Zechariah. …John is like sound in relation to Christ, who is speech. … John himself suggests this view since he once said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." … And perhaps it is because Zechariah disbelieved in the birth of the voice that makes known the Word of God that he loses his voice and regains it when the voice that is the forerunner of the Word is born. For a voice must be listened to so that the mind can afterwards receive the word revealed by the voice.
John 1:7 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. ii. c. 28) Some try to undo the testimonies of the Prophets to Christ, by saying that the Son of God had no need of such witnesses; the wholesome words which He uttered and His miraculous acts being sufficient to produce belief; just as Moses deserved belief for his speech and goodness, and wanted no previous witnesses. To this we may reply, that, where there are a number of reasons to make people believe, persons are often impressed by one kind of proof, and not by another, and God, Who for the sake of all men became man, can give them many reasons for belief in Him. And with respect to the doctrine of the Incarnation, certain it is that some have been forced by the Prophetical writings into an admiration of Christ by the fact of so many prophets having, before His advent, fixed the place of His nativity; and by other proofs of the same kind. It is to be remembered too, that, though the display of miraculous powers might stimulate the faith of those who lived in the same age with Christ, they might, in the lapse of time, fail to do so; as some of them might even get to be regarded as fabulous. Prophecy and miracles together are more convincing than simply past miracles by themselves. We must recollect too that men receive honour themselves from the witness which they bear to God. He deprives the Prophetical choir of immeasurable honour, whoever denies that it was their office to bear witness to Christ. John when he comes to bear witness to the light, follows in the train of those who went before him.
John 1:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.199, 202-4, 206, 208, 212
Some try to undo the testimonies of the prophets to Christ by saying that the Son of God had no need of such witnesses.… To this we may reply that where there are a number of reasons to make people believe, persons are often impressed by one kind of proof and not by another.And with respect to the doctrine of the incarnation, it is certain that some have been forced by the prophetical writings into an admiration of Christ by the fact of so many prophets having, before his advent, fixed the place of his birth [and by other proofs of the same kind].… It is to be remembered too, that, though the display of miraculous powers might stimulate the faith of those who lived in the same age with Christ, they might, in the lapse of time, fail to do so; as some of them might even get to be regarded as fabulous. Prophecy and miracles together are more convincing than simply past miracles by themselves.… We must remember too that people receive honor themselves from the witness that they bear to God.… He, therefore, who maintains that there is no need for the prophetic witness to Christ deprives the choir of prophets of their greatest gift. For what would prophecy, which is inspired by the Holy Spirit, have that is so great, if one exclude from it those matters related to the dispensation of our Lord?… John, too, therefore came to bear witness concerning the light.
John 1:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.224-27
The Baptist's leaping for joy in the womb of Elizabeth at Mary's greeting was a testimony about Christ. He was testifying to the divinity of Christ's conception and birth. For what indeed is John, except everywhere a witness and forerunner of Jesus? He precedes his birth and dies a little before the death of the Son of God, that, by appearing before the Christ not only to those in birth but also those awaiting the freedom from death through Christ, he might everywhere prepare for the Lord a prepared people.…Now since there was the beginning in which the Word was … and since the Word also existed, and life was made in him, and the life was the light of people … why then did he not come "to give testimony of the life," or "to give testimony of the Word," or "of the beginning," or of any other aspect of the Christ whatsoever? Consider whether it is not [because] "the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light" and because "the light shines in the darkness" and is not overcome by it. Those who are in darkness, that is, men and women, need light. For if the light "shines in the darkness"—there is no activity of darkness at all there—we shall share in other aspects of the Christ in which we do not now participate.
John 1:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(Hom. 2, in div. loc.) Or thus: We must not understand the words, lighteneth every man that cometh into the world, of the growth from hidden seeds to organized bodies, but of the entrance into the invisible world, by the spiritual regeneration and grace, which is given in Baptism. Those then the true Light lighteneth, who come into the world of goodness, not those who rush into the world of sin.
John 1:10 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(Hom. 2 in div. loc.) For as, when a person leaves off speaking, his voice ceases to be, and vanishes; so if the Heavenly Father should cease to speak His Word, the effect of that Word, i. e. the universe which is created in the Word, shall cease to exist.
John 1:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(Hom. 2) Full of grace and truth. Of this the meaning is twofold. For it may be understood of the Humanity, and the Divinity of the Incarnate Word, so that the fulness of grace has reference to the Humanity, according to which Christ is the Head of the Church, and the first-born of every creature: for the greatest and original example of grace, by which man, with no preceding merits, is made God, is manifested primarily in Him. The fulness of the grace of Christ may also be understood of the Holy Spirit, whose sevenfold operation filled Christ's Humanity. (Is. 11:2) The fulness of truth applies to the Divinity ... But if you had rather understand the fulness of grace and truth of the New Testament, you may with propriety pronounce the fulness of the grace of the New Testament to be given by Christ, and the truth of the legal types to have been fulfilled in Him.
John 1:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 35
Perhaps the Word of God appears in diverse glories, according to the power of each soul that sees, according to the capacity that each single soul has offered. To the one, therefore, who is perfect and has arrived at the consummation of the age, insofar as it depends on him, the Word appears such that whoever has seen him may say: "we have seen his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth". Therefore, if anyone is to be held worthy to receive such a Word and to see it, he must, before a vision of the word of this kind, hear in his soul battles; but through others, who assert as though it were truth whatever has seemed so to them, rumors of battles. And this Word is wont to come to those who, after they have known Christ according to the flesh and have received the Word which was made flesh, ascend so far beyond the many that they can grasp not just any sort of glory, but glory as of the only-begotten from the Father.
John 1:16-17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joan. t. vi. 3.) This is to be considered a continuation of the Baptist's testimony to Christ, a point which has escaped the attention of many, who think that from this to, He hath declared Him, (v. 18) St. John the Apostle is speaking. But the idea that on a sudden, and, as it would seem, unseasonably, the discourse of the Baptist should be interrupted by a speech of the disciple's, is inadmissible. And any one, able to follow the passage, will discern a very obvious connection here. For having said, He is preferred before me, for He was before me, he proceeds, From this I know that He is before me, because I and the Prophets who preceded me have received of His fulness, and grace for grace, (the second grace for the first.) For they too by the Spirit penetrated beyond the figure to the contemplation of the truth. And hence receiving, as we have done, of his fulness, we judge that the law was given by Moses, but that grace and truth were made, by Jesus Christ—made, not given: the Father gave the law by Moses, but made grace and truth by Jesus. But if it is Jesus who says below, I am the Truth, (John 14:6) how is truth made by Jesus? We must understand however that the very substantial Truth, from which First Truth and Its Image many truths are engraven on those who treat of the truth, was not made through Jesus Christ, or through any one; but only the truth which is in individuals, such as in Paul, e. g. or the other Apostles, was made through Jesus Christ.
John 1:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.13, 34-36
This [continues] the recorded testimony of John the Baptist about Christ which begins with the statement "This was he who said, 'He who comes after me' " and ends at the words "The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him." …It is very forced to suppose that the word of the Baptist is suddenly and unseasonably, as it were, broken off by the word of the disciple. The sequence of the text is clear to everyone who knows how just to listen for a while to the context of what is being said: "This was he who said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.' " But by the statement "Because of his fullness we all have received," the Baptist is teaching how Jesus ranks before him by being before him (since he was the firstborn of creation). It is for this reason that he says, "He ranks before me, because he was before me." And I think he existed before me and is more honored with the Father, because both I and the prophets before me have received the more divine and greater prophetic grace from his fullness for the grace we received from him in relation to our free choice. In addition "he ranks because he was before me," since, when we have received of his fullness, we have also understood that the law has been given "through Moses," not "by Moses," but that grace and truth have not only been given through Jesus Christ but also have come into existence through him, since his God and Father has both given the law through Moses and has produced through Jesus Christ the grace and the truth that have come to people."
John 1:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joan. t. vi. §. 2) Heraclcon asserts, that this is a declaration of the disciple, not of the Baptist: an unreasonable supposition; for if the words, Of His fulness have we all received, are the Baptist's, does not the connection run naturally, that he receiving of the grace of Christ, the second in the place of the first grace, and confessing that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; understood here that no man had seen God at any time, and that the Only Begotten, who was in the bosom of the Father, had committed this declaration of Himself to John, and all who with him had received of His fulness? For John was not the first who declared Him; for He Himself who was before Abraham, tells us, that Abraham rejoiced to see His glory.
John 1:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.15
For "[he who is] in the bosom of the Father" did not now for the first time make the declarations that he made to the apostles, as though there had been no one fit to receive them previously, since, indeed, in his existence before Abraham was, he teaches us that Abraham rejoiced that he might see his day and was glad. … The prophets too have received their gift from the fullness of Christ, and they have received the second grace for the former, for they too, being led by the Spirit, arrived at the vision of truth after they were initiated in types.
John 1:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.43, 50-51, 54
Now, therefore, let us consider John's second testimony. Jews from Jerusalem send priests and Levites to inquire who John might be, since they are kinsmen of the Baptist who happens to be from the priestly race. … Note that two embassies come to the Baptist. One consists of "priests and Levites" sent from Jerusalem by the Jews "to ask him, 'Who are you?' " The other comes from the Pharisees, who send also because they are in doubt about the answer that had been given to the priests and Levites. Observe carefully, therefore, how in accordance with the character of priests and Levites, things are said with gentleness and curiosity.… There is nothing self-willed or rash in the inquiry of these men; everything is appropriate to scrupulous servants of God.…These elect ambassadors were sent from Jerusalem, the place chosen above all the earth … and they interrogate John with the greatest respect. Nothing like this, however, has been recorded to have been done by the Jews concerning Christ. It is John who does to Christ what the Jews do to him, when he [respectfully] inquires through his own disciples, "Are you he that is to come, or should we expect another?"
John 1:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joan. tom. ii. c. 29) This is the second testimony of John the Baptist to Christ, the first began with, This is He of Whom I spake; and ended with, He hath declared Him. (t. vi. c. 4) The Jews of Jerusalem, as being of kin to the Baptist, who was of the priestly stock, send Priests and Levites to ask him who he is; (c. 6). that is, men considered to hold a superior rank to the rest of their order, by God's election, and coming from that favoured above all cities, Jerusalem. Such is the reverential way in which they interrogate John. We read of no such proceeding towards Christ: but what the Jews did to John, John in turn does to Christ, when he asks Him, through His disciples, Art thou He that should come, (Luke 7:20) or look we for another?
John 1:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.56-57, 60-61
Someone may, perhaps, reasonably raise the question why in the world, when the priests and Levites inquire of John, not if he is the Christ but "Who are you?" the Baptist does not answer, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." … It is likely that John saw from the question the reverence of the priests and Levites. Their question suggested their secret suspicion that he who baptizes might be the Christ, but they were cautious about asserting this more boldly that they might not seem rash. This is why he declares with good reason that he is not the Christ, to remove all their false suspicion about him first, then, in this way, to present the truth.…We should also add that the people were disturbed that the time of the Christ's sojourn might already be imminent from the time slightly preceding the birth of Jesus up to the manifestation of his preaching. In all probability the scribes and lawyers were already expecting the one awaited (deriving his time from the Scriptures). This is why Theodas had sprung up who had gathered no small crowd by claiming to be the Christ, I think. And after him, Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxation, had done something similar. Since therefore Christ's sojourn is rather heatedly expected and discussed, it is with good reason that the Jews send priests and Levites from Jerusalem to John, intending with the question, "Who are you," to see if he will admit to being the Christ.
John 1:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joh. tom. vi. c. 6) John, as it appears, saw from the question, that the Priests and Levites had doubts whether it might not be the Christ, who was baptizing; which doubts however they were afraid to profess openly, for fear of incurring the charge of credulity. He wisely determines therefore first to correct their mistake, and then to proclaim the truth. Accordingly, he first of all shows that he is not the Christ: And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. We may add here, that at this time the people had already begun to be impressed with the idea that Christ's advent was at hand, in consequence of the interpretations which the lawyers had collected out of the sacred writings to that effect. Thus Theudas had been enabled to collect together a considerable body, on the strength of his pretending to be the Christ; and after him Judas, in the days of the, taxation, had done the same. (Acts 5) Such being the strong expectation of Christ's advent then prevalent, the Jews send to John, intending by the question, Who art thou? to extract from him whether he were the Christ.
John 1:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.44
Once the priests and Levites, who were sent from Jerusalem, have heard that he is not the awaited Christ, they inquire if he might be Elijah, the person who held the second rank in honor as an object of their hope. He says that he is not Elijah, again confessing the truth through the expression "I am not."
John 1:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.72, 77-78, 81
For it has been established that those who sent knew that John had been born of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and even more so that those who were sent, since they belonged to the priestly house and would not be unaware of the incredible good offspring of so renowned a fellow kinsman as Zechariah, also knew. What did they have in mind then when they asked, "Are you Elijah?" since they were men who had read that he was taken up as though into heaven and they were waiting for his coming? Perhaps, then, since they expect Elijah before Christ at the consummation, they seem to ask figuratively, as it were, "Are you the one who announces in advance the word that will precede Christ at the consummation?" He wisely responds to this, "I am not." … It is not strange, therefore, that, just as in the case of the Savior—although many knew of his birth from Mary, others were deceived—so also in the case of John, some were aware of his birth from Zechariah, but others were in doubt whether the awaited Elijah had appeared in the person of John.
John 1:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.70-71
[Someone] might say that John is Elijah who is to come, in one sense, but that he responded to the priests and Levites, "I am not," because he knew what they were really asking. For the earlier question to John from the priests and Levites was not intended to ascertain if the same spirit was in both men, but if John were that very Elijah who had been taken up, now appearing without a birth according to the Jewish expectation. For those who had been sent from Jerusalem may have been ignorant of John's birth. He appropriately answers this question, "I am not," for Elijah who had been taken up had not come, as if he had changed his body and had been named John.
John 1:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joan. tom. vi. c. 7) Some one will say that John was ignorant that he was Elias; as those say, who maintain, from this passage the doctrine of a second incorporation, as though the soul took up a new body, after leaving its old one. For the Jews, it is said, asking John by the Levites and priests, whether he is Elias, suppose the doctrine of a second body to be already certain; as though it rested upon tradition, and were part of their secret system. To which question, however, John replies, I am not Elias: not being acquainted with his own prior existence. But how is it reasonable to imagine, if John were a prophet enlightened by the Spirit, and had revealed so much concerning the Father, and the Only-Begotten, that he could be so in the dark as to himself, as not to know that his own soul had once belonged to Elias? (in Joan. tom. vi. c. 7) He answers then the Levites and Priests, I am not, conjecturing what their question meant: for the purport of their examination was to discover, not whether the spirit in both was the same, but whether John was that very Elias, who was taken up, now appearing again, as the Jews expected, without another birthI. But he whom we mentioned above as holding this doctrine of a reincorporation, will say that it is not consistent that the Priests and Levites should be ignorant of the birth of the son of so dignified a priest as Zacharias, who was born too in his father's old age, and contrary to all human probabilities: especially when Luke declares, that fear came on all that dwelt round about them. (Luke 1:65) But perhaps, since Elias was expected to appear before the coming of Christ near the end, they may seem to put the question figuratively, Art thou he who announcest the coming of Christ at the end of the world? to which he answers, I am not. But there is in fact nothing strange in supposing that John's birth might not have been known to all. For as in the case of our Saviour many knew Him to be born of Mary, and yet some wrongly imagined that He was John the Baptist, or Elias, or one of the Prophets; so in the case of John, some were not unacquainted with the fact of his being son of Zacharias, and yet some may have been in doubt whether he were not the Elias who was expected. Again, inasmuch as many prophets had arisen in Israel, but one was especially looked forward to, of whom Moses had prophesied, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him shall ye hearken: (Deut. 18, 15) they ask him in the third place, not simply whether he is a prophet, but with the article prefixed, Art thou that Prophet? For every one of the prophets in succession had signified to the people of Israel that he was not the one whom Moses had prophesied of; who, like Moses, was to stand in the midst between God and man, and deliver a testament, sent from God to His disciples. They did not however apply this name to Christ, but thought that He was to be a different person; whereas John knew that Christ was that Prophet, and therefore to this question, he answered, No.
John 1:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.90-91
A certain prophet was specially expected who would be similar to Moses in some respect, to mediate between God and humankind, and who would receive the covenant from God and give the new covenant to those who became disciples. And the people of Israel knew so far as each of the prophets was concerned that no one of them was the one announced by Moses. As, therefore, they were in doubt about whether John was the Christ, so also they were in doubt whether he was "the prophet." It is not strange if those who were in doubt about whether John was the Christ did not understand thoroughly that the Christ and the prophet are the same. For not knowing that Christ and the prophet are the same is the consequence of uncertainty about John.
John 1:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.45-46
Inasmuch as there were many prophets in Israel—there was one in particular, who had been prophesied by Moses, who was especially expected in accordance with the saying, "The Lord our God shall raise up a prophet like me for you from your brothers; him you shall hear"—they ask a third time, not if he is a prophet but if he is "the prophet."They do not apply this title to the Christ but suppose that he is another in addition to the Christ. Because John knows that he of whom he is the forerunner is both the Christ and this prophet who was prophesied, he says "No." He might have answered, "Yes," if they had asked their question without using the article, for he was not unaware that he was a prophet.
John 1:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.100, 102
But he cries and shouts that both those who are far off may hear him speaking and those who have departed from God and those who have lost keenness of their hearing may understand the greatness of what is said, since it is proclaimed with a loud voice, helping both those who have departed from God and those who have lost keenness of their hearing.… Now the necessity of the voice of one crying in the wilderness is that the soul—which is devoid of God and destitute of truth (for what other wilderness is harder to deal with than a soul that is bereft of God and of all virtue?)—might be exhorted to make straight the way of the Lord, because it is still going in a crooked manner and is in need of teaching.
John 1:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joan. tom. vi. c. 12) Heracleon, in his discussion on John and the Prophets, infers that because the Saviour was the Word, and John the voice, therefore the whole of the prophetic order was only sound. To which we reply, that, if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle? If the voice of prophecy is nothing but sound, why does the Saviour send us to it, saying, Search the Scriptures? (John 5:39) But John calls himself the voice, not that crieth, but of one that crieth in the wilderness; viz. of Him Who stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. (John 7:37) He cries, in order that those at a distance may hear him, and understand from the loudness of the sound, the vastness of the thing spoken of. (tom. vi. c. 10. 11) There is need of the voice crying in the wilderness, that the soul, forsaken by God, may be recalled to making straight the way of the Lord, following no more the crooked paths of the serpent. This has reference both to the contemplative life, as enlightened by truth, without mixture of falsehood, and to the practical, as following up the correct perception by the suitable action. Wherefore he adds, Make straight the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet, Esaias.
John 1:24-25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joan. tom. vi. c. 13) The questions of the priests and Levites being answered, another mission comes from the Pharisees: And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. So far as it is allowable to form a conjecture from the discourse itself here, I should say that it was the third occasion of John's giving his witness. Observe the mildness of the former question, so befitting the priestly and levitical character, Who art thou? There is nothing arrogant or disrespectful, but only what becomes true ministers of God. The Pharisees however, being a sectarian body, as their name implies, address the Baptist in an importunate and contumelious way. And they said, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, neither Elias, neither that Prophet? not caring about information, but only wishing to prevent him baptizing. Yet the very next thing they did, was to come to John's baptism. The solution of this is, that they came not in faith, but hypocritically, because they feared the people.
John 1:24-25 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.146, 151
After the priests and Levites were sent from Jerusalem to ask John who he was, the Pharisees send to him as well, asking, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the prophet?" After they have examined him, they are the next to be baptized.… The difficulty is solved as follows. The Pharisees … who heard the words "generation of vipers …," although they have not believed him, probably come for baptism because they fear the crowd and, in accordance with their hypocrisy toward them, consider it proper to let themselves be washed that they might not seem to be opposed to such people.
John 1:26-27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Joan. tom. vi. c. 15) For how would the question, Why then baptizest thou, be replied to in any other way, than by setting forth the carnal nature of his own baptism? (in Joan. tom. vi. c. 15) Or thus; Having said, I indeed baptize with water, in answer to the question, Why baptizest thou then?—to the next, If thou be not Christ? he replies by declaring the preexistent substance of Christ; that it was of such virtue, that though His Godhead was invisible, He was present to every one, and pervaded the whole world; as is conveyed in the words; There standeth one among you. For He it is, Who hath diffused Himself through the whole system of nature, insomuch that every thing which is created, is created by Him; All things were made by Him. Whence it is evident that even those who enquired of John, Why baptizest thou then? had Him among them. Or, the words, There standeth one among you, are to be understood of mankind generally. For, from our character as rational beings, it follows that the words exists in the centre of us, because the heart, which is the spring of motion within us, is situated in the centre of the body. Those then who carry the word within them, but are ignorant of its nature, and the source and beginning and the way in which it resides in them; these, hearing the word within them, know it not. But John recognised Him, and reproached the Pharisees, saying, Whom ye know not. For, though expecting Christ's coming, the Pharisees had formed no lofty conception of Him, but supposed that He would only be a holy man: wherefore he briefly refutes their ignorance, and the false ideas that they had of His excellence. He saith, standeth; for as the Father standeth, i. e. exists without variation or change, so standeth the Word ever in the work of salvation, though It assume flesh, though It be in the midst of men, though It stand invisible. Lest any one however should think that the invisible One Who cometh to all men, and to the universal world, is different from Him Who was made man, and appeared on the earth, he adds, He that cometh after me; i. e. Who will appear after me. The after however here has not the same meaning that it has, when Christ calls us after Him; for there we are told to follow after Him, that by treading in His steps, we may attain to the Father; but here the word is used to intimate what should follow upon John's teaching; for he came that all may believe, having by his ministry been fitted gradually by lesser things, for the reception of the perfect Word. Therefore he saith, He it is Who cometh after me. (tom. vi. in Joan.) The place has been understood not amiss thus by a certain person1; I am not of such importance, as that for my sake He should descend from this high abode, and take flesh upon Him, as it were a shoe.
John 1:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.168-69
We must note that John's baptism was inferior to Jesus' baptism, which was given through his disciples. Those, therefore, in Acts who have been baptized into John's baptism, who have not even heard that there was a Holy Spirit, are baptized a second time by the apostle. For the washing of regeneration did not come about at the hands of John but at the hands of Jesus through his disciples. And the so-called bath of rebirth takes place with the renewal of the Spirit, which even now is borne above the water, since it is from God. But it does not appear in everyone after the water.
John 1:28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. vi. c. 24) Bethabara means house of preparation; which agreeth with the baptism of Him, who was making ready a people prepared for the Lord. (c.25. et seq.). Jordan, again, means, "their descent." Now what is this river but our Saviour, through Whom coming into this earth all must be cleansed, in that He came down not for His own sake, but for theirs. This river it is which separateth the lots given by Moses, from those given by Jesus; its streams make glad the city of God. (c. 29). As the serpent lies hid in the Egyptian river, so doth God in this; for the Father is in the Son. Wherefore whosoever go thither to wash themselves, lay aside the reproach of Egypt, (Joshua 5:9.) are made meet to receive the inheritance, are cleansed from leprosy, (2 Kings 5:14.) are made capable of a double portion of grace, and ready to receive the Holy Spirit; (2 Kings 2:9.) nor doth the spiritual dove light upon any other river. John again baptizes beyond Jordan, as the precursor of Him Who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
John 1:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.204, 206, 217-19, 249-51
We are not unaware that "Bethany" occurs in nearly all the manuscripts.… But since we have been in these places, so far as historical account is concerned, of the footprints of Jesus and his disciples and the prophets, we have been convinced that we ought not to read "Bethany" but "Bethabara." …Bethabara means house of preparation, which agrees with the baptism of him who was making ready a people prepared for the Lord.… Jordan, again, means, "their descent." … Now what is this river but our Savior, through whom coming into this earth all must be cleansed, in that he came down not for his own sake but for theirs?… This is the river that separates the lots given by Moses from those given by Jesus. "The streams" of this "river" that has descended "make glad the city of God." … As the dragon is in the Egyptian river, so God is in the river that makes glad the city of God, for the Father is in the Son. For this reason those who come to wash themselves in him put away the reproach of Egypt and become more worthy to be taken up. They are cleansed from the most abominable leprosy and receive a double portion of gifts and are prepared to receive the Holy Spirit since the dove of the Spirit has not flown to another river. Since, therefore, we have considered the Jordan in a manner more worthy of God, and the baptism in it, and Jesus who was baptized in it, … let us draw from the river as much of this help as we need.
John 1:29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. vi. c. 30) After this testimony, Jesus is seen coming to John, not only persevering in his confession, but also advanced in goodness: as is intimated by the second day. Wherefore it is said, The next day John seeth Jesus coming to him. Long before this, the Mother of Jesus, as soon as she had conceived Him, went to see the mother of John then pregnant; and as soon as the sound of Mary's salutation reached the ears of Elisabeth, John leaped in the womb: but now the Baptist himself after his testimony seeth Jesus coming. Men are first prepared by hearing from others, and then see with their own eyes. The example of Mary going to see Elisabeth her inferior, and the Son of God going to see the Baptist, should teach us modesty and fervent charity to our inferiors. What place the Saviour came from when He came to the Baptist we are not told here; but we find it in Matthew, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. (Matt. 3:13) (tom. vi. c. 32. et seq.) But whereas five kinds of animals are offered in the temple, three beasts of the field, a calf, a sheep, and a goat; and two fowls of the air, a turtle dove and a pigeon; and of the sheep kind three are introduced, the ram, the ewe, the lamb; of these three he mentions only the lamb; the lamb, as we know, being offered in the daily sacrifice, one in the morning, and one in the evening. But what other daily offering can there be, that can be meant to be offered by a reasonable nature, except the perfect Word, typically called the Lamb? This sacrifice, which is offered up as soon as the soul begins to be enlightened, shall be accounted as a morning sacrifice, referring to the frequent exercise of the mind in divine things; for the soul cannot continually apply to the highest objects because of its union with an earthly and gross body. By this Word too, Which is Christ the Lamb, we shall be able to reason on many things, and shall in a manner attain to Him in the evening, while engaged with things of the bodyt. But He Who offered the lamb for a sacrifice, was God hid in human form, the great Priest, He who saith below, No man taketh it (My life) from Me, but I lay it down of Myself: (John 10:18) whence this name, the Lamb of God: for He carrying our sorrows, (Isaiah 53:4. 1 Pet. 2:24.) and taking away the sins of the whole world, hath undergone death, as it were baptism. (Luke 12:50.) For God suffers no fault to pass uncorrected; but punishes it by the sharpest discipline. (tom. vi. c. 36) As there was a connection between the other sacrifices of the law, and the daily sacrifice of the lamb, in the same way the sacrifice of this Lamb has its reflexion in the pouring out of the blood of the Martyrs, by whose patience, confession, and zeal for goodness, the machinations of the ungodly are frustrated.
John 1:29 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.264-65, 268, 270, 273-75
There are five animals that are offered on the altar, three being land animals and two winged. It seems worthwhile to me to ask why the Savior is said to be a "lamb" by John and none of the rest. But also, in the case of the land animals, since three types of animal are offered according to each species, why did he name the lamb from the species of sheep? Now these are the five animals: a young bull, a sheep, a goat, a turtledove, a pigeon.And the three types of sheep are a ram, the ewe and the lamb.… It is the lamb, however, that we find offered in the perpetual sacrifices. … What other perpetual sacrifice can be spiritual to a spiritual being than the Word in his prime, the Word symbolically called "lamb"?… But if we examine the declaration about Jesus, who is pointed out by John in the words "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," from the standpoint of the plan of salvation when the Son of God bodily lived among the human race, we will assume that the lamb is none other than his humanity. For he "was led as a sheep to the slaughter and was dumb as a lamb before its shearer," saying, "I was an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed." This is why in the Apocalypse, too, a little lamb is seen "standing as though slain." This lamb, indeed, which was slain according to certain secret reasons, has become the expiation of the whole world. According to the Father's love for humanity, he also submitted to slaughter on behalf of the world, purchasing us with his own blood from him who bought us when we had sold ourselves into sin. He, however, who led this lamb to the sacrifice was God in man, the great high priest, who reveals this through the saying, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again."
John 1:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. ii. c. 29) Perhaps it is not without a reason, that after six testimonies John ceases to bear witness, and Jesus asks seventhly, What seek ye? An avowal, befitting persons who came from hearing John's testimony. They put themselves under Christ's teaching, and express their desire to see the dwelling of the Son of God.
John 1:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. ii. c. 29) Or perhaps come, is an invitation to action; see, to contemplation.
John 2:2 — FRAGMENT 28 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
The third day was now come from Jesus' baptism, and there was a marriage taking place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus' mother was there when, on the failure of the wine, he made wine out of water.… Jesus being Maker of man and woman does not refuse to be called to a marriage; it was he who after forming Eve brought her to Adam. Therefore in the Gospel he says about this union, "What God has joined together let no man put asunder." Let the heretics therefore be put to shame who reject marriage, since Jesus was called to a marriage and his mother was there.
John 2:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.3-4, 10, 18-20
The other three authors of the Gospels say that after the Lord's struggle with the devil, he withdrew into Galilee. Matthew and Luke, however, say that he was in Nazareth first after these events and that he left there and went to settle in Capernaum. Matthew and Mark also mention a reason for his withdrawal from there: he had heard that John had been delivered up. …We must let the reader know, then, that the truth of these accounts lies in the spiritual meanings, because if the discrepancy is not solved, many will dismiss the Gospels as not credible, or not written by a divine spirit or not successfully recorded. The composition of these Gospels, in fact, is said to have involved both. Let those who accept the four Gospels and who think the apparent discrepancy is not to be solved through the anagogical sense tell us when the Lord came to Capernaum in relation to the difficulty we mentioned earlier concerning the forty days of temptation that can have no place at all in John. For if it occurred six days after the time when he was baptized, since his ministry at the marriage in Cana of Galilee took place on the sixth day, it is clear that he has not been tempted, nor was he in Nazareth, nor had John yet been delivered up.… The four Evangelists … made full use of many things done and said in accordance with the prodigious and unexpected power of Jesus. In some places they have interwoven in Scripture something made clear to them in a purely intellectual manner, with language as though it were something perceptible to the senses. But I do not condemn the fact that they have also made some minor changes in what happened so far as history is concerned, with a view to the usefulness of the mystical object. Consequently, they have related what happened in this place as though it happened in another, or what happened at this time as though at another time, and they have composed what is reported in this manner with a certain degree of adaptation. For their intention was to speak the truth spiritually and materially at the same time where that was possible but, where it was not possible in both ways, to prefer the spiritual to the material.
John 2:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.39
We must ask, however, why his brothers are not invited to the wedding (nor were they present, for they are not mentioned), but they go down to Capernaum with him and his mother and the disciples.
John 2:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. x. in Joan. c. 16) Jerusalem, as our Saviour Himself saith, is the city of the great King, into which none of those who remain on earth ascend, or enter. Only the soul which has a certain natural loftiness, and clear insight into things invisible, is the inhabitant of that city. Jesus alone goes up thither. But His disciples seem to have been present afterwards. The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up. But it is as though in every one of the disciples who went up, it was Jesus who went up.
John 2:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.133
He found in the temple, which is also said to be the house of the Savior's Father, that is, in the church or in the proclamation of the sound message of the church, some who were making his Father's house a house of merchandise.
John 2:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. x. in Joan. c. 16) Should it appear something out of the order of things, that the Son of God should make a scourge of small cords, to drive them out of the temple? We have one answer in which some take refuge, viz. the divine power of Jesus, Who, when He pleased, could extinguish the wrath of His enemies however innumerable, and quiet the tumult of their minds: The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought. (Ps. 32, 33:10) This act indeed exhibits no less power, than His more positive miracles; nay rather, more than the miracle by which water was converted into wine: in that there the subject-matter was inanimate, here, the minds of so many thousands of men are overcome. (tom. x. in Joan. c. 17) John says here that He drove out the sellers from the temple; Matthew, the sellers and buyers. The number of buyers was much greater than of the sellers: and therefore to drive them out was beyond the power of the carpenter's Son, as He was supposed to be, had He not by His divine power put all things under Him, as it is said.
John 2:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.221
Now Christ is especially jealous for the house of God in each of us, not wishing it to be a house of merchandise or that the house of prayer become a den of thieves, since he is the son of a jealous God.… [These words] set forth the fact that God wishes nothing alien to his will to be mingled with the soul of anyone, but especially with the soul of those who wish to receive [the teachings of the] most divine faith.
John 2:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. x. in Joan. c. 16) It is possible even for the dweller in Jerusalem to incur guilt, and even the most richly endowed may stray. And unless these repent speedily, they lose the capacity wherewith they were endued. He finds them in the temple, i. e. in sacred places, or in the office of enunciating the Church's truths, some who make His Father's house an house of merchandize; i. e. who expose to sale the oxen whom they ought to reserve for the plough, lest by turning back they should become unfit for the kingdom of God: also who prefer the unrighteous mammon to the sheep, from which they have the material of ornament; also who for miserable gain abandon the watchful care of them who are called metaphorically doves, without all gall or bitterness. Our Saviour finding these in the holy house, maketh a scourge of small cords, and driveth them out, together with the sheep and oxen exposed for sale, scatters the heaps of money, as unbeseeming in the house of God, and overthrows the tables set up in the minds of the covetous, forbidding them to sell doves in the house of God any longer. I think too that He meant the above, as a mystical intimation that whatsoever was to be performed with regard to that sacred oblation by the priests, was not to be performed after the manner of material oblations, and that the law was not to be observed as the carnal Jews wished. For our Lord, by driving away the sheep and oxen, and ordering away the doves, which were the most common offerings among the Jews, and by overthrowing the tables of material coins, which in a figure only, not in truth, bore the Divine stamp, (i. e. what according to the letter of the law seemed good,) and when with His own hand He scourged the people, He as much as declared that the dispensation was to be broken up and destroyed, and the kingdom translated to the believing from among the Gentiles. (tom. x. in Joan. c. 16) By the temple we may understand too the soul wherein the Word of God dwelleth; in which, before the teaching of Christ, earthly and bestial affections had prevailed. The ox being the tiller of the soil, is the symbol of earthly affections: the sheep, being the most irrational of all animals, of dull ones; the dove is the type of light and volatile thoughts; and money, of earthly good things; which money Christ cast out by the Word of His doctrine, that His Father's house might be no longer a market.
John 2:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 108
Do not suppose that Matthew called these two witnesses false without cause, since their testimonies seemed to be true from the fact that John sets forth that Christ said: "Destroy this temple, and I in three days will raise it up", when there is also added: "But this he said concerning the temple of his body". But observe the cunning of the two false witnesses, by what persuasion they, taking their start from a certain true saying which Jesus had spoken, fabricated a false testimony. For Jesus did not say: I destroy this temple, and in three days I raise it up, but: "Destroy … this temple, and in three days I will raise it up". But the false witnesses reported that he had said what had not been said by him, nor did he say: I am able to destroy the temple of God and in three days to rebuild it. Therefore he did not himself promise to do the impiety of destroying the temple, but he committed it to those who were fit for such a work, saying: "Destroy this temple". But what did he reserve for himself, namely: "And I in three days will raise it up". And the fact that "he said this concerning the temple of his body" the Jews, hindered by their malice, misheard and understood concerning that temple of stone, which is manifest from the fact that, answering, they said: "In forty and six years was this temple built, and dost thou raise it up in three days?"
John 2:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 132
Now there are various sayings of the blasphemers, one blasphemy of which is that which is uttered by those who neither understand nor hear the things that are said nor concerning what they make their assertions: for Jesus said: "destroy this temple, and I in three days will raise it up", but those passing by, as "false witnesses" against Jesus, said what had not been said concerning him, assailing him: aha, you who destroy the temple of God, and in three days rebuild it. For he does not himself destroy the temple, but what others destroy he himself builds; whether "the temple of his own body", which had been handed over to death by the Jews, or the temple of his witnesses and of all who had the word of God in them and died from the ambushes of the impious on account of their piety (for "the hour comes when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and will rise again"). And not only in that which they said: he who destroys the temple, did they lie, but also in that which they said: "and I in three days will rebuild it". For neither did he say that he would rebuild the temple, but that he would raise it up; for the word of building does not indicate a sudden work, but the word of raising up does indicate it.
John 2:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 145
It is reasonable to question the chief priests, who came to Pilate to say the things they said: tell me, priests, when Jesus had said, "destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days," with what intent do you suppose he said this? Concerning the dissolution and resurrection "of his own body," or concerning the destruction and restoration of the temple itself? For if you understood it thus, that he was saying these things about his own resurrection, how is it that, giving testimony against him, you said that "this man said: I can destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days"? But if you truly understood it about that temple, according to which you also gave your testimony, how then do you now know that he said he would rise "after three days" from the dead? See therefore how impiety wars against itself by its own words. For through these words they themselves condemn that testimony of theirs, since, truly understanding him to be saying those things about the resurrection "of his own body" and knowing it, they turned his words toward the destruction and restoration of that insensible temple. But if it is incredible that he said this, see whether it is not consistent that, just as he worked wonders, just as he foretold that his Gospel would be preached "in the whole world," and just as: "you will stand before governors and kings," and just as: "Jerusalem will be destroyed by an army," so also he foretold concerning his own resurrection what he said: "destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days."
John 2:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.251-52
It is likely, moreover, that what has been recorded in the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark in the name of the false witness who accuses our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the Gospel contains a reference to the saying, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days." For he … was speaking about the temple of his body, but they, supposing that the things said here were said about the temple built from stones, accused him.
John 2:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.228-29
Both, however (I mean the temple and Jesus' body), according to one interpretation, appear to me to be a type of the church, in that the church, being called a "temple," is built of living stones, becoming a spiritual house "for a holy priesthood," built "on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone." And through the saying, "Now you are the body of Christ and members in part," [we know] that even if the harmony of the stones of the temple appear to be destroyed, [or,] as it is written in Psalm 21, all the bones of Christ appear to be scattered in persecutions and afflictions by the plots of those who wage war against the unity of the temple by persecutions—we know that the temple will be raised up and the body will arise on the third day after the day of evil that threatens it and the day of consummation that follows. For the third day will dawn in the new heaven and the new earth, when these bones, the whole house of Israel, shall be raised up on the great day of the Lord, once death has been conquered. Consequently, the resurrection of Christ too, which followed from his passion on the cross, contains the mystery of the resurrection of the whole body of Christ.
John 2:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. x. c. 27) But (in the mystical interpretation) we shall attain to the full measure of faith, at the great resurrection of the whole body of Jesus, i. e. His Church; inasmuch as the faith which is from sight, is very different from that which seeth as through a glass darkly. (tom. x. c. 30) But how was it that many believed on Him from seeing His miracles? for he seems to have performed no supernatural works at Jerusalem, except we suppose Scripture to have passed them over. May not however the act of His making a scourge of small cords, and driving all out of the temple, be reckoned a miracle?
John 2:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. x. c. 28) Or, it was those who believed in His Name, not on Him, to whom Jesus would not commit Himself. They believe on Him, who follow the narrow way which leadeth unto life; they believe in His Name, who only believe the miracles.
John 4:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.37-39
The Scriptures, therefore, are introductions, and are called Jacob's well. Once they have now been accurately understood, one must go up from them to Jesus, that he may freely give us the fountain of water that leaps into eternal life. But everyone does not draw water from Jacob's well in the same way.… Some who are wise in the Scriptures drink as Jacob and his sons. But others who are simpler and more innocent, the so-called sheep of Christ, drink as Jacob's livestock. And others, misunderstanding the Scriptures and maintaining certain irreverent things on the pretext that they have apprehended the Scriptures, drink as the Samaritan woman drank before she believed in Jesus.
John 4:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OFJOHN 13.13, 15-16
One must investigate what is meant by "will thirst" in the statement "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again." … What is meant in the first place would be something like this: he who partakes of supposedly profound thoughts, even if he is satisfied for a little while and accepts the ideas that are drawn out and that he thinks he has discovered to be most profound, will, however, when he has reconsidered them, raise new questions.… But [the Word] says, I have the teaching that becomes a fountain of living water in the one who has received what I have declared. And he who has received of my water will receive so great a benefit that a fountain capable of discovering everything that is investigated will gush forth within him. The waters will leap upward. His understanding also will spring up and fly as swiftly as possible in accordance with this briskly flowing water, the springing and leaping itself carrying him to that higher life that is eternal.
John 4:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xiii. 6) In the mystical sense, Jacob's well is the Scriptures. The learned then drink like Jacob and his sons; the simple and uneducated, like Jacob's cattle. (tom. xiii. in Joan. c. 5, 6) May not Jacob's well signify mystically the letter of Scripture; the water of Jesus, that which is above the letter, which all are not allowed to penetrate into? That which is written was dictated by men, whereas the things which the eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, cannot be reduced to writing, but are from the fountain of water, that springeth up unto everlasting life, i. e. the Holy Ghost. These truths are unfolded to such as carrying no longer a human heart within them, are able to say with the Apostle, We have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 11:16) Human wisdom indeed discovers truths, which are handed down to posterity; but the teaching of the Spirit is a well of water which springeth up into everlasting life. The woman wished to attain, like the angels, to angelic and super-human truth without the use of Jacob's water. For the angels have a well of water within them, springing from the Word of God Himself. She says therefore, Sir, give me this water. But it is impossible here to have the water which is given by the Word, without that which is drawn from Jacob's well; and therefore Jesus seems to tell the woman that He cannot supply her with it from any other source than Jacob's well; If we are thirsty, we must first drink from Jacob's well. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. (Rom. 7:1) According to the Apostle, the Law is the husband of the soul.
John 4:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.50
She already had, as it were, something of the water that leaps into eternal life since she had said … "I have no husband," having condemned herself on the basis of her association with such a husband.
John 4:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xiii. c. 8) And what more proper place than Jacob's well, for exposing the unlawful husband, i. e. the perverse law? For the Samaritan woman is meant to figure to us a soul, that has subjected itself to a hind of law of its own, not the divine law. And our Saviour wishes to marry her to a lawful husband, i. e. Himself; the Word of truth which was to rise from the dead, and never again to die.
John 4:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xiii. c. 13) Or thus; The Samaritans regarded Mount Gerizim, near which Jacob dwelt, as sacred, and worshipped upon it; while the sacred place of the Jews was Mount Sion, God's own choice. The Jews being the people from whom salvation came, are the type of true believers; the Samaritans of heretics. Gerizim, which signifies division, becomes the Samaritans; Sion, which signifies watch-tower, becomes the Jews.
John 4:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.77-79
On the statement "our fathers" and what follows one must understand the disagreement between the Samaritans and the Jews over the place they considered holy. For the Samaritans worship God on the mountain called Gerizim, because they consider it to be holy. Moses refers to this mountain in Deuteronomy when he says, "And Moses commanded the people in that day saying, 'These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed the Jordan.' " … The Jews, on the other hand, because they think Zion is divine and God's dwelling place, think it has been chosen by the Father of all. For this reason they say Solomon built the temple on Zion, and all the levitical and priestly service is performed there. As a consequence of these assumptions, each nation has considered its fathers to have worshiped God, but one on this mountain and one on the other.
John 4:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.81, 83, 85
The Jews stand for those who think intelligently and salvation is from them. The Samaritans represent the heterodox. So they deify Gerizim, which means "separation" or "division." The Jews, on the other hand, revere Zion, which signifies "watchtower." … Inasmuch, then, as the hour mentioned by the Lord has not yet come when they worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, one must flee the mountain of the Samaritans and worship God on Zion, where Jerusalem lies. Christ calls this Jerusalem the city of the great king. And what else would the city of the great king, the true Jerusalem, be than the church that is built of living stones? This is the place of the holy priesthood, the place where spiritual sacrifices are offered to God by people who are spiritual and who have understood the spiritual law. But when the fullness of time is imminent, when one is no longer in the flesh but is in the Spirit and everyone is no longer still in the type but is in truth, then one must no longer bring true worship and perfect piety to Jerusalem to be offered. Such a person has been prepared so that he is like those whom God seeks to worship him.
John 4:22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xiii. c. 17) Ye, literally refers to the Samaritans, but mystically, to all who understand the Scriptures in an heretical sense. We again literally means the Jews, but mystically, I the Word, and all who conformed to My Image, obtain salvation from the Jewish Scriptures.
John 4:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.101
The "you" refers literally to the Samaritans but anagogically to all who are heterodox regarding the Scriptures. The "we" literally means the Jews, but allegorically it means, "I, the Word, and all who are changed by me receive salvation from the Jewish Scriptures." For the mystery now revealed was revealed both through the prophetic Scriptures and through the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 4:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.86-88, 99-100, 112
Twice it is written, "The hour is coming." The first time it is written without the addition of "and now is." I think the first alludes to that purely spiritual worship that will begin at the time of perfection. The second, however, means, I think, the worship of those being perfected in this life so far as it is possible for human nature to progress. It is possible, therefore, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth not only when "the hour comes" but also when it "now is." … For just as the angels do not worship the Father in Jerusalem because they worship the Father in a better way than those in Jerusalem, so those who can already be like the angels in their attitude will not worship the Father in Jerusalem but in a better way than those in Jerusalem.…When, however, someone worships neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, once the hour has come he worships the Father boldly because he has become a son. Therefore it is not said, "worship God" but "worship the Father." … True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth not only in the coming hour but also in the present. But those who worship in spirit, since they worship as they have received, worship at present in the pledge of the Spirit. But when they shall receive the Spirit in his fullness, they will worship the Father in spirit.
John 4:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xiii. c. 14) Twice it is said, The hour cometh, and the first time without the addition, and now is. The first seems to allude to that purely spiritual worship which is suited only to a state of perfection; the second to earthly worship, perfected as far as is consistent with human nature. When that hour cometh, which our Lord speaks of, the mountain of the Samaritans must be avoided, and God must be worshipped in Sion, where is Jerusalem, which is called by Christ the city of the Great King. And this is the Church, where sacred oblations and spiritual victims are offered up by those who understand the spiritual law. So that when the fulness of time shall have come, the true worship, we must suppose, will no longer be attached to Jerusalem, i. e. to the present Church: for the Angels do not worship the Father at Jerusalem: and thus those who have obtained the likeness of the Jews, worship the Father better than they who are at Jerusalem. And when this hour is come, we shall be accounted by the Father as sons. Wherefore it is not said, Worship God, but, Worship the Father. But for the present the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
John 4:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.119, 140
If the Father seeks true worshipers, he seeks them through the Son, "who came to seek and to save that which was lost," purifying and educating those whom he equips to be true worshipers through the Word and sound doctrine.…God is a Spirit.… God, who brings us into the true life, is called Spirit, and in the Scriptures, the Spirit is said to make us alive. It is clear from this that "making alive" refers not only to ordinary life but to what is more divine.
John 4:24 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
"God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth". Our God too "is a consuming fire". God, therefore, is called by two names: both "spirit" and "fire": spirit for the righteous, fire for sinners. But the angels also are called spirits and fire: "he who makes", it says, "his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire"; to the holy ones they are spirits, but to those who deserve punishments they supply fire and burning.
John 4:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.109
If there are many who profess to worship the Creator, there are some who are no longer in the flesh but in the spirit, because they walk in the spirit and do not fulfill the desire of the flesh. And there are others who are not in the spirit but in the flesh and wage war according to the flesh. If this is so, then one must say that those who worship the Father in spirit and not in flesh, in truth and not in types, are the true worshipers, and that those who do not so worship are not true worshipers.
John 4:24 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.4-5
In the language of the Gospel itself, it is declared that "God is a Spirit." … To the opinion of the woman that God is rightly worshiped according to the privileges of the different localities … the Savior answered that anyone who would follow the Lord must lay aside all preference for particular places. He expressed himself as follows: "The hour is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain shall the true worshipers worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Observe how logically he has joined together the spirit and the truth. He called God a Spirit so that he might distinguish him from bodies; and he named him the truth in order to distinguish him from a shadow or an image. For they who worshiped in Jerusalem worshiped God neither in truth nor in spirit, being in subjection to the shadow or image of heavenly things. And such also was the case with those who worshiped on Mount Gerizim. Having refuted, then, as well as we could, every notion that might suggest that we were to think of God as in any degree corporeal, we go on to say that, according to strict truth, God is incomprehensible and incapable of being measured.
John 4:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xiii. c. 20) But if the Father seeks, He seeks through Jesus, Who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and to teach men what true worship was. God is a Spirit; i. e. He constitutes our real life, just as our breath (spirit) constitutes our bodily life.
John 4:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.140
Since we are made alive by the spirit as far as ordinary life is concerned—and what we usually mean by the term "life" concerns when the spirit that is in us draws, what is called, in the literal sense, the breath of life37—I suppose it has been understood from this that God, who brings us to true life, is called spirit. In the scriptures, the spirit is said to make alive. It is clear that this "making alive" refers not to the ordinary life, but to the more divine life. For the letter also kills and produces death, but it is not death in the sense of separation of the soul from the body, but death in the sense of the separation of the soul from God, and from the Lord himself, and from the Holy Spirit.
John 4:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.145-46
In the [First] Book of Kings, the Spirit of the Lord, who came to Elijah, makes the following suggestions concerning God: "For he said, you shall go out tomorrow and stand before the Lord on the mountain. Beyond, the Lord will pass by as a great and strong wind destroying mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord. The Lord is not in the wind (but in other texts we find: "in the spirit of the Lord"). After the wind, an earthquake; the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire; the Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a gentle breeze." Perhaps, indeed, these words reveal how many must experience the fire of the direct apprehension of the Lord.… But who could more properly tell us about whom God is than the Son? "For no one has known the Father except the Son." We too aspire to know how God is spirit as the Son reveals it, and to worship God in the spirit that gives life and not in the letter that kills. We want to honor God in truth and no longer in types, shadows and examples even as the angels do not serve God in examples and the shadow of heavenly realities but in realities that belong to the spiritual and heavenly order.
John 4:25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xiii. c. 27) It should be known, that as Christ rose out of the Jews, not only declaring but proving Himself to be Christ; so among the Samaritans there arose one Dositheus by name, who asserted that he was the Christ prophesied of.
John 4:25 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.154, 162
The Samaritan woman, who accepts only the Pentateuch of Moses, expects the coming of Christ as announced only by the law. The Samaritans probably expected the visitation on the basis of Jacob's blessing on Judah, when he said … "A ruler shall not fail from Judah." … We must not fail to remark that, as Jesus arose from among the Jews, not only saying that he was the Christ but also proving it, so also a certain Dositheus arose from among the Samaritans and declared himself to be the Christ who had been prophesied.
John 4:27 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.166-67
We learn that he is meek and lowly in heart and does not disdain to speak of such great matters with a woman carrying water who goes out of the city because of her great poverty and labors to draw water for herself. When the disciples arrive they are amazed, for they previously beheld the greatness of the divinity in him, and they marvel that so great a man was speaking with a woman. We, however, carried away with pride and arrogance, despise those below us and forget that the words "Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness" apply to each person.
John 4:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.169, 173-74
He also uses the woman as an apostle, as it were, to those in the city. His words to her are so forceful that she leaves her water jar to go to the city and tells them to her fellow townspeople.… I think there was a definite purpose why the Evangelist recorded that the woman left her water jar and went into the city. At the literal level, then, this shows the tremendous eagerness of the Samaritan woman, who forsakes her water jar and is more concerned for how she may benefit the multitude than for her more humble duty related to material things. For she was very benevolently moved and wished to announce the Christ to her fellow citizens by bearing witness to the one who told her "all I ever did." And she invites them to behold a man whose speech is greater than man, for his appearance to the eye was human. So must we, too, therefore, forgetting things that are more material in nature and leaving them behind, be eager to impart to others the benefit of which we have been partakers. For by recording the woman's commendation for those capable of reading with understanding, the Evangelist challenges us to this goal.
John 4:32 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.219-220
And it is not out of place to say that not only do people and angels need spiritual food, but so too does the Christ of God. For, if I may put it this way, he is always replenishing himself from the Father, who alone is without need and sufficient in himself. Now the common person who is being taught receives his foods from the disciples of Jesus who are commanded to distribute food to the crowds, and Jesus' disciples receive their food from Jesus himself.… The Son of God, however, receives his food from the Father alone, without the intervention of any other being.
John 4:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xiii. c. 31) The matter of spiritual drink and living water being explained, the subject of meat follows. Jesus had asked the woman of Samaria, and she could give Him none good enough. Then came the disciples, having procured some humble food among the people of the country, and offered it Him, beseeching Him to eat. They fear perhaps lest the Word of God, deprived of His own proper nourishment, fail within them; and therefore with such as they have found, immediately propose to feed Him, that being confirmed and strengthened, He may abide with His nourishers. Souls require food as well as bodies. And as bodies require different kinds of it, and in different quantities, so is it in things which are above the body. (Heb. 5:12) Souls differ in capacity, and one needs more nourishment, another less. So too in point of quality, the same nourishment of words and thoughts does not suit all. Infants just born need the milk of the word; the grown up, solid meat. Our Lord says, I have meat to eat. For one who is over the weak who cannot behold the same things with the stronger, may always speak thusb.
John 4:34 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.241-42
Perhaps the Savior was sent for the following reasons. First, that he might do the will of the one who sent him, having become his worker here, too, and second, that he might perfect the work of God, so that each one who has been perfected might be made fit for solid food and be present with wisdom. "Solid food is for the perfect, the mature, who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil." … And when each of us, a work of God, has been perfected by Jesus, he will say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."
John 4:34 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.228, 231
It is proper food for the Son of God when he becomes a doer of the Father's will, that is, when he wills in himself what was also the Father's will, so that the will of God is in the will of the Son, and the will of the Son has become indistinguishable from the will of the Father, and there are no longer two wills but one. It is because of this one will that the Son said, "I and the Father are one." And because of this will, he who has seen him has seen the Son, and has seen also the one who sent him. … Only the Son has comprehended the complete will of God and does it.
John 4:35-38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xv. in Joan. c. 39-49) How can we consistently give an allegorical meaning to the words, Lift up your eyes, &c. and only a literal one to the words, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? The same principle of interpretation surely must be applied to the latter, that is to the former. The four months represent the four elements, i. e. our natural life; the harvest, the end of the world, when all conflict shall have ceased, and truth shall prevail. The disciples then regard the truth as incomprehensible in our natural state, and look forward to the end of the world for attaining the knowledge of it. But this idea our Lord condemns: Say not ye, there are four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes. In many places of Holy Scripture, we are commanded in the same way to raise the thoughts of our minds, which cling so obstinately to earth. A difficult task this for one who indulges his passions, and lives carnally. Such an one will not see if the fields be white to the harvest. For when are the fields white to the harvest? When the Word of God comes to light up and make fruitful the fields of Scripture. Indeed, all sensible things are as it were fields made white for the harvest, if only reason be at hand to interpret them. We lift up our eyes, and behold the whole universe overspread with the brightness of truth. And he that reapeth those harvests, has a double reward of his reaping; first, his wages; And he that reapeth receiveth wages; meaning his reward in the life to come; secondly, a certain good state of the understanding, which is the fruit of contemplation, And gathereth fruit unto life eternal. The man who thinks out the first principles of any science, is as it were the sower in that science; others taking them up, pursuing them to their results, and engrafting fresh matter upon them, strike out new discoveries, from which posterity reaps a plentiful harvest. And how much more may we perceive this in the art of arts? The seed there is the whole dispensation of the mystery, now revealed, but formerly hidden in darkness; for while men were unfit for the advent of the Word, the fields were not yet white to their eyes, i. e. the legal and prophetical Scriptures were shut up. Moses and the Prophets, who preceded the coming of Christ, were the sowers of this seed; the Apostles who came after Christ and saw His glory were the reapers. They reaped and gathered into barns the deep meaning which lay hid under the prophetic writings; and did in short what those do who succeed to a scientific system which others have discovered, and who with less trouble attain to clearer results than they who originally sowed the seed. But they that sowed and they that reaped shall rejoice together in another world, in which all sorrow and mourning shall be done away. Nay, and have they not rejoiced already? Did not Moses and Elias, the sowers, rejoice with the reapers Peter, James, and John, when they saw the glory of the Son of God at the Transfiguration? Perhaps in, one soweth and another reapeth, one and another may refer simply to those who live under the Law, and those who live under the Gospel. For these may both rejoice together, inasmuch as the same end is laid up for them by one God, through one Christ, in one Holy Spirit.
John 4:36-37 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.302-3, 305-8
It is my opinion that in the case of every art and science of the more important subjects of investigation, the one who discovers the first principle is the sower. Others receive and elaborate on these principles. They then hand on to others of a later time what they have discovered … who then take this up as if it were a harvest of the full fruit of the art or science they have received that has now reached maturity. But if this is true in the case of certain arts and sciences, how much more is it evident in the case of the art of arts and the science of sciences?…Consider the possibility that those who "sow" are Moses and the prophets, since they wrote "for our admonition on whom the ends of the world have come," and proclaimed the sojourn of Christ. And consider if those who "reaped" were the apostles who received the Christ and beheld the glory which agreed with the intellectual seeds of the prophets about him. These were reaped by the elaboration and grasping of "the mystery that has been hidden from the ages, but that is manifested in these last times," and "in other generations was not known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets."38 The seed [that is being sown] in this case is the whole plan related to the revelation of the mystery that has been kept silent for eternity and now has been made known through the prophetic Scriptures and the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. At that time the true light made the fields white already for harvest by shining upon them. According to this explanation then, the fields in which the seeds had been sown are the writings of the law and prophets that were not white to those who had not received the presence of the Word. They became such, however, to those who become disciples of the Son of God—those who obey him when he says, "Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are white for harvest." As genuine disciples of Jesus, therefore, let us also lift up our eyes and see the fields that have been sown by Moses and the prophets, that we may see their whiteness and how it is possible to reap their fruit to eternal life.
John 4:40 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.345-46
John has not written that the Samaritans "asked him" to enter Samaria or to enter the city but "to remain with them." … In what follows he does not say, "And he remained in that city two days" or "he remained in Samaria" but "he remained there," that is, with those who asked. For Jesus remains with those who ask, and especially when those who ask him come out of their city and come to Jesus, as if in imitation of Abraham when he obeyed God who said, "Go forth out of your country and from your kindred, and out of your father's house."
John 4:42 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.353, 362-63
The Samaritans renounce their faith that was based on the speech of the woman when they discover that hearing the Savior himself is better than that faith, so that they, too, know "that this is truly the Savior of the world." It is better indeed to become an eyewitness of the Word and to hear him [directly].… And so, there is nothing astonishing in the fact that some are said to walk by faith and not by sight, while others are said to walk by sight, which is greater than walking by faith.… Heracleon says, "People believe in the Savior first by being led by people. But whenever they read his words, they no longer believe because of human testimony alone, but because of the truth itself."
John 4:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.372, 376, 378
The country of the prophets, of course, was in Judea, and it is clear that they had had no honor among the Jews since they were stoned, sawn in two, tried and put to death by the sword. Because they were dishonored, they went about in sheepskins and goat skins, being in need, afflicted and ill-treated. … The truth of the Savior's statement is amazing. It is applicable not only to the holy prophets, who were dishonored by their fellow countrymen, and to our Lord himself, but also to those who have busied themselves in any field of learning and have been despised by their fellow citizens with the result that some of them, too, have been executed.… What has happened in the case of the prophets is most paradoxical indeed. While alive their fellow citizens dishonored them, but dead they respect them by building and adorning their tombs.
John 4:45 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The Galilæans were allowed to keep the feast at Jerusalem, where they had seen Jesus. Thus they were prepared to receive Him, when He came: otherwise they would either have rejected Him; or He, knowing their unprepared state, would not have gone near them.
John 4:45 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.387-88
It is possible … that a Galilean happened to be in Jerusalem, where the temple of God is located, to celebrate the festival and saw everything that Jesus did there. He may have especially seen how he cast out all those selling cattle, sheep and doves, along with the sheep, the cattle, and the rest, with the scourge he made from cords. For the feast in Jerusalem marks the beginning of the Galileans' reception of the Son of God when he came to them. Otherwise, if they had not seen his deeds at the feast, they would not have received him. He also would not have visited them so eagerly, having left those who asked him "to remain with them," if the Galileans had not been previously prepared to receive him.
John 4:46-54 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The sentence is ambiguous. Taken one way, it means that Jesus after coming to Galilee, performed two miracles, of which that of healing the nobleman's son was the second: taken another, it means, that of the two miracles which Jesus performed in Galilee, the second was done after coming from Judæa into Galilee. The latter is the true and received meaning. Mystically, the two journeys of Christ into Galilee signify His two advents; (c. 56.). at the first of which He makes us His guest at supper, and gives us wine to drink; at the second, He raises up the nobleman's son who was at the point of death, i. e. the Jewish people, who, after the fulness of the Gentiles, attain themselves to salvation. For, as the great King of Kings is He, whom God hath seated upon His holy hill of Sion, so the lesser king is he, who saw his day, and was glad, i. e. Abrahame. And therefore his sick son is the Jewish people fallen from the true religion, and thrown into a fever in consequence by the fiery darts of the enemy. And we know that the saints of old, even when they had put off the covering of the flesh, made the people the object of their care: for we read in Maccabees, after the death of Jeremiah, This is Jeremias the prophet of the Lord, who prayeth much for the people. (2 Macc. 12) Abraham therefore prays to our Saviour to succour his diseased people. Again, the word of power, Thy son liveth, comes forth from Cana, i. e. the work of the Word, the healing of the nobleman's son, is done in Capernaum, i. e. the land of consolation. The nobleman's son signifies the class of believers who though diseased are yet not altogether destitute of fruits. The words, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe, are spoken of the Jewish people in general, or perhaps of the nobleman, i. e. Abraham himself, in a certain sense. For as John waited for a sign; on Whom thou shall see the Spirit descending; so too the Saints who died before the coming of Christ in the flesh, expected Him to manifest Himself by signs and wonders. And this nobleman too had servants as well as a son; which servants stand for the lower and weaker class of believers. Nor is it chance that the fever leaves the son at the seventh hour; for seven is the number of rest.
John 4:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Some think that this was an officer of King Herod's; others, that he was one of Cæsar's household, then employed on some commission in Judæa. It is not said that He was a Jew. His rank appears in the fact of his servants meeting him: And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
John 4:51 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.396
His dignity appears in the fact that his servants have already come to meet him while he is going down, to tell him that his child lives, for "servants" are mentioned in the plural.
John 4:54 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.434-35
The saying is ambiguous. On the one hand it means something like this: In coming from Judea into Galilee Jesus has performed two signs. The second sign is the one concerning the royal official's son. On the other hand it could mean something like this: While there are two signs that Jesus performed in Galilee, he did the second after he came from Judea to Galilee. The latter is the meaning to be accepted as correct. For Jesus has not performed the first sign since he came from Judea into Galilee (the first sign changing of the water into wine), which occurred the day after Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, asked where Jesus was staying and remained with the Lord about the tenth hour of the day. For it is written, "On the following day he wished to depart into Galilee, and he found Philip."
John 5:25 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 139
And the earth was shaken and the rocks were split and the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who were sleeping rose again; and going out from the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared to many (27, 51ᵇ—53). And the earth was shaken, that is, all flesh, when the new word and new things according to the new covenant, and the new song, and all things new and heavenly came upon it, as the prophet too says in a certain place about this very thing: "all who saw them were confounded", that is, the disciples of Christ, "and every man feared". Likewise through another prophet the Lord says: "yet once more I will move the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land". But having said a little about the shaking of the earth, let us not unprofitably speak again also about the rocks split in the passion of the Lord the Savior, which were a mystery (as I think) of the prophets; for the law and the prophets were made manifest at the coming of Christ; and for this reason, when men "turn to the Lord" "while Moses is read, the veil which had been placed over their heart is taken away", and because "in the reading of the old covenant a veil had been placed, in Christ it is abolished". Now therefore the rocks have been opened and split, that we may see the spiritual mysteries placed in their depths. And we prove that the rocks then split are the prophets, first indeed from the fact that "Christ" is called the spiritual "rock", and it stands to reason that all imitators of Christ are likewise called rocks. Just as they are also called "the light of the world" from the fact that their Lord himself is the "light" of the "world", and next from the fact that Peter too was called a rock by the Lord himself, when it is said to him: "you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". But this is shown most of all from the fact that all those against whom the "gates of hell" do not prevail, who have in themselves the work of the name of rock (that is, the apostles and the prophets) are themselves also rocks, and are the foundations of those who are built upon them, according to what the apostle says: "built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ our Lord himself being the highest cornerstone". But those are built up upon the apostles and prophets most of all who are of the immaculate Church and who admire the apostles of Christ and do not despise the prophets, but examine also their scriptures. Now let us speak also about the tombs that were opened. "The hour came", according to what Christ had promised, "that those who are in the tombs may hear the voice of the Son of God, and may live". Therefore, as they heard "the voice of the Son of God", the tombs were opened, which indeed had been closed as long as the dead were in them, but were opened so that those who had risen again might go out from the tombs, not before the resurrection of the firstborn "from the dead", but after his own resurrection, and, rising, might indeed abandon the tombs, but enter into the holy city, and appear and be made manifest to many who wish and are able to see the holy city of God and the bodies of the saints raised up in it. For the bodies of sinful souls, that is, of souls dead to God, are called tombs. But when by the grace of God souls of this kind have been raised up to faith, their bodies, which had before been tombs of dead souls, are made bodies of holy souls and are seen to go out from themselves, when they have ceased to be tombs of dead souls and have begun to be bodies of holy souls. Great things therefore have come about from the fact that "Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the spirit", and always these same great things come about daily. For when is the "veil" of the "temple" not rent for the saints "from the top down to the bottom" and from the beginning to the end, so as to reveal what is held within? When is th…
John 6:13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.2
In the Psalms it is written of Joseph, "His hands had served in baskets." And the disciples of Jesus, the Twelve, I believe, gathered up twelve baskets of the remainder of the broken bread. These baskets were not half filled but full. And with the disciples of Jesus, as the teachers of the multitudes, now and until the end of the world, remain the twelve baskets of fragments of the living Bread that the multitudes could not eat.
John 6:49-51 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
And again the manna, which the Jews reckon food for the belly and satiety for the gullet, Paul names "spiritual food." And not only Paul, but the Lord Himself in the Gospel says concerning the same thing: "your fathers ate manna in the desert, and they died. But whoever shall eat of the bread which I give him shall not die for ever." And after this He says: "I am the bread which came down from heaven."
John 7:38 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 7
What then is the objection? "If anyone," he says, "believes in me, rivers shall flow from his belly, a fountain of water leaping up unto life eternal." Let someone therefore of those who raise the objection say: if the Savior promises "from the belly a fountain of water leaping up unto life eternal," it issues from the just man, and the just man "cries out from the belly," if indeed the "fountain of water" which the Savior promises is in "his belly." But it must be said that perhaps we have two "bellies," and one is bodily, the other spiritual — just as the other parts which seem to be named in the body, such as the eyes, are indeed some of the body, some of the soul. For if it is said of the "eyes": "The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes," I do not think this is to be referred to the bodily "eyes." And if it is said: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," this is not to be thought to be said of the "ears" of the body, but of the soul, which those who are pure possess, in the hearing of the soul. But also, if it is said in a promise: "Your foot shall not stumble," this is not to be judged to be said of the "foot" of the body; for there is a certain "foot" of the heart entering into him who said: "I am the way." So therefore, like the bodily "belly," there is a "belly" of the soul, of which the just man speaks: "From fear of you, O Lord, we conceived in the belly and were in labor and brought forth the spirit of your salvation, which you have made upon the earth." But whosoever have a "belly" full of empty discourses "which are of the earth," they have a "belly" subsisting "of the earth," of which it is written: "But God will destroy both this and these." The saints therefore have a "belly" in which "from the fear of the Lord they have also conceived," and their "belly" is "full of fountains of water leaping up unto life eternal." Of this "belly" that one says: "And my belly is like new wine without vent, bound up." For he said these things not of the bodily "belly"; for his bodily "belly" was not "full" of divine things and of things near to them, "of wine bound up in a wineskin." Let these things stand for the resolution of the objection.
John 7:38 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 12.1
But in another place of the Gospel there is now spoken not of a fountain nor a well, but of something more. "He who believes in me," it says, "as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall proceed from his belly." You see, then, that he who believes in him has within himself not only a well, but wells, and not only fountains, but rivers; and fountains and rivers not such as would console this mortal life, but such as would confer the eternal.
John 8:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xix. l. in Joan. in princ.) Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: this seems inconsistent with what was said above, Ye both know Me, and know whence I am. But the latter is spoken in reply to some from Jerusalem, who asked, Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Ye neither know Me is addressed to the Pharisees. To the former persons from Jerusalem however He said, He that sent Me, is true, Whom ye know not. You will ask then, How is that true, If ye know Me, ye would know My Father also? when they of Jerusalem, to whom He said, Ye know Me, did not know the Father. To this we must reply, that our Saviour sometimes speaks of Himself as man, and some-times as God. Ye both know Me, He says as man: ye neither know Me, as God. (tom. xix. l. in Joan. in princ.) It is proper to observe, that the followers of other sects think this text proves clearly, that the God, whom the Jews worshipped, was not the Father of Christ. For if, say they, our Saviour said this to the Pharisees, who worshipped God as the Governor of the world, it is evident that the Father of Jesus, whom the Pharisees knew not, was a different person from the Creator. But they do not observe that this is a usual manner of speaking in Scripture. Though a man may know the existence of God, and have learned from the Father that He only must be worshipped, yet if his life is not good, he is said not to have the knowledge of God. Thus the sons of Eli, on account of their wickedness, are said not to have known God. And thus again the Pharisees did not know the Father; because they did not live according to their Creator's command. And there is another thing meant too by knowing God, different from merely believing in Him. It is said, Be still then, and know that I am God. (Ps. 45:10) And this, it is certain, was written for a people that believed in the Creator. But to know by believing, and believe simply, are different things. To the Pharisees, to whom He says, Ye neither know Me, nor My Father, He could with right have said, Ye do not even believe in My Father; for he who denies the Son, has not the Father, either by faith or knowledge. But Scripture gives us another sense of knowing a thing, viz. being joined to that thing. Adam knew his wife, when he was joined to her. And if he who is joined to a woman knows that woman, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit, and knows the Lord. And in this sense the Pharisees neither knew the Father, nor the Son. But may not a man know God, and yet not know the Father? Yes; these are two different conceptions. And therefore among an infinite number of prayers offered up in the Law, we do not find any one addressed to God the Father. They only pray to Him as God and Lord; in order not to anticipate the grace shed by Jesus over the whole world, calling all men to the Sonship, according to the Psalm, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren.
John 8:19 — Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 19
It is necessary, though, to know that heretics consider clearly from this that the God whom the Jews worship does not be the Father of Christ; for if to the Pharisees worshipping the creator, they say, the Savior said, “You neither know me nor my Father,” it is clear that the Father of Jesus, being different from the creator, the Pharisees did not know, nor did those in Jerusalem, to whom he had previously said, “But he who sent me is true, whom you do not know.” They say these things not having read the divine scriptures, nor having kept to the customary language in them. For even if one can understand thoroughly from the scriptures of the fathers concerning God that one must worship only Him, if he does not live well, they say this one does not have the knowledge of God. If, indeed, another knew about the creator and his priestly service, it would be clear that even the sons of Eli the priest, being raised in the worship, but even so, having sinned, it is written about them in the first book of Samuel: “And the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the Lord.” For we will inquire of the heretics whether it is written about the creator, “They did not know the Lord,” and if they answer that these things are about the creator, we will seek to understand why it was said about the sons of Eli, “They did not know the Lord;” whether it was due to the things concerning the creator or due to their wickedness; it is clearly said because of their wickedness that they are said not to have known the Lord. And this can be found not only about the sons of Eli but also about other kings who ruled in Israel and Judah who were sinners. Thus then, the Pharisees did not know the Father; for they did not live according to the will of the creator. There is also another meaning of knowing God, with there being a difference between knowing God and merely believing in God, as is evident from: "Whatever the law speaks, it speaks to those who are under the law," indicating clearly that it also includes the prophets whose words are called law, as we have demonstrated elsewhere. It is said in the Psalms: “Be still and know that I am God.” Who would not agree [believe] that these words were written to people who believe in the Creator? Whom to know is impossible without being still and purifying the mind of those who contemplate, and seeing God with more divine eyes because they have made their hearts pure, and are deemed worthy of this grace, as the Savior testifies, saying: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Similarly, regarding “No one knows the Father except the Son,” we shall say that knowing the Father is not the same thing as believing in Him. Therefore, the statement “No one knows the Father except the Son” does not contradict “And Abraham believed in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” If someone thinks we are forcing the issue by saying that believing is not the same as knowing, and that it is possible to believe without having knowledge of the one they believe in, let them hear what Jesus says to those Jews who had believed in Him: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Notice that before it says “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth,” it is written: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him,” and what He said was: “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth.” It is vastly different to have knowledge alongside believing, compared to merely believing. For one is given by the Spirit, a message of wisdom; to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another, faith by the same Spirit.
John 8:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.40, 43-44, 53-55
The Evangelist would not have added these words were it not to convey something useful.… Whenever it says "these are the words that he spoke in such and such a place," you will discover a reason for the addition.…The treasury was a place where coins were contributed for the honor of God and the support of the poor. What else would these coins be than the divine words that have the image of the great King stamped on them and that are examined by trustworthy money changers who know how to separate counterfeit coins from the genuine ones?… But if everyone contributed to the temple treasury in support of the needy for the common good, Jesus, more than anyone else was surely a worthy contributor. He gave the words of eternal life and his teaching about God and himself. His statement, "I am the light of the world," which was spoken in the treasury, was more valuable than any coin … as were all his other teachings in that place. And all the gold of the others who brought what they had into the treasury was like a bit of sand in comparison to the words of Jesus, for every word of his was wisdom.
John 8:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xix. in Joan.) Whenever it is added, Jesus spoke these words in such a place, you will, if you attend, discover a meaning in the addition. The treasury (γαζοφυλακίῳ) was a place for keeping the money, which was given for the honour of God, and the support of the poor. The coins are the divine words, stamped with the likeness of the great King. In this sense then let every one contribute to the edification of the Church, carrying into that spiritual treasury all that he can collect, to the honour of God, and the common good. But while all were thus contributing to the treasury of the temple, it was especially the office of Jews to contribute his gifts, which were the words of eternal life. While Jesus therefore was speaking in the treasury, no one laid hands on Him; His discourse being stronger than those who wished to take Him; for there is no weakness in that which the Word of God utters.
John 8:21 — Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 19
Someone might say to this, "If He said this to those persisting in unbelief, how can He say to such, 'You will seek me'?" For often seeking Jesus is good, somehow the same as seeking the Word and truth and wisdom. But you will say that it is also said concerning those who plot, just as in, "They sought to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not yet come," and in "I know that you are Abraham’s seed, but you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you," and in "Now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God." Therefore, it is said to those not seeking rightly, "You will seek me," not contradicting "Everyone who seeks finds." And there are always differences among those seeking Jesus, not all seeking Him genuinely and for their own salvation and to benefit from Him. For there are also countless fallen dispositions seeking Jesus; therefore, only those who have rightly sought Him found peace, who rightly could be said to seek the Word from the beginning, the Word with God, and to be brought near to the Father. But when the Word is present and appearing, if it is not accepted, it threatens to depart and says, "I am going away;" and if we seek Him after He has departed, we shall not find Him, but we shall die in our sins. He knows from whom He is going away and to whom He remains inaccessible until He is sought in due time. And it is said to those who have Him like this and have not yet observed Him: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down; or, 'Who will descend into the abyss? That is, to bring Christ up from the dead.' But what does the scripture say? 'The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart.'" To these, the Savior kindly shows also concerning the kingdom of God, so that they do not seek it outside themselves nor say, "Here it is," or "There it is;" for He says to them, "The kingdom of God is within you." And as long as we preserve within our soul the seeds of truth and its beginnings that were sown in us, the Word has not yet departed from us; but if we are corrupted by the outpouring of wickedness, then He will say to us, "I am going," so that if we seek Him we shall not find Him, but we shall die in our sins, caught in them and taken by those appointed to seize the soul, according to what was said: "Fool, this very night your soul will be demanded from you." We should not pass over unexamined also the phrase, "You will die in your sins." If it is taken more commonly, it is clear that sinners will die in their sin, and the righteous will die in their righteousness; but if "You will die" is understood according to the death of the enemy of Christ, as one sinning unto death, it is clear that those to whom it was said had not yet died. And you inquire how those who did not believe while they were living will ever die. Someone will answer even to this, saying that at that time not yet believing was not yet a sin unto death, and those to whom the word came had not yet sinned unto death. But they were living in the weakness of their soul, and that weakness was unto death. Therefore, the physician, seeing them gravely ill, said in despair of their healing, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins." We said then that "since that infirmity was 'unto death' for them, since they learned from Jesus the difference of infirmities. Lazarus also was sick, but the physician knew that his sickness was not unto death; therefore he says: 'This sickness is not unto death.' Therefore, even when we take hold of our own sicknesses, let us be careful lest we fall sick unto death, the disease changing from one that can still have a cure to one that is incurable. At the same time, it becomes somewhat clearer also what is meant by 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' in relation to 'You will die in your sin.' For when someone dies in their own sin, where Jesus is going they cannot go; for no d…
John 8:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.152, 155, 158
Now, if the one who does not believe that Jesus is the Christ will die in his sins, it is clear that the one who does not die in his sins has believed in the Christ. But he who dies in his sins, even if he says that he believes in the Christ, has not believed in him so far as truth is concerned. And if faith is mentioned but it lacks works, such faith is dead. … For one who believes in [Christ's] justice does not do injustice. One who believes in his wisdom would not say or do anything foolish.… And if we collected the remaining attributes of Christ, we will easily discover that whoever does not believe in Christ will die in his sins because he comes to be the very opposite of what is seen in Christ. The sins themselves kill him.
John 8:25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xix. in Joan.) It is manifest, that he, who dies in his sins, though he say that he believes in Christ, does not really believe. For he who believes in His justice does not do injustice; he who believes in His wisdom, does not act or speak foolishly; in like manner with respect to the other attributes of Christ, you will find that he who does not believe in Christ, dies in his sins: inasmuch as he comes to be the very contrary of what is seen in Christ.
John 8:37 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.32-33, 41, 43, 45
It is also possible for one who happens to be the [biological] seed of Abraham by diligence to become his [spiritual] child. And it is possible, by neglect and poor stewardship, for one to cease to be his seed. There was still hope for them, however, to whom the saying was addressed. Jesus knew that they were the seed of Abraham and saw that they had not yet lost the ability to become children of Abraham. Since it was possible for them to become children of Abraham in addition to being his seed, he said, "If you are the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham." But just as some are seed of Abraham, so others are really "seed of Canaan, not of Judah," as Daniel says.…But if, in addition to being seed of Abraham, they had cultivated the seed of Abraham and given it over to greatness and growth, the word of Jesus would have produced great growth in the seed of Abraham.… But those who wished to kill the Word and to crush him did not contain his greatness.… If any one of us is seed of Abraham and the Word of God does not continue in him still, let him not seek to kill the Word. Let him change from merely being seed of Abraham to becoming a child of Abraham, and he will be able to take in the Word of God, whom he did not have till then.
John 8:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xx. in Joan. s. 7.) This is proof that our Saviour was witness to what was done with the Father: whereas men, to whom the revelation is made, were not witnesses. (tom. xx. 7.) Also another reading has; And do ye do what ye have heard from the Father. All that was written in the Law and the Prophets they had heard from the Father. He who takes this reading, may use it to prove against them who hold otherwise, that the God who gave the Law and the Prophets, was none other than Christ's Father. And we use it too as an answer to those who maintain two original natures in men, and explain the words, My word hath no place in you, (c. 8) to mean that these were by nature incapable of receiving the word. How could those be of an incapable nature, who had heard from the Father? And how again could they be of a blessed nature, who sought to kill our Saviour, and would not receive His words.
John 8:38 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.46
The Savior is an eyewitness to what was done with the Father.… "No one has known the Father except the Son," since they are no longer eyewitnesses to whom the Son has revealed him.
John 8:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xx. 13.) As yet He has not named their father; He mentioned Abraham indeed a little above, but now He is going to mention another father, viz. the devil: whose sons they were, in so far as they were wicked, not as being men. Our Lord is reproaching them for their evil deeds. They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father. This answer of the Jews is a great falling off from our Lord's meaning. He had referred to God, but they take Father in the sense of the father of their nature, Abraham. (tom. xx. 9.) Our Saviour denies that Abraham is their father: Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. (tom. xx. 2. et sq.) Or we may explain the difficulty thus. Above it is in the Greek, I know that ye are Abraham's seed. So let us examine whether there is not a difference between a bodily seed and a child. It is evident that a seed contains in itself all the proportions of him whose seed it is, as yet however dormant, and waiting to be developed; when the seed first has changed and moulded the material it meets with in the woman, derived nourishment from thence and gone through a process in the womb, it becomes a child, the likeness of its begetter. So then a child is formed from the seed: but the seed is not necessarily a child. Now with reference to those who are from their works judged to be the seed of Abraham, may we not conceive that they are so from certain seminal proportions implanted in their souls? All men are not the seed of Abraham, for all have not these proportions implanted in their souls. But he who is the seed of Abraham, has yet to become his child by likeness. And it is possible for him by negligence and indolence even to cease to be the seed. But those to whom these words were addressed, were not yet cut off from hope: and therefore Jesus acknowledged that they were as yet the seed of Abraham, and had still the power of becoming children of Abraham. So He says, If ye are the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. If as the seed of Abraham, they had attained to their proper sign and growth, they would have taken in our Lord's words. But not having grown to be children, they cared not; but wish to kill the Word, and as it were break it in pieces, since it was too great for them to take in. If any of you then be the seed of Abraham, and as yet do not take in the word of God, let him not seek to kill the word; but rather change himself into being a son of Abraham, and then he will be able to take in the Son of God. Some select one of the works of Abraham, viz. that in Genesis, And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. (Gen. 15:6) But even granting to them that faith is a work, if this were so, why was it not, Do the work of Abraham: using the singular number, instead of the plural? The expression as it stands is, I think, equivalent to saying, Do all the works of Abraham: i. e. in the spiritual sense, interpreting Abraham's history allegorically. For it is not incumbent on one, who would be a son of Abraham, to many his maidservants, or after his wife's death, to marry another in his old age.
John 8:39 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.60
It is clear, however, that the Savior refutes this too as a false statement by his reply, "If you are the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham."
John 8:39 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.57-58
They appear to have replied as if they had understood the statement about who their father was in a much lowlier manner than the Lord meant it. For Jesus was referring to God when he declared, "And you, therefore, do the things that you have heard from the Father." They, however, make a humbler assertion about the father of their own nation when they say, "Abraham is our father."
John 8:39 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.66
Those who fasten on to one of Abraham's works, such as the statement "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for justice," think that this is what is referred to in the command, "Do the works of Abraham." Even if it is conceded to them that faith is a work (which would not be conceded by those who accept the saying, "Faith without works is dead," as authoritative, nor by those who understand that to be justified by faith differs from being justified by works of law), then let them explain why it was not said in the singular, "If you are children of Abraham, do the work of Abraham." Rather, it is said in the plural, "Do the works of Abraham." This is equivalent, I think, to saying, "Do all the works of Abraham."
John 8:40 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But now ye seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth. (tom. xx. 11.) To kill Me, He says, a man. I say nothing now of the Son of God, nothing of the Word, because the Word cannot die; I speak only of that which ye see. It is in your power to kill that which you see, and offend Him Whom ye see not. This did not Abraham. (tom. xx. 12.) It might seem to some, that it were superfluous to say that Abraham did not this; for it were impossible that it should be; Christ was not born at that time. But we may remind them, that in Abraham's time there was a man born who spoke the truth, which he heard from God, and that this man's life was not sought for by Abraham. Know too that the Saints were never without the spiritual advent of Christ. I understand then from this passage, that every one who, after regeneration, and other divine graces bestowed upon him, commits sin, does by this return to evil incur the guilt of crucifying the Son of God, which Abraham did not do.
John 8:40 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.87-88
If Abraham has not done what he could not possibly have done, the words "this Abraham did not do" will seem to have been spoken without purpose. For some would say to this that the statement "this Abraham did not do" is made in vain, since he did not do what by no means [could have] occurred during his time, for Jesus did not exist during his time. But since I assume that the statement "this Abraham did not do" has been made in praise of Abraham, as it were, I would say that, in accordance with the word that teaches, "Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day, and he saw it and was glad," it is possible that there was also a man in Abraham's time who spoke the truth that he heard from God, and that Abraham, in truth, did not seek to kill this man.
John 8:40 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.80
Those who seek to kill him seek to kill a man, since even if they should kill him, God is not killed. And if they seek to kill him when they have not yet killed him, they plot against him as against a man, not thinking that the one against whom they plot is God. For no one would continue to plot against him if he were convinced that the one against whom he plots is God.
John 8:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Ye do the works of your father.
John 8:41 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.130
The Savior said that God was his Father and acknowledged no man as his father. Hence it is likely because of the statement "We have not been born of fornication," that, to give offense, they in turn add, "We have one father, God." It is as if they were saying, "We are the ones who have one Father, God, rather than you, who claim to have been born of a virgin, though you were born of fornication. You boast that you have been born of a virgin by saying that you have God alone as your one Father. We who acknowledge God as our Father do not deny that we also have a human father."
John 8:41 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.128
I ask whether those Jews who are said to have believed in him do not respond rather vindictively, because they were reproved as not being children of Abraham, by hinting in a veiled manner that the Savior was born of fornication. They assume this as probable because they do not accept his famous and widely discussed birth from the Virgin.
John 8:41 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.103-5
In so far as we commit sins, we have not as yet put off the generation of the devil, even if we are thought to believe in Jesus. Consequently Jesus says to those Jews who have believed, "You do the works of your father," "father" meaning the devil because of the statement "You are of your father the devil." Now, if everyone "who commits sin is of the devil," everyone who is not of the devil does not commit sin. In addition, if "the reason the Son of God appeared was that he might destroy the works of the devil," to the extent that he has not yet destroyed the works of the devil in us, because we have not presented ourselves to him who destroys the works of the devil, we have not as yet put aside being children of the devil, since it is our fruits that show whose sons we are.
John 8:42 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.155-56
But when one compares the condition that resulted from having taken up the form of a servant after he had emptied himself with that former condition of the Son, you will understand how the Son has proceeded from God and has come to us, and [how he] has come out, as it were, of the one who sent him, even if, in another manner, the Father has not left him alone but is with him, and is in the Son just as also the Son is in the Father. For unless you understand that the Son is in the Father in a different way than he was before he proceeded from God, it will seem contradictory that he has both proceeded from God and, after he has proceeded from God, is still in God.
John 8:42 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.160
I think these words were spoken because there were some who came without being sent by the Father. Jeremiah teaches of such people who promise some teaching or prophecy, where it is written, "I did not send these prophets, yet they ran."
John 8:42 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.140
Now, at what other time does God become one's father than at the time one keeps his commandments? It is because of these commandments that one who was not formerly a son of the father in heaven becomes his son, when the Father leads the one who becomes his son to regeneration, and is called "Father."
John 8:42 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.137-38
If, then, the [conditional] proposition is true, "If God were your father, you would love me," it is clear that the [conditional] contrary to this is also true: If you do not love me, God is not your Father. God is not the Father, therefore, of those who do not love Jesus. And there was a time when Paul did not love Jesus. There was a time, then, when God was not Paul's Father. Paul, therefore, was not a son of God by nature, but later he became a son of God.
John 8:43 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.163-64
First then, we must acquire the ability to hear the divine word so that subsequently we may also be able to know the whole teaching of Jesus. For it is possible that, though one previously could not hear Jesus' word, he attains the ability to hear it, because one cannot hear until his hearing is healed by the Word who says to the deaf, "Be opened."
John 8:43 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xx. 18. [Nic.]) First then, that virtue must be sought after, which hears the divine word; that by degrees we may be strong enough to embrace the whole teaching of Jesus. For so long as a man has not had his hearing restored by the Word, which says to the deaf ear, Be opened: (Mark 7:34) so long he cannot hear. (tom. xx.) And this seems to be the same mistake, as if one said, that an eye which saw right was different in kind from an eye which saw wrong. For just as in these there is no difference of kind, only one of them for some reason sees wrong; so, in the other case, whether a man receives a doctrine, or whether he does not, he is of the same nature.
John 8:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.224
But notice also the statement "In Adam all die, and in Christ all shall be made alive." … By observing these words you will perceive the life of man according to the image. And when you have understood what his life is, you will perceive in what manner the murderer killed the living man, and that he will correctly be called a murderer, not because he killed some particular individual but because he killed the whole race insofar as "in Adam all die."
John 8:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.241-42, 263-64, 266
If one carefully considers human nature, which is not easily purified of false teachings, one sees that, as "everyone is a liar," not everyone has stood in the truth. If someone is not a liar and has stood in the truth, he is not an ordinary person but is like those to whom God says, "I have said, 'You are gods, children of the Most High.' " … But when the Holy Spirit or an angelic spirit speaks, it does not speak from its own resources but from the Word of truth itself and from wisdom. This is made clear in the Gospel according to John below where Jesus teaches about the Paraclete, saying, "He will receive from me and will declare it to you." Whenever the lie speaks, however, it speaks from its own resources.… We then who are human beings should hurry and flee with all our strength to become "gods" since, to the extent that we are human, we are liars, just as the father of the lie is a liar.
John 8:44 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xx. 21.) Consider too; it was not one man only that he killed, but the whole human race, inasmuch as in Adam all die; so that he is truly called a murderer from the beginning. (tom. xx. 22.) There is only one way of standing in the truth; many and various of not standing in it. Some try to stand in the truth, but their feet tremble and shake so, they cannot. Others are not come to that pass, but are in danger of it, as we read in the Psalms, My feet were almost gone: (Ps. 72) others fall from it. Because the truth is not in him, is the reason why the devil did not stand in the truth. He imagined vain things, and deceived himself; wherein He was so far worse than others, in that, while others are deceived by him, he was the author of his own deception. But farther; does the truth is not in him, mean that he holds no true doctrine, and that every thing he thinks is false; or that he is not a member of Christ, who says, I am the truth? (c. 14:6) Now it is impossible that any rational being should think falsely on every subject and never be even ever so slightly right in opinion. The devil therefore may hold a true doctrine, by the mere law of his rational nature: and therefore his nature is not contrary to truth, i. e. does not consist of simple error and ignorance; otherwise he could never have known the truth. (tom. xx. 23.) Note however; this word, liar, is applied to man, as well as to the devil, who begat a lie, as we read in the Psalm, All men are liars. (Ps. 111) If a man is not a liar, he is not an ordinary man, but one of those, to whom it is said, I have said, Ye are Gods. (Ps. 81) When a man speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; but the Holy Spirit speaketh the word of truth and wisdom; as he said below, He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. (c. 16:15)
John 8:44 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
Our inner man, therefore, is said either to have God as father, if he lives according to God and does the things that are God's, or the devil, if he be in sins and does his wills; as the Savior evidently shows in the Gospels, when he says: "you are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth".
John 8:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.193-94
If we do the works of God and wish to do his desires, we are children of God. But if we do the works of the devil and wish to do what he desires, we are of our father the devil. Let us pay attention, then, not only to what we do but also to what we desire. For even to wish to do the desires of the devil is sufficient to be his child. Perhaps this is why the words "You wish to do the desires of your father" are added after the statement "You do the works of your father," so that we may learn that even if we merely wish to do what the devil desires, we will still be called the children of the devil.
John 8:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.179-80
For such is the meaning of the words "You will to do your father's desires." But we must say in reference to these matters that the devil desires, let us say, that this boy be corrupted, and that this woman commit adultery and that these men visit prostitutes. By the power of these desires, [the devil] makes the desire to do the things that he wishes to effect serve him so that, according to this, one could say that the one [i.e., the devil] who causes the prostitution or adultery practices prostitution and commits adultery even before the human becomes involved. And you will say the same thing also about every sin, that is to say, the devil does not desire money, but he desires to make people lovers of money and passionately desirous of material things. And those who love money, even if all they do is wish for it, will to carry out this desire of his.
John 8:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.106-7
These words make it very clear that one is not a child of the devil as a result of creation, nor is anyone said to be a son of God because he was so created. It is also clear that one who was previously a child of the devil can become a child of God. Matthew also reveals this when he records that the Savior spoke as follows: "You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, you shall love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may become children of your Father who is in heaven." For note that by [obeying] the commands, "Love your enemies" and "Pray for those who persecute you," he who previously was not a child of the Father in heaven subsequently becomes his child.
John 8:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.244
And the reason why truth is not in him is that he has been deceived and accepts lies, and he has himself been deceived by himself. On this basis he is considered to be worse than the rest of these who are deceived, since they are deceived by him, but he creates his own deception himself.
John 8:45 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.268-70, 274-75
We must question how he says, to people who believe in him, "because I speak the truth, you do not believe in me." Consider whether it is possible to believe in someone in one particular aspect but not to believe in another aspect. For instance, one could believe that Jesus was crucified in Judea in the time of Pontius Pilate but not believe that he was born of the Virgin Mary. This one believes and disbelieves in the same person. Take, as another example, those who believe in the Jesus who performed the recorded wonders and signs in Judea but who do not believe in the Son of the one who made heaven and earth. These believe and disbelieve in the same one.…It is likely that they believed in him on the basis of what was seen because of his marvelous deeds, but they did not believe in his deeper sayings.… You see this even in the present, that there are many people who marvel at Jesus whenever they consider the story about him but who no longer believe when a teaching that is deeper and greater than their capacity is disclosed to them, but instead suspect it to be false.
John 8:46 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.277-78
Now, so far as the literal meaning is concerned, the text also involves the Savior's boldness, since no man could say with the confidence that he had not sinned, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" It is only our Lord "who did not sin," "who has been tempted in all things like as we are, without sin." He is the only one able to address these words to all who have ever known him. Now, I understand the words "which of you" to be said not only to those present but also to the whole human race, as if we were to understand it to mean: Who of your race? Or, what sort of person will be able to convict me of sin? But be assured: there is no one.
John 8:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xx. in Joan. s. 25.) A bold speech this; which none could have had the confidence to utter, but he Who did no sin; even our Lord.
John 8:47 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xx. 24.) But how is this said to the Jews who believed on Him? Consider: a man may believe in one sense, not believe in another; e. g. that our Lord was crucified by Pontius Pilate, but not that He was born of the Virgin Mary. In this same way, those whom He is speaking to, believed in Him as a worker of miracles, which they saw Him to be; but did not believe in His doctrines, which were too deep for them.
John 8:48 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
For providence was keeping the half-dead man for him who was stronger than the law and the prophets, namely the Samaritan, which is interpreted "guardian". This is he who "neither slumbers nor sleeps, keeping Israel". On behalf of the half-dead man this Samaritan set out ... that he might save and guard the one about to die — the Samaritan to whom the Jews said: "You are a Samaritan and have a demon", and who, when he had denied that he had a demon, would not deny that he was a "Samaritan"; for he knew that he was a "guardian".
John 8:48 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.317-18
The parable in the Gospel of Luke is about a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. The priest and the Levite passed by him, but the Samaritan came on him on his journey, saw him, had compassion, approached him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. Now, if someone is able to prove that what is said about the Samaritan who healed this man who was half-dead and who had fallen among thieves refers to one other than the Savior, he will also show why the Savior did not deny that he was a Samaritan.
John 8:49 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.343-45
The statement "And you dishonor me" follows these words and is addressed to those who have dishonored him and said to him, "Are we not correct in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" They thought that their incorrect statement was correct. For they denounced the Savior because they thought incorrectly that he was a Samaritan and had a demon. But we must think that the statement "And you dishonor me" was made not only to those at that time but also to those who always dishonor him by what they do contrary to the upright word of God. It was made by those who dishonor Christ, who is justice, by the unjust things they do.… "You dishonor me" would also be said to anyone who despises wisdom, since Christ also is wisdom.
John 8:50 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.350
God, who gave his own Son for us, seeks the glory of Christ in each of those who have received him. He will find it in those who attend to themselves and work out the opportunities for virtue that have been implanted in them, but he will not find it in those who are not such. When he does not find it, he will judge those in whom he does not find the glory of his own Son and will say to them, "Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations."
John 8:51 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.365-68
For what is that death that has come into the world through sin if it is not the last enemy of Christ that will be destroyed? And what is that death that passed to all people because all have sinned if it is not this very death that also reigned from Adam to Moses? Now Moses, that is, the law, continued until the sojourn of our Lord Jesus and ruled by one man's transgression through that one man, until those who have received the abundance of grace and righteousness should reign in life through the one Christ Jesus. Whoever, then, has kept the word of the Only Begotten and Firstborn of creation will never see this death, since it is the nature of the Word to prevent death from being seen. And this is how we must understand the words "If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." It is as if he who speaks these words had given those who hear them light as a gift and said, If anyone keeps this light of mine, he will never see darkness.
John 8:52 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.413
There is a difference between tasting death and seeing death. The Jews, as unintelligent hearers, confused the saying of the Lord and instead of "he will not see death" said "He will not taste death."
John 8:52 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.378-80
The majority, even of the wise, think that every kind of sin, of which one form is also the sin against reason, has no other source than mistaken judgments. But those who have believed in the holy Scriptures as divine think that the things people do contrary to right reason are not accomplished apart from demons or some such hostile powers. The Jews, too, therefore, assumed that it was the result of the activity of a demon that Jesus said, "Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone shall keep my word, he will not see death forever." And they had this impression because they had neither kept the word nor perceived the meaning of what was said. For here he was speaking of the death of those who are at enmity with the Word [or reason] who die forever because they do not keep his word. But they think he is talking about that death which is common to all, and so when he says that everyone who has kept his word will not die forever, [they think that he] has lost his wits, since Abraham and the prophets died.
John 8:53 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20.393-400
They reflected on the death of Abraham and the prophets.… They had not, however, comprehended the life of Abraham and the prophets or that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was not their God as men who were dead but as men who were alive. … Therefore, although Abraham died, nevertheless he was alive and no longer saw death since he had seen the day of Jesus and rejoiced and was glad.…This is why our Savior said that "Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day, and he saw it and was glad"—to teach that Abraham was alive. But if someone prefers that the words about Abraham do not have this meaning, let him tell us whether he who once saw the day of our Savior … can see death after such a sight … or that one who was worthy of such a sight was later deprived of what he had seen. Each of these assertions is absurd. For when Abraham saw the day of Jesus, at the same time he saw it he also heard his word and kept it; therefore he no longer sees death. And so, the Jews were also incorrect when they said, "Abraham died," as if he were still among the dead.… The same is also true of the prophets.… They too kept the word of the Son of God when the word of the Lord came to Hosea, or Jeremiah or Isaiah; for no other Word of God came to any of these than he who was in the beginning with God, his Son, God the Word. Now if anyone has kept this word, the prophets certainly have.… Therefore, just as the Jews' statement "Now we know that you have a demon" is false, so also is their statement "Abraham is dead, and the prophets."
John 9:6 — FRAGMENT 63 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
I think this has been said to establish that Christ's saliva had a quality of healing power. Even though the blind man did not himself ask to receive his sight, yet he will be found praiseworthy in delivering himself to Jesus anointing his eyes with clay and in doing without hesitation what had been enjoined him, without Jesus having even said that he would receive sight.… Let us therefore wash off the clay smeared in our eyes in the water of the pool of him [i.e., Jesus] who has been sent so that after this we may be able to see again. But you will understand by the clay the beginning of the rudiments of the oracles of God, according to which we as babies are fed with milk. But when the childish things are done away with and we eat solid food, we wipe away the clay so that we may return to Jesus as one who sees.
John 9:7 — FRAGMENT 63 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
But to heal in his absence, to tell him to go away and wash and to provide the healing only once he has washed—this was the work of someone who wanted to be sure that no one would be ignorant of the miracle that had taken place. For as he commanded the paralytic to take up his bed on the day when it was not lawful to do this—so that each man charging him with the transgression might learn the greatness of the miracle—in the same way he commanded this man who was at a distance from the pool to go there and wash.
John 9:21 — FRAGMENT 67 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Besides having spoken falsely, they committed another sin by exposing their son to obvious harm. But I think this also has a reason. When the Savior opened the eyes of the blind man, he did not open those of a child but of one full grown so that he might see as a full-grown man. But such was also the case with other blind men who received sight. However, it is true that he being of full age can speak for himself, and especially so when Jesus makes him receive his sight. For he needs no one else to negotiate for him.
John 9:36 — FRAGMENT 71 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Since he could not yet say "I believe" but as in ignorance answered, "Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?" he was therefore on the borderline, so to speak, between unbelief and belief.
John 9:39 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 16
To this I have found something similar written in the Gospel according to John: "for judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind". Therefore, just as he came for judgment, that "those who do not see" of the nations "might see", and those who saw before, of Israel, "might be made blind", so he came "for the fall and rising of many". For at the coming of the Lord the Savior, those who had stood before fell down, and those who had fallen rose up. … We all have in ourselves both sight and blindness. Adam both saw and did not see. … There is an eye of the body, with which we behold these earthly things, an eye according to the sense of the flesh, of which the Scripture says: "walking vainly, puffed up by the sense of the flesh". To this we have another, contrary and better, that savors of divine things; and because it was blind in us, Jesus came to make it see, that those who did not see might see, and those who saw might be made blind.
John 10:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 59
Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. Not giving "sleep to the eyes" of our soul nor "slumber to the eyelids," so that we may await either our own end or the end of the age, whether that we should depart from this life or that this world should be brought to its consummation for us. But someone will ask how the Lord, established as present among the disciples, speaks thus, as though not present but about to come, saying to them: watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. And the one who is more simple will say that he spoke this discourse concerning the second coming, in which he was to come. But another will say that he was speaking of the intelligible coming of the Word, still to come into the understanding of the disciples, because it was not yet in their understanding in the way it was going to be: since (as he shows through this passage) in those who watch he works the day of his coming in the soul of those who are illumined by the true light of him who comes to their souls. But know this, that if the householder knew at what watch the thief comes, he would surely watch and would not allow his house to be broken into. How would he not allow it? Without doubt, through his watchfulness. Therefore be you also ready, because at what watch you do not expect it, the Son of Man is to come. But Matthew indeed speaks indefinitely, while Mark even defines the times of the day, as of a thief coming, saying: "watch therefore, for you do not know when the lord of the house will come, at evening or at midnight or at cockcrow or in the morning". Now the householder is the understanding of the man, and his house is his soul; but the thief, who comes suddenly while the householder sleeps and breaks into the house, is, I think, the devil or every contrary word, according to what the evangelist John teaches us, saying in this manner: "amen amen I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs up another way, that man is a thief and a robber". As, therefore, he who "enters through the door into the sheepfold" is "the shepherd of the sheep", for whom "the doorkeeper opens", but "he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber", so the lord of the house enters into it confidently "through the door" when he wills, rewarding the one who watches; but the thief, being a thief, does not enter into the house to the soul of the negligent by the natural entrance, but (as one who has already broken into it) first destroying certain natural buildings of his soul and natural understandings, in him who has not watched — the things which God the Word had built. And having entered through that very breach, the thief plunders it, disarming the understanding, when, despoiling the householder who does not watch, "he will distribute his spoils". But sometimes someone catches the thief in the very act of breaking in, and seizing him as one having his own weapons, he strikes the thief, and, confuting the word that breaks in, he kills it, when, though killing, he is not reckoned a murderer, killing it without any delay. But if not in his own presence, yet in the presence of him who makes all hidden things manifest, someone catches him who has stolen his goods, and understands him and refutes him (that is, kills him), he has no pardon, the thief being dead and made manifest: for he too will die. And see whether perhaps the law of Moses signifies some such thing, saying: "but if the thief is found in the very breaking in and, being struck, dies, there is no bloodguilt for him; but if the sun has risen over him, he is guilty: he shall die for it". For he who, before he does the evil, recognizes the evil and crushes it in himself, is the one who catches and kills it in himself, while it is being broken in upon by it. But he who, after he has done the evil, although he refutes it, is seen to have caught the evil outside himself and to hav…
John 10:3 — LETTER TO GREGORY 4
My child, diligently apply yourself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself, I say. For we who read the things of God need to do so often, otherwise we might say or think something too rashly about them. And applying yourself in this way to the study of the things of God, with faithful preconceptions that are well pleasing to God, knock at its locked door, and it will be opened to you by the gatekeeper, of whom Jesus says, "To him the gatekeeper opens." And applying yourself in this way to the divine study, seek the meaning of the holy Scriptures that so many have missed, but do so in the right way and with unwavering trust in God. Do not be satisfied with knocking and seeking; for prayer is, of all things, indispensable to the knowledge of the things of God. This is what the Savior encourages us to do, saying not only, "Knock, and it shall be opened to you; and seek, and you shall find," but also, "Ask, and it shall be given to you."
John 10:8 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 21
Those who teach with a dishonest and defiled soul steal. Of them it might be said, "All who came before me are thieves and robbers." Such people use the gospel without being affected by it in faith or in living. Instead, they use the good news of the word in a way in which it was not intended. Such a person is a thief, and it will be said of him, "you who preach not to steal—you still steal."
John 10:24 — AGAINST CELSUS 1.48
For it may be observed as a trait of the character of Jesus, that He on all occasions avoided unnecessary talk about Himself; and on that account said, "If I speak of Myself, My witness is not true." And since He avoided unnecessary talk about Himself, and preferred to show by acts rather than words that He was the Christ, the Jews for that reason said to Him, "If Thou art the Christ, tell us plainly."
John 10:28 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18.3
For "no one snatches us away from his hands," according to what was said in the Gospel according to John. Yet it is not written that just as no one snatches us away, no one also falls from his hands. For one who is self-determined is free. And, I say, no one will snatch us away from the hand of God, no one can take us. But we are able to fall from his hands if we are negligent.
John 10:30 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Indeed, in the Scriptures two are often spoken of as one. What passages of Scripture are these? Adam is one man, his wife is another. Adam is distinct from the woman, and the wife is distinct from the man. Yet in the account of the creation of the world it is straightway said that the two were one: "and the two shall be one flesh." Consequently it is possible sometimes for two fleshes to be one. … And again, the Apostle says that the righteous man is one with Christ, but he is distinct from Christ: "And he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him." … In turn, our Savior and Lord, in relation to the Father and God of all, is neither one flesh nor one spirit, but something higher than one flesh, than one spirit — one God. When people are united with one another, the fitting word is flesh. When the righteous man cleaves to Christ, the fitting word is spirit. But when Christ is one with the Father, the fitting word is neither flesh nor spirit, but the more worthy one — God. From this we also understand the saying: "I and the Father are one." Let us in our prayers hold to the duality, while keeping in mind the unity. On the one hand, in this way we shall avoid the opinion of those separated from the Church and fallen into the fantasies of monarchy, who abolish the Son by removing Him from the Father and thereby abolish the Father also. On the other hand, we shall avoid another impious teaching, which abolishes the divine nature of Christ.
John 11:9-10 — FRAGMENT 137 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
As the day is divided into twelve hours, accordingly the twelve patriarchs and the choir of the apostles are equal in number with the hours of the day, having as their Sun Christ our God, who is also the spiritual Day, from whom there is learning and the enlightenment of its knowledge.
John 11:16 — FRAGMENT 79 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Perhaps Thomas also knew that it would not be possible to live with Jesus except by having died with him, as Paul taught. But those who disagree say that he said this because he suspected the envy of the Jews that would arise from the resurrection of Lazarus, and the ensuing danger.
John 11:20 — FRAGMENT 80 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Since Mary is a type of the contemplative life, Martha of the active, Lazarus of him who has fallen into sins after believing, naturally Mary and Martha mourn for Lazarus, and in mourning they need the comfort concerning their brother which the Jews wish to bring them. But before the fullness of time, words despair of being able to make the sister of the dead cease from weeping over him.Martha seems more eager than Mary, since Martha first ran to Jesus, while Mary remained sitting in the house.… Therefore Martha, who was somewhat inferior in this regard, ran to Jesus while Mary remains in the house to receive him as one who was able to bear his presence. And she would not have gone out from her house if she had not heard her sister say, "The teacher has arrived and is calling you." And she did not simply get up but did so quickly, and falling at Jesus' feet said what she said. The other sister had not fallen at his feet.
John 11:25 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
It is available to us to stretch out our hands to good deeds, to take possession of life and to keep it in our soul. This life is Christ, who said: "I am the life." This life is now present for the righteous only as a shadow, but then — face to face.
John 11:26 — FRAGMENT 81 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
The Savior does not inquire "Do you believe this?" in ignorance as to whether Martha did or did not believe what was said. Rather, he did so in order that we, or indeed those who were then present, might learn from her answer what her disposition was. But another will say that it is not a question but a statement: "You believe this." In this case, Martha then completes the Savior's statement saying, Yes, Lord, and not only do I believe what you now say, but I believe now that you are the Christ, something I also believed before. And I believe that you are the Son of God who comes into the world and lives with all who believe in you.
John 11:38 — FRAGMENT 84 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
When he was far from the tomb, he groaned in spirit. But when he comes near to the tomb, he no longer groans in spirit but compresses his groaning in himself.… Again he rebukes the feeling that we may learn that he has become unchangeably human like ourselves.
John 11:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. in Joan. xxviii.) The delay in taking away the stone was caused by the sister of the dead, who said, By this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. If she had not said this, it would not be said, Jesus said, Take away the stone. Some delay had arisen; it is best to let nothing come between the commands of Jesus and doing them.
John 11:40 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.17
But now, between the words "Take away the stone" and "therefore, they took away the stone," the words of the dead man's sister hindered the removal of the stone. And it would not have been taken away at all even later had not Jesus answered and said to her unbelief, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" It is good, then, that nothing intervenes between Jesus' command and the action enjoined by his bidding.
John 11:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xxviii.) He lifted up His eyes; mystically, He lifted up the human mind by prayer to the Father above. We should pray after Christ's pattern, Lift up the eyes of our heart, and raise them above present things in memory, in thought, in intention. If to them who pray worthily after this fashion is given the promise in Isaiah, Thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am; (Isa. 58:9) what answer, think we, our Lord and Saviour would receive? He was about to pray for the resurrection of Lazarus. He was heard by the Father before He prayed; His request was granted before mad. And therefore He begins with giving thanks; I thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast heard Me.
John 11:41 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.23-25, 39
We must carefully observe and examine what has been written concerning the position of Jesus' eyes.… He had changed his thought from his conversation with those below and lifted it up and exalted it, bringing it in prayer to the Father who is over all.… The one who imitates Christ's prayer, lifting up the eyes of his soul and bringing them up in this way from everyday concerns, memories, thoughts and intention must in this way address to God the great and heavenly words of prayer concerning great and heavenly matters.… If indeed God makes such a promise for those who pray in a worthy manner … that "while you are still speaking, I will say, 'Here I am,' " what answer do we think our Savior and Lord would receive?
John 11:42 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.42
He was about to pray for the resurrection of Lazarus when the only good God and Father anticipated his prayer and heard the words about to be spoken in his prayer. So the Savior begins by giving thanks in place of prayer in the hearing of the crowd.
John 11:42 — ON PRAYER 13.1
"I knew that you hear me always," which is reported by John as said by the Lord, makes clear that those who pray are always heard.
John 11:43 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxviii.) His cry and loud voice it was which awoke him, as Christ had said, I go to awake him. The resurrection of Lazarus is the work of the Father also, in that He heard the prayer of the Son. It is the joint work of Father and Son, one praying, the other hearing; for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. (5:21)
John 11:44 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.54
Now, we ought to be aware that there are some Lazaruses even now who, after they have become Jesus' friends, have become sick and died, and as dead persons they have remained in the tomb and the land of the dead with the dead who were later made alive by Jesus' prayer. They were summoned from the tomb to the things outside it by Jesus with his loud voice. He who trusts in Jesus comes forth wearing bonds worthy of death from his former sins and still bound around his face, so that he can neither see nor walk nor do anything because of the bonds of death until Jesus commands those who are able to loose him and let him go.
John 11:45-46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxviii. 10.) Our Lord had said above, Because of the people that stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. It would have been ignorance of the future, if He had said this, and none believed, after all. Therefore it follows: Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went their way to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. It is doubtful from these words, whether those who went to the Pharisees, were of those many who believed, and meant to conciliate the opponents of Christ; or whether they were of the unbelieving party, and wished to inflame the envy of the Pharisees against Him. The latter seems to me the true supposition; especially as the Evangelist describes those who believed as the larger party. Many believed; whereas it is only a few who go to the Pharisees: Some of them went to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.
John 11:45-46 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.77-78
The text has a certain ambiguity. Were those who went to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus had done—were they from those many Jews who saw the things that he had done and believed in him and wished to win over those who were hostile to him by the announcement about Lazarus? Or were they the others not among the many who believed who, since what had happened did not bring about faith in Jesus, intended as much as possible to stir up the wicked jealousy in the Pharisees against him by the announcement about Lazarus? The Evangelist seems to me to be leaning toward this latter meaning.
John 11:47-48 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxviii. c. 11.) This speech is an evidence of their audacity and blindness: of their audacity, because they testified that He had done many miracles, and yet thought that they could contend successfully against Him, and that He would have no power of withstanding their plots; of their blindness, because they did not reflect that He who had wrought such miracles could easily escape out of their hands; unless indeed they denied that these miracles were done by Divine power. They resolved then not to let Him go; thinking that they should thus place an impediment in the way of those who wished to believe in Him, and also prevent the Romans from taking away their place and nation. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. (t. xxviii.) Mystically: It was fit that the Gentiles should occupy the place of them of the circumcision; because by their fall salvation came to the Gentiles. (non occ.). The Romans represent the Gentiles, being the rulers of the Gentile world. Their nation again was taken away, because they who had been the people of God, were made not a people.
John 11:47 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.88-90
I think the phrase "this man" was used to diminish [Jesus'] glory because they did not believe what was said above about him being God.… Notice both the audacity and the blindness of their evil. It was audacious because they had already witnessed the fact that he had performed many signs, and yet they thought they could plot against him—as if he could do nothing when they plotted against him. On the other hand, they were no less blind either because it makes more sense to be on the side of someone who performs such miracles than [to be a part of] the plot of those who do not want to allow him to live. Or perhaps they thought that he performed signs that were not the result of divine power and that this was why he could not do all things or deliver himself from their plot. They resolved, therefore, not to let him live, thinking that they would place an impediment in the way of those who believed in him and also prevent the Romans from taking away their place and nation.
John 11:48 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.93-94
The mystical meaning of these words is that the Gentiles occupied the place of those of the circumcision, "For by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles to stir them to envy." The Romans represent the Gentiles because they are the rulers of the Gentile world. But the nation also was taken away by the Gentiles because those who had been the people of God were made not a people, and those of Israel are no longer Israel, and their seed did not attain the status of becoming children.
John 11:48 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.91-92
The Romans did come and take away their place. For where is that which they call a sanctuary? And they also took away the nation, casting them out of the place and scarcely permitting them to be where they wish even in the Diaspora.
John 11:49-51 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxx. c. 12.) a The character of Caiaphas is shown by his being called the High Priest of that same year; the year, viz. in which our Saviour suffered. Being the High Priest that same year, he said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. (non occ.). i. e. Ye sit still, and give no attention. Attend to me. So insignificant a thing as the life of one man may surely be made a sacrifice for the safety of the state. (tom. xxviii. c. 12.) Not every one that prophesieth is a prophet; as not every one that does a just action is just, he, for example, that does one for vainglory. Caiaphas prophesied without being a prophet, as did Balaam. Perhaps some will deny that Caiaphas prophesied by the Holy Spirit, on the ground that evil spirits may bear witness to Christ, as the one in Luke, who says, I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God; (Luke 4:34) the intention of Caiaphas too being not to induce his hearers to believe on Him, but to excite them to kill Him. (c. 14.). It is expedient for us. Is this part of his prophecy true or false? If it is true, then those who contended against Jesus in the council, since Jesus died for the people, and they participate in the advantage of His death, are saved. This you say is absurd; and thence argue that the prophecy is false, and, if false, not dictated by the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit does not lie. On the other side it is argued, for the truth of the prophecy, that these words only meant that He by the grace of God should taste death for all men; (Heb. 2:9) that He is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe. (1 Tim. 4:10) And in the same way the former part of the speech, Ye know nothing at all, is made out to be an assertion of the truth. They knew nothing of Jesus, who did not know that He was truth, wisdom, justice, and peace. And again, That one MAN. should die for the people. It was as man that He died for the people: in so far as He is the image of the invisible God, He was incapable of death. And He died for the people, in that He took upon Himself, made away with, blotted out the sins of the whole world. (c. 15.). And this spake he not of himself. Hence we see, what men say sometimes proceeds from themselves, sometimes from the influence of some power upon them. In the latter case though they may not be taken quite out of themselves, and in a certain sense go along with their own words, yet they do not go along with the meaning of them. Thus Caiaphas says nothing of himself; and therefore does not interpret his own prophcey, because he does not understand it. Thus Paul too speaks of some teachers of the law, who understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. (1 Tim. 1:7)
John 11:51 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.171-72
I think we learn from this that we say some things on our own, by ourselves, where there is no power that inspires us to speak. But there are other things that we say when some power prompts us (as it were), dictating what we say, even if we do not fall completely into a trance and lose full possession of our own faculties, but seem to understand what we say. Now, it is possible for us, while we understand what we say on our own, not to understand the meaning of the words that are spoken. This is what happened in the case of Caiaphas the high priest. He did not speak on his own, by himself, nor did he understand the meaning of what he said, since it was a prophecy that was spoken.
John 11:53 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.186-87, 190-91
Spurred on by Caiaphas's words, they took counsel together to kill the Lord. From what sort of spirit then did Caiaphas prophesy that Jesus was to die for the nation, and was the Holy Spirit at work in such a man, and thus became the cause of the plot against Jesus? Or was it not then the Holy Spirit but another spirit which was able both to speak in the impious man and to move those like him against Jesus?… Just as those who deliberately put the worst construction on things misrepresent the holy meaning of the Scriptures … so did the Pharisees and the chief priests. For they did not understand correctly the prophecy about our Savior that Caiaphas spoke. It is a prophecy that is true in that it is better for us that one man die for the people and the whole nation not perish. But they thought the meaning and intention of his counsel was something else, and so they took counsel together from that day to kill Jesus. Now, I say these things to answer the argument that it was the Holy Spirit who prophesied through Caiaphas. I personally do not in the least maintain that this was the case but leave it to the readers to decide what one must recognize as correct concerning Caiaphas and whether he was moved by the Spirit.
John 11:53 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(tom. xxviii. c. 17.) Inflamed by the speech of Caiaphas, they determined on killing our Lord: Then from that day forth they took counsel together to put Him to death. Was this then the work of the Holy Spirit, as well as the former, or was it another spirit which did both first speak by the mouth of a wicked man, and then excite others like him to kill Christ? Answer: It is not necessary that both should be the work of the same spirit. As some turn the Scriptures themselves, which were given for our good, to the support of bad doctrines; so this true prophecy respecting our Saviour was understood in a wrong sense, as if it were a call to put Him to death.
John 11:54 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.192-94
I think that these words and those like them have been recorded because the Word wishes to turn us back from rushing too hastily and irrationally to struggle unto death on behalf of the truth and to suffer martyrdom. For, on the one hand, it is right not to shun the confession or to hesitate to die for the truth if one has been caught in the struggle about confessing Jesus. But, on the other hand, it is no less right also not to provide an opportunity for such a great trial but to avoid it by every means, not only because the outcome of such an act is unclear to us but also so that we may not be responsible for causing those who would not, in actual fact, have become guilty of pouring out our blood, to have become more sinful and impious [by doing so], if we act in our own interest and take no thought for those who plot against us unto death. These people will experience greater and more serious punishment because of us if we are self-centered and do not consider the things of others and deliver ourselves to be killed when this necessity has not overtaken us.
John 11:54 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.211-14, 221-23
Mystically, these words mean that long ago Jesus walked boldly among the Jews when the Word of God dwelled among them through prophets.… But now Jesus no longer walks boldly among the Jews but has departed from there.… He then entered the country near the desert of which it is said, "Many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband." … Now Ephrem means "fruitfulness." He was the brother of Manasseh, who stands for the elder people who were forgotten. For after the forgotten people were left behind, an abundant harvest from the Gentiles occurred.…"Jesus," therefore, "no longer walks openly among the Jews but has departed from there into the country" of the whole world, "near the desert" of the church, "into the city that is called Ephrem," that is, "fruitful," "and there he has remained with his disciples." And up to this moment, Jesus is with his disciples near the desert in the city called Ephrem, for he is present in "fruitfulness." And at the birth, indeed, of this Ephrem, our Lord, magistrate of the grain, who begot him, who humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death of the cross, might say, "God increased me in the land of my humility."
John 11:55 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.237
But the true purification was not before the Pasch but during the Pasch, when Jesus died as the Lamb of God for those who were purifying themselves and took away the sin of the world.
John 11:57 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.244-46
Observe how it has been testified that he has withdrawn, that we too might know to do such at the proper time. And notice indeed that neither the chief priests nor the Pharisees knew where he was, and because they did not know, they gave commands that if anyone should know where he was, he should reveal it to them and they would seize him. But you will say in addition that anyone who plots against Jesus does not know where he is. This is why they give commands that are other than those of God, "teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
John 12:1-8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77
When Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster jar of precious ointment and poured it upon his head as he reclined. But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, and so forth (26:6—13). Many indeed suppose that the four evangelists have given an account of one and the same woman, because they wrote something of this kind about a woman and all alike named an alabaster jar of ointment; but John, instead of the alabaster jar, put "a pound of ointment." But also what is said, this could have been sold and given to the poor, was said by Matthew and Mark and John; and that Christ declared that ointment to have been poured out for his burial, these too expounded; and that it happened in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, these three wrote; but John indeed said Bethany, where "they made him a supper and Martha was serving and Lazarus was one of those reclining, and Mary took a pound of ointment of pure precious nard" and so forth, from which it appears that they made a supper for him. But Luke, although he did not put Simon as a leper, nevertheless said that he was a Pharisee, who had asked Jesus "to eat with him," just as the Lord himself testifies concerning his name, saying to him there: "Simon, Simon, I have something to say to you." There seems, therefore, to be much similarity and a certain kinship concerning the woman among the four evangelists. Yet I will say to those who think that it was one woman about whom all the evangelists wrote: Do you suppose that this woman who poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment, as Matthew and Mark expounded, is the same one who also "anointed his feet with myrrh," as Luke and John expounded? But it is not possible that the evangelists, in expounding about the same woman — since they were "perfected in the same understanding and in the same spirit and in the same judgment," they who were to minister the salvation of the churches — should have said things contrary to one another. But if anyone thinks that she was the one who anointed the Lord's feet with ointment in Luke and John, let him tell us whether Mary here was the very one who in Luke is written to have been "a sinner in the city," who "learning that he had reclined in the house of the Pharisee brought an alabaster jar of ointment and standing behind at his feet weeping began to wash his feet with her tears." For it is not credible that Mary whom "Jesus loved," the sister of Martha "who had chosen the better part," should be said to have been "a sinner in the city." And do you suppose that the woman who according to Matthew and Mark poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment is not written to have been a sinner, whereas the one who according to Luke is reported as "a sinner" did not dare to come to the head of Christ but "washed his feet with her tears" as though scarcely even worthy of his very feet, from sadness working "repentance unto stable salvation"? And the one who is in Luke weeps and sheds many tears, so as to wash the "feet" of Jesus "with her tears," whereas the one who in John is Mary is introduced neither as a sinner nor as weeping. Perhaps then someone will say that there were four women about whom the evangelists wrote; but I rather agree that there were three: one indeed about whom Matthew and Mark wrote, making no difference in their exposition in that chapter; another about whom Luke wrote; and yet another about whom John wrote, since she differs from the other women not only in the things which are written about the ointment, but because "Jesus loved" Mary and Martha — although she too is reported to have been in Bethany, just as also the woman about whom Matthew and Mark expound. There is a third difference. For Matthew indeed and Mark expound that this happened in the house of Simon the leper; but John says that "Jesus six days before the Passover came into Bethany, where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised, and they made him…
John 12:3 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
The Gospel says that there came a woman having an alabaster jar of costly ointment of spikenard — not that sinful woman, but a holy one, of whom now I speak. For I know that Luke spoke of the sinful woman; but Matthew and John and Mark spoke not of a sinful woman. There came, then, not that sinful woman, but a holy one, whose name too John inserted; for it was Mary who had the alabaster jar of costly ointment of spikenard, and she poured it over the head of Jesus. Then, when some were indignant at this — not all the disciples, but Judas alone, saying, This could have been sold for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor — the Master and Savior answered: The poor you have always with you; but me you have not always. For in doing this beforehand she has done it for the day of my burial. Therefore, wherever this Gospel shall be preached, what she has done shall also be told, in memory of her.
John 12:36 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.7
Let us see what idea we are to form from the language of Paul regarding Christ where he says that he is the "brightness of the glory of God and the representation of his being." According to John, "God is light." The only-begotten Son, therefore, is the glory of this light, proceeding inseparably from God himself, just as brightness proceeds from light and illuminates the whole creation.… Through this brightness, human beings understand and experience what light itself is. And this splendor presents itself gently and softly to the frail and weak eyes of mortals and gradually trains and accustoms them, as it were, to bear the brightness of the light. It removes from them every hindrance and obstruction to their vision, according to the Lord's own command to cast out the beam from your own eye. In this way, it renders them capable of enduring the splendor of the light and becomes, in this respect, also a kind of mediator between human beings and the light.
John 12:46 — Fragment 94 on the Gospel of John
When the Savior of the world came, he made the true light shine. But they did not want to gaze on it, nor were they willing to walk by the radiance of his teaching. Consequently, darkness overtook them and demanded a penalty for the wickedness that had preoccupied them. And this [darkness] might be said to have reasonably blinded and hardened them. And, just as it follows that the one who has chosen to walk in the light also knows where he is going, so it follows that the one who has not chosen to walk in the light walks in darkness and travels wretchedly along the road of the blind.… For just as the visible sun shoots out its bright beams in order to enlighten those who have ailing eyes, so also does the spiritual Sun, the Light that has no setting or evening, come to the world and through his divine and ineffable miracles cast the brilliant gleam of his deity far and wide.
John 13:1 — ON PRAYER 23.2
Surely this statement does not refer to the idea of a change of place with respect to the Father and the Son toward the one who loves Jesus' word, nor can it be understood in a spatial sense. Rather, the Word of God, by condescending to us and by being humbled, as it were, in regard to his own worth, when he is present with human beings, is said to change places from this world to the Father. The result is that we also see him in his perfection, returning from the emptying with which he emptied himself alongside us, to his own fullness.
John 13:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.19-20, 24
I would also venture to say, as consistent with the statement, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me," that he did not wash Judas's feet, [because] the devil had already put into his heart to betray the teacher and Lord, since the devil found him not clothed in the full armor of God and not having the shield of faith with which one can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. [The devil] is an archer [who] prepares fiery darts for those who do not keep their heart with all watchfulness. … In the case of Judas, therefore, it has been written, "The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him." Consistently with this you might say of each of those wounded in the heart by the devil, the devil having already put it in the heart of so-and-so that he should commit fornication, and of so-and-so that he should commit fraud, and of so-and-so that, mad for fame, he should submit to the idolatry of those who seem to have rank, and so in the case of the other sins that the devil puts into that heart that is not armed with the shield of faith, by which shield of faith one can quench not one, or two, but all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
John 13:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.11
It seems to me that the Evangelist has not preserved the literal sequence concerning the washing in these words that he might raise our understanding to the spiritual sense of the things in the passage, since those who need to wash their feet wash them before supper and before they recline to eat. The Evangelist, however, passed over that proper time for washing in his account, and now, after he has reclined to eat, Jesus arises from supper, that the teacher and Lord might begin to wash the disciples' feet after they have eaten.
John 13:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxiv. 3) The Father hath given all things into His hands; i. e. into His power; for His hands hold all thingsb: or to Him, for His work; My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. (John 5:17)
John 13:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.26-27, 34
The things, therefore, that were not formerly in Jesus' hands are given into his hands by the Father. And it is not some things and not others that are given into his hands, but all things. David, too, seeing in the Spirit, says in relation to this, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' " For Jesus' enemies were also a part of the "all things" that Jesus knew, so far as it was in the power of foreknowledge, to be given to him by the Father.… The Father has given all things into his hands, that is, into his power. For his hands hold all things. Or, the Father [has given all things] "to him," for his work. "My Father works still, and I work also."
John 13:4-5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 2.) Mystically, dinner is the first meal, taken early in the spiritual day, and adapted to those who have just entered upon this day. Supper is the last meal, and is set before those who are farther advanced. According to another sense, dinner is the understanding of the Old Testament, the supper the understanding the mysteries hid in the New. Yet even they who sup with Jesus, who partake of the final meal, need a certain washing, not indeed of the top parts of their body, i. e. the soul, but its lower parts and extremities, which cleave necessarily to earth. (c. 4.). It is, And began to wash; for He did not finish His washing till afterwards. The feet of the Apostles were defiled now: All of ye shall be offended because of Me this night. (Matt. 26:31) But afterwards He cleansed them, so that they needed no more cleansing.
John 13:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.11-12
In bringing to mind the spiritual meaning of the passage, the Evangelist here seems to me not to have observed the literal sequence of the washing. Normally, it is before supper and before sitting down to supper that those who need to wash their feet wash them. But passing over that time in his account, he says that Jesus, having already sat down for supper, arose from supper so that the Teacher and Lord may begin to wash the feet of the disciples after they had supper. For before the supper, they had been washed and were altogether clean. But after that washing they needed a second water for just their feet, that is, the lowest parts of the body.
John 13:4-14 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
Let us come to the Gospel. We find there our Lord and Savior "putting off his garments, and, girded with a linen cloth, pouring water into a basin, and washing the feet of his disciples." You see, then, that the prophets foreshadowed these things, which were to be fulfilled in the last times through the Lord. That "water," therefore, which "Jesus poured into the basin," was the dew of heavenly grace, with which "he washed the feet of his disciples." Whence also he rightly said to them: "but you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." But we too, if only we offer our feet, the Lord Jesus is ready to "wash the feet" of our soul and to cleanse them with the heavenly dew, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the word of doctrine. For he willed that not the Apostles alone should be "clean," but also all who believe through his word. And to all believers he says that which he said to Peter: "unless I wash you, you shall have no part with me." For it is certain that no one "has part with Christ" unless he has been washed and made "clean." Come, I beseech you, Lord Jesus, Son of God, "put off the garments" which you put on for my sake, and gird yourself for my sake, and "pour water into a basin and wash the feet" of your servants, wash away the filth of your sons and daughters. "Wash the feet" of our soul, that we, imitating you and following you, may "put off" our old "garments." For as soon as you "wash" my "feet," may you also make me recline with you, that I may hear from you: "you call me Lord and master; and you say rightly, for I am. If therefore I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you too wash one another's feet." I too, therefore, now wish to "wash the feet" of my brethren, to "wash the feet" of my fellow-disciples. And so far as I am able, I desire to "wash the feet" of my brethren and to fulfill the commandment of the Lord, that by the word of doctrine the hearers may be cleansed from the filth of their sins.
John 13:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.51-54
Why do you suppose it was not written, "He washed the disciples' feet" instead of "And he began to wash the disciples' feet"? For is it the custom of the Scriptures to prefix "he began" without a reason, as in the usage of the majority? Or did Jesus then "begin to wash the disciples' feet" and not stop when he had washed their feet at that time? For later he washed them and completed the washing, since they were defiled, according to the saying, "You will all be made to stumble because of me this night," and what was said to Peter, "The rooster will not crow until you deny me three times." For when these sins occurred, the defiled feet of the disciples were again in need of washing, which he had begun to wash when he rose from supper, [but] he completed the washing when he cleansed them that they might no longer be defiled.
John 13:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.76-77, 80-82, 87-88
[Our Lord teaches] that this act was a mystery. But what was it that Jesus was doing when he washed the disciples' feet? Was he, by washing their feet and drying them with the towel with which he had girded himself, making them beautiful, since they were about to preach the good news?…Now the feet of those proclaiming good news became beautiful, so that, when they were washed and cleansed and dried by Jesus' hands, they might be able to walk on the holy way and travel over him who said, "I am the way." For he alone, and everyone who has had his feet washed by Jesus, travels over this way, which is living and which brings one to the Father. This way admits no feet that are defiled and not yet clean. Moses therefore had to loose the sandals from his feet since the place to which he had come, on which he stood, was holy ground. And the same was true of Joshua the son of Nun. … For me to wash your feet [Jesus says] is symbolic of the bases of your souls being purified, that they may be beautiful, since you are to preach the good news and to approach the souls of people with your feet clean. But you do not now know this mystery, inasmuch as you do not yet have knowledge of it. Such knowledge will more appropriately be present in you when I have washed your feet, and after this you will know, when you understand this mystery and are enlightened.
John 13:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.90
Since Peter's answer was disadvantageous for him, Jesus, who in a manner appropriate to his own goodness prevents those things from becoming true that would prove harmful to the one who speaks them, does not permit Peter's answer to become true.
John 13:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.66-68
When the other disciples entrusted themselves to Jesus and offered no resistance, [Peter], by what he says (although he seemed well intentioned) not only accuses Jesus of beginning to wash the disciples' feet without a reason but also accuses his companions. For if he acted properly (which he thought he did) when he wanted to hinder Jesus, but the other disciples did not see the propriety in his actions, then he accused those who presented their feet to Jesus, contrary to what was proper at least in his mind. And if he thought that one must not resist what is reasonable and supposed that what happened when the disciples' feet were washed by Jesus was reasonable, he would not have resisted what happened. He appears, therefore, to have assumed rashly that Jesus' desire to wash the disciples' feet was not reasonable.
John 13:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.110
The eleven who had bathed and were clean became even cleaner when they had their feet washed by Jesus. But Judas who was already unclean, for it says, "He who is filthy, let him be filthy still," became filthier and unclean when Satan entered him after the morsel.
John 13:12-13 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.115-16
Jesus washed the feet of the disciples insofar as he was their teacher, and the feet of the servants insofar as he was their Lord. For the dust from the earth and from worldly things is cleared away by teaching, since it reaches nothing else than the extremities and lower parts of the disciples. But those things that defile the feet are also removed by the lordship of the ruler, since he has authority over those who still receive common defilement because they still have the spirit of bondage.
John 13:12-13 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.118
And this is the goal of the teacher, as teacher, for the disciple. He wants to make the disciple like himself, so that he may no longer need the teacher, as teacher, although he will need him in other respects.
John 13:14 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 6
Let us take, for example, "he washed the feet of the disciples", and they indeed "saw" well how the master "washed the feet" of "the disciples"; but others too who were present "saw" — yet only what was being done, not also why it was being done. For there was a likeness in the washing of "the feet" with which the Word of God "washed the feet of the disciples"; therefore the Savior says to Peter, who refused and said: "you shall not wash my feet", what does he say? "What I do you do not know now, but you shall know afterward". What, then, do "you do" now? says Peter; I see you "washing" our "feet", and the "basin" set, you "girded with a towel" and serving us and "wiping" our "feet". But because this was not the whole business — for indeed the Savior, stripped, "pours" spiritual "water into a basin" according to the scriptures and "washes the feet of the disciples", so that, when they have been made "clean", they may ascend to him who says: "I am the way", and not be full of the "dust" which he willed to be "shaken off" upon the unworthy and upon those who did not receive peace nor were worthy of the things which were spoken — and because this was what was signified, therefore he says: "what I do you do not know now, but you shall know afterward". And this was what was said in the rest: "you call me master and Lord, and you say well; for so I am. If then I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet". Does he then say this, that the bishop, "pouring water into a basin and having laid aside his garments and being girded with a towel", should "wash" my "feet" as I stretch them out, seeing that "you", he says, "ought to wash one another's feet"? If this is what is meant, none of us will keep the commandment; for no deacon or presbyter or bishop, "taking a towel", has "washed the feet" of any and all who come. But if you understand what is written, those who are truly blessed bishops, serving the Church, "pour water" from the scriptures into the "basin" of the soul, which is according to the scriptures, and attempt to "wash" and cleanse away and cast off the filth of "the feet of the disciples". And thus the bishops keep the commandment, imitating Jesus, and thus also the presbyters. Would that I too might now receive "water" which could "wash the feet" of your soul, so that each one of you, when he has been "washed", may say: "I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?". For the bride says this in the Song of Songs, showing not bodily "feet washed", but "feet that do not stumble", of which Solomon says: "let your foot not stumble", and of which it is also written in the Psalms: "but my feet were almost moved". And moreover, those women who are appointed "widows" in the churches — "if", he says, "she has washed the feet of the saints". But if you wish to hear more plainly how the "widow washes the feet of the saints", hear Paul in another place appointing rules for "widows" and saying: "teaching well, that they may make the young women chaste", "washing the filth of "the feet" of the young women". And these "widows" are worthy of ecclesiastical honor, whoever they be that "wash the feet of the saints" with the word of spiritual teaching — "the saints", however, not males, but women; for I do not permit a woman to teach nor to rule over a man. He wishes women to be "teaching well, that" they may urge to chastity not young men, but "young women" — for it is unseemly that a woman become the teacher of a man — but that they urge "young women" to chastity and to "love their husbands and their children". Let us learn, therefore, to "wash the feet of the disciples".
John 13:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.133
But consider if it is not also difficult for anyone who is a disciple of Christ who wishes to fulfill the command that says, "You also ought to wash one another's feet," since he is obliged to desire to perform the work of washing his brothers' feet, which are physical and perceptible to the senses. Consequently, the faithful [are obliged] to do this in whatever station of life they happen to be, whether bishops and presbyters who seem to be in ecclesiastical prominence, or even those in other positions of honor in the world. This means that the master comes to wash the feet of the believing servant, and parents wash the feet of their son. This custom either does not occur, or it occurs exceedingly rarely and among those who are very simple and rustic.
John 13:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.120-22
The Savior, who is Lord, does something that surpasses all other lords, who have no desire to see their servants rise up to their level. He is such a Son of the Father's goodness and love that, although he was Lord, he produced servants who could become like him, their Lord, not having the spirit of bondage, which comes from fear, but the spirit of adoption in which they too cry, "Abba, Father." So then, before becoming like their teacher and lord, they need to have their feet washed because they are still deficient disciples who possess the spirit of bondage to fear. But when they attain the stature of master and lord … then they will be able to imitate their master and wash the disciple's feet as the teacher.
John 13:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.152
Literally, this means, I know who each person is whom I have chosen. Therefore, I also know who Judas is, and he does not escape my notice, although the devil has already put the things against me into his heart.
John 13:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.176
And understand the words "that you may believe" as capable of being equivalent to the words "that you may be increased in faith," while you continue to believe.
John 13:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.204-5
Whomever the Savior sends to minister to the salvation of anyone, that person who is sent is an apostle of Jesus Christ. But just as the apostle is an apostle of the one who sent him, so is he an apostle only to those to whom he is sent.
John 13:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.212
He who receives whom[ever] Jesus may send, receives Jesus in the one sent, and he who receives Jesus receives the Father. Therefore, he who receives whomever Jesus may send receives the Father who sent Jesus.
John 13:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 11.) His being troubled in spirit, was the human part, suffering under the 1excess of the spiritual. For if every Saint lives, acts, and suffers in the spirit, how much more is this true of Jesus, the Rewarder of Saints.
John 13:22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 12.) They remembered too, that, as men, before they were matured, their minds were liable to change, so as to form wishes the very opposite to what they might have had before.
John 13:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.259
The phrase about the disciples, "doubting of whom he spoke," is vivid. For they were unable to conceive of whom this had been said and were in doubt about it, and they found nothing clear either to think or say.
John 13:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 13.) I think this has a peculiar meaning, viz. that John was admitted to a knowledge of the more secret mysteries of the Word.
John 13:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.275
Now, beckoning is taken as slander in proverbs, for the wicked person "beckons with his eyes" … Peter's act, however, was to beckon out of his eagerness for knowledge, and subsequent to such beckoning, to say to his fellow disciple, since he was more intimate with the teacher, "Tell us who it is of whom he speaks."
John 13:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 13.) Or, at first he beckoned, and then not content with beckoning, spake: Who is it of whom he speaks?
John 13:25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 13.) He then lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto Him, Lord, who is it?
John 13:25 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.264
John, by reclining on the Word and resting on more mystical things, was reclining in the bosom of the Word, analogous also to the Word being in the bosom of the Father, according to the statement, "The only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him."
John 13:27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 14.) Observe, that at first Satan did not enter into Judas, but only put it into his heart to betray his Master. But after the bread, he entered into him. Wherefore let us beware, that Satan thrust not any of his flaming darts into our heart; for if he do, he then watches till he gets an entrance there himself. (t. xxxii. 14.) It was proper that by the ceremony of the bread, that good should be taken from him, which he thought he had: whereof being deprived, he was laid open to admit Satan's entrance. (t. xxxii. 15.) This may have been said either to Judas, or to Satan, either to provoke the enemy to the combat, or the traitor to do his part in bringing on that dispensation, which was to save the world; which He wished not to be delayed any longer, but to be as soon as possible matured.
John 13:30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(t. xxxii. 16.) Our Lord then said to Judas, That thou doest, do quickly, and the traitor this once obeyed his Master. For having received the sop, he started immediately on his work: He then having received the sop, went, immediately out. And indeed he did go out, not only from the house in which he was, but from Jesus altogether. It would seem that Satan, after he had entered into Judas, could not bear to be in the same place with Jesus: for there is no agreement between Jesus and Satan. Nor is it idle enquiring why after he had received the sop, it is not added, that he ate it. Why did not Judas cat the bread, after he received it? Perhaps because, as soon as he had received it, the devil, who had put it into his heart to betray Christ, fearful that the bread, if eaten, might drive out what he had put in, entered into him, so that he went out immediately, before he ate it. And it may be serviceable to remark, that as he who eateth our Lord's bread and drinketh His cup unworthily, eateth and drinketh to his own damnation; so the bread which Jesus gave him was eaten by the rest to their salvation, but by Judas to his damnation, inasmuch as after it the devil entered into him. (t. xxxii. 16.) The time of night corresponded with the night which overspread the soul of Judas.
John 13:30 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.300-301
The Savior said to Judas, "What you are going to do, do quickly," and for once the betrayer obeys the teacher. For when he had received the morsel, he neither hesitated nor procrastinated, but as it is written, "he went out immediately" to do quickly the work of betrayal in accordance with Jesus' command. And "he went out" truly, for he not only went out of the house in which the supper was held, according to the simpler meaning, but he also went out from Jesus in a final sense, analogous to the statement "they went out from us."
John 13:30 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.313
"And it was night," has not been interjected in vain by the Evangelist. The perceptible night at that time was symbolic, being an image of the night that was in Judas's soul when Satan, the darkness that lies over the abyss, entered him.
John 13:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.360-63
But the matters in this passage might be understood even more clearly as follows. Just as the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of some, so, because of the saints whose good works are seen very distinctly before people, the name of the Father who is in heaven is glorified. In whom, then, was it glorified more than in Jesus, since he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, nor did he know sin? And since he is such as this, therefore, the Son is glorified, and God is glorified in him. But if God is glorified in him, the Father presents something to him in return that is greater than what the Son of man has done. For the glory of the Son of man, when the Father glorifies him, far exceeds the Father's glory when he [the Father] is glorified in the Son, since it is only fitting that the greater should return the greater glory.
John 13:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.342, 353, 356-59
But there is no comparison between the excellent glory of Christ and the knowledge of Moses whereby the face of his soul was glorified.… For the whole of the Father's glory shines on the Son, who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. Yes, and from the light of this whole glory there go forth particular glories throughout the whole rational creation, though none can take in the whole of the divine glory except the Son.…But only insofar as the Son was known to the world, so far was he glorified. And as yet he was not fully known. But afterward the Father spread the knowledge of him over the whole world, and then the Son of man was glorified in those who knew him. And of this glory he has made all who know him partakers, as the apostle said, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory," that is, from his glory we receive glory. When he was approaching then that dispensation by which he was to become known to the world and to be glorified in the glory of those who glorified him, he says, "Now is the Son of man glorified." And because "no one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whomever the Son will reveal him," and the Son by the dispensation was about to reveal the Father, this is why he said, "And God is glorified in him."
John 13:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.330-31, 334, 338-39
The noun glory is not used with reference to an indifferent entity in the way some of the Greeks take it, where they define glory to be approval by the multitude. It is clear that the noun is used of something over and above this from the following words in Exodus. "And the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord." … "And when [Moses] descended from the mountain [he] also did not know that the appearance of his facial skin had been glorified while he spoke with him." …So far as the literal sense is concerned, there was a divine epiphany in the tabernacle and in the temple, which were destroyed, and in the face of Moses when he had conversed with the divine nature. But in a higher and more spiritual sense we are glorified, when with the eye of the understanding we penetrate into the things of God. For the mind, when it ascends above material things and spiritually sees God, is deified. The visible glory on the face of Moses is a figure of this spiritual glory. For it was his mind that was deified by its contemplation of God.
John 13:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.318, 321-22, 324-28
After the glory of his miracles and his transfiguration, the next glorifying of the Son of man began when Judas went out with Satan, who had entered into him.… Because it is not possible that the Christ is glorified if the Father is not glorified in him, the statement "and God is glorified in him" is added to the words "now is the Son of man glorified." But the glory that resulted from Jesus' death for the human race did not belong to the only-begotten Word, which by nature does not die, nor to wisdom and truth, nor to any of the other titles that are said to belong to the divine aspects in Jesus. They belonged to the man who was also the Son of man born of the seed of David according to the flesh. … Now I think God highly exalted this [Son of] man when he became obedient "unto death, even the death of a cross." For the Word in the beginning with God, God the Word, was not capable of being highly exalted. But the high exaltation of the Son of man that occurred when he glorified God in his own death consisted in the fact that he was no longer different from the Word but was the same with him … so that the humanity of Jesus became one with the Word when he who "did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped" was highly exalted. The Word, however, remained in his own grandeur or was even restored to it when he was again with God, God the Word being man. But Jesus glorified God in death, and "when he had despoiled the principalities and powers, he exposed them confidently, having triumphed in the cross." "He also "made peace through the blood of his cross, whether they are things in earth or things in heaven." … For in all these the Son of man was glorified, and God was glorified in him. Now since he who is glorified is glorified by someone, you will ask who this is.
John 13:33 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.376
The statement "Yet a little while I am with you" is clear in the simple sense, so far as the literal sense is concerned, since he would soon no longer be with the disciples. First, he was arrested by the cohort and the tribune and the servants of the Jews who bound him and led him off to Annas first, and after this he was delivered to Pilate. Next, he was condemned to the cross, and then he spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
John 13:33 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.385, 387
For in that "little while" in which they would not see him, they would seek Jesus, and for this reason they would weep and lament, although their grief would change to joy when the saying was fulfilled, "And again a little while and you will see me." But to seek Jesus is to seek the Word, and wisdom, and justice, and truth and the power of God, all of which Christ is.
John 13:36 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32.400
The Word, however, departs on his own courses, and he who follows the Word follows him. But one who is not prepared to walk in his steps persistently cannot follow, since the Word leads those to his Father who do all things that they might be able to follow him and that they may follow him until they may say to the Christ, "My soul has clung to you."
John 14:6 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
Something lies hidden in this place, and it is secret: "on the way make an effort". The Savior says: "I am the way and the truth and the life". If you "make an effort" to be freed from the adversary, be on the way; and when you have stood in him who says: "I am the way", it is not enough to have stood, but "make an effort to be freed" from the adversary.
John 14:8-9 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 3
Something of this kind I think must also be understood concerning Christ, when He was seen in the body: that not all who saw Him were able to see Him. For they saw only His body, but according to that which Christ was, they could not see Him. The disciples, however, saw Him and contemplated the greatness of His divinity. On which account I think that to Philip too, who entreated and said: "show us the Father, and it is enough for us", the Savior replied: "am I so long a time with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he who sees me sees also the Father". For neither did Pilate, who was seeing Jesus, behold the Father, nor did the traitor Judas—since neither Pilate himself nor Judas saw Christ according to that which Christ was, nor did the multitude that pressed upon Him. Those alone saw Jesus whom He judged worthy of His sight.
John 14:12 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 6
But if, as the simpler suppose, those things which were done were done not "on account of us", but merely done, and were not examples of another reality, let them explain how this which was said, "seeing you will see and not know", has any sense. For if those things which "were seen" did not have some sacred meaning, such that with the carnal eyes they were also spiritually beheld, he would never have said: "seeing you will see and not know". And for the proof of these things let us bring forward the testimony of another passage from the Gospel, which, according to those who follow the letter only, is a falsehood. Our Savior and Lord says to the disciples in the Gospel according to John: "if you believe, not only will you do the things which I do, but you will do even greater than these". Let us see, then, whether the disciples "did" any "greater" things. What is "greater" than to "raise the dead"? Who — I do not say of us, but of the Apostles — "raised the dead"? The history relates that Paul "raised Eutychus from the dead", and Peter "Tabitha, which is interpreted Dorcas". But these things, and others of this kind, you can find; yet where are the "greater" things? But the Savior also made "the blind" see again, and, what is "greater", those who had been born so: let them show whom they have beheld "blind" from the womb cured by the hands of the Apostles. And countless other things one can find from the Gospels, who seeks them, since neither did the Apostles "do greater things than these" nor did their successors. But the word of Scripture spoke some such thing as this: "than these things which I have done", the bodily ones, "you will do greater". "I made men rise from the dead" bodily, you "will make them rise from the dead" spiritually. I poured this perceptible light upon "the blind", you will give spiritual light to those who do not see. And down to this present day I see these signs, "greater" than the bodily ones which Jesus "did", being done through the most faithful disciples of Jesus. Do not "the blind" now "see" and "the lame walk" and "the lepers are cleansed" and the rest come to pass, if he who yesterday was "blinded", approaching an idol as though to God, today calls upon the living God, abandoning his former ways? Does not he who yesterday was "lame" on account of sin, now, through the teaching of the disciples, taught the true way, walk with steady foot; and he who yesterday "had a withered hand", idle for doing good, today, receiving back his "hand", has it living? If you see someone polluted and having leprosy in his soul suddenly repent, pricked to the heart by the word of teaching, let it not irk you to say that it is "greater" that this man be spiritually "a leper" cleansed than that some other be carnally purged.
John 14:23 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.2
God does indeed consume and utterly destroy: he consumes evil thoughts, wicked actions and sinful desires when they find their way into the minds of believers. God, with his Son, inhabits those souls that have been rendered capable of receiving his word and wisdom, in line with his saying, "I and the Father shall come and make our abode with him." After their vices and passions have been consumed, he makes them a holy temple, worthy of himself.
John 14:30 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.5.2
Also mentioned is a prince of this world, but it is not yet clear whether this is the devil himself or someone else. There are also certain princes of this world spoken of as possessing a kind of wisdom that will come to nothing.
John 15:22 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.6
That declaration in the Gospel, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin," makes it clear to all who are rational just how long a time a person is without sin and just when he is liable to sin. By participating in the word or reason, people are said to have sinned, that is, from the time they are capable of understanding, from the time that the reason implanted within them suggests to them the difference between good and evil. After they have begun to know what evil is, they are liable for any sin they commit.This is the meaning of the expression that "people have no excuse for their sin," namely, that from the time the divine word or reason has begun to show them internally the difference between good and evil, they ought to avoid and guard against evil: "For to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."
John 15:26 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.7.4
The name Paraclete seems to be understood in the case of our Savior as meaning intercessor. For he is said to intercede with the Father because of our sins. In the case of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete must be understood in the sense of comforter because he bestows consolation on the souls to whom he openly reveals the apprehension of spiritual knowledge.
John 16:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.235-36
What the Savior said in prophesying to the disciples … was originally fulfilled in his own case. For those who required that he should die thought they were offering a service to God and had gone up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
John 16:11 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.54
Jesus came to free all those oppressed by the devil and said of him with some befitting depth, "Now is the prince of this world judged."
John 16:12 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.7.3
The Gospel shows him [the Paraclete] to be of such power and majesty that the apostles could not yet receive those things that the Savior wished to teach them until the advent of the Holy Spirit, who, pouring himself into their souls, might enlighten them regarding the nature and faith of the Trinity.
John 16:23 — ON PRAYER 15.2
And so, when the saints give thanks to God in their prayers, they acknowledge through Christ Jesus the favors he has done. And if it is true that one who is scrupulous about prayer ought not to pray to someone else who prays but rather to the Father whom our Lord Jesus taught us to address in prayers, it is especially true that no prayer should be addressed to the Father without him, who clearly points this out himself when he says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Up till now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." Now he did not say "ask me" or simply "ask the Father." On the contrary, he said, "If you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name." For until Jesus taught this, no one asked the Father in the name of the Son. And what Jesus said was true, "Up till now you have asked nothing in my name." And also true was his saying, "Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."
John 16:33 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.5
We are not to suppose that each individual must contend with all these adversaries, which would be impossible for anyone.… For I think that human nature has definite limitations, even though there is a Paul, of whom it is said, "He is a chosen vessel unto me," or a Peter against whom "the gates of hell shall not prevail," or a Moses, "the friend of God." For not even one of these could face the whole crowd of opposing powers at once without destruction to himself, except perhaps on the condition that there was working within him the power of him who said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." …I do not think that human nature alone can maintain a contest with angels and with the powers of the "height" and of the "depth" or with "any other creature." But when it feels the presence of the Lord dwelling within it, confidence in the divine help will lead it to say, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
John 16:33 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.70
We are persecuted when God allows the tempter the power to persecute us. But when God does not want us to suffer this, even in the world that hates us, we wondrously have peace and are of good cheer because of him who said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." And truly he has overcome the world, because the world is strong only insofar as its Victor wants it to be. He has received from the Father the victory over the world. And because of his victory we can indeed be of good cheer.
John 17:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.17
God, accompanied by the article [in Greek], is very God. Therefore also the Savior says in his prayer to the Father, "That they may know you the only true God." But everything made divine because of the very God by partaking of his divinity would be most properly called not God but god.
John 17:10 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.10
Now, if all things that are the Father's are also Christ's, certainly among those things that exist is the Father's omnipotence. Of course, the only-begotten Son ought to be omnipotent, that the Son also may have all things that the Father possesses. "And I am glorified in them," he declares. For "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow." … Therefore he is the effluence of the glory of God in this respect, that he is Almighty—the pure and vivid Wisdom itself—glorified as the effluence of omnipotence or glory.So that it may be more clearly understood what the glory of omnipotence is, we shall add the following: God the Father is omnipotent because he has power over all things, namely, over heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars and all things in them. And he exercises his power by means of his Word.… Now if every knee is bent to Jesus, then, without doubt, it is Jesus to whom all things are subject, and he it is who exercises power over all things and through whom all things are subject to the Father. For through wisdom, that is, by word and reason, not by force and necessity, all things are subject.
John 17:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.20
"And the world hated them, because they are not of the world," for it hated us from the time when we no longer looked "at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen," because of the teaching of Jesus.
John 17:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.6.2
I am of the opinion, so far as I can see, that this order of the human race has been appointed in order that in the future world—or in ages to come, when there shall be the new heavens and new earth spoken of by Isaiah—that unity may be restored that was promised by the Lord Jesus in his prayer to God the Father on behalf of his disciples. And this is further confirmed by the language of the apostle Paul: "Until we all come in the unity of the faith to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." And in keeping with this is the declaration of the same apostle when he exhorts us—who even in the present life are placed in the church, which is a form of that kingdom that is to come—to this same similitude of unity, "That you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you. But that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."
John 17:24 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.1, 3
The Lord himself, in the Gospel, not only declares that these same results will occur in the future but that they are to be brought about by his own intercession when he himself decides to obtain them from the Father for his disciples, saying, "Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me. And as you and I are one, may they also be one in us." In this, the divine likeness itself already appears to advance (if we may so express it) from being merely similar to becoming the same, because, undoubtedly, in the consummation, or the end, God is "all and in all." …I am of the opinion that the expression by which God is said to be "all in all" means that he is "all" in each individual person. Now he will be "all" in each individual when all those with any rational understanding—cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away—either feel, understand or think in terms wholly divine. He will be "all" in each person when that person's understanding will no longer behold or retain anything else other than God, but God alone will be the measure and standard of all his or her movements. This is when God will be "all," for there will no longer be any distinction of good and evil, since evil will no longer exist. For God is, then, all things, and no evil can be present where he is. Nor will there be a desire any longer to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on the part of one who is always in the possession of good and to whom God is everything.
John 18:17 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16.7.3
Peter had once almost been lost and taken away from the consecration of the apostolic number by the instigation of the devil through the mouth of the maidservant of the high priest. But when Jesus simply looked on him and turned toward him the lines of his gentle face, he immediately came to himself and, recovering his footing, wept bitterly. Peter, looked on by God in this way, recovered by weeping his place that he had lost by denying.
John 18:26-27 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 114
But Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard; and one of the maidservants came to him, saying: You too were with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying: I do not know what you are saying. And as he was going out to the gate, another maidservant saw him and said to him there: This man too was with Jesus the Nazarene. And again he denied it with an oath, saying, I do not know the man. And after a little while those who were standing there came and said to Peter: Truly you are one of them, for even your speech makes you plain. Then he began to curse and to swear, saying, I do not know the man. And immediately a cock crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him: Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times; and going out he wept most bitterly. Considering Peter's denial more fully, we say that "no one can call Jesus Lord except in the Holy Spirit" (as Paul teaches us), and "the Holy Spirit was not yet then" in men "because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (as John says), and therefore it was not possible that even such a Peter should then confess Jesus. Nor yet was he to be blamed for not confessing Jesus, since to those who confess it is said: "It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you". But we, since that Spirit of our Father is able to speak in us, and since it is in our power to give "place" in us to the Holy Spirit and not to "the devil", if we deny him, we shall have no excuse. Perhaps, moreover, whoever is in the courtyard of Caiaphas "the chief priest" cannot confess the Lord Jesus unless he has gone out of his courtyard and been made to be outside of every doctrine that is contrary to Jesus and that hands down Jewish traditions—and this not according to the will of the Scriptures, but according to "the commandments and teachings of men". For consider that Peter, sitting outside, separated from Jesus and set in the courtyard of the chief priest, denied Jesus before them all; and again a second time, likewise, being not yet made to be outside beyond the gate, but wishing to go out and not yet having gone out, denied him at the gate; but also a third time, when those who were standing said: Truly you are one of them, and when he began to curse himself and to swear, saying, I do not know the man, he was still not outside. And all these denials were made by him in the night and in darkness, before day comes and the sign of day, that is, the cock's crow which rouses from sleep those who are willing. And, to speak by way of example, if Peter had denied him after the cock's crow—so that it might be said: "the night has advanced, and the day has drawn near, let us walk becomingly as in the day"—Peter would have been worthy of no excuse. But perhaps also all men, when they deny Jesus in such a way that the sin of their denial may receive healing, are seen to deny him before the cock's crow, when the sun of righteousness has not yet risen upon them nor its rising drawn near to them. But if, after the rising of such a sun upon the soul, "we sin willingly after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains for us a sacrifice for sin, but a fearful judgment and a zeal of fire, which is to consume the enemies". And indeed in the case of Peter, then denying, it was not fitting to say: "how do you not think that they deserve worse punishments who have trodden underfoot the Son of God and have esteemed the blood of the covenant common, by which they were sanctified, and have done injury to the Spirit of grace?"; for Peter had not yet been sanctified by the blood of Christ (which was the blood of the new covenant), nor did he do injury to the Spirit of grace which from the beginning he had not even received, since "Jesus had not yet been glorified", "nor was" the "Holy Spirit" in men. But if in us this impious sin of denial has been committed, it is fitting to say all these things, since we have both been sanctified by the blood…
John 18:39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 120
Now at the feast day the governor was accustomed to release to the people one prisoner, whomever they wished. Do not be surprised if, the Roman rule still being in its beginnings among them, and the Jews newly taking up the yoke of the Romans, since it had been granted to the Jews that at the paschal solemnity they might ask for one whom they wished, even though he seemed liable for a thousand murders. For thus the nations render certain favors to those whom they subject to themselves, until their yoke is confirmed over them. Yet this custom of releasing a prisoner existed at one time also among the Jews. For when Saul had decreed that no one should take food, but Jonathan had tasted a honeycomb against the king's decree, he found Jonathan liable; and although he was his appointed son, yet on account of some oath of his he had decreed to put him to death. But he did not kill him, since all the people of Israel intervened and asked for him to be granted his life. But that Pilate released one prisoner to the people, or that Saul, at the people's request, released Jonathan, is no wonder; for the life of both those who were asking was under fault, since the Jews were always liable. But let us inquire whether something of this sort happens also in the judgment of God, so that the whole Church may be able to ask that some sinner be freed from the condemnation of sin — and especially if perhaps he has all the remaining works of perdition, yet is unwearied in doing good to the Church. For you will find such men often set in positions of power: sinners indeed in other respects, yet doing much on behalf of Christians as far as it is possible for them. And you will be led the more to inquire into such matters, if it has a fitting rationale, seeing that Israel too used to pray to God "for the life of Nebuchadnezzar" and of Belshazzar his son. But this, if it seems to anyone worthy of inquiry, let him inquire into it. But as for what is plain, let us all try to take care that we be found to be among those who ask, and in the rank of those who have lived well, rather than among those on whose behalf petition is made as for evil men. For even if one of the sinners is granted to the prayers of the Church, it is nevertheless not just that such a one should attain glory and blessedness; for it is enough that he be released from punishment. But I think, on account of that festival of the Jews on which Barabbas was chosen for life while Christ was neglected, the Lord says through the prophet: "my soul hates your fasts and your holidays and your feast days". And because they preferred to keep the solemnity with the robber set free rather than with Jesus, I will speak by way of example: if they had kept the solemnity rightly, like Josiah or someone similar to him, and there had been given to them the liberty of asking for whomever they wished, without doubt they would have demanded Jesus and condemned Barabbas. But let us pray that, as we keep the festal day, "not in the old leaven nor in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth", we may deserve indeed to condemn Barabbas, but to receive Jesus, free from all bonds, as our king and lord. And as long as we do these things, our festal days will not be turned into mourning, nor our songs into lamentation, but there will be in us true solemnities, the solemnities of God.
John 18:40 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 121
Now at that time they had a notorious prisoner, who was called Barabbas. So when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them: Whom do you wish that I release to you, Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? For he knew that they had handed him over out of envy. In many copies it is not contained that Barabbas was also called Jesus, and perhaps rightly so, that the name of Jesus might not belong to any of the wicked. For in so great a multitude of the Scriptures we know of no Jesus who was a sinner, whereas in other names we find that, among the righteous, there are also found wicked men of the very same name — for instance, Judas the apostle, the zealot, and likewise Judas the patriarch, and Judas Maccabaeus, all praiseworthy, but also Judas the traitor; and in Genesis there are found sons of Seth and sons of Cain bearing the same name, such as Enoch and Lamech and Methuselah. But it was not fitting that there should be any such thing also in the name of Jesus. And I think that in the heresies some such thing has been added on, so that they might have something apt to say for their fables about the likeness of the name of Jesus and Barabbas. For I judge that in these matters some mystery is set forth: that Barabbas was appointed for sedition and wars and murders to be committed in the souls of men, but Jesus, as the Son of God and peace, was appointed, and as the Word and Wisdom, for all good things. These two, then, being bound in human affairs and bodies, that people demanded for itself that Barabbas be released; on whose account that nation does not cease to have seditions and murders and robberies — according to some of that nation in the things that are held outwardly, but according to all the Jews who do not believe in Jesus, inwardly in the soul. For where Jesus is not, there are seditions and quarrels and battles; but where Jesus is, so that they can say: "but if Christ is in us, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness", there all good things are together, and innumerable spiritual riches are in his hands, and peace; "for he himself is our peace, who has made both one". And if anyone should behold that contrary operation, he will recognize that it is he who is in men the bound notorious Barabbas, whom they desire to be released for themselves — not only Israel then sinning according to the flesh, but also all who are like him either in doctrine or in life. Whoever, therefore, does evil things, in his body Barabbas is released, but Christ is bound; but whoever does good things, to him Christ is released, but Barabbas is bound.
John 18:40 — AGAINST CELSUS 2.44
Celsus's comparison of Christ to a robber or murderer … is anticipated in the Gospels since God was numbered with the transgressors by wicked people who wanted a murderer (one who had been cast into prison for sedition and murder) to be released to them and wanted Jesus to be crucified. And they crucified him between two robbers. Jesus, indeed, is always being crucified with robbers among his genuine disciples and witnesses to the truth, and he suffers the same condemnation they do among people—if indeed we grant that those people have any resemblance to robbers who because of their godly lives suffer all kinds of injury and death so that they may keep their lives clean and pure.… But neither Jesus … nor they were … put to death according to any form of justice, and so it is his persecutors who are the ones who should incur the charge.
John 19:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.72-73
There are those who still have thorns with which they crown and dishonor Jesus, those, namely, who are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and, though they have received the word of God, do not bring it to perfection. We must beware, therefore, lest we also, as crowning Jesus with thorns of our own, should be entered in the Gospel … and read how he is dishonored and mocked and beaten [by us].
John 19:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.61
Since he willed to suffer on behalf of the world, he is silent when examined and beaten by Pilate. For if he had spoken, he would not have been crucified from weakness, since there is no weakness in the words that the Word speaks.
John 19:11 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.6
As with Job … it is not by accidental attacks that we are assailed, whenever we are visited with any such loss of property. It is not by chance when one of us is taken prisoner or when those who are dear to us are crushed to death in their houses that fall in ruins. For in each one of these circumstances every believer ought to say, "You could have no power at all against me, except it were given you from above." For observe that the house of Job did not fall on his children until the devil had first received power against them. Nor would the horsemen have made a raid in three bands to carry away his camels and oxen and cattle unless they had been instigated by that spirit to whom they had delivered themselves up as servants of his will.
John 19:17 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 126
For just as, according to the three evangelists, Jesus is tempted by the devil, but according to John (who made his discourse concern his spiritual nature) he is not tempted — for "the truth and the life" and "the resurrection" and "the true light" is not tempted, but he was tempted according to the man whom the only-begotten God had taken up — so according to John indeed the Savior, when those who had seized him laid it upon him, "bearing his own cross went out to the place which is called the place of Calvary", but according to the rest he does not bear it for himself. For those who were leading him away to be crucified, as they went out, found a certain man of Cyrene, named Simon, whom they compelled to take up the cross of Christ. But it was fitting not only for the Savior to take up his own cross, but it was fitting also for us to bear it, fulfilling the compulsion that is salutary for us. Nor, again, would we have been to be profited so much by taking up his cross, as we are now profited by his cross, when he himself takes it up for himself and bears it.
John 19:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 130
And they placed above his head his charge written out: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. "Whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed," and every script bears witness to his kingdom, whether of the Greeks or of the Romans or of the Hebrews, and for a crown above his head let there be written: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews, and let no other cause of his death be found (for indeed there was none), let this alone be held: that he was king of the Jews, concerning which he also spoke, saying: "but I have been appointed king by him over Zion, his holy mountain"; and the chief of the priests indeed, according to the letter of the law, bore upon his head the shape of a sign, "the sanctification of the Lord" written on the plate, but the true chief of the priests and king, Jesus, on the cross indeed has written: this is the king of the Jews, yet ascending to the Father and receiving the Father into himself, in place of letters and in place of a name he has him who is named, and he has him as a crown, having been made worthy of him and made a house worthy of God the Father, he alone can sufficiently contain the Father.
John 19:23-24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 128
And there are even now those who indeed do not possess him, but possess his garments — the words set down in the Scriptures — and not even these in full but only in part, though the prophet foretold this very mystery which has now been fulfilled. But whether any of his garments was torn apart in that division, or whether each of them remained whole as it had been, and what kind those garments were, we do not read in the three evangelists; but in John we learn that "the soldiers, after they had crucified Christ, took his garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, but the tunic, since it was not sewn together but woven from the top throughout the whole, they said to one another: let us not tear it apart, but let us cast lots for it". Not all of them, therefore, received it, but only the one who obtained it by lot. And if someone were to discuss the difference between those who possess the garments of the Lord, he will without doubt find that there are some who, in their doctrines, even though they do not possess him, nevertheless possess the "tunic" woven from the top "throughout the whole", while others possess not even this but only some small portion of his garment.
John 19:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.23
The Gospels are the firstfruits of all the Scriptures. But the firstfruits of the Gospels is the Gospel according to John whose meaning no one can understand who has not leaned on Jesus' breast or received Mary from Jesus to be his mother also. But whoever wants to become another "John" must also become such as John was. In other words, he must be shown to be Jesus, so to speak. For Mary had no son except Jesus (in accordance with those who hold a sound opinion of her). But Jesus says to his mother, "Behold your son," and not, "Behold, this man also is your son." If this is so, then Jesus has in effect said, "Behold, this is Jesus whom you bore" [when he presents John to her]. For indeed, everyone who has been perfected "no longer lives, but Christ lives in him." And, since "Christ lives" in him [i.e., John], it is said of him to Mary, "Behold your son," the Christ.
John 19:30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 138
If, therefore, to give up the spirit, or (as John writes) to hand over the "spirit," were the very same thing as to die, then what is said in this place, he gave up the spirit, would have to be understood in a plain sense. But now, since the wise define death to be nothing other than the separation of the soul from the body, let us consider whether perhaps it is one thing simply to die, and another thing to cry out with a loud voice and give up the spirit (as the present passage of Matthew expounds it), or to commend the "spirit" "into the hands" of God and release the "spirit" (according to what Luke says), or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit" (as John expounds it). And to die indeed belongs to all men, even the wicked, since the souls of all men are separated from the body, even of the unjust, who cannot say those things which Christ said as he went forth from his body. But to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the "spirit"—which is to commend the "spirit" "into the hands" of God and thus to release the "spirit," or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit"—belongs only to the saints, who by good works have prepared God for themselves as Christ also did, so that as they go forth from the world they may be able confidently to commend or hand over their spirit into the hands of God. If, therefore, we have understood what it is to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, that is, to commend it "into the hands of God" (for so we expounded above, setting forth the exposition of the evangelist Luke), if we have understood what it is to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," let us hasten to keep our life such that at our departure we too may be able to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," like Jesus who "bowed his head" and, as it were, resting it upon the bosom of the Father, went forth—the Father who was able to cherish and strengthen it in his bosom. But if you wish to hear what it profited Christ to have cried out with a loud voice and thus to have given up the spirit, that is, to have commended the "spirit" "into the hands" of the Lord and thus to have given it up, or to have bowed the "head" upon the bosom of the Father and to have handed over the "spirit," hear what the prophet says: for "on this account" "he did not leave his soul in hell, nor did he give" him "to see corruption." If, therefore, we too conduct ourselves in such a way that we can commend our spirits into the hands of God, or bow our head upon the bosom of God and thus hand over our spirit, then without doubt he will neither leave our souls in hell nor give us to remain in corruption forever.
John 19:31 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
I indeed would first wish to have discourse with the Jews concerning this scripture, to whom "the oracles of God" are said to have been "entrusted", what seems to them concerning that which it says: "for six days continuously you shall gather, but on the sixth day you shall gather double". It appears therefore that the sixth day is named as that which is set before the sabbath, which among us is called the preparation. But the sabbath is the seventh day. I ask therefore on what day the manna began to be given from heaven, and I wish to compare our Lord's day with the sabbath of the Jews. For from the divine scriptures it appears that the manna was first given upon the earth on the Lord's day. For if, as Scripture says, it was gathered for six continuous days, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, there was a cessation, without doubt its beginning was from the first day, which is the Lord's day.
John 19:31-33 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 140
But the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, feared greatly, saying: Truly this man was the Son of God. But Mark writes thus: "The centurion who was standing there, seeing that he expired crying out, said: Truly this man was the Son of God"; but Luke: "When the centurion saw the things that were done, he glorified God, saying: Truly this man was righteous." According to Mark, indeed, the centurion marveled not because "the veil of the temple had been rent from the top even to the bottom," nor because the other signs had come about which Matthew relates (that is, because "the earth was shaken," because "the rocks were split," or "the tombs were opened"). It is therefore worthwhile to consider what happened afterward, over and above what is written in Mark, such that the centurion marveled, saying: "Truly this man was the Son of God." And see whether we may say, according to one manner of understanding, that he marveled at those things which had been spoken by him to God with a great cry and with loftiness of feeling, in accordance with what he was able to understand; … suspecting this, he marveled and said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." But according to another manner, since perhaps Pilate, wishing to gratify the whole people who had said: "Crucify, crucify him," and fearing a tumult of the entire people, did not command — according to the custom of the Romans regarding those who are crucified — that Jesus' body be struck beneath the armpits, which those who condemn men found guilty of the greater crimes sometimes do (for those who are not struck after their fixing to the cross undergo a greater torment, since they go on living with the utmost torture, sometimes indeed the whole night through and still, after it, the whole day). Jesus therefore, since he had not been struck, and it was expected that, hanging long upon the cross, he would suffer greater torments, prayed to the Father and was heard, and immediately, as soon as he cried out to the Father, he was received; or, as one who had "the power" of "laying down" his "soul," he laid it down when he himself willed — which prodigy, when it was done, astonished the centurion, and he said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." For it was a miracle that after three hours he was received who perhaps would have lived two days upon the cross, according to the custom regarding those who are indeed hung up but not struck, so that it might be seen to have been a benefit of God that he expired, and the merit of his prayer rather than the violence of the cross. That which Mark sets forth in what follows also signifies this very thing, when "Joseph" had gone in "to Pilate" and had asked for "the body of Jesus." For he speaks thus, that "Pilate marveled that he was already dead, and calling the centurion he asked him whether he was already dead"; and when he had heard it from the centurion, "he gave his body to Joseph." For if the custom which had been in force among the Romans concerning those crucified and struck through had been observed in the case of Christ, how would Pilate have marveled if he were already dead? See therefore whether it does not point to a new miracle, that he was already dead and that "Pilate called the centurion and asked whether he was already dead." And see whether Matthew too does not show that Christ's torment was of this kind, when he says: the centurion and those who were with him, keeping Jesus. But why were they keeping him, unless it were that, hanging longer on the cross, he might be tormented the more, neither slain nor taken down? Yet the centurion, according to Matthew, not only said of Jesus: truly this was the Son of God, but also feared him, since the earthquake cast him into fear. And perhaps too he knew by experience, from the earthquakes that occur among the nations, that this had been an earthquake, and at this he was astounded as he beheld it. A…
John 19:34 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
If there is anyone who, reading Moses, murmurs against him, and the law which is written according to the letter displeases him, because in many things it does not seem to preserve consistency, Moses shows him the rock, which is Christ, and leads him to it, that he may drink from there and refresh his thirst. But this rock, unless it be struck, will not give waters; but when struck it brings forth fountains. For Christ, when struck and driven to the cross, brought forth the fountains of the New Testament; and therefore it was said of Him that "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered". It was necessary, then, that He be struck; for unless He had been struck and "water and blood had come forth from His side", we should all suffer "a thirst for the word of God". This, then, is what the Apostle also interpreted, that "they all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed; and the rock was Christ".
John 19:34 — AGAINST CELSUS 2.36
Celsus asks whether the blood in the body of the crucified Jesus was the same as that which flows in the bodies of the immortal gods. He asks in jest, but we shall show that it was no mythic or Homeric blood that flowed from the body of Jesus.… With other dead bodies the blood congeals and pure water does not flow. But in the case of Jesus' dead body, the miraculous feature was that both blood and water flowed forth from his side.
John 19:40 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 5.8.4
If you still live to sin, you cannot be buried with Jesus or laid in his new tomb because your old self still lives and cannot walk in newness of life. Therefore the Holy Spirit was careful to hand down through the Scriptures that it was a new sepulcher in which Jesus was buried and that he was wrapped in a clean linen cloth. He did this so that everyone who wants to be buried with Jesus by baptism might know that nothing of the old state should be brought to the new tomb, nothing of uncleanness to the clean linen cloth.
John 19:41 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 143
Therefore Matthew recorded that the tomb was new, and set forth plainly that it was hewn in the rock. And that it was new, free from every dead body, Luke and John made manifest, one of whom indeed said: "in which no one had yet been laid", and John: "in which no one had yet been laid"—clearly, if never had anyone been laid there, but afterward some were laid there; for what he says: "in which no one had yet been laid", is signified to those who consider this word carefully. We say then (lest perhaps we ought to understand this passage simply), that he who said: "we have been buried together with Christ through baptism" and have risen together with him, was himself also buried together, after Christ, with Christ in a new tomb and an intelligible one hewn in the rock, and all who have been buried together with Christ in baptism, that they may rise with him from the new tomb of the firstborn "from the dead and holding the primacy in all things". And Joseph rolled not many stones to the door of the tomb but one, and a great one. And a greater one than the power of those lying in wait could be, yet not greater than was the power of the angel descending "from heaven" and rolling away from it the "stone", and sitting "upon it"; since all things that are around the body of Jesus are clean and new, and not simply great but all "exceedingly" great.
John 19:41 — AGAINST CELSUS 2.69
Observe whether the harmony of the three Evangelists here is not fitted to make an impression: for they have thought it right to describe the tomb as one that was "quarried or hewn out of the rock." Whoever examines the words of the narrative will see something worthy of consideration, both in them and in the newness of the tomb—a point mentioned by Matthew and John—and in the statement of Luke and John, that no one had ever been interred there before. For it became him, who was unlike other dead people (but who even in death manifested signs of life in the water and the blood) and who was, so to speak, a new dead man, to be laid in a new and clean tomb, in order that, as his birth was purer than any other (because he was born not in the way of ordinary generation but of a virgin), his burial also might have the purity symbolically indicated in his body being deposited in a sepulcher that was new, not built of stones gathered from various quarters and having no natural unity, but quarried and hewn out of one rock, united together in all its parts.
John 20:17 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
My witness is the text of the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Mary met Him, and He says to her: "Touch Me not." For He desired that everyone touching Him should touch Him in His fullness, so that from the touch he might receive complete benefit for the body — from His body, for the soul — from His soul, and for the spirit — from His spirit. "For I have not yet ascended to the Father." He rises up to the Father, and is about to find the disciples. So then, He rises up to the Father. To what end? To take back the deposit.
John 20:17 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"This is my God, and I will honor him; the God of my father, and I will exalt him." This one, then, is both "my" "God" and the God "of my father." Our Father, who made us and begot us, is Christ, and he himself says: "I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God." If, therefore, I recognize that God is "my" "God," I will glorify him; but if I also recognize this, in what way he is the "God" of Christ "my father," I will exalt him: for it is a loftier understanding, in what way Christ, in order to bind fast and safeguard the truth of the one God, calls him his God whom by nature he calls Father.
John 20:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.287
But after he had destroyed his enemies through his passion, the Lord, who is mighty in battle and strong, required a purification that could be given to him by his Father alone. And this is why he forbids Mary to touch him.
John 20:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.245
It belongs to the resurrection that one should be on the first day in the paradise of God, and it belongs to the resurrection when Jesus appears and says, "Do not touch me. For I am not yet ascended to my Father," but the perfection of the resurrection was when he came to the Father.
John 20:23 — ON PRAYER 28.8
Consider the person inspired by Jesus as the apostles were and who can be known by his fruits as someone who has received the Holy Spirit and become spiritual by being led by the Spirit as a son of God to do everything by reason. This person forgives whatever God forgives and retains sins that cannot be healed, serving God like the prophets by speaking not his own words but those of the divine will. So he, too, serves God, who alone has authority to forgive.
John 20:24 — FRAGMENT 106 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
"Thomas" is called Didymus, which means "Twin," because he was a kind of twin in word, writing the divine things in two ways and copying Christ, who spoke to those outside of his circle in parables, but to his own disciples he spoke privately about everything. And it is not improper to say that Christ's genuine disciples achieve this double equipment in word that Thomas perhaps had already but even more so afterward. But it may be said that the interpretation of this alone has been recorded because the Evangelist was concerned that Greeks coming into contact with the gospel should notice the peculiarity of the interpretation of the only name specially interpreted, so as to find the cause of his name being set forth also in Greek.
John 20:25 — FRAGMENT 106 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Thomas seems to have had some precision and carefulness about him, which is shown also by what he said. He most likely did not believe those who said they had seen the Lord. It could have been an apparition, like what had happened in Matthew. I think this was the feeling of the other apostles too, but especially of Thomas. That the other apostles had some such thought on seeing Jesus is clear from there being written, "They supposed it was an apparition, and he answered and said to them, "Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh as you see me having."
John 20:26 — Contra Celsum, Book II, Chapter 63
After these points, Celsus proceeds to bring against the Gospel narrative a charge which is not to be lightly passed over, saying that "if Jesus desired to show that his power was really divine, he ought to have appeared to those who had ill-treated him, and to him who had condemned him, and to all men universally." For it appears to us also to be true, according to the Gospel account, that He was not seen after His resurrection in the same manner as He used formerly to show Himself — publicly, and to all men. But it is recorded in the Acts, that "being seen during forty days," He expounded to His disciples "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." [Acts 1:3] And in the Gospels it is not stated that He was always with them; but that on one occasion He appeared in their midst, after eight days, when the doors were shut [John 20:26], and on another in some similar fashion. And Paul also, in the concluding portions of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in reference to His not having publicly appeared as He did in the period before He suffered, writes as follows: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto the present time, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." [1 Corinthians 15:3-8] I am of opinion now that the statements in this passage contain some great and wonderful mysteries, which are beyond the grasp not merely of the great multitude of ordinary believers, but even of those who are far advanced (in Christian knowledge), and that in them the reason would be explained why He did not show Himself, after His resurrection from the dead, in the same manner as before that event.
John 21:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(super. Matt.) It is not easy to find any ready to pass at once from this life; and so he says to Peter, When thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hand.
Job 19:4 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 13.15, 29
"And if I—let us suppose—had done things that should not have been done, even if I had been in such a condition, was it not necessary just the same that you felt ashamed while seeing my afflictions, disease, worms and loss of goods? But you approach me without commiserating with me and without feeling any sympathy for my adversities."
Job 19:5 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 13.15, 29
"And if I—let us suppose—had done things that should not have been done, even if I had been in such a condition, was it not necessary just the same that you felt ashamed while seeing my afflictions, disease, worms and loss of goods? But you approach me without commiserating with me and without feeling any sympathy for my adversities."
Job 19:7 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 13.15, 29
"I will cry out, and there is nowhere judgment; I still contend." This is as if Job had said, "I cried out like an athlete in the stadium, but my judgment is nowhere there. Indeed, I still fight. But if I do not bring my fight to a close, I will not get my crown." We actually say these things lest we accuse God of the fact that Job suffered such misfortunes and there was judgment for him nowhere.
Job 20:14 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 14.41
They have theories that are not sweet but as the gall of asps, that is, evil; and those theories come from the wine of their doctrine. "For their wine comes from the vine of Sodom." The gall of asps is in the belly of the heretics and those who declare impious dogmas contrary to truth.
Job 20:15 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 14.43, 47
What other riches are unjustly gathered but those which are in their speeches? Indeed, they are unjustly gathered. But God, in his benevolence, does not allow those mad people to keep forever their unjustly gathered riches. He will cause them to vomit them up again.… The angel, in fact, through the action and benevolence of God, drags him out of his wickedly built house, that is, the church of those who behave wickedly; it is their house. But the angel drags him out of his house.
Job 20:28-29 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 14.106, 110
[The wrath of God strikes] both the circumcised, who act impiously against Christ, and the heretic and indeed any who are ungodly. The retribution of each is according to what has been shown above. Do you understand who is the overseer mentioned here? God is called "overseer," and his bishops must endeavor in every way to put into practice his model, if they are good. And as one who emulates a royal model is honored, because he has emulated it in a proper way, so the blessed bishop who meditates upon the true bishop and imitates him also becomes like a god among humans. He really has in himself that bishop and has made himself a bishop in Jesus Christ.
Job 21:11 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 15.23
"And they remain as eternal sheep." What is the meaning of these words? They are those words that Christ spoke, "My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life." The faithful are the eternal sheep; the heretics are imitators. They want to imitate the flock of Christ. They ordain their own bishops, presbyters, deacons, doctors, congregation and catechumens, and by imitating the eternal sheep they fulfill the prediction, "And they appear as eternal sheep." They clearly are not eternal sheep but "appear as eternal sheep."
Job 21:11 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 15.25
"And their children play before them, taking up the psaltery and harp." Our children take up the psaltery and the harp, praising and glorifying God. But "their [the heretics'] children," who are foolish in themselves, also "play taking up the psaltery and the harp." Every time they usurp the words of the Old Testament, they play and mock the oracles of the Law and the Prophets. By taking up the harmonies that were once the psaltery of the law and the prophetic harp, they play with them.
Job 22:1-2 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 16.4
The things that are administered by the Holy Spirit are worthy of description. Therefore, they are described, so that the reader may take advantage of the things being read. If the speeches of those three who came to Job were not useful, so that the reader might gain nothing from what was said to Job through them, to be sure the divine Providence would have not reported the speeches of those three in the book of Job. It is possible, therefore, to obtain a certain advantage from their speeches by observing carefully their doctrine.Notice that the fault in their speeches is singular: every time they accuse Job, they believe that he is suffering his misfortunes because he had sinned. They do not see that there are many reasons why adversities happen to people. It was established that these are the things that happen, both good and bad, or whatever you want to call them. "Is it not the Lord that teaches understanding and knowledge?" This statement is wise. Indeed, the true doctor of virtue cannot be a person. "He that teaches man knowledge" is also mentioned in the psalms and is no one else but God. And the prophet says, "Teach me your ordinances," because he knows that God is the true and perfect doctor. In truth God teaches, by lighting the soul of the pupil from him and by illuminating his mind with his light, his truthful word. For this reason, the righteous men, who received the grace of teaching, teach us.
Job 22:7 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 16.22-23
All these things are accusations, and certainly very reproachful ones. But they are not true with regard to Job and are unjustly pronounced against him. These things happen in times of hardship. Sometimes, when one has only a piece of bread, even though he does not have an entire loaf, we take it away from him by saying, "You are in debt."
Job 22:22-25 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 16.61, 69
This is what he means, in my opinion: "Confess your sins; receive from God's mouth his support after your confession; and take his words into your heart." Certainly Eliphaz said these things, as he believed, by making himself equal to Job.… However, he pronounces a correct dogma here. He, in fact, thinks that Job suffers his adversities because of his sins but also so that he will be purified through the endurance of his afflictions. Once he is purified, he will be delivered from any extraneous element and freed from any involvement with iniquity. And like gold refined in a melting pot, he will appear to be tested. If you, he says, endure what has happened to you, God will make you pure, like silver purified with fire.
Job 35:5 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 24.11-12
The one who looks at the heavens is not he who raises his physical eyes and observes the heavens. Indeed, also dogs and donkeys look at the heavens in this manner. No one who loves the world looks at the heavens, but only he who does not love the world and the things which are in it. If we love the things that are here, we do not look to the heavens. The clouds are not so high and so removed from us that, if I follow the life and conduct of Moses, through which he was pleasing to God, and recognize my weakness and humility, I will not be able to gain a higher and even more removed cloud. If I imitate Jesus, son of Nun, and the life of the blessed prophets and carefully examine their actions, I will fulfill what was written.
Job 35:6-7 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 24.15-16
If you look at the heavens and contemplate the clouds, you will understand that you sinned. And what do you need to do? It is necessary that you approach the high priest and implore him to offer a victim for you. "If any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation of our sins." If you will do this, you will dissolve your numerous sins. And for those irremediable sins from which we cannot be cured, Jesus Christ came from heaven to cure what was irremediable, and so that it might happen that "blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered."
Job 35:11 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 24.25
"Who makes me different from the four-footed beasts of the earth?" If you are a sinner, you were not distinguished from the four-footed beasts of the earth. "Man that has honor does not understand, he is compared to the senseless cattle, and is like them." If you are a sinner, you were not distinguished from the four-footed beasts of the earth, but it is said to you, "So that you might not be like horses and mules that have no understanding." If you are a sinner, if you are licentious, if you are reckless, you are not distinguished from the four-footed beasts. "They became like wanton horses." For this reason he audaciously said that he was segregated. "Who makes me different from the four-footed beasts of the earth?"
Job 40:6-7 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.7
"I will question you, and you answer me." The perfect rewards of the struggles are reserved after this life to those who fought bravely. The grace of God nevertheless offers a sort of pledge to the athletes. For this reason, Job faced the hardest fights; while losing his riches, he praised him who gave him these afflictions. After losing his children, he glorified him who had taken them away. While realizing that worms grew out of his body, he was not defeated by his diseases. God gave him the firstlings and the pledge of his fights by speaking to him out of the clouds and the whirlwind. After he had listened to the former speeches, when it was necessary to speak to God, he was silent, as if he had no faculty to speak to him. In fact, he did not know yet what would have been written by Moses, "Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice." Therefore, he was like someone who did not know that he did not want to answer God. But God conceded him forgiveness to speak. The benevolence of God is such that he does not play the role of the judge but that of the lawyer, who discusses the case with a man.
Job 40:10-11 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.21
A slanderer conspired against you. Sometimes he said to me, "Stretch out your hand now." He said to me, "Touch all that he has," and he added about you that "you would have cursed me to my face." But, on the contrary, you were victorious. Therefore I say to you, "Clothe yourself with glory. Abase the slanderer completely. Humiliate his angels. He was arrogant against you, but you destroy the arrogant. He was impious against you, but you strike him by lightning."
Job 41:7-9 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.85
["And all the ships come together would not be able to bear the mere skin of his tail."] All the ships come together are not capable to mortify the extreme and main parts of the dragon. People using bodies or ships cannot by themselves lift a single piece of the skin of his tail. But with the favor of divine virtue, they can bear not only a piece of the skin of his tail but also his entire body, and [they can] mortify it. Each of us mortifies what is in him, that is, the devil, according to the words of the apostle, "Then God will soon crush Satan under your feet."
Job 41:14 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.95
Why did he not say, "Who can disclose his face?" What is the purpose of these doors? "Who can open," he says, "the doors of his face?" In order to understand what is said here, let us take the example of the actors, who wear masks not in order to show what they are but in order to show what they want to look like. Indeed, those who play a certain character on the scene wear masks, so that they sometimes play the role of a general or a king, and often of a woman. Therefore, their real face is concealed, and they do not show what they are, while only what they want to look like is seen. The dragon acts in the same way. He never shows his face, but by assuming a mask in order to deceive humankind, he takes advantage of it. The enemy has many masks and wears a mask of virtue for any vice. And who can detect the mask that he wears? Who can disclose and show how the dragon is inside? Such are also his other followers, "who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
Job 41:19 — FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.114
I believe that all the impious teachers of immoral doctrines are properly the limbs of the dragon. What are the names, if you want to listen, of the limbs of the dragon? The mouth of the dragon can be metaphorically interpreted as the main limb, because all the dangerous speeches come from it. "From his mouth go flaming torches." From it you hear the insulting speech under the guise of Christianity, the speech vilifying the Creator, or on the other hand that openly supports the theories of Marcion, Basilides and Valentinus. Whenever they speak about the Founder of heaven and earth, whenever they assert that he does not exist and has no spiritual essence—there you will see flaming torches coming out of their mouths and sparks of fire leaping up. Therefore, let us preserve ourselves without deliberating those impious theories, so that those flaming torches may never burn us and sparks of fire may never touch us.
Joel 2:10-11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 48
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (24, 29—30ᵃ). Since we consider that greater themes here come under discussion than lie within the grasp of human understanding — even of those who have advanced in wisdom far beyond others — let us come and examine the passage: first inquiring into those things which can readily be admitted for an exposition of the Gospel text, as though the Lord Himself were prophesying in it; and afterward we shall look for what the truth of these words may be according to those who judge that there is something deeper and more subtle in the words, keeping to the sequence of the moral traditions in these matters as well, in the same manner as above. Someone, then, will say: just as when great fires begin to be kindled a darkness seems to be raised up out of the abundant smoke, so at the consummation of the world, by the fire which is to be set alight, even the "great lights" shall be darkened, so that, the sun being darkened, and in consequence of the darkening of the sun, the moon too, hindered by the sun from receiving light, is not permitted even to give its own light. And thus of necessity a great darkness must first take hold of the nature of the world. And so, when the light of the stars has thus withered away, the remaining body of them, having become grosser, since it cannot be borne aloft as at first when it was lifted up carried by the light itself, will fall from heaven. And when these things happen, it follows that the rational powers of the heavens, suffering amazement, undergo a certain commotion and are troubled, being, that is, removed from their former functions. So he who understands these things to be thus will add that the sign of the Son of man, in whom "the things that were in the heavens and the things that were on earth" were made heavenly, shall then appear: namely, the power which the Son of man wrought when He was hung upon the tree; and in heaven above all shall His sign shine forth. And men out of all the tribes, who formerly did not believe in the Christianity that was proclaimed but even spoke evil of it, then, recognizing it through that sign made manifest, shall mourn and lament because of their ignorance and their sins, in that they did not receive the word of the Lord. But another will judge otherwise concerning these words, holding that (as these words themselves show) the destruction of the world will not come about by fire, but by its own failing. And he will make use of such an illustration: that just as, when the light of a lamp fails, the light is little by little diminished, so, when the nourishment of the heavenly lights fails, the sun shall be darkened, no longer having the breaths that come to it from them coming upon it. And when the greater light suffers this, all the more will the moon too be unable to display that fiery splendor which appears according to its own phases. When, therefore, these things befall the sun, the light of the stars too will fail, so that what has remained in them, being as it were earthy, falls from heaven, and, these things happening, all the powers of the heavens shall be moved. For just as, in the dispensation of the cross, "when the sun failed, darkness came over all the earth", so also, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, the light of the sun and of the moon shall fail, and yet more that of the stars, as though consumed by the great power of that sign; and when it appears, the tribes that shall then have remained on the earth shall mourn. For these things he will use the illustration of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in this manner: "For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of wrath and fury, to make the circle of the earth a desert and…
Joel 2:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:161
But since these are light perceived by the senses, which are said in Moses to have come into existence on the fourth day, they are not the true light because they enlighten the things on the earth. The Savior, on the other hand, is the light of the spiritual world because he shines on those who are rational and intellectual, that their mind may see its proper visions. Now I mean he is the light of those rational souls which are in the sensible world, of which the Savior teaches us that he is the Maker, being, perhaps, its directing and principal artificer, and, so to speak, the sun of the great Day of the Lord.
Joel 2:28 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:7.2
Now we are of the opinion that every rational creature, without any distinction, receives a share of him in the same way as of the wisdom and of the word of God. I observe, however, that the chief advent of the Holy Spirit is declared to people after the ascension of Christ into heaven, rather than before his coming into the world. For before that, it was on the prophets alone, and on a few individuals, if there happened to be among the people any deserving, that the gift of the Holy Spirit was conferred. But after the advent of the Savior, it is written that the prediction of the prophet Joel was fulfilled: "In the last days it shall come to pass, and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and they shall prophesy," which is similar to the well-known statement, "All nations shall serve him." By the grace, then, of the Holy Spirit, along with numerous other results, this most glorious consequence is clearly demonstrated. With regard to those things which were written in the prophets or in the law of Moses, it was only a few persons at that time, namely, the prophets themselves, and scarcely another individual out of the whole nation, who were able to look beyond the mere corporeal meaning and discover something greater, something spiritual, in the law or in the prophets. But now there are countless multitudes of believers who, although unable to unfold methodically and clearly the results of their spiritual understanding, are nevertheless most firmly persuaded that neither ought circumcision to be understood literally, nor the rest of the sabbath, nor the pouring out of the blood of an animal, nor that answers were given by God to Moses on these points. And this method of apprehension is undoubtedly suggested to the minds of all by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Joel 2:30-31 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 48
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (24, 29—30ᵃ). Since we consider that greater themes here come under discussion than lie within the grasp of human understanding — even of those who have advanced in wisdom far beyond others — let us come and examine the passage: first inquiring into those things which can readily be admitted for an exposition of the Gospel text, as though the Lord Himself were prophesying in it; and afterward we shall look for what the truth of these words may be according to those who judge that there is something deeper and more subtle in the words, keeping to the sequence of the moral traditions in these matters as well, in the same manner as above. Someone, then, will say: just as when great fires begin to be kindled a darkness seems to be raised up out of the abundant smoke, so at the consummation of the world, by the fire which is to be set alight, even the "great lights" shall be darkened, so that, the sun being darkened, and in consequence of the darkening of the sun, the moon too, hindered by the sun from receiving light, is not permitted even to give its own light. And thus of necessity a great darkness must first take hold of the nature of the world. And so, when the light of the stars has thus withered away, the remaining body of them, having become grosser, since it cannot be borne aloft as at first when it was lifted up carried by the light itself, will fall from heaven. And when these things happen, it follows that the rational powers of the heavens, suffering amazement, undergo a certain commotion and are troubled, being, that is, removed from their former functions. So he who understands these things to be thus will add that the sign of the Son of man, in whom "the things that were in the heavens and the things that were on earth" were made heavenly, shall then appear: namely, the power which the Son of man wrought when He was hung upon the tree; and in heaven above all shall His sign shine forth. And men out of all the tribes, who formerly did not believe in the Christianity that was proclaimed but even spoke evil of it, then, recognizing it through that sign made manifest, shall mourn and lament because of their ignorance and their sins, in that they did not receive the word of the Lord. But another will judge otherwise concerning these words, holding that (as these words themselves show) the destruction of the world will not come about by fire, but by its own failing. And he will make use of such an illustration: that just as, when the light of a lamp fails, the light is little by little diminished, so, when the nourishment of the heavenly lights fails, the sun shall be darkened, no longer having the breaths that come to it from them coming upon it. And when the greater light suffers this, all the more will the moon too be unable to display that fiery splendor which appears according to its own phases. When, therefore, these things befall the sun, the light of the stars too will fail, so that what has remained in them, being as it were earthy, falls from heaven, and, these things happening, all the powers of the heavens shall be moved. For just as, in the dispensation of the cross, "when the sun failed, darkness came over all the earth", so also, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, the light of the sun and of the moon shall fail, and yet more that of the stars, as though consumed by the great power of that sign; and when it appears, the tribes that shall then have remained on the earth shall mourn. For these things he will use the illustration of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in this manner: "For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of wrath and fury, to make the circle of the earth a desert and…
Joel 2:32 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 28
Martyrdom is customarily called "the cup of salvation," as we find in the Gospel. For when those who wish to sit on Jesus' right and left in his kingdom yearn for so great an honor, the Lord says to them, "Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" By "cup" he means martyrdom; and the point is clear because of the verse, "Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." We learn, moreover, that the person who drinks that cup which Jesus drank will sit with him and rule and judge with the King of kings. Thus this is the "cup of salvation," and when someone takes it, he will "call upon the name of the Lord." For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Jonah 3:4 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 19:7
Does God for our salvation deceive and say certain things so that the sinner ceases doing what he might do if he had not heard certain of these words? Was the one who says, "Yet three days and Nineveh shall be destroyed," speaking as one who speaks truly or not? Or as one who deceives by a deceit that converts? If that kind of conversion did not happen, was what was said no longer a deceit but already truth. There would have been a destruction that followed for Nineveh. It was up to those who hear.
Joshua 1:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 2.2
"And the Lord said," he says, "to Jesus the son of Nave, the minister of Moses: Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I give to you." You will perhaps ask how our Lord Jesus the Son of God was also the "minister" of Moses: because "when the fullness of times had come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." By this therefore, that "he was made under the law," he was made "the minister of Moses." But God says that they are to "cross over into the land," not which Moses gave, but "which I," he says, "give to you." You see therefore that, Moses being dead, God gives the "land" to the people through Jesus. What "land"? That land without doubt of which the Lord says: "blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land as their inheritance."
Joshua 1:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.3
To what end, then, do all these things look for us? Surely to this, that this book does not so much set forth for us the deeds of the son of Nave as it depicts for us the mysteries of my Lord Jesus. For it is he who after the death of Moses took up the command, it is he who leads the army and "fights against Amalek"; and what was there foreshadowed on the mountain with hands stretched out, "he fastens to his cross, triumphing over the principalities and powers in himself." "Moses died," therefore; for the law ceased, since "the law and the prophets were until John." But do you wish me to bring forth proofs from the Scriptures that Moses is called the law? Hear what he says in the Gospel: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them"—here without doubt naming the law "Moses." "Moses the servant of God died," therefore; for the law has died and the precepts of the law now cease. Or if it seems to you too little authority when these things are brought forward by me, follow the authority of the Apostle who says that "the woman is bound by the law while her husband lives, and she will be called an adulteress if she be with another man; but if her husband is dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband, so that she is no longer an adulteress if she be with another man"—without doubt naming as the "woman" the soul, which was held under the law of Moses, of which he says: "While her husband lives she is bound by the law." "But if her husband is dead"—without doubt the law—he says that soul is "freed" which seemed to be subject. Therefore, for this reason, it is necessary that the law die, so that those who believe in Jesus may in no way incur the charge of adultery.
Joshua 1:2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 2.1
We must also give an account of the death of Moses; for unless we understand how Moses dies, we shall not be able to perceive how Jesus reigns. If therefore you consider Jerusalem overthrown, the altar abandoned, nowhere sacrifices nor victims nor drink offerings, nowhere priests, nowhere high priests, nowhere the ministries of the Levites: when you see all these things cease, say that "Moses the servant of God is dead." If you see no one "coming three times a year into the sight of the Lord," nor offering gifts in the temple, nor slaying the "Passover," nor "eating unleavened bread," nor offering "firstfruits," nor "consecrating the firstborn," when you see all these things not being celebrated, say that "Moses the servant of God is dead." But when you see the nations entering into the faith, churches being built, altars sprinkled not with the gore of beasts but consecrated with the "precious blood" of Christ, when you see priests and Levites ministering not "the blood of bulls and goats" but the word of God through the grace of the Holy Spirit, then say that Jesus after Moses has taken up and obtained the leadership — not that "Jesus the son of Nave," but Jesus the Son of God. When you see that "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed" and we eat "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," when you see the fruits of the good land in the church "thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold," widows, virgins, and martyrs, when you see the seed of Israel multiplied from those who were "born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God," and when you see "the sons of God who were scattered gathered into one," when you see "the people of God keeping the Sabbath," not keeping leisure from common intercourse, but keeping leisure from the working of sin, when you see all these things, say that "Moses the servant of God is dead" and Jesus the Son of God obtains the leadership. Finally, in a certain little book too — in which, although it is not held in the canon, nevertheless the figure of this mystery is described — it is related that two Moseses were seen: one alive in spirit and another dead in body. In which without doubt this is what was foreshadowed: that if you gaze upon the letter of the law as empty and void of all those things which we have mentioned above, that itself is the Moses dead in body. But if you are able to "remove the veil" of the law and to understand that "the law is spiritual," this is the Moses who lives in spirit.
Joshua 1:3 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.6
But let us also see this: what it is that Jesus promises to his soldiers. "Every place," he says, "whatsoever you shall put under the treading of your feet, shall be yours." He had said this to those who then existed, concerning the regions of the "Canaanites," the "Perizzites," the "Jebusites," and the other nations, whose regions, when the unworthy inhabitants had been driven out, they themselves took as an inheritance; but let us see what is promised to us in these words. There are certain nations of adversary powers, diabolical, against whom battle is waged for us and contests are toiled at in this life. Therefore however many nations of these we shall "put under our feet," however many we shall conquer in the contest, we shall take their regions, their provinces and kingdoms, with Jesus our Lord apportioning them to us. For they were once angels, they were "magnificent" in the kingdom of God. Or do we not read what Isaiah says concerning one of them: "How has Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning?" This Lucifer without doubt had his seat in the heavens; but after he became an apostate angel, if I am able to conquer him and "put him under my feet," if I am granted that the Lord Jesus "may crush Satan under my feet," I shall consequently be granted to receive the place of Lucifer in the heavens. Thus, therefore, we understand that it is promised to us by Jesus our Lord that "every place which we shall put under the treading of our feet shall be ours." But let us not suppose that we can enter into this inheritance through idleness and negligence, yawning and dozing. Wrath has an angel of its own kind; unless you conquer this within yourself and cut away from yourself all the motions of anger and fury, you will not be able to take, in the inheritance, the place which that angel once held, for the reason that by your slothfulness you have in no way driven him out of the land of promise. Likewise also of pride and jealousy and avarice and lust there are certain instigating angels and inciters of these evils, whose vices unless you conquer within yourself and exterminate them from your land, which has now been sanctified through the grace of baptism, in no way will you receive the fullness of the promised inheritance.
Joshua 1:3 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 2.3
"Every place," he says, "whatever you shall ascend upon with the tread of your feet, I will give it to you." What are the places which "we ascend upon with the tread of our feet"? The letter of the law is set upon the ground and lies below. Nowhere therefore does he ascend who follows the letter of the law. But if you are able to ascend from the letter to the spirit and to climb up from the history to a loftier understanding, then you have truly ascended to a high and lofty place, which you will receive from God as an inheritance. For if in those things which are written you understand types and perceive them to be forms of things heavenly, and if in mind and thought you "seek the things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God," then you will also receive that place as an inheritance, as our Lord and Savior says: "where I am, there shall my minister also be." If therefore you attain even to "Christ seated at the right hand of God" by faith, life, purity, and virtue, and if with those "treads of your feet" which Jesus washed you walk into that "place," God will give it to you; then you will be made not only "an heir of God," but also "a co-heir of Christ."
Joshua 1:4 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 2.4
"Just as," he says, "I said to Moses, this wilderness and Antilibanus, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates." God placed the "wilderness" under Jesus, that is, the desert places. What desert places? Of which the prophet says: "rejoice, O thirsting wilderness," and: "many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has a husband." And again he did not say Lebanon, but "Antilibanus," which Jesus received from God. Now "Antilibanus" is so called as it were in place of Lebanon. If therefore you see that former people according to the flesh, Israel, who was "the true olive," understand that this itself was the true Lebanon; but when you see that on account of its unbelief "the kingdom is taken away from it and given to a nation producing its fruit," perceive that this people, which is brought into the kingdom in place of that expelled one, is the "Antilibanus," which is "the church of the living God" gathered from the nations through Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 1:8 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
But I fear lest, through excessive negligence and dullness of heart, the divine volumes be for us not only veiled but even sealed, so that, "if a book to be read is given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, he says: I do not know letters; if it is given into the hands of a man who knows letters, he says: it is sealed." Whence it is shown that we must not only apply zeal to learning the sacred letters, but must also entreat the Lord and "day and night" beseech him, that the Lamb "from the tribe of Judah" may come and himself, taking the "sealed book," may deign to open it.
Joshua 1:11 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.4
Then here he says: "Prepare for yourselves provisions for the way." And today, if you would hear, Jesus says to you: if you follow me, "prepare for yourself provisions for the way." For the provisions are the works which accompany us to the way that is to come, like a faithful viaticum. Let us see, however—since it is not fitting to read the divine writings carelessly and as it were in passing—whence he bids them "prepare provisions" who have no grain: for manna was their food. But when we have now crossed the banks of this river, "the manna ceases"; and therefore, unless each one "prepares" for himself "provisions," he will not be able to follow Jesus as he enters the land of promise.
Joshua 1:12 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.1
Moses distributed the inheritance of the land across the Jordan to two and a half tribes, that is, to "the tribe of Reuben" and "the tribe of Gad" and "the half-tribe of Manasseh." But to the remaining tribes it was not Moses but Jesus who divided the land. Nevertheless a covenant was struck with those "two and a half tribes" who had received land across the Jordan, that, leaving their "women" and their "little ones" in that land across the Jordan, they themselves should fight alongside their brothers until they too should obtain their inheritance. It was necessary, therefore, after the death of Moses, who had entered into this covenant, that Jesus should demand what was promised and remind them to bring aid to their brothers who were about to fight. This indeed the text of the narrative sets forth; but since we "have now turned to the Lord," who "takes away the veil from the reading of the Old Testament" and grants to his servants who believe in him that "with unveiled face they may behold the glory of the Lord," let us perceive that all these things, which "happened to them in a figure, were written for our sake," "upon whom the ends of the ages have come." And therefore, as we have already said before, let us attempt to ascend from the letter to the spirit, from the figures to the truth, and let us consider what pattern these "two and a half tribes" hold, which receive the land of inheritance through Moses, and what pattern the remaining "nine and a half tribes" hold, which receive the promise of the holy land through Jesus. And first of all I think that it could not have happened by chance that those who receive their portion through Moses were all firstborn. For Reuben is the firstborn from Leah, Gad the firstborn from Zilpah, and Manasseh the firstborn from Asenath the Egyptian, "the daughter of Potiphar the priest of Heliopolis," whom Joseph took to wife. I can never persuade myself that it happened by chance that all those were firstborn to whom the inheritance was decreed through Moses, but rather I judge that in these there was even then foreshadowed the pattern of two peoples: of the one, indeed, which would appear to be firstborn according to the order of nature, and of the other, which through faith and grace would receive the blessing of the inheritance.
Joshua 1:14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.1
Nor is rest given to those who receive the inheritance through Moses, that is, who pleased God through the law, before they help their brothers in battle. Only the "women" and the "little ones" receive rest through Moses; but the rest do not rest, but go out to the aid of their brothers. See how today, as I labor in the contest of this life and have a struggle against enemies, that is, against the hostile powers, they come to my aid who before the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ were justified under the law. See how Isaiah furnishes me aid, when he illuminates me with the words of his reading. See Jeremiah coming girded and ready to our aid and, with the javelins of his volume, putting to flight our most fierce enemies, the darkness of my heart. Daniel too is girded for our aid, when he instructs and forewarns us concerning the presence and kingdom of Christ and concerning the future deceit of the Antichrist. Ezekiel too is present, marking for us the heavenly mysteries in the fourfold circuits of the wheels and "enclosing a wheel within a wheel." Hosea too leads the twice-six squadrons of the prophetic host, and they all march out "with their loins girded in the truth" which they preach to the aid of their brothers, so that, instructed by their volumes, we may not be ignorant of the devil's cunning. These, therefore, who are strong men, armed and "girded about the loins with truth," go out to our aid and fight alongside us. But the "little ones" and the "women" do not go out to our battle. And no wonder; for he is called an infant who does not speak. What help, then, could that one have given me who has spoken nothing? in whom I find nothing that I may read? whose word does not instruct me? But the Apostle says that "the woman" is "the weaker vessel." Hence, consequently, "the weaker vessel" does not come to the conflict, lest it be shattered and perish; for so it is said of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels that "he did not break the bruised reed." Since therefore "women" are commanded to be taught at home by their husbands and are placed rather in the person of disciples than of teachers, he does not come to my aid who cannot teach me and in whom I find nothing that I ought to imitate or hold fast.
Joshua 1:17 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.2
Let us see, then, what those who come from that land which Moses distributed say to Jesus: "as we obeyed Moses," they say, "so will we obey you also." Nothing is so true as that everyone who "obeys Moses obeys" also Jesus our Lord. "For of" Jesus "he wrote." Hence the Lord too in the Gospel, reproving them because, from the fact that they do not believe him, they do not believe Moses either, says: "if you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also; for of me he wrote." Yet to me this too does not seem idle, that these tribes which are dispensed through Moses are not three whole tribes, and those which obtain the inheritance through Jesus are not nine whole ones, but "two and a half" here and "nine and a half" there, and that one tribe is divided into two parts, whereby neither here is the third number filled up whole, nor there is the tenth perfectly and wholly completed. In which I judge this to be indicated: that even those former ones, who were governed under the law, did indeed touch upon the knowledge of the Trinity, yet not wholly and perfectly, but "in part." For there was lacking to them, within the Trinity, the knowledge also concerning the incarnation of the Only-begotten. For although they believed concerning his coming and concerning the rest of his dispensations not only believed but even preached, yet they could not also see and attain the things which they had believed; just as the Lord too says to his disciples concerning these: "many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them." For their faith was not whole, inasmuch as the dispensation of the flesh had not yet been fulfilled in Christ; and what we now already believe to have been done and fulfilled, they believed only as yet to come. Therefore, then, those tribes are neither two, lest the fathers should be outside the faith and salvation of the Trinity, nor three whole and perfect, lest the mystery of the blessed Trinity should already seem to have been fulfilled in them. But they did indeed touch upon the third number and, as the Lord said, "desired to see the things which we see, and to hear the things which we hear," but they were by no means able, because the Son of Man had not yet been "lifted up," nor had "the fullness of the times" yet come. Here something more even moves me. I think that perhaps not even in the coming of Jesus and his incarnation do we yet learn that which is perfect and whole; nor even if he be led to the cross and be consummated in all things, nor even if he rise from the dead, will he lay open to us through himself all the things that are perfect. We still have need of another, who may open and reveal to us all things. Hear the Lord himself saying in the Gospels: "I have yet many things which I would say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, will come, and he will receive of mine: and he will show you all things." You see that not only is that third number not shown to be fulfilled in Moses, but even Jesus still says to his disciples: "you cannot yet hear," unless that Paraclete come, "the Spirit of truth," because through him and in him the perfection of the Trinity is fulfilled. For also as to the fact that it is "nine and a half tribes" which act under Jesus as leader, and not ten whole ones — which number is said to be in all things consummate and perfect —, the same reasoning is without doubt found, so that this, which is said to be reserved by the Lord Jesus for the Holy Spirit, may appear half-full and midway. For although through the Lord and Savior repentance is preached, and conversion from evils to good things, and remission of sins is given to all believers, and all the things which seem to tend toward the perfection of the decade are completed, nevertheless the perfection and sum of all good things consists in this, if after all these things one should…
Joshua 2:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.3
Meanwhile spies are sent by Jesus into Jericho and are received by "the harlot" Rahab. These spies, who are sent "before the face" of Jesus, can also be thought to be the angels of God, as it is written: "behold, I send my angel before your face, who shall prepare your ways." Which through others indeed was fulfilled invisibly, but through John visibly; concerning whom this very thing was written. Finally, concerning the baptism of John it is said by the Lord that the scribes and Pharisees did not believe him, but the "harlots" and the "publicans" believed and were baptized. So therefore in this too it is fulfilled, that the "harlot" received the spies of Jesus, through whom she is reported to have been snatched from the destruction of the whole hostile nation.
Joshua 2:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.4
But let us see at last who this "harlot" is. She is called "Rahab," and "Rahab" is interpreted "breadth." What, then, is breadth, if not this Church of Christ, which has been gathered out of sinners as out of harlotry? And she says: "the place is too narrow for me, make me a place where I may dwell. But who has nourished these for me?", and again, she to whom it is said: "widen your stakes, and stretch out your tents." This, therefore, is the breadth which received the spies of Jesus. I know that once, disputing in a certain church concerning the two harlots, of whom it is written in the third book of Kingdoms, who had come to the judgment of Solomon, of whom one had a "living" infant and the other a "dead" one, I discussed the matter rather carefully and said that that "harlot" was this one, to whom Solomon — not that one, but this one who came "to make peace between the things that are in heaven and the things that are on earth" — ordered the "living" infant to be restored, but that other one, who had the "dead" infant, was either the synagogue of that former people or of those who have declined into heresy. There is also another "harlot" whom in Hosea the prophet is commanded to "take," without doubt as a figure of this one, which has been gathered "out of the nations." Such, therefore, is this "harlot" also said to be, who received the spies of Jesus; but she places them, once received, in the upper regions and establishes them in the lofty and exalted mysteries of the faith. For no one who is sent by Jesus is found lying down below and on the ground, but he remains in the upper regions; and not only does he himself remain in the upper and exalted regions, but that "harlot" too, who received them, is made from a harlot now a prophetess; for she says: "I know that the Lord your God has delivered this land to you." You see how she who was once a "harlot" and impious and unclean is now already filled with the Holy Spirit, and concerning things past indeed confesses, concerning things present believes, and prophesies and foretells concerning things to come. So therefore "Rahab," which is interpreted "breadth," is widened and advances, until "into all the earth her sound goes out." But Japheth likewise is interpreted "enlargement," who indeed himself also bore the pattern of this people "which is saved out of the nations," and Canaan the boy is subjected to him as a servant by his father, and to his brother Shem, who bears the pattern of those who are saved out of the circumcision. In which the kindness and providence of God is to be admired, who, wishing to furnish a remedy to the sinner Canaan and to confer salvation upon him, made him a servant to his brothers, just as Esau too was made to serve his brother Jacob — not indeed that he should perish, but that he should acquire salvation by obeying his betters. For it is granted, as the greatest of gifts, to the evil and to sinners, who know not how to govern themselves, that they should not be entrusted to themselves, but should become servants of the saints and be subject to their betters, so that they may be governed not by their own evil sense, but by the good sense of those others. You see how great is the kindness of the Lord, which he hides and conceals from the ears of the common crowd, and which he covers with rather harsh words, lest perhaps the evil and ungrateful servant become a despiser, when he has understood the exceeding goodness of his Lord.
Joshua 2:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.4
Yet our "Jesus sends" spies to the "king of Jericho," and they are received into lodging by a "harlot." But that harlot, who received the spies sent by Jesus, received them for this reason, that she might no longer be a "harlot." But also the soul of each one of us was a harlot, so long as it lived in the desires and lusts of the flesh. But it received the spies of Jesus, "the angels whom he sent before his face, that they might prepare his way." Yet if each soul received them out of faith, it places them not in lowly places nor in lower ones, but in the higher and lofty ones, because we have received Jesus the Lord not as lowly and earthly, but as one proceeding from the Father and coming from the heavens.
Joshua 2:6 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.5
But not even the "stalk of flax," in which the spies lay hidden, do I receive without sacred meaning. For flax is the priestly garment, by which is signified either that to those who were to be invited the priestly dignity was conferred, as the Apostle Peter too says: "But you are a holy nation, a royal priesthood," or certainly that in the sacred mystery of the law, where it is noted concerning the priests, the hidden calling of this people, which is "from the nations," lay concealed. Straightway, therefore, the "harlot" undergoes enmities against the "king of Jericho." Why not, since "the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh"? And again he says: "This world hates you, because it hated me before you." There is, therefore, a certain king who is the enemy of this harlot, who is "the prince of this world," who pursues and desires to seize the spies of Jesus, but cannot prevail, because they make their journey over the mountains; they do not walk through the lowly places nor delight in the valleys, but pursue the hilly summits and the high places of the mountains; for this our harlot says: "I lifted up my eyes to the mountains; from whence shall my help come?" The "prince of this world" cannot ascend thither, nor can he by the lofty way come to Jesus; nay rather, even if tempting him he set him on high places, he says to him: "Cast yourself down," because he always loves the lowly and the fleeting things, in these he reigns, in these he sets his seat, in which also he may descend even to hell.
Joshua 2:16 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.5
But let us see what this wise "harlot" did with the spies. She gives them counsel mystical and heavenly, having nothing earthly. "Go by the mountains," she says, do not walk through the valleys, flee the low and the cast-down things; the things that are lofty and sublime, preach.
Joshua 2:18-19 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.5
This command too is given to her who was once a "harlot": "All," she says, "who shall be found in your house shall be saved. But those who go out of the house — we are free from this oath of yours." If anyone, therefore, wishes to be saved, let him come into this house of her who was once a "harlot." Even if someone from that people wishes to be saved, let him come to this house, that he may be able to obtain salvation. Let him come to this house, in which the blood of Christ is the sign of redemption. For among those who said, "his blood be upon us and upon our children," the blood of Christ is unto condemnation. For Jesus "was set for the fall and for the rising again of many," and therefore, to those who contradict his "sign," "his blood" is made unto punishment, but to those who believe, unto salvation. Let no one, therefore, persuade himself, let no one deceive himself: outside this house, that is, outside the Church, no one is saved; if anyone goes outside, he becomes guilty of his own death. This is the sign of the blood, because here too is the purification which is established through the blood.
Joshua 2:21 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.5
And she herself places a "scarlet sign" in her house, through which she was to be saved from the destruction of the city. There was no other sign that she should receive except the scarlet one, which bore the form of blood. For she knew that there was salvation for no one except in the blood of Christ.
Joshua 3:4 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.3
See, finally, what is said: "the people," it says, "so as to be far from the ark of the Covenant, two thousand cubits." But the priests and Levites are near, and quite near, so that upon their own shoulders the ark of the Lord and the divine legislation are carried. Blessed are they who deserve to be near to God. But remember what is written: "those who draw near to me draw near to fire." If you are gold or silver and "draw near to the fire," you will shine forth through the fire far more splendid and gleaming; but if, upon the foundation of faith "laid" in you, you are conscious to yourself that you have "built up wood, hay, stubble," then with such a building, if you "draw near to the fire," you will be consumed. Blessed, therefore, are they who are near, and who are so near that the fire illumines them and does not burn them. Israel too, however, will be saved, but placed far off it will be saved, and it makes its journey not by its own strength, but by the supports and providence of the priests.
Joshua 3:5-6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.228-30
In the spirit of this passage let us also pray that we may receive from God to understand the spiritual meaning of Joshua's passage through Jordan. Of it, also, Paul would have said, "I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that all our fathers went through Jordan, and were all baptized into Jesus in the spirit and in the river." And Joshua, who succeeded Moses, was a type of Jesus Christ, who succeeds the dispensation through the law, and replaces it by the preaching of the Gospel. And even if those Paul speaks of were baptized in the cloud and in the sea, there is something harsh and salt in their baptism. They are still in fear of their enemies, and crying to the Lord and to Moses, saying, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou brought us forth to slay us in the wilderness? Why hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?" But the baptism to Joshua, which takes place in quite sweet and drinkable water, is in many ways superior to that earlier one, religion having by this time grown clearer and assuming a becoming order. For the ark of the covenant of the Lord our God is carried in procession by the priests and levites, the people following the ministers of God, it, also, accepting the law of holiness. For Joshua says to the people, "Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow; the Lord will do wonders among you." And he commands the priests to go before the people with the ark of the covenant, wherein is plainly showed forth the mystery of the Father's economy about the Son, which is highly exalted by Him who gave the Son this office; "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Joshua 3:6 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.2
Meanwhile there is a priestly and Levitical order which is to show the way to the people of God who have gone out from Egypt. For it is they who teach the people to go out from Egypt, that is, from the errors of the world, and to pass through the vast wilderness, that is, to traverse the various kinds of temptations and not to be harmed by the serpents, which are the bites of demons, and to avoid the poisons of evil suggestions. And "if" perhaps "someone has been struck" in the wilderness "by a serpent," that they may show him the "bronze serpent" hung upon the cross, "which whoever shall look upon," that is, whoever believes in him whose figure that serpent displayed, shall through this flee from the diabolical poisons. There is a priestly and Levitical order which stands by the ark of the Covenant of the Lord, in which the law of God is carried, doubtless so that they themselves may enlighten the people concerning the commandments of God, as the prophet says: "your word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths." This light is kindled through the priests and the Levites. But if perhaps someone of this order has "put a kindled lamp under a bushel" and not "upon a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house," let him consider what he must do, when he shall begin to render account to the Lord of light for those who, receiving no illumination from the priests, walk in darkness and are blinded by the obscurity of sins.
Joshua 3:6 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.5
After these things it says: "and all Israel," it says, "and the presbyters and the judges and the scribes went before, on this side and on that, the ark of the covenant of the Lord." "The ark of the covenant of the Lord" is that in which the tablets of the law, written by the hand of God, are kept. And around this "ark of the covenant" everyone who is "truly Israel" walks and is not far from it; but the Levites and priests even carry it upon their shoulders. For whoever live in priestly religion and holiness — not only those who seem to sit in the priestly assembly, but rather those who act in a priestly manner, whose "portion is the Lord" and who hold no share on earth — these are truly the priests and Levites of the Lord, who carry the law of God upon their shoulders, that is, by doing and fulfilling through their work the things that are written in the law.
Joshua 3:7 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.2
How great were the things done before! The Red Sea was crossed on foot, manna was given from heaven, fountains were broken open in the wilderness, the law was given through Moses, many signs and wonders were done in the wilderness, and nowhere is Jesus said to be "exalted." But where the Jordan is crossed, there it is said to Jesus: "on this day I begin to exalt you in the sight of the people." For Jesus is not "exalted" before the mystery of baptism, but his exaltation and "exaltation in the sight of the people" takes its beginning from there. For if "all who are baptized in Christ Jesus are baptized into his death," and the death of Jesus is fulfilled in the exaltation of the cross, then rightly for each of the faithful Jesus is first "exalted" then, when one arrives at the mystery of baptism, because thus also it is written that "God exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things heavenly and earthly and infernal."
Joshua 3:7-10 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.231-32
And he commands the priests to go before the people with the ark of the covenant. It is then, too, that the mystery of the dispensation of the Father with the Son is manifested, since the Son is highly exalted by him who grants "that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."These matters are revealed through the following words which have been recorded in the book of Joshua: "And the Lord said to Jesus [Joshua], 'In this day I will begin to exalt you before the sons of Israel.' " We must also hear our Lord Jesus saying to the sons of Israel, "Come here and hear the Word of the Lord our God. In this you shall know that the living God is among you." For by being baptized into Jesus we will know that the living God is among us.
Joshua 3:14-17 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.1
To the sinner, indeed, every creature is an enemy, just as it is written concerning the Egyptians: the earth assailed them, the river assailed them, the very air assailed them, the heavens assailed them. But for the righteous, even things that seem impassable are made level and easy. The righteous man crosses the Red Sea as though "over dry land," but the Egyptian, if he wishes to cross, will be drowned, nor will the "water become a wall to him on the right hand and on the left." Even if the righteous man enters a horrible and vast wilderness, food is supplied to him from the heavens. So, then, in the Jordan too the ark of the Covenant was the leader for the people of God. The priestly and Levitical order takes its stand, and the waters, as if rendering a kind of reverence to the ministers of God, rein in their course and are heaped up into a mound, granting a passage harmless for the people of God. And do not be astonished when these things are reported to you as having been done for the former people; to you, Christian, who have passed through the streams of the Jordan by the sacrament of baptism, the divine word promises things far greater and loftier, and it pledges you a way and a passage through the very "air"; for hear Paul saying concerning the righteous: "we shall be caught up," he says, "in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord." There is nothing at all that the righteous man should fear; every creature serves him. Hear, finally, how God also promises to him through the prophet, saying: "if you pass through the fire, the flame shall not burn you, for I am the Lord your God." Every place, therefore, receives the righteous man, and every creature renders him the service that is due. And do not suppose that these things were done among the men of old, but that in you, who are now a hearer of these things, nothing of the kind is done: all things are fulfilled in you according to the mystical account. For you, who now desire, having lately abandoned the darkness of idolatry, to come to the hearing of the divine law, now for the first time abandon Egypt. When you were gathered into the number of the catechumens and began to obey the precepts of the Church, you passed out from the Red Sea, and, stationed at the halting-places of the desert, you devote yourself daily to hearing the law of God and to gazing upon the countenance of Moses revealed through the glory of the Lord. But if you also come to the mystical font of baptism and, with the priestly and Levitical order standing by, are initiated into those venerable and magnificent sacraments, which they know who are permitted to know them, then also, when the Jordan has been passed by the ministries of the priests, you will enter the land of promise, in which, after Moses, Jesus receives you and himself becomes for you the leader of a new journey. But you, mindful of the great and such-like powers of God — that the sea was divided for you and that the "water" of the river "stood still" — turning to these things will say: "what ails you, O sea, that you fled? and you, O Jordan, that you were turned back? O mountains, that you leaped like rams, and hills like the lambs of the flock?" But the divine word will answer you and say: "at the presence of the Lord the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water and the flint into fountains of waters."
Joshua 3:14-17 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.4
Jesus therefore, my Lord and Savior, took up the command; and, if it seems good, let us compare the deeds of Moses with the command of Jesus. When Moses led the people out of the land of Egypt, there was no order among the people, no observance among the priests. They cross the water of the sea, salt water containing nothing of sweetness in itself, and "the water was a wall to them on the right and on the left." These things we know to have been done with Moses as leader. But when my Lord leads the army, let us see what things were even then being foreshadowed. "The priests go before," "the ark of the Testament is carried on the shoulders of the priests," nowhere now does the sea, nowhere does the salt wave meet us, but with my Lord Jesus as leader I come to the Jordan, and I come not in the confusion of flight nor stricken with dread, but I come with the priests carrying on their necks and shoulders the ark of the Testament of the Lord, in which the law of God and the divine writings are kept. I enter the Jordan not with furtive silence, but amid the songs of trumpets sounding something mystical and divine, that I may advance to the proclamation of the heavenly trumpet. There it was said that "the water was divided" into two parts and "one wall of water was made on the right, another on the left." But here, he "who came to break down the middle wall of the hedge made both one"; for on one part "the water was raised up," but the other part "flowed down into the sea."
Joshua 3:16 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.2
Yet the people is led on by the priests and makes its journey to the land of promise under the tutelage of the priests. And who today among the priests is so great and such a one that he would deserve to be enrolled in that order? For if there be any such, the streams of the Jordan will yield to him and the very elements will stand in awe of him; one part of the river's waters will spring back and be reined in behind, while another part will flee away with a swift gliding into the "salt sea." Yet even this I judge not to have been written apart from the meaning of a mystery — that "part of the waters of the Jordan is plunged into the sea" and flows off into bitterness, while another part continues in sweetness. For if all who are baptized were to guard the sweetness of the heavenly grace they had received, and none turned to the bitterness of sins, it would surely not have been written that a part of the river had been immersed in the whirlpools of the "salt sea." And therefore in these words there seems to me to be signified that variety among the baptized which we ourselves — a thing I recall with grief — often see come to pass: that those who obtain holy baptism, when they again give themselves over to the affairs of the age and the enticements of lusts, and when they drink the salt cup of avarice, are formed in that part of the waters which flows off into the sea and perishes in the salt waves; but that part which remains with steadfastness and keeps its sweetness signifies those who hold the received gift of God without swerving. And rightly there is one part of those who are saved, because there is also one "bread," "which came down from heaven and gives life to this world," and there is "one faith" and "one baptism" and "one spirit," of which all are given to drink in baptism, and "one God, the Father of all."
Joshua 4:10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.1
Concerning those, indeed, who crossed the Red Sea, the Apostle said that "all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." But concerning those who crossed the Jordan, we too can declare in like manner that "all were baptized" into Jesus in the Jordan, so that the things which are related to have been done in the Jordan hold the pattern of the sacrament which is celebrated through baptism. But that which is written—"and the people hastened and crossed the Jordan. And it came to pass, when all the people had passed over, the ark of the Lord's Covenant also passed over"—does not seem to me to have been added idly by the Holy Spirit, when it said that "the people hastened to cross over." Whence I too judge that for us as well, when we come to the saving baptism and receive the sacraments of the word of God, the matter must not be conducted idly nor sluggishly, but we must hasten and press on, until we "cross over" all things. For to "cross over" everything is to fulfill everything that is commanded. Let us hasten therefore to "cross over," that is, to fulfill first what is written: "blessed are the poor in spirit," so that, having laid aside all arrogance and taken up the humility of Christ, we may deserve to arrive at the promised beatitude. But even when we have fulfilled this, we must not stand still nor cease, but the other things that follow must also be crossed over, so that we may "hunger and thirst after righteousness." We must cross over also what follows, that in this world we may "mourn." Quickly too the rest must be crossed over, that we may become "meek" and may deserve to be "peacemakers" and through this may be able to hear ourselves called "sons of God." We must also hasten to cross over the weight of persecutions by the virtue of patience. And when we seek after these several things, which pertain to the glory of virtue, not sluggishly nor slackly but with all urgency and speed, this seems to me to be "to cross the Jordan" with haste. But when we have crossed over and have been able to obtain what we ought to obtain, again there succeeds for us the care of diligence and caution, lest perhaps, advancing too negligently, "our steps be poured out" by some unforeseen slip, as the prophet also says: "my steps had almost been poured out." Nor ought our solicitude to be slacker in preserving virtues than in acquiring them.
Joshua 4:13 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.2
Or do these things not seem to you to be indicated in this, when it is said that: "forty thousand men girded"—or "equipped"—"crossed over to battle in the sight of the Lord, to storm the city of Jericho"? Let us inquire who these are whom Scripture calls "girded" or "equipped." I do not dare to presume anything of myself and to declare it; rather, let us be taught in such matters by the letters of the Apostle. Who these "girded" ones are, let us learn as Paul expounds it. Hear what he himself says: "be therefore girded as to your loins in truth." You see, then, that Paul knows those to be "girded" who are girt about with the belt of "truth." Therefore for us too truth ought to be our belt, if indeed we have kept the sacrament of this warfare and of the belt. For if truth is our belt, by which we are girded for the warfare of Christ, whenever we speak falsehood and a lie proceeds from our mouth, we are ungirded from the warfare of Christ and are loosed from the baldric of truth. We are, therefore, "girded" if we are "in truth," but if in falsehood, ungirded. But let us rather imitate those "forty thousand girded men going forth to war in the sight of the Lord," and let us always "be girt about in truth." But I do not even pass idly over this, which Scripture added, that they were "girded in the sight of the Lord." For it is not enough for you to be seen among men to keep the truth. For it is possible to deceive men and to seem truthful, but you are not on that account "girded in truth," unless you have kept the truth also "in the sight of the Lord," that is, not only those things which men hear by the voice, but also those which God perceives in the heart. Let there be nothing "false on the tongue," let there be nothing feigned in the heart, according to what the prophet says of such men: "who speak peace with their neighbor, but evils are in their hearts." Free from all these, then, ought he to be who wishes "to go forth girded in the sight of the Lord to storm Jericho," because in crossing the river Jordan we cross over to combats and wars. Do you wish again to learn what battles, what wars await us after baptism? Learn not from me, but again from the Apostle Paul himself; he himself teaches you, saying: "for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Patterns and figures are the things which are written. For thus says the Apostle: "for all these things happened to them in figure, but they were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." If therefore "they were written for our sake," come, why do you delay? Let us go forth to war, that the first city of this world, malice, may be stormed by us, and the proud walls of sin be destroyed. You look about, perhaps, by what road you must advance, what field of contest must be sought out. It will perhaps seem new to you, what I am about to say, but nevertheless it is true: seek nothing outside, beyond yourself. Within you is the battle that you are to wage; within is that evil edifice which must be overthrown; your enemy "proceeds from" your "heart." This word is not mine, but Christ's; for hear him saying: "for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies." Do you see how great and what kind of an army of your enemies proceeds against you "from" your "heart"? These must be routed by us in the first slaughter, these laid low in the first line of battle. If we can overthrow their walls and cut them down to utter destruction, so that we "leave none of them" who may report back or "breathe," if now none of these bursts forth alive again in our thoughts, then that rest will be given to us through Jesus, so that "each one may rest under his own vine and under his own fig tree, when there is no longer any who may terrify the children of Isr…
Joshua 4:14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.3
Nevertheless, "forty thousand armed men, girded in the sight of the Lord for war," "cross" the Jordan, and then Scripture says that: "on that day the Lord exalted Jesus in the sight of the whole race of the children of Israel." This exaltation may indeed have belonged to the son of Nave, that as leader of the people he might be held magnificent among those whom he ruled; but let us see how our Jesus, my Lord, the leader and ruler of this people, "is exalted in the sight of the whole race of the children of Israel." I judge that he himself has always been "exalted" and lofty with the Father. But this is what is needed, that "God" may "exalt" him "in" our "sight." And he "is exalted in" my "sight" when the sublimity and loftiness of his divinity is opened to me. When, then, was his lofty divinity revealed to me? Then, assuredly, when I "crossed the Jordan" and was armed with the various defenses of the sacraments for the battles.
Joshua 4:14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.4
"And they feared Jesus," it says, "as they had feared Moses." Everyone who is under the law "fears Moses"; but when he has crossed over from the law to the gospel, the observance being changed, the fear too is changed, as the Apostle also says: "for I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live to God; I have been crucified together with Christ. Yet I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me."
Joshua 4:19 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.4
But when do they come to the crossing of the Jordan? For I have noted that this too was marked not without cause, so that the time also might be distinguished. "On the tenth day," it says, "of the first month." This is the very day on which the mystery of the lamb was commanded in Egypt. "On the tenth day of the first month" these things were celebrated in Egypt; "on the tenth day of the first month" they enter the land of promise; which seems to me very blessed, that on the very same day on which one has escaped the errors of the age, he should also deserve to enter the land of promise — that is, on this day on which we live in this age. For the whole of our present life is signified in a single day. And therefore we are taught through this mystery not to defer our acts and works of righteousness to the morrow, but today, that is, so long as we live, so long as we remain in this world, to hasten to fulfill all things that pertain to perfection, and so at last we shall be able "on the tenth day" "of the first month" to enter "the land of promise," that is, the blessedness of perfection. But also very many other things, if you observe them diligently, you will find recapitulated onto this day by the record of the Scriptures. Concerning each of these, that our discourse may not now be extended more than we wish, this must be understood about the fact that this day is so often repeated: that, although there is for us one general perfection, nevertheless each individual species of the virtues which we undertake to unfold, if we are able to complete it wholly and perfectly, has its own perfection proper to that very virtue. For example, if one who is prone to anger desires to attain the virtue of gentleness, without doubt he first stumbles in many things, until by long practice he converts the habit of much time into nature. And when he has obtained what he set out to do, he indeed attains the perfection of gentleness, yet not on that account does he also possess the perfection of all the virtues. So, then, through the individual virtues many perfections are found. But that general perfection is the one which contains in itself the sum of all the perfections. For this reason, therefore, many things done are recapitulated onto this one day, that they may signify many perfections tending toward one end, just as the prophet also says: "my soul has journeyed much"; and again: "while they say to me day by day: where is your God? these things I remembered, and I poured out my soul within me; for I shall pass over into the place of the wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God, in the voice of exultation and confession, the sound of them that feast." For after the labors and temptations which we shall have endured in the wilderness of this world, after the crossing of the Red Sea, after the streams of the Jordan, if we shall be worthy to enter "the land of promise," we shall arrive with gladness and exultation, following the priests of the Lord Christ and our Savior, to whom is "glory and power unto the ages of ages." Amen!
Joshua 5:2-3 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.7
What does it profit, if we fast for our sins and again commit sins? What does it profit to have washed and again to wallow in the mire? Have you fasted for some time? It is as though in the meantime you had departed from Egypt. You have crossed the Red Sea, you have followed Moses, observing that is to say the precepts and commandments of the law; but now Jesus has received you from Moses, who also "circumcises you a second time," in the place which is called "the hill of foreskins." You must therefore be circumcised not only of the worship of idols, which you cast away in the beginning, but again avarice too must be circumcised from you, which is the subtler worship of idols. Finally Jesus, circumcising the people with a second circumcision, speaks thus: "Today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt." So long as we sin, so long as the vices of the passions reign in us, even though, having abandoned the images, we seem to have departed from Egypt, yet the "reproach of Egypt" has not been taken away from us. If therefore you receive this second circumcision of the vices and cut away from yourself every vice of anger, pride, envy, lust, avarice, iniquity and the rest of the like, then the "reproaches of Egypt" will be wiped away from you, and, carried over into the land of promise, you will receive the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, through the true Jesus, Christ our Lord and Savior, "to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Joshua 5:2-3 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.5
After these things the son of Nave is commanded "to make knives of stone and, sitting down, to circumcise the children of Israel a second time." I would in this place inquire of the Jews how anyone can "be circumcised a second time" with a carnal circumcision. For once a person is circumcised, he has nothing further that can be taken away a second time. But by us, to whom it is said that "the law is spiritual," see how worthily and fittingly these things are resolved. For we say that he who has been instructed in the law and taught through Moses has cast off the errors of idolatry and laid aside the superstition and worship of images. This is the first circumcision, through the law. But if he comes from the law and the prophets to the faith of the gospel, then he receives also a second circumcision through "the rock, which is Christ," and there is fulfilled that which the Lord said to Jesus: "today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from the children of Israel." And just as the Apostle said: "for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ," so also we in this place can fittingly say: they were circumcised "of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ." For unless a person has been cleansed through the gospel by the second circumcision, he cannot lay aside "the reproach of Egypt," that is, the enticements of bodily vices.
Joshua 5:8 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.1
Those who were disobedient to the commands of the Lord are called uncircumcised. From this it is understood that those are named uncircumcised who do not obey the commandments of God. But nevertheless both the circumcised and the uncircumcised — because God loves every soul — he does not utterly abandon. For he sent Jesus, who would circumcise all at once, both the worthy and the unworthy — not Jesus the son of Nave, for that man did not circumcise the people with a true and perfect circumcision — but Jesus our Lord and Savior. For it is he who truly cuts away from us the pollution of the flesh and purges from our heart and soul the defilements of sins. Listen, then, to what Scripture says in those things which were prefigured through the son of Nave. "But the children of Israel, having been circumcised," it says, "rested, sitting in the same place in the camp, until they were healed. And then the Lord said to Jesus: this day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you." For it is not enough for us to be "circumcised," but also after circumcision to be "healed," that is, until the very wound of circumcision closes over with a scar. When, then, is the scar closed over the wound of our circumcision? I judge it thus, that to be circumcised through our Jesus is to lack vices, to lay aside evil habits and the worst practices, to cut away foul and disordered manners and whatever shrinks back from the rule of honor and piety. But when we do this in the beginnings, we are constrained by the very difficulty, so to speak, of the newness, and as though with a certain labor and grief of soul we change the faults of our old habit by a new practice. And therefore there is, as I said, a certain difficulty in the beginnings, and only with hardship and pain are we able to amputate the first things and take up the second. This, then, seems to me to be the time in which, as though in the pain of our circumcision, we are said "to remain, until," the scar having closed, "we are healed." And we close the scar when we now fulfill the new practices without difficulty, and what before seemed difficult, as being unaccustomed, turns into a habit for us. And then indeed we are said truly to be "healed," when, lacking vices, by a new practice we turn virtue into nature.
Joshua 5:9 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.7
What does it profit, if we fast for our sins and again commit sins? What does it profit to have washed and again to wallow in the mire? Have you fasted for some time? It is as though in the meantime you had departed from Egypt. You have crossed the Red Sea, you have followed Moses, observing that is to say the precepts and commandments of the law; but now Jesus has received you from Moses, who also "circumcises you a second time," in the place which is called "the hill of foreskins." You must therefore be circumcised not only of the worship of idols, which you cast away in the beginning, but again avarice too must be circumcised from you, which is the subtler worship of idols. Finally Jesus, circumcising the people with a second circumcision, speaks thus: "Today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt." So long as we sin, so long as the vices of the passions reign in us, even though, having abandoned the images, we seem to have departed from Egypt, yet the "reproach of Egypt" has not been taken away from us. If therefore you receive this second circumcision of the vices and cut away from yourself every vice of anger, pride, envy, lust, avarice, iniquity and the rest of the like, then the "reproaches of Egypt" will be wiped away from you, and, carried over into the land of promise, you will receive the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, through the true Jesus, Christ our Lord and Savior, "to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Joshua 5:9 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 5.6
Let us see, however, what this very thing is which is said: "today I have taken away the reproach from the children of Israel." All men, even if they come from the law, even if they have been instructed through Moses, nevertheless have "the reproach of Egypt" in themselves, the "reproach" of sins. Who will be like Paul even according to the observance of the law? Hear then him himself saying: "according to the righteousness which is in the law, having conducted myself without blame." Yet he himself declares and says: "for we too were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures, in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." Do these things not seem to you to be "reproaches," and "reproaches of Egypt"? But from the time that Christ came and gave us the second circumcision "through the washing of regeneration" and cleansed our souls, we cast off all these things and in their place took up the pledge of a good conscience toward God. Then through the second circumcision the "reproaches of Egypt" were taken away from us and the vices of sins were cleansed. Let no one, therefore, if he has been wholly converted, if he has repented from the heart, if he has faithfully departed from the streams of the Jordan, if he has been cleansed by the second circumcision through the gospel, fear the "reproaches" of past transgressions. You hear that "today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt." This the Lord signifies also in the Gospels, when he says: "your sins are forgiven you," "but now sin no more, lest something worse befall you." For if after the remission of sins you sin no more, truly "the reproach of Egypt has been taken away from you." But if you sin again, again the old reproaches are rolled back upon you, all the more so as it is a much greater crime "to trample the Son of God underfoot and to count the blood of the covenant a polluted thing" than to neglect the law of Moses. For much greater is the reproach of him who fornicates after the gospel than of him who, being placed under the law, does so, because this one, taking away "the members of Christ, makes them members of a harlot." You see, then, how much graver and more heaped-up are the reproaches that are rolled back upon you, if you have been negligent. Indeed, now no one accuses you as guilty of debauchery, but condemns you for the crime of sacrilege, because it is said to you: "know you not that your bodies are the temple of God?"; "but if any man violate the temple of God, God shall destroy him." Even if you were formerly ignorant of these things, yet now, from the time that these words are spoken in your ears and a doctrine of this kind is poured into your heart, know that, having heard these things, you have now been made "the temple of God" and "a member of Christ." See how much you have advanced from an earthly little man: you have without doubt progressed into "the temple of God," in which God ought to dwell, and you who were flesh and blood have advanced so as to be "a member of Christ." But just as this advance is great, so also the departure is terrible and the fall irremediable. For now it is not permitted to you to use "the temple of God" except in holiness, nor to recall "the members of Christ" to an unworthy business. And therefore, if ever the enticement of some evil concupiscence assails you, mindful of these things which you now hear, go to meet that enemy who "proceeds from" your very self, that is, "from your heart," and resist him in such words as these; say: "I am not my own, for I have been bought with a price," "the blood of Christ," and I have been made "a member" of him—it is not permitted to me "to take a member of Christ and make it a member of a harlot." Say to him that I have been made "the temple of God"—it is not permitted to me to bring anything unclean in there, nor is it lawful for me to violate "the temple of God." But add this too, that "he who fornicates sins against his own body," not only…
Joshua 5:10-11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.233-35
After they observed the Passover in Egypt, they began the exodus. In the book of Joshua, however, after the crossing of the Jordan, on the tenth day of the first month they encamped in Gilgal.…Then the sons of Israel observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month much more cheerfully than the one in Egypt, seeing that they also "ate unleavened bread and fresh from the grain of the holy land," a food better than the manna. For God does not feed them on lesser foods when they have received the land according to promise, nor do they obtain inferior bread through Jesus [Joshua] who is so great. This will be clear to the one who has perceived the true holy land and the Jerusalem above.
Joshua 5:10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.1
And so at last the divine word rightly says to us those things which follow: "this day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you," because, after "the reproach of Egypt was taken away," it is then said: "and the children of Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month." For they could not "keep the Passover" before circumcision, nor eat the flesh of the lamb immediately after circumcision, before they were "healed." But after they "were healed," it is said that: "the children of Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month." You see, then, that no one unclean "keeps the Passover," no one uncircumcised, but whoever is clean and circumcised, just as the Apostle also interprets it, saying: "for indeed Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." … But meanwhile, after Jesus led his people into the holy land, then, when all had been conquered, he celebrates the Passover.
Joshua 5:11 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.4
But see what fruits he first receives in the land of promise: then, it says, "they ate" first "of the fruits" from the region of palms, and "they ate" first "the unleavened bread." You see, therefore, that when we have first departed from the journey of this world, if we rightly follow Jesus, the first thing that meets us is the palm of victory, and, when the "leaven of malice and wickedness" has been cast away, the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" is prepared for us.
Joshua 5:11 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.1
But at that time, indeed, when the people went out from the land of Egypt, "each carried, sprinkled in his garments," what was strewn. But when what was strewn had run out and they had no bread, God "rained down manna" for them. But when they came to the holy land and "took the fruits of the province of the palms," the "manna failed" them, and then they began to eat of the fruits of the land. And so three kinds of food are described in general. The first, indeed, is that on which we feed as we go out from the land of Egypt, but this suffices for a little time. After this, however, the manna succeeds. But the third we now "take" as "fruit" from the holy land. In which differences, as far as the understanding of my littleness reaches, I judge this to be indicated: that the first food, which we carried with us as we went out from Egypt, is this small schoolboy learning (or even, if perhaps someone has attained something of liberal letters), which can help us but a little. But placed in the desert — that is, in this state of life in which we now are — we feed on the manna through this, that we are instructed by the teachings of the divine law. But whoever has deserved to enter the "land of promise" — that is, to attain those things which have been promised by the Savior — he will eat the "fruits from the region of the palms." For truly he will find the "fruit of the palm" who, having overcome the enemy, has arrived at the things promised. For it is certain that, however great those things are which we can now understand or perceive in the law of God or in the divine writings, far more sublime and lofty will be those which, when the "riddle" ceases, all the saints will deserve to "see" "face to face," because "the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have ascended into the heart of man, these has God prepared for those who love him."
Joshua 5:12 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.4
But see what fruits he first receives in the land of promise: then, it says, "they ate" first "of the fruits" from the region of palms, and "they ate" first "the unleavened bread." You see, therefore, that when we have first departed from the journey of this world, if we rightly follow Jesus, the first thing that meets us is the palm of victory, and, when the "leaven of malice and wickedness" has been cast away, the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" is prepared for us.
Joshua 5:12 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.1
But if the law is to be understood according to the letter alone, the children of Israel will without doubt be found — when they were using better things, for they were taking manna from heaven — to have received worse things from the promise, whereas, when the Egyptian foods first failed them, a better food had succeeded, the manna from heaven. And how now will it be thought that, when the better food ceased, a worse succeeded, unless because a greater and truer meaning is grasped in the spiritual understanding than in the text of the letter?
Joshua 5:13 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.2
"And it came to pass," it says, "when Jesus was at Jericho, that looking up with his eyes he saw a man standing over against him, and a drawn sword was in his hand. And Jesus, drawing near, said to him: are you ours, or of our adversaries? And he said: I am the prince of the host of the Lord's power; now I have come." "Looking up," then, "with his eyes he sees the prince of the Lord's host," as one who had not "looked up" before, but only then, when he was about to see the "prince of the Lord's host." Yet when Jesus had seen him, he did not see him as a common man, but understood that he was a certain power. Nevertheless he is not yet certain whether the one who appears is one from the divine powers or from the contrary ones, and therefore he asks and inquires, saying: "are you ours, or of our adversaries?"
Joshua 5:13 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.11
And therefore one must beware and act carefully, so that you may knowingly discern the kind of visions, just as Joshua the son of Nun also, when he saw a vision, knowing that there was temptation in this, at once inquires of him who appeared and says: "Are you ours or of our adversaries?" So then the advancing soul also, when it has come to this point, that it now begins to have discernment of visions, will thereby be proved to be spiritual, if it knows how to discern all things. Finally, therefore, among the spiritual gifts as well, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is said to be the discernment of spirits.
Joshua 5:14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.2
And he says: "I am the prince of the host of the Lord's power; now I have come." And when he had heard this, Jesus worshiped and said: "Lord, what do you command your servant?" What is it that Jesus teaches us through this? That, without doubt, which the Apostle says: "do not believe every spirit, but test whether it is of God." Jesus, then, recognized not only that "he is of God," but that he is God; for he would not have worshiped had he not recognized God. For who else is the "prince of the host of the Lord's powers" but our Lord Jesus Christ? For all the host of heaven, whether angels or archangels, or powers "or dominions or principalities or authorities," all these, which were made through him, do military service under him as prince, who is the prince of princes and who bestows principalities upon princes. For it is he who says in the Gospel: "be one having authority over ten cities," and to another: "be one having authority over five cities." It is he who, "having received the kingdom, returned."
Joshua 5:15 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.3
But meanwhile let us see what the present reading suggests. Jesus is at Jericho; the enemies still hold the city and are not yet conquered. Yet already it is said to Jesus: "loose the shoe from your feet; for the place in which you stand is holy ground." And how is Jericho "holy ground," which is held by the enemies? But perhaps this is what is indicated: that wherever the "prince of the host of the Lord's power" comes, he sanctifies the place, because Jericho itself was not a holy place; but because the "prince of the Lord's host" came there, the place is called "holy." I even dare something further, and say that even where Moses stood, of itself it was not a holy place, but because the Lord stood with Moses, the presence of the Lord had sanctified the place, and therefore it is said to him: "loose the strap of your shoe: for the place in which you stand is holy ground." Whence we too, if by our life and merits we draw near to the Lord and are made worthy for God to stand by us, it is said also to us that we should loose from the feet of our soul whatever bond of mortality is bound to them. For these are the "feet" which Jesus "washes"; which, "unless he washes them, we shall have no part with him." So then, if we loose from our soul and senses every bond of mortal care, immediately God too will gladly be present and stand by us.
Joshua 6:18 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.4
But let us see what it is that is indicated in what follows. For Jesus says: "keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest perhaps you covet and take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of the children of Israel accursed, and crush yourselves and the whole synagogue of the Lord." Such is what is indicated in these words: see that you have nothing worldly in you, that you do not carry along with you into the church worldly ways, nor vices, nor the shiftiness of the world; but let all worldly conduct be "accursed" to you. Do not mix worldly things with divine, do not insert the business of the age into the secret things of the church. This is what John too sounds forth with the trumpet of his epistle, saying: "do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world." And Paul likewise: "do not," he says, "be conformed to this world." For those who do these things "take of the accursed thing." But also those who, for example, though they are Christians, celebrate the festivals of the nations, bring "the accursed thing" into the churches. Those who search out the lives and deeds of men from the courses of the stars, who inquire into the flights of birds and other things of this kind, which were formerly observed in the world, bring "the accursed thing" from Jericho into the church, and defile the camp of the Lord, and cause the people of God to be conquered. But there are also many other sins through which "the accursed thing" from Jericho is brought into the church; through which the people of God is conquered and laid low by its enemies. Or does not the Apostle also enjoin these very things when he says: "a little leaven corrupts the whole lump"?
Joshua 6:20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.2
I am indeed also moved by this, which the narrative relates: that not only did the priests sound the trumpets so that the walls of Jericho might fall, but also that, "when the voice of the trumpet was heard," it is said that "the whole people howled with a great howling," or, as it stands in other copies, "shouted for joy with a great jubilation." And although this word may seem to have been improperly translated — for in the Greek it is written ἀλαλαγμός, which properly signifies neither jubilation nor howling, but rather denotes that shout by which, in time of war, an army raising a united cry is accustomed with one mind to exhort itself to battle — yet in the Scriptures this word is customarily written down as jubilation rather than as howling, as there: "shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth," and again: "blessed is the people that knows the jubilation." And this saying too moves me: what so great a work this is, that it "makes the people blessed." He did not say "blessed is the people" that works righteousness, or "blessed is the people" that knows the mysteries, or that knows the reckoning of heaven and earth and the stars, but he says, "blessed is the people that knows the jubilation." In other places the fear of God makes one blessed, but it makes only a single man blessed; for so it says: "blessed is the man that fears the Lord." Elsewhere too more are made blessed, such as the "poor in spirit," or the "meek," or the "peacemakers," or the "pure in heart." But this beatitude is lavished abroad, and by some cause of blessedness, I know not what, so great a thing is here indicated, that it makes the "whole people" alike "blessed" — the people, however, "that has known the jubilation." Hence it seems to me that this jubilation indicates a certain disposition of concord and unanimity. And if it should fall upon two or three of Christ's disciples, whatever they ask in the name of the Savior, the heavenly Father grants to them. But if the beatitude be so great that the whole people remains harmonious and of one mind, so that "all say the same thing, continuing in the same understanding and in the same judgment," then, when such a people lifts up its voice with one accord, there will come to pass that which is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that "there was a great earthquake," where at that time "the Apostles were praying with one accord together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus"; and when the earthquake has occurred, all things that are earthly will be destroyed and will fall, and the world itself will be overturned. Hear, finally, our Lord and Savior exhorting his soldiers to this very thing, how he says: "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Under that leader, then, the world has already been overcome by us, and its walls have collapsed — the walls on which the men of the age relied. But each one of us too ought to accomplish these things within his very self. You have within you Jesus as your leader through faith; make for yourself "trumpets of beaten metal," if you are a priest; nay rather, since you are a priest — for you have been made a "royal race," and a "holy priesthood" has been spoken of concerning you — make for yourself "trumpets of beaten metal" out of the holy Scriptures; from there draw your meanings, from there your words; for it is on this account that they are called trumpets of beaten metal. Sound upon them, that is, "sing in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs," sound in the prophetic sacraments, in the mysteries of the law, in the apostolic doctrines. And if you sound upon such trumpets and carry the ark of the testament around "seven times," that is, if you do not separate the mystical precepts of the law from the evangelical trumpets, if you also exact from your very self the harmony of jubilation — that is, if the people of your thoughts and senses, which is within you, always utters a concordant and consonant voice, and you do not sometimes speak the truth and sometime…
Joshua 6:20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.1
Jericho is overthrown by the trumpets of the priests. For at once, as soon as the blast of the trumpets sounded loudly, the whole circuit of walls was thrown down. We had already said before too that Jericho holds the figure of the present age, whose strength and defenses we see destroyed by the priestly trumpets. For the firmness and defenses which this world used as walls were the worship of idols, the deceit of divinations administered by the craft of demons, the fabrications of augurs and soothsayers and magicians — by all of which this world was fenced about as by the strongest walls. Moreover it was also fortified by the diverse doctrines of the philosophers and by the most lofty assertions of their disputations, as by certain tall and sturdy towers. But when our Lord Jesus Christ came, whose coming that former son of Nave prefigured, he sends his priests, the Apostles, bearing "trumpets of beaten metal," the magnificent and heavenly teaching of preaching. With the priestly trumpet Matthew first sounded loudly in his Gospel; Mark also, Luke, and John each sang with their priestly trumpets; Peter too resounds with the two trumpets of his epistles; James also and Jude. Nonetheless John also adds still further to sound the trumpet through his epistles, and Luke by describing the deeds of the Apostles. But last of all comes that one who said: "for I think that God has set forth us Apostles as the last," and, thundering in the trumpets of his fourteen epistles, he cast down to the very foundations the walls of Jericho and all the engines of idolatry and the doctrines of the philosophers.
Joshua 6:20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.3
Yet something in the passage still moves me: I seem to have perceived too little concerning the jubilation, to have said lowly things about great matters. At the coming of Jesus the walls of Jericho were overturned; at the coming of my Lord Jesus the world is conquered. Yet how the world is conquered, I would like to know more plainly and to understand more clearly the things that are said. I myself, who teach you, wish to learn together with you. Let us commonly take Paul to ourselves as our teacher; for he is the fellow-initiate of Christ, who can show us how Christ conquered the world. Hear him, then, saying: "that which was contrary to us, he took it out of the midst, nailing it to his cross; and stripping off the principalities and powers, he led them openly, triumphing over them on the wood of the cross." From these words, then, I understand this: that the heavenly powers, seeing the battle of Jesus, seeing the contrary "principalities and powers" stripped of their powers, seeing "the strong man bound and his vessels plundered," sounded their heavenly trumpets, because, when "the prince of this world" was bound, the world was conquered, and the heavenly army gave forth the voice of jubilation in the triumph of Christ. Truly, then, blessed is the people of the nations, which has come to know such a jubilation as this of the heavenly army, and which recognizes the mysteries and believes.
Joshua 6:20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.4
But let us see what things follow. Jericho is surrounded; it must be taken by storm. How, then, is Jericho stormed? No sword is drawn against it, no battering-ram is directed, nor are missiles hurled; only the priestly trumpets are employed, and by these the walls of Jericho are undermined. We frequently find in the Scriptures that Jericho is set down as a figure of this world. For in the Gospel too, that which is said, that "a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers," was without doubt an image of that Adam who was thrust from paradise into the exile of this world. And the "blind men" too, who were in Jericho, to whom Jesus came to make them see, bore the figure of those who in this world were pressed down by the blindness of ignorance, to whom the Son of God came. This Jericho, then — that is, this world — is to fall; for the consummation of the age has long since been made widely known in the sacred volumes. How, then, will its consummation be given? By what instruments? "By the voices," it says, "of the trumpets." Of which "trumpets"? Let Paul disclose to you the secret of this mystery; listen to what he himself says: "the trumpet shall sound," he says, "and the dead who are in Christ shall rise incorruptible," and: "the Lord himself, at the command, at the voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven." Then, therefore, Jesus our Lord, with the trumpets, conquers Jericho and lays it low, so that from it the harlot alone is saved, and all her house.
Joshua 6:20 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 28.11
The consummation of the world will not happen in stages, but suddenly. With this ought to be compared, I think, what was written in Joshua, when by a single sound of a trumpet the crumbling city of Jericho suddenly perished; and like this example Babylon also in the consummation of the age will fall and suddenly be obliterated.
Joshua 6:25 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.5
But let us now see the things that follow. Jericho having been overturned, Rahab the harlot alone is saved. For thus it is written of her: "and Rahab the harlot and all the house of her father, Jesus made alive; and she was joined to Israel unto this present day." I would like to inquire of the Jews, and of those who are indeed called Christians but still keep a Jewish sense in the Scriptures, how they explain that "Rahab the harlot was joined to the house of Israel unto this present day." How is Rahab said to be "joined unto this present day"? For it is the custom of holy Scripture to say this of those things which remain unto the end either of life or of the age. For example, as it says: "this is the father of the Moabites unto this present day," which signifies unto the end of the age. And again in the Gospel it is said that "this saying was spread abroad among the Jews unto this present day," that is, as long as the age stands. But how is Rahab, a woman, said to be "joined to the house of Israel unto this present day"? Is a succession of posterity ascribed to a mother, so that she may seem to be preserved in the renewal of offspring? Or is it rather to be understood that she "has been joined" and made a companion to the true Israel "unto this present day"? And if you wish to see more plainly how "Rahab is joined to Israel," look at how "the branch of the wild olive is grafted into the root of the good olive tree," and you will understand how those who have been grafted into the faith of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are rightly said to be "set beside" and "joined to Israel unto this present day," because in their "root" we, "the branches of the wild olive" taken from among the nations — we who once played the harlot, worshiping "wood and stone" in place of the true God — "have been set beside them unto this present day," and, on account of faith in Christ, we have been made "above," while that people which has remained unbelieving has been made "below," according to the prophecy of Deuteronomy. If anyone, then, has within himself Christ, who is "the head of all," this one is made "into the head"; for they denied Christ Jesus and were made into the tail, and those who were "first" have been made "last."
Joshua 6:25 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 6.4
"The Lord" our Jesus "shall come," then, "and shall come at the voice of the trumpets." But even now let us pray that he may come and destroy this "world," which "is set in wickedness," and "all the things that are in the world," because "everything that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes." May he destroy those things, may he now, this very moment, dissolve them, but may he save this one alone, who received his spies, who received his Apostles in faith and obedience and set them in the upper rooms, and may he join and unite this harlot with the house of Israel. But let us now not bring up again nor reckon against her the old fault. Once she was a harlot, but now she is joined as "a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." Hear the Apostle saying of her: "for I have determined this very thing, to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." From her too was that very one who said: "for we also were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures." Do you wish to learn yet more fully how the harlot is now no longer a harlot? Hear Paul saying further: "and such indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." For that she might be able to escape, lest she perish with Jericho, she received from the spies a most powerful "sign" of salvation, the "scarlet cord." For through the blood of Christ this whole Church is saved, in Christ himself our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 7:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.6
But this too must not be run over idly: that when one man sinned, wrath came upon the whole people. How does this happen? When the priests, who are set over the people, wish to seem kindly toward wrongdoers, and, fearing the tongues of sinners lest perhaps they speak ill of them, forgetful of priestly severity, are unwilling to fulfill what is written: "rebuke the sinner before all, that the rest may have fear," and again: "take away the evil from among your own selves," nor, kindled with zeal for God, do they imitate the Apostle who says that "such a man is to be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved." Nor do they strive to fulfill that evangelical precept that, if they see one sinning, they should first meet him privately, afterward also with "two or three witnesses"; and if he shall have despised this and after the church's correction shall not have been amended, they should hold him, expelled from the church, "as a heathen and a publican." And while they spare one, they contrive the ruin of the whole church. What kind of goodness is this, what kind of mercy is it, to spare one and to bring all into danger? For the people is defiled by one sinner. Just as by one diseased sheep the whole flock is infected, so also, when one man either fornicates or commits any other kind of crime, the whole populace is defiled. And therefore let us watch over one another, and let the conduct of each one be known, especially to the priests and ministers. Nor let them think they are speaking rightly when they say: what does this concern me, if another does evil? This is to say, as the head says to the feet: what does it pertain to me, if my feet ache, if they are in a bad state? it is no concern of mine, so long as the head continues in health; or as if the eye should say to the hand: I do not need your work, what does it pertain to me if you ache, if you are wounded? shall I, the eye, be troubled by the sickness of the hand? Such, then, is what those do who preside over the churches, not considering that we who believe are all "one body," having one God, who binds us together in unity and holds us fast, namely Christ, of whose body you, who preside over the church, are the eye — for this very purpose, surely, that you may look around upon all things, survey all things, and even foresee things to come. You are a shepherd; you see the little sheep of the Lord, unaware of the danger, being carried to the precipices and hanging over the crags: do you not run to meet them? do you not call them back? do you not at least restrain them with your voice and deter them with the shout of rebuke? Are you so forgetful of the Lord's sacrament that, whereas he, "having left the ninety-nine in the heavens" for the sake of one little sheep "that had gone astray," descended to the earth and, having found it, "carried it back upon his shoulders" to heaven, we in no way at all follow the example of the master shepherd in caring for the little sheep? We do not say these things in order that anyone should be cut off for a slight fault; but if perhaps someone, having been admonished and rebuked for his offense once and again and a third time, has shown no amendment, let us use the discipline of the physician. If we have anointed with oil, if we have soothed with plasters, if we have softened with a poultice, and yet the hardness of the swelling does not yield to the medicines, the only remaining remedy is to cut it away. For so the Lord also says: "if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it away from you." Does the hand of our body ever "cause us to stumble," or is it about this hand of the body that the Gospel says: "cut it off, and cast it away from you"? But this is what it means: that I, who seem to you to be the right hand and am named a presbyter and seem to preach the word of God, if I do anything against ecclesiastical discipline and the rule of the Gospel, so that I cause a stumbling-block…
Joshua 7:21 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.7
But let us also see what his very sin was: "he stole," it says, "a tongue of gold, and placed it in his tent." I do not think that in that theft of a little gold there was such force of sin that it could stain so innumerable a church of the Lord. But let us see whether perhaps, in the inner understanding, the bitterness of this sin is so great and so grave. There is much beauty in words, and much loveliness in the discourses of the philosophers or the rhetoricians, who are all from the city of Jericho, that is, men of this world. If, then, you find among the philosophers perverse doctrines adorned with the assertions of brilliant speech, this is "the tongue of gold." But see that the splendor of the work does not deceive you, that the beauty of golden speech does not carry you away; remember that Jesus commanded all the gold that should be found in Jericho to be "accursed." If you read a poet weaving gods and goddesses in measured verses and in resplendent song, do not be delighted by the sweetness of eloquence: for it is a tongue of gold; if you take it up and place it in your tent, if you bring into your heart the things that are asserted by them, you will defile the whole church of the Lord. This the wretched Valentinus did, and Basilides; this Marcion also did. These men stole "tongues of gold" from Jericho and attempted to introduce into the churches the not-upright sects of the philosophers and to defile the whole church of the Lord. But let us follow the preceding example of the fathers; let us examine more diligently, lest anyone should have a Jerichoan "tongue" hidden in his tent, and let us cast away the evil from our very selves, because, even if we hold back, God will convict him, so that he himself will spontaneously confess and say: "I stole a tongue of gold and pure bracelets." Do you see of what sort was the theft he stole? He steals "a tongue" and "pure bracelets." Now "pure bracelets" are works in which nothing divine is mixed, but the whole is carried out according to man. Indeed, in our disputations too it is customary to say that we do not call Christ a mere man, but confess him God and man. But that which is stolen from Jericho is said to be "pure," that is, without God — which, for the one stealing it, was surely the cause of sin. And therefore let us perceive nothing pure and human concerning Christ, but let us confess him God and man alike, because the "wisdom" of God is also called "manifold," so that through these things we may deserve to take a share in "the wisdom of God," which is "Christ" Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Joshua 8:12-16 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.2
When these things have been heard, it is likely that the hearers will say: what is this to me? What does it profit me if I come to know that those who inhabited Ai were conquered, as though similar or even more powerful wars had not been waged or are not being waged? Was this the care of the Holy Spirit, that, leaving aside the destructions of so many and so great and noble cities, the battle of the city of Ai should be written and consigned to the sacred volumes? Perhaps what we are doing is rash, in that we attempt to explain places of Holy Scripture so lofty and so difficult; but if you aid us with your prayers, we shall not only escape the fault of audacity, but also God the Father of the Word, embracing our devotion, "will give a word for the opening of our mouth," whereby both you may be edified and we may appear not undevout. Praying, therefore, and attentive in mind, listen. First, because of our sins we were conquered, and those who inhabited Ai slew a great many of us. Ai is interpreted "Chaos." But we know that Chaos is the place or dwelling of the contrary powers, whose king and prince is the devil. Coming against him, Jesus divides the people into two parts, and some indeed he stations in the front, others in the rear, who may come unexpectedly upon the backs of the enemy. And see whether that is not the first part of the people, of which he says: "I have not come except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and of which the Apostle says: "but grace and peace to every man who works good, to the Jew first, then also to the Greek," that is, to the Gentile who comes after. This, then, is the people who is stationed in front and, as it were, flees with Jesus. But the latter people is the one which is gathered from the nations, and which, coming unexpectedly — for who would have hoped that the nations would be saved? — cuts down the adversaries the more fiercely from behind; and thus each people lays low and conquers the throng of demons enclosed in the middle.
Joshua 8:14-29 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.1
We entreat you, O hearers of the sacred volumes, not to listen with weariness or distaste to the things that are read, on the ground that their narrative seems to be less delightful. For you ought to know that the things which are read are indeed worthy of the utterance of the Holy Spirit, but for explaining them we have need of that grace of the Holy Spirit of which the Apostle speaks: "to one, moreover, is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit." We too, then, have need of these things in the present passages, in which it is related that Jesus succeeded Moses, and that he himself leads the people, and a certain such history is prefigured in the present reading. Those who inhabited the city of Ai at first seemed indeed to conquer and to turn back the sons of Israel because of the sin which they had committed. But afterward, when the evil had been removed from their midst, Jesus, the leader of the people, is commanded by God to divide the people into two parts, so that one part should feign flight, while the other part should lie waiting in ambush, by which Ai might be deceived when Jesus should give the command. When these things had been thus arranged, "the king of Ai, seeing" Jesus and the sons of Israel from afar, "is stirred up against them into battle." And when the former feigned flight, the others pursue them the more fiercely, and, as though about to carry off spoils from the enemy, all together "go forth out of the city," so that, as Scripture says, "they left the city empty." But after they had advanced to the appointed place, Jesus turned and gave a signal that "those who were in the ambushes should rise up" and cut down the backs of the enemy; and thus those who were last and these who were first slay all the enemy enclosed in the middle. And in this manner, when those who inhabited Ai had been conquered, "they hanged" their "king upon a double wood."
Joshua 8:15-16 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.6
But something else also occurs to me as I consider in this place "Jesus fleeing from the face" of the army of Ai. What do you think it is that "Jesus fleeing" signified? Let us see whether perhaps there is something which we conquer by fleeing, and there is some perfect virtue in flight. Paul the Apostle teaches us, saying: "flee fornication." You see, then, that there is a certain "spirit of fornication," which we ought to flee, whoever of us wishes to remain chastely and piously and modestly in Christ. This flight, then, is the one which has salvation; this flight is of virtue; this flight confers blessedness. And not only is the spirit of fornication to be fled, but in like manner, just as it was said, "flee fornication," let us hear it said to us: flee anger, flee avarice, flee envy and spite, flee detractions and evil-speakings. And yet I know not whether anyone escapes these, I know not whether anyone gets away. Such was that army of Ai, which Jesus taught his soldiers to flee, and concerning these perhaps he commands his disciples, saying: "if they persecute you in this city, flee into another; and if in another, flee into another." For he wishes us to flee from enemies of this kind, he wishes us to be made far from evils of this kind; and if in the meanwhile we can escape the contagions of these evils by fleeing, then, seeing the devotion and the purpose of our mind, certain holy virtues — those perhaps of which the Apostle Paul says: "are they not all ministering spirits sent forth into ministry for the sake of those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" — who perhaps are the holy angels, who, seeing us suffer the pursuit of the demons, rise up against those who pursue us and, cutting them all down from behind, slay them. For Jesus is with those who suffer pursuit, rather than with those who persecute. And rightly, because Jesus delights to be with those who "flee fornication," who flee pride, who flee deceit, and who flee falsehood. If, then, we thus understand the things which are written, the reading will perhaps seem worthy of the pen of the Holy Spirit. For what does it profit me if I know that "the king of Ai was hanged upon a double wood"? But if I know that the virtue of the cross is twofold, on which both Christ is hanged in the flesh and the devil with his army is triumphed over, from the understanding of the sacrament my soul will be edified. And still more perhaps, that we may extend the breadth of the mystery yet more loftily, in this wood is understood to be "the knowledge of good and evil," on which both the good Christ and the evil devil hung, but the evil one indeed that he might perish, and the good one that he might live from power; as the Apostle also says concerning Christ, that "even if he was crucified from weakness, yet he lives from the power of God." Nay, not only that he might live, but that he might give life, because he is "the last Adam unto a life-giving spirit." But these things must be understood to be said figuratively; for Christ himself is called "the tree of life." But just as in other passages he is shown to be both priest and victim and altar, and the one meaning is not hindered by the other, but each single thing is understood figuratively concerning him in its own places, so also now in the figures of the sacraments the diversity of persons taken up concerning one and the same thing will not hinder.
Joshua 8:15-16 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.2
But perhaps you may say to me: how, then, is the former people set as though fleeing? And quite consistently. For those who follow Jesus were seen to flee from the legal burdens and precepts, from the observance of the sabbath, from the circumcision of the flesh, from the slaughter of victims. But again he who has followed Christ, the perfection and fullness of the law, does not flee.
Joshua 8:22 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.7
But let us see what is also written in what follows: "and they struck them," he says, "with the edge of the sword, until there was not left of them one who might be saved, nor who might escape." When the Jews read these things, they become cruel and thirst for human blood, thinking that the saints too struck those who inhabited Ai, so that "there should not be left of them one who might be saved, nor who might escape," not understanding that in these words mysteries are foreshadowed, and that this is rather indicated to us, that of these whose dwelling is chaos and who reigned in the abyss, of the demons, we ought to leave none at all, but to slay them all. But we slay the demons not by destroying their very substance; but because their work and their zeal is this, to make men sin, and this is their life, if we sin, without doubt it is their destruction, if we do not sin. Therefore the saints slay the inhabitants of Ai and destroy them and do not let go one of them — those, without doubt, who with all diligence guard their heart, lest "evil thoughts proceed" from it; but also those who watch over their mouth, so that "every evil word may not proceed from" their "mouth": this is "to leave none who might escape," when no evil word escapes them either. Come, then, you too, let us prepare ourselves for battles of this kind, let us strike Ai "with the edge of the sword" and extinguish all who inhabit chaos, all the contrary powers. Would that I too, even now, while I speak the word of God to you, might be able to strike the heart of the sinner! For if I do so, it is certain that with the "sword of my mouth" I shall strike fornication, I shall strike malice, I shall repress fury and, if there are any other evils, "with the edge of the sword," that is, with the speech of my mouth, I shall quench them and "shall not leave of them one who might be saved, nor who might escape." For if we extinguish all these enemies of ours, then we shall truly celebrate a feast day to God and, our adversaries being vanquished, we shall rejoice with glad solemnity. Some such thing seems to me to be signified also by the holy prophet in the psalms, where he says of himself that "in the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity." For whether "the city of the Lord" is taken to be the church of the living God, the teachers cast out from the church and slay those "who work iniquity," the contrary demons and the adversary powers, who compel men to sin by teaching, by instructing, and by unlocking the mysteries hidden in the divine letters from such places as those in which we now are; or whether by "the city of the Lord" we understand the soul of each one of us, which is built by the Lord from "living stones," that is, from various and diverse virtues: from that city too every holy and diligent man casts out "the sinners," that is, "slays in the morning" the worst thoughts and depraved desires. For the just man says: "in the mornings I meditated on you, because you were my helper." What is this "morning," except our Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the true light" and "rising in our hearts" and illuminating the darkness of our ignorance and revealing to us mysteries of this kind, makes us "see light in his light"? If ever, then, you read in the holy scriptures of the battles of the just, the slaughters and the massacres of the slain, and that the saints spare none at all of the enemy — nay rather, that even if they had spared, "it is reckoned to them as sin," just as "it was reckoned" to Saul, who "had preserved alive Agag king of Amalek" — understand the wars of the just in this manner in which we have expounded above, because these wars are waged by them against sin. But how will the just remain, if they have reserved even some little of sin in themselves? And therefore it is said of these that "they left not even one who might be saved or escape." Perhaps you may not believe me that a battl…
Joshua 8:28 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.5
But let us see what follows in the sequel: "and Jesus burned Ai," he says, "and it was made a wasteland, that it should not be inhabited forever." You see that these things which follow pertain more to the truth of the mystery than of the history. For that place of earth is not so much uninhabitable forever as the place of the demons will then be uninhabitable, when now no one will sin, "neither will sin reign" in anyone, when the devil and his angels will be delivered to eternal fire, our Lord Jesus Christ sitting as king and judge and saying to those who conquered, both the first and the last: "come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you by my Father." But to the others he will say: "go into the eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels," until he takes counsel with remedies for every soul, for those whom he himself knows, and "all Israel is made safe."
Joshua 8:29 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.4
But if perchance there is some more attentive hearer, he can say: the form of the things done seems indeed to be fitting, but this still troubles me, that the devil and his army, as far as is shown by the figure of the history, was destroyed; and how do we still see both the devil and the contrary powers to prevail so greatly against the servants of God, that even the Apostle Peter with great caution forewarns and says that it must be observed that "our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour"? Let us see, therefore, whether in this too we can find something worthy of the utterances of the Holy Spirit. One coming of Christ was accomplished in lowliness, but another is hoped for in glory; and this first coming in the flesh is, by a certain mystical manner of speech, in the holy scriptures called his "shadow," just as the prophet Jeremiah also announces, saying: "the spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, of whom we said: in his shadow we shall live among the nations." But Gabriel too, when he brought Mary the good tidings concerning his nativity, says: "the power of the Most High shall overshadow you." Wherefore we understand that very many things are foreshadowed at this first coming of his, whose fulfillment and perfection is consummated at the second coming. And the Apostle Paul says that "he raised us up together with him, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." And yet we do not yet see believers either already "raised up" or "seated together in the heavenly places," but these things are indeed now foreshadowed through faith, because in mind and hope we are lifted up from earthly and dead works and we raise our heart to heavenly and eternal things; yet this will be fulfilled at his second coming, so that the things which we now have anticipated by faith and hope, we may then also hold bodily by the actual accomplishment. So, then, concerning the devil also it must be understood that he was indeed conquered and crucified, but for those who have been crucified with Christ; but for all believers and for all the peoples alike he will then be crucified, when that shall be fulfilled which the Apostle says, that "as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." There is therefore in this also the mystery of the future resurrection. For then too the people will be divided into two parts, there will then also be some first and others last, who, when they have conspired together into one under Jesus, then already the devil shall no longer be at all, because "there shall no more be death." Do you wish that we prove these things to you also by divine testimonies? Hear the Apostle saying: "for this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we who live, who are left, at the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep, because the Lord himself, at the command, at the voice of the archangel and at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven, and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first, then we who live, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord." And speaking about the devil he says: "the last enemy that is destroyed is death," because then death is truly "conquered," when "this mortal is swallowed up by life."
Joshua 8:29 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.3
But after all things, even "the king of Ai" is said "to be hanged upon a double wood." In this place a mystery is concealed which lies hidden from very many, but, with you praying, we shall attempt to open these things not by our own opinions, but by the testimonies of divine Scripture. In the foregoing we said that the king of Ai may be compared to the devil; here it is worth the effort to know how "he is crucified upon a double wood." The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was double. Perhaps what I say seems to you a strange and novel saying: that the cross was double, that is, it consists of a twofold and double reasoning; because visibly indeed the Son of God was crucified in the flesh, but invisibly upon that cross the devil with "his principalities and powers was affixed to the cross." Will this not seem true to you if I produce for you the Apostle Paul as witness of these things? Hear, then, what he himself declares concerning these things: "that which was," he says, "contrary to us, he took it away out of the midst, affixing it to his cross, and stripping the principalities and powers he displayed them openly, triumphing over them on the wood of the cross" — although in other copies it is found: "triumphing over them in himself," but among the Greeks it is found "on the wood." Therefore the reasoning of the Lord's cross is twofold: one, that by which the Apostle Peter says that "Christ, crucified, left us an example," and this second, by which that "cross" was a trophy over the devil, "on which he was both crucified and triumphed over." Therefore, finally, the Apostle Paul also said: "but far be it from me to glory except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world." You see that here too the Apostle has set forth a twofold reasoning of the cross. For he says that two things contrary to each other were crucified, himself holy and the world sinful, after that likeness, without doubt, which we spoke of above, of Christ and the devil. For we are "crucified to the world" then, when "the prince of this world, coming, finds nothing in us"; and "the world is crucified to us," when we do not receive the concupiscences of sin.
Joshua 8:30 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.1
After Jesus had overthrown Ai, that is, chaos, and had removed all its inhabitants, it was fitting that he should offer to God, the Most High over all, some gift worthy of so great and mighty a victory. Let us see, then, what this is that he does after the victory: "Jesus," it says, "built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, and he made it just as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel. Now it is written in the law of Moses that the altar should be made of whole stones, on which no iron has been laid." And after "Jesus made the altar," he placed "there whole burnt offerings to the Lord and offered a sacrifice of salvation," and after the sacrifice "Jesus wrote upon the stones the Deuteronomy, the law of Moses, and he wrote it in the presence of the children of Israel. And all the elders of Israel and the judges and their scribes went before, on this side and on that, the ark of the covenant of the Lord." Let us see, then, what is indicated in all these things, and what edification the present reading may gain for us. All of us who believe in Christ Jesus are called "living stones," according to what Scripture declares, saying: "But you are living stones, built up into a spiritual house in a holy priesthood, that you may offer spiritual victims, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Now, just as we know it is observed among these earthly stones that those stones which are stronger and more powerful are laid first in the foundations, so that the weight of the whole building may be entrusted to them and set upon them, while others which follow, that is, a little inferior to those, are arranged next to those which are in the foundation; and those which are still lower are set a little above the foundations, and then in turn those which are weaker, in comparison to those stones, are placed in the upper parts and now near the very peaks of the roof — so now understand also concerning the "living stones," that some of them are in the foundations of this spiritual building. But who are these that are placed in the foundations? "The apostles and prophets." For thus Paul speaks, teaching this very thing: "built," he says, "upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus our Lord himself being the cornerstone." But that you may prepare yourself more readily, O hearer, for the construction of this building, so that you may be found some stone nearer to the foundation, learn that Christ himself is also the foundation of this building which we are now describing. For thus says the Apostle Paul: "For no one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus." Blessed, therefore, are those who build religious and holy edifices upon that so noble a foundation. But in this building of the Church there must also be an altar. Hence I judge that whoever among you "living stones" are fit for this and ready, so as to devote themselves to prayers, so as to offer supplications to God day and night and to sacrifice the victims of entreaties — these are the very ones from whom "Jesus builds an altar."
Joshua 8:31 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.2
But observe what praise is ascribed to those very stones of the altar. "Just as," it says, "the lawgiver Moses said, that the altar should be built of whole stones, on which no iron has been laid." Who do you think are these "whole stones"? The conscience of each one knows who is whole, who is uncorrupted, unpolluted, unstained in flesh and in spirit, who is that one on whom "no iron has been laid," that is, who has not received "the flaming darts of the evil one" of concupiscence, but has "quenched" them with "the shield of faith" and driven them back; or who is that one who has never received the iron of strife, the iron of war, the iron of quarrels, but has always been peaceable, always quiet and gentle, formed by the humility of Christ. These, then, are the "living stones" from which Jesus our Lord "built an altar of whole stones, on which no iron has been laid," that he might offer upon them "whole burnt offerings and a sacrifice of salvation." I think that perhaps such "whole" and uncontaminated stones as these may be the holy apostles, all together making one altar because of their unanimity and concord. For thus they are reported all together, unanimously "praying" and opening their mouth to have "said": "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all." These, then, who were able unanimously, with one voice and one spirit, to pray, are perhaps themselves worthy, who ought all together to "build one altar," upon which Jesus may offer "a sacrifice" to the Father. Yet let us too try to give diligence, "that we may all say the same thing," "unanimous, of one mind, doing nothing through contention or through vainglory," but "remaining in one perception and in the same judgment," if perhaps we too may be made stones fit for the altar. For Jesus our Lord does not desert us, but although we, devoting ourselves to prayer, "know not what we should pray for as we ought, yet the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings." "Now the Lord is a Spirit." If, then, the "Spirit" aids our prayers and offers them to the Father, the God of all, with "groanings" which we cannot express, it is certain that he also carefully requires of us the construction of an altar.
Joshua 8:32 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.4
I am indeed moved by what Scripture added in what follows. "And Jesus wrote," it says, "upon the stones the Deuteronomy in the presence of the children of Israel." How he could have "inscribed" so great a book while the "children of Israel" were standing by and remaining there, so that they did not depart until the writing of so many lines was finished, or even how the stones of the altar could have borne the contents of so great a book — let these Jewish defenders of the letter, who are ignorant of the spirit of the law, tell me. How is the truth of the history demonstrated in this? But among them "to this very day, when Moses is read, a veil is placed over their heart." But for us, "having turned to the Lord" Jesus, "the veil is taken away," because "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" of understanding. Our Lord Jesus, then, does not need much time to write the Deuteronomy, to fix the second law in the hearts of believers, and to seal the law of the spirit in the minds of those who are worthy to be chosen for the construction of the altar. For as soon as anyone has believed in Jesus Christ, the law of the Gospel is inscribed in his heart, and inscribed "in the sight of the children of Israel." For there were present, when the sacrament of faith was being handed over to you, the heavenly powers, the ministries of angels, "the church of the firstborn." For if we rightly understand Israel to mean "a mind seeing God," this is most rightly said rather of the ministering angels, according to the saying of the Lord, who says of the little ones — and you too were a little one in baptism — that "their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." "In the presence," therefore, of these "children of Israel," who were present at that time when the sacraments of faith were being handed over to you, "seeing the face of God," "Jesus wrote the Deuteronomy" in your heart. Do you wish that we prove this to you still more clearly from the holy Scriptures, that "in the presence of the children of Israel Jesus wrote the second law"? The Apostle to the Hebrews plainly designates it, saying: "For you have not come to the sound of the trumpet and the burning mountain, but you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and a multitude of angels praising God together." You see, then, that in the presence of all these, who from this — that they always see God — are deservedly called "children of Israel," "Jesus wrote his law" in the hearts of believers. But even now, through these things which we speak, "Jesus writes the Deuteronomy" in the hearts of those who with whole faith and whole soul receive the things that are said, who with whole hearing and whole heart, and with a sense not corrupt nor reprobate concerning the faith, hear and retain the things that are said, because it is necessary that "the Deuteronomy be written on whole stones."
Joshua 8:32 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.3
But the adornment of the altar is not yet complete, even if it be built "of whole stones," even if "iron" and "the dart of the evil one" be not found "laid" upon them, but there is still something lacking, and there is still what Jesus may add to all these. What is it? "Jesus wrote," it says, "upon the stones of the altar the Deuteronomy, the law of Moses, and he wrote it in the sight of the children of Israel." As for the "writing" — however the son of Nave was then able to inscribe "the law upon the stones of the altar," and, as far as he was able, to sketch out the types: let us for our part see how our Jesus "wrote the Deuteronomy on the living and whole stones." Deuteronomy is so called as it were a second legislation. If, then, you wish to see how, the first law having been weakened, Jesus writes a second law, hear him saying in the Gospels: "It was said to the men of old: You shall not kill. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is a murderer"; and again: "It was said to the men of old: You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, if anyone looks upon a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart"; and "It was said to the men of old: You shall not swear falsely. But I say to you: Do not swear at all." You see the "Deuteronomy" which "Jesus wrote on the living and whole stones," "not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." But if you wish to know more clearly on which hearts "Jesus has written the law" and on which he has not written it, this too I will make plain to you from the authority of the Scriptures, that you who have been called from the Gentiles may take consolation, and may not fear the boasting of those who glory that they have received the law of Moses written on tablets or "little scrolls." Hear, then, in whose hearts the Lord Jesus has written the law. Paul says: "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things which are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves. They show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them." If, then, you see Gentiles coming to Jesus and believing in him and fulfilling the work of the law, which those who had received the law cannot fulfill, do not hesitate to say of them that "Jesus has written the Deuteronomy on those whole stones."
Joshua 8:33 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.7
These things indeed the histories of the ancients relate as deeds done; but how shall we refer this narration of the history to a mystical understanding, so as to show who these are who walk "beside Mount Gerizim" and who these are who walk "beside Mount Ebal"? I see it thus, that there are two kinds of those who through faith hasten and press on toward salvation: one kind of those who, kindled by desire for the heavenly promises, strive with the utmost zeal and diligence, lest even the least beatitude should pass them by, having a longing not only to receive the blessing and "to be made a part of the lot of the saints," but also to stand in the sight of God and to be always with the Lord. But there are others who also themselves press toward salvation, but are not so much inflamed with love of the blessings or with desires for the promises as they rather hold this before their view, saying: it is enough for me not to go into Gehenna, it is enough for me not to be sent into the eternal fire, it is enough for me not to be cast out into the "outer darkness." Since, then, in each of the faithful there is such a variety of purpose, this seems to me to be signified in this place: that those "half" who walk "beside Mount Gerizim," which was chosen for the blessings, figuratively indicate those who come to salvation not from fear of punishment, but from desire of the blessings and the promises; while those "half" who walk "beside Mount Ebal," on which the curses were pronounced, indicate those others who, fulfilling from fear of evils and dread of punishments the things that are written in the law, arrive at salvation. Here now it belongs to God alone to know, out of all of us children of Israel, who is the one who, kindled with the desire of the good itself, does what is good, and who among us tends toward the good from fear of Gehenna and dread of the eternal fire, and is zealous and hastens to fulfill the things that are written. For it is certain that those are more noble who do what is good from desire of the good itself and from love of the blessings, than those who pursue the good for fear of evil. Jesus alone, therefore, is the one who can discern out of the whole people minds and spirits of this kind, and can set some indeed "on Mount Gerizim for the blessings," but others "set on Mount Ebal for the curses" — not that they may receive curses, but that, beholding the curses prescribed and the punishments appointed for sinners, they may take care to avoid them.
Joshua 8:33 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.5
After these things it says: "and all Israel," it says, "and the presbyters and the judges and the scribes went before, on this side and on that, the ark of the covenant of the Lord." "The ark of the covenant of the Lord" is that in which the tablets of the law, written by the hand of God, are kept. And around this "ark of the covenant" everyone who is "truly Israel" walks and is not far from it; but the Levites and priests even carry it upon their shoulders. For whoever live in priestly religion and holiness — not only those who seem to sit in the priestly assembly, but rather those who act in a priestly manner, whose "portion is the Lord" and who hold no share on earth — these are truly the priests and Levites of the Lord, who carry the law of God upon their shoulders, that is, by doing and fulfilling through their work the things that are written in the law.
Joshua 8:33 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.6
"But both the proselyte," it says, "and the native-born together, and half were beside Mount Gerizim and half beside Mount Ebal." How shall we explain these things also? Truly there is need of the help of God, that we may be able with our words to expound and set forth the divine words: who are the "half" who walked "beside Gerizim," and who are the "half" who, although they too are saved, could nevertheless not walk "beside Mount Gerizim," but walk "beside Mount Ebal." "Mount Gerizim" holds the blessings, but "Mount Ebal" the curses which threaten sinners. For "they appointed," as it is written in Deuteronomy, six tribes "for blessing on Mount Gerizim" — and these the tribes which are more noble and choice, that is, "Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin" — but the other six, more ignoble ones, "for cursing," among which was also "Reuben," who "went up to his father's bed and defiled his father's couch," and "Zebulun," who is the last son of Leah.
Joshua 8:34 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.8
"After these things" it is related that "Jesus read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law; nor was there any word out of all that Moses commanded which Jesus did not read in the presence of the whole assembly of the children of Israel." Easy indeed is the explanation of the history, how the son of Nave "read all the words of the law which Moses wrote, in the presence of the whole assembly of the children of Israel"; but how our Lord Jesus does this for his people, it does not seem to me idle to show. And I for my part judge that, "whenever Moses is read" to us and, through the grace of the Lord, "the veil of the letter is removed" and we begin to understand that "the law is spiritual," and that, for example, the law when it says "you shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain" said this not about oxen, but about the apostles, and again, when it is said in the law "that Abraham had two sons, one of the handmaid and one of the free woman," I understand in these that there are two testaments and two peoples: this law, which is thus understood — which Paul names "spiritual" — "Jesus" the Lord "reads," and it is he who recites these things in the ears of the whole people, charging us not to follow "the letter that kills," but to hold to "the spirit that gives life." "Jesus," then, "reads" the law to us, when he reveals to us the hidden things of the law. For we who are of the catholic Church do not despise the law of Moses, but receive it, provided that "Jesus reads" it to us. For thus we shall be able rightly to understand the law, if "Jesus reads" it to us, so that, with him reading it, we may grasp its sense and understanding. Or is it not to be thought that he had conceived his understanding from thence, he who said: "But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know the things that have been given to us by God, which things also we speak," and those who said: "Was not our heart burning within us, when he opened the scriptures to us on the way?" — when, "beginning from the law of Moses down to the prophets, he read to them all things, and revealed the things that were written concerning himself"? Yet a marvelous figure of speech is shown in these things which are written, when it says: "There was not a word out of all that Moses commanded which Jesus did not read in the ears of the whole assembly of Israel." And first, let us see what "he read in the ears" indicates. I fear lest perhaps our word may offend some of the hearers, but nevertheless it must be said, since we teach what is written, that this word convicts us that not all of us who hear the law are of the "assembly of the children of Israel"; yet it is not the case that immediately, if there is some difference between the hearers of the law and the "assembly of the children of Israel," the hearer is excluded from salvation.
Joshua 8:35 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.9
Attend, therefore, more diligently to the words of Scripture, which says: "There was not any word out of all that Moses commanded which Jesus did not read in the ears of the whole assembly of the children of Israel." And it adds also: "to the women and the children and the proselytes." Our Lord Jesus knows that there are other ears besides these fleshly ones, which he requires for the hearing of his words and for the hearing of the law. Hence also in the Gospel, after he had instructed them about the individual things that were needful, he adds and says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" And surely, if he had said this of fleshly ears, it would seem superfluous; for no one who did not have ears had assembled to hear his words. But since he knew that the things which were said ought to be received in the ears of the inner man, that is, in the understanding of the heart — for what does it profit to hear the word, if it is not retained and kept in the heart? — therefore he demanded ears of the hearers. This, then, even now, whether when the Scriptures are read in the church, or when the word of explanation is delivered to the people, following the authority of Scripture we say: see, the words of the law are indeed read by Jesus, but for very many they are not read; because Jesus reads the law to those "who have ears to hear." But as for what he joined to the church of the Lord — also "the women and the children and the proselytes" — if indeed we understand "the women and the children and the proselytes" separately and consider them to be as it were a kind of appendage of the church, since "in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of clay," we say that to the strong men strong food is handed over, namely to those of whom the Apostle says: "But solid food is for the perfect," from whom he prepares for himself "a church not having spot, or wrinkle, or any of these things"; but those whom he separates out under the name of "women" or "children" or "proselytes," let us understand to be those who "still need milk" or who, as it were "weak," as "women" are, "feed on vegetables." But if the whole church be taken together, then "the men" are understood to be those who "in all things, being perfect, know how to stand armed against the wiles of the devil"; while the "women" are those who do not yet of themselves perform the things that are useful, but by imitating the men and following their examples. From whom they are also said to have a "head": for "the head of the woman is the man." But the children will be those who, having recently taken up the faith, are nourished with the evangelical "milk." And the proselytes will seem to be the catechumens, or those who are now eager to be joined to the faithful. Concerning these individually, John also, thinking similar things, writes in his epistle, and to each of the several ages assigns the deeds proper to each. Nevertheless, with Jesus reciting the law to you and revealing to your hearts the spiritual understanding: neither do you, proselytes, that is, catechumens, remain catechumens any longer, but hasten to receive the grace of God, that you too may be numbered in the assembly of the children of Israel; and you, "children," "do not become boys in your understanding, but in malice be little ones, yet in your understanding be perfect," as the Apostle too says to the Hebrews: "leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be borne on to perfection"; but you also, who under the name of "women" are weak and slack and languid, be admonished, so that you may "raise up the slackened hands and the loosened knees," that is, so that you may rouse your negligent and slothful minds and take up a manly constancy in fulfilling the precepts of the law and the Gospel, and may quickly press on to the perfection of strong men. For the divine Scripture does not know how to make a separation of men and women according to sex. For indeed with God there is…
Joshua 9:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.10
But let us see what is written after these things: "and all the kings of the Amorites heard," it says, "both those beyond the Jordan, and those in the mountains, and those in the plains, and those upon the shores of the great sea, and those who were in Antilibanus, and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites, and they gathered together into one, to make war against Jesus and Israel together." The history of the deeds done is clear and needs no explanation, since it has plainly been fulfilled; yet from these visible things which have been done, let us contemplate the wars and triumphs which our Lord Jesus the Savior has waged, although we also see these fulfilled visibly in him himself. For the kings of the earth gathered together, the senate, and the people, and the Roman princes, to make war against the name of Jesus and Israel together. For they decreed by their laws that there should be no Christians. Every city, every order attacks the name of the Christians. But just as then all those kings gathering together against Jesus were able to do nothing, so also now neither the "princes" nor those adverse "powers" have been able to do anything to keep the race of the Christians from being propagated more widely and more abundantly. For it is written: "the more they humbled them, the more they became and grew exceedingly strong." And we are confident that not only will our invisible enemies and adversaries not be able to prevail over us, but also that, with Jesus our Lord conquering, "Satan will swiftly be crushed under the feet" of his servants. For with him as leader his soldiers will always conquer, so that we too may say, as it is written in Ezra: "From you, Lord, is the victory, and I am your servant; blessed are you, God of truth." Let us too always call upon him, that he may grant us victory in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 9:3-6 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 10.1
"In my Father's house are many mansions," says the Word of God. But the resurrection of the dead too will not have an equal glory for those who rise, but "there is one flesh of birds, another of cattle, and another indeed of fish. And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. Star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead." Many, therefore, are the differences marked out among those who come to salvation. Hence even now I judge those Gibeonites, whose story has been read aloud, to be a certain small portion of those who are to be saved—yet in such a way that they are not saved without the branding of some mark. For you see how they are condemned to become "hewers of wood" or "carriers of water" for the service of the people and the ministry of "the altar of God," since indeed "with deceit and cunning" they came to the sons of Israel, clothed in "old rags and shoes" and carrying "food of stale bread." These, then, "come to Jesus" with all their old, worn-out things, and beg of him only this, that they may be saved. In their figure it seems to me that something of this sort is shown. There are certain people in the Church who indeed believe and have faith in God and consent to all the divine precepts, and who are also religious toward the servants of God and desire to serve them, and who are furthermore quite prompt and ready for the adornment of the church or its ministry, but in their own acts and manner of life they are quite unclean and entangled in vices, not at all "putting off the old man with his deeds," but wrapped up in old vices and unclean things, just as those men too were covered with "old rags and shoes"—so that, apart from believing in God and appearing devoted toward the servants of God or the worship of the church, they apply no correction or renewal to their morals. To these, then, Jesus our Lord grants salvation indeed, but in some way that very salvation of theirs does not escape the mark of ill repute. A similar figure concerning these people is also described in the little book which is called The Shepherd. For he says that there is a certain tree, which is called an elm, which bears no fruit, yet it supports a vine, which bears very much fruit; and from the fact that it is a prop to the vine, which, leaning on its strength, is able either to produce or to preserve very much fruit, even the elm, which is unfruitful, appears necessary and useful for this very reason, that it serves the fruit-bearing vine. Understand something of the same sort also in the Gibeonites, who indeed did not "put off the old man with his deeds," yet minister to the saints and serve them and expend some usefulness, and by a certain order of this kind receive salvation from Jesus with the interposition of an oath. For my own part, I would not wish to obtain salvation in the order of the Gibeonites, nor to be numbered among the "hewers of wood" or "carriers of water," but to receive an inheritance among the Israelites and to obtain a portion of the land of promise.
Joshua 9:21-23 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 10.2
It must certainly be observed that heretics who do not receive the Old Testament are accustomed, when reading this passage, to make a slander, and they say: See how Jesus the son of Nave had no humanity in him, in that, while granting salvation to men who had come to him as suppliants, he inflicted upon them the mark of ill repute and the yoke of servitude. If a soul less instructed in the divine Scriptures hears these things, it can at once be weakened and endangered, so that it flees from the catholic faith; for they do not understand these men's deceptions. For Jesus held a fitting judgment toward them according to the measure of their faith. But moreover "Rahab the harlot," who believed with whole faith together with "all her house" and received the Israelite spies with fullest devotion, was received wholly into the fellowship and society of the people, and it is written of her that "she was joined to the sons of Israel unto this present day." But those men, who loved the fellowship of the Israelite nation not so much as, terrified by fear of their own destruction, they "came to Jesus with cunning and fraud"—how could they earn liberty of life and fellowship of the kingdom by servile deceits? In short, do you wish to know that a condition worthy of the baseness of their mind was dispensed toward them by Jesus? They themselves say, "we have heard how great things the Lord did" for you through the Red Sea and in the desert. And though they said these things and confessed that they had heard and knew of the divine wonders, yet they did nothing worthy of faith, nothing worthy of admiration of such great powers. And therefore Jesus, seeing their narrow and meager resolve in faith, preserves a most just moderation toward them, so that they might earn salvation, though they had brought but little faith, yet would not receive the highest degree of the kingdom or of liberty, because their faith was ennobled by no addition of works, since the Apostle James declares that "faith without works is held to be dead."
Joshua 9:21-23 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5.8
Thus, therefore, you also, if you have brought a word in praise of God, not new and fresh from the learning of the spirit, from the doctrine of God's grace, your mouth indeed offers "a sacrifice of praise," but your mind is accused on account of the sterility of yesterday's flesh. For the Lord did not delay and order the bread which he gave to the disciples to be reserved for the next day when he said to them, "Take and eat." Perhaps there is something of this mystery in the fact that "he commands them not to carry bread on the way," that you always bring fresh loaves of the word of God which you carry within you. For this reason, the Gibeonites are condemned, and they become "cutters of wood and carriers of water" because they had brought old bread to the Israelites whom the spiritual law ordered always to use fresh and new.
Joshua 9:21-23 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 10.3
Nevertheless it must be known, so far as we are taught by the shadowing forth of figures of this kind, that if there are any such among us, whose faith has only this much, that they come to the church and bow their head to the priests, render services, honor the servants of God, and also contribute something to the adornment of the altar or the church, yet do not apply zeal to cultivate their morals as well, to amend their acts, to put off their vices, to cultivate chastity, to soften their anger, to restrain their avarice, to check their rapacity, to remove evil-speaking and foolish talk or scurrilities and the poisons of detraction from their mouth: let those who are such, who are unwilling to amend themselves but persevere in these things even to their last old age, know that a part and lot with the Gibeonites is to be allotted them by the Lord Jesus. But rather we beseech you, brethren, we who exercise the embassy of the word of God, that, while we still have the power of amending, we may make the effort and hasten, casting off the old filth and the "old rags" of vices, to be joined and associated to Israelite liberty. But do you wish to see how great the liberty of the Israelites is? In the law it is enjoined that it not be permitted for a "Hebrew boy," if perchance he has fallen into servitude, to serve more than "six years," but the law commands that "in the seventh year" he be dismissed "free." So great is the care for liberty among them. And if indeed we recall this to spiritual understanding, even if you too are a "Hebrew boy" who has fallen into servitude—for he is a boy who through the pliancy of his soul has fallen into servitude; and what sort of servitude, the Scripture says: "he who sins is a slave of sin"; into this servitude a manly and perfect soul does not fall, but a boyish and pliant one—therefore even if you are a "Hebrew boy," that is, already faithful and having obtained baptism in the church, and after this have fallen into the servitude of sin, let a servitude of "six years" suffice for you; "in the seventh year" take care that you do not serve, but hasten back to your liberty. The number seven signifies the law of the commandments; but the number six holds the figure of this world. As long, therefore, as "you savor the things that are of this world" and are exercised in them and "think according to the flesh," it is necessary that you "serve sin." But when you have come to the number seven, that is, to the knowledge of the law, then seek your liberty and return to your paternal nobility; lest, if you remain in your evils and persevere in your sins, with the mark fixed in your ear, as one who does not hear the words of God admonishing you and recalling you to your former liberty, you be a "slave of sin" forever. Then next I ask of you, would you willingly wish to be made a slave in this world from being a father of a household and a noble man? Doubtless you refuse, since indeed we see very many even from a servile condition hastening to liberty and, as far as they can, desiring even to become rich and to cover the cheapness of their inborn low birth with honors sought from every quarter. If, therefore, in this life no one wishes to be a slave, but as far as it can be done desires both to be free and rich and noble, so that he may not only suffice for himself but also bestow upon others, shall we in those eternal things that are to be changed by no end indifferently endure servitude, and does it seem a small matter to us if we are reckoned among the "hewers of wood and carriers of water"? Therefore for this reason, "while it is day, let us work" what is good, and let us give effort to our amendment, so that from our acts and manner of life and morals we may deserve to be ennobled and become worthy to receive "the spirit of adoption," so that we may rather be held among "the sons of God," through his only and true Son Jesus Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Joshua 10:1-7 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 11.2
When the human soul has joined itself to the Word of God, it ought not to doubt that it will at once have enemies, and that those whom it had before as friends are to be turned into adversaries; and let it expect to suffer this not only from men, but let it know for certain that this also threatens it from the contrary powers and the spiritual wickednesses. And so it comes about that whoever seeks the friendship of Jesus knows that he must endure the enmities of many. Hear the Apostle Paul confirming these same things, when he says: "all who wish to live godly in Christ suffer persecution." But Solomon too says similar things: "Son," he says, "coming to the service of the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation." Therefore even now the Gibeonites, of whatever sort they are, are assailed because of the friendship of Jesus, and although they be "hewers of wood and carriers of water" — that is, although you be of the lowest merit in the church — nevertheless, by this very fact, because you belong to Jesus, you will be assailed by the five kings. But yet the Gibeonites are neither abandoned nor scorned by Jesus, nor by the leaders and elders of the Israelites, but they bring aid to their weakness. Or does it not seem to you that this very thing is at work in us, and that this is what that command of the Apostle enjoins, in which he says: "comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all," and again: "but you who are more powerful, bear the infirmities of the weak"? In this manner, then, Jesus with his leaders and princes is present to those who for his name's sake are assailed by the contrary powers, and not only furnishes aid in the war, but also prolongs the time of the day and, extending the spans of light, drives off the coming of night.
Joshua 10:12-14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 11.1
For those who join themselves to the children of Israel, all those who before were friends, after the friendship and intimacy with the children of Israel become enemies. The Gibeonites, who had received a covenant of peace from the children of Israel, the Jebusite king of Jerusalem — having invited four other kings along with himself — attacks in order to overpower. But the Gibeonites, seeing that five kings had conspired against them for battle, put no confidence whatever in their own strength and forces, but "send to Jesus" begging for help. And he, by divine permission, is present with the Gibeonites to bring them aid. Here now marvels are displayed from heaven. The Lord rains down stones of hail from above and lays waste the army of the five kings who were fighting against Jesus. But then Jesus, seeing the divine right hand doing battle alongside him and all things proceeding with prosperous success, lifts up to heaven a certain new and wondrous prayer, saying: "Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon, until I overpower this people. And the sun and the moon stood still in their place, until the Lord utterly vanquished their enemies. And the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not advance toward its setting for the space of one whole day. There was no day like this before this, nor did God so hearken to a man, because the Lord fought for Israel. And those five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave in Makkedah." These miracles of divine power, wrought indeed according to the history, proclaim themselves to all the ages and need no interpretation from outside, in which the light of the deeds flashes forth. Yet let us inquire what spiritual understanding these things may contain.
Joshua 10:12-13 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 11.3
We wish therefore, if we can, to show how our Lord Jesus prolonged the light and made the day longer, whether for the salvation of men or for the destruction of the contrary powers. From the time when the Savior came, it was already the end of the world. Indeed he himself used to say: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near." But he held back and repressed the day of consummation and forbade it to be present. For God the Father, seeing that the salvation of the nations could be established through him alone, says to him: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and for your possession the ends of the earth." Therefore, until the fatherly promise is fulfilled and the churches grow out of the various nations and the whole "fullness of the nations" enters in, so that then at last "all Israel may be saved," the day is prolonged and the setting is deferred, and the sun never sinks but always rises, while the "sun of righteousness" pours the light of truth into the hearts of believers. But when the measure of believers has been filled up, and the worse and more discolored age of the last generation has come, when "as iniquity increases the love of many will grow cold" and very few will remain in whom faith may be found, then at last "the days will be shortened." The same Lord himself therefore knows both how to extend the day, when it is the time of salvation, and to shorten the day, when it is the time of tribulation and perdition. We, however, while we have the day and the span of light is prolonged for us, "let us walk honorably as in the day" and work the works of light.
Joshua 10:12-14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.5
Moses did not say: "Let the sun stand still," nor did he command the greatest elements, as Jesus did. "Let the sun stand still," he says, "over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon," and moreover the Scripture adds and says that: "Never did God so hear a man." Therefore my Jesus made "the sun stand still" not only then, but much more so now in his coming. While we wage war against our enemies and "wrestle against principalities and powers and the rulers of these darknesses, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places," the "sun of righteousness" stands by us unceasingly and never forsakes us nor hastens to set, because he himself said: "Behold, I am with you all the days." Not only with a doubled day is he with us, but he is with us "all the days" "until the consummation of the age," until we too prevail over our adversaries.
Joshua 10:16-17 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 11.5
Yet it must be known that these very kingdoms, whose kings are now conquered by Jesus and "flee to the caves," afterward come into the lot of the saints and are called the Lord's portion, as the kingdom of Jerusalem, or of Lachish, or of Hebron. In which I think this is indicated, that even these five senses, which we expounded above, placed in the body, when they have been vanquished through Jesus — so that unfaithfulness and unbelief may be driven out from them, and when the sins die in this, that they cease from the service of sin — the soul afterward uses these very same as ministers for working the righteousness of God; and so it comes about that in Jerusalem, in which a wicked and most evil king reigned before, afterward David mighty in hand, or peaceable Solomon, reigns in it. For upon these very bodily senses of men, of which we spoke, there also sit malign powers, which incite them to evil desires and to furnishing foul services to the soul. And if the faith of Christ has overcome these malign powers, and they have been hung up "on the wood of his cross," so that he may "triumph over them on the wood of his cross," these being slain and driven from their kingdom, then the soul is made into God's portion, then Jerusalem is made the kingdom of God and a temple is built in it to the Lord. Or did not that man perceive this about himself, who said that: "we too were once senseless, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures"? For it is nothing other than this, that Jerusalem is written to have been once under king Adonibezek, or other cities under others.
Joshua 10:16-17 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 11.4
But let us also see what this is, that it says there were five kings and that these "fled into the caves." We have often said that the warfare of Christians is twofold. For the perfect, and such as Paul was and the Ephesians, as the Apostle himself says, "there was for them no warfare against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and the spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places." But for the lower and not-yet-perfect the warfare is still waged "against flesh and blood," for those who are still assailed by carnal vices and frailties. Which I think is indicated also in this passage; for we said that war was declared against the Gibeonites by the five kings, whose figure I said is in those who are imperfect. These therefore are assailed by the five kings. And the five kings signify the five bodily senses — sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell; for through some one of these each person must needs fall into sin. These five senses are compared to those five kings who overpower the Gibeonites, that is, who overpower carnal men. And that they are said to have "fled into the caves," this can perhaps be indicated because a cave is a place dug down into the depth of the earth. Therefore these senses too, of which we spoke above, when, placed in the body, they have plunged themselves into earthly acts and have done nothing for the work of God but everything for the service of the body, are said to have "fled into the caves."
Joshua 10:21 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 12.1
If those things which were foreshadowed through Moses concerning the tabernacle or the sacrifices and all that worship are said to be "a type and a shadow of heavenly things," without doubt the wars too which are waged through Jesus, and the slaughter of kings and enemies, must be said to be "a shadow and type of heavenly things" — of those wars, that is, which our Lord Jesus wages with his army and its officers, that is, with the peoples of believers and their leaders, against the devil and his angels. For it is he himself who, in Paul and in the Ephesians, fights "against the principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." And see, ungrateful heretic, how completely the new agrees with the old. To the men of old was promised the kingdom of a holy land, "a land flowing with milk and honey," which land was then held by sinners and by most wicked inhabitants and kings. Jesus came into that land with the army of the Lord and the leaders of Israel; he storms them all, destroys them, takes possession, and by the merit of his victory receives the kingdoms of those whom he conquered. To you, through the Gospels, are promised not the kingdoms of earth, but there are promised "the kingdoms of heaven." But these kingdoms are not empty nor void; they have their own inhabitants, sinners and wicked spirits, apostate angels. There dwell those against whom Paul, sounding forth with the apostolic trumpet, exhorts you to battle; and, just as Jesus there was saying that you would have war against "the Amorites and Perizzites and Hivites and Jebusites," so likewise here too Paul announces to you, saying: "your struggle will not be against flesh and blood" — that is, we shall not fight as the ancients fought, nor are battles to be waged by us on earth against men — "but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world." Now indeed you understand in what places contests of this kind are to be stirred up by you. Or if understanding does not suffice for you unless the very places also be marked out for you with a plain word, hear what follows: "against the spiritual forces," he says, "of wickedness in the heavenly places." You have heard who they are who must be driven out by you from the heavenly places by war and force, that you may be able to receive those places of the kingdom of heaven by the lot of inheritance. But does not the Lord too in the Gospel plainly indicate these things, when he says: "from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it"?
Joshua 10:21 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 12.2
Why then do you cease, O heretic, to bring your slander even against our Lord and Savior, who commands that "the kingdom of heaven," which he had promised to those who believe in him, "be seized by violence"? And surely, if violence is to be applied, it is certain that it must be applied to those who are in possession. For "to do violence" is this: to expel the possessor and to seize his possession. Tell me, then, what else is it that you accuse Jesus the successor of Moses of having done? And would that we were worthy for the Lord Jesus to open to us the hall of his wisdom and to lead us within the treasures of his knowledge, and to deign to unlock more fully for us and to open more perfectly those things which now, step by step, we strive as though "through a mirror and in a riddle" to behold in part and to inspect their figures; you would see how it would become clear to us of which especially of these spiritual enemies — of those who now assail the spiritual Israel — that king of "Makkedah" bore the figure, and that one of "Lachish," and that one of "Libnah"; or of what vice or error within your own self, by which the soul is entangled, each single one of these bears the form, whom the people of the Lord, with Jesus as their leader, slew — those, namely, who hear his commandments and keep his precepts, to whom he himself "has granted the power of treading upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy." Let us pray, therefore, that our feet too may be such, so beautiful, so strong, as to be able to "tread" upon the necks of enemies, able so to "tread upon the head of the serpent" that it cannot bite our heel. For whoever fights under Jesus as leader against the opposing powers ought also to merit that which is written of the former warriors: "and there returned," it says, "the whole people to Jesus safe and sound, and not one of the children of Israel murmured a word in his tongue." You see, then, that whoever serves as a soldier under Jesus ought to "return safe and sound" from the battle, and ought nowhere to receive a wound from "the fiery darts of the evil one," to be defiled in no way in his heart, stained in no way in his thought, and to give no place to demonic wounds through anger, through lust, or through any other occasion whatsoever. But that he added, "no one murmured a word in his tongue," this seems to me to be shown thereby: that no one boasted of the victory, no one ascribed to his own strength the fact that he overcame; but knowing that it is Jesus who grants the victory, they themselves "murmur not a word in their tongue." Rightly understanding this, the Apostle would say: "yet not I, but the grace of God which is in me." And I think that this saying of the Lord also looks to the same point, where he says: "but when you have done all these things, say that we are unprofitable servants; what we ought to have done, we have done." For in this too, in like manner, he seems to forbid boasting about affairs prosperously accomplished.
Joshua 10:24 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 11.6
But meanwhile Jesus slew the enemies, not teaching cruelty thereby, as the heretics suppose, but designating in the things that are done the mysteries that are to come, so that, when he has slain those kings who hold the kingdom of sin in us, we may be able to fulfill that which the Apostle said: "as we presented our members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now let us present our members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." What then is it that in this passage is faulted by them as if cruel? This, he says, which is written: "put your feet upon their neck, and slay them." What of it? For this is found to be not cruelty, but humanity and kindness. Would that you too were such a one, who would "put your feet upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy," and would "trample the dragon and the basilisk," the little king who once reigned in you and held in you the kingdom of sin, so that, all those being slain who reigned in you by the work of sin, Christ Jesus our Lord alone may reign in you, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Joshua 10:25 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 12.3
But Marcion and Valentinus and Basilides and the rest of the heretics with them, while they refuse to understand these things as is worthy of the Holy Spirit, "have turned aside from the faith and entangled themselves in many impieties," putting forward another God as creator and judge of the law and of the world, as though through these things which are written he were teaching a certain cruelty, in that men are commanded to "tread upon the necks" of enemies and to "hang upon a tree" the kings of that land which they violently invade. And would that my Lord Jesus, the Son of God, might grant me this and command me to "trample" with my feet "the spirit of fornication," and to "tread upon" the necks of the spirit of wrath and fury, to "tread upon" the demon of avarice, to "tread upon" boastfulness, to crush with my feet the spirit of pride, and, when I have done these things, to hang the sum of the work accomplished not upon myself, but upon his cross, following Paul who says that through him "the world has been crucified to me," and that which we have already recalled above, where he says: "yet not I, but the grace of God which is in me." But if I shall have merited to do so, I shall be blessed, and there shall be said to me too what Jesus says to the men of old: "act manfully and be strengthened, fear not nor be afraid before their face, for the Lord God has delivered all your enemies into your hands." If we understand these things spiritually and wage wars of this kind spiritually, and drive out all those "spiritual forces of wickedness from the heavenly places," then at last we shall be able to receive from Jesus even their places and kingdoms, which are "the kingdoms of heaven," by the lot of inheritance — our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ granting it, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 10:29 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 13.2
But also concerning the interpretations of the names themselves, if we examine more carefully and diligently, the significance of the names will be found capable of being applied now to the understanding of the evil kingdom, now also to the understanding of the good. For instance, Libnah is interpreted as "whiteness." But whiteness is understood in diverse ways; for there is the whiteness of leprosy, and there is also the whiteness of light. It is possible, therefore, even by the interpretation of the name itself to indicate the differences of the two conditions: so that Libnah had the whiteness of leprosy under the evil kings, and this having been destroyed and overthrown, when Libnah came into the kingdom of Israel, it received the whiteness of light — because whiteness is set down in the Scriptures both as praiseworthy and as blameworthy.
Joshua 10:31 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 13.2
And again, Lachish is interpreted as "a way" (or journey). But a way is regarded in the Scriptures both as praiseworthy and as blameworthy. This is not difficult to prove, as it says in the Psalms: "and the way of the ungodly shall perish"; and elsewhere on the contrary: "make straight ways for your feet." It can therefore be understood also here that the city of Lachish was first "the way of the ungodly"; and this having been destroyed and overthrown, afterward, when the Israelites reigned, it was brought "to the straight way."
Joshua 10:36 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 13.2
And similarly also Hebron, which they say is interpreted as "conjunction" or "marriage." But the conjunction of our soul was first with an evil man and a most wicked husband, the devil; and he having been destroyed and extinguished, the soul "was freed from the law" of the former and most wicked husband and was joined to a good and lawful husband, that one of whom the Apostle Paul says: "I have determined to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, to Christ." Thus, therefore, even the understanding of the names themselves accords with this twofold condition of each city.
Joshua 10:40 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 13.1
"All these things happened to them figuratively, and they were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" — when the man who "is a Jew outwardly" and who has "circumcision made manifest in the flesh" reads this, not knowing what it is to be "inwardly a Jew in the circumcision of the heart," he thinks it to be nothing else than wars described, and the destruction of enemies, and the Israelites conquering under Jesus as their leader and plundering the kingdoms of the nations. But the one who is "a Jew inwardly," that is, the Christian, who follows Jesus not so much as the son of Nave but as the Son of God, understands all these things to be mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and says that even now my Lord Jesus Christ wages war against the opposing powers and casts them out of the cities which they possessed — that is, out of our souls — and kills the kings who reigned in our souls, "that sin may no longer reign in us," so that, after he has slain the king of sin out of the city of our soul, our soul may become the city of God and God may reign in it, and it may be said to us that "behold, the kingdom of God is within you." This work, therefore, which the heretics accuse of cruelty, is a work of the highest mercy — that the Lord Jesus should now in truth accomplish through each and every soul of believers what was first foreshadowed by the son of Nave through each and every city: so that those cities which were possessed by evil and utterly wicked kings "according to the prince of the power of the air of this world, the spirit that now works in the children of unbelief" — these having been expelled and slain — he may deign to make them "the dwelling place of God" and "the temple of the Holy Spirit," so that "the members which had served" under the wicked king "iniquity unto uncleanness may now serve righteousness unto sanctification." Thus, therefore, understand that Jesus slew the king of Jericho and the king of Ai and the king of Libnah and the king of Lachish and the king of Hebron, so that all these cities, which before under the most wicked kings observed the law of sin, may now conduct themselves under the laws of God.
Joshua 10:40 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 13.4
Necessary, therefore, and first is this work of the Word of God, to "root out" the plants of sin and to "pluck up every plant which the heavenly Father has not planted" and to consume it with fire. Now the second work is to "plant." What is it that God "plants"? Moses says that "God planted a paradise." But even now "God plants" and daily "plants" in the souls of believers. For in the soul from which he has cut out anger, he "plants" gentleness, and from which he has cut out pride, he "plants" humility; from which he roots out wantonness, he "plants" chastity; from which he uproots ignorance, he implants knowledge. Does not such a planting, which "God plants," seem to you to ought to be greater than that of insensible and earthly trees? Likewise, in the first place, it is the work of the Word of God to destroy the diabolical buildings which it has constructed in the human soul. For that one built up towers of pride in each one of us and walls of haughtiness; these the word of God overthrows and undermines, so that deservedly, according to the Apostle, we may become "God's tillage and God's building, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole framework of the building grows into a temple of God in the Spirit," and so at last we may deserve to be made in the inheritance of the holy land in the Israelite portion, with all our enemies extinguished and slain, so that "there is not left of them any that breathes in us," but the Spirit of Christ alone may breathe in us, through works and words and spiritual understanding, according to the teaching of Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is power and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!
Joshua 10:40 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 13.3
I think that in this way it is better to understand the Israelite wars, and that in this way Jesus is better thought to do battle and to destroy cities and overthrow kingdoms. For thus also that saying will appear more religious and more merciful, which says that he so overthrew and laid waste each and every city "that nothing was left in them that breathed, nor anyone who was saved, nor anyone who escaped." For would that the Lord might so cast out and extinguish all former evils from the souls that believe in him and that he claims for his kingdom, and from my own soul, that no sense of malice in me may any longer "breathe," that no affection of anger, no affection of any evil desire may be saved in me, that no evil word may remain that "escapes" from my mouth. For thus, with Jesus as my leader, purged from all former evils, I shall be able to be made among the cities of the children of Israel, of which it is written: "the cities of Judah shall be built and they shall dwell in them." For indeed even now Jesus destroys and "builds" the soul of each one of us; and just as we were saying then, when we were discussing Jeremiah, that he had received "words in" his "mouth," by which he might "overthrow" and "build," "root out" and "plant," so also now in these things which we have in hand I think it is to be understood — not according to the heretics or according to the Jews; but as it was there said to Jeremiah: "behold, I have set you this day over the nations and the kingdoms, to root out and to overthrow and to bring to destruction, and after these things to build and to plant" — so also concerning these things which are written as done through Jesus it is to be believed, or rather concerning these things which through our Lord Jesus are even now being done in us. For the first work of the Word of God is to root out the preceding evils, the "thorns and thistles" of the vices. For while these roots hold the seized earth in their grip, it cannot receive the good and holy seeds.
Joshua 11:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.2
But let us attempt, as God may grant, to examine each of the kings of the hostile army one by one, and, according to the significations of the names of each, to contemplate also the work which each performs in wickedness. First of all, he who is also named as the author of this war, gathering the rest and inviting them to the conspiracy of crime, is named "Jabin," who was "king of Hazor." For he it is who is said also to have summoned the rest. Now "Jabin" is interpreted as sense or prudence. Who then is this sense or prudence, if not that one whom the prophet Isaiah calls the "great mind"? For he says: "And I will bring upon the great mind the prince of the Assyrians, who said: By my own strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my mind I will remove the boundaries of the nations, and I will plunder their strength." This, then, is he who there indeed is called the "great mind," the king of the Assyrians, but here Jabin, sense or prudence. For indeed the "serpent" is written to have been in paradise "more prudent than all the beasts which were upon the earth." But the "steward of iniquity" too is said to have done "prudently" the things which he did. This "Jabin," therefore, is "king of Hazor." Now Hazor is interpreted as a court. All the earth, then, is the court of this king, who holds the principate of the whole earth as of a single court — who is the devil. But do you wish to see that the earth is his court? In the Gospels it is written that the strong man sleeps secure in his court, until there comes one stronger, who both "binds him" and "carries off what he possesses." The king of the court, then, is the "prince of this world"; this one "sends to Jobab"; for he it is who sends to all the nations and invites them to battle. He "sends" also "to the king of Merom." "Jobab" indeed is interpreted as enmities, but "Merom" as bitternesses. The devil, then, sends to another hostile power — of the apostate angels, without doubt — which power is king of bitternesses; by whose authorship, that is, and agency all the bitternesses and harshnesses that are inflicted on wretched mortals in this world come about. And these are the diverse kinds of sin. For nothing can be more bitter than sin, even though certain sins seem sweet at first, just as Solomon writes: "but in the end," he says, "you will find it more bitter than gall" — that which at the beginning seemed sweet — "and sharper than the edge of a sword." But the nature of righteousness is contrary; at the beginnings it seems more bitter, but in the end it is found sweeter than honey, when it has brought forth the fruit of virtue. The devil, therefore, "sent to Jobab," the enemy, the king of bitterness. But he "sends" also "to the king of Simeon," which is interpreted as a hearing. But the hearing seems to be twofold. Sometimes indeed it is when God hears a man, according to which also Simeon, one of the patriarchs, received his name, since indeed "God had heard" the prayer of his mother. But there is also called a hearing that by which someone hears the command of the devil. For the devil is wont to say: "If falling down you will adore me, I will give you all these things." But you, if you follow Jesus, say to him: "I will adore the Lord my God, and Him alone will I serve." But those who are of his party hear him, just as now this Simeon also did; hearing him, he came to the battle against Jesus. But he "sends" also "to the king of Ziph." Now "Ziph" is interpreted: how it flows! — as with the speech of one marveling; because truly it is a thing to marvel at, how all things which are of this world, carnal things, flow away, and how fluid and fleeting are the things which among faithless men are reckoned as abiding and perpetual. But he who considers the reason of things and beholds the goods of this life, as they are supposed to be, how they are ever changed and pass away, this one says: how it flows!
Joshua 11:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.1
These same scriptures, before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when that Israel which is according to the flesh read them, understood in them nothing other than wars and the shedding of blood; and by this their spirits were whetted to excessive ferocity, and they were forever fed on wars and seditions. But afterward, when the presence of my Lord Jesus Christ poured the calm light of knowledge into human hearts — since indeed, according to the Apostle, He Himself is "our peace" — He teaches us peace from this very reading about wars. For peace is restored to the soul if its enemies, its sins and vices, are driven out from it. And therefore, according to the tradition of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we read these things, we too are indeed armed and roused to battle, but against those enemies who "proceed from our heart," namely "evil thoughts, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies," and the rest of the adversaries of our soul like these; concerning whom we strive, according to what this scripture reports, if it can be done, "to leave no one who may be saved, nor who may draw breath." For if we gain the mastery over these enemies, we shall fittingly gain the mastery also over the "powers of the air," and we shall drive them out of their kingdom, which they had established within us above the seats of the vices. In the earlier readings the king of Jerusalem had gathered with himself four other kings against Jesus and against the sons of Israel; but now no longer does one gather four or five, but see how great a multitude one gathers.…You see how great swarms of contrary powers and of the most wicked demons are stirred up against Jesus and the army of Israel. All these demons, before the coming of our Lord and Savior, possessing human souls at quiet and secure, reigned in their minds and bodies. But when the grace and mercy of our Savior God appeared upon the earth, teaching us to live piously and holily in this world and separated from all contagion of sin, so that each soul might recover its own freedom and the "image of God" in which it was created "from the beginning" — for this cause wars and battles arise from those wicked old possessors of them. And if the first are crushed, many more rise up afterward and come together into one and conspire for evil, they who are ever at odds with the good. And if they are conquered a second time, again a third time other, more worthless powers will rise up. And perhaps, the more the people of God is increased and grows much and is multiplied, the more of them conspire to make war.
Joshua 11:2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.2
But the devil calls against the sons of Israel also those who are around "great Sidon." I indeed, since I have several times lingered in the regions of Sidon, have never found that there are two Sidons, one great and another small, as far as pertains to the earthly place. But if I return to the interpretation of the name, which signifies a huntress or hunters, I see that of the adversary powers, among which there are many differences, some are hunters in small things and some hunters in great things; that is, some deceive souls through small sins, others through great ones. For example, when a soul is deceived in the pleasures of the age and the delights of the flesh, it must be said to be caught in a small thing; but when it either denies providence or worships demons as though God, this must be reckoned to have been deceived in a great thing. And therefore now he "sends to great Sidon," those who assemble as though to a great hunt against the sons of Israel. He "sends" also "to the mountain regions." By the "mountain regions" is to be understood every sense "that exalts itself and rises up against the knowledge of God." He "sends" also "into the Arabah." Now "Arabah" is interpreted as ambushes. He invites, therefore, the ambushing powers, which deceive human souls not by force nor by open assaults, but by unforeseen ambushes and cunning ones — such perhaps as those of whom the prophet says: "He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den; he lies in wait, that he may seize the poor man." But if anyone is such as Paul is, he says confidently: "For we are not ignorant of his devices." He "sends" also to "Chinneroth." Now "Chinneroth" is interpreted as though lamps; not lamps, but as though lamps. For a lamp is one thing, as though a lamp is another. John "was a burning lamp," because he was an "angel of light." But that one is as though a lamp "who transfigures himself into an angel of light." And if you wish to know still more evidently the differences of the lamps and the as-though-lamps which are "in Chinneroth," hear the Savior saying to his disciples: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning." There are, then, of those who teach the catholic faith in the church and illumine the people of God with the word of truth, "burning lamps." But these who teach heretical doctrines out of the testimonies of Holy Scripture by false assertions, in that they read the scriptures, seem to kindle lamps: but because they use false assertions, they are not lamps, but as though lamps. He "sent" also "to the plains." For it was necessary that he should call into his fellowship also those who are in the "plains" and are wise in lowly and earthly things. He "sent" also "into En-dor," which is interpreted as conversion. And conversion is understood in two ways. For there is a conversion by which someone is converted to God or is turned by God to good things. But there is also another conversion by which "king Jabin," that is, the devil, converts souls to himself, just as we have expounded above concerning Simeon; of what sort is to be reckoned also that conversion which had befallen the Galatians, concerning which the Apostle says: "You were running well; who has hindered you," that is, turned you back from the good course and the straight road?
Joshua 11:3 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.2
He "sends" also "to those who were in the coastland places," to the neighbors of the waves, the Canaanites, who are interpreted as though "agitated," that is, who ever in their motions and surges keep all things stirred up, and "to the coastal Amorites." "Amorites" are interpreted as "growing bitter," who are like those of whom we discoursed above.
Joshua 11:6 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.2
Such, therefore, is the catalogue of the whole soldiery of the invisible enemies, who are gathered together through king Jabin, that they may make war upon us who follow Jesus our leader and Savior. But what does the Lord say? "Do not be afraid," he says, "before their face, for tomorrow at this hour I will deliver them into your hands." I see that today we cannot crush them all nor slay them all, but "tomorrow" they will be destroyed, that is, after the consummation of this age. For then every contrary power will be destroyed, and then it will be utterly conquered, when you shall see it said "to those who are on the left": "Go into the eternal fire, which God prepared for the devil and his angels." For then we also, if we conquer and are able to gain the mastery following Jesus our leader, shall receive the kingdom which the Father has prepared for his holy ones and for those who have "fulfilled" his commandments and "his ordinances," through our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 11:9-11 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.3
Let us therefore, comparing Holy Scripture with itself and "comparing spiritual things with spiritual," inquire what it is that concerning the donkeys it is not written that they were hamstrung, nor are the spoils or animals of the Midianites said to have been slain, but rather to have profited the Israelites' uses, whereas concerning these, who did not have donkeys but horses, the Lord himself commands and says, "you shall hamstring their horses," which Jesus also, "as commanded by the Lord," carried out. Do we suppose these things happened by chance, that the enemies' horses were slain and the donkeys preserved, and do we judge that certain fortuitous things fall out in the precepts of God? Or does it seem more worthy that we should think rather that in these things Scripture indicates something mystical? Indeed, the children of Israel are never reported to have used horses, and the law commands nothing about horses, but about donkeys, as being animals which seem to exist for aiding human labors and for carrying their burdens, whereas horses exist rather for the destruction of men; for this is what is carried out through them in battles. It is taken as an animal of wanton movements and of a proud neck. Donkeys, therefore, are frequently placed by Scripture as a type of the nations; just as the Savior is also shown "sitting upon a donkey," but is never reported sitting upon a horse. But also when he "sends the disciples to loose the she-donkey and the colt of the she-donkey," he says to them, "if anyone questions you, say that the Lord has need of him." And sitting upon it he enters Jerusalem, and is never said to have entered sitting upon a horse. But the prophet too had foretold thus concerning him, that he would come "sitting upon a donkey" to Jerusalem, saying, "behold, your king, meek, sitting upon a beast of burden and a young colt of a she-donkey. And he will exterminate the chariots of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem." You see, therefore, that according to the prophet's sentence, he who "sits upon a donkey will exterminate the chariots of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem." And therefore the donkeys seem to me, as we have said, to preserve the figure of those who believe from among the nations, upon whom the Lord is written "to have sat"; but the horses, which are exterminated, and the chariots to hold the figure of those who, being placed in the heavens, fell through wantonness and pride, when they either offered themselves as instigators to the lusting after the daughters of men, or followed him who said, "I will set my seat above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High." Thence perhaps it is that the prophet also says, "a horse is false for safety." And again he says concerning those who trusted in demons, "these in chariots and these in horses, but we will call upon the name of our God." For he would not have joined "chariots and horses" to God, as far as regards calling upon; but surely this shows that, just as we call upon the true God, so they call upon "chariots and horses," that is, the demons, whom those nations, which waged war against Israel, called upon. But Scripture also mentions the horses of the Egyptians and these very ones which it now commands to be slain. Whence this is given to be understood, that under the type of donkeys indeed the nations, which come to belief, are deservedly reserved, but under the type of horses and chariots the demons, who are the adversaries and enemies of human salvation, are deservedly destroyed. But also, if we understand the passions of the body, that is, lust, wantonness, or pride and levity, by which the unhappy soul, as though riding, is carried and borne to precipices, to be now called horses and chariots, and that these are the ones which by God's command are ordered "to be hamstrung," the understanding will not be contrary to our reasoning. For "the horse is hamstrung" when by fastings and vigils and every affliction of abstinence the body is humbled…
Joshua 11:9 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.2
"And Jesus did to them," it says, "as the Lord had commanded him; he hamstrung their horses, and burned their chariots with fire. And Jesus, turning at that time, seized Hazor and slew its king with the sword and killed everyone who breathed in it, with the death of the sword, and all were exterminated, so that there was not left in it anyone who drew breath." A command is said to have been given by God to Jesus, that, after he had subdued the enemies mentioned above, he should spare none, but should "hamstring their horses." Whence Jesus, as though fulfilling the command of God, did "as the Lord commanded him." In which, first of all, we say to those who wish these things to be understood only according to the letter, that, if indeed any of the enemies had survived, it would seem consequent that "the horses be hamstrung," so that no one might be able to use them for flight. But now, since it is said that "none was left who breathed" among the enemies, why are "the horses" also commanded "to be hamstrung," which surely could have been of use and service to the victors? And do you wish to know that the Israelites were accustomed to have care for this matter of utility and, when the enemies were conquered, to reserve the beasts for their own uses? In Numbers we read it written that, when at God's command they had gone forth to fight against the Midianites, once the enemies were conquered they reserved several thousand donkeys from the enemies' spoil, to be of profit for their own uses; nor is it there reported at all that they killed the donkeys when the enemies were overcome.
Joshua 11:9 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.1
Unless these carnal wars bore the figure of spiritual wars, never, I think, would the books of the Jewish histories have been handed down by the Apostles to be read in the churches by the disciples of Christ, who came to teach peace. For of what profit would that account of wars be to those to whom it is said by Jesus, "My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you," and to whom it is commanded and said through the Apostle, "not avenging yourselves," and, "rather suffer wrong," and, "rather endure being defrauded"? Whence, in short, the Apostle, knowing that we no longer have any wars to be waged carnally, but that the soul's contests against spiritual adversaries must be sweated out, gives, as it were as a master of the army, a precept to the soldiers of Christ, saying, "put on the arms of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." And that from the deeds of the ancients we might be able to have examples of these spiritual wars, he willed that these narratives of events be recited to us in the church, so that we, if we are spiritual, hearing that "the law is spiritual," in these things which we hear may "compare spiritual things with spiritual," and may contemplate from these nations, which visibly assailed the carnal Israel, how great are the nations of the contrary powers among these spiritual ones, who are called "spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places," which stir up wars against the Church of the Lord, which is the true Israel. The Moabites come and the Ammonites and all those kings and invisible nations, which we mentioned above, come against us to do battle, to this end, that they may make us sin; because, just as the body dies when it has received a wound of iron, so also the soul dies when it has received a wound of sin. And I think that "to say the same things more frequently ought indeed not to be irksome to us, but for you it is necessary." For would that you might hold fast even the things said more frequently and often impressed upon your minds, so that in reading these things you may not hold a Jewish or a heretical sense in them. But after we have given general admonition concerning these things, it will not be superfluous also to discuss, in particular, a few things about what has been read. Therefore, taking up again those things which were omitted in the earlier parts, let us discuss them.
Joshua 11:12-15 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.4
"And all their kings," it says, "Jesus slew with the death of the sword." In all of us "sin reigned" and in all of us the vices reigned and there was in all of us a general reign of sin, just as the Apostle also says, "for all have sinned and lack the glory of God." Yet each one had within himself some special king, who reigned in him and dominated him. For example, in one avarice held the reign, in another pride, lying reigned in another, lust dominated another, and another endured fury as king. But that these things are so and that "sin reigns" in each one of us, believe the Apostle Paul saying; for he says, "let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body so as to obey it." There was, therefore, a reign of sin in each one of us, before we believed. But afterward, when Jesus came, he both slew all the kings who held in us the reigns of sin, and commanded us to slay all those kings and "to leave none of them." For if anyone keeps any one of these alive within himself, he will not be able to be in the army of Jesus. If, therefore, avarice still reigns in you, if boastfulness, if pride, if lust, you will not be an Israelite soldier nor do you fulfill the precept which the Lord gave to Jesus. "As Moses the servant of the Lord appointed for him," it says. This "Moses the servant of the Lord" is called the very word of the law, just as in the Gospel too it says, "they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear those." The law, therefore, has commanded us to slay all the kings of sin, which provoke us to sin. "Thus did Jesus, and he did not transgress anything of all that Moses appointed for him." We said indeed, according to the earlier order of exposition, that whatever the law of God, who is now called Moses, appointed, Jesus fulfills in us and he is the one who slays the vices in us and overturns the most wicked reigns of sin. Yet it can also be said of the Lord and our Savior himself that all things which Moses commanded in the law "Jesus did, and did not transgress anything," since indeed the Apostle says, "when the fullness of times had come, God sent his Son, made from a woman, made under the law." If therefore "he was made under the law," since he was "under the law," he fulfilled all things which the law commanded, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. But he himself too says of himself, "I came not to loose the law, but to fulfill it."
Joshua 11:19-20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.5
"And Jesus took all in the war," it says, "because it was done by the Lord that their heart was strengthened and they should meet in battle against Israel." He did not say that Jesus "took some in the war" and did not take some, but "he took all," that is, seized, and slew all. For the Lord Jesus purged all species of sin and destroyed them all. For we were all "senseless, unbelieving, wandering, serving various desires, acting in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another," and every kind of sin whatsoever it is that is found in men, before they believe. Well, therefore, does it say that "Jesus slew all who went out to war." For no species of sin is so great that Jesus is not superior to it, he who is the Word and "the wisdom of God." For he surpasses and conquers all things. Or do we not so believe, that every kind of sin, when we come to the saving laver, is taken away? For this too the Apostle Paul designates, who, when he had enumerated all the kinds of sins, adds after all and says, "and these things indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified, but you have been justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." In this manner, therefore, he is said to have "taken all in the battle" and to have "slain all," "because it was done by the Lord that their heart grew strong and they should meet in battle against Israel, that they might be exterminated." For while the enemy powers do not come, which work sins in us, nor provoke us to sinning nor challenge us to fight, they cannot be slain nor exterminated. Therefore for this reason God is said to permit, nay even almost to incite, the adverse powers to go out against us into battle, so that we too may take the victory and they may meet with destruction. Whence there seems to me to be a certain infinite number of the contrary powers, for the reason that through almost every single man there are some spirits, contriving in them the diverse kinds of sins. For example, there is a certain spirit of fornication, and there is one of anger; another spirit is of avarice, and another indeed of pride. And if it happens that there is some man who is agitated by all these evils or even by more, he is to be thought to have all these or even more enemies within himself as spirits. Whence also through individuals there are to be believed to be several, because individual men do not have single vices nor commit single sins, but many are seen to be admitted by each one. And again it is not to be supposed that one spirit of fornication seduces him who, for example, fornicates among the Britons, and him who does so in India or in other places, nor that there is one spirit of anger which agitates different men in different places; but I think rather that there is one chief spirit of fornication, but that there are innumerable ones who obey him in this office, and that through each individual man diverse spirits soldiering under that chief solicit them to sins of this kind. Likewise also I judge that there is one chief spirit of wrath, but that there are innumerable acting under him, who through each individual man kindle the sins of this vice. Likewise also that there is one chief of avarice, so too of pride and of the other evils. And therefore not one principality is spoken of among the contrary powers by the Apostle, but several, against whom he writes that there is a battle for himself and for us all. Yet I reckon that there is a chief of all these, as it were a certain one more eminent in wickedness and loftier in crime, who alone, as though the leader of all the chiefs and the master of the whole unspeakable soldiery, agitates the whole world, which these individually, each through the species of sins, in part solicit to sins; whose figure, when we were discussing Jabin, we disclosed above according to the small capacity of our understanding.
Joshua 11:20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.6
I certainly think that the holy ones, each of them fighting against these spirits that instigate sins and conquering them and overcoming each one of them, diminish the army of demons and, as it were, slay as many of them as possible. For example, so that, if anyone by living chastely and purely has overcome the spirit of fornication, it is no longer permitted for that spirit, which has been conquered by that holy one, to assail another man again; but just as those spirits which "begged Jesus that they not be sent into the abyss," which then meanwhile the Lord granted for the present dispensation, so it seems consequent that each of the wicked spirits, when they are conquered by the holy ones, is led away — whether "into the abyss" or into "the outer darkness" or whatever place is worthy of them — by the just judge Christ, the president of this contest of the life of mortals; and that from this it is that, a very great number of demons having already been vanquished, the nations are set at liberty to come to belief; who surely would in no way be permitted, if their legions, as they had been before, remained intact. But if to anyone it seems difficult, what we say, that through each of those sinning many demons are at large, or if he thinks this fabulous, let him return to the authority of the Gospel and he will find that one who, "dwelling in the tombs, suffering a demon," when he "was questioned" by the Savior, "what is your name?", "answered," "legion, for we are many demons," it says. What wonder, therefore, does it seem, if through the individual kinds of sins individual demons are assigned, when it is written that in one man there was a whole "legion of demons"? But I remember that I said similar things also in those places in which we were expounding the little verse of the psalm, in which it is written, "in the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity." So likewise also "in the hand of the just there are said to be two-edged swords," doubtless which slay the contrary powers. But I think that a more forceful assertion of the Apostle Paul can be brought forward for proving these things which we have said, when he says, "but the God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily." For if there is one Satan, how can he both "be crushed under the feet" of the servants of God and again be at work? For if he "has been crushed" and "has been crushed by God," he surely can no longer be at work. Lest perhaps, therefore, there are to be thought to be as many Satans as are those who work the works of Satan. For this seems to me to be indicated also in Wisdom, where it is said, "the impious man, cursing Satan, curses his own soul." But also in a certain little book, which is called the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, although it is not held in the canon, we nevertheless find some such sense, that through each of those sinning individual Satans are to be understood. And more evidently the very interpretation of his name, as the studious ones of the Hebrews hand down, seems to signify this same thing; for Satan is called adversary. All, therefore, who are adverse to the will of God, can be called Satans. These things we have said on account of what is written, that "the Lord strengthened their hearts, that they should go out to battle against Israel, that they might be exterminated." Blessed, therefore, is he who, unceasingly holding the spiritual sword, does not take it from the necks of these enemies, of whom we have made mention above, just as the prophet Jeremiah too says, "cursed is the man who does the works of the Lord negligently and withholds his sword from the blood of the enemies." If we understand this according to the letter, it will be necessary for us unceasingly to shed blood. Which the Jews, thinking, who are wholly "flesh and blood," become cruel and implacable, saying that a curse is set upon those who have ceased from shedding blood, and th…
Joshua 11:23 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.7
Under Moses it was not said, what is said under Jesus, that: "the land rested from wars." It is certain that this land of ours also, in which we have contests and endure combats, will be able to rest from wars only by the power of Jesus the Lord. For within us are all these nations of vices, which continually and unceasingly assail the soul. Within us are the "Canaanites," within us are the "Perizzites," here are the "Jebusites." How we must labor, how we must keep watch, and for how long we must persevere, that when all these nations of vices have been put to flight from us, at length "our land may rest from wars"? And therefore the prophet admonishes us to "meditate on the law of the Lord day and night." This meditation upon the divine words is surely like a kind of trumpet, rousing your spirits to battle, lest perhaps, while the adversary keeps watch, you should sleep. Therefore the "day" is not sufficient for meditating, but the "night" too is added. But what will you do, who not only sleep by night, but also all day long serve either the occupations of the world or the delights of the flesh, and scarcely and rarely gather at church on the appointed days? Some of you, moreover, even when coming do not come, because in coming they give their leisure not to the word of God but to idle tales. On account of which the divine word says to you: "Rise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, that you may lay hold of Christ." For "rise from the dead" is said to those who remain in the works of death, persisting in their uncleannesses and crimes; which, although they be not manifest to men, are nevertheless known to God. But at least on this account do penance and turn to the Lord with your whole heart, give your leisure to prayers, give your leisure to the word of God.
Joshua 11:23 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.7
But it is said in what follows that "Jesus took all the land, as the Lord commanded Moses." That "Jesus," the son of Nave, I do not see that he "took all the land." For how much "land did he take," who held Judaea alone? But our Lord Jesus himself truly "took all the land" in this, that from "all the earth" and from all the nations a multitude of believers ran together to him. It is also added after these things, after "Jesus took all the land": "and the land rested from wars," it says. How will this seem to be truly said of the son of Nave, that "the land ceased from wars," which almost never in his times "ceased from wars"? But this is fulfilled in my Lord Jesus Christ alone. For if you consider yourself, you who have come to Jesus and have obtained from him through the grace of baptism the remission of sins, and now in you "the flesh does not fight against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh," your "land has ceased from wars," if however you "carry about the death of Jesus Christ in your body," so that, all battles ceasing in you, you may become "peaceable" and be called "a son of God." But this will come to pass after you have completed the battles and conquered the adversaries. Then rest will be given to you, so that you may "rest under your vine," which is Christ Jesus, "and under your fig tree," which is the Holy Spirit, so that thus you may render thanks to God the Father almighty in the same Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 12:1-24 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.21-22
And if "a wise man shall understand the words from his own mouth and shall hear knowledge on his lips," we must either declare rashly that the prophets were not wise, if they have not understood "the words from their own mouth," or admit that the prophets were wise, because they have received what is correct and true and have understood "the words from their own mouth" and borne knowledge on their lips. It is clear that Moses saw in his mind the truth of the law and the allegorical meanings related to the anagogical sense of the stories he recorded, and that Joshua understood the true distribution of land which took place after the overthrow of the twenty-nine kings, since he could see better than us that the things accomplished through himself were shadows of certain realities.
Joshua 12:1-24 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.2
Therefore, in the end, neither are many enemies nor several kings of the hostile powers said to have been cast down by them. He says only that they cast down "Sihon, king of the Amorites," and "Og, king of Bashan," and the Amalekites across the Jordan. But Jesus, where he leads the army, now "five kings" fall together, who "had fled into the caves," and not only do they fall, but they are also "hanged upon the tree"; now "twenty-nine" are slaughtered together, and immense multitudes of the opposing army are laid low, and all are exterminated who possess the holy land in uncleanness, who hold "the land flowing with milk and honey" in the bitterness of malice.
Joshua 13:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 16.2
But since we have undertaken to refer also to our Lord and Savior the things that are said of Jesus, who is understood to be so much a presbyter and elder "advanced in days" as he himself, who is the "beginning," the "firstborn of all creation"? And therefore perhaps he alone is truly and completely called "presbyter," before whom no one is. Therefore, although there are those who are called in the Scriptures "presbyters" or "elders" or "high priests," nevertheless the Lord Jesus, just as among the high priests he is the "chief of the high priests" and among the shepherds he is the "chief shepherd," so also among the "presbyters" or "elders" he is to be considered the chief of the presbyters, and among the bishops the chief of the bishops; and whatever honorable name there is, the Savior is to be believed to be first and chief in it, because he himself is "the head of all things."
Joshua 13:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 16.1
Even before us certain men, observing the Scriptures, noted that men are called "presbyters" or "elders" not because they have led a long life, but that they are honored with this venerable title on account of the maturity of their understanding and the gravity of their life — especially when there is added to "presbyter" that expression which follows: "full of days." For if a man were to be called presbyter or elder because of the length of his years, what other man ought rather to have been reckoned by this name than the first Adam, or surely Methuselah or Noah, who indeed are declared to have lived in this world for far more years than the rest? But now we see that of these none is reported by Scripture to have been called "presbyter" or "elder," but rather he who led a life of far briefer time, Abraham, is the first in the holy Scriptures to be called "presbyter" or "elder." It was said also to Moses by the Lord: "Choose for yourself out of all the people presbyters, whom you yourself know to be presbyters." But observe also, you O hearer, throughout all Scripture, whether you can anywhere find this title, "elder and full of days," set upon any sinner. Now therefore it is the voice of the Holy Spirit that pronounces Jesus a "presbyter" — or "elder" — "and advanced in days"; for so it said: "For Jesus," it says, "was a presbyter" — or "elder" — "advanced in days." Which certainly could not be said of a sinner, because a sinner is not "advanced in days"; for he does not "stretch himself toward the things that are ahead, forgetting the things that are behind," but is always "turned backward" and "returns to his own vomit," and therefore "is not fit for the kingdom of heaven." But he who is always "stretched out toward the things before" and is borne toward perfection, that man is "advanced in his days." And now therefore the Lord says to Jesus: "You are advanced in your days." I do not know whether, in this place, it can be thought that the Lord was saying this to Jesus because all saw and all knew this concerning his aged years. And what sort of great and divine responses are these, delivered to men, that they should say to an old man: you are old — which all saw and all knew? But it seems to me that some great testimony is given by the Lord through this to the son of Nave, when it is said to him: "you are advanced in days." And as far as it is permitted us to speak forth or to disclose concerning the divine mysteries, I judge that, just as this sun makes days for this world, so also the "sun of righteousness" makes certain spiritual days, which are illumined by the brightness of truth and the lamp of wisdom. If therefore anyone shall have passed through this present life in the precepts of God — this life which, as Jacob said, is of "few and evil days" — and shall have kept himself unstained from this world and shall have subdued all his adversaries and his spiritual enemies, he is advanced from those few and evil days and is promoted to those eternal and good days, marked by the light of the eternal sun. In some such order, then, is Jesus too to be understood to be pronounced by the divine responses "advanced in days."
Joshua 13:2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 16.3
But he adds to these a divine response and says: "you are advanced in days, and the land that is left is very great." In the passages above it was said, as we observed, that "the land ceased from wars" and that "Jesus took all the land"; and here now it is written that "the land that is left is very great." Do you think that Scripture contains things contrary to itself? This is not to be suspected even lightly. But let us return to the spiritual understanding, and in it you will find nothing to be contrary. Consider the first coming of our Lord and Savior, when he came to sow his word in the world, how "he took all the land" by the mere casting of the seed, and how he put to flight from it the adversary powers and the apostate angels who had besieged the minds of the Gentiles, and meanwhile sowed the word and propagated the churches. This is his first possession of the whole land. But follow me, O hearer, along the subtle lines of the word, and I will show you how also a second time he takes this "land," which is now said to Jesus "to have been left in great part." Hear Paul saying of him: "for he must reign, until he puts all his enemies as a footstool for his feet." This, then, is the "land" which is now said "to have been left in great part," until "all" without exception "are subdued beneath his feet," and through these he may take possession of all men by inheritance. "And this is," it says, "the land which is left: all the borders of the Philistines," and very many others which follow. Much still remains, as far as concerns our times, which we see not yet "to be subjected to the feet of Jesus," who must indeed obtain all things. For there can be no end of things unless all things have first been "subjected" to him. For so also the prophet says that "all nations shall serve him," and: "from the ends of the rivers unto the ends of the earth. Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down," and: "from beyond the banks of the rivers of Ethiopia they shall offer sacrifices." Whence it is established that in the second coming Jesus will obtain this "great land which remains." But blessed are those who were obtained at his first coming; for these will be truly pleasing, who, while many adversaries resist and many enemies assail, receive by war and by arms the inheritance of the land of promise. But when someone has been subjected out of necessity — then, when even "the last enemy, death, must be destroyed" — there will no longer be favor for those who are subjected.
Joshua 13:6 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 16.4
After these things, when he had enumerated very many nations, he said concerning the Sidonians alone: "and all the Sidonians, I myself will exterminate them from the face of the children of Israel." The "Canaanites" too were named, and those also were named who are "over against the face of Egypt," and those who are "from the borders of Ekron" and from the left parts of the rivers, and very many other nations; and concerning the Sidonians alone the Lord says that he "will overthrow" them. Now the "Sidonians," as we have already said before, are interpreted as hunters. Who then are understood to be these evil hunters, whom the Lord "exterminates," if not those adverse powers, concerning whom the prophet says that "they have prepared snares for my feet"? — with which, namely, they hunt and entrap souls unto sin. These, then, the Lord "exterminates"; for if such hunters as these shall have perished, when there is no longer anyone to "stretch out snares" and nets to entrap souls in sin, then "each one shall rest under his own vine and under his own fig tree."
Joshua 13:8-32 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 16.5
But that also was read to us today, that Moses gave an inheritance to certain men; and after these things it is read that Jesus too, according to the precept of the Lord, distributed the inheritance. First, then, Moses distributed the inheritance, but second Jesus. Now understand Moses as the law. These, then, who lived according to the law received the inheritance first, but outside the land of promise. Then afterward, when they had received the land of inheritance, they do not possess it nor divide it among themselves, but they wait until it is distributed to them by lot through Jesus. Is not this evidently what the Apostle says to the Hebrews, writing about the "former fathers," whom he said "pleased God by faith"? And he added, saying: "but all these, having obtained testimony through faith, did not yet receive the promises, God providing something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us." They have therefore already their "promise" and have found rest, and have been judged worthy through Moses to take the inheritance; nevertheless they too still fight and are in the contest on behalf of those who serve as soldiers under Jesus. But you ask who these are that fight, and what is that fight which they wage. I judge it thus, that all those "fathers" who "fell asleep" before us fight together with us and help us by their prayers. For so also I heard a certain one of the elder teachers saying, in that place where it is written in Numbers that: "that synagogue shall lick up this synagogue, as a calf licks up the green grass of the field." He said: why was a likeness of this kind taken up, unless because this is what is to be understood in the passage — that the "synagogue" of the Lord, which has gone before us among the saints, shall with mouth and tongue consume the adversary synagogue, that is, shall consume our adversaries with prayers and supplications? Not therefore with arms are we to fight against our invisible enemies, but with prayers and meditations on the word of God and with right works and right thoughts. For so also the fathers were armed, conquering by faith and by works. See, finally, that it is so written of them: "they believed," it says, "God and Moses his servant"; and "then Moses sang this song" and said: "let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honored." So then let us too, cultivating full faith and perfect works, unceasing prayers, meditation on the divine word, spiritual understanding, and fortified in all these as with the arms of God, "let us stand against the wiles of the devil," calling upon God our helper in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 13:14 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 17.2
Nevertheless, let us see what it is that is described through the shadow, since in the shadow of the law the truth is outlined. There is reported, then, a first and a second division of the inheritance that was made — the first indeed through Moses, but the second, which is also the more powerful, is described as made through Jesus. And "Moses" decrees a possession "beyond the Jordan to the tribe of Reuben and to the tribe of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh," but all the rest receive their inheritance through Jesus. We have already spoken about these matters before — how those who "had pleased God" through the law, going before in time those who through faith in Jesus arrive at the things promised, do not yet obtain the things that are perfect, awaiting those who, later indeed in a different time but by one faith, will please God, as the Apostle says: "that they should not be made perfect without us." Meanwhile, neither Moses nor Jesus gave the Levites an inheritance, because "the Lord God himself is their inheritance." And in this matter what else is to be understood, except that there are in the Church of the Lord certain ones who by the virtue of their soul and the grace of their merits go before all the rest, of whom "the Lord himself" is said to be their "inheritance"? And if it is permitted to venture in such matters and to open up something of a hidden secret, let us see whether perhaps this is what the figure of the priests or the Levites secretly shows — that in the whole people (I mean of those who are saved) the greater and by far the more numerous part is without doubt of those who, simply believing in the fear of God, through good works, through honorable morals and commendable deeds, "please the Lord"; but few there are, and very rare, who, giving their effort to wisdom and knowledge and keeping their mind clean and pure and cultivating their souls with all illustrious virtues, illuminate for the rest of the simpler ones, through the grace of teaching, the road on which they walk and come to salvation. These perhaps are now designated under the name of the Levites and the priests, whose "inheritance is the Lord himself," who is the "wisdom" which they loved above all others. I find, however, a certain difference in the things which Moses distributed and in those which Jesus distributed. For Moses, "distributing the land beyond the Jordan to the two and a half tribes," did not give the Levites the portion of a dwelling that fell to them; but Jesus gave it not only in those tribes which he himself apportions, but also in those which had been settled by Moses beyond the Jordan. For dwellings are decreed for the Levites in each single tribe, so that through this we might recognize a much more magnificent mystery. For this Levitical or priestly order, which devotes its effort to the wisdom and knowledge of God, could not receive from Moses a lot of habitation, because Moses was not a minister of the truth, but "of the shadow and the copy." But Jesus our Lord, who was "the Wisdom of God," himself provides dwellings for the wise. For Moses could not say: "Go, sell all your things which you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me" — for this is to give a portion to the Levites — nor could Moses say: "Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple," nor could Moses say: "Everyone who does not hate father or mother and brothers and sisters and children, and moreover even his own soul, cannot be my disciple." This Moses could not say, and therefore he himself could not apportion the dwellings of the priests and Levites. Blessed, therefore, is he who shows himself to be such and is found to be perfect in all these things which Jesus commanded, so that from Jesus he may receive the lot of a heavenly dwelling in the world to come; of whom the Lord Jesus himself says: "Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me," and: "as I in you and you…
Joshua 14:1-5 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 17.2
Nevertheless, let us see what it is that is described through the shadow, since in the shadow of the law the truth is outlined. There is reported, then, a first and a second division of the inheritance that was made — the first indeed through Moses, but the second, which is also the more powerful, is described as made through Jesus. And "Moses" decrees a possession "beyond the Jordan to the tribe of Reuben and to the tribe of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh," but all the rest receive their inheritance through Jesus. We have already spoken about these matters before — how those who "had pleased God" through the law, going before in time those who through faith in Jesus arrive at the things promised, do not yet obtain the things that are perfect, awaiting those who, later indeed in a different time but by one faith, will please God, as the Apostle says: "that they should not be made perfect without us." Meanwhile, neither Moses nor Jesus gave the Levites an inheritance, because "the Lord God himself is their inheritance." And in this matter what else is to be understood, except that there are in the Church of the Lord certain ones who by the virtue of their soul and the grace of their merits go before all the rest, of whom "the Lord himself" is said to be their "inheritance"? And if it is permitted to venture in such matters and to open up something of a hidden secret, let us see whether perhaps this is what the figure of the priests or the Levites secretly shows — that in the whole people (I mean of those who are saved) the greater and by far the more numerous part is without doubt of those who, simply believing in the fear of God, through good works, through honorable morals and commendable deeds, "please the Lord"; but few there are, and very rare, who, giving their effort to wisdom and knowledge and keeping their mind clean and pure and cultivating their souls with all illustrious virtues, illuminate for the rest of the simpler ones, through the grace of teaching, the road on which they walk and come to salvation. These perhaps are now designated under the name of the Levites and the priests, whose "inheritance is the Lord himself," who is the "wisdom" which they loved above all others. I find, however, a certain difference in the things which Moses distributed and in those which Jesus distributed. For Moses, "distributing the land beyond the Jordan to the two and a half tribes," did not give the Levites the portion of a dwelling that fell to them; but Jesus gave it not only in those tribes which he himself apportions, but also in those which had been settled by Moses beyond the Jordan. For dwellings are decreed for the Levites in each single tribe, so that through this we might recognize a much more magnificent mystery. For this Levitical or priestly order, which devotes its effort to the wisdom and knowledge of God, could not receive from Moses a lot of habitation, because Moses was not a minister of the truth, but "of the shadow and the copy." But Jesus our Lord, who was "the Wisdom of God," himself provides dwellings for the wise. For Moses could not say: "Go, sell all your things which you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me" — for this is to give a portion to the Levites — nor could Moses say: "Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple," nor could Moses say: "Everyone who does not hate father or mother and brothers and sisters and children, and moreover even his own soul, cannot be my disciple." This Moses could not say, and therefore he himself could not apportion the dwellings of the priests and Levites. Blessed, therefore, is he who shows himself to be such and is found to be perfect in all these things which Jesus commanded, so that from Jesus he may receive the lot of a heavenly dwelling in the world to come; of whom the Lord Jesus himself says: "Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me," and: "as I in you and you…
Joshua 14:1-5 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 17.1
Just as those who receive the law — which is a "shadow" of that true law — serve "the shadow and copy of the heavenly things," so those who divide the inheritance of the land in Judaea follow "the copy and shadow" of the heavenly division. The truth, therefore, was in the heavens, but the "shadow and copy" of the truth was on the earth. And so long as this "shadow" stood firm on the earth, there was an earthly Jerusalem, there was a temple, there was an altar, there was also a visible cult, there were high priests and priests, there stood also the cities and villages of Judaea and all these things which are now recited as described in this book. But when, at the coming of our Savior, God descending from the heavens, "the truth arose from the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven," the "shadow and copies" fell. For Jerusalem fell, the temple fell, the altar was taken away, so that now there is no place, either "on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem," where one ought to worship, but "the true worshippers, who worship the Father, worship in spirit and in truth." Thus, then, when the truth was present, "the type and shadow" ceased; and when that temple was present, which was fashioned in the womb of the virgin by "the Spirit of God and the power of the Most High," the temple built of stones was demolished. The high priest "of the good things to come" was present, and the high priests "of bulls and goats" ceased. "The Lamb of God came, who takes away the sin of the world," and the lamb taken from the flocks and slaughtered to no purpose through so many ages came to an end. Therefore, if all these things which had been given to the men of former times in a shadow ceased when the truth was present and standing by, it followed without doubt that, once the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven had been laid open, the earthly inheritance too should cease. And the reason why all these things should come to an end is this: "that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become subject to God," lest perhaps some from the unbelieving people should take occasions for their unbelief and, holding the "shadows" handed down to them from ancient times — whether of the temple or the altar or the high priests or the priests — should seem to themselves, while the state of the ancient cult remained, to be transgressing the order of religion if they should pass over to the faith. For this reason, then, divine providence arranged that all these things which had of old been foreshadowed on the earth should be taken away, so that with the types ceasing they might in a certain way find a way of seeking the truth. If therefore, O Jew, coming to the earthly city Jerusalem you find it overthrown and reduced to ashes and cinders, do not weep, as you now do like "children in your understanding"; do not lament, but instead of the earthly one seek the heavenly. Look upward, and there you will find "the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of all." If you see the altar abandoned, I do not wish you to be grieved; if you do not find a high priest, I do not wish you to despair: there is an altar in the heavens, and beside it stands the high priest "of the good things to come," "chosen by God according to the order of Melchizedech." Thus, then, by the piety and mercy of God even the earthly inheritance has been taken away from you, so that you may seek an inheritance in the heavens.
Joshua 14:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.1
Let us learn from the law, which describes for us of necessity the division of the land, said to have been made first through Moses and secondly also through Jesus — not that we should keep both, but that, learning the meaning of each, we may hold only that one which is handed down by Jesus our Lord. Now that land which is "beyond the Jordan" Moses distributed; but this one, which is the "holy land" and the "good land," "Jesus and the princes of the tribes of Israel" distributed. You see, then, that when that true inheritance of the "holy land" begins to be distributed by the Savior, the "princes of the tribes" also of the true and spiritual "Israel" will be taken up. And whom do we suppose to be the "princes" of our tribes, or the princes of the church, if not the holy Apostles, to whom the Savior says: "you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"? Yet there is taken up for the division a priest as well, who is the hidden and mystical word of God; for so it says that "Jesus and Eleazar" came together to divide the land.
Joshua 14:1-5 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 17.3
But if, hearing that the inheritance of the perfect and the more eminent is called the Lord, you are ignorant and in doubt as to what that is which is designated under this name, hear that "the Lord is wisdom." He, therefore, to whom the Lord is said to be his inheritance, this one will take the inheritance of wisdom. The Lord is called "righteousness." He, therefore, whose inheritance is the Lord, this one will obtain the inheritance of righteousness. The Lord is "peace," the Lord is "redemption," the Lord is "salvation," in the Lord are "the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." All these things he will receive in his inheritance, whose inheritance the Lord shall have been. Nevertheless, even these, to whom the "wisdom" of God and the "Word" of God and "truth" and "righteousness" is said to be their inheritance, meanwhile receive their dwelling together with those whose inheritance is held on the earth, so that from fellowship with them those who by themselves are not yet able may through them be made partakers of the "wisdom and knowledge" of God and of his "truth" and "Word." And thus the divine dispensation extends even to the very least, so that those who cannot in the first place exist as capable of divine grace may deserve to be illuminated from fellowship with these, and that may be fulfilled which is written: "he who had much did not abound; and he who had least was not diminished," but also that which the Apostle says to the Corinthians concerning the saints of Jerusalem: "that your abundance," he says, "may make up for their want, and their abundance may make up for your want." So therefore now too the Levite and the priest, who do not have land, are commanded to dwell together with the Israelite who has land, so that the priest and the Levite may receive from the Israelite the earthly things which they do not have, and again the Israelite may receive from the priest and the Levite the heavenly and divine things which he does not have. For the law of God has been committed to the priests and the Levites, that they may give their effort to this alone and be free for the word of God without any anxiety. But again, in order that they may be able to be free, they must make use of the ministries of the laity. For if the layman does not provide the things which are necessary to the priests and the Levites, they, being occupied in such things — that is, in bodily cares — will be less free for the law of God; and while they are not free and not giving their effort to the law of God, you are endangered. For the light of knowledge which is in them will be darkened, since you do not supply the oil for the lamp, and by your fault that will come to pass which the Lord said: "for a blind man offering guidance to a blind man, both will fall into the pit." But also that will be fulfilled in you which the Lord said: "for if the light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness itself!" Therefore, that the light of knowledge may shine in the priests and their lamp may be always lit, do you fulfill your office, complete the commandment of God with regard to the services due to the priests. But if perhaps, having received from you the things which are necessary and "so not as of covetousness, but as of a blessing," they neglect to give their effort to instruction and to be free for the word of God and to "meditate on the law of God day and night," they themselves will see how they render an account to the Lord for your souls. But rather let us pray for the mercy of God almighty, that by his own light, his own truth, his own splendor he may deign to illuminate us all and to give "his word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths," our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is "the true light of the world," "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 14:6-11 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.2
And let us see who it is that first received an inheritance from Jesus. "Caleb," it says, "the son of Jephunneh." For he is the first to ask, and he asks with certain definite reasons and words, which are written down; and these words can also instruct us unto salvation. First of all, Caleb is interpreted as "heart." Who then is, as it were, a heart, if not the one who in all things devotes his effort to the understanding, who is said to be no other member of the body of the church than that which is more excellent in us, the heart — that is, one who conducts all things with reason and prudence, and so administers everything as though he were nothing other than a heart? Now Jephunneh, his father, is interpreted "conversion." This Caleb, then, is the son of conversion; and why, unless because, having been turned to God, he brings forth from himself such fruit that the heart begets a son? Everyone, therefore, who has leisure for divine perceptions and does all things prudently and rationally is a Caleb. He, first indeed instructed by Moses, but secondly by Jesus, whom he attended, says: "you know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God." "You know the word which the Lord spoke." For who else can "know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses" except Jesus alone? No one understood the law as Jesus taught it; for he himself taught and opened up all things, he himself revealed to Paul that "the law is spiritual." "As he spoke," it says, "concerning me and concerning you." "Concerning me," it says, "and concerning you Moses spoke." "Concerning you" — this is what the Lord said: "if you believed Moses, you would surely also believe me; for he wrote of me." But when he said "concerning me" — that is, concerning Caleb, who is the heart — it is certain that Moses wrote concerning the heart, seeing that he wrote everything prudently and wisely. He says therefore: "today I am as strong as I was strong then." For the holy man is likewise "strong" both in things present and in things past, both in the new and in the old, both in the gospels and in the law. This, then, is what he says, that "he is strong today" under Jesus "as he was then" under Moses, because in the mysteries of both testaments the watchful heart is strong.
Joshua 14:12-13 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.3
But let us also see his petition, which "Caleb, the son of Jephunneh," asked first from Jesus. "I ask of you," he says, "this mountain, as the Lord said in that day." The holy man seeks nothing lowly or base, nothing that lies in sunken valleys, but he seeks a lofty "mountain," and a "mountain" in which there are "great and fortified cities." For it is written: "there are the Anakim, cities great and fortified." And he was asking for these things because he knew how to wage war, as it is written: "the wise man occupied fortified cities and destroyed the stronghold in which the impious trusted." Do you suppose that, when Solomon said these things, he wished to teach us this — that "the wise man captured cities and destroyed strongholds" built of stones? Or does it rather indicate that the city and the walls are the dogmas of the impious and the syllogisms of the philosophers, by which they construct all manner of impious things contrary to the divine law, which are observed among the pagans or the barbarians? But those things too must be reckoned among these, and to be "fortified cities" and set upon mountains, which the heretics place in their assertions from the Scriptures as though upon high mountains. These "cities," then, every "wise man" who preaches the word of truth "has destroyed," and he has overthrown the cities of falsehood with the battering-ram of truth, just as the Apostle Paul also said: "destroying reasonings and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." So then even now this most wise Caleb stands before Jesus and promises that "he is strong for war and ready for battle," and therefore he begs that there be permitted to him, as it were, the faculty of disputation, so that he may contend with the dialecticians of the world, with those who confirm falsehoods in place of truths, that he may refute and overcome them and overthrow all the things which they have constructed with their false assertions. And so at last, seeing his eagerness, "Jesus," it says, "blesses him" — namely, because he asks for and dares such things. But you too, if you are willing to give effort to your studies and to meditate prudently upon the law of God and to become a heart in the law of God, are able to overthrow those great and fortified cities, that is, the assertions of falsehood, so that you too may deserve to be blessed by Jesus and to receive Hebron from him.
Joshua 14:14-15 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.3
Now Hebron is interpreted "conjunction" or "wedlock." By this can perhaps be shown that thing — that the double cave purchased by the patriarch Abraham is there, in which the marriages of the fathers and their remains lie, that is, Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, Jacob with Leah. Caleb, therefore, deserved to receive the remains of the fathers in his inheritance, without doubt because through the wisdom which was in him, by which he flourished both under Moses and under Jesus, he had understood the meaning of that very conjunction and had perceived what the cause was that with Abraham only Sarah lay there, and that neither Hagar nor Keturah deserved to be joined to him; or what the cause was that with Jacob only Leah seemed to lie, and neither Rachel, who had been more greatly beloved, nor any of the concubines had been united to him in the tomb. He himself, therefore, the prudent and wise Caleb, takes his inheritance among the memorials of the fathers. To him "Jesus assigned Hebron, the mother-city of the nation of the Anakim, and it becomes his lot unto this present day." Would that to me too there might be given the lot of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and that my God might become mine, as he became "the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob," in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 14:15 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 19.1
Moses distributed the inheritance, and Jesus too distributed the inheritance. But it is not written in the distribution of Moses's inheritance that "the land rested from wars," whereas in the distribution of Jesus the very preface of the word begins thus: "and the land," it says, "rested from wars." If, then, you too wish to be made worthy to obtain an inheritance from Jesus, and to receive a portion from him, you must first bring all your wars to an end and stand fast in peace, so that of the land of your flesh also it may be said that "the land rested from wars."
Joshua 15:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 19.2
Then, further, since it is the custom of holy Scripture to name the four regions of the world, which they call either poles or zones, in the description of "the borders of the tribe of Judah" only two are named and two are passed over in silence. For it is written thus: "and the borders of the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their peoples were from the borders of Idumaea, from the desert of Sin toward the west." And when it had described the borders on the west, it then says: "and on the east all the salt sea," and it passed over the other two regions in silence, that is, the north and the south. See, therefore, whether these things are not filled with mysteries. Although we cannot perceive or explain each one, nevertheless, insofar as the Lord deigns to grant it and we are able to grasp it, we will attempt to examine each single point. "The borders of Judah," it says, "were according to their peoples from the borders of Idumaea, from the desert of Sin toward the west." Therefore "the borders of Judaea" are next to "the borders of Idumaea." Now "Idumaea," as we have often already said, is interpreted "earthly." After the earthly things, then, "the borders of Judaea" immediately follow. But it also says "from the desert of Sin." And "Sin" is interpreted "temptations." After the temptations, then, follow "the borders" of the inheritance "of Judaea." The "west" and the "east" are named, and those neighboring places which we mentioned above, indeed the bordering regions. But also "the valley of Egypt" is designated as neighboring to the western parts, which is "from the desert toward the west," while "on the east" the "borders" are girded "by the salt sea."
Joshua 15:3 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 19.3
After this it says "from the hills that stretch toward the west; and thence one ascends from the west as far as Cades Barne," and thus it stretches from the west "to the west of Cades." And these are their borders on the southwest, and thence it went on "as far as the valley of Egypt." Do you see how in the western parts it names both the "southwest" and "Egypt" and the sunset? Without doubt, so that each one may know that all these things must be escaped and passed through by him, so that at last he may thus be able to arrive at the royal tribe, of which the Apostle says: "it is evident, moreover, that our Lord arose from Judah." Now "from the borders of Idumaea" is "the desert of Sin." A little earlier we said of the desert of Sin that it signifies temptations, and therefore it is necessary for us to pass through the wilderness of temptations, so that we may thus be able to arrive at the inheritance of the sons of Judah. But it is also necessary for us "to ascend the ascent of the hills of Acrabin," which is interpreted "scorpions." We must therefore also pass through and "tread upon" even the "scorpions," those, without doubt, of which the Savior says: "behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions." Whoever, then, wishes and desires to enter into the inheritance of the tribe of Judah must ascend these ascents and "tread upon" and escape the "scorpions" that stand in the way. Whence I think that it was to a man making this journey that the Lord also said to the prophet Ezekiel: "son of man, you dwell in the midst of scorpions." "And the borders are," it says, "as far as Cades." "Cades" is interpreted "holy" or "sanctification." The "borders" of Judah, therefore, reach as far as sanctification.
Joshua 15:5-7 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 19.4
But let us also see what "the borders on the eastern side" are. Not that I now wish to make a catalogue of places, but that we may contemplate the images of the mysteries which are signified through these things. It is said, then, that "on the eastern side of the tribe of Judah" is "the salt sea," and after this in its region is named "the fountain of the sun" and "the city of the sun," and that in the same tribe there is also "the city of letters." It is necessary, therefore, that everyone who wishes to enter into the portion of the sons of Judah first cross "the salt sea," that is, overcome the waves and whirlwinds of this life, and escape all those things which in this world, because of their uncertainty and slipperiness, are compared to the waves of the sea, so that he may be able to arrive at the land of Judah and to approach "the fountain of the sun." But what is "the fountain of the sun," or of which "sun"? Of that one, without doubt, of whom it is written: "but to those who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall arise." Of this "sun," then, if you first escape "the salt sea," you will find "the fountain" in the land of Judah. Which "fountain"? That one, assuredly, of which Jesus said: "but whoever drinks of the water that I give him, there shall be made in him a fountain of water springing up into life eternal." When, therefore, you have found such a "fountain" of this "sun" as we have described, you will also find his "city." "For there is also there," it says, "a city of the sun." There is said to be in Egypt also a "city of the sun." But that "city" which is in Egypt received the name of this "sun," whom "the heavenly Father bids to rise upon the good and the evil." But that city which is in Judaea is made up of the saints only, because it is the "city of God," and that fountain, of which we spoke above, being made "a river, gladdens the city of God." But you too, if you are fortified on every side and surrounded by the wall of continence, if you are strengthened by the towers of wisdom and magnanimity, you too will be made a "city of God." But if to all these things you add for yourself the light of knowledge, as Isaiah said: "kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge," and the "sun of righteousness" shines upon you, you too will be made a "city of the sun," or you will receive "the city of the sun" as the lot of your inheritance. But also, if you hand yourself over to the law of God and "meditate" upon it "day and night," and "the book of the law shall not depart from your hand," as is said to Jesus, and if you are mindful of the precept of the Savior, in which he says "search the Scriptures" — if, then, you devote yourself to such pursuits and obtain the instruction of the divine law either by reading or by hearing, then "the city of letters" is made part of your portion. And these things indeed we have examined according to the possibility of our own understanding, or also according to the capacity of your hearing; but the fullness of knowledge and the deeper and clearer understanding of these things will belong to those who deserve to obtain the true "inheritance" of the true and only-begotten Son of God, which has been promised "to those who love him" perfectly, in Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 15:13-15 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 20.5
First, therefore, let us examine why Caleb received the "metropolis," and that one which, first among all the others in the land of promise, is named "metropolis." And "the metropolis of Enac" — "Enac" is interpreted as empty humility or empty answer. Caleb therefore received the "metropolis" of empty humility. It is certain that there are two humilities. One praiseworthy, of which the Savior says: "learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls." And of this humility it is said that "everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted," and elsewhere: "humble yourselves therefore under the most mighty hand of God." But there is also another, culpable humility of sinners, such as that which Scripture speaks of concerning unlawful intercourse, that "he humbled" her — as is written of Ammon, that he "humbled" Thamar his sister. There is therefore an empty humility which descends from sin. Of this empty humility, then, Caleb "took the metropolis" — or "cut it off" — "and slew the three sons of Enac," who were the sons of empty humility, and, they being killed, he himself inhabits the city and does the things which are written in what follows. But who are these sons of empty humility, whom "Caleb exterminated"? The first is "Susi," which is interpreted as outside me, that is, outside the holy one, because the son of empty humility is outside the holy one, indeed even outside God. There is another, "Achiman," which is interpreted as my brother outside counsel, as if we were to say, a brother without counsel. For it is certain that all the brothers who are born of empty humility are also outside counsel. The third is "Thalami," which is interpreted as a precipice or a hanging, which designates that there is nothing of stability in him, but that all things are wavering and rushing headlong. These "three sons of Enac," then, Caleb "exterminated and killed," and after them "he went up into Dabir." "The name of Dabir was formerly the city of letters." "Dabir" is interpreted as speech. But "the name of Dabir was formerly the city of letters." Therefore understand as "the city of letters" the whole instrument of the Old Testament — that is, let us understand even this very scripture, which we are now trying to expound, to be "the city of letters," which afterward is made "Dabir," which is speech. For these things, which formerly were in letters and were understood according to the letter, now in the churches of Christ, by the Lord's revelation, have been made speech, since the holy Apostles first speak of it and discourse upon it, and remove the surface of the letter, but bring forth from it a spiritual speech. But the individual teachers of the churches also make the letter of the law into an evangelical speech and discussion. But who are the "three sons of Enac," whom "Caleb" — in whose person we had ascribed the power of the law — "slays"? The empty humility must be taken as that which all the poets or philosophers of this world thought concerning the divinity, since the things they thought are both lowly and unworthy of God. For what is so lowly and what so emptily lowly as either to set up "wood and stones" as gods or to think them such? Of this empty humility, then, the first son is he who is called outside me, that is, their first notion is both outside the truth and outside God. But the second is "Achiman," that is, a brother without counsel: for it is certain that this too is a brother of that error which is carried on without counsel. For what is so without counsel as to forsake God, who made us, and to follow those whom we ourselves made? The third notion of error is "Thalami," which is a precipice or a hanging. For the last stages of this error tend toward the precipice and the depth of hell. These notions of gentile-worship, then, as "sons of Enac" of the ancient error, the law cuts off, which even according to the letter proclaims "the true God" and "the creator of all things."
Joshua 15:13-15 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 20.3
But now, since there is not sufficient time for us to discuss all the things that have been read, we will touch briefly on at least a few, as the Lord shall grant. The beginning of distributing the inheritance which Jesus distributed begins from Caleb. For to this Caleb was given the lot of his portion before his tribe, which is that of the sons of Judah, received it, and it is given to him not in some outermost parts, but in the midst of the sons of Judah; and there was given to him a portion not by lot, but by the command of the Lord, and there is given to him an entire city. What other person was worthy to obtain such an inheritance and to receive such a portion, except Caleb, who alone was preserved safe together with Jesus of Nave out of the six hundred thousand armed men who had gone out from Egypt? It was fitting that he himself should receive the "metropolis." And therefore it is written: "Jesus gave him the city of Arboc, the metropolis of Enac, which is Hebron," in which were the memorials of the fathers. This man therefore, having received "the city of Arboc, which was the metropolis of Enac, which is Hebron, exterminated from there the three sons of Enac." What do you suppose Scripture, wishing to show us, also designated this — that Caleb, having received the portion of his inheritance, "exterminated the three sons of Enac," and described their names, that is, "Susi and Achima and Thalami, the generations of Enac"? Let us see, therefore, what it means that it does not suffice for it to say "the sons of Enac," but it has added also their very names, and above all appended: "these were the generations of Enac." But in what follows it also relates that Caleb, having received the lot of his inheritance, "went up to those who dwelt in Dabir; but the name of Dabir was formerly the city of letters." It must be seen, therefore, what it means that it "was formerly the city of letters" and afterward was made "Dabir."
Joshua 15:16-20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 20.4
Moreover it is related that Caleb, having a daughter, proposed a certain condition of this kind, saying: "whoever shall be able to cut off the city of letters and to obtain it, to him I will give Ascha my daughter as wife." And when he had proposed this, "Gothoniel the son of Cenez, the younger brother of Caleb, took the city of letters." But this too holy Scripture has set as a question, if indeed, as we have said, nothing in these words is to be passed over idly — that "Gothoniel" is said to be the "brother of Caleb," and "Caleb" is written as "the son of Ieffone," and "Gothoniel the son of Cenez." How then will he seem to be the "brother of Caleb," who is not "the son of Ieffone," but the one is called "the son of Ieffone," while the other is "the son of Cenez," who is said "to have taken the city of letters"? Of whom it is added that he was also "the younger," and by the condition, deservedly for his virtue, "received Ascha the daughter of Caleb as wife," because he "cut off and destroyed the city of letters." But Ascha, "going out" from the house of her father, who was "given in marriage" to him by a fixed condition, sitting upon an "ass," said to her husband: "I will ask of my father a portion of a field; and she cried out from the mountain. And Caleb said to her: what is it with you? And she said to him: give me a blessing, since you have given me in marriage into the land of the south. And she received the upper Gonetla and the lower Gonetla." And Scripture concludes on these things, saying: "this is the inheritance of the tribe of Judah." You see that there is truly need of the help of God, that these things may be explained; and it is utterly impossible for any of men to discourse of these things, unless he has been illuminated through the grace of God. Therefore, then, help me with your prayers and labor together with me, that the Lord may deign to show us the light of truth in these places so obscure and hidden, so that we too may be able to open to you how these things are true and useful and divine, but, on account of the frailty of human nature, are covered over with sacraments and enveloped in mysteries.
Joshua 15:16-20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 20.6
But now "Caleb went up to" that "city of letters and said": "whoever shall cut off the city of letters and obtain it, to him I will give Ascha my daughter as wife. And Gothoniel the son of Cenez took it." Now "Gothoniel," who received the "city of letters," is interpreted as the answer of God. But he can be called the answer of God to whom God answers, that is, to whom he reveals secrets and discloses hidden things. This, then, is he who can "receive the city of letters" of the old instrument and "cut off" "the letter that kills," "the younger brother of Caleb." But I, from the Church, am "the younger brother of Caleb," who, when the letter of the law has been cut off and shaken out, seek in it the spiritual sense. And I "cut off" "the letter" when I am no longer circumcised according to the flesh, nor eat the unleavened bread according to the flesh, nor observe the passover with the Jews, nor keep the sabbath according to the letter. For it was promised to me that, if I "cut off the city of letters," I would receive the daughter of my elder brother. For I was formerly "the son of Cenez," which is interpreted as contempt. For who was contempt, as we "gentiles, alienated from the manner of life of Israel, having no hope and without God in this world"? For that former brother of mine, whose daughter I now receive for this, that I "cut off the city of letters," he was "the son of Ieffone," which is interpreted as conversion. He therefore "gives" me his "daughter," that is, the law gives to me, the younger brother, the knowledge of itself or the understanding of itself, according to what is written: "the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation producing its fruits." Yet it must be known that the law, to which we have now given the person of Caleb, is one thing, and the letter of the old testament, which we have figuratively called "the city of letters," is another. Having received his daughter, then, I, "his younger brother," lead her out from the house of her father. And when she comes with me, sitting upon an "ass" — upon what "ass"? that one, without doubt, which "the disciples had loosed" of the Savior — she "says" to her father: "give me a blessing, father. And she received the upper Gonetla and the lower Gonetla." Which the Apostle says more plainly: "having the promise of life, both of that which now is and of that which is to come"; and as the Savior promises to those who follow the perfection of his word, that "they receive a hundredfold" in the present age, but in the future obtain "eternal life." This, then, is "to have received in blessing the upper Gonetla and the lower Gonetla." Which "blessing" let us pray that we too may deserve to attain, through Christ our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 15:63 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 21.2
Yet it moves me that it said that they "could not cast out the Jebusites," that is, those who are interpreted as trampling. And therefore let us see who they are in the church that trample. Those, without doubt, of whom the Lord spoke in the Gospels: "do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor your pearls before swine, lest perchance they trample them under their feet and, turning, tear you to pieces." This, then, is the "Jebusite," the trampling, those who unworthily hear the word of God and, when they have heard it, neither depart as unbelievers nor remain as believers, but, having received the knowledge of the mysteries and having scrutinized the more secret things of our faith, "turning" afterward attack us, and by their contradictions "tear apart" our hearts, "trampling" the "pearls" of the Lord's word and staining the ornaments of faith. Concerning these, then, it is said that "the sons of Judah could not cast out the Jebusite from Jerusalem down to the present day." Something similar is written also concerning Ephraim; for the Scripture says: "and Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanite, who dwelt in Gazer; and the Canaanite dwelt in Ephraim down to the present day." "Ephraim" is interpreted as fructification. He therefore who bears fruit and grows in faith "cannot exterminate the Canaanite," the worst seed, the accursed seed, the seed ever shifting, ever uncertain; for this is what "Canaanite" is interpreted to mean. And it is certain that with him who bears fruit and grows, the "Canaanite" always "dwells"; for the stirrings of temptations never cease from him. But if you truly bear fruit in God and see someone of this sort restless, turbulent, shifting, know that he is a "Canaanite." And if you cannot cast him out of the church, because "the sons of Ephraim could not drive out the Canaanites," observe that which the Apostle admonishes, saying: "withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks restlessly." But since Solomon urges that "these things which we read be written on the heart in threefold manner," that also, besides those things which we have said, which occurs to my heart, I shall bring forth to your ears, and do you that which is written, that while one speaks the rest may examine. While I therefore speak what I feel, do you discern and examine whether it is right or less than right. Concerning Jerusalem we have frequently said that it is interpreted as vision of peace. If therefore in our heart Jerusalem has been built, that is, if the vision of peace has been founded in our heart and we always gaze upon Christ, who is "our peace," and keep him in our heart — if indeed we are so fixed and stable in this vision of peace that never at all does any evil thought or counsel of any sin ascend into our heart, if this could so come to pass, we could say that we are in Jerusalem and that no other dwells with us except only those who are holy. But now, since — even if we come to great progress and cultivate ourselves with the highest zeal — nevertheless I do not think that so much purity comes to anyone's heart that he is never stained by the contagion of an adverse thought, it is certain that "the Jebusites also dwell with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem." Yet we do not say these things in order that we should neglect, as much as can be done, to "cast them out," but we must labor enough and attempt daily to "cast them out" of Jerusalem; but, as it is written, we cannot "cast out" all of them at once. And this same thing must also be understood concerning those who bear fruit, who are named sons of "Ephraim," who likewise ought always to cast out of their souls the "Canaanites," the wandering and slippery thoughts. But God is able, who may subject to us both the "Jebusites" and the "Canaanites," as it is written: "and he subjected the Canaanites to the sons of Ephraim." Let us therefore beseech the Lord himself, that, casting from us "evil thoughts," he may bring in good ones, worthy of "Jerusalem the heavenly city,"…
Joshua 15:63 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 21.1
"The sons of Judah" wished "to drive out" or "to destroy" "the Jebusites from Jerusalem, and they could not"; on account of which "the Jebusites dwelt with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem down to the present day." Beginning from the letter, we wish to inquire of those who suppose that these things can stand according to the letter, what is meant when it says "down to the present day" — a phrase that holy Scripture always employs to signify by it the eternity of the age, as when it says: "do not depart from the Lord on this present day," that is, as long as the age stands. Let them show me, then, how the "Jebusite," as long as the age stands, "dwells with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem," seeing that not even the "sons of Judah" themselves "dwell in Jerusalem." Therefore neither can this be true, that "the Jebusites dwell with the Jews in Jerusalem," since not even they themselves dwell in it. But let us understand these things spiritually, taking up the parable of the Gospel which says concerning the "tares": "let both grow together, lest perchance, when you wish to root up the tares, you root up together with them the wheat also." As therefore in the Gospel "the tares are permitted to grow together with the wheat," in the same way here too in Jerusalem, that is, in the church, there are certain "Jebusites," those who lead an ignoble and degenerate life, who are perverse both in faith and in deeds and in their whole manner of conduct. For it is not possible that the church be purged to clarity while it is on earth, so that neither any impious person nor any sinner may be seen to remain in it, but that all in it be holy and blessed and in whom no stain of sin at all may be caught. But just as it is said concerning the "tares": "lest perchance, in rooting up the tares, you root up together with them the wheat also," so also it can be said concerning those in whom there are either doubtful or hidden sins. For we do not say concerning those who are manifestly and evidently criminal, that they should not be expelled from the church. Hear then the Scripture saying that: "the sons of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, but they dwelt with them in Jerusalem down to the present day." Wherefore I beseech you who are faithful, that you so keep your life and conduct that you neither yourselves suffer scandal in anything nor cause scandal to others; but let it be to you a matter of highest zeal and highest caution, lest anyone polluted enter into this holy congregation of yours, lest any Jebusite dwell with you. For you see that the Scripture says that "the sons of Judah could not cast out the Jebusites from Jerusalem." Now "Jebusite" is interpreted as trampling. Grant, then, that we cannot "cast out" those who trample us: let us at least cast out those whom we can, whose sins are manifest. For where sin is not evident, we can "cast out" no one from the church, "lest perchance in rooting up the tares we root up together with them the wheat also."
Joshua 16:10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 21.2
Yet it moves me that it said that they "could not cast out the Jebusites," that is, those who are interpreted as trampling. And therefore let us see who they are in the church that trample. Those, without doubt, of whom the Lord spoke in the Gospels: "do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor your pearls before swine, lest perchance they trample them under their feet and, turning, tear you to pieces." This, then, is the "Jebusite," the trampling, those who unworthily hear the word of God and, when they have heard it, neither depart as unbelievers nor remain as believers, but, having received the knowledge of the mysteries and having scrutinized the more secret things of our faith, "turning" afterward attack us, and by their contradictions "tear apart" our hearts, "trampling" the "pearls" of the Lord's word and staining the ornaments of faith. Concerning these, then, it is said that "the sons of Judah could not cast out the Jebusite from Jerusalem down to the present day." Something similar is written also concerning Ephraim; for the Scripture says: "and Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanite, who dwelt in Gazer; and the Canaanite dwelt in Ephraim down to the present day." "Ephraim" is interpreted as fructification. He therefore who bears fruit and grows in faith "cannot exterminate the Canaanite," the worst seed, the accursed seed, the seed ever shifting, ever uncertain; for this is what "Canaanite" is interpreted to mean. And it is certain that with him who bears fruit and grows, the "Canaanite" always "dwells"; for the stirrings of temptations never cease from him. But if you truly bear fruit in God and see someone of this sort restless, turbulent, shifting, know that he is a "Canaanite." And if you cannot cast him out of the church, because "the sons of Ephraim could not drive out the Canaanites," observe that which the Apostle admonishes, saying: "withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks restlessly." But since Solomon urges that "these things which we read be written on the heart in threefold manner," that also, besides those things which we have said, which occurs to my heart, I shall bring forth to your ears, and do you that which is written, that while one speaks the rest may examine. While I therefore speak what I feel, do you discern and examine whether it is right or less than right. Concerning Jerusalem we have frequently said that it is interpreted as vision of peace. If therefore in our heart Jerusalem has been built, that is, if the vision of peace has been founded in our heart and we always gaze upon Christ, who is "our peace," and keep him in our heart — if indeed we are so fixed and stable in this vision of peace that never at all does any evil thought or counsel of any sin ascend into our heart, if this could so come to pass, we could say that we are in Jerusalem and that no other dwells with us except only those who are holy. But now, since — even if we come to great progress and cultivate ourselves with the highest zeal — nevertheless I do not think that so much purity comes to anyone's heart that he is never stained by the contagion of an adverse thought, it is certain that "the Jebusites also dwell with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem." Yet we do not say these things in order that we should neglect, as much as can be done, to "cast them out," but we must labor enough and attempt daily to "cast them out" of Jerusalem; but, as it is written, we cannot "cast out" all of them at once. And this same thing must also be understood concerning those who bear fruit, who are named sons of "Ephraim," who likewise ought always to cast out of their souls the "Canaanites," the wandering and slippery thoughts. But God is able, who may subject to us both the "Jebusites" and the "Canaanites," as it is written: "and he subjected the Canaanites to the sons of Ephraim." Let us therefore beseech the Lord himself, that, casting from us "evil thoughts," he may bring in good ones, worthy of "Jerusalem the heavenly city,"…
Joshua 16:10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.3
But this too is not to be passed over idly, that it is said that "Pharaoh came and took the city of Gazer, in which the Canaanite dwelt with Ephraim, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter." Now "Gazer" is interpreted as constriction. If, therefore, body and soul dwell in one and the same constriction, that is, joined and allied to one another, so that the soul both lives carnally and does not hasten to make the flesh more swiftly obedient and subject to itself, it is to be feared lest "Pharaoh come" out of Egypt and lead the unhappy soul captive, so that he "hands her over as a dowry to his daughter." For if you consider that which the Apostle said, that "another law arises in our members and leads us captive under the law of sin," you will find how that Pharaoh, who is the author and king of sin, "enrolls as a dowry" for "his daughter," who is "the law of sin," the soul that has lived carnally.
Joshua 16:10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.2
Let us see, then, now, what this threefold narrative concerning the Canaanites means. First, the "Canaanite" is indeed with us and is "under tribute," yet he is not obedient to us nor a "servant." Second, he is made even a "servant" and obedient. Let us here take the Canaanite as our flesh, or the things that belong to the flesh. This is first with us, that is, it is joined to the soul, but it is not obedient to it, except only that it "pays tribute," that is, it does indeed furnish the service of doing or moving something, "yet it lusts against the spirit" and is not obedient to the soul, but yields to its own desires. But if we have now made some progress, the flesh "is made" for us a "servant" and obedient, and submitting to the will of the soul; and this is the second progress of the soul, when it has made the flesh both obey it and serve it. The third, however, is that which is perfect. For if we now come to the perfect, the "Canaanite" is said to be "exterminated" by us and handed over to death. But how this is fulfilled in our flesh, hear the Apostle saying: "mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness," and the rest that follows. And again he says: "but they who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and lusts." So then, thirdly, that is, when we come to perfection and "mortify our members" and "carry about the death of Christ in our body," the "Canaanite" is said to be "exterminated" by us.
Joshua 16:10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.1
The "Canaanites" are said, for the third time, to be among the sons of Ephraim. But let us observe what is the order of these statements in each case, that is, what the first statement contains, which says that the Canaanites were with the sons of Ephraim, and what the second and the third contain. For if we observe more carefully how the Canaanites are said to be with the sons of Ephraim for the third time, then, by the Lord's help, we shall be able to investigate the order of the statements — what is reported to have been done from this in the first, what in the second, what in the third — and I think we shall not be unbelieving that these things were truly written not merely that the narrative of the deeds should be handed down to us by itself, but that they were filled with divine mysteries worthy of God. First, then, it was said that: "Ephraim did not destroy the Canaanite who dwelt in Gazer; but the Canaanite dwelt in Ephraim until this present day, and he was made a servant under tribute, until Pharaoh king of Egypt came up and took the city and burned it with fire, and slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites and those who dwelt in Gazer; and Pharaoh gave it as a dowry to his daughter." Second: "and it came to pass," it says, "when the sons of Israel had grown strong, that they made the Canaanites subject, but by extermination they did not exterminate them." Third, when the men of the tribe of Ephraim "contradicted Jesus," wishing, according to their multitude — because they were many and strong — to receive also a greater portion of the inheritance, and they are commanded to "go up into the forest" and make more room for themselves; and, that they might be able to occupy wider spaces, they are commanded to "exterminate the Canaanite."
Joshua 17:6 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.3
But first of all, consider the meaning of the mystery, which anyone who observes it carefully will find in the Scriptures: that in the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt there were forty-two stations; and again, the coming of our Lord and Savior into this world is traced through forty-two generations. For thus the Evangelist Matthew recounts, saying: "From Abraham until David the king, fourteen generations, and from David until the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon until Christ fourteen generations." These forty-two stations of the generations, then, which Christ made in descending into the Egypt of this world, make up by the very same number the forty-two stations of those who go up from Egypt. And Moses set it down well and observantly, saying: "The children of Israel went up with their power." And what is their power, if not Christ himself, who is the power of God? He therefore who goes up, goes up together with him who came down to us from thence, so that he might arrive there whence that one descended not by necessity but by condescension, that the saying might be true which was spoken, that "he who descended is himself also the one who ascended." Therefore in forty-two stations the children of Israel arrive at the beginning of the taking of their inheritance. And the beginning of taking the inheritance was where Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh receive the land of Gilead. And so the number of Christ's descent through forty-two fathers according to the flesh, as though descending to us through forty-two stations, matches the ascent of the children of Israel through just as many stations up to the beginning of the promised inheritance.
Joshua 17:13 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.2
Let us see, then, now, what this threefold narrative concerning the Canaanites means. First, the "Canaanite" is indeed with us and is "under tribute," yet he is not obedient to us nor a "servant." Second, he is made even a "servant" and obedient. Let us here take the Canaanite as our flesh, or the things that belong to the flesh. This is first with us, that is, it is joined to the soul, but it is not obedient to it, except only that it "pays tribute," that is, it does indeed furnish the service of doing or moving something, "yet it lusts against the spirit" and is not obedient to the soul, but yields to its own desires. But if we have now made some progress, the flesh "is made" for us a "servant" and obedient, and submitting to the will of the soul; and this is the second progress of the soul, when it has made the flesh both obey it and serve it. The third, however, is that which is perfect. For if we now come to the perfect, the "Canaanite" is said to be "exterminated" by us and handed over to death. But how this is fulfilled in our flesh, hear the Apostle saying: "mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness," and the rest that follows. And again he says: "but they who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and lusts." So then, thirdly, that is, when we come to perfection and "mortify our members" and "carry about the death of Christ in our body," the "Canaanite" is said to be "exterminated" by us.
Joshua 17:13 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.1
The "Canaanites" are said, for the third time, to be among the sons of Ephraim. But let us observe what is the order of these statements in each case, that is, what the first statement contains, which says that the Canaanites were with the sons of Ephraim, and what the second and the third contain. For if we observe more carefully how the Canaanites are said to be with the sons of Ephraim for the third time, then, by the Lord's help, we shall be able to investigate the order of the statements — what is reported to have been done from this in the first, what in the second, what in the third — and I think we shall not be unbelieving that these things were truly written not merely that the narrative of the deeds should be handed down to us by itself, but that they were filled with divine mysteries worthy of God. First, then, it was said that: "Ephraim did not destroy the Canaanite who dwelt in Gazer; but the Canaanite dwelt in Ephraim until this present day, and he was made a servant under tribute, until Pharaoh king of Egypt came up and took the city and burned it with fire, and slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites and those who dwelt in Gazer; and Pharaoh gave it as a dowry to his daughter." Second: "and it came to pass," it says, "when the sons of Israel had grown strong, that they made the Canaanites subject, but by extermination they did not exterminate them." Third, when the men of the tribe of Ephraim "contradicted Jesus," wishing, according to their multitude — because they were many and strong — to receive also a greater portion of the inheritance, and they are commanded to "go up into the forest" and make more room for themselves; and, that they might be able to occupy wider spaces, they are commanded to "exterminate the Canaanite."
Joshua 17:14-15 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.4
For after these things this is to be seen, that "the sons of Joseph" raise a question about the inheritance and demand a greater portion, "saying to Jesus": "why have you given us for an inheritance one portion and one measured plot? But I am a numerous people, and the Lord has blessed me." If, then, we too are a "numerous people" and the "Lord blesses" us, we hear from Jesus: "you are a numerous people, go up into the forest and clear for yourself and prepare a place in the land. And clean out the Perizzites and the Raphain." It is necessary, therefore, for us to "cast out the Perizzites." Now we find that "Perizzites" is interpreted as fructification. But, as we have often already said concerning other names, in this too the interpretation is twofold; for there is a good fructification and a bad fructification, just as it is indicated in the Gospels that: "a good tree produces good fruits, and a bad tree produces bad fruits." We ought, therefore, to expel everything whatever that does not fructify well, and to cut away the fruit of sin and to clean out the fruits of unrighteousness. But "the Raphain also," it says, "expel" — or rather "clean out" — from you. We find that "Raphain" is interpreted as slackened mothers. There is in our soul a certain power which gives birth to the senses and is, as it were, the mother of those senses or understandings which proceed from us, according to what is said in a mystery concerning the soul as though concerning a woman: "but she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if they remain in faith and truth." These mothers, then, that is, this power of the soul, in those in whom it is strong and vigorous and robust, generates senses that are vigorous and powerful and that cannot be overcome by an adversary. In others, indeed, this power is slackened and relaxed, which is shown from the senses, when certain feeble and inept ones are brought forth, containing in themselves no strength. This, then, is signified under the name "Raphain," that we should "clean out" from ourselves mothers of this sort, slackened ones, which give birth to enervated and useless senses. And well did he preserve the propriety of the spiritual understanding; for he did not say that the "Raphain" were to be exterminated, but to be "cleaned out." For it is not commanded that the natural motions of the soul themselves be overturned and exterminated, but "cleaned out," that is, that the filth and impurities which have come upon them through our negligence be purged and driven away, so that the natural vigor of its proper and inborn power may shine forth.
Joshua 17:16-18 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.5
After these things the sons of Ephraim add further and say: "the mountain does not suffice us; and the choice horse and iron belong to the Canaanite who dwells in me." You will never find an Israelite who has a horse, but "the Canaanite has" that "horse, which is deceptive for salvation." The "Canaanite has" also warlike "iron." But what did Jesus answer them? "If you are a numerous people and have strength, you shall not have one portion, because there is a forest for you, and you shall clean it out." You see what is said to us through the spiritual understanding, that we should "clean out the wood" which is in us, and, cutting down the useless and unfruitful trees out of our very selves, make there new-broken fields, which we may always renew and from which we may "take fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold." Or does not the word of the Gospel also announce the same thing to us, saying: "behold, now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, which does not bear fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire"? These things concerning the cutting down of unfruitful trees Jesus the son of Nave commanded our predecessors; these commandments the Lord Jesus sets down for us in the Gospels; and how is it not true that the shadow went before and the truth followed after?
Joshua 17:18 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 22.6
But what is it that Jesus added: "if you clean out," he says, "the wood, it shall also be yours, when you have exterminated the Canaanite"? We have already said above how the Canaanite, when placed with us, first only "pays tribute," second is made "obedient" and "subject," but third, in the mortification of our members, is said even to be "exterminated." If we understand these things rightly — and the Lord has granted us through his grace to understand them thus — let it be something worth the effort to have brought forth these things from the secret and hidden into the open, and to have come to our recognition of things that were kept covered; and let us endeavor, according to these things which we have said, to subject to ourselves more quickly the Canaanite who is with us and to "make him obedient," and after this even to "exterminate" him; for if we let him go and neglect him, "Pharaoh will come out of Egypt" and will begin to "give our place as a dowry to his daughter" and to "hand us over captive to the law of sin." But far be it from Israelite nobility that an Israelite should serve "Pharaoh's daughter" — one whom "God has already led out of the land of Egypt" — that he should again serve that Pharaoh who was "drowned in the Red Sea." Let us therefore take heed, just as Jesus here also says, that we may prevail against the Canaanites, lest, if perchance they grow strong over us and overpower us, they make Canaanites of us out of Israelites, just as that man too became one whom the enticement of the flesh had overcome, to whom it is said by the prophet: "seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you." Let it not befall us, then, to hear "seed of Canaan," for: "cursed be the boy Canaan; he shall be a servant to his brothers." But may the Lord grant us that we be sons of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, "heirs according to the promise," and for this "raised up out of the stones," that we may be sons of Abraham, by Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 18:1-10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.3
But according to the inner understanding, as Paul seems to indicate when he says: "in the portion of the lot of the saints" and: "called by lot in Christ," it must be considered whether perhaps the lot is exercised not only among men, but also among the powers above, and whether some power presides over this office, which, for example, to Jesus the son of Nave now distributing the inheritance by lot, may furnish the drawing of the lot—not toward some favoritism, but according to that which it knows to please God—and may indeed cause those things to come out first for the one whom it knows to hold the first place with God, so that this which is held in secret with God might, by the governance of the lot, be shown also to men; but may make another of the second place and another of the third. And I judge that this was done thus not only on earth, but also in the heavens, and that a lot of this kind—which with God is distinguished by the contemplation of merits—was held even at that time, "when the Most High divided the nations and scattered the sons of Adam and set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and the portion of the Lord became Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel"; for you see that here too he says that God took by lot the "portion" and the "cord of Israel." It must not, then, be thought that by chance it came about by lot for that angel to take up that nation, for example of the Egyptians, and for another that of the Idumeans, and another that of the Moabites, and another India, or any single one of those nations which are upon the earth; but there too, even if the "nations" are said to have been divided by lot "according to the number of the angels of God," yet that lot—just as we said among men that the lot spreads abroad in public the judgment of God which is in secret—such also is it to be believed to have been there, by which each angel took up in the division this or that nation according to his own merit and virtue. And why do I speak of great and general matters? when it must be said that not even through each single one of us does anything come about apart from a lot of this kind, which is dispensed by the judgment of God—for example, that one of us should obtain such or such a life straightway from his birth; or certainly that which we have often taught from the holy Scriptures to be carried on with regard to men, namely, that both good angels are present to men and adverse ones; that it was surely not by chance and without judgment that that angel was allotted to be the guardian of that soul, for example of Peter, and another of Paul, or another of one infant of the Church, concerning whose angels the Lord says that they "always behold the face of their Father who is in heaven." Concerning whom there is surely no room to doubt that, by the judgment of God—who clearly perceives both their worthiness and the quality of our soul—they are allotted the guardianship of each one of us by a certain mystical lot directed by the dispensation of Christ. But I, so far as it pertains to my own opinion, think it must be boldly said even concerning those powers which have undertaken the ministries of this world, that it is not by chance or by accident that that power presides over the germinations of the earth or of the trees, that one supplies sufficiently for the springs and rivers, another for the rains, another for the winds, another for the sea-creatures, but another presides over the land-animals or over each single one of the things born from the earth; and that in these single things there are ineffable sacraments of the divine dispensation, so that all things in their order and by a fitting office are apportioned through each single power. For thus also the Apostle Paul says: "are they not all ministering spirits, sent into ministry for the sake of those who receive the inheritance of salvation?"
Joshua 18:1-10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.2
What, then, the reasoning of the lots might be, I kept inquiring within myself, that from the many testimonies of Scripture I might come to know what lay hidden. Indeed I found in the Scriptures that even Gentile men had made use of lots, at that time when Jonah was sailing and a storm pressed upon them. For those who were sailing say: "let us cast a lot and let us know for whose cause this so great evil has come," as though the lot had such power that it could betray the one for whose cause the danger threatened those who sailed. And although they were Gentiles and strangers to the knowledge of God, yet they are not deceived in this opinion, but the lot betrayed to them what was true. Finally, "the lot came," it says, "upon Jonah." Seeking, then, concerning these things, I find also Solomon in the Proverbs saying: "the lot restrains contradictions and decides between the powerful," showing, as it were, that "contradictions" cease where the lot is cast. But since I found not a few such things about lots reported in the Old Testament, I turned myself also to the New Testament, to see whether perhaps even there lots are despised, or whether not even there is the use of them cast aside; and I find that at one time, when one Apostle was lacking from the number of the Apostles and it was necessary that another be substituted in the place of Judas, the Apostles, coming together—who indeed were far wiser than those who now ordain bishops or presbyters or deacons—chose "two" and "set them" in the midst; nor yet did they permit to themselves the judgment concerning these, so as to make him whom they themselves might have wished, but "praying," it says, "they cast a lot between those two" whom they "had set" in the sight of God, that is, "Joseph, who was called Barnabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias." "And the lot fell," it says, "upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles." For, prayer having gone before, the lot conveyed the divine judgment not by chance, but by providence. But still I kept seeking in the New Testament, wherever a lot is named in Christ or in the Church, or in mystical matters and such as seem to pertain to the soul. I find Paul writing to the Ephesians saying concerning Christ: "in whom," he says, "we were called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we may be unto the praise of his glory, we who before hoped in Christ"; but also writing these things to the Thessalonians: "giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us fit for the portion of the lot of the saints in light." Since, therefore, so many testimonies from the holy Scriptures concerning the mention of lots have been gathered together, so that from the consideration of many passages we might more diligently grasp the power of the matter, for my part out of all these either the meaning could not yet lie clearly and evidently open, or else a fear of announcing and bringing forth a secret about so great a matter took hold of me. Yet let it suffice that this much, so far as the matter allows, has come to pass, which the lot drawn by the Apostles designates to us: that, where the lot is drawn from whole faith and with prayer sent before, that which the will of God holds in secret the lot declares openly to men.
Joshua 18:1-10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.1
In human custom, when something is divided by lot, that lot seems to fall by chance to this man and another to that man; in holy Scripture, however, it is not so. And at times I used to ask myself whether the holy fathers would have committed the decision about so great and so weighty a matter to lots; and if this had been done thus among the saints, then it would seem no wonder concerning other men, or the Gentiles, if there were nothing extraordinary in those things which are said by the saints to have been divided by lot. But let us see whether perhaps we may find something set down in the Scriptures which may make plain to us what power is contained in the lots. Let us begin, then, from Leviticus, where it is written: "and they shall take," it says, "two lots; one lot for the Lord and one lot for the apompaeus," that is, for the one who sends it away. "And upon whichever the lot of the apompaeus shall come, he shall take that goat, and shall lead it living into the wilderness, and shall let it go there in its release. But the other goat they shall offer to the Lord," and the rest that is there: things which of course they know who read them. And again, where Moses divided by lot "to the tribe of Reuben" and "to the tribe of Gad" and "to the half-tribe of Manasseh," which had asked to receive across the Jordan that land which the children of Israel had seized. But "Jesus" also "gave," according to the commandment of the Lord, "to Caleb the son of Jephunneh" and "to the tribe of Judah a lot." And he gave also to the tribe of "Ephraim" and to that which remained, the half-tribe of "Manasseh." And after these things, "he gathered," it says, "the assembly of the children of Israel" and said: "I will cast the lot and bring forth the lot in the sight of the Lord, if you first, describing the land, bring me a description of it." And thus, after these things, when the lots had been cast, the inheritance is distributed to the people of God, and this lot is set in motion not by chance, but according to that which was predestined by God. Finally, the tribe of "Benjamin" there received the first lot, where "Jerusalem" was; after this the tribe of "Simeon" the second; after this "Issachar"; then "Zebulun"; then "Asher"; after that also "Naphtali"; then "Dan." Among whom last of all come those three tribes which had descended from the concubines of Jacob.
Joshua 18:28 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.4
In imitation, therefore, of these things, it must be believed that here too Scripture reports that lots are drawn through Jesus and that the inheritance is decreed for each single tribe by the divine dispensation, and that through the ineffable providence and foreknowledge of God there is foreshadowed in these lots the pattern of the future inheritance in the heavens. Since indeed "the law" is said "to have a shadow of the good things to come," and, as the Apostle says concerning those who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, that: "you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," there is in the heavens some "city" which is called "Jerusalem" and "Mount Zion," it is surely not without cause that Benjamin received in his lot "Jerusalem" and "Mount Zion"; unless it be that the plan of that "heavenly Jerusalem" without doubt required this, that the earthly "Jerusalem"—which preserves the figure and form of that heavenly one—ought to be given to none other than Benjamin. And likewise concerning "Bethlehem" it must be said that it is not without a certain sure reason decreed in the lot of Judah, or that "Hebron" or the other single cities are assigned in writing to each single tribe, except that, as we have said, those heavenly places—in which both "Jerusalem" and "Zion" are named to be—without doubt, and the rest of the places also which are near or joined to these, contained in themselves this cause and reason in the heavens which was governed by lot to be distributed on earth. Hence, then, it is that the divine wisdom dispensed that certain names of places be written in the Scriptures which contain a certain mystical interpretation, through which it is indicated to us that these things are dispensed to be done by certain fixed reasons and not by accident or by chance. For just as it must not be thought that it happened by chance, for example, that that angel was called Michael, but another Gabriel, and another Raphael, and—to come down to human matters—just as it was not by chance that that patriarch was called Abraham and that one Isaac, and another Israel, but not even among the women did it happen by accident, but by a fixed and divine reason, that she was called "Sarah" from "Sara," or that man "Israel" from "Jacob," or that man "Abraham" from "Abram," and as it is certain that each one, whether of the angels or of men, is allotted his very names from the offices and acts which are enjoined upon him: so it follows that there are also certain heavenly places and cities—just as the "heavenly Jerusalem" is called, and "Zion"—that there are also others, of which these that are on the earth contain the type and image, which now in this Scripture are mystically designated to us through Jesus son of Nave. And concerning these very cities I think it was said: "the cities of Judah shall be built, and they shall dwell there and shall inherit it." Concerning these also the Lord and Savior says that: "there are many mansions with the Father." And concerning these very cities it must be believed that the Lord says to that servant who had traded well: "have power over ten cities" and to another: "over five cities." — These things concerning the division of the lots of the land of Judah we have dared to bring forth to you, so far as was permitted, at the prompting of Scripture, which calls "Jerusalem heavenly and Mount Zion" and the rest which are likewise written to be "in the heavens"; which gave us occasion to perceive concerning all these things that heavenly mysteries are described in them. And therefore we say to you, do not read these things with disdain and do not think that some Scripture is worthless because it is thickly sown with many namings of names; but rather know that ineffable mysteries are contained through these, greater than either human speech can bring forth or mortal hearing can hear; which, as I judge, cannot be worthily and completely explained not only by me, "the least," bu…
Joshua 18:28 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 13.2
I pass from the letter—since even it has taken a way which the Word has given—to each soul already made worthy to see peace. For after divine studies, you have become Jerusalem, the prior place being Jebus. History says that the name of that place had been Jebus, but afterwards the name changed and became Jerusalem. The children of the Hebrews say that Jebus is interpreted as "what has been trampled." Jebus then is the soul which is trampled by hostile powers, has been changed and has become Jerusalem, vision of peace. If then you have sinned, when you have changed from Jebus to become Jerusalem, and you have trampled upon the Son of God and held as profane the blood of the new covenant as she had, and you have ended up in grievous sins, it will also be said concerning you, who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will feel sorry for you if you become someone who betrays Jesus? When each of us sins, and especially if he sins grievously, he sins against Jesus. But if he is also an apostate, he does spiritually even more to Jesus the things that Jerusalem did to him bodily.
Joshua 19:48 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 24.1
Concerning the "Jebusites," who "dwelt in Jerusalem," it was said some time ago how "the sons of Judah could not exterminate them," and likewise concerning the "Canaanites," whom "the sons of Ephraim could not exterminate" as they dwelt in their midst. The present reading reports things similar to these concerning the "Amorites," saying that: "the Amorite continued to dwell in Elom and in Salamin; and the hand of Ephraim was made heavy upon them." "Amorite" is interpreted as "bitter" or "bitterness." Those therefore who "dwell in Elom," which is interpreted as "those butting like rams," or "in Salamin," which is interpreted as "peaceable," continue and dwell as bitternesses among those who butt like rams and among the peaceable. Those who butt like rams are those who, being set in contests, strive to storm the diabolical houses and structures; but the peaceable are those who, having overcome the desires of the flesh, bear peace of soul. Yet in both the contrary power, bitterness, perseveres and struggles to persist. In this we can understand something of this sort, since it says: "the Amorite continued to dwell among them": for example, if a hostile power of a demon, coming from the troop of bitterness, besieges someone's body, throws the mind into confusion and lulls it to sleep, while many prayers, many fastings, many invocations of exorcists are applied, and deaf to all these the demon remains and persists in the besieged body, more tolerably enduring the punishments of the exorcists and the torments brought upon it by the invocation of God's name than to depart from the person whom it shamelessly and wickedly besieges: so also here it must be understood in the case of those who are called "Amorites," who "continue and persist in dwelling in Elom and in Salamin." And that Scripture might truly show that they persist while enduring punishments and scourges, it says: "and the hand of Ephraim was made heavy upon them." But how is "the hand of Ephraim made heavy upon the Amorites"? Either, as we said, "the hand of Ephraim" is said to be "made heavy" upon the unclean spirits by the more forcefully applied laying-on of the exorcists' hand, or because good acts and good works weigh down and afflict the race of demons and the contrary powers. For the better the things we do and the more we conduct ourselves in the best pursuits, the more these things become troublesome and heavy to them. But it is pleasing and acceptable to them, and in a way affords them delights, when a person lives in baseness and disgraceful deeds. But whoever "makes his hand heavy upon them" by good acts, even if he cannot utterly drive them out, will at least make them tributaries and subject to him.
Joshua 19:49-50 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 24.3
But since we are accustomed to refer the things that are written about Jesus to our Lord and Savior, perhaps this whole people of ours too gives some portion to my Lord Jesus and grants him, as it were, a certain place for his dwelling. But lest what is said seem to be injurious, let us inquire how we, his servants, give him a place of habitation. If I could become good, I would give a place to the Son of God within me, and the Lord Jesus would build up and adorn the place received from me in my soul, and would make in it unassailable walls and lofty towers, so that he might build in me, if I were worthy, a dwelling worthy of himself and of the Father, and would so adorn my soul as to make it capable of his wisdom and knowledge and all holiness to such a degree that he would even make God the Father enter in with him "and make his dwelling in it," and even dine in such a soul upon the foods which he himself had given. And that we may be worthy to attain this, let us prepare in ourselves a clean heart, into which the Lord Jesus may deign willingly and gratefully to enter as the guest-lodging of our clean heart, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 19:49-50 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 24.2
"And the sons of Ephraim went forth to traverse the land according to their borders." And when he had recounted that history, in what follows he makes clear how great was the meekness and humility of the blessed Jesus, who was truly worthy to bear the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior! For he says: "And the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus [son] of Nave among themselves by the command of the Lord; and they gave him the city which he asked for, Thamnasac, which is on Mount Ephraim; and he built a city there, and dwelt in it." He it is who gave the inheritance to all "the sons of Judah," who gave to "Ephraim" and to "the half tribe of Manasseh"; he gave to that magnificent "Caleb [son] of Jephone" an inheritance also; he sent "three men through each of the tribes" to "traverse" the whole "land and describe it in a book" and return and show it to him; he "sent lots" to all and reserved himself for the very last. Why do you think he wished to be "last" of all? Without doubt, that he might be "first" of all. And he did not even presume the lot of an inheritance for himself, but received it from the people, and the people "give an inheritance" to him from whom he himself had received it. For thus it is written: "and the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus [son] of Nave." But "these things happened to them figuratively," which were set before us as a model, that we too might keep that precept which this man fulfilled in deed, where it is said: "the greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find grace before the Lord," and again what is written: "if they appoint you leader, do not be lifted up, but be among them as one of themselves." See therefore how he himself was "leader" of the people, who had led them "into the holy land," into "the land of promise"; he himself was the successor of Moses, and he does not permit himself to take a lot of the land, but waits to receive a little portion from the people, he the leader of the people, and having received his little portion, Jesus, worthy of this name, builds up that very place which he received, and constructs it, that he may make it truly worthy of the gift of God and of the divine inheritance.
Joshua 19:50 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 26.2
Now, then, let us see what are "the flint knives, with which Jesus circumcised the sons of Israel." If you pray for us, that "our word may be living and effective and sharper than any knife," the Lord Jesus will grant us also that the word of God which we speak to you may circumcise every uncleanness, cut back the impurities, sever the vices from the hearers, and amputate everything by which the force of the mind and its natural effectiveness is overlaid; and thus, through the word of God, which is now called "the flint knife," you too will be circumcised by Jesus, and you will hear that: "today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt." For what does it profit us to have gone out of Egypt and to carry about with us "the reproaches of Egypt"? What does it profit to walk through the wilderness — that is, what does it help us to have renounced the world in baptism and to retain the former filth of our habits and the uncleannesses of the carnal vices? It is necessary, therefore, after the passage of the Red Sea — that is, after the grace of baptism — that the carnal vices of our old habit also be taken away from us through our Lord Jesus, so that thus at last we may be able to lack "the reproaches of Egypt." Those very "flint knives," then, and stone blades, with which we were a second time circumcised by Jesus, are placed in that place which Jesus seeks and has received; in the place which he possesses in the soul of the just man, in that very place he also stores away the "knives." We have often shown that the "knife" is said to be the word of God, by which word sins are cut away and purged from the souls of the hearers. This power of the divine word, therefore, is stored away in that place to which is given the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom, so that at an opportune time that soul, which through the gift of the spirit has been filled with the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, may bring forth these "knives" in the church and may circumcise a second time those who have need of a "second circumcision." But as for his saying "flint knives," that is, blades of stone and not blades fashioned of iron by the workman's craft, this shows that this word of God, which can circumcise the uncleannesses from the hearts of the hearers, does not come from the art of grammar or rhetoric, nor has been tamed by the hammers of the learned or filed down on the whetstones of studies, but descends from that "rock" which "was cut from the mountain without hands and filled the round world" and bestows spiritual gifts upon believers.
Joshua 19:50 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 26.1
In what precedes it was indeed said that "the sons of Israel gave a portion by lot to Jesus on Mount Ephraim," and that, the lot having been received, "Jesus built a city there and dwelt in it." But now Scripture repeats the same thing anew, so as to add this: that "he stored away in that city, which he had built and in which he was dwelling, the flint knives," that is, the blades of stone, "with which Jesus circumcised the sons of Israel in the wilderness." Hence for us too the exposition must be repeated, and this too, which has been added, must be explained, so that, by God's gift, the meaning of Scripture may be fulfilled entire. For we said in what precedes that our Lord Jesus Christ also seeks from us a place which he may build and in which he may dwell, and that we ought to become such — so "clean of heart," so "simple in mind," so "holy in body and spirit" — that he may deign both to receive a place in our soul, and to build it, and to dwell in it. And who, do you suppose, are in all the people so acceptable to God as to be worthy to be chosen for this? Or perhaps not even individuals can be capable of this, but the whole people and the entire church together can scarcely be capable of it, of receiving the Lord Jesus into itself and having him dwell in it? Let us see, then, what this place is in which Jesus ought to dwell. "On the mount," he says, "of Ephraim," that is, on the fruitful mount. Who, do you suppose, are in us the fruitful mounts on which Jesus may dwell? Assuredly those in whom are "the fruits of the spirit, joy, peace, patience, charity," and the rest. These, then, are the fruitful mounts, which bring forth "the fruit of the spirit" and are always lofty in mind and in hope. And though such may be few, nevertheless, if there be even a few, the Lord Jesus dwelling in them, who is "the true light," will send forth the rays of his light even upon all the rest, whom he has not yet judged worthy of his dwelling in the first place.
Joshua 21:1-2 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 25.1
All the sons of Israel received their allotments in the land, but for the Levites God alone suffices as their inheritance. Yet since the Levites receive "tithes" and "firstfruits" of the produce from the sons of Israel by God's command, it was fitting that they should also receive tithes, so to speak, from the land and from the dwelling-places; for this is what it means to have received "tithes from all." And therefore "the chief men who were among the sons of Levi, coming to Eleazar the priest and to Jesus the son of Nave, and to the leaders of the tribes of the sons of Israel in Shiloh in the land of Canaan, said": "The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, and their suburbs for our animals." It was fitting that a lot should also be cast for the "suburbs" and for the "cities," lest by chance the division carried out among the Levites should seem to be made indiscriminately and by mere accident. Therefore, just as the distribution of the lot, which was made among the sons of Israel, had a reason by which one man was held worthy of the first lot, and another of the second — concerning which, as far as we were able, we have already treated before, and also concerning those who, through Moses, receive beyond the Jordan, and from Jesus in the land of promise —, where the first lot fell to Benjamin and afterward to the rest, among whom Dan was last: so must there also be some reason in the priestly and Levitical allotment, that to some the first lot, to others the second, and to others indeed the third is drawn, by which these or those places are assigned to each one. Now the "sons of Levi" are said to be "Gershon and Kohath and Merari," and it is shown that Kohath held first place in honor, because the "sons of Kohath" were "Amram," "Moses and Aaron and Miriam." Therefore from Kohath was produced that part of the people which is priestly, which is Aaron and his sons; but Moses is to be reckoned either in the priestly order, or, if there can be anything even beyond the priestly, there; and there is another account concerning his sons. But the "rest" of the "sons of Kohath," who are from "Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel," held their place according to their order in the tribe of Levi. Then after these, after Kohath, "Gershon" among the sons of Levi receives his portion in the third place, but "Merari" the very last of all. Now this is the distinction of the first order and the second and the third or fourth, which we first of all observed in Numbers. For after the twelve tribes had been arranged to keep watch "around the ark of the Lord's covenant" through the four parts of the earth, and three tribes were stationed "on the east," three "on the southwest" or "on the south," three "toward the sea," which is to the west, and three "to the north," which is the region of the Bear — there also these men are assigned through the four parts of the earth in the same order. And "on the east," where was the tribe of "Judah," which was first among the rest, "Aaron and his sons are placed"; but the "sons of Kohath who remained" are appointed "to lift" upon their shoulders the ark of the Lord's covenant and "to sound the trumpets," so that "when the first trumpet had sounded, those who were on the east should move their camp; but when the second had sounded, those who were on the south should rise up, at the third those from the west, at the fourth those from the north." You see how great an order and how great a consequence of things is preserved in the holy Scriptures, how nothing is done except by measure and reason and order. Look more diligently, and in all Scripture you will find these things thus ordered. But if it is difficult for you to lead the wakeful eye of your heart through all the books, at least in this passage attend more diligently to what is related.
Joshua 21:4-7 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 25.3
But we have not yet touched upon those things which are more to be observed in these passages; and although we cannot unfold the deeper matters concerning them, at least it will not be irksome to touch briefly on the main points, so that from these each one of the hearers may take occasion to search out a higher and mystical understanding. Since there are four parts of the earth, "Kohath" received his lot first among the sons of Levi "from the eastern part," together with those tribes which themselves also hold the primacy over all. See, then, how all things agree. Among the four parts of the earth it is certain that the eastern region appears the more noble, in which the tribe of Judah, more noble than all the rest, was held; and the "sons of Kohath, the priests" draw the first lot among the first, both in the tribes and in the parts of the earth, together with "Gershon" and "Merari," who were first among the sons of Levi. Thus, then, the three first sons of Levi receive the east. But the "west," where were "Reuben" and "Simeon" and "Gad," is allotted by the second lot to "Kohath from the tribe of Simeon," while "Merari" is allotted first "Reuben." And again "Merari," third in Numbers, received "Zebulun" "from the east," so that justice might be preserved in that lot which is drawn according to God and may direct the minds of believers to contemplate the mysteries of the age to come. After these, of those who were "toward the sea," that is, "Ephraim" and "Benjamin" and "Manasseh," when "Kohath" had received "Benjamin" by the second lot, "the rest" of his family drew "Ephraim" by lot. After this, "Gershon" is allotted those who were "from the half-tribe of Manasseh" which was in the holy land, and again this same "Gershon" is allotted also the other "half-tribe of Manasseh." But because it was fitting that those also who were "in the north" should obtain something of the priestly grace, lest they should seem to be utterly stripped of heavenly gifts, therefore among these, whose order was the last "in the north," that is, "Dan," "Naphtali," "Asher," again "Kohath" — not indeed among the priests, but among "the rest" — received nonetheless the first lot in "Dan," but the second "Gershon" in "Asher," and the third, this same "Gershon," in "Naphtali."
Joshua 21:4-7 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 25.4
Who can attain to all these things and comprehend them? Who is even able to remember and observe the very order of the mysteries? But if, according to the letter alone, the very text of the narrative can be explained with difficulty, and the intermingling either of places or of persons which is contained in the history can be unfolded, what shall we say of those sacraments which are described through this, and in which the distributions of the future inheritance are foreshadowed, and through which the division of the holy "land," which "the meek shall receive as their inheritance," will be celebrated? Who could explain the diverse sites of the encampments — how in the resurrection this distribution is to be held for each one of the saints by the priestly or Levitical order, so that, as the Apostle says, in the "resurrection" all things may be done not in confusion, but that "each one may come in his own order, the beginning Christ, then those who are Christ's, who believed at his coming, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have subjected to him every principality and power"? There, without doubt, there will be certain such observances of the camps and priestly distributions and orders and signals of the trumpets; for perhaps, just as God has ordered the stars of heaven and set them in place by certain wondrous and ineffable reckonings, and established some of them at the pole of the north, others in the regions of the east, others indeed in the vault of the south, and others in the west — so I believe that those also who from the resurrection of the dead shall be such, "as the stars of heaven in multitude" and "brightness," coming, that is, from the seed of Abraham, God will order in the kingdom of heaven according to the order of the stars and of the parts of heaven, and will give to some a lot "toward the east," to others "toward the west," to others "toward the south," and, those whom he himself knows, he will station "toward the north," since indeed "many shall come from the east and the west," from the four parts of the earth, "and shall recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven," through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Joshua 21:4-7 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 25.2
"The first lot," it says, "came out for Kohath, and it fell to the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were among the Levites." Whose was it fitting that "the first lot should come out"? To whom ought primacy to be given, if not to Aaron, the first high priest, first in life, in merits, first in honors and virtue? Is it now at last certain to you that this lot is not a matter of chance, but that a supernal power is present governing it according to the judgment of divine providence? Where, then, does this just lot assign the first dwelling-places "to the sons of Aaron"? "In the tribe," it says, "of Judah, in the tribe of Simeon, and in the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities by lot." You see how to chosen men, in chosen tribes, dwelling-places are dispensed. But who were those who ought to receive the second lot? "The sons," it says, "of Kohath who remained" after the sons of Aaron. And which "tribes" do these receive? "In the tribe," it says, "of Ephraim and in the tribe of Dan and in the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities by lot." But who are the third? "The sons of Gershon." And in which tribes do they draw their lots? "In Issachar," it says, "and Asher and Naphtali and in the half-tribe of Manasseh which is in Bashan, twelve cities." But who are the last among the Levites? "The sons," it says, "of Merari." Let us see in which tribes these last ones receive their portion. "From the tribe," it says, "of Reuben beyond the Jordan, and Gad, who was with him beyond the Jordan, and from the tribe of Zebulun, who himself also is last among the sons of Leah, they receive by lot twelve cities."
Joshua 22:1-9 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 26.2
After these things "Jesus summons the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh," who had done military service with him in overcoming the enemies of Israel, and he dismisses them to go to their inheritance, having also given them certain gifts, as it is written. In which he seems to indicate this mystery: that, "when the fullness of the nations has come in," and they have received what was promised to them by the Lord Jesus, those who had been taught and instructed through Moses, and who brought us aid by their prayers and supplications while we were set in the struggle — because they have not yet obtained the promises, waiting "that our calling too might be completed," as the Apostle says — now at last obtain the perfection which had been deferred for them, together with the gifts which they receive from Jesus, so that each one may dwell in peace, all war and all assault having ceased.
Joshua 22:10 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.2
Do you wish that I prove to you still more evidently that among that former people, whom Moses foreshadowed in the "two and a half tribes," not all things were whole nor perfect? That history also declares it, which is written in this very little book of Jesus of Nave, when it says that the true altar was indeed in that land which Jesus was dispensing, yet these who were across the Jordan, that is, "Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, made themselves an altar," but not a true altar, but one that held the type and pattern of the true altar which was with Jesus. Marvel, then, not at all if those who had built neither a whole nor a true altar had not received a whole knowledge of the Trinity.
Joshua 22:10-29 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 26.3
After these things there was read to us that "the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who were beyond the Jordan, had built up a huge altar; but the sons of Israel" — the rest, not knowing why this altar had been erected — "send Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, with ten men chosen from the several tribes," so that, if perhaps they had done this as those "departing from God," having become as it were "apostates" and acting against the commandment of God, they might be assailed by the rest of the sons of Israel; but if otherwise, that they might learn the cause. But those men give satisfaction concerning the altar and say: we know that the true altar is among you, where Jesus dwells, but we made this altar after the likeness of that altar which has been built among you, so that among us too the figure and image of the true altar may be held; "lest perhaps tomorrow," he says, it should please you "to say that the Jordan is a boundary between us and you" and that it itself sets the limit, and therefore "you have no portion" in our altar. Such were the replies they sent. But let us see what mystery this deed contains. The former people of the circumcision is designated in Reuben, who had been the firstborn; but also in Gad, who himself too is a firstborn, from Zilpah, and no less in Manasseh, the "firstborn." But when I say "firstborn," I speak according to time. These things, then, are said lest any division or separation should seem to exist between us and those who were just before the coming of Christ, but so that they might show themselves to be — even though they were before the coming of Christ — nevertheless our brothers. For although they then, before the coming of the Savior, had an altar, yet they knew and perceived that that altar was not the true one, but that it was the form and figure of this true altar that was to come. They knew this: that the true victims, those which could take away sins, were not offered on that altar which the firstborn people had, but on this one, where Jesus was; here the heavenly victims, here the true sacrifices are consummated. There comes to be, then, "one flock and one shepherd," those former just ones and those who are now Christians. But I wish, for the proof of these things, to call to mind also a certain history, if only the Lord deigns to grant that we may be able to find its spiritual explanation. The people once "was falling in the desert" and dying. Aaron the high priest came and "stood in the midst of those who were dying and those who were living," lest the devastation of death should advance further even upon the rest. Now too my true high priest, the Lord, has come and has interceded in the midst between the dying and the living — that is, between those who from among the Jews received his presence, and those who not only did not receive it, but slew themselves rather than him, saying: "his blood be upon us and upon our children!" Hence also "all the righteous blood which has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah whom they killed between the temple and the altar, shall be required of that generation" which said: "his blood be upon us and upon our children." These, then, are the portion of the people that is dead, because they keep neither the unleavened bread nor the feast days fittingly, but "their feast days are turned into mourning and their songs into lamentation"; who, even if they wished, could not celebrate the feast day in "that place which the Lord God has chosen." And we indeed did not say to them that "there shall be for you no portion" in this altar or in the inheritance of the Lord, but they of their own accord refused the true altar and the heavenly high priest, and were brought to such a pitch of unhappiness that they lost even the image and did not receive the truth, and therefore it is said to them: "behold, your house shall be left to you deserted." For the grace of t…
Joshua 24:14-15 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 17
Therefore, what Joshua said to the people when he settled them in the holy land, the Scripture might also say now to us. The text reads as follows, "Now fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and righteousness." And it will tell us, if we are being misled to worship idols, what follows, "Destroy the foreign gods which your fathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord."Then in the beginning when you were going to be instructed, it would have been rightly said to you, "And if you be unwilling to worship the Lord, choose this day whom you will worship, whether the gods your fathers worshiped in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites among whom you dwell on the land." And the catechist might have said to you, "But as for me and my house, we will worship the Lord because he is holy." He does not have any reason to say this to you now; for then you said, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods. For the Lord our God, he is God, who brought us and our fathers out of Egypt … and preserved us in all the way that we went." Moreover, in the agreements about religion long ago you gave your catechist this answer, "We also will worship the Lord, for he is our God." If, therefore, the one who breaks agreements with men is outside any truce and alien to safety, what must be said of those who by denying make null and void the agreements they made with God, and who run back to Satan, whom they renounced when they were baptized? Such a person must be told the words spoken by Eli to his sons, "If a man sins against a man, then they will pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?"
Jude 1:1 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book X), 17
And depreciating the whole of what appeared to be His nearest kindred, they said, "Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?" [Matthew 13:55-56] They thought, then, that He was the son of Joseph and Mary. But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is entitled, or "The Book of James," that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honour of Mary in virginity to the end, so that that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word which said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," [Luke 1:35] might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Ghost came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the purity which consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity. And James is he whom Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians that he saw, "But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." [Galatians 1:19] And to so great a reputation among the people for righteousness did this James rise, that Flavius Josephus, who wrote the "Antiquities of the Jews" in twenty books, when wishing to exhibit the cause why the people suffered so great misfortunes that even the temple was razed to the ground, said, that these things happened to them in accordance with the wrath of God in consequence of the things which they had dared to do against James the brother of Jesus who is called Christ. And the wonderful thing is, that, though he did not accept Jesus as Christ, he yet gave testimony that the righteousness of James was so great; and he says that the people thought that they had suffered these things because of James. And Jude, who wrote a letter of few lines, it is true, but filled with the healthful words of heavenly grace, said in the preface, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James." [Jude 1]
Jude 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 10.290
If we wish woodenly to preserve unchanged the good things once given to the saints and will not adapt the events of the historical account, we will by such action appear to do something like what the heretics do, by not preserving the harmony of the narrative of the Scriptures from beginning to end.
Jude 1:6 — Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 13
Not only man, but also the "sons of God, seeing the daughters of men that they are fair, took for themselves wives of all whom they chose," and consistently all those who left "their own dwelling" and did not preserve their own principality - and by "principality" I mean not in reference to power but to the beginning and foundation; just as for man, the beginning was to be in paradise, but the end perhaps due to transgression in Hades below or some such place, so also for each of the fallen ones a particular beginning is given.
Lamentations 3:25 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:5.4
"There is none good but one, God the Father." This word they declare is peculiar to the Father of Christ, who, however, is different from the God who is creator of all things, to which creator he gave no appellation of goodness. Let us see now if, in the Old Testament, the God of the prophets and the Creator and Legislator of the word is not called good. What are the expressions that occur in the psalms? "How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart!" and, "Let Israel now say that he is good, that his mercy endures for ever," the language in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, "The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him." As therefore God is frequently called good in the Old Testament, so also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is styled just in the Gospels. Finally, in the Gospel according to John, our Lord, when praying to the Father, says, "O just Father, the world has not known you." And lest perhaps they should say that it was owing to his having assumed human flesh that he called the Creator of the world Father and styled him just, they are excluded from such a refuge by the words that immediately follow, "The world has not known you." But, according to them, the world is ignorant of the good God alone. For the world unquestionably recognizes its Creator, the Lord saying that the world loves what is its own. Clearly, then, he whom they consider to be the good God is called just in the Gospels. Anyone may at leisure gather together a greater number of proofs, consisting of those passages, where in the New Testament the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is called just, and in the Old also, where the Creator of heaven and earth is called good; so that the heretics, being convicted by numerous testimonies, may perhaps some time be put to the blush.
Lamentations 3:27 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:25
Celsus then extracts from the gospel the precept, "To him who strikes you once, you shall offer yourself to be struck again," although without giving any passage from the Old Testament that he considers opposed to it. On the one hand, we know that "it was said to them in old time, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," and on the other, we have read, "I say to you, Whoever shall strike you on the one cheek, turn to him the other also." But as there is reason to believe that Celsus produces the objections that he has heard from those who wish to make a difference between the God of the gospel and the God of the law, we must say in reply, that this precept, "Whoever shall strike you on the one cheek, turn to him the other," is not unknown in the older Scriptures. For thus, in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, it is said, "It is good for a person that he bear the yoke in his youth: he sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it on him. He gives his cheek to him that strikes him; he is filled full with reproach." There is no discrepancy, then, between the God of the gospel and the God of the law, even when we take literally the precept regarding the blow on the face. So, then, we infer that neither "Jesus nor Moses has taught falsely." The Father in sending Jesus did not "forget the commands that he had given to Moses": he did not "change his mind, condemn his own laws and send by his messenger counter instructions."
Lamentations 3:34 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:66
Celsus in the next place, as if he were able to tell certain secrets regarding the origin of evils but chose rather to keep silence and say only what was suitable to the multitude, continues as follows: "It is sufficient to say to the multitude regarding the origin of evils, that they do not proceed from God but cleave to matter and dwell among mortal things." It is true, certainly, that evils do not proceed from God; for according to Jeremiah, one of our prophets, it is certain that "out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good." But to maintain that matter, dwelling among mortal things, is the cause of evils, is in our opinion not true. For it is the mind of each individual that is the cause of the evil that arises in him, and this is evil (in the abstract); while the actions that proceed from it are wicked, and there is, to speak with accuracy, nothing else in our view that is evil. I am aware, however, that this topic requires very elaborate treatment, which (by the grace of God enlightening the mind) may be successfully attempted by one who is deemed by God worthy to attain the necessary knowledge on this subject.
Lamentations 3:34 — AGAINST CELSUS 8:54
When Celsus adds, "We must therefore believe that people are entrusted to certain beings who are the keepers of this prison house," our answer is that the souls of those who are called by Jeremiah "prisoners of the earth," when eager in the pursuit of virtue, are even in this life delivered from the bondage of evil; for Jesus declared this, as was foretold long before his advent by the prophet Isaiah, when he said that "the prisoners would go forth, and those who were in darkness would show themselves." And Jesus, as Isaiah also foretold of him, arose as "a light to them that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death," so that we may therefore say, "Let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords from us." If Celsus, and those who like him are opposed to us, had been able to sound the depths of the Gospel narratives, they would not have counseled us to put our confidence in those beings whom they call "the keepers of the prison house." It is written in the Gospel that a woman was bowed together and could not lift up herself. And when Jesus beheld her and perceived from what cause she was bowed together, he said, "Ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" And how many others are still bowed down and bound by Satan, who hinders them from looking up and who would have us to look down also! And no one can raise them up, except the Word that came by Jesus Christ and that inspired the prophets: And Jesus came to release those who were under the dominion of the devil; and, speaking of him, he said with that depth of meaning that characterized his words, "Now is the prince of this world judged." We are, then, indulging in no baseless calumnies against demons but are condemning their agency on earth as destructive to humankind, and we show that, under cover of oracles and bodily cures and such other means, they are seeking to separate from God the soul that has descended to this "body of humiliation, and those who feel this humiliation exclaim, "O wretched being that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Lamentations 4:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:6.7
I think, indeed, that Jeremiah the prophet, also, understanding what was the nature of the wisdom of God in him, which was the same also that he had assumed for the salvation of the world, said, "The breath of our countenance is Christ the Lord, to whom we said, that under his shadow we shall live among the nations." And inasmuch as the shadow of our body is inseparable from the body and unavoidably performs and repeats its movements and gestures, I think that he, wishing to point out the work of Christ's soul, and the movements inseparably belonging to it and which accomplished everything according to his movements and will, called this the shadow of Christ the Lord, under which shadow we were to live among the nations. For in the mystery of this assumption the nations live, who, imitating it through faith, come to salvation. David also, when saying, "Be mindful of my reproach, O Lord, with which they reproached me in exchange for your Christ," seems to me to indicate the same. And what else does Paul mean when he says, "Your life is hidden with Christ in God," and again in another passage, "Do you seek a proof of Christ, who speaks in me?" And now he says that Christ was hidden in God. The meaning of this expression, unless it is shown to be something such as we have pointed out above as intended by the prophet in the words "shadow of Christ," exceeds, perhaps, the apprehension of the human mind. But we see also very many other statements in Holy Scripture respecting the meaning of the word shadow, as that well-known one in the Gospel according to Luke, where Gabriel says to Mary, "The Spirit of the Lord shall come on you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you." And the apostle says with reference to the law that they who have circumcision in the flesh "serve for the similitude and shadow of heavenly things." And elsewhere, "Is not our life on the earth a shadow?" If, then, not only the law that is on the earth is a shadow, but also all our life that is on the earth is the same, and we live among the nations under the shadow of Christ, we must see whether the truth of all these shadows may not come to be known in that revelation, when no longer through a glass and darkly, but face to face, all the saints shall deserve to behold the glory of God and the causes and truth of things. And the pledge of this truth being already received through the Holy Spirit, the apostle said, "Yes, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet from now on, we know him no more."
Lamentations 4:20 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
This life is now present for the righteous only as a shadow, but then — face to face. "The breath of our countenance, the anointed of the Lord," of whom we said: "under his shadow we shall live among the nations." If so many goods are offered to you in the life which is only a shadow of life — and it was by this life that Moses lived when he prophesied, by it Isaiah lived when he saw the Lord of Hosts sitting on a throne high and exalted, by it Jeremiah lived when he heard the words: "before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you," by it Ezekiel lived when he saw the Cherubim … then what will our life be, when we shall live no longer in the shadow of life, but in life itself!
Lamentations 4:20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.4
One coming of Christ was accomplished in lowliness, but another is hoped for in glory; and this first coming in the flesh is, by a certain mystical manner of speech, in the holy scriptures called his "shadow," just as the prophet Jeremiah also announces, saying: "the spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, of whom we said: in his shadow we shall live among the nations." But Gabriel too, when he brought Mary the good tidings concerning his nativity, says: "the power of the Most High shall overshadow you."
Lamentations 4:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:4
He who sits on the white horse is called Faithful, not because of the faith he cherishes but of that which he inspires, because he is worthy of faith. Now the Lord Jehovah, according to Moses, is faithful and true. He is true also in respect of his relation to shadow, type and image; for such is the Word who is in the opened heaven, for he is not on earth as he is in heaven; on earth he is made flesh and speaks through shadow, type and image. The multitude, therefore, of those who are reputed to believe are disciples of the shadow of the Word, not of the true Word of God who is in the opened heaven. Therefore Jeremiah says, "The Spirit of our face is Christ the Lord, of whom we said, In his shadow shall we live among the nations." Thus the Word of God who is called faithful is also called true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war, since he has received from God the faculty of judging in very righteousness and very judgment and of apportioning its due to every existing creature. For none of those who have some portion of righteousness and of the faculty of judgment can receive on his soul such copies and impressions of righteousness and judgment as to come short in no point of absolute righteousness and absolute justice, just as no painter of a picture can communicate to the representation all the qualities of the original. This, I conceive, is the reason why David says, "Before you shall no living being be justified." He does not say, no human, or no angel, but no living being, since even if any being partakes of life and has altogether put off mortality, not even then can it be justified in comparison with you who are, as it were, life itself. Nor is it possible that one who partakes of life and is therefore called living should become life itself, or that one who partakes of righteousness and, therefore, is called righteous should become equal to righteousness itself.Now it is the function of the Word of God, not only to judge in righteousness but also to make war in righteousness, that by making war on his enemies by reason and righteousness, so that what is irrational and wicked is destroyed, he may dwell in the soul of one who, for his salvation, so to speak, has become captive to Christ and may justify that soul and cast out from it all adversaries. We shall, however, obtain a better view of this war that the Word carries on if we remember that he is an ambassador for the truth, while there is another who pretends to be the Word and is not, and one who calls itself the truth and is not, but a lie. Then the Word, arming himself against the lie, slays it with the breath of his mouth and brings it to naught by the manifestation of his coming.
Lamentations 4:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:1.25
Just as in his coming now he fulfilled that law that has a shadow of good things to come, so also by that future glorious advent will be fulfilled and brought to perfection the shadows of the present advent. For thus spoke the prophet regarding it: "The breath of our countenance, Christ the Lord, to whom we said, that under your shadow we shall live among the nations," at the time, that is, when he will more worthily transfer all the saints from a temporal to an everlasting gospel, according to the designation, employed by John in the Apocalypse, of "an everlasting gospel."
Lamentations 4:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
But concerning the naming of this shadow, beneath which the Church says she longed to sit … Jeremiah says in the Lamentations: "The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, was taken in our corruptions, to whom we said: In his shadow we shall live among the nations." You see, then, how the prophet, moved by the Holy Spirit, says that life is furnished to the nations from the shadow of Christ; and how should his shadow not furnish us with life, when even at the conception of his body it was said to Mary: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you."
Leviticus 2:13 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
For just as flesh, if it be not sprinkled with salt, however great and choice it be, is corrupted, so also the soul, unless it be in some way salted with continual temptations, immediately is dissolved and grows slack. Whence it is clear that on this account it was said that "every sacrifice shall be salted with salt."
Leviticus 5:7 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Not without cause is a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, taken in the sacrifices: for they are of equal worth, and it is never said separately, a pair only of pigeons, but a pair of turtledoves, and two young pigeons. The dove is the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit, when he speaks of great and more hidden mysteries, which many cannot receive, is signified by the name of the turtledove — that is, of that bird which dwells always on the ridges of the mountains and on the tops of the trees; but in the valleys, and in the things which reach even to men, the dove is taken.
Leviticus 9:22 — FRAGMENT ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 257
Something of this sort has also been written about Aaron in the book of Leviticus, namely, that "he raised up his hands over the people and blessed them." I gather from this that the saying expresses a mystery, namely, that the one who blesses someone must be adorned with works that distinguish him from the many and raise him above them. For when he is going to bless the people, the hands of Aaron are raised on high. So if someone has his hands down toward earthly things, he does not intend to bless anyone.
Leviticus 11:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
Therefore in the shadow of this meli tree the bride longs to abide — or the Church, as we said, in the protection of the Son of God, or the soul fleeing all the remaining doctrines and clinging to the one Word of God alone, whose sweet fruit she also has in her throat, that is, by meditating unceasingly on the law of God, and by always ruminating upon it like a clean animal.
Leviticus 17:11 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The troubling utterance is the following: "The soul of all flesh is the blood" — behold an extremely difficult passage, which has shaken those who did not understand it! … According to my measure of understanding, and with prayer for help in the knowledge of the Divine utterances … I have observed that incorporeal things are given the same names as corporeal things, and thus corporeal things are related to the outer man, while those bearing the same names as the corporeal are related to the inner man. Scripture says that in man there are two. … Therefore in each of us there are two men. Why does the Holy Scripture say that the soul of all flesh is the blood? This is a difficult question. Just as the outer man is homonymous with the inner one, so also with respect to the parts of the body. One may say that each part of the body of the outer man is homonymous with the corresponding part of the inner man. … And so, everything that is in the sentient flesh you can find also in the inner man. Do not doubt, then, also concerning the blood, homonymous with the sentient blood, which, like the other parts of the body, the inner man has. It is precisely this blood of which the soul of the sinner is deprived.
Leviticus 19:18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 3
The second commandment is like it, since it is the love of a human being who was made according to the image of God, and perhaps also according to his likeness. But in the exposition of the commandment which is set down concerning the love of one's neighbor, these things also must be said. For, according to what is said in the tenth Psalm, "he who loves iniquity hates his own soul", and according to what is said in Proverbs, "he who rejects discipline hates himself", it is manifest that no one who loves iniquity loves his neighbor as himself, since he does not even love himself; and no one who rejects discipline loves his neighbor as himself, seeing that he does not love his very self either. And thus it comes about that he who "loves iniquity", and "hates his own soul", cannot keep the second commandment. Likewise also "he who rejects discipline" loves some sin; and therefore he too who rejects any word of God's discipline "hates his own soul".
Leviticus 20:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 11.9
But when we wish to examine the very letter of the words as given by Matthew, "He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death," consider whether it was taken from the place where it was written, "Whoso strikes his father or mother, let him die the death; and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death." For such are the exact words taken from the law with regard to the two commandments; but Matthew has quoted them in part and in an abridged form, and not in the very words.
Leviticus 21:17 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 30
Moreover, blameless priests served the Godhead by offering blameless sacrifices, while those who were blemished and offered blemished sacrifices and whom Moses described in Leviticus were separated from the altar. And who else is the blameless priest offering a blameless sacrifice than the person who holds fast to his confession and fulfills every requirement the account of martyrdom demands? He is the one we have spoken of before.
Leviticus 25:10 — ON PRAYER 27.14
Who is there who has grasped the mind of Christ so well that he knows the meaning of the seventh year of freedom of Hebrew slaves and the remission of debts and the intermission of the cultivation of the holy land? Over and above the feast of every seventh year is the feast called the jubilee. No one can ever come near divining its precise meaning or the true import of the prescriptions enjoined by it, except him who knows the Father's will and his disposition for every age according to "his incomprehensible judgments and unsearchable ways."
Leviticus 26:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 10.15
For we eat with blessing the old things, the prophetic words and the old things of the old things, the words of the law. And, when the new and evangelical words came, living according to the gospel, we bring forth the old things of the letter from before the new. He sets his tabernacle in us, fulfilling the promise which he spoke, "I will dwell among them and walk in them."
Luke 1:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(Hom. i. in Luc.) The effect upon his own mind, St. Luke explains by the expression, of the things which have been fully accomplished among us, i. e. have had their full manifestation among us, (as the Greek word peplerophoremenon signifies, which the Latin cannot express in one word,) for he had been convinced of them by sure faith and reason, and wavered not in any thing.
Luke 1:1 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 1
Just as of old among the people of the Jews many laid claim to prophecy, and some were false prophets — of whom one was Hananiah, the son of Azor —, while others were true prophets, and there was in the people the grace of discerning spirits, by which some were received among the prophets, while a few were rejected as though by "the most experienced money-changers", so also now, in the new covenant, "many have attempted" to write gospels, but not all have been received. And that you may know that not only four gospels, but very many, have been composed, out of which these that we have were chosen and handed down to the churches, let us learn from the very preface of Luke, which runs thus: "Forasmuch as many have attempted to set in order a narrative". In this that he says, "they have attempted", there lies a hidden accusation of those who, without the grace of the Holy Spirit, leapt forward to write gospels. For Matthew and Mark and John and Luke did not "attempt" to write, but, filled with the Holy Spirit, they wrote the gospels. "Many" therefore "have attempted to set in order a narrative concerning those things which have been most clearly known among us". The Church has four gospels, heresy has very many, of which one is written according to the Egyptians, another according to the Twelve Apostles. Basilides too dared to write a gospel and to entitle it with his own name. "Many have attempted" to write, but only four gospels are approved, from which the doctrines concerning the person of our Lord and Savior are to be brought forth. I know a certain gospel which is called "according to Thomas", and one "according to Matthias"; and we have read many others too, lest we should seem to be ignorant of anything on account of those who think they know something if they have come to know these things. But in all these we approve nothing else except what the Church does, namely that only four gospels are to be received. This is so, because at the beginning it was read: "many have attempted to set in order a narrative concerning those things which have been confirmed among us". Those men tried and "attempted" to write concerning those things which have been most clearly ascertained by us. Luke indicates his own disposition by the words in which he says: "have been most clearly shown among us", that is "πεπληροφορημένων" (fully assured), which the Latin tongue does not render in a single word. For with sure faith and reason he had come to know them, and he wavered in nothing as to whether it was so or otherwise. But this befalls those who have believed most faithfully and have obtained that which the prophet implores, and who say: "confirm me in your words". Whence the Apostle also says of those who were firm and strong: "that you may be rooted and grounded in faith". For if anyone is rooted and grounded in faith, though a storm arise, though the winds blow, though the rain pour down, he shall not be torn away, he shall not fall, because the building has been founded with solid mass "upon the rock". And let us not think that the firmness of faith, which mind and reason bestow, is given by these carnal eyes. Let all the unbelieving believe in signs and portents which the human eye beholds. But let the faithful and prudent and strong man follow reason and the word, and thus judge what is true and what is false.
Luke 1:2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 1
"As they have handed down to us, who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word". In Exodus it is written: "the people saw the voice of God". And surely a voice is heard rather than seen; but it was written thus for this reason, that it might be shown to us that with other eyes one may "see the voice of God" — those eyes with which they behold who are worthy. Moreover in the Gospel not a voice is perceived, but a word, which is more excellent than a voice. Whence it is now said: "as they have handed down to us, who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word". Therefore the apostles themselves saw the word, not because they had looked upon the body of the Lord and Savior, but because they had seen the Word. For if to have seen Jesus according to the body is this, namely to have seen the word of God, then Pilate too, who condemned Jesus, saw the word of God, and Judas the traitor, and all who cried out: "crucify, crucify him, take such a one from the earth", saw the word of God. But far be it that any unbeliever should see the word of God. To see the word of God is such a thing as the Savior speaks of: "He who has seen me has seen also the Father, who sent me". "As they have handed down to us, who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word". Secretly, by Luke's words, we are taught that the end of one kind of teaching is the teaching itself, but that the end of another kind of teaching is reckoned to lie in the work. For example: the science of geometry has as its end only the science and the teaching itself. But there is another science whose end demands a work, such as medicine. I must know the theory and the doctrines of medicine, not only that I may know what I ought to do, but that I may do it, that is, that I may cut wounds, prescribe a moderate and disciplined diet, feel the heat of fevers by the beating of the veins, so that by cyclical treatments I may dry up, temper, and restrain the abundance of humors. And if anyone should only know these things and not follow them up with work, his knowledge will be empty. Something like this, holding between the knowledge of medicine and its practice, exists also in the knowledge and the ministry of the word. Whence it is written: "as they have handed down to us, who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word", so that we may recognize that by what he said, "themselves saw", teaching and knowledge are signified, but by what he says, "were ministers of the word", works are demonstrated.
Luke 1:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
It is plain that of one kind of knowledge, the end is in the knowledge itself, as in geometry; but of another kind, the end is counted to be in the work, as in medicine; and so it is in the word of God, and therefore having signified the knowledge by the words were themselves eyewitnesses, he points out the work by what follows, and were ministers of the word. It is written in Exodus, The people saw the voice of the Lord. (Exod. 20:18.) Now a voice is rather heard than seen. But it was so written, to show us that men see the voice of the Lord with other eyes, which they only have who are worthy of them. Again in the Gospel, it is not the voice that is perceived, but the Word, which is more excellent than the voice.
Luke 1:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
St. Luke hereby explains to us the source of his writing; seeing that what things he wrote, he gained not from report, but had himself traced them up from the beginning. Hence it follows, It seemed good to me also, having carefully investigated every thing from the very first, to write to thee in order, most excellent Theophilus.
Luke 1:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 1
"It seemed good to me also, having followed from the beginning". He impresses and repeats that the things he is about to write he had not come to know by rumor, but that he himself had followed them from the beginning. Whence he is also deservedly commended by the apostle Paul, who says: "whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches". For this is said of no one else, but is handed down as said of Luke. "It seemed good to me also, having followed from the beginning, to write all things diligently in order to you, most excellent Theophilus". Someone may suppose that he wrote the gospel to a certain Theophilus. All of you who hear us speaking, if you are such that you are loved by God, you too are "theophili" (lovers/beloved of God), and to you the gospel is written. If anyone is "theophilus", he is both most excellent and most strong, for this is what is more significantly expressed in the Greek word: "κράτιστος" (most excellent). No "theophilus" is weak. And just as it is written of the people of Israel, when it was going out of Egypt, that "there was not among their tribes one that was weak": so I will boldly say that everyone who is "theophilus" is robust, having strength and vigor both from God and from his word, so that he may be able to know the truth of those words in which he has been instructed, understanding the word of the gospel in Christ: to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Luke 1:6 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2
Those who wish to spread over their sins some excuse suppose that no one is without sin, and they make use of the testimony written in Job: "No one is clean from filth, not even if his life upon the earth should be but of a single day; his months, moreover, are numbered". Of this passage they bring forward only the sound, being wholly ignorant of its interpretation. Against them we shall reply briefly, that to be without sin is understood in the Scriptures in two ways: the one, never to have sinned at all; the other, to have ceased from sinning. If, then, they say that he is called without sin who has never sinned, we too agree that no one is without sin, since all of us as human beings have at some time sinned, even though afterward we have pursued virtue. But if they so understand a man not to be without sin as to deny that anyone, after his vices, so betakes himself to the virtues that he never sins at all, then their opinion is false. For it can come about that one who has sinned before, when he ceases from sinning, is said to be without sin. Thus also our Lord Jesus Christ "presented to himself a glorious Church, not having spot", not because the churchly man has never had a spot, but because he is by no means spotted any longer: "not having wrinkle", not that the wrinkle "of the old man" was never at some time in him, but that he has ceased to have it. In this manner also that which follows is to be understood: "that it may be holy and unspotted", not that from the beginning it was unspotted — for this indeed cannot be supposed of a man, that his soul was not spotted — but that it is reckoned pure and sincere, having ceased to be spotted any longer. We say these things for this reason, that we might teach that a man can, on the ground that he has ceased to sin, be called without sin and "unspotted". Hence also it is most plainly written concerning Zechariah and Elizabeth: "they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord without reproach". Let us more carefully contemplate the praises of Zechariah and Elizabeth which holy Luke writes in his history, not only that we may know that they were praiseworthy, but that, taking up their holy zeal, we too may be made worthy of praise. He could have written simply: "they were both righteous, walking in all the commandments"; but now it is necessarily added: "they were both righteous before God". For it can indeed come about that someone is righteous before men, but is not so "before God". For example: when a man has nothing evil that he might speak about me, and, considering everything about me, finds nothing to disparage, I am righteous "in the sight" of men. Suppose that all hold the same opinion of me, and seek what they might disparage, and yet cannot find it, but praise me with one accord — I am righteous "in the sight" of very many men. But the judgment of men is not certain: for they do not know whether in the hidden part of my heart I have at some time sinned, whether I have looked upon a woman to lust after her, and adultery has been born in my heart. Men are ignorant, when they have seen me give alms according to my means, whether I did it because of God's commandment or sought the praise and favor of men. It is a difficult thing to be righteous "before God", so that you do some good for no other cause than for the sake of the good itself, and seek God alone as the rewarder of your good work. Something like this the Apostle also says: "whose praise is not from men, but from God". Blessed is he who is righteous and praiseworthy "before God". For men, although they may seem to have a certain judgment, nevertheless cannot pronounce with clarity. For it happens sometimes that they praise one who is not praiseworthy, and disparage one who is by no means worthy of disparagement. God alone is a righteous judge both in praise and in blame. Hence worthily now also it is added in the praise of the righteous: "they were both righteous…
Luke 1:7 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.1
First of all, consider what this means, that very many of the holy women in the scriptures are said to have been barren, as Sarah herself, and behold now Rebekah as well. But Rachel too, beloved of Israel, was barren. Hannah also, the mother of Samuel, is written to have been barren. But in the Gospels too Elizabeth is recorded to have been barren. And in all these women this one heading is signified: that after barrenness they all brought forth a holy childbirth.
Luke 1:11 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 3
Concerning what is written: "an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense". Things that are corporeal and lacking in sense-perception, so as to be seen by another, contribute nothing of themselves, but only the eye of another, intent upon them—whether they will it or not—sees them, wherever it has directed its gaze and contemplation. For what can a man, or any other thing surrounded by a gross body, do, when it is present, to keep from being perceived? On the contrary, those things which are heavenly and divine, even when they are present, are not seen unless they themselves will it; and it lies in their will to be seen or not to be seen. It was the grace of God that He appeared to Abraham or to the rest of the prophets—not because the eye of Abraham's heart alone was the cause of his beholding God, but because the grace of God freely offered itself to be looked upon by the just man. And this you are to understand not only concerning God the Father, but also concerning the Lord the Savior and concerning the Holy Spirit and—to descend to lesser beings—concerning the Cherubim and Seraphim. For it can happen that even now, while we are speaking, an angel is present, and yet, because we do not deserve it, we are unable to see him. For although the eye whether of our body or of our soul strains itself to contemplate, unless the angel appears of his own accord and offers himself to be seen, the one who desires to see will not see. And so, wherever it is written: "God appeared" to this or that person, and, as now: "an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense", understand it as I have said. Whether God or an angel, to Abraham or to Zechariah, whether he is unwilling or willing, either will not be seen or will be seen. And this we say not only in the "present age", but also in the age to come, when we shall have departed from the world: that not to all do either God or the angels appear—that is, that he who has gone out from the body should straightway deserve to see both the angels and the Holy Spirit and the Lord the Savior and God the Father Himself; rather, he alone will see who has a clean heart and has shown himself such as to be worthy of the sight of God. And although he who is clean of heart and he who is still bespattered with some filth may be in the same place, the one place will be able neither to harm nor to help anyone, because he who has a clean heart will see God, but he who is not such will not see that which is beheld by another. Something of this kind I think must also be understood concerning Christ, when He was seen in the body: that not all who saw Him were able to see Him. For they saw only His body, but according to that which Christ was, they could not see Him. The disciples, however, saw Him and contemplated the greatness of His divinity. On which account I think that to Philip too, who entreated and said: "show us the Father, and it is enough for us", the Savior replied: "am I so long a time with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he who sees me sees also the Father". For neither did Pilate, who was seeing Jesus, behold the Father, nor did the traitor Judas—since neither Pilate himself nor Judas saw Christ according to that which Christ was, nor did the multitude that pressed upon Him. Those alone saw Jesus whom He judged worthy of His sight. Let us therefore, we also, labor that even in the present God may appear to us—for the holy word of the Scriptures has promised: "because He is found by those who do not tempt Him, and He appears to those who are not unbelieving toward Him"—and that in the age to come He may not be hidden from us, but that we may see Him "face to face" and have confidence of a good life and enjoy the sight of Almighty God in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:11 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And we speak thus not only of the present time, but also of the future. When we shall have passed from the world, God will not appear unto all men, nor will the angels, but unto him only who has a clean heart. The place will neither hinder nor serve any one.
Luke 1:12-13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
A new face suddenly presenting itself to the human eye, troubles and startles the mind. The angel knowing this to be the nature of man, first dispels the alarm, as it follows, But the angel said unto him, Fear not. The angel not only soothes his fears, but gladdens him with good tidings, adding, For thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear a son.
Luke 1:13-14 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4
Zechariah, when he had seen the angel, was terrified. For indeed a strange countenance, presenting itself to human sight, disturbs the mind and dismays the spirit. Hence the angel, knowing that this belongs to human nature, first remedies the disturbance, saying: "fear not, Zechariah", and revives the trembling man and gladdens him with new tidings, adding: "your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth shall bear a son, and you shall call his name John; and he shall be to you a joy and an exultation". When some righteous person arises in the world and enters the course of this life, the ministers of his birth rejoice and lift themselves up on high. But when one is born who is destined for an evil life, and is consigned, as if for punishments, to the workhouse, the minister is dismayed and falls down. Do you wish to receive an example of a holy man, whose every fruit lies in praise? Look at Jacob, who begot twelve male children, who all came forth as the people of God and as the patriarchs and princes of that portion: in all these Jacob the father rejoiced, just as now too joy is announced to all concerning the birth of John; and whoever has once, for the benefit of others, descended to the works of begetting children and has willed to bind himself to this ministry, let him beseech God that such a one from among his sons may enter the world, over whose birth he may be the more glad.
Luke 1:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For when a just man is born into the world, the authors of his birth rejoice; but when one is born who is to be as it were an exile to labour and punishment, they are struck with terror and dismay.
Luke 1:15 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4
It is written, then, of John: "he shall be great in the sight of the Lord". This, which is said—"he shall be great in the sight of the Lord"—shows the greatness of John's soul, which lies open to the eyes of God; and there is something lesser, which is properly beheld in the virtue of the soul. Thus I understand also that which is said in the Gospel: "do not despise one of these least ones", who are in the Church. "Least" there is understood in distinction from the greater. I am not commanded not to despise the one who is great, because he who is great cannot be despised, but it is said to me: "do not despise one of the least". And that you may know that "least" and "little" is not said by chance, but with the reasoning we have set forth, it is written: "whoever shall scandalize one of these least ones". The "least" one is scandalized; the great one cannot sustain a scandal. There follows concerning John: "and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb". And the birth of John is full of miracle. For just as an Archangel announced the coming of our Lord and Savior, so also an Archangel announces the birth of John. "He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb". The people of the Jews in no way saw our Lord working "signs and wonders" and healing their infirmities; but John, still set in his mother's womb, exults and cannot be contained, and at the coming of the mother of Jesus longs to burst forth from the womb. "For behold", says Elizabeth, "as your greeting was made in my ears, the infant exulted for joy in my womb". John was still in his mother's womb and already he had the Holy Spirit. For that was not the beginning of his substance and nature.
Luke 1:16 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4
Then Scripture says that "he shall convert very many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God". John converts "very many", but the Lord not many, rather all. This is his work, that he should convert all to God the Father.
Luke 1:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
John indeed turned many, but it is the Lord's work to turn all to God their Father.
Luke 1:17 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4
"And he shall go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah". He does not say: in the soul of Elijah, but: "in the spirit and power of Elijah". There was in Elijah a power and a spirit, as in all the prophets, and, according to the dispensation of the body, in the Lord and Savior himself also, of whom a little later it is said to Mary: "the Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you". The spirit, therefore, which had been in Elijah, came into John, and the power which was in him appeared in this one also. The former was translated, but the latter was the forerunner of the Lord and died before him, so that, descending also to the lower regions, he might there proclaim his coming. I think that the mystery of John is fulfilled in the world down to this very day. Whoever is to believe in Christ Jesus, first the spirit and power of John comes to his soul and "prepares for the Lord a perfect people", and in the ruggednesses of the heart makes the ways level and straightens the paths. Not at that time only were the ways prepared and the paths made straight, but down to this very day the spirit and power of John goes before the coming of the Lord and Savior. O the great mysteries of the Lord and of his dispensation! Angels run before Jesus, angels daily either ascend or descend upon the salvation of men in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
In the spirit and power of Elijah.—He says not, in the mind of Elijah, but in the spirit and power. For the spirit which was in Elijah came upon John, and in like manner his power. This sacrament of preparation is even now fulfilled in the world, for even now the spirit and power of John must come upon the soul, before it believes in Jesus Christ.
Luke 1:22 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5
Zechariah the priest, while he offers incense in the temple, is condemned to silence and holds his peace; indeed, he speaks only by nods, and remains mute right up to the birth of his son John. To what does this history point? The silence of Zechariah is the silence of the prophets among the people of Israel. In no way does God speak to them, and "the word, which in the beginning was God with the Father", has passed over to us, and Christ is not silent to us, though among them he is silent even to this day: for which reason also the prophet Zechariah kept silent. For it is most clearly proved from his very words that he was both a prophet and a priest. But what does this mean, which follows: "he was making signs to them" and made up for the loss of his voice by nods? I think that such works are those which, being without speech and reason, differ in nothing from nods. But where reason and speech have gone before and the work has thus followed after, they ought not to be reckoned mere nods, which are adorned with speech and reason. If therefore you see the manner of life of the Jews to be without reason and speech, so that they cannot render a reason for the things they do, understand that what then took place in Zechariah is even now being fulfilled in them as in an image. Their circumcision is like nods. For unless a reason for circumcision be rendered, circumcision is a nod and a mute work. The Passover and the other solemn feasts are nods rather than truth. To this day the people of Israel is deaf and "mute"; for it could not be otherwise than that he should be deaf and "mute" who had cast speech away from himself. And of old indeed Moses said: "but I am ἄλογος (without speech or reason)" — which, though the Latin has rendered it otherwise, can nevertheless be more properly translated: "without speech or reason" —, and after he said this, he received reason or speech, which he had confessed that he did not before possess. But the people of Israel in Egypt, before it received the law, was in a certain way "mute", without speech and reason; then it received speech, of which Moses was an image. This people, therefore, does not now confess what it then confessed in Moses, namely that it is "mute" and ἄλογος, but by nods and silence indicates that it does not have speech and does not have reason. Does it not seem to you to be a confession of foolishness, when none of them can render a reason for the legal precepts and the prophetic oracle? Christ has ceased to be in them, speech has abandoned them, and that has been fulfilled which is written in Isaiah: "the daughter of Zion shall be left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a lodge in a cucumber-field, like a city that is stormed". These being abandoned, salvation has been transferred to the nations, that those others might be stirred up to jealousy. Beholding, therefore, the dispensation and the hidden purpose of God, how Israel has been cast off unto our salvation, we ought to take care lest perhaps those others have been cast out for our sake, and we be worthy of greater punishment — we for whose sake others also have been abandoned, and we have done nothing worthy of God's adoption and of his mercy, who adopted us and reckoned us among his own sons in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:24 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
"When Elizabeth conceived, she hid herself for five months, saying: for thus has the Lord done for me in the days in which he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men". I ask for what reason, after she understood that she was pregnant, she withdrew from the public eye? Unless I am mistaken, this is the reason: Even those who are joined in marriage do not have every time free for intercourse between themselves, but there is a time when they withdraw from the work of marriage. For if a man be old and a woman aged, it is a matter of the greatest shame for them to be slaves to lust, to be slaves to the conjugal act, when they seem, by the decay of the body and by old age and by the will of God, to have been lifted above such things. But this woman, because at the word of the angel and by the dispensation of God she had again been joined to her husband, was ashamed that, being aged and almost decrepit, she had returned to the work of the young. Hence too she "hid herself for five months" — not until the ninth month, until the birth pressed upon her, but until such time as Mary also should conceive. For when Mary conceived and came to her, and "the greeting was made in" her "ears", "the infant leapt for joy in the womb" of Elizabeth, and she prophesied. And, filled "with the Holy Spirit", she spoke those things which the Gospel narrative describes. And "these words were spread abroad throughout all the hill country". For when a rumor went out among the people that she had a prophet in her womb, and that what she carried was greater than a man, then she is no longer hidden, but with all freedom she reveals herself and rejoices that she has in her womb the forerunner of the Savior.
Luke 1:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And therefore he says, Five months, that is, until Mary should conceive, and her babe leaping with joy should prophesy.
Luke 1:27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For if she had had no husband, soon would the thought have stolen into the Devil's mind, how she who had known no man could be pregnant. It was right that the conception should be Divine, something more exalted than human nature.
Luke 1:27 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
Then Scripture recalls that "in the sixth month" of Elizabeth's conception "the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, whose name was Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary". Again, turning it over in my mind, I ask why God, when once he had determined that the Savior should be born of a "virgin", did not choose a girl without a betrothed, but rather her especially who had already been "betrothed". And unless I am mistaken, this is the reason: He ought to be born of that virgin who not only had a betrothed, but, as Matthew writes, had already been handed over to a man, although the man did not yet know her, lest her very condition should display the shame of a virgin, if she were seen to be a virgin with a swelling womb. Hence I found it elegantly written in the letter of a certain martyr — I mean Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch after Peter, who in the persecution at Rome fought against the beasts: "the virginity of Mary was hidden from the prince of this world"; it was hidden because of Joseph, hidden because of the marriage, hidden because she was thought to have a husband. For if she had not had a betrothed and, as was supposed, a husband, she could in no way have been hidden from "the prince of this world". For at once a silent thought would have crept upon the devil: how is this woman, who has not lain with a man, pregnant? This conception must be divine, it must be something loftier than human nature. On the contrary, the Savior had arranged his dispensation and the assumption of a body so that the devil should not know it: hence in his birth he concealed him, and afterward he charged his disciples "not to make him manifest". And when he was tempted by the devil himself, he nowhere confessed himself to be the Son of God, but answered only: it is not fitting that I should worship you, nor that I should make these stones into bread, nor that I should cast myself down from on high. And while he said these things, he was always silent that he was the Son of God. Look also in another Scripture, and you will find that it was Christ's will that the devil should not know the coming of the Son of God. For the Apostle, affirming that the opposing powers did not know his passion, says: "we speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who are brought to nothing; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory". The mystery of the Savior, therefore, was hidden from the princes of this world. But as for what can be objected on the contrary, it seems to me it must be resolved before it is put forward by another — namely, by what reasoning that which was hidden from the princes of this world was not hidden from the demon who spoke in the Gospel: "have you come here before the time to torment us? we know who you are, the Son of God". But consider that the lesser in malice knew the Savior; whereas he who is greater in wickedness and crafty and vile, by that very fact that he is greater in evil, is hindered from knowing the Son of God. We ourselves too, if we have less of evil, can more easily advance to virtue; but if there be more of evil in us, we must sweat with immense labor to be freed from the greater malice. So much concerning the fact that Mary had a betrothed.
Luke 1:28 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
But because the angel greeted Mary with a new form of speech, which I could not find in all of Scripture, a few things must be said about this also. For what he says, "Hail, full of grace", which in Greek is "κεχαριτωμένη" (one filled with grace), where I have read it elsewhere in the Scriptures I do not recall; nor is such a form of speech addressed to a man — "hail, full of grace". This greeting was reserved for Mary alone.
Luke 1:29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For if Mary had known that similar words had been addressed to others, such a salutation would never have appeared to her so strange and alarming. When the angel saw that she was troubled at this unusual salutation, calling her by her name as if she was well known to him, he tells her she must not fear, as it follows; And the angel said, Fear not, Mary.
Luke 1:29 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
For if Mary had known that such a word had been spoken to any other as well — for she had knowledge of the Law and was holy and had come to know the oracles of the prophets by daily meditation — the greeting would never have terrified her as something strange.
Luke 1:30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For if Mary had known that similar words had been addressed to others, such a salutation would never have appeared to her so strange and alarming. When the angel saw that she was troubled at this unusual salutation, calling her by her name as if she was well known to him, he tells her she must not fear, as it follows; And the angel said, Fear not, Mary.
Luke 1:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
See then the greatness of the Saviour, how it is diffused over the whole world. Go up to heaven, see there how it has filled the heavenly places; carry thy thoughts down to the deep, behold, there too He has descended. If thou seest this, then, in like manner, beholdest thou fulfilled in very deed, He shall be great.
Luke 1:32 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
On account of this the angel says to her: "fear not, Mary! for you have found grace before the Lord. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High". Of John also it is said, "he shall be great", and Gabriel the angel testifies to this very thing; but when Jesus came, truly great, truly exalted, he who before had been "great" was made lesser. For "he", he says, "was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a while to rejoice in his light". The greatness of our Savior did not appear then, when he was born, but now — after he seemed to be crushed by his adversaries — it has shone forth. See the greatness of the Lord: "into all the earth has the sound of his teaching gone out, and his words unto the ends of the world". Our Lord Jesus, because he is the power of God, has been poured out over the whole world, and at the present moment is with us according to that which is read in the Apostle: "when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus". The power of the Lord and Savior is both with those who are separated from our world in Britain, and with those in Mauritania, and with all who under the sun have believed in his name. See, then, the greatness of the Savior, how it has been poured out over the whole world — and certainly I have not yet set forth his true greatness. Ascend into the heavens and see him, how he has filled the heavenly places: for indeed "he appeared to the angels". Descend in thought into the depths, and you will see that he descended there also. For "he who descended is the same also who ascended, that he might fill all things", "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth". Consider the power of the Lord, how he has filled the world — that is, the heavenly and the earthly and the infernal things — how he has penetrated heaven itself and ascended to the things above. For we read that the Son of God passed through the heavens. If you see these things, you will likewise perceive that it was not said in passing, "he shall be great", but that the word was fulfilled in deed. Great is our Lord Jesus, both present and absent, and he grants a share of his strength even to this gathering and assembly of ours; and that we each may deserve to receive it, let us beseech the Lord Jesus: to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:39 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7
It was fitting also that Mary, most worthy of the offspring of God, should after the angel's address go up into the hill country and dwell in the loftier places. Whence it is written: "Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country". It was fitting too that she, since she was not sluggish in her earnestness, should hasten with earnest care, and, being full of the Holy Spirit, should be led up to the loftier places and be protected by the power of God, by which she had already been overshadowed. She came therefore "into a city of Judah and into the house of Zechariah, and greeted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the infant leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit".
Luke 1:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For Jesus who was in her womb hastened to sanctify John, still in the womb of his mother. Whence it follows, with haste.
Luke 1:39-41 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7
Those who are better come to those who are worse, in order to grant them some benefit by their coming. So too the Savior came to John, that he might sanctify John's baptism; and Mary, as soon as she heard the angel announcing that she had conceived the Savior and that her kinswoman Elizabeth had a child in her womb, "rose up and went with haste into the hill country, and entered the house of Elizabeth". For Jesus, who was in her womb, was hastening to sanctify John, still set within his mother's belly. Indeed, before Mary came and greeted Elizabeth, the "infant did not leap in the womb"; but as soon as Mary spoke the word which the Son of God had prompted in the belly of His mother, "the infant leaped for joy", and then for the first time Jesus made His forerunner a prophet.
Luke 1:41 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7
There is therefore no doubt that she who then "was filled with the Holy Spirit" was "filled" on account of her son! For the mother did not first merit the Holy Spirit, but rather, when John, still enclosed in the womb, had received the Holy Spirit, then she too, after the sanctification of her son, "was filled with the Holy Spirit". You will be able to believe this if you learn something similar also concerning the Savior. Blessed Mary is found—as we have discovered in a good number of copies—to prophesy. For we are not unaware that, according to other manuscripts, it is Elizabeth who utters these words in prophecy. Mary, then, was filled with the Holy Spirit at that time when she began to have the Savior in her womb. For as soon as she received the Holy Spirit, the fashioner of the Lord's body, and the Son of God began to be in her womb, she herself too was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Luke 1:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(vid. etiam Tit. Bos.) He was not filled with the Spirit, until she stood near him who bore Christ in her womb. Then indeed he was both filled with the Spirit, and leaping imparted the grace to his mother; as it follows, And Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. But we cannot doubt that she who was then filled with the Holy Spirit, was filled because of her son.
Luke 1:42 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7
The "infant", then, "leaped in the womb of Elizabeth, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed art thou among women". In this place we must, lest any of the simple be deceived, refute the objections that heretics are accustomed to raise. For a certain man—I know not who—broke out into such madness as to assert that Mary was disowned by the Savior, on the ground that after His birth she was joined to Joseph; and he spoke words which, with what sort of mind he uttered them, he himself who spoke them knows. If therefore heretics should ever bring some such objection against you, answer them and say: Surely Elizabeth, full "of the Holy Spirit", says: "blessed art thou among women". If Mary is proclaimed blessed by the Holy Spirit, how did the Savior disown her? Furthermore, as for their assertion that she married after the birth, they have no source from which to prove it; for those sons who were called Joseph's were not born of Mary, nor is there any Scripture which mentions such a thing.
Luke 1:43-44 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(non occ. vide Theoph. et. Tit. Bost.) Now in saying this, she coincides with her son. For John also felt that he was unworthy of our Lord's coming to him. But she gives the name of "the mother of our Lord" to one still a virgin, thus forestalling the event by the words of prophecy. Divine foreknowledge brought Mary to Elisabeth, that the testimony of John might reach the Lord. For from that time Christ ordained John to be a prophet. Hence it follows, For, to, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded, &c.
Luke 1:43 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7
"Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" This which she says, "whence is this to me?" she does not say out of ignorance—and least of all when full of the Holy Spirit, as though she did not know that according to the will of God the mother of the Lord had come to her; but she speaks in this sense: what good have I done? what works of mine are so great that the mother of the Lord should come to me? through what righteousness, by what good deeds, by what fidelity of mind have I merited this, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
Luke 1:44 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7
"For behold, as soon as thy greeting came into my ears, the infant leaped for exultation in my womb". Holy was the soul of blessed John, and while still enclosed in his mother's womb and yet to come into the world he knew Him whom Israel did not know; whence he "leaped", and not simply "leaped", but "for joy". For he had perceived that his Lord had come to sanctify His servant, before he came forth from his mother's belly.
Luke 1:45 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 7
Would that it might befall me to be called a fool by the unbelieving, I who have believed such things. The work itself and the truth show that I have believed not in folly but in wisdom, since this which is reckoned foolishness among them becomes for me the occasion of salvation. For unless the nativity of the Savior had been heavenly and blessed, unless it had had something divine and surpassing the humanity of men, His teaching would never have penetrated throughout the whole world. If there had been only a man in Mary's womb and not the Son of God, how could it have come to pass that both at that time and now the manifold diseases not only of bodies but also of souls should be cured? Which of us was not foolish, we who now through the mercy of God have understanding and know God? Who was not without faith in righteousness, we who now for Christ's sake have righteousness and follow after righteousness? Which of us was not wandering and astray, we who now, on account of the coming of the Savior, are not tossed about and troubled, but are on the way—namely, in Him who says: "I am the way"? We can also, gathering together the rest, see that all the things which have been written concerning Him are reported as worthy of divine wonder, since both His nativity and His nurture and His power and His passion and His resurrection work in us not only at that time but even now. Who gathered you, O catechumens, into the church? What goad drove you to leave your homes and come together into this assembly? For we do not go around your houses one by one, but the almighty Father by an invisible power lays upon your hearts—upon those whom He knows to be worthy—this ardor, so that as though unwilling and drawing back you come to the faith, especially at the beginning of religion, when, as though trembling and fearful, you take up the faith of salvation with fear. I beseech you, O catechumens: do not draw back, let none of you dread and be afraid, but follow Jesus who goes before you. He draws you to salvation, He gathers you into the church—now indeed upon the earth, but, if you bring forth worthy fruits, into the "church of the firstborn, who are written in the heavens". "Blessed is she who believed", and blessed is he who believed, because there will be a fulfillment for these things "which have been spoken" to her "by the Lord". Over these things Mary also "magnifies" the Lord Jesus. And "the soul magnifies the Lord, the spirit magnifies God". What interpretation these words have, if the Lord grants that we be gathered together again into the church—so that you may come joyfully to the house of God and lend your ears to the divine reading—we shall inquire, we shall sift, we shall discourse, in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:46-47 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8
Before John, Elizabeth prophesies; before the birth of the Lord and Savior, Mary prophesies. And just as sin began from a woman and thereafter proceeded onward to the man, so too the beginning of salvation took its origin from women, that other women also, laying aside the frailty of their sex, might imitate the life and manner of conduct of these holy women, and above all of those who are now described in the Gospel. Let us therefore examine the virgin's prophecy. "My soul", she says, "magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God my Savior". Two things, "the soul" and "the spirit", discharge a twofold praise. The soul proclaims the Lord, the spirit God: not that the praise of the Lord is one thing and the praise of God another, but because he who is God is the same as the Lord, and he who is the Lord is the same as God. It is asked how "the soul magnifies the Lord". For if the Lord can receive neither increase nor diminishment and is what he is, on what account does Mary now say: "My soul magnifies the Lord"? If I consider the Lord and Savior to be "the image of the invisible God", and see that my soul was made "according to the image of its Creator", so as to be an image of the Image — for my soul is not specifically an image of God, but was made after the likeness of the prior Image — then I will see that, after the example of those who are accustomed to paint images, and, having received (for instance) the single face of a king, to apply the diligence of their art to expressing the principal likeness, each one of us, forming his soul according to the image of Christ, sets in it either a greater or a lesser image, whether faded or dirty, or bright and shining and answering to the likeness of the principal Image. When therefore I have made the image of the Image, that is, my soul, great, and have magnified it by deed, by thought, by word, then the image of God is made great, and the Lord himself, whose image it is, is magnified in our soul. And just as the Lord grows in our image, so, if we are sinners, he is diminished and decreases. Or rather, the Lord is neither diminished nor decreases, but we, in place of the image of the Savior, put on other images for ourselves; in place of the image of the Word, of wisdom, of justice, and of the other virtues, we assume the form of the devil, so that it is said of us: "serpents, brood of vipers". But we are also clothed with the persona of a lion and of a dragon and of foxes, when we are venomous, cruel, cunning, and also of a he-goat, when we are more prone to lust. I remember once, when discoursing on Deuteronomy at that place where it is written: "do not make any likeness of male or of female, the likeness of any animal", that I said that it is "the spiritual law" that some make themselves the image of a male, others of a female, that this one has the likeness of birds, that one of reptiles and serpents, and that another makes himself the likeness of God. How these things are to be understood, he will know who has also read those passages. "The soul" of Mary, then, first "magnifies the Lord", and afterward "the spirit exults in God"; for unless we have first believed, we cannot exult.
Luke 1:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Now if the Lord could neither receive increase or decrease, what is this that Mary speaks of, My soul doth magnify (magnificat) the Lord? But if I consider that the Lord our Saviour is the image of the invisible God, and that the soul is created according to His image, so as to be an image of an image, then I shall see plainly, that as after the manner of those who are accustomed to paint images, each one of us forming his soul after the image of Christ, makes it great or little, base or noble, after the likeness of the original; so when I have made my soul great in thought, word, and deed, the image of God is made great, and the Lord Himself, whose image it is, is magnified in my soul.
Luke 1:47 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But the soul first magnifies the Lord, that it may afterwards rejoice in God; for unless we have first believed, we can not rejoice.
Luke 1:48 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But why was she lowly and cast down, who carried in her womb the Son of God? Consider that lowliness, which in the Scriptures is particularly praised as one of the virtues, is called by the philosophers "modestia." And we also may paraphrase it, that state of mind in which a man instead of being puffed up, casts himself down.
Luke 1:48 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8
"Because he has looked", she says, "upon the lowliness of his handmaid". Upon what lowliness of Mary did the Lord look? What did the mother of the Savior have that was lowly and cast down, she who bore the Son of God in her womb? So then, when she says: "he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid", it is as though she had said: "he has looked" upon the justice of his handmaid, "he has looked" upon her temperance, "he has looked" upon her fortitude and wisdom. For it is fitting that God should look upon the virtues. Let someone answer and say: I understand how God looks upon the justice and wisdom of his handmaid; but how he regards her lowliness is not sufficiently clear. Let him who inquires into such things consider that in the Scriptures, properly speaking, one of the virtues is proclaimed as "lowliness" (humility). For the Savior says: "learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls". But if you wish to hear the name of this virtue, how it is called even by the philosophers, listen — that it is the same "lowliness" upon which God looks, which is called by them ἀτυφία (freedom from vanity) or μετριότης (moderation). But we too can name it by a certain circumlocution, when someone is not puffed up, but casts himself down. For he who is puffed up falls, according to the Apostle, "into the judgment of the devil" — since he too began from inflation and pride —; "lest", he says, "being puffed up he fall into the judgment of the devil". "He has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid". God, she says, has looked upon me as lowly and pursuing the virtue of gentleness and of self-abasement. "For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed". If I understand "all generations" simply, I interpret it of those who believe.
Luke 1:49 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8
But if I have searched out something more deeply, I will observe how great is the advance signified by saying: "because he who is mighty has done great things for me": for since "everyone who humbles himself will be exalted", and God "has looked upon the lowliness" of blessed Mary, therefore "he who is mighty has done" for her "great things, and holy is his name".
Luke 1:50 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For the mercy of God is not upon one generation, but extends to eternity from generation to generation.
Luke 1:50 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8
"And his mercy is unto generations of generations". The "mercy" of God is extended not unto one generation, nor unto two, nor unto three, nor even unto five, but forever "from generation unto generation".
Luke 1:51 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8
"For those who fear him he has done a mighty deed with his arm". Though you come to the Lord weak, if you have feared him, you will be able to hear the promise which the Lord pledges to you on account of your fear of him. What is this promise? "For those who fear him", she says, "he has done a mighty deed". A mighty deed, or dominion, is royal power. For indeed κράτος, which we may call "dominion", is so named from the fact that it holds command, or contains all things under itself. If therefore you have feared the Lord, he gives you strength or dominion, he gives you a kingdom, so that, made subject to the "King of kings", you may possess "the kingdom of heaven" in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:51 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But to those that fear Him, He hath done mighty things with His arm; though thou comest weak to God, if thou hast feared Him thou shalt obtain the promised strength.
Luke 1:56 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9
Both of the things that are said and of those that are reported as done, the account ought to be worthy of the Holy Spirit and of the faith of Christ, to which we who believe are called. Hence now too the reason must be sought why Mary, after her conceiving, came to Elizabeth and "remained with her three months"; or what the reason was that Luke, who was writing the history of the Gospel, should also insert this, that she "remained with her three months, and afterwards returned to her own house". Surely there ought to be some reason which, if the Lord opens our heart, the discourse that follows will show. For if from the mere fact that Mary came to Elizabeth and greeted her, "the infant leaped for joy", and "Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit", prophesied those things which are written in the Gospel, and in a single hour made such great advances, it is left to our conjecture how much John advanced in three months, with Mary sitting beside Elizabeth. For it would be exceedingly unfitting that in a mere point and moment of an hour the infant should have leaped and in a manner frolicked with joy, and Elizabeth should have been filled with the Holy Spirit, but that in three whole months neither John nor Elizabeth should have advanced from the nearness of the Lord's mother and the presence of the Savior himself. Therefore John was being exercised, and in a manner anointed as in an athletic arena, throughout those three months, and was being prepared in his mother's womb, so that, having been born wonderfully, he might more wonderfully be nourished. For because he was nourished in an unaccustomed way, it is not recorded in writing how he was suckled at his mother's breasts, how he was placed in the bosom of a nurse, but at once there follows: "and he was in the deserts until the day of his showing forth to Israel".
Luke 1:57 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9
Next we read: "But for Elizabeth the time was fulfilled that she should bring forth, and she bore a son". Many think it is said superfluously: "But for Elizabeth the time was fulfilled that she should bring forth, and she bore a son". For what woman can bring forth unless she has first fulfilled the time of bringing forth? But whoever contemplates the Scriptures most diligently and hears Paul saying: "attend to the reading", observing both in the Old and in the New Testament, if anywhere he might find it written at the birth of a sinner: "the time was fulfilled that she should bring forth", he will never at all find it. But wherever a just man is born, there the days are fulfilled, there the coming into the world is fulfilled. The birth of the just has fullness, but the nativity of a sinner has, so to speak, emptiness and hollowness. So much for what is written: "the time was fulfilled that she should bring forth".
Luke 1:58-64 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9
Then it follows that, when John was born, "the neighbors and kinsfolk congratulated" his mother, and they wished to impose on the boy a name in honor of his father, so that he should be called Zechariah. But Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, said: "John is his name". Then when they sought just reasons why he should be called John of all names, since in his family no one bore this name, they ask his father, who, being unable to answer, spoke with his hand and with letters. For he "wrote" on a tablet: "John is his name". And at once, as the stylus was pressed into the wax, "the tongue", which before had been bound, "was loosed" and recovered speech that was not human. As long as his tongue was bound, it was human; for unbelief had bound it. As soon as it was loosed, it ceased to be human, "and he spoke, blessing God" and prophesied those things which are written in the Gospel, about which, with the Lord Jesus Christ granting it, we shall discourse when the time comes: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:63 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(non occ.) Zacharias is by interpretation "remembering God," but John signifies "pointing to." Now "memory" relates to something absent, "pointing to," to something present. But John was not about to set forth the memory of God as absent, but with his finger to point him out as present, saying, Behold the Lamb of God.
Luke 1:67-70 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Zechariah announces two prophecies in a general way, the first concerning Christ, the second concerning John. This is plainly borne out from his own words, in which he speaks of the Savior as though already present and dwelling in the world, and then afterward of John. For "being filled with the Holy Spirit he prophesied, saying: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and wrought the redemption of his people". For when God was visiting and willing to redeem his people, "Mary remained" with Elizabeth, after the angel had spoken to her, "three months", so that by a certain ineffable power the Savior, being present, might instruct not only John, as we said a while ago, but also Zechariah, as the Gospel word now declares. For here too, little by little through three months, he was receiving the increases of the Holy Spirit, and, while he does not know it, he was being taught, and he prophesied concerning Christ, saying: "who gave redemption to his people, and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David", because Christ was born "of the seed of David according to the flesh". And truly he was "a horn of salvation in the house of David", because this prophecy is sung in harmony: "For a vineyard was made on a horn". On what horn? On Christ Jesus, on him of whom it is now written: "he raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets".
Luke 1:67-68 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Now Zacharias being filled with the Holy Spirit utters two prophecies, the first relating to Christ, the second to John. And this is plainly proved by those words in which he speaks of the Saviour as present and already going about in the world, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited, &c.
Luke 1:69 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Because Christ was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh, it is said, A horn of salvation to us in the house of his servant David; as it has also elsewhere been said, A vineyard hath been planted in a horn, (Is. 5:1.) i. e. in Jesus Christ.
Luke 1:71 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Let us not suppose that this refers to our bodily enemies, but our ghostly. For the Lord Jesus came mighty in battle (Ps. 24:8) to destroy all our enemies, that He might deliver us from their snares and temptation.
Luke 1:71 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
"Salvation from our enemies". Let us not now suppose that this is said of bodily enemies, but of spiritual ones. For the Lord Jesus came, "mighty in battle", to destroy all our enemies, that he might free us from their snares: from the hand of all our enemies "and from the hand of all who hate us".
Luke 1:72 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Let us not suppose that this refers to our bodily enemies, but our ghostly. For the Lord Jesus came mighty in battle (Ps. 24:8) to destroy all our enemies, that He might deliver us from their snares and temptation.
Luke 1:72-73 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
"To show mercy toward our fathers" — I think that at the coming of the Lord the Savior both Abraham and Isaac and Jacob enjoyed the mercy of God. For it is not credible that those who earlier saw his day and rejoiced should afterward, at his coming and his birth from the Virgin, have received no benefit. And why do I speak of the patriarchs? Following the authority of the Scriptures, I will boldly ascend to higher things, since the presence of the Lord Jesus and his dispensation profited not only things earthly but also things heavenly. Whence the Apostle also says: "making peace through the blood of his cross, whether upon the earth or in the heavens". But if in heaven and on earth the presence of the Lord was of profit, why should you be afraid to say that his coming profited even the greater ones, so that this might be fulfilled which is said: "to show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father", that he might grant us to be freed "without fear from the hand of the enemies"?
Luke 1:73 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
I think that at the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, both Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were partakers of His mercy. For it is not to be believed, that they who had before seen His day, and were glad, should afterwards derive no advantage from His coming, since it is written, Having made peace through the blood of his Cross, whether in earth or in heaven. (Coloss. 1:20.)
Luke 1:74-75 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
Frequently some are freed from the hand of foes, but not "without fear". For when dread and danger have first gone before, and thus one has been rescued from the hand of enemies, he is indeed freed, but not "without fear". But the coming of the Lord Jesus rescued us "from the hand of the enemies without fear". For we did not perceive our enemies nor see them fighting against us, but, while we knew it not, we were suddenly snatched from their jaws and their snares. "In a point and a moment" he transferred us "into the inheritance and the portion of the just", and we have been freed "from the hand of the enemies without fear, that we may serve God in holiness and justice before him all our days".
Luke 1:74 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or in another way; Frequently are men delivered from the hands of the enemy, but not without fear. For when fear and peril have gone before, and a man is then plucked from the enemies' hand, he is delivered indeed, but not without fear. Therefore said he, that the coming of Christ caused us to be snatched from the enemies' hands without fear. For we suffered not from their evil designs, but He suddenly parting us from them, hath led us out to our own allotted resting place.
Luke 1:75 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or in another way; Frequently are men delivered from the hands of the enemy, but not without fear. For when fear and peril have gone before, and a man is then plucked from the enemies' hand, he is delivered indeed, but not without fear. Therefore said he, that the coming of Christ caused us to be snatched from the enemies' hands without fear. For we suffered not from their evil designs, but He suddenly parting us from them, hath led us out to our own allotted resting place.
Luke 1:76 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The reason I suppose that Zacharias hastened to speak to his son, was because he knew that John was shortly about to be a sojourner in the wilderness, and that he himself should see him no more.
Luke 1:76 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
"And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High". Seeking within myself the reason why he prophesies not as though about John, but by speaking to John himself: "and you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High", and the rest — for it was superfluous to speak to one who does not hear and to make an apostrophe to a little one and a suckling — I think I can find this: that just as John was born wondrously and came into the world with an angel proclaiming it, and was poured forth upon the earth while Mary lodged three months beside Elizabeth, so also all the things that are written about him are reported to have been done wondrously. But if you doubt that one just poured forth from his mother's womb could hear his father's words and know what this is which is said to him: "and you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High", consider that what went before was far more wondrous: "behold, as the sound of your salutation came into my ears, the infant leaped for joy in my womb". For if, while still enclosed in his mother's belly, he heard Jesus and, hearing, leaped up and rejoiced, why should you not believe that once already born he was able both to hear and to understand his father's prophecy, saying to him: "and you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you shall go before the Lord, to prepare his ways"? Therefore I think Zechariah hastened to speak to the little one, because he knew that he would after a little while dwell in the wilderness, and that he could not have his presence. "For the child was in the deserts until the day of his showing to Israel". Moses too dwelt in the desert, but only after, when the forty years of his age were completed, he fled from Egypt and for another forty years guarded the flocks of Jethro; John, however, as soon as he was born, passed over to the deserts, and he who "was greater among those born of women" showed himself worthy of a greater nurture. Of him the prophet speaks: "behold, I send my angel before your face". Rightly is he called an angel, who had been sent before the Lord and, as soon as he was born, was able to hear and understand his prophesying father. Wherefore let us, who believe such great wonders, likewise believe in the resurrection, let us believe also in the promises that are to come, of the kingdom of heaven, which the Holy Spirit daily pledges to us. All of which things, as they have been wondrously written, beyond what we are able to perceive, we shall receive in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 1:80 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or he increased in spirit, remaining not in the same measure in which he had begun, but the Spirit was ever growing in him. His will ever tending to better things, was making its own advances, and his mind ever contemplating something more divine, while his memory was exercising itself, that it might lay up more and more things in its treasury, and more firmly retain them. But he adds, And he waxed strong. For human nature is weak, as we learn, the flesh is weak. (Matt. 26:41.) It must therefore be made strong by the Spirit, for the Spirit is ready. Many wax strong in the flesh, but the wrestler of God must be strengthened by the Spirit that he may crush the wisdom of the flesh. He retires therefore to escape the noise of cities, and the thronging of the people. For it follows, And he was in the deserts. Where the air is purer, the sky more clear, and God a closer friend, that as the time had not yet arrived for his baptism and preaching, he might have leisure for praying, and might hold converse with the angels, calling upon God and fearing Him, saying, Behold, here am I.
Luke 1:80 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 11
In the holy Scriptures "to grow" is spoken of in two ways: one bodily, where the human will avails nothing, the other spiritually, where the cause of growing rests upon human effort. It is of this, then — the second we set down, that is, the spiritual — that the evangelist now speaks: "but the child grew and was strengthened in spirit". What he says means this: "he grew in spirit", and did not remain in the same measure in which he had begun, but the spirit always grew in him, and, as the spirit increased through each hour and moment, his soul too received its increases. And not only the soul, but the senses and the mind as well followed the growth of the spirit. That which God commands: "increase and multiply" — those who take it simply and according to the letter, I do not know how they can explain it. For granted that "multiply" refers to number, so that, while they become more than they were before, the multiplication has its place: yet what follows, "increase", is not in our power. For what person would not wish "to add to his stature", so as to become taller? If therefore something is commanded for this purpose, that it may come to pass — since it is foolish to command what he to whom you give the command cannot do — and it is commanded us that we should increase, then surely that is commanded which we are able to do. Do you wish to know how "increase" is to be understood? Hear what Isaac did, of whom it is said: "Isaac went forward and became greater, until he became great, or exceedingly great indeed". For his will, ever stretching itself toward better things, had its advances, his mind contemplated something more divine, and he exercised himself in memory, so as to store up more things in his treasury and retain them more firmly. And in this manner it comes about that whoever has cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul fulfills the commandment enjoining: "increase". Wherefore John too, while still a little one, grew and was multiplied; but it is most difficult, and among mortals most rare, for a little one to grow in spirit. "But the child grew and was strengthened in spirit." "He grew" is one thing, "he was strengthened" another. Human nature is weak and, in order that it may become stronger, needs divine help. We read: "the flesh is weak". By what help, then, is it to be strengthened? By the spirit, surely; "for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". He who wishes to become stronger ought to be strengthened by nothing but the spirit. Many are strengthened by the flesh, are made robust in body; but the athlete of God must be made robust by the spirit, and, when he has been thus strengthened, he will strike down the wisdom of the flesh and, made spiritual, will subject the body to the rule of the mind. Let us not think, then, that a plain narrative has been written about John, and one that has nothing to do with us, in what is said: "he grew and was strengthened in spirit", but rather for our imitation, so that, multiplied spiritually according to the sense we have mentioned, we too may receive increases. "And he was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel." I said recently that John's very conception had something astounding about it, when "the infant leaped in the womb" and, not yet born, recognized his Lord, and his birth was a miracle no less remarkable, when the word of Zechariah prophesying turns toward him as though he were listening, saying: "and you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High". Worthily, then, he who had been thus conceived and born did not wait to be nourished by his father and mother "until the day of his manifestation to Israel", but withdrew, fleeing the tumult of cities, the throng of the people, the vices of the towns, and went off into the deserts, where the air is purer and the sky more open and God more intimate, so that — since neither the sacrament of baptism nor the time of preaching had yet come — he might be free for prayers and m…
Luke 2:1-2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 11
After which the Scripture adds: "It came to pass in those days, there went out an edict from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first census, under Quirinius, governor of Syria". Someone may say: evangelist, how does this narrative help me — that the "first census" of the whole world took place under Caesar Augustus, and that among all the rest "Joseph too, with Mary who was betrothed to him and with child", entered his name in the register, and that, before the census was completed, Jesus was born? To one who looks more carefully a certain mystery seems to be signified: that in the enrollment of the whole world Christ too had to be registered, so that, written down with all, he might sanctify all, and, entered in the census with the world, he might offer the world communion with himself, so that after this census he might also enroll from the world, together with himself, "in the book of the living", so that whoever had believed in him might afterward be "written in heaven" with his saints: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 2:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
To those who attentively consider it, there seems to be expressed a kind of sacrament, in its being necessary that Christ should be put down in the registration of the whole world; in order that His name being written with all, He might sanctify all, and being placed in the census with the whole world, He might impart to the world the communion of Himself.
Luke 2:8-9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But if we would rise to a more hidden meaning, I should say, that there were certain shepherd angels, who direct the affairs of men, and while each one of them was keeping his watch, an angel came at the birth of the Lord, and announced to the shepherds that the true Shepherd had arisen. For Angels before the coming of the Saviour could bring little help to those entrusted to them, for scarcely did one single Gentile believe in God. But now whole nations come to the faith of Jesus.
Luke 2:8-11 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 12
My Lord Jesus was born, and an angel came down from heaven announcing his birth. Let us see, therefore, whom he sought out, that he might announce his coming. He did not come to Jerusalem, he did not seek out the scribes and Pharisees, he did not enter the synagogue of the Jews, but he found "shepherds keeping watch over their flocks" and spoke to them: "Today there is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord". Do you suppose that the word of the Scriptures signifies nothing more divine, but says only this, that an angel came to the shepherds and spoke to them? Hear, you shepherds of the churches, you shepherds of God, that his angel always comes down from heaven and announces to you: "Today there is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord". For indeed the shepherds of the churches, unless that Shepherd has come, will not be able of themselves to guard the flock well: their guardianship is weak, unless Christ pastures and guards along with them. Some while ago it was read in the Apostle: "We are God's fellow workers". The good shepherd, who imitates the good Shepherd, is a fellow worker of God and of Christ; and for this reason he is a good shepherd, because he has with him the best Shepherd feeding the flock together with him. For "God has placed in the Church apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, all things for the perfecting of the saints". And let these things indeed be said in a simpler manner. But if one ought to ascend to a more hidden understanding, I would say that there were certain shepherds — angels who governed human affairs — and that, while each one of these was preserving his own charge and, keeping watch by day and by night, could now no longer bear the labor, and was industriously doing this, that he might govern the nations that had been entrusted to him, an angel came, when the Lord was born, and announced to the shepherds that the true Shepherd had arisen. For example, to come to an illustration, there was a certain shepherd of Macedonia; this one had need of the Lord's help; and therefore there appeared to Paul in his sleep a man of Macedonia, "saying: Cross over into Macedonia and help us". But why do I speak of Paul, when it was not to Paul, but to him who was in Paul, that Jesus spoke this? And so the shepherds have need of the presence of Christ. For which reason the angel came down from heaven and said: "Do not be afraid; for behold, I announce to you a great joy". Truly a great joy for those to whom the care of men and of provinces had been entrusted, that Christ had come into the world. The angel who administered the affairs of Egypt received much benefit, after the Lord came down from heaven, so that the Egyptians might become Christians. It profited all those who held the various provinces — for instance, the governor of Macedonia, the governor of Achaia, and of the remaining regions. For it is not right to believe that evil angels are set over the individual provinces, and that good angels do not have those same provinces and regions entrusted to them. But this, which he says concerning the individual provinces, I think ought to be believed generally concerning all men as well. Two angels attend each person, one of righteousness, the other of iniquity. If there have been good thoughts in our heart and righteousness has sprung up in our soul, there is no doubt that the angel of the Lord speaks to us. But if evil thoughts have been busy in our heart, the angel of the devil speaks to us. Just as, therefore, throughout the individual persons there are two angels, so also I think that in the individual provinces there are differing ones, so that there may be both good ones and evil ones. For example, in Ephesus, on account of those who were sinners in that city, the worst angels presided. Again, because there were many believers in it, there was also the angel of the church of the Ephesians, certainly a good one. But this, which we have said of Ephesus, is to be recognized…
Luke 2:13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But if we would rise to a more hidden meaning, I should say, that there were certain shepherd angels, who direct the affairs of men, and while each one of them was keeping his watch, an angel came at the birth of the Lord, and announced to the shepherds that the true Shepherd had arisen. For Angels before the coming of the Saviour could bring little help to those entrusted to them, for scarcely did one single Gentile believe in God. But now whole nations come to the faith of Jesus. But in a mystery, the Angels saw that they could not accomplish the work committed to them without Him Who was truly able to save, and that their healing fell short of what the care of men required. And so it was as if there should come one who had great knowledge in medicine, and those who before were unable to heal, acknowledging now the hand of a master, grudge not to see the corruptions of wounds ceasing, but break forth into the praises of the Physician, and of that God who sent to them and to the sick a man of such knowledge; the multitudes of the Angels praised God for the coming of Christ.
Luke 2:13-14 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 13
Our Lord and Savior is born in Bethlehem, and "a multitude of the heavenly host" praises God and says: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will". Now the "multitude of the heavenly host" speaks these words because it had already failed to furnish men with help, and it saw that it could not fulfill the work that had been entrusted to it apart from him who was truly able to save and even to assist the presiding powers themselves, so that men might be saved. Therefore, just as it is written in the Gospel that certain men, plowing the sea with their oars against contrary winds, were already exhausted and, laboring for twenty-five or thirty stadia, could not reach the harbor, and afterward the Lord came upon them and made the swelling waves grow calm, and freed the ship, whose sides were being flooded on this side and that, from the impending danger — so understand that the angels too indeed wished to furnish men with help and to grant them health from their sicknesses, because "they are all attendant spirits, sent into ministry for the sake of those who shall obtain salvation", and, as far as lay within their powers, they helped men; yet they saw that their medicine was far inferior to what the cure of those men demanded. Furthermore, that you may understand from an example what we are saying, consider for me a city in which very many are sick and a busy troop of physicians is brought in; let there be diverse wounds, and daily let a creeping rottenness penetrate into the dead flesh, and yet let the physicians who have been brought in to heal be unable to find any further remedies or, by the knowledge of their art, to overcome the greatness of the evil. When things are in such a state, let there come some chief physician who has the highest expertise in the art; and let those who before had been unable to heal, when they behold the rottenness of the wounds cease at the master's hand, not be envious, not be tortured by spite, but burst forth into praises of the chief physician and proclaim God, who has sent both to themselves and to the sick a man of such great knowledge. In this likeness, then, the "multitude of the host" of angels was heard, saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will". For after the Lord came to the earth, "he made peace through the blood of his cross, whether for the things that were on earth, or for the things that were in heaven". Indeed, since the angels wished that men should remember their Creator, when they had done all that lay within their powers that men might be healed, and those men had refused to receive health, they behold him who was able to heal, and glorifying him they say: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace".
Luke 2:13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 102
From this it is shown that, according to the likeness of the legions of worldly warfare, there are also legions of angels of the heavenly warfare, warring against the legions of the demons dwelling in the tombs. For in Luke too "a multitude of the heavenly host" was heard "praising God" on account of Christ's nativity. But if "there was a multitude of the heavenly host praising God", and all warfare is understood to be established on account of adversaries, consequently that host too wars for God on account of adversaries. But Jacob also called a certain place the "camp" of the Lord, since he beheld there the warfare of angels; and wherever there are those who fear God, around them are the camps of angels; for "the angel of the Lord shall send [a host] round about those who fear him and shall deliver them", as the book of Kingdoms relates was the case also around Elisha.
Luke 2:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But the attentive reader will ask, How then does the Saviour say, I came not to send peace on the earth, whereas now the Angels' song of His birth is, On earth peace to men? It is answered, that peace is said to be to men of goodwill. For the peace which the Lord does not give on the earth is not the peace of good will.
Luke 2:14 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 13
Let the diligent reader of Scripture inquire how the Savior can say: "I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword", while now the angels at his nativity sing: "on earth peace". For in another place too it is said in his own person: "My peace I give to you, peace I leave to you: not as this world gives peace, do I give peace". Let him then see whether what we bring forward can resolve the question. If it had been written: "on earth peace", and the sentence had ended at that point, the question would rightly arise. But now that which is added — that is, what is said after "peace": "among men of good will" — resolves the question. The peace too which the Lord does not give "upon the earth" is not the "peace of good will". For he does not say simply: "I came not to send peace", but with an addition: "upon the earth"; nor did he, on the contrary, say: "I came not to send peace upon the earth of good will". These things the angels spoke to the shepherds, who were speaking not only at that time; but even to this day, unless they have spoken to the shepherds and joined their own works to them, it is said to them: "unless the Lord build the house, they have labored in vain who build it; unless the Lord guard the city, in vain does he watch who guards it". If it is expedient to speak boldly, following the meaning of the Scriptures, throughout the individual churches there are two bishops: one visible, the other invisible; the former open to the sight of the flesh, the latter to the perception of the mind. And just as a man, if he has administered well the dispensation entrusted to him, is praised by the Lord, but if badly, lies subject to blame and fault, so also the angel. For it is written in the Apocalypse of John: "but you have there a few names which have not been defiled", or this again: "you have there those who teach the doctrine of the Nicolaitans", and then: "you have those" or "those committing sins", and the angels are accused to whom the churches have been entrusted. But if the angels have such concern how the churches are governed, what need is there to speak of men, how much fear they should have, that they may be able, laboring together with the laboring angels, to obtain salvation? I think that both an angel and a man can be found together as good bishops of a church, and that in a certain way they are sharers of one work. Since this is so, let us beseech Almighty God that the angels and the men who are bishops of the churches may be a help to us, and let us know that both are judged by the Lord on our behalf. But if they have been judged, and the fault and sin has been found not in their carelessness but in our negligence, we shall be reproved and punished. For while they do everything and strive for our salvation, we nonetheless will be at leisure for sins. Moreover it frequently happens that, while we are laboring, they do not fulfill their office and are at fault.
Luke 2:15-16 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 13
"And it came to pass", he says, "when the angels had departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over as far as Bethlehem, and let us see this word that has come to pass, which the Lord has shown to us. And they came in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the child". Because they had come in haste, and not step by step nor with weary tread, therefore they found Joseph the steward of the Lord's birth, and Mary who brought forth Jesus in childbirth, and the Savior himself "lying in a manger". That was the manger of which the prophet prophesied, saying: "the ox knew its owner, and the ass the manger of its lord". The ox is a clean animal, the ass an unclean animal. "The ass knew the manger of its lord". It was not the people of Israel who knew the manger of their lord, but an unclean animal from among the Gentiles: "but Israel", he says, "has not known me, and my people has not understood me". Understanding this manger, let us strive to know the Lord and to become worthy of the knowledge of him, and to take up not only the nativity and resurrection of his flesh, but also the renowned coming of his second majesty: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 2:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But in a mystery, the Angels saw that they could not accomplish the work committed to them without Him Who was truly able to save, and that their healing fell short of what the care of men required. And so it was as if there should come one who had great knowledge in medicine, and those who before were unable to heal, acknowledging now the hand of a master, grudge not to see the corruptions of wounds ceasing, but break forth into the praises of the Physician, and of that God who sent to them and to the sick a man of such knowledge; the multitudes of the Angels praised God for the coming of Christ.
Luke 2:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But because they came in haste, and not with loitering steps, it follows, They found Mary, (i. e. her who had brought Jesus into the, world,) and Joseph, (i. e. the guardian of our Lord's birth,) and the babe lying in the manger, (i. e. the Saviour Himself.) That was the manger which Israel knew not, according to those words of Isaiah, The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. (Isa. 3:1.)
Luke 2:21 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
In "that he died," Christ "died to sin"; not because he himself had sinned — "for he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" — but he died so that we, who were dead, might, by his dying "to sins," by no means live "to sin" and to vices. Whence it is written: "If we have died together with him, we shall also live together with him"; therefore, just as "we died together" then, when he died, and rose together with him when he rose again, so were we circumcised with him and, after the circumcision, cleansed by the solemn purification. Whence we now have no need whatsoever of carnal circumcision. And that you may know that he was circumcised for our sake, hear Paul preaching most plainly: "in whom," he says, "dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are filled in him, who is the head of all principality and power; in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, buried together with him in baptism, in whom also you rose together with him through the faith of the working of God, who raised him from the dead". Therefore both his death and his resurrection and his circumcision were done for us. "When," it says, "the days for circumcising the child were fulfilled, his name was called Jesus, which had been called by the angel before he was conceived". The name of Jesus, glorious and most worthy of all adoration and worship, "the name which is above every name," was not fitting to be pronounced first by human beings, nor to be brought forth by them into the world, but by some more excellent and greater nature. Whence the evangelist pointedly added, saying: "and his name was called Jesus, which had been called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb".
Luke 2:21 — AGAINST CELSUS 1.6
For it is not by incantations that Christians seem to prevail (over evil spirits), but by the name of Jesus, accompanied by the announcement of the narratives which relate to Him; for the repetition of these has frequently been the means of driving demons out of men, especially when those who repeated them did so in a sound and genuinely believing spirit. Such power, indeed, does the name of Jesus possess over evil spirits, that there have been instances where it was effectual, when it was pronounced even by bad men, which Jesus Himself taught (would be the case), when He said: "Many shall say to Me in that day, In Thy name we have cast out devils, and done many wonderful works." Whether Celsus omitted this from intentional malignity, or from ignorance, I do not know.
Luke 2:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
As we have died with Him at His death, and risen together with Him at His resurrection, so with Him have we been circumcised, and therefore need not now circumcision in the flesh. But the name of Jesus, a glorious name and worthy of all honour, a name which is above every other, ought not first to be uttered by men, nor by them be brought into the world. Therefore significantly the Evangelist adds, which was called of the Angel, &c.
Luke 2:22 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
Then there follows: "when the days of their purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, they brought him to Jerusalem". On account of the purification, he says, "of them". Of whom, "of them"? If it had been written: on account of her purification, that is, of Mary, who had given birth, no question would arise, and we would boldly say that Mary, who was human, had need of purification after childbirth. But now, in that it says: "the days of their purification", it seems to signify not one, but another or several. Did Jesus, then, have need of purification and was he unclean, or defiled with some filth? Perhaps I seem to speak rashly, but I am moved by the authority of the Scriptures. See what is written in Job: "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life should be of a single day". He did not say: "no one is clean from sin," but: "no one is clean from filth". For filth and sins do not signify the same thing; and that you may know that filth means one thing and sin another, Isaiah teaches most plainly, saying: "the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst, by the spirit of judgment the filth and by the spirit of burning the blood". Every soul that has been clothed with a human body has its own "filth". And that you may know that Jesus too was made filthy by his own will, because for our salvation he had assumed a human body, listen to the prophet Zechariah saying: "Jesus was clothed with filthy garments". And this indeed makes against those who deny that our Lord had a human body, but say it was woven of heavenly and spiritual things. For if his body was of heavenly things and, as they falsely assert, of the stars and some other more sublime and spiritual nature, let them answer why a spiritual body could be filthy, or how they interpret what we have set down: "Jesus was clothed with filthy garments". But if they are compelled by necessity to accept that a filthy garment is understood as a spiritual body, they must consequently say that what is set down in the promises has been fulfilled, that is: "an animal body is sown, a spiritual body rises," and that we rise polluted and filthy — which even to think is a sacrilege, especially when one knows it is written: "it is sown in corruption, it will rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it will rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it will rise in strength; an animal body is sown, a spiritual body will rise". It was necessary, therefore, that for our Lord and Savior, who had been "clothed with filthy garments" and had assumed an earthly body, there should be offered those things which by the law were accustomed to purge filth. What is frequently asked among the brethren I take up again, prompted by the occasion of this passage. Little children are baptized "for the remission of sins". Of what "sins"? Or at what time did they sin? Or how can that reasoning of the washing hold in the case of little children, except according to that sense of which we spoke a little before: "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life should be of a single day upon the earth"? And because through the sacrament of baptism the "filth" of birth is laid aside, therefore little children too are baptized: for "unless one be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven". "When," it says, "the days of their purification were fulfilled". The "days" are fulfilled also mystically. For a soul is not purified immediately, as soon as it is born, nor can it attain perfect purity in its very origin; but just as it is written in the law: "If she bears a male, the mother shall sit seven days in unclean blood, and then thirty-three days in pure blood, and at the last both she and the infant shall sit in most pure blood", so, because the law is spiritual and "has a shadow of the good things to come", we can understand that true purification comes to us after a time. I think that even af…
Luke 2:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Where are they who deny that Christ proclaimed in the Gospel the law to be of God, or can it be supposed that the righteous God made His own Son under a hostile law which He Himself had not given? It is written in the law of Moses as follows, Every male which openeth the womb shall be called holy unto the Lord. (Ex. 13:2, 12.)
Luke 2:23 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
"They brought him" therefore "that they might present him before the sight of the Lord". Fulfilling the precepts of what Scripture? Surely of this one: "as it is written," he says, "in the law of Moses, that every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord", and: "three times a year every male shall appear in the sight of the Lord God". The males which were holy from the fact that they had opened their mother's womb were offered before the altar of the Lord: "every male," it says, "that opens the womb", sounds something sacred. For whatever male you may say has been poured forth from the womb, he does not open his mother's womb as the Lord Jesus does, because in all women it is not the birth of the infant, but the intercourse of the man, that unlocks the womb. But the womb of the Lord's mother was unlocked at that time at which the birth also was brought forth, because before the birth of Christ no male at all touched that holy womb, to be venerated with all reverence. I dare to say something further: that even in what is written, "The Spirit of God shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you", was the beginning of the seed and of the conception, and that without the unlocking of the womb the new offspring grew in the womb. Whence the Savior himself speaks: "but I am a worm and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people". He saw in his mother's womb the uncleanness of bodies; walled about on this side and that by her inward parts, he endured the confinements of earthly dregs; whence he likens himself to a worm and says: "I am a worm and not a man". For man is wont to be born of male and female, but I was born not of male and female, according to the rite and nature of men, but after the pattern of the "worm", whose seed is not from elsewhere, but whose origin is in the very bodies, and from the very bodies, in which it grows together.
Luke 2:24 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
For this reason, because "every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord", he was brought "to Jerusalem", that he might appear before the sight of God, and on account of that which follows: "that a gift might be given for him, according to what is written in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons". We see a pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons offered for the Savior. I even think those birds blessed, which were offered for the birth of the Lord; and just as I marvel at Balaam's ass and heap up her happiness, because she was worthy not only to see the angel of God, but also, with her mouth unlocked, to break forth into human speech, so much more do I proclaim and exalt these birds, that they were offered for our Lord and Savior before the altar. "That they might offer for him a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons". Perhaps I may seem to bring in something novel, but something too little worthy of the majesty of the matter. Just as the generation of the Savior was new, not of man and woman, but of a virgin alone only, so also this "pair of turtledoves and two young pigeons" were not such as we behold with the eyes of the flesh, but such as the Holy Spirit is, who "descended in the form of a dove and came" upon the Savior, when he was baptized in the Jordan. Such too was the "pair of turtledoves": those birds were not, like these, such as flit through the air, but something divine and, for human contemplation, more august, appeared under the form of a dove and a turtledove, so that he who was being born for the whole world and was to suffer might be cleansed before the Lord not with such victims as all men use, but, as his whole dispensation was new, so he might have new victims also, according to the will of Almighty God in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 2:24 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 8.4.3
For this reason it seems wonderful that the sacrifice of Mary was not the first offering, that is, "a lamb a year old," but the second, since "she could not afford" the first. For as it was written about her, Jesus' parents came "to offer a sacrifice" for him, "according to what is said in the law of the Lord, 'a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.' " But this also shows the truth of what was written, that Jesus Christ "although he was rich, became a poor man." Therefore, for this reason, he chose both a poor mother, from whom he was born, and a poor homeland, about which it is said, "But you, O Bethlehem Ephratha, who are little to be among the clans of Judah," and the rest.
Luke 2:25-29 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 15
A reason worthy of God's gift must be sought, as to how "Simeon, a holy man and pleasing to God", as it is written in the Gospel, "awaiting the consolation of Israel, received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he would not meet death before he saw the Christ of the Lord". What good did it do him to see Christ? Did he have only this in the promise, that he should see him, and gain no benefit from seeing him, or does some gift worthy of God lie hidden here, which the blessed Simeon both deserved and received? "A woman touched the fringe of Jesus' garment and was healed". If she gained so much benefit from the outermost part of the garment, what must we suppose about Simeon, who "received into his own arms" the infant, and holding him in his embrace rejoiced and was glad, seeing carried by himself the little child who had come to release those in bonds and to free his very self from the knots of the body — knowing that no one could send anyone out from the prison of the body with the hope of the life to come except him whom he held in his arms? Hence too he speaks to him: "now, Lord, you dismiss your servant in peace"; for as long as I was not holding Christ, as long as I was not clasping him with my arms, I was shut in and could not go out from my chains. And this must be understood not only of Simeon, but of the whole human race. If anyone departs from the world, if anyone is released from prison and the house of the bound to go to reign, let him take Jesus in his hands and encircle him with his arms, let him hold him wholly in his bosom, and then, exulting, he will be able to go where he desires. Consider how great a dispensation preceded, that Simeon should deserve to hold the Son of God. First he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit "that he would not see death, unless he had first seen the Christ of the Lord". Then, not by chance and simply did he enter the temple, but "he came to the temple in the Spirit of God"; "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God". Therefore the Holy Spirit led him into the temple. You too, if you wish to hold Jesus and to embrace him with your hands and to become worthy to go out of prison, strive with all your effort to have the Spirit as your guide and to come to the temple of God. Behold, now you stand in the temple of the Lord Jesus, that is, in his Church: this is the temple built "of living stones". And you stand in the temple of the Lord when your life and conduct are most worthy of the name of the Church. If you come "in the Spirit to the temple", you will find the little child Jesus, you will lift him up in your arms and will say: "Now, Lord, you dismiss your servant in peace according to your word." And at the same time note that "peace" has been added to the release and dismissal. For he does not say: I wish to be dismissed, but with an addition: to be dismissed "in peace". For this same thing was promised also to the blessed Abraham: "but you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age". Who is it that dies "in peace", except the one who has "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding and guards the heart" of its possessor? Who is it that departs from this world "in peace", except the one who understands that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself", and has nothing hostile and opposed to God, but has taken up all peace and concord in himself by good works, and so "in peace" is dismissed to go to the holy fathers, to whom Abraham also went forth? Why do I speak of the fathers? One must go also to the very prince and lord of the patriarchs, Jesus, of whom it is said: "it is better to be dissolved and to be with Christ". He has Jesus who dares to say: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me". Therefore, that we too, standing in the temple and holding the Son of God and embracing him, may be worthy of release and of departure to better things, let us pray to almighty God, let us pray also to the little child…
Luke 2:27-28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If thou wilt touch Jesus and grasp Him in thy hands, strive with all thy strength to have the Spirit for thy guide, and come to the temple of God. For it follows, And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, (i. e. Mary His mother, and Joseph His reputed father,) to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms.
Luke 2:28-29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If we marvel to hear that a woman was healed by touching the hem of a garment, what must we think of Simeon, who received an Infant in his arms, and rejoiced seeing that the little one he carried was He who had come to let loose the captive. Knowing that no one could release him from the chains of the body with the hope of future life, but He whom he held in his arms. Therefore it is said, And he blessed God, saying, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart. As if he said, "As long as I held not Christ, I was in prison, and could not escape from my bonds."
Luke 2:29 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
In my view, and according to the word of God, the soul, released from labors, released from sweats, has been deprived of the flesh and can say: "Now Thou lettest Thy servant depart, O Master, according to Thy word, in peace." It goes forth in peace and reposes with Christ.
Luke 2:29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But who departs from this world in peace, but he who is persuaded that God was Christ reconciling the world to Himself, (2 Cor. 5.) who has nothing hostile to God, having derived to himself all peace by good works in himself?
Luke 2:33 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 16
"And", he says, "his father and mother were marveling over these things, which were said of him". Let us gather together into one the things that were said and written about Jesus at his birth, and then we shall be able to know that each single one is worthy of wonder. For which reason both the father was marveling — for so Joseph too was called, because he was a foster-father — the mother also was marveling over all the things "which were said of him". What then are the things that rumor had spread abroad concerning the little child Jesus? "There were shepherds in that region, keeping watch and observing the night-watches over their flock." At the very hour of Jesus' birth an angel came and said to them: "I announce to you great joy: go, and you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling-cloths and laid in a manger". The angel had not yet finished his words, and behold, "a multitude of the heavenly host" began to praise and bless God. When the shepherds, trembling, had beheld this, and "the angel had departed from them, they said to one another: Let us go to Bethlehem and see this deed which the Lord has shown us". They came and found the little child. Both they and the parents marveled over these things which had been done. And of Simeon it is written that he increased the report and was even a great part of the miracle. For he held the child in his arms and said: "Now, Lord, you dismiss your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation". The summit and, so to speak, the crown of the things that were noised abroad concerning Jesus, at which both his father and mother marveled, was the word of Simeon. For it did not suffice him to hold the little child and to speak out the things that were written concerning himself, but he "blessed" his father and his mother, and prophesied about the infant himself also, saying: "Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. A sword shall pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed".
Luke 2:33 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Both by the angel and the multitude of the heavenly host, by the shepherds also, and Simeon. But they who look deeper into the matter may say, that since the genealogy is deduced from David to Joseph, therefore lest Joseph should seem to be mentioned for no purpose, as not being the father of the Saviour, he was called His father, that the genealogy might maintain its place.
Luke 2:33 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
Luke, who wrote: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also that which will be born holy will be called the Son of God", and who plainly handed down to us that Jesus was the son of a virgin and was not conceived of human seed, this same Luke bore witness that Joseph was his father, saying: "And his father and mother were marveling at the things that were said of him". What reason, then, was there that he should record as father one who was not the father? He who is content with a simple exposition will say: the Holy Spirit honored him with the title of father, because he had nourished the Savior. But he who inquires into something more profound can say: since the order of generation is traced from David down to Joseph, lest Joseph seem to be named in vain — he who had not been the father of the Savior — in order that the order of generation might have its place, he was called the "father" of the Lord. "His father", then, "and mother were marveling at the things that were said of him" both by the angel and by the "multitude of the heavenly host", and also by the shepherds. For hearing all these things they marveled most vehemently.
Luke 2:34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They who explain this simply, may say that He came for the fall of unbelievers, and the rising again of believers. The careful interpreter will say, that no one falls who was not before standing. Tell me then, who were they who stood, for whose fall Christ came? There is also a deeper meaning aimed against those who raise their voices against their Creator, saying, Behold the God of the Law and the Prophets of what sort He is! He says, I kill, and I make alive. (Deut. 32:39.) If God then is a bloody judge and a cruel master, it is most plain that Jesus is His Son, since the same things here are written of Him, namely, that he comes for the fall and rising again of many. But we must take care lest by chance the Saviour should not come to some equally for the fall and rising again; for when I stood in sin, it was first good for me to fall, and die to sin. Lastly, Prophets and Saints when they were designing some great thing, used to fall on their faces, that by their fall their sins should be the more fully blotted out. This it is that the Saviour first grants to thee. Thou wert a sinner, let that which is sin fall in thee, that thou mayest thence rise again, and say, If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. (2 Tim. 2:11.) But all the things which history relates of Christ are spoken against, not that those who believe on Him speak against Him, (for we know that all the things which are written of Him are true,) but that every thing which has been written of Him is with the unbelievers a sign which is spoken against. Everything that the plain narrative recounts about the Savior is spoken against. The Virgin is a mother. This is "a sign that is spoken against." "The Marcionites speak against this sign and insist that he was not born of a woman." The Ebionites speak against this sign and say that he was born of a man and a woman in the same way as we are born. He had a human body.There is still another "sign that is spoken against." Some say that he came down from heaven. Others say that he had a body like ours, so that he could also redeem our bodies from sin by the likeness of his body to ours and give us hope of the resurrection. He rose from the dead. This is also "a sign that is spoken against." How did he rise? Was he just as he was when he died, or did he surely rise into a body of a better substance?… I myself think that even the fact that the mouths of the prophets foretold him is a sign that is spoken against.… It does not mean that those who believe in him speak against these signs. We know indeed that everything that Scripture records is true. But, for unbelievers, all things that are written about him are "a sign that is spoken against."
Luke 2:34 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
Then the Scripture says: "Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: Behold, this one is set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted. And a sword shall pierce through your own soul, that the thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed". In what way the Savior came "for the ruin and for the resurrection of many" is to be contemplated. He who expounds simply can say that he came "for the ruin" of unbelievers and "for the resurrection" of believers. But he who is a careful interpreter says that by no means does one fall who has not first stood. Give me, then, who that one was who stood, and for whose "ruin" the Savior came, and also him who rises up. For surely he rises up who had before fallen. And so we must see whether perhaps the Savior did not come "for the ruin" of some and "for the resurrection" of others, but came for the same persons both "for ruin and for resurrection". "For judgment", he says, "I have come, that those who did not see may see, and those who saw may become blind". For there is in us one thing that saw before and afterward ceased to see, and another thing that did not see and afterward began to see. For example, I wish to see with those eyes with which I did not see before and which were afterward opened to me, since after the disobedience of both Adam and Eve "their eyes were opened", concerning which we treated in the previous discourse. But now we must interpret what this means which he says: "Behold, this one is set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many in Israel". It is fitting that I first fall, and, when I have fallen, that I afterward rise up well, lest the Savior be to me the cause of an evil ruin. But for this reason he made me fall, that I might rise up, and the ruin has been far more useful to me than that time in which I seemed to stand. For I was standing in sin at that time in which I was living in sin; and because I was standing in sin, the first benefit to me was that I should fall and die to sin. Finally, the holy prophets too, when they contemplated something more august, fell upon their faces; and they fell for this reason, that through this fall their sins might be more fully purged. This very thing the Savior first grants to you as well, that you may fall. You were a heathen — let the heathen fall in you; you loved harlots — let the fornicator first perish in you; you were a sinner — let the sinner fall in you, that you may thereafter rise again and say: "if we have died with him, we shall also live with him", and: "if we have been made conformable to his death, we shall be conformable also to his resurrection". This one, therefore, "is set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many in Israel", that is, among those who are able to behold with full keenness and reason, and "for a sign that shall be contradicted". Everything that the account relates concerning the Savior is contradicted. The mother is a virgin — it is a sign that is contradicted: the Marcionites contradict this sign and say that he was not at all born of a woman; the Ebionites contradict the sign, saying that he was born of man and woman just as we too are born. He had a human body, and this is a sign that is contradicted: for some say that he came from the heavens, others that he had a body such as ours, so that through the likeness of the body he might also redeem our bodies from sins and give us the hope of resurrection. He rose from the dead, and this is a sign that is contradicted: in what way he rose, whether he himself and such as he had died, or rather rose in a body of better substance; and there is endless dispute, some saying: he showed to Thomas the mark of the nails in his hands, others arguing from the opposite side: if he had the same body, how did he "enter through closed doors and stand"? You see, therefore, how by various arguments even the question of his resurrection is stirred up, and how it is "a sign that is contradicted"…
Luke 2:34 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 16
What does this mean which he says: "behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel"? To this I have found something similar written in the Gospel according to John: "for judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind". Therefore, just as he came for judgment, that "those who do not see" of the nations "might see", and those who saw before, of Israel, "might be made blind", so he came "for the fall and rising of many". For at the coming of the Lord the Savior, those who had stood before fell down, and those who had fallen rose up. This is one interpretation of that which was said: "behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel". But there is also something deeper to be understood against those especially who bark against the Creator, and, gathering together from here and there out of the Old Testament testimonies which they do not understand, "deceive the hearts of the simple". For they say: behold, the God of the Law and the Prophets, see what sort he is. "I", he says, "will kill, and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none who can deliver out of my hands". They hear: "I will kill", and they do not hear: "I will make alive"; they hear: "I will strike", and they disdain to hear: "and I will heal". On occasions of this kind they slander the Creator. Therefore, before I interpret what sense there is in: "I will kill and make alive, I will strike and heal", I will set against them a testimony of the Gospel and will say against the heretics — for there are countless heresies which receive the Gospel according to Luke —: If the Creator is bloodthirsty and only a judge and cruel because he says: "I will kill and make alive, I will strike and heal", it is most manifest that Jesus too is his son; for the same things are written of him: "behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel", not "for the rising" only, but also "for the fall". If it is evil to kill, let it be evil also to come "for the fall". What will they answer? Will they either withdraw from his worship, or will they seek some interpretation and flee to figurative readings, so that his coming "for the fall" may sound of kindness rather than of severity? And how will it be just, when something of this sort is found in the Gospel, to flee to allegories and new understandings, but when it is found in the Old Testament, at once to accuse and to accept no explanation, however probable it may be? But even this which follows: "for judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind", however much they seek to expound it, they will not be able to fulfill. But I, who desire to be of the Church and to be named and to bear a name not from any heresiarch, but from the appellation of Christ, and to have a name that is blessed upon the earth, and long to be and to be called a Christian both in work and in thought, seek an equal principle both in the old and in the new law. God speaks: "I will kill"; I am glad that God kills. For when the old man is in me and I still live as a man, I long that God may kill in me the old man and make me alive from the dead. For, he says, "the first man was of the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly". According to this sense that also is understood: "for judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind". We all have in ourselves both sight and blindness. Adam both saw and did not see. Eve too, before her eyes were opened, is described as having seen: "the woman saw", it says, "the tree, that it was good for eating and most delightful to the eyes for seeing: and taking of the fruit of the tree she ate, and gave to her husband, and they ate". Therefore they were not blind, but saw. Then it follo…
Luke 2:35 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
Then Simeon says: "and a sword shall pierce through your own soul". What is this sword, which pierced not only through the hearts of others, but even through the heart of Mary? It is plainly written that in the time of the passion all the apostles were scandalized, the Lord himself also saying: "you shall all be scandalized in me this night". Therefore they were all scandalized to such a degree that even Peter, the chief of the apostles, denied him three times. What are we to think — that, while the apostles were scandalized, the mother of the Lord was immune from scandal? If she suffered no scandal at the passion of the Lord, then Jesus did not die for her sins. But if "all have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified by his grace and redeemed", then surely Mary too was scandalized at that time. And this is what Simeon now prophesies, saying: "and your own soul" — you who know that you gave birth as a virgin without a man, you who heard from Gabriel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" — "the sword" of unbelief "shall pierce through", and you will be struck by the blade of doubt, and your thoughts will tear you in different directions, when you see him, whom you had heard to be the Son of God and knew to have been begotten without the seed of a man, crucified and dying and subjected to human torments and at the last tearfully complaining and saying: "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me". "And" therefore "a sword shall pierce through your soul, that the thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed". There were evil thoughts in men, which were for this reason revealed, that, being brought out into the open, they might be destroyed and slain, and cease to be, being dead, and that he who died for us might slay them. For as long as the thoughts were hidden and not brought out into the open, it was impossible for them to be utterly slain. Hence we too, if we have sinned, ought to say: "I have made my sin known to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said: I will declare my injustice against myself to the Lord". For if we do this and reveal our sins not only to God but also to those who are able to heal our wounds and sins, our sins will be blotted out by him who says: "behold, I will blot out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like a mist".
Luke 2:35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But the evil thoughts of men were revealed, that He Who died for us might slay them; for while they were hidden, it was impossible to utterly destroy them. Hence also when we have sinned we ought to say, Mine iniquity have I not hid. (Ps. 32:5.) For if we make known our sins not only to God, but to whoever can heal our wounds, our sins will be blotted out.
Luke 2:36-38 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
After the prophecy of Simeon, because it was necessary that women too should be saved, there came a prophetess, a woman, of whom it is written: "and there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser". How beautiful the order! The woman does not come before the man, but first comes Simeon, who took up the infant and held him in his arms, then the woman, whose words indeed are not set down, but it is said generally that "she confessed to the Lord and spoke of him to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem". And rightly did the holy woman deserve to receive the spirit of prophecy, because by long chastity and long fastings she had ascended to this height. See, women, the testimony of Anna, and imitate it! If it should ever happen to you that you lose your husbands, consider what is written of her: "she lived seven years from her virginity with a husband" and the rest; for this reason she was a "prophetess"; for the Holy Spirit did not dwell in her at random and by chance. It is good and best, if any woman is able to possess the grace of virginity; but if she has not been able to do this, and it has befallen her to lose her husband, let her remain a widow. And this she ought to have in mind not only after the death of her husband, but even while he lives, so that, even if her own will and resolve do not come to pass, she may be crowned by the Lord and may say: this I vow and promise, that if anything human, which I do not wish for, should befall me, I will do nothing else than remain undefiled and a widow. But now second and third and fourth marriages — to say nothing of more — are found in the Church, and we are not unaware that such a union will cast us out of the kingdom of God. For just as not only fornication but also second marriages exclude a man from ecclesiastical dignities — for neither a bishop nor a presbyter nor a deacon nor a widow can be twice-married — so perhaps the twice-married man will also be cast out from the assembly of the "firstborn and undefiled", the "Church, which has no spot or wrinkle"; not that he is sent into the eternal fire, but that he has no part in the kingdom of God. I recall that, when I was interpreting that which is written to the Corinthians: "to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all who call upon him", I said that there is a distinction between the "church" and those "who call upon" the name of the Lord. For I think that the man of one marriage and the virgin and he who perseveres in chastity belong to the church of God, but that he who is twice-married, although he may have had a good manner of life and abound in the other virtues, nevertheless does not belong to the "church" and to that number which "has no wrinkle or spot, or any such thing", but belongs to a second rank and to those "who call upon" the name of the Lord, and who are indeed saved in the name of Jesus Christ, yet are by no means crowned by him: to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Luke 2:36-37 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For the Holy Spirit dwelt not by chance in her. For the highest blessing, if any can possess it, is the grace of virginity, but if this cannot be, and it chance to a woman to lose her husband, let her remain a widow, which indeed not only after the death of her husband, but even while he is living, she ought to have in her mind, that supposing it should not happen, her will and determination might be crowned by the Lord, and her words should be, "This I vow, and promise, that if a certain condition of this life be mine, (which yet I wish not,) I will do nothing else but remain inviolate and a widow." Most justly then was this holy woman thought worthy to receive the gift of prophecy, because by long chastity and long fastings she had ascended to this height of virtue, as it follows, Who departed not from the temple with fastings and prayers, &c. From which it is plain that she possessed a multitude of other virtues; and mark how she resembles Simeon in his goodness, for they were both in the temple together, and both counted worthy of prophetic grace, as it follows, And she coming in at this very instant, gave thanks to the Lord.
Luke 2:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But because Anna's words were nothing remarkable, and of no great note respecting Christ, the Gospel does not give the particulars of what she said, and perhaps for this reason one may suppose that Simeon anticipated her, since he indeed bore the character of the law, (for his name signifies obedience,) but she the character of grace, (which her name is by interpretation,) and Christ came between them. Therefore He let Simeon depart dying with the law, but Anna he sustains living beyond through grace.
Luke 2:40 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 19
Since some who seem to believe the holy Scriptures deny the divinity of the Savior, as though for the glory of the almighty God, it seems just to me that they should be taught from the authority of those very Scriptures that something divine came into a human body, and not only into a human body, but also into a human soul. Yet, if we attend carefully to the meaning of the Scriptures, that soul had something more than the rest of human souls. For every human soul, before it comes to virtue, is defiled by vices. But the soul of Jesus was never stained with the filth of sin. Indeed, before he reached the twelfth year of his age, the Holy Spirit writes concerning him in the Gospel of Luke: "But the boy grew and was strengthened and was filled with wisdom". This human nature does not admit, that one should be filled with wisdom before twelve years. It is one thing to have a part of wisdom, another to be filled with wisdom. Let us not doubt, therefore, that something divine appeared in the flesh of Jesus, and something beyond not only man, but beyond every rational creature as well. And "he grew", it says. For "he had humbled himself, taking the form of a servant", and by the same power by which "he had humbled himself", he grows. He had appeared weak, because he had taken up a weak body, and for that reason he is again strengthened. The Son of God "had emptied himself", and therefore he is again filled with wisdom. "And the grace of God was upon him". Not when he came to adolescence, not when he was teaching openly, but while he was still a little child, he had the grace of God; and just as all things in him had been marvelous, so also his childhood was marvelous, that the wisdom of God might be fulfilled.
Luke 2:40 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
My Lord Jesus was born, and his parents went up to Jerusalem to fulfill the things that had been commanded in the law, and to offer for him "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons". Simeon held him in his arms, as was read a little while ago, and prophesied concerning him the things that the account relates. And after everything was completed according to custom, the parents returned. In what year was Jesus at that time? He was assuredly still a little child, and yet he "grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom" and grace; he had not yet completed the forty days of purification, he had not yet come to Nazareth, and already he was receiving all wisdom. Scripture could have said: "he grew and became strong, and received the Spirit"; but because "he had emptied himself, taking the form of a servant", as soon as the sacrifice was offered for his purification, that which he had emptied out he filled up again — not that his body was thereupon made greater, but that something more sacred might be shown, as Scripture reports: "but the child grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom". Let us inquire whether anywhere else it is written of a little child: "he grew and became strong", so that by comparing many passages we may be able to understand what more is said in the case of our Lord. We read concerning John: "but the child grew and became strong", and yet there is not added: "and was filled with wisdom", but rather: "he became strong in spirit". But here, concerning the Lord, it says: "he grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him". All these things were said of a child who had not yet completed twelve years.
Luke 2:41-42 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 19
"And so his parents went according to custom to Jerusalem to the solemn day of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old". Observe carefully, that before he was twelve years old, he was being filled with the wisdom of God and with the other things that are written of him.
Luke 2:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But we must not wonder that they are called His parents, seeing the one from her childbirth, the other from his knowledge of it, deserved the names of father and mother.
Luke 2:43 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 19
When therefore, as we have said, he was twelve years old, and the days of the solemnity had been completed according to custom, and his parents were returning, "the boy remained in Jerusalem and his parents did not know it". And here understand something more sublime than human nature undergoes. For he did not simply "remain" while his parents were ignorant of where he was; but just as it is written in the Gospel of John, when the Jews were lying in wait for him and he slipped away out of their midst and did not appear, so also now I think that the boy remained in Jerusalem and that his parents were ignorant of where he had remained. Nor let us wonder that they are called parents, of whom the one merited the name because of the childbirth, the other because of his service to the mother and the father.
Luke 2:43 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But as when the Jews plotted against Him He escaped from the midst of them, and was not seen; so now it seems that the Child Jesus remained, and His parents knew not where He was. As it follows, And not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for him. (John 10:29.)
Luke 2:43 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
But when he was twelve years old, he remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents, not knowing this, seek him anxiously and do not find him.
Luke 2:44-45 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He is not found as soon as sought for, for Jesus was not among His kinsfolk and relations, among those who are joined to Him in the flesh, nor in the company of the multitude can He be found. Learn where those who seek Him find Him, not every where, but in the temple. And do thou then seek Jesus in the temple of God. Seek Him in the Church, and seek Him among the masters who are in the temple. For if thou wilt so seek Him, thou shalt find Him. They found Him not among His kinsfolk, for human relations could not comprehend the Son of God; not among His acquaintance, for He passes far beyond all human knowledge and understanding. Where then do they find Him? In the temple! If at any time thou seek the Son of God, seek Him first in the temple, thither go up, and verily shalt thou find Christ, the Word, and the Wisdom, (i. e. the Son of God.)
Luke 2:44 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 19
And when they sought him, they did not find him "among their kinsfolk". For human kinship could not contain the Son of God. They did not find him "among their acquaintances", because the divine power was greater than mortal acquaintance and knowledge.
Luke 2:44-45 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
They seek "among their kinsfolk", they seek "in the company", they seek "among their acquaintances", and in all these they do not find him. Jesus, then, is sought by his parents, by the father who had been his nurse and companion when he went down to Egypt, and yet he is not found immediately when he is sought. For Jesus is not found among relatives and kinsmen of the flesh, not among those who are joined to him bodily. In the company of many my Jesus cannot be found.
Luke 2:46-47 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Because moreover He was the Son of God, He is found in the midst of the doctors, enlightening and instructing them. But because He was a little child, He is found among them not teaching but asking questions, as it is said, Sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And this He did as a duty of reverence, that He might set us an example of the proper behaviour of children, though they be wise and learned, rather to hear their masters than teach them, and not to vaunt themselves with empty boasting. But He asked not that He might learn, but that asking He might instruct. For from the same source of learning is derived both the power of asking and answering wisely, as it follows, All who heard him were astonished at his wisdom.
Luke 2:46 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
Learn where those seeking him find him, so that you too, seeking with Joseph and Mary, may find him. And seeking him, it says, "they found him in the temple". Not anywhere in some other place, but "in the temple", and not simply "in the temple", but "in the midst of the teachers, hearing them and questioning them". You too, therefore, seek Jesus "in the temple" of God, seek him in the Church, seek him among the masters who are "in the temple" and do not go out from it; for if you seek in this way, you will find him. Moreover, if anyone says that he is a master and does not have Jesus, that man is a master in name only, and therefore Jesus, the word of God and wisdom, cannot be found with him. He was found, it says, "in the midst of the teachers". Just as it is written in another place concerning the prophets, so also now understand "in the midst of the teachers". "If", it says, "anything is revealed to another who is sitting by, let the first keep silence". They find him "sitting in the midst of the teachers", and not only "sitting", but also "questioning and hearing them". And now too Jesus is present; he questions us and hears us speaking.
Luke 2:46 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 19
Where, then, do they find him? "In the temple"; for there the Son of God is found. If ever you too shall seek the Son of God, seek first the temple, hasten thither, there you will find Christ, the Word and the wisdom, that is, the Son of God. But because he was a little one, he is found "in the midst of the teachers", sanctifying and instructing them. Because he was a little one, he is found "in the midst" not teaching them, but "questioning", and this in accordance with the duty of his age, that he might teach us what befits children, however wise and learned they be, namely that they should rather hear their masters than desire to teach, and should not vaunt themselves with vain display. He was questioning, I say, the masters, not that he might learn something, but that in questioning he might instruct. For from one fountain of teaching flows both to question and to answer wisely; and it belongs to the same knowledge to know what you should ask and what you should answer. It was fitting that the Savior should first become a master of learned questioning, that afterward he might respond to questions according to the reason and word of God: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 2:47 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
"And all", it says, "were amazed". At what were they "amazed"? Not at his questions, although these too were marvelous, but "at his answers". For it is one thing to ask, another to answer. He was questioning the teachers, and because at times they could not answer, he himself answered them concerning the things about which he had asked. But that an answer signifies not the alternation of conversing but teaching in the holy scriptures, let the divine law teach you. "Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice". That answer was concerning the matters about which the Lord was instructing the ignorant Moses. Sometimes Jesus asks, sometimes he answers, and as we said above, although his questioning is marvelous, nevertheless his answering is far more marvelous.
Luke 2:48 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 19
There follows: "sorrowing we were seeking you". I do not think that they sorrowed for this reason, because they supposed the boy had strayed or perished; nor could it happen that Mary, who knew that she had conceived of the Holy Spirit, who had heard both the angel speaking and the shepherds hastening and Simeon prophesying, should fear that she might lose the boy through his wandering off. Remove this opinion especially from Joseph, to whom it had been commanded by the angel that he should take the boy and go to Egypt, who had heard: "do not fear to take Mary your wife; for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit". It could never come to pass that he should dread as lost the infant whom he had known to be divine. The sorrow and the seeking of the parents sounds like something other than the simple reader understands. Just as you, if ever you read the Scriptures, seek in them the meaning with a certain sorrow and torment—not that you should judge the Scriptures to have erred or to contain something amiss, but because they hold within a word and reason of truth, and you are unable to find what is true: so also they were seeking Jesus, lest perhaps he had withdrawn from them, lest, leaving them, he had migrated to other things and—what I think more likely—lest he had returned to the heavens, intending, when it should please him, to descend again. "Sorrowing", therefore, they were seeking the Son of God.
Luke 2:48 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
Therefore, that we too may hear him and that he may set before us questions which he himself may resolve, let us beseech him and seek him with the utmost labor and sorrow, and then we shall be able to find him whom we seek. For it is not written in vain: "I and your father have been seeking you with sorrow". He who seeks Jesus must seek not negligently, not carelessly, not in passing, as some seek and therefore cannot find him. But let us say: "with sorrow we seek you".
Luke 2:48 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The holy Virgin knew that He was not the Son of Joseph, and yet calls her husband His father according to the belief of the Jews, who thought that He was conceived in the common way. Now to speak generally we may say, that the Holy Spirit honoured Joseph by the name of father, because he brought up the Child Jesus; but more technically, that it might not seem superfluous in St. Luke, bringing down the genealogy from David to Joseph. But why sought they Him sorrowing? Was it that he might have perished or been lost? It could not be. For what should cause them to dread the loss of Him whom they knew to be the Lord? But as whenever you read the Scriptures you search out their meaning with pains, not that you suppose them to have erred or to contain anything incorrect, but that the truth which they have inherent in them you are anxious to find out; so they sought Jesus, lest perchance leaving them he should have returned to heaven, thither to descend when He would. He then who seeks Jesus must go about it not carelessly and idly, as many seek Him who never find Him, but with labour and sorrow.
Luke 2:49 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 18
And when we have said this, he will answer our laboring soul that seeks him with sorrow, and will say: "Do you not know that I must be in my Father's house?". Where are the heretics, where are the impious and the mad, who assert that the law and the prophets do not belong to the Father of Jesus Christ? Surely Jesus was "in the temple" that was built by Solomon, and he confesses that that temple belongs to his Father, whom he revealed to us, whose Son he said he was. Let them answer, how one God is good and another just. Since, therefore, the Savior is the Son of the Creator, let us together praise the Father and the Son, whose is the law, whose also is the temple: to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 2:49-50 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 20
Mary and Joseph were seeking Jesus "among their kinsfolk" and did not find him; they were seeking him "in the company" and could not find him. They sought him "in the temple", and not simply "in the temple", but with the teachers, and "in the midst of the instructors" they find him. Wherever the teachers may be, there "in the midst of the teachers" Jesus is found, if only the teacher sits "in the temple" and never departs from it. Jesus profited his own teachers, and those whom he seemed to be questioning he taught, speaking "in their midst", and in a certain way he stirred them up to seek out the things they did not know, and to investigate the things which, up to that point, they were unable to know—whether they knew them or were ignorant of them. Jesus, then, is found "in the midst of the teachers", and once found he says to those who sought him: "Why is it that you were seeking me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" First, understanding this simply, let us arm ourselves against the impious heretics who say that the Creator is not the Father of Christ Jesus, nor the God of the Law and the prophets. Behold, the Father of Christ is asserted to be the God of the temple. Let the Valentinians blush when they hear Jesus saying: "I must be in my Father's house". Let all the heretics blush who receive the Gospel according to Luke and yet despise the things that are written in it. Let these things, as I said, be understood in the simpler sense. But since it is added: "they, however, did not understand the saying", let us more diligently sift out the meaning of the Scripture. Were they so foolish and senseless that they did not know what he was saying—whether this, which he says, "I must be in my Father's house", signified "in the temple", or whether it signifies something else more profound, and something that edifies the hearers more? Each one of us, if he is good and perfect, is a possession of God the Father. Generally, therefore, concerning all, the Savior taught that he ought not to be anywhere except among those who are the Father's. If any one of you belongs to God the Father, he has Jesus in his midst. Let us indeed believe the one who says: "I must be in my Father's house". And I suspect that this is the more rational and living and true temple of God, rather than that one which was built typologically by an earthly work. Hence, as he was in that temple typologically, so also typologically he withdrew from it. For he "went out of the temple" that was earthly, saying: "Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate", and leaving that house he came to the possession of God the Father—the churches scattered throughout the whole world—and says: "I must be in my Father's house". Then, therefore, "they did not understand the word which he spoke to them".
Luke 2:50 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or they knew not whether when He said about my Father's business, He referred to the temple, or something higher and more edifying; for every one of us who doeth good, is the seat of God the Father; but whoso is the seat of God the Father, has Christ in the midst of him.
Luke 2:51 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or they knew not whether when He said about my Father's business, He referred to the temple, or something higher and more edifying; for every one of us who doeth good, is the seat of God the Father; but whoso is the seat of God the Father, has Christ in the midst of him. Jesus frequently went down with His disciples, for He is not always dwelling on the mount, for they who were troubled with various diseases were not able to ascend the mount. For this reason now also He went down to them who were below. It follows: And he was subject to them, &c. Let us then also ourselves be subject to our parents. But if our fathers are not, let us be subject to those who are our fathers. Jesus the Son of God is subject to Joseph and Mary. But I must be subject to the Bishop who has been constituted my father. It seems that Joseph knew that Jesus was greater than he, and therefore in awe moderated his authority. But let every one see, that oftentimes he who is subject is the greater. Which if they who are higher in dignity understand, they will not be clated with pride, knowing that their superior is subject to them.
Luke 2:51 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 20
And at the same time attend to this: that, as long as he was in the possession of his Father, he was above. And because Joseph and Mary did not yet have full faith, for that reason they could not remain above with him, but he is said to have come down with them. Frequently Jesus comes down with his disciples, nor is he always dwelling on the mountain, nor without end does he hold to sublime things. On the mountain he is with Peter, with James, with John, and again in another place with the rest of the disciples. Further, because those who labored under various sicknesses were not able to ascend the mountain, therefore he "came down and came" to those who were below. Now also it is written: "he came down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them". Let us learn, children, to be subject to our parents: the greater is subject to the lesser. He, because he saw that Joseph was greater in age, therefore honored him with the honor due to a parent, giving to all sons an example, that they should be subject to their fathers and, if they have no fathers, that they should be subject to those who are of a father's age. Why do I speak of parents and children? If Jesus the Son of God is subject to Joseph and Mary, shall I not be subject to the bishop, who has been appointed by God as a father to me? Shall I not be subject to the presbyter, who by the Lord's condescension has been set over me? I think that Joseph understood that Jesus, who was subject to him, was greater than he; and knowing that the greater one was subject, he tempered his authority with awe. Let each one, then, see that often an inferior is set over better people, and it sometimes happens that the one who is subject is better than the one who seems to be set over him. When one who is higher in dignity understands this, he will not be lifted up with pride because he is greater, but he will know that a better one is subject to him, just as Jesus too was subject to Joseph. Then it follows: "But Mary kept all these words in her heart". She surmised something more than about a man; hence also she "kept all his words in her heart", not as the words of a boy who was twelve years old, but of him who had been conceived of the Holy Spirit, whom she saw "advancing in wisdom and grace with God and men".
Luke 2:52 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 20
Jesus "advanced in wisdom" and appeared wiser through each successive age. Was he not wise, that he should become wiser? Or was it that, since he had "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant", he was taking up again what he had laid down, and being filled again with the virtues which, a little before, upon assuming a body, he had seemed to relinquish? He "advanced", therefore, not only "in wisdom", but also "in age". There is also an advancement of age. Two ages are spoken of in the Scriptures: one of the body, which is not in our power but in the law of nature; the other of the soul, which properly lies within us, and according to which, if we will, we daily grow and come to its summit, "so that we may be no longer little children, tossed about and carried around by every wind of doctrine", but, ceasing to be "little children", may begin to be "men" and may say: "when I became a man, I destroyed the things that belonged to a little child". Of this age, as I said, the advancement, which is the increase of the soul, is in our power. But if this testimony is not enough, let us take yet another example from Paul: "until we all attain", he says, "to a perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of the body of Christ". It is in us, therefore, that we should "attain to the measure of the age of the body of Christ"; and, if it is in us, let us strive with all effort to lay aside the little child and to destroy him and to come to the remaining ages, so that we too may be able to hear: "but you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age"—a spiritual old age, surely, which is truly a good old age, growing gray and coming through to the very end in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 3:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
In the word of prophecy, spoken to the Jews alone, the Jewish kingdom only is mentioned, as, The vision of Esaias, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. (Is. 1:1.) But in the Gospel which was to be proclaimed to the whole world, the empire of Tiberius Cæsar is mentioned, who seemed the lord of the whole world. But if the Gentiles only were to be saved, it were sufficient to make mention only of Tiberius, but because the Jews also must believe, the Jewish kingdom therefore, or Tetrarchies, are also introduced, as it follows, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod tetrarch, &c.
Luke 3:1-2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 21
When the prophetic word was sent to the Jews alone, Jewish kings were set at the heading. For example: "The vision which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw against Judea and against Jerusalem, in the reign of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah"; nor do I see anyone else, apart from the kings of Judea, designated in Isaiah's time. In certain of the prophets we read also the kings of Israel, as in that place: "and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel". But when the mystery of the Gospel was to be proclaimed and the Gospel was to be spread throughout the whole world, whose herald John was in the wilderness, and the empire of Tiberius ruled the world, then "in the fifteenth year" of him "the word of the Lord" is described as having "come to John". And if salvation had had to be announced only to those who were about to believe from among the nations, and Israel had had to be wholly excluded, it would have sufficed to say: "In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea". But because from Judea also and from Galilee many were about to believe, therefore these kingdoms too are set at the heading, and it is said: "Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert".
Luke 3:2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 21
Of old "the word of God came to Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, who was of the priests" in the time of this or that king of Judah; now "the word of God comes to John, the son of Zechariah", which never came to the prophets "in the desert". But because "the children" of the desolate one "were to be more" than of "her who has a husband", therefore "the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert". And at the same time consider that it has more reason in it, if the desert is understood mystically and not according to the simple letter. For he who preaches "in the desert" acts to no purpose in crying out there where no one hears him speaking. The forerunner of Christ, therefore, and "the voice of one crying in the desert", preaches "in the desert" of the soul that does not have peace. And not only then, but also in the present, first "the burning and shining lamp" comes and "preaches the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins"; then "the true light" follows after, when "the lamp" itself says: "he must increase, but I must decrease". The word of God comes "in the desert".
Luke 3:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 21
And "he came into all the country round about the Jordan". For what other places ought the Baptist to have gone around, except those neighboring the Jordan, so that whoever wished to do penance might be at hand for the washing of water? Moreover, "Jordan" is interpreted "descending". And the river "descending" and running with a great rush is God our Savior, the Lord, into whom we are baptized with true water, with saving water. Baptism is preached also "for the remission of sins": Come, catechumens, do penance, that you may obtain baptism "for the remission" of sins. He receives baptism "for the remission of sins" who ceases to sin. For if anyone comes to the washing while sinning, no remission of sins is made for him. Therefore I beseech you, do not come to baptism without caution and careful circumspection, but first show "fruits worthy of repentance"! Spend some time in good conduct, keep yourselves clean from all filth and vices, and then remission of sins will be made for you, when you yourselves also have begun to despise your own sins. Forgive your offenses, and they will be forgiven you.
Luke 3:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Jordan is the same as descending, for there descends from God a river of healing water. But what parts would John be traversing but the country lying about Jordan, that the penitent sinner might soon arrive at the flowing stream, humbling himself to receive the baptism of repentance. For it is added, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Luke 3:4 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 21
But this very thing, which is now set down from the old instrument, we read written in the prophet Isaiah. For there it is said: "The voice of one crying in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight". The Lord wishes to find ways in you—he who, that he may be able to enter into your souls and make his journey, prepare for him the path of which it is said: "make his paths straight". "The voice of one crying in the desert". "The voice" cries: "prepare the way"; for first "the voice" reaches the ears, then after the voice—rather, together with the voice—the word penetrates the hearing. According to this sense Christ was announced by John. Let us see, therefore, what "the voice" announces concerning the word. "Prepare", it says, "the way for the Lord". What "way for the Lord" are we to prepare? Surely not a bodily one? Or can the word of God travel by such a road? Or is the way to be prepared for the Lord within, and straight and even paths to be laid out in our heart? This is the way by which the word of God enters, which consists in the capacity of the human heart. Great is the heart of man, and spacious and capacious, if only it be clean. Do you wish to know its greatness and breadth? See how great a magnitude of divine perceptions it can contain. It itself says: "he gave me true knowledge of the things that are: to know the constitution of the world and the operations of the elements, the beginning and the end and the middle of the ages, the changes of the seasons and the transitions of the months, the circuits of the years and the positions of the stars, the natures of living creatures and the ragings of beasts, the violences of spirits and the thoughts of men, the diversities of trees and the power of roots". You see that the heart of man is not small, which can contain so much. And understand its greatness not in the quantity of the body, but in the strength of perception, which can contain so great a knowledge of the truth. But that I may also lead the simpler folk by everyday examples to believe that the heart of man is great, let us look at what follows. Whatever cities we have passed through, we have them in our mind, and the qualities and situations of the streets and the walls and the buildings are turning over in our heart. The road that we have entered upon we retain in the picture and description of memory; the sea that we have sailed we embrace in silent thought. It is no small thing, as I have said, the heart of man, which can contain so much. But if it is no small thing, containing so much, consequently in it the way of the Lord is prepared and a straight path is made, so that the word of God and wisdom may walk in it. Prepare the way for the Lord through good conduct, and by outstanding works wear smooth the path, so that the word of God may walk in you without any stumbling and may grant you the knowledge of his mysteries and of his coming: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 3:4 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, a way must be prepared in our heart for the Lord, for the heart of man is large and spacious if it has become clean. For imagine not that in the size of the body, but in the virtue of the understanding, consists that greatness which must receive the knowledge of the truth. Prepare then in thy heart by good conversation a way for the Lord, and by perfect works pursue the path of life, that so the word of God may have free course in thee.
Luke 3:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For when Jesus had come and sent His Spirit, every valley was filled with good works, and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which if thou hast, thou wilt not only cease to become a valley, but will begin also to be a mountain of God. Or you may understand the mountains and hills to be the hostile powers, which have been overthrown by the coming of Christ.
Luke 3:5 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22
Let us see what things are foretold at the coming of Christ, among which first it is written concerning John: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths". And what follows pertains properly to the Lord the Savior. For "every valley" was not "filled" by John, but by the Lord the Savior. Let each one consider himself, what he was before he believed, and then he will observe that he was a lowly valley, a headlong valley plunged into the depths. But when the Lord Jesus came and sent the Holy Spirit as his vicar, "every valley" was "filled". And it was "filled" with good works and with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Love does not permit a valley to remain in you, for, if you have peace and patience and goodness, not only will you cease to be a "valley", but you will even begin to be a "mountain" of God. We see this happening and being fulfilled daily among the Gentiles: "every valley shall be filled", as also concerning the people of Israel, who has been brought down from on high: "every mountain and hill shall be brought low". That people was once a "mountain" and a "hill", which has been brought down and destroyed. "By their transgression salvation has been given to the Gentiles, to provoke them to emulation". But if you should also say that the hostile powers, which were raised up against mortals, are the mountains and hills that have been brought down, you will not err. For in order that valleys of this kind may be filled, the hostile powers, the mountains and hills, must be brought low. But let us also contemplate whether this too, which was prophesied at the coming of Christ, has been fulfilled. For there follows: "and all the crooked shall be made straight". Each one of us was crooked—if indeed he was, and does not continue so to this very day—and through the coming of Christ, which has taken place unto our soul, whatever things were "crooked" have been "made straight". For what does it profit you, if Christ once came in the flesh, unless he has also come to your soul? Let us pray that his coming may be made to us daily, and that we may be able to say: "But I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me". For if Christ lives in Paul and does not live in me, what will it profit me? But when he has come also to me and I have had enjoyment of him, just as Paul had enjoyment of him, then I too shall speak like Paul: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me". Let us therefore consider also the other things that are foretold at the coming of Christ. Nothing was rougher than you: look at your former impulses, look at your anger and your other vices—if indeed they have ceased to be what they were—and you will understand that nothing was rougher than you and, to speak more pointedly, that nothing was more uneven. Your manner of life was uneven, and your speech, and your works were uneven. Therefore my Lord Jesus came and leveled your roughnesses and turned whatever was disordered "into level ways", so that there might be made in you a journeying without stumbling, and light and most pure, and that God the Father might walk in you, and that Christ the Lord might make his dwelling with you and say: "I and my Father will come and make our dwelling with him".
Luke 3:6 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22
There follows: "and all flesh shall see the salvation of God". You were once "flesh", and you who were once "flesh"—nay, to speak more wondrously, while you are still in the flesh—you see "the salvation of God". But what it may mean, that it is said "all flesh", in that none is excepted who does not see "the salvation of God", I leave to be understood by those who know how to search out the mysteries and veins of the Scriptures.
Luke 3:7 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
No one that remains in his old state, and forsakes not his old habits and practices, can rightly come to be baptized; whoever then wishes to be baptized, let him go forth. Hence are those words significantly spoken, And he said unto the multitude that went forth to be baptized of him. To the multitudes then who are going forth to the laver of baptism, He speaks the following words, for if they had already gone forth, He would not have said, O generation of vipers.
Luke 3:7 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22
But this too must be attended to, that John speaks "to the peoples going out" to baptism. If anyone wishes to be baptized, let him go out; for one remaining in his former state and not leaving his ways and his custom by no means comes rightly to baptism. And that you may understand what it is to go out to baptism, receive the testimony and hearken to the words in which God speaks to Abraham: "go out from your land" and the rest. And so, as the crowds were going out to the washing—not having gone out, but only striving to go out—John speaks the things that follow. For if they had already gone out, he would never have said to them: "brood of vipers". Whatever things, therefore, he speaks to them, he speaks also to you, O catechumens, male and female, who are preparing to come to baptism. Consider whether perhaps it may be said also to you: "brood of vipers"; for if you too have some likeness to the vipers of sense and to the invisible serpents, to you too it will be said: "brood of vipers". But also that which follows, unless you have driven out the wickedness and the venom of serpents from your heart, will be said to you: "who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come?" Great wrath hangs over this age; the whole world is to suffer the wrath of God. So great a vastness of heaven and breadth of earth and choirs of stars, the splendor of the sun and the nocturnal comforts of the moon, the "wrath" of God will overthrow; for all these things shall pass away because of the sins of men. And formerly, indeed, the "wrath" of God came upon one earth only, "because all flesh had abandoned its way upon the earth"; but now the "wrath" of God is to come both upon heaven and upon earth: "the heavens shall pass away, but you shall remain"—it is said to God—"and all shall grow old like a garment". See of what kind and how great the "wrath" is, which is about to consume the whole world and will punish those who are worthy of punishment, and will find material in which to exercise itself. Each one of us, from that which he has done, has prepared material for wrath: "for according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God", it is said to the Romans.
Luke 3:8 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
If it were impossible to be rid of these serpents, the serpents residing in the soul on account of its wickedness, then the Savior (or John) would not have said: "Bring forth then fruits worthy of repentance!" Having turned, you will no longer be serpents, broods of vipers.
Luke 3:8 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22
Then there follows: "Who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance". And to you, who come to baptism, it is said: "bring forth fruits worthy of repentance". Do you wish to know what are the fruits worthy of repentance? "Love is the fruit of the spirit, joy is the fruit of the spirit, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control" and the rest of this kind. If we have all these things, we have brought forth "fruits worthy of repentance". Again it is said to those who came to John's baptism: "and do not begin to say within yourselves: we have Abraham as father; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham". John, the last of the prophets, prophesies the casting out of the former people and the calling of the Gentiles. For to those who gloried in Abraham he says: "and do not begin to say within yourselves: we have Abraham as father". And again he speaks concerning the Gentiles: "for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham". From what stones? He was certainly not pointing to irrational and bodily stones, but to insensible men, once hard, who, because they worshiped stones or wood, had that fulfilled in them which was sung in the psalm concerning such men: "let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them". Truly those who make idols and trust in them are like their gods: they have been turned, without sense and without any reason, into stones and wood. For although they see so great an order of created things, their beauty, their function, so great a beauty of the world, they are unwilling to understand the creator from the created things, nor do they consider that there is some providence over so great a dispensation, some governor; but they are blind, seeing the world only with those eyes with which irrational beasts of burden and wild animals see. For they do not perceive that there is present, in these things which they see governed by reason, some reason. These things are said because John had said: "God is able from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham". Let us therefore also beseech God that, even if we were at some time stones, we may be turned into "sons of Abraham" in place of those sons who have been cast out and who have lost the promise and the adoption by their own fault. I will yet set down one testimony concerning stones, since indeed in the canticle of Exodus it is written: "let them be turned into stones, until your people pass over, O Lord, until this your people pass over, whom you have possessed". And so God is asked that for a little while the Gentiles be turned into stones—for the Greek word sounds this more pointedly, "ἀπολιθούντωσαν" (let them be petrified)—"until the people" of the Jews "pass over". There is no doubt that, after those have passed over, the Gentiles will cease to be stony and, in place of a hard heart, will receive in Christ a human and rational nature: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 3:9 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 23
John at that time was already speaking: "Behold, the axe is laid to the root of the trees". And indeed, if the consummation were already pressing in and the end of the times were at hand, no question would arise for me. For I would say that what he says—"Behold, the axe is laid to the root of the trees"—and that other saying—"Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire"—was prophesied for this reason, because it was being fulfilled at that time. But since so many ages have flowed by since then, and such innumerable years have passed from that time to the present day, we must inquire how the Holy Spirit says in the prophet: "Behold, the axe is laid to the root of the trees". I think it is prophesied to the people of Israel, that their cutting-down is near. For "to those" who "were going out" to him, "to be baptized", he was saying, among other things: "Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance", and, as if to the Jews, he was saying: "Do not begin to say within yourselves: We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able to raise up sons of Abraham from these stones". Therefore this, which he says—"Behold, the axe is laid to the root of the trees"—he speaks to the Jews. With this sense there agrees also that saying of the Apostle, that the branches were broken off and cut down by this axe of unbelief, so that it might cut away from the tree not the root, but those things which had sprouted from the root, in order that the branches of the wild olive might be grafted into the root of the original tree. "Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire". For it has this end, that it be consumed by burning.
Luke 3:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If the completion of all things had been then already begun, and the end of time close at hand, I should have no question but that the prophecy was given, because at that time it was to be fulfilled. But now that many ages have elapsed since the Spirit spoke this, I think it was prophesied to the people of Israel, because their cutting off was approaching. For to those that went out to him that they should be baptized, he gave this warning among others.
Luke 3:10-11 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Three classes of men are introduced as enquiring of John concerning their salvation, one which the Scripture calls the multitude, another to which it gives the name of Publicans, and a third which is noticed by the appellation of soldiers. But this place admits of a deeper meaning, for as we ought not to serve two masters, so neither to have two coats, lest one should be the clothing of the old man, the other of the new, but we ought to cast off the old man, and give to him who is naked. For one man has one coat, another has none at all, the strength therefore of the two is exactly contrary, and as it has been written that we should cast all our crimes to the bottom of the sea, so ought we to throw from us our vices and errors, and lay them upon him who has been the cause of them.
Luke 3:11 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 23
Then three orders are introduced of those inquiring of John concerning their salvation: one, which Scripture called "the peoples going out to the baptism"; another, which it names "tax collectors"; a third, which is reckoned under the appellation of "soldiers". "The crowds asked him, saying: What shall we do? And he answering said to them: He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none, and he who has food, let him do likewise"—which indeed I do not know whether it is fitting to be commanded to the crowds. For it befits the apostles rather than the common people that he who has two tunics should give one to him who has none. And that you may know that this befits the apostles rather than the peoples, hear what is said by the Savior to them: "Do not take two tunics on the way". And so the double garment with which each one is clothed, and the command that he give the other "to him who has none", sounds forth another understanding. For the Savior wishes that, just as we ought not to "serve two masters", so neither should we have two tunics nor be wrapped in a double garment, lest there be one garment of the old man and another of the new. On the contrary, he desires that "we strip off the old man and put on the new". Thus far the exposition is easy. But further it is asked how, according to this interpretation, we are bidden to give a garment "to him who has none". Who then is that one who does not have even a single garment upon his flesh, who is naked, who is covered by no clothing at all? Nor indeed do I say this in order that liberality and mercy toward the poor and hyperbolic clemency should not be commanded, so that we should cover even the naked with a second tunic. But I say this, that this passage admits also a deeper understanding, and that we ought to give a tunic to him who has none at all. Who then is this one who has no tunic? Surely he who utterly does not have God. We ought therefore to strip ourselves and give to him who is naked. One has God, another has him not at all—that contrary power, namely. And just as it is written that "we should cast our sins into the depth of the sea", so we ought to throw off from ourselves our vices and sins and cast them upon him who was for us the cause of them. "And he who has food", he says, "let him do likewise". He who has food, let him give to him who has none, so that he may bestow upon him not only clothing, but also that which he may eat.
Luke 3:12-13 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 23
"Now the tax collectors also came to be baptized by him". This, even according to the simple understanding, may teach the tax collectors to seek "nothing more" than what is commanded in the law; for those who exact more transgress not the commandment of John, but of the Holy Spirit, who spoke in John. But I do not know whether, according to the ἀναγωγήν (the anagogical or higher sense), the discourse signifies something else more excellent, and whether we ought to bring forth things so mystical in such an audience, especially among those who do not look into the marrow of the Scriptures, but delight only in the surface. It is indeed dangerous, yet it must be touched upon summarily and briefly. When we have departed from the world and this our life has been changed, there will be certain ones sitting at the boundaries of the world, most diligently searching, as if by the office of tax collectors, lest they find anything of their own in us. It seems to me that "the prince of this world" is like a tax collector, whence it is written of him: "The prince of this world comes, and in me he has nothing". That also which we read in the Apostle: "Render to all their debts; to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom, custom; to whom honor, honor; owe nothing to anyone, except that you love one another"—is to be understood in a sacred sense. Wherefore let us consider to how great dangers we are subject, lest perchance, when we do not have that which we may render for the custom, we ourselves be dragged off for the debt, as is wont to happen also among the tribute-payers of the world, when someone for a debt is himself shut up to serve the state. Very many of us are to be held by tax collectors of this sort—whom that holy man Jacob did not greatly dread, nor fear that anything from the tax collectors' tributes should be found in him. Whence Laban spoke boldly to that tax collector: "Recognize, if anything of your goods is with me". Concerning which Scripture gives testimony, saying: "And Laban did not recognize anything with Jacob". Therefore our Savior, and the Holy Spirit who spoke in the prophets, teaches not only men, but also angels and invisible powers. Why do I speak of the Savior? The prophets themselves too and the apostles preach all that they proclaim not only to men, but also to angels. That you may know this to be true, he says: "Give heed, O heaven, and I will speak", and: "In the sight of the angels I will sing praise to you", and: "Praise the Lord, you heavens of heavens, and let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord", and: "Let the angels praise him", and: "In every place of his dominion, bless the Lord, O my soul". You will find in many places, and especially in the Psalms, that discourse is directed also to the angels, since power is given to man—to him, that is, who has the Holy Spirit—to address even the angels. Of these I will set down one example, that we may know that the angels too are instructed by human voices. It is written in the Apocalypse of John: "To the angel of the church of the Ephesians write: I have something against you". And again: "To the angel of the church of Pergamum write: I have something against you". Certainly it is a man who writes to the angels and commands them something. I do not doubt that angels are present also in our assembly, not only generally to the whole church, but even individually, concerning whom the Savior says: "Their angels always behold the face of my Father, who is in heaven". A twofold church is present here, one of men, the other of angels. If we say anything according to reason and according to the will of the Scriptures, the angels rejoice and pray with us. And because the angels are present in the church—in that church, at least, which merits it and is Christ's—therefore it is commanded to women when praying that they have "a veil upon the head because of the angels". What angels? Surely those who assist the saints and rejoice in the church,…
Luke 3:15 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 25
Even love has its danger, if it exceed due measure. For whoever loves someone ought to consider the nature and the reasons for loving, and not to love him more than he deserves. For if love should overstep its measure and limit, both the one who loves and the one who is loved will be in sin. That this may become clearer, let us set forth an example. The people marveled at John and loved him, and it was truly a wonder deserving that more honor be paid to him than to the rest of men, since he had lived otherwise than all mortals. We are none of us content with simple food, but we take delight in a variety of dishes; a single kind of wine does not suffice us to drink, and we purchase wines of various flavors; but John always fed on "locusts", always on "wild honey", and was content with simple and meager food, lest his body should grow fat with richer viands and be weighed down with dainty banquets. For our bodies are of such a nature that they are burdened by superfluous food, and when the body has been burdened, the soul too is weighed down, which, being diffused throughout the whole body, lies subject to its passions. Wherefore it is rightly enjoined upon those who are able to observe it: "It is good not to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything by which your brother is made to stumble". The life of John, therefore, was wonderful and much different from the manner of life of other men. He had no purse, no servant, not even a cheap hut. He dwelt in the desert, not only up to "the day of his showing forth to Israel", but also at that time when he preached repentance to the people, he was in the wilderness of Judea and was watered by plain water, so that in his drink also he was different from the rest. We who dwell in cities, who are in the midst of peoples, seek finer garments and foods and dwellings; but he, who dwelt in the wilderness—see with what clothing he was clad: "from camels' hair" he had made himself a tunic, and he was girded with "a leather belt". All things, therefore, in him were new, and because of the unlikeness of his life all who saw him marveled at him, and, marveling, most zealously honored him, above all because he baptized the penitent "unto the remission of sins". For which reasons they indeed loved him most justly, but they did not keep due measure in their love: for they were thinking, "lest perhaps he himself were the Christ". Guarding against such disordered and irrational love, the apostle Paul spoke of himself: "But I fear lest anyone should think of me above that which he sees or hears from me; and lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me", and so on. Fearing this, lest he himself also fall into it, he was unwilling to disclose about himself all that he knew, lest anyone should suppose him to be more than he perceived, and, exceeding the measure of honor, should say what had been said of John, namely that "he himself was the Christ". This indeed some have said even of Dositheus, the heresiarch of the Samaritans, and others also of Judas the Galilean. In short, certain men rushed into such audacity of love that they invented certain new and unheard-of monstrosities concerning Paul. For some say that what is written, "to sit at the right hand of the Savior and at the left", is said of Paul and of Marcion—that Paul sits "at the right hand", and Marcion sits "at the left". Others, moreover, reading, "I will send you an advocate, the Spirit of truth", are unwilling to understand a third person distinct from the Father and the Son, and a divine and sublime nature, but rather the apostle Paul. Do not all these seem to you to have loved more than is fitting, and, while they marvel at the excellence of each one, to have lost the measure of love? This indeed we too suffer in the church; for very many, while they love us more than we deserve, boast these things and speak, praising our sermons and doctrine in a way that our conscience does not accept. Others, on the contrary, slandering our tr…
Luke 3:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
It was meet that more deference should be paid to John than to other men, for he lived such as no other man. Wherefore indeed most rightly did they regard him with affection, only they kept not within due bounds; hence it is said, But while the people were expecting whether he were the Christ. But love is dangerous when it is uncontrolled. For he who loves any one ought to consider the nature and causes of loving, and not to love more than the object deserves. For if he pass the due measure and bounds of love, both he who loves, and he who is loved, will be in sin.
Luke 3:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And as John was waiting by the river Jordan for those who came to his baptism, and some he drove away, saying, Generation of vipers, but those who confessed their sins he received, so shall the Lord Jesus stand in the fiery stream with the flaming sword, that whoever after the close of this life desires to pass over to Paradise and needs purification, He may baptize him with this laver, and pass him over to paradise, but whoso has not the seal of the former baptisms, him He shall not baptize with the laver of fire.
Luke 3:16 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 24
The people received John, who was lesser than Christ, supposing and pondering "whether perhaps he himself were the Christ"; but him who came as "greater" than John they did not receive. Do you wish to know the reason? Learn it: John's baptism was visible, Christ's baptism was invisible. "For I", he says, "baptize you with water; but he who comes after me is greater than I, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". When does Jesus baptize "with the Holy Spirit", and again, when does he baptize "with fire"? Does he baptize both "with the Spirit and with fire" at one and the same time, or at a distinct and different time? "But you", he says, "shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence". The apostles were baptized "with the Holy Spirit" after his ascension into the heavens; but that they were baptized "with fire", Scripture does not record. But just as John, beside the river Jordan, awaited those coming to the baptism, and drove others away, saying: "brood of vipers" and the rest, while those who confessed their vices and sins he received, so the Lord Jesus Christ will stand in the river of fire beside the "flaming sword", so that whoever, after the departure from this life, desires to pass over to paradise and has need of cleansing, he may baptize with that stream and send across to the things longed for; but him who does not have the sign of the earlier baptisms he will not baptize with the fiery washing. For it is fitting that one first be baptized "with water and the Spirit", so that, when he comes to the fiery river, he may show that he has kept both the washings of water and of the Spirit, and then may deserve to receive also the baptism of fire in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Luke 3:17 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
"God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth". Our God too "is a consuming fire". God, therefore, is called by two names: both "spirit" and "fire": spirit for the righteous, fire for sinners. But the angels also are called spirits and fire: "he who makes", it says, "his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire"; to the holy ones they are spirits, but to those who deserve punishments they supply fire and burning. According to which sense our Lord and Savior too, since he is "spirit", "came to send fire upon the earth"; "spirit" according to that which is written: "but when you have turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away", and: "the Lord is a spirit". But "he came to send fire" not upon heaven, but "upon the earth", as he himself shows when he says: "I came to send fire upon the earth, and what do I wish but that it already blaze?" For if "you have turned to the Lord", who is "spirit", Christ will be "spirit" to you and "he did not come to send fire upon the earth". But if you are not turned to him, but have earth and its fruits, "he came to send fire upon" your "earth". Something like this is also written concerning God: "a fire is kindled in my fury", not as far as heaven, but "as far as hell beneath", and "it shall devour" not heaven, but "the earth and its produce". To what end have I recalled these things? Because the baptism too, with which Jesus baptizes, is "in the Holy Spirit" and "in fire". I remember the things I spoke recently, nor has the earlier explanation escaped me, but I wish to bring in something new as well. If you are holy, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit; if a sinner, you will be plunged into fire; and one and the same baptism will be turned, for the unworthy and for sinners, into condemnation and fire, but to those who are holy and turn to the Lord with their whole faith, the grace and salvation of the Holy Spirit is to be granted. He, therefore, who is said to baptize "in the Holy Spirit and in fire", has "a winnowing fork in his hand and he will cleanse his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire". I wish to find the reason why our Lord has a "winnowing fork", and by what wind blowing the light chaff is snatched hither and thither, while the heavy wheat is carried down into one place; for neither can the wheat and the chaff be separated without wind. I consider that temptations are to be understood in place of the wind, which out of the mingled heap of believers show some to be chaff, others to be wheat. For when your soul has been overcome by some temptation, the temptation does not turn you into chaff, but, since you were chaff — namely light and unbelieving — the temptation reveals you to be what you were hiding. On the contrary, however, when you bravely endure trials, the temptation does not make you faithful and patient, but it brings out into the open the virtue of patience and fortitude which was in you, but was hidden. "For do you think", says the Lord, "that I spoke to you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?" And elsewhere: "I afflicted you and beset you with want, that the things which were in your heart might be made manifest". In this manner too the storm does not make a building stand firm upon the sand, but, if you wish to build, upon "the rock"; and when the storm has arisen, that which is founded "upon the rock" it will not overthrow, but that which sways "upon the sand" it proves at once to have been not well founded. Wherefore, before the storm arises, before the blasts of the winds rise up, before the rivers swell, while all things are still silent, let us turn all our zeal to the foundations of our buildings, let us build our house with the varied and firm stones of the precepts of God, so that, when persecution rages and a dreadful whirlwind rises up against Christians, we may show that we have a building "upon the rock", Christ Jesus. But…
Luke 3:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, because without the wind the wheat and chaff cannot be separated, therefore He has the fan in His hand, which shows some to be chaff, some wheat; for when you were as the light chaff; (i. e. unbelieving,) temptation showed you to be what you knew not; but when you shall bravely endure temptation, the temptation will not make you faithful and enduring, but it will bring to light the virtue which was hid in you.
Luke 3:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
John having announced the coming of Christ, was preaching the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the other things which the Gospel history has handed down to us. But besides these he is declared to have announced others in the following words, And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people. And as in the Gospel according to St. John it is related of Christ that He spoke many other things, so also in this place we must understand Luke to say the same of John the Baptist, since certain things are announced by John too great to be entrusted to writing.
Luke 3:18 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
He who teaches the word of the Gospel proclaims not one thing but very many. For this is what Scripture signifies when it says: "now with many other exhortations also he was proclaiming good news". And so John was preaching to the people "other" things as well, which are not written down; but the things that are written—consider how many they were. He proclaimed Christ, he pointed him out, he preached the baptism of the Holy Spirit; he taught the tax collectors salvation, the soldiers discipline, that the threshing floor is to be cleansed, that the trees are to be cut down, and the rest that the narrative of the Gospel relates. Therefore, apart from these things that are written, he is shown to have proclaimed still other things that are not written, in that it is said: "now with many other exhortations also he was proclaiming good news to the people". And just as in the Gospel according to John it is reported concerning Christ that he spoke many other things also, "which are not written in this book", "which, if they were written, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written": so also in the present passage understand that Luke perhaps, since certain things greater than ought to be committed to letters were being proclaimed by John, was unwilling to state them by name, but only indicated that they had been spoken, and therefore said: "now with many other exhortations also he was proclaiming good news to the people".
Luke 3:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But we marvel at John, because among them that are born of women there was not a greater than he, for by his good deeds he had been exalted to so high a fame for virtue, that by many he was supposed to be Christ. But what is much more marvellous he feared not Herod, nor dreaded death, as it follows, But Herod the tetrarch being reproved by him.
Luke 3:19 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
Let us marvel at John, and indeed from the very things that follow, most of all because "among those born of women there was none greater than John the Baptist", and because he rightly rose to so great a reputation by his virtue that he was thought by very many to be "the Christ". But this is far more marvelous: Herod the tetrarch held royal power and could have killed him whenever he wished; and although he had done an unjust deed and one contrary to the law of Moses, in taking his brother's wife, who had a daughter by her former husband, John did not fear him, did not show partiality, did not consider, as I have said, the royal power, did not dread destruction—for he knew, even if he were not a prophet, that when provoked Herod could kill him—so then, though he knew all these things, with prophetic liberty he rebuked Herod and denounced the incestuous marriage.
Luke 3:20 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
And on that account, shut up "in prison", he was anxious not about death, not about the uncertain judgment of the judge, but in his chains was thinking about Christ, whom he had proclaimed. And because he himself could not go to him, he sends his disciples to inquire: "Are you he who is to come, or do we look for another?" Take note that he taught "even in prison". For whence had he disciples even in that place, and for what reason did they persevere there, unless because even in prison he was performing the office of a master and was instructing them with divine discourses? And among these, when a question had arisen concerning Jesus, he sends some of his disciples and asks: "Are you he who is to come, or do we look for another?" The disciples return and report to their master what the Savior had commanded to be reported: armed with his words, John dies confidently for the battle and is gladly beheaded, confirmed by the very voice of the Lord that he whom he believed was truly the Son of God. So much concerning John and his liberty, and concerning the madness of Herod, who upon many crimes added this one also, that he first shut John up in prison and afterward beheaded him.
Luke 3:21 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
But because the Lord was baptized and the heavens were opened and "the Holy Spirit descended" upon him and a voice thundered from the heavens saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", it must be said that at the baptism of Jesus heaven was unbarred, and that the heavens were opened for the dispensation of the remission of sins—not of him "who had done no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth"—but for the whole world.
Luke 3:22 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
And that the Holy Spirit descended so that, after the Lord "had ascended on high leading captivity captive", he might bestow on us the Spirit who had come to him; which Spirit indeed he also gave at the time of his resurrection, saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven him; if you retain anyone's, they will be retained". Now "the Holy Spirit descended upon" the Savior "in the form of a dove", a bird that is gentle, innocent, and simple. Whence it is also commanded to us that we should imitate the innocence of doves. Such is the Holy Spirit—clean and winged and rising to the heights. Wherefore in prayer we say: "Who will give me wings like a dove's, and I shall fly and be at rest?"—that is: who will give me the wings of the Holy Spirit? And in another place the prophetic word promises: "If you sleep in the midst of the lots, the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of its back in the greenness of gold". For if we take our rest "in the midst of the lots" of the Old and New Testament, there will be given to us "the wings of a dove covered with silver", that is, the words of God, and "its hinder parts" radiant with the gleam and "greenness" of gold, so that our understanding may be filled with the perceptions of the Holy Spirit—that is, so that our speech and mind may be filled with his coming, and that we may neither say anything nor understand anything except what he has suggested, and that all sanctification, both in heart and in words and in deed, may come from the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 3:23 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 2.5
But you too, who hear these things, if you attend to the holy Scriptures in your leisure, will find very many deeds of great matters contained under the number thirty or fifty. At thirty years of age Joseph is brought out of prison and receives the sovereignty of all Egypt, that by divine foresight he might drive off the ruin of the impending famine. Jesus is related to be of thirty years when He came to the baptism and "saw the heavens divided and the Spirit of God coming upon Himself in the likeness of a dove"; where also the mystery of the Trinity first began to be disclosed.
Luke 3:23-38 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 28
Our Lord and Savior, who was far better than Melchizedek, whose lineage Scripture has not disclosed, is now described as having been born according to the order of the fathers; and although his divinity is not subject to any human beginning, for your sake, who were born in the flesh, he willed to be born. And yet the order of his birth is not narrated in the same way by the evangelists, a matter which has greatly troubled some people. For Matthew, beginning to weave the sequence of that birth from Abraham, arrives at the point of saying: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way", and he describes not the one who was baptized, but the one who came into the world; whereas Luke, in setting forth his birth, does not lead down from higher to lower, but, when he had first spoken of him as baptized, ascends all the way to God himself. Nor are the persons the same in his genealogy when he is said to descend and when he is said to ascend. For the one who makes him descend from the heavens introduces women too, and not just any women, but sinful ones, and women whom Scripture had censured; but the one who narrates him as baptized makes mention of no woman. In Matthew, therefore, as we have said, there is named Tamar, who by deceit lay with her father-in-law, and Ruth the Moabite, not of the stock of Israel, and Rahab, whose origin I cannot know, and the wife of Uriah, who violated her husband's bed. For because our Lord and Savior had come for this purpose, that he might take up the sins of men, and God "made him who had done no sin to be sin for us", therefore, descending into the world, he assumed the person of sinful and vicious men, and willed to be born of the line of Solomon, whose sins are recorded, and of Rehoboam, whose transgressions are related, and of the rest, many of whom did "evil in the sight of the Lord". But when he ascends from the washing and is described as born a second time, he is born not through Solomon, but through Nathan, who rebuked his father over the death of Uriah and the birth of Solomon. But in Matthew the term "begetting" is always added; here, however, it is entirely passed over in silence. For there it is written: "Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, Judah begot Perez and Zerah of Tamar", and right up to the end "begot" is always attached. But in Luke, where Jesus ascends from the washing, he is called "son", "as was supposed, of Joseph"; and in so long a series of names, except for the fact that he "was supposed to be the son of Joseph", the term "begetting" is nowhere written down. In Matthew it is not written: "he was beginning"; but here, because he was about to ascend from baptism, "he was beginning" is read, Scripture relating: "and this same Jesus was beginning". For when he was baptized and took up the mystery of the second birth, so that you too might destroy your former nativity and be born in the second regeneration, then he is said "to have begun". And just as the people of the Jews, when they were in Egypt, did not have a beginning of months, but when they had gone out of Egypt, then it is said to them: "this month, the beginning of months, shall be the first for you among the months of the year", so he who is not yet baptized is not narrated "to have begun". For let us not suppose that it was added in vain to that which is said, "this same was Jesus", what follows: "beginning". But this also, which he says, "about thirty years old", must be considered. "Joseph was thirty years old" when he was released from his chains and, having interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, was made ruler of Egypt, and in the time of plenty gathered wheat, so that in the time of famine he might have what he could distribute. I think that the thirty years of Joseph went before, as a type of the thirty years of the Savior. For this Joseph gathered not such wheat as that Joseph in Egypt, but true and heavenly wheat, so that, the wheat having been gathered in the time of pl…
Luke 3:23-38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Having related our Lord's baptism, he next enters upon the generation of the Lord, not bringing it down from the higher to the lower, but beginning with Christ, he carries it up to God Himself. Hence he says, And Jesus Himself began. For when He was baptized, and had Himself undergone the mystery of the second birth, then He is said to have begun, that thou also mightest destroy this first birth and be born in the second. The Lord descending into the world took upon Him the person of all sinners, and was willing to be born of the stock of Solomon, (as Matthew relates,) whose sins have been written down, and of the rest, many of whom did evil in the sight of God. But when He ascended, and is described as being born a second time in baptism, (as Luke relates,) He is not born through Salomon, but Nathan, who reproves the father for the death of Uriah, and the birth of Solomon.
Luke 4:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
When therefore you read that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, and it is written in the Acts concerning the Apostles, that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, you must not suppose that the Apostles were equal to the Saviour. For as if you should say, These vessels are full of wine or oil, you would not thereby affirm them to be equally full, so Jesus and Paul were full of the Holy Spirit, but Paul's vessel was far less than that of Jesus, and yet each was filled according to its own measure. Having then received baptism, the Saviour, being full of the Holy Spirit, which came upon Him from heaven in the form of a dove, was led by the Spirit, because, as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God, (Rom. 8:14.) but He was above all, especially the Son of God.
Luke 4:1 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 29
When you read in the Gospel: "But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned", and in the Acts of the Apostles, where it is written of them that they were "filled" with "the Holy Spirit", take care not to suppose that the apostles were equal to the Savior; rather, understand that Jesus and the apostles and any other of the saints are full of the Holy Spirit according to the measure of their own vessel. Just as, for example, if you wish to say: these vessels are full of wine or oil, you do not thereby indicate that they are full in equal measure — since one can hold a sextarius, another an urn, another an amphora — in the same way both Jesus and Paul were full of the Holy Spirit; but the vessel of Paul was much smaller than the vessel of Jesus, and yet each was full according to its own measure. And so, having received baptism, the Savior, "full of the Holy Spirit", which had come upon him from the heavens "in the form of a dove", "was led by the Spirit". For since "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God", and he beyond all others was properly the Son of God, therefore he too had to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Luke 4:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But Jesus is tempted by the devil forty days, and what the temptations were we know not. They were perhaps omitted, as being greater than could be committed to writing.
Luke 4:2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 29
For it is written: "And he was led into the desert by the Spirit for forty days and was tempted by the devil". For forty days Jesus is tempted, and what the temptations were, we do not know; and these were perhaps passed over for the reason that they were too great to be entrusted to writing. And if it is right to say it thus: just as "the world could not contain all the books", if the things which Jesus taught and did had been written down, so the world could not bear the temptations of the forty days, by which the Lord was tempted by the devil, if Scripture had recorded them. It suffices for us to know only this much: that "he was for forty days in the desert and was tempted by the devil and ate nothing in those days"; for he was mortifying the sense of the flesh by continual and unbroken fasting.
Luke 4:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
When a father is asked by his son for bread, he does not give him a stone for bread, but the devil like a crafty and deceitful foe gives stones for bread. I suppose also that even now at this very time the devil shows a stone to men that he may tempt them to speak, saying to them, Command this stone to be made bread. If thou seest the heretics devouring their lying doctrines as if they were bread, know that their teaching is a stone which the devil shows them.
Luke 4:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 29
"And when the days were completed, he hungered. And the devil said to him: If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread". "Tell", he says, "this stone". Which stone? Surely the one the devil was pointing out, the one he wants to be made bread. What sort of temptation is this, that when a son asks his father for bread and the father does not give him a stone, this adversary, crafty and deceitful, should give a stone in place of bread? Is this the whole of what the devil wanted — that a stone should become bread, and that men should feed not on bread but on a stone, which the devil had pointed out in place of bread? I think that even to this day the devil shows a stone and urges each person to say: "tell this stone to become bread". By every temptation with which men were to be tempted, the Lord was tempted first, according to his assumption of the flesh. And he is tempted for this reason, that we too, when he conquers, may conquer. What I say perhaps becomes obscure, unless it is made clearer by an example. If you see heretics eating the lie of their own doctrines in place of bread, know that their teaching is a stone which the devil points out. But do not suppose that he has only one stone; he has many stones, from which he is introduced speaking in Matthew: "tell these stones to become loaves". Marcion spoke, and the devil's stone became bread for him. Valentinus spoke, and another stone was turned into bread for him. Basilides too had bread of this kind, and so did the rest of the heretics. Hence we must anxiously take care, lest perhaps, while eating the devil's stone, we suppose that we are feeding on the bread of God. Otherwise, what temptation was there in a stone becoming bread and being eaten by the Savior? For let us imagine that, at the devil's suggestion, the Lord had turned a stone into bread, and had eaten what he himself had made by his own power, and had satisfied his hunger: what sort of temptation is this, what victory over the devil, if these things were written down in a plain sense? But these things, as we have said, when their reason is discerned, both show that there would have been a temptation, if they had been done, and that the victory came about because they were spurned.
Luke 4:4 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 29
And at the same time it is shown that this bread, which comes from a stone, is not the word of God which feeds man, of which it is written: "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which shall proceed through the mouth of God shall man live". I answer you, O crafty and wicked one, who do not fear to tempt me: there is another bread, that of the word of God, which gives life to man. And at the same time let us see that these things are spoken not by the Son of God, but by the man whom the Son of God deigned to assume; for he answers as though concerning a man and says: "It is written: man shall not live by bread alone", from which it is manifest that it was not God, but man, who was tempted. Sifting the sense of the Scripture diligently, I think I find the reason why John did not describe the temptation of the Lord, but only Matthew, Luke, and Mark. For John, because he had made his beginning from God, saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word", and could not weave the order of the divine generation, but had only expressed that he was from God and with God, added: "And the Word was made flesh". Furthermore, since God cannot be tempted — and it was of God that his discourse concerned — therefore he does not bring in that one being tempted by the devil. But because "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ" is narrated in Matthew's Gospel concerning that man who had been born of Mary, and in Luke his generation is described, and in Mark it is a man who is tempted, therefore his corresponding answer is reported: "man shall not live by bread alone". If, then, the Son of God, being God, was made man for you and is tempted, you, who are man by nature, ought not to be indignant if perhaps you are tempted. But if, when tempted, you have imitated that man who was tempted for you, and have conquered every temptation, you will have hope together with him who then was a man, but now has ceased to be a man. For he who was once a man, after he was tempted and "the devil departed from him until a time" of death, "rising from the dead dies no more". Every man is subject to death; therefore this one, who in no way dies, is now no longer a man, but is God. But if he is God who was once a man, and you must become like him — when "we shall be like him and shall see him as he is" — it will be necessary that you too become God in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 4:5-8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, to view the whole in another light. Two kings are earnestly contending for a kingdom; The king of sin who reigneth over sinners, that is, the devil; The king of righteousness who ruleth the righteous, that is, Christ. The devil, knowing that Christ had come to take away his kingdom, shows Him all the kingdoms of the world; not the kingdoms of the Persians and of the Medes, but his own kingdom whereby he reigned in the world, whereby some are under the dominion of fornication, others of covetousness. And he shows Him them in a moment of time, that is, in the present course of time, which is but a moment in comparison of eternity. For the Saviour needed not to be shown for any longer time the affairs of this world, but as soon as He turned His eyes to look, He beheld sins reigning, and men made slaves to vice. The devil therefore says unto Him, Camest Thou to contend with me for dominion? Worship me, and behold I give Thee the kingdom I hold. Now the Lord would indeed reign, but being Righteousness itself, would reign without sin; and would have all nations subject to Him, that they might obey the truth, but would not so reign over others as that He Himself should be subject to the devil. Hence it follows, And Jesus answering said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. Or else, All these, he says, I would have subject to me, that they might worship the Lord God, and serve Him alone. But dost thou wish sin to begin from Me, which I came hither to destroy?
Luke 4:5 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 30
Both the Son of God and the Antichrist have a zeal for reigning. But the Antichrist desires to reign in order to kill those whom he has subjected to himself; Christ reigns for this purpose, that he may save. And each one of us, if he is faithful, is ruled by Christ through the word, wisdom, justice, truth. But if we are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, we are ruled by sin, concerning which the Apostle speaks: "let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body". Two kings, therefore, hasten in rivalry to reign: the king of sin over sinners, the devil; the king of justice over the just, Christ. And the devil, knowing that Christ had come for this purpose, to take away his kingdom, and that those who were under him should begin to be under Christ, "showed him all the kingdoms of the world" and of the men of this age—how some are ruled by fornication, others by avarice, how these are carried off by the breeze of popular favor, those are captivated by the allurements of beauty. Nor indeed is it to be thought that, in showing him the kingdoms of the world, he pointed out, for example, the kingdom of the Persians and of the Indians, but rather "he showed him all the kingdoms of the world"—that is, his own kingdom, how he reigned in the world—so that, urging him to do what he wished, he might begin to have even Christ subject to him. Do you wish, he says, to reign over all these?
Luke 4:7-8 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 30
The devil therefore says to the Lord: You have come for this, to fight against me and to take from my dominion those whom I now hold subject. I do not wish you to contend, I do not wish you to strive, lest you have any trouble in the struggle. There is one thing that I beg: "falling down, adore me", and receive all the kingdom that I hold. But our Lord and Savior does indeed wish to reign and to have all the nations subject to himself, that they may serve justice, truth, and the other virtues; yet he wishes to reign as justice itself, so that he may reign without sin, so that he may do nothing unseemly, and he does not wish to be crowned without labor by being subject to the devil, nor so to reign over the rest that he himself should be ruled by the devil. Whence he speaks to him: "it is written: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve". All these, he says, I wish for this reason to be subject to me, that they may "adore the Lord God and serve him alone"; this is the desire of my kingdom. But you wish sin to begin from me—sin which I have come here to dissolve, and which I desire to take away from the rest as well. Know and understand that I abide in what I have said, that the Lord God alone should be adored, and that I will bring all these under my power and subject them to my kingdom. To whom we too rejoice to be subject, and let us beseech God that he may put to death "the sin reigning in" our "body" and that Christ Jesus alone may reign in us: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 4:9 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 31
Search the Scriptures, so that even in those things which are thought to be simple you may discover mysteries that are by no means small. Let us search the beginning of the Gospel reading which we have heard today, and let what was hidden come forth into the open. "He brought," it says, that is, the devil brought Jesus "into Jerusalem." This is incredible, that the devil should lead the Son of God and that he should follow. Yet he clearly followed, like an athlete going of his own accord to the contest. He did not dread the tempter, nor was he afraid of the snares of the craftiest of enemies, and in a certain manner he was saying: lead where you wish, tempt as you please, of my own accord I give myself over to be tempted, I endure whatever you may suggest, I offer myself in whatever you may try: you will find me stronger in all things. "He brought him therefore into Jerusalem, and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him: if you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here." He brought him up to the top, to the summit of the temple, and urges him to throw himself down from there.
Luke 4:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He followed evidently as a wrestler, gladly setting out to meet the temptation, and saying, as it were, Lead me where you will, and you will find me the stronger in every thing.
Luke 4:10-11 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Whence knowest thou, Satan, that those things are written? Hast thou read the Prophets, or the oracles of God? Thou hast read them indeed, but not that thyself mightest be the better for the reading, but that from the mere letter thou mightest slay them who are friends to the letter. (2 Cor. 3:6.) Thou knowest that if thou wert to speak from His other books, thou wouldest not deceive. But mark how wily he is even in this testimony. For he would fain throw a slur upon the glory of the Saviour, as though He needed the assistance of angels, and would stumble were He not supported by their hands. But this was said not of Christ, but of the saints generally; He needs not the aid of angels, Who is greater than angels. But let this teach thee, Satan, that the angels would stumble did not God sustain them; and thou stumblest, because thou refusest to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God. But why art thou silent as to what follows, Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, (Ps. 91:13.) except that thou art the basilisk, thou art the dragon and the lion?
Luke 4:10-11 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 31
And at the same time consider how the devil tempts. He does not dare to tempt from any other source than from the divine books, and taking a testimony from the Psalms he says: "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down. For it is written: that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." Whence do you know, O devil, that these things are written? Have you perhaps read the prophets or come to know the divine utterances? Though you be silent, I will answer for you. You have read, not that you yourself might become better from the reading of the holy things, but that from the bare letter you might slay those who are friends of the letter. You know that, if you should wish to speak to him from other volumes, you will not deceive, nor will your assertions be able to have any authority. Thus Marcion reads the Scriptures like the devil, thus Basilides, thus Valentinus, so that with the devil they might say to the Savior: "It is written, that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." Whenever you hear testimonies drawn from the Scriptures, see that you do not at once give assent to the one speaking, but consider the man—of what life, of what opinion, of what will he is—lest perhaps he feign himself to be holy, which he is not, and, infected with the poisons of heresy, lie hidden as a wolf under the sheep's skin, lest perhaps the devil speak in him from the Scriptures. But just as the devil, according to the occasion of the times, speaks from the Scriptures, so, on the contrary, Paul, for the benefit of those who hear, takes a testimony not only from the Scriptures but even from secular books, and says: "The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies," and again from another: "for we are also his offspring," and likewise from the comic poet: "evil conversations corrupt good morals." But neither, if the devil has spoken from the Scriptures, will he be able by this occasion to deceive me, nor, if Paul has taken some example from Gentile writings, will he deter me from his own discourse. For Paul takes up words even from those things which are outside, in order to sanctify them. Let us see, then, what the devil speaks to the Lord from the Scriptures: "For it is written, that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." See how, even in the testimonies themselves, he is shifty. For he wishes to diminish the glory of the Savior, as though he needed the help of the angels, being about to dash his foot unless he were lifted up by their hands. He takes up a testimony and interprets of Christ that which was written not of Christ, but of the saints generally. For freely and with all confidence I contradict the devil, that this cannot be understood of the person of Christ. For he does not need the help of the angels, who is greater than the angels and has obtained by inheritance a name better than they. To none of the angels did God ever say: "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you." To none of them did he speak as to a son, "he who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire," but to his own proper Son, of whom he speaks innumerable things in the prophets. He does not need, I say, the help of the angels, the Son of God. Nay rather, learn, O devil, that, unless Jesus should help the angels, they dash their own foot. And if any of the angels has seemed to dash his foot—of whom it was read a little while ago: "that we shall judge angels"—he dashes it for this reason, that he did not stretch out his hand to Jesus, so that, being grasped by him, he might not dash it. For when anyone, trusting in his own strength, does not call upon the protection of Jesus, he dashes his foot and falls. And you too, O devil, fell for this reason "like lightning fr…
Luke 4:12-13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But John, who had commenced his Gospel from God, saying, In the beginning was the Word, did not describe the temptation of the Lord, because God can not be tempted, of whom he wrote. But because in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke the human generations are given, and in Mark it is man who is tempted, therefore Matthew, Luke, and Mark have described the temptation of the Lord.
Luke 4:12 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 31
And when the devil deceitfully proposed this and, under the show of glory, was striving after something else, the Savior said: "It is written: you shall not tempt the Lord your God."
Luke 4:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But John, who had commenced his Gospel from God, saying, In the beginning was the Word, did not describe the temptation of the Lord, because God can not be tempted, of whom he wrote. But because in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke the human generations are given, and in Mark it is man who is tempted, therefore Matthew, Luke, and Mark have described the temptation of the Lord. The Lord having overcome the tempter, power was added to Him, i. e. as far as regards the manifestation of it. Hence it is said, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit.
Luke 4:14 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 32
First indeed: "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert for forty days". When he was being tempted by the devil, and because he was still to contend against him, once and again "Spirit" is set down without any addition. But when he had overcome by his fighting the three temptations which Scripture records, see what is placed concerning the Spirit pointedly and carefully. "Jesus", it says, "returned in the power of the Spirit". "Power" is added, because he had trampled upon the dragon and had conquered the tempter in close combat. "Jesus" therefore "returned in the power of the Spirit into the land of Galilee, and the report went out concerning him through all the surrounding region."
Luke 4:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But you must not think that they only were happy, and that you are deprived of Christ's teaching. For now also throughout the world He teaches through His instruments, and is now more glorified by all men, than at that time when those only in one province were gathered together.
Luke 4:15 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 32
And he himself taught in their synagogues and was glorified by all. When you read: "he taught in their synagogues and was glorified by all", beware lest you judge those men alone blessed and think yourself deprived of the teaching. If the things that are written are true, not only then in the assemblies of the Jews, but also today in this assembly the Lord speaks: and not only in this one, but also in another gathering and in the whole world Jesus teaches, seeking instruments through which he may teach. Pray that he may find me too composed and fit for singing! For just as almighty God seeks prophets at that time when mortals have need of prophecy, and finds, for example, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, so Jesus seeks instruments through which he may teach his word, or instruct the peoples in the synagogues, and "be glorified by all". Now Jesus is "glorified by all" more than at that time, when he was known only in a single province.
Luke 4:16-17 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 32
Then "he came into Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and having entered according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day, he stood up to read; and the book of the prophet Isaiah was given to him; and unrolling the book he found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; wherefore he has anointed me". Not by chance did he unroll the book and find the chapter prophesying about himself as the reading, but this too was of the providence of God. For just as it is written: "A sparrow does not fall into the snare without the will of the Father", and because "the hairs of the head" of the apostles "are all numbered", so perhaps this also — that the book of Isaiah especially was found, and the reading not another, but this one, which spoke the mystery of Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; wherefore he has anointed me" — for it is Christ who recounts these things — is not to be thought to have happened as it pleased and by chance, but by the providence and disposition of God.
Luke 4:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He opens not the book by chance, and finds a chapter containing a prophecy of Himself, but by the providence of God. Hence it follows, And when he had opened the book, he found the place, &c. (Is. 61:1.)
Luke 4:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
By the poor He means the Gentile nations, for they were poor, possessing nothing at all, having neither God, nor Law, nor Prophets, nor justice, and the other virtues. For what had been so shattered and dashed about as man, who was set at liberty by Jesus and healed?
Luke 4:18 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 32
Let us therefore contemplate what those things are which he spoke in the prophet and afterward sounds forth about himself in the synagogue. "He sent me", it says, "to evangelize the poor". The "poor" signifies the nations; for these were "poor", possessing nothing at all, not God, not the law, not the prophets, not justice and the remaining virtues. For which cause God sent him to announce to the poor: "to preach release to the captives". Captives we were, whom for so many years Satan had bound, holding us captive and subject to himself. Jesus came "to preach release to the captives and to the blind, that they might see"; for indeed by the word and preaching of his teaching the blind see. Let the preaching therefore be understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ (in common), not only over the captives, but also over the blind. "To send forth the broken into liberty". What was ever so broken and crushed as man, who was released and healed by Jesus?
Luke 4:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But all these things were mentioned first, in order that after the recovery of sight from blindness, after deliverance from captivity, after being healed of divers wounds, we might come to the acceptable year of the Lord. As it follows, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Some say that, according to the simple meaning of the word, the Saviour preached the Gospel throughout Judæa in one year, and that this is what is meant by preaching the acceptable year of the Lord. Or, the acceptable year of the Lord is the whole time of the Church, during which while present in the body, it is absent from the Lord.
Luke 4:19 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 32
"To preach the acceptable year of the Lord". According to the simple understanding they say that the Savior preached the Gospel in Judea for one year, and that this is what is said: "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution", unless perhaps the divine word signifies something of a mystery in the preaching of the year of the Lord. For there are to be other days, not such as we now discern in the world, and other months, and a different order of the Kalends. Just therefore as those are other, so also the year of the Lord to come is pleasing. But all these things have been foretold, that after sight from blindness, after liberty from chains, after health from diverse wounds, we may come to the "acceptable year of the Lord".
Luke 4:20 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 32
But when Jesus had read these things, rolling up "the book he gave it to the minister and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were attending upon him". And now, if you will, in this synagogue and gathering your eyes can attend upon the Savior. For when you have directed the principal gaze of your heart to wisdom and truth and to contemplating the Only-begotten of God, your eyes behold Jesus. Blessed congregation, of which Scripture testifies that "the eyes of all were attending upon him"! How I would wish that this gathering should have a like testimony, that the eyes of all — both of catechumens and of the faithful, both of women and of men and of infants — not the eyes of the body, but of the soul, should look upon Jesus! For when you shall have looked back to him, from his light and his gaze your faces will be brighter, and you will be able to say: "the light of your countenance is signed upon us, O Lord": to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 4:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And now also if we will, our eyes can look upon the Saviour. For when you direct your whole heart to wisdom, truth, and the contemplation of the only-begotten Son of God, your eyes behold Jesus.
Luke 4:23 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 33
As far as Luke's account is concerned, Jesus had not yet stayed in Capernaum, nor is he described as having done any sign there — indeed, in a place where he had not been. But before he came to Capernaum, it is signified that he had been in his own homeland, that is, in Nazareth, and he speaks to his fellow citizens: "You will surely say to me this parable: Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do here also in your own homeland". From this I think that something of a mystery lies hidden in the present passage, and that Nazareth went before as a type of the Jews, Capernaum as a type of the Gentiles. And so Jesus, knowing that he would have no honor in his own homeland — neither he himself, nor the prophets, nor the apostles — was unwilling to preach there, but preached among the Gentiles, lest it be said to him by the men of his own homeland: "You will surely say to me this parable: Physician, heal yourself". For there will be a time when the people of the Jews will say: "Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum" — the signs and portents among the Gentiles — "do also among us in your own homeland"; what you have shown to the whole world, show to us also; preach your word to your people Israel, that at least, "when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel may be saved".
Luke 4:23-24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
As far as Luke's narrative is concerned, our Lord is not yet said to have worked any miracle in Capernaum. For before He came to Capernaum, He is said to have lived at Nazareth. I cannot but think therefore that in these words, "whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum," there lies a mystery concealed, and that Nazareth is a type of the Jews, Capernaum of the Gentiles. For the time will come when the people of Israel shall say, "The things which thou hast shown to the whole world, show also to us." Preach thy word to the people of Israel, that then at least, when the fulness of the Gentiles has entered, all Israel may be saved. Our Saviour seems to me to have well answered, No prophet is accepted in his own country, but rather according to the type than the letter; though neither was Jeremiah accepted in Anathoth his country, nor the rest of the Prophets. But it seems rather to be meant that we should say, that the people of the circumcision were the countrymen of all the Prophets. And the Gentiles indeed accepted the prophecy of Jesus Christ, esteeming Moses and the Prophets who preached of Christ, far higher than they who would not from these receive Jesus.
Luke 4:24 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 33
For this reason it seems to me that the Savior answered the Nazarenes who questioned him consequently and in due order: "no prophet is accepted in his own homeland". And I think that what is said is more true according to the sacred meaning than according to the letter. Granted that Jeremiah too was not accepted in Anathoth his homeland, and Isaiah, whatever his homeland was, and the rest of the prophets; but it seems to me better to understand it thus, that we should say the homeland of all the prophets was the people of the circumcision, and that this people did not receive the prophets and their prophecies, whereas the nations, which had been far from the prophets and had no knowledge of them, received the prophecy of Jesus Christ. "No prophet" therefore "is accepted in his own homeland", that is, among the people of the Jews. But we, who were strangers to the covenant and foreigners to the promises, have received the prophets with our whole heart, and we "have Moses and the prophets" preaching about Christ more than they do, who, from the fact that they did not receive Jesus, did not receive either those who announced concerning him.
Luke 4:25-26 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 33
Hence to what he had said — "no prophet is accepted in his own homeland" — he adds another thing also: "for in truth I say to you, that there were many widows in the days of Elijah in Israel, when heaven was shut up for three years and six months". What he says is this: Elijah was a prophet and was among the people of the Jews; but when he was about to do something wonderful, although there were many widows in Israel, he left them and came "to the widow in Sarepta of Sidon", to a Gentile woman, unfolding a figure of a thing to come — that, when the people of Israel was seized "not with hunger for bread nor with thirst for water, but with hunger for hearing the word of God", he came to the widow, of whom the prophet also bears witness, saying: "many are the children of the deserted woman, more than of her who has a husband", and, when he had come, he multiplies her bread and her food. You were the widow in Sarepta of Sidon, from whose borders "the Canaanite woman comes forth" and desires that her daughter be healed and, on account of her faith, deserved to receive what she asked. "There were therefore many widows among the people of Israel, but to none of them was Elijah sent, except to the widow woman in Sarepta".
Luke 4:25-26 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For when a famine came upon the people of Israel, i. e. of hearing the word of God, a prophet came to a widow, of whom it is said, For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband; (Isa. 54:1, Gal. 4:27.) and when he had come, he multiplies her bread and her nourishment.
Luke 4:27 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 33
But he speaks also another thing pertaining to the same sense: "there were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian", who assuredly was not of Israel. Consider how up to the present day there are many lepers in "Israel according to the flesh"; see, on the contrary, those drenched with the squalor of leprosy being cleansed by the spiritual Elisha, our Lord and Savior, through the sacrament of baptism, and it being said to you: "rise and go into the Jordan and wash, and your flesh will be restored to you". Naaman rose and went, and having washed he fulfilled the mystery of baptism, "and his flesh became like the flesh of a child". Of what child? Of him who has been born in Christ Jesus "in the washing of regeneration": to whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Luke 4:27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He cites also another similar example, adding, And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of Eliseus the Prophet, and none of them were cleansed but Naaman the Syrian, who indeed was not of Israel.
Luke 4:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Here Luke speaks figuratively, as of a command given to a sensible being, saying, that the fever was commanded, and neglected not the work of Him who commanded it. Hence it follows: And she arose, and ministered unto them.
Luke 4:40 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
It was ordered about sun-set, that is, when the day was gone, that they should bring them out, either because during the day they were employed about other things, or because they thought that it was not lawful to heal on the sabbath. But He healed them, as it follows, But he laid his hands upon every one of them.
Luke 6:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13.274-77
The phrase "lift up your eyes" occurs in many places in Scripture. By this expression, the divine Word admonishes us to exalt and lift up our thoughts. It invites us to elevate the insight that lies below in a rather sickly condition and is stooped and completely incapable of looking up. For instance, it is written in Isaiah, "Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who has made all these things known?"The Savior too, when he is about to deliver the Beatitudes, lifts up his eyes to the disciples and says "blessed" are such and such.
Luke 6:22-23 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 4
I beg you to remember in your entire present contest the great reward laid up in heaven for those who are persecuted and reviled for righteousness' sake. Be glad and leap for joy on account of the Son of man, just as the apostles once rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name.
Luke 6:36 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.10
[Scripture] says that man was made in the image of God; and in him are manifestly to be discovered traces of the divine image, not by any appearance of the bodily frame, which is corruptible, but by mental wisdom, by justice, moderation, virtue, wisdom, discipline; in fine, by the whole band of virtues, which are innate in the essence of God, and which may enter into man by diligence and imitation of God; as the Lord also intimates in the Gospel, when He says, "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful; " and, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father also is perfect." From which it is clearly shown that all these virtues are perpetually in God, and that they can never approach to or depart from Him, whereas by men they are acquired only slowly, and one by one.
Luke 6:43-44 — FRAGMENTS ON LUKE 112
"The good tree" is the Holy Spirit. The "bad tree" is the devil and his underlings. The person who has the Holy Spirit manifests the fruits of the Spirit, which the apostle describes when he says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control." The one who has the opposing power brings forth briars and thistles, the passions of dishonor.
Luke 7:36-50 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77
When Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster jar of precious ointment and poured it upon his head as he reclined. But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, and so forth (26:6—13). Many indeed suppose that the four evangelists have given an account of one and the same woman, because they wrote something of this kind about a woman and all alike named an alabaster jar of ointment; but John, instead of the alabaster jar, put "a pound of ointment." But also what is said, this could have been sold and given to the poor, was said by Matthew and Mark and John; and that Christ declared that ointment to have been poured out for his burial, these too expounded; and that it happened in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, these three wrote; but John indeed said Bethany, where "they made him a supper and Martha was serving and Lazarus was one of those reclining, and Mary took a pound of ointment of pure precious nard" and so forth, from which it appears that they made a supper for him. But Luke, although he did not put Simon as a leper, nevertheless said that he was a Pharisee, who had asked Jesus "to eat with him," just as the Lord himself testifies concerning his name, saying to him there: "Simon, Simon, I have something to say to you." There seems, therefore, to be much similarity and a certain kinship concerning the woman among the four evangelists. Yet I will say to those who think that it was one woman about whom all the evangelists wrote: Do you suppose that this woman who poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment, as Matthew and Mark expounded, is the same one who also "anointed his feet with myrrh," as Luke and John expounded? But it is not possible that the evangelists, in expounding about the same woman — since they were "perfected in the same understanding and in the same spirit and in the same judgment," they who were to minister the salvation of the churches — should have said things contrary to one another. But if anyone thinks that she was the one who anointed the Lord's feet with ointment in Luke and John, let him tell us whether Mary here was the very one who in Luke is written to have been "a sinner in the city," who "learning that he had reclined in the house of the Pharisee brought an alabaster jar of ointment and standing behind at his feet weeping began to wash his feet with her tears." For it is not credible that Mary whom "Jesus loved," the sister of Martha "who had chosen the better part," should be said to have been "a sinner in the city." And do you suppose that the woman who according to Matthew and Mark poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment is not written to have been a sinner, whereas the one who according to Luke is reported as "a sinner" did not dare to come to the head of Christ but "washed his feet with her tears" as though scarcely even worthy of his very feet, from sadness working "repentance unto stable salvation"? And the one who is in Luke weeps and sheds many tears, so as to wash the "feet" of Jesus "with her tears," whereas the one who in John is Mary is introduced neither as a sinner nor as weeping. Perhaps then someone will say that there were four women about whom the evangelists wrote; but I rather agree that there were three: one indeed about whom Matthew and Mark wrote, making no difference in their exposition in that chapter; another about whom Luke wrote; and yet another about whom John wrote, since she differs from the other women not only in the things which are written about the ointment, but because "Jesus loved" Mary and Martha — although she too is reported to have been in Bethany, just as also the woman about whom Matthew and Mark expound. There is a third difference. For Matthew indeed and Mark expound that this happened in the house of Simon the leper; but John says that "Jesus six days before the Passover came into Bethany, where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised, and they made him…
Luke 7:41-42 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
The officer does not have the power to be able to remit to me even a "farthing" and the smallest portion; there is one who can remit to debtors who have nothing wherewith to pay. "There approached him", he says, "one who owed five hundred denarii, and another fifty; and since they had nothing wherewith to pay, he forgave them both". He who forgave was the master; but this one, who is the officer, is not the master, but is appointed by the master to exact the debts. You were not worthy that five hundred or fifty denarii should be forgiven you, nor did you deserve to hear: "your offenses are forgiven you".
Luke 7:47 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 2.4.5
A first forgiveness is the one by which we are baptized "for the remission of sins." A second remission is in the suffering of martyrdom. The third is the one that is given through alms. The Savior says, "But nevertheless, give what you have and, behold, all things are clean for you." A fourth forgiveness of sins is given for us through the fact that we also forgive the sins of our brothers. The Lord and Savior says, "If you will forgive from the heart your brothers' sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins. But if you will not forgive your brothers from the heart, neither will your Father forgive you." He taught us to say in prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." A fifth forgiveness of sins is when "someone will convert a sinner from the error of his way." Divine Scripture says, "Whoever will make a sinner turn from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins." A sixth forgiveness comes through the abundance of love. The Lord himself says, "Truly I say to you, her many sins are forgiven because she loved much." The apostle says, "Because love will cover a multitude of sins." There is still a seventh forgiveness of sins through penance, although admittedly it is difficult and toilsome. The sinner washes "his couch in tears," and his "tears" become his "bread day and night."
Luke 8:4-5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And therefore it is significantly said, When much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city. For not many but few there are who walk the strait road, and find the way which leadeth to life. Hence Matthew says, that He taught without the house by parables, but within the house explained the parable to His disciples. (Matt. 13:36.) (in Prov. 1.) Now a parable is a narration of an action as done, yet not done according to the letter, though it might have been, representing certain things by means of others which are given in the parable. An enigma is a continued story of things which are spoken of as done, and yet have not been done, nor are possible to be done, but contains a concealed meaning, as that which is mentioned in the Book of Judges, that the trees went forth to anoint a king over them. (Judges 9:8.) But it was not literally a fact as is said, A sower went out to sow, like those facts related in history, yet it might have been so.
Luke 8:5-8 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.4
But if we indeed hear "the word" and from the hearing "immediately" our earth produces grass, and this grass, before it comes to maturity or to fruit, "withers," our earth will be called "rocky." But if the things that are said rest on deeper roots in our heart, so that they both "bear fruit" of works and have in themselves the seeds of future ones, then truly the earth of each one of us bears fruit according to its power, one "a hundredfold," another "sixtyfold," another "thirtyfold." But we have thought it necessary to give this warning also, that our fruit nowhere have "tares," that is, nowhere have "darnel," so that it may not be "along the way," but may be sown in the very way, in that which says: "I am the way," so that "the birds of heaven" may not eat our fruits nor our vineyard.
Luke 8:12 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
For he who "went out to sow" "sows the word" over every place, but hear the Lord himself saying what the seed of God is wont to suffer: "some," he says, "fell by the wayside, and the birds of heaven come and snatch it away." Which, interpreting in what follows, he himself says: "but those who were sown by the wayside are they who hear the word of God and receive it with joy; but the devil comes and takes away from their heart what was sown." So therefore these too now come to the seed of God and wish to "take it away from the heart of those in whom it was sown," because they find them placed in the valleys and pursuing all that is lowest. For they belong to those who receive the word of God humbly and unworthily and, so to speak, with a Jewish understanding, and therefore the demons are able to "snatch it away from their heart." But he who ascends from the humility of the letter to the heights of the spirit, and, fleeing carnal understanding, pursues among the loftier things those which are of the Spirit of God — from him neither the Midianites nor the Amalekites can snatch anything.
Luke 8:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But he who would adapt his lantern to the more perfect disciples of Christ, must persuade us by those things which were spoken of John, for he was a burning and a shining light. (John 5:35.) It becomes not him then who lights the light of reason in his soul to hide it under a bed where men sleep, nor under any vessel, for he who does this provides not for those who enter the house for whom the candle is prepared, but they must set it upon a candlestick, that is, the whole Church.
Luke 8:16 — FRAGMENTS ON LUKE 120, 122
Scripture does not say this about a tangible lamp but about a comprehensible one. One does not "light" the lamp and conceal it "with a vessel" or put it "under a bed, but on the lamp stand" within himself. The vessels of the house are the powers of the soul. The bed is the body. "Those who go in" are those who hear the teacher.…He calls the holy church a "lamp stand." By its proclamation, the Word of God gives light to all who are in this world and illuminates those in the house with the rays of the truth, filling the minds of all with divine knowledge.
Luke 8:45-46 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The outer man has a sense of touch; and the inner man has it too. With such a touch the woman with the flow of blood touched the edge of Jesus' garment. She truly touched Him, as follows from His question: "Who touched me?" Yet a moment before, Peter says: "The crowd presses upon You, and You say, who touched Me?" He imagines that the one who touched did so fleshly, not spiritually. Those who surrounded Jesus did not touch Him, since they did not touch Him with faith. Only the woman, who had a kind of touch-by-grace, touched Jesus, and through it was healed. And after she touched Him, power went out from Jesus at her touch-by-grace. Therefore He says: "Who touched me? For I felt power going out from me."
Luke 8:48 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But the same cure which the woman obtained by touching Him, our Saviour confirmed by His word; as it follows, And he said unto her, Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, that is, Be released from thy scourge. And indeed He first heals her soul by faith, then truly her body.
Luke 9:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. tom. 12.) A man also denies himself when by a sufficient alteration of manners or a good conversation he changes a life of habitual wickedness. He who has long lived in lasciviousness, abandons his lustful self when he becomes chaste, and in like manner a forsaking of any crimes is a denial of one's self.
Luke 9:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(ut sup.) He assigns the cause of this when He adds, For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; that is, whosoever will according to the present life keep his own soul fixed on things of sense, the same shall lose it, never reaching to the bounds of happiness. But on the other hand He adds, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it. That is, whosoever forsakes the things of sense looking upon truth, and exposes himself to death, as it were losing his life for Christ, shall the rather save it. If then it is a blessed thing to save our life, (with regard to that safety which is in God,) there must be also a certain good surrender of life which is made by looking upon Christ. It seems also to me from resemblance to that denying of one's self which has been before spoken of, that it becomes us to lose a certain sinful life of ours, to take up that which is saved by virtue.
Luke 9:34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. tom. 12.) Now His disciples being unable to bear this, fell down, humbled under the mighty hand of God, greatly afraid since they knew what was said to Moses, No man shall see my face, and lice. Hence it follows, And they feared as they entered into the cloud.
Luke 9:36 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(ubi sup.) Now Jesus wishes not those things which relate to His glory to be spoken of before His passion. Hence it follows, And they kept it close. For men would have been offended, especially the multitude, if they saw Him crucified Who had been so glorified.
Luke 9:44 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. tom. 13.) But it is not clearly expressed by whom He is to be delivered, for one says, that He is to be delivered up by Judas, another by the devil; but Paul says, that God the Father delivered Him up for us all; (Rom. 8:32.) but Judas, as he delivered Him up for money, did it traitorously, the Father for His mercies' sake.
Luke 9:62 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 4
But you also yourself, O hearer, be the farmer of your own soul; use this plow which Shamgar uses. But when "you have put your hand to the plow", do not "look back" — that is, after "you have taken up your cross and followed Christ", after you have renounced the world and the things which are in the world, do not "look back", do not seek again those things which "for the sake of Christ you had counted as dung", because, if you always keep your "hand upon this plow", so that you may confidently say: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world", then, as you say these things, "there shall fall at your right hand ten thousand, and at your left hand a thousand, but unto you they shall not come near".
Luke 9:62 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 66
For these things and things like these ought especially to be held in mind by those who put "their hand", that is, their action, "to the plow" of teaching the doctrine of Christ, so that, knowing to whom woe is laid up (not on account of anything else except that they do not teach), they may not turn "back" after they have once put "their hand to the plow" that plows the souls of men, so that after this they may also receive the seeds of the word.
Luke 10:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Likewise also the twelve were reckoned by two and two, as Matthew shows in his enumeration of them. (Matt. 10:2.) For that two should be joined in service, seems from the word of God to be an ancient custom. For God led Israel out of Egypt by the hands of Moses and Aaron. Joshua and Caleb also, united together, appeased the people who had been provoked by the twelve spies. (Numb. 13, 14. Ex. 12.) Hence it is said, A brother assisted by a brother is as a fortified city. (Prov. 18:19. Vulg.)
Luke 10:10-11 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
By wiping off the dust of their feet against them, they in some sort say, The dust of your sins shall deservedly come upon you. And mark that the cities which receive not the Apostles and sound doctrine have streets, according to Matthew, Broad is the way which leadeth to destruction. (Matt. 7:13.)
Luke 10:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For a feeling of deficiency is the preparation for coming perfection. For whoever by the presence of the apparent good perceives not that he is destitute of the true good, is deprived of the true good.
Luke 10:22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(non occ.) He wishes to reveal as the Word, not without the exercise of reason; and as Justice, who knoweth rightly both the times for revealing, and the measures of revelation; but He reveals by removing the opposing veil from the heart, (2 Cor. 3:15) and the darkness which He has made His secret place. (Ps. 18:11.) But since upon this men who are of another opinion think to build up their impious doctrine, that in truth the Father of Jesus was sent down to the ancient saints, we must tell them that the words, To whomsoever the Son will reveal him, not only refer to the future time, after our Saviour uttered this, but also to the past time. But if they will not take this word reveal for what is past, they must be told, that it is not the same thing to know and to believe. To one is given by the Spirit the word of knowledge; to another faith by the same Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:8, 9.) There were then those who believed, but did not know.
Luke 10:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Cant. 1:2.) But why does he say that many prophets desired, and not all? Because it is said of Abraham, That he saw the day of Christ and was glad, (John 8:56.) which sight not many, but few attained to; but there were other prophets and just men not so great as to reach to Abraham's vision, and the experience of the Apostles, who, He says, saw not, but desired to see.
Luke 10:25-28 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
Although there are many precepts in the law, the Savior set down in the Gospel only these, which by a kind of summary would lead the obedient to eternal life. For he has regard to that which the doctor of the law had asked him, saying: "Master, what shall I do to possess eternal life?" — the reading which according to Luke has today been recited to you. He answered: "What is written in the law? how do you read? You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength, and with your whole mind; and your neighbor as yourself". And then he said: "You have answered well; do this, and you shall live". There is no doubt that it is everlasting life about which both the doctor of the law had inquired and the Savior's discourse had treated. And at the same time we are plainly taught that it is commanded in the law that we should love God. In Deuteronomy he says: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God", and: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole mind" and the rest, and "your neighbor as yourself". And the Savior bore witness concerning these things, saying: "On these two commandments the whole law hangs, and the prophets".
Luke 10:27-28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
From these words it is undoubtingly gathered, that the life which is preached according to God the Creator of the world, and the Scriptures given by Him, is life everlasting. For the Lord Himself bears testimony to the passage from Deuteronomy, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; (Deut. 6:5.) and from Leviticus, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Lev. 19:18.) But these things were spoken against the followers of Valentinus, Basil, and Marcion. For what else did he wish us to do in seeking eternal life, but what is contained in the Law and the Prophets?
Luke 10:29 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
But when the doctor of the law "wished to justify himself" and to show that no one was neighbor to him, and said: "Who is my neighbor?", the Lord introduced a parable whose beginning is: "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho", and the rest.
Luke 10:30 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
Although these things are said reasonably and beautifully, it is nevertheless not to be supposed that they pertain to every man. For not every man "goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho", nor do all on that account tarry in the present age, even though he who "was sent because of the lost sheep" — "of the house of Israel" — came. The man, therefore, who "went down from Jerusalem to Jericho", because he himself willed to go down, for that reason "fell among robbers". But the robbers are none other than those of whom the Savior says: "all who came before me were thieves and robbers". Yet he fell not among thieves, but among "robbers" much more wicked than thieves, who, when he was going down "from Jerusalem" and had fallen among them, "stripped him and laid blows upon him". What are the blows, what the wounds, by which the man was wounded? Vices and sins. Then, because the robbers who had stripped him and wounded him do not sit by the naked man, but, blows having again been laid on, abandon him, for this reason it is written: "stripping him and laying on wounds, they departed and left him" not dead, but "half-dead".
Luke 10:30-35 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
A certain one of the elders, wishing to interpret the parable, used to say that the man who went down is Adam, Jerusalem paradise, Jericho the world, the robbers the hostile powers, the priest the law, the Levite the prophets, the Samaritan Christ, the wounds disobedience, the beast the body of the Lord, the pandochium — that is, the inn, which receives all who wish to enter — he interpreted to be the Church. Further, the two denarii are to be understood as the Father and the Son, and the innkeeper as the president of the Church, to whom its stewardship has been entrusted. And as for the fact that the Samaritan promises he will return, he figured this according to the Savior's second coming.
Luke 10:31-32 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
And it came to pass that on the same road there went down first a "priest", then a "Levite", who had perhaps done certain good things to other men, yet not to this one who had gone down "from Jerusalem to Jericho". For the "priest" saw him — the law, I think — the "Levite" saw him — the prophetic word, as I suppose — and when they had seen him, they passed by and left him.
Luke 10:33 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
For providence was keeping the half-dead man for him who was stronger than the law and the prophets, namely the Samaritan, which is interpreted "guardian". This is he who "neither slumbers nor sleeps, keeping Israel". On behalf of the half-dead man this Samaritan set out, not going down "from Jerusalem to Jericho" as the priest and the Levite went down; or if he did go down, he went down for this reason, that he might save and guard the one about to die — the Samaritan to whom the Jews said: "You are a Samaritan and have a demon", and who, when he had denied that he had a demon, would not deny that he was a "Samaritan"; for he knew that he was a "guardian". And so when he had come to the half-dead man and had seen him wallowing in his own blood, he took pity and approached him, that he might become his neighbor.
Luke 10:34 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
He "bound up the wounds, poured in oil mixed with wine", and did not say what is read in the prophet: "there is no salve to lay on, nor oil, nor bandages". This is the "Samaritan" of whose care and aid all who are ill have need — of whose aid especially that man had need who, going down "from Jerusalem", "had fallen among robbers" and, wounded by them, had been left half-alive. And that you may know that it was according to the providence of God that this Samaritan went down, so that he might heal him who "had fallen among robbers", you will be plainly taught from this: that he had bandages with him, oil with him, wine with him — which indeed I think the Samaritan carried with him not on account of this one half-dead man alone, but also on account of others who for various causes had been wounded and were in need of bandages and oil and wine. He had "oil", of which it is written: "that he may make the face cheerful with oil" — without doubt the face of him who had been healed. He heals with "oil", that the swellings of the wounds might be soothed, but also cleanses the wounds with "wine", mixing in something of sharpness, and him who had been wounded he "set upon his own beast", that is, upon his own body, in accordance with the fact that he deigned to take up manhood. This Samaritan "bears our sins" and grieves for us, bears the half-dead man, brings him into the "pandochium", that is, into the Church, which receives all and denies its aid to none, to which Jesus calls all, saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you". And after he had brought him in, he does not at once withdraw, but for one day he perseveres in the inn with the half-dead man and tends his wounds not only in the day but also in the night, bestowing upon him the remainder of his care and diligence.
Luke 10:35 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
And when he wished to set out in the morning, from his tested silver, from his tested money, he "takes out two denarii" and pays the innkeeper — without doubt the angel of the Church — whom he charges to tend him carefully and to bring him through to health, the one whom, because of the shortness of time, he himself also had tended. The "two denarii" seem to me to be the knowledge of the Father and the Son and the understanding of the mystery — how the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father — which is given as a kind of wage to the angel, that he may more diligently tend the man commended to him; and it is promised to him that whatever of his own he shall have spent for the healing of the half-dead man is to be repaid forthwith.
Luke 10:35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or the two pence seem to me to be the knowledge of the sacrament, in what manner the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, which is given as a reward by the Angel to the Church that she may take more diligent care of the man entrusted to her whom in the shortness of the time He Himself had also cured. And it is promised that whatever she should spend on the cure of the half dead man, should be restored to her again, And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.
Luke 10:36-37 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 34
And he teaches that he who was going down was neighbor to no one except to him who was willing to keep the precepts and to prepare himself, so as to be neighbor to every man who is in need of aid. For this is what is set down at the end after the parable: "Which of these three seems to you to be neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?" For neither the priest nor the Levite was his neighbor, but, as the doctor of the law himself also answered, "he who did mercy" was his neighbor. Whence it is also said by the Savior: "Go, and you also do likewise".
Luke 10:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The name of which village Luke indeed here omits, but John mentions, calling it Bethany. (John 11.)
Luke 11:1 — ON PRAYER 2.4
I think that one of Jesus' disciples was conscious in himself of human weakness, which falls short of knowing how we ought to pray.… Are we then to conclude that a man who was brought up in the instruction of the law, who heard the words of the prophets and did not fail to attend the synagogue, did not know how to pray until he saw the Lord praying "in a certain place"? It would certainly be foolish to say this. The disciple prayed according to the customs of the Jews, but he saw that he needed better knowledge about the subject of prayer.
Luke 11:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And that he might point out the kind of teaching, the disciple proceeds, as John also taught his disciples. Of whom in truth thou hast told us, that among them that are born of women there had arisen none greater than he. And because thou hast commanded us to seek things that are great and eternal, whence shall we arrive at the knowledge of these but from Thee, our God and Saviour?
Luke 11:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, because the name of God is given by idolaters, and those who are in error, to idols and creatures, it has not as yet been so made holy, as to be separated from those things from which it ought to be. He teaches us therefore to pray that the name of God may be appropriated to the only true God; to whom alone belongs what follows, Thy kingdom come, to the end that may be put down all the rule, authority, and power, and kingdom of the world, together with sin which reigns in our mortal bodies.
Luke 11:2 — ON PRAYER 15.1-2
Perhaps we should … pray … only to the God and Father of all, to whom even our Savior himself prayed, as we have explained, and to whom he taught us to pray. When he heard "teach us to pray," he did not teach us to pray to himself but to the Father by saying "Our Father in heaven and so forth." …When the saints give thanks to God in their prayers, they acknowledge through Christ Jesus the favors he has done. If it is true that one who is scrupulous about prayer should not pray to someone else who prays but rather to the Father whom our Lord Jesus taught us to address in prayers, it is especially true that no prayer should be addressed to the Father without him.
Luke 11:4 — ON PRAYER 28.7-8
Luke says, "Forgive us our sins," since sins are associated with our debts if we have not paid them. He says the same thing as Matthew but does not seem to leave room for the person who wishes to forgive debtors only if they repent. He says that our Savior has given the law that we should add to our prayer, "For we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us." Surely we all have authority to forgive sins against ourselves. This is clear from "as we forgive our debtors" and from "for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us." The person inspired by Jesus and known by his fruits, as the apostles were, has received the Holy Spirit. He has become spiritual by being led by the Spirit to do everything by reason as a child of God. This person forgives whatever God forgives and retains sins that cannot be healed, serving God as the prophets by not speaking his own words but those of the divine will. He also serves God who alone has authority to forgive.
Luke 11:9-10 — ON PRAYER 10.2
He who believes that the mouth of Jesus cannot lie would hesitate a moment to be persuaded to pray, when he says, "Ask, and it will be given you … for everyone who asks, receives." When we ask for the living bread, the good Father certainly gives him (and not the stone that his adversary wishes to give to Jesus and his disciples for food) to those who have received the Spirit of sonship from the Father. The Father gives a good gift, raining it down from heaven for those who ask him.
Luke 11:9-10 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But some one may seek to know, how it comes that they who pray are not heard? To which we must answer, that whose sets about seeking in the right way, omitting none of those things which avail to the obtaining of our requests, shall really receive what he has prayed to be given him. But if a man turns away from the object of a right petition, and asks not as it becomes him, he does not ask. And therefore it is, that when he does not receive, as is here promised, there is no falsehood. For so also when a master says, "Whoever will come to me, he shall receive the gift of instruction;" we understand it to imply a person going in real earnest to a master, that he may zealously and diligently devote himself to his teaching. Hence too James says, Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, (James 4:3.) namely, for the sake of vain pleasures. But some one will say, Nay, when men ask to obtain divine knowledge, and to recover their virtue they do not obtain? To which we must answer, that they sought not to receive the good things for themselves, but that thereby they might reap praise.
Luke 11:11-12 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Consider then this, if the bread be not indeed the food of the soul in knowledge, without which it can not be saved, as, for example, the well planned rule of a just life. But the fish is the love of instruction, as to know the constitution of the world, and the effects of the elements, and whatever else besides wisdom treats of. Therefore God does not in the place of bread offer a stone, which the devil wished Christ to eat, nor in the place of a fish does He give a serpent, which the Ethiopians eat who are unworthy to eat fishes. Nor generally in the place of what is nourishing does he give what is not eatable and injurious, which relates to the scorpion and egg.
Luke 11:24-26 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
For see what is written: "When" it says "an unclean spirit has gone out from a man, it goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. And then it says: I will return into my house, whence I came out. And if, coming, it finds it empty, swept, and adorned, it goes and brings with it seven other spirits worse than itself, and entering into that house it dwells therein. And the last state of that man shall be worse than the first". If we heed these things, how can we give even in a small matter a place to negligence? For an unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ, when still, as I said above, our soul was fornicating away from God and was with its lovers, the demons. But after she said: "I will return to my former husband" and came to Christ, who from the beginning "created her according to his own image", the adulterous spirit necessarily gave place when it saw the lawful husband. We have been received, then, by Christ, and our house has been "cleansed" from former sins and "adorned" with the ornaments of the sacraments of the faithful, which those who have been initiated know. But this house does not at once merit to have Christ as its inhabitant, unless its life and conduct be so holy, so pure and undefiled, that it may merit to be a "temple of God". For it must be no longer a house, but a temple, in which God may dwell. If, then, it neglect the grace received and entangle itself in worldly affairs, straightway that unclean spirit returns and claims for itself the empty house. And, that it may not be able to be expelled again, it brings "with it seven other spirits worse", and "the last state of a man of this kind becomes worse than the first", because it had been more tolerable for a soul that once played the harlot not to have returned to its former husband than, having returned after the confession of the husband, to become an adulteress again.
Luke 11:25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That is, to those who are of Israel, whom he saw possessing nothing divine in them, but desolate, and vacant for him to take up his abode there; and so it follows, And when he came, he findeth it swept and garnished.
Luke 11:34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For He gives the name of the eye especially to our understanding, but the whole soul, although not corporeal, He metaphorically calls the body. For the whole soul is enlightened by the understanding. For the understanding from its very beginning desires only singleness, containing no dissimulation, or guile, or division in itself.
Luke 11:35-36 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That is, If thy material body, when the light of a candle shines upon it, is made full of light, so that not one of thy members is any longer in darkness; much more when thou sinnest not, shall thy whole spiritual body be so full of light, that its brightness may be compared to the shining of a candle, while the light which was in the body, and which used to be darkness, is directed whithersoever the understanding may command.
Luke 11:52 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 15
Next let us see whether, beyond those we have spoken of, it is possible to see also others who shut and open the kingdom of heaven. For those who have been counted worthy and fit to expound the Gospel, and who show themselves such that they can truly say "Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?", open the kingdom of heaven before men, when they demonstrate, with all clarity and proof, the loftiness of the divine words — words which were not spoken about earthly things but about heaven and about the mind of the Lord, who came to men — so that, so far as it lies in them, they would lead "Gentiles and barbarians, wise and unwise" to the piety of Christ. But those who, through their unteachableness and unrighteousness, with much rashness gave themselves over to the profession of teaching before they had learned and come to know the truth, and who therefore, in imitation of vain Jewish fables, hand down the bodily narratives of the Scriptures and not their spiritual sense or intention, and who moreover disparage those "who have risen with Christ and seek the things that are above" in the Scriptures "and not upon the earth," nor reckon that the truth set forth in the Scriptures lies in earthly things: these, so far as it lies in them, shut the kingdom of heaven before men, shutting it by their unrighteousness and drawing to themselves those who were able — by hearing the more divine and greater teaching and the loftiness of the truth — to enter into the kingdom of heaven through the heavenly doctrines and through the deeds befitting them. To this exposition it is fitting what Luke writes: "Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered in, and you have hindered those who were entering." For those who accuse the allegorical exposition and want to teach that the divine Scripture is plain and has nothing more than the text shows, and who do not admit any more divine sense concerning circumcision or the Passover or the unleavened bread or foods and drinks or the feasts or the new moons or the sabbaths, and do not accept that the Jews then served "in the display and shadow of things to come" — these indeed are lawyers, yet they have taken away "the key of knowledge," so far as their teaching goes, that is, taking away every way of the law for understanding its ordinances; and therefore neither did they themselves enter in nor, so far as it lay in them, did they permit others to enter.
Luke 12:2-3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He either then says this concerning that time when God shall judge the secrets of men, or He says it because however much a man may endeavour to hide the good deeds of another by discredit, good of its own nature cannot be concealed.
Luke 12:4-5 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 34
Notice that this commandment is not given to Jesus' servants but to his friends. "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do." The One to fear is he "who can destroy both soul and body in hell." He alone, "after he has killed," has "power to throw into hell." He throws into hell those who fear those who kill the body and do not fear "him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell." We may suppose that no matter who else has the hair of his head numbered, the verse is obviously true of those who are cut off for Jesus. We will confess the Son of God before people and not before gods, that he who is confessed may confess us in turn before God and his Father, and confess in heaven the one who confessed him on earth.
Luke 12:6 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Literally, hereby is signified the quickness of the Divine foresight, which reaches even to the least things. But mystically, the five sparrows justly represent the spiritual senses, which have perception of high and heavenly things: beholding God, hearing the Divine voice, tasting of the bread of life, smelling the perfume of Christ's anointing, handling the Word of Life. And these being sold for two farthings, that is, being lightly esteemed by those who count as perishing whatever is of the Spirit, are not forgotten before God. But God is said to be forgetful of some because of their iniquities.
Luke 12:35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For He will be girded about His loins with righteousness.
Luke 12:35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 59
And when someone is in this state, it is possible that, even if he does not have the strength of the sun, yet he may be illumined by some slight brightness of the word which is a "lamp", while still indeed remaining amid evils, yet already having a purpose of better things and a watchfulness, so that his purpose, looking toward better things, may not be broken in upon. For, as we read in the Shepherd, no one quickly tastes full vessels, for they are not easily changed; but the half-full ones, because they are readily believed to be changed, are frequently tasted. And see whether you can draw to such an understanding that which is written elsewhere: "but let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be you like men awaiting their lord, when he shall return"; since he who is not yet in the light and in the day of the virtues, but already offers himself to the teaching that illumines his soul, so far as is possible, is in the first place girded. And turning himself away from the outpouring of malice, he uses not yet, as it were, the clear daylight of virtue, but the lamp by which it is possible for even one who is in malice to be illumined. This one, therefore, whose lamp is thus lit, is one awaiting his lord, God the Word, that returning he may come to him who meanwhile has had within himself the lamp and has illumined his whole mind, evidently as it were a sun. And each one according to his own progress kindles his lamp either less or more from the light of knowledge, and pours oil into it through meditation, and watching in it against sinful works, hoping through abstinence of this kind and meditation to receive even the lord into himself.
Luke 12:35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 60
And so the thief too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night and digs through the house of him whom he shall have found not keeping watch nor having a lamp lit. And upon some indeed he comes in the evening, but upon others at midnight, and upon some even at cockcrow, and there are also those upon whom he comes in the morning. And the master too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night, and perhaps the master comes to that man to whom the thief, in coming, could do nothing — namely, not being permitted to dig through the house of the one keeping watch and having a lamp lit. But to him who has his house dug through the master does not come, especially if anyone has learned what was said: "let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be yourselves like men awaiting their master", and, despising the things that were said, has given "sleep to his eyes and drowsiness to his eyelids". But to make clear the sense of this passage which has come upon us, let us use such an example: in the time of temptations or of calamities of whatever kind the thief is especially wont to come, wishing to dig through the house of the soul; but when the thief comes, the one who bears the mishaps and endures all things for the love of God, having suffered nothing from him, will straightway see the master coming to him. But whoever shall have had his house dug through by the thief in the time of his calamity will, as unworthy of the coming of his master to him, not be worthy to look upon him.
Luke 12:49 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
According to which sense our Lord and Savior too, since he is "spirit", "came to send fire upon the earth"; "spirit" according to that which is written: "but when you have turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away", and: "the Lord is a spirit". But "he came to send fire" not upon heaven, but "upon the earth", as he himself shows when he says: "I came to send fire upon the earth, and what do I wish but that it already blaze?" For if "you have turned to the Lord", who is "spirit", Christ will be "spirit" to you and "he did not come to send fire upon the earth". But if you are not turned to him, but have earth and its fruits, "he came to send fire upon" your "earth".
Luke 12:50 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 7
For our "proof" extends not only as far as blows, but reaches even to the shedding of blood, because Christ also, whom we follow, poured out His blood for our redemption, that from it we might come forth washed in our own blood. For the baptism of blood alone is what renders us purer than the baptism of water rendered us. And this I do not presume of myself, but Scripture reports it, the Lord saying to His disciples: "I have a baptism to be baptized with, which you know not. And how am I pressed until it be accomplished?" You see, then, that He named the shedding of His blood a "baptism." And if in saying these things I give no offense, I fear that this baptism may be more eminent than that baptism which is handed on through water. For of that one, once received, very few are so blessed as to have been able to keep it unstained even to the end of life; but whoever has been baptized with this baptism can sin no more thereafter. And if it is not rash to venture anything in such matters, we may say that through that baptism past sins are purged, but through this one even future sins are done away. There sins are forgiven, here they are shut out.
Luke 12:57 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
Unless the power of judging what is just were implanted in us by nature, the Savior would never say: "But why do you not also judge of yourselves what is just?" But lest we wander too far afield in proving this statement — especially since much more difficult matters are appended to this chapter — let it suffice to have merely touched upon this.
Luke 12:57 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But had it not been implanted in our nature to judge what is right, our Lord would never have said this.
Luke 12:58 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
or rather let us spread the sails of our souls toward God and beg for the coming of his word, that it may interpret the parable of which it is written: "When you go with your adversary to the ruler on the way, make an effort to be freed from him, lest perhaps he hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Amen I say to you: you will not come out from there until you pay back the very last mite". I see four persons set down: the adversary, the ruler, the judge, the officer. And because the evangelist Matthew seems to have said something similar in that he says: "Be well-disposed toward your adversary while you are on the way with him", I ask whether the meaning is the same or whether there is some kinship, since with Matthew one person is omitted and another is changed. Omitted is the "ruler", and in place of "officer" a "servant" is inserted, while "adversary" and "judge" are alike set down by both. So then we go "with our adversary to the ruler", and it is necessary for us, while we are still "on the way", to labor mightily so that we may be freed from him. From whom? For the word is ambiguous and can be referred both to the ruler and to the adversary: "lest perhaps he hand you over" — whether the adversary or the ruler — "to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer"; and: "you will not come out from there until you pay back the very last mite", for which Matthew says: "until you pay back the last farthing". The word "last" both retained, but they seemed to differ in that the one set down "farthing", the other "mite". There are certain more hidden matters I must touch upon, so that we may understand that the adversary is one thing, and the other three persons — that is, the ruler, the judge, the officer — are another. We read — if indeed anyone is pleased to accept a writing of this kind — of the angels of justice and of iniquity contending over the salvation and destruction of Abraham, while each band wishes to claim him for its own company. But if this displeases anyone, let him pass over to the volume that is inscribed with the title of the Shepherd, and he will find that two angels attend all men: an evil one, who exhorts to perverse things, and a good one, who persuades to whatever is best. It is written elsewhere too that a double set of angels stand by a man, whether toward the good side or toward the bad. Of the good ones also the Savior makes mention, saying: "Their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven". At the same time inquire whether the angels of the little ones in the Church "always see the face of the Father", and whether the angels of others do not have the liberty to gaze upon the face of the Father. For it is not to be hoped that the angels of all men always see "the face of the Father who is in heaven". If I belong to the Church, however least I may be, my angel has the liberty and the confidence always to see "the face of the Father who is in heaven". But if I am on the outside and not of that Church "which has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing", and by the very fact am proved to be a stranger to such a congregation, my angel does not have the confidence to look upon "the face of the Father who is in heaven". For which reason the angels are anxious on behalf of the good, knowing that, if they govern us well and lead us through to salvation, they themselves also have the confidence to see "the face of the Father". For just as, if by their care and diligence salvation is procured for men, they gaze always upon "the face of the Father", so, if through their negligence a man has fallen, they are not unaware that it is a matter of their own peril as well. And just as a good bishop and an excellent steward of the Church knows that it is to his own merit and virtue if the sheep of the flock entrusted to him have been kept safe, so understand it also of the angels. It is a disgrace to an angel if the man entrusted to him h…
Luke 12:58-59 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or else, He here introduces four characters, the adversary, the magistrate, the officer, and the judge. But with Matthew the character of the magistrate is left out, and instead of the officer a servant is introduced. They differ also in that the one has written a farthing, the other a mite, but each has called it the last. Now we say that all men have present with them two angels, a bad one who encourages them to wicked deeds, a good one who persuades all that is best. Now the former, our adversary whenever we sin rejoices, knowing that he has an occasion for exultations and boasting with the prince of the world, who sent him. But in the Greek, "the adversary" is written with the article, to signify that he is one out of many, seeing that each individual is under the ruler of his nation. Give diligence then that you may be delivered from your adversary, or from the ruler to whom the adversary drags you, by having wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance. But if you have given diligence, let it be in Him who says, I am the life, (John 14:6.) otherwise the adversary will hale thee to the judge. Now he says, hale, to point out that they are forced unwillingly to condemnation. But I know no other judge but our Lord Jesus Christ who delivers to the officer. Each of us have our own officers; the officers exercise rule over us, if we owe any thing. If I paid every man every thing, I come to the officers and answer with a fearless heart, "I owe them nothing." But if I am a debtor, the officer will cast me into prison, nor will he suffer me to go out from thence until I have paid every debt. For the officer has no power to let me off even a farthing. He who forgave one debtor five hundred pence and another fifty, (Luke 7:41.) was the Lord, but the exactor is not the master, but one appointed by the master to demand the debts. But the last mite he calls slight and small, for our sins are either heavy or slight. Happy then is he who sinneth not, and next in happiness he who has sinned slightly. Even among slight sins there is diversity, otherwise he would not say until he has paid the last mite. For if he owes a little, he shall not come out till he pays the last mite. But he who has been guilty of a great debt, will have endless ages for his payment.
Luke 12:59 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
"He drags you to the judge, and the judge hands you over to the officer". Each one of us, through each single sin, sustains a loss, and according to the quality and account of the offense the magnitude of the loss is reckoned. I ought to bring forward some testimony from the Scriptures concerning loss and a fine of money. One man sustains a loss of five hundred denarii and owes them; another is condemned in fifty denarii; which sum is remitted to both by the creditor. Further, another, as the Scripture says: "one was brought to him who owed ten thousand talents", is condemned in a debt of ten thousand talents. And what need is there for me to pursue more? Each one, according to the quality and quantity of his sin, receives a different sentence of fine. If it is little that you sin, you will be struck with the loss of a "mite", as Luke writes, or, as Matthew, of a "farthing". Nevertheless, it is also necessary to pay this very thing in which you have become a debtor; for you will not come out of the prison unless you have paid off even the very least things. But he who is faithful is struck by no loss, but is daily enriched; for the whole world of riches is his; the unbeliever, however, has not even an obol. One is condemned in a denarius, another in a mina, another in a talent. There is an examiner of this business, who knows the measures of all sins and says: This offense is condemned in a talent, that sin merits a fine of this kind. For it is written: "but when he had begun to make a reckoning". A "reckoning" must be computed for all of us. There is no other time for making the reckoning than the time of judgment, when it will be clearly known what has been entrusted to us and what gain or what loss we have made, which of us received a mina, which one talent, which two, which five. What need is there to repeat more, when it is enough to have said this in general, that we shall render an account and, if we are found to be debtors, be dragged to the judge and handed over by the judge to the officer? As individuals we have our own officers, but the whole multitude is handed over to several, according to that which is written in Isaiah: "my people, your officers plunder you, and those who are powerful lord it over you" — the officers lord it over us, if we owe anything. But if we have confidence and with free brow say: I have kept the precept that commands: "render to all their debts, to whom tribute, tribute, to whom fear, fear, to whom custom, custom, to whom honor, honor" — if I have rendered all things to all, I come to the officer and with untroubled mind answer: I owe you nothing. The officer comes to demand back — I resist him; for I know that, if I owe nothing, he has no power over me. But if I am a debtor, my "officer will cast" me "into prison", in that order which was foretold. For the "adversary" leads me to the ruler, the ruler to the judge, the judge will hand me over to the officer, the officer "will cast me into prison". What is the law of that prison? I do not go out from it, nor does the officer allow me to go out, unless I have paid off the whole debt. The officer does not have the power to be able to remit to me even a "farthing" and the smallest portion; there is one who can remit to debtors who have nothing wherewith to pay. "There approached him", he says, "one who owed five hundred denarii, and another fifty; and since they had nothing wherewith to pay, he forgave them both". He who forgave was the master; but this one, who is the officer, is not the master, but is appointed by the master to exact the debts. You were not worthy that five hundred or fifty denarii should be forgiven you, nor did you deserve to hear: "your offenses are forgiven you": you are cast into prison, and there you are exacted through labor and works, or through penalties and torments, and you will not come out from there unless you have paid back the "farthing" or the "very last mite", which in Greek can be called "the fine thing".…
Luke 13:6-9 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 53
But from the fig tree learn a parable: for when its branch has now become tender and puts forth leaves, know that summer is near; so also you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, at the door. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. How the comparison of the things that have been said can be understood from the fig tree, we shall expound according to our ability: lest perhaps this whole world and its consummation be likened to a fig tree, and each one of those setting out toward the blessed life, so as to see in himself the glorious and perfect coming of Christ's word, be held to be like a fig tree. For just as the fig tree in the time of winter indeed has in itself the life-giving power, but has it hidden and not sufficiently manifest, and afterward, when that very life-giving power begins to come forth into manifestation as the winter passes, out of its own vigor the branch is made tender, and it puts forth also leaves; and just as the tree in that very power has leaves and fruits, and first indeed there is the bud, then little by little it advances, and last of all also by the actual effect: so also the world and each one of those who are saved, at the end before the coming of Christ (as it were in winter) has in himself the life-giving power hidden, but with Christ breathing upon them, those branches which are tender and not hard-hearted, and the things that were hidden in them, advance into leaves as the summer draws on and show forth manifest fruits, which he who beholds them in Christ already sees. So too it is related in a certain parable of the Shepherd, if it please anyone to read that book also, that "the present age is winter for the just", who appear like their neighbors by nature, namely like the other dry trees, but in the opportune time appear in their fruits. But if in the first Psalm also there be some such thing, which is said concerning that blessed man, that "he shall be as the tree which is planted beside the running waters, which shall give its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall off, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper", do you also consider what is written. "The winter has passed, it has gone its way, the flowers have appeared in the land", as is written in the Song of Songs, from the time that Christ came, who introduced the mild season and made the wintry blasts to cease. And the fig tree, that is, the world, has now indeed made the tender branch, that is, the Church, to put forth leaves, while summer is at hand yet has not yet come; but when summer has come, it will more fully render fruits perfect and ripe for Christ, when according to Jeremiah the good figs are very good, gathered into baskets of good figs, from which Christ wishes to take and, as it were, to eat their sweetness. But far be it from us that, when Jesus comes to us and wishes to eat of the fig tree, no fruit should be found in it. For if no fruit be found in it, he will say to it at his coming, to the tree that has not shown fruits: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". And that fig tree can be understood as the people of the circumcision, to whom the Lord came hungering, and when he had not found "fruit in it" but only the appearance of life, he said: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". Wherefore at his coming "that fig tree was straightway withered", that is, that people; but that other fig tree, which (as regards the earlier times) was barren, which was already to be cut down because it had had no diligence applied to it by its own digger, when dung has begun to be put around it, will put forth fruits; the tree which had once drained the ground, but now will bring forth more abundant fruits even in return for the time gone by in which it was barren. And each one of us, after the winters of temptations and after the sorrow of dangers past, hastens to summer,…
Luke 13:33 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 28
Let us inquire into what is written in Luke, the Lord saying: "because it cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem." If, then, "it cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem," that is, be killed, you will ask whether after the destruction of Jerusalem there is now no prophet, lest perhaps the one who is killed "outside Jerusalem" should, being a prophet, prove the word of Christ false. But if the scriptures compel us — on account of Agabus and the daughters of Philip the evangelist (not on account of the false prophets of Phrygia) — let us inquire whether perhaps every righteous person is in Jerusalem and not "outside Jerusalem," since "it cannot be" that the one who is outside Jerusalem be afflicted with sufferings for the sake of the word. But that Jerusalem which is free from the servitude of sin, which is above in its manner of life, "which is our mother," does not kill the prophets nor stone those who are sent to her. It is another matter that, after the likeness of that Jerusalem which killed and stoned the prophets, frequently there are certain persons set up in this Jerusalem, unskilled and not fearing God, who (as far as in them lies) kill and stone, with words uttered without judgment, men advanced in word and in life — men who indeed do not abandon the canon of the churches, but on account of the profundity of their doctrines are held suspect by those who are accustomed to say certain novel things and do not attend to the "sound word" of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke 14:13-14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But mystically, he who shuns vain-glory calls to a spiritual banquet the poor, that is, the ignorant, that he may enrich them; the weak, that is, those with offended consciences, that he may heal them; the lame, that is, those who have wandered from reason, that he may make their paths straight; the blind, that is, those who discern not the truth, that they may behold the true light. But it is said, They cannot recompense thee, i. e. they know not how to return an answer.
Luke 14:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They who have bought a piece of ground and reject or refuse the supper, are they who have taken other doctrines of divinity, but have despised the word which they possessed.
Luke 14:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He who has bought five yoke of oxen is he who neglects his intellectual nature, and follows the things of sense, therefore he cannot comprehend a spiritual nature.
Luke 14:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He who has married a wife is he who is joined to the flesh, a lover of pleasure rather than of God. (1 Tim. 3:4.)
Luke 14:28 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
This journey, then, must be made by those who follow God; but there is also a tower on this journey. What is that tower? That one, surely, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: "which of you, wishing to build a tower, will not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has the means to complete it?" This, then, is the tower, the steep and lofty seat of the virtues.
Luke 14:34-35 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.70
People of God are truly the salt of the earth. They preserve the order of the world. Society is held together as long as the salt is uncorrupted. If the salt lost its savor, it is neither suitable for the land or the manure pile. It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot. "He that has ears, let him hear" the meaning of these words. When God gives to the tempter permission to persecute us, then we suffer persecution. When God wishes us to be free from suffering even in the middle of a world that hates us, we enjoy a wonderful peace. We trust in the protection of him who said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Luke 16:7 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.4
For of this matter there is also that image which is spoken of in the Gospel concerning "the steward of iniquity," who says to each debtor: "Take your bond, and sitting down write eighty," and the rest that is reported. You see, then, that it is said to each: "Take your bond." Whence it is established that the letters of sin are ours; but the letters of righteousness God writes. For thus says the Apostle: "For you are an epistle inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart." You have, then, within you the letters of God and the letters of the Holy Spirit. But if you offend, you yourself write for yourself the handwriting of sin. But see that, once you have come to the cross of Christ and to the grace of baptism, your handwriting has been fastened to the cross and blotted out in the font of baptism. Do not write again the things that have been blotted out, nor restore the things that have been abolished; keep in you only the letters of God, let only the writing of the Holy Spirit remain in you.
Luke 16:8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Prov. 1:1.) But because the Gentiles say that wisdom is a virtue, and define it to be the experience of what is good, evil, and indifferent, or the knowledge of what is and what is not to be done, we must consider whether this word signifies many things, or one. For it is said that God by wisdom prepared the heavens. (Prov. 3:19.) Now it is plain that wisdom is good, because the Lord by wisdom prepared the heavens. It is said also in Genesis, according to the LXX, that the serpent was the wisest animal, wherein He makes wisdom not a virtue, but evil-minded cunning. And it is in this sense that the Lord commended the steward that he had done wisely, that is, cunningly and evilly. And perhaps the word commended was spoken not in the sense of real commendation, but in a lower sense; as when we speak of a man being commended in slight and indifferent matters, and in a certain measure clashings and sharpness of wit are admired, by which the power of the mind is drawn out. The children of this world also are not called wiser but more prudent than the children of light, and this not absolutely and simply, but in their generation. For it follows, For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light, &c.
Luke 16:9 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
But let us come also to the Gospels, if we find anything said in them concerning tabernacles, so that through the judgment of the Lord what we seek may be beyond doubt. We find, then, that the Savior himself, Jesus Christ, mentions not one tabernacle, but many, and not temporal, but eternal, when he says: "Make yourselves friends of the mammon, that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles". Thou hast heard the Lord declaring the tabernacles to be eternal; hear now also the Apostle saying: "desiring to be clothed over with our tabernacle, which is from heaven". Is not the way now opened to thee from all these things, whereby, the earth being forsaken, following the prophetic and apostolic sense and — what is greatest of all — following the word of Christ with the whole mind and whole sense, thou mayest ascend to heaven and there seek the magnificence of the eternal tabernacle, whose figure is shadowed forth through Moses on the earth?
Luke 16:18 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book XIV), Section 24
But perhaps some Jewish man of those who dare to oppose the teaching of our Saviour will say, that when Jesus said, "Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, makes her an adulteress," [Matthew 5:32] He also gave permission to put away a wife like as well as Moses did, who was said by Him to have given laws for the hardness of heart of the people, and will hold that the saying, "Because he found in her an unseemly thing," [Deuteronomy 24:1] is to be reckoned as the same as fornication on account of which with good cause a wife could be cast away from her husband. But to him it must be said that, if she who committed adultery was according to the law to be stoned, clearly it is not in this sense that the unseemly thing is to be understood. For it is not necessary for adultery or any such great indecency to write a bill of divorcement and give it into the hands of the wife; but indeed perhaps Moses called every sin an unseemly thing, on the discovery of which by the husband in the wife, as not finding favour in the eyes of her husband, the bill of divorcement is written, and the wife is sent away from the house of her husband; "but from the beginning it has not been so." [Matthew 19:8] After this our Saviour says, not at all permitting the dissolution of marriages for any other sin than fornication alone, when detected in the wife, "Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, makes her an adulteress." [Matthew 5:32] But it might be a subject for inquiry if on this account He hinders any one putting away a wife, unless she be caught in fornication, for any other reason, as for example for poisoning, or for the destruction during the absence of her husband from home of an infant born to them, or for any form of murder whatsoever. And further, if she were found despoiling and pillaging the house of her husband, though she was not guilty of fornication, one might ask if he would with reason cast away such an one, seeing that the Saviour forbids any one to put away his own wife saving for the cause of fornication. In either case there appears to be something monstrous, whether it be really monstrous, I do not know; for to endure sins of such heinousness which seem to be worse than adultery or fornication, will appear to be irrational; but again on the other hand to act contrary to the design of the teaching of the Saviour, every one would acknowledge to be impious. I wonder therefore why He did not say, Let no one put away his own wife saving for the cause of fornication, but says, "Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, makes her an adulteress." [Matthew 5:32] For confessedly he who puts away his wife when she is not a fornicator, makes her an adulteress, so far as it lies with him, for if, "when the husband is living she shall be called an adulteress if she be joined to another man;" [Romans 7:3] and when by putting her away, he gives to her the excuse of a second marriage, very plainly in this way he makes her an adulteress. But as to whether her being caught in the act of poisoning or committing murder, furnishes any defense of his dismissal of her, you can inquire yourselves; for the husband can also in other ways than by putting her away cause his own wife to commit adultery; as, for example, allowing her to do what she wishes beyond what is fitting, and stooping to friendship with what men she wishes, for often from the simplicity of husbands such false steps happen to wives; but whether there is a ground of defense or not for such husbands in the case of such false steps, you will inquire carefully, and deliver your opinion also in regard to the difficult questions raised by us on the passage. And even he who withholds himself from his wife makes her oftentimes to be an adulteress when he does not satisfy her desires, even though he does so under the appearance of greater gravity and self-control. And perhaps this man is mor…
Luke 17:20-21 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 36
But indeed, when the Savior was asked by the Pharisees about the kingdom of God, "when it would come", he replied: "The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor do they say: behold, here, or behold, there. For the kingdom of God is within you". The Savior does not say to all: "the kingdom of God is within you", since in sinners there is the kingdom of sin, and without any ambiguity either the kingdom of God rules in our heart or the kingdom of sin. Whence, whether it be the things we do, or the things we speak, or the things we think, let us contemplate them more attentively, and then we shall see whether the dominion of God reigns in us or the dominion of sins. The Apostle, knowing that this diversity exists, admonishes certain people, saying: "let not sin reign in your mortal body". If any one of us desires the kingdom of God, he is ruled by it; if anyone is tormented by the ardor of avarice, he is ruled by avarice. Further, he who is just has justice as his queen; he who is exalted by the ambition of vainglory, the breath of popular favor reigns over him. He who mourns, he who dreads something, he who loves, he who desires — each of these things commands him, according as he is possessed by various disturbances. Recognizing all these things, and how many kinds of kingdoms there are, let us rise up and pray God to take away from us the kingdom of the enemy, that we may be able to be under the kingdom of God almighty, that is, under the kingdom of wisdom, of peace, of justice, of truth — all of which are understood in the only-begotten Son of God: to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 17:32 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.2
But because "the law is spiritual" and the things that befell the ancients "befell them as a figure," let us see whether perhaps Lot, who did not look back, is the rational sense and the manly spirit, while the wife here holds the image of the flesh. For it is the flesh that always looks back to vices, which, when the spirit strives toward salvation, looks back and seeks after pleasures. Hence indeed the Lord also said: "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God," and he adds: "Remember Lot's wife." And that "she is made a pillar of salt" seems set forth as an indication of her folly. For salt is put in place of prudence, which she lacked.
Luke 17:33 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 36
"Whoever seeks", he says, "to save his soul will lose it, and whoever loses it will save it". The martyrs seek "to save their soul"; and for this reason they lose it, in order to save it. But those who wish "to save their soul" and do not "lose" it, these "lose both body and soul" alike "in hell". Wherefore, he says, "do not fear those who can kill the body, but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell". This much we have said briefly on the point at hand, according to the strength of our talent; but "the natural man does not receive the things that are of the Spirit", and therefore he cannot be saved. "A natural body is sown, a spiritual body rises". Further, "he who cleaves to the Lord becomes one spirit" with him. If, then, "he who is joined to the Lord", though he was natural, is by that very thing turned into a spiritual man and "is one spirit", let us too lose our soul, so that, cleaving to the Lord, we may be transformed into one spirit.
Luke 18:1 — ON PRAYER 10.2
He prays for those who pray and appeals with those who appeal. He does not, however, pray for servants who do not pray continuously through him. He will not be the Advocate with God for his own if they are not obedient to his instructions that they always should pray and not lose heart. It says, "And he told them a parable to the effect that they should always pray and not lose heart. In a certain city there was a judge, etc." … Who would hesitate a moment to be persuaded to pray if he believes that the mouth of Jesus cannot lie, when he says, "Ask, and it will be given you … for everyone who asks, receives"?
Luke 19:13-24 — HOMILY ON GENESIS 8
What you have offered to God you shall receive back multiplied. Something like this, although put in another way, is related in the Gospels when in a parable someone received a pound that he might engage in business, and the master of the house demanded the money. If you have caused five to be multiplied to ten, then they are given to you. Hear what Scripture says, "Take his pound, and give it to him who has ten pounds."We therefore appear at least to engage in business for the Lord, but the profits of the business go to us. We appear to offer sacrifice to the Lord, but the things we offer are given back to us. God does not need anything, but he wants us to be rich. He desires our progress through each, individual thing.
Luke 19:13-24 — HOMILY ON EXODUS 13.1
Interest on the Word of God is having in life and deeds things that the Word of God has commanded. When you hear the Word, if you use it and act according to those words that you hear and live according to these words, then you are preparing interest for the Lord. Each of you can make ten talents from five. You will then hear from the Lord, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you shall have power over ten cities." Beware of this, fearing that any one of you may gather "in a napkin" or bury "in the earth" the money that has been received. You know well the nature of the outcome for this kind of man when the Lord comes.
Luke 19:24 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
And that this may become clearer, let me set down the parable of the minas. He who had received one mina and had made ten and offered it to the Lord, by whom the mina had been entrusted to him, received also another which he had not had before. For the mina of him who had not multiplied what he had received the Lord orders to be taken away and given to the one who has others; "take away", he says, "the mina and give it to him who has ten minas". And in this manner, the things we have given to God he will restore to us, those very things, together with the things we had not had before. God exacts and requires of us, so that he may have occasion for giving, so that he himself may bestow, who paid it out. For by his own grace the mina was doubled, and to each of the worthy more was given than they hoped for.
Luke 19:29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Bethany is interpreted, the house of obedience, but Bethphage the house of cheek bones, being a place belonging to the priests, for cheek bones in the sacrifices were the right of the priests, as it is commanded in the law. To that place then where obedience is, and where the priests have the possession, our Saviour sends His disciples to loose the ass's colt.
Luke 19:29-30 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 37
It was read in the Gospel according to Luke how, when the Savior had come "to Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples" to untie "the colt of a donkey", which was tied up, "on which no man had ever sat". This indeed seems to me to pertain to a higher understanding rather than to the simple narrative. The donkey was tied up. Where, then? "Opposite Bethphage and Bethany", of which Bethany is interpreted "house of obedience", while Bethphage means "house of jawbones", a certain priestly place; for the jawbones were given to the priests, as is prescribed in the law. To that place, therefore, where there is "obedience", where there is "a place made over to the priests", the Savior sends his disciples, that they may untie "the colt of a donkey, on which no man had ever sat". Furthermore, what else can sit upon a donkey apart from a man? I wish to take an example for a little while, so that what I am about to say may be understood. It is written in Isaiah: "the vision of the quadrupeds in tribulation and distress", and the rest, up to the place where he says: "the riches of the asps will not profit them". Let each one of us consider how great wealth of asps he has borne before this, how great riches of beasts, and how a rational man never sat upon our donkey — not the word of Moses, not of Isaiah, not of Jeremiah, nor of all the rest of the prophets — and he will see that the word of God and reason then sat upon us, when the Lord Jesus came and commanded his disciples that, going, they should untie "the colt of a donkey", which before had been tied up, so that it might walk free.
Luke 19:30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(sup. Joan. tom. ii.) Now I think this place is not without reason said to be a small village. For as if it were a village without any further name, in comparison of the whole earth the whole heavenly country is despised.
Luke 19:31 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 37
And so the "colt of the donkey", once untied, is led to Jesus, and in sending his disciples to untie it he had said: "If anyone asks you: why do you untie the colt? say to him: because the Lord has need of it". There were many masters of this colt before the Savior had need of it; but after he began to be its "master", they ceased to be many masters; for no one "can serve God and mammon". When we serve wickedness, we are subject to many passions and vices. The colt, therefore, is untied, "because the Lord has need of it". And now the Lord "has need" of the colt. You are the colt of the donkey. What does the Son of God "have need" of that is yours? What does he seek from you? He "has need" of your salvation, he desires that you be loosed from the chains of sins.
Luke 19:31 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
There were then many masters of this colt, before that the Saviour had need of him. But as soon as He began to be the master, there ceased to be any other. For no one can serve God and mammon. (Matt. 6:24.) When we are the servants of wickedness we are subject to many vices and passions, but the Lord has need of the colt, because He would have us loosed from the chain of our sins.
Luke 19:35-36 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Luc. 37.) The disciples next place their garments upon the ass, and cause the Saviour to sit thereon, inasmuch as they take upon themselves the word of God, and make it to rest upon the souls of their hearers. They divest themselves of their garments, and strew them in the way, for the clothing of the Apostles is their good works. And truly does the ass loosened by the disciples and carrying Jesus, walk upon the garments of the Apostles, when it imitates their doctrine. Which of us is so blessed, that Jesus should rest upon him?
Luke 19:35-36 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 37
Then the disciples put "their garments upon the donkey" and make the Savior sit upon it. They take up the Word of God and set it upon the souls of the hearers. They strip off their garments, they "spread" them "in the way". Upon us are the garments of the apostles; their good works are our adornments: the apostles wish their garments to be trodden by us. And indeed the donkey, untied by the disciples and bearing Jesus, walks upon the garments of the apostles when it imitates their teaching and their life.
Luke 19:37 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
As long as our Lord was in the mount His Apostles only were with Him, but when He began to be near the descent, then there came to Him a multitude of the people.
Luke 19:37 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 37
Which of us is so blessed that Jesus sits upon him — Jesus, who, as long as he was on the mountain, tarried with the apostles alone, but when he began to be near the descent, then the crowd of peoples met him? If he had not come to the descent, the multitude could not have met him. He came down and sat upon the colt of the donkey, and all the people with one accord praised God.
Luke 19:40 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
When we also are silent, (that is, when the love of many waxeth cold,) the stones cry out, for God can from stones raise up children to Abraham.
Luke 19:40 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 37
Seeing this, the Pharisees said to the Lord: "rebuke them"; to whom he answered: "If these keep silent, the stones will cry out". When we speak, the stones are silent; when we keep silent, the stones cry out; "for the Lord is able to raise up from these stones sons of Abraham". At what time shall we keep silent? When "the charity of many shall have grown cold", when that which was foretold by the Savior shall have been fulfilled: "do you think that the Son of man, when he comes, will find faith upon the earth?" Therefore let us entreat the Lord's mercy, lest, while we are silent, the stones cry out, but let us speak and praise God in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 19:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
All the blessings which Jesus pronounced in His Gospel He confirms by His own example, as having declared, Blessed are the meek; He afterwards sanctions it by saying, Learn of me, for I am meek; and because He had said, Blessed are they that weep, He Himself also wept over the city. I do not deny then that the former Jerusalem was destroyed because of the wickedness of its inhabitants, but I ask whether the weeping might not perhaps concern this your spiritual Jerusalem. For if a man has sinned after receiving the mysteries of truth, he will be wept over. Moreover, no Gentile is wept over, but he only who was of Jerusalem, and has ceased to be.
Luke 19:41 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 38
When our Lord and Savior had drawn near to Jerusalem, seeing it he wept and said: "if you too had known, even in this your day, the things that are for your peace; but now they are hidden from your eyes: for the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall surround you with a rampart". What is said here are mysteries, and we hope, if God opens them, that what lies hidden can be laid open. First, then, we must consider his weeping. All the beatitudes that Jesus spoke in the Gospel he confirms by his own example, and what he taught he proves by his own testimony. "Blessed", he says, "are the meek". Like to this is what he says of himself: "Learn from me", he says, "for I am meek". "Blessed are the peacemakers". And who else is so much a peacemaker as my Lord Jesus, who "is our peace", who "loosed the enmity" and "destroyed it in his own flesh"? "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake". No one so suffered persecution for righteousness' sake as the Lord Jesus, who was crucified for our sins. All the beatitudes, therefore, the Lord shows forth in himself; and to this likeness belongs also that which he had said: "blessed are they that weep" — he himself wept, that he might lay the foundations of this beatitude too.
Luke 19:42-44 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 38
And he wept over Jerusalem, "saying: if you too had known, even in this your day, the things that are for your peace; but now they are hidden from your eyes", and the rest, up to the place where it says: "because you have not known the time of your visitation". Let one of the hearers say: What is said here is plain, and has been fulfilled in deed concerning Jerusalem: for the Roman army surrounded it and laid it waste even to utter destruction, and the time will come when a stone shall not be left upon a stone upon it. I do not deny that that Jerusalem too was destroyed because of the crimes of its inhabitants; but I ask whether perhaps this weeping pertains also to this our Jerusalem. For we are the Jerusalem that is wept over, we who seem to ourselves to have the greater vision. For if, after the mysteries of truth, after the word of the Gospel, after the teaching of the Church and after the vision of the sacraments of God, someone among us should sin, he will be lamented and wept over. For no Gentile is wept over, but only he who was of Jerusalem and has ceased to be so. And this our Jerusalem is wept over, because after sins "enemies surround" it — namely the hostile powers, the wicked spirits — and cast "a rampart" around about it and besiege it "and leave not a stone upon a stone", especially if, after much continence, after some years of chastity, someone should be overcome and, enticed by the blandishments of the flesh, should lose the endurance of purity. If you have committed fornication, "they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you". For he says in another place: "I will not remember his former righteous deeds; in his sin, in which he shall be caught, in that very sin will I judge him". This, then, is the Jerusalem that is wept over.
Luke 19:43-44 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But our Jerusalem is also wept over, because after sin enemies surround it, (that is, wicked spirits,) and cast a trench round it to besiege it, and leave not a stone behind; especially when a man after long continency, after years of chastity, is overcome, and enticed by the blandishments of the flesh, has lost his fortitude and his modesty, and has committed fornication, they will not leave on him one stone upon another, according to Ezekiel, His former righteousness I will not remember. (Ezek 18:24.)
Luke 19:45 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 38
After this it is said: "he entered into the temple", and, when he had entered, "he cast out those who were selling doves". He did not cast out those who buy; for he who buys, possesses what he has bought. Those Jesus cast out of his Father's temple who sell and throw away what they had, after the likeness of that prodigal son who received his substance from his father and lost it all in excessive drinking. If, therefore, anyone sells, he is cast out, especially if he was selling "doves". Why did he name no other birds but doves? This animal is simple and comely. I fear lest this same fault be found in us also. For if the things that have been revealed and entrusted to me by the Holy Spirit, that I might bring them forth to the multitude, I should sell for a price and not teach without wage, what else do I do but sell doves, that is, the Holy Spirit? And when I have sold him, I am cast out of the temple of God. Wherefore let us ask the Lord that we may all rather buy than sell. For if we do not sell, we shall know and understand our salvation; otherwise the enemies will surround our city. And if once the hostile army has encircled us, we shall not deserve the tears of the Lord. Let us therefore rise up at dawn and beseech God that we may at least be able to eat the crumbs that fall from his table. The scripture marvels that the queen of Sheba came "from the ends of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and she, when she had seen the banquet and the furnishing and the ministries of his house, was astonished and was wholly in wonder. If we do not gladly embrace such great riches of our Lord, such furnishing of the word and abundance of teachings, if we do not eat the "bread of life", if we do not feed on the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood, if we despise the feasts of our Savior, we ought to know that God has both "kindness and severity"; and of these we ought rather to pray for his kindness, in Christ Jesus our Lord: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 19:45 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If any then sells, let him be cast out, and especially if he sells doves. For of those things which have been revealed and committed to me by the Holy Spirit, I either sell for money to the people, or do not teach without hire, what else do I but sell a dove, that is, the Holy Spirit?
Luke 20:24-25 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
Furthermore, since something was added about the image of Caesar, we must also touch briefly upon this. Some suppose that it was said by the Savior simply: "render to Caesar what is Caesar's", that is: pay the tribute which you owe. For who among us objects to paying tribute to Caesar? Therefore the passage holds something mystical and hidden. There are two images in man: one, which he received from God when he was made in the beginning, as it is written in Genesis: "according to the image and likeness of God"; the other of the earthy, which afterward, when he had been cast out of paradise because of disobedience and sin, he took on, persuaded by the enticements of "the prince of this world". For just as a coin or denarius bears the image of the emperors of the world, so he who does the works of "the ruler of these darknesses" bears the image of him whose works he has: which image Jesus here commanded to be rendered back and cast off from our face, and that image to be taken up according to which from the beginning we were fashioned to the likeness of God. And thus it comes about that we render "what is Caesar's to Caesar, and what is God's to God". "Show me", he says, "the coin", for which in Matthew is written "denarius". And when he had received it, he said: "whose inscription does it have?" They answering said: "Caesar's". To them again he said: "render what is Caesar's to Caesar, and what is God's to God". The logical sequence of these things Paul too has expressed, saying: "as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly". So then, what he says: "render what is Caesar's to Caesar", this he means: lay aside the person of the earthy, cast off the earthly image, so that, putting upon yourselves the person of the heavenly, you may be able to render "what is God's to God". God demands us back. What does he demand back? Read Moses: "and now what does the Lord your God demand back from you?" and the rest that follows. God therefore requires of us and beseeches us, not because he has need of anything that we might bestow upon him, but so that, after we have given it to him, he may bestow that very thing upon us for salvation. And that this may become clearer, let me set down the parable of the minas. He who had received one mina and had made ten and offered it to the Lord, by whom the mina had been entrusted to him, received also another which he had not had before. For the mina of him who had not multiplied what he had received the Lord orders to be taken away and given to the one who has others; "take away", he says, "the mina and give it to him who has ten minas". And in this manner, the things we have given to God he will restore to us, those very things, together with the things we had not had before. God exacts and requires of us, so that he may have occasion for giving, so that he himself may bestow, who paid it out. For by his own grace the mina was doubled, and to each of the worthy more was given than they hoped for. Wherefore, rising up, let us pray to God that we may be worthy to offer him gifts which he may restore to us, and that in exchange for earthly things he may lavish heavenly ones upon us, in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Luke 20:25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Now this place contains a mystery. For there are two images in man, one which he received from God, as it is written, Let us make man in our own image: (Gen. 1:26.) another from the enemy, which he has contracted through disobedience and sin, allured and won by the enticing baits of the prince of this world. For as the penny has the image of the emperor of the world, so he who does the works of the power of darkness, bears the image of Him whose works he doth. He says then, Render unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar's, that is, cast away the earthly image, that ye may be able, by putting on the heavenly image, to render unto God the things which be God's, namely, to love God. Which things Moses says God requires of us. (Deut. 10:12.) But God makes this demand of us, not because He has need that we should give Him any thing, but that, when we have given, He might grant us this very same gift for our salvation.
Luke 20:27-28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The heresy of the Sadducees not only denies the resurrection of the dead, but also believes the soul to die with the body. Watching then to entrap our Saviour in His words, they proposed a question just at the time when they observed Him teaching His disciples concerning the resurrection; as it follows, And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote to us, If a brother, &c.
Luke 20:27-33 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
There is a sect among the Jews which is called the sect of the Sadducees: this sect denies "the resurrection of the dead" and supposes that the soul perishes together with the body, and that after death no faculty of perception any longer remains. These men, then, in putting a question to the Lord, made up the tale of the woman with seven husbands, who after her first husband, in order to raise up seed for the former, married a second, and when he had died a third also, and again a fourth, and in this manner arrived at the seventh. The question, therefore, is which of the seven brothers will claim her as his wife "in the resurrection of the dead". Now they proposed this problem, laying a snare for the words of the Savior, at that time when they saw him teaching his disciples about the resurrection.
Luke 20:34-35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But because the Lord says in Matthew, which is here omitted, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, (Mat. 22:29.) I ask the question, where is it so written, They shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage? for as I conceive there is no such thing to be found either in the Old or New Testament, but the whole of their error had crept in from the reading of the Scriptures without understanding; for it is said in Esaias, My elect shall not have children for a curse. (Isai. 65:23.) Whence they suppose that the like will happen in the resurrection. But Paul interpreting all these blessings as spiritual, knowing them not to be carnal, says to the Ephesians, Ye have blessed us in all spiritual blessings. (Eph. 1:3.)
Luke 20:34-36 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
Answering them, the Savior said: "You are in error, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection of the dead they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but they will be like the angels in heaven". Those who will be like the angels will certainly be angels. And at the same time it must be learned that the angels have no marriages. Here indeed, where there is death, both marriages and children are necessary; but where there is immortality, there is need neither of wedlock nor of sons. Let me set before myself a very troublesome question, one that is not easily solved, in the person of those who are most zealous for the Scriptures and who "meditate day and night in the law of the Lord". Where, they say, is it written that "they will neither marry nor be given in marriage"? Passing through both the Old and the New Testament in memory and mind, I do not recall that anything of the kind is anywhere reported. But if perchance it escapes me, let him who knows more teach me; I gladly learn what I do not know; yet as far as I judge, he will find nothing of the sort in either the Old or the New instrument. All their error, therefore, has crept in from the reading of the prophets, which they do not understand — among which is that passage in Isaiah: "my chosen ones will not have children for a curse", and in Deuteronomy among the blessings: "blessed are the children of your womb" — and they suppose that these things are to be in the resurrection, not understanding that spiritual blessings were foretold. For Paul, "the vessel of election", interpreting spiritually all these blessings that are set down in the law, and knowing that they are not carnal, speaks to the Ephesians: "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing". And so all these blessings will be spiritual, when, rising from the dead, we attain eternal blessedness. But in the Psalms too, finding something similar, they slip into the same error: "your wife", it says, "like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table", up to that place where it says: "may the Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good things that are of Jerusalem". Therefore, when Jerusalem has been furnished and restored to its ancient state, then the holy one will see the good things which the Scripture mentions. Those who understand Jerusalem spiritually, and know that it is said of her: "which is heavenly, which is above, which is our mother", will see her good things, of which we have often spoken, and that which we have now cited from the psalm: "your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table". To the Sadducees, who were a portion of the Jews, understanding all these things bodily, the Savior says: "you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God". Let these things be said briefly concerning the question which the Sadducees put to the Lord.
Luke 21:34-35 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.5-6
"But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare." You heard the proclamation of the eternal King. You learned the deplorable end of "drunkenness" or "intoxication." Imagine a skilled and wise physician who would say, "Beware, no one should drink too much from this or that herb. If he does, he will suddenly be destroyed." I do not doubt that everyone would keep the prescriptions of the physician's warning concerning his own health. Now the Lord, who is both the physician of souls and bodies, orders them to avoid as a deadly drink the herb "of drunkenness" and the vice "of intoxication" and also the care of worldly matters. I do not know if any one can say that he is not wounded, because these things consume him.Drunkenness is therefore destructive in all things. It is the only thing that weakens the soul together with the body. According to the apostle, it can happen that when the body "is weak," then the spirit is "much stronger," and when "the exterior person is destroyed, the interior person is renewed." In the illness of drunkenness, the body and the soul are destroyed at the same time. The spirit is corrupted equally with the flesh. All the members are weakened: the feet and the hands. The tongue is loosened. Darkness covers the eyes. Forgetfulness covers the mind so that one does not know himself nor does he perceive he is a person. Drunkenness of the body has that shamefulness.
Luke 22:3-5 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
And, to come to the things that are written, the "Lord of majesty", Jesus Christ our Savior, was crucified. The author of this crime and the father of the wickedness is without doubt the devil. For thus it is written: "but when the devil had entered into the heart of Judas Iscariot, that he should betray him". The father of the sin, then, is the devil. He, in this wickedness, first begets a son, Judas; but Judas alone could not accomplish this. What, then, is written? "Judas went" it says "to the scribes and Pharisees and to the chief priests, saying to them: What will you give me, and I will betray him to you?" There is born, then, from Judas a third and fourth generation of sin. And you will be able to detect this order in each single sin as well.
Luke 22:6 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 78
From then on he was seeking an opportunity to hand him over. But what sort of opportunity Judas was seeking, Luke has explained more plainly, saying: "And he was seeking an opportunity to hand him over to them without the crowd," that is, when the people was not about him, but he was apart with his disciples. And this he did, handing him over after the supper, when he was apart in the estate of Gethsemane; for Judas reckoned that the opportunity was his after the bargain which he made, when Jesus was not with the multitude. And see whether even until now this opportunity does not seem the same to the betrayers of the word of truth, who wish to betray Christ, God the Word, in the time of the persecution of Christians, when the multitude of believers is not about the word of truth and cannot hinder or restrain the persecutors, especially where few of the faithful are to be found. And since there is a time for all things, Solomon saying: "a time to give birth, and a time to die," and the rest, this is the time proper to the betrayers of the word of truth, when there are not many faithful about Christ.
Luke 22:10 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. 26:18.) But I think that the man who meets the disciples as they enter into the city, carrying a pitcher of water, was some servant of a master of a house, carrying water in an earthen vessel either for washing or for drinking. And this I think is Moses conveying the spiritual doctrine in fleshly histories. But they who follow him not, do not celebrate the Passover with Jesus.
Luke 22:10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 79
But I think that the man who, as the disciples entered the city, met them "carrying a jar of water", whom Jesus willed that his disciples should follow as he went into the house, who was bringing that subtle water to the house, so that it might not only be cleansed, but also more fully washed with waters, was a certain one ministering to the householder (that is, to the understanding), carrying cleansing water in an earthen vessel, "that the sublimity of power may be of God", or certainly he was supplying drinkable water in that earthen vessel, so that the Son of God indeed might furnish the produce of the vine, but that understanding, the minister, might furnish out of the law and the prophets the water that is mingled with the wine of the Gospel word. We therefore who desire to be of the Church, wishing to celebrate the Passover with Jesus, let us follow that man who carries a vessel of water of this kind, whom I think to be Moses the giver of the law, carrying spiritual doctrine in corporal histories. But those who approach the law and the prophets as to the utterances of God himself, yet do not follow spiritually him who carries the vessel of living water, do not celebrate the Passover with Jesus nor drink the cup of the new testament.
Luke 22:11-12 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Let us then ascend with the Lord united to us, to the upper part in which is the guestchamber, which is shown by the understanding, that is, the goodman of the house, to every one of the disciples of Christ. But this upper room of our house must be large enough to receive Jesus the Word of God, who is not comprehended but by those who are greater in comprehension. And this chamber must be made ready by the goodman of the house, (that is, the understanding,) for the Son of God, and it must be cleaned, wholly purged of the filth of malice. The master of the house also must not be any common person having a known name. Hence He says mystically in Matthew, Go ye to such a one.
Luke 22:13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(ut sup.) But we should know that they who are taken up with banquetings and worldly cares do not ascend into that upper part of the house, and therefore do not keep the Passover with Jesus. For after the words of the disciples wherewith they questioned the goodman of the house, (that is, the understanding,) the Divine Person came into that house to feast there with His disciples.
Luke 22:15-16 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 86
Concerning the bread a thing similar to what Matthew records of the cup is said in Luke: "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you. I say to you that from now on I will not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Therefore the Savior will eat and drink that bread and paschal drink renewed "in the kingdom of God," and he will eat and drink with his disciples. For just as "he did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but humbled himself even unto death," so he will eat the bread and drink of the generation of the vine, and he will drink it new, and by reason of his great goodness and his love of men he will eat and drink with his disciples, "when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father." For attend to what he says: when I shall drink it new with you, at no other time, except in the kingdom of my Father. And elsewhere, moreover, "the kingdom of God is not food and drink." For in a bodily sense, and according to the likeness of present food and drink, "the kingdom of God is not food and drink" … to those who have shown themselves worthy of the heavenly bread and the bread of angels and of that food of which the Savior says: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." But that "in the kingdom of God" we shall eat and drink, it is possible to demonstrate from many places of the Scriptures, especially from that which is written: "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Therefore this Passover will be fulfilled "in the kingdom of God," and Jesus will eat it with his disciples and will drink; and what the Apostle says, "Let no one judge you in food and in drink and the other things which are a shadow of things to come," has a revelation directed to the future mysteries concerning spiritual foods and drinks, of which the things that had been written in the Law concerning foods and drinks were a shadow. And it is manifest that we shall eat true food and drink true drink "in the kingdom of God," building up and strengthening through them that most true life.
Luke 22:42 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 29
Something in the passage has perhaps escaped our notice. You will find it out by noting how the cup is mentioned in the three Gospels. Matthew writes that the Lord said, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." Luke writes, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me." Mark writes, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you, remove this cup from me." Every martyrdom completed by death for whatever motive is called a cup. See whether you cannot say with him, "Let this cup pass from me." ... "The cup of salvation" in Psalms is the death of the martyrs. That is why the verse "I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord" is followed by "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."
Luke 23:18-25 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 10.2.2
The word of the Lord is rich, and according to the opinion of Solomon, "it must be written on the heart" not once but also twice and "three times." Let us to the best of our ability also now attempt to add something to what was said long ago. Let us show how "as a type of things to come" this one male goat was sacrificed to the Lord as an offering and the other one was sent away "living." Hear in the Gospels what Pilate said to the priests and the Jewish people: "Which of these two do you want me to send out to you: Jesus, who is called the Christ, or Barabbas?" Then all the people cried out to release Barabbas and to hand Jesus over to be killed. Look, you have a male goat who was sent "living into the wilderness." He carried with him the sins of the people who cried out and said, "Crucify, crucify!" The first is a male goat sent "living into the wilderness." The second is the male goat that was offered to God as an offering to atone for sins. Christ made a true atonement for those who believe in him.
Luke 23:18-25 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.42
Celsus goes on to say that "those who killed Jesus suffered nothing for a long a time afterwards." We must inform him and all who are prone to learn the truth. The Jewish people called for the crucifixion of Jesus with shouts of "Crucify him, crucify him!" They preferred to set free the robber who had been thrown into prison for sedition and murder. They wanted Jesus, who had been delivered through envy, to be crucified. The city where all these things happened was attacked shortly after this. After a long siege, it was totally overthrown and destroyed. God judged the inhabitants of that place unworthy of living the life of citizens together. Although it may seem incredible to say, God spared this people in delivering them to their enemies. He saw that they were incurably against any improvement and were daily sinking deeper and deeper into evil. All this happened to them because the blood of Jesus was shed at their instigation and on their land. The land was no longer able to bear those who were guilty of so fearful a crime against Jesus.
Luke 23:39-43 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 133
And in commenting on John we have explained, as best we could, concerning the two robbers who were crucified with Christ, who according to Matthew indeed and Mark both reproached him on the cross, but according to Luke, who says that "one of the hanging robbers blasphemed him, saying: You are the Christ; save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying: Do you not fear God, seeing that you are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive things worthy of our deeds; but this man has done nothing evil. And he said to Jesus: Remember me when you come into your kingdom. But Jesus, answering, said to him who had rebuked the one blaspheming: "Amen I say to you: today you shall be with me in paradise". It is fitting, therefore, that at first indeed both robbers should be understood to have blasphemed the Lord, but after this that one of them was converted and believed, pondering within himself both about these miracles which he heard had been done by him, and perhaps also seeing the change of the air and the darkness that came about, unusual and not such as was frequently accustomed to happen. Or perhaps, as we said in that place too, these two robbers are different — of whom one was blaspheming him while the other rebuked the one blaspheming — and different were those two robbers who both blasphemed. But that robber who was saved can be a mystery of those who after many iniquities believed in Christ and said: We have been crucified together with Christ and conformed to the death of Christ, and who always say to the Son of God: "Remember" us "when you come into your kingdom, and therefore" they are "in paradise" with him.
Luke 23:43 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.5
"Today you will be with me in paradise." Through saying this, he also gave to all those who believe and confess access to the entrance that Adam previously had closed by sinning. Who else could remove "the flaming turning sword which was placed to guard the tree of life" and the gates of paradise? What other sentinel was able to turn the "cherubim" from their incessant vigil, except only he to whom "was given all power in heaven and in earth"? No one else besides him could do these things.
Luke 23:43 — HOMILY ON GENESIS 15.5
"I will recall you from there in the end." I think this means that at the end of the ages his only-begotten Son descended even into the nether regions, for the salvation of the world and recalled "the first-formed man" from there. Understand that what he said to the thief, "This day you shall be with me in paradise," was not said to him alone but also to all the saints for whom he had descended into the nether regions. In this man more than in Jacob the words will be fulfilled, "I will recall you from there in the end."
Luke 23:46 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The body in the tomb, the soul in hell, the spirit was given up to the Father. … If it is true that He entrusted the spirit to the Father, then He committed it as a deposit. For it is one thing to give a thing as a gift, another to give it away, and another to give it as a deposit. A depositor places a thing in safekeeping, intending to receive his deposit back. Why then did the Savior entrust His spirit to the Father as a deposit? … just as His body could not descend into hell … so also His spirit could not descend into hell. Therefore He entrusted the spirit to the Father as a deposit, until He should rise from the dead. As He entrusted this deposit, so He took it back again. When did this happen? Not at the very moment of the resurrection, but immediately after the resurrection.
Luke 23:46 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 138
But Jesus, crying out again with a loud voice, gave up the spirit. As far as Matthew is concerned—who says that Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up the spirit, but does not make clear what that loud voice was which he cried out again—one could say that he cried out again the same voice which he had cried out above when he said: "My God, my God." But because Luke clearly writes what voice he cried out when he gave up the spirit, saying: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit," it is to be understood also in this place that the voice which he cried out again as he gave up the spirit was this one: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." If, therefore, to give up the spirit, or (as John writes) to hand over the "spirit," were the very same thing as to die, then what is said in this place, he gave up the spirit, would have to be understood in a plain sense. But now, since the wise define death to be nothing other than the separation of the soul from the body, let us consider whether perhaps it is one thing simply to die, and another thing to cry out with a loud voice and give up the spirit (as the present passage of Matthew expounds it), or to commend the "spirit" "into the hands" of God and release the "spirit" (according to what Luke says), or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit" (as John expounds it). And to die indeed belongs to all men, even the wicked, since the souls of all men are separated from the body, even of the unjust, who cannot say those things which Christ said as he went forth from his body. But to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the "spirit"—which is to commend the "spirit" "into the hands" of God and thus to release the "spirit," or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit"—belongs only to the saints, who by good works have prepared God for themselves as Christ also did, so that as they go forth from the world they may be able confidently to commend or hand over their spirit into the hands of God. If, therefore, we have understood what it is to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, that is, to commend it "into the hands of God" (for so we expounded above, setting forth the exposition of the evangelist Luke), if we have understood what it is to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," let us hasten to keep our life such that at our departure we too may be able to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," like Jesus who "bowed his head" and, as it were, resting it upon the bosom of the Father, went forth—the Father who was able to cherish and strengthen it in his bosom. But if you wish to hear what it profited Christ to have cried out with a loud voice and thus to have given up the spirit, that is, to have commended the "spirit" "into the hands" of the Lord and thus to have given it up, or to have bowed the "head" upon the bosom of the Father and to have handed over the "spirit," hear what the prophet says: for "on this account" "he did not leave his soul in hell, nor did he give" him "to see corruption." If, therefore, we too conduct ourselves in such a way that we can commend our spirits into the hands of God, or bow our head upon the bosom of God and thus hand over our spirit, then without doubt he will neither leave our souls in hell nor give us to remain in corruption forever. But he who called him back from the dead after the third day will call us back too at the opportune time; and he who granted him that his flesh should not see "corruption" will grant to us—not indeed that our flesh should not see "corruption," but that it should be freed from corruption at the opportune time—since he indeed "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," but we shall be just if at least at some time we depart from our sins.
Luke 23:47 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 140
But the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, feared greatly, saying: Truly this man was the Son of God. But Mark writes thus: "The centurion who was standing there, seeing that he expired crying out, said: Truly this man was the Son of God"; but Luke: "When the centurion saw the things that were done, he glorified God, saying: Truly this man was righteous." According to Mark, indeed, the centurion marveled not because "the veil of the temple had been rent from the top even to the bottom," nor because the other signs had come about which Matthew relates (that is, because "the earth was shaken," because "the rocks were split," or "the tombs were opened"). It is therefore worthwhile to consider what happened afterward, over and above what is written in Mark, such that the centurion marveled, saying: "Truly this man was the Son of God." And see whether we may say, according to one manner of understanding, that he marveled at those things which had been spoken by him to God with a great cry and with loftiness of feeling, in accordance with what he was able to understand; … suspecting this, he marveled and said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." But according to another manner, since perhaps Pilate, wishing to gratify the whole people who had said: "Crucify, crucify him," and fearing a tumult of the entire people, did not command — according to the custom of the Romans regarding those who are crucified — that Jesus' body be struck beneath the armpits, which those who condemn men found guilty of the greater crimes sometimes do (for those who are not struck after their fixing to the cross undergo a greater torment, since they go on living with the utmost torture, sometimes indeed the whole night through and still, after it, the whole day). Jesus therefore, since he had not been struck, and it was expected that, hanging long upon the cross, he would suffer greater torments, prayed to the Father and was heard, and immediately, as soon as he cried out to the Father, he was received; or, as one who had "the power" of "laying down" his "soul," he laid it down when he himself willed — which prodigy, when it was done, astonished the centurion, and he said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." For it was a miracle that after three hours he was received who perhaps would have lived two days upon the cross, according to the custom regarding those who are indeed hung up but not struck, so that it might be seen to have been a benefit of God that he expired, and the merit of his prayer rather than the violence of the cross. That which Mark sets forth in what follows also signifies this very thing, when "Joseph" had gone in "to Pilate" and had asked for "the body of Jesus." For he speaks thus, that "Pilate marveled that he was already dead, and calling the centurion he asked him whether he was already dead"; and when he had heard it from the centurion, "he gave his body to Joseph." For if the custom which had been in force among the Romans concerning those crucified and struck through had been observed in the case of Christ, how would Pilate have marveled if he were already dead? See therefore whether it does not point to a new miracle, that he was already dead and that "Pilate called the centurion and asked whether he was already dead." And see whether Matthew too does not show that Christ's torment was of this kind, when he says: the centurion and those who were with him, keeping Jesus. But why were they keeping him, unless it were that, hanging longer on the cross, he might be tormented the more, neither slain nor taken down? Yet the centurion, according to Matthew, not only said of Jesus: truly this was the Son of God, but also feared him, since the earthquake cast him into fear. And perhaps too he knew by experience, from the earthquakes that occur among the nations, that this had been an earthquake, and at this he was astounded as he beheld it. A…
Luke 23:53 — AGAINST CELSUS 2.69
When it will be our professed purpose to treat such things, we will explain at greater length on a more suitable occasion the matters of his burial, tomb and the man who buried him. For now, it is sufficient to notice the clean linen in which the pure body of Jesus was wrapped and the new tomb that Joseph had hewn out of the rock, where "no one was yet lying." … It suited him, who was unlike other dead people but who even in death revealed signs of life in the water and the blood. He was, so to speak, a new dead man, laid in a new and clean tomb. His birth was purer than all the others, since he was not born in the ordinary way but of a virgin. At his burial, the new tomb where they deposited his body also symbolically indicated his purity. It was not built from stones gathered from various quarters not having natural unity. It was quarried and hewed out of one rock, united together in all its parts.
Luke 23:53 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 143
Therefore Matthew recorded that the tomb was new, and set forth plainly that it was hewn in the rock. And that it was new, free from every dead body, Luke and John made manifest, one of whom indeed said: "in which no one had yet been laid", and John: "in which no one had yet been laid"—clearly, if never had anyone been laid there, but afterward some were laid there; for what he says: "in which no one had yet been laid", is signified to those who consider this word carefully. We say then (lest perhaps we ought to understand this passage simply), that he who said: "we have been buried together with Christ through baptism" and have risen together with him, was himself also buried together, after Christ, with Christ in a new tomb and an intelligible one hewn in the rock, and all who have been buried together with Christ in baptism, that they may rise with him from the new tomb of the firstborn "from the dead and holding the primacy in all things". And Joseph rolled not many stones to the door of the tomb but one, and a great one. And a greater one than the power of those lying in wait could be, yet not greater than was the power of the angel descending "from heaven" and rolling away from it the "stone", and sitting "upon it"; since all things that are around the body of Jesus are clean and new, and not simply great but all "exceedingly" great.
Luke 24:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
By which is implied, that the words uttered by the Saviour inflamed the hearts of the hearers to the love of God.
Luke 24:32 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.9.7
Do you want me to show you how the fire goes out from the words of the Holy Spirit and ignites the fire the hearts of believers?… And again in the Gospel it was written, after the Lord spoke to Cleopas, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" Where will your burning come from? What "coals of fire" will be found in you who are never set on fire by the declaration of the Lord, never inflamed by the words of the Holy Spirit? Hear also in another place David himself saying, "My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned."
Luke 24:32 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
Whence it is shown that we must not only apply zeal to learning the sacred letters, but must also entreat the Lord and "day and night" beseech him, that the Lamb "from the tribe of Judah" may come and himself, taking the "sealed book," may deign to open it. For he it is who, "opening the Scriptures," kindled the hearts of the disciples, so that they said: "was not our heart burning within us, when he opened to us the Scriptures?"
Luke 24:50 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But that He blessed them with uplifted hands, signifies that it becomes him who blesses any one to be furnished with various works and labours in behalf of others. For in this way are the hands raised up on high.
Malachi 1:11 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.3
And it is a marvel that even among us Moses is called Moses, and each of the prophets is addressed by his own name. For Christ did not change the names in them, but the understanding. And he changes it in this respect, that we should no longer attend to "Jewish fables" and "endless genealogies," because these indeed turn the hearing away from the truth, and are turned aside to fables. He opens the wells, then, and taught us that we should not seek God in any particular place, but should know that "in every land sacrifice is offered to his name." For now is that time "when the true worshipers worship the Father" neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim, but "in spirit and in truth." Not, then, in a place nor in a land does God dwell, but he dwells in the heart. And if you seek the place of God, a clean heart is his place. For in this place he says he will dwell, when he says through the prophet: "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord."
Malachi 3:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:17
Someone else will appeal to the text, "Let us make man according to our image and likeness," and maintain that whatever is made according to God's image and likeness is man. To support this, numberless instances are adduced to show that in Scripture "man" and "angel" are used indifferently and that the same subject is called both angel and man. This is true of the three who were entertained by Abraham and of the two who came to Sodom. In the whole course of Scripture, persons are styled sometimes men, sometimes angels. Those who hold this view will say that since persons are styled angels who are manifestly men, as when Zechariah says, "The messenger of the Lord, I am with you, says the Lord almighty," and as it is written of John the Baptist, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face," the angels (messengers) of God are so called on account of their nature. Scripture confirms this view that the names applied to higher powers are not those ofspecies of living beings but those of the orders, assigned by God to this and to that reasonable being.
Malachi 3:1 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10
John, however, as soon as he was born, passed over to the deserts, and he who "was greater among those born of women" showed himself worthy of a greater nurture. Of him the prophet speaks: "behold, I send my angel before your face". Rightly is he called an angel, who had been sent before the Lord and, as soon as he was born, was able to hear and understand his prophesying father.
Malachi 3:2 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:13
But as it is in mockery that Celsus says we speak of "God coming down like a torturer bearing fire" and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defense which disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us. And then we shall turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is "a consuming fire" and that "he draws rivers of fire before him." He even enters in as "a refiner's fire and as a fuller's herb," to purify his own people. But when he is said to be a "consuming fire," we inquire what are the things that are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that it is wickedness, and the works which result from it, which are being figuratively called "wood, hay, stubble," God consumes as a fire.
Malachi 3:6 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:14
But let us look at what Celsus next with ostentation announces in the following fashion: "And again," he says, "let us resume the subject from the beginning, with a larger array of proofs. And I make no new proofs. And I make no new statement but say what has long been settled. God is good and beautiful and blessed, and that in the best and most beautiful degree. But if he comes down among humanity, he must undergo a change, and a change from good to evil, from virtue to vice, from happiness to misery, and from best to worst. Who, then, would make a choice of such a change? It is the nature of a mortal, indeed, to undergo change and remolding, but of an immortal to remain the same and unaltered. God, then, could not admit such a change." Now it appears to me that the fitting answer has been returned to these objections when I have related what I called in Scripture the "condescension" of God to human affairs. For [this] purpose he did not need to undergo a transformation, as Celsus thinks we assert, nor a change from good to evil, nor from virtue to vice, nor from happiness to misery, nor from best to worst. For, continuing unchangeable in his essence, he condescends to human affairs by the economy of his providence. We show accordingly that the holy Scripture represents God as unchangeable, both by such words as "you are the same" and "I change not." Whereas the gods of Epicurus, being composed of atoms, and, so far as their structure is concerned, capable of dissolution, endeavor to throw off the atoms which contain the elements of destruction. Even the god of the Stoics, as being corporeal, at one time has his whole essence composed of the guiding principle when the conflagration [of the world] takes place; and at another, when a rearrangement of things occurs, he again becomes partly material. For even the Stoics were unable to comprehend distinctly the natural idea of God as a being altogether incorruptible and simple and uncompounded and indivisible.
Malachi 4:2 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:10.2
But do not take the statement that "he sprinkles to the east" as superfluous. From the east came atonement for you; for from there is the man whose name is "East," who became "a mediator between God and humanity." Therefore you are invited by this to always look "to the east" where "the Sun of Righteousness" arises for you, where a light is born for you; that you may never "walk in darkness" and that that last day does not seize you in darkness. [Therefore may] the night and fog of ignorance not come upon you unawares, but [may] you always be found in the light of knowledge, always have the day of faith and always preserve the light of love and peace.
Malachi 4:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:62
Who of those who hear Jesus say of John, "If you wish to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come," would not inquire how John says to those who ask, "Are you Elijah?" "I am not"? Will he not also inquire how one ought to consider John himself to be Elijah who is to come, according to Malachi's statement: … "And behold, I am sending you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and renewed Day of the Lord comes, who will restore the heart of the father to his son and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and smite the earth utterly"?
Malachi 4:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:125
And what is the source of your belief that Elijah who is to come will baptize? He did not even baptize the wood on the altar in the times of Ahab, when it needed a bath that it might be burned up when the Lord appeared in the fire. He commanded the priests to do this, and not only once, for he says, "Do it a second time, when also they did it for a second time." And "Do it a third time, when also they did it a third time." How, then, will he who did not baptize at that time but gave the task to others, baptize when he has come in fulfillment of things said by Malachi? Christ therefore does not baptize in water but his disciples. He reserves for himself the act of baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Matthew 1:1-17 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 28
For Matthew, beginning to weave the sequence of that birth from Abraham, arrives at the point of saying: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way", and he describes not the one who was baptized, but the one who came into the world; whereas Luke, in setting forth his birth, does not lead down from higher to lower, but, when he had first spoken of him as baptized, ascends all the way to God himself. Nor are the persons the same in his genealogy when he is said to descend and when he is said to ascend. For the one who makes him descend from the heavens introduces women too, and not just any women, but sinful ones, and women whom Scripture had censured; but the one who narrates him as baptized makes mention of no woman. In Matthew, therefore, as we have said, there is named Tamar, who by deceit lay with her father-in-law, and Ruth the Moabite, not of the stock of Israel, and Rahab, whose origin I cannot know, and the wife of Uriah, who violated her husband's bed. For because our Lord and Savior had come for this purpose, that he might take up the sins of men, and God "made him who had done no sin to be sin for us", therefore, descending into the world, he assumed the person of sinful and vicious men, and willed to be born of the line of Solomon, whose sins are recorded, and of Rehoboam, whose transgressions are related, and of the rest, many of whom did "evil in the sight of the Lord". But when he ascends from the washing and is described as born a second time, he is born not through Solomon, but through Nathan, who rebuked his father over the death of Uriah and the birth of Solomon. But in Matthew the term "begetting" is always added; here, however, it is entirely passed over in silence. For there it is written: "Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, Judah begot Perez and Zerah of Tamar", and right up to the end "begot" is always attached. But in Luke, where Jesus ascends from the washing, he is called "son", "as was supposed, of Joseph"; and in so long a series of names, except for the fact that he "was supposed to be the son of Joseph", the term "begetting" is nowhere written down.
Matthew 1:18 — FRAGMENT 11.7
Why does the Evangelist make mention here of "birth," whereas at the start of the Gospel he had said "generation"? For in this place he says, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way," but there "The book of the generation." … What then is the difference between "birth" and "generation"? How are either of them to be understood as applied to Christ? Note that this, my spoken word, in its own proper nature, is intangible and invisible. But when it is written down in a book, in a manner of speaking, it takes on a body. It is then both seen and touched. So it is with the fleshless, bodiless Word of God. The Word is neither seen nor described according to his Godhood but becomes, through his incarnation, subject to both sight and description. For this reason there is the "book" of his "generation" as of one who is made flesh. But here the point under investigation is not why he says "book" instead of "vision" or "account" (for this has been discussed already). Rather, it is why, when Matthew had previously mentioned "generation," he here speaks of "birth." What is "birth" as distinguished from "generation"? There is a difference between generation and birth. For "generation," or "coming into being," is the original formation of things by God, while "birth" is the succession from others caused by the verdict of death that came on account of the transgression. And even now, "generation" has something incorruptible and sinless about it, whereas "birth" implies that which is subject to passion and sin. The Lord in his eternal generation is incapable of sin. His being born did not undermine his eternal generation, which is incorruptible. But upon being born he assumed what is passible. That does not imply that he assumed what is subject to sin. He continued to bear the original Adam incapable of being lessened, either in respect of corruptibility or as regards the possibility of sin. Hence the "generation" in the case of Christ is not according to some procession from nonbeing into being. It is rather a transition [a path, a way] from existing "in the form of God" to the taking on of "the form of a servant." Hence his "birth" was both like ours and above ours. For to be born "of woman" is like our birth, but to be born "not of the will of the flesh" or "of man" but of the Holy Spirit is above ours. There is here an intimation, a prior announcement of a future birth to be bestowed on us by the Spirit.
Matthew 1:18 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
Again, turning it over in my mind, I ask why God, when once he had determined that the Savior should be born of a "virgin", did not choose a girl without a betrothed, but rather her especially who had already been "betrothed". And unless I am mistaken, this is the reason: He ought to be born of that virgin who not only had a betrothed, but, as Matthew writes, had already been handed over to a man, although the man did not yet know her, lest her very condition should display the shame of a virgin, if she were seen to be a virgin with a swelling womb. Hence I found it elegantly written in the letter of a certain martyr — I mean Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch after Peter, who in the persecution at Rome fought against the beasts: "the virginity of Mary was hidden from the prince of this world"; it was hidden because of Joseph, hidden because of the marriage, hidden because she was thought to have a husband. For if she had not had a betrothed and, as was supposed, a husband, she could in no way have been hidden from "the prince of this world". For at once a silent thought would have crept upon the devil: how is this woman, who has not lain with a man, pregnant? This conception must be divine, it must be something loftier than human nature.
Matthew 1:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(non occ.) She was indeed espoused to Joseph, but not united in wedlock; that is to say, His mother immaculate, His mother incorrupt, His mother pure. His mother! Whose mother? The mother of God, of the Only-begotten, of the Lord, of the King, of the Maker of all things, and the Redeemer of all.
Matthew 1:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But if he had no suspicion of her, how could he be a just man, and yet seek to put her away, being immaculate? He sought, to put her away, because he saw in her a great sacrament, to approach which he thought himself unworthy.
Matthew 1:23 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 2
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel." The true text of the copies of this prophet says: "you shall call." Moreover in Matthew we know it is read: "and they shall call his name Emmanuel." We cannot say that we ought to make anything less of the prophet. But how does the Gospel have this reading? Whether it was by someone who did not understand and ran to the easier course, as has happened also in many other places, or whether perhaps someone might say that the Gospel was published so from the beginning? Let him who wishes deliberate. The prophet indeed manifestly has: "and you shall call his name Emmanuel." I have known a certain man who, reading at the opening of the scriptures of the Gospel, "and you shall call his name Emmanuel," said within himself: 'What is "you shall call"? Who "shall call"? "Ahaz"; and how can "Ahaz" hear concerning the Savior, who came after many generations: "you shall call his name Emmanuel"?' and so, in place of what is, "you shall call," he wrote: "they shall call." But see that it is not to "Ahaz" that it is said: "and you shall call his name Emmanuel," but to the "house of David"; see that it is manifestly said: "Hear now, O house of David: is it a small thing for you to offer a contest to men, and how do you offer a contest to the Lord? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel." If, therefore, at any time we do not understand what has been said, let us make nothing less of it nor run to the easier course, but let us wait for the grace of God to supply to us, through the illumination of knowledge, the explanation of the question. What, then, is the "house of David"? If "David" is Christ, as I have often proved, the "house of David" is we, the Church of God; and it is prophesied that, if anyone is of the "house of David," he "shall call his name Emmanuel"; for at the coming of Christ our Church alone says of Christ: "God with us."
Matthew 3:4 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 11
"John was" therefore "in the desert" and was nourished in a new manner beyond human custom, Matthew himself recording the very thing: "and his food was locusts and wild honey". For because he was the minister of the first coming of the Savior and spoke only of the dispensation of the Lord's flesh, and his prophecy foretold him who had been born of a virgin, he did not have domestic honey refined by human care, but "wild honey" and winged — which was his food — winged, not great, not lifting itself on high, but a small winged thing, scarcely rising from the earth and leaping rather than flying. Why say more? It is said most plainly that "locusts" were his food, a small and clean animal. Consider therefore, dearest brethren, that he who had been born in a new way was in a new way also nourished.
Matthew 3:4 — FRAGMENT 41
John ate locusts, suggesting that the people of God were being nourished by a word that traveled high aloft in the air and had not yet passed over the earth. In the second place John ate honey, which is not obtained by people through their own efforts. The honey produced under the law and the prophets was not accessible to those who were inquiring only superficially about the meaning of the Scriptures and not searching their deeper intention.
Matthew 3:12 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
He, therefore, who is said to baptize "in the Holy Spirit and in fire", has "a winnowing fork in his hand and he will cleanse his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire". I wish to find the reason why our Lord has a "winnowing fork", and by what wind blowing the light chaff is snatched hither and thither, while the heavy wheat is carried down into one place; for neither can the wheat and the chaff be separated without wind. I consider that temptations are to be understood in place of the wind, which out of the mingled heap of believers show some to be chaff, others to be wheat. For when your soul has been overcome by some temptation, the temptation does not turn you into chaff, but, since you were chaff — namely light and unbelieving — the temptation reveals you to be what you were hiding. On the contrary, however, when you bravely endure trials, the temptation does not make you faithful and patient, but it brings out into the open the virtue of patience and fortitude which was in you, but was hidden.
Matthew 3:13 — FRAGMENT 52.15
By this act Jesus showed himself to be "meek and lowly in heart," coming to those inferior to him, doing all that followed in order to humble himself and become obedient "unto death." It is not always the case that the one who baptizes is greater than the one who is baptized. Ananias was not greater than Paul. And while Philip baptized, Peter gave the Spirit through the laying on of hands.
Matthew 3:16 — FRAGMENT 56.30
Christ was baptized for our sake, in order to sanctify the waters. The Spirit descended in the form of a dove, since wherever there is reconciliation with God there is a dove, as in the case of Noah's ark … announcing God's mercy to the world and at the same time making clear that what is spiritual should be meek and without wickedness, simple and without guile.
Matthew 4:2 — FRAGMENT 61.12
For the number "forty days" is composed of four groups of ten. This may be akin to the four aspects of physical reality, because the sensible world is formed out of four elements. Or it may be because a human being is formed in forty days in the womb. And so that he might not, by fasting any longer than this, give anyone the notion that he had not taken on flesh in truth, he afterward was hungry, sharing all that we have "except for sin" and participating in our condition through his own suffering.
Matthew 4:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 29
"And when the days were completed, he hungered. And the devil said to him: If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread". "Tell", he says, "this stone". Which stone? Surely the one the devil was pointing out, the one he wants to be made bread. What sort of temptation is this, that when a son asks his father for bread and the father does not give him a stone, this adversary, crafty and deceitful, should give a stone in place of bread? Is this the whole of what the devil wanted — that a stone should become bread, and that men should feed not on bread but on a stone, which the devil had pointed out in place of bread? I think that even to this day the devil shows a stone and urges each person to say: "tell this stone to become bread". By every temptation with which men were to be tempted, the Lord was tempted first, according to his assumption of the flesh. And he is tempted for this reason, that we too, when he conquers, may conquer. What I say perhaps becomes obscure, unless it is made clearer by an example. If you see heretics eating the lie of their own doctrines in place of bread, know that their teaching is a stone which the devil points out. But do not suppose that he has only one stone; he has many stones, from which he is introduced speaking in Matthew: "tell these stones to become loaves". Marcion spoke, and the devil's stone became bread for him. Valentinus spoke, and another stone was turned into bread for him. Basilides too had bread of this kind, and so did the rest of the heretics. Hence we must anxiously take care, lest perhaps, while eating the devil's stone, we suppose that we are feeding on the bread of God. Otherwise, what temptation was there in a stone becoming bread and being eaten by the Savior? For let us imagine that, at the devil's suggestion, the Lord had turned a stone into bread, and had eaten what he himself had made by his own power, and had satisfied his hunger: what sort of temptation is this, what victory over the devil, if these things were written down in a plain sense? But these things, as we have said, when their reason is discerned, both show that there would have been a temptation, if they had been done, and that the victory came about because they were spurned.
Matthew 4:4 — FRAGMENT 63.28
This saying is quoted by our Savior, and it makes clear to a person with understanding that before the manna came, which was our heavenly food, we must have been in a bad way and close to starving, having spent up all our fat for food. For thus it is written: "And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and then fed you with manna, which you had not known, nor had your fathers known, in order that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone." The manna itself is a word. This is made clear from the reply Moses made to the question of the children of Israel, when they said to one another, "What is that?" What then did Moses say? "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the word which the Lord has commanded." After this the devil goes on to another defeat.
Matthew 4:8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Luc. Hom. 30.) We are not to suppose that when he showed Him the kingdoms of the world, he presented before Him the kingdom of Persia, for instance, or India; but he showed his own kingdom, how he reigns in the world, that is, how some are governed by fornication, some by avarice.
Matthew 4:16 — FRAGMENT 73
He spoke of "the shadow of death" and not simply "death." This is because of the inability of sin utterly to corrupt the soul. Such complete corruption happens to bodies in death. But sin brings forth the shadow of death. And the words "light is sprung up" signify that it did not spring up upon us who were looking for it, but it shone upon those who were unprepared for it.
Matthew 4:17 — FRAGMENT 74
John's preaching of repentance was not precisely the same as the preaching of Jesus, yet the Savior preaches in ways commensurable with John, for there is one God who sent them both. John first says "repent" in order to make ready a "people prepared" for God. Jesus, when he has received a people who have been made ready and who have already repented, does not merely say to them, "Repent." For he does not preach in competition with the law and the prophets. When John had fulfilled the old covenant, Jesus "began to preach" the new, being himself the beginning of it. For this reason the words "he began" are not written of John, for he was an end. Moreover, the one preaches in the wilderness, the other in the midst of the people.
Matthew 4:24 — FRAGMENT 77.11
You will see the variety of evils in prodigality or avarice, boorishness or licentiousness, in silliness, knavery, insolence, cowardice and every opposing vice; and the soul's trials are money, fame, poverty, obscurity. And while the demons dishonor bodies, they cause souls to become active in sinning and madness. But the epileptic has a "dumb and deaf" demon. Such passions trouble the soul at intervals, rendering it deaf to the saving word; as, for example, anger is a paralysis of souls, such that, when they succumb to it, their vigor is slackened both for action and for living. And "weakness" of the soul is a term used by Greeks, in a general sense, for any sickness arising from vice; more specifically, for that which is opposed to endurance, a sort of giving up in the face of patience and sufferings and anguish.
Matthew 5:6 — FRAGMENT 83
But if I must utilize a bold explanation indeed, I think that perhaps it was through the word that is measured by virtue and justice that the Lord presents himself to the desire of the hearers. He was born as wisdom from God for us, and as justice and sanctification and redemption. He is "the bread that comes down from heaven" and "living water," for which the great David himself thirsted. He said in one of his psalms, "My soul has thirsted for you, even for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?" … "I shall behold your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied in beholding your glory." This then, in my estimation, is the true virtue, the good unmingled with any lesser good, that is, God, the virtue that covers the heavens, as Habakkuk relates.
Matthew 5:13 — FRAGMENT 91
Salt is useful for so many purposes in human life! What need is there to speak about this? Now is the proper time to say why Jesus' disciples are compared with salt. Salt preserves meats from decaying into stench and worms. It makes them edible for a longer period. They would not last through time and be found useful without salt. So also Christ's disciples, standing in the way of the stench that comes from the sins of idolatry and fornication, support and hold together this whole earthly realm.
Matthew 5:18 — FRAGMENT 99
But the "one dot" is not only the iota of the Greeks but also that which among the Hebrews is called the yod. And the "one iota" or "one dot" can symbolically be said to be Jesus, since the beginning of his name is written not only by Greeks with an iota but also by Hebrews with a yod. So Jesus will be the one dot, the Word of God in the law which does not pass from the law until all is accomplished. But the iota might also be (as he himself says) the Ten Commandments of the law, for everything else passes away, but these do not pass away. But neither does Jesus pass away; if he "falls to the ground" he does so willingly, in order to bear much fruit. Again, the "one iota" or "one dot" has mastery over things both in heaven and on earth.
Matthew 5:24 — FRAGMENT 103
To give assent to sin is already a completed evil, even if someone does not actually commit the deed. And by this saying our Savior, hurling us away from the cause of sins, endeavors to cut sin off completely. For when this intention is not present in our souls, neither shall the action accompany it.
Matthew 5:25 — FRAGMENT 102.30
In this life, this way traveled by all, you do well to accept and not ignore the suggestions of the conscience. But if you are inconsiderate and negligent in this life, conscience itself, assuming the role of a prosecutor, will accuse you before the judge. Conscience will subject to the juryman's decision, and you will be handed over to incurable punishments. Such things you would not have suffered, if along the way you had in fact acquired goodwill toward your accuser, accepting his reproaches as offered out of goodwill. For this also the divine Evangelist John says in his letter: "If our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence before God."
Matthew 5:25-26 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
And because the evangelist Matthew seems to have said something similar in that he says: "Be well-disposed toward your adversary while you are on the way with him", I ask whether the meaning is the same or whether there is some kinship, since with Matthew one person is omitted and another is changed. Omitted is the "ruler", and in place of "officer" a "servant" is inserted, while "adversary" and "judge" are alike set down by both. So then we go "with our adversary to the ruler", and it is necessary for us, while we are still "on the way", to labor mightily so that we may be freed from him. From whom? For the word is ambiguous and can be referred both to the ruler and to the adversary: "lest perhaps he hand you over" — whether the adversary or the ruler — "to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer"; and: "you will not come out from there until you pay back the very last mite", for which Matthew says: "until you pay back the last farthing". The word "last" both retained, but they seemed to differ in that the one set down "farthing", the other "mite".
Matthew 5:32 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book XIV), Section 24
But perhaps some Jewish man of those who dare to oppose the teaching of our Saviour will say, that when Jesus said, "Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, makes her an adulteress," [Matthew 5:32] He also gave permission to put away a wife like as well as Moses did, who was said by Him to have given laws for the hardness of heart of the people, and will hold that the saying, "Because he found in her an unseemly thing," [Deuteronomy 24:1] is to be reckoned as the same as fornication on account of which with good cause a wife could be cast away from her husband. But to him it must be said that, if she who committed adultery was according to the law to be stoned, clearly it is not in this sense that the unseemly thing is to be understood. For it is not necessary for adultery or any such great indecency to write a bill of divorcement and give it into the hands of the wife; but indeed perhaps Moses called every sin an unseemly thing, on the discovery of which by the husband in the wife, as not finding favour in the eyes of her husband, the bill of divorcement is written, and the wife is sent away from the house of her husband; "but from the beginning it has not been so." [Matthew 19:8] After this our Saviour says, not at all permitting the dissolution of marriages for any other sin than fornication alone, when detected in the wife, "Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, makes her an adulteress." [Matthew 5:32] But it might be a subject for inquiry if on this account He hinders any one putting away a wife, unless she be caught in fornication, for any other reason, as for example for poisoning, or for the destruction during the absence of her husband from home of an infant born to them, or for any form of murder whatsoever. And further, if she were found despoiling and pillaging the house of her husband, though she was not guilty of fornication, one might ask if he would with reason cast away such an one, seeing that the Saviour forbids any one to put away his own wife saving for the cause of fornication. In either case there appears to be something monstrous, whether it be really monstrous, I do not know; for to endure sins of such heinousness which seem to be worse than adultery or fornication, will appear to be irrational; but again on the other hand to act contrary to the design of the teaching of the Saviour, every one would acknowledge to be impious. I wonder therefore why He did not say, Let no one put away his own wife saving for the cause of fornication, but says, "Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, makes her an adulteress." [Matthew 5:32] For confessedly he who puts away his wife when she is not a fornicator, makes her an adulteress, so far as it lies with him, for if, "when the husband is living she shall be called an adulteress if she be joined to another man;" [Romans 7:3] and when by putting her away, he gives to her the excuse of a second marriage, very plainly in this way he makes her an adulteress. But as to whether her being caught in the act of poisoning or committing murder, furnishes any defense of his dismissal of her, you can inquire yourselves; for the husband can also in other ways than by putting her away cause his own wife to commit adultery; as, for example, allowing her to do what she wishes beyond what is fitting, and stooping to friendship with what men she wishes, for often from the simplicity of husbands such false steps happen to wives; but whether there is a ground of defense or not for such husbands in the case of such false steps, you will inquire carefully, and deliver your opinion also in regard to the difficult questions raised by us on the passage. And even he who withholds himself from his wife makes her oftentimes to be an adulteress when he does not satisfy her desires, even though he does so under the appearance of greater gravity and self-control. And perhaps this man is mor…
Matthew 5:38-39 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 10
It should indeed be known that some portion of these matters, of which we must treat, is set down in the Gospel according to Matthew, the Lord speaking in this manner: "you have heard that it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not resist evil. But if anyone strike you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." But perhaps one who reads the Scriptures more attentively may say that the words we have recalled as written in the Gospel are not taken from this passage of Exodus, but rather from Deuteronomy, where nonetheless certain things are recorded as written in this manner: "but if," it says, "an unjust witness should stand, bearing testimony against a man concerning impiety, both men who are in controversy shall be set before the Lord and before the priests and before the judges, whoever they may be in those days, and the judges shall examine diligently and investigate. And behold, they shall find that the unjust witness has testified unjustly, that he has risen up against his brother; and you shall do to him as he himself attempted to do to his brother, and you shall remove the malignant one from your midst, that the rest, hearing, may have fear, and may not go on further to do according to this evil word among you. Your eye shall not spare over him: life for life, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Similar things indeed seem to be said in both places; yet it is not plainly shown from which passage in particular the words set down in the Gospel seem to be taken, where he said: "you have heard that it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth."
Matthew 5:39 — FRAGMENT 108.21
Jesus' words regarding turning the other cheek concern more than simply long-suffering. For it is against nature to be so arrogant as to hit the other person. The one therefore who is "ready to give an answer" to every malicious person "concerning the faith that is in him" will not offer resistance. The spiritual meaning is this: To one who strikes him upon the right cheek—that is, against the rational doctrines—the believer will offer also the ethical ones. This will scandalize those who do not understand the reasonings of faith. They will cease from their accusations, since they will be ashamed and continue progress in divine things.
Matthew 6:1 — FRAGMENT 114
Just as water always conflicts with fire and fire with water and such things can never dwell together simultaneously, so likewise egotism and virtue are opposed to each other and can never easily coexist in one and the same soul. Therefore egotism is to be expelled from our souls, and we must abide in Christ's commandments.
Matthew 6:9 — ON PRAYER 22.2
According to the apostle, "as long as the heir has not reached his majority, he differs little from a servant, though he be lord of all. He remains under tutors and governors until the time of his maturity appointed by his father." But the "fullness of time" consists in our Lord Jesus Christ coming among us, when those who desire it receive adoption as sons, as Paul says in these words: "For you have not received the spirit of bondage in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, whereby we cry, 'Abba! Father!' "
Matthew 6:10 — ON PRAYER 25.1
The kingdom of God, according to the word of our Lord and Savior, "comes not with observation"; and "neither shall they say, Behold here, or behold there"—but "the kingdom of God is within us" (for "the word is very near to us," in our mouths and in our hearts). So one who prays for the coming of the kingdom of God rightly prays that the kingdom of God might be established in himself, that it might bear fruit and be perfected in himself. Every saint, being ruled by God as king and obedient to the spiritual laws of God, as it were, dwells within this kingdom as in a well-ordered city. The Father is present to such a one, and Christ reigns with the Father in the soul that is maturing. This is in accord with the promise that "we will come to him and make our abode with him."
Matthew 6:10 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 1
It is to come to pass that it be filled, when that prayer shall have been fulfilled by which the Lord himself commanded us to "pray" to the "Father", saying: "when you pray, say: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name! Thy kingdom come! Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth!". As yet the "will" of the "Father" is "in heaven"; "on earth" his "will" is not yet fulfilled; and Jesus himself, according to the dispensation of the flesh which he had put on, says: "he gave me all power, as in heaven so on earth"—not that he did not have "power on earth", he who had it "in heaven", but that God might so be believed "on earth" as he was believed "in heaven". Therefore the man Christ received "power" which before he did not have, and up to the present he does not yet have "power" over all "on earth". For over those who sin he does not yet reign; but when the "power" over these too has been given to him, when "all things have been made subject" to him, then the "power" will be complete.
Matthew 6:11 — ON PRAYER 27.2
Since some understand from this that we are commanded to pray for material bread, it will be well to refute their error here and to establish the truth about the epiousios (supersubstantial) bread. We must ask them how it could be that he who commanded us to ask for great and heavenly favors should command us to intercede with the Father for what is small and of the earth, as if he had forgotten—so they would have it—what he had taught. For the bread that is given to our flesh is neither heavenly, nor is the request for it a great request.We, on our part, following the Master himself who teaches us about the bread, shall treat the matter explicitly. In the Gospel according to John he says to those who had come to Capernaum seeking for him: "Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen miracles but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled." One who has eaten of the bread blessed by Jesus and is filled with it tries all the more to understand the Son of God more perfectly and hastens to him. Hence his admirable command: "Labor not for the meat that perishes but for that which endures to life ever-lasting, which the Son of Man will give you." … The "true bread" is that which nourishes the true humanity, the person created after the image of God.
Matthew 7:6 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
These questions are exceedingly delicate, and therefore I need hearers capable of subtle thinking. Therefore I call upon the hearers to attend to themselves, lest I become a cause of accusations against myself of scattering what is holy to the dogs, to shameless souls. For the loud-mouthed, the shameless, the abettors of debauchery and slander, are able only to yelp like dogs, and it does not befit me to scatter holy things before such brood. I earnestly ask the hearers about this, so that they may not in the future reproach me; for the beautiful pearls that I have gathered as a successful merchant, I shall put on display before people immersed in the impurities of their flesh, and therefore called swine. I would say that a man who is constantly immersed in the filth of life and wallows in it and does not try to live a pure life, a holy life, is simply a swine. And then, if I seek good pearls … and, having bought them at the cost of labor and vigils, cast them before pleasure-loving souls, and before those who are immersed in fleshly filth and impurity, then I too become a sinner, because I cast pearls before swine. But if the swine receive the pearls, then, not seeing their beauty and not understanding the advantages of possessing them, they trample them underfoot, speaking evil of what is good, and not only trample them, but, turning upon the servants of the pearls, tear them apart. Therefore I beseech you: be transformed! Resolve to acknowledge that it is in your power to change and to cast off the image of the swine, which is in the impure soul, and the image of the dog, which represents the man who is loud, a barker, and a foul-mouthed person.
Matthew 7:14 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
You perhaps believed that the way which God shows was level and soft and had absolutely no difficulty or labor: it is an ascent, and a winding ascent. For the way by which one strives toward the virtues is not downhill, but one ascends, and ascends narrowly and with difficulty. Hear also the Lord in the Gospel saying how "strait and narrow is the way that leads to life." See, then, how greatly the Gospel agrees with the Law. In the Law the way of virtue is shown to be a winding ascent; in the Gospels it is called "the strait and narrow way that leads to life." Cannot even the blind openly see this, that one and the same Spirit wrote the Law and the Gospels?
Matthew 7:24-27 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
The storm does not make a building stand firm upon the sand, but, if you wish to build, upon "the rock"; and when the storm has arisen, that which is founded "upon the rock" it will not overthrow, but that which sways "upon the sand" it proves at once to have been not well founded. Wherefore, before the storm arises, before the blasts of the winds rise up, before the rivers swell, while all things are still silent, let us turn all our zeal to the foundations of our buildings, let us build our house with the varied and firm stones of the precepts of God, so that, when persecution rages and a dreadful whirlwind rises up against Christians, we may show that we have a building "upon the rock", Christ Jesus. But if anyone — far be it from us — should deny him, let that one know that he did not deny Christ at that time when he seemed to have denied, but that he had the seeds and the roots of denying already long before, and that then was recognized what he had, and it was brought out into the open. Let us therefore pray to the Lord that we may be a firm building, which no storm may overturn, "founded upon the rock", our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Matthew 7:25 — FRAGMENT 153
"For neither death nor life nor angels nor other things can separate us from the love of Christ." Neither can the flooding of rivers, as in the lands of Egypt and Assyria, do harm. Only those are harmed who build on sand, who practice the wisdom of the world. The winds that blow are like the false prophets. All these, coming together in one place, "beat upon" the house. If it is founded on rock, they do no harm. "The way of a snake upon a rock" is not to be found. But in the form of temptations and persecutions, which may mount into a flood, they beat upon even the one who seems to be well-founded. The house falls if it does not have Christ as its basis and foundation. But the truly wise person builds one's house "upon a rock." This is the way the Lord builds his church—upon the rock, with steadfastness and strength. This is why "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." All the persecutions that fall upon that house accomplish nothing. The house is founded upon the rock.
Matthew 8:22 — FRAGMENT 161
The statement "Let the dead bury their dead" implies spiritually: Waste no more time on dead things. You are to "put to death therefore what is earthly in you: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry." These things therefore are dead. Cast them away from you. Cut them off as you would cut off gangrenous flesh to prevent the contamination of the whole body, so that you may not hear it said, "Leave the dead to bury their dead." But to some it seems abnormal and contradictory that the Savior does not allow the disciple to bury his father. It seems inhumane. But Jesus does not in fact forbid people from burying the dead, but rather he puts before this the preaching of the kingdom of heaven, which makes people alive. As for burying the body, there were many people who could have done this.
Matthew 10:23 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 9
Yet this too is permitted in the warfare of Christ, that if perchance at some time you feel yourself inferior in strength amid persecutions, and the contest against the cruelty of the tyrant seems to you unequal through the frailty of the body, you may give place to wrath and "flee" from place to place, nor is this reckoned to you as a soldier's offense. For this too is appointed in the laws of Christ, who says: "If they persecute you in this city, flee into another; and if in the other, flee into yet another". For the sum of the matter is not to deny Jesus, whom you have once confessed. For it is certain that he confesses Him who flees for this reason, that he may not deny Him.
Matthew 10:29 — FRAGMENT 212
In this passage, Jesus demonstrates his foresight in all things. The word without refers not to will but to foreknowledge. Some things happen because of his direct will, but some happen merely with his approval and consent. And so on the literal level, he is showing the subtlety of his foresight and his previous knowledge of events.On the spiritual level, however, a sparrow falls to the ground when it looks at what is below it and falls to earth, ensnared by the vices of the flesh, given up "to dishonorable passions." It loses its freedom together with its honor. For a sparrow is either borne always upward, or else it comes to rest by alighting on mountains or hills (the hills are metaphors for Scripture). And such a person is one who has been raised aloft by the Word but has his mind on earthly concerns.
Matthew 10:30 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
"But even the hairs of your head are all numbered." What hairs? Those by which the hearers of Jesus were Nazirites in a spiritual sense.
Matthew 10:32-33 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
And the Lord himself too gave a most beautiful distinction concerning this in the Gospels, when he says: "whoever confesses in me before men, I also will confess in him before my Father, who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father". You have seen that of those who "confess in himself" he said "he confesses", as one who himself lives in them and works the works of life. But in those "who deny" he did not keep the same likeness of the word, so as to say that whoever denies in me, I too will deny in him, but "whoever denies me before men, I too will deny him before my Father", to show that he who indeed "denies" is outside of himself, whereas he who "confesses" is in himself.
Matthew 10:34 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 13
Let the diligent reader of Scripture inquire how the Savior can say: "I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword", while now the angels at his nativity sing: "on earth peace". For in another place too it is said in his own person: "My peace I give to you, peace I leave to you: not as this world gives peace, do I give peace". Let him then see whether what we bring forward can resolve the question. If it had been written: "on earth peace", and the sentence had ended at that point, the question would rightly arise. But now that which is added — that is, what is said after "peace": "among men of good will" — resolves the question. The peace too which the Lord does not give "upon the earth" is not the "peace of good will". For he does not say simply: "I came not to send peace", but with an addition: "upon the earth"; nor did he, on the contrary, say: "I came not to send peace upon the earth of good will".
Matthew 10:41 — FRAGMENT 218.39
This passage has a deeper meaning. One who has properly extracted the meaning of the apostle's writing, and has not misunderstood it is receiving the apostle as well as Christ who speaks and dwells in the apostle and is the source of the apostle's teaching. And since the divine mind of the Father is also in the Son, one who receives the word "of wisdom" and everything that is Christ is receiving God the Father of all things. The first part refers mystically to the new covenant, the last part to the old covenant. And if one believes that the prophets spoke wisely, not from their own understanding but because they were moved by the Holy Spirit, when one receives the meaning in them he possesses the prophetic Spirit and quite reasonably receives a prophet's reward. And if one who understands righteousness and unrighteousness (and does not live unrighteously himself) receives a righteous person, that one is not only hospitable but righteous in addition. That one receives a righteous person's reward.
Matthew 11:11 — FRAGMENT 226
The kingdom of heaven is Jesus the Christ himself, who exhorts all people to repentance and draws them to himself by love.
Matthew 11:13 — FRAGMENT 227
"The days of John" and of Jesus are understood not in reference to time but in reference to the state of the soul of the hearer of the divine Scripture. And the word now marks out clearly the days of Jesus, which the psalm points to in this way: "In his days righteousness shall arise, and there will be an abundance of peace till the time when he is taken away." One who has been previously taught comes to the beginning of Jesus' discourses and still makes progress in introductory things by way of that road that appears to be rugged and steep. One thereby "takes by force" the kingdom of heaven, which "suffers violence." The expression "suffers violence" is not to be taken in an active sense but a passive, as if to say "it has been taken." But if the perfect Word, when he receives someone who was awaiting freedom under the law and prophetic schoolmasters and housekeepers, bestows on such a one his father's inheritance freely, then fittingly it is said that "all the prophets and the law prophesied until John."
Matthew 11:15 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The outer man has ears, and it is said that the inner man too has them. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" All who heard Jesus had bodily ears, but not all succeeded in keeping their inner ears pure. The possession of the former does not depend on us; the possession of the latter — depends on us.
Matthew 11:25 — FRAGMENT 239
Jesus praises and glorifies the Father, who had foreseen the entire trajectory of the Word first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Our Lord here gives thanks to his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, for his mission in becoming incarnate in the form of a servant. He speaks about the Father's good pleasure now to hide this mystery about himself from Israel, which might be expected to be wise, and to reveal it to the Gentiles, who were until now without understanding. It is thereby demonstrated that God did not forget to fulfill his purpose, nor did Christ's coming fail in its appointed end. These things indeed have happened, God knowing them beforehand and having commanded beforehand the repentance of grace. The justice of God's good pleasure is here passed over in silence, but elsewhere it is clearly displayed. God's good will is not irrational. People do not fail to attain knowledge and wisdom about it for any reason other than their own deficiencies.
Matthew 12:9 — FRAGMENT 249
The spiritual sense of the expression "he went on from there" can be understood in this way: When he establishes a new covenant and the sabbath no longer is in force, then he goes over or departs to another place. For this reason they accuse him and his disciples, not outside but within the synagogue. Their offenses are thereby increased to the brim. They brought to the Savior the barrenness of their hands. For having a withered hand indicated unfruitfulness. But that which is unfruitful is coming near to being reversed.
Matthew 12:15 — FRAGMENT 252
To the extent that one draws near to Jesus, one does not hold counsel, for no counselor of evil things draws near to Jesus. But when others go out, departing from Jesus, they hold counsel to destroy Jesus, to destroy the Light, the good Way, the Life, the Treasure, the Pearl, Love itself and Peace. If anyone destroys these, he is called a "son of destruction." But "Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there." He had no reason to remain around the sons of destruction. They sought to destroy him, but we, who were not seeking, have found him. This recalls the words of the prophet: "I am found by those who do not seek for me; I have been made manifest to those who were not asking after me." For he came "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" who had forgotten their own Shepherd. So Jesus withdraws, not fearing their judgment but to dispel evil. And, lest anyone should suppose that it was through fear that he had withdrawn, Jesus healed everyone, displaying his almighty power. But, as one who does what is fitting, without pride, he sent them away, telling them not to publicize this.
Matthew 12:39 — FRAGMENT 274
That generation was evil, on account of the influence that had come to be in it from the evil one. It was adulterous because it had left her natural husband—the word or law of truth—and had come to be wedded to a lie. The law which is "in the members" of our flesh wars against "the law of the mind." It is an adulterer of the soul. Every opposing power, when it has intercourse with the soul unfaithfully—the soul that has as its bridegroom the Word of God—causes the soul to commit adultery.
Matthew 12:42 — FRAGMENT 277.23
The church of the Gentiles, which in truth is gathered "from the ends of the earth," fulfills the place of the queen of the south, not providing gifts in "perishable things, silver" and spices, but faith, the incense of knowledge, the outpouring of an offering, the sweat of the virtues and the blood of martyrdom. For with such gifts the true Solomon is pleased, who is Christ, "our peace." For "Solomon" is interpreted as "peaceful."
Matthew 12:43-45 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
How does he "deliver him to Satan"? He departs from his mind and turns himself away and flees from his evil thoughts and unworthy desires and leaves the "house" of his heart "empty". And then there shall be fulfilled in that man what is written: "but when the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, he goes about through dry places: and if he does not find rest, he returns to his own house; and finding it vacant and swept, he takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering he dwells in that house; and then the last state of that man becomes worse than the first". In this manner, then, it must be understood that God "delivers up" those whom he delivers, not that he himself delivers anyone, but from the fact that he forsakes the unworthy — those, namely, who do not so cultivate themselves and purge themselves from vices that God should gladly dwell in them. When he himself flees and turns away from a soul which is set in uncleanness and vices, it is said to be delivered up from the fact that it is found empty of God and is invaded by the wicked spirit.
Matthew 13:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.1
When Jesus then is with the multitudes, he is not in his house, for the multitudes are outside of the house, and it is an act that springs from his love of humanity to leave the house and to go away to those who are not able to come to him.
Matthew 13:20-21 — FRAGMENT 291
Not all the Gospel writers use the same terms in reporting this parable. Matthew wrote of "the evil one," Mark of "Satan," and Luke of "the devil." The phrases "by the wayside" and "in the path" are not quite the same thing. Weigh in the allusion of the statement "I am the way." Both Matthew and Mark say, most felicitously, that the word was sowed "on stony ground," not upon a "stone."Now to all that which is "by the wayside," the words "those who do not understand" apply. But to the good ground these words apply: "This is he who hears the word and understands it." Perhaps then those seeds that fall "on stony ground" and those that fall "among thorns" fall between the people without knowledge and those who understand. This then is an exhortation to meditate diligently upon the faculty of perception. If the seed of the one who is dense is snatched away, the seed of intellect ought to be taken up and covered in the ground of memory, so that it may spread forth roots and may not be found naked or snatched away by the spirits of wickedness.
Matthew 13:22 — FRAGMENTS 294-95
"The deceitfulness of riches chokes," and so does the speech of heretics. The rich are liars, contrasted with "the poor, righteous person," who is poor in speech and knowledge but righteous in life. The "care of all the churches" of which the apostle speaks is distinguished from the "care of this world." One suffers from these worldly cares when one does not rejuvenate one's own soil but receives the word without paying attention and sprouts up thorns, with which the earth was cursed because of the disobedience of Adam. He heard of the "thorns and thistles it shall produce for you," "whose end is to be burned." For these are not sown but spring forth of themselves. They "choke the word" of God through troubles and whims. One who knows truly both understands and bears fruit. But if anyone seems to understand without bearing fruit, one does not understand. If one seems to bear fruit without understanding, one does not bear fruit. This displays the variety of levels of virtue spoken of in the text: "sixtyfold and thirtyfold and a hundredfold." Virtue's strictness is not exhibited by everyone to the same degree. Some care less about it, some more.
Matthew 13:23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.3
Daniel, knowing that the intelligent are the light of the world and that the multitudes of the righteous differ in glory, seems to have said this, "And the intelligent shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and from among the multitudes of the righteous as the stars for ever and ever." And in the passage, "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For one star differs from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead," the apostle says the same thing as Daniel, taking this thought from his prophecy.
Matthew 13:24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.2
Consider now, if in addition to what we have already recounted, you can otherwise take the good seed to be the children of the kingdom, because whatever good things are sown in the human soul, these are the offspring of the kingdom of God. They have been sown by God the Word who was in the beginning with God. Wholesome words about anything are children of the kingdom.
Matthew 13:25 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.2
But while people are asleep they do not act according to the command of Jesus, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation." At that point the devil on the watch sows what are called tares—that is, evil opinions—over and among the good seeds that are from the Word. According to this the whole world might be called a field, and not the church of God only. For the Son of Man sowed the good seed throughout the entire world, but the wicked one sowed tares—that is, evil words—which, springing from wickedness, are children of the evil one.
Matthew 13:30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.2
And at the end of things, which is called "the consummation of the age," there will of necessity be a harvest, in order that the angels of God who have been appointed for this work may gather up the bad opinions that have grown upon the soul, and overturning them may give them over to fire which is said to burn, that they may be consumed. And so the angels and servants of the Word will gather from Christ's entire kingdom all things that cause a stumbling block to souls and their reasonings that create iniquity, which they will scatter and cast into the burning furnace of fire. Then those who become conscious that they have received the seeds of the evil one in themselves, because of their having been asleep, shall wail and, as it were, be angry with themselves. This is the "gnashing of teeth." Similarly it is said in the Psalms, "They gnashed me with their teeth." Then above all "shall the righteous shine," no longer differently as at the first but all "as one sun in the kingdom of their Father." Then, as if to indicate that there was indeed a hidden meaning, perhaps in all that is concerned with the explanation of the parable, maybe most of all in the saying "Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," the Savior adds, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." The Lord thereby teaches those who are attentive that in the exposition, the parable has been set forth with such perfect clearness that it can be understood by the novice.
Matthew 13:31-32 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 1
It seems to me that each utterance of divine Scripture is like some kind of seed, whose nature is this: that when it has been cast into the earth, it is regenerated into an ear of grain or into whatever other form of its own kind, and is spread abroad manifold — and the more abundantly, the more either a skilled farmer expends greater labor upon the seeds, or grants the benefit of more fertile soil. So then it comes about that by diligent cultivation a tiny "seed", for example "of mustard, which is the least of all, becomes greater than all herbs and turns into a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and dwell in its branches". So too this utterance, which has now been read to us from the divine volumes, if it finds a skilled and diligent husbandman — though at first touch it may seem meager and brief — once it begins to be cultivated and to be handled with spiritual art, grows into a tree, spreads out into branches and into shoots: so that there can come "the disputers and rhetoricians of this world", who like "the birds of heaven" with light wings, that is, with mere pomp of words, pursue lofty and steep things, and, captivated by the reasonings, wish to dwell in these branches, in which there is no elegance of speaking but a rule of living.
Matthew 13:36 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.1-3
Now, having discoursed sufficiently to the multitudes in parables, he sends them away and goes to his own house, where his disciples come to him. His disciples did not go with those he sent away. As many as are more genuine hearers of Jesus first follow him, then having inquired about his house, are permitted to see it. Having come, they saw and stayed with him for all that day, and perhaps some of them even longer. In my opinion, such things are implied in the Gospel according to John.… And if then, unlike the multitudes whom he sends away, we wish to hear Jesus and go to the house and receive something better than the multitudes did, let us become friends of Jesus, so that as his disciples come, we may also come to him when he goes into the house. And having come, let us inquire about the explanation of the parable, whether of the tares of the field, or of any other.
Matthew 13:43 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.3
But as we said above in reference to the words, "Then shall the righteous shine as the sun," that the righteous will shine not differently as formerly, but as one sun, we will, of necessity, set forth what appears to us on the point. Daniel, knowing that the intelligent are the light of the world, and that the multitudes of the righteous differ in glory, seems to have said this, "And the intelligent shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and from among the multitudes of the righteous as the stars for ever and ever." And in the passage, "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead," the Apostle says the same thing as Daniel, taking this thought from his prophecy. Some one may inquire how some speak about the difference of light among the righteous, while the Saviour on the contrary says, "They shall shine as one sun." I think, then, that at the beginning of the blessedness enjoyed by those who are being saved (because those who are not such are not yet purified), the difference connected with the light of the saved takes place: but when, as we have indicated, he gathers from the whole kingdom of Christ all things that make men stumble, and the reasonings that work iniquity are cast into the furnace of fire, and the worse elements utterly consumed, and, when this takes place, those who received the words which are the children of the evil one come to self-consciousness, then shall the righteous having become one light of the sun shine in the kingdom of their Father. For whom will they shine? For those below them who will enjoy their light, after the analogy of the sun which now shines for those upon the earth? For, of course, they will not shine for themselves. But perhaps the saying, "Let your light shine before men," can be written "upon the table of the heart," according to what is said by Solomon, in a threefold way; so that even now the light of the disciples of Jesus shines before the rest of men, and after death before the resurrection, and after the resurrection "until all shall attain unto a full-grown man," and all become one sun. Then shall they shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Matthew 13:44 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.6
Now a man who comes to the field, whether to the Scriptures or to the Christ who is formed both from things manifest and from things hidden, finds the hidden treasure of wisdom whether in Christ or in the Scriptures. For, going round to visit the field and searching the Scriptures and seeking to understand the Christ, he finds the treasure in it. Having found it, he hides it, thinking that it is not without danger to reveal to everybody the secret meanings of the Scriptures or the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. And, having hidden it, he goes away. Now he is focused on the heavy labor of devising how he shall buy the field, or the Scriptures, that he may make them his own possession, receiving from the people of God the oracles of God with which the Jews were first entrusted. But when one taught by Christ has bought the field, the kingdom of God, according to another parable, is like a vineyard that is "taken from" the first and given to other nations bringing forth its fruits. The one who bought the field in faith, as the fruit of his having sold all else that he had, no longer was keeping anything that was formerly his. For they would be a distracting source of evil to him.And you will give the same application, if the field containing the hidden treasure is Christ. Those who give up all things and follow him have, as it were in another way, sold their possessions. Thus by having sold and surrendered them and having received in their place a noble resolution from God their helper, they may purchase, at great cost worthy of the field, the field containing the hidden treasure.
Matthew 13:45-46 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
If I seek good pearls (for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking good pearls) and, having bought them at the cost of labor and vigils, cast them before pleasure-loving souls, and before those who are immersed in fleshly filth and impurity, then I too become a sinner, because I cast pearls before swine. But if the swine receive the pearls, then, not seeing their beauty and not understanding the advantages of possessing them, they trample them underfoot, speaking evil of what is good.
Matthew 13:45-46 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.8
Now among the words of all kinds that profess to announce truth, and among those who report them, he seeks pearls. Think of the prophets as, so to speak, the pearls that receive the dew of heaven and become pregnant with the word of truth from heaven. They are goodly pearls that, according to the phrase here set forth, the merchant seeks. And the chief of the pearls, on the finding of which the rest are found with it, is the very costly pearl, the Christ of God, the Word that is superior to the precious letters and thoughts in the law and the prophets. When one finds this pearl all the rest are easily released.Suppose, then, that one is not a disciple of Christ. He possesses no pearls at all, much less the very costly pearl, as distinguished from those that are cloudy or darkened.… The muddy words and the heresies that are bound up with works of the flesh are like the darkened pearls and those that are produced in the marshes. They are not beautiful.
Matthew 13:47 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.12
Now, these things being said, we must hold that "the kingdom of heaven is similar to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind," in order to set forth the varied character of the principles of action among people, which are as different as possible from each other. The expression "gathered from every kind" embraces both those worthy of praise and those worthy of blame in respect of their inclinations toward the forms of virtues or of vices. And the kingdom of heaven is compared with the broad and variegated texture of a net, with reference to the old and the new Scripture, which are woven together of thoughts of widely varied kinds.
Matthew 13:50 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.12
And those who attended to the net that was cast into the sea are Jesus Christ, the master of the net, and "the angels who came and ministered to him." It is not until the net is filled full that they will draw it up from the sea and carry it to the shore beyond the sea—namely, to things beyond this life—but not until the "fullness of the Gentiles" has been drawn into it. But when that fullness has come, then they draw it up from things here below and carry it to what is figuratively called the shore. There it will be the work of those who have drawn it up to sit by the shore, there to settle themselves in order that they may put each of the good fish in its own proper place, into the right vessel. But they will cast outside those that are of an opposite character and are called bad. By "outside" is meant the furnace of fire, as the Savior interpreted it, saying, "So shall it be at the consummation of the age. The angels shall come forth and separate the wicked from among the righteous and shall cast them into the furnace of fire." Only it must be observed that we are already taught by the parable of the tares and the other similitudes set forth that the angels are to be entrusted with the power to distinguish and separate the evil from the righteous. For it is said above, "The Son of Man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth." But here it is said, "The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the righteous and shall cast them into the furnace of fire."
Matthew 13:51 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.14
And one is a scribe "as a disciple to the kingdom of heaven" in the simpler sense, when one comes from Judaism and receives the teaching of Jesus Christ as defined by the church. But one is a scribe in a deeper sense when having received elementary knowledge through the letter of the Scriptures one ascends to things spiritual, which are called the kingdom of heaven. And as each thought is attained, grasped abstractly and proved by example and absolute demonstration, thereby one can understand the kingdom of heaven. Thus one who abounds in knowledge free from error is in the kingdom of the multitude of what are here represented as "heavens." … Hence, so far as Jesus Christ, "who was in the beginning with God, God the Word," has not his home in a soul, the kingdom of heaven is not in it. But when anyone comes close to admission of the Word, to that one the kingdom of heaven is near. But if the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are the same thing in reality, if not in idea, manifestly to those to whom it is said, "The kingdom of God is within you," to them also it might be said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." This is most true because of the repentance from the letter to the spirit, since "when one turns to the Lord, the veil over the letter is taken away."
Matthew 13:52 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.14
One who is truly such a householder is both free and rich. He is rich because from the office of the scribe he has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven, in every word of the Old Testament and in all knowledge concerning the new teaching of Christ Jesus. He has these riches laid up in his own treasure house—in heaven, in which he stores his treasure as one who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven. There neither moth consumes nor thieves break through and steal. For the one who has such treasures laid up in heaven, not one moth of the inordinate passions can touch his spiritual and heavenly possessions.
Matthew 13:53 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.16
We must therefore inquire whether by the expression "his own country" is meant Nazareth or Bethlehem. It might have been Nazareth, because of the saying "he shall be called a Nazarene." Or it might have been Bethlehem, since he was born there. Furthermore, I wonder whether the Evangelists could have said "coming to Bethlehem" or "coming to Nazareth." They have not done so but have named it more simply "his country." This is because of something being declared in a mystic sense in the passage about his country—namely, the whole of Judea—in which he was dishonored. This is according to the saying "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country." Jesus Christ was considered "a stumbling block to the Jews," among whom he is persecuted even until now. But he was proclaimed among the Gentiles and believed in everywhere—for his word has run over the whole world. In his own country Jesus had no honor, but among those who were "strangers from the covenants," the Gentiles, he is held in honor. But the Evangelists have not recorded what things he taught and spoke in their synagogue. All we know is that they were so great and of such a nature that all were astonished. Probably the things spoken were too elevated to be written down. Only let us note that he taught in their synagogue, not separating from it or disregarding it.
Matthew 13:55-56 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book X), 17
And depreciating the whole of what appeared to be His nearest kindred, they said, "Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?" [Matthew 13:55-56] They thought, then, that He was the son of Joseph and Mary. But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is entitled, or "The Book of James," that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honour of Mary in virginity to the end, so that that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word which said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," [Luke 1:35] might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Ghost came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the purity which consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity. And James is he whom Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians that he saw, "But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." [Galatians 1:19] And to so great a reputation among the people for righteousness did this James rise, that Flavius Josephus, who wrote the "Antiquities of the Jews" in twenty books, when wishing to exhibit the cause why the people suffered so great misfortunes that even the temple was razed to the ground, said, that these things happened to them in accordance with the wrath of God in consequence of the things which they had dared to do against James the brother of Jesus who is called Christ. And the wonderful thing is, that, though he did not accept Jesus as Christ, he yet gave testimony that the righteousness of James was so great; and he says that the people thought that they had suffered these things because of James. And Jude, who wrote a letter of few lines, it is true, but filled with the healthful words of heavenly grace, said in the preface, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James." [Jude 1]
Matthew 13:57 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.18
We must inquire whether the expression has the same force when applied universally to every prophet. Does it mean that every one of the prophets was dishonored only in his own country? Or does it mean that every one who was dishonored was dishonored in his country? Or does it mean that because of the expression being singular, these things were said about only one? If these words are spoken about only one, then these things that have been said make sense insofar as they refer to what is written about the Savior. But if the point is generalized to indicate all prophets, then it is harder to defend historically. For Elijah did not suffer dishonor in Tishbeth of Gilead, nor Elisha in Abetmeholah, nor Samuel in Ramathaim, nor Jeremiah in Anathoth. But, figuratively interpreted, this saying is absolutely true. For we must think of Judea as their country and that famous Israel as their kindred, and perhaps of the body as the house. All suffered dishonor in Judea from the Israel that is according to the flesh while they were yet in the body. As it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute, who declared beforehand the coming of the righteous One?" And Paul says similar things in the first epistle to the Thessalonians: "For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all people."
Matthew 13:58 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.19
It seems to me that the production of miracles is similar in some ways to the case of physical things. Cultivation is not sufficient to produce a harvest of fruits unless the soil, or rather the atmosphere, cooperates to this end. And the atmosphere of itself is not sufficient to produce a harvest without cultivation. The one who providentially orders creation did not design things to spring up from the earth without cultivation. Only in the first instance did he do so when he said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation, with the seed sowing according to its kind and according to its likeness."It is just this way in regard to the production of miracles. The complete work resulting in a healing is not displayed without those being healed exercising faith. Faith, of whatever quality it might be, does not produce a healing without divine power.
Matthew 14:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.20
The Jews had different opinions about the resurrection. Some of them were false. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead or in the existence of angels. They believed those things that were written about them were only to be interpreted figuratively but had no reality in point of fact.Other Jewish views of the resurrection were true, such as were taught by the Pharisees about the resurrection of the dead—that they rise.We must now therefore inquire about the opinion regarding the soul, which was mistakenly held by Herod and some from among the people. It ran something like this: John, who a little earlier had been slain by him, had risen from the dead after he had been beheaded. This person who had risen was the same person under a different name, one now called Jesus. Herod imagined that Jesus possessed the same powers that formerly worked in John. If the powers that worked in John had passed over to Jesus, Jesus was thus thought by some to actually be John the Baptist. The return of Elijah fueled this idea. Here is the line of argument. It was the spirit and power of Elijah that had returned in John. "This is Elijah who is to come." The spirit in Elijah possessed the power to go into John. So Herod thought that the powers John worked in baptism and teaching had a miraculous effect in Jesus, even though John did not do miracles. It may be said that something of this kind was the underlying thought of those who said that Elijah had appeared in Jesus or that one of the old prophets had risen.
Matthew 14:29-31 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
But the saints are not sunk; rather they walk upon the waters, because they are light and are not weighed down by the burden of sin. Finally the Lord and Savior "walked upon the waters"; for he it is who truly knows no sin. His disciple Peter also "walked," although he trembled a little; for he was not so great and of such kind as to have nothing at all of the nature of lead mixed within him. He had some, though little. On account of which the Lord says to him: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
Matthew 15:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.8
Pharisees and scribes came to him from Jerusalem. They did not come because they were amazed at the power in Jesus that healed people even if they "only touched the edge of his cloak." Instead, they came with a faultfinding attitude and brought an accusation before the teacher. The accusation did not concern the transgression of a commandment of God but rather the transgression of one tradition of the Jewish elders. Probably the charge of the faultfinders itself displays the piety of the disciples of Jesus, because they offered no grounds at all for criticism by the Pharisees and scribes in regard to transgressing the commandments of God. The Pharisees and scribes would not have brought the charge of transgressing the commandment of the elders against the disciples of Jesus if, indeed, they were able to get a firm hold on the ones who were being accused and were able to show that they were transgressing a commandment of God.
Matthew 15:7-8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.11
I have previously quoted some of the words of Isaiah that precede the verse quoted in the Gospel and some of the words that follow the verse quoted in the Gospel. In this way we may show the way in which the word promises that it will close "the eyes" of those of the people who were "out of their senses" and "drunken" and who had been given to drink a "spirit of stupefaction." The word also promises to "close the eyes both of their prophets and their rulers" who claim to "see the hidden things."I suppose that these very things happened after the Savior had dwelt with these people. For "all the words," the words of the Scriptures in their entirety and also those of Isaiah, became to them "as the words of a sealed book." Now the word sealed was said as if the book was sealed with obscurity and not opened with clarity. The book is unclear to those who right from the start are "not able to read it" simply because "they are illiterate." It is also equally unclear to "those who are literate" because they do not understand the meaning in the things that have been written. Hence the word rightly adds to these things that the people would "fall into unconsciousness" because of their sins and would be "out of their senses" with madness against the word. The word also adds that the people would "be drunk" against it "with a spirit of stupefaction." The Lord would give them this "spirit of stupefaction" to drink when he "closed their eyes," because they were unworthy of seeing. This would happen to the eyes of "both their prophets and their rulers" that claimed to "see the hidden things" of the mysteries in the divine Scriptures. The word says that when all these things had happened and when their eyes had been closed, then the prophetic words would be sealed and concealed from them. This is exactly what the people experienced along with those who did not believe in Jesus as Messiah.
Matthew 15:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.14-15
Now anyone who has come to this place in the text can agree that it is "not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man," even if it is considered to be defiling by Jews. In exactly the same way it is "not what enters into the mouth" that makes the person holy. This is so even if that which is called the bread of the Lord is considered to make the person holy by some of the more impeccable disciples. The two cases are similar. It is not the food but the conscience of the one who eats with doubt about its propriety that defiles the person who has eaten. For "the one who doubts is condemned if one eats, because one is not eating from faith." It is also like the case in which "nothing is pure to the one who is defiled and unbelieving." The thing involved is impure not because of itself but because of the person's defilement and unbelief. In the same way, that which is "made holy through the word of God and prayer" does not on its own account make the one who uses it holy. For if it did, it would also make holy the one who eats of the Lord "in an unworthy manner" and no one would become "weak" or "sickly" or would "sleep" because of this food. For this is what Paul showed in the statement, "Because of this many among you are weak and sickly and a significant number are falling asleep." Therefore, in the case of the bread of the Lord, the one who uses it derives benefit when one shares in the bread with a mind that is undefiled and a conscience that is pure.
Matthew 15:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.12
We are accused by the Jews and Ebionites of being violators of the laws that we read in Leviticus and Deuteronomy concerning clean and unclean food. But by means of what is said in this passage we are clearly taught by the Savior not to think that the simple meaning of these laws is the aim intended in the Scripture. For Jesus says, "Not that which enters into the mouth defiles a person but that which comes out of the mouth." Especially significant is what is said in the Gospel of Mark: "Thus he declared all foods clean." Since all this is so, it is obvious that we are not defiled when we eat things that are said to be unclean by Jews, who want to serve the letter of the law. Instead, we are defiled when we say whatever happens to be on our mind and we talk about things that we should not talk about, even though our lips should be bound "with perception" and we should make for them "a measuring balance and a standard of measure." The spring of sins comes to us from such talking.
Matthew 15:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.14
"They are blind guides of blind people." Who are these blind guides? The Pharisees, whose minds "the god of this age has blinded" because they are "unbelieving," since they did not believe in Jesus Christ. The god of this age has blinded them "so that the light of the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ would not shine on them." We ought to avoid being guided by those blind persons. Not only should we do this, but we certainly should also listen with caution in the case of those who claim to lead in the way of healthy teaching and ought to apply healthy judgment to what they say. We should do these things so that we ourselves do not appear to be blind because we do not see the meaning of the Scriptures. We would become blind like this if we were guided by the ignorance of people who are blind and people who do not perceive the issues of healthy teaching. If we were led by such people, both the one who leads and the one who is led would fall into the pit.
Matthew 15:20 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.14-15
These things are what "defiles the person" when they come out from the heart and, after they have gone out from it, go through the mouth. Thus if they did not occur outside of the heart but were held by the person somewhere around the heart, not being allowed to be spoken through the mouth, they would very quickly disappear and the person would not be defiled any longer. Therefore the source and beginning of every sin is "evil reasonings." For if these reasonings did not prevail, there would be neither murders nor acts of adultery nor any other of such things. Because of this each one ought to keep one's own heart with all watchfulness.
Matthew 15:30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.18
Again Jesus went up on the mountain where he sat down. Not only people who were healthy but also those suffering from various disorders went up on the mountain where Jesus was sitting. Think of this mountain to which Jesus went up and sat as the church. It has been set up through the word of God over the rest of the world, and all sorts of people come to it. To this assembly have come not only the disciples, as if they were leaving behind the multitudes, as they did in the case of the Beatitudes. Rather, there are great crowds here, many of whom are deaf or suffer from many afflictions. Look at the crowds who come to this mountain where the Son of God sits. Some of them have become deaf to the things that have been promised. Others have become blind in soul, not looking toward the true light. Others are lame and not able to walk according to reason. Others are maimed and unable to work profitably. Each of these who are suffering in soul from such things go up along with the multitudes into the mountain where Jesus sits.Some who do not draw near to the feet of Jesus are not healed. But those who are brought by the multitude and cast at his feet are being healed. Even those who come only to the edges, just the extremities of the body of Christ, who feel themselves unworthy to obtain such things, are being healed. So now you come into the congregation of what is more commonly called the church. See the catechumens? They are, as it were, cast in the far side or back of those who are the extreme end of the body, as if they were coming merely to the feet of the body of Jesus—the church. They are coming to it with their own deafness and blindness and lameness and crookedness. In time they will be cured according to the Word. Observing this you would not be wrong in saying that these people have gone up with the multitudes into the church, up to the mountain where Jesus sits, and have been cast at his feet and are being healed. And so the multitudes are astonished at beholding the transformations that are taking place. They behold those who are being converted from such great evils to that which is so much better.
Matthew 15:35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.19
Be attentive to the difference between those things that are written in the various places in regard to the loaves. I think that this passage belongs to a different order than the others. Note the differences. Those were fed on a mountain, these in a desert place. These were fed after they had continued three days with Jesus, but those one day, on the evening of which they were fed. Is there an implication that those to whom Jesus shows kindness are superior when he fed them on the spot to demonstrate his kindness? And according to John, the twelve baskets contained leftovers of barley loaves, but nothing of this kind is said here. Is one preferred to another? In the one case he healed the sick, but in this case he is healing, along with the multitudes, those who are blind, lame, deaf and maimed. Note that the four thousand marveled, but no such thing is said about the sick. And I think we can distinguish those who ate of the seven loaves, for which thanks were given, from those who ate of the five loaves, which were blessed. These who ate the few little fishes are distinguished from those who ate of the two. Those who sat down upon the ground are distinguished from those who sat down on the grass. Note that those from fewer loaves left twelve baskets, but these from a greater number left seven baskets. Perhaps they were able more fully to receive.
Matthew 16:4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.4
Now he called them evil because their wicked deeds had made them evil people (evil because of deliberate wickedness) and adulterous because when the Pharisees and Sadducees left their metaphoric spouse, the true word, they committed adultery, with falsehood and the law of sin.Assume there are two laws: the law of our bodies, which is in conflict with the law of our mind. We might say then that the law of the mind (that is, the law of the Spirit) is the husband to whom the soul was betrothed by God as wife according to the Scripture; a wife is married to a man by God. But the other law is a seducer of the soul and as such is called "adulterous."
Matthew 16:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.5
The bread that they had before they crossed the lake was no longer of any use to them when they reached the other side. They needed one kind of bread before they crossed and a different kind afterward. They forgot to take any loaves with them because they were careless about carrying bread. The disciples of Jesus had also crossed to another side. They had passed from the material to the spiritual, from the sensory to the intellectual. This is why Jesus said to them after the crossing, be careful and be on your guard.The Pharisees and Sadducees offered a different dough of teaching, a truly ancient yeast restricted to the bare letter and therefore not free from evil. Jesus does not want his disciples to eat of it any longer. Instead, he mixed a new spiritual dough when he himself offered to any who would abandon the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees and come to him, the living bread which came down from heaven and gives life to the world. Anyone intending no longer to use the yeast and dough of the Pharisees and Sadducees' teaching must first "be careful." He must "be on guard" that he will not use the old leaven either accidentally or due to shortages. So Jesus tells his disciples first, "be careful," and second, "be on your guard."
Matthew 16:7-8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12:5
After Jesus said this, the disciples thought to themselves (not aloud but in their hearts), "We did not bring bread." Then they said something else, like "If we had bread, then we wouldn't need the yeast from the Pharisees and Sadducees, but since we don't have bread, we are at risk of taking their yeast. The Savior does not want us to return to their tutelage, so he told us 'be careful and be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' " Or they reasoned similar things.But Jesus, seeing into their hearts and hearing their inner arguments, reproves them as the Shepherd of the heart because they did not understand nor remember the bread which they had received from him. Because of what they had received, even when they appeared to lack bread, they did not need the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Matthew 16:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.6
Some were distracted by the use of bread and yeast. In order to clarify and enlighten them in a still symbolic way that he was not speaking about literal bread but about yeast as representing teaching, Jesus adds, "How is it that you do not understand that I was not talking to you about bread? Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Even though he still had not exposed the literal meaning of his words but continued as before, the disciples would have understood the Savior as referring to the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees as leaven.When Jesus said "beware of the yeast," the disciples understood that he did not tell them to watch out for bread but instead for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You, of course, are aware that whenever yeast is used in the law or in the Scripture which follows the law, it refers to teaching. Perhaps then yeast should not be burnt on an altar. Prayers should not have the form of teachings but should be only supplications for good things from God. Now, someone might ask, based on what has been said about the disciples crossing over to the other side, how can anyone who has reached the other side be rebuked as a person with little faith, not yet understanding or remembering what Jesus did? It is not difficult, I think, to answer this. That which has only a part will be done away with before that which is perfect. Little faith is all the faith we can have. Accordingly, we who know in part do not yet fully understand or remember. Therefore we are not able to achieve a mind sufficient and capable of attaining the magnitude and nature of such speculations.
Matthew 16:13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Christ puts this question to His disciples, that from their answer we may learn that there were at that time among the Jews various opinions concerning Christ; and to the end that we should always investigate what opinion men may form of us; that if any ill be said of us, we may cut off the occasions of it; or if any good, we may multiply the occasions of it.
Matthew 16:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.9
Just look at the differences of opinion among the Jews about Jesus. Some, following corrupt thinking, said he was John the Baptist (for example, Herod the tetrarch, who asked his servants, "Is this John the Baptizer now risen from the dead and, because of this, with powers at work in him?") Others said that Elijah is now the one called Jesus. He has either been born a second time or he has been alive somewhere all along and is now appearing again. Some suggested Jeremiah was Jesus, and not that Jeremiah was a type of Christ. This comes perhaps from a mistaken interpretation of a passage in the beginning of Jeremiah about Christ's prophecy unfulfilled in the time of the prophet but beginning to be fulfilled in Jesus, whom God set up over nations and kingdoms "to root up, and to build up, and to transplant."
Matthew 16:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Then the disciples recount the divers opinions of the Jews relating to Christ; And they said, Some say John the Baptist, following Herod's opinion; others Elias, (vid. Matt. 14:2.) supposing either that Elias had gone through a second birth, or that having continued alive in the body, He had at this time appeared; others Jeremias, whom the Lord had ordained to be Prophet among the Gentiles, not understanding that Jeremias was a type of Christ; or one of the Prophets, in a like way, because of those things which God spoke to them through the Prophets, yet they were not fulfilled in them, but in Christ.
Matthew 16:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Peter denied that Jesus was any of those things which the Jews supposed, by his confession, Thou art the Christ, which the Jews were ignorant of; but he added what was more, the Son of the living God, (Ezek. 33:11.) who had said by his Prophets, I live, saith the Lord. And therefore was He called the living Lord, but in a more especial manner as being eminent above all that had life; for He alone has immortality, and is the fount of life, wherefore He is rightly called God the Father; for He is life as it were flowing out of a fountain, who said, I am the life. (John 14:6.) It must be enquired in this place whether, when they were first sent out, the disciples knew that He was the Christ. For this speech shows that Peter then first confessed Him to be the Son of the living God. And look whether you can solve a question of this sort, by saying that to believe Jesus to be the Christ is less than to know Him; and so suppose that when they were sent to preach they believed that Jesus was the Christ, and afterwards as they made progress they knew Him to be so. Or must we answer thus; That then the Apostles had the beginnings of a knowledge of Christ, and knew some little concerning Him; and that they made progress afterwards in the knowledge of Him, so that they were able to receive the knowledge of Christ revealed by the Father, as Peter, who is here blessed, not only for that he says, Thou art the Christ, but much more for that he adds, the Son of the living God.
Matthew 16:17-18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But in heavenly things every spiritual sin is a gate of hell, to which are opposed the gates of righteousness. He does not express what it is which they shall not prevail against, whether the rock on which He builds the Church, or the Church which He builds on the rock; but it is clear that neither against the rock nor against the Church will the gates of hell prevail. Wherefore if we, by the revelation of our Father who is in heaven, shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, having also our conversation in heaven, to us also shall be said, Thou art Peter; for every one is a Rock who is an imitator of Christ. But against whomsoever the gates of hell prevail, he is neither to be called a rock upon which Christ builds His Church; neither a Church, or part of the Church, which Christ builds upon a rock.
Matthew 16:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
See how great power has that rock upon which the Church is built, that its sentences are to continue firm as though God gave sentence by it. Let him then be without blame who binds or looses another, that he may be found worthy to bind or loose in heaven. Moreover, to him who shall be able by his virtues to shut the gates of hell, are given in reward the keys of the kingdom of heaven. For every kind of virtue when any has begun to practise it, as it were opens itself before Him, the Lord, namely, opening it through His grace, so that the same virtue is found to be both the gate, and the key of the gate. But it may be that each virtue is itself the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 16:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Seeing Peter had confessed Him to be Christ the Son of the living God, because He would not have them preach this in the mean time, He adds, Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Or they then spake of Him in lowly words, as only a great and wonderful man, but as yet proclaimed Him not as the Christ. Yet if any will have it that He was even at the first proclaimed to be Christ, he may say that now He chose that first short announcement of His name to be left in silence and not repeated, that that little which they had heard concerning Christ might be digested into their minds. Or the difficulty may be solved thus: that the former relation concerning their preaching Christ does not belong to the time before His Resurrection, but to the time that should be after the Resurrection; and that the command now given is meant for the time present; for it were of no use to preach Him, and to be silent concerning His cross. Moreover, He commanded them that they should tell no man that He was the Christ, and prepared them that they should afterwards say that He was Christ who was crucified, and who rose again from the dead.
Matthew 16:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And observe that it is not said,' He began to say,' or 'to teach,' but to show; for as things are said to be shown to the sense, so the things which Christ spake are said to be shown by Him. Nor indeed do I think, that to those who saw Him suffering many things in the flesh, were those things which they saw so shown as this representation in words showed to the disciples the mystery of the passion and resurrection of Christ. At that time, indeed, He only began to show them, and afterwards when they were more able to receive it, He showed them more fully; for all that Jesus began to do, that He accomplished. He must needs go to Jerusalem, to be put to death indeed in the Jerusalem which is below, but to rise again and reign in the heavenly Jerusalem. But when Christ rose again, and others were risen with Him, they no longer sought the Jerusalem which is beneath, or the house of prayer in it, but that which is above. He suffers many things from the elders of the earthly Jerusalem, that He may be glorified by those heavenly elders who receive His mercies. He rose again from the dead on the third day, that He may deliver from the evil one, and purchase for such as are so delivered this gift, that they be baptized in spirit, soul, and body, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are three days perpetually present to those that through them have been made children of light.
Matthew 16:22-23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And observe that it is not said,' He began to say,' or 'to teach,' but to show; for as things are said to be shown to the sense, so the things which Christ spake are said to be shown by Him. Nor indeed do I think, that to those who saw Him suffering many things in the flesh, were those things which they saw so shown as this representation in words showed to the disciples the mystery of the passion and resurrection of Christ. At that time, indeed, He only began to show them, and afterwards when they were more able to receive it, He showed them more fully; for all that Jesus began to do, that He accomplished. He must needs go to Jerusalem, to be put to death indeed in the Jerusalem which is below, but to rise again and reign in the heavenly Jerusalem. But when Christ rose again, and others were risen with Him, they no longer sought the Jerusalem which is beneath, or the house of prayer in it, but that which is above. He suffers many things from the elders of the earthly Jerusalem, that He may be glorified by those heavenly elders who receive His mercies. He rose again from the dead on the third day, that He may deliver from the evil one, and purchase for such as are so delivered this gift, that they be baptized in spirit, soul, and body, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are three days perpetually present to those that through them have been made children of light. While Christ was yet speaking the beginnings of the things which He was showing unto them, Peter considered them unworthy of the Son of the living God. And forgetting that the Son of the living God does nothing, and acts in no way worthy of blame, he began to rebuke Him; and this is what is said, And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. As though Christ Himself had needed a propitiation. His affection Christ allows, but charges him with ignorance; as it follows, He turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me. Yet the words in which Peter and those in which Satan are rebuked, are not, as is commonly thought, the same; to Peter it is said, Get thee behind me, Satan; that is, follow me, thou that art contrary to my will; to the Devil it is said, Go thy way, Satan, understanding not 'behind me,' but 'into everlasting fire.' He said therefore to Peter, Get thee behind me, as to one who through ignorance was ceasing to walk after Christ. And He called him Satan, as one, who through ignorance had somewhat contrary to God. But he is blessed to whom Christ turns, even though He turn in order to rebuke him. But why said He to Peter, Thou art an offence unto me, (Ps. 119:165.) when in the Psalm it is said, Great peace have they that love thy law, and there is no offence to them? It must be answered, that not only is Jesus not offended, but neither is any man who is perfect in the love of God; and yet he who does or speaks any thing of the nature of an offence, may be an offence even to one who is incapable of being offended. Or he may hold every disciple that sinneth as an offence, as Paul speaks, Who is offended, and I burn not?. (2 Cor. 11:29.)
Matthew 16:23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.18
What he intended when he forbade them to publicly declare him Christ is clarified in part by "From that time Jesus began to show his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders" and the following thoughts. At the right time and in the right way, he proclaimed to those who knew that Jesus was Christ, Son of the living God (the Father had revealed this to them), that rather than believing in Jesus Christ already crucified, they should believe in Jesus Christ soon to be crucified. So also, instead of believing in Jesus Christ already risen from the dead, they should believe in "Jesus Christ soon to be raised from the dead.""Having put off from himself the principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross." If anyone is ashamed of the cross of Christ, he is ashamed of the agency by which these powers were defeated. The one who both believes and is assured of these things should, more appropriately, glory in the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Through that cross, when Christ was crucified, the principalities (among them, I think, was also the prince of this world) were publicly humiliated and paraded before the eyes of the believing world.
Matthew 16:23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.21
Responding to Peter's ignorance as one opposing God, Jesus said, "Satan," which is Hebrew for opponent. If he had not spoken to him from ignorance nor of the living God when he said, "Never, Lord! This must never happen to you!" then he would not have said to him "Get behind me," as if speaking to someone who had given up being behind him and following him. Neither would he have called him "Satan." Satan had overpowered the one following Jesus in order to turn him aside from following him and from being behind the Son of God, to make him, because of ignorant words, worthy of being called "Satan" and a scandal to the Son of God, "not thinking in the ways of God but of humans."
Matthew 16:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Yet the words in which Peter and those in which Satan are rebuked, are not, as is commonly thought, the same; to Peter it is said, Get thee behind me, Satan; that is, follow me, thou that art contrary to my will; to the Devil it is said, Go thy way, Satan, understanding not 'behind me,' but 'into everlasting fire.' He said therefore to Peter, Get thee behind me, as to one who through ignorance was ceasing to walk after Christ. And He called him Satan, as one, who through ignorance had somewhat contrary to God. But he is blessed to whom Christ turns, even though He turn in order to rebuke him. But why said He to Peter, Thou art an offence unto me, (Ps. 119:165.) when in the Psalm it is said, Great peace have they that love thy law, and there is no offence to them? It must be answered, that not only is Jesus not offended, but neither is any man who is perfect in the love of God; and yet he who does or speaks any thing of the nature of an offence, may be an offence even to one who is incapable of being offended. Or he may hold every disciple that sinneth as an offence, as Paul speaks, Who is offended, and I burn not?. (2 Cor. 11:29.) But though a man may seem to keep from sin, yet if he does not believe in the cross of Christ, he cannot be said to be crucified with Christ; whence it follows, And take up his cross.
Matthew 16:25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This may be understood in two ways. First thus; if any lover of this present life spares his life, fearing to die, and supposing that his life is ended with this death; he seeking in this way to save his life, shall lose it, estranging it from life eternal. But if any, despising the present life, shall contend for the truth unto death, he shall lose his life as far as this present life is concerned, but forasmuch as he loses it for Christ, he shall the more save it for life eternal. Otherwise thus; if any understand what is true salvation, and desire to obtain it for the salvation of his own life, he by denying himself loses his life as to the enjoyments of the flesh, but saves it by works of piety. He shows by saying. For he that will, that this passage must be connected in sense with that which went before. If then we understand the first, Let him deny himself, of the death of the body, we must take this that follows of death only; but if we understand the first of mortifying the propensities of the flesh, then, to lose his life, signifies to give up carnal pleasures.
Matthew 16:26 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.26
The first statement is ambiguous. At first it could be taken this way: Someone who loves being alive and thinks the present life is good manages his own life in order to live well according to the flesh, fearing death since by death he loses life. In this way, wanting to save his own life, he will lose it, having removed it beyond the boundaries of blessedness. Yet someone despising the present life because of my teaching and convinced of eternal life, even facing death for the sake of the truth may, because of piety, lose his own life in death. Yet the same one who lost his life because of me will instead save and keep it.We could interpret the saying, however, in another way. If anyone knows what salvation is and wants to save his own life, after bidding farewell to his life, denying himself and taking up his cross and following me, he will, in terms of the world, have lost his life. But, having lost his life for me and my teaching, he will gain in the end this kind of loss, salvation.
Matthew 16:26 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
I suppose also that he gains the world who does not deny himself, nor loses Ms own life as to carnal pleasures, and thence suffers the loss of his soul. These two things being set before us, we must rather choose to lose the world, and gain our souls. And at first sight indeed the ransom of the soul might be supposed to be in his substance, that a man should give his substance to the poor, and so should save his soul. But I suppose that a man has nothing that giving as a ransom for his soul he should deliver it from death. God gave the ransom for the souls of men, namely the precious blood of His Son.
Matthew 16:27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
As much as to say; The Son of Man is now come, but not in glory; for He ought not to have been ordained in His glory to bear our sins; but then He shall come in His glory, when He shall first have made ready His disciples, being made as they are, that He might make them as He is Himself, in the likeness of His glory. Morally; To those who are nearly brought to the faith, the Word of God wears the form of a servant; but to those that are perfect, He comes in the glory of the Father. His angels are the words of the Prophets, which it is not possible to comprehend spiritually, until the word of Christ has been first spiritually comprehended, and then will their words be seen in like majesty with His. Then will He give of His own glory to every man according to his deeds; for the better each man is in his deeds, so much the more spiritually does he understand Christ and His Prophets.
Matthew 16:28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They that stand where Jesus stands, are they that have the foundations of their souls rested upon Jesus; of whom such as stood firmest are said not to taste death till they see the Word of God; which comes in His kingdom when they see that excellence of God which they cannot see while they are involved in divers sins, which is to taste death, forasmuch as the soul that sinneth, dies. For as life, and the living bread, is He that came down from heaven, so His enemy death is the bread of death. And of these breads there are some that eat but a little, just tasting them, while some eat more abundantly. They that sin neither often, nor greatly, these only taste death; they that have partaken more perfectly of spiritual virtue do not taste it only, but feed ever on the living bread. That He says, Until they see, does not fix any time at which shall be done what had not been done before, but mentions just what is necessary; for he that once sees Him in His glory, shall after that by no means taste death.
Matthew 17:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or because in six days this whole visible world was made; so he who is above all the things of this world, may ascend into the high mountain, and there see the glory of the Word of God.
Matthew 17:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Mystically; When any one has passed the six days according as we have said, he beholds Jesus transfigured before the eyes of his heart. For the Word of God has various forms, appearing to each man according as He knows that it will be expedient for him; and He shows Himself to none in a manner beyond his capacity; whence he says not simply, He was transfigured, but, before them. For Jesus, in the Gospels, is merely understood by those who do not mount by means of exalting works and words upon the high mountain of wisdom; but to them that do mount up thus, He is no longer known according to the flesh, but is understood to be God the Word. Before these then Jesus is transfigured, and not before those who live sunk in worldly conversation. But these, before whom He is transfigured, have been made sons of God, and He is shown to them as the Sun of righteousness. His raiment is made white as the light, that is, the words and sayings of the Gospels with which Jesus is clothed according to those things which were spoken of Him by the Apostles.
Matthew 17:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.37
But some may ask, when he was transfigured before those who were led up by him into the lofty mountain, did he appear to them in the form of God or in the preincarnate form that he earlier had? Did he appear to those left below in the form of a servant, but to those who had followed him after the six days to the lofty mountain, did he have not the form of a servant but the form of God? Listen carefully, if you can, and at the same time be attentive spiritually. It is not simply said that he was transfigured, but with a certain necessary addition. Both Matthew and Mark have recorded this: he was transfigured before them. Is it therefore possible for Jesus to be transfigured before some but not before others?Do you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus? Behold with me the Jesus of the Gospels. Let him be simply apprehended. There he is beheld both "according to the flesh" and at the same time in his true divinity. He is beheld in the form of God according to our capacity for knowledge. This is how he was beheld by those who went up upon the lofty mountain to be apart with him. Meanwhile those who do not go up the mountain can still behold his works and hear his words, which are uplifting. It is before those who go up that Jesus is transfigured, and not to those below. When he is transfigured, his face shines as the sun, that he may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. They are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the children of day. They walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, he will shine to them not simply as the sun but as he is demonstrated to be, the sun of righteousness.
Matthew 17:3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12
Moses, therefore, has nothing else glorious in the law except his face alone; but in the Gospels he is wholly glorified, entirely. For hear what it says in the Gospels: "when Jesus had ascended into a high mountain, taking with him Peter and James and John, and was transfigured there before them; and behold," it says, "there appeared Moses and Elijah in glory, speaking with him." Here it is not reported that his face was glorified, but that he wholly "appeared in glory," speaking with Jesus; and there is fulfilled for him that promise which he received on Mount Sinai, when it was said to him: "you shall see my hinder parts." He saw, therefore, his hinder parts. For he saw the things that were done in the latter and last days, and he rejoiced. For just as Abraham longed to see the day of the Lord "and saw it and rejoiced," so also Moses longed to see the day of the Lord "and saw it and rejoiced"; and necessarily "he rejoiced," because now he descended from the mountain glorified not in face alone, but ascended from the mountain wholly glorified. "Moses rejoiced," without doubt, because he now beheld present, and confirming his own words, the one of whom he had said: "the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren, like myself; him you shall hear in all things." And that he might not hesitate in anything, he hears the Father's voice saying: "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him." Moses long ago said: "him you shall hear": now the Father says: "this is my Son, hear him," and points out present the one of whom he speaks.
Matthew 17:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
However, if any man discerns a spiritual sense in the Law agreeing with the teaching of Jesus, and in the Prophets finds the hidden wisdom of Christ, (1 Cor. 2:7.) he beholds Moses and Elias in the same glory with Jesus.
Matthew 17:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The bright cloud overshadowing the Saints is the Power of the Father, or perhaps the Holy Spirit; or I may also venture to call the Saviour that bright cloud which overshadows the Gospel, the Law, and the Prophets, as they understand who can behold His light in all these three. The voice out of the cloud speaks either to Moses or Elias, who desired to see the Son of God, and to hear Him; or it is for the teaching of the Apostles.
Matthew 17:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.42
I think that God, wishing to dissuade Peter from making three tabernacles, under which so far as it depended on his choice he was going to dwell, shows him a better tabernacle, so to speak, and far superior: the cloud. It is the function of a tabernacle to give shade to one who is in it and to shelter him, and the bright cloud overshadowed them. So God made, as it were, a more divine tabernacle, inasmuch as it was bright, that it might be to them a pattern of the resurrection to come. For the shining cloud gives shade to the righteous and at the same time protects them, gives them light and illuminates them. What would the shining cloud that gives shade to the righteous be? Is it perhaps the Father's power, from which comes the Father's voice saying that this is his Son in whom he is well pleased, urging those that are shaded by it to listen to him and to no one else? He speaks—just as of old so also for all times—through those whom he wishes. Perhaps the shining cloud is the Holy Spirit, giving shade to the righteous and announcing the words of God at work within it and saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." I would even venture to say that the shining cloud is our Savior.
Matthew 17:8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.43
Consider the details of this passage. See if you can also say this: The disciples understood that the Son of God had been speaking with Moses. It was Moses who had said of God, "No one shall see my face and live." The disciples understood the testimony of Moses about God. They were not able to endure the radiance of the Word. They humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God.But after the touch of the Word, they lifted up their eyes. They saw Jesus only and no other. Moses, the law and Elijah the prophet had become one with the gospel of Jesus. They did not abide as they formerly were as three, but they became one. Think of these things in a spiritual sense.
Matthew 17:12-13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That He says of John, Elias is already come, is not to be understood of the soul of Elias, that we fall not into the doctrine of metempsychosis, which is foreign to the truth of Church doctrine, but, as the Angel had foretold, he came in the spirit and power of Elias.
Matthew 17:12 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.1
The disciples who went up with Jesus remembered the traditions of the scribes concerning Elijah, that before the advent of Christ, Elijah would come and prepare for him the souls of those who would receive him. But the vision on the mountain, in which Elijah appeared, did not seem to be harmonized with what had been said, since Elijah seemed to them to have come with him rather than before him. So they say this thinking that the scribes were wrong. To this the Savior replies, not denying what was handed down about Elijah but saying that there was another coming of Elijah before that of Christ unknown to the scribes. In [this coming] "they did not know him but did to him whatever they pleased," as though they too were accomplices in his imprisonment by Herod and execution by him. Then he says that he too will suffer what they did to Elijah. The disciples asked these questions as though about Elijah and the Savior replied. But hearing the Savior's words, "Elijah has already come," and what followed, they took it as a reference to John the Baptist.
Matthew 17:14-15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Peter, anxious for such desirable life, and preferring his own benefit to that of many, had said, It is good for us to be here. But since charity seeks not her own, Jesus did not this which seemed good to Peter, but descended to the multitude, as it were from the high mount of His divinity, that He might be of use to such as could not ascend because of the weakness of their souls; whence it is said, And when he was come to the multitude; for if He had not gone to the multitude with His elect disciples, there would not have come near to Him the man of whom it is added, There came to him a man kneeling down, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son. Consider here, that sometimes those that are themselves the sufferers believe and entreat for their own healing, sometimes others for them, as he who kneels before Him praying for his son, and sometimes the Saviour heals of Himself unasked by any. First, let us see what this means that follows, For he is lunatic, and sore vexed. Let the physicians talk as they list, for they think it no unclean spirit, but some bodily disorder, and say, that the humours in the head are governed in their motions by sympathy with the phases of the moon, whose light is of the nature of humours. But we who believe the Gospel say that it is an unclean spirit that works such disorders in men. The spirit observes the moon's changes, that it may cheat men into the belief that the moon is the cause of their sufferings, and so prove God's creation to be evil; as other dæmons lay wait for men following the times and courses of the stars, that they may speak wickedness in high places, calling some stars malignant, others benign; whereas no star was made by God that it should produce evil...
Matthew 17:15 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.4
If every disease and weakness which our Savior cured at that time among the people represents different symptoms in the soul, it stands to reason that by the paralytics are symbolized the palsied in soul, who keep it lying paralyzed in the body. By those who are blind are symbolized those who are blind in respect of things seen by the soul alone, and these are really blind. And by the deaf are symbolized those who are deaf in regard to the reception of the word of salvation. On the same principle it will be necessary that the matters regarding the epileptic should be investigated. This disease attacks those who suffer from it at considerable intervals, during which time he who suffers from it seems in no way to differ from the man in good health, at the season when the epilepsy is not working on him. You will find some souls that are often considered to be healthy suffering from symptoms like these in their chastity and the other virtues. But there comes a time when they are attacked by a kind of epilepsy, and then they seem to fall from their solid foundation and are seized by the deceits and other desires of this world.
Matthew 17:17 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.7
When the Savior says, "O faithless and perverse generation," he shows that wickedness has entered us through perversity, that it is contrary to nature and makes us perverse. And I think that he was irked at the whole human race on earth for its wickedness. So he said, "How long am I to bear with you?"
Matthew 17:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or; Because the disciples could not heal him as being weak in faith, He said to them, O faithless generation, adding perverse, to show that their perverseness had introduced evil beyond their nature. But I suppose, that because of the perverseness of the whole human race, as it were oppressed with their evil nature, He said, How long shall I be with you?
Matthew 17:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Of the changefulness of the sinner it is said, The fool changes as the moon. (Ecclus. 27:12.) We may see sometimes that an impulse towards good works comes over such, when, lo! again as by a sudden seizure of a spirit they are laid hold of by their passions, and fall from that good state in which they were supposed to stand. Perhaps his father stands for the Angel to whom was allotted the care of this lunatic, praying the Physician of souls, that He would set free his son, who could not be delivered from his suffering by the simple word of Christ's disciples, because as a deaf person he cannot receive their instruction, and therefore he needs Christ's word, that henceforth he may not act without reason.
Matthew 17:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Of the changefulness of the sinner it is said, The fool changes as the moon. (Ecclus. 27:12.) We may see sometimes that an impulse towards good works comes over such, when, lo! again as by a sudden seizure of a spirit they are laid hold of by their passions, and fall from that good state in which they were supposed to stand. Perhaps his father stands for the Angel to whom was allotted the care of this lunatic, praying the Physician of souls, that He would set free his son, who could not be delivered from his suffering by the simple word of Christ's disciples, because as a deaf person he cannot receive their instruction, and therefore he needs Christ's word, that henceforth he may not act without reason.
Matthew 17:20 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.7
The mountains here spoken of, in my opinion, are the hostile powers that have their being in a flood of great wickedness, such as are settled down, so to speak, in some souls of various people. But when someone has total faith, such that he no longer disbelieves in anything found in holy Scripture and has faith like that of Abraham, who so believed in God to such a degree that his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness, then he has all faith like a grain of mustard seed. Then such a man will say to this mountain—I mean in this case the deaf and dumb spirit in him who is said to be epileptic—"Move from here to another place." It will move. This means it will move from the suffering person to the abyss. The apostle, taking this as his starting point, said with apostolic authority, "If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains." For he who has all faith—which is like a grain of mustard seed—moves not just one mountain but also more just like it. And nothing will be impossible for the person who has so much faith.Let us examine also this statement: "This kind is not cast out except through prayer and fasting." If at any time it is necessary that we should be engaged in the healing of one suffering from such a disorder, we are not to adjure nor put questions nor speak to the impure spirit as if it heard. But [by] devoting ourselves to prayer and fasting, we may be successful as we pray for the sufferer, and by our own fasting we may thrust out the unclean spirit from him.
Matthew 17:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, all faith is likened to a grain of mustard-seed, because faith is looked on with contempt by men, and shows as something poor and mean; but when a seed of this kind lights upon a good heart as its soil, it becomes a great tree. The weakness of this lunatic's faith is yet so great, and Christ is so strong to heal him amidst all his evils, that He likens it to a mountain which cannot be cast out but by the whole faith of him who desires to heal afflictions of this sort.
Matthew 17:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If then we shall ever be required to be employed in the healing of those who are suffering any thing of this sort, we shall not adjure them, nor ask them questions, nor even speak, as though the unclean spirit could hear us, but by our fasting and our prayers drive away the evil spirits.
Matthew 17:22 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book XIII), 8
As for these matters let us inquire by what person or persons He will be delivered up into the hands of men; for there we are taught of whom He will suffer, and in what place He will suffer; but here, in addition, we learn that while His suffering many things takes place at the hands of the aforesaid, they are not the prime causes of His suffering many things, but the one or ones who delivered Him up into the hands of men. For some one will say that the Apostle, interpreting this, says with reference to God, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; " but the Son also gave Himself to death for us, so that He was delivered up, not only by the Father but also by Himself. But another will say not merely that, but also collecting the passages together, will say that the Son is first delivered up by God,-then about to be tempted, then to be in conflict, then to suffer for men, or even for the whole world that He might take away its sin, -to the prince of this age, and to the rest of its princes, and then by them delivered into the hands of men who would slay Him. The case of Job will be taken as an illustration. "Lo, all that is his I give into thy hands, but do not touch him; " thereafter, he was, as it were, delivered up by the devil to his princes, namely, to those who took prisoners of war, to the horsemen, to the fire that came down from heaven, to the great wind that came from the desert and broke up his house. But you will consider if, as he delivered up the property of Job to those who took them captive, and to the horsemen, so also he delivered them up to a certain power, subordinate to "the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience," in order that the fire which descended thence on the sheep of Job might seem to fall from heaven, to the man who announced to Job that "fire fell from heaven, and burned up his sheep, and consumed the shepherds likewise." And in the same way you will inquire whether also the sudden mighty wind, that came down from the desert and assailed the four corners of the dwelling, was one of those which are under the devils to whom the devil delivered up the banquet of the sons and daughters of Job, that the house might fall on the children of the just man, and they might die. Let it be granted, then, that, as in the case of Job, the Father first delivered up the Son to the opposing powers, and that then they delivered Him up into the hands of men, among which men Judas also was, into whom after the sop Satan entered, who delivered Him up in a more authoritative manner than Judas. But take care lest on comparing together the delivering up of the Son by the Father to the opposing powers, with the delivering up of the Saviour by them into the hands of men, you should think that what is called the delivering up is the same in the case of both. For understand that the Father in His love of men delivered Him up for us all; but the opposing powers, when they delivered up the Saviour into the hands of men, did not intend to deliver Him up for the salvation of some, but, as far as in them lay, since none of them knew "the wisdom of God which was hidden in a mystery," they gave Him up to be put to death, that His enemy death might receive Him under its subjection, like those who die in Adam; and also the men who slew Him did so, as they were moulded after the will of those who wished indeed that Jesus should become subject to death. I have deemed it necessary also to examine into these things, because that when Jesus was delivered up into the hands of men, He was not delivered up by men into the hands of men, but by powers to whom the Father delivered up His Son for us all, and in the very act of His being delivered up, and coming under the power of those to whom He was delivered up, destroying him that has the power of death; for "through death He brought to nought him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all th…
Matthew 17:22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This seems to be so like a warning He had given above, that a man might easily say that the Lord now repeated what He had said before; yet is it not so; He had not before said that He must be betrayed, but we hear now not only that He must be betrayed, but that He must be betrayed into the hands of men. The Son of Man indeed was delivered up by God the Father according to the Apostle (Rom. 8:32.), but different powers gave him up into the hands of men.
Matthew 17:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
By this announcement of the Lord the disciples were made very sorrowful, not attending to that He said, And shall rise again the third day, nor considering what He must be to whom the space of three days was enough to destroy death.
Matthew 17:25-26 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This speech has a twofold meaning. First, that the children of the kings of the earth are free with the kings of the earth; but strangers, foreigners in the land, are not free, because of those that oppress them, as the Egyptians did the children of Israel. The second sense is; forasmuch as there be some who are strangers to the sons of the kings of the earth, and are yet sons of God, therefore it is they that abide in the words of Jesus; these are free, for they have known the truth, and the truth has set them free from the service of sin; but the sons of the kings of the earth are not free; for whoso doth sin, he is the servant of sin. (John 8:34.) We may hence gather as a consequence of this, that when any come with justice demanding our earthly goods, it is the kings of the earth that send them, to claim of us what is their own; and by His own example the Lord forbids any offence to be given even to these, whether that they should sin no more, or that they should be saved. For the Son of God, who did no servile work, yet as having the form of a slave, which He took on Him for man's sake, gave custom and tribute.
Matthew 17:27 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.10
This coin was not in Jesus' house but happened to be in the mouth of a fish in the sea. This too, I think, was a result of God's kindness. It was caught and came up on the hook belonging to Peter, who was the fisher of men. That which is figuratively called a fish was caught in order that the coin with the image of Caesar might be taken from it, that it might take its place among those which were caught by them who have learned to become fishers of men. Let him, then, who has the things of Caesar render them to Caesar, that afterwards he may be able to render to God the things of God. But since Jesus is the image of God the unseen and did not have the image of Caesar (for there was nothing in him that had anything to do with the prince of this world), he therefore took the image of Caesar from a suitable place in the sea, so as to pay it to the kings of the earth as the contribution of himself and his disciple. Jesus did this so that those taking the half-shekel might not suppose Jesus to be in debt either to them or to the kings of the earth. For he paid the debt, one he had never taken on or possessed or used to buy anything or made his personal possession, to prevent the image of Caesar ever being alongside the image of the invisible God.
Matthew 17:27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Mystically; In the field of comfort, (for so is Capernaum expounded,) He comforts each one of His disciples, and pronounces him to be a son and free, and gives him the power of taking the first fish, that after His ascension Peter may have comfort over that which he has caught. And when you see any miser rebuked by some Peter who takes the speech of his money out of his mouth, you may say that he is risen out of the sea of covetousness to the hook of reason, and is caught and saved by some Peter, who has taught him the truth, that he should change his stater for the image of God, that is for the oracles of God.
Matthew 18:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Herein we ought to be imitators of the disciples, that when any question of doubt arises among us, and we find not how to settle it, We should with one consent go to Jesus, Who is able to enlighten the hearts of men to the explication of every perplexity. We shall also consult some of the doctors, who are thought most eminent in the Churches. But in that they asked this question, the disciples knew that there was not an equality among the saints in the kingdom of heaven; what they yet sought to learn was, how they were so, and lived as greater and less. Or, from what the Lord had said above, they knew Who was the best and who was great; but out of many great, who was the greatest, this Was not clear to them.
Matthew 18:3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.18
Beside this obvious explanation let another be given as well. As an act of theological and ethical reflection, let us ask what sort of a child Jesus called to him and has set in the midst of the disciples. Think of it this way: The child called by Jesus is the Holy Spirit, who humbled himself. He was called by the Savior and set in the middle of the disciples of Jesus. The Lord wants us, ignoring all the rest, to turn to the examples given by the Holy Spirit, so that we become like the children—that is, the disciples—who were themselves converted and made like the Holy Spirit. God gave these children to the Savior according to what we read in Isaiah: "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me." To enter the kingdom of heaven is not possible for the person who has not turned from worldly matters and become like those children who had the Holy Spirit. Jesus called this Holy Spirit to him like a child, when he came down from his perfect completeness to people, and set it in the middle of the disciples.
Matthew 18:5-6 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But how can he who has been converted, and become as a little child, be yet liable to be scandalized? This may be thus explained. Every one who believes on the Son of God, and walks after evangelic acts, is converted and walks as a little child; but he who is not converted that he may become as a child, it is impossible that he should enter into the kingdom of heaven. But in every congregation of believers, there are some only newly converted that they may become as little children, but not yet made such; these are the little ones in Christ, and these are they that receive offence.
Matthew 18:7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.21
Jesus pronounced "woe for temptations to sin" on people scattered throughout the whole world who are subject to temptations. But the disciples, who do not contemplate the things that are seen, are not of the world. Neither is their Master of the world. Therefore the "woe for temptations to sin" does not apply to Jesus' faithful disciples. Rather, "great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble." But there are some who appear to be disciples yet are still of the world. They love the world, and they love inordinately what is in it. They love the life that is led in these earthly places or the money which is in them, or the possessions or any resources whatsoever. The words "they are not of the world" do not apply to them. But "woe for temptations to sin" will apply to them since they are indeed of the world.
Matthew 18:8-9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, The priests may with good reason be called the eyes of the Church, since they are considered her watchmen, but the deacons and the rest her hands, for by them spiritual deeds are wrought; the people are the feet of the body, the Church; and all these it behoves not to spare, if they become an offence to the Church. Or, by the offending hand is understood an act of the mind; a motion of the mind is the offending foot, and a vision of the mind is the sinning eye, which we ought to cut off if they give offence, for thus the acts of the limbs are often put in Scripture for the limbs themselves.
Matthew 18:9 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.24
If somebody, in the whole body of the congregations of the church, is industrious and handy for practical action and he changes and his hand causes him to sin, the eye should say to this hand, "I have no need of you." And after it has said it, let him cut it off and throw it from him. All will still be well if his head is still blessed and his feet worthy of his blessed head, so that the head, doing its duty, may not be able to say to the feet, "I have no need of you." But if some foot is found which is a temptation to sin for the whole body, the head should say to this foot, "I have no need of you," and should cut it off and throw it away from him. It is far better for the rest of the body to go on into life lacking the foot or hand that offers temptation to sin than for the whole body to be exposed to temptation and to be sent into eternal fire with two whole feet or hands. Likewise it is good if what could be the eye of the whole body shows itself worthy of Christ and of the whole body. But if at some time it happens that this eye so changes that it becomes a temptation to sin for the whole body, it will be better for it to be ripped out and thrown from the whole body … than for the whole body together with the soul to be condemned.
Matthew 18:10 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
Of the good ones also the Savior makes mention, saying: "Their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven". At the same time inquire whether the angels of the little ones in the Church "always see the face of the Father", and whether the angels of others do not have the liberty to gaze upon the face of the Father. For it is not to be hoped that the angels of all men always see "the face of the Father who is in heaven". If I belong to the Church, however least I may be, my angel has the liberty and the confidence always to see "the face of the Father who is in heaven". But if I am on the outside and not of that Church "which has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing", and by the very fact am proved to be a stranger to such a congregation, my angel does not have the confidence to look upon "the face of the Father who is in heaven". For which reason the angels are anxious on behalf of the good, knowing that, if they govern us well and lead us through to salvation, they themselves also have the confidence to see "the face of the Father". For just as, if by their care and diligence salvation is procured for men, they gaze always upon "the face of the Father", so, if through their negligence a man has fallen, they are not unaware that it is a matter of their own peril as well. And just as a good bishop and an excellent steward of the Church knows that it is to his own merit and virtue if the sheep of the flock entrusted to him have been kept safe, so understand it also of the angels. It is a disgrace to an angel if the man entrusted to him has sinned, just as, on the contrary, it is a glory to an angel if the one entrusted to him — even the least in the Church — has made progress. For they will see, not sometimes, but "always the face of the Father who is in heaven", while others do not always see it. For according to the merit of those whose angels they are, the angels will contemplate the face of God either always or never, or little or more.
Matthew 18:10 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The little ones are those that are but lately born in Christ, or those who abide without advance, as though lately born. But Christ judged it needless to give command concerning not despising the more perfect believers, but concerning the little ones, as He had said above, If any man shall offend one of these little ones. A man may perhaps say that a little one here means a perfect Christian, according to that He says elsewhere, Whoso is least among you, he shall be great. (Luke 9:48.) But this exposition does not seem to agree with that which was said, If any one scandalizes one of these little ones; for the perfect man is not scandalized, nor does he perish. But he who thinks this the true exposition, says, that the mind of a righteous man is variable, and is sometimes offended, but not easily. Some will have it that an Angel is given as an attendant minister from the time when in the laver of regeneration the infant is born in Christ; for, say they, it is incredible that a holy Angel watches over those who are unbelieving and in error, but in his time of unbelief and sin man is under the Angels of Satan. Others will have it, that those who are foreknown of God, have straightway from their very birth a guardian Angel.
Matthew 18:10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.26
The bodies of people differ from each other in size, so that some are short, some are tall, and some are in between. Again the short are different in their shortness since they are more short or less short, and the same likewise of the tall, and again of those in between. So it is also in human souls, it seems to me: There is something which distinguishes their shortness, and again, so to speak, their tallness, and, again analogous to the bodily differences, their moderateness. But the bodily difference does not depend on the individuals themselves but on the nature of the seed. So this person becomes tall, that one short and another in between. But with our souls, our own agency that is our actions and our character causes one to be large or small or belonging to those in the middle. And it is in our power whether we grow in stature and receive an increase in size or do not grow and remain small. For we must believe that to attain to manhood and mature manhood at that depends on the person within: passing out of the times of childhood and advancing to manhood and putting aside the stuff of childhood and perfecting the stage of manhood. Just so we must suppose that there is still some measure of spiritual growth to which the most perfect soul can advance in glorifying the Lord and so become great.
Matthew 18:10 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4
Thus I understand also that which is said in the Gospel: "do not despise one of these least ones", who are in the Church. "Least" there is understood in distinction from the greater. I am not commanded not to despise the one who is great, because he who is great cannot be despised, but it is said to me: "do not despise one of the least". And that you may know that "least" and "little" is not said by chance, but with the reasoning we have set forth, it is written: "whoever shall scandalize one of these least ones". The "least" one is scandalized; the great one cannot sustain a scandal.
Matthew 18:15-17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Let us look well whether this precept extends to all sin; for what if any one sin any of those sins which are unto death, such as unnatural crimes, adultery, homicide, or effeminacy, it cannot be meant that such as these are to be admonished privately, and if he hear you, forthwith to say that you have gained him. And not rather first put him out of the Church, or only when remaining obstinate after monition before witnesses, and by the Church? One man, looking at the infinite mercy of Christ, will say, that since the words of Christ make no distinction of sins, it is to go against Christ's mercy to limit His words only to little sins. Another, on the other hand, considering the words carefully, will aver, that they are not spoken of every sin; for that he that is guilty of those great sins is not a brother, but is called a brother, with whom, according to the Apostle, we ought not so much as to eat. But as they who expound this as referring to every sin give encouragement to the careless to sin; so, on the other hand, he, who teaches that one having sinned in little sins and such as are not deadly, is, when he has spurned the admonition of the witnesses and the Church, to be held as a heathen and a publican, seems to introduce too great severity. For whether he finally perishes, we are not able to decide. First, because he who has been thrice told of his fault and not hearkened, may hearken the fourth time; secondly, because sometimes a man does not receive according to his deeds, but beyond his trespass, which is good for him in this world; lastly, because He said not alone, Let him be as a heathen, but Let him be to thee. Whosoever then when reproved three times in a light trespass, does not amend, him we ought to hold for a heathen and a publican, avoiding him, that he may be brought to confusion. But whether he is esteemed of God also as a heathen and a publican, is not ours to decide, but is in the judgment of God.
Matthew 18:18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.31
After stating that the one judged is viewed as a heathen and tax collector, something else is added which is well put: "Truly, I say to you"—clearly to those judging someone to be as a heathen and tax collector—"whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." For he who has three times admonished him and not been heard has justly bound him, and that man is then to be thought judged as a heathen and tax collector. Therefore when a man like this has been bound and condemned by someone, he remains bound insofar as none of those in heaven rescinds the judgment of the man by whom he was bound. So too the man who has once been warned and does things worthy of being won back is released through the warning of the one who wins him back. He is no longer bound by the bonds of his sins for which he was warned and bound; he will be judged by those in heaven as set free.
Matthew 18:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And this also is the reason why our prayers are not granted, because we do not agree together in all things upon earth, neither in doctrine, nor in conversation. For as in music, unless the voices are in time there is no pleasure to the hearer, so in the Church, unless they are united God is not pleased therein, nor does He hear their words. Or, In whatever the two testaments are in agreement, for this every prayer is found acceptable to God.
Matthew 18:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.1
Concord occurs in two kinds: first, in agreement of thought, when two minds think the same ideas (as the apostle called it) and have the same thoughts. Second, in agreement of will, in living similar lives. But since "If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by Jesus' Father in heaven," if something is asked of the Father in heaven and is not granted, it is clear that the two here on earth are not in harmony. The reason why we do not achieve our desires and prayers is our own fault: we do not agree either in our thoughts or in our way of life. Besides, if we are the body of Christ and "God arranged the members in the body, each one of them … so that the members may have the care for one another, and if one member suffers all suffer together; if one member is honored all rejoice together," then we must practice the harmony that comes from God's music, so that when we are gathered in Christ's name, Christ may be in our midst, who is God's word and wisdom and power.
Matthew 18:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And He said not, I will be, but I am in the midst of them; because straightway, as soon as they have agreed together, Christ is found among them.
Matthew 18:21-22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, In whatever the two testaments are in agreement, for this every prayer is found acceptable to God. Or, because the number six seems to denote toil and labour, and the number seven repose, He says that forgiveness should be given to all brethren who live in this world, and sin in the things of this world. But if any commit transgressions beyond these things, he shall then have no further forgiveness.
Matthew 18:23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.8
The servants in this case are the dispensers of the word. When he demands an account of the servants, the king also asks those who have borrowed from the servants, whether a hundred measures of grain or a hundred jars of oil or whatever those outside the king's stewardship have received. For the fellow servant of the unjust steward, according to the parable, will not be found to be the one who owes a hundred measures of grain or a hundred jars of oil, as is clear from the words "How much do you owe my master?" Consider that each good and fitting deed is like a profit and a gain, but each bad one is like a loss. And just as one gain can be a gain of more money and another of less and there is a difference between the more and the less, so in the case of good deeds there is a kind of valuing of greater or lesser gains.
Matthew 18:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The Son of God, as He is wisdom, righteousness, and truth (vid. 1 Cor. 1:30.), so is He a kingdom; not indeed any of those which are beneath, but all those which are above, reigning over those in whose senses reigns justice and the other virtues; these are made of heaven because they bear the image of the heavenly. This kingdom of heaven then, i. e. the Son of God, when He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, was then like to a king, in uniting man to himself. The servants, in these parables, are only they who are employed in dispensing the word, and to whom this business is committed.
Matthew 18:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The King takes account of our, whole life then, when we must all be presented before the judgment-seat of Christ. (2 Cor. 5:10.) We mean not this so as that any should think that the business itself must needs require a long time. For God, when He will scrutinize the minds of all, will by some undescribable power cause every thing that every man has done to pass speedily before the mind of each. He says, And when he began to take account, because the beginning of the judgment is that it begin from the house of God. (1 Pet. 4:17.) At His beginning to take account there is brought unto Him one who owes Him many talents; one, that is, who had wrought great evils; one on whom much had been enjoined, and had yet brought no gain; who perhaps had destroyed as many men as he owed talents; one who was therefore become a debtor of many talents, because he had followed the woman sitting upon a talent of lead, whose name is Iniquity. (Zech. 5:7.)
Matthew 18:24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.10
The moment of beginning the reckoning starts with the household of God, as is it written in Ezekiel: "Begin at my sanctuary." This judgment begins as quickly as the twinkling of an eye. In thinking of the demanding of accounts, let us not forget what we have said before, that these accounts are spiritually conceived. And the moment of demand begins understandably with those who owe the most. This is why the passage does not begin generally with a reckoning of all accounts but a specific one: one was brought to him. Here is the moment. He is beginning to demand an account of one who owed him ten thousand talents! It is as if the servant had lost a vast amount and much had been loaned and entrusted to him but had brought no gain to his master. Rather, he ended up losing a vast sum so as to owe him an incredible debt of talents. Remembering the prophet Zechariah, it may be that he owed so many talents for this reason: he had often sought out the woman hidden in a barrel with a lead cover, whose name is Iniquity.
Matthew 18:28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He therefore, as I suppose, took him by the throat, because he had come forth from the king; for he would not have so handled his fellow servant, if he had not gone forth from the king.
Matthew 18:29-30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Observe the exactness of Scripture; the servant who owed many talents fell down, and worshipped the king; he who owed the hundred denarii falling down, did not worship, but besought his fellow servant, saying, Have patience. But the ungrateful servant did not even respect the very words which had saved himself, for it follows, but he would not.
Matthew 18:33 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He seeks to instruct us, that we should be ready to show clemency to those who have done us harm, especially if they offer amends, and plead to have forgiveness.
Matthew 19:2 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book XIV), 15
Only, when Jesus had finished these words, having spoken them in Galilee about Capernaum, then "He departed thence, and came into the borders of Judaea," which were different from Galilee. But He came to the borders of Judaea, and not to the middle of it, but, as it were, to the outermost parts, where great multitudes followed Him, whom He healed at "the borders of Judaea beyond Jordan,"-where baptism had been given. But you will observe the difference between the crowds who simply followed, and Peter and the others who gave up everything and followed, and Matthew, who arose and followed him; he did not simply follow, but "having arisen; "for "having arisen" is an important addition. There are always those, then, who follow like the great multitudes, who have not arisen that they may follow, nor have given up all that was theirs formerly, but few are they who have arisen and followed, who also, in the regeneration, shall sit on twelve thrones. Only, if one wishes to be healed, let him follow Jesus.
Matthew 19:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The Lord healed the multitudes beyond Jordan, where baptism was given. For all are truly healed from spiritual sickness in baptism; and many follow Christ as did these multitudes, but not rising up as Matthew, who arose and followed the Lord,
Matthew 19:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Seeing the Lord thus tempted, let none of His disciples who is set to teach think it hard if he also be by some tempted. Howbeit, He replies to His tempters with the doctrines of piety.
Matthew 19:5 — Commentary on Matthew, Book 14
But since the Apostle understands the words, "And they twain shall be one flesh," of Christ and the church, we must say that Christ keeping the saying, "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder," did not put away His former wife, so to speak—that is, the former synagogue—for any other cause than that that wife committed fornication, being made an adulteress by the evil one, and along with him plotted against her husband and slew Him, saying, "Away with such a fellow from the earth, crucify Him, crucify Him." It was she therefore who herself revolted, rather than her husband who put her away and dismissed her; wherefore, reproaching her for falling away from him, it says in Isaiah, "Of what kind is the bill of your mother's divorcement, with which I sent her away?" And He who at the beginning created Him "who is in the form of God" after the image, made Him male, and the church female, granting to both oneness after the image. And, for the sake of the church, the Lord—the husband—left the Father whom He saw when He was "in the form of God," left also His mother, as He was the very son of the Jerusalem which is above, and was joined to His wife who had fallen down here, and these two here became one flesh. For because of her, He Himself also became flesh, when "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," and they are no more two, but now they are one flesh, since it is said to the wife, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members each in his part;" for the body of Christ is not something apart different from the church, which is His body, and from the members each in his part. And God has joined together these who are not two, but have become one flesh, commanding that men should not separate the church from the Lord. And he who takes heed for himself so as not to be separated, is confident as one who will not possibly be separated and says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
Matthew 19:7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.19
Now, keeping in mind what we said above in regard to the passage from Isaiah about the bill of divorce, we will say that the mother of the people separated herself from Christ, her husband, without having received the bill of divorce.Afterward, however, when an unseemly thing was found in her, she did not find favor in his sight, and the bill of divorce was written out for her. When the new covenant called those of the Gentiles to the house of him who had cast away his former wife, it virtually gave the bill of divorce to her who formerly separated from her husband—the law and the Word. Therefore, he also having separated from her, married, so to speak, another, having given into the hands of the former wife the bill of divorce. So they can no longer do what was ordered to them under the law because of the certificate of divorce. And a sign that she has received the bill of divorce is that Jerusalem was destroyed along with what they called the sanctuary of the things in it which were believed to be holy, the altar of burnt offerings and all the rites contained in it. And a further sign of the bill of divorce is this, that they cannot keep their feasts, even though the letter of the law specifically commanded them [to be celebrated] in the place that the Lord God appointed for keeping feasts. At present the whole synagogue cannot stone those who have committed such and such sins; and thousands of other instructions are proof of the certificate of divorce. Add to this the fact that "there is no longer any prophet" and that they say, "We do not see any signs."
Matthew 19:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Perhaps some one will say, that Jesus in thus speaking, suffered wives to be put away for the same cause that Moses suffered them, which He says was for the hardness of the hearts of the Jews. But to this it is to be answered, that if by the Law an adulteress is stoned, that sin is not to be understood as the shameful thing for which Moses suffers a writing of divorcement; (Deut. 24:1.) for in a cause of adultery it was not lawful to give a writing of divorcement. But Moses perhaps calls every sin in a woman a shameful thing, which if it be found in her, a bill of divorcement is written against her. But we should enquire, If it is lawful to put away a wife for the cause of fornication only, what is it if a woman be not an adulteress, but have done any other heinous crime; have been found a poisoner, or to have murdered her children? The Lord has explained this matter in another place, saying, Whoso putteth her away, except for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery, (Mat. 5:32.) giving her an opportunity of a second marriage.
Matthew 19:13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For they now understood from His previous mighty works, that by laying on of His hands and by prayer evils were obviated. They bring therefore children to Him, judging that it were impossible that after the Lord had by His touch conveyed divine virtue into them, harm or any demon should come nigh them.
Matthew 19:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But the Lord exhorting His disciples now become men to condescend to the needs of babes, to be babes to babes, that they may gain babes, says, For of such is the kingdom of heaven. For He Himself also, when He was in the form of God, was made a babe. These things we should attend to, lest in esteeming that more excellent wisdom, and spiritual advancement, as though we were become great we should despise the little ones of the Church, forbidding children to be brought to Jesus.
Matthew 19:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But since children cannot follow all things that are commanded them, Jesus laid His hands upon them, and leaving virtue in them by His touch, went away from them, seeing they were not able to follow Him, like the other more perfect disciples.
Matthew 19:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Christ also answers thus, because of that He said, What good thing shall I do? For when we depart from evil and do good, that which we do is called good by comparison with what other men do. But when compared with absolute good, in the sense in which it is here said, There is one good, our good is not good. But some one may say, that because the Lord knew that the purpose of him who thus asked Him was not even to do such good as man can do, that therefore He said, Why askest thou me concerning good? as much as to say, Why do you ask me concerning good, seeing you are not prepared to do what is good. But after this He says, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Where note, that He speaks to him as yet standing without life; for that man is in one sense without life, who is without Him who said, I am the life. Otherwise, every man upon earth may be, not in life itself, but only in its shadow, while he is clad in a body of death. But any man shall enter into life, if he keep himself from dead works, and seek living works. But there are dead words and living words, also dead thoughts and living thoughts, and therefore He says, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Or perhaps these precepts are enough to introduce one, if I may say so, to the entrance of life; but neither these, nor any like them, are enough to conduct one to the more inward parts of life. But whoso transgresses one of these commandments, shall not even come to the entrance in unto life.
Matthew 19:18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 15.13
These commandments are sufficient for someone entering on the ground level of the path of eternal life. But they are not sufficient to lead one to the higher life, and certainly not to perfection. One who fails in just one of these commandments cannot even enter the beginnings of life. Anyone who wishes to enter the early stages of the path of life must be free from adultery and murder and any kind of theft. For just as the adulterer and murderer will not enter into life, so neither will the thief. Many of those who are said to believe in Christ are guilty of this sin. Just look at their daily business and the way money is entrusted to them and the crafts they practice.
Matthew 19:21 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book XV), 16-17
One might inquire <consequently>, since he is perfect who has all the virtues and no longer practices <anything> connected to vice, how it is that he might become perfect who sells his own substance and gives it to the poor. For should you present someone having done this, how might he become anger-free as a consequence, if he be easily susceptible to anger? How without grief, and better able to endure all such things which are able <to> evoke grief? How will he be beyond all fear, of that which concerns trials, or of death, or of those things such as are able to bring fear to the as-yet unperfected soul? Will the person who gives away [his] substance in such a fashion, and gives to the poor, be free from all desire? For one might say that the ability to give away all one's substance by itself could produce a certain kind of human suffering from poverty leading one to, on the one hand, repent of having done such a daring thing, and on the other to desire possessions equivalent [to that which was given away]. And if indeed that which is called pleasure, being an irrational impulse of the soul, is a passion, how might one give away all substance and give to the poor at one time, and at the same time be released from being impelled irrationally? Someone may also add a question, as to how one is able by having given away one's substance and given to the poor to become wise <and to receive> the wisdom of God, so as to offer a reason to each one who asks concerning the faith that is in him (cf. 1 Pet 3.15), concerning each of those things which have been believed, and concerning those things spoken in a hidden fashion in the holy Scriptures? Take note that this line of questioning is truly genuine and not easily resolved. For were we to say that someone has become perfect through this [act] alone, even if he be not connected to the things we have outlined [above], we would be confronted by a paradox in saying that someone is at the same time perfect and a sinner (for the irascible man is a sinner, as is the one who grieves the grief of the world, and the one who fears tribulations or death, and <who> desires things that are absent, and <who> irrationally impels the soul to things that are not good as though they were good). At the same time, were we to say that someone, by selling a substance and giving it to the poor, assumes all the virtues even becoming inspired of God, as it were, and puts away all vice from himself, we would be speaking with credulity (if I may speak in a more common manner), but I do not know if truly. Perhaps indeed those who hear this explanation for the difficulty raised will mock us, as though we speak without prudence. Someone, who keeps to the letter and in no way offers a figurative reading of the [contents] of the passage, might seem <to speak> more prudently, offering a rejoinder in this way, as though credulous, but if the things said are worthy or not of the thoughts according to the passage, indeed you yourself will judge. One may say therefore that, since he who distributes to the poor is assisted by their prayer for his own salvation, receiving for his own lack <of spiritual things> an abundance of spiritual things from those who are lacking bodily things (as the Apostle indicated in the second [letter] to the Corinthians), might it be that someone else could experience the same thing and be assisted greatly by it, with God hearkening unto the prayers of those who have found rest in such poverty—[that] among such people there may perhaps be those who are similar to the Apostles though a little inferior to them, people who are poor in bodily things, as were [the Apostles], but who are wealthy in spiritual things? This person then who accepts poverty in exchange for wealth for the sake of becoming perfect (having been persuaded by the words of Jesus) might be assisted quickly, as indeed the Apostles of Christ [were], so as to become wise in Christ, and courageous, and righteous, and modest, and fr…
Matthew 19:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If every commandment is fulfilled in this one word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, and if he is perfect who has fulfilled every command, how is it that the Lord said to the young man, If thou wilt be perfect, when he had declared, All these have I kept from my youth up. Perhaps that he says, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, was not said by the Lord, but added by some one, for neither Mark nor Luke have given it in this place. Or otherwise; It is written in the Gospela according to the Hebrews, that, when the Lord said, Go, and sell all that thou hast, the rich man began to scratch his head, being displeased with the saying. Then the Lord said unto him, How sayest thou, I have kept the Law, and the Prophets, since it is written in the Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself? For how many of thy brethren sons of Abraham, clothed in filth, perish for hunger? Thy house is full of many good things, and nothing goes thereout to them. The Lord then, desiring to convict this rich man, says to him, If thou will be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor; for so it will be seen if thou dost indeed love thy neighbour as thyself. But if he is perfect who has all the virtues, how does he become perfect who sells all that he has and gives to the poor? For suppose one to have done this, will he thereby become forthwith free from anger, desire, having every virtue, and abandoning all vice? Perhaps wisdom may suggest, that he that has given his goods to the poor, is aided by their prayers, receiving of their spiritual abundance to his want, and is made in this way perfect, though he may have some human passions. Or thus; He that thus exchanged his riches for poverty, in order that he might become perfect, shall have assistance to become wise in Christ, just, chaste also, and devoid of all passion; but not so as that in the moment when he gave up all his goods, he should forthwith become perfect; but only that from that day forward the contemplation of God will begin to bring him to all virtues. Or again, it will pass into a moral exposition, and say, that the possessions of a man are the acts of his mind. Christ then bids a man to sell all his evil possessions, and as it were to give them over to the virtues which should work the same, which were poor in all that is good. For as the peace of the Apostles returns to them again, (Mat. 10:13.) unless there be a son of peace, so all sins return upon their actors, when one will no longer indulge his evil propensities; and thus there can be no doubt that he will straightway become perfect who in this sense sells all his possessions. It is manifest that he that does these things, has treasure in heaven, and is himself become of heaven; and he will have in heaven treasure of God's glory, and riches in all God's wisdom. Such an one will be able to follow Christ, for he has no evil possession to draw him off from so following
Matthew 19:22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But historically, the young man is to be praised for that he did not kill, did not commit adultery; but is to be blamed for that he sorrowed at Christ's words calling him to perfection. He was young indeed in soul, and therefore leaving Christ, he went his way.
Matthew 19:27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Peter had heard the word of Christ when He said, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast. Then he observed that the young man had departed sorrowful, and considered the difficulty of riches entering into the kingdom of heaven; and thereupon he put this question confidently as one who had achieved no easy matter. For though what he with his brother had left behind them were but little things, yet were they not esteemed as little with God, who considered that out of the fulness of their love they had so forsaken those least things, as they would have forsaken the greatest things if they had had them. So Peter, thinking rather of his will than of the intrinsic value of the sacrifice, asked Him confidently, Behold, we have left all. It may be said, In all things which the Father revealed to Peter that the Son was, righteousness, sanctification, and the like, in all we have followed Thee. Therefore as a victorious athlete, he now asks what are the prizes of his contest.
Matthew 19:28 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 15.21-22
In gift giving it is not the gift itself that God praises and approves but the will and sincerity of the giver. He excuses and holds more acceptable the one who gave less but gave it with more perfect sincerity than the one who gave more from a fuller store but with less pure affection. Thus, from what is written about the gifts of the wealthy and from the two mites which the widow in the treasury sent for the poor, it is clear that the same also happens to those who leave everything that they possess for the love of God so as to follow undistractedly the Christ of God. They will do everything according to his word. The one who leaves the greater wealth is not more acceptable than the one who leaves the lesser. This is especially so if he leaves the lesser with his whole heart. What Peter left, along with his brother Andrew, was small and of no value, but when they both heard, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, immediately they left their nets and followed him." Yet they were not valued lightly by God, who knew that they had done this with great love. God knew that even if they had been endowed with much wealth they would still not have been distracted by it, nor would their desire to follow Jesus have been thwarted by it.… Those who follow the Savior, therefore, will sit on the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel and will receive this power in the resurrection of the dead. For this is the regeneration, a new birth, when the new heaven and the new earth are established for those who renew themselves, and a New Testament with its chalice is given.
Matthew 19:29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or otherwise; Whosoever shall leave all and follow Christ, he also shall receive those things that were promised to Peter. But if he has not left all, but only those things in special here enumerated, he shall receive manifold, and shall possess eternal life. And in this world, because for his brethren after the flesh he shall find many brethren in the faith; for parents, all the Bishops and Presbyters; for sons, all that have the age of sons. The Angels also are brethren, and all they are sisters that have offered themselves chaste virgins to Christ, as well they that still continue on earth, as they that now live in heaven. The houses and lands manifold more suppose in the repose of Paradise, and the city of God. And besides all these things they shall possess eternal life.
Matthew 19:30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
By this He exhorts those that come late to the heavenly word, to haste to ascend to perfection before many whom they see to have grown old in the faith. This sense may also overthrow those that boast to have been educated in Christianity by Christian parents, especially if those parents have filled the Episcopal see, or the office of Priests or Deacons in the Church; and hinder them from desponding who have entertained the Christian doctrines more newly. It has also another meaning, the first, are the Israelites, who become last because of their unbelief; and the Gentiles who were last become first. He is careful to say, Many; for not all who are first shall be last, nor all last first. For before this have many of mankind, who by nature are the last, been made by an angelic life above the Angels; and some Angels who were first have been made last through their sin.
Matthew 20:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For the whole of this present life may be called one day, long to us, short compared to the existence of God. The market-place is all that is without the vineyard, that is, without the Church of Christ.
Matthew 20:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The denarius I suppose here to mean salvation.
Matthew 20:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, He did not call upon the labourers of the third hour for a complete task, but left to their own choice, how much they should work. For they might perform in the vineyard work equal to that of those who had wrought since the morning, if they chose to put forth upon their task an operative energy, such as had not yet been exerted.
Matthew 20:6 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But this, Why stand ye here all the day idle? is not said to such as having begun in the spirit (Gal. 3:3) have been made perfect by the flesh, as inviting them to return again, and to live in the Spirit. This we speak not to dissuade prodigal sons, who have consumed their substance of evangelic doctrine in riotous living, from returning to their father's house; but because they are not like those who sinned in their youth, before they had learnt the things of the faith.
Matthew 20:8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or; The Lord said to his steward, that is, to one of the Angels who was set over the payment of the labourers; or to one of those many guardians, according to what is written, that The heir as long as he is a child is under tutors and governors. (Gal. 4:2.)
Matthew 20:13-14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Perhaps it is to Adam He says, Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a denarius? Take that thine is, and go thy way. Salvation is thine, that is, the denarius. I will give unto this last also as unto thee. A person might not improbably suppose, that this last was the Apostle Paul, who wrought but one hour, and was made equal with all who had been before him.
Matthew 20:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Judas was yet among the twelve; for he was perhaps still worthy to hear in private along with the rest the things which his Master should suffer. Meditating then of this, we ought to know that often even when there is certain trial to be undergone, we ought to offer ourselves to it. But forasmuch as it was said above, When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another, (Mat. 10:23.), it belongs to the wise in Christ to judge when the season requires that he shun, and when that he go to meet dangers.
Matthew 20:18-19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
There is no mention that the disciples either said or did any thing upon hearing of these sufferings that should thus come upon Christ; remembering what the Lord had said to Peter, they were afraid they should have had the like or worse addressed to themselves. And yet there be scribes who suppose that they know the divine writings, who condemn Jesus to death, scourge Him with their tongues, and crucify Him herein, that they seek to take away His doctrine; but He, vanishing for a season, again rises to appear to those who received His word that it could be so.
Matthew 20:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For if in an earthly kingdom they are thought to be in honour who sit with the king, no wonder if a woman with womanish simplicity or want of experience conceived that she might ask such things, and that the brethren themselves being not perfect, and having no more lofty thoughts concerning Christ's kingdom, conceived such things concerning those who shall sit with Jesus.
Matthew 20:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For when sin is destroyed, which reigned in men's mortal bodies, with the entire dynasty of malignant powers, Christ shall receive exaltation of His kingdom among men; that is, His sitting on the throne of His glory. That God disposes all things both on His right hand and on His left, this is that there shall be then no more evil in His presence. They that are the more excellent among such as draw near to Christ, are they on His right hand; they that are inferior, are they on His left hand. Or by Christ's right hand look if you may understand the invisible creation; by His left hand the visible and bodily. For of those who are brought nigh to Christ, some obtain a place on His right hand, as the intelligent, some on His left hand, as the sentient creation. Christ does not say, Ye are able to drink of My cup, but looking to their future perfection He said, Ye shall indeed drink of my cup.
Matthew 20:25-26 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That is, not content merely to rule over their subjects, they are severe and oppressive. But among you who are Mine these things shall not be so; for as all carnal things are done by compulsion, but spiritual things by free-will, so those rulers who are spiritual ought to rest their power in the love of their subjects, not in their fears.
Matthew 20:25-26 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 6
For he who wishes to be saved comes to the rule of the Church not to lordship — even though he presides — but to servitude, if one must speak also from the Gospel: "the princes of the nations indeed lord it over them, and those who have power over them are called magistrates; but it shall not be so among you". For neither do "the princes lord it over you", but "whoever of you wishes to be greater shall be least of all"; "whoever wishes to be first shall be last of all". He, therefore, who is called to the episcopate is called not to lordship, but to the servitude of the whole Church. If you wish to believe from the scriptures that in the Church he who presides is the servant of all, let the Savior and Lord himself persuade you: such and so great a one became "in the midst of the disciples not as one reclining, but as one serving". For "taking a towel", after "he had laid aside his garments, he girded himself and, pouring water into a basin, began to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded". And teaching that rulers ought to be such as servants, he says: "you call me master and lord, and you say well; for so I am. If then I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet". The ruler of the Church, therefore, is called to servitude, so that from this servitude he may be able to go to the heavenly throne, as it is written: "you shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel". But hear also Paul, so illustrious a man, saying that he was the servant of all believers. "For I am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God". Further, if this seems to prove not his servitude but only his humility, hear him saying: "we became little ones in your midst, as if a nurse should cherish her own children, though we could be burdensome as Apostles of Christ".
Matthew 20:28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For though the Angels and Martha ministered to Him, (Mat. 4:11), yet did He not come to be ministered unto, but to minister (John 12:2); yea, His ministry extended so far, that He fulfilled even what follows, And to give his life a ransom for many, they, that is, who believed on Him; and gave it, i. e. to death. But since He was alone free among the dead, and mightier than the power of death, He has set free from death all who were willing to follow Him. The heads of the Church ought therefore to imitate Christ in being affable, adapting Himself to women, laying His hands on children, and washing His disciples' feet, that they also should do the same to their brethren. But we are such, that we seem to go beyond the pride even of the great ones of this world; as to the command of Christ, either not understanding it, or setting it at nought. Like princes we seek hosts to go before us, we make ourselves awful and difficult of access, especially to the poor, neither approaching them, nor suffering them to approach us.
Matthew 20:29-34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Figuratively, Jericho is taken to be the world, into which Christ came down. They who are in Jericho, know not how to escape from the wisdom of the world, unless they see not Jesus only coming out of Jericho, but also His disciples. This when they saw, great multitudes followed Him, despising the world and all worldly things, that under His guidance they may go up to the heavenly Jerusalem. The two blind men we may call Judah and Israel, who before the coming of Christ were blind, not seeing the true word which was in the Law and the Prophets, yet sitting by the wayside of the Law and the Prophets, and understanding Him only as after the flesh, they cried to Him who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. We also now sitting by the wayside of the Scriptures, and understanding wherein we are blind, if we ask with desire, He will touch the eyes of our souls, and the gloom of ignorance shall depart from our minds, that in the light of knowledge we may follow Him, who gave us power to see to no other end than that we should follow Him.
Matthew 20:31 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or; Those that believed rebuked them that they should not dishonour Him by styling Him merely Son of David, but should rather say, Son of God, have mercy on us.
Matthew 20:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or; Jesus does not pass on, but stands still, that by His standing His goodness may not pass by, but as from an abiding fount mercy may flow forth upon them.
Matthew 21:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Whence Bethphage is interpreted, The house of the Shoulder; for the shoulder was the priest's portion in the Law...
Matthew 21:2-3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Whence also, when He ascended into heaven, He gave command to His disciples that they should loose sinners, for which also He gave them the Holy Spirit. But being loosed, and making progress, and being nourished by the Divinity of the Word, they are held worthy to be sent back to the place whence they were taken, but no more to their former labours, but to preach to them the Son of God, and this is what He signifies when He says, And straightway He will send them.
Matthew 21:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or when they say, Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, it is the dispensation of Christ's humanity that they set forth; but His restoration to the holy places when then say, Hosanna in the highest.
Matthew 21:10 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Moreover, when Jesus entered the true Jerusalem, they cried out, wondering at His heavenly virtues, and said, Who is this King of glory?
Matthew 21:12-13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For in that they ought neither to sell nor to buy, but to give their time to prayer, being assembled in a house of prayer, whence it follows, And he saith unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer. (Is. 56:7.) Mystically; The Temple of God is the Church of Christ, wherein are many, who live not, as they ought, spiritually, but after the flesh; and that house of prayer which is built of living stones they make by their actions to be a den of thieves. But if we must express more closely the three kinds of men cast out of the Temple, we may say thus. Whosoever among a Christian people spend their time in nothing else but buying and selling, continuing but little in prayers or in other right actions, these are the buyers and sellers in the Temple of God. Deacons who do not lay out well the funds of their Churches, but grow rich out of the poor man's portion, these are the money-changers whose tables Christ overturns. But that the deacons preside over the tables of Church money, we learn from the Act of the Apostles (Acts 6:2.) Bishops who commit Churches to those they ought not, are they that sell the doves, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, whose seats Christ overturns. Or, in His second coming He shall cast forth and overturn those whom He shall find unworthy in God's temple.
Matthew 21:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For in the temple of God, that is in the Church, all have not eyesight, nor do all walk uprightly, but only they who understand that there is need of Christ and of none other to heal them; they coming to the Word of God are healed.
Matthew 21:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For Christ's disciples pray for nothing that they ought not, and as confiding in their Master they pray only for things great and heavenly. Mystically; the Lord leaving the Chief Priests and Scribes withdrew without the earthly Jerusalem, which therefore fell. He came to Bethany to 'The house of obedience,' that is, to the Church, where when He had taken rest after the first erecting of the Church, He returned to the city which He had left a little while before, and returning, He was an hungred.
Matthew 21:18-19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And because this plant was figuratively a living creature, having a soul, He speaks to it as though it heard. Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. Therefore is the Jewish synagogue barren, and shall continue so until the end of the world, when the multitude of the Gentiles shall come in; and the fig tree withered while Christ was yet sojourning in this life; and the disciples seeing by their spiritual discernment the mystery of the withered faith, wondered; and having faith, and not doubting, they bare it, and so it withers when their lifegiving virtue passes to the Gentiles; and by each one who is brought to the faith, that mountain Satan is lifted up and cast into the sea, that is, into the abyss. For every man who is obedient to the word of God is Bethany, and Christ abides in him; but the wicked and the sinners He leaves. And when He has been with the righteous, He goes to other righteous after them, and accompanied by them; for it is not said that He left Bethany and went into the city. The Lord ever is an hungred among the righteous, desiring to eat among them the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which are love, joy, peace. But this fig tree which had leaves only without fruit, grew by the wayside.
Matthew 21:20-21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But if the Lord come seeking fruit with temptations, and one be found having nought of righteousness but only a profession of faith, which is leaves without fruit, he is soon withered, losing even his seeming faith; and every disciple makes this fig tree to wither, by making it be seen that he is void of Christ, as Peter said to Simon, Thy heart is not right in the sight of God (Acts 8:21.) For it is better that a deceitful fig tree which is thought to be alive, yet brings forth no fruit, should be withered up at the word of Christ's disciples, than that by an imposture it should steal aawy innocent hearts. Also there is in every unbeliever a mountain great in proportion to his unbelief, which is removed by the words of Christ's disciples.
Matthew 21:23-24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But if the Lord come seeking fruit with temptations, and one be found having nought of righteousness but only a profession of faith, which is leaves without fruit, he is soon withered, losing even his seeming faith; and every disciple makes this fig tree to wither, by making it be seen that he is void of Christ, as Peter said to Simon, Thy heart is not right in the sight of God (Acts 8:21.) For it is better that a deceitful fig tree which is thought to be alive, yet brings forth no fruit, should be withered up at the word of Christ's disciples, than that by an imposture it should steal aawy innocent hearts. Also there is in every unbeliever a mountain great in proportion to his unbelief, which is removed by the words of Christ's disciples. But some one will say in opposition to this, that it was absurd to ask by what authority Jesus did these things. For that it could not be that He would answer, that He did these by the Devil's authority; and He would not tell them as it truly was, that He did them by His own power. If it should be said, that the rulers put this question to Him in order to deter Him from His proceedings; as when we say to one who is dealing with what is ours in a way which we do not like, we say to him, Who bade thee do this? meaning to deter him from what he is so doing;—if it is to be taken so, what means Christ's answer, Do you tell Me this, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Perhaps therefore, the place should be understood as follows. There are in the general two opposite powers, one on the side of God, the other on the side of the Devil; but of particular powers there are many; for it was not one and the same power that wrought in all the Prophets to enable them to do miracles, but one in these, another in those; and, it may be, for lesser things a lesser power, for greater things a greater power. The Chief Priests had seen Jesus working many miracles, whereupon they desired to know the special degree and properties of that power which wrought in Him. For others who have wrought miracles wrought them at first in one power, and afterwards when more advanced in another and greater power; but the Saviour wrought all in one power, that which He received of the Father. But because they were not worthy to hear such mysteries, therefore He gives them no answer, but on the contrary put a question to them.
Matthew 21:28-32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Whence we may gather, that in this parable the Lord spoke to such as promise little or nothing, but in their works shine forth; and against those who promise great things but do none of these things that they have promised. Notwithstanding, the Jews are not shut out that they should never enter into the kingdom of God; but, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, then all Israel shall be saved. (Rom. 11:25.)
Matthew 21:33-34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The householder is God, who in some parables is represented as a man. As it were a father condescending to the infant lisp of his little child, in order to instruct him. Or, the hedge which God set round his people was His own Providence; and the winepress was the place of offerings. Or, because God who had been with them in the cloud by day, and in the pillar of fire by night, (Exod. 13:21.) never after showed Himself to them in like manner. In Isaiah (Is. 5:7.) the people of the Jews is called the vineyard, and the threats of the householder are against the vineyard; but in the Gospel not the vineyard but the husbandmen are blamed. For perchance in the Gospel the vineyard is the kingdom of God, that is, the doctrine which is contained in holy Scripture; and a man's blameless life is the fruit of the vineyard. And the letter of Scripture is the hedge set round the vineyard, that the fruits which are hid in it should not be seen by those who are without. The depth of the oracles of God is the winepress of the vineyard, into which such as have profited in the oracles of God pour out their studies like fruit. The tower built therein is the word concerning God Himself, and concerning Christ's dispensations. This vineyard He committed to husbandmen, that is, to the people that was before us, both priests and laity, and went into a far country, by His departure giving opportunity to the husbandmen. The time of the vintage drawing near may be taken of individuals, and of nations. The first season of life is in infancy, when the vineyard has nought to show, but that it has in it the vital power. As soon as it comes to be able to speak, then is the time of putting forth buds. And as the child's soul progresses, so also does the vineyard, that is, the word of God; and after such progress the vineyard brings forth the ripe fruit of love, joy, peace, and the like. Moreover to the nation who received the Law by Moses, the time of fruit draweth near.
Matthew 21:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or we may suppose this fulfilled in the case of those Jews who, knowing Christ, believed in Him. But what follows, But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir, come let us kill him, and let us seize on the inheritance, was fulfilled in those who saw Christ, and knew Him to be the Son of God, yet crucified Him.
Matthew 21:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, what He says, And cast him out of the vineyard, seems to me to be this; As far as they were concerned they judged Him a stranger both to the vineyard, and the husbandmen. When therefore the Lord of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
Matthew 21:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Like Caiaphas (John 11:49) so did they, not from themselves, prophesy against themselves, that the oracles of God were to he taken from them, and given to the Gentiles, who could bring forth fruit in due season.
Matthew 21:42 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That is, the stone is the gift of God to the whole building, and is wonderful in our eyes, who can discern it with the eyes of the mind.
Matthew 21:43 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
By the kingdom of God, He means the mysteries of the kingdom of God, that is, the divine Scriptures, which the Lord committed, first to that former people who had the oracles of God, but secondly to the Gentiles who brought forth fruit. For the word of God is given to none but to him who brings fruit thereof, and the kingdom of God is given to none in whom sin reigns. Whence came it then that it was given to them from whom it was afterwards taken away? Remember that whatever is given is given of free gift. To whom then He let out the vineyard, He let it out not as to elect already and believing; but to whom He gave it, He gave it with a sentence of election.
Matthew 21:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
One thing they know which is true concerning Him; they esteemed Him a Prophet, though not understanding His greatness in respect of His being the Son of God. But the rulers feared the multitude who thought thus of Him, and were ready to fight for Him; for they could not attain to the understanding which the multitude had, seeing they thought nothing worthy concerning Him. Further, know that there are two different kinds of desires to lay hands on Jesus. The desire of the rulers and Pharisees was one kind; another that of the Bride, I held him, and would not let him go; (Song of Sol. 3:4. ch. 7:8.) intending to try Him still further, as she saith, I will get me up into the palm tree, I will lay hold of its height. All who think not rightly concerning His divinity, seek to lay hands on Jesus in order to put Him to death. Other words indeed excepting the word of Christ it is possible to seize and to hold, but the word of truth none can seize, that is, understand; none can hold it, that is, convict; nor separate it from the conviction of those that believe; nor do it to death, that is, destroy it.
Matthew 22:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The kingdom of heaven, in respect of Him who reigns there, is like a king; in respect of Him who shares the kingdom, it is like a king's son; in respect of those things which are in the kingdom, it is like servants and guests, and among them the king's armies. It is specified, A man that is a king, that what is spoken may be as by a man to men, and that a man may regulate men unwilling to be regulated by God. But the kingdom of heaven will then cease to be like a man, when zeal and contention and all other passions and sins having ceased, we shall cease to walk after men, and shall see Him as He is. For now we see Him not as He is, but as He has been made for us in our dispensation. Or, by the marriage of Bridegroom with Bride, that is, of Christ with the soul, understand the Assumption of the Word, the produce whereof is good works.
Matthew 22:3-4 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or; The servants who were first sent to call them that were bidden to the wedding, are to be taken as the Prophets converting the people by their prophecy to the festival of the restoration of the Church to Christ. They who would not come at the first message are they who refused to hear the words of the Prophets. The others who were sent a second time were another assembly of Prophets. Or; The dinner which is prepared is the oracle of God; and so the more mighty of the oracles of God are the oxen; the sweet and pleasant are the fatlings. For if any one bring forward feeble words, without power, and not having strong force of reason, these are the lean things; the fatlings are when to the establishment of each proposition many examples are brought forward backed by reasonable proofs. For example, supposing one holding discourse of chastity, it might well be represented by the turtle-dove; but should he bring forward the same holy discourse full of reasonable proof out of Scripture, so as to delight and strengthen the mind of his hearer, then he brings the dove fatted.
Matthew 22:7 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Let those who sin against the God of the Law, and the Prophets, and the whole creation, declare whether He who is here called man, and is said to be angry, is indeed the Father Himself. If they allow this, they will be forced to own that many things are said of Him applicable to the passible nature of man; not for that He has passions, but because He is represented to us after the manner of passible human nature. In this way we take God's anger, repentance, and the other things of the like sort in the Prophets. Or, the city of those wicked men is in each doctrine the assembly of those who meet in the wisdom of the rulers of this world; which the King sets fire to and destroys, as consisting of evil buildings.
Matthew 22:8-10 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He saith to His servants, that is, to the Apostles; or to the Angels, who were set over the calling of the Gentiles, The wedding is ready. Or otherwise; I suppose this first bidding to the wedding to have been a bidding of some of the more noble minds. For God would have those before all come to the feast of the divine oracles who are of the more ready wit to understand them; and forasmuch as they who are such are loth to come to that kind of summons, other servants are sent to move them to come, and to promise that they shall find the dinner prepared. For as in the things of the body, one is the bride, others the inviters to the feast, and they that are bidden are others again; so God knows the various ranks of souls, and their powers, and the reasons why these are taken into the condition of the Bride, others in the rank of the servants that call, and others among the number of those that are bidden as guests. But they who had been thus especially invited contemned the first inviters as poor in understanding, and went their way, following their own devices, as more delighting in them than in those things which the King by his servants promised. Yet are these more venial than they who ill-treat and put to death the servants sent unto them; those, that is, who daringly assail with weapons of contentious words the servants sent, who are unequal to solve their subtle difficulties, and those are illtreated or put to death by them. The servants going forth are either Christ's Apostles going from Judæa and Jerusalem, or the Holy Angels from the inner worlds, and going to the various ways of various manners, gathered together whomsoever they found, not caring whether before their calling they had been good or bad. By the good here we may understand simply the more humble and upright of those who come to the worship of God, to whom agreed what the Apostle says, When the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law, they are a law unto themselves. (Rom. 2:14.)
Matthew 22:11 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The marriage-feast of Christ and the Church is filled, when they who were found by the Apostles, being restored to God, sat down to the feast. But since it behoved that both bad and good should be called, not that the bad should continue bad, but that they should put off the garments unmeet for the wedding, and should put on the marriage garments, to wit, bowels of mercy and kindness, for this cause the King goes out, that He may see them set down before the supper is set before them, that they may be detained who have the wedding garment in which He is delighted, and that he may condemn the opposite. But when He was come in, He found there one who had not put off his old behaviour; He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. He speaks of one only, because all, who after faith continue to serve that wickedness which they had before the faith, are but of one kind.
Matthew 22:12 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And forasmuch as he who is in sin, and puts not on the Lord Jesus Christ, has no excuse, it follows, But he was speechless.
Matthew 22:13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He who has thus insulted the marriage feast is not only cast out therefrom, but besides by the King's officers, who are set over his prisons, is chained up from that power of walking which he employed not to walk to any good thing, and that power of reaching forth his hand, wherewith he had fulfilled no work for any good; and is sentenced to a place whence all light is banished, which is called outer darkness.
Matthew 22:15-22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
From this place we learn by the Saviour's example not to be allured by those things which have many voices for them, and thence seem famous, but to incline rather to those things which are spoken according to some method of reason. But we may also understand this place morally, that we ought to give some things to the body as a tribute to Cæsar, that is to say, necessaries. And such things as are congenial to our souls' nature, that is, such things as lead to virtue, those we ought to offer to God. They then who without any moderation inculcate the law of God, and command us to have no care for the things required by the body, are the Pharisees, who forbad to give tribute to Cæsar, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created. (1 Tim. 4:3.) They, on the other hand, who allow too much indulgence to the body are the Herodians. But our Saviour would neither that virtue should be enfeebled by immoderate devotedness to the flesh; nor that our fleshly nature should be oppressed by our unremitting efforts after virtue. Or the prince of this world, that is, the Devil, is called Cæsar; and we cannot render to God the things that are God's, unless we have first rendered to this prince all that is his, that is, have cast off all wickedness. This moreover let us learn from this place, that to those who tempt us we should neither be totally silent, nor yet answer openly, but with caution, to cut off all occasion from those who seek occasion in us, and teach without blame the things which may save those who are willing to be saved.
Matthew 22:23 — Against Celsus, Book 1
Now it is not one of the prophets merely who predicted the advent of Christ. But although the Samaritans and Sadducees, who receive the books of Moses alone, would say that there were contained in them predictions regarding Christ, yet certainly not in Jerusalem, which is not even mentioned in the times of Moses, was the prophecy uttered.
Matthew 22:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They not only denied the resurrection of the body, but took away the immortality of the soul.
Matthew 22:29-30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Two (1 Cor. 1:24.) things there are which He says they know not, the Scriptures and the power of God, by which is brought to pass the resurrection, and the new life in it. Or by the power of God, which the Lord here convicts the Sadducees that they knew not, He intends Himself, who was the power of God; and Him they knew not, as not knowing the Scriptures which spoke of Him; and thence also they believed not the resurrection, which He should effect. But it is asked when the Saviour says, Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures, if He means that this text, They neither marry, nor are given in marriage, is in some Scripture, though it is not read in the Old Testament? We say that these very words are indeed not found, but that the truth is in a mystery implied in the moral sense of Scripture; the Law, which is a shadow of good things to come, whenever it speaks of husbands and wives, speaks chiefly of spiritual wedlock. But neither this do I find any where spoken in Scripture that the Saints shall be after their departure as the Angels of God, unless one will understand this also to be inferred morally; as where it is said, And thou shalt go to thy fathers, (Gen. 15:15.) and He was gathered to his people. (Gen. 25:8.) Or one may say; He blamed them that they read not the other Scriptures which are besides the Law, and therefore they erred. Another says, That they knew not the Scriptures of the Mosaic Law, for this reason, that they did not sift their divine sense.
Matthew 22:29 — Commentary on Matthew, Book 17, Section 35
But someone might inquire if [passage], 'You are in error, not knowing the Scriptures,' which is said to the Sadducees who did not recognize any other Scripture than the Law, has reference to other Scriptures than the Law of Moses. This person, therefore, might say in respect of this same passage that the Sadducees are so called because in not recognizing the Scriptures which come after the Law they are in error since they do not know them. Another person might say: it is sufficient for the Sadducees to be reproved of error for not understanding the Scriptures according to Moses such that they apprehend the divine meaning in them. To be sure, however, he claims that the Sadducees do not know two things: one, the Scriptures, and the other, the power of God, which is the power by which those of the resurrection and the new life in it comes to be.
Matthew 22:30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 17.30
Our Savior does not explain the meaning of the passage from Moses' law, rejecting them as unworthy of the knowledge of such a great mystery. He only represents matters in the simplest way as he speaks and teaches from the divine Scriptures concerning the resurrection of the dead. He teaches that there is no marriage in heaven but that those who are risen from the dead are like the angels in heaven. And, just as the angels in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage, so he says it is with those who are risen from the dead. But I think he means that only those who are considered worthy of the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage as the angels in heaven. Furthermore, their "humble" bodies are changed to become like the bodies of the angels, ethereal and brilliant.
Matthew 22:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
God moreover is He who says, I am that I am; (Ex. 3:14.) so that it is impossible that He should be called the God of those who are not. And see that He said not, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But in another place He said thus, The God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee. (Exod. 7:16.) For they who in comparison of other men are most perfect before God, have God entirely in them, wherefore He is not said to be their God in common, but of each in particular. As when we say, That farm is theirs, we show that each of them does not own the whole of it; but when we say, That farm is his, we mean that he is owner of the whole of it. When then it is said, The God of the Hebrews, this shows their imperfection, that each of them has some small portion in God. But it is said, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, because each one of these possessed God entirely. And it is to the no small honour of the Patriarehs that they lived to God.
Matthew 22:34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Jesus had put the Sadducees to silence, to show that the tongue of falsehood is silenced by the brightness of truth. For as it belongs to the righteous man to be silent when it is good to be silent, and to speak when it is good to speak, and not to hold his) peace; so it belongs to every teacher of a the Not indeed to be silent, but to be silent as far as any good purpose is concerned.
Matthew 22:34-35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 1
Now the Pharisees, hearing that he had imposed silence on the Sadducees, gathered together, and one of them, tempting him, asked him: Master, which is the greater commandment in the law? But he said to him: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like to this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. When the Lord, in answer to the questioning of the Sadducees, had by an example drawn from the practice of the law demonstrated to those willing to hear that there is a resurrection, Matthew spoke thus: Jesus imposed silence on the Sadducees, wishing to show that the brightness of truth caused the bitter and harmful voice of falsehood to fall mute. As therefore the Savior by the word of his teaching imposed silence on the Sadducees and confidently refuted the false doctrine (which among them was thought to be truth), so also the imitators of Christ will do by the examples of the Scriptures, by which, according to "sound doctrine," every voice of Pharaoh must be made to fall mute — the voice in which, boasting, he says "the rivers are mine, and I made them," as it is written in Ezekiel. The Sadducees therefore, "who say that there is no resurrection," questioned the Savior concerning the things that are written, supposing that they would impose silence upon him. But neither Jesus nor his beloved disciples are ever stopped up by the impious. For it is proper that silence be imposed on the Sadducees by Christ. For the righteous man indeed keeps silence, knowing "a time to keep silence and a time to speak," yet he does not fall mute. And just as it is proper to the righteous man to keep silence but not to fall mute, so it is proper to the Sadducees, or to all who are teachers of falsehood, to fall mute indeed but not to keep silence; for even if they fall mute as to the matter, they do not on that account keep silence. Therefore the Lord too said not to a man, but to the sea, "be still and fall mute," rebuking it when it was troubled. Nevertheless the Pharisees, who agree that there is a resurrection, hearing that he had imposed silence on the Sadducees, gathered together — evidently because the doctrine of the resurrection was prevailing — and those were assembled who were not being assembled, so long as silence had not been imposed on the Sadducees. Nonetheless, even though they had assembled because the proof of the resurrection held firm, yet one of them asked — not as though wishing to learn from him the things he was asking, but tempting our Lord. Every man, therefore, who questions any of the teachers about whatever heading, not for the sake of learning but for the sake of tempting, and not out of a simple disposition, we ought to reckon a brother of that Pharisee who tempted the Savior by his questioning. For all things that are done to the saints of Christ, whether by those who lie in wait or by those who love them, he takes upon himself entirely; for according to the things that are written we ought to treat also of the things that are not written. For it is written that, on account of those who hungered and thirsted, he said "I hungered" and "I thirsted"; and on account of the naked and the strangers and the sick and those placed in prison, "I was naked" and "I was a stranger" and "I was in prison" and "I was infirm." According to the logic of the likeness let us also add: I suffered injuries, I was beaten and I was tempted, and all things. And just as in those things which are written the saying of the Lord is true when he says "in as much as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me," so when the righteous man has suffered injury or been blasphemed or suffered some such thing, place Christ among those who did it, saying: inasmuch as "you did it to one of these least," to me you did the injury, me you tempted, me you blasphemed.
Matthew 22:35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
All who thus ask questions of any teacher to try him, and not to learn of him, we must regard as brethren of this Pharisee, according to what is said below, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of mine, ye have done it unto me. (Matt. 25:40.)
Matthew 22:36-38 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2
Let us now look at the proposition of the one testing him: Master, he says, which is the greater commandment in the law? The tester was saying Master because he was not uttering this word as a disciple of Christ. This will become clearer from an example we shall give. Consider: a father is the father of his own son, and no one can properly call him father except his son; and a mother is the mother of her own daughter, and no woman can call her mother except her daughter alone. So too a master is the master of his own disciple, and a disciple is the disciple of his own master. Therefore no one can rightly say Master except a disciple. And see whether it is not for this reason — because not all who call him master say it rightly, but only those who have the will to learn from him — that he was saying to his disciples, "You call me master and lord, and you say rightly: for so I am." Rightly, then, do the disciples of Christ call him master, and serving his word they rightly call him lord. Whence the Apostle rightly said, "but for us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him." And consider this also, that he said, "it is enough for the disciple that he become" not simply as the master, but "as his master." If, therefore, anyone learns nothing from the Word and does not hand himself over with his whole soul, so as to become his beloved planting, but says to him Master, he is a brother of the Pharisee who tests Christ and says to him Master. So too is everyone who says "Our Father who art in heaven" yet ought not to have "the spirit of servitude in fear, but the spirit of the adoption of sons." But whoever does not have "the spirit of the adoption of sons" and says "Our Father who art in heaven" lies, since he is not a son of God when he calls God his father. Now the question itself is of this kind: Which is the great commandment in the law? On this it is fitting that we set out something concerning the difference among commandments. For certain commandments are great, and certain others follow after them; and thus, going in order, one must inquire all the way down to the least commandments. For if he had not answered the Pharisee who tested him and said Which is the greater commandment in the law, we would consequently have supposed that no commandment is greater than another commandment. But now, since in answering he says: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. This is the great and first commandment, we learn a necessary judgment concerning the commandments — that there is one that is great and there are lesser ones down to the least. And attend further to this also, that the Pharisee indeed asked Which is the great commandment in the law, but the Lord in answering him teaches us that to love the Lord is not only the great commandment but also the first — first, however, not in the order of Scripture but in the dignity of its virtue. And this too must be attended to as fitting to this passage: that, as though many commandments have been established, so now he has called this the great and first commandment, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind, while the second is like the first, and on account of its likeness great, You shall love your neighbor as yourself; so that in accordance with this we may understand that there is another which is third in magnitude and order, and yet another which is fourth, and so, numbering the commandments of the law in order and receiving wisdom from God, one may set them in order down to the least. And this is the work of no other than Christ alone, who is "the power of God and the wisdom of God." From the times of Moses, therefore, until the coming of the Savior, when the law was read, perhaps it was being asked which was the great commandment in it. For the Pharisee would not have asked this had it not long been sought among t…
Matthew 22:36 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He said Master tempting Him, for none but a disciple would thus address Christ. Whoever then does not learn of the Word, nor yields himself wholly up to it, yet calls it Master, he is brother to this Pharisee thus tempting Christ. Perhaps while they read the Law before the Saviour's coming, it was a question among them which was the great commandment in it; nor would the Pharisee have asked this, if it had not been long time enquired among themselves, but never found till Jesus came and declared it.
Matthew 22:37 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself — not the neighbor with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and with all the mind. Again, he says: Love your enemies — and he did not add, "with all the heart." The divine word is not disordered, nor does it command impossible things, nor say, "Love your enemies as yourselves," but only, "Love your enemies"; it is enough for them that we love them and do not hold them in hatred. But the neighbor, as yourself. And God, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and with all the strength.
Matthew 22:37 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or otherwise; With all thy heart, that is, in all recollection, act, thought; with all thy soul, to be ready, that is, to lay it down for God's religion; with all thy mind, bringing forth nothing but what is of God. And consider whether you cannot thus take the heart of the understanding, by which we contemplate things intellectual, and the mind of that by which we utter thoughts, walking as it were with the mind through each expression, and uttering it.
Matthew 22:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If the Lord had given no answer to the Pharisee who thus tempted Him, we should have judged that there was no commandment greater than the rest. But when the Lord adds, This is the first and great commandment, we learn how we ought to think of the commandments, that there is a great one, and that there are less down to the least. And the Lord says not only that it is a great, but that it is the first commandment, not in order of Scripture, but in supremacy of value. They only take upon them the greatness and supremacy of this precept, who not only love the Lord their God, but add these three conditions.
Matthew 22:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Nor did He only teach the first and great commandment, but added that there was a second like unto the first, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. But if Whoso loveth iniquity hath hated his own soul, (Ps. 11:5.) it is manifest that he does not love his neighbour as himself, when he does not love himself.
Matthew 22:39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 3
The second commandment is like it, since it is the love of a human being who was made according to the image of God, and perhaps also according to his likeness. But in the exposition of the commandment which is set down concerning the love of one's neighbor, these things also must be said. For, according to what is said in the tenth Psalm, "he who loves iniquity hates his own soul", and according to what is said in Proverbs, "he who rejects discipline hates himself", it is manifest that no one who loves iniquity loves his neighbor as himself, since he does not even love himself; and no one who rejects discipline loves his neighbor as himself, seeing that he does not love his very self either. And thus it comes about that he who "loves iniquity", and "hates his own soul", cannot keep the second commandment. Likewise also "he who rejects discipline" loves some sin; and therefore he too who rejects any word of God's discipline "hates his own soul".
Matthew 22:40 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, because he that has fulfilled the things that are written concerning the love of God and our neighbour, is worthy to receive from God the great reward, that he should be enabled to understand the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 22:40 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4
After this you will ask how all the law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments. For the text seems to show that everything whatsoever that is written, whether in Exodus or in Leviticus or in Numbers or in Deuteronomy, hangs upon these two commandments. But how does the law that has been laid down concerning lepers, or concerning those who suffer a flow of blood, or concerning menstruating women, hang upon these commandments? And further, how also does the prophecy that has been laid down concerning Jerusalem being taken, or the vision of Egypt in Isaiah and the other prophets, how too the vision of Tyre, or whatever things are prophesied concerning Tyre or concerning the prince of Tyre, how also the vision of the four-footed beasts in the desert in Isaiah, hang upon these two commandments? But what seems to me in this passage is of this kind. He who has fulfilled all the things that are written concerning the love of God and of neighbor is worthy to receive the greatest graces from God, over which is set "the word of wisdom through the Holy Spirit", after which comes "the word of knowledge" which is "according to the Spirit". And having been made worthy of all these gifts, he exults in the wisdom of God, having his heart full of the love of God, and his whole soul illumined with the light of knowledge, and his whole mind with the word of God. And having obtained gifts of this kind from God, he assuredly understands that all the law and the prophets are some part of the whole wisdom and knowledge of God, and he understands that all the law and the prophets hang and cleave from the principle of the love of the Lord God and of neighbor, and that the perfection of piety consists in love. Sufficient indeed are also these things which we have said; nevertheless, for the demonstration of its greatness it is fitting no less to add also these words: "charity is patient, is kind; charity is not puffed up, does not act perversely, is not ambitious, is not provoked, does not think evil, does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices together with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Charity never falls away". For no one who is fainthearted possesses charity, nor anyone doing something contrary to kindness, nor anyone envying with the envy which the patriarchs had against Joseph, or Aaron and Miriam against Moses. And no one puffed up has love, nor one doing anything perversely, nor one who is roused into wrath. Likewise no one thinking evil, defiled in his heart, possesses charity. He who has charity never rejoices over any unjust thing, but always rejoices together with the truth. He who has charity endures all the evils that befall him, and does not believe in part but "believes all things", and does not hope in part but "hopes all things", nor is there anything that love does not endure, but "endures all things". And since "charity never falls away", the Apostle, confident that he had taken it up wholly, said: "who shall separate us from the love of God? Tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: for thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter". For because of love he said: "but in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us". For from charity that never falls away came those words which said: "for I am confident that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". And since the Apostle had the two commandments of love, of God and of neighbor, therefore he had within himself the manifested mysteries of the whole law and the prophets, so that, understanding them, he might say that all the law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments.
Matthew 22:41-46 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 5
Now when the Pharisees had gathered together, Jesus questioned them, saying: What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? They say to him: David's. Jesus says to them: How then does David in the spirit call him lord, saying: The Lord said to my lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet? If therefore David calls him lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word. Nor did anyone dare from that hour to ask him anything. These very words are indeed set down in Psalm one hundred and nine [110]: "The Lord said to my lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet". And, as though the Pharisees were confessing that the one who spoke is indeed the Lord God, but that the one to whom he spoke is a second lord, the Christ, the Savior questions them, saying: What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? And to the answer of those who said: David's, he adds, saying: If David calls him lord, how is he his son? It is therefore a matter worthy that we should see what the Savior intends in setting before the Pharisees the question concerning the Christ, so that they might answer what they thought, and what was the cause that the Pharisees were unable to give an answer. And some simpler person among those who examine these things will say that this was the will of the Savior, namely, to restrain the audacity of the Pharisees, who were setting many propositions before him, and likewise of the Sadducees, who had set before him the matter of the seven brothers and their one wife. Since, therefore, the Pharisees and Sadducees, in setting forth many things, seemed to be saying something, and in doing this were not desiring to learn as disciples but were tempting Christ, and seemed to be teachers of the law when they were not, therefore it was necessary that the Lord too should set a question before them, who professed that they had the knowledge of the law, so that before the people he might convict them, since they gave no answer to the things asked, while he himself answered all things; for he indeed was competent, according to the profession befitting teachers, to make manifest and hand down the divine doctrine, whereas they did not know even the very prophet who was the summit of the prophets. And further, one to whom this exposition is pleasing will add, saying: for this reason the scripture of the Gospel adds thus, saying And no one was able to answer him a word, nor did anyone dare from that hour to ask him a word. And the cause why they did not dare to ask him thereafter a word was this: that, when questioned, they could not answer him. For if their questioning had been out of a will to learn, he would never have set before them such things that thereafter they would not dare to ask. But they were questioning to tempt, and therefore he willed to shut their mouths by his questioning, so that, blushing, they might rest from their audacity and thereafter ask him nothing. These things we have spoken according to the understanding of the simple interpreter.
Matthew 22:41-46 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 6
But we say that our Savior and Lord knew himself to have been made indeed "of the seed of David according to the flesh, but predestined Son of God in power", and that he was all those things which he himself, teaching about himself, was saying: "I am the truth and the way and the life", "I am the door", "I am the resurrection", "I am the living bread who came down from heaven", and knowing that he existed even before the birth of Abraham himself (on account of which he also said: "before Abraham was, I am"), and knowing that he was wisdom and the living word (wisdom indeed, which "God created as the beginning of his ways for his works", but the word which "was in the beginning with God, the Word was God"). Knowing all these things about himself and seeing the Pharisees—that they knew from the divine Scriptures that which pertained to the human dispensation and was for the sake of men, so that they might be able to grasp him, namely that he was "of the seed of David according to the flesh", and perhaps also that they altogether supposed him to be the son of David, but seeing that they were far from the understanding of his divinity, according to which he was the beginning of the whole creation, established the son of no one except "of God who is over all things"—wishing to expose their wavering estimation about him and to provoke them by his words, so that they might be willing to ascend by the word and to see according to which he was God the Word, who "was in the beginning with God", in the first place he said: What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? When they answered thus and said: David's, he again answered them, making manifest the sublimity of his divinity, which was shown in the very beginning of the Psalm, saying: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet, so that, even if at that time they could not answer him, nevertheless they might take occasion from his words, so that, considering the whole Psalm, they might perceive something greater concerning the Christ, who was not only surpassing human nature, but also the other begotten natures, according to what it says: "in the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you". For it did not designate specifically in the splendors of which saints, but generally concerning all the saints, that is not only of men but also of angels, saying: "in the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you". And if indeed they had wisely considered also that: "the Lord has sworn and he will not repent: you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek", they would surely have subjected themselves like disciples to such a Savior of ours, who had been sent from God as a teacher and priest. But the reason on account of which the Pharisees could not answer the words of Christ was this: that they perceived nothing great about Christ set down in the holy Scriptures, but only concerning his human dispensation, and not even that itself worthily of the divine dispensation. For I think that they did not even know that which it said: "behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and they shall call his name Emmanuel", nor that: "behold, a star shall arise out of Jacob", namely concerning the birth of Christ.
Matthew 22:44 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 8
In what way the Savior's enemies also are set by the Father as a footstool for his feet, it is fitting to see worthily, according to the kindness of the God who sets his enemies as a footstool for his feet. For it must not be supposed that God sets the enemies of Christ as a footstool for his feet in the same way as the enemies of earthly kings, who exterminate their own enemies, are set under their feet. Do not such kings trample down their own adversaries without mercy? But God does not set the enemies of Christ as a footstool for his feet unto their destruction, but unto their salvation, as we shall bring forward examples of the holy Scriptures signifying this very thing. For it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in the second Aleph: "How has the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in his anger, cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and was not mindful of the footstool of his feet?" And see that, inasmuch as Israel was the footstool of God's feet, it was glorious in heaven; but after it was cast down, so as not to be the footstool of his feet, it also ceased to be in heaven. For attend diligently to what he says: "He cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and was not mindful of the footstool of his feet". Likewise also that saying: "Heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet" signifies not the dishonor but the glory of the earth, which understands concerning God some small and last part, which is morally called his feet. So also the Church upon earth, in the beginnings indeed of the worship of God and the knowledge of Christ, is the footstool of his feet; just as that "sinful woman" doing penance was at the feet of Jesus in the beginnings of her penance, for she was not yet able to pour out the ointment of the fragrance of her good deeds upon the head of Christ. For it was desirable for her even to stand beside the Lord's feet and anoint them. And each one of us, understanding himself to be what the Apostle says, "we too were once without understanding, unbelieving, wandering, and serving diverse desires and pleasures", will see how, inasmuch as he was such before he was washed from those things, he had been an enemy of Christ, an enemy of righteousness, of truth, of wisdom, of peace; "but after the kindness of our God the Savior appeared", he first became a footstool for the feet of Christ. And I, being confident that this is the meaning of the Scripture, do not hesitate to affirm that the Father thus says to the Son: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. And the Apostle in the first Epistle to the Corinthians introduces such a meaning of the Scripture, that we should understand it of the subjection of those who were once enemies, that they become a footstool for the feet of Christ, speaking in this manner: "But now Christ is risen from the dead, he has become the firstfruits of them that sleep. For since by man came death, by man also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: in the beginning Christ, then those who are Christ's, who believed at his coming; then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have made void all rule and power and might. For he must reign, until he sets all his enemies under his feet. But the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. For he has subjected all things under his feet. But when he says that all things are subjected to him, manifestly it is except him who subjected all things to him. But when all things shall have been subjected to him, then the Son himself also shall be subjected to him who subjected all things to himself, that God may be all in all". Of all these things indeed we have made a full explanation in its proper place. See, however, how in all these passages the word of subjection is set down unto the salvation of those subjected.
Matthew 22:44 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For God puts Christ's enemies as a footstool beneath His feet, for their salvation as well as their destruction.
Matthew 22:44 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 7
Now this very thing which he says in the Psalm: "the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet", someone will indeed expound more fittingly when he has set himself to expound that Psalm itself. Yet for now let us lightly taste its sense. Do not depict for yourself perceptible seatings and two thrones, and the Father and the Son sitting upon them in human fashion; but understand that these things are said morally of the kingdom of God and of the kingdom of the Son, which has been established by the Father and is always at the Father's right hand. But if anyone does not wish these things to be understood morally, let him explain how this too is true which says the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand and that which he says elsewhere: "but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father". He therefore who does not wish to understand these things worthily, according to the greatness of the mind of Christ, must be compelled to say that at one time indeed he sits at the Father's right hand, but at another time (relinquishing a dignity of this kind, of sitting at the Father's right hand) he sits privately with those for whom the Father has prepared that they should sit at his right hand or at his left. Likewise he must still further be compelled to say that, while sitting at the Father's right hand, he still has enemies; for he sits beside him just so long, until they are placed by the Father as the footstool of the feet of Christ. But when he shall have ceased to sit at the Father's right hand, then he will no longer have enemies, when those who previously had been his own footstool of the feet shall have begun to sit at his right hand or at his left according to the Father's ordinance. And so it comes about that some of those who sit, sit in the Father's former place. But what can be more ridiculous than these things? Then, wishing to understand the seating bodily, you will find in the same Psalm that both the Son sits at the Father's right hand, according to what it says: "the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand", and the Father sits at the Son's right hand, according to what is declared in what follows, saying: "the Lord at your right hand has shattered kings in the day of his wrath". But we say: it is not necessary to introduce bodily consideration into these things which are to be understood spiritually; for morally both the Son is at the Father's right hand, and the Father is always at the Son's right hand.
Matthew 22:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For had their question sprung of desire to know, He would never have proposed to them such things as should have deterred them from asking further.
Matthew 23:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The disciples of Christ are better than the common herd; and you may find in the Church such as with more ardent affection come to the word of God; these are Christ's disciples, the rest are only His people. And sometimes He speaks to His disciples alone, sometimes to the multitudes and His disciples together, as here.
Matthew 23:1-4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 9
Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sat upon the seat of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they tell you to do, do. But do not do according to their works; for they say and do not do. They bind together heavy burdens and lay them upon men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them even with their finger. Frequently indeed, but most of all in Matthew, it is observed that the disciples of Christ are better than the rest of the crowds. And you find indeed in the churches certain people who hear the divine teachings with love and who approach the word with more affection. Justly therefore are such men called disciples of Christ; but the many others who are not such are called his people. And some things at times he speaks to his disciples alone and not also to the crowds, as those beatitudes written in the Gospel, concerning which Matthew indeed speaks thus: that seeing the crowds he went up into the mountain; and when he had sat down his disciples came to him, and opening his mouth he taught them saying: blessed are the poor in spirit and the rest. But Luke says: lifting up his eyes upon his disciples he said: blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. But other things he announces to the crowds, as the parable of the sower declares. And Matthew writes thus: but while he was speaking to the crowds, behold his mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak with him. To the crowds therefore he was speaking the things that are written before these; but when someone said to him: behold your mother and your brothers stand wishing to see you, answering the one who announced it to him he said: who is my mother, and my brothers? No longer stretching out his hand over the crowds, but over his disciples he said: behold my mother and my brothers. For whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens, he is to me both mother and brother. And expounding the preceding parables Matthew writes: Jesus, having gone out of the house, was sitting beside the sea; and many crowds were gathered to him, so that going into a boat he sat, and all the people stood on the shore. And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying: behold, the sower went out to sow. And lest you think that the narrative of the parable of the sower was so placed by chance, because Jesus was speaking it to the crowds, consider the exposition of Mark and Luke, who wrote similarly. Mark indeed thus: he began again to teach beside the sea. And a great people was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat and sat on the sea, and all the people was beside the sea on the land. And he taught them many things in parables, and said to them: the sower went out to sow. But Luke in this manner: when a great people was coming together and going out to him from the several cities, he spoke such a parable: the sower went out to sow his seed. But clearly knowing the difference between the people and the disciples, the evangelists after the parable added that now no longer to the crowds, but to the disciples he was expounding the cause on account of which he spoke to the crowds in parables. Matthew indeed says thus: "the disciples coming said to him: why do you speak to them in parables?" But Luke thus: "his disciples asked him what this parable might be". But Mark: "and when they had come to be apart, the disciples asked him what this parable might be". And see whether you can from the Gospel of John hear and learn that those who only believe and do not desire to ascend in the word are the people of Christ, but those who are zealous for the better gifts and who, which is the first of all graces, study to receive "the word of wisdom" are his disciples. But John says thus: that "Jesus said to those Jews who had believed: if you remain in my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free". Therefore some things indeed he says to his disciples, some th…
Matthew 23:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, as professing his Law, and boasting that they can interpret it. Those that do not depart from the letter of the Law are the Scribes; those who make high professions, and separate themselves from the vulgar as better than they, are called Pharisees, which signifies 'separate.' Those who understand and expound Moses according to his spiritual meaning, these sit indeed on Moses' seat, but are neither Scribes nor Pharisees, but better than either, Christ's beloved disciples. Since His coming these have sat upon the seat of the Church, which is the seat of Christ.
Matthew 23:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But if the Scribes and Pharisees who sit in Moses' seat are the teachers of the Jews, teaching the commandments of the Law according to the letter, how is this that the Lord bids us do after all things which they say; but the Apostles in the Acts forbid the believers to do according to the letter of the Law. (Acts 15:19.) These indeed taught after the letter, not understanding the Law spiritually. Whatsoever they say to us out of the Law, with understanding of its sense, that we do and keep, not doing after their works, for they do not what the law enjoins, nor perceive the veil that is upon the letter of the Law. Or by all we are not to understand every thing in the Law, many things for example relating to the sacrifices, and the like, but such as concern our conduct. But why did He command this not of the Law of grace, but of the doctrine of Moses? Because truly it was not the time to publish the commandments of the New Law before the season of His passion. I think also that He had herein something further in view. He was about to bring many things against the Scribes and Pharisees in His discourse following, wherefore that vain men might not think that He coveted their place of authority, or spoke thus out of enmity to them, he first puts away from Himself this suspicion, and then begins to reprove them, that the people might not fall into their faults; and that, because they ought to hear them, they should not think that therefore they ought to imitate them in their works, He adds, But do ye not after their works. What can be more pitiable than such a teacher, whose life to imitate is ruin, to refuse to follow is salvation for his disciples?
Matthew 23:3-5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10
Moreover, according to the simple sense of this saying where he says: do all things whatsoever they tell you to do, but do not do according to their works, we say that by these words he wishes to show that there are certain persons in the Church who, as far as speech is concerned, are indeed capable of teaching marvelous things and expound them according to reason, but are unwilling to act according to what they say: whose teaching indeed is to be heard, but whose manner of life is not to be imitated. He therefore rebukes teachers of this kind, who not only do not do the things they teach, but also cruelly and without mercy, and not according to the estimation of the strength of each hearer, but greater than their power, impose burdens: for instance, those who forbid to marry and, away from what is expedient, compel people toward an immoderate purity, who also teach abstinence from foods and other things of this kind (to which faithful men ought not at all to be compelled), and who by the word of their exposition bind heavy burdens, contrary to the will of Christ who says: "my yoke is sweet and my burden is light", and lay them, as far as their word goes, upon the shoulders of men, bending them down and making them fall under the weight of grievous commandments — those who are not able to bear them up. And frequently one may see those who teach such things doing the contrary to their own words, and unwilling to move them even with a small strength of soul, which morally is called a finger. For many, teaching chastity, have not kept chastity. Exhorting others to abstain from foods, they themselves (whether for pretense or because they were overcome by their own concupiscences) have taken foods of this kind which they had renounced in words, teaching one thing in public and doing another secretly and covertly, doing all things for the sake of the persons of men and vain glories, as the following saying demonstrates, saying: they do all their works, that they may be seen by men. And for the most part all those are of this sort who love the first couches at banquets and greetings in the marketplace and to be called by men Rabbi, or something that is similar to this Rabbi: for instance, those who wish to be called bishops or presbyters or deacons, whereas each one of them, even if he were so called by someone, ought either to show his own conscience to God, that he does not wish to be named by this name of which he has neither the knowledge nor the practice. And if he does have it, nevertheless he ought not to wish to be called by that name which properly belongs to another. For the bishop, properly, is the Lord Jesus; and the presbyters are Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, as is manifest to those who consider the things written in Genesis concerning their seed, or the others who have been held worthy of this name, such as were the apostles of Christ; but the deacons are the seven archangels of God, to whose mysteries the seven deacons in the Acts have been ordained. The Lord therefore cuts off concupiscences of this kind from our soul through these words which have been set down, and rather exhorts us to be zealous for humility, which is the first occasion of exaltation with God, just as, on the contrary, the occasion of humiliation with God is to love the first seats in the synagogues and the first couches at banquets and the first greetings in the marketplace and to be called Rabbi. And see that upon these things he adds and says: he who is greater among you, let him become a minister, and: he who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Thus from the phylacteries and fringes, made for the display of those who covet vain glories, and from their boastings for the sake of pomp, and from their garments and from their rings and their sandals, it is manifest who they are that love to be called Rabbi by men. If therefore (according to what we have said) the scribes and Pharisees sitting upon the seat o…
Matthew 23:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11
After this let us see what it means when he says: they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the fringes of their garments. It must be understood in these matters that it is written in the law concerning the divine words, saying: "bind them upon your hand, and they shall be moving before your eyes". Those, therefore, who do all things in order to be seen by men, the scribes and Pharisees, writing certain sayings of the law on two cut pieces of parchment, bind them, and one indeed they carry on their houses, as it were placing upon their heads as a crown that which is written according to the forehead. But the other upon the arm of their hand; and they call them "phylacteries". Similarly, finding something also about the fringe in Deuteronomy, they suppose that they keep the law by making some fringe on some part of the garments which they wear. Therefore, reproving these things too in the scribes and Pharisees, in their bodily and visible observances, the Lord says: they do all things in order to be seen by men. For they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the fringes of their garments. But the disciples of Jesus do all their works in order to be seen by God alone; for they bind the law of God upon their hand, spiritually upon their good work, and by meditation on the divine teachings, ever moving them, they make the divine precepts moving before the eyes of their souls, and the fringe full of the virtue of Jesus — in this, that they imitate the Master.
Matthew 23:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And their works likewise they do to be seen of men, using outward circumcision, taking away actual leaven out of their houses, and doing such like things. But Christ's disciples fulfil the Law in things secret, being Jews inwardly, as the Apostle speaks. (Rom. 2:29.)
Matthew 23:6-12 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12
But what should be said of those who love the first couches at banquets and the first seats in the synagogues and the first greetings in the marketplace and to be called Rabbi by men? Clearly offenses of this kind were found, and are found, not only among the scribes and Pharisees of that time alone, but even in the Church of Christ there are found not only banquets, and those who, undertaking the tables of those who provide them, but also those who love the first seats at them and do many things — first, indeed, that they may become deacons (not such as Scripture describes, but such as are "those who devour the houses of widows, praying at length for a pretext," and who for this reason "shall receive the greater judgment"). And those who wish to become deacons of this sort consequently strive to seize beforehand the visible first seats of those who are called presbyters. Some, however, not content even with these, contrive very many things, so that they may be called bishops by men (which is Rabbi), when they ought to understand that a bishop must become "beyond reproach" and the rest of the things that follow, so that even if he is not said to be a bishop by men, he may nevertheless be one before God. For he who has in himself the things which Paul enumerates concerning a bishop, even if he is not a bishop before men, is a bishop before God — even if he has not come to that rank through the ordination of men. For in this way a man is a physician who has learned the medical discipline and is able to heal as a physician: even if the sick do not entrust their bodies to him, he is a physician. But also a man is a pilot who has learned the pilot's art and is able to use it as is fitting: even if no one has entrusted to him the helm of a ship, he is nevertheless a pilot. But you will find lovers of new glory who are zealous for glory from men and do not desire it from God; and, as it were, some men are brought before them as before judges and governors; and, if it must be said, through this very thing they make Christ's lightest burden an intolerable burden. But the disciple of Christ bears with it and still intercedes and does all things that he may be seen by God, despising human glory. He, seeing the suppers of the Gospel parables and the heavenly churches and assemblies and fairs of the firstborn, in which was (according to the Song of Songs) the bride, loves indeed at the spiritual suppers the first couches, that he may eat the better portions of the spiritual foods and the first-fruits of the spiritual banquet, and not the leftovers of the rest. He loves also, with the apostles sitting "upon twelve thrones", the first seats, hastening to render himself worthy by good deeds of seats of this kind; and so too the greetings which take place in the fairs, which we explained above. But the just man loves to be called Rabbi neither by men nor by any other, certain that there is one master of all. And all who are under him are, one toward another, brothers. But also he who by a heavenly birth has been born not only "of water" but also "of the Spirit", and has received "the spirit of adoption", so that it may be said of him that he was born not "of flesh" "nor of the will of man but of God", still being the son of none of those who are reckoned on earth and below, does not call anyone father on earth, as one who through every deed accomplished according to God says "our Father, who art in heaven". And if anyone ministers the divine words, he by no means offers himself to be called master, as one knowing that Christ is in him when he has made good progress, whom it behooves to be called master by all who have been benefited, but he professes himself a minister according to the commandment of Christ, who says: he who is greater among you, let him be the minister of all. Since Christ himself also, though he was truly master, professed himself to be a minister, saying: "but I am in the midst of you, not as one who reclines at table, but…
Matthew 23:8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And in the Church of Christ are found some who take to themselves the uppermost places, that is, become deacons; next they aspire to the chief seats of those that are called presbyters; and some intrigue to be styled among men Bishop, that is, to be called Rabbi. But Christ's disciple loves the uppermost place indeed, but at the spiritual banquet, where he may feed on the choicer morsels of spiritual food, for, with the Apostles who sit upon twelve thrones, he loves the chief seats, and hastes by his good works to render himself worthy of such seats; and he also loves salutations made in the heavenly market-place, that is, in the heavenly congregations of the primitive. But the righteous man would be called Rabbi, neither by man, nor by any other, because there is One Master of all men.
Matthew 23:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But who calls no man father upon earth? He who in every action done as before God, says, Our Father, which art in Heaven.
Matthew 23:11-12 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or otherwise; And if one minister the divine word, knowing that it is Christ that makes it to be fruitful, such a one professes himself a minister and not a master; whence it follows, He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant. As Christ Himself, who was in truth our Master, professed Himself a minister, saying, I am in the midst of you as one that ministers. (Luke 22:27.) And well does He conclude this prohibition of all vain-glory with the words, And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Matthew 23:13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven before men; for you yourselves do not enter, nor do you allow those entering to enter. Those who dare to call God not good on account of the curses which God set down against sinners in his law — let them hear how, as truly the Son of that God who gave the law, in likeness indeed of the blessings which are set down in the law, he too pronounces the beatitudes of those who are saved, but in likeness of the curses set down in the law he sets woe against sinners, saying: woe to you and to you. And let those who bring a charge against the God of the law, hearing these things, not understanding that those things too were spoken by a kindly God, say what we ought to understand concerning Jesus when he says: woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Those who confess that it belongs to goodness to pronounce such things against sinners — let them understand that the purpose of God is the same in bringing forth the curses of the law within the law. But whether it be that curse or this pronounced woe — it befalls each sinner not from the pronouncement of the one pronouncing, but from the sins of the sinner himself, who offers himself worthy for the reception either of those curses or of these woes, which God pronounced for the sake of discipline against those men, that he might turn them to the good. For a father too, rebuking his son, frequently brings forth for his amendment certain words which seem to be curses, and yet he does not wish him to become worthy of those curses, but rather desires to turn him away from them. We have said these things in order to show that the Gospels are in agreement with the law. So too now, when he says woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you shut the kingdom of heaven, he terrified the scribes and Pharisees, that they might not mock the kingdom of heaven before men. But the scribes and Pharisees shutting the kingdom of heaven offend in two ways at once: in one indeed that they themselves do not enter into the kingdom of heaven, and secondly that those entering they do not allow to enter. These two sins are by nature inseparable from one another. For whoever sins in one of these cannot abstain from the other. Likewise, conversely, whoever abstains from the one, it is impossible that he should not also abstain from the other; for instance, no one is found who, himself entering into the kingdom of heaven, does not permit others to enter, since for him who forbids others to enter into the kingdom this very thing — that he does not permit others to enter — suffices for his own expulsion, so that he does not enter into the kingdom of heaven; for whoever "shall scandalize one of the little ones" of the Church, forbidding anyone to enter into the kingdom of heaven, will suffer what is written in the Gospel, woe. Likewise, conversely, whoever is able to make someone enter into the kingdom of heaven — if indeed it is within his power both to permit and to forbid — much more will he himself enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 23:13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Christ is truly the Son of that God Who gave the Law; after the example of the blessings pronounced in the Law, did Himself pronounce the blessings of them that are saved; and also after the cursings of the Law, He now sets forth a woe against sinners; Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. They who allow that it is compatible with goodness to utter these denunciations against sinners, should understand that the purpose of God is the same in the cursings of the Law. Both the cursing there and the woe here fall upon the sinner not from Him who denounces, but from themselves who commit the sins which are denounced, and worthily bring upon themselves the inflictions of God's discipline, appointed for the turning of men to good. So a father rebuking a son utters words of cursing, but does not desire that he should become deserving of those curses, but rather that he should turn himself from them. He adds the cause of this woe, Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, nor suffer them that are entering to go in. These two commandments are by nature inseparable; because not to suffer others to enter in, is of itself enough to keep the hinderer out. The Pharisees and the Scribes then would neither enter in, nor hear Him who said, By me if any man enter in he shall be saved; (John 10:9.) nor would they suffer those to enter in, who were able to have believed through the things which had been spoken before by the Law and the Prophets concerning Christ, but shut up the door with every kind of device to deter men from entering. Also they detracted from His teaching, denied all prophecy concerning Him, and blasphemed every miracle as deceitful, or wrought by the Devil. All who in their evil conversation set an example of sinning to the people, and who commit injustice, offending the weak, seem to shut up the kingdom of heaven before men. And this sin is found among the people, and chiefly among the doctors, when they teach men what the Gospel righteousness requires of them, but do not what they teach. But those who both teach and live well open to men the kingdom of heaven, and both enter in themselves, and invite others to enter in. Many also will not suffer those who are willing to enter into the kingdom of heaven, when they without reason excommunicate out of jealousy others who are better than themselves; thus they refuse them entrance, but these of sober spirit, overcoming by their patience this tyranny, although forbidden, yet enter in and inherit the kingdom. Also they who with much rashness have set themselves to the profession of teaching before they have learned, and following Jewish fables, detract from those who search out the higher things of Scripture; these do, as far as in them lies, shut out men from the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 23:13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14
Since the Lord frequently says woe to the scribes and Pharisees, we will set out the cause of each woe in its proper place. But now let us set out the cause of this present woe. The cause, then, of the present woe is that they were shutting up the kingdom of heaven before men; and in shutting it before others, they themselves did not enter, precisely because they forbade to enter those who would surely have entered, if they had not been shut out by these men. And first, indeed, the present passage is to be expounded simply, as of the scribes and Pharisees who are found among the Jews. For these men, not content that they themselves did not believe the Lord, went still further and disparaged his teaching and overthrew every prophecy written concerning him and blasphemed his every work as false and feigned by the devil, saying, "this man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul", and showed themselves murderous toward those who had believed in Christ, and in every way forbade anyone to come to Christianity, through which one enters into the kingdom of heaven. They were shutting up that which had been openly announced and preached in the sight of all and proclaimed aloud among all men. And in shutting up the kingdom of heaven they themselves did not enter (for neither did they wish to hear him who said: "if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture"); and those entering (that is, those who could believe on account of the faith which "from the law and the prophets" had earlier been declared concerning Christ) they did not permit to enter. Utterly breaking up the very beginning of their assent, and with all terror and savage boldness, as far as lay in them, they themselves, by shutting the door, forbade all who wished to enter through the door. To this simple exposition we will join also this, concerning those who sin among us. For all who by an evil manner of life urge on an example of sinning among the people, and who do injury to those who are still little ones in Christ and imperfect, disheartening and scandalizing them, seem to shut the kingdom of heaven before men, and neither do they themselves enter nor do they permit others to enter. And this sin is found indeed even among the common people, but most of all among the teachers, who indeed teach men according to the justice of the Gospel, but do not do what they teach, because they are evil shepherds and therefore do not spare the sheep nor care for their salvation, but always look to the gains coming to them from men in return for the fact that they seem to feed the people when they do not feed them, and are caught in filthy gains and in the lusts of empty glory. For these are the wages of the hirelings, who shut the kingdom of heaven before men and do not enter into it, nor do they wish to understand what is said: "strive to enter through the narrow door". And since above all contests this is the contest, that one should be doing violence and seizing the heavenly kingdom, to such teachers, then, these words are fittingly said, neither do you enter, nor do you permit those entering to enter, especially if we see them, by their evil life and pride and revilings and avarice, leading into scandal not, I will say, one of the little ones, but even, as far as lies in them, all. Woe, then, to those who shut the kingdom of heaven before men, either in this way or in another; but blessed are those who open it either by their word or by their good work, like him who said: "a great and evident door has been opened to me", or as the rest of the apostles opened it. And if anyone becomes an imitator of them, he opens the kingdom of heaven before men by his justice and virtue and chastity and wisdom. And the more one advances in piety, the more he opens the kingdom of heaven before men. I think, therefore, that all who profess that they enter into the church, altogether either shut the kingdom of heaven before men by their evil manners…
Matthew 23:13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 15
Next let us see whether, beyond those we have spoken of, it is possible to see also others who shut and open the kingdom of heaven. For those who have been counted worthy and fit to expound the Gospel, and who show themselves such that they can truly say "Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?", open the kingdom of heaven before men, when they demonstrate, with all clarity and proof, the loftiness of the divine words — words which were not spoken about earthly things but about heaven and about the mind of the Lord, who came to men — so that, so far as it lies in them, they would lead "Gentiles and barbarians, wise and unwise" to the piety of Christ. But those who, through their unteachableness and unrighteousness, with much rashness gave themselves over to the profession of teaching before they had learned and come to know the truth, and who therefore, in imitation of vain Jewish fables, hand down the bodily narratives of the Scriptures and not their spiritual sense or intention, and who moreover disparage those "who have risen with Christ and seek the things that are above" in the Scriptures "and not upon the earth," nor reckon that the truth set forth in the Scriptures lies in earthly things: these, so far as it lies in them, shut the kingdom of heaven before men, shutting it by their unrighteousness and drawing to themselves those who were able — by hearing the more divine and greater teaching and the loftiness of the truth — to enter into the kingdom of heaven through the heavenly doctrines and through the deeds befitting them. To this exposition it is fitting what Luke writes: "Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered in, and you have hindered those who were entering." For those who accuse the allegorical exposition and want to teach that the divine Scripture is plain and has nothing more than the text shows, and who do not admit any more divine sense concerning circumcision or the Passover or the unleavened bread or foods and drinks or the feasts or the new moons or the sabbaths, and do not accept that the Jews then served "in the display and shadow of things to come" — these indeed are lawyers, yet they have taken away "the key of knowledge," so far as their teaching goes, that is, taking away every way of the law for understanding its ordinances; and therefore neither did they themselves enter in nor, so far as it lay in them, did they permit others to enter.
Matthew 23:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The Pharisees and the Scribes then would neither enter in, nor hear Him who said, By me if any man enter in he shall be saved; (John 10:9.) nor would they suffer those to enter in, who were able to have believed through the things which had been spoken before by the Law and the Prophets concerning Christ, but shut up the door with every kind of device to deter men from entering. Also they detracted from His teaching, denied all prophecy concerning Him, and blasphemed every miracle as deceitful, or wrought by the Devil. All who in their evil conversation set an example of sinning to the people, and who commit injustice, offending the weak, seem to shut up the kingdom of heaven before men. And this sin is found among the people, and chiefly among the doctors, when they teach men what the Gospel righteousness requires of them, but do not what they teach. But those who both teach and live well open to men the kingdom of heaven, and both enter in themselves, and invite others to enter in. Many also will not suffer those who are willing to enter into the kingdom of heaven, when they without reason excommunicate out of jealousy others who are better than themselves; thus they refuse them entrance, but these of sober spirit, overcoming by their patience this tyranny, although forbidden, yet enter in and inherit the kingdom. Also they who with much rashness have set themselves to the profession of teaching before they have learned, and following Jewish fables, detract from those who search out the higher things of Scripture; these do, as far as in them lies, shut out men from the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 23:15 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 16
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who go about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and when he has been made, you make him a son of gehenna twice as much as you yourselves are. These things are fittingly said, after the coming of Christ, to the scribes and Pharisees of Jewish words, who diligently go about very many places of the world in order to persuade newcomers to Judaize. For whoever Judaize after the Savior are taught to imitate the disposition of those who said at that time: "Crucify, crucify him", and again "Away with such a one from the earth"; and they are taught also to accuse him, just as then the priests of the people used to accuse him. And it is possible to see them even now, when a robber is being judged and a Christian bears witness to the truth, wishing rather that the imitator of Barabbas be acquitted than the disciple of Christ. All of which things make the proselyte a son of gehenna not simply, but, as it is written, twofold beyond the scribes and Pharisees who made him a proselyte. But someone will say in this place: how is the disciple, a proselyte to those who are now the wretchedly constituted scribes and Pharisees, not made a son of gehenna equally with his teachers, but twofold? For he will say that he ought to become a son of gehenna less, and, if anything, by half, than the one who made him a proselyte. Or, if one should even grant that the disciple be "as his master", the disciple ought to become a son of gehenna equally with his master. I think, therefore, that every man who from the Gentile manner of life has been made a proselyte of the Jews was a son of gehenna even before he becomes a proselyte. For a life subjected to idolatries is sufficient of itself to make a man a son of gehenna. Such a son of gehenna, therefore, the word of our Lord Jesus Christ does indeed save and set free through the "washing of baptism", giving him the power to become a son of God and showing him the way, so that he may become a son of God the Father who is in heaven. But the word of the Jews who do not believe in Christ not only does not release the Gentile from gehenna, but still adds to him a further count of damnation, so that according to Judaism too he becomes a son of gehenna. And thus the scribe or Pharisee makes another a son of gehenna more than himself, not because he himself makes him twofold, but because, when the man has been made …, he is made twofold a son of gehenna through the teaching of his teacher. And thus the one who taught becomes the cause of that man's second error, so that he becomes twofold a son of gehenna above the one who taught him ill. But another will say in another way, that those who from the beginning were nurtured in the law of Moses are already sons of gehenna, because they did not believe in Christ. But those who have left the Gentile life, once judging to abandon the idolatry in which they had been nurtured, and have taken hold of the Jewish life, are worthy of a double punishment, because they did not abandon it with inquiry, nor were they willing to examine the Jewish word and that which seems to be akin to the Jewish word, that is, the profession of Christians, nor did they investigate through those who are competent to teach both sects, so that they might understand which word was the truer and rather to be chosen. At the same time we learn from this place that among those also who are to be in gehenna there will be a difference of torments, since the one is simply a son of gehenna, while the other is twofold. But this too we must consider: whether someone becomes a son of gehenna still more abundantly, for instance threefold or manifold according to the multitude of his sins; and whether it is generally the case that someone becomes a son of gehenna, for instance a Jew or a Gentile or the professor of any false doctrine whatsoever, or also specially, so that through the individual kinds of sins one becomes a son of gehenna: for instance, he w…
Matthew 23:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
From this place we learn that there will be a difference of torment in hell, seeing one is here said to be singly a child of hell, another twofold. And we ought to consider here whether it is possible that a man should be generally a child of hell, as a Jew, suppose, or a Gentile, or whether specially so in consequence of some particular sins; that as a righteous man is increased in glory by the abundance of his righteousnesses, so a sinner's punishment is increased manifold by the number of his sins.
Matthew 23:16-22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 17
Woe to you, guides of the blind, who say: whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, is bound. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And: whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it, is bound. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? He therefore who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things that are upon it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. By this saying too he censures the traditions of the Pharisees, as being not upright. He does this also in that passage where he reproaches the traditions of the Pharisees made against the commandment of God, which had been laid down concerning the honor of father or mother, when the Pharisees said: "whoever shall say to his father or mother: a gift, whatever from me may profit you, he shall not honor his father". After which he adds and says: "you have made void the commandment of God, that you may establish your own tradition", and he brings forward the example of Isaiah, saying: "this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; and in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men". One, then, of the Pharisaic traditions was such, concerning those who swear, since some indeed swore by the temple, but others by the gold of the temple, likewise others by the altar, others by the gift of the altar; and they said that he was a debtor who swore by the gold of the temple or by the gift of the altar, but that he was in no respect liable who swore by the temple or by the altar. Therefore, speaking against traditions of this kind to the Jews, and wishing to correct them from human traditions to the divine commandments, the Savior says that they are blind and foolish who hand down such things, not seeing that everything which is placed in the temple is not sanctified through itself, but through the temple. So too what is placed upon the altar is judged to be already God's gift from the fact that it has been received upon the altar. If, then, the cause of sanctifying the gold is the temple, and of sanctifying the gift the altar, how would it not seem foolish that the one who swears by that which sanctifies is not guilty, while the one who swears by that which is sanctified seems to be guilty, as though that which is sanctified were better than that which sanctifies? So, since the Jews have the custom of swearing also by heaven, to the foregoing he added this too for the reproof of those who swore more readily by heaven than by God, since he acts equally irrationally who swears by heaven, just as he who swears by the temple or by the altar; for he who swears by heaven is seen also to swear by him who sits upon it, and does not (as he supposes) escape the danger from the fact that he swears not by God himself, but by the throne of God. And these things he says to the Jews, forbidding men to give heed to the traditions of the Pharisees. For otherwise, above, he plainly forbade to swear "at all".
Matthew 23:16-22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Now an oath is in confirmation of somewhat that has been spoken. The oath here then may signify testimony of Scripture which we produce in confirmation of that word which we speak. So that Divine Scripture is the temple of God, the gold is the meaning which it contains. As the gold which is outside the Temple is not sanctified, so all thoughts which are without divine Scripture, however admirable they may seem, are not hallowed. We ought not therefore to bring any speculations of our own for the confirmation of doctrine, unless such as we can show are hallowed by being contained in divine Scripture. The altar is the human heart, which is the chief thing in man. The offerings and gifts that are hid upon the altar, are every thing which are done in the heart, as to pray, to sing, to do alms, to fast. Every offering of a man then is sanctified by his heart, by which the offering is made. There cannot therefore be a more honourable offering than the heart of man, out of which the offering proceeds. If then one's conscience does not smite him, he has confidence towards God, not by reason of his gifts, but so to speak because he has rightly ordered the altar of his heart. Thirdly, we may say that over the temple, that is over every Scripture, and over the altar, that is over every heart, there is a certain meaning which is called the Heaven, the throne of God Himself, in which we shall be able to see the things that are revealed face to face, when that which is perfect is come.
Matthew 23:16-22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 18
But if it is necessary to bring somewhat more deeply to light, at least in part, the meaning of Scripture that lies hidden as it were in such fields of the Gospel and is not comprehensible to just anyone, it must be said: every oath is a binding and a confirmation of the word about which one swears. Therefore an oath is to be understood as every testimony of the Scriptures that is brought forward for the confirmation and binding of our word which we speak, so that "all Scripture divinely inspired" is indeed the temple of the glory of God, and the meaning placed within it is the gold. Therefore, in support of all the words that we bring forward in teaching, we ought to bring forward the meaning of Scripture as though confirming the meaning that we set forth. For just as all gold that is outside the temple is not sanctified, so every meaning that is outside the divine Scripture (however admirable it may seem to some) is not holy, because it is not contained by the meaning of Scripture, which is accustomed to sanctify only that meaning which it has within itself, as the temple sanctifies its own proper gold. We ought not, therefore, in order to confirm our teaching, to swear by our own private understandings and take them as testimonies, those things which each one of us understands and reckons to be according to truth, unless he has shown them to be holy, from the fact that they are contained in the divine Scriptures as though in certain temples of God. Fools therefore and blind are all those who do not recognize that the temple, that is, the reading of the Scriptures, makes a meaning great and venerable, as it does the consecrated gold. But consider further whether perhaps, according to the likeness of the temple and the gold placed in the temple, we ought to understand the altar and the gift which is placed upon the altar. The altar, then, which sanctifies the offering, is the heart of man, which is held to be the principal thing in man; and the offerings and gifts which are placed upon the altar are everything that is placed upon the heart. For instance, you propose to pray: you have placed the offering of prayer upon your heart, as upon a certain altar, in order to offer prayer to God. You have proposed to sing psalms: you have placed the offering of psalms upon your heart, as upon a certain altar, in order to offer to God the offering of psalms. You have proposed to give alms: you have placed the offering of almsgiving upon your heart, as upon a certain altar, in order to offer the offering of almsgiving to God. You have proposed to fast: you have placed the offering of fasting upon your heart, as upon a certain altar …. Therefore the heart of man, from which the offering is offered to God, makes every offering venerable and holy. For this reason the offering cannot be more honorable than the heart of man, from which the offering is transmitted. Blind, therefore, is every man who sees either someone's great almsgivings or psalms or great prayers or fastings, and without judgment pronounces them blessed, and does not consider from what sort of heart the almsgivings are offered, or the psalms, or the prayers, or the fastings. For the altar is the heart which sanctifies the offering of him who is pure of heart. For if the heart and conscience of a man "does not prick him, he has confidence toward God". Not on account of his gifts, nor the words of prayer or psalm, however well composed they may seem and selected from the Scriptures, but because (so to speak) he has well built the altar of his heart. He, therefore, who takes the altar, that is, the principal heart and the conscience, as witness, swears by the altar, embracing everything that is contained in it. And he who swears, according to what we have handed down, by the temple, that is by Scripture, is seen to swear by Scripture and by the word and meaning of God which is contained in it. But there is a third point, that we may say that above the temple, that is, above a…
Matthew 23:22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
In like manner the custom which the Jews had of swearing by the Heaven He reprobates. For they did not, as they supposed, avoid the danger of taking an oath by God, because, Whose sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
Matthew 23:23-24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 20
But I judge that, morally, all are called scribes who suppose nothing more to be set down in the Scriptures than what the plain wording of the Scripture shows, but who moreover despise those who "search out the depth of God". Likewise all are Pharisees who justify themselves and separate themselves from the rest, "saying: Do not draw near to me, for I am clean". Now the Pharisees are interpreted, according to the name Phares, as THE DIVIDED, who divided themselves from the rest; for Phares in the Hebrew tongue means DIVISION. But if in words of the Gospel of this kind one must also take up a moral understanding, it must be known that, just as mint and dill and cumin are seasonings of foods and not themselves the principal foods, so in our ways of life there are certain things that are indeed principal and necessary for the justification of our souls — such as these weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith — but others that are, as it were, seasonings of our acts, commending them and making them more pleasant, such as abstaining from laughter and fasting, the bending of the knees, perseverance in the assemblies, assiduity in the communion, and other things like these, which are not themselves the justices, but are held to be the seasonings of the justices. But the spiritual things that are justices of themselves are called judgment and mercy and faith. It is disgraceful, therefore, to observe these least things (which is to tithe), yet not to offer to God the observances of the necessary things (that is, not to tithe). And those who do and teach these things, like the former ones, are blind guides. And how should they not be reckoned blind, from whom the greatness and the twistedness of camels — that is, of perverse acts — lies hidden, and who do not see that it profits nothing to strain out and to be scrupulous as an examiner in the least matters, while the principal things and those that truly pertain to the glory of God are neglected? Since, therefore, there are many even among us who suppose they are living carefully with regard to trivial matters, but with regard to the necessary matters despise themselves, the present discourse confounds men of this sort — not indeed forbidding them to observe those trivial things, but commanding them to guard more carefully the principal and more salutary things. He, therefore, strains out all things who, in all things whatsoever he does or speaks or thinks, separates what is sordid and earthly and not adorned with divine reasonings from those things that are by nature bright and sincere and just, according to him who teaches: "let us keep the feast not in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". But you will find many who are reckoned to believe, yet do not have their words and acts and thoughts strained out. Therefore "as hay" shall "the fire consume" their carnal acts, torturing the soul also together with the body on account of the bodily faults grown fast to it. For just as it is not possible to cut away the superfluities grown upon bodies without great pain and torment for those who suffer them, so neither the carnal deeds from those who (so to speak) have made their souls flesh; wherefore it was said concerning such souls: "my spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh".
Matthew 23:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But because it was possible that some, hearing the Lord speak thus, might thereupon neglect paying tithes of small things, He prudently adds, These things ought ye to have done, (i. e. justice, mercy, and faith,) and not to leave the others undone, i. e. the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin.
Matthew 23:23-24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 19
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you have left behind the weightier things of the law, judgment and mercy and faith; but these things it was necessary to do, and not to omit those. Blind guides, straining out a gnat, but swallowing a camel (23, 23. 24). This word must be spoken at a fitting time to those who indeed display religion toward God in the smallest matters, but in matters great and necessary hold in contempt the commandment and God himself who commanded them. Such things happened even among the Jews, who supposed themselves to be keeping the law of Moses, who prescribed that from all fruits tithes be given to the Levites and the priests. And so, since it was easy to fulfill the law in the smallest matters, they tithed indeed mint and dill and cumin, and all (so to speak) the smallest things and those that were light in the law, but its weighty things they did not observe, that is, judgment and mercy and faith: judgment indeed, that each one should judge concerning all things with a just judgment and not concerning only some, and should assent to him who said: "I desire mercy, rather than sacrifice", so that he might offer to God the sacrifices of acts of mercy, so that, examining those things which are of faith, he might be faithful. But since it was fitting that certain of those hearing the Lord speak these things about tithing the smallest matters might come to despise the tithing of the smallest things, the Lord wisely added, saying: and these it was necessary to do (that is, judgment and mercy and faith) and not to omit those (that is, the tithing of mint and dill and cumin). And he says that those who do such things, the scribes and Pharisees, who omit the weightier things of the law and tithe the contemptible things among the fruits, are blind guides. And he wisely says that such men strain out (that is, expel from themselves) the smallest faults, which he named gnats, but "swallow" (that is, commit) the greatest faults, which he named camels, animals evidently twisted and huge. According to these words, therefore, every man who omits the weightier things of the law (especially judgment and mercy and faith) swallows a camel. And not only among the Jews, but also among us, one may find many sinning sins of this kind and swallowing camels, in that they commit the greatest faults; and one may frequently observe men of this kind, how in the smallest matters they display their religion. And he rightly calls them hypocrites; for wishing to acquire religiosity "before men", they are unwilling to take up that religiosity which God has justified. We must therefore flee such pretenses of the scribes and Pharisees, lest that woe befall us also, just as it befell them.
Matthew 23:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, straining out a gnat, that is, putting from them small sins; swallowing a camel, that is, committing great sins, which He calls camels, from the size and distorted shape of that animal. Morally, The Scribes are those who think nothing else contained in Scripture than the bare letter exhibits; the Pharisees are all those who esteem themselves righteous, and separate themselves from others, saying, 'Come not nigh me, for I am clean.' Mint, anise, and cummin, are the seasoning, not the substantial part of food; as in our life and conversation there are some things necessary to justification, as judgment, mercy, and faith; and others which are like the seasoning of our actions, giving them a flavour and sweetness, as abstinence from laughter, fasting, bending the knee, and such like. How shall they not be judged blind who see not that it is of little avail to be a careful dispenser in the least things, if things of chief moment are neglected? These His present discourse overthrows; not forbidding to observe the little things, but bidding to keep more carefully the chief things.
Matthew 23:25-26 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This discourse instructs us that we should hasten to become righteous, not to seem so. For whoso seeks to be thought so, cleanses the outside, and has care of the things that are seen, but neglects the heart and conscience. But he who seeks to cleanse that which is within, that is, the thoughts, makes by that means the things without clean also. All professors of false doctrine are cups cleansed on the outside, because of that show of religion which they affect, but within they are full of extortion and guile, hurrying men into error. The cup is a vessel for liquids, the platter for meat. Every discourse then of which we spiritually drink, and all speech by which we are fed, are vessels for meat and drink. They who study to set forth well wrought discourse rather than such as is full of healthful meaning, are cups cleansed without; but within full of the defilement of vanity. Also the letter of the Law and the Prophets is a cup of spiritual drink, and a platter of necessary food. The Scribes and Pharisees seek to make plain the outward sense; Christ's disciples labour to exhibit the spiritual sense.
Matthew 23:25-26 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 21
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you clean what is outside of the cup and the dish, but within you are full of plunder and intemperance and deceit. Blind Pharisee, clean first what is inside the cup and the dish, so that what is outside may become clean (23, 25, 26). This saying instructs us to be eager to be just, not to appear just. For whoever is intent on appearing just cleans the things that are outside and attends to what is seen, but neglects his own heart and conscience — not considering that the one who is intent on the things that are within and is eager to clean his own thoughts, consequently is also eager to make clean the things that are outside. But if anyone is eager for the things that are seen and yet neglects the interior things of his soul, it is necessary that such a man be filled from within with avarice, wantonness, malice, and very many other evils. For everyone who is anxious about his own salvation (which is from within) is also anxious about his reputation (which is from outside); but not everyone who is anxious about his reputation from outside is also anxious about his own salvation from within. For example, it is written: "whoever looks at a woman to desire her has committed adultery in his heart". This man, then, who abstains from the deed of fornication but fornicates in the desire of his heart, has cleaned what is outside of the cup and the dish or the platter, but is within full of intemperance. But also the one who gives alms in order to obtain glory from men seems indeed to clean what is outside of the cup and the dish, giving alms "before men", but is within full of the lust for empty glory and intemperance. And whatever good a man does not from a clean conscience for the sake of God, he seems indeed clean on the outside, but on the inside he is full of evils. But also all the professors of false doctrine are cups cleaned as it were on the outside because of the appearance of religion which they feign, but within they are full of plunder and seduction, by which they carry off men into error. And they are "ravenous wolves" lurking under "sheep's clothing" and devouring simple souls, who are not able to see that they are ravenous wolves because of the covering of the sheep's skins.
Matthew 23:25-26 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 22
But if we must consider everything in the Gospel discourses morally, we must see why in Matthew the scribes and Pharisees are said to cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, whereas in Luke mention is made of the cup and the platter. Both, then, set down vessels of food and drink; and both name the cup (which is for drinking), but not both the dish: the one names the platter, the other the dish (yet each is held to be a vessel for food). Therefore, according to each evangelist, there is a certain spiritual drink and spiritual food, which we take in the discourses of the Scriptures of the Law or of the Prophets. And so every discourse by which we are given spiritual drink, or every narrative by which we are nourished, are vessels of drink and of food. We are admonished, therefore, not to have care for the discourses or narratives that are on the outside, but for those that are within, so that our heart may be filled with pure senses of drink and of nourishment, and not with words nor with their ornate compositions — because "the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power". For instance, one who is eager to bring forth a polished discourse in words rather than one filled with saving sense, the cup of his narrative is cleansed on the outside, but within it is filled with the filth of vanity. Hence Paul, who was not accustomed to cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish but the inside, confesses himself unskilled "in speech but not in knowledge"; and his speech was indeed rustic, yet clean because of the cleanness of its knowledge. But those who spoke "in the wisdom of word" and through this made void the cross of Christ, presented their discourses clean indeed on the outside, but within full of unclean knowledge, and of plunder and intemperance of life. Likewise, whoever, hearing the word or some Scripture of the Law, is delighted by its outward and common compositions rather than by its inner and saving senses, loves the cup or the dish cleansed on the outside, but within filthy.
Matthew 23:25-26 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 23
But if it is also fitting to add a third exposition, kindred to the earlier ones, we say that the letters of the law and the prophets are the cups of spiritual drinks of the soul and the dishes of necessary foods of faithful men, or the bowls of foods wisely seasoned. Of these cups and dishes and bowls of the law or of the prophets, the scribes and Pharisees are indeed eager for the outward and common sense, and they hasten to demonstrate that this is clean and holy; but the disciples of Christ hasten to cleanse and sanctify the inner and spiritual sense by knowledge and by probable demonstration, so that they may eat and drink the law and the prophets cleansed from within, desiring to hear and receive the inner and mystical sense, and passing beyond the outward senses of the words. It is good, therefore, to cleanse carefully from within the cup or the dish or the bowl, because for him who has cleansed first that which is within the cup, those things also which are outside become truly cleansed; and then the vessels of words are found clean, when their true and spiritual senses have been made manifest.
Matthew 23:27-28 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 24
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful, but within are full of the bones of the dead and of every foulness. So you also outwardly indeed appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (23, 27. 28). For just as above "within they are full of plunder and intemperance," so likewise here also they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity, which are compared to the bones of the dead and to every uncleanness. For hypocrisy, since it is a certain pretense of good, has indeed nothing living from that good which it feigns, but has (so to speak) the bone of that virtue which it feigns. … the righteousness or chastity is dead. For if we hear wisely what the present discourse wishes to show, we understand that all feigned righteousness is dead righteousness, or rather is not even righteousness at all. Just as a dead man is indeed seen to be a man but is not a man, so also dead chastity is not chastity either; and it is dead which is done not for the sake of God but in pretense for the sake of men. And just as it is with mimes, who take up the persons of certain others and are not themselves the ones they feign but only seem to be, so he who feigns righteousness — his feigned righteousness is not righteousness but only seems to be; for it is not righteousness, but a figment of righteousness. So also in seduction feigned chastity is not chastity, but only seems to be. On which account men of this kind are well likened to whitened tombs, outwardly indeed appearing beautiful, for they too outwardly are seen to be righteous in the sight of those who do not know how to consider the inner things, but within they are full of the bones of the dead. There are as many bones in them and uncleannesses as there are good works they feign out of an evil disposition: and outwardly they are seen righteous "before men," not before those whom Scripture calls "gods," to whom the word of God came, but before those who die "like men." And it would indeed be evil to have even a single bone of a dead man within oneself, or even some single uncleanness. But now behold the emphatic exaggeration of Scripture concerning the wickedness of hypocrites. For just as tombs are full of bones and of every uncleanness, so also those men are full of hypocrisy and iniquity, feigning not in some one matter nor in the sight of one person in all their life, or of two or three (although even this would be a most grievous evil), but they live in pretenses all the days of their life, and they are one thing while they are thought to be another. Some are lascivious within, but outwardly they show themselves to be chaste, pretenders of chastity and forgers of virginity; and others are pretenders of righteousness, while within they are wicked, and others exist as pretenders of other virtues, while within they are full of the contrary vices. There are also some who are pretenders of martyrdom, and some of the episcopate or the presbyterate or the diaconate or of ecclesiastical knowledge or of teaching, having only the masks and the outward show of virtues, but in truth being enemies of those very virtues which they feign.
Matthew 23:27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This discourse instructs us that we should hasten to become righteous, not to seem so. For whoso seeks to be thought so, cleanses the outside, and has care of the things that are seen, but neglects the heart and conscience. But he who seeks to cleanse that which is within, that is, the thoughts, makes by that means the things without clean also. All professors of false doctrine are cups cleansed on the outside, because of that show of religion which they affect, but within they are full of extortion and guile, hurrying men into error. The cup is a vessel for liquids, the platter for meat. Every discourse then of which we spiritually drink, and all speech by which we are fed, are vessels for meat and drink. They who study to set forth well wrought discourse rather than such as is full of healthful meaning, are cups cleansed without; but within full of the defilement of vanity. Also the letter of the Law and the Prophets is a cup of spiritual drink, and a platter of necessary food. The Scribes and Pharisees seek to make plain the outward sense; Christ's disciples labour to exhibit the spiritual sense.
Matthew 23:28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
As above they are said to be full of extortion and excess, so here they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity, and are likened to dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. For all feigned righteousness is dead, forasmuch as it is not done for God's sake; yea, rather it is no righteousness at all, any more than a dead man is a man, or an actor who represents any character is the man whom he represents. There is therefore within them so much of bones and uncleanness as are the good things that they wickedly pretend to. And they seem righteous outwardly, not in the eyes of such as the Scripture calls Gods, (Ps. 82:6.) but of such only as die like men.
Matthew 23:29-36 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 27
But if we must also expound these very things morally, we shall say such things in their place. I think that just as Christ came concealed in a body, so that by carnal men, who look at the appearance of His body and do not consider His powers, He was seen as a man, but by spiritual men, who do not attend to the appearance of His body but consider the works of His powers, He is understood to be God — so also is all divine Scripture embodied, but most especially that of the Old Testament. For the spiritual and prophetic sense of Scripture is concealed within the history of the matter set forth, so that all Scripture is understood by ordinary people according to the history, but by the spiritual and perfect according to the spiritual mystery. Having set down this preface, let us return to the text. For just as, in the prophets themselves when they departed from this life, their bodies indeed were in the tombs, but their souls and spirits were "in the region of the living", so also in the prophetic sayings it must be observed that their narrative according to the simple history is the body, while the spiritual sense and the very inmost truth of the Scriptures is the soul and spirit, which dwells within the simpler narratives according to the history. And the tombs of the prophets we can not inappropriately reckon to be the very letters of the Scriptures and the books, in which the narrative, once placed there, remains as it were a body laid in tombs. Those, therefore, who understand and receive the spiritual things of the Scriptures and their truth concealed within, have in themselves the souls and spirits of the prophets, being themselves made as it were the region of the living prophets. But those who neither grasp nor seek those things, but attend only to the simple narrative and the history of the matter, honor the bodies of the prophets set down in the letters and in the books as in certain tombs: such as were also the Pharisees, who are rightly called Pharisees (that is, THE SEVERED), who severed the spiritual things of the prophets from the corporeal history, as it were driving the soul of the prophets out from the body and slaying the prophecies themselves and making them lifeless, as though they had nothing spiritual. And they are truly hypocrites, building and adorning only the tombs of the prophets which contain the corporeal history — that is, giving zealous study to the very Scriptures and books of the prophets. Not understanding that, in honoring dead bodies (that is, the historical narratives), they seem indeed to act piously concerning the memory of the prophets, but are impious; and by this very thing they wish to defend that they are not associates of those who killed the prophets, yet they are convicted of adding to the crimes of those who killed the prophets and filling up the measure of their iniquity by this very thing — that they do not believe in Christ, whom not the simple histories of the prophets but their spiritual sense proclaims. But know without doubt that everywhere the cause of the unbelief of the Jews was this: that they did not understand Jesus as the "Christ of God", because they always gave their mind to the corporeal histories, unwilling to believe anything spiritual in them. For example, we introduce for the sake of illustration what is prophesied and said in Zechariah, that as it were "upon an ass and a colt He would enter into Jerusalem and would destroy the "chariots out of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem". If anyone wishes to understand this of Christ according to the history of the letter, it does not fit; for Christ is nowhere expounded to have destroyed out of Ephraim corporeal and perceptible chariots, nor a corporeal horse from a corporeal Jerusalem. But if you see among the heretics the assemblies of falsehood itself coupled together as by a certain yoke and in evil concord among themselves, which the word of truth is wont to destroy, you will see how Christ, the Word of Go…
Matthew 23:29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Without just cause He seems to utter denunciations against those who build the sepulchres of the Prophets; for so far what they did was praiseworthy; how then do they deserve this woe? And in the prophetic writings, the historical sense is the body, the spiritual meaning is the soul; the sepulchres are the letter and books themselves of Scripture. They then who attend only to the historical meaning, honour the bodies of the Prophets, and set in the letter as in a sepulchre; and are called Pharisees, i. e. 'cut off,' as it were cutting off the soul of the Prophets from their body.
Matthew 23:29-36 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 25
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just, and you say: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners in the blood of the prophets. therefore you bear witness to yourselves that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets. And you, fill up the measure of your fathers. Serpents, brood of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of Gehenna? therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and you will persecute them from city to city, that upon you may come all the just blood which is poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Amen, I say to you: all these things will come upon this generation. As far as the surface of the text is concerned, he does not seem to threaten with sufficient reason against those who build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just. For as far as this alone goes, they were doing something praiseworthy, in that they built the tombs of the prophets and adorned the monuments of the just. They did not consent to the works of their fathers, by which those had dared to act against the prophets and the saints, especially in that they say: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners in the blood of the prophets. How then were they worthy to incur the woe? But if someone speaks thus: as far indeed as that deed and the profession of their words go, they were not guilty, but they were culpable on account of this, that they bore witness to themselves that they were the sons of those who killed the prophets — this too is not true. For in a matter which does not fall under a man's choice, how can a man become guilty? For it is not within the choice of each individual man whose son he is, of a good man or of a bad man. Therefore neither because they built the tombs of the prophets and said: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been guilty, were they either guilty or innocent; but because by the very facts and by the likeness of their crimes they bore witness to themselves that they were the sons of those who killed the prophets, filling up the measure of their fathers and adding still what had been lacking, supplying by the killing of Christ the Son of God the killing of the prophets and the just. On account of which it was not possible for those who were held liable by such a deed to flee from the judgment of Gehenna: for whom not even the blood of Christ was enough, but they still killed and crucified those prophets or scribes who had been sent by Christ, and scourged them in their synagogues and persecuted them from city to city. For all which murderous deeds committed it was just that they should suffer the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people, since the patience of God no longer bore the greatness and the multitude of their crimes. But there came upon their generation, who had filled up the measure of their fathers and had heaped upon them the prophets and wise men and scribes of Jesus Christ, all the just blood which is poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whose killing he imputes to the scribes and Pharisees, as though he had not been killed by their fathers but by those very men; for so it is written: whom you killed between the temple and the altar. But those who are reproached by Christ cannot have killed Zechariah son of Barachiah from among the twelve prophets, whose writings we have in our hands: rather, he means Zechariah the father of John, concerning whom, indeed, we cannot show through the canonical scriptures either that he was the son of Barachiah or that the scribes and Pharisees killed…
Matthew 23:29-36 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 26
But it follows consequently that someone who understands the scriptures according to the simple history might raise an objection and inquire why he did not say "as far as the blood of John the son of Zechariah," especially since "the law and the prophets prophesied until John." To him we shall say that the matter is manifest: that it was not the scribes and Pharisees who killed John, but Herod. For even though the scribes and Pharisees did not believe John (as it is written: "if we say, from heaven, he will say to us: why then did you not believe him?"), nevertheless they still had a certain reverence for his name, not daring to say, in response to Christ's question about his baptism, that it was from men; for they feared the people, who believed that "John was truly a prophet." How then would he reproach, as though they were his murderers, those who did not kill John? But he reproached them as the murderers of Zechariah, saying: whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Further, regarding the text, it must be said that the generation of sinners is not punished immediately, as soon as the sin has been committed, but when the following generation, which ought to correct in itself the sin of its fathers, has instead added worse things to the sins of its fathers; and thus, if many generations have sinned in some nation or in a city, the nation is punished or the city is destroyed. So therefore also the nation of the Jews, inflicting many evils upon the prophets, was not to be punished immediately, as it began the murder against them, but after the patience of God, after they had added to the blood of the prophets the blood of Christ and had filled up the measure of their fathers. Then they were more deservedly punished. For it was not the sin which Cain sinned in killing his brother, nor the sin of those who killed the prophets, that this generation of the Jews which existed in the time of Christ took upon itself; but it was necessary that the patience of God, which was shown toward the nation of the Jews, should be brought to an end by the measures being filled, so that after the many outpourings of the blood of the prophets and of the righteous, Jerusalem and Judea, not desolated earlier, should suffer this afterward in the blood of Christ; and on account of this, God acting magnanimously, so that the scribes and Pharisees, with the people consenting, might receive the blood of the prophets of Christ and — according to the Gospel — of the wise men and scribes, whom they killed and crucified and chastised in their synagogues and persecuted from city to city: so that, with all cast out of Judea, the place, emptied of all the saints, might be made desolate and suffer whatever things they suffered from Vespasian and Titus. These things we have expounded corporeally.
Matthew 23:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And in the prophetic writings, the historical sense is the body, the spiritual meaning is the soul; the sepulchres are the letter and books themselves of Scripture. They then who attend only to the historical meaning, honour the bodies of the Prophets, and set in the letter as in a sepulchre; and are called Pharisees, i. e. 'cut off,' as it were cutting off the soul of the Prophets from their body. They fill up the measure of their fathers' sins by their not believing in Christ. And the cause of their unbelief was, that they looked only to the letter and the body, and would understand nothing spiritual in them.
Matthew 23:33 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
It is also in your power to cast off the image of the serpent as well. Indeed, Scripture calls the evil man a serpent and a brood of vipers. But if you seek confirmation that we are able to change and to cease being serpents, swine, or dogs, let us turn to the words of the Apostle, that the transformation depends on us. … If you were a raging beast and heard the Word, which will tame and domesticate you and which at Its own discretion will turn you into a man — you will never again hear said of you: serpent, brood of vipers. Because, if it were impossible to be rid of these serpents, the serpents residing in the soul on account of its wickedness, then the Savior (or John) would not have said: "Bring forth then fruits worthy of repentance!" Having turned, you will no longer be serpents, broods of vipers.
Matthew 23:34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or the Scribes who are sent by Christ, are Scribes according to the Gospel, whom the spirit quickens and the letter does not kill, as did the letter of the Law, which whoso followed ran into vain superstitions. The simple words of the Gospel are sufficient for salvation. But the Scribes of the Law do yet scourge the Scribes of the New Testament, by detracting from them in their synagogues; and the heretics also, who are spiritual Pharisees, with their tongues murder the Christians, and persecute them from city to city, sometimes in the body, sometimes also in the spirit, seeking to drive them from their own city of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, into another Gospel.
Matthew 23:35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
A tradition has come down to us, that there was one place in the temple in which virgins were allowed to worship God, married women being forbidden to stand there. And Mary, after the Saviour's birth, going into the temple, stood to pray in this place of the virgins. And when they who knew that she had borne a Son were hindering her, Zacharias said, that forasmuch as she was still a virgin, she was worthy of the place of the virgins. Whereupon, as though he manifestly were contravening the Law, he was slain there between the temple and the altar by the men of that generation; and thus this word of Christ is true which He spake to those who were standing there, whom ye slew. Zacharias is interpreted 'The memory of God.' Whosoever then hastes to obliterate the memory of God, seems to those to whom he gives offence to shed the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias. For it is by the blessing of God that we retain the memory of God. Also the memory of God is slain by the wicked, when the Temple of God is polluted by the lustful, and His altar defiled by the carelessness of prayers. Abel is interpreted 'mourning.' He then who does not receive that, Blessed are they that mourn, sheds the blood of Abel, that is, puts away the truth of wholesome mourning. Some also shed, as it were, the blood of the Scriptures by putting aside their truth, for all Scripture, if it is not understood according to its truth, is dead.
Matthew 23:37 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He calls them children of Jerusalem, just as we call each generation of citizens the sons of the preceding generation. And He says, How often, though it is well known that once only did He teach the Jews in the body, because Christ was ever present in Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Angels, ministering to human salvation in every generation. Whosoever shall not have been gathered in by Him shall be judged, as though he had refused to be gathered in.
Matthew 23:37-39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 28
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, how often have I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not? behold, now your house shall be left to you desolate. For I say to you, that from now on you shall not see me until you say: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. It is worth inquiring how the Savior, speaking before hearers among whom were scribes and Pharisees who prided themselves on knowing carefully the things of the law and the prophets, on what ground he said that Jerusalem had killed the prophets and had stoned those sent to her, since no such account is much prophesied in the ancient scriptures that were read in their synagogues. We do read that Jeremiah was cast into a pit of mud, yet not that he was killed in Jerusalem. But neither of Isaiah nor of Ezekiel nor of any of the prophets do we read that he suffered any such thing, so far as my memory suggests. But searching in the second book of Chronicles, where many things are written about the famous prophets, I find that Asa, angered at Hanani the prophet who rebuked him, did indeed put him in prison, yet did nothing more to him. And Ahab too ordered Micaiah, who prophesied against him, to go into the prison house and to eat the bread of tribulation, yet did not kill him. But we read of one who was stoned, "Azariah the son of Jehoiada the priest," who was rebuking the people. Therefore we do not find, beyond what I have said, that in Jerusalem prophets were killed, or that those sent to Jerusalem were stoned. For this reason it must be considered whether perhaps it is necessary to demonstrate the word of Christ from the more secret books which are current among the Jews — and not only the word of Christ but also of his disciples, of Stephen the first martyr and of Paul the apostle. For Stephen speaks thus: "O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so also you. For which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers"; and after this: "they drove him outside the city, and they stoned Stephen crying out and saying." And Paul, in the first letter to the Thessalonians, says such things concerning the killing of the prophets: "you became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, since you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and persecuted us, and do not please God." And to the Hebrews thus: "they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they died by the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted with sufferings — of whom the world was not worthy — wandering in deserts and in mountains and caves and holes of the earth." It is reported, then, in the scriptures that are not manifest, that Isaiah was sawn in two, and Zechariah killed, and Ezekiel. And I suppose that Elijah, who wandered in the desert and in the mountains, is the one who went about in sheepskins and goatskins. But suppose someone rejects the letter to the Hebrews as not being Paul's, and likewise casts away the secret book of Isaiah: yet what will he do with the words of Stephen, or of Paul to the Thessalonians, brought forward about the prophets killed, or with those of our Lord himself? Or how will he reject that which Paul brought forward to Timothy, saying: "as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth"? For we do not know in the canonical books the account of Jannes and Jambres resisting Moses. And if he also looks at what is set down in the first letter to the Corinthians, "what eye has not seen nor ear heard," can anyone possibly reject all these things? All these things we have said in examining the p…
Matthew 23:38-39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
In like manner to all such as would not be gathered under His wings Christ speaks this threat; Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; i. e. your soul and your body. But if any one of you will not be gathered under the wings of Christ, from the very time when he shall have refused to be so gathered, (by a mental rather than a bodily act,) he shall no more see the beauty of the word, till repenting of his evil purpose he shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. And the word of the Lord then comes with a blessing upon a man's heart, when one is turned to God.
Matthew 24:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 30
And let these things be understood in a bodily sense; but morally in this way: since the marvelous construction of human nature has been made — namely, the temple of God and of his Word — the disciples and the other saints (not only then, but even now confessing the wondrous works of God toward the human creature) intercede before the sight of Christ and appeal to Christ, that he may not abandon the human race on account of their sins, but rather that his wondrous works may move him to indulgence more than their iniquities move him to wrath. Otherwise: just as that temple was not demolished all at once but little by little as time went on, so also every man who takes into himself the Word of God is a temple; and if indeed after sin he has not fallen away wholly from the Word of God, but still preserves in part the traces of faith and of the religious keeping of God's commandments within himself, he is a temple in part destroyed and in part still standing. But whoever, after he has sinned, takes no care of himself, but is ever running away from faith and from the life which is according to the Gospel, is diminished little by little, until he wholly withdraws "from the living God" — this man is a temple in which there shall not be left a stone of doctrine upon a stone of God's commandments that shall not be thrown down. We, therefore, ought to look out for ourselves, that the whole building of piety may remain intact within us, so that, both adorned with the stones of saving doctrines and decorated with the gifts of good works, we may take into ourselves the power and glory of God, and Christ, who is the Word and Wisdom of God.
Matthew 24:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 31
And someone introduces a third exposition of this kind: that the temple of God was built by a composition of words that carry meaning, namely the whole Scripture of the Old Testament constructed according to its history. Those who constructed it — Moses or the prophets — by the setting-together of letters and the ordering of sayings, built it to be admired by all for the beauty of its stones, that is, of the choice sayings and of the sense-meanings to be praised as gifts. This the disciples point out to Jesus, taking up all the Scriptures; and to them Christ replies, saying that this bodily and first building is to be destroyed by the Word, so that a more divine and more mysterious temple of another Scripture may be built. That the Scripture is a temple was expounded by someone before us. And since the Antichrist — "he who opposes and exalts himself above everything that is called God", who sits in the temple of God — is the false word that is held in the Scriptures — which counterfeits the truth by bringing forward, out of the Scriptures, testimonies of impious teachings, when men are unwilling to be won over from any other source; and this very thing is "that which opposes", and it sits both upon the seat of the Scriptures and upon their building, "displaying itself as though it were God". And one may always see the words of the heresies, as Antichrists, sitting in the temple of the Scriptures and wishing, out of those very Scriptures, to win over those who hear them, as though each one of these were itself God the Word in the Scriptures.
Matthew 24:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Christ, when He had foretold all that should come upon Jerusalem, went forth out of the temple, He, who while He was in it, had upheld the temple that it should not fall. And so each man, being the temple of God by reason of the Spirit of God dwelling in him, is himself the cause of his being deserted, that Christ should depart from him. It is worthy of note how they show Him the buildings of the temple, as though He had never seen them. We reply, that when Christ had foretold the destruction that should come upon the temple, His disciples were amazed at the thought that so magnificent buildings should be utterly ruined, and therefore they show them to Him to move Him to pity, that He would not do what He had threatened. And because the constitution of human nature is wonderful, being made the temple of God, the disciples and the rest of the saints confessing the wonderful working of God in respect of the forming of men, intercede before the face of Christ, that He would not forsake the human race for their sins.
Matthew 24:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 29
And Jesus went out from the temple and was departing; and his disciples came to him, to show him the buildings of the temple. But Jesus answering said to them: do you see all these things? amen I say to you, there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed. After Christ had foretold all the things that were to come upon Jerusalem, he went out from the temple — he who had preserved the temple, lest it fall, so long as he was in it. For as long as the Word was among the Jews, not taking the kingdom of God away from them, so long it stood, and the affairs of the Jews were unharmed. But after, according to his own word which he had spoken: "the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation producing its own fruit", he took away the kingdom of God and gave it to the Gentiles, then both Jesus and the kingdom of God came to be among the Gentiles. Hence now neither Jesus nor the kingdom of God is held among the Jews, because they have been left "like a tabernacle in a vineyard, and like a hut in a cucumber-field, and like a city that is besieged", on account of the crime which they committed against Christ. And each one who receives the word of God is a temple of God, so that it may rightly be said to him: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" Each one therefore, since he is a holy temple of God because of the Spirit of God dwelling within him, if he himself sins, becomes the cause of his own desertion, so that Christ goes out from him, so that he who had before been a temple of the Son of God is thereafter a deserted house, so that there is not left in him a stone upon a stone — out of all the doctrines and edifications of a good life — that is not destroyed. On account of which, calling to mind the history of the desertion of Jerusalem, we ought to look out for ourselves, that Christ not go out from the temple (which is made up of us), that the buildings of our temple may be unharmed, adorned with stones and gifts, so that those who see the buildings that are in us may say in wonder: "see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings". But this is worthy to be examined thoroughly, how, as far as the text goes, the disciples speak thus to Jesus, and show him the buildings of stones, as though someone who had never seen the temple itself but had come from elsewhere as a stranger arriving for the first time. To this it must be answered thus: that when above, prophesying its coming ruin, Christ had thus threatened its desertion: "behold, now your house shall be left to you deserted", the disciples, hearing it, marveled that such and so great a building of the temple was to be reduced to nothing. Therefore they say to Jesus (as another evangelist says more plainly): "master, do you see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings", namely so that they might bend him to mercy for that place, that he not do what he had threatened to do.
Matthew 24:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Every man also, who, by taking into him the word of God, is become a temple, if after sinning he yet retains in part the traces of faith and religion, his temple is in part destroyed, and in part standing. But he who after sin has no regard for himself is gradually alienated, until he has altogether forsaken the living God, and so one stone is not left upon another of God's commandments, which he has not thrown down.
Matthew 24:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
I think Mount Olivet to be a mystery of the Church out of the Gentiles. For the husbandman dwelling on Mount Olivet is the word of God confirmed in the Church, that is, Christ, who ever grafts the branches of the wild olive on the good olive tree of the Fathers. They who have confidence before Christ, seek to learn the sign of the coming of Christ, and of the consummation of this world. And the coming of the Word into the soul is of two sorts. The first is that foolish preaching concerning Christ, when we preach that Christ was born and crucified; the second its coming in perfect men, concerning which it is said, We speak wisdom among them that are perfect; (1 Cor. 2:6.) and to this second coming is added the end of the world in the perfect man to whom the world is crucified.
Matthew 24:3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 32
But as he was sitting upon the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately, saying: tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the consummation of the age. "When Jesus had gone out of the temple", after he had spoken concerning it, he came to the Mount of Olives and there sat with his disciples. But I think that the Mount of Olives is a mystery of the Church which is from the Gentiles, in which olive trees have been planted, each one of which can say: "but I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God". And perhaps too on this Mount of Olives the roots of the good olive tree are present, but the branches of the wild olive have been grafted in in the place of the branches which "were cut off through unbelief". And the husbandman residing on the Mount of Olives is the Word of God confirmed in the Church, Christ, who is ever grafting the branches of the wild olive into the good olive tree of the fathers, of Moses and of the rest of the prophets, so that, receiving richness from the holy prophets (through this, that they carefully understand their meaning, and receive also the Christ who is prophesied by them), they may offer abundant and richer fruit—than, that is to say, the former olives, which because of the curse that was in the law have been shaken down, so that they can no longer be of use. After this it must be considered that, of the disciples approaching Jesus, some indeed approach him privately, having in this very thing greater confidence with him as those of his household (as when they questioned him about the solving of the parables), but others questioned him not privately but in common. Observe further the difference between these, that at times indeed the Pharisees approach, whether tempting him or questioning him in whatever manner, but at other times others desiring to learn—yet these never approach privately out of the multitude. And perhaps even now those who have taken up a distinguished life and on account of this have confidence before Christ, having something more than those who from the common faith approach Jesus, say to him: tell us, when shall these things be? these things—which? that which he said: "there shall not stand here one stone upon a stone which shall not be destroyed". And they wish to learn not only this, but also the sign of the coming of Christ and of the consummation of the age; and two things they ask of him, the sign of his coming and of the consummation of the age. Therefore the coming of the Son of God and the consummation of the age is indeed believed among many, but especially among those who pursue a more refined life. It is possible also in another way to see a twofold coming of Christ, that is, the coming of the Word into the soul. First indeed the untrained and those then beginning to know Christ, because they cannot see the brightness of his beauty, say: "we saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness, but his appearance was without honor". Now the unhonored appearance of the Word is the foolish preaching about Christ, when we preach Christ born and crucified. But the second coming is the coming of Christ among perfect men, concerning whom the steward of his word says: "but we speak wisdom among the perfect". And these perfect ones have become lovers of his beauty and beseech the Word, that he gird upon himself his rational sword and set it about the mystery of the fleshly nativity, which is called mystically the thigh. For disciples of this kind praise the beauty and comeliness of the Word, and to this second coming is joined the consummation of the age in the man coming to perfection and saying: "but far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world". For if the world has been crucified to the just, to whom "the world has been crucified", then the consummation of the world has also been made for them. Necessarily, therefore, those who…
Matthew 24:4-5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 33
And Jesus answering said to them: See that no one seduces you. For many will come in my name saying that I am the Christ, and they will seduce many (24, 4. 5). Those who understand simply suppose that these words signify only this: that many were going to come asserting themselves to be Christs, having in themselves also certain wonder-working powers and words by which they might provoke to belief many who had shown themselves worthy of seduction. But John in his epistle says: "and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, now many Antichrists have arisen; whence we know that it is the last hour". By these words he teaches that every word which is foreign to the truth and asserts itself to be the word of God is Antichrist; for it is thus possible to understand what he says: "and now many Antichrists have arisen", since there is one thing that is true. But as the record of the readings makes plain, there were not many men in the time of the apostles who said that they were Christs, unless perhaps Dositheus the Samaritan — whence they are also called Dositheans — and Simon, of whom the Acts report, who proclaimed himself to be the great power of God. Besides these, there were none either before or afterward, so far as my knowledge goes. But every discourse which professes an exposition of the Scriptures and faith in them, yet does not have the truth, is rightly to be understood to be Antichrist, coming in the name of Christ and saying that I am the Christ, lying and by no means able to display in itself the form of truth. And since to those who examine the words of Scripture, in order to find its meaning, there frequently occur certain interpretations as if true when they are not true, and sometimes they are drawn also by other plausible, specious discourses, so that it is not easy to find which is the true meaning before against the lying estimations the truer and firmer meaning has been found — for this reason I think that Christ, to the question of his disciples saying: "when shall these things be? and what is the sign of your coming and of the consummation of the age?" answered thus: See that no one seduces you. For many will come in my name saying: I am the Christ, and they will seduce many. For truly he who fulfills that commandment which says: "be prudent money-changers", and that which says: "prove all things, hold fast what is good; abstain yourselves from every evil appearance", will see many being seduced by false interpretations and words professing themselves to be Christ the word of God. And would that only those who are outside the Church were seduced: it would be easy to guard against the seduction. But now those very people who profess themselves to be churchmen are deceived and seduced about various necessary chapters, as their very dissension is a testimony, since even those who are within are seduced. But consequently, just as it is wont to be among those wandering these bodily roads that there is a difference of error, and some indeed even go against the very public road that is sought, wandering, while others turn aside a little something from the straight path so that they may be recalled, and there are many differences among those who wander — in this manner we see also those who stray from the truth. And the Marcionites indeed and Basilides, and the Valentinians and the Apellians and the Ophites wander much from the proposed way, since they hold opinions wholly contrary to the truth. But some do not indeed dissent about the public and manifest chapters — for instance, about the one God who gave the Law and the Gospel, or about Christ Jesus the firstborn of every creature, who at the end of the age according to the preachings of the prophets came into the world and took upon himself the true nature of human flesh, so that he even underwent birth from a virgin, and took upon himself the death of the cross and rose from the dead and deified the human nature which he had taken up. Furthermore also abou…
Matthew 24:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They that are deceived are many, because wide is the gate that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. (Mat. 7:13.) This one thing is enough to detect the Antichrists and seducers that they shall say, I am Christ, which Christ Himself is no where read to have said: for the works of God, and the word which He taught, and His power, were enough to produce belief that He is Christ. For every discourse which professes to expound Scripture faithfully, and has not the truth, is Antichrist. For the truth is Christ, that which feigns itself to be the truth is Antichrist. So also all virtues are Christ, all that feigns itself to be virtue is Antichrist; for Christ has in Himself in truth all manner of good for the edification of men, but the devil has forged resemblances of the same for the deceiving of the saints. We have need therefore of God to help us, that none deceive us, neither word nor power. It is a bad thing to find any one erring in his course of life; but I esteem it much worse not to think according to the most true rule of Scripture.
Matthew 24:6 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 34
But you shall hear battles and rumors of battles; see that you are not terrified, for these things must happen, but the end is not yet. Luke, however, puts it this way: "when you hear of battles and seditions, do not be terrified; for these things must first happen, but the end is not at once". In these words he sets forth two things, one thus: you shall hear battles, the other: rumors of battles. And first let us see, according to the simple tradition, in the way that many understand it, how rumors of battles differ from battles. Suppose for me that battles exist where cities rise up against cities or nations against nations, so that the one may carry off the other's property or the stronger may kill the strong. What, then, do rumors of battles signify after battles? Especially since it is not said: you shall see battles and hear about battles, but on both sides he set you shall hear; that is, both you shall hear battles and you shall hear rumors of battles. And let us suppose that to hear battles is when the sons of peace keep their eyes clean from battles, so that they may not see wicked things; and (since they cannot look upon labors and pains) they hear about battles, what sort of city fights against what sort of city or what sort of nation is stormed by what sort of nation. But what else, besides this, will it be to hear battles and to hear rumors of battles? See, then, whether you can (I speak with regard to the simplicity of the word) give such a distinction: it is not one and the same thing to hear from far off, placed away from a battle, that a battle is happening, and to be beside the battle and to hear the very voices of those fighting. Each, therefore, has its own signification. And perhaps he indeed who hears the very voices which are made in battles, hears battles; but he who hears about battles waged far off, hears rumors of battles. For he does not hear the battles themselves. But since the words are ambiguous, someone may say the reverse, that he who is indeed far from the battles hears about them; while he who is beside the battles hears the rumors of the battles themselves. In both ways, therefore, there seems to be some understanding of the difference.
Matthew 24:6 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 35
Rise now to the moral and spiritual understanding, if in any way you can find some interpretation worthy of the eminence of Christ's knowledge and of the subtlety of the evangelists, so that you may not lay aside the dignity of evangelical wisdom. See therefore whether, recalling those things which were set forth above concerning what he says: many will come in my name saying: I am Christ, and they will lead many astray, we can, according to their sequence, interpret these things also. Everyone therefore who is perfect and sees in his own soul the glorious coming of the Word — which corrupts and consummates the world and crucifies it to the just man, that all worldly things may die to him — and who has senses trained for grasping, must, as he seeks and examines, run into many battles of doctrines. He will hear also many professing the truth and diverse traditions concerning it, so that, like a good soldier of the Word, he may remain invulnerable in soul against all those professing the truth but not seeing it nor manifesting it, but rather pronouncing things contrary to the truth as though they were the truth; and he may be made worthy to receive into his soul the glorious coming of Christ, according to that whereby he is God the Word, which was in the beginning with God, which is wont to come to those who, after they have known Christ according to the flesh and have received the Word which was made flesh, ascend so far beyond the many that they can grasp not just any sort of glory, but glory as of the only-begotten from the Father. And perhaps the Word of God appears in diverse glories, according to the power of each soul that sees, according to the capacity that each single soul has offered. To the one, therefore, who is perfect and has arrived at the consummation of the age, insofar as it depends on him, the Word appears such that whoever has seen him may say: "we have seen his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth". Therefore, if anyone is to be held worthy to receive such a Word and to see it, he must, before a vision of the word of this kind, hear in his soul battles; but through others, who assert as though it were truth whatever has seemed so to them, rumors of battles. And rightly, as his disciples were advancing toward perfection, after the Savior had spoken these things about battles, he added further: see, and did not say: hear, urging them to be watchful, so that they might be able to see with the eyes of the soul (after they have heard battles and rumors of battles) the nature of each of the things that are heard, and, seeing it, not be terrified: because such intelligible battles are wont to arise for righteous men amid diverse persuasions, and to disturb and shake their souls into doubting, lest perhaps those things be true which seem to be probable while they are false, or at any rate into believing them completely as though they were true. As many, therefore, as set out toward the perfection which is in Christ and toward the manner of life of the heavenly church, when they have heard the battles of the heresies, which do battle against the true faith and against one another in turn, and when they have heard the rumors of battles of "philosophy and vain seduction according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ", exercising themselves in the things that are said, seek and ponder the commandment of Christ who says: see, and they do indeed see the things that are said, but seeing lies dressed up with the appearance of truth, they are not led astray, but they hope, without any wound from such battles, to see the glorious coming of Christ, who is the word; especially if, hearing according to Christ's commandment of battles and rumors of battles, they suffer no disturbance of soul, but, protected under the peace of God which guards the "hearts and minds" of the worthy, they are not terrified. But if anyone, hearing of b…
Matthew 24:6 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
To hear the shouts raised in the battles, is to hear wars; to hear rumours of wars, is to hear accounts of wars waged afar off. This must come to pass before we can see the perfection of that wisdom which is in Christ; but not yet shall be that end which we seek, for a peaceful end is far from those men.
Matthew 24:7-8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 37
But someone will offer a still deeper explanation of the things that are to happen before the consummation of the world, and above all concerning the wars. For just as the coming of Christ made peace by divine power among very many nations — according to what the prophet says of him: "justice shall arise in his days, and abundance of peace until the moon be exalted" — and so the peace of the world was multiplied on account of the increases of the churches that were to come, in order that this peace might become an occasion of salvation for many, since they are not compelled to go out to wars and to fight for their homelands as formerly used to happen: so it follows also that, when on account of the abundance of iniquity "the love of many" has grown cold, and God and his Christ have for that reason forsaken them, wars come to pass once more — namely because the operations that sow wars are not prohibited by holiness, but are rather still further nourished on account of the ever-increasing malice of men — so that the cause of all the evils that befall is said to be those who did indeed come to the word, but afterward "all turned aside and together were made unprofitable" amid worldly evils. For as long as the salt of the earth stands firm — those to whom the Lord said: "you are the salt of the earth" — all things hold together, seasoned by the salt; but after the salt itself has become tasteless, then (to speak according to the Scripture) the very things that were salted by it, being as it were unsalted, become insipid, are corrupted and stink and are dissolved. And further, as long as the "light of the world" stands firm, all things are set aright, ordered by its clear illumination; but when this very light has been diminished in the souls of men — since it is not nourished by its proper and natural food — then, with darkness taking possession of all things, when all things have been brought into sorrow and calamities, there will come to be as it were an assembly of the adversary powers over all things, since they are not forbidden by the saints and by Christ in them, who used to forbid them, but as though in the darkness, without any prohibition, they will work in the hearts of men, so that they stir up nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And if (as some are also pleased to hold) famines and pestilences too come about from operations of this kind and from the angels of Satan, then likewise famines and pestilences will at that time grow strong from the adversary powers, when the disciples of Christ are no longer the salt of the earth and the light of the world — they who are the princes of God's power, destroying in men the wars that the adversary powers make, and all the things that are sown from their malice. And at one time indeed in Israel famines and pestilences used to come about on account of sins and droughts, which the prayers of the saints dissolved — those of Samuel, of Jeremiah, and of others like them. And it is well put: there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. For God does not will to destroy the human race all at once, but judging it by parts, little by little, while famines and pestilences and earthquakes come about in divers places, he grants a place for repentance to those who are amended by slight chastisements and are converted to God. And just as it is possible to bring medicinal aids to those who are beginning to fall ill, so, when famine and pestilences and earthquakes are beginning in divers places, it is possible to give to certain men purgative remedies toward the conduct and faith and wisdom of the saints. But if, when evils of this kind are beginning, no pious correction has been made, famines and pestilences and earthquakes will advance to worse, when the "abomination of desolation" has taken its place, not content with one part of the world: for it will come so that it may take its stand even "in the holy place". Nevertheless the risings up of natio…
Matthew 24:7-8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 38
Since I also consider there to be a moral sense in this passage too, according to what I have said, the following things must consequently be said here as well: that if anyone is to see the glorious and royal form of the Word and His glorious coming, it is necessary for him to be roused not only to hear "battles and reports" of intelligible "battles," so that, seeing, he may learn to be in no way terrified, but also to see the nation of some falsehood and the movement of words drawing men toward some sect rising up against some other nation of falsehood, since for nations of this kind there is never a peaceful end. This we frequently see happening among the heresies and among the churches of the malignant, when the nation of one heresy rises up against the nation of another heresy; so too the kingdom of some word will rise up against the kingdom of another erring word: since Satan and every falsehood is always divided against itself, and therefore cannot stand. Therefore he who sets out to see the glory of Christ and the kingdom—that is, the perfection of the Word and the kingdom that reigns and holds dominion, placing all adversary discourses under His feet and for the trampling of His feet—it is necessary for him, while seeking the truth, frequently to suffer a want of understandings, by which the soul is properly nourished for the searching out of the things that are to be sought. And just as at one time those who were journeying toward the land of promise were afflicted and suffered so great a hunger for carnal foods, that they might receive the heavenly manna, so must he who is to be nourished by the perfection of the Word be frequently tried by a want of understandings and yet suffer nothing from it. And we see this very thing daily in ourselves, when we seek some sense of truth in the Scriptures: before we find what we seek, we suffer a certain want of understandings, until such a want of understandings is dissolved in us by God, who gives to the worthy "food in due season" to eat and clothing to put on. It is also necessary that he who sees the glorious coming—that is, the coming of wisdom into his soul—must see the pestilences of diseased discourses and suffer nothing from them. Now pestilent discourses are all those that are brought forth by pestilent men, who speak "iniquity on high" and set "their mouth in heaven" in pride and great presumption: for instance, the discourses of Marcion against the creator of the world and certain impious blasphemies are pestilences of souls, corrupting the minds of men and making souls sicken in the suspicions of errors; the fables of Valentinus too, about masculine and feminine ages, and about the birth of the creator of the world, which they have fabricated out of a false wisdom, and whatever other things they prattle—what else are these but pestilences; the discourses of Basilides also, which disparage those who strive even unto death for the truth so as to confess Jesus "before men," but teach that one may act indifferently in denying Him and in sacrificing to strange gods, pestilate no less and corrupt those who hear them, since in these same discourses they teach that there are no other punishments for sins except transmigrations of souls after death. For, to pass over the fact that what is said is manifestly false, they further take away from men the salutary fear, and those who, even because of fear of future punishments, would have kept themselves from a multitude of sins, they nourish the boldness of their impiety. Many, therefore, will be the famines and pestilences for all who wish to see the glorious coming of Christ into their soul. But these will do them no harm; for they will only see them, and will suffer nothing from them. They will also suffer the movements of those things which are sought in very many places of the Scriptures that have an appearance of contradiction or of falsehoods; but afterward they will suffer nothing. Nor will the movement of false reports…
Matthew 24:7-8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or otherwise; As the body sickens before the death of the man, so it must needs be that before the consummation of this world the earth should be shaken, as though it were palsied, with frequent earthquakes, the air should gather a deadly quality and become pestilential, and that the vital energy of the soil should fail, and its fruits wither. And by consequence of this scarcity, men are stirred up to robbery and war. But because war and strife arise sometimes from covctousness, and sometimes from desire of power and empty glory, of these which shall happen before the end of the world a yet deeper cause shall be assignable. For as Christ's coming brought through His divine power peace to divers nations, so it shall be on the other hand, that when iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, and God and His Christ shall desert them; wars shall be again when actions which beget wars are not hindered by holiness; and hostile powers when they are not restrained by the Saints and by Christ shall work unchecked in the hearts of men, stirring up nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. But if, as some will have it, famine and pestilence are from the Angels of Satan, these shall then gather might from opposite powers, when the salt of the earth, and the lights of the world, Christ's disciples, shall be no longer, destroying those things which the malice of dæmons hatches. Ofttimes in Israel famines and pestilences were caused by sin, and removed by the prayers of the Saints. (1 Kings 17:1. Jer. 14. James 5:17, 18.) Well is that said, In divers places, for God will not destroy the whole race of men at once, but judging them in portions, He gives opportunity of repentance. But if some stop be not put to these evils in their commencement, they will progress to worse, as it follows, These all are the beginnings of sorrows, that is, sorrows common to the whole world, and those which are to come upon the wicked who shall be tormented in most sharp pains.
Matthew 24:7-8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 36
For nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places; for all these are the beginnings of sorrows (24, 7. 8). Mark has the same things, but adds "and tumults"; Luke likewise has these same things, but adds "and there shall be terrors from heaven and great signs and storms". Let us first expound the simple and bodily meaning of the passage. For just as bodies fall sick before their death — the bodies, that is, of those who suffer no violence from outside — and just as in all cases it is through weakness that the way is made for separating the soul from its body, so also such and so great a creature as the world, when it has begun to be corrupted, as having, as it were, a beginning and an end (since "the things that are seen are temporal", and since "heaven and earth shall pass away"), must necessarily grow feeble before its corruption; so that the earth indeed is more frequently shaken and shattered by earthquakes, while the air, conceiving a certain disease-bearing force, becomes pestilential; and further still, the vital power of the earth, suddenly failing, chokes off the crops, and the generative power that produces every kind of tree, failing, chokes them off as well. Therefore, when these things happen, it follows that the movable nature also — being constituted, as it were, as some part of the whole world — must necessarily suffer along with the change of all things: for instance, not taking again its accustomed nourishment of foods, it comes to failure and is corrupted. For the heavens "shall perish", since "they shall grow old like a garment", and "whatever grows old and ages is near to destruction". It follows, then, that on account of the scarcity of foods men are stirred up to greed and to wars against those who do not suffer so great a scarcity; and that, by comparison with others who abound in the necessities of life, uprisings of some against others arise, and nation fights against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And it is possible that, together with the lack of other things, there should also come to be a lack of men possessing good sense, so that through this a tranquil and peaceful life is not found among many, but uprisings and quarrels and disturbances arise — sometimes indeed on account of greed, sometimes on account of the lust for rule, sometimes also on account of an insane craving for vainglory, and sometimes too through the desire for the vainglory of rulers, who are not content with their own kingdom, but wish to extend their own dominion and to subject many nations to themselves.
Matthew 24:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But how should the people of Christ be hated by the nations who dwelt in the uttermost parts of the earth? But one may perhaps say, that in this place all is put hyperbolically for many. But this that He says, Then shall they deliver you, presents some difficulty; for before these things the Christians were delivered to tribulation. To this it may be answered, that at that time the Christians shall be more delivered to tribulation than ever. And persons in any misfortune love to examine into the origin of them, and to talk about them. Hence when the worship of the Gods shall be almost deserted by reason of the multitude of Christians, it will be said that that is the cause of the wars, and famines, and pestilences; and of the earthquakes also they will say that the Christians are the cause, whence the persecution of the Churches. And that, Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, might be then applied thus; That indeed at this time all nations are conspired together against the Christians, but that when the things foretold by Christ shall have come to pass, then there shall be persecutions, not as before in places, but every where against the people of God.
Matthew 24:9-14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 39
Then they will hand you over to tribulations and will kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations for my name's sake. And then many will be scandalized and will hand one another over and will hate one another; and many false prophets will rise up and will lead many astray; and because iniquity will abound, the charity of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end, this one will be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. Even without exposition the text is clear of itself, since Christ's disciples have frequently been handed over to tribulations and have been killed for the sake of the word and have been hated by the nations on account of Christ. But if anyone wishes to examine what he says, by all the nations, he will not find it sufficiently certain. For is the people of Christ hated by all the nations, even by those dwelling in the farthest parts of the earth? — unless perhaps here too someone should say that all is set down for many by way of exaggeration of the great number. But if you set before yourself what he says, then they will hand you over, you will find a difficulty. For it was not after "nation had risen against nation and kingdom against kingdom", and after "famines and pestilences in various places", that they were then handed over to tribulations and killed and hated by all the nations for Christ's name's sake: for even before these things came to pass, Christians were handed over to tribulations and, giving testimony to the truth, were killed and were hated by the nations among whom they dwelt. But against this difficulty, one who wishes to understand according to the words will answer that then most of all will Christians be handed over to tribulations as never before, then are they to be hated most of all by all the nations dwelling together with them as never before, and they will suffer all things for Christ's name's sake, when "nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places". For those who are in calamities love, as they examine the causes of these things, to find something to say. When therefore these things befall the world, it follows — men, as it were, forsaking the worship of the gods — that they say that on account of the multitude of Christians wars and famines and pestilences come to pass. For frequently the Gentiles, and whoever were wise in the things of the nations, blamed the Christians as the cause of famine, but they also referred the causes of pestilences to the Church of Christ. And we know too that among us an earthquake occurred in certain places, and that certain collapses of buildings took place, so that those who were impious, outside the faith, said the Christians were the cause of the earthquake — on account of which the churches also suffered persecutions and were burned — and not only so, but even those who seemed prudent would say such things in public, that on account of the Christians the gravest earthquakes come to pass. But as for what is said, and you will be hated by all the nations for my name's sake, one will be able to save it thus. For never indeed have all the nations agreed together as one against the Christians; but when the things Christ foretold come to pass, then all, as it were, are to be set aflame by certain nations beginning to blame the Christians, so that then persecutions may arise no longer in part, as before, but generally everywhere against the people of God. Then it will come about that many are scandalized who seem to stand firm in the faith; and the one will hand over the other. And there will be hatred even among those very ones who seem faithful. Then many false prophets will rise up, deceiving the multitude of the senseless; then also, charity growing cold not only among the unbelievers but even among the faithful themselves, the fervor of charity…
Matthew 24:9-13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Morally; He who shall see that glorious second coming of the word of God into his soul, must needs suffer in proportion to the measure of his proficiency assaults of opposing influences, and Christ in him must be hated by all, not only by the nations literally understood, but by the nations of spiritual vices. And in such enquiries there will be few who shall reach the truth with any fulness, the more part shall be offended and fall therefrom, betraying and accusing one another because of their disagreement respecting doctrines, which shall give rise to a mutual hatred. Also there shall be many setting forth unsound words concerning things to come, and interpreting the Prophets in a manner in which they ought not; these are the false Prophets who shall deceive many, and who shall cause to wax cold that fervour of love which was before in the simplicity of the faith. But he who can abide firmly in the Apostolic tradition, he shall be saved; and the Gospel being preached to the minds of all shall be for a testimony to all nations, that is, to all the unbelieving thoughts of the soul.
Matthew 24:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
When every nation shall have heard the preaching of the Gospel, then shall come the end of the world. For at this time there are many nations, not of barbarians only, but of our own, who have not yet heard the word of Christianity. Morally; He who shall see that glorious second coming of the word of God into his soul, must needs suffer in proportion to the measure of his proficiency assaults of opposing influences, and Christ in him must be hated by all, not only by the nations literally understood, but by the nations of spiritual vices. And in such enquiries there will be few who shall reach the truth with any fulness, the more part shall be offended and fall therefrom, betraying and accusing one another because of their disagreement respecting doctrines, which shall give rise to a mutual hatred. Also there shall be many setting forth unsound words concerning things to come, and interpreting the Prophets in a manner in which they ought not; these are the false Prophets who shall deceive many, and who shall cause to wax cold that fervour of love which was before in the simplicity of the faith. But he who can abide firmly in the Apostolic tradition, he shall be saved; and the Gospel being preached to the minds of all shall be for a testimony to all nations, that is, to all the unbelieving thoughts of the soul.
Matthew 24:15-24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 41
But now let us set forth the very text of the Gospel. We have said that the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place is the general who surrounded Jerusalem with his army. And so, since the worst of things befell those who were then in Judea, therefore, prophesying that these things would come to pass, the Lord says to the people: then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And such were the things that befell in that time — so to speak — that whoever was upon the roof of the house had no time to come down and take anything out of his house, and he who was in the field could not return to the city and take his garment. And there was then no time for mercy, neither upon those with child nor upon those giving suck nor upon their infants; therefore he says (I speak with respect to the words): "woe to those who are with child and to those who are nursing in those days". And as though speaking to the Jews, who supposed that on the Sabbath one ought neither to do work nor to walk a road farther than is a Sabbath's journey, therefore he says: "but pray that your flight be not in winter or on the Sabbath"; for not only on the "Sabbath", but also in "winter" it was a most grievous thing to seek safety through flight. Moreover, it is reported by those who wrote down the Jewish history concerning the things that then befell, that "great tribulation" came upon the people "such as never was from the beginning of the world unto" the time of Christ. But neither afterward can it come to pass that such things befall them, because they dared to lay hands upon the true Christ of God, whose mystery and name David venerated when he said concerning Saul, who was persecuting him and wishing to kill him: "I will not lay my hands upon the Lord's anointed". And by the cutting short of those days that was to come "for the sake of the elect" of God who believe in Christ, we understand a shortening of those days. But then, when the people were set in great calamity and the elect who are in Judea were suffering perils, many seducers were saying: "behold, here is Christ, behold, there". Teaching his disciples to be on guard against them, he said: "then if anyone shall say to you: behold, here is Christ, behold, there, do not believe; for false christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall give great signs and wonders". And one may name either Simon Magus, who said that he was the great power of God, or anyone who was like him, wishing "to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect". These things we have set forth by way of anticipation, adding in this place no other exposition than the one that is according to the text, for the sake of those who take delight in a simple tradition, so that we might say the things that seem useful to them, since the Lord, prophesying that these things would come to pass, foreknowing the truth, expounded them.
Matthew 24:15-18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 42
But if it is necessary, for the sake of those who wish and are able to ascend by the word to loftier things, let us take up again from the beginning the words of the Gospel set forth, and, so far as we can, let us expound the same once more spiritually. And first let us take up the word about the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. For he who reads must be diligent and understanding, so that he not be led astray by the abomination of desolation. The holy place, then, understood spiritually, is every utterance of divine Scripture which the holy prophets who were from the beginning spoke — Moses and, after him, the rest; and not only they, but also the utterance of the evangelists and apostles of Jesus Christ. In this holy place, then, of all the Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and of the New, the Antichrist, which is the false word, has frequently stood, showing himself — through this very fact that he seems to stand in the divine Scriptures — as though he were God and as though he himself were Christ the Word of God; and he himself is the abomination of desolation. For one may frequently see, in the impious argumentations of doctrines among the heresies, this abomination of desolation, that is, the Antichrist, the false word, the abomination that desolates of God every man who has received into himself that abomination opposing the truth, exalting itself above every word that is outside it which is announced to be the word of God, exalting itself also above everything that any one of men wishes to worship, whether truly or falsely (for each doctrine of the heresies is not only opposed to the truth, but also to the other doctrines that are likewise false); and since it is so exalted that it even sits in the temple of the Scriptures, through that very temple, that is, through the Scriptures themselves, it wishes to show itself to be truly God the Word. Always, therefore, let him who reads the divine Scriptures understand them, most of all when he shall have seen the abomination of desolation (according to the things we have said) standing in that holy place which we have expounded, of the holy Scriptures. But he who has understood it will destroy it by the true tradition, that is, by the "illumination of the coming" of Christ who is the truth — that word which seems to stand in another's holy place; and, understanding such an abomination of desolation, he will render it void, and will cast it out from the holy place in which it seems to stand. But most of all will Christ destroy it, who speaks in him, the true light. And this Christ, if he speaks in someone who is willing to hear and to be profited, is not weakened, but every false word, which is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place and sitting in the temple of God (which is the Antichrist), he "will slay with the spirit of his mouth" through those who have offered themselves as capable of him. And that false word frequently does not merely stand, but even sits in the temple, when it seems to be constructed as if reasonably and well. But those who see this abomination of desolation, so that they can say concerning it: "for we are not ignorant of its cunning", understanding therein while they read the things that are true, let them flee the false, and let them withdraw where falsehood will not be able to seize them. But falsehood cannot seize those who flee from the Judea of the letter to the spiritual and intelligible things and the sublime mountains of truth. And that we may understand let them flee into the mountains, take as an example what is said manifestly of a praiseworthy flight, such as what the Apostle says: "flee fornication", and what Wisdom says: "as from the face of a serpent, flee sin", or such as what Rebecca says to Jacob in a mystery: "behold, Esau thy brother threatens to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, hear my voice, and rising up flee to Laban my brother in Haran; and dwell with him some days, until the wrath…
Matthew 24:15-22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Mystically; In the holy place of the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, Antichrist, that is, false word, has often stood; let those who see this flee from the Judæa of the letter to the high mountains of truth. And whoso has been found to have gone up to the house-top of the word, and to be standing upon its summit, let him not come down thence as though he would fetch any thing out of his house. And if he be in the field in which the treasure is hid, and return thence to his house, he will run into the temptation of a false word; but especially if he have stripped off his old garment, that is, the old man, and should have returned again to take it up. Then the soul, as it were with child by the word, not having yet brought forth, is liable to a woe; for it casts that which it had conceived, and loses that hope which is in the acts of truth; and the same also if the word has been brought forth perfect and entire, but not having yet attained sufficient growth. Let them that flee to the mountains pray that their flight be not in the winter or on the sabbath-day, because in the serenity of a settled spirit they may reach the way of salvation, but if the winter overtake them they fall amongst those whom they would fly from. And there be some who rest from evil works, but do not good works; be your flight then not on such sabbath when a man rests from good works, for no man is easily overcome in times of peril from false doctrines, except he is unprovided with good works. But what sorer affliction is there than to see our brethren deceived, and to feel one's self shaken and terrified? Those days mean the precepts and dogmas of truth; and all interpretations coming of science falsely so called (1 Tim. 6:20.) are so many additions to those days, which God shortens by those whom He wills.
Matthew 24:15 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 40
When you see the abomination of desolation, which was written of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand. The words of the prophet which he spoke concerning the abomination of desolation that was to come are these: "and he shall confirm the covenant to many for one week, and in the middle of the week the sacrifice and the offering shall be taken away, and upon the temple there shall be an abomination of desolation, and even unto the consummation of the time the consummation shall be given upon the desolation". Truly indeed to grasp the sayings of Daniel belongs to no other than the Holy Spirit who was in Daniel, so as to make plain the whole discourse concerning the weeks and concerning the abomination of desolation spoken by him. But if it behooves us also to set forth a few things, according to what seems good to us, about this passage, it must be said that the discourse seems to indicate the seventy years which were after the coming of our Savior. For this week, which because of the seven decades of years is called a week, confirmed the covenant to many, when the apostles of Christ also, after his ascension, being intent upon prayer and the word, were illumined by God into all knowledge of the will of the divine Scriptures by the Holy Spirit. But in the middle of the week, that is, in three and a half decades of years, the sacrifice of the altar was taken away, that is, in thirty-five years was fulfilled what had been written: "in the middle of the week the sacrifice and the offering shall be taken away". And then also upon the temple which was in Jerusalem was made the abomination of the desolation of the temple and of the city, namely at that time "when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by an army", so that (according to what the Savior had prophesied concerning it) they might recognize "that its desolation had drawn near". And this abomination of desolation made upon the temple by the army surrounding Jerusalem, the prophet says remains "until the time of consummation", so that the consummation of the world may come upon the desolation of Jerusalem and of the temple which is in it. And where are they "who say they are Jews and are not"? who say: The Jerusalem which is below shall be built, before the consummation of the age comes to pass? "The consummation", he says, "shall be given upon its desolation". But if the temple shall also be built, it shall be built for him "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in a temple" of this kind, "showing himself as though he were God": "whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the illumination of his coming". Whether therefore it pleases some that this Jerusalem be built upon the earth, nevertheless it will not be false which is said, that the consummation is to be given "upon its own desolation". But if it behooves us also to say something about the times, we say that in the Chronicles of a certain Phlegon it is said (if however we ought to accept even this man as speaking truly about the temple) that around the fortieth year from the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple which was in it took place. Deduct therefore about three years of the Lord's preaching and the time of his resurrection, when "appearing to them for forty days" he taught "them concerning the kingdom of God", and you will find perhaps more or less that around the middle of the "week" (reckoning by decades of years) was fulfilled what was said: "my sacrifice and offering shall be taken away", when also "upon the temple the abomination of desolation" was made, which desolation will remain until the time of consummation; for the "consummation", according to what we have said, "shall be given upon the desolation". But if such a tradition of the "week" is established for us, we saying (as far as concerns the saying) that there has been…
Matthew 24:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or because that will not be a time of showing pity, neither upon them who are with child, nor upon them who are suckling, nor upon their infants.
Matthew 24:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 43
But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days. That there are also some souls that conceive offspring, the prophet made clear when he said: "from fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation which you made upon the earth". For just as in those who are pregnant the seed is formed and shaped, so also in the soul that receives the word, the conception of the word is gradually formed and shaped within it. And this I think is what Paul says to the Galatians: "my children, whom I again bring forth in travail until Christ be formed in you", which is as though he were to say: until the word be formed and made manifest in you. In the epistle to Timothy he says likewise that a woman shall be saved "through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". But who is this woman, if not the soul that conceives the word of God and of truth, and gives birth to good works like to Christ? But it is irrational to suppose that what he says was said of a bodily bearing: "the woman, being seduced, fell into transgression; but she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". Therefore the souls that have newly received the word and, being still established as pregnant, have not yet borne fruit in it, having it intelligibly in the womb, cannot endure the discourse that stands "in the holy place" opposing the truth, nor stand firm so as not to be seduced by its persuasions. Therefore if at any time the soul that has it in the womb, and has not yet borne fruit from the word, sees the "abomination of desolation" (according to what we have handed down) "standing in the holy place", it falls under the woe which the Lord speaks: woe to those who are pregnant; for it will cast forth the conception and will be emptied of the hope that is in the acts of truth. But even if the word seem to be formed and to have borne fruit, yet has not been nourished sufficiently with the nourishments that increase it and make it great, but has remained immature, after the likeness of a nursling that suckles, then upon offspring of this kind also there will come what comes upon those who suckle. But if (as in many copies) it is written woe to those who suckle, it must be said that there are souls that are still being suckled with milk, to whom the apostle says: "I gave you milk to drink, not food; for you were not yet able, nor even yet are you able, for you are still carnal". And he says also elsewhere: "you have become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who is fed on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness: for he is an infant". These, then, are the souls which, on account of their weakness, and because they are easily seduced, cannot remain unseducible from the sight of the abomination of desolation standing "in the holy place": for, being seduced, they consent to it as though to God. And one may see the churches of the heretics full of those to be lamented — the pregnant or nursing or suckling. For very often souls that were in the Church pregnant or nursing or suckling and were seduced by the abomination of desolation, and seduced by that false word which stands "in the holy place" through the false tradition of perverse doctrines, have received the woe of that abomination which was spoken by the Lord: woe to those who have in the womb and to those who are nursing, yet not at any time whatever, but in the days of that abomination of desolations. For everyone who hears the words of those who speak "iniquity on high", and receives them in its days, that man becomes subject to the abomination of desolation.
Matthew 24:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And as speaking to Jews who thought they might travel no more upon the sabbath than a sabbath-day's journey, He adds, But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath.
Matthew 24:20 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 44
But pray that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath. There is, as we have said, a certain flight of men according to the precept of the word, so that he who flees the things that ought to be fled is better than he who does not flee and therefore commits such and greater offenses by this, that he does not flee, but makes himself subject to the evils that destroy the soul. But that there is an appointed and praiseworthy flight, the Apostle plainly teaches, saying: "Flee fornication". Now he flees fornication who avoids every occasion that irritates and provokes to fornicating, and neither mingles with the young in youthful tales (as far as he is able), lest perhaps he be consumed through them, nor descends to the customs of such men, but turns himself away entirely from the incitements of men of this kind. Let him who wishes to flee fornication hear also that which is said: "Be not continually with a woman that is a singer, lest perhaps you be consumed by her desires." But he flees fornication more abundantly who avoids, as far as he is able, the foods that kindle and stir up the seed, and, if it can be done, does not use wine until the more fervent age has passed; but if he does use it, let him use a little according to the apostolic precept which says: "Timothy, no longer drink water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities". And what more? He it is who flees fornication, and always works that praiseworthy flight which does not permit one to flee from God. Now he works this flight who is prompt to flee fornication. And not only is fornication to be fled by us, but also every sin. Therefore the scripture said well: "Flee sin as from the face of a serpent". But frequently it is fitting to flee from the Antichrist word and from "knowledge falsely so named", especially when a man is not yet so fit as to have the Lord working in him, who slays "by the breath of his mouth" the persuasions of lies, nor has he ascended to such a height as to have in himself him who destroys "by the illumination of his coming" every persuasion that has the likeness of truth and likens itself to the truth. But he who flees ought to know also the place to which he ought to flee, and to pray also on account of the time, that he flee not at that time which is adverse to flight. The places, then, for those who flee will be the mountains, which Christ points out, saying: "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains". And let him who flees to those mountains say the Psalm of degrees which runs thus: "I have lifted up my eyes unto the mountains, whence help shall come to me". And for this reason he lifts up his eyes to the mountains: because he knows the abundance that is in those mountains; therefore he says: "its foundations are in the holy mountains". And if he flees to the mountains which the Lord commanded, he will come to the holy place, in which, being made and seeing that great vision, he will say what was said: "Passing over, I will see this great vision". And whoever is of this kind will hear: "Loose the sandal of your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground". Therefore let those "flee to the mountains" who flee according to God's command. Since, then, those who are established in tranquility of soul are able to obtain the flight of salvation, but with winter overtaking them they run into those whom they flee, therefore let them pray that their flight be not in winter or on the sabbath, if indeed Christ has kept watch in them. But if he has fallen asleep, then, "a storm of wind" descending "upon the lake", it will descend also upon him who flees, because Jesus does not flee together with him, showing him the flight of the best way. Yet if at some time a storm has descended and has wrought winter, let one pray and rouse Christ by his prayers, that he may rebuke "the wind and the sea", so that, "calm being made", he may flee again, that he be not overtaken by fornication or by avaric…
Matthew 24:20-22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 45
Pray that your flight may not happen in winter or on the Sabbath. God made the works of the world in six days and rested on the Sabbath (but he "rested from the works" of the world which he had begun to make); yet the works of righteousness he always works, without beginning, and will work without end. So too, before the coming of Christ, the whole race of men wrought all the works of the world, and no one rested from them, keeping a perpetual Sabbath from good works. But when our Lord came—our Sabbath and our rest—he brought to us the rest of his Sabbath, so that, just as he rested on the Sabbath from the works of the world, yet did not rest from the works of righteousness, so too we, through him, might keep Sabbath from the worldly and carnal and harmful works, but might always practice the works of righteousness. And that he himself was going to bring us a Sabbath of this kind, in which we do no servile work, he himself bears witness through the prophet, speaking thus of the unworthy Jews: "until I swore in my wrath: they shall not enter into my rest". And again Lamech, in imposing on his son the name Noah in a mystery of Christ, spoke thus of him: "and he called his name Noah, saying: this one shall give us rest from our sorrows and from the works of our hands and from the earth, which the Lord has cursed". Everyone, therefore, who lives in Christ always lives in the Sabbath and rests in rest, resting from evil works, but he works the works of righteousness without ceasing. But many, having the name of Christ, not the grace, on the contrary keep Sabbath from good works, but work evil works. And the middling sort sometimes give up the Sabbath-keeping of evil works and keep Sabbath from good works, not working good things but evil. But certain ones both keep Sabbath from evil works, yet do not practice good works, whereas one ought not only to flee evil things but also to practice good ones. On such a Sabbath, then, of good works—when the Christian man does not do good works—Christ commands us to pray that our flight may not happen on it. For when you cease from good works, if indeed you stand before the face of the abomination and of your own accord submit yourself to it, you have willingly died by the sword of the lying word. But if you should wish to flee and the abomination of desolation should pursue you: either it will break you by its persecutions, because your good works do not work in you the virtue of patience; or it will capture you by its seductions, because your good works do not work in you the light of understanding. For no one in such a peril of false doctrine is easily overcome and deceived, except one who is stripped of good works. Therefore the Apostle too says concerning this very peril: "because they did not receive the love of the truth, he will give them the working of error, that they may believe the lie, that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but consented to iniquity". But when we shall have seen "the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place", we shall also see a great tribulation at hand, such as was not made from the beginning of the world until that very one, nor shall be afterward. For what greater tribulation is there than to see our brothers seduced, on account of the holy place, by the abomination of desolation standing in it? And if indeed the bodily death of some friend or neighbor works great tribulation for one who has not been prepared to endure it, what tribulation do you suppose comes to be for him who suffers-together, when one member has suffered, and for him who is even set on fire, when some brother has been made to stumble? But if anyone should see himself moved and disturbed by the abomination "of desolation" as though it were not the abomination of desolation, and should see himself imperiled on account of the love which he has for the holy place, so that he almost consents to that abomination as though it w…
Matthew 24:23-27 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 46
Then if anyone says to you: Behold, here is Christ. Behold, there. Do not believe. For false Christs and false prophets shall arise. And they shall give great signs and wonders, so that even the elect, if it be possible, may be led into error. Behold, I have foretold it to you. But if they say to you: Behold, he is in the wilderness, do not go out; behold, he is in the houses, do not believe. For as lightning goes forth from the east and appears even to the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man; for wherever the corpse shall be, there shall the eagles be gathered together.. Since we have said that the "abomination of desolation standing in the holy place" is the word of falsehood which appears to stand in the holy place of the scriptures, someone will say: and how, as though it were not standing there, will someone thus say to the disciples of Christ behold, here is Christ. behold, there? and another will say: behold, he is in the wilderness, and another: behold, he is in the houses? See therefore whether to this we can say, as to what he says: behold here, behold there, that when he says behold here, behold there it is not to be looked for outside the scripture. For he who wishes to seduce us and to defend things contrary to the truth will say: behold, here is Christ, pointing, for example's sake, to this passage of the Gospel. And the author of another error will say: behold, here is Christ, offering as an example another text, which seems to defend that word of falsehood which he set out to vindicate. And so from the law, from the prophets, from the apostles, each one brings forth what seem to defend that falsehood as though it were the truth. Or thus is fulfilled what he says: behold, here is Christ, behold, there, pointing not to Christ, but to some fabricated figure bearing the same name, as for instance according to the doctrine of Marcion and according to the traditions of Valentinus or the long fabrication of Basilides, or according to the false testimony of Apelles against Paul. But there will also be many others who will say to the disciples out of the divine scriptures, joining to them their own private meaning: behold, here is Christ, behold, there. But if they say to you: behold, in the wilderness, do not go out; behold, in the houses, do not believe. For some, bringing forth certain secret things, say: behold, in the wilderness. When therefore they bring forth secret and not commonly known scriptures for the confirmation of their falsehood, they seem to say: behold, in the wilderness is the word of truth. For secret scriptures are rightly called wildernesses, in which either few are believers or none. But whenever they bring forth the canonical scriptures, in which every Christian consents and believes, they seem to say: behold, in the houses is the word of truth. But we ought not to believe them, nor to go out from the first and ecclesiastical tradition, nor to believe otherwise than as they have handed down to us through the succession of the Church of God. Or thus: some professors of those false words do not indeed from the beginning counterfeit the scriptures, and thus attempt to deceive. Therefore (I reckon), wishing to point out those discourses which are altogether outside the scripture, he said: if they say to you: behold, he is in the wilderness, do not go out, from the rule of faith. And wishing to point out those who counterfeit the divine scriptures unto schism, he said: if they say to you: behold, in the houses, do not believe. Whatever they may profess concerning the scriptures and concerning the mysteries which are in them for demonstration, "do not believe" the things that are said. For the truth is like lightning going forth from the east and appearing even to the west: such is the truth of the Church of God; for from it alone "the sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world", and it alone, the true truth of God, runs swiftly.
Matthew 24:23-28 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 47
For as the lightning goes forth from the east and appears as far as the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. But we ought to know this also, that the lightning of truth does not appear in some one place of the Scriptures, while from another place of the Scriptures it is not upheld; rather it is upheld from every place of the Scriptures, that is, whether from the Law or from the prophets or from the Gospels or from the writing of the apostles. And this lightning of truth, going forth from the east — that is, from the beginnings of Christ — appears as far as the dispensation of his passion, in which is its setting. And to such a lightning as this is like the coming of the Son of man, that is, of the word of truth. And in this way too we can understand what he says: it goes forth from the east and appears as far as the west. That Christ is the Word and the truth and the wisdom of God is shown from the first beginning of the creation of the world down to the last writing of the apostles (that is, from Genesis down to the apostolic books), after which no writings are to be believed as those are. Or thus: because "the Law and the prophets were until John", in which is the lightning of truth, and the east indeed is the Law, but the west, the "end of the Law", is John. But the Church alone neither subtracts the word and meaning of this lightning, nor adds anything else as though a prophecy. But if we must inquire more subtly why it is said not "east" in the singular nor "west" in the singular, but thus: from the easts as far as the wests, we shall say that one east and one west is "the Law and the prophets until John"; another east as far as the west is Christ Jesus as far as Paul, to whom, the last of the apostles, "as to one born out of due time, Christ appeared". But consider this also, that above we spoke of one "abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place", but he adds, as concerning many, for there shall arise false Christs. For generally the Antichrist is one, but his kinds are many, as if we should say: falsehood generally is one, but according to the differences of false doctrines there are found to be many falsehoods. For if falsehood differs in nothing from falsehood — for instance that of Basilides or of Marcion or of Valentinus or of Apelles or of any similar men — the falsehood seems to be one. But if according to diverse doctrines they lie, then many are those who arise. For these are Antichrists; and whoever shall arise after them. But just as of the true word of Christ, and made one, were the holy prophets who from the beginning of the age proclaimed the passions of Christ and afterward the glories that were to be his, so understand for me, according to each single false Christ, his many false prophets. Therefore they are not teachers of some one falsehood, but false prophets of all of them — of that Antichrist, whose false words they preach as though true, and teach. According to these things, therefore, which we have said, those who teach the word in the manner of the Church are prophets of Christ; but those who preach the false word of Marcion or of any of them are prophets of that Antichrist which is according to Marcion, that is, of that falsehood which Marcion introduced; and others are false prophets of that falsehood which is according to Basilides, and others of that which is according to Apelles. Likewise you will say also concerning the preachers of the several heresies. For all the persuasive things that are brought forward for the defense of the word of Antichrist are the signs of that Antichrist and wonders: whatever things are suggested by the serpent, wisest "of all the beasts of the earth", and by the prince of the Assyrians of great cunning, are great signs and wonders, so that even the elect, if it be possible, may be led into error. But it is a word of exaggeration when he says if it be possible; for he did not declare nor say, so…
Matthew 24:23-24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The genus of Antichrist is one, the species many, just as all lies are of one sort. As all the holy Prophets were Prophets of the true Christ, so understand that each false Christ shall have his own false Prophets, who shall preach as true the false teachings of some Antichrist. When then one shall say, Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there, we need not look abroad out of the Scriptures, for out of the Law, the Prophets, and the Apostles, they bring the things which seem to favour their lie. Or by this, Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there, they show that it was not Christ, but some impostor under the same title, such for example as Marcion, or Valentinus, or Basilides taught.
Matthew 24:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That, If it were possible, is spoken hyperbolically; not that the elect can be led astray, but He wishes to show that the discourse of heretics is often so persuasive, as to have force to prevail even with those who act wisely.
Matthew 24:26-27 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, when they allege secret and before unpublished Scriptures, in proof of their lie, they seem to say, Lo, the word of truth is in the desert. But when they produce canonical Scripture in which all Christians agree, they seem to say, Lo, the word of truth is in the chambers. Or wishing to point out such discourses as are altogether without Scripture, He said, If they shall say to you, Lo, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. Truth is like the lightning that cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west. Or this may mean, that truth can be supported out of every passage of Scripture. The lightning of truth comes out of the east, that is, from the first beginnings of Christ, and shines throughout even to His passion, which is His setting; or from the very beginning of creation, to the last Scripture of the Apostles. Or, the east is the Law, the west is the end of the Law, and of John's prophecy. The Church alone neither takes away word or meaning from this lightning, nor adds aught to its prophecy. Or He means that we should give no heed to those who say, Lo, here is Christ, but show Him not in the Church, in which alone is the coming or the Son of Man, who said, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. (Mat. 28:20.)
Matthew 24:28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And observe, He says not vultures or crows, but eagles, showing the lordliness and royalty of all who have believed in the Lord's passion.
Matthew 24:29 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
One will say, As at the breaking out of great conflagrations, great darkness is at the first caused by the smoke, so when the world shall be consumed by fire, which shall be kindled, even the great luminaries shall be darkened; and when the light of the stars is decayed, the rest of their substance, incapable of exaltation, shall fall from heaven into what it was, when it was first raised aloft by the light. When this shall have taken place, it follows that the rational heavenly powers shall suffer dismay and derangement, and shall be suspended from their functions. Others will think otherwise, that as the light of a lamp dies away by degrees, so when the supply of the heavenly luminaries shall fail, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon and the light of the stars shall grow dim, and that which in their composition is earthy shall fall from heaven. But how can it be said of the sun that its light shall be darkened, when Esaias the Prophet (Is. 30:26.) declares, that in the end of the world, there shall be light proceeding forth from the sun? And of the moon he declares that it shall be as the sun. But concerning the stars, there are some that endeavour to convince us that all, or many of them, are larger than the whole earth. How then shall they fall from heaven, when this earth would not be large enough to contain them? But as, at the dispensation of the Cross, the sun was eclipsed, and darkness was spread over the earth; so when the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven, the light of the sun, moon, and stars, shall fail, as though waning before the might of that sign. This we understand to be the sign of the cross, that the Jews may see, as Zacharias and John speak, Him whom they have pierced, (Zech. 12:10. John 19:37.) and the sign of victory. Morally, one may say that the sun, which shall be darkened, is the Devil, who shall be convicted in the end of the world, that whereas he is darkness, he has feigned himself to be the sun; the moon, which seems to receive its light from this sun, is the Church of the wicked, which professes to have and to give light, but then convicted with its sinful dogmas, shall lose its brightness; and all those who, either by false teaching, or false virtues, promised truth to men, but led them astray by lies, these are fitly called stars falling from, so to say, their own heaven, where they were raised on high, exalting themselves against the knowledge of God. For illustration of this discourse, we may apply that place in Proverbs, which says, The light of the just is unquenchable, but the light of the wicked shall be quenched. (Prov. 4:18) Then the brightness of God shall appear in every one who has borne the image of the heavenly; and they of heaven shall rejoice, but they of earth shall lament.
Matthew 24:29-30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 48
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (24, 29—30ᵃ). Since we consider that greater themes here come under discussion than lie within the grasp of human understanding — even of those who have advanced in wisdom far beyond others — let us come and examine the passage: first inquiring into those things which can readily be admitted for an exposition of the Gospel text, as though the Lord Himself were prophesying in it; and afterward we shall look for what the truth of these words may be according to those who judge that there is something deeper and more subtle in the words, keeping to the sequence of the moral traditions in these matters as well, in the same manner as above. Someone, then, will say: just as when great fires begin to be kindled a darkness seems to be raised up out of the abundant smoke, so at the consummation of the world, by the fire which is to be set alight, even the "great lights" shall be darkened, so that, the sun being darkened, and in consequence of the darkening of the sun, the moon too, hindered by the sun from receiving light, is not permitted even to give its own light. And thus of necessity a great darkness must first take hold of the nature of the world. And so, when the light of the stars has thus withered away, the remaining body of them, having become grosser, since it cannot be borne aloft as at first when it was lifted up carried by the light itself, will fall from heaven. And when these things happen, it follows that the rational powers of the heavens, suffering amazement, undergo a certain commotion and are troubled, being, that is, removed from their former functions. So he who understands these things to be thus will add that the sign of the Son of man, in whom "the things that were in the heavens and the things that were on earth" were made heavenly, shall then appear: namely, the power which the Son of man wrought when He was hung upon the tree; and in heaven above all shall His sign shine forth. And men out of all the tribes, who formerly did not believe in the Christianity that was proclaimed but even spoke evil of it, then, recognizing it through that sign made manifest, shall mourn and lament because of their ignorance and their sins, in that they did not receive the word of the Lord. But another will judge otherwise concerning these words, holding that (as these words themselves show) the destruction of the world will not come about by fire, but by its own failing. And he will make use of such an illustration: that just as, when the light of a lamp fails, the light is little by little diminished, so, when the nourishment of the heavenly lights fails, the sun shall be darkened, no longer having the breaths that come to it from them coming upon it. And when the greater light suffers this, all the more will the moon too be unable to display that fiery splendor which appears according to its own phases. When, therefore, these things befall the sun, the light of the stars too will fail, so that what has remained in them, being as it were earthy, falls from heaven, and, these things happening, all the powers of the heavens shall be moved. For just as, in the dispensation of the cross, "when the sun failed, darkness came over all the earth", so also, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, the light of the sun and of the moon shall fail, and yet more that of the stars, as though consumed by the great power of that sign; and when it appears, the tribes that shall then have remained on the earth shall mourn. For these things he will use the illustration of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in this manner: "For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of wrath and fury, to make the circle of the earth a desert and…
Matthew 24:29-30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 49
But since one who speaks about the divine Scriptures ought to take care not only for the simple — lest, on their account, he neglect those who are able more abundantly to sustain the nature of subtle words — that perhaps such traditions be not false, and nothing of the sort as ought to be that which must be said by God concerning matters of this kind: therefore, for the sake of such men also, we shall expound a few things morally, as far as we can. Now men of this kind will say: how can it be said of the sun that its light shall be darkened, when the prophet Isaiah declares that there will be some increase of the sun at the consummation, but this present passage [declares] a taking-away? Similarly too concerning the moon, Isaiah indeed reports that it will be like the sun, but the present passage [says] that it shall not give its light. And concerning the stars they will say such things as these. Since from the earth to heaven there is a great space, especially up to the middle zone in which there are no wandering stars, one must therefore reckon, in view of the consideration of its height, that unless the stars were great beyond measure, their light would not be seen from so great a space by all who are in every part of the lands. And as some try to say — that either all or most of them are greater than the earth itself (using this as an argument to commend the reasoning of their words, namely that the whole heaven, gathered into the shape of a sphere, encompasses the entire earth) — they will also say something of this sort: that those who gather the truth of these sayings simply from the text itself declare as possible a thing that is by nature itself impossible, namely that stars of such great magnitude should fall from heaven. For whither will they even fall, when the earth does not suffice for their magnitude, nor can it hold, so to speak, the magnitude of two stars? But suppose it could hold two or three: can it possibly hold so great a multitude as well? Ought one not, therefore, perhaps to understand something else, in a moral sense, in the divine Scriptures? And this is indeed a matter of boldness, yet it is necessary; nevertheless much discussion is needed in these passages by one who wishes to show at once both the possibility of the Scriptures and their truth. He will say, therefore, that the sun to be darkened is the devil, who "transforms himself into an angel of light" and, as though he were the sun, leads many astray. Since, therefore, he is to be exposed at the consummation — being darkness, though he pretends himself to be the sun — for this reason what he says, the sun shall be darkened, can be understood of him. And he will say that this explanation is more fitting than to suppose that such a sun will suffer darkening. All, he says, may fittingly assent, without any danger, to this approved account concerning such a sun being thus darkened. And in accordance with the analogy of such a sun, the moon also is to be understood, which appears to be illuminated by such a sun. For every "church of evildoers", which frequently promises that it has and gives light, but which then, being exposed and made manifest along with its reprobate teachings, shall not give its brightness. But also whoever, whether in false doctrines or in false virtues, were promising truth to men yet by their lies were leading astray those who gave heed to them — these may fittingly be called stars falling from heaven, but (so to speak) from their own heaven, where there were established heights exalting themselves "against the knowledge of God". And to commend an account of this kind he will use the example of Proverbs, which says: "the light of the righteous is always unquenchable, but the light of the impious shall be quenched"; and he will add that the true knowledge (which those have kindled for themselves who heard him saying: "kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge") is the light of the righteous, but that false knowledge is t…
Matthew 24:30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 50
And they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and much glory (24, 30ᵇ). Since the catholic Church appears to have received, along with other traditions, this too concerning Christ's second coming—that it will be in glory—that much is manifest. But whether, according to what is written in this place, we ought to reckon corporeal and perceptible clouds to be his vehicle, and to expect that great power and glory in accord with clouds of this kind; or whether, following the observation of the more simple word, it is also to be considered morally; or whether we ought not to observe the simplicity of the word at all, but only to pursue the moral understanding—this belongs not to just anyone: to deliberate and diligently to scrutinize the individual passages, and, after one has treated the word according to them, then to pronounce which of them is especially the more true and contains the Gospel sense and the will of Christ, who spoke these things. But come, let us set forth in these places a few things out of our modest power, if indeed we have even that. And first, according to the text, they will see with corporeal eyes the Son of Man in human form coming upon the upper clouds, which clouds are for this reason called clouds of heaven, with power and much glory. And there agree with this exposition the things that are said above in the Gospel in this manner: "when Jesus had taken Peter and John and James, he led them up onto a very high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became like light. And there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him". "And behold (he says) a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him." Just as, therefore, when "he was transformed, and his face shone like the sun and his garments became like light" and "a voice" came "out of the cloud saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", so, when he comes again, perhaps he will be transformed into a glorious appearance; or just as then he was transformed before his three disciples, afterward he will come not upon one cloud, but upon many, which will be his vehicle. And that it follows that he will be re-formed into a better glory than that into which he was transformed on the mountain, is manifest from this: that then indeed he was transformed on account of three only, but in the consummation of the whole world he will appear in much glory, so that all may see him in glory. And then indeed, descending, "a bright cloud overshadowed them", but afterward many clouds will carry "the Son of Man coming" with a vehicle worthy of his glory. But someone will say that, just as in the fashioning of man God took "mud from the earth" and "fashioned man", so, in order that the glory of Christ might appear, God took from heaven and from the heavenly body and gave it bodily form, first indeed into a bright cloud, but in the consummation into bright clouds; on account of which the clouds too are called clouds of heaven, according as the mud too was called mud of earth. And it befits the Father to bestow such marvels upon his Son, who "humbled himself", and out of love "did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant", and became "the Lamb of God" that he might take away "the sins of the world". For "on this account also God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name". And he exalted him not only according to the spirit, but also according to the body (that he might be exalted through all things), even the body which he took up from the power of the Most High and from the Virgin, she ministering a ministry of this kind. For it was fitting that it too be honored, so that he should come even upon such clouds; perhaps upon animate and rational clouds, so that the vehicle of the glorified Son of Man should…
Matthew 24:30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, that sign by which the heavenly things were made, that is, the power which the Son wrought when He hung upon the cross. And the sign shall appear in heaven, that men of all tribes who before had not believed Christianity when preached, then by that sign, acknowledging it as made plain, shall grieve and mourn for their ignorance and sins. Therefore shall they see with the bodily eyes the Son of Man, coming in human shape, in the clouds of heaven, that is, on high. As at the transfiguration, a voice came out of the cloud, so when He shall come again transformed into His glorious appearance, it shall be not on one cloud, but upon many, which shall be His chariot. And if when the Son of God went up to Jerusalem, they who loved Him spread their garments in the way, not willing that even the ass that carried Him should tread upon the earth; what wonder, if the Father and God of all should spread the clouds of heaven under the body of the Son, when He comes to the work of the consummation? And one may say, that as in the creation of man, God took clay from the earth and made man; so to manifest the glory of Christ, the Lord taking of the heaven, and of its substance, gave it a body of a bright cloud in the Transfiguration, and of bright clouds at the Consummation; wherefore it is here said, in the clouds of heaven, as it was there said, of the clay of the ground. (Gen. 2:7.) And it behoves the Father to give all such admirable gifts to the Son, because He humbled Himself; and He has also exalted Him, not only spiritually, but bodily, that He should come upon such clouds; and perhaps upon rational clouds, that even the chariot of the glorified Son of Man should not be irrational. At the first, Jesus came with that power with which He wrought signs and wonders in the people; yet was that power little in comparison of that great power with which He shall come in the end; for that was the power of one emptying Himself of power. And also, it is fitting that He should be transformed into greater glory than at the transfiguration on the mount; for then He was transfigured for the sake of three only, but in the consummation of the whole world, He shall appear in great glory, that all may see Him in glory. Or He comes every day with great power to the mind of the believer in the clouds of prophecy, that is, in the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles, who utter the word of God with a meaning above human nature. Also we say that to those who understand He comes with great glory, and that this is the more seen in the second coming of the Word which is to the perfect. And so it may be, that all which the three Evangelists have said concerning Christ's coming, if carefully compared together and thoroughly examined, would be found to apply to His continual daily coming in His body, which is the Church, of which coming He said in another place, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven, (Mat. 26:6.) excepting those places in which He promises that His last coming in His own person.
Matthew 24:31 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or He comes every day with great power to the mind of the believer in the clouds of prophecy, that is, in the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles, who utter the word of God with a meaning above human nature. Also we say that to those who understand He comes with great glory, and that this is the more seen in the second coming of the Word which is to the perfect. 1And so it may be, that all which the three Evangelists have said concerning Christ's coming, if carefully compared together and thoroughly examined, would be found to apply to His continual daily coming in His body, which is the Church, of which coming He said in another place, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven, (Mat. 26:6.) excepting those places in which He promises that His last coming in His own person. Because He had spoken of mourning, which shall be only that they may bear witness against themselves and condemn themselves, that none should suppose that that mourning will end their woes, He now adds, And he shall send his Angels with a trump and a loud voice. It is written in Numbers (Numb. 10:3.), that the Priests shall summon by the sound of the trumpet from the four winds those who are of the camp of Israel, and it is in allusion to this that Christ speaks here of the Angels, And they shall gather together the elect from the four winds. Some of little discernment think, that only those who shall then be found in the body shall be gathered together, but it is better to say that the Angels of Christ shall then gather together not only all who from the coming of Christ to the end of the world have been called and chosen, but all from the foundation of the world, who like Abraham have seen the day of Christ and rejoiced therein. (John 8:56.) And that He here means not only those that shall be found in the body, but those also who have quitted the body, the following words show, from one end of heaven to the other, which cannot be meant of any one upon earth. Or, the heavens are the divine Scriptures and their authors in which God dwells. One end of heaven is the beginning of the Scriptures, the other end is their conclusion. The saints there are gathered together from one end of heaven, that is, from those that live in the beginning of the Scriptures to those who live in the ends of them. They shall be gathered together with a trump and a loud voice, that they who hear and attend may prepare themselves for that way of perfection which leads to the Son of God.
Matthew 24:31 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 51
And he will send his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the highest heavens even unto their ends. Similarly in Mark he says it in this way: "and then he will send his angels, and they will gather the elect from the four winds, from the utmost part of the earth even unto the utmost part of heaven". As for his saying that the Savior sends his angels with a great trumpet (whatever that trumpet is) to gather his elect, it follows consistently upon those things which are related in another parable concerning the seeds and the tares; and interpreting the parable he speaks thus, that "the harvest is the consummation, the reapers are the angels. Just as therefore the tares are gathered and burned with fire, so shall it be in the consummation of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all offenses and those who work iniquity, and they will cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father". He says something of the same kind also in the parable "of the net cast into the sea". Therefore "the reapers, the angels" are sent by the Savior to gather all the tares, so that after these things the saints may shine "as the sun in the kingdom of their Father", so that thereafter the elect may be gathered from the four winds, from the highest heavens even unto their ends. Consider whether (as the simpler sort suppose) he says that only those elect are to be gathered who shall at that time be found in the body, or rather all who are "beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ". And see whether it is not better to say that all who have been called and elect from the coming of Christ even unto the consummation are to be gathered by the angels of Christ. But you will inquire whether also those who lived from the foundation of the world even unto his coming are to be gathered — if indeed the elect of Christ are not only those who are holy from his coming (as certain teachers of the heresies say), but all who existed from the foundation of the world, who, like Abraham, saw the day of Christ and with divine exultation exulted over him. But if the angels are to gather not only (as the simple think) those who shall be found in the body, but all the elect of Christ, it is worthy of consideration what they are doing in the meantime, or in what place they are staying, while they gather the elect. And that he says that not only those who have been comprehended in the body are the elect of Christ to be gathered, but also those who have departed out of their bodies, the passage makes plain when it says that the elect are to be gathered not only from the four winds, but also from the highest heavens even unto their ends. For I think that what he says — that they may be gathered from the highest heavens — fits no one who is upon earth, unless perhaps those who, while dwelling for a time among men, dwell among the angels teaching heavenly things; these the holy angels will gather, so that, being previously instructed in the highest heavens even unto their ends and equipped, they may hand them over to the perfect Master, the Word, the Son of God, to reign together with him and to receive those things which the Son will hand over to these who have previously received the heavenly teaching. And since this life of ours upon earth is a shadow, it follows that now they are instructed by the Law and the prophets — those who in that fullness of time are to know the remaining things, and to know fuller things from the Son of God according to the heavenly realities themselves — so that those who are in the highest heavens may be, as it were, in a kind of course of instruction, that they may afterward be able to receive the wisdom of God, or rather to receive as wisdom the very Son of God himself, "when that which" is truly "perfect shall have come". And let us und…
Matthew 24:31 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 52
But since we wish to understand what the great trumpet is, we ought to compare spiritual things with spiritual. Come now, let us also briefly expound about the trumpets, insofar as we are able to grasp it, to see whether we can, from the gathering together and the reminder of these examples, understand also the great trumpet of the angels. For it is written in Numbers: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Make yourself two silver trumpets; of beaten work you shall make them; and they shall serve you for gathering together the congregation and they shall serve you for setting the camps in motion. And you shall sound with them, and all the congregation shall be gathered together to you at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; but if they sound with one only, all the chiefs of the hosts of Israel shall come to you. And you shall sound the first signal, and the camps that lie toward the east shall set out; and you shall sound the second signal, and the camps that lie toward the south shall set out; and you shall sound the third signal, and the camps that lie toward the sea shall set out; and you shall sound the fourth signal, and the camps that lie toward the north shall take up their march; therefore they shall sound the trumpet at their setting out. And when you gather together the assembly, you shall sound, but not a signal. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sound with the trumpets. And it shall be to you a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations. But if you go out to war in your land against your adversaries, you shall sound with the trumpets. And you shall be remembered in the sight of your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. And in the days of your gladness and in your feasts and in your new moons you shall sound with the trumpets, both over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and there shall be a remembrance of you in the sight of your God. I am the Lord your God." See also in these words that at the first signal of the trumpet the camps set out that are toward the east, but at the second the camps set out that are toward the south, and — to put it briefly — from the four winds the priests sounding the trumpets gather together those who are of the camps of Israel; and, in correspondence with the priests sounding the trumpets, the angels of Christ with a great trumpet will gather together his elect from the four winds. But in Numbers these things are written as done on the earth, whereas in the Gospels they are done "from the height of the earth even to the height of heaven", and after these things from the heights of the heavens even to their heights. And perhaps, if "the law has a shadow of the good things to come", then in Numbers too what has been set down concerning the trumpets and the ranks of Israel is a shadow of things to come. Lest, then, perhaps the silver trumpets (since silver is in many places taken for the word) … the great voice of the word is understood as a silver trumpet gathering together each one "in his own order", according to the shadow indeed as Moses named it, but according to the mystery as Paul says in the first epistle to the Corinthians. And first, with the rational trumpets, they set the camps in motion. Thus the legislation is made concerning those matters which pertain to the war of Israel, since through that signal of the trumpets it calls to remembrance matters of war; which trumpets bring those who are called to remembrance through those signals of the trumpets in matters of war, to the saving of them from their enemies. But the sounds of the silver and beaten trumpets in the days of the gladness of Israel, which are taken up at their new moons, were shadows of the new moons to come, of which the Apostle says: "Let no one judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a feast day or of a new moon or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come". And they are taken up also over the burnt offerings and over the sacrifice…
Matthew 24:32-33 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 53
But from the fig tree learn a parable: for when its branch has now become tender and puts forth leaves, know that summer is near; so also you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, at the door. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. How the comparison of the things that have been said can be understood from the fig tree, we shall expound according to our ability: lest perhaps this whole world and its consummation be likened to a fig tree, and each one of those setting out toward the blessed life, so as to see in himself the glorious and perfect coming of Christ's word, be held to be like a fig tree. For just as the fig tree in the time of winter indeed has in itself the life-giving power, but has it hidden and not sufficiently manifest, and afterward, when that very life-giving power begins to come forth into manifestation as the winter passes, out of its own vigor the branch is made tender, and it puts forth also leaves; and just as the tree in that very power has leaves and fruits, and first indeed there is the bud, then little by little it advances, and last of all also by the actual effect: so also the world and each one of those who are saved, at the end before the coming of Christ (as it were in winter) has in himself the life-giving power hidden, but with Christ breathing upon them, those branches which are tender and not hard-hearted, and the things that were hidden in them, advance into leaves as the summer draws on and show forth manifest fruits, which he who beholds them in Christ already sees. So too it is related in a certain parable of the Shepherd, if it please anyone to read that book also, that "the present age is winter for the just", who appear like their neighbors by nature, namely like the other dry trees, but in the opportune time appear in their fruits. But if in the first Psalm also there be some such thing, which is said concerning that blessed man, that "he shall be as the tree which is planted beside the running waters, which shall give its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall off, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper", do you also consider what is written. "The winter has passed, it has gone its way, the flowers have appeared in the land", as is written in the Song of Songs, from the time that Christ came, who introduced the mild season and made the wintry blasts to cease. And the fig tree, that is, the world, has now indeed made the tender branch, that is, the Church, to put forth leaves, while summer is at hand yet has not yet come; but when summer has come, it will more fully render fruits perfect and ripe for Christ, when according to Jeremiah the good figs are very good, gathered into baskets of good figs, from which Christ wishes to take and, as it were, to eat their sweetness. But far be it from us that, when Jesus comes to us and wishes to eat of the fig tree, no fruit should be found in it. For if no fruit be found in it, he will say to it at his coming, to the tree that has not shown fruits: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". And that fig tree can be understood as the people of the circumcision, to whom the Lord came hungering, and when he had not found "fruit in it" but only the appearance of life, he said: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". Wherefore at his coming "that fig tree was straightway withered", that is, that people; but that other fig tree, which (as regards the earlier times) was barren, which was already to be cut down because it had had no diligence applied to it by its own digger, when dung has begun to be put around it, will put forth fruits; the tree which had once drained the ground, but now will bring forth more abundant fruits even in return for the time gone by in which it was barren. And each one of us, after the winters of temptations and after the sorrow of dangers past, hastens to summer,…
Matthew 24:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
As the fig has its vital powers torpid within it through the season of winter, but when that is past its branches become tender by those very powers and put forth leaves; so the world and all those who are saved had before Christ's coming their vital energies dormant within them as in a season of winter. Christ's Spirit breathing upon them makes the branches of their hearts soft and tender, and that which was dormant within burgeons into leaf, and makes show of fruit. To such the summer and the coming of the glory of the Word of God is nigh at hand.
Matthew 24:34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The uninstructed refer the words to the destruction of Jerusalem, and suppose them to have been said of that generation which saw Christ's death, that it should not pass away before the city should be destroyed. But I doubt that they would succeed in thus expounding every word from that, one stone shall not be left upon another, to that, it is even at the door; in some perhaps they would succeed, in others not altogether. Yet shall the generation of the Church survive the whole of this world, that it may inherit the world to come, yet it shall not pass away until all these things have come to pass.
Matthew 24:34-35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 54
Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Let us see what this generation is, of which Christ speaks. And the simple, indeed, refer these words to the destruction of Jerusalem; and they suppose it was said of that generation which existed in the time of Christ and looked upon his suffering, a generation that would not pass away before the destruction of that city came to pass. But I do not know whether they can expound word for word what he says: "do you not see all these things? amen I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be destroyed" down to that which he says: it is near, at the door. For perhaps in some points they will be able, but in others they will not be able at all, and, sufficiently hemmed in, I do not know whether they will have been able to say anything. But we, observing in many passages the word "generation," take it in two ways. For we hold that there are two generations, one indeed of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles. Thus we understand also Ecclesiastes saying: one generation passes away and another generation comes, and the earth stands forever. For, prophesying of the people of the Jews, who were to pass away, he says one generation passes away; but of the people of the Gentiles, who were to believe, he said another generation comes. Something of this kind I think is said also in the eighty-ninth Psalm by Moses in his prayer: Lord, thou hast become a refuge for us from generation to generation. For God is the refuge of the two generations, since there is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And since God is the God not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, therefore the generation shall not pass away of the new testament, which is in the face of the Savior, nor shall it depart to those blessed promises of that age, until all things be done which Christ has spoken. For to each one of us it is fitting that all things be done which have been foretold, as we have handed down through the several expositions. There is, therefore, one generation of the Church, which began from the teaching of the Lord the Savior and lasts until the consummation. And this same generation will indeed at some time pass through this whole age (and it will pass through it, so as to inherit that age which is to come), yet until all these things be done, it shall not pass away; but when it shall have been sufficient in all these things and shall have remained impassible until the glorious coming of Christ, then it shall pass through. Yet until all these things be done (not some of the things that have been said, while others are not), those things are not to be; nevertheless this generation shall pass away, when all these things shall have been done, when there shall have passed away not only the earth, but also the heaven, that is, not only those men whose life is earthly, and who for that reason are called earth, but also those whose "citizenship is in the heavens", and who therefore are called heaven. And they shall pass to the things to come, along with all their states, so that they may come to more eminent and better things. For the revelation of these (since they are sons of God) the expectation of the creature awaits, and "every creature groans together with them and is in pain", until, conceiving in the womb from the fear of the Lord, they bring forth "the spirit of salvation", making their own offspring; and then shall pass away the generation of which Christ speaks, and the heaven according to what we have expounded, and the earth according to what we have handed down. But the words which were spoken by the Savior shall not pass away, since the things which are proper to them they work both now and shall always work. But the perfect, and those who do not receive so that they may now be made better, pass…
Matthew 24:35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But when all these shall have been fulfilled, then not the earth only but the heavens also shall pass away; that is, not only the men whose life is earthy, and who are therefore called the earth, but also they whose conversation is in heaven, and who are therefore called the heaven; these shall pass away to things to come, that they may come to better things. But the words spoken by the Saviour shall not pass away, because they effect and shall ever effect their purpose; but the perfect and they that admit no further improvement, passing through what they are, come to that which they are not; and this is that, My words shall not pass away. And perhaps the words of Moses and the Prophets have passed away, because all that they prophesied has been fulfilled; but the words of Christ are always complete, daily fulfilling and to be fulfilled in the saints. Or perhaps we ought not to say that the words of Moses and the Prophets are once for all fulfilled; seeing they also are the words of the Son of God, and are fulfilled continually.
Matthew 24:36 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 55
But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone. These words seem to refute those who promise that they can comprehend the consummation and destruction of the world and who declare "as though the day of the Lord were at hand" — such as certain people are said to have been at Thessalonica in the time of the Apostle, of whom he writes: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon moved from your mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as though from us, as though the day of the Lord were at hand." Perhaps because among the Jews there were certain persons professing, whether through the scriptures, that they knew of the times of the consummation or of hidden things, therefore he writes these things, teaching his disciples that they should believe no one who professes such things. And the Savior, according to this passage, joins himself to those who are ignorant of that day and hour. And it must reasonably be asked how he who is confident that he knows the Father, saying: "No one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal him", knows the Father indeed, yet does not know the day and hour of the consummation, and why the Father hid this from the Son. For there must certainly be some reason why the time of the consummation is hidden even from the Savior and why he is ignorant concerning it. But someone will dare to say that the man who exists according to the Savior is understood to be advancing "in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men", who in advancing did indeed advance above all in knowledge and wisdom, yet not so that there had already come to him that which was perfect, before he fulfilled his own dispensation. It is therefore no wonder if this alone he did not know out of all things, that is, the day and hour of the consummation. But perhaps also, when he said that he did not know the day and hour of the consummation, he said this before his dispensation, because no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son, but the Father alone; but after his dispensation was fulfilled he by no means said this, after "God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name". For afterward the Son too came to know it, receiving knowledge from the Father even concerning the day of the consummation and the hour, so that now not only the Father might know concerning it but also the Son. And indeed in the Acts of the Apostles the apostles "coming together questioned him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? But he said to them: It is not for you to know the times or the moments which the Father hath set in his own power". And since he "set in his own power the times and moments" of the consummation of the world and of the restitution of the kingdom of Israel, therefore what had not yet been predefined by God no one could know. But each of the things which he predefines, he does not predefine from anything inexperienced (for this is impossible); but what he predefines, he predefines by making a beginning of predefining. And if this is so, he predefined indeed to bring about the consummation of the world, but he did not also predefine the "times and moments which he set in his own power", so that, if he wished to increase them, judging thus he might increase them, but if to shorten them, he might shorten them, no one knowing it. And therefore he set the times and moments of the consummation of the world in his own power, so that accordingly he might determine the due judgment for the human race (established in its own free will) acting in this way or that. Many things too are to be found in the prophets, written for the benefit of the hearers, in precepts and denunciations, as though God were not predefining anything about them, but punishing indeed if they should sin, and saving if they should keep t…
Matthew 24:36 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Otherwise; So long as the Church which is Christ's body knows not that day and hour, so long the Son Himself is said not to know that day and hour. The word know is used according to its proper usual meaning in Scripture. The Apostle speaks of Christ, as him who knew no sin, (2 Cor. 5:21.) i. e. sinned not. The knowledge of that day and hour the Son reserves in store for the fellow-heirs of the promise, that all may know at once, i. e. in the day when it shall come upon them, what things God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Cor. 2:9.)
Matthew 24:37-39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 56
For as it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For those who understand the plain text of the present words, whether they wish to understand it spiritually or simply, it is consistent to say concerning the consummation of this world that "it shall come suddenly," like one who has already fallen sick beforehand with a sickness fit to make manifest his coming corruption. For this is shown especially from what he says, that the coming of the Son of man will be like the days of Noah; for then all things that were upon the earth suddenly perished. But whoever wishes to say that the consummation of the world will happen gradually will say that likewise it happened in the days of Noah. For with the rain descending for forty days and forty nights, it followed that those first perished who dwelt in the lower parts of the earth, and after them those who dwelt somewhat in the higher parts, and thus last of all those who dwelt in the highest mountains. So too (he says) in the consummation of the world, when the fire has descended, it will indeed begin from the more elevated places and gradually descend to the lower. But Luke, subjoining also the similitude of the fire of Sodom, gives us occasion to understand that the consummation is to come suddenly. But someone will say that by this it is declared that that rain, or that fire, did not happen according to the order of nature, but on account of the abundance of the sins of men. In two ways, then, is the coming corruption of the world reckoned: in one way according to a natural descent of fire, in another according to the judgment of God. But the Gentiles do not say that those sins were the burning, or the cause of that burning, but that it was the power of fire. The divine discourses, however, teach that all things are held and governed by God, and they do not blame the violence of fire, but proclaim it the will of God — of God who saves upon the earth those who are worthy of salvation in it, but destroys those in whom, on account of the abundance of iniquity, "charity grows cold." For the comparison with the fire of Sodom teaches most manifestly that the corruption of the world will be sudden. This is clear from what the angel said to Lot: "behold, I have admired your face in this word, that I will not destroy the city of which you have spoken; hasten therefore to be saved there; for I cannot do anything until you go thither." You see that that fire which was sent upon Sodom was held back by the divine will, until Lot entered into Zoar. So I think it will be also in the consummation (according as Lot too was saved), that then that fire of the consummation will lay hold of the world according to the judgment of God, when the saved righteous shall shine "as the sun in the kingdom of their Father": then "they will gather the wicked out of the kingdom of Christ and cast them into the furnace of fire." For how is it not manifest that the corruption of the world will be sudden, from what he says: they will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, which are signs of peace and security? For famines and pestilences will perhaps be some time before the consummation; but around the consummation itself there will be neither famine nor war. And how are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, buying and selling to be understood, unless it is so ordered? But this too makes it manifest, what the Apostle says: "that the day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night. When they shall say: peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pain of childbirth upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape"; for he teaches us that the day of c…
Matthew 24:40-41 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 58
Two in one bed, one is taken and the other is left. Besides those who are two in the field and besides those who are two at the mill, there are two bodies in one matter, of which bodies the one is the body of a just man, which is taken, but the other is the body of an unjust man, of the same matter, which is left. And the body, being as it were weak, is in the bed of carnal passions, even though it is taken; but the soul, because of the many things which it endures in this world, grinds at the mill of the world: but the sense in the field, according to the things we have said, works the things that it works.
Matthew 24:40-41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or otherwise; The body is laid as sick on the bed of carnal passions, the soul grinds in the mill of this world, and the bodily senses labour in the field of the world.
Matthew 24:40-41 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 57
Then two will be in the field, one is taken and the other left: two women grinding at the mill, one is taken and the other left; two in one bed, one is taken and the other left (24, 40. 41). Just as in that which he says: "either make the tree bad and its fruit bad, or the tree good and its fruit good," there are two trees in general in the hearts of men, either the good tree of virtue or the bad tree of malice: so, for him to whom "the world is a field" according to a certain parable, there are two in general in it, the one indeed like Noah "a worker of the earth," the other however like Cain "working the earth." When such men have been set in the field of this world, one is taken, that is, he who is like Noah "a worker of the earth"; and the other is left, that is, he who is like Cain "working the earth." And such is "everyone who hates his brother," and on account of hatred of his brother he is called "a murderer" by the apostle John. So too, concerning souls grinding at the heavy mill of the world or of the body, the good one indeed is taken, but the bad one is left, until it is made worthy to be taken. Or thus: two in the field, the mind of the good man and the mind of the bad man; the good mind is taken, the bad one is left. For neither can we say that the spirit of the bad man is not taken, since I have learned from Ecclesiastes concerning every spirit that "it returns to God who gave it," just as also concerning all flesh that it returns to the earth from which it was taken; and just as the Lord himself taught us, that we should fear "him who is able to destroy body and soul in hell," and (by the fact that he said nothing about the spirit) he clearly showed that the spirit is not punished together with the sinful body or soul. For he who has sinned is divided, and one part indeed "of him is placed with the unbelievers," but that which is not his own "returns to God who gave it."
Matthew 24:42 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 59
Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. Not giving "sleep to the eyes" of our soul nor "slumber to the eyelids," so that we may await either our own end or the end of the age, whether that we should depart from this life or that this world should be brought to its consummation for us. But someone will ask how the Lord, established as present among the disciples, speaks thus, as though not present but about to come, saying to them: watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. And the one who is more simple will say that he spoke this discourse concerning the second coming, in which he was to come. But another will say that he was speaking of the intelligible coming of the Word, still to come into the understanding of the disciples, because it was not yet in their understanding in the way it was going to be: since (as he shows through this passage) in those who watch he works the day of his coming in the soul of those who are illumined by the true light of him who comes to their souls. But know this, that if the householder knew at what watch the thief comes, he would surely watch and would not allow his house to be broken into. How would he not allow it? Without doubt, through his watchfulness. Therefore be you also ready, because at what watch you do not expect it, the Son of Man is to come. But Matthew indeed speaks indefinitely, while Mark even defines the times of the day, as of a thief coming, saying: "watch therefore, for you do not know when the lord of the house will come, at evening or at midnight or at cockcrow or in the morning". Now the householder is the understanding of the man, and his house is his soul; but the thief, who comes suddenly while the householder sleeps and breaks into the house, is, I think, the devil or every contrary word, according to what the evangelist John teaches us, saying in this manner: "amen amen I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs up another way, that man is a thief and a robber". As, therefore, he who "enters through the door into the sheepfold" is "the shepherd of the sheep", for whom "the doorkeeper opens", but "he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber", so the lord of the house enters into it confidently "through the door" when he wills, rewarding the one who watches; but the thief, being a thief, does not enter into the house to the soul of the negligent by the natural entrance, but (as one who has already broken into it) first destroying certain natural buildings of his soul and natural understandings, in him who has not watched — the things which God the Word had built. And having entered through that very breach, the thief plunders it, disarming the understanding, when, despoiling the householder who does not watch, "he will distribute his spoils". But sometimes someone catches the thief in the very act of breaking in, and seizing him as one having his own weapons, he strikes the thief, and, confuting the word that breaks in, he kills it, when, though killing, he is not reckoned a murderer, killing it without any delay. But if not in his own presence, yet in the presence of him who makes all hidden things manifest, someone catches him who has stolen his goods, and understands him and refutes him (that is, kills him), he has no pardon, the thief being dead and made manifest: for he too will die. And see whether perhaps the law of Moses signifies some such thing, saying: "but if the thief is found in the very breaking in and, being struck, dies, there is no bloodguilt for him; but if the sun has risen over him, he is guilty: he shall die for it". For he who, before he does the evil, recognizes the evil and crushes it in himself, is the one who catches and kills it in himself, while it is being broken in upon by it. But he who, after he has done the evil, although he refutes it, is seen to have caught the evil outside himself and to hav…
Matthew 24:42 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 60
But since we have once come to this passage, we ought also to give an account of the various watches. One person indeed is found keeping watch straightway in the evening itself and continues his watches until midnight, and further still until cockcrow, and still further until morning. For whoever, as soon as he has begun malice — that is, as soon as the infant has begun to bring forth full speech (for from this point he begins to be in malice, which is being in the night) — if he straightway hands himself over so that he becomes both a hearer of the law and a doer of it, "provided he shall have endured unto the end" in that same purpose, he has kept watch from the evening and has continued until midnight and has given neither "sleep to his eyes" nor until cockcrow nor until morning: a man of this kind is reckoned among the blessed servants. But whoever shall have been found, after the time when speech is completed, to pass some part of the night "in revelings and drunkenness and beds and shameless deeds," yet afterward has begun to keep watch — this one too will have good hope if he endures until morning, beginning to keep watch from midnight, that is, from manhood. But if, advanced in the time of his body's age, upon hearing the divine teaching he receives from it a lamp, as though willing to live according to the commandment of God, this one too, having a lamp from cockcrow and keeping watch and enduring until morning, does not lose the reward of good servitude in a short time. And if it is possible, even straightway around the very completion of the night (that is, after malice has consumed almost the whole time of his life), that as a believer he may kindle a lamp for himself and keep watch even in the remaining time — then, if the master of the house comes with his grace, with some indeed he will abide from evening until morning, but with others, enlightening them from midnight for what remains, and with others from cockcrow, dwelling less with them; but neither will he abandon those who in the morning kindle a lamp and keep watch on account of the expectation of the master, but even these, finding them by no means asleep nor attending to "beds and shameless deeds," he will honor them with the honor by which he shall have recognized them to be worthy. And so the thief too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night and digs through the house of him whom he shall have found not keeping watch nor having a lamp lit. And upon some indeed he comes in the evening, but upon others at midnight, and upon some even at cockcrow, and there are also those upon whom he comes in the morning. And the master too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night, and perhaps the master comes to that man to whom the thief, in coming, could do nothing — namely, not being permitted to dig through the house of the one keeping watch and having a lamp lit. But to him who has his house dug through the master does not come, especially if anyone has learned what was said: "let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be yourselves like men awaiting their master", and, despising the things that were said, has given "sleep to his eyes and drowsiness to his eyelids". But to make clear the sense of this passage which has come upon us, let us use such an example: in the time of temptations or of calamities of whatever kind the thief is especially wont to come, wishing to dig through the house of the soul; but when the thief comes, the one who bears the mishaps and endures all things for the love of God, having suffered nothing from him, will straightway see the master coming to him. But whoever shall have had his house dug through by the thief in the time of his calamity will, as unworthy of the coming of his master to him, not be worthy to look upon him.
Matthew 24:42 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Those of more plain understanding say, that He spoke this of His second coming; but others would say that it applies to an intellectual coming of the word into the understanding of the disciples, for as yet He was not in their understanding as He was to be.
Matthew 24:43 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The master of the household is the understanding, the house is the soul, the thief is the Devil. The thief is also every contrary doctrine which enters the soul of the unwary by other than the natural entrance, breaking into the house, and pulling down the soul's natural fences, that is, the natural powers of understanding, it enters the breach, and spoils the soul. Sometimes one takes the thief in the act of breaking in, and seizing him, stabs him with a word, and slays him. And the thief comes not in the day-time, when the soul of the thoughtful man is illuminated with the Sun of righteousness, but in the night, that is, in the time of prevailing wickedness; in which, when one is plunged, it is possible, though he have not the power of the sun, that he may be illuminated by some rays from the Word, as from a lamp; continuing still in evil, yet having a better purpose, and watchfulness, that this his purpose should not be broken through. Or in time of temptation, or of any calamities, is the time when the thief is most found to come, seeking to break through the house of the soul.
Matthew 24:45 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 61
Who then is the faithful and prudent servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them food in due season? That this parable pertains to the apostles and the other bishops and teachers is clear, especially from the fact that in Luke Peter asks, saying: "Do you speak this parable to us, or also to all?" Yet, although there are many stewards, it is difficult to find one who is both faithful and prudent. For this reason the Apostle says: "Let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among stewards that a man be found faithful." But he sins against God, whatever bishop ministers not as a servant to fellow-servants but as a lord, and often even as a bitter lord domineering by force — set up like the Egyptians who afflicted the life of the sons of Israel with violence. Therefore they ought to be mindful of the words of Christ, who says: "You call me master and lord, and you say well; for so I am. If then I have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another's feet; for I have given you an example, that as I have done, so you also should do." And that other saying: "The princes of the Gentiles domineer over them, and their greater ones exercise power over them. But among you it shall not be so; but whoever wishes to be first among you, shall be last; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many." One ought also to hear Paul saying: "Whereas we might be a burden as apostles of Christ, we became little ones in your midst, just as if a nurse were to cherish her own children; so, in our longing, we desire to share with you not only the Gospel, but also our own souls"; and one ought not to strike fellow-servants, but to "rebuke the unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, and be patient toward all," since "the servant of God ought not to quarrel but to be gentle toward all, teaching with modesty those who resist." And as one himself withdrawing from the evil enticement of fellow-servants, Paul blames those who were not such, who were indeed subject to the proud but despised the gentle, speaking in this manner: "You endure it if any man reduces you to servitude, if any devours, if any takes, if any exalts himself, if any strikes you in the face, as though we had been weak." But consider in these words how he reproves those who reduce to servitude and strike in the face — because of which they domineer the more bitterly — saying that he himself abstains from these things; not because he was too weak to do them, but that he might do the very things he teaches. And he teaches to teach "with modesty" "those who resist." For this reason too, defining what sort bishops ought to be, he speaks thus: "not quarrelsome, not strikers, but gentle, well-ordered," and whatever qualities are found among faithful and wise servants and stewards, whom "the lord has set over his household," as Luke says. And from these things it may be recognized that not only those who are faithful and wise does the lord set over his household, but also the wicked servants who say ever in their hearts: "My lord delays his coming"; and therefore they strike their fellow-servants, eat and drink with the drunken or with drunkards, and become inebriated. If, then, at any time those who preside over the churches of Christ suppose themselves to be at a great height, because "the lord has set them over his household," let them recognize that it is not this that saves them, that they were set by the lord over his household, but rather that they should give food in due season, and that they should abstain from strikings and from carousings and drinkings with drunkards. But if they do not abstain from such things, and are haughty because the lord has set them over his household, let them know that their lord will come in a day on which they do not look and at an hour which they do not know, and will divide them, and will…
Matthew 24:45 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, he that makes progress in the faith, though he is not yet perfect in it, is ordinarily called faithful, and he who has natural quickness of intellect is called prudent. And whoever observes will find many faithful, and zealous in their belief, but not at the same time prudent; for God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. (1 Cor. 1:27.) Others again he will see who are quick and prudent but of weak faith; for the union of faith and prudence in the same man is most rare. To give food in due season calls for prudence in a man; not to take away the food of the needy requires faithfulness. And this the literal sense obliges us to, that we be faithful in dispersing the revenues of the Church, that we devour not that which belongs to the widows, that we remember the poor, and that we do not take occasion from what is written, The Lord hath ordained, that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel, (1 Cor. 9:14.) to seek more than plain food and necessary clothing, or to keep more for ourselves than we give to those who suffer want. And that we be prudent, to understand the cases of them that are in need, whence they come to be so, what has been the education and what are the necessities of each. It needs much prudence to distribute fairly the revenues of the Church. Also let the servant be faithful and prudent, that he lavish not the intellectual and spiritual food upon those whom he ought not, but dispense according as each has need; to one is more behoveful that word which shall edify his behaviour, and guide his practice, than that which sheds a ray of science; but to others who can pierce more deeply let him not fail to expound the deeper things, lest if he set before them common things only, he be despised by such as have naturally keener understandings, or have been sharpened by the discipline of worldly learning.
Matthew 24:46-51 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 62
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. A great promise is proclaimed to faithful and prudent stewards, and it accords with those to whom he says: "be thou having authority over five cities", or: "be thou having authority over ten cities". For to be set over all the goods of the head of the household — what else does this make plain but that they are "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" and reign together with Christ, to whom the Father has handed over all his own things, as he himself says: "all power has been given to me in heaven and on earth"? And (in the manner of the son of a good father) being set over all the substance of the father, he shares this same dignity and glory with his faithful and prudent stewards, so that they too may be over every creature and power, so that they may be with Christ. And observe his interpretation of what he says: amen I say to you, that he will set him over all his goods. Understand for me (taking it as if by way of example) some king who has an entire kingdom under himself, with whom are many nations and cities and diverse places. Let him, then, divide among his satraps and the other princes, who have done something notably well, the fullness of his kingdom; and let him indeed set all of them over his whole kingdom, yet not each one over all things — but each one of them over some part of his kingdom: for instance, one indeed over ten cities, another over five. And thus they will all be over all the goods, while he alone holds all things, being, as it were, the sole king of all. And such is what he says: he will set him over all his goods. But just as we have heard concerning the blessedness to be given to the faithful and prudent servants, so let us also hear concerning the torments of the wicked servants. For the wicked servant speaks in his heart, preferring present pleasure to the goods to come, and, despising his lord, he says: my lord delays to come; but he says this lying, wishing to eat and drink with the drunkards. And he is always dreaming that after a long time his lord will come; and, as though his lord were delaying, he strikes the fellow servants who endure it, and reduces them to servitude, and beats them in the face; and, striking them, he eats and drinks with the drunkards, under the pretext of ecclesiastical service, and he does not receive the hungry but feasts with the drunkards. And there are many of this kind to whom the ecclesiastical charge has been committed, upon whom the lord will come, bringing about their consummation on the day on which they do not know and at the hour at which they do not expect, and he will divide them — those who have not feared him who "is able to destroy soul and body in hell". And he will divide him, when "his spirit indeed returns to God who gave it", but his soul together with its body goes "into hell". The just man, however, is not divided, but his soul goes with his spirit to the heavenly kingdoms; on account of which it is written: "bless the Lord, ye spirits and souls of the just". But of those who are divided and lay down the spirit that returns to him who had given it, and thereafter do not have in themselves any part which was from God, there is left to them their part which was their own, that is, the soul, which together with its body will be punished by the lord when he comes, with the hypocrites and the "unfaithful" in torments. See, therefore, the difference among the servants whom the lord has set over his household, since certain ones indeed, as faithful and prudent stewards who gave food to their fellow servants in due time, are set over all the goods of the head of the household; but those who have done things contrary to these, apart from the fact that they have fallen from so great a glory, will moreover be divided, and their part will be placed with the hypocrites and the "unfaithful". There will be weeping for those who wickedly laughed in this world, as the Scripture…
Matthew 24:47 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That he may reign with Christ, to whom the Father has committed all that is His. And as the son of a good father set over all that is his, He shall communicate of His dignity and glory to His faithful and wise stewards, that they also may be above the whole creation.
Matthew 24:49 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And every Bishop, who ministers not as a fellow servant, but rules by might as a master, and often an harsh one, sins against God; also if he does not cherish the needy, but feasts with the drunken, and is continually slumbering because his Lord cometh not till after long time.
Matthew 24:51 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, He shall cut him in sunder, when his spirit, that is, his spiritual gift, shall return to God who gave it; but his soul shall go with his body into hell. But the righteous man is not cut in sunder, but his soul, with his spirit, that is, with his gift, spiritual enters into the kingdom of heaven. They that are cut in sunder have in the in thenceforth no part of that spiritual gift which was from God, but there remains to them that part which was their own, that is, their soul, which shall be punished with their body. Or, there shall be weeping for such as have laughed amiss in this world, gnashing of teeth for those who have enjoyed an irrational peace. For being unwilling to suffer bodily pain, now the torture forces their teeth to chatter, with which they have eaten the bitterness of wickedness. From this we may learn that the Lord sets over His household not the faithful and wise only, but the wicked also; and that it will not save them to have been set over His household, but only if they have given them their food in due season, and have abstained from beating and drunkenness.
Matthew 25:1-5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 63
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be like ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. But five of them were foolish and five prudent. In all who have learned the word of God, the kingdom of heaven is likened to ten virgins. And if indeed in those who both rightly believe and rightly live and therefore …, it is justly likened to the five prudent ones, while those who indeed profess faith in Jesus but do not prepare themselves by good works for salvation are likened to the remaining five foolish virgins, we say not without reason that the senses of all who have learned divine things — in whatever way they have received the word of God, "whether by occasion or in truth" — are virgins made virgin through the word of God in which they have believed or wish to believe. For such is the word of God that it imparts of its own purity to all who through its teaching have indeed withdrawn from the worship of idols or the worship of the elements of God's creation, but have come through Jesus Christ to the worship of God, even though works of piety have not followed nor have they prepared themselves for blessedness. But just as, according to the word of truth, the virtues follow one after another — which virtues are in substance Christ — so that whoever has one has them all, and whoever lacks one does not have even one (for Christ is inseparable from himself), so also all the senses follow one after another; and wherever one of the senses falls short according to the right teaching of the word, there all the senses too, as if defrauded of the word of wisdom, are made foolish. Now by "senses" I mean both those which are commonly understood — sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch — and those which in the Proverbs are called divine, by those who speak in this manner: "You will find a divine sense". But again, since the word of God is the cause that the use of the senses becomes right, and since it is not possible that it, being in the senses, … that it should indeed work in certain senses and diligently bestow the things that belong to its own prudence, but in others neglect them — therefore, if it has made one of the senses wise, so that it may be constituted a virgin, it is necessary that it pour out its wisdom in the other senses as well. For this reason it is not possible to see, among the five senses in anyone, some indeed foolish and others prudent; but it is necessary that either all five be prudent, or all foolish. All these senses take their lamps, that is, their natural organs, whether wishing to use them according to the word of God, or even against the will of God; nevertheless they take them, when they accept that the word of God and Son of God is the bridegroom of the Church; and they go out from the world and from the errors of the many gods, and they come to meet the Savior, who is always ready to come to those virgins, so that he may enter together with the worthy among them to the blessed bride, the Church. But so long as, after the word has been received, the light of the faithful shines "before men, that seeing their good works they may glorify their Father who is in heaven", these are both prudent and receive oil — the nourishment of the light, which is always poured into good acts, that is, the word of teaching, and, filling the vessels of their souls from this word — from the teachers and transmitters who sell it — with what may be enough for them even if the departure delays and the word coming to their consummation tarries, so that, being consummated and made outside the world, they may hasten thither. But those who had no care, after the beginning of Christianity, to receive so great a teaching of the word as would suffice for them to endure until the end, being negligent about the reception of the teaching which strengthens faith and illuminates the light of good acts (and what strengthens so much as moral discourse, which is called the oil of the light?) — these are foo…
Matthew 25:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, The understandings of all who have received the word of God are virgins. For such is the word of God, that of its purity it imparts to all, who by its teaching have departed from the worship of idols, and have through Christ drawn near to the worship of God; Which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom and the bridea. They take their lamps, i. e. their natural faculties, and go forth out of the world and its errors, and go to meet the Saviour, who is ever ready to come to enter with them that are worthy to His blessed bride the Church.
Matthew 25:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They that believe rightly, and live righteously, are likened to the five wise; they that profess the faith of Jesus, but prepare themselves not by good works to salvation, are likened to the five foolish. And because the virtues are so linked together, that he who has one has all, so all the senses so follow one another, that all must be wise, or all foolish.
Matthew 25:3-4 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, The oil is the word of teaching, with which the vessels of souls are filled; for what gives so great content as moral discourse, which is called the oil of light. The wise took with them of this oil, as much as would suffice, though the Word should tarry long, and be slack to come to their consummation. The foolish took lamps, alight indeed at the first, but not supplied with so much oil as should suffice even to the end, being careless respecting the provision of doctrine which comforts faith, and enlightens the lamp of good deeds.
Matthew 25:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, Whilst the bridegroom tarried, and the Word comes not speedily to the consummation of this life, the senses suffer, slumbering and moving in the night of the world; and sleep, as energizing feebly, and with no quick sense. Yet did those wise virgins not quit their lamps, nor despair of hoarding their oil.
Matthew 25:6-7 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, At midnight, that is, at the time of their most abandoned carelessness, there was a great cry, of the Angels, I suppose, desiring to arouse all men, those ministering spirits crying within in the senses of all that sleep, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. All heard this summons, and arose, but all were not able to trim their lamps fitly. The lamps of the senses are trimmed by evangelical and right use of them; and they that use their senses amiss have their lamps untrimmed.
Matthew 25:6-13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 64
But at midnight a cry arose: behold, the bridegroom comes, rise up to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise: give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying: lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you; go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves. But while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. But afterward the rest of the virgins also came, saying: lord, lord, open to us. But he answering said: amen I say to you, I do not know you. But at midnight, that is, in the depth of relaxation, and in the middle time, when the evening light has now passed away and the daytime light is still awaited, a cry arose from those wishing (as I think) to rouse all — the angels, who "are all ministering spirits, who are sent to minister for the sake of those who shall possess salvation", who also were anxious to rouse those who are perceptive to meet the bridegroom, and they say, crying out within in the senses of all who sleep: behold, the bridegroom comes, rise up to meet him. And that they ought to go to meet the bridegroom, the Word, and the spotless Church, this suggestion indeed all heard, and they arose: yet not all put upon their lamps a fitting adornment, but only those who heard the wisdom that adorns them. Thus not at a suitable time the foolish said to the wise: give us of your oil, as those who had not gathered wisdom for themselves beforehand, so that they might understand that it does not belong to all who have oil also to give of it to others who wish it, but only to those who have been appointed for this very thing, that they may sell and bestow and receive the price of the oil sold, whose price is perseverance and persistence and love of learning and diligence and the labor of those who desire to learn. give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. For even though they were foolish, yet they understood this, that they ought to go to meet the bridegroom with light, having all the lamps of the senses illuminated. And they saw also this, that from the fact that they had less of the rational oil, now that the darkness was drawing near, their lamps were bound to be darkened. But the wise send the foolish away to the sellers of oil, seeing that they had not gathered so much oil, that is, the word of doctrine, that it might suffice both for themselves unto life and for them to teach the others to adorn their lamps. And if you consider someone at some time, who indeed has gathered the doctrine of the word to the extent that it suffices him for living well, yet not so that he can even become a teacher, you will see such a one answering those who wish to learn from him the things that are of God, and saying: lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you: for I have the doctrine of the word sufficient for myself to live well, yet not so that I can also supply doctrine to you as well. And they will answer those who wish to learn from them: go rather to the sellers and buy for yourselves, that is: to the teachers, and receive from them. And the foolish, going not when they ought to buy for themselves the doctrine, lose the time of entering in with the bridegroom to the wedding. And it is possible to see those who suffer such things, who, when indeed they ought to have learned, neglected to learn anything useful from those from whom they ought to have learned, but at the very departure of their life, while they are arranging to learn, are seized by death, and therefore they do not enter in with the Word to the bride, the Church, nor with Christ to those who are to be together in rest and to reign in blessedness. But afterward the door is shut against the foolish virgins who are still to receive oil, who also will come afterward without cause, saying: lord, lord, open to us. And so the bridegroom answering says: I do not know you. And so,…
Matthew 25:8-9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Otherwise; Notwithstanding they were foolish, they yet understood that they must have light to go and meet the bridegroom, that all the lights of their senses might be burning. This also they discerned, that because they had little of the spiritual oil, their lamps would burn dim as darkness drew on. But the wise send the foolish to those that sell, seeing that they had not stored up so much oil, that is, word of doctrine, as would suffice both for themselves to live by, and to teach others, Go ye rather to them that sell, i. e. to the doctors, and buy, i. e. take of them; the price is perseverance, the love of learning, industry, and toil of all who are willing to learn.
Matthew 25:10 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, He says, While they went to buy, because there are men to be found who have neglected to learn any thing useful, till when, in the very end of their life, when they set themselves to learn, they are overtaken by death.
Matthew 25:14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 65
For it is just as a man about to go abroad called his servants, and handed over to them his goods. And first indeed let us see why our Lord is likened to a man setting out on a journey — he who is our one Lord, of whom the Apostle says: "but for us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him" — provided, however, that we are ruled by him alone, and hold neither mammon as lord nor any of those lords who, signifying that they are many, the same Apostle mentions when he says: "for just as there are many gods and many lords". Let us therefore first inquire about his journeying, especially because there seems to be something contrary to his journeying in what he himself promises about himself to his disciples, saying: "where two or three have been gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them", likewise this: "behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age", and what the Baptist says about him (showing that he is everywhere) thus: "but in the midst of you stands one whom you do not know; he it is who comes after me". Therefore someone will say: if he stands even in the midst of those who do not know him, if "wherever two or three have been gathered together in" his "name" he is held to be among them, if through all the days of the disciples' life he is with them "until the consummation of the age", how is he set forth in this parable as journeying abroad? But in treating this we ought to take up also that which Paul says about himself: "but I, absent in body yet present in spirit, have already judged, as if present, that when you are gathered together and my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, such a one as this be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ". For if the power of Jesus is gathered together with those who are gathered in his name, he does not journey away from his own but is always at hand to them. But if he is always present to all his own, how do his parables introduce him as journeying abroad? See whether we can resolve in this way the question that is asked. For he who says to his disciples: "behold, I am with you until the consummation of the age", and likewise: "where two or three have been gathered together in my name, there am I also in the midst of them" and the rest, and who stands even in the midst of those who do not know him — he is the only-begotten of God, God the Word and wisdom and righteousness and truth and peace, who is not shut in by any bodily compass. According to this nature of his divinity he does not journey abroad; but he journeys abroad according to the dispensation of the body which he took up, according to which he was both troubled and made sorrowful, saying: "now is my soul troubled", and again: "my soul is sorrowful even unto death". But in saying these things we do not dissolve the man of the body that was assumed, since it is written in John: "every spirit that dissolves Jesus is not of God"; rather, we preserve to each substance its own property. For if every faithful man "who is joined to the Lord is one spirit", how much more is that man, whom Christ took up according to the dispensation of the flesh, not to be dissolved from him nor to be called other than he? And see how he says just as a man about to go abroad; for he was not a man but just as a man, and as though a man he will journey abroad — he who was everywhere according to the nature of his divinity. At the same time consider that the completion of the sentence does not seem to be written thus: just as a man journeying, so also Jesus, or thus: so also I, or thus: so also the son of man; because it is he himself who is set forth in the parable as journeying abroad as though a man. For he is not a man who is "wherever two or three have been gathered together in" his "name", nor is a man with us "all the days until the consummation of the age", nor is it a man that is…
Matthew 25:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He travels, not according to His divine nature, but according to the dispensation of the flesh which He took upon Him. For He who says to His disciples, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, (Mat. 28:20.) is the Only-Begotten God, who is not circumscribed by bodily form. By saying this, we do not disunite Jesus, but attribute its proper qualities to each constituent substance. We may also explain thus, that the Lord travels in a far country with all those who walk by faith and not by sight. And when we are absent from the body with the Lord, then will He also be with us. Observe that the turn of expression is not thus, I am like, or The Son of Man is like, a man travelling into a far country, because He is represented in the parable as travelling, not as the Son of God, but as man.
Matthew 25:15-19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 66
And to one he gave five talents, but to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own capacity, and he departed. Immediately he who had received the five talents went away and worked with them and gained another five talents. Likewise also he who had received the two gained another two with them. But he who had received the one went away, dug in the earth, and hid his lord's money. Therefore, if ever you see that, among those who have received from Christ the dispensation of the oracles of God, some indeed possess more and something more divine and more abundant, while others possess less and (so to speak) do not understand even half of the matters at hand in comparison with those who are much better, while still others possess even less — you will observe the differences among those who have received the oracles of God from Christ, since the capacity of those to whom five talents were given was one thing, and that of those to whom two were given was another, and that of those to whom one was given was another, and one did not have the measure of the other. And he who received the one talent received indeed a gift not to be despised; for even one talent of such a lord is a great thing. Yet there are three proper servants of him who went abroad as a man, just as there are also three kinds of those who bear fruit, of whom "some" indeed make "a hundred, some sixty, but some thirty". But there even he who made thirty is saved. Here, however, this discourse condemns him who had received the one talent and hid it in the earth. And I ask whether those who received five talents can be understood as the more perfect who received the more divine and loftier sense of Scripture; and those who received two rose indeed a little above the letter but were not able to ascend to that greatness; and the third ones, who received nothing above the letter which they received at first. Therefore there is, altogether, concerning the numbers in these things which we are discussing, a discourse worthy of such a Lord our Savior — I mean concerning the five and the two and the one. But we, being of small stature and less able to unfold such things, judge that perhaps those who are able to lead all the perceptible senses of the Scriptures up to the more divine senses (which Solomon calls divine, and which Jeremiah calls the "senses of the heart", and which by Paul in the letter to the Hebrews are called "senses exercised for the discernment of good and also of evil") — these are they who, besides the five talents, gained another five, working with them and by teaching training themselves and raising themselves up to greater knowledge; for having conducted themselves in a saving manner and teaching diligently, they worked and gained another five; for no one easily receives an addition of any virtue other than of that which he has — for example, the wise man grows in wisdom, the faithful man in faith. Or thus: he acquired another five; since each one teaches to another that which he himself knows, and teaches another as much as he himself knows, no more. Therefore whatever anyone has in himself, this he acquires in another by teaching him, making him have what he himself also has. Therefore he who had the five is not said to have acquired more than the five which he had, and he who had the two, no more than the two which he had. But if we ought to speak also of the two talents, we shall speak of those as well: that they who did not remain in the letter, but seeking to ascend by their own understanding above it, yet not being able to arrive above the rank of the aforesaid two, these are they who, from him who knew their capacity, received two talents, having been taught bodily doctrine (for two seems to be the carnal number), and upon these they gained two, that is, a more bodily instruction and another a little loftier than it. But there was a certain one of the servants gathering to himself a lesser capacity, on account of which the hous…
Matthew 25:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Whenever you see of those who have received from Christ a dispensation of the oracles of God that some have more and some less; that some have not in comparison of the better sort half an understanding of things; that others have still less; you will perceive the difference of those who have all of them received from Christ oracles of God. They to whom five talents were given, and they to whom two, and they to whom one, have divers degrees of capacity, and one could not hold the measure of another; he who received but one having received no mean endowment, for one talent of such a master is a great thing. His proper servants are three, as there are three sorts of those that bear fruit. He that received five talents, is he that is able to raise all the meanings of the Scriptures to their more divine significations; he that has two is he that has been taught carnal doctrine, (for two seems to be a carnal number,) and to the less strong the Master of the household has given one talent.
Matthew 25:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, They that have their senses exercised by healthy conversation, both raising themselves to higher knowledge and zealous in teaching others, these have gained other five; because no one can easily have increase of any virtues that are not his own, and without he teaches others what he himself knows, and no more.
Matthew 25:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, gained other two, that is, carnal instruction, and another yet a little higher.
Matthew 25:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or otherwise; When you see one who has the power of teaching, and of benefitting souls, hiding this power, though he may have a certain religiousness of life, doubt not of such an one that he has received one talent and hides it in the earth.
Matthew 25:19 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And note here that the servants do not come to the Lord to be judged, but the Lord shall come to them when the time shall be accomplished. After a long time, that is, when He has sent forth such as are fitted to bring about the salvation of souls, and perhaps for this reason it is not easy to find one who is quite fit to pass forthwith out of this life, as is manifest from this, that even the Apostles lived to old age; for example, it was said to Peter, When thou shalt be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hand; (John 21:18.) and Paul says to Philemon, Now as Paul the aged.
Matthew 25:20 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He who had received five talents comes first with boldness before his Lord.
Matthew 25:20-23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 67
And the one who had received the five talents came forward and presented another five talents, saying: Lord, you gave me five talents; behold, I have gained another five besides. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant. Because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things; enter into the joy of your lord. And the one also who had received the two talents came forward and said: Lord, you gave me two talents; behold, I have gained another two. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant: because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things; enter into the joy of your lord. Thus the first came forward as one who had confidence in that he had labored and gained; for that very confidence made him bold, so that he was the first to come to the lord and to make his speech boldly, saying: Lord, you gave me five talents; behold, I have gained another five talents upon them. To him the lord spoke a word desirable to all of us, when our Lord shall have settled the account also with us, saying: Well done, good and faithful servant, the opposite of that word which he said to the third: wicked and slothful servant. Who would not wish, receiving exhortation from this scripture, that he might hear from his lord: faithful, which I judge to be like that which was said of Abraham, that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness". So also for him who heard from his lord: faithful servant, without doubt his faith was reckoned to him unto righteousness, just as the faith of that very man was reckoned unto righteousness, who was faithful in a little (and all the things of this life are little), so that the whole mystery of the resurrection might be entrusted to him, and the administration of the goods on high. But let us also see whither this good and faithful servant enters, who was faithful in the little of this life. Enter, he says, into the joy of your lord. For all things there are delightful and all things joys, when those who weep here shall laugh there, and those who mourn in praiseworthy fashion shall receive worthy consolation. But as to what he says (whether in the case of the one who had received five talents, or of this one who had received two): coming forward, understand for me the approach and passage from this world to that one, and see that the lord uttered to the second no other word than the one he uttered to the former, saying: Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over the little, I will set you over the great. And I ask, since the same things were said to both. Perhaps even the one who had the lesser virtue and exercised the whole of it, as much as he had, according to what was fitting, is to have nothing less with God than the one who was in greater virtue, so that in them may be fulfilled what was said: "He who had much did not abound, and he who had little did not lack". Something of this kind is shown also concerning the commandment of love toward God and toward the neighbor, when it says thus: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength". For without doubt, when anyone shall have loved God "with his whole heart" "and with his whole soul" "and with his whole strength", he has such a reward of love as the one who had a greater heart, or who has a more eminent soul, or who received greater strength. For this alone is sought, that whatever a man may have from God, he should use the whole of it for the glory of God.
Matthew 25:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
That He says of both these servants that they came, we must understand of their passing out of this world to Him. And observe that the same was said to them both; he that had less capacity, but that which he had, he exercised after such manner as he ought, shall have no whit less with God than he who has a greater capacity; for all that is required is that whatever a man has from God, he should use it all to the glory of God.
Matthew 25:24-27 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 68
But he also who had received the one talent came and said: Lord, I know that you are a hard man, and you reap where you have not sown, and you gather where you have not scattered; and being afraid I went away, and hid your talent in the earth: behold, you have what is yours. But his lord answering said to him: You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered? You ought therefore to have committed my money to the money-changers, so that at my coming I might have received it back with interest. It seems to me that this man who received the one talent was indeed among the believers, yet not among those acting with confidence in the faith, but rather wishing to hide themselves and doing everything so as not to be recognized as Christians. But perhaps in other respects too their conduct was not sufficiently blameworthy, and what they received they do indeed keep but do not also add to it, neither do they trade with it nor act confidently in it; and therefore the word in them did not advance to something greater nor gain others. Furthermore, those who are of this sort seem to me to have a fear of God and to think of Him as of one austere and hard and implacable; for the very words of the one answering and saying signify this: I knew that you are hard, and as one who knew that He reaps where He did not sow and gathers where He did not scatter. On which account his lord answering him and rebuking him as a wicked and slothful servant, did not indeed confess Himself to be a hard man, as that man supposed, but consented to his other words, saying to him: You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered? But how are we to understand that our Lord truly reaps where He did not sow, and gathers where He did not scatter? To me it seems thus in this place: that since the righteous man "sows in the spirit", from which also "he shall reap eternal life". But all things which are sown by another (that is, by a righteous man) and reaped unto eternal life, God reaps; for the righteous man is God's possession, who reaps where He Himself did not sow but that righteous man sowed. Consequently we shall also say this, that since the righteous man "has dispersed, has given to the poor", the Lord will gather into Himself all things whatsoever the righteous man "has dispersed and given to the poor". And reaping the things He did not sow and gathering where He did not scatter, He reckons to Himself and considers to have been conferred upon Himself whatsoever shall have been sown or scattered upon the faithful poor, saying to those who have done well to their neighbors: "Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom which is prepared for you. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat" and the rest. And because He wishes to reap where He did not sow and to gather where He did not scatter, when He shall not have found it, He will say to those who did not furnish Him something to reap and to gather: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which my Father prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you did not give me to eat" and the rest. For indeed He is truly hard (according to what Matthew says) and "austere" (according to what Luke said), but to those who abuse the mercy of God unto their own negligence and not unto their own conversion, as the Apostle says: "Behold the goodness of God and the severity; toward those indeed who fell, severity, but toward you, goodness, if you shall remain in goodness". For whoever judges God to be good, believing that he will receive pardon if he shall have been converted to Him, to that man God is good. But whoever esteems Him so good that He cares nothing about the sins of sinners, to that man God is not good but hard and "austere"; for He is zealous over the sins of men who despise Him. Yet, since Christ reaps, as it were, what we have sown and gathers what we have scattered, let us sow "in the…
Matthew 25:26 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The Lord did not allow that He was a hard man as the servant supposed, but He assented to all his other words. But He is indeed hard to those who abuse the mercy of God to suffer themselves to become remiss, and use it not to be converted.
Matthew 25:28-30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 69
Take away from him therefore the talent, and give it to the one who has ten talents. You see that the talent is taken away from the wicked and lazy servant, and given to the one who has ten talents. But how something is taken away from someone which had been given to him, and given to another who acts well, so that he may have these things also on top of those which he had acquired — this is not very easy to explain. Yet it is possible, since he who makes a faculty in someone apt in the doctrines of truth can, by his own divinity, God taking away the sufficiency from the one who has used it too lazily, give it to the one who has multiplied it. For to everyone who has it shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him who has not, even that which he has shall be taken away from him. For example, to one who has faith, even that which is from ourselves, shall be given the grace of faith which is from God through the spirit of faith, and he shall have abundance; and whatever anyone has from his natural creation, when he has exercised it, he receives that very thing also from the grace of God, so that he may have abundance and be more firm in that very thing which he has. For it is to be understood by us not concerning wisdom alone, but concerning every virtue, what Solomon says: "and even if anyone be perfect among the sons of men, if your wisdom be absent from him, he shall be reckoned as nothing". So too whoever has been perfect in chastity or in righteousness or in virtue or in piety, but there has not been in him either the chastity or the righteousness or the virtue or the piety which comes from the grace of God, such a man is reckoned "as nothing". Therefore, if we wish that a more perfect virtue be given to us and abound in us, let us by all means acquire through diligence that which is perfect among men; and after we have acquired it, understanding as it were that these things are reckoned as nothing without the grace of God, let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and let us pray lifting up pure hands without anger and dispute, so that the perfection of all the good things that are in us may be given from God, and that he may make us perfect and acceptable to God as sons of God. But this man who had received one talent and had hidden it in the earth, is not only reproved as wicked and lazy, but is sent as useless into the outer darkness, where perhaps there is no illumination, neither bodily, nor is there any regard of God there; but as unworthy of the contemplation of God, those who have committed such sins are condemned in these places which are called the outer darkness: perhaps until they understand, so that they may be converted and be made worthy to go out from them; perhaps also for another cause (which we do not know), since we read that someone who was before us expounding about the darkness of the abyss and saying that the abyss is outside the world, without, and darkness. Let us therefore consider whether his exposition can be true, that we should understand those outer darknesses in such a way that certain ones, as unworthy of the whole world, are cast out into that abyss (which he expounded), without, in which there is darkness, with no one illuminating it, since they are outside the whole world.
Matthew 25:28 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The Lord is able by the might of His divinity to take away his ability from the man who is slack to use it, and to give it to him who has improved his own.
Matthew 25:30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Into outer darkness, where is no light, perhaps not even physical light; and where God is not seen, but those who are condemned thereto are condemned as unworthy the contemplation of God. We have also read some one before us expounding this of the darkness of that abyss which is outside the world, as though unworthy of the world, they were cast out into that abyss, where is darkness with none to lighten it. If you are offended at this we have said, namely that a man shall be judged if he does not teach others, call to mind the Apostle's words, Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. (1 Cor. 9:16.)
Matthew 25:31-34 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 70
But when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all the nations, and the rest. Taken without examination, the passage seems plain, as though it were exhorting people to give and to be generous and turning them away from all inhumanity and stinginess. Let us see, nevertheless, what one ought to look for in it, for the sake of those who suppose there is nothing else in it but an exhortation to kindness. Certainly the whole Church believes that there will be a second and glorious coming of Christ, when the Son of God also, "who was taken up in glory," will thus return here with glory in his own form and his own beauty, so that his body will be such as it was when he had been transfigured on the mountain before the three disciples who had climbed up with him — so that now he may appear before not three, nor a few others, but all the nations gathered together. And he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and then he shall separate the evil from the good — whether, however, all from all who have existed in all the generations, or only those … who shall have been left at the consummation, or only those who have believed in God through Christ, and of these too whether all or not all, is not sufficiently clear. Yet to some it seems that these things are said concerning the distinction among those who have believed. As far, then, as the plain text goes, those who stand at the right hand are praised and called into the prepared kingdom for no other reason than kindness alone, nor are those who are at the left hand put to shame and consigned to the fire for any other reason than inhumanity. What then? If these who have been kind were negligent as regards the other virtues, will they attain such promises as these? Or will those who were not kind, if they fulfilled the other virtues, be cursed altogether and be condemned to the fire, and this together with the devil himself? You see, then, that the passage requires wisdom. Likewise it must be discussed whether the Savior's coming in glory will take place in a place, or whether we ought to seek out another interpretation. For what place will that be, such as to contain in one view both all the angels coming with Christ and all the nations gathered there? And what is to be said about the throne of his glory? Do you think there will be some bodily seat, or does this too require a more subtle interpretation? Therefore he who wishes to understand all things rationally will find much wisdom in these matters as well; and it is indeed dangerous to expound on things of this kind. But lest, by keeping fuller silence on account of the difficulty of the meaning, we abandon those who are moved by these things to be tossed about, let us expound a few things out of many (as far as it is possible). I judge, therefore, that there will be a time of Christ's coming, when so great a manifestation of Christ and of his divinity will occur, that not only none of the righteous, but not even any of sinners will be ignorant of Christ "according to what he is" — when even sinners will recognize their own sins in their own sight, and the righteous will manifestly see to what an end the seeds of their righteousness have led them. And this is what he says: before him shall be gathered all the nations. For if now, when not all recognize Christ "according to what he is," nor do those who seem to recognize him recognize him openly, but people enter into his sight only in faith, when they receive the knowledge of him through faith — as it is written: "enter into his sight in exultation" — how much more rightly are all the nations said to be about to be gathered and set before him, when he has been made manifest to all, both good and evil, both faithful and unfaithful, and before the eyes of their mind is now found not by any inquiry of faith or diligence, but is brought forth by the manifestation of his very div…
Matthew 25:31 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If you are offended at this we have said, namely that a man shall be judged if he does not teach others, call to mind the Apostle's words, Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. (1 Cor. 9:16.) Or, He shall come again with glory, that His body may be such as when He was transfigured on the mount. His throne is either certain of the more perfect of the Saints, of whom it is written, For there are set thrones in judgment; (Ps. 122:5.) or certain Angelic Powers of whom it is said, Thrones or dominions. (Col. 1:16.)
Matthew 25:32-33 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, we need not understand this of a local gathering together, but that the nations shall be no more dispersed in divers and false dogmas concerning Him. For Christ's divinity shall be manifested so that not even sinners shall any longer be ignorant of Him. He shall not then show Himself as Son of God in one place and not in another; as He sought to express to us by the comparison of the lightning. So as long as the wicked know neither themselves nor Christ, or the righteous see through a glass darkly, (1 Cor. 13:12.) so long the good are not severed from the evil, but when by the manifestation of the Son of God all shall come to the knowledge of Him, then shall the Saviour sever the good from the evil; for then shall sinners see their sins, and the righteous shall see clearly to what end the seeds of righteousness in them have led. They that are saved are called sheep by reason of that mildness which they have learnt of Him who said, Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly, (Mat. 11:29.) and because they are ready to go even to death in imitation of Christ, who was led as a sheep to the slaughter. (Isa. 53:7.) The wicked, are called goats, because they climb rough and rugged rocks, and walk in dangerous places.
Matthew 25:34 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 71
Receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (What in the Latin reads from the foundation of the world, in the Greek reads thus: from the laying-down of the world; and he expounds according to the Greek expression what according to the Latin it was not fitting to expound.) But why the Scriptures frequently use the term "laying-down" in reference to the world — as here too, saying from the laying-down of the world — let him inquire who is able, knowing that not everything which has been created is called a "laying-down," nor is it written anywhere of "the laying-down" of the thrones or dominions or principalities. But if one gathers together the term "laying-down" from all its occurrences, in case perhaps it has been said in some other place, and compares those places with the things that are said about the laying-down of the world, ascending by the Word to the rest of the things that are indeed created but not "laid down" — from the fact that their creation is not a "laying-down" — you will see the reason for this so-named "laying-down," a term which is applied only to the world. But to entrust such matters as these to writings which can also come into the hands of men of evil conduct and of slanderers and of lovers of novelty is not a religious thing to do, so that pearls too elaborately wrought may not be cast before swine, nor holy things given to dogs.
Matthew 25:34 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For the Saints who have wrought right works, shall receive in recompense of their right works the King's right hand, at which is rest and glory; but the wicked for their evil and sinister deeds have fallen to the left hand, that is, into the misery of torments. Then shall the King say to those who are on his right hand, Come, that in whatsoever they are behind they may make it up when they are more perfectly united to Christ. He adds, ye blessed of my Father, to show how eminendy blessed they were, being of old blessed of the Lord, which made heaven and earth. (Ps. 115:15.)
Matthew 25:35-41 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 72
I was hungry and you gave me to eat, and so on. It seems to me through these words that not one single kind of righteousness is rewarded, as many suppose. For it is absurd to understand nothing else of virtue in the one who is thus rewarded except only the sharing of human kindness. Yet we do not say this so that we might pursue human kindness more negligently, since it is above all to be observed by all the faithful, but so that we might pursue all things equally, or nearly equally, that on this account we might receive out of all things every blessing "in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus". But first it must be known that, just as (with respect to the letter of the text) it is not enough for obtaining the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven to give the hungry to eat, unless we also do the other things that follow, so it is not possible to fulfill all those things according to the letter, as many suppose, unless in part we act against the commandment of God. For it is necessary that a man be well-off, so that he may give food and drink and clothing to Christ hungering and thirsting and shivering with cold in the saints, that in this way he may both take him in as a stranger and visit him as sick and go to him in prison. But truly, whether we understand it according to the simpler and bodily good deeds or according to the spiritual, it is certain that, whether in this way or in that a man does a good work and nourishes souls with spiritual foods, or whatever kind of good work a man may have wrought for God's sake, he gives food and drink to Christ hungering and thirsting. Whether it be the things we do for the saints, who are rich in merits but poor in possessions, or in any people whatsoever who are poor in merits even if they be rich in possessions, or in whatever cause a man may have done Christ's commandment — he feeds and gives drink to Christ, who eats and drinks the righteousness and truth of the faithful. Likewise we weave a garment for Christ shivering with cold, receiving the weaving of wisdom from God, that through teaching we may instruct some and clothe them with "bowels of mercy, chastity, meekness, humility" and the other virtues: which virtues are all the spiritual garments of those who hear the teaching of those who teach them, according to him who says: "put on bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness" and so forth, but rather Christ himself also, who is all these things to the faithful, according to him who said: "put on the Lord Jesus". When therefore we have clothed with garments of this kind one of the least of those who believe in Christ, we are seen to have clothed the Lord himself, so that (as far as it depends on us) the Word of God may not be naked in the world. But we ought also to receive the Son of God, who has been made a stranger, and the members of his household, the members of his body, who are strangers in the world, clean from all bodily acts, just as he himself says both of himself and of his disciples: "and these are not of this world, just as I too am not of this world". And Christ with his own seeks a soul where he may find lodging. When therefore we prepare our heart with diverse virtues for a lodging-place for him or for those who are his own, we receive him journeying as a stranger into the house of our breast, making "a large upper room, cleansed and adorned" for the reception of Christ journeying as a stranger in the world and of the rest of his disciples. For those whose word we receive, we are seen to have received them within us, and through them Christ, whose word they bear. Likewise in men made weak, whether from the faith or from some good work, or suffering an offense, Christ is made weak and suffers an offense, just as he himself says to Peter, who was minding the things of the flesh: "you are an offense to me", that is: you are a weakness to me. But also all his beloved disciples together with such are made weak and suffer an offense, saying: "who is made weak, a…
Matthew 25:40 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
It is from humility that they declare themselves unworthy of any praise for their good deeds, not that they are forgetful of what they have done. But He shows them His close sympathy with His own.
Matthew 25:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
As He had said to the righteous, Come ye, so He says to the wicked, Depart ye, for they who keep God's commandment are near to the Word, and are called that they may be made more near; but they are far from it, though they may seem to stand hard by, who do not His commands; therefore it is said to them, Depart ye, that those who seemed to be living before Him, might be no more seen. It should be remarked, that though He had said to the Saints, Ye blessed of my Father, He says not now, Ye cursed of my Father, because of all blessing the Father is the author, but each man is the origin of his own curse when he does the things that deserve the curse. They who depart from Jesus fall into eternal fire, which is of a very different kind from that fire which we use. For no fire which we have is eternal, nor even of any long continuance. And note, that He does not say, 'the kingdom prepared for the Angels,' as He does say everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels; because He did not, as far as in Him lay, create men to perdition, but sinners yoke themselves to the Devil, so that as they that are saved are made equal to the holy Angels, they that perish are made equal with the Devil's Angels. Or it may be that fire is of such nature that it can but invisible substances, being itself invisible, as the Apostle speaks, The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18.) Wonder not when you hear that there is a fire which though unseen has power to torture, when you see that there is an internal fever which comes upon men, and pains them grievously.
Matthew 25:42-46 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 73
For I was hungry and you did not give me to eat, and so forth. It is written to the faithful: "you are the body of Christ, and members in part." Therefore, just as the soul dwelling in the body, though as regards its own spiritual substance it does not hunger, nevertheless hungers for each bodily food, because it is joined to its body, so also the Savior suffers the things that his body the Church suffers, although he himself is impassible as regards his divinity. For when the saints are in need of food, he too hungers; and when his other members have need of necessary medicine, he too, as though sick, has need of it; likewise, when others have need of being taken in, he as though a stranger seeks among them "where he may lay his head"; so too in the naked he is cold, and in the clothed he is clothed. And if out of love Paul says: "who is weak, and I am not weak?", and this looks rather to the praise of the Apostle, showing the greatness of his charity toward the faithful, how much more, than Paul and every man adorned with love, can the Son of the charity of God, the Savior, fittingly say: "who is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?" Wherefore he says, I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. For when a member of Christ is placed in prison, he himself is not free from the prison, who says of the just man: "I am with him in tribulation," that is: I am afflicted together with him. For just as he who is mine is in tribulation with me, so also I am in tribulation with him. And I say this not being ignorant of that more common tradition. And consider this: that he lingers over each word when speaking to the just and praising them, and through their individual kinds he enumerates their good deeds; but when speaking to the unjust he cuts short, abridging and gathering together their evil deeds into a brief compass. That is, to the just indeed he says of sickness: "I was sick, and you visited me"; and separately of prison: "I was in prison, and you came to me"; but to the unjust, though he could have said in like manner: I was sick and you did not visit me; I was in prison, and you did not come to me — cutting short the narration he combined the two into one, saying I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. For it belonged to a merciful judge to proclaim and amplify the good deeds of men more generously, but to mention and abridge their evil deeds in passing. But the just also linger over each word, saying: "when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? or naked and clothe you, or a stranger and take you in? or when did we see you sick or in prison?" For it is proper to the just, when their good deeds are recounted to their face, diligently and one by one to refuse them out of humility: as though, when the Lord says, this and this and this good you did to me, they, declining, should say: neither this nor this nor this did we do to you. The unjust do not thus speak one by one, but hastily: when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? — referring the word we ministered to you to all things, and as it were cutting short and passing over their crimes, so that they may not seem more grievous when enumerated diligently and singly: because it is proper to evil men (for the sake of excuse) either to want to show no faults at all, or slight and few ones. But the response of Christ as well, made both to the just and to the unjust, signifies this very understanding. For wishing to show the good deeds of the just as great, but the faults of sinners as not great, to the just indeed he says: "inasmuch as you did it to one of these least of my brethren, you did it to me"; but to the unjust thus: inasmuch as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me, not adding "my brethren," as when he spoke to the just. For loosely indeed all who believe in Christ are brethren of Christ, but trul…
Matthew 25:42-43 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
It follows, I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat. It is written to the believers, Ye are the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:27.) As then the soul dwelling in the body, though it hungers not in respect of its spiritual substance, yet hungers for the food of the body, because it is yoked to the body; so the Saviour suffers whatever His body the Church suffers, though He Himself be impassible. And observe how in speaking to the righteous He reckons up their good deeds under their several kinds, but to the unrighteous He cuts short the description under the one head, I was sick and in prison, and ye visited me not, because it was the part of a merciful Judge to enlarge and dwell upon men's good deeds, but to pass lightly and cursorily over their evil deeds.
Matthew 25:44-45 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Mark how the righteous dwell upon each word, while the unrighteous answer summarily, and not going through the particular instances; for so it becomes the righteous out of humility to disclaim each individual generous action, when imputed to them publicly; whereas bad men excuse their sins, and endeavour to prove them few and venial. And Christ's answer conveys this. And to the righteous He says, In that ye did it to my brethren, to show the greatness of their good deeds; to the sinners He says only, to one of the least of these, not aggravating their sin. For they are truly His brethren who are perfect; and a deed of mercy shown to the more holy is more acceptable to God than one shown to the less holy; and the sin of overlooking the less holy is less than of overlooking the more holy.
Matthew 25:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Observe that whereas He put first the invitation, Come, ye blessed, and after that, Depart, ye cursed, because it is the property of a merciful God to record the good deeds of the good, before the bad deeds of the bad; He now reverses the order, describing first the punishment of the wicked, and then the life of the good, that the terrors of the one may deter us from evil, and the honour of the other incite us to good. Or, It is not one kind of righteousness only that is rewarded, as many think. In whatsoever matters any one does Christ's commands, he gives Christ meat and drink, Who feeds ever upon the truth and righteousness of His faithful people. So do we weave raiment for Christ when cold, when taking wisdom's web, we inculcate upon others, and put upon them bowels of mercy. Also when we make ready with divers virtues our heart for receiving Him, or those who are His, we take Him in a stranger into the home of our bosom. Also when we visit a brother sick either in faith or in good works, with doctrine, reproof, or comfort, we visit Christ Himself. Moreover, all that is here, is the prison of Christ, and of them that are His, who live in this world, as though chained in the prison of natural necessity. When we do a good work to these; we visit them in prison, and Christ in them.
Matthew 26:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 74
And it came to pass, after Jesus had finished all these words, that he said to his disciples. Wishing to show that God has appointed all things in weight and number and measure, he says in a certain place to his mother: "my hour has not yet come", and again: "now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came unto this hour", and again: "Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you" — so too he appointed the hour of the passion of his Son. Therefore, even though he frequently suffered plots from the Jews, he could suffer nothing while the devil departed from him "until a time", and he could suffer nothing until he had completed all his words which he had purposed to speak to his disciples. For this reason after he had completed all these words, then he said to his disciples. And observe that he did not say simply after he had completed all the words, but he added all these, that is, the ones he had already spoken, not those he was still going to speak. For it was still fitting that he should speak yet other words before he was handed over, and, "in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper", concerning the woman coming to him; likewise also to keep the Passover with his disciples, and to convict the betrayer lurking in hiding, and to give thanks, and to hand them the bread and the cup. It was fitting too that he foretell to his disciples that they were about to be scandalized, and to Peter that before the cock crowed he would deny three times. And still it was fitting, as the hour drew near, that he pray the more, not once nor twice but three times, until the hour should come more fully.
Matthew 26:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Yet it is not all barely, but all these; for there were other sayings which He must speak before He should be delivered up. He said not, After two days will be, or will come, the feast of the Passover, but not meaning the ordinary annual Passover, but that Passover such as had never before been, the Passover will be offered.
Matthew 26:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 75
You know that after two days the Passover will take place, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified. If, therefore, even the hour had been determined—according to what we have said—so that he should not be handed over before all his teaching was complete, how much more had the day also been determined, on which "Christ our Passover" should be sacrificed, dissolving the Jewish Passover and handing on the new one to his disciples according to the new covenant? The month of the Passover too had to be determined; and I think the year as well, of which the prophet also spoke: "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of salvation." He therefore foretells it to his disciples, fortifying them beforehand, so that they might not—before they had heard what was going to come about—suddenly, seeing their master handed over to the cross, be stunned with terror at the suffering befalling the Lord. For this reason he said to them: You know that after two days the Passover will take place, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified. Now he does not, as some suppose, wish to say by this that after two days the day of the Passover will arrive, but that after two days the new Passover will take place. For he did not say: after two days the Passover will be or will come, so as not to point to that Passover as future which used to be kept according to the law, but the Passover will take place—that is, such as had never been made before—so that through this new Passover that ancient one might be cut away. And then he adds thus: and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified. And after two days the Passover took place, according to what had been prophesied by him: when he was handed over in the night and said to Judas as he kissed him: "Friend, for what purpose have you come?" But if after two days the Passover took place, that is on the fourteenth day of the moon, it is manifest that when he was saying these things it was, according to the Jews, the eleventh day of the moon, when he also expounded the parables mentioned above. But by whom he was handed over is not written here. You may gather it, however, from the Scriptures, since the Father too handed him over, according to what is written: "who did not spare his only Son, but handed him over for us all"; but according to other Scriptures "Judas" handed him over; yet also "Satan," who "entered into Judas," handed him over; yet also "the chief priests and the elders" "handed" him over. For this reason he here put he will be handed over impersonally, not saying by whom—which word can look to all who handed him over. But they did not all hand him over with the same purpose. For God handed him over out of mercy toward the human race, he "who did not spare his only Son, but handed him over for us all." The rest, however, handed him over with a wicked purpose, each according to his own malice: Judas out of avarice, the priests out of envy, the devil out of fear, lest the human race be torn from his hand through his teaching—not noticing that the human race was more to be rescued through his death than it had been rescued through his teaching and his miracles. For he was handed over "to be crucified," so that "stripping off the principalities and powers, boldly" he might triumph over them on the wood.
Matthew 26:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He foretels His crucifixion to His disciples, adding, And the Son of Man shall be delivered to be crucified; thus fortifying them against that shock of surprise, which the sight of their Master, led forth to crucifixion, would otherwise have occasioned them. And He expresses it impersonally shall be delivered, because God delivered Him up in mercy to the human race, Judas from covetousness, the Priest for envy, the Devil through fear that through His teaching the human race would be plucked out of His hand, little aware how much more that would be effected by His death, than either by His teaching or miracles.
Matthew 26:3-5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 76
Then the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people were gathered together into the court of the chief priest who was called Caiaphas, and they took counsel, that they might take Jesus by guile and kill him; but they said: Not on the feast day, lest perchance there be a tumult among the people. What the prophet said—"and the princes came together into one against the Lord and against his Christ"—seems then to have been fulfilled when the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together into the house of the chief priest "against the Lord and against his Christ"—not true priests but priests of the people, and elders not of others but of that people which was thought to be the people of God, but was in truth the people of Gomorrah, since they said: "Crucify, crucify him", and: "Take such a one away from the earth". And what Isaiah had said: "Hear the word of the Lord, you princes of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah", fits those Jews who lay in wait, who lived in the generation of the time of Christ. And what Ezekiel says to Jerusalem: "Sodom is justified more than you", is more fittingly said to the Jerusalem over which the Lord wept than to the time of the prophet. For the princes of the people sinned worse than the men of Sodom, because, not understanding the high priest of God, they lay in wait for him; and the elders of the people, not recognizing "the firstborn of all creation" and the one older than all creatures, took counsel against him. And on account of that court (I think), in which they took counsel that they might take Jesus by guile, Jerusalem was made desolate. For it was fitting that there should no longer be a city that had acted against the founder of the whole world—a city which earlier indeed had killed "the prophets", but afterward the Lord of the prophets. That they might take him by guile. Therefore fittingly the prophet said concerning them: "May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips". And they wished to take him by guile and to kill him, lest there be a tumult among that people which had seen Jesus doing many signs and wonders. And on this account many indeed of these were for him, who perhaps had said that "a great prophet has risen up in Israel"; but others were against him, who had said: "This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul the prince of demons". It was necessary, therefore, that a tumult arise when the Lord was seized, on account of the differing dispositions of the people—some loving Christ and some hating him, some believing and some not believing. For their counsel stood as though firm (although those very men who took counsel were not to stand), that he should be killed not on the feast day but on another day; namely, so that "Christ our passover" might be sacrificed, that, leaving behind the unleavened bread of the Jews, we might keep festival in the spiritual and true unleavened bread. But consider, if you can, that every word which in any way professes the doctrine of God is said to be a prince of the priests of God. But since there are many words of false teachings, as though priests of God, yet not of God but of the people that has been led astray by them, they take counsel against the one and true word of God. Yet the word of God offers itself indeed to those who lie in wait, and nonetheless rises again, unchanged and uncorrupted by them, and ascends into heaven, that it may receive those who take up their cross and follow him.
Matthew 26:3-4 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Not true Priests and elders, but Priests and elders of what seemed the people of God, but was indeed the people of Gomorrah; these, not knowing God's High Priest, laid a plot against Him, not recognising the firstborn of the whole creation, (Col. 1:15.) yea, even against Him that was elder than them all, did they take counsel.
Matthew 26:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
By reason of the parties among the populace, those who favoured and those who hated Christ, those who believed and those who believed not.
Matthew 26:6-8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Some one may perhaps think that there are four different women of whom the Evangelists have written, but I rather agree with those who think that they are only three; one of whom Matthew and Mark wrote, one of whom Luke, another of whom John. Matthew and Mark relate that this was done in the house of Simon the leper; but John says that Jesus came to a house where Lazarus was; and that not Simon, but Mary and Martha served. Further, according to John, six days before the Passover, He came to Bethany where Mary and Martha made Him a supper. But here it is in the house of Simon the leper, and two days before the Passover. And in Matthew and Mark, it is the disciples that have indignation with a good intent; in John, Judas alone with intent to steal; in Luke, no one finds fault. Oil is throughout Scripture put for the work of mercy, with which the lamp of the word is fed; or for doctrine, the hearing of which sustains the word of faith when once kindled. All with which men anoint is comprehensively called oil; and one kind of oil is unguent, and one kind of unguent is precious. So all righteous acts are called good works; and of good works there is one kind which we do for, or to, men; another which we do for, or to, God. And this likewise that we do for God, in part only advances the good of men, in part, the glory of God. For example, one does a kindness to a man out of feelings of natural righteousness, not for God's sake, as the Gentiles sometime did; such a work is common oil of no fine savour, yet is it acceptable to God, forasmuch, as Peter says in Clement, the good works that the unbelievers do, profit them in this world, but avail not to gain them eternal life in another. They who do the same for God's sake, profit thereby not in this world only but in the next also, and that they do is ointment of good savour. Another sort is that done for the good of men, as alms, and the like. He who does this to Christians, anoints the Lord's feet, for they are the Lord's feet; and this penitents are most found to do for remission of their sins. He who devotes himself to chastity, and continues in fastings and prayers, and other things which conduce to God's glory only, this is the ointment which anoints the Lord's head, and with whose odour the whole Church is filled; this is the work meet not for penitents, but for the perfect, or the doctrine which is necessary for men; but the acknowledgment of the faith which belongs to God alone, is the ointment with which the head of Christ is anointed, with which we are buried together with Christ by baptism into death. (Rom. 6:4.)
Matthew 26:6-13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77
When Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster jar of precious ointment and poured it upon his head as he reclined. But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, and so forth (26:6—13). Many indeed suppose that the four evangelists have given an account of one and the same woman, because they wrote something of this kind about a woman and all alike named an alabaster jar of ointment; but John, instead of the alabaster jar, put "a pound of ointment." But also what is said, this could have been sold and given to the poor, was said by Matthew and Mark and John; and that Christ declared that ointment to have been poured out for his burial, these too expounded; and that it happened in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, these three wrote; but John indeed said Bethany, where "they made him a supper and Martha was serving and Lazarus was one of those reclining, and Mary took a pound of ointment of pure precious nard" and so forth, from which it appears that they made a supper for him. But Luke, although he did not put Simon as a leper, nevertheless said that he was a Pharisee, who had asked Jesus "to eat with him," just as the Lord himself testifies concerning his name, saying to him there: "Simon, Simon, I have something to say to you." There seems, therefore, to be much similarity and a certain kinship concerning the woman among the four evangelists. Yet I will say to those who think that it was one woman about whom all the evangelists wrote: Do you suppose that this woman who poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment, as Matthew and Mark expounded, is the same one who also "anointed his feet with myrrh," as Luke and John expounded? But it is not possible that the evangelists, in expounding about the same woman — since they were "perfected in the same understanding and in the same spirit and in the same judgment," they who were to minister the salvation of the churches — should have said things contrary to one another. But if anyone thinks that she was the one who anointed the Lord's feet with ointment in Luke and John, let him tell us whether Mary here was the very one who in Luke is written to have been "a sinner in the city," who "learning that he had reclined in the house of the Pharisee brought an alabaster jar of ointment and standing behind at his feet weeping began to wash his feet with her tears." For it is not credible that Mary whom "Jesus loved," the sister of Martha "who had chosen the better part," should be said to have been "a sinner in the city." And do you suppose that the woman who according to Matthew and Mark poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment is not written to have been a sinner, whereas the one who according to Luke is reported as "a sinner" did not dare to come to the head of Christ but "washed his feet with her tears" as though scarcely even worthy of his very feet, from sadness working "repentance unto stable salvation"? And the one who is in Luke weeps and sheds many tears, so as to wash the "feet" of Jesus "with her tears," whereas the one who in John is Mary is introduced neither as a sinner nor as weeping. Perhaps then someone will say that there were four women about whom the evangelists wrote; but I rather agree that there were three: one indeed about whom Matthew and Mark wrote, making no difference in their exposition in that chapter; another about whom Luke wrote; and yet another about whom John wrote, since she differs from the other women not only in the things which are written about the ointment, but because "Jesus loved" Mary and Martha — although she too is reported to have been in Bethany, just as also the woman about whom Matthew and Mark expound. There is a third difference. For Matthew indeed and Mark expound that this happened in the house of Simon the leper; but John says that "Jesus six days before the Passover came into Bethany, where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised, and they made him…
Matthew 26:7 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
In the Gospel too a woman, taking an alabaster jar of ointment of costly spikenard, poured it over the head and feet of Jesus. Observe diligently what the two women poured over the head of the Savior. For the sinful woman is shown to have poured over his feet, and she who is not called a sinner over his head. Observe, I say, and you will find, in the Gospel reading, that not fables and tales were written by the Evangelists, but mysteries. And so the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment — if what the sinful woman had is to be referred to the feet, and what the woman who was no sinner had, to the head. Nor is it any wonder that the house was filled with the fragrance, since this world has been filled with it. In the same place it is written of Simon the leper and his house. I think that the leper, the prince of this world, is also called "Simon the leper," whose house at the coming of Christ was filled with sweet fragrance, when the sinful woman did penance, and the holy woman drenched the head of Jesus with the fragrances of the ointment.
Matthew 26:14-16 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 78
Then one of the twelve, who is called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said to them: What are you willing to give me, and I will hand him over to you? But they set for him thirty pieces of silver, and from then on he was seeking an opportunity to hand him over to them. Judas is interpreted CONFESSOR. Since, therefore, there are two disciples of Christ named by this name, inasmuch as Luke the evangelist counts among the twelve apostles that there were "Judas of James and Judas Iscariot," and since nothing with Christ is empty of a mystery, I judge that these two Judases were, in a mystery, figures of the Christians who confess the faith of Christ. Of these, one part indeed remains faithfully with Christ, whose mystery was Judas of James. But the other part, after it has believed and confessed the faith of Christ, on account of avarice forsakes Christ and, having become a betrayer of the very truth, passes over to heresies and to the false priests of the false Jews—that is, of pretended Christians—and hands over to them Christ (so far as it is in its power), that is, "the word of truth," so that the word of truth may be crucified and killed by them; whose mystery was Judas Iscariot, who went to the priests and bargained for a price for the betrayal of Christ. I have heard someone expounding that the homeland of the traitor Judas is called, according to the Hebrew interpretation, THE STRANGLED. And if this is so, a great fittingness is found between the name of his homeland and the manner of his own death, since he too, hanging himself with a noose, being strangled, fulfilled the prophecy of the name of his homeland. This Judas, then, to whom it was said through the prophet: "But you, a man of one mind with me, my guide and my acquaintance," fell, though he had been one of those whom Christ took up for the leadership of the Christian people. And see how that which is written, "But you shall die like men, and you shall fall like one of the princes," is referred now to that prince who fell "like lightning from heaven," now to Judas, who, chosen to the princedom of the apostolate and, as it were, established in heaven, and himself, as it were, set beforehand like lightning, fell, going into the ruin of betrayal (against the one chief of the priests, who had been made "forever" a "priest according to the order of Melchizedek") to many chief priests and adversaries of the one high priest, that he might sell for a price him who willed to redeem the whole world from the curse of the law and of all sin, and to redeem us "not with corruptible" money, "but with his own precious blood." But let us hear what Judas said to the priests: What are you willing to give me, and I will hand him over to you? For he wished to receive money and to hand over the word of God, which all do who receive some bodily or worldly thing, that they may hand over and cast out from their soul the Savior and the word of truth which was in them. And you may fittingly use this example against all who, committing any sin whatsoever, on account of avarice and for the sake of money or of some gain, despise the word of God and, as it were, hand it over. For men of this kind seem, as it were, openly to cry out and to say to the adversary powers that furnish some gain for the sin of transgressing the word of God: What are you willing to give me, and I will hand him over to you? And even though he be handed over, it happens indeed outside of the one who hands him over: but overcoming those who seem to have received him, he works things befitting himself, so that those desiring to make him void accomplish nothing against him. But they appointed to give him thirty pieces of silver, appointing for him a giving as great as the number of years the Savior had sojourned in this world. For at thirty years of age, having been baptized, he began to preach the Gospel, having become as it were like Joseph at thirty years of age, that he might distribute grain to his broth…
Matthew 26:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Went, against that one high priest, who was made a Priest for ever, to many high priests, to sell for a price Him who sought to redeem the whole world.
Matthew 26:16 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The opportunity which Judas sought is further explained by Luke, how he might betray him in the absence of the multitude; (Luke 22:6.) when the populace was not with Him, but He was withdrawn with His disciples. And this he did, delivering Him up after supper, when He was withdrawn to the garden of Gethsemane. And from that time forward, such has been the season sought for by those that would betray the word of God in time of persecution when the multitude of believers is not around the word of truth.
Matthew 26:17-19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 79
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him: Where do you wish that we prepare for you to eat the Passover? And Jesus said: Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, and so forth. But in Mark he speaks thus: "And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover was being sacrificed, his disciples say to him: Where do you wish that we go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he sent two of his disciples, saying: Go into the city, and as you enter a man will meet you carrying a jar of water; and wherever he enters, say to the householder: The Master says: Where is my guest-chamber, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there prepare for us". As therefore it appears, it was one and the same day of the Passover, when it was fitting to sacrifice the Passover, and of Unleavened Bread, when it was fitting to remove the "old leaven" and to eat unleavened bread with the flesh of the lamb. And the day of the Passover indeed was one, but of Unleavened Bread seven, the day of the Passover being of course counted together with the other six. In accordance with these things perhaps some one of the untaught, falling into Ebionism, will inquire (from the fact that Jesus celebrated the Passover after the Jewish manner corporally, as also the first day of Unleavened Bread and the Passover), saying that it is fitting that we too, as imitators of Christ, do likewise; not considering that Jesus, "when the fullness of time had come" and he had been sent, was made "of a woman", was "made" "under the law", not that he might leave those who were under the law under the law, but that he might lead them out from the law. If therefore he came for this reason, that he might lead out those who were under the law, how much more is it not fitting that those enter into the law who before had been outside the law? Therefore we indeed go out from the letter of the law, but being established beneath the spiritual power of the law, celebrating spiritually we fulfill all things that there are commanded to be celebrated corporally. For we cast out the "old leaven" of "malice and wickedness", and "in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" we celebrate the Passover, with Christ feasting together with us according to the will of the lamb who says: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life abiding in you"; "who takes away the sin of the world" and forbids the true destroyer (the destroyer not of Egypt alone, but of the whole human race) to touch us who celebrate the festival of the Passover with him. And we ascend, with the Lord himself established with us, from the lower places to the upper place, in which is the guest-chamber, which is shown by the understanding, which is in each man the householder, to the disciples of Christ. And let this upper house be great for us, that it may hold Jesus the Word of God and wisdom and truth and peace and everything that the Son of God is, who is not held except by those great in mind. And let this house be prepared by the householder, the understanding, for the Son of God, not only in an upper place nor only great but also cleansed, in no way having the filth of malice, as if gathered together and cast out by the brooms of the law. Let this house be also in the city of God, that is, in the Church. And let the ruler of that house not be one having his name known to just any people whatever: therefore also mystically Jesus says Go to a certain man, so that those who prepare the Passover for Christ may say to him: The Master says: At your house I will keep the Passover with my disciples, and let them also announce to that householder what he says: "The Master says: Where is the guest-chamber, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples", so that that householder who prepares the guest-chamber for Jesus and his disciples may show the upper place, both furnished…
Matthew 26:17 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The opportunity which Judas sought is further explained by Luke, how he might betray him in the absence of the multitude; (Luke 22:6.) when the populace was not with Him, but He was withdrawn with His disciples. And this he did, delivering Him up after supper, when He was withdrawn to the garden of Gethsemane. And from that time forward, such has been the season sought for by those that would betray the word of God in time of persecution when the multitude of believers is not around the word of truth. Some one may argue, (e. g. The Ebionites) that because Jesus kept the Passover with Jewish observances, we ought to do the same as followers of Christ, not remembering that Jesus was made under the Law, though not that He should leave under the Law (Gal. 4:4.) those who were under it, but should lead them out of it; how much less fitting then is it, that those who before were without the Law, should afterwards enter in? We celebrate spiritually the things which were carnally celebrated in the Law, keeping the Passover in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, (1 Cor. 5:8. John 6:53.) according to the will of the Lamb, who said, Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye shall not have life in you.
Matthew 26:20-21 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 80
But when evening had come, he reclined at table with his disciples, and while they were eating he said: amen I say to you, that one of you will betray me. While the disciples were eating the passover according to the commandment of the law, Jesus spoke — he who knew what was in man, and therefore had no need that anyone should give him testimony concerning man — and he spoke of Judas with the oath customary to him: amen I say to you, that one of you will betray me. For although he could from the outset have specifically pointed out the betrayer, this indeed he did not do, but said it generally, that one of you will betray me, so that by the testimony of the stricken heart the character of each one might be tested, so that he might both show the goodness of the disciples, in that they believed the words of Christ more than their own conscience, and the malice of Judas, in that he did not believe even him who knew his own counsels, so as to be troubled or made sad — granted that at first he supposed that he lay hidden, as though from a man — who, after he saw his own conscience … set within the very words of him, of which the first belonged to unbelief, but the second to shamelessness.
Matthew 26:22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 81
And being exceedingly saddened they began each one to say: Is it I, Lord?. But someone will ask: if the eleven apostles were of good conscience (since they were clean of any betrayal of their master), why were they saddened at the hearing of it, as though it could come to pass that one of them was he of whom it was spoken? But I judge that each of the disciples knew, from those things which Jesus had taught, that human nature is changeable and turnable to evil, and that in the struggle "against the principalities and powers and rulers of this world of darkness" it can come to pass that a man falls, either circumvented or having suffered force from the adversary powers to the accomplishing of evil. Considering this, therefore, each of the disciples, lest perhaps he himself were the one who had been foreknown as the betrayer, were saddened greatly, because it had been said to them: one of you will betray me, and they began to say, as though each one not knowing what was to be concerning himself: Is it I, Lord? And if it has reason that for this cause each of them, fearing, said: Is it I, Lord, then concerning all future things it must be feared by us who are weak, who have not yet received the wisdom of perfection, according to which the apostle says: "for I am confident that neither death nor life" and the rest "can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus". But he who is not yet perfect doubts concerning himself, as though he too could fall; according to which human weakness Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said: "but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate". And see: what he says, "lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate", he so pronounces as one fearing, lest perhaps he too could both fall and become reprobate; but what he said, "I am confident" and the rest, is of a confident and firm man on account of his perfection, since a thousand contrary things have not the strength to separate him "from the love of Christ". But that the apostles were still weak and rightly feared is manifest from that which he says who knew the purpose of each one, that "you shall all suffer scandal in me in this night". And that one who purposes better things is sometimes turned aside to malice, conquered in the struggle of the contrary powers, is manifest from that which is written concerning Peter: that he indeed, considering his own purpose, what disposition he had toward Christ, answered not with pretense but out of the truth of his heart (as far as concerned himself), that "if all shall be scandalized, I alone shall not be scandalized"; but the Savior, knowing that he would be weak in his promises, and that a man's brief fear was going to make him withdraw from the better purpose, said to him: "Amen I say to you that in this night, before the cock crows, you will deny me thrice". And to such as these it is not unfitting to say always: "do not glory in the Lord, for you do not know what the coming day may bring forth". And Paul likewise: "brothers", he says, "if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, strengthen such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering lest you too be tempted", teaching that our own outcome concerning ourselves is uncertain, although perhaps we hold the purpose of better things. But recalling all these things, that we do not know "what the coming day may bring forth" for us, we shall not be puffed up, nor be proud, nor ever glory, although we know that we have many good things; just as Paul also, when he had said concerning himself: "I am conscious of nothing in myself", adds besides: "but in this I am not justified", as one knowing that God sanctifies those whom he foreknows and calls "those whom he predestined".
Matthew 26:22 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Some one may argue, (e. g. The Ebionites) that because Jesus kept the Passover with Jewish observances, we ought to do the same as followers of Christ, not remembering that Jesus was made under the Law, though not that He should leave under the Law (Gal. 4:4.) those who were under it, but should lead them out of it; how much less fitting then is it, that those who before were without the Law, should afterwards enter in? We celebrate spiritually the things which were carnally celebrated in the Law, keeping the Passover in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, (1 Cor. 5:8. John 6:53.) according to the will of the Lamb, who said, Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye shall not have life in you. Or, He spoke generally, to prove the nature of each of their hearts, and to evince the wickedness of Judas, who would not believe in One who knew his heart. I suppose that at first he supposed that the thing was hid from Him, deeming Him man, which was of unbelief; but when he saw that his heart was known, he embraced the concealment offered by this general way of speaking, which was shamelesness. This also shows the goodness of the disciples, that they believed Christ's words more than their own consciences, for they began each to say, Lord, is it I? For they knew by what Jesus had taught them that human nature is readily turned to evil, and is in continual struggle with the niters of the darkness of this world; (Eph. 6:12.) whence they ask as in fear, for by reason of our weakness the future is an object of dread to us. When the Lord saw the disciples thus alarmed for themselves, He pointed out the traitor by the mark of the prophetic declaration, He that hath eaten bread with me hath wantonly overthrown me. (Ps. 41:9.)
Matthew 26:23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 82
He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. Seeing them fearful about themselves, He pointed out the betrayer by the evidence of the prophetic voice that says: "he that eateth my bread with me hath magnified his supplanting against me"; for that saying does not differ from this which He says: he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. And this too is to be considered: what exactly the Savior meant to teach us when He gave His disciples a sign concerning Judas the betrayer from this, that he had put his own hand into the dish together with Jesus — into which (as I suppose) they dipped the flesh as they ate the Passover. But I suppose that He said this because He wished to make manifest the greatness of his malice, since the one whom He had received at the common table and who had eaten together with Him (perhaps because in the beginning he was acting well), this very man betrayed Jesus, who was embracing him with such great honors, and became mindful neither of the same salt nor of the table nor of the bread shared in common, but transgressing all those things for the promise of thirty coins he betrayed the bestower of such great goods. And this is truly the peculiar habit of exceedingly evil men, that after salt and bread they lie in wait for people — most of all when they have been harmed in nothing by those with whom they shared bread and salt. Finally, Daniel, prophesying thus concerning certain men of this deadly and utterly evil kind, said: "at one table they shall speak lies". But if you can understand the spiritual table and the spiritual food and the Lord's supper, with all of which he had been made worthy by Christ, you will see more abundantly the multitude of his malice, in that he betrayed the Savior, his master and fellow-partaker of the divine table and cup (and this on the day of the Passover), remembering neither in bodily goods his master's love, nor in spiritual goods his teaching always shared without grudging. Such are all those in the Church who lie in wait for their brethren, with whom they have frequently been together at the same table of the body of Christ and at the same cup of His blood. But if we must also receive the interpretation of the dish itself, let us for our part abstain from things of this kind, lest we seem to say something frigid to certain people. Nevertheless, let him who wishes to find in this too something moral consider in the law, where gifts are offered by the princes of the several tribes at the dedication of the altar, and perhaps he will understand that there too the dish is to be understood as something: "on the first day", it says, "Nahshon the son of Amminadab, prince of the tribe of Judah, offered his gift. And he offered for his gift one silver dish, its weight a hundred and thirty, and one silver bowl of seventy shekels according to the holy shekel".
Matthew 26:23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Such is the wont of men of exceeding wickedness, to plot against those of whose bread and salt they have partaken, and especially those who have no enmity against them. But if we take it of the spiritual table, and the spiritual food, we shall see the more abundant and overflowing measure of this man's wickedness, who called to mind neither his Master's love in providing carnal goods, nor His teaching in things spiritual. Such are all in the Church who lay snares for their brethren whom they continually meet at the same table of Christ's Body.
Matthew 26:24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 83
And the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him; but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man shall be betrayed. And Jesus indeed, according to what was seen, was going to suffer by the cross; but according to what he truly was, he was both going and remaining in the world with his disciples, guarding them in the faith. For they could not have remained in his faith, especially when they had seen him dead, unless their hearts had been invisibly guarded by him. And he did not say: woe to that man by whom he is betrayed but through whom he is betrayed, showing that there was another by whom he was being betrayed (that is, by the devil), while Judas himself was the minister of the betrayal. And woe not only to Judas, but to all betrayers of Christ; for whoever betrays the disciples of Christ, betrays Christ himself. Therefore they are indeed betrayed by the devil, yet through those men, and for this reason woe to them. For if the devil works all malice in men through men, then whoever is killed by someone, even if not by him yet through him has been killed. And if a judge shall have killed someone, unjustly bearing a sentence of death against someone, it must be known that he himself, by giving "place to the devil" in himself, offered himself as a minister to the devil for the killing of an innocent man. It were good for him, if that man had not been born, that is: for him it were good if he had not been born, because he had not been worthy even of this good, that he should be born. But since he had been fit, out of his own choice, that this ministry of betrayal should be accomplished through him, therefore he was born to his own harm, so that he might fall into the evil which according to his own purpose he deserved.
Matthew 26:24 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He said not, By whom the Son of Man is betrayed, but through whom, (John 13:2.) pointing out another, to with the Devil, as the author of His betrayal, Judas as the minister. But woe also to all betrayers of Christ! and such is every one who betrays a disciple of Christ.
Matthew 26:25 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
After all the Apostles had asked, and after Christ had spoken of him, Judas at length enquired of himself, with the crafty design of concealing his treacherous purpose by asking the same question as the rest; for real sorrow brooks not suspense. Or, out of sycophancy he calls Him Master, while he holds Him unworthy of the title.
Matthew 26:25 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 84
But Judas answered and said: Is it I, Rabbi? And observe that Judas, waiting through so long a discourse of Christ about himself, did not cut off His narrative with his own response, but after all the others he answered, saying Is it I, Rabbi? — not out of any desire to learn, but according to the custom of naming his teacher he called Him teacher, as if mocking Him, because He was called teacher when He was not worthy of that title. And Jesus said to him: You have said it, so that "out of his own mouth" He might judge him, since he had spoken as if in doubt: Is it I, Rabbi. Yet he was not in doubt according to his conscience, but pretended that he doubted about this. For he did not have that very fear which the rest of the apostles had; but he, without fear, spoke as though fearing. And therefore perhaps, after the individual questionings of all the apostles and after Christ's narrative concerning him, he too at last barely asked the question, as if from a certain calculation and cunning design, so that by questioning in a manner similar to the rest of the apostles he might for the time conceal the plan of his betrayal; for true and pressing sorrow does not endure delay, just as neither did that of the apostles endure it.
Matthew 26:26-28 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 85
But as they were eating, Jesus, taking bread and giving thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take and eat, for this is my body. And taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying: Drink of this, all of you, for this is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. This bread, which the God Word confesses to be his body, is the word that nourishes souls, the word proceeding from God the Word and the bread from the heavenly bread, which is set upon the table of which it is written: "You have prepared a table in my sight against those who trouble me". And this drink, which the God Word confesses to be his blood, is the word that gives drink and gloriously inebriates the hearts of those who drink, which is in the cup of which it is written: "And how glorious is your inebriating cup!" And this drink is the offspring of the true vine, which says: "I am the true vine", and it is the blood of that grape which, cast into the winepress of the passion, brought forth this drink; just as also the bread is the word of Christ made from that wheat which, "falling into the ground", "yielded much fruit". For the God Word was not calling that visible bread which he held in his hands his body, but the word in whose mystery that bread was to be broken. Nor was he calling that visible drink his blood, but the word in whose mystery that drink was to be poured out. For what else can the body of the God Word, or his blood, be, but the word that nourishes, and the word that "gladdens the heart"? But why did he not say: This is the bread of the new testament, as he said: This is the blood of the new testament? Because the bread is the word of righteousness by eating which souls are nourished, but the drink is the word of the knowledge of Christ according to the mystery of his birth and passion. Since, therefore, the testament of God has been established toward us in the blood of the passion of Christ, so that we, believing the Son of God to have been born and to have suffered according to the flesh, may be made saved — not in righteousness, in which alone, without faith in the passion of Christ, there could be no salvation — for this reason it was said only concerning the cup: This is the cup of the testament;
Matthew 26:26-30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 86
Amen I say to you, that from now on I will not drink of this generation of the vine, until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father. But concerning the bread as well a similar thing is said in Luke: "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you. I say to you that from now on I will not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Therefore the Savior will eat and drink that bread and paschal drink renewed "in the kingdom of God," and he will eat and drink with his disciples. For just as "he did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but humbled himself even unto death," so he will eat the bread and drink of the generation of the vine, and he will drink it new, and by reason of his great goodness and his love of men he will eat and drink with his disciples, "when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father." For attend to what he says: when I shall drink it new with you, at no other time, except in the kingdom of my Father. And elsewhere, moreover, "the kingdom of God is not food and drink." For in a bodily sense, and according to the likeness of present food and drink, "the kingdom of God is not food and drink" … to those who have shown themselves worthy of the heavenly bread and the bread of angels and of that food of which the Savior says: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." But that "in the kingdom of God" we shall eat and drink, it is possible to demonstrate from many places of the Scriptures, especially from that which is written: "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Therefore this Passover will be fulfilled "in the kingdom of God," and Jesus will eat it with his disciples and will drink; and what the Apostle says, "Let no one judge you in food and in drink and the other things which are a shadow of things to come," has a revelation directed to the future mysteries concerning spiritual foods and drinks, of which the things that had been written in the Law concerning foods and drinks were a shadow. And it is manifest that we shall eat true food and drink true drink "in the kingdom of God," building up and strengthening through them that most true life. And as for what he says, Jesus taking bread, and similarly taking the cup, let him who is indeed a little one "in Christ" and still carnal in Christ understand it in the common way; but let the more prudent one inquire, from whom Jesus, taking it. For it is God who gives, and he receives and gives to those who are worthy to receive from God the bread and the cup. But in what way God gives bread, Jacob too signifies when he says: "If the Lord my God shall be with me, and shall give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, of all things whatsoever thou, Lord, shalt give me, I will tithe a tenth to thee." Likewise it is written in the Gospel according to John: "Not Moses gave you bread, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven." And always Jesus, when these who together with him keep the feast are eating, taking bread from the Father gives thanks, and breaks it, and gives it to his disciples according to what each one of them is able to receive, and gives it saying: Take and eat, and shows, when he nourishes them with this bread, that it is his own body, since he himself is the Word, which we have need of both now and when it shall have been fulfilled "in the kingdom of God." But now indeed it is not yet fulfilled, but then it will be fulfilled, when we too shall have been prepared to receive the full Passover, which he came to fulfill, who came not "to loose the Law but to fulfill it," and now indeed to fulfill it "as through a glass in an enigma" of the fulfillment: "but then face to face" to fulfill it, "when that which is perfect shall have come." If therefore we too wish to receive the bread of blessing from Jesus who is accustomed to give it, let us go "into the city" into the house of a certain man where Jesus makes "the Passover with" his "disciples,"…
Matthew 26:30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
When the disciples had eaten the bread of blessing, and drunk of the cup of thanksgiving, the Lord instructs them in return for these things to sing a hymn to the Father. And they go to the Mount of Olives, that they may pass from height to height, because the believer can do nought in the valley. Suitably also was the mount of mercy chosen whence to declare the offence of His disciples' weakness, by One even then prepared not to reject the disciples who forsook Him, but to receive them when they returned to Him.
Matthew 26:31-32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Also He foretels this to them, that they who now were somewhat dispersed in consequence of the offence, should be after gathered together by Christ rising again, and going before them into Galilee of the Gentiles. Whence the other disciples were offended in Jesus, but Peter was not only offended, but what is much more, was suffered to deny Him thrice.
Matthew 26:31-32 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 87
Then Jesus says to them: all of you will suffer scandal because of me this night; for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go before you into Galilee (26, 31. 32). Those who are made to stumble are not made to stumble in the day but in the night, and in that night in which Jesus is betrayed. For so too Peter, in denying, does not deny in the day but in the night, and in the night to which the light does not yet draw near; for he denies before the cock's crow. But if anyone should ask how, after so many and such great signs and wonders, and after words spoken from no lesser power (than that by which the signs and wonders had been done), the disciples are made to stumble, let him know that the discourse wishes to show through these things that, just as "no one can say the Lord Jesus except in the Holy Spirit", so no one can be without scandal apart from the Holy Spirit. But at the time when that was being fulfilled which Jesus had said: all of you will suffer scandal this night, "the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified". But we, after we have confessed the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit, since "those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God", if after the Holy Spirit we suffer scandal or deny, we will have no place of excuse, as though made to stumble without the Holy Spirit or denying without the Holy Spirit. And they indeed were made to stumble as still remaining in the night, but for us now "the night is far advanced, and the day has drawn near", on account of which "let us walk honorably as in the day". But he who walks honorably is in the light, and he who is in the light does not deny Christ, because he is not in the night. And furthermore, for this reason those men were made to stumble in the night (as the Lord himself testifies), because according to the Scripture, for us all, the Father "did not spare his only Son, but handed him over for us" to the passion, so that for a little while the sheep of the flock, having suffered scandal, might be scattered, but after this be gathered together by Christ rising and going before them into Galilee — those who have wished to follow him into Galilee of the Gentiles, that "the people who were sitting in darkness may see a great light, and upon those who were sitting in the region and shadow of death may a light arise".
Matthew 26:33-35 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But you will ask, whether it were possible that Peter should not have been offended, when once the Saviour had said, All ye shall be offended in me. To which one will answer, what is foretold by Jesus must of necessity come to pass; and another will say, that He who at the prayer of Ninevites turned away the wrath He had denounced by Jonas, might also have averted Peter's offence at his entreaty. But his presumptuous confidence, prompted by zeal indeed but not a cautious zeal, became the cause not only of offence but of a thrice repeated denial. And since He confirmed it with the sanction of an oath, some one will say that it was not possible that he should not have denied Him. For Christ would have spoken falsely when he said, Verily I say unto thee, if Peter's assertion, I will not deny thee, had been true. It seems to me that the other disciples having in view not that which was first said, All ye shall be offended, but that which was said to Peter, Verily I say unto thee, &c. made a like promise with Peter because they were not comprehended in the prophecy of denial. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. Here again Peter knows not what he says; he could not die with Him who was to die for all mankind, who were all in sin, and had need of some one to die for them, not that they should die for others.
Matthew 26:33-35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 88
But Peter answered and said to him: Even if all shall be made to stumble, I will never be made to stumble. And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to you, that on this night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. Peter says to him: Even if it should be for me to die with you, I will not deny you. And likewise all the disciples said the same. The Apostle says in the epistle to the Romans: "But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written" — not commanding that every man become a liar, but declaring that he is a liar, from the Psalm which says: "I said in the excess of my mind: every man is a liar". But here Peter, hearing the Savior say "you shall all suffer stumbling in me this night", was professing to make our Lord a liar through those words which, confident in himself, he spoke: if all shall be made to stumble, I will not be made to stumble, not considering that he who said: "I am the truth" could not lie. On this account (as I judge) all the disciples indeed were made to stumble only in Jesus, but Peter, who supposed that the truth could be made a liar, was not only made to stumble, but was even abandoned on account of his bold promise, and, alongside his stumbling, he also denied. And because he spoke not only inconsiderately but almost impiously: even if all shall be made to stumble in you, I will not be made to stumble, and, not reflecting on the slippery nature of humanity, uttered a great word, therefore he was not abandoned only for a little, so that even if he denied, he would deny but once. But he is abandoned more abundantly, so that he denied three times, that the boldness of his promise might be exposed — through a single maidservant both asking him this very thing and saying: "you too were with Jesus the Galilean" …, and he denied "before all, saying: I do not know what you are saying", and again he denied not simply but "with an oath", and a third time not only with an oath but with a curse: "for I do not know the man". And through this we are instructed never to promise anything without reflection concerning our human condition, as though we were able to fulfill the confession of Christ from ourselves, or anything of God's precepts, since the Apostle admonishes us and says: "do not be high-minded, but fear". For he ought, after he heard "you shall all suffer stumbling this night", to have entreated the Lord and said: even if all shall be made to stumble in you, be in me, that I be not made to stumble; and: grant me especially this grace, that at the time when all your disciples shall have suffered stumbling, I may not fall into denial nor be made to stumble from the beginning. For if he had entreated, perhaps, once the maidservants and the other servants had been removed from him, he would not have denied; for it could not come to pass that, when the questioning had been made, he could have said "the Lord Jesus" "in the Holy Spirit" or have confessed, since "the Holy Spirit had not yet been given". But you will ask whether it was possible that he should not even once be made to stumble, since the Savior says: "you shall all suffer stumbling in me". To which question someone will answer that it was necessary, since a most truthful mouth foretold that "all of you" will be made to stumble, that what had been foretold by Jesus should come to pass. But another will say that he who, entreated by the Ninevites, did not do what he had foretold through Jonah (on account of the repentance of the Ninevites), to him it was possible to repel the stumbling even from Peter, had he entreated him. But as it is, his bold promise, made indeed from a ready but not prudent disposition, became for him the cause not only that he was made to stumble but that he even denied three times. You will ask further, whether, after he heard Jesus saying: amen I say to you, before the cock crows on this night, you will deny me three times, if he had not added: even if it should be for me to die with you, I will not deny…
Matthew 26:36 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For it was not fitting that He should be seized in the place where He had sate and eaten the Passover with His disciples. Also He must first pray, and choose a place pure for prayer.
Matthew 26:36 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 89
Then Jesus came with them to an estate called Gethsemane. To one who knows the interpretation of Hebrew names, even the name of this estate which is called Gethsemane is of use for making this place clear, since it is not without reason that the name of the estate too is set down in Matthew and in Mark. But we, passing that over, suggest only this: how Jesus came with his disciples to this estate which is called Gethsemane, taking them out of that place in which he had eaten the Passover with them. For it was not fitting that, when he was being betrayed, he should be seized from that place where he had eaten the Passover with the disciples. But it was fitting also that, before he was betrayed, he should pray and, for praying, should choose a clean place for the prayer; for he knew that, just as air differs from purer air, so does the earth of a holy place differ from that of a holier one, as it is written: "the place in which you stand is holy ground". And you will ask whether, besides the disposition of the one praying, the prayer also becomes cleaner and more acceptable from the place of prayer in which one prays, according to what is written: "my house shall be called a house of prayer", concerning which it is also said elsewhere: "and he heard my voice from his holy temple". And a man of the Jews indeed does not even doubt about such a thing; but he who, because of the teaching of Christ, has withdrawn from "Jewish fables" and from all things that are understood by them in a bodily way, will say that a prayer does not become different from another prayer on account of the place, but rather because it is better to pray with no one than to pray with wicked men. And for the demonstration of this tradition he will use the example that Jesus, in the house of Jairus the priest, being about to pray for his dead daughter, "cast them all outside" and chose only three with him, who had also on the mountain been made witnesses of his transfiguration. For on account of this, in the churches of Christ too, such a custom has held, that those who are manifest in great offenses are cast out from the common prayer, lest a "little leaven" that is not "from a clean heart" of those praying corrupt the whole lump of unity and of concord. But this meaning also has something that may justly be objected to those who do not understand as they ought, taking occasion to say to their neighbor: "do not draw near to me, for I am clean". Which the Pharisee also did toward the publican who stood far off and beat his breast and said: "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner". Therefore we ought to do this with measure, so that we neither pray with the unworthy for the honor of prayer (according to him who said: "if two of you agree together upon one thing, concerning whatever they ask, it shall be done for them"), nor despise our inferiors, setting ourselves before them through the lapse of boasting (according to him who said: "he who exalts himself shall be humbled"). And these things we have treated on account of what was said: sit here, while I go over there to pray.
Matthew 26:37-38 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 90
And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and heavy, or as Mark explains it, "he began to be afraid and heavy". Now these same disciples he had also taken up onto the mountain when he was to be transfigured, and to the daughter of Jairus the priest. And I ask whether perhaps he saw something more secret, in the time before he suffered, when Jesus, going to that place, wished to pray. For perhaps he saw standing near him "the kings of the earth and the princes" gathered "together against the Lord and against" him, "his Christ". And on this account, as though those many were set against him and mighty in wickedness, he began to be sorrowful and heavy, or even "to be afraid". And consider that he did not say: he was sorrowful and heavy, but: he began to be sorrowful and heavy. For there is a great difference between being sorrowful and beginning to be sorrowful. If therefore someone, in defense of human passions, brings forward to us that Jesus himself also was made sorrowful, let him hear that he who "was tempted in all things after our likeness, apart from sin", this one was not made sorrowful with the sorrow of that passion itself, but according to his human nature was brought only to the very beginning of sorrow and fear, that he might show to his disciples who were present (especially to Peter, who thought great things of himself) by these very facts what he also afterward said to them, that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak", and that one must never at any time trust in it but always be fearful concerning it; since incautious confidence leads to boastfulness, whereas fear of one's weakness exhorts us to flee to the help of God, just as it also urged the Lord himself to go forward a little and to fall on his face and to pray. Therefore he began indeed to be sorrowful and heavy according to his human nature, which is subject to such passions, but not according to his divine power, which is far removed from a passion of this kind. And these things we say concerning Jesus, that you may not suppose, as certain heresies do, that he was a man, but that God took upon himself the true nature of a human body, he who "was able to suffer together with our weaknesses", since he too was encompassed with the weak nature of a human body, "in like manner himself also partaking" of body and blood, since the children too (of whom he says: "behold, I and the children whom God has given me") "partake of flesh and blood". Seeing therefore the contest pressing upon him, which was for him not "against flesh and blood" but against so many "kings of the earth" standing near "and princes" gathered "together against" him as never before, he began "to be afraid" or to be sorrowful, suffering nothing more of sorrow or fear than only the beginning. For it is not written that he was afraid or was made sorrowful, but "he began to be afraid" and he began to be sorrowful, when he also said: my soul is sorrowful even unto death. This very thing seems to signify something of this sort, as if he were to say: sorrow has been begun in me, so that I am not altogether without a taste of sorrow; it is not always but only unto the time of death that it is in me, so that when I have died to sin, I may die also to all sorrow, of which there was in me only the beginning.
Matthew 26:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or otherwise; My soul is sorrowful even unto death; as much as to say, Sorrow is begun in me, but not to endure for ever, but only till the hour of death; that when I shall die for sin, I shall die also to all sorrow, whose beginnings only are in me. Tarry ye here, and watch with me; as much as to say, The rest I bade sit yonder as weak, removing them from this struggle; but you I have brought hither as being stronger, that ye may toil with me in watching and prayer. But abide you here, that every man may stay in his own rank and station; since all grace, however great, has its superior.
Matthew 26:38 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 91
Wait here, and watch with me; as if to say: although I told the other disciples, sit here, while I go over there to pray, and brought you three this far, I do not want you to advance further, for you are not yet able to. For this reason remain here watching, just as I too watch, knowing that I have indeed commanded the rest to sit there as those who are lesser, keeping them safe from this struggle, while I have brought you as those who are stronger, that "you may labor together with me in watchings and prayers". Yet you too remain here, so that each one may stand in the degree of his own calling, since even every grace (however great it may be) has also one above it. And that this is what he means when he says: remain here, is evident from what is said in what follows: but going forward a little he fell upon his face. Therefore let us remain where Jesus commands, according to what the Apostle also enjoins: "let each one, in whatever calling he was called, in this remain with God", so that we may do everything in order to watch together with him who "neither sleeps nor slumbers, keeping Israel". And he brought them to this, especially Peter who trusted greatly in himself, that they might see and hear where man's ability lies and how it is obtained. Let them indeed see him falling upon his face, and let them hear him saying: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, and let them learn not to be highminded about themselves but to esteem lowly things, and not to be swift to promise but careful to pray. Therefore he also led those who seemed more faithful and strong like Peter, in whom likewise boasting could easily find a place because of their confidence in their faith; but the ordinary ones (as far as the danger of boasting is concerned, I mean) are protected by that very smallness of their faith.
Matthew 26:39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 92
And going forward a little he fell upon his face praying and saying: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He who said: "learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart", humbling himself in a praiseworthy manner, now also falls upon his face praying, and still more afterward humbles himself, "having become obedient unto death"; for the price of exaltation is humility, since indeed no one is exalted by God except him who shall have humbled himself for God's sake. And he falls upon his face praying having gone forward not much but a little from his three disciples who remained with him; for he did not wish to become far from them, but, stationed near them, to pray. And he who says, praying: if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, manifesting in his prayer his devotion, as a "beloved son" and one conforming to the dispositions of the Father, added: but not as I will, but as thou wilt, teaching that we should not pray that our own will be done but God's, whenever it happens that we will something other than God does. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt. Just as he began to be afraid and to be sorrowful, so according to that he also prays that the cup of the passion pass from him; but not as he himself wills, but as the Father wills. For taking upon himself the nature of human flesh, he fulfilled all its properties, so that he might not be thought to have had flesh in appearance, but in truth; according to which in this place he prays that the cup of the passion pass from him, but not as he himself wills, but as the Father wills: since it is proper to every faithful man, first indeed not to wish to suffer any pain, especially that which leads even unto death, because he is a man of flesh, but if God should so will, to acquiesce even against his own will, because he is faithful, lest he seem to despair in himself more than to hope in God. For just as we ought not to be over-confident, lest we seem to profess our own strength, so we ought not to act too faint-heartedly and to be distrustful, lest we seem to pronounce the powerlessness of God our helper. This will, therefore, which he speaks: if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt, is not according to his divine and impassible substance, but according to his human and weak nature. But another interpretation of this place is such: that, as the "son of the love" of God, according to his foreknowledge indeed he loved those who from among the Gentiles were going to believe; but the Jews, as the seed of the holy fathers, "whose is the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the promises", he loved as branches of the good olive tree. And loving them he saw what things they were going to suffer, seeking him unto death and choosing Barabbas unto life; therefore, grieving over them, he said: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; and again recalling his desire and seeing how great a benefit of the whole world was going to come about through his passion, he said: but not as I will, but as thou wilt. He saw still that on account of that cup of the passion even Judas, who was one of the twelve, would be a son of perdition; and again he understood that through that cup of the passion the principalities and powers were to be triumphed over in his body. On account of these, therefore, whom in his passion he did not wish to perish, he said: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but on account of the salvation of the whole human race, which through his death was to be gained for God, he said, as if reconsidering: but not as I will, but as thou wilt, that is: if it be possible, that without my passion all those good things may come forth which are to come forth through my passion, let this passion pass from me, so that both the world may be saved and the Jews may not perish in my passion. But if without the perdition of certain many the salvation ca…
Matthew 26:39 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
He took with Him the self-confident Peter, and the others, that they might see Him falling on His face and praying, and might learn not to think great things, but little things of themselves, and not to be hasty in promising, but careful in prayer. And therefore, He went forward a little, not to go far from them, but that He might be near them in His prayer. Also, He who had said above, Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, now commendably humbling Himself, falls on His face. But He shows His devotion in His prayer, and as beloved and well-pleasing to His Father, He adds, Not as I will, but as thou wilt, teaching us that we should pray, not that our own will, but that God's will, should be done. And as He began to have fear and sorrow, He prays accordingly that the cup of His Passion may pass from Him, yet not as He wills, but as His Father wills; wills, that is, not according to His Divine and impassible Substance, but according to His human and weak nature. For in taking upon Him the nature of human flesh, He fulfilled all the properties thereof, that it might be seen that He had flesh not in appearance only, but in-reality. The believer indeed must in the first instance be loth to incur pain, seeing it leads to death, and he is a man of flesh; but if it be God's will, he acquiesces because he is a believer. For as we ought not to be too confident that we may not seem to make a boast of our own strength; so neither ought we to be distrustful, lest we should seem to charge God our helper with weakness. It is to be observed that Mark and Luke write the same, but John does not introduce this prayer of Jesus', that this cup may pass from Him, because the first three are rather occupied about Him, according to His human nature, John according to His divine. Otherwise; Jesus makes this petition, because He sees what the Jews will suffer for requiring His death. Then again considering the benefit that would accrue to the whole world from His Passion, He says, But not as I will, but as thou wilt; i. e. If it be possible for all these benefits which shall result from My Passion to be procured without it, let it pass from Me, and both the world be saved, and the Jews not be condemned in putting Me to death. But if the salvation of many cannot be procured without the destruction of a few, saving Thy justice, let it not pass away. Scripture, in many places, speaks of passion as a cup that is drained; and it is drained by him, who in testimony suffers whatever is inflicted upon him. He sheds it, on the contrary, who denies in order to avoid suffering.
Matthew 26:40 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And though Jesus went but a little forward, they could not watch one hour in His absence; let us therefore pray that Jesus may never depart even a little from us.
Matthew 26:40-41 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 93
And he came to his disciples and found them sleeping, and he says to Peter: so you were not able to keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation (26, 40. 41). As long indeed as Jesus was present with his disciples they did not sleep, but when he had gone forward a little from them they could not keep watch for even one hour in his absence. For which reason let us pray that Jesus may never at any time go forward even a little from us, but may fulfill in us what he promised, saying: "behold, I will be with you all the days even to the consummation of the age". For thus we shall keep watch, as he shakes off sleep from our soul, without which it is not possible to fulfill the commandment that says: "give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may escape like a roe from the nets and like a bird from the snare". Yet, coming to the disciples and finding them sleeping, he rouses them by his word to hear, so that now, as though to those hearing, he may say what he says: so you were not able to keep watch with me for one hour. And he commands them to watch, so that watching we may pray. And he watches who does good works, he watches who acts carefully concerning the truth of the faith, lest he fall into some dark doctrine. For he who thus watches and prays, his prayer is heard; for this is what he signifies when he says: watch and pray, namely that first we should watch and thus, watching, pray. that you may not enter into temptation: this (according to what many understand) is such as if he were to say: that you may not be tempted; but if it so please God, submit to God, just as you heard me praying. But consider whether it is possible to understand it rather in this way, since our very life "is a temptation" according to Job; and to enter into temptation or to come into temptation is to fall into temptation and to be overcome by it. And I think that no one comes to Jesus and into temptation at the same time; but if indeed he comes to Jesus, he does not come into temptation, but if he comes into temptation, he does not come to Jesus. For no one comes to Jesus except him whom the Father draws to Jesus, that he may be raised up by him. Therefore we come to Jesus, so that even if the tempter has pursued us and evils have come from him, we may not be seized by them, as it is written: "evils shall pursue you and shall not overtake you". But to the sinner it is said, correspondingly: "evils shall pursue you and shall overtake you".
Matthew 26:41 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Finding them thus sleeping, He rouses them with a word to hearken, and commands them to watch; Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; that first we should watch, and so watching pray. He watches who does good works, and is careful that He does not run into any dark doctrine, for so the prayer of the watchful is heard. Here it should be enquired, whether as all men's flesh is weak, so all men's spirit is willing, or whether only that of the saints; and whether in unbelievers the spirit is not also dull, as the flesh is weak. In another sense the flesh of those only is weak whose spirit is willing, and who with their willing spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh. These then He would have watch and pray that they should not enter into temptation, for the more spiritual any one may be, the more careful should he be that his goodness should not suffer a great fall.
Matthew 26:41 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 94
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak, just as your spirit too, O Peter, was willing to make a promise, but your flesh will be weak when it comes to confessing. But this must be considered: whether just as the flesh of all human beings is weak, so the spirit of all is willing, or whether, though the flesh of all human beings is indeed weak, yet the spirit of all human beings is not willing, but only that of the saints. Therefore it is to the apostles alone, or to those who are found to be like them, that he says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak; but of unbelievers both the spirit is sluggish and the flesh is weak. If, then, it holds that Christ says this only to the saints, he prompts us to inquire, since there is a weak flesh also in another sense — yet only of those whose spirit is willing. For I say that the flesh is weak of that man who has no sin nor a strong wisdom of the flesh but a defective one, who with a willing spirit has mortified the "works of the flesh" and reduced the wisdom of the flesh to nothing, so that he may "always carry about the death of Christ in his body", the spirit evidently prevailing in its desires against the desires of the flesh, since "the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh". And "these" things in the imperfect indeed "are opposed to one another", but in the perfect the flesh no longer opposes, but has been mortified, and the wisdom of the flesh has been weakened in the flesh, and its desire has been extinguished; but in it the wisdom of the spirit lives, lives and works. Of which weakness the Lord too says to the apostle, that "strength is made perfect in weakness", that is, in the weakness of the flesh and of its wisdom. On account of which the Apostle says: "for when I am weak, then am I strong"; for then each one of us becomes strong, when his own flesh has been weakened, so that it does not accomplish the "works of the flesh", but the strength of Christ dwells in it. Whence he said: "so I fight, indeed", and "I chastise my body and bring it into servitude", since by many chastisements a man makes his flesh weak, advancing in spirit and mortifying the "works of the flesh". This, then, is what he wishes to say to his disciples according to that tradition: "watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation" — you whose spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak; for he who is more spiritual and more perfect ought to be the more anxious, lest his great good have a grievous fall.
Matthew 26:42 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
There were, I conclude, two ways in which this cup of Passion might pass from the Lord. If He should drink it, it would pass away from Him, and afterwards from the whole race of mankind also; if He should not drink it, it would perhaps pass from Him, but from men it would not pass. He would fain therefore that it should so pass from Him as that He should not at all taste its bitterness, yet only if it were possible, saving the righteousness of God. If it were not possible, He was rather willing to drink it, that so it might pass from Him, and from the whole race of mankind rather than against His Father's will shun the drinking thereof.
Matthew 26:42 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 95
Again going away, Jesus prayed, saying: My Father, if this cannot pass from me unless I drink it, let your will be done. Now, however, he asks that the cup pass from him, and if not in that way—as he himself had willed—that it pass in the way the Father wills. Here now we shall expound according to what we are able to understand, so that together with this we may seem to have expounded also what precedes. For I judge that that cup of the passion was indeed altogether going to pass from Jesus, but with a difference: namely, that if he should drink it, it would afterward pass both from himself and from the whole race of men; but if he should not drink it, it would perhaps pass from himself, yet would not pass from men, but would remain with them until it should bring them to completion. This cup of the passion, therefore, he wished principally to pass from him in such a way that he should not taste its bitterness at all, if indeed this were possible as regards the justice of God. For when he said "if it is possible" he was not referring to the power of God alone but also to his justice: since as regards the power of God all things are possible, whether just or unjust, but as regards his justice—for he is not only powerful but also just—not all things are possible, but those alone which are just. But if it could not come to pass, he preferred that he should drink it and so it should pass from him and from the whole race of men, rather than that he should act against the Father's will by shunning the drinking of it. Therefore, for the sake of the good outcome that was to follow after the bitterness of the cup was drunk, he prays a second time, saying: My Father, if it is not possible for it to pass unless I drink it, let your will be done. It is clear, then, that he wished to drink it. For by comparison it was better that it should pass because of his drinking of it than that it should not pass because he had not drunk it. For suppose the Lord had not drunk that cup and for this reason it had not passed from him: without doubt neither would the spirits working sins have passed from the human race, and fittingly neither would the penalties have passed which were owed for the sins. Therefore it was expedient for all that the cup should pass from him, because the Savior drank it, so that all of us who believe in him who drank it may not drink that cup "of unmixed wine", which gives to drink and is going to give to drink to "all the nations", so that those drinking it "may become drunk and vomit, and cease to rage". For just as "he died for us all", so that the death hostile to Christ might pass us by, so for us all (who were "debtors", bound to drink forever) he drank that cup, so that by this very thing—that the cup passes from him—it might pass also from us who do not drink it. Concerning this cup Jeremiah says: "The Lord God of Israel said to me: Take this cup of unmixed wine from my hand, and you shall give it to drink to all the nations to which I send you, and they shall drink and vomit and cease to rage before the sword which I send into the midst of them". Those, therefore, who hear the Lord and live according to his word and are cleansed through faith in him, no longer have need of that cleansing which comes about through that cup of wrath. For just as those who have been washed have no need to be washed, because they are clean (because they are Christ's disciples), so those who are not clean have need of that cup, the Lord exhorting them: "Drink and be drunk and vomit". For hear how Jeremiah speaks (or rather God in Jeremiah), exhorting those who have need of such a cup, since they ought willingly to drink it who have need of such a cleansing. And since God says these things exhorting them to drink, consider what he says further below: "And it shall be", he says, "when they are unwilling to receive the cup from your hand to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall drink, for in the cit…
Matthew 26:43 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And I suppose that the eyes of their body were not so much affected as the eyes of their mind, because the Spirit was not yet given them.
Matthew 26:44 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Wherefore He does not rebuke them, but goes again and prays, teaching us that we should not faint but should persevere in prayer, until we obtain what we have begun to ask.
Matthew 26:45 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 97
Behold, the hour has drawn near, and the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners. On account of this hour, I think, he also said to his mother: "My hour has not yet come". For here too he teaches that the approaching hour was bringing this about, that the Son of Man should be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Would that Jesus had then been betrayed into the hands of those sinners only! But as it is, I think that Jesus is always betrayed into the hands of sinners, whenever those who seem to believe in Jesus have Jesus in their hands while being sinners. But also, as often as a righteous man who has Jesus within himself is brought into the power of sinners who do to him what they can, Jesus is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Matthew 26:45 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, the sleep He now bids His disciples take is of a different sort from that which is related above to have befallen them. Then He found them sleeping, not taking repose, but because their eyes were heavy, but now they are not merely to sleep, but to take their rest, that this order may be rightly observed, namely, that we first watch with prayer that we enter not into temptation, and afterwards sleep and take our rest, when having found a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, (Ps. 132:3.) we may go up into our bed, and give sleep to our eyes. It may be also that the soul, unable to sustain a continual energy by reason of its union with the flesh, may blamelessly admit some relaxations, which may be the moral interpretation of slumbers, and then again after due time be quickened to new energy.
Matthew 26:45 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 96
And then, coming, he said to his disciples: sleep now and rest; behold, the hour has drawn near, and the Son of Man will be handed over into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go; behold, he who will betray me has drawn near (26, 45. 46). Then — without doubt after the third prayer. But that sleep, which he now orders his disciples to sleep, is not the same as the one that is written above to have twice befallen the disciples. For there he "found them sleeping" but not also resting, and "again he found them sleeping" with their eyes weighed down; but now he commands them not simply to sleep, but with rest. For to sleep and rest according to the command of Christ differs greatly from a sleeping against the will of him who says: "remain here and keep watch with me" and who reproaches them on account of their sleep and says: "so, could you not watch one hour with me?" Therefore he did not say things contrary to himself when he said there: "watch with me", and here: sleep and rest, but so that the order might be preserved: that first indeed we should watch, praying that we may not enter into temptation, and afterward that we should sleep and rest according to Christ's command. Which sleep Solomon too sets down in a promise to those who live well, saying in his Proverbs: "for if you sit down, you will be without fear; but if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly, and you will not fear a terror that comes upon you nor the assaults of the impious rushing in". And David, knowing the diverse watchings and sleepings, "swore to the Lord and vowed a vow to the God of Jacob": not to go up onto the couch of his bed nor to give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids, and to do this for so long, until he should find "a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob", so that when he has found a place for the Lord, he may go up onto the couch of his bed and give sleep to his eyes as they renew themselves and, after rest, prepare themselves for a new and more divine rising up, according to what is wont to happen to bodily men after natural and healthy sleep. But perhaps also the soul, not being able always to bear labors inasmuch as it is created and incarnate and not sufficient to preserve the good without interruption, will obtain relaxations without any blame, which morally are called sleeps and slumbers, so that, having relaxation up to some little space of time, it may rise renewed and be raised again. But whether this will be forever or not, let him who is able inquire more abundantly concerning such things — both to inquire and to understand from the divine Scriptures and to declare it without danger.
Matthew 26:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
When He had roused them from sleep, seeing in the Spirit Judas drawing near to betray Him, though the disciples could not yet see him, He says, Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. And even now Jesus is betrayed into the hands of sinners, when those who seem to believe in Jesus, continue to sin while they have Him in their hands. Also whenever a righteous man, who has Jesus in Him, is put into the power of sinners, Jesus is delivered into the hands of sinners. He says not, Draws near to thee, for indeed the traitor was not near Him, but had removed himself far off through his sins.
Matthew 26:46 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 98
Rise, let us go; behold, he who will betray me has drawn near. After he had roused them from that sleep of which we have spoken, he consequently says to his disciples: Rise, let us go. And seeing in the spirit Judas approaching for the betrayal, who was not yet visible to his disciples, he says: Behold, he who will betray me has drawn near. But I think that behold, he has drawn near to me and behold, he who will betray me has drawn near are not one and the same thing; for his betrayer was not drawing near to Jesus himself (he who had removed himself far from Jesus by his sins and by the giving-up by which he had resolved to betray him), but he had drawn near to betraying the Son of God, whom he had already given up. But indeed all transgressors first give up Jesus, and afterwards betray him.
Matthew 26:47 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Some may say that a great multitude came, because of the great multitude of those who already believed, who, they feared, might rescue Him out of their hands; but I think there is another reason for this, and that is, that they who thought that He cast out dæmons through Beelzebub, supposed that by some magic He might escape the hands of those who sought to hold Him.
Matthew 26:47 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 99
And while he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. But someone will also ask the reason why a great crowd was gathered with swords and clubs against him; and this great crowd was, according to John, a cohort of soldiers and attendants dispatched by the chief priests. And someone may say that, because of the multitude of those from among the people who had already believed in him, they came against him in such numbers, fearing lest the great multitude of believers should snatch him out of their hands. But I think there was also another reason for the multitude gathered against him: that those who supposed he was accustomed to cast out demons by Beelzebul imagined that by certain sorcerous and magical arts he could escape from the midst of those wishing to hold him. And perhaps some of them had heard how once, when he was already about to be hurled down from the brow of the mountain, he escaped the hands of those already holding him, not by a simple and human flight but by some other means beyond human nature. For this very reason also, in Mark, Judas said to the crowd that was coming with him with swords and clubs: "whomever I shall have kissed, that is he; hold him and lead him away carefully"; for in saying "lead him away carefully" he seems to have spoken maliciously and with a hidden meaning, as if to say: unless you hold him carefully and lead him away, he will escape you when he wishes. And they, hearing this according to Judas's estimation—as though it were not by his Father's divinity that he was helped to do this or many other things—did everything so as to hold and guard him carefully. There are many now also who wage war against Jesus with spiritual swords of malignant spirits and likewise with clubs, just as those men did; over whose snares Jesus becomes altogether superior, although for a time he takes their assaults upon himself, that the sins of those plotting against him may be filled up and the malice of their will against the truth of the only-begotten Word of God may be made manifest. And those who thus wage war against Jesus with swords and clubs, coming with various and diverse doctrines about God, lie in wait for Jesus deliberately. But there are also those who, dispatched by the elders of their own impious people, wage war against the word of truth, which is in Jesus.
Matthew 26:48 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Even now do many fight against Jesus with spiritual weapons, to wit, with divers and shifting dogmas concerning God. It deserves enquiry why, when He was known by face to all who dwelt in Judæa, he should have given them a sign, as though they were unacquainted with His person. But a tradition to this effect has come down to us, that not only had He two different forms, one under which He appeared to men, the other into which He was transfigured before His disciples in the mount, but also that He appeared to each man in such degree as the beholder was worthy; in like manner as we read of the manna, that it had a flavour adapted to every variety of use, and as the word of God shows not alike to all. They required therefore a sign by reason of this His transfiguration.
Matthew 26:48-50 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 100
But the one who betrayed him gave them a sign, saying: whomever I shall kiss, that is he, hold him fast. And immediately approaching Jesus he said: hail Rabbi, and he kissed him. But Jesus said to him: friend, to what have you come? It is worth inquiring for what cause, when Jesus had taught openly through every city and village and synagogue, preaching the word of the Gospel (so that his fame went out into the whole region), and had been made manifest in his face to all who dwelt in Judaea, Judas gave to those sent by the chief priests a sign, as though they did not recognize his likeness, saying: whomever I shall kiss, that is he. But that even those who had come with Judas to seize him had frequently seen him is made manifest from this, that Jesus himself says to the crowds: you have come out to seize me as though against a robber, with swords and clubs: daily I was sitting with you in the temple teaching, and you did not hold me. Similarly John also reports that he said: I have spoken openly to this world; I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. Now such a tradition has come to us concerning him: that there were not only two forms in him (one indeed according to which all saw him, but the other according to which he was transfigured before his disciples on the mountain, when also his face shone as the sun), but that he also appeared to each one according as that one had been worthy. And though he was himself, he seemed to all as though not himself, according to what is written concerning the manna, when God "sent bread from heaven to the sons of Israel, having every delight and suited to every taste", when "complying with the desire of the one who offered it, it was turned into whatever anyone had wished". And this tradition does not seem to me to be incredible, whether bodily on account of Jesus himself, that he might be seen by men in one manner and another, or on account of the very nature of the Word, which does not appear alike to all. But if this is so, it is possible to find the solution of that which is inquired. For although the crowds coming with Judas frequently saw him, nonetheless they had need (on account of his transformations) of one who would point him out to them, one having a more intimate knowledge of him through much dwelling with him, so that he might understand his transformations according to which he was accustomed to appear to his own. This same thing is signified also through John the Evangelist, where "Jesus, knowing the things that were to come upon him, going forth outside said: whom do you seek? And they said: Jesus the Nazarene. And he said to them: I am he" and "they went back and fell backward". You see that they did not recognize him, though they had frequently seen him, on account of his transfigurations. But if anyone should also inquire into that cause, why Judas betrayed Jesus "with a kiss", we will give this reason: that, according to some indeed, he wished to preserve a certain reverence toward his master, not daring to rush upon him openly and shamelessly to profess himself the betrayer of his master. But according to others Judas did this for this reason, fearing lest perhaps, if he had shown himself openly an adversary and betrayer of his master, he himself might become for him a cause of escape, since he could (as far as pertained to Judas's own opinion) by certain more secret disciplines flee away and make himself small. Therefore, that Jesus, suspecting nothing of the kind (according to what Judas supposed) but thinking him a friend (he knows not how), might thus be seized unexpectedly, for this reason he gave this sign, not now knowing that if he had been unwilling to be seized, he never would have been seized, but that willingly he offered himself to the hands of sinners. But I think that all betrayers of the truth also, feigning to love the truth and using the sign of a kiss as though by a certain token of charity, betray the…
Matthew 26:49 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
If it be asked why Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, according to some it was because He desired to keep up the reverence due to his Master, and did not dare to make an open assault upon Him; according to others, it was out of fear that if he came as an avowed enemy, he might be the cause of His escape, which he believed Jesus had it in His power to effect. But I think that all betrayers of truth love to assume the guise of truth, and to use the sign of a kiss. Like Judas also, all heretics call Jesus Rabbi, and receive from Him mild answer.
Matthew 26:50-51 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 101
Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and held him fast. After the kiss, those crowds at once, delaying nothing, perhaps fearing lest Jesus escape from their hands, laid hands on him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus, stretching out his hand, drew his sword, and striking the servant of the high priest, cut off his ear. Now one of those who were with Jesus, not yet clearly grasping within himself that evangelical patience handed down to him by Christ, nor the peace which he gave to his disciples, but acting according to the power granted to the Jews through the law concerning enemies, stretching out his hand took up the sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And as John says: "… and cut off his right ear", in whom the servant's name is also given, for he was called "Malchus". And perhaps what Peter was doing was a mystery. For the right hearing of the Jewish people was to be cut off on account of their malice displayed against Jesus. For even though they seem to hear the law, they now hear with a left hearing the shadow of the tradition about the law, not the truth, since they are servants of the word that professes the service of God, yet does not serve in truth. The mystery of this word was against Christ … the adversary of Christ, the high priest Caiaphas. And it seems to me that, since all those who have believed from among the Gentiles, being established as one people in Christ, by this very fact that they believed in Christ became the cause that the right hearing of the Jews should be cut off, according to what had been prophesied concerning them: "Make heavy the ears of this people, and press down their eyes, lest seeing they see and hearing they understand and be converted, and I heal them".
Matthew 26:50 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? He says, Friend, upbraiding his hypocrisy; for in Scripture we never find this term of address used to any of the good, but as above, Friend, how camest thou in hither? (Matt. 22:12.) and, Friend, I do thee no wrong. (Matt. 20:13.)
Matthew 26:51 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
For though they seem even now to hear the Law, yet is it only with the left ear that they hear the shadow of a tradition concerning the Law, and not the truth. The people of the Gentiles is signified by Peter; for by believing in Christ, they become the cause of cutting off the Jews' right ear.
Matthew 26:52-53 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 102
Then Jesus said to him: turn your sword back into its place. At once Jesus says to the man who had used the sword and had cut off the right ear of that servant, not: draw out the sword, but: turn the sword back into its place. There is therefore some place belonging to the sword, from which it is not permitted to take it up by one who does not wish to perish, above all by the sword. For Jesus wishes his disciples to be peaceable, so that, laying down this warlike sword, they may take up another, peaceable sword, which Scripture calls "the sword of the spirit". And it seems to me like what he says: all who take up the sword, shall also perish by the sword, that is, all who are not peaceable but stirrers-up of war shall perish in that war which they stir up, so that in them the sword is the mystery of war and strife. And I think that all the turbulent and the instigators of wars and those who disturb the souls of men, above all the souls of the churches, take up the sword by which they too shall perish; since "he who digs a pit shall himself fall into it", since their "pain shall be turned back upon" their own "head", and their "iniquity shall come down upon" their "brain". But also, hearing simply what he says, those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword, it befits us to beware, lest on the occasion of military service or of avenging our own injuries we draw out the sword, or on any occasion whatever — all of which this evangelical teaching of Christ abominates, commanding us to fulfill what is written: "with those who hated peace I was peaceable". If therefore with those who hate peace we ought to be peaceable, against no one ought we to use the sword. Thus, wishing (speaking to one who had not learned) to teach us all that willingly "he handed himself over for us all", he adds and says: or do you think that I cannot now ask my Father, and he will furnish me more than twelve legions of angels? as though he were saying: you indeed have thus drawn the sword and struck the ruler's servant, as if rendering help to me, but I, if I had wished, could by asking the Father obtain help not human but of better beings, that is, of angels, and not of one but of more than twelve legions. From this it is shown that, according to the likeness of the legions of worldly warfare, there are also legions of angels of the heavenly warfare, warring against the legions of the demons dwelling in the tombs. For in Luke too "a multitude of the heavenly host" was heard "praising God" on account of Christ's nativity. But if "there was a multitude of the heavenly host praising God", and all warfare is understood to be established on account of adversaries, consequently that host too wars for God on account of adversaries. But Jacob also called a certain place the "camp" of the Lord, since he beheld there the warfare of angels; and wherever there are those who fear God, around them are the camps of angels; for "the angel of the Lord shall send [a host] round about those who fear him and shall deliver them", as the book of Kingdoms relates was the case also around Elisha. And note: do you think it was as though inferior to the angels, or needing the help of angels, that the Savior said: or do you think that I cannot ask my Father, and he will furnish me more than twelve legions of angels? — or was it perhaps according to the estimation of Peter, who wished to bring him help and brought forth the sword and cut off the servant's ear, that he spoke such things? For rather do the angels have need of the help of the only-begotten Son of God than he of theirs. For this reason, that which is written, "for he shall give his angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways", is understood to be said not of the only-begotten Son of God, but either in the person of Christ concerning every just man, whom Christ was bearing in his body, or concerning Christ according to his human nature. And finally, that which he says, he will deliver you "from ru…
Matthew 26:53 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This shows that the armies of heaven have divisions into legions like earthly armies, in the warfare of the Angels against the legions of the daemons. This He said not as though He needed the aid of the Angels, but speaking in accordance with the supposition of Peter, who sought to give Him assistance. Truly the Angels have more need of the help of the Only-begotten Son of God, than He of theirs.
Matthew 26:55 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 103
In that hour Jesus said to the crowds: Have you come out to seize me as against a robber, with swords and clubs? Daily I sat among you in the temple teaching, and you did not lay hold of me. The sense of what is said in this passage seems to me to be as follows, that the Savior says to the crowds: If anyone wishes to seize a robber, it is not incongruous to come to him with swords and clubs, because such is the robber, that he dares all things provided he suffer nothing bad, and if he can he is rather ready both to use the sword and the club against those who wish to seize him, than of his own accord to hand himself over into their hands. But I, since I am not such, all who are in Judea know it—some indeed seeing my teaching and my works, but others having heard about me or following my manner of life; for daily sitting in the holy place of the temple (as though a fitting place for divine teachings) I made plain the things that pertained to piety and to a sound life according to the law of God, and through this I commended myself as one who is peaceable. But that neither your plotting against me nor your soldiery mounted with swords and clubs has any suitable reason, is manifest to all who know me. But how is it that you were not even satisfied, seeing daily my continuance in the temple of God and myself offering myself to all who wished to hear me, that I might join them to myself for their profit through word and life unto the blessedness of God—or that then indeed you did not lay hold of me when you saw me teaching and doing nothing worthy of blame, but now you reckon me as though changed, so that you suppose I ought to be seized as though a robber? But neither in this do you find any occasion, as though I had changed with respect to the word from those things which I had first set forth, wishing to profit by words and deeds. And observe: after he had said to Peter: "Put back your sword into its sheath" (which is the mark of patience), after he had restored the severed ear, as another evangelist relates (which had been at once a token of the highest kindness and likewise of divine power), then he spoke these words, so that they might appear trustworthy from the preceding words and deeds, so that even if they do not remember past good deeds, they might at least recognize the present ones.
Matthew 26:55 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Having commanded Peter to put up his sword, which was an instance of patience, and having (as another Evangelist writes [Luke 22:51.]) healed the ear that was cut off, which was an instance of the greatest mercy, and of Divine power, it now follows, In that hour said Jesus to the multitudes, to the end that if they could not remember His past goodness, they might at least confess His present,) Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me?
Matthew 26:56 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 104
Now all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Concerning matters of this kind … but it is a great task now to select from the prophets what sort of sayings of the prophets those are which were then fulfilled, when Christ said that he would suffer these things; and it belongs to a diligent man, and to one who knows much, to gather together the words of the prophets which have been fulfilled. And in the hundred and eighth Psalm [109] perhaps you will find very many things agreeing with these, concerning those who came with Judas to arrest Jesus, just as other things concerning Judas were said in the same Psalm. then they all forsook him and fled together. Fearing, therefore, the crowds and their leader Judas, they fled. For they did not yet have the Spirit, "because Jesus had not yet been glorified," and the "spirit" "of power and of love"; and if they had had it, they would not have been weakened, nor would they have done anything else apart from divine love.
Matthew 26:57 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 105
But they, having seized Jesus, led him away to Caiaphas the chief priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered together. For I think that the word of the Jewish servitude, in which those now abandoned profess to serve, is Caiaphas, who wars against the truth of Jesus, who is called the chief priest; but Jesus according to the truth is the priest, the Word of God, under whom are set all those who serve God the Father acceptably. But where Caiaphas is chief priest, there the scribes are gathered together, that is, the lettered men who preside over the letter that kills. And according to the quality of the scribes are also the elders, who recline not upon the truth but upon the oldness of the bare letter, and who wish to transact nothing further.
Matthew 26:57 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Where Caiaphas the High Priest is, there are assembled the Scribes, that is, the men of the letter, who preside over the letter that killeth; and Elders, not in truth, but in the obsolete ancientness of the letter.
Matthew 26:58 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Peter followed Him afar off, He would neither keep close to Him, nor altogether leave Him, but followed afar off.
Matthew 26:58 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 106
Now Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the chief priest, and having gone inside he was sitting with the servants to see the outcome of the matter. Now while the master was being led away, Peter indeed was following, yet he could not follow him from close at hand, but from afar off, neither departing from him altogether nor walking along with him, nor beside him but following at a distance he came to the courtyard of the chief priest. And having gone inside, Peter was sitting within, neither ministering according to what those servants did nor doing the things which Jesus had taught, but he was awaiting the outcome of all these things, wishing to see it, since as yet he did not understand nor see the outcome of Christ's dispensations, toward what they were tending. For their outcome is not in the courtyard of Caiaphas, nor where "the scribes and elders" of that people are gathered together. If, however, one should look properly at the outcome, he will see the very Word of God and the Wisdom saying: "I am A and Ω, the beginning and the end".
Matthew 26:59-60 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 107
Now the chief priest and the elders and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might deliver him to death, and they found none; and many false witnesses came forward, and they found none (26, 59. 60ᵃ). And through these things it is made manifest that Jesus "did no sin, nor was there guile in his mouth". But that his life was most pure and altogether beyond reproach, taking away the occasions of those who seek occasions, is demonstrated from this: that his adversaries found not what they might say against him or give a semblance of truth (yet all the priests and the whole council sought it, and could find nothing plausible); for false testimonies then have their place when they are brought forward with some semblance of truth, but against Jesus not even a semblance was found that could lend aid to lies against Jesus — and this, though there were many willing to grant a favor to Caiaphas and the chief priests and the scribes and the elders and the whole council, which desired to hear this very thing. And those who consider these things render the greatest praise to Jesus on account of his life and his teaching, who so blamelessly both said and did all things, that they found in him no plausible ground for reproach — neither the wicked, nor the many, nor those so cunning and clever.
Matthew 26:59-60 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
False witnesses have place when there is any good colour for their testimony. But no pretext was found which could further their falsehoods against Jesus; notwithstanding there were many desirous to do a favour to the Chief Priests. This then is a great testimony in favour of Jesus, that He had lived and taught so irreproachably, that though they were many, and crafty, and wicked, they could find no semblance of fault in Him.
Matthew 26:60-61 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 108
But at last there came forward two false witnesses and said: This man said: I am able to destroy the temple of God and after three days to rebuild it (26, 60ᵇ. 61). Do not suppose that Matthew called these two witnesses false without cause, since their testimonies seemed to be true from the fact that John sets forth that Christ said: "Destroy this temple, and I in three days will raise it up", when there is also added: "But this he said concerning the temple of his body". But observe the cunning of the two false witnesses, by what persuasion they, taking their start from a certain true saying which Jesus had spoken, fabricated a false testimony. For Jesus did not say: I destroy this temple, and in three days I raise it up, but: "Destroy … this temple, and in three days I will raise it up". But the false witnesses reported that he had said what had not been said by him, nor did he say: I am able to destroy the temple of God and in three days to rebuild it. Therefore he did not himself promise to do the impiety of destroying the temple, but he committed it to those who were fit for such a work, saying: "Destroy this temple". But what did he reserve for himself, namely: "And I in three days will raise it up". And the fact that "he said this concerning the temple of his body" the Jews, hindered by their malice, misheard and understood concerning that temple of stone, which is manifest from the fact that, answering, they said: "In forty and six years was this temple built, and dost thou raise it up in three days?" And consider that not one false witness came forward for this testimony (for one was not sufficient for those wishing to kill Jesus, since the law commanded: "One witness shall not stand to give testimony against a man"), but neither were there three; for though many false witnesses came forward, scarcely two were found who seemed to say anything. But neither were their testimonies in agreement, as Mark sets forth; for he says in this manner, that "the chief priests and the whole council sought testimony against Jesus, that they might deliver him to death, and found none; for many spoke false testimony against him, and their testimonies were not in agreement. And others rising up spoke false testimony against him: that we heard him saying: that I destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will make another not made with hands. But neither so were their testimonies in agreement". For a testimony is in agreement when they say the same things, but they are not in agreement when they are dissonant with one another, such as were the testimonies of these who were bringing forward testimonies against Jesus. And if Matthew and Mark speak the truth (which we ought to believe), let us attempt to show how not even the testimonies of these two themselves were in agreement, since they did not bring forward the same things. For according to Matthew they said: This man said: I am able to destroy the temple of God and in three days to rebuild it, but according to Mark: "That we heard him saying: that I destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will rebuild another not made with hands". Whether therefore, saying these things twice, since they did not say the same things, their testimonies were not found in agreement with one another; or whether the one said what Matthew sets forth, and the other what Mark wrote, and thereby "their testimonies were not in agreement" with one another.
Matthew 26:62-63 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 109
And the chief priest, rising up, said to him: Do you answer nothing to the things which these men testify against you? But Jesus was silent (26, 62. 63a). In these events one may understand as fulfilled the prophecy which says: "while the sinner stood against me, I was made dumb and was humbled and kept silent from good things", so that that sinner foretold in these words may be understood to be Caiaphas, who stood against Jesus. At the same time we learn also from this passage to despise the voices of slanderers and false witnesses, so that we neither hold them worthy of our reply, nor defend our own selves where the things said against us are not consistent. For what need is there to resist those who resist themselves by saying things contrary to themselves? Especially where it is a greater thing freely and bravely to be silent than to defend oneself without any profit, so that we may not be humbled by false witnesses and wicked slanderers.
Matthew 26:63 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This place teaches us to contemn the clamours of slanderers and false witnesses, and not to consider those who speak unbeseeming things of us worthy of an answer; but then, above all, when it is greater to be manfully and resolutely silent, than to plead our cause in vain. Under the Law, we do indeed find many instances of this adjuration (Numb. 5:19, 1 Kings 22:16.); but I judge that a man who would live according to the Gospel should not adjure another; for if we are not permitted to swear, surely not to adjure. But he that regards Jesus commanding the daemons, and giving His disciples power over them, will say, that to address the daemons by the power given by the Saviour, is not to adjure them. But the High Priest did sin in laying a snare for Jesus; imitating his father, who twice asked the Saviour, If thou be Christ the Son of God. (Matt. 4.) Hence one might rightly say, that to doubt concerning the Son of God, whether Christ be He, is the work of the Devil.
Matthew 26:63-64 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 110
And the chief priest said to him: I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said to him: You have said it (26, 63ᵇ. 64ᵃ). And indeed in the Law we find the practice of adjuring used on several occasions. For in Numbers the Law says that "the priest shall adjure her" (that is, that woman in whose husband there has arisen "a spirit of jealousy"), "and shall say to the woman" (this is, the priest): "if no one has lain with you, and unless you have transgressed so as to be defiled by a man not your own, you shall be innocent of this cursed water of accusation". And after a few words: "and the priest", he says, "shall adjure the woman with the adjurations of this curse". Likewise in the third book of Kingdoms king Ahab says to Micaiah: "Yet twice more do I adjure you, that you speak to me the truth in the name of the Lord". Now the king adjured the prophet, and he adjured not as the priest in Numbers; for the latter did so from the precept of the Law, but the former of his own choice. And now in the present passage the priest adjures Jesus by the living God. But I judge that it is not fitting for a man who wishes to live according to the Gospel to adjure another. For it is similar to what the Lord himself says in the Gospel: "But I say, not to swear at all" and not to adjure at all; for if it is not permitted to swear, so far as concerns the evangelical commandment of Christ, it is true that neither is it permitted to adjure another. Therefore it is manifest that the chief priest unlawfully adjured Jesus, although he may seem to have adjured him by the living God. Someone will ask whether it is fitting even to adjure demons. And he who looks to the many who have dared to do such things will say that this is not done without reason; but he who looks to Jesus … commanding the demons, but also giving power to his disciples over all demons and to heal infirmities, will say that to adjure demons is not according to the power given by the Savior: for it is a Jewish practice. This (even if sometimes something of the kind is done by our own people) is similar to that whereby demons are wont to be adjured by the adjurations written by Solomon. But those very people who use those adjurations sometimes do not even use properly established books, and with certain adjurations received even from the Hebrew they adjure the demons. Nevertheless it was not fitting for our Lord to answer the adjuration of the chief priest, as though he had suffered compulsion from the one adjuring against his own will. For which reason he neither denied that he was the Christ, the Son of God, nor openly confessed it, but as though taking the very one adjuring him as witness (since it is he himself who in the priest's questioning was pronounced the Christ, the Son of God), saying: You have said it. And since "everyone who commits sin is born of the devil", and the chief priest was committing sin by plotting against Jesus, therefore he was born of the devil, and as one born of the devil he was imitating his own father, who twice, in doubt, questions the Savior: "if you are the Son of God", as is written in his temptations; for "if you are the Son of God" and if you are the Christ, the Son of God are alike. For in this passage one may rightly say that to doubt concerning the Son of God whether he himself be the Christ is the work of the devil and of the chief priest plotting against our Lord. But Peter was not found to be such; for without any doubt he pronounced: "you are the Christ, the Son of the living God", nor did he there place if. For which reason he was called "blessed", because "not flesh and blood" had revealed it to him, "but God the Father who is in heaven". But those who say with doubt: "if you are the Son of God", are strangers to all blessedness. For because that chief priest was not worthy of the teaching of Christ, therefore he does not teach him, nor say, "I am", but taking the word of hi…
Matthew 26:64 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
It was not fit that the Lord should answer the High Priest's adjuration as though under compulsion, wherefore He neither denied nor confessed Himself to be the Son of God. For he was not worthy to be the object of Christ's teaching, therefore He does not instruct him, but taking up his own words retorts them upon him. This sitting of the Son of Man seems to me to denote a certain regal security; by the power of God, Who is the only power, is He securely seated to Whom is given by His Father all power in heaven as in earth. And there will come a time when the enemies shall see this establishment. Indeed this has begun to be fulfilled from the earliest time of the dispensation; for the disciples saw Him rising from the dead, and thereby saw Him seated on the right hand of power. Or, In respect of that eternity of duration which is with God, from the beginning of the world to the end of it is but one day; it is therefore no wonder that the Saviour here says, Shortly, signifying that there is but short time before the end come. He prophesies moreover, that they should not only see Him sitting at the right hand of power, but also coming in the clouds of heaven. These clouds are the Prophets and Apostles, whom He commands to rain when it is required, they are the clouds that pass not away, but bearing the image of the heavenly, (1 Cor. 15:49.) are worthy to be the throne of God, as heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. (Rom. 8:17.)
Matthew 26:64 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 111
Yet I say to you: from now on you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming upon the clouds of heaven (26, 64ᵇ). Since it is not written at the right hand of God, but in all the evangelists at the right hand of the Power (and "of God" is not added), it is worthwhile to discern what it is for the Son of Man to sit at the right hand of the Power. Likewise the three evangelists write similarly: you shall see him sitting; and to the simple, indeed, who can hear nothing lofty in that which he says sitting, it is granted to understand it as if he said "established above the Power." But to those to whom it is possible to search out all things by the Spirit, "even the depths of God," they will understand both what is written: "you who sit upon the cherubim, appear" and: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up" and: "the Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet" and other things of the like. These things that are said of God sitting are likewise also said of Christ. And these ought to be compared with the present saying, so that from a lowly and fabulous estimation we may see what the sitting of Christ signifies after the manner of men. But it seems to me that the sitting of the Son of Man signifies a certain foundation and royal steadfastness. According to the Power, therefore — he who alone is the Power and is properly so named — he is also established at the right hand, he who has received all power from the Father, as "in heaven and on earth"; and this foundation even the adversaries will one day see, after the blessed have with joy seen him. But according to Mark it does not have from now on, but purely, that is: "you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power"; and according to him there will be nothing contrary to the things we have handed down. But according to Matthew, who says from now on you shall see, and according to Luke, who says "from this time the Son of Man will be" and the rest, it must be inquired whether, from the time the Savior said these things, they were fulfilled also in those who heard what he said: from now on you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power. And we say that it can be seen as fulfilled, since from that time, that is, from the time of the dispensation, the Son of Man sat at the right hand of the Power, and his disciples saw him rising from the dead, and through this they saw him established at the right hand of the Power, according to what we have handed down above. Or thus: see whether you can measure the hour and the day not according to the brevity of hours and days that is among men, but according to the length that is with the eternal Lord, to whom from the foundation of the world until its consummation there is one day — which is demonstrated by the parable, where he speaks of those hired into the vineyard in the morning and at the third hour and the sixth and up to the eleventh. It is therefore no wonder that here the Savior says that from now on until then there is a very short span, in which span he was saying: you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power to those who were then hearing him — perhaps then when "the Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet", among whom were also those to whom he was saying from now on you shall see; for Caiaphas too was an enemy, who was plotting against Christ. And he was prophesying that these would see him not only sitting at the right hand of the Power, but also would see him coming (as Matthew indeed says) upon the clouds of heaven. But what are the clouds upon which he will come who is established at the right hand of the Power, or with which he will come, or to which the truth of God will reach, according to what is written: "and your truth reaches even to the clouds"? These are the living clouds, the prophets of God and…
Matthew 26:65-66 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 112
Then the chief priest tore his garments, saying: he has blasphemed (26, 65ᵃ). While the Lord was prophesying these things, that priest, the Lord's enemy — as one who was not near enough to see the Son of Man and the Power at whose right hand he was seated, as one bent down and unable to look upward, not hearing the things he was saying — tore his garments, displaying his own foulness and the nakedness of his soul, and making manifest a mystery: that the old priesthood was to be torn asunder, along with the robe of his priesthood and of the worship which had been according to the letter. But he judged the greatness of Christ's words to be blasphemy, and he esteemed as glory the Jewish and fabulous history of the letter that kills. And he supposed (as though he understood) that Christ's discourses were sufficient as testimony against him — those very discourses which were witnesses of his divinity (as far as concerns those who are able to understand). And he says to those who were of the same mind: behold, now you have heard his blasphemy; what does it seem to you. Until, answering, they too pronounce against their own soul concerning Jesus, that he is guilty of death. How great, do you think, was the error, to pronounce Life itself, the principal Life of all, guilty of death, and by the testimony of so many rising again not to behold the fountain of life, from which life flowed forth into all the living, seeing that "as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself"?
Matthew 26:66 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
How great their error! to pronounce the principle of all men's life to be guilty of death, and not to acknowledge by the testimony of the resurrection of so many, the Fount of life, from Whom life flows to all that rise again.
Matthew 26:67-68 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 113
Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. But others slapped his face with the palms of their hands, saying: Prophesy to us, O Christ, who is it that struck you? (26, 67. 68) Most wickedly, as I judge, did those who had heard Jesus saying: "yet I say to you, that from now on you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" dare to spit in his face. For they supposed that by this they would confound him as a liar, and that one who sat "at the right hand of power" and was to come "in the clouds" would not endure the reproach of being spat upon; for they were ignorant of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied these very same things concerning him, and said in the person of the Lord and Savior himself: "what, that I came, and there was no man? I called, and there was none who would obey? Is my hand not able to rescue? Or can I not deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert. And their fish shall be dried up because they have no water, and shall die of thirst. And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering like sackcloth. The Lord gives me the tongue of instruction, that I may know how it behooves me to speak the word; he set me in the morning, he applied to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord shall open my ears; but I am not unbelieving, nor do I contradict. I offered my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the palms of hands, but I did not turn away my face from the confusion of spittings, and the Lord God became my helper". For all who are of the Church confess him to be Christ who says: "the Lord, the Lord gave me the tongue of instruction" and the rest which I have expounded. But I have fittingly expounded also those things which above were joined to these, wishing to show that this was prophesied concerning that glorious one, that he should be spat upon and buffeted. For to what other does it fit to say: "I came", except to Christ who came into the world? Or whom did it befit to say: "I called, and there was none who would obey", except him who came to call the people of the Jews and was not heard, and therefore did not rescue the people nor deliver it, but forsook it? And it is Christ who says: "behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, and I will set the rivers a desert", who is to bring about the consummation of the world. For it is he who will clothe the heaven with "darkness" and clothe it "as with sackcloth", and, receiving from the Father the "tongue of instruction", knew how "it behooved him to speak the word" which God had entrusted to him; and "he applied to him an ear", that he might hear more than all who hear, and the "instruction" of the Father opened his ear, because he was not unbelieving to the Father who sent him nor contradicting, and by the very deed he taught those desiring to learn meekness and praiseworthy humility. And there was a work in this, that he taught these things by deeds, offering his "back to the scourges and his cheeks to the palms of hands" and not turning away his face "from the confusion of spittings", so that us (as I judge), who had all been worthy to suffer these disgraces, he himself might rescue by suffering them for us. For he did "not die for us", that we might not die, but that we might not die for ourselves; and he was struck with blows for us and was spat upon, so that we, who had been worthy of all these things on account of our sins, might not suffer them, but that, suffering them for righteousness, we might receive them gladly. And Paul indeed says of the Savior, that "he humbled himself, being made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross". For it is not unseemly for one who wishes to number in how many things Christ humbled himself, to count out (beyond those things which Paul expounded, saying: "he humbled himself, being made obedient unto death"): unto the "palms of hands", unto the "confu…
Matthew 26:69-75 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, By the first handmaid is understood the Synagogue of the Jews, which oft compelled the faithful to deny; by the second, the congregations of the Gentiles, who even persecuted the Christians; they that stood in the hall signify the ministers of divers heresies, who also compel men to deny the truth of Christ.
Matthew 26:69-75 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 114
But Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard; and one of the maidservants came to him, saying: You too were with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying: I do not know what you are saying. And as he was going out to the gate, another maidservant saw him and said to him there: This man too was with Jesus the Nazarene. And again he denied it with an oath, saying, I do not know the man. And after a little while those who were standing there came and said to Peter: Truly you are one of them, for even your speech makes you plain. Then he began to curse and to swear, saying, I do not know the man. And immediately a cock crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him: Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times; and going out he wept most bitterly. Considering Peter's denial more fully, we say that "no one can call Jesus Lord except in the Holy Spirit" (as Paul teaches us), and "the Holy Spirit was not yet then" in men "because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (as John says), and therefore it was not possible that even such a Peter should then confess Jesus. Nor yet was he to be blamed for not confessing Jesus, since to those who confess it is said: "It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you". But we, since that Spirit of our Father is able to speak in us, and since it is in our power to give "place" in us to the Holy Spirit and not to "the devil", if we deny him, we shall have no excuse. Perhaps, moreover, whoever is in the courtyard of Caiaphas "the chief priest" cannot confess the Lord Jesus unless he has gone out of his courtyard and been made to be outside of every doctrine that is contrary to Jesus and that hands down Jewish traditions—and this not according to the will of the Scriptures, but according to "the commandments and teachings of men". For consider that Peter, sitting outside, separated from Jesus and set in the courtyard of the chief priest, denied Jesus before them all; and again a second time, likewise, being not yet made to be outside beyond the gate, but wishing to go out and not yet having gone out, denied him at the gate; but also a third time, when those who were standing said: Truly you are one of them, and when he began to curse himself and to swear, saying, I do not know the man, he was still not outside. And all these denials were made by him in the night and in darkness, before day comes and the sign of day, that is, the cock's crow which rouses from sleep those who are willing. And, to speak by way of example, if Peter had denied him after the cock's crow—so that it might be said: "the night has advanced, and the day has drawn near, let us walk becomingly as in the day"—Peter would have been worthy of no excuse. But perhaps also all men, when they deny Jesus in such a way that the sin of their denial may receive healing, are seen to deny him before the cock's crow, when the sun of righteousness has not yet risen upon them nor its rising drawn near to them. But if, after the rising of such a sun upon the soul, "we sin willingly after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains for us a sacrifice for sin, but a fearful judgment and a zeal of fire, which is to consume the enemies". And indeed in the case of Peter, then denying, it was not fitting to say: "how do you not think that they deserve worse punishments who have trodden underfoot the Son of God and have esteemed the blood of the covenant common, by which they were sanctified, and have done injury to the Spirit of grace?"; for Peter had not yet been sanctified by the blood of Christ (which was the blood of the new covenant), nor did he do injury to the Spirit of grace which from the beginning he had not even received, since "Jesus had not yet been glorified", "nor was" the "Holy Spirit" in men. But if in us this impious sin of denial has been committed, it is fitting to say all these things, since we have both been sanctified by the blood…
Matthew 27:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 115
But when morning had come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, that they might deliver him to death; and they led him away bound and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor (27, 1. 2). He who stumbles in the darkness and at night is worthy of pardon, but he who stumbles in the clear daylight can never blame his error as though it belonged to one who is master of himself (especially when he stumbles while having within himself the "lamp of the body"), but rather he must blame his own lack of self-mastery. Now we have said this to show that the disciples of Christ are indeed scandalized in the night, according to what the Lord foretells to them: "you will all suffer scandal because of me on this night", and because Peter denied three times before the cock crowed. But those who take counsel against Jesus — all the chief priests and elders of the people, when morning had come — sin in the light, that is, knowingly, according to what is written concerning this counsel, that they took counsel with one accord "together", as it is written in the Psalms, that they might deliver Christ to death, thinking to extinguish through his death his teaching and the faith in him among those who had believed in him as in the Son of God. But taking such counsel against him, the chief priests of the cult of the letter that kills, and the elders of the ministry of condemnation, bound Jesus, who looses men from their bonds and "says to those who are in bonds: come forth", and who looses those who are fettered and says: "let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast their yoke from us", and who had loosed from her bonds "the daughter of Abraham" bound by Satan "for eighteen years", so that she who "before could not at all look upward" should now be no longer bent down. And they bound him who willed it, and who, in the very fact that he was bound, was laying an ambush against those very bonds and breaking them, so that now the chief priests and elders of the Jews should have no bonds against men, the Lord evidently breaking them in himself. But if anyone requires of me a Scripture showing these things concerning the breaking of the bonds with which the chief priests and elders bound Jesus, let him understand that for this very reason Jesus himself says through the prophet: "let us break their bonds asunder", as if he were speaking of the chief priests and elders, or much more of those rulers who wrought in them, and of the kings of the earth, those who "stood up", and of the princes who "came together as one against the Lord and against his Christ", whose "yoke also let us cast from us". But he will satisfy you still further, so that you may accept that, even though those who took counsel against him led Jesus away bound, nevertheless Jesus broke the bonds, if you consider the things that are written concerning Samson, who was frequently bound and broke the bonds of the foreigners, because he had been a Nazarite of God and had hair full of strength. If therefore that man, on account of the strength of the hair which he had on his head, was able to break the bonds of the foreigners with which they had frequently bound him, how much more Christ, who after so many wonders and mighty works which he did, willingly delivered himself over to bonds (lulling to sleep within himself the power of his divinity and consenting to be bound), without doubt broke the bonds surrounding him! Of which bonds the bonds of Samson were the mysteries.
Matthew 27:2 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They supposed that by His death they should crush His doctrine, and the belief in Him of those who believed Him to be the Son of God. With such purpose against Him they bound Jesus, Who looses them that are bound. (vid. Isa. 61:1.)
Matthew 27:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 116
and they handed him over to Pontius Pilate. But whether both names of the governor also have some meaning fitting the dispensation of the Lord and Savior, or not, is not easy to answer with any finality. For the root terms from which these names are derived may move someone — Pontius and Pilatus; but whether one is rightly moved or not, let each of those capable of it come to consider and know.
Matthew 27:3-10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 117
Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, led by repentance brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying: I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. But they said: What is that to us? See thou to it. And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and going away hanged himself with a noose. But the chief priests, having taken the pieces of silver, said: It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And having taken counsel together, they bought with them the potter's field, for the burial of strangers. For this reason that field was called Acheldemach, that is, the field of blood, unto this present day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom they priced of the sons of Israel, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. Let those answer me who introduce certain fables concerning natures, supposing that they speak the truth and not recognizing that their opinion accuses the Creator of injustice, as one who made certain vessels indeed "unto honor" not by reason of any virtue of theirs leading them to honor, but certain others "unto dishonor" not because of their sins leading them to dishonor. For if Judas was of a perishable nature, how did he take up so great a repentance that he was not overcome by desire of the thirty pieces of silver, for the sake of which he took up the impious audacity of the betrayal? For if they refer to the property of natures what is said: "a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruits", let them say — unless he breathe forth some goodness, even if not perfectly nor as he ought, Judas being converted: this very thing, that he brought back the thirty pieces of silver, whence is it, and that he said, recognizing his sin: I have sinned in betraying innocent blood, unless it be from a good planting of the mind and from the sowing of virtue, which is sown in every rational soul, which Judas did not cultivate and therefore fell into such a sin? But if any of men is of a perishing nature, without doubt Judas too was rather of a nature of this perishing kind. And this without doubt would seem to have been the case, if, betraying innocent blood, he had either not brought back the money, taking his delight in it, or, bringing it back, had not said that I have sinned in betraying innocent blood. And if indeed Judas had said what he said after the resurrection of Christ from the dead, perhaps it would plausibly have to be said that the very power of his resurrection compelled him to repent of the deed and to confess his sin. But as it is, as soon as he saw that he had been delivered up to Pilate, being stung with compunction he repented; and perhaps also remembering those things which Jesus had frequently said to his disciples concerning his future resurrection. Judas therefore, seeing the greatness of his crime, did indeed repent and spoke out of the repentance of his heart, confessing his sin, in that he had betrayed innocent blood, "but he did not repent also according to knowledge", as he ought to have repented. For he supposed that he would anticipate in death his master who was about to die, and would meet him with a naked soul, so that, confessing and imploring, he might obtain mercy. For which reason he himself judged and condemned himself in that he had sinned knowingly, and he did not look to what Job had said, when set in such great disasters: "would that I might be able to kill myself, or to ask someone to do this for me", nor did he see that it does not befit a servant of God to expel himself from this life, but rather to await concerning this too the judgment of God. Let us now see whether (that which lies hidden from many … of that passage) by God's granting we may be able to explain what is said: But Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condem…
Matthew 27:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Let the propounders of those fables concerning intrinsically evil naturesa answer me here, whence Judas came to the acknowledgment of his sin, I have sinned in that I have betrayed righteous blood, except through the good mind originally implanted in him, and that seed of virtue which is sown in every rational soul? But Judas did not cherish this, and so fell into this sin. But if ever any man was made of a nature that was to perish, Judas was yet more of such a nature. If indeed he had done this after Christ's resurrection, it might have been said, that the power of the resurrection brought him to repentance. But he repented when he saw Christ delivered up to Pilate, perhaps remembering the things Jesus had so often spoken of His resurrection. (John 13:27.) Or, perhaps Satan who had entered into him continued with him till Jesus was given up to Pilate, and then, having accomplished his purpose, departed from him; whereupon he repented. But how could Judas know that He was condemned, for He had not yet been examined by Pilate? One may perhaps say, that he foreboded the event in his own mind from the very first, when he saw Him delivered up. Another may explain the words, when he saw that he was condemned, of Judas himself, that he then perceived his evil case, and saw that he himself was condemned.
Matthew 27:5 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But when the Devil leaves any one, he watches his time for return, and having taken it, he leads him into a second sin, and then watches for opportunity for a third deceit. (1 Cor. 5:1.) So the man who had married his father's wife afterwards repented him of this sin, but again the Devil resolved so to augment this very sorrow of repentance, that his sorrow being made too abundant might swallow up the sorrower. Something like this took place in Judas, who after his repentance did not preserve his own heart, but received that more abundant sorrow supplied to him by the Devil, who sought to swallow him up, as it follows, And he went out, and hanged himself. But had he desired and looked for place and time for repentance, he would perhaps have found Him who has said, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (Ezek. 33:11.) Or, perhaps, he desired to die before his Master on His way to death, and to meet Him with a disembodied spirit, that by confession and deprecation he might obtain mercy; and did not see that it is not fitting that a servant of God should dismiss himself from life, but should wait God's sentence.
Matthew 27:6-8 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They thought it meet to spend upon the dead that money which was the price of blood. But as there are differences even in burial places, they used the price of Jesus' blood in the purchase of some potter's field, where foreigners might be buried, not as they desired in the sepulchres of their fathers. Or, the foreigners are they who to the end are aliens from God, for the righteous are buried with Christ in a new tomb hewn out in the rock. But they who are aliens from God, even to the end, are buried in the field of a potter, a worker in clay, which being bought by the price of blood, is called the field of blood.
Matthew 27:7 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
They thought it meet to spend upon the dead that money which was the price of blood. But as there are differences even in burial places, they used the price of Jesus' blood in the purchase of some potter's field, where foreigners might be buried, not as they desired in the sepulchres of their fathers. Or, the foreigners are they who to the end are aliens from God, for the righteous are buried with Christ in a new tomb hewn out in the rock. But they who are aliens from God, even to the end, are buried in the field of a potter, a worker in clay, which being bought by the price of blood, is called the field of blood.
Matthew 27:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 118
But Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor questioned him, saying: Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus says to him: You say so. Truly Jesus "did not count it robbery that he was equal to God", and not once but frequently he humbled himself for the sake of men. And now therefore, having been "appointed judge of all creation" by the Father, the King of kings and Lord of lords, see to how great a degree he humbled himself, so that he consented to stand before the judge of the land of Judea at that time, and being summoned he was questioned with a question which Pilate perhaps in derision or in doubt asked, saying: Are you the king of the Jews? To which question he answered what he thought fitting, saying You say so. And when he was put on oath by the high priest, that he should say whether he himself is the Christ the Son of God, he answered: "You have said it", but when questioned by Pilate Are you the king of the Jews? he answered You say so. Consider the questions: was not that question, "whether you are the Christ the Son of God", suited to a Jewish person, whereas to the Roman judge saying interrogatively no longer: You are the Christ, but: Are you the king of the Jews? But whoever carefully considers the very fine points of the Gospel words will see that the high priest indeed said doubtingly: "if you are the Christ the Son of God" (for the syllable "if" shows the doubt of the questioning), but Pilate said declaratively: You are the king of the Jews. And that Pilate said this declaratively, this too is confirmed by the fact that he also elsewhere inscribes above, in the title, "King of the Jews" in three languages, "in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin", so that both Hebrews and Greeks and Romans might know that Pilate too knew him to be the king of the Jews. For which reason it appears with what reverence he inquired concerning Jesus and appealed to the people, that they should ask rather for Jesus to be released than Barabbas. And it was also a sign of Pilate's reverence, that washing his hands he said: "I am innocent of the blood of this man; see you to it". But that he said to the high priest "you have said it", obliquely reproving his doubt, he refutes it, and that he says to Pilate you say so, he confirms the opinion of the one making a declaration. But Mark, instead of "if you are the Christ the Son of God", writes thus: "are you the Son of the Blessed?" Perhaps either that which is written simply, or this which is written doubtingly — I do not know whether the copies may not have an error, since both ought equally to have said: "if you are", or both: "you are".
Matthew 27:11 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Mark how He that is ordained by His Father to be the Judge of the whole creation, humbled Himself, and was content to stand before the judge of the land of Judæa, and to be asked by Pilate either in mockery or doubt, Art thou the King of the Jews? Or, Pilate spoke this affirmatively, as he afterwards wrote in the inscription, The King of the Jews. By answering to the Chief Priest, Thou hast said, He indirectly reproved his doubts, but now He turns Pilate's speech into an affirmative, Jesus saith unto him, Thou sayest it.
Matthew 27:12-13 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Neither then nor now did Jesus make any reply to their accusations, for the word of God was not sent to them, as it was formerly to the Prophets. Neither was Pilate worthy of an answer, as he had no fixed or abiding opinion of Christ, but veered about to contradictory suppositions. Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
Matthew 27:12-14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 119
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders of the people, he answered nothing. Then Pilate says to him: Do you not hear how many testimonies they bring against you? And he did not answer him a single word, so that the governor marveled exceedingly. The ministers of the Jewish letter that kills, and the elders, are the sons of those priests and elders who accused Jesus, taking up their accusation even until now and accusing Jesus. Therefore, since that very sin remains in them, and "wrath, even to the end" has once forestalled them, they still suffer those same workings, being abandoned along with the whole people "like a tent in a vineyard, and like a hut in a cucumber-field, and like a city that is stormed." And just as Jesus, when accused, then answered nothing, so also now against the accusations of those priests and elders he answers nothing. For the Word of God is silent toward them, and they no longer hear the Word of God, as had once come to pass with the prophets, and, in the consummation of the ages, when he "was made flesh and dwelt among us." And not only to the chief priests and elders of the people falsely accusing him did he not respond, but neither to Pilate, since he wished to hear him defending himself against their lying accusations. For when Pilate said to him, after the accusations of the chief priests and elders: Do you not hear how many things they accuse you of?— not even to him did he respond. For it was not fitting to respond even to one who was in doubt as to whether he ought to respond against their false accusations. This we have said not forgetting what was said about Pilate, namely that he had at least some momentary kindly disposition toward Christ (for that this is true of Pilate is shown from the whole narrative concerning him). Yet no one will dare to say that the judgment about Christ within him was abiding and firm; for he was being drawn also to the contrary. Therefore now too, to one being drawn toward the worse opinion, the Lord did not respond, despising all the things that had been said in accusation of him. But Pilate marveled at his constancy, perhaps knowing how, though he was competent to pronounce sentence and to remit the charge … he marveled, seeing him stand in the calm and quiet gravity of wisdom and, with judgment, unperturbed—he in whom it was reckoned by those who were there that he was in peril of death; and he was stronger than human nature, and, though all its weakness sought to blunt the power of his spirit, it did not prevail to do this. But the fact that it is written that Pilate did not only marvel, but even marveled exceedingly, moves me to reckon that it seemed to him worthy of great wonder that Christ, when brought forward to a criminal trial, should remain unperturbed and stand before death, which among all men is reckoned terrible.
Matthew 27:14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The governor marvelled at His endurance, as knowing that he had power to condemn Him, He yet continued in a peaceful, placid, and immovable prudence and gravity. He marvelled greatly, for it seemed to him a great miracle that Christ, produced before a criminal tribunal, stood thus fearless of death, which all men think so terrible.
Matthew 27:15 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 120
Now at the feast day the governor was accustomed to release to the people one prisoner, whomever they wished. Do not be surprised if, the Roman rule still being in its beginnings among them, and the Jews newly taking up the yoke of the Romans, since it had been granted to the Jews that at the paschal solemnity they might ask for one whom they wished, even though he seemed liable for a thousand murders. For thus the nations render certain favors to those whom they subject to themselves, until their yoke is confirmed over them. Yet this custom of releasing a prisoner existed at one time also among the Jews. For when Saul had decreed that no one should take food, but Jonathan had tasted a honeycomb against the king's decree, he found Jonathan liable; and although he was his appointed son, yet on account of some oath of his he had decreed to put him to death. But he did not kill him, since all the people of Israel intervened and asked for him to be granted his life. But that Pilate released one prisoner to the people, or that Saul, at the people's request, released Jonathan, is no wonder; for the life of both those who were asking was under fault, since the Jews were always liable. But let us inquire whether something of this sort happens also in the judgment of God, so that the whole Church may be able to ask that some sinner be freed from the condemnation of sin — and especially if perhaps he has all the remaining works of perdition, yet is unwearied in doing good to the Church. For you will find such men often set in positions of power: sinners indeed in other respects, yet doing much on behalf of Christians as far as it is possible for them. And you will be led the more to inquire into such matters, if it has a fitting rationale, seeing that Israel too used to pray to God "for the life of Nebuchadnezzar" and of Belshazzar his son. But this, if it seems to anyone worthy of inquiry, let him inquire into it. But as for what is plain, let us all try to take care that we be found to be among those who ask, and in the rank of those who have lived well, rather than among those on whose behalf petition is made as for evil men. For even if one of the sinners is granted to the prayers of the Church, it is nevertheless not just that such a one should attain glory and blessedness; for it is enough that he be released from punishment. But I think, on account of that festival of the Jews on which Barabbas was chosen for life while Christ was neglected, the Lord says through the prophet: "my soul hates your fasts and your holidays and your feast days". And because they preferred to keep the solemnity with the robber set free rather than with Jesus, I will speak by way of example: if they had kept the solemnity rightly, like Josiah or someone similar to him, and there had been given to them the liberty of asking for whomever they wished, without doubt they would have demanded Jesus and condemned Barabbas. But let us pray that, as we keep the festal day, "not in the old leaven nor in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth", we may deserve indeed to condemn Barabbas, but to receive Jesus, free from all bonds, as our king and lord. And as long as we do these things, our festal days will not be turned into mourning, nor our songs into lamentation, but there will be in us true solemnities, the solemnities of God.
Matthew 27:15 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Thus do the Gentiles show favours to those whom they subject to themselves, until their yoke is riveted. Yet did this practice obtain also among the Jews, Saul did not put Jonathan to death, because all the people sought his life. (1 Sam. 14.)
Matthew 27:16-18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 121
Now at that time they had a notorious prisoner, who was called Barabbas. So when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them: Whom do you wish that I release to you, Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? For he knew that they had handed him over out of envy. In many copies it is not contained that Barabbas was also called Jesus, and perhaps rightly so, that the name of Jesus might not belong to any of the wicked. For in so great a multitude of the Scriptures we know of no Jesus who was a sinner, whereas in other names we find that, among the righteous, there are also found wicked men of the very same name — for instance, Judas the apostle, the zealot, and likewise Judas the patriarch, and Judas Maccabaeus, all praiseworthy, but also Judas the traitor; and in Genesis there are found sons of Seth and sons of Cain bearing the same name, such as Enoch and Lamech and Methuselah. But it was not fitting that there should be any such thing also in the name of Jesus. And I think that in the heresies some such thing has been added on, so that they might have something apt to say for their fables about the likeness of the name of Jesus and Barabbas. For I judge that in these matters some mystery is set forth: that Barabbas was appointed for sedition and wars and murders to be committed in the souls of men, but Jesus, as the Son of God and peace, was appointed, and as the Word and Wisdom, for all good things. These two, then, being bound in human affairs and bodies, that people demanded for itself that Barabbas be released; on whose account that nation does not cease to have seditions and murders and robberies — according to some of that nation in the things that are held outwardly, but according to all the Jews who do not believe in Jesus, inwardly in the soul. For where Jesus is not, there are seditions and quarrels and battles; but where Jesus is, so that they can say: "but if Christ is in us, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness", there all good things are together, and innumerable spiritual riches are in his hands, and peace; "for he himself is our peace, who has made both one". And if anyone should behold that contrary operation, he will recognize that it is he who is in men the bound notorious Barabbas, whom they desire to be released for themselves — not only Israel then sinning according to the flesh, but also all who are like him either in doctrine or in life. Whoever, therefore, does evil things, in his body Barabbas is released, but Christ is bound; but whoever does good things, to him Christ is released, but Barabbas is bound.
Matthew 27:18 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Thus it is plainly seen how the Jewish people is moved by its elders and the doctors of the Jewish system, and stirred up against Jesus to destroy Him.
Matthew 27:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 122
Now while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying: Have nothing to do with that just man; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. And Jesus indeed had been handed over out of envy, and out of such manifest envy that even Pilate was not unaware of it. But the evangelist wished not to pass over a matter of divine providence that contains praise of God, who willed through a dream to convert Pilate's wife, so that, as far as lay in her, she might forbid her husband to dare to pronounce sentence against Jesus. And Matthew did not indeed set forth the dream, but only said that she had suffered many things in a dream because of Jesus, and therefore she suffered in a dream so that she might not suffer further. So that we may call Pilate's wife blessed, who suffered many things in a dream because of Jesus, and received in a dream what she was going to suffer. From which someone will dare to say that it is better for a person to receive evils in a dream than to receive them in real life. For who would not choose to receive his evils in a dream rather than to receive them in his life (unless perhaps he deserves such things that it is expedient for him to receive harsher things in his life rather than to receive lighter ones in a dream)? For he who has received evils in his life (and not these evils which he received in his dream) is consoled and rests "in the bosom of Abraham", according to which he will also have consolation. But whether she also had the beginning of her conversion to God from the fact that she had suffered many things because of Jesus in a dream, God knows; yet this too is contained in certain writings that are not public. And see (because Pilate's wife called Jesus just) whether perhaps this wife of Pilate is a mystery of the Church from the Gentiles, which at one time indeed was ruled by Pilate, but now is no longer under him because of her faith in Christ.
Matthew 27:20-23 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But the populace, like wild beasts that rage the open plains, would have Barabbas released to them. For this people had seditions, murders, robberies, practised by some of their own nation in act, and nourished by all of them who believe not in Jesus, inwardly in their mind. Where Jesus is not, there are strifes and fightings; where He is, there is peace and all good things. All those who are like the Jews either in doctrine or life desire Barabbas to be loosed to them; for whoso does evil, Barabbas is loosed in his body, and Jesus bound; but he that does good has Christ loosed, and Barabbas bound. Pilate sought to strike them with shame for so great injustice, What shall I do then with Jesus that is called Christ? And not that only, but desiring to fill up the measure of their guilt. But neither do they blush that Pilate confessed Jesus to be the Christ, nor set any bounds to their impiety, They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. Thus they multiplied the sum of their wickedness, not only asking the life of a murderer, but the death of a righteous man, and that the shameful death of the cross.
Matthew 27:20-21 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 123
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the people to ask for Barabbas, but to destroy Jesus. And the governor answering said to them: Which of the two do you wish that I release to you? But they said: Barabbas. And it is possible to see even now how the people of the Jews are persuaded and stirred up by their elders and by the teachers of the Jewish worship against Jesus, so that they may destroy him (so far as it lies in themselves) and have Barabbas set free; for the crowds believe their chiefs and priests. And for the most part the governor indeed said to the people: Which of the two do you wish that I release to you?, but the crowds — as being true crowds and many, who walk the "broad way that leads to destruction" — asked that Barabbas be released, wishing to have him set free for themselves.
Matthew 27:22-26 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 124
Pilate says to them: What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all say: Let him be crucified, and so on. Wishing to strike into them shame at so great a wickedness, Pilate says to them: What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ, and not only this but also wishing to take the full measure of their impiety. But they, neither blushing at the fact that Pilate confessed Jesus to be Christ nor keeping any limit in their impiety, all said: Let him be crucified. And indeed, if they had asked that Barabbas be released, but had not on the contrary also demanded Christ for the cross — that is, if they had asked that Barabbas be acquitted, but had not asked that this man be crucified but had left him in Pilate's power, so that he might do with him what he willed — it would still have been of great impiety, that, leaving aside the just man, they had asked for a murderer. But as it is, they multiplied the measure of their impiety, not only demanding a murderer for life, but also the just man for death, and for the most shameful death of the cross. Yet still continuing in that very purpose by which he wished to confound them, so that at least, being confounded, they might come to the choosing of the just man (even if not from the judgment of the heart), he says to them: For what evil has he done? Having nothing to answer against this, they cried out the more, not laying aside but increasing their anger, their fury, their blasphemy, and said: Let him be crucified. But Pilate, seeing that he was accomplishing nothing, made use of a Jewish custom, wishing to appease them concerning Christ's innocence not only by words but even by the deed itself, if they were willing, but if they were unwilling, to condemn — doing this not according to any custom of the Romans; for he took water in the sight of all, and washing his hands he said: I am innocent of the blood of this just man; see you to it. And he indeed washed himself, but they not only refused to cleanse themselves of Christ's blood, but even took it upon themselves, saying: His blood be upon us, and upon our children. On account of this they were made guilty not only in the blood of the prophets, but, filling up the measure of their fathers, they were made guilty also in the blood of Christ, so that they might hear God saying to them: When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn away my eyes from you; for your hands are full of blood." Therefore the blood of Jesus was brought not only upon those who were then alive, but also upon all the generations of the Jews following afterward, even to the consummation. Therefore until now their house is left to them desolate. But Pilate, forgetting his own good words, by which he had begun to defend the innocence of Christ, turning aside to evil, not only delivered up Jesus, but even delivered him up scourged with whips, that they might crucify him.
Matthew 27:27-29 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 125
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered to him the whole cohort, and clothed him with a scarlet chlamys and put purple around him, and placed a crown of thorns upon his head and a reed in his right hand, and kneeling down they mocked him, saying: Hail, King of the Jews. It is likely that (in the beginnings of the then newly established Roman empire) the soldiers, not yet keeping the fitting order of discipline, did to the Savior — beyond the custom of the discipline that now exists — this: when, receiving him into the praetorium, they gathered the whole cohort and did what they are said to have done, making Jesus their sport, because he had been named King of the Jews. But I for my part think the soldiers did this while there worked within them the invisible kings and princes of this world, who "stood by and came together in one against the Lord and against his Christ", so that that mockery of theirs may be seen to have been rather theirs than men's — and of those who in that dispensation did not know the wisdom of God, "for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty". Therefore that cohort was a mystery of some malignant host. And they stripped him of his garments, which he had from above, the seamless tunic and the robe (for such does John describe his garments to be), and they clothed him (mocking him on account of his royal name) with a scarlet chlamys, not understanding what they do: for that scarlet chlamys was a mystery of the scarlet sign which is written of in Joshua son of Nun, which that Rahab had for her salvation, and in Genesis, which was done upon one of the sons of Tamar at the hand of the one being born, that the scarlet should be bound as a sign of the future passion of Christ. Therefore now also the Lord, taking upon himself the scarlet chlamys, took upon himself the blood of the world, and in that thorny crown he took upon himself the thorns of our sins woven into his head. And concerning the chlamys it is written that they again stripped him of the scarlet chlamys, but concerning the thorny crown the evangelists wrote nothing of the sort, on account of which they wished us to seek out the outcome of the matter concerning the thorny crown, once placed on and never taken off. I therefore judge that that thorny crown was consumed from the head of Jesus, so that our old thorns are now no more, after Jesus once took them away from us upon his venerable head. But if it is fitting to say something also about the reed which they placed in his right hand, we set forth a reasoning of this kind. That reed, then, was a mystery of a vain and fragile scepter, upon which we all leaned before we believed, a malignant scepter; for we trusted in the reed rod of Egypt or of Babylon or of whatever kingdom contrary against the kingdom of God. And he took that reed and the rod of the fragile kingdom out of our hands, that he might triumph over it and crush it on the wood of the cross. And in place of that former reed, upon which we formerly reclined, he gave us the scepter of the heavenly kingdom and the rod of which it is written: "the rod of equity is the rod of thy kingdom"; or a rod which may chastise those who have need of chastisement, of which the apostle says: "what will you? shall I come to you with a rod?" He gave us also a staff, that we might celebrate the Passover according to what is written: "let your staffs be in your hands", so that we might celebrate the Passover laying aside the reed rod which we had before we celebrated the Lord's Passover. But they strike with this fragile and vain reed the venerable head of Jesus, since that contrary kingdom also always reviles and beats God the Father — the head of the Lord the Savior. And in all these things the only-begotten power was not harmed, just as it also suffered nothing, though made "a curse for us", when by nature it was a blessing; but, being a blessing, it consumed and dissolved and di…
Matthew 27:29-30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, The reed was a mystery signifying that before we believed we trusted in that reed of Egypt, or Babylon, or of some other kingdom opposed to God, which He took that He might triumph over it with the wood of the cross. With this reed they smite the head of Christ, because this kingdom ever beats against God the Father, who is the head of the Saviour.
Matthew 27:31 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Of the cloak it is mentioned that they took it off Him, but of the crown of thorns the Evangelists have not spoken, so that there are now no longer those ancient thorns of ours, since Jesus has taken them from us upon His revered head.
Matthew 27:32-33 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 126
And as they went out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon; him they compelled to take up his cross. For just as, according to the three evangelists, Jesus is tempted by the devil, but according to John (who made his discourse concern his spiritual nature) he is not tempted — for "the truth and the life" and "the resurrection" and "the true light" is not tempted, but he was tempted according to the man whom the only-begotten God had taken up — so according to John indeed the Savior, when those who had seized him laid it upon him, "bearing his own cross went out to the place which is called the place of Calvary", but according to the rest he does not bear it for himself. For those who were leading him away to be crucified, as they went out, found a certain man of Cyrene, named Simon, whom they compelled to take up the cross of Christ. But it was fitting not only for the Savior to take up his own cross, but it was fitting also for us to bear it, fulfilling the compulsion that is salutary for us. Nor, again, would we have been to be profited so much by taking up his cross, as we are now profited by his cross, when he himself takes it up for himself and bears it. But you will ask whether according to the text both things happened and the evangelists are not discordant with one another, and which of them happened first: that is, whether those who seized Jesus for crucifixion and laid the cross upon him, so that "bearing it" he might go out into the place of Calvary, did this first, before they compelled Simon of Cyrene — or whether, once they had gone out, they compelled Simon, but when they had come to the place in which they were going to hang him, they themselves placed the cross upon him, so that he himself might bear it. And whoever can examine this, let him examine it in inquiring into both cases, that he may find whether he received the completion of bearing the cross, or rather Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled not by chance, but according to some foreknowledge of God concerning him, led to this according to the disposition of God, so that he might be found worthy of the evangelical scripture and of the ministry of the cross of Christ, in which "the world is crucified" to the saints "and" the saints "to the world". But certain persons have also wished to expound this very Simon of Cyrene morally, taking their occasion from the fact that he was from the Pentapolis of Cyrene in Libya, so as to say, from the five senses, that as it were the five senses bore the cross of that dispensation. And Simon is interpreted OBEDIENCE: but to whom did it more befit that he should bear the cross of Christ, than to obedience, or (as the second son of Leah was called) to Simeon? For among the Greeks both the patriarch and Peter are named in two ways (according to the property of the Hebrew tongue), so that it fits him who is so called that he be called both Simon and Simeon, since the Hebrews write both the name of Simeon and of Simon with the very same letters. And the place of Calvary is said to have no ordinary dispensation, in that there, where he who was to die for men was to die, he might die. For there has come to me a certain tradition of this kind, that the body of Adam, the first man, was buried there where Christ was crucified, so that "as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive"; that in that place, which is called the place of Calvary, that is, the place of the head, the head of the human race might find resurrection together with the whole people through the resurrection of the Lord the Savior, who there suffered and rose again. For it was unfitting that, while many born from him should receive remission of sins and obtain the benefit of the resurrection, he himself, the father of all men, should not rather obtain grace of this kind.
Matthew 27:32 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Or, as they went out, they laid hold of Simon, but when they drew near to the place in which they would crucify Him, they laid the cross upon Him that He might bear it. Simon obtained not this office by chance, but was brought to the spot by God's providence, that he might be found worthy of mention in the Scriptures of the Gospel, and of the ministry of the cross of Christ. And it was not only meet that the Saviour should carry His cross, but meet also that we should take part therein, filling a carriage so beneficial to us, ἀγγαρεία. Yet would it not have so profited us to take it on us, as we have profited by His taking it upon Himself.
Matthew 27:34 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 127
And they gave him vinegar to drink mixed with gall; and when he had tasted it, he would not drink. For it was enough for us that he should only taste it on our behalf, just as he tasted a death no longer than the span of three days, so also the vinegar mixed with gall. But another wine, not mixed with gall nor with any other contrary thing, he took and drank, and "giving thanks" he gave it to the disciples and promised that he would drink "it new in the kingdom" of God.
Matthew 27:35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 128
And after they had crucified him, they divided his garments among themselves, casting lots, and sitting down they kept watch over him (27, 35. 36). And there are even now those who indeed do not possess him, but possess his garments — the words set down in the Scriptures — and not even these in full but only in part, though the prophet foretold this very mystery which has now been fulfilled. But whether any of his garments was torn apart in that division, or whether each of them remained whole as it had been, and what kind those garments were, we do not read in the three evangelists; but in John we learn that "the soldiers, after they had crucified Christ, took his garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, but the tunic, since it was not sewn together but woven from the top throughout the whole, they said to one another: let us not tear it apart, but let us cast lots for it". Not all of them, therefore, received it, but only the one who obtained it by lot. And if someone were to discuss the difference between those who possess the garments of the Lord, he will without doubt find that there are some who, in their doctrines, even though they do not possess him, nevertheless possess the "tunic" woven from the top "throughout the whole", while others possess not even this but only some small portion of his garment. And consider this, that according to Matthew indeed Jesus, taking "vinegar mixed with gall", tasted it and "would not drink", but according to Mark, when "wine mingled with myrrh was given to him", "he did not take it".
Matthew 27:36 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 129
And sitting down they kept watch over him there. And the soldiers indeed kept watch over the body, having been assigned by the chief priests, as though it were liable to be stolen away by his disciples if it were not guarded; but the divine dispensation raised him up and made not only two or three to be witnesses of his resurrection, but far more. For "he was seen by Cephas, then by the eleven, then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once", "and last of all" by Paul. And it was no small sign of his resurrection, that he was seen by so many — by those who took up the danger of proclaiming him alive among the peoples who had demanded him for the cross. And now new chief priests (namely the sons of those chief priests) crucify the word of truth set down in the Scriptures by their false expositions, and slay it with lies; but the word of truth, because among them indeed it is slain yet lives in its own nature, always finds and chooses for itself vessels in which it may rise again and live and still confound its own slayers, shown by many testimonies to be alive.
Matthew 27:37 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The High Priest also in obedience to the letter of the Law wore on his head the writing, 'Holiness to the Lord,' but the true High Priest and King, Jesus, bears on His cross the title, This is the King of the Jews; when ascending to His Father, instead of His own name with its proper letters, He has the Father Himself.
Matthew 27:37 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 130
And they placed above his head his charge written out: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. "Whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed," and every script bears witness to his kingdom, whether of the Greeks or of the Romans or of the Hebrews, and for a crown above his head let there be written: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews, and let no other cause of his death be found (for indeed there was none), let this alone be held: that he was king of the Jews, concerning which he also spoke, saying: "but I have been appointed king by him over Zion, his holy mountain"; and the chief of the priests indeed, according to the letter of the law, bore upon his head the shape of a sign, "the sanctification of the Lord" written on the plate, but the true chief of the priests and king, Jesus, on the cross indeed has written: this is the king of the Jews, yet ascending to the Father and receiving the Father into himself, in place of letters and in place of a name he has him who is named, and he has him as a crown, having been made worthy of him and made a house worthy of God the Father, he alone can sufficiently contain the Father.
Matthew 27:38 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The thief who was saved may be a sign of those who after many sins have believed on Christ.
Matthew 27:38 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 131
Then they crucified with him two robbers, one on the right and one on the left. The Lord, crucified among robbers like the robbers themselves, fulfilled the prophecy that says of him: "and he was reckoned among the wicked". And it is possible to see his disciples, giving testimony to the worship of God which was introduced through him, being reckoned "among the wicked" and being crucified with them, or enduring the remaining sufferings, just as those men did. For the world and the spirit that is in it always persecutes the highest men and punishes indeed the highest in wickedness for the benefit of the many, but the highest in virtue, because this world is not worthy of those who consider not "the things that are seen", but "the things that are not seen", and who despise it, just as also of old the saints walked "in sheepskins and in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in caves, and in the dens of the earth, of whom the world was not worthy".
Matthew 27:39-43 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 132
And as they passed by they blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying: aha, you who were destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days; free yourself, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him with the scribes and the elders and the Pharisees, said: he saved others, himself he cannot save; if he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we believe him. He trusts in God; he will free him now if he wills him; for he said, that I am the Son of God. No one who stands blasphemes Jesus, nor anyone who walks aright; for it was those passing by who blasphemed him (or, as the Greek has it, those going past), who also, once the fence of the vineyard has been broken down by God, gather as their vintage those who have remained; for it is written: "Why have you cast down its fence, and all who pass by the way gather it as their vintage?" So long, therefore, as anyone has not passed by the way nor turned aside from the way, or, standing, can say to God: you have set "my feet upon a rock", he does not blaspheme Jesus; but if he has fallen or gone past or crossed over or turned aside, then he blasphemes him. As, further, those who have fallen into evil works, and those who have forsaken "the eternal bounds" and the way of the heavenly church, and are tossed and carried about "by every wind of doctrine in the deceit of men, in craftiness for the contriving of error". For if anyone should say that all heresies are passing by and turning aside, he will not sin, for which reason they too are counted among those passing by and blaspheme Jesus, having no firm head, but wagging it up and down, since they are not prudent nor have their eyes in their head, in which they ought to have had them, as the Preacher (Ecclesiastes) says: "the eyes of the wise man are in his head". It is, therefore, the work of those passing by and turning aside to blaspheme Jesus the Son of God, because "no one speaking in the Spirit of God says: anathema to Jesus". Now there are various sayings of the blasphemers, one blasphemy of which is that which is uttered by those who neither understand nor hear the things that are said nor concerning what they make their assertions: for Jesus said: "destroy this temple, and I in three days will raise it up", but those passing by, as "false witnesses" against Jesus, said what had not been said concerning him, assailing him: aha, you who destroy the temple of God, and in three days rebuild it. For he does not himself destroy the temple, but what others destroy he himself builds; whether "the temple of his own body", which had been handed over to death by the Jews, or the temple of his witnesses and of all who had the word of God in them and died from the ambushes of the impious on account of their piety (for "the hour comes when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and will rise again"). And not only in that which they said: he who destroys the temple, did they lie, but also in that which they said: "and I in three days will rebuild it". For neither did he say that he would rebuild the temple, but that he would raise it up; for the word of building does not indicate a sudden work, but the word of raising up does indicate it. And those indeed who were deriding him said save yourself, but he (receiving power from the Father) both did this and more: for to all who receive his word he showed his salvation. And they indeed, deriding, said: if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross, but he did not show himself the Son of God to those deriding him, yet he showed it to those believing in him, after he had dispensed the things which it behooved him to dispense in those three days, after, descending to the lower regions "put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit, he preached to the spirits who were in prison, who had not believed at some time, when the patience of God was awaited in the days of Noah while th…
Matthew 27:44 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The thief who was saved may be a sign of those who after many sins have believed on Christ.
Matthew 27:44 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 133
And the robbers who were crucified with him reproached him with the same thing. And in commenting on John we have explained, as best we could, concerning the two robbers who were crucified with Christ, who according to Matthew indeed and Mark both reproached him on the cross, but according to Luke, who says that "one of the hanging robbers blasphemed him, saying: You are the Christ; save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying: Do you not fear God, seeing that you are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive things worthy of our deeds; but this man has done nothing evil. And he said to Jesus: Remember me when you come into your kingdom. But Jesus, answering, said to him who had rebuked the one blaspheming: "Amen I say to you: today you shall be with me in paradise". It is fitting, therefore, that at first indeed both robbers should be understood to have blasphemed the Lord, but after this that one of them was converted and believed, pondering within himself both about these miracles which he heard had been done by him, and perhaps also seeing the change of the air and the darkness that came about, unusual and not such as was frequently accustomed to happen. Or perhaps, as we said in that place too, these two robbers are different — of whom one was blaspheming him while the other rebuked the one blaspheming — and different were those two robbers who both blasphemed. But that robber who was saved can be a mystery of those who after many iniquities believed in Christ and said: We have been crucified together with Christ and conformed to the death of Christ, and who always say to the Son of God: "Remember" us "when you come into your kingdom, and therefore" they are "in paradise" with him.
Matthew 27:45 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 134
And from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour. From this text certain people malign the truth of the Gospel, saying: how can what is said be true according to the text, namely that there was darkness over the whole earth from the sixth hour until the ninth, since no history records that this happened? And they say that, just as usually happens in an eclipse of the sun, so an eclipse of the sun occurred at that time. Now an eclipse of the sun has always occurred throughout the ages at its own time. But the eclipse of the sun which is wont to happen according to the customary course of the seasons as they run does not occur at any other time than at the conjunction of the sun and the moon, when the moon, running beneath, obstructs the rays of the sun by coming to meet it, and by its encounter blunts its light. But at the time when Christ suffered it is manifest that there was no conjunction of the moon with the sun, since it was the Passover season, which is customary to keep when the moon has the fullness of the sun and is present the whole night. How then could there be an eclipse of the sun, when the moon was full and had the fullness of the sun? But certain believers, wishing to introduce some defense against these arguments, hard pressed by the words of those who professed such things, spoke thus: if no new portent had happened at the time of Christ's passion but everything according to custom, it would be believed that that eclipse of the sun had happened according to custom; but now, since it is established that the other portents which happened then did not happen according to custom, but were new and wondrous (for indeed "the veil of the temple was torn into two parts from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened and many bodies of the sleeping saints rose again"), it is manifest that that eclipse of the sun too, consequently, in keeping with the other new portents, happened contrary to custom. Again, against these things the "sons of this age" who are "wiser than the sons of light in their generation" say such things as this: grant that that eclipse of the sun happened contrary to custom at a time not ancient, under the rule of the Romans, so that darkness fell over the whole earth until the ninth hour — how is it that no one of the Greeks, no one of the barbarians, recorded that so marvelous a thing had happened at that time, especially those who wrote and noted chronicles, whenever any such new thing ever happened, but only your authors have written this? And a certain Phlegon wrote in his Chronicles that it happened in the rule of Tiberius Caesar, but he did not indicate that this happened at the full moon. See therefore whether this objection is not strong and able to move every wise man (who agrees neither with those who say these things nor with those who write those things, but hears everything with reason and judgment), and it is indeed not hard … and every one of the faithful (who indeed believes, yet does not believe with reason and with judgment), so that he may be so constant in faith that, even if they bring a thousand charges against the faith of the Gospel wishing to destroy our faith, he may in no part of them be shaken by the words of those who (pretending to believe the Gospel scriptures) through the occasion of one or another question, whether difficult or perhaps even insoluble, opposing the scriptures, hasten to take away the faith of Christ and of his Gospels from our soul, introducing certain moral matters and wishing to transfer the wonders accomplished by the power of God to certain secular customs. I have therefore judged it good, taking up the good purpose of those who desire to be constant in the faith, to find solutions to their accusations (as far as there is power in me from God) on behalf of the truth of the Gospel, so that the faithful may be fortified in faith not only by simple faith, but also b…
Matthew 27:45 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Some take occasion from this text to cavil against the truth of the Gospel. For indeed from the beginning eclipses of the sun have happened in their proper seasons; but such an eclipse as would be brought about by the ordinary course of the seasons could only be at such time as the sun and moon come together, when the moon passing beneath intercepts the sun's rays. But at the time of Christ's passion it is clear that this was not the case, because it was the paschal feast, which it was customary to celebrate when the moon was full. Some believers, desiring to produce some answer to this objection, have said, that this eclipse in accordance with the other prodigies was an exception to the established laws of nature. Against this the children of this world urge, How is it that of the Greeks and Barbarians, who have made observations of these things, not one has recorded so remarkable a phenomenon as this? Phlegon indeed has recorded such an event as happening in the time of Tiberius Caesar, but he has not mentioned that it was at the full moon. I think therefore that, like the other miracles which took place at the Passion, the rending of the veil, and the earthquake, this also was confined to Jerusalem. Or, if any one chooses, it may be extended to the whole of Judæa; as in the book of Kings, Abdias said to Elias, As the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee, (1 Kings 18:10.) meaning that he had been sought in the countries round about Judæa. Accordingly we might suppose many and dense clouds to have been brought together over Jerusalem and Judæa, enough to produce thick darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour. For we understand that there were two creatures created on the sixth day, the beasts before the sixth hour, man on the sixth; and therefore it was fitting that He who died for the salvation of man should be crucified at the sixth hour, and for this cause that darkness should be over the whole earth from the sixth to the ninth hour. And as by Moses stretching out his hands towards heaven darkness was brought upon the Egyptians who held the servants of God in bondage, so likewise when at the sixth hour Christ stretched out his hands on the cross to heaven, darkness came over all the people who had cried out, Crucify him, and they were deprived of all light as a sign of the darkness that should come, and that should envelop the whole people of the Jews. Further, under Moses there was darkness over the land of Egypt three days, but all the children of Israel had light; so under Christ there was darkness over all Judæa for three hours, because for their sins they were deprived of the light of God the Father, the splendour of Christ, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. But over the rest of the earth there is light, which every where illumines the Church of God in Christ. And if to the ninth hour there was darkness over Judæa, it is manifest that light returned to them again after that; so, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, then all Israel shall be saved. (Rom. 11:25.)
Matthew 27:46 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 135
Now about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying: Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani? that is: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But those who were standing there and heard it said that this man is calling Elijah (27, 46. 47). It must be inquired, in a manner worthy of the Lord, what that great voice of Christ was—whether great by reason of things signifying great mysteries, or great by the sensible and bodily hearing of a great voice. But I think that every voice of Christ, the Son of God, is great, even if it be soft; and Scripture bears witness to this very thing especially in those places in which it wishes to raise up the hearer, so that he may pass beyond that which many are able to understand in such passages, and may not remain in it (although according to the simple understanding it may have in it some truth), so that he may be able to understand something in a manner worthy on account of the great voice of the Lord. Since, therefore, by these words he shows that there is something hidden and great, when he cries out to God, saying, why hast thou forsaken me, therefore it must be inquired what it is that was forsaken by God. Christ; for it is not permissible to believe that he lies when he says: why have you forsaken me. And some, out of a religious coloring on Jesus' behalf, and because they cannot explain what it means for Christ to be forsaken by God, suppose and say: it is indeed true what was said, yet it was said out of humility. But we, seeing him who had been established "in the form of God" descending from a greatness of this kind and emptying himself through this, that he "took on the form of a servant", and seeing in these things the will of him who sent him to such conditions, understand that, as regards those things in which there had been the form of the invisible God and the image according to the Father, he was forsaken by the Father when he "took on the form of a servant", and he was forsaken for the sake of men, so that he might take on such and so great things, so that he might come "even unto death", "and the death of the cross", which among men is seen to be the most shameful. For the extremity of his being forsaken came about when they crucified him and placed above his head, as if mocking him, letters saying: "this is Jesus the king of the Jews". And that too was an extremity of his being forsaken, that he was crucified among robbers, and that "those passing by blasphemed him, wagging their heads over him", and that the chief men with the scribes were saying: "he saved others, himself he cannot save", and still further that too, that "even the robbers reproached him" on the cross. Therefore you will be able clearly to understand what it is that he says: why hast thou forsaken me? — making a comparison of that glory which he had with the Father to the confusion which, despising it, he endured on the cross. For his throne was "as the sun in the sight of God, and as the perfect moon for ever; and his witness in heaven was faithful". But afterward, for those on whose behalf he says: why hast thou forsaken me, he added further, saying: "but thou hast repelled and brought to nothing, and hast put off thy Christ, thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant, thou hast profaned his holiness upon the earth", and the rest. And so long as there was light from the sun, even while enduring such great and such grievous things He did not say Why hast Thou forsaken Me?; but after He saw that darkness had come "over all the land of Judaea until the ninth hour," He said with His great voice Why hast Thou forsaken Me, wishing to show by these words this: that Thou hast forsaken Me willingly, Father, and hast delivered Me up, emptied out, to such calamities, in order that the people who had been held in honor with Thee might receive what it dared to do against Me — filling up the "measure of its fathers," and the things it did against the prophets — so that it might be deprived of the light o…
Matthew 27:46 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
But it must be asked, What means this, that Christ is forsaken of God? Some, unable to explain how Christ could be forsaken of God, say that this was spoken out of humility. But you will be able clearly to comprehend His meaning if you make a comparison of the glory which He had with the Father with the shame which He despised when He endured the cross. When He saw darkness over the whole land of Judæa He said this, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? meaning, Why hast thou given Me over exhausted to such sufferings? that the people who were honoured by Thee may receive the things that they have dared against Me, and should be deprived of the light of Thy countenance. Also, Thou hast forsaken Me for the salvation of the Gentiles. But what good have they of the Gentiles who have believed done, that I should deliver them from the evil one by shedding My precious blood on the ground for them? Or will they, for whom I suffer these things, ever do aught worthy of them? Or foreseeing the sins of those for whom He suffered, He said, Why hast thou forsaken me? that I should become as one that, gathereth stubble in the harvest, and gleanings in the vintage. (Mic. 7:1.) But you must not imagine that the Saviour said this after the manner of men by reason of the misery which encompassed Him on the cross; for if you take it so you will not hear His loud voice and mighty words which point to something great hidden.
Matthew 27:47-49 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 136
But some standing there and hearing him said: This man is calling Elijah … but the others said: Let us see whether Elijah comes and delivers him. As though they had heard that he called upon God, and had marveled at his prayer on the cross, greater than was the prayer of Jonah praying in the belly of the whale, and had been profited by it, so that even when set amid the most extreme calamities they might not cease to pray to God. And I say that the prayer of Christ was greater than that of Jonah in the belly of the whale on account of the magnitude of the things that are shown forth from it, and on account of the great effect of his voluntary passion.
Matthew 27:48 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 137
And immediately one of them ran up, took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. And thus he fulfilled in himself the prophecy that spoke of him: "and they gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink". For this reason too, according to John, when Jesus had received the vinegar with the gall, he said: "it is finished" — this also, which the Scripture had foretold concerning me. And one may with pleasure apply this text against those who have written or do write malicious things against Christ, of whom Isaiah says: "woe to those who write malicious things; for in writing they write malicious things" (I speak of those who have left behind certain writings, speaking "iniquity on high"). And one will use this text when he sees them gathering from certain things they have heard — whether of heathen sayings or of barbarous discourses — and composing a narrative like a kind of sponge, filling it not with any drinkable word nor with wine that gladdens "the heart of man" nor with the water of "refreshment", but with a kind of contrary and harmful and undrinkable intelligible vinegar; and this sponge they put upon the reed of their own writing and (so far as in them lies) inflict injuries upon Jesus by a drink of this kind. And some indeed give Jesus "wine mingled with gall to drink", which Jesus the Son of God will not drink, but others give not wine but vinegar. And perhaps those who, so far as ecclesiastical doctrine is concerned, have right understanding, but live wickedly, give him "wine mingled with gall to drink"; while those who apply to Christ wisdoms alien from the truth, as though he were speaking them, these fill a sponge with vinegar, put it upon a reed, and give him to drink. But there are also those who, as John writes, "offer to his mouth both vinegar and gall". And perhaps those who merely have wrong understanding fill a sponge with vinegar and put it upon the reed of their own writing and give him to drink; but those who both understand wrongly concerning the dispensations of Christ and live wickedly, these, "putting a sponge full of vinegar with gall and hyssop" upon the reed of their writing, offer it "to his mouth". But he who will not even drink his "wine" because of the admixture of gall, will much more not drink "vinegar", nor "vinegar mingled with gall". Therefore let us, receiving from our Savior Jesus himself (who is the "true vine") wine pure from all sharpness and bitterness, wine which "gladdens the heart of man" and the heart of the Son of God himself, give him and his disciples to drink of it, so that he may say of us who give him and his disciples good drink: "I thirsted and you gave me drink". Let us also receive the "water of refreshment" with which "the good shepherd" nourishes the just, so that those who are fed by him may say: "he brought us up beside the water of refreshment".
Matthew 27:48 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
And perhaps all who know the ecclesiastical doctrine, but live amiss, have given them to drink wine mingled with gall; but they who attribute to Christ untrue opinions, these filling a sponge with vinegar, put it upon the reed of Scripture, and put it to His mouth.
Matthew 27:50-51 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 138
But Jesus, crying out again with a loud voice, gave up the spirit. As far as Matthew is concerned—who says that Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up the spirit, but does not make clear what that loud voice was which he cried out again—one could say that he cried out again the same voice which he had cried out above when he said: "My God, my God." But because Luke clearly writes what voice he cried out when he gave up the spirit, saying: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit," it is to be understood also in this place that the voice which he cried out again as he gave up the spirit was this one: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." If, therefore, to give up the spirit, or (as John writes) to hand over the "spirit," were the very same thing as to die, then what is said in this place, he gave up the spirit, would have to be understood in a plain sense. But now, since the wise define death to be nothing other than the separation of the soul from the body, let us consider whether perhaps it is one thing simply to die, and another thing to cry out with a loud voice and give up the spirit (as the present passage of Matthew expounds it), or to commend the "spirit" "into the hands" of God and release the "spirit" (according to what Luke says), or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit" (as John expounds it). And to die indeed belongs to all men, even the wicked, since the souls of all men are separated from the body, even of the unjust, who cannot say those things which Christ said as he went forth from his body. But to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the "spirit"—which is to commend the "spirit" "into the hands" of God and thus to release the "spirit," or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit"—belongs only to the saints, who by good works have prepared God for themselves as Christ also did, so that as they go forth from the world they may be able confidently to commend or hand over their spirit into the hands of God. If, therefore, we have understood what it is to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, that is, to commend it "into the hands of God" (for so we expounded above, setting forth the exposition of the evangelist Luke), if we have understood what it is to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," let us hasten to keep our life such that at our departure we too may be able to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," like Jesus who "bowed his head" and, as it were, resting it upon the bosom of the Father, went forth—the Father who was able to cherish and strengthen it in his bosom. But if you wish to hear what it profited Christ to have cried out with a loud voice and thus to have given up the spirit, that is, to have commended the "spirit" "into the hands" of the Lord and thus to have given it up, or to have bowed the "head" upon the bosom of the Father and to have handed over the "spirit," hear what the prophet says: for "on this account" "he did not leave his soul in hell, nor did he give" him "to see corruption." If, therefore, we too conduct ourselves in such a way that we can commend our spirits into the hands of God, or bow our head upon the bosom of God and thus hand over our spirit, then without doubt he will neither leave our souls in hell nor give us to remain in corruption forever. But he who called him back from the dead after the third day will call us back too at the opportune time; and he who granted him that his flesh should not see "corruption" will grant to us—not indeed that our flesh should not see "corruption," but that it should be freed from corruption at the opportune time—since he indeed "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," but we shall be just if at least at some time we depart from our sins. Then, since crying out again with a loud voice and saying: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," he gave up the spirit, therefore, as that spirit was given up, s…
Matthew 27:51-53 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 139
And the earth was shaken and the rocks were split and the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who were sleeping rose again; and going out from the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared to many (27, 51ᵇ—53). And the earth was shaken, that is, all flesh, when the new word and new things according to the new covenant, and the new song, and all things new and heavenly came upon it, as the prophet too says in a certain place about this very thing: "all who saw them were confounded", that is, the disciples of Christ, "and every man feared". Likewise through another prophet the Lord says: "yet once more I will move the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land". But having said a little about the shaking of the earth, let us not unprofitably speak again also about the rocks split in the passion of the Lord the Savior, which were a mystery (as I think) of the prophets; for the law and the prophets were made manifest at the coming of Christ; and for this reason, when men "turn to the Lord" "while Moses is read, the veil which had been placed over their heart is taken away", and because "in the reading of the old covenant a veil had been placed, in Christ it is abolished". Now therefore the rocks have been opened and split, that we may see the spiritual mysteries placed in their depths. And we prove that the rocks then split are the prophets, first indeed from the fact that "Christ" is called the spiritual "rock", and it stands to reason that all imitators of Christ are likewise called rocks. Just as they are also called "the light of the world" from the fact that their Lord himself is the "light" of the "world", and next from the fact that Peter too was called a rock by the Lord himself, when it is said to him: "you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". But this is shown most of all from the fact that all those against whom the "gates of hell" do not prevail, who have in themselves the work of the name of rock (that is, the apostles and the prophets) are themselves also rocks, and are the foundations of those who are built upon them, according to what the apostle says: "built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ our Lord himself being the highest cornerstone". But those are built up upon the apostles and prophets most of all who are of the immaculate Church and who admire the apostles of Christ and do not despise the prophets, but examine also their scriptures. Now let us speak also about the tombs that were opened. "The hour came", according to what Christ had promised, "that those who are in the tombs may hear the voice of the Son of God, and may live". Therefore, as they heard "the voice of the Son of God", the tombs were opened, which indeed had been closed as long as the dead were in them, but were opened so that those who had risen again might go out from the tombs, not before the resurrection of the firstborn "from the dead", but after his own resurrection, and, rising, might indeed abandon the tombs, but enter into the holy city, and appear and be made manifest to many who wish and are able to see the holy city of God and the bodies of the saints raised up in it. For the bodies of sinful souls, that is, of souls dead to God, are called tombs. But when by the grace of God souls of this kind have been raised up to faith, their bodies, which had before been tombs of dead souls, are made bodies of holy souls and are seen to go out from themselves, when they have ceased to be tombs of dead souls and have begun to be bodies of holy souls. Great things therefore have come about from the fact that "Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the spirit", and always these same great things come about daily. For when is the "veil" of the "temple" not rent for the saints "from the top down to the bottom" and from the beginning to the end, so as to reveal what is held within? When is th…
Matthew 27:51 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
Great things were done at the moment that Jesus cried with a great voice. It is understood that there were two veils; one veiling the Holy of Holies, the other, the outer part of the tabernacle or temple. In the Passion then of our Lord and Saviour, it was the outer veil which was rent from the top to the bottom, that by the rending of the veil from the beginning to the end of the world, the mysteries might be published which had been hid with good reason until the Lord's coming. But when that which is perfect is come, (1 Cor. 13:10.) then the second veil also shall be taken away, that we may see the things that are hidden within, to wit, the true Ark of the Testament, and behold the Cherubim and the rest in their real nature. These same mighty works are still done every day; the veil of the temple is rent for the Saints, in order to reveal the things that are contained within. The earth quakes, that is, all flesh because of the new word and new things of the New Testament. The rocks are rent, i. e. the mystery of the Prophets, that we may see the spiritual mysteries hid in their depths.
Matthew 27:52-53 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The graves are the bodies of sinful souls, that is, souls dead to God; but when by God's grace these souls have been raised, their bodies which before were graves, become bodies of Saints, and appear to go out of themselves, and follow Him who rose again, and walk with Him in newness of life; and such as are worthy to have their conversation in heaven enter into the Holy City at divers times, and appear unto many who see their good works.
Matthew 27:54 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 140
But the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, feared greatly, saying: Truly this man was the Son of God. But Mark writes thus: "The centurion who was standing there, seeing that he expired crying out, said: Truly this man was the Son of God"; but Luke: "When the centurion saw the things that were done, he glorified God, saying: Truly this man was righteous." According to Mark, indeed, the centurion marveled not because "the veil of the temple had been rent from the top even to the bottom," nor because the other signs had come about which Matthew relates (that is, because "the earth was shaken," because "the rocks were split," or "the tombs were opened"). It is therefore worthwhile to consider what happened afterward, over and above what is written in Mark, such that the centurion marveled, saying: "Truly this man was the Son of God." And see whether we may say, according to one manner of understanding, that he marveled at those things which had been spoken by him to God with a great cry and with loftiness of feeling, in accordance with what he was able to understand; … suspecting this, he marveled and said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." But according to another manner, since perhaps Pilate, wishing to gratify the whole people who had said: "Crucify, crucify him," and fearing a tumult of the entire people, did not command — according to the custom of the Romans regarding those who are crucified — that Jesus' body be struck beneath the armpits, which those who condemn men found guilty of the greater crimes sometimes do (for those who are not struck after their fixing to the cross undergo a greater torment, since they go on living with the utmost torture, sometimes indeed the whole night through and still, after it, the whole day). Jesus therefore, since he had not been struck, and it was expected that, hanging long upon the cross, he would suffer greater torments, prayed to the Father and was heard, and immediately, as soon as he cried out to the Father, he was received; or, as one who had "the power" of "laying down" his "soul," he laid it down when he himself willed — which prodigy, when it was done, astonished the centurion, and he said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." For it was a miracle that after three hours he was received who perhaps would have lived two days upon the cross, according to the custom regarding those who are indeed hung up but not struck, so that it might be seen to have been a benefit of God that he expired, and the merit of his prayer rather than the violence of the cross. That which Mark sets forth in what follows also signifies this very thing, when "Joseph" had gone in "to Pilate" and had asked for "the body of Jesus." For he speaks thus, that "Pilate marveled that he was already dead, and calling the centurion he asked him whether he was already dead"; and when he had heard it from the centurion, "he gave his body to Joseph." For if the custom which had been in force among the Romans concerning those crucified and struck through had been observed in the case of Christ, how would Pilate have marveled if he were already dead? See therefore whether it does not point to a new miracle, that he was already dead and that "Pilate called the centurion and asked whether he was already dead." And see whether Matthew too does not show that Christ's torment was of this kind, when he says: the centurion and those who were with him, keeping Jesus. But why were they keeping him, unless it were that, hanging longer on the cross, he might be tormented the more, neither slain nor taken down? Yet the centurion, according to Matthew, not only said of Jesus: truly this was the Son of God, but also feared him, since the earthquake cast him into fear. And perhaps too he knew by experience, from the earthquakes that occur among the nations, that this had been an earthquake, and at this he was astounded as he beheld it. A…
Matthew 27:55-56 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 141
And there were many women there, watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee (27, 55. 56). They report that Isaiah prophesied concerning these women when he said: Women coming to the spectacle, come; for it is not a people having wisdom. For he calls women those who had been from afar and from afar were watching Jesus; he calls them to the word, that they may indeed forsake the senseless and forsaken people and come to the new covenant. And I judge those women to be blessed who are built up unto blessedness by the spectacle of the word and by the death of the body of Jesus; for everything that is in Christ, if it be truly seen, makes the beholder blessed. Therefore they look upon the mortification of the body of Jesus and the manner in which he commended "his spirit" to the Father by his prayers. These first followed him from Galilee, and — that I may say it boldly (using the authority of the Scripture that teaches it) — they followed him from Galilee "of the Gentiles", not from a straight nor a firm one, but from one having a certain circuit (for this is what Galilee is understood to mean, that is, ROLLING or WHIRLING); and leaving this, they followed Jesus, not idly, but doing the things that were commanded by him, and they delighted him; for they followed him ministering. And every soul that shares in some distribution of graces and in the Lord himself ministers to Jesus a ministry like the ministries of the angels, concerning whom it is written that "the angels, approaching, ministered to him". Many therefore were watching Jesus then, but the chief ones are named, as being those who watched more attentively and ministered more fully and followed better: Mary Magdalene, more fitting to the interpretation of the name of her homeland, which is called Magdala (and that place is interpreted MAGNIFICATION). And this Mary Magdalene was of magnification for no other reason than that she had followed Jesus and had ministered to him and had watched the mystery of his passion. And among the chief ones there was also Mary the mother of James and Joseph, or (as Mark says) "the mother of James the less and of Joseph", according to the name of the patriarch Jacob, the SUPPLANTER of his brother, and of Joseph, over whom, when he was born, his mother said: "may the Lord add to me another son". This one too, therefore, following the Lord and ministering and watching the dispensation of his passion, was so because she had been the mother of some faithful person — not of anyone great (such as the patriarch Jacob had been), but of a lesser one, and of another Joseph. And among the women there was also the mother of the sons of Zebedee, perhaps some woman established in the ministry of THUNDER on account of her faith and holy life, and because she followed the Lord and ministered to him and had been a beholder of all the things that had been done concerning him, for the sons of Zebedee were called "SONS OF THUNDER". For his sons were John and James: therefore John heard the words of the seven thunders, which, as being more eminent than all Scripture, he received a command not to write. But if it is proper also to conjecture and to state the name of the mother of the sons of Zebedee, I say that this very woman had been called Salome, which means PEACEABLE. And I have conjectured this seeing that in Matthew and Mark three chief women are named, concerning whom the present discourse is held; and the present evangelist sets forth that two of them are "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James", but that the third is called the mother of the sons of Zebedee; whereas in Mark that third one is called "Salome". And according to Mark, those who had followed Jesus from Galilee "went up to Jerusalem" with Christ. For this is the end of those who forsake the Galilee "of the Gentiles" and follow Jesus, th…
Matthew 27:56 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
In Mark the third is called Salome.
Matthew 27:57-58 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 142
Now when it had become late, there came a certain rich man from Arimathea, by name Joseph, who himself also was a disciple of Jesus; this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given up (27, 57. 58). He who asks for the body of the Lord from Pilate was not just anyone whatever, but a man rich with praiseworthy riches. And because, being appointed a decurion, he bore the mystery of the name of Christ in truth (which is the number ten), therefore he gladly, as for a great benefit, requested the body of Jesus from Pilate, and did not permit him to hang upon the tree. For this reason he is praised by the evangelists, because he had been "a just man and a good man" and a disciple of Jesus, and he rendered the fruit of his discipleship perhaps, as in many things, so also in the body of Christ, because he "was awaiting the kingdom of God", as Jesus had taught.
Matthew 27:59-60 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
This is no casual mention of the circumstances that the body was wrapped in clean linen, and laid in a new tomb, and a great stone rolled to the mouth, but that every thing touching the body of Jesus is clean, and new, and very great.
Matthew 27:59-60 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 143
And having received the body, Joseph wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out in the rock, and rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed (27, 59. 60). In wrapping it in a clean linen cloth and laying it in a new tomb, where no dead man had lain, he was preserving the body of Jesus for an exceptional resurrection. But I think rather that that linen cloth possessed greater cleanness from the fact that the body of Christ was wrapped in it than it had before; for the body of Jesus, even set in death, cleansed—as the body of Jesus—everything whatsoever it touched, and all the more made new that new tomb which had been hewn in the rock. And do not suppose that it was written by chance and said by mere happenstance, that he wrapped the body in a clean linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb, and that that tomb had been hewn in the rock—a clean tomb, which was made cleaner by the body of Jesus than it had been before the body of Jesus was placed in it. But you will ask whether there are men having nothing more than the body of Jesus, new indeed and hewn in the rock, and are his clean tomb, and are therefore made safe. And consequently there are also others besides them who have Jesus living: and some of them have Jesus living even before the passion, but some have him rising from the dead; and some according to the way in which he appears to many and does not have "form nor comeliness", but others have him reformed into glory, and others see him ascending and hope to be caught up with him in a cloud, that they may be held "always" with him. Therefore Matthew recorded that the tomb was new, and set forth plainly that it was hewn in the rock. And that it was new, free from every dead body, Luke and John made manifest, one of whom indeed said: "in which no one had yet been laid", and John: "in which no one had yet been laid"—clearly, if never had anyone been laid there, but afterward some were laid there; for what he says: "in which no one had yet been laid", is signified to those who consider this word carefully. We say then (lest perhaps we ought to understand this passage simply), that he who said: "we have been buried together with Christ through baptism" and have risen together with him, was himself also buried together, after Christ, with Christ in a new tomb and an intelligible one hewn in the rock, and all who have been buried together with Christ in baptism, that they may rise with him from the new tomb of the firstborn "from the dead and holding the primacy in all things". And Joseph rolled not many stones to the door of the tomb but one, and a great one. And a greater one than the power of those lying in wait could be, yet not greater than was the power of the angel descending "from heaven" and rolling away from it the "stone", and sitting "upon it"; since all things that are around the body of Jesus are clean and new, and not simply great but all "exceedingly" great.
Matthew 27:61 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 144
Now Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. After these things, the love of the two Marys, Magdalene and the mother of James and Joseph, bound them fast to the new tomb, on account of the body of Jesus which had been there. And observe this: that above, these two Marys "and the mother of the sons of Zebedee", whom we suppose to be Salome herself, "were watching from afar off" the wonders that were happening in the passion of Christ, and his body hanging upon the tree. But here the three did not remain: for the mother of the sons of Zebedee is not written to sit together with Mary Magdalene and with Mary the mother of James and Joseph opposite the tomb. For perhaps the mother of the sons of Zebedee was able to come as far as this; but these women, being as it were greater in love, were not absent even from the things that were done afterward.
Matthew 27:61 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
The mother of the sons of Zebedee is not mentioned as having sat over against the sepulchre. And perhaps she was able to endure as far as the cross only, but these as stronger in love were not absent even from the things that were afterwards done.
Matthew 27:62-66 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 145
But on the next day, which is after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate, saying: Lord, we have recalled that that deceiver said while he was still alive: after the third day I will rise again. Command therefore that the tomb be guarded until the third day, lest perhaps his disciples come and steal him away and say to the people: he has risen from the dead; and the last error will be worse than the first. But Pilate said to them: you have guards; go, guard it as you know how. And they, going, secured the tomb, sealing the stone, together with the guards. It is reasonable to question the chief priests, who came to Pilate to say the things they said: tell me, priests, when Jesus had said, "destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days," with what intent do you suppose he said this? Concerning the dissolution and resurrection "of his own body," or concerning the destruction and restoration of the temple itself? For if you understood it thus, that he was saying these things about his own resurrection, how is it that, giving testimony against him, you said that "this man said: I can destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days"? But if you truly understood it about that temple, according to which you also gave your testimony, how then do you now know that he said he would rise "after three days" from the dead? See therefore how impiety wars against itself by its own words. For through these words they themselves condemn that testimony of theirs, since, truly understanding him to be saying those things about the resurrection "of his own body" and knowing it, they turned his words toward the destruction and restoration of that insensible temple. But further I ask: what are you saying, priests? Surely that he was telling men, "after three days I will rise again," and secretly he was charging his disciples to steal him away by night and say after three days that he has risen from the dead? But this very thing is incredible on its own account: that, after so many moral discourses which he taught before all the people, and after such and so great mighty works which he displayed everywhere throughout all Judea, he would deceive his own disciples with words, so that they too would blame the one giving such commands, and therefore would by no means do what he commanded—especially on account of the danger which threatened them from the people, if they should confess that the one who a little before had been crucified was both their teacher and the Christ. But if it is incredible that he said this, see whether it is not consistent that, just as he worked wonders, just as he foretold that his Gospel would be preached "in the whole world," and just as: "you will stand before governors and kings," and just as: "Jerusalem will be destroyed by an army," so also he foretold concerning his own resurrection what he said: "destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." Therefore also to their own prejudice the priests and Pharisees spoke to Pilate, saying that that deceiver said while he was still alive that after three days I will rise again. But further, see that "some of the guards, coming into the city, reported"—not to others, but to those very "chief priests, all the things whatsoever had been done," so that on every side their impiety might be established as inexcusable; but they, most wretched, did not even so acquiesce to such great proofs, so as to accept that Jesus was the Christ, but even after all these things they acted maliciously because of the hardness of their heart. For just as the heart of Pharaoh had been hardened over so many and such great wonders which had been done in Egypt, so also these were hardened, so that, "gathered together with the elders and taking counsel, they gave money" to greedy men so that they should say, "that his disciples, coming by night, stole him away while we were sleeping." And those who read in the law, "you shall not bear fa…
Matthew 28:1-7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 7
"And at evening", it says, "you shall know that I am the Lord, but in the morning you shall see the majesty of the Lord". And concerning this I would wish the Jews to answer me, how "at evening" the Lord is recognized, but "in the morning" his majesty is seen. Where was the Lord recognized "at evening" and his majesty seen "in the morning"? Answer us, you who are instructed from infancy to old age, "always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth": why do you not understand that these things are said prophetically? But if you wish to understand these things, you cannot except through the Gospel. For there you will find it written that: "on the evening of the sabbath, which dawns toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and Mary of James to the tomb, and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher", an earthquake having occurred, the sepulchers broken open, the centurion and the soldiers, who had been set for the guard, "saying: truly this was the Son of God". Through these things, therefore, the Lord was recognized in the evening, because he himself was the Lord; he was recognized in the power of the resurrection. But how was his glory seen "in the morning"? When the other women had come "early in the morning on the first day of the week", they found angels with immense brightness sitting at the sepulcher and saying: "he is not here, he has risen from the dead. Come and see the place in which he was laid, and go, tell his disciples that he has risen and goes before you into Galilee". Therefore "the majesty of the Lord was seen in the morning", when through the angels the resurrection was announced.
Matthew 28:18 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 1
Jesus himself, according to the dispensation of the flesh which he had put on, says: "he gave me all power, as in heaven so on earth"—not that he did not have "power on earth", he who had it "in heaven", and that he received something of the world, he who "had come into his own", but that God might so be believed "on earth" as he was believed "in heaven"; therefore the man Christ received "power" which before he did not have, and up to the present he does not yet have "power" over all "on earth". For over those who sin he does not yet reign; but when the "power" over these too has been given to him, when "all things have been made subject" to him, then the "power" will be complete and he will go about "subjecting all things to himself". But some do not yet wish to be "made subject" to him, but as yet are "subjected" to his enemies. Let us, moreover, say: "shall not my soul be made subject to God? for from him is my salvation".
Micah 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20:152-56
Now let us also consider Jesus' statement, "I have proceeded and come from God." It seems useful to me to juxtapose to these words the following words from Micah: "Hear my words, you people, and let the earth and all who are in it pay attention; and the Lord shall be among you for a witness, the Lord from his holy house. Therefore behold, the Lord proceeds from his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains will be shaken under him, and the valleys will be dissolved like wax, before fire and like water tumbling down in a waterfall." Now consider whether the statement, "I have proceeded from God," is equivalent to the statement, "The Lord proceeds from his place," since, when the Son is in the Father, being in the form of God before he empties himself, God is his place, as it were.… Unless you understand that the Son is in the Father in a different way than he was before he proceeded from God, it will seem contradictory that he has both proceeded from God, and, after he has proceeded from God, is still in God.
Micah 1:3 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.5
"I have come down," he says, "that I may see." When responses are conveyed to Abraham, God is not said to come down, but to stand over him, as we expounded above: "three men stood," it says, "over him." But now, because the cause of sinners is being dealt with, God is said to come down. See that you do not perceive an ascent and descent of place. For frequently this is found in the divine letters, as in the prophet Micah: "behold," he says, "the Lord has gone out from his holy place and has come down and will tread upon the high places of the earth." God therefore is said to come down, when he deigns to have care of human frailty. Which is to be understood more especially of our Lord and Savior, who "did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." He came down therefore. "For no one else has ascended into heaven, except him who came down from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven." For the Lord came down not only to care for, but also to bear, the things which are ours. "For he took the form of a servant," and although he himself is of invisible nature, as being equal to the Father, yet he took a visible appearance, "and was found in appearance as a man."
Micah 7:1 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 15:3.2
Who is speaking when the prophet says, "Woe is me, soul, for I have become one as gathering straw in harvest?" For did the prophet literally "gather" or even want to "gather"? Does the prophet have a farm? Anyway, the only one who rightly gathers from what has been planted for harvest is not the prophet but the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Since there are many faults among the pagan nations but also among those who are supposed to be from the church, the prophet laments and mourns for our sins when he says, "Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers straw." Let each of us scrutinize himself. Is he an ear of corn? Will the Son of God discover something in him to pick or harvest? Do we find that some of us are those swept by the wind? Even as we have still a little in ourselves, two or three kernels, our sins are many against us. Seeing that the churches, or those so-called, are filled with sinners, he says, "Woe is me, for I have come as one who gathers straw in the harvest and as one gathering grape gleanings in the vintage." [The Lord] comes seeking fruit on the vine, for each of us is planted also as a vine "in a fertile place" or as a vine "transplanted out of Egypt," yet planted to bear fruit. He comes, he seeks in what way to pick, he discovers some "grape gleanings" and a few "clusters," neither flourishing nor plentiful. Who among us has "clusters" of virtue?
Micah 7:19 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 23
We ought therefore to strip ourselves and give to him who is naked. One has God, another has him not at all—that contrary power, namely. And just as it is written that "we should cast our sins into the depth of the sea", so we ought to throw off from ourselves our vices and sins and cast them upon him who was for us the cause of them. "And he who has food", he says, "let him do likewise". He who has food, let him give to him who has none, so that he may bestow upon him not only clothing, but also that which he may eat.
Mark 1:1 — AGAINST CELSUS 2.4
Those who deepen in the knowledge of Christianity do not treat the things written in the law with disrespect.… In saying: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah," Mark shows that the beginning of the gospel is intrinsically connected with the Old Testament.
Mark 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 1.14
The gospel is primarily concerned with Christ Jesus, who is the head of the whole body of those who are being saved. Mark conveys this point when he says, "The beginning of the gospel concerning Christ Jesus." … In its unfolding the gospel has a beginning, a continuing middle and an end. The beginning can be viewed either as the entire Old Testament, with John the Baptist being its summarizing type, or (because he stands at the juncture of the new with the old) the final stages of the old covenant. This runs counter to those who would assign the two covenants to two different Gods.
Mark 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.24
Mark took two prophecies spoken in different places by two prophets and conflated them into one, so as to declare: "As it is written in Isaiah the Prophet …" "The voice of one crying in the wilderness," which is indeed recorded immediately after the narrative about Hezekiah's recovery from his sickness. This is then conflated with "Behold I send my messenger to prepare the way before me," from Malachi. Both John and Mark compress in various ways the quotation from Isaiah, Mark by reading "His paths" for "the paths of our God" and by omitting "before me."
Mark 1:8 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.23
The Messiah therefore does not baptize in water, but his disciples do. He reserves for himself the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire.
Mark 1:10 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
Now "the Holy Spirit descended upon" the Savior "in the form of a dove", a bird that is gentle, innocent, and simple. Whence it is also commanded to us that we should imitate the innocence of doves. Such is the Holy Spirit—clean and winged and rising to the heights.
Mark 1:11 — FRAGMENTS ON MATTHEW 58
In the Jordan the Trinity was manifested to humanity. The Father bore witness, the Son received witness, and the Holy Spirit gave confirmation.
Mark 1:11 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 1.32
This is spoken to him by God, with whom all time is today. For there is no evening with God, as I see it, and there is no morning—nothing but time that stretches out, along with his unbeginning and unseen life. The day is today with him in which the Son was begotten. Thus the beginning of his birth is not to be found, as neither is the day of it.
Mark 1:35 — ON PRAYER 13.1
Jesus prayed and did not pray in vain, since he received what he asked for in prayer when he might have done so without prayer. If so, who among us would neglect to pray? Mark says that "in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed." And Luke says, "He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray,' " and elsewhere, "And all night he continued in prayer to God." And John records his prayer, saying, "When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.' " The same Evangelist writes that the Lord said that he knew "you hear me always." All this shows that the one who prays always is always heard.
Mark 1:41 — FRAGMENTS ON MATTHEW 2.2-3
And why did he touch him, since the law forbade the touching of a leper? He touched him to show that "all things are clean to the clean." Because the filth that is in one person does not adhere to others, nor does external uncleanness defile the clean of heart. So he touches him in his untouchability, that he might instruct us in humility; that he might teach us that we should despise no one, or abhor them, or regard them as pitiable, because of some wound of their body or some blemish for which they might be called to render an account.… So, stretching forth his hand to touch, the leprosy immediately departs. The hand of the Lord is found to have touched not a leper, but a body made clean! Let us consider here, beloved, if there be anyone here that has the taint of leprosy in his soul, or the contamination of guilt in his heart? If he has, instantly adoring God, let him say: "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean."
Mark 3:16 — ON PRAYER 24.2
A name is a designation that sums up and describes the particular character of the one named.… For when the character of "Abram" was changed, he was called "Abraham." So when "Simon" was changed, he was called "Peter." And when "Saul" stopped persecuting Christ, he was named "Paul." In the case of God, however, whose character is eternally unchangeable and always remains unaltered, there is always a single name. It is that spoken of him in Exodus: "I am."
Mark 3:28 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.7
The power of God the Father and God the Son is at work in the whole of creation. The saints are those who are fully receiving life in the Holy Spirit. Accordingly it is said, "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord except in the Holy Spirit." However unworthy the apostles might have been, they were told: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you." This is what is referred to by the phrase, "he who has sinned against the Son of Man is worthy of forgiveness." Even if one at times ceases to live according to this divine word, even if one falls into ignorance or folly, the way is not blocked to true penitence and forgiveness. But one who has once been counted worthy to share in life in the Holy Spirit and then finally turns back again in apostasy is by this very act and deed said to have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit.
Mark 4:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.12
We try to think in a general way about every parable, the elaborate interpretation of which has not been recorded by the Evangelists, remembering that Jesus explained all things to his own disciples privately. The writers of the Gospels have withheld any detailed exposition of the parables, because the things signified by them were beyond the power of words to express. Not even the whole world itself could contain the books that might be written to fully clarify and develop the parables. But it may happen that a receptive heart will grasp something of them. Purity of intent enables greater discernment of the parables, that they might become written on the heart by the Spirit of the living God. But someone might then reply that we act with impiety when we want to give the parables symbolic meaning, as if we had the authority to expound what is secret and mystical. This is sometimes claimed even in cases where one might suppose that we had some reasonable knowledge of their meaning. But to this we must respond that, if there are those who have obtained some gift of accurate apprehension of these things, they know what they ought to do. But as for us, we readily acknowledge that we fall short of the ability to see into the depth of the things here signified. We do better not to venture to commit to writing those things of which, even after much examination and inquiry, we have only some crass perception, whether by grace or by the power of our own minds. But some basic things, for the sake of our own intellectual discipline, and that of those who may chance to read them, we are permitted to some extent to set forth.
Mark 4:11 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.7
Sometimes it does not turn out to be an advantage for one to be healed quickly or superficially, especially if the disease by this means becomes even more shut up in the internal organs where it rages more fiercely. Therefore God, who perceives secret things and who knows all things before they come to be, in his great goodness delays the healing of such persons and defers the remedy to a later time. If I may speak paradoxically, God heals them by not healing them, lest a premature recovery of health should render them incurable. This pertains to those whom our Lord and Savior addressed as "those outside," whose hearts and reins he searches out. Jesus covered up the deeper mysteries of the faith in veiled speech to those who were not yet ready to receive his teaching in straightforward terms. The Lord wanted to prevent the unready from being too speedily converted and only cosmetically healed. If the forgiveness of their sins were too easily obtained, they would soon fall again into the same disorder of sin which they imagined could be cured without any difficulty.
Mark 4:11 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Jesus alone was empowered to distinguish among the hearers His own from the outsiders, so as to speak to the outsiders in parables, but to explain the parables to those who entered with Him into the house. The outsiders and those who entered into the house have a mystical meaning. For "why should I judge outsiders?" Every sinner is an outsider. This is why the outsiders are addressed in parables: so that they might be able to leave the outer and enter the inner. Entering the house has a mysterious meaning: he who enters the house of Jesus becomes His true disciple. He enters through the mind's assimilation of the teaching of the Church, through following the rules of church life.
Mark 4:30 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.4
Now a simile differs from a parable; for it is written in Mark, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?" From this it is plain that there is some logical distinction between a comparison and a parable. The simile seems to be generic, and the parable specific. The simile, which is the highest genus of the parable, contains the parable as one of its species.
Mark 4:38 — FRAGMENTS ON MATTHEW 3.3
For as many as are in the little ship of faith are sailing with the Lord; as many as are in the bark of holy church will voyage with the Lord across this wave-tossed life; though the Lord himself may sleep in holy quiet, he is but watching your patience and endurance: looking forward to the repentance, and to the conversion of those who have sinned. Come then to him eagerly, instant in prayer.
Mark 6:3 — Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book X), Section 17
But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is entitled, or "The Book of James", that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word which said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you" [Luke 1:35], might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Ghost came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the purity which consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity.
Mark 6:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.19
And perhaps, as in the case of metallic substances there exists in some a natural attraction toward some other thing, as in the magnet for iron, and in naphtha for fire, so there is an attraction in such faith toward the divine power according to what Jesus said: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, 'Move to another place,' and it shall be moved." Matthew and Mark wished to present the all-surpassing value of that divine power as a power that works even in those who do not believe. But they did not deny that grace works even more powerfully among those who have faith. So it seems to me that they accurately said not that the Lord did not do any mighty works because of their unbelief, but that he did not do many there. Mark does not flatly say that he could do no mighty work there at all, and stop at that point, but added, "except that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them." Thus the power in him overcame even their unbelief.
Mark 6:39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.3
I believe that he ordered the people to sit down upon the grass because of what is said in Isaiah: "all flesh is grass"; that is, to humble the flesh, to make subject the arrogance of the flesh; so that each one may become a partaker of the loaves to which Jesus gave his blessing.
Mark 6:40 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.3
Since there are different classes of those who need the food which Jesus supplies, for all are not equally nourished by the same words, on this account I think that Mark has written, "And he commanded them that they should all sit down by companies upon the green grass; and they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties." … For it was necessary that those who were to find comfort in the food of Jesus should either be in the order of the hundred—the sacred number which is consecrated to God because of its completeness; or in the order of the fifty—the number which symbolizes the remission of sins in accordance with the mystery of the Jubilee which took place every fifty years, and of the feast at Pentecost.
Mark 6:45 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.5
The Savior thus compelled the disciples to enter into the boat of testing and to go before him to the other side, so to learn victoriously to pass through difficulties. But when they got in the middle of the sea, and of the waves in the temptation, and of the contrary winds which prevented them from going away to the other side, they were not able, struggling as they were, to overcome the waves and the contrary wind and reach the other side without Jesus. In this way the Word, taking compassion upon those who had done all that was in their power to reach the other side, came to them walking upon the sea, which for him had no waves or wind.
Mark 6:48 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.5
But what is the spiritual nuance of the boat into which Jesus constrained the disciples to enter? Is it perhaps the conflict of temptations and difficulties into which any one is constrained by the Word, and goes unwillingly? The Savior wishes to train by exercise the disciples in this boat which is distressed by the waves and the contrary wind.
Mark 7:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.12
When we read in Leviticus and Deuteronomy of the laws about food as clean and unclean (for the transgression of which we are censured by the legalists and by the Ebionites, who differ from them very little), we are not to think that the scope of the Scripture is found in any superficial understanding of them. For "whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on." According to Mark, the Savior "declared all food clean," so we are not defiled when we eat those things declared to be unclean by those who still desire to be in bondage to the letter of the law. But we are then defiled when our lips, which ought to be bound with good judgment as we search for correct balance and weight, speak recklessly and discuss matters we ought not.
Mark 7:24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.16
He withdrew, perhaps because the Pharisees were offended when they heard that "What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles." … It is probable that he sought to avoid the Pharisees, who were offended at his teaching, while he was waiting for the time of his impending suffering—a time suitably and duly appointed.
Mark 8:29-30 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. Tom. xii. 15) Or else, Mark and Luke, as they wrote that Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, without adding what is put down in Matthew, the Son of the living God, so they omitted to relate the blessing which was conferred on this confession. It goes on, And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
Mark 9:1 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(Orig. in Matt. tom. xii. 33, 35) But in a mystical sense, Christ is life, and the devil is death, and he tastes of death, who dwells in sin; even now every one, according as he has good or evil doctrines, tastes the bread either of life or of death. And indeed, it is a less evil to see death, a greater to taste of it, still worse to follow it, worst of all to be subject to it.
Mark 9:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.37
Listen spiritually that it is not said simply, "he was transfigured," but with a certain necessary addition, which Matthew and Mark have recorded; for, according to both, "he was transfigured before them" [in the presence of Peter, James and John]. The text suggests that it would be possible for Jesus to be transfigured before some of his disciples, and not before others. But if you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus as seen by those who went up into the lofty mountain apart from the others, view with me the Jesus in the Gospels. Remember that Jesus was more literally apprehended by those below "according to the flesh"11—by those who did not go up to the lofty mountain of wisdom, who did not go up through words and deeds that are uplifting. But there were others by whom he became known no longer after the flesh, but in his divinity. To this all the Gospels attest. He was beheld in the form of God according to their spiritual knowledge. It was before these who ascended and in their presence that Jesus was transfigured, not to those who remained below.
Mark 9:3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.37
But when he is transfigured, his face also shines as the sun that he may be manifested to the children of light who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, and are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the sons of day, and walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, he will shine unto them not simply as the sun, but as demonstrated to be the sun of righteousness.
Mark 9:3 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. tom. xii. 39) Or else, fullers upon earth may by a moral interpretation be considered to be the wise of this world, who are thought to adorn even their foul understandings and doctrines with a false whitening drawn from their own minds. But their skill as fullers cannot produce any thing like a discourse which shows forth the brightness of spiritual conceptions in the unpolished words of Scripture, which by many are despised.
Mark 9:3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.39
Perhaps the "fullers upon the earth" refers to the wise men of this world who cultivate the art of rhetoric. They imagine that their own poor thoughts might appear bright and clean because of their speech, adorned as it is with verbal bleaching. But the One who shows his own garments glistening to those who have ascended, and even brighter than any bleaching could ever make them, is the Word, who exhibits in the expression of the Scriptures (which are despised by many) the glistening of his thoughts, when the raiment of Jesus becomes white and dazzling.
Mark 9:6 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt tom. xii. 40) Mark says in his own person, For he wist not what to say. Where it is matter for, consideration, whether perchance Peter spoke this in the confusion of his mind, by the motion of a spirit not his own; whether perchance that spirit himself who wished, as far as in him lay, to be a stumbling-block to Christ, so that He might shrink from that Passion, which was the saving of all men, did not here work as a seducer and wish under the colour of good to prevent Christ from condescending to men, from coming to them, and taking death upon Himself for their sakes.
Mark 9:9 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. tom. xii. 43) After the showing of the mystery on the mount, the Lord commanded His disciples, as they were coming down from the mount, not to reveal His transfiguration, before the glory of His Passion and Resurrection; wherefore it is said, And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.
Mark 10:2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.16
Of those who came to Jesus and interrogated him, some put questions to him simply to trick him. If our glorious Savior was tested in this way, should any of his disciples called to teach be annoyed when questioned by some who probe, not from the desire to know, but from the intent to trip up?
Mark 10:8 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.6.3
For the Word of God is to be considered as being more in one flesh with the soul than a man is one flesh with his wife. But to whom is it more becoming to be also one spirit with God, than to this human soul which has so joined itself to God by love as that it may justly be said to be one spirit with God?
Mark 10:13-14 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(Matt. tom. xv. 7) If any of those who profess to hold the office of teaching in the Church should see a person bringing to them some of the foolish of this world, and low born, and weak, who for this reason are called children and infants, let him not forbid the man who offers such an one to the Saviour, as though he were acting without judgment. After this He exhorts those of His disciples who are already grown to full stature to condescend to be useful to children, that they may become to children as children, that they may gain children; for He Himself, when He was in the form of God, humbled Himself, and became a child. On which He adds: For of such is the kingdom of heaven. (1 Cor. 9:22)
Mark 10:18 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.7
The good, then, is the same as the one who incomparably is. Over against good is evil or wickedness. Over against the one who incomparably is, is merely that which is not. So it follows that evil and corruption are, finally, that which becomes nothing. This, perhaps, is what has led some to affirm that the devil is not created by God. In respect that he is the devil he is not the work of God, but he who is the devil is a created being, and as a creature nonetheless remains a work of God, since there is nothing created that is not created by God. Think of it this way: A murderer is not a work of God insofar as he murders, while we may still say that insofar as he is a human being, God made him.
Mark 10:18 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.13
There is no other secondary goodness existing in the Son than that which is in the Father. So the Savior himself rightly says in the Gospel that "none is good save one, God the Father." The purpose of this statement is to make it understood that the Son is not of some other ancillary "goodness," but of that alone which is in the Father; whose image he is rightly called. For he neither springs from any other source than from original goodness itself (if that were so, there would seem to be a different goodness in the Son from that which is in the Father), nor has the goodness that is in him any dissimilarity or divergence from that of the Father. Accordingly we ought not to imagine that there is some kind of blasphemy in the saying that "none is good save one, God the Father." These words are not to be taken as a denial that either Christ or the Holy Spirit is good. But, as we said before, the original goodness must be believed to reside in God the Father, and from him both the Son and Holy Spirit undoubtedly draw into themselves the nature of that goodness existing in the font from which the one is born and the other proceeds. If then there are any other things called good in the Scriptures such as an angel, or a man, or a servant, or a treasure, or a good heart, or a good tree, all these are so called by an inexact use of the word, since the goodness contained in them is accidental and not essential.
Mark 10:21 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Evan. tom. xv. 14) For in that He loved, or kissed him, He appears to affirm the truth of his profession, in saying that he had fulfilled all those things; for on applying His mind to him, He saw that the man answered with a good conscience.
Mark 10:48-50 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. tom. xvi. 13) As if he said, Those who were foremost in believing rebuked him when he cried, Thou Son of David, that he might hold his peace, and cease to call Him by a contemptible name, when he ought to say, Son of God, have pity upon me. He however did not cease; wherefore it goes on: But he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me; and the Lord heard his cry; wherefore there follows: And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. But observe, that the blind man, of whom Luke speaks, is inferior to this one; for neither did Jesus call him, nor order him to be called, but He commanded him to be brought to Him, as though unable to come by himself; but this blind man by the command of our Lord is called to Him. Wherefore it goes on: And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee; but he casting away his garment, comes to Him. It goes on: And he casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. Perchance, the garment of the blind man means the veil of blindness and poverty, with which he was surrounded, which he cast away and came to Jesus; and the Lord questions him, as he is approaching. Wherefore there follows: And Jesus answered and said unto him, What will thou that I should do unto thee.
Mark 10:52 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(ubi sup.) Again, it is more worthy to say Rabboni, or, as it is in other places, Master, than to say Son of David; wherefore He gives him health, not on his saying, Son of David, but when he said Rabboni. Wherefore there follows: And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him in the way.
Mark 11:2 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 18
Note that the place where the ass was found tied was a village, and a village without a name. For in comparison with the great world in heaven, the whole earth is a village.
Mark 12:17 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.10
For the sake of those who were in captivity, like the bondage of the Hebrews, the Son of God took upon himself the form of a slave, yet doing nothing worldly or servile. As one who came in the form of a slave, he paid tax and tribute for us, in the same way that a restitution would be paid for his blood and that of his disciples.… Therefore, let anyone who possesses the things of Caesar render freely them to Caesar, so that he may be able then to render freely to God the things of God.… Just as our Lord paid our debt, not having initiated it, nor expended it, nor acquired it, nor at any time made it his own possession.
Mark 12:30 — ON EXODUS, HOMILY 8.4
When you decide to keep the command of this precept and reject all other gods and lords and have no god or lord except the one God and Lord, you have declared war on all others without treaty. When, therefore, we come to the grace of baptism, renouncing all other gods and lords, we confess the only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Mark 13:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 29
And each one who receives the word of God is a temple of God, so that it may rightly be said to him: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" Each one therefore, since he is a holy temple of God because of the Spirit of God dwelling within him, if he himself sins, becomes the cause of his own desertion, so that Christ goes out from him, so that he who had before been a temple of the Son of God is thereafter a deserted house, so that there is not left in him a stone upon a stone — out of all the doctrines and edifications of a good life — that is not destroyed. On account of which, calling to mind the history of the desertion of Jerusalem, we ought to look out for ourselves, that Christ not go out from the temple (which is made up of us), that the buildings of our temple may be unharmed, adorned with stones and gifts, so that those who see the buildings that are in us may say in wonder: "see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings". But this is worthy to be examined thoroughly, how, as far as the text goes, the disciples speak thus to Jesus, and show him the buildings of stones, as though someone who had never seen the temple itself but had come from elsewhere as a stranger arriving for the first time. To this it must be answered thus: that when above, prophesying its coming ruin, Christ had thus threatened its desertion: "behold, now your house shall be left to you deserted", the disciples, hearing it, marveled that such and so great a building of the temple was to be reduced to nothing. Therefore they say to Jesus (as another evangelist says more plainly): "master, do you see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings", namely so that they might bend him to mercy for that place, that he not do what he had threatened to do.
Mark 13:8 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 36
For nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places; for all these are the beginnings of sorrows (24, 7. 8). Mark has the same things, but adds "and tumults"; Luke likewise has these same things, but adds "and there shall be terrors from heaven and great signs and storms". Let us first expound the simple and bodily meaning of the passage. For just as bodies fall sick before their death — the bodies, that is, of those who suffer no violence from outside — and just as in all cases it is through weakness that the way is made for separating the soul from its body, so also such and so great a creature as the world, when it has begun to be corrupted, as having, as it were, a beginning and an end (since "the things that are seen are temporal", and since "heaven and earth shall pass away"), must necessarily grow feeble before its corruption; so that the earth indeed is more frequently shaken and shattered by earthquakes, while the air, conceiving a certain disease-bearing force, becomes pestilential; and further still, the vital power of the earth, suddenly failing, chokes off the crops, and the generative power that produces every kind of tree, failing, chokes them off as well. Therefore, when these things happen, it follows that the movable nature also — being constituted, as it were, as some part of the whole world — must necessarily suffer along with the change of all things: for instance, not taking again its accustomed nourishment of foods, it comes to failure and is corrupted. For the heavens "shall perish", since "they shall grow old like a garment", and "whatever grows old and ages is near to destruction". It follows, then, that on account of the scarcity of foods men are stirred up to greed and to wars against those who do not suffer so great a scarcity; and that, by comparison with others who abound in the necessities of life, uprisings of some against others arise, and nation fights against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And it is possible that, together with the lack of other things, there should also come to be a lack of men possessing good sense, so that through this a tranquil and peaceful life is not found among many, but uprisings and quarrels and disturbances arise — sometimes indeed on account of greed, sometimes on account of the lust for rule, sometimes also on account of an insane craving for vainglory, and sometimes too through the desire for the vainglory of rulers, who are not content with their own kingdom, but wish to extend their own dominion and to subject many nations to themselves.
Mark 13:10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 39
So too, the Gospel of the kingdom has not yet been preached in the whole world. For the Gospel is not reported to have been preached among all the Ethiopians, especially among those who are beyond the river, nor among the Seres nor among the Ariacin nor … have heard the word of Christianity. And what shall we say of the Britons or the Germans, who are around the Ocean, or among the barbarian Dacians and Sarmatians and Scythians, of whom very many have not yet heard the word of the Gospel, but are to hear it at the very consummation of the age? For consider what he says: and this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then will be the end. But if anyone wishes rashly to say that the Gospel of the kingdom has already been preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, one will consequently be able to say to him that, as regards what he says, then will be the end, the end has already come — which to say is a mark of great rashness and of a man not understanding what Paul says to the Thessalonians in his second epistle, saying: "Let no one deceive you in any way (as though the day of the Lord were at hand); for unless the falling-away come first and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition (and the rest), the day of the Lord will not be".
Mark 13:27 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 51
In Mark he says it in this way: "and then he will send his angels, and they will gather the elect from the four winds, from the utmost part of the earth even unto the utmost part of heaven". In Matthew, therefore, those who are gathered, the elect of Christ, are gathered from the four winds, from the highest heavens even unto their ends; but in Mark "from the four winds, from the utmost part of the earth even unto the utmost part of heaven"; and afterward from the highest heavens even unto their ends. And you will understand those who are gathered "from the utmost part of the earth" by considering the manner of life of those who have been on earth, and, so far as is possible, the perfection of those who have lived their life on earth. All, therefore, who have lived well upon the earth are gathered not simply from the earth, but "from the utmost part of the earth", that is, as it were from the summit of those who live upon the earth. But if, after the summit of the manner of life which was on earth, there follows a subsequent manner of life to receive those who had their manner of life in the heavens, it does not simply receive them from the utmost part of heaven as "from the utmost part of the earth", but from the highest heavens, since each heaven has both the beginnings of its own instruction and its perfections, that is, its ends. For example, after the highest manner of life which was upon earth, the manner of life of one heaven receives a man again, and the perfection which is in it. Again the second manner of life of the second heaven receives him, and the perfection which is in it. Again the third manner of life of the third heaven receives him, and the perfection which is in it. And so understand for me that there are many beginnings of the manners of life of many heavens, and ends, that is, perfections, and that from these beginnings and ends of the diverse heavens God gathers his elect.
Mark 13:31 — AGAINST CELSUS 5.22
Although heaven and earth, and the things that are in them, may pass away, yet his divine speech regarding each individual thing, whether viewed as parts of a whole or species of a genus, shall by no means pass away. The utterances of God the Word, who was in the beginning with God, will not come to nothing.
Mark 13:35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 59
Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. Not giving "sleep to the eyes" of our soul nor "slumber to the eyelids," so that we may await either our own end or the end of the age, whether that we should depart from this life or that this world should be brought to its consummation for us. But know this, that if the householder knew at what watch the thief comes, he would surely watch and would not allow his house to be broken into. How would he not allow it? Without doubt, through his watchfulness. Therefore be you also ready, because at what watch you do not expect it, the Son of Man is to come. But Matthew indeed speaks indefinitely, while Mark even defines the times of the day, as of a thief coming, saying: "watch therefore, for you do not know when the lord of the house will come, at evening or at midnight or at cockcrow or in the morning". And when someone is in this state, it is possible that, even if he does not have the strength of the sun, yet he may be illumined by some slight brightness of the word which is a "lamp", while still indeed remaining amid evils, yet already having a purpose of better things and a watchfulness, so that his purpose, looking toward better things, may not be broken in upon. And see whether you can draw to such an understanding that which is written elsewhere: "but let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be you like men awaiting their lord, when he shall return"; since he who is not yet in the light and in the day of the virtues, but already offers himself to the teaching that illumines his soul, so far as is possible, is in the first place girded.
Mark 13:35 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 60
But since we have once come to this passage, we ought also to give an account of the various watches. One person indeed is found keeping watch straightway in the evening itself and continues his watches until midnight, and further still until cockcrow, and still further until morning. For whoever, as soon as he has begun malice — that is, as soon as the infant has begun to bring forth full speech (for from this point he begins to be in malice, which is being in the night) — if he straightway hands himself over so that he becomes both a hearer of the law and a doer of it, "provided he shall have endured unto the end" in that same purpose, he has kept watch from the evening and has continued until midnight and has given neither "sleep to his eyes" nor until cockcrow nor until morning: a man of this kind is reckoned among the blessed servants. But whoever shall have been found, after the time when speech is completed, to pass some part of the night "in revelings and drunkenness and beds and shameless deeds," yet afterward has begun to keep watch — this one too will have good hope if he endures until morning, beginning to keep watch from midnight, that is, from manhood. But if, advanced in the time of his body's age, upon hearing the divine teaching he receives from it a lamp, as though willing to live according to the commandment of God, this one too, having a lamp from cockcrow and keeping watch and enduring until morning, does not lose the reward of good servitude in a short time. And if it is possible, even straightway around the very completion of the night (that is, after malice has consumed almost the whole time of his life), that as a believer he may kindle a lamp for himself and keep watch even in the remaining time — then, if the master of the house comes with his grace, with some indeed he will abide from evening until morning, but with others, enlightening them from midnight for what remains, and with others from cockcrow, dwelling less with them; but neither will he abandon those who in the morning kindle a lamp and keep watch on account of the expectation of the master, but even these, finding them by no means asleep nor attending to "beds and shameless deeds," he will honor them with the honor by which he shall have recognized them to be worthy. And so the thief too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night and digs through the house of him whom he shall have found not keeping watch nor having a lamp lit. And upon some indeed he comes in the evening, but upon others at midnight, and upon some even at cockcrow, and there are also those upon whom he comes in the morning. And the master too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night, and perhaps the master comes to that man to whom the thief, in coming, could do nothing — namely, not being permitted to dig through the house of the one keeping watch and having a lamp lit. But to him who has his house dug through the master does not come, especially if anyone has learned what was said: "let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be yourselves like men awaiting their master", and, despising the things that were said, has given "sleep to his eyes and drowsiness to his eyelids". But to make clear the sense of this passage which has come upon us, let us use such an example: in the time of temptations or of calamities of whatever kind the thief is especially wont to come, wishing to dig through the house of the soul; but when the thief comes, the one who bears the mishaps and endures all things for the love of God, having suffered nothing from him, will straightway see the master coming to him. But whoever shall have had his house dug through by the thief in the time of his calamity will, as unworthy of the coming of his master to him, not be worthy to look upon him.
Mark 14:3-9 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77
When Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster jar of precious ointment and poured it upon his head as he reclined. But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, and so forth (26:6—13). Many indeed suppose that the four evangelists have given an account of one and the same woman, because they wrote something of this kind about a woman and all alike named an alabaster jar of ointment; but John, instead of the alabaster jar, put "a pound of ointment." But also what is said, this could have been sold and given to the poor, was said by Matthew and Mark and John; and that Christ declared that ointment to have been poured out for his burial, these too expounded; and that it happened in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, these three wrote; but John indeed said Bethany, where "they made him a supper and Martha was serving and Lazarus was one of those reclining, and Mary took a pound of ointment of pure precious nard" and so forth, from which it appears that they made a supper for him. But Luke, although he did not put Simon as a leper, nevertheless said that he was a Pharisee, who had asked Jesus "to eat with him," just as the Lord himself testifies concerning his name, saying to him there: "Simon, Simon, I have something to say to you." There seems, therefore, to be much similarity and a certain kinship concerning the woman among the four evangelists. Yet I will say to those who think that it was one woman about whom all the evangelists wrote: Do you suppose that this woman who poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment, as Matthew and Mark expounded, is the same one who also "anointed his feet with myrrh," as Luke and John expounded? But it is not possible that the evangelists, in expounding about the same woman — since they were "perfected in the same understanding and in the same spirit and in the same judgment," they who were to minister the salvation of the churches — should have said things contrary to one another. But if anyone thinks that she was the one who anointed the Lord's feet with ointment in Luke and John, let him tell us whether Mary here was the very one who in Luke is written to have been "a sinner in the city," who "learning that he had reclined in the house of the Pharisee brought an alabaster jar of ointment and standing behind at his feet weeping began to wash his feet with her tears." For it is not credible that Mary whom "Jesus loved," the sister of Martha "who had chosen the better part," should be said to have been "a sinner in the city." And do you suppose that the woman who according to Matthew and Mark poured upon the head of Jesus the precious ointment is not written to have been a sinner, whereas the one who according to Luke is reported as "a sinner" did not dare to come to the head of Christ but "washed his feet with her tears" as though scarcely even worthy of his very feet, from sadness working "repentance unto stable salvation"? And the one who is in Luke weeps and sheds many tears, so as to wash the "feet" of Jesus "with her tears," whereas the one who in John is Mary is introduced neither as a sinner nor as weeping. Perhaps then someone will say that there were four women about whom the evangelists wrote; but I rather agree that there were three: one indeed about whom Matthew and Mark wrote, making no difference in their exposition in that chapter; another about whom Luke wrote; and yet another about whom John wrote, since she differs from the other women not only in the things which are written about the ointment, but because "Jesus loved" Mary and Martha — although she too is reported to have been in Bethany, just as also the woman about whom Matthew and Mark expound. There is a third difference. For Matthew indeed and Mark expound that this happened in the house of Simon the leper; but John says that "Jesus six days before the Passover came into Bethany, where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised, and they made him…
Mark 14:5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.9
The traitor Judas, who in appearance championed the cause of the poor, said with indignation, "This ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." But in reality he "was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it." If, then, any one in our time who has the money box of the church speaks like Judas as if speaking for the poor, but steals what is placed there, let there be assigned to him the same portion along with Judas.
Mark 14:6-7 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. 35.) For they were grieved at the waste of the ointment, which might be sold for a large sum and given to the poor. This however ought not to have been, for it was right that it should be poured over the head of Christ, with a holy and fitting stream; wherefore it goes on, She hath wrought a good work on me. And so effectual is the praise of this good work, that it ought to excite all of us to fill the head of the Lord with sweet smelling and rich offerings, that of us it may be said that we have done a good work over the head of the Lord. For we always have with us, as long as we remain in this life, the poor who have need of the care of those who have made progress in the word, and are enriched in the wisdom of God; they are not however able always day and night to have with them the Son of God, that is, the Word and Wisdom of God. For it goes on: For ye have the poor always with you, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good; but me ye have not always.
Mark 14:12-15 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 79
But in Mark he speaks thus: "And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover was being sacrificed, his disciples say to him: Where do you wish that we go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he sent two of his disciples, saying: Go into the city, and as you enter a man will meet you carrying a jar of water; and wherever he enters, say to the householder: The Master says: Where is my guest-chamber, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there prepare for us". As therefore it appears, it was one and the same day of the Passover, when it was fitting to sacrifice the Passover, and of Unleavened Bread, when it was fitting to remove the "old leaven" and to eat unleavened bread with the flesh of the lamb. And the day of the Passover indeed was one, but of Unleavened Bread seven, the day of the Passover being of course counted together with the other six. And we ascend, with the Lord himself established with us, from the lower places to the upper place, in which is the guest-chamber, which is shown by the understanding, which is in each man the householder, to the disciples of Christ. And let this upper house be great for us, that it may hold Jesus the Word of God and wisdom and truth and peace and everything that the Son of God is, who is not held except by those great in mind. And let this house be prepared by the householder, the understanding, for the Son of God, not only in an upper place nor only great but also cleansed, in no way having the filth of malice, as if gathered together and cast out by the brooms of the law. Let this house be also in the city of God, that is, in the Church. And let the ruler of that house not be one having his name known to just any people whatever: therefore also mystically Jesus says Go to a certain man, so that those who prepare the Passover for Christ may say to him: The Master says: At your house I will keep the Passover with my disciples.
Mark 14:18 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 80
But when evening had come, he reclined at table with his disciples, and while they were eating he said: amen I say to you, that one of you will betray me. While the disciples were eating the passover according to the commandment of the law, Jesus spoke — he who knew what was in man, and therefore had no need that anyone should give him testimony concerning man — and he spoke of Judas with the oath customary to him: amen I say to you, that one of you will betray me. For although he could from the outset have specifically pointed out the betrayer, this indeed he did not do, but said it generally, that one of you will betray me, so that by the testimony of the stricken heart the character of each one might be tested, so that he might both show the goodness of the disciples, in that they believed the words of Christ more than their own conscience, and the malice of Judas, in that he did not believe even him who knew his own counsels, so as to be troubled or made sad — granted that at first he supposed that he lay hidden, as though from a man — who, after he saw his own conscience … set within the very words of him, of which the first belonged to unbelief, but the second to shamelessness.
Mark 14:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 81
And being exceedingly saddened they began each one to say: Is it I, Lord?. But someone will ask: if the eleven apostles were of good conscience (since they were clean of any betrayal of their master), why were they saddened at the hearing of it, as though it could come to pass that one of them was he of whom it was spoken? But I judge that each of the disciples knew, from those things which Jesus had taught, that human nature is changeable and turnable to evil, and that in the struggle "against the principalities and powers and rulers of this world of darkness" it can come to pass that a man falls, either circumvented or having suffered force from the adversary powers to the accomplishing of evil. Considering this, therefore, each of the disciples, lest perhaps he himself were the one who had been foreknown as the betrayer, were saddened greatly, because it had been said to them: one of you will betray me, and they began to say, as though each one not knowing what was to be concerning himself: Is it I, Lord? And if it has reason that for this cause each of them, fearing, said: Is it I, Lord, then concerning all future things it must be feared by us who are weak, who have not yet received the wisdom of perfection, according to which the apostle says: "for I am confident that neither death nor life" and the rest "can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus". But he who is not yet perfect doubts concerning himself, as though he too could fall; according to which human weakness Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said: "but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate". And see: what he says, "lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate", he so pronounces as one fearing, lest perhaps he too could both fall and become reprobate; but what he said, "I am confident" and the rest, is of a confident and firm man on account of his perfection, since a thousand contrary things have not the strength to separate him "from the love of Christ". But that the apostles were still weak and rightly feared is manifest from that which he says who knew the purpose of each one, that "you shall all suffer scandal in me in this night". And that one who purposes better things is sometimes turned aside to malice, conquered in the struggle of the contrary powers, is manifest from that which is written concerning Peter: that he indeed, considering his own purpose, what disposition he had toward Christ, answered not with pretense but out of the truth of his heart (as far as concerned himself), that "if all shall be scandalized, I alone shall not be scandalized"; but the Savior, knowing that he would be weak in his promises, and that a man's brief fear was going to make him withdraw from the better purpose, said to him: "Amen I say to you that in this night, before the cock crows, you will deny me thrice". And to such as these it is not unfitting to say always: "do not glory in the Lord, for you do not know what the coming day may bring forth". And Paul likewise: "brothers", he says, "if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, strengthen such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering lest you too be tempted", teaching that our own outcome concerning ourselves is uncertain, although perhaps we hold the purpose of better things. But recalling all these things, that we do not know "what the coming day may bring forth" for us, we shall not be puffed up, nor be proud, nor ever glory, although we know that we have many good things; just as Paul also, when he had said concerning himself: "I am conscious of nothing in myself", adds besides: "but in this I am not justified", as one knowing that God sanctifies those whom he foreknows and calls "those whom he predestined".
Mark 14:20 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 82
He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. Seeing them fearful about themselves, He pointed out the betrayer by the evidence of the prophetic voice that says: "he that eateth my bread with me hath magnified his supplanting against me"; for that saying does not differ from this which He says: he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. And this too is to be considered: what exactly the Savior meant to teach us when He gave His disciples a sign concerning Judas the betrayer from this, that he had put his own hand into the dish together with Jesus — into which (as I suppose) they dipped the flesh as they ate the Passover. But I suppose that He said this because He wished to make manifest the greatness of his malice, since the one whom He had received at the common table and who had eaten together with Him (perhaps because in the beginning he was acting well), this very man betrayed Jesus, who was embracing him with such great honors, and became mindful neither of the same salt nor of the table nor of the bread shared in common, but transgressing all those things for the promise of thirty coins he betrayed the bestower of such great goods. And this is truly the peculiar habit of exceedingly evil men, that after salt and bread they lie in wait for people — most of all when they have been harmed in nothing by those with whom they shared bread and salt. Finally, Daniel, prophesying thus concerning certain men of this deadly and utterly evil kind, said: "at one table they shall speak lies". But if you can understand the spiritual table and the spiritual food and the Lord's supper, with all of which he had been made worthy by Christ, you will see more abundantly the multitude of his malice, in that he betrayed the Savior, his master and fellow-partaker of the divine table and cup (and this on the day of the Passover), remembering neither in bodily goods his master's love, nor in spiritual goods his teaching always shared without grudging. Such are all those in the Church who lie in wait for their brethren, with whom they have frequently been together at the same table of the body of Christ and at the same cup of His blood. But if we must also receive the interpretation of the dish itself, let us for our part abstain from things of this kind, lest we seem to say something frigid to certain people. Nevertheless, let him who wishes to find in this too something moral consider in the law, where gifts are offered by the princes of the several tribes at the dedication of the altar, and perhaps he will understand that there too the dish is to be understood as something: "on the first day", it says, "Nahshon the son of Amminadab, prince of the tribe of Judah, offered his gift. And he offered for his gift one silver dish, its weight a hundred and thirty, and one silver bowl of seventy shekels according to the holy shekel".
Mark 14:21 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 83
And the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him; but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man shall be betrayed. And Jesus indeed, according to what was seen, was going to suffer by the cross; but according to what he truly was, he was both going and remaining in the world with his disciples, guarding them in the faith. For they could not have remained in his faith, especially when they had seen him dead, unless their hearts had been invisibly guarded by him. And he did not say: woe to that man by whom he is betrayed but through whom he is betrayed, showing that there was another by whom he was being betrayed (that is, by the devil), while Judas himself was the minister of the betrayal. And woe not only to Judas, but to all betrayers of Christ; for whoever betrays the disciples of Christ, betrays Christ himself. Therefore they are indeed betrayed by the devil, yet through those men, and for this reason woe to them. For if the devil works all malice in men through men, then whoever is killed by someone, even if not by him yet through him has been killed. And if a judge shall have killed someone, unjustly bearing a sentence of death against someone, it must be known that he himself, by giving "place to the devil" in himself, offered himself as a minister to the devil for the killing of an innocent man. It were good for him, if that man had not been born, that is: for him it were good if he had not been born, because he had not been worthy even of this good, that he should be born. But since he had been fit, out of his own choice, that this ministry of betrayal should be accomplished through him, therefore he was born to his own harm, so that he might fall into the evil which according to his own purpose he deserved.
Mark 14:22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 85
But as they were eating, Jesus, taking bread and giving thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take and eat, for this is my body. And taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying: Drink of this, all of you, for this is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. This bread, which the God Word confesses to be his body, is the word that nourishes souls, the word proceeding from God the Word and the bread from the heavenly bread, which is set upon the table of which it is written: "You have prepared a table in my sight against those who trouble me". And this drink, which the God Word confesses to be his blood, is the word that gives drink and gloriously inebriates the hearts of those who drink, which is in the cup of which it is written: "And how glorious is your inebriating cup!" And this drink is the offspring of the true vine, which says: "I am the true vine", and it is the blood of that grape which, cast into the winepress of the passion, brought forth this drink; just as also the bread is the word of Christ made from that wheat which, "falling into the ground", "yielded much fruit". For the God Word was not calling that visible bread which he held in his hands his body, but the word in whose mystery that bread was to be broken. Nor was he calling that visible drink his blood, but the word in whose mystery that drink was to be poured out. For what else can the body of the God Word, or his blood, be, but the word that nourishes, and the word that "gladdens the heart"? But why did he not say: This is the bread of the new testament, as he said: This is the blood of the new testament? Because the bread is the word of righteousness by eating which souls are nourished, but the drink is the word of the knowledge of Christ according to the mystery of his birth and passion. Since, therefore, the testament of God has been established toward us in the blood of the passion of Christ, so that we, believing the Son of God to have been born and to have suffered according to the flesh, may be made saved — not in righteousness, in which alone, without faith in the passion of Christ, there could be no salvation — for this reason it was said only concerning the cup: This is the cup of the testament;
Mark 14:34 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.6.2
He was troubled, as we are told, in the hour of death, as he himself confesses when he says, "My soul is sorrowful even unto death." He was finally led to that death which is considered the most shameful of all. On the third day he rose again. When, therefore, we see in him some things so human that they appear in no way to differ from the common frailty of mortals, and some things so divine that they are appropriate to nothing else but the primal and ineffable nature of deity, the human understanding with its own narrow limits is baffled, and struck with amazement at so mighty a wonder. It does not know which way to turn, what to hold to, or how to establish itself.
Mark 14:38 — ON PRAYER 29.11
We do not pray that we will never be tempted at all. For that is impossible. We pray rather that we not be encompassed by temptation.
Mark 14:58 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 10.21
The accusations they brought against our Lord Jesus Christ appear to have reference to this utterance of his, "Destroy this temple, and I will build it up in three days." Though he was speaking of the temple of his body, they supposed his words to refer to the temple of stone.
Mark 14:58 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 108
And consider that not one false witness came forward for this testimony (for one was not sufficient for those wishing to kill Jesus, since the law commanded: "One witness shall not stand to give testimony against a man"), but neither were there three; for though many false witnesses came forward, scarcely two were found who seemed to say anything. But neither were their testimonies in agreement, as Mark sets forth; for he says in this manner, that "the chief priests and the whole council sought testimony against Jesus, that they might deliver him to death, and found none; for many spoke false testimony against him, and their testimonies were not in agreement. And others rising up spoke false testimony against him: that we heard him saying: that I destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will make another not made with hands. But neither so were their testimonies in agreement". For a testimony is in agreement when they say the same things, but they are not in agreement when they are dissonant with one another, such as were the testimonies of these who were bringing forward testimonies against Jesus. And if Matthew and Mark speak the truth (which we ought to believe), let us attempt to show how not even the testimonies of these two themselves were in agreement, since they did not bring forward the same things. For according to Matthew they said: This man said: I am able to destroy the temple of God and in three days to rebuild it, but according to Mark: "That we heard him saying: that I destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will rebuild another not made with hands". Whether therefore, saying these things twice, since they did not say the same things, their testimonies were not found in agreement with one another; or whether the one said what Matthew sets forth, and the other what Mark wrote, and thereby "their testimonies were not in agreement" with one another.
Mark 15:39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 140
But the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, feared greatly, saying: Truly this man was the Son of God. But Mark writes thus: "The centurion who was standing there, seeing that he expired crying out, said: Truly this man was the Son of God"; but Luke: "When the centurion saw the things that were done, he glorified God, saying: Truly this man was righteous." According to Mark, indeed, the centurion marveled not because "the veil of the temple had been rent from the top even to the bottom," nor because the other signs had come about which Matthew relates (that is, because "the earth was shaken," because "the rocks were split," or "the tombs were opened"). It is therefore worthwhile to consider what happened afterward, over and above what is written in Mark, such that the centurion marveled, saying: "Truly this man was the Son of God." And see whether we may say, according to one manner of understanding, that he marveled at those things which had been spoken by him to God with a great cry and with loftiness of feeling, in accordance with what he was able to understand; … suspecting this, he marveled and said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." But according to another manner, since perhaps Pilate, wishing to gratify the whole people who had said: "Crucify, crucify him," and fearing a tumult of the entire people, did not command — according to the custom of the Romans regarding those who are crucified — that Jesus' body be struck beneath the armpits, which those who condemn men found guilty of the greater crimes sometimes do (for those who are not struck after their fixing to the cross undergo a greater torment, since they go on living with the utmost torture, sometimes indeed the whole night through and still, after it, the whole day). Jesus therefore, since he had not been struck, and it was expected that, hanging long upon the cross, he would suffer greater torments, prayed to the Father and was heard, and immediately, as soon as he cried out to the Father, he was received; or, as one who had "the power" of "laying down" his "soul," he laid it down when he himself willed — which prodigy, when it was done, astonished the centurion, and he said: "Truly this man was the Son of God." For it was a miracle that after three hours he was received who perhaps would have lived two days upon the cross, according to the custom regarding those who are indeed hung up but not struck, so that it might be seen to have been a benefit of God that he expired, and the merit of his prayer rather than the violence of the cross. That which Mark sets forth in what follows also signifies this very thing, when "Joseph" had gone in "to Pilate" and had asked for "the body of Jesus." For he speaks thus, that "Pilate marveled that he was already dead, and calling the centurion he asked him whether he was already dead"; and when he had heard it from the centurion, "he gave his body to Joseph." For if the custom which had been in force among the Romans concerning those crucified and struck through had been observed in the case of Christ, how would Pilate have marveled if he were already dead? See therefore whether it does not point to a new miracle, that he was already dead and that "Pilate called the centurion and asked whether he was already dead." And see whether Matthew too does not show that Christ's torment was of this kind, when he says: the centurion and those who were with him, keeping Jesus. But why were they keeping him, unless it were that, hanging longer on the cross, he might be tormented the more, neither slain nor taken down? Yet the centurion, according to Matthew, not only said of Jesus: truly this was the Son of God, but also feared him, since the earthquake cast him into fear. And perhaps too he knew by experience, from the earthquakes that occur among the nations, that this had been an earthquake, and at this he was astounded as he beheld it. A…
Mark 15:40 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 141
And there were many women there, watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee (27, 55. 56). They report that Isaiah prophesied concerning these women when he said: Women coming to the spectacle, come; for it is not a people having wisdom. For he calls women those who had been from afar and from afar were watching Jesus; he calls them to the word, that they may indeed forsake the senseless and forsaken people and come to the new covenant. And I judge those women to be blessed who are built up unto blessedness by the spectacle of the word and by the death of the body of Jesus; for everything that is in Christ, if it be truly seen, makes the beholder blessed. Therefore they look upon the mortification of the body of Jesus and the manner in which he commended "his spirit" to the Father by his prayers. These first followed him from Galilee, and — that I may say it boldly (using the authority of the Scripture that teaches it) — they followed him from Galilee "of the Gentiles", not from a straight nor a firm one, but from one having a certain circuit (for this is what Galilee is understood to mean, that is, ROLLING or WHIRLING); and leaving this, they followed Jesus, not idly, but doing the things that were commanded by him, and they delighted him; for they followed him ministering. And every soul that shares in some distribution of graces and in the Lord himself ministers to Jesus a ministry like the ministries of the angels, concerning whom it is written that "the angels, approaching, ministered to him". Many therefore were watching Jesus then, but the chief ones are named, as being those who watched more attentively and ministered more fully and followed better: Mary Magdalene, more fitting to the interpretation of the name of her homeland, which is called Magdala (and that place is interpreted MAGNIFICATION). And this Mary Magdalene was of magnification for no other reason than that she had followed Jesus and had ministered to him and had watched the mystery of his passion. And among the chief ones there was also Mary the mother of James and Joseph, or (as Mark says) "the mother of James the less and of Joseph", according to the name of the patriarch Jacob, the SUPPLANTER of his brother, and of Joseph, over whom, when he was born, his mother said: "may the Lord add to me another son". This one too, therefore, following the Lord and ministering and watching the dispensation of his passion, was so because she had been the mother of some faithful person — not of anyone great (such as the patriarch Jacob had been), but of a lesser one, and of another Joseph. And among the women there was also the mother of the sons of Zebedee, perhaps some woman established in the ministry of THUNDER on account of her faith and holy life, and because she followed the Lord and ministered to him and had been a beholder of all the things that had been done concerning him, for the sons of Zebedee were called "SONS OF THUNDER". For his sons were John and James: therefore John heard the words of the seven thunders, which, as being more eminent than all Scripture, he received a command not to write. But if it is proper also to conjecture and to state the name of the mother of the sons of Zebedee, I say that this very woman had been called Salome, which means PEACEABLE. And I have conjectured this seeing that in Matthew and Mark three chief women are named, concerning whom the present discourse is held; and the present evangelist sets forth that two of them are "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James", but that the third is called the mother of the sons of Zebedee; whereas in Mark that third one is called "Salome". And according to Mark, those who had followed Jesus from Galilee "went up to Jerusalem" with Christ. For this is the end of those who forsake the Galilee "of the Gentiles" and follow Jesus, th…
Mark 15:40 — Catena Aurea by Aquinas (as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)
(in Matt. Tract. 35) But it seems to me, that here three women are chiefly named, by Matthew and Mark. Two indeed are set down by each Evangelist, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James; the third is called by Matthew, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, but by Mark she is called Salome.
Nahum 1:9 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11:5
According to the law, for example, the adulterer and the adulteress were punished with an immediate death. Because of the fact that he bore the penalty for his sin and paid punishments which fitted the evil committed, what will be after this that threatens their souls with revenge, if they transgressed no more, if there is not another sin which condemns them, but they committed only this single fault when they were punished and bore for this the punishment of the law? "The Lord will not punish twice for the same thing," for they took their sin and their penalty for the crime was taken away. And for this reason, this kind of precept is not found unmerciful, as the heretics assert, accusing the law of God and denying that there is human feeling contained in it. But it is full of mercy by virtue of the fact that through this more people would be cleansed from sins than would be condemned.
Nehemiah 1:8-9 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.3
But I say: did the Lord use iniquity in order to snatch the nations from the power of the adversaries and to recall them to his own faith and dominion? By no means. For Israel was once "the portion of the Lord," but they made Israel to sin against his God, and on account of their sins God said to them: "behold, you have been sold off by your sins, and on account of your sins you have been scattered under the whole heaven." But again he says to them: "if your dispersion be from the end of heaven unto the end thereof, from there I will gather you, says the Lord." Because, therefore, the first "princes of this world" had invaded "the portion of the Lord," the "good shepherd" had need, leaving the ninety and nine on high, to descend to the earth and to seek the one sheep which had perished, and, having found it and carried it back on his shoulders, to recall it to the heavenly sheepfold of perfection.
Numbers 1:1-3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 1.2
"And the Lord spoke," it says, "to Moses in the desert of Sinai" — all those things, namely, which above we summed up in a compact narration, where it is commanded that everyone be numbered "from twenty years old and upward who goes forth in the might of Israel." If, therefore, anyone goes forth in might, he himself is numbered, and not in any might whatever, that is, not in the might of the Egyptians nor of the Assyrians nor of the Greeks, but in the might of Israel, he himself is numbered before God. For there is a might of the mind which the philosophers of the Greeks teach; but this does not pertain to the number of God, for it is exercised not for God but for human glory. There is also a might of the Assyrians or the Chaldeans, which is proclaimed in the studies of astrology; but this is not the Israelite might, and therefore it does not pertain to God. There is also a might of the Egyptians in that which they call secret wisdom, but this is not joined to the reckoning of God. Before God the Israelite might alone is numbered, that is, that might which is taught by God, which is learned through the divine Scriptures, which is handed down through the Gospel and Apostolic faith. And therefore he says that they alone are to be numbered who advance in the might of Israel. But let us also consider this, why the people is not numbered immediately, as soon as it has gone out of Egypt; for Pharaoh was still pursuing. But neither when, crossing the Red Sea, it came into the desert, is it said to be numbered; for they had not yet been tempted, not yet been attacked by the enemy. They contend against Amalek and conquer, but not even then are they numbered; for one victory does not suffice for one striving toward perfection. They receive manna as food and draw the drink of water from the following rock, but neither then are they numbered; for in them those things which are reckoned fit for the numbers had not yet grown up. The tabernacle of testimony is constructed, but not even in this does the time for numbering the people arrive. The law is given through Moses, the custom of sacrifices is handed down, the rite of purifications is taught, the laws and sacraments of sanctifications are established, and then, by the command of God, the people is brought to the number. Inscribe these things, O hearer, in your heart twofold and threefold. See how many things you must pass through, how many endure, by how many advances, how many temptations, how many battles you must fight and conquer, that you may be able to belong to the divine number, that you may be held in some reckoning before God, that you may be deemed worthy to be counted among the holy tribes, that you may be able to be visited and, through God's priests, Aaron and Moses, to be enrolled in the censuses of the numbers. First you must take up the law of God, the law of the Holy Spirit; sacrifices must be offered, purifications completed, all things performed which the law of the spirit teaches, that you may at last be able to belong to the Israelite number.
Numbers 1:2-3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 1.1
Not all are worthy of the divine numbers, but those who ought to be included within the number of God are marked out by certain definite prerogatives. And this book, which is entitled Numbers, contains a clear indication of this matter. In it we are told that, by the command of God, neither are women brought into the number — being obstructed, no doubt, by the impediment of feminine weakness — nor any of the slaves, inasmuch as they are degenerate in life and character. But not even any of the Egyptians who had mingled with them is numbered, precisely because they were foreigners and barbarians; but the Israelites alone are numbered, and not even all of these, but those from twenty years old and upward. Nor is only the observance of age maintained, but it is asked whether one also displays a strength fit for war; for it is prescribed by the word of God that everyone be numbered "who goes forth in the might of Israel." Therefore not age alone, but might too, is required in an Israelite. Boyish age is not numbered, nor is it reckoned fit for the divine reckonings, unless perhaps they be firstborn or descend from a priestly or Levitical stock; these alone among the boys are brought to the number. But of the women none whatever is brought forward. And what is the meaning of this? Can these things be empty of mysteries, and is the Holy Spirit, who dictated that these things be written, to be believed to have taken care of this alone, that we might know who were then numbered in that people and who remained without number? And what profit will be given from this to those who are eager to be instructed in the sacred volumes? For what does it benefit to have learned these things? Or what is contributed to the soul for its salvation, if it should know that some part of the people was numbered in the desert, while another part was left unnumbered? But if, following Paul's judgment, we believe the law to be spiritual and hear the things it contains spiritually, an immense profit to the soul will appear in the things that are written. For the present reading teaches me that, if I transcend the folly of boyish age, if I cease to be a child in understanding and, having become a man, lay aside the things that are a child's — if, I say, I become a young man, and such a young man as may conquer the evil one — I shall appear fit for those of whom it is written, "all who go forth in the might of Israel," and I shall be reckoned worthy of the divine numbers. But so long as there is in any of us either a boyish and slippery understanding, or a feminine and slack sluggishness, or so long as we bear Egyptian and barbarous morals, we do not deserve to be held before God in the holy and consecrated number. For in Solomon those who perish are said to be without number; but all who are saved are numbered. And do you wish me to show you that the number of the saints is kept before God? Hear how David says of the heavenly stars indeed: "who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by their names." But the Savior not only set his chosen disciples under a number, but says that even the hairs of their head are numbered; for he says, "but the very hairs of your head are numbered." In which surely he was not saying that those hairs are numbered which are wont either to be shorn off with iron and cast away, or to fall off and perish with the passage of time; but those hairs of the head are numbered before God which were in the Nazirites, in whom dwelt the power of the Holy Spirit for laying low the foreigners. Therefore the virtues of the mind and the multitude of the senses, which were brought forth from the ruling part of the mind as from the head of the Apostles, he called the hairs of the head.
Numbers 2:1-2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 2.1
The first reading of Numbers taught that the army of God, which had gone out from the land of Egypt and made its journey through the desert, was visited—that is, numbered—by Moses and Aaron, and, having been set apart tribe by tribe, was reckoned under a fixed number. Expounding this as it were together with the whole content of the little book, we said that a pattern was there prescribed, showing how the people of God, going out from the Egypt of this world and hastening to the land of promise—that is, either to the place of the virtues or to the glory and inheritance of the kingdom of heaven—are led forward by certain orders and degrees of merit. And through these things we showed that the magnificence of the goods to come is foreshadowed in the images of the Law. But now the beginning of this reading, which has been recited today, instructs us how the order of the camp is to be composed by those who are made over to God and do not entangle themselves in the affairs of the world. And it says: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Let the children of Israel pitch their camp each man according to his own order and according to his own signs, according to the houses of their families; over against, round about the tabernacle of testimony let the children of Israel encamp." Moses says: "Let each man march in the camp according to his own order and according to his own signs and according to the houses of their families," and Paul says: "Let all things be done honorably and according to order." And does it not seem to you that there is one Spirit of God, who speaks both in Moses and in Paul? Moses commands that in the camp one march according to order; Paul enjoins that in the Church all things be done according to order. And Moses indeed, who ministered to the Law, orders that order be kept in the camp; but Paul, as a minister of the Gospel, wishes the Christian to be orderly not only in his actions but in his very dress, and therefore he says: "the women likewise in orderly dress." Hence I judge that they wish order to be kept not only in duties and dress, but they give us to understand that there is a certain order even in the soul, concerning which it may be said that each one ought to march according to his own order. And this order is indeed indicated chiefly from the fruits of works, yet nonetheless also from the magnificence of the perceptions. For it often happens that one who bears a lowly and abject mind and who relishes earthly things occupies the lofty grade of the priesthood or the chair of a teacher, while he who is spiritual and so free from earthly conduct that he can examine all things and himself be judged by no one, holds the rank of a lower ministry or is even left among the common multitude. But this is to despise the ordinances both of the Law and of the Gospel, and to do nothing according to order. And moreover, if each one of us is anxious about food and drink and bestows all his care upon worldly matters, but out of a whole day assigns even one or two hours to God, and comes to church for prayer, or hears the word of God in passing, yet spends his chief care upon anxiety for the world and the belly—such a one does not fulfill the commandment which says that a man should march according to his own order, or which says that all things should be done according to order. For it is an order established by Christ to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, believing that these other things will be added to us by God in the second place. Let a man, therefore, march according to his own order. Do you suppose that those who exercise the priesthood and glory in the priestly order march according to their order and do all things that are worthy of that order? And likewise, too, do you suppose the deacons march according to the order of their ministry? And whence is it that we often hear men blaspheme and say: "See what sort of bishop, or what sort of presbyter, or what sort of deacon!"? Are no…
Numbers 2:2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 2.2
But let us see what it is that it says: "and according to his own signs." I think the signs are those things by which the individual property of each one is designated; for example, all of us men are alike, yet there is a certain distinction proper to each one, either in the very face, or in stature, or in bearing, or in dress, through which, for example, Paul is designated to be Paul, and Peter to be Peter and not to be Paul. And sometimes even to those who do not see, the diversity of each one's sign is given, so that from voice and speech one recognizes that it is this man or that who is speaking; and according to the sign of his own property each one is known even without bodily sight. In this manner I judge that there are also diverse signs in souls. And the movement of one soul is gentler, mild, placid, tranquil, even; that of another is turbid, elated, harsher, more excitable, more insolent. One is circumspect, cautious, provident, careful, diligent; another is slothful, remiss, negligent, incautious; and among these one more, another less. And I dare to declare that perhaps as great a diversity as there is in the appearance of the face among men, so great also is found to be the difference in souls; just as I remember that the most wise Solomon says in a certain place: "As faces are diverse from faces, so also are the hearts of men diverse." But let each one, as Moses says, march according to his own signs—that is, let not him whose signs are lowly and despised march more elated and loftier than the signs of their own souls demand. And that the account of the diversity of the signs may become still more clear, we will add these things also. It is certain that all who know letters have learned the elements of letters—twenty-four if Greek, twenty-three if Latin—and out of these they write whatever must be written. Yet the sign, for example, of the alpha which Paul writes is one thing, and that which Peter writes is another; and so, through the individual men who know letters, you will find diverse signs of writing in each single letter. Hence too the handwritings written by the hands of individuals are recognized by certain proper signs and marks; and though the elements be the same, yet in the very likeness of the letters there is much unlikeness of signs. Therefore, if the example of the matter set before you has become fully clear, come now to the movements of the mind and of the souls, by which they are stirred to do something. Look upon the handwritings and see how, for example, the soul of Paul has set before itself chastity, and no less the soul of Peter, but there is a certain chastity proper to Peter and another chastity of Paul, even if it seem one and the same. In short, the chastity of one of them is such as requires that his body be mortified and subjected to servitude, and which still says "lest perchance"; but the chastity of the other does not fear that "lest perchance." Likewise justice too has something of property in Paul, and has it also in Peter. In the same manner also wisdom and the other virtues. But if even in these names, which we have set down for the sake of example, it can come to pass that, although they are one through the Spirit of God, yet there is some diversity in the very property of the virtues, how much more do all the rest of men bear certain signs proper to themselves in the movements of their souls and the virtues of the soul! Perceiving these things by a mystical reasoning, Moses writes in the Law that each one should march in the camp according to his own signs. And it can come to pass that, by an emulation of good works, we advance from lower signs to better and more magnificent ones. For if it has been rightly understood by us that all these things which are written in the Law are forms of the goods to come, and of that age which we hope for from the resurrection, it is certainly true that, if in the present life we have zeal for better things and, after the example of the Apo…
Numbers 2:2-3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 1.3
I discern still something further of mystery in this book of Numbers. For the reckoning of the tribes and the distinction of ranks, the fellowship of families and the whole ordering of the camps, discloses to me the tokens of vast sacraments, since the Apostle Paul sprinkles upon us the seeds of spiritual understanding. And come now, let us see what all this reckoning of numbers, what this diversity of ranks, contains of mystical understanding. Our expectation of the resurrection of the dead is certain, when those who live, who are left, "shall not go before, at the coming of Christ, those who have fallen asleep, but joined and associated together with them shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air" — deserting, that is, the corruption of this earthly place and the dwellings of death, whether all are to remain in the air, as Paul declares, or some also are to be transferred to paradise or to whatever other places out of the many mansions which are with the Father. But the diversity of the translation and of the glory will without doubt be granted according to the merits and deeds of each one, and each will be in that rank which the merits of his deeds have conferred upon him, just as the same Paul also attests, saying of those who rise, "but each in his own order." Hence, therefore, it will come about in the resurrection that each is enrolled, by spiritual tokens, either in the tribe of Reuben — for this very reason, no doubt, that in his morals or deeds or life he had something similar and akin to Reuben himself. But another in the tribe of Simeon, perhaps for his obedience. Another in the tribe of Levi — one, I believe, who presided well over the priesthood, or who, ministering well, acquired for himself a good standing. Another in the tribe of Judah — I do not doubt that this is he who bore a kingly spirit and ruled well the people that is within him, namely the senses of the mind and the thoughts of the heart. But also to each single tribe each one will be associated according to those things which, in his deeds or in his morals, he had akin to any one of them. There will therefore be certain ranks of this kind in the resurrection of the dead, as the Apostle designates; the type and figure of which ranks seems to me to be preformed in this book. But also the fact that the position and the order of the encampment is described by a certain association of the tribes and connection of the camps pertains without doubt to some state in the resurrection of the dead. That three tribes are said to be placed to the east and three to the west, three also toward the sea and the three last toward the north — which is called the harsh wind — but also that the tribe of Judah, which is royal, is stationed to the east, from which our Lord arose, I do not think is idle, and that Issachar is joined to it and Zebulun, and that into four parts this triple number is arranged, which, although they have differing qualities of their positions, are nevertheless all contained within the number of the Trinity, and that through all these four parts the same Trinity is always gathered into one number — for this reason, no doubt, that under the one name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are reckoned all who, coming from the four parts of the world, call upon the name of the Lord, reclining with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. Let these things be indicated by us in a general way for those who wish briefly to grasp the mystical contents of this whole sacred volume, so that from these, having taken the occasion of spiritual understanding, each one may pursue in the rest a similar inquiry, or even, if to anyone God reveals more, a higher and loftier one. For I truly judge myself unequal to expounding the mysteries which this book of Numbers contains; but far more inferior to those which the volume of Deuteronomy includes. And therefore we must hasten to arrive at Jesus — not that son of Nun, but Jesus Christ.…
Numbers 2:33 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
And that there is something greater even than Israel, we gather from this: that in the book of Numbers all Israel indeed is numbered, and the twelve tribes of Israel are reckoned under a fixed number; but the tribe of Levi, as being more eminent than the rest, is held to be above this number, and is by no means counted in the number of Israel.
Numbers 3:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
And again, the priests are written down as more eminent than the Levites. For thus it is contained in the same Scripture: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take the sum of the Levites, and set them in the sight of Aaron the priest, and let them minister to him." You see in this too how it names the priests as superior to the Levites, and again sets the Levites as more eminent than the children of Israel?
Numbers 3:12-13 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 3.4
But also what it says — "in place of every firstborn that opens the womb" — does not seem to me able to be easily discussed or explained. For not everyone who opens the womb is straightway to be held worthy of the sanctification of the firstborn, since we also read in the Psalms that: "The sinners are estranged from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly, they have spoken false things." Which certainly can in no way stand according to the letter. For how could anyone go astray from the way of God the moment he came forth from his mother's belly? Or how could a child just brought forth speak false things or utter any sort of speech at all? Since therefore it is impossible either for anyone to go astray from the belly or to speak false things, it will be necessary that such a belly and womb be sought to which this saying can fit, that: "The sinners are estranged from the womb and have gone astray from the belly, they have spoken false things"; and that will be the womb which every firstborn opens who is sanctified to God. God once opened the womb of Leah, which was closed, and she bore the patriarchs; likewise also of Rachel, that she too might bear, whose sight was keen and whose appearance was comely. But also in many other places of Scripture you will find wombs being opened. If you consider these one by one according to their places, you will find how both sinners go astray from the womb and others, opening the womb, are sanctified into the order of the firstborn. "And they shall be mine," it says, "the Levites. For every firstborn is mine; from the day when I struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself every firstborn." It is known what the history contains about these things, how the firstborn of the Egyptians were struck when the people of Israel were led out of Egypt. This, then, is what is indicated in this place: that the firstborn of Israel were not sanctified before the firstborn of the Egyptians were struck; and it sets, as it were, the destruction and slaughter of the latter as the cause of the sanctification of the former. Hence here too it must be understood that there are certain firstborn even among the Egyptians, that is, among the opposing powers — as it were the choice ones in malice and the first among the demons — who, unless they are struck and extinguished, the firstborn of the Israelites can in no way receive sanctification. Who then is it who struck the firstborn of the Egyptians, that is, the principalities and powers of the demons? Is it not my Lord Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn of every creature, who led away the adverse principalities and powers, triumphing over them on the cross? Whom certainly, unless he had struck and triumphed over them, the sanctification of the firstborn could by no means have come to us. But that he might grant us the blessings of the firstborn, he first himself became the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might hold the primacy and might take us who believe in his resurrection in place of the firstborn and place us in the order of the firstborn — if only we hold the grace of the blessings firm to the end, aided by the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 3:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 3.2
"And the Lord spoke," it says, "to Moses, saying: Behold, I have taken the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, in place of every firstborn that opens the womb from among the sons of Israel; they shall be their redemption, and the Levites shall be mine. For every firstborn is mine. From the day when I struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself every firstborn of Israel; from man even to beast it shall be mine; I am the Lord." The Levites are taken in place of the firstborn, though indeed they are not firstborn. For Levi is born third from Leah; for first is Reuben, second Simeon, third Levi; and these are taken as firstborn who by nature are not firstborn. Is it to be believed that these things are written in the law of God without purpose? Or does it teach us this: that with God those are not reckoned firstborn who come first by bodily birth, but those whom God himself, having inspected the purpose of the mind, judges to be taken into the order of the firstborn? For so with God Jacob, though later in birth, was judged firstborn and received the blessings of the firstborn through the blindness of the parent, which was divinely brought about. For out of the purpose of the heart, which lay open to God, even before they were born into this world or had done anything good or evil, the Lord pronounces concerning them: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." The sons of Levi, therefore, are indeed not firstborn according to the flesh, but they are taken in place of the firstborn, so that it is something greater to be taken in place of the firstborn than to be born firstborn. "Behold," it says, "I have taken the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel." Say simply: I have taken the Levites from the sons of Israel; what is it that you add, "and from the midst of the sons of Israel"? From what midst, then? Levi is third, as we said above, among the sons of Israel. From what midst, then, the Levites are taken, I should like to know. I find in the Scriptures that blessed Shunammite, who once had fed the prophet, answering with confidence the king of Israel, who wished to confer some benefit upon her, and saying: "I dwell in the midst of my people." But more grandly and more magnificently I see it written in the Gospels concerning our Lord and Savior, when John says: "In the midst of you stands one whom you do not know." I think therefore that he who has never turned aside to the right hand or to the left can be said to stand in the midst — he "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." And therefore he indeed, because he always stands, is said to stand in the midst; but if anyone is an imitator of him, as are all the saints and that blessed woman whom we mentioned above, he is not indeed said to stand — for it cannot be that one is not at some time inclined either to the right or to the left; for no one is clean from filth, not even if his life be of one day — yet he is said to dwell in the midst of the people. And so the Levites too are taken from the midst of the sons of Israel. For the Levites are those who have not known their right hand and their left, but, following Moses, that is, following the law of God, have not spared father or mother. And you too, therefore, if, when temptation comes, when the wrath of sin comes, you are not inclined to the right hand or to the left and do not transgress the law of God, but stand in the midst, fixed and stable, and are not inclined nor bend your knees to sin, nor follow the head of a beast, that is, the image of folly, you will be taken from the midst of the sons of Israel and placed in the number of the firstborn. These things concerning what is written: "And I will take the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel."
Numbers 3:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 3.3
But, if it seems good, let us return once more to the very order of the history that is recounted in Numbers, and from it let us contemplate where and how the mystery of the firstborn ought to be sought. Let us therefore review more attentively how the twelve tribes are distributed by threes into four parts and settle in a fixed station at each of the quarters of the heavens, and we find Judah indeed stationed on the east with Issachar and Zebulun, but Reuben on the west with Simeon and Gad; on the south Ephraim with Benjamin and Manasseh, but on the north Dan with Naphtali and Asher. Out of all these, placed as it were around the four corners of the earth in a circuit, in the midst of them, as being nearest to God, around the very tabernacle of God, the Levites are stationed. In the camp of Judah indeed, which is on the east, Moses and Aaron; but in the camp of Reuben, Gershon; in the camp of Benjamin, Kohath; and where Dan set his camp, Merari is written to be placed; and so in the midst of the sons of Israel, on every side and round about, the sons of Levi seem to be inserted among the rest and interwoven, as it were. These are the things that the letter of the law sets forth for us, so that, gathering from them the seeds of the sacred mysteries, we may ascend as by certain steps from lowly things to lofty ones and from earthly things to heavenly ones. Ascend therefore now, O hearer, if you can, and be lifted up from earthly senses by the gaze of the mind and the keenness of the heart. Forget earthly things for a little while, and walk with the step of the mind above the clouds and above the very heaven. There seek the tabernacle of God, where as a forerunner for us Jesus entered and now stands before the face of God, interceding for us. There, I say, seek those fourfold orders and stations of the camps, there behold the Israelite ranks and the watches of the saints, and there examine those mysteries of the firstborn which we now seek here. But I do not dare to ascend there alone, I do not dare to plunge myself into these so secret recesses of the mysteries without the authority of some great teacher. I cannot ascend there unless Paul goes before me and himself shows me the way of this new and steep journey. He therefore, the greatest of the Apostles, who knew that there are many churches not only on earth but also in the heavens — of which John also enumerates seven — Paul himself, wishing to show that there is besides even a certain church of the firstborn, says, writing to the Hebrews: "For you have not drawn near to a burning and palpable fire, but you have drawn near to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to multitudes of angels giving praise, and to the church of the firstborn enrolled in the heavens." Moses therefore describes the people of God divided by four camps on earth, and the Apostle describes four orders of saints in the heavens, to each of which he says that each one of us draws near. For not all draw near to all, but some indeed draw near to Mount Zion; and those a little better than these draw near to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and those who are more eminent even than these draw near to the multitude of angels giving praise; and those who are above all these draw near to the church of the firstborn enrolled in the heavens. If therefore from these things you have understood what the order of the firstborn is and what the mystery of that name is, prepare yourself and strive, as much as you are able, that perhaps by your deeds, your life, your morals, your faith and your practices you may make progress, so that you may be able to draw near to the church of the firstborn, which is enrolled in the heavens. But if you are not able for so much, but are a little lower, draw near to the multitude of angels giving praise. But if you cannot draw near even to that order, strive at least to hasten to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. But…
Numbers 3:17-37 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 4.1
After these things, when the sons of Levi had been divided into three orders, and each of the orders was reckoned according to the three names of the princes, certain diversities are recorded in them too, not without mysteries. For the order of the sons of Kohath is described first, and rightly; for from him descend Moses and Aaron, to whom the summit of the priesthood is committed. For from him is born Amram; and from Amram, Moses and Aaron. The second order is Gershon, who indeed is first in birth, but is held second in order; for thus the Scripture says: "And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari." But from the sons of Kohath again two orders are directed, and those indeed who descend from Aaron are consigned to the priesthood, while the remaining part is ordained to minister to the priests; and therefore the offices of the Levites are divided into four parts, so that Aaron and his sons discharge the priesthood, but the holy of holies is carried upon their shoulders by those who remain of the people of Kohath. But the things that pertain to the tabernacle of testimony, or to its courts and skins, or even the veils, and whatever is less hard and light for a burden, the sons of Gershon are to take care of. But the columns of the tabernacle and its bases and its bars the sons of Merari are to carry. Therefore also in the enumerating of these the Scripture significantly makes mention that the strength of Merari be reckoned; for strength is needed for carrying burdens of this kind.
Numbers 3:39-43 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 4.1
It is the book of Numbers that is read to us, in which there are many differences of numbers, which are recorded concerning the sons of Israel. But after the sons of Israel, the Levites too are numbered separately. For they had not been counted along with the sons of Israel, and they have a certain number set apart and distinguished above the rest, by which they are all together reported to be found twenty-two thousand, so that neither anything more nor less than this was found in the number. After this the Lord commanded that the firstborn of the sons of Israel also be numbered in the same order in which the Levites had been numbered, that is, from one month and upward, and the firstborn of the sons of Israel are found to be twenty-two thousand and two hundred and seventy-three. Do you suppose that through these things Moses wished to teach us only the bare history of number, and enclosed no mystery, according to his customary manner, in these varieties of numbers? Will there seem to be no reason in the fact that two hundred and seventy-three are said to abound so much among the firstborn of Israel, while among the Levites it is recorded that toward the twenty-two thousand nothing abounds nor is anything lacking? The number twenty-two, indeed, in the divine Scriptures, if anyone observes, he will frequently find to be assigned to certain principal causes. For they hand down that among the Hebrews the first elements of letters are twenty-two. Again, from Adam, the first-formed, down to Jacob, from whose seed the twelve tribes take their beginning, the fathers are numbered to have been twenty-two. They hand down also that the kinds of all God's creatures are gathered within the number twenty-two. But many other things too in the Scriptures, if anyone should pursue them more diligently, he will find consecrated under this number. For this reason, therefore, both the Levites, that is, those who serve God, and the firstborn of the sons of Israel are titled with this admirable and sacred number. But that among the sons of Israel two hundred and seventy-three are added seems to me neither idle, nor do I discern an easy way of solution, unless the Lord should deign to open and take away for us that veil placed upon these letters by Moses. Therefore the generation of the human race in the flesh, as those assert who are skilled in such matters, is indeed contained in the womb for nine months, but it is not said to move toward birth before even the three days of the tenth month pass; and thus it is found that this number, that is, two hundred and seventy-three, indicates those days which are gathered from the nine months and the three days of the tenth month, and together they make these two hundred and seventy-three days, in which entrance into this world is granted to the human race. And thus in the twenty-two numbers together the sum of the mystical reasons of all creatures is gathered; but in those which are found in excess among the firstborn of Israel, the mystery also of human generation is set forth.
Numbers 4:2-3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 4.2
But let us return at length to the Apostle Paul, who, beholding all these things now with a free and unveiled eye of the mind, and casting off the veil of the old testament, says that the former people, in constructions of this kind, served the exemplar and shadow of heavenly things. And hearing these things, consider whether perhaps these four orders of the camps are an example and shadow of those four orders which Paul, writing to the Hebrews, enumerated in the heavens. And again to the four Israelite orders of the camps add the fourfold orders of the Levites; which it is enough for us not so much to explain and lay open as merely to have touched upon, and to have pointed out lightly and to have grazed for the purer senses—if indeed there are any who have brought here pure senses free from worldly thoughts. "Take," he says, "the number of the sons of Kohath." Behold, again another order of numbers is introduced. Already the sons of Levi were numbered from one month and upward; now the sons of Levi are numbered from the twenty-fifth year, but not, as in the others, "and upward," but up to the fiftieth year, and this number becomes a distinguished and elect one; for there is added to these: "everyone," it says, "who goes forth to minister at the works of the tabernacle of testimony." These are they who are numbered by a certain better and distinguished number; for just as it was said among the sons of Israel, "everyone who goes forth to battle among the sons of Israel," so here too it is said, "everyone who goes forth to ministry, to do the works in the tabernacle of testimony."
Numbers 4:5-18 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 4.2
After this it is said what are the works of the sons of Kohath in the midst of the sons of Levi according to their peoples in the tabernacle of testimony. "Aaron," it says, "and his sons shall enter, when the camps are lifted up, and they shall take down the veil with which the holy things are covered, and they shall cover the ark of the testament with that very veil." And after this certain seven kinds are enumerated which are commanded to be covered. In the first place, that the ark of the testament itself, more precious than all, be covered with the veil by which it was formerly veiled, but also be covered over with a hyacinth-colored skin. Another covering too, hyacinth-colored, is added on top. In the second place the table is covered, in the third the candlestick, in the fourth the golden altar, in the fifth the vessels of ministry, in the sixth the covering of the altar is placed with certain veils, in the seventh place both the laver is covered, and none of all these is left naked or unveiled. Finally there is added also a precept of this kind: "Do not," it says, "exterminate the people of Kohath from their tribe"—namely, that they might know themselves to be about to be exterminated, if perchance they should put their hands to moving these things, unless each of them had first been covered over by the priests.
Numbers 4:18-20 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 5.1
The Lord, giving answers to Moses and Aaron, says: "Do not destroy the people of Kohath from their tribe out of the midst of the sons of Levi; but do this to them, and they shall live and not die, when they draw near to the holy of holies," and the rest. First let us understand those things which are related according to the letter, and thus, with the Lord granting it, we shall ascend from the understanding of the letter to the understanding of the spirit. Understand, then, first the very arrangement of the tabernacle of testimony; understand also the holy of holies, which are set apart by a veil interposed from the holy places, which it is not permitted for any of men to look upon, except the priests alone. After this understand how, when it has come to the point that the sons of Israel move the camp, the tabernacle is taken down, and Aaron and his sons the priests within the holy of holies cover each single thing with its own coverings and veils, and, leaving these covered in the same place where they had been, they bring in the sons of Kohath, who are appointed to that duty, and cause them to lift upon their shoulders all those things which the priestly hand had covered. And on account of this it is said by the Lord: "Do not destroy the people of Kohath from their tribe," as though they would in this be destroyed if they had touched the holy of holies bare and open, which it was not lawful not only to touch, but not even to look upon when unveiled. If you have understood what the order of the history contains, ascend now to the splendor of the mystery, and behold the light of the spiritual law, if the eye of your mind is pure. If anyone among those who minister to God is worthy to grasp and to see the divine mysteries, for the beholding of which the rest are less capable, let this one be understood to be Aaron or the sons of Aaron, who is able to enter to those things which it is not lawful for others to approach. If, then, anyone is such, to him alone the ark of the covenant lies open, revealed; he sees the urn holding the manna; he considers and understands the mercy-seat. He beholds both cherubim, and the holy table, and the candlestick of light, and the altar of incense. This man considers and understands these things spiritually, that is, he who gives his labor to the word of God and to the mysteries of wisdom and is free for God alone in the holy places. Let him indeed know, to whom these things are revealed and entrusted to be examined spiritually, that it is not safe for him to open them and to disclose them to those to whom it is not permitted that they be disclosed; but he ought to cover each single thing and, once covered, to hand them over to the rest, the less capable, to be carried on their shoulders and to be laid upon their necks. For when the teachers, each of them learned and perfect from the mystical words, enjoin works upon the peoples, and the people indeed do and fulfill what is commanded, yet do not understand the reason of the things that are done—what else is being done except that the holy of holies, covered and veiled, are carried upon the shoulders? And that you may perceive still more clearly what is being said, we shall instruct you by examples drawn from the divine volumes. Moses without doubt understood what the true circumcision was; he understood what the true Passover was; he knew what the true new moons were and what the true sabbaths; and although he had understood all these things in the spirit, yet in his words he veiled them through the forms and foreshadowings of bodily things; and although he knew that the true Passover to be sacrificed was Christ, he commands a bodily sheep to be sacrificed at the Passover. And although he knew that the feast day ought to be kept in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, yet he gave precept concerning the unleavened bread of flour. These, then, and things of this kind were the holy of holies, which, when Moses handed them over to the rest to…
Numbers 4:19-20 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 4.3
Now therefore let us return to that tabernacle of the church of the living God, and let us see how these several things ought to be observed in the Church of God by the priests of Christ. If anyone is truly a priest, to whom the sacred vessels, that is, the secrets of the mysteries of wisdom, are committed, let him learn from these and observe how these things ought to be kept within the veil of conscience, and not easily brought forth to the public. Or if the matter demands to bring them forth also to the inferiors, that is, to the more unskilled, and to hand them over, let him not bring them forth naked, let him not show them open and utterly exposed; otherwise he commits homicide and exterminates the people. For everyone is exterminated who touches the secret and ineffable sacraments, not yet transferred by merits and knowledge into the order and grade of the priesthood. For to the sons of Aaron alone, namely to the priests, it is granted to see the very ark of the testament and the table and the candlestick, and whatever of those things which we have comprehended above, naked and unveiled. But let others see these things covered, or rather let them carry them veiled upon their shoulders. And the sons of Kohath indeed, since they themselves, although they are not priests, are nevertheless nearest to the priests, can carry these things upon their shoulders; but others place their burdens and their ministries not on their shoulders, but on wagons. For, to say something even about these by anticipating the reading, since the passage has prompted it: when wagons were offered by each of the several tribes, four of them the sons of Merari received, but two the sons of Gershon; while those who are better than these do not receive wagons. Consider, therefore, now, what kind of division is made in the offices of the divine ministry, and how the things that are holy are not thus imposed to be carried by dumb animals, but they ought to be men endowed with reason, and to carry upon their shoulders the vessels by which the holy of holies are ministered; but those things which are harder and heavier are imposed to be carried not so much by rational as by dumb animals. But even in these there is some difference. For those who attend to the harder and heavier ministries have more animals; for four wagons are given to the sons of Merari, but for the sons of Gershon, because they were near the sons of Kohath, two wagons only suffice; from which it is shown that for the harder works and, so to say, the coarser, there are more who serve as animals; but to those things which are procured by rational beings, few of those who seem less instructed or educated approach. For to those things which are mystical and stored away in secret and lie open only to the priests, not only does no animal man approach, but not even those very ones who seem to have some measure of practice and erudition, but have not yet ascended by merits and life to the priestly grace. Not only do they see these things through a mirror and in an enigma, but they also receive them covered and veiled and carry them upon their shoulders, that is, that they may know them more by the act of works than by the revelation of knowledge. Since therefore such is the dispensation of the mysteries of God and of the ministry which is held among the holy things, we ought to show ourselves such that we may be made worthy of the order of the priesthood, lest heavy burdens be imposed upon us as upon the irrational, but that we may be assigned to the priestly offices as rational and holy. For we are a royal race, a priesthood, and a people for acquisition, provided only that, equaling the grace we have received by the merits of life, we may be held worthy of the holy ministry, so that, when we have departed from this life, we may deserve to be taken up, as we said above, among the priests of God and those who minister to the ark of the testament, that is, in the secret and hidden mysteries, and wi…
Numbers 4:47 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 5.2
After this it is said concerning the Levites that they should work from the twenty-fifth year and upward, up to the fiftieth year. "Everyone," it says, "who goes forth to the work of works and to the works that are carried, of the tabernacle of testimony." Observe in these things the distinction of the words of divine Scripture. Where it speaks of the works of the sons of Israel, it does not say "works of works," but "works" alone; but where it speaks of the duties of the Levites, it did not say "works" alone, but "works of works." For just as there are certain holy things, but there are also other holy of holies, so there are certain works and other works of works. Whence it seems to me that Moses, when he perceived that there were certain works indeed visible, but in which there was present another inner, mystical, and hidden understanding, called these not only "works" but "works of works"; but those which he understood to be common and works of the present time alone, these he named "works" alone. There are, then, certain works of works, which I think to be all these things concerning which, whether in the present reading or in Exodus and other places, precept is given under hidden mysteries, and in part to be fulfilled in the present, but in part to be fulfilled in the future. Which works of works, however, as we have said, are commanded to be handed over not to just anyone, but to the Levites alone. And among the Levites themselves no one is called to these works before, but only from the twenty-fifth year of his life at last, up to the fiftieth. But not even the number itself of twenty-five and fifty years is without a mystery. For in the number twenty-five the perfection of the five senses is declared, in such a way that five times five are counted. Which indeed indicates that he is called to accomplish the works of works in mystery who is found to be perfect on every side, with his senses multiplied and purified. But that the fiftieth number holds the mystery of remission and indulgence we have often and abundantly shown in many places of the scriptures. For the fiftieth year is that which is called the jubilee among the Hebrews, in which remission is made both of possessions and of servitude and of debt; and the fiftieth day after the Passover is handed down as a festival in the law. But the Lord too in the Gospel, when he was teaching the parable of remission and indulgence, says that the debtors whom he brings in were liable, one for fifty and the other for five hundred denarii. Now fifty and five hundred are a kindred number; for fifty decades make five hundred. But from another side too this number is made sacred; for if to seven weeks the perfection of one number is added, they make fifty days. Similarly too, if to seventy weeks the completion of one decade is added, they make five hundred. And if it pleases to gather still more abundantly the mysteries of the number fifty and of five hundred, we have it also in this very book of Numbers which is in hand, where, concerning the spoils of the enemies, some indeed offer as gifts to God a fiftieth portion—those who did not go forth to war—but others a five-hundredth; and surely not in vain is the fiftieth and five-hundredth number held here too. But in Genesis also, where God was treating of the indulgence of the Sodomites, whether perhaps they might be able to attain to pardon, the patriarch Abraham, conscious of mysteries of this kind, begins from the number fifty to supplicate the Lord for the indulgence of the Sodomites, and says: "If fifty be found in the city, will you not save the city on account of the fifty?"
Numbers 4:47 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 5.3
But let us return to the matter proposed. The Levites, then, must work in the holy things up to fifty years—the lower ones indeed the works, but the better ones the works of works; and the higher of these must serve in spiritual duties and enter into the holy of holies, and there cover the things that must be covered, and hand them over to the sons of Kohath to be carried on their shoulders and conveyed by their hands. But the rest too, each one, are ordered according to those things which have already often been discussed above. But lest this excessive caution of coverings and veils beget a certain despair and sadness in the hearers, we shall attempt to open up some few things, which it may be both safe for us to disclose and lawful for you to look upon—since indeed, as we said before, we are called a royal race and priesthood, a holy nation and a people for possession. Let us understand, then, by the tabernacle of testimony all the saints who are reckoned under the covenant of God, and that in this tabernacle there are certain ones loftier in merits and higher in grace, and that some of these are indeed called the candlestick—perhaps the Apostles themselves, who enlighten those approaching God. But if there are also any others who in this tabernacle of God show the light of knowledge and doctrine to all who enter, let all these be named the mystical candlestick. Let others be the sacred table—whoever have the loaves of God and refresh and feed the souls that hunger for righteousness. Let others be the altar of incense—whoever are free for prayers and fastings day and night in the temple of God, praying not only for themselves, but also for the whole people. But those to whom God has entrusted the secret mysteries and to whom he has committed the secrets of the hidden judgments of his providence, let them be called the ark of the covenant of God. Furthermore, those who with all confidence, through the sacrifices of prayers and the victims of supplications, reconcile God to men and intervene for the sins of the people, let them be named the mercy-seat. But those who have merited a multitude of knowledge and abundant riches in the recognition of God can be understood as the cherubim; for "cherubim" in our language is interpreted as "multitude of knowledge." But all these, who are designated by these several things which have been enumerated above, must be carried, and carried upon shoulders. Whence perhaps, as I think, the angels who are appointed on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation are themselves those who carry each of those whom we have mentioned above. For when this tabernacle has been taken down and we have begun to enter to those holy places and to proceed to the place of promise, those who are truly holy and are held among the holy of holies advance, without doubt, with the angels bearing them up, and, until the tabernacle of God comes to rest, they are carried upon shoulders and lifted up in hands. Foreseeing which in the spirit, the prophet said: "For he has commanded his angels concerning you, that they lift you up in their hands, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." Which saying the devil indeed thought must be taken concerning the Savior, but, blinded by malice, he did not understand the mystical words; for my Savior did not need angels, that he might not dash his foot against a stone. The devil slanders the divine Scripture in having brought forth these words as said concerning the Savior; not concerning him, but concerning all the saints is this said, that God commanded his angels for his people, that they might not dash their foot against a stone. But all the things too that are written in this psalm suit any of the righteous rather than the Savior. For the Lord delivers from ruin and from the noonday demon—not the Savior (far be it from us so to understand it), but every righteous person. For it is the righteous who need the help of the angels of God, so that they may not be…
Numbers 5:19-21 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 110
And indeed in the Law we find the practice of adjuring used on several occasions. For in Numbers the Law says that "the priest shall adjure her" (that is, that woman in whose husband there has arisen "a spirit of jealousy"), "and shall say to the woman" (this is, the priest): "if no one has lain with you, and unless you have transgressed so as to be defiled by a man not your own, you shall be innocent of this cursed water of accusation". And after a few words: "and the priest", he says, "shall adjure the woman with the adjurations of this curse". Likewise in the third book of Kingdoms king Ahab says to Micaiah: "Yet twice more do I adjure you, that you speak to me the truth in the name of the Lord". Now the king adjured the prophet, and he adjured not as the priest in Numbers; for the latter did so from the precept of the Law, but the former of his own choice. And now in the present passage the priest adjures Jesus by the living God. But I judge that it is not fitting for a man who wishes to live according to the Gospel to adjure another.
Numbers 10:2-10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 52
But since we wish to understand what the great trumpet is, we ought to compare spiritual things with spiritual. Come now, let us also briefly expound about the trumpets, insofar as we are able to grasp it, to see whether we can, from the gathering together and the reminder of these examples, understand also the great trumpet of the angels. For it is written in Numbers: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Make yourself two silver trumpets; of beaten work you shall make them; and they shall serve you for gathering together the congregation and they shall serve you for setting the camps in motion. And you shall sound with them, and all the congregation shall be gathered together to you at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; but if they sound with one only, all the chiefs of the hosts of Israel shall come to you. And you shall sound the first signal, and the camps that lie toward the east shall set out; and you shall sound the second signal, and the camps that lie toward the south shall set out; and you shall sound the third signal, and the camps that lie toward the sea shall set out; and you shall sound the fourth signal, and the camps that lie toward the north shall take up their march; therefore they shall sound the trumpet at their setting out. And when you gather together the assembly, you shall sound, but not a signal. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sound with the trumpets. And it shall be to you a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations. But if you go out to war in your land against your adversaries, you shall sound with the trumpets. And you shall be remembered in the sight of your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. And in the days of your gladness and in your feasts and in your new moons you shall sound with the trumpets, both over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and there shall be a remembrance of you in the sight of your God. I am the Lord your God." See also in these words that at the first signal of the trumpet the camps set out that are toward the east, but at the second the camps set out that are toward the south, and — to put it briefly — from the four winds the priests sounding the trumpets gather together those who are of the camps of Israel; and, in correspondence with the priests sounding the trumpets, the angels of Christ with a great trumpet will gather together his elect from the four winds. But in Numbers these things are written as done on the earth, whereas in the Gospels they are done "from the height of the earth even to the height of heaven", and after these things from the heights of the heavens even to their heights. And perhaps, if "the law has a shadow of the good things to come", then in Numbers too what has been set down concerning the trumpets and the ranks of Israel is a shadow of things to come. Lest, then, perhaps the silver trumpets (since silver is in many places taken for the word) … the great voice of the word is understood as a silver trumpet gathering together each one "in his own order", according to the shadow indeed as Moses named it, but according to the mystery as Paul says in the first epistle to the Corinthians. And first, with the rational trumpets, they set the camps in motion. Thus the legislation is made concerning those matters which pertain to the war of Israel, since through that signal of the trumpets it calls to remembrance matters of war; which trumpets bring those who are called to remembrance through those signals of the trumpets in matters of war, to the saving of them from their enemies. But the sounds of the silver and beaten trumpets in the days of the gladness of Israel, which are taken up at their new moons, were shadows of the new moons to come, of which the Apostle says: "Let no one judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a feast day or of a new moon or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come". And they are taken up also over the burnt offerings and over the sacrifice…
Numbers 11:16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.3
So also the Lord says to Moses: "Choose for yourself presbyters, whom you yourself know to be presbyters." Let us look more diligently at the Lord's word — what that addition may mean, by which He says: "whom you yourself know to be presbyters." Surely he who bore the senile age of the body was not manifest to the eyes of all as being a presbyter, that is, an old man? Why then is this special inspection enjoined upon Moses alone, so great and so notable a prophet, that those be chosen not whom other men know, not whom the untrained crowd recognizes, but whom the prophet full of God shall have chosen? For the judgment concerning them is not about the body, not about age, but about the mind.
Numbers 11:24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 6.1
"And Moses went out," it says, "to the people, and spoke the words of the Lord." So long as Moses hears the words of God and is taught by Him, he is within, and abides in the inner places, and is kept among secrets; but when he speaks to the crowds and ministers to the people, who cannot stand within, he is said to go out abroad. What then does a saying of such a form contain? That every teacher and master of the Church, if he stirs up something concerning the deeper mysteries, if he brings forth something hidden and secret concerning the wisdom of God among the perfect—so long as he is occupied in profound meanings, he is to be said to be within and to abide in the inner places; but when he speaks to the crowds and brings forth those things which suffice for those who are outside, and which the common people can hear, he is said to have gone out abroad and to speak to the people the words of the Lord. This I see that Paul also did, and that he was indeed within when he said: "But we speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the princes of this world, who are being brought to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew." You see how Paul is within and penetrates the inner and secret things of divine wisdom, when he speaks these things. But when he proceeds to the people, hear what he says: "Let no evil speech proceed out of your mouth," and: "Let him who stole steal no more," and: "Let each man have his own wife," and: "Let each woman have her own husband." These things, and any of this kind, Paul, going out abroad to the people after the manner of Moses, speaks.
Numbers 11:25 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 6.2
But let us look also at another passage, in which it is related that Moses chose seventy men from among the elders of the people, and had them before the tabernacle of the testimony, and that God, taking of the spirit of Moses, gave to the seventy elders; and when the spirit had rested upon them, it says, they all prophesied. That it said He took of the spirit of Moses and gave the spirit to the seventy elders—do not so understand it as though God, taking away some material and bodily substance from Moses, cut it into seventy portions, and thus gave to each of the elders a tiny particle: it is impious so to understand the nature of the Holy Spirit. But observe the figure of this mystical saying in this way, as though Moses, and the spirit which was in Moses, were a lamp of a certain most bright light, from which God kindled seventy other lamps, to which the splendor of that principal light so came that the very source of the light received no loss from the exchange of derivation. And in this way it is piously understood, that which is written, that "the Lord took of the spirit of Moses and gave to the seventy elders."
Numbers 11:25 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 6.3
But let us see what it is that he says in what follows. "And the spirit rested upon them," it says, "and they all prophesied." We do not read that the spirit rests upon just any men, but upon the holy and the blessed. For the Spirit of God rests upon those who are clean of heart, and upon those who purify their souls from sin, just as, on the contrary, it does not dwell in a body subject to sins, even if it once dwelt in it; for the Holy Spirit cannot endure fellowship and association with an evil spirit. For it is certain that at the time of sin the evil spirit is present in the heart of each one and plays its part. And when a place is given to it and it is received by us through evil thoughts and wicked desires, the Holy Spirit, grieved and, so to speak, hemmed in, is put to flight from us. On account of which the Apostle also, knowing that these things so happen, warned, saying: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption." Therefore, by sinning we grieve the Holy Spirit, but by acting justly and holily we prepare rest for it within us. Hence, in that he now says of the seventy elders that the spirit rested upon them, he set forth the praise of their life and their virtues. In short, because on account of the purity of their heart and the sincerity of their mind and their capacity of understanding the Holy Spirit rested, it at once also works in them and does not endure idleness where worthy material for working is supplied; for the Scripture says: "and the spirit rested upon them, and they prophesied." In all, therefore, who prophesied, the Holy Spirit rested; yet it did not rest in any of them as it did in the Savior. On account of which it is also written of Him that: "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall arise from his root. And the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him." But perhaps someone will say: you have shown nothing more written concerning Christ than concerning the rest of men; for just as it was said of the others that the Spirit rested upon them, so also of the Savior it was said: "the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him." But observe that upon no other above is the Spirit of God described as having rested with this sevenfold power, whereby without doubt that very substance of the divine Spirit—which, because it could not be by one name, is set forth by diverse terms—is prophesied to rest upon the rod which should proceed from the stock of Jesse. I have also another testimony, by which I can teach that in my Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit rested in a certain exceptional manner and far otherwise than is related of the rest. For John the Baptist says of Him: "He who sent me to baptize in water, He said to me: Upon whomever you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, He it is." If he had said "the Spirit descending" and had not added "and remaining upon Him," He would seem to have nothing special beyond the rest. But now he added "and remaining upon Him," so that this might be for a sign in the Savior which could be shown in no other; for of no one is it written that the Holy Spirit remained upon him. And lest anyone think that in this I disparage the prophets, they themselves know that I do not disparage them by preferring my Lord Jesus Christ to them. For each recalls his own sayings, and they find that of no other was it said: "He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." For because He alone is the one who did no sin, therefore in Him alone the Holy Spirit remained and abode. For if He is the one of whom this singular and exceptional thing is said, which we said above, that He did no sin, it is established that all the rest were under sin. If all, then necessarily the prophets also. And how is it fitting that we should say the Holy Spirit remained in…
Numbers 12:1-15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 7.1
Just as the Apostle says: "all these things happened to them as figures, but they were written for our admonition," I ask what admonition we may receive from that which has been read to us, namely that Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses and on account of this were rebuked, and Miriam indeed was even made a leper. And so great was the concern of this rebuke that, while Miriam was completing the space of a week in leprosy, the people of God did not make their journey toward the land of promise, nor was the tabernacle of testimony moved. First of all, meanwhile, I am admonished, and usefully and necessarily admonished, from this deed, not to disparage my brother, not to speak evil of my neighbor, not to open my mouth to detract not only from the saints but even from any of my neighbors whatsoever, seeing how great was the indignation of God from this, how great a vengeance proceeded. Indeed, against this sin we see God likewise moved with similar indignation even in the Psalms, and saying: "sitting you spoke against your brother, and against the son of your mother you laid a stumbling-block." And likewise also in another Psalm, from the person of the just man, who knows that this displeases God most greatly, it is said: "him that secretly detracted against his neighbor I persecuted." From all these words, therefore, of divine Scripture, as though from certain swords sharpened on both sides, let us cut away the vice of disparaging our brothers and detracting from the saints: for leprosy follows those who detract and speak evil. But after these things let us pass over from the moral matters to the mystical understanding; although in the earlier treatise a few things have already been said, nevertheless we will add what seems to have been lacking. Let us see, then, who it is that detracts from Moses, who speaks evil of him. Not only the Jew, but also the heretics, who do not receive the law and the prophets, they too detract from Moses. Indeed, they are accustomed even to fasten a charge upon him, saying that Moses was a murderer, for he killed an Egyptian, and they contrive many other things with blasphemous mouth either against him or against the prophets. These men, therefore, because they detract from Moses, have leprosy in their soul and are lepers in the inner man, and for that reason are held to be outside the camp of the Church of God. Whether, then, it be heretics who detract from Moses, or those who are of the Church who disparage their brothers and speak evil of their neighbors, all who are driven by this vice — there is no room for doubt that they are lepers in their soul. And Miriam indeed, by the intervention of Aaron the high priest, is healed on the seventh day; but we, if by the vice of disparagement we fall into the leprosy of the soul, until the end of the week of the world, that is, until the time of the resurrection, will remain lepers in soul and unclean; unless, while there is time for repentance, we are corrected and, turned to the Lord Jesus and supplicating him through repentance, we are cleansed from the uncleanness of our leprosy. But I think that not only that former people, nor only the heretics whom we mentioned above, detract from Moses, but also everyone who understands his writings badly and who receives the spiritual law carnally detracts from Moses, because he teaches men carnally concerning the words of the Spirit. You have heard what judgment the disparagers and evil-speakers gain for themselves, and what condemnation; hear now also how great a benefit they confer upon those whom they disparage. Never do we find that God spoke such great praises about Moses his servant as we now see said, when he was detracted from by men.
Numbers 12:1 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
Aaron and Miriam murmur, because Moses has an Ethiopian woman for a wife. And now Moses takes an Ethiopian woman for a wife, since his law has passed over to this Ethiopian woman of ours. Let Aaron murmur — the priesthood of the Jews; let Miriam also murmur — their Synagogue: Moses cares nothing for the murmuring; he loves his Ethiopian woman, of whom it is also said elsewhere through the Prophet: From the ends of the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring offerings; and again: Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God before others. Beautifully, "before others." For just as, in the Gospel, that woman with the issue of blood anticipated the healing of the synagogue-ruler's daughter, so Ethiopia, while Israel was sick, was healed. By their offense, salvation came to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
Numbers 12:1-15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 6.4
But in what follows also the reading which was recited contains this, that Moses took the Ethiopian woman as his wife, and that Miriam and Aaron disparaged Moses, because he had taken the Ethiopian woman, and they say: "Has God spoken to Moses alone? Has He not also spoken to us?" "And the Lord heard," it says. And after these things He orders them to go out to the tabernacle of the testimony, and there, a certain judgment having been held, Miriam is made leprous until a fixed time, and thus is called back into the camp. That we may explain this more concisely, we say that Miriam had the figure of the former people, and that Moses, that is, the law of the Lord, passed over to marriage with this Ethiopian woman, who was gathered from among the nations. Her, therefore, Moses, that is, the spiritual law, took as wife; and on account of this deed Miriam, who is now the synagogue, is indignant and disparages together with Aaron, that is, with the priests and Pharisees. That people, therefore, disparages even to this day Moses, who is placed with us, and he seems base to them, because among us he does not teach the circumcision of the flesh, nor the observance of the sabbath, nor of the new moon, nor sacrifices of blood, but the circumcision of the heart, and rest from sinning, and feast days in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and sacrifices of praise, and admonishes that now not victims of cattle, but of vices, should be slain. God therefore judges concerning these things, and confirms the marriage of the Ethiopian woman, and indeed permits Moses gladly to dwell with her and to rest, but casts Miriam outside the camp and puts her far from the tabernacle of the testimony, with whom Aaron also is cast out. Moreover, Miriam is also made leprous. Look now upon that people and see how great in it is the leprosy of sin, how great the darkness of understanding, how great the foulness of observance, how great the baseness of aspect. Nevertheless this leprosy does not remain forever, but when the week of the world shall have begun to be completed, she shall be called back to the camp. For at the end of the world, when the fullness of the nations shall have entered in, then also all Israel shall be saved, and that is when the leprosy shall cease from the face of Miriam; for she shall receive the glory of faith, and shall receive the splendor of the knowledge of Christ, and her countenance shall be restored, when both shall become one flock and one shepherd. In which it must truly be said: "O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God"; who so shut up all under sin, that He might have mercy upon all, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 12:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
Moses, then, is found in Numbers to take a dark, or black, Ethiopian woman to wife, on whose account Miriam and Aaron disparage him, and, indignant, say: "Has the Lord spoken to Moses alone? Has he not spoken also to us?" … In which it seems to me too that, according to the mystery, they understood rather what was being done, and saw that Moses — that is, the spiritual law — was now passing over into the nuptials and wedlock of the Church gathered from the nations; and that Miriam, who held the form of the forsaken Synagogue, and Aaron, who held the image of the carnal priesthood, seeing that the kingdom was taken away from themselves, and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits, said: "Has God spoken to Moses alone? Has he not spoken also to us?"
Numbers 12:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
Finally, though such and so magnificent works of faith and patience of Moses are related, never was he exalted by God with such praises as now, when he took the Ethiopian woman to wife. Now it is said of him, that "Moses was a man exceedingly meek above all men who are upon the earth."
Numbers 12:5-10 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 7.2
Hear, then, in what follows, what the Holy Spirit relates and with what praises he extols Moses. "And the Lord came down," he says, "in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; and Aaron and Miriam were called, and both stood forth. And he said to them: hear my words; if there be a prophet of yours to the Lord, I will be known to him in visions and I will speak to him in dreams. Not so with my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house; mouth to mouth will I speak to him, in his form and not in a riddle, and he saw the glory of the Lord; and why were you not afraid to detract from my servant Moses?" And the wrath of the Lord's fury was made upon them, and they departed. And the cloud withdrew from the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam was made leprous as snow. You see what penalty the disparagers brought upon themselves, but what praise they sought out for him whom they had disparaged. For themselves they sought foulness, for him splendor; for themselves leprosy, for him glory; for themselves reproach, for him magnificence. Yet Moses, before he received the Ethiopian woman, it is not written that God spoke to him in his form and not in a riddle; but when he received the Ethiopian woman, then God says concerning him: "mouth to mouth will I speak to him, in his form and not in a riddle." For now, when Moses has come to us and has been joined to this our Ethiopian woman, the law of God is now recognized no longer in figures and in images as before, but in the very form of truth; and the things which before were signified in a riddle are now fulfilled in form and truth. And therefore he who expounded the forms of the figures and riddles says: "but we know that our fathers were all under the cloud, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock following them; and the rock was Christ." You see how Paul resolves the riddles of the law and teaches the forms of the riddles, and says that the rock was in a riddle with Moses, before it was joined to this our Ethiopian woman. Now in form the rock is Christ; for now God speaks mouth to mouth through the law. Before, the baptism in the cloud and in the sea was in a riddle, but now in form there is regeneration in water and the Holy Spirit. Then in a riddle the manna was food, but now in form the flesh of the Word of God is the true food, as he himself says: "my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink." Thus, therefore, now already Moses, placed among us and joined to this Ethiopian woman, whether he himself to us or God to him, speaks not in a riddle, but in form. And to this is added: "and he saw," he says, "the glory of the Lord." When did Moses see the glory of the Lord? I say, then, when the Lord was transformed on the mountain and Moses was present with him together with Elijah and they conversed with him. And therefore in what follows he rightly adds: "and why were you not afraid to detract from my servant Moses?" Which is evidently directed, at any rate, against those who seem indeed to receive the Gospels, but detract from Moses, and are deservedly reproved, because, when they learn through the Gospel that Moses together with Elijah saw the glory of the Lord, they have dared to detract from the law and the prophets. And therefore let us not detract from Moses nor disparage the law, but let us be not only hearers of the law, but also doers, that with Moses himself we may be counted worthy to be glorified together. But I think that they too furnish material for detracting from Moses who, for example, when the book of Leviticus or the reading of Numbers is read, do not show how these things, which are written in a riddle, ought to be understood through the form — that is, those who do not spiritually expound the things which are read in the law. For necessarily those who hear the rite of sacrifices or the observance…
Numbers 12:11-12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 7.3
"And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses: I pray, Lord, do not lay upon us the sin, since we did not know that we sinned. Let her not be made like death, and like a miscarriage cast out from the mother's womb, and it has consumed half of her flesh." He wishes in this to show that that people was indeed formed in the womb of its mother the synagogue, yet could not arrive at a perfect and whole birth. For just as a miscarriage is an imperfect and unformed birth, so also that people was for a certain time indeed placed within its mother's womb, that is, within the instruction of the synagogue; but, with sins intervening, it could not be formed to completeness and quickened, and therefore they were cast off like an imperfect and untimely miscarriage, sin, as he says, consuming half of its flesh. Yet there is sometimes even a good miscarriage. And it is called a good miscarriage when it is compared with others, just as Ecclesiastes too says: "and I said: a miscarriage is better than that one." Than which one? "He who," he says, "goes forward in vanity and walks in darkness." He does not then call a miscarriage good absolutely, but better than a life which is led in vanity and in the darkness of ignorance. And with him there is a certain comparison of individuals; for the same Ecclesiastes says also elsewhere that the dead are better than the living. And if again you compare a miscarriage with these, you would say it is better than both. If therefore you consider who are the living and who are the dead, than whom a miscarriage is better in that it has not even tasted the beginnings of the life of this world, you will find what the differences are in this comparison. Consider, then, that he there names as living none other than those of whom it is said in the Psalms: "yet truly every living man is vanity." Every man, therefore, who lives in vanity. For not every life is in vanity, but that life which is according to the flesh and according to the errors and pleasures of the world — this is the life of vanity, and above this is everyone who is dead to this life and who says: "but to me the world is crucified, and I to the world," and of whom it is said: "you are therefore dead with Christ." These, therefore, are better than those living. But above these a miscarriage is said to be, because, although it may seem to have come in the flesh, yet it has taken up no beginnings of the vanity of this life. Yet Ecclesiastes introduces also a certain other, as it seems, even better than this one, of whom he says: "and best above these is he who has not yet been born," that is, he who has not even come to the confinement of the fleshly womb and to the injury of a bodily nativity. But this very thing, too, which Ecclesiastes says: "I praised all the dead more than the living, those who live up to now," how does it not evidently show that he calls those better who are dead to the world, and pronounces those inferior who live to the world? For if you wish to understand it according to the letter, how are the dead to be praised more than the living? For one is usually praised in that which he does by good will and purpose. But this common death comes to no one by will nor by purpose. How, then, will anyone seem worthy of praise in that which he suffers against his purpose? Otherwise Pharaoh king of Egypt, who was submerged in the sea, will be praised above Moses, who escaped alive from the sea. And the Egyptians, who died in the waters, will be praised more than the people of God, who passed over on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Do not, then, understand it thus, but know that you are to be praised as dead when you can say: "I am crucified together with Christ. But now it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me." If you have renounced the world, if you have cast off vices, if you are now no longer moved to sin, but are dead to sin, you are better than he who lives to sin, and that death will b…
Numbers 12:13-15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 7.4
"And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: God, I pray you, heal her." And whom did it behoove to pray to the Lord for the healing of that people except Moses? Moses prays for them; and perhaps this was what he was conversing about with the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was transformed on the mountain, asking of him that, when the fullness of the Gentiles had entered in, then all Israel might be saved. "And the Lord said to Moses: if her father had spat in her face, would she not be ashamed for seven days? Let her be separated for seven days outside the camp, and after this she shall enter in." What is it, "if her father had spat in her face, she would be ashamed for seven days"? We placed Miriam in the place of the synagogue; upon her, her father spat in the face. It is a sign of repudiation to be spat upon in the face. Indeed, it is written in the law, where it is commanded that a neighbor should marry the widow left by his neighbor, that if the neighbor should wish to repudiate the marriage, he should, unshod, be spat upon in the face, and this was given as a sign of repudiation. Hence therefore Miriam, that is, that people, when she is repudiated by God, is said to be spat upon in the face. We have also in another place the signification of spittle, when Isaiah says: "all the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are reckoned as spittle." It is shown therefore in this that that people too, like the other nations which are reckoned as spittle, has been cast off. And truly, if you consider that former honor, when the pontifical order flourished among them, when there were the insignia of priests, when the Levitical ministries, when the majesty of the temple, when the prophetic splendor, and when they enjoyed fellowships with the heavenly ones upon the earth — what an honor that was, what glory! And again, if you now look at how they bristle with such great disgrace, without temple, without altar, without sacrifice, without prophet, without priesthood, without any heavenly visitation, scattered through all the earth and living as fugitives: who would not evidently recognize that their father spat in their face and drenched their countenance with ignominy? Seven days, therefore, she is separated outside the camp. We have already said in the earlier passages too that these seven days designate the week of this world; for in the week of days the substances of all the visible creation seem to have been brought forth; for then the things which were not came to be. But in the week of the whole world, by a certain dispensation secret and known to God alone, the things which were then brought forth are unfolded. Meanwhile in this week, in which Miriam is sequestered, the camp of the children of Israel is not moved, but they stand shut up in one place and there is no advance whatever for them, until Miriam is cleansed from her leprosy.
Numbers 12:16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 7.5
"And after this," he says, "the people set forward from Hazeroth, and encamped in the desert of Paran." Hazeroth is interpreted "houses of the perfect." The people therefore sets forward, after Miriam has been purged, from the houses of the perfect and comes into Paran, which is interpreted "a visible mouth." It seems to me that a visible mouth can be understood as this, that the Word was made flesh and the invisible was made visible, and that this is signified: that after the end and perfection of all the things which were to be done concerning that people had come, then it passes over and comes to him whom, being the Word made flesh, it had not before believed.
Numbers 13:1-2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 7.5
"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: send men, and let them view the land of the Canaanites, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession," and the rest, in which things are narrated about the explorers of the land, who, being sent, report that the land is indeed good and admirable, but that the sons of giants dwell in it, in whose sight the people of God seem as locusts. And several indeed despair of being able to be saved from the sons of giants; yet Joshua does not despair, but confirms the faith of the people together with Caleb, who is of the tribe of Judah, and they say: if God loves us, let him bring us into this land. What then is this land according to the spiritual understanding, which land is indeed holy and a good land, but is inhabited by the impious? Who then are these enemies who dwell in the land of the saints? And how are they to be cast out, so that, they being cast out, the saints may succeed into their place? Let us return to the Gospels, let us return to the Apostle. The Gospels promise the kingdoms of heaven to the saints. The Apostle says: "but our citizenship is in the heavens"; in the heavens, therefore, is the place of the inheritance which is promised to the saints. And do we think that in these places which are promised to you there is now no inhabitant whom you ought to drive out from there by fighting? And how then does the Lord say that "from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it"? For unless there were those to whom violence should be done, unless there were those who ought to be driven out and thrust from there, it would never be said that the kingdom of heaven is to be seized by violence. And unless there were those with whom there was for us a contest and a battle, the Apostle would never say: "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of these darknesses, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Concerning whom that saying of God through the prophet also seems to be understood, where he says: "and my sword is made drunk in heaven." It is necessary, therefore, that the spiritual forces of wickedness, which are said to be in the heavenly places, who are the true Canaanites, be conquered by you and expelled from the heavenly places, so that you may dwell there in their stead. Yet know that they are giants. Everyone who resists against God is called a giant. Whoever therefore opposes God and is contrary to the truth, which they principally do, is deservedly called a giant. To you therefore it is granted that you may cast out the giants and enter into their kingdom. Or is it not written concerning a certain one of them: "who shall take spoils from a giant?" Concerning whom the Lord also said in the Gospel: "no one can enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his vessels, unless he first bind the strong man." Now therefore, as regards the comparison of human and demonic nature, we are locusts and they giants — and especially, if our faith be doubtful and if unbelief terrify us, they will truly be giants and we locusts. But if we follow Joshua and believe his words and are filled with his faith, they will be as nothing in our sight. For hear how he exhorts us and says: if God loves us, let him bring us into this land, since it is good and its fruit wonderful. Therefore the type and figure which went before in the fathers is fulfilled in us. They cast out the nations and obtained their inheritance; for they obtained all the land of Judaea and the city of Jerusalem and Mount Zion. These things were fulfilled in them, but to you what is said? "You have not," he says, "come to the things which are visible, but to the invisible. For you have come," he says, "to the mount of the living God and to the heavenly city Jerusalem and to the multitude of angels." But elsewhere too the same Apostle says: "but the Jerusalem which is ab…
Numbers 13:33 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 7.6
But if you wish to hear how Paul, who is not only the teacher of the Gentiles but also the master of this warfare, fought first, hear what he himself writes concerning himself, as we have also mentioned above. "Our wrestling," he says, "is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." For this reason he also fits out with spiritual arms and invisible weapons those who are about to fight this spiritual and invisible battle, and says: "put on the breastplate of charity and the helmet of salvation, and take up the shield of faith, in which you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one." "But take up also," he says, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." When therefore you have armed yourself with such weapons, following Joshua as your leader, do not fear those giants; for you will see how Joshua will subject them to you; and just as the fathers trod upon the necks of the nations, so you too will tread upon the necks of the demons. For he himself says to those who follow him faithfully: "behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy." For Jesus always wishes to do wonderful things, wishes to conquer giants by locusts, and from those things which are on the earth, to overcome the heavenly wickednesses. And perhaps this was what he said in the Gospels, that he who believes in him will not only do those things which he himself did, but "will do even greater things," he says, "than these." For truly it seems to me greater if a man, placed in the flesh, frail and perishable, armed only with the faith of Christ and his word, should overcome giants, the legions of demons. Although it is he himself who conquers in us, yet he says that it is more that he conquers through us than that he conquers through himself. Only let us be always armed with these weapons and let our citizenship be always in the heavens. Let every motion of ours, every act, every thought, every word be heavenly. For the more ardently we ascend thither, the more headlong they will descend from thence; and the more we are increased, the lower they will become. Our life, if it be holy, if it be according to God, will bring death to them; if it be sluggish and dissolute, it will make them powerful against us and giants. The more therefore we grow in virtues, the more inferior and frail they become, just as, on the contrary, if we are weakened and seek earthly things, they become stronger. And the more we are spread abroad on the earth, the more ample spaces we concede to them in the heavenly places. Wherefore let us rather do this, that as we increase they may be diminished, as we enter in they may be driven out, as we ascend they may fall; just as he fell of whom the Lord says in the Gospel: "behold, I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven," so that, they being cast out from thence, the Lord Jesus may bring us in thither and grant us to receive his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory unto the eternal ages of ages! Amen!
Numbers 14:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 8.1
Twelve observers were sent from the sons of Israel to examine the land which had been promised to them, and these, returning after forty days, reported diverse things. For ten of them cast the people into despair, so that they wished to reject Moses, choose another leader, and return to Egypt. But the other two brought good tidings and exhorted the people to remain in faith, saying: "If the Lord loves us, let him bring us into this land." But the people, driven headlong by the despair of unbelief, rushed forward to stone those who brought good tidings; the majesty of the Lord, however, protected them in the clouds. And the Lord says to Moses: "I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and the house of your father into a great nation, more numerous than this one." This great threat, then, comes from the Lord, not that the divine nature should be shown as passible and subject to the vice of anger, but that through these things both the love which Moses had toward the people, and the goodness of God, which is above all understanding, might be made known. For God is written to be angry and to threaten destruction upon the people, so that man may be taught how great a place he holds with God and how great a confidence, so that, even if there be some indignation in God, it is softened by human entreaties, and man is able to obtain so much from him that God even changes his own decrees. For the goodness which follows upon the anger both shows the confidence Moses had with God and teaches that the divine nature is a stranger to the vice of anger. At the same time the utterance contains a mystery to be fulfilled in the ages to come, through which God promises that, when this people is rejected, he will raise up another people. For he says: "I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and the house of your father into a great nation, far more than this one." This threat, therefore, is not anger but prophecy. For another nation was to be taken up, that is, this people of the nations, but not through Moses; for Moses excused himself. For he knew that that great nation which is promised was not to be called through Moses, but through Jesus Christ, and that the people was to be named not Mosaic but Christian.
Numbers 14:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.123
We must also consider the words "as I live, says the Lord." Perhaps living in the proper sense, especially on the basis of what has been said about living, occurs with God alone. And see if the apostle … considered the superiority of the life of God to be beyond comparison and understood the words "as I live says the Lord" in a manner worthy of God. Can [he] for this reason have said of God, "Who alone has immortality," because none of the living beings with God has the life which is absolutely unchangeable and immutable? And why are we uncertain about the remaining beings, when not even the Christ had the Father's immortality? For he tasted death for all.
Numbers 14:31 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 8.1
For this reason, therefore, Moses entreats the more on behalf of that people. But the Lord dispenses the measure of correction with balanced moderation and says that the men, indeed, who went out of Egypt and tempted me and remained unbelieving, shall fall in this desert and shall not see, he says, the land which I swore to their fathers; "but their sons, who are here with me, whosoever know not good or evil." Perhaps there may be something even of a more hidden mystery in the words of the Lord when he says: "their sons, who are here with me." Where "here," or how "with me"? Let him who has ears to hear, hear. We, meanwhile, say that our fathers were that former people, but we are their sons. They, therefore, because they sinned, were rejected and fell; but we, their sons, have risen up and been raised erect in their place, we who knew not good or evil. For we are of the nations, we who knew neither the good things that come from God nor the evils that are begotten from sin — provided, however, that, succeeding into the place of those who were rejected, we fear the example of so great a fall, hearing the admonition of Paul who says: "Behold then the severity and the goodness of God: toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you remain in that goodness — otherwise you too shall be cut off. And they, if they do not remain in unbelief, shall be grafted in."
Numbers 14:33-34 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 8.1
After these things the Lord adds and says: "But your sons shall be dwellers in the desert for forty years." And he declares what mystery this number holds, saying: "According to the number of the days," he says, "in which you examined the land, forty days, a day for a year, you shall receive your sins for forty years." I am afraid to examine the secrets of this mystery; for I see that in this the reckoning of sins and of punishments is comprehended. For if to each sinner a year is assigned for punishment for a single day's sin, and according to the number of the days in which one sins the same number of years must be spent in torments, I fear that perhaps for us, who sin daily and perhaps pass no day of our life without sin, not even the ages themselves, or even the ages of ages, may suffice for paying the penalties. For in the fact that that people is tormented for forty years in the desert for the transgression of forty days, and is not permitted to enter the holy land, a certain likeness of the future judgment seems to be shown, where the reckoning of sins is to be examined — unless perhaps there will be also some compensation from good works, or even from the evils which each one receives in his own life, as Abraham taught concerning Lazarus. But these things it belongs to none to know fully save to him to whom the Father has handed over all judgment. But that a day of sin is reckoned as a year of punishment is shown not only in this book, in which there is nothing at all that can be doubted, but also in the little book of the Shepherd, if indeed that writing seems to anyone worthy to be received, similar things are indicated. But perhaps someone may deny that it befits the goodness of God to repay a year of punishments for a single day's sin; nay rather he will say that, even if he repays a day for a day, though just, yet he does not seem to be clement or kindly. Hear, then, in answer to these things, if perchance we may be able to explain the difficulty of the matter by clearer examples. If a wound is inflicted on the body, or a bone is broken, or the joining of the sinews is dissolved, such wounds are wont to befall bodies within the space of a single hour, and afterward, with very many torments and pains endured, are scarcely healed over a long time; for how great swellings arise in the place, how great torments are generated? But now, if it should happen that in the same wound or in the same fracture one is wounded again and more often and is broken more frequently, with how great penalties can this be cured and with how great torments be medicined? And over how long a time, if indeed it can be, is it brought to health? And scarcely at some point will it be so cured that it escapes either weakness of the body or ugliness of the scar. Pass now from the example of the body to the wounds of the soul. As often as the soul sins, so often is it wounded. And lest you doubt that it is wounded by sins as by darts and swords, hear the Apostle admonishing us to take up the shield of faith, in which, he says, "you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one." You see, then, that sins are the darts of the evil one, which are aimed at the soul. But the soul suffers not only the wounds of darts, but also the fractures of the feet, when snares are prepared for its feet and its steps are tripped up. These, therefore, and such-like wounds, over how long a time do you think they can be healed? O if we could see, through each single sin, how our inner man is wounded, how an evil word inflicts a wound! Have you not read, they say, that swords wound, but not as the tongue does? The soul, therefore, is wounded also through the tongue; it is wounded also through evil thoughts and lusts; and it is broken and crushed through the works of sin. And if we could see all these things and feel the scars of the wounded soul, it is certain that we would resist against sin unto death. But now, just as those who are either filled with…
Numbers 16:5 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.6
We say therefore with confidence that according to the Scriptures God does not know all. God does not know sin, and God does not know sinners; those estranged from himself he does not recognize. Hear the Scripture saying: "The Lord has known those who are his, and: let everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." The Lord knows his own, but the wicked and the impious he does not know. Hear the Savior saying: "Depart from me all you workers of iniquity, I have not known you." And again Paul says: "If anyone among you is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write are the Lord's. But he who is ignorant, is ignored." But we say these things not perceiving anything blasphemous about God, as you do, nor ascribing ignorance to him, but we understand it thus, that those whose deed is unworthy of God are also deemed unworthy of the knowledge of God. For God does not deign to know him who is turned away from him and is ignorant of him.
Numbers 16:39-40 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.1
With God, as we are given to understand, nothing is useless, nothing idle; but even those things which seem fit to be alienated and cast away by men are found to have some necessary function. This understanding is suggested to us by the present reading, which makes mention of the censers of Korah and of the rest who sinned along with him — that God commands that not even these be thrown away, but that from them beaten plates be made, and that the altar be encircled with them. Scripture therefore relates that, by the command of God, "Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest took," it says, "the bronze censers, which those who were burned up had offered, and they made of them plates, and set them upon the altar, for a memorial to the children of Israel, that no stranger who is not of the seed of Aaron should draw near to lay incense before the Lord, lest it should happen as with Korah and his conspiracy, as the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses." Plainly in a certain place the Lord says through the prophet: "My counsels are not as your counsels, nor my thoughts as your thoughts." If this case were being judged today among men, and an examination held among the leaders of the churches concerning those men who, teaching things at variance with the churches, endured the vengeance of divine retribution, would it not be judged that whatever they had spoken, whatever they had taught, whatever also they had left in writing, should all alike perish together with their very ashes? But the judgments of God are not as our judgments. For hear how, concerning the censers of those who had risen up against the prophet of God, plates are commanded to be made and to be fastened around the altar. Korah holds the figure of those who rise up against the faith of the Church and the doctrine of the truth. It is written, then, of Korah and of his company that they offered incense of strange fire in bronze censers. The strange fire indeed is commanded by God to be scattered and poured out, but "the censers," it says, "because they are sanctified, make of them beaten plates, and encircle the altar with them, because they were offered before the Lord and are sanctified." This therefore seems to me to be shown through this figure: that those censers, which Scripture names as bronze, hold the figure of the divine Scripture. To this Scripture heretics, laying strange fire upon it — that is, introducing a meaning and understanding foreign to God and contrary to the truth — offer to the Lord an incense not sweet but abominable. And therefore a pattern is given to the priests of the churches, that, if ever any such thing should arise, those things indeed which are foreign to the truth should be utterly thrust away from the Church of God; but if any things be found inserted even in the very words of the heretics from the senses of the divine Scripture, these should not be rejected together with those things that are contrary to the truth and the faith; for the things that are brought forth from the divine Scripture are sanctified, and offered to the Lord. But it can also be understood in yet another way, that it is commanded concerning the censers of the sinners that they be joined and associated with the altar. And first this very point, that they are called bronze, will seem not idle. For where there is true faith and the whole preaching of the word of God, they are called either silver or golden, so that the gleam of gold may declare the purity of the faith, and the silver tried by fire may signify words that have been tested. But these, which are called bronze, consist only in the sound of the voice, not in the power of the spirit, and they are, as the Apostle says, like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. These bronze censers, then — that is, the utterances of the heretics — if we apply them to the altar of God, where there is the divine fire, where there is the true preaching of the faith, the truth itself will shine the better by comparison with what is f…
Numbers 16:41-43 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.2
After these things it is related: "and the children of Israel murmured," it says, "against Moses and Aaron, saying: you have killed the people of the Lord. And it came to pass, when the congregation rushed upon Moses and Aaron, they fled in the assault to the tabernacle of testimony; and a cloud covered it, and the majesty of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron went in before the face of the tabernacle of testimony." We do not read before that a cloud covered the tabernacle and the majesty of the Lord appeared and received Moses and Aaron within the cloud, except now, when the people rose up against them and wished to stone them. Let us learn from this how great is the profit in persecutions for Christians, how much of grace is conferred, how God becomes their defender, how abundantly the Holy Spirit is poured out. For then most of all the grace of the Lord is present, when the savagery of men is stirred up; and then we have peace with God, when for the sake of righteousness we endure wars from men. For where sin abounded, grace did more abound. The cloud of the tabernacle therefore covered them, and the congregation rushed upon Moses and Aaron, and the glory of the Lord appeared. However great Moses and Aaron may be by the merit of their life, however mightily they may prevail in the virtues of the soul, yet the glory of God could not have appeared to them, except when they were now set in persecutions, in tribulations, in perils, and in death itself almost at hand. And do you therefore not think that the glory of the Lord can appear to you while you sleep and are idle. Or did not Paul the Apostle also merit to obtain the glory of God in these things? Does he not, above all the rest, enumerate that he had been in tribulations, in necessities, in prisons, thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, that he had suffered shipwreck thrice, perils of the sea, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from false brethren? And the more these things abound, by so much the more do they confer the glory of God upon those who have borne them patiently.
Numbers 16:44-45 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.3
And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: "Depart from the midst of this congregation, and I will destroy them at once." And they fell upon their face. In Sodom, indeed, at the very least, ten were required, through whom those who dwelt in the Pentapolis of the Sodomites could scarcely, if perhaps, be saved; but now even two, if however such be found as Moses was and Aaron, are able to suffice for the whole nation of the Israelites to be saved. What then shall we say is more in these two? What so great a virtue, what merit, whereby six hundred thousand and more are delivered from the destruction of the ravager? I think that in Moses the Law is signified, which teaches men the knowledge and the love of God, and that in Aaron consists the form of supplicating God and of beseeching him. If therefore it should happen at some time that God is angry with us or with the whole people, and if now the sentence of vengeance goes forth from the Lord, but the Law of God returns into our heart, admonishing us and teaching us to turn to repentance, to make satisfaction for our offenses, to supplicate for our faults—the anger will cease at once, the indignation will subside, the Lord will be appeased, as though Moses and Aaron were interceding for us and supplicating for the whole people. But if at some time the indignation of God arises and a fierce correction comes for our sins, and yet our hearts are hardened, so that we do not turn to the Lord nor humble ourselves in his sight, so as by the confession of supplications to soften his emotion and his anger, but on the contrary we say: God has no care for the life of mortals, nor do these things pertain to God, he has long since forsaken us, nor do such matters come to his knowledge—if we think such things in our hearts and these proceed from our mouth, it is certain that Moses and Aaron are not in us, namely the knowledge of the Law and the fruits of repentance, through whom we might be able to escape the destruction of the impending doom. This, I think, happened also to that people who lived before us, when "they all turned aside, together they became unprofitable, and there was none who did goodness, there was not even one." For if there had been, God would never at all have forsaken them. But let us too fear, lest perchance something similar be found in us; for I fear that sentence in which our Lord and Savior, who foreknows all things, as though in doubt says: "Do you think that the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith upon the earth?" Moses and Aaron therefore are commanded to go out from the midst of the congregation, that the congregation may be destroyed at once. But let us see what these men do; they are holy, they are perfect, and more, disciples of the Gospel rather than of the Law, and therefore they love even their enemies and pray for their persecutors. For when those men came to slay them, these fell upon their face to the ground.
Numbers 16:46 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.4
And Moses said to Aaron: "Take the censer, and put fire upon it from the altar, and cast incense upon it, and carry it swiftly into the camp, and make entreaty for them; for wrath has gone forth from the presence of the Lord, and it has already begun to lay waste the people." But since we have come to these passages, I wish to admonish the disciples of Christ concerning the goodness of God, lest perhaps any of you be troubled by the heretics, if ever a controversy should arise, when they say that the God of the law is not good, but just, and that the law of Moses does not contain goodness, but justice. Let those, therefore, who alike accuse both God and the law, see how Moses himself and Aaron did earlier that which the gospel afterward taught. Behold, Moses loves his enemies and prays for his persecutors, which indeed Christ teaches to be done in the gospels. For hear how, falling on their faces upon the ground, they pray for those who had risen up to slay them. So, then, the power of the gospel is found also in the law, and the gospels are understood to rest upon the foundation of the law; nor do I call the old testament the law, if I understand it spiritually. Only to those does the law become an old testament who wish to understand it carnally; and of necessity it has become old for them and has grown aged, because it cannot retain its own strength. But for us, who understand and expound it spiritually and in the gospel sense, it is always new; and both are for us a new testament, not by the age of time, but by the newness of understanding. Or does not the Apostle John also feel the same in his epistle, when he says: "Little children, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another," though he surely knew that the commandment of love had been given long ago in the law? But since charity never falls, nor does the commandment of charity ever grow old, that which never grows old he declares to be always new; for it always renders those who observe and keep the commandment of charity new in the spirit; but for the sinner, and for him who does not keep the covenants of charity, even the gospels grow old. Nor can the testament be new for him who does not put off the old man and put on the new, who is created according to God. Moses therefore exhorts the great high priest to offer incense in the camp and to make entreaty for the people; for the people, he says, have already begun to be laid waste. In the spirit Moses saw the things that were being done. He saw the power go forth to the camp and lay waste and destroy the sinners; and because of this he exhorts the high priest to take the censer, to put fire from the altar upon it, and, with the incense cast on top, to go out and to stand between the midst of the dead and the living, that the devastation may not proceed further — or rather, as the word of Scripture more truly has it, the breaking.
Numbers 16:47-48 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.5
But first, if it seems good, let us sketch a picture of the historical event itself, so that, once the appearance of the thing done has become clear, then at last we may also inquire whether there is anything mystical in the passage. Understand, then, that people Israel arranged in the camp by the ranks of their tribes and families, and understand that a certain power sent from God began to lay waste the people with death, not scattered here and there, but beginning from some first portion, and consider the slaughter of death advancing in order; and after this the high priest, clothed in his priestly garment, coming forward and carrying a censer and reaching out with fire and incense toward that place to which death, brought by the destroying angel, had arrived, and standing in that place in which death had made an end of the first and was near to the last. Behold the high priest standing and, by the interposition of himself, as it were, separating the living from the dead; behold that the destroying angel was put to shame by the power of his propitiation and by the mystery of the incense, and that in this death was indeed brought to an end and life restored. If you have understood the order of the history and have been able, so to speak, to behold with your eyes the high priest standing in the midst between the living and the dead: ascend now to the loftier summits of this word, and see how the true high priest, Jesus Christ, having taken up the censer of human flesh and set upon it the fire of the altar—that is, without doubt, that magnificent soul with which he was born in the flesh—and having added also the incense, which is the immaculate spirit, stood in the midst between the living and the dead and did not allow death to rage any longer, but, as the Apostle says, "destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil," so that whoever believes in him should no longer die, but should live forever. This, then, was the mystery which, though yet to come, that one who was laying waste the people already dreaded even then. For he recognized the figure of the censer and the fire and the incense; and he foresaw what sort of victim was to be offered to God by him who had stood in the midst between the dead and the living. And them indeed the prefigured image saved at that time, but to us the very truth of salvation has come. For that destroying angel would not have been put to shame by garments of the high priest woven of purple and wool and fine linen, but he understood those garments of the great high priest which were to come, and he yielded to those things to which assuredly the whole creation was inferior. But I think that this form was fulfilled not only at the first coming of our Lord and Savior, but perhaps the same will also be preserved at the second. For the Son of Man will come again, and, when he comes, he will without doubt find some indeed dead, but some living. This we can understand in this way, that some are still found in this state of life in which we now are, while many have already gone before in death. But it can also be taken otherwise, so that we understand the dead to be bodies, and the living souls. Yet some of those who before us have interpreted this passage—I remember that they called dead those who by the excess of their crimes are understood to be dead in their sins, but living those who have persevered in the works of life. But in whichever way, this great high priest and our Savior will stand also in the future in the midst between the living and the dead. But then too he is perhaps to be said to stand in the midst between the living and the dead, when he will set the sheep indeed at his right hand, but the goats at his left, and will say to those who are at his right: "Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world," and the rest; but to those who are at his left he will say: "Depart into the eternal fire, you workers of iniqui…
Numbers 16:47-48 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.6
"And the plague ceased," it says, or, as we said is read in other copies, "the breaking," which also better fits the true interpretation; for a "breaking" is what happens, as it were, in vessels of clay. Sinners, then, become vessels of clay, as the prophet Jeremiah indicates in the Lamentations, saying: "The sons of Zion, who were honorable and lifted up in gold, how are they counted as vessels of clay, the works of the potter's hands?" And: "In a great house," says the Apostle, "there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, and some indeed unto honor, but others unto dishonor." There are, then, vessels of clay unto dishonor, which also can be broken. But let us consider more carefully what the Apostle says in what follows concerning these very vessels of clay: "If anyone," he says, "shall have cleansed himself from these, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work." In which he seems to show that both the vessel itself, which is made, and the one by whom it is made, is one and the same man. Understand, therefore, that the purpose of the man is what he works, but the remaining part of the man is the vessel itself, which is made either unto honor or unto dishonor. When, therefore, our sense chooses the things that are good and draws us to a good manner of life, it makes us a useful vessel. But when our purpose has grown neglectful and has fallen away from good things, we are made a vessel unto dishonor. If, therefore, our understanding is of clay and always thinks of clay and of earthly things, we are made a vessel of clay and the work of the potter's hands. And perhaps for this reason such a man is rebuked by the Apostle, as one who, having a sense of clay and earthly, inquires about great things and about those which he cannot grasp, and says: "Why then does he still complain? For who resists his will?" To whom the Apostle, as to one of clay, replies: "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why hast thou made me thus?" Moreover, either our body is called a vessel of clay, or also the letter of the law, in that place where the Apostle says: "But having this treasure in vessels of clay"; for both may be taken in this saying: both that the Lord bestows on us, placed in a body, the treasure of grace through the Holy Spirit, and that in the words of the law, which are held cheap and in contempt because they seem polished by no grammatical art, there is stored up the treasure of the wisdom and knowledge of God, so that it may deservedly be said that in them are hidden the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Let these things have been said by us concerning the breaking, which is recorded to have ceased; but now let us also discuss a few things concerning the following narrative, in which the mention of the rods is introduced.
Numbers 17:1-5 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.7
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and take from them a rod according to the houses of their families from all their princes, twelve rods; and write the name of each of them upon his own rod. And the name of Aaron write upon the rod of Levi; for there is one rod for the tribe: according to the houses of their families they shall give them to you. And you shall place them in the tabernacle of testimony over against the ark, from which I shall be made known to you there. And it shall be that the man whom I shall choose, his rod shall sprout: and I shall take away from you the murmuring of the sons of Israel, in whatever things they murmur against you. Every prince of a tribe and of a people has a rod; for one cannot rule a people unless he has a rod. Whence also Paul the Apostle, because he was a prince of the people, therefore said: "What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and the spirit of meekness?" All the princes of the tribes, then, must needs have their rods, but there is one alone, as the Scripture relates, the high priest Aaron, whose rod sprouted. But since, as we have often shown, the true high priest is Christ, he alone is the one whose rod of the cross not only sprouted, but also flowered and brought forth all these fruits of the believing peoples. And what is this fruit which it brought forth? "Nuts," it says — a fruit which in its first covering is bitter, in the next is guarded and covered over, and in the third feeds and nourishes the one who takes it. Such, therefore, in the audience-hall of Christ, is the teaching of the law and the prophets: the first face of the letter is bitter enough, which enjoins the circumcision of the flesh, which commands concerning sacrifices and the rest of the things that are designated by the letter that kills. All these things cast away like the bitter husk of the nut. In the second place you will come to the defenses of the shell, in which either moral teaching or the principle of continence is designated. These indeed are necessary for the guarding of those things which are kept within, yet they must at some point be broken and without doubt dissolved. As if, for example, we should say: abstinence from foods and the chastisement of the body, so long as we are in this corruptible and passible body, is without doubt necessary; but when it has been broken and dissolved and, at the time of the resurrection, the incorruptible has been rendered out of the corruptible and the spiritual out of the animal, no longer by the labor of affliction nor by the chastisement of abstinence, but by its own quality, no corruption will any longer have dominion over the body. So, therefore, even now the principle of abstinence seems necessary, and afterwards not to be sought. And in the third place you will find hidden in these things the secret sense of the mysteries of the wisdom and knowledge of God, by which the souls of the saints are nourished and fed not only in the present life, but also in that to come. For this is the priestly fruit, which is promised to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, because they shall be filled. In this manner, therefore, in all the Scriptures the principle of this threefold sacrament runs its course. So also Wisdom admonishes that we should describe them for ourselves in our heart in a threefold way, "to answer," it says, "the word of truth to those who propose it to us." So Isaac the patriarch dug three wells, of which that third one alone is named by him "breadth" or "amplitude." But because the priestly sacrament is a rod of the nut, therefore I think that Jeremiah also, who was one of the priests from Anathoth, saw a nut rod and prophesied concerning it those things which are written either concerning the nut rod or concerning the caldron or pot set on fire, as if he showed by these that in the nut rod there is life and in the caldron set on fire there is death; for life and death are set before ou…
Numbers 17:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.9
But let us return to the things which we had begun to say about the rods. We can still further understand thus the differences of those things which had budded on the rod. Everyone who believes in Christ first dies and after this is born again; and this too is a figure, that the dry rod afterward buds. The first bud, therefore, is a man's first confession in Christ. Secondly it puts forth leaves, when, born again, he has received the gift of grace from the sanctification of the Spirit of God. Then it brings forth flowers, when he has begun to make progress and to be adorned with sweetness of character and to pour out the fragrance of mercy and kindness. At the last also it even brings forth the fruits of righteousness, by which he not only himself may live, but may also afford life to others. For when he has come to perfection and has put forth from himself the word of faith, the word of the knowledge of God, and has won others, this is to have brought forth fruits by which others are nourished. So therefore each one of the believers buds from the rod of Aaron, who is Christ; and these four differences of theirs are in other places of Scripture designated as it were four ages, which John the Apostle in his epistle comprehends with a mystical distinction: for he says: "I have written to you, children," and: "I have written to you, adolescents," and: "I have written to you, young men," and: "I have written to you, fathers." In which he assuredly sets forth not bodily ages, but the differences of the soul's advances, as we have observed to be designated also in this budding of the priestly rod. All these things therefore are contained not so much in the rod of Aaron as in that rod which came forth from the root of Jesse, and the flower ascended from its root, upon which the Spirit of God rests. In which this very thing too does not seem idle, that the rod is said to come forth and the flower to ascend. For although Christ is one in substance, yet to individuals he is made diverse, according as the one in whom he works has need. He therefore who is more sluggish and more negligent, for his discipline Christ becomes for him a rod, and in the rod he is said not to ascend, but to come forth. For he who is idle and sluggish must go forth from that state in which he does not rightly stand, and must pass over to another state, being driven as it were by a rod, that is, being admonished by the severity of a more rigorous teaching; but he who is righteous—because the righteous flourishes like a palm—in him Christ is said to ascend. So therefore for him who has need of stripes, the rod goes forth to him; but for him who advances toward righteousness, it ascends for him into a flower. And it ascends, until it brings forth the fruits of the spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, and the remaining virtues, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 17:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 9.8
Therefore the passage of Scripture of which we now speak runs thus: "And it shall be," it says, "that the man, whomsoever I shall choose, his rod shall bud." This alone is what God promised: that the rod of the one whom he should choose would bud. But when it comes to the point, so that what was promised may be shown to be fulfilled, it is not said that only that one thing which had been promised was accomplished, but see how much is added. For it says: "And behold, the rod of Aaron budded in the house of Levi." This is without doubt that one thing which had been promised, but other things too are added, and it is said: "and it produced leaves and put forth flowers and budded nuts." Therefore, although the promise had been of budding alone, see how much God bestows: that he produced not only a bud, but also leaves, and not only leaves, but also flowers, and not only flowers, but also fruits. What then is it that we ought to gather and contemplate from these things? First of all, the mystery of the resurrection from the dead; for the dry rod buds, when the extinguished body has begun to come to life again. But what are those four things which will be granted to the rising body? That what is sown in corruption may rise in incorruption, and what is sown in weakness may rise in power, and what is sown in dishonor may rise in glory, and the body sown a natural body may rise a spiritual body. These are the four things which the rod of our dry body will put forth in the resurrection. But this too we shall say in the second place: that, just as in these matters God gave his promise fourfold and bestowed far more and more precious things than he had promised, so much more, in all the places of Scripture where any promise of God is contained—if indeed anyone should deserve to attain to it—in the future manifold provision will be made; and thus that will be truly fulfilled which the Apostle says: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him." See therefore how many and of what kind are the things which not only was no one permitted to see and to hear, but which could not even enter into the heart, that is, into human thought. Whether therefore you name the earth or the heaven, or this sun and the brightness of visible light, all these the eye has seen and the ear has heard, and they cannot be among those things which the eye has not seen nor the ear heard nor which have entered into the heart of man. Pass beyond therefore all these things and transcend everything—whatever you see, whatever you hear, whatever also you can think—and know that that is laid up for those who love God which could not enter even into the thought of your heart. Whence I judge that in promises of this kind nothing is to be thought concerning bodily things. For the account of bodily matter would not altogether escape the perception of human thought, but those are the things which can enter into no one's perception, no one's heart, which are contained in the wisdom of God alone. But indeed it will seem that, by this reasoning by which the good things of the promises are given in greater measure than they were promised, likewise also the punishments which are threatened to sinners must be inflicted with multiplied torments, just as we also expounded in the earlier passages, where a year is set for a day in respect of vengeance—unless someone should think that some third thing can come to pass, gathering some consolation from those things which are contained in that threat which was made to David, where the coming devastation of death was pronounced for three days, and within six hours the time of the punishment appears to have been shortened. But these things can avail there, where time for repentance and place for satisfaction is granted. Yet God is written of as repaying the evil indeed unto the third and fourth generation, but showing mercy to the good not only unto the third…
Numbers 18:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 10.1
Those who are better always take upon themselves the faults and sins of their inferiors. For so also the Apostle says: "you who are stronger, bear the weaknesses of the weak." If an Israelite sins, that is, a layman, he cannot himself take away his own sin, but he requires a Levite, he needs a priest; nay rather, he seeks something still more eminent than these: he has need of a high priest, that he may be able to receive remission of his sins. But if a priest or a high priest offends, he can himself purge his own sin, provided nevertheless that he does not sin against God; for concerning sins of this kind we do not easily see any remission designated in the letter of the law. Now these things we have said on account of what has been read to us. And "the Lord," it says, "spoke to Aaron, saying: you and your sons and your father's house with you shall take upon yourselves the sins of the holy ones." This passage can indeed be expounded thus, that in reference to those things which the high priest offers for the sin of each person and by which he purifies the one for whom he has offered, it is written: "you and your sons with you shall take upon yourselves the sins of the holy ones." Yet to me it does not seem idle that it makes mention of the sins of the holy ones; for in many places of Scripture this saying is repeated. Whence it must be inquired how certain persons are called holy and yet it is written concerning their sins. For it is not, as some suppose, that as soon as anyone has begun to be holy he can no longer sin and is straightway to be thought without sin. For if the holy one did not sin, it surely would not have been written: "you shall take upon yourselves the sins of the holy ones." If the holy one were without sin, the Lord would not say through the prophet Ezekiel to the angels whom he was sending to punish sinners: "and you shall begin from my holy ones." For if the holy are without sin, how is it that they themselves first succumb in the punishments of sinners? If the holy were without sin, Scripture would never say that "the just man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech." If the holy were without sin, the Apostle Paul would never say, writing to the Romans: "do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God," to whom at the beginning of the epistle he had written: "to all who are at Rome, beloved of God, called to be holy." And again the same Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says: "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ," and a little later: "to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy." These, then, whom he calls sanctified and holy, hear how great the sins are which he reprehends in them. For he says in what follows: "for since there are among you rivalries and contentions, are you not carnal and walking according to man?"; and again: "already you have become rich, you reign without us, and would that you did reign"; and again: "but as though I were not coming to you, some are puffed up"; and a little later: "it is altogether heard that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the gentiles." And in what follows indeed: "and you," he says, "are puffed up, and have you not rather mourned?" In which he leaves surely no one exempt, since to some he ascribes the crime of fornication, to others that of being puffed up and of pride. He marks them also in the following passages concerning lawsuits, and says: "already indeed it is altogether a fault in you, that you have lawsuits among yourselves." He rebukes those whom he had called holy, also for this, that they eat things sacrificed to idols, and, as though pronouncing sentence among them, he says: "but thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." But also concerning this he nonetheless refutes them, that they presume to take not only what is sacrificed but also the cup of demons, and he says: "you ca…
Numbers 18:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 10.2
But let us return to our high priest, the great high priest who has penetrated the heavens, our Lord Jesus, and let us see how he together with his sons—the Apostles, namely, and the martyrs—takes upon himself the sins of the holy. And indeed that our Lord Jesus Christ came to take away the sin of the world and by his death blotted out our sins, no one who believes in Christ is ignorant. But how his sons also take away the sins of the holy, that is, the Apostles and martyrs, we shall attempt, if we can, to prove from the divine Scriptures. Hear first Paul saying: "for gladly," he says, "will I spend and be spent for your souls"; and in another place: "for I am already being sacrificed," he says, "and the time of my departure," or "of my dissolution, "is at hand." For those, then, to whom he was writing, the Apostle says that he is spent and sacrificed. But when a victim is sacrificed, it is sacrificed for this end, that the sins of those for whom it is slain may be purged. Now concerning the martyrs the Apostle John writes in the Apocalypse that the souls of those who were slain for the name of the Lord Jesus stand beside the altar; but he who stands beside the altar is shown to perform the office of a priest; and the office of the priest is to make supplication for the sins of the people. Whence I fear lest perhaps, from the fact that martyrs are not made and the victims of the holy are not offered for our sins, remission of our sins may not come about. And therefore I fear lest, with our sins remaining in us, there may befall us that which the Jews say concerning themselves: that having neither altar nor temple nor priesthood, and on this account not offering victims either, our sins, they say, remain in us and therefore no pardon follows. On the contrary we ought to say: because the victims of the martyrs are not offered for us, therefore our sins remain in us; for we do not deserve to suffer persecution for Christ nor to die for the name of the Son of God. And therefore also the devil, knowing that through the passion of martyrdom remission of sins comes about, does not wish to stir up against us the public persecutions of the gentiles; for he knows that, if we are brought before kings and governors for the name of Christ as a testimony to Jews and gentiles, it will be for us joy and exultation, because our reward is great in the heavens. This the enemy does not do, either because he himself envies our glory, or perhaps because he who foresees and foreknows all things knows that we are not fit to endure martyrdom. Yet the Lord knows who are his, and among those in whom it is not hoped for he has his treasures: for "God does not see as man sees." I do not doubt that in this assembly too there are some, known to him alone, who are already martyrs before him by the testimony of conscience, ready, if anyone should demand it, to pour out their blood for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; I do not doubt that there are some who have taken up their cross and follow him. These things, although by a kind of digression, yet seem to have been said of necessity, that we might understand how through the high priest and the sons of the high priest remission of sins comes about among the holy.
Numbers 18:1-5 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 10.3
There follows after these things: "and you," it says, "and your sons shall take upon yourselves the sins of your priesthood. And your brethren, the tribe of Levi, the people of your father, take to yourself, and let them be joined to you and minister to you, and you and your sons with you in the sight of the tabernacle of testimony shall keep your watches and the watches of the tabernacle." It befits those especially who glory in the priestly order to observe more diligently and to attend to these things which are written, that they may know what it is that the divine law prescribes to them to be observed. "You," it says, "and your sons with you in the sight of the tabernacle of testimony, keep your watches and those of the altar and of the tabernacle." The commands indeed are certain and evident, that we ought to keep the watches of the tabernacle and of the altar and of the priesthood; but who indeed it is that keeps and does those things which are commanded to the priests, and who it is that makes use indeed of the order and honor of the priesthood, but does not observe the work and ministry of the priesthood, he alone can know who searches hearts and reins. Now there are commanded to be observed not only those things which are without, but "those things," it says, that the priests should especially attend to, which are within the veil, as though it said: let it be the care of the priests both to fulfill the evident and manifest commands of the divine law, and to contemplate its mysteries, hidden and veiled, with all perspicacity. But if you wish to refer the tabernacle of testimony to man, since indeed Paul calls the body of man a tabernacle when he says: "for we who are in this tabernacle groan, being weighed down, in which we do not wish to be stripped, but to be clothed upon"—if, then, we refer the tabernacle to man, the interior parts of the veil, where inaccessible things are covered, we shall call the ruling part of the heart, which alone can receive the mysteries of truth and be capable of the secrets of God. But the two altars, that is, the interior and the exterior, since the altar is an indication of prayer, that one I think signifies what the Apostle says: "I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind." For when I have prayed in the heart, I enter to the interior altar, and this I think is also what the Lord says in the Gospels: "but you, when you pray, enter into your chamber, and shut your door, and pray to your Father in secret." He, therefore, who prays thus, as I have said, enters to the altar of incense, which is interior. But when someone with clear voice and with words uttered with sound, as though to edify the hearers, pours out prayer to God, this man prays with the spirit and seems to offer a victim on the altar which is outside, appointed for the burnt offerings of the people. It behooves the priests, therefore, especially to attend to and guard those things which are covered within the interior veil, that nothing there be found polluted, nothing be found unclean; that is, to attend to the interior man and the secrets of the heart, that there they may remain immaculate. By the cherubim and the propitiatory the knowledge of the Trinity is to be understood; for the interpretation of "cherubim" indicates a multitude, that is, a perfection, of knowledge; and what is other perfection of knowledge except to have known the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? These things, therefore, are to be attended to by the priests, that they may be kept uncontaminated and unharmed. But also the urn holding the heavenly food of manna is surely a treasure of the divine word. And the golden ark, in which are the tables of the testament, is, as I think, declared to be nothing other than our mind, in which we ought to have the law of God written. And this mind ought to be golden, that is, pure and precious, in which we may always have the law of God written, as the Apostle says: "written not with ink, but…
Numbers 18:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.6
He adds after these things: "And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying: Behold, I have given to you, for keeping, the firstfruits." Although in some Latin copies it is written "for observing," yet it is more correct to read "for keeping." But it must be inquired how, according to the law, the firstfruits are kept. For the priests do not receive the firstfruits in order to keep them, but in order to consume them. How, then, does he say: "Behold, I have given to you the firstfruits for keeping"? Whence it is clear that this cannot be applied to the law of the letter, but to the law of the spirit. For those firstfruits which we expounded above spiritually can be kept; those others cannot. But also, if Christ is, according to the Apostle, firstfruits, truly these firstfruits have been given to us for keeping. For what is so blessed as that the soul which has received Christ should ever keep him and ever have him remaining in itself? And such a soul truly receives firstfruits for keeping. For those firstfruits which were offered in the law were consumed as food and, having entered into the belly, were digested, as the Gospel says, "into the draught." But whoever eats these firstfruits and tastes the bread "which came down from heaven, shall not die, but shall abide unto eternal life." For this is the bread which, though it be ever eaten, ever abides, nay rather ever increases. There is, therefore, as the Apostle also says, a "spiritual food" which, the more it is consumed, the more abundantly it grows. For the more you take of the word of God, the more earnestly you eat this food, the more plentifully will it abound in you. Let these things be said in regard to that which is written: "for keeping the firstfruits."
Numbers 18:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.7
There follows: "of all the things that are sanctified to me by the sons of Israel." Neither is this said without a sacred meaning; for God does not will to receive firstfruits from anywhere except from the sanctified of Israel. For it might come to pass that even among the gentiles some works worthy of God should be found. For among them too some cultivated the virtues of the soul, and philosophy in some persons accomplished a little something; but he does not will these to be offered among the firstfruits. From those God wills to receive good deeds whose "mind sees God," and who have been sanctified to God through faith. But the gentile, even if he seem to have something honorable and praiseworthy in his morals, in this very thing that he does not ascribe the virtue of his soul to God but reckons it to his own boasting, such uprightness is not sanctified, and therefore it is not received among the firstfruits. But as far as pertains to the definition of the letter of the law, it seems also to exclude proselytes from a gift of this kind; for he wills only the sanctified of the sons of Israel to offer firstfruits. But I think that a man can be called an Israelite from the fact that it is permitted him to enter the church of God; for it is written: "You shall not abhor the Edomite, since he is your brother, nor the Egyptian, since you were a dweller in the land of Egypt. If sons be born to them, in the third generation they shall enter into the church of God." Until, therefore, the Egyptian or the Edomite bears fruit and has begotten sons of the first and second and third generation, he cannot enter into the church of the Lord; but the generation of sons makes them enter into the church of the Lord. Let him observe more diligently who reads the divine letters and does not, as he pleases, pass over the words of Scripture, but looks to each and every expression, how he did not say, "If sons or daughters be born to them," but, "If sons be born to them, in the third generation they shall enter into the church of the Lord." And consider, if you can, according to the mystical sense, why it is only sons, not also daughters, who cause the fathers to enter into the church of the Lord. Finally, you will find that even the saints, to whom an outstanding testimony is given by God, hardly begot daughters, but sons. Abraham did not beget daughters; Isaac neither did so himself; Jacob alone begot one, and she herself burdensome to her brothers and parents; for, defiled by Hamor, the son of Shechem, she stirred up reproach for her family and the fury of vengeance for her brothers. But also every male is commanded to appear before the Lord three times in the year; the female is not called to appear before the Lord. So, therefore, if anyone diligently attends to the divine Scriptures, he will find that it is not idle that in one place it names, together with sons, also daughters, but in another makes no mention of daughters. And here, therefore, the firstfruits which are offered are commanded to be offered by the sanctified sons of Israel, not also by the daughters; which things, however, according to the spiritual understanding, are to be referred not to sex, but to the distinction of souls. "To you," he says, "I have given them for a distinction, and to your sons after you, a perpetual ordinance." "To you," he says. To whom? "To Aaron," you will doubtless answer. But the discourse which follows persuades us rather to understand it of the true high priest, Christ, and of his sons, the Apostles and teachers of the churches. For he says: "a perpetual ordinance." How, then, can that be perpetual which is visible? Since the Apostle says: "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." If, therefore, the firstfruits which are offered to Aaron are visible, the things which are visible cannot be called eternal. Likewise also visible circumcision, and visible unleavened bread, and visible Passover must necess…
Numbers 18:9 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.9
"And from all their gifts," he says. Someone has offered a gift to God, and again from the gift firstfruits are to be offered to the high priest. This, in the allegorical exposition, I think can hold thus. If anyone either distributes to the needy or does some good work, according to the commandment he has offered a gift to God. But he will offer the firstfruits of this gift if he not only bestows food, for example, or money, but also has the disposition of pitying and of compassion. For this is what God requires from man, that the mind itself be filled and formed with pious and merciful dispositions. "And from all their immolations," he says. There is a spiritual immolation, that of which we read: "Immolate to God a sacrifice of praise, and render your vows to the Most High." To praise God, therefore, and to offer the vows of prayer is to immolate to God. But the firstfruits of an immolation of this kind will be offered through the high priest thus: if we pray not only with words and voice, but also with the mind and heart, according to that which the Apostle also admonishes: "I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind; I will say a psalm with the spirit, I will say a psalm also with the mind." For the angels of God, cultivators and husbandmen of our heart, stand by even now and inquire whether there is in any of us a mind so solicitous, so intent, which has received the word of God as a divine seed with all eagerness, whether it shows fruit immediately, as we rise to prayer — that is, whether with its senses collected and gathered within itself it prays to God, whether it does not wander in mind and fly off in thoughts, so that while the body is indeed bowed in prayer, the senses run about through various things. If anyone, I say, has felt his supplication to be intent and directed, and has understood himself to be standing in the very sight of God and before that ineffable light, and there has poured out his prayers and supplications and petitions and thanksgivings, solicited by no image of any external phantasy: let him know that he has offered, through the angel who stands by the altar, the firstfruits of his immolation to the great and true high priest, Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 18:9 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.8
Concerning the sacrifices, several times running over these things with myself, I inquired what were "sanctified holy of holies," and it seems to me that it was as if for the distinction of those things which are holy not sanctified that here he said "sanctified holy." I think, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is so holy that he is not sanctified; for sanctification did not come to him from outside and from elsewhere, which had not been before, but he was always holy, nor did his holiness receive a beginning. And in like manner it is to be understood concerning the Father and the Son; for the substance of the Trinity alone is that which is holy not by a sanctification received from outside, but by its own nature. But every creature is called sanctified holy either by the favor of the Holy Spirit or by the reason of merits. So, then, we also read it written: "Be holy, for I also am holy, says the Lord God." A likeness of holiness is not straightway to be set down in God and in men; for of God it is said that he is holy, but men, as those who have not always been, are commanded to become holy. Finally, this expression in the Greek, where we have "Be holy," rather sounds thus: "Be made holy." But our translators indifferently put "be" for "be made." Each of us, therefore, from the time he comes to the fear of God and receives into himself the divine teaching, from the time he has given himself over to God — if indeed he has given himself over from the heart — from that time is made holy. But this one can be called a sanctified holy one; but truly and always holy is God alone. But do you wish me to open to you also from the divine Scriptures a distinction of this kind? Hear how Paul, writing to the Hebrews, says: "For both he who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one." Who, then, sanctifies? Christ, without doubt. And who are sanctified? Those who believe in Christ. It is manifest, therefore, that he who sanctifies is holy, because he is always holy; but they who are sanctified are to be called not simply holy, but sanctified holy. Nor think that this is contrary to that sense which we read written of Christ: "whom the Father sanctified and sent into this world." For here he who is sanctified is Christ according to the flesh, not according to the spirit. For according to the spirit equally and according to the flesh Christ says: "I sanctify myself for them," so that he who sanctifies is understood according to the spirit, but he who is sanctified for the disciples according to the flesh, yet one and the same Christ, who now sanctifies in the spirit, now is sanctified in the flesh. From all the fruits, then, sanctified holy firstfruits are to be offered, but to the spiritual high priest. From what fruits, therefore, shall we offer spiritual firstfruits? Hear how many fruits the Apostle enumerates: "the fruit of the spirit," he says, "is love, joy, peace, patience," and the rest. What firstfruits, then, from the fruit of love, which is the first fruit of the spirit, shall I offer to the true high priest? Those I think are the firstfruits of love, that I should love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind. These are the firstfruits. But what is it that from this fruit of love I ought to hold in the second place? That I should love my neighbor as myself. Those firstfruits of love, therefore, are offered to God through the high priest, but these, which are in the second place, are left for my own uses. I think there is still something from this fruit which is to be held in the third place: that I should love even my enemies. But see whether you can likewise find similar firstfruits also from the other fruits of the spirit. Joy is written as the fruit of the spirit in the second place. If, therefore, I rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice in hope, and if I rejoice for the name of the Lord when I have suffered injury, in all these and other things like them I have offered the firstfruits of…
Numbers 18:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.1
The law commands that the firstfruits of all crops and of all cattle be offered to the priests, in such a way that everyone who possesses a field or a vineyard or an olive grove or even a garden, and whatever is cultivated in the ground, and likewise anyone who raises herds of any kind of livestock, should offer to God from these everything that is first — that is, should bring it to the priests. For he says that what is given to the priests is offered to God. And this is what we are taught by the law: that no one lawfully or legitimately makes use of the fruits which the earth has produced, nor of the animals which the offspring of the herds has brought forth, unless from each and every one the firstfruits are offered to God, that is, to the priests. This law, therefore, I think it necessary to observe even according to the letter, as also some others; for there are certain commandments of the law which even the disciples of the New Testament keep with necessary observance. And if it seems good, let discourse first be raised about these very things which are indeed written in the law but are to be observed as in the Gospels, and when these have been made clear, then we shall at last inquire what in these also ought to be understood spiritually. For there are those who say that, if anything at all is to be observed according to the letter, why should not all things be kept? But if the things which the law contains are to be referred to a spiritual understanding, then nothing at all ought to be observed according to the letter, but all things should be discerned spiritually. But we, tempering the presumption of both assertions, shall attempt to bring forward from the authority of the divine Scriptures what rule ought to be observed in discourses of this kind about the law. It is written in the eighteenth psalm: "The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones; the precept of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever and ever; the judgments of righteousness of the Lord are upright, gladdening hearts; the judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves, desirable above gold and precious stone exceedingly, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." Unless, therefore, each of these were different from one another, the divine Scripture would surely never have assigned proper distinctions to each, so as to say one thing about the law of the Lord, another about the commandment, another about the justifications, another about the judgments. There is, then, as we have shown from these, one thing that is law, another that is precept, another that is testimony, another that is justification, another that is judgment. But even in the law itself a more evident distinction of these is marked out, where it is said: "These are the law and the commandments and the justifications and the precepts and the testimonies and the judgments, which the Lord commanded Moses." Since, therefore, these things are so, and it is proved by the testimonies of the law itself that they differ from one another by these distinctions, we ought to attend more diligently to the things which are recited from the law, because, wherever it is written, for example, that this is a commandment, the law is not straightway to be taken as a commandment; or wherever it is written, "These are the justifications," they are not straightway to be thought justifications or law or commandment; and likewise wherever testimony or judgments are written, one is not to be confusedly understood from the others, but each is to be understood as distinct from the rest. If, therefore, we read it written that "the law has a shadow of the good things to come," the commandment or the justices or the judgments, about which this is not written, are not straightway to be believed to be shadows of the good things to come. Finally, that we may set down one example out of ma…
Numbers 18:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.3
But now let us see how it also receives an allegorical, that is, a spiritual understanding. Let us inquire, therefore, whether anywhere in the Scriptures, besides these things of which we have spoken above, we find firstfruits named; for here he said: "all the firstfruits of oil and wine and grain, the firstfruits of all these which have been offered to God, I have given them to you." I inquire therefore now, where besides these firstfruits may be named. For if all firstfruits pertain to the high priest, then of necessity a high priest also must be sought by us, to whom ought to pertain also those firstfruits which we find set forth in other passages of Scripture. And first of all, indeed, we read it written of the Lord Christ himself that he is "the firstfruits of the dead"; he too, therefore, is in some part firstfruits. And again we find it said by the Apostle of certain persons that they are "the firstfruits of Asia," and others "the firstfruits of Achaia." Whence it follows that throughout the several churches some of the believers — those, however, whom the apostolic spirit has approved — are named firstfruits. Among whom I think is also that Cornelius, who, together with those with whom he merited to receive the Holy Spirit, is deservedly called the firstfruits of the church of Caesarea. And not only of this church, but perhaps Cornelius is to be called the firstfruits of all the nations; for he first believed from among the nations, and was first filled with the Holy Spirit, and therefore he will rightly be called the firstfruits of the nations. But you may perhaps ask who offers these firstfruits to God, or who is the high priest to whose account these fall. I think that, according to the Lord's word, "the field" is here called "this world"; but by "field" is understood not only the earth, but the hearts of men, which field the angels of God have undertaken to cultivate. The fruits of their cultivation they indeed possess and have — namely those who live under stewards and overseers and have not yet come to the height of perfection. But whose hearts have been diligently cultivated and brought to perfection, these, as chosen and outstanding beyond the rest, they offer as firstfruits to the great high priest. Finally, we find that Cornelius himself, before he received from Peter the teaching of the word of God or the grace of baptism, heard from an angel that "his prayers and alms had ascended up to God," whence through the angel himself Cornelius seems to have been offered to God as firstfruits. We can say also of Peter and Paul that they too offer through themselves the firstfruits of the believers, as the Apostle says that "from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum he had filled with the Gospel of Christ," and had so preached the Gospel "not where Christ had been named, lest he should build upon another man's foundation." Behold, then, Paul offering as his own fruits all those whom he taught, to whom he preached, who through him advanced in the faith, and seeking daily new fields to cultivate, and new lands to sow, and for this reason saying to certain persons: "For I desire to come to you, that I may have some fruit among you also, as also among the rest of the nations." Behold him, I say, marking out from all these fruits certain choice ones and saying of some, as we said above, that they are "the firstfruits of Asia" and others "the firstfruits of Achaia," and choosing the firstfruits of each and every one of the churches and offering them to God. But perhaps he has also some who are firstborn. And I believe that he has also some inferior to these, whom he can offer neither for firstfruits nor for firstborn, but for tithes. But also every teacher, I think, in respect of that which he teaches and preaches and instructs his hearers, may be seen to cultivate the field of that church which he teaches — that is, the hearts of the believers. He too, therefore, has the fruit of his cultivation, and among those fruits he…
Numbers 18:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.5
Let us return, then, to the account of the firstfruits, which we said are offered through the angels, which are gathered from the fields of this world. But the fields of the angels are our hearts. Each of them, therefore, from the field which he cultivates, offers firstfruits to God. And if I were worthy today to bring forth some great sense, worthy of the high priest, so that from all these things which we speak and teach there should be something excellent which ought to please the high priest, it might perhaps come to pass that the angel who presides over the church would choose something from all our words and, in place of firstfruits, would offer it to the Lord from the little field of my heart. But I know that I am not worthy, nor am I conscious to myself that any such sense is found in me which the angel who cultivates us would judge worthy to offer for firstfruits or for firstborn to the Lord. And would that what we speak and teach be such that we should not deserve to be condemned for our words; this grace would suffice for us. The angels, therefore, offer firstfruits from us, and each cultivates those whom by his zeal and diligence he has converted from the errors of the nations to God; and each is in the portion or care of this or that angel. And just as from the beginning of this age, when God scattered the sons of Adam, "he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God," and each nation was made under this or that angel, but one nation, Israel, was chosen, which was "the portion of the Lord" and "the cord of his inheritance," so I believe that also at the end of this world and the beginning of another age it will come to pass that the Most High will again divide the sons of Adam; and those who could not be so clean of heart as to see God himself and be "the portion of the Lord," may see at least the holy angels and be "according to the number of the angels of God." But blessed is he who shall be worthy in that life to be "the portion of the Lord" and "his people Jacob and the cord of his inheritance, Israel." It is therefore to be desired, as we have said, that each one so advance that he may deserve to be chosen among the firstfruits or firstborn and to be offered to God and to be a part of the Lord. But if less than this, at least that he may deserve to be a part of the holy angels — only that he be not found among those of whom it is written: "They shall enter into the lower parts of the earth, they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be portions of foxes." You see, then, that at the time of the resurrection, when the Most High shall begin to divide the nations and to scatter the sons of Adam according to their merits, there will be some who enter into the lower parts of the earth and become the portions of foxes — that is, the portions of demons. For these are the foxes that lay waste the vineyards, of which sort was also Herod, of whom it is said: "Go, tell that fox." Let us flee, therefore, from earthly deeds and earthly understanding, lest, weighed down by earthly senses, we be said to enter into the lower parts of the earth and to become the portions of foxes. For those too enter into the lower parts of the earth who receive the law of God and the good things of the promises with an understanding of earthly thought, and do not rouse the souls of their hearers to the expectation of heavenly things and the contemplation of things above, whereas the Apostle plainly says: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is at the right hand of God, not the things that are upon the earth" — which he was certainly saying to those who with earthly observance said, "Touch not, taste not, handle not," to which he adds: "which things are all unto corruption by the very use, according to the commandments and doctrines of men."
Numbers 18:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.2
It will therefore now belong to the wise scribe, instructed concerning the kingdom of God, who knows how "to bring forth from these treasures new things and old," to know how in each and every passage of Scripture he should either utterly reject the letter that kills and seek the spirit that gives life, or altogether confirm and prove the teaching of the letter to be useful and necessary, or, while the history remains, opportunely and fittingly introduce also the mystical sense. Just as in this discourse too, which we have in hand, I think it fitting; for it is fitting and useful that firstfruits be offered also to the priests of the Gospel. For thus the Lord also ordained, that "they who announce the Gospel should live of the Gospel," and "they who serve the altar should partake of the altar." And just as this is worthy and fitting, so on the contrary it is both unfitting and unworthy, nay rather impious, that he who worships God and enters the church of God, who knows that priests and ministers stand by the altar and serve either the word of God or the ministry of the church, should not offer firstfruits to the priests from the fruits of the earth which God gave by bringing forth his sun and ministering his rains. Such a soul does not seem to me to have any memory of God, nor to consider or believe that God gave the fruits which he received; which he stores away as though they were alien from God. For if he believed them given to him by God, he would surely know how, by rewarding the priests, to honor God from his gifts and endowments. And that these things ought to be observed even according to the letter may be taught still more fully by the very words of the Lord, we will add these also. The Lord says in the Gospels: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who tithe" — that is, give tithes — "of mint and cummin and dill, and pass over the weightier matters of the law; hypocrites, these things ought to be done, and those not to be omitted." See then more diligently how the word of the Lord wills that the weightier matters of the law be by all means done, yet that these too, which are designated according to the letter, not be omitted. But if you say that he was saying these things to the Pharisees, not to the disciples, hear him again saying to the disciples: "Unless your righteousness abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." What therefore he wills to be done by the Pharisees, much more and with greater abundance he wills to be fulfilled by the disciples; but what he does not will to be done by the disciples, neither does he command the Pharisees to do. And how he wills more to be done by the disciples than the Pharisees do, he declares also in this, where he says: "It was said to the ancients: You shall not kill." This the Pharisees also observe; but to the disciples he says: "But I say to you that if anyone is angry with his brother, he shall be liable to judgment." Likewise also concerning that which is written, "You shall not commit adultery," he wills the righteousness of his disciples to abound more in this, that they should not even look at a woman to lust after her. Therefore from these few things which we have brought forward, those who are diligent in the divine Scriptures will be able very easily to gather the distinctions of the rest as well. "For if a wise man hear," it says, "a word, he will not only praise it, but will add to it." What will he add? That he may examine and discern in each and every chapter of the law where the letter of the law is to be fled, where to be embraced, where also the narrative of the history agrees with the mystical exposition. For "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law"; he did not redeem us from the curse of the commandment, nor from the curse of the testimony, nor from the curse of the judgments, but from the curse of the law — that is, that we should not be subject to circumcision of the flesh, nor to…
Numbers 18:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 11.4
But since the discourse took its beginning from the firstfruits of the angels, which we had said were offered by them from the cultivation of the human race, and we have been led on in the following place to the Apostles and thence to each and every teacher, let us return to the origin of the things which we had begun to examine. Therefore each and every one of the angels will be present at the judgment in the consummation of the age, leading with him those over whom he presided, whom he aided, whom he instructed, for whom he ever "saw the face of the Father who is in heaven." And I think that there too there will be an inquiry, whether the angel was wanting to the cultivation of men, or whether human sluggishness by no means responded worthily to the angelic cultivation. There will therefore be in this also a judgment of God, whether by some negligence of the ministering spirits, "who are sent for ministry and help for the sake of those who obtain the inheritance of salvation," or by the sloth of those who are helped by them, so many lapses of human life arise. But if this is so, there will therefore be a judgment of God even between angels and men, and perhaps some will be judged with Paul, and will be compared with his labors and fruits, which come from the multitude of believers; and perhaps he will be found in labors superior even to some angels, and therefore doubtless he said: "Or do you not know that we shall judge angels?" — not that Paul himself judges angels, but that Paul's work, which he did in the Gospel and toward the souls of believers, will judge some — not all, but some of the angels. And perhaps therefore Peter too, looking to these things, said: "upon whom the angels also desire to look." Although the Apostles themselves also use angels as helpers to fulfill the office of their preaching and to accomplish the work of the Gospel; for so it was said in the Acts of the Apostles that "it was Peter's angel who knocked at the door." Likewise, therefore, it is understood that there is also another angel of Paul, as there is of Peter, and another of each other Apostle, and of each in order or according to their merits, who surely must have the chief parts in the labors and teaching, whether of the Apostles or of the other teachers after them, and, together with those through whom they have worked, must carry to the threshing-floor of the Lord the fruit of the souls that through them advanced. There will therefore be, in the gathering of the fruits — that is, in the choosing of the believers — that one, for example, who was the outstanding and eminent one of that church, as firstfruits; and that one also, superior to him, of that church, as firstborn, offered by that angel, for example. And thus all this, which is foreshadowed in the law — since "the law has a shadow of the good things to come" — will in some such manner, through the ministries of the angels, be fulfilled in the truth of the good things to come, so that the things which were prefigured in that Israel which is called Israel according to the flesh may be fulfilled in the true and heavenly Israelites. For the name of Israel reaches even to the angelic orders, since indeed those will be called Israel much more truly, inasmuch as they more truly are "a mind seeing God"; for this is what "Israel" is interpreted to mean. For I think that, just as we see certain names of nations or of princes set down in the Scriptures which without any doubt are to be referred to evil angels and to contrary powers — as, for example, Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian or Assyrian — so also the things which are written of holy men and of a religious nation we ought to refer to holy angels and to benevolent powers. But that the king of an impious nation is referred by Scripture to some malignant power, hear how Isaiah says of Nebuchadnezzar: "And I will bring," he says, "a sword upon the great nation, upon the prince of the Assyrians." For he says: "By m…
Numbers 18:20 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.5
Finally, do you wish to know what is the difference between the priests of God and the priests of Pharaoh? Pharaoh grants lands to his priests; but the Lord grants his priests no portion in the land, but says to them: "I am your portion." Observe therefore, you who read these things, all you priests of the Lord, and see what the difference of priests is, lest perchance those who have a portion in the land and are occupied with earthly cultivations and pursuits should seem to be priests not so much of the Lord as of Pharaoh. For it is he who wishes his priests to have possessions of lands and to exercise the cultivation of the field, not of the soul, to give their labor to the country and not to the law; but let us hear what Christ our Lord enjoins upon his priests. "He who does not," he says, "renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple."
Numbers 21:16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 12.1
The reading about the well and the song which Israel sang at the well has been recited to us from the book of Numbers — a reading which we see overflowing with mysteries in the usual measure, or rather perhaps even beyond the usual. For it says: "and from there, the well; this is the well of which the Lord said to Moses: Gather the people, and I will give them water to drink." But in these words the historical letter does not seem to me to possess much claim. For what is it that the Lord so greatly commanded Moses to gather the people, that he might give them water to drink from the well? — as if indeed the people would not of their own accord come together at the well for the sake of drinking. Why, then, is it so emphatically commanded to the prophet, that by his own zeal and labor he should gather the people to draw the water of the well? Hence the cheapness of the letter sends us back to the preciousness of the spiritual understanding. And therefore I think it fitting to gather the mysteries of wells also from other places of Scripture, so that from a comparison of many, if the present passage contains anything of obscurity, it may become clear. The Spirit of God therefore says through Solomon in Proverbs: "Drink waters from your own vessels and from the fountain of your own wells. And let not the waters be overpoured for you outside your own fountain" — although in other copies we have read: "and let the waters be poured out for you outside your own fountain." "Let your waters be for yourself alone, and let no stranger partake of them." Therefore each one of us has, as is designated in these words, a well within himself. Nay, we say something even more: each one of us has not one well, but many wells, and not one vessel of water, but many vessels; for it did not say: "Drink waters from your vessel," but "from your vessels," and it did not say: "and from the fountain of your well," but "from the fountain of your wells." We read that the patriarchs too had wells: Abraham had them, Isaac also had them; and I think Jacob had them as well. And taking your beginning from these wells, run through all Scripture seeking wells, and come even to the Gospels, and there you will find the well above which our Savior sat resting after the labor of the journey — then, when the Samaritan woman came and wished to draw water from the well, the power of the well or of wells in the Scriptures is expounded, and a comparison of waters is made, where also the secrets of the divine mystery are laid open. For it is said that, if anyone drinks from these waters which that earthly well contained, he thirsts again; but whoever drinks from those which Jesus gives, there becomes in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. But in another place of the Gospel there is now spoken not of a fountain nor a well, but of something more. "He who believes in me," it says, "as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall proceed from his belly." You see, then, that he who believes in him has within himself not only a well, but wells, and not only fountains, but rivers; and fountains and rivers not such as would console this mortal life, but such as would confer the eternal. Therefore, according to those things which we set forth as written in Proverbs, where wells are named together with a fountain, the Word of God is to be understood as a well indeed, if it covers something of a deep mystery, but as a fountain, if it abounds and flows forth to the peoples. But it must be inquired, not idly, how we can expound the plural number regarding the wells and the singular regarding the fountain, since in Proverbs Wisdom says: "Drink waters from the fountain of your wells." Let us see, then, of which wells it called the fountain one. I think that the knowledge of the unbegotten Father can be understood as one well, but the recognition of his only-begotten Son ought to be understood as another well. For the Son is other than the Father, and the Son is not…
Numbers 21:17-18 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 12.2
"Initiate the well for it," it says. This is the sense: set, it says, the well as the beginning of all things, just as the Apostle also says that "he is the beginning, and the firstborn of every creature, and in him all things were created." Initiate the well for it, therefore — that is, confess the well to be the beginning of all things. But it can also be understood in this way, that the words seem to be directed from the person of Moses, exhorting the people and saying: Give a beginning to your heart, that it may begin to understand what the well is, from which the spiritual waters are to be drawn and by which the people of believers is to be refreshed. Initiate this well, therefore, for it, that is, for Israel, so that whoever sees God with the heart may be able to draw the mystical sense from the depths. That Moses, that is the Law, should gather us to this well does not seem to be said in vain. For it can happen that someone may seem to come to this well, but unless he is gathered through Moses, he is not accepted by God. Marcion seems to himself to have come to this well, and Basilides and Valentinus, but because they did not come through Moses nor receive the Law and the prophets, they cannot praise the Lord God from the fountains of Israel. Therefore those who are of this kind do not come to the well which the princes dug and the kings hewed out. But do you wish me to show you from the Scriptures to what wells these men come? There is a certain salt valley, in which valley are wells of bitumen; every heresy therefore and every sin is in a valley, and in a salt valley. For sin and iniquity does not ascend upward, but always descends to the lowest and infernal places. Every heretical understanding, therefore, and every act of sin is both set in a valley and salt and bitter. For what sweet, what pleasant thing can sin have? But it has something even more. For if you come to a heretical opinion, if you come to the bitterness of sin, you have come to the wells of bitumen. Bitumen is food and nourishment for fire. If therefore you too taste water from these wells, if you take up a heretical understanding, if you receive the bitterness of sin, you will prepare within yourself the kindling of fire and the burnings of Gehenna. And therefore to those who are unwilling to drink water from that well which the princes dig and the kings, but from these which are in the valley of sin and feed the fuel of fire, it is said: "Walk in the light of your fire and of the flame which you have kindled for yourselves." What, then, is sung at this well? "Initiate the well for it," it says; "the princes dug it, the kings hewed it out." The princes and the kings can indeed seem to be the same; but if it is necessary to distinguish them, let us understand the princes as the prophets. For they placed the meaning and prophecy concerning Christ dug down and submerged in the depth of the letter, and therefore one of them said: "Unless you hear in secret, your soul will weep." And likewise another prophet says to the Lord: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you!" These, then, are the princes who dug this well, but the kings are those who hewed it out. That it said "hewed out" (excuderunt) is said from "hammering out" (excudere), not from "cutting away" (excidere); for that is said to be "hammered out" which is either cut or shaped in stone. The princes therefore, as being somewhat inferior, are said to dig the well, that is, as it were to sink a certain depth in the softness of the earth. But these, whom it calls kings, as being stronger and more eminent, penetrate not only the depth of the earth but also the hardness of the rock, that they may be able to reach the deeper waters and, if it may be said, search out in it the very veins of the abyss, knowing that the judgments of God are a great abyss. These kings, then, who can search out things so deep and so hidden of the well, we may rightl…
Numbers 21:19-20 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 12.3
After these things "they set out," he says, "from the well to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to the grove which is in the field of Moab, from the top of the hewn mountain that looks toward the face of the desert." These names, which appear to be the designations of places, seem — from their significations, which they denote in their own tongue — to display the sequence of things rather mystical rather than merely a naming of places. "For having set out," he says, "from the well they come to Mattanah." For Mattanah is interpreted "their gifts." You see, then, that if anyone has drunk from this well which the kings and princes dug, he straightway advances to this, that he has gifts to offer to God. But what is it that a person offers to God? This very thing which is written in the law: "my gifts, my offerings." From those things, therefore, which God has given, human beings nonetheless make offerings to God. What did God give to man? Knowledge of himself. What does man offer to God? His faith and his affection. This is what God seeks from man. And indeed it is thus written: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and love him, and keep all his commandments, and serve the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul?" These are the gifts, these the offerings which ought to be given to the Lord. And we give to the Lord these gifts of our heart after we have come to know him and have drunk from the depth of his well the knowledge of his goodness. Observe, however, how the prophet said: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you?" Let these words put to shame those who deny that it lies within man's choice that he be saved. For how would God ask of man, unless man had within his own power that which he ought to offer to God who asks? There are, then, things which are given by God, and there are things which are furnished by man. For example, it lay within the man to make one mina into ten minas, or one mina into five minas; but it was from God that the man had a mina from which he could make ten minas. But when he offered from himself the ten minas, he received in turn from God no longer money, but power and rule over ten cities. Again God asks of Abraham that he offer to him his son Isaac upon a mountain, whichever one he should show him. Abraham offered his only-begotten undaunted, laid him upon the altar, drew the knife to slay him — he is at once restrained, and a ram is given to him for a victim in place of his son. You see, then, that the things which we offer to God remain ours, but we are asked for them to this end, that in them our affection toward God and our faith may be tested. So much for what we said, that the children of Israel set out from the well and came to Mattanah, which is interpreted "their gifts." And from Mattanah we come to Nahaliel, which is interpreted "from God." What is "from God"? After we have offered the things that are from ourselves, we come to this, that we may attain the things that are from God. For when we have offered to him our faith and our affection, then he too bestows upon us the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which the Apostle says: "But all things are from God." And from Nahaliel we come to Bamoth, which is interpreted "the coming of death." What coming of death do we understand here, except that by which we die together with Christ, so that we may also live together with him, and by which we ought to mortify our members which are upon the earth, and again: "for we are buried together with him through baptism into death"? If anyone, then, holds to the order of this saving way, he ought to journey through each of these things which we have recalled, and to come after many stages to this place, which we said signifies the coming of death. But, as we are taught from the Scriptures, there is a certain death that is an enem…
Numbers 21:21-24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 12.4
After this there follows yet another narrative. For it says: "And Moses sent" — or, as it stands in some copies, "And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites with words of peace, saying: We will pass through your land; by the road we will pass; we will not turn aside either into a field or into a vineyard. We will not drink water from your well; we will go by the royal road, until we pass your borders. And Sihon did not grant that Israel should pass through his borders; and Sihon gathered all his people, and went out to make war against Israel in the desert; and he came to Jahaz, and joined battle with Israel. And Israel struck him down with the slaughter of the sword, and they took possession of his land." The narrative indeed is plain, but let us beseech the Lord that we may be able to discern something worthy in its inner meanings. Sihon has a double interpretation, either "unfruitful tree" or "lifted up." Israel therefore sends messengers to Sihon: it sends to the unfruitful tree, it sends to the one lifted up and proud. Now this Sihon is king of the Amorites, who themselves are interpreted as "those bringing into bitterness" or "speaking." Moses therefore sends to Sihon king of the Amorites with words of peace, saying: "We will pass through your land." If, according to the spiritual understanding, we say that Sihon the king holds the figure of the devil, because he himself is lifted up and unfruitful, I think you ought not to wonder that I have called him a king, since you hear even our very Lord and Savior in the Gospels saying concerning him: "Behold, now comes the prince of this world, and in me he will find nothing," and again: "Behold, now the prince of this world shall be cast out." If therefore he is called in the Gospels the prince of the whole world, it ought not to seem absurd if he is compared to Sihon king of the Amorites, or even to any other kings of the nations whatsoever. But he is called prince of the world not because he created the world, but because there are many sinners in this world. And because he himself is the prince of sin, therefore he has also been called the prince of the world — namely, among those who, not yet abandoning the world, are converted to the Father. For it is according to this that that also is said: "the whole world is set in wickedness." For what does it profit us to say that our prince is Christ, if by our deeds and works we are convicted that the devil holds the princedom in us? Or is it not plain under which prince the unchaste, the incestuous, the unjust man acts? Can a man of this sort say that, set under Christ, he does these things, even if he seems to be reckoned under the name of Christ? In whom Christ bears the princedom, there no uncleanness, no iniquity is admitted, nor can unjust desire have any place. According to this manner, then, rightly will Christ be called the prince of the virtues, and the devil of malice and of all iniquity. Israel therefore sends messengers to the king of the Amorites, the king of those who provoke into bitterness, the unfruitful king, the proud king. In what way will the devil be shown to be proud, in what way lifted up? He it is who said: "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the borders of the nations, and I will plunder their might; and I will shake the cities which are inhabited, and the whole circle of the earth I will take in my hand like a nest." And again this lifted-up and proud one says: "I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne, I will sit upon a lofty mountain above the high mountains which are toward the north, I will ascend above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High." Do you still ask whether he himself is lifted up and proud? Nay rather, both he himself is proud and lifted up, and that one who is, as it were, his only-begotten, of whom it is written that "he shall be exalted above everything that is called God or that is worship…
Numbers 21:24-25 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.1
Yesterday we spoke of how Sihon, king of the Amorites, who is the lofty one and the barren tree, having engaged with Israel was defeated; concerning whom Scripture also says pointedly that he fell "by the slaughter of the sword" or, as we read elsewhere, "by the mouth of the sword." But if you wish to know more carefully by what sword this barren and lofty one, "like the cedar of Lebanon," fell, let us learn from the Apostle Paul, who says: "For the word of God is living and effective and more piercing than any sword," and again in another place: "and the sword," he says, "of the spirit, which is the word of God." By the slaughter of this sword, then, fell the spiritual Sihon, who is the devil. After these things it is added: "and the sons of Israel," he says, "had dominion over all his land." All this earthly region indeed is called the land of Sihon, but Christ and his Church have dominion over all the land of Sihon. "And they had dominion from Arnon as far as Jabbok." Arnon and Jabbok were cities of the kingdom of Sihon, but the beginning of his kingdom was Arnon and the end was Jabbok, and therefore it is said that "they had dominion from Arnon as far as Jabbok." Now Arnon is interpreted "their curses"; the beginning, therefore, of the kingdom of this lofty and barren Sihon is curses. But the end is Jabbok, which is interpreted "wrestling"; for it is necessary that everyone who wishes to go out from the kingdom of the devil and to escape his borders should find wrestling, and that contests be stirred up against him by his ministers and satellites. But if he has wrestled and conquered, then Jabbok will no longer be a city of Sihon, but will be a city of Israel. This is doubtless what we read also concerning the patriarch Jacob, since, when he had come to a certain place, a wrestling was prepared for him, and there, when he had wrestled the whole night and had prevailed and grown strong before God, his name was called Israel. "And Israel took," he says, "all these cities; and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites." This Israel, who is Israel in Christ, who is Israel not in the flesh, nor a Jew in what is manifest, he himself dwells in all the cities of the Amorites when in all the world the churches of Christ are being propagated. But each one of us also was formerly a city of King Sihon, the lofty king; for there reigned in us folly, pride, impiety, and all the things that are on the devil's side; but when the strong one was overcome and vanquished and his vessels plundered, we were made cities of Israel and the inheritance of the saints—if indeed that power which formerly ruled over us has been utterly cut off in us, and the barren tree has been cut down, and the lofty king has been cast down, and we are under that king who says: "learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." After these things he now enumerates one by one the cities of the proud and barren king, and says: "in Heshbon and in all its neighboring places." What is this, that he named Heshbon as the chief city of the kingdom of Sihon? Heshbon is interpreted "thoughts." Rightly, then, does the greatest part of the diabolical kingdom and the greater part of its power reign in thoughts; for so the Lord also said: "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies; and these are the things that defile a man." And therefore this city is necessarily set ablaze and consumed by fire. By what fire? Surely by that of which the Savior says: "I came to send fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it be kindled!"
Numbers 21:27-28 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.2
But after a few words it is reported concerning that very city: "For this reason," he says, "the riddlers shall say: come into Heshbon, that the city of Sihon may be built and constructed; for fire went forth from Heshbon and a flame from the city of Sihon, and it devoured as far as Moab." Sihon, as we said, was the king, whose city was Heshbon. Thus, then, the order of the words is to be understood, that these riddlers say: come, that Heshbon, which was the city of Sihon, may be built and constructed. But let us now inquire who these riddlers are. A riddle is a figured saying; riddlers therefore are those who speak figuratively. And who else is there who has spoken in figures except the law and the prophets? For hear how David says: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter propositions from the beginning." But Isaiah too, that the things he wrote are riddles, declares in this manner: "and the words of this book shall be," he says, "like the words of a sealed book; which if they give into the hands of a man who does not know letters and say to him: read, he will say: I do not know letters. But if they give it to one who knows letters, he will say: I cannot read, for it is sealed." Now the book is called sealed for the reason that it is entangled with figures and wrapped up in riddles. These riddlers, then, say: come into Heshbon, that it may be built. That first Heshbon fell, or rather was overturned and burned; another is to be rebuilt. But how this is done, let us show by taking up an example. If you see a Gentile placed in the disgrace of life and in the error of religion, do not hesitate to say of him that here is the city of Heshbon in the kingdom of King Sihon; for the barren and lofty king reigns in his thoughts. If Israel—that is, a son of the Church—approaches this man and applies the darts of the word of God and unsheathes against him the sword of the spirit, and destroys in him all the fortifications of Gentile teachings and burns up the loftinesses of his arguments with the fire of truth, say of this man that the city of Heshbon of Sihon is overthrown. But this man, in whom the teachings of the Gentiles are overthrown, is not straightway left deserted and abandoned. For it is not the discipline of the sons of Israel to leave in ruins the cities that they have destroyed; but when they have undermined and overturned in a man his evil thoughts and impious sentiments, they build again in the heart of him whom they have destroyed good thoughts, pious sentiments; they will implant the doctrine of truth, they will hand on the rite of religion, they will teach the order of living, honesty of morals, they will show the statutes of observance. And then these riddlers will truly say to one another in turn: come and let us build Heshbon, which was the city of Sihon. For they themselves too—that is, the sons of the Church—because they understand the figures of the law and the riddles spiritually, are called riddlers. This is what Jeremiah also designates by a no less figurative saying, where it is said to him by the Lord: "behold, I have put my words in your mouth; behold, I have appointed you this day over the nations and kingdoms, to root up and to overturn and to rebuild and to replant." What does he root up and what does he overturn? The city of Heshbon, which was Sihon's. What does he root up in it and what does he overturn? Impious and impure thoughts. What does he rebuild in it and what does he replant? Pious and chaste thoughts, so that Heshbon may be made a city not of the Amorites, but of the sons of Israel.
Numbers 21:33-35 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.3
But if we wish to pursue each point, we shall be shut out from the discussion of those things which were read to us concerning Balaam; the reading of which is of such difficulty that we can scarcely arrive at explaining the account and sequence of the history itself. How great, then, will now be our difficulty in explaining the spiritual senses, if the very surface of the letter is wrapped in such great difficulties? But although desire snatches us toward discussing the things which are more obscure, nevertheless these things also, which are reported in between, are not to be entirely passed over. For after the sons of Israel had obtained the cities of the Amorites, they went up also by the way which leads into Bashan, where Og, king of Bashan, was; but to this one they neither deign to send envoys nor to ask of him that they may pass through his land, but immediately they clash with him and overcome both him and his people. Let us see, then, what Bashan is. Bashan is interpreted "baseness"; rightly, then, are neither envoys sent to that nation nor is passage through its land requested. For there ought to be for us no passage, no approach to baseness, but from the very beginning at once it must be assaulted and in every way guarded against. Now Og, who is said to be king of Bashan, is interpreted "enclosure." This can hold the figure of all carnal and material things, by love and desire of which the soul, being held fast, is shut out and separated from God. Against these, therefore, war is commanded to be waged in such a way that "you shall not leave," he says, "of him one living"; for none must be left by the sons of Israel living in the kingdom of baseness and disgrace. But it befits Israelite virtue to cut down and cut away base things and to rebuild in the soul whatever is pious and to plant honorable and religious things. Concerning the kingdom of Sihon it is not written that no living one be left, nor concerning the kingdom of Moab; for perhaps we have need of some of them, and we require certain of them for the contests and exercises of this life; otherwise we should have had to go out of this world. Of Bashan, however—that is, of baseness—we have need of none whatsoever; let us leave nothing of it; all things must be cut down, all the works of baseness must be overturned; for in nothing can that which is base be honorable.
Numbers 22:1-6 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.4
"And the sons of Israel, having set out from there, pitched their camp to the west of Moab beside the Jordan opposite Jericho. And when Balak, son of Zippor, saw," and the rest. Now all the things which are written concerning Balaam and his donkey are a history full of business; but the inner meaning is much more laborious, and I do not know whether it is even easy to explain merely the historical statements themselves. Yet, with God granting, we shall touch briefly on what we can. War is threatening you, O king Balak, son of Zippor; six hundred thousand armed men are rushing upon your borders. It behooved you also to prepare arms, to muster an army, to think about the drawing up of battle, so that you might meet the enemy, while still placed at a distance, equipped with arms. But you send to Balaam the diviner and send many gifts and promise greater ones and say: "come, curse for me the people that has gone out from Egypt." But Balaam, as Scripture teaches, referred these things to God, by whom also he is forbidden to come. But again the king sends envoys and, arms neglected, places all his hope in Balaam, that he may come and deliver words and hurl curses against the people in place of weapons, if perhaps the people, whom the king's army could not overcome, might be conquered by the words of Balaam. What consistency does this history have, what counsel does it show? Where or when was it heard that any of kings, with battle threatening him, having set aside his arms and neglected his army, took refuge in the words of some diviner or soothsayer? Whence again and again the grace of God must be implored by us, that we may be able to explain these things not by fabulous and Jewish narrations, but by rational senses worthy of the divine law. First of all, then, it must be confessed that in certain matters words can do more and avail more than bodies, since what the army of many nations could not accomplish, what could not be obtained by iron and arms, this is accomplished by words; and I do not say by holy words or words of God, but by certain words which are held among men, which how I should name I do not know; yet they are composed by a useless art, of which art let that be the name which each pleases to call it. There is, then, as I said, among men some work that is accomplished by words; which work, however, is such that it cannot be fulfilled by however great the strength of body. For example, there were in Egypt enchanters and magicians. Who among men can by strength of body change a rod into a serpent, which is reported to have been done by them, or who can by the powers of body turn water into blood? Yet the enchanters and magicians of the Egyptians did this. For Moses had first done these things; but because the king of Egypt knew that these things could be done by a certain art of words which is held among men, he thought that Moses too had done these things not by the power of God, but by magical art, and that what he had done by human art, this he was pretending to be done by the power of God. He immediately summons the enchanters and magicians of the Egyptians. Between him who was working by the power of God and those who were invoking demons he makes there be a contest. Yet the contrary power likewise makes the rod a serpent, as the power of God had done; but the serpent which had been made by the power of God swallowed up and devoured all those serpents which by magical art had been turned from rods into serpents: for the demonic power could not restore to good the evil which it had made out of good. It could make a serpent out of a rod, but it could not give back a rod out of the serpent; and therefore all are consumed by that rod which by the power of God had been turned into a serpent. But afterward, by the divine power, it is restored to its own nature, so that it might confess the Lord of nature. The enchanters of the Egyptians made water too be turned into blood, but they could not again turn blood into water…
Numbers 22:4 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.5
But that you may know that the king thought something of this sort, understand it from the words of Scripture, which I learned expounded by a certain teacher who had come to believe from among the Hebrews. It is written thus: "And Moab said to the elders of Midian: now this assembly will lick up all who are round about us, as the calf licks up the grass of the field." That teacher, then, who had come to believe from among the Hebrews, would say: why, he says, did he use such an example, saying: as the calf licks up the grass of the field? For this reason, without doubt, because the calf breaks off the grass from the field with its mouth and with its tongue, as with a sickle, cuts whatever it finds; so also this people, like a calf, fights with mouth and lips and has its arms in words and prayers. Knowing this, therefore, the king sends to Balaam, that he too may deliver words contrary to words and prayers against prayers. And do not wonder if there is something of this sort in the magical art; for Scripture too indicates that this art exists, but forbids the use of it. For Scripture indicates also that demons exist, but forbids that they be worshipped and entreated. Rightly, then, it also forbids the use of magic, because the ministers of magicians are apostate angels and malign spirits and unclean demons; for none of the holy spirits obeys a magician. A magician cannot invoke Michael, he cannot invoke Raphael nor Gabriel; much more can a magician not invoke Almighty God nor his Son Jesus Christ our Lord nor his Holy Spirit. We alone have received the power of invoking God the Father; we alone have the power of invoking his only-begotten Jesus Christ. But this is what I say: he who has now received the power of invoking Christ cannot again invoke demons, and he who has been made a partaker of the Holy Spirit ought not further to summon unclean spirits; for if he invokes unclean spirits, the Holy Spirit flees from him. They are magicians who invoke Beelzebul. In fact, that people knew this, and therefore, lying against my Lord Jesus and saying false things, they said: "this man casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons." But the Savior, knowing that it is indeed true that a certain Beelzebul is prince of demons, did not in this convict them of falsehood, but answered them: "if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?" Whence it is established that there are certain evil demons who, when invoked by magicians, are present to them for evil, not for good; for they are ready to do harm, but they do not know how to do good. These demons, then, by a certain art and composition of words, had passed, so to speak, into friendship with Balaam, and, relying on their friendships, he seemed great among men. On account of this, therefore, the king sends to him and says: "come now, and curse for me this people, for it is stronger than we, if perhaps we may be able to strike some of them and drive them out from the land." It seems to me that this king does not entirely trust in Balaam the diviner, being, I believe, greatly terrified by the report of the mighty deeds that had been done among the people of God; and therefore he says, if perhaps the curses of Balaam may prevail even to this extent, that he may be able to strike some of them, and to put the rest to flight, terrified, and drive them from their own land.
Numbers 22:6 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 14.2
We meanwhile say that by a certain dispensation and wisdom of God all things in this world are so arranged that absolutely nothing is idle with God, whether it be evil, whether it be good. But let us explain more plainly what is said. God did not make wickedness; yet, though he could prohibit it when it has been invented by others, he does not prohibit it, but uses it, together with those very ones by whom it is held, for necessary purposes. For through those very persons in whom wickedness is, he makes those illustrious and approved who strive toward the glory of the virtues. For if wickedness were destroyed, there would surely be no one to oppose the virtues. But virtue, having nothing contrary to it, would not shine forth, nor become more splendid and more tested. And a virtue not proved nor tested is not even a virtue. But if these things be said without the testimonies of the divine words, they will seem contrived rather and composed by human art than true and beyond doubt. Let us therefore inquire whether the divine volumes also contain a meaning of this kind. Let us come to Joseph. Take away the wickedness of his brothers, take away envy, take away all that parricidal scheme by which they raged against their brother, to the point of selling him: if you take these away, see how great a dispensation of God you will at the same time have destroyed; for you will at the same time cut off all those things that were done in Egypt through Joseph for the salvation of all. There would have been no interpretation of Pharaoh's dream, if through the envy of his brothers Joseph had not been sold away and come into Egypt; no one would have understood what God had revealed to the king, no one would have gathered grain in Egypt, no one would have provided for the necessity of the famine by wise foresight; Egypt would have perished, the neighboring regions too would have perished by famine, Israel itself and its seed would have perished, and seeking bread it would not have entered Egypt, nor would the sons of Israel have gone out from it with the wonders of the Lord; nowhere would there have been the plagues upon the Egyptians nor those mighty works which God did through Moses and Aaron; no one would have walked through the Red Sea with dry footsteps; mortal life would not have known the food of manna; no streams of waters would have burst forth from the following rock; the law would not have been given by God to men; the things that are recounted in Exodus, in Leviticus, in Numbers too and Deuteronomy would not have come to the knowledge of the human race; certainly no one would have entered the paternal inheritance and the land of promise. And, to come to these things which are in hand, take away the wickedness of Balak, this most evil king, by which he desires to curse Israel, remove his cunning, by which he invites Balaam to curse the people: you will likewise have taken away God's dispensation toward the sons of Israel and the favor of his providence, and nowhere will those prophecies exist which through the mouth of Balaam are prophesied both to the sons of Israel and to the nations. But if you desire this to be confirmed also by testimonies of the New Testament, if you take away the wickedness of Judas and destroy his betrayal, you will likewise have taken away the cross of Christ and his passion; and if there be no cross, the principalities and powers are not stripped, nor are they triumphed over on the wood of the cross. If there had been no death of Christ, surely there would have been no resurrection either, nor would anyone have existed as the firstborn from the dead. But if there had been no firstborn from the dead, neither would there have been for us any hope of resurrection. In a like manner, then, let us suppose concerning the devil himself, for instance, that he had been constrained by some necessity, so as not to sin, or that after his sin the will to wickedness had been taken away from him: there would at the same tim…
Numbers 22:6-12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.6
He adds moreover: "for I know," he says, "that those whom you have blessed will be blessed, and those whom you have cursed will be cursed." I do not believe that the king knew that whomever Balaam had blessed would be blessed; but it seems to me that he says these things for the sake of flattery, so that, exalting and extolling his art, he may render him more ready for the crime. For the magical art does not know how to bless, because neither do demons know how to do good. Isaac and Jacob know how to bless, and all the saints; none of the impious knows how to bless. But at length the envoys come to Balaam. For "there came," he says, "the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, and the divinations in their hands." Among those arts of divination which human curiosity has devised, there are certain things which Scripture indeed has named "divinations," but which Gentile custom calls either tripods or cauldrons or by other terms of this kind; which, as if consecrated to this very purpose, are wont to be moved and handled by these people. Divine Scripture indeed names a certain ephod in the vernacular tongue in the prophets, which they hand down to be the garment of those who prophesy. Yet in the divine Scriptures one thing is held to be prophecy, another divination; for it says: "there shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God is about to do." Divination, then, is utterly renounced; for it is fulfilled by the work and ministry of demons, as we have already said above. Balaam, therefore, having received the divinations, when the demons were wont to come to him, sees indeed that the demons are put to flight, but that God is present; and therefore he says that he is consulting God, because he nowhere sees the demons accustomed to obey him. God himself, then, comes to Balaam, not because he was worthy that God should come to him, but so that those might be put to flight who were accustomed to be present to him for cursing and doing harm; for from this point God was already providing for his people. He is present, then, and God says to him: "why have these men come to you?" And Balaam said to God: "Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent them to me, saying: behold, a people has gone out from Egypt, and has covered the face of the earth, and this one sits beside me; come now, therefore, and curse it for me, if perhaps we may be able to strike it and drive it out." And God said to Balaam: "you shall not go with them, nor shall you curse the people; for it is blessed."
Numbers 22:9-35 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 14.1
There are many things that remained over for us when we were expounding the reading about Balaam and his donkey; and since it is a discourse bound by time, held in the church for the sake of edification, it did not have space enough for us to set forth each single word of Scripture in such a way that nothing at all should be left undiscussed, and to apply an explanation to each point, since indeed a style of this kind belongs rather to commentaries. Therefore those matters that seem worthy of inquiry we take up again, and, discussing them, we shall attempt to treat them with what explanation we can and to bring them into the open. But there is a further difficulty in the explanation of the history itself, namely how, when it is said that God came by night to Balaam first and asked who the men were that had come to him, and Balaam had answered that they had been sent by Balak, the son of Zippor, saying, "Come, and curse for me the people," God answered him, "You shall not go with them, nor shall you curse the people; for it is blessed"; yet again a second time it is said that God came to him by night and told him to go with them, but to observe this, that the word which God should give in his mouth, this he should speak; and again a third time, as he was going, an angel of God met him, to whom his journey seemed so far from proper or fitting that he even wished to kill him, had not the donkey, seeing the angel whom Balaam could not see, turned aside. And nevertheless, after he is blamed by the angel for having wished to go, he is again permitted by that very angel to go; only that he should keep the word which God should give in his mouth, so as to bring forth this alone and nothing further. All these things, then, have a difficult explanation; yet, as we have already said above, we shall give you in a few words occasions of understanding, so that you too may do what is written: that when these things are heard the wise may become wiser, and, "Give occasion to the wise, and he will be wiser." But before we come to the matter, we shall not even omit this, which, attending rather curiously, we observed in this place. In the letters of the Hebrews the name of God, that is God or Lord, is said to be written differently; for one thing is written for any god whatever, and another for God himself, of whom it is said: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, God is one." This God of Israel, then, the one God and creator of all, is written with a certain fixed sign of letters, which among them is called the Tetragrammaton. Whenever, therefore, God is written in the Scriptures under this sign, there is no doubt that it is said of the true God and creator of the world. But whenever it is written with other, that is, common, letters, it is held uncertain whether it is said of the true God or of one of those of whom the Apostle says: "although there are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords; yet for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we through him." Those, then, who read the Hebrew letters say that in this place God is not set down under the sign of the Tetragrammaton; concerning which let him inquire who can. But also, as to what God said to Balaam, as if asking who those men were, it is inquired why he seems to be ignorant; and again, as to what he says: "you shall not curse the people; for it is blessed," whether it can be so understood as if he had said: "you shall not curse my people."
Numbers 22:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.7
Here a deeper question arises, and I do not know whether it is fitting to lay bare a matter of such profound mystery and to bring it forth to the crowds—and those crowds who come to the hearing of the word of God only for a few days and immediately depart, nor tarry longer in the meditation of the word of God; yet for the sake of those who are studious and thirst to hear and are able to grasp the spiritual sense, we shall say a few things out of many. Something of this sort, then, can be objected. Suppose Balaam invokes the demons, suppose he curses the people, suppose the invoked demons do what they can: can God not defend the people from the demons and destroy their power in doing harm? What need was there, then, that he himself should come to Balaam and forbid the accustomed demons to approach, lest they even attempt or endeavor to wish to injure his people? To these things, then, although not all that can occur are to be brought forth, nevertheless we shall say in part that God does not wish to condemn the race of demons before the time. For the demons themselves also know that the present age contains their time. For this reason, in fact, they even begged the Lord that he would not torment them before the time, nor send them into the abyss. And on account of this he has not removed the devil from the principality of this age, because there is still need of his work for the perfection of those who are to be crowned; there is still need of his work for the exercises of the contests and the victories of the blessed. So, then, neither does he wish to draw away the rest of the demons violently, before the time, from the intention of their purpose; and therefore from the beginning he did not permit them to be invoked through Balaam, lest perhaps, being invoked, they should be destroyed before the time and be done away with, while God defended his people. For it is one thing if a demon requests from God someone to tempt, as in the case of Job, and receives power over him with a certain distinction—for example, that it be said to him: I give you all his goods into your power, but do not touch him himself; or again: I give you power over him, but guard his soul. And it is another thing if, at a magician's demand and with certain adjurations extorting it, the demons rage without any restriction; in which case, if freedom of will be preserved for them, they will give the people of God over to destruction; but if freedom of will be taken away, this would be to have condemned the rational creature and to have brought judgment before the time and to have hindered all those who, contending against them in the contest, could be crowned. For if freedom of will be taken from the demons, no one further will assail the athletes of Christ; but with no one assailing, there will be no contest, and with the contest removed there will be no reward, no victory. For this reason, therefore, God uses such a way, so that both the people, still untrained and who had newly begun to be drawn away from the worship of demons, may not be handed over to the demons, and responses may be delivered to the invoking magician, and the race of demons may not be stripped of the power of free will. And therefore God comes beforehand and forbids Balaam to go and to invoke the demons for cursing—if only he had ceased from his cupidity. But because he persists in the desire for money, God, indulging the freedom of will, permits him to go again, yet puts his word into his mouth, forbidding the curse to be made through the demons, so that he might give place to blessings, and in place of curses he makes Balaam bring forth blessings and prophecies, which could edify not only Israel, but also the rest of the nations. For if his prophecies have been inserted by Moses into the sacred volumes, how much more were they written down by those who dwelt then in Mesopotamia, among whom Balaam was held magnificent, and of whose art it is established that they were disciples? From him…
Numbers 22:20-28 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 14.3
This Balaam, as we said above, was a diviner, foreknowing things to come sometimes by the ministry of demons and by magic art. He is asked by King Balak to curse the people of Israel; envoys come, they carry instruments of divination in their hands, the nations stand astonished and anxious, awaiting what Balaam may answer, of whom they were persuaded that he was held worthy of divine conversations. See now how wisdom makes this vessel, prepared unto dishonor, to profit unto the usefulness not only of one nation, but of almost the whole world, and to this man, to whom demons were accustomed to appear, God appears, forbidding the journey of the evil work. Balaam is amazed and marvels at the authority of the one forbidding; for it was not usual for evil to be displeasing to demons. But meanwhile he sends back the envoys, saying that he cannot do anything except the word which God should give in his mouth. The envoys return again, again he inquires, again he is troublesome, again he desires to hear; for one who is greedy does not easily lack an eye to reward. What, then, does he hear a second time from God? "If these men came to call you," he says, "arise and go with them." In which indeed God yields to the will of his greed, that what is written may be fulfilled: "he let them go according to the desire of their heart, they shall go in their own wills," yet nevertheless the counsel of the divine dispensation is fulfilled; for it is said to him: "the word, whatever I shall give in your mouth, this you shall speak." If Balaam had been worthy, God would have placed his word not in his mouth, but in his heart. But now, since in his heart there was the desire of reward and the greed of money, the word of God is placed not in his heart, but in his mouth. For a wondrous and great dispensation was being carried out, that, since the words of the prophets, which were contained within the court of Israel, could not reach the nations, through Balaam, in whom faith was held by all the nations, the secret mysteries concerning Christ might become known also to the nations, and he might carry a great treasure to the nations, borne not so much by heart and understanding as by mouth and speech. But that we may not delay over each point—for there is no time for all things to be resolved—Balaam, having mounted his donkey, went along the way; an angel met him, that one without doubt who was present with the sons of Israel. He opens the mouth of the donkey, that Balaam may be reproved through her, and that he who seemed a diviner and wise might be confuted by the voice of a dumb beast.
Numbers 22:21-33 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 13.8
But let us return to the subject. Balaam is troublesome to God and almost extorts that it be permitted him to go to curse the sons of Israel and to invoke the demons, to whom God had already come. He mounts the donkey; there meets him the angel who kept watch on behalf of Israel, concerning whom it is written, the Lord saying to Moses: "my angel will go with you." To him, then, pressing on to go, it is granted; on the way he is crushed by the donkey; but the magician sees the demons, he does not see the angel; the donkey, however, sees it. Not because she was worthy to see the angel, just as neither was she worthy to speak, but so that Balaam might be confuted and, as Scripture says in a certain place, a mute animal, answering with human voice, might rebuke the madness of the prophet. But since many things have now been said concerning the history, let us touch also on some things concerning the allegory at the end. If you see the contrary power assailing the people of God, you understand who it is that sits upon the donkey; and if you consider men, how they are cast headlong by demons, you understand what the donkey is. For thus in the Gospel too you will understand Jesus sending his disciples to the donkey, which was tied, and to its colt, that the disciples may loose her and lead her, that he himself may sit upon her. And perhaps this donkey—that is, the Church—formerly bore Balaam, but now Christ, from the time when she was loosed by the disciples and, released from the bonds by which she had been bound, that the Son of God might sit upon her and with her might enter into the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: "rejoice, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king comes to you, meek and sitting upon a beast of burden." By the beast of burden—that is, the donkey—he means, without doubt, those who believe from among the Jews, and by the young colt those, surely, who from among the nations believe in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 22:22-31 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 14.4
But after these things it now seems fitting to touch also on something of allegory. This Balaam, who is interpreted "a vain people," seems to me to bear the person of the scribes and Pharisees of the Jewish people. But Balak, who is interpreted "exclusion" or "devouring," is himself also to be understood as bearing the person of some one of the spiritual contrary powers of this world, which desires to exclude and devour Israel—not that Israel which is according to the flesh, but that which is according to the spirit. This contrary power, then, wishing the spiritual Israel to be destroyed and utterly extinguished, uses no other ministers than the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees; it invites these, to these it promises rewards and prizes. But they, just as this Balaam does, feign that they refer all things to God and act with zeal for God; for they say: "search the Scriptures and see that a prophet does not arise out of Galilee"; and again they say: "we have a law, and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." Through each of these things the scribes and Pharisees indeed seem to have zeal for God, but a feigned one. But the donkey on which Balaam sat, since Scripture says: "men and beasts you will save, O Lord," can be understood as that part of the believers which, whether for foolishness or for innocence, is compared to animals. For thus also the Apostle says: "consider your calling, brothers, that not many among you are wise, not many powerful, not many noble; but the foolish things of the world God has chosen, that he may confound the wise." These, then, such as they are—as the deeds that were done in the parables in the Gospel signify—were held in a manner subjected and bound by those most evil masters, the scribes and Pharisees, but they are loosed by the Lord, not indeed through the Lord himself, but through his disciples; for he himself says to the disciples: "go into the village that is opposite you; and you will find a donkey tied and her colt; loose them and bring them." As, therefore, in the Gospel not the Lord himself, but the disciples loose the donkey, so also here the mouth of the donkey is opened not by God himself, but by an angel; and as in the Gospels those who do not see reprove those who see, so also here those who were dumb reprove those who speak. And this is what the Lord said: "Father, I give you thanks, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones." The scribes, therefore, and Pharisees were they who sat upon this donkey and held her bound. Against these, then, the angel is angry, and, but for a certain foresight of things to come, he would indeed have destroyed them, but would have saved the donkey, who saw and reverenced him who came to the vineyard and stood among the vineyards. Yet he crushed the feet of the one sitting upon her against the wall, and therefore perhaps that ancient rider of hers cannot walk, nor come to him who says: "come to me all you who labor and are burdened." Yet the donkey comes, led by the disciples, and on her, on whom then sat Balaam greedy for reward, now Jesus sits. And do not marvel if you see him, whom we said bears the form of the scribes and teachers of the people, prophesying about Christ; for we read that Caiaphas also did this, who said: "it is expedient for you that one man perish for the whole people"; but this, it says, because he was high priest of that year, he prophesied. Balaam therefore also prophesies about Christ, and therefore let no one be exalted, even if he prophesy, even if he deserve foreknowledge, but let him return to the saying of the Apostle, who, looking to these things, says: "whether prophecies, they will be abolished; whether tongues, they will cease; whether knowledge, it will be destroyed." And what, then, is it that remains? "Faith," he says, "and hope and charity; but the greater of these is charity." And "charity alone," he says, "is th…
Numbers 22:28 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
I even think those birds blessed, which were offered for the birth of the Lord; and just as I marvel at Balaam's ass and heap up her happiness, because she was worthy not only to see the angel of God, but also, with her mouth unlocked, to break forth into human speech, so much more do I proclaim and exalt these birds, that they were offered for our Lord and Savior before the altar.
Numbers 23:7 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 15.2
But let us see what Balak king of Moab, who summoned him from the midst of the rivers from the mountains of the East, says to him. "Come," he says, "and curse me Jacob, and come, curse me Israel." In Latin speech the repetition seems almost superfluous, which says: "Curse me Jacob, and curse me Israel." But in the Greek text, under the name of Israel, there is in the cursing an addition of a preposition, which our translators omitted, either believing it to be said less fittingly, or reckoning that no force could be added to the expression from this. But we, though contrary to custom, coin an expression, so that we may gather the sense in full; it can therefore be said: "Come, curse me Jacob, and come, over-curse me Israel." By which it is shown that the speech was repeated for this reason, that Balak seems to demand a curse upon Israel with greater force and greater intensity than upon Jacob. For as long as anyone is only Jacob, that is, placed only in acts and works, he is assailed with lesser curses. But when he has advanced and has begun to sharpen and rouse the inner man, with the eye of the mind unveiled, to see God, then he will be assailed by the enemy not only with curses, but even with over-curses, that is, with more violent darts of curses. But at that time indeed Balaam's mouth was "full of cursing and bitterness, and under his tongue was labor and pain," and "he sat in ambush with the rich"; for he was awaiting rewards from the rich king, that "in secret places he might slay the innocent." But God, "who alone always does wonders," works salvation out of enemies; for he cast a word into his mouth, although his heart could not yet receive the word of God. For there was still in his heart the greed for reward, on account of which even after the word of God, which he had in his mouth, he said to Balak: "Come, and I will give you counsel," and he taught him how he might put a stumbling-block in the sight of the children of Israel, that they might eat things sacrificed to idols and might commit fornication. On account of which the people also fell, and a great plague came upon them, until Phinehas, having slain the Israelite who was fornicating with the Midianite woman, appeased the wrath of the Lord. And after these things, it says, Phinehas led out an army against the Midianites, and they killed twelve thousand men, and Balaam son of Beor by the sword. But these things we have introduced before their time, by a kind of digression, in order to show that Balaam had the word of God not in his heart, but only in his mouth. Meanwhile, what he brings forth, what he speaks, he speaks from the word of God, and therefore what he says is the word of God.
Numbers 23:7 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 15.1
Although the order of the readings which are recited demands rather that we speak of those things which the reader has set forth, nevertheless, since some of the brethren earnestly ask that rather those things which are written concerning the prophecy of Balaam be brought forward for the discourse of our discussion, I have thought it right to satisfy not so much the order of the readings as the desires of the hearers. First of all, then, let us inquire concerning Balaam himself, why in the Scriptures he is set forth now as blameworthy, now as praiseworthy. For he is blameworthy when, though forbidden by God to come to the king, he persists in coming, and, greedy for reward, consults God again, again inquires, until he is left to his own desires and goes in his own wishes. He is culpable when he builds altars and places victims upon them for demons and by magical apparatus seeks divine counsels. He is culpable when he gives that most wicked counsel, that the people be deceived through the Midianite women and the worship of idols. Again he is shown to be praiseworthy, when the word of God is placed in his mouth, when the Spirit of God comes upon him, when he prophesies concerning Christ, when he foretells to Jews and Gentiles the future mysteries concerning the coming of Christ, when instead of curses he bestows blessings upon the people and exalts the name of Israel above visible glory with mystical utterances. Since, then, divine Scripture indicates concerning him things so diverse and so varied, it seems very difficult to me to determine with any definiteness his person, to whom not only this diversity may suit, but to whom that also may be fitted which he himself, as though prophesying, says concerning himself: "Let my soul die among the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous." But also through the prophet Micah the Lord gives such a testimony concerning him, where he says: "My people, what have I done to you? Answer me; for I called you back from the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I freed you, and I sent before your face Moses and Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted against you, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him from the ropes even to Gilgal, that the righteousness of the Lord might be known." He shows, then, through these words that, in order that the righteousness of the Lord might be recognized, for this reason Balaam son of Beor answered to king Balak all those things which are reported as written in the books. And who, do you think, will be found of such a kind as to be able to show from Balaam's very answers that the righteousness of God is made manifest in them? For truly, if the word of God has been placed in his mouth, and the Spirit of God has come upon him, and the righteousness of God is recognized and made manifest from his answers, then in every way the things which are said by him must be believed to be nothing other than prophetic and divine. And yet we scarcely read anywhere written that the Spirit of God came upon any of the prophets; but rather "the vision which he saw," or "the taking up of the word of God," or "the word of God came to" this one or that one, and certain other such things we read concerning the prophets. But that the Spirit of God came upon any of the prophets, I do not for the present recall to have read, except that concerning David I remember it thus written: "And the Spirit of God appeared," or "shone forth, upon David from that day and thereafter"—yet the Spirit of God was not "made" upon David. But concerning Saul I remember it thus written: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall fall upon you, and you shall prophesy with them, and you shall be turned into another man"; and again concerning the same it is said: "And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord confounded him"; and again: "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit was upon Saul, David took up the psaltery…
Numbers 23:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 15.3
He says, then: "What shall I curse, whom the Lord does not curse? Or what shall I over-curse, whom the Lord does not over-curse?" "Over-curses" we venture to say according to the manner of the Greek speech, desiring to show the force of the word from the addition of the preposition. What, then, shall we say? The Lord indeed does not curse Jacob, nor Israel, but does he perhaps curse some other? We read it written that the Lord says to the serpent: "Cursed are you among all the beasts of the earth"; and again to Adam: "Cursed is the earth in your works"; but also to Cain: "And now cursed are you from the earth, which opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hands"; and: "Cursed is everyone who makes a graven or molten image." But lest you think that these things are contained only in the old writings, you will find similar things also in the Gospels; for it is written that the Lord will say to those who are on the left: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire." But also when he says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" and: "Woe to you rich!" and each thing of this kind, with what else than curses does he seem to press them? But what shall we say to the fact that a commandment is given through the Apostle, where he says: "Bless and do not curse"? Does he, then, himself do that which he does not wish to be done by men—he who sets an example of life for men? It is not so. For God, when he curses any, designates the desert of him who is cursed, and pronounces sentence, inasmuch as neither the quality of the sin nor the disposition of the sinner escapes him. But since a man cannot know these things—for one cannot see or know the purpose and mind of another—therefore, even if he utters a curse with the intent of one judging or pronouncing sentence, there cannot be a just cause for cursing where the disposition of the sinner is unknown, especially since human vice knows how to utter curses precisely when it is perhaps provoked by insults or injuries. Wishing to cut away this vice, that we may not provoke curses with curses and insults with insults, the Apostle lays down a necessary commandment, that we bless and do not curse; whereby the vice of reviling may be cut away, not whereby the truth of judging—which is hidden from men—and the authority of pronouncing sentence may be destroyed.
Numbers 23:9 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 15.3
And nevertheless, what the reason is that the Lord does not curse Jacob nor Israel, let us hear more carefully from Balaam himself, or rather from the word which God placed in his mouth: "For from the peaks of the mountains," he says, "I shall behold him, and from the hills I shall understand him." Because, he says, Israel is placed upon lofty mountains and high hills, that is, in a lofty and steep life, for beholding and understanding which one does not easily become fit unless he ascends to eminent and lofty knowledge, therefore, he says, God does not curse him; for his life is high and exalted, not lowly and cast down. Yet this does not seem to me to have been said concerning that Israel which is Israel according to the flesh, but concerning that one whose conversation, as he walks upon the earth, is in heaven. Or if these words are to be referred also to that people, he rightly says with a distinction: "I shall behold and I shall understand," so as to signify a future time, that one without doubt when all Israel, coming to the faith of Christ, shall be saved and shall be beheld from the mountains and hills; from those, without doubt, who, rising together with Christ, shall have practiced a lofty and heavenly life upon the earth. But also the fact that he said concerning Jacob "I shall see," but concerning Israel "I shall understand," this too is to be taken with a most apt distinction, so that the one may be referred to visible acts, the other to invisible faith and intelligible knowledge. Or if we turn these things to the future age, that is, to the time of the resurrection, "Jacob I shall see" can be understood as said of the bodies, but "Israel I shall understand" can be understood to signify the spirits and souls of those who rise again. "Behold," he says, "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." This can indeed stand also according to the letter; for the people of Jacob alone is not mingled with the rest of men, nor is it reckoned among the other nations: for it had certain fixed privileges in its observances and in its ordinances, by which it was held to be set apart from the other nations. For just as the tribe of Levi is not mingled among the other tribes nor is numbered among them, in this same way all Israel too is neither mixed with the other nations nor reckoned among them. These things indeed will have been in that people according to the pattern of future good things; but the true Jacob and the spiritual Israel shall truly dwell alone among the nations. For if we have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and have come to the spiritual Judea, which is God's portion, and, placed on earth, have our conversation there, truly we are not reckoned among the other nations, nor are the borders of the remaining nations mingled with our borders, even if Sodom be restored to its ancient state and Egypt return to its condition, and whatever else of this kind is written in the prophets. Nevertheless, to that Jacob and spiritual Israel, when they shall have ascended to the church of the firstborn, none will be made equal, none will be mingled, even if these nations shall have been restored according to the prophetic sayings. For unless the branch of the wild olive has been grafted in and has become a partaker of the root of the olive's richness, how can it be associated and joined to Jacob or Israel, since without that root no one can be called either Jacob or Israel? Neither, then, if anyone of Jacob or Israel sins, can he be called Jacob or Israel; nor, if anyone of the nations has entered the church of the Lord, will he any longer be reckoned among the nations.
Numbers 23:10 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 15.3
"Who shall search out the seed of Jacob, and who shall number the peoples of Israel?" This is like that which is written: "God led Abraham outside and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if you can number them. And he said: So shall your seed be." "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." But Abraham indeed, and any other of men, or even of angels, and perhaps also of the higher powers, could not number the stars, nor the seed of Abraham, concerning which it is written: "So shall your seed be"; but God, concerning whom it is written: "who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by names," and who said: "I have given command to all the stars," is able to search out the seed of Jacob and to number the peoples of Israel. For he alone knows who is truly Jacob and who is truly Israel. For he does not look to him who is a Jew openly, nor to that circumcision which is openly in the flesh, but he sees him who is a Jew in secret, and who is circumcised in heart, not in flesh. He alone, then, is the one who can number and search out, and he, according to his ineffable and incomprehensible wisdom, in accordance with that heavenly pattern which he alone can know, has appointed also these numbers which we have in hand; in which he commanded that, according to their kindreds, according to the houses of their families, by name every male be numbered head by head from twenty years and upward, everyone who goes forth in the host of Israel, and there is gathered a certain sacred number of them, concerning which we have already spoken above, as the Lord granted. But this number is sacred and pleasing to God only then, when it is numbered at his own command. But if anyone should wish to number contrary to the commandment of the Lord, though he be David, though a great prophet, he acts against the law and is reproved through the prophet and suffers those things which we read written in the second book of Kingdoms. He alone, then, who numbers the multitude of the stars and who has brought forth all things by measure and number and weight, searches out the seed of Jacob and numbers the peoples of Israel.
Numbers 23:10 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The soul is in a certain sense mortal — and blessed, if it dies for sin. It was precisely of this death that Balaam spoke, when he prophesied, praying in the Divine Spirit: "May my soul die among the souls of the righteous." It was precisely of this death that Balaam prophesied wondrously, and in a word that came from God, wished for himself the most beautiful thing, for he wished to die for sin, in order to live for God. And therefore he said: "May my soul die the death of the righteous, and may my seed be as their seed!"
Numbers 23:10 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 15.4
After these things he seems to prophesy certain things as though concerning himself, when he says: "Let my soul die among the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous." But this, as far as regards the person of that Balaam and that Israel, neither happened nor could happen; for he died not among them, but by them. Rather, then, as we have said, it will suit the person of those who, although in the present age they are held to be a vain people, because they are without the grace of the Holy Spirit, yet at the end of the age, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have come in, and all that prophecy which is spoken concerning Israel shall have been fulfilled in the spiritual Israel, then their soul shall die with the souls of the righteous. For it will take up in itself the faith of Christ, so that they too may say: "We who were baptized in Christ were baptized in his death. For we were buried together with him through baptism into death," and again: "For if we die together, we shall also reign together." And thus it will truly be fulfilled for the intelligible Balaam, that his soul may die among the souls of the righteous. But that which he says: "and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous," could indeed be understood also of that Balaam according to this, that those magi who, coming from the East, first adored Jesus, seem to be of his seed, whether through succession of lineage or through the handing down of a teaching. For it is evidently established that they recognized the star which Balaam had foretold would arise in Israel, and that thus they came and adored the king who was born in Israel. Yet it will suit also that people according to what we said above; for not so much they themselves as their seed will become as the seed of the righteous, namely of those who, believing from among the nations, have been justified in Christ. Hence it is manifest that, as the Apostle says: "neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but faith, which works through love." And therefore let no one either boast in the antiquity of circumcision or glory in the newness of uncircumcision, but, as the Apostle says: "let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone." So finally the prophet too says: "Behold, the man and his work"; and the reward is said to be "in the sight of the Lord," that "he may render to each according to his works," in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Numbers 23:11 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.1
In the previous treatise we attempted, so far as was possible, to explain the first parts of Balaam's prophecy. Now we take up the beginning of the second prophecy, so that, if the Lord deigns to inspire us, we may bring forward for the assembly, to the best of our strength, whatever occurs to us concerning this one as well. For it seemed to me unfitting, although these matters appear difficult, to interrupt the treatment of them, so as not to expound the individual points that we are able to grasp. Therefore King Balak, as if astonished and stricken by those things which he saw being said by Balaam contrary to his hope — for he was hearing blessings instead of curses — no longer bearing it, interrupts his words and says: "What have you done to me? I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them with a blessing." The bitter king did not endure the sweetness of blessings, but seeks curses, demands curses; for he is of the kindred of that one to whom the Lord said: "Cursed are you above all the beasts of the earth."
Numbers 23:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.1
But what did he answer him — he in whose mouth God had placed the word? "Shall I not," he says, "take care to speak whatever God puts into my mouth?"
Numbers 23:13 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.1
At this Balak, thinking that Balaam had been terrified by the multitude of the Israelite people and had therefore not dared to utter curses, believed that a change of place would profit him, and says to him: "Come yet with me to another place, from which you will not see them, but you will see some part of them, though you will not see them all, and curse them for me from there." Mad man, who would believe that the grace of Israel could be concealed by the interposition of a place, and who did not know that a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden.
Numbers 23:14-17 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.1
"And he took him," it says, "to the lookout of the field, to the top of the hewn mountain, and there he built seven altars, and placed a calf and a ram upon the altar. And Balaam said to Balak: Stand by your sacrifice, but I will go to inquire of God. And God met Balaam, and put a word into his mouth and said: Without doubt, return to Balak, and you shall speak these things. But he — that is, Balak — was standing beside his burnt offerings, and all the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him: What has the Lord spoken?" The matter indeed is carried on with profane sacrifices, and divination is sought by magical art; yet God, willing that grace should abound there where sin had superabounded, deigns to be present and does not flee from these things which were being done not according to Israelite discipline but according to the error of the gentiles. But he is present not to the sacrifices, but to the one coming to meet him, and there he gives his word and there foretells the mysteries to come, where above all the faith and wonder of the gentiles hangs, so that those who are unwilling to believe our prophets may believe their own soothsayers and seers.
Numbers 23:18 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.2
"And taking up," it says, "his parable, he said." By a parable, then, Balaam says: "Rise up, Balak, and hear; give ear as a witness, son of Zippor. Not as a man is God deceived, nor as a son of man is he frightened; when he has said, shall he not do it? shall he speak, and not abide by it? Behold, I have been taken up to bless; I will bless, and I will not turn it away. There shall be no labor in Jacob, nor shall sorrow be seen in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, the glories of princes are with him. God, who led him out of Egypt, his glory is as that of a unicorn. For there shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish. Behold, a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion; it shall not sleep until it devours the prey, and it shall drink the blood of the slain." This is the content of the second prophecy in the words of Balaam. Let us therefore see first this very thing which he says: "Rise up, Balak, and hear." For if he had not said above that he was standing beside his burnt offering, it would not seem greatly worth inquiring why he said: "Rise up, Balak." But now, since he urges to rise up the one whom he had just said was standing, the prophetic utterance is not to be passed over idly. Therefore, in that he said above that he was standing at his burnt offering, he indicates that he was not standing rightly. For he was standing, set in idolatry, and was standing as an enemy of God — which was rather not to stand, but to fall. So then, as one who ought to fall from that standing — nay rather, as one who had already fallen — thus now, by prophetic understanding, he commands him to rise up; inasmuch as, by the very fact that he had seemed to stand in idolatry, he had fallen. Let him therefore rise up, such a one as he is, let him rise up in mind, let him rise up in faith, and let him become a witness — if indeed he is converted, a witness of faith; but if he remains unbelieving, that he may be a witness of his own condemnation.
Numbers 23:19 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.4
After this he says: "When he has said, shall he not do it? shall he speak, and not abide by it?" The passage is to be read thus, as if he spoke in the manner of one asking: he — that is, God — what he says, will he not also do? and the things he has spoken, will he not abide in them? Since indeed men do not do what they say, and through the vice of human frailty do not abide in the things they speak; for man is changeable, but God is unchangeable. But someone may object and say: how then did God not abide in the things he spoke concerning Nineveh, that after three days it should be overthrown? nor in the things he spoke concerning David, where death had been promised for three days, to lay waste the people, yet within one day, up to the hour of the midday meal, it ceased? And perhaps it will seem that these things which are said by way of question are not to be taken altogether as fixed, but that there is a certain figure of speech which seems to show something intermediate, yet does not declare the force of a fixed and irrevocable statement — so that something is seen to be said more moderately in what is written, "When he has said, shall he not do it?" than if it had been written, "When he has said, he will by all means do it." But let us also review the very passages of Scripture which are set down either in Jonah or in the books of Kingdoms, lest perhaps there too, as is customary, the divine Scripture may hold something of a secret. It is written, then, in Jonah: "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathi, saying: Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it, for the cry of its wickedness has ascended to me." And after the whale was commanded, and it cast Jonah out onto the land, again it is written: "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying: Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it according to the preaching which I spoke to you." And Jonah indeed preached and said: "Yet three days" — or, as the Hebrews say they have it written, "yet forty days" — "and Nineveh shall be destroyed." But the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and clothed themselves in sackcloth, from the least to the greatest of them. And a little later: "And God saw their works," it says, "that they were turned from their evil ways; and he repented" — or, as we read in other copies, "God was entreated concerning the evil which he had spoken to do to them, and did not do it." Observe, then, in these things which we have taken from the prophet, that it is not found said in the words of God, by which he spoke to the prophet: "Yet three days and Nineveh shall be destroyed"; but Jonah, "when he was entering," it says, "into the city about a three days' journey," himself said: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed," so that this word, which was spoken and was not fulfilled, appears to have been uttered by Jonah rather than by God. But let us also bring forward from the second book of Kingdoms what is written, where, when David had numbered the people, "the word of the Lord came," it says, "to Gad the seer prophet, saying: Go and speak to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I will raise up against you; choose for yourself one of these, which I shall do to you. And Gad went in to David, and announced to him, saying: Either there shall come to you for three years famine upon your land, or for three months that you flee before your enemies who pursue you, or for three days let there be death in your land; now therefore know and see what I shall answer him who sent me. And David said to Gad: I am in very great straits on every side. But let me rather fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, and let me not fall into the hands of men. And the Lord gave death in Israel from morning until the hour of the midday meal, and there died of the people, from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand men. And the angel of God stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy i…
Numbers 23:19 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.3
But let us hear what he announces to him. "Not as a man," he says, "is God deceived, nor as a son of man is he himself frightened." Do not hold, he says, this opinion about God, so as to think that he is like a man who can be thwarted in the things he speaks. For men are hindered by many occasions and vices, so that what they say is not true. For either they speak in anger, and when the anger ceases they have spoken in vain, or for the sake of fear or desire or boastfulness and other things like these; and indeed vain and empty will be everything whatsoever they have spoken while vice held sway. But God, in whom there is no passion, no frailty, says everything he says according to the merits of the causes; and therefore he can never be thwarted, because whatever is brought forth by reason cannot be devoid of reason. God, therefore, is not like a man who speaks in vain, nor is he frightened as a son of man — or, as we read in other copies: nor does he frighten as a son of man. In men, terror too sometimes changes a resolve; but God, who is above all things, by whom could he be frightened so as to change his resolve? But if we take it according to what we said is read in other copies, that is: "nor does he frighten as a son of man," this will seem to be said: that men indeed sometimes make terrors and threats out of boastfulness, even at times against those whom they cannot harm; but God does not frighten men as one who cannot punish, but even if he frightens, he frightens with reason; for he frightens in order to rebuke a man in the tribulation of the hearing, so that, deterred by the word of the threat, he who acts wickedly may amend himself, and the very punishment of his wicked deeds may not come upon him. God, therefore, does not frighten as a man does; for man, as we said, terrifies out of boastfulness, but God terrifies for the sake of amendment.
Numbers 23:20 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.5
But after this Balaam: "Behold," he says, "I have been taken up to bless; I will bless, and I will not turn it away." Balaam was taken up to bless not by Balak, but by God, who put a word into his mouth by which he should bless the people, and this blessing he does not turn away. For a human tongue cannot, even if it wishes, turn away the word of God.
Numbers 23:21 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.6
"The Lord his God is with him, the glories of princes are with him." For God never deserts his Israel. But let us see of what princes the glories are with this Israel. The glory of princes is power, principality, and kingdom. But since there are also certain princes who are to be driven from their principality, or perhaps have already been driven out, and into their place and principality are to be introduced those who are truly Israelites — all those glories which those princes had in the heavens, princes who did not keep their principality but forsook their eternal dwellings, this Israel and Jacob, who wrestled and prevailed, shall receive; and thus the glories of princes shall be with him.
Numbers 23:21 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.5
After this: "There shall be no labor," he says, "in Jacob, nor shall sorrow be seen in Israel." Openly in these words he announces the state of the life to come; for who is there who passes through this life without labor and sorrow? Not even if one be a Peter or a Paul. How is he not in labor and sorrow, when he is thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, thrice shipwrecked, is in the deep of the sea a day and a night, and endures countless other things which he writes about his labors and sorrows? But this will be fulfilled there, where it is said: "Sorrow and sadness and groaning have fled away." Yet this refers not to all, but only to those who by their merits shall have been Jacob and Israel; as was also that poor Lazarus, who indeed passed the present life in labor and sorrow, but there it is said to the rich man: "Remember, son, that you received your good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things. But now he is at rest here, while you are tormented." He, then, is Israel and Jacob, into whom labor and sorrow do not come. But that rich man was indeed himself also Israel according to the flesh; for it is said to him that his brothers have the law and the prophets, let them hear them; but because he was not Israel according to the spirit, therefore labor and sorrow came upon him.
Numbers 23:22 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.6
"God, who led him out of Egypt, his glory is as that of a unicorn." That Israel indeed was led out of this earthly Egypt, but this spiritual Israel out of the Egypt of the world and out of the power of darkness, and his glory is as that of a unicorn. The unicorn is said to be an animal formed in that shape which the very indication of its name signifies. We read this animal frequently set down in the divine Scriptures, but especially in Job its might and power are set forth by the words of God himself, in which — as in very many places — Christ is understood to be signified. And in the divine Scriptures we have often found a horn set down for a kingdom, just as the prophet also says: "The four horns are four kingdoms." Under the name of the unicorn, therefore, this seems to be shown in Christ: that everything which is, is his one horn, that is, his one kingdom. For the Father has subjected all things under his feet, until even the last enemy, death, is destroyed, and Christ, as a unicorn, holds the one kingdom of all, because, as it is written: "Of his kingdom there shall be no end." There shall be, then, he says, to him — that is, to that spiritual Israel — glory, as is the glory of the unicorn. For so the Lord himself also says in the Gospel: "Father, grant to them that, just as I and you are one, so these also may be one in us." And therefore a glory like the glory of the unicorn will be given to Israel, especially when he will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his glory.
Numbers 23:23 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.7
"There shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel; in due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish." Therefore, since it has now seemed good to us to discuss each single thing more carefully, it does not seem absurd if we also inquire what augury or divination is — since indeed it pleased Scripture to make mention of these, lest anyone perhaps ignorantly fall into them. It seems to me, then, that the foreknowledge of things to come, so far as concerns the thing itself, is something intermediate — that is, neither properly good nor properly evil; since sometimes even from the side of the devil a foreknowledge of things to come can reach the knowledge of men. But without doubt, when the time and occasion demand and it is the will of God, foreknowledge is also given by God to men through the prophets; and therefore we said that it cannot properly be called good, since it sometimes comes from evil, nor properly evil, since it sometimes descends from God. And although examples of this abundantly supply themselves even from the divine Scriptures, yet we believe it suffices if we use that which we read written in the books of Kingdoms, where the ark of God was captured by the Philistines and brought down to Azotus, and there "they brought it," it says, "into the house of Dagon, and Dagon was found to have fallen prone to the ground before the ark of the Lord's covenant. And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the men of Azotus and scattered them, and struck them in the buttocks." After this, it says, the ark entered into Accaron, and the men of Accaron sent and gathered all the satraps of the Philistines and gathered their priests and diviners, saying: "What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Show us how we shall send it back to its place." The priests and diviners answered: "If you send back the ark of the Lord God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but you shall surely give it a gift for your trespass, and then you shall be healed, and it shall be made known to you. But if not, his hand will not depart from you." And a little later: "And now," it says, "make a new cart, and take two cows that have calved, on which no yoke has been placed, and yoke the cows to the cart, and lead their calves back home away from them. And take the ark of the Lord, and place it upon the cart, and the golden vessels which you have offered to it for your trespass, place together upon the cart, and all its holy things; and send it away, and let it go; and see: if indeed it goes by its own way and ascends to its own borders, to Bethsamis, it is this that has done us these great evils; but if it does not go thither, we shall know that his hand has not touched us, but that these things happened to us by chance." Observe, then, in these things, how the priests and diviners consider by set signs the cause of the evils which had happened to the Philistines — whether it came from the hand of God and on account of the injury to the ark, or happened by chance — saying: "If it ascends by its own way and to its own borders, to Bethsamis, it is this that has done us these evils." Finally, in what follows it is reported: "And when they had placed the ark of the Lord upon the cart," it says, "they set the oxen straight on the way, over against the way that leads to Bethsamis, and they did not turn aside to the right or to the left." Who then, in these things, if he examines carefully, would say that this foreknowledge, which was foretold about the direction of the oxen, was either fortuitous or composed by some art, and not administered by a certain operation of demons — who greatly feared the power of the ark of the Lord, by which not only were the Philistines afflicted and punished, but the very worship of the demons was destroyed, since their images and temples fell down at the entrance of the ark of the Lord? There is, then, in the ministry of foreknowledge a certain operation of demons of this sort, which is gathered by…
Numbers 23:24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.8
After this: "Behold," it says, "a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion." In these words he seems to me to describe the confidence of the people believing in Christ, and the freedom which it has in faith, and the exultation which it bears in hope. For it is compared to a lion's cub while it presses toward perfection, glad and swift; but it is likened to a lion when it now obtains the things that are perfect. For just as the lion and the lion's cub fear no animal, no beast, but all things are subjected to them, so also to the perfect Christian, who takes up his cross and follows Christ, who can say: "For to me the world is crucified, and I to the world," all things are subjected, all things are trodden underfoot. For he despises and scorns all things that are in this world, and imitates him who is called the lion of the tribe of Judah and the lion's cub, because, just as he himself is the light of the world and gave to his disciples that they too should be the light of the world, so also, since he himself is a lion and a lion's cub, he ascribes to those who believe in him the name of lion and lion's cub. But see that these things are evidently said not about that people which existed then, but about this people which was to be; for it says: "Behold, a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion." He says the people that was to be would rise up. For if he were speaking of the one he was seeing, he would doubtless have said: "Behold, a people has risen up like a lion's cub." But it is certain that he speaks of that people, of which it is also written in the Psalms: "And they shall announce his righteousness to a people that shall be born, whom the Lord has made." This people, then, is a lion's cub while, still like newly born infants, they desire the reasonable and guileless milk; but a lion exulting, when, having become a man, it has put away the things that were of a little child.
Numbers 23:24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 16.9
"It shall not sleep until it devours the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain." In these words, who will be so contentious a champion of the historical narrative — nay rather, who will be found so brutish — as not to flee, shuddering at the sound of the letter, by very necessity to the sweetness of allegory? For how will this people, so praiseworthy, so magnificent, of which the discourse recounts such great praises, come to this, that it should drink the blood of the slain — when the eating of blood is forbidden by God with such strong precepts, so that even we who have been called from the gentiles are necessarily commanded to abstain, just as from the things sacrificed to idols, so also from blood? Let them tell us, then, who is this people that has the practice of drinking blood. These were the things which, hearing them in the Gospel also, those who followed the Lord from among the Jews were scandalized and said: "Who can eat flesh and drink blood?" But the Christian people, the faithful people, hears these things and embraces them and follows him who says: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in yourselves; for my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink." And indeed, he who said these things was wounded for men; for "he himself was wounded for our sins," as Isaiah says. But we are said to drink the blood of Christ not only by the rite of the sacraments, but also when we receive his words, in which life consists, just as he himself says: "The words which I have spoken are spirit and life." He himself, then, is the wounded one, whose blood we drink — that is, whose words of doctrine we receive. But those too were no less wounded who preached his word to us; for when we read the words of them also — that is, of his apostles — and gain life from them, we drink the blood of the slain. "It shall not," it says, "sleep until it devours the prey." For this people, which is compared to a lion's cub or a lion, will not rest nor sleep until it seizes the prey — that is, until it plunders the kingdom of heaven, because "from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent plunder it." But that you may more evidently recognize that these things are written about our people, which is confederated in the sacraments of Christ, hear how Moses too pronounces similar things elsewhere, saying: "Butter of cattle and milk of sheep with the fat of lambs and rams, of the young of bulls and of goats, with the fat of the kidneys of wheat; and they shall drink the blood of the grape as wine." And this blood, then, which is named "of the grape," is of that grape which is born from that vine of which the Savior says: "I am the true vine, but the disciples are the branches, and the Father is the vinedresser, who prunes them, that they may bring forth much fruit." You, then, are the true people of Israel, who know how to drink blood, and know how to eat the flesh of the Word of God and to drink the blood of the Word of God, and to draw the blood of that grape which is from the true vine and from those branches which the Father prunes. The fruit of these branches will rightly be called the blood of the slain, which we drink from their words and doctrine, if only we are like lion cubs rising up, and like a lion exulting. Let these things, said meanwhile about the second vision of Balaam, suffice. But let us pray the Lord that he may deign to open to us, for understanding the rest of the things prophesied by him, still clearer meanings and ones nearest to the truth, so that, considering in the spirit the things that were written through the spirit, and comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we may expound worthily of God and of the Holy Spirit, who inspired these things that are written, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Numbers 23:27-30 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 17.1
We now have in hand the third prophecy of those which the Word of God brought forth through Balaam, so that concerning it too we may discuss some things, as the Lord shall grant. For that unhappy Balak, supposing that what had been lacking to Balaam for cursing by divine leave was the favorable position of the place rather than the will, and judging it more advantageous if he changed the place, says, "Come and I will lead you to another place, if it please God, and you shall curse it from there." And Balak took Balaam himself to the top of Mount Peor, which looks out over the desert. Those indeed whom God calls, He sets upon the top of Mount Sinai; but this Balak, who is contrary to God, sets Balaam on the top of Mount Peor. Now Peor is interpreted "delight"; upon the top, therefore, of delight and lust this Balak sets men. For he is a lover of pleasure rather than of God, and therefore he places them on the summit and top of pleasure, that he may shut them out from God; for Balak is interpreted "one who shuts out" and "devouring." And so for this reason too Peor looks toward the wilderness, that is, toward those affairs which are wilderness and desert to God. And Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven calves and seven rams." And Balak did as Balaam had told him, and he offered a calf and a ram upon the altar. The saying of the Apostle is indeed plain, when he says, "For the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God"; but the prophet likewise says, "They sacrificed to demons and not to God." Yet since the law of God also gives commandment concerning sacrifices and hands down the rite of sacrificing to the sons of Israel, perhaps it may be asked why these things, though they seem dedicated to demons, are also commanded to be offered to God. And there will indeed be a simple and ready answer: that just as in other matters we have shown that the giving of the bill of divorce was not of the will of God — who did not wish that which He had joined to be separated — but Moses wrote these things properly for the hardness of the heart of the Jews, so also concerning this it can be seen that God, as He says through another prophet, "does not eat the flesh of bulls nor drink the blood of goats," and likewise as it is written elsewhere, "For I gave no command there concerning sacrifices and victims in the day when I led you out of the land of Egypt," but that Moses commanded these things to them for the hardness of their heart, on account of the wicked custom with which they had been imbued in Egypt, so that those who could not abstain from sacrificing might at least sacrifice to God and not to demons. Yet it must be considered whether perhaps there is also some more hidden and more secret reason for sacrificing to God. Perhaps, I say, the sacrifices which are offered to God are made for the destruction of those sacrifices which are immolated to demons, so that, because through the latter souls are wounded, through the former they may be healed. Just as those also confirm who possess skill in medicine; for they report that the poisons of serpents are nonetheless driven off by medicines compounded from serpents. So then, too, the venom of the demonic sacrifices is driven off through the sacrifices offered to God, just as the death of Jesus does not permit the death of sin to hold dominion over believers. And indeed, while the time allowed it, sacrifices were set against sacrifices; but when there came the perfect victim and the spotless lamb, who would take away the sin of the whole world, those sacrifices which were offered one by one to God now seemed superfluous, since by one victim all worship of demons was driven away. But this Balaam, whether according to the purpose of his heart, which he had not amended, or according to that figure by which we said that he holds the person of the teachers and Pharisees of the unbelieving people, still sets up victims anew and o…
Numbers 24:1-2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 17.2
But what follows? "And Balaam," it says, "seeing that it was good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel, did not go according to his custom to meet the omens, but turned his face to the wilderness. And Balaam, lifting up his eyes, beheld Israel encamped by tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him. And taking up his parable he said." It might perhaps be asked from what source Balaam saw that it was good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel, and one will suppose that he understood it from the sacrifices which he had offered. For when he saw that no demon was present, that no contrary power dared to stand by his victims, that all the ministers of wickedness whom he was accustomed to employ for cursing had been shut out, he could from these things have understood that it was good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel. Yet I understand rather this: that that people, which is now empty, and those teachers, who not believing in Christ hold the people fast in emptiness, will one day see — that is, in the last days when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and all Israel begins to come to faith in Christ. Those, I say, who now having eyes do not see, will then see. For they will lift up their eyes to loftier and spiritual meanings, and they will see and understand that it is good in the sight of the Lord to bless the spiritual Israel. For they will see him arranged by tribes and by houses and by families, and each one in his own order attaining the glory of the resurrection, and taking up their parable they will understand the things that are written in parables, which now, because of the veil that is placed over their heart, they neither see nor understand. Finally, "he did not go," it says, "according to his custom to meet the omens"; for he will not, according to his accustomed manner, be carried away by foolish and empty notions in considering the will of God in dumb animals and cattle, like those who gather auguries from such things, but he too will recognize that God has no care for oxen, and likewise none for sheep or for birds or for other animals, but that if anything about these has been written, he will understand it to have been written for the sake of human beings.
Numbers 24:3-4 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 17.3
But let us now see what things Balaam declares in the third prophecy. "Balaam the son of Beor has spoken," he says, "the man who truly sees has spoken, he has spoken who hears the words of the Mighty One, who saw the vision of God in sleep, his eyes uncovered." It is truly astonishing how Balaam is held worthy of such great praise, who, having taken up his parable, pronounces these things about himself. For how Balaam should be a man who truly sees—he who devoted himself to divination and auguries, who also pursued magic, as we showed above—is very astonishing, unless perhaps, on account of what was said above, namely that the Spirit of God came to be in him and that the word of God was placed in his mouth, these such great proclamations are thought to have been written concerning him. For neither Moses nor any other of the prophets will easily be found exalted with such great praises. Hence these things seem to me rather to fit that people at the time when, now converted to the Lord, it laid aside the veil which was over its heart—"and the Lord is a Spirit." Therefore, finally, he says: "his eyes uncovered," as of eyes that until now had been closed and now, through the Spirit of God which has come upon him, with the veil removed, are uncovered. Now, then, is when he truly sees and truly hears the words of the Mighty One and sees the vision of God in sleep—that is, those things which were designated at their appointed times in sleep to the prophet Daniel, he will see fulfilled; and those visions which were brought to him in sleep he sees, that is, he understands and recognizes, with his eyes uncovered. For he will be made like those who were saying: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." Yet I would wish to inquire what those eyes of his are which are said to be uncovered: lest perhaps they be the very ones which in other passages of Scripture, as we read in certain copies, are called "the eyes of the earth," and that which Paul calls the sense of the flesh, when he says of a certain man: "vainly puffed up by the sense of his flesh." Concerning these eyes I believe the serpent also spoke to Eve: "For God knew that on whatever day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened"; and a little after: "and they ate," he says, "and the eyes of both were opened." For unless there were differences of eyes, and some were those which are opened through transgression, and others those with which Adam and Eve were seeing before these were opened, Scripture would surely never—while those eyes of theirs which were laid open from transgression were not yet opened—say: "And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and pleasing to the eyes for seeing and beautiful to contemplate, and taking of the tree she ate; and she gave to her husband with her, and they ate. And the eyes of both were opened." For how, if the eyes of both were not yet opened, did the woman see that the tree was good for eating, and that it was pleasing to the eyes for seeing? with which eyes also it is said to have been beautiful to contemplate? But I, hearing the voice of my Lord Jesus Christ and understanding the power of his goodness, thus take note of that which he says: "I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind"—that in sinners those eyes which are better do not see, but these which are called the sense of the flesh and which were opened by the counsel of the serpent. It is therefore a magnificent work of our Savior the Lord, that those who do not see with the better eyes the things that are good, but with those which were laid open by the counsel of the serpent behold the things that are evil, should become blind, and that those who have been blinded in those eyes which the serpent's persuasion opened should see the good things of the Lord with these eyes which Jesus our Savior came to ope…
Numbers 24:5-6 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 17.4
Now let us already see what things he says in what follows: "How good," he says, "are your houses, O Jacob, your tents, O Israel! Like shady groves, like gardens beside rivers, and like the tents which the Lord has pitched, like cedars beside the waters." When he calls the houses of Jacob good, I do not think that he is praising their earthly dwellings; for nothing of such a kind among them, beyond the other nations, is recorded. But let us see whether perhaps, since the people was divided by tribes, and each single tribe was apportioned by clans, and again the clans by kindreds, and the kindreds by the houses of families, and again the houses of families were numbered by the number of names and by heads—that is, everyone who was from twenty years and above, a male able to go forth to war—it is these houses that Balaam, beholding them in the spirit, magnifies and extols. But the meaning is not to be contemplated in these things by the letter alone, since indeed what Balaam speaks he speaks having taken up his parable. In parables, therefore, let us too hear what is said. For if you consider those divisions and orders of the peoples which will exist in the resurrection among the people of the true Israel, when each one shall rise in his own order, if you are able to behold those tribes and clans and kindreds in which there is not so much the kinship of flesh and blood as of mind and soul, then you will understand how good are the houses of Jacob and how good the tents of Israel. But if you should also inquire into the difference between houses and tents, and the diversity between Jacob and Israel, concerning this too some such distinction is to be maintained. A house is a thing founded and stable and enclosed by fixed boundaries; but tents are certain dwellings of those who are always on the way and always walking and have not found the end of their journey. Therefore Jacob is to be understood in the persons of those who are perfect in acts and in work; but Israel are to be understood those who bear a zeal toward wisdom and knowledge. Since, then, the exercises of works and deeds are closed by a fixed end—for the perfection of works is not without an end—when someone has fulfilled all that he ought to do and has come to the end of the perfection of works, that very perfection of works will be said to be his good houses. But of those who apply themselves to wisdom and knowledge, since there is no end—for what will be the limit of God's wisdom? where, the more one has drawn near, the more profound the things he will find, and the more one has searched, the more he will find them ineffable and incomprehensible; for incomprehensible and inestimable is the wisdom of God—for that reason, of those who walk the way of God's wisdom he does not praise houses, for they have not arrived at an end, but he admires tents, in which they always walk and always advance, and the more they advance, the more the way of advancing is enlarged for them and stretches out into the immeasurable; and therefore, beholding through the spirit these very advances of theirs, he names them the tents of Israel. And truly, if anyone has taken up some advances in knowledge and has drawn some experience in such things, he knows assuredly that, when he has come to some contemplation and recognition of spiritual mysteries, there the soul tarries as if in a certain tent. But when out of the things he has found he searches out yet others and advances to other understandings, then, as if his tent had been raised, he stretches toward the higher things and there sets the seat of his soul, fixed by the stability of his senses; and thence again out of these very things he finds other spiritual senses, which without doubt the consequence of the former senses has laid open; and thus, always extending himself to the things before, he seems to march by certain tents. For there is never a time when a soul kindled by the little fire of knowledge can be idle and at rest, but it is…
Numbers 24:7 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 17.5
But now let us see what he also prophesies concerning Christ. For it is he of whom he says: "There shall come forth a man from his seed, and he shall have dominion over many nations; and his kingdom shall be exalted above Gog, and his kingdom shall grow. God led him out of Egypt, as the glory of a unicorn is his." It is Christ, therefore, who came forth from the seed of Israel according to the flesh, who, how he has dominion over the nations, needs no exposition, especially for one who reads what was said to him by the Father: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and for your possession the ends of the earth." But what is it that he says: "his kingdom shall be exalted above Gog"? Gog is interpreted "above the roofs," and in this passage it is not set down for the name of some nation, as is thought, but, as in some other places, the Hebrew word itself has been left uninterpreted, and on this account it seems to be said as though of some nation. The consequence of the discourse, therefore, is this: "and his kingdom shall be exalted above the roofs, and his kingdom shall grow." To be exalted above the roofs is said of the perfection of believers, but to grow refers to the multitudes. In those, therefore, who are perfect, the kingdom of Christ is exalted above the roofs—that is, above even those who are in the higher places and dwell in the upper regions. For perhaps there are some even among the heavenly beings, beyond whom these who are in the kingdom of Christ advance more and are exalted more highly. And therefore, I believe, the Savior himself too was saying: "Let him who is on the roof not come down to take anything out of the house," admonishing that those who have come to the lofty perfection should not again come down to the low and abject things of this world, which is now called a house. But that too which he says: "What you have heard in the ear, preach upon the roofs," looks nonetheless to this. So, then, above Gog his kingdom is exalted, and his kingdom grows. For it grows while the churches are multiplied and the number of the faithful is increased; and the kingdom of Christ grows to such a degree, until the Father "put all his enemies under his feet," and moreover destroy "the last enemy, death."
Numbers 24:8-9 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 17.6
After these things it is further written concerning Christ that: "God led him out of Egypt," which seems to be fulfilled in that place where, after the death of Herod, he is called back from Egypt, and the Gospel indicates it, saying: "Out of Egypt I called my son." This saying seems to some to have been taken from this passage and inserted into the Gospels, but to others to be from the prophet Hosea. Yet it can also be understood according to allegory, that, after he came to the Egypt of this world, the Father led him out and took him up to himself, so that he might make a way for those who were to ascend out of the Egypt of this world to God. "And the glory of a unicorn is his." For Christ, casting down all the kingdoms of the demons, founded his one kingdom in glory, as of a true unicorn. For that horn is often named for a kingdom we have taught. "He shall eat," he says, speaking still of the same one, "the nations of his enemies, and shall gnaw out their marrow." The nations, he says, which his enemies possessed, he himself shall eat, the power of the enemy having been destroyed, and shall gnaw out their marrow, when he thins out from them all gross and carnal understanding and converts it to spiritual intelligence. And that grossness is held blameworthy in the Scriptures, that which is written will be the sign: "The heart of this people has been made gross," and elsewhere: "He was filled, and grew gross, and the beloved kicked back." He shall eat the nations, therefore, and he has for food those who believe in him, just as he himself also says in the Gospel: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me." Whose will indeed was this, that the nations should be converted to the faith. But if, as we taught above, grossness is held blameworthy, on the contrary fineness is to be held praiseworthy, since the "spirit of wisdom" too, which is called intelligible and holy and only-begotten and manifold, is likewise reported to be subtle. "And with his darts he shall shoot the enemy." His darts are his words, by which he either conquered the devil or overcomes and transfixes even now all his enemies and those who contradict him; for everyone who sins is his enemy, while he sins. But if he hears the words of God and, recognizing his sins, is transfixed by them and pierced with compunction and turns to repentance, having been bored through by the word of truth, he too will be said to have been transfixed by his darts. But after these things he also mentions the very dispensation of the passion and says: "Lying down he rested like a lion and like the whelp of a lion; who shall rouse him up?" He rested like a lion when, placed upon the cross, he stripped off the principalities and powers and triumphed over them on the wood of the cross; but like the whelp of a lion, when he rises from the sleep of death. And that he is compared at once to a lion and to the whelp of a lion can still be understood also on this account, that in those who are perfect he is named a lion, but in those who are beginners and untrained, the whelp of a lion. But as to his saying: "Who shall raise him up?"—this is because at one time he is said to be raised up by the Father, and at another he himself says that he will raise up the temple of his body after three days; and rightly in this the disposition, as it were, of one asking is indicated. "Those who bless you are blessed, and those who curse you are cursed." It is certain that those who bless Christ are blessed and taken up into the communion of the Father's blessing; but those who curse him are cursed. For if you look to that people which curses Christ, it is found, even lamentably, to be cursed. For what else could befall those who curse wisdom, who curse truth, who curse life, except that they should lie banished and exiled from all these good things? For all these things are Christ; and he who curses Christ, as one cursing all these, is condemned to perpetual malediction. Yet I think that not only he curs…
Numbers 24:10-14 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 18.1
We now take up in hand the fourth of these prophecies which Balaam spoke in the word of God, wishing to open up, concerning this one too, whatever God may grant. To this prophecy, however, there were prefixed in the introduction things similar to those above. For it says: "And Balak was angry with Balaam, and clapped his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam: I called you to curse my enemy, and behold, blessing you have blessed him three times. Now therefore flee to your own place; I said: I will honor you, and now the Lord has defrauded you of honor." In these words he shows that Balak too understood that Balaam was no longer being deceived by the ministry of demons, but was being carried over to better things by the power of God, and therefore he says: "The Lord has defrauded you of honor." But passing quickly over these things, which are plain, let us come to what follows. "And Balaam said to Balak: Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying: If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I shall not be able to transgress the word of the Lord, to do it, whether good or evil, of my own accord? Whatever God shall say to me, this I shall speak. And now behold I return to my place." Balaam, knowing that responses were not brought to him through the accustomed ministers, but from Him who has power over all, rightly is seen to have protested that he could not transgress the word of the Lord and do it, whether small or great, of his own accord. For the one who spoke to him was not one who could be changed by sacrifices and gifts, but was one with whom there is no change nor shadow of change. And therefore the prophet cannot be altered by a fee, where God is not moved by gifts. Yet as he is about to depart, Balaam begins again to prophesy, and says: "Come, I give you counsel, what this people shall do to your people in the last days." And taking up his parable he said. But before we come to the explanation of the things which have been prophesied, I would like to inquire what this sense is, or what the order of the words is, in that he says: "Come, and I give you counsel." And indeed he seems to give no counsel, but says what this people is about to do to your people in the last days, whereas it would surely have seemed more fitting if it had said: "Come, I prophesy to you what this people is about to do to your people in the last days"; and it would surely follow as a consequence that Balaam would seem to prophesy about those things which the people of Israel were about to do to the people of Balak or to the rest of the nations, and that he would do it in power, so as to leave none of the cities of Moab that would be saved.
Numbers 24:14-16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 18.2
But the prophecy also, nonetheless, which he joins to it in what follows concerning Christ, saying: "A star shall arise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel, and he shall lay waste the princes of Moab," would seem fittingly placed if it had been written: "Come, and I prophesy to you." But now what shall we say to this, that it is written: "Come, I give you counsel, what this people shall do to your people"? Let us therefore inquire how it ought to be understood, this that is written: "I give you counsel," concerning which, often inquiring within myself, I could find no outcome for the meaning, if we suppose that this which he says, "I give you counsel," is said in the common and ordinary way. But I saw that this rather is fitting, that what he says, "I give you counsel," is to be understood as though he had said: The divine counsel, which is to be fulfilled in the last days, now revealed to me I open and make manifest to you, that you may know what this people shall do to your people. And in this way it seemed to me able to stand, this that he says: "I give you counsel, what this people is about to do to your people," that is: I announce and make manifest to you the counsel of God. Indeed, as I inquired whether perhaps somewhere in the divine Scriptures some similar saying under this expression might occur, it seemed that this also was similarly to be noted, which the Apostle says: "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" For here "who" is taken not for "no one," but for "rare" or "exceptional." For how did his Only-begotten not know the mind of God, who says: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal him"? What else, then, is it to know the Father, except to know both his counsel and his mind? But also the Holy Spirit, who searches even the deep things of God, what does he do but recognize his mind? Therefore both the Son and the Holy Spirit recognize the mind of the Lord, and those to whom the Son shall will to reveal it. But if the Son recognizes the mind of God, then he is also his counselor. But "counselor" is not to be taken as though the Son or the Holy Spirit gives counsel to him as to one ignorant of what he is doing; but in that the Son and the Holy Spirit are partakers of, and knowing in, his counsel and will. In a similar way, then, Balaam too, because he was making Balak a partaker of, and acquainted with, the counsel which God had revealed to him, says: "Come, I give you counsel," as one who truly sees and has truly heard the words of God, as he says in what follows: "Balaam, the son of Beor, said, the man who truly sees, hearing the words of God, knowing the knowledge of the Most High, and seeing the vision of God in sleep, his eyes uncovered." Of all these things we have already spoken above, since in the introduction of the third prophecy the same things were written. This alone in the present passage seems added, that he says: "knowing the knowledge of the Most High." For this was not said of Balaam in the earlier passages; which indeed I have found not easily written of any one of all the holy prophets.
Numbers 24:16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 18.3
Whence also I greatly marvel how this was written of Balaam, to whom it was not even granted to say what is customary among the prophets: "Thus says the Lord," but he says: "Balaam said, the man who truly sees said." Then further, how will it be worthy that so much be understood of Balaam, that he knows the knowledge of the Most High—he who even taught King Balak how to send a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, that they might eat things sacrificed to idols and commit fornication? For scarcely will anyone find it said of the holy prophets or Apostles that they know the knowledge of the Most High. Although Paul said that he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for men to utter, yet he did not profess to have the knowledge of the Most High. On which account let us attend more diligently, in case perhaps God may deign to reveal something worthy to us upon this expression. In the book which among us is usually held among the volumes of Solomon and is called Ecclesiasticus, but among the Greeks is named the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, it is written: "All wisdom is from God." Which perhaps we might so understand, as though from God were also that wisdom of this world, which is said to be destroyed, and of the princes of this world, and if there is any other by which false knowledge is commended; were it not that in the same little book it says in what follows: "For the discipline of wickedness is not wisdom." By which surely he teaches that every discipline which asserts anything false, even if it seem forceful and plausible and such as can hardly be overthrown, yet by no means ought knowledge of this kind to be applied to the title of wisdom. What then is it that he says: "All wisdom is from God"? He seems to me to have meant this: that every skill which is held necessary for human use in regard to any art, or the knowledge of any matter whatever, is said to be wisdom given by the Lord. In short, in Job it is written: "Who gave to women the wisdom of weaving and the discipline of embroidery?" But also in Exodus: "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Behold, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the divine spirit of wisdom and understanding and discipline, that he may have understanding in every work, and be an architect to work silver and gold and bronze and stones for setting and all works of craftsmanship, and in wood, that he may work according to all the works to which I have appointed him. And also Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put understanding into the heart of everyone who is prudent, that they may make all the things which I have appointed you." Consider therefore from all these things how the craftsman's wisdom is from the Lord, whether in gold or in silver or in any other material whatever, or even the wisdom of weaving; and see that of all these it can rightly be said that the knowledge of them is from the Most High. But if the craftsman's knowledge is declared to be from the Most High, how is not also geometry, from which surely this knowledge, which Scripture names architectonic, is derived? Indeed, in Zechariah too a geometric line is mentioned, with which an angel measures Jerusalem, and therefore I do not think it seems absurd if this knowledge too is said to be of the Most High. But what shall we say of music, all the skill of which the most wise David had so grasped, and had gathered the disciplines of all melody and rhythm, that from all these he might discover sounds by which he could, by playing, even soothe the king when troubled and vexed by an evil spirit? Whence I do not think anyone of right sense would deny, in the knowledge of all these things, that all wisdom is from God. But now concerning the knowledge of medicine I do not think there can even be a doubt; for if there is any knowledge from God, what will more be from him than the knowledge of health, in which even the powers…
Numbers 24:17 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 18.4
After these things he says: "seeing the vision of God in sleep, his eyes uncovered." Of these things it has been sufficiently discoursed in the third vision, and it is idle to repeat the same things. Let us therefore see what it is that he says in what follows: "I will show him, and not now; I bless him, and he does not draw near." In other copies indeed it reads: "I will see him, but not now"; which, if it be accepted, will be thought to be understood more easily, so that he says that Christ, of whom he speaks in what follows: "A star shall arise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel," is to be seen, but not now, that is, not at that time at which he was saying these things; for in the last days, when the fullness of times came, God sent his Son. But if it is to be read according to what we have in our copies, that is: "I will show him, and not now; I bless him, and he does not draw near," it refers not to this Balaam, through whom these things are said, but to those whose person we have said is represented in this. For those teachers of the law and scribes will show Christ prophesied in the law and the prophets, but not now, that is, not at the time at which he came, but when the fullness of the nations shall have entered in, and all Israel shall begin to be saved—then they will show him and then they will bless him whom they now blaspheme. But this time, in which these things are to be, does not draw near; for it is far off and to be hoped for at the very end of the age. And therefore he says: "I will show him, and not now"—"to him," that is, to the people who will then be saved. After these things: "A star," he says, "shall arise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel." Of these things we spoke also in the earlier passages, that it is evidently prophesied of the star which appeared to the Magi in the east; with which as their guide they came to Judea seeking him who was born, the King of Israel, and having found him, offered gifts and adored him. But it moves me that concerning that very star, after it was said in the Gospel that it went before the Magi as far as Bethlehem, and coming, stood above where the child was, nothing further was said, that either it departed thence or vanished or was taken up, or that the Gospel narrative indicated anything at all about this, but it said only this: that it came and stood above where the child was. Lest therefore perhaps, just as at the time of the baptism, when Jesus, having been baptized, ascended from the Jordan, the heavens were opened to him and John saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and remaining upon him, and heard a voice from heaven saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," so also this star, which came above where the child was and stood there, likewise remained upon Christ, just as the Holy Spirit too is said to have come in the appearance of a dove and to have remained upon him. And just as we understand that the Spirit of God came upon him and remained upon him in such a way that the Spirit of God never departed from him, so also the star, which came and stood over him, I think is to be understood to have so stood over him that it was never moved thence. And therefore I am of the opinion that that star was an indication of his deity. Whence also the order of the prophecy shows these same things consequently, when concerning his deity indeed it says: "A star shall arise out of Jacob," but concerning his human nature: "and a man shall rise up out of Israel," so that in both, according to deity and according to humanity, Christ may evidently appear to have been prophesied. "And he shall lay waste the princes of Moab." Moab indeed is a nation, whose princes we understand to be none other than the spiritual wickednesses and those principalities against whom is our wrestling. These, then, that man out of Israel shall lay waste, when he shall strip off the principalities and powers, and shall fasten them to his cross. For…
Numbers 24:18 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 18.4
"And Edom shall be an inheritance, and Esau his enemy shall be an inheritance." Edom is the same as Esau. He according to history indeed is the enemy of Israel, but at the coming, he says, of Christ, he too shall be his inheritance, that is, he shall be received unto the faith and shall not be excluded from the inheritance of Christ. But if we consider it spiritually, Edom is understood as the flesh, which is opposed to the spirit and is its enemy. At the coming, then, of Christ, when the flesh shall have been subjected to the spirit, through the hope of resurrection it too shall come to the inheritance. For not the soul alone, but also the flesh, which once had been an enemy, through the obedience of the spirit shall become a sharer of the inheritance to come. "And Israel did it in power." This is what he says: that then Edom or Esau, that is, the nature of the flesh, shall be called into the fellowship of the inheritance, when Israel, namely the soul, shall have been made to be in power and shall have been fittingly filled with virtues. For if the soul does not come to the virtues, but perseveres in sloth, neither shall the flesh come to the inheritance, but to the judgment of him who can destroy both soul and body in gehenna.
Numbers 24:19 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 18.4
"And there shall rise up one out of Jacob, and he shall destroy him that is delivered from the city." That one, he says, who shall rise up as a star out of Jacob, shall destroy him that is delivered from the city. Not in this alone, but in almost every prophetic style, the things that are said are said in speech quite involved and obscure. For it did not please the Holy Spirit, who willed these things to be written, that these should be set plainly and, so to say, to be trodden under the feet of the unskilled, but he so provided that, while they seem to be held publicly, yet, hidden by the obscurity of the words, they should be kept covered in mysteries and in secrets. And now, then, this that he says: "he shall destroy him that is delivered from the city," unless you look to the prophetic custom, of which it is said: "all prophecy cannot stand by its own solution," the understanding will seem far more difficult. Let us see, however, whether perhaps in this way it can be explained. Let us understand "the city" here as the world, just as also in the Gospels it is said of the prodigal son, who squandered the substance of his father, that "he went," it says, "to a certain chief man of the city in that region," by whom, being received, he is sent into the field to feed swine. And here too, then, the city, of which that man was chief, is understood as this world. Therefore him that is delivered from this city, that is, whom Christ delivers from this world, he destroys him. For he says to him that: "he who shall destroy his soul for my sake, shall make it safe." By a saving destruction, therefore, Jesus shall destroy him whom he shall have delivered from the city of this world. And so we too, if we wish to come to salvation and to be delivered from this world, ought to destroy our souls with a useful and necessary destruction. For he destroys his soul according to Christ who curbs its desires, who cuts back its cravings, who chastises its luxury and dissoluteness, and in nothing at all does his own will, but the will of God; and through these things the soul is said to perish. For its former life perishes and it begins to lead a new life, which is in Christ. Similar to this saying is also that: "if we die together, we shall also live together," and that: "but if you are dead to the elements of the world, how, as though living in this world, do you make decrees?" Necessarily, therefore, in these too it is declared that he destroys his soul in this world who dies with Christ, and he who has thus destroyed it shall find it there, without doubt, where the Apostle says that "your life is hidden with Christ in God," to whom be glory unto the eternal ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 24:20 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 19.1
This fifth and likewise final vision of Balaam is now to be examined by us, concerning which, just as in the others, let us beseech the Lord that at the end He may not forsake us, so that we may be able to grasp the meaning of this vision too not far from the truth. Its beginning, then, is in these words: "And when Balaam saw Amalek," it says, "taking up his parable, he said: The beginning of the nations is Amalek, and their seed shall perish." It seems necessary to me to search out in the divine Scriptures in what places or at what time the name of Amalek is written, and from what stock that nation descends. For what is sought will be more easily recognized if it is brought forward from the several places that are written about the same matter. Therefore in the reading of Genesis, where five kings assembled to make war upon the four kings who were reigning in Sodom, after some space it is thus reported: "And returning," it says, "they came to the fountain of judgment, this is Kadesh, and they slew all the princes of Amalek and the Amorites, who were dwelling in Hazazon." In these places I first find Amalek named. But perhaps it may be asked whether there are two nations of the same name, since indeed in the catalogue of the sons of Esau and of the leaders who had descended from his stock Amalek is also mentioned. For it is thus written: "Now these are the generations of Esau, the father of Edom, in mount Seir. And these are the names of the sons of Esau: Eliphaz the son of Adah, the wife of Esau, and Raguel the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz were: Teman, Sophar, Gatam, Kenaz. And Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz himself; and these are the sons of Adah, the wife of Esau." And after a little: "And these," it says, "are the leaders from the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, who was the firstborn of Esau: leader Teman, leader Omar, leader Sophar, leader Kenaz, leader Korah, leader Gatam, leader Amalek." This Amalek, therefore, was the son of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau, born of a concubine named Timna. But let us return to the first mention of Amalek, where those who returned and came to the fountain of judgment, which is called Kadesh, slay all the princes of Amalek. For Kadesh is interpreted "sanctification" or "holy"; but Amalek is interpreted "one who licks up the people" or "one who turns the people aside." Therefore those who return to the holy and turn themselves to sanctification slay and destroy Amalek, namely that one who licks up the people or turns the people aside. But who else is it who turns the people aside from God, except the adverse power and the spiritual wickednesses? Who then are the princes of these? Those principalities, without doubt, against whom the saints have their wrestling. For against the principalities and powers and the rulers of this world are their struggles; yet they will not be able to overcome them unless they turn to holiness. Yet in that very holiness, which is Kadesh, is the fountain of judgment. For everyone who turns himself to holiness has always before his eyes the fountain of judgment. For he looks ahead to the day of judgment, and with a purified heart he beholds both the punishments of the wicked and the blessednesses of the pious; and doing these things he lays low and casts down all the princes of the Amalekites. But if any do not turn themselves to Kadesh, that is, to holiness and the fountain of judgment, nor think upon the coming day of judgment, these are subjected to the princes of Amalek; for he licks up and consumes this people, and such a people he turns aside from God. Let these things be referred to that first Amalek. But now let us look also at this Amalek, the son of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau, whom Timna his concubine bore to him; whose father is Eliphaz, which is interpreted "God has scattered me," but his mother Timna, who herself too is first of all base-born, and then is inte…
Numbers 24:20 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 19.2
This Amalek, therefore, seeing him, Balaam the son of Beor, a man truly seeing and hearing the words of God, who knows the knowledge of the Most High and sees the visions of God, having taken up his parable as is written in the earlier visions also, says: "The beginning of the nations is Amalek, and their seed shall perish." As for what he says: "The beginning of the nations is Amalek," it is certain that it can in no way be referred to that Amalek who then existed in the flesh, for neither was he first in the antiquity of origin, but it is better referred to the invisible Amalek, who from turning the peoples aside from God and making Gentiles out of the worshipers of God is named Amalek. And therefore he is rightly called the beginning of the nations, as being a certain such adverse power which first gave the beginning for men to become Gentiles, by changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed beasts and of serpents, and by serving the creature rather than the Creator. For just as among the people of God it is written that the beginning is Christ, so on the contrary among the people who turns aside from God and becomes Gentile, the beginning is Amalek. "And their seed shall perish." Their seed is the persuasion and teaching by which they taught men to turn aside from God. This evil seed, then, and this worst teaching shall perish, not they themselves in whom it was sown. For they themselves, when they groan being converted, shall be saved. And see whether such an exposition may not also fittingly stand against those who accuse the God of the law as of harshness and cruelty, in that He pronounces that not only the nation of Amalek but also its seed shall perish; when indeed the nation is referred to the spiritual wickednesses, but its seed is expounded as the teaching of the superstitions of the Gentiles and the worship of idols and every sect which persuades the people to turn aside from God.
Numbers 24:21-22 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 19.3
But the prophecy makes mention of the Kenite after Amalek, saying: "And seeing the Kenite, taking up his parable, he said: Strong is your dwelling, and if you set your nest in the rock, and if Beor be to you a nest of cunning, the Assyrians shall lead you captive." It seems to me that he names the Kenite not very blameworthily; for he is the one to whom in the earlier passages Saul also said: "Depart out of the midst of Amalek, and I will not smite you, because you did mercy in Israel, when it was coming up out of Egypt." Of this one, therefore, it is now said also that his dwelling is strong, if he sets his nest in the rock. The rock is Christ. If therefore he sets his nest in the rock, his dwelling is strong, provided that Beor does not become for him a nest of cunning. Beor is the father of Balaam, who can be taken in the person of the heretics; so that this seems to be said, that the Kenite can be saved if he sets his nest in the rock, that is, if he places his hope in Christ and does not surround and circumscribe him with the cunning of the heretics. For if this should happen, it will profit him nothing that he seems to be set in the rock, which is Christ; for he will be led captive by the Assyrians, that is, by the malignant powers, which lead captive and take into their power those whom heretical error has enveloped. It seems indeed, according to this exposition which we have set forth concerning the Kenite, that the conjunction "and" also disturbs the sense. But it must be known that it is a native property of the Hebrew tongue to use the conjunction "and" frequently in such a way that at times it is superfluous and, as appears in our language, seems inserted among unnecessary things. This certainly must be received with indulgence; for each language has something of its own property which among other languages may seem faulty. And here therefore the conjunction "and" is to be held as, so to speak, superfluous and redundant. Let the Kenite, therefore, who is interpreted "possessing," beware — let him beware, I say — even if he possesses and earns this grace, that he be in the Church of Christ, lest perhaps the cunning of Beor circumvent him and turn him aside to depraved and perverse doctrines and for this cause he be handed over to the Assyrians. For those who blaspheme, being set within the Church, are handed over to Satan, as Phygelus and Hermogenes, of whom Paul says: "Whom I handed over," he says, "to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." Therefore for this reason he who has turned aside into heretical blasphemy is handed over to the Assyrians, because the Assyrians are interpreted "directing"; and for this cause those who are handed over are handed over to these, not that they may perish, nor that they may utterly be destroyed, but that they may be directed and corrected and, as Paul himself says: "that they may learn not to blaspheme."
Numbers 24:23-24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 19.4
But after these things Balaam concludes the discourse of his prophecy in these words, saying: "And having taken up his parable, he said: Oh, oh, who shall live, when God shall do these things? And he shall come forth out of the hands of the Kittim, and they shall afflict Asshur, and they shall afflict the Hebrews, and they themselves shall likewise perish." That Balaam is said to speak through each detail by way of a parable strikes shame into the reader, lest in these things that are said he should think anything said not as in a parable, but according to the letter. He says, then: "Oh, oh, who shall live, when God shall do these things?" Here he names not this common life, but that life which is according to God, and this is what he says: that, when all these things shall come to pass, when a star shall arise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel and shall destroy Amalek and shall bring his seed to perdition, that is, when Christ shall come and shall destroy the worship of idols and shall subject the power of all the demons, who shall be so blessed, so happy, as to see these things? that is, who shall perceive and understand and believe that God has done these things thus? "And they shall come forth out of the hands of the Kittim, and they shall afflict the Assyrians." The Kittim are interpreted "the stroke of the end." These, therefore, who, being converted to the Lord and instructed by Christ, escape the stroke which shall come upon the impious at the end of the age, they themselves shall afflict the Assyrians, that is, these, for whom, being set in the contest of piety, God shall crush Satan under their feet, they themselves shall afflict the Assyrians, namely the nation of demons. For they shall tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and shall afflict them. "And they shall afflict the Hebrews, and they themselves shall likewise perish." The Hebrews are interpreted "those passing over." This same people, therefore, is also called Hebrew, because it passes over from Egypt to the land of promise, from darkness to light, from death to life. But since these things, as we have said, cannot be obtained without a contest nor without a great struggle, as one set in the contest he now afflicts, now is afflicted, and now smites the adversary, now is himself beaten by the adversary. Therefore the Assyrians themselves also shall afflict the Hebrews, that is, the people of God, just as they are afflicted by them; but they themselves, that is the Assyrians, when they shall have done these things and when they shall have poured out all their strength upon afflicting the Hebrews, immediately they themselves also shall perish. As for what he says, then: "And they shall afflict the Hebrews, and they themselves shall likewise perish," it is not to be taken as though the Assyrians shall perish together with the Hebrews; but "likewise," that is, immediately as they shall have done these things, as they shall have afflicted the Hebrews, they themselves also shall perish; for the Greek word puts "likewise" for "immediately." This, therefore, shall be the end of all things, that even Asshur, to whom were handed over those who were transgressing from the people of God, either unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved, or that they might learn not to blaspheme, shall himself also perish at the hands of Him who has the power to destroy in Gehenna. For it shall be said to them by the just judge: "Go into the eternal fire, which God prepared for the devil and his angels." There, therefore, Asshur shall perish. And indeed one sheep too out of the hundred sheep once perished, but this sheep the good shepherd, leaving the ninety and nine in the mountains and descending to this valley of ours, the valley of tears, and seeking it, found it and, having laid it upon his shoulders, carried it back and joined it to that number which in the passages above remained saved. But this Asshur, wh…
Numbers 25:1-3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 20.1
The reading recited today contains, first, a piece of history about the fornication of an Israelite man and a Midianite woman, and second, about the visitation of the people, in which it is commanded that they again be numbered by the precept of the Lord, the former number having, of course, been made void on account of the sins which those had committed who had earlier been enrolled under the reckoning of the number. Therefore the number that had been written down is cancelled and rendered void because of sins, and offenses have such power that not even this profits a man — that he had been counted in the number in God's sight — once he has turned aside. But, as Scripture reports, even the limbs of those who withdrew from God fell in the desert. There are, then, two histories that have been recited; but we, for the present, will speak of the first, which describes the fornication of the people, if the Lord shall deign to grant any grace as you pray; and if He Himself shall grant it, we shall venture also to touch upon something of the second. "And Israel sojourned at Shittim," it says, "and the people was defiled, and committed fornication with the daughters of Moab. And they invited them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices and worshipped their idols, and was consecrated to Baal-peor; and the Lord was angry with fury against Israel." In these words is shown that which we have often recalled, namely that Balaam, after he had been so constrained by the power of God that he was not permitted to curse Israel, yet wishing to please King Balak, said to him, as it is written: "Come, I will give you counsel." And what counsel he gave did not appear there, but it is reported as written in the later parts of the book of Numbers itself. Yet more fully in the revelation of John, where it is contained thus: "You have there," it says, "the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling-block in the sight of the sons of Israel, that they should eat things sacrificed to idols and commit fornication." From this, therefore, it appears that Balaam used wickedness and gave counsel to the king, saying to him something of this sort: "This people conquers not by its own strength, but by worshipping God and by preserving chastity. If you wish to conquer it, first cast down their chastity, and they will be conquered of their own accord. But against these we must fight not with the strength of soldiers, but with the beauty of women, not with the rigor of armed men, but with the softness of females. Away, far away from here remove the band of armed men, and gather a choice display of maidens; let them go dancing with their feet and clapping with their hands; beauty conquers armed men, loveliness takes the sword captive, they will be conquered by beauty who are not conquered in battle. But when the Moabite women perceive that they have surrendered to lust and bowed their necks to sin, let them not offer themselves to their desirers before the men have agreed to taste of the sacrifices of the idols, so that, driven by lust, they may obey the counsels of the women and be first consecrated to Baal-peor, which is the idol of shamefulness." These were the counsels of Balaam; having received them, King Balak at once prepares an army composed not with the strength of arms, but with feminine elegance, kindled not with warlike fury, but with the flame of lust. Shame restrains none, modesty forbids none. Love of country and the vice of the nation conspire alike into wantonness, and to deceive, upright behavior turns to depravity. O the wickedness! scarcely is lust checked by the threats of laws, scarcely repressed by the terror of the sword! What crime would it not commit, when a woman believes that by her outrage she will please the king and secure the safety of her country? So the Israelites are taken captive not by iron, but by luxury, not by valor, but by lust, and they commit fornication with the Midianite women,…
Numbers 25:1-3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 20.3
"But Israel sojourned at Shittim." In the interpretation of Hebrew names we find that Shittim, in our language, is said to mean "answer" or "refutation." Israel, then, sojourned at "answer" or "refutation." It did not sojourn well. See, finally, what it ran into, placed in this station. It committed fornication with the Midianite women and was refuted by God, because not only did it commit fornication, but it was also consecrated to the idols of the nations and ate of those things which had been sacrificed to idols — things which are altogether execrable in God's sight. For what agreement has the temple of God with idols? Indeed I have also greatly wondered at those things which the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, saying: "But if anyone sees you, who have knowledge, reclining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, since it is weak, be built up to eat things sacrificed to idols?" For he seems to pronounce not so much the matter itself grievous as the offense of that one who, seeing these things, is provoked by a like example, since he is not fortified by like knowledge — so that he shows that the one who, having knowledge, reclines in an idol's temple is made guilty not so much of his own harm as of another's. But see whether perhaps this alone was not being done among the Corinthians, that they reclined in an idol's temple and ate things sacrificed to idols. But perhaps, since they were men zealous for Greek letters and lovers of philosophy, they were still held by desire for their old studies and ate the doctrines of the philosophers as though sacrificed to idols; which, however, perhaps could not harm those who had received the full knowledge of the truth. But these, who had less learning in Christ, if they imitated them, reading such things and still giving attention to those studies, could be wounded and entangled in the various errors of diverse doctrines. So then it came about that another was harmed, whereby he who had the full knowledge of the truth could not be harmed. But since charity does not seek what is useful to itself, but what is useful to many, one must take care to receive such food of the word as not only builds us up and delights us, but also does not offend or harm those who see. There is, therefore, a thing sacrificed to idols not only in foods, but also in words. And I think that, just as every discourse which teaches piety and righteousness and truth is consecrated to God and sacrificed to God, so also every discourse which looks toward unchastity or injustice or impiety is sacrificed to idols, and he who receives it eats, as it were, things sacrificed to idols. "The people, therefore, ate of their sacrifices, and worshipped their idols." Not only did they eat, but they also worshipped. See the order of evil: first concupiscence deceived the servants of the Lord, then the gluttony of the belly, and last impiety took them captive. And the wage of impiety that is paid out is fornication. If you read again the things that are written concerning Solomon, you will find that he, and indeed although he was most wise, inclined his loins to many women, though the law of God says: "You shall not multiply women for yourself, lest perhaps they make you commit fornication away from your God." He, then, although he was most wise and of enormous merits before God, yet because he gave himself over to many women, was deceived. I think that "many women" is the name for many doctrines and the diverse philosophies of many nations. And when, as a most learned and most wise man, he wished to recognize and thoroughly examine each of these, he could not hold himself within the rule of the divine law, but Moabite philosophy deceived him and persuaded him to sacrifice to the Moabite idol, and likewise of the Ammonites, and also of the remaining nations, whose women he is said to have received and to have built temples or sacrificed to their idols. It is, then, a great thing and truly a work of God to be mingled w…
Numbers 25:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 20.2
Yet far more execrable is that general fornication in which every kind of sin is alike contained. Now it is called general fornication when the soul, which has been admitted into fellowship with the Word of God and in some manner joined to Him in matrimony, is corrupted and violated by some other — namely by one foreign and hostile to that Husband who betrothed her to Himself in faith. The bridegroom, then, and husband of the pure and chaste soul is the Word of God, who is Christ the Lord, as the Apostle also writes: "I wish to present you all as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ; but I fear lest perhaps, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, your senses be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus." As long, therefore, as the soul clings to her bridegroom and hears his word and embraces him, without doubt she receives from him the seed of the word; and as he said: "From fear of you, Lord, we have conceived in the womb," so also she says: "From your word, Lord, I conceived in the womb and travailed and brought forth the spirit of your salvation upon the earth." If, therefore, the soul thus conceives from Christ, she makes sons, for whom it may be said of her that: "She shall be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety" — even if the soul may seem first, like Eve, to have been seduced. And so the offspring is truly blessed where there has been an intercourse of the soul with the Word of God and where they have given embraces to one another. Thence a noble progeny will be born, thence chastity will arise; thence righteousness, thence patience, thence gentleness and charity, and the venerable offspring of all the virtues will follow. But if the unhappy soul forsakes the holy nuptials of the divine word and, deceived by the enticements of the devil and of other demons, gives herself over to adulterous embraces, she will without doubt beget sons even from that, but those of whom it is written: "The sons of adulterers shall be imperfect, and from the unjust bed the seed shall be exterminated." All sins, therefore, are sons of adultery and sons of fornication. Whence it is shown that through each single thing which we do, our soul gives birth and generates sons — namely the thoughts and works which it does. And if indeed what it does is according to the law and according to the word of God, it brings forth the spirit of salvation, and therefore it shall be saved through the bearing of children; and these are the sons of whom the prophet says: "Your sons like young olive-shoots round about your table." But if what it does is against the law and is sin, without doubt from the conception of the contrary spirit it begets a wicked offspring; for it brings forth sons of sin. And these are the accursed generations, in which by some of the saints even the day on which they were born is cursed. There is therefore never a time when the soul does not give birth; the soul always gives birth, always generates sons. But that generation indeed is blessed which, conceived of the word of God, is generated, and this is the bearing of children through which she shall be saved. But if, as we have said, she conceives from the contrary spirit, it is certain that she bears sons of wrath fitted for destruction. And perhaps to both these generations of the soul that refers which was said: "For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him who calls, it was said that the greater shall serve the lesser, as it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." For such generations of the soul, even before they do anything good — if indeed they are generated of the Holy Spirit — are already loved; but if they are of the evil spirit, even before they accomplish anything of evil in work, yet by this very thing, that the soul has brought forth a will of this kind, the execrable concept…
Numbers 25:2 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 6
I might say that those who deny Christianity on oath at the tribunals or before they have been put on trial do not worship but only bow down to idols when they take "God" from the name of the Lord God and apply it to vain and lifeless wood. Thus the people who were defiled with the daughters of Moab bowed down to idols but did not worship them. Indeed, it is written in the text itself, "They invited them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices, and they bowed down to their idols, and performed the rites to Baal Peor." Observe that it does not say "and they worshiped their idols"; for it was not possible after such great signs and wonders in one moment of time to be persuaded by the women with whom they committed fornication to consider the idols gods.
Numbers 25:4 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 20.4
"And the Lord," it says, "was angry with fury against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses: Take the chiefs of the people and display them to the Lord before the sun, and the anger of the Lord's fury shall be turned away from Israel." I do not know whether, in discussing these things, we may not offend some; but even if we do offend, it is more fitting to obey and serve the word of the Lord than the favor of men. Israel sinned, and the Lord said to Moses that he should take all the chiefs and display them to the Lord before the sun. The people sins, and the chiefs are displayed before the sun — that is, they are brought forth to be examined, that they may be reproved by the light. You see what the condition of the chiefs of the people is: they are reproved not only for their own offenses, but they are also compelled to render account for the sins of the people, lest it be their fault that the people transgressed — lest perhaps they did not teach, lest perhaps they did not admonish, nor were solicitous to reprove those who gave the beginning of the fault, so that the contagion might not be scattered among the many. For it is incumbent upon the chiefs and the teachers to do all these things. For if, when they do not do these things nor bear solicitude concerning the people, the people has sinned, they themselves are displayed and they themselves are brought forth to judgment. For Moses — that is, the law of God — reproves them as negligent and slothful, and the wrath of God will be turned upon them and will cease from the people. If men considered these things, they would never desire nor strive after the chieftainship of the people. For it is enough for me if I am reproved for my own offenses; it is enough for me to render account for my own self and my own sins. What need is there for me also to be displayed for the sins of the people, and to be displayed before the sun, before which nothing can be hidden, nothing obscured? But perhaps even in this there is some hidden and secret sense which teaches something more than this common exposition seems to have. For perhaps this too can be referred to those chiefs of the people of whom we spoke a little above. For the angels too will come to judgment with us and will stand for us before the sun of righteousness, lest perhaps something of the cause of our transgression should have been from them too — lest perhaps they expended less of work and labor toward us, whereby they might have recalled us from the stain of sins. For unless there were something also in them which should seem blameworthy in the cause of ours, the discourse of Scripture would never say to the angel of this or that church that "you have, for example, certain persons holding the teaching of Balaam," or that "you have forsaken your former charity" or "your patience," or other things of this kind which we have already mentioned above, for which in the Apocalypse the angels of each church are blamed. For if the angel — for example, who received me sealed to him from God — hopes for a reward for those things which I did well, it is certain that he will also expect to be blamed for those things which were not done well by me. And therefore they are said to be displayed before the sun, without doubt so that it may appear whether the sins were committed through my disobedience or through his negligence, by which I was consecrated either to Baal-peor or to any other idol, according to the quality, that is, of the sinning. But if my chief — I mean the angel who is sealed to me — was not lacking, but admonished me of good things and spoke in my heart, at least insofar as my conscience recalled me from sin, but I, despising his admonitions and spurning the restraint of conscience, burst headlong into sins, my punishment will be doubled, both for the contempt of my admonisher and for the outrage of the deed committed. And do not indeed be surprised if we say that the angels come to judgment with men, since Scripture says that:…
Numbers 25:6-8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 20.5
After these things it is reported that, when Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest had seen a certain Israelite man go in to a Midianite woman, he snatched up a lance in his hand, entered the brothel, and pierced them both through their very shameful parts. And for this, it says, the Lord said to Moses: "Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron has quieted my anger." Let these things have edified the former people; but you, who have been redeemed by Christ, and from whose hands the bodily sword has been taken away and the sword of the spirit given, snatch up this sword; and if you see an Israelite thought whoring with Midianite harlots — that is, wallowing with diabolical thoughts — do not spare, do not dissemble, but at once strike, at once destroy. The very womb also — that is, discerning and penetrating the secrets of nature — cut away that very kindling of sin, lest it conceive further, lest it generate further and the accursed offspring of sins contaminate the camp of Israel. For if you do this, you will straightway quiet the wrath of the Lord; for you have anticipated the day of judgment, which is called the day of wrath and fury, and, with the kindling of sin — which now is called the womb of the Midianite woman — exterminated from you, you will come secure to the day of judgment. And therefore, rising up, let us pray that we may find this sword of the spirit always ready, through which both the seeds themselves and the receptacles of sins may be exterminated, and that God may become favorable to us through the true Phinehas, our very Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 25:10 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.17
And lest we seem to you to bring these things forth rather from our own understanding than from the authority of divine Scripture, return to the book of Numbers and recall what Phinehas the priest did, who, when he had seen a harlot of the Midianite nation clinging in impure embraces with an Israelite man before the eyes of all, filled with the anger of divine zeal, seized a sword and drove it through the breast of both. Which work was reckoned to him by God unto justice, the Lord saying: "Phinehas has assuaged my fury, and it shall be reckoned to him unto justice." This earthly food of anger, then, becomes our food, when we use it rationally unto justice.
Numbers 26:53-54 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 21.1
These are the numbers we are reading, and in the earlier reading we were shut out by time from saying anything about the second numbering; but it is fitting now to render what was omitted or left out. Therefore by the Lord's command the people was first numbered, but since those who had first been enrolled fell on account of their persistence in sins, a second people now, which succeeded into the place of the fallen by a revived generation, is called to the numbering, and what had not been said of those former ones is said of these. For after the number was gathered by tribes and peoples and houses and families, the Lord says to Moses: "To these the land shall be distributed by lot according to the number of names. To the more numerous more shall be given by lot, and to the small you shall give a small inheritance." If it had been said of the former ones that "to these the land shall be distributed by lot," it would surely have been false, because they fell in the desert on account of their sins. What therefore was not said to the first is said to the last, for whom also all the things that are promised were fulfilled. But I would not have you think this is confined to the text of the mere history; these are mysteries which are set down through the image of the law. For the former people, which is in circumcision, is rejected, and a second is brought in, which is gathered from the nations; and it is this people that obtains the paternal inheritance. And from whom does it obtain it? Not from Moses, but from Joshua. For Moses, even if he gives an inheritance to some, does not give it within the Jordan nor does he cross the Jordan at all, but he gives land beyond the Jordan — not land flowing with milk and honey, but land suited to cattle and better at nourishing dumb animals and irrational beasts than rational men. But my Joshua, the land which he gives to the second people is a land flowing with milk and honey — nay rather, it is a honeycomb beyond every land. And Moses indeed does not give an inheritance by allotment nor distribute it by lot, nor is he able to weigh out by divine lot the merits of individuals according to peoples and houses and families and names; this Joshua alone does, to whom the Father has handed over all judgment; he knows how to dispense to his people, not only by tribes and families and houses, but even by names, to each one a worthy and fitting dwelling. Yet there are some among these who rise above the condition of the lot and are not brought to the lot at all. All the Levites, that is, all who remain intently and unceasingly in the ministry of God and keep ever-watchful guard in his service, do not receive a lot among the rest; but neither is their lot at all in the land, but the Lord himself is said to be their lot and inheritance. Through these there seem to me to be indicated those who, dulled by no obstacles of bodily nature, but having risen above the glory of all visible things, have set the practice and exercise of their living in the wisdom of God and his Word alone, who require nothing bodily, nothing foreign to reason. For they have desired wisdom, they have desired the knowledge of the secret things of God, and where their heart is, there also is their treasure. These therefore have no inheritance on earth, but they rise above the highest heights of heaven, and there they will ever delight in the Lord, ever in his Word, ever in wisdom and in the pleasure of his knowledge. This will be their food, this their drink, these their riches, this their kingdom. Such therefore will they be, and among these will be those for whom the Lord himself will be the inheritance. But those who are lower and have not reached this summit of advancement will receive an inheritance of land, though of some more sublime and more powerful land. For the land of the living is promised, which is surely called the land of the living for this reason, that it knows no death. And these indeed are great and these are bless…
Numbers 26:53-54 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 21.2
He says therefore: "According to the number of names, to the more numerous more shall be given by lot, and to the small you shall give a small inheritance; to each, as he has been counted, his inheritance shall be given." This is what the history teaches, that if any tribe is held to be more numerous among the peoples, it should obtain by lot larger tracts of land; but if any is reckoned with a smaller number of men, it should be content with a smaller possession. But since we say that the division of this land and the earthly inheritance holds the appearance and shows the image and form of those future goods, of that heavenly inheritance which is hoped for by the faithful and the saints, I inquire, in that inheritance which is to be hoped for, who are the many and who are the few, and I find that there the few are held more blessed than the many. For those who travel their journey by the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction are called many; but those who go by the strait and narrow way that leads to life are called few. And again in other places it is said: "How few are they who are saved!" and again in others: "Where iniquity is multiplied, the charity of many"— not of few —"shall grow cold." Moreover in the ark, which was built by Noah, where the measurements are given from heaven, in the lower parts a length of three hundred cubits is set and a breadth of fifty; but where its structure rises to higher parts, it is drawn into a narrow space and gathered into the enclosure of few cubits, so that its top is finished in the space of a single cubit — for this reason, that in the lower parts, where broad and spacious places were had, either beasts or cattle were placed, but in the upper parts the birds, and in the topmost parts, which were narrower and more confined, there the rational man is placed. But the very peak is gathered into one cubit; for all things are brought back to the monad, which nevertheless in the number of three hundred cubits designates the mystery of the Trinity, and next to this mystery man is placed, as being rational and capable of God. But from this too let us gather the tokens of what is the difference between the few and the many. Set down the whole number of the human race and from all the nations choose the faithful: without doubt they will be fewer than are the whole. Then next from the number of the faithful choose the better: it is certain that a much smaller number will remain. And again from those very ones whom you have chosen, choose again the more perfect: you will surely find fewer. And the further you proceed in choosing, the more scanty and the fewest you will find, until at last you come to some one man who may confidently say: "I have labored more than all those." These therefore, who in this manner are the many, will receive more land and more of the bodily inheritance; but the few will obtain some scanty thing of land, because they have more in the Lord; but others will receive nothing at all of earthly inheritance, if any are worthy to be priests and ministers of God; for of these the Lord himself will be wholly the inheritance. And who is so blessed as either among the few to receive a scanty portion of land, or among the chosen priests and ministers to deserve to receive by lot of inheritance the Lord alone? Although these too on account of their beasts of burden receive something of land, but of that land which is contiguous to the cities and adjoins the towns. Yet this saying which says that "to the more numerous the inheritance shall be multiplied" can still be understood in another way also. For one just man, according to this — that he is accepted by God — is counted for many. Finally it is also written: "By one wise man a city shall be inhabited, but the tribes of the wicked shall be made desolate." And one just man is reckoned for the whole world, but the wicked, even if they are many, are counted scanty and for nothing before God. There is therefore also a prais…
Numbers 26:55-56 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 21.3
"By lot," he says, "shall the distribution of the inheritance be made." This indeed is commanded, but when I come to the Scriptures, I see that Moses himself, to whom these things are entrusted, does not use the lot in the division of the inheritance of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And Joshua too gives an inheritance to the tribe of Judah and to Caleb apart from the lot, and gives one apart from the lot also to the tribe of Ephraim and to the half-tribe of Manasseh. In the rest the lot is cast, and the first lot comes forth for Benjamin, and thereafter for the remaining tribes. Whence I think that in that blessed inheritance of the kingdom of heaven also there will be some who do not come to the lot nor are numbered with the rest, although they are holy; but there will be a certain outstanding and exceptional inheritance for them, as there was for Caleb of the tribe of Judah and for Joshua himself the son of Nun. For just as, for example, when after a battle the provinces and the spoils are apportioned to the victors, each of the outstanding and exceptional warriors is not brought to the lot along with the rest of the soldiers in the division of the spoils, but the best and most excellent things are awarded to them by the merit of their valor, while the rest use the lot solely by the right of victory, so it seems to me that my Lord Jesus Christ also will do; for to certain ones, whom he knows to have labored more abundantly than the rest and whose magnificent deeds and lofty virtues he himself knows, to those he awards the choicest and most exceptional honors and glories, and, if I may dare so to say, honors like his own. Or does it not seem to you that he confers something like his own blessedness upon his dearest disciples, when he says, "Father, I will that, where I am, these also may be with me," and when he says again, "You also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," and again, "As you, Father, in me, and I in you, that these also may be one in us"? All these things do not come down by lot, but are granted by the prerogative of election by him who alone sees the hearts and minds of men — who may deign to bring us also, even if not among the exceptional and the elect and those who are above the lot, yet into the lot of the saints; to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Numbers 27:1-7 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 22.1
There were five daughters, whose names too are recorded in Scripture, born of a certain Israelite named Zelophehad, who died in the desert leaving behind no male offspring. These daughters of Zelophehad therefore approach Moses and demand a share of their father's inheritance, saying: let not the name of their father be blotted out from the midst of his people, because no son was born to him. On this matter Moses refers the question to God. But the mercy of Almighty God does not spurn or despise a consultation offered by young women, and not only deigns to give an answer, but so approves and embraces their words that from them he establishes eternal laws for men, to be observed for all ages. For the Lord says, speaking to Moses: the daughters of Zelophehad have spoken rightly; you shall give them a possession in the midst of their father's brothers, and you shall give the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: if a man dies and has no son, you shall give his inheritance to his daughters; but if he has no daughter, you shall give his inheritance to his brother; but if he has no brothers, you shall give his inheritance to his father's brother; but if his father has no brothers, you shall give the inheritance to the kinsman who is nearest to him from his own tribe, and he shall take his inheritance. And this shall be for the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the Lord appointed to Moses. What force these things have according to the historical sense is plain to all who know that these laws are kept not only among the children of Israel, but among all men who live by laws at all. From which it appears that the freedom of the daughters of Zelophehad conferred an inheritance not only upon themselves, but also gave perpetual laws of living to the world. You see how great is the usefulness even of the historical account itself in the law of God. Who can ever dissolve these laws which the whole world employs? But nevertheless let us seek how we too may be edified spiritually. For it can happen that I have neither daughters according to the flesh nor any land whose inheritance could be received. What then? Will this law accomplish nothing in the case of such a person, and will what has been sanctioned by the divine voice be idle for anyone? Let us therefore inquire, even in the spiritual law, who these five daughters are, who, even if their father has died for some sin, may themselves receive an inheritance from the word of God. In earlier passages, when we were treating of spiritual sons, we taught that the virtues of the soul and the perceptions of the mind are called sons. It seems, without doubt, a consequence and fitting that daughters too should be understood as works, which are accomplished by the ministry of the body. And therefore too the number five is assigned to them; for there are five bodily senses, by which every work is accomplished in the body. These five daughters, then — that is, the perfection of works — even if they are bereaved of their father and remain orphans, are nevertheless not cast out from the inheritance nor excluded from the kingdom, but receive a portion of the inheritance in the midst of the people of God. But now let us see who is their father who is said to have died to them. Zelophehad, it says. Now Zelophehad is interpreted "a shadow in his mouth." The father of works is understanding. It often happens, then — and there are not a few among our brothers — in whom there is no higher or deeper understanding, but in whom the perception is dead, as is written of a certain man: and his heart died within him. This man, therefore, even if he has no taste for spiritual understanding, but is dead, nevertheless, if he begets daughters — that is, works of ministry, works of obedient service, works of the commandments of God — will obtain an inheritance in the land with the people of the Lord. He will not indeed be able to be numbered among those who…
Numbers 27:8-11 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 22.2
After this the law of God concerning succession is set down, that first the son, second in place the daughter, third the brother, fourth the father's brother should succeed; but the fifth degree does not designate any definite person, but whoever is nearer out of the whole family, that he should succeed. In these things the sense of the history is so whole and perfect that it seems to require nothing from outside. Yet if anyone is well instructed in the spiritual laws and irradiated with the fuller light of knowledge, he can understand these various degrees of successions, and how the first degree of attaining the heavenly inheritance is by the merit of teaching and knowledge, which is the male son; the second by the prerogative of works, which is the daughter; the third of some compassion and imitation, on account of which he is named a brother. For there are some who indeed do nothing of their own accord and by their own understanding, yet placed among the brothers by imitation of the rest they seem to do the same things which those also do who are moved by their own understanding. To these also, therefore, is given a third degree of inheritance under the title of the fraternal name. But the fourth, whom he names the father's brother, can perhaps be understood as that order of men who, having heard things from the fathers and having received the narration of the ancients, endeavor to fulfill them, and, moved not so much by their own perceptions nor stirred by the admonitions of present teaching as instructed by the tradition or the custom alone of the ancients, nevertheless do something good. The last degree, then, is written as that man who by any means whatever has been nearest to these; as if he should say, whether by occasion or by the truth of teaching, if anyone has done something good, the reward of the good work will not perish, but by the Lord's bounty he will receive a place of inheritance. These things, indeed, may perhaps seem to have been boldly presumed by us and brought forward into the open; yet it will not be absurd if, setting forth spiritual things to the spiritual, we make them zealous and desirous of a more secret understanding.
Numbers 27:12-14 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 22.3
After this a history is related, both marvelous in its narration and magnificent in its meaning. For it is set down how God said to Moses that he should go up onto the mountain, and there, when he had looked out from it and gazed upon the whole land of promise, there he should die. But he, who bore the care of the people more than of himself, prays to the Lord that he provide a man to rule the people: let not this congregation, he says, become like sheep which have no shepherd. See therefore, first of all, how he who is perfect and blessed dies not in a valley nor on any level of ground nor on some hill, but on a mountain — that is, in a high and steep place. For the consummation and perfection of his life was held in the height. And he is commanded also to behold with his eyes the whole land of promise, and diligently to survey all things from an eminent station. For it was fitting that to one about to attain the summit of perfection nothing should remain unknown, but that he should have knowledge of all things that are seen and heard; for this reason, I believe, that of all things which, placed in the flesh, he had grasped by bodily sight, being made in the spirit and with a bare mind, hastening to the audience-halls and discipleship of wisdom, he might swiftly attain their reasons and causes. For what usefulness would seem to appear in this, that to one departing from the world and about to receive forthwith the end of this life there should be shown lands and places of which he would neither undergo the labor nor receive the benefit? The saying which follows truly terrifies me and renders me timid and trembling to speak, in that concerning that great Moses, servant and friend of God, to whom God spoke face to face, through whom signs and wondrous powers were wrought, things so grave, so perilous are related. For what does God say to him? And you shall be gathered, he says, to your people, even you, as Aaron your brother was gathered on Mount Hor. And as though setting forth the cause of his death, he says: because you transgressed my word in the desert of Zin, when the congregation resisted, so that it did not sanctify me. You did not sanctify me at the water before them. Is then Moses too at fault? He too incurs the charge of transgression; he too was made under sin. For this reason, I believe, the Apostle said with confidence: death reigned from Adam until Moses; for it came even unto Moses and did not spare even him. And therefore, I think, he said: sin entered into this world, and through sin death, in that all sinned; and again: God has shut up all under sin, that he may have mercy on all. But thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who freed us from the body of this death, so that, where sin abounded, grace might more abound. For how could Moses have freed anyone from sins, when it is said even to himself: you transgressed my word in the desert of Zin, and you did not sanctify me at the water before the children of Israel? — so that it may be manifest to all that he alone must be sought who alone did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth.
Numbers 27:15-23 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 22.4
But meanwhile let us see the greatness of Moses. About to depart from the world, he prays to God that he provide a leader for the people. What are you doing, O Moses? Have you not sons, Gershom and Eleazar? Or if you doubt anything about them, are there not the sons of your brother, a great and excellent man? Why do you not pray to God for them, that he may set them as leaders over the people? But let the princes of the churches learn to mark out for themselves as successors not those who are joined by blood-kinship, nor those who are allied by nearness of flesh, by testament, nor to hand down the headship of the church as an inheritance, but to refer it to the judgment of God, and not to choose him whom human affection commends, but to leave the whole matter of the successor's election to the judgment of God. Could not Moses have chosen a prince for the people, and chosen him by true judgment and by right and just verdict — Moses, to whom God had said: choose elders for the people, whom you yourself know to be elders, and he chose such men in whom the Spirit of God straightway rested, and they all prophesied? Who then could so choose a prince of the people as Moses could? But he does not do this, he does not choose, he does not dare. Why does he not dare? Lest he leave to posterity an example of presumption. But listen to what he says: let the Lord God of spirits and of all flesh provide, he says, a man over this congregation, who may go out before their face and who may go in, and who may lead them out and who may bring them back. If then so great and such a man as Moses does not entrust to his own judgment the choosing of a prince of the people, the appointing of a successor, who will there be who would dare — whether from the common people, who, often stirred by clamors to favor or perhaps to a price, are wont to be moved, or even from the priests themselves, who will there be who would judge himself fit for this — unless it be revealed by the Lord to one who prays and asks? As also God says to Moses: take to yourself Joshua the son of Nun, a man who has the Spirit of God in himself, and you shall lay your hands upon him; and you shall set him before Eleazar the priest, and give him commands in the sight of the whole congregation, and give charge concerning him before them; and you shall put your glory upon him, that the children of Israel may hear him. You hear the ordination of a prince of the people so plainly described that it scarcely needs exposition. Here there is no acclamation of the people, no reckoning of blood-kinship, no consideration of nearness of relation. To the near kinsmen let the inheritance of fields and estates be left; let the governance of the people be handed over to him whom God has chosen — namely, to such a man who has, as you have heard written, the Spirit of God in himself and the precepts of God are before his eyes, and who is well known and familiar to Moses — that is, in whom there is the brightness of the law and knowledge — that the children of Israel may be able to hear him. But since all things are filled with mysteries, we cannot omit the things that are more precious, even if these things which are commanded according to the letter seem necessary and useful. Let us consider, then, what is the death of Moses: the end, without doubt, of the law, but of that law which is spoken according to the letter. But what is its end? The interruption, namely, of the sacrifices and of the other things which are commanded with like observance in the law. When these things, then, receive their end, Jesus takes up the headship: for the end of the law is Christ unto righteousness to everyone who believes. And as it was said of those of old that: all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, so let it also be said of Jesus that: all were baptized into Jesus in the Holy Spirit and water. For it is Jesus who crosses the waters of the Jordan, and in them, in a certain manner, even then baptizes…
Numbers 28:2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.2
But now let us come at last to the things that are written. "And the Lord spoke to Moses," it says, "saying: Command the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: My offerings, my gifts, my victims, for an odor of sweetness, observe to offer them to me on my feast days. And thou shalt say to them: These are my victims, which you shall offer to the Lord." No one offers anything of his own to God, but what he offers is the Lord's, and a man does not so much offer his own things as render back to Him the things that are His own. Therefore, wishing to write laws concerning the sacrifices and gifts to be offered to Him by men, the Lord first of all discloses the true nature of those very things that were to be offered, and says: "My offerings, my gifts, my sacrifices, for an odor of sweetness, observe to offer to me on my feast days." "These offerings," He says, "concerning which I am about to command you that you offer them to me on my feast days, are my gifts," that is, they are given to you by me; for from me the human race receives all that it has. Therefore, lest anyone in offering gifts should believe that he confers some benefit upon God, and through this become impious in the very act in which he seemed to worship God — for what is so impious as for a man to think that he bestows something upon God as upon one in need? — of necessity, as we have said, He first teaches man, so that he may know that whatever he offers to God he rather renders back to Him than offers. But let us also see how He says: "which you shall offer to me on my feast days." Does God, then, have His feast days? He does. For to Him human salvation is a great festivity. I think that through each and every one of the believers, through each one who is converted to God and advances in faith, a festivity arises for God. How greatly, do you think, does it gladden Him when he who had been unchaste becomes chaste, and he who had been unjust cultivates justice, and he who had been impious is made pious? All these conversions of each individual generate festivities for God. Nor is there any doubt that our Lord Jesus Christ also, who for our salvation poured out even his own blood, keeps the greatest festivity when He sees that it was worth the labor that He humbled Himself and, taking the form of a servant, became obedient even unto death. The Holy Spirit likewise keeps festival, when He sees more temples prepared for Himself in those who are converted to God. For what shall I say of the angels, to whose festivity of rejoicing all are said to draw near who are converted to the Lord? Or is it not for them a great festivity, when they rejoice in heaven over one sinner doing penance more than over ninety-nine just who have no need of penance? The angels therefore also keep a feast day, rejoicing over those who, fleeing the fellowship of demons, hasten through the exercises of the virtues to associate themselves with the angelic fellowships. Perhaps it may seem wonderful, what I wish to say: we, it appears, give to God and to the angels causes for festivity and gladness; we, placed on earth, furnish to heaven an occasion of joy and exultation, when, walking upon the earth, we have our conversation in the heavens, and through this without doubt generate a feast day for the heavenly powers. But just as our good acts and the progress of the virtues beget joy and festivity for God and the angels, so I fear lest our evil conversation bring in lamentations and mournings not only to the earth but also to heaven, and perhaps human sins strike even God Himself with grief. Or is not that the voice of one mourning, when He says: "It repenteth me that I made man upon the earth"? And likewise that word of our Lord and Savior in the Gospel, where He says: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that stonest the prophets and killest those sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and thou wouldst not!" And do not think tha…
Numbers 28:2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.1
If the observance of the sacrifices and the legal ordinances, which were given to the people of Israel as a figure, could have stood firm right up to the present time, they would without doubt have shut out the faith of the Gospel, through which, from the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the nations are converted to God. For there was in those things which were then observed a certain magnificent religion, full of every reverence, which even at the very first glance would astonish the beholder. For who, seeing that which was called the sanctuary or holy place, and gazing upon the altar, and upon the priests standing by to complete the sacrifices, and beholding the whole order by which all these things were carried out, would not have supposed this to be a most complete rite by which God the Creator of all ought to be worshipped by the human race? But thanks be to the coming of Christ, who, tearing our souls away from this spectacle, has brought them over to the consideration of the heavenly and to the contemplation of spiritual things, and has indeed destroyed those things that seemed great upon the earth, and has transferred the worship of God from the visible to the invisible and from the temporal to the eternal. But in truth the Lord Jesus Christ himself requires both ears that may hear these things and eyes that may see them. Hence we too, now having in our hands the law given through Moses, and wishing to show that it is a spiritual law, require from you such ears and such eyes as look not to those things that have been destroyed, but that seek these things there where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and that savor the things which are above, not the things which are upon the earth. Let it suffice, then, that these things have been set forth by us in the place of a preface for the things that are to be said.
Numbers 28:3-8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.3
Since, therefore, we have in our hands the laws of the feasts, and the discourse is now about them, let us inquire more diligently what the order of the festivals is, so that from the very orders and the rite of the sacrifices we may be able to gather how each one, out of his own acts and holy conversations, may be able to prepare a festivity for God. The first, then, of God's festivals is that which is called "unceasing"; for the command is about those things which are to be offered unceasingly and without any interruption at all in the morning and evening sacrifices. Therefore, in commanding the rites of the festivals, He did not come first at once to the festival of the Passover, nor to that of the unleavened bread, nor to that of tabernacles and the others concerning which He gives command, but He set this one first, in which He commands the unceasing sacrifice to be offered — so that whoever wishes to be perfect and holy may recognize that a festivity is not to be kept to God sometimes and sometimes not, but the just man ought always and unceasingly to keep a feast day. For the sacrifice which is commanded to be offered unceasingly, both in the morning and in the evening, indicates this: that in the law and the prophets, which show the morning time, and in the evangelical teaching, which shows the evening, that is, the coming of the Savior at the evening of the world, one should persist with unceasing attention. Such festivals, then, the Lord calls His own: "And you shall observe my feast days." It is therefore the Lord's feast day, if we offer Him sacrifice unceasingly, if we pray without intermission, so that our prayer ascends like incense in His sight in the morning, and the lifting up of our hands becomes to Him the evening sacrifice. The first solemnity, then, is that of the unceasing sacrifice, which by the worshippers of the Gospel ought to be fulfilled in the manner we have expounded above. But since, as the prophetic word has fully taught, the feast days of sinners are turned into mourning and their songs into wailing, it is certain that he who sins and keeps days of sin cannot keep a feast day; and therefore on those days on which he sins he cannot offer the unceasing sacrifice to God. But he can offer it who unceasingly keeps justice and preserves himself from sin. But on whatever day he interrupts this and sins, it is certain that on that day he does not offer the unceasing sacrifice to God. I am afraid to say something which is given to be understood from the Apostolic discourses, lest perhaps I seem to sadden some. For if the prayer of the just man is offered like incense in the sight of God, and the lifting up of his hands is the evening sacrifice, but the Apostle says to those who are in marriages: "Defraud not one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may have leisure for prayer, and return again to the same," it is certain that the unceasing sacrifice is hindered for those who serve the necessities of marriage. Hence it seems to me that it belongs to him alone to offer the unceasing sacrifice, who has devoted himself to unceasing and perpetual chastity. But there are also other feast days for those who perhaps cannot unceasingly immolate the sacrifices of chastity.
Numbers 28:9-10 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.4
The second festival, then, after the festival of the unceasing sacrifice, is set the sacrifice of the sabbath, and every holy and just man ought to keep also the festival of the sabbath. But what is the festival of the sabbath except that of which the Apostle says: "There remaineth therefore a sabbath-keeping," that is, an observance of the sabbath, "for the people of God"? Leaving aside, therefore, the Jewish observances of the sabbath, let us see of what sort the Christian's observance of the sabbath ought to be. On the sabbath day one ought to do no work out of all the works of the world. If, therefore, you cease from all secular works and do nothing worldly, but have leisure for spiritual works, come together to the church, lend an ear to the divine readings and expositions, think upon heavenly things, take thought for the hope to come, keep the judgment that is to come before your eyes, look not to present and visible things but to invisible and future things — this is the Christian's observance of the sabbath. But these things the Jews too ought to observe. Finally, even among them, if a smith, if a builder, and if any workman of this kind there be, he is idle on the sabbath day; but the reader of the divine law or the teacher does not cease from his work, and yet does not defile the sabbath; for so the Lord too says to them: "Have you not read that the priests too in the temple profane the sabbath and are without blame?" He therefore who has ceased from the works of the world and has leisure for spiritual acts, this is he who keeps the sacrifice of the sabbath and the feast day of the sabbaths. Nor does he carry burdens on the way; for every sin is a burden, as the prophet also says: "Like a heavy burden they have weighed upon me." Nor does he kindle a fire — that fire, namely, of which it is said: "Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled." On the sabbath each one sits in his own place and does not go forth from it. What, then, is the place of the spiritual soul? Justice is its place, truth, wisdom, sanctification, and all that Christ is, is the place of the soul. From which place it ought not to go forth, that it may keep the true sabbaths and fulfill the feast day in the sacrifices of the Sabbaths, as the Lord also said: "He who abides in me, and I in him." But as to what we called the true sabbaths, if we seek out more deeply what the true sabbaths are, the observance of the true sabbath is beyond this world. For that which is written in Genesis, that "the Lord rested on the sabbath day from his works," we do not see either to have been done then on the seventh day or to be done even now. For we always see God working, and there is no sabbath on which God does not work, on which He does not bring forth His sun over the good and the evil and rain upon the just and the unjust, on which He does not bring forth on the mountains hay and grass for the service of men, on which He does not smite and heal, lead down to hell and bring back, on which He does not kill and make alive. Hence the Lord too in the Gospels, when the Jews laid down a rule for Him about working and healing on the sabbath, answered them: "My Father worketh until now, and I work," showing by these words that on no sabbath of this world does God rest from the dispensations of the world and from the provisions for the human race. For He indeed made the creatures from the beginning and brought forth substances, as many as He knew, being the Founder of things, could suffice for the perfection of the world, but until the consummation of the age He does not cease from their provision and dispensation. There will be, therefore, a true sabbath, in which God will rest from all His works — the age to come, then, when grief and sadness and groaning shall flee away, and God shall be all and in all. On which sabbath may God grant us too to keep a feast day with Him and to celebrate festivals with His holy angels, offering the sacrifice o…
Numbers 28:11-15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.5
The third festival is set as the day of the new moon, on which a victim also is offered. Now "neomenia" means the new moon. This too, then, is a festival, when the moon is renewed. And it is called "new" when it has been made nearest to the sun and very closely joined to it, so that it hides beneath its brightness. But perhaps it may seem wonderful, indeed superfluous, that the divine law should command this. For what does it profit religion to observe as a festival the new moon, that is, when it is joined to the sun and cleaves to it? If these things are considered according to the letter, they will seem not so much religious as superstitious; but the Apostle Paul knew that the law does not speak of these things, nor did the Holy Spirit command that rite which seems to be observed by the Jews; and therefore he said to those who had received the faith of God: "Let no one therefore judge you in food or drink or in respect of a feast day or of a new moon or of a sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come." If, therefore, the sabbath, of which we expounded above as best we could, is a shadow of things to come, and the new moon is a shadow of things to come, it is certain that the other festivals likewise are shadows of things to come. But now let us look at the new moon. We said that the festival is called the new moon when the moon has begun to be renewed and to be made nearest to the sun and wholly joined to it. The Sun of justice is Christ; if the moon, that is, His Church, which is filled with His light, be joined to Him and cleave wholly to Him, so that, according to the word of the Apostle, "he who joins himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him," then it keeps the festival of the new moon; for then it is made new, when it has cast off the old man and put on the new, who is created according to God, and thus deservedly keeps the solemnity of renewal, which is the festival of the new moon. And it is then, finally, when it can neither be seen nor comprehended by human sight. For when the soul has wholly allied itself to the Lord and has wholly withdrawn into the splendor of His light, and thinks nothing at all earthly, seeks nothing worldly, nor is eager to please men, but has surrendered itself wholly to the light of wisdom, wholly to the warmth of the Holy Spirit, made subtle and spiritual — how can it be discerned by men or apprehended by human sight? For the animal man cannot understand and discern the spiritual man. And therefore most worthily will it keep the feast day and will slay to the Lord the victim of the new moon, as one renewed through Him.
Numbers 28:16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.6
In the fourth place among the festivals of God is set the solemnity of the Passover, in which festival the lamb is slain. But do you look to the true lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and say: "Our pasch, Christ, is sacrificed." Let the Jews in a carnal sense eat the flesh of the lamb, but let us eat the flesh of the Word of God; for He Himself said: "Unless you eat my flesh, you will not have life in yourselves." This which we are now speaking is the flesh of the Word of God, provided at least that we do not offer, as to the weak, herbs, or, as to children, the nourishment of milk. If we speak perfect things, if strong, if mighty, we set before you the flesh of the Word of God to eat. For where mystical discourse, where doctrinal discourse, filled with the faith of the Trinity, is brought forth solid, where, the veil being removed, the spiritual mysteries of the letter of the law of the age to come are laid open, where the hope of the soul, torn away from the earth, is cast into the heavens and set among those things which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have they ascended into the heart of man — all these are the flesh of the Word of God; and he who can feed on them with perfect understanding and a purified heart truly immolates the sacrifice of the festival of the Passover and keeps a feast day with God and His angels.
Numbers 28:17 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.7
After this, indeed joined continuously to it, follows the festival of the unleavened bread, which you will rightly celebrate if you drive out every leaven of malice from your soul and keep the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. For it is not to be supposed that Almighty God writes laws for men about leaven, and for that reason commands the soul to be exterminated from the people, if perchance it is found to have had in its house any little bit of this leaven from the sprinkled flour; and that such care was a matter of great concern to the divine Majesty, that He should say Himself so greatly offended on account of this leaven, that He commands the soul which He Himself made to His own image and likeness to be exterminated and overthrown on this account — this does not seem to me an understanding worthy of the divine laws; but rather it is this, at which God shudders and rightly shudders, if the soul be leavened with the spirit of malice, of anger, of wickedness, and swell up to shameful deeds. These God does not wish to be in the soul, and unless we cast out such leaven from the house of our soul, we shall deservedly be exterminated. But do not despise it, even if you see a small malice being leavened within you, because a little leaven corrupts the whole lump; and therefore do not be negligent even of a small sin, since from one sin another too is generated. For just as from justice justice is generated, and from chastity chastity — for if anyone first begins to be chaste in a slight degree, having received the leaven of chastity he becomes daily more chaste — so also he who has once stored up within himself even a small leaven of malice becomes daily more wicked and worse than himself. And therefore, if you wish to keep the festival of unleavened bread with God, do not suffer even a small leaven of malice to remain within you.
Numbers 28:26 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.8
After this follows the sixth festival, which is called of the "new fruits," that is, when the firstfruits of the new produce are offered. For when the field has been sown and diligently cultivated, and the crop has come to maturity, then in the perfection of the fruits the festival of the Lord is kept. If, therefore, you too wish to keep the feast day of the new fruits with God, see how you sow or where you sow, that you may be able to reap such fruits from which you may make God glad and keep a feast day. This you will not be able to fulfill otherwise, unless you hear the Apostle saying: "He who sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting." If you so sow and so reap, you will truly keep the feast day of the new fruits. Finally, therefore, the prophet also admonishes, saying: "Renew for yourselves new tillage, and do not sow upon thorns." He therefore who renews his heart and his inner man from day to day, this man renews for himself new tillage and sows not upon thorns but upon the good earth, which renders him fruit thirtyfold or sixtyfold or a hundredfold. This, then, is he who sows in the spirit and gathers the fruits of the spirit. And the first of all the fruits of the spirit is joy. And he rightly keeps the feast day of the new fruits who reaps joy, especially if together he reaps also peace and patience and goodness and gentleness; and if he gather the other fruits like to these, he will most worthily keep the festival of the new fruits to the Lord.
Numbers 29:1 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.5.7-8
After these, in the seventh month other festivals are celebrated. "On the first day of the month" there is the new moon of trumpets, just as it says in the psalm, "Play the trumpet at the beginning of the month." But "on the tenth day of the seventh month" there is the festival of atonement. Only "on this day" is the high priest dressed with all the pontifical garments. Then he is dressed in "the manifestation and truth." Then he goes into that inaccessible place where he can approach only "once a year," that is, into "the Holy of Holies." For "once a year" the high priest, leaving the people behind, enters that place where "the mercy seat" is, and above "the mercy seat is the cherubim," where "the ark of testimony" and "the altar of incense" are, where no one is permitted to enter except the high priest alone.Therefore if I should consider how the true "high priest," my Lord Jesus Christ, having indeed been placed in the flesh, was with the people all year, that year about which he himself says, "He sent me to proclaim good news to the poor and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of forgiveness," I perceive how "once in" this "year" on the day of atonement he enters into "the Holy of Holies." That is, when with his dispensation fulfilled "he penetrates the heavens" and goes to the Father to make atonement for the human race and prays for all those who believe in him.
Numbers 29:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.9
Then next follows the festival of the sevenths. For just as among the days every seventh day is observed as a sabbath and is a festival, so also among the months every seventh month is the sabbath of the months. There is therefore kept in it the festival which is called the sabbath of sabbaths, and on the first day of the month there is made the memorial of trumpets. But who is it that keeps the festival of the memorial of trumpets, except he who is able to commit to memory the prophetic and evangelical and apostolic scriptures, which sound forth like a certain heavenly trumpet, and to store them up within the treasury of his heart? He therefore who does this, and meditates on the law of God day and night, this man keeps the festival of the memorial of trumpets. But also, if anyone is able to merit those graces of the Holy Spirit by which the prophets were inspired, and to say, singing psalms: "Sound the trumpet at the beginning of the month, on the day of its notable solemnity," and he who knows how to make a joyful noise in the psalms, he worthily keeps to God the solemnity of the trumpets.
Numbers 29:7 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.10
There is still also another festival, when they afflict their souls and humble themselves, celebrating festivals to God. O wondrous festival: the affliction of the soul is called a feast day! "For this," He says, "is the day of propitiation, on the tenth day of the seventh month." See, therefore, if you wish to keep a feast day, if you wish that God rejoice over you, afflict your soul and humble it. Do not permit it to fulfill its desires, nor grant it to wander off into wantonness, but as far as can be done, afflict and humble it. Finally, both the festival of the Passover and that of the unleavened bread is said to have the bread of affliction, nor can anyone keep a feast day unless he has eaten the bread of affliction, and has eaten the pasch with bitterness. "For you shall eat," He says, "the unleavened bread with bitterness," or with bitter herbs. You see, therefore, of what sort the festivals of God are; they admit no bodily sweetness, they wish nothing relaxed, nothing voluptuous or luxurious, but they demand affliction of the soul and bitterness and humility, because "he who humbles himself shall himself be exalted" before God. This, then, the day of propitiation too demands; for when the soul has been afflicted and humbled in the sight of the Lord, then God is made propitious to it again, and then there comes to it He whom God set forth as a propitiator through faith in His blood, Christ Jesus, its Lord and redeemer.
Numbers 29:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 23.11
But now let us see what is the last feast day of God, on which God rejoices in man. "Tabernacles," He says. He rejoices, then, over you when He sees you dwelling in this world in tents, when He sees you not having your mind and purpose fixed and founded upon the earth, nor desiring the things that are earthly, nor reckoning the shadow of this life as your own perpetual possession, but as though set in transit and hastening to that true fatherland of paradise, whence you came forth, and saying: "I am a sojourner and a pilgrim, as all my fathers." For the fathers too dwelt in tents, and Abraham dwelt in little huts, that is, in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. When, therefore, you have been a sojourner and a pilgrim on the earth, and your mind is not fixed and rooted in the desires of earthly things, but you are ready to pass over quickly and ready to stretch yourself always to the things that are before, until you arrive at the land flowing with milk and honey and receive the inheritance of things to come — if, I say, God sees you set in these things, He rejoices in you and will keep a feast day over you. These things indeed in the present; but as for the future, if you wish to consider how the feast days are kept there, lift up your senses a little, if you can, from the earth, and forget for a while these things that are held before your face. Describe to yourself how heaven and earth pass away, and how all this fashion of the world passes away, and a new heaven and a new earth is founded. Remove from your sight even the light of this sun, and give to that world which is to come a sevenfold light of this sun; nay rather, according to the authority of Scripture, give to it the Lord Himself as its light. Set the angels of glory standing by, set the virtues, powers, thrones, dominions, and every name of the most illustrious and heavenly powers, not only that which is named in the present age but also that which is named in the age to come. Among all these, consider and conjecture how the feast days of the Lord may be kept, what festivity there is there, what joys, what magnitude of gladness. For concerning those spiritual festivals of which we spoke above, even though they are great and true, especially when they are kept spiritually in the soul, yet they are in part, not in whole; for just as the Apostle said: "We know in part and we prophesy in part," so it follows that we keep a feast day in part. But that you may know that this is so, let us return to that very discourse of Paul which he set forth about feast days and new moons, and see how observantly he said: "Let no one therefore," he says, "judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a part of a feast day." Attend, therefore, more diligently how he did not say "on a feast day" but "in respect of a part of a feast day." For in part and not in whole do we, set in this world, celebrate the feast day; for we are interrupted, even against our will, by the burden of the flesh, we are beaten by its concupiscences, and are bored through by cares and anxieties. For "the corruptible body," as the most wise man says, "weighs down the soul and depresses the mind that ponders many things." In part, therefore, in this world do the saints keep the feast day, because in part they know and in part they prophesy. But when the things that are perfect shall have come, those things which are in part shall be destroyed. For just as this which is in part gives way to perfect knowledge, and this which is in part gives way to perfect prophecy, so also this festival which is in part gives way to the perfect festival. For neither can this world receive that which is perfect, where, as we have said, the necessity of the body now suggests food, now drink, now sleep, now also stirs up as much anxiety of the present life as is necessary; all of which without doubt interrupt the continuation of the festival of God. But when that shall have come which was said concerning those…
Numbers 29:12-38 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 24.1
All who are to be trained in the higher disciplines regard the labor of the rudiments as burdensome, so long as they do not know what the end and fruit of that discipline is to which they are being introduced. But when, having been led through in order, the perfection of the discipline has been attained, then it will be a delight to have endured the burdens of the rudiments. There are, therefore, also in holy and divine matters certain first rudiments, by which those are introduced who strive toward the perfection of blessedness. This the servant of God clearly indicates in the song of Exodus, saying: "Bringing them in, plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, in your prepared dwelling, which you have prepared, O Lord." Paul the Apostle also, knowing that there are certain first beginnings of instruction, and that then afterward, in the course of time, one comes even to perfection, writing to certain persons said: "For indeed, when you ought already to be teachers by reason of the time, you again need to be taught what are the elements of the beginning of the words of God, and you have become such as have need of milk, not strong food. For everyone who is fed on milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness; for he is a little child. But solid food is for the perfect, who according to their capacity for receiving have their senses trained to the discernment of good or evil." And again elsewhere he recalls that the letter of the law and every writing of this kind are the elements of the world. And so now those things which pertained to those who were being instructed in the first elements seem burdensome to us at first hearing; for when each of the hearers wishes to learn about those things which pertain to salvation, and there is recited to them about the sacrifices of rams and goats and calves, they judge that writings of this kind confer no benefit upon them, so far as concerns the hearing itself. But if there be found anyone who can remove the veil which is placed upon the reading of the Old Testament, and thence search out what are the true sacrifices which purify the people on the festal days, then he will see how wonderful and magnificent are the things which are indicated through these, which by the ignorant are held to be superfluous and superstitious. But these things indeed Paul, and any who are like him, will have come to know more fully and more perfectly from Wisdom herself and from the Word of God; but we, so far as we can gather from their own writings, in which they have given us certain indications as it were through shadow and image, will attempt to discuss summarily, for the common edification, some things concerning the rite of the sacrifices. At the festival of Passover a lamb is written to be that which purifies the people, in others a calf, in others a goat or a ram or a she-goat or a heifer, as you have learned from those things which have been recited. One therefore of these animals which are taken to purify the people is the lamb. And this lamb is said to be our Lord and Savior himself. For thus understood John, who is greater than all the prophets, and he indicated concerning him, saying: "Behold, the Lamb of God, behold, him who takes away the sin of the world." But if the lamb which was given to purify the people is referred to the person of our Lord and Savior, it seems to follow that the other animals also, which are appointed to these same uses of purification, ought likewise to be referred to certain persons who confer something of purification upon the human race. See therefore whether perhaps, just as our Lord and Savior, led like a lamb to the slaughter and offered as a sacrifice upon the altar, granted remission of sins to the whole world, so perhaps also the blood of the other saints and just ones, which has been shed from the blood of Abel the just even to the blood of Zechariah the prophet, who was slain between the temple and the altar — the blood of one poured out as of a h…
Numbers 30:2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 24.2
After these things the law of vows is set down, and Moses uses a new beginning in this legislation; for he says: "A man, a man, whoever shall vow a vow to the Lord." What is the reason for this repeating of the name? As though it did not suffice to have said: "A man who shall vow a vow to the Lord." What is it therefore that he says, "a man, a man," and what this doubled naming of "man" means, does not seem to me to be passed over in silence. The Apostle teaches that there is one inner man and another outer, and that the former is he who is renewed from day to day according to the image of him who created him, but that the latter is the visible one, who is corrupted. When therefore one comes to that advancement, that the law of God may be received and vows offered to the Lord — and no one can offer vows to the Lord except him who has something within himself and in his own substance which he may offer to God — this outer man does not suffice to receive the law of God nor to offer vows alone, for he cannot have anything worthy of God, but it is that inner man who rather has in himself what he may offer to God; for in him is the dwelling of the virtues, in him all understanding of knowledge, in him is the renewal of the divine image. And when he has recovered his form, by which he was made from the beginning by God, and by the restoration of the virtues has received back the beauty of his former shape, then he can now offer vows to God, and then he will now be called not "man" only, but "man, man." For he who does not cultivate the inner man, who takes no care of him, who does not equip him with virtues, does not adorn him with morals, does not exercise him in divine instructions, does not seek the wisdom of God, does not expend labor on the knowledge of the scriptures — this one cannot be called "man, man," but only "man," and an animal man, because that inner one, to whom the name "man" more truly and more nobly belongs, is lulled to sleep in him by carnal vices and overwhelmed by the cares and anxieties of this world, so that not even the naming of his name can be had. Wherefore each of us must strive earnestly that, if perhaps he sees the inner man in himself lying oppressed with the filth of sins and the rubble of vices, he may more quickly remove from him all uncleannesses, more quickly rescue him from every defilement of flesh and blood, be converted at last to repentance, recall to himself the memory of God, recall the hope of salvation. For these things are not to be sought from somewhere outside, but within us is the occasion of salvation, as the Lord also said: "For behold, the kingdom of God is within you." For within us is the faculty of conversion; for when, being converted, you shall have groaned, you shall be saved, and then you will be able worthily to render your vows to the Most High and to be called "man, man." Now a vow is when we offer something of our own to God. God therefore wishes first to receive something from us, and so himself to bestow upon us, that he may be seen to bestow his gifts and rewards upon the deserving and not upon the undeserving. But what is it that God wishes to receive from us? Hear the sentence of Scripture: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and love him with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with all your strength?" These therefore are the things which God asks of us. And if we do not first offer them, we shall receive nothing from him. We read also in another place: "Give glory to God," and: "Give magnificence to God." If you give glory, you will receive glory; for thus God himself says: "Those who glorify me I will glorify." But I say that, if we also offer him our righteousness, we shall receive from him the righteousness of God; and if we offer him our chastity, that is, of the body, we shall receive from him the chastity of the spirit; and if we offer him our understanding, we s…
Numbers 30:3-16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 24.3
But meanwhile the present reading contains certain distinctions among vows. For if it be a man who vows, he is said to be free in his vows and subject to no one. But if a woman vows, then, if indeed she be in her father's house, her vow hangs upon her father's judgment; and if he refuses it, she is released; but if he does not refuse it, both he and the daughter are held liable. But if, after the father has not refused, she does not fulfill the vow, the daughter's sin remains upon him. And in like manner it is decreed also concerning the husband, that, if a wife has vowed something in her husband's house and the husband on hearing it does not refuse, he is guilty of the vow equally with his wife; but if he refuses, then the wife is as free as the husband; but if he keeps silent, both, as we have said, are held guilty. These indeed are the things that are written; but we must pray to God that he may deign to give an understanding worthy of himself, whereby we may be able to perceive these things as it is fitting they be understood concerning the words of God. All of us who live under the law of God and are counted in his Church, some pass our life under fathers, some under husbands. And if the soul is a little one and has its beginnings in the divine instructions, this soul is to be believed to conduct itself under a father. But if it has already become more grown up, so that it is capable of a husband for conceiving the seed of the word of God and of receiving the secrets of spiritual teaching, this soul is said to be placed under a husband. For thus also Paul said concerning the Corinthians: "I wish to present you all as a chaste virgin to one husband, to Christ." But those who are more perfect and more eminent than these, of them it is not said that they are under a husband, but hear how Paul pronounces concerning himself and those like him: "until we all," he says, "come together into the perfect man, into the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ." Over this soul, then, which comes together into the perfect man, no one is master in vows, but it has power over its own things and freedom of its vows. But if the soul be still of the feminine kind, over which either a husband or a father is master in vows, the fault is not always in the soul itself, but sometimes it returns upon the husbands or the parents. Concerning these, although it be difficult to apply, nevertheless the things that, by the Lord's bounty, have been able to occur to us we will set forth. We have often said that the care and management of the souls which are in the Church of God is exercised through angels, and we have shown that these too come to judgment along with men, so that in that divine scrutiny it may be established whether men have sinned through their own sloth or through the negligence of their admonishers and guardians. It seems to me, therefore, that in this passage also the same thing is designated and shown under a mystery, namely that some souls dwell under these as daughters, others as wives, according to the things which we distinguished above. If, therefore, any of these desires to offer something and to vow it to God, then, if what she vows is over-hasty and less fitting, it belongs to him—namely to the angel, as her guardian and admonisher—to check and beat back the boldness of her who vows. But if, on hearing it, he does not check it, does not admonish, the soul indeed is freed from fault, but he himself will remain liable to the vow. This indeed is to be taken as happening with regard to any of the lower sort; but with the more perfect God himself is present, as it is written concerning the people of Israel: "But the Lord himself led them." But after they had transgressed and had made themselves lower than themselves, they are handed over to an angel. Whence Moses too said: "Unless you yourself come with us, do not lead me up hence." But also concerning another he says: "I am with him in tribulation," and elsewhere he says: "D…
Numbers 31:1-2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.1
In the passages above, the sons of Israel committed fornication with the women of the Midianites, and this was a stumbling-block to the sons of Israel, in which they offended the Lord and provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. Now therefore, after Israel had suffered what it suffered, "the Lord spoke," it says, "to Moses, saying: Avenge the vengeance of the sons of Israel upon the Midianites, and afterward you shall be added to your people." Therefore, as for the stumbling-blocks that had befallen the Israelites, since they had befallen them through the treachery of the Midianites — for they themselves had suborned the women who were to deceive them, so that they might sin before the Lord — those men indeed suffered punishment for their sin, yet more moderately and more sparingly, whereas these, who were the cause of their sinning, are subjected to a far more severe vengeance. Whence we are taught that it is far graver to furnish others the occasion of sin than for each one himself to sin, just as the Lord also indicates, when He says that: "It were better for a man not to have been born, or that an ass's millstone be tied about his neck and that he be cast into the depth of the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones." And at the same time it must be noted that the name of "scandal" is improperly assumed by some — that a scandal is said to be there, where for one walking on the straight road some deception toward sin is contrived and the cause of sinning is put beneath him, just as also the Midianites, for the Israelites walking in the law of the Lord and keeping chastity, suborned the women who were to deceive them into sinning. Therefore to furnish the cause of sin, this is to scandalize. And yet punishment is given, but far graver upon those who scandalized, who furnished the cause of sin, than upon those who sinned. At the same time observe also that which He added to these things: "but at the last," He says, "you also shall be added to your people." If ever we have discourse with the Samaritans, since indeed they deny the resurrection of the dead and do not accept the faith of the age to come, let us press them hard from these words, in which the Lord says to Moses that he is to be added to his people. For no one is added to those who do not exist. Whence it is established that there is some people to which Moses is said to be joined after the departure from this life. Since therefore the Samaritans do not believe the prophets, from whom the faith of the resurrection of the dead could be more amply proved, at least from these books of Moses, which they receive and whose authority they confess, they are to be convicted and cured — if indeed even Babylon ought to be cured. This passage, then, is one that evidently shows the resurrection of the dead. For it indicates that there is a people to whom Moses is to be joined after his death, and to whom he is to be transferred according to his merits.
Numbers 31:3-4 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.2
After these things Moses spoke to the people, saying: "Arm men of yourselves and make war against Midian, to render vengeance from the Lord upon Midian; a thousand from a tribe and a thousand from a tribe; from all the tribes of Israel send men to make war." Attend to the reading; for the mind must be directed not only to the hearing of words, but to the consideration of the realities. Recall the things past, hear the things present, mark the things that follow. Compare the earlier things with the later, and contemplate the magnificence of the divine powers. The sons of Israel some time ago had been six hundred thousand armed men who had gone forth against Midian, and all these were conquered, because sin was in them. But now the Midianites, the victors, who had put to flight six hundred thousand, are conquered by twelve thousand, that you may know that Israel conquers not in a multitude nor in the number of soldiers, but there is righteousness and piety in those who conquer. Therefore, finally, it is also said in their blessings that, if they keep the law of the Lord, one of them shall pursue a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight. You see, then, that one holy man praying avails much more than innumerable sinners doing battle. The prayer of a holy man penetrates heaven: how should it not also conquer the enemy on earth? And therefore we must strive in every way to seek first and to keep the righteousness of God. And if you obtain and keep it, it will subject all your enemies to you; if you are clothed, as the Apostle says, in the breastplate of righteousness and girded with truth, if you have taken the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit and above all the shield of faith, in which you can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. For, equipped with such arms, you will put to flight all the camps of the devil and all his army, and with confidence you will sing: "If camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear; if battle rise up against me, in this will I hope."
Numbers 31:7-8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.2
Therefore twelve thousand engage against the Midianites, and "they slay," it says, "all their males; and their kings and Balaam, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword together with the rest of their wounded." That which in the passages above we were inquiring — how it could be proved from the Scriptures that the women of the Midianites, who deceived the sons of Israel into fornicating, had been suborned by the counsel of Balaam — this present passage of Scripture evidently shows, saying that he was slain by the sword as the author of the scandal that was brought upon the sons of Israel. And it is said of him in what follows still more evidently in this way: "and Moses said to them: why have you preserved every woman alive? For it is they who, according to the word of Balaam, made the sons of Israel apostates." And the kings of the Midianites are also slain, and those who were formerly conquered by the women now, expiation being had and repentance performed, conquer even the kings. From this let us understand how much conversion to God avails, how much the amendment of sins profits. Every male, all the kings of the Midianites, are conquered and destroyed by those who through the correction of the Lord and through the repentance for their deeds were corrected and amended. Five kings of the Midianites, therefore, are reported to have been overcome by the Israelite soldiers.
Numbers 31:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.3
But the divine Scripture was also careful to record their names. "Evi," it says, "and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba." These are they who reign among the Midianites, whom everyone who serves God as a soldier ought to overcome and utterly to destroy. For Evi is interpreted "beastly" or "wild." And how will you be able to please Him who has approved you, if you do not cut off from yourself and utterly destroy beastly and wild ways? How will you be able to attain to the beatitude of the meek, unless first you slay Evi and hand over to death the wildness of all anger? I think that the divine Scripture did not narrate these names for the sake of history, but fitted them for the sake of causes and realities. For do you suppose there would have been anyone so foolish as to impose on his son the name "Beastly"? But I judge rather that the divine word looked to the instruction of souls, wishing to show us that we ought to make war against vices of this kind and to drive them from the dwellings of our flesh, to put these kings to flight from the kingdom of our body; which the Apostle more evidently indicates, saying: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." But do you wish to see that not only among the saints are names fitted to realities, but also among the Gentiles and Barbarians? Concerning the saints indeed it is known why Abram was called Abraham, and Sarah Sarra, and Jacob Israel. But let us show that this custom is held also among the Barbarians. Had not one of the sons of Israel received from his parents the name Joseph? But when he passed into Egypt and stood before Pharaoh, he changed his name and from Joseph surnamed him Zaphenath-paneah, which Pharaoh in his own tongue composed from the revelation of secrets or of dreams. And not only is a name fitted to Joseph from the reality before Pharaoh, but Daniel too in Babylon is named Belteshazzar, and Hananiah and Azariah and Mishael are called Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. You see, then, that both the names of Israelite men and even of barbarian men are fitted in the law not by chance, but for the sake of realities and causes. Therefore Moses called the king of the Midianites as he himself judged he should be called. "It is a beastly wildness," he says, "that reigns among the Midianites, and not that alone, but there is also among them another king by the name of Rekem, which in our tongue is 'emptiness.'" Emptiness, then, also reigns among the nation of the Midianites; for there is in truth much emptiness and vanity in this world — nay, "vanity of vanities, and all is vanity" — which the soldier of God ought to overcome and conquer. But he conquers emptiness who does nothing emptily, nothing superfluous and that pertains not to the matter; who remembers that command of the Lord, in which He says that: "even for an idle word men shall render account in the day of judgment." But in this life almost everything men speak, everything they do, is idle and empty; for every act and every word is called empty in which there is not within something for God or for the commandment of God. There is also another king of Midian, Hur, and this is interpreted "provocation." You see what sort they are who reign among the Midianites, all of whom must be opposed, nay, whom it is fitting to be destroyed by those who follow God, and to be slain. For it is not so much the names of kings as of vices, which reign in men, that are reported in the law, and not so much the wars of nations as of carnal concupiscences, which do battle against the soul, that are described. Finally, those who reign in the vices are said to be five kings, that we may be most evidently taught that every vice which reigns in the body depends on the five senses. These five senses, then, are to be destroyed out of the kingdom of the Midianites, that no longer may vices reign over them, but righteousness, and that they may not look for a scandal at the things they see, but for edification. For among the Midianites these se…
Numbers 31:15-16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.2
Therefore twelve thousand engage against the Midianites, and "they slay," it says, "all their males; and their kings and Balaam, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword together with the rest of their wounded." That which in the passages above we were inquiring — how it could be proved from the Scriptures that the women of the Midianites, who deceived the sons of Israel into fornicating, had been suborned by the counsel of Balaam — this present passage of Scripture evidently shows, saying that he was slain by the sword as the author of the scandal that was brought upon the sons of Israel. And it is said of him in what follows still more evidently in this way: "and Moses said to them: why have you preserved every woman alive? For it is they who, according to the word of Balaam, made the sons of Israel apostates." And the kings of the Midianites are also slain, and those who were formerly conquered by the women now, expiation being had and repentance performed, conquer even the kings. From this let us understand how much conversion to God avails, how much the amendment of sins profits. Every male, all the kings of the Midianites, are conquered and destroyed by those who through the correction of the Lord and through the repentance for their deeds were corrected and amended. Five kings of the Midianites, therefore, are reported to have been overcome by the Israelite soldiers.
Numbers 31:21-24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.6
Therefore it says: "This is the justification of the law which the Lord established for Moses: besides gold and silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin, every thing that passes through fire, pass it through fire and it shall be cleansed, but it shall also be purified in the water of purification; all things whatsoever that do not pass through fire shall pass through water. And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and after these things you shall enter into the camps." You see how everyone who has gone out of the battle of this life needs purification. And if this is so, that I may dare to say something according to the authority of Scripture, everyone who goes out of this life cannot be clean. For consider diligently what the text of the history indicates. These men went out to fight for the sons of Israel, they slew the Midianites; and in slaying them, as far as concerns the order of the history and the letter of the law, they pleased God — for they fulfilled the will of God. Yet by this very fact, that they slew the adversaries, they are said to have been made unclean, and therefore it is said to them: "and you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and after these things you shall enter into the camps." Therefore those who fight, for this very reason that they touched the unclean enemies and that they engaged against them and had a contest with them, are polluted. And I too, therefore, even if I shall have been able to conquer the devil, even if the unclean and evil thoughts which he suggests to my heart I either repel as they come or slay them within me once they have entered, lest they come to effect — nay, even if I shall have been able to trample on the head of the dragon, yet by this very fact it is necessary that I be polluted and defiled, in that I strove to trample on him who is polluted and defiled. And I shall indeed be blessed that I was able to overcome him, yet I am unclean and polluted, who touched the polluted one, and on this account I need purification. Therefore, no doubt, Scripture also says that: "no one is clean from filth." All of us, then, need purification — nay, purifications; for many and diverse purifications await us. But these things are mystical and ineffable. For who will be able to narrate to us what are the purifications that are prepared for Paul or Peter or others like these, who fought so much, destroyed so many barbarous nations, laid low so many enemies, took so many spoils, so many triumphs, who return with bloodstained hands from the slaughter of the enemy, whose foot is dipped in blood, and who washed their hands in the blood of sinners? For they slew in the mornings all the sinners of the earth and exterminated their image from the city of the Lord. For they conquered and destroyed diverse nations of demons. For unless they had conquered these, they could not have taken captives from them — all this number of believers — and led them to the obedience of Christ and subjected them to His sweet yoke and laid upon them His light burden. Who, then, is so blessed as to succeed them in these battles and to slay all the Midianites and to be justified from their blood? For he is said to pour out the blood of demons who snatches away those over whom they hold dominion. And he shall be washed from this blood and purified in the kingdom of God, that, purified and made clean, he may be able to enter the holy city of God, Christ Jesus our Lord opening to him the door — nay, He who is the very door of that city of God, to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 31:21-24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.5
Finally, in the present reading, Eleazar the priest is not written as speaking to all the people, but only to those who return from the battle. For it says: "and Eleazar the priest said to the men of valor, who were returning from the battle." You see, then, how the word of God speaks to the men of valor. For men of valor are they who go forth to war. But if anyone is unwilling to fight and to be a soldier, if anyone is unwilling to have the contest of divine studies and of abstinence, this man is unwilling to fulfill that which the Apostle said: "but he who contends in the contest is continent from all things." He, then, who does not contend in the contest and is not continent from all things, nor wishes to be exercised in the word of God and to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, this man, even if he be called a man, cannot nevertheless be called a man of valor. But this one, of whom now the divine Scripture speaks, who brings back spoils from the enemy, is called a man of valor; for this is the mark of his praise, that Scripture says: "Eleazar the priest spoke to the men of valor, who were returning from the battle." Which of us is so prepared that he may go forth to war and fight against the adversaries, so that he too may be able to be called a man of valor? But as a continent life and the labor of abstinence and the struggles of contests make each one to be called a man of valor, so on the contrary a life relaxed and negligent and slothful makes a man to be called a man of sloth. If, then, you wish to be called a man of valor, clothe yourself with Christ the Lord, who is the power (virtus) of God and the wisdom of God, and in all things join yourself to the Lord so that you become one spirit with Him, and then you will be made a man of valor. For the time of war is for us in this world; the fight is against the Midianites, whether against the vices of our flesh, or against the contrary powers. The choir of angels and of the heavenly powers watches us; a devout expectation, therefore, hangs upon us as to when or how we may return from this battle, what each one of us may bring back of the spoils, and they look on more curiously and search more anxiously as to which of us bears from here more of gold, which also displays there a weight of silver, which too carries down precious stones. They inquire also, whether anyone bears down bronze or iron or lead, but also a wooden vessel, if perhaps anyone, or an earthen one, or another of this kind necessary for the uses of a great house. For in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of clay. It is diligently inquired, therefore, when we shall have gone thither, what each one of us brings down, and according to the things he has brought down, according as his labor is proved by the contemplation of the spoils, the merit also of his abode will be reckoned to him. Yet all these things are tested — those through fire, by fire, and those through water, by water; for what sort each one's work is, the fire will prove.
Numbers 31:25-30 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.4
But let us see what the spiritual sense indicates in these things. In the people of God there are certain ones, as the Apostle says, who serve God as soldiers — those without doubt who do not entangle themselves in secular affairs; and these are they who go forth to war and fight against the enemy nations and against the spiritual wickednesses on behalf of the rest of the people and on behalf of those who are weaker, whether by age or by sex or by resolve. And these fight with prayers and fastings, with righteousness and piety, with meekness and chastity and all the virtues of continence, fortified as with weapons of war; and when they have returned to the camps as victors, even the unwarlike enjoy their labors, and those who either are not called to the fight or cannot go out. Yet it must be known that all things that are taken from these nations are unclean; and perhaps everything whatsoever is taken up in this world or captured in battle is unclean and needs purification; and certain of these things will pass through fire, but for others the purification of water will suffice. And there are taken up from the battle even men and beasts, when every understanding is taken captive to obey Christ. For unless we fight in the word of God, we shall not be able to take captive the understanding of those who think differently from Christ, and to lead them to the obedience of Christ. Yet few are they who can fight and carry through these battles; out of six hundred thousand and more armed men who seem to serve God as soldiers, only twelve thousand are chosen; the rest are left in the camps. Behold for me now the people of God that is in the Church, how many there are of those who can fight for the truth, who can resist those who contradict, who know how to handle the wars of the word. Blessed are these, who can fight for the whole people and defend the people of God and bring back abundant spoils from the enemy. Yet the remaining part of the people also, which seems unwarlike, if it reside quietly in the camps, if it act in silence and depart not from Moses but remain in the law of God, will itself also receive a part of the spoils. For an equal portion shall be made — not indeed by number, but as much as is given to all the rest of the people, so much also to those twelve thousand, by whose conquering the spoils were taken. Who, hearing these things, is not invited to the warfare of God? Who is not animated to fight for the Church and to resist against the enemies of truth — those, namely, who teach men either to oppose the doctrines of the Church, or to give their effort to pleasure and luxury? He, then, who overcomes these, and who destroys the vices either in himself or in his neighbors, this man will receive many spoils, multiplied fiftyfold beyond the others; for the quantity seems to be increased into so great a number, when twelve thousand are compared with six hundred thousand. Yet each part is commanded to offer to God. And those indeed who conquered, one out of five hundred; but those who remained at home, one out of fifty. And that the number of five hundred and of fifty is holy, Scripture testifies; whence also the Savior said in the Gospels: "A certain moneylender had two debtors; one of them owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. When they had not the means to pay, he forgave both." But also seven weeks, a monad — that is, one — being added, make the fiftieth day, which is called the festival of Pentecost. Likewise also seventy weeks, the perfection of one decade being added, render the number of five hundred. But by as much as seventy weeks are more than seven, by so much is the number of five hundred more excellent and more perfect than fifty. Hence, finally, also in the parable of the Gospel, which we set forth above, our Savior declares that he loves more to whom the five hundred denarii which he owed were forgiven, than he to whom fifty were.
Numbers 31:25-30 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.3
Therefore, by the command of the Lord, the wars against the Midianites were carried through by the sons of Israel; abundant spoils are brought back from them, an immense weight of gold and silver and of the other movable goods, a very great number of beasts and of captives. But since among the Israelites all these things are reckoned unclean, a purification suited to each several thing is applied; and those things indeed which consist of metals, fire purifies, but those which are more fragile and do not bear the fire are commanded to be purified by water. Therefore from all the spoils two equal parts are made, that one may be of those who had gone forth to war and the other of those who had remained in the camps. They are also commanded to offer from these into the gifts of God: those indeed who had gone forth to war, one head out of five hundred; but those who had remained in the camps, one out of fifty; and the number of all, collected together into one, is reported. This is the tenor of the history.
Numbers 31:48-54 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 26.2
Consider now the state of the present age, and see all things filled with wars and all human life hard pressed by invisible battles and by the assaults of demons, but that among the people of God there are certain ones so strong in faith and armed with virtues that against enemies of this kind they daily wage wars and, always standing ready in battle array, guard from the ambushes of the enemy not only themselves but also the rest who cannot fight, whether by reason of sex or of age or of the condition of servitude, fortifying them by the word of teaching and by the example of their life and by the diligence of their admonitions; provided, however, that faith be not lacking to them. For whether warriors or unfit for war, it is impossible to be saved without faith. Among the warriors themselves, however—those at least who serve as soldiers to God—consider that some are so ready and unencumbered that they entangle themselves in no worldly affairs at all, that they may be able to please him who has approved them, and also meditate on the law of God day and night. These, then, who are of this kind, are called the sum total of the warriors. Indeed it is not said of the common number of the warriors that no one among them was missing, but this is said of those who are named the sum total of the warriors. For among those who are such, there is no dissension, no discord. For these are they of whom it was said: "And the heart and soul of the believers was one, nor did any of them call anything his own, but all things were common to them." These, then, are the sum total of the warriors, among whom no one was missing. These are they who by fighting took a great abundance of gold, and offer to God all the gold and every ornament, whether of the head or of the arms or even of the fingers—that is, whatever they have in their understandings, whatever in their works—they offer to God. For they know that his gifts are his own, and therefore not even one among them dissents. For those set in dissension could not offer gifts to God. These, I think, are, according to the Gospel, those who diligently observe that precept which the Lord and Savior commands: "But if you offer your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave there your gift at the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then coming you shall offer your gift"—namely, so that they may lift up their hands to God without wrath and dissension. These, then, are they who say: "We have gathered the sum total of our men of war, and not one of us was missing; and we have offered a gift to the Lord." Greatly, therefore, must we learn the discipline of concord; because, as in music, if the harmony of the strings has been fitted together in concord, it renders the sweet sound of a melodious song, but if there is any dissonance in the strings, a most disagreeable sound is rendered and the sweetness of the song is spoiled, so also those who serve as soldiers to God, if they have dissensions and discords among themselves, all things will be disagreeable and nothing will seem acceptable to God, even if they wage many wars, even if they carry off many spoils and offer many gifts to God. For it will be said to them: "Lay down your gift at the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother," that you too may be numbered among those who are the sum total of the men of war and may say that "not one of us was missing." I say even something further. Unless you are such that you dissent in nothing from the commandments of God nor differ in anything from the evangelical precepts, you will not be able to conquer the enemy, you will not be able to overcome the adversary. For in that very thing in which you dissent, you are already conquered; and by this very thing you are overcome by the devil, in which you are in discord with God. But if you wish to conquer the enemy and to be of the sum total of the warriors, cleave to God and be in concord with h…
Numbers 31:48-50 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 26.1
That there are differences of progress and of merits among the people of the faithful, anyone who attends more carefully to the reading will discover in many places in the divine volumes. And we gather this no less from the present reading also, from what is written: "And there came to Moses all who had been appointed leaders throughout the tribes in the army, commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. And they said to Moses: We your servants have gathered the sum total of our men of war, and not one of us was missing; and we have offered a gift to the Lord, each man whatever vessel of gold he found, a collar or a bracelet or a ring or an armlet or a little chain, to make propitiation for ourselves before the Lord." The chosen leaders, then, who had been appointed over the army, speak to Moses and, for their deeds well done, offer gifts to God, saying: "We are your servants, who have received the sum total of the warrior sons of Israel." Now by the sum total of the warriors they mean those twelve thousand men who were chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to do battle against the Midianites. There are, then, among the people of God many warriors, and there are also very many who are unfit for war; and again among the warriors there are certain ones who are called the sum total of the warriors, more eminent without doubt than those who are called warriors, just as the warriors too are more eminent than those unfit for war. And again there are some loftier than those who are called the sum total of the warriors, namely those who have been appointed leaders over them and set in command over each individual thousand of the chosen ones. There is, then, much diversity in that order which is called warriors. But even among those unfit for war there is nonetheless some difference; for not even they are all called unfit for war equally and in one and the same rank. For some are so unfit for war that they can never become warriors, as is old age and the whole female sex, and also the servile condition. But the age of boyhood is unfit for war in such a way that it holds a hope of one day becoming warlike; that is, when one shall have come to a perfect man, to the measure of the age, then they hope not only to become warriors out of boys, but also to come into the sum total of the warriors and to be chosen and to be numbered among the twelve thousand, or even to be preferred to these and to be leaders of the chosen ones.
Numbers 32:1-5 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 26.4
That the going forth from Egypt is taken in two ways has already been said often, both by our predecessors and by us. For both when someone is led from the darkness of errors to the light of recognition and is converted from an earthly manner of life to spiritual institutions, he seems to have gone out of Egypt and to have come to the wilderness, namely to that state of life in which, through silence and quiet, he may be exercised by the divine laws and be imbued with heavenly utterances; instructed and directed by these, when he has crossed the Jordan, he may hasten all the way to the land of promise, that is, through the grace of baptism he may come all the way to the evangelical institutions. But we have said that there is also that figure of going forth from Egypt when the soul leaves the darkness of this world and the blindness of bodily nature and is transferred to another age, which is indicated either as the bosom of Abraham, as in Lazarus, or as paradise, as in the thief who believed from the cross; or even if God knows there to be any other places or other dwellings, through which the soul, passing and believing God and arriving all the way to that river which gladdens the city of God, may within it receive the lot of the inheritance promised to the fathers. Therefore, since in a twofold manner, as we have recalled, the going forth from Egypt is designated, and the passage to the desert, and thence the entry to the inheritance of the holy land, let us now see what Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh mean. The inheritance which is handed over through Moses and decreed beyond the Jordan, in the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel, by certain hidden and mystical reasons embraces the figure of the whole human race, or certainly of all men who have come to the recognition of God. Of these, then, some part obtains an inheritance beyond the Jordan through Moses, but a part receives its inheritance across the Jordan and in the land of promise through Joshua. And those indeed to whom the inheritance is decreed beyond the Jordan are the firstborn; although less noble, although not without blame, they are firstborn nonetheless. For Reuben is the firstborn of Jacob; although he defiled his father's bed, he is the firstborn nonetheless. And Gad also, although of a handmaid, yet he too is a firstborn. Manasseh also, whose half-tribe obtains beyond the Jordan, he too, although born of an Egyptian woman, is nevertheless the firstborn. All these, then, are firstborn, and therefore they designate the former people, who receive the lot of inheritance not through Joshua our Lord, but through Moses beyond the Jordan. But consider more diligently also the cause by which the former ones obtain the inheritance both beyond the Jordan and set apart from the rest. "We have," he says, "beasts and much cattle." This, then, is the cause by which the former people could not attain to the inheritance of that land which flows with milk, which abounds with honey, which is a honeycomb beyond every land, nor could it recognize the Word made flesh, because it had many beasts and much cattle. For the animal man could not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, nor discern them spiritually, because "man, when he was in honor, did not understand; but was compared to the senseless beasts and was made like to them," for which it received its inheritance beyond the streams of the Jordan and made itself a stranger to the holy land. That people, then, received an inheritance through Moses; it received the land of two kings only. For Moses could slay no more than two kings, whose land he divided among peoples having many animals and much cattle. But to those who cross the Jordan, Joshua divides the land; although they too have animals, have cattle, yet not so much as to exclude them, so that they should not cross the Jordan, but together with their women and with their little ones they strive to cross the Jordan and to attain the promises of…
Numbers 32:1-33 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 26.3
After these things there follows the account concerning the inheritance of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh; concerning which, purposing to discuss some things, we wish first to alert the diligence of our hearers and to rouse their minds to the contemplation of spiritual understanding. All the things that are said must be weighed not only from the word itself which is spoken, but the person of the speaker also must be greatly considered. For example, if it is a boy who speaks, we fit our minds to the hearing of a boyish utterance, and we expect nothing more in the things that are said than in so far as a boy could perceive. But if he who speaks is a man, we straightway consider whether the things said are worthy of a man. And again, if that man who speaks is learned, we weigh the words also according to the view of his learning. But if he is indeed a man, yet unskilled and an untutored layman, we receive the things said in another way. So likewise, if it be an elder who speaks, and of much and proven skill, inasmuch as he has grown old in learning, there will be held in him a far greater expectation of his words. But why we have premised these things, wishing to expound the account of the inheritance of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, hearken. He who narrates these deeds which we read is neither a boy, such as we described above, nor any such man, nor an elder, nor any human being at all; and, to say something further, neither is he any one of the angels or of the heavenly powers. But, as the tradition of our forefathers holds, the Holy Spirit narrates these things. For whence could Moses narrate either the things that were done from the beginning of the world or the things that were to be done at its end, except through the inspiration of the Spirit of God? Whence could he have prophesied concerning Christ, except by the Holy Spirit speaking? For thus Christ himself renders testimony to him and says: "If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also; for he wrote concerning me; but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" It is established, then, that these things were spoken through the Holy Spirit, and therefore it seems fitting that they be understood according to the dignity, or rather according to the majesty, of the speaker. But I judge it most apt to recall in this place also that, when Abraham heard that rich man set in torments beg him that he might be released and, coming, might admonish his brothers to live piously, lest they too descend into that place of torments, he answered him that "they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." He certainly did not mean any men set in the body as Moses and the prophets, but these things which were written through Moses at the dictation of the Spirit of God, these he named Moses. Let someone, then, say: since these things are thus written, if Abraham sends me to the words of Moses, that by reading them I may be able to escape that place of torments, what will it help me toward escaping Gehenna, if I read how the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh receive an inheritance from Moses across the Jordan, because they had much cattle beyond the other tribes, and how Moses says to them: "See that you do not exasperate God, as did also those ten who were sent with Joshua and Caleb to explore the land," and who said that the land is such and such, and "we cannot take it"; and how to these things the sons of Reuben and the rest with them answered: "Give us this land and its inheritance, and we shall no longer seek within the Jordan a land of inheritance with our brothers, but here we shall leave our beasts and our baggage and our women and our little ones, but our men shall go along and shall cross the Jordan"; and how after these things Moses commends them to Joshua the son of Nun and to Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, under this condition, however, that they cross over with the so…
Numbers 32:6-29 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 26.7
There can be seen also yet a third mode of exposition, so that among the sons of Israel, that is, among the people of the Church, there are understood to be certain spiritual ones, who within the Jordan receive the inheritance of the land flowing with milk and honey, namely receiving the sweetness of wisdom and knowledge, whose land is surrounded and watered by the river of God, which is filled with the waters of divine understanding. But others are carnal, who abound in beasts and cattle, that is, in gross and dull senses; such as were those of whom the Apostle said: "Are you so senseless that, having begun in the Spirit, you now are perfected in the flesh?" and: "O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth?" But each one of us also, unless he arms himself and, having cast off the brutish and beastlike senses, hastens to spiritual understanding, will remain beyond the Jordan and will not be able to advance through the river of wisdom, which gladdens the city of God, that is, the soul capable of God; he will not attain the interior things of the Lord's utterances, which are "sweeter than honey and the honeycomb," but he will attain only that land in which the two kings were slain, where it is said to him: "I judged myself to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified." But he who has been able to cross the Jordan and penetrate to the interior things, there following Jesus our Lord will slay thirty and more kings—those, perhaps, of whom it is said: "The kings of the earth stood by and the princes gathered together into one against the Lord and against his Christ"—and when these kings have been driven out and cast down, he will recognize the more secret mysteries, until he come even to that place where the seat of God is and Jerusalem the city of the living God, not this one which serves with its sons on earth, but that heavenly one which is free and is the mother of us all; to whose inheritance may he deign to lead us, our leader and Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 32:6-29 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 26.5
Yet Moses rebukes them and says to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad: "Your brothers shall go to battle, and will you sit here? And why do you pervert the hearts of the sons of Israel, that they should not cross into the land which the Lord gives them?" And when he had rebuked them with words of this kind, "there came," he says, "to him the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and said: We shall build sheepfolds here for our sheep and for our cattle, and cities for our encumbrances, and we, armed, will advance in the first company before the sons of Israel, until we lead them into their own place." And promising these things they mollified Moses, so that he himself commended them to Joshua and to Eleazar. For thus it is written: "And Moses brought them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the leaders of the families of the tribes of Israel. And Moses said to them: If the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad cross the Jordan with you, every one armed for battle before the Lord, and you obtain the land in your sight, you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession." The name of "land," placed in the divine Scriptures, we find with diverse significations; and first indeed this land which we inhabit was not from the beginning called land, but "dry"; and after this, that which had first been called "dry" received the name of land; just as this visible heaven too was not from the beginning called heaven, but first "firmament," and afterward it was named also by the term "heaven." Yet in the beginning of creation God is said to have made heaven and earth, and afterward the dry, and afterward the firmament. But do you wish to know that "dry" is one thing in the Scriptures, and "land" another? Hear the prophet Haggai saying: "Yet once more I will shake heaven and earth and the sea and the dry land." You see how the prophet places "land" as one thing, "dry" as another. But also in many places of Scripture we find "land" named praiseworthily, but "dry" we do not easily read placed praiseworthily. For Adam too is thrust down into this place, as one culpable after his sin, which was named "dry." For before that he was not in the dry, but in the land; for paradise is not in the dry but in the land. But also what the Lord promises to the meek in the Gospel is not the dry, but the land. "Blessed," he says, "are the meek, for they shall inherit the land." And likewise in the Gospel the seed which gives fruit a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold is said to be land, not dry. And I think that there is a certain progress from the dry to coming to the land, just as there was also a certain progress that this land was called dry. For all of us, so long as we are unfruitful and bring forth no fruit of righteousness, none of chastity, none of piety, are dry. But if we begin to cultivate ourselves and to rouse our sluggish minds to the fruit of the virtues, we are made land out of dry, which, having received the seeds of the word of God, multiplies them with a glad harvest. There is, then, in the kingdom of God also a certain land which is promised to the meek, and a land which is named "of the living," and a land placed on high, concerning which the prophet says to the righteous man: "And he shall exalt you, that you may inherit the land." The inheritance, then, of this land, after it has gone forth from the Egypt of this world, the soul believing in God obtains; and in one place indeed those who lived under the law, but in another those who were dispensed through the faith and grace of Jesus Christ. Yet these who seem to be dispensed first and through Moses will not obtain the inheritance decreed to them until they too cross over with those whom Joshua dispenses, and fight with these against the enemies, and settle them in their seats, and thus they themselves shall obtain the inheritance which they merited with Moses as leader.
Numbers 32:6-29 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 26.6
But unless these things be proved from the divine Scriptures, they will seem fables. Let Paul, then, be brought forward as a suitable witness of these things, who in the epistle to the Hebrews, where he describes all those fathers and patriarchs and prophets who by faith pleased God, after the enumeration of them all, in his final conclusion says thus concerning them: "And all these, having received the testimony of faith, did not obtain the promises, God providing something better for us, that they should not be perfected without us." As if those nine and a half tribes were to say concerning those two and a half tribes that for this reason they did not receive the promise of that land which was decreed to them beyond the Jordan through Moses, God providing something better for us, that they should not be perfected without us. Therefore for this reason they cross over with us armed for battle and help us in warring, in vanquishing the enemies. But those cross over who are armed, who are strong men and mighty; but all the rest, the cowardly and unwarlike band, remain beyond the Jordan. But if any among them are strong men, having left their animals and cattle and all their encumbrances, they fight against the enemy together with us, until our enemies be conquered, until we take the inheritance of the good land, the land of honey and milk. For who doubts that all the saints among the fathers both help us by their prayers and confirm us by the deeds they have done and exhort us by their examples, but also by their volumes, through those things which they have left written for our remembrance, teaching us and instructing us how we must contend against the hostile powers and how the struggles of the contests must be endured? They fight, then, for us, and they themselves advance first before us, armed. For having them as an example and seeing their brave deeds through the Spirit, we are armed for the spiritual battle and contend against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Thus, finally, those who serve as soldiers under Joshua as leader slay thirty and more kings and receive their lands by the lot of inheritance. For when the spiritual forces of wickedness have been driven out from the heavenly places, they receive the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, our Lord Jesus dividing it.
Numbers 33:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.3
But first of all, consider the meaning of the mystery, which anyone who observes it carefully will find in the Scriptures: that in the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt there were forty-two stations; and again, the coming of our Lord and Savior into this world is traced through forty-two generations. For thus the Evangelist Matthew recounts, saying: "From Abraham until David the king, fourteen generations, and from David until the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon until Christ fourteen generations." These forty-two stations of the generations, then, which Christ made in descending into the Egypt of this world, make up by the very same number the forty-two stations of those who go up from Egypt. And Moses set it down well and observantly, saying: "The children of Israel went up with their power." And what is their power, if not Christ himself, who is the power of God? He therefore who goes up, goes up together with him who came down to us from thence, so that he might arrive there whence that one descended not by necessity but by condescension, that the saying might be true which was spoken, that "he who descended is himself also the one who ascended." Therefore in forty-two stations the children of Israel arrive at the beginning of the taking of their inheritance. And the beginning of taking the inheritance was where Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh receive the land of Gilead. And so the number of Christ's descent through forty-two fathers according to the flesh, as though descending to us through forty-two stations, matches the ascent of the children of Israel through just as many stations up to the beginning of the promised inheritance. But if you have understood how great a mystery this number of the descent and the ascent contains, come now, and let us begin to ascend through those things by which Christ descended, and to make that first station which he made last, namely that by which he was born of a virgin; and let this be the first station for us who wish to go out of Egypt, in which, having left behind the worship of idols and of demons — not the veneration of gods — we believe that Christ was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit, and that the Word made flesh came into this world. After this, let us now strive to advance and to ascend to each and every degree of faith and of the virtues; and if we linger over each of these long enough until we come to perfection, we shall be said to have made a station in each of the degrees of the virtues, until, as we reach the very summit of instruction and of progress, the promised inheritance may be fulfilled for us.
Numbers 33:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.13
But lest this kind of exposition, which runs through the meanings of the Hebrew names, should seem to those unacquainted with the properties of that language to be forced and violently wrested out, we will give a comparison also in our own tongue, by which the reasoning of this sequence may become clear. In the schoolroom, where boys take up their first rudiments, some are called "alphabet-learners," others "syllable-learners," others "word-learners," and others are now called "reckoners"; and when we have heard these names, from them we recognize what progress there is in the boys. Likewise also in the liberal studies, when we have heard someone recite a passage, or an address, or a panegyric, or the other exercises in their order, from the name of the exercise we perceive the young man's progress. How then, even through these things which are recorded as the names of places, as it were of exercises, should we not believe that the progress of learners in divine instruction can be indicated? And just as those who linger over each several subject of learning seem, as it were, to make certain resting-places in them, and to advance from one to another and from that one again to yet another, so also here why should not the name of the "stations," and the advance from one to another and from one again to another, be believed to indicate the progress of the mind and to signify the increase of the virtues?
Numbers 33:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.4
But the soul too, when it sets out from the Egypt of this life, that it may make its way to the land of promise, necessarily journeys along certain particular roads and, as we have said, completes certain fixed encampments. Mindful of these, I believe, the prophet said: "These things I have remembered, and I have poured out my soul upon myself, for I shall pass into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God." These are the encampments, and these the tabernacles, of which in another place also he says: "How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord." Therefore in yet another place the same prophet says: "My soul has been a great wanderer." Understand then, if you can, what these wanderings of the soul are, in which with a certain groaning and grief it laments that it wanders too long. But the understanding of these things grows dull and is darkened while as yet the soul wanders; but then it will be more truly instructed and will more truly understand what was the reason of its pilgrimage, when it has returned to its rest, that is, to its homeland, paradise; and gazing on this under a mystery the prophet said: "Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." But in the meantime it wanders and pursues its journey and completes its encampments, dispensed through these things, without doubt for the sake of some benefit, by the providences of God, as also in a certain place he says: "I afflicted you, and fed you with manna in the desert, which your fathers did not know, that it might be discerned what is in your heart." These, then, are the encampments by which the journey is made from the lands to heaven. And who will be found so fit and so privy to the divine secrets that he can describe the encampments of this journey and ascent of the soul, and set forth either the labors or the rests of each place? For how should he relate that after the first and the second and the third encampment Pharaoh still pursues, the Egyptians pursue, and, though they do not overtake, yet they give chase, and, though they are drowned, yet they have given chase? How should he declare that the people of God, once made safe, after several encampments first sang a song, saying: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honored; horse and rider he has cast into the sea"? But these things, as I have said, whoever should dare to open up through the individual encampments and, from the contemplation of the names, to conjecture also the qualities of the encampments — I do not know whether either the understanding of the one who speaks would suffice for the weight of the mysteries, or the hearing of the listeners would grasp it. For how should either the onset of the war of the Amalekites be explained, or the various temptations, and how should those be narrated whose limbs fell in the desert, and that it was not at all the sons of Israel, but the sons of the sons of Israel, who were able to reach the holy land, and that all that old people fell, who had had their converse and habitation with the Egyptians, while only the new people, who knew not the Egyptians, reached the kingdom, apart from the priests and the Levites? For if anyone has been able to place himself in the order of the priests and the Levites, if anyone has been able to have no portion in any lands, but the Lord alone, that man does not fall in the desert, but reaches the land of promise. Hence you too, if you wish not to fall in the desert, but to reach the promises of the fathers, have no lot in the land, and let there be nothing common to you with the earth. Let your portion be the Lord alone, and you will never fall. The ascent, then, is made from Egypt to the land of promise, through which, by mystical descriptions, as I have said, we are taught the ascent of the soul to heaven and the sacrament of the resurrection from the dead.
Numbers 33:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.5
Now names are also assigned to the resting-places. For it did not seem fitting that every place under heaven should be called by the names of mountains or valleys or plains, while that ascent, by which the soul ascends to the kingdom of God, should not have the names of its own resting-places. It has names of resting-places fitted with mystical designations; it has too as its guide not Moses — for he himself did not know where he was going — but the pillar of fire and the cloud, that is, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, just as in another place the prophet says: "the Lord himself was leading them." Such, then, will be the ascent of the blessed soul, when all the Egyptians and Amalekites and all who had assailed it have been drowned; so that, passing on through each and every resting-place — those many, namely, which are said to be with the Father — it may be enlightened yet more, and, coming from one to another, may ever gain greater increases of illumination, until it grow accustomed to endure the gaze of that true light itself, which enlightens every man, and to bear the radiance of the true majesty. But if we return to that second exposition which we mentioned above, and understand the advances of the soul set in this life to be taught through these things — the soul which, converted from a gentile manner of life, follows not so much Moses as the law of God, and not Aaron, but that priest who abides forever — before it comes to perfection, it dwells in the desert, where, namely, it may be trained in the precepts of the Lord and where its faith may be proved through temptations. And there, when it has overcome one temptation and its faith has been proved in it, from thence it comes to another, and passes as it were from one resting-place to another; and there, when it has held fast to the things that have befallen it and has borne them faithfully, it proceeds to another; and thus, through each and every trial of life and faith, the soul's advances are said to have resting-places, in which through each single thing increases of the virtues are sought. And there is fulfilled in these that which is written: "they shall go from strength to strength," until one arrives at the last — nay rather, at the highest — degree of the virtues, and the river of God is crossed and the promised inheritance is received.
Numbers 33:1 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.6
Using this twofold exposition, therefore, we ought to consider this whole order of the encampments that has been recited, so that from both there may come a progress for our soul, as we learn from these things either how this life, which follows the law of God through conversion from error, ought to be conducted, or how great is the expectation of the future hope that is promised through the resurrection. For thus I think that in these things which are read there is taught an understanding worthy of the laws of the Holy Spirit. For to know in that desert what that place is called where, for example, the sons of Israel, then passing through, encamped — what usefulness does this bring to me, or what progress will be conferred by this upon those who read and meditate on the law of God day and night? — especially since we see that there was such great care on the Lord's part concerning the recording of these encampments that a description of them was inserted a second time into the divine laws. For these names were commemorated, though in some cases altered, already then, when the sons of Israel are said, through each place, to have set out from that place and to have encamped in that place; but now again they are ordered to be described by Moses through the word of the Lord. Hence this very fact, that this description is repeated a second time, seems to me quite fittingly suited to the mystery of the exposition which we have proposed; for they are repeated twice in order to show the two ways of the soul: one, by which, placed in the flesh, it is exercised in the virtues through the law of God, and ascending through certain steps of progress it advances, as we have said, from virtue to virtue and uses these very advances as encampments; but the other, by which, after the resurrection, being about to ascend to the heavens, it does not suddenly or importunately climb to the summit, but is led through many encampments, in which, illuminated through each one and always receiving an increase of splendor, made bright in each encampment by the light of wisdom, it may come at last to the very Father of lights. "The sons of Israel therefore went out," he says, "with their power." There was with them that power which had said: "I will go down with you into Egypt"; and because this power was with them, therefore the prophet says: "and there was none feeble in their tribes." "And they went out by the hand of Moses and Aaron." For going out of Egypt the one hand of Moses is not enough; the hand of Aaron also is required. Moses indicates the knowledge of the law, Aaron the skill of sacrificing and offering to God. It is needful, therefore, that we who go out of Egypt should have as fruit not only the knowledge of the law and of faith, but also of works, by which God is pleased. For this reason both the hand of Moses and of Aaron is mentioned, that by the hands you may understand works. For indeed, if going out of Egypt and being converted to God I cast away pride, I have sacrificed a bull to the Lord through the hands of Aaron. If I destroy wantonness and lasciviousness, I shall believe that I have slaughtered a he-goat to the Lord by the hands of Aaron. If I conquer lust, a calf; if folly, I shall be seen to have offered a sheep. Thus therefore, when the vices of the soul are purged, the hand of Aaron works in us; and the hand of Moses is with us, when we are illuminated from the law to understand these very things. And therefore both hands are necessary for those going out of Egypt, so that there may be found in them the perfection not only of faith and knowledge, but also of acts and works; and yet these two are not two hands, but one. For the Lord led them out "by the hand of Moses and Aaron," and not "by the hands of Moses and Aaron"; for the work of both hands is one, and one the fulfillment of perfection.
Numbers 33:2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.7
And Moses wrote down, it says, their completions and their stations by the word of the Lord. He wrote these things, therefore, by the word of the Lord, so that we, reading and seeing how many departures and how many stations lie ahead of us for the journey that leads to the kingdom, might prepare ourselves for this way; and, considering the road that lies before us, might not allow the time of our life to be consumed sluggishly or slackly, lest perchance, while we linger among the vanities of this world and take delight in each and every thing that comes to sight or hearing, or even to touch and smell and taste, the days slip away, the time passes by, and we fail to accomplish the traversing of the whole span of the journey before us, and we give out midway, and there befall us that which is reported of certain ones who could not arrive, but whose limbs fell in the desert. We are on a journey, therefore, and we have come into this world for this purpose: that we might pass from virtue to virtue, not that we might remain on the earth for the sake of earthly things, like that man too who said, "I will pull down my barns and build others larger, and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many good things laid up for many years; eat, drink, be merry" — lest perchance the Lord say to us also, as to him: "You fool, this night your soul shall be taken from you." He did not say "in this day," but "in this night." For here too a man is destroyed in the night, like the firstborn of the Egyptians, as one who has loved the world and its darkness and has been a partaker of the rulers of this world of this darkness. And this world is called darkness and night on account of those who live in ignorance and do not receive the light of truth. But such as these do not set out from Rameses nor cross over to Succoth.
Numbers 33:2 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.2
Now let us come to the beginning of the very reading that was recited, so that with the Lord's help we may be able, even if not with perfect clarity, yet at least in summary, to gather and explain their meaning. He says, then: "And these are the stages of the children of Israel, from the time they went out of the land of Egypt with their power by the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses wrote down their settings-out and their stages by the word of the Lord," and so forth. You have heard that Moses wrote these things by the word of the Lord. And why did the Lord will these things to be written? That this writing of the stages which the children of Israel made might be of some profit to us, or that it might be of no profit? And who would dare to say that the things which are written by the word of the Lord have no usefulness and confer nothing of salvation, but merely narrate an event that happened — one that indeed passed by at that time, and from the report of which nothing now reaches us? This opinion is impious and foreign to the catholic faith, and belongs only to those who deny that the one sole wise God, of the law and of the gospels, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What, therefore, the faithful understanding ought to perceive from these stages, let us attempt to treat in summary, as far as the time allows. In the earlier discussion, when the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt had furnished us with occasion to speak of it, we said that each person can be seen to go out spiritually from Egypt in two ways: either when, forsaking the life of the Gentiles, we come to the knowledge of the divine law, or when the soul departs from the dwelling of this body. To both, then, do these stages look which Moses now describes by the word of the Lord. For concerning those stages which the soul, stripped of the body — nay rather, clothed again with its own body — is to inhabit, the Lord declared in the gospel, saying: "There are many mansions with the Father; otherwise I would have told you: I go and prepare a mansion for you." There are, then, those many mansions which lead to the Father, in each of which what cause, what usefulness the soul's lingering receives, or what instruction or illumination, He alone knows, the Father of the age to come, who says of Himself: "I am the door; no one comes to the Father except through me." He, perhaps, in each of these mansions will become a door for each soul, so that through Him it may enter and through Him go out and find pastures, and again enter into another, and thence into yet another mansion, until it comes to the Father Himself. But we, almost forgetful of our preface, have suddenly lifted your hearing to lofty and exalted things. Rather, let us return to those things that are done among us and within us. In Egypt were the children of Israel; they were afflicted in the works of Pharaoh the king with clay and brick, until, groaning, they cried out to the Lord, and He, hearing their groaning, sent to them His word through Moses and led them out of Egypt. And we too, therefore, when we were in Egypt — I mean in the errors of this world and in the darkness of ignorance, working the works of the devil in the desires and pleasures of the flesh — the Lord had mercy on our affliction and sent His Word, His only-begotten Son, to rescue us from the ignorance of error and lead us to the light of the divine law.
Numbers 33:3 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.8
Yet let us first see when the children of Israel set out from Rameses. "In the first month," it says, "on the fifteenth day of the month." By the Lord's command they had kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in Egypt, slaughtering the lamb on the day before they set out, and in a certain sense they kept the beginning of the festival while still situated in Egypt. On the following day, then, which is the first day of unleavened bread, on the fifteenth day of the first month, they set out from Rameses and come to Succoth, that they might there keep the day of the festival of unleavened bread. "Who is wise, and shall understand these things? Prudent, and shall know them?" — nay rather, who is there who knows even these things in part, as the Apostle says: "We know in part, and we prophesy in part"? Who understands how we too keep festal days in part, so that "no one may judge us in respect of a portion of a feast day, or of a new moon, or of a sabbath"? For every feast day that is kept on earth by men is kept in part, not in whole nor with the full and perfect title of festivity; but when you have gone out of that Egypt, then there will be for you a perfect festivity, then you will attend to the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth unto perfection, then you will keep the day of Pentecost in the wilderness, and then perhaps for the first time you will receive the heavenly food of manna, and you will keep each of the several festivities of which we have already spoken above, as far as we were able. Yet know that after that Passover which was made in Egypt, we find the Passover observed once in the desert, when the law was given, and another, as we have noted, in Numbers, and after these it is nowhere kept, save in the land of promise. Therefore, on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day following the Passover, which is the first day of unleavened bread, the children of Israel set out from Rameses "with a lofty hand," it says, "in the sight of all the Egyptians." What is the lofty hand? For elsewhere too it says: "Let your hand be exalted." Where there is no human work nor earthly, but it is divine, there it is called a lofty hand. For it has already often been said that by "hand" a work is understood. "With a lofty hand," therefore, "in the sight of all the Egyptians" they set out.
Numbers 33:4 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.8
"And the Egyptians," it says, "were burying their dead"; the dead were burying their dead, but the living were following the Lord their God. After this it is said that: "and upon their gods the Lord took vengeance." But in Exodus too it says thus: "and upon all the gods of the Egyptians the Lord shall take vengeance." Here, however, it says that the Lord took vengeance upon them. There are certain beings which are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, the Apostle says. But in the Psalms too it is said: "all the gods of the nations are demons." Therefore it is not the images, but the demons who preside over the images, that he calls gods, upon whom the Lord took vengeance. But I should like to inquire how God takes vengeance upon the demons, since assuredly the day of vengeance and of judgment has not yet come. But I think that this vengeance is wrought upon the demons when he who had been deceived by them into worshipping idols, being converted through the word of the Lord, worships the Lord; and from the very work of conversion vengeance is dealt upon him who had deceived. Likewise also, if he who had been deceived by the demons into fornicating is converted to chastity, loves purity, and weeps that he had gone astray, the demon is burned and set aflame by the tears of his repentance, and thus vengeance is dealt upon the author of the deception. Likewise too, if anyone returns from pride to humility, from luxury to frugality, through each of these things he scourges and torments the demons who had deceived him into them. With how great torments do you suppose they are driven, if they see someone, according to the word of the Lord, sell all his goods that he possesses and give to the poor, and take up his cross and follow Christ? But above all things this is the kind of torments and beyond all penalties for them, if they see someone give his labor to the word of God, searching out with intent zeal the knowledge of the divine law and the mysteries of the Scriptures; in this is all their flame, in these they are burned with the whole conflagration, since indeed they had darkened human minds with the darkness of ignorance and through these had obtained that God should be unknown, while the zeal of divine worship should be transferred to themselves. What vengeance do you think is dealt upon them, what flame of penalties is inflicted upon them, when they see these things opened up by the light of truth and the mists of their fraud unbarred through the recognition of the divine law? For they possess all who live in ignorance; and not only those who are still in ignorance, but they often thrust themselves upon those who have come to know God, and again try to work in them the works of ignorance. For no sin whatever is consummated without them. For when anyone commits adultery, it is assuredly not without a demon; or when he is carried away by immoderate anger, or when he plunders what belongs to another: and he who, "sitting, speaks against his neighbor" and "lays a stumbling block against his mother's son," is not without a demon. And therefore we must strive in every way, lest perhaps we raise up again within ourselves the firstborn of the Egyptians or their gods, whom the Lord struck and destroyed, if we give them a place to work within us those things which God hates. But if we restrain ourselves from all these things, in the manner in which we said above, the Lord has dealt vengeance upon all the gods of the Egyptians, and they receive their penalties from our amendment and conversion.
Numbers 33:5 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.9
So the children of Israel go out from Egypt and, setting out from Rameses, they come to Succoth. This order of setting out and the distinction of the stopping-places is exceedingly necessary, and to be observed by those who follow God and who take thought for their advances in the virtues. Concerning this order I remember that we have already treated it elsewhere as well, when for the sake of edification we spoke of certain matters which the Lord deigned to grant; but now too we will briefly recall it again. The first setting out, then, is made from Rameses; and whether the soul, setting out from this world, presses on toward the age to come, or whether it is turned from the errors of life to the way of virtue and to the knowledge of God, it sets out from Rameses. For Rameses, in our tongue, is called "turbulent commotion" or "the commotion of the moth." And in this it is surely shown that all things in this world are set in commotions and disturbances and in corruption; for this the moth signifies. In these the soul ought not to remain, but to set out and come to Succoth. Now Succoth is interpreted "tents." Therefore the soul's first setting out is that it be taken away from earthly commotion and know that it must dwell, as a pilgrim and one making a journey, in tents, so that, thus placed as though ready for battle, it may be able to meet unencumbered and free those who lie in wait against it.
Numbers 33:6 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.9
Thence, when it now feels itself to be prepared, it sets out from Succoth and arrives at Etham. Etham is called "a valley." We have said that in these matters there is advance in the virtues. But virtue is not acquired except by exercises and toil, nor is it proved so much in prosperity as in adversity. One comes, then, to the valley as well. And in the valleys and in the lower places the contest is waged against the devil and the opposing powers. In the valley, then, the struggle must be carried on, and in the valley one must fight. So too Abraham fought in the valley of salt-pits against the barbarian kings, and there he obtained the victory. This traveler of ours descends, then, to those who are in the depths and in the lowest places, not that he may linger there, but that there he may obtain the victory.
Numbers 33:7 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.9
And they set out from Etham and arrived at the mouth of Hiroth. Hiroth is interpreted "a village." For one does not yet come to a city, nor are the things that are perfect yet held fast, but meanwhile at first each small thing is taken. For this is the advance: that one may come from small things to great. One comes, then, to the mouth, that is, to the first entrance of the village, which is a sign of moderate conduct and abstinence; for excessively great and immoderate abstinence is too perilous. Now this Hiroth is set over against Baal-zephon and over against Migdol. Baal-zephon is interpreted "the ascent of a watchtower" or "of a tower." From small things, then, one ascends to great, and one is set not yet on the watchtower itself, but over against the watchtower, that is, in sight of the watchtower. For it begins to keep watch and to look out upon future hope and to contemplate the height of its advances, and little by little it grows, so long as it is nourished more by hope than it is wearied by toils. And this station or stopping-place is over against Migdol, not yet in Migdol itself; for Migdol is called "magnificence." Having, then, in its sight both the ascent of the watchtower and the magnificence of things to come, it is pastured and nourished, as we have said, by enormous hopes; for it is in the midst of its advances, not yet set in perfection.
Numbers 33:8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.10
After these things they set out from Iroth and pass through the midst of the Red Sea, and they came to the bitter waters. We have said that the time of the journeyings is a time of dangers. How troublesome a trial it is to pass through the midst of the sea, to see the waves rising up in a heap, to hear the roar and crash of the raging billows; but nevertheless, if you follow Moses, that is, the law of God, the waters will become for you a wall on the right hand and on the left, and you will find a path through dry ground in the midst of the sea. But that heavenly journey too, which we have said the soul makes, may perhaps have some waters as well; it may be that there too waves are found; for there is a certain portion of waters above the heaven and a certain portion beneath the heaven, and we for the present endure the waves and billows of these waters that are beneath the heaven. God knows whether those others are always quiet and calm and are never stirred up by any winds that blow. But we for the present, when we have come to the crossing of the sea, even if we see Pharaoh and the Egyptians pursuing, let us not be alarmed at all; let there be no fear, no dread of these things. Let us only believe in the one true God and in his Son Jesus Christ whom he sent. And if it is said that the people believed God and his servant Moses, we too, in accordance with this, believe also Moses, that is, the law of God and the prophets. Be steadfast, therefore, and a little later you will see the Egyptians lying on the shore of the sea. And when you have seen them lying there, rise up and sing to the Lord in songs and praise him who has drowned the horse and the rider in the Red Sea. So then they came to the bitter waters. When you hear of bitter waters, do not be frightened nor terrified. For all instruction, for the present, does not seem to be sweet, but bitter; yet afterward it yields to those trained by it the sweetest and most peaceable fruit of righteousness itself, as the Apostle teaches. Finally, the unleavened bread too is commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs; nor is it possible to reach the land of promise unless we pass through bitter things. For just as physicians insert certain bitter ingredients into their medicines with a view to the safety and health of the sick, so too, with a view to our safety, the physician of our souls has willed us to suffer the bitter things of this life in various trials, knowing that the end of this bitterness gains for our soul the sweetness of salvation; just as, on the contrary, the end of the sweetness which is in bodily pleasure, as the example of that rich man has taught, yields a bitter end in the hell of punishments. You therefore, who walk the way of virtue, do not shrink from coming to the bitter waters. For you will set out from there too, as also did the children of Israel.
Numbers 33:9 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.11
"They set out," it says, "from the bitter waters and came to Elim." Elim is where there are twelve springs of water, and seventy-two palm trees. You see, after the bitter waters, after the harshness of trials, how pleasant are the places that receive you. You would not have come to the palms unless you had endured the bitter waters of trials, nor would you have come to the sweetness of the springs unless you had first overcome the things that were grievous and harsh; not that the end of the journey and the perfection of all things is already in these things, but that God, the steward of souls, interposes in the very course of the journey certain refreshments amid the labors, by which the soul, revived and restored, may return more ready to the remaining labors. Elim, however, is interpreted "rams." Rams are the leaders of flocks. Who then are the leaders of the flock of Christ, if not the Apostles, who are also the twelve springs? But since our Lord and Savior chose not only those twelve, but also another seventy, therefore not only twelve springs, but also seventy palm trees are written to be there; for these too are called Apostles, as Paul himself says, when he was expounding concerning the resurrection of the Savior: "he was seen," it says, "by those eleven, then he appeared also to all the Apostles." By which he shows that there are also other Apostles besides those twelve. This pleasantness, therefore, after the bitterness, this rest after labor, this grace after the trials, will receive you.
Numbers 33:10 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.11
They set out from Elim and came to a place beside the Red Sea. Observe that they no longer enter into the Red Sea; it is enough to have entered once. Now they only come near beside the sea, so that they may indeed see the sea and behold its waves, yet may in no way fear its movements and its onrush.
Numbers 33:11 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.11
And they set out from the Red Sea and came to the desert of Zin. Zin is interpreted "bramble bush" or "temptation." So there begins now to smile upon you the hope of good things. But what is the hope of good things? From the bramble bush the Lord appeared and gave his answers to Moses, and from there the beginning of the visitation was made by the Lord to the children of Israel. But it is not idly that Zin is interpreted also "temptation"; for there is wont to be temptation even in visions. For sometimes the angel of iniquity transforms himself into an angel of light. And therefore one must beware and act carefully, so that you may knowingly discern the kind of visions, just as Joshua the son of Nun also, when he saw a vision, knowing that there was temptation in this, at once inquires of him who appeared and says: "Are you ours or of our adversaries?" So then the advancing soul also, when it has come to this point, that it now begins to have discernment of visions, will thereby be proved to be spiritual, if it knows how to discern all things. Finally, therefore, among the spiritual gifts as well, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is said to be the discernment of spirits.
Numbers 33:12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Setting out from the desert of Zin they came to Rithmah. Rithmah is interpreted as "health." You see the order of the journeyings, how, when the soul has now become spiritual and has begun to have discernment of heavenly visions, it arrives at health, so that it may deservedly say: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me his holy name." What Lord? "Who heals," he says, "all your infirmities, who redeems your life from destruction." For there are many infirmities of the soul: avarice is an infirmity of it, and indeed the worst; pride, anger, boasting, cowardice, inconstancy, faint-heartedness, and things like these. When will you, Lord Jesus, cure me of all these infirmities? When will you heal me, so that I too may say: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who heals all your infirmities," so that I too may be able to make my station in Rithmah, which is "health"? It would be a long task, if we wished to go through the individual stations and to open up from each one whatever things are suggested by the contemplation of the names; nevertheless we will run through them tightly and briefly, so that we may furnish you not so much a full exposition — since the time by no means allows it — as occasions for understanding.
Numbers 33:13 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
They set out therefore from Rithmah and come to Rimmon-perez. Rimmon-perez is interpreted "labors." And do not wonder if labors follow upon health. For the soul obtains health from God precisely for this, that it may take up labors with delight and not unwillingly; for it will be said to it: "You shall eat the labors of your fruits, blessed are you, and it shall be well with you."
Numbers 33:14 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things they come to Libnah. But Libnah is interpreted "praise of judgment." Most justly does praise follow after labors. Yet of what thing is it the praise? "Of judgment," he says. Worthy of praise, therefore, becomes the soul that judges rightly, discerns rightly — that is, which spiritually judges all things, and is itself judged by no one.
Numbers 33:15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one arrives at the desert of Sinai. Sinai is itself a certain place of the desert, which above he mentioned as Zin; but here rather the place of the mountain, which is in that same desert, is named, which itself also is named from the name of the desert, Sinai. After therefore the soul has become of praiseworthy judgment and has begun to have right judgment, then the law is given to it by God, when it has begun to be capable of the divine secrets and of heavenly visions.
Numbers 33:16 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence one comes to the tombs of concupiscence. What are the tombs of concupiscence? Without doubt where the desires are buried and covered over, where every craving is extinguished and the flesh no longer lusts against the spirit, being mortified, that is, by the death of Christ.
Numbers 33:17 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Hazeroth, which is interpreted "perfect courts" or "blessedness." Look more diligently, O my traveler, what is the order of the journeyings: after you have buried and handed over to death the concupiscences of the flesh, you will come to the spaciousness of the courts, you will come to blessedness. For blessed is the soul which is now pressed by no vices of the flesh.
Numbers 33:18 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence one comes to Rithmah, or Paran. Rithmah is interpreted "consummated vision," but Paran "visible mouth." Why should not the soul so grow that, when it has ceased to be pressed by the troubles of the flesh, it may have consummated visions and grasp a perfect understanding of things — knowing, that is, more fully and more deeply the causes of the incarnation of the Word of God and the reasons of his dispensations?
Numbers 33:19 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
From here one now comes to Rimmon-perez, which in our language is called "lofty severance," that is, where there is a separation and discernment of great and heavenly things from earthly and lowest ones. For as the understanding of the soul grows, both the knowledge of lofty things is furnished to it and a judgment is given, by which it may know how to sever the eternal from the temporal and to separate the fleeting from the perpetual.
Numbers 33:20 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Libnah, which is interpreted "whitening." I know that in other places whitening is set down blameworthily, as when it is said "whitewashed wall" and "whitewashed tombs." But here that whitening is meant, of which the prophet says: "You shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow"; and again Isaiah: "If your sins be as scarlet, I will whiten them as snow, and make them white as wool"; and likewise in the psalm: "They shall be whitened with snow in Salmon"; and the hairs of the Ancient of days are said to be white, that is, white as wool. So therefore this whitening is to be understood as coming from the splendor of the true light and as descending from the brightness of heavenly visions.
Numbers 33:21 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things a station is made in Rissah, which among us can be called "visible" or "praiseworthy temptation." What is this, that although the soul has great advances, nevertheless temptations are not taken away from it? Whence it appears that temptations are applied to it as a kind of guard and defense. For just as flesh, if it be not sprinkled with salt, however great and choice it be, is corrupted, so also the soul, unless it be in some way salted with continual temptations, immediately is dissolved and grows slack. Whence it is clear that on this account it was said that "every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." Thence finally comes that which Paul too said: "And lest I be exalted by the sublimity of the revelations, there was given to me a goad of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me." This therefore is the visible or praiseworthy temptation.
Numbers 33:22 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
From this one comes to Kehelathah, which is "principality" or "rod." By either, power seems to be indicated, and that the soul has advanced so far that it rules over the body and itself holds a rod of power over it; nay, not only over the body, but even over the whole world, when it says: "But to me the world is crucified, and I to the world."
Numbers 33:23 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence one comes to Mount Shepher, which is called "trumpet-blowing." The trumpet is the sign of war. Therefore, where it perceives itself armed with such and so great virtues, of necessity it advances to war, which is for it against the principalities and powers, and against the rulers of this world; or else certainly it sounds the trumpet in the word of God, that is, of preaching and of doctrine, that it may "give a distinct sound by the trumpet," so that he who hears it may be able to prepare himself for war.
Numbers 33:24 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Haradah, which in our language sounds "made fit"; assuredly so that the soul too may say: "He has made us fit ministers of the new testament."
Numbers 33:25 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence a station is held at Makheloth, which is interpreted "from the beginning." For he who tends toward perfection contemplates the beginning of things, nay rather refers all things to him who was in the beginning, and never departs from that beginning.
Numbers 33:26 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things a station is made at Tahath, which is "confirmation" or "patience." For it is necessary that he who wishes to be of profit to others also should suffer many things and bear all things patiently, just as it was said of Paul: "For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name."
Numbers 33:27 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence one comes to Terah, which among us is understood as "the contemplation of amazement." We cannot in the Latin tongue express in a single word the Greek word which they call ekstasin, that is, when the mind is stupefied in wonder at some great thing. This therefore is what "the contemplation of amazement" means, when in the recognition of great and marvelous things the mind is struck and stands amazed.
Numbers 33:28 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Mithkah, which is interpreted "new death." What is the new death? When we die together with Christ and are buried together with Christ, so that we may also live together with him.
Numbers 33:29 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence one comes to Hashmonah, which is said to signify "mouth" or "bones." By these, without doubt, the virtue and strength of patience is declared.
Numbers 33:30 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Now from here a station is held at Moseroth, which is thought to signify "excluding." Excluding whom? Without doubt the malignant suggestions of the contrary spirit from one's thoughts. For thus also the Wisdom of God says: "If the spirit of one having power ascend upon you, leave not your place." The place therefore must be held, and the adversary must be excluded, lest he find a place in our heart, as the Apostle says: "Do not give place to the devil."
Numbers 33:31 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Bene-jaakan, which signifies "fountains" or "strainings," that is, where one draws the fountains of the divine words, until he strains them out by drinking. But "strains" is said here from "straining," not from "cultivating." Someone strains out the word of God, then, when he passes over not even the least commandment, nay rather when not even one iota or one tittle of the word of God is held idle in his understanding.
Numbers 33:32 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Hor-haggidgad, which is interpreted "temptation" or "constipation." Temptation, as I see, is a certain fortitude and defense of the soul; for it is so mingled with the virtues that without these virtue is seen to be neither comely nor full. And therefore for those advancing toward virtue various and frequent stations are made in temptations.
Numbers 33:33 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
When you have passed through these, you will halt in Jotbathah. Jotbathah is interpreted "good things." To good things, therefore, one comes only after the trials of temptations.
Numbers 33:34 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence "they halted," he says, "in Abronah," which is "passage." For all things must be passed through; because, even if you come to good things, it behooves you to pass on also to better things, until you come to that good in which you ought always to remain.
Numbers 33:35 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one arrives at Ezion-geber, which is interpreted "the counsels of a man." If anyone has ceased to be a child in his senses, he arrives at the counsels of a man, just as also that one who said: "But when I became a man, I put away the things that were of a little one." Great, therefore, are the counsels of a man, just as that one too says: "Deep water is counsel in the heart of a man."
Numbers 33:36 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
From here again one comes to Zin. Again Zin is temptation. For we have said that it is not expedient to make this journey otherwise, just as, for example's sake, if some goldsmith wishing to make a necessary vessel frequently brings it to the fire, frequently subjects it to the hammers, often scrapes it with files, so that it may become both more purified and be led to that form which the artisan foresees, and to that beauty.
Numbers 33:37 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence one halts at Mount Hor, which is interpreted "mountainous." For it comes to the mountain of God, so that it too may become "a fertile mountain and a curdled mountain," or, because it always dwells on the mountain of God, may be called "mountainous."
Numbers 33:41 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things there follows the station of Zalmonah, which is interpreted "shadow of a portion." That shadow I think is meant, of which the prophet too said: "The spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, of whom we said: In his shadow we shall live among the Gentiles." But also that shadow is like to this, of which it is said: "The Spirit of the Lord shall overshadow you." The shadow, therefore, of our portion, which furnishes us shade from all the heat of temptations, is Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit.
Numbers 33:42 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
From here now we come to Punon, which we suppose is interpreted "sparingness of mouth." For he who has been able to gaze upon the mystery concerning Christ and concerning the Holy Spirit, and whether he has seen or heard those things which it is not lawful for men to speak, will of necessity have sparingness of mouth, knowing to whom and when and how one ought to speak of the divine mysteries.
Numbers 33:43 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one comes to Oboth, of which name, although we have not found an interpretation, nevertheless we do not doubt that, just as in all the others, in this name too the consequence of the journeyings is preserved.
Numbers 33:44 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
There follows after these things a station which is called Gai, which is interpreted "chaos." For through these journeyings one draws near to the bosom of Abraham, who says to those who are in torments that "between you and us a great chaos has been established," so that he too may rest in his bosom like that blessed Lazarus.
Numbers 33:45 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
Thence again one comes to Dibon-gad, which is said to signify "a beehive of temptations." O the wondrous caution of the divine providence! Behold, now the traveler here of the heavenly journey, next to the highest perfection through the succession of virtues, and yet trials are not lacking to him. But I hear of a new kind of trials: "a beehive," he says, "of temptations." The bee is a praiseworthy animal set down in the Scriptures, from whose labors both kings and common people make use of them for health; which is rightly taken of the words of the prophets and of the Apostles and of all who wrote the sacred volumes; and I think this "beehive," that is, the whole number of the divine Scriptures, is most worthily understood. There is, therefore, for those who tend toward perfection, even in this beehive, that is, in the prophetic and apostolic words, no small temptation. Do you wish to see that there is in these no slight temptation? In this beehive I find it written: "See," he says, "lest, looking upon the sun and the moon, you adore them, which the Lord your God has apportioned to the nations." You see what temptation proceeds from this beehive? And again when it says: "You shall not curse the gods." And again in the beehive of the new testament, where we read: "Why do you wish to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you?" And again in other places the Lord himself says: "Therefore I speak to them in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand, lest perhaps they be converted, and I heal them." But also when the Apostle says: "In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers" — and many trials of this sort you will find in this divine beehive, to which it is necessary that each of the saints should come, so that even through these it may be recognized how perfectly and piously he thinks concerning God.
Numbers 33:46 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
After these things one now comes to Almon-diblathaim, which is interpreted "contempt of figs," that is, where earthly things are utterly despised and looked down upon. For unless those things which seem to delight on earth have been spurned and despised, we cannot pass over to the heavenly things.
Numbers 33:47 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
For there follows after these things the station of Abarim over against Nebo, which is "passage"; but Nebo is interpreted "departure." For when the soul has made its journey through all these virtues and has ascended to the summit of perfection, it now passes over from the world and departs, as it is written of Enoch: "And he was not found, because God had translated him." And even if he who is of this sort should seem to be still in the world and to dwell in the flesh, nevertheless he is not found. In what is he not found? In no worldly act, in no carnal thing, in no conversation of vanity is he found. For God has translated him from these and has made him to be in the region of the virtues.
Numbers 33:48 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 27.12
The last station is on the west of Moab beside the Jordan. For all this course is run, and run for this reason, that one may arrive at the river of God, that we may be made near to the streams of wisdom and be watered by the waves of divine knowledge; so that, thus purified through all things, we may deserve to enter the land of promise. These things, meanwhile, concerning the stations of the Israelites, according to one manner of exposition, we have been able in passing to touch upon briefly and to bring forward into the midst.
Numbers 34:1-12 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 28.1
The last narrative in the book of Numbers is recounted, in which the Lord commands Moses to give precepts to the children of Israel so that, when they have entered the holy land to receive its inheritance, they may know what boundaries of their borders they ought to observe in it. And after these things, with the Lord himself now describing it, it is said: toward the Africus, that is, toward the west, let the boundary of that place be observed, and of that one toward the east; and thus through the four quarters of heaven the Lord himself designates certain names which the people of God ought to keep in this earthly Judaea. Now the simpler among the hearers will say concerning these things that they can seem necessary and useful even according to the letter, for this reason: that no one may transgress the boundaries established by the Lord's precept, and that one tribe may not dare to violate the borders of another. And what shall we do, since in these lands there remains for the Jews no possibility not only of invading another's borders, but even of possessing anything in any way at all? For they are fugitives from it and, banished, live in exile; and the borders which those now in possession keep are not those which the divine law appointed, but those which the laws of the conquerors have assigned. What, I say, shall we do, who read these things in the Church? If we read them according to the understanding of the Jews, they will surely seem to us superfluous and empty. But I, who read what is written concerning wisdom, "Go out after her like a tracker," wish to go out after her; and since I do not find her in bodily things, I desire to follow her tracks and to investigate where she goes, and to see to what resting-places she draws my understanding. For I think that, if I am able diligently to follow her and to investigate her ways, she will give me some occasions from the Scriptures as to how we too ought to explain even these passages, if we believe those things which Paul speaks in a mystery: that those who serve through the law serve a shadow and an image of heavenly things. And if, no less according to his own opinion, the law—of which this reading that we have in hand is a part—has a shadow of the good things to come, it seems consequent and necessary that all things which are described in the law as though about earthly matters are shadows of heavenly goods, and that the whole inheritance of that land, which in Judaea is called the holy land and the good land, is an image of heavenly goods, of which these things that are recounted as good on earth hold, as we have said, the shadow and image.
Numbers 34:13-29 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 28.2
But that both my discourse and your understanding may be somewhat elevated and may conceive a certain approach toward perceiving the things we are speaking of, let us make use of some comparison. No one doubts that in the land of Judaea every place, every mountain, every city and village is designated by certain particular names; nor is there any place at all without a name, but each single one is designated by its own appellations—for example, those by which the Canaanites named them in their regions, or the Perizzites likewise in theirs, and the Amorites, or the Hivites, or even the Hebrews. So then, according to the opinion of Paul, by which he says that earthly things are a shadow and copy of heavenly ones, perhaps in the heavenly regions too there will be differences of places, and those not slight, distinguished namely by certain appellations and names, and marked with names not only of the quarters of heaven, but even of all the stars and constellations. For he who made the multitude of the stars, as the prophet says, "calls them all by their names." Concerning these names very many secret and hidden things are indeed contained in the little books which are called Enoch; but because these little books themselves do not seem to be held in authority among the Hebrews, let us for the present defer citing as an example what is there named, and let us instead pursue our investigation of these matters from those things which we have in hand, about which there can be no doubt. The land of Judaea, then, is described by the words of God in the divine law, and it is said that these things ought to be referred to the image of heavenly things; and that in the heavens there is a city Jerusalem is plainly declared by the Apostle, and Mount Zion. It is therefore consequent that, just as there are also other cities situated around the earthly Jerusalem, and villages and various regions, so also that heavenly Jerusalem, according to the image of earthly things, has around it both other cities and villages and various regions, in which the people of God and the true Israel is at some time to be settled through the true Jesus—of whom that Joshua son of Nun bore the image—and is to receive the inheritance by the distribution of the lot, that is, by the consideration of merits. If, then, the Lord now says in the distribution of the land, for example, that the boundaries of that tribe are these and of another are those, may it not perhaps be that, because the merits of those who are to obtain the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven will be diverse, therefore in these tribes too this distinction of boundaries is commanded to be carefully determined, so that we may know that these are differences of merits to be observed in each one? For example, one who has lived so negligently that on account of his faith indeed he deserves to be counted among the children of Israel, but on account of the negligence of his life and the sloth of his deeds ought to be reckoned in the tribe of Reuben, or Gad, or the half-tribe of Manasseh, and to receive the lot of his inheritance not within the Jordan, but outside it. But another, who by the amendment of his life and the conduct of his resolve has rendered himself such that, according to reasons which God alone knows, he ought to be reckoned either in the tribe of Judah or even in the tribe of Benjamin—in which Jerusalem itself and the temple of God and the altar stand—and one in this tribe and another in that. And in this way these things which are now recorded as written in the book of Numbers are a certain foreshadowing of the future lot in the heavens—of those, at least, who through Jesus our Lord and Savior will receive, as we have said, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. There, I believe, will also be carefully observed those privileges of the priests which here are foreshadowed, for whom the places neighboring the cities and joined to the very walls are commanded to be set apart from the childre…
Numbers 34:13-29 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 28.4
But that further consequence must nonetheless be grasped: that if God, when he scattered the sons of Adam, "set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God"—or, as we read in other copies, "according to the number of the sons of Israel"—at the beginning of the world, and the sons of that Adam were thus scattered as either their merits or the regard for Adam himself demanded, what shall we say will come to pass when the divine condescension shall begin to deal with the sons of the last Adam—who was made not into a living soul but into a life-giving spirit—not to scatter but to dispense them, not at the beginning but at the end of the world; and not as those who in Adam all died, but as those who in Christ have all been made alive? Without doubt there will be a certain such division and distribution as must be weighed not only according to the merits of those who are dispensed, but also according to the regard for the last Adam, in whom all are said to be made alive. But which of us is such that he may deserve to come to a distribution of this kind and to that lot of the heavenly inheritance? Who will be so blessed that his lot shall fall in Jerusalem, so that he may be there where the temple of God is—nay rather, that he himself may be the temple of God? Who is so blessed that he may keep his feast days there where the divine altar is kindled with perpetual fires? Who is so blessed as to place his sacrifice and his incense of sweetness upon that fire of which the Savior said, "I came to send fire upon the earth"? Who is so blessed as to keep the Passover there forever, in the place which the Lord his God has chosen, and there to observe the day of Pentecost and the feast of atonement and the solemnity of tabernacles, no longer through a shadow, but through the very appearance and truth of the realities? Which of us will be held worthy of the election of so blessed a lot, when God shall begin to divide the sons of the last Adam—not one to whom he may say, "You shall have power over five cities," or to whom he may say, "You shall have power over ten cities," nor to whom he may say, "Enter into the joy of your Lord," but to whom he may say, "Sit, you also, with me upon twelve thrones, judging, you also, the twelve tribes of Israel"? Of whom he may say, "Father, I will that where I am, they too may be with me"; "I will also that these be kings, that I may be king of kings; I will also that these have dominion, that I too may be Lord of lords." Blessed are they who shall attain to this summit of blessedness; blessed are they who have climbed to these heights of merits; and blessed is our God, who has promised these things to those who love him. These are the very ones truly numbered with sacred numbers before God—nay rather, they are the ones the very hairs of whose head are numbered—through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Numbers 35:1-8 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 28.2
But that both my discourse and your understanding may be somewhat elevated and may conceive a certain approach toward perceiving the things we are speaking of, let us make use of some comparison. No one doubts that in the land of Judaea every place, every mountain, every city and village is designated by certain particular names; nor is there any place at all without a name, but each single one is designated by its own appellations—for example, those by which the Canaanites named them in their regions, or the Perizzites likewise in theirs, and the Amorites, or the Hivites, or even the Hebrews. So then, according to the opinion of Paul, by which he says that earthly things are a shadow and copy of heavenly ones, perhaps in the heavenly regions too there will be differences of places, and those not slight, distinguished namely by certain appellations and names, and marked with names not only of the quarters of heaven, but even of all the stars and constellations. For he who made the multitude of the stars, as the prophet says, "calls them all by their names." Concerning these names very many secret and hidden things are indeed contained in the little books which are called Enoch; but because these little books themselves do not seem to be held in authority among the Hebrews, let us for the present defer citing as an example what is there named, and let us instead pursue our investigation of these matters from those things which we have in hand, about which there can be no doubt. The land of Judaea, then, is described by the words of God in the divine law, and it is said that these things ought to be referred to the image of heavenly things; and that in the heavens there is a city Jerusalem is plainly declared by the Apostle, and Mount Zion. It is therefore consequent that, just as there are also other cities situated around the earthly Jerusalem, and villages and various regions, so also that heavenly Jerusalem, according to the image of earthly things, has around it both other cities and villages and various regions, in which the people of God and the true Israel is at some time to be settled through the true Jesus—of whom that Joshua son of Nun bore the image—and is to receive the inheritance by the distribution of the lot, that is, by the consideration of merits. If, then, the Lord now says in the distribution of the land, for example, that the boundaries of that tribe are these and of another are those, may it not perhaps be that, because the merits of those who are to obtain the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven will be diverse, therefore in these tribes too this distinction of boundaries is commanded to be carefully determined, so that we may know that these are differences of merits to be observed in each one? For example, one who has lived so negligently that on account of his faith indeed he deserves to be counted among the children of Israel, but on account of the negligence of his life and the sloth of his deeds ought to be reckoned in the tribe of Reuben, or Gad, or the half-tribe of Manasseh, and to receive the lot of his inheritance not within the Jordan, but outside it. But another, who by the amendment of his life and the conduct of his resolve has rendered himself such that, according to reasons which God alone knows, he ought to be reckoned either in the tribe of Judah or even in the tribe of Benjamin—in which Jerusalem itself and the temple of God and the altar stand—and one in this tribe and another in that. And in this way these things which are now recorded as written in the book of Numbers are a certain foreshadowing of the future lot in the heavens—of those, at least, who through Jesus our Lord and Savior will receive, as we have said, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. There, I believe, will also be carefully observed those privileges of the priests which here are foreshadowed, for whom the places neighboring the cities and joined to the very walls are commanded to be set apart from the childre…
Numbers 35:9-15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 28.2
But that both my discourse and your understanding may be somewhat elevated and may conceive a certain approach toward perceiving the things we are speaking of, let us make use of some comparison. No one doubts that in the land of Judaea every place, every mountain, every city and village is designated by certain particular names; nor is there any place at all without a name, but each single one is designated by its own appellations—for example, those by which the Canaanites named them in their regions, or the Perizzites likewise in theirs, and the Amorites, or the Hivites, or even the Hebrews. So then, according to the opinion of Paul, by which he says that earthly things are a shadow and copy of heavenly ones, perhaps in the heavenly regions too there will be differences of places, and those not slight, distinguished namely by certain appellations and names, and marked with names not only of the quarters of heaven, but even of all the stars and constellations. For he who made the multitude of the stars, as the prophet says, "calls them all by their names." Concerning these names very many secret and hidden things are indeed contained in the little books which are called Enoch; but because these little books themselves do not seem to be held in authority among the Hebrews, let us for the present defer citing as an example what is there named, and let us instead pursue our investigation of these matters from those things which we have in hand, about which there can be no doubt. The land of Judaea, then, is described by the words of God in the divine law, and it is said that these things ought to be referred to the image of heavenly things; and that in the heavens there is a city Jerusalem is plainly declared by the Apostle, and Mount Zion. It is therefore consequent that, just as there are also other cities situated around the earthly Jerusalem, and villages and various regions, so also that heavenly Jerusalem, according to the image of earthly things, has around it both other cities and villages and various regions, in which the people of God and the true Israel is at some time to be settled through the true Jesus—of whom that Joshua son of Nun bore the image—and is to receive the inheritance by the distribution of the lot, that is, by the consideration of merits. If, then, the Lord now says in the distribution of the land, for example, that the boundaries of that tribe are these and of another are those, may it not perhaps be that, because the merits of those who are to obtain the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven will be diverse, therefore in these tribes too this distinction of boundaries is commanded to be carefully determined, so that we may know that these are differences of merits to be observed in each one? For example, one who has lived so negligently that on account of his faith indeed he deserves to be counted among the children of Israel, but on account of the negligence of his life and the sloth of his deeds ought to be reckoned in the tribe of Reuben, or Gad, or the half-tribe of Manasseh, and to receive the lot of his inheritance not within the Jordan, but outside it. But another, who by the amendment of his life and the conduct of his resolve has rendered himself such that, according to reasons which God alone knows, he ought to be reckoned either in the tribe of Judah or even in the tribe of Benjamin—in which Jerusalem itself and the temple of God and the altar stand—and one in this tribe and another in that. And in this way these things which are now recorded as written in the book of Numbers are a certain foreshadowing of the future lot in the heavens—of those, at least, who through Jesus our Lord and Savior will receive, as we have said, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. There, I believe, will also be carefully observed those privileges of the priests which here are foreshadowed, for whom the places neighboring the cities and joined to the very walls are commanded to be set apart from the childre…
Numbers 35:9-15 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 28.3
If, then, as we have said, the law has a shadow of the good things to come, and those who serve in the law serve a copy and shadow of heavenly things, and now the contemplation of realities is had through a mirror and in an enigma, but then face to face—I believe also that, whereas we are now said to have our conversation in the heavens through an appearance and in an enigma, then, however, those who shall deserve it will have their conversation in the heavens face to face. If, then, by the logical consequence of things and the faith of the promises, we must be transferred from the earth to heaven, I think that in those very heavenly places our Lord Jesus establishes each one, not apart from the lot of his merits, in this or that part and dwelling of heaven. But just as there is much difference on earth—for example, to dwell in fertile and abundant places, rich in all good things, where there is no lack of a temperate climate and human learning and liberal institutions, and it is far otherwise to dwell either in barren places squalid with want of resources, or scorched by heat, or numb with cold and frost, or certainly where there are no laws, but monstrous and savage barbarism, where there is always war and never rest—and these things are assigned to each one not without a certain hidden dispensation of God and the justice of his judgment: so also in those places there will be something of the sort, so that in no respect at all may the shadow on earth of heavenly things be held empty. There will be, then, as we have said, there too some city of refuge, and there will be another in the desert—just as Bezer, in the inheritance of Reuben, is said to be a city in the desert.
Philemon 1:14 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20.2
God does not tyrannize but rules, and when he rules, he does not coerce but encourages and he wishes that those under him yield themselves willingly to his direction so that the good of someone may not be according to compulsion but according to his free will. This is what Paul with understanding was saying to Philemon in the letter to Philemon concerning Onesimus: "So that your good be not according to compulsion but according to free will." Thus, the God of the universe hypothetically might have produced a supposed good in us so that we would give alms from "compulsion" and we would be temperate from "compulsion," but he has not wished to do so.
Philippians 1:23 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 1
But if you wish me to show you from the Scriptures who it is "whom the land has multiplied", look at the Apostle Paul, how he says: "but if to live in the flesh, this is for me the fruit of labor, and what I should choose I know not. For I am hard pressed from the two, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, for it is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake". You see how "the land multiplies" this man? For while he remains on the land, that is, in his own flesh, he is multiplied by founding churches, he is multiplied by acquiring a people for God, and "by preaching the Gospel of God from Jerusalem round about as far as Illyricum".
Philippians 1:23 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.11.5
In expressing such a desire he knew that when he returns to Christ he will know more plainly the causes of all that is happening on earth. He will then know more of what constitutes his own humanity, his soul, his mind, his spirit. He will then know more of what the Spirit is enabling and what grace it is that is being given to those who are faithful in the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 1:23 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
If one grasps what the soul is, and that it belongs to the inner man, if one understands that it is precisely here that lies that which is in man according to the image, then, evidently, Paul has grounds to say: "for this is far better — to be released and to be with Christ." Before the resurrection the righteous man abides with Christ, and in his soul he lives with Christ. This is precisely why it is better — to be released and to be with Christ. According to your words, the soul remains in the grave together with the body, not leaving the body, not resting, not abiding in the blessedness of God, not reposing on the bosom of Abraham. According to such words of yours, it is not at all better — to be released and to be with Christ. … But in my view, and according to the word of God, the soul, released from labors, released from sweats, has been deprived of the flesh … It goes forth in peace and reposes with Christ.
Philippians 2:6 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Christ Jesus, being "in the form of God," being distinct from the God in whose form He existed — was He God before He became incarnate, yes or no? … So then, He was God, the Son of God, the only-begotten, "the firstborn before all creation," and we ought not to fear the assertion that in one sense there are two Gods, while in another there is one God.
Philippians 2:6 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 10.18
First one may contemplate him existing in his primary form, that of God, before he emptied himself. One will then see the Son of God not yet having come forth from him, the [incarnate] Lord not yet having proceeded from his place. But then compare the preexistent state of the Son with that which resulted from his assuming "the form of a slave" when he "emptied himself." You will then understand how the Son of God came forth and came to us and as it were became distinguishable from the One who sent him. Yet in another way the Father did not simply let him go but is with him and is in the Son as the Son is in the Father.
Philippians 2:7 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.8
The Son, "emptying himself," of his equality with the Father and showing us a way of knowing him, was made an express image of his substance, so that we who were unable to see the glory of pure light that inhered in the greatness of his divinity might, through that which was made splendor for us, find a way of contemplating the divine light through the sight of that splendor.
Philippians 2:7 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1, Preface 4
In "emptying himself," he became a man and was incarnate while remaining truly God. Having become a man, he remained the God that he was. He assumed a body like our own, differing only in that it was born from the Virgin by the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 2:8-9 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 113
And Paul indeed says of the Savior, that "he humbled himself, being made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross". For it is not unseemly for one who wishes to number in how many things Christ humbled himself, to count out (beyond those things which Paul expounded, saying: "he humbled himself, being made obedient unto death"): unto the "palms of hands", unto the "confusion of spittings" and of "scourges" and of death, on account of all which "God exalted him". For it was not on account of death alone which he bore for us that he exalted him, but also on account of the palms and the spittings and the rest.
Philippians 2:8 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.5.6
He "was made obedient even to death." His obedience teaches us that we too cannot obtain salvation except through obedience. By this means he has reconstituted the laws of ruling and being ruled, so much so that he "has put all his enemies under his feet."
Philippians 2:9 — COMMENTARY ON JOHN 32.25
It was not the Word of God who needed or received exaltation. For the Word was in the beginning exalted with the Father. It was the Son of Man who was exalted from lowliness. This exaltation occurred when he had glorified God in his death.
Philippians 2:10 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.6.2
From a single beginning come many differences and varieties in creation. All these are now being recalled once again, synoptically in this text. They are now being viewed in relation to God's goodness made known through the obedience of Christ. They are being drawn into a unity by the Holy Spirit. Everything is moving toward a common end, which corresponds to the goodness of the beginning. This means all those "in heaven and earth and the lower regions," who, "bowing the knee at the name of Jesus," have declared through this very act the tokens of their subjection. In these three appellations the whole universe is indicated. All things issue from one origin. They have been driven by their own motions in diverse ways. They are to be allotted different levels of blessedness in accord with their own willing.
Philippians 2:10 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 9.41
We should not understand this carnally, so as to suppose that even the heavenly bodies, which he says bend their knees, do this with fleshly limbs.… What spirit has knees? But the bending of the knees indicates that all is in subjection and observes the worship of God.
Philippians 2:13 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.19
Some say, "If willing is from God and working is from God, then whether we will evil or do evil, that is from God, and in that case we have not free will." … To this one must reply that the apostle's words do not mean that willing evil is from God or that willing good is from God, and likewise with our working well or ill. Rather it is willing in general and performance in general. For just as our being animals and our being human are things we have from God, so is willing in general as, so to speak, is motion in general.
Philippians 4:12 — COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 4.9
Suffering poverty is often thought to be a tribulation, but abundance also may be an occasion for tribulation. The wise person restrains himself from being enervated by abundance.
Proverbs 1:1-2 — EXPOSITION ON PROVERBS, FRAGMENT 1:1
A proverb is a cryptic saying that has an indirect meaning. [Solomon] ruled in Israel, in order to understand wisdom and instruction. Wisdom is the spiritual knowledge pertaining to God, bodiless hosts and judgment; it also includes teaching about providence and unveils contemplation on the subjects of ethics, natural sciences and theology. Or rather, wisdom is the knowledge of both physical and spiritual worlds and of the judgment and providence pertaining to them. On the other hand, instruction is the disciplining of the passions of that passionate or unreasonable part of the soul. One who has advanced to the level of theology has learned wisdom.
Proverbs 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
he evidently shows at the very beginning of his Proverbs. First of all, by this very fact, that he entitled his little book "Proverbs" — which name, of course, signifies that one thing is said openly, but another is indicated inwardly. For this both the common usage of proverbs teaches, and John in the Gospel writes that the Savior spoke thus, saying: "These things I have spoken to you in proverbs; the hour will come when I shall no longer speak to you in proverbs, but shall announce to you plainly concerning the Father." So much, then, in the very inscription of the title.
Proverbs 1:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32:172
He who accepts the doctrines of wisdom, sometimes, in addition to the first doctrines because of which he is already wise, takes up second doctrines in reference to which he was not formerly wise, and [then] he will be wiser, just as also it is said, "For when a wise man has heard these things, he will be wiser."
Proverbs 1:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:171-73
We must observe that not every time something is named "darkness" is it taken in a bad sense; there are times when it has also been used in a good sense. It is because the heterodox did not make this distinction that they accepted the most irreverent doctrines concerning the Creator and withdrew from him and abandoned themselves to the fictions of myths. We must now point out, therefore, how and when the term darkness is understood in a good sense.Darkness, storm clouds and thunderstorms are said to surround God in Exodus, and in Psalm 17 it says, God "made darkness his hiding place, his tent around him, dark water in the clouds of the air." … But if someone takes offense at such interpretations, let him be persuaded both from the dark sayings and the dark, hidden, invisible treasures given to Christ by God.
Proverbs 1:17 — ON PRAYER 29:16
If then nets are not wrongfully stretched for birds, as it is said in Proverbs, but God justly leads men into the snare, as it is said, "You led us into the snare," and if not even a sparrow, cheapest of birds, falls into the snare without the will of the Father (its fall into the snare being due to its failure to use properly the power of its wings given to it to soar), let us pray to do nothing to deserve being brought into temptation. By God's righteous judgment, the wicked are delivered to uncleanness by God into the lusts of their own heart; or are delivered unto shameful affections; or, having not proved to have God in full knowledge, are delivered to a reprobate mind to do that which is disgraceful.
Proverbs 1:24 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8:2.3
How then is the heaven stretched forth? Wisdom stretches it forth. For it is clear that wisdom stretches it forth in the text: "Since I stretched forth words and you did not pay attention." He speaks of words being stretched forth; in this way the heaven is stretched forth.
Proverbs 1:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
And these, if anyone should meditate upon them in the law of the Lord day and night, and if anyone, like the just man whose mouth meditates the wisdom of the Lord, shall be able to investigate them more diligently, he will also be able to find them — provided nevertheless that he has sought rightly, and, seeking, has knocked at the door of wisdom, asking of God that it may be opened to him, and that he may be worthy to receive through the Holy Spirit the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, and to be made a partaker of that wisdom which was saying: "For I was extending my words, and you were not hearing." And rightly did she say that she extends her words in the heart of him to whom God has given, as we said above, breadth of heart. For the heart of that man is enlarged who is able to explain, with a broader teaching, those things which have been briefly said in mysteries, by means of assertions taken from the divine volumes.
Proverbs 2:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:1.9
Solomon says, "You will find a divine sense." For he knew that there were in us two kinds of senses, the one being mortal, corruptible and human, and the other immortal and intellectual, which here he calls "divine." By this divine sense, therefore, not of the eyes but of a pure heart, that is, the mind, God can be seen by those who are worthy.
Proverbs 3:3 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 10:2.4
If you wish to fast according to the precept of the gospel, observe the evangelical laws on fasting in which the Savior commands this about fasting: "But if you fast, anoint your head and wash your face." But if you ask how "to wash your face," the apostle Paul teaches how "with uncovered face, you will contemplate the glory of the Lord and be transformed to this same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord." "Anoint even your head," but take care that it not be with the oil of sin. For "the oil of the sinner will not anoint your head." But "anoint your head" with the oil of exultation, "the oil of joy," the oil of mercy, so that, according to the command of wisdom, "mercy and faith may not forsake you."
Proverbs 3:18 — ON PRAYER 2:27.10
It is just this needful bread that seems to me to be otherwise termed in Scripture a "tree of life." If a person stretches his hand to it and takes of it, he will live forever. And under a third name this tree is termed "wisdom of God." In Solomon's words: "She is a tree of life to all that take hold of her, and to those that lean on her as on the Lord she is safe.
Proverbs 3:18 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16:4.3
I turn to the most wise Solomon as a witness when he said about wisdom, "The tree of life is for all who embrace it." Therefore, if "wisdom is the tree of life," without a doubt, there is another tree of prudence, another of knowledge and another of justice. For logically it is not said that only wisdom, of all the virtues, was worthy to be called "the tree of life" but that the other virtues by no means received names of a similar sort. Therefore, "the trees of the field will give their fruit."
Proverbs 3:18 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.6
These things must be understood to be said figuratively; for Christ himself is called "the tree of life." But just as in other passages he is shown to be both priest and victim and altar, and the one meaning is not hindered by the other, but each single thing is understood figuratively concerning him in its own places, so also now in the figures of the sacraments the diversity of persons taken up concerning one and the same thing will not hinder.
Proverbs 3:19 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 8:2.1
You will find it said in Proverbs, "God by wisdom founded the earth, and by prudence he prepared the heaven." Thus there is a certain prudence of God which one does not seek [except] in Christ Jesus. For all such [virtues], insofar as they are of God, are Christ: he is the wisdom of God, he is the power of God, he is the righteousness of God, he is sanctification, he is redemption. In this way he is the prudence of God. But though there is one substance, for differences in the aspects the names are many. You do not understand the same thing about Christ when you understand him as wisdom and when you understand him as righteousness. For when he is wisdom, you mean the knowledge of things divine and human, but when he is righteousness, he is that power which allots to every person according to worth. And when he is sanctification, he is what enables those faithful and dedicated to God to become holy. In this way also then you will understand him as prudence, when he is the knowledge of what is good and evil, and what is neither.
Proverbs 3:23 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
I also have other feet, concerning which Solomon gives me an injunction when he says: "Your foot will not stumble."
Proverbs 3:24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 96
There is a sleep which the disciples are commanded to sleep with rest, according to Christ's command, differing greatly from a sleeping against his will; so that the order might be preserved: that first indeed we should watch, praying that we may not enter into temptation, and afterward that we should sleep and rest according to Christ's command. Which sleep Solomon too sets down in a promise to those who live well, saying in his Proverbs: "for if you sit down, you will be without fear; but if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly, and you will not fear a terror that comes upon you nor the assaults of the impious rushing in". And David, knowing the diverse watchings and sleepings, "swore to the Lord and vowed a vow to the God of Jacob": not to go up onto the couch of his bed nor to give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids, and to do this for so long, until he should find "a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob", so that when he has found a place for the Lord, he may go up onto the couch of his bed and give sleep to his eyes as they renew themselves and, after rest, prepare themselves for a new and more divine rising up, according to what is wont to happen to bodily men after natural and healthy sleep. But perhaps also the soul, not being able always to bear labors inasmuch as it is created and incarnate and not sufficient to preserve the good without interruption, will obtain relaxations without any blame, which morally are called sleeps and slumbers, so that, having relaxation up to some little space of time, it may rise renewed and be raised again.
Proverbs 4:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 20:405-6
Just as taste and sight are different perceptions so far as the body is concerned, so, in accordance with the divine perceptions mentioned by Solomon, the visual and contemplative power of the soul is one thing, but that which is capable of tasting and apprehending the quality of spiritual foods is another.And … the Lord is capable of being tasted, being food for the soul, insofar as he is the bread of life which came down from heaven, and is capable of being seen, insofar as he is wisdom, of whose beauty he confesses to be a lover who says, "I became a lover of her beauty," and he commands us, "Love her, and she will preserve you.," For this reason it is said in the Psalms, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
Proverbs 4:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
And so both in these passages, and in many other places, you will find that divine Scripture has shunned the word "love" (amor) and has put "charity" and "affection" (dilectio) instead. Sometimes, though rarely, it does name love by its proper word, and it invites and incites souls toward it, as when it says in Proverbs concerning wisdom: "Love her, and she will keep you; surround her, and she will exalt you; honor her, and she will embrace you." But also in that little book which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, it is written thus concerning wisdom itself: "I became a lover of her beauty." And I think that only where no occasion of stumbling seemed to appear did it insert the very name of love … For if it had said that Isaac fell in love with Rebecca, or Jacob with Rachel, some unseemly passion might well have been understood through these words with regard to the holy men of God, especially among those who do not know how to ascend from the letter to the spirit.
Proverbs 4:23 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:95
We who knew these and similar sayings wish to observe this precept with the mystical meaning, namely, "Keep your heart with all diligence," that nothing of a demoniacal nature may enter into our minds or any spirit of our adversaries turn our imagination whither it chooses. But we pray that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God may shine in our hearts, and that the Spirit of God may dwell in our imaginations, and lead them to contemplate the things of God; for "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
Proverbs 4:23 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11:15
The spring and source, then, of every sin are evil thoughts; for, unless these gained mastery, neither murders nor adulteries nor any other such thing would exist. Therefore, each person must keep his own heart with all watchfulness; for when the Lord comes in the day of judgment, "He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts."
Proverbs 4:26 — FRAGMENTS ON LUKE 209 (LK 14:12-14)
"Invite the poor," he says, those who are poor in words, so that you can make them rich. Invite "the crippled," those whose minds are injured, so that you can heal them. Invite "the lame," those who limp in their reason, so that they can make "straight paths." Invite the blind, who do not have the faculty of contemplation, so that they can see the true light.
Proverbs 5:4 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.2
Nothing can be more bitter than sin, even though certain sins seem sweet at first, just as Solomon writes: "but in the end," he says, "you will find it more bitter than gall" — that which at the beginning seemed sweet — "and sharper than the edge of a sword." But the nature of righteousness is contrary; at the beginnings it seems more bitter, but in the end it is found sweeter than honey, when it has brought forth the fruit of virtue.
Proverbs 5:15 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.5
Attempt therefore, you also, O hearer, to have your own well and your own fountain; that you too, when you have taken hold of the book of the scriptures, may begin even from your own understanding to bring forth some meaning, and according to those things which you have learned in the church, attempt you also to drink from the fountain of your own natural ability. There is within you the nature of "living water," there are perennial veins and irrigating streams of rational understanding, if only they be not filled up with earth and rubble. But be diligent to dig your earth and to purge the filth, that is, to remove the sloth of your natural ability and to shake off the torpor of your heart.
Proverbs 7:4 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.1
And it is fitting that, until we come to perfection, the virtue of the soul should be within us and be our own; but when we have come to perfection, so that we are fit to teach others also, then we no longer shut virtue up within our bosom as a wife, but join her also, as a sister, to others who wish for her. To these, finally, who are perfect, the divine word will say: "say that wisdom is your sister."
Proverbs 7:20 — EXPOSITION ON PROVERBS, FRAGMENT 7:20
In these words, "after many days he will return home," Paul (who in the spirit perceived the plan of the divine economy) refers to the last enemy which is to be destroyed, that is, death. That enemy is the man of wickedness that Solomon will describe as one who took in his hand "a bag of money," that is, humanity. When [humanity] sins again and again, it allows itself to disregard the fear of God. It [only] becomes distressed when the human race is brought to the point of trials. Otherwise, if it never envisioned any fear of God at all, it would have perished in an instant.
Proverbs 8:5 — AGAINST CELSUS 3:54
Those among us who are ambassadors of Christianity sufficiently declare that they are debtors to Greeks and barbarians, to wise men and fools (for they do not deny their obligation to cure the souls even of foolish persons), in order that as far as possible they may lay aside their ignorance and endeavor to obtain greater prudence, by listening also to the words of Solomon: "O fools, be of an understanding heart," and "Whoever is the most simple among you, let him turn unto me." Wisdom exhorts those who are empty of understanding in the words, "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mixed for you. Forsake folly that you may live, and correct understanding in knowledge."
Proverbs 8:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:40
That which John calls an eternal gospel, which would properly be called a spiritual gospel, clearly presents both the mysteries presented by Christ's words and the things of which his acts were symbols, to those who consider "all things face to face" concerning the Son of God himself. Consistent with these matters, we understand that just as one is a Jew outwardly and circumcised, there being both an outward and inward circumcision, so it is with a Christian and baptism.
Proverbs 8:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:55
What must we say of wisdom which "God created as the beginning of his ways for his works"? Her Father rejoiced at her, rejoicing in her manifold spiritual beauty which only spiritual eyes see. Wisdom's divine heavenly beauty invites the one who contemplates it to love.
Proverbs 8:22 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:4.1
If he is an "image of the invisible God," he is an invisible image, and I would dare to add that as he is a likeness of the Father there is no time when he did not exist.… Let the man who dares to say "There was a time when the Son was not" understand that this is what he will be saying: "Once wisdom did not exist, and word did not exist, and life did not exist."
Proverbs 8:22 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:2.1
First we must know this, that in Christ there is one nature, his deity, because he is the only-begotten Son of the Father, and another human nature, which in very recent times he took upon him to fulfill the divine purpose.… He is called "wisdom," as Solomon said.… He is also called "firstborn," as the apostle Paul says: "who is the firstborn of all creation." The firstborn is not, however, by nature a different being from wisdom but is one and the same. Finally, the apostle Paul says, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Proverbs 8:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:244-46
But if someone is able to comprehend an incorporeal existence comprised of the various ideas which embrace the principles of the universe, an existence which is living and animate, as it were, he will understand the wisdom of God which precedes all creation, which appropriately says of herself, "God created me the beginning of his ways for his works." It is because of this creation that the whole creation has also been able to subsist, since it has a share in the divine wisdom according to which it has been created, for according to the prophet David, God made "all things in wisdom."Many creatures, on the one hand, have come into existence by participation in wisdom, while they do not apprehend her by whom they have been created. Very few, however, comprehend not only the wisdom concerning themselves, but also that concerning many beings, for Christ is all wisdom. But each of the wise participates in Christ to the extent that he has the capacity for wisdom, insofar as Christ is wisdom, just as each one who possesses power has obtained greater power to the extent that he has shared in Christ, insofar as Christ is power.
Proverbs 8:25 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 9:5
Let us consider [that] our Savior is a "reflection of glory." The reflection of glory has not been begotten just once and no longer begotten. But just as the light is an agent of reflection, in such a way the reflection of the glory of God is begotten. Our Savior is the wisdom of God. But the wisdom is the reflection of everlasting light. If then the Savior is always begotten—because of this he also says, "Before all the hills he begets me" (and not "Before all the hills he has begotten me," but "Before all of the hills he begets me")—and the Savior is always begotten by the Father, and likewise also if you have the Spirit of adoption, God always begets you in him according to each work, according to each thought. And may one so begotten always be a begotten son of God in Christ Jesus, "to whom is the glory and the power for the ages of ages. Amen."
Proverbs 8:30-31 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:4.3-4
We can therefore imagine no moment whatever when that power was not engaged in acts of well-doing. Whence it follows that there always existed [in God's wisdom] objects for this well-doing, namely, God's works or creatures, and that God, in the power of his providence, was always dispensing his blessings among them by doing them good in accordance with their condition and deserts. It follows plainly from this, that at no time whatever was God not creator, nor benefactor, nor providence.…God the Father always existed, and he always had an only-begotten Son, who at the same time, according to the explanation we have given above, is called wisdom. This is that wisdom in whom God delighted when the world was finished, in order that we might understand from this that God ever rejoices. In this wisdom, therefore, who ever existed with the Father, the creation was always present in form and outline, and there was never a time when the prefiguration of those things which hereafter were to be did not exist in wisdom.
Proverbs 9:2-5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:11
"Wisdom has prepared her table, she has slain her victims, she has mingled her wine in the bowl and cries with a loud voice, Turn in to me and eat the bread which I have prepared for you, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." The mind, when nourished by this food of wisdom to a whole and perfect state, as man was made in the beginning, will be restored to the "image and likeness" of God. [Thus], even though a man may have departed out of this life insufficiently instructed but with a record of acceptable works, he can be instructed in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints. That is, he can be taught and informed and fashioned into a "living stone," a "stone precious and elect," because he has borne with courage and endurance the trials of life and the struggles after piety. There, too, he will come to a truer and clearer knowledge of the saying already uttered here, that "man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
Proverbs 10:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5:4-5
How can teaching accomplish anything without a multitude of words, understood in the simpler sense, since even wisdom herself declares to the perishing, "I stretched out words, and you did not heed." Paul appears to have continued teaching from early morning till midnight, when indeed Eutychus, overcome with deep sleep, fell down and troubled the audience since they thought he was dead.If, then, the statement is true, "In a multitude of words you will not escape sin," and it is also true that Solomon did not sin when he recited the many words about the subjects mentioned earlier, nor did Paul when he extended his teaching until midnight, one must inquire what the multitude of words is, and from there make a transition to see what the many books are. The complete Word of God which was in the beginning with God is not a multitude of words, for it is not words. It is a single Word consisting of several ideas, each of which is a part of the whole Word.… Consequently, according to this understanding, we would say that he who utters anything hostile to religion is loquacious, but he who speaks the things of truth, even if he says everything so as to leave out nothing, always speaks the one Word. The saints are not loquacious, since they cling to the goal which accords with the one Word.
Proverbs 13:8 — ON PRAYER 29:6
And what use is it to recount how many, because of their failure to manage properly their material riches, have received the same punishment as the rich man in the Gospel? Or how many, because they bore poverty ignobly with behavior more lowly and base than was proper among saints, have fallen away from their heavenly hope? Even those who are midway between these extremes of riches and poverty are not by their moderate estateable to escape sinning.
Proverbs 13:25 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16:5.4
If you take [this verse] according to the literal sense that "when the just person eats he will fill his soul but the souls of the impious will be in poverty," it will appear false. For the souls of the impious take food with eagerness and strive after "satiety," but the just meanwhile are hungry. Finally, Paul was just, and he said, "Up to this hour we are hungry, and thirsty, and naked, and we are beaten with fists." And again he says, "In hunger and thirst, in many fastings." And how does Solomon say, "when the just eats he will satisfy his soul"? But if you consider how "the just person" always and "without interruption" eats from "the living bread" and fills his soul and satisfies it with heavenly food which is the Word of God and his wisdom, you will find how the just person "eats his bread in abundance" from the blessing of God.
Proverbs 13:25 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:24
We must consider the food promised in the law as the food of the soul, which is to satisfy not both parts of a person's nature but the soul only. And the words of the gospel, although probably containing a deeper meaning, may yet be taken in their more simple and obvious sense, as teaching us not to be disturbed with anxieties about our food and clothing, but, while living in plainness, and desiring only what is needful, to put our trust in the providence of God.
Proverbs 15:17 — ON PRAYER 27:6
Better is the hospitality of vegetables served with friendship and grace than a fatted calf served with enmity. Often we accept simpler, more frugal hospitality offered in good conscience—as guests at the table of those who are unable to furnish us with more—in preference to elevated words "lifted up against the knowledge of God" and proclaiming with ample plausibility a sentiment alien to the Father of our Lord Jesus who has given the law and the prophets.
Proverbs 15:26 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 7
If every evil word is an abomination to the Lord your God, how great an abomination must be supposed the evil word of denial and the evil word of publicly proclaiming another god and the evil oath by the fortune of people, something that has no existence.
Proverbs 15:32 — ON PRAYER 28:7
We are not harsh toward the impenitent. They are wicked to themselves, for those that spurn instruction hate themselves. Yet even in such cases we should seek in every way that healing come to those who are so completely perverted as not even to be conscious of their own ills and drunk with a drunkenness more fatal than that from wine, the drunkenness that comes from the darkness of evil.
Proverbs 17:21 — EXPOSITION ON PROVERBS, FRAGMENT 17:21
God is called "father" and God's love to humankind "mother," which was the cause of the divine incarnation and his suffering for our sake. Although God is our Father, he does not rejoice in an adopted son who is uneducated in divine wisdom and knowledge and who is committed to wickedness and evil. But a reasonable son gladdens his mother, that is, God's love toward humankind. It is she who presents us to God the Father as undernourished children, longing for solid spiritual food. That is done in order that his son, Jesus Christ, who became like our brother, could make us full citizens [of his kingdom] both in word and in deed. Also, our mother is the church who was betrothed to God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Eternally, she begets sons and daughters for him. And those who learned divine wisdom and knowledge gladden both God our Father and his church, our mother. But she grieves and laments over those uninstructed who do not want to repent and be saved but prefer to persevere in wickedness.
Proverbs 18:12 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12:8.3
There is nothing to be proud about. For to sink to the state of being proud has its consequences according to the text: "Before ruin the heart of man is exalted and before glory it is humble." These words [also] concern the text: "Hear and hearken, and do not be proud, because the Lord has spoken."
Proverbs 18:17 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 3:4.5
David also speaks in the Psalms and says, "I made my iniquity known and did not cover my sin. I said, 'I will proclaim my injustice against myself,' and you have forgiven the impiety of my heart." You see, therefore, that "to proclaim the sin" is to deserve the forgiveness of sin. For the devil, having been anticipated in the accusation, will not be able to accuse us further. If we are our own accusers, this profits us to salvation. But if we delay so that we are accused by the devil, that accusation delivers us to punishment; for he will have as companions in hell those whom he will have convicted of complicity.
Proverbs 19:25 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12:6
If you want to take Scripture as a witness that sinners are punished for the education of others, even if those unabashed may be beyond treatment, hear Solomon in the Proverbs who says, "When a pest is being whipped, the fool will be more astute." He did not say that he who is being whipped will be more astute and more sensible through the whips, but he said that the fool will change from foolishness into common sense through whips employed on the pest. For this is signified here by the term astute, and the fool changes because he sees others who are whipped. Hence the punishment of others is useful for us if we learn greater readiness for salvation through others who are punished.
Proverbs 20:2 — EXPOSITION ON PROVERBS, FRAGMENT 20:2
In this place it openly speaks of Christ as the king, for the one who irritates Christ with [his] sin, sins against his own soul.
Proverbs 20:9 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 33
I think that the discourse, wishing to show a general cleanness which is not only in acts but also in knowledge, says in the twenty-third Psalm: who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? he that is innocent in hands and pure in heart, and in the Proverbs: who shall boast that he has a chaste heart? or who shall be confident that he is clean from sins? I therefore think that the one clean in heart and chaste in heart is no other than he who possesses a heart clean and chaste from every false dogma; so also I reckon him to be innocent in hands and clean from sins who is irreproachable in the acts of his life. And it must be known that (as regards the truth) it is impossible for anyone to be innocent in hands and clean from sins without being pure in heart and chaste from false dogmas; just as, on the contrary, it is impossible to be clean indeed and chaste in heart from false dogmas without being innocent in "hands" and clean from sins. For these follow one another mutually and are not separated from each other: a discourse clean in the soul and a life irreproachable.
Proverbs 20:9 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
I hold that in the Proverbs of Solomon these two kinds of judgment (I speak of the one that concerns our faith and knowledge, and of the one that concerns our conduct) are presented by Solomon in the following words: "Who will boast that he has a pure heart? Or who will dare to say of himself that he is clean from sins?" The distinction between these questions we interpret as follows: heart refers to thought, and sins — to deeds. Who will boast that he has a pure heart, which is not defiled by the so-called gnosis, not defiled by falsehood? Or who will dare to say of himself that he is clean from sins, that he has never sinned in deed?
Proverbs 21:22 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 18.3
"The wise man occupied fortified cities and destroyed the stronghold in which the impious trusted." Do you suppose that, when Solomon said these things, he wished to teach us this — that "the wise man captured cities and destroyed strongholds" built of stones? Or does it rather indicate that the city and the walls are the dogmas of the impious and the syllogisms of the philosophers, by which they construct all manner of impious things contrary to the divine law, which are observed among the pagans or the barbarians? But those things too must be reckoned among these, and to be "fortified cities" and set upon mountains, which the heretics place in their assertions from the Scriptures as though upon high mountains. These "cities," then, every "wise man" who preaches the word of truth "has destroyed," and he has overthrown the cities of falsehood with the battering-ram of truth, just as the Apostle Paul also said: "destroying reasonings and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God."
Proverbs 22:20 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 21.2
Since Solomon urges that "these things which we read be written on the heart in threefold manner," that also, besides those things which we have said, which occurs to my heart, I shall bring forth to your ears, and do you that which is written, that while one speaks the rest may examine. While I therefore speak what I feel, do you discern and examine whether it is right or less than right.
Proverbs 22:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
This, however, is plain, that many examples have been brought forth either by the apostles or by the evangelists, and inserted into the New Testament, which we have never read in these Scriptures that we hold as canonical, but which are nevertheless found in the apocrypha, and are evidently shown to have been taken from them. But not even so is a place to be given to the apocrypha; for the bounds which our fathers set are not to be crossed. For it may have come about that the apostles or evangelists, being filled with the Holy Spirit, knew what was to be taken from those Scriptures and what was to be rejected; but for us it is not without danger to presume anything of the kind, for us who have not so great an abundance of the Spirit.
Proverbs 22:28 — LETTER TO JULIUS AFRICANUS 5
Consider whether it would not be well to remember the words, "You shall not remove the ancient landmarks which your fathers have set." Nor do I say this because I hesitate to examine the Jewish Scriptures, comparing them with ours and noticing their differences. This, if it is not arrogant to say it, I have already to a great extent done to the best of my ability, laboring hard to get at the meaning in all the editions and various readings. I paid particular attention to the Septuagint translation, lest I might be found to accredit any forgery to the churches which are under heaven and give an occasion to those who seek such a pretext for gratifying their desire to slander prominent persons and to bring forth some accusation against those who are outstanding in our fellowship. And I make it my endeavor not to be ignorant of their various readings, so that in my controversies with the Jews I may not quote to them what is not found in their copies and that I may make some use of what they accept, even if it is not found in our Scriptures. For if we are so prepared for them in our discussions, they will not, as is their manner, scornfully laugh at Gentile believers on the grounds that we do not know the true readings recorded in their texts.
Proverbs 23:1 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 13:4.6
What therefore is "the table of the powerful one," except the mind of that one who says, "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me"; and "when I am weak, then I am strong"? On this "clean table of the powerful one," that is, in his heart, in his mind is offered "a loaf" to the Lord. At the table of this powerful apostle, if you sit to eat, "understand intelligently what is set before you," that is, perceive spiritually what is said by him.
Proverbs 24:13 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 2
In Proverbs it is said: "for a honeycomb is good, that your throat may be sweetened." Do you suppose the Holy Spirit says this — "eat honey" — of that which is in common use, "for it is good"? I do not dare to say that the Holy Spirit enjoins upon me concerning bodily "honey": "eat honey." Behold, I do not have it, or else I am of such a nature that I cannot "eat honey"; by what reasoning does he say to me: "eat honey," and do not "eat" flesh, but "eat, my son, honey, for it is good"? If you see that the prophets are "bees" and their work "honey" or "honeycombs," then you will see how, in a manner worthy of the Holy Spirit, you may understand "eat, my son, honey, for it is good." If anyone meditates on the divine oracles and is nourished by the words of the scriptures, he fulfills the command that bids: "eat, my son, honey," and, doing what is commanded, he takes possession of the word that follows: "for it is good," because "good" is this "honey" which is found in the scriptures. There is, so to speak, a certain "bee" above the bees; and just as among bees there is a certain king who is named to be king, so the prince of the bees is my Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the Holy Spirit sends me, that "I may eat honey, for it is good, and his honeycombs, that my throat may be sweetened." And perhaps the finer letters will be "honeycombs"; but the "honey" is the understanding that is in them.
Proverbs 25:16 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 2
Many things drawn from bodily foods are named in the scriptures for spiritual nourishment. Again, in Proverbs it is written concerning "honey": "finding honey, eat what is enough, lest perchance being full you vomit it up." And did the Holy Spirit take care about that "honey" which is commonly known, "lest perchance" we "eat" too much? But the Holy Spirit, surely knowing spiritual "honey," says: "finding honey, eat what is enough." But with what understanding did the Holy Spirit enjoin upon us that, "if we have found honey" — since "honey" is indeed findable — "we should eat what is enough"? "Go," he says, "to the bee and learn how she is a worker." And the prophets are found to be "bees," for they fashion wax and make "honey," and, if it is fitting for me to venture to say it, their "honeycombs" are the scriptures which they have left behind. And if you are willing, come to the scriptures and you will find "honey." And perhaps the finer letters will be "honeycombs"; but the "honey" is the understanding that is in them.
Proverbs 26:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:297-98
The sin of all people is not taken away by the Lamb if they neither grieve nor are tormented till it be taken away. For since thorns have not only been sown but have also taken deep root in the hands of everyone who has become drunk because of evil, and has lost sobriety, according to what is said in Proverbs, "Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard." So what must we say in addition regarding the extent of distress they produce in him who has received such plants into the body of his own soul? For he who has admitted evil into the depth of his own soul to such an extent that he has become thorn-producing earth has to be cut down by the living and effectual word of God which is more piercing than any two-edged sword and more capable of burning than any fire.That fire which discovers thorns, and which, because of its own divinity, will stop them and not in addition set the threshing floors or fields of grain on fire, will need to be sent to such a soul.
Proverbs 30:19 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12:11
Neither against the rock on which Christ builds the church nor against the church will the gates of hades prevail; just as the way of a serpent upon a rock, according to what is written in the Proverbs, cannot be found. Now, if the gates of hades prevail against any one, such cannot be a rock upon which Christ builds the church.
Proverbs 30:20 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20:9.1-2
I will describe two persons who have sinned the same abominable sin of fornication, yet between these two who have fornicated, the one is not aggrieved nor feels pain nor is vexed but experiences what was said in Proverbs concerning the adulterous woman "who having washed herself, if she does something, says she has done nothing wrong." See with me the other who after the mistake is unable to contain himself but punishes the conscience, tortures the heart, is unable to eat and drink, who fasts not because of a judgment but because of grief of repentance. I will describe him as the kind of person who "appears sad all day long" and who wears himself down with suffering and who goes "wailing from the groaning of his heart," who sees his sin reproved before himself on account of all which happened before. And see that this sort of person punishes himself not only for one day nor one night but for a long time. Who do you say has hope before God? Is it that first person who has fornicated and does not care but is callous and also has hardened himself just as one who has "given himself up to licentiousness"? Or is it this latter person who after one sin goes into mourning, lamenting it?This latter [has some grounds for hope]. The more such a one is burnt by the fire of grief, the more he is shown mercy, and there is for him such sufficient time for punishment, as there is a time of punishment given to that person who fornicated and was grieved.
Proverbs 30:24-28 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:87
I do not quote these words, however, as taking them in their literal signification, but, agreeably to the title of the book (for it is entitled "Proverbs"), I investigate them as containing a secret meaning. For it is the custom of these writers [of Scripture] to distribute into many classes those writings which express one sense when taken literally but which convey a different signification as their hidden meaning; and one of these kinds of writing is "Proverbs." … It is not, then, the visible ants which are "wiser even than the wise," but they who are indicated as such under the "proverbial" style of expression. And such must be our conclusion regarding the rest of the animal creation.
Proverbs 30:27 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
But that mention is made of locusts in the eighth place, I think that through this kind of plague the inconstancy of the human race, ever at variance with itself and discordant, is confuted. For the locust, though it has no king, as Scripture says: "leads forth its army arrayed in one battle-line"; but men, though made rational by God, have been able neither to govern themselves in ordered fashion nor to bear patiently the guidance of God their king.
Proverbs 31:16 — EXPOSITION ON PROVERBS, FRAGMENT 31:16
[The text] speaks of the church as a virtuous soul possessing the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. [The church possesses] knowledge as the law, and life as the Word. For she herself [is the church] who came out of the rib of Christ and was found by her bridegroom to be a woman of sound mind and strength, guarding the faith of her bridegroom as she awaits his [return] again from heaven.
Psalms 1:1 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 1:1
Generally there are three types: the first type is the one who does not acknowledge the truth at all, but, as chance has it, when he hands himself over to the vain and unsubstantiated musings of his own heart, he becomes like a wild beast, neither standing nor supported by anything, and accordingly, not sitting. This one, indeed, is said to walk in the counsel of the wicked.
Psalms 1:2 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 1:2
[The blessed person] meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, not as one who entrusts the words of the law to his memory without works, but as one who by meditating performs works consistent with it, until through the disciplined meditation of the works that the law instructs, he is prepared for excelling in all the things that apply for living perfectly according to the law.
Psalms 1:2 — HOMILIES ON PSALMS 11:3
Certainly, even if I shall not have been able to understand everything, if I am, nevertheless, busily engaged in the divine Scriptures and "I meditate on the law of God day and night" and at no time at all do I desist inquiring, discussing, investigating, and certainly, what is greatest, praying God and asking for understanding from him who "teaches humankind knowledge," I shall appear to dwell "at the well of vision." … You too, therefore, if you shall always search the prophetic visions, if you always inquire, always desire to learn, if you meditate on these things, if you remain in them, you too will receive a blessing from the Lord and dwell "at the well of vision." For the Lord Jesus will appear to you also, "in the way," and will open the Scriptures to you so that you may say, "Was not our heart burning within us when he opened to us the Scriptures?" But he appears to those who think about him and meditate on him and live "in his law day and night."
Psalms 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 53
But from the fig tree learn a parable: for when its branch has now become tender and puts forth leaves, know that summer is near; so also you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, at the door. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. How the comparison of the things that have been said can be understood from the fig tree, we shall expound according to our ability: lest perhaps this whole world and its consummation be likened to a fig tree, and each one of those setting out toward the blessed life, so as to see in himself the glorious and perfect coming of Christ's word, be held to be like a fig tree. For just as the fig tree in the time of winter indeed has in itself the life-giving power, but has it hidden and not sufficiently manifest, and afterward, when that very life-giving power begins to come forth into manifestation as the winter passes, out of its own vigor the branch is made tender, and it puts forth also leaves; and just as the tree in that very power has leaves and fruits, and first indeed there is the bud, then little by little it advances, and last of all also by the actual effect: so also the world and each one of those who are saved, at the end before the coming of Christ (as it were in winter) has in himself the life-giving power hidden, but with Christ breathing upon them, those branches which are tender and not hard-hearted, and the things that were hidden in them, advance into leaves as the summer draws on and show forth manifest fruits, which he who beholds them in Christ already sees. So too it is related in a certain parable of the Shepherd, if it please anyone to read that book also, that "the present age is winter for the just", who appear like their neighbors by nature, namely like the other dry trees, but in the opportune time appear in their fruits. But if in the first Psalm also there be some such thing, which is said concerning that blessed man, that "he shall be as the tree which is planted beside the running waters, which shall give its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall off, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper", do you also consider what is written. "The winter has passed, it has gone its way, the flowers have appeared in the land", as is written in the Song of Songs, from the time that Christ came, who introduced the mild season and made the wintry blasts to cease. And the fig tree, that is, the world, has now indeed made the tender branch, that is, the Church, to put forth leaves, while summer is at hand yet has not yet come; but when summer has come, it will more fully render fruits perfect and ripe for Christ, when according to Jeremiah the good figs are very good, gathered into baskets of good figs, from which Christ wishes to take and, as it were, to eat their sweetness. But far be it from us that, when Jesus comes to us and wishes to eat of the fig tree, no fruit should be found in it. For if no fruit be found in it, he will say to it at his coming, to the tree that has not shown fruits: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". And that fig tree can be understood as the people of the circumcision, to whom the Lord came hungering, and when he had not found "fruit in it" but only the appearance of life, he said: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". Wherefore at his coming "that fig tree was straightway withered", that is, that people; but that other fig tree, which (as regards the earlier times) was barren, which was already to be cut down because it had had no diligence applied to it by its own digger, when dung has begun to be put around it, will put forth fruits; the tree which had once drained the ground, but now will bring forth more abundant fruits even in return for the time gone by in which it was barren. And each one of us, after the winters of temptations and after the sorrow of dangers past, hastens to summer,…
Psalms 1:6 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 1:6
God is ignorant of evil deeds, not because he is unable to understand everything or to grasp it with his own intelligence (for it is wrong to think this way about God) but because those deeds are unworthy of his contemplation.… God is ignorant of the way of the wicked, and he knows the way of the righteous. Further, who is the way of the righteous except the one who said, "I am the way" whom the Father knows? "No one has known the Son except the Father." The distinction between the knowledge and ignorance of God is referred to in the prophets as "the memory and forgetfulness" of God. Often it is said in prayer: "Be mindful of me" and "Why have you forgotten our poverty?" Just as God removes sinners from his own memory, so does he again receive the repentant and become mindful of them.
Psalms 2:1-2 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 2.1-2
They rage, therefore, and dwell on worthless ideas and have gathered themselves and stand united together. Not only by their appearance have they moved the crowds against Christ, but whatever has been done by them is counted as if they had assailed the Father. So, it is said that these had turned against the Lord and his anointed.
Psalms 2:2-3 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 115
But taking such counsel against him, the chief priests of the cult of the letter that kills, and the elders of the ministry of condemnation, bound Jesus, who looses men from their bonds and "says to those who are in bonds: come forth", and who looses those who are fettered and says: "let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast their yoke from us", and who had loosed from her bonds "the daughter of Abraham" bound by Satan "for eighteen years", so that she who "before could not at all look upward" should now be no longer bent down. And they bound him who willed it, and who, in the very fact that he was bound, was laying an ambush against those very bonds and breaking them, so that now the chief priests and elders of the Jews should have no bonds against men, the Lord evidently breaking them in himself. But if anyone requires of me a Scripture showing these things concerning the breaking of the bonds with which the chief priests and elders bound Jesus, let him understand that for this very reason Jesus himself says through the prophet: "let us break their bonds asunder", as if he were speaking of the chief priests and elders, or much more of those rulers who wrought in them, and of the kings of the earth, those who "stood up", and of the princes who "came together as one against the Lord and against his Christ", whose "yoke also let us cast from us". But he will satisfy you still further, so that you may accept that, even though those who took counsel against him led Jesus away bound, nevertheless Jesus broke the bonds, if you consider the things that are written concerning Samson, who was frequently bound and broke the bonds of the foreigners, because he had been a Nazarite of God and had hair full of strength. If therefore that man, on account of the strength of the hair which he had on his head, was able to break the bonds of the foreigners with which they had frequently bound him, how much more Christ, who after so many wonders and mighty works which he did, willingly delivered himself over to bonds (lulling to sleep within himself the power of his divinity and consenting to be bound), without doubt broke the bonds surrounding him! Of which bonds the bonds of Samson were the mysteries.
Psalms 2:5 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 2:5
These are words of destruction that are pronounced in anger. Moreover, the evils that God had said he was going to inflict, he promises that he will withdraw if the listeners will become penitent. God in his anger spoke through Jonah to the Ninevites, and since they repented in ash and sackcloth, they endured nothing of those things about which they had heard. Actually, God knew beforehand when he sent Jonah that they were going to repent if he sent Jonah for their deliverance. Right now he also is speaking deliverance to those sinners who are in his wrath. For it did not say, "He will punish those in his wrath even if they will repent."
Psalms 2:6 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 130
There is no other reason for Christ's death (nor was there) than that he was king of the Jews, concerning which he also spoke, saying: "but I have been appointed king by him over Zion, his holy mountain". The chief of the priests indeed, according to the letter of the law, bore upon his head the shape of a sign, "the sanctification of the Lord" written on the plate, but the true chief of the priests and king, Jesus, on the cross indeed has written: this is the king of the Jews, yet ascending to the Father and receiving the Father into himself, in place of letters and in place of a name he has him who is named, and he has him as a crown.
Psalms 2:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:204
There is no evening of God possible and, I think, no morning, but the time, if I may put it this way, which is coextensive with his unoriginated and eternal life, is today for him, the day in which the Son has been begotten. Consequently neither the beginning nor the day of his generation is to be found.
Psalms 2:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:5
It may perhaps be a dogma of some kind that no one receives a divine gift who does not request it. The Father, indeed, through the psalm, urges the Savior to ask that it may be given to him, as the Son teaches us when he says, "The Lord said to me, You are my son; ask from me, and I will give you the Gentiles as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession." And the Savior says, "Ask and it will be given to you … for everyone who asks receives."
Psalms 2:9 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 2:9
It is necessary to consider how the Father gave the nations to the Son as an inheritance and the ends of the earth as a possession. He says to him, "You will break them like a clay pot." For who gives an inheritance so that it may be broken by the heir? It must be demonstrated from Scripture, therefore, how the contrition of certain people proved so beneficial. We find in the fiftieth psalm, "Having brought a spiritual sacrifice to God, a contrite and humble heart God will not despise." And it is said in another prophecy as instruction, "You will wail for the brokenness of your spirit." There is a spirit within us, therefore, that it is necessary to destroy in order that it may become a contrite sacrifice to God.
Psalms 3:2-3 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 3.2-3
We readily accept this psalm as spoken from the person of David, as we have noted in its title. According to history, certain men were hurting David, many of whom as their number increased were joining themselves to Absalom.… Those who were oppressing the Savior were Jews who were shouting, "Away with him; away with him!" Judas the betrayer and Caiphas rose up against him. The ones who said that there was no deliverance of his life were the same ones passing by him at the time of his suffering who said, "Come down from the cross and we will believe you." … But, one may also understand this passage in this way: all the rulers and teachers of subjects that are foreign to the decrees of Christ who have come against him. The people who cling to them and follow their teaching cause him trial. Finally, they who, neither teaching contrary matters nor instructed by false teaching, believe that there is no divine nature in the teaching of Christ, they say there is no salvation of the soul in God. They say that there is not anything that promises salvation either in the word of his teaching or the historical signs that he relates concerning his advent.
Psalms 3:3 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 3:4
Certainly, people place their glory in various places, some in their country, some in family line, some in beauty, some in the strength of their bodies and in their skill of competing in the contest, being very elated they have overcome these people or those by their physical struggling. And why is it necessary to recount all the things through which those unknown gods are glorified, "whose glory is in their shame," as the apostle said? God is the glory of the saint who trusts him, glory, I say, not blindly credited but credited through faith that is reckoned as righteousness, through which one is enabled to see the signs of a present God and participate in his strength. So, God was the glory of Moses who loved the prophet so much that he revealed himself to the point of showing his face both before all the Hebrew people and before the Egyptians. God was the glory of the prophet Elijah, who revived the son of the widow and begged for the rain to be held back, and who continually was heard. God was speaking truth, therefore, when he said, "I will only honor them honoring me." God is the glory of them who are magnified in their strength, which no one other than the Father places in them, who hand themselves over to him for sustaining their souls.
Psalms 3:6 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 3:7
The verse clearly teaches that the one who comes to the greatest virtue, to very great security, comes on account of faith in God.… The Savior, recognizing that thousands of the people of the circumcision were going to demand that he be crucified and knowing his own spirit of fearlessness (I say these things speaking in terms of the flesh), is able to say even these words.
Psalms 4:1 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:1
Invocation is not a matter of the voice, but it is posited … in solid faith.
Psalms 4:1 — ON PRAYER 30:1
The sense of joy and good cheer that comes to us in critical times from God by the cooperation and presence of the Word of God, who encourages and saves us, is called "room."
Psalms 4:3 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:4
Here is the great cry that reaches up to God. It is not that cry people make resulting from some intense release of air, but it is the pure and untouched outpouring of the words of the inner mind, which extend even to God. It must be realized there is a certain voice in the innermost heart which is not used as an organ of the body, but which a person, after he has entered his bedchamber and settled himself, cries out beyond his own body from the hidden gate of his feelings to him who alone is able to hear a voice of this type. Even if we do not read that Moses cried out with an audible voice, nevertheless it is said by God in Exodus: "Why do you cry to me?" It is the voice of every exile who cries to God about having earthly and ever-changing affairs. The Savior excludes this cry for approaching the Father when he says: "Seek great things, and the small things will be added to you. Seek the heavenly, and the earthly will be added to you."
Psalms 4:4 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:5
By these words he seems to teach that anyone lying on his bed ought to seek the reason within himself for those things that he has done throughout the day, and in light of those acts he has done against reason he ought to expose them and disapprove of them and feel their sting, for if this is done correctly from his bed he will not be drawn away from honest deeds.
Psalms 4:5 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:5
If you wish to explain what it is to hope in everything, we are going to say that it is nothing other than to become an heir of the kingdom of heaven, to receive comfort, to be called the children of God, to see God, to be satisfied by the righteousness for which one hungers and thirsts, to enjoy his abundant mercy and to live in all the things which the true God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ promised.
Psalms 4:6 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:7
Indeed, in the same way the rays of the sun touch the face of one who looks at it, and in fact it is impossible for one who stands near to the sun not to feel it, so also it must be understood that the individual who is fully a partaker of God is the one who has meditated on the law of the holy word and who has surrendered his mind to understanding God. Which, I believe, the prophet indicates in this place when he says, "The light of your countenance is manifested toward us, O Lord." The representation of the light that shines in your countenance is imprinted on us as it comes to us, and that very light is the expression of your countenance, so that one who is able to see the sign of the divine light that is manifested, immediately recognizes that God's light is made in us. I think that this mystery is also declared in Exodus when the face of Moses, as he is speaking intimately with God, is glorified to the point that the people of Israel are not able to turn toward his glory, and after he puts on a veil the servant of God makes a speech to the people. Thus every spirit that is drawn totally to God and that yields to his truth that is unknown to many is made a partaker of his divine nature; he advances beyond the comprehension of many so that as he puts on the veil he guides the less knowledgeable by offering to them the things that are for their understanding. Moreover, it is obvious from the words of Psalm 66 that the face of God, about which is spoken and that illumines the mind of the one who is able to receive its rays, is the reason for our understanding: "God have mercy on us, and bless us and let your face shine over us, so that we may know your way in the land, the salvation among all nations."
Psalms 4:7 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 4:7
The meaning of this little verse is consistent with the verses that precede it. For what else is the light of the countenance of the Lord over his righteous ones than a heart full of joy? That very thing which we feel through the sensation of joy becomes a partaker of his divinity when it contemplates God.
Psalms 5:7 — SELECTIONS FROM the PSALMS 5. 8-9
Since evil and iniquity may not dwell with you, nor may they remain in your sight, I will enter into your house by your mercy. Then I will be able to say, "Early in the morning I will stand before you, and you will see me." And since I enter into your house by no other way than by your mercy, with great reverence that is called your fear [i.e., the fear of God], I will worship you, having walked in spirit and truth.
Psalms 5:8 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 5:11
One who wishes to know and to act rightly has many adversaries. There are people and demons full of envy whom the good deeds of those acting uprightly torment. The prophet, when he understood this, did not allow himself to fight by his own strength against those who rose up against him, but he called on God to extend his hand by which he could escape unharmed from so many enemies, saying, "You, O Lord, lead me in your righteousness; then it will happen that my path may be directed in your sight."
Psalms 6:1 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:72
When we speak of God's wrath, we do not hold that it is an emotional reaction on his part but something that he uses in order to correct by stern methods those who have committed many terrible sins. That the so-called wrath of God and what is called his anger has a corrective purpose, and that this is the doctrine of the Bible is clear from the words of Psalm 6: "Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor correct me in your wrath."
Psalms 6:2 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Even if one turns to the lesser fragments of the body, one can discover their incorporeal correspondences in the soul. "… Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are shaken." What bones of the prophet were shaken? The harmonious state of his soul and the strength of his mind were shattered, and therefore he asks God for the restoration of his bones.
Psalms 8:3 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 9
But the things said in this passage can also be understood otherwise, more plainly. For many people think, when they look upon the creatures and contemplate this world, that they see them. And why do I speak of people? Behold, the birds and the four-footed beasts see the sun and the moon and the whole heaven together with the choir of stars, but they do not understand their reasons; only the just and holy, comprehending them through the reason of the wisdom of God, look upon them. Therefore in the eighth Psalm David says: "for I shall see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have founded". For does the prophet not now "see the heaven and the moon"? But this, that he says: "I shall see", if we consider it, we shall be able to understand.
Psalms 9:5 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 9:6
The expression "you have rebuked" indicates correction: "You have blotted out his name." God blotted out the name Abram, making it Abraham, and Sarai, calling her Sarah, and Simon, naming him Peter. And thus it follows, the name of those are blotted out whom he has rebuked.… Observe, however, that it is not said, You have blotted out their names from the book of the living … but from the pledges that had been signed in the book of debtors or in the book of the dead among the household of the wicked; thus he inscribes the dead, and he registers their names on the earth. The Savior will inscribe the names of his disciples in the heavens.
Psalms 9:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 12:13
In the Psalms the prophet gives thanks saying, "He who lifts me up from the gates of death that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion." And from this we learn that it is never possible for anyone to be fit to declare the praises of God, unless he has been lifted up from the gates of death and has come to the gates of Zion.
Psalms 9:17 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 9:18
They are shut off, he said, in that they, since they are turned in the opposite direction within, do not see the spirit of Jesus ascending and descending.
Psalms 11:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:40
The ultimate justice itself is Christ, "who was made wisdom for us from God, and justice, and sanctification and redemption." The justice in each person, however, is formed from that justice, so that many justices come into existence in those who are saved; wherefore it has also been written, "The Lord is just and has loved justice."
Psalms 12:3 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 12:4
When the Lord wipes out those things that are base, he will destroy those very things, so that when those things that have come on a person unexpectedly have been destroyed, the foremost creation of God whom the baser things had overtaken may take up the higher things.
Psalms 12:6 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 12:7
Although they may be beautiful, the words of those who stand apart from Christ are not pure but interspersed with innumerable lies; the words of the Lord alone are pure, in which there is no lie mixed, and they are true as silver purged and proven in the furnace. When anything is declared with them, it is never to be rejected in doubt.
Psalms 13:2 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 13:2
At first this one makes many plans in his soul, but in the end [see v. 5], he rests in the great plan of God for everyone, whose spirit is in the root of Jesse.
Psalms 13:3 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The outer man has eyes, and of the inner man too it is said that he has eyes: "Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." This refers neither to these eyes of mine, nor to bodily sleep, nor to the death common to all.
Psalms 13:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:135-37
Is God a light to enlighten the eyes of the body or the eyes of the intellect? The prophet says of the latter, "Enlighten my eyes lest I sleep in death." I think it is clear to everyone that we would not say that God performs the work of the sun and assigns to another the task of enlightening the eyes of those who will not sleep in death. God, therefore, enlightens the mind of those whom he judges to be worthy of personal enlightenment. But if God illuminates the mind according to the statement "The Lord is my light," then we must assume that he is apprehended by the intellect and is invisible and incorporeal, because he is the light of the mind.
Psalms 15:1-3 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
And again in the fourteenth Psalm he says: "Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy mountain? He that entereth without spot and worketh righteousness" and the rest. Or indeed how will it be true that it is said of this tabernacle that none dwells in it except the "innocent in hands and clean in heart, who hath not taken his soul in vain", when the history of the Kingdoms discloses that most wicked priests, "sons of pestilence", dwelt in the tabernacle of God, and that the very ark of the testament, captured by the Allophyli (Philistines), was held among the impious and profane? From all which it stands firm that the prophet thinks with a far other sense concerning this tabernacle, in which he says that none dwells except the "innocent in hands and clean in heart, and who hath not taken his soul in vain, nor done evil to his neighbor, and hath not received reproach against his neighbor". Such, then, must be the dweller of this tabernacle, which the Lord fixed and not man.
Psalms 16:9 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 16:9
"My flesh will rest in hope." The Lord Jesus Christ says these words, whose flesh is the first to rest in hope. Crucified, made the first fruit of the dead and having been taken into heaven after the resurrection, he carried the earthly body with him so that even the heavenly powers were awestruck and terrified seeing the flesh ascending into heaven. Concerning Elijah it was written that he was taken up into heaven; and about Enoch, that he was translated. Now, however, it is said that Jesus ascended into heaven. Let him be offended who so wishes at our word. I, however, guard it will all faith because just as Christ is the first fruit from the dead, so also he is the first to carry his flesh to heaven.
Psalms 16:10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 138
If, therefore, we have understood what it is to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, that is, to commend it "into the hands of God" (for so we expounded above, setting forth the exposition of the evangelist Luke), if we have understood what it is to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," let us hasten to keep our life such that at our departure we too may be able to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," like Jesus who "bowed his head" and, as it were, resting it upon the bosom of the Father, went forth—the Father who was able to cherish and strengthen it in his bosom. But if you wish to hear what it profited Christ to have cried out with a loud voice and thus to have given up the spirit, that is, to have commended the "spirit" "into the hands" of the Lord and thus to have given it up, or to have bowed the "head" upon the bosom of the Father and to have handed over the "spirit," hear what the prophet says: for "on this account" "he did not leave his soul in hell, nor did he give" him "to see corruption." If, therefore, we too conduct ourselves in such a way that we can commend our spirits into the hands of God, or bow our head upon the bosom of God and thus hand over our spirit, then without doubt he will neither leave our souls in hell nor give us to remain in corruption forever. But he who called him back from the dead after the third day will call us back too at the opportune time; and he who granted him that his flesh should not see "corruption" will grant to us—not indeed that our flesh should not see "corruption," but that it should be freed from corruption at the opportune time—since he indeed "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," but we shall be just if at least at some time we depart from our sins.
Psalms 16:10 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
These three parts were divided at the time of the sufferings. These three parts were reunited at the time of the resurrection. At the time of the sufferings they were divided. In what way? The body in the tomb, the soul in hell, the spirit was given up to the Father. The soul in hell: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."
Psalms 18:11 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:17
It is said of God in the eighteenth psalm that "God made darkness his hiding place." This is a Hebrew way of showing that the ideas of God that people understand in accordance with their merits are obscure and unknowable, since God hides himself as if in darkness from those who cannot bear the radiance of the knowledge of him and who cannot see him, partly because of the defilement of the mind that is bound to a human "body of humiliation," partly because of its restricted capacity to comprehend God.… Moreover, our Savior and Lord, the Logos of God, shows the depth of the knowledge of the Father, and that, although a derived knowledge is possessed by those whose minds are illuminated by the divine Logos himself, absolute understanding and knowledge of the Father is possessed by himself alone in accordance with his merits, when he says, "No one has known the Son save the Father, and no one has known the Father save the Son, and him to whom the Son will reveal him." Neither can anyone worthily know the uncreated and firstborn of all created nature in the way that the Father who begat him knows him; nor can anyone know the Father in the same way as the living Logos who is God's wisdom and truth. By participation in him who took away from the Father what is called darkness, which he made "his hiding place," and what is called his covering, "the great deep," thus revealing the Father, anyone whatever who has the capacity to know him may do so.
Psalms 18:11 — HOMILIES ON PSALMS 4:7
The reasons of the divine dispensation and providence are most obscure. For "God made darkness his hiding place." Those desiring audaciously and rashly to examine this darkness and appropriating for themselves one thing from another have fallen headlong into the dense "darkness" of errors.
Psalms 19:1 — HOMILIES ON PSALMS 1:13
Any who are perfect, who have been made heavenly or have become [part] of heaven, "declare the glory of God," as it says in the psalm. For this reason in brief also the apostles who were of heaven were sent to declare the glory of God and received the name of Boanerges, "which is the sons of thunder," that by the power of thunder we might believe them truly to be heavens.
Psalms 19:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32:190
If someone, hypothetically, should seem to believe in Jesus but should not believe that the God of the law and of the gospel is one, whose glory the heavens declare, since they were made by him, and the work of whose hands the firmament proclaims, since it is their work, this person would be deficient in the greatest article of faith.
Psalms 19:4 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 6
See the greatness of the Lord: "into all the earth has the sound of his teaching gone out, and his words unto the ends of the world". Our Lord Jesus, because he is the power of God, has been poured out over the whole world, and at the present moment is with us according to that which is read in the Apostle: "when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus". The power of the Lord and Savior is both with those who are separated from our world in Britain, and with those in Mauritania, and with all who under the sun have believed in his name. See, then, the greatness of the Savior, how it has been poured out over the whole world — and certainly I have not yet set forth his true greatness.
Psalms 19:8 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
"The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes." By keeping the commandments of the Lord we do not become more sighted bodily, but by keeping the divine commandments we become more keen-sighted spiritually.
Psalms 22:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 135
Now about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying: Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani? that is: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But those who were standing there and heard it said that this man is calling Elijah (27, 46. 47). It must be inquired, in a manner worthy of the Lord, what that great voice of Christ was—whether great by reason of things signifying great mysteries, or great by the sensible and bodily hearing of a great voice. But I think that every voice of Christ, the Son of God, is great, even if it be soft; and Scripture bears witness to this very thing especially in those places in which it wishes to raise up the hearer, so that he may pass beyond that which many are able to understand in such passages, and may not remain in it (although according to the simple understanding it may have in it some truth), so that he may be able to understand something in a manner worthy on account of the great voice of the Lord. Since, therefore, by these words he shows that there is something hidden and great, when he cries out to God, saying, why hast thou forsaken me, therefore it must be inquired what it is that was forsaken by God. Christ; for it is not permissible to believe that he lies when he says: why have you forsaken me. And some, out of a religious coloring on Jesus' behalf, and because they cannot explain what it means for Christ to be forsaken by God, suppose and say: it is indeed true what was said, yet it was said out of humility. But we, seeing him who had been established "in the form of God" descending from a greatness of this kind and emptying himself through this, that he "took on the form of a servant", and seeing in these things the will of him who sent him to such conditions, understand that, as regards those things in which there had been the form of the invisible God and the image according to the Father, he was forsaken by the Father when he "took on the form of a servant", and he was forsaken for the sake of men, so that he might take on such and so great things, so that he might come "even unto death", "and the death of the cross", which among men is seen to be the most shameful. For the extremity of his being forsaken came about when they crucified him and placed above his head, as if mocking him, letters saying: "this is Jesus the king of the Jews". And that too was an extremity of his being forsaken, that he was crucified among robbers, and that "those passing by blasphemed him, wagging their heads over him", and that the chief men with the scribes were saying: "he saved others, himself he cannot save", and still further that too, that "even the robbers reproached him" on the cross. Therefore you will be able clearly to understand what it is that he says: why hast thou forsaken me? — making a comparison of that glory which he had with the Father to the confusion which, despising it, he endured on the cross. For his throne was "as the sun in the sight of God, and as the perfect moon for ever; and his witness in heaven was faithful". But afterward, for those on whose behalf he says: why hast thou forsaken me, he added further, saying: "but thou hast repelled and brought to nothing, and hast put off thy Christ, thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant, thou hast profaned his holiness upon the earth", and the rest. And so long as there was light from the sun, even while enduring such great and such grievous things He did not say Why hast Thou forsaken Me?; but after He saw that darkness had come "over all the land of Judaea until the ninth hour," He said with His great voice Why hast Thou forsaken Me, wishing to show by these words this: that Thou hast forsaken Me willingly, Father, and hast delivered Me up, emptied out, to such calamities, in order that the people who had been held in honor with Thee might receive what it dared to do against Me — filling up the "measure of its fathers," and the things it did against the prophets — so that it might be deprived of the light o…
Psalms 22:6 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
Whence the Savior himself speaks: "but I am a worm and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people". He saw in his mother's womb the uncleanness of bodies; walled about on this side and that by her inward parts, he endured the confinements of earthly dregs; whence he likens himself to a worm and says: "I am a worm and not a man". For man is wont to be born of male and female, but I was born not of male and female, according to the rite and nature of men, but after the pattern of the "worm", whose seed is not from elsewhere, but whose origin is in the very bodies, and from the very bodies, in which it grows together.
Psalms 22:14-15 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:229
[We know] that even if … all the bones of Christ appear to be scattered in persecutions and afflictions by the plots of those who wage war against the unity of the temple by persecutions, the temple will be raised up and the body will arise on the third day.
Psalms 23:4 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 23:4
To walk in the midst of the shadow of death is not the same as to sit in the shadow of death; one who sits in the shadow of death is firmly fixed in that shadow and strengthened in evil. On account of this, he is in darkness and lacks mercy so that the light may rise for him. He who does not sit, but who passes or walks through the midst of the shadow of death, not standing and hurrying across, does not walk alone because the Lord goes through with him.
Psalms 23:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 26:26-28
This bread that God the Word declares is his body is the word that feeds souls, word proceeding from God the Word and bread from heavenly Bread. It has been placed on the table about which was written, "You have prepared a table in my sight against those who afflict me." And this drink that God the Word declares is his blood is the word that gives drink and wonderfully intoxicates the hearts of those who drink. This is the cup concerning which was written, "and your intoxicating cup, how glorious it is!" Also, this drink is the fruit of the true Vine, who said, "I am the true vine," and it is the blood of that Grape that produced this drink when it was cast into the winepress of the passion, just as the bread too is the word of Christ, made from that Wheat that "falling into the earth … produces much fruit." For God the Word was not saying that the visible bread that he was holding in his hands was his body, but rather the Word, in whose mystery the bread was to be broken. He was not saying that the visible drink was his blood, but the Word, in whose mystery the drink was to be poured out. For what else could the body and the blood of God the Word be except the Word that nourishes and the Word that "makes glad the heart"?
Psalms 23:5 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 23:5
Just as certain rewards are given to the contender in mighty contests, so also in any trial, when that which afflicts is nearby and the powers of the adversaries bring tribulation, know that a spiritual and intellectual table is prepared on account of this trial. Therefore, however many times you will be afflicted, equally many times a spiritual table is placed before you. Fix firm your eyes attentive only to my tables, and, giving thanks, you may say with the apostle, "Not I alone, but we are made glorious in tribulation."
Psalms 24:3 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 24:3
Where should you stand, you who seek sanctification from God? The writer says, "You have established my feet on the rock." "Christ was the rock." Let us learn about the one who follows these promises.
Psalms 24:3-4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 33
I think that the discourse, wishing to show a general cleanness which is not only in acts but also in knowledge, says in the twenty-third Psalm: who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? he that is innocent in hands and pure in heart, and in the Proverbs: who shall boast that he has a chaste heart? or who shall be confident that he is clean from sins? I therefore think that the one clean in heart and chaste in heart is no other than he who possesses a heart clean and chaste from every false dogma; so also I reckon him to be innocent in hands and clean from sins who is irreproachable in the acts of his life. And it must be known that (as regards the truth) it is impossible for anyone to be innocent in hands and clean from sins without being pure in heart and chaste from false dogmas; just as, on the contrary, it is impossible to be clean indeed and chaste in heart from false dogmas without being innocent in "hands" and clean from sins. For these follow one another mutually and are not separated from each other: a discourse clean in the soul and a life irreproachable.
Psalms 24:6 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 24:6
No one seeking the face of God will see his face and live, … unless he or she has been changed.
Psalms 24:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:287-88
But after he had destroyed his enemies through his passion, the Lord, who is mighty in battle and strong, … goes, bearing victory and trophies, with the body that arose from the dead.… Certain powers say, "Who is this that is coming from Edom, with scarlet garments from Bosra, so beautiful?" And those escorting him say to those stationed at the gates of heaven, "Lift up your gates, and the King of glory will come in."
Psalms 26:2 — AGAINST CELSUS 8:56
If need be, we will not only partake of the blessings of life but bear its appointed sorrows as a trial to our souls. For in this way is divine Scripture accustomed to speak of human afflictions, by which, as gold is tried in the fire, so the human spirit is tried and is found to be worthy either of condemnation or of praise.… We are therefore prepared and are ready to say, "Try me, O Lord, and prove me; purge my reins and my heart."
Psalms 27:1 — AGAINST CELSUS 8:27
Christians have nothing to fear, even if demons should not be well-disposed to them; for they are protected by the supreme God, who is well pleased with their piety and who sets his divine angels to watch over those who are worthy of such guardianship, so that they can suffer nothing from demons. He who by his piety possesses the favor of the Most High, who has accepted the guidance of Jesus, the "angel of the great counsel," being well contented with the favor of God through Christ Jesus, may say with confidence that he has nothing to suffer from the whole host of demons.
Psalms 27:3 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYDOM 29
It may be that these words are spoken by the prophet of no one else but the Savior, who feared no one because of the light and salvation given from the Father and who was afraid of no one because of the protection with which God shielded him. And his heart was not at all fearful when the entire host of Satan encamped against him. His heart, filled with sacred teachings, hoped in God when war rose up against him.
Psalms 27:3 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16:6.1
You see steadfastness and vigor of the soul that keeps the commandments of God and has the confidence of uncreated liberty.
Psalms 28:1 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 28:1
Frequently, in Scripture, the righteous are said to have called out to God. Each one tries to beseech God with a cry, and I may say with an unusual cry. He goes to his bedroom closet, locks the door and calls out to God: "Do not be silent before me." It was written of Moses, Aaron and Joshua the son of Nun. Indeed, they were the worthy ones to whom God spoke. He spoke through the prophets whenever the people stood before God. Let us not think that God speaks to us externally, for those righteous thoughts that are in our hearts are the words we speak and the voice through which God speaks to us. Understand this when Scripture says that God spoke to this one or that. Thus Scripture testifies, "Blessed is the one whose help is from you.…" We have this help through which the word of God is received. Holy is that one … who hears the word of the Lord and does it.
Psalms 28:2 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 28:2
Often, we communicate by the lifting of hands, as when Moses' arms were lifted up and Israel was victorious. When his hands were down, the Amalekites won.… Our hands are our deeds of piety. If we store treasures in heaven, we have hands lifted to God and overcome the enemy. When, therefore, I raise my hands to God, I lift my spirit to him through my uplifted hands. Amalek is conquered by me. So, it is needful to lift your hands to God. The temple of God is his glory.
Psalms 30:3 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 30:2
No one is able to exalt God unless God has lifted him up. For we are lifted up on high through the cross of Christ, who said, "When I will have been lifted up, I will draw all to me." We exalt the Lord who himself exalted the Father, and as much as he has been in him, he shows the Father to the ones who believe. He teaches that there are certain invisible enemies of the human spirit who envy the salvation handed over to them by God. They lie in wait, and they observe whether an error, fall or mishap should happen, which, if it would, straightway they mock that salvation as if joyful with the wrongdoing, against which mockery he bears up with strength if they will see that salvation illuminated by divine steps. He thanks God because God did not allow him to be cast away but corrected him from his fall. One who realizes this clearly exalts God and protects the worthy teaching that comes from God. Such a person lives a life of wisdom and keeps his spirit in all excellence. He exalts the one who lives within him.
Psalms 32:5 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17
There were evil thoughts in men, which were for this reason revealed, that, being brought out into the open, they might be destroyed and slain, and cease to be, being dead, and that he who died for us might slay them. For as long as the thoughts were hidden and not brought out into the open, it was impossible for them to be utterly slain. Hence we too, if we have sinned, ought to say: "I have made my sin known to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said: I will declare my injustice against myself to the Lord". For if we do this and reveal our sins not only to God but also to those who are able to heal our wounds and sins, our sins will be blotted out by him who says: "behold, I will blot out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like a mist".
Psalms 33:6 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:3.7
Nothing in the Trinity can be called greater or less, for there is but one fount of deity, who upholds the universe by his word and reason and sanctifies "by the spirit of his mouth" all that is worthy of sanctification.
Psalms 33:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13:168
When we fail to remember the one who formed each one of us in the womb, and formed all our hearts individually and understands all our works, we do not perceive that God is a helper of those who are lowly and inferior, a protector of the weak, a shelterer of those who have been given up in despair and Savior of those who have been given up as hopeless.
Psalms 34:8 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The outer man has a sense of taste; and the inner man too has a spiritual taste, of which it is said: "Taste and see how good the Lord is."
Psalms 35:10 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
"All my bones will say: 'Lord, who is like Thee?'" Behold, bones that chatter, reason, hold forth, feel God — and this despite the insensitivity to which the physicians testify who saw through the bones of a patient, without his feeling anything under the action of the saw. "All my bones will say: 'Lord, who is like Thee?'" It is precisely the inner man who possesses all these bones.
Psalms 36:6 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 14:4.5
Human beings, being ignorant of the judgments of God, which are "a great abyss," are accustomed to complain against God and to say, Why do unjust people and unjust robbers and impious and wicked ones suffer nothing adverse in this life but everything yields prosperity to them, honors, riches, power, health, and the health and strength of the body even serves them. On the contrary, innumerable tribulations come on the innocent and pious worshipers of God; they live rejected, humble, contemptible, under the blows of the powerful. Sometimes even more severe diseases dominate them in their body. But as I said, the ignorant complain about what order there is in the divine judgments. For however much more severely they want those to be punished whose power and iniquities they lament, there is that much greater necessity that the penalties be differed, that if they are not differed, … it is certain that they will be eternal and last forever. On the contrary, therefore, if they wanted good things to be given to the just and innocent in the present age, the good things themselves would also be temporal and would have to come to a quick end; but the more they are deferred into the future, by so much the more will they be perpetual and not know an end.
Psalms 36:9 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:1.1
What other light of God can we speak of, in which a person sees light, except God's spiritual power, which when it lightens a person causes him either to see clearly the truth of all things or to know God, who is called the truth? Such then is the meaning of the saying, "In your light shall we see light"; that is, in your word and your wisdom, which is your Son, in him shall we see you, the Father.
Psalms 37:3 — HOMILY 1 ON PSALMS 37:3
The "land" here indicates the heart of the listener and his soul. We are ordered, therefore, to indwell this land, that is, not to stray far from it, not to run to and fro, far and near, but to dwell and to stand firm within the bounds of our spirits and to consider the land very carefully and to become its tiller just as Noah was and to plant in it the vine and till the land that is within us, "to renew the fallowed ground of our spirits and sow not among the thorns." Namely, let us purge our spirit from faults, and let us refine rough and harsh ways with the gentleness and the imitation of Christ, and thus finally we may feed from its wealth.
Psalms 37:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32:106
The expression "we have need" is applied to those things that are necessary for life. Consequently, applied to material things, it means that one does not need most things but only those of which Paul says, "but having food and clothing, we shall be satisfied with these things." Those things, [by contrast], that are accumulated in wealth and luxury are the result of abundance among those who live luxuriously. They are not considered to be necessary and absolutely essential but to be superfluous. So, therefore, there are also things that are necessary for us in the realm of divine matters, which bring us into life and cause us to be in the one who says, "I am the life." But what supersedes these things would be said to supersede need. It is said of such things, "Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart." These include all the things that are considered in relation to the paradise of luxury and in relation to wealth and glory, the things in the left hand of wisdom according to him who said, "For length of life and years of life are in her right hand, but in her left hand are wealth and glory." One would say that these go beyond necessity.
Psalms 37:25 — HOMILIES ON PSALMS 16:3
They can never be oppressed by the fasting of famine whose bread is that "they should do the will of the Father who is in heaven" and whose soul that "bread that comes down from heaven" nourishes.
Psalms 38:5 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
And what does sin smell of? Concerning this the prophet says the following: "My wounds stink and fester because of my folly."
Psalms 39:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 109
In these events one may understand as fulfilled the prophecy which says: "while the sinner stood against me, I was made dumb and was humbled and kept silent from good things", so that that sinner foretold in these words may be understood to be Caiaphas, who stood against Jesus. At the same time we learn also from this passage to despise the voices of slanderers and false witnesses, so that we neither hold them worthy of our reply, nor defend our own selves where the things said against us are not consistent. For what need is there to resist those who resist themselves by saying things contrary to themselves? Especially where it is a greater thing freely and bravely to be silent than to defend oneself without any profit, so that we may not be humbled by false witnesses and wicked slanderers.
Psalms 39:3 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:9.7
In the Gospel it was written, after the Lord spoke to Cleopas, "Was not our heart burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?" Where will you burn? Where will "the coals of fire" be found in you who are never set on fire by the declaration of the Lord, never inflamed by the words of the Holy Spirit? Hear also … David … saying, "My heart burned within me, and in my meditation fire became inflamed." From where do you glow? Where is the fire kindled in you?
Psalms 39:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19:157
We will have to say that if we give in to troubles, we do not believe in him insofar as he is endurance; and if we are weak, we have not believed in him insofar as he is strength.
Psalms 41:9 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 82
Seeing them fearful about themselves, He pointed out the betrayer by the evidence of the prophetic voice that says: "he that eateth my bread with me hath magnified his supplanting against me"; for that saying does not differ from this which He says: he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. But I suppose that He said this because He wished to make manifest the greatness of his malice, since the one whom He had received at the common table and who had eaten together with Him (perhaps because in the beginning he was acting well), this very man betrayed Jesus, who was embracing him with such great honors, and became mindful neither of the same salt nor of the table nor of the bread shared in common, but transgressing all those things for the promise of thirty coins he betrayed the bestower of such great goods. And this is truly the peculiar habit of exceedingly evil men, that after salt and bread they lie in wait for people — most of all when they have been harmed in nothing by those with whom they shared bread and salt. But if you can understand the spiritual table and the spiritual food and the Lord's supper, with all of which he had been made worthy by Christ, you will see more abundantly the multitude of his malice, in that he betrayed the Savior, his master and fellow-partaker of the divine table and cup (and this on the day of the Passover), remembering neither in bodily goods his master's love, nor in spiritual goods his teaching always shared without grudging. Such are all those in the Church who lie in wait for their brethren, with whom they have frequently been together at the same table of the body of Christ and at the same cup of His blood.
Psalms 42:4 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
Let us therefore see whether some also of the ancient saints did not hold an opinion of the tabernacle far other than these men now reckon. For hear how magnificently David, that surpassing one among the prophets, thinks concerning the tabernacle: "While it is said" he says "to me every day: Where is thy God? these things have I remembered, and I have poured out my soul within me, for I shall enter into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even unto the house of God". What then is this "place of the wonderful tabernacle", from which one comes "even unto the house of God", whereof, because he was made mindful, his soul was poured out within him and he was as it were dissolved by some intolerable longing? Is it then finally to be believed that this tabernacle, which was made up of skins and curtains and coverings of goats' hair and other materials of our use, the prophet, longing for it, was poured out in soul and collapsed with his whole mind?
Psalms 42:11 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 4
I beseech you to remember in all your present contest the great reward laid up in heaven for those who are persecuted and reviled for righteousness' sake, and to be glad and leap for joy on account of the Son of man, just as the apostles once rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name. And if you should ever perceive your soul drawing back, let the mind of Christ, which is in us, say to it, when it wishes to trouble that mind as much as it can, "Why are you sorrowful, my soul, and why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I shall yet give him thanks." I pray that our souls may never be disquieted, and even more that in the presence of the tribunals and of the naked swords drawn against our necks they may be guarded by the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and may be quieted when they consider that those who are foreigners from the body are at home with the Lord of all. But if we are not so strong as always to preserve calm, at least let not the disquiet of the soul be poured forth or appear to strangers, so that we may have the opportunity of giving an apology to God, when we say to him, "My God, my soul is disquieted within me."
Psalms 45:2 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4:1.5
Now a proof that "grace was poured on his lips" is the fact that although the time he spent in teaching was short, … the world has been filled with this teaching and with the religion that came through him. For there has arisen "in his days" "righteousness and an abundance of peace" lasting until the consummation.
Psalms 45:10-11 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 2
I think the daughter of Pharaoh can be seen as the church, which is gathered from the nations, which, although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet to her it is said through the prophet: "hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father, because the king has desired your beauty." This, then, is she who goes out from her father's house and comes to the waters, that she may be washed from the sins she had contracted in her father's house. Finally, straightway she takes up "the bowels of mercy" and has compassion on the infant. This church, therefore, coming from the nations, finds Moses lying in the marsh, cast off by his own and exposed, gives him to be nursed, he is nursed among his own, there he passes his infancy. But when "he has grown stronger," then he is brought to her and adopted as a son.
Psalms 46:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19:17
It is not possible to know him if one has not become still and purified one's mind.
Psalms 47:4 — HOMILIES ON PSALMS 9:3
But what does it profit me, if the seed of Abraham, "which is Christ," should possess "the cities of his enemies for an inheritance" and should not possess my city? If in my city, that is, in my soul, which is "the city of the great king," neither his laws nor his ordinances should be observed? What does it profit me that he has subjected the whole world and possesses the cities of his enemies if he should not also conquer his enemies in me, if he should not destroy "the law that is in my members fighting against the law of my mind and that leads me captive in the law of sin"? So, therefore, let each one of us do what is necessary that Christ may also conquer the enemies in his soul and in his body, and, subjecting and triumphing over them, may possess the city even of his soul.
Psalms 49:3 — SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 49:4-5
If the meditation is wisdom, what will the message be? When the meditation of the heart is wisdom, wicked thoughts will not come within it, nor is a place given to the devil or those things that defile people.
Psalms 50:23 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5:7.2
Who among us is of such measure and kind to offer to God "salutary sacrifices" and a "sacrifice of praise"? I believe that one to be a person who praises God in all his actions and fulfills through him what our Lord and Savior says: "That people may see your good works and praise your Father who is in heaven." Therefore, this one offered "a sacrifice of praise" for whose deeds, doctrine, word, habits and discipline, God is praised and blessed. Just as, on the contrary, there are those of whom it is said, "Through you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles."
Psalms 51:5 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:50
Celsus has not explained how error accompanies the "becoming," or product of generation; nor has he expressed himself with sufficient clearness to enable us to compare his ideas with ours, and to pass judgment on them. But the prophets, who have given some wise suggestions on the subject of things produced by generation, tell us that a sacrifice for sin was offered even for new-born infants, as not being free from sin. They say, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;" also, "They are estranged from the womb;" which is followed by the singular expression, "They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies."
Psalms 52:8 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16:4.3
But do you want me to show you from the Scriptures that trees or wood are given the name of individual virtues, which we mentioned above? I turn to the most wise Solomon as a witness when he said about wisdom, "The tree of life is for all who embrace it." Therefore, if "wisdom is the tree of life," without a doubt, there is another tree of prudence, another of knowledge and another of justice. For logically it is not said that only wisdom, of all the virtues, was worthy to be called "the tree of life" but that the other virtues did not receive names of similar sort. Therefore, "the trees of the field will give their fruit." This is what I believe the blessed David also understood about himself when he said, "But I am as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God." From this he clearly shows that the olive tree designates a just and holy person.
Psalms 55:6 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
Now "the Holy Spirit descended upon" the Savior "in the form of a dove", a bird that is gentle, innocent, and simple. Whence it is also commanded to us that we should imitate the innocence of doves. Such is the Holy Spirit—clean and winged and rising to the heights. Wherefore in prayer we say: "Who will give me wings like a dove's, and I shall fly and be at rest?"—that is: who will give me the wings of the Holy Spirit?
Psalms 58:3-5 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
That to lose the hearing is in our power, if we speak of the inner hearing, is asserted also by the prophet, who says: "From their very birth the wicked have gone astray; from the mother's womb they err, speaking lies. Their venom is like the venom of a serpent, like a deaf asp that stops its ears and does not hear the voice of the charmer, of the enchantments of the enchanter most skilled in enchantments." You too, when you are aware of your guilt, but having heard the word and the incantation of the enchanter, the one most skilled in enchantments, and having heard the charming words directed to quell your fury and your malice, and even then stop up your ears and do not listen to what is offered you — then it will be said of you: "Their venom is like the venom of a serpent, like a deaf asp that stops its ears and does not hear the voice of the charmer."
Psalms 68:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:48, 50
And the holy Scriptures bear witness to the Gospel announcements made by the Apostles and to that made by our Saviour. David says of the Apostles, perhaps also of the evangelists: "The Lord shall give the word to those that preach with great power; the King of the powers of the beloved;" teaching at the same time that it is not skilfully composed discourse, nor the mode of delivery, nor well practised eloquence that produces conviction, but the communication of divine power. Hence also Paul says: "I will know not the word that is puffed up, but the power; for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power." And in another passage: "And my word and my preaching were not persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power." To this power Simon and Cleophas bear witness when they say: "Was not our heart burning within us by the way, as he opened to us the Scriptures?" And the Apostles, since the quantity of the power is great which God supplies to the speakers, had great power, according to the word of David: "The Lord will give the word to the preachers with great power."
Psalms 68:11 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:2
For the word of God declares that the preaching (although in itself true and most worthy of belief) is not sufficient to reach the human heart, unless a certain power be imparted to the speaker from God, and a grace appear upon his words; and it is only by the divine agency that this takes place in those who speak effectually. The prophet says in the Psalms 67, that "the Lord will give a word with great power to them who preach." If, then, it should be granted with respect to certain points, that the same doctrines are found among the Greeks as in our own Scriptures, yet they do not possess the same power of attracting and disposing the souls of men to follow them. And therefore the disciples of Jesus, men ignorant so far as regards Grecian philosophy, yet traversed many countries of the world, impressing, agreeably to the desire of the Logos, each one of their hearers according to his deserts, so that they received a moral amelioration in proportion to the inclination of their will to accept of that which is good.
Psalms 68:13 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 27
And in another place the prophetic word promises: "If you sleep in the midst of the lots, the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of its back in the greenness of gold". For if we take our rest "in the midst of the lots" of the Old and New Testament, there will be given to us "the wings of a dove covered with silver", that is, the words of God, and "its hinder parts" radiant with the gleam and "greenness" of gold, so that our understanding may be filled with the perceptions of the Holy Spirit—that is, so that our speech and mind may be filled with his coming, and that we may neither say anything nor understand anything except what he has suggested, and that all sanctification, both in heart and in words and in deed, may come from the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Psalms 68:27 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
I have heard it handed down by the elders that in that parting of the sea individual divisions of the waters were made for each and every tribe of the children of Israel, and that a way was opened in the sea proper to each tribe, and that this is shown from that which is written in the Psalms: "who divided the Red Sea into divisions." By which it is taught that many divisions were made, not one. But also by that which is said: "there is Benjamin the younger in amazement, the princes of Judah their leaders, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali," no less does a proper entrance seem to be enumerated for each tribe. These things, observed by the elders in the divine Scriptures, I have thought it a religious duty not to pass over in silence.
Psalms 69:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:222
However, we must know that Psalm 68 [LXX], which contains the statement, "The zeal of your house has devoured me," and a little later "They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," both having been recorded in the Gospels, is placed in the mouth of Christ, indicating no change in the person of the speaker.
Psalms 69:21 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 137
And immediately one of them ran up, took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. And thus he fulfilled in himself the prophecy that spoke of him: "and they gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink". For this reason too, according to John, when Jesus had received the vinegar with the gall, he said: "it is finished" — this also, which the Scripture had foretold concerning me. And one may with pleasure apply this text against those who have written or do write malicious things against Christ, of whom Isaiah says: "woe to those who write malicious things; for in writing they write malicious things" (I speak of those who have left behind certain writings, speaking "iniquity on high"). And one will use this text when he sees them gathering from certain things they have heard — whether of heathen sayings or of barbarous discourses — and composing a narrative like a kind of sponge, filling it not with any drinkable word nor with wine that gladdens "the heart of man" nor with the water of "refreshment", but with a kind of contrary and harmful and undrinkable intelligible vinegar; and this sponge they put upon the reed of their own writing and (so far as in them lies) inflict injuries upon Jesus by a drink of this kind. And some indeed give Jesus "wine mingled with gall to drink", which Jesus the Son of God will not drink, but others give not wine but vinegar. And perhaps those who, so far as ecclesiastical doctrine is concerned, have right understanding, but live wickedly, give him "wine mingled with gall to drink"; while those who apply to Christ wisdoms alien from the truth, as though he were speaking them, these fill a sponge with vinegar, put it upon a reed, and give him to drink. But there are also those who, as John writes, "offer to his mouth both vinegar and gall". And perhaps those who merely have wrong understanding fill a sponge with vinegar and put it upon the reed of their own writing and give him to drink; but those who both understand wrongly concerning the dispensations of Christ and live wickedly, these, "putting a sponge full of vinegar with gall and hyssop" upon the reed of their writing, offer it "to his mouth". But he who will not even drink his "wine" because of the admixture of gall, will much more not drink "vinegar", nor "vinegar mingled with gall". Therefore let us, receiving from our Savior Jesus himself (who is the "true vine") wine pure from all sharpness and bitterness, wine which "gladdens the heart of man" and the heart of the Son of God himself, give him and his disciples to drink of it, so that he may say of us who give him and his disciples good drink: "I thirsted and you gave me drink". Let us also receive the "water of refreshment" with which "the good shepherd" nourishes the just, so that those who are fed by him may say: "he brought us up beside the water of refreshment".
Psalms 69:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:222
However, we must know that Psalm 68 [LXX], which contains the statement, "The zeal of your house has devoured me," and a little later "They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," both having been recorded in the Gospels, is placed in the mouth of Christ, indicating no change in the person of the speaker.
Psalms 69:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5:7
Let us see if we cannot conclude in the same way that all the sacred books are one book, but that those outside are the "many books" of the preacher. The proof of this must be drawn from Holy Scripture... Observe, in addition to this, if a proof that the sacred writings are one book, and those of an opposite character many, may not be found in the fact that there is one book of the living from which those who have proved unworthy to be in it are blotted out, as it is written: "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living," while of those who are to undergo the judgment, there are books in the plural, as Daniel says: "The judgment was set, and the books were opened." But Moses also bears witness to the unity of the sacred book, when he says: "If Thou forgive the people their sins, forgive, but if not, then wipe me out of the book which Thou hast written."
Psalms 72:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:193
And I support this from Psalm 71 [LXX], which says, "Give to the king your judgment, O God; and your justice to the king's son, to judge your people with justice, and your poor with judgment." For clearly the psalm, which has been ascribed to Solomon, prophesies of Christ.
Psalms 72:6 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 8
For indeed, when I was often examining the seventy-first psalm within myself, this moved me: that, when it describes the coming of Christ in it, in that very psalm it also asserts that this shall come to pass: "and he shall descend," it says, "like rain upon a fleece, and like raindrops dripping upon the earth." A "fleece" is named here in Judges, a "fleece" is written also in the psalms. For "he shall descend like rain," it says, "upon a fleece." He "descended," therefore, "upon" that "fleece" of the people of the circumcision, and "like raindrops dripping upon the earth," that is, upon the rest of the earth, "descended" our Lord Jesus Christ, "dripping" also "upon" us and bringing drops of heavenly dew to us also, the nations, that we too might drink, we who were dried up "over" all the "earth" by continual aridity. For he knew that the divine "dew," which is the coming of the Son of God, was to come not only to the Jews, but afterward also to the nations, since indeed from the "unbelief" of Israel "salvation comes to the nations."
Psalms 72:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:286
We are taught, therefore, to be of good cheer when we are afflicted in the world. We learn that the reason for being of good cheer is this: the world has been conquered and, of course, subjected to him who conquered it. For this reason, all the nations, set free from those who formerly controlled them, serve him, because "he delivered the poor from the mighty" through his own passion, "and the needy who had no helper."
Psalms 73:8-9 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.5
Let us come, if you will, also to the circumcision of the lips. I think that he is "uncircumcised in lips" who has not yet ceased from foolish speech, from scurrility, who disparages good men, who accuses his neighbors, who instigates quarrels, who stirs up slanders, who sets brothers against one another by speaking falsehoods, who utters vain, foolish, worldly, unchaste, base, injurious, insolent, blasphemous things and the rest which are unworthy of a Christian. But if anyone restrains his mouth from all these, and "orders his words in judgment," represses verbosity, tempers his tongue, moderates his words, he is deservedly said to be circumcised in lips. But also "those who speak iniquity on high and stretch their tongue up to heaven," as the heretics do, are to be called uncircumcised and unclean in lips, whereas he is circumcised and clean who always speaks the word of God and sets forth sound doctrine fortified by the Evangelical and Apostolic rules. In this way, then, the circumcision of the lips too is given in the Church of God.
Psalms 74:13 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Perhaps my Savior becomes a roe according to contemplation (θεωρία), a hart according to works. And what are these works? He himself slays serpents, when he cuts the throats of the opposing powers. Therefore I will say to him: You have crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water.
Psalms 80:8-10 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
Hear also elsewhere how God plants. The prophet says: "You transferred a vine out of Egypt, you cast out the nations and planted it. You made a way passable before it, you planted its roots, and it filled the earth. Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God." Do you now notice how God plants and where he plants? He does not plant in the valleys, but on the mountains, in high and lofty places. For those whom he leads out of Egypt, whom he brings from the world to faith, he does not will to place again in lowly places, but he wills their manner of life to be lofty. He wills us to dwell on the mountains; but even on these very mountains nonetheless he does not will us to creep along the ground, nor does he will his vine to have its fruits cast down further upon the ground, but he wills its shoots to be led upward, to be set on high, to become layered branches — and layered branches not upon any lowly trees whatever, but upon the high and loftiest cedars of God. "The cedars of God" I take to be the prophets and the Apostles, to whom if we, the vine which God "transferred out of Egypt," be joined, and through their branches our shoots be spread abroad, and, resting upon them, we become as it were certain layered branches bound together by mutual bonds of charity, we shall without doubt bring forth very much fruit. For "every tree that does not bear fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire."
Psalms 80:12 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 132
No one who stands blasphemes Jesus, nor anyone who walks aright; for it was those passing by who blasphemed him (or, as the Greek has it, those going past), who also, once the fence of the vineyard has been broken down by God, gather as their vintage those who have remained; for it is written: "Why have you cast down its fence, and all who pass by the way gather it as their vintage?" So long, therefore, as anyone has not passed by the way nor turned aside from the way, or, standing, can say to God: you have set "my feet upon a rock", he does not blaspheme Jesus; but if he has fallen or gone past or crossed over or turned aside, then he blasphemes him. As, further, those who have fallen into evil works, and those who have forsaken "the eternal bounds" and the way of the heavenly church, and are tossed and carried about "by every wind of doctrine in the deceit of men, in craftiness for the contriving of error". For if anyone should say that all heresies are passing by and turning aside, he will not sin, for which reason they too are counted among those passing by and blaspheme Jesus, having no firm head, but wagging it up and down, since they are not prudent nor have their eyes in their head, in which they ought to have had them, as the Preacher (Ecclesiastes) says: "the eyes of the wise man are in his head". It is, therefore, the work of those passing by and turning aside to blaspheme Jesus the Son of God, because "no one speaking in the Spirit of God says: anathema to Jesus".
Psalms 82:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:161
And again that darkness is brought upon men by their evil deeds, we learn from John himself, when he says in his epistle, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth," and again, "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now," and again, "He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because darkness hath blinded his eyes." Walking in darkness signifies evil conduct, and to hate one's brother, is not that to fall away from that which is properly called knowledge? But he also who is ignorant of divine things walks in darkness, just because of that ignorance; as David says, "They knew not, they understood not, they walk in darkness."
Psalms 82:6-7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
Hence the Lord too said to the angels who did not keep their princedom: "I said: you are gods, and all sons of the Most High. But you shall die as men, and shall fall like one of the princes"—imitating, that is, the devil, who was made prince of all unto ruin. Hence it is established that transgression, not nature, made those accursed. To you, therefore, O people of Israel, who are "the portion of God", who have been made "the cord of his inheritance", he says: "there shall be for you no other gods besides me", because truly the "one God" is God and truly the "one Lord" is Lord. But upon the rest, who were created by him, he conferred that name not by nature, but by grace.
Psalms 82:7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 78
This Judas, then, to whom it was said through the prophet: "But you, a man of one mind with me, my guide and my acquaintance," fell, though he had been one of those whom Christ took up for the leadership of the Christian people. And see how that which is written, "But you shall die like men, and you shall fall like one of the princes," is referred now to that prince who fell "like lightning from heaven," now to Judas, who, chosen to the princedom of the apostolate and, as it were, established in heaven, and himself, as it were, set beforehand like lightning, fell, going into the ruin of betrayal (against the one chief of the priests, who had been made "forever" a "priest according to the order of Melchizedek") to many chief priests and adversaries of the one high priest, that he might sell for a price him who willed to redeem the whole world from the curse of the law and of all sin, and to redeem us "not with corruptible" money, "but with his own precious blood."
Psalms 90:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 54
Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Let us see what this generation is, of which Christ speaks. And the simple, indeed, refer these words to the destruction of Jerusalem; and they suppose it was said of that generation which existed in the time of Christ and looked upon his suffering, a generation that would not pass away before the destruction of that city came to pass. But I do not know whether they can expound word for word what he says: "do you not see all these things? amen I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be destroyed" down to that which he says: it is near, at the door. For perhaps in some points they will be able, but in others they will not be able at all, and, sufficiently hemmed in, I do not know whether they will have been able to say anything. But we, observing in many passages the word "generation," take it in two ways. For we hold that there are two generations, one indeed of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles. Thus we understand also Ecclesiastes saying: one generation passes away and another generation comes, and the earth stands forever. For, prophesying of the people of the Jews, who were to pass away, he says one generation passes away; but of the people of the Gentiles, who were to believe, he said another generation comes. Something of this kind I think is said also in the eighty-ninth Psalm by Moses in his prayer: Lord, thou hast become a refuge for us from generation to generation. For God is the refuge of the two generations, since there is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And since God is the God not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, therefore the generation shall not pass away of the new testament, which is in the face of the Savior, nor shall it depart to those blessed promises of that age, until all things be done which Christ has spoken. For to each one of us it is fitting that all things be done which have been foretold, as we have handed down through the several expositions. There is, therefore, one generation of the Church, which began from the teaching of the Lord the Savior and lasts until the consummation. And this same generation will indeed at some time pass through this whole age (and it will pass through it, so as to inherit that age which is to come), yet until all these things be done, it shall not pass away; but when it shall have been sufficient in all these things and shall have remained impassible until the glorious coming of Christ, then it shall pass through. Yet until all these things be done (not some of the things that have been said, while others are not), those things are not to be; nevertheless this generation shall pass away, when all these things shall have been done, when there shall have passed away not only the earth, but also the heaven, that is, not only those men whose life is earthly, and who for that reason are called earth, but also those whose "citizenship is in the heavens", and who therefore are called heaven. And they shall pass to the things to come, along with all their states, so that they may come to more eminent and better things. For the revelation of these (since they are sons of God) the expectation of the creature awaits, and "every creature groans together with them and is in pain", until, conceiving in the womb from the fear of the Lord, they bring forth "the spirit of salvation", making their own offspring; and then shall pass away the generation of which Christ speaks, and the heaven according to what we have expounded, and the earth according to what we have handed down. But the words which were spoken by the Savior shall not pass away, since the things which are proper to them they work both now and shall always work. But the perfect, and those who do not receive so that they may now be made better, pass…
Psalms 91:5-6 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 16:6.1
He said these things about the just and wise person and these are said in the blessings, "You will sleep and there will not be anyone who frightens you." For if I am made just, no one can frighten me; I am afraid of nothing else, if I fear God. For it says, "the just is confident as a lion," and for this reason, he does not fear the lion, the devil, or "the dragon," Satan, or "his angels"; but, according to David, he says, "I shall not be afraid of the nocturnal fear, nor the dart which flies during the day, nor the terror which walks in the darkness nor the ruin and the midday demon." And he adds that "the Lord is my light and my Savior, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life, at what shall I tremble?" And again, "If an army stands against me, my heart will not fear." You see the steadfastness and vigor of the soul that keeps the commandments of God and has confidence in the freedom that God gives.
Psalms 91:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 102
And note: do you think it was as though inferior to the angels, or needing the help of angels, that the Savior said: or do you think that I cannot ask my Father, and he will furnish me more than twelve legions of angels? — or was it perhaps according to the estimation of Peter, who wished to bring him help and brought forth the sword and cut off the servant's ear, that he spoke such things? For rather do the angels have need of the help of the only-begotten Son of God than he of theirs. For this reason, that which is written, "for he shall give his angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways", is understood to be said not of the only-begotten Son of God, but either in the person of Christ concerning every just man, whom Christ was bearing in his body, or concerning Christ according to his human nature. And finally, that which he says, he will deliver you "from ruin and the noonday demon", in no way befits the Son of God; but also what he says, "you shall not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the trouble that walks about in the darkness", befits a just man rather than the Son of God. Since therefore he could receive the legions, he was unwilling to receive them, so that through his patience the Scriptures prophesying about him might be fulfilled, since it befitted him thus to suffer.
Psalms 91:11-13 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 31
He takes up a testimony and interprets of Christ that which was written not of Christ, but of the saints generally. For freely and with all confidence I contradict the devil, that this cannot be understood of the person of Christ. For he does not need the help of the angels, who is greater than the angels and has obtained by inheritance a name better than they. To none of the angels did God ever say: "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you." To none of them did he speak as to a son, "he who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire," but to his own proper Son, of whom he speaks innumerable things in the prophets. He does not need, I say, the help of the angels, the Son of God. But that you may know that you have interpreted wrongly, and that what follows is to be understood not of Christ but of the saints, listen. "From ruin and the noonday demon" God delivers not Jesus Christ, but the saints. Read the ninetieth Psalm, whose beginning is: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven," and you will find that these things befit rather a just man than the Son of God: "a thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you; nevertheless with your eyes you shall behold, and you shall look upon the requital of sinners," and the rest, interpreting it of the person of the just. But even thus, perversely taking up the testimonies so as to assert that the things which were said of the just are to be understood of the Savior, the devil is silent and passes over the little verses which are written against himself. For when he had said: "he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone," he was silent about that which follows: "you shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample down the lion and the dragon." Why are you silent about these things, O devil, unless because you are the "basilisk," you are the little king of all serpents, having more harmful poisons than the rest, who slay someone the moment you see him? You know too that there is another opposing power, an associate of yours, which is called the "asp" and is made subject to the just man, and for that reason you keep silent about all these things. You are the "dragon," you are the "lion," of whom it is written: "you shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample down the lion and the dragon." But though you be silent, we who read the Scriptures more rightly know that we have the power of trampling upon you and that this dominion has been given to us.
Psalms 91:13 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:70
His next remark was, "Have not these inferior powers had assigned to them by God different departments, according as each was deemed worthy?" But this is a question which requires a very profound knowledge. For we must determine whether the Word of God, who governs all things, has appointed wicked demons for certain employments, in the same way as in states executioners are appointed, and other officers with cruel but needful duties to discharge; or whether as among robbers, who infest desert places, it is customary for them to choose out of their number one who may be their leader,—so the demons, who are scattered as it were in troops in different parts of the earth, have chosen for themselves a chief under whose command they may plunder and pillage the souls of men. To explain this fully, and to justify the conduct of the Christians in refusing homage to any object except the Most High God, and the First-born of all creation, who is His Word and God, we must quote this from Scripture, "All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them;" and again, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy;" and other similar passages, as, "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you;" and again, "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." But of these things Celsus knew nothing, or he would not have made use of language like this: "Is not everything which happens in the universe, whether it be the work of God, of angels, of other demons, or of heroes, regulated by the law of the Most High God? Have these not had assigned to them various departments of which they were severally deemed worthy? Is it not just, therefore, that he who serves God should serve those also to whom God has assigned such power?" To which he adds, "It is impossible, they say, for a man to serve many masters."
Psalms 96:5 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:69
And it is not we alone who speak of wicked demons, but almost all who acknowledge the existence of demons. Thus, then, it is not true that all observe the law of the most High; for all who fall away from the divine law, whether through heedlessness, or through depravity and vice or through ignorance of what is right, all such do not keep the law of God, but, to use a new phrase that we find in Scripture, "the law of sin." I say, then, that in the opinion of most of those who believe in the existence of demons, some of them are wicked; and these, instead of keeping the law of God, offend against it. But, according to our belief, it is true of all demons that they were not demons originally, but they became so in departing from the true way; so that the name "demons" is given to those beings who have fallen away from God. Accordingly, those who worship God must not serve demons. We may also learn the true nature of demons if we consider the practice of those who call on them by charms to prevent certain things or for many other purposes. For this is the method they adopt, in order by means of incantations and magical arts to invoke the demons and induce them to further their wishes. Wherefore, the worship of all demons would be inconsistent in us who worship the supreme God; and the service of demons is the service of so-called gods, for "all the gods of the pagans are demons." The same thing also appears from the fact that the dedication of the most famous of the so-called sacred places, whether temples or statues, was accompanied by curious magical incantations, which were performed by those who zealously served the demons with magical arts. Hence we are determined to avoid the worship of demons even as we would avoid death; and we hold that the worship, which is supposed among the Greeks to be rendered to gods at the altars, and images and temples, is in reality offered to demons.
Psalms 101:8 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:19, 22
Now if these words in the law, "Thou shalt have dominion over many nations, and no one shall rule over thee," were simply a promise to them of dominion, and if they contain no deeper meaning than this, then it is certain that the people would have had still stronger grounds for despising the promises of the law. Celsus brings forward another passage, although he changes the terms of it, where it is said that the whole earth shall be filled with the Hebrew race; which indeed, according to the testimony of history, did actually happen after the coming of Christ, although rather as a result of God's anger, if I may so say, than of His blessing. As to the promise made to the Jews that they should slay their enemies, it may be answered that any one who examines carefully into the meaning of this passage will find himself unable to interpret it literally. It is sufficient at present to refer to the manner in which in the Psalms the just man is represented as saying, among other things, "Every morning will I destroy the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all workers of iniquity from the city of Jehovah." Judge, then, from the words and spirit of the speaker, whether it is conceivable that, after having in the preceding part of the Psalm, as any one may read for himself, uttered the noblest thoughts and purposes, he should in the sequel, according to the literal rendering of his words, say that in the morning, and at no other period of the day, he would destroy all sinners from the earth, and leave none of them alive, and that he would slay every one in Jerusalem who did iniquity. And there are many similar expressions to be found in the law, as this, for example: "We left not anything alive." ... If I must now explain how the just man "slays his enemies," and prevails everywhere, it is to be observed that, when he says, "Every morning will I destroy the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all workers of iniquity from the city of Jehovah," by "the land" he means the flesh whose lusts are at enmity with God; and by "the city of Jehovah" he designates his own soul, in which was the temple of God, containing the true idea and conception of God, which makes it to be admired by all who look upon it. As soon, then, as the rays of the Sun of righteousness shine into his soul, feeling strengthened and invigorated by their influence, he sets himself to destroy all the lusts of the flesh, which are called "the wicked of the land," and drives out of that city of the Lord which is in his soul all thoughts which work iniquity, and all suggestions which are opposed to the truth. And in this way also the just give up to destruction all their enemies, which are their vices, so that they do not spare even the children, that is, the early beginnings and promptings of evil. In this sense also we understand the language of the Psalms: "O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us: happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." For "the little ones" of Babylon (which signifies confusion) are those troublesome sinful thoughts which arise in the soul; and he who subdues them by striking, as it were, their heads against the firm and solid strength of reason and truth, is the man who "dasheth the little ones against the stones;" and he is therefore truly blessed. God may therefore have commanded men to destroy all their vices utterly, even at their birth, without having enjoined anything contrary to the teaching of Christ; and He may Himself have destroyed before the eyes of those who were "Jews inwardly" all the offspring of evil as His enemies. And, in like manner, those who disobey the law and word of God may well be compared to His enemies led astray by sin; and they may well be said to suffer the same fate as they deserve who have proved traitors to the truth of God.
Psalms 102:24 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15.6
That also is fulfilled in him which was said: "I will call you back thence at the end." For the end is set down as the perfection of things and the consummation of the virtues. On account of this, in short, another of the saints also said: "do not call me back in the midst of my days." And again Scripture bears witness to the great patriarch Abraham, that "Abraham died full of days." This, then, is "I will call you back thence at the end," as though he said: since "you have fought the good fight, you have kept the faith, you have finished the course," I will now call you back from this world to the future blessedness, to the perfection of eternal life, to "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will render at the end of the ages to all who love him."
Psalms 103:1 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5:4.3
In like manner, "these fatty parts of the ram that are around the kidneys and these that cover the interior parts" are commanded to be placed on the altar. So you who hear these things should know you ought to offer on the fire of the altar everything that is more sinful within you and hides your "inner being" so that all your "inner being" may be cleansed and you also may say, as David said, "Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name." For unless that sinfulness that touches your "inner being" should be removed, your inner being cannot lay hold of the subtle and spiritual sense and cannot receive the understanding of wisdom; therefore, it cannot praise the Lord.
Psalms 104:2 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12:3.3
And, therefore, about this one [Jesus Christ] it is rightly said, "He has perfect hands to put on the holy things." For this one is truly he who "put on holy things," not those who were "bad examples" but these that are truly "holy." But if you want to hear about his more lofty garments, take the prophetic words, "Clothed with light as a garment, the abyss as a garment is his clothing." This is the appearance of my great high priest who is declared clothed with the depths of knowledge and the light of wisdom that truly are "holy" garments.
Psalms 104:4 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 26
But the angels also are called spirits and fire: "he who makes", it says, "his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire"; to the holy ones they are spirits, but to those who deserve punishments they supply fire and burning. According to which sense our Lord and Savior too, since he is "spirit", "came to send fire upon the earth".
Psalms 104:6 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:17
Now, according to a Hebrew figure of speech, it is said of God in the eighteenth psalm that "he made darkness his secret place," to signify that those notions that should be worthily entertained of God are invisible and unknowable, because God conceals himself in darkness, as it were, from those who cannot endure the splendors of his knowledge or are incapable of looking at them, partly owing to the pollution of their understanding, which is clothed with the body of mortal lowliness, and partly owing to its feebler power of comprehending God. And in order that it may appear that the knowledge of God has rarely been vouchsafed to people and has been found in very few individuals, Moses is related to have entered into the darkness where God was. And again, with regard to Moses it is said, "Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but the rest shall not come near." And again, that the prophet may show the depth of the doctrines that relate to God and that are unattainable by those who do not possess the "Spirit that searches all things, even the deep things of God," he added, "The abyss like a garment is his covering." No, our Lord and Savior, the Logos of God, manifesting that the greatness of the knowledge of the Father, is appropriately comprehended and known preeminently by him alone, and in the second place by those whose minds are enlightened by the Logos and God, declares, "No one knows the Son but the Father; neither does any one know the Father but the Son, and he to whoever the Son will reveal him." For no one can worthily know the "uncreated" and firstborn of all created nature like the Father who begat him, nor any one the Father like the living Logos, and his Wisdom and Truth. By sharing in him who takes away from the Father what is called "darkness," which he "made his secret place," and "the abyss," which is called his "covering," and by unveiling the Father in this way, every one knows the Father who is capable of knowing him.
Psalms 104:14-15 — AGAINST CELSUS 4:75
Let Celsus then say distinctly that the great diversity among the products of the earth is not the work of Providence but that a certain fortuitous concurrence of atoms gave birth to qualities so diverse, and that it was owing to chance that so many kinds of plants and trees and herbs resemble one another, and that no disposing reason gave existence to them, and that they do not derive their origin from an understanding that is beyond all admiration. We Christians, however, who are devoted to the worship of the only God, who created these things, feel grateful for them to him who made them, because not only for us but also (on our account) for the animals that are subject to us, he has prepared such a home, seeing "he causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of humans, that they may bring forth food out of the earth and wine that makes glad the heart of people, and oil to make their faces to shine, and bread that strengthens humans' hearts." But that he should have provided food even for the most savage animals is not a matter of surprise, for these very animals are said by some who have philosophized [on the subject] to have been created for the purpose of affording exercise to the rational creature. And one of our own wise men says somewhere, "Do not say, What is this? or Wherefore is that? for all things have been made for their uses. And do not say, What is this? or Wherefore is that? for everything shall be sought out in its season."
Psalms 107:20 — AGAINST CELSUS 1:64
Now among the Greeks I know there was only one Phaedon, not a second, and one Polemon, who devoted themselves to philosophy, after a licentious and most wicked life. However, with Jesus there were not only at the time we are speaking of, the twelve disciples, but many more at all times, who, becoming a band of temperate people, speak in the following way of their former lives: "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward humankind appeared, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us richly," we became such as we are. For "God sent forth his Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions," as the prophet taught in the book of Psalms.
Psalms 107:20 — AGAINST CELSUS 3:63
Becoming confused by his efforts to accuse us, Celsus contradicts himself, appearing at one time to know a person "without sin" and "a righteous individual who can look up to God [adorned] with virtue from the beginning." At another time he accepts our statement that there is no human being who is altogether righteous or without sin. He seems to admit this truth when he remarks, "This is indeed apparently true, that somehow the human race is naturally inclined to sin." In the next place, as if all people were not invited by the word, he says, "All people, then, without distinction, ought to be invited, since all indeed are sinners." And yet, in the preceding pages, we have pointed out the words of Jesus: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." All people, therefore, laboring and being heavily burdened on account of the nature of sin, are invited to the rest spoken of in the word of God, "for God sent his Word, and healed them and delivered them from their destructions."
Psalms 107:33-35 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28:212-15
Concerning the allegorical interpretation, it might be said as follows: Jesus once walked openly among the Jews when the word of God through the prophets was with them; for Jesus' bold proclamation was "Thus says the Lord." But now, Jesus no longer walks openly among the Jews, and He has departed from them, and there is no word of God among the Jews. And having departed from them (I mean from the Jews), He went to the region near the desert, about which it is said: "Many are the children of the desolate more than of her who has a husband," and to which it is said: "Rejoice, O barren one who does not give birth; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor." Now, the city near the desert is Ephraim, to which Jesus went, no longer walking openly among the Jews. Ephraim is interpreted as "fruitfulness," being the brother of Manasseh, who is the elder of the "people of forgetfulness." After the people left "in oblivion," the fruitfulness of the nations arose, when God "turned rivers in Israel into desert and the watercourses there into thirst and their fruitful land into brine, due to the wickedness of those who dwelled there." But from among the nations, "He turned the desert into lakes of water, and their dry land into watercourses."
Psalms 107:36-38 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28:212-15
And He settled there the hungry, and they established a city for habitation, the church. There He sowed fields according to the fallen seed into good and rich land yielding a hundredfold, and planted vineyards. For the vines are the disciples of the Lord, who also bore fruit of birth. And He blessed them and they multiplied greatly. But the Lord, who saves both humans and animals, did not deem the smallest among them to be insignificant; for it is written: "And He did not diminish their cattle."
Psalms 109:7 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 5:9.2
This is certainly what David also says in the Psalms. "Let his prayer become sin," when not only is there nothing of worth sought in his sacrifices but even much of blame. For you hear the Lawgiver decree that if anyone eats from that "which was left over to the third day, he will incur the sin." From this we must understand how great a destruction of sins is imminent for the human condition when sin arises even in that place where the offering of the atonement is sought.
Psalms 109:8 — AGAINST CELSUS 2:11
And if we must make a statement regarding Judas that may overwhelm our opponents with shame, we would say that, in the book of Psalms, the whole of Psalm 108 [LXX] contains a prophecy about Judas, the beginning of which is this: "O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent; for the mouths of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful man are opened against me." And it is predicted in this psalm both that Judas separated himself from the number of the apostles on account of his sins and that another was selected in his place; and this is shown by the words "and let another man take his position." But now suppose that he had been betrayed by one of his disciples, who was possessed by a worse spirit than Judas and who had completely poured out, as it were, all the words that he had heard from Jesus, what would this contribute to an accusation against Jesus or the Christian religion? And how will this demonstrate its doctrine to be false? We have replied in the preceding chapter to the statements that follow this, showing that Jesus was not taken prisoner when attempting to flee but that he gave himself up voluntarily for the sake of us all. Therefore it follows, that even if he were bound, he was bound agreeably to his own will, thus teaching us the lesson that we should undertake similar things for the sake of religion in a spirit of willingness.
Psalms 110:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 111
To those to whom it is possible to search out all things by the Spirit, "even the depths of God," they will understand both what is written: "you who sit upon the cherubim, appear" and: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up" and: "the Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet" and other things of the like. These things that are said of God sitting are likewise also said of Christ. But it seems to me that the sitting of the Son of Man signifies a certain foundation and royal steadfastness. According to the Power, therefore — he who alone is the Power and is properly so named — he is also established at the right hand, he who has received all power from the Father, as "in heaven and on earth"; and this foundation even the adversaries will one day see, after the blessed have with joy seen him. Or thus: see whether you can measure the hour and the day not according to the brevity of hours and days that is among men, but according to the length that is with the eternal Lord, to whom from the foundation of the world until its consummation there is one day — which is demonstrated by the parable, where he speaks of those hired into the vineyard in the morning and at the third hour and the sixth and up to the eleventh. It is therefore no wonder that here the Savior says that from now on until then there is a very short span, in which span he was saying: you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power to those who were then hearing him — perhaps then when "the Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet", among whom were also those to whom he was saying from now on you shall see; for Caiaphas too was an enemy, who was plotting against Christ.
Psalms 110:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 7
Now this very thing which he says in the Psalm: "the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet", someone will indeed expound more fittingly when he has set himself to expound that Psalm itself. Yet for now let us lightly taste its sense. Do not depict for yourself perceptible seatings and two thrones, and the Father and the Son sitting upon them in human fashion; but understand that these things are said morally of the kingdom of God and of the kingdom of the Son, which has been established by the Father and is always at the Father's right hand. But if anyone does not wish these things to be understood morally, let him explain how this too is true which says the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand and that which he says elsewhere: "but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father". He therefore who does not wish to understand these things worthily, according to the greatness of the mind of Christ, must be compelled to say that at one time indeed he sits at the Father's right hand, but at another time (relinquishing a dignity of this kind, of sitting at the Father's right hand) he sits privately with those for whom the Father has prepared that they should sit at his right hand or at his left. Likewise he must still further be compelled to say that, while sitting at the Father's right hand, he still has enemies; for he sits beside him just so long, until they are placed by the Father as the footstool of the feet of Christ. But when he shall have ceased to sit at the Father's right hand, then he will no longer have enemies, when those who previously had been his own footstool of the feet shall have begun to sit at his right hand or at his left according to the Father's ordinance. And so it comes about that some of those who sit, sit in the Father's former place. But what can be more ridiculous than these things? Then, wishing to understand the seating bodily, you will find in the same Psalm that both the Son sits at the Father's right hand, according to what it says: "the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand", and the Father sits at the Son's right hand, according to what is declared in what follows, saying: "the Lord at your right hand has shattered kings in the day of his wrath". But we say: it is not necessary to introduce bodily consideration into these things which are to be understood spiritually; for morally both the Son is at the Father's right hand, and the Father is always at the Son's right hand.
Psalms 110:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 8
In what way the Savior's enemies also are set by the Father as a footstool for his feet, it is fitting to see worthily, according to the kindness of the God who sets his enemies as a footstool for his feet. For it must not be supposed that God sets the enemies of Christ as a footstool for his feet in the same way as the enemies of earthly kings, who exterminate their own enemies, are set under their feet. Do not such kings trample down their own adversaries without mercy? But God does not set the enemies of Christ as a footstool for his feet unto their destruction, but unto their salvation, as we shall bring forward examples of the holy Scriptures signifying this very thing. For it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in the second Aleph: "How has the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in his anger, cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and was not mindful of the footstool of his feet?" And see that, inasmuch as Israel was the footstool of God's feet, it was glorious in heaven; but after it was cast down, so as not to be the footstool of his feet, it also ceased to be in heaven. For attend diligently to what he says: "He cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and was not mindful of the footstool of his feet". Likewise also that saying: "Heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet" signifies not the dishonor but the glory of the earth, which understands concerning God some small and last part, which is morally called his feet. So also the Church upon earth, in the beginnings indeed of the worship of God and the knowledge of Christ, is the footstool of his feet; just as that "sinful woman" doing penance was at the feet of Jesus in the beginnings of her penance, for she was not yet able to pour out the ointment of the fragrance of her good deeds upon the head of Christ. For it was desirable for her even to stand beside the Lord's feet and anoint them. And each one of us, understanding himself to be what the Apostle says, "we too were once without understanding, unbelieving, wandering, and serving diverse desires and pleasures", will see how, inasmuch as he was such before he was washed from those things, he had been an enemy of Christ, an enemy of righteousness, of truth, of wisdom, of peace; "but after the kindness of our God the Savior appeared", he first became a footstool for the feet of Christ. And I, being confident that this is the meaning of the Scripture, do not hesitate to affirm that the Father thus says to the Son: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. And the Apostle in the first Epistle to the Corinthians introduces such a meaning of the Scripture, that we should understand it of the subjection of those who were once enemies, that they become a footstool for the feet of Christ, speaking in this manner: "But now Christ is risen from the dead, he has become the firstfruits of them that sleep. For since by man came death, by man also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: in the beginning Christ, then those who are Christ's, who believed at his coming; then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have made void all rule and power and might. For he must reign, until he sets all his enemies under his feet. But the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. For he has subjected all things under his feet. But when he says that all things are subjected to him, manifestly it is except him who subjected all things to him. But when all things shall have been subjected to him, then the Son himself also shall be subjected to him who subjected all things to himself, that God may be all in all". Of all these things indeed we have made a full explanation in its proper place. See, however, how in all these passages the word of subjection is set down unto the salvation of those subjected.
Psalms 115:8 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 22
From what stones? He was certainly not pointing to irrational and bodily stones, but to insensible men, once hard, who, because they worshiped stones or wood, had that fulfilled in them which was sung in the psalm concerning such men: "let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them". Truly those who make idols and trust in them are like their gods: they have been turned, without sense and without any reason, into stones and wood. For although they see so great an order of created things, their beauty, their function, so great a beauty of the world, they are unwilling to understand the creator from the created things, nor do they consider that there is some providence over so great a dispensation, some governor; but they are blind, seeing the world only with those eyes with which irrational beasts of burden and wild animals see. For they do not perceive that there is present, in these things which they see governed by reason, some reason.
Psalms 116:12-13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 92
This cup of the passion which is drunk Scripture names in many places, especially that which is properly drunk by the martyrs, as it is there: "what shall I render to the Lord for all the things which he has rendered to me? I will receive the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord". If therefore the cup of salvation is the cup of martyrdom, it is necessary that we preserve that cup, drinking the whole of it, because it is the cup of salvation, so that we pour out nothing of it. He therefore drinks the whole cup who suffers for the testimony whatever shall have been brought upon him; but he pours it out as he receives it who, called to martyrdom, denies lest he suffer anything. There is also another kind of "inebriating cup", which one drinks after he shall have eaten the "table" prepared for him by God "against those who trouble" the just man.
Psalms 118:19-20 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12:13
In this place, then, the gates of hades are spoken of; but in the Psalms the prophet gives thanks saying, "He who lifts me up from the gates of death that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion." And from this we learn that it is never possible for anyone to be fit to declare the praises of God, unless he has been lifted up from the gates of death and has come to the gates of Zion. Now the gates of Zion may be conceived as opposed to the gates of death, so that there is one gate of death, dissoluteness, but a gate of Zion, self-control; and so a gate of death, unrighteousness, but a gate of Zion, righteousness, which the prophet shows forth saying, "This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter into it." And again there is cowardice, a gate of death, but courage, a gate of Zion; and want of prudence, a gate of death, but its opposite, prudence, a gate of Zion. But to all the gates of the "knowledge that is falsely so called" one gate is opposed, the gate of knowledge which is free from falsehood. But consider if, because of the saying, "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood," etc., you can say that each power and world ruler of this darkness and each one of the "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" is a gate of hades and a gate of death. Let, then, the principalities and powers with which our wrestling is, be called gates of hades, but the "ministering spirits" gates of righteousness. But as in the case of the better things many gates are first spoken of, and after the gates, one, in the passage, "Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will enter into them and will make full confession to the Lord," and "this is the gate of the Lord, by it the righteous shall enter"; so also in the case of those gates that are opposed, many are the gates of hades and death, each a power; but over all these the wicked one himself.
Psalms 118:19-20 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:36
And it is not incredible that the gates that are said to open spontaneously are referred obscurely by some to the words "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may go into them and praise the Lord; this gate of the Lord, into it the righteous shall enter"; and again, to what is said in the ninth psalm, "You that lift me up from the gates of death, that I may show forth all your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion." The Scripture further gives the name of "gates of death" to those sins that lead to destruction, as it calls, on the contrary, good actions the "gates of Zion." So also "the gates of righteousness," which is an equivalent expression to "the gates of virtue." These are ready to be opened to one who follows after virtuous pursuits.
Psalms 119:18 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 1:1.4
Therefore, let us fall, if it is necessary, into your detractions so long as the church, which has already turned to Christ the Lord, may know the truth of the Word that is completely covered under the veil of the letter. For thus the apostle said, "if anyone turns to the Lord, the veil will be removed; for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Thus, the Lord, the Holy Spirit, must be entreated by us to remove every cloud and all darkness that obscures the vision of our hearts hardened with the stains of sins in order that we may be able to behold the spiritual and wonderful knowledge of his law, according to him who said, "Take the veil from my eyes, and I shall observe the wonders of your law."
Psalms 119:18 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.1
At every single reading, "when Moses is read," we must pray to the Father of the Word, that He may fulfill even in us that which is written in the Psalms: "unveil my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law." For unless He Himself opens our eyes, how shall we be able to see these so great mysteries that are shaped in the Patriarchs, which are figured now in wells, now in marriages, now in childbearings, now even in barrennesses?
Psalms 119:18 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
The eyes of our inner man see with greater clarity: "Open my eyes, and I shall see the wonders of Thy law." Does this mean that his eyes were covered with a veil? No. But our eyes are our mind. To Jesus alone it belongs to remove this veil, so that we may be able to understand the Scripture and to grasp what is obscurely expressed.
Psalms 119:105 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 13:2.3
Nevertheless, I remember, when we explained that verse of Psalm 118 [LXX], in which it is written, "Your law, Lord, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths," we showed the difference between "lamp" and "light" as best we could. For we said that "the lamp" was allotted "for the feet," that is, the lower parts of the body; but "the light" was given "for the paths," which "paths" are called in another passage "eternal paths." Therefore, because according to such a mystical understanding this world is understood as the lower parts of creation, therefore "the lamp" of the law is mentioned as having been lit for these who are in this world as the feet of the whole creation. But the eternal "light" will be for those "paths" through which each one in accordance with his merits will advance into the future age.
Psalms 119:140 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9:9.7
Do you want me to show you how the fire goes out from the words of the Holy Spirit and ignites the hearts of believers? Hear David speaking in the psalm: "The declaration of the Lord has set him on fire." And again in the Gospel it was written, after the Lord spoke to Cleopas, "Was not our heart burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?" Whence will you burn? Whence will "the coals of fire" be bound in you who are never set on fire by the declaration of the Lord, never kindled by the words of the Holy Spirit?
Psalms 121:1 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 44
But he who flees ought to know also the place to which he ought to flee, and to pray also on account of the time, that he flee not at that time which is adverse to flight. The places, then, for those who flee will be the mountains, which Christ points out, saying: "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains". And let him who flees to those mountains say the Psalm of degrees which runs thus: "I have lifted up my eyes unto the mountains, whence help shall come to me". And for this reason he lifts up his eyes to the mountains: because he knows the abundance that is in those mountains; therefore he says: "its foundations are in the holy mountains". And if he flees to the mountains which the Lord commanded, he will come to the holy place, in which, being made and seeing that great vision, he will say what was said: "Passing over, I will see this great vision". And whoever is of this kind will hear: "Loose the sandal of your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground". Therefore let those "flee to the mountains" who flee according to God's command.
Psalms 123:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28:32-34
The tax collector in the Gospel, therefore, acting properly, "did not wish even to lift up his eyes," but on the other hand, the disciple who is present with Jesus would reasonably lift them up when he is given the command, "Lift up your eyes and see the fields, that they are already white to harvest."2The prophet, too, says, "Lift up your eyes on high." But in addition, in Psalm 122 (LXX), which is the fourth song of the gradual psalms, the prophet, when he has lifted up his eyes to God in a fitting manner, says, "To you who dwell in heaven I have lifted up my eyes. Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a handmaid are on the hands of her mistress, so our eyes are on the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us." And if we must also show more clearly for whom it is now proper to imitate Jesus by lifting up his eyes, in that he also lifts up his eyes, and for whom this is not proper, but who, like the tax collector, should not only stand far away from the temple but also not wish to lift up his eyes, we will quote the words of Daniel about the lawless elders who lusted after Susanna. The words are as follows: "And they perverted their own mind and turned their eyes away that they might not look to heaven or remember just judgments." These words should be taken along with the following remarks made about Susanna, "But she, weeping, looked up to heaven, for her heart trusted in the Lord." Notice in these words that those who perverted their own mind turned their eyes away that they might not look to heaven, but she who trusted in the Lord looked up to heaven as a result of her trust in the Lord.
Psalms 128:3-5 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39
But in the Psalms too, finding something similar, they slip into the same error: "your wife", it says, "like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table", up to that place where it says: "may the Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good things that are of Jerusalem". Therefore, when Jerusalem has been furnished and restored to its ancient state, then the holy one will see the good things which the Scripture mentions. Those who understand Jerusalem spiritually, and know that it is said of her: "which is heavenly, which is above, which is our mother", will see her good things, of which we have often spoken, and that which we have now cited from the psalm: "your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table".
Psalms 131:1-2 — AGAINST CELSUS 6:15
Celsus, … as one who has heard the subject of humility greatly talked about but who has not been at pains to understand it, would wish to speak evil of that humility that is practiced among us, and imagines that it is borrowed from some words of Plato imperfectly understood, where he expresses himself in the Laws as follows: "Now God, according to the ancient account, having in himself both the beginning and end and middle of all existing things, proceeds according to nature and marches straight on. He is constantly followed by justice, which is the avenger of all breaches of the divine law: he who is about to become happy follows [justice] closely in humility, and becomingly adorned." He did not observe, however, that in writers much older than Plato the following words occur in a prayer: "Lord, my heart is not haughty or my eyes lofty, neither do I walk in great matters, nor in things too wonderful for me; if I had not been humble," etc. Now these words show that one who is of humble mind does not by any means humble himself in an unseemly or inauspicious manner, falling down on his knees or casting himself headlong on the ground, putting on the dress of the miserable or sprinkling himself with dust. But he who is of humble mind in the sense of the prophet, while "walking in great and wonderful things," which are above his capacity—namely, those doctrines that are truly great and those thoughts that are wonderful—"humbles himself under the mighty hand of God." If there are some, however, who through their stupidity have not clearly understood the doctrine of humiliation and act as they do, it is not our doctrine that is to be blamed; but we must extend our forgiveness to the stupidity of those who aim at higher things and owing to their foolishness of mind fail to attain them. He who is "humble and becomingly adorned," is so in greater degree than Plato's "humble and becomingly adorned" individual: for he is humble and becomingly adorned on the one hand, because "he walks in things great and wonderful," which are beyond his capacity; and humble, on the other hand, because, while being in the midst of such, he yet voluntarily humbles himself, not under anyone at random but under "the mighty hand of God," through Jesus Christ, the teacher of such instruction, "who did not deem equality with God a thing to be eagerly clung to, but made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." And so great is this doctrine of humiliation that it has no ordinary individual as its teacher; but our great Savior says, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls."
Psalms 132:2-5 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 96
There is a sleep which the disciples are commanded to sleep with rest, according to Christ's command, differing greatly from a sleeping against his will; so that the order might be preserved: that first indeed we should watch, praying that we may not enter into temptation, and afterward that we should sleep and rest according to Christ's command. Which sleep Solomon too sets down in a promise to those who live well, saying in his Proverbs: "for if you sit down, you will be without fear; but if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly, and you will not fear a terror that comes upon you nor the assaults of the impious rushing in". And David, knowing the diverse watchings and sleepings, "swore to the Lord and vowed a vow to the God of Jacob": not to go up onto the couch of his bed nor to give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids, and to do this for so long, until he should find "a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob", so that when he has found a place for the Lord, he may go up onto the couch of his bed and give sleep to his eyes as they renew themselves and, after rest, prepare themselves for a new and more divine rising up, according to what is wont to happen to bodily men after natural and healthy sleep. But perhaps also the soul, not being able always to bear labors inasmuch as it is created and incarnate and not sufficient to preserve the good without interruption, will obtain relaxations without any blame, which morally are called sleeps and slumbers, so that, having relaxation up to some little space of time, it may rise renewed and be raised again.
Psalms 132:9 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9
But lest we tarry too long over the several kinds of the virtues, we can briefly say that by these things are signified those with which the Church is adorned. Her faith can be compared to gold; the word of preaching to silver, the brass to patience; to the incorruptible woods, the knowledge which comes through the wood, or the incorruption of chastity, which never grows old; to the fine linen, virginity; to the scarlet, the glory of confession; to the purple, the splendor of charity; to the hyacinth, the hope of the kingdom of heaven. Let these for the present be the materials out of which the whole tabernacle is constructed, the priests are clothed, and the high priest also is adorned. And what their garments are, or of what sort, the prophet declares in another place and says: "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness"; all these, then, are garments of righteousness. And again the Apostle Paul says: "Put on the bowels of mercy"; there are, then, also garments of mercy. But the same Apostle nonetheless designates other, nobler garments, when he says: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts". These, then, are the garments with which the Church is adorned.
Psalms 136:13 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
I have heard it handed down by the elders that in that parting of the sea individual divisions of the waters were made for each and every tribe of the children of Israel, and that a way was opened in the sea proper to each tribe, and that this is shown from that which is written in the Psalms: "who divided the Red Sea into divisions." By which it is taught that many divisions were made, not one. But also by that which is said: "there is Benjamin the younger in amazement, the princes of Judah their leaders, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali," no less does a proper entrance seem to be enumerated for each tribe. These things, observed by the elders in the divine Scriptures, I have thought it a religious duty not to pass over in silence.
Psalms 137:8-9 — AGAINST CELSUS 7:22
And in this way also the just give up to destruction all their enemies, which are their vices, so that they do not spare even the children, that is, the early beginnings and promptings of evil. In this sense also we understand the language of Psalm 137: "O daughter of Babylon, who is to be destroyed; happy shall he be that rewards you as you have served us; happy shall he be that takes and dashes your little ones against the stones." For "the little ones" of Babylon (which signifies confusion) are those troublesome sinful thoughts that arise in the soul, and one who subdues them by striking, as it were, their heads against the firm and solid strength of reason and truth, is the person who "dashes the little ones against the stones"; and he is therefore truly blessed. God may therefore have commanded people to destroy all their vices utterly, even at their birth, without having enjoined anything contrary to the teaching of Christ. And he may himself have destroyed before the eyes of those who were "Jews inwardly" all the offspring of evil as his enemies. And, in like manner, those who disobey the law and word of God may well be compared with his enemies led astray by sin; and they may well be said to suffer the same fate as they deserve who have proved traitors to the truth of God.
Psalms 141:2 — ON PRAYER 12:2
And he prays "constantly" (deeds of virtue or fulfilling the commandments are included as part of prayer) who unites prayer with the deeds required and right deeds with prayer. For the only way we can accept the command to "pray constantly" as referring to a real possibility is by saying that the entire life of the saint taken as a whole is a single great prayer. What is customarily called prayer is, then, a part of this prayer. Now prayer in the ordinary sense ought to be made no less than three times each day. This is evident from the story of Daniel, who prayed three times a day when such great peril had been devised for him. And Peter went up to the housetop about the sixth hour to pray; that is when he saw the sheet descending from heaven let down by four corners. He was offering the middle prayer of the three, the one referred to before him by David, "In the morning may you hear my prayer, in the morning I will offer to you and I will watch." And the last time of prayer is indicated by "the lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice." Indeed, we do not even complete the nighttime properly without that prayer of which David speaks when he says, "At midnight I rise to praise you because of your righteous ordinances." And Paul, as it says in the Acts of the Apostles, prayed "about midnight" with Silas in Philippi and sang a hymn to God so that even the prisoners heard them.
Psalms 141:2 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Thus we possess other hands, of which it is said: "The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice." For if I lift up these hands of mine, while the hands of my soul remain hanging down, and not raised to holy and good deeds, then the lifting up of my hands will not be an evening sacrifice.
Psalms 141:7 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
"Our bones are scattered into the netherworld." What bones, according to the word of the one speaking, are scattered into the netherworld? Imagine, I beg you, a sinner; imagine his condition in the dwelling of sin, in the dwelling of the dead, in the dwelling of evil — and you will say of such a man that his bones have been scattered.
Psalms 148:4 — AGAINST CELSUS 5:44
The Persians therefore may call the "whole circle of heaven" Jupiter; but we maintain that "the heaven" is neither Jupiter nor God, as we indeed know that certain beings of a class inferior to God have ascended above the heavens and all visible nature: and in this sense we understand the words, "Praise God, you heaven of heavens, and you waters that are above the heavens; let them praise the name of the Lord."
Psalms 148:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2:104
This is not the time to prove that the Creator did not become the servant of the Word and make the world and to show that the Word became the servant of the creator and prepared the world. For according to the prophet David, "God spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created." For the uncreated God "commanded" the firstborn of all creation, and "they were created." This includes not only the cosmos and the things in it, but also all that remains, "whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities or powers; for all things have been created through him and for him, and he is before all things."
Psalms 150:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 150:3-5
The trumpet is the contemplative mind or the mind by which the teaching of the spirit is embraced. The harp is the busy mind that is quickened by the commands of Christ.
Psalms 150:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 150:3-5
The timbrel represents the death of fleshly desire because of honesty itself. Dancing is the agreement of reasonable spirits all saying the same thing and in which there are no divisions. The stringed instruments suggest the unison of the voices of moral excellence and the unity of the organ which is the church of God resting on reflective and active minds.
Psalms 150:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 150:3-5
The melodious cymbal reflects the active mind affixed on its desire for Christ; the joyous cymbal the purified mind inspired by the salvation of Christ.
Revelation 1:7 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 50
And in the Revelation John likewise says: "behold he will come with the clouds, and every eye will see him and whoever pierced him". But let him understand who can, whether it is the very same thing—for him to come upon the clouds of heaven and to come "with the clouds"—or whether the clouds upon which he will come are one thing, and those "with which" he will come another. Consider also, in the vision of Egypt, Isaiah saying: "behold the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and he will come into Egypt", whether he means this Egypt which is commonly understood, or the whole world.
Revelation 2:1 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 23
You will find in many places, and especially in the Psalms, that discourse is directed also to the angels, since power is given to man—to him, that is, who has the Holy Spirit—to address even the angels. Of these I will set down one example, that we may know that the angels too are instructed by human voices. It is written in the Apocalypse of John: "To the angel of the church of the Ephesians write: I have something against you". And again: "To the angel of the church of Pergamum write: I have something against you". Certainly it is a man who writes to the angels and commands them something.
Revelation 3:20 — HOMILIES ON ISAIAH 2
Our sweet works, our words most pleasant and useful, are "honey" which "Emmanuel eats," which this one "eats" who was born of the "virgin." But if our words are full of bitterness — anger, animosity, sadness, filthy speech, vices, contention — they have put gall in my mouth, and the Savior does not "eat" of these words. But the Savior "will eat" of the words that are among men, if their words are "honey." Let us confirm this from the scriptures. "Behold, I have stood before the door and I knock; if anyone opens the door to me, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me." Therefore he himself promises that he "will sup with us" from our own things. And it is certain that we too "sup with" him, if we "sup upon him." For "eating" of our good words, works, and understanding, he feeds us again with his own spiritual and divine and better foods. Therefore, since it is a blessed thing to receive the Savior, let us, with the doors of the ruling part of our heart opened, prepare for him "honey" and all his supper, that he himself may lead us to the great supper of the Father in the kingdom of heaven, which is in Christ Jesus, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
Revelation 5:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5.6
And what book does John see, which has writing on the front and back and is sealed? Which book could no one read and loose its seals, except the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David who has the key of David, and who opens and no one will close, and closes and no one will open? For the whole Scripture is what is revealed by the book that has writing on the front because its interpretation is easy, and on the back because it is hidden and spiritual.
Revelation 5:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.273-74
But if we examine the declaration about Jesus who is pointed out by John in the words, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," from the standpoint of the dispensation itself of the bodily sojourn of the Son of God in the life of humankind, we will assume that the lamb is none other than his humanity. For he "was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and was dumb as a lamb before its shearer," saying, "I was as an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed." This is why in the Apocalypse, too, a little lamb is seen "standing as though slain." This lamb, indeed, which was slain in accordance with certain secret reasons, has become the expiation of the whole world. In accordance with the Father's love for humanity, he also submitted to slaughter on behalf of the world, purchasing us with his own blood from him who bought us when we had sold ourselves to sins.
Revelation 5:8 — AGAINST CELSUS 8.17
We regard the spirit of every good person as an altar from which arises an incense that is truly and spiritually sweet-smelling, namely, the prayers ascending from a pure conscience. Therefore it is said by John in the Revelation, "The odors are the prayers of the saints"; and by the psalmist, "Let my prayer come before you as incense." And the statues and gifts that are fit offerings to God are the work of no common mechanics but are wrought and fashioned in us by the Word of God, to wit, the virtues in which we imitate "the firstborn of all creation," who has set us an example of justice, of temperance, of courage, of wisdom, of piety, and of the other virtues.
Revelation 6:9-10 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 7
For who could follow the soul of a martyr, which, having passed over all the "powers of the air," stretches toward the heavenly altar? For there the "souls of the martyrs" are said to be placed "beneath the altar" of God, "crying out" day and night, saying: "How long, O Lord, who art just and true, dost Thou not avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?" For there, being placed, they stand in attendance upon the divine sacrifices. But blessed are they who merit these things. Blessed are they whose heart, when they depart from the world, does not tremble on account of sin, whom no dread of transgressions terrifies as they go on to the Lord.
Revelation 9:6 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
By this death no human soul dies. For if it did die, it would not be punished after death. "They will seek," it is said, "death and will not find it." The souls being punished will seek death. They will rather desire not to be than to endure punishment. Therefore they will seek death and will not find it. In this sense all human souls are immortal.
Revelation 12:3-4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 49
Furthermore, with regard to what has been said concerning the falling stars, it is not without reason to take up something from the Revelation of John, concerning the third part of the stars dragged by the tail of the dragon to the earth. For it says thus: "and another sign was seen in heaven, and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and upon its heads seven crowns, and its tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth". To expound all these things one by one concerning the seven heads of the dragon — which perhaps can be referred either to certain rulers of the affairs of wickedness, or to the great sins of those who lead "to death" — is not for this present time; but they will be expounded in their own time in the Revelation of John. But it is the time neither to speak of the ten horns (since they are kingdoms of serpentine malice, having the serpent's nature — to move upon breast and belly through sins), nor now to expound what the present narrative is concerning the seven diadems which the dragon appears to have upon its seven heads (namely, that some head of the dragon takes on a diadem for each of those who are conquered). But the principal expositions and proofs of these things must be made when that book itself has been set before us for exposition; but now this alone must be expounded from that Revelation, namely that the tail of the dragon "drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth". For I reckon that he who ought to hear: "you shall go after the Lord your God" and "come after me", and yet stops his ears to these things but follows sin, is dragged by the tail of the dragon, going after it. But if it should befall one who has so lived as to hear: "you are the light of the world", and whose good works have at some time shone forth — this man, having at some time been established as a star and having his manner of life in heaven, if he be torn away by the dragon to the earth, this man will be a star drawn by the tail of the dragon and cast to the earth. Thus are stars drawn by the tail of the dragon and cast to the earth. But there are others (some part of which is darkened, while — what is indeed the greater part — is luminous), which the passage of the Revelation seems to point out, running thus: "and the fourth angel sounded the trumpet; and the third part of the sun was struck and the third part of the moon and the third part of the stars, so that the third part of them should be darkened". But there are some who have neither wholly kept what was said: "so let your light shine before men", nor been wholly extinguished and darkened, but in part. For some, on account of knowledge, have shone like the splendor of heaven, while others, on account of their manner of life, have become like the stars of heaven. But we may seem to some to have brought these things forward inconsistently with the preceding expositions, and to have expounded them only in part, since there we said that the stars which would fall were those who seemed to have been stars but were not, whereas here [we speak] of those who truly were stars and either fell fully or in part. To these we reply that, in bringing forward these examples which we have adduced, we have demonstrated this: that in every case the stars are to be understood as men, not what kind of stars they are. Otherwise, that passage has its own interpretation and this one its own.
Revelation 14:6 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.3.12-13
It is Moses who hears from God all that is written down in the law of Leviticus, whereas in Deuteronomy it is the people who are represented as listening to Moses and learning from him what they could not hear from God. This indeed is why it is called Deuteronomy, meaning the second law; a fact that some will think points to this, that when the first law given through Moses came to an end, a second legislation was apparently composed, and this was specially delivered by Moses to his successor Joshua; and Joshua is certainly believed to be a figure of our Savior, by whose second law, that is, by the precepts of the Gospels, all things are brought to perfection. We must also see, however, whether the Scriptures may not perhaps indicate this further truth, that just as the legislation is presented with greater clearness and distinctness in Deuteronomy than in those books that were written at the first, so also we may gather from that coming of the Savior that he fulfilled in humility, when he "took upon him the form of a servant," an indication of the "more splendid and glorious second coming in the glory of the Father," at which coming, when in the kingdom of heaven all the saints shall live by the laws of the "eternal gospel," the figure of Deuteronomy will be fulfilled. And just as by his present coming he has fulfilled that law which was a "shadow of the good things to come," so also by that glorious coming the shadow of his first coming will be fulfilled and brought to perfection. For the prophet has spoken of it thus: "The breath of our countenance is Christ the Lord, of whom we said that under his shadow we shall live among the nations," that is, at the time when he shall duly transfer all the saints from the temporal to the eternal gospel, to use a phrase employed by John in the Apocalypse, where he speaks of the "eternal gospel."
Revelation 19:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.47-54
I think that heaven has been closed to those who are impious and who bear "the image of the earthly" but opened to those who are just and who have been adorned with "the image of the heavenly." For the higher things have been closed to the impious, inasmuch as they are below and are still in the flesh. They cannot understand them or their beauty. They do not wish to perceive them, in that they are stooped over and do not devote themselves to lifting up their heads. But he opened the heavenly places with the key of David to be contemplated by the just, inasmuch as they have citizenship in heaven. The divine Word opens them and explains them by riding a horse. The horse signifies the words that proclaim the meanings. He is white because the nature of the knowledge is remarkable and white and luminous. And he who is called "Faithful" sits on the white horse, seated more firmly and, if I may so speak, royally, on words that cannot be overturned, words that run faster and swifter than any horse and that surpass every opponent in their rush, that is, every supposed word that is a dissembler of the Word and every dissembler of truth that seems to be truth. But he who is on the white horse is called "Faithful," not so much because he trusts as because he is trustworthy, that is, he is worthy of being trusted, for according to Moses, the Lord is faithful and true. For he is also true in contradistinction to a shadow, and a type, and an image, since the Word in the opened heaven is such. For the Word on earth is not like the Word in heaven, inasmuch as he has become flesh and is expressed by means of a shadow and types and images.… This Word of God, indeed, who is called faithful is also called true, and he judges and fights justly. He has received the ability from God to impart what each creature deserves and to judge with absolute justice and judgment.… Now just as it is said that the task of the Word is to judge with justice, so also his task is said to be to fight according to justice, that by thus fighting the soul's enemies with reason and justice, he may dwell in it and justify it when the irrational elements and injustice are destroyed. He casts out the hostile elements from that soul which, if I may speak in this way, has been taken captive by Christ for salvation.
Revelation 19:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.60
The living Word alone understands some things because of the natural inferiority in those who came into existence after him. None of them can contemplate all the things that he grasps. And perhaps also only those who share in the Word, in contradistinction to those who do not, know what the others are missing.
Revelation 19:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.57-59
As the flame is bright and at the same time illuminating, and further also has a nature that is fiery and consumes the more material elements, so the eyes of the Word, if I may speak in this way, with which he sees, and everyone who participates in him, destroy and obliterate the more material and gross elements of thoughts by grasping them by means of the spiritual powers inherent in him. Everything false, in any way whatsoever, has fled the subtlety and precision of the truth.… If the lie were one and simple against which the Word who is "faithful and true" prevailed, who received the crown when the lie was overcome, the Word who became master of God's opponents would also reasonably have been recorded to wear one diadem. But now, since the lies that profess the truth are many against which the Word has fought and is crowned, there are many diadems surrounding the head of him who has conquered them all.
Revelation 19:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.61
John does not see the Word of God mounted on a horse naked. He is clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood, since the Word who became flesh, and died because he became flesh, is invested with traces of that passion, since his blood also was poured forth upon the earth when the soldier pierced his side. For perhaps, even if in some way we attain the most sublime and highest contemplation of the Word and of the truth, we shall not forget completely that we were introduced to him by his coming in our body.
Revelation 19:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.62-63
All the hosts of heaven follow this Word of God. They follow the Word who leads them and imitate him in all things, especially in having mounted white horses like him, for all things are open to those who understand. And just as "pain and grief and groaning fled" at the end of things, so, I think, obscurity and dismay fled when all the mysteries of God's wisdom burst forth with precision and clarity. And consider the white horses of those who follow the Word, clothed in "pure white linen." [What does this mean] unless the linen garments, since linen comes from the earth, are types of the languages on earth in which the sounds have been clothed, which indicate the realities in a pure manner?
Revelation 20:6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2.3.1-3
Jesus baptizes "in the Holy Spirit and in fire," not the same person "in the Holy Spirit and in fire," but the holy person "in the Holy Spirit," while another person, after he has believed, after he has been deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit and after he has sinned again, Jesus washes in fire. So … it is not the same person who is baptized by Jesus in the Holy Spirit and in fire. Blessed, then, is the one who is baptized in the Holy Spirit and does not need the baptism by fire, but three times unhappy is that person who has need to be baptized in fire, though Jesus takes care of both of them. For "a shoot from the stump of Jesse will come forth, and a branch will grow out of the root," a shoot for those who are punished, a branch for the righteous. So God is a consuming fire and God is light, a consuming fire to sinners, a light to the just and holy ones. And blessed is he "who shares in the first resurrection," he who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who is he who is saved in another resurrection? He who needs the baptism from fire, when he comes before that fire and the fire tests him, and when that fire finds wood, hay and stubble to burn.
Revelation 21:4 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.4
So, then, concerning the devil also it must be understood that he was indeed conquered and crucified, but for those who have been crucified with Christ; but for all believers and for all the peoples alike he will then be crucified, when that shall be fulfilled which the Apostle says, that "as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." There is therefore in this also the mystery of the future resurrection. For then too the people will be divided into two parts, there will then also be some first and others last, who, when they have conspired together into one under Jesus, then already the devil shall no longer be at all, because "there shall no more be death." … And speaking about the devil he says: "the last enemy that is destroyed is death," because then death is truly "conquered," when "this mortal is swallowed up by life."
Revelation 21:8 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 9
But do you wish to see of how great a crime the "timid and fearful" man is guilty? In the Apocalypse, where those are enumerated who are to be cast "into the lake of fire", there before all He places the "timid and fearful", and reckons together with them also the "unbelieving and fornicators and poisoners". Thus among enormous and abominable crimes is placed the crime of fear and dread.
Romans 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The first question seems to arise for us concerning the name of Paul himself: why he who is called Saul in the Acts of the Apostles is now called Paul. We find in the divine Scriptures that the names of certain of the ancients were changed, so that from Abram he was called Abraham, from Sarai Sarah, and from Jacob Israel. In the Gospels too, from Simon came Peter, and the sons of Zebedee were named sons of thunder. But we read that these things were done at God's command; nowhere, however, do we find that any such thing was done in Paul's case. On which matter it has seemed to some that the Apostle took to himself the name of the proconsul Paulus, whom he had subjected to the faith of Christ in Cyprus, so that, just as kings are accustomed to be named — for example, "Parthicus" from the Parthians they have conquered, and "Gothicus" from the Goths — so also the Apostle, having subdued Paulus, was called Paul. Which we for our part do not think should be altogether dismissed. Nevertheless, because no such custom is detected in the divine Scriptures, let us rather seek a solution from those things which are in our own examples. We find, therefore, in the Scriptures that some used two names, and others even three: as Solomon, who was also Jedidiah; Zedekiah, who was also Joachim; Uzziah, who was also Azariah; and very many others in the books of Kings or of Judges you will find called by two names. But neither indeed do the Gospels reject this same custom. For Matthew himself relates concerning himself that, when Jesus was passing by, he found a certain man sitting at the tax-booth, Matthew by name. But Luke says concerning the same man that, when Jesus was passing by, he saw a certain publican named Levi, and said to him: Follow me. But the same Matthew also, in the catalogue of the apostles, says after many others: Matthew the publican, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, and Simon the Canaanite. But Mark relates thus: Matthew the publican, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus. This same man, whom Matthew set down as Lebbaeus, Mark set down as Thaddaeus. But Luke set it down thus: Matthew, Thomas, James, and Jude the son of James. Therefore the same man whom Matthew called Lebbaeus, and Mark Thaddaeus, Luke wrote of as Jude the son of James. And it is certain that the evangelists did not err in the names of the apostles; but because it was the custom of the Hebrews to use two or three names, each one set down different appellations of one and the same man. According to this custom, therefore, it seems to us that Paul too used a double name; and that so long as he ministered properly to his own nation, he was called Saul, which also seemed more native to the designation of his homeland; but that he was called Paul when he writes laws and precepts for the Greeks and the Gentiles. For this very thing which Scripture says: But Saul, who is also Paul, evidently does not show that the name of Paul was then first imposed upon him, but indicates that it belonged to his older appellation. "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ." We have already spoken concerning Paul. Let us now inquire why he is called a servant, who elsewhere writes: "For you have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, in which we cry: Abba, Father"; and again: "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father. And so he is now no longer a servant, but a son." How then, when he says even to those to whom he was preaching that a man is now no longer a servant but a son, does he himself profess to be a servant? Whether we suppose this to be said according to that humility which the Lord taught, saying: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart," we shall not go astray. For by this the truth of the freedom in Paul is not injured. For he himself also says: "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all." He serves…
Romans 1:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Which he had promised before by his prophets in the holy Scriptures." Whether the Gospel promised by God through the prophetic Scriptures ought to be taken simply, or by way of distinction from that other Gospel which John in the Apocalypse calls eternal — which is then to be revealed when the shadow has passed away and the truth has come, and when death has been swallowed up and eternity restored — consider you also, you who read. To which eternal Gospel those eternal years too will seem to correspond, of which the Prophet says: "And I had the eternal years in mind." And to it can be joined also that book of life in which the names of the saints are said to be written; and likewise those books which in Daniel, when the judgment sat, were opened; or those which in the prophet Ezechiel are said to be written within and without — all of which are recorded as written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. Concerning these matters, although it may seem hazardous to commit discourse to paper, nevertheless the sayings of the wise and their riddles are not to be passed over idly, but are to be contemplated with a very fine edge of mind, so far as the subject allows, as though through some mirror: lest perchance he who, the Word made flesh, appeared to those set in the flesh — as the Apostle says, that "he was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels" — lest, I say, in this that he appeared to angels, he appeared to them without a Gospel; even as not to us men either, to whom he says he was sent "to preach the Gospel to the poor, to release the captives unto remission, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." If therefore, when he appeared to us men, he did not appear without a Gospel, the consequence seems to show that neither did he appear to the angelic order without a Gospel — that one, perhaps, which we have shown above to be the eternal Gospel mentioned by John. But whether some such thing was done by him also among the remaining heavenly orders, appearing to them in that form in which each several one exists, and announcing peace, since indeed "through the blood of his cross he made peace not only for the things that are on earth, but also for the things that are in heaven" — this too do you examine with yourself. "Which he promised by his prophets in the holy Scriptures." What things were foretold by the prophets concerning Christ, these are to be understood as foretold concerning the Gospel also, although the evangelist Mark seems to make a distinction between Christ and the Gospel, when he says: "Whosoever shall leave father and mother," etc., "for my sake, or for the Gospel's sake." And even if the promises of the Gospel are to be sought properly, you will find them abundantly in the prophets, as is that saying: "The Lord shall give the word to them that preach the Gospel with great power"; and: "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of good things." To this also looks the saying: "Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world"; and: "His word runneth swiftly"; and also: "Behold, I send many shepherds, and many hunters, and they shall take them upon every mountain and upon every hill." Through Jeremias there is promised concerning the Gospel that which Paul now says, namely that God promised through his prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son.
Romans 1:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Who is the Son, according to the flesh indeed, from the seed of David." He was made, without doubt, according to the flesh that which before he was not. But according to the Spirit he was before, and there was not a time when he was not. But certain persons meet us, raising most bitter questions: how Christ can be seen to descend from the seed of David, since it is agreed that he was not born from Joseph, into whom the line of the generation descending from David is brought down. Although it is troublesome to meet these objections according to the reasoning of the letter, nevertheless it is answered by our people that Mary, who, having been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit, was without doubt joined according to the law to a man of her own tribe and kindred. And although it is said to her by the angel that Elizabeth also, your kinswoman, will herself likewise bear a son in her old age (and Elizabeth is said to be of the daughters of Aaron), nevertheless it is affirmed by our people that the name of kinship can suitably be applied not only to those of the same tribe, but also to all who are of the race of Israel, in relation to one another, as also the same Apostle says of all together: "Who are my kinsmen according to the flesh." These things indeed, and others like them, are answered; but how valid they are against the assertions of those who press us from the testimonies of the Scriptures, do you who read judge for yourself. To us, however, these things seem rather to be understood according to the spiritual or allegorical reasoning, according to which it is no obstacle even that Joseph is called the father of Christ, though he is in no way his father; because in the generations also it is reported by Matthew that Josaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Ozias; but in the fourth book of Kings it is written that Joram begot Ochozias, and Ochozias begot Joas, and Joas begot Amasias, and Amasias begot Azarias — the very one who is sometimes named Ozias; and Azarias begot Joatham. This Ozias therefore, who is also Azarias, although in the fourth book of Kings he is said to be the son of Amasias, is written by Matthew as the son of Joram, three generations in between being passed over. The discussion of this matter, it is certain, rests not upon the history, but upon the spiritual understanding; which is not now to be knocked at by us in passing, for it will be touched upon in its own place. Meanwhile it suffices for us to answer those who oppose us, that just as Jesus is said to be the son of Joseph, from whom he was not begotten, and Ozias begotten from Joram, from whom he was not begotten, so also Christ can be understood as from the seed of David according to the flesh, so that whatever reasoning or assertion they have brought forward regarding Joram and regarding Joseph, this we say must be accepted regarding David also.
Romans 1:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
It must be observed that he does not say: Who was predestined the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification; but, Who was destined the Son of God. And let no one think that we are examining this expression more curiously than the matter allows. For although in the Latin copies "predestined" is customarily found, nevertheless according to what the truth of the interpretation holds, "destined" is written, not "predestined." For he who is is destined, but he who is not yet is predestined, as are those of whom the Apostle says: "But whom he foreknew, them he also predestined." Therefore those who are not yet can be foreknown and predestined; but he who is, and always is, is not predestined, but destined. Let these things be said by us on account of those who speak impiety against the only-begotten Son of God, and, being ignorant of the difference between "destined" and "predestined," suppose that he is to be numbered among those who, since they did not exist before, were predestined that they should exist — he who was never predestined to be the Son, but always was and is, just as the Father also is. He therefore who always is, is destined, as we have said, not predestined; but he who is predestined was not yet at the time when he was being predestined, but began from time. The Apostle therefore uses a necessary distinction, saying that he who is from the seed of David according to the flesh was made; but him whom he names the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification, destined. And indeed, when he had said "Son of God," he added not superfluously, "in power," indicating by this that he is Son in substance according to the Spirit of sanctification. For Christ is called the power of God and the wisdom of God, who is also called the breath of the power of God, and the purest emanation of the glory of the Almighty, and the brightness of eternal light, and the image of the goodness of God. But the question is raised: if that which is born of the seed of David is according to the flesh, but that which is destined in power according to the Spirit of sanctification is the Son of God and is in the substance of God, how is it to be understood concerning the soul of Jesus, which here is by no means named along with the flesh and the Spirit of sanctification or the substance of the divine power — the soul concerning which the Savior himself says elsewhere that "my soul is sorrowful even unto death"; and: "Now is my soul troubled"; the soul which he also laid down of himself, indeed which descended even to hell, concerning which it is also said: "You will not abandon my soul in hell." For it is certain that this was not begotten from the seed of David. For he says that what was made from the seed of David is according to the flesh. Since therefore it seems to be reckoned neither in that which is according to the flesh, nor in that wherein the Son of God is destined in power according to the Spirit of sanctification, I think that the Apostle employs his customary usage in this place also, knowing that the soul is always midway between the spirit and the flesh, and either joins itself to the flesh and becomes one with the flesh, or associates itself with the spirit and is one with the spirit — from which, if indeed it be with the flesh, men become carnal; but if with the spirit, spiritual. And for that reason he does not name it separately, but only the flesh, or the spirit; for he knows that the soul necessarily cleaves to one of these, as also in those to whom he says: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit"; and: "He who joins himself to a harlot is one body" (here calling the flesh or the body a harlot), "but he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit." So therefore also now, knowing concerning the soul of Jesus that, being associated with the Lord and cleaving to him, it has been made one Spirit of sanctification with him, he did not name it separately, lest he should dissolve Jesus: "F…
Romans 1:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
He says that through Christ he received grace and apostleship, inasmuch as Christ is the "mediator of God and men". "Grace and apostleship": grace is to be referred to endurance in labors; apostleship to the authority of preaching, since Christ himself is called an "apostle", that is, one sent by the Father, seeing that he says he was sent "to preach the gospel to the poor". Because, therefore, what is his own he gives also to his disciples. "Grace" is said to be "poured out upon his lips". He gives to his apostles also grace, laboring with which they may say: "I have labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God with me." And because it was said of him: "Having therefore Christ, the High Priest and Apostle of our confession", he grants to his disciples the dignity of apostleship, so that they too are made apostles of God. For the nations, which were "strangers to the covenant of God and to the manner of life of Israel", could not have believed the Gospel except through the grace which had been given to the apostles, through which, as the apostles preach, the nations are said to obey unto faith; and "into all the earth" the sound of their grace concerning the name of Christ is recorded to "have gone forth", so that it reached even those who are at Rome, to whom the Apostle says: "Among whom are you also, the called of Jesus Christ." Paul is called "an apostle by calling", and the Romans are indeed called, yet not apostles, but "called saints", unto the obedience of faith. But concerning the diversity of those who are called we have already spoken above.
Romans 1:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.116
Paul is said to be called to be an apostle, and the Romans are also called, though not to be apostles. Rather they are called to be holy in the obedience of faith. We have already spoken above about the different callings.
Romans 1:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
This blessing of peace and grace, which the apostle Paul gives to the beloved of God to whom he writes, I think is not less than was the blessing of Noah upon Shem and upon Japheth, which was fulfilled through the Spirit toward those who were blessed; and likewise that in which Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek, and Jacob by his father Isaac, and the twelve patriarchs who are blessed by their father Israel; or the blessing of Moses, with which he blessed the twelve tribes of Israel. I do not, then, judge this blessing of the Apostle, with which he blessed the Churches of Christ, inferior to all these. For he too says of himself: "For I think that I also have the Spirit of God." In the Spirit of God, therefore, the Apostle writes, and in the Spirit he blesses. Through that same Spirit, then, those who are blessed by the Apostle receive the blessings — if, that is, they are found worthy for his blessing to come upon them. Otherwise that will happen which is written: "If there be there a son of peace, your peace shall come upon him; but if not, your peace shall return to you." What is written, therefore, concerning peace will hold also for grace, since he joins grace together with peace. Yet it must be known that this custom of writing is not preserved by the Apostle toward all the Churches. For to the Corinthians indeed, in the first and second epistles, and to the Galatians, and to the Ephesians, and to the Philippians, he writes in like manner. But to the Colossians he says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father", and does not add, "and our Lord Jesus Christ". To the Thessalonians the first epistle has thus: "Grace to you and peace", and nothing further. But in the second: "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." To Timothy, the first and the second: "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord." But to Titus: "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Savior." And although an observation of this kind may seem overly curious, nevertheless one who believes that nothing in the divine Scriptures is idle will judge that even these differences and diversities are not empty.
Romans 1:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Since, when writing to certain people, the Apostle says that he gives thanks for them all, as also now to the Romans; but when writing to others he does indeed give thanks, yet does not add, for all — if you observe carefully you will find that where he says that he gives thanks for all, he does not press upon them any grave faults or reproaches; but where he censures or convicts certain persons, he does not add to the thanksgiving that he gives thanks for all, as in the letters to the Corinthians or to the Colossians. To the Galatians, however, he does not set down any thanksgiving at all, since he marvels that they are so quickly transferred from him who called them to another Gospel. The first utterance, therefore, begins from thanksgiving. And to give thanks to God is to offer the sacrifice of praise; and for this reason he adds, "Through Jesus Christ", as through the great High Priest. For he who wishes to offer a sacrifice to God must know that he ought to offer it through the hands of the high priest. But this too, that he said, "To my God", is not to be taken idly. For this utterance can belong to none but the saints, whose God he is called, as the God of Abraham, or of Isaac, or of Jacob. He cannot call the Lord his God whose God is the belly, or whose God is avarice, or whose God is the glory of the age and the pomp of the world, or the power of perishable things. For whatever anyone worships above all else, that is his God. But let us see for what the Apostle gives thanks to his God. Because, he says, your faith is announced in the whole world. If we take "in the whole world" simply, this seems to designate that in many places of the world — that is, of this earth — the faith and religion of those who are at Rome is proclaimed. But if, as in some passages, in this place too "world" designates that which consists of heaven and earth and all things that are in them, then this also can be understood: that the powers, of whom it is said that they have joy over one sinner doing penance, much more rejoice also over the conversion and faith of the Romans, since those angels announce it to them who ascend and descend to the Son of man. For they too marvel at the conversion of the Gentiles, and that the sound of the apostles of Christ Jesus has gone out into all the earth. Finally, beholding also their contests in this world, they rejoice, as the Apostle says: "For we are made a spectacle to this world, and to angels, and to men." Yet it can also be understood thus: that this faith which the Romans have is the very same, and not another, than that which is announced and believed in the whole world, by which it is preached not only on earth but also in the heavens: because Jesus made peace through his blood not only for the things which are on earth, but also for those which are in heaven; and at his name bend the knee not only things earthly, but also heavenly and infernal. And this is for faith to be preached in the whole world, through which the whole world may be made subject to God. It must certainly be observed that to this which he said, "first indeed", he did not render, for instance, so as to say: "But secondly"; but it is as we said before concerning less finished forms of expression — unless perhaps it seems to be rendered where he says: "But I would not have you ignorant, brethren."
Romans 1:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
God is a witness to his saints, because they too are witnesses of God, according to what the prophet says: "You shall be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord." But the Savior also says to the disciples: "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Samaria, and in all the ends of the earth", according to that which is written: "He who shall confess in me, I also will confess in him before my Father." But let us see what it is that he says, "whom I serve in my spirit." To serve in the spirit seems to me to be like — indeed, something even greater than — to worship in the spirit, as the Lord himself said to the Samaritan woman: "The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." But Paul not only worships in the spirit, but also devotedly serves in the spirit. For one can worship even without affection; but devoted service belongs to him whom affection binds fast. The Apostle therefore devotedly serves God, not in the body, nor in the soul, but in the better part of himself, that is, in the spirit. For he indicates that these three are in man when writing to the Thessalonians, when he says: "That your whole body, and soul, and spirit may be preserved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." And Daniel says: "Praise the Lord, you spirits and souls of the just." The Apostle therefore everywhere prefers the spirit, and rejects the flesh or the things which are of the flesh. Finally he praises the spirit of the law itself; but the letter he spurns as though it were flesh, when he says: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." And also when he says: "For in that wherein the law was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" — by the flesh of the law he means, without doubt, the letter of the law. For through the letter the law was made weak, so that it could not be fulfilled. For who could fulfill even what is written concerning the Sabbath: "You shall not move from your place on the day of the Sabbath" (for how could it come about that anyone should not move at all from his place on the day of the Sabbath?), or the laws concerning leprosy arising in the warp, or in a wall, or in a skin, and a thousand other things in which, according to the letter as according to the flesh, the law was made weak? For this reason therefore the Apostle says that the law is spiritual. He, then, who understands the law to be spiritual, this man serves God in the spirit. Whence he says elsewhere: "For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die" — that is, according to the letter which kills; "but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." It must indeed be asked whether the ancient fathers also, the patriarchs or the prophets, who were themselves also perfect, are to be believed to have served God in the spirit; for Abraham too desired to see the day of the Lord, and saw it, and rejoiced; and Moses and Elijah appeared in glory speaking with Jesus on the mountain. In which it is shown that the Law and the Prophets are in harmony with the Gospels, and shine forth in the same glory of spiritual sight and understanding.
Romans 1:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
In that he says that without ceasing he prays for those to whom he writes, mindful of his own command he fulfills in deed what he enjoins in word. But since he says that he beseeches that if by any means at length at some time he may have a prosperous journey, so that by the will of God he may come to the Romans, it must be considered that the apostle of God, setting out for a holy work, that is, the work of the Gospel, waits until by his entreaties he may obtain not only that his journey be made prosperous, but that it be made prosperous by the will of God. Whence much more must prosperity of journey be sought from God by us, who have not so great a consciousness either of the work or of merit, when we plan to do anything. Yet I think that the Apostle wished this too to be understood: that prosperity of a journey is not always accomplished by the will of God. Finally, Balaam too had a prosperous journey in going to Balak, that he might curse the people of Israel; but that prosperity was not from the divine will. And many in the affairs of the age enjoy prosperous successes, and exult in their prosperities; but such prosperity is not from the will of God, unless the work of our journey be such as the Apostle here designates.
Romans 1:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
First of all we ought to learn that it is an apostolic work to long for the brethren, yet for no other cause than either that we may confer upon them something of a spiritual gift if we are able, or, if we are not able, that we ourselves may receive from them. For without this, the desire of going about among the brethren is not commendable. But in that he says, "that I may impart to you some spiritual gift", he seems to indicate that there is something which is indeed a gift, yet not spiritual. For the gift of faith is without doubt spiritual, and the gift of wisdom, and of knowledge, and of virginity likewise. But where he says, speaking of marriage and virginity: "But each one has his own gift from God, one after this manner, another after that"; he calls marriage indeed a gift, since, as it is written, "a wife is fitted to her husband by God"; yet this gift is not spiritual. Many other things too may be called gifts of God, such as riches and bodily strength, such as comeliness of form, such as an earthly kingdom. For these also are given by God, as Daniel too says: "For it is he who makes kings and changes them"; but these are not spiritual gifts.
Romans 1:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Blessed therefore are those to whom the Apostle wishes to impart spiritual grace for the confirming of their faith, that they may no longer be little ones, nor be carried about with every wind of doctrine. And when this is done by Paul, he himself also receives consolation, seeing his own work firm and stable; and those are consoled who are made partakers of the apostolic grace.
Romans 1:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
There is indeed a hyperbaton in this passage; there is also a defect of expression. But the hyperbaton we may render in this way: "But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that I have often purposed to come to you, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the other nations, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, and have been hindered until now." The defect of expression, however, will be supplied in this manner. In the place where he says: "And among the other nations, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise", there seems to be lacking "to whom", so that what follows may be read thus, "to whom I am a debtor"; and the sequence would be of this kind: "Just as I have fruit among the other nations, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, to whom I am a debtor, so, as much as in me lies, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you also who are at Rome. For never among any nation have I been ashamed to preach the Gospel, because the power of God is in it unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and to the Greek; because in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, which before lay hidden and veiled in the Law." And it is revealed in those who come from the faith of the Old Testament to the new faith of the Gospel, as it is also said in the prophet, that the righteous man, even if he is still under the Law, believing God and his servant Moses, lives by faith; and when he comes to the Gospel, he is directed from the faith of the Law into the faith of Christ, and thus he advances from faith to faith. Let these things be said so far as pertains to the sequence of the Apostle's own words. But now let us inquire into what belongs to the understanding. In saying, "that I have often purposed to come to you", he shows the charity which he had toward the Romans. But in that he added, "and have been hindered until now", if indeed he be thought to have been hindered by God, it is shown by this that even this is a care to God, whither each of the apostles ought or ought not to go, and that by a certain dispensation he permits the word of God to be preached to some and forbids it to others, as he also says elsewhere: "And when we attempted to go into Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus forbade us"; and in the Gospels it is said by the Savior: "To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear." But if the words, "I have been hindered until now", be referred to him of whom he himself says elsewhere, that "Satan hindered us", he fittingly shows that he strives without ceasing in his prayers, that, the hindrances of Satan being overcome, his journey may be made prosperous in the will of God to see those who are at Rome. For he longs, and does not cease to beseech in his prayers, that he may gain some fruit from them, as from the other nations. Whence Paul, as one desirous of great riches, longs to gather in revenues from many rational possessions. He gathers fruits from the Greeks, he gathers from the barbarians, he gathers from the wise, he collects something even from the unwise, while to some, as to the perfect, he speaks wisdom, and to others, as to the unwise, he says that he knows nothing else save Christ Jesus, and him crucified; while some he teaches from the Law and the Prophets, and others he persuades by signs and mighty works. But Paul brings forth all these fruits because, as a good branch, he abides in the true vine, which is Christ, whom the Father the husbandman more frequently prunes, and therefore he brings forth much fruit. And he prunes him in labors, in tribulations, in persecutions. For there are other branches which indeed abide in the vine, but bear no fruit, and are dry. Of these are they who in name indeed abide in Christ, but in works and deeds are found unfruitful and dry; who are said to be cut off by the Father, and cast into the fire. For as the first man Adam was a kind of vine, and…
Romans 1:14 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.2
We can see how in a short time this religion has grown up, making progress through the persecution and death of its adherents and through their endurance of the confiscation of their property and every kind of torture. And this is particularly miraculous, since its teachers are themselves neither very skillful nor very numerous. But in spite of everything, the Word is now preached in all the world, so that "Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish" now adopt the Christian faith.
Romans 1:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now we must inquire how the Apostle is a debtor to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the unwise. For what had he received from them, whereby he should become their debtor? I think that he was made a debtor to the various nations for this reason, that he received through the grace of the Holy Spirit to speak in the tongues of all nations, as he himself also says: "I speak with tongues more than you all." Since therefore one receives the knowledge of tongues not for himself, but for those to whom he must preach, he is made a debtor to all those whose language he has received the knowledge of from God. And to the wise he is made a debtor through this, that he received the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which he might speak to the perfect and the wise. But how also to the unwise? In that he received the grace of patience and of long-suffering. For it belongs to the highest patience to bear the impulses of the unwise.
Romans 1:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And most gracefully he added in what follows: "So, as much as in me lies, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you also." He testifies that he is ready, who also says elsewhere: "If I do this willingly, I have a reward." For one is ready to speak to the prudent. But concerning the unwise, we must understand that which he says: "But if unwillingly, a dispensation is entrusted to me"; and: "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel."
Romans 1:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Many reproaches indeed arose against the Gospel at the beginning of its preaching; but Paul had learned patience from the prophets, who say: Do not be overcome by their reproaches, and do not give way before their revilings; and he knew that he preached the Gospel not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the power of the Spirit. Therefore, defining what the Gospel is, he declares: For it is, he says, the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. In saying, it is the power of God unto salvation, he seems to show that there is, as it were, some power of God which is not unto salvation but unto destruction. For he knows that it is written also in the prophet: And the caterpillar, my great power; and again in the Psalms he says: In your power destroy them; and therefore here he says: the power of God unto salvation. We must therefore consider whether perhaps on account of these differences in the powers of God a right hand and a left hand are spoken of in God, so that the power unto salvation is called his right hand, and the power by which he destroys is called his left. But this too must be noted, whether perhaps, since Christ is called the power of God, and the Gospel is the power of God, Christ ought to be understood also as the Gospel, just as he is understood as many other things as well; and perhaps what is called the eternal Gospel should be taken as spoken of him. To everyone, he says, who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. The Greeks originally reckoned the whole race of men under two designations, that is, calling each man either a Greek or a barbarian; and their distinction was such that everyone who was not a Greek was held to be a barbarian. But Paul employs a far truer distinction, naming the Jews first, and afterwards the Greeks, and last of all the barbarians. For since the Greeks, because they themselves made use of laws, called all the rest barbarians as living without laws, the Jews are deservedly preferred by the Apostle even to the Greeks themselves, because they both began to live by laws before them, and their laws were promulgated by God and not by men.
Romans 1:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For the justice of God is revealed from faith unto faith. The justice of God is revealed in the Gospel through the fact that no one is excluded from salvation, whether he come as Jew, or Greek, or barbarian. For the Savior says equally to all: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened. But concerning from faith unto faith we have already said above that the former people also was in faith, because it had believed God and Moses his servant, and from that faith it has now passed over to the faith of the Gospel. But as to what he says from the testimony of the prophet Habakkuk, that the just man lives by my faith: either he is understood who is under the Law, that he should believe the Gospels also, or he who is in the Gospels, that he should believe the Law also and the Prophets. For the one without the other does not possess the integrity of life.
Romans 1:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and iniquity of men, who hold back the truth in iniquity: because what is known of God is manifest in them. For God has manifested it to them. Concerning the wrath of God we have spoken more fully in other places; nevertheless a few things will be said in the present passage as well. Now then, the wrath of God is said to be revealed not against some part, but against all ungodliness and iniquity; and yet not against all men, but against those alone who hold back the truth of God in iniquity: they do hold it, indeed, but they hold it in injustice. To these he also says that what is known of God is manifest, showing that there is something of God which is known, and something of him which is unknown. He says, then, that the wrath of God is revealed to those who hold back the truth in iniquity. Things that are revealed are brought forth from what is obscure and hidden into knowledge. Since therefore here too the wrath of God is said to be revealed from heaven not to those ignorant of the truth, but to those holding it, though holding it badly, it seems that he says the reason and knowledge of the wrath of God is made manifest to those to whom the truth is known, although they hold it back in iniquity. And this indeed, as is made clear from what follows, is understood to be said of the wise of this world, and the learned, or the philosophers, who, when they had come to know the truth and justice of God, did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, turning to idols; and saying that they were wise, they became fools, because they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. In these men the Apostle also shows this, that whatever came to the wise of this age concerning the knowledge of the truth came by God's revealing it; but while they either pursue empty glory, or flatter ancient errors, or are held in check by fear of rulers, they become the judges of their own condemnation; by them the truth which they had known through God's revelation is either covered over because freedom is shut out, or denied through the iniquity of their deeds. Thus, then, the wrath of God sometimes seems to be called that very power by which he presides over the ministers of punishments, and which inflicts torments upon sinners; as I think is signified in what is recounted, that the wrath of God had moved David to order Joab to number the people. But his ministers and associates are also signified, in that it is said: He sent upon them the wrath of his fury, tribulation, and wrath through evil angels. Sometimes, too, the goads of our own conscience, which avenge and punish us when we transgress, are called wrath, as the same Apostle says: You store up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath; and elsewhere: Their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending them, in the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men. But the affliction of tribulation or of temptation is likewise named the wrath of God, as Job also says: But the wrath of the Lord is in my body. Yet why is the wrath now said to be revealed from heaven? Perhaps to distinguish it from another wrath which is not from heaven, such as that: The fury of dragons is their wine, and the fury of serpents is incurable. Or perhaps because those very men against whom the discourse is directed are said to sin not in ignorance but in knowledge of the truth, and therefore the punishment is directed against them from heaven: for it is from there that the minister of punishments receives his authority. Or certainly, because the spiritual forces of wickedness against which our contest is are said to be in the heavenly places, it follows that the wrath of God is said to be hurled from heaven against those who are overcome by them: as if we should say that fiery darts are brandished against them from there,…
Romans 1:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Because what is known of God is manifest in them; for God has manifested it to them. We have already said above that what is known of God is that which they can attain from the order and reasons of this world, as the Apostle himself indicates from what follows, saying that his invisible things are contemplated through the things that have been made. But what is unknown of God is to be understood as the account of his substance or nature; and what its proper character is, I think lies hidden not only from us men, but from every creature: or if at some time there shall be so great an advance of rational nature that it can arrive at this knowledge also, it belongs to God to know. For something of this sort seems to me to be hoped for from those things which are said by the Savior, that no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him. For he would not have added, And to whom the Son wills to reveal him, unless he knew that there are some to whom he wills to reveal him.
Romans 1:20-23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, and also his eternal power and divinity; so that they are inexcusable, because when they had known God, they did not magnify him as God, nor give thanks; but they became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For saying that they were wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. Almost every one of these points has already been discussed above. For we said that these things, although they pertain to all human beings in whom there is natural reason, nevertheless look chiefly to the wise men of this world and to those who are named philosophers, whose particular discipline it is to examine the creatures of the world and all the things that have been made in it, and through the things that are seen to gather by reasoning the things that are not seen. Yet it must be known that the invisible things which he here names, he speaks of concerning created things; about which the same Apostle also writes in another place: that all things were made through him, that is, through Jesus Christ, whether the things that are in heaven or the things that are on earth, visible and invisible. And therefore, besides those things which he called invisible, he adds: And his eternal power and divinity. Therefore the power of God, which is eternal, and the divinity, which is no less eternal, is recognized from inferences drawn from the creature. Power is that by which he governs all things; divinity that by which he fills the universe. From this, then, they are made inexcusable: because, although they came to know God when God made himself manifest, they did not worship him as is worthy, nor give thanks; but through the vanity of their own thoughts, while they sought forms and images in God, they lost the image of God within themselves, and those who seemed to boast of themselves in the light of wisdom were rolled down into the deep darkness of folly. For what is so foul, so obscure, and so shrouded in darkness, as to turn the glory of God into a bodily and corruptible likeness of the human form — as is the custom of those who venerate idols — and to make the eminence of the divine majesty equal with birds and four-footed beasts and serpents?
Romans 1:20 — AGAINST CELSUS 7.37
From this we infer that all who live on this earth have to begin with the use of the senses upon sensible objects in order to go on from them to a knowledge of the nature of intellectual things. Yet their knowledge must not stop short with the objects of sense.
Romans 1:23 — ON PRAYER 29.15
These people have lowered to a body without soul or sense the identity of the One who gives to all sentient and rational beings not only the power of sentience but also of sensing rationally, and to some even the power of sensing and thinking perfectly and virtuously.
Romans 1:24-25 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For which causes God most justly indeed delivered them up, in the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they might dishonor their own bodies among themselves: who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Although each of these points seems to be explained consistently according to the faith of the Church — namely, that for the foregoing causes of their faults, those who hold down in iniquity the truth which they know by God's revealing are by right and desert abandoned by God, and that through this abandonment they are handed over to the desires of their own heart, whose heart's desires were these, that they should afflict their own bodies with uncleanness and dishonor among themselves; and that with whatever judgment they used toward the veneration of the divinity, while they drag down the glory of the incorruptible God to base and unworthy forms of men or of animals, with such a turn also they should be dealt with toward themselves, so that men endowed with reason live after the manner of irrational beasts — nevertheless let us ask those who deny that the good God is also a just judge, what they answer concerning the things the Apostle says, that God handed them over, in the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they should dishonor their own bodies. For in this it will seem that not only their reasoning, which is utterly excluded, but our own reply as well is hemmed in. For how will it be just that one who is handed over — even though he be handed over on account of sins — should nevertheless be handed over to lusts, and handed over for this purpose, that he should afflict his own body with uncleannesses and lusts? For just as it cannot be imputed to a man who, for example's sake, is delivered to darkness for punishment, that he is in obscurity; and one who is delivered to fire cannot be blamed for the very fact that he burns; so to those who are handed over to desires and uncleannesses that they may dishonor their own bodies, it will not seem worthily imputed if, being placed among desires and uncleannesses, they stain their bodies with dishonor. Marcion, therefore, and all who have sprouted from his school like the brood of serpents, will not dare to touch the solutions of these matters even with the tip of a finger: seeing that on account of questions of this kind they cast away the Old Instrument, wherever perchance they had read anything of the sort in it. But what did it profit them, when they are none the less choked by similar questions in the New Instrument? We, however, who confess one God, good and just, of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels, the Father of Christ, use the same explanations both in the New and in the Old Testament, calling upon him who placed in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, that he himself may open to us, through his Holy Spirit, the stumbling and offense of the apostolic reading, by which doubting minds seem to be made to stumble. Frequently we find in the Scriptures, and it has often been discussed by us, that man is said to be spirit and body and soul. But when it is said that the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, without doubt the soul is set in the middle, which either acquiesces in the desires of the spirit or is inclined to the concupiscences of the flesh: and if indeed it joins itself to the flesh, it is made one body with it in its lust and concupiscences; but if it associates itself with the spirit, it will be one spirit with it. And so at length, concerning those whose souls had joined themselves wholly with the flesh, the Lord says in the Scriptures: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh; but concerning those whose soul had been allied to the spirit, the Apostle says: But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. There are besides (as we find in many places of Scripture) certain angels who are als…
Romans 1:26-32 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Therefore God handed them over to passions of dishonor. For even their women exchanged the natural use for that use which is outside nature. And in like manner the males also, having abandoned the natural use of the woman, were inflamed in their desire for one another, males working shamefulness with males, and receiving in themselves the wage which was due for their error. And as they did not approve of holding God in their knowledge, God handed them over to a reprobate mind, so that they do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, wickedness, avarice; full of envy, murders, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, insolent, proud, puffed up, inventors of evils, disobedient to parents, senseless, disorderly; without natural affection, without covenant, without mercy. And these, though they had come to know the justice of God, did not understand that those who do such things are worthy of death; and not only those who do them, but also those who consent to those who do them. Therefore you are inexcusable, O every man who judges; for in that wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you do the same things which you judge." This is the third time that we find set down by the Apostle: "God handed them over." And for the first handing-over he gave the causes, namely, "Because, when they had known God, they did not glorify him as God, nor give thanks; but they became empty in their thoughts, and their senseless heart was darkened. For saying that they were wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents." "Therefore," he says, "God handed them over, in the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they should treat their own bodies with dishonor among themselves." The cause of the second handing-over he seems to put forward when he says that "they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator." "Therefore," he says, "God handed them over to passions of dishonor." Yet this second handing-over seems to be liable to graver outrages. "For their women," he says, "exchanged the natural use for that use which is outside nature. In like manner the males also, having abandoned the natural use of the woman, were inflamed in their desire for one another, males working shamefulness with males, and receiving in themselves the wage which was due for their error." He seems also to give the causes of the third handing-over when he says: "And as they did not approve of holding God in their knowledge, God handed them over to a reprobate mind, so that they do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all iniquity, malice," and the rest of the crimes which he goes on to enumerate. But these distinctions among the causes do not seem to me to correspond sufficiently to the offenses which are subjoined to each one of them. For how is he who serves the creature handed over to fouler outrages more than he who exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents? Or how are those who did not approve of holding God in their knowledge handed over, beyond both of these, to what is as it were a whole swarm of evils? Hence it seems to me rather that all these causes, which are set before the several handings-over, are to be heaped together into one, and again the kinds of handing-over into one, so that (for the sake of argument) we should speak thus: Since indeed men exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents; and since they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, nor did they approve of holding God in the…
Romans 1:26 — ON PRAYER 29.12
Would those so condemned not have remained in the lusts of their hearts, even if they had not been given up to them by God? Would they not have fallen into dishonorable passions, even if they had not been given up to them by God? Would they not have fallen into an unfit mind quite apart from being given up to it by God?
Romans 2:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things." That the judgment of God is according to truth, not only against those who do the things enumerated above, but also against all who in any manner whatever have done anything good or evil, is to be expected and believed. But this is what seems to be shown in this passage: that judgment according to truth belongs to God alone. For there are certain things that are committed with an evil deed, but not with an evil intention: as if someone, for example, should commit a homicide unwillingly. And other things are done with a good deed, but not with a good intention: as if someone should perform an act of mercy, not on account of God's commandment, but that he may be praised by men. But there are other things in which, whether in good or in evil, the intention agrees with the deed. And because to know the hearts of men belongs to God alone, and to discern the secrets of the mind, therefore he alone is the one who can hold judgment according to truth. But it is asked whether, toward those whose iniquities have been forgiven through the grace of baptism, or whose sins have been covered through repentance, or to whom sin is not to be imputed through the glory of martyrdom, God may be seen to preserve judgment according to truth. For the truth of judgment demands this, that the evil man receive evil things, and the good man good things: and although the gifts and bounty of God by no means admit the curiosity of one who scrutinizes them, nevertheless let us show even in this how great is the truth of his judgment. It is a common profession that the good ought not to be punished, nor the evil to obtain good things. If therefore there be someone, for example, who has at some time done evil things, it is certain that he was evil then, when he was doing evil things. But if he, repenting of things past, should correct his mind toward good things, and act well, speak well, think well, will well — he who does these things, does he not seem to you good, and deservedly to receive good things? Likewise also if someone should be turned from good to evil, he will no longer be judged good, which he was and is not, but evil, which he is. For acts, whether good or evil, pass away, but according to their own quality they stamp and shape the mind of the one acting, and leave it either good or evil, to be destined either for punishment or for rewards. It will therefore be unjust either that a good mind be punished for evil deeds, or that an evil one be rewarded for good acts. But that what we are saying may become still plainer, we shall add these things also: let us suppose there is a soul in which impiety, injustice, folly, and wantonness dwell, and the whole multitude of evils, to which, that is, it has subjected itself as their servant and handmaid. But if, returning into itself, this soul should open the door of its mind again to piety and to the virtues, will not piety, having entered, immediately drive out impiety? Likewise also justice will thrust out injustice, and wisdom folly, and sobriety will put wantonness to flight; and thus, the barbarian inhabitants having been driven out from itself, it will offer to the virtues a civil and lawful lodging. How then will it be just to accuse a soul now full of virtues concerning those things which it did when it was not yet a friend of the virtues, and to condemn one that is pious for impiety, one that is just for injustice, one that is sober for wantonness? In this manner, therefore, even in those whose iniquities have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered, God is to be believed to preserve judgment according to truth.
Romans 2:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But do you suppose this, O man, every one of you who judges those who do such things, and does them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?" If all the things which the Law speaks, it speaks to those who are under the Law, then the things which the Gospel, or the Apostle, now speaks, it speaks not to the princes of this age, nor to the kings of the world, but to the rulers and leaders of the Churches, namely to those who judge those who are within, that is, to bishops, or presbyters and deacons. To these, therefore, he says that they should not suppose they will escape the judgment of God, if they themselves commit those things concerning which they judge and condemn others. And therefore each one ought first to judge concerning his own conscience, and then to examine the deeds of him whom he judges. And if this were done, all ambition for approaching ecclesiastical honor would be utterly cut off, if those who wish to preside over peoples were to consider that they are rather to be judged than to judge. Let no one therefore suppose that he can escape the judgment of God, as the Prophet also says: "Whither shall I go from your spirit, and whither shall I flee from your face?" And because these things are said especially to those who preside over the judgments of peoples, therefore he says elsewhere also that "judgment begins at the house of God." And again elsewhere the Lord says: "In those who draw near to me I will be sanctified;" as was done in the case of Nadab and Abihu, when they offered strange fire, that is, not sacred fire, upon the divine altars. Judgment therefore begins first from the sons. For "God scourges every one whom he receives into the number of sons." But, as I reckon, not even if one could, ought he to wish to escape the judgment of God. For not to come to the judgment of God is to come neither to correction, nor to health, nor to remedy.
Romans 2:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and patience? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" That man can recognize the riches of God's goodness who considers how many evils men commit daily upon the earth, and how nearly all have turned aside and together become unprofitable, and walk the broad and spacious road of perdition, neglecting the narrow way of life — and yet, for all these, God daily brings forth his sun and supplies the rains; and he who considers how many blaspheme God daily, and stretch out their tongues against heaven. And what shall I say now of frauds, of violence, of crime, of sacrileges and of deeds requiring expiation? Yet among all these, in this passage, those seem to be given precedence in wickedness who, while judging others, themselves commit the very things they punish in the rest. If, therefore, anyone despises this goodness of God, and his forbearance, and his patience, he does not know that through these he is being summoned to repentance. But forbearance seems to differ from patience in this, that those who sin more from weakness than from deliberate purpose are said to be borne with; whereas those who with obstinate mind, as it were, exult in their offenses must be said to be endured patiently. But just as God made all things in measure and weight and number, so also there is a fixed measure of his patience — a measure which we must believe was filled up either by those who perished in the flood, or by those who were destroyed in Sodom by fire from heaven. Whence it is also said concerning the Amorites: "For the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up until now." God therefore bears patiently, and awaits the repentance of each one. But let this not make us lax and slow to conversion, since there is again a fixed measure of his patience and forbearance.
Romans 2:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works." A heart is said in the Scriptures to be hard when the human mind, bound fast as wax by the cold of iniquity, does not receive the impress of the divine image. This same thing is elsewhere called a thick heart, as when it is said: "The heart of this people has grown thick." But the opposite of hard is soft, which in the Scriptures is named a heart of flesh; and the opposite of thick is fine, or thin, which the Apostle calls the spiritual man — he who examines all things. Therefore, when someone knows what things are good, and does not do the good, he must be believed to hold contempt for all good things through hardness of heart. But thickness of heart is where the perception of subtle and spiritual understanding is not received; and thus a heart made impenitent treasures up for itself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, since the good work is not done because of hardness, while good understanding is shut out through the thickness of the heart. Concerning the wrath of God, both above — so far as the subject allowed — and in other places, it has often been discussed. But what he says, "You treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath," must be considered. That is called a treasury in which wealth and riches of various kinds are gathered together. Of this we read a threefold signification in the Scriptures. For in the Gospel there is said to be a certain treasure on earth, in which the Lord forbids treasure to be laid up; and another treasure in heaven, in which he bids all the faithful to store away their wealth; and here now the Apostle speaks of treasures of wrath. All men, therefore, through the things they do in this world, gather treasures in some one of these three. For either a man is unbelieving and unjust, and through hardness of heart and an impenitent heart stores up his deeds in the treasury of wrath. Or he is earthly, and is wise concerning the earth, and speaks of the earth, and when his field has brought him abundant fruits, he pulls down his barns and builds greater ones, and treasures up on earth. And the former indeed is called hard, but this one foolish. For it is said to him: "Fool, this night they will demand your soul from you, and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?" Or he is wise, and rich toward God, and while walking on earth has his conversation in heaven, and all that he does is worthy of the kingdom of heaven: and such a one lays up the treasures of his riches in heaven. Thus, then, the possessor and founder of each treasury may be called, the one a carnal man, another a natural (animal) man, and another a spiritual man. Now let us see what is the day of wrath which the Apostle here names — which, however, will more easily be recognized if we inquire what the rest of the Scriptures also indicate about it. Therefore we shall fit to the matter such examples as can come to hand at present, and from these it will be shown what the day of wrath is. It is written in the prophet Amos: "Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord. To what end is the day of the Lord for you? And it is darkness, and not light. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him, and he should enter into his house, and stretch out his hands to the wall, and a serpent should bite him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom that has no brightness?" But Joel also says to the priests and to those who serve at the altar: "Cry to the Lord without ceasing: Alas for me, alas for me for that day, for the day of the Lord is near, and it will come like misery out of misery!" And a little after: "Sound the trumpet in Zion, proclaim on my holy mountain, and let all who dwell upon the earth be confounded, for the day of the…
Romans 2:5 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
See how much sins accomplish, that we who sin are said to provoke to anger him in whom there is not only no affection of anger, but not even any other passible movement. Truly he remains unchangeable in his nature and is never disturbed by the affections of anger; but I, through the things in which I transgress, decree anger for myself, just as the Apostle says, teaching this very thing: "but according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up", he says, "for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works".
Romans 2:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now let us inquire concerning the just judgment of God, in which he will render to each one according to his works. And first indeed let the heretics be excluded, who speak of good or evil natures of souls; and let them hear that God will render to each one not according to nature, but according to his works. In the second place let the faithful be built up, lest they suppose that this alone can suffice for them, that they believe; but let them know that the just judgment of God renders to each one according to his works. Certainly, since he says that the just judgment of God consists in this, that he render to each one according to his works, it will seem that the Gentiles can by no means be excluded by this saying, if perhaps they too do good works and act more uprightly. But that also which is written in Ezekiel seems to be opposed to this opinion. For he says: "When the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity according to all the iniquities which the unjust man has done, all his acts of justice which he has done shall not be remembered in his lapse by which he has lapsed; but in his sins which he has sinned, in these he shall die." For indeed, if nothing of the just man's justice will be remembered when he has lapsed, how will God render to each one according to his works? But let us see whether perhaps the divine word may find its own resolution within itself, if we observe how it is written when it says: "When the just man has been turned away from his justice," and it was not enough for him to say: "When he has been turned away from his justice," but he added: "And has committed iniquity according to all the iniquities which the unjust man has done." In this he seems to have secretly inserted an understanding of this sort, so that if perhaps the just man has not acted according to all the iniquities which the unjust man has done, not all his acts of justice are taken away from memory; but if he has committed all the iniquities which the unjust man does, then at last all his acts of justice are withdrawn from memory in his lapse. Although the Holy Spirit has hidden these things in the Scriptures on account of those who despise the riches of his goodness and patience, nevertheless he has not utterly taken them away; because the treasure hidden in a field is indeed not found by all, lest it be easily plundered and perish: yet it is found by the prudent, who are able to go and sell all that they have, and buy that field. And so these things also, although they are hidden in the Scriptures, as it is written: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you!" — are nevertheless found by those who defend, from the things that are concealed in the mystery of the Scriptures, that the God of the law and the prophets is not only just, but also good. Of these things necessity has demanded that we disclose a few, for the sake of expounding the apostolic saying in which he says: "Of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works."
Romans 2:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"To those indeed who, according to the patience of good work, seek glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life; but to those who are of contention, and who indeed disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity, wrath and indignation: and tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to everyone that works good, to the Jew first, and to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons with God." To those who seek glory and honor and incorruption, he says, eternal life will be given in return for the patience of good work — not only to the Jews, to whom the oracles of God seem to have been entrusted, but also to the Greeks, because the judgment of God is just, and he is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. But to those who through contention of mind and depravity of soul do not believe the truth but follow iniquity, wrath and indignation are repaid, tribulation and anguish — not only to the Gentile, but also to the Jew, because there is no respect of persons with God. These things, indeed, so far as regards the order of the words. But now let us inquire into what pertains to the inner meaning. "To those," he says, "who through the patience of good work." In saying "the patience of good work," he shows that a certain labor and struggles are imminent for those who wish to do good work. For "our wrestling is," as the same Apostle also says, "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers, and the rulers of this world"; all of which are opposed to good work. And therefore patience is necessary, because it is written: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." But let us see what he calls good work. The Lord in the Gospel says of that woman who poured out the alabaster jar of precious ointment upon his head that "she has worked a good work upon me," indicating that he who pours ointment over the word of God — that is, who joins works to the word — works a good work. For the discourse becomes fragrant, filled with all the sweetness of ointments, when it has been adorned with work and deeds. Now let us inquire what it is to seek glory and incorruption. In many places of holy Scripture they write concerning glory. For in Exodus it is said of Moses that when he came down from the mountain his face was glorified. Recounting this, the Apostle says to the Corinthians: "But if the ministry of death, engraved in letters upon stones, was made in glory, so that the children of Israel could not look upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is done away; how much more shall the ministry of the Spirit be in glory! For if there is glory in the ministry of condemnation, how much more shall the ministry of justice abound in glory?" And a little after he adds: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." There is therefore, according to the Apostle, a certain glory which is not glorified — such as that which was on the face of Moses, which is said to have been destroyed, and which can be understood as the letter of the Law, having indeed a certain glory of precepts, but one which cannot be glorified. And there is another glory, which remains and is glorified in Christ. For when he had gone up into the mountain with Peter and James and John, he is written to have been transformed into glory. "And then there appeared," he says, "Moses and Elias talking with him." By which it is shown that the glory of the Law and of the prophets then appeared when Christ had been transformed in glory, so that prophecy and law, illuminated by his glory, with the veil of the letter removed, might be understood in the spirit. But since in Exodus also it is said that the glory of God filled the tabernacle of testimony; and again, at the dedication of the temple, that the glory of God nonetheless descended and filled the…
Romans 2:8-9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But to those who are contentious, and who indeed disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish." Whoever takes these words simply believes it enough for understanding that, according to what was said above, God renders to each one according to his works: that is, just as to those who by patience in good work seek glory and incorruption he renders eternal life, so also to these who out of contentiousness disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity he renders wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish. But whoever believes that in the apostolic writings, through which Christ speaks, not one iota or one tittle is idle, will affirm that it was not by mistake that the Apostle came to use such a manner of speech, saying: "Who will render to those indeed who by patience in good work seek glory and honor, eternal life." But of those who out of contentiousness obey iniquity, he did not say "wrath and indignation," so that this too should be referred to the "he will render" which he had said above; rather he says: "Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish." Hence he who is spiritual, and understands what the Spirit speaks in Paul, says that the Apostle wrote these things not through unskillfulness but through divine skill: namely, that by them he might show that those things which are to be rendered to such as seek glory and incorruption according to patience in good work are rendered by God — that is, eternal life; but that those things which follow upon such as through contentiousness disbelieve the truth and obey iniquity are not given by God, whose gifts are surely lasting and worthy of himself, but that out of the consequence of their own deeds there will be, for those who work evil, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, according to what they have treasured up for themselves. For surely, just as there he had put "eternal life" in the accusative case, so here too he would have put wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish in the accusative case, had he wished to refer it to the person of the God who renders. And this is understood to be indicated in like manner in other places of Scripture as well, as in the first book of Kings, where the Lord says: "Those who glorify me I will glorify; those who despise me shall be despised." In which it is plainly shown that the Lord says of those who are to be glorified that they are to be glorified by himself; but of those who are to be despised, that he did not refer it to himself, but said absolutely that they shall be despised. For if God bestowed evils through himself just as he furnishes goods through himself, it would follow that, in the same way as he said, "Those who glorify me I will glorify," so he would say: Those who despise me I will despise. But in another place too something similar seems to be shown through the prophet, in that those who go into the fire find it kindled not by God but by themselves, as Isaiah says: "Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled." And that the discussion of these things may become still plainer, let this also be added: If someone, against the physician's precept, has taken the juices of bad foods and, the body's balance being disturbed, has fallen into fevers or any diseases of this kind, it is certain that he has received the plague of his sickness not through the physician but through his own intemperance; but if, keeping the physician's precepts, he continues in soundness, he will surely be said to have the grace of health through the physician. In this way, then, it will consistently be seen that God himself through himself renders to each one according to his works, those which are good; but evils will be understood to come not from God, but from the worst juices of intemperance and the raw depravity of one's deeds. But let us not leave undiscussed this very thing which he said: "Who out of contentiousness indeed disbelieve the truth, but obey iniquity."…
Romans 2:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Yet why wrath and indignation to the Jew first, and to the Greek? Because glory and honor also belong to them first. For to them first were entrusted the oracles of God, and they themselves say: "Blessed are we, O Israel, for the things that please God are known to us." And therefore, according to the sentence of the Gospel, "the servant who knew his lord's will and did it not shall deservedly be beaten with many stripes" — this is the Jew; "but he who did not know it," the Greek, that is, the Gentile, "shall be beaten with few." For there is a difference between having known God and having known the will of God, since God could be known "from the creation of the world through the things that were made" even by the Gentiles, and "his eternal power and divinity"; but his will is known only from the Law and the prophets. But since the Apostle puts the Jews first and the Greeks after, both for punishment and for reward, we must inquire whom he wishes to be understood here as Greeks and whom as Jews. If he calls those Jews who are still under the Law and do not come to Christ, and calls Christians Greeks — that is, those who believe from among the nations — he seems to go against the sense of the whole mystery. For how shall those be called first of whom it was said: "Behold, the first shall be last"; and to whom again he says: "Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate"? And again, when the Savior had come to the fig tree on which he found no fruit, he said that "never let fruit be born from you." And two peoples were signified in the womb of Rebecca, of whom it is said that "the elder shall serve the younger," and the younger received the blessing of the birthright. But you will find countless other things of this sort in the Scriptures. If, however, he calls us Jews — that is, Christians, and those who have believed out of every race, whom he himself calls Jews in secret — it remains that he calls those Gentiles Greeks who have not yet believed. But how does the Apostle set so great a hope before Gentiles who have not yet believed, when the ecclesiastical rule seems to stand in the way, which lays down that "unless one be born again of water and the Holy Spirit," he cannot "enter into the kingdom of heaven"; and again Peter in the Acts of the Apostles declares concerning Christ, saying: "For neither is there any other name under heaven whereby we must be saved"? How then does he here make the nations partakers of glory and honor and peace in the second place after the Jews? But let us see whether perhaps that goodness and sweetness of God which is wont to be hidden in the holy Scriptures may here too be contriving something secret. In this passage the Apostle seems to me to have made three orders. For first he speaks of those "who by patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruption," that God renders to them "eternal life." But it is certain that patience in good work is found in those who endure the contests and struggles of piety — which we expounded above to be said plainly of Christians, among whom martyrs are made. This is proved also by what the Lord says to the apostles, that "you shall have tribulation in this world, and the world shall rejoice, but you shall mourn"; and he added a little later: "In your patience you shall gain your souls." It belongs, then, to Christians to suffer oppression in this age and to mourn, and theirs is eternal life. And do you wish to know that eternal life belongs to no one except him who believes in Christ? Hear the voice of the Savior himself plainly declaring it in the Gospels: "But this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Everyone therefore who has not acknowledged the Father, the only true God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, is a stranger to the eternity of life. For this very acknowledgment and faith is designated as eternal life. This, then, is the first place, that of Christians, to whom, as they seek glory…
Romans 2:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
From this, finally, comes what he adds in this passage: "For there is no respect of persons with God." But if this still seems doubtful to you, hear also what Peter declares in the Acts of the Apostles, when he had entered in to the Gentile Cornelius: "I find," he says, "that God is not a respecter of persons, but in every place and in every nation, he who does his will is accepted by him." But it can be objected against us what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Everyone who believes in me shall not be judged. But he who does not believe is already judged, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." But let us see how we who believe in Christ are not judged, that we may know how he too who does not believe is already judged. Do we suppose, perhaps, that one who has believed in Christ and after this has committed murder or adultery, or has borne false witness, or has done something of this kind — things we sometimes see even the faithful commit — that for these he who has believed in Christ will now not be judged? It is certain that all these come to judgment; and therefore the Lord's word which he says, "He who believes in me shall not be judged," is to be understood thus: that according to the fact that he has believed he shall not be judged as an unbeliever and faithless man; but concerning his own acts he shall without doubt be judged. So then he too who does not believe is already judged according to the fact that he has not believed; and just as for the believer, if he has committed anything of sin outside, his faith being safe, judgment remains: so also for the unbeliever, if he has done any good work, apart from his unbelief, the reward will not perish. Unless perhaps someone should wish to object something harsh and intolerable, so as to say that he who sins is not to be counted among believers; because if a man believes, he does not sin; but if he sins, by this very fact he is convicted of not believing. But I think it is doubtful to no one how hard this opinion is. For how few will be found on earth who so balance their life as to fail in nothing whatever? But John the Apostle too in his Epistle plainly marks an opinion of this sort, when he says: "If anyone says that he has no sin, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if we confess our sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the just, who entreats for our sins." These things, then, have been discussed by us in this passage as far as we could, considering also what the Apostle says: "Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also"; so that through these things the explanation may become clearer of how Jews are placed first, and then Greeks, by the Apostle. But nevertheless let it be in the judgment of the reader to test what has been said. We, however, have brought many things into the treatment, lest we should seem to leave anything of the Apostle's meaning undiscussed.
Romans 2:12-13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For whoever have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Since the Apostle says that those who have sinned without the law will perish without the law, the question arises whether this is to be understood of the law of Moses alone, or also of the law of Christ, or even of any human law whatsoever under which it happens that each mortal lives, so that whoever sins under it may be judged according to it; or whether he who is outside the law of Moses alone, even if he lives under some law, perishes when he has sinned as one placed outside the law. For the apostle Paul himself, when he says that to those who are without the law he became as one without the law, adds: "though I was not without the law, but was in the law of Christ," and thereby shows that he was indeed not in the law of Moses, yet was under a law. But consider too whether human laws, as we have said, ought to be reckoned for this same purpose. As for the natural law, however, which is present in all men alike, it must be considered whether it makes nearly all men sin within a law, as he says in what follows: "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things that belong to the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves, and they show the work of the law written in their hearts." Unless perhaps we should say that those are placed outside the law who obey neither written laws, nor conscience, nor their own thoughts rebuking and accusing them. But how does he say, "As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law"? Surely he who is in the law of Christ shall be judged by the law of Christ, and he who is in the law of Moses shall be judged by the law of Moses; nor is he who is under the law of Christ — although he may also seem to be subject to the law of Moses — to be thought judged according to it as to why he is not circumcised, or why he does not keep the Sabbath. And even if he is to be thought judged according to the law of Moses, he will be judged according to that respect in which the law is spiritual. For this is what it means that not the hearer of the law but the doer is justified. But as to the fact that he who has sinned without the law seems to be struck with the heavier sentence, since he is pronounced destined to perish — whereas surely he might seem worthy of some pity, having had no help from the law — let us see whether here again, as we have shown in other places, some divine goodness lies hidden, which He always hides for those who fear Him. For perhaps it is on this account that the Lord Himself shows in the Gospel that He has a more eager care for those who perish, when He says that "the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which had perished." And again He says: "I was not sent except to the sheep that have perished of the house of Israel." And David says: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant." Moreover, in the Gospel the drachma which had been lost is found by the woman when the house has been cleaned; and the father rejoices over the younger son who repents, who "was dead, and is alive again; had perished, and is found," more than over the one who had not perished nor been found. Which younger son, as I judge, had already fled even from the natural law itself: for this seems to be indicated in his consuming, by living luxuriously, the portion of his father's substance that fell to him. Moreover, in the prophet Ezekiel it is charged against the shepherds that they did not bind up the weak, and did not seek what had perished; and a little later the Lord Himself says: "And what has perished," He says, "I will seek out." Yet it must be observed that in all these passages God is nowhere said to have destroyed anyone, but each one suffers of himself this perishing, as he says in this very…
Romans 2:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things that are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves: who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending one another, in the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men, according to my Gospel, through Jesus Christ." It is certain that the Gentiles, who do not have the law, are not said to do by nature the things that are of the law with regard to Sabbaths or New Moons, or the sacrifices which are written in the law. For this law is not written in the hearts of the Gentiles; but this is what they can perceive by nature: for example, that they should not commit murder, not commit adultery, not steal, not bear false witness; that they should honor father and mother, and things like these. Perhaps too the fact that God is the one creator of all things is written in the hearts of the Gentiles. Nevertheless, these things which are said to be written in the heart seem to me to accord rather with the laws of the Gospel, where all things are referred back to natural equity. For what is so close to natural perceptions as that men should not do to others what they do not wish to be done to themselves? But the natural law can agree with the law of Moses according to the spirit, not according to the letter. For what natural understanding will there be in this, for instance, that one should circumcise an infant on the eighth day, or that wool should not be woven together with linen, or that no one should eat anything leavened on the day of the New Things? And when we had several times put these objections to the Jews, and demanded that they show what usefulness there might be in them, we know that they were accustomed to reply only this: that so it seemed good to the lawgiver. But we who hold that all these things are to be understood spiritually, for that reason also believe that not the hearers but the doers of the law are to be justified — not of the law according to the letter, which certainly, on account of its impossibility, cannot have a doer, but according to the spirit, through which alone the law can be fulfilled. This, then, is the work of the law which the Apostle says even the Gentiles can fulfill by nature. For when they do the things that are of the law, the law seems to be "written" in their hearts by God, "not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God."
Romans 2:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as for his saying "in the hearts," it must not be supposed that the law is said to be written in that member of the body which is called the heart. For how could flesh either put forth such perceptions of prudence, or contain such great storehouses of memory? But it must be understood that the rational power of the soul is customarily called the heart. And the Apostle says that those who hold the law inscribed in their hearts make use of the testimony of a sound conscience. Hence it seems necessary to examine what this is that the Apostle calls conscience: whether it is some substance other than the heart or the soul. For this conscience is spoken of elsewhere too, in that it rebukes and is not rebuked, and judges the man and is not itself judged, as John says: "If our conscience," he says, "does not rebuke us, we have confidence toward God." And again Paul himself says elsewhere that "this is our glorying, the testimony of our conscience." Since therefore I see so great a freedom in it, which in good deeds indeed always rejoices and exults, but in evil ones is not itself accused, but rebukes and accuses the very soul to which it clings, I judge that it is that spirit which is said by the Apostle to be with the soul, according to what we have taught above — joined to it as a kind of tutor and guide, so that it may admonish it concerning better things, or chastise and accuse it for its faults; concerning which the Apostle also says that "no man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him"; and that this is the spirit of conscience, of which he says: "The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit." And perhaps this is that very spirit which clings to the souls of the just, which have been obedient to it in all things; and therefore it is written: "Praise the Lord, you spirits and souls of the just." But if the soul has been disobedient and defiant toward it, it will be divided from it after death, and separated. And on this account I think it was said in the Gospel concerning the wicked steward, that "the Lord will divide him, and will set his portion with the unbelievers." Perhaps this is the spirit of which it is written, that "the spirit in men is incorruptible." And according to what we said above, that it is divided and separated from the sinful soul, so that the soul may receive its portion with the unbelievers, that saying too can likewise be applied to these matters: "There shall be two in the field, one shall be taken and one shall be left; and two at the mill, one shall be taken and one shall be left." So much concerning what is written: "Their conscience bearing witness."
Romans 2:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now let us see what follows: "And their thoughts among themselves accusing one another, or even defending them, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospel, through Jesus Christ." Who would doubt that the judgment of God is right, where accusers and defenders and witnesses are employed? And indeed from this just judgment of God let us men take an example, and let us never suppose that a judgment can be held just without an accuser, and a defender, and witnesses. Next we must see how, on that day when God shall judge the secrets of men, the thoughts will either accuse the soul or defend it — not, surely, those thoughts which shall then exist, but these which are now in us. For when we think either good things or evil, just as upon wax tablets, so in our heart there are left behind certain marks and impressions of both good and evil thoughts, which, now placed in the hidden part of the breast, are said to be revealed on that day by no other than him who alone can know the secrets of men; and our own conscience too will bear witness that the causes of those signs, or of those marks, are not hidden from God. Yet this judgment, according to Paul's Gospel (that is, the one which Paul announces), will take place through Jesus Christ, "for the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." Marcion, however, and all who by their various fabrications introduce diverse natures of souls, are most plainly refuted from this passage, since Paul says that God judges the secrets of men through Jesus Christ: and it is shown that each one is to be judged not by the privilege of nature, but accused or excused by his own thoughts, by the testimony of his own conscience.
Romans 2:17-24 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and glory in God, and know his will, and approve the more useful things, being instructed by the law, and are confident that you are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abominate idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who glory in the law, by transgression of the law do you dishonor God. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written." Just as we have observed in the prophetic Scriptures that not only is the person of the speaker secretly and suddenly changed, but also that of those to whom the discourse is addressed, or concerning whom it is made — for example, that some things are said now in the person of the Father, now of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, now also in the person of the prophet, or of any others whatever; and that now indeed the discourse is directed to the people of Israel, now to foreign nations, or to kings, and to a thousand others — so it seems to me that this Epistle also was written to the Romans in such a way that at times the person of the speaker is changed, and sometimes indeed the spiritual Paul speaks, as in many places of the Epistle; but sometimes the carnal Paul, as, for example, when he says: "But I am carnal, sold under sin," as will be shown when, with the Lord's guidance, we come to that very passage. And at times there occurs also a change of the persons to whom the discourse is addressed, so that now it is said to the whole Church of the Romans: "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is announced in the whole world"; but in other places not to the whole Church, but to everyone who judges another and himself does those things which he condemns in others, and is inexcusable. But now this discourse is made neither to the Church nor to him who judges, in which he says: "But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and glory in God, and know his will," and the rest, as far as that passage: "And the uncircumcision which is by nature, fulfilling the law, shall judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law." Just as in the prophetic Scriptures he who wishes to grasp the understanding of what is written must attend vigilantly to the persons — whether of those speaking, or of those to whom, or of those about whom the discourse is made — so now, it seems to me, must we proceed in the Epistle to the Romans. But let us now see what those things are which the Apostle says to him who is called a Jew. For first this must be observed, that he did not say of him: "But if you" are a Jew; but, "you are called a Jew": because to be a Jew and to be called a Jew are not the same thing. For Paul himself teaches in what follows that he is truly a Jew who is circumcised "in secret" with the circumcision of the heart, who keeps the law "in the spirit, not the letter," "whose praise is not from men, but from God." But he who is circumcised "openly, in the flesh," observing the law for this purpose, that he may be seen by men — he is not truly a Jew, but is called one. For concerning these the Apostle himself also says: "Behold the circumcision: for we are the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit." But John too in the Apocalypse speaks thus of certain ones: "Who say that they are Jews, and are not": whom he also declares to be "of the synagogue of Satan." Yet it must be known that he who is "in secret" and truly a Jew draws his name from that Judah of whom it is written: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you: your hands shall be upon the back of your enemies. Judah is a lion's whelp," and the rest, which were prophesied concerning the Lo…
Romans 2:25 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcision keep the righteous requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned as circumcision? And shall not that which by nature is uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God." What that circumcision may be which the Apostle says profits, or what law it is that profits if it be kept, seems to require a rather careful inquiry, so that when we have understood these things we too may be able to be circumcised. For indeed, if circumcision profits, according to the word of the Apostle saying that "circumcision profits, if you keep the law," the Apostle himself in what follows teaches that it is not "that circumcision which is outward in the flesh," but "the circumcision of the heart," made through the spirit, not through the letter, that has praise not from men but from God. And elsewhere he says: "Behold the circumcision: for we are the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit, and put no confidence in the flesh." This, as I think, is the circumcision which the Apostle says profits, if you keep the law: not the law of the letter, whose circumcision in the flesh you certainly do not receive, but the law of the spirit, according to which you are circumcised in heart. "For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life," since the law of God also is reported to be "written not with ink," but with the finger of God, which is His Spirit, "and not on tablets of stone, but on the tablets of the heart." But it can be objected to us that, if the Apostle says that circumcision profits — which surely is understood to be nothing else than the purging of the soul and the casting off of vices — how does he still add that a circumcision of this kind profits only then if you keep the law, when this very circumcision seems to come about from nothing else than the observance of the law? But consider whether perhaps to cut away vices and to cease from evils signifies circumcision, while to do the things that are good and to accomplish the things that are perfect is to keep the law. For perfection does not consist in this, that one cease from evils, but in this, that one do good things, as we are more plainly taught in the Psalm, when it says: "Turn away from evil" — and it did not stop there, but added: "and do good." Similarly, therefore, the Apostle also, as one steeped in these things, says that circumcision and the casting off of evils profits only then, if you keep the law of good things. For no one can be perfect if he has done nothing evil, but only if he has done something good. Whence that very circumcision also which was performed in the flesh will be signified not apart from the image of this understanding which we are now expounding. Indeed, it was given to little ones on the eighth day, who assuredly had as yet done no work at all. But if anyone should bring forward to us that passage which is set down at the beginning of the book of Job concerning his praise, where it is said: "And Job was a man truthful, blameless, just, a worshipper of God, abstaining from every evil thing" — as to why, when the praise of good work comes first, abstinence from evil is reckoned last: I think indeed that this indicates what often is wont to happen, namely that very many men do indeed the things that are good, yet mix in also something of evil work; but few are such as Job, who are so truthful and irreproachable, so just and worshippers of God, that while doing all these things they abstain from every evil thing. "If therefore," he says, "you are a transgressor of th…
Romans 2:26-27 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, shall not that which is by nature uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?" We said above that the Apostle is discussing two Jews and two circumcisions, and that he mentions now the carnal, now the spiritual. In the present passage, therefore, he seems to call "uncircumcision" the Gentiles, who came to faith in Christ while in the uncircumcision of the flesh: these, as keepers of the spiritual law, he sets alongside and compares with the Jews, who by the letter and the circumcision of the flesh are transgressors of the law, and whom he says are to be judged by those in whom there is not circumcision of the flesh but observance of the law. And from this comparison we can also admonish our own people in the Church; for example, if we were to say that catechumens, or even the heathen, are still in uncircumcision, and that the faithful have been circumcised through the grace of baptism. If, then, a catechumen who has not yet been circumcised through the grace of the laver keeps the law of Christ, and guards its righteous requirements and commandments, does he not by this comparison judge the man who is called faithful and does not keep the precepts, but despises the law of Christ and his commandments? Indeed, the Lord himself said: "The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and shall condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon." Let this much, then, be said by us for the instruction of the Church. But consider whether that other understanding also can be admitted in this passage: that it may be said that even after the coming of Christ the circumcision of the flesh, which is observed from the law, is of some profit to those who keep the law — according to the fact that in the beginning of our faith it was still observed by believers, as is taught in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter did in the distinguishing of foods, or Paul in the sacrifices of purification; whether perhaps here too the Apostle may seem to have set forth a circumcision of this sort, which he says profits only if the law is also kept; and if not, this circumcision is to be turned into uncircumcision, that is, it will profit nothing — indeed, that he even incurs the greater judgment who by circumcision of the flesh appears to profess observance of the law, and by transgressing the law is judged by him who has not indeed received the circumcision of the flesh, yet has kept the righteous requirements of the law. If, then, this sense too ought to be accepted, do you also who read observe that, since the Apostle himself professes that to the Jews he becomes a Jew, and to those who are without the law as one without the law, and becomes all things to all, that he may gain all — whether perhaps for this reason he seems here to concede to the Jews what, writing to the Galatians, he does not concede to those who had believed from among the Gentiles. For he says: "Because if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." Circumcision, then, profited nothing to those who supposed that something of justification was received from it; but it did profit those who thought that they must not come to Christ if they were forbidden to circumcise their sons. For there were some in the beginnings who kept circumcision with excessive love, as it were the native badge of their nation; and they seemed to be hindered from the faith if that were forbidden them which they could not do without. Therefore the Apostle seems to speak to men of this sort, lest he shut the door of faith against them, saying: "Circumcision profits, if you keep the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision." On the contrary, however, if believers from among the Gentiles were compelled to circumcision, injury would seem to be done…
Romans 2:28-29 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Come now, following him who said "that the law is spiritual," and who says of the things related in the law that they were spoken by way of allegory, let us see also what is to be thought about circumcision according to the allegorical laws. I know that many have delivered sayings or writings on this subject; but we too shall add what the Lord may grant to those things which seem to have been fittingly composed by others. To circumcise is to cut away some part from the generative member, through which the succession of the human race and the propagation of the flesh is administered. By this, therefore, I think it is figuratively indicated that there must be cut away from the soul any impurity that has clung to it from its association with the flesh, if any sense of ill-persuading lust has covered it over. Therefore this cutting is inflicted not upon other members but upon the genital members, so that it may be made clear that vices of this kind come to the soul not from its own substance, but from the innate motion and incitement of the flesh. But as to the circumcision being given on the eighth day, I judge that this is signified: that to the present age the week of seven days has been assigned, while the eighth day holds the mystery of the age to come. Theirs, then, is the spiritual circumcision who serve as soldiers of the age to come, in which "they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God"; and theirs "who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God," and whose "conversation is in heaven" though they walk upon earth, and who look not at the things "which are seen, but at the things which are not seen," and who know that "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." But, as we mentioned above, it has also been said by others that spiritual circumcision is to cut away and cast off from the heart every unclean thought and impure perception. Yet against explanations of this sort there stands what is reported as written in Ezekiel, where the Lord says: "Every son of a stranger, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall not enter into my sanctuary, among all the sons of strangers who are in the midst of the house of Israel." For plainly the prophetic word in this place points to two circumcisions when it says: "Uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh." Hence we are compelled, according to the laws of allegory, to assign the forms and kinds of each circumcision — although this same objection might also be brought against us in the interpretations we set forth above. But for the present let us pursue what figure of the two circumcisions may be maintained according to allegory; and let us see whether perhaps it may be referred to two general classes of sin, in which it is not expedient to be uncircumcised, that is, in faith and in works: so that he is uncircumcised in heart who does not have faith, and uncircumcised in flesh who does not have works. For the one without the other is rejected, since faith without works is said to be dead, and from works without faith no one is justified before God. Thus then, as I judge, the prophetic saying will be fittingly applied to the people of the faithful, to whom it is said: "Every stranger who is among you in the midst of the house of Israel, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall not enter into my sanctuary" — which is doubtless the same thing that the Lord also says in the Gospel: "He who believes in me keeps my commandments"; and again: "He who hears these my words, and does them"; and again: "But why do you say to me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say?" You see, then, that everywhere faith is joined with works, and works are associated with faith. And so it is circumcision of the heart to think nothing sordid, nothing unworthy concerning the faith. Circumcision of the flesh is to commit nothing unclean, nothing defiled in deed and action. For…
Romans 3:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
In this Epistle Paul, sitting as a kind of arbiter between the Jews and the Greeks — that is, those who believe from among the Gentiles — so summons and invites both to faith in Christ that he neither gives offense to the Jews by utterly destroying the Jewish rites, nor casts the Gentiles into despair by confirming the observance of the law and the letter; and whether he makes mention of the promises or of the punishments, he divides his word to each people. As, for example, when he says: "But to those who are of contention, and who indeed distrust the truth, but believe iniquity, wrath and indignation: tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek." This concerns the punishments. But concerning the promises he adds: "But glory, and honor, and peace to everyone that worketh good, to the Jew first, and to the Greek." Again he seems to speak of the Gentiles: "For whosoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law." And again of the circumcised: "And as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." But again, lifting up the Gentiles, he says: "For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts," and so forth. And again he turns his discourse to the Jews, saying: "But if thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law," and the rest, up to that place where he says: "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." And lest he should seem to be excessive in his rebukes of the Jews, he says: "Circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou keep the law." But again, lest he should exalt those who place too much glory in circumcision, he added: "But if thou art a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." And in order to lift up a little also the spirits of those who believe from among the Gentiles, he adds: "But if the uncircumcision keep the just ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision?" And that he might more strongly raise up the spirits of the Gentiles, and that they might know that they can, if they observe the law more perfectly, even become better than the Jews, he says: "And that which by nature is uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, shall judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law." But since he knew that there are many promises in the Law and the Prophets which seem to be made to the Jews, lest the Gentiles should be able to despair as though they had no fellowship in the promises there recorded, he teaches them that according to the mystical reckoning they too are Jews, and have circumcision. Therefore he says: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." But since in all these things he had in a certain way made the cause of the Gentiles superior, again, as though meeting the complaints of those who are of the circumcision, he sets before himself the things which are contained in the present chapter, saying: "What then is the advantage of the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way." If therefore, he says, he "who is a Jew outwardly, and that which is circumcision outwardly in the flesh," is not reckoned as such, "but he who is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision of the heart," which is made "in the spirit," is itself the true circumcision, you will say to me: What is the advantage in those Jews who are reckoned by this appellation? or what profit is held in bodily circumcision? To these things, lest he should seem to have sat as a less than just arbiter between the two peoples, he declares what advantage the Jew has, and that circumcision which is in the flesh,…
Romans 3:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The oracles of God, therefore, were entrusted to those first ones of whom we spoke above; but some, as he says, did not believe, whether God or the oracles of God. You see that those who do not believe are themselves according to the flesh, of whom he says also elsewhere: "The natural man does not perceive the things which are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him." But their unbelief does not make void the faith of God. By "the faith of God" we understand either that faith which God has toward those to whom he entrusts his own oracles, or that faith by which those believe God who receive the divine oracles from him. We are admonished, therefore, that when the unfaithfulness of those who either do not come to faith, or fall away from it, perchance mocks us as we perform the works of faith—whether when we fast, or when we do deeds of mercy, or when we devote ourselves to study and to the law of God, or even when we endure torments for the martyrdom of Christ—we should always remember that their unfaithfulness does not make void the faith of God which is in us.
Romans 3:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things, what follows seems indeed to have been joined on with less orderly arrangement; for he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." Nevertheless, by a certain turn of thought we shall attempt to fit this to what precedes. Although, he says, some of the Jews have not believed, yet concerning their unfaithfulness this must be said, that God alone is true, but every man is a liar: because even if someone is just, it is nevertheless necessary that in some point he fall away from the truth, which it is well-nigh impossible for human nature to preserve in all things. Since, therefore, every man is a liar, on this account certain of the Jews, as lying men, did not believe. For since every man is a liar, necessarily on that day, when the Lord shall come to judgment with men, he alone will be justified in his words. For his words are true in all things, because they are the words of truth. But that the Lord comes to judgment with men, the prophet says: "Come, and let us be judged together, says the Lord"; and: "The Lord himself will come to judgment with the elders of the people"; and again: "Remember thou, and let us be judged, says the Lord." These things the Apostle introduced with an eye to that objection which he sets before himself in another place, where he says: "But if our injustice commends the justice of God." Concerning which we shall inquire when we come to its place. Now, therefore, let us see what it is that he says: "But let God become true, and every man a liar." For thus it stands in the Greek copies. For the Latins read "let him be" (sit) instead of "let him become" (fiat). First, then, this is to be known, that what he said, "let it become," he does not say in the imperative mood. For it is foolish if it be thought that God must be commanded to become true. But just as we say: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth"; or, as again we say: "Let peace be made in thy strength"—not commanding, but wishing, nay rather declaring, and so forth, since peace cannot be made except in the power of God—so also here the saying is to be taken as that of one declaring: "But let God become true, and every man a liar." But this too is to be known, that this saying, that is, "Every man is a liar," is taken from the one hundred and fifteenth psalm, where it says: "I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar." But here, for the more evident illumination of the Apostle's meaning, let it not seem burdensome to readers if we briefly expound the content of the psalm itself, from which he takes his testimony. It seems to me, then, that the Prophet is announcing some such meaning as this. Although there are, he says, many doctrines among men, and many philosophize about the search for truth, and although in all these questions the Son of God ought to come first: others indeed, who sought without first believing, did not find; but I, because I believed before I sought, therefore found what I was seeking, and not only found it, but also spoke, and announced to the peoples the truth I had found. Nor yet, having found the truth, was I lifted up in wisdom, nor puffed up in my knowledge; but I was all the more humbled, when I recognized and understood that it is the Lord who teaches all knowledge. Then, considering what things and how many the men — whether among the philosophers or among the rest of the barbarians — have said about truth, and that, though saying much with great labor, they found nothing, because they did not believe before they sought: considering all their sayings or writings, and being placed in an ecstasy of mind, that is, struck with astonishment of heart, because all those volumes of the philosophers, which seemed composed in splendid and dazzling speech, stood far off from the truth, being placed in ecstasy and in astonishment of mind I said: "Every man is a liar." But I, to whom God had shown…
Romans 3:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if our iniquity commends the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. God forbid. Otherwise, how shall God judge this world? For if the truth of God has abounded through my lie unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? and not (as we are blasphemed, and as some affirm that we say) let us do evil that good may come? whose condemnation is just." Perhaps the order of speaking arranged by the apostle Paul through nearly the whole text of this Epistle will seem highly inconsequent, since his discourse is now directed against the Gentiles, now moderated on behalf of the Gentiles, and again is set against the Jews, and again concerning the Jews, or even on behalf of the Jews; and of these same people he calls some worthy of praise and censures others. And this variety of meanings will again be thought to have led him outside the lines of the subject he had proposed — as when he employs that exclamation in which he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar"; or even that which he consequently adds when he says: "But if our iniquity commends the justice of God," and the rest, so that by this he may seem to have slipped from one digression into another. But we who believe him when he says that "he has made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit," find his meaning far loftier than the method of human art is believed to possess. For through the whole text of this Epistle he wishes to trace what salvation there was even before the coming of Christ for those living according to the law; or how, through the coming of the Savior, salvation is in turn conferred upon the Gentiles out of the unbelief of Israel; and again, that neither do the Gentiles come to salvation in their entirety, but only those who have believed; nor is Israel cast off in its entirety, but "the remnant" of believers "shall be saved." And for this reason the order of speaking seems, as I said, confused, while he pursues the diversities of believers and unbelievers on both sides. In these matters he necessarily turns his discourse also to God, so that amid all these differences of acceptances and rejections he may teach that the judgments of God are indeed true and just, but that much falsehood abounds among men; and therefore he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar; as it is written: That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged" — concerning which we have spoken above as far as we were able. Seeing then that a plausible objection could be raised against him from the contrary side — namely, that if it is necessary for every man to be a liar in order that God may be true, and if the justice of God is commended through the injustice of men, then God will seem unjust who inflicts wrath upon men, since he sees his own justice approved through the injustice of men: for if our injustice, that is, the injustice of men, commends the justice of God, then surely those men will not seem worthy of punishment through whom the justice of God is held to be more provable and more manifest — But God forbid, he says, that we should accept it thus, that God should seem unjust who brings wrath against men. For how shall he be thought unjust who judges the world, since by the very name of judge it is shown that he does nothing without judgment? And where there is judgment, it is agreed that there is justice; for justice is named both judge and judgment. If then, as unjust men, he says, happen to assert of us, "the truth of God has abounded through my lie," then it is superfluous that "I am judged as a sinner." But rather that will be seen wherein they blaspheme us, he says, as though we were seen to say this: if the truth of God is more displayed in the lie of men, and his justice is proved through the injustice of men, then let us "do evil, that" out of evils "good may come"; and let us lie, so that from our lie the truth of G…
Romans 3:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as to what he says: "Otherwise how shall God judge the world," in this passage by "world" he means the men who are in this world, just as we read elsewhere, "that the whole world lies in the evil one"; which surely shows that the men who dwell in this world are set in wickedness.
Romans 3:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After this let us now see how it was said: "For if the truth of God has abounded in my lie unto His glory." There are in this world many kinds of religions, many sects of philosophers, many teachings handed down with false assertions and composed with lying arguments, whose authors — though under a false title of wisdom — are nevertheless held to be men of no slight or contemptible authority; and it is from their prestige that false things have been received as true, so that they have taken possession of almost the entire world with lying opinions about religion, so that even the elect, if it can be said, were being led into error. Since therefore the truth of God, and His wisdom, and His Word, coming into the world, reproved and refuted every lie, and cut away all the assertions of false teachings by the faith of the truth, through each single lie which had previously been asserted by men the truth of God abounded, by exposing the surreptitious plausibilities and by handing down, in each and every teaching, the simple truth of the faith: and in this way the Apostle says that the truth of God abounded in the lie of men. But, that what we are saying may become still clearer, let us bring forward some things by way of example. There was among men a teaching which declared that the highest good is pleasure; and in this it is consequently asserted also that there is no Providence, since one must live not by laws but by pleasure: and these things are set out through innumerable volumes with such abundant and ornate speech and with the most forceful arguments. But observe now how he who defends the truth of God, and who is a philosopher according to Christ, who is the truth of God and the wisdom of God, teaches men that the highest good is eternal life; and that this is eternal life, that men should know the one only true God, and His Son Jesus Christ: and how with all confidence he asserts the providence of God, saying: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them falls to the ground without the Father's will?" and that He Himself "commands His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust." Now through each of these things, while those teachings of a false knowledge are refuted, the truth of God abounds in the lie of men. There are likewise others who say that there are three kinds of good: one pertaining to the soul, another pertaining to bodies, a third external. Since each of these is held to be advantageous, they affirm that the highest good consists of them. These men too, cutting back the providence of God, contend that it extends only as far as the sphere of the moon, but that below that, that is, to men, it by no means descends. There are likewise others who say that nothing invisible or incorporeal exists, but assign all things that are to bodies, whence they have also said that God, the Father of all, is a body. But because the consistency of their own reasoning pressed them — by which it stands that every body is corruptible, so that if they assert that God too is a body, they must without doubt confess Him to be corruptible as well — they turned a trick of words, and said that He is indeed of a corruptible nature, yet is not corrupted, because there is nothing superior to Him by which He could be corrupted or dissolved. There are also innumerable other fabrications of men, put together with dialectical subtleties and the deceit of sophisms. And when the truth of God, through churchmen instructed in divine wisdom, convicts each of these, and refutes the snares of their arguments, the truth of God is said to abound in the lie of men — and not only to abound, but to abound unto His glory. Which I think is to be understood in this way: if a teacher of the Church instructs hearers who are simple and not yet taken up with false teachings, and opens to them the account of the divine truth concerning each several matter, in teaching of this kind the truth of God will be seen to a…
Romans 3:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
He therefore who has understood in this way will certainly not say what is put forward in what follows as a foolish objection: "Why am I still also judged as a sinner?" but he perceives that he is deservedly to be judged, if he remains in the lie of men: and he who, according to what we have expounded above, being convicted by the truth of God perceives that he has erred, turning from his error glorifies the true God when the truth is recognized, and no longer blasphemes those who preach the truth, as though they said: "Let us do evil that good may come," knowing that in such a saying the condemnation of the blasphemer is just. It must also be observed that of those who preach the truth he said not so much that they are spoken ill of, which pertains to men, but that they are blasphemed, which pertains to God.
Romans 3:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"What then do we hold further? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written: That there is none righteous, none that understands, none that seeks after God. All have turned aside, they have together become unprofitable; there is none that does goodness, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they dealt deceitfully, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes." We have already said beforehand that in this Epistle Paul, like a kind of arbiter between those who have believed from the circumcision and those from the Gentiles, always tempers and balances his speech, so that now these, now those he seems to reprove in certain matters, and again he encourages each party with the sure hope of the promise. Since therefore he had seemed in the earlier passages to say that if the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, it shall judge him who in circumcision is a transgressor of the law: again, in order to lift up those whom he had humbled, he added: "What then is the advantage of the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. First indeed, because to them were entrusted the oracles of God." After these things, when he had gone on consequently with certain matters connected with these, he now adds and says: "What then do we hold further? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." But if all are under sin, then there will be no cause of boasting for the one against the other, since each comes to salvation not out of his own righteousness, but out of God's mercy. He proved therefore that the Greeks, that is, the Gentiles, are under sin, when he says: "For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools: and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents: wherefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind," and the rest: and the Jews, when he says: "But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law," and the rest. To which he added: "You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? you who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?" and so forth. After these things therefore he says that "we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." But after this, as is his custom, he wishes to confirm from the holy Scriptures what he had said; and at the same time he offers an example to the teachers of the Church, that the things they speak to the people they should bring forward not presumed from their own opinions, but fortified by divine testimonies. For if he himself, so great and such an Apostle, does not believe that the authority of his own words can suffice unless he shows that what he says is written in the Law and the Prophets, "how much more ought we, the least, to observe this, that when we teach we bring forward not our own opinions, but those of the Holy Spirit?" This too we consider must necessarily be pointed out, that in some Latin copies the testimonies which follow are found placed consecutively and in full in the thirteenth psalm; but in almost all the Greek copies there is no more in the thirteenth psalm than up to that verse where it is written: "There is none that does good, there is not so much as one." But also what the Apostle said: "As it is written: That there is none righteous: none that understands, none that seeks after God," is not found in the same words in the psalm, but some are changed, some are taken up, some are left out. And if this be observed rather carefully by any diligent students, I think that apostolic authority is given in this matter, so that when we must use the testimonies of Scripture, we should grasp the sense from it rather than…
Romans 3:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For this reason, then, Paul says it is written: “Because there is none righteous; there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God: all have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable”; just as elsewhere the Prophet says: “For in your sight shall no living person be justified.” And this may perhaps seem contrary to other Scriptures, which bear witness to some as though they were righteous — so much so that it is even said to Jerusalem concerning Sodom that “Sodom has been justified more than you.” But consider more carefully the caution of divine Scripture, how it did not say, “Sodom has been justified,” but rather says: Since you commit many crimes, and the things you do are such that you surpass all in the greatness of your sins, by comparison with your crimes Sodom is now justified. And here too, then, when it says, “In your sight shall no living person be justified,” it did not mean this to be understood, that no living person shall be justified, but that “in your sight” — that is, God's — he shall not be justified. For however righteous a person may be, however holy, not only among human beings but even among the higher and more eminent creatures, it is certain that by comparison with God he cannot be justified. Finally, in the Apocalypse of John also, where the sealed book is offered in the sight of the Ancient of Days, and search is made among every tribe, tongue, and people for one who might be able to open it, no one was found except the Lamb alone from the tribe of Judah, who was justified in the sight of God; and he alone was worthy to open the book, who alone is the one “who opens, and no one shuts; who shuts, and no one opens.” Therefore our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ alone is justified in the sight of the Father, because “whatever things the Father does, these the Son likewise does.” But every creature is justified by comparison with those beneath it. As, for example, if we should say: by comparison with the rest of the people, Miriam the sister of Moses was righteous; and again, by comparison with Miriam, Aaron was righteous; and again, by comparison with Aaron, Moses was righteous. Yet blessed is the one who is called righteous by comparison with better people, and not by comparison with the worst, as Sodom, which is recorded as justified by comparison with Jerusalem. Hence I too fear that, because of us who seem to be in the Church of God and to devote our efforts to his law and to serve the evangelical precepts, some of the unbelievers may be found who are to be justified. To speak by way of example: if we are slaves to lust and unchastity, while a pagan who is a stranger to the faith of Christ keeps chastity, that pagan is justified over against us. Likewise, if we are entangled in avarice, rapacity, pride, and other evils of this kind, while a pagan abstains from all these — those who do not know the law of God will be justified over against us, and we shall be condemned by comparison with them. Rather, let us take pains that, just as we go before the Gentiles in faith, so we may excel them in deeds and works, lest our evils become another's goods, and their self-restraint convict our lack of restraint. What he said — “There is none righteous” — or what he says — “In your sight shall no living person be justified” — can still be explained in yet another way: that as long as anyone lives in the body, he cannot be justified nor be pronounced righteous, but only when he has gone out of the body and departed from the contest of this life, as Scripture also says: “Call no one blessed before his death, for you do not know what his last things will be”; and again Ecclesiastes says: “And I praised the dead who are already dead, more than the living who are still alive; but better than both is he who has not yet been born.” You have still another saying of Scripture as well, which says that whoever is least in the kingdom of God is greater than one who is in the body, even if it be that…
Romans 3:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he added: “There is none that understands.” And indeed, since the Apostle himself says that he knows in part and understands in part, who will there be that may be called understanding? For however much a person may understand, he will be seen to understand in a mirror and in an enigma; because it is only after the laying aside of the earthly body that one is said to understand face to face. But now, as Scripture says: “The corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that ponders many things.” Hence it comes about that no one is “understanding,” nor “seeking after God.” For while we are occupied with the anxieties of the body and seek the things that are of human beings, we cannot seek God nor think upon the things that are of God.
Romans 3:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
“All have turned aside, together they have become useless.” It seems to me that he is not said to have turned aside except one who at some time stood on the straight road. From this it appears that that first work of rational nature, which was made by God, was upright, and was set upon the straight road by the gift of the Creator himself. But because it bent its journey away from this road to the left hand of sin, it is now rightly said to have turned aside — as we have an example in the first man, Adam, who from the straight road of paradise turned aside, through the deceit of the evil-counselling serpent, to the crooked and twisting paths of mortal life. Consequently, therefore, all who come into this world by succession from him have turned aside, and together with him have become useless. On this account I think the Lord too gives a command in the Gospels, that when we have done all the precepts, we should nevertheless remember what we are, and say: “We are useless servants: what we ought to have done, we have done.” For so long as anyone does only that which he owes — that is, the things which have been commanded — he is a useless servant. But if you add something to the precepts, then you will no longer be a useless servant, but it will be said to you: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And what it is that may be added to the precepts and done beyond what is owed, the apostle Paul states: “Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: but I give counsel, as one that has obtained mercy from the Lord.” This is a work beyond the precept. Whoever, then, having fulfilled the precepts, adds this also, that he keep virginity, will no longer be called a useless servant, but a good and faithful servant. And again it is commanded that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel; yet Paul says that “I have used none of these things”; and therefore he was not a useless servant, but a faithful and prudent one. “All,” therefore, “have turned aside, together they have become useless.” To which he added: “There is none that does goodness, there is not so much as one.” A weighty statement, and one that can be established only with difficulty. For how does it seem possible that no one at all, not so much as one, whether among the Jews or among the Greeks, could be found who did goodness? Are we so to believe that there was no one who at some time received a stranger, or gave bread to the hungry, or clothed the naked, or snatched an innocent man from the hands of the powerful, or performed some such good work? It does not seem to me that the apostle Paul wished to assert so incredible a statement: but I think it must be understood in this way — that he denies that anyone has *done* goodness. For example: as if someone should lay the foundations of a house, and build up one or two walls, and even bring in some material, will he be said to have made a house, although he seems to have worked on the house? Rather he will be said to have made a house who has brought each and every part of the whole building to completion. So I think the Apostle here too says that no one has done goodness — that is, that by no one has it been consummated to perfection and in its entirety. But if we ask who is truly good, and who has done goodness perfectly, we shall find him alone who says: “I am the good shepherd”; and again: “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”
Romans 3:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things, taking from the fifth psalm, as we said above, he says: “Their throat is an open sepulchre.” In these words, as it seems to me, he describes various sins of the human race. Every sepulchre covers over the uncleanness of a dead corpse; whence the Lord also said in the Gospel concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, that they were whitewashed sepulchres, “which outwardly indeed appear beautiful to men, but within are full of all uncleanness.” But Paul seems in this place to point out something greater of crime in those of whom he speaks, when he calls them a sepulchre not covered nor closed over, but “open.” For those are called closed sepulchres whom some little shame restrains from sinning openly and bringing their crimes out into public. But those are called an open sepulchre who have their uncleannesses and impurities out in the open: from whom constant practice and habit of wickedness — which is the last stage among evils — has taken away even the shame of what they have committed: so that now they do not open their mouth and bring forth the word of God, the living word; but they open their throat and bring forth a dead word, the word of the devil, not from the heart, but from the sepulchre. If, then, you ever see a man flinging out shameless words with a wanton mouth, or, swollen and raging, uttering insults and curses, do not hesitate to say of him that “his throat is an open sepulchre.” For “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” To these things is added: “With their tongues they have acted deceitfully.” Deceit is when someone speaks one thing with the tongue and turns over another in the heart. And this fault I do not know whether it leaves even the just and the elect free of it; but I think that one is more liable, another less, yet no one is perfectly pure of it, save he alone of whom it is written: “Who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” For even if someone be found diligent and cautious, he can perhaps guard himself in the graver matters: but whom will you find who does not fall into these things, either through shame or through negligence? Sometimes even through forgetfulness things that ought to have been attended to are left undone, and, that the fault may not appear, they are excused otherwise than as they were done. Whence Peter also, knowing that these are the varieties of deceit, writes in his Epistle, saying: “Laying aside therefore all deceit, and dissimulation, and envy, and detraction, as newborn infants, rational and without deceit, desire milk, that in it you may grow unto salvation.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” The bite of a serpent destroys the body with venom: the bite of a venomed word slays the soul by its deceit. This can happen both in the case of those who circumvent men with the contrivances of false accusations, and in the case of those who, through heretical teaching infected with the poison of the devil, deceive the souls of the simple.
Romans 3:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” Of the venom of asps indeed he did not say that their lips were full. For in that vice perhaps many may be found, yet not many who put forth that venom's poison fully and in its entirety. But to have the mouth filled with cursing and bitterness belongs to very many. For who is of so corrected a mouth that the habit of cursing does not tempt him — I will not say against those who are worthy of cursing, but against those whom the Lord has not cursed, that is, just and innocent men? This is a ready and downhill vice of human frailty, especially toward subordinates and inferiors: so that they no longer think this manner of address to be cursing. And therefore their mouth is said to be full, and cursing is said to flow unceasingly as from a full vessel of the mouth. Yet with this bitterness too is joined, because it is drawn out from the gall of wrath. For it is through wrath and fury that the tongue is driven to cursing. And therefore the same Apostle says: “Bless, and do not curse”; and elsewhere: “Lest any root of bitterness springing up hinder you.”
Romans 3:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
There is added in what follows: “Their feet are swift to shed blood.” Yet this crime will perhaps seem unable to be fitted to most of those of whom he said: “For we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin”; unless perhaps we understand it thus, that not only is the blood of those shed bodily whose bodies are butchered, but that those also who by any stumbling-block separate a soul from God are called men of blood. For just as he is called a homicide who separates the body from the soul, by which it is given life: so much more truly must he be called a homicide who separates the soul from the true life, which is God. But understand the feet in this place to be those of which the Prophet says: “But my feet were almost moved”; that is, the counsel by which we make the journey of life.
Romans 3:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
“Contrition and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known.” Here he speaks of a contrition, not that by which the spirit is broken over sins in repentance, whence it is said in the Psalms: “A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise;” but he speaks of that contrition by which sinners are said to break the yoke of the Lord and to cast it from their necks. Similarly “misery” also — or, as it is read elsewhere, “wretchedness” — is to be understood as that by which a man has been made wretched and miserable, who “though he was in honor, did not understand,” but “was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them.”
Romans 3:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
“And the way of peace they have not known.” Christ is our peace. Therefore the way of peace is the way of Christ. But even if we take it that sinners, since they are always pressed by the wars of the vices, do not know the way of peace, we understand rightly. For the prophet says to the Lord: “Much peace to those who love your name, and there is no stumbling-block for them.” Moreover, that people which was led out of Egypt walked by the way of peace, so as to come to the land of promise and dwell in Jerusalem, which is interpreted “vision of peace,” as the Prophet also says: “His place has been made in peace, and his habitation in Sion.” But more fully does he know the way of peace who presses on toward the dwelling of the heavenly Jerusalem, so as to ascend to the holy city of the living God.
Romans 3:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things is added: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” If there be anyone who always thinks upon the fear of God, who inquires what pleases him and what displeases him, of such a one it is said that the fear of God is before his eyes. But he ought to be skilled and diligently instructed from the law of the Lord, lest perhaps he fear there with fear where fear will not be necessary. Therefore the fear of God is always to be set before the eyes: not these eyes of the flesh (for neither is anything visible or bodily sought), but before the eyes of the mind; by which both the understanding and the teaching of the fear of God are discerned, through which, as we said above, it may be understood what is to be feared or what is not to be feared. He who fears God does not fear the powers of the world. And why do I speak of the powers of the world? He fears neither those principalities, and powers, and rulers of this world, nor the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And that we may confirm this by the authority of Paul himself, hear how he speaks of human powers: “Do you wish,” he says, “not to fear the power? Do what is good, and you will have praise from it.” And the Prophet says: “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man may do to me.” But concerning the adverse powers of the spirits the same Prophet seems to me to have thought, where he says: “Many who war against me from on high shall fear by day;” and again: “If camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear.” It is therefore a great and magnificent work always to have before the eyes of the heart the fear of God: that fear which filled the rod that arose from the root of Jesse, and the flower which arose from his root: concerning which he had said: “And the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him.” And the fear of God renders a man perfect to such a degree that nothing is lacking to him, as the Prophet says, because “nothing is lacking to those who fear him.” These things, as far as we were able, we have fitted to each several point which had been taken up by Paul, showing how they would seem to agree with those of whom he says: “For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” Which things nevertheless I think ought to be understood in this way, not that all these things are proved to have been in individual men, but one thing in one and another in another, yet in such a way that in all of them together this whole range of vices was fulfilled.
Romans 3:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
“But we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are in the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be made subject to God. Therefore from the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God. For through the law is the knowledge of sin.” We stated beforehand at the outset that the Apostle in this Epistle would treat of several laws, and that unless their discernment and distinction be maintained in each several passage, it will be able to confound the sense of the reader. Therefore in the present passage also, as to what he says: “But we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are in the law,” we ought to inquire more diligently what that law is which speaks to those who are in the law, and by the fact that it speaks to them strips them of every excuse, so that they cannot find refuges for their sins: for this is what he says: “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be made subject to God.” But if we should wish to understand it of that law which is without doubt the law of Moses, which speaks only to those whom it has circumcised from the mother's womb and taught, how will it seem consistent that through this law, which touches with its ordinances only one nation, every mouth should be stopped, and the whole world through it be held liable to God? For what is to be believed that all the nations have in common with this law, or what the whole world? And how also is the knowledge of sin said to come about through the law of Moses, when very many are found to have known their sin even before it? Cain, finally, when he had sinned, spoke thus: “My sin is greater than that it should be forgiven.” Moreover the patriarchs, when they had gone down to Joseph in Egypt, and were being pressed by the feigned accusation from him, speak thus to one another: “We are in sins on account of our brother, because we despised the tribulation of his soul when he entreated us, and we did not hear him: on this account this tribulation has come upon us.” Moreover Job also, who it is established lived before the law, speaks thus: “Because even if I sinned unwillingly, if I hid my sin, or was confounded by the multitude of the people, so as not to declare my offense.” All of whom are evidently shown to have known their sin. From these things, therefore, it is gathered that Paul the apostle does not say these things of the law of Moses, “That the law speaks to those who are in the law,” but of the natural law which is written in the hearts of men. This law, therefore, whatever it says, it says to those who are in the law. And those are in the law who are of that age at which they may now grasp the discernment of good and evil. But those are without law to whom the perception of such discernment has not yet come, according to what Paul also says: “But I was once alive without the law.” According to this natural law, therefore, the Apostle will consistently be seen to have said that every mouth is to be stopped, and that the whole world will be liable to the judgment of God. For of this law which is naturally implanted in men, no one is destitute, neither of the Jews nor of the Gentiles: and therefore that also seems consistently said, that God may be justified in his words, and may overcome when he is judged. That we may speak, for example's sake: if it be inquired what God has bestowed upon man, and what man has done with those things which he has received from God, God will seem to be judged together with men: and God indeed will be found to have given man all the affections, and all the impulses by which he can strive toward virtue and advance; and moreover to have implanted the force of reason, by which he might know what he ought to do and what to avoid. These things, therefore, God is found to have furnished in common to all men. But if, having received these things, man has neglected to walk the road of virtue, he to whom nothing was lacking from God is himself found to…
Romans 3:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But if to someone it should seem that this was said of human beings alone, both that he said the natural law is present in them and that he takes it as written of them alone, “That every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may become accountable to God,” such a one will take occasion from the words that follow, where he says: “Because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” And this will certainly seem to have been said only of those who are placed in the flesh. But those who prefer to hold the former sense will observe more diligently how the Apostle said that no flesh is justified by the works of the law: because the works of the law pertain to those who are in the flesh, whereas to those who are in the spirit — that is, the higher orders of the heavenly ministries — the meaning of the law pertains. Therefore that “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight,” I think is to be understood in this way: that everyone who is flesh, and lives according to the flesh, cannot be justified by the law of God, just as the same Apostle says elsewhere, that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God”; and likewise elsewhere: “Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God, for it is not subject to the law of God: nor indeed can it be”; and the prophet says: “All flesh is grass”; and in the Gospel it is written: “It is the Spirit that gives life; but the flesh profits nothing.” Of these, then, he says that by the law of God “no flesh shall be justified before him.” But this too, that he added “before him,” let it not be passed over idly, as we have now rather frequently admonished, because it is one thing to be justified before God, another before men: that is, in comparison with other men, one man who has lived more blamelessly can seem just; but in comparison with God, not only shall a man not be justified, but even, as Job says: “The stars are not clean in his sight” — those stars which are certainly clean before us, that is, which in comparison with men are held to be clean and holy; but in comparison with God they cannot be clean. “For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Let us see how the knowledge of sin comes through the law. While through the law we learn what is to be done and what avoided, at the same time we also come to know what is sin and what is not. Therefore the law is not — as the heretics accuse the God of the law — an evil root, nor an evil tree, through which the knowledge of sin comes: because he did not say, “From the law is the knowledge of sin,” but “through the law,” so that you may know that sin did not arise from it, but was known through it. For example, if we were to say: Through the art of medicine the knowledge of sickness is given, would medicine on that account seem to you to be the cause of the sickness, because through it the character of the sickness is known? But just as it is agreed that the medicine is good which furnishes an understanding of the illness by which weakness may be avoided, so also the law is good through which sin is detected and known. And this kind of exposition preserves, as I think, the consistency also of that explanation which we set forth above concerning what is written: “For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written: That there is none righteous, there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.”
Romans 3:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
“But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed to by the law and the prophets. But the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all who believe in him. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” What we established in the earlier discussion, saying that “Whatever things the law says, it says to those who are in the law” was not said of the law of Moses, someone will suppose to have been asserted not so much truly as forcibly, when he sees that now the name of the law is referred not to nature, but to the law of Moses: and he will say that in the present passage the righteousness of God is declared by the Apostle to be manifested through the law, and not only through the law, but also through the prophets, so that without any ambiguity the things that are written are understood to have been said of the law of Moses: from which law the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus is manifested unto all who believe, whether they come from the Jews or from the Gentiles, who nevertheless are justified not from works, but from the grace of God, since Jesus Christ himself has been made their redeemer. These things indeed he will say who accuses us of having forcibly bent the Apostle's meaning in the things we expounded above. But this is what we can steadfastly affirm: that just as those who assert these things suppose that in this saying of the Apostle which we have now set forth nothing can be found by which we may establish that these things were written not of the law of Moses but of the law of nature, so neither will they be able to find anything by which the things said above may seem to look to the law of Moses rather than to the law of nature; and therefore, just as for them the earlier passages will not stand simply because the later ones seem to hold, so neither can the first be thrown into confusion for us, if the second seem not to run along the same track. What then? Shall we say that the Apostle writes things contrary to himself? And this will be the assertion of an excellent expositor! This is what is wont to happen to those who break up the one doctrine of the faith into the divergent meanings of sects, and search out only those testimonies from the divine Scriptures by which they may establish their own doctrine, while as for the resolutions of those statements of divine Scripture which come from the opposite side, they do not touch them even with the tip of the finger, as the Lord says. But he who faithfully and soundly gathers the meaning of the sacred Volumes ought to show how those things which seem to be contrary are not truly contrary. We shall therefore attempt, in the present passage also, to show how this that follows does not conflict with our earlier exposition. We have often said, and said more plainly in the preface, that the Apostle in this Epistle makes mention of many laws in such a way that, when he passes from one to another, it can scarcely be detected except by a sufficiently attentive reader. He had said in the foregoing, that “through the law is the knowledge of sin”; and because he perceived that it could be answered: Therefore if from the natural law there is knowledge of sin, there can be from it also knowledge of righteousness — namely according to that image of the art of medicine which we gave above: that just as through it sickness is known so that health may be found, so also, if through the law of nature knowledge of sin can come about, in like manner knowledge of righteousness can also come about. Since, then, he had seen that this could be objected to him, after he said, “For through the law is the knowledge of sin,” he adds: “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested.” Such, then, is what he says: Not as the knowledge of sin comes through the law, so also d…
Romans 3:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The law, then, and the prophets are witnesses of the righteousness of God; and this righteousness is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe, among whom there is no distinction, whether they believe from among the Jews or from among the Gentiles. But observe that for the manifesting of God's righteousness he laid down not one cause only, that of faith, but joined to it also the law and the prophets — because neither does faith alone, without the law and the prophets, manifest the righteousness of God, nor again do the law and the prophets without faith: the one therefore cleaves to the other, so that from both there may be perfection.
Romans 3:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
There is, he says, no distinction between Jews and Greeks, since it is established that all alike have been made subject to sin, as was shown above, and that now the righteousness of God, supported by the testimonies of the law and the prophets, has been given through faith in Jesus Christ alike to all. From the fact that all had been made subject to sin, they were without doubt made strangers also to the glory of God, since they could neither receive it in any way nor merit it. For how would a sinner dare to give glory to God, to whom the Prophet says: "But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my righteous decrees?" And again another Scripture says: "Praise of God is not comely in the mouth of a sinner."
Romans 3:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Therefore the righteousness of God, coming through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, whether they be Jews or Greeks, justifies them once cleansed of their former crimes, and makes them capable of the glory of God: and this he does not from their merits, nor for their works, but freely bestows glory upon those who believe. "Through the redemption," he says, "which is in Christ Jesus." Let us consider more attentively what is meant by the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. "Redemption" is the name given to what is handed over to enemies on behalf of those whom they hold in captivity, so that they may restore them to their former liberty. The captive multitude of the human race, then, was being held among enemies, overcome by sin as though by war: the Son of God came, who "was made for us" not only "wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification," but "redemption" as well: and he gave himself as the redemption, that is, he handed himself over to the enemies, and poured out his blood for them as they thirsted for it: and this has become the redemption of believers, just as Peter also writes in his Epistle, saying: "For you were not redeemed with corruptible silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the only-begotten Son of God." Perhaps Solomon too was indicating this under a mystery when he said: "The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches." For if you inquire what the riches of the soul are, you will find that its riches are properly wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification. But all these things the Apostle says are Christ. Christ, then, is the riches of the soul, and therefore he himself is its redemption. For bodily riches are to be believed rather the ruin of the soul than its redemption, unless they be turned to the good work of righteousness and mercy, and be transferred from bodily riches into riches of the soul.
Romans 3:25 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, for the showing forth of his righteousness, through the remission of former offenses, in the forbearance of God, for the showing forth of his righteousness at this present time: that he himself may be just, and the one who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus Christ." When the holy Apostle had taught us many wondrous things about our Lord Jesus Christ, things which are said of him by way of mystery, in this place he has brought forward something still more eminent, which I think is not easily found in other places of Scripture. For whereas above he had said that he gave himself as a redemption for the whole human race, so that he might redeem those who were held in the captivity of sins, since apart from God he tasted death for all, now he adds something more sublime, and says that "God set him forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood": namely, that by the sacrificial offering of his own body he might make God propitious to men, and through this might show forth his righteousness, while he remitted to them their former offenses, which they had contracted by serving the worst of tyrants during that time in which God bore with these things and suffered them to be done. But he endured this so that afterward, that is, in this present time, he might show his righteousness. For at the consummation of the age, in the last time, God manifested his righteousness, and gave as redemption him whom he made a propitiator: lest perhaps, if he had sent the propitiator earlier, he might not have reconciled to God so great a number of the human race as in these times in which the world now seems filled with people. For God is just, and being just he could not justify the unjust: therefore he willed that there be the intervention of a propitiator, so that through faith in him those might be justified who could not be justified through their own works. Let these things, so far as they pertain to the explanation of the wording itself, be set down first, so that the apostolic reading may become clearer. But now, as is our custom, let us inquire what the inner sense of the apostolic saying contains; and first of all, how it is said: "Whom God set forth as a propitiatory (or propitiator) through faith in his blood." It is certain that in almost every place the Apostle's meaning flows from the treasuries of the Law and the Prophets. Let us therefore inquire where he found the term "propitiatory," and from where he took up this name. I recall the Lord speaking to Moses in Exodus and instructing him in what he ought to do: first indeed to command the ark, and that its poles and rings be made along the sides of the ark; and after this he says: "And you shall make a propitiatory of pure gold, two and a half cubits its length, and one and a half cubits its width. And you shall make two cherubim of beaten gold, and you shall place them upon each side of the propitiatory: one cherub on this side, and the other cherub on the other side of the propitiatory; and you shall make it so that the two cherubim are on its two sides, spreading out their wings and overshadowing the propitiatory; and their faces shall be toward one another over the propitiatory. And you shall make the cherubim, and you shall set the propitiatory upon the ark, and into the ark you shall put the testimonies which I shall give you; and I will make myself known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the propitiatory, from the midst of the two cherubim which are over the ark of the covenant, according to all that I shall command you for the children of Israel." It plainly appears that the Apostle, having found the name "propitiatory" in these passages, has now placed it in his own Letters, concerning which our discourse is. And it seems that he referred this propitiatory, of which it is written in Exodus, to none other than the Lord Savior, when he says that God set him forth "as a propitiatory t…
Romans 3:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he added well, "at this time"; for in the time of the present age the justice of God lies in forbearance, but in the age to come it lies in retribution. For it seemed just in God's sight that, since he had appointed the age to come for judgment, he should assign the present one to forbearance and patience. For if he punished the sinner in this time, it would not seem just to call again to judgment one whom he had punished. But if he forbears and is patient in the present age, he will rightly be a just judge in the age to come. He justifies, therefore, him who is of faith, just as it is written also concerning Abraham, that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto justice." But if Abraham believed, and was justified out of faith, it will without doubt follow that now too he who believes God is justified through the faith of Jesus Christ together with faithful Abraham.
Romans 3:27-28 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Where then is your boasting? It has been shut out. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law." Again and yet more often we admonish those who desire to attend more carefully to Paul's writings to hold more tenaciously to that distinction which we spoke of above — how he pursues now the case of circumcision, now that of uncircumcision, that is, of the Jews or of the Gentiles, always along a separate track. For if even a little should escape the reader, at once this narrow and slender footpath of understanding will be thrown into confusion. Therefore, when the Apostle had shown above what is the Jew's advantage, or what the usefulness of circumcision, and had taught that to those first ones the oracles of God were entrusted, and by these things had seemed to exalt that vaunting of theirs by which they are wont to raise themselves against the Gentiles; and again, in what follows, had set against these things the objection that the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is unto all who believe, and that there is no distinction, but that all have sinned, both Jews and Greeks, and lack the glory of God, and are justified through the grace and redemption which is in Christ Jesus; and that he himself is the propitiatory through faith, and that every one who is of faith is justified by him — now at last, setting down as it were the conclusion of his assertions, he says in this place: "Where then is your boasting? It has been shut out. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law": and he says that the justification of faith alone suffices, so that one who merely believes is justified, even if no work at all has been completed by him. It presses upon us, therefore, who strive to assert that the Apostle's Scripture is whole and entire, and that all of it stands together in its own order, to inquire who has been justified by faith alone without works. So far, then, as concerns an example, I think that thief suffices who, crucified with Christ, cried out to him from the cross: "Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Nor is any other good work of his described in the Gospels, but for this faith alone Jesus says to him: "Truly I say to you: Today you shall be with me in paradise." Let us now, if it seems good, fit the words of the apostle Paul to the case of this thief, and say to the Jew: "Where then is your boasting?" Certainly it has been shut out; and shut out not by the law of works, but by the law of faith. For by faith this thief was justified without the works of the law: because concerning this the Lord did not inquire what he had previously done; nor did he wait to see what work he might complete once he had believed, but, as he was about to enter paradise, he took him as his companion, justified by confession alone. But also that woman of whom it is related in the Gospel according to Luke, that "when she had learned that Jesus reclined at table in the house of the Pharisee, she brought a vessel of ointment, and standing behind at his feet and weeping, she washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed them and anointed them with the ointment. But the Pharisee who had invited him, seeing this, said within himself: If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what sort of woman she is who touches his feet, for she is a sinner." But Jesus spoke to him the parable of the five hundred or the fifty denarii; and from no work of the law, but for faith alone, he says to her: "Your sins are forgiven you"; and again: "Your faith has saved you, go in peace." But also in many places of the Gospel we read that the Savior used this expression, so that he calls the faith of the believer the cause of his salvation. From all which it is clear that the Apostle rightly reckons that a man is justified by…
Romans 3:29 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Hence he also fittingly adds in what follows: "Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since indeed there is one God, who justifies the circumcision from faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." For those who would have the God of the Jews to be one and the God of the Gentiles another — that is, one God of the Law and another of the Gospels — the reply on this point will be narrow and confining enough, since the apostle Paul gives his verdict abundantly enough when he not only says that there is one God of Jews and of Gentiles, but also adds that it is one and the same God who justifies the circumcision from faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And if they should wish to take "circumcision" by way of allegory, so as to say that by this word he called all the holy and spiritual ones, they will at once find a stumbling block in what follows. For if he called the holy ones — or, as they name them, the spiritual ones — "circumcision," it follows that by "uncircumcision" he meant sinners, whom they call "animal" (of the soul). And how will it be fitting that the good God should justify spiritual and animal alike? For them, then, there will be an inextricable knot in these words of the Apostle. But according to us, who say that "circumcision" means those who have believed from among the Jews, and "uncircumcision" no less means those who have been called from among the Gentiles to the faith, the exposition will be plain and easy. For it is one and the same God who justifies believers from either people, not by the privilege of circumcision or of uncircumcision, but by the regard for faith alone. There remains also the difference of a single syllable, in which the Apostle seems to have varied his expression. Let it not pass us by idly that he says God justifies the circumcision *from* faith, and not *through* faith; but the uncircumcision *through* faith, and not *from* faith. For this exchange of prepositions does not seem to me to be held superfluous in his usage, since we find that in other places too they are set down by him not at random but observantly, and that the difference of this distinction is of necessity preserved — as when, speaking of God, he says: "Since from him, and through himself, and in him are all things." And again elsewhere he says: "For as the woman is from the man, so also the man is through the woman; but all things are from God." Of the same sort is what he writes to the Corinthians: "To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit." And not only does the apostle Paul maintain the observance of these distinctions, but John also, who, though he says of the Word of God that "all things were made through him," testifies that life was made not *through* him but *in* him, saying: "That which was made, in him was life." And since it would take much to expound the passages we have now brought forward by way of example, let us gather their sense briefly, so far as our capacity allows. When it is said "from him," something primary seems to be shown by the beginning of this preposition. But when "through him" is said, the understanding of a subsequent cause is designated — that is, of the cause which comes after the primary one. So that, to speak by way of example concerning what he says, "From him and through him and in him are all things": by "from him" he gave the signification of the first creation of all things, and of this very fact, that the things which exist began to be from God; by "through him," that those things which had earlier been made are governed and administered through him from whom they draw the beginning of their subsistence; by "in him," that those who have now been corrected and amended stand fast in his perfection. Thus, therefore, we are taught that these words maintain distinctions of the fullest reasonableness, s…
Romans 3:30 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Hence he also fittingly adds in what follows: "Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since indeed there is one God, who justifies the circumcision from faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." For those who would have the God of the Jews to be one and the God of the Gentiles another — that is, one God of the Law and another of the Gospels — the reply on this point will be narrow and confining enough, since the apostle Paul gives his verdict abundantly enough when he not only says that there is one God of Jews and of Gentiles, but also adds that it is one and the same God who justifies the circumcision from faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And if they should wish to take "circumcision" by way of allegory, so as to say that by this word he called all the holy and spiritual ones, they will at once find a stumbling block in what follows. For if he called the holy ones — or, as they name them, the spiritual ones — "circumcision," it follows that by "uncircumcision" he meant sinners, whom they call "animal" (of the soul). And how will it be fitting that the good God should justify spiritual and animal alike? For them, then, there will be an inextricable knot in these words of the Apostle. But according to us, who say that "circumcision" means those who have believed from among the Jews, and "uncircumcision" no less means those who have been called from among the Gentiles to the faith, the exposition will be plain and easy. For it is one and the same God who justifies believers from either people, not by the privilege of circumcision or of uncircumcision, but by the regard for faith alone. There remains also the difference of a single syllable, in which the Apostle seems to have varied his expression. Let it not pass us by idly that he says God justifies the circumcision *from* faith, and not *through* faith; but the uncircumcision *through* faith, and not *from* faith. For this exchange of prepositions does not seem to me to be held superfluous in his usage, since we find that in other places too they are set down by him not at random but observantly, and that the difference of this distinction is of necessity preserved — as when, speaking of God, he says: "Since from him, and through himself, and in him are all things." And again elsewhere he says: "For as the woman is from the man, so also the man is through the woman; but all things are from God." Of the same sort is what he writes to the Corinthians: "To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit." And not only does the apostle Paul maintain the observance of these distinctions, but John also, who, though he says of the Word of God that "all things were made through him," testifies that life was made not *through* him but *in* him, saying: "That which was made, in him was life." And since it would take much to expound the passages we have now brought forward by way of example, let us gather their sense briefly, so far as our capacity allows. When it is said "from him," something primary seems to be shown by the beginning of this preposition. But when "through him" is said, the understanding of a subsequent cause is designated — that is, of the cause which comes after the primary one. So that, to speak by way of example concerning what he says, "From him and through him and in him are all things": by "from him" he gave the signification of the first creation of all things, and of this very fact, that the things which exist began to be from God; by "through him," that those things which had earlier been made are governed and administered through him from whom they draw the beginning of their subsistence; by "in him," that those who have now been corrected and amended stand fast in his perfection. Thus, therefore, we are taught that these words maintain distinctions of the fullest reasonableness, s…
Romans 3:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And for this reason I think the Apostle at once added in what follows: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; rather, we establish the law." Since in the foregoing he seemed to refer everything to faith, he himself sets before himself the objection that could be raised by another, and says: If a man is justified through faith and not from the works of the law, and if God justifies circumcision from faith and uncircumcision through faith, do you then, O Paul, destroy the law of Moses through faith? But answering this himself he says: "God forbid; nay rather, we establish the law," that is, we confirm it. But it is worth the effort to see how he declares that he confirms the law, when in the foregoing he had said that a man is not justified from the works of the law. The Savior says in the Gospels that "Moses wrote of me." Therefore he who does not believe in Christ, of whom Moses wrote in the law, destroys the law; but he who believes in Christ, of whom Moses wrote, confirms the law through faith, because he believes in Christ. And by faith we mean a faith in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit that is whole, full, and perfect, one that professes nothing divergent, nothing discordant or alien within the Trinity. For Marcion, who says that the God of the law is one and the Father of Christ another, does not by his faith establish or confirm the law, but destroys it. This Ebion also does; and so do all who insert some corruption into the catholic faith. I will also fittingly add this, that everyone who, believing in Christ, acts well and keeps himself from every stain of sin, this man confirms the law of God by living rightly; but he who is driven headlong by the vices of sins, and without any restraint of repentance is defiled by the constancy of his crimes, this man, even if he seems to believe in Christ, does not by his faith establish, but destroys the law. But that objection too seems to me by no means to be passed over, which someone can bring forward, saying that the Apostle appears to write things contrary to himself, since in the present passage he says that the law is not destroyed but confirmed, while in the second Epistle to the Corinthians he writes thus: "But if the ministry of death, engraved in letters upon stones, was made in glory, so that the children of Israel could not gaze upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is being done away, how shall the ministry of the Spirit not be rather in glory?" And a little later: "For if that which is being done away is through glory, much more is that which remains in glory." It can therefore be said that the glory of the face of Moses which is being done away, and this which he says, "For if that which is being done away is through glory," seems contrary to that statement in which he declares: We do not destroy the law through faith, but we establish and confirm it. But see whether we may resolve in this way the difficulty that is put to us. It is not the same thing to say, "We destroy the law," and, the law is destroyed. Paul therefore in the present passage declares this, that he himself does not destroy the law. For even if the law is destroyed by that glory which surpasses it, it is not destroyed by Paul, nor by any other of the saints. Whence the Lord himself also said: "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." No one of the saints, therefore, nor the Lord himself, destroys the law; but its temporal and passing glory is destroyed and overcome by the eternal and abiding glory. Whence see how carefully and how keenly the apostolic Writings must be read. He did not say, "For that which was glorious was not glorified," and then fall silent — otherwise it would seem false (for how would that which is glorious not be glorified?) — but he added: "because of the glory that surpasses it," so as to show that the glory of Moses, that is, of the law, is not destroyed by anyone whatever, but, as we have said, that f…
Romans 4:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
These things having thus been explained according to our ability, it also seems by no means to be passed over that he named Abraham "our father according to the flesh." For Abraham is seen to be the father of the Gentiles according to faith, not according to the flesh. For of the Apostle himself he can indeed be called father even according to the flesh: for being of the race of Israel, he could name Abraham father even according to the flesh; but the other nations will name him father in spirit, not in flesh — unless, in passages so constricted, we turn to the breadth of allegorical understanding, where "father according to the flesh" can be taken as he who has handed on the first elements of carnal teaching, that is, of the law according to the letter, and has stood forth as a teacher of the first instruction in the divine law. But that teachers too are called fathers, the apostle Paul also says, that "in Christ Jesus through the Gospel I have begotten you." But you also who read, gather for yourself from the divine Volumes the testimonies bearing on this.
Romans 4:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Since above he had set forth two laws, one of which he named the law of works and the other the law of faith, and says that by the law of faith the boasting of those who glory in the works of the law is excluded; and since he had pronounced that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law: consequently he now, in order that these things may be established from the Scriptures, brings forward the example of Abraham, and says that "Abraham, if he was justified by works, has glory, but not before God." And this indeed he argues not without dialectical skill. For if he who is justified by works does not have glory before God, but it is agreed that Abraham does have glory before God, then Abraham was justified not by works but by faith, so that he necessarily has glory before God. For thus the Scripture declares: that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." But if God reckoned it to him unto righteousness, without doubt his glory too is before God. For this reason, therefore, the Apostle joins to this testimony which he took from the book of Genesis also a word of his own, and says that "to him who works, the reward is not imputed according to grace, but according to debt; but to him who does not work, yet believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness." Throughout this whole passage, then, the Apostle seems to show this: that there are two justifications, one of which he calls that from works, the other that from faith. And the one which is from works he says indeed has glory, but in itself, and not before God; whereas the one which is from faith has glory before God, inasmuch as it is before him who inspects the hearts of men and knows who it is that believes in secret and who it is that does not believe. And therefore it rightly has glory before God alone, who sees through the disposition of a person's faith in what is hidden; but he who hopes for justification from works — it may happen that his works are approved even by men. For whatever is manifest in deed is open and can be seen with the eyes; and if faith is in secret, while works are in the open, it will be fitting to take up here what is written: "The things that are hidden belong to the Lord your God, but the things that are manifest, to you and to your sons." But it will also be fitting to apply to these matters what is written, that "the just shall live by my faith." Fittingly, therefore, we say that those who are circumcised according to the inner man and are Jews in secret, in spirit and not in letter — their praise and glory is not before men, but before God. But those who are justified from works, since their works are open and manifest, their glory can be either before any of the saints and just who receive from God the power of judging concerning visible human works, or even before the angels and the other powers of the heavenly virtues, who certainly are able to glorify him whose works they have approved. But since to know the hidden things of the heart belongs to God alone, he himself sees through whether in each one there dwells some disposition of faith; and therefore he who is justified from faith has glory before God alone, who has knowledge of hidden things and is alone the inspector of faith. Therefore also "Abraham," he says, "if he was justified by works, has" indeed "glory" coming from works, "but not" that which is "before God" alone; yet it is certain that Abraham has glory before God alone: it follows, then, that he was justified not from works, but from faith. But do not suppose that if anyone has such a faith by which, being justified, he has glory before God, he can at the same time have injustice along with it. For there is no share of faith together with unbelief, no fellowship of righteousness with iniquity, just as there can be no association of light with darkness. For if "he who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," and "he who is born of God…
Romans 4:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
There is added in what follows: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." This saying is taken from the book of Genesis, from that place where not Abraham, but Abram says to the Lord: "Since you have given me no seed, this house-born servant of mine will be my heir. And the Lord said to him: This man shall not be your heir, but he who shall come forth from you, he shall be your heir. And he led him," it says, "outside, and said to him: Look up to heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him: So shall your seed be. And he believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." We have gone back over these very passages from the book of Genesis at some length, by way of example, so that we might learn what the cause of this justification was. And therefore we must attend the more keenly to this: whether it is on this account alone — that he believed a son was to be given him, and from him an offspring to be propagated to the multitude of the stars — that his faith is said to have been reckoned unto righteousness; or whether it is for this and for all the things he had already believed before. For it must not be supposed that it was without faith that he went out from his own land and from his father's kindred and came into the land which God had shown him; or that other occasion, when, after Lot had been separated from him, the Lord says to him: "Lift up your eyes and look from this place where you stand, and gaze toward the north and the south and toward the west and the east, for all this land which you see I will give to you and to your seed forever." And who would say that this too was done without faith, that Abraham came and dwelt by the oak of Mamre in Hebron and built there an altar to the Lord? And how was that also not a work of faith, when Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said: "Blessed be Abraham of the most high God, who created heaven and earth; and blessed be the most high God, who delivered his enemies into his hands"? From all of which it is gathered that in each of these there was indeed faith in Abraham, but in part; whereas in that place where it is said that his faith was reckoned unto righteousness, a perfect faith is declared. For just as the Apostle says that knowledge and prophecy are in part — and again says that there is a perfect state, when he writes: "We know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect has come, those things which are in part shall be done away" — so also we can understand that faith is sometimes in part and sometimes perfect. But that what we say may be further fortified by other testimonies of holy Scripture, hear the apostles saying to the Lord in the Gospel: "Lord, increase our faith." Do they not plainly show by these words that they indeed have faith, but such faith as needed increase? Moreover the apostle Paul himself, when he says, "If I should have all faith, so that I might remove mountains," by saying "all" teaches that the whole is composed of parts. For a thing cannot be called "all" where there is no diversity either of quality or of quantity. It seems therefore that in the present passage also, since many acts of faith on Abraham's part had gone before, through each of the several things which we recalled above as being in part, in this present instance the whole of his faith is gathered together, and so was reckoned to him unto righteousness. Now indeed you will consider whether, just as it was said of faith that it was reckoned to him unto righteousness, so it may also be said of the other virtues that, for example, mercy can be reckoned to anyone unto righteousness, or wisdom, or knowledge, or gentleness and humility; or at any rate whether faith is reckoned unto righteousness for every believer. But when I return to the Scriptures, I do not find that faith is reckoned unto righteousness for all believers. For it is written of the sons of Israel that "they believed the Lord and…
Romans 4:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as to what he says: "To him who works, the wage is not imputed according to grace but according to debt; but to him who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is reckoned unto righteousness" — he seems to show that in faith there is, as it were, the grace of him who justifies, but in work the justice of him who repays. Yet when I consider the force of the phrase by which he says that it is rendered to the worker according to debt, I can scarcely persuade myself that there can be any work which demands God's recompense as a debt, since even this very thing — that we are able to do anything, or to think, or to speak — we do by his own gift and bounty. What then will be owed by him whose loan to us came first? And therefore we must rather see whether perhaps what he said, "But to him who works, the wage shall be reckoned according to debt," is to be understood of the debt of an evil work. For you will often find sins called debts in the divine volumes, as the Lord himself taught us to say in the prayer: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors"; and again when the Lord himself says: "A certain householder had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty" — and he himself interpreted this as being said of sins. Perhaps then in this place too the Apostle has drawn the wage of work which is rendered according to debt toward that sense which we spoke of above, concerning those who work as Cain also worked the earth; and as he says elsewhere: "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity" — to whom assuredly punishment is paid out as a debt, in place of a wage for iniquity. Whence the Apostle also says in another place: "The wages of sin is death"; and he did not add, so as to say correspondingly, But the wages of righteousness is eternal life. Rather he says: "But the grace of God is eternal life" — so that he might teach that wages, which is certainly like a debt and a payment, is the recompense of punishment and of death, while he assigned eternal life to grace alone. According to this sense I think that what is written in the Gospel too, "With what measure you have measured, with the same it shall be measured back to you," is to be taken of evil works. For God has set no measure to his grace, since it is written: "For God does not give the Spirit by measure."
Romans 4:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Faith, which believes in the justifier, is the beginning of justification before God. And this faith, when it is justified, is like a root in the soil of the soul, which the rain has watered, so that as it begins to grow by the law of God, branches appear, which bring forth fruit. The root of righteousness does not spring from works; rather, the fruit of works grows from the root of righteousness, viz., by that root of righteousness by which God brings righteousness to the one whom he has accepted apart from works.
Romans 4:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things, as if for the confirmation of his statement which he had made — "But to him who does not work, yet believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is reckoned unto righteousness" — he takes up a testimony from the Psalms and says: "As David also declares the blessedness of the man to whom God accounts righteousness without works: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin." You see that through these words it can consistently be proved that righteousness is reckoned to a man without works.
Romans 4:7-8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Whence I think that David too, in the thirty-first psalm, which he entitled "Of the understanding of David," gave this beginning, admonishing by the very superscription that a deeper understanding must be sought in the things he was about to say, namely that "blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven": concerning which we have spoken, as far as we were able, when we dictated on the Psalms in order. But the difference of the very order prompts us, in that he said first, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven"; second, "Whose sins are covered"; third, "To whom the Lord has not imputed sin." And consider whether perhaps this order can be understood as taking place in one and the same soul: so that, because the beginning of the soul's conversion is to abandon evils, for this it may deserve to receive the remission of iniquities; but when it has begun to do good things, covering over, as it were, each single evil that had gone before with fresh good deeds, and bringing in a more abundant number of goods than there had previously been of evils, it is said to cover its sins; but when it has now come to perfection, so that every root of malice is utterly cut away from it, to the point that no trace of wickedness can be found in it, then at last the summit of perfect blessedness is promised, when the Lord can impute no sin. Iniquity, indeed, has this difference from sin, that iniquity is spoken of in those matters which are committed against the law; whence the Greek term calls iniquity anomian (lawlessness), that is, what is committed without law; but that too can be called sin, if the offense is committed against what nature teaches and conscience reproves.
Romans 4:9-10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Is this blessedness then upon the circumcision, or also upon the uncircumcision? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham unto justice. How then was it reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or when he was in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the justice of the faith which is in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, so that it might be reckoned to them also unto justice, and that he might be the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision." Having said above that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto justice," and having shown from the things written in the thirty-first psalm what blessedness a faith of this kind possesses — namely that to one who so believes the Lord would not reckon sin — he now puts forward a question, from the answer to which he may teach, and from the very reckoning of the times, that the blessedness of Abraham's justification was given not in circumcision, but while he was still placed in uncircumcision. But if Abraham, while he was still in uncircumcision, was justified by faith, then everyone also who believes God can be justified through faith, even if he be in uncircumcision, and this blessedness of which it is said, "Blessed is he to whom the Lord has not imputed sin," can pertain to him also. He shows, therefore, that the Lord does not refrain from imputing sin to just anyone, but that to him who has believed he does not reckon sins on account of his faith. For just as faith was reckoned to Abraham unto justice, so also to every believer to whom faith is reckoned unto justice, sins are assuredly not imputed. For he does not say of the just that faith is reckoned to them unto justice. And if it were so supposed, what grace would there appear to be in reckoning it to a just man? Justice unto justice? But surely he says that faith was reckoned unto justice to him who, before he had this faith, did not have justice; and this is assuredly the blessed man, to whom God credits justice apart from works, and to whom sin is not imputed, to whom also iniquities are forgiven, and covered over are whatever sins there previously were. And at the same time he also teaches us to attend more diligently to the reading, since he expounds so vigilantly the things written concerning Abraham, that "faith was reckoned to him unto justice." He wants us to consider also when it was reckoned, so that from what is written the reckoning of the time may also be gathered, whether he was still in uncircumcision when these things were said, or whether he had already passed over to circumcision; and he says: "How then was his faith reckoned unto justice? When he was in circumcision, or when he was in uncircumcision?" For if at that time he had been in circumcision, uncircumcision would certainly have seemed to be excluded from the grace of this faith. But as it is, he shows that faith was reckoned unto justice while he was still placed in uncircumcision, and therefore he declares that, since Abraham was justified through faith while placed in uncircumcision, he is without doubt rightly called the chief and father of all who believe through uncircumcision.
Romans 4:11-12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as to the fact that after the faith which he had in uncircumcision he received circumcision, he consequently sets forth the reason for which circumcision was given him. It was, he says, that it might be the seal of that faith which he had while placed in uncircumcision, so that through this "he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, that it might be reckoned to them unto justice, and that he might be the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision." But if Abraham, while he was still in uncircumcision, was justified by faith, he can become also the father of those who are born in circumcision, provided that they belong to that faith which justified him while placed in uncircumcision. And since it justified Abraham while placed in uncircumcision, he is therefore made the father of both kinds: of those who are in uncircumcision through faith, and of those who are in circumcision through the flesh; and after circumcision he begets first Isaac, and from him takes the beginning of the ogdoad, that is, in him the first mysteries of the eighth day are consecrated, and from that point the posterity of Abraham begins to run by a twofold sacrament. For just as faith is understood by its own nature to be one thing, and the justice which was reckoned to him through faith another; so also his posterity in uncircumcision is one thing, and his posterity in circumcision another. For those who are uncircumcised, these I think are the stones of which God is said to be able to raise up sons of Abraham, in whom that also is fulfilled which is written: that "in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed." But let us take up again what he says: "And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the justice of the faith which is in uncircumcision," and let us contemplate Paul's profound wisdom in these words. For perhaps to some he may seem to say the same word twice, that is, "sign" and "seal." But to me the two words seem to have much difference between them. For a thing is called a sign when through what is seen something else is indicated: as when, for example, the Lord says in the Gospel: "This generation seeks a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." This, then, is a sign, where Jonah was seen and Christ was understood. Similarly it is said of the Lord himself in the Gospel: "Behold, this one is set for the fall and the rising of many, and for a sign that shall be contradicted." For the sign in which Christ had come was contradicted, because one thing was seen in him and another understood. Flesh was discerned, and God was believed. So then Abraham also received a sign; and what the sign was he states in what follows: "Circumcision," he says — which circumcision was "the seal of the justice of the faith" which he had before he was circumcised. Rightly then did he call circumcision a sign in Abraham, because in it too one thing was seen and another understood; and he shows that even then that fleshly circumcision was a sign of the spiritual circumcision, "which is not received in the flesh, but in the heart." But as to his saying "seal," I think it is to be understood thus. A seal is spoken of when a guard is imposed for a time upon something to be kept safe, which no one else but the very one who impressed it ought to unseal. Through this seal, then, as the Apostle expounds, there is indicated the justice of the faith which Abraham, placed in uncircumcision, deserved to receive, and that he is the father of many nations: which we believe will then be unsealed when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and all Israel shall be saved. For then shall come about what the Apostle says, th…
Romans 4:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." In this place it seems to me that the Apostle is arguing about the law of Moses, and asserting that the promise which was made to Abraham, that he himself or his seed should receive the inheritance of the world — that is, of the whole earth — did not rest upon the law of Moses. For before Moses the lawgiver existed, "the Lord appeared," he says, "to Abraham and said to him: 'Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land which I will show you; and I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will magnify your name, and you shall be blessed; and I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.'" Therefore what he says, "In you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed," is to have been made heir of the whole world. And this promise was assuredly made to Abraham before anything was commanded through Moses about the observance of the law. So then the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, is not from the law, but through the righteousness of faith. What is this righteousness of faith? It is that of which it is written in the passages above, as we have already often said, that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." And not without reason: for the observance of the law merely escapes punishment, whereas the merit of faith awaits the hope of the promise; and a precept is laid down for servants, but faith is sought from friends. But even if, according to what we have discussed above, Paul be understood to say these things concerning the natural law, it will not be contrary to the reasons given above. For although the law of nature bears witness concerning good and evil according to the judgment of conscience, nevertheless it cannot be put on a level with the law of faith, by which Abraham believed God, and deserved to be justified and to be called the friend of God.
Romans 4:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made void, and the promise has been annulled. For the law works wrath. But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." If, he says, the promise was given to Abraham that he should be heir of the world not from the law, but through the faith which was reckoned to him unto righteousness, it will follow without doubt that all who hope that righteousness will be reckoned to them by God should hope for it not through the law, but through faith. And in order to show this more evidently, he added: If, he says, those who are of the law shall themselves be heirs of that promise which Abraham merited through faith, then that fact will be emptied out — that Abraham was justified by faith: since assuredly, if the inheritance were to come from the law, it would have been necessary that Abraham too first fulfill the law, and thus earn the inheritance of righteousness. And in order to show that this could in no way have happened so, he says that the law works wrath. But where there is wrath, there is no inheritance; and he added: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." But let us go back a little, and see concerning which law these things are said. In the earlier words, indeed, where he says, "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made void, and the promise has been annulled," it can be referred both to the law of Moses and to the natural law. For it is certain that if the inheritance is furnished from the law of Moses, then what is written is annulled — that Abraham merited it by the belief of faith; and again, if the understanding be turned to the natural law, these things can be said: If the natural law could have sufficed for faith, that would seem superfluous which was said to Abraham: "Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land which I shall show you." For why should he go out from his own land and from his own house, if the natural law sufficed for him, which surely he could have possessed and kept even while placed in his own land? But now, as though that law were insufficient, he is commanded to follow the law of faith, without which neither he himself nor his seed could be heir of the world, nor could he be called the friend of God. Thus, then, what he says — "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith has been made void, and the promise has been annulled" — can be withdrawn from both laws and look to the law of faith alone.
Romans 4:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But now, in this place where he says, "For the law works wrath," it must be considered more carefully to which law this saying seems to look; and likewise that which follows, "For where there is no law, neither is there transgression." But before a fuller explanation is required of us, let us reply briefly to those objections which the heretics are accustomed to raise against us from this passage. For they say: "See how the Apostle says that the law of Moses works wrath, and that where that law has not been, there neither will there be transgression." Let us ask, then, of them: If where the law is, there will also be transgression of the law transgressed, then also where faith is, there will be transgression of faith transgressed. For if he becomes a transgressor who turns aside from the law, without doubt he too is a transgressor who turns aside from faith; and if for that transgression which is in the law the law itself is the cause, then for this transgression which is in faith, faith too is believed to be the cause. But if it is absurd to say that faith is the cause of anyone's transgressing against faith, and that if he had not come to faith he would not have been a transgressor of faith, so too will it be absurd to take transgression of the law from the fact that someone has undertaken the observance of the law. But let us add this also. What will they say to us about those who fell into transgression before the law of Moses? For if no one before Moses was a transgressor, no one was condemned, no one punished. What will they say of the Sodomites? What of those who were condemned in the flood? What of Cain? What of Adam himself? What will they answer concerning Eve, of whom the Apostle says: "But the woman, being seduced, fell into transgression"? If without the law of Moses there is no transgression, on what ground are Adam and Eve named transgressors by the Apostle? But, as we have already often said above, the Apostle introduces various laws in this Epistle: now he speaks of the law of Moses, now he names the law of faith, as when he says: "Where then is your boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith." He brings in besides other laws also, of which he says: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin"; and thus he passes from one law to another, so that unless one's understanding is watchful and attentive, it can scarcely catch him and follow him. It must be seen, therefore, whether perhaps that law which is in our members, and leads us captive in the law of sin, is itself the law which the Apostle says works wrath. For without doubt it works wrath for the one whom it has led captive in the law of sin. But where that law has not been, it is certain that there neither will there be transgression. And those who have been under that law will consequently not be heirs either. But even if someone wishes it to be understood of the law of Moses, and to say that it works wrath, he will perhaps be able to affirm this for this reason alone: that it commands the one who sins against it either to be stoned at once, or to be burned with fire, or whatever other punishment is decreed in the law for sinners — so that the very penalty which is inflicted on the sinner from the law seems now to be named "wrath" by the Apostle. And similarly concerning transgression: that he does not here establish that every transgression generally is so called, but that of the one who, being placed under the law, has offended — so that the offense of him who sins though forbidden by the law may seem graver than that of him who has been admonished by no law. But this too must be observed, that the Apostle did not say that where the law has been, there is also transgression, but he says: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." In which he shows that transgression indeed c…
Romans 4:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written: For I have made thee a father of many nations) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which are not as though they were." In what went before he gave the distinction between wages and grace, saying that wages are a matter of debt, but that grace is a matter of no debt at all, but rather the benefit of goodwill. And so in the present passage too, wishing to show that God gives the inheritance of the promises not out of debt but through grace, he says that the inheritance is granted by God to those who believe not as a debt of wages but as the gift of faith. For just as (to speak by way of example) the fact that we exist cannot be understood as though we existed by the wages of our own work, but it is plainly the gift of God that we are, and the grace of the Creator, who willed that we should be: so also, if we receive the inheritance of God's promises, it belongs to the divine grace, and is not the wage of any debt or work. But if perchance this very thing which is said, "of faith," should seem not to be free — since faith must first be offered by man, and thus grace be earned from God — hear how the same Apostle teaches this very point elsewhere as well. For where he enumerates the gifts of the Spirit, which he says are given to believers according to the measure of faith, there among the rest he also asserts that the gift of faith is bestowed through the Holy Spirit. For after many things he says this also concerning it: "To another faith, in the same Spirit," so as to show that faith too is given through grace. But elsewhere also the same Apostle teaches, saying: "For unto you it is given by God not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for him." You find this indicated in the Gospels too, where the apostles, understanding that the faith which is from man cannot be perfect unless there be added also that which is from God, say to the Saviour: "Increase our faith." From all of which what the Apostle here says is most plainly proved: "Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure": because even that very faith by which we seem to believe God is confirmed in us by the gift of grace. And this is the grace which, if a man is blessed, he deserves to find like a great treasure. Noah found it; and therefore it is written of him: "But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God." Moses too had found this grace; and therefore he said to God: "If I have found grace in thy sight." Yet we find that some of the saints found grace not only in the sight of the Lord God, but also in the sight of men. Thus of blessed Joseph it is written: "And Joseph found grace in the sight of his master." But that grace which is found in the sight of men is granted by God's bounty. For thus it is written of the same Joseph: "And the Lord was with Joseph, and poured out mercy upon him, and gave him grace in the sight of the keeper of the prison." Something still further concerning grace of this kind is recorded in the divine writings about blessed Esther. For it says thus: that "Esther was finding grace with all who saw her." And a little later the Scripture says: "Esther found grace above all the other virgins, and the king set upon her the woman's diadem." These things, I think, we have sought out from the holy Scriptures not unseasonably, for the confirmation of the apostolic saying in which he discusses faith and grace. He says therefore: "Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure." But this too is to be noted, that he says, "Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure," as though wishing to show that if the promise were of the law and not of grace, it would not be sure; but…
Romans 4:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he added in what follows: "Who quickens the dead, and calls those things which are not as those which are." Here we understand the dead according to the sin of the soul, since he says, "the soul which sins shall die." For just as in bodily death the senses perish, so that a man no longer receives through the body either hearing, or smell, or taste, or touch: so also he who has lost the spiritual senses in the soul, so that he does not see God, nor hear the word of God, nor take in the sweet fragrance of Christ, nor taste the good word of God, nor do his hands handle of the word of life — men of this sort are deservedly called dead. Such the coming of Christ found us, but it made us alive through his grace, as the same Apostle also says elsewhere: "And we, when we were dead in our offenses and sins, he raised us up together with him." But do you wish it to be proved to you also from the prophetic Scriptures that all who worship idols, and trust in them, are dead? Hear how David says: "The images of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth, and they shall not speak: they have eyes, and they shall not see: they have ears, and they shall not hear." And after a little: "Let those," he says, "who make them become like them, and all who trust in them." You see that they are dead, and made like the images, who worship them and who trust in them. Whence let us look more carefully whether perhaps, just as those who worship idols and trust in them are said to become like them, so also those who worship the true God, and trust in him, become like him. And this is perhaps why in the beginnings, when it had been proposed that man should be made to the image and likeness of God, he was indeed made to the image, but the likeness was deferred for this reason: that he should first trust in God, and so become like him, and that he himself should hear that everyone who trusts in him shall be made like him. These things we have joined by a kind of digression to what we have discussed concerning the kind of death, so that it might become clearer in what ways God quickens the dead. But let us also see how what he says in the following is to be understood: "And calls those things which are not as those which are." We have frequently expounded, in other places too, that God alone is he who said: "I am who I am"; and that substance of God is one, which always is; and if anyone joins himself to it, he becomes one spirit with him, and through him who always is, he too is said to be. But he who is far from him, and takes no participation of him, is not even said to be — as we the Gentiles were, before we came to the knowledge of the divine truth; and therefore God is said to call "those things which are not as those which are." For among those who are, that is, who have participation in him who is, are numbered Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of the saints. But if the Gentiles by believing come into the faith of Abraham, the Apostle consequently declares that God has called "those things which are not as those which are." Yet this too may be observed: that in this place the Apostle may seem to have poured himself out more widely upon the praises of God, and to have recalled with admiration the beginnings of his first creation, when he made all things to be out of nothing, and by his powerful might called forth those things which were not as though they were and subsisted; and that thus nothing was difficult for him in creating, so that, when nothing existed, all things being suddenly called were at once present as though they had always existed. But if someone should object to us that discourse of the Apostle which he writes to the Corinthians, where he says that "God chose the contemptible things of the world, and the things which are not, that he might destroy the things which are, so that no flesh should glory before God" — and should say that according to this exposition it is not fitting that the th…
Romans 4:18-22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was said to him: So shall your seed be, as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. And he was not weakened in faith, nor did he consider his own body now dead, since he was almost a hundred years old, and the dead womb of Sarah. In the promise also of God he did not hesitate through distrust: but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and knowing most fully that whatever he promised, he is able also to do. Therefore it was also reputed to him unto justice." It seems to me that when the Apostle said "against hope," he had in view that which is related in Genesis, that Abraham said to the Lord: "Sovereign Lord, what will you give me? I am dismissed without children: but this son of Masech my homeborn maidservant is Damascus Eliezer. And Abraham said: Since you have given me no seed, this homeborn servant of mine shall be my heir." From which words Abraham is certainly understood to have despaired of receiving children. But as for what he said, "he believed in hope," I think he gathers the hope given to him again from that place where it is written: "And the voice of the Lord came to him saying: This man shall not be your heir; but he who shall come forth from you, he himself shall be your heir. And he led him outside, and said to him: Look up to heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him: So shall your seed be. And he believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice." From these words, therefore, both his earlier despair and the hope afterwards given to him by God's promises are declared. And because he believed him, that is written of him which the Apostle now sets forth, that "it was reputed to him unto justice." And rightly, and in the manner customary to him whenever he treats of faith, the Apostle joins hope also, knowing that hope inseparably cleaves to faith, just as he teaches the same in the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things that do not appear." And again in this same Epistle to the Romans he says further on: "For by hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience." What he says, "by hope we were saved," is the same as what he says elsewhere, that "by faith we have been saved"; and, "Your faith has made you whole"; and, "According to your faith be it unto you." Which things are certainly said to those who, believing in Jesus, bore the hope that they could be cured by him. And just as Abraham "against hope believed in hope," so all who by faith are sons of Abraham believe against hope in hope concerning each and every one of the things they believe, whether concerning the resurrection of the dead or concerning the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. For these things, so far as human nature is concerned, seem to be against hope; but so far as the power of God is concerned, they are believed in hope, after the example of Abraham believing that "whatever God has promised, he is able also to do" — provided, however, that in those who believe there abide faith, hope, and charity. And I think that the first beginnings of salvation, and the very foundations, are faith; but the advance and increase of the building is hope; while the perfection and summit of the whole work is charity: and therefore charity is called "the greatest of all."
Romans 4:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned to him for righteousness, but for our sake also, to whom it shall be reckoned, believing in him who raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our offenses, and rose again for our justification." In this place, what he says, "not for his sake alone," is to be understood as "concerning him"; and again what he says, "but for our sake also," this is, "and concerning us." For it is manifest that this which is said, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness," Moses did not write in order that Abraham might read it, who had of course long since died, but that we might take from a reading of this sort a profiting in faith, understanding that if we too so believe God as he believed, our faith also shall be reckoned to us for righteousness, "believing in him who raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead."
Romans 4:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
I should indeed like to inquire why it is that in this place the Apostle, when naming God, in whom we believe and in whom Abraham believed, did not say "believing" in God most high, or "believing in him" who made heaven and earth, or "in him" who made the angels and the other powers of the heavenly glory; but says: "who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead." Let us therefore inquire for what cause this title of the Lord's resurrection is taken up for the comparison of Abraham's faith. Had Abraham believed in him who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, when Jesus had not yet then been raised from the dead? I should wish, then, to consider what Paul had in view when he promises us that, just as faith was reckoned to Abraham believing for righteousness, so also it shall be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. In this matter I, according to the smallness of my perception, observe this: that it is far more magnificent among the praises of God to have raised Jesus our Lord from the dead than to have made heaven and earth, to have created the angels and established the heavenly powers. For that was to make the things which were not, but this to repair the things which had perished. That was to establish things not yet destroyed, this to restore things already destroyed. That, finally, was accomplished by a command, this by suffering. But of this so great and so magnificent a mystery, a form and image had gone before in the faith of Abraham. For he had believed, when he was bidden to offer his only son, that God was able to raise him even from the dead; he had believed also that the matter was then being transacted not for that Isaac alone, but that for his seed, which is Christ, the full truth of the sacrament was being kept in store. Thence, finally, he offered his only son rejoicing, because in him he was pondering not the destruction of his posterity, but the repairing of the world and the renewal of the whole creation, which has been restored through the resurrection of the Lord; and therefore the Lord says of him: "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad." In this way, then, the comparison made between the faith of Abraham and of those who believe in him who raised the Lord Jesus will be seen to be fitting; because what he believed would be, is believed by us to have been done. And at the same time this also is shown, which does not please the heretics: that God, in whom Abraham believed and who reckoned his faith for righteousness, is the very one who also raised the Lord Jesus from the dead; nor is any room left for understanding one God of the law and another the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But let us inquire something else: since there are very many things which Christ is said to be (for he is called both Wisdom, and power, and righteousness, and word, and truth, and life), why the Apostle makes mention, in our faith, chiefly of his resurrection. The same Apostle says elsewhere that "God has raised us up together with Christ, and has made us sit together with him in the heavenly places." This, then, is what he admonishes: If you believe that Christ rose from the dead, believe also that you yourselves have risen together with him; and if you believe that he sits at the right hand of the Father in the heavens, believe also that you yourselves are now placed not among earthly things, but among heavenly; and if you believe that you have died together with Christ, believe that you shall also live together with him; and if you believe that Christ died to sin and lives to God, you also be dead to sin, and live to God. And this is what he attests by apostolic authority when he says: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; savor the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth" — because he who acts thus shows that he believes in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the de…
Romans 4:25 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For this reason also in what follows he adds and says of the Lord Jesus: "Who was delivered up," he says, "for our sins, and rose again for our justification" — that he may show that those things for which Christ was delivered up we too ought to abhor and cast away. For if we believe that he was delivered up for our sins, how is not every sin to be counted by us as foreign and hostile, for which our Redeemer is recorded to have been delivered up to death? For if there should again be for us any fellowship or friendship with sin, we show that we count the death of Christ Jesus as nothing, since we embrace and follow the very things which he overcame and conquered. And the Apostle, binding all this together as it were into the very body of sin, called it the garment of the old man, which he urges to be put off by those who believe in him who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, so that, having cast away the garment of unrighteousness, they may put on the Lord Jesus, who is the true garment of righteousness, in order that faith may deservedly be reckoned for righteousness to those who believe. "He was therefore delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification." For indeed, if we have risen with Christ, who is righteousness, and walk in newness of life, and live according to righteousness, Christ has risen for us unto our justification. But if we have not yet put off the old man with his deeds, but live in unrighteousness, I dare to say that Christ has not yet risen for us unto justification, nor has he been delivered up for our sins. For if I believe this, how can I love that for the sake of which he endured death? If I believe that he rose again for my justification, how can injustice be pleasing to me? Christ, therefore, justifies those alone who have taken up a new life after the example of his resurrection, and who cast off the old garments of injustice and iniquity as being the cause of death.
Romans 5:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we glory in the hope of the glory of God." By this he most plainly invites the one who has understood what it is to be justified by faith and not by works to that peace of God which surpasses every mind, in which also the summit of perfection consists. But that we may examine the Apostle's meaning more carefully, let us inquire what the name of peace signifies, and in particular that peace which is through our Lord Christ. Peace is said to exist where no one is at variance, no one at discord, where nothing hostile, nothing barbarous is carried on. We therefore, who were once enemies of God, following the enemy and tyrant, the devil — if we now cast away his weapons and take up the standard of Christ and the banners of his cross, we assuredly have peace with God, but through our Lord Jesus Christ, who reconciled us to God through the sacrifice of his blood, as it is written: "When we were enemies of God, we were reconciled through the blood of the cross of his Son." And elsewhere the same Paul added to these words, saying: "We entreat you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." If anyone therefore has peace with God, and has been reconciled through the blood of Christ, let him no longer touch those things which are hostile to God. But do you wish to hear what those things are which are hostile to God? Paul himself teaches you, who says: "The wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God: for it is not subject to the law of God." If therefore you are wise after the flesh, or expose your life to the desires of the flesh, and are dissolved by an abundance of delights; or if concerning the understanding of the law you think carnally and not spiritually, and defend these views by assertions sought out through human artifice rather than by spiritual grace and subtler understanding, you are made an enemy to God through the wisdom of the flesh. Nor is Paul the only one who writes these things in his letters: hear James also, the brother of the Lord, declaring the like, when he says: "Whoever wishes to be a friend of this world shall be constituted an enemy of God." But John too testifies to the same effect: "Little children," he says, "do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world: for everything that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of God." Therefore the man in whom these things are cannot have peace with God, but rather stirs up again those enmities for the dissolving of which Christ came, as the same Apostle also says of Christ: "For he is our peace, who made both one, and dissolving the middle wall of the fence, the enmities in his flesh: emptying the law of commandments in its decrees, that he might create the two in himself, making peace in one new man." But if Christ came to dissolve enmities, to make peace, and to reconcile to God us who were at variance because of that fence of malice which we had woven by sinning — the fence of sin being dissolved — then whoever turns back again to sins without doubt restores the enmities anew, and weaves the fence of dissension again, and by these things undoes the work of Christ and empties out the cross of his passion. But let us, "being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Let us have peace, so that the flesh may no longer strive against the spirit, nor the law of God be resisted by the law of the members. Let there not be in us "yes and no," but let us all say one thing, let us be of the same mind, and let there be no dissension either within ourselves or outwardly toward one another; and then we shall have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But this must be known most certainly, that everyone in whom there is the vice of malice can never have peace. For while he is always thinking how…
Romans 5:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Let us" therefore "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And he added: "Through whom also we have access into this grace in which we stand." How we have access to grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior himself says: "I am the door"; and, "No one comes to the Father except through me." Through him, then, who is the door, we have access to grace. But let us see what kind of door it is, that we may know what kind of persons they ought to be who enter through it and have access to grace. This door is truth, and liars cannot enter in through the door of truth. And again, this door is righteousness, and the unrighteous do not enter through the door of righteousness. This door says: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." Through the door, therefore, of humility and gentleness neither the wrathful man enters nor the proud. If then there is anyone who, according to the Apostle's word, wishes through our Lord Jesus Christ to have access into the grace of the Lord, in which Paul, and any who are like him, says that he stands, he must be cleansed from all those things which we have mentioned above. Otherwise this door will not allow those to enter through it who do the things that are foreign to it, but is at once shut, and does not permit those unlike itself to pass through. This, no doubt, is what happened to those five foolish virgins as well, who, because they had not gathered the oil of good works in their vessels, on coming after delay found the door shut. For foolish souls could not enter through the door of wisdom and have access into grace. And well does the apostle Paul say that he stands in grace, who also said elsewhere: "But I labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God with me." Hence if there is any other who labors more abundantly, and who glories in his infirmities, who is often set in dangers — "dangers of the sea, dangers of rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers among false brethren" — and in all these stands always in faith, he likewise is said to stand in grace.
Romans 5:3-5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"And not only so, but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; but hope does not confound, because the charity of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." The very first phrase of this chapter contains something of ambiguity; for it does not have in what follows anything to which what he said, "and not only so," ought to be referred. Whence see whether we can in this way resolve the ambiguity of the expression. Since in the foregoing he has taught us that many things have been granted to us through our Lord Jesus Christ — as when he says that we have been justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that through him we have access into this grace, and that through him also we glory in the hope of the glory of God — to all these things which have been said I think that "and not only so" ought to be referred: that is, not only the things which I said above, but this also, that we glory in our tribulations, we have through our Lord Jesus Christ. For while others are made sad in tribulation, we, strengthened by the power of his grace, glory in tribulations. For we have learned a new discipline from his instruction, that through tribulations we may receive the good of patience; and having the good of patience we may be judged approved; and, tried through the patience of many tribulations, we may have the hope of the future reward from God — which hope, because it is certain and true, does not confound those who hope. For faith and hope are followed by the charity of God, which is greater than all, and which not only fills our mind, but also abounds and is poured out in our hearts, for the reason that it is not acquired by us through human art, but is poured in through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Let these things be explained according to the sequence of the discourse itself, that is, of the letter, for the opening up of the apostolic utterance. Now let us inquire what the inner sense contains. And first let us consider, concerning boasting, what he said: "We boast in our tribulations." For the word "boasting" is sometimes used in the Scriptures in a praiseworthy sense, and sometimes in a blameworthy one. Indeed, when Jeremiah says: "Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor let the rich man boast in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and to know me, that I am the Lord who establishes mercy and judgment and justice upon the earth" — in one and the same chapter he has placed boasting both in a praiseworthy and in a blameworthy sense. For if anyone, he says, boasts either in his own wisdom, or in his strength, or in his riches, he boasts blameworthily; but if anyone boasts in knowing the Lord, and in the understanding of his judgments and of his mercy and justice, he boasts in a praiseworthy manner. Since, therefore, this word looks toward both, we must inquire in what things there is right boasting, and in what things a less right boasting. And this we shall at last be able to recognize, if we hold to the natures of things with a fitting distinction. Now what we mean is this. All things that exist or that are done are either good, or evil, or indifferent. Concerning these, although a broader disputation ought to be held, nevertheless we shall set forth as much as suffices for the present passage. It is certain that those things are properly called good which pertain to the virtues of the soul; and that those alone are defined as evil which have regard to wickedness and are done against the law of God; but that the rest are indifferent — that is, are to be named neither good nor evil — such as riches, beauty of body, and strength or tallness of stature, and those things which serve the uses of the body. If, therefore, anyone is ignorant of the distinction of this diversity, and boasts in those things which are not truly good, no…
Romans 5:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For while we were yet weak, Christ, according to the time, died for the ungodly." Wishing to show more fully the powers of that charity which he had said was poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, he set forth for what reasons we ought to understand this, teaching us that Christ died not for the godly but for the ungodly. For we were ungodly before we were converted to God, and Christ assuredly underwent death for us before we believed: which beyond doubt he would not have done, had he not had toward us an exceeding and most abundant charity — whether our Lord Jesus Christ himself, by dying for the ungodly, or God the Father, by handing over his Only-begotten for the redemption of the ungodly.
Romans 5:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet for a good man perhaps someone would dare to die." For since scarcely anyone dies for a righteous man, and each one hesitates to undergo death, even if the cause of death be just, how great is this one, and how great must his charity toward us be reckoned, who, at that time in which he suffered, did not shrink from enduring death for the ungodly and the unrighteous? In this, surely, is the token of that highest divine goodness. For unless he were coming from that substance, and the Son of that Father of whom it is said that "none is good save one, God the Father," he certainly could not have shown so great a goodness toward us. Whence, because from this token of so great goodness he himself is recognized to be good, for this good one perhaps someone would even dare to die. For when each one has come to know so great a goodness of Christ toward himself, and has had his charity poured out in his heart, he will desire not only to die for this good one, but even to die boldly. And we often see this fulfilled in actual deeds and works, when those in whose hearts the charity of Christ has been abundantly poured out offer themselves even willingly and with all boldness to their persecutors, and confess the name of Christ, with the world listening, before angels and men, so that they dare not only to suffer injury for his name, but even to undergo for this good one that death which one scarcely endures for a righteous man. For so great is the love of this life that even when a just cause of death has come, each one scarcely accepts death patiently. Now a just cause of death seems to be present when it is brought on by the law of nature; and although it is just by the condition of mortality, yet the mind scarcely embraces yielding to the laws of nature. "Scarcely, therefore, does anyone die for a righteous man." But for a good man someone dares to die, and boldly falls, especially if he has understood that, while we were still according to the time ungodly and weak, he first died for us. And how shall not he who knows that these things were first bestowed on him by that one repay to a good one the death which that one expended upon the evil? But the error of those is refuted who thought this passage was to be so interpreted that what he said, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die," they maintain must be understood of the God of the law, whom they call just but not good; while they assert that Christ is the Son of the good Father. But what will they do, since we find many martyrs in the law as well? Let them read the books of the Maccabees, where with all steadfastness the blessed mother with her seven sons undertakes martyrdom, and they not only endure martyrdom patiently but even heap reproaches upon the tyrant; and let them see whether what they say is true, that "scarcely does anyone die for a righteous man." Let them see the three youths cast with all confidence into the furnace of burning fire for the freedom of their faith, and let them say that "scarcely does anyone die for a righteous man." Death for God, then, is the only death which is undertaken with all boldness; but every other death is scarcely borne with endurance, even if it be just and comes down by the law of the human condition.
Romans 5:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But God commends his charity toward us: because if, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more therefore now, being justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him." Since he had said above that "Christ, according to the time, died for the ungodly," he now wishes from this to show the magnitude of God's charity toward men: for if it was so great toward the ungodly and toward sinners that for their salvation he gave his only Son, how much more bountiful and more abundant will it be toward those who have been converted and amended and, as he himself says, redeemed by his own blood? I certainly do not think that this variety of words in Paul is idle — that he sometimes names them weak, sometimes ungodly, sometimes sinners, on whose behalf he says Christ died; and although he confesses himself unskilled in speech, nevertheless I do not judge that in these matters he varied his terms through lack of skill, but rather through profound knowledge. For by these three every kind of sin is gathered up. For either someone, being ignorant of God, sins in darkness, and is called ungodly; or, wishing to keep the commandment, he is overcome by the frailty of the flesh and is deceived by the enticements of the present life, and is called weak; or knowingly and willingly he despises the commandment, and hates the discipline of God, and casts his words behind him, and is named a sinner. And thus Paul, who professes himself, as we have said, unskilled in speech, has embraced in these three distinctions all those for whom Christ is proclaimed to have died. But if at times even those who are under the law, and who seem to worship God, are named ungodly in the divine Scriptures, this happens for the reason that, forsaking the God of their fathers, they worship the gods of the nations. But that Paul numbers himself among sinners — he who elsewhere says, "We by nature Jews, and not sinners from among the Gentiles" — this is the virtue of his humility. For he imitates him "who, though he had done no sin, was made sin for us"; and though he was God, dwelt among men. "God therefore commends his charity toward us." Here "commends" is understood either as "confirms," or as "makes lovable on account of benefits." (For the fact that "Christ, while we were yet sinners, died for us" gives us hope that much more will he save us, purged from sin and justified, from the wrath that hangs over sinners, through himself; and he who so loved strangers and enemies that he gave his Only-begotten to death for us, much more will he bestow eternal salvation upon those who have been made his own and reconciled to him. But in what manner Christ died for us, and in what manner, being the Lamb of God, he took away the sin of the world and bore our infirmities and grieved for us, has often been discussed by us in other places, where we adduced also those things which are reported in secular histories: that even among them certain men are said to have driven off plagues, or whirlwinds, and other things similar to these, by exposing themselves to death, and to have freed their country or their nation from the destruction of an impending disaster. How truly these things are written, or what reason they may have if they are true, is for God alone to know. Yet none of those men about whom such things are narrated is said — not even in a fictitious account — to have absolved the sins of the whole world, save Jesus alone, "who, when he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself," and according to the will of the Father, having taken the form of a servant, offered himself as a victim for the whole world, delivering his own blood to the prince of this world, according to the wisdom of God, "which none of the princes of this world knew: for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty" — nor would that blood which they had thirsted for have extinguished not so much their thirst as thei…
Romans 5:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Much more therefore," he says, "being now justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him." Above indeed he had said: "Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God"; and now he says: "Much more now, being justified in his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him." From which he shows that neither does our faith justify us without the blood of Christ, nor does the blood of Christ justify us without our faith; yet of the two, the blood of Christ justifies us much more than our faith does. And therefore it seems to me that, whereas above he had said simply, "being justified by faith," here he has added, "much more therefore now, being justified in his blood," so as to teach that, even if our faith saves us from the wrath to come, even if works of righteousness do so, nevertheless above all these the blood of Christ much more makes us safe from the wrath to come. But how the wrath of God ought to be understood has been said more fully by us in the exposition of the second psalm, and how that which is written can be fulfilled, namely that we be made safe by fleeing from the wrath to come — fleeing wrath in such a way that it does not overtake us, but pursuing righteousness, piety, faith, charity, patience, meekness, and the rest of the things like these. Wrath, then, is that to which each one is handed over according to the measure and desert of his sins; God nevertheless, according to what is written in the seventy-seventh psalm, not kindling all his wrath. For who could endure it if the Lord kindled all his wrath against sinners, since that is so terrible which is pronounced in the canticle of Moses, where he says: "For a fire is kindled in my fury, and it shall burn even to the lowest hell: it shall devour the earth and its produce, it shall set ablaze the foundations of the mountains"? Consider, therefore, that this fire which is kindled from the wrath or the fury of the Lord devours the earth and the lower hell, and consumes earthly works; it sets ablaze also not the heights of the mountains, but the foundations — that is, not lofty souls, nor heavenly minds, but those cast down to the ground and to the earth, or even sunk into the depth of the earth, as are the foundations of mountains. It was necessary, then, to discuss wrath also a little, so that it might be known more plainly from what evils the blood of Christ has rescued us.
Romans 5:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in his life. And not only so, but we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." What he says, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God," plainly shows that there is no substance which, according to the definition of Marcion or Valentinus, is by nature hostile to God; for otherwise, if what is hostile belonged to nature and not to the will, it would surely admit of no reconciliation. But where someone is made a friend out of an enemy, it is certain that, so long as he does those works which God does not love, he is an enemy of God, and each one becomes an enemy so much the more grievous and more hateful as he has multiplied works deserving of enmity. There are therefore certain measures and degrees, distinguished by the quality or quantity of their sins, among those who are enemies to God. Whence also he who has sinned above all others is recorded by Paul as the last enemy to be destroyed. But conversely and in like order it is certain that those who have been reconciled through the death of his Son are held among his friends: and that one is a friend in such a way as Moses was called the friend of God; and that there are others also to whom the Savior says, "Now I will no longer call you servants, but friends." And I believe that there are yet others still more intimate as friends with God in the heavenly places — either those who always behold the face of God, or those who always stand in the sight of the Most High: so that, just as we said above that there is a certain last enemy, so there too, according to the merits of their virtues, some are reckoned the highest friends. Since, then, these things are so, I do not know whether he who still remains in those works which God hates, and on account of which there is enmity between God and men, can rightly be said to have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. For how has he been reconciled, who does the deeds of an enemy? Paul therefore rightly says of himself and of those like himself, that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son." It is a great shame that, where such a reconciliation has been made, where the enmities between God and men were dissolved not by the word of a sinner but by the blood of an intercessor, we should turn back again to enmities, and do those things which he hates whom no one but the pouring out of sacred blood had reconciled to us. But Paul himself, writing more fully to the Ephesians, mentions the principle of reconciliation and of enmity, and the shedding of Christ's blood; and if we join these passages together, they can more easily open up the passage of the present chapter. He says, then, thus: "Wherefore be mindful, you who were once Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hand, that at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the way of life of Israel, and strangers to the promise of his covenants, having no hope, and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and, dissolving the middle wall of partition, the enmity in his flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in decrees, that he might create the two in himself, making peace in one new man, that he might reconcile both in one body to God, slaying the enmities in himself through the cross; and coming he preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, since through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." But especially note in these words this: that Christ dissolved the middle wall of partition in his flesh, that is, the enmity; and that he reconciled both in one body to God through the cross; and that he slew the e…
Romans 5:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as to the fact that he set down, in like manner as in the earlier passages, "And not only so, but we also now glory in God," and added nothing to the "and not only so," it is to be understood, just as above, as said of those things which have been set forth above: that is, that not only "when we were enemies, were we reconciled to God through the death of his Son," and not only "shall we be saved in his life, but we also now glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation." And not without reason did he add "now," when he might have said: "But we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation"; but he did so in order to show that glorying has been given to us not only in the future, but also in the present, from the knowledge of God, the amendment of life, and the correction of errors — as the same Apostle also says in another place: "Having hope both of the present life and of that which is to come": of the present, because it is more honorable and more amended; of the future, because it is eternal.
Romans 5:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so death passed through to all men, in whom all sinned. For until the law sin was in this world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the figure of him who was to come." After he had taught the difference between faith and the law, and between those who are justified through faith and those who cannot hope through the law for the promises that were made to the fathers; and when he had disclosed the hidden things of the secret mystery, that "when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled through the death of his Son," now he consequently sets forth also the reasons why we were enemies, and why that reconciliation required the death of the Son of God: so that, beholding how great the things are that Jesus has bestowed upon us — nay rather, how great the things are that he has endured for us — we may be held to him by a more deeply rooted faith and by an inseparable love. Therefore, though not in every respect laid open, he nevertheless indicates to us the account of yet another secret when he says: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death," and the rest. But before we come to the exposition of the whole chapter, a few things must be said about what appears in what follows to be a defect in the expression itself. For where it is said, "Therefore, just as," it seems necessary that some completion ought to be added, so that it should say: So also this or that — as he himself writes in certain other places, for example when he says: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." But here, when he has said, "Just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so death passed through to all men, in whom all sinned," he did not go on to say, for instance: So also through one man righteousness entered into this world, and through righteousness life, and so life passed through to all men, in which all were made alive. For this is what the sense of the statement set forth seemed to demand, according to those things which he himself declares elsewhere. For there is not much difference between what he says in another place, "For as in Adam all die," and what he says here, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so it passed through to all men, in whom all sinned"; and again, what he said, "So also in Christ shall all be made alive," differs in no way from that sense which we said above was lacking to the expression and left to the understanding of the reader. But it seems to me that Paul — who says that "our sufficiency is from God, who also made us fit ministers of the New Testament," and who again says, "Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?" — did not suffer these things through a defect of speech, but foresaw through them something of usefulness: so that, even though those things which we said were lacking to the expression and are to be understood ought to be understood, nevertheless, on account of the more negligent sort who might perhaps be dissolved into laxity if they heard that, just as death passed to all men through sin, so also life passed through to all men through Christ, he judged that these things ought not to be said openly and publicly. And at the same time he shows this also: that even if through one man righteousness entered into this world, and through righteousness life, and so it passed through to all men, nevertheless this does not happen straightway in the present, nor does it fall to the idle, but to those who by much labor and sweat have been able to seek out the things that are hidden, to knock at the things that are closed, to long for the things that are concealed. Finally, in that chapter also which we brought forward for the li…
Romans 5:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But also that which he says, "For until the law sin was in this world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law," seems to show this: that until the law, that is, until Christ should come who takes away the sin of the world, sin was in the world. And it is manifest that sin cannot be imputed where there is no law to convict the sinner. "But death reigned," which had entered in through sin, "until Moses," that is, so long as the law endured, "over those who sinned after the similitude of the sin of Adam," through whom death itself received its entrance; "who," namely Adam, "is the figure of him that was to come" — not according to that in which he transgressed, but according to this, that as through him death, so through the last Adam life entered into this world; and as through the former came condemnation upon all men, so also through Christ justification upon all men. Let these things be said concerning the plain sense of the apostolic utterance itself.
Romans 5:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But also that which he says, "For until the law sin was in this world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law," seems to show this: that until the law, that is, until Christ should come who takes away the sin of the world, sin was in the world. And it is manifest that sin cannot be imputed where there is no law to convict the sinner. "But death reigned," which had entered in through sin, "until Moses," that is, so long as the law endured, "over those who sinned after the similitude of the sin of Adam," through whom death itself received its entrance; "who," namely Adam, "is the figure of him that was to come" — not according to that in which he transgressed, but according to this, that as through him death, so through the last Adam life entered into this world; and as through the former came condemnation upon all men, so also through Christ justification upon all men. Let these things be said concerning the plain sense of the apostolic utterance itself.
Romans 5:15-16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the trespass of one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound unto many. And the gift is not as it was by one sin. For the judgment indeed was from one unto condemnation, but grace is from many trespasses unto justification." Since in what precedes the Apostle had said of Adam, "who is a figure of him who was to come," and since he saw that it could be asked whether, if Adam is a figure of Christ, then it is necessary that he bore the figure of Christ also in that wherein he sinned, and in that wherein death reigned from Adam until Moses — but this seemed absurd to think concerning Christ — he at once adds: "But the gift is not like the trespass"; and beginning from this statement he proceeds, as it were, to explain himself, in what sense he called Adam a figure of Christ. "For if," he says, "by the trespass of one many died," namely in Adam, "much more did the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound unto many": that is, if, when one man sinned, death, finding a place, was able to be spread abroad into many, much more is the grace of God, which abounded in Christ more copiously and more widely than death did in Adam, spread abroad into many; and so far is the condition of the trespass not the same as that of the gift, that whereas judgment was passed upon Adam, and from that one man who trespassed condemnation came upon all men, on the contrary through Christ, out of the many trespasses by which the whole race of men was held fast, justification was given unto all: so that, as death had reigned through one man in trespasses, so also through the obedience of one might life reign through righteousness. Therefore it was not without a profound art of speaking that the Apostle laid it down that Adam is a figure of Christ — a figure that is similar in genus but contrary in species. For in genus the figure is similar in this, that just as from the one Adam it is spread abroad into many men, so also from the one Christ it is spread abroad into many men. But in species it is contrary, in that from Adam, once the transgression had begun, "many were constituted sinners"; but by Christ's "obedience many shall be constituted righteous." Since, then, it has been explained according to the logic of his own language in what way Adam was a figure of Christ, whether in things similar or in things contrary, let us now also see what inner meaning the Apostle indicates in these words, or rather conceals. And although it may seem hazardous to lay open those things which have been set down more secretly in the Apostle's writings, nevertheless, so far as it is possible, I do not think it will seem absurd to gather from them certain indications of the divine goodness. The Apostle set out to show what "the first Adam," who "was made into a living soul," brought upon the human race, and what also "the second Adam," who is "unto a life-giving spirit," brought. From the transgression of the former, he says, sin appeared, and through sin death entered into all men; or rather, that we may preserve for Paul's writings the restraint which he has maintained in the present passage, death passed through into many men. But through the obedience of Christ justification, and through justification life, abounded much more unto many. And he wishes to show that life is far stronger than death, and righteousness than sin; and by this to teach that if sin and death were able so to reign in all, taking their beginning from the disobedience of one man, how much more powerfully and more worthily will life reign through righteousness, taking its beginning through the obedience of the one Christ — Christ, I say, who came to this work moved not by any necessity of his condition, but by mercy alone. For he was "in the form of God," and, seeing death reigning throughout the peoples by the trespass of one man, he does not forget his own…
Romans 5:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Thus Christ brings back to life more than Adam led to death; for Christ has called back to life even Adam himself, who was for the rest the cause of death — so that what the Apostle writes in what follows may be true, namely that "as through the trespass of one man there came upon all men the condemnation of death, so also through the grace of one there came upon all men the justification of life." But Adam too is a man: therefore the justification of life will reach him also. But perhaps you will say: If, when one sinned, death passed through into all men, and again through the righteousness of one the justification of life has come to all men, then nothing was done by us either that we should die or that we should live; rather, Adam is the cause of death and Christ of life. Now we have already said, even in the passages above, that parents do not only beget children but also instruct them; and those who are born become not only sons to their parents but disciples as well, and they are driven into the death of sin not so much by nature as by training. For example: if someone departs from God and worships idols, will he not immediately, if he begets sons, teach them also to venerate idols and to offer sacrifices to demons? This he does after the manner of Adam, and in this way death reigns from Adam — that is, from birth — up to the time of the Law, when a person, coming to the discernment of right and wrong conduct, can be made capable of the grace of Christ; and there he leaves behind Adam, who either begot him or taught him unto death, and follows Christ, who both teaches him and begets him unto life. But do you wish to know that the state in which death reigned from Adam is a matter not only of birth but also of teaching? Learn this from its opposites. For when the Lord Jesus Christ had come to set right what had been wrongly done, in view of the fact that the first birth, which came from Adam, brought forth unto death, he introduced a second birth, which he called not so much generation as regeneration, by which he would without doubt abolish the defect of the first birth; and just as he substituted regeneration for generation, so also he substituted another teaching for the former teaching. For when he sent his disciples to this work, he did not say merely: Go, baptize all nations; but he said: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Knowing, therefore, that both were at fault, he gave a remedy for both, so that mortal generation might be changed by the regeneration of baptism, and the teaching of piety might shut out the teaching of impiety. It is not, then, without any sinning on our part that death has reigned in us; just as, on the other hand, life will not reign in us while we are idle and do nothing. But the beginning of life is indeed given by Christ, not to the unwilling but to believers, and one arrives at the perfection of life by the perfection of the virtues, just as formerly one arrived at death by the likeness of transgression and by the filling up of vices. And although the apostle Paul, as a prudent steward of the word of God, wished these things to be hidden and covered over in his Letters, nevertheless he did insert it and did not keep silent about it in the place where he says: "But death reigned from Adam until Moses over those who sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam." Do you see how Paul excuses no one from sin? But he also indicates the kind of sin, placing in each one the likeness of the transgression of Adam — although he did not think it safe to declare more openly where, when, or in what manner this likeness of transgression was committed by each one. But he who has been trained in the law of the Lord knows how to understand a dark saying, and the words of the wise, and their riddles. And so for this reason he speaks also more secretly about the salvation which is in Christ; and when he had said, "For as in Ada…
Romans 5:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Thus Christ brings back to life more than Adam led to death; for Christ has called back to life even Adam himself, who was for the rest the cause of death — so that what the Apostle writes in what follows may be true, namely that "as through the trespass of one man there came upon all men the condemnation of death, so also through the grace of one there came upon all men the justification of life." But Adam too is a man: therefore the justification of life will reach him also. But perhaps you will say: If, when one sinned, death passed through into all men, and again through the righteousness of one the justification of life has come to all men, then nothing was done by us either that we should die or that we should live; rather, Adam is the cause of death and Christ of life. Now we have already said, even in the passages above, that parents do not only beget children but also instruct them; and those who are born become not only sons to their parents but disciples as well, and they are driven into the death of sin not so much by nature as by training. For example: if someone departs from God and worships idols, will he not immediately, if he begets sons, teach them also to venerate idols and to offer sacrifices to demons? This he does after the manner of Adam, and in this way death reigns from Adam — that is, from birth — up to the time of the Law, when a person, coming to the discernment of right and wrong conduct, can be made capable of the grace of Christ; and there he leaves behind Adam, who either begot him or taught him unto death, and follows Christ, who both teaches him and begets him unto life. But do you wish to know that the state in which death reigned from Adam is a matter not only of birth but also of teaching? Learn this from its opposites. For when the Lord Jesus Christ had come to set right what had been wrongly done, in view of the fact that the first birth, which came from Adam, brought forth unto death, he introduced a second birth, which he called not so much generation as regeneration, by which he would without doubt abolish the defect of the first birth; and just as he substituted regeneration for generation, so also he substituted another teaching for the former teaching. For when he sent his disciples to this work, he did not say merely: Go, baptize all nations; but he said: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Knowing, therefore, that both were at fault, he gave a remedy for both, so that mortal generation might be changed by the regeneration of baptism, and the teaching of piety might shut out the teaching of impiety. It is not, then, without any sinning on our part that death has reigned in us; just as, on the other hand, life will not reign in us while we are idle and do nothing. But the beginning of life is indeed given by Christ, not to the unwilling but to believers, and one arrives at the perfection of life by the perfection of the virtues, just as formerly one arrived at death by the likeness of transgression and by the filling up of vices. And although the apostle Paul, as a prudent steward of the word of God, wished these things to be hidden and covered over in his Letters, nevertheless he did insert it and did not keep silent about it in the place where he says: "But death reigned from Adam until Moses over those who sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam." Do you see how Paul excuses no one from sin? But he also indicates the kind of sin, placing in each one the likeness of the transgression of Adam — although he did not think it safe to declare more openly where, when, or in what manner this likeness of transgression was committed by each one. But he who has been trained in the law of the Lord knows how to understand a dark saying, and the words of the wise, and their riddles. And so for this reason he speaks also more secretly about the salvation which is in Christ; and when he had said, "For as in Ada…
Romans 5:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For if by one man's transgression death reigned through one, much more shall they who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ." If the gift were as the transgression is, the Apostle would surely have said that just as by one man's transgression death reigned through one, so also through one man's righteousness life shall reign through the one Jesus Christ. But as it is he says that "death" indeed "reigned by one man's transgression through one." Yet those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness — not only does death no longer reign in them (which of itself is assuredly no small grace), but two other goods besides are conferred upon them: one, that in place of death Christ Jesus reigns in them as life; the other, that they themselves also shall reign through the one Jesus Christ. Since therefore these necessary goods come upon them — namely, that they escape the reign of death, and that in place of death life reigns in them, indeed that they themselves also reign in life through the one Jesus Christ — it is plain how "the transgression is not as the gift is," and how it can be said: "Much more shall the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound unto many"; and that other saying: "But the grace is from many transgressions unto justification"; and likewise what he says in the present passage: "Much more shall they who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ" our Lord. Now in saying, "By one man's transgression death reigned through one," he shows that it is through transgression that a kingdom is given to death, and that death cannot reign in anyone unless it receive the right of its kingdom from transgression. From which it seems to be judged that, although the soul was created free by God, it reduces itself into servitude through transgression, and hands over to death, as it were, the bonds of its own immortality which it had received from its Creator. "For the soul that sins, it shall die." The soul itself, in short, cries out through the Prophet, saying: "You have brought me down into the dust of death." Which surely could not have befallen it except from transgression. Whence it plainly appears that through transgression it has written out its own bonds with death, so that, having lost the freedom of immortality, it should take up the yoke of sin and the reign of death. The Apostle therefore, wishing to show how much greater are the things the soul receives through Christ than what it had lost through Adam, repeats these expressions, so as to say, "Much more," and, "the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness," and, "they shall reign through the one Jesus Christ." All of which assuredly declare that the gifts are far more abundant than the losses. But you will ask: these whom he says shall reign in life through Jesus Christ — over whom shall they reign? It seems to me that, just as he showed the reign of death to have been over those whom it made liable to itself by their sinning, so also he shows that the kingdom of those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, and who are said to be about to reign through the one Jesus Christ, will be over those who become subject to them in the instruction of the kingdom of God, and, so to speak, who have been found capable of the wisdom and righteousness and life that is in them and through which they reign. Whence it seems to me not idly that the Apostle, who in other places had said that "death passed upon all men," and again, "the grace of God abounded unto many," and again, "the grace is from many transgressions unto justification," has here set down neither "all" nor "many" nor "the more part," knowing that the sum of this blessedness pertains to few, "who, receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life through the one Jesus Chri…
Romans 5:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Therefore, as through the transgression of one man it came upon all men unto condemnation, so also through the righteousness of one it comes upon all men unto justification of life." We have already said above that through Adam's transgression a kind of entrance was, as it were, opened, through which either sin, or the death of sin, or condemnation might come upon all men. Christ, on the contrary, therefore opened an entrance of justification, through which life might come in to men, and for this reason he said of himself: "I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved." But enough has already been said about these matters above. This, however, must be observed: that he did not say, "As it came upon all men unto condemnation" of death, but only "unto condemnation," namely so that in all respects he might prove the gift to be far more abundant than the transgression. But we must see in what way, or what sort of condemnation, has come upon all men. And perhaps it can suffice, according to the simple exposition, that we say the condemnation of the transgression is this common death, which comes to all and will come, even if they are seen to be righteous. But if perhaps someone raises the objection of Enoch and Elijah, who were translated so that they should not see death, the case is safeguarded in this way: that what is said of all is not straightway shown to be false, if some dispensation of God has been made in the case of one man or two. But this too someone will fittingly, as I think, bring forward in this place: that when Adam had transgressed, it is written that the Lord God cast him out of paradise, and set him in this earth over against the paradise of delights; and this was the condemnation of his transgression, which without doubt has come upon all men. For all have been placed in this place of humiliation and in the valley of weeping; whether because all who are born from him were in Adam's loins, and were cast out together with him; or whether in some other unutterable manner known to God alone each one is seen to have been thrust out of paradise and to have received the condemnation.
Romans 5:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one many shall be made righteous." It can indeed be the case that, according to what we have observed above, Paul, wishing to veil the more secret mysteries, puts "many" where elsewhere he had said "all," lest perhaps, if he had said that through the disobedience of one "all" were made sinners, and had necessarily added, "so also through the obedience of one" all "shall be made righteous," he should seem, by the security of such a promise, to unnerve the souls of those for whom it is expedient to be under fear. And therefore we, preserving the counsel of a faithful and prudent steward in the word of God, ought rather to give an account of this: how through the disobedience of one not all, but many, were made sinners. For how through the obedience of one not all, but many, are made righteous will present no difficulty to the understanding, according to that which the Lord says in the Gospel: "For many shall come from the East and the West, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God," and he did not say, All shall come. But we must show how sinners are seen to be many and not all, since the same Apostle says that "all have sinned." It is one thing to sin, another to be a sinner. He is called a sinner who by transgressing in many things has already come into the habit, and, so to speak, into the eager pursuit of sinning; just as, on the contrary, he is not called righteous who has once or twice done something of righteousness, but he who by always acting justly holds righteousness in practice and habit. For if someone is unjust in almost all other things, but once or twice has done some just work, he indeed will be said to have acted justly in that work in which he held to righteousness, yet he will not on this account be called righteous. So too a righteous man will be said indeed to have sinned if at some time he has committed something that is not lawful, yet he will not on this account be called a sinner, since he does not hold the practice and habit of sinning: just as that man is not called a physician who knows how to lay a cobweb on the lightly broken skin of the head, or who has bathed the swelling of a wound with warm water, although even this seems to belong to medicine; but he is called a physician who has the practice, and the pursuit, and the discipline of healing. From all which I think it has been sufficiently shown that it is one thing to sin, another to be a sinner. For it can be that all have sinned, even if they have been holy, because "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life has been of one day." For who is there who has not sinned either in deed, or in word, or — if he is most cautious — at least in thought? And therefore, as I said, all will rightly be said to have sinned, but not all were made sinners; rather, many. In like manner also the righteous will be reckoned many, not all, even if all do some work of righteousness. And the Apostle well preserves also the reckoning of the tenses. For when he referred the many being made sinners to the past, he transferred the many being made righteous to the future time, knowing without doubt that with the advance of the evangelical preaching the multitude of the righteous would increase greater. But that there were also many righteous even before the coming of the Savior, the same Lord testifies in the Gospels, when he says: "Many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see." But the Savior speaks here of many righteous in one sense, and the Apostle has put it in another. For the Savior, looking at the number of the apostles, said that the righteous and the prophets were many in comparison with them; but in the present passage the Apostle must be understood to have referred "many" to a comparison with all who have been born and will be born in this world. Therefore "through the disobedience of one many were made si…
Romans 5:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But the law entered in secretly, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through justice unto life eternal, through Jesus Christ our Lord." If indeed no one had sinned before the law was given through Moses, Marcion and the other heretics, wishing to accuse the law, would seem to seize an occasion from these words of the Apostle, as though this had been the reason for the law's being given, namely that sin, which had not existed before the law, might abound. But I do not know what time they can find that was empty of sins before the law. When Cain was killing Abel, and defiling the earth with a brother's blood, so that it was said to him, "Cursed is the earth in thy work, which hath opened its mouth to receive the blood of thy brother," was sin not abounding? Plainly it was abounding — and that when men themselves did not yet abound. Or then, when Lamech was saying: "I have slain a man to the wounding of myself, and a young man to my own bruising? And whereas vengeance was taken sevenfold for Cain, for Lamech it shall be seventy times sevenfold"? But in the times of Noe the offence abounded so greatly that, it says, "the Lord seeing that the wickednesses of men were multiplied upon the earth, and that every man diligently set his heart upon malice all the days of his life, the Lord reconsidered that he had made man upon the earth, and he repented in his heart, and said: I will destroy man whom I have made from the face of the earth, from man even to beast, and from the creeping things even to the birds of the air, because it repenteth me that I have made them." And again, when it is said: "The earth was corrupted before the Lord, and the earth was filled with iniquities. And God saw the earth, and it was exceedingly corrupted, because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth." Who then is so stupid as to deny that in all these things sin abounded? Or surely when it is said by God concerning the Sodomites: "I have come down that I might see whether according to the cry of the Sodomites their iniquities are being brought to completion"; or when they stood round about the house of Lot, contriving the crime of their shamelessness even against angels? Or perhaps sin was not abounding then, when Pharao was afflicting the sons of Israel with mud and brick, and commanding their newborn to be killed in the river? And certainly the law of Moses had not yet entered in when so great a plague of sins was being spread abroad over the earth. From which it is gathered that the heretics whom we have mentioned above, or any others who along with them accept these things as said about the law of Moses, have not been able to touch even lightly upon the apostolic meaning. Rather, therefore, in this passage it ought to be understood — as we have already often said — that there is a law of nature which is "written not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart; not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God": which law was so inscribed by him who created man from the beginning upon the governing part of his heart, that at the fitting time, when the pages themselves have grown up with the mind, or rather, as the Scripture named it, when the fleshly tablets of the heart have begun to be opened by the increase of age, it begins to be diffused through the inward parts of the conscience, and to fill the senses with reasonings. Then, therefore, against the precepts which are naturally suggested by a law of this kind, the will of the flesh rises up and suggests other desires: and this is what the Apostle himself named "a law placed in the members," "resisting the law of the mind." — This law of the members, then, the Apostle seems now to have set down in this passage, which he says entered in secretly that sin might abound. For the very word which he used seems to me most fully to indicate these things which we are saying. For…
Romans 5:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But the law entered in secretly, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through justice unto life eternal, through Jesus Christ our Lord." If indeed no one had sinned before the law was given through Moses, Marcion and the other heretics, wishing to accuse the law, would seem to seize an occasion from these words of the Apostle, as though this had been the reason for the law's being given, namely that sin, which had not existed before the law, might abound. But I do not know what time they can find that was empty of sins before the law. When Cain was killing Abel, and defiling the earth with a brother's blood, so that it was said to him, "Cursed is the earth in thy work, which hath opened its mouth to receive the blood of thy brother," was sin not abounding? Plainly it was abounding — and that when men themselves did not yet abound. Or then, when Lamech was saying: "I have slain a man to the wounding of myself, and a young man to my own bruising? And whereas vengeance was taken sevenfold for Cain, for Lamech it shall be seventy times sevenfold"? But in the times of Noe the offence abounded so greatly that, it says, "the Lord seeing that the wickednesses of men were multiplied upon the earth, and that every man diligently set his heart upon malice all the days of his life, the Lord reconsidered that he had made man upon the earth, and he repented in his heart, and said: I will destroy man whom I have made from the face of the earth, from man even to beast, and from the creeping things even to the birds of the air, because it repenteth me that I have made them." And again, when it is said: "The earth was corrupted before the Lord, and the earth was filled with iniquities. And God saw the earth, and it was exceedingly corrupted, because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth." Who then is so stupid as to deny that in all these things sin abounded? Or surely when it is said by God concerning the Sodomites: "I have come down that I might see whether according to the cry of the Sodomites their iniquities are being brought to completion"; or when they stood round about the house of Lot, contriving the crime of their shamelessness even against angels? Or perhaps sin was not abounding then, when Pharao was afflicting the sons of Israel with mud and brick, and commanding their newborn to be killed in the river? And certainly the law of Moses had not yet entered in when so great a plague of sins was being spread abroad over the earth. From which it is gathered that the heretics whom we have mentioned above, or any others who along with them accept these things as said about the law of Moses, have not been able to touch even lightly upon the apostolic meaning. Rather, therefore, in this passage it ought to be understood — as we have already often said — that there is a law of nature which is "written not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart; not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God": which law was so inscribed by him who created man from the beginning upon the governing part of his heart, that at the fitting time, when the pages themselves have grown up with the mind, or rather, as the Scripture named it, when the fleshly tablets of the heart have begun to be opened by the increase of age, it begins to be diffused through the inward parts of the conscience, and to fill the senses with reasonings. Then, therefore, against the precepts which are naturally suggested by a law of this kind, the will of the flesh rises up and suggests other desires: and this is what the Apostle himself named "a law placed in the members," "resisting the law of the mind." — This law of the members, then, the Apostle seems now to have set down in this passage, which he says entered in secretly that sin might abound. For the very word which he used seems to me most fully to indicate these things which we are saying. For…
Romans 6:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"What then shall we say? Shall we remain in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. For we who are dead to sin, how shall we still live in it?" Since he had said above that "where sin abounded, grace did more abound," he now sets before himself the question arising from this: that if the abundance of sin gives birth to the superabundance of grace, then one ought to sin, so that grace may abound the more. But he shows the swift resolution of the question when he says, "God forbid"; and immediately he adds the reason, saying that those in whom grace has abounded are dead to sin. Now it is certain that one who is dead to sin cannot be a sinner. Therefore he who is dead to sin will not be able to remain in sin.
Romans 6:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But that these things may become clearer, let us inquire what it is to live to sin, and what it is to die to sin. Just as he is said to live to God who lives according to the will of God, so also he is said to live to sin who lives according to the will of sin — as the Apostle himself indicates when he says: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires." In this he shows that to obey the desires of sin is to live to sin. But if to do the desires of sin is to live to sin, then not to do the desires of sin, and not to obey its will, this is to die to sin — which sin, nevertheless, the Apostle says has its seat, as it were, and the throne of its kingdom established in our body. For that part of our substance is more familiar to it, and there is a certain friendly fellowship with the pleasures of the flesh, from which, taking occasions of natural incitement, by a small turning aside it bends the order of nature into the precipice of death. But that what we are saying may be explained still more plainly, let us set down an example. The flesh has natural appetites for food and drink, which are contained within certain measures of sufficiency; and if anyone exceeds these at the persuasion of sin, then the flesh demands not the food and drink that suffices nature, but luxury and drunkenness. In like manner too there is in the flesh a natural incitement by which it seeks union with a woman for the sake of restoring the succession of the race; but if from this occasion, at the persuasion of sin, one turns aside from the law, and the natural motions of desire are stirred up to unlawful things, then he lives to sin who in each of these obeys not the law of God, but the persuasions of sin. If therefore anyone, admonished by the death of Christ, who "died for the ungodly," repents in all these things, and drives out sin like a most wicked king reigning in his own flesh, and makes himself a stranger to its desires and its commands, this man is truly said to be dead to sin through the death of Christ. And here I think that "sin" names the very author of sin. If therefore anyone dies to sin, it is certain that he dies through repentance. How then shall anyone remain in sin that grace may abound, when grace abounds from the very fact that one dies to sin? For if we remain, as is proposed, in sin, it is certain that we do not die, but live to sin; and to those living to sin, grace cannot abound. It is indeed worth inquiring whether grace superabounds only in those men in whom sin at some time abounded; and whether grace superabounds in no one except in him in whom sin abounded; or whether grace can also superabound or abound in some in whom there never will be, or has been, sin. And if anyone considers what the Apostle says, that "Christ made peace through his blood not only for the things that are on earth, but also for those that are in heaven"; and that other saying, "That apart from God he might taste death for all," he will suppose that there too there was likewise some abundance of sin, so that nonetheless there might also come to be a superabundance of grace. But if you attend to what the earlier reading recalled, where sin is said to have entered into this world through one man, and death through sin, and so to have passed upon all, you will say that from that beginning these matters also proceed which we now have in hand, so that he seems to be treating only of those things which the Apostle set forth at the beginning — that is, of those things which pertain to men alone. It should certainly be observed with what weighed speech the Apostle spoke, so as to say, "Shall we remain in sin?" For to remain is not to cease from what has been begun. And if anyone does this, it is certain that he has not even received the beginning of conversion. But this sometimes happens, that a man does not indeed remain in sin, but when he has ceased, he returns again to his vomit, and becomes most wretched, so that after the…
Romans 6:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For he compares the death which is through Adam with the life which is through Christ; and he says: "Not as the offense, so also is the gift;" and again after these things he says that the law entered in that sin might abound; but where sin abounded, grace superabounded; and in these words he resolves what seemed to be contrary, and says: "For we who are dead to sin, how shall we yet live in it?" Now therefore, wishing to show by the very facts what it is to be dead to sin, he says: "Or are you ignorant that whoever of us have been baptized in Christ Jesus, have been baptized in his death? For we have been buried together with him through baptism into death:" teaching by these words that if anyone has first died to sin, he is of necessity buried together with Christ in baptism; but if anyone does not first die to sin, he cannot be buried with Christ. For no one alive is ever buried. And if he is not buried together with Christ, neither is he lawfully baptized. But concerning the account of baptism, when we were expounding the Gospel according to John, where we came to that passage in which John says of Jesus: "He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit;" and likewise where the Savior himself says: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," we spoke according to our own powers, so far as we were able to attain — nay rather, so far as the Lord granted — where also we attempted to open up more deeply the force of that very word by which it is said: "Unless a man be born again." For what we Latins render "again" (denuo), the Greeks call ἄνωθεν (anōthen), which word signifies both "again" and "from above." In this passage, therefore, since he who is baptized by Jesus is baptized in the Holy Spirit, it is not said "again" in such a way as that, but rather it is fitting that it be understood "from above": for we say "again" when the same things that have been done are repeated; but here the same nativity is not repeated or reiterated, but rather, this earthly one being set aside, a new nativity is received from above; and therefore we should more rightly read in the Gospel: "If anyone has not been born from above, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God:" for this is to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And to this reasoning, that baptism may be confirmed to be from above, there will not undeservedly be joined to the Holy Spirit also "the waters that are above the heavens, and they praise the name of the Lord." And although according to the type handed down to the Churches we have all been baptized in these visible waters and in visible chrism, nevertheless he who is dead to sin, and is truly baptized into the death of Christ, and is buried together with him through baptism into death, he is truly baptized in the Holy Spirit and in the water from above. And consider yet more diligently the consequence of the mystical order. You must first die to sin, that you may be able to be buried with Christ. For burial is owed to one who is dead. For if you still live to sin, you cannot be buried together with Christ, nor be laid in his new sepulcher, because your old man lives, and cannot walk in newness of life. For on this account it was the Holy Spirit's care to hand down through the Scriptures both that the sepulcher was new in which Jesus was buried, and that he was wrapped in a clean linen cloth: so that everyone who wishes to be buried together with Christ through baptism may know that nothing of oldness is to be brought to the new sepulcher, nothing of uncleanness to the clean linen. This, then, is that blessed death of which the Apostle speaks, that "we always carry about the death of Jesus Christ in our body;" and again: "I die daily." But also that saying of his, "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or this world, or life, or death" — he reckons among these that death by which we die to sin and are buried together with Christ. But someone may inquire in these passa…
Romans 6:4 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 143
Therefore Matthew recorded that the tomb was new, and set forth plainly that it was hewn in the rock. And that it was new, free from every dead body, Luke and John made manifest, one of whom indeed said: "in which no one had yet been laid", and John: "in which no one had yet been laid"—clearly, if never had anyone been laid there, but afterward some were laid there; for what he says: "in which no one had yet been laid", is signified to those who consider this word carefully. We say then (lest perhaps we ought to understand this passage simply), that he who said: "we have been buried together with Christ through baptism" and have risen together with him, was himself also buried together, after Christ, with Christ in a new tomb and an intelligible one hewn in the rock, and all who have been buried together with Christ in baptism, that they may rise with him from the new tomb of the firstborn "from the dead and holding the primacy in all things".
Romans 6:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
This is what the Apostle writes. Perhaps in the present passage this too may still be asked: if we have died to sin, and have been buried together with Christ, and have risen again with him, it will seem necessary, according to this pattern, to show how we too have spent three days and three nights buried with him in the heart of the earth. And consider whether we may be able to spend three days buried together with Christ when we have begun to have the full knowledge of the Trinity: for the Father is light, and in his light, which is the Son, we see the light of the Holy Spirit. And we spend three nights also when we destroy the father of darkness and ignorance together with the lie that was born of him, and "he is a liar, as also is his father, and when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own." But in the third place also we destroy the spirit of error, which inspires the false prophets to say, "Thus says the Lord," whom the Lord has not sent. We destroy these things and trample them down, if we have been buried together with Christ, according also to that which he himself says: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy." And these several things are so contrary to the Trinity as night is to day, and darkness to light, and falsehood to truth — these things, for the present, are what have been able to occur to us in this passage. But if anyone should have a better understanding, let him not be reluctant to set these aside and adopt those. Nevertheless, this is what is gathered from these words of the Apostle by the higher understanding: that just as no living person can be buried with a dead one, so no one who still lives to sin can be buried together in baptism with Christ, who died to sin; and therefore those who hasten to baptism ought first to take care of this, that they die beforehand to sin, and so may be able to be buried together with Christ through baptism, so that they too may say: "Always carrying about the death of Jesus Christ in our body, that the life of Jesus Christ also may be made manifest in our mortal flesh." But how the life of Jesus Christ is made manifest in the body, Paul himself shows when he says: "Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me." This is the same thing that the apostle John writes in his Epistle, when he says: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." In which, assuredly, it is not the one who has pronounced these syllables and uttered them in a common confession who will be seen to be moved by the Spirit of God, but the one who has so shaped his life, and so brought forth the fruits of work, that he has shown by the very religious quality of his deeds and thoughts that Christ has come in the flesh, and has died to sin, and lives to God. Now let us see, after we have opened up, so far as our strength allows, what it is to be buried together with Christ, this also which he says: "That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life." If we have been buried together with Christ, according to what we have said above — that is, according as we have died to sin — then consequently, when Christ rises from the dead, we too shall rise together with him, and when he ascends to the heavens, we shall ascend together with him, and when he sits at the right hand of the Father, we shall be said to sit together with him in the heavenly places, according to what the same Apostle says elsewhere, that "he raised us up together with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." Christ rose through the glory of the Father; and we, if we have died to sin and been buried together with Christ, and all who see our good works glorify our Father who is in heaven, shall deservedly be said to have risen together with Christ through the glory of the Father, so that we may walk in newness of life. And newness of life is where we have put off "the o…
Romans 6:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be [planted together in the likeness] of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that we should no longer serve sin. For he who has died has been justified from sin." All these things look back to that question, lest he should seem to have given occasion for sinning in what he said: "But where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more." For it is on this account that he says both that we are dead to sin, and that whoever of us have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death; and now he writes that we have been planted together into the likeness of his death, adding that if we bear the likeness of his death, by which he died to sin, we ought also to hope for the likeness of his resurrection. But he shows in what way this can come about, saying that our old man must be crucified together with Christ. And our old man is to be understood as the former life which we led in sins, of which we make an end and, as it were, a destruction when we receive within ourselves the faith of Christ's cross, through which the body of sin is so destroyed that our members, which used to serve sin, no longer serve it, but God. But now, taking up the discussion again, let us see what it is to be planted together in the likeness of Christ's death — in which phrase he presents Christ's death as, so to speak, the planting of some tree, with which he wishes us to be planted together, so that our root also, receiving from the sap of his root, may put forth branches of righteousness and bear the fruits of life. But if you wish to learn from the Scriptures what this plant is with which we ought to be planted together, and of what kind the tree is, hear what is written concerning Wisdom: "She is," he says, "a tree of life to all who hope in her; and those who trust in her are as in the Lord." Christ therefore, the power of God and the wisdom of God, is himself the tree of life, with which we ought to be planted together; and by a certain new and lovable gift of God his death becomes for us a tree of life. And the Apostle rightly, knowing that in the present passage he is treating not of this common death but of the death of sin, did not say, "For if we have been planted together" with his death, but "with the likeness of his death." For Christ so died once to sin that he committed no sin at all, nor was guile found in his mouth. And this can in no way be found in its entirety in any other human being. For "no one is clean from sin, not even if his life has been of a single day." Therefore, by that very death by which Jesus died to sin, so that he committed no sin at all, we cannot die in such a way that we know sin not at all; yet we can have the likeness of it, so that by imitating him and following his footsteps we may keep ourselves from sin. This, then, is what human nature is able to receive: that it should come to be in the likeness of his death, while by imitating him it does not sin. For to be altogether and entirely ignorant of sin belongs to Christ alone. But certain of the heretics, not understanding this, have tried to assert from this passage of the Apostle that Christ did not truly die, but had a likeness of death, and seemed to die rather than truly died. Since it is very easy to answer them, I do not think it necessary to bring to bear the weight of testimonies from the other sayings either of the Apostle or of the Gospels, where his death, and not a likeness of death, is written of plainly, since we can say to them: If it was a likeness of death, and not a true death, then there was a likeness of resurrection also, and not a true resurrection; and so we too shall seem to rise and shall not truly rise; and we shall seem to die to sin and shall not truly die. And so everything that has been done, and is being done, has seemed to be done but has not been done. It…
Romans 6:6-7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Therefore, what the Apostle had said about being planted together with the likeness of Christ's death, he now takes up again under another figure, and says: "Because our old man was crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." In many places, and often already, we have said what it is to be crucified together with Christ; and we have often treated of the old man; whence briefly in the present passage we call the old man the one who lived according to Adam, liable to transgression and to sin, and over whom the death of sin held dominion, of whom he who had the power of death held the bonds of sin: and since Christ, blotting these out with his blood, nailed them to his cross, we too, according to the old man who was liable to sin, ought to be crucified, "that the body of sin might be destroyed, and that we should no longer serve sin." And I think it must be observed that where the Apostle says that the "body" must be destroyed, he adds "of sin"; but where he does not speak of destroying, he says not "the body of sin," but that it is we ourselves who should not serve sin — so that he may show that if the body of sin has been destroyed, we no longer serve sin, to which of course we were in servitude so long as it had not been destroyed in us, and our members which are upon the earth had not been mortified.
Romans 6:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him, knowing that Christ rising from the dead dies no more, death shall no longer have dominion over him. For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he lives, he lives to God." In everything the Apostle has said above, he wished to show this: that if Christ died to sin, we too have died to sin along with him. And when he says, "we were baptized into his death," and, "we have been planted together in the likeness of his death," through all these things he shows that we have died with Christ to sin, from the fact that Christ indeed died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and to each one of the believers he granted out of his own death, as a kind of gift of faith, the death of sin itself — that is, to those who believe themselves to be dead with him and crucified and buried together with him, and through these things sin cannot work in them as in dead persons, and thus they are said to be dead to sin. Therefore, then, in the present passage the Apostle draws the conclusion of everything he had established above, and says: "But if we have died with Christ," namely through those things which we have shown above, "we believe that we shall also live together with him." He did not say: and we have lived together, as he said, "we have died"; but, "we shall live together," so as to show that death is at work in the present, but life in the future — namely, then "when Christ shall have been made manifest, who is our life hidden in God." Now "therefore," as Paul himself teaches, "death works in us." But even this death that works in us seems to me to have certain distinctions. For just as in Christ there was one time of death, of which it is said, "And crying out with a loud voice he expired," and another when he lay placed in the tomb with the door closed, and another indeed when, sought in the sepulcher, he was not found, because he had already risen — of which resurrection the visible beginning was granted to no one of humankind — so also in us who believe in him this threefold account of death is to be held. And first, indeed, the death of Christ must be shown in us by the confession of the voice, when "with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Second, in the mortification of the members which are upon the earth, when we now always carry about the mortification of Christ in our body; and this is what he says, that "death works in us." Third, when we now rise from the dead, and walk in newness of life. And to explain it more briefly and more clearly: the first day of death is to have renounced the world; the second, to have renounced also the vices of the flesh; but the fullness of perfection in the light of wisdom is the third day, that of resurrection. Yet these distinctions in each of the believers, and the degrees of their progress, he alone can know and discern to whom alone the secrets of the heart lie open. But do you observe Paul's wisdom in writing: he who, writing to Timothy, said that "if we die together, we shall also live together"; and who, to those dying together with Christ, joined as something consequent and necessary that they should live together with him — here he added, "we believe," so as to show that although it is consequent and necessary for one who dies together to live together, nevertheless this is accomplished through the mediation of faith and of believing.
Romans 6:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Being certain, he says, and "knowing that Christ rising from the dead dies no more." For if he were to die again, then just as we have shown it to be consequent and necessary that those who die together with him shall also live together with him, so without doubt it would seem consequent that, if after resurrection and life he were to die again, those also who live together with him would die again together with him as he died. Therefore, for this reason the Apostle determines by an absolute pronouncement that Christ dies no more, so that those also who live together with him may be secure concerning the eternity of life. But after these things (that I too may use the very words of the Apostle, in which he says: "But Isaiah is bold and says"), I too say: But Paul is bold and says: "Death shall no longer have dominion over him." Did you dare to say this, O Paul, concerning Christ, "Death shall no longer have dominion over him," as though at some time it had had dominion? — over him whose voice in the Gospel is carried through the whole body of the Church clearer than light, in which he says: "No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." Do you then say that death had dominion over him who not only laid down his soul by his will, but also took it up by his power? who alone among the dead was "free," and whom alone death could not hold? These things, I suppose, and things like them, will be raised against Paul by those who are held by a tender affection toward Jesus, and endure to hear nothing lowly, nothing unworthy concerning him. But we too, when we look to Paul, do not think there is anyone who could surpass him in love of Christ: whence neither is he to be thought to have spoken anything about him contrary to what is worthy of him. And therefore let us search out more subtly, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the word of wisdom by which we may be able to perceive Paul's meaning — nay rather, the mind of Christ which is in him, according to what he himself professes: "But we have the mind of Christ." Someone, then, may say more concisely on these matters that here he speaks of this common and middle death by which "he died," as the same Apostle says, "according to the Scriptures," and that nothing seems absurd if he who had taken up the form of a servant endured the dominion of death, which without doubt has dominion over all who, placed in the flesh, are reckoned under the servile form. But this too lies close to this assertion: that for this reason this form of a servant, that is, our very flesh also, is sown in corruption, that it may rise in incorruption; and is sown in weakness, that it may rise in power; and is sown in dishonor, that it may rise in glory; and is sown an animal body, that it may rise a spiritual body — without doubt so that death may no longer have dominion over it, which had dominion over it while it was in weakness, and dishonor, and corruption. For concerning such flesh as is still in these vices of the passions, Paul himself says: "That flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God, neither shall corruption possess incorruption." But also as to the fact that elsewhere the same Apostle named the body a body "of death," he who asserts these things says that this is to be understood of this middle death, which has dominion over a body of this kind so long as it is animal and corruptible, and not yet changed through the glory of the resurrection, and made incorruptible out of corruptible, and glorious out of ignoble. But that which is very much contrary to this assertion (that is, that we have died with Christ, and have been buried together with him — which certainly can in no way be understood of this common death), he will attempt to explain in this manner: that just as in the foregoing, when we were expounding concerning the diversity of laws, we showed that the Apostle in one and the same place names now the natural l…
Romans 6:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
These things we have said, as best we could, concerning the questions raised in this place, so that it might shine forth more clearly how Christ died once to sin, and dies no more; and that in that He lives, He lives unto God. But to live unto God is to be understood in this way: that, when that is completed whereby, being placed in the form of God, He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant and was made obedient unto death, He abides again in the form of God, and equal to the Father.
Romans 6:10 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
According to the Apostle, man lives for God and dies for sin. When a man dies for sin, such a death is a blessed thing. By this death my Lord died. For "he who has died has died to sin."
Romans 6:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Whence also with good reason he adds in what follows: "So do you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord" — namely, that by the imitation of Christ we may die to sin, being made strangers to it, and live unto God by joining ourselves to Him and becoming one spirit with Him. Nor was it without cause that he said, "Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin"; which stands better in the Greek: "Consider (think) yourselves to be dead unto sin." For the matter of which he speaks subsists rather in thought and in reason, since a death of this kind is to be held not in actual fact but in thought. For he who thinks or reckons within himself that he is dead does not sin. For example: if the desire of a woman draws me; if the charm of silver, or of gold, or the covetousness of an estate assails me, and I set in my heart that I am dead with Christ, and think upon that death, straightway the concupiscence is extinguished and the sin is put to flight. Or if, inflamed with hatred or anger, I am stirred to the slaying of my enemy — if I reckon myself to be dead with Christ, and set the thoughts of death in my mind, without doubt the fury is quenched, the hatred ceases, the anger subsides, no place is given to sin; and in this way a man is found to die to sin and to live unto God. But this too, which he further added, "alive unto God in Christ Jesus," does not seem to me idle. For I think it is as though he had said: Alive unto God in wisdom, in peace, in justice, in sanctification — all of which Christ is. To live unto God in these things, then, is to live unto God in Christ Jesus. But if without justice, without peace, without sanctification and the other virtues no one lives unto God, it is certain that no one lives unto God except in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Romans 6:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so that you should obey its desires; neither present your members as weapons of iniquity unto sin: but present yourselves to God, as those living from among the dead; and your members as weapons of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace." In the passages above he says: "As sin reigned in death." But now he did not say: Let not sin therefore reign in death; rather he says: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so that you should obey its desires" — teaching by this that sin has a certain seat and kingdom in the body. This is what he said elsewhere too: "The prudence of the flesh is an enemy to God"; and again: "The prudence of the flesh is death." But the Apostle also declares that all sins are works of the flesh, which he says are fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil concupiscence, shamelessness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, quarrels, jealousy, rage, contentions, dissensions, heresies, envy, drunkennesses, carousings, and things like these. But if you ask how heresies too are numbered among the works of the flesh, you will find that they proceed from the sense of the flesh. For thus the Apostle says concerning a certain man: "Vainly," he says, "puffed up by the sense of his own flesh, and not holding the head." Now these things we have said so that the understanding might become clearer, how sin reigns in the body. For all those things which we enumerated above as works of the flesh are like a certain armed host soldiering under this king, sin, and obeying its law, which is inscribed in the members of the flesh. For it is certain that, from the fact that the flesh renders obedience to the desires of sin, "the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are opposed to one another." Yet notice this: that in showing that it is placed within our own power that sin should not reign in our mortal body, the Apostle gave a precept, saying: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so that you should obey its desires." For unless it were in our power that sin should not reign in us, he certainly would not have given a precept. How, then, is it possible that sin should not reign in our flesh? If we do what the same Apostle says: "Mortify your members which are upon the earth," and if we always carry about "the death of Christ in our body." For it is certain that, where the death of Christ is carried about, sin cannot reign. For so great is the power of the cross of Christ that, if it be set before the eyes and faithfully retained in the mind, so that the eye of the mind gazes intently upon the very death of Christ, no concupiscence, no lust, no rage, no envy can prevail; but at once, at its presence, that whole army of sin and of the flesh which we enumerated above is put to flight. Indeed sin itself does not even subsist, seeing that it has no substance anywhere except in deed and act. There is therefore in us both a concupiscence of sin, which has its kingdom in the flesh, and a concupiscence of the spirit, which has its kingdom in the mind, according to what we said above, that "the flesh lusts against the spirit, but the spirit against the flesh." When, therefore, we desire what is not lawful, or what is not fitting, or what is not expedient, it is the concupiscence of the flesh. But when our soul desires and faints when it may see the salvation of God, that is the concupiscence of the spirit. From which it appears that the soul is in a certain way midway between the flesh and the spirit; and if indeed it joins itself to the flesh so as to obey the desires of sin, it becomes one body with it; but if it joins itself to God, it becomes one spirit with him, according to what has been said: "For he who joins himself to a harlot is one body; but he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit." Nor should you wonder if he calls the flesh a harlot, since it lies…
Romans 6:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things there follows: "Neither present your members as weapons of iniquity unto sin; but present yourselves to God as those living from among the dead, and your members rather as weapons of righteousness unto God." Observe point by point the wisdom of Paul, that he uses necessary distinctions. Where he says that weapons must not be furnished to sin or to iniquity, he sets down not us, but our members; but where he urges that we present ourselves to God, he wills that not our members, but we ourselves first be presented to God — that is, our soul, or our purpose — so that when we have first presented our very selves to God and have cleaved to him, then at last we may make our members also weapons of righteousness unto God. For just as those hands are called holy which have ministered to holy works, as the Apostle says: "Lifting up pure hands without wrath and disputing"; and again, those hands are called full of blood which have ministered to the shedding of blood: so also in the present passage the members which serve sin and iniquity are called weapons of iniquity; and again, if we mortify the concupiscence of sin in our mortal body, and labor in the work of righteousness, and minister to righteousness with all our members, we become as those living from among the dead — dead, that is, to sin and living to righteousness; and consequently our members too become weapons of righteousness unto God. And he has well kept to the metaphor proposed above, so that, because he had said that sin reigns, he should name the members weapons of sin, and again that our members should bear weapons of righteousness for God as king.
Romans 6:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
There follows after these things: "For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law, but under grace." Here too observe the marvelous caution in the Apostle's language. When he speaks of us, he says: "Sin shall not have dominion over you"; when he was speaking of the Savior, he did not say: Sin shall not have dominion (for neither was it fitting that this be said of him), but he says: "Death shall no more have dominion over him." For in him there was room for death, none for sin. But on the contrary, concerning us it was not fitting to say: Death shall not have dominion over you — for this we cannot avoid — but rather, "Sin shall not have dominion over you"; which without doubt he knew we could avoid, according to what we said above, if we mortify the concupiscences of the flesh, in which sin was able to have dominion. For this reason he adds: "For you are not under the law, but under grace"; and he plainly shows from these words that we are not under that law which he says, being placed in the members, fights against the law of the mind, since he who mortifies his members is certainly not under the law of the members, but under the grace of God. Concerning this law he says elsewhere too that "the strength of sin is the law." But if anyone wishes to take these things of the law of Moses, he will without doubt say that we are not under the law of the letter which kills, but under the law of the spirit which gives life, which here he has named grace.
Romans 6:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." This seems similar to that saying which we expounded above: "What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid"; and therefore let one and the same explanation suffice for both places. This alone is what seems to constitute a difference, that in the earlier passage, where he says, "What then? Shall we continue in sin?" it seems to be said to those who have not yet departed from sin, lest they remain in that state in which they still seemed to be; but here the question seems to be put as though by those who have already departed from sin: and there, as it were, that grace, which did not yet exist, might abound; but here he speaks as though grace were already present, "because we are not under the law, but under grace."
Romans 6:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Do you not know that to whomever you present yourselves as servants to obey, you are the servants of him whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto justice? But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which you have been delivered. And being freed from sin, you have been made the servants of justice." Perhaps the expression seems less than complete when he says, "You are the servants of him whom you have obeyed, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto justice"; whereas reason would have required it to be said: You are the servants of him whom you have obeyed, whether of sin, or of justice through obedience. But in one who of his own accord professes himself unskilled in speech, I think it superfluous to look for artistry in the composition of words, since the sense is held to be evident. This, then, is what the Apostle teaches in this place: that each one has it in his own hand and in the power of his choice, to be either the servant of sin or of justice. For to whichever side he shall incline his obedience, and to whichever side he shall be willing to submit, that side claims him for itself as its servant. In this, as I have said, he shows without any hesitation that freedom of choice lies within us. For it is in us to render our obedience either to justice or to sin. But "no one can serve two masters at once," sin and justice. "For either he will hate the one," namely sin, "and love the other," that is, justice; "or he will bear with the one," namely sin only, "and despise the other," that is, justice. Similar, therefore, is also what the Apostle said: "You are the servants of him whom you have obeyed, whether of sin or of justice." But also what is said, "Everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin," looks to this same point, although he did not add: And everyone who does justice is the servant of justice. Which perhaps another might think was left out for this reason, that it ought to be understood as though from what follows. To me, however, it seems that it was deliberately not added. For it would not have been fitting to say that everyone who does justice is the servant of justice. For God himself also does justice, and yet cannot on that account be called the servant of justice, but the Lord of justice. Therefore it is not the case that everyone who does justice is the servant of justice in the same way that everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin. For the devil himself also is without doubt the servant of sin, inasmuch as he departed from the service of justice and rebelled in the sight of the almighty Lord, on account of which he was also called an apostate. It is established, therefore, from these words in which Paul says, "That to whomever you present yourselves as servants to obey, you are the servants of him whom you obey, whether of sin or of justice," that of our own accord we present ourselves, with none compelling us, to serve either sin or justice through our own obedience; and therefore we ought always to remember these things, lest we bring forward empty complaints in excuse of sin — that the devil made us sin, or the necessity of nature, or the condition of fate, or the course of the stars. But hear Paul's sentence, by which he speaks openly: "To whomever you present yourselves as servants to obey, you are the servants of him whom you have obeyed, whether of sin, or of justice."
Romans 6:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things he says: "Thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which you have been delivered." He seems to say this to those about whose life and progress, and concerning whom, he had already said above: "I give thanks to God through Jesus Christ for all these, because your faith is proclaimed in the whole world." Then next he also shows this, that all men first serve sin. For thus it is written: That "there is not a just man upon the earth who does good and does not sin." For first it is necessary that in every man that be fulfilled which is written: "But when the commandment came, sin revived." But what follows is said to few, and to those who are already being amended, namely what he says: "But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which you have been delivered." We were all, therefore, the servants of sin; but when the form of doctrine was delivered to us, and we chose to obey it not in any casual way, nor with words alone, but from the heart, from the soul, with our whole devotion, we are freed from the servitude of sin, and are made the servants of justice. Whence I fear that perhaps there are rather many of us who seem to have received the form of the doctrine of justice, and in words indeed or in profession seem to obey justice, but in heart obey sin, the vices of the flesh still holding dominion in us. And therefore before all things we stand in need of that mortification of the members concerning which he taught above. But as to what he said, "The form of doctrine, into which you have been delivered," I think we must inquire how each one is delivered. For we find that those who "do not approve of having God in their knowledge," God "delivers, according to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, so that they dishonor their own bodies among themselves"; and others who "exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God," he delivers "unto passions of dishonor," concerning which passages we have spoken in their proper places as we were able. These too, therefore, who present themselves as servants of justice through obedience, God has delivered that they may be instructed and imbued according to the form of the doctrine of justice. But this also moves me, that he did not say, "You have obeyed from the heart" the doctrine "into which you have been delivered," but he put "the form of doctrine." Nor do I think that the Apostle held doctrine and the form of doctrine to be one and the same thing; but it seems to me that he knew the form of doctrine to be something less than the doctrine itself; and that now indeed in the present life, while we are in this body, and "this earthly dwelling weighs down the mind that ponders many things," we have the form of doctrine, not the doctrine itself, as the same Apostle says elsewhere: "But now we see through a mirror in an enigma"; while the doctrine itself is that of which he says: "But then we shall see face to face." Whence also in the present life I think that we can hold the form and shadow of the virtues; but the virtues themselves, then, when those things which are perfect shall have come. And therefore the just man now, as it seems to me, lives rather in the shadow of the virtues than in the virtues themselves. And on this account perhaps Jeremiah says in the Lamentations: "The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, of whom we said: In his shadow we shall live among the nations." But if Christ is justice, and wisdom, and truth, and we say, "in his shadow we shall live among the nations," then we live in the shadow of justice, and in the shadow of wisdom, and in the shadow of truth, even if we seem to be just, and wise, and lovers of truth. Therefore it is said on this account: "If anyone thinks that he has known, he has not yet known as he ought to know." For perhaps even the Word of God himself, according to that whe…
Romans 6:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"And being freed from sin, you have been made the servants of justice." In these words there is an exposition of the things he said above. For if you no longer serve sin, it is certain that, being freed from it, you have been made the servants of justice. But it is asked who it is that frees from sin. Without doubt, the knowledge of the truth. For thus Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him: "If you believe my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." It is therefore the truth that frees from sin, and the knowledge of the truth. And it is certain that everyone who has been freed from sin serves justice. But when we say, let him serve justice — since justice is one out of the choir of the virtues — it is as if we were to say that if anyone has been freed from sin, he will serve truth, and will serve wisdom, and will serve chastity, and will serve piety. For thus do I understand also that which is said: "Open to me the gates of justice, and entering into them I will confess to the Lord." For he who wishes to confess to the Lord enters not the gates of justice alone, but also of truth, and of wisdom, and of piety, and of chastity. For there is one hall of all the virtues, whose doors the just man asks to be opened to him under the name of justice.
Romans 6:19 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3.6
But also each and every one of the members, if they serve in the offices of the commandments of God, are to be called circumcised; but if they run riot beyond the laws divinely prescribed for them, they are to be reckoned uncircumcised. And this, I think, is what the Apostle said: "for as you presented your members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." For when our members served iniquity, they were not circumcised, nor was the covenant of God in them; but when they have begun to serve "righteousness unto sanctification," the promise which was made to Abraham is fulfilled in them. For then the law of God and His covenant is sealed in them.
Romans 6:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness, and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." By these words the Apostle strikes a certain shame into his hearers, so that they may at least render this much service to righteousness and sanctification as they had formerly paid to uncleanness and iniquity. What, then, is so human — that is, what is so light, what is so free of burden, and what could no weakness of the flesh whatever excuse? "Just as," he says, "you presented your members to serve uncleanness, and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification." It is indeed inglorious that anyone should serve the virtues only in the same measure as he served the vices. For righteousness ought to be honored far more abundantly and far more intently. But I, he says, act humanly and after the common measure: I ask the same things, I require like things. Once your feet ran to the temples of demons; now let them run to the Church of God. Formerly they ran to shed blood; now let them run to set blood free. Formerly your hands were stretched out to plunder what belonged to others; now let them be stretched out to bestow what is their own. Formerly your eyes looked about after a woman, or after something belonging to another, that they might covet it; now let them look about after the poor, the weak, the needy, that they may show mercy. Your ears took delight in empty hearing, or in the disparagement of good men; now let them be turned to hearing the word of God, to the exposition of the law, and to receiving the discipline of wisdom. Let the tongue that has grown accustomed to insults, curses, and filthy speech now be turned to blessing the Lord at all times: let it bring forth sound and honorable discourse, that it may give grace to those who hear, and let it speak truth with its neighbor. But what need is there to pursue these things one by one, when it is plain even to you how to fit to the virtues the service of each member which it rendered to the vices, and to turn now to chastity and sanctification the activity which it rendered to uncleanness? Here he seems indeed to have named righteousness for all the virtues together, just as, on the contrary, he has put iniquity for all the vices together. He added, to be sure, "of righteousness unto sanctification," namely so as to commend the part of chastity both generally along with the rest and specifically by itself. But look also at this, that everywhere through these words he indicates the freedom of the will, and shows that each one has it in his own power that the services which he formerly rendered to iniquity unto iniquity he may, his purpose being turned to the better, render to righteousness and sanctification — which surely could not come about if either nature resisted, as some think, or the course of the stars stood in the way.
Romans 6:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with respect to righteousness. What fruit therefore did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For their end is death. But now, having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life." How anyone is a slave of sin has already been sufficiently said in what went before, when we were expounding that passage: "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience — you are slaves of him whom you obey, whether of sin or of righteousness?" When, therefore, anyone serves sin, he is free with respect to righteousness, that is, a stranger to righteousness. For here he calls "free" one who is a stranger, and rightly so. For no one can at the same time serve both sin and righteousness, just as the Savior also said, that "no one can serve two masters." But of these things we have spoken more fully above. This indeed is to be noted, that there is both a blameworthy freedom and a praiseworthy servitude. For to be free with respect to righteousness is a crime; but to be its slave is praiseworthy. And when he says that one becomes a slave of righteousness, understand at the same time a slave of wisdom too, and of piety, and of modesty, and of all the virtues together: just as, on the contrary, he who is a slave of sin is at the same time a slave of evil desire, and of anger, and of rage, and of unchastity, and of robbery; and he serves all the vices and crimes together. Wherefore we ought always to examine ourselves in each single thing we do, and in every act to consider whom we are serving, whether sin unto iniquity, or righteousness unto sanctification.
Romans 6:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"What fruit, therefore," he says, "did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For their end is death." Divine Scripture teaches that there is fruit both of good things and of evil, as the Savior himself says in the Gospels: "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits, nor an evil tree good fruits." In these words the purpose and will of a man seems to be called the tree, either good or evil, while his works are the fruit. If anyone turns his mind and purpose to righteousness, he is without doubt ashamed, and he himself brands himself for his former deeds which he did while placed under sin, because "their end is death." But I ask, what death? It is certain that it is not this common death. For no one is converted to righteousness after death, or is ashamed for past deeds done badly. What then is it? Does he perhaps seem to be speaking of the death of sin, since "the soul that sins, it shall die"? Or can it rather be understood that he is speaking of that death by which we die with Christ to sin, and put an end to vices and crimes, so that on this account he seems to have said that "their end is death"?
Romans 6:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But now, having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life." He compares fruits with fruits: and the fruits of sin, for which the saints are now — that is, after they have been freed from sin and made slaves to God — ashamed, he declares to be ended in death; but the fruits of righteousness, which are unto sanctification, he says receive as their end eternal life. In this, first of all, this must not be passed over: that he was unwilling to name in what those fruits consist for which we are now ashamed, whereas he says that the fruit of those who have been freed from sin and made slaves to God is unto sanctification. For the memory of good things is to be kept more often than that of evil ones. And as to his mentioning first the evil fruits and their end, but afterwards the fruits which are unto sanctification and their end, which is eternal life — see how this is like that prophetic saying in which he himself says: "I will kill, and I will make alive"; and again: "I will strike, and I will heal"; and once more in Job: "He himself causes pain, and gives the remedy: he strikes, and his hands heal." All these things look to this, that one must first die with Christ, and so live together with him; and first suffer with him, and so reign together with him. For unless we first die to sin through repentance, we cannot live to God through righteousness. Moreover, as to what he said above: "But having been freed from sin, you were made slaves of righteousness" — now, when he has said in like manner, "But having been freed from sin," he did not in like manner say, "you were made slaves of righteousness," but, "you were made slaves of God": the distinction is not idle. For by this it is shown that after anyone has been freed from sin, he ought first to serve righteousness and all the virtues together, so that from there he may ascend by progress to this, that he may become a slave of God — although to serve righteousness is also to serve God. For Christ is righteousness, and to serve Christ is to serve God. Yet there is an order of advances, and there are degrees among the virtues: and therefore Christ is said to reign, doubtless according to this, that he is righteousness, until in each one the fullness of the virtues is completed; but when the measure of perfection has been fulfilled, then he is said to hand over "the kingdom to God and the Father," so that now "God may be all in all." But I think this too must still be observed (since we have said that the Apostle made a comparison of evil fruits and good fruits): that there, where he was speaking of the evil fruits, he did not say, You had your fruit "in those things of which you are now ashamed," but he said, "What fruit therefore did you have?" — whereas where he speaks of the good fruits, he adds "your." For thus he writes: "You have your fruit unto sanctification": by which he seems to me to indicate that evil fruit, fruit to be ashamed of and repented of, is not our fruit. For God did not plant in us an evil tree that would bring forth evil fruits, as he himself also says through the prophet: "I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true; how have you been turned into the bitterness of an alien vine?" Therefore, even if we bring forth evil fruits, they are not ours but another's, that is, sin's; but if we bring forth good fruits unto sanctification, they are our own fruits. For human nature received it from its Creator that it should bear these fruits. But those alien ones were not sown in us by God. And do you wish to know that the Lord does not sow evil fruits? Hear him saying in the Gospel: "Did we not sow good seed in the field? Whence then has it tares? And answering he said: An enemy man has done this." And do you wish to learn still further that these fruits of the flesh are not ours, but another's? The Lord himself again says in the Gospel: "If you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will gi…
Romans 6:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For the wages of sin is death; but the grace of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord." What he said here, "The wages of sin is death," is like what he had said above, "But their end is death." But whose end? Doubtless of those things "for which you now blush," whose fruit he does not even judge worthy to name. And again: "But the grace of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord," is like that which he said: "You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end indeed eternal life." And he rightly preserves the metaphor, that is, the figure of military service proposed from the beginning, so that he says the wages due are paid out as death to those soldiering under sin as king — or rather to those obeying its tyranny. But it was not fitting that God give wages to his own soldiers as though some debt, but rather a gift and grace, which is "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." I do not think that this too is empty, that to eternal life he added "in Christ our Lord"; but perhaps because he wished it to be known that it is one thing to have eternal life alone, and another to have eternal life in Christ Jesus. For those also who shall rise unto confusion and everlasting reproach will indeed have eternal life, yet not in Christ Jesus, but in eternal confusion and reproach; but the just, who shall rise unto eternal life in Christ Jesus, will have eternal life. Sin therefore bestows upon its own soldiers, in whom it reigns, the wages it deems worthy — death. But we call death not this bodily death, but that of which it is written, that "the soul that sins, that soul shall die." And although we have often already spoken about the diversity of death, nevertheless, since the present passage has prompted it, to repeat the same things more openly, and to gather into one what has been said in scattered places, would be neither irksome to me nor burdensome to my readers. Death in the Scriptures is indeed one name, but it signifies many things. For the separation of the body from the soul is called death. But this can be called neither evil nor good: for it is intermediate, which is termed indifferent. And again, the separation of the soul from God is called death, which comes through sin. This is plainly evil, and it is also named the wage of sin. This death God did not make, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living; but by the envy of the devil this death entered into the world. And again the very author of this death, the devil, is called death, and he it is who is said to be the last enemy of Christ to be destroyed. But also the place of hell, in which souls were held by death, is itself likewise called death. There is spoken of also that praiseworthy death by which one dies to sin and is buried together with Christ, through which the amendment of the soul is effected and eternal life is acquired. Since therefore there is so great a difference contained in this one name of death, if you hear God saying, "I will kill, and I will make alive," you ought to understand what sort of death it befits God to inflict: that one, doubtless, which confers life — that is, that one should die to sin and live to God. "When he slew them," it says, "they sought him, and they returned." Teaching most plainly through this, that whomever God slays, he slays for this reason, that he may die to sin and seek God. So do I understand also that which is written, that God slew Her the son of Judah, since he was wicked; and whatever else of this kind we read written about God. So too the Apostle handed over the sinner unto the destruction of the flesh, that he might make the spirit safe — that is, that he might die to sin and live to God. And so in the present passage too the wages that sin gives are said to be death: not that death which separates the body from the soul, but that by which through sin the soul is separated from God. And again we are said to be baptized into the death of Christ — into that death, doubtless, by which he di…
Romans 7:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But now, repeating what has been said, let us examine them one by one. "Or are you ignorant," he says, "brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?" He has a hyperbaton at once at the beginning, which is thus resolved: "Or are you ignorant, brothers, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?" and after this is restored that which was inserted in the middle: "For I speak to those who know the law." Now what he said, "I speak to those who know the law," is like that which he says a little later: "But we know that the law is spiritual." That the law is spiritual, however, not Paul alone knew, but also those who were instructed by him — those, that is, who were spiritual, of whom he says: "But the spiritual man examines all things." For concerning the Galatians I cannot declare that they know the law to be spiritual, of whom he says: "O foolish Galatians." Unless perhaps they knew it then when they had begun with the spirit; but they did not remain in this knowledge, because they were made complete in the flesh. But the teaching of the apostles, and of those who were trained by them for teaching, was such as would teach men to serve the law "not in the oldness of the letter," but "in the newness of the spirit." Which I think not only the apostles, but also the prophets, and any who were then wise among the people of God, perceived — that the law is spiritual — although for the sake of the multitude they seemed to keep the carnal observance as well. Nor is this to be wondered at, since Paul himself says: That "I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews." Thus therefore many in the former people were advancing in spiritual knowledge, and saw the glory of the Word of God, just as Isaiah is written to have seen the glory of the Son of God, as John testifies when he says: "But these things Isaiah said, when he saw his glory." Therefore Paul speaks to those who know the law — that is, to those who know what in the law is the oldness of the letter, and what the newness of the spirit; and he who knows this well knows doubtless that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives, just as a husband over a woman; and just as by the death of her husband the woman is freed from the law of wedlock, and receives liberty to be joined to another husband, so also the soul whose husband is the law, when it has detected the oldness of the letter in the law — since what grows old is near to destruction — the law according to the letter being as it were dead to it, receives the power of marrying another husband, who is the spirit of the law: "Now the Lord is the Spirit." But what he said, "The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives," refers not to the man, but to the law.
Romans 7:1-6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Or are you ignorant, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who is under a husband is bound by the law while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is loosed from the law of her husband. Therefore, while her husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress if she be with another man. But if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of her husband, so that she is no longer an adulteress if she be with another man. And so, my brothers, you also have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may belong to another, who rose from the dead, that we may bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the vices of sins, which were through the law, worked in our members, so that they bore fruit unto death. But now we have been loosed from the law, being dead to that in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter." Discoursing more broadly in the preceding passages about faith and the law, he shows that faith is in all things to be preferred — the faith, that is, only of those who believe "in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." After this he adds what sort of conduct theirs ought also to be, in which he discoursed both about the sin of Adam and the righteousness of Christ; but he also disputed about servitude and liberty, by which one either serves righteousness and is free from sin, or serves sin and is free from righteousness. Now therefore, after a certain rather extended digression, he returns once more to the treatment of the law and of Christ, discoursing in the present passage in some such manner as this: which things, repeating them a little, we shall first attempt to open up according to the sequence of the letter; and then also, as far as our strength allows, we shall inquire what power each saying holds. I speak, he says, to you who have knowledge of the law, and know that its meaning lies not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit: that is, "I speak to those who know the law," and I call you, on account of this knowledge of the law, "brothers"; and I say: Surely you are not ignorant that the law has dominion over each one who is made over to it and serves it, just as a husband over the woman joined to him? And just as throughout all his life he has dominion over the woman joined to him by laws, so also the law has dominion over the man who is under the law, as long as it lives and is in force. But just as, if it should happen that the husband to whom the woman had been joined by laws dies, the woman becomes free and is released from the husband's power, so also he who is under the law, if it should happen that the law dies, becomes free from the works of the law; and just as the woman who has been released from the laws of her former husband has liberty to be joined to another man, so also he who has lived under the power of the law, when he sees the letter dead, has the power to be united to the living Word as to a husband. But if the woman should wish to leave her former husband while he is still living, and to be united to another, she will doubtless be called an adulteress. And this falls in like fashion also upon him who deserts the law as a living husband, and is joined to another. But this, as I said, "I speak to those who know the law, brothers," so that you may understand that you also have left the law as a dead husband. Now its death is through the coming of Christ and the assumption of his body, through which you have been made another's — that is, joined to another husband, namely to him who rose from the dead, and does not again take on death, which that former husband, that is, the law, took on. You therefore have now been made the bride of that husband who rose from the dead; and therefore you ought to live according to his will, since we are no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit, even if at one time, pla…
Romans 7:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.3
Therefore the law of the letter must first die, so that at last the soul, now free, may wed the spirit and obtain the marriage of the new testament.
Romans 7:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For he indicates this also in what follows, where he says: "While her husband lives, she is bound to the law;" and the very order of the example that has been taken up declares the same thing more fully: for he has put the law in the place of the husband, and concerning it he says: "But if her husband dies, she is loosed from the law of her husband." Yet if these things be understood as spoken of the apostles, or of those who believed from the circumcision, no question will be stirred up: for it is clear that these had the law as a husband, under whose authority they were living. But when the fullness of times came, the law began to be weakened in the flesh, and death followed upon its weakness; and if any had lived under the authority of this husband, they — like a woman, once the letter is dead — are wedded to the spirit by believing in Christ. But those who from among the Gentiles believed in the Lord will not appear to have lived under this husband, that is, under the authority of the law, nor to have had the word of the law as a husband. And Isaiah declares the testimony of this matter — namely, that those who are of the circumcision were under a husband, while those from the Gentiles were without a husband — saying: "Rejoice, O barren one who dost not bear; break forth and cry out, thou who dost not travail; for many are the children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband." He says that the children of the deserted one are more numerous than those of her who has a husband, because far more believed from the Gentiles than from the circumcision; and he shows that she who has a husband is the Synagogue, which has the law; but that the deserted one, wandering and living without any authority of law, is the multitude of the Gentiles, which was also barren, putting forth no shoot of any lawful word. Therefore in these passages a man who lives under the law is set down by the Apostle as a woman who is under a husband. But he sets down as the husband the word of the law, which husband nevertheless he calls dead — that is, the word of the law according to the letter. But in what way this husband is dead must be thoroughly examined. He can indeed be seen as dead in this respect also, when the spiritual understanding shuts out and as it were slays the bodily understanding, and shows that the letter which kills is to be fled from, and the spirit which gives life is to be followed. But in this way too it will be more evidently proved that this husband is dead. For as long as the law bore the shadow of good things to come, and in the earthly Jerusalem the type and image of the heavenly worship was carried on, and the altar remained, and the priesthood, the word of the law — that is, the letter — seemed to be alive. For Christ had not yet entered into the holy places not made with hands, nor had he approached the inner veil, which the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, interprets as the flesh of Christ. But when "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," by his presence the earthly Jerusalem, with its temple and altar and all that was carried on there, was overthrown. Then her husband died — that is, the law according to the letter. Or is not the word of the law rightly said to be dead in this respect, when no sacrifices, no priesthood, no ministries of the Levitical order are rendered to it? It cannot punish a murderer, nor stone an adulteress: for these things the power of the Romans claims for itself; and dost thou still doubt whether the law according to the letter is dead? No male goes up three times a year to appear before the Lord; no sheep is slaughtered at the festival of the Passover in the city which the Lord God is thought to have chosen; the sheaves of first fruits are not offered, no oblation is celebrated; no leprosy, no uncleanness is purged. And can it be doubted, in all these matters, that the letter of the law is dead? Since therefore it has become clear through all these things that the former husb…
Romans 7:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And for this reason he says: "Therefore, while her husband lives, she will be called an adulteress if she be with another man," so as to show that the soul of a man too, if it has now come to Christ and has been joined to Christ as to a second husband, must in no way have the oldness of the letter — which is as it were the former husband — living in it, lest perchance, if it should have him living within it, she become an adulteress, having been so joined to the second that the former was still alive to her. This is what he said above under another figure, that one must first die and thus be buried together with Christ.
Romans 7:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Finally he adds this also in what follows: "And so, my brethren, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, that you may belong to another, who rose from the dead, that we may bear fruit to God." You see how, although a diversity of figures appears, yet all are brought back to a single sense. For also when he says that the law is dead to us, he wishes this same thing to be understood, namely, that we too have died to the law through the body of Christ, in which body "he bore our iniquities and carried our sins," and in which he stripped off "the principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself." We must hasten, therefore, to that second marriage, which is far more blessed than the first. And consider whether perhaps even then the law was foreshadowing some such thing in this, when it commanded that a woman, upon the death of her former husband, from whom she had received no seed (for such had he been, that he could not bring forth fruit), should be ordered to marry his brother. For the law according to the spirit seems to be the brother of the letter of the law, so that from him rather the woman may bring forth fruit. But these things will be inquired into more fully in their own places. But now, as we have said, one must first die to the law of the letter, that so we may be able to be joined to Christ, who rose from the dead. And it can be that this is understood not only of the law of Moses which is according to the letter, but of every man: since it is certain that by whatever institutions, by whatever customs a man is governed, he must be believed to live as it were under this law which he uses; to which assuredly either he himself must die, or it must die to him, lest perchance the soul, placed under another husband, in coming to Christ should seem not so much to enter upon marriage with him as to become an adulteress, since indeed it still lives by the laws of the former husband.
Romans 7:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Yet the Apostle brings this same sense of the exposition forward again under another figure. For he adds: "For when we were in the flesh, the vices of sins which were through the law worked in our members so as to bear fruit unto death. But now we, having died, are loosed from the law in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter." Here too it appears — as we said above by the example of a certain comparison — that Paul passes from one chamber into another by uncertain and hidden steps. For when he had discussed in the foregoing the law of the letter, which certainly would seem to pertain only to those who had believed from the circumcision, now by a hidden turn he examines the law of the flesh and of the vices, doubtless to this end, that this treatment may seem to pertain to other men as well, and not to those alone who are of the circumcision. He says, then: "For when we were in the flesh." And indeed, so far as the matter itself is concerned, he was surely speaking these things while set in the flesh; but "when we were in the flesh," that is, when we were living according to the flesh, "the vices of sins which were through the law worked in our members." What, then, is this law through which the vices of sin work? Can it be that the law of Moses, even if it be observed according to the letter, generates the vices of sins? But it is plain that he is speaking of that law in the members which resists the law of the mind, concerning which we have also treated earlier, when we discussed how "the law entered in secretly, that sin might abound." It is therefore this very law which causes the vices of sins to abound in those who live according to the flesh, so that they bear fruit unto death. For that law is in our members for this very purpose, that by resisting against the law of the mind it may lead us captive to sin and offer these fruits to death.
Romans 7:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But now we have been loosed from the law, having died to that in which we were held." From this law, then, in which we were held, we have now been loosed. "Now." When? Without doubt when we died with Christ, and were buried together with him through baptism, and were crucified with him; and therefore he says, "We have been loosed from the law, having died." For unless a man has died with Christ, he is not loosed from that law. I know that in other copies it is written, "from the law of death, in which we were held"; but this reading, that is, "having died," is both truer and more correct. But as for what he adds in the conclusion, "So that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter," which without doubt seems to be said concerning the law of the letter, this can be understood in the following consequent manner. Set indeed in the flesh, and living according to the flesh, we could not serve the newness of the spirit — because of the vices of sins which that law which was in our members nourished, so that they might bear fruit unto death — so long as that law of the members lived in us; or rather, so long as we lived according to it. But when Christ died for us, and we died with him to sin, we were set free through him from the law of sin in which we were held, and we are now able to serve the law of God; and to serve, moreover, in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. For Christ did not draw us away from the law of sin in order that we should serve the oldness of the letter, that is, that we should receive circumcision, and Sabbaths, or the other things which the oldness of the letter of the law contains; but that we should keep the law of God in newness of spirit, that is, that out of all the things which are written in it we should grasp the spiritual sense, the Spirit granting it, as the same Apostle says in another place, that "a veil is placed upon the face of Moses; but when anyone shall have turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." I know indeed that certain persons, understanding this "newness of spirit" badly, have dragged it in such a direction as to say that the Spirit is new, as though he had not existed before, nor been known to the ancients; and they do not know that in this they blaspheme most gravely. For the Spirit himself is in the law, he himself is in the Gospel, he himself is always with the Father and the Son, and always is, and was, and will be, just as the Father and the Son. Therefore he himself is not new, but he makes believers new, when he leads them from their old evils to a new life and to the new observance of the religion of Christ, and makes them spiritual out of carnal.
Romans 7:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
When we are set in passages such as these, it is repeatedly necessary for us to give a reminder concerning the diversities of laws. For this is what Paul intends, who under the one name of "law" transfers the sense from one law to another by silent indications, with that purpose, as I judge, by which the prophetic Scriptures also stand. It is not the case that, just as "law" is a single name, so the discourse of Scripture about the law is everywhere one and the same. Wherefore in each single passage it is needful to pursue and contemplate it accurately, and to weigh now what is signified by the name of law, now what that other thing may be. But in very many other words as well this must be held to. For there are in Scripture words which have been allotted the same appellation for signifying different things, and these confuse those who suppose that, just as the word is one, so also the thing signified is one, wherever that name has its place. Now that the word "law" is not set down to signify one and the same thing, but several, we shall set forth — passing over many matters which would demand labor and study to resolve the obstructed senses they contain — those things which can satisfy anyone, namely, that the word "law" is set down for several things: as when in the Epistle to the Galatians it is said, "For whoever are of the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written: Accursed is he who does not adhere to all the things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." It is plain that by these words is signified that of Moses. Yet these things ought not to be set out in the open, and handed over, so to speak, to be trampled underfoot; but rather that, according to those things which we said above by means of a certain likeness, the mystery of its King might come through to few, and more secretly. And so he says: "What then shall we say? Is the law sin?" Did you suppose, he says, that I was speaking of the law of Moses, that it is sin? "God forbid, God forbid." Let it suffice against both suppositions that I am neither speaking of the law of Moses, nor saying of it that it is sin; but rather, "I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known concupiscence, unless the law had said: You shall not covet." Understand, he says, of what law I am speaking, without which no one would know sin. Is it perhaps the law of Moses through which Adam knew his own sin, and hid himself from the face of the Lord? Is it the law of Moses through which Cain knew his own sin and said, "My sin is greater than that I should be pardoned"? Or through which Pharaoh knew his own sin and said, "The Lord is just, but I and my people are impious"? But if all these, and countless others before the law of Moses, knew their own sin, without doubt it will not be the law of Moses of which the Apostle speaks when he says that "I did not know sin except through the law"; and of which he says, "I would not have known concupiscence, unless the law had said: You shall not covet." Rather it is that law of which we have frequently spoken, which "is written in the hearts of men, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God," and which teaches each one what is to be done and what is to be avoided. This, then, is the law through which a man knows his own sin. Here he plainly says that the natural law is unknown to us for just so long as, with the advance of age, reason has not yet come. For "harvest" too is named twice: the former indeed refers to the bodily harvest, but the latter to the harvest of the spirit, as when he says: "Are there not yet four months, and then comes the harvest? Lift up your eyes, and see the regions, for they are already white unto the harvest." And you will find something similar in the case of the man blind from his very birth who was healed, to whom he speaks these words while he was still blind in body: "I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may…
Romans 7:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, worked in me all manner of concupiscence." That law of which he says, "I did not know concupiscence, unless the law had said: You shall not covet," is itself also called a commandment. He says, then, that by occasion of this commandment, by which we are forbidden to covet, sin blazed up in us more violently, and worked in us all manner of concupiscence. For in that respect in which the flesh lusts against the spirit — that is, against the law which says, "You shall not covet" — it is also set against it and wages, as it were, a contest, so that it may not only satisfy the concupiscence but may even conquer its adversary. This, then, is the occasion which he says comes from the commandment. For, somehow or other, the things that are forbidden are more ardently desired; and therefore, since the commandment is holy and just and good (for what forbids evil is necessarily good), yet while by forbidding concupiscence it rather provokes and inflames it, through what is good it worked death in me. Nevertheless the Apostle indicates in these words that the origin of sin has arisen from concupiscence, since, when the law forbids — whether the law of Moses, which says, "You shall not covet," or also, as we expounded above, the natural law — what is forbidden is sought after all the more contentiously. It must indeed be understood that concupiscence is here set down as blameworthy. But in many cases it is also praiseworthy, as we showed above.
Romans 7:9-10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For without the law sin was dead. But I was alive without the law once. Yet when the commandment came, sin revived. But I died; and the commandment, which was unto life, was found by me to be unto death." Concerning nearly all these matters full treatment has already been given in what precedes; and so, that we may not turn over the same things again and again, we shall briefly recall to memory the things that were said. Now, that sin is dead in us without the law — that is, before a rational understanding grows strong within us through age — we have shown, when we also brought forward the example of a boy who strikes his father or his mother, or curses them. In which case, according to the law that forbids a father or mother to be struck or cursed, a sin does indeed seem to be committed; but that sin is said to be dead, because the law is not yet present in the boy, the law which would teach him that what he does is not permitted to be done. And it is certain that both Paul and all men have at some time lived without this law, that is, in the age of boyhood. For all alike, throughout that period, are not yet capable of this natural law. For otherwise Paul's declaration on this point would not seem to be true. For how shall it be proved that Paul at some time lived without the law of Moses, when he himself confesses that he is a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and circumcised on the eighth day according to the precepts of the law? But in the manner we have said, he too at some time lived in boyhood without the natural law. And of that time he did not say that there was no sin in the man, but that it was dead, and that afterward it revived, when the natural law, coming upon him, began to forbid concupiscence: which law, as it were, raised up sin that had been dead. For this is the nature of sin: if that be done which the law forbids to be done. Therefore, when sin came to life again, "I," he says, "died." "I" — who? The soul, without doubt, which had done what the law forbade to be done: for "the soul that sins," as the prophet says, "shall itself die." Therefore the commandment which had been given unto life — that is, to the soul, that it might teach it the works of life — was found to have turned out for it unto death, since it does not so much flee from what is forbidden as more ardently seek after it. Yet in these words it troubles me how he could say that sin was dead and revived. For it seems that nothing can be said to be dead except what at some time lived, and afterward lacked life. And this very word which he uses, "revived," teaches that it is not a life newly given, but a former life restored: for the very expression "revived" signifies to have lived again. If, then, sin is said to have revived in the soul, how do these people, from this saying of the Apostle in which he says, "But I was alive without the law once," introduce the doctrine of transmigration of bodies — which teaches that the souls of men were previously in beasts, or birds, or fishes, and so came to men: and that for this reason the Apostle said, "But I was alive without the law once," as though he, before he came into this human body, had lived in that order (for example) either of birds or of animals, where no law was had? How, I say, will they be able to answer this, when he says that sin revived in the soul — not that it newly arose, but that what was dead came to life? And it is certain that whatever revives has at some time lived. Never, then, will the soul appear to have been in that order, where sin without law could neither have been nor have lived. Let these things be said against those who drag the Apostle's word to an impious doctrine. But we say that this death of sin was granted by the kindness of God at that time in which we lived without the law.
Romans 7:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And even if, when the commandment comes — which is "holy and just and good" — sin revives in us and slays us ("for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me"), it is no accusation of the commandment that he says the occasion by which sin slew me came from the commandment; but this is the logical consequence of that saying. That is called law which teaches what ought to be done and what avoided; and it is necessary that it should also teach of what sort that is which it says must be avoided, so that thereby it may the more easily be avoided. For no one can shun what he does not know. If, then, someone, having been taught by the law of what sort that is which he ought to avoid, does not so much avoid it as rather do it, he will indeed appear to have received, by occasion of the law, the knowledge of the thing that was not to be done: but the law had not taught him for this purpose, that he should do what he ought not, and die; but that he should not do it, and should live. Thus, then, "sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." Or else, certainly, since he said, "Sin by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me," he may here by "sin" have meant the very author of sin, of whom it is written, "The serpent deceived me"; or he may have fashioned a personification of sin, which is seen to have deceived the man by occasion of the commandment, so as to make concupiscence sweet, and that the soul, while it is delighted by the sweetness of concupiscence, might die by transgressing the commandment which said, "You shall not covet."
Romans 7:12 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.5.4
If the law is found to be good, undoubtedly we shall believe that he who gave it is a good God. If, however, it is just rather than good, we shall think of God as a just lawgiver. But Paul the apostle says in no roundabout terms: "The commandment is holy and just and good." It is plain from this that Paul has not learned the doctrines of those [Gnostics] who separate the just from the good. Rather, he had been instructed by that God and illuminated by the Spirit of that God, who is holy and good and just at the same time.
Romans 7:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But lest anyone should ascribe to the commandment of the law the fact that by occasion of the precept the soul was deceived by sin and slain, the Apostle adds and says: "And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." For the commandment is good, and the law is holy. For it enjoins good things, and commands the observance of good things.
Romans 7:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"That, then, which is good," he says, "is it death to me? God forbid!" He refutes an objection that necessarily arises, and says: It is not that the good of the law and of the commandment brought death upon me; "but sin," he says, "that it might appear" how wicked it is, "through what is good wrought death in me." For the commandment is good when it is kept: but if it is not kept, it will necessarily be an evil to him who has lost the good. Therefore "sin itself becomes a sinner beyond measure" by occasion of the commandment. We said above too that he fashioned, as it were, a personification of sin, and says of it that sin itself — of whose person he speaks — was made a sinner beyond measure by occasion of the commandment. For it is less of a sin if you commit what is not forbidden. But if you commit things vetoed and prohibited, you are, so to speak, a sinner beyond measure: because you have not only done what you ought not, but you have also transgressed a precept. But as for our saying "sin is a sinner," we preferred to admit a fault of language rather than not express the Apostle's meaning in its entirety: because in the Latin tongue the noun for sin (peccatum) has confined us, since it is declined in the neuter gender, whereas in Greek it is feminine; and therefore we have called it a sinner in the masculine (peccator): for there it can be called a sinner in the feminine (peccatrix).
Romans 7:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
If perchance to anyone that exposition which we maintained concerning the diversity of laws seemed to be violently presumed, let him now observe in this chapter how not only a diversity of laws, but also of persons, is introduced. For Paul, who in other places said, "For we, walking in the flesh, do not war according to the flesh," in the present passage says that he is carnal: and here he says that he has been sold under sin, he who in other places said: "You have been bought with a price;" and again: "Christ has redeemed us;" and once more elsewhere he says: "Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me." And again, he who says, "On account of his Spirit dwelling in us," now says: "For there dwells not in me, that is, in my flesh, what is good." But if the good does not dwell in his flesh, how does he say that our body is the temple of God, and the temple of the Holy Spirit? And moreover the rest, in which he confesses that by the law which is in his members, and which fights against the law of his mind, he is led captive in the law of sin — how will these things befit apostolic dignity, and especially Paul, in whom Christ both lives and speaks? But let us gather from these things how it is the custom of divine Scripture to change secretly both persons, and things, and the matters of which it seems to be speaking, and names — or rather, to use the same names in one set of things and another, as in the present passage the Apostle says: "For we know that the law is spiritual." This much, that he said, "We know that the law is spiritual," he pronounces with apostolic authority. For he who is carnal and sold under sin does not know that the law is spiritual; but he who has in himself the Spirit of God, he knows that the law is spiritual: which is fittingly said of the law of Moses. For it is that very law which, to him who understands it spiritually, is a spiritual law, and a Spirit giving life; but to him who understands it carnally, it is recorded to be a law of the letter, and a letter that kills. But as to what he says, "But I am carnal, sold under sin," here he now, as a teacher of the Church, takes upon himself the person of the weak; on account of which he also said elsewhere: "I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak." And here therefore, for whoever are weaker — that is, for the carnal, and for those who have been sold under sin — Paul becomes carnal and sold under sin, and he speaks those things which it is their custom to speak, whether under the pretext of excusing or of accusing themselves. He says therefore of himself, as though speaking in their person: "But I am carnal, sold under sin": that is, living according to the flesh, and reduced by a price into the power of sin, of lust, and of concupiscence.
Romans 7:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For what I work, I do not know. For I do not do what I will; but what I hate, this I do." Now as to what he says, that "I do not know what I work," it is not the thing itself which one works that he is ignorant of, though he be carnal, but he is said to be ignorant of the cause of the thing which he does. But as to what he says, "For I do not do what I will; but what I hate, that I do," he shows that although he who speaks these things is carnal and sold under sin, nevertheless he also strives to resist his vices a little — by the prompting, that is, of the natural law — but is conquered by his vices and overpowered against his will: as often happens (for example) when someone resolves to bear patiently the one who provokes him, and in the end is conquered by anger, and suffers this against his will: he grows angry therefore even when he does not wish to grow angry. This same thing is also wont to happen through the vice of fear, so that against his will a man is terrified by dread and alarm; this also often occurs in the elation of a sudden or unexpected honor, so that he becomes more arrogant and more puffed up than he wishes. He therefore who is not yet spiritual is conquered in each of these things, even against his will: because that will of his is not yet so strong and so robust as to determine within itself that it must contend for the truth even unto death; nor is it such as to say, "It is, it is; no, no"; and therefore he cannot work the things he wills, but the things he does not will.
Romans 7:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Nevertheless, in that part by which he does not will the evil, he consents to the law of God that it is good, since it forbids evil; and the natural law is brought into a certain harmony with the law of God, so that they will the same things and do not will the same things.
Romans 7:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But if according to our will we consent to the law of God, then the evil which we do, it is no longer we who work it, but the sin which is in us — that is, the law and the will of the flesh, which leads us captive in the law of sin which is in our members. And here indeed the carnal Paul says, "It is no longer I who work it, but the sin that dwells in me." But the spiritual Paul says elsewhere, "I labored more abundantly than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God with me." Therefore, just as this one ascribes his labors not to himself, but to the grace of God which was working in him, so also that carnal one reckons his works, which are not good, not to himself, but to the sin which dwells and works in him. For this reason therefore he says: "It is no longer I who work it, but the sin that dwells in me."
Romans 7:18-25 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For there is a certain weakness of this kind in those who receive the beginnings of conversion: that although one may wish to do at once everything that is good, the effect does not immediately follow the will. For a man, deliberating within himself, resolves (for example) not to grow angry, and he settles this in his will; but because by long use and lasting habit the vice of wrath has held dominion in him, it resists even his will and purpose, and, taking the path customary to it, the force of rage bursts out. The vice of lust acts in like manner. By an equal disease of habit a lie too creeps in, fear frightens him off; and in each of these that man who is now receiving the beginnings of conversion fittingly says that "to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good I find not. For the good that I will, this I do not; but the evil that I hate, that I do." But if the will holds the judgment of what is good, while the habit of carnal vices — which has been called the law of the flesh or the law of the members — resists and creeps in, then from the fact that I bear the will of the good, though I do evils, yet because I do them unwillingly, "I consent unto the law of God, that it is good." For I hate evils, and I desire to do the goods which the law commands. But if against my will I do evils, overcome by the habit of vices and by the practice of sinning, "it is no more I" — that is, the inner man — "who do the good I will; but sin that dwelleth in me." For he has named the habit of sinning "sin." "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." And in these words, as we have often noted above, we seem not to be fully unfolded in the expression, but to be hindered either by the abundance of the conjunctions or by their peculiarities. We ought therefore to read them in some such order as this, that the sense may become clearer: Therefore, because evil is present with me, willing to do good I find the law of God, and I delight in it according to the inner man. By this he shows that the inner man — that is, the will and the purpose which takes its beginning of being converted to the Lord — consents to the law of God and is delighted in it. But, as we said above, it is not immediately, as soon as one has the will to be converted to good things, that the practice of good work also follows. For the will is a swift thing, and is turned about without hindrance; but the work is slow, because it requires practice, and skill, and the labor of working. And that this may become more evident, let us use also the likeness of an example. For instance, someone wishes to become wise, and yet he is not made wise the moment he willed it; but the will indeed went before, nor can anyone become wise without the will; yet nevertheless, when the will is present, labor must be applied, and study, and carefulness, and vigils, and teaching, and instruction; and scarcely at some time, by long practice and continual meditation, is he made wise. This man, then, from the beginning indeed at once had the will to be wise, but the work of wisdom was not at once present to him. But even in that very process, while he is being trained that he may become wise, how many things has he done foolishly and contrary to wisdom! And yet he could indeed understand how foolishly he had acted, for he already had the pursuit of wisdom; but he was not yet so wise as to be able to take heed lest he commit anything unwisely. This same order must be held also concerning chastity: that not immediately when one has willed to profess chastity will he also fulfill it in work, so as to be agitated by no goads of concupiscence. So too must it be known concerning meekness, and concerning patience, and concerning each several virtue. In all of which it is fitting to say that "I delight in the law of God," that is, in the virtues, "after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against…
Romans 7:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For there dwells not in me, that is, in my flesh, what is good." For Christ does not yet dwell in him, nor is his body the temple of God. Yet nevertheless he whose person is set forth here is not altogether a stranger to good things, but in purpose indeed and in will he has begun to seek the good, though he is not yet able to attain the good in deeds and works.
Romans 7:22 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
Scripture says that in man there are two: "For though our outer man is being destroyed, yet our inner man is renewed day by day"; and also: "I delight in the law of God according to the inner man." The Apostle everywhere presents these two men as distinct. It seems to me that he does not presume to invent this teaching for himself, but rather, releasing what is expressed obscurely in the Scriptures, he sets it forth openly.
Romans 7:25 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." Perhaps someone will say that the Apostle, who up to this point has been speaking not as it were in his own person but having assumed the person of another, now, as though marking a change of person, says, "I myself," so as to show that these things which are to be said pertain to that same Apostle himself. And he says that with the mind he serves the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin — as if so great were the force of sinning, so great the tyranny of the flesh, that not even the Apostle could escape it; and for this reason he said in another place that "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a reprobate." But whoever takes these things as spoken in the person of the Apostle seems to me to strike despair into every soul, on the ground that there is absolutely no one who does not sin in the flesh. For this is what it is to serve the law of sin with the flesh. To me, therefore, it rather seems that he is still maintaining the person of the man whom above he described in himself: one who by will and purpose has already been turned toward better things, and who serves the law of God with mind and spirit, yet has not yet obtained this, that he should bring even the obedience of the flesh into agreement with the mind. For indeed in the preceding passages he had discoursed on the mortification of the body, and had taught that we must die together with Christ; in these present words he seems to show how this work is not idle, and to teach that it is not the case that, as soon as someone wills, and as soon as he has purposed the good, it is straightway also fulfilled in deed; but that either so great is the force of habit, or so great the sweetness of the vices, that although the spirit already strains toward virtue and determines to serve the law of God, nevertheless the desires of the flesh persuade it to serve sin and to obey sin's laws.
Romans 8:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death." What difference there is among those who, placed as it were in a kind of contest, live with the mind according to the law of God but are driven by the desires of the flesh into the law of sin, he taught in the preceding passages. But now he speaks of those who are no longer partly in the flesh and partly in the spirit, but are wholly in Christ; and he declares that in these there is nothing worthy of condemnation, because "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed them from the law of sin and death." Now the law of the Spirit of life is one and the same as the law of God, just as, again, the law of sin and the law of death are one and the same. There will therefore be no condemnation for those who are utterly freed from the law of sin, which is the law of death, and who serve the law of God, which is the law of the spirit. But to serve the law of God, and to be under the law of the spirit, this is to serve Christ. And to serve Christ is to serve wisdom, is to serve righteousness, to serve truth, and to serve all the virtues at once. Hence it is not to be supposed that anyone is suddenly, and as soon as he wills, transferred from the servitude of the law of sin and made to be in Christ Jesus, so that there is in him no longer anything held to deserve condemnation on the score of sin. Rather, righteousness demands in each one its own portion: it tests whether he has already been so amended and corrected that it finds in him no unrighteous work from which condemnation would follow. Likewise truth too demands in each one its own portion, whether one who has been transferred from the law of sin is now found in no respect to defile the service of truth with falsehood. Likewise chastity also examines its own portion, whether he is stained by no unchaste desires. So piety, so wisdom examine their own portions in each one; and if they find these standing rightly and entire in him, then he will be reckoned to be in Christ and to have nothing of condemnation. And of these things there is surely no doubt that they are acquired by long practice and meditation and by unsleeping labor. And therefore it is certain that these things do not befall the idle or the slothful; but by advancing little by little, and by sinning at first in few things, then afterward in the very least things, and at last, if they are able to attain it, in nothing at all. And perceiving this, the same Apostle seems to me to have written elsewhere: "Forgetting the things that are behind, stretching myself forth to the things that are before" — teaching by these words that the things behind must be those in which there was something blameworthy and worthy of oblivion, while the things before are those which are in Christ, and that these are the things toward which we ought to stretch ourselves out, and to seek them with the whole eagerness of the mind. As for our saying that the law of the spirit of life must be understood as the law of God itself, we said this, of course, according to that part of it which is said to be spiritual. For this reason he added, "the law of the spirit of life." For of the law of the letter he could not say this, concerning which he had declared elsewhere that "the letter kills." This is also called elsewhere "the ministry of death." The law therefore contains both, the letter that kills and the spirit that gives life. Hence consider whether perhaps that tree also of which it is written, "of knowing good and evil," holds the figure of this same thing. For both are contained in one, just as also in the law. But let us not omit this either, that here indeed he who frees from the law of sin and death is called "the spirit of life"; whereas in the Gospel according to John it is written, the Lord saying: "If you abide in my word, you shall know the truth, and the t…
Romans 8:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Since in what precedes he has named so many laws (for he spoke both of the law of God, and of the law of the mind, and of the law of the spirit of life), and on the contrary side has also mentioned the law which is in the members, and the law of death, and the law of sin, it is no small deliberation to choose which of these laws he now speaks of here when he says, "For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weakened through the flesh." I think, however, that here too, as we have often said in other places, the Apostle divides the law of Moses into two parts, and names one thing in it flesh and another spirit: and that observance indeed which is carried out according to the letter he calls the sense of the flesh, just as he says of a Jew of this kind, "Vainly puffed up by the sense of his own flesh"; but that which is received spiritually he names spirit, as he also says elsewhere, "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." And in this passage, therefore, what he says, "impossible for the law," and "in that it was weakened through the flesh," can be taken of the understanding which is according to the letter. For it was both impossible and weak, if it were understood according to the flesh, that is, according to the letter. For what is so impossible as the observance of the Sabbath according to the letter of the law, as we have already often said in many places? For one is commanded not to go out of his house, not to move from his place, to lift no burden. And because the Jews who observe the law according to the flesh see that these things are impossible, they contrive certain inept and ridiculous devices, by which they may seem to patch up the impossibility of the law. But what shall I say of the system of sacrifices, which all at once has been made wholly impossible? Seeing that there is neither temple, nor altar, nor any place at all for sacrificing. In each of these things the law is, I will not say impossible and weak, but plainly already dead. For before this death it was weakened at that time when it attempted with the blood of calves and goats, and yet could not, to take away sins; and it was weakened in the laws concerning leprosy, which it was never able either to explain or to fulfill. In all these things, therefore, and in countless others, the law was both impossible and was weakened, so far as concerns the understanding of the flesh: and therefore "God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin," or, as it is more truly found among the Greeks, "and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." In that he said, "in the likeness of sinful flesh," he shows that we indeed have sinful flesh, but that the Son of God had the likeness of sinful flesh, not sinful flesh. For all we men who have been conceived from the seed of a man coming together with a woman necessarily use that utterance in which David says, that "in iniquities did my mother conceive me." But he who came to an immaculate body from no contact of a man, but by the Holy Spirit alone coming upon the Virgin and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, had indeed the nature of our body, yet the pollution of sin, which is transmitted to those conceived from the motion of concupiscence, he did not have at all. For this reason, therefore, the Son of God is said to have come "in the likeness of sinful flesh." "And for sin," he says, "he condemned sin in the flesh." That Christ was made a victim for sin, and was offered for the purgation of sins, all the Scriptures testify, and especially Paul writing to the Hebrews, when he says: "For this he did once, in offering himself as a victim"; and again: "Who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." Through this victim, therefore, of his own flesh, which is called "for sin," he condemned sin in the flesh, as the same Apostle says in other places, that "he appeared in the last days for the destruction of sin"; and again the prophet says: "He himself bore our sins, an…
Romans 8:3-9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
It is possible also, according to another exposition — if we take it up again from the beginning — that "What was impossible to the law, in that it was weakened through the flesh," be understood also of the law of the mind, which he said above wills to do good but cannot fulfill it through the infirmity and frailty of the flesh; and that on this account God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and of sin — that is, by a victim offered for sin — condemned sin. For when remission of sins was given us, sin was put to flight and driven out of our flesh, and the justification of the law began to be fulfilled in us — of that law, at least, which delights together with the law of God, which is quickly fulfilled when the law of sin that was in our members no longer resists it, if indeed we walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For so long as anyone is in the flesh and lives according to the flesh, he is wise in the things of the flesh; but when he has turned himself to the spirit, and has died to the law of sin and of the flesh, he is wise in the things that are of the spirit. For to be wise according to the flesh is the death of the soul; but to be wise according to the spirit is life and peace: because "the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God" — that is, so long as the flesh resists the spirit and is not subject to the law of the mind, which is the law of God, it is at enmity with God; and therefore they who live carnally cannot please God. But "you," he says, "are not in the flesh" — that is, you do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit — "if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." These things can also, as we have said, be fitted to this place according to another exposition. But let the one who reads choose, and let him follow whichever he judges the more fitting — if indeed he does judge it so.
Romans 8:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For sin," therefore, that is, through the victim of his own flesh which he offered for sin, "he condemned sin in his flesh, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." For through this victim of the flesh, which was offered for sin, he both condemned sin, that is, put sin to flight and took it away, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us who keep the law according to the spirit, and not according to the flesh: in which part, according to what we have expounded above, the law was impossible and weak.
Romans 8:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit." Here now more openly, setting the law of Moses as it were in the middle between us and the Jews, he says, "They who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh," that is, the Jews, whom he calls Israel according to the flesh, mind the fleshly things of the law, in that they understand the law according to the flesh; "but they who are according to the spirit" (speaking of those whom he calls Jews by the spirit, not by the letter), "the things of the spirit."
Romans 8:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he still dwells upon the same sense, and opens it more evidently, when he says: "For the prudence of the flesh is death, but the prudence of the spirit is life and peace." Is it not one and the same thing that he says, "The prudence of the flesh is death," and that other saying, "The letter kills"? Therefore "the prudence of the flesh is death." Death to whom? To the soul, without doubt. For he who understands the law according to the flesh, that is, according to the letter, does not come to Christ who is life, and therefore "the prudence of the flesh is death, but the prudence of the spirit is life and peace." For he has life and peace, which is Christ, who understands the law spiritually.
Romans 8:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be." The same understanding still seems to be unfolded. For how should the wisdom of the flesh, that is, the carnal understanding, not be an enemy to God, when it opposes Christ; when it does not receive him whom God sent; when it says: "We have a law, and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God"? How, then, should such a wisdom, and such an understanding in the law, not be called an enemy to God, and to his law? To that which is according to the spirit, namely, it is not subject, nor can it be subject: for as death and life are contrary to one another, so are the killing letter of the law — which is also the wisdom of the flesh — and the life-giving spirit, which is truly the law of God, contrary to one another.
Romans 8:8-9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But they who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit: if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you." The same understanding holds throughout. "They who are in the flesh," he says — that is, they who follow the law according to the letter — "cannot please God." For this was long ago declared by God through Isaiah, when he says: "Your fasts and holidays and your great day I do not endure: my soul hates your new moons and your Sabbaths." But "you," he says, in whom the Spirit of God dwells — if indeed it does dwell — "are not in the flesh, but in the spirit"; that is, you do not follow the carnal understanding of the law, but the spiritual, through which you have come to the life-giving Spirit — if indeed your deeds and manner of life are such that you deserve to have the Spirit of God in you. Therefore, dividing the law of Moses, as we have said, into two parts, that is, into spirit and flesh, he has handed over to us the things that are of the spirit, which he also called the spiritual law; but the things that are of the flesh he has left to the carnal Jews. So, finally, he interpreted also that passage concerning Abraham when he said: "But he indeed who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh; but he who was of the freewoman, by promise. And as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was born according to the spirit, so also now." For it is certain that those who are Jews according to the flesh persecute us who are Jews not outwardly but inwardly, and who keep the law according to the spirit, not according to the flesh. Those, therefore, who are wise according to the flesh consequently also hope for the promises of the law in a carnal way. But we await them spiritually, according to the word of Paul, who says: "That we may receive the promises of the Spirit"; and again: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." From all of which it is shown both what the law according to the flesh is and what the law according to the spirit is, and what is the hope of a carnal promise and what of a spiritual one.
Romans 8:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justification. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies because of his Spirit that dwells in you." That the apostle Paul employs firm syllogisms drawn together by the dialectical art, whether in this place or in others of his Epistles, does not seem to me a thing to be set forth now, lest perhaps we appear to be advocates not so much of his knowledge as of his speech — in which he does not wish to be called skilled; and therefore we shall hasten rather to examine the sense of the chapter set before us. In what went before, where he said: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you," we explained in a twofold manner what it is to be in the Spirit: that is, either to understand the law not according to the letter but according to the spiritual sense; or else, with the body mortified, to live by the laws of the spirit and not of the flesh. And now, therefore, as to what he says, "But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," and then adds, "But if Christ is in you," it must be asked whether it is a different thing for the Spirit of God to be in someone, or the Spirit of Christ, or even Christ himself, or the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead. But so far as I regard either the sequence of the present passage, or that which the Savior says in the Gospel concerning the Holy Spirit, that "he proceeds from the Father," and, "He shall receive of mine" — and he joins in what follows the explanation of this word, saying: "Father, all mine are thine, and thine are mine: therefore I said that he shall receive of mine" — when, I say, I behold so great a principle of unity between the Father and the Son, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ seem to me to be called one and the same Spirit. Yet we can also understand in this way what he said, "But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (since in truth it seems to be pronounced abruptly), namely, that if anyone has not deserved to be so great and such a one as to be worthy to have the Spirit of Christ, he is straightway denied to belong to Christ — whereas he says in the Psalms: "Mine are all the wild beasts of the woods, the cattle on the mountains, and the oxen." And if the wild beasts and the cattle are his, how are men not his? But it can, as I have said, be understood thus, like that saying in the Gospel: "He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." And so here too, he who has not the Spirit of Christ — that is, who is not moved by that same Spirit, so as to be ready to go even unto death for justice, for truth, for announcing the word of God, for preaching the kingdom of heaven, for casting away the letter of the law and opening up its spirit, for resisting against sin — he who is not ready for all these things is not his disciple. He, therefore, who is not such, and does not bear such a Spirit within him, is indeed his creature, like the wild beasts of the woods and the cattle on the mountains and the oxen, but he is not his disciple.
Romans 8:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Thus, then, in "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his; but if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of justice," he seems to me in this place to call the Spirit of Christ and Christ one and the same thing. In him, therefore, in whom Christ is, he himself says that "we always carry about the death of Christ in our body." But death is imposed upon the body for the sake of sin — that is, that it may not sin. And if the body is dead to sin, necessarily the spirit lives for the doing of justice. For he who is dead in the body and does not serve sin must needs live in the spirit and serve justice. So too the same Apostle says in a certain place that he had delivered a certain man over to the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved.
Romans 8:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies because of his Spirit dwelling in you." Since he had said above concerning those who, after the likeness of Christ's death, mortify their bodies that they may not sin, he necessarily now makes mention of him who raised Christ from the dead, so that in like manner and by the same reasoning by which they died together with him and were buried together with him, they may know that they are to be quickened through the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, and to be raised from the dead after the likeness of Christ. And he shows in what way this comes about, saying: "Because of his Spirit dwelling in you." For if the Spirit of Christ dwells in you, it seems necessary that his dwelling-place be restored to the Spirit, and his temple given back. Yet I should wish to know what this very thing is which is said — that either the Spirit of Christ, or the Spirit of God, or even Christ himself dwells in us: whether this Spirit is given to all from the beginning, and afterwards driven away by the worst deeds and by deeds estranged from God, according to that which is written, "My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh"; or whether it is given afterwards by the merit of one's life and by the grace of faith, according to those things which are taught in the Acts of the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit came upon each one of them as it were in tongues of fire; or certainly as we are taught in the Gospel, when the Savior himself, after he rose from the dead, said to the disciples: "Receive the Holy Spirit," and breathed upon each one of them. Whence it seems to me that this gift is both won by merits, and preserved by innocence of life, and increased in each one according to his progress in faith and grace; and the purer the soul is rendered, the more abundantly is the Spirit poured into it. But as to what he said, "My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh," this looks to the fact that, since their soul, having repudiated the service of the Spirit, turned itself wholly to the services of the flesh, it takes the very name of that flesh to which it joined itself and with which it was made one. In diverse ways, therefore, can the Spirit be had. Either the Spirit of Christ is had, according to what we said above, from divine inbreathing, where he says, "Receive the Holy Spirit," and breathed upon them; or again in that manner in which it is said in the Acts of the Apostles to have been done, that the apostles spoke in diverse tongues. There is also that manner which is related in the books of Kings, when Scripture says: "And the Spirit leaped upon Saul, and he began to prophesy." There is also yet another manner: as when the Savior after the resurrection, journeying with Cleopas and another disciple and opening the Scriptures to them, set them afire with the Spirit of his mouth, so that they said: "Was not our heart burning within us, when he opened the Scriptures to us?" But do you wish to know that not only did Jesus in speaking hand over his Spirit to his hearers, but also that he who speaks the word of God in his name hands over the Spirit of God to his hearers? See in the Acts of the Apostles how, while Peter was speaking to Cornelius, Cornelius himself and those who were with him were filled with the Holy Spirit. Whence you too, if you speak the word of God, and speak it faithfully out of a pure conscience, and are not yourself refuted by your own words as one who teaches one thing and does another, it can come about that while you speak the fire of the Holy Spirit inflames the hearts of your hearers, and that straightway they grow warm and burn to fulfill all the things that you teach, so that they may fulfill in deeds what they have learned in words, and may seek "the things that are above," where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of…
Romans 8:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, that we should live according to the flesh." He taught above that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, and that the gifts of the Spirit have been conferred upon us. Consequently, then, he now adds that "we are debtors" — debtors, without doubt, for those things which we have obtained from the Spirit of Christ. But "we are not debtors," he says, "to the flesh." For God did not make us to his own image for this purpose, that we should be liable to the servitude of the flesh, but rather that the soul, serving its own Creator, should itself make use of the service and ministry of the flesh. But perhaps someone may say: How are we not debtors to the flesh, since we are compelled by the necessity of nature to provide it with both food and clothing? But in order to show that it is not the bestowing of something upon the flesh that is held blameworthy, but the surrendering of life itself into the flesh's bondage, he therefore adds: "For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die." And what it is to live according to the flesh has already been said often. This is to indulge the desires of the flesh. In this respect, then, he denies that we are debtors to the flesh, just as elsewhere too he says: "And make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences" — by no means denying that care must be had for the flesh in things necessary, but in its concupiscences. So therefore here also, "For if," he says, "you live according to the flesh, you shall die."
Romans 8:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." And of this it has already been said above, how the body indeed ought to be dead because of sins, but the spirit is life because of justification. He, therefore, who acting according to the spirit mortifies the deeds of the flesh, shall live because of the spirit of life dwelling within him. Now one mortifies the deeds of the flesh in this manner. Charity is a fruit of the Spirit; hatred is a deed of the flesh: hatred, therefore, is mortified and extinguished through charity. Joy likewise is a fruit of the spirit, but the sorrow of this world, which works death, is a deed of the flesh: this, then, is extinguished if the joy of the spirit be in us. Peace is a fruit of the spirit; dissension and discord is a deed of the flesh; but it is certain that discord can be mortified through peace. So too the patience of the spirit extinguishes the impatience of the flesh, and goodness destroys malice, and meekness ferocity, and continence intemperance, and chastity slays unchastity; and in such an order he who through the spirit has mortified the deeds of the flesh shall live. It must indeed be observed that, just as he speaks not of that common death but of the death of sin — "For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die" — so also he speaks not of this common life but of that eternal life, to which everyone will come who, according to the things we have set forth above, has perfectly mortified by the spirit the deeds of the flesh. But this too we ought to know, that this mortification of the deeds of the flesh comes about through patience, and not suddenly, but little by little. First it is necessary that they grow faint in those who are beginning; then afterwards, when they have begun to advance more ardently and to be filled with a more abundant spirit, the deeds of the flesh will begin not only to grow faint but even to waste away; but when they have now come to perfection, so that no promptings of sin at all arise in them, whether in deed, or in word, or in thought, then they are plainly to be believed to have mortified the deeds of the flesh and to have handed them over wholly to death.
Romans 8:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Just as we have shown that in this Epistle diverse laws are mentioned by Paul under the single word "law," and that diverse deaths are named under the one designation "death," so now we also see diverse spirits indicated under the one name of "Spirit." He says, then, in the present chapter: "For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God"; and in this he certainly means the very Spirit of God. And again in what follows: "For you have not received," he says, "the spirit of bondage again in fear." In this he shows that the spirit of bondage is other than that which he called above the Spirit of God. And therefore he adds: "But you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father." In this he shows that the spirit of adoption is the same as that which he called above the Spirit of God, concerning which he also repeats: "For the Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit" — that is, the very Spirit of God, in which we cry out to God as Father, bears witness to our spirit. And this spirit of ours is without doubt other than either that spirit of bondage which is given in fear, or this one which bears witness to it concerning the invocation of the Father. All human beings, therefore, as it appears, are led by some spirit, just as Paul himself wrote: "But you also know that, when you were Gentiles, how you were led to mute idols." In this he shows that even the Gentiles are led to idols by some spirit. There is, then, the Spirit of God, who is the same as the Spirit of Christ, and this same one is also the Holy Spirit. But the spirit of adoption too seems to be called the same, as the present apostolic discourse declares. David also, who says, "Take not your Holy Spirit from me," and, "Strengthen me with your principal Spirit," seems to be speaking of the same one; and I think that Spirit was called "principal" for this reason, that it might be shown that there are indeed many spirits, but that among them this Holy Spirit — who is also called "principal" — holds the primacy and dominion. For just as there are many sons of God, as the Scripture says, "I have said: You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High," yet there is one who is by nature Son and Only-begotten of the Father, through whom all the others are called sons, so also there are indeed many spirits, but there is one who truly proceeds from God himself, and who bestows on all the rest the grace of his own name and sanctification. And that there are many spirits, the same Apostle declares, writing to the Hebrews and saying: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent for service on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation?" But David too says: "Who makes his angels spirits." And Daniel likewise bears witness and says: "Bless the Lord, you spirits and souls of the just." And in the present passage Paul says, "The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit"; and in another place: "That your spirit whole and entire, and soul, and body may be preserved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." There is no doubt that all these things are said of rational spirits. Besides these, evil spirits and evil angels are named, as David also says: "He sent forth upon them the wrath of his indignation, a sending forth by evil angels"; and as it is written of Saul in the books of Kingdoms: "And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord choked him"; and as it is reported in the book of Judges: "And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem." This evil spirit, then, who is said either to have gone forth to choke Saul, or to set Abimelech and the Shechemites at odds, and is recorded to have gone forth and been sent from the Lord, is to be understood as a kind of executioner sent to exact punishments from sinners. And although they are called evil on account of their own purpose and will, nevertheless in the case of those who are worthy of punishment they render service to…
Romans 8:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Having therefore first set out such a distinction concerning the term "spirit," let us now see what the meaning is of what he said: "For you have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear, but you have received the spirit of the adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father." It is written also in the prophet Malachi: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master: and if I am a Father, where is my honor? and if I am a Lord, where is my fear? says the Lord almighty." But it is certain that a person becomes a son of God through the spirit of adoption, and a servant of God through the spirit of servitude. The beginning, therefore, of serving God — since "the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord" — is fulfilled through the spirit of fear, while one is still called a little child. And for little children fear is indeed a tutor. Whence the Apostle also says concerning such a little child: "As long as the heir is a little child, he differs in nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but he is under guardians and stewards until the time predetermined by the father; so also we, when we were little children, were in servitude under the elements of this world." You see how Paul, according to the wisdom granted him by God, has here called the spirits that are given in fear the guardians and stewards of little children — spirits which keep each one of us, so long as he is a little child, in fear according to the inner man, until he comes to that age at which he may deserve to receive the spirit of the adoption of sons, and may now be a son and lord of all. "For all things," he says, "are yours," and together with Christ God has given us all things. This, then, is what Paul teaches: that after we have died together with Christ, and his Spirit has come to be in us, we have not again received the spirit of servitude in fear — that is, we have not once more been made little children and beginners, but as men already perfected we have received once for all the spirit of adoption, "in which" spirit "we cry: Abba, Father." For no one calls him father except a son. But as for his adding "Abba," he repeated the very same thing in the vocabulary of his native tongue, as if he had said: Father, father.
Romans 8:16 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
This spirit is not the Holy Spirit, but a part of the composite man, as the same Apostle teaches when he says: "The Spirit bears witness with our spirit." If the reference were to the Holy Spirit, it would not be said: "the Spirit bears witness with our spirit."
Romans 8:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For the Spirit himself renders testimony to our spirit, that we are sons of God. But if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, but coheirs of Christ: if however we suffer together with him, that we may also be glorified together with him." Therefore the spirit of adoption itself, through which a person is adopted into sonship, renders testimony and confirms to our spirit that we are sons of God, after we have passed from the spirit of servitude into the spirit of adoption, when now there is nothing of fear within, that is, when we do nothing on account of dread of punishment, but accomplish all things on account of love of the Father. And it is well said that the Spirit of God renders testimony not to the soul, but to the spirit, which is the better part in man.
Romans 8:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But for the distinction between those who are led by the spirit of servitude in fear and those who are led by the spirit of sons, this too may be taken up: that Abraham gave his inheritance indeed to Isaac, but to the sons of the handmaids or concubines he is said to have given not an inheritance but gifts or presents. In which without doubt this is foreshadowed: that not even those are utterly despised who still serve God in fear, but for them there are gifts and there are presents; the inheritance, however, through which they are glorified together with Christ, belongs to those who deserve to receive the spirit of adoption. After this the Apostle now weaves a syllogism from what follows, and says: If we have received the spirit of adoption, then we are sons. But if we are sons, without doubt we are also heirs. For a servant awaits wages, a son hopes for an inheritance. And again he adds another enlargement of the conclusion: "Heirs indeed of God, but coheirs of Christ." One becomes an heir of God when he deserves to receive the things that are God's, that is, the glory of incorruption and immortality, the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge; but a coheir of Christ when "he will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his brightness," and also when he has deserved to obtain that which the Savior himself says: "Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me." There is besides that dignity too of the coheirs of Christ, that the Father indeed "has given all judgment to the Son." But the Son also says to his coheirs: "You also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." And in this way Christ brings his coheirs not only into a share of the inheritance, but even into a partnership of power. "If however," he says, "we suffer together with him, that we may also be glorified together with him." He suffers together with Christ who says: "I have been crucified together with Christ"; and: "But I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me"; and again he who says: "If we have died together with him, we shall also live together with him; if we endure together, we shall also reign together"; or also he who is able to say that "what was lacking of the sufferings of Christ, I fill up in my body." And just as God supremely exalted Christ, because he had humbled "himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and gave him a name which is above every name," so also those who suffer together with Christ, and imitate the example of his sufferings, God exalts with him in glory. For this is the way which Christ opened to his coheirs, that they should be exalted neither from strength nor from wisdom, but from humility, and should attain the eternal glory of the inheritance from patience under tribulations.
Romans 8:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come which shall be revealed in us." If anyone should consider that, in exchange for a person's being made a son of the most high God, and an heir of his goodness and glory, and a coheir of Christ the only-begotten Son of God, even if he should remain without complaint in the observance of all the commandments and the justifications of the Lord, and should persevere in these with ever-watchful mind; if also he should endure all kinds of punishments which can be inflicted on human nature from within or from without; or even if someone should so endure the things which are recorded as having been written concerning Job, where Satan destroyed not only those things which seemed to be outside himself, in his goods and his children, but even touched his very bones and flesh, and struck him with a most grievous wound from his feet to his head, so that, taking a potsherd, he scraped off the pus flowing from his sores — if, I say, there can be still heavier things than these which he endures who in this most brief life suffers tribulation in all things, who is tormented in soul and body, and if he compares these things with the future glory which "shall be revealed" in the saints, and with those things which "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man" — he can understand how Paul, considering these matters more deeply, says: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us." For nothing worthy can be found or compared to the future glory. For in what respect would you compare mortal things with immortal? or visible with invisible? or temporal with eternal? or perishable with everlasting? If, however, there are certain things in the present life which can be gathered as, so to speak, seeds of the future glory, these seeds, I say, are gathered from tribulations and sufferings, as the same Apostle also says in another place: "For that which in the present is momentary and light in our tribulation works for us beyond measure an immense weight of eternal glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." For by these words he shows that he who looks at those things which are not seen, and which are eternal, counts every tribulation, of whatever kind it may befall him — however savage, however long it may seem — as momentary and light: even if he be subjected to torments, and goads, and iron claws, at that very time when his body is fixed under punishments, if he looks to the future glory which is to be revealed, and considers how after such great torments this body of his lowliness will be transformed, so that it may become conformed to the body of the glory of the Son of God, he counts the present tribulation momentary and light; but the weight of the future glory he reckons heavy, that is, great, and eternal: and the more he sees the penalties of tribulations multiplied for himself, the more fully he understands that a weight and magnitude of glory is being heaped up for him. And that from the quantity of tribulations a certain measure and magnitude of glory is gathered, I think the prophet David also indicates when he says: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my soul." Whence I think that in the present life the consolation which is given to the just is given according to the measure of their torments and wounds; but the future glory, of which the Apostle says that it "shall be revealed in us," is not according to the measure of the sufferings: "for the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed" in the saints; but, as we quoted from what was said to the Corinthians, from the momentary and light labor of our tribulations certain seeds gathered will prepare for us beyond measure an imm…
Romans 8:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things he says: "For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God." Wishing to show how great and of what sort is the glory which is to be revealed in himself, or in those who shall have sweated out to the full the contests of Christ, the Apostle says that the creature also, inasmuch as it is rational, has a certain expectation, and bears a hope of that time in which the glory of the sons of God is to be revealed — that is, when those things shall be revealed which have been prepared for those who shall have deserved to be sons of God, or certainly when, the veil being taken away by which they are covered, they themselves shall have been made manifest as being sons of God.
Romans 8:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.8.3
The moon and the stars have been compelled against their will to be subject to futility, as a result of causes long past; yet in the hope of a future reward they do not do their own will but the will of the Creator, by whom they have been appointed to these duties.
Romans 8:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But what is the creature which awaits the revelation of the sons of God? That, he says, which now "is made subject to vanity"; and it is made subject "not willingly," nor of its own accord, but by the will of him who dispenses all things. Therefore it has been made subject on his account; yet made subject not on this condition, that it should remain forever subject to vanity, but with a certain hope. Let these things stand as expounded, so far as pertains to the order of the apostolic discourse itself. Now, taking up the matter again, let us examine more attentively what that vanity is to which the creature is said to be made subject, and what that corruption is from whose servitude it hopes to be freed. It seems to me that these things are said concerning this material and corruptible substance of the body. For corruption holds dominion over nothing else save the body. For that interior man who was created according to God, and made after the image of God, is incorruptible and invisible, and according to his own proper principle may even be called incorporeal. But the exterior man is called both corporeal and corruptible; on which account Paul said of him: "For even if our outward man is corrupted, yet he who is within is renewed." But the renewal of the interior man, inasmuch as he is rational and is mind, consists in the knowledge of God and in the capacity for the Holy Spirit. But that we may commit to paper, briefly and summarily, at least something concerning matters so profound, let us gather from the very substance of the interior man — that is, of the soul and of the mind — an image of how "the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but on account of him who subjected it in hope"; and let us set Paul himself, if it seems good, in the midst, whose soul indeed, or mind, which is his interior man, surmounts and ascends above everything that is corporeal, everything visible, everything that lies beneath sense and sight, and is made capable of the divine nature itself. Yet this substance of his soul, so great and of such a kind, which holds the principles and understandings of heavenly and divine perceptions, has been made subject (for what causes, God will have seen) to the servitude of the corruptible body, and is bound fast to its vanity. For consider the necessities of the body: the appetite for food, the shame of digestion, the embarrassment of repairing posterity — how offspring is sown, how it is brought forth, how it is nourished; and see how much vanity is held in these things, how much corruption, to which the creature, a noble and rational soul, though unwilling, is made subject — yet made subject in hope, hoping, that is, for the time in which it may be set free, when the time of the liberty of the sons of God shall have come. This, then, is what the Apostle also said in other places more openly concerning himself, that "while we are in this dwelling, we groan." This too Wisdom said through Solomon, that "the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that ponders many things"; and the same Paul: "For while we are in the body, we are pilgrims from the Lord," and he desires rather to be a pilgrim from the body and to be present with the Lord. He indicates this, and it is set forth much more openly also in that place where he says: "But I am pressed between two, having a desire to return and to be with Christ, for that is far better; yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." In which he plainly shows that it was not willingly — so far as concerns those things of which his soul was conscious — that he served this corruption and vanity, but on account of him who so willed these things, and on account of us, that we might be able to be saved. Therefore he remains in the flesh for our sake; but when the sons of God shall have been revealed, and gathered into one through the Church which he established "to present a chaste virgin to one husba…
Romans 8:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.7.5
What is the futility to which the creation was subjected? My own opinion is that this is nothing else than the possession of bodies. Even though the bodies of the stars are composed of ether they are nevertheless material. This, it seems to me, is the reason why Solomon arraigns the whole universe as being in a way burdensome: "Vanity of vanities, says the preacher.… All is vanity."
Romans 8:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And what that hope is, he recalls, saying: "Because the creature itself also," he says, "shall be freed from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God." Let us examine more attentively what that vanity is to which the creature is said to be made subject, and what that corruption is from whose servitude it hopes to be freed. It seems to me that these things are said concerning this material and corruptible substance of the body. For corruption holds dominion over nothing else save the body. For that interior man who was created according to God, and made after the image of God, is incorruptible and invisible, and according to his own proper principle may even be called incorporeal. But the exterior man is called both corporeal and corruptible; on which account Paul said of him: "For even if our outward man is corrupted, yet he who is within is renewed." But the renewal of the interior man, inasmuch as he is rational and is mind, consists in the knowledge of God and in the capacity for the Holy Spirit. But that we may commit to paper, briefly and summarily, at least something concerning matters so profound, let us gather from the very substance of the interior man — that is, of the soul and of the mind — an image of how "the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but on account of him who subjected it in hope"; and let us set Paul himself, if it seems good, in the midst, whose soul indeed, or mind, which is his interior man, surmounts and ascends above everything that is corporeal, everything visible, everything that lies beneath sense and sight, and is made capable of the divine nature itself. Yet this substance of his soul, so great and of such a kind, which holds the principles and understandings of heavenly and divine perceptions, has been made subject (for what causes, God will have seen) to the servitude of the corruptible body, and is bound fast to its vanity. For consider the necessities of the body: the appetite for food, the shame of digestion, the embarrassment of repairing posterity — how offspring is sown, how it is brought forth, how it is nourished; and see how much vanity is held in these things, how much corruption, to which the creature, a noble and rational soul, though unwilling, is made subject — yet made subject in hope, hoping, that is, for the time in which it may be set free, when the time of the liberty of the sons of God shall have come. This, then, is what the Apostle also said in other places more openly concerning himself, that "while we are in this dwelling, we groan." This too Wisdom said through Solomon, that "the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that ponders many things"; and the same Paul: "For while we are in the body, we are pilgrims from the Lord," and he desires rather to be a pilgrim from the body and to be present with the Lord. He indicates this, and it is set forth much more openly also in that place where he says: "But I am pressed between two, having a desire to return and to be with Christ, for that is far better; yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." In which he plainly shows that it was not willingly — so far as concerns those things of which his soul was conscious — that he served this corruption and vanity, but on account of him who so willed these things, and on account of us, that we might be able to be saved. Therefore he remains in the flesh for our sake; but when the sons of God shall have been revealed, and gathered into one through the Church which he established "to present a chaste virgin to one husband, to Christ," then he too shall be freed from the servitude of corruption, just as he himself says: "But I am already being offered up, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: for the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice." This is to be freed from the servitude of corruption into the l…
Romans 8:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now Paul says that he and those like him know "that every creature groans together and suffers pain together until now," or, as it is found in other copies, "groans together and is in travail until now." But to groan together and to suffer together is to groan or grieve along with another who grieves or groans — that is, when one has himself no cause for groaning or grieving, yet he groans on behalf of him who has cause for groaning or grieving. And he says that the creature does these things because it has been made subject to vanity and has been placed in the servitude of corruption.
Romans 8:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"And not only so, but we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption of sons, the redemption of our body. For by hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it through patience." We have often taught that it is a habit of apostolic speech that, when he says "And not only so," and adds nothing to which it ought to be fitted, it must be referred to the things said above — as is given us to understand in the present passage also. For what he seems to be saying is of this sort: Not only does every creature groan together and suffer together; but we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves. For we too await the adoption of the sons of God, and the redemption of our body. Although by this very fact that we believe in Christ we already know that salvation has been granted us, nevertheless that salvation is still in hope, not in the sight of things visible. For if it were already seen, it certainly would not be hoped for. For a man hopes in order that he may see. But if he sees the things he was hoping for, it is superfluous to hope any longer for what he sees. We, however, do not have our hope in the things that are seen, lest our hope be empty, but in the things that are not seen. And therefore, because we hope for the things that are not seen, and they are so great and so glorious that they are obtained only through many labors and many tribulations and dangers, for that reason we await them through patience, as things that will scarcely come at some time. These things we have said by way of giving a certain direct and clearer order to the apostolic words themselves. Now, if it seems good, let us see what he indicates by this new expression, in which he said: "But we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the Spirit." For we know that it is written in the Law: "You shall not defraud the firstfruits of the threshing floor and the firstfruits of the winepress"; and again: "You shall bring the firstfruits of all your crops into the house of the Lord your God." What then? Just as the firstfruits of the threshing floor and the firstfruits of the winepress are of the same crop as the rest of the threshing floor is, or of the same liquid as the winepress is, will it likewise seem that what he calls the firstfruits of the Spirit is some one preeminent spirit out of the many remaining holy and blessed spirits? Or shall we rather understand this: that, according to what we have discussed above, there are many ministering spirits serving in ministry on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation, under whom each of the believers is placed and trained as under guardians and stewards until the time prefixed by the Father — that is, until the soul arrives at the lawful age of perfection, where a man, having now passed beyond the spirit of bondage which he had received in fear, by which he was kept as by a tutor, is made worthy to receive the spirit of adoption, the firstfruits of the Spirit, through which, adopted into a son, he may also be joined to the company of the firstborn of the Church which is in the heavens? And just as it differs greatly to be a son rather than a slave, so the Holy Spirit differs greatly from the ministering spirits — the Spirit whose firstfruits Paul says that he and those like him possess. Let this be one way by which we have been able to track out the understanding of this saying. Let us now see another as well. We read in the apostle Paul himself that the gifts or graces of the Holy Spirit are called many spirits, as when he says: "But now, since you are zealous for spirits, seek that you may abound unto the edification of the Church"; and likewise elsewhere: "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" — calling the spirits of the prophets subject, not as though they w…
Romans 8:24-25 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After this he says: "For by hope we have been made safe. But hope that is seen is not hope." Just as he had said above concerning the creation, that "it was subjected to vanity on account of him who subjected it in hope," so here too concerning himself and whomever he knows to be counted together with himself, he says: "For by hope we have been made safe"—just as he also joined his own groanings to the groanings of the creation. But how salvation lies in hope, and how hope is not placed in those things which are seen but in those which are not seen, we have already taught above. This alone we shall briefly add: that both from these words, and from those in which he says, "Not looking at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen," he teaches us that among the good things to come we ought to hope for none of those things which are now seen, or which can be seen—not even if you look at this visible heaven, not even if you look at the earth. Hear concerning these things, that "heaven and earth will pass away," for they are visible; and what you see, why do you hope for it? Nothing at all, therefore, is to be hoped for in the future from the things which are seen. For "the eye has not seen what God has prepared for those who love him." But the eye does see heaven and earth; it is not right, therefore, to believe that this which is seen has been prepared by God for those who love him; but rather a heaven—or rather heavens far more eminent and lofty than that firmament which can be seen with the eyes. But an earth too is to be hoped for, yet not this one which is called dry land and lies open to the eyes, but that will be the land of the meek which the eye has not seen. For the Apostle's meaning is plain, teaching that in the things to come we are not to hope for things visible and corporeal, but for things spiritual and eternal: since "the things which are seen are temporal," and come to an end with time, "but the things which are not seen are eternal," and these the Apostle teaches are to be hoped for. For this reason also the very restoration of our body is effected from corruptible into incorruptible, and from mortal into immortal, and from weakness it is restored into power, and from an animal body a spiritual body is made, so that, when it has been made spiritual, it may be able also to enjoy the invisible goods: which goods, not seeing them in the present age, we hope for through hope, and await through patience.
Romans 8:26 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
I would like to know how the saints cry out to God without a voice. The Apostle teaches that: "God gave the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father!" And he adds: "the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings." And again: "but he who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because he asks for the saints according to God." Thus, then, when the Holy Spirit intercedes with God, through the silence of the saints a cry is heard.
Romans 8:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings. And he who searches hearts knows what the Spirit desires; because he intercedes for the saints according to God." When he had said in the preceding passages that every creature groans together and suffers together with those who are set in the contest of this life—that is, labors along with them and lends them strength—and had then also recalled that Paul himself and those like him utter groanings on behalf of those who labor, so that by these things he might console those set in the struggle, when they saw all the saints and the whole creation laboring with them in affection and joining their groanings to theirs: he now adds something higher and more sublime. Do not think it a small thing, he says, that all creation groans and suffers together with us; let it not seem a small thing that we ourselves groan for your labors. Even in the divine nature itself there is a certain affection of compassion toward our struggles (for I join myself also with you), and the Spirit himself "helps our weakness." In short, we do not know what we ought to pray, what we ought to ask from God. For sometimes we desire things contrary to our salvation, weakness compelling us. For just as one who is set in a bodily illness asks of the physician not the things that befit or conduce to health, but the things that the craving of his present sickness has suggested: so we too, languishing in the weakness of this life, sometimes ask of God what is not expedient for us. In short, I myself, Paul, who speak these things to you—when, on account of the sublimity of the revelations, lest I be exalted, there had been given me by the Lord "an angel of Satan to buffet me, three times I asked the Lord that it might depart from me," not knowing what I was praying: and therefore, because I did not know how to pray as I ought, the Lord did not hear me, but said to me: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." So then, "we do not know what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings." Paul perceives something great, I know not what, in groanings: for behold, this is now the third time he sets down groanings. For he says both that "the creation groans together," and that "we ourselves groan," and that "the Spirit himself intercedes with God by groanings on behalf of the saints." He has indeed added, concerning these groanings which he says are offered to God through the Spirit, that they are unutterable. But this he said neither of the groanings of the whole creation nor of his own. And consider whether in these groanings we can understand a great deal of confidence and freedom in the sight of God—namely, that the prayer which is offered to God with sorrow and groaning receives from the Holy Spirit the confidence to ascend to God. In short, Adam, when he had sinned, lost his confidence, and hid himself from the face of God. But holy David says that "my groaning is not hidden from you." But let us see what it is that he says: "The Spirit himself intercedes for us." For John too indicates that Jesus does this, when he says: "Little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin; but if any of us has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the just, who also intercedes for us." And here, the Spirit intercedes for us. And this the Spirit does by helping our weakness. But what our weakness is, the Lord himself teaches when he says: "The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak." Therefore our weakness descends from the weakness of the flesh. For it is the flesh that lusts against the spirit; and while it presses in its own lusts, it impedes the purity of the spirit and clouds the sincerity of prayer. But when the Spirit of God has seen our spirit laboring in resisting the flesh and in cleaving to him, h…
Romans 8:27 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"And he who searches hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because he intercedes for the saints according to God." He shows indeed that by God not so much our words in prayer are weighed as the heart and the mind: for it is he who searches hearts and reins. But as to his saying a second time that "the Spirit intercedes," this is what he teaches: that no small dispensation is enacted among human beings through the Holy Spirit also. For although the only-begotten Son of God was incarnate and suffered for the salvation of the human race, and by his death destroyed death, and by his resurrection restored life, nonetheless magnificent things are no less actively enacted through the Holy Spirit as well, apart from incarnation. Only this much is different: that he died for the ungodly (for so Paul himself shows when he says: "For while we were yet weak, Christ in due time died for the ungodly"), but the Holy Spirit no longer intercedes for the ungodly, but "for the saints": and he intercedes not according to the flesh, but "according to God." Christ, however, is not said to have died according to God, but according to the flesh. Therefore the Spirit is said to offer his intercession for the saints not in words, but "in groanings": and not in these common groanings, but in "unutterable" ones. For how can what the Spirit of God speaks to God be narrated, when sometimes not even our own spirit can set forth in speech what it feels and understands?
Romans 8:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who according to purpose have been called saints. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he himself might be the firstborn among many brethren." If the Spirit, he says, intercedes for us with unutterable groanings, and the whole creation groans together and suffers together until now — creation which will then at last be freed from the slavery of corruption, when the liberty of the glory of the sons of God shall have come — how shall it not be fittingly declared that "we know that all things work together for good to those who love God"? For to such a degree do all things work together for good and labor together with those who love God, that even the Spirit himself helps, nor does the divine nature disdain to be the guide of the journey toward the good. Nevertheless, if there are some who have the spirit of slavery in fear, while others are superior to these, who receive the spirit of adoption, in that they now venerate God not with fear but with love, and because "perfect charity" in them "casts out fear" — it must be considered whether perhaps not all things work together for good for those who still remain in the spirit of slavery; but rather that some things indeed work together even for them, yet not all things; and I do not know whether these lead them to the good itself, or rather, so to speak, to the doors of the good. But for those who love God and cleave to him with the whole affection of charity, all things, as we have said, labor together and help, and contribute something of their own zeal, so far as to establish them in that good itself which can never admit change. But if those who love God are one set, and those who receive the spirit of slavery another, it must be considered whether perhaps this too which he says, "To those who according to purpose have been called," and, "Whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son," does not apply to those who are in the spirit of slavery. For they too can indeed be called "called," yet not called "according to purpose"; and, in consequence of their still being in the spirit of slavery, they cannot be placed among the many brethren whose firstborn is the Son of brightness, and "the image of the invisible God," and "the firstborn of every creature."
Romans 8:29 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as for this too which he said, "Conformed to the image of his Son," I wish to inquire to which form they are said to become conformed. For we read that the Son of God was placed sometimes in the form of God, sometimes in the form of a servant. To which, then, of these two forms the Apostle says that those who love God and for whom all things work together for good will be conformed — this seems to me no idle distinction. I judge, therefore, according to those things which the same Paul indicates elsewhere, where he says, "My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you," that he means Christ to be formed in those who tend toward perfection: according to that whereby he is the Word, so that the sincerity of the Word of God may be purely formed in them; and according to that whereby he is truth, so that truth may stand in them without any admixture of counterfeit; and according to that whereby he is wisdom, so that the wisdom of God in them — that wisdom which Paul speaks among the perfect — may be preserved pure and without any bypath of error. So also, according to all those things which Christ is, whether justice, or sanctification, or whatever other virtues, if these be formed in them to full clarity, such persons will be seen to have been made conformed to the image with respect to that form which is in the form of God. But if anyone still dwells among the beginnings (and "the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God"), and, still placed in fear, receives the first elements of the worship of God, then those who receive the first beginnings in the fear of God are to be understood as becoming conformed according to the form of a servant, which he took upon himself for this purpose, that he might teach the untrained and ignorant by the fear of God. Because, he says, "whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." Let us not pass over what he said either: "He foreknew and predestined." For I think that, just as he did not speak of all when he spoke of those who are predestined, so neither did he speak of all whom he foreknew. For we must not suppose, according to the common opinion of the crowd, that God foreknows both good and evil things, but we must think according to the usage of holy Scripture. Let him who is diligent in the Scriptures observe whether anywhere he finds Scripture saying that God foreknew the wicked, as in the present passage it plainly says of the good, that "whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." For if those whom he foreknew, these he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, and no wicked person can be conformed to the image of the Son of God, it is manifest that he speaks of the good only: "He foreknew those whom he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son"; but of the rest God is said not only not to foreknow, but not even to know. For "God knows those who are his"; but to those who are not worthy to be known by God the Savior says: "Depart from me, for I never knew you, workers of iniquity." So then in this present passage also, those whom God "foreknew," these same he "also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." But the rest are not said to be foreknown — not because anything can lie hidden from that nature which is everywhere and is nowhere absent, but because everything that is evil is held unworthy of his knowledge or foreknowledge. "Whom" therefore "he foreknew, he also predestined." But consider this too: whether God can be said to foreknow and predestine concerning those who do not yet exist, or rather concerning those who do indeed exist but are not yet conformed to the image of his Son; and whether foreknowledge is more fittingly said to lie in this than in the fact that what does not yet exist will come to be. For in the latter case there is the will of the Creator rather than his foreknowledge. For in what will foreknowledge be seen, when…
Romans 8:30 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; and those whom he justified, these he also glorified." Above he had said: "Those whom he foreknew, these he also predestined," and now he adds: "But those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified." And if we take "he foreknew" and "he predestined" according to the common opinion, it will certainly seem that the one who has been justified was justified for this reason, that he was called; and that the one who was called was justified for this reason, that he was predestined; and that the one who was predestined was predestined for this reason, that he was foreknown. And again you will understand the converse: if anyone has not been justified, he has not been justified for the reason that he was not called; and the one who was not called was not called for the reason that he was not predestined; and the one who was not predestined was not predestined for the reason that he was not foreknown. And see into what an absurd opinion those men fall who take God's foreknowledge in this sense only, as though he knows beforehand the things that are afterwards to come to pass. For it is found, according to what we set forth above, that God did not foreknow those whom he did not predestine. And again, if what he says — that "those whom he called, these he also justified" — be referred to the common understanding, we shall open an enormous window to those who deny that it lies within a man's power to be saved. For they say: If God predestined those whom he foreknew, and called those whom he predestined, and justified those whom he called, then those who are not justified bear no blame, since they were neither called nor predestined nor foreknown. And then there is also this which plainly stands against us, that not all who are called are also justified. For Judas too was called as an apostle, yet he was not justified. And even if someone should contend that he was justified by the very fact that he was called, he certainly was not glorified. But also those of whom the Apostle says that they "made shipwreck concerning the faith" had indeed been called, but were not justified. And according to the parables of the Gospel, those to whom the servants had been sent and who excused themselves were called, but were not justified; and the man who entered the king's banquet and did not have a wedding garment was called, but was not justified. Since, then, each of these things stands thus, how will the Apostle's word appear to be true, which he set down concerning foreknowing, or predestining, or calling, or indeed justifying? But I, in accordance with what we set forth above concerning how God knows or foreknows, think that we must return to the customary usage of Scripture, which is accustomed to employ this word — that is, "to know" — with a kind of idiomatic sense: as when it says, "And Adam knew Eve his wife," meaning that he had intercourse with his wife. And again it says of Rebecca: "She was a virgin, no man had known her." But of the sons of Levi it is said, when they were punishing the transgressors, that no one of them knew his own father or his own mother — in which without doubt this is shown, that he did not join his affection and love with father or mother. But you will find many things said in the Scriptures about knowing according to this sense; and therefore in the present passage too it is agreed that the Apostle used the word "knowing" according to the custom of holy Scripture, so as to show those to be foreknown by God upon whom God, knowing what sort they were, had set his love and his affection — according to which this too is written: "The Lord knows those who are his"; since assuredly, so far as that common knowledge is concerned, God is ignorant neither of those who are his, nor of those who stray from him. But he is said to have known his own, that is, to have held them i…
Romans 8:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?" How God is for us is plain from the things which he has set forth above — that is, that the Spirit of God dwells in us, and that the Spirit of Christ, or Christ himself, is in us; or that the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us; or that we are led by the Spirit of God; or that we have received the spirit of adoption; or that we are sons of God and heirs and coheirs of Christ; or that we receive the firstfruits of the Spirit; or that the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings; or that the whole creation groans together with us and suffers together with us; or that all things work together for good to us who love God; or that we have been called according to his purpose, and foreknown, and predestined, and justified, and glorified. For making, as it were, an epilogue of all these things, and at the same time gathering them all up again, he says: "What then shall we say to these things?" — that is, to all these things which we have said above; for if God is for us in such a way as to have granted us all these things, who will be able to be against us? Not that he says there is no adversary at all to us; otherwise, how will that stand which was said by Peter: "Your adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour"? But this is what he shows: that when God acts on our behalf, our adversary is made contemptible and comes to nothing. Similarly David also says: "The Lord is my light and my Saviour, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" He does not therefore say that there is no one whom he fears and who opposes him, but although, he says, "my enemies who trouble me draw near against me to eat my flesh," nevertheless, since the Lord defends my life, "they were weakened and fell."
Romans 8:32 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"He who did not spare even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him grant us all things?" Moreover he gives the greatest proof of God's immense love toward us, who, he says, loved us so much that he did not spare even "his own Son, but delivered him up to the passion for us all." And that he might bind us with greater wonder, he added a phrase privy to a mighty mystery, saying that "he did not spare his own Son." For he had said above that we too, who receive the spirit of adoption, are sons of God. Therefore, lest by this common appellation of sons he should be thought to have delivered up some one of those who appeared to have been adopted into sons, he added "his own Son," so as to point out him who alone is begotten from God himself by an ineffable birth. "For us all, therefore, he delivered him up" — not by that delivering up of which it is written: "But brother shall deliver up brother to death, and parents their children" — but he is said to have delivered him up in this very thing: that, whereas he was in the form of God, he suffered him to empty himself, and to take the form of a servant, and to come even to the death of the cross; so that in him he might set an example of obedience for all, and open the way of resurrection for the dead. "For all, therefore, he delivered him up." Not only for the saints, not only for the great, but also for the least, and for absolutely all who are in the Church, the Father delivered up his own Son: and therefore even if anyone injures one of the least and the weak, wounding his weak conscience, he is said to sin against Christ, since indeed he scandalizes a soul for which Christ died. Since therefore the Father delivered up his Son for us all, no one at all, not even the least who is in the Church, is to be despised: and therefore the Lord himself said: "If anyone shall scandalize one of these little ones, the least, it is expedient that an ass's millstone be tied about his neck, and that he be cast headlong into the sea, rather than that he should scandalize one of these." God therefore, who made us precious by pouring out for us the precious blood of his own Son, "how will he not with him grant us all things?" For there is nothing, whether of visible or of invisible creation, that can be made equal to the Son: for in no way can the creature be compared with its creator; and if the creator himself has been given to us, how will not the whole creation be given to us along with him? Although this saying can be understood in two ways, that is, that "with him he will grant us all things." For this too can be seen: that if we have Christ in us according to that which he is Word and wisdom and truth and justice and peace, and all the other things which are written of him, then together with this fullness of virtues all things will be granted to us, so that we shall no longer hold one out of all creatures and this little place of earth which we now seem to inhabit, but shall possess together with Christ all things whatsoever God created, visible and invisible, hidden and manifest, temporal and eternal. But it can also be understood in another way, what he said: "With him he will grant us all things" — that is, that to him indeed as heir, but to us as his coheirs, the whole creation will be given to be enjoyed equally with him.
Romans 8:33-34 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died, yes rather, who rose again, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." It seems to me that when he says, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?" he is speaking of the devil. For there is no one so elect and so great whom that one does not dare to accuse, except only him "who committed no sin," who also said, "Now the prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me." But although that one puts forth the wickedness of his design, yet since God justifies and blots out the iniquity of his elect like a cloud, and their sins like a mist, and whitens them as snow from their former offenses and makes them like white wool, what will the accuser gain? And moreover, since Christ has died for them, or rather has risen from the dead, and stands at the Father's right hand, and intercedes for them, who will be able to condemn them? In the passages above, "the holy Spirit," he says, "intercedes for us with unutterable groanings"; here it is "Christ Jesus who died and rose again," he himself "intercedes for us." God, who handed over his own Son for us, himself justifies the elect — who then will there be who dares to condemn? But look more carefully at how the Apostle nowhere in his discourses departs from the caution native to him. He did not say, "Who shall bring a charge" against the called, but "against the elect"? For unless you are elect, unless you show yourself approved before God in all things, you will have an accuser. For if your case is bad, if your own crime binds you fast, what good will an advocate do you, even if it is Jesus who intercedes? For Jesus is truth: truth therefore cannot practice deceit on your behalf. In this the advocate will assist you: that you not be entangled in the accuser's slanders, that past sins, which have been blotted out through baptism, not be reckoned against you. But if after these things you sin again, and wash these away with no tears of repentance, you will give your accuser material for arraigning you; and although Jesus intercedes for us, yet Jesus cannot say that darkness is light, nor that bitter is sweet. If therefore you wish to prevail when you are judged, do what is written concerning the just man: "Order your words in judgment. Prepare your works for your departure. Remember your last ends, and you shall never sin"; lest there befall you that which is written of a certain man: "When he is judged, let him go forth condemned." But see how you are to hear that Jesus "intercedes for us." For he is the one of whom it is also written elsewhere, that "the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son"; and just as he himself is both victim and priest, and he himself is both in the form of a servant and in the form of God, so he himself is both advocate and judge.
Romans 8:35 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Who then shall separate us from the love of God? Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? or famine? or nakedness? or peril? or the sword?" In return for all these things, he says, which we enumerated above — that is, that we are no longer in the flesh but in the spirit; and that the Spirit of God dwells in us; and that Christ is in us, through whom the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justification; and that we are no longer debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, because by the spirit we have mortified the deeds of the flesh; and that through the spirit of adoption we have been made sons of God, and if sons, also heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; and that the whole creation groans together with us and suffers together with us, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God; and that for us who love God all things work together for good; and that he foreknew and predestined us, who are called according to his purpose, to be conformed to the image of his Son — since for all these benefits, he says, which we have obtained, we are fixed and rooted in the love of God, who will be able to separate us from it? If tribulation comes, we shall say to God, "In tribulation you have enlarged me." If there is distress of the world, coming from the necessity of the body, we shall seek the breadth of the wisdom and knowledge of God, in which the world cannot straiten us. For I shall return to the most ample fields of the divine Scriptures; I shall seek the spiritual understanding of the word of God, and no distress will confine me in it. For I shall ride through the most spacious expanses of mystical and spiritual understanding. If I suffer persecution, and confess my Christ before men, I am certain that he too will confess me before his Father who is in heaven. If famine is present, it cannot disturb me: for I have the bread of life which came down from heaven and refreshes hungering souls; nor can that bread ever fail: for it is perfect and eternal. Nakedness does not confound me: for I have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I hope to put on over it our habitation which is from heaven: "For this mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible put on incorruption." I shall not fear peril: "For the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" and "The Lord is the defender of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" An earthly sword cannot terrify me: for I have with me a stronger one, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," and with me is "the living and effectual word of God," which is "more piercing than any two-edged sword." If therefore the sword of the world comes upon my neck, it wins for me a greater love toward God.
Romans 8:36 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For I shall say to him that, as it is written: For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." For it does not suffice me to die for Christ for one hour, or to be tortured, but "all the day long," that is, for the whole time of my life. For if I pass my whole life in persecutions and perils, I shall say that "the sufferings of this time are not worthy of the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us." For brief is the time of this life, and slight is what we spend in persecutions; but eternal and perpetual is what we await in glory.
Romans 8:37 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And therefore "in all these things," he says, "we overcome," not by our own strength, but "through him who loved us." For while we hang upon his love, we do not receive the sensation of pain. For his love, by which he loved us, and which has caught up our affection to himself, makes us not feel the torture of the body and the pain. Therefore then "in all these things we overcome." Something of this sort the bride too says to the Word in the Song of Songs, that "I am wounded with love." In this manner, then, our soul also, having received from Christ the wound of love, even if it hand over the body to the sword, will not feel the wounds of the flesh in comparison with the wound of love.
Romans 8:38-39 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
I know one who had weighed these things within himself with the utmost scrutiny, and, when he had found that all the affections which were within him inclined to that side where the love of God was, said with all confidence that: "neither death nor life nor angels nor powers, neither things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". But this is Paul, who could so speak these things, because "neither things present nor things to come nor any other creature can separate him from the love of God". But as for us — would that we might say even this, that neither gold nor silver nor the pleasure of the flesh nor the glory of the world and fleeting, temporal dignity, nor bodily delights, nor the favor of children or of a spouse "will be able to separate us from the love of God". Surely let it at least be permitted to us to say with confidence that neither the love of secular literature nor the sophistries of the philosophers nor the deceptions of the astrologers and the feigned courses of the stars, nor the divinations contrived by the stealthy deceit of demons, nor any love of foreknowledge whatsoever, sought through those things which are not lawful, "will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus".
Romans 8:38-39 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 81
Concerning all future things it must be feared by us who are weak, who have not yet received the wisdom of perfection, according to which the apostle says: "for I am confident that neither death nor life" and the rest "can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus". But he who is not yet perfect doubts concerning himself, as though he too could fall; according to which human weakness Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said: "but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate". And see: what he says, "lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself be made reprobate", he so pronounces as one fearing, lest perhaps he too could both fall and become reprobate; but what he said, "I am confident" and the rest, is of a confident and firm man on account of his perfection, since a thousand contrary things have not the strength to separate him "from the love of Christ".
Romans 8:38-39 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Apostle seems to have shown two orders of those things which are accustomed to stir up temptations for men. And in those which we discussed earlier, the order of human temptations is understood to be described: concerning which he also said to the Corinthians, inasmuch as they could not bear greater things: "Let no temptation take hold of you but such as is human: and God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above what you are able." But now in these words which we have in hand, he indicates not human temptations, but ones greater than human. And therefore I think that in the earlier ones, when he had enumerated each single thing, at the end he says: "But in all these things we overcome." But in these temptations of the second order he does not say so confidently, "We overcome," but says very slightly that none of these "will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus." For concerning human temptations, as being small and light, he confidently declares that we overcome them; but as for those higher ones, and more than human, even if we are not strong enough to overcome and lay them low (for this is the work of Christ alone, who "stripped the principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself"), yet even this stands in the place of a victory, if, when they have hurled all the engines of their assaults against us, they nevertheless are not able to separate us from the love of God. But now let us try to examine the individual items, and to open up as far as our strength allows what is to be thought about each expression of the Apostle. Although the Apostle seems to have concealed in these things matters deeper than the power of our exposition suffices to bear, or than the requirement of brevity admits, let us nevertheless inquire whether all those things which the Apostle has enumerated, or only certain of them, carry this zeal or intention, that they strive to separate human souls from the love of God, and for that reason contrive against us all the things we suffer. For it seems that death perhaps can do this, that we be separated from the love of God, and angels, and principalities, and powers opposed to us without doubt, and things present, which are certainly slippery and perishable. And depth also can be understood similarly. But life, and things to come, and height, and any other creature — how these should contend to separate us from the love of God does not seem idle to explain. Unless perhaps someone should say that the Apostle speaks hyperbolically, that is, that not only by those things which can happen, but not even by those things which cannot happen at all, are we in any way turned aside from the love of God: for example, that if another life were given us than this which has been given by God, or if another hope of things to come were promised us, or another height, or even another creature than that which groans and suffers together for our sake — which certainly cannot happen — not even these could separate us from the love of God. This, then, is one manner of exposition. Let us see, however, whether perhaps this other understanding may also be admitted. The "death" of which he here speaks is to be taken as that one which we expounded above to be called the last enemy of Christ to be destroyed. And it is surely called death for this reason, that just as this common death separates the soul from the body, so also that one strives to separate the soul from the charity of God — and this indeed is the death of the soul. It can therefore come about that there is also some life belonging to that party which acts together with it to separate us from the charity of God: and this life is the life of sin. Fo…
Romans 8:39 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.2.5
Human nature cannot by itself maintain the struggle against angels and heights and depths and any other creature; but when it has felt the Lord to be present and dwelling within, it will say in the confidence of receiving divine help: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"
Romans 9:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Paul, seeing that if, according to those things which he set forth above, he could be separated from the love of Christ by no power, whether heavenly or earthly, present or future, opposing him, it would seem contrary and incredible—what he was now proposing to say: that he wished to become anathema from that Christ whom he loved so inseparably, that is, to be made a stranger to him—lest he should seem to incur the mark of a lie, he sends ahead a satisfaction, so that his word may in no way be doubted, and he says: "I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit." But let us see why he said, "I speak the truth in Christ," as though showing that there is some truth which is not in Christ. And see whether we can in some such way distinguish the truth which is in Christ from that which is not in Christ: for elsewhere too the same Apostle says, "The truth of Christ is in me, that I do not lie." The truth of Christ, therefore, must be believed to be there where the remaining virtues also are, which are described as being Christ: that is, where righteousness is, where peace is, where the Word of God is, there also is the truth of Christ. But there is truth even in injustice: as if, for example, we should say that that demon of Python, which in the Acts of the Apostles is reported to have dwelt in a certain servant girl and to have cried out after the apostles, that "these are servants of the Most High God, who announce to men the way of God"—there was truth in these words, for what was said was true; but that truth was not in Christ; and therefore Paul, turning to her, said: "Be silent, and come out of her." But that also was truth which Caiaphas said: "It is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish"; but nevertheless that truth was not in Christ. And therefore the Apostle, to distinguish it from that truth which is outside Christ, says that he speaks the truth in Christ. But this also, which he says, "my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit," seems to me to bear a similar understanding. For conscience renders testimony even to the Gentiles, according to what the same Apostle says in the earlier passages: "their conscience rendering them testimony, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending one another." In those, therefore, in whom their own thoughts have something to accuse, and conscience comes forward for testimony, it cannot be said that for evil deeds conscience renders testimony in the Holy Spirit. But in the Apostle, where thought no longer has anything to accuse, rightly does conscience render testimony in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 9:2-3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Consider, however, the greatness of the apostolic breast. He cannot be separated from the love of God; what he speaks, he speaks in Christ; what he holds in his conscience is contained by the Holy Spirit. What heavens, I ask, what thrones, what most ample minds of the heavenly powers will be able to contain the whole Trinity in seats so ample? "For," he says, "I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart." Very well, you have sadness; very well, you take sorrow at the perdition of your brothers "who are kinsmen according to the flesh"; but is it to such a point that you wish to become anathema from Christ? And what does their salvation profit you, if you are separated from salvation? And how will you save others, if you yourself perish? It is not so, he says: rather, I have learned from my Master and Lord that "he who wishes to save his soul will lose it; and he who loses it will find it." What wonder, then, if the Apostle wishes to become anathema for his brothers, who knows that he who was in the form of God emptied himself of it, and took the form of a servant, and was made a curse for us? What wonder, then, if, when the Lord was made a curse for his servants, a servant should become anathema for his brothers? And this, I think, is what Moses also said to the Lord when the people had sinned: "And now, if indeed you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book of life which you have written." What then? Do you wish Paul to seem inferior to Moses? He asks to be blotted out of the book of life for his brothers; ought Paul not to wish to be anathema for his brothers? But perhaps someone may say that Moses, in offering this, deserved to obtain salvation for the people, whereas Paul indeed wishes it, but was not heard. What if I show you that Paul was heard even more than Moses? For all those who had gone out of Egypt through Moses fell in the desert. But the descendants of those who received the land of promise even now wander from it, exiles and outcasts. But hear what Paul says about Israel: "I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, that blindness in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should enter in, and so all Israel should be saved." You see, therefore, that Paul was heard, and that because he offered himself as anathema, he deserved salvation for his brothers. And therefore it seems to me that he set down all those things beforehand—that he could by no power be torn away from the love of God—so that when he offers himself as anathema for his brothers, you should not judge his fall to be possible: but just as he who is inseparable from the Father by nature, and immortal, came into death and descended into the lower regions, so this man too, imitating his Master, though he cannot be separated from the love of Christ, becomes anathema from Christ for his brothers—by devotion, certainly, not by transgression. But that the Israelites are Paul's "kinsmen according to the flesh" needs no exposition.
Romans 9:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Whose," he says, "is the adoption of sons." For the sons of Israel were adopted by God at that time "when the Most High divided the nations, and scattered the sons of Adam according to the number of the angels of God, and the Lord's portion was Jacob, and Israel the cord of his inheritance." This, then, is the adoption of sons. "And the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law." Concerning the glory of the law that was given, it has often already been said, as the Apostle himself also says: "For if that which is being abolished is through glory," that is, the Old Testament, "much more is that which remains in glory," namely the preaching of the Gospel.
Romans 9:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Yet it is certain that also according to the flesh, from that very race, that is, from the Israelite race, there came not only the fathers but also Christ, as he says too through the prophet: "Woe to them, for my flesh is from them." But why "woe to them"? Because Jesus was born "for the fall and for the rising again of many," and because he was rejected by those whose flesh he was, and was received by the Gentiles by whom he was not known, as he says also through David: "A people whom I did not know has served me." Of them, therefore, is Christ also according to the flesh. "Who is God over all, blessed for ever." That Christ is one thing according to the flesh and another according to the spirit, he had already indicated in the earlier parts of this Epistle, where he says: "Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification." And how he is Son of God according to the spirit, and son of David according to the flesh, we expounded there more fully as far as our powers allowed. Him, therefore, whom he there called Son of God according to the spirit, here, as the order of teaching advances and his hearers make progress, he declares to be himself God, "who is over all, blessed." And I wonder how certain people, reading what the same Apostle says elsewhere: "One God the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things," deny that the Son of God ought to be professed as God, lest they should seem to speak of two gods. And what will they do with this passage of the Apostle, in which Christ is openly declared to be "God over all"? But those who think thus do not notice that, just as he did not say that the Lord Jesus Christ is one Lord in such a way that on this account God the Father should not be called Lord, so also he did not say that God the Father is one God in such a way that God the Son should not be believed to be God. For the Scripture is true which says: "Know that the Lord himself is God." Yet both are one God, because the Son has no other beginning of divinity than the Father; but the Son is, as Wisdom says, the "purest emanation" of that one Paternal fount itself. Christ, then, is "God over all." Which "all"? Those, without doubt, of which we spoke a little before: "above principalities, and powers, and virtues, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come." But he who is over all has no one above himself. For he is not after the Father, but from the Father. And this same thing the Wisdom of God gave us to understand concerning the Holy Spirit also, where it says: "The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world; and he who contains all things has knowledge of the voice." If therefore the Son is called "God over all," and the Holy Spirit is recorded as containing all things, while God the Father is he "from whom are all things," it is plainly shown that the nature and substance of the Trinity is one, which is over all.
Romans 9:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Since he had said above that for his brethren, "who are his kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites," he would wish even to become anathema, on the ground that theirs was both the adoption of sons, and the giving of the law, and the promises — concerning these he now says that the word of God has not failed, that is, the promise which was made to them has not come to nothing. For whoever shall have been the true Israel — not one deriving his descent from Abraham merely by carnal lineage ("For not those who are the sons of the flesh, these also are the sons of God"), but one who descends from Abraham according to the promise of faith — he it is who also obtains the promises of God. For of the race of Israel there are many, but not all are called Israel. For Israel was so named from seeing God. For thus Jacob himself says: "I have seen the Lord face to face, and my soul has been saved." Therefore, because he saw God, he was called Israel. But whoever does not see him who said, "He who sees me, sees the Father also," cannot be called Israel.
Romans 9:7-8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Nor are all also sons because they are the seed of Abraham." This, evidently, was already being signified then in Abraham, when, though he had many sons — whom the Apostle calls sons of the flesh — the posterity of his seed was placed in Isaac alone, who was the son of the promise. And so now too, those who after the manner of Isaac are sons of the promise — that is, of that faith through which Abraham deserved to receive the promise of the future inheritance — they alone are reckoned as the seed; for in them the succession of the inheritance is declared.
Romans 9:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The Apostle set out to pursue this point: that although the people of Israel has been rejected through unbelief, nevertheless those promises of God which had been made toward them have not fallen away and been rendered void; and he teaches that, although Abraham had many sons, the promise was made in Isaac alone. "For not they," he says, "who are the children of the flesh, these are the children of God." And he strives to show how Isaac is not a son of the flesh, but is a son of God; and he returns to those things which are written about him in Genesis. "This," he says, "is the word of promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." Therefore, he says, Isaac is not born through the origin of a fleshly nativity, seeing that Abraham's body was already accounted dead, and Sarah's womb was already dead, as was said above; but through the power of him who said, "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." Rightly, therefore, he is called not a son of the flesh but of God, who is born from the coming and the word of God.
Romans 9:10-13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
This reasoning, then, he says, must be received not only concerning Isaac, but concerning Jacob as well. For Rebecca too, he says, did not bring forth her offspring according to the order of fleshly nativity. For when she had conceived twins from a single act of intercourse with Isaac, before the birth had yet taken place, and before any deeds of the boys, good or evil, had been done among men, the divine election is held toward Jacob, and it is said, "that the elder shall serve the younger," and, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Romans 9:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And why these things were so spoken, he teaches: "That according to election," he says, "the purpose of God might stand, it was said not of works, but of him that calleth"; that is, that not those who are children of the flesh, but those who are children of God, these should be reckoned for the seed. For just as there, out of many children of the flesh, Isaac is chosen by God to be adopted into a son of God, so also here, out of two, the younger, Jacob, is chosen, to be adopted into a son of God; and thus it becomes true that the promises of God stand firm not in the children of the flesh, but in the children of God. But all these things look to this, that the Apostle may prove this: that if either Isaac or Jacob had been chosen by God for those merits which they had acquired while placed in the flesh, and had deserved to be justified through the works of the flesh, then surely the grace of their merit could pertain also to a posterity of flesh and blood. But as it is, since their election was made not from works, but from the purpose of God, and from the free decision of him who calls, the grace of the promises is fulfilled not in the children of the flesh, but in the children of God — that is, in those who, like them, are chosen from the purpose of God, and adopted into sons. For in these also is fulfilled that which we have already expounded above, that "whom he foreknew, them he also predestined; and whom he predestined, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." And whatever we have expounded above concerning these words, the same suffices fully and abundantly for the explanation of the present passage also, lest by repeating the same things we should beget weariness in our readers.
Romans 9:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
It is fitting that the reader of these things should recall rather attentively that comparison which we set down in the earlier books concerning the manner in which the apostolic discourse is dispensed: that, as in a certain royal house which is laid out with manifold entrances and exits, one passes from one chamber into another in such a way that scarcely any signs appear of the one entering or of the one going out — so also Paul seems to open up the secrets of divine things a little, yet not to spread them out plainly and openly. And so, in view of what he had said above concerning Isaac and Jacob — that by election and from the purpose of God, before they had done any work good or evil, God had said, either of the former, "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son," or of the latter, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" — when in the present chapter he had introduced a certain person as though contradicting him and raising a question, and said, "Is there unrighteousness with God?" and had answered, "God forbid," but "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy": and if he chose Pharaoh for this reason, that he might show in him the might of his power; and if he himself has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens — why then, he says, does he find fault with men? and why is the one who sins blamed, when such is his will concerning each one? To the one, then, who raises these objections and others like them, and who thrusts himself rather impudently and importunately into the bedchamber of this mystery, he meets him with the rebuke of a most worthy exclamation, and says: "O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" As if he were saying: Who are you who plunge into the palace of the king, and have dared to penetrate the secrets of the inner chamber? Therefore let us too in such matters, standing as it were in a royal court, walk with suspended foot, and pass over few things in speech and more in silence, having the Apostle Paul himself made our teacher and guide of this journey. So then, in the person of one contradicting him, the Apostle says: "Is there unrighteousness with God?" and at once at the outset he answers, "God forbid"; so that to all the other things which are to be objected in the person of the contradictor, the Apostle may always be seen to answer, "God forbid."
Romans 9:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
This objector, then, uses also the words of Moses, in which the Lord says to him: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will show compassion to whom I will show compassion." But if this is so, he says, then salvation is not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of him on whom God has mercy. For to Pharaoh also, he says, it is said, "For this very purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth"; so that from this it may seem to be shown that, if Pharaoh was chosen for this, that through him the power of God might be declared to men, it was not in his own power that he perished. And after everything he adds: "Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens." This, he says, is what you who contradict assert: that God complains and accuses men without cause. For if he himself chooses whom he wills, and casts off whom he wills, who resists the will of him through whom are all things? Without doubt this contradiction is aiming at this: that there is no freedom of choice in man, and that no one has … In that little book where we discussed the freedom of the will, each several point has been examined according to our ability, things which suffice more than enough for instruction. Nevertheless, we will even now briefly remind the reader of some of the things said there.
Romans 9:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
What he said, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," is to be taken as David also says in the Psalm: "Unless the Lord build the house, they have labored in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watches in vain that keeps it." In which he shows, not that the one who builds the house does nothing and is idle, and that the Lord thus builds it; but rather that the man himself expends as much care and labor as lies in a man, while it belongs to God that, with all obstacles removed, the work should come to its accomplishment. Since, then, we are taught by this that man indeed expends labor and care, but God grants success and accomplishment to the work, it is surely pious and religious to attribute the sum even of that work which lies in man to God rather than to man. So also, when Paul was planting and Apollos watering, God is said to give the increase; and it is added: "So then neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but God that gives the increase." Thus, then, we can say in the present passage also: and so neither he that runs is anything, nor he that wills, but God that gives the accomplishment. For he who wills, and he who runs, seem to be what he is who plants and he who waters; but the Apostle says that he who plants and he who waters are nothing: not that they do nothing, but that in comparison with God, who gives the increase or the accomplishment to the work, they are said to be nothing.
Romans 9:17 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 145
And all these things were being carried out by the opposing powers at work against the teaching of Christ, reckoning that they could extinguish from the life of men the providence of God and faith concerning the resurrection of the Lord. And just as the excessive hardness of Pharaoh was not softened by the many wonders done through Moses, so, or even more, the hardness of the heart of these men was not only not bent by the signs and wonders done, but they did not even believe the guards reporting, "who came into the city and reported all things whatsoever had been done." And to "Pharaoh" indeed it was said: "for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show in you my power, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth," but as for these, the magnanimity of God "bore with them," "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction," so that there might be "salvation among the Gentiles."
Romans 9:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But let us also see of what sort is this which is said to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show in thee my power." It is certain that God not only knows the purpose and will of each one, but even foreknows it. And knowing and foreknowing, as a good and just steward, he uses the impulses and purpose of each one for accomplishing those works which the mind and will of each one chooses. As if, for example, we should say: If a head of a household be wise and just, and have many servants, will he not, with all the shrewdness possible, consider which of them has a mind fit for tilling the field, and assign these to the field? and whose is fit for trading, whose also for tending the flock, whose indeed for personal service, and whose temperament he will approve as suited for keeping watch over his own bedchamber, and thus, being wise, assign each one to the duties that fit him? But since it is not hidden from him — whether he be a head of a household or a king — that it is necessary that at times his subjects rebel and break the laws of discipline, and on this account need correction and stripes, it is necessary therefore that he choose out of all those dispositions fit for this too, if there be any more fiercely stirred, which, though carried along by their own impulses, nevertheless confer the correction necessary for offenders. Let us suppose, then, that this head of a household, or this king, has seen the time at which those must be corrected who have committed many things against morals and discipline, and has chosen someone most savage, and much more savage than those very ones who are to be corrected, one who for his own crimes is now worthy not of correction but of death. And willing that his destruction should profit for the correction of the rest, he sends him to those whom he desires to be corrected by his death, and says to him: "For this very purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." For see that he did not say, "For this very purpose have I made thee" — otherwise the fault would seem to be referred to the Creator — but he says, "For this very purpose have I raised thee up": that is, so that through the malice of your soul, which you acquired for yourself by living unbridled and without the fear of God, both a useful and fruitful correction may be inflicted upon others, and upon yourself a most notorious destruction may be brought as an example to posterity.
Romans 9:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as for what he says, "Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens," he seems to take it from what is written in Exodus. For there he says: "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he may not let the people go." Now Pharaoh's heart was hardened in this way. God was unwilling to bring upon him a sudden and full vengeance. For although he was of consummate malice, nevertheless through his patience God had not shut off even from him the possibility of conversion: and therefore he uses upon him first lighter stripes, and then such as grow gradually heavier. But what God was doing through patience, by this the man was hardened unto contempt, storing up for himself a greater wrath, so that there may fitly be said to him that which the Apostle writes: "Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, not knowing that the patience of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath." Therefore God does not harden whom he wills, but he who has been unwilling to yield to his patience is hardened.
Romans 9:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
It is superfluous, then, what you say to the Apostle, O you who oppose: "Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?" It is certain indeed that no one withstands the will of God; but it is fitting that we know his will to be just and right. For that we should be good or evil is a matter of our own will; but to what sort of stripes the evil man is destined, and to what sort of glory the good man, is a matter of God's will.
Romans 9:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.22
Such a rebuke does not refer to one who is faithful and lives a good and righteous life and has confidence towards God.… This rebuke is not for the faithful and the saints but for the unfaithful and the ungodly.
Romans 9:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"O man, who are you who answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus? Or does not the potter have power over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another indeed unto dishonor?" We read also in the Gospels that those who insolently and faithlessly inquired of the Lord by what power he did the things he was doing, and who had given him this power, were not held worthy even of an answer. Likewise in the present passage too we see the Apostle moved against insolent questions, and, through the things he answers, confounding the obstinacy of the one who puts them forward. For he says: "O man, who are you who answer back to God?" For man is to God what clay is to the potter. And just as, in the case of a worthless servant, if perhaps it seems to the master that some work ought to be done which is full of both reason and usefulness, but the servant, unwilling to work, begins to scrutinize what the master commands and to demand of his master: Why do you order this work to be done? Whom does it profit? For whom is it necessary? — what answer will be so fitting for such a contumacious servant as that it be said to him: "Who are you who answer back" to your master? So it pleases him; so it seems good to the master. But I do not think that if a faithful and prudent servant asks, wishing to understand and to marvel at his master's wisdom, it would be said to him: "Who are you?" Indeed, when Daniel the prophet had desired to know the will of the Lord — whence also he was called "a man of desires" — it was not said to him: "Who are you?" but an angel was sent who might instruct him concerning all the dispensations and judgments of God. And we too, therefore, if we desire to know something of the secret and hidden things of God, if we are men of desires and not of contentions, let us faithfully and humbly seek out the judgments of God inserted rather secretly in the divine letters. For on this account also the Lord said: "Search the Scriptures," knowing that these things are opened not to those who, occupied in other business, either hear or read them in passing, but to those who with an upright and simple heart, with unremitting labor and continual vigils, search the divine Scriptures more deeply — among whom I well know that I am not. Yet if there be anyone who seeks in this way, he will find.
Romans 9:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But let us also, according to our strength, turn to the things we have in hand. "Does the thing formed say," he says, "to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus? Or does not the potter have power over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another indeed unto dishonor?" And in the prophet Jeremiah we read something of this sort, where he is commanded by God to go into the potter's house and to see him forming: namely, gathering up again the vessel that had fallen from his hands, he formed it once more according to his own will. "And the word of the Lord came to him," he says, "saying: Can I not do with the house of Israel as this potter does?" And Wisdom says: "The furnace tests the potter's vessels, and temptation tests just men." Our God, therefore, has power over us just as the potter has over the clay, to make out of the same lump vessels unto honor and vessels unto dishonor. For you, then, who insolently answer back to God, let it suffice to have heard these things. But whoever desires to behold the works of God's wisdom in his dispensations, let him hear Paul, who was privy to the divine secrets, discoursing in another place about these very matters. "But in a great house," he says, "there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of clay, and some indeed unto honor, but others unto dishonor. If therefore anyone shall cleanse himself from these, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work." Do you hear how, among those in whom Paul had no insolent contradictor, he disclosed the differences of the vessels? For there, where the hearer was not worthy but was a contradictor, he mentions only vessels of clay; but here he says there are also vessels of gold, and of silver, and of wood, and of clay: and some, he says, are unto honor, while others are made unto dishonor. Likewise also, where he recalled the reason why some are made unto honor and others unto dishonor: there he kept silent, here he disclosed it. "For if anyone shall cleanse himself," he says, "from these" — without doubt from the filth of sin — "he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work." It remains, therefore, that he who has not cleansed himself, and has not washed away the stains of sin through repentance, is a vessel unto dishonor. And if he should also increase his malice, and through hardness of mind and an impenitent heart utterly scorn to be converted, he will now be not only a vessel of dishonor, but also a vessel of wrath. Thus, then, the reason which he closes off there to those who demand it unworthily, he opens up here to those who desire it worthily: and through it that also which he set forth a little before concerning Jacob and Esau is more openly explained. For that Jacob might be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work, his soul had cleansed itself: and God, seeing his purity, and having power out of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor, made Jacob indeed — who, as we have said, had cleansed himself — a vessel unto honor; but Esau, whose soul he saw was not so pure nor so simple, he made out of the same lump a vessel unto dishonor. And that you may know that it was on account of the purity and simplicity of his soul that Jacob was made a vessel unto honor, hear what testimony of simplicity the divine Scripture bears to him. "And Jacob," it says, "was a simple man, dwelling at home." For this reason, therefore, the Apostle says concerning them that, before they were born, it is said of them: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Romans 9:21 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.21
If both the saved and the lost come from one lump of clay, then the nature of their souls will be not different but the same.
Romans 9:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
We have often given warning about the Apostle's unpolished modes of expression and their deficiencies, and this is found no less in the present passage. For what he says at the beginning of the chapter, "But if God, willing," is not brought round to any conclusion. For instance, as he himself said elsewhere: "But if the first-fruits are holy, so also is the lump": here he renders no such thing, but has left that conjunction hanging as it were; and even if it is not taken up, a clearer sense will be given without it — for instance, if we read it thus: "God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy." In this the following seems to be understood: that while God bears with and patiently endures the unbelieving and the faithless, he makes known to men both his patience and his power — his patience, while he endures them long, in case they should perhaps come to their senses and be converted; his power, while at some point he punishes, and does not leave outrages altogether unavenged.
Romans 9:22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 145
And all these things were being carried out by the opposing powers at work against the teaching of Christ, reckoning that they could extinguish from the life of men the providence of God and faith concerning the resurrection of the Lord. And just as the excessive hardness of Pharaoh was not softened by the many wonders done through Moses, so, or even more, the hardness of the heart of these men was not only not bent by the signs and wonders done, but they did not even believe the guards reporting, "who came into the city and reported all things whatsoever had been done." And to "Pharaoh" indeed it was said: "for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show in you my power, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth," but as for these, the magnanimity of God "bore with them," "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction," so that there might be "salvation among the Gentiles."
Romans 9:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And again, "upon vessels of mercy" — that is, upon those who have cleansed themselves from every stain of sin, from which "no one is clean, not even if his life has been of a single day" — he makes known the riches of his glory: which vessels he prepared unto glory not by some unreasoning or fortuitous grace, but because they had themselves purged themselves of the aforesaid stains.
Romans 9:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as to what he adds, "whom also he called, even us," it stands for what he would have said thus: Just as we, whom he called "not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles." For he seems to have pursued the preceding remarks as concerning Pharaoh, who was a vessel of wrath, and the children of Israel, who were vessels of mercy. Here, therefore, what he adds — "whom also he called, even us, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles" — seems to take up a comparison: that is, so that it seems to be said thus: Just as we too are vessels of mercy, whom he called not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles. Let these things be said here so far as pertains to the order of the apostolic discourse itself and the explanation of the words.
Romans 9:25-26 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But this is what we ought to attend to more sharply: that those others also obtained mercy, and were called the people of God, and were beloved of God; but because they did not know how to keep the grace they had received, it is said to them: "In the things wherein the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, I put her away, and gave her the bill of divorce into her hands"; and again elsewhere: "You have become a surfeit to me, I will no longer forgive your sins." And through Jeremiah the Lord says: "My inheritance has become to me like the cave of a hyena." Lest perhaps we too, who were not the people of God, but through the riches of his glory he called us his people, and who were not beloved, but have been made beloved, and sons of the living God — if we do not walk as sons of light and sons of God, if we do not so act as the people of God, "that men, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father who is in heaven" — it is to be feared that we may incur that saying of the Apostle in which he says: "For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. As he says in Hosea: I will call that which was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved; and her that had not obtained mercy, her that had obtained mercy. And it shall be: In the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God." This testimony, indeed, which the Apostle takes from Hosea, so far as pertains to the passage of the prophet itself, seems to be spoken not about the Gentiles, but about the people of Israel themselves. But, as we said above, Paul takes his example from a similar case, in order to show that, just as it was said to them once, when they had been cast off and despaired of, first: "You are not my people, and I am not your God"; and after this it is added: "And it shall be: In the place in which it was said to them, You are not my people, they too shall be called sons of the living God" — so, he says, also "we, whom he called not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles," who before were not his people, now he has called us his people, "and her that was not beloved, beloved; and in the place where it was said" to us, "You are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God." But perhaps those who are of the circumcision may inquire of us and say: Where indeed was it said to you that you are not the people of God, so that there you should be called sons of the living God? For they will assert that God spoke these things in Judaea (for in it alone is God known), and that these things have no bearing on us, because "the law speaks to those who are under the law." Nay rather, I shall point out a place far more worthy, where it was both fitting and possible for God to speak. For God will not consistently be said to speak on mountains and crags and any earthly places whatever: but God speaks in the mind of man, in the rational faculty, and in the governing part of the heart; and there, when unworthy acts alien to God are censured by the conscience convicting them, there, I say, it is pronounced, there it is said to each individual, that "you are not my people." But if anyone cleanses and purifies himself from these things, and "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding," begins to guard his heart, there — that is, in the secret place of the heart — having been made peaceable, he will be called a son of God, with his conscience bearing witness.
Romans 9:27 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After he had, through that wisdom of God which Paul speaks among the perfect, set forth the secret and hidden things of the divine dispensation, and had shown by what reasoning and in what order God either displays his wrath in the vessels of wrath or the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy; and had taught that each one becomes a vessel of wrath from this, that by his own hardness and impenitent heart he treasures up for himself wrath in the day of wrath, while the vessels of mercy are those who have cleansed themselves from these things and have prepared themselves for every good work — now, in order to confirm these very things with greater authority, he teaches that they were prescribed also in the prophets: "Isaiah," he says, "cries out on behalf of Israel: If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." For the prophet, foreseeing things to come, saw that very many of Israel — and especially those who are compared to the sand of the sea — would through their own hardness and impenitent heart be "vessels of wrath fitted for destruction," not believing in their own life, but crucifying the Lord of majesty. "If therefore," he says, "they be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." Those who are not saved are as the sand of the sea; but the remnant which shall be saved are as the stars of heaven. For the word of the promise which was made to Abraham contains both: "Your seed," he says, "shall be as the sand of the sea, and as the stars of heaven."
Romans 9:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And this is what he says: "For he is completing and shortening the word in equity: because the Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth." The word is shortened where many are called but few are chosen. And we may also call the word of the whole teaching "shortened," in that what formerly the Law and the Prophets contained in the breadth of their precepts, the Lord, when he came, pronounced and said: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets" — in which he plainly shortened the Prophets and the Law into these two sayings. The "shortened word" can also be said to be the faith of the creed which is handed down to believers, in which the sum of the whole mystery is contained, bound together in few words.
Romans 9:29 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"And as Isaiah foretold," he says, "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and should have been made like unto Gomorrah." What seed does Isaiah say was left by the Lord? That, without doubt, which the same Apostle expounds elsewhere, when he says that it was said to Abraham: "To you will I give this land, and to your seed. He did not say: And to seeds, as in many; but, to your seed, as in one, which is Christ." This, then, is what Isaiah says: "Unless the Lord had left us a seed" — that is, unless he had given us Christ, to be born from us — "we should have been as Sodom," so far as concerns the magnitude of the impiety, except that something even graver was done among the Israelites. For the men of Sodom are recorded as unchaste and shameless toward their guests; but the people of Israel showed themselves sacrilegious toward him who, though he is the Lord of majesty, willed both to be called and to be their brother. Unless, therefore, the Lord had left that seed, through which a remnant might be saved and the vessels of mercy be saved, that people would have perished like Sodom. And yet it is not idly that Isaiah named what was left a "seed." For that is called seed which is sown in the earth and yields manifold fruit: teaching by this that Christ too was to be sown, that is, to be buried in the earth, and rising thence to bring forth the most abundant fruit of the whole multitude of the Church, as the Lord himself also says: "Unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it bears no fruit; but if it die, it bears much fruit."
Romans 9:30 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have laid hold of righteousness — that righteousness, however, which is of faith." Perhaps this may seem contrary either to those things we said above, that each one should cleanse and purge himself, that he may become a useful vessel and a vessel of mercy; or to those things we discussed earlier, that the Gentiles too make use of the natural law, in which without doubt righteousness also is contained. How then does he say here that the Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have laid hold of righteousness? See, then, whether we can answer in this way. It is one thing to pursue, another to have implanted. He is said to pursue who by teaching and much reading desires to attain something; whence also from "pursuing" (sectando) those teachings are called "sects" (sectae) which are learned by the tradition of men. The Gentiles, then, because they did not have the law so written on tablets or in books, are not said to have pursued righteousness; yet they had it implanted, which the natural law taught them. For that reason, therefore, they were near to that righteousness which is of faith, that is, to Christ.
Romans 9:31 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law." This passage too, as we said above must be observed, names "law" in different senses within one and the same verse. For it is certain that Israel pursued the law of righteousness according to the letter, but did not attain to the law. What law? Without doubt, that of the spirit. For the Apostle would not say this, that they did not attain to the law which they pursued and held and possessed.
Romans 9:32 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
He gives, then, the reason why Israel could not attain to the law. "Because it was not of faith," he says, "but as it were of works." Concerning the faith of Christ and the works of the law we have discussed abundantly at the beginning of this Epistle; and therefore, lest we repeat the same things too often, let us explain the present passage with a few words of the Apostle himself, in which he says: "For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not been subject to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law, unto righteousness for everyone who believes." Because, therefore, they pursued the law not according to the works of God's righteousness, but according to the works of their own righteousness, therefore "they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, of which it is written: Behold, I place in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense: and he who has believed in him shall not be put to shame."
Romans 9:33 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But it should be known that in the prophet Isaiah this testimony is written thus: "Behold, I send into the foundations of Sion a precious stone, chosen, a cornerstone, glorious, into its foundations; and whoever shall believe in him shall not be put to shame." The Apostle, however, inserted "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense" into this testimony from another passage of the same prophet Isaiah, in which it is written thus: "And you shall not meet him as a stone of stumbling, nor as a stone of ruin"; and excerpting from both passages what seemed suitable to his assertions, he fitted them together. Nevertheless, since we find the Lord Jesus addressed by very many names — but good and salutary ones — it may perhaps seem strange why in this passage which the Apostle took from the prophet Isaiah he is named a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; since surely to the good Lord and to the Son of the good Father whatever things are good and salutary ought to be applied: as peace, and righteousness, and truth, and the door by which one enters to the Father, and shepherd, and lion of the tribe of Judah, or lion's whelp who is roused from sleep, or sanctification, or redemption, and other things of this sort which seem to befit his dignity. But see whether we can also show of "the stone of stumbling and rock of offense" how far it can fittingly be applied to him. "Stumbling" and "offense" (scandalum) signify nearly one and the same thing. For a "scandal" is so called when some obstacle is found in the road which impedes the step of one walking or climbing. From this, then, "scandal" is derived. Since therefore those who were in Sion, walking in ways that were not good, were running with hurried foot along the path of perdition, encouraging one another in their evils — as the Prophet says, because "the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who is wicked is blessed" — our Lord and Savior, when he came, began to reprove their ways and to say: "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees"; and again: "Woe to you rich"; and again: "Woe to you, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you." But saying also many things like these, and reproving them, he began to impede their ways of perdition, and became to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, not allowing them to enter the broad way which leads to death. So finally it is written also in the prophet Hosea concerning those who walk the path of sin: "Because of this," he says, "behold, I will hedge up her way with stakes, and I will block her ways, and she shall not find her path." Let us set forth again, then, if it seems good, in our midst Paul himself, who, having once received letters from the priests, was proceeding to Damascus to bring all men and women who believed in Christ bound to Jerusalem. When therefore he was travelling that road of sin, the Lord Jesus met him on the way, and for a time struck him with blindness; and he became to him — so far as regards that very purpose for which he was going there — a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, so that he could not complete that journey of sin which he had undertaken, but being converted might believe in him who had shut off his way and blocked it with certain stakes of threatening; and believing in him, might not be put to shame.
Romans 10:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Both from the beginning, and as the text of the Epistle proceeds, we have said that Paul at one time speaks on behalf of the Gentiles, at another also on behalf of Israel. Since, therefore, in those things which were recently expounded he made use of many testimonies of the prophets against Israel, so that he brought forward from Isaiah: "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and should have been made like unto Gomorrha;" and again: "If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:" and to these he adds, that "Israel, following after the law of justice, did not attain to the law;" therefore now, wishing again to console his own people, and through this to invite them to faith, he says: "Brethren, the desire of my heart indeed, and my prayer to God is made for them unto salvation."
Romans 10:2-3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he shows the cause why his desire and prayer is held before God on their behalf. "For I bear them witness," he says, "that they have indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." Although, he says, they are entangled in so many and such great evils of their own sins, nevertheless there is in them an unspeakable zeal and emulation of God. And this cause moved me to entreat God on their behalf, that at least at the end they may at some time attain to salvation. For they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And he proves in what way they have a zeal of God not according to knowledge: because "being ignorant," he says, "of the justice of God," they submit to their own justice. It profits little, therefore, to have a zeal of God and not to have the knowledge of that zeal. Accordingly the Jews, thinking that they were acting with zeal for God, became sacrilegious against the Son of God: because they were not zealous according to knowledge, as was Phinees the son of Eleazar, who, being zealous according to knowledge, slew the Madianite woman together with the Israelite who was fornicating with her: and as was Elias, who said: "With zeal I have been zealous for the Lord God omnipotent of Israel, because the children of Israel have forsaken thee, they have slain thy prophets, and overthrown thy altars;" and as was Mathathias, of whom it is written in the first book of Machabees, that "he was zealous in the law of God, and his reins trembled, and his fury went up according to judgment." The zeal and emulation of all these was according to knowledge, but the zeal of the Jews was not according to knowledge, for this reason: because being ignorant of the justice of God, they were attempting to fulfil their own, that is, that which seemed justice to men; whereas it would surely rather have been fitting for them to obey the justice of God, which is Christ. But see now whether perhaps this saying may seem to be spoken not to them alone, that they "have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." For the Apostle can likewise say of others also, that "I bear them witness" that they have the fear of God, but not according to knowledge: and of others, that they have the love of God, but not according to knowledge. For if anyone have an affection toward God, but be ignorant that charity ought to be patient, kind, not envious, not dealing perversely, not puffed up, not ambitious, not seeking the things that are her own: and if he have not these things and things like to these in his charity, but love God in affection alone, it will fittingly be said to him also that he has the love of God, but not according to knowledge. And likewise it can be said of another, that he has the faith of God, but not according to knowledge, if he be ignorant that "faith without works is dead:" and that the faith of God is not in words alone, which are sometimes learned as composed or written by another, but in such a disposition of mind as she had who said within herself: "If I shall touch the hem of his garment, I shall be saved." If anyone therefore have not faith in such a way as to show by his good acts in whom he believes, it can be said to him also that he has the faith of God, but not according to knowledge. It can be said of another too that he has the chastity of God, but not according to knowledge. And another has care for the poor, but not according to knowledge: namely, if he wishes to be praised by men. And another can be called abstinent, but not according to knowledge, if he fasts for this reason, that he may be pleasing to men. And thus in each single thing that we do, unless we do it according to knowledge and understanding, it can be said to us that we have a zeal for a good work, but not according to knowledge. And therefore attention must especially be given to knowledge, lest the matter turn out unhappily for us, so that, being placed in faith, we be cheated of faith, and having zeal for good things, we fall away fr…
Romans 10:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For Christ is the end of the law: that is, the perfection of the law and righteousness is Christ, but for those who believe. Those, however, who do not believe, since they do not have Christ, do not have the perfection of the law; and therefore neither will they be able to attain to righteousness.
Romans 10:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For Moses writes, that the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live in it. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus." Already in the passages above the Apostle had made mention of two righteousnesses, where he says that Israel, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, sought to establish its own righteousness; and here now again he speaks of two righteousnesses, one which is of the law, and another which is of faith. But it seems to me that the one which he said above was unknown to Israel — the righteousness of God — is this very righteousness which is of faith; whereas that one of which he says, "seeking to establish their own righteousness," is the very one which here too he intimates in the words of Moses, namely that "the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live in it." But observe the difference of the righteousnesses, and likewise of the lives. For of that righteousness of God, that is, of Christ, "who was made for us righteousness from God," and peace — see how he speaks: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." This righteousness, then, furnishes not merely life, but eternal life. But of that righteousness of the law, of him "who does" it, he did not say that he shall live forever, but only that he "shall live in it": since, if the end of the law, as the Apostle says, is Christ, not even that righteousness which is of the law will he be able to fulfill without Christ, who does not receive Christ, the end of the law.
Romans 10:6-7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
This righteousness, then, which is of faith, which is Christ, as living and subsisting, this, he says, speaks thus: "Say not in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead." And do not wonder that, although Christ himself is righteousness, he here seems to speak of himself as though of another. For in many places you will find the Savior speaking of himself as though of another; as in the Gospel he says: "And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left: and he shall say to those who are on the right hand," and again to those who are on the left, the things that are written. Now what he says: "Say not in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven, or who shall descend into the abyss?" — apart from the clauses which he inserts in between, "that is, to bring Christ down, or to bring him back from the dead" — and also, "The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart," seems to be taken from Deuteronomy, where it is written in this manner: "This commandment, which I command you this day, is not too high for you, nor far from you. It is not in heaven, that you should say: Who shall ascend for us into heaven, and take it for us, that hearing it we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say: Who shall cross over the sea for us, and take it, that hearing it we may do it? The word is very near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, and in your hands, that you may do it." Since, therefore, these things are taken from Deuteronomy, and the Apostle writes that the righteousness which is of faith — which is Christ — says these very things, without doubt the Apostle declares that what is said in Deuteronomy was said by Christ. It is he, then, who says: "This commandment, which I give you this day, is not too high for you, nor far from you," and the rest that follows. What, then, is it that the Apostle teaches through this? Namely, that we should not say in our heart, and suppose, that Christ is confined in some one place, and is not everywhere, and diffused through all things: seeing that he, while he was on earth, said that he was also in heaven. For thus he spoke to his apostles: "No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven." He did not say, who was, but "who is in heaven." And again, lest we suppose that he is only in heaven, and that the abyss is empty of his presence, therefore the righteousness which is of faith says: "Say not in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven?" And as though this were like saying, to bring Christ down from heaven, so the Apostle added: "That is, to bring Christ down." And again, if anyone should descend in mind and thought into the abyss, supposing Christ to be contained there alone, as though this were like calling Christ back from the dead, so he subjoins: "That is, to bring Christ back from the dead." But you ought, he says, so to think concerning Christ, as concerning the Word, and truth, and wisdom, and righteousness of God. Now all these things are not sought in a place, but are present everywhere: nor are they summoned up from the regions below, but are grasped by the mind and understanding alone.
Romans 10:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
As Word, therefore, and as wisdom, he is near, in your mouth and in your heart. And "this," he says, "is the word of faith which we preach."
Romans 10:8 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.6
By this Paul indicates that Christ is in the heart of all men by virtue of his being the Word or reason [logos] embedded in all things by sharing in which all men are rational.
Romans 10:9-10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." We ought also to know this, that it is one thing for a potentiality to be in someone, another for there to be effectiveness or actualization — what the Greeks call dynamis (power, capacity) and energeia (activity, actualization). For example: a child newly born is a rational man in potentiality; for he can be rational if he grows up. And in potentiality he is also called a craftsman, and a helmsman, and a grammarian; for it is possible that he be some one of these. But in efficacy or actuality — that is, in the thing itself and in operation — he is none of these while he is a little child; but if he begins to be capable of reason, or to accomplish something of the craftsman's art or of any other, then at last he is called rational in efficacy, or a craftsman, or whatever it is that he performs by the effect of his work. In this way, therefore, Christ also, who is the Word of God, must be believed to be in potentiality according to us — that is, according to every human being — as reason is in little children; but he is said to be in me in efficacy when I have confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and have believed in my heart that God raised him from the dead. But do you wish to know that he is present everywhere, and is in the midst even of those who do not know him and do not confess him? Hear how John the Baptist bears this very witness concerning him: "There stands," he says, "in the midst of you one whom you do not know, who comes after me." He is therefore in the midst even of those who do not know him, but he is in their midst in potentiality, not in efficacy. For they are able to receive him, but they do not yet receive him. But in efficacy or actuality he is in the midst of those to whom he said: "Wherever two or three have been gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." For these confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus, and believed in their heart that God raised him from the dead. Otherwise it seems absurd, if he is said to be in the midst both of those who are gathered in his name and of those who do not know him — unless a distinction of this kind be maintained, that among the ignorant and those who do not yet believe he is said to be in the midst in potentiality, but among believers in efficacy, that is, by the effect of the thing itself and of the work. But observe also this, that he says: "Because if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." For it will seem to some, from this, that even if someone lacks the privileges of good work, even if he has given no labor to the virtues, yet by this very fact that he has believed, he does not perish but is saved, and has salvation, even though he cannot have the glory of blessedness. But see whether this ought rather to be understood: that he who truly and not falsely confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus, and believes with his heart, confesses at the same time that he is made subject to the dominion of wisdom and of justice and of truth and of all the things that Christ is; and that mammon is no longer lord over him — that is, that neither avarice any longer, nor injustice, nor unchastity, nor falsehood holds dominion over him. For once he has confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, he professes that he is a slave to none of these. And further, believing in his heart that God raised him from the dead, it is certain that he believes him raised for his own justification. Otherwise, what will it profit me to know and to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, if I do not have him raised within myself? Therefore, if I do not walk in newness of life, and do not flee the old habit of sinning, Christ has not yet risen from the dead for…
Romans 10:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And to this sense the words that follow also agree, when he says: "For the Scripture says, everyone who believes in him shall not be put to shame." Now this is written in Isaiah. But if everyone who believes in him shall not be put to shame, while everyone who sins is put to shame — as Adam sinned, and was ashamed, and hid himself — then whoever still incurs the blush of sin does not appear to believe.
Romans 10:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same is Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon him." How there is no distinction of Jew and Greek in faith we have already shown frequently above. But that he is the same Lord of all, you will understand according to what we have just now set forth; that is, if justice and truth, sanctification and wisdom — all of which is Christ the Lord — hold dominion over us. For these are his riches, inasmuch as he is the one "in whom the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden."
Romans 10:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For everyone, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." Yet he did not say that he bestows these riches on all men, but on all whoever shall call upon his name. But here too a question similar to the earlier ones seems to arise. For not all who in any manner whatsoever call upon the name of the Lord can be saved, even if they have not done works worthy of the name they invoke — especially since the Wisdom of God also says in Proverbs: "It shall come to pass that when you call upon me, I will not hear you." In which it seems to me that Wisdom exhorts and urges those who wish to be saved, that they should call upon Wisdom quickly and not delay or defer, lest perhaps, when the appointed time has passed — that is, the time in which there is opportunity for repentance — they should call too late thereafter, where there is no place for repentance. And hence she says: "You shall call upon me, and I will not hear you." Yet this saying which the Apostle sets down, that is, "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," is written in the prophet Joel in this manner: "And I will give portents in the heaven above, and on the earth below: blood, and fire, and the vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. And it shall be: whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Yet it seems to me that something great is designated in the divine Scriptures under this name of "calling upon." For it is not of just any men, but of great and outstanding ones, that it is written that "Enos first hoped to call upon the name of the Lord"; and in the Psalms: "Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he heard them: in the pillar of cloud he spoke to them."
Romans 10:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Plainly in these words he says this: by the words "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" he taught that what he had set down above as spoken by the prophet — that "everyone whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" — is to be referred to Christ the Lord. For after he said, "Everyone whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," he adds: "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" For the Jews did not believe in Christ, and therefore they do not call upon him in whom they have not believed. Moreover, at the beginning of the Epistle which he writes to the Corinthians, where he says, "With all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and of ours," he declares that the one whose name is invoked is the Lord Jesus Christ. If therefore Enos also, and Moses, and Aaron, and Samuel "called upon the Lord, and he heard them," without doubt they were calling upon Christ Jesus the Lord. And if to call upon the name of the Lord and to pray to the Lord are one and the same thing, then as God is called upon, so Christ is to be called upon; and as God is prayed to, so also is Christ to be prayed to; and as we offer prayers first of all to God the Father, so also to the Lord Jesus Christ; and as we offer petitions to the Father, so we offer petitions also to the Son; and as we offer thanksgivings to God, so also do we offer thanks to the Savior. For the divine word teaches that one and the same honor is to be rendered to both, that is, to the Father and to the Son, when it says: "That all may honor the Son as they honor the Father." But as to what we have just now brought forward from the Epistle to the Corinthians, where the Apostle first says, "To the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints," and after this, as though they were of another rank and another order, he thus adds certain persons of whom he says, "With all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and of ours" — perhaps it will seem to have some difference, that the former he names the Church of God, and sanctified, and called to be saints, but the latter only "those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And see whether perhaps this diversity shows something such as the present chapter also seems to contain, in which he teaches that the name of the Lord cannot be invoked unless one first believes in Christ. But when someone has believed in Christ, even if he is not yet sanctified and joined to the body of the Church, nevertheless it is necessary that he should already call upon him in whom he has believed. For Christ came to reconcile the world to God, and to offer to the Father those who believe in him. And those whom he offers to the Father, the Holy Spirit receives, that he may sanctify them, and quicken them as members of the heavenly Church of the firstborn, and restore them to the solidity and perfection of the whole body — and so at last they may deserve to be called the Church of God having neither spot nor wrinkle. Before, therefore, they come to the level of this perfection, they call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as the mediator of God and men; but after the Spirit of God has been in their heart crying, "Abba, Father," that same Spirit teaches them also to call upon the name of the Father. Therefore he says, "How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" and in this he binds them with a most tight conclusion. There is no salvation, he says, except for one who calls upon him. But no one calls upon him who does not believe. Therefore, because you do not believe, you do not call upon him; and because you do not call upon him, you are not saved. But "how," he says, "shall the…
Romans 10:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But how shall they preach, unless they be sent?" A certain difficulty seems to me to arise in this statement. For if we understand it in this way, that they do not preach for this reason, because they are not sent; and that with no one preaching they will not hear; and not hearing they will not believe; and not believing they will not call upon; and not calling upon they will not be saved: it is gathered from these things that the cause by which they were not saved falls back upon the fault of the author, who did not send preachers. But let us rather turn aside to that path of understanding which is more correct: and what he said, "How shall they preach, unless they be sent," let us take as though the Apostle were saying: We, the heralds and preachers of Christ, could not preach, nor would any power of announcing subsist in us, unless he himself who sent us were present with us. But if, when we preach, you are unwilling to hear, the fault is now yours; and if, hearing, you do not believe, and not believing you do not call upon, and not calling upon you cannot be saved. Because, therefore, they were sent to preach, for this reason it is written concerning those who were sent by him: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good things." That he here calls the feet beautiful not bodily but spiritual, I think that, however much someone may be a friend of the letter, he could not deny. For he will not reduce the apostolic meaning to such absurdity as to suppose that the feet of the evangelists which can be seen with bodily eyes are called by him comely and beautiful; but those feet are comely and beautiful which walk along the way of life. For according to him who said, "I am the way," understand the comely and beautiful feet of those who bring good tidings, which are worthy to advance along such a way. These are the feet with which Paul also said that he had run the race, and had so run that he might lay hold of it; that is, the vigor of the soul by which it strains and hastens toward heaven. And you will pleasingly affirm that these are the feet which Jesus washes for the disciples, and wipes with the linen cloth with which he was girded. And although it was then fulfilled in bodily appearance, nevertheless, when Peter understood only this which he saw being done, and, as it were for honor's sake, excused himself lest the Lord should wash the feet of him who was a servant, hear what a word of profound mystery is brought forth. "If I wash thee not," he says, "thou shalt have no part with me." And again he brings forth another utterance like this, as though from the hidden treasures of knowledge, and says: "What I have done you do not know now: but you shall know hereafter;" and he adds, that "as I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet: so do ye also wash one another's feet in turn. For I have given you an example." Let us see, therefore, what that example is, by which masters ought to wash the feet of disciples, or with what water to wash them. If anyone should find living water, and if anyone should receive drink from Jesus, and that water should become in him a fountain of water springing up into life eternal, he can with this water of spiritual doctrine wash the feet of the disciples, and wash away all the uncleannesses and filth from their soul: and doing this he will fulfill the example given by the master. "Beautiful," therefore, "are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good things." Concerning these same feet I think the Bride also says to the Word of God in the Song of Songs: "I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?" And concerning them nonetheless it is said: "Thy legs are as pillars of marble with bases of silver." And perhaps because this beauty is in the feet of the evangelists, therefore the Lord Jesus does not wish them to cover them with sandals and to hide their beautiful appearance; but he commands them not even to have a sandal on the way. But let us see what those go…
Romans 10:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Neither did all of the Gentiles believe the Gospel, nor all of Israel: yet more, and many more, from the Gentiles than from Israel. Therefore, when the Apostle sets down that Isaiah said, "Lord, who has believed our report?" — the word "who" is said in the sense of "few"; and we ought to observe that this expression in the Scriptures is sometimes put for "few," and sometimes for "no one at all." For example, when it says, "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?" and, "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?" and, "Who is the man that desires life?" — in all these "who" signifies "few." But where it says, "Who has ascended into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or who has descended into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead," here "who" is understood as "no one." For there is no one who ascends into heaven to bring Christ down from there. Now therefore, in what Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" the "who" signifies "few." Yet it is fitting for us to know that "Lord, who has believed our report?" does not have "Lord" in the Hebrew copies, but it is so in the translation of the Seventy Elders; and the Apostle, approving what is found among them, put "Lord." Isaiah, however, seems to prophesy these things in the person of the apostles, to whom the office of preaching had been entrusted; and they, seeing the scarcity of believers especially from the people of Israel, say to the Lord, "Lord, who has believed our report?" — just as that other saying is also spoken in their person, that "we have announced him as a child before him, as a root in a thirsting land." And it is likewise they who speak as though they were placed with him and beheld him in human condition, saying, "we saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness," and the rest. But even if these words are referred to the person of the prophets themselves, as of men complaining before the Lord that no one, or only very few, out of that people believed the things they had prophesied concerning Christ, it will not seem foreign to the sense. Or is it not to be supposed that Moses says to the Lord: Lord, no one has believed my report? For if they had believed my writings, they would certainly have believed Christ as well; for I wrote concerning him.
Romans 10:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Therefore faith comes from hearing; and hearing through the word of Christ." Here "the word of Christ" signifies the preaching about Christ. For not only those believed who heard the word from Christ Jesus the Lord himself as he spoke; but far more numerous are they who heard him through others preaching him, as the Lord himself had foretold when he spoke to Thomas: "Because you have seen me," he says, "you have believed; blessed are they who do not see and yet believe." Every word, therefore, which the apostles — and any others who, having received grace from him, preached concerning Christ — he declares to be the word of Christ. Moreover, in the Church, if anyone speaks the wisdom that is from God and the truth of God, if anyone teaches the way of God, which is Christ, and expounds his righteousness, without doubt what he speaks is the word of Christ.
Romans 10:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But I say: Have they not heard? Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." This is taken from the eighteenth psalm, where it says: "There are no speeches nor discourses whose voices are not heard. Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." In which, by the variety of tongues and speeches, the nations are without doubt understood; and it is said that the sound of the apostles of Christ went out indeed into all the earth, but that to the ends of the world not the sound but the words came. This can be understood in this way: that by "the earth" it means all those who are untrained and unteachable, to whom there came not the words, in which the reason of faith and the explanation of wisdom is contained, but the sound of faith by a common and simple preaching; whereas by "the end of the world" it has named all the more learned and more prudent. For "end" indicates the perfection of things. To such as these, then, it declares that not the sound of a voice but words and reason have come — men who, hearing the discourse of faith, are also able to search out and examine the divine Scriptures, so as to recognize the truth of those words which have been announced to them through the apostles. And the Apostle, knowing that there is this difference among them, that is, between sound and words, says in a certain place: "And my speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power" — so as to show that "word" is that by which, through the power of the Spirit, the wisdom of God is more lucidly expounded, whereas "preaching" is that of which the Prophet speaks, that "their sound went out into all the earth": in which, namely, there is the simple announcement of faith, sufficient for all the simpler sort. But elsewhere too he says of himself that he is "a preacher and an apostle, and a teacher of the nations." In which "apostle" indeed indicates the general name of the office, of one who not only preaches but also teaches: he preaches indeed the simple faith, as to those to whom he says, "For I judged that I knew nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified"; but he teaches those to whom he said, "Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect." In these it is shown that to the former he set forth the sound of preaching, but to the latter he expounded the wisdom of God through words.
Romans 10:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But I say: Has Israel not known? First Moses says: I will lead you to jealousy by a non-nation, by a foolish nation; I will bring you into wrath." He seems to have spoken the things said above concerning the nations; but now, as is his custom, to add something also concerning Israel; and he wishes to prove by suitable witnesses that Israel is without excuse. Moses himself, he says, speaks in the person of God: "I will lead you to jealousy by a non-nation" — speaking without doubt of the Christians, who have been taken up by God to provoke the jealousy of the former people, unbelieving and contemptuous. But perhaps it may seem that Moses addressed rather insultingly a nation chosen by God for the merit of its faith and devotion, when he says, "by a non-nation," and so counts it as nothing, so as not to deign even to call it a nation; or, if he does call it one, to name it foolish. But Moses is not insulting, being as he is the friend of God, toward God's elect; nor will there seem to be any reproach in the expression, if the reason of the expression be made plain. Every single nation — for example, of the Egyptians, or the Syrians, or the Moabites — is called this nation or that for the reason that it is distinguished by its own boundaries, and language, and dress, and customs and institutions; and Syrians are never called Egyptians, nor are Moabites called Idumaeans, nor Arabs Scythians. But of Christians there is not one nation, but out of all nations one people; and therefore Moses named it "a non-nation" as the highest honor, because it was not one nation but, if it may be so said, the nation of all nations. But we shall seem to be excluded in what follows, where he says: "I will lead you into anger by a foolish nation" — in that he has called them both a nation and foolish. Yet not even in this does Moses, the servant of God, do dishonor to the people of God; rather he foresaw in the Spirit that if anyone wishes to be wise in this world, he must become foolish, that he may be wise with God; and "since the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe"; and that through the preaching of the cross of Christ, which is foolishness to the Gentiles, a people would be gathered which should become foolish in this world, that it might be wise with God.
Romans 10:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The Jews, then, are angry that, when they themselves made excuses and refused, the Gentiles were invited to the king's banquet — not looking to those things which long ago concerning this mystery "Isaiah dares to say: I was found by those who did not seek me; I appeared openly among those who did not ask after me. But to Israel what does he say? All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts." Just as in the passages above we have often shown that the Apostle Paul speaks now of the Gentiles, now of Israel, and yet does not plainly and openly declare the change of person, so Isaiah too does in these words which the Apostle has brought forward as an illustration; and the first part indeed, that is, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I appeared openly among those who did not ask after me," he says without doubt concerning the Gentiles; and where the prophet secretly changes the person, the Apostle has given a clear distinction by his own words in that he added, "But to Israel what does he say?" And the former words he expounds as referring to the Gentiles, but the following as to be referred to Israel, in which he says: "All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts." But first of all, as to what he says, "Isaiah dares to say," let us see what he dares, or what daring of the prophet is here taught. If we attend to the words of the blessed Stephen, who says: "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute, who announced the coming of the Just One?" — then we understand Isaiah's daring, who, with persecutions and death set before him, nevertheless dared to preach the coming of the Just One, and for the good's sake dares even to die. Yet in this at the same time that also is shown, that the prophets did not, as some suppose, fail to know what they were saying, and prophesy as it were with their own understanding estranged from them. For what the Apostle says of Isaiah, that "he dares and says," indicates this: that despising death and the persecutions which were being inflicted, although he knew that danger threatened him, he nevertheless dares and preaches the word of God — as Paul himself also said: "I know that bonds and prisons await me at Jerusalem; but I do not hold my life dearer to myself." So then Isaiah too knew indeed that he was to be sawn asunder and slain by the impious, yet he dares, and in the person of Christ says: "I was found by those who did not seek me." Now it is certain that it was the Gentiles who neither had known how to seek Christ nor had learned to ask after him; yet they found him whom they did not seek, because he first sought them. For he is the Good Shepherd, and he sought out the sheep that had perished; and he is the Wisdom that sought the lost drachma, and in seeking found it.
Romans 10:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But the Jews even to this day seek concerning Christ, and question the Scriptures about him, and do not find; because his cross is to the Jews a stumbling-block. And therefore he says to them: "All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts" — that is, when he hung upon the cross, they not only did not find him, but moreover said: "If you are the Son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe you." But hear also what is said in the Wisdom of Solomon: that "he will not be found by those who tempt him; but he will appear to those who are not unbelieving toward him." Yet neither is it fitting that this be unknown to us, that in the copies of the Hebrews the words "and contradicts" are not found. The Apostle, however, followed in his writings the truth of the Seventy Translators, and sets it down just as they translated it.
Romans 11:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Since from the things said above the Jewish people might perhaps seem to have been cast off by God and to bear no hope, seeing that God has led them into jealousy by a no-nation, and into anger by a foolish nation, and has been made manifest to those who did not seek him, and has been found by those who did not ask after him — therefore the Apostle, wishing to remedy these things and to show that a way of salvation remains for the people of Israel if they believe, and that they were not cast off for the reason that they are of the race of Israel, but because they were unbelieving, says: "God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew." And that he might prove this by a present example, he adds: "For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin" — and yet I teach the faith of Jesus, and announce that he is the Christ. But if it has not been a hindrance to me that I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, so as to keep me from believing in Christ and being justified by faith in him, it is certain that "God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew." And in what sense "whom he foreknew, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified," has already been said above; and that for God to foreknow is set down in the Scriptures as meaning not only to know beforehand things future (which cannot even be doubted), but to approve, and to deem worthy of his knowledge.
Romans 11:2-5 — HOMILIES ON JUDGES 2
And do you wish to see that not by me, but by the Apostle these things are expounded as being about us? Hear himself what he says: "but in Elijah what does the Scripture say, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee to Baal" — and he adds: "so therefore", he says, "also at this present time a remnant according to the election of grace has been made safe". You see, then, that those who "bent the knee to the Baalim" and "those who did not bend it" he interprets of the remnant of believers and of the multitude of unbelievers. And this he shows: that those who in the time of the Savior proved unbelieving and impious "bent the knee to the Baalim" and adored idols, but those who believe and fulfill the works of faith "did not bend the knee to the Baalim".
Romans 11:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But lest it should seem a small thing that he taught by his own example that the people of God had not been cast off, the Apostle seeks stronger examples, and says: "Or do you not know what the Scripture says in Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him?" In these words we are taught that the prophet, once filled with zeal for God, laid before God his complaint of the transgressing people, who had not only killed the prophets and overthrown the altars, but were also trying to destroy Elijah, who seemed to be the only one left of the prophets of the Lord.
Romans 11:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And when Elijah made this lament before God, hear what the divine oracles answer him: "I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees to Baal." Baal is the name of an idol, to whose worship that people had fallen away, having abandoned the law of God. But let us see what the very number of seven thousand men indicates. The number seven pertains to rest. For "on the seventh day God rested." Hear then also how Christ invites those who believe in him to rest, and says: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened; and you shall find rest for your souls." To this number seven, therefore, belongs everyone who, coming to Christ, has laid down the burdens of sin and found the rest of salvation.
Romans 11:5 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.13
Not only the Gentiles are benefited by the coming of Christ but also some who belong to the divine race, many of whom have been called to salvation.
Romans 11:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
These are the things which the Apostle brings forward as an example for the present time. And he adds: "So therefore at this present time also a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved. But if by grace, then no longer of works: otherwise grace is no longer grace." We must therefore show, so far as we are able, how, just as it happened under Elijah, where the prophet had supposed the whole people together to have been rejected, and seven thousand men are found who had remained in the covenant of God — so it happened also at the coming of Christ, and in those times in which Paul was preaching. And see whether we can perhaps set John the Baptist, who went before the coming of the Savior, in the place of Elijah: since indeed the Gospel bears such witness of him, that he came "in the spirit and power" of Elijah; and the Lord himself said of him: "And if you wish to know, he is Elijah. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." This man, then, who had come in the spirit and power of Elijah, had so despaired of that people that he said they were not the offspring of Abraham but the offspring of vipers; and added to this: "Do not say that we have Abraham for our father. For I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham." To him, then, thus complaining about the people, let this be answered by our Lord and Savior: "I know whom I have chosen"; and again: "My sheep hear my voice, and I go before them, and my own follow me"; and again: "I have other sheep which are not of this fold: I must bring them also." Rightly then does the Apostle say that "so at this present time also a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved" — calling a remnant those of the circumcision who believed, both the apostles, among whom he numbers himself as well, and the rest who together with them followed the faith of Jesus Christ. But as for his saying that the remnant was saved "according to the election of grace," this addition of "election" does not seem to me superfluous. For he could have said: "A remnant has been saved" by grace; but by these words he shows that there is a grace both without election and with election. For all indeed who are saved through faith are without doubt saved through grace; but those who are saved through "the election of grace" seem to me to be shown to be of a more perfect soul. For just as everyone who is descended from the race of Israel is called Israel, but he is the true Israel who with a pure mind and a sincere heart sees God, so also we can understand this: that all indeed who come to faith in Christ come through grace; but he who adorns the gift of grace with works of virtue and purity of heart, he will be said by Christ to be saved not only through grace, but through "the election of grace." Finally the apostle Paul himself, if anyone observes him carefully in his words, sees how he uses distinctions of this kind: in one place naming Israel according to the flesh, in another making no mention at all of the flesh concerning him — as in the present passage, where, when he said that "God has not cast off his people," and wished to set forth the nobility of the Israelite soul, he says: "For I also am an Israelite." But in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, where he is compelled to answer certain men who boasted of Israelite descent according to the flesh, see what he puts first: "What I speak," he says, "I speak not according to God, but as it were in foolishness, in this matter of boasting. Since indeed many boast according to the flesh; I too will boast." And after a little he says: "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I." So then, where he was speaking of Israel with reference to that inner man (for such is that people whom God foreknew and did not cast off), he does not say Israel "according to the flesh"; but to those who boasted in fleshly descent he first declared that concerning boasting of this ki…
Romans 11:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he added: "But if by grace, then no longer of works." It must be known that the works which Paul rejects, and frequently censures, are not the works of righteousness which are commanded in the law, but those in which they who keep the law according to the flesh glory — that is, either circumcision of the flesh, or the rite of sacrifices, or the observance of sabbaths and new moons. These, then, and such as these are the works from which he says no one could be saved, and about which in the present passage he says that it is "not of works: otherwise grace is no longer grace." For if anyone is justified through these, he is not justified freely. But he who is justified through grace — these works indeed are not required of him; yet he ought to take care that the grace he has received does not become void in him, as Paul also says: "his grace in me was not void, but I labored more than all of them." And again he adds, as one mindful of grace: "Not I," he says, "but the grace of God with me." He, therefore, does not make grace void who joins to it works worthy of it, and is not ungrateful for the grace of God. For he who sins after obtaining grace becomes ungrateful to him who bestowed the grace. But if you do not make grace void, grace will be multiplied to you, and as it were as a reward for good work you will obtain an abundance of graces — as he himself also writes, and Peter says in his Epistle: "May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God"; and again elsewhere: "As good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
Romans 11:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
In these words the Apostle divides Israel into two parts: one of which he calls the election, which has obtained what it was seeking; the other he names "the rest," who not only did not obtain what they were seeking, but were blinded with a spirit of compunction. And he says that God even "gave" to them "eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this present day," that is, unto the consummation of the age.
Romans 11:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But a question is raised for us: how can it seem to be said worthily of the good God that he himself gave to the remainder of Israel eyes with which they should not see, and ears with which they should not hear? And see whether perhaps this is rather a recompense and the wage of unbelief, according to what we expounded in the earlier portions, where it is said that, because "they did not approve of having God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a reprobate mind." For here too he speaks of the eyes and ears of the heart, not of the body, with which those men are blinded and do not hear — those, namely, who, seeing Christ in the body and hearing his teaching, were willing neither to believe the works which they saw nor to obey the word which they heard. But on this very question enough has been said by us in the first parts of this Epistle. Where, however, this very thing may be written which the Apostle says — "As it is written: God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this present day" — I have thus far been unable to find. But if anyone applies himself to the divine Scriptures more diligently than we, let him make it plain if he finds it. Yet I think the Apostle spoke in this manner: "But the rest were blinded; and, as it is written of them, God gave them a spirit of compunction," so that he seems to say in his own words that God gave them a spirit of compunction in accordance with those things which were said through Isaiah about the blindness of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. For Isaiah speaks thus: "Go, and say to this people: With hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not see. For the heart of this people has been made gross, and with their ears they have heard heavily; and they have closed their eyes, lest perchance they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." Now therefore the Apostle seems to have set forth the sense of Isaiah, but in his own words; yet because he was giving the prophet's sense, he added: "As it is written."
Romans 11:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he does likewise with those things which he declares to have been said through David. For he says: "And David says: Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always." For as to what he says, "Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block" — "a trap" is not found written in the Psalm, neither in our copies of the Seventy Translators nor in those of the Hebrews. And again, in the Psalm it stands: "Let their table before them become a snare"; but the Apostle did not put "before them." These things we have mentioned concerning the order of the words and the character of the testimonies taken up, in order to show point by point that apostolic authority in no way puts its trust in the copies of the Hebrews, nor does it always serve the words of the translators, but sets forth the sense of the Scriptures in the words that suit it.
Romans 11:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now therefore let us see how the sense of the chapter before us ought to be explained. The blindness of heart by which the remainder of Israel — that is, the part which did not believe — was blinded, he proves by two prophetic testimonies, the one which seems to be taken from Isaiah, and the one from David; and in both a single sense, in a certain way, is set forth. For here eyes are given them with which they may not see, and ears with which they may not hear; and there it is wished that their table before them may become a snare, and a trap, and a recompense, and a stumbling block, and that their eyes may be darkened so that they may not see. And it does not seem idle to show how these things may be believed to be worthily said, and especially in the psalm from the person of Christ. See, then, whether we can explain in this way what is sought. Just as each person uses his bodily eyes for seeing either good things or evil, and has it in his power either to lift up his eyes to heaven and, through what he sees, to acknowledge its Founder and to praise the Creator, or to turn them toward the spectacles of the circus or of the theater, or to the delights of any sordid sights whatever, by which the mind is inflamed either to lust or to rapacity or to any other vices: so understand for me also the eyes of the soul, which some indeed use so as to recognize the Word of God and the teaching of truth, and daily to take profit from his wisdom; but others use these eyes to the contrary end, exercising themselves daily, namely, and inquiring how they may break down the doctrines of truth and, so far as it seems to them, assail the faith of Christ. Let us suppose, then, that someone prays for those who are sharp-sighted and full of argument in false knowledge, and says: May God give them "eyes that they may not see" the subtleties of a perverse understanding, "and ears that they may not hear" the teachers, namely, of falsehood, and "let their eyes be darkened that they may not see" — does not the man who wishes for them those things by which their sins are lessened seem to you one to be embraced? For it is much better not to know than to know evilly. Does it not seem to you, I say, that Marcion, who composed blasphemous writings against God the Creator, or Basilides, or Valentinus, or the other authors of depraved doctrines, would have been blessed if they had not had those eyes of the heart with which they understood evilly? For of these Isaiah says: "Woe to those who write! For in writing they write wickedness." And in like manner David also prays in the Psalms for those who teach evilly and speak evilly, and says: "Let the wicked lips be made mute, which speak iniquity against the just man in pride and contempt." So then it is said also of Israel: "Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see," and, May God give them "eyes that they may not see." Let this be said so far as concerns the blindness of eyes which seems to be given by God to the ill-seeing and unbelieving Israel as a kind of remedy.
Romans 11:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"I say then: Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, that they may emulate them." When the Apostle had set forth those things in which Israel was rejected and the Gentiles were brought in, and had also enumerated the prophecies which had foretold concerning their blindness, and the snare, and the recompense, and the stumbling-block, lest he should again furnish the Gentiles with occasions for insulting and matter for pride, he says that the very fall of Israel was of such a kind, not that they should fall, but that by their transgression they should give salvation to the Gentiles; and he says: "I say then: Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles." And he shows how salvation is given to the Gentiles out of their transgression: "That they may emulate them," he says: that is, that seeing the conversion of the Gentiles, and the covenant of God, which they themselves had first received, handed over to those others, and the law and the prophets held among them with greater and worthier observance, they too may take up zeal at least in the last times; and just as now their fall has given salvation to the Gentiles, so the faith and manner of life of the Gentiles may confer upon Israel the emulation of conversion and of salvation. It must nevertheless be observed that Paul sets down one thing as stumbling and transgressing, and another as falling; and for stumbling indeed, or for transgression, he provides a remedy; but that they have fallen — as though there were in this some despair — he does not admit. For he says: "Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles." And it is a wonder how, amid so many and such things as the whole text of the Epistle sets forth concerning them, the Apostle nevertheless denies that they have fallen. But it seems to me that Paul well knew the differences of falling, and knew that it is one thing to fall according to that which is written: "Seven times shall the just man fall, and shall rise again"; and again: "Do not insult me, O my enemy, because I have fallen: I shall also rise again"; and according to what Jeremiah says: "Shall not he who falls add that he may rise again? or shall he who has turned away not be converted?" But Job too says concerning himself: "At the appointed time it was prepared for him to fall under others, and for his house to be plundered by strangers"; and in the fourth book of Kings it is written: "Hezekiah fell from the elation of his heart." And all these falls, of which we have recalled that Scripture has spoken in the passages cited above, do assuredly have a rising again; and their turning away has a conversion. But in the present chapter, as though the Apostle knew that if they had fallen they could by no means rise again, so does he deny that they have fallen, and strongly excuses them in that he says: "Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid." Lest perhaps, then, the Apostle, looking to another kind of fall, should excuse Israel and deny that it has fallen — to that fall, perhaps, of which our Lord and Savior was speaking when he said that "I saw Satan fallen from heaven like lightning"; and also that of which Isaiah says: "How has Lucifer fallen from heaven, he who rose in the morning?" It is with such a fall, then, that he here denies that Israel has fallen. For their conversion will take place even at the end of the age, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and all Israel shall be saved; but of that one who is said to have fallen from heaven there will be no conversion even at the end of the age. Let us therefore observe that the fall we spoke of above — that is, in which he who falls shall add that he may rise again — is similar to this which in this very place the Apostle names a stumbling, and which he calls a…
Romans 11:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if their transgression is the riches of the world, and their diminishment the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?" Consider in these things the wisdom of God, how with him not even transgressions and falls themselves turn out to be useless; but while each one transgresses out of the freedom of his own purpose, the dispensation of divine wisdom, in that very thing by which those men become poor through the loss incurred by their negligence, makes others rich. For indeed, "when God divided the nations, and scattered the sons of Adam, he established the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord's portion was then made Jacob, and Israel the cord of his inheritance." But when those angels, to whom the portion of the Gentiles had been distributed, in a certain way seduced and corrupted individuals from the Lord's portion, they made them stumble, so that the Lord said through the prophet: "My desirable portion has become to me an execration"; it was necessary that, when that portion had been refused and rejected, there should be another portion of the Lord upon the earth, which should receive the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the services of the worship of God (all of which were the riches of the Lord's portion), and should be called the Lord's portion in place of that portion which had stumbled. For this reason "their transgression" becomes "the riches of the world." For now no longer is one nation of the Hebrews, but the whole world has been made the portion of the Lord. For the Savior himself says: "Because I came not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through me." And lest the term "world" should seem ambiguous — since indeed the designation of "world" is often referred to heaven and earth, often to the earth alone, and sometimes even to all men — for that reason the Apostle repeats it, and more plainly indicates in what sense he has said "world." For he says: "And their diminishment, the riches of the Gentiles." For what was diminished and taken away from those who stumbled has been conferred upon the riches of the Gentiles, who through faith have been made the Lord's portion and his inheritance. And well has he rendered "fullness" in answer to "diminishment," and not without some profound meaning does Paul call the people of Israel a "fullness." In which I, according to my powers, understand something of this sort: Now indeed, while all the nations are coming to salvation, the riches of God are being gathered from the multitude of believers; but as long as Israel persists in unbelief, the fullness of the Lord's portion will not yet be said to be complete. For the people of Israel is lacking to its integrity. But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and Israel in the last time has come through faith to salvation, that will be the people which was indeed the first; but coming last, it will in a certain way complete the very fullness of the inheritance and portion of the Lord. And therefore it is called a "fullness," because what was lacking in God's portion, it will itself complete in the last times; and thus the dispensation of the almighty and good God makes the transgressions of some fruitful for others, just as in the present case it makes the transgressions of Israel the riches of the world, and their diminishment the riches of the Gentiles. Now indeed, whether from the transgressions of the Gentiles also, which they necessarily commit, the Dispenser of all things may do something of this sort, and confer riches upon some of them — lest this should seem to have been something special belonging to Israel alone, but rather that equity may be held to exist with the just and good God over all — you also who read must inquire this for yourself.
Romans 11:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For I say to you Gentiles: As long indeed as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will glorify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to emulation my own flesh, and may save some of them." As we have often observed in this Epistle, Paul sometimes speaks on behalf of the Jews, sometimes on behalf of the Gentiles, and at times directs his discourse to one or the other of these, or to both, as when he said, "But if you are called a Jew," speaking as though to a Jew; and again, "to the Jew first, and to the Greek," speaking as though to both. So now, openly addressing the Gentiles — that is, chiefly those in the city of Rome who had come to faith from among the Gentiles — he says: "For I say to you Gentiles." Let us therefore see what he says to the Gentiles. "As long indeed as I am," he says, "the apostle of the Gentiles, I will glorify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to emulation my own flesh, and may save some of them." Someone will say: What he says, "As long as I am the apostle of the Gentiles," seems to show that he will not always be the apostle of the Gentiles, but that, once his ministry is completed, he will be the apostle of some others, whoever they may be. But so far as may be gathered both from his own words and from the course of what actually happened, he is proved to have remained the apostle of the Gentiles in faith and truth as long as he was in this world. What then shall we say? Was it perhaps that, like a good and faithful servant who had been faithful in a few things, he knew that he was to be set over many things, and that he would be an apostle even after his own departure, not only of the Gentiles but also of the Israelites, and perhaps of others invisible, there where the spirits and souls of the just bless the Lord, sing a hymn, and exalt him above all forever? Or ought we rather to take it as simply said, "As long as I am the apostle of the Gentiles," just as the Lord also says to the apostles: "And behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age" — not that he says he will not be with them after the consummation of the age, but that, to show that he would never depart from them, he said "even to the consummation of the age"; so too the Apostle said "As long as I am an apostle" in the sense of "always and without end." But which of the two expositions ought to be accepted we leave to the reader's judgment. Therefore, as long as Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles, he says that he glorifies his ministry: and what is so fitting as that each one should adorn the ministry which he receives through God's providence? Now he adorns and glorifies his ministry who ministers well, just as, on the contrary, he dishonors his ministry and makes it notorious who has ministered negligently and unworthily. For example, in the ministry of the Church, "the deacon," he says, "who has ministered well acquires for himself a good standing, and much confidence in the faith of Jesus Christ." But if he has not ministered well — that is, if he has not shown himself such as the Apostle describes, grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, but holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience — he acquires for himself not now a good standing, but an evil punishment, as one who has done insult to the divine ministry. And in like manner, whoever receives the rank of the presbyterate in the Church, let him take pains to glorify the ministry of a presbyter. For to him pertain both those things which the Apostle writes to Titus concerning presbyters, and those things which Isaiah writes when he says: "The Lord himself will come into judgment with the elders of the people and with its princes he will enter into judgment"; and he adds: "But why do you set my vineyard on fire, and the plunder of the poor is in your houses? Why do you do injury to my people, and put to shame the persons of the poor?" And according to these things the bishop too glorifies his minist…
Romans 11:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For this is what Paul also was doing, by teaching and instructing the Gentiles, whose apostle he was; nourishing the weak with herbs, feeding the little ones with milk, offering to the strong the stronger food of the word; and travailing again in birth with a mother's affection over those who erred and wavered in the faith and were reduced as it were to something abortive, until Christ should be formed in them: and through all these things, by glorifying the ministry of his apostleship, he was leading his own flesh — that is, his kinsmen according to the flesh — into an emulation of faith and a zeal for good conduct; so that, if not all, he might yet save some of them. Thus therefore, while he exercises vigilant care and unceasing solicitude over the teaching of the Gentiles, and renders their conduct and life highly commendable, the Israelites who were his kinsmen according to the flesh, seeing these things, are invited and provoked to imitate those who advance in faith in God: and it is the glory of his ministry when from their instruction a benefit accrues to those others as well.
Romans 11:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For if the loss of them is the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" This is what the Apostle seems to me to show in these words: that, Israel having been cast off and the preaching necessarily transferred to the Gentiles, the world (that is, all the nations) has been reconciled to God, according to what is written: "For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to them their offenses"; and again, as Paul says: "Who has placed in us the word of reconciliation"; through which word he was saying: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." If therefore, he says, the casting off of this Israelite nation furnished reconciliation to the world, and if so great was the grace toward that nation that, when taken from it, it sufficed to reconcile the whole world to God, how much do you think the world will then merit, when that nation too shall have merited to be reconciled to God? And what it is that the world will gain from the reconciliation of Israel, he shows briefly, saying: "Life from the dead." For then will be the receiving of Israel, when the dead too shall receive life, and the world shall from corruptible become incorruptible, and mortals shall be endowed with immortality. For it would seem absurd that, when their offense bestowed reconciliation upon the world, their receiving should not bestow upon the world something greater and more excellent.
Romans 11:16-24 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But if the firstfruits are holy, so is the lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though you were a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a sharer in the root and the fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, it is not you who bear the root, but the root you. You say then: The branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Well: they were broken off because of unbelief. But you stand by faith: do not be proud in your thinking, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Behold, then, the goodness and the severity of God: toward those indeed who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in goodness. Otherwise you too will be cut off, and they, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more shall these, who are according to nature, be grafted into their own olive tree?" I do not know how those who come from the school of Valentinus and Basilides, failing to hear these things thus spoken by Paul, suppose that there is a nature of souls which is always saved and never perishes, and another which always perishes and is never saved: when Paul plainly says that the branches of the good olive tree were broken off because of their own unbelief, and stood in need of the vengeance of divine severity; and again that the branches of the wild olive — which among them is set down as a nature that is lost — were grafted into the root and fatness of the olive tree. But to those people, indeed, an easy answer may be given by these words. Nevertheless, even to us who say that the nature of all human beings — nay rather, of all rational beings — is one, and equally capable of salvation and, if it be careless, of perdition, an objection can be raised, and it may be said: How then does Paul set down a good olive tree and a wild olive, since surely, if he knew the nature of all to be one, he would not have introduced the example of trees of different kinds? To this, then, it must be said: Just as all bodily matter, though it is beyond doubt of one nature, brings forth diverse species through the qualities that accrue to it — whether of bodies, or of trees, or of grasses — so also, since the nature of all rational beings is one, endowed equally with the liberty of its own free choice, the particular movements of each one, brought forth from the power of free choice, leading the soul subject to them either toward virtue or toward lust, form that soul either into the species of a good tree or of a bad one: so that it is called a good tree, if through the power of free choice it has chosen good things; or is called bad, if it has chosen evil things. And thus each one, according to the movements of his own purpose, will be named either a good olive, if he walks the path of virtue, or, if he pursues the contrary, a wild olive. Hence, finally, the Lord also said in the Gospel: "Either make the tree good, and its fruits good; or make the tree bad, and its fruits bad;" so as to show that a tree is not born good or bad, but becomes so. But now, if something should be added to the liberty of choice which from without either provokes to evils or exhorts to good things through certain ineffable dispensations of divine Providence, this in no way damages the consistency of the solution proposed; for the rational nature has within itself the liberty of choice, vigorous also with respect to these things, by which it can either obey, if it will, the one provoking, or, if it will not, spurn the one exhorting. But what we said — that qualities accruing from without to bodily matter render diverse species, some indeed enduring for a long time, some for a short, and some scarcely lasting not only a…
Romans 11:16-24 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 32
I think that the Mount of Olives is a mystery of the Church which is from the Gentiles, in which olive trees have been planted, each one of which can say: "but I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God". And perhaps too on this Mount of Olives the roots of the good olive tree are present, but the branches of the wild olive have been grafted in in the place of the branches which "were cut off through unbelief". And the husbandman residing on the Mount of Olives is the Word of God confirmed in the Church, Christ, who is ever grafting the branches of the wild olive into the good olive tree of the fathers, of Moses and of the rest of the prophets, so that, receiving richness from the holy prophets (through this, that they carefully understand their meaning, and receive also the Christ who is prophesied by them), they may offer abundant and richer fruit—than, that is to say, the former olives, which because of the curse that was in the law have been shaken down, so that they can no longer be of use.
Romans 11:22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 68
For indeed He is truly hard (according to what Matthew says) and "austere" (according to what Luke said), but to those who abuse the mercy of God unto their own negligence and not unto their own conversion, as the Apostle says: "Behold the goodness of God and the severity; toward those indeed who fell, severity, but toward you, goodness, if you shall remain in goodness". For whoever judges God to be good, believing that he will receive pardon if he shall have been converted to Him, to that man God is good. But whoever esteems Him so good that He cares nothing about the sins of sinners, to that man God is not good but hard and "austere"; for He is zealous over the sins of men who despise Him.
Romans 11:25-26 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
For I see that the former people, who were before us, became "like a stone," hard and unbelieving; yet not so far as to remain in the nature of a stone, but "until this people pass over, the people whom he has acquired": for "blindness in part happened in Israel" — that Israel according to the flesh — "until the fullness of the nations should enter in." For when "the fullness of the nations shall have entered in," then also "all Israel," which through the hardness of unbelief had become "like a stone," "shall be saved." And do you wish to see how it "shall be saved"? "God is able," he says, "from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham." Now, therefore, they remain stones, "until your people pass over, O Lord, this your people whom you have acquired."
Romans 11:25-27 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that you be not wise in your own conceit: that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in: and so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion he who shall deliver and shall turn away impieties from Jacob: and this is my covenant with them, when I shall have taken away their sins." Still addressing those who had believed from among the Gentiles, as being elated and proud against the branches that were broken off, and thinking that they had obtained this not by God's goodness and the ineffable dispensation of his wisdom, but by their own merits — namely that, with those broken off, they themselves, though they were wild olives, should be grafted into the good olive tree — he says: "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that you be not wise in your own conceit;" because to insult the fallen, and to boast against the branches that were broken off, comes not from the wisdom of God, but from a human wisdom, notorious and ignorant of the mystery of God. For he who is wise according to God does not, amid God's benefits, insult those who have been cast down, but with fear gives thanks to the mercy that bestows them. The mystery, then, which was unknown to those who insulted, is of this sort: how, in the dispersion of the sons of Adam, when all the other nations were distributed according to the number of the angels, Israel was made a certain portion proper to God, as also in other places where it was fitting, and in these very passages a little above, we have recalled — to whom also the promises of good things, and the covenants, and the giving of the law were made. So long, then, as that portion of the Lord remained in its own state, it was not possible for us, who were Gentiles, to enter into the inheritance of God, and to succeed to the rights of his scepter. For this reason, therefore, God allows a blindness to come about in part — that is, not upon all, but upon some of Israel — brought upon them, without doubt, by those angels who had obtained by lot the rule of the other nations, under the pretext of envious rivalry. God therefore allowed it, and, though he could have prevented it, was unwilling to do so, in order that, in exchange for those who were deceived by blindness — that is, who fell through the dullness of their heart — God might make the portions of those very ones who had deceived them his own portion, so that in a certain way they might be caught in that very thing by which they had caught others. For by turning God's people to themselves through the enticements of sin, they made room for the Gentiles to enter into the inheritance of God, God holding judgment with them by a certain common and most equitable right: that so long as they held the people of God in the captivity of blindness, the number of the Gentiles should be rendered as it were in place of those whom from the beginning they had withdrawn from God's portion and his set-apart inheritance; but when the fullness of the Gentiles had been completed, and Israel, through emulation of their salvation, had begun to shake off from itself the blindness of heart, and, with eyes lifted up, to behold Christ the true light, then, according to the preceding prophecies, it might seek, being roused, the salvation which, having been blinded, it had lost, saying within itself that prophetic word: "I will return to my former husband, for it was better for me then than now." But that these things were promised to them through the prophets is found indeed in many prophetic volumes: we shall nevertheless set down what suffices for the present, a single testimony from Jeremiah, running thus: "If heaven be exalted on high, and the earth be humbled below, I will not reject the race of Israel for all that they have done." If, therefore, in order that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, blindness came upon Israe…
Romans 11:28-31 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"According to the Gospel indeed they are enemies for your sake: but according to the election they are most dear for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. For as you also once did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy because of their unbelief: so these also have now not believed, that through the mercy shown to you they too may obtain mercy." The Apostle, still pursuing the same matters concerning Israel and the Gentiles, and reproaching the branches of the wild olive which insulted the broken branches of the olive tree, adds also these things: That Israel according to the Gospel has indeed been made an enemy to God, because it did not believe Christ: but so far as regards the honor due to the fathers, it is elect, and is held most dear with God. But election having once been granted to the seed of the fathers, and love conceded, God without doubt preserves his gifts and his calling toward the seed of those to whose merits he once bestowed this: nor does repentance come upon God, even if those upon whom the benefits promised to the fathers are conferred appear to be less worthy. But, as we have often advised, in the present passage also that distinction is to be observed, that the Israel which is an enemy to God is said to be that which cries out concerning Christ: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him." For how should they not be called enemies of God, who either then, or even now, have said such things, or say them? But when he says, "for your sake," this means, those namely whose salvation they envy, forbidding the apostles to speak to the Gentiles, and persecuting those who announce Christ. But according to the remnant which is said to be saved, in which the election of believers followed from Israel, they are "most dear for the sake of the fathers:" whose faith namely they follow, believing "in him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead." And according to this, toward such a seed "the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance." But after these things he opens also the hidden and deeper causes of their unbelief, and says: That just as you Gentiles once did not believe God, nor yet did God on that account utterly abandon you, but at last at some time you obtained mercy — yet the occasion of mercy being conferred upon you was the unbelief of the people of Israel — so also these who now from the people of Israel have not believed, and for their unbelief have been abandoned, so that the mercy of God might be turned toward you, will not be left forever in their unbelief; but after the dispensation of the fullness of the Gentiles has been fulfilled, they too shall obtain mercy.
Romans 11:32 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
In this passage the Apostle, wishing to display the goodness of God, by which he brings about the salvation of some through the unbelief of others, says: "God has shut up all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all"; not that he himself thrust upon them the purpose of unbelief, but that out of their own purpose of unbelief he opened up an approach to faith for others who had themselves previously been unbelievers. Now Paul, having taken his stand at these points and looking more deeply into causes of this kind — how it is that God does not at once cut away and excise an evil purpose, but suffers it and holds it in reserve, foreseeing that some good will come to others through another's evil purpose — turned, I think, the eyes of his heart from those of whom he was speaking to the very origin of wickedness: namely, that God from the beginning did not judge it useful to cut it away when it sprouted in those in whom it first arose, whoever they may be, and grew by the liberty of choice; but permitted them to use their own purpose, knowing and foreseeing that the progress and benefit of many would arise from the occasion of their wickedness. And so great is the room for virtue with the good God, that even the work of wickedness, though it be ruinous to him from whom it proceeds, is nevertheless so ordered as to confer a benefit upon him for whom it stirs up contests, when it has been overcome.
Romans 11:33 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Therefore the holy Apostle, considering that the riches of God's goodness are so great, and that so great a work of the divine wisdom is carried on toward rational natures, and that "God is so rich in mercy," and "rich toward all who call upon him," and that such is the magnitude of his goodness and patience and long-suffering — suddenly beholding these things with the inner eyes of the heart, and perceiving their immensity, struck at once with amazement and with awe, cries out and says: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" For whence could the perception of the human mind have supposed such things — that, with the liberty of choice preserved to each one, the work of one man's wickedness should be turned to another's salvation, and should confer the palm upon the one who conquers it, while it brings ruin upon the one who practices it? Having therefore surveyed these matters by a general reasoning, as it appears, the Apostle cries out and says that so great is the depth of the riches of God, and so great is the depth of his wisdom, and no less great is the depth of his knowledge (for the word "depth" serves for all of these), that no one is capable of searching out his judgments, by which he dispenses to each single soul and to every rational nature, nor can anyone investigate the ways of God along which his providence proceeds. And by "anyone" we mean not only of human beings, but of the whole creation. For his judgments would not be called unsearchable, and his ways past finding out, save because there is no creature that is able either to investigate or to search them out. For the Son alone is he who knows the Father, and the Holy "Spirit" alone is he who "searches all things, even the depth of God." And therefore this depth of God, which he calls both unsearchable and past finding out, he calls unsearchable and past finding out to every creature. But of the Son and of the Holy Spirit he could not say these things, because the Son says in the Gospel to the Father: "Father, all mine are thine, and thine are mine"; and concerning the Holy Spirit Paul himself declares, saying: "For no one among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him: so also the things which are in God no one has known, except the Spirit of God."
Romans 11:33 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.26
Paul did not say that God's judgments were hard to search out but that they could not be searched out at all. He did not say that God's ways were hard to find out but that they were impossible to find out. For however far one may advance in the search and make progress through an increasingly earnest study, even when aided and enlightened in the mind by God's grace, he will never be able to reach the final goal of his inquiries.
Romans 11:34 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
You see, then, that Paul in the present chapter, in the words he speaks — "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?" — is speaking of creatures, but excepts the nature of the Trinity: seeing that it has nothing in common with the creature save the work of beneficence. Moreover, as to what he says, "Who has been his counsellor?" — it is not as though he himself, being less than sufficient, stood in need of another's counsel, but he declares that there is no partaker of his counsel among creatures. For counsel is necessarily present to the wise one in his own wisdom, which is Christ, and in his holiness, which is the Holy Spirit.
Romans 11:35 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And in like manner also, "Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him?" is to be understood. For no one has first bestowed anything upon his Maker: since even this very thing that he is, each one has received from his Creator.
Romans 11:36 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"For of him, and through him, and in him are all things." You see how at the end he shows that in all the things he has said above he has marked out the mystery of the Trinity. For just as in the present place what he says — "For of him, and through him, and in him are all things" — agrees with those sayings which the same Apostle records in other places when he says: "One God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things"; and likewise he says that all things are revealed in the Spirit of God, and through these he designates that the providence of the Trinity is in all things; so also when he says "the depth of the riches," he signifies the Father, of whom he says all things are; and by the depth of wisdom he points to Christ, who is his wisdom; and by the depth of knowledge he declares the Holy Spirit, who also knows the deep things of God. Nevertheless, when he says "of him," he indicates this very thing that we are; but "through him," that we are dispensed in life through his providence; and "in him," that the perfection and end of all things will be in him then, when God shall be all in all: and then "to him be glory unto the ages of ages: Amen." "Unto the ages," because the perfection of all things is not confined within one age, but is extended into many, and is scarcely hoped to be fulfilled at some time. And he joins also "Amen," that we may understand that we must come to that blessedness through him of whom it is written in the Apocalypse: "These things says he who is the Amen."
Romans 11:36 — AGAINST CELSUS 6.65
Paul declares that God is the beginning of the substance of all things by the words "of him" and the bond of their subsistence by the expression "through him" and their final end by the term "to him."
Romans 12:1 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 1.5.1
The divine Word wants you to offer your flesh to God in purity, with the understanding of your reason.
Romans 12:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Since throughout the whole text of the Epistle the Apostle had taught in the preceding sections how the sum of religion has been transferred from the Jews to the Gentiles, from circumcision to faith, from the letter to the spirit, from the shadow to the truth, from carnal observance to spiritual observance, and had shown by prophetic utterances that these things were foretold as destined to come about: now at last he undertakes to establish the customs and institutions of this spiritual observance, to which he taught that the rite of God's worship had been transferred, and he says: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service. Since, he says, we have shown that one must withdraw from carnal sacrifices — according to what the Prophet also says: Sacrifices and oblation you did not desire, nor were they pleasing to you — now, he says, I teach you in what sacrifices God delights: and I teach these things not as one commanding, for the command of the law accomplishes nothing, but as one who has undertaken the office of reconciling you to God, I beseech you, brethren; and I beseech you not through power, but through the mercy of God. For because, as I showed above, all have been shut up under sin, now human salvation consists no longer in merits, but in the mercy of God. But what is it that I beseech of you? That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, that it may be your reasonable service. By "service" he here means the worship of God. And since this worship formerly consisted in the bodies of dumb beasts, now, he says, let it be offered in the body of a rational human being, and let your bodies rather than those of cattle become a sacrifice to God, and be placed upon the sacred altars. For those who mortify their members from the incitement of lust and rage, and who keep the acts of their body pleasing to God, offer a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing, reasonably to God, and they fulfill according to spiritual understanding the law of sacrifices that was laid down in Leviticus. For example, as there they offered in the first place a calf, or in the second a ram, or in the third a he-goat, or in the fourth turtledoves or even young pigeons, so that in these the soul of each one might be purified according to the quality of his deeds: these things each one now purifies in his own body, and discerning them by a spiritual sense, offers a living sacrifice to God with reasonable service. Concerning each of these, when we were saying some things on the book of Leviticus, we attempted to explain as best we could how each one, by the reasonable service of God's worship, immolates a calf if he conquers the pride of his body; slaughters a ram if he overcomes anger; offers a he-goat as a holocaust if he conquers lust; sacrifices doves and turtledoves if he cuts off the wandering and slippery flights of his thoughts. But these things, as I have said, anyone who thinks them worth knowing will find discussed there more fully. But now Paul beseeches those who believe in Christ to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. He calls it a living sacrifice, one which bears life — that is, Christ — within itself, and he says: We carry about the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus Christ also may be made manifest in our body. He calls it holy, one in which the Holy Spirit dwells, according to what he said in another place: Or do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? Pleasing to God, inasmuch as it is separated from sins and vices. And all these things are the reasonable worship of God. For a reason can be given for such worship, and it can be shown that it is worthy that such sacrifices be immolated to God; but no right and honorable reason will admit that rams and he-goats and calves be offered to the immortal and incorporeal God. Therefo…
Romans 12:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. It should be known that in the Greek it reads: That you may prove what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God. But we, since one and the same sense can be seen in both, follow the custom of the Latins. Be not conformed, therefore, he says, to this world. In this he shows that there is a certain form of this world, and another of the world to come: and if there are any who love the present world and the things that are in this world, they are fitted to the form of the present world; but those who look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen and are eternal, are transformed and renewed to the form of the world to come: and hence it comes about that this world does not recognize them, but holds them in hatred, and persecutes them. But the angels of God, who belong to that age to come, do recognize that form. And this seems to me to be like that saying in which he says: As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly. See therefore lest perhaps, when anger comes into your heart, it make you conformed to this age; and likewise also evil concupiscence, and avarice, and the remaining vices in which the present age delights, impose upon you the form of the present age. But if, on the contrary, meekness, patience, gentleness, continence, faith, truth, and the remaining virtues dwell in your mind, they will make you conformed to the age to come, and will render the beauty of your soul so fair that the Word of God, who has betrothed her to himself in mercy and in faith, will say to her: You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and there is no spot in you. But attend more carefully to what he says: But be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that he may show that the earlier form was indeed blameworthy. For every soul previously had the form of wickedness. But from this the apostolic word exhorts us that, when that form has been cast off, we should be reformed to the beauty of each of the several virtues, and so at last be able, with the face of the heart unveiled, to behold the glory of the Lord, being transformed from an image of this kind. But how we are to be transformed into these things he himself teaches, saying: By the renewal of your mind. Now our mind is renewed through the exercises of wisdom, and the meditation of the word of God, and the spiritual understanding of his law; and the more a man daily makes progress by the reading of the Scriptures, the more deeply his understanding penetrates, the more he is made ever new and daily new. But I do not know whether that mind can be renewed which is sluggish toward the divine Scriptures and toward the exercises of spiritual understanding, by which it might be able not only to understand the things that are written, but also to expound them more openly and to set them forth more carefully. Yet it can come about that not every mind can be renewed in this respect, so as to be enlarged by the recognition of knowledge. For a mind can be renewed unto justice, unto continence, unto mercy, faith, and patience. But see what, in what follows, the Apostle joins to this renewal of the mind. That you may prove, he says, what is the will of God, what is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. And assuredly, unless the mind has been renewed unto all knowledge, and wholly illuminated by the wisdom of God, it cannot prove what the will of God is. For in many things the will of God is thought to be present, and it is not. In this, certainly, those who do not have a renewed mind err and are deceived. But it belongs in truth not to just any mind, but to one greatly renewed and (so to speak) already reformed to the image of God, to prove in each single thing that we do, that we say, that we think, whether it be the will of God; and to do or say or think a…
Romans 12:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
First it must be known that where we have to all who are among you, in the Greek it stands to everyone who is in you. This saying certainly indicates that the word is addressed to those who, whereas before they were not, have now begun to be. For God, as the same Apostle says, calls the things that are not as though they were. But those are not who are not partakers of him who truly is, who said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you. Therefore, when Paul says: For I say to all who are among you; or, as we said it is found in the Greek, to everyone who is in you, it is as if he were saying: For I say to everyone who is in God, not to be more wise than one ought to be wise. Nevertheless it must be observed that Paul, as he says also in other places, speaks not in the persuasive words of fleshly wisdom, but through the grace which has been given to him. For there is a great difference between one who speaks through grace and one who speaks through human wisdom. And indeed it has often been discovered by experience itself that certain eloquent and learned men, powerful not only in speech but also in ideas, though they have said many things in the churches and received immense applause and praise, yet none of the hearers received compunction of heart from the things that were said, nor made progress toward faith, nor was stirred to the fear of God by the recollection of the things that were said; but people depart with their ears captivated by a certain sweetness and delight alone. But often men of no great eloquence, and not devoted to the composition of speech, by simple and unpolished words convert many of the unbelieving to faith, bend the proud to humility, and drive into sinners the goad of conversion. And this certainly is the sign, as the Apostle says in the present passage, of speaking through the grace which has been given to them. But I think that grace is present not only in those who teach the Church in the word of God, if their discourse be such as we described above — one which does not so much delight the hearer as goad him and lead him to some advance in virtue — but you will find that it is so in nearly all the things that are done in life. For there is one man who both in what he does and in what he says has grace; and another who at times speaks more prudently, and acts more carefully and more laboriously, and yet finds grace neither in his words nor in his deeds. Indeed, as we have already said in other places, it is written that Joseph found grace in the sight of the keeper of the prison, and that Esther found grace with the king. Now we have found it written in a certain more secret little book that there is, as it were, a certain angel of grace, who even draws his name from grace: for he is called Ananehel, which is interpreted "the grace of God." This, then, that writing contained: that this angel was sent by the Lord to Esther, that he might give her grace with the king. So then the power of a discourse that is spoken through grace is one thing, and the force of the authority of teaching is another. But another kind of discourse comes from common learning, which, although it be elegant and artfully composed, nevertheless, if it is neither spoken nor written through grace, can perhaps delight the reader, but cannot lead the hearer to advancement. Paul therefore not only himself says through grace the things he says, but also prays that grace be given to his hearers; and not only grace, but a multitude of grace. For thus he writes: Grace be multiplied to you; and in all his Epistles he says: Grace to you, and peace. But let us see what it is that the Apostle says, through the grace given to him, to all who are among the Romans. Not to be more wise, he says, than one ought to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety. He seems still to be fitting this saying also to the proud branches of the wild olive, who insult the branches that were broken off from the good olive, and to be tel…
Romans 12:4-5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But that the Apostle might designate these matters still more evidently, he introduces an example and says: For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same function: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another: composing through these words the whole body of the Church in the most orderly fashion; so that just as the several members of the body have their own proper functions, and each one serves its own offices, and yet it is not possible that they should not yield to one another by mutual consent: so, he says, also in the Church, which is the body of Christ, we severally have diverse functions. For example: one man devotes all his zeal to the wisdom of God and to the teaching of the word, and persists in meditation upon the divine law day and night; and he is the eye of this great body. Another, as we said above, cares for the ministry of the brethren and of the needy; and he is the hand of this holy body. Another is a diligent hearer of the word of God; and he is the ear of the body. Another is untiring in visiting those who lie sick, and in seeking out those in tribulation, and in rescuing those set in necessities; and he without doubt is called the foot of the ecclesiastical body. And thus you may find each one inclined more strongly toward some one office, and giving his labor to it more particularly; yet holding the rest in a following place. For we do not say this, that one alone ought to suffice, but according to the form of the example set forth. Just as, for instance, the eye has the special office of seeing, yet it is one out of all and among all the members, and with the several members it does all things, and with it each several member does all things: so also he who through the grace of faith has merited some one special gift, administers that indeed principally; but in all the activities he is held to be a partner and sharer with the rest. But how this body is in Christ — that is, in truth, and wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, all of which Christ is — we have already often said. But now, if in this body it be, for example, that someone is an eye, which is the nobler thing in the whole body; or a hand, which may be held in the place following; or an ear, or a tongue, or any of the rest which seem to be more honorable: and again, that someone is some other member of those which seem to be less honorable; whether he himself has furnished some cause for this, or whether by the will of God, without any causes whatsoever, this man has been appointed that member and that man this one — I think to be above our understanding. But lest those who assert that there are diverse natures of souls, established by diverse creators, should seem to find a place for confirming their doctrine, let the things which were discussed by us in the earlier parts concerning the vessels of honor and the vessels of dishonor suffice also for the present passage. For it must never be conceded that, whether in the present age, or in ages past, or even in ages to come, divine Providence does not so dispense to each one that the merit of each, gathered by the freedom of choice, has furnished the matter to the one who dispenses. For God is just, and there is no injustice with him.
Romans 12:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
When he had said that each of the believers were members of the one body of Christ, now he enumerates, as it were, the diversity of work of the diverse members; and for example, as sight to the eye, so to the mind, which is the interior eye, he assigns the office of prophecy; and to another, as to the hand, he ascribes ministry; and to another, as to the tongue, he attributes doctrine: and likewise also the rest. He also resolves that which seemed to us ambiguous in the earlier passage, where we were asking whether each member came to the honorable, or less honorable, offices of the body by furnishing some cause from itself; or whether from no causes, but by the will of God alone, it was assigned to each to be an honorable or a less honorable member. What therefore was there less clear to us, the Apostle has here evidently opened up, saying that whether prophecy, or ministry, or the remaining gifts of graces are given according to the proportion of faith: although this phrase — that is, according to the proportion of faith — seems among the Latins to be translated less properly. For ἀναλογία (analogia) in Greek can be rendered not so much "proportion" (ratio) as "fitting measure," so that, since it cannot be done by one word, it may be explained by two. He declares, therefore, that the diversities of graces are given according to the measure of faith of each one, so that, for example, when a man has received grace, he becomes this or that member in the body of Christ. And here indeed he has set down the measure of faith as the cause of receiving graces; but writing to the Corinthians he says: But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit unto that which is expedient; and after a few words he adds: But all these things works one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one as he wills. Whence it seems to me that, writing both to the Romans and to the Corinthians, he teaches three modes of receiving grace, so as to show that something in it is done by us, yet that the most part consists in God's bounty. He posits, then, that there is a measure of faith through which one receives grace; he posits also that it is given unto that which is expedient; and that the Spirit divides as he wills. That, therefore, so great a faith be found in us as may be able to merit a more sublime grace, seems to belong to our work and zeal: but that it be given unto that which is expedient, and be useful to the receiver, is God's judgment; or, altogether, whether he will give it at all lies in him. Therefore also in another place the same Apostle says: But now God has set each member in the body as he willed. And God willed according to the proportion or measure of the faith which is in us; or he willed unto that which is expedient. Unless perhaps someone should wish to understand this also in this way, that God has set each member in the body as he willed, so that the "he willed" is referred rather to the member — that is, as it willed, as it chose, as it gave its labor; lest the power of choice should seem to be taken away from man. Nevertheless, from the fact that he says grace is given unto that which is expedient, it may come about that even though there be in someone so great a measure of faith as would deserve to receive a loftier grace, yet if the Holy Spirit, foreseeing things to come, should judge it not expedient for the receiver, he necessarily divides to each one as he wills and as is expedient. And indeed we see that some have received the grace of teaching or of exhortation to the people, and from this very thing, being lifted up and turned to pride, have fallen into the judgment of the devil: and that others have indeed received grace, but have corrupted it by negligence of mind and slothfulness of life: of which sort was he also who bound up the denarius he had received in a napkin, and would not work anything from it. Therefore, finally, the Apostle also writes to his most beloved son, saying: Do not neglect the grace that is…
Romans 12:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these there follows: Or ministry, in ministering. We can recall all these things to that rule which was stated above, that is: Not to be wise beyond what one ought to be wise; so that, for example, we may say that he who ministers ought not, in ministering, to be wise beyond what he ought to be wise; and he who teaches, in teaching, not to be wise beyond what he ought to be wise; and he who exhorts, in exhortation, not to be wise beyond what he ought to be wise. For many, having received a ministry, or having received a teaching office, have been wise beyond what they ought to have been wise; and, lifted up into arrogance, or dissolved into luxuries, they have fallen headlong.
Romans 12:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
He who exhorts, in exhorting. Exhortation is a kind of teaching and of discourse, by which afflicted souls are relieved through the words of the divine Scriptures prudently fitted together and gathered into one. For often despair befalls the soul from the excess of its tribulations; nor can it easily be restored or refreshed by just any words, however polished and plausible they may be. But if a discourse having the power of the grace of God be applied, then it penetrates the heart of that soul, and offers consolation, and calls back hope with despair removed, according to that which was said by the Lord through the prophet: Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem. He who gives and supplies to the needy ought, he says, to do this in simplicity of heart; that is, that he not merely appear to do good to the needy while in his heart he seeks praise from men. It is not simplicity, therefore, if one thing seems to be done in the hands and another is sought in the heart. But he who presides over the brethren, or who presides over the Church, ought to be in solicitude — not of human affairs, nor of secular matters (for this solicitude ought to be foreign to those who preside over the Church) — but let him take up such solicitude as the Apostle speaks of: My daily press of business, the solicitude for all the Churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not set on fire? He, therefore, who presides over the Churches ought to have such solicitude, and ought by no means to have that other, secular one. He who shows mercy, in cheerfulness. It may perhaps seem that what he said above, He who gives, in simplicity, and this, He who shows mercy, in cheerfulness, are one and the same. But to me it seems that the work is perhaps one, yet the disposition of the work itself is not likewise one. For it is one thing to give to the needy, and another to share with the needy out of an affection of mercy; and therefore he does not wish there to be sadness in such a work. For he who lays out his money, if he is unbelieving and despairs of receiving it back, is necessarily saddened, as one who has lost it. But he who does this with faith and hope does it in cheerfulness and gladness, being certain that these small things which he expends for the commandment of God will confer upon him vast stores of heavenly riches, and beyond that, eternal life as well.
Romans 12:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Love without pretense. I think that every love which is not according to God is feigned and not true. For God, the creator of the soul, implanted in it, along with the other virtues, the affection of love as well, so that it might love God and the things that God wills. Since, then, he has given the soul this work of love, whoever loves anything other than God and the things that please God — the love in that person must be called false and pretended. Moreover, if someone loves his neighbor and yet, when he sees him going astray, does not admonish him, does not correct him, that love must be called pretended. And therefore love ought to have nothing of flattery in it, nothing painted over, just as the same Apostle says elsewhere: Love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Hating evil, clinging to good. It may perhaps seem strange that among the other goods of the virtues hatred too is taken up, and is set down by the Apostle as something necessary. From this it is certain that the affection of hatred is present in the soul: for it is praiseworthy to hate vices, to hate sins. For unless one holds vices in hatred, he cannot love, nor preserve, the virtues. For example, if someone proposes to guard chastity, he cannot keep it safely unless he takes up a certain hatred and abhorrence against unchastity. For difficult, and exceedingly difficult, is that continence in which the very thing one abstains from is still desired, and the soul's craving is restrained by fear alone of the judgment to come. These things are perilous, and exceedingly perilous, unless, according to the Apostle's counsel, hating evils and waging against them, as it were, unappeasable wars of hatred, we thus cling to good. This too is to be observed, that just as he says in another place: He who clings to the Lord is one spirit, so here too he says: Let us cling to good, doubtless so that it may come about that we are one with the good.
Romans 12:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Loving one another with brotherly love. This commandment, that we love one another as God also loved us, though it is the first after the first (for the first is to love God; and again, among human beings, this is first, that we love one another), is somehow despised as though it were the last and least necessary thing among human beings; and the hatred which we said was implanted in us for this purpose, that we might hold evils in hatred, we exercise in a backwards order upon good things, and, loving the vices of the flesh and sins, we hold our brothers in hatred. Nor does it happen otherwise that we hate what we ought not, except because we love what we ought not. We are commanded, then, to love our brothers, not to judge them. For if you think someone is ungodly, and therefore judge that he is not to be loved, hear that Christ died for the ungodly. Or if, because your brother is a sinner, you therefore think he is not to be loved, hear that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. But if he is righteous, he is much more worthy of love, for the Lord loves the righteous. Anticipating one another in honor. This is what the Lord also taught, when he marked the Scribes and Pharisees claiming for themselves the first places at banquets, and taught that, when you have been invited to a dinner, you should recline in the last place.
Romans 12:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
In diligence not slothful. Above he admonished that the one who presides ought to be in diligence; but now he gives this commandment to all in common, lest any of us hear from the Lord: Wicked and slothful servant. Fervent in spirit. This too has to do with being unslothful and diligent. For he wills that we, who live under the law of the spirit, should have nothing slack in us, nothing lukewarm, but should carry out everything with fervor of spirit and warmth of faith. Serving the Lord. That person serves the Lord who can say: To us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him, and over whom neither lust, nor greed, nor empty glory any longer holds dominion. But I know that in some Latin copies it reads serving the time, which does not seem to me to have been fittingly inserted — unless perhaps one supposes it was said in the way the same Apostle says elsewhere: The time is short; it remains that those who have wives should be as though they had none; or as that saying goes: Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.
Romans 12:11 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.8.3
The expression "aglow with the Spirit" proves that the Word of God is hot and fiery.
Romans 12:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. He rejoices in hope who does not look at the things that are seen, but awaits the things that are not seen; and who knows that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us. That same person will also be patient in tribulation; because tribulation works patience, patience proof, and proof hope — provided, however, that we fulfill the words that follow, that is, persevering in prayer. For where human frailty is not sufficient, God's help must be implored through prayers.
Romans 12:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Sharing in the needs of the saints. I recall that in the Latin copies it more often stands: Sharing in the memorials of the saints. But we neither disturb custom nor prejudge the truth, especially since both readings suit edification. For to contribute to the needs of the saints honorably and becomingly — not as though handing out a dole to the needy, but rather holding our means in a certain way in common with them — and likewise to remember the saints, whether in solemn assemblies or so that we may profit from the recollection of them, seems fitting and appropriate. Pursuing hospitality. How worthily does he embrace in a single word the generosity of the one who pursues hospitality! For in saying that hospitality is to be pursued, he shows not merely that we are to receive the guest who comes to us, but that we are to seek him out, to be anxious about it, to pursue and search everywhere for guests, lest perchance any sit in the streets, lest any lie without a roof. Recall Lot, and you will find that it was not the guests who sought him out, but he who sought the guests; and this was to pursue hospitality.
Romans 12:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse. The Apostle, pursuing the moral topic more broadly, orders the deeds, the mind, the purpose, and also the very mouth and tongue of the disciples. He does not wish those who believe in Christ to bring forth a curse out of their mouth, but to speak well, to bless, to pray well, so that from this they may be believed both to be servants of a good Lord and disciples of a good Master. Yet it must be known that this word "blessing" is found placed in the Scriptures in various senses. For God is found to bless either human beings or the other things he had created; and human beings, or the other creatures, are commanded to bless God. But God's blessing always imparts some gift to those who are blessed by him, whereas human beings are said to bless God in the sense of praising him and returning thanks. Here, however, the Apostle, in saying Bless, and do not curse, admonishes that when we are provoked by enemies, or goaded by injuries, we should not return curses for curses, but should do what he writes of himself where he says: We are cursed, and we bless.
Romans 12:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
To rejoice with those who rejoice, to weep with those who weep. Here too a suitable and fitting distinction must be maintained. For the joys of Christians are not to be joined to just any joys, nor are our tears to be joined to just any weeping. For if I should see someone rejoicing over a gain of money, or over the extent of his possessions, or over the eminence of worldly honor, I ought not to congratulate such people, since I know that mourning and tears follow joys of this kind. Indeed, so far is one from rejoicing over such things, that the Lord did not permit his disciples to rejoice even over the fact that they saw the demons subject to them, but said to them: Do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you; but rejoice, he says, that your names are written in the book of life. We too, then, if we see such a work done by anyone as is worthy to be written in heaven — whether a work of justice, or of charity, or of peace, or of mercy — and so done that it deserves to be recorded in the book of life, we ought to rejoice with such people. And also, if we see anyone converted from error, and having left the darkness of ignorance come to the light of truth, and having obtained the remission of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit, we ought to rejoice with such people. Similarly, we are commanded to weep with those who weep — not with those who weep for their dead, or who weep over worldly losses, since we know that the sorrow of this world works death. Our tears, therefore, are not to be joined with such people; but we must weep with those of whom the Lord says: Blessed are those who weep, for they shall be comforted. If anyone weeps for his sins, if anyone after an offense turns to repentance and washes away his error with tears, if anyone groans even while placed in this dwelling and desires to return to Christ, and consoles his holy longing by the pouring out of tears — let us join our tears with such people, and let us share their groanings; for the sorrow that is according to God works a lasting salvation through repentance.
Romans 12:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Being of the same mind toward one another. This saying has been made obscure not by its own nature, but by the translation. For what he says is this: that we should feel toward a brother as toward our very selves, and should will for our neighbor what we will for ourselves; as the Lord also says in the Gospel: Whatever you wish that people should do to you, do the same also to them. Not being high-minded, but consenting to the humble. He teaches that pride is in every way to be fled; for this is what "to be high-minded" means. And rightly is pride to be fled, since Scripture says that the beginning of departing from God is pride. And well has he set forth the training in humility in a single word; for to consent to the humble, and to love the humble, and to bend oneself down to them — this is to accustom oneself to imitate him who, though he was in the form of God, took the form of a servant, and humbled himself even unto death.
Romans 12:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Rendering to no one evil for evil. If to inflict evil is to sin, then to render evil back is not, as it seems to some, just, but is a like sin — or, as I judge, even a graver one. For he who first inflicted the evil perhaps did not perceive that what he did was evil. But he who rendered evil back, by the very fact that he was moved to take vengeance, has confessed that he perceived that what he rendered was evil. And therefore one must always look to him who said: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Providing good things before all men. A man provides good things before all men if he does not seek to please the vices or the manners of individuals. Otherwise that saying of the Apostle himself will be contrary to this, which says: If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But he who so holds the balance of his life, his manners, and his acts that he cannot be reproved by any man — he it is who provides good things before all men. But let us also notice this, how the Apostle did not say "that we may please all men," but "that we may provide good things before all men" — that is, that we may do good things before all men, whether the things that are good please them or do not please them.
Romans 12:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
If it be possible, as much as lies in you, having peace with all men. The Apostle knew that peace, among those between whom peace is held, consists not of one party but of both; therefore, lest another's disposition — should it happen to prove unpeaceable — should seem to hinder us from the good of peace, he gave a most measured precept: that meanwhile our own mind should always be prepared for peace, and that the fault of discord should rest not with us but with the other. But perhaps someone may say: How can it come about that we have peace with all men? And what shall we do with the Scripture which says: You saw a thief, and you ran with him, and with adulterers you set your portion? Well, therefore, did the Apostle add: As much as lies in you, that is, what accords with your purpose and your faith. For to have peace and fellowship with the wicked does not accord with our faith and our purpose — although in another place a further distinction may be drawn. For it is one thing to love men, another to love crimes. He who loves men loves the creature of God; he who loves crimes follows after the devil's inventions. Those, therefore, who are perfect love the very men in whom they hate the crimes; and while holding in hatred that in them which sins, they do not cease to love that which God created.
Romans 12:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Not avenging yourselves, dearly beloved, but give place to wrath. For it is written: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. In what way those who do not avenge themselves give place to wrath seems to me to be understood in two ways. For by this very fact, that (for example) they do not return blow for blow, or do not render insult for insult, they have given place to the wrath of him who did the injury to pass over and vanish away. For no one will be found so rabid that, having inflicted an injury, he rages again if he receives no requital; but, as though his fury were poured out and digested, he necessarily grows mild. There is therefore also great gain, where both the sinner's multitude of sins is checked, and the patience of him who suffered the injury becomes approved before God. But it is also possible to give place to wrath in this way: when, for the injuries they inflict, those who sin — according to Paul's own saying — treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath, when God will render to each one according to his works. If, therefore, we avenge ourselves, it is no great thing that we render for the injury received — for instance, a slap for a slap, or a stone for a stone, or for the insult of a word an insult of a word none the less. But if we reserve these things for the vengeance of God, we give place, in him who has injured us, to that wrath which he beyond doubt treasures up for himself by his own evil deeds, which will exact from him in the judgment of God punishments far graver than we are able to inflict.
Romans 12:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But if your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head. These things indeed the Lord also commands in the Gospels. And although that understanding lies open, according to what we have said above — namely, that insofar as to enemies and to those who injure us we not only do not render requital but even bestow good things upon them, so far do we heap up their punishments in the judgment of God (for it is truly a just condemnation if they are convicted before God of having inflicted evils upon those from whom they received good things) — nevertheless let us see whether perhaps this commandment may contain some worthier meaning. For Jeremiah the prophet also says to the sinful daughter of Babylon: You have coals of fire, sit upon them, these shall be to you for a help. Perhaps, then, here too these coals of fire which are heaped upon the enemy's head are heaped up for his help. For it can come about that the enemy's savage and barbarous mind, if it perceives our kindness, if it sees our humanity, our affection, our devotion, may take on compunction of heart and bear repentance for what it has committed; and from this a certain fire may be kindled in him, which tortures and burns him for the conscience of what he has committed; and these will be the coals of fire which are heaped upon his head out of our work of mercy and devotion. But by "head" is meant the ruling part of the heart; and rightly is that called the head by whose understanding and prudence all the members are governed.
Romans 12:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. He is overcome by evil who, provoked by evils, returns evil; but he overcomes evil with good who, having received evils, repays them with good things. For it is certain that this is the nature of evil, that it is increased and grows from things like itself — just as if you add fire to fire, or as if the clouding of the air is joined to the darkness of night. But if you apply good, evil is destroyed. For contraries are done away with by contraries, just as fire is extinguished by water, and darkness is put to flight by light. But perhaps someone may say that Paul, through unskillfulness of speech, has fallen away from his subject; for he had set out to speak about the gifts of graces which are given through the Holy Spirit. And indeed, as to what he says: Whether prophecy, or ministry, or teaching, or exhortation, these can pertain to spiritual gifts. Perhaps also what follows: He who gives, in simplicity; he who presides, in solicitude; he who shows mercy, in cheerfulness, can be joined to the foregoing; but as for those things which he enumerates after these — that charity be without dissimulation, hating evil, cleaving to good, loving one another with the charity of brotherhood, anticipating one another in honor, and the rest of this kind — one might say that these are precepts rather than gifts. But let us consider more carefully whether perhaps, since indeed in all these matters he has undertaken to treat the moral topic, and to make the Christian not only stable and immovable in the faith of the truth but also adorned in his morals, he therefore joins moral precepts as well to the gifts of the graces, in order to show that these too are given to Christians through the grace of God. For there are also some among the Gentiles of well-ordered and honorably formed morals, who nevertheless do not refer this very thing which they have to God, nor confess that the grace was given to them by Him; but either they ascribe it to their own diligence, or they boast about their masters and instructors. To us, however, the Apostle shows that everything which is good is from God and is given through the Holy Spirit, just as the apostle James also says: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights; so that he who glories may glory in the Lord.
Romans 13:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Let us see, then, what the Apostle now adds in what follows: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. It seems to me that in this he has very commendably named the soul, which he commands to be subject to the powers. For he would never have said, let every spirit be subject to the power, but, let every soul. Concerning this distinction we have already often said that sometimes a person is named from the soul, sometimes from the flesh, sometimes from the spirit. But when he is to be named from the better part, as one who ought to be understood as spiritual, he is called spirit; when from the lower, soul; but when he is named from the worse, he is called flesh — and we have often brought forward testimonies about these things from the Scriptures. Now, therefore, since the Apostle is laying down precepts for believers, he wishes us to preserve, so far as it lies in us, the quiet and peace of the present life. And if indeed we are such as are joined to the Lord and are one spirit with Him, we are said to be subject to the Lord. But if we are not yet such, but there is still in us the common soul which has something of this world, which is bound to it by some business, for this one the Apostle lays down precepts, and says that it should be subject to the powers of the world: because the Lord also said that those who have in themselves the superscription of Caesar should render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Peter and John had nothing which they might render to Caesar; for Peter says: Gold and silver I do not have. He who does not have this has neither anything to render to Caesar, nor anything on account of which he should be subject to the higher powers. But he who has either money, or possessions, or any business in the world, let him hear: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power, he says, except from God. Perhaps someone will say: What then? Is even that power which persecutes the servants of God, attacks the faith, and overturns religion, from God? To this we shall reply briefly. There is no one who does not know that sight has been given to us by God, and hearing, and understanding. Since, therefore, we have these from God, yet it is in our own power whether we use sight for good things or for evil; and similarly hearing, and the movement of our hands, and the thought of our mind: and in this consists the just judgment of God, that we misuse for impious and iniquitous services those things which He gave for good uses. So, then, every power also has been given by God for the punishment of the evil, but for the praise of the good, as the same Apostle says in what follows. And the judgment of God will be just toward those who regulate the power they have received according to their own impieties, and not according to the divine laws.
Romans 13:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And therefore he says: Therefore he who resists the power resists the ordinance of God; and those who resist acquire damnation for themselves. He is not here speaking of those powers which bring persecutions upon the faith; for in that case it must be said: We ought to obey God rather than men. Rather he is speaking of those ordinary powers which are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil: and whoever resists these certainly procures damnation for himself according to the quality of his deeds.
Romans 13:3-4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But do you wish, he says, not to fear the power? Do what is good, and you will have praise from it; for it is God's minister to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid: for not without cause does it bear the sword; for it is God's minister, an avenger in wrath upon him who does what is evil. Paul moves me in these words, in that he calls the worldly power and the judge of this world God's minister; and this he repeats not once, but a second and a third time. I should therefore like to inquire how the judge of the world is God's minister. We find it written in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles, coming together into one place, established decrees which we who from the Gentiles have believed in Christ ought to observe, in which these things are contained: The apostles and elders to the brethren who are at Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, to all who have believed from among the Gentiles, greeting. Forasmuch as we have heard that certain went out from us and troubled you, to whom we gave no such commandment. And after a little it is added: It seemed good, therefore, to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no further burden of weight, beyond those things which are necessary, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if you keep yourselves you will do well. Farewell. In these precepts, then, in which he says that no further burden is to be imposed upon those who believe from among the Gentiles, save that they abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, neither is murder forbidden, nor adultery, nor theft, nor the lying of males with males, nor the other crimes which are punished by divine and human laws. But if he says that only those things which he mentioned above are to be observed by Christians, he will seem to have granted them license as regards the rest. But consider the ordering of the Holy Spirit: since indeed the other crimes are avenged by the laws of the world, and it seemed superfluous that those things should now be forbidden by divine law which are sufficiently chastised by human law, he decrees only those things concerning which human law had said nothing and which seemed to pertain to religion. From which it appears that the judge of the world fulfills the greatest part of God's law. For all the crimes which God wills to be avenged, He willed to be avenged not through the prelates and rulers of the Churches, but through the judge of the world; and Paul, knowing this, rightly names him God's minister and an avenger upon him who does what is evil. But what he says concerning the power, Do what is good, and you will have praise from it, seems to me to require a deeper inquiry. For it is not the custom of the powers of this world to praise those who have not been criminals. For they indeed punish those who sin, but they have no custom of praising those who do not sin. But let us see whether perhaps Paul, even when he seems to be teaching moral matters, does not fail always to insert something also about the mysteries. For indeed, knowing that all who have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law — and that in the judgment that law will without doubt convict each one according to how he lived (and we have shown that the Holy Spirit in many things has given place to human law) — it is therefore certain that in the day of judgment he too will have praise with God even from these laws, who has committed nothing against the established laws, when it will be said to him by the Lord: Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Yet it must be known that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the unjust and the insubordinate, for the wicked, for murderers, for the defiled, for perjurers, and for the rest who are of this sort. For these are they who fear the law. But he who does goo…
Romans 13:5-8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Therefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience. For on this account you also pay tributes. For they are God's ministers, attending upon this very thing. By these words Paul indeed orders the Church of God, that, doing nothing adverse to the princes and powers of this world, it may through quiet and tranquillity of life carry out the work of righteousness and piety. For if we were to suppose, for example, that those believing in Christ were not subject to the powers of this world, did not render tributes, nor pay customs, showed fear to none, honor to none, would they not by these things deservedly turn the arms of rulers and princes against themselves, and make their persecutors excusable, but themselves blameworthy? For they would then seem to be assailed not for the cause of faith, but of insolence; and there would be for them indeed a worthy cause of death, but an unworthy merit of death. Foreseeing these things, then, through his immense wisdom, Paul says: Render to all what is due: to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom, custom; to whom fear, fear; to whom honor, honor. Owe no one anything, save that you love one another. I think, however, that these things too Paul does not utter apart from the customary mysteries of his discourses. For indeed we have already taught in the foregoing that every creature, and all spirits, whether good and upright, or even of a depraved and evil purpose, minister to God, and that each one furnishes that ministry for which he has shown himself fit. For the Apostle pronounced concerning all of them together when he said: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth for ministry on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation? All spirits, therefore, minister to the life of men; each one, however, as we have said, according to his own dignity and desert: for those also are called ministers by whose ministry the things that pertain to the world are accomplished. Whence the Apostle also, who had said of himself, the world is crucified to me, and I to the world, says this as well: But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God. But he who is still of the world, and savors the things that are of the world, and seeks the things that are of the flesh, is necessarily subject to the ministers of the world; subject, moreover, because of wrath, which he has treasured up for himself from his sins. And on this account it seems to me that he says: Therefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience; since he who is made subject has in himself that for which he is accused by conscience. To these, therefore, we also pay certain tributes, while we still live according to the flesh and think the things that are of the flesh. For if we cultivate the Lord's vineyard, and exercise within ourselves the true vine, which is Christ, from that vineyard we shall not pay tributes to the ministers of the world, but shall render the fruits in their season to the Lord Himself: according to what the Savior Himself says in the Gospels, that He will take away the vineyard from the evil husbandmen, and will give it to other husbandmen who will render Him the fruits in their season. But this very thing also which he says: Render to all what is due: to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom, custom — seems to me to be distinguished from what is added in what follows, to whom fear, fear; to whom honor, honor: and that tributes and customs indeed pertain to those ministers of whom we spoke above. For they exact from us the tributes of our land, and the customs of our trading. And why do I speak of ourselves? Even our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was placed in the flesh, had tribute exacted of Him: which He says that He pays for this reason, not because He is a debtor, but lest He should give them offense. But if He who had nothing of Caesar's in Himself, and in whom the prince of t…
Romans 13:7 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 35
But if we have confidence and with free brow say: I have kept the precept that commands: "render to all their debts, to whom tribute, tribute, to whom fear, fear, to whom custom, custom, to whom honor, honor" — if I have rendered all things to all, I come to the officer and with untroubled mind answer: I owe you nothing. The officer comes to demand back — I resist him; for I know that, if I owe nothing, he has no power over me.
Romans 13:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Finally, he sets forth in what follows how great is the power of charity. For he who loves his neighbor, he says, has fulfilled the law. For: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up again in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And at the last, gathering up briefly the reason for so great a good, he says: The love of one's neighbor works no evil; therefore love is the fullness of the law. Above he had said that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law; and because it seemed difficult how anyone could fulfill the whole law in a single utterance, he renders the fullest account, saying: The love of one's neighbor works no evil, and therefore love is the fullness of the law. For set love alongside each single commandment of the law, and see how easily they are all fulfilled. Can he who loves his neighbor possibly kill him? It is certain that no one kills the person he loves. Love, then, is that by which the commandment is fulfilled which enjoins: You shall not kill. And again, does he who loves his neighbor commit adultery with his wife? Assuredly never. If, therefore, you love your neighbor, neither will you commit adultery. Likewise too, he who loves his neighbor does not steal what belongs to him; and he who loves his neighbor does not speak false witness against him. Likewise the remaining commandments of the law also, if there be love toward one's neighbor, are kept without any labor. Yet I think that in this too the Apostle wished us to learn something by a shorter road. For if you inquire more diligently who our neighbor is, you will learn in the Gospel that he is our neighbor who came, and, when we lay wounded by robbers and stripped bare by demons, set us upon the beast of his own body, and carried us to the inn of the Church, and granted to the innkeeper (whether to Paul himself, or to everyone who presides over the Church) the two denarii of the New and Old Testament for the expenses of our care and attendance. If, then, we love this neighbor, we fulfill the whole law and all the commandments in love of him. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness for everyone who believes; nor can it come about by any means that one who loves Christ with his whole heart and with all his inward parts should do anything that does not please Christ. For he who loves him not only does not kill him, which the law forbids, but does not even grow angry with his brother. He who so delights in the one he loves not only does not commit adultery, but does not even look upon a woman to lust after her; but says rather to him: My soul covets and faints for the living God. He who loves Christ, how should he think about theft, who even leaves behind all his own possessions, whatever he has, in order to follow Christ? He who loves Christ, when does he speak false witness, since he knows that the very one whom he loves was betrayed by false witness? And necessarily he who loves Christ also loves his neighbor. For by this sign alone is one marked out as a disciple of Christ, if he has charity toward his neighbors. For it is certain that he who does not love his neighbor does not know Christ.
Romans 13:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Finally, he sets forth in what follows how great is the power of charity. For he who loves his neighbor, he says, has fulfilled the law. For: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up again in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And at the last, gathering up briefly the reason for so great a good, he says: The love of one's neighbor works no evil; therefore love is the fullness of the law. Above he had said that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law; and because it seemed difficult how anyone could fulfill the whole law in a single utterance, he renders the fullest account, saying: The love of one's neighbor works no evil, and therefore love is the fullness of the law. For set love alongside each single commandment of the law, and see how easily they are all fulfilled. Can he who loves his neighbor possibly kill him? It is certain that no one kills the person he loves. Love, then, is that by which the commandment is fulfilled which enjoins: You shall not kill. And again, does he who loves his neighbor commit adultery with his wife? Assuredly never. If, therefore, you love your neighbor, neither will you commit adultery. Likewise too, he who loves his neighbor does not steal what belongs to him; and he who loves his neighbor does not speak false witness against him. Likewise the remaining commandments of the law also, if there be love toward one's neighbor, are kept without any labor. Yet I think that in this too the Apostle wished us to learn something by a shorter road. For if you inquire more diligently who our neighbor is, you will learn in the Gospel that he is our neighbor who came, and, when we lay wounded by robbers and stripped bare by demons, set us upon the beast of his own body, and carried us to the inn of the Church, and granted to the innkeeper (whether to Paul himself, or to everyone who presides over the Church) the two denarii of the New and Old Testament for the expenses of our care and attendance. If, then, we love this neighbor, we fulfill the whole law and all the commandments in love of him. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness for everyone who believes; nor can it come about by any means that one who loves Christ with his whole heart and with all his inward parts should do anything that does not please Christ. For he who loves him not only does not kill him, which the law forbids, but does not even grow angry with his brother. He who so delights in the one he loves not only does not commit adultery, but does not even look upon a woman to lust after her; but says rather to him: My soul covets and faints for the living God. He who loves Christ, how should he think about theft, who even leaves behind all his own possessions, whatever he has, in order to follow Christ? He who loves Christ, when does he speak false witness, since he knows that the very one whom he loves was betrayed by false witness? And necessarily he who loves Christ also loves his neighbor. For by this sign alone is one marked out as a disciple of Christ, if he has charity toward his neighbors. For it is certain that he who does not love his neighbor does not know Christ.
Romans 13:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And this, knowing the time, that it is now the hour to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night has gone before, but the day has drawn near. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light; let us walk honorably, as in the day. When, after those discussions which the Apostle pursued concerning either the Gentiles or the Jews, he had also introduced the moral topic, by which he might more and more urge his hearers toward conversion, he now introduces as well the pressing consideration of time, which in all matters is supreme. For no one is so drowsy and sluggish that the brightness of the oncoming day does not rouse him, and whose sight the sun, poured into his eyes, does not open. There is, then, a certain sleep of the soul as well. For if it has, as we have often already said, its own proper eyes, and its own ears, and hands and feet — each of which is to be reckoned not so much as bodily members belonging to it, as powers by which it is moved and stirred toward each several thing — then without doubt sleep also befalls it in respect of its eyes. For if it does not do at the opportune time the things that are God's, but grows torpid with idleness, it will deservedly be said to sleep. For this reason, therefore, Paul, the herald of Christ, going about a world set in the sleep of idleness, announces that the light is now at hand, and that it is time to rise from sleep; and that the night — that is, that time in which ignorance held dominion over men — has gone before, and that, with the coming of the Sun of righteousness drawing near and the darkness thinning out, the day of knowledge is now imminent; and therefore he cries out that one must awake, lest through sloth anyone suffer night in the daylight; and that the works of darkness must be cast off, and the armor of light put on. The works of darkness are those acts which are alien from God; the armor of light, however, is the taking up of the virtues. And just as we have said that it is disgraceful to sleep when day is already pressing upon us, much more disgraceful is it to carry out the works of darkness in the time of day and light. But it must be known that the coming of this light and day is to be understood in a twofold manner: both as general for all, and as particular for each individual. The light and day will be present generally for all when the time of the age to come has arrived: in comparison with which the span of this present world is called darkness. That time draws near as the days daily slip away, and the spans which are increased for the past are without doubt diminished for the future; and therefore, he says, our salvation is now nearer than when we believed, and daily it becomes nearer — just as the Lord also, when he was distinguishing the signs of the consummation of the age, said: But when you see all these things, lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near. But there also comes about a coming of this day for individuals. For if Christ is in our heart, he makes day for us also: if the reasoning of knowledge puts our ignorances to flight, and, turning aside from unworthy acts, we pursue whatever is devout and honorable, we are set in the light, and, as it were, we walk honorably in the day.
Romans 13:12 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 59
And each one according to his own progress kindles his lamp either less or more from the light of knowledge, and pours oil into it through meditation, and watching in it against sinful works, hoping through abstinence of this kind and meditation to receive even the lord into himself. Yet to him who progresses more abundantly and forgets the things that are behind, that is, malice, but still having a little of it in himself already draws near to virtue, it is fittingly said: "the night has advanced, but the day has drawn near". And it is to be noted that he did not say: "but the day" is at hand. For it is at hand for the perfect who have in themselves no trace of night; but it draws near for the one progressing toward the better and meditating on the things that are of the day and receiving honorableness as in the day, and it is already near to that man who is such that he may say: "we are not of the night nor of the darkness".
Romans 13:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And this, knowing the time, that it is now the hour to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night has gone before, but the day has drawn near. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light; let us walk honorably, as in the day. When, after those discussions which the Apostle pursued concerning either the Gentiles or the Jews, he had also introduced the moral topic, by which he might more and more urge his hearers toward conversion, he now introduces as well the pressing consideration of time, which in all matters is supreme. For no one is so drowsy and sluggish that the brightness of the oncoming day does not rouse him, and whose sight the sun, poured into his eyes, does not open. There is, then, a certain sleep of the soul as well. For if it has, as we have often already said, its own proper eyes, and its own ears, and hands and feet — each of which is to be reckoned not so much as bodily members belonging to it, as powers by which it is moved and stirred toward each several thing — then without doubt sleep also befalls it in respect of its eyes. For if it does not do at the opportune time the things that are God's, but grows torpid with idleness, it will deservedly be said to sleep. For this reason, therefore, Paul, the herald of Christ, going about a world set in the sleep of idleness, announces that the light is now at hand, and that it is time to rise from sleep; and that the night — that is, that time in which ignorance held dominion over men — has gone before, and that, with the coming of the Sun of righteousness drawing near and the darkness thinning out, the day of knowledge is now imminent; and therefore he cries out that one must awake, lest through sloth anyone suffer night in the daylight; and that the works of darkness must be cast off, and the armor of light put on. The works of darkness are those acts which are alien from God; the armor of light, however, is the taking up of the virtues. And just as we have said that it is disgraceful to sleep when day is already pressing upon us, much more disgraceful is it to carry out the works of darkness in the time of day and light. But it must be known that the coming of this light and day is to be understood in a twofold manner: both as general for all, and as particular for each individual. The light and day will be present generally for all when the time of the age to come has arrived: in comparison with which the span of this present world is called darkness. That time draws near as the days daily slip away, and the spans which are increased for the past are without doubt diminished for the future; and therefore, he says, our salvation is now nearer than when we believed, and daily it becomes nearer — just as the Lord also, when he was distinguishing the signs of the consummation of the age, said: But when you see all these things, lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near. But there also comes about a coming of this day for individuals. For if Christ is in our heart, he makes day for us also: if the reasoning of knowledge puts our ignorances to flight, and, turning aside from unworthy acts, we pursue whatever is devout and honorable, we are set in the light, and, as it were, we walk honorably in the day.
Romans 13:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
What the works of darkness are which must be cast off, he next enumerates, saying: Not in revelings and drunkenness; not in chamberings and impurities; not in strife and envy. These are the works of darkness, which are also called the works of the flesh, in those who have made over their flesh to wantonness and impurity, not to holiness nor to the Lord. For revelings — that is, disgraceful and luxurious banquets, whose necessary companion is the most shameful drunkenness — what else will follow upon them, save chamberings and impurities? From foul couchings they are named "chamberings," things which seem to befit not so much rational human beings as wild beasts and brutes. Not in strife and envy. Those things which he named above are vices of the flesh; these now are also of the soul — although all alike are called works of the flesh and works of darkness, because in truth strife and envy are in the souls of those who live according to the flesh and who walk in darkness. But he who is in the light, and walks honorably as in the day, does nothing through strife, nothing through vainglory. In this way, then, does one cast off (as he said above) the works of darkness.
Romans 13:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But as for what he said, Let us put on the armor of light, he now explains how this ought to come about. But put on, he says, the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. We have frequently said that Christ is wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and truth, and all the virtues together: and whoever has taken these up is said to have put on Christ. For if Christ is all these things, then necessarily he who has these has Christ also. For he who has these makes no provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. The Apostle employs his customary moderation, in that he does not deny that provision for the flesh is to be made in every respect. For it is certain that in things necessary it must be made; but in delicacies and luxury and every concupiscence it must be utterly excluded.
Romans 13:14 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.3.2
The Lord Jesus Christ himself … is said to be the clothing of the saints.
Romans 14:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now him that is weak in faith receive, not in disputes over thoughts. For one believes that he may eat all things; but he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. In the passages above too the Apostle made mention of weakness of faith, where he says of Abraham: When he was nearly a hundred years old, he was not weakened in faith. Concerning that weakness of faith we have set forth, in those places, such things as could occur to us. But now also he makes mention of one weak in faith, whom he calls weak in this respect, that he does not believe he may eat all things, but his faith is so slight that he reckons vegetables alone to be food suitable for him. This can indeed seem to have been said to those who believed from among the Gentiles, exalting themselves in the liberty of faith because they believed nothing to be common or unclean, over against those who believed from the circumcision, still observing according to the tradition of the law a distinction of foods: so that he may seem to restrain them and to warn them not to insult those in whom long custom in the observance of foods still stirred some discrimination and hesitation. He commands, therefore, that he who is thus weak in this faith should rather be received, and not cast off, nor judged as though unbelieving. For it is one thing to be unbelieving, another to be weak in faith. For he is called unbelieving who does not have faith; but weak in faith is he who doubts in some part of the faith.
Romans 14:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now him that is weak in faith receive, not in disputes over thoughts. For one believes that he may eat all things; but he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. In the passages above too the Apostle made mention of weakness of faith, where he says of Abraham: When he was nearly a hundred years old, he was not weakened in faith. Concerning that weakness of faith we have set forth, in those places, such things as could occur to us. But now also he makes mention of one weak in faith, whom he calls weak in this respect, that he does not believe he may eat all things, but his faith is so slight that he reckons vegetables alone to be food suitable for him. This can indeed seem to have been said to those who believed from among the Gentiles, exalting themselves in the liberty of faith because they believed nothing to be common or unclean, over against those who believed from the circumcision, still observing according to the tradition of the law a distinction of foods: so that he may seem to restrain them and to warn them not to insult those in whom long custom in the observance of foods still stirred some discrimination and hesitation. He commands, therefore, that he who is thus weak in this faith should rather be received, and not cast off, nor judged as though unbelieving. For it is one thing to be unbelieving, another to be weak in faith. For he is called unbelieving who does not have faith; but weak in faith is he who doubts in some part of the faith.
Romans 14:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The Apostle, therefore, composing the body of the Church in peace, says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you that judge another's servant? To his own lord he stands, or falls: but he shall stand; for God is able to make him stand — namely, so that through these words there should be no dissension among believers on account of foods. But Paul seems to have spoken these things with a deeper meaning. For the law had enjoined nothing about eating vegetables upon those coming from the circumcision, such that what he says would seem to fit them: But he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. Whence it is evident that he is treating these matters concerning the food of the word, and calls weak in faith the one who is not so perfect in his faculties that he can take all the food of the word of God — just as the Apostle himself says elsewhere: But solid food is for the perfect, for those who, according to their capacity for taking it, have their faculties exercised for the discernment of good and evil. And again he says to others: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able. And shall we be so foolish as to suppose that the Apostle, who was sent to preach the word of God, carried milk about with him to give the Corinthians to drink? But it is manifest that he is speaking of these things with respect to the quality of the word, and therefore says: If anyone is weaker in his faculties, and is not of so perfect a faith as to grasp the word concerning the more hidden mysteries, disputes of thoughts must not be stirred up for him through those things which he cannot understand. For one, he says, believes that he may eat all things. Paul is not by these words exhorting the disciples to eat all things; nor is he a teacher of gluttony and the gullet: but he is doubtless speaking of those whose faith is perfect, and who are hindered by no distinctions in the word of God — those whom the same Apostle elsewhere calls spiritual, when he says: But the spiritual man examines all things. It is he, then, of whom he here says: But another believes that he may eat all things. Finally, to the apostles also, before they received the Holy Spirit, it was said by the Lord: I have yet many things to say to you; but you cannot bear them now. But the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, will come, and he himself will teach you all things. These, then, are the "all things" which he believes he may eat who, by reason of the perfection of his faith, has through the grace of the Holy Spirit become capable of the more hidden word. Yet the weak man too has something to take from the word of God, and there is a certain kind of word which the Apostle here has called "vegetables," which does not render the hearer's faculties so robust and strong as it sustains them and keeps them from perishing. For in many places divine Scripture speaks of the inner senses of the soul as though of the outward members of the body; and as we have often taught that the inner man is said either to see, or to hear, or to walk, so now too this same inner man is said either to be able to take in every food if he is perfect, or, if he is weak, to eat vegetables. But in order that he may compose the concord in the Church of the perfect and the imperfect — as of the less honorable and the honorable members in the body — and that there may be no dissension among them, he says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats. This is what he says elsewhere too: That the eye cannot say to the hand, You are not necessary to me; nor the head to the feet, I do not need your service. But much more those members of the body which seem to be less honorable are necessary. And so to those whose faith is such that they can eat all things, and grasp every kind of the word, he gives the precept that they not be proud and despise those…
Romans 14:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
The Apostle, therefore, composing the body of the Church in peace, says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you that judge another's servant? To his own lord he stands, or falls: but he shall stand; for God is able to make him stand — namely, so that through these words there should be no dissension among believers on account of foods. But Paul seems to have spoken these things with a deeper meaning. For the law had enjoined nothing about eating vegetables upon those coming from the circumcision, such that what he says would seem to fit them: But he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. Whence it is evident that he is treating these matters concerning the food of the word, and calls weak in faith the one who is not so perfect in his faculties that he can take all the food of the word of God — just as the Apostle himself says elsewhere: But solid food is for the perfect, for those who, according to their capacity for taking it, have their faculties exercised for the discernment of good and evil. And again he says to others: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able. And shall we be so foolish as to suppose that the Apostle, who was sent to preach the word of God, carried milk about with him to give the Corinthians to drink? But it is manifest that he is speaking of these things with respect to the quality of the word, and therefore says: If anyone is weaker in his faculties, and is not of so perfect a faith as to grasp the word concerning the more hidden mysteries, disputes of thoughts must not be stirred up for him through those things which he cannot understand. For one, he says, believes that he may eat all things. Paul is not by these words exhorting the disciples to eat all things; nor is he a teacher of gluttony and the gullet: but he is doubtless speaking of those whose faith is perfect, and who are hindered by no distinctions in the word of God — those whom the same Apostle elsewhere calls spiritual, when he says: But the spiritual man examines all things. It is he, then, of whom he here says: But another believes that he may eat all things. Finally, to the apostles also, before they received the Holy Spirit, it was said by the Lord: I have yet many things to say to you; but you cannot bear them now. But the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, will come, and he himself will teach you all things. These, then, are the "all things" which he believes he may eat who, by reason of the perfection of his faith, has through the grace of the Holy Spirit become capable of the more hidden word. Yet the weak man too has something to take from the word of God, and there is a certain kind of word which the Apostle here has called "vegetables," which does not render the hearer's faculties so robust and strong as it sustains them and keeps them from perishing. For in many places divine Scripture speaks of the inner senses of the soul as though of the outward members of the body; and as we have often taught that the inner man is said either to see, or to hear, or to walk, so now too this same inner man is said either to be able to take in every food if he is perfect, or, if he is weak, to eat vegetables. But in order that he may compose the concord in the Church of the perfect and the imperfect — as of the less honorable and the honorable members in the body — and that there may be no dissension among them, he says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats. This is what he says elsewhere too: That the eye cannot say to the hand, You are not necessary to me; nor the head to the feet, I do not need your service. But much more those members of the body which seem to be less honorable are necessary. And so to those whose faith is such that they can eat all things, and grasp every kind of the word, he gives the precept that they not be proud and despise those…
Romans 14:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
One judges between one day and another; another judges every day. Let each one abound in his own sense. We said above, following the sequence of the apostolic letter, that these matters seem to be treated concerning abstinence from foods, or liberty in them: since indeed the calling which is in Christ places nothing common or unclean in foods, but the principle of continence persuades us to abstain even from things permitted. For, as he himself says elsewhere, because all things are lawful, it does not therefore follow that all things are expedient, or that all things edify. Yet the very principle of abstinence differs according to the vow and purpose of the one vowing. For one judges thus, and so determines in his own mind, that he should spend every day, that is, the continuous time of his life, in abstinence. But another appoints some particular time, as by a votive profession. In this matter, whether one undertakes a perpetual or a temporary continence, he grants free power to the judgment of each. Nevertheless he promises that both are made acceptable before the Lord.
Romans 14:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
He who is wise concerning the day, is wise for the Lord; and he who eats, eats for the Lord: for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, for the Lord does not eat, and gives thanks to God. Thanks therefore are rendered to God by both: by the one indeed for the fruit of continence; by the other for the liberty of eating. But since, as we have shown in what preceded, a deeper sense of the Apostle is found than the account of carnal foods contains, in the spiritual exposition, according to those things which we discussed above concerning those of whom one judges every day, but another judges between one day and another, we can understand this: that in the divine Scriptures each single chapter in which a doctrine of piety and faith is contained is called a day. For truly that is a day which illuminates the mind, which puts to flight the darkness of ignorance, which has in itself Christ, who is the sun of righteousness. If therefore there be anyone who so expends labor and zeal upon the divine letters that he examines and judges every day and every sense of divine Scripture, so that not one iota or one tittle of the law escapes him, this man will be seen to judge every day. But he who is not of such great capacity will grasp alternate ones, that is, a few senses out of many, which, if they do not suffice for the fullness of knowledge, are yet certainly enough for the sum of faith. Let each therefore, according to the apostolic counsel, give thanks to God: he who is wise concerning every day, and who eats all things, that is, who recognizes and understands all things; and he also who, although he does not eat all things, and does not grasp the understanding of all matters, is nevertheless saved by a brief confession of faith. And therefore even the one who does not eat all things, nor take in the knowledge of all things, is nevertheless himself also said to give thanks to God.
Romans 14:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; whether therefore we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. What it is to live in Christ, and what it is to die in Christ, has often been said by us in the exposition of this Epistle, and especially in that place where we attempted to explain the saying of the Apostle in which he says: But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him. If therefore we remember what was said in that place, from those very things the present saying of the Apostle set before us will become plainer and clearer — how none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For each one does not give to himself, but takes from Christ the example of death — he who alone died to sin — so that he too, by imitation of him, may be able to be made a stranger to sin and dead to it. But we do not have the example of life from ourselves either; rather we receive it from the resurrection of Christ, as the same Apostle says: That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. Therefore the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is reckoned to the Lord, because it takes its beginning not from us but from him; and therefore: Whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For he calls that death by which, buried together with Christ, as we said, and baptized into his death, we have died to sin; and that life by which, made strangers to this world, and, as he himself says, living from the dead, we live not to ourselves, that is, not to the flesh, but to God, according to what he joins in what follows. For to this end, he says, Christ died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. He says that Christ died, without doubt by the dispensation of the passion; but that he lived, through the mystery of the resurrection. Whence he left us also the example first of passion and mortification, and afterward also of resurrection and newness of life. But perhaps it may trouble someone that the Apostle says he died and lived for this reason, that he might have dominion over the dead and the living; as though he had given this to be understood, that unless he had died, he would not have had dominion over the dead; and unless after death he had lived again, he would not have held dominion over the living. But to these things I think we must reply as follows. Christ's dominion over every creature is established in two ways. In one, by which, as Creator of all and wielding power over all things, he holds all things subject by the force of his majesty and the necessity of his power; and by this mode he has dominion not only over good and holy minds and spirits, but also over the wicked and the apostate, and over those whom divine Scripture has called malignant angels. For it is on this account that he is called all-holding, or almighty, according to what John designates in the Apocalypse, saying: These things says he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. This then is one mode by which Christ has dominion over all. But there is another, by which, as one who is good and the Son of a good Father, he does not wish to bend rational spirits by violence to the obedience of his law, but waits until they come of their own accord, so that they may seek the good by will and not by necessity, and so that he may persuade by teaching rather than by commanding, by inviting rather than by extorting. From this, finally, it comes that he deigns to go even to death, that he may leave an example of obedience, and a pattern of dying, to those who are willing to die to sin and to vic…
Romans 14:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; whether therefore we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. What it is to live in Christ, and what it is to die in Christ, has often been said by us in the exposition of this Epistle, and especially in that place where we attempted to explain the saying of the Apostle in which he says: But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him. If therefore we remember what was said in that place, from those very things the present saying of the Apostle set before us will become plainer and clearer — how none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For each one does not give to himself, but takes from Christ the example of death — he who alone died to sin — so that he too, by imitation of him, may be able to be made a stranger to sin and dead to it. But we do not have the example of life from ourselves either; rather we receive it from the resurrection of Christ, as the same Apostle says: That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. Therefore the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is reckoned to the Lord, because it takes its beginning not from us but from him; and therefore: Whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For he calls that death by which, buried together with Christ, as we said, and baptized into his death, we have died to sin; and that life by which, made strangers to this world, and, as he himself says, living from the dead, we live not to ourselves, that is, not to the flesh, but to God, according to what he joins in what follows. For to this end, he says, Christ died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. He says that Christ died, without doubt by the dispensation of the passion; but that he lived, through the mystery of the resurrection. Whence he left us also the example first of passion and mortification, and afterward also of resurrection and newness of life. But perhaps it may trouble someone that the Apostle says he died and lived for this reason, that he might have dominion over the dead and the living; as though he had given this to be understood, that unless he had died, he would not have had dominion over the dead; and unless after death he had lived again, he would not have held dominion over the living. But to these things I think we must reply as follows. Christ's dominion over every creature is established in two ways. In one, by which, as Creator of all and wielding power over all things, he holds all things subject by the force of his majesty and the necessity of his power; and by this mode he has dominion not only over good and holy minds and spirits, but also over the wicked and the apostate, and over those whom divine Scripture has called malignant angels. For it is on this account that he is called all-holding, or almighty, according to what John designates in the Apocalypse, saying: These things says he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. This then is one mode by which Christ has dominion over all. But there is another, by which, as one who is good and the Son of a good Father, he does not wish to bend rational spirits by violence to the obedience of his law, but waits until they come of their own accord, so that they may seek the good by will and not by necessity, and so that he may persuade by teaching rather than by commanding, by inviting rather than by extorting. From this, finally, it comes that he deigns to go even to death, that he may leave an example of obedience, and a pattern of dying, to those who are willing to die to sin and to vic…
Romans 14:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; whether therefore we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. What it is to live in Christ, and what it is to die in Christ, has often been said by us in the exposition of this Epistle, and especially in that place where we attempted to explain the saying of the Apostle in which he says: But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him. If therefore we remember what was said in that place, from those very things the present saying of the Apostle set before us will become plainer and clearer — how none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For each one does not give to himself, but takes from Christ the example of death — he who alone died to sin — so that he too, by imitation of him, may be able to be made a stranger to sin and dead to it. But we do not have the example of life from ourselves either; rather we receive it from the resurrection of Christ, as the same Apostle says: That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. Therefore the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is reckoned to the Lord, because it takes its beginning not from us but from him; and therefore: Whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For he calls that death by which, buried together with Christ, as we said, and baptized into his death, we have died to sin; and that life by which, made strangers to this world, and, as he himself says, living from the dead, we live not to ourselves, that is, not to the flesh, but to God, according to what he joins in what follows. For to this end, he says, Christ died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. He says that Christ died, without doubt by the dispensation of the passion; but that he lived, through the mystery of the resurrection. Whence he left us also the example first of passion and mortification, and afterward also of resurrection and newness of life. But perhaps it may trouble someone that the Apostle says he died and lived for this reason, that he might have dominion over the dead and the living; as though he had given this to be understood, that unless he had died, he would not have had dominion over the dead; and unless after death he had lived again, he would not have held dominion over the living. But to these things I think we must reply as follows. Christ's dominion over every creature is established in two ways. In one, by which, as Creator of all and wielding power over all things, he holds all things subject by the force of his majesty and the necessity of his power; and by this mode he has dominion not only over good and holy minds and spirits, but also over the wicked and the apostate, and over those whom divine Scripture has called malignant angels. For it is on this account that he is called all-holding, or almighty, according to what John designates in the Apocalypse, saying: These things says he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. This then is one mode by which Christ has dominion over all. But there is another, by which, as one who is good and the Son of a good Father, he does not wish to bend rational spirits by violence to the obedience of his law, but waits until they come of their own accord, so that they may seek the good by will and not by necessity, and so that he may persuade by teaching rather than by commanding, by inviting rather than by extorting. From this, finally, it comes that he deigns to go even to death, that he may leave an example of obedience, and a pattern of dying, to those who are willing to die to sin and to vic…
Romans 14:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But if these things are so: Why, he says, do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother, since, whether there is in you a mortification of the flesh and of the vices, it did not arise from you but was bestowed by the death of Christ; or whether you have newness of life and, walking on earth, have your conversation in heaven, you have merited this by Christ's resurrection? And he has aptly marked the character of each fault by a homely designation, saying to the one: Why do you despise? and to the other: Why do you judge your brother? For those who seem to have advanced somewhat in knowledge are accustomed to despise and to count as nothing those who are less capable of a higher understanding; and, on the contrary, the unskilled and the untaught are accustomed to judge — that is, to accuse and condemn — those who search out things loftier and deeper than they themselves can grasp or attain. And therefore the Apostle, wishing to cut away the fault arising on either side, charges the former not to despise and look down upon their inferiors, and the latter not to judge their superiors, since they do not possess the competence to judge. Although, then, he rebukes both — both the one who despises the inferior brother and the one who judges the superior — nevertheless, in order to show that the latter sins more gravely in judging than the former in despising his brother, he passes over the fault of contempt and enlarges upon the presumption of the brother who judges; and therefore in what follows he adds: For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. And so each one of us shall render an account for himself to God. Let us therefore no longer judge one another; but judge this rather, that you place no offense or stumbling block before your brother. The Apostle, taking up the causes drawn from those matters in which those who judge their brothers do not judge rightly, introduces the form of the right and just divine judgment, and says: For we must all stand before the judgment seat of God — so that, namely, he who judges his brother may know that he incurs so great a crime of arrogance as to seem to himself to usurp the judgment seat of God and to forestall the judgment of the Only-begotten. But let us see what this very thing means that the Apostle mentions the judgment seat of God, and how it is to be understood. For not only in this passage, but also in writing to the Corinthians, he makes mention nonetheless of a judgment seat, where he says: Wherefore we strive, whether present or absent, to please him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive through the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil. Moreover, in the prophet Daniel too we find certain such things described concerning the manner of judging. I beheld, he says, and lo, thrones were set, and the Ancient of days was seated, and his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. His throne was a flame of fire, its wheels a blazing fire, a river of fire ran before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He appointed judgment, and the books were opened. In the book of the twelve prophets also it is said under a mystery that in the valley of Josaphat the Lord judges his people; and that same valley of Josaphat he shortly afterward names the valley of judgment. But it seems a long task to discuss now each of these things which we have brought forward for the sake of comparison. Nevertheless, comparing those things which we said the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians with the present passage, or with the rest which we have recalled as written among the prophets, we see it declared from all of them most certainly that there will be a judgment of God; and in order that the manner of it might becom…
Romans 14:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But if these things are so: Why, he says, do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother, since, whether there is in you a mortification of the flesh and of the vices, it did not arise from you but was bestowed by the death of Christ; or whether you have newness of life and, walking on earth, have your conversation in heaven, you have merited this by Christ's resurrection? And he has aptly marked the character of each fault by a homely designation, saying to the one: Why do you despise? and to the other: Why do you judge your brother? For those who seem to have advanced somewhat in knowledge are accustomed to despise and to count as nothing those who are less capable of a higher understanding; and, on the contrary, the unskilled and the untaught are accustomed to judge — that is, to accuse and condemn — those who search out things loftier and deeper than they themselves can grasp or attain. And therefore the Apostle, wishing to cut away the fault arising on either side, charges the former not to despise and look down upon their inferiors, and the latter not to judge their superiors, since they do not possess the competence to judge. Although, then, he rebukes both — both the one who despises the inferior brother and the one who judges the superior — nevertheless, in order to show that the latter sins more gravely in judging than the former in despising his brother, he passes over the fault of contempt and enlarges upon the presumption of the brother who judges; and therefore in what follows he adds: For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. And so each one of us shall render an account for himself to God. Let us therefore no longer judge one another; but judge this rather, that you place no offense or stumbling block before your brother. The Apostle, taking up the causes drawn from those matters in which those who judge their brothers do not judge rightly, introduces the form of the right and just divine judgment, and says: For we must all stand before the judgment seat of God — so that, namely, he who judges his brother may know that he incurs so great a crime of arrogance as to seem to himself to usurp the judgment seat of God and to forestall the judgment of the Only-begotten. But let us see what this very thing means that the Apostle mentions the judgment seat of God, and how it is to be understood. For not only in this passage, but also in writing to the Corinthians, he makes mention nonetheless of a judgment seat, where he says: Wherefore we strive, whether present or absent, to please him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive through the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil. Moreover, in the prophet Daniel too we find certain such things described concerning the manner of judging. I beheld, he says, and lo, thrones were set, and the Ancient of days was seated, and his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. His throne was a flame of fire, its wheels a blazing fire, a river of fire ran before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He appointed judgment, and the books were opened. In the book of the twelve prophets also it is said under a mystery that in the valley of Josaphat the Lord judges his people; and that same valley of Josaphat he shortly afterward names the valley of judgment. But it seems a long task to discuss now each of these things which we have brought forward for the sake of comparison. Nevertheless, comparing those things which we said the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians with the present passage, or with the rest which we have recalled as written among the prophets, we see it declared from all of them most certainly that there will be a judgment of God; and in order that the manner of it might becom…
Romans 14:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But if these things are so: Why, he says, do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother, since, whether there is in you a mortification of the flesh and of the vices, it did not arise from you but was bestowed by the death of Christ; or whether you have newness of life and, walking on earth, have your conversation in heaven, you have merited this by Christ's resurrection? And he has aptly marked the character of each fault by a homely designation, saying to the one: Why do you despise? and to the other: Why do you judge your brother? For those who seem to have advanced somewhat in knowledge are accustomed to despise and to count as nothing those who are less capable of a higher understanding; and, on the contrary, the unskilled and the untaught are accustomed to judge — that is, to accuse and condemn — those who search out things loftier and deeper than they themselves can grasp or attain. And therefore the Apostle, wishing to cut away the fault arising on either side, charges the former not to despise and look down upon their inferiors, and the latter not to judge their superiors, since they do not possess the competence to judge. Although, then, he rebukes both — both the one who despises the inferior brother and the one who judges the superior — nevertheless, in order to show that the latter sins more gravely in judging than the former in despising his brother, he passes over the fault of contempt and enlarges upon the presumption of the brother who judges; and therefore in what follows he adds: For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. And so each one of us shall render an account for himself to God. Let us therefore no longer judge one another; but judge this rather, that you place no offense or stumbling block before your brother. The Apostle, taking up the causes drawn from those matters in which those who judge their brothers do not judge rightly, introduces the form of the right and just divine judgment, and says: For we must all stand before the judgment seat of God — so that, namely, he who judges his brother may know that he incurs so great a crime of arrogance as to seem to himself to usurp the judgment seat of God and to forestall the judgment of the Only-begotten. But let us see what this very thing means that the Apostle mentions the judgment seat of God, and how it is to be understood. For not only in this passage, but also in writing to the Corinthians, he makes mention nonetheless of a judgment seat, where he says: Wherefore we strive, whether present or absent, to please him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive through the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil. Moreover, in the prophet Daniel too we find certain such things described concerning the manner of judging. I beheld, he says, and lo, thrones were set, and the Ancient of days was seated, and his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. His throne was a flame of fire, its wheels a blazing fire, a river of fire ran before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He appointed judgment, and the books were opened. In the book of the twelve prophets also it is said under a mystery that in the valley of Josaphat the Lord judges his people; and that same valley of Josaphat he shortly afterward names the valley of judgment. But it seems a long task to discuss now each of these things which we have brought forward for the sake of comparison. Nevertheless, comparing those things which we said the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians with the present passage, or with the rest which we have recalled as written among the prophets, we see it declared from all of them most certainly that there will be a judgment of God; and in order that the manner of it might becom…
Romans 14:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But if these things are so: Why, he says, do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother, since, whether there is in you a mortification of the flesh and of the vices, it did not arise from you but was bestowed by the death of Christ; or whether you have newness of life and, walking on earth, have your conversation in heaven, you have merited this by Christ's resurrection? And he has aptly marked the character of each fault by a homely designation, saying to the one: Why do you despise? and to the other: Why do you judge your brother? For those who seem to have advanced somewhat in knowledge are accustomed to despise and to count as nothing those who are less capable of a higher understanding; and, on the contrary, the unskilled and the untaught are accustomed to judge — that is, to accuse and condemn — those who search out things loftier and deeper than they themselves can grasp or attain. And therefore the Apostle, wishing to cut away the fault arising on either side, charges the former not to despise and look down upon their inferiors, and the latter not to judge their superiors, since they do not possess the competence to judge. Although, then, he rebukes both — both the one who despises the inferior brother and the one who judges the superior — nevertheless, in order to show that the latter sins more gravely in judging than the former in despising his brother, he passes over the fault of contempt and enlarges upon the presumption of the brother who judges; and therefore in what follows he adds: For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. And so each one of us shall render an account for himself to God. Let us therefore no longer judge one another; but judge this rather, that you place no offense or stumbling block before your brother. The Apostle, taking up the causes drawn from those matters in which those who judge their brothers do not judge rightly, introduces the form of the right and just divine judgment, and says: For we must all stand before the judgment seat of God — so that, namely, he who judges his brother may know that he incurs so great a crime of arrogance as to seem to himself to usurp the judgment seat of God and to forestall the judgment of the Only-begotten. But let us see what this very thing means that the Apostle mentions the judgment seat of God, and how it is to be understood. For not only in this passage, but also in writing to the Corinthians, he makes mention nonetheless of a judgment seat, where he says: Wherefore we strive, whether present or absent, to please him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive through the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil. Moreover, in the prophet Daniel too we find certain such things described concerning the manner of judging. I beheld, he says, and lo, thrones were set, and the Ancient of days was seated, and his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. His throne was a flame of fire, its wheels a blazing fire, a river of fire ran before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He appointed judgment, and the books were opened. In the book of the twelve prophets also it is said under a mystery that in the valley of Josaphat the Lord judges his people; and that same valley of Josaphat he shortly afterward names the valley of judgment. But it seems a long task to discuss now each of these things which we have brought forward for the sake of comparison. Nevertheless, comparing those things which we said the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians with the present passage, or with the rest which we have recalled as written among the prophets, we see it declared from all of them most certainly that there will be a judgment of God; and in order that the manner of it might becom…
Romans 14:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
I know and am confident in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is common through itself, except to him who reckons anything to be common — to him it is common. We have said elsewhere also that in the holy Scriptures, by a kind of vernacular appellation, whatever is not holy or clean is called "common"; which appellation, however, is more frequently found in the New Testament, whereas in the Old I do not recall that it is anywhere so named — as in the Gospel the Savior says, that from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, fornications, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies: and these are the things that make a man common. But to eat with unwashed hands does not make a man common. Although in some Latin copies they have put "defile" instead of "make common," and although the force is the same, nevertheless the proper sense of the word is "make common." But also in the Acts of the Apostles the Lord says to Peter: What God has cleansed, do not you call common. I think, therefore, that the use of this expression was taken from this: that, for example, the vessels set apart for the ministry of the temple were without doubt called vessels of the Lord, while by distinction from these the remaining vessels were called common; so also, by distinction of foods, from those which Scripture set apart as clean and to be eaten according to the law, all the rest were called common. But the Jews, not knowing the force of the word, whence a man was called common whom they called common, held to the use of the expression without understanding of its meaning. For the foods which God created, whether taken in ignorance or in simplicity, could not make a man common and unclean; but that mind of man which is set apart for God alone is rightly called clean; whereas that which is alien from God, since it is possessed not by one unclean spirit but by many, for that reason such a man is called common, as being the slave of many vices or of many demons, according to him who, when asked, What is your name? answered, Legion: for we are many; and according to that which is said by the Savior, that when the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, he goes about dry places seeking rest, and not finding it he returns; and finding the house empty and swept with brooms, he takes with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And without doubt such a man is called common, having plainly been made the slave of all those malignant spirits which dwell in him. Rightly, therefore, Paul, knowing that this is the reason of this expression, says: I know and am confident in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is common through itself. For nothing among the creatures of God is unclean by its own nature (for it is established that all things created by the good God are good and clean); but, he says, to him who reckons anything to be common, to him it is common; that is, to him who with the intention of his heart thinks something unclean and admits the observance of distinctions, as he also says in what follows: But he who discerns, if he eats, is condemned; because it is not of faith. For everything that is not of faith is sin. Nor yet in these words did he exclude the distinction of the law, so as to say absolutely that nothing is common or unclean among those things which the law defined as unclean. For he set down beforehand the reason why nothing is called common through itself. I know, he says, and am confident in the Lord Jesus. In the Lord Jesus, therefore, . . . this by its own nature [ . . . ] nothing is common through itself, it is said; but to him, he says, who reckons, and who thinks something to be common, to him it is common. And do not wonder that the thought of the mind makes polluted a food which by its own nature is not common or polluted, when on the contrary simplicity of mind, with no scrupulosity of thought injected, absolves from all suspicion of contamination a food that is truly polluted (for that is truly polluted which is s…
Romans 14:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For if because of food your brother is grieved, you are no longer walking according to charity. Do not by your food destroy him for whom Christ died. When he had determined by apostolic teaching that through the Lord Jesus nothing is to be thought common or unclean by its own nature, and had granted to all the faithful the most complete liberty with regard to the use of foods, he again cuts back the license of that liberty for the building up of brotherly love, and says: Even if nothing is common, and the use of all foods is freely permitted, nevertheless if, because of a food which you think may lawfully be taken, you scandalize your brother, who is not yet capable of this knowledge, you are no longer walking according to charity, nor do you show in yourself the affection of brotherly love. For what harm do you suffer if, in order not to grieve your brother, you abstain even from what is lawful? For to abstain from lawful things is no crime for you; but for him, in matters where he discerns and thinks it not lawful, the use is condemnable. For he who discerns, if he eats, is condemned. But if you do this, you assuredly destroy your brother for whom Christ died, and you procure for him the causes of destruction. And more magnificently the same Paul, writing to the Colossians, says about these matters: Let no one therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of new moons, or of a Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no one seduce you, willing it in humility of heart and religion of angels, exalting himself in what he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding the head; and a little later: If therefore you are dead with Christ to the elements of the world, why, as though living in this world, do you decree: Touch not, taste not, handle not — which things are all unto corruption by the very use, according to the precepts and doctrines of men: which things have indeed a show of wisdom in the observance of religion, and in humility through the affliction of the body, not in any honor unto the satisfying of the flesh. To discuss these things one by one is not the business of the present work; for it is those things which the Apostle writes to the Romans that we are now attempting to expound. This, however, is what is asserted by the present example also: that we should not be judged by anyone in food, or in drink, or in observances of this kind, which among the Jews is thought to be as it were a religion of angels. For they exalt themselves in the things that are seen, and are puffed up about visible things. Yet this elation is not according to the wisdom of the spirit, but according to the sense of the flesh. But it was not concerning fleshly things that the precept was given: Touch not, handle not, taste not. For all these things, that is, fleshly things, have been given for this corruptible use; and what observance of purity can there be in corruption? But whereas the law prescribes these things concerning rational realities, which, if they are unclean, are truly not to be touched nor tasted, lest they make us partakers of their sin and uncleanness, they, forsaking the precepts and doctrines of men, transferred this spiritual sense to these fleshly and bodily things, which have a show of wisdom in the observance of religion and in humility of the body — yet not so that on the occasion of such observance some honor among men and the delights of the flesh should be sought after, while in place of the abstinence of a few, many and choice foods are required. But true observance is where food is so taken, and all things are so done, that it may not be said of such persons: Whose God is their belly. For it is fitting to abstain from every food which concupiscence and lust presumes upon, which delicacies prepare, which luxury devises. For we must look not only to what kind of food we use, but also to how much, and at what time, and how sp…
Romans 14:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Therefore let not our good be blasphemed. I ask in what way our good can be blasphemed. It is a good thing to understand the law spiritually, and to avoid, as unclean and polluted foods, the impious and foolish teachings of the heretics or of those who pursue a false philosophy. For this is what is enjoined by the spiritual law. Nevertheless, if someone from among the Jews, for example, or from those who are called Encratites, should wish to believe in Christ, yet should suppose that no small importance lies in the observance of abstinence — whether from those foods which are forbidden by the law, or from those which some think should be shunned as opposed to chastity, even on the authority of the Scriptures — if you press such a man to the foods common to all, and tell him that he cannot otherwise be saved, or attain to the faith and grace of Christ, unless he takes the foods he shrinks from, then truly the good of the spiritual understanding is blasphemed, since the man you are pressing supposes that this is the faith held among us: that we believe no one can be saved unless he feeds on the flesh of swine, or on other such common and indifferent foods.
Romans 14:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he adds to these things: For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit. In which again I greatly admire the wisdom of Paul, who restrains the faults of the present time by the authority of the sacrament to come, and, in order to establish the pattern of the Church, discloses the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. He says therefore: What need is there to disturb brotherly peace and charity so greatly over foods and the qualities of meats, when the kingdom of God, for the sake of which we labor and run, consists neither in foods nor in drink — but rather these things are foreign to the kingdom of God and to that future manner of life? For there, just as they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God, so neither do they take food nor drink, but are as the angels of God. Therefore it has been settled by a most absolute doctrine and a plain declaration of the Apostle that in the kingdom of God neither bodily foods nor drink have a place, but righteousness and peace in the Holy Spirit; and for that reason he exhorts us to exercise ourselves in those things, and to strive to possess those goods already here, and to own that substance which can pass over with us into the kingdoms of heaven. Peace, therefore, and righteousness, and whatever things of this kind are sought out through the Holy Spirit — these very things will be our food and our substance in the kingdom of God: and therefore by these words he teaches that we must take thought not for the accounts of bodily foods, which will be none in the world to come, but for the virtues, which remain with us both in the present life and in the future in the kingdom of God.
Romans 14:18 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And therefore he says that he who in this serves Christ pleases God, and is approved by men. This is what he says elsewhere of himself: Just as I also, he says, please all men in all things, not seeking what is useful to me, but what is useful to many. For this reason, even though he was an apostle of Christ, he became a Jew to the Jews — without doubt so that by pleasing the Jews he might save them; and to those who were without the law he himself became without law, that by pleasing them he might save them. But he says that he pleases men in this way: not by indulging their vices, but by supporting their weaknesses through patience. But let us not pass over even this idly, that he says: For he who in this — that is, in the Holy Spirit — serves Christ pleases God, and is approved by men. He speaks of serving Christ in the Holy Spirit according to what he also says elsewhere: No one says "Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit. Paul himself therefore serves Christ in the Spirit, who, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit, serves the Word of God, serves wisdom, serves righteousness, and all the virtues together, which Christ is recorded to be. And therefore he is said to please God in these things who fulfills the will of God, according to the word which He Himself pronounced, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him. He therefore who hears God, and serves Christ in whom God was well pleased, pleases God, and is approved by men.
Romans 14:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Therefore let us pursue the things that make for peace, and the things that are for mutual edification. Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. Above he said: Pursuing hospitality; and here likewise he says, let us pursue the things that make for peace, and the things that are for edification one toward another: and just as we showed there in what manner hospitality is to be pursued, so here too let us understand in what manner peace is to be pursued, since David likewise says: Seek peace, and pursue it. Although in the Latin codices it stands, follow it, nevertheless "pursue" is written there also. In which this seems to me to be shown: that peace has been disturbed, he says, by many who act restlessly and insolently, and, put to flight, has as it were slipped away from among men; on the contrary, by those who have learned Christ and serve Him, it must be pursued even as it flees, and called back by every means. Now he pursues peace who guards those things by which peace can stand firm — even at his own labor, at his own loss, and even at the cost of reproach, and, if it be so necessary, even at peril of life and reputation. For these things preserve not only peace, but also mutual edification. For he is edified who sees you seeking not the things that are expedient for yourself alone, but those that are expedient for others; and thus the building of faith grows, and the temple of God rises up from living stones through the construction of charity; and therefore he adds: Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. For he destroys the work of God, and pulls down the building of charity, who by intemperance in foods places a stumbling block before his brothers.
Romans 14:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
All things indeed are clean, but it is evil for the man who eats through offense. What he said, All things indeed are clean, but it is evil for the man who eats through offense, is like what he said above, that nothing is common of itself, except that to him who reckons something to be common, to that man it is common. Therefore according to their own nature and the principle of creation, by which all things that exist were made by God, all things are clean; and there is nothing unclean, or what is called common. Yet he laid down two causes by which either things that are clean become unclean, or things that are good become evil. For he says in the present passage: But it is evil for the man who eats through offense. That therefore which is by its own nature good is made evil out of offense, that is, in this, that your brother is offended when you make use of those foods in which he suffers a stumbling-block. But the other cause by which that becomes common or unclean which is not by its own nature unclean, is if anyone reckons it so, and holds it within himself to be common. Therefore to that man alone who so reckons it, it is made common or unclean. From which the Apostle plainly teaches that uncleanness and pollution consist not in things or in substances, but in acts and thoughts that are less than right; although the law of Moses marked out certain things as clean and certain as unclean: in which it wished to lay down certain distinctions, so that the people who were reckoned under the law might be seen to be set apart from the other nations by observances of this kind. And so long indeed as that people was held holy and separated from the other nations, the distinction concerning clean and unclean also seemed necessary, which would separate and set apart the special people of God from the nations whom ignorance of God and the worship of idols made unclean: but when the door of faith is opened to the Gentiles, and all are invited to God, there are shown to Peter all the four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and birds, set forth in a sheet which had been let down from heaven, and it is said to him: Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And when, mindful of the observance of the law, he had answered the Lord and said: Far be it, Lord, for never has anything common or unclean entered into my mouth, it is pronounced by a heavenly verdict: What God has cleansed, do not you call common. Where therefore all the nations are cleansed from defilement through the acknowledgment of faith, there also every food is purified by the word of the Lord and by prayer: and on this account the Apostle says that all things are clean, provided only that this be avoided which he sets down in what follows, lest through the offense of a brother those things which are clean become again unclean to the one eating.
Romans 14:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
It is good not to eat meat, and not to drink wine, nor anything in which your brother is offended. But now, as to what he adds, It is good not to eat meat, and not to drink wine — unless he had added, nor anything in which your brother is offended, it would perhaps seem contrary to what went before. For he taught that to eat meat and not to eat, or to drink wine or not to drink, is neither evil nor good, but is to be held as a middle thing and indifferent. For even an evil man and one estranged from the faith can refrain from eating meat and from drinking wine, as it is certain that some also often do this for the sake of idols. Sometimes too such an observance is said to be kept in the evil arts. Certainly it is the custom of not a few heretics to observe these things; and yet we do not straightway say: It is good for them that they do not eat meat, nor drink wine. But plainly in that manner which he set down in what follows, in which a brother is offended, not to eat meat and not to drink wine is no longer a middle or indifferent thing, but truly good. For it is good not to put an offense or stumbling-block before a brother. For on this account he says also in another place: Be without offense both to the Jews and to the Greeks, and to the Church of God. And therefore let them see whether they act rightly who, when men abstain from meat and wine for whatever cause, compel them by every means to taste, namely so that by this there may seem to be removed from them the suspicion by which they are thought superstitiously to cling to distinctions of foods. For let them consider that the Apostle did not say: It is good to eat and to drink wine; but, not to eat meat, and not to drink wine, if a brother is offended in it. He did not wish, therefore, that for the sake of those who judge that one ought to eat, the man should be compelled to eat who is offended in this; but rather, for the sake of him who thinks one ought not to eat, he enjoins abstinence even upon those who judge that one ought to eat. For it is to be feared lest perhaps, once the wall of continence has been broken down and license taken, one fall into the storm of gluttony and the depth of luxury, and shipwrecks of chastity follow together with it. All things therefore must be done to this end, that the work of God be not destroyed: and therefore one must eat, if in this a brother is edified; and one must not eat, if through this the work of God does not increase; and one must drink, if through this a brother advances in faith; and one must not drink, if through this a brother incurs loss of faith, or you the detriment of charity.
Romans 14:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things he says: The faith which you have, have it with yourself before God. He here calls "faith" that by which one believes that he may eat all things, just as he said above: One believes that he may eat all things — that man, without doubt, who believes that among God's creatures nothing is common, nothing unclean. But it is enough for you, he says, to have such faith before God; yet not on that account is another to be compelled to eat all things, one who does not yet have such faith as to believe that all things are to be eaten. But in saying, which you have with yourself, he cuts away boastfulness, lest what we believe should consist rather in display than in virtue. And he added, have it before God, that he might teach that we must take pains, not that our faith be noised abroad among men, but that it be approved before God. And it is a great thing to have an approvable faith before God. For with God even the faith of the apostles is judged small, whence it is said to Peter: O you of little faith, why did you doubt? Therefore truly great is he who has before God an approvable faith. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in that which he approves. A man is called blessed not only if he does the things that are fitting, but also if he does not do the things that are unfitting: as he is called blessed who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and no less blessed is he who walks in the law of the Lord. The one, then, is blessed because he does not walk in the way of sinners; the other, because he walks in the law of the Lord. So too in the present passage the Apostle says: Blessed is he who does not judge himself in that which he approves. But let us see of what work this blessedness consists. For there are many who approve of doing some good thing — for example, those who, hearing of the rewards of chastity, approve and resolve to live chastely; but in the course of time, either through negligence creeping in or through lust overcoming them, that which they had approved as to be observed is stained and corrupted: and unhappy is that man who, conquered in the very thing he had decreed to observe, judges and condemns himself. But blessed is he who so remains fixed and stable in that which he approves and resolves, that in nothing does he judge himself, in nothing reproach himself. And he says that this is to be held also in the observance of foods, according to that rule which he wove above: so that if there is anyone who through knowledge of the spiritual law approves that all things are to be eaten and that all things are clean, he should not again judge himself and take up a doubt whether he ought to partake or not.
Romans 14:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But he who makes a distinction, if he eats, is condemned, because it is not of faith. And everything that is not of faith is sin. He who makes a distinction in this way — that is, who doubts whether what he takes is truly clean or unclean — that man, from the very doubt of his own mind, is condemned by his accusing conscience. He also sets forth the cause of this condemnation, saying: Because it is not taken of faith, but assuredly out of doubt. And after these things he propounds a general sentence upon all things, saying: And everything that is not of faith is sin. By this word he binds with a tighter bond the negligent and slothful souls of any believers whatever, that they should do nothing without faith, say nothing apart from faith, nor think anything apart from faith: because whether you have done something without faith, or spoken, or even thought it, you sin. This is the same as what he says elsewhere: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God. But someone may ask whether the heretics too, in what they do, since they act according to what they believe, are to be held to act out of faith; or whether, because the faith among them is evil, everything they do is to be pronounced sin, since it is not done of faith. For my part, I think that their credulity is called faith rather than is faith. For just as false prophets are sometimes by a false name called prophets; and false knowledge is called knowledge; and false wisdom is by misuse named wisdom: so also the credulity of heretics is by a false name called faith. Whence it must be considered whether perhaps even if some good work seems to be performed among them, because it is not done of faith, it is turned into sin, as was said of a certain man: Let his prayer become sin. There is sometimes also a chastity which is not of faith — that, at any rate, of those who give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, and abstaining from foods which God created. There is, then, also a false faith of those who have made shipwreck concerning the faith; there is also a false wisdom, namely that of this world, and of the princes of this world, which shall be destroyed. For just as pirates are accustomed at sea, in shallow places and among hidden rocks, to kindle a light through the darkness of night, by which they may lure sailors — under the hope of fleeing to a harbor of safety — to the shipwrecks of destruction; so too that light of false wisdom or false faith is kindled by the princes of the world and by the spirits of this air, not that men may escape by it, but that by it the men who sail the waves of this world and the sea of life may perish. Of these pirates, I think, Job also was speaking: The arrows of his pirates have come upon me. And for this reason, doubtless, the apostle Paul himself also says that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, sailing the waves of this life, we ought not to trust every light, that is, not every wisdom; but, as the Apostle admonishes, to test the spirits, which are of God. And therefore we ought unceasingly to pray for the help of the Lord, and to hope that he himself will snatch us from the snare of the hunters, so that we too may say: For our soul has been snatched like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters: the snare is broken, and we are set free. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Romans 15:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But we who are stronger ought to bear the weaknesses of the infirm, and not to please ourselves. In these words Paul appears to declare himself one of the strong, just as he also says in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, that I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak. For there too he does not say that he is weak, but that he becomes weak; and certainly, if he had been weak, he could not have become weak. But do not take this to mean that he was forgetful of that command of the passage where it is said: Let your neighbor praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips. It is not, then, for his own praise, but for the logic of the matter, that he declares himself strong. For if he himself, under the appearance of humility, had avoided being numbered among the strong, which of those who ought to bear the weaknesses of others would have dared to undertake this duty, that he should strive, as one strong himself, to bear the frailties of the weak? But he makes this duty a common one for this reason, that each one of us, in whatever he can — even if not in all things, yet in that in which he seems to be stronger than his neighbor — may bear his neighbor's weakness; just as he also says elsewhere: Bear one another's burdens. But here he seems to have used "burdens" of bodily necessities, so that if anyone is more abundantly supplied with means, he may bear the burden of the poorer man, and abundance may console want. But in that place where he says that the stronger should bear the weaknesses of the weak, nothing else can be understood than that those who are more robust should patiently endure the things in which others fail through weakness, and should not at once despise them, cast them off, and shrink from them, if perhaps they are overcome by some fault of weakness, nor drive them away, under the appearance of a purer life, from the assembly of the brethren and the fellowship of the Church. For whoever does this is no imitator of him of whom Isaiah says: He himself bears our infirmities, and grieves for us; and we thought him to be in grief, and in stripes, and in affliction. But if Christ bears our infirmities, and God patiently endures our offenses, how is it that we by no means tolerate the offenses and negligences of those who seem a little inferior? This is surely to turn Christ himself away from that disposition, so that he should be unwilling to bear our infirmities. For no one is so perfect that he is not found in some respect weak before God, and borne by Christ; and therefore he rather teaches sympathy in this matter, that is, to suffer with one another and to grieve together, as he also writes elsewhere: Forgiving one another your offenses, as God also in Christ has forgiven you. But he does not enjoin this in order to nourish the delinquent, and to loosen the weak by a laxer indulgence; but knowing that if the weak man is borne with, either he blushes to be borne with any longer, and corrects the fault of his offending; or, if he is not able to amend himself, there will at any rate be this fruit for the one who bears him, that he does not go on to worse, nor become more degenerate than himself, like those of whom the Apostle says: But evil men and seducers shall go on to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Romans 15:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And to this — that we bear the weaknesses of the weak — we ought also to add this, that we should not please ourselves, but our neighbor, only in what is good, and unto edification. The vice of self-love (philautia), that is, of pleasing oneself, the prophet also blames elsewhere when he says: Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and learned in their own sight. Likewise, then, in this matter also we can say: Woe to those who please themselves, and seem good in their own sight. For we must first please in the sight of God, and secondly our neighbors as well. For just as the first thing is to love the Lord God, and the second the neighbor, so also the first thing is to please God, and secondly our neighbors as well. But perhaps someone may say that Paul contradicts himself in commanding us to please our neighbors, when he said elsewhere: If I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. And surely it seems contrary to this sentence that each one of us should please his neighbor, and what he says elsewhere: As I also please all men in all things, not seeking what is profitable to myself, but what is profitable to many, that they may be saved. It must therefore be said in reply to these things, that it is one thing to have a zeal for pleasing men so as to seek praise from them, and another thing to have a zeal for pleasing men in this, that one's life may be blameless before men, and that all who either see or hear such a man may profit from it. There, then, men are not to be pleased, where that by which one pleases is against faith, against honesty, against religion; and therefore he says, That if I pleased men — that is, unbelieving and faithless Jews — I should not be the servant of Christ. For if Paul had wished to please the Jews, he would surely have dragged men and women bound to Jerusalem, having been sent to Damascus with letters, and he would in no way have believed the vision brought to him on the way, and the heavenly voice. But also, if anyone demands that we do something against justice, against sanctity, against the Christian rule, and unless we do this threatens hatred and enmity, then we ought to remember this saying which says: If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But when it is said: Let each of you please his neighbor, a necessary distinction is joined to it, which plainly shows in what one is to please the neighbor, when he says: In what is good, unto edification. When, therefore, we act well and teach well, we please our neighbor and edify him. For he does not admonish us that glory is to be sought from men, but that edification is to be given to our neighbors by our action and our speech; just as also in what the Savior says, that your light may shine before men, and that seeing your good works they may glorify your Father who is in heaven. By which he certainly does not exhort the disciples to seek glory from men, but that, living rightly and honorably, they may furnish edification to those who see them, and that God may be glorified, who has opened to men the way of amendment and salvation.
Romans 15:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For Christ also did not please himself, but as it is written: The reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me. In this he seems to show that Christ too, not pleasing himself, and not thinking it robbery to be equal with God, emptied himself; but wishing to please men — that is, to save men — he endured the reproaches of those who reproached, as it is written: The reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me. This will become clearer if we recall the things that are written in the Gospel: how, in order that he might benefit men and save them, he ate and drank with sinners and publicans, and the Jews, reproaching him for these things, said: Why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? Or again, when he did not forbid the sinful woman to touch his feet, and to bathe them with her tears, and to wipe them with her hair, and to anoint them with myrrh; and for this the Jews, reproaching and upbraiding him, said that if this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what sort the woman is who touches him, that she is a sinner. But if you ask why the example which he brought forward from the Psalm should stand thus, as though the reproaches that were cast at God fell upon Christ, we can explain it thus: that just as he said, He who receives me receives him who sent me, so this too can be understood: that he who reproaches me reproaches him who sent me. The example, then, which he took up is written in this way in the sixty-eighth Psalm: I have become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to my mother's sons. For the zeal of your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me.
Romans 15:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For whatever things were written, were written for our instruction. This is like what he himself says elsewhere: But they were written for our sakes, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. But if it is asked in what way the things that were written were written for our sakes, see that it was for our sakes that it was written: You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain; for God has no care for oxen, but he says it concerning us; and for our sakes it was written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free, that we might know that these things are allegorical, and that these are the two testaments. For our sakes that also was written, that the people ate manna in the desert and drank water from the rock, so that we might understand that they ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink, drinking from the rock that followed them, which rock was Christ. And these, and other things of this kind, were mysteries, which were hidden from eternal times, but are now made manifest through the prophetic Scriptures and the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But that it may become still more manifest how the things that were written were written for our sakes, the prophet says concerning the former people, that with the ear you shall hear, and shall not hear; and seeing you shall see, and shall not understand. But concerning us it is said, that those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand. Consider therefore from this for whose sake the things that were written appear to have been written. For the things that are written are without doubt written for the sake of those who are going to see and understand, not for the sake of those who are said neither to be going to see nor to understand. And those who understand the things that were written will without doubt find that which is consequently added: That through the patience and consolation of the Scriptures we may have hope toward God. For consolation from the Scriptures is grasped not by him who neither believes nor understands, but by him who both believes and understands.
Romans 15:5-6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now may the God of patience and of consolation grant you to be of the same mind one toward another according to Jesus Christ: that with one accord, with one mouth, you may honor God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If patience is a virtue, and every virtue is from God, then patience too is from God. When therefore he says "the God of patience," this seems to be what is shown: that God is with those who have within themselves the virtue of patience — just as, when one says "the God of justice," it is shown that God is in those who keep justice. In like manner "the God of truth" and "the God of wisdom" are understood. But when "the God of consolation" is also said, God is shown to be with those who take from the divine Scriptures, through spiritual understanding, the consolation of the Spirit. "May the God of patience and consolation therefore grant you," he says, "to be of the same mind one toward another according to Jesus Christ." In this Paul, after the manner of the patriarchs and prophets whose blessings are recorded in writing, bestows blessings upon the Romans, praying earnestly that it be given them by God to be of the same mind one toward another. This is a great blessing: that all should be of one mind and one sentiment, and that each should will for his neighbor just as he wills for himself. Do you wish to know how much the grace of unanimity avails? The Savior declares in the Gospels that if two or three shall agree as one concerning anything whatsoever they ask of God, it shall be done for them; and again he says of himself that where two or three are gathered together in my name — that is, thinking one and the same thing in the name of Jesus Christ — "there," he says, "I will be in the midst of them." Do you wish to receive yet another example of how Christ becomes present in the midst of those who think one thing? See in the Acts of the Apostles how, after the Lord's ascension, when, it says, the eleven apostles together with the rest lifted up their voice and prayed with one accord, the place in which they stood was shaken, and they were counted worthy of the presence of the Holy Spirit. But that it may be made still clearer how great is the power of unanimity and how great its grace, I do not think it will seem out of place if we bring forward those things which have been handed down to us on these matters by the fathers, with good reason, from the Old Testament as well — handed down, that is, by those who came from among the Hebrews to faith in Christ. They used to say, then, that those three sons of Korah whose names we find in Exodus — that is, Aser, which is interpreted "instruction," and Elkanah, which in our language is called "possession of God," and Abiasaph, which in the Latin tongue signifies "the congregation of the father" — when their father Korah had sinned together with Dathan and Abiram and all who consented with them, and destruction by divine vengeance was being prepared against them, these separated themselves from the wicked gathering, and, set apart from the impious conspiracy, poured out with one accord a prayer of repentance to God; and that, being heard by God, they merited not only pardon of the punishment but also the grace of prophecy; and that this too was granted them by God at their request, that they should not be commanded to prophesy anything sad or ruinous; and that for this reason all the Psalms which are recorded as inscribed with their names contain nothing sad or harsh against sinners. This we have brought forward so that it might be known more magnificently how great is the power of unanimity, and of thinking one thing, and of being of the same mind one with another. As for myself, that thing too which Paul does in certain of his Epistles, joining the names of others with his own and saying, "Paul, and Sosthenes the brother," and elsewhere, "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy," I think was not done to no purpose; but that by it is shown that, when two or three are s…
Romans 15:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things he says: "Wherefore receive one another, as Christ also received you unto the honor of God." What he says, "receive one another," is to be referred back to what he had set forth at the first, where, on the occasion of clean or unclean foods, those who thought differently were at variance with one another; and he says: "Receive one another, as Christ also received you," who shrank from no one's uncleannesses, nor reckoned to anyone his offenses. Judge nothing, therefore, concerning the uncleanness of animals, just as he did not reckon the uncleannesses of believers. And he who had said above, "But let him who eats not judge him who does not eat, for God has taken him up," here said, "As Christ received you" — so as to show that to be received by God and by Christ is one and the same thing. And he adds this also, that it is the honor of God to be received by Christ. For those whom Christ receives, he teaches that they ought so to act that men, seeing their good works, may glorify their Father who is in heaven.
Romans 15:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the sake of God's truth, to establish the promises of the Fathers. In what way Christ was a minister of the circumcision to establish the promises of the Fathers can be understood in a twofold manner. Either on the ground that he himself received circumcision in his own flesh, so that it might be most manifestly known that, coming from the seed of Abraham — to whom God had promised that in his seed all the Gentiles would be blessed — he fulfilled in himself the things that had been promised to the Fathers; and so that by this, according to the plan of the whole Epistle's arrangement, whereby he now curbs and restrains those who had believed from the circumcision, and now also those from the Gentiles who were exalting themselves against one another, he might teach that those who linger in the observances of the Law are not to be judged utterly, seeing that Christ too stood forth in his own flesh as a minister of circumcision. Or else in another way, so that Christ is said to have been a minister of that circumcision of which the same Apostle says: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is manifest in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God"; and according to what the same Apostle says elsewhere: "In whom also you have been circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand, in the stripping away of the body of the flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ, buried together with him in baptism." Through circumcision of this kind, therefore, it is certain that the promises of the Fathers have been fulfilled.
Romans 15:9-12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But the Gentiles honor God for his mercy, as it is written: "Therefore I will confess to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name." And again he says: "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people." And again: "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and magnify him, all you peoples." And Isaiah again says: "There shall be the root of Jesse, and he who shall arise to rule the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles hope." But what those promises were, he declares by the examples he subjoins, in which he says: "Therefore I will confess to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name." This appears to be taken from the seventeenth psalm, with a small alteration made, not of the sense but of the words. For there the Prophet says: "Therefore I will confess to you among the Gentiles, O Lord, and I will sing a psalm to your name." But as for what he says, "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people," it is written in those same words in the canticle of Deuteronomy. "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and magnify him, all you peoples," is read in the hundred and sixteenth psalm; only that there, instead of "magnify," "praise together" is set down. But the last example Paul himself says is taken from Isaiah, in whose body of text it is written thus: "And there shall be in that day the root of Jesse; and he who shall arise to rule the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles hope. And his rest shall be honor." But having omitted, in the first place, two expressions, that is, "in that day," and, in the last, "and his rest shall be honor," he set down the rest in the same words in which the Seventy Translators published them. From which it must be known that in nearly everything the Apostle holds to the edition of the Seventy Translators, unless perhaps some things seem to him less necessary to the assertion he is pursuing, or when he wishes to use not so much the words of the translators as the meanings of Scripture, brought forth in his own utterance. But this saying about the root of Jesse has seemed better to be discussed in the exposition of the prophet Isaiah himself. Nevertheless, even in the present place it will be said that "Jesse" is interpreted in our language as "there is to me." At the coming of Christ, therefore, everyone who has believed in him has fittingly said: "There is to me." For he of whom Moses said, "He who is has sent me to you," he himself is "to me" — that is, I believe in him who is, not in one who was made out of nothing, as it pleases the impious, but in him who is, and always is, and this is his name; and he it is who has arisen from the root of Jesse, and in him shall the Gentiles hope. For which mercy, which they have obtained from him, namely that he who always was should be born from the root of Jesse to give salvation to the Gentiles — for this mercy conferred upon them, I say, the Gentiles honor and magnify God.
Romans 15:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Spirit. He who had said above what is written in Isaiah, "And in him shall the Gentiles hope," gratefully added, "Now may the God of hope"; so that, if it had been written, "in him shall the Gentiles believe," he would without doubt have added, "Now may the God of faith" — so that now, from the act of hoping, he invokes the God of hope for the Gentiles, upon those who hope in him, from whom he prays that the gift of blessing may be increased for them. And the blessing is of this kind: that they may be filled with all joy and all peace. And similarly the Prophet too says in a certain place: "And in his days shall be justice and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away." But since these things are said of Christ, in him we can rightly perceive the abundance of peace, in that he made peace through the blood of his cross, not only for the things that are on earth, but also for the things that are in the heavens. But how what the Apostle prays for can be fulfilled in all — that they be filled with all joy and all peace — seems to me difficult to explain, especially since the Apostle himself, among the things he has obtained through the grace of the Spirit, says that he knows in part and prophesies in part. But I think that believers can have the fullness of peace in this: when they are reconciled to God the Father through faith, according to the word of Paul who says, "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God"; and when they return into peace with the Son of God through the blood of his cross; and when they are joined to the Holy Spirit, once they have cleansed themselves from every defilement and have been made holy vessels — so that at last a person may be seen to be filled with all peace, if he has believed in the fullness of the Trinity. Finally, on this account the Apostle adds and says: "May he fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Spirit." For if he who believes is fortified by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is certain that he always has fullness of joy and fullness of peace.
Romans 15:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, so that you are able to admonish others as well. By the same reasoning by which we said above that believers are filled with all joy and all peace, here too he affirms that those to whom the discourse is addressed are full of goodness and of all knowledge. Similarly, writing to the Corinthians as well, he says: In everything you have been made rich in him, in all utterance and in all knowledge; and he, as we said above, declares even of himself that he does not have all knowledge, nor all prophecy, but in part — concerning which I remember that we have often spoken elsewhere. And now none the less we shall say that Paul, and any who are such as he, are called perfect in comparison with the rest; but with respect to that supreme knowledge, or to that perfection which is in the heavenly orders, no one among men can either be called or be perfect. As if we were to say: in the studies of boyhood, in comparison with one who has only lately been initiated and is receiving the first elements of letters, the schoolmaster himself is called perfect; but he is not perfect in the way that the man who teaches grammar is. And the grammarian himself, however perfect he may be, is nevertheless surpassed by the perfection of the rhetorician; and far more eminent than all of these is the perfection of philosophic teaching. And although in all of these there is literary learning, yet a different degree of perfection and of mastery is held in each one. So then it can be that Paul also, when he says: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect, seems to write these things looking to that summit of heavenly perfection. But when he says: As many of us therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded, he has regard only to the degree of human perfection. So then in the present passage too they are to be understood as filled — whether with peace, or with joy, or even with goodness, or even with knowledge, whether the Romans or the Corinthians — in so far as it is possible for those to be filled who are being taught in the Church and who live under perfect teachers. And he indicates also the measure of that knowledge itself when he says: so that you are able to admonish others as well. In which he shows that in that which each one has learned he ought also to admonish another, and to hold conversations of this kind with his fellow-disciples, by which they may both admonish and edify one another. For mutual conference can contribute very much instruction, if it be held with charity, and if concerning any of the deeper or more obscure matters one awaits the judgment of the learned and the perfect, according to what Moses also says: Ask your fathers, and they will declare to you; your elders, and they will tell you.
Romans 15:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But I have written to you the more boldly in part, as putting you in remembrance, because of the grace given me by God. As one who was conscious to himself that throughout the whole text of the Epistle — while he addressed his word now to those who are of the circumcision, now to those who have believed from among the Gentiles — he had touched upon certain matters even of the more secret and deeper mysteries, and out of eagerness to render an account had laid open many things that were held among the hidden things (although in each case he preserved the dispensation of the word with cautious moderation, and while disclosing it in some part, in great part again veiled it), for that reason he says: But I have written to you the more boldly in part, as putting you in remembrance, through the grace which was given me. Do you hear the Apostle saying: I have written in part? Whence let no one be angry with us if we are not able to explain the account of the divine mysteries with full clarity, when he hears that the very man who handed these things down to us handed them down in part; nor let anyone strut about so puffed up under the title of knowledge, as though he had come to know all things, when Paul himself, from whom the word of knowledge has been poured out to us, says that he writes in part and knows in part. I, however, judge that although Paul himself also confesses that he knows in part, yet he knew many things — and far more things — than he wrote. For as one who himself knew much, and yet did not dare to bring much of it forward, he says that it was boldness in him to commit at least some things to writing. But in that he says, putting you in remembrance through the grace given me, he indicates that he had indeed already had discourse concerning such matters, and had often discussed the mysteries; but since what has been said by speech alone forgetfulness might easily intercept, by these few things, he says, which I have written through the grace given me, I call back to you the memory of those things which have often been more fully discussed by me. But concerning the grace which Paul recalls as given to him, we have already spoken above.
Romans 15:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he says this grace was given him for this purpose, that I may be, he says, a minister to Christ Jesus among the Gentiles, sanctifying the Gospel of God. What we have as sanctifying the Gospel of God, the Greeks say more magnificently, *hierourgounta to euangelion tou theou* ("performing the sacred rite of the Gospel of God"), which, though not fully rendered by us, might nevertheless be expressed as sacrificing the Gospel of God; by which it is shown that to announce the Gospel is a sacrificial work. And accordingly he then adds: That the offering up of the Gentiles may be made acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, just as the high priests, when they made offering, necessarily had to take care that there should be no blemish in the victim, no reproach, no defect, so that it could be acceptable and pleasing to God; so also he who sacrifices the Gospel and announces the word of God ought by every means to take care that no blemish arise in his preaching, no defect in his teaching, no fault in his instruction; but, so to speak, if it can be done, let him first offer up himself, let him first cut the throat of his own vices, let him first mortify his own members to sin, so that not only by teaching but also by the example of his life he may make his offering — the salvation of his disciples — acceptable to God. Sanctified, he says, in the Holy Spirit. The fount of sanctification is the Holy Spirit, and therefore the offering of the Gentiles which is offered while Paul sacrifices is said to be made acceptable to God not through the observance of the law, but through the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
I have therefore glory in Christ Jesus toward God. True glorying toward God there is none, except that which is in Christ Jesus. But to glory in God without Christ is much the same as if someone should say that he can have glory with God without righteousness, without wisdom, without truth. For all these things Christ is; and therefore in Christ alone is there true glorying toward God. This is like that which he himself says elsewhere: But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. But in what way every glorying which is outside Christ is blameworthy — for example, in riches, or in the honors of the world, or in the wisdom of the world, or in the other arts which are outside Christ — we have already discussed more fully above. It should indeed be known that here the Latins have put "glory" for "glorying."
Romans 15:18-19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
For I do not dare, he says, to speak of any of those things which Christ does not accomplish through me unto the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deeds, by the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. The things I speak, he says, are not the words of another's work, nor do I make myself the praiser of another's deeds; but what I know Christ to have accomplished through me, these things I write to you, the things which he has fulfilled in me by word and by work unto the obedience of the Gentiles — by the word of preaching, by the work of signs and wonders. But what the difference is between signs and wonders, we have both said more fully elsewhere, and in the present passage we shall explain more briefly. Those are called signs in which, while there is something marvelous, something future is also indicated; but wonders are those in which only something marvelous is displayed. But he said "signs and wonders" as containing both. Divine Scripture, however, sometimes keeps these proper meanings, but sometimes by a loose usage puts both wonders for signs and signs for wonders. Paul therefore, by the power of signs and wonders — which signs and wonders nevertheless he wrought in the power of the Holy Spirit — filled up the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum. God had given to Moses and Aaron the power of signs and wonders, as it is written: He placed in them the words of signs and of wonders in the land of Ham, that they might free the sons of Israel when Egypt had been chastised: but they were scarcely and rarely able to convert any from the nation of the Egyptians. Paul, having received the power of signs and wonders, converted to the sacraments of Christ not one nation, nor two or three peoples, but all the nations and peoples from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, by the preaching of the word and by the might of his works and mighty deeds.
Romans 15:20-21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
And he preached this Gospel in such a way that he did not insert his own discourses as an addition to another's labors or another's preaching, lest he should himself set the building of his own preaching upon foundations of faith laid by another, and should seem to filch the glory of another's work. These things are to be observed by the rulers of the Churches, and to be kept with diligent attention, so that they may neither seem to speak any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through them, nor cast a slur upon the labors and endeavors of others. And a man speaks those things which Christ does not accomplish through him in this manner: if he should speak of continence and teach it, while he himself is not continent; or if he should speak of sobriety, or of righteousness, or of bestowing wealth and despising possessions for the kingdom of God, and Christ has accomplished none of these things in the very man who teaches them. And therefore the Apostle sets forth his own pattern, and says that he speaks those things, and preaches those things to others, which Christ has first fulfilled through him. But as it is written, he says, They to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand. The Apostle therefore diligently took care that, according to the prophetic utterance, he should announce Christ to those to whom he had been announced by no one, and that those should understand concerning him who had learned of him before from no one. And this, as I think, was the cause which frequently hindered him when he proposed to go to Rome, as he says: For which reason I was very much hindered from coming to you; not, as he says elsewhere, hindered by Satan, but detained by the occupation of founding Churches, and of founding them in those places where no foundation of faith had gone before. But the example is taken from Isaiah, and is set down in the very same words, entire, in which it is read in the prophet.
Romans 15:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Paul was not hindered by Satan, as some think, but by the fact that he was too busy planting churches in places where nobody had ever preached the gospel before.
Romans 15:23-24 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But now, having no further place in these regions, and having a desire to come to you now for many preceding years, when I set out for Spain, I hope that as I pass through I may see you, and be sent on my way there by you, when first I shall have enjoyed you in part." He seems to say these things while situated in Achaia, at Corinth, as we have already shown so far as our strength allowed in the earlier parts of the Epistle: which Achaia, of course, is neighboring and adjoining to Macedonia. Living in those places, when he had traveled through each and every region preaching the Gospel—only within those boundaries in which Christ had not previously been preached—and had filled all things with the knowledge of God, he says that he has no further place in these regions, that is, that no place remains to him empty of the preaching of Christ; and he indicates that the time is now at hand in which he ought to fulfill his desire of seeing those who are at Rome: a desire which he had conceived and carried for many years, but which had been deferred and set aside until he should fill every place in which Christ had not been preached with the knowledge of his Gospel. But what he said, "When I set out for Spain, I hope that as I pass through I may see you," is not to be taken as though Paul were held by so small a love toward the Romans that he judged they should be visited only in passing and while journeying elsewhere. For see what he adds in what follows. "When first," he says, "I shall have enjoyed you in part." In which, surely, he seems to place it in their own power when the journey he has proposed ought to be released by them: and through this he in a certain manner invites and nourishes their love toward himself, so that if they themselves are held by an insatiable affection toward the Apostle, they may know that he too has this purpose, not to depart from them nor to set out elsewhere before he has fully enjoyed the grace of their charity. Yet he foresees that this charity will be so great that it cannot be satisfied in full, but "in part," he says. For he gives warning beforehand that in all things the necessity of preaching the Gospel must be preferred. And rightly does he promise his presence and his delay more moderately to those whom he had not yet seen according to the flesh, and to whom he had not yet come in the body. For we receive more longingly those goods which we fear will quickly be taken away; but we neglect more carelessly what we believe we shall keep for a longer time. And to such a degree does he nourish the affection of the Romans toward himself, and place his delay in their own judgment, that he says he is to be sent on his way by them to Spain, and then to be sent on, when he shall first have satisfied them in love: in which, surely, if they should prove more eager, they will themselves give the Apostle causes for delaying longer.
Romans 15:25-27 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"But now I shall set out for Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it has pleased Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor of the saints who are in Jerusalem. For it has pleased them, and they are their debtors: for if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in carnal things." That it pleased Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor of the saints who are in Jerusalem, we can learn more fully also from the second Epistle to the Corinthians, in which he writes in this manner: "But I make known to you, brethren, the grace of God which has been given to me in the Churches of Macedonia, that in much trial of tribulation the abundance of their joy, and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their simplicity: for according to their power (I bear them witness) and beyond their power they were willing of their own accord, beseeching us with many prayers for the grace and the fellowship which is made toward the saints," and the rest. And just as in these words he bears witness to the Macedonians, so again he also exhorts the Corinthians, saying: "But as you abound in all things, in faith, and in word, and in knowledge, and in our charity toward you, so may you abound in this grace also," and the rest. But also in other places, praising the Corinthians because they had been ready toward the fellowship of the poor who are in Jerusalem, he says: "And I give counsel in this matter: for this is expedient for you, who not only to do, but also to will, began from the former year: but now complete it also in deed." But in the remaining passages too he pursues this same fellowship of the saints, and after a little he adds: "But concerning the ministry which is toward the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know your ready will, for which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been prepared since the former year, and your zeal has provoked many." But that after a ministry of this kind of Macedonia and Achaia, which is made toward the saints who are in Jerusalem, the Apostle had also purposed to see Rome, is indicated in the Acts of the Apostles in this manner: "But when these things were fulfilled, Paul purposed in the Holy Spirit that when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, he would set out for Jerusalem, saying: For after I have been there, it is necessary for me to see Rome also." Now from all these words it is gathered that not only the first to the Corinthians, but also the second was written before this one to the Romans which we have in hand; and at the same time this is observed, that the later Paul is found in each Epistle, so much the more perfect he also is: so that that saying of his may be true which he spoke, that "forgetting the things that are past, I stretch myself forward to the things that are to come, following on toward the perfect, to the palm of the heavenly calling." But in that he says, "It has pleased Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor of the saints," subtly and modestly, while he praises the Corinthians, he exhorts the Romans. For devout minds are more easily invited to do good by examples than by words. But also in that he adds, "For it has pleased them, and they are their debtors," what else does he wish the Romans to perceive, except that if the Achaians and Macedonians are debtors to the poor of the saints who are in Jerusalem, then by the same reasoning, since the Romans also hold one and the same faith of Christ as they do, they should notice that they themselves too have been made debtors to these same persons? For not only the Macedonians and Achaians have been made partakers in spiritual things with the saints who are in Jerusalem, so that they ought also to minister to them in carnal things; but the Romans as well; and therefore by an equal condition they are debtors: but he pronounces only about the former, so that the la…
Romans 15:28-29 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
After these things he says: "When therefore I shall have completed this, and shall have consigned to them this fruit, I shall set out by way of you into Spain. For I know that coming to you, I shall come in the abundance of the blessing of Christ." See with how great caution he promises that he will seal the fruit of those who offer. With what seal do you suppose the Apostle seals the fruit of a holy work? With that one, I think, by which the image of God is expressed, that is, that in completing the work there be no admixture of an alien thought, that praise be not sought from men, but that he who gives may give in simplicity of heart, and not out of sadness: for "God loves a cheerful giver." And whoever observes these and similar things in the work of God, seals his work with the seal of the divine image. "When therefore," he says, "I shall have completed this, then I shall set out by way of you to Spain." Indeed he promises a great gift to the Romans, and says: "For I know that coming to you, I shall come in the abundance of the blessing of Christ": which he promises only through the Holy Spirit and the grace of prophecy. For it is above man to know these things about the future, that he would come to them not only in the blessing of Christ, but even in the abundance of the blessing. In which both the grace of him who comes, and equally the merits of those who receive him, are indicated.
Romans 15:30-32 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
I beseech you therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you help me in your prayers to God, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers who are in Judaea, and that this my ministry may be made acceptable to the saints in Jerusalem, so that coming to you in joy by the will of God, I may find rest together with you. Although he had said above, "For I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the abundance of the blessing of Christ," nevertheless he knew that even in those things which he had come to know as certainly to be, prayer was necessary: for if, let us say, prayer had not been employed, it would doubtless follow that what had been prophesied would not be fulfilled. Who then is there who, reading these things — that Paul begs the brethren who are at Rome to pray for him — would think it contemptible or beneath him to ask for the prayers of the Church, even if those from whom the prayer is asked should seem to be inferior in merits? For behold, Paul, endowed with apostolic merits, exhorts not only the Romans to pray for him, but the Corinthians as well. And see, too, with what strong and religious oaths he binds them. "Through our Lord Jesus Christ," he says, "and through the love of the Spirit I beseech you that you help me in your prayers to God." What our translators have rendered "that you help me in prayers" is read more magnificently among the Greeks, "that you strive together with me" (synagōnisasthai): by which this is indicated, "that you help me in the contest of prayers to God," showing that he himself has, as it were, a contest and a struggle of prayer, with those doubtless opposing him of whom he said: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." And it is certain that all these, just as they oppose faith and resist piety, just as they are contrary to justice and to truth and to all good things, so without doubt they resist and oppose prayer also. And therefore Paul shows that there is no small contest even in prayer, seeing that in this contest he believed the help of those who are at Rome must be implored. For truly the demons and the adverse powers stand against us in prayer, first in this way: that he who sweats in the contest of prayer may not be found such a man as to lift up pure hands without anger. And even if someone should be able to obtain this, that he be without anger, it is hardly possible that he escape being without disputation — that is, without superfluous and empty thoughts. For you will scarcely find that, when anyone prays, there does not occur to him some empty and foreign thought which turns aside and shatters the intent by which the mind is directed toward God, and drags it off through things that are not fitting. And therefore great is the contest of prayer, that, while enemies stand against us and drag the mind of prayer off in different directions, the mind may ever press fixed toward God with steady intent, so that a man may deservedly be able to say himself: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course." Now therefore the Apostle prays that he be helped in the contest of prayers, that he may be delivered from the unbelievers who are in Judaea — at whose hands he fears not so much to suffer, nor to endure those things which pertain to the glory of his apostleship, as he fears to be hindered: lest, being detained longer by their obstacles, he either render a less acceptable ministry to the saints — which itself has need of prayers that it may be made acceptable — or lest his desire of visiting the Romans be longer deferred. "If," he says, "this shall so turn out that both my ministry be made acceptable to the saints in Jerusalem, and that, delivered from the unbelievers who are in Judaea, I be not hindered from coming to you, then rejoicing over things wel…
Romans 15:33 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen." He endows the Romans with an immense blessing, that the God of peace may be with them — that is, that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, may guard their hearts in Christ Jesus, who is our peace.
Romans 16:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is in the ministry of the Church which is at Cenchreae, that you receive her in the Lord worthily of the saints, and assist her in whatever matters she may have need of you. For she herself has also assisted many, and myself as well." This passage too teaches with apostolic authority that women also are appointed in the ministry of the Church. Paul follows up Phoebe, placed in this office in the Church which is at Cenchreae, with great praise and commendation, enumerating also her distinguished deeds, and saying: because she has to such a degree assisted all — that is, has been at hand in their necessities — that she has assisted even me myself in my necessities and apostolic labors with the whole devotion of her mind. And I would say that her work is like the hospitality of Lot, who, while he always received guests, at length was found worthy to receive angels also into his lodging. Similarly Abraham too, while he always ran to meet guests, was found worthy that even the Lord with the angels should turn aside to his tent. So this religious Phoebe also, while she stands by all and renders service to all, was found worthy to stand by and to serve the Apostle as well. And therefore this passage teaches two things equally: both that, as we have said, women are held as ministers in the Church, and that such women ought to be taken into the ministry as have assisted many, and who through their good offices have deserved to attain even to apostolic praise. He exhorts this also, that those who devote their labor to good works in the Churches should receive a return and honor from the brethren, so that in whatever things may be necessary, whether in spiritual or in bodily services, they may be held in honor.
Romans 16:3-5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus (who laid down their own necks for my life: to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles), and the church that is in their house. These seem to me to be the same persons about whom it is written thus in the Acts of the Apostles: But after these things Paul, departing from Athens, came to Corinth; and having found there a certain Jew named Aquila, of Pontic race, who had lately come from Italy, and Priscilla his wife, because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, he came to them; and because they were of the same craft, he remained with them, and they worked together. For they were tentmakers by trade, that is, stitchers. Nor is it any wonder if Paul writes "Prisca" in the Epistle, where in Acts she is written "Priscilla," the other details agreeing. It may be that, since at that time, when the Jews had been driven out of the city by Caesar's command, they had come to Corinth, so afterwards, when the harshness of the edict had ceased, they returned to Rome and are greeted by Paul. Yet it appears that these people exposed themselves when Paul was in peril from the plots of the Jews, so that he might depart free; and this a certain Jason too is reported in the Acts of the Apostles to have done. And the Apostle does not keep silent about this praise of theirs, but hands it on to all the churches as a thing to be admired, and therefore says: To whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. From this it appears that they showed themselves dutiful and hospitable toward all the faithful brethren, not only those who had come to believe from among the Jews, but also those from among the Gentiles. For great grace is found in the office of hospitality, not only with God, but also with human beings. Yet since this matter rests not only in the will and purpose of the masters of a household, but also in the grateful and faithful service of the servants, therefore he named all those who faithfully fulfilled that ministry along with them "the church that is in their house."
Romans 16:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Epaenetus my beloved, who is the beginning of Asia in Christ. This Epaenetus seems to me to have been the very first of all from Asia to believe; whence also he called him the beginning of the Church, or, as the Greek has it, the firstfruits of Asia — unless indeed this saying signifies something more profound, so that we understand that the angels of God who watch over the churches offer each of them firstfruits to God from among those who believe; and that among them firstfruits are reckoned not among those who are first in time, but among those who excel in virtues and merits. Paul, knowing through the Spirit their choice regarding Epaenetus, and that the election of the angels had found him out of the whole number of the faithful who were in Asia, called him the firstfruits of Asia. But in another Epistle also he says of certain persons that they are the firstfruits of Achaia, doubtless looking to the same mystical reasoning in their case as well.
Romans 16:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Mary, who has labored much among you. In this too he teaches that women also ought to labor for the churches of God. For they labor when they teach young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to bring up children, to be modest, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, subject to their own husbands, to receive guests with hospitality, to wash the feet of the saints, and to carry out in all chastity everything else that is written concerning the duties of women.
Romans 16:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow captives, who are noble among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. It may indeed be that these were kinsmen of Paul according to the flesh, and believed before him, and were held to be noble among the apostles of Christ; concerning whom it is also possible to understand this, that perhaps they were among those seventy-two who were themselves also named apostles, and that for this reason he calls them noble among the apostles, and among those apostles who were before him. But this too moves me, that he says: my fellow captives. For what was that captivity of Paul in which he testifies that Andronicus and Junia also were fellow captives with him? — unless perhaps, by a more profound mystery, we look to that captivity which Christ came to loose, of which it is written that he came to give release to the captives and sight to the blind. In that captivity these persons appear to be by one and the same reckoning as Paul himself was. For example, if we should say: When the people of Israel were captive among the Assyrians or the Babylonians, all indeed appeared to be captives; but there was one reason for the captivity in the rest, and another in Daniel and Ananias and Azarias and Misael. For those were captives on account of their own sins; but these were themselves captives for the consolation of the captives. And therefore, if Daniel were to say of some one of the common people, "My fellow captive," it would not seem to be said so fittingly as if he said of Ananias and Azarias and Misael, "my fellow captives." For in these there is one single reckoning of captivity, which is far different from the reckoning of the rest of the people. So then Paul too, looking to the reasoning of a more hidden mystery, names something of this sort concerning himself and Andronicus and Junia, calling them his fellow captives in this world, and noble among the apostles.
Romans 16:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord. Although he seems to ascribe to this man nothing outstanding above the rest by way of praise, nevertheless by this very fact, that he is beloved of Paul, he is rendered praiseworthy and worthy of greeting.
Romans 16:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Urbanus my helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. He joins Stachys in the greeting, but he set Urbanus ahead in praises. For he calls the one a helper in Christ; but Stachys he named only as beloved to himself, just as he did Ampliatus. Now a helper of the Apostle in Christ is understood as nothing other than a partaker in the apostolic work.
Romans 16:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Apelles approved in Christ. I think that this Apelles had passed through many tribulations patiently and bravely endured, and that for this reason he is pronounced approved by the Apostle, according to those things which he himself said elsewhere, that tribulation works patience, and patience approval, and approval hope. It should indeed be considered whether perhaps this is the very man who in the Acts of the Apostles is named Apollo, an Alexandrian, learned in the Scriptures.
Romans 16:11 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Herodion my kinsman. This man too, similarly to Andronicus and Junias, is called a kinsman of Paul; but he is named neither a fellow-captive as they were, nor noble among the apostles, among those who were in Christ before Paul. From which it must be understood that even among these whom Paul calls his kinsmen there is much difference, according to that reasoning, as I judge, which we attempted to open up above.
Romans 16:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. He gives a good testimony concerning these women, whose labor he testifies to be not of this world, nor of common life, but in the Lord. For many labor, but it is not established that the labor of all is in the Lord.
Romans 16:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Rufus, elect in the Lord, and his mother and mine. I do not think that in these greetings the difference of praise and of greeting through each single person is made emptily. For he who knows that Christ speaks in Paul is certain that according to merit one is indeed called by him approved, another most dear, another laboring in the Lord, another laboring much in the Lord, another elect, just as also this Rufus, of whom our discourse now is, is greeted as elect in the Lord. I believe that Paul knew him to be of the number not of the many who are called, but of the few who are chosen; whose mother also had so much merit that Paul named her his own mother, with whom he too, just as Jesus with John, shares one affection of a mother.
Romans 16:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and if there are any brethren with them. Concerning these the greeting is simple, nor is anything distinctive of praise added to them. I think, however, that this Hermas is the writer of that little book which is called The Shepherd, which writing seems to me very useful, and, as I think, divinely inspired. But that he ascribed no praise to him, this, I suppose, is the reason: because he seems, as that writing declares, to have been converted to repentance after many sins; and therefore he wrote no reproach against him either — for he had learned from Scripture not to upbraid a man converting himself from sin — nor did he bestow anything of praise, because he was still placed under the angel of repentance, by whom at the opportune time he ought again to be offered to Christ. Moreover it is understood that those whose greeting is joined together dwelt together.
Romans 16:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympias, and all the saints who are with them. It may be that Philologus and Julia were spouses; the rest their household members, to whom a simple greeting is directed.
Romans 16:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Greet one another with a holy kiss. From this saying, and from some others like it, a custom has been handed down to the Churches that after the prayers the brethren receive one another with a kiss. And this kiss the Apostle calls holy. By which name he teaches this first, that the kisses which are given in the churches be chaste; and then next, that they be not feigned, as were those of Judas, who gave a kiss with his lips and was plotting betrayal in his heart. But the kiss of a believer should first, as we have said, be chaste; and then next have in itself peace and simplicity in charity unfeigned.
Romans 16:17-19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
But I beg you, brethren, that you observe those who make dissensions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and turn aside from them. For such do not serve Christ our Lord, but their own belly; and through sweet words and blessings they seduce the hearts of the innocent. For your obedience is everywhere published abroad. In you therefore I rejoice. Here Paul must be believed to write, through the Holy Spirit, both to those who preside over the Churches and to all believers, that they may more diligently consider and perceive who they are that beget dissensions and offenses in the Churches, and are strangers to that beatitude which the Lord promised, saying: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. For this, he says, that you be peacemakers, you have learned from the Lord through the Gospel; but to stir up dissensions or scandals is contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and therefore let him be a stranger to you, and let him by no means be received among you, who stirs up contentions, who sows quarrels, who excites lawsuits, and practices the pursuits of strife. For those who are such do not serve Christ our Lord, who is our peace, but their own belly. But he also discloses, by the prompting of the divine Spirit, what the cause is by which quarrels and lawsuits are aroused in the Churches. For the sake of the belly, he says; that is, of gain and covetousness. Thence it is that some go about houses speaking for favor with all flattery and deception, not that they may in the word of God build up souls unto virtue, but that by flattering and sweet words they may exhort them to remain, or even to advance, in vices, praising and speaking well of those things which are worthy of rebuke; putting light for darkness, and darkness for light; sweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet; and in these things they seduce the hearts of the innocent. And therefore one must diligently attend to with what aim he teaches who teaches: whether seeking favor and honor from his hearers, or hoping for a reward from the Lord for the instruction and progress of the learners. Subtly indeed Paul marks the undiscerning and easy obedience of the Romans, and asserts that it is everywhere not praised, but published abroad. But lest again, if he should chastise them more openly for this, he should make them disobedient, he adds: In you therefore I rejoice. But you will say: How does he mark in them a common obedience, when he says that he rejoices in them? First indeed it is one thing to mark a fault, another to mark men. For it can be that he rejoices in those in whom he had detected many other good things; but that he marks the fault which had displeased him, lest he be thought to have been pleased with it also along with the rest. But the Apostle can also have said that he rejoices in them for this reason, that he who is disobedient can be drawn neither to evil nor to good; but he who is obedient, if indeed he be drawn to useless things, the fault is one of inexperience. For he does not know that those things are useless by which he proves his obedience; but when he has learned what things are useful, having the good of obedience ready at hand, he immediately ascends the road of virtue through it. Paul therefore rejoices over the obedient, being certain that when he has taught them that they ought not to use that common obedience which they incautiously offer to all, but that alone by which one ought to obey God rather than men, they will, leaving the rest aside, use that alone. For in truth it requires no small discernment, but an approved and most practiced judgment, to know to what word or to what work one must be obedient, and to what one must offer resistance. Finally the Lord himself says in the Gospel: Beware of those who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but within are ravening wolves. And therefore a watchful sense and an intent mind is required, which knows how to test either the sheep's s…
Romans 16:19 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"I want you," he says, "to be wise in what is good, and simple in what is evil." This is similar to that saying which he writes to the Corinthians: "Be children in malice, that you may be perfect in understanding." But that too which the Lord says, "For the sons of this world are more prudent than the sons of light in their generation," accords with this saying. For the sons of this world are more prudent in malice, in that they always find something deeper and subtler in it whereby they may do more harm and injure more violently. But in what is good they are foolish: for they scarcely find what good they might do. Paul, on the contrary, wishes us to be wise in what is good, that is, always to find something more, to search out more, and to think more deeply about what good we may do: so that even if we are hindered by someone's malice from a good work, we, if we are wise, may devise how, if we cannot do a good work, we may at least utter a good word; and if not even this is permitted, that we may at least display a good wish and disposition. So then we ought to be wise in what is good, but simple in what is evil, so that if we are struck by malice, if we are struck by injury, we may not be crafty and cunning, seeking arts and devices by which we may repay evil for evil and wickedness for wickedness. But in such a case we ought to remember that saying which declares: "If anyone wishes to be wise with God, let him become a fool in this world." Let us therefore be fools in receiving injury and not repaying it, that we may be wise with God, who said: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." For concerning the impious Jeremiah too says: "They are wise to do evil; but to do good they know not." To this looks also that which the Lord said, that we ought to be simple as doves and prudent as serpents. But if someone from among the unbelievers should shrewdly confront us and say: How can the same person be both wise and foolish? we shall say to him: Look at those arts which are in common use among men, how he who, for example, is a most wise grammarian is found most unskilled in the smith's craft; or again, how a most wise helmsman is found unskilled in the art of medicine. So then it is possible to be wise in those things which pertain to God, and unwise in those things which pertain to the world. It should certainly be known that when he says there, "For such men do not serve Christ our Lord," it is not that they themselves profess that they do not serve Christ the Lord, but that, departing from the rule of his service, they show by the facts themselves that they do not serve Christ the Lord. For it does not seem that anyone can at the same time serve both Christ and the belly; and be equally a lover of pleasure and of God; just as no one can serve God and mammon at the same time.
Romans 16:20 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
"And the God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet speedily." The question is asked in this passage what Satan he meant, who was to be crushed swiftly by God beneath the feet of those to whom he writes. For if it be referred to one person, namely to him of whom it is said in the Gospel, "Behold, I see Satan falling from heaven like lightning," and who is indicated as the adversary of the human race, it will surely seem, if Paul truly says what he says, that once he is swiftly crushed beneath the feet of those to whom he was then writing, there is no longer any Satan to stir up contests and struggles and persecutions for believers: which the reality of things certainly does not allow. But it seems to me that in this passage he called "Satan" every spirit which opposes believers. For "Satan" in our tongue is rendered "adversary." Whatever, therefore, resists and opposes the soul that is striving toward God, and whatever is contrary to its peace, this is named "satan" for it. Accordingly he therefore prefaced it by saying, "the God of peace," that is, the God to whom peace is pleasing, "shall crush" him who is contrary to peace and works dissensions. So too, finally, we read in the books of Kingdoms that God raised up against Solomon a Satan, Hadad the Idumaean: that is, against Solomon, who was peaceable, he raised up a Satan who is contrary to peace. But just as to those whom the Apostle teaches, if they act thus and show themselves such as his discourse has described, he promises, for the amendment of their life, that Satan shall swiftly be crushed beneath their feet by the God of peace: so no less does the God of peace raise up against him who has not kept his peace in a pure heart and a clean conscience a Satan, that is, an adversary; so that he who has neglected the good of peace may endure the bitterness of assaults, and thus at last, set in the midst of the struggle, may remember the sweetness of the peace he violated. From both passages of divine Scripture, then, let us be edified — that in which God is said to raise up a Satan for the negligent, or to crush and subject him for the zealous — so that he may rouse the former to contests, and to the latter grant the palm of victory over the prostrate adversary, and bestow the rewards of virtue. And we can also say, in each single contest, if we strive lawfully, that God will crush Satan beneath our feet speedily. For example, if someone has undertaken the contest of chastity, if he has persevered to the end with an unstained conscience, it can be said of him that God has crushed Satan beneath his feet, that is, the spirit which was contrary to chastity. Likewise he too who undertakes the contest of faith, if standing before kings and governors he confesses the Lord Jesus Christ with confidence, and remains in that confession to the end, God has crushed Satan beneath his feet, since by steadfast faith he has conquered the spirit of unbelief. So also he who perseveringly cultivates concord crushes the demon of dissension beneath his feet; he who preserves gentleness tramples the Satan of wrath under the footsteps of patience. This surely is what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy."
Romans 16:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Timothy my helper greets you, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater my kinsmen. It seems to me that concerning these men, whom he set apart from the whole catalogue of those sending greetings, he had something more in mind. For he calls Timothy his helper, and all of them together his kinsmen. And indeed concerning Timothy it is reported very fully in the Acts of the Apostles that he was a citizen of Derbe, the son of a believing widow, by a Gentile father; of whom Paul himself also says that for this reason he had asked him to remain at Ephesus, so that he might charge certain persons not to teach otherwise, nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies. And some maintain that Lucius is that same Luke who wrote the Gospel, on the ground that names are customarily pronounced sometimes according to the inflection of the native tongue, sometimes according to the Greek and Roman. Jason, moreover, is that man of whom it is also written in the Acts of the Apostles that at Thessalonica, when the crowds were stirring up a riot against Paul and Silas, he gave himself up, so as to secure for the apostles the freedom to depart. Sosipater too, who is joined with these, I suspect to be the very man who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as Sosipater son of Pyrrhus, of Beroea. But one who considers Paul's letters rather carefully, as though Christ were speaking in him, will doubtless be troubled at how Paul — who declared himself born at Tarsus in Cilicia, a Hebrew of the Hebrews — is now said to be the kinsman or blood relation either of Timothy, a citizen of Derbe by a Gentile father, or of Jason of Thessalonica, or of Sosipater son of Pyrrhus of Beroea. But if in defense of this someone should say that these men too came in some measure from the circumcision, then he ought not to have spoken of these in particular, but of all who were of the Jews, that they were kinsmen of Paul. As it is, however, since he by no means grants this title to the rest, but assigns it to these and to a few others, it is certain that he is naming some other kinship, one which he holds in common with Timothy and Luke and a few others like them; and this kinship or blood relation he doubtless knows to descend to him along with them from that fatherhood of which he says in another place: For this cause I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. Knowing, therefore, that there is a certain fatherhood in heaven just as there is on earth, it is certain that those who are in no way joined to him according to the kinship of an earthly fatherhood, he knew to be joined to him according to the kinship of the heavenly fatherhood. And for this reason he calls them kinsmen, and fellow captives, and helpers — inasmuch as with them he had received by the lot of birth a single kinship for preaching the gospel, and for enduring the captivity of the Babylon of this world. Or, if anyone will not allow these things to be explained by some such figurative reading, let him explain to us how Timothy and Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, citizens not only of far different cities but even of different provinces, could have been kinsmen and blood relations of Paul according to the flesh — and not only these, but also Andronicus and Junias and Herodion, all of whom he calls both his kinsmen and his fellow captives.
Romans 16:22 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
I Tertius, who wrote this Epistle in the Lord, greet you. As one who had been judged worthy to write out the Epistle to the Romans at Paul's dictation, he inserts his own name into it as well, employing neither rashness nor boastfulness, but because he knew that he had not only rendered the service of a scribe, but had written in the Lord: since indeed the righteous man does all that he does for the glory of God. And so if he writes, he writes for the glory of God, and therefore he writes in the Lord; for which reason it is fitting that he should insert mention of his own name too into the Epistle. Or certainly, since he had taken down the force of the meanings of Paul as he dictated, and had understood that it was not a man but the Lord who was writing, for that reason he records that he wrote in the Lord.
Romans 16:23 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Gaius my host, and host of the whole Church, greets you. This Gaius is understood to be the one whom he mentions in writing to the Corinthians, saying: I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius. He seems, then, to indicate concerning him that he was a hospitable man, who not only received Paul and each of those arriving at Corinth into his lodging, but himself provided a meeting place in his own house for the whole Church. It is indeed handed down by the tradition of our forebears that this Gaius was the first bishop of the Church of Thessalonica.
Romans 16:25-27 — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept in silence through the times of the ages, but now made manifest through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the commandment of the eternal God, made known to all the nations unto the obedience of faith: to God, alone wise, through Jesus Christ, be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen! Marcion, by whom the evangelical and apostolic Scriptures were tampered with, removed this passage entirely from this Epistle; and not only this, but from that place where it is written, but everything that is not of faith is sin, he cut away all that follows to the end. In other copies, however — that is, in those which have not been violated by Marcion — we find this very passage placed differently. For in some codices, immediately after that place which we mentioned above, that is, but everything that is not of faith is sin, there follows directly, now to him who is able to strengthen you. Other codices, however, contain it at the end, as it now stands. But let us come now to the explanation of this passage. Paul seems to me to point out two causes by which those are made strong who are confirmed in the faith of the Gospel: one, by which Paul's preaching, which is also Christ's preaching, becomes known to them; and another, by which there is revealed to them the mystery which was kept in silence through all the times of the ages, but now — that is, at the coming of Christ in bodily presence — has been made manifest and opened, and, so far as concerns the matter, has been declared not without suitable witnesses, but with the prophetic Scriptures giving their attestation. For such was the commandment of the eternal God, that by the preaching of the Gospel the nations should be called to the obedience of faith; while by the revelation of the mystery the wisdom of God should be recognized, and glory and honor rendered to God alone wise unto the ages of ages. But let us go back once more, and consider how it is said: Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept in silence through the times of the ages. It does not seem to me that this strengthening of both kinds pertains to all; but to all believers, at any rate, there pertains the Gospel of Paul and the preaching of Christ, whereas the revelation of the mystery kept in silence through the times of the ages pertains not to the many, but to the few and the elect who can be capable of the wisdom and knowledge of God — of whom it is said: Many are called, but few are chosen. But concerning what he says, of the mystery kept in silence, it must be asked whether he means it was so kept in silence that absolutely no one knew it, not even the prophets themselves who announced it; or whether some deeper account of the silence is to be understood. To me indeed it seems altogether absurd that we should say the prophets wrote about the divine mysteries in such a way that they did not understand the very things they were saying, since Scripture says: The wise man understands what proceeds from his own mouth, and he bears understanding on his lips. If, then, the prophets did not understand what they uttered from their own mouth, they were not wise. But if it is foolish to acknowledge them as prophets and to deny that they were wise, it remains that they were wise, and understood what they uttered from their own mouth, and had understanding on their lips. What, then, is the account of the silence? Let us see whether it is not that which Paul himself fully taught as having been handed down to him for the dispensation of the mysteries, where he says that he was caught up into the third heaven, and from there into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. In which he certainly shows not that he himself is ignorant of what he heard, b…
Romans 16:26 — AGAINST CELSUS 2.4
Those who advance in the knowledge of Christianity do not treat the things written in the law with disrespect. On the contrary, they bestow even greater honor upon them, showing what a depth of wise and mysterious reasons is contained in these writings, which are not fully comprehended by the Jews, who treat them superficially and even as if they were to some extent mythical.
S3Y 1:2 — ON PRAYER 14:4
Regarding prayer, we have examples in Daniel, "And Azariah, standing up, prayed in this way, and opening his mouth in the middle of the fire he said.…" And in Tobit, "And I prayed with tears saying, 'You are just, O Lord, and all your works are just, and all your ways are mercy and truth. And your judgments that you offer are true and just forever.' " Since the passage cited in Daniel has been obelized because it is not found in the Hebrew and those of the circumcision reject the book of Tobit as not canonical, I will quote the words of Anna from the first book of Kings: "And she prayed to the Lord and cried with many tears and made a vow saying, 'Lord of hosts, if you will look down on the lowliness of your servants,' etc.…" Also, in Habakkuk, "A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, with song, 'Lord, I have heard your voice, and I was afraid. Lord, I considered your works, and I was astonished. In the middle of two animals you will be known; in the approaching of the years you will be known.' " This example illustrates very well the definition of the term proseuchē 4 in that it combines prayer with the attempt to give glory. But also in the book of Jonah, "Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish, saying, 'I cried in my tribulation to the Lord my God, and he listened to me; from the heart of the grave you heard the screams of my voice; you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the sea, and the waters encircled me.' "
S3Y 1:64 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13:2
Someone might ask, "If the soul of Elijah was not first in the Tishbite and then in John, what might that be in both which the Savior in both cases called Elijah?" I answer that Gabriel in his reply to Zachariah had already suggested that it was the same being that was in Elijah and John. He says, in fact, "He will lead back many sons of Israel to the Lord God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah." For, note well: he did not say "in the soul of Elijah," in which case, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls might have some ground, but "in the spirit and the power of Elijah." The Scriptures clearly know the difference between "spirit" and "soul," since the text, "May the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," and the other passage, "Blessed the Lord, you spirits and souls of the righteous," as it is recorded in the book of Daniel (according to the version of the Seventy), which indicates the difference between soul and spirit. John therefore is called Elijah not because of the soul but because of the spirit and the power, and if these things existed before in Elijah and then in John, this is not at all in conflict with the teaching of the church. But "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets," not the souls of the prophets, which are not subject to the prophets.
SIR 1:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
that wisdom which was saying: "For I was extending my words, and you were not hearing." And rightly did she say that she extends her words in the heart of him to whom God has given, as we said above, breadth of heart. For the heart of that man is enlarged who is able to explain, with a broader teaching, those things which have been briefly said in mysteries, by means of assertions taken from the divine volumes. It is fitting, therefore, according to this same teaching of the most wise Solomon, that he who desires to know wisdom should begin from moral instruction, and understand that which is written: "You have desired wisdom; keep the commandments, and the Lord will give it to you."
SIR 2:12 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8
When, therefore, we come to the grace of baptism, renouncing all other gods and lords, we confess God the Father alone and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But confessing this, unless we "love the Lord our God with the whole heart and with the whole soul" and cleave to him "with the whole strength", we have not been made "the Lord's portion", but, set as it were on a certain border, we both suffer offense from those we have fled, and do not render favorable the Lord to whom we have fled, whom we do not love "with the whole and entire heart". And therefore the prophet mourns over us, whom he sees wavering with inconstancy of this kind, and says: "woe to the double-minded", and again: "how long do you go lame on both your knees?" But the Apostle James also says: "a double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways". We are, then, we who follow our Lord with a faith neither whole nor perfect, and have withdrawn from alien gods, set as it were in a certain middle border, and by those we are struck at as fugitives, and by our own Lord, as unstable and doubtful, we are not defended.
SIR 3:18 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 9:2
Very often the priestly order and the Levitical office are a cause of pride to one who forgets that he holds such dignity in the bosom of the church. How many priests, placed at the head, have forgotten to be humble! As if their ordination has given them a dispensation from humility! On the contrary, they should observe humility precisely because they have been invested with such great dignity, according to the words of Scripture: "The greater you are, the humbler." The assembly chooses you: bow your head even more humbly. They have elected you as a leader of others: do not feel as though you are exalted. Be among them as one of them. You must be humble and modest. Flee from pride, the source of all evil.
SIR 4:28 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 11
If the ancient use of the sacrifices is clear to you, we see what they furthermore contain according to the mystic sense. You have heard that there are two sanctuaries, one visible and open to the priests, the other invisible and inaccessible—except for the one high priest, all the rest of whom remain outside. I think that this first sanctuary could be understood as this sanctuary we now occupy, which is our flesh: in this the priests serve at the altar of burnt offerings on which that fire is lit of which Jesus has said, "I have come to cast the fire on the earth, and I wish that it were already kindled." Do not marvel that this sanctuary is open only to priests since all those who have been united with the ointment of the holy chrism have become priests, as Peter also says to the entire church: "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." You are therefore of priestly descent, and thus you have access to the sanctuary. Furthermore, each one of us has in him his burnt offering and lights the altar with his sacrifice, so that it always burns. If I renounce all that I possess, I take up my cross and follow Christ, I offer a burnt offering at the altar of God; or "if I give my body to be burnt, having charity" and if I obtain the glory of martyrdom, I offer myself in a burnt offering at the altar of God. If I love my brothers, up to "giving my life for my brothers," if "I fight until death for justice, for the truth," I offer a burnt offering at the altar of God. If I let my limbs die at each temptation of the flesh, if "the world is crucified for me and I for the world," I offer a burnt offering at the altar of God, and I myself become the priest of my victim.
SIR 8:5 — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, PSALM 37, HOMILY 2:1
There is a person full of faith who comes forward in the assembly and accuses himself, making everyone aware of some sin he has committed. And yet, those who themselves have no fear of God's future judgment, on hearing his words, instead of suffering with him who suffers, instead of burning with him who is offended, instead of falling with him who is fallen, say, Get away from me and don't come near me because I am pure! Then they begin to curse this person whom they previously admired and withdraw their friendship from this person who did not want to conceal his crime. Conveniently they say of those who make the confession, "My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my kin stand afar off." It is not the case, however, that he ought to be afraid of the behavior of others when, after having committed a sin, he desires to save himself, nor should he fear the reproaches of those who do not think about their own sins or recall the words of the divine Scriptures: "Do not insult a person converted from sin, remember that we all deserve punishment." Do not worry about such things. Instead, worry about your soul, and pray to God that he may hear you and raise you after you fall so that you will be able to say also that which follows: "I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin."
SIR 9:13 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Understand that you walk in the midst of snares, and pass beneath overhanging engines. All things are full of nets; the devil has filled everything with snares. But if the word of God has come to you, and has begun to lean out from the nets, saying: Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the snare of the hunters; the snare is broken, and we are set free. Blessed are we by the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The bridegroom, then, leans out through the nets, making a way for you. Jesus descended to earth, subjected himself to the nets of the world. Seeing a great flock of men entangled in the nets, and [seeing] that it could be cut apart by no other than himself, he came to the nets, taking on a human body, which was held by the snares of the hostile powers; he burst them apart for you, and you shall say: Behold, here he is, behind our wall, looking through the windows, leaning out through the nets.
SIR 10:9 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 9:2
Pride, haughtiness and arrogance are the sins of the devil, and for these faults you must leave heaven for earth. Thus, "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble." And "How can he make dust and ashes proud?" so that one becomes arrogant, forgetting what he will become, in which fragile casing he is contained, in which excrements he drowns and which garbage he continuously emits from his flesh? What do the Scriptures say? "How can he make dust and ashes proud?" And again: "During life, one ruins one's own entrails." Pride is the greatest of all sins and the principal fault of the devil. When sometimes the Scriptures list the sins of the devil, you will discover that these come forth from the source of pride. Indeed, it says, "I will act in strength, and in the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations and will spoil their strength. And I will shake the inhabited cities: and I will take with my hand all the world as a nest: and I will even take them as eggs that have been left." Observe how arrogant and haughty his words are and how he does not take anything into account. So are all those who are puffed up by boasting and by pride. Wealth, prestige and earthly glory are bait for pride.
SIR 13:2 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 5:4
All in the church who are sinners, who "have tasted the word of God" and transgress it, justly merit punishment, but each will be tormented according to his position. A leader of the church who sins will undergo greater punishment. Does not the faithful catechumen deserve more indulgence than a leader? Is not the lay person more worthy of pardon than a deacon, and the latter, in turn, more worthy of understanding than a priest? And even if I do not describe them, you know the other scenarios. Fearing God's judgment, then, and with my gaze always fixed on that series of judgments contained in the Scriptures, the phrase comes to mind, "Do not take on yourself a burden beyond your strength." And the other, "Do not seek to be a judge if you are not capable of rooting out injustice." What good would it be for me to sit on the cathedra, my head lifted high, receiving the homage of the great, but being unable to perform actions that are fully worthy of my charge? Would I not be afflicted by an even greater suffering because the honor due the just is given to me by all, though I am a sinner?
SIR 13:26 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 4
"But also your face," he says, "is beautiful." If you understand that face of which Paul speaks: "But we all with unveiled face"; and again when he says: "But then face to face": then you will see what is the face of the soul which is praised by the Word of God and is said to be beautiful. That face, without doubt, which is daily renewed after the image of him who created it, which has in itself no spot, or wrinkle, or anything of this kind, but is holy and immaculate; such as Christ also presented the Church to himself … For just as, when the soul is in anger, it renders the countenance of the body troubled and fierce … so also the face of the Church is pronounced either comely or foul according to the virtues and morals of believers, according to that which we read written: "The trace of the heart in good things, a cheerful countenance." And again elsewhere: "The face of a glad heart is flourishing, but of one placed in sorrows the countenance is mournful." Therefore the heart is glad when it has in itself the Spirit of God: whose first fruit is charity, the second is joy.
SIR 14:22 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 28.1
The last narrative in the book of Numbers is recounted, in which the Lord commands Moses to give precepts to the children of Israel so that, when they have entered the holy land to receive its inheritance, they may know what boundaries of their borders they ought to observe in it. And after these things, with the Lord himself now describing it, it is said: toward the Africus, that is, toward the west, let the boundary of that place be observed, and of that one toward the east; and thus through the four quarters of heaven the Lord himself designates certain names which the people of God ought to keep in this earthly Judaea. Now the simpler among the hearers will say concerning these things that they can seem necessary and useful even according to the letter, for this reason: that no one may transgress the boundaries established by the Lord's precept, and that one tribe may not dare to violate the borders of another. And what shall we do, since in these lands there remains for the Jews no possibility not only of invading another's borders, but even of possessing anything in any way at all? For they are fugitives from it and, banished, live in exile; and the borders which those now in possession keep are not those which the divine law appointed, but those which the laws of the conquerors have assigned. What, I say, shall we do, who read these things in the Church? If we read them according to the understanding of the Jews, they will surely seem to us superfluous and empty. But I, who read what is written concerning wisdom, "Go out after her like a tracker," wish to go out after her; and since I do not find her in bodily things, I desire to follow her tracks and to investigate where she goes, and to see to what resting-places she draws my understanding. For I think that, if I am able diligently to follow her and to investigate her ways, she will give me some occasions from the Scriptures as to how we too ought to explain even these passages, if we believe those things which Paul speaks in a mystery: that those who serve through the law serve a shadow and an image of heavenly things. And if, no less according to his own opinion, the law—of which this reading that we have in hand is a part—has a shadow of the good things to come, it seems consequent and necessary that all things which are described in the law as though about earthly matters are shadows of heavenly goods, and that the whole inheritance of that land, which in Judaea is called the holy land and the good land, is an image of heavenly goods, of which these things that are recounted as good on earth hold, as we have said, the shadow and image.
SIR 15:17 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 15:23
"He must reign until all things are placed under his feet," until "the last enemy to be destroyed will be death." Once this is destroyed, there will be only the Life in which we believe. And while death is present among people, those whom it holds prisoner do not believe in Life. But once death is done away with, then all will believe in Life. In the Law, however, you will find both the words, "I have placed before you life and death," and, "You will live in constant suspense. You will never be sure of your life."
SIR 16:4 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 21.2
Set down the whole number of the human race and from all the nations choose the faithful: without doubt they will be fewer than are the whole. Then next from the number of the faithful choose the better: it is certain that a much smaller number will remain. And again from those very ones whom you have chosen, choose again the more perfect: you will surely find fewer. And the further you proceed in choosing, the more scanty and the fewest you will find, until at last you come to some one man who may confidently say: "I have labored more than all those." These therefore, who in this manner are the many, will receive more land and more of the bodily inheritance; but the few will obtain some scanty thing of land, because they have more in the Lord; but others will receive nothing at all of earthly inheritance, if any are worthy to be priests and ministers of God; for of these the Lord himself will be wholly the inheritance. And who is so blessed as either among the few to receive a scanty portion of land, or among the chosen priests and ministers to deserve to receive by lot of inheritance the Lord alone? Although these too on account of their beasts of burden receive something of land, but of that land which is contiguous to the cities and adjoins the towns. Yet this saying which says that "to the more numerous the inheritance shall be multiplied" can still be understood in another way also. For one just man, according to this — that he is accepted by God — is counted for many. Finally it is also written: "By one wise man a city shall be inhabited, but the tribes of the wicked shall be made desolate." And one just man is reckoned for the whole world, but the wicked, even if they are many, are counted scanty and for nothing before God. There is therefore also a praiseworthy multitude, as we see said also to Abraham, when he led him outside and said to him: "Look to heaven, if you can number the stars; so shall your seed be." In this consider also this: how the just man is within and always stands in the inner parts, because within, in secret, he prays to the Father, and all the glory of the king's daughter, that is, of the royal soul, is within; but nevertheless God leads him outside when the matter requires it and the account of visible things demands it. In this way too, therefore, for those many who are as the stars of heaven in multitude the inheritance can be multiplied, and for those scanty ones — namely those who, even if they are many in number, are yet held scanty by the unworthiness and vileness of their life — a scanty inheritance may be set.
SIR 16:21 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 4:2
"And I will send hunger on them and will cause people and beast to die." How can I proclaim publicly such profound truths? From where will I receive help that I might make you understand how the earth is touched by hunger and fruitfulness, by abundance and poverty? "O the depths of the riches, the wisdom and the knowledge of God!" Hunger perhaps comes because of people and because of the wickedness of souls. Or perhaps it is the fault of the angels to whom the things of the earth were entrusted that the things we see happen take place, if they commit sin. If some are set up as instruments of heavenly providence, but they themselves become interested in the fruits, then the earth's sterility is probably also due to them. "The greater part of his works are hidden." We cannot speak of the greatness of wisdom. "Who has counted the sands of the sea, the raindrops, the days of the ages? The height of the heavens, the wideness of the earth, the depths of the wisdom of God."
SIR 18:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:20
In the three [Synoptic] Gospels, John the Baptist says he is not sufficient, while in the Gospel of John he says he is not worthy. But it may be that the one who formerly declared that he was not sufficient became sufficient later, even though perhaps he was not worthy. Or it may have been that while he was saying he was not worthy, and was in fact not worthy, he came to be worthy—unless one would say that human nature can never arrive at performing this loosing or this bearing in a worthy manner and that John, therefore, speaks the truth when he says that he never became sufficient to loose the thongs of our Savior's sandals, nor was he worthy of doing so either. No matter how much we try to understand, there are still things left that we do not understand. This is what we read in the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach: "When a person has finished, he is just beginning, and when he stops, he will be at a loss."
SIR 19:22 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 18.3
In the book which among us is usually held among the volumes of Solomon and is called Ecclesiasticus, but among the Greeks is named the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, it is written: "All wisdom is from God." Which perhaps we might so understand, as though from God were also that wisdom of this world, which is said to be destroyed, and of the princes of this world, and if there is any other by which false knowledge is commended; were it not that in the same little book it says in what follows: "For the discipline of wickedness is not wisdom." By which surely he teaches that every discipline which asserts anything false, even if it seem forceful and plausible and such as can hardly be overthrown, yet by no means ought knowledge of this kind to be applied to the title of wisdom. What then is it that he says: "All wisdom is from God"? He seems to me to have meant this: that every skill which is held necessary for human use in regard to any art, or the knowledge of any matter whatever, is said to be wisdom given by the Lord. In short, in Job it is written: "Who gave to women the wisdom of weaving and the discipline of embroidery?"
SIR 21:27 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.6
But if to anyone it seems difficult, what we say, that through each of those sinning many demons are at large, or if he thinks this fabulous, let him return to the authority of the Gospel and he will find that one who, "dwelling in the tombs, suffering a demon," when he "was questioned" by the Savior, "what is your name?", "answered," "legion, for we are many demons," it says. What wonder, therefore, does it seem, if through the individual kinds of sins individual demons are assigned, when it is written that in one man there was a whole "legion of demons"? But I remember that I said similar things also in those places in which we were expounding the little verse of the psalm, in which it is written, "in the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity." So likewise also "in the hand of the just there are said to be two-edged swords," doubtless which slay the contrary powers. But I think that a more forceful assertion of the Apostle Paul can be brought forward for proving these things which we have said, when he says, "but the God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily." For if there is one Satan, how can he both "be crushed under the feet" of the servants of God and again be at work? For if he "has been crushed" and "has been crushed by God," he surely can no longer be at work. Lest perhaps, therefore, there are to be thought to be as many Satans as are those who work the works of Satan. For this seems to me to be indicated also in Wisdom, where it is said, "the impious man, cursing Satan, curses his own soul." But also in a certain little book, which is called the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, although it is not held in the canon, we nevertheless find some such sense, that through each of those sinning individual Satans are to be understood. And more evidently the very interpretation of his name, as the studious ones of the Hebrews hand down, seems to signify this same thing; for Satan is called adversary. All, therefore, who are adverse to the will of God, can be called Satans.
SIR 22:19 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4
But since the same blessed Apostle bids us become imitators of this grace, that is, of the prophetic gift, as being in some part and within our power, saying: "but be zealous for the better gifts, and rather that you may prophesy", let us too attempt to take up a zeal for good things and to exert whatever is in us, but to await from the Lord the fullness of the gift. For with regard to the one it is said by the Lord through the prophet: "open thy mouth, and I will fill it", but with regard to the other another Scripture says: "prick the eye, and it brings forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding".
SIR 22:19 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.5
Let us attempt to do also that which wisdom admonishes, saying: "drink waters from your own springs, and from your own wells, and let your own fountain be your own." Attempt therefore, you also, O hearer, to have your own well and your own fountain; that you too, when you have taken hold of the book of the scriptures, may begin even from your own understanding to bring forth some meaning, and according to those things which you have learned in the church, attempt you also to drink from the fountain of your own natural ability. There is within you the nature of "living water," there are perennial veins and irrigating streams of rational understanding, if only they be not filled up with earth and rubble. But be diligent to dig your earth and to purge the filth, that is, to remove the sloth of your natural ability and to shake off the torpor of your heart. For hear what the Scripture says: "prick the eye, and it will bring forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding." Purge therefore your natural ability also, that one day you too may drink from your own springs and draw "living water" from your own wells. For if you have received into you the Word of God, if you have received from Jesus "living water" and have received it faithfully, there will be made in you "a fountain of water springing up into eternal life."
SIR 23:2 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6:2
It is said with regard to sinners, "You whipped them, but they did not suffer." The perceived whips of this world, inflicted on living bodies, whether those whipped want them or not, produce pain. But God's whips are of a kind that to some of those who are whipped they cause pain but for others who are whipped, they do not. Let us see if we can explain what it means to suffer from the whips of God and what it means not to suffer: why those with evil natures do not suffer from the whips of God while those who do suffer from the whips of God are blessed. Wisdom says, "Who will apply whips to my thoughts and seals of prudence to my lips so that they would not spare me in my errors and so that my sins will not lead me to perdition?" Pay attention to the words "who will apply whips to my thoughts." There are, therefore, whips that whip the thought. They are the whips of God that whip thought because the Word, joining itself to the soul and guiding it to the knowledge of its sins, whips it. It whips the blessed soul so that it suffers under its whips because the Word comes and penetrates the soul at its core, but it does not drive away the one who is reproved. But if someone is found to be insensitive to this whip, so to speak, it will be said of him, "You have whipped them, but they did not suffer." Although the same word of accusation is pronounced in order to penetrate the mind of the one who has a spotted conscience from some sin, if one of the listeners suffers for this word to the point where it can be said of him, "You have seen that such a person was moved deeply" while another who hears does not suffer but remains insensitive to the one who is accusing him, surely of the insenstive one it will be said, "You have whipped them, but they have not suffered."
SIR 24:12 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10:5
Here we must inquire separately as to the field and the treasure hidden in it, and in what sense the person who has found this hidden treasure goes away with joy and sells all that he has in order to buy that field. … I believe, based on the context, that the field is the Scripture planted with what appears in the historical witnesses, the law and the prophets, and the rest of the thoughts. For the planting of the words in the whole of Scripture is great and varied. "The treasure hidden in the field," however, is the thoughts concealed and lying under that which is obvious, "of wisdom hidden in a mystery," "even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden."
SIR 25:2 — HOMILIES ON THE BOOK OF JUDGES 3:2
Each of us, however small, however insignificant, even if he possesses no standing in the world, can be afflicted by the vice of pride. And nothing is as base and detestable, as Scripture says, as a proud poor person or a mendacious rich person. Sometimes this sickness of pride penetrates not only among the poor but assails even the very order of priests and Levites. At times we find it even among us, who are put forth as examples of humility and gathered around the altar as a mirror for those who watch, and yet among whom the vice of arrogance sends its stench. Thus it happens that from the altar of the Lord, which should burn with the sweet aroma of incense, emanates the pestilent odor of pride and self-importance.
SIR 25:9 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6:3
"And I said, Perhaps they are poor since they have lost the capability, since they have not known the way of the Lord and the judgment of God. I will go to the strong, and I will speak to them." Those who are strong in soul are objects of praise. This comes close to what the Greeks call the strength and the greatness of the rational soul. Thus, when anyone does something great and has worthwhile plans and always considers what is right and what must happen in order for him to live according to reason, without wanting to know anything abject and small, such a person has in the soul strength and greatness. But those others that the word disparaged at first since they were poor did not listen, the prophet says, they did not hear because they are poor, "I will go to the strong and I will speak to them," and if it is true that the blessed are meant when it says "the ears of those who listen," one is also blessed if he ever meets a strong and great listener. Therefore, after such things had been said in this way, knowing that with those who speak the damage is minor in comparison with those who although they listen do not receive admonition, seeing also that Jeremiah accused them of poverty of spirit and thoughts, let us ask to receive from God power and greatness as the word grows in us so that we are able to hear the sacred and holy words.
SIR 27:11 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13:4
Epilepsy attacks the sufferers at considerable intervals, during which he who suffers from it seems in no way different from the person in good health, at the season when the epilepsy is not working on him. Similar disorders you may find in certain souls that are often supposed to be healthy in point of temperance and the other virtues—but then, sometimes, as if they were seized with a kind of epilepsy arising from their passions, they fall down from the position in which they seemed to stand and are drawn away by the deceit of this world and other lusts. Perhaps, therefore, you would not be in error if you said that such persons, so to speak, are epileptic spiritually, having been cast down by "the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." They are often ill at the time when the passions attack their soul; at one time falling into the fire of burnings, when, according to what is said in Hosea, they become adulterers, like a pan heated for the cooking from the burning flame; and, at another time, into the water, when the king of all the dragons in the waters casts them down from the sphere where they appeared to breathe freely, so that they come into the depths of the waves of the sea of human life. This interpretation of ours in regard to the lunatic will be supported by him who says in the book of Wisdom with reference to the even temperament of the just person, "The discourse of a pious person is always wisdom," but, in regard to what we have said, "the fool changes as the moon."
SIR 27:25 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 16:3
Those who handed Jesus over were forsaken. The high priests ceased to exist, with no others coming after them. The scribes who condemned Jesus to death, their intelligence darkened and their minds blinded, were no longer able to see the meaning of the sacred text. All those who condemned Jesus to death were handed over to Christ's enemy, death. Those who mocked him in turn became the object of mockery when "Jerusalem was surrounded by armies" and its desolation drew near. Those who scourged Jesus were themselves scourged and continue to be so, until "the fullness of the nations has come in." In fact, "one who throws a rock in the air hits himself on the head." And all of this happened so that God's vigilance over them would cease and would be transferred to those who have been saved from among the nations, along with the "chosen remnant." Indeed, "if the Lord of hosts had not left a remnant," they would already be "like Sodom," and they would have become like Gomorrah.
SIR 28:18 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 8.1
If a wound is inflicted on the body, or a bone is broken, or the joining of the sinews is dissolved, such wounds are wont to befall bodies within the space of a single hour, and afterward, with very many torments and pains endured, are scarcely healed over a long time; for how great swellings arise in the place, how great torments are generated? But now, if it should happen that in the same wound or in the same fracture one is wounded again and more often and is broken more frequently, with how great penalties can this be cured and with how great torments be medicined? And over how long a time, if indeed it can be, is it brought to health? And scarcely at some point will it be so cured that it escapes either weakness of the body or ugliness of the scar. Pass now from the example of the body to the wounds of the soul. As often as the soul sins, so often is it wounded. And lest you doubt that it is wounded by sins as by darts and swords, hear the Apostle admonishing us to take up the shield of faith, in which, he says, "you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one." You see, then, that sins are the darts of the evil one, which are aimed at the soul. But the soul suffers not only the wounds of darts, but also the fractures of the feet, when snares are prepared for its feet and its steps are tripped up. These, therefore, and such-like wounds, over how long a time do you think they can be healed? O if we could see, through each single sin, how our inner man is wounded, how an evil word inflicts a wound! Have you not read, they say, that swords wound, but not as the tongue does? The soul, therefore, is wounded also through the tongue; it is wounded also through evil thoughts and lusts; and it is broken and crushed through the works of sin. And if we could see all these things and feel the scars of the wounded soul, it is certain that we would resist against sin unto death. But now, just as those who are either filled with a demon or deranged in mind do not feel if they are wounded, because they lack their natural senses, so too we, made senseless either by the desires of the world or intoxicated by our vices, cannot feel how great wounds, how great contusions of the soul we acquire by sinning. And therefore it is a most consistent reckoning that the time of punishment — that is, of cure and of healing — is extended, and that for each single wound, according to the quality of the blow, the spaces of healing also are prolonged. Thus, therefore, both the equity and the kindness of God will become evident even in the very punishments of the soul; and he who has sinned, hearing these things, may come to his senses and sin no more. For conversion in the present life, and repentance fruitfully carried out, will confer a swift medicine on wounds of this kind, because repentance not only heals the past wound, but also does not allow the soul to be wounded by sin any further.
SIR 28:25 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11:12
We are clearly taught by the Savior that when we read in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy concerning the precepts about clean and unclean meat—the carnal Jews and the Ebionites, who differ little from them, accuse us of disobeying these precepts—we are not to think that the scope of the Scripture is to be found in any superficial material understanding of them. If, in fact, it is not what enters the mouth that renders one unclean but what comes out of the mouth, especially when the Savior in the Gospel of Mark said that "he makes all food clean," it is clear that we do not contaminate ourselves if we eat things that the Jews, wanting to be enslaved by the letter of the Law, say are impure. But it is clear that we do contaminate ourselves when, although our lips should be bound with intelligence and we ought to make for them what we call a balance and weight, we speak whatever comes to mind and talk about things that we should not discuss, which then become the source of sins.
SIR 32:1 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 24.2
"And the sons of Ephraim went forth to traverse the land according to their borders." And when he had recounted that history, in what follows he makes clear how great was the meekness and humility of the blessed Jesus, who was truly worthy to bear the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior! For he says: "And the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus [son] of Nave among themselves by the command of the Lord; and they gave him the city which he asked for, Thamnasac, which is on Mount Ephraim; and he built a city there, and dwelt in it." He it is who gave the inheritance to all "the sons of Judah," who gave to "Ephraim" and to "the half tribe of Manasseh"; he gave to that magnificent "Caleb [son] of Jephone" an inheritance also; he sent "three men through each of the tribes" to "traverse" the whole "land and describe it in a book" and return and show it to him; he "sent lots" to all and reserved himself for the very last. Why do you think he wished to be "last" of all? Without doubt, that he might be "first" of all. And he did not even presume the lot of an inheritance for himself, but received it from the people, and the people "give an inheritance" to him from whom he himself had received it. For thus it is written: "and the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus [son] of Nave." But "these things happened to them figuratively," which were set before us as a model, that we too might keep that precept which this man fulfilled in deed, where it is said: "the greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find grace before the Lord," and again what is written: "if they appoint you leader, do not be lifted up, but be among them as one of themselves." See therefore how he himself was "leader" of the people, who had led them "into the holy land," into "the land of promise"; he himself was the successor of Moses, and he does not permit himself to take a lot of the land, but waits to receive a little portion from the people, he the leader of the people, and having received his little portion, Jesus, worthy of this name, builds up that very place which he received, and constructs it, that he may make it truly worthy of the gift of God and of the divine inheritance.
SIR 32:19 — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 4:7 (PSALM 36)
"Because the Lord loves judgment and will not abandon his holy ones." In what sense does the Lord love judgment? Because nothing in him is not weighed thoroughly, nothing happens without a reason. Consequently you also, knowing that the Lord loves judgment, do everything with an honest and truthful judgment. Thus you will listen to the admonition of him who says, "Do everything sensibly, drink wine with prudence."
SIR 35:17 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 25.2
Attend to the reading; for the mind must be directed not only to the hearing of words, but to the consideration of the realities. Recall the things past, hear the things present, mark the things that follow. Compare the earlier things with the later, and contemplate the magnificence of the divine powers. The sons of Israel some time ago had been six hundred thousand armed men who had gone forth against Midian, and all these were conquered, because sin was in them. But now the Midianites, the victors, who had put to flight six hundred thousand, are conquered by twelve thousand, that you may know that Israel conquers not in a multitude nor in the number of soldiers, but there is righteousness and piety in those who conquer. Therefore, finally, it is also said in their blessings that, if they keep the law of the Lord, one of them shall pursue a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight. You see, then, that one holy man praying avails much more than innumerable sinners doing battle. The prayer of a holy man penetrates heaven: how should it not also conquer the enemy on earth? And therefore we must strive in every way to seek first and to keep the righteousness of God. And if you obtain and keep it, it will subject all your enemies to you; if you are clothed, as the Apostle says, in the breastplate of righteousness and girded with truth, if you have taken the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit and above all the shield of faith, in which you can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. For, equipped with such arms, you will put to flight all the camps of the devil and all his army, and with confidence you will sing: "If camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear; if battle rise up against me, in this will I hope."
SIR 40:28 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, FRAGMENT 64
The beggar begs because he lacks what is necessary and because he finds it impossible to procure these things in a dignified way. You might find in such a condition those who, so to speak, beg for saving remedies from the Greeks or from the barbarians who promise truth; they lack a dignified means, suitable for a being endowed with logos, of procuring without danger the abundant contemplation of the truth. But the Logos forbids this manner of seeking, saying somewhere, "Do not lead the life of a beggar. It is better to die than to beg." The unfaithful administrator in the Gospel was ashamed to beg, and therefore he says to the one who owes a hundred measures of wheat, "Take your note and write fifty," and to the one who owes a hundred barrels of oil, "Take your note and write eighty," preferring to decrease what is owed to his master than to shamefully beg, and for this he is praised. Jesus, therefore, not only freed the blind man of the blindness that had afflicted him from birth but also from begging, because together with his sight he also gave him the possibility of finding a way to procure for himself what was necessary for the salvation of his soul. In this case, the reason for begging was blindness, whereas in the Acts it was being lame: 6 one who is freed from these things will no longer beg.
SIR 43:20 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:8.3
We have been commanded to be fervent in spirit, and this shows that the Word of God is a blazing fire. And Jeremiah hears from the one who gave him oracles, "Look, I have put my words in your mouth, a fire." Therefore, since God is fire, the angels are flames of fire, and the saints should be fervent in the spirit of God. They have without a doubt cooled in their love for him and have become cold. Indeed, the Lord says that "increasing iniquity, the love of many will grow cold." And all those beings that symbolize the contrary power in sacred Scripture are always cold. The devil, in fact, is called a serpent and a dragon: what is colder than these? It is said that the dragon rules in the waters, and this is also said of one of the evil spirits that the prophet says dwells in the sea. And elsewhere the prophet says, "He will strike with the holy sword the serpent dragon that flees—the dragon, the perverse serpent—and he will kill him." And in another passage, "Even if they depart from before my eyes and flee into the depths of the sea, I will command the dragon, and he will bite them." And in Job this creature is called king of all the beings that are in the water. The prophet announces that evils come from the north, and especially those that inhabit the earth. And the north wind is indicated as cold in the Scriptures, as is written in Wisdom, "icy north wind." Without question, we must refer this to the devil.
SIR 47:19 — HOMILIES ON NUMBERS 20.3
If you read again the things that are written concerning Solomon, you will find that he, and indeed although he was most wise, inclined his loins to many women, though the law of God says: "You shall not multiply women for yourself, lest perhaps they make you commit fornication away from your God." He, then, although he was most wise and of enormous merits before God, yet because he gave himself over to many women, was deceived. I think that "many women" is the name for many doctrines and the diverse philosophies of many nations. And when, as a most learned and most wise man, he wished to recognize and thoroughly examine each of these, he could not hold himself within the rule of the divine law, but Moabite philosophy deceived him and persuaded him to sacrifice to the Moabite idol, and likewise of the Ammonites, and also of the remaining nations, whose women he is said to have received and to have built temples or sacrificed to their idols. It is, then, a great thing and truly a work of God to be mingled with many doctrines as with women, and yet not to turn aside from the rule of truth, but constantly to say: "There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and young maidens of whom there is no number; yet my dove is one, my perfect one is one; she is the only one of her mother, the only one of her that bore her."
SIR 48:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:57-58
If we understand what it means to be subject to Christ, especially in light of the passage, "And when everything is subject, he also, the Son, will subject himself to him who made everything subject to him," then we will understand the lamb of God who takes on himself the sin of the world in a way worthy of the goodness of the God of the universe. And yet the lamb does not take on himself the sins of all, if they do not suffer and experience torment until their sins are taken from them. There are in fact thorns that are not merely loose but firmly stuck in the hands of whoever is so drunk with vice as to even forget the state of sobriety, as it says in Proverbs, "Thorns are hidden in the hands of a drunkard." Must we spend words describing what troubles such implanted evils cause to the one who accepts them in the body of his soul? One who has accepted moral evil so deeply in his soul as to become a land that produces thorns needs to be deeply cut by the living Logos of God, which is "effective and sharper than any two-edged sword," hotter than any fire. Into a soul reduced to this state, that fire must be sent that is capable of finding the thorns and getting at them in virtue of its divinity, without setting fire to the stems and ears of the fields. Many are the ways in which the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world, in the first place through the sacrifice of himself. Some of these ways can be shown to the many, while others are hidden to them and known only to those considered worthy of the divine wisdom.
SIR 50:16 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.1
When our Lord Jesus Christ came, whose coming that former son of Nave prefigured, he sends his priests, the Apostles, bearing "trumpets of beaten metal," the magnificent and heavenly teaching of preaching. With the priestly trumpet Matthew first sounded loudly in his Gospel; Mark also, Luke, and John each sang with their priestly trumpets; Peter too resounds with the two trumpets of his epistles; James also and Jude. Nonetheless John also adds still further to sound the trumpet through his epistles, and Luke by describing the deeds of the Apostles. But last of all comes that one who said: "for I think that God has set forth us Apostles as the last," and, thundering in the trumpets of his fourteen epistles, he cast down to the very foundations the walls of Jericho and all the engines of idolatry and the doctrines of the philosophers.
Song of Songs 1:1 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
Just as we have learned through Moses that certain things are not only holy, but holy of holies; and others not only sabbaths, but sabbaths of sabbaths; so now we are taught, when Solomon writes, that there are certain things not only Songs, but the Song of Songs. Blessed indeed is he who enters the holy place, but more blessed he who enters the holy of holies. Blessed is he who keeps sabbaths, but more blessed he who keeps the sabbath of sabbaths. Blessed likewise is he too who understands the songs and sings them. For no one sings except at festivals; but far more blessed is he who sings the Song of Songs. And as he who enters the holy place still has need of many things, that he may be able to go in to the holy of holies; and he who celebrates the sabbath which was appointed by the Lord for the people still has much that is necessary, that he may keep the sabbath of sabbaths: in the same way, one is found only with difficulty who, passing through all the songs that are contained in the Scriptures, is able to ascend to the Song of Songs. You must go out from Egypt, and, having gone out from the land of Egypt, pass through the Red Sea, that you may be able to sing the first song, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for gloriously has he been glorified. But although you have spoken the first song, you are still far from the Song of Songs. Traverse the land of the desert spiritually, until you come to the well which the kings dug, that there you may sing the second song. After this, come to the neighborhood of the holy Land, that, stationed upon the bank of the Jordan, you may sing the song of Moses, saying: Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Again you have need to serve as a soldier under Jesus, and to possess the holy Land by inheritance, and that the bee may prophesy to you, and the bee judge you — Deborah is interpreted "bee" — that you may be able to learn also that song which is contained in the book of Judges. Then, ascending to the book of Kingdoms, come to the song sung when David was delivered from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and said: The Lord is my firmament, and my strength, and my refuge, and my deliverer. You must come as far as Isaiah, that with him you may say: I will sing a song to my beloved concerning my vineyard. And when you have passed through them all, mount up to higher things, that, a beautiful soul together with the Bridegroom, you may sing this Song of Songs as well.
Song of Songs 1:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
This little book is an epithalamium, that is, a wedding-song, and it seems to me to have been written by Solomon in the manner of a drama, which he sang after the likeness of a bride about to be wed and burning with heavenly love toward her bridegroom, who is the Word of God. … Therefore it seems necessary to me, before we come to examine the things written in this little book, first to discourse briefly about love itself, which is the chief cause of its writing; and after these things, about the order of Solomon's books, among which this book seems to be placed in the third position; then also about the title of the little book itself, why it is inscribed the Song of Songs; and further, how it seems to be composed in the manner of a drama and as a play upon the stage, of the kind that is wont to be enacted by the changing of characters.
Song of Songs 1:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 1
We must recall what we noted beforehand in the preface, namely that this little book, having the appearance of a wedding-song, is written in the manner of a drama. And we said that a drama is where fixed characters are introduced who speak, while others sometimes come on the scene, and others withdraw, or draw near, and thus the whole is carried forward through the changes of the characters. This, then, will be the character of the whole book, and according to it, so far as we are able, a historical exposition will be fitted by us. But the spiritual understanding is directed, no less according to what we indicated in the preface, either to the Church in relation to Christ under the title of bride or bridegroom, or to the union of the soul with the Word of God. Now, then, there is introduced under the form of the narrative a certain bride who has received, under the title of a betrothal and dowry, most worthy gifts from a most noble bridegroom; but since the bridegroom delays for a very long time, she is stirred by the longing of her love for him, and lies pining in her house, doing everything so that she may at some time see her bridegroom and enjoy his kisses. And since she sees that her love can neither be put off, nor that she is able to obtain what she desires, she turns herself to prayer and makes supplication to God, knowing that he is the Father of her bridegroom. Let us consider her, then, lifting up holy hands without anger and dispute, in modest attire with reverence and sobriety, adorned with the most worthy ornaments with which it is fitting for a noble bride to be adorned, but burning with desire for the bridegroom, and agitated by the inner wound of love, pouring out, as we said, her prayer to God, and saying concerning her bridegroom: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. These are the things that the historical explanation, composed in the manner of a drama, contains. But let us see whether the inner meaning can be fittingly adapted in this way. Let the Church be the one desiring to be united to Christ. And understand the Church as the assembly of all the saints. Let this Church, then, be as it were the single person of all, who speaks and says: I have all things, I am filled with the gifts which I received before the nuptials under the title of betrothal or dowry. For long ago, when I was being prepared for marriage to the son of the King, the firstborn of all creation, his holy angels obeyed and ministered to me, bringing to me the law in place of a betrothal gift. For the law is said to have been ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. The prophets also ministered to me. For they too spoke all those things by which they might not only show and point out to me concerning the Son of God — to whom they desired to betroth me by these things which are called pledges and dowry-gifts — but also, that they might kindle me into love and desire of him, they announced to me with prophetic voices concerning his coming, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, they preached to me of his innumerable powers and his immense works. His beauty too, and his fairness, and his gentleness they described, so that by all these things I was inflamed beyond endurance to love of him. But since the age is now nearly at its end, and yet his own presence is not granted to me, but I see only his ministers ascending and descending to me, for this reason I pour out my prayer to you, the Father of my bridegroom, and I beseech you that at last, taking pity on our love, you would send him; that he may now speak to me no longer through his ministers alone, the angels and the prophets, but that he himself may come in his own person, and kiss me with the kiss of his mouth — that is, may pour the words of his own mouth into my mouth, that I may hear him himself speaking, that I may see him himself teaching. For these are the kisses of Christ which he extended to the Church, when in his coming Christ himself, set in the flesh, proclaimed…
Song of Songs 1:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
Now, therefore, let us first inquire what the songs are, of which songs this is said to be the Song. I think, then, that the songs are those which of old were sung through the prophets or through the angels. For the Law is said to have been ministered through angels by the hand of a mediator. All those things, therefore, which were announced through them, were songs going before, sung by the friends of the bridegroom. But this is a single song, which was now to be sung, in the manner of an epithalamium, by the bridegroom himself as he was about to receive his bride to himself: in which the bride no longer wishes to have it sung to her through the friends of the bridegroom, but now desires to hear the words of the bridegroom himself present, saying: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." Whence also it is rightly preferred to all songs; for the other songs which the Law and the prophets sang seem to have been chanted to a bride still small, and to one who has not yet entered the vestibules of mature age; but this song is chanted to one grown up, and now very strong, and who is now capable of the manly power and the perfect mystery.
Song of Songs 1:2-3 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 1
Understand first, as though in the drama of the narrative, that the bride with hands lifted up to God has poured out a prayer to the Father, and has prayed that the bridegroom might now come to her, and that he himself might pour upon her the kiss of his own mouth. And while she prays these things to the Father, in the very prayer in which she said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," she prepares also to add other words of prayer, and to say that in this very beginning of her speech the bridegroom was present, and stood beside her as she prayed and revealed his own words, and that this same bridegroom stood anointed with wondrous ointments, and with such as it befitted a bridegroom to be fragrant with. But the bride, when she saw present the one for whom she was praying that he might be present, and that while she was still speaking there was granted to her what she was praying for, and that there were given to her by him the kisses she had begged for, being made glad on this account, and moved by the beauty of his breasts and by the odor of his fragrance, turns the discourse of the prayer she had set out upon toward the presence of the bridegroom who was there; and when she had said, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth," she adds after these words, addressing the bridegroom now present, saying: "Your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices." These things for the present according to the historical understanding, which we have said is woven in the manner of a drama. But now let us inquire what the inner meaning holds. We find that the ruling faculty of the heart is called by diverse names in the divine Scriptures, which names are wont to be fitted according to the causes and matters that are being treated. For sometimes it is called the heart, as: "Blessed are the pure in heart"; "With the heart it is believed unto righteousness." But if it be the time of a banquet, according to the manner and arrangement of those reclining, it is called either the bosom or the breast: just as John in the Gospel relates concerning a certain disciple whom Jesus loved, that he reclined in his bosom or upon his breast; he, assuredly, to whom Simon Peter, beckoning, said: "Ask, who is this of whom he speaks." And then, reclining upon the breast of Jesus, he says to him: "Lord, who is it?" For in these things it is certain that John is said to have rested in the ruling faculty of the heart of Jesus and in the inner senses of his teaching, there seeking and searching out the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which were hidden in Christ Jesus. But also that the bosom of Christ should be taken in the place of holy doctrines, I think does not seem unfitting. In diverse ways, therefore, as we had begun to say, the ruling faculty of the heart is designated in the holy Scriptures, as also nonetheless in Leviticus, where, concerning the sacrifices, the little breast of separation and the arm are set apart for the priests; and in this little breast and arm set apart and separated, surpassing other men, he wills there to be in the priests the ruling faculty of the heart and the beauty of works. Concerning which we have expounded more fully in the book of Leviticus, as the Lord deigned to grant. According to these things, therefore, also in the present passage, since the drama that is enacted appears to be one of love, let us understand in the breasts the ruling faculty of the heart, so that what is said may seem to be of this sort: "Your heart, O my bridegroom" — that is, the teachings which are within you, or the grace of doctrine — "surpasses all wine," which is wont to gladden the heart of man. For just as in those things of which it says, "For they shall see God," the heart seems fittingly to have been named, while among those reclining the bosom and the breast are set down, on account, without doubt, of the posture of those reclining and the form of the banquet; and again, as among the pr…
Song of Songs 1:2 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Of which this is the sense: How long will my bridegroom send me kisses through Moses, send me kisses through the prophets? Now I long to touch his own lips; let him come himself, let him himself descend. She prays, therefore, to the Father of the bridegroom, and says to him: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And because she is such that there is fulfilled upon her that prophetic word in which it is said: While you are yet speaking, I will say, Behold, here I am, the Father hears the bride of the bridegroom, and sends his Son. Seeing him whose coming she had implored, she ceases to pray, and speaks to him face to face: For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices. The Bridegroom, therefore, Christ, sent by the Father, comes anointed to the bride, and it is said to him: You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. If the bridegroom has touched me, I too shall be of good fragrance; I too am anointed with ointments, and his ointments reach even to me, that I may be able to say with the Apostles: We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place. But we, when we hear these things, still reek with sins and vices, of which the penitent prophet speaks: My scars have festered and are corrupted, because of my foolishness. Sin is of a foul odor; virtue breathes forth ointments, the figures of which you may read again in Exodus. For there too you will find storax, onycha, galbanum, and the rest. These indeed for incense. Then, for the perfumer's work, various ointments are taken, among which are spikenard and storax. And God, who made heaven and earth, speaks to Moses, saying: I have filled them with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, that they may make the works of the perfumer's art. God even teaches perfumers.
Song of Songs 1:3-4 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
Your name is ointment poured out. As ointment, which by its outpouring scatters its fragrance far and wide, so the name of Christ has been poured out. Over all the earth Christ is named, in all the world the Lord is proclaimed. For his name is ointment poured out. Now the name of Moses is heard, which before was shut up only within the narrow bounds of Judea. For not one of the Greeks makes mention of him, nor in any history of Gentile letters do we find anything written about him or the rest. As soon as Jesus shone forth in the world, he led forth with him the Law and the Prophets, and truly was fulfilled, Your name is ointment poured out. Therefore the maidens have loved you. Because through the Holy Spirit the love of God has been poured out in our hearts, fittingly the name of "outpouring" is introduced: Your name is ointment poured out. As she says this, the bride beholds the maidens. When she was entreating the Father of the bridegroom, and speaking face to face to the bridegroom himself, the maidens were not yet present. But in the midst of her prayers the choir of young girls enters, and is praised by the bride's words: Therefore the maidens have loved you, and drawn you. And the maidens answer: We will run after you, toward the fragrance of your ointments. How beautifully do the bridegroom's attendants not yet have the confidence of the bride! The bride does not follow behind his back, but enters at his side. She grasps the bridegroom's right hand, and her hand is held by the bridegroom's right hand. But the handmaids enter after him. There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, the only one of her who bore her. After you, therefore, we will run, toward the fragrance of your ointments. To those who walk with all uprightness it is said: After you we will run, toward the fragrance of your ointments, according to that word: I have finished the course; and that: Those who run in the stadium all run indeed, but one receives the prize. The prize is Christ; and these maidens, whom we recognize as standing outside because of the beginning of their love, according to that example — But the friend of the bridegroom, standing and hearing him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice — undergo something of the same kind. When the bridegroom enters, they remain outside; but the bride — beautiful, perfect, without spot, without wrinkle — having entered into the bridegroom's chamber, into the royal inner sanctuary, returns to the maidens, and announces to them the things which she alone has beheld, and says:
Song of Songs 1:3-4 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 1
The historical exposition here is indeed the same as in the preceding passages, and it runs on through the present place too until some change of persons occurs, since this is what is demanded by the order of the drama that we have adopted in this exposition. Yet there may well be seen in these words a certain prophecy uttered from the person of the bride concerning Christ — that at the coming of our Lord and Savior it would come to pass that his name should be so diffused throughout the whole earth and through the entire world that it would become a fragrance of sweetness in every place, just as the Apostle too said: "For we are the good fragrance of Christ in every place; to some indeed a fragrance from death unto death, but to others a fragrance from life unto life." For if to all he had been a fragrance from life unto life, she would surely have said here too: "All have loved you and drawn you." But she says that now, when your name has become an ointment poured out, they have loved you — not those aged souls, souls clothed with the old man, having wrinkles and spots, but the maidens, that is, souls set in the growth of youth and beauty, souls that are ever being made new and are renewed from day to day, putting on the new man who has been created according to God. Therefore for the sake of these maidens, souls set amid advances and increases of life, he who was in the form of God emptied himself, that his name might become an ointment poured out; that he might no longer dwell only in the unapproachable light and remain in the form of God, but that the Word might be made flesh, whereby these maidens, these souls set amid advances of progress, might not only love him but also draw him to themselves. For each soul draws and takes to itself the Word of God according to the measure of its capacity and its faith. And when the souls have drawn the Word of God to themselves and have grafted him into their senses and understandings, and have felt his sweetness and the pleasantness of his fragrance, when they have taken in the perfume of his ointments — that is, when they have come to know the reasons for his coming, the causes of his redemption and his passion, and the love wherewith for the salvation of all he, the immortal one, went even to the death of the cross — then the maidens, invited by all these as by the fragrances of a certain divine and unspeakable ointment, that is, souls made full of vigor and eagerness, run after him, and hasten to the fragrance of his sweetness not with a slow step nor with tardy paces, but with rapid course and all speed, even as did he who said: "So I run that I may lay hold." But as to what she says: "Your name is an ointment poured out, therefore the maidens have loved you, and have drawn you after them; in the fragrance of your ointments we will run" — the maidens draw Christ to themselves, if indeed it be understood of the Churches, which is one when it is perfect. But the maidens are many, while they are still being instructed and are making progress. These, then, draw Christ to themselves through faith, because Christ, when he shall have seen two or three gathered together in the faith of his name, goes thither, and is in the midst of them, drawn by their faith and summoned by their unanimity. But if, by the third exposition, these things ought to be understood of the soul that follows the Word of God, then whatever soul has first been schooled in moral matters and secondly has also been exercised in natural matters, through all those things which we have shown above to be taught in these disciplines, that very correction of morals, and the erudition in things, and the uprightness of learning draws the Word of God to itself, and he is willingly drawn; for he comes most gladly to erudite souls, and indulgently allows himself to be drawn by them, and graciously grants it. But I truly ask: if his name alone, because it has become an ointment poured out, has wrought so great a work, and has s…
Song of Songs 1:4 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
The king has brought me into his chamber. She does not say, "he has brought us, the many, into his chamber." The many remain outside; into the chamber the bride alone enters, that she may see the dark and hidden treasures, and report to the maidens: The king has brought me into his chamber. Again the maidens, that is, the very great throng of brides who are but beginning, when the bride has entered the bridegroom's chamber and beholds the riches of her husband, while they await his coming, sing joyfully together: We will exult and be glad in you. They rejoice at the bride's perfection. There is no rivalry in the virtues. This love is clean, this love is without vice. We will exult and be glad in you; we will love your breasts. She who is the greater already enjoys the milk of your breasts, and says, exulting: Better are your breasts than wine. But these who bring exultation and gladness — for they are maidens — bring love, and say: We will exult and be glad in you. We will love — not "we love," but "we will love" — your breasts above wine. Then they speak to the bride: Equity has loved you. They praise the bride, giving her the name of "equity" from her own virtues: Equity has loved you. Again the bride answers the maidens:
Song of Songs 1:4 — DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES
So too the inner man, in order to distinguish the fragrance of righteousness from the stench of sinfulness, has other nostrils. … And Solomon too says in the Song of Songs through the mouth of the daughters of Jerusalem: "We will run after you, to the fragrance of your perfumes." Consequently, as with our nostrils we perceive fragrance and stench, so too the inner man, if his gracious sensations are sound, has a perception of the fragrance of righteousness … and of the stench of sinfulness.
Song of Songs 1:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 1
When the bride had made known to her bridegroom that the young maidens, captivated by his fragrance, were running after him, and that she too would run with them so as to offer them a pattern in all things, now, as though having already won the prize of her labor because she outran those who were running, she says that she has been brought in by the bridegroom king into his chamber, that there she might behold all the royal riches. In this, assuredly, she rightly rejoices and exults, inasmuch as she has now looked upon the secret and hidden things of the king. This is, according to the sequence of the drama proposed, as it were the historical sense. But since she whose case is here treated is the Church coming to Christ, or the soul cleaving to the Word of God, what other chamber of Christ and storehouse of God are we to believe there to be, into which he brings either the Church or the soul that cleaves to him, save that very hidden and recondite meaning of his, of which Paul too was speaking: "But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know the things that are given to us by God." These are those things "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him." When therefore Christ leads the soul into the understanding of his own meaning, she is said to be brought into the chamber of the king, in which are "the treasures of his wisdom and knowledge hidden." Now it seems not without significance that, whereas she could have said, "My bridegroom has brought me in," or "my brother," or something of this kind, as is her custom, now, because she was about to speak of a chamber, she has said the chamber of the king, and has set down no other name, in which perhaps someone even middling might be understood. But I think that in these words the king is named for this reason: that through this name the chamber might be shown to be exceedingly rich, being royal indeed and filled with many and immense riches. Wholly near to this man there seems to me to have been also that one who said that he had been caught up to the third heaven, and from there into paradise, and had heard "unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter." For what do you think those words were which he heard? Did he not hear them from the king? And did he not hear them being set in the chamber, and near the chamber? And those words were, I believe, some such as these: that they exhorted him to greater progress, and promised him that if he should persevere unto the end, he too might be able to enter the chamber, according to that which is also promised through the prophet: "I will give you dark treasures, hidden, invisible. I will open to you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God who have called your name Israel." The young maidens therefore run after him, and into his fragrance, yet each according to her strength — one indeed more swiftly, another a little more slowly, another even lower than the rest and in the last place, another in the first place. Nevertheless all of them run, but one is perfect, who runs in such a way as to arrive and alone receive the prize. For she alone it is who says: "The king has brought me into his chamber," whereas before she had said, not of herself alone, but of many: "After you, into the fragrance of your ointments, we will run." She is therefore brought into the chamber of the king, and is made a queen, and it is she of whom it is said: "The queen stood at your right hand in a gilded garment, girded about with variety." But concerning those young maidens who had been running after her, and had remained far behind her in the very courses of their running, it is said: "Virgins shall be brought to the king after her, her companions shall be brought to you: they shall be brought in gladness and exultation, they shall be led into the temple of the king." But this too we ought to note in this passage, that just as the king has a certain chambe…
Song of Songs 1:5 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 11:6.3
Thus some such process also happens to us who are in generation. We are dark at the beginning in believing—hence in the beginning of the Canticle of Canticles it is said, "I am very dark and beautiful," and we look like the soul of an Ethiopian at the beginning—then we are cleansed so that we may be more bright according to the passage, "Who is she who comes up whitened?"
Song of Songs 1:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
In other copies we read: "I am black and beautiful." Here again the person of the bride is introduced as speaking; but she speaks not to those young maidens who are accustomed to run with her, but to the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom she seems to make reply as to those who have disparaged her unsightliness, and to say: I am indeed dark, or black, so far as concerns color, O daughters of Jerusalem; but I am beautiful, if one looks upon the inner lineaments of my members. For the tents of Kedar too, she says — Kedar being a great nation — are black, and the very nation of Kedar is interpreted as blackness or darkness. But the skins of Solomon also are black, and yet on that account the blackness of the skins did not appear unseemly to so great a king in all his glory. Do not therefore, O daughters of Jerusalem, reproach me with the fault of my color, since there is no lack of beauty in my body, whether natural or acquired by exercise. This is what the historical drama contains, and the outward form of the tale set before us. But let us return to the mystical order. This bride who speaks holds the person of the Church gathered out of the nations. But the daughters of Jerusalem, to whom her discourse is addressed, are those souls who, on account of the election of the fathers, are indeed called most beloved, but enemies on account of the Gospel. These are the daughters of the earthly city Jerusalem, who, seeing the Church out of the nations — ignoble, as they suppose, in that she cannot ascribe to herself the nobility of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet forgetting her own people and her father's house, coming even to Christ — despise her and cast a shadow upon her for the ignobility of her race. And the bride, perceiving that the daughters of the former people impute this to her, and that on this account she is even called black, as one who has not the brightness of her fathers' learning, replies to these things and says: I am indeed black, O daughters of Jerusalem, in that I do not descend from the stock of illustrious men, nor have I received the illumination of the law of Moses; yet I have my own beauty with me. For there is in me first that which was made in me according to the image of God; and now, coming to the Word of God, I have received back my own comeliness. For although, on account of the darkness of my color, you compare me to the tents of Kedar and to the skins of Solomon, yet Kedar too descends from Ishmael. For in the second place there was born of Ishmael this Kedar; and Ishmael was not without a share in the divine blessing. But you also compare me to the skins of Solomon, which are none other than the skins of the tabernacle of God; and yet I marvel at you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you would reproach me with the blackness of my color. How do you not remember what is written in the law — what Miriam suffered, who disparaged Moses because he had taken to wife a black Ethiopian woman? How are you ignorant that the shadow of that image is now being fulfilled in me in truth? I am that Ethiopian woman; I am black indeed for the ignobility of my race, but beautiful because of repentance and faith. For I have received into myself the Son of God, I have received the Word made flesh. I have come to him who is the image of God, the firstborn of all creation, and who is the brightness of glory and the radiance of his substance, and I have become beautiful. Why then do you reproach one who is being converted from sin — a thing which the law forbids to be done? And how do you glory in the law, while you transgress the law? But since we are at those places where the Church that comes from the nations says that she is black and beautiful, although it may seem long and laborious to gather from the divine Scriptures in what places, or in what manner, the form of this mystery went before, nevertheless it does not seem to me a thing to be altogether omitted, but rather to be recalled as briefly as may be. First, then, in the…
Song of Songs 1:5 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Do not look at me, because I am darkened, for the sun has looked askance at me. She is beautiful indeed, and I can find in what way the bride is beautiful. But we ask how she is black, and, without whiteness, is fair. She did penance for her sins, and conversion bestowed beauty upon her; and therefore she is sung as beautiful. But because she is not yet cleansed from all the filth of her sins, not yet washed in salvation, she is called black; yet she does not remain in that dark color. And so she becomes white, when she rises to greater things, and begins to ascend from lowly things to the heights, and it is said of her: Who is this that comes up made white? And, that the mystery of the perfected one may be described more plainly, it does not say, as is read in most manuscripts, leaning upon her kinsman — that is, ἐπιστηριζομένη — but ἐπιστηθιζομένη, that is, reclining upon his breast. And significantly it is said of the soul of the bride and of the word, "reclining upon his breast," because there is the ruling part of our heart. Whence, departing from carnal things, we ought to perceive spiritual things, and to understand that it is far better to love thus than to cease from love. She ascends, then, reclining upon the breast of her kinsman; and she who now, at the opening of the Song, is set down as black, is sung of, at the end of the wedding-song: Who is this that comes up made white? We have understood how the bride is both black and beautiful. But if you too do not do penance, beware lest your soul be called black, and foul, and you be disfigured with a twofold ugliness: black because of past sins, and foul because you persist in the same vices. But if you do penance, your soul will be black because of former offenses, but because of penance it will have something, so to speak, of an Ethiopian beauty. And because I have once named the Ethiopian, I wish to summon Scripture as witness to this discourse. Aaron and Miriam murmur, because Moses has an Ethiopian woman for a wife. And now Moses takes an Ethiopian woman for a wife, since his law has passed over to this Ethiopian woman of ours. Let Aaron murmur — the priesthood of the Jews; let Miriam also murmur — their Synagogue: Moses cares nothing for the murmuring; he loves his Ethiopian woman, of whom it is also said elsewhere through the Prophet: From the ends of the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring offerings; and again: Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God before others. Beautifully, "before others." For just as, in the Gospel, that woman with the issue of blood anticipated the healing of the synagogue-ruler's daughter, so Ethiopia, while Israel was sick, was healed. By their offense, salvation came to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem. And you, soul of the Church, turn your word to the daughters of Jerusalem, and say: The bridegroom loves me more, he cherishes me more than you, who are many daughters of Israel. You stand outside, and see the bride entering the chamber. Let no one doubt that she who is called black is a black woman who is beautiful. Who are we, that we should come to know God, that we should proclaim the Songs of the Song, that we should come from the ends of Ethiopia, from the end of the earth, to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon? And when the voice of the Savior is heard thundering: The queen of the south shall come at the judgment, and shall condemn the men of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here — hear the mystic things that are said. The queen of the south comes from the ends of the earth: the Church; and she condemns the men of this generation, that is, the Jews given over to flesh and blood. She comes from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon — not of him who is pro…
Song of Songs 1:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
Darkened, or blackened: if the exposition seems fittingly suited to us which in the foregoing we wove either concerning the Ethiopian woman whom Moses took to wife, or concerning the queen of Sheba who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, then rightly does this woman who is dusky or black and yet beautiful now seem to make satisfaction for her blackness or darkening, and to render the causes of it to those reproaching her, as one who is not such by nature, nor so created by her Maker, but has suffered this from accidental things. "From this," she says, "that the sun has despised me." In which she shows that the discourse is not about the blackness of the body, which indeed the sun is wont to darken and blacken when it looks upon a thing rather than when it despises it. So, in fine, they report even of that whole nation of the Ethiopians, in whom by now a certain blackness is inborn by the succession of the carnal seed, that in those regions the sun burns with keener rays, and that bodies once scorched and darkened remain so by the succession of an inbred defect. But the blackness of the soul is of a contrary order. For it is scorched not by the sun's regard but by its disregard, nor is it acquired by being born but by being negligent; and therefore, just as it is taken on through sloth, so too it is repelled and driven off through diligence. Finally, as I said above, this very woman who is now said to be black is recorded, toward the end of this Song, to ascend whitened, leaning upon her kinsman. She was made black, therefore, because she came down; but if she begins to ascend and to lean upon her kinsman, and to cleave to him, and by no means to be separated from him, she will be whitened and shining white; and, every blackness cast off, she will shine, bathed round with the light of the true light. She says now, therefore, to the daughters of Jerusalem, making satisfaction for her blackness: Do not suppose, O daughters of Jerusalem, that this blackness which you see in my face is natural; but know that it was made by the sun's disregard. For the Sun of justice, because he did not find me standing upright, did not himself direct the straight rays of his light into me. For I am the people of the nations, who formerly did not look toward the Sun of justice, nor stood before the Lord; and therefore neither did he look upon me, but disregarded me, nor did he stand by me, but passed me over. And that this is so, even you who are called Israel will now, having experienced it in fact, come to know it and say: For just as, when I once did not believe, you were taken up and obtained mercy, and the Sun of justice regarded you, but disregarded and spurned me as one disobedient and unbelieving; so now, because you have become unbelieving and disobedient, I hope to be regarded by the Sun of justice and to obtain mercy. And that this disregard of the sun is mutual between us — that I first, for my disobedience, was disregarded, but you regarded; while now to you also has befallen not only the sun's disregard but even a certain blindness, though in part — I will bring forward for you a magnificent witness, and one privy to the heavenly secret, Paul, who speaks thus: For as you (speaking, without doubt, of the nations) once did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy through their unbelief; so also these have not believed in your mercy, that they too may obtain mercy. And again in another place he says: Because blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations should enter in. Hence, therefore, is in me this blackness which you reproach, because the sun has disregarded me on account of my unbelief and disobedience. But when I shall stand upright before him, and shall not be crooked in anything, nor turn aside to the right hand or to the left, but shall make straight paths for my feet, walking toward the Sun of justice in all his justifications without blame; then he too will look upon me uprightly, and there wil…
Song of Songs 1:6 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
The sons of my mother fought against me. It must be considered how the bride says, The sons of my mother fought against me, and when a fight of her brothers rose up against her. Look at Paul, the persecutor of the Church, and you will understand how a son of her mother fought against her. The persecutors of the Church did penance, and her adversaries, turned back again to their sister's standards, preached the faith which before they destroyed. In this prophetic spirit the bride now, singing, says: They fought against me; they set me as a keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept. I, the Church, I, the bride, I, without spot, have been set as keeper of very many vineyards by the sons of my mother, who once had fought against me. Bound by which anxiety and care, while I keep many vineyards, I have not guarded my own vineyard. Understand this for me of Paul, or of any other of the saints, who is anxious for the salvation of all; and you will see how, not keeping his own vineyard, he keeps the vineyards of others. And how, that he may gain others, he himself in certain respects suffers loss. And though he was free from all, he made himself a servant, that he might gain all: made weak to the weak, a Jew to the Jews; to those who were under the Law, as under the Law, and the rest — and he says, my own vineyard I have not kept. Then she beholds the bridegroom, who, when beheld, has withdrawn. And frequently he does this throughout the whole song, which, unless a man experiences it himself, he cannot understand. Often — God is my witness — I have beheld the bridegroom drawing near to me, and being present with me as much as possible; then, when he suddenly withdrew, I could not find what I was seeking. Again, therefore, I desire his coming, and sometimes he comes again; and when he has appeared, and been grasped by my hands, again he slips away; and when he has slipped away, again he is sought by me. And this I do repeatedly, until I truly hold him, and go up, leaning upon my kinsman.
Song of Songs 1:7 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon. I do not ask for other times — when you feed in the evening, when at dawn, when at the sun's setting: I seek that time when, in the full-flowering day, in full light, you dwell in the splendor of your majesty. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon. Observe diligently wherever you read of "noon." At Joseph's, his brothers hold their meal at noon. At noon the angels are received into Abraham's hospitality, and other things of this kind. Seek, and you will find that the divine Scripture takes up no word in vain or by chance. Who, do you think, is worthy among us to reach even to noon, and to see where the bridegroom feeds, where he lies down? Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon. For unless you tell me, I begin to be tossed about in wandering; and while I seek you, I run into the flocks of others; and because I am ashamed before others, I begin to cover my face and my mouth. For I am a beautiful bride, and I do not show my bare face to others, but to you alone, whom I have long since kissed. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon; lest I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions. That I may not suffer this, that I may not become veiled, that I may not cover my mouth, and, coming at last to others, begin perhaps to love even those whom I do not know: therefore tell me where I may seek you, and find you at noon, lest perchance I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions. After these words the bridegroom warns her, and says: Either you know yourself, that you are the bride of the king, and beautiful, and made beautiful by me — since I presented to myself a glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle — or know that, if you do not know yourself and are not aware of your dignity, you will suffer the things that follow. And what are these? If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go forth in the tracks of the flocks, and feed — not flocks of sheep, not of lambs, but your goats. For he will set the sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left.
Song of Songs 1:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
The bride is still speaking these words as well, but to the bridegroom, and no longer to the daughters of Jerusalem. Therefore, from the beginning where she says: "Let him kiss me," down to this place: "Beside the flocks of your companions," all that has been said are the words of the bride. But first her speech was directed to God, secondly to the bridegroom, thirdly to the young maidens; and, standing as it were midway between them and the bridegroom, and, as the dramatic form of the piece requires, having become like a leader of the middle chorus, she directs her words now to those maidens, now to him, and now also in answer to the daughters of Jerusalem. These last words, then, she now addresses to the bridegroom, asking of him where he pastures at noon and where he settles his flock, fearing lest, while she seeks him, she should stumble into those places where the companions keep their flocks stationed through the noontide. And she shows by these words that this bridegroom is also a shepherd: from the earlier passages we had learned that he is also a king—undoubtedly for the reason that he rules men; but a shepherd, for the reason that he pastures sheep; and a bridegroom, for the reason that he has a bride who reigns with him, according to what is written: "The queen stood at your right hand in a gilded robe." This, then, for the present, is the sense of the drama itself, which is, as it were, its historical sense. But now let us seek the mystical understanding: and, so as to anticipate a little those things which are to be treated of in what follows, in order that it may be made clear what disposition she has toward the companions, let us recall what is written—that the queens are sixty, but that out of all there is one dove, and one perfect one, and as it were the mother of the kingdom; while the rest, now inferior, are those who are called the eighty concubines; and the young maidens, of whom there is no number, are placed after the order of the concubines. Now all these are the souls of those who, believing in Christ, are joined to him by diverse affections; so that, to speak by way of example, the Apostle calls the whole Church, under a certain figure, the body of Christ; and in that body he declares there to be diverse members, and that some are eyes, and others hands, and others also feet, and that each is fitted into this body according to the merits of their works and pursuits. According to this figure, then, these things also are to be understood; and we must think that in this nuptial drama some, joined to the bridegroom by a more excellent and more illustrious affection, are held with him in the place and affection of queens; that others, whose honor in their advancements is undoubtedly lower, are reckoned in the place of concubines; and others in that of the young maidens, who seem to be placed indeed outside the court, yet not outside the royal city; while the later ones, and after all those mentioned above, are those who are called sheep. But if we look more attentively, perhaps we shall even find others inferior to all of these, and last of all: namely, those who are counted among the flocks of his companions. For the companions too are said to have certain flocks, into which the bride does not wish to stumble, and on this account she asks of the bridegroom that he tell her where he pastures, where he takes his noonday rest, lest, she says, I become like one veiled beside the flocks of your companions. It is asked, then, concerning these companions who are said to have certain flocks, whether they do this while giving their service to the bridegroom, and acting under him as under the chief of shepherds—since they are named his companions; or whether they have something of their own, and set apart, and that is not in accord with the bridegroom's mind—since the bride shrinks back, and fears lest she should perhaps stumble into the flocks of the companions while she seeks her bridegroom. But as to what she sa…
Song of Songs 1:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
Among the many other remarkable sayings, this one is reported to belong to Chilon alone—one of the seven whom fame among the Greeks celebrates as having been singular in wisdom—in which he says: "Know yourself," or "Come to know yourself." Yet Solomon, whom in our preface we showed to have preceded all of these in time and in wisdom and in the knowledge of things, says this to the soul—as though to a woman—speaking under a certain threat: Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women, and recognize that the causes of your beauty descend from this, that you were made to the image of God, whereby there is in you the greatest measure of natural comeliness, and unless you come to know how beautiful you were from the beginning—although even now you already surpass the other women, and are called the only beautiful one among them—yet unless you know yourself, who you are (for I do not wish your beauty to seem good by comparison with lesser things, but that you should answer to yourself and to your own comeliness, weighed and made equal to it). And unless you do this, I command you to go out, and to be placed in the lowest footsteps of the flocks, and now to pasture not sheep nor lambs, but kids—those, that is, who for their depravity and wantonness are to stand at the left of the king who presides in judgment. And when I have shown to you, brought into the royal chamber, what are the highest goods, if you do not know yourself, I will also show you what are the uttermost evils, so that from both you may profit, as much by the fear of evils as by the desire of goods. For if you do not know yourself, and live in ignorance of yourself, and have pursued no zeal for knowledge, without doubt you will have no tent of your own, but you will run about through the tents of shepherds, and now in the tents of one shepherd will pasture kids—a restless and wandering animal, and one assigned to sins. And these things you will suffer until by the very facts and by experience you understand how great an evil it is for the soul not to know itself, nor its own beauty, through which it excels the others—not virgins, but women, those namely who have suffered corruption and have not remained in the integrity of virginity. These are the things which the Bridegroom, after all those things which the Bride had spoken, says in the order of the drama set forth, rousing the Bride's spirits by a certain stern threat to the care of self-knowledge. But now, consequently, as with the rest, let us refer these things to Christ and to the Church, who, speaking to His Bride—that is, to the souls of believers—places the summit of salvation and blessedness in the knowledge of oneself. How, then, the soul may know itself, I think can be explained neither easily nor briefly; yet according to our strength we shall attempt to open up a few things out of many. It seems to me, therefore, that the soul ought to grasp the knowledge of itself in a twofold manner: what it is in itself, and how it is moved—that is, what it has in substance, and what in its affections. For instance, that it may understand whether it be of good affection or not good, of upright and right purpose or not right; and indeed if right, whether it holds the same tenor toward all the virtues, both in understanding and in acting, or only toward things necessary and near at hand. And whether it is in a condition to receive advances, so as to be increased in the understanding of things and in the increase of virtues, or whether it stands still and settles in that, and in what it was able to attain; and whether it is at leisure only for cultivating itself, or whether it strives to be of profit to others and to confer some usefulness, whether in the word of teaching or in the examples of its deeds. But if it recognizes itself not to be of good affection, nor of right purpose, in this very thing—that it may understand whether it is wholly lacking and far from the way of the virtues, or whether it is already set…
Song of Songs 1:8 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go forth in the tracks of the flocks, and feed your goats in the tents of the shepherds. In the tracks, he says, of the shepherds you will become the last; not among the sheep, but among your goats, dwelling with whom you cannot be with me, that is, with the good shepherd. I have likened you to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. If you wish to understand, O bride, how you ought to know yourself, learn to whom I have compared you, and now you will see that you are such a one as ought not to be disfigured, when you have known your own beauty. What, then, is it? I have likened you to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. I know the bridegroom to be a horseman, the prophet saying: And his riding is salvation. You are likened, therefore, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. As much as my cavalry — I who am the Lord, and drown in the waves Pharaoh, and his crested ones, and his riders, and his horses, and his chariots — as much, I say, as my cavalry differs from the horses of Pharaoh, so much are you, O bride, O soul of the Church, better than all the daughters, better than all souls that are not of the Church. If, then, you are a soul of the Church, you are better than all souls; if you are not better, you are not of the Church. I have likened you to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh, my love. Then he describes the beauty of the bride with spiritual love.
Song of Songs 1:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
The historical sense, indeed, seems to show this. As, he says, then in Egypt, when Pharaoh in pursuit of the people of Israel advanced with chariots and cavalry, my cavalry — that is, the cavalry of my Lord the bridegroom — far surpassed the chariots of Pharaoh, and was more excellent, seeing that it overcame them and sank them in the sea; so also you, my beloved bride, surpass all women, having been made like to my cavalry, which, being compared to the chariots of Pharaoh, is assuredly more powerful and more magnificent. This, for the meantime, seems to me to be the order of the words themselves and the arrangement of the sentences. But let us consider whether perchance, according to the mystical understanding, he calls those souls which are under that spiritual Pharaoh, and are set under the spiritual wickednesses, the chariots of Pharaoh and his four-horse teams, which he himself drives and leads to pursue the people of God, and to oppress Israel. For it is certain that the temptations and tribulations which the demons stir up against the saints, they stir up through certain souls fitted and suited for this very thing. Mounting upon these as upon chariots, they harass and assail either the Church of God, or each single one of the faithful. But concerning the cavalry of the Lord, what this cavalry of his is — in Exodus, indeed, where the chariots of Pharaoh are overcome and sunk in the sea, we read nothing written, except only that the Lord cast the chariots of Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. Yet we find in the fourth book of Kingdoms that Elisha, when his servant was terrified at the coming of the enemies who had come with cavalry and chariots, says to him: "Fear not, for they that are with us are more than they that are with them." "And Elisha prayed," he says, "and said: Lord, open the eyes of this boy that he may see. And the Lord opened his eyes, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horsemen, and chariots of fire round about Elisha, which had come down to him." But also in the prophet Habakkuk we read plainly and evidently concerning the cavalry of the Lord, and that he mounts his horses. These, then, are the words of the Scripture: "Wilt thou be angry with the rivers, O Lord, or is thy fury against the rivers, or thine onset against the Red Sea? Thou that mountest thy horses, and thy cavalry is salvation." There are, then, horses of the Lord, upon which he mounts, and his cavalry. These I think to be none other than those souls which receive the bridle of his discipline, and bear the yoke of his sweetness, and which are led by the Spirit of God, and in this is salvation for them. In the Revelation of John we read that a horse appeared to him, and one sitting upon it faithful and true, and judging with justice, whose name is the Word of God. He says therefore: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon it was called faithful and true, and judging with justice and making war; and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and upon his head many diadems having a name written, which no one knows but he himself, and he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood, and his name was called the Word of God. And his army was in heaven, and they followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and pure." But there is need of the grace of God, which may open to us the understanding of the words, whereby we may be able to perceive what these visions signify, what the white horse is, and who he is that sits upon it, whose name is the Word of God. And perhaps someone will say that the white horse is the body which the Lord assumed, and with which he who in the beginning was God the Word with God was either clothed or carried. But another will say it is the soul, which the firstborn of all creation assumed, and concerning which he said: "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." But another will think that it is both together, body and soul, as though, wh…
Song of Songs 1:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
The sequence of the drama seems to have this consequence: that after the bridegroom had employed a rather severe threat toward the bride, warning her that unless she came to know herself she would go forth in the tracks of the flocks and would pasture not sheep but kids, she blushed over the severity of the command; and the redness of shame, spreading over her face, made her cheeks beautiful, and much more lovely than they had been. And not only her cheeks, but her neck too was rendered so comely, as though adorned with the little chains of necklaces. The beauty of the cheeks, then, is compared to turtledoves, because by birds of this sort both the seemliness of the face and its liveliness are indicated at once. This is the explanation of the dramatic narrative. But let us come to the matter itself. The apostle Paul, writing to the Church of the Corinthians, speaks thus: "But the body is not one member, but many. And if the foot should say, 'Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body,' it is not on that account not of the body; and if the ear should say, 'Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body,' it is not on that account not of the body. If the whole body is an eye, where is the hearing? If the whole is hearing, where is the smelling? But now God has placed each single member in the body as He willed." And when he had discussed many things about this, at the last he says: "But you are the body of Christ, and members in part." And again, writing to the Ephesians, he says: "Subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Let wives be subject to their husbands as to the Lord: for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the Church, He Himself the Savior of the body. But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also let wives be subject to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved His Church and delivered Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her by the washing of water in the word, that He Himself might prepare for Himself a glorious Church having no spot or wrinkle or anything of this kind, but that she might be holy and immaculate." And a little after: "For no one," he says, "ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ also does the Church, because we are members of His body," and the rest. By these things, therefore, we are taught how the bride of Christ, which is the Church, is also His body and members. If, then, you hear the members of the bridegroom named, understand that the members of the Church are meant. Among these, just as there are some who are called eyes, doubtless for the light of understanding and knowledge, and others ears for hearing the word of teaching, others hands for good works and religious ministries, so there are also others who may be called His cheeks. Now the cheeks are said to be the parts of the face in which the seemliness and modesty of the soul are recognized: by which, without doubt, those among the members of the Church are indicated who cultivate the seemliness of chastity and modesty. For these, therefore, it is said to the whole body of the bride: "How beautiful your cheeks have become!" And observe that He did not say, "How beautiful your cheeks are," but "How beautiful they have become"; so as to show that they were not indeed so beautiful before, but that after she received the kisses of the bridegroom, and He who spoke through the prophets was first present, and cleansed His Church for Himself by the washing of water, and made her to have no spot or wrinkle, and granted her the knowledge of Himself, then her cheeks became beautiful. For then chastity and modesty and virginity, which before had not existed, was diffused with beautiful comeliness over the cheeks of the Church. Yet this comeliness of the cheeks, that is, of modesty and chastity, is compared to turtledoves. They say that the nature of turtledoves is of this sort, that neither does the male approach any female besides one, no…
Song of Songs 1:10 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
Your cheeks are as those of a turtledove. He praises her face, and is kindled by the blush of her cheeks. For the beauty of women is said to be greatest in the cheeks. So let us too understand the beauty of the soul to be in its cheeks. But her lips and her tongue let us proclaim to be her understanding. Your neck is as a necklace. As an ornament which is wont to hang from the necks of virgins, and is called ὄρμισκος (a little necklace), so, even without this adornment, your neck itself is an ornament.
Song of Songs 1:11-12 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
We said above that this little book, arranged in the manner of a drama, is woven together by a change of speakers; and so now these words seem to be spoken to the bride by the friends or companions of the bridegroom, who, according to the mystical understanding — and, as we have already said above — can be understood either as angels, or even as the prophets, or as the patriarchs. For it was not only when the Lord, after the baptism of John, was tempted by the devil in the wilderness that the angels departed and ministered to him, but they always ministered to her before the coming of his bodily presence. For the law also is said to have been ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. And the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: "For if the word spoken through angels was made firm." They therefore were, as it were, the managers and stewards set over the little bride together with the law as tutor, until the fullness of the times should come, and God should send his Son, born of a woman, made under the law, and should lead her out from under the managers and stewards and the tutor which is the law, so that she might receive the kisses of the very Word of God — that is, his teaching and his words. Before, therefore, the time of these things was present to man, the bride was cultivated in many ways by the ministry of angels, who then appeared to men and spoke those things which the matter and the occasion required. For do not suppose that the bride, or the Church, is spoken of only from the coming of the Savior in the flesh, but from the beginning of the human race, and from the very foundation of the world — nay rather, that with Paul as my guide I may trace the origin of this mystery yet higher, even before the foundation of the world. For thus he says: "Even as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, predestinating us unto the adoption of sons." But also in the Psalms it is written: "Remember your congregation, O Lord, which you gathered from the beginning." For the first foundations of the congregation were laid straightway from the beginning, whence also the Apostle says that the Church is built not only upon the foundation of the apostles, but also of the prophets; and among the prophets is numbered also Adam, because he prophesied a great mystery concerning Christ and the Church, saying: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh." For evidently concerning these his words the Apostle says that "this is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the Church." But the same Apostle also, when he says: "For if Christ loved the Church, so that he delivered himself up for her, sanctifying her with the washing of water," by no means shows that she did not exist before — for how could he have loved her who did not exist? — but without doubt he loved her who did exist. And she existed in all the saints who had been made from the beginning of the age. Loving her, therefore, he came to her. And just as her children shared in flesh and blood, so likewise he himself was made a partaker of the same, and delivered himself up for them. For they themselves were the Church which he loved, that he might either increase her in number, or cultivate her in virtues, or by the charity of perfection transfer her from the earth to heaven. From the beginning, therefore, the prophets ministered to her, and the angels also ministered. For what else was taking place then, when three men appeared to Abraham as he sat by the oak of Mamre? — although that manifestation showed something more than the ministry of angels, for there the mystery of the Trinity was being made known. This was also the case in Exodus, where the angel of the Lord is said to have appeared to Moses in a flame of fire in the bush. But immediately in what follows the Lord and God is written to speak in the angel, and he…
Song of Songs 1:11-12 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 1
After these things the bridegroom is at his rest; he has lain down as a lion, he has slept as a lion's whelp, so that thereafter it may be asked: Who shall rouse him? While he sleeps in the meantime, the companions of the bridegroom, the Angels, appear to the bride, and console her with these words: We cannot make ornaments of gold for you; for we are not so rich as your bridegroom, who bestows on you a golden necklace. We will make a likeness of gold; for we do not have gold. And in this too there is cause for gladness, if we make likenesses of gold, if we make studs of silver. We will make you likenesses of gold, with studs of silver. But not for all time; only until your bridegroom rises from his couch. For when he has risen, he himself will make you gold, he himself will make silver, he himself will adorn your mind and understanding, and you will be truly rich in the bridegroom's house, a beautiful bride — to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Song of Songs 1:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
In the manner of a drama, this appears to be shown: that after these words the bride entered in to the bridegroom and anointed him with her ointments, and, in some wondrous fashion, as though the nard which before had given no odor while it was with the bride, then gave forth its odor when it touched the body of the bridegroom—so that he seems not so much to have taken odor from the nard as the nard to have taken it from him. But if we read according to that variant which is found in other copies, "My nard gave forth his odor," something still more divine is discovered: namely, that this ointment of nard with which the bridegroom was anointed took not only its own odor, which is naturally wont to be in nard, but the very odor of the bridegroom himself, and the nard carried back his odor to the bride—so that in that with which she anointed him, it received the odor of the bridegroom through the office of the ointment itself. And this is what she seems to say: "My nard, with which I anointed the bridegroom, returning to me brought back to me the odor of the bridegroom, and, as though its own natural odor were overcome by the fragrance of the bridegroom, brought to me his sweetness." This is what the exposition of the historical drama holds; but let us now come to the spiritual understanding. Let us here set the bride, the Church, in the person of Mary, who fittingly indeed is said to bring a pound of ointment of precious spikenard, and to anoint the feet of Jesus and wipe them with her hair, and in a certain manner to receive and recover unto herself, through the hair of her head, the ointment tinctured by the quality and power of his body; and drawing to herself the odor not so much of nard through the ointment as of the very Word of God, through the hairs with which she wiped his feet, and putting upon her own head not so much the fragrance of nard as of Christ; and to say that "my nard, applied to the body of Christ, gave back his odor." Consider, then, how these very things are reported. "Mary," it says, "brought a pound of ointment of precious spikenard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. And the house," it says, "was wholly filled with the odor of the ointment." This surely indicates that the odor of the teaching which proceeds from Christ, and the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, filled the whole house of this world and the house of the whole Church. Or certainly it filled the whole house of that soul which received a share of the odor of Christ, offering first the gift of its faith, as it were the ointment of nard, and receiving from this the grace of the Holy Spirit and the fragrance of spiritual teaching. What difference, then, does it make whether in the Song of Songs the bride anoints the bridegroom with ointment, or in the Gospel the disciple anoints the master and Mary anoints Christ, hoping, as we have said, that from this ointment there should return to her the odor of the word and the fragrance of Christ—so that on this very account she may say: "We are the good odor of Christ unto God"? And since that ointment was full of faith and of precious affection, on this account Jesus too bore witness to her, saying: "She has wrought a good work upon me." So then, again, in the Song of Songs, after some passages, he embraces the emissions of the bride, just as here the work of Mary; for he says: "Thy emissions are a paradise with the fruit of apple-trees. Cyprus with nards. Nard and saffron." He embraces, therefore, in these also the sendings-forth and the gifts of the bride. We have indeed observed that in those things which we have just now mentioned, he set nard first in the plural, afterward in the singular; which I think was said according to that principle, because the merchant of the kingdom of heaven first trades in many pearls, until he arrives at one precious one. And perhaps in that he said, "Thy emissions are a paradise with the fruit of apple-trees," he indicates those f…
Song of Songs 1:12 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Since the friends of the bridegroom, while the king is reposing on his couch — for he has slept restfully as a lion, and a lion's whelp — had promised the bride that, until he should rise up, they would make likenesses of gold and silver, not having gold as the bridegroom does; and since in a manner, in other words, the bridegroom's passion was proclaimed: not unreasonably does the bride answer to these things, and she herself, understanding a certain dispensation of the passion, [says] to that which she had heard, We will make you likenesses of gold with studs of silver, while the king is on his couch, she says: My spikenard has given forth its fragrance. A little bundle of a droplet is my kinsman to me; he shall abide between my breasts. How, then, shall we fit to it what went before, While the king is on his couch, that which follows, My spikenard has given forth its fragrance? The Gospel says that there came a woman having an alabaster jar of costly ointment of spikenard — not that sinful woman, but a holy one, of whom now I speak. For I know that Luke spoke of the sinful woman; but Matthew and John and Mark spoke not of a sinful woman. There came, then, not that sinful woman, but a holy one, whose name too John inserted; for it was Mary who had the alabaster jar of costly ointment of spikenard, and she poured it over the head of Jesus. Then, when some were indignant at this — not all the disciples, but Judas alone, saying, This could have been sold for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor — the Master and Savior answered: The poor you have always with you; but me you have not always. For in doing this beforehand she has done it for the day of my burial. Therefore, wherever this Gospel shall be preached, what she has done shall also be told, in memory of her. In the figure, then, of this woman who now says, My spikenard has given forth its fragrance, that woman poured ointment over the head of the Lord; and you too, therefore, take up spikenard, that after you have drenched the head of Jesus with sweet fragrance, you may be able boldly to declare, My spikenard has given forth its fragrance, and to hear Jesus' answering word: Wherever this Gospel shall be preached in all the world, what she has done shall also be told in memory of her. Your deed too shall be proclaimed among all the nations. But when will you do this? If you have become as the Apostle, and have said, We are the good fragrance of Christ to God in every place, in those who are saved and in those who perish: your good works are spikenard. But if you have sinned, your sins will reek with a foul odor. For the penitent says: My scars have festered and are corrupted because of my foolishness. It was not of spikenard that the Holy Spirit purposed now to speak, nor of that ointment which we behold with our eyes, that the Evangelist writes, but of spiritual spikenard, of the spikenard which has given forth its fragrance.
Song of Songs 1:13 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
A little bundle of stacte — that is, of a drop, or a droplet — is my kinsman to me. A drop of ointment, cassia, galbanum, we read in Exodus, by the Lord's command, compounded into the incense, that is, into the priestly anointing. If, then, you see my Savior descending to earthly and lowly things, you will see how, by great power and divine majesty, a certain small droplet has flowed down to us. Of this droplet the Prophet too sang, saying: And it shall come to pass, from the droplet of this people Jacob shall be gathered together. And just as, according to another sense, a stone was cut from the mountain without hands — the coming of our Savior in the flesh — for it was not the whole mountain that descended to earth, nor could human frailty contain the greatness of the whole mountain, but a stone from the mountain, a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, descended into the world: so, according to another understanding, he is called a droplet. For it was fitting that (since all the nations are reckoned as a droplet of the bucket) he who for the salvation of all became all things should become also a droplet, to set them free. For what did he not become for our salvation? We are empty; and he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. We are a foolish people and not wise; and he became the foolishness of preaching, that the foolishness of God might be made wiser than men. We are weak; the weakness of God was made stronger than men. Since, therefore, all the nations are reckoned as a droplet of the bucket, and as the turn of a balance, therefore he became a droplet, that through him a fragrance might come forth from our garments, according to that word: Myrrh, and a droplet, and cassia from your garments, from the ivory houses, whence the daughters of kings have made you glad in your honor — which in the forty-fourth psalm are said to the bride. A little bundle of a droplet is my kinsman to me. Let us consider what the Church means by the name of "kinsman," she who speaks this of her kinsman: we are gathered from the Gentiles. Our Savior is the son of her sister, that is, of the Synagogue. For there are two sisters, the Church and the Synagogue; the Savior therefore, as we have said, being the son of the Synagogue her sister, the husband of the Church, the bridegroom of the Church, is the kinsman of his bride: A little bundle of a droplet is my kinsman to me; he shall abide between my breasts. Who is so blessed as to have as a guest, in the ruling part of the heart, between the breasts, in his own bosom, the Word of God? For this is what is sung: He shall abide between my breasts. If your breasts have not been broken, the divine word shall dwell between them. It was fitting, in a nuptial song, that "breasts" should be named rather than "breast." And it is evident why, for the exposition of that which says, He shall abide between my breasts, this has been taken up: if your breasts have not been broken, between your breasts shall abide the divine word. Whence did I say, "if your breasts have not been broken"? From Ezekiel. For in that place where Jerusalem is rebuked by the Lord's voice, among other things it is said to her: In Egypt your breasts were broken. The breasts of the chaste are not broken; but the breasts of harlots hang wrinkled with loose skin. The breasts of the pure are upright, and swelling with virginal vigor. They receive the word of the bridegroom, and say: He shall abide between my breasts.
Song of Songs 1:13 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
These, as it seems, are still the words of the bride speaking to the young maidens. Earlier she had said that her nard had given its fragrance to the bridegroom, and that through the ointment with which she had anointed him she had received back the fragrance of its scent; but now she says: My kinsman is fragrant to me with a drop, and this drop not diffused nor scattered at random, but bound together and compressed, so that, namely, the odor of its very sweetness may be rendered thicker and stronger. And this one, she says, though he be of such a kind, tarries and abides in the midst of my breasts, and makes his rest and his dwelling in the place of my bosom. But since the bride has now for the first time called him her kinsman, and frequently uses the designation of this name through nearly the whole text of the little book, I think it worthwhile that we first inquire into the cause of this appellation, and expound what he is called a kinsman, or from what. A "kinsman" (fraternus) is the term for a brother's son. Let us first inquire who is the bride's brother, whose son this one is held to be. See whether we can say that the bride is indeed the Church from the Gentiles, but her brother the former people, and a brother, as the matter indicates, who is the elder. Since therefore Christ according to the flesh is born from that people, on this account he is called by the Church of the Gentiles the son of her brother. So then, when she says: My kinsman is to me a bundle of a drop, she indicates the sacrament of his bodily nativity. For in a certain way the body seems to be a binding and a kind of bond of the soul, which as a bundle of the drop is bound fast to Christ by the divine power and sweetness. But if the things that have been said are referred to each individual soul, the binding of the drop is understood as the compacting of the doctrines of continence and the knottedness of the divine sentences. For the reasons of the faith are interwoven with one another and bound fast by the bonds of truth. Finally, he says too that every vessel that is bound is clean, but that unclean which shall have been loosed and not tied. Of this thing this was the figure, that Christ, in whom there was never any uncleanness of sin, is called a bundle of a drop. And therefore the soul ought not to touch anything loosened, and which is not supported by reason and bound fast by the truth of doctrines, lest it become unclean. For whoever shall touch what is unclean will be unclean according to the law. For an irrational sense, alien from the wisdom of God, will touch him and will make him unclean. But see whether perhaps we can take the Son of God in the flesh to be called a drop, and named as something short and small, just as Daniel says of him: A little stone cut from the mountain without hands, and made after these things a great mountain. Or as in the little book of the twelve prophets it is likewise said that there shall be a drop which shall gather the people together. For it is thus written in the prophets: And it shall be, out of a drop of this people Jacob shall be gathered and gathered together. For it was fitting that he who was coming to gather together not only Jacob but also all the nations — which, as the prophet says, are reckoned as a drop from a bucket — emptying himself of the form of divinity, should himself become as it were a drop, and thus come to gather together the drop of the nations, the drop likewise of the remnants of Jacob. But also in the forty-fourth psalm it is said to the beloved, to whom also the psalm itself is ascribed: Myrrh and drop and cassia from thy garments. From the garments therefore of the Word of God, which is the teaching of wisdom, there proceeds myrrh, the token, that is, of the death undertaken for the human race. The drop, as we said above, is the divesting of the form of divinity, the condescension of the servile form assumed. Cassia too, since that kind of herb is said to be nourished and to g…
Song of Songs 1:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
As far as concerns the explanation of the letter itself, there is something ambiguous in what it says: "A cluster of henna is to me as a kinsman"; for a flowering vine is also called henna, since it too bears a certain flowering fruit put forth in the manner of a blossoming grape. But the words seem to refer rather to the fruit of the vine, since mention has been made of the vineyards of Engedi. Now Engedi is a district of the land of Judaea, flourishing not so much in vineyards as in balsams. This, then, will be the historical sense of the bride speaking to the maidens, so that she is understood to be saying, first indeed: "My nard renders to me the fragrance of my bridegroom." Second: "My kinsman has become to me a bundle of myrrh lingering between my breasts." Third: "A cluster of henna from the vineyards of Engedi, surpassing everything that there is among fragrances and flowers of sweetness"; namely, that the maidens hearing these things may be roused more and more toward love and affection for the bridegroom. And she names them one by one and in order — first her nard, then the myrrh, and after these also the cluster of henna — so that through these she may teach certain steps and advances of love. But let us now see what the spiritual understanding holds. For if this which is called a cluster is to be referred to the fruit of the vine — just as we receive the Word of God as wisdom and power and the treasure of knowledge, and many other things, so also is he called the true vine. As therefore in those in whom wisdom and knowledge are brought about, not suddenly, but through certain advances and steps, according to the zeal and intention and faith of those who share in him whether in wisdom, or in knowledge, or in virtue, he renders them wise and knowing and vigorous in virtues; so also in those in whom the true vine is brought about, he does not suddenly produce for them ripe and sweet clusters, nor is there suddenly made for them the wine that is sweet and gladdens the heart of man, but first he produces for them only the sweetness of fragrance in the blossom. This cluster is recorded to be flowering in the vineyards of Engedi, so that the grace of its fragrance may be sent into the beginnings of the soul, that after these things it may be able to endure the bitterness of tribulations and temptations which are stirred up for those who believe on account of the Word of God; and so at last he offers the sweetness of its ripeness, until he leads them to the winepresses where the blood of the grape is poured out, the blood of the new testament which is drunk on the feast day in the upper rooms, where the great couch is prepared. So then, through these individual advances of steps must they proceed who, initiated through the sacrament of the vine and the cluster of henna, are borne toward perfection, and strive to drink the cup of the new testament received from Jesus. But if the henna is to be taken as a tree of its own kind, whose fruit — indeed its flower — is said to possess not so much the sweetness of fragrance as also the power of warming and cherishing: without doubt there is taken that virtue of the bridegroom by which souls grow warm toward faith in him and love, which was touching those who said: "Was not our heart burning within us, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" Or certainly, since this cluster is said to be flowering from the vineyards of Engedi — and Engedi is interpreted as "the eye of my temptation" — if there is anyone who is able to have understanding of how the life of man upon earth is a temptation, and understands how one is snatched away from temptation in God, and who recognizes the character of his own temptation, so that it may be said of him that in all these things he did not sin with his lips before God: to such a one the Word of God becomes a cluster of henna from the vineyards of Engedi. It must be observed, however, that the words of the bride are so reported that both the nard and the…
Song of Songs 1:14 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
A cluster of cypress is my kinsman to me. The beginning is of the word, in the Word; and the beginning of cypress, that is, of flowering, is in the bud, whence she says: A cluster of cypress — that is, of flowering — is my kinsman to me. The cluster of cypress is not for all, but for those who are worthy of its flower. To others the grape is varied; to her alone who is black and beautiful he offers himself in the beauty of the flower. A cluster of cypress is my kinsman to me. She does not say simply, "A cluster of cypress is my kinsman," but with the addition, "to me," to teach that he is not a cluster of cypress to all. But let us see in what regions this cluster of the bride is. In the vineyards of Engedi, which is interpreted "eye of temptation." In the vineyards, then, of the eye of temptation, a cluster of cypress is my kinsman to me. The eye of temptation is in the present life. For we abide in temptation in this world; and human life upon earth is a temptation. While we are engaged in this light, we are in the vineyards of Engedi. But if afterward we deserve to be transplanted, we shall be transferred by our husbandman. And do not doubt that you can be transferred from the vineyards of Engedi to better places. Our husbandman has by frequent practice already become skilled at transferring the vine. For you brought a vine out of Egypt; you cast out the nations, and planted it. Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God. And these things which we have expounded, let the bride have spoken of the bridegroom, signifying her love, and the lodging of the coming bridegroom — how, between her breasts, and in the secret place of her heart, the coming bridegroom takes his rest. Again the bridegroom's word is directed to her, and he says:
Song of Songs 1:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:173
Our eyes [are not] such as the eyes of Christ's beautiful bride must be, of which eyes the bridegroom says, "Your eyes are doves." He is hinting, perhaps, at the perceptive power of spiritual people, because the Holy Spirit came upon the Lord as a dove, and the Lord is in each one. Nevertheless, even in our condition, we will not hesitate to examine the words of life that have been spoken, and to attempt to grasp their power which streams forth into him who has apprehended them with faith.
Song of Songs 1:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
Now for the second time the bridegroom joins with the bride in word and conversation. And in his first discourse he invited her to this, that she should come to know herself, telling her that she was indeed good among women, but that unless she came to know herself, she would suffer certain things. And, as one who has swiftly run to the recognition of herself by sense and understanding, he compares her to his horses, or to the cavalry, with which he overthrew the chariots of Pharaoh. At the same time he also compares her cheeks, on account of their remarkable modesty and the swiftness of her manner of life, to turtledoves, and her neck to the fillets of ornaments. But now he already professes her to be beautiful, and beautiful not as before merely among women, but as one who is near to himself; and he raises the title of her praise still higher, and affirms that she is beautiful not only when she is near to him, but also that, if it should happen to her to be absent, even so she is beautiful. For this is indicated in that, when he had said, "Behold, you are beautiful, my neighbor," he adds after this, absolutely and without any qualification, "Behold, you are beautiful." But in what went before he had not praised her sight, I believe because her spiritual understanding had not yet advanced to contemplation; now therefore he says, "Your eyes are doves'." Her great progress in this is shown, that she who before was called only beautiful among women is now called beautiful as one near to him, receiving without doubt the splendor of her comeliness from the bridegroom himself, so that, having once taken her beauty from him, even if it should befall her to suffer a little the bridegroom's absence, she nonetheless remains beautiful. But that her eyes are compared to doves — this surely comes about because she now understands the divine Scriptures not according to the letter but according to the spirit, and beholds in them the spiritual mysteries. For the dove is a token of the Holy Spirit. To understand the law and the prophets in a spiritual sense, then, this is to have the eyes of a dove. And here indeed her eyes are called doves' eyes, whereas in the Psalms a soul of this kind desires that the wings of a dove be given to her, so that she may be able to fly into the understanding of spiritual mysteries and to rest in the courts of wisdom. But also, if anyone can sleep — that is, be settled and rest in the midst of the lots, and understand the reason, and know the cause of the divine judgment — not only are the wings of a dove, by which she may fly amid spiritual understandings, promised to her, but wings covered with silver, that is, with the ornaments of word and reason. Her shoulder-blades too are said to become like gold, where the constancy of faith and the stability of the doctrines of the perfect is indicated. Therefore, if Christ is said to be the head, I think nothing seems absurd if the eyes also of those who according to the inner man understand spiritually and judge spiritually are said to be the Holy Spirit. And on this account perhaps in the law, just as a lamb was appointed, by whose sacrifice the people might be purified at the Pascha, so also doves were appointed, by which a man is purified upon entering this world. But to speak now of this too, and to discuss the qualities of the sacrifices, seems too long a digression, and by no means suited to the work proposed. Let it suffice, however, to have recalled these things, for what the present discourse contains: "Your eyes are doves'." As if he were saying: your eyes are spiritual, seeing spiritually, understanding spiritually. It can perhaps still be understood by a deeper mystery, that what he said, "Behold, you are beautiful, my neighbor," is understood to be said of the present age, because the Church is beautiful even here, when she is near to Christ and when she imitates Christ. But that he said again, "Behold, you are beautiful," can pertain to the age to come,…
Song of Songs 1:15 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves'. She says thus to the bridegroom: Behold, my kinsman is beautiful — she does not add, "and my love." But he, when he speaks to her, Behold, you are beautiful, adds, "and my love." But why does she not say, "Behold, he is beautiful, and near to me," but only, "Behold, he is beautiful"? Why does he say, not only, "You are beautiful," but "You are beautiful, my love"? If the bride be far from the bridegroom, she is not beautiful; she becomes beautiful then, when she is joined to the Word of God. And rightly is she now taught by the bridegroom to be near, and not to depart from his side. Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful. You begin indeed to be beautiful from this, that you are near to me. But after you have begun to be beautiful, even without the addition of "near," you are absolutely beautiful. Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful. Let us see also another praise of the beautiful one, that we too may strive to become the bride. Your eyes are doves'. He who has looked upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart: he does not have the eyes of a dove. But if anyone does not have the eyes of a dove, he enters, unhappy, the house of his brother, not keeping that which is enjoined in the Proverbs: Do not enter, unhappy one, into the house of your brother. (For that which the Seventy translated "unhappy," Aquila, expressing the Hebrew truth, rendered ἄγροικον.) But he who has the eyes of a dove sees rightly, and obtains mercy. For seeing rightly, he shall obtain mercy. And who sees rightly, except he who beholds with a chaste gaze and with pure eyes? Do not, then, understand me [to speak] only of these eyes of the flesh in what has been said — though to have understood it of these too is not useless — but, entering into the inner parts of your heart, and searching out with the mind those other eyes which are also enlightened by the commandment of God (for the commandment of God enlightens the eyes): shine forth in that, labor, strive, that you may holily understand all the things that have been said, and hear the like things from the Spirit who descended in the form of a dove — because "your eyes are doves'." If you understand the Law spiritually, your eyes are doves'. If you understand the Gospel as the Gospel wills to be understood and preached, you see Jesus healing every languor and infirmity, not only at that time when these things were done carnally, but healing today also; and not only descending then to men, but descending today also, and being present — for Behold, he says, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age — your eyes are doves'. Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves'. The bride, hearing these praises of herself, renders to the bridegroom a return in praises: not that she bestows on him by her proclamation what he does not have, but, understanding and beholding his beauty, she says:
Song of Songs 1:16 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Behold, you are beautiful, my kinsman; yes, comely. Our couch is shady. I seek the couch on which the bridegroom rests with the bride, and, unless I am mistaken, it is the human body. For that paralytic in the Gospel who lay on his couch — and was bidden by the Savior's voice, when his pallet had been taken up, to go into his house — before he was healed, was lying upon the weak body of his members, which afterward was made firm by the power of God. Thus, then, do I understand: Take up your pallet, and go into your house. For the Son of God had not descended from heavenly things to earthly for this, to give commands about little couches, and not to allow one rising from his sickness to depart without his little couch. Take up, he says, your pallet, and go into your house. And you too, therefore, healed by the Savior, take up your pallet, and go into your house, that when the bridegroom comes to you, his bride, and has reclined in it with you, you may say: Behold, my kinsman is the bridegroom; yes, comely. Our reclining is shady. Behold, my kinsman is beautiful: he is both beautiful and shady. For by day the sun shall not burn you, neither the moon by night.
Song of Songs 1:16 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
Now for the first time the bride seems to have looked more attentively upon the beauty of her bridegroom, and to have considered, with those eyes which were said to be a dove's, the splendor and comeliness of the Word of God. For in truth one cannot first perceive or recognize how great is the magnificence in the Word, unless one first receives eyes like a dove's, that is, spiritual understanding. But by the couch which she says she has in common with the bridegroom, there seems to me to be indicated this body of the soul, in which, while still set there, she has been held worthy to be taken up into fellowship with the Word of God. And she calls it shady, inasmuch as it is not dry but fruitful, and, as it were, wooded with the denseness of good work. But these things the bride says—the soul, that is, which already has a dove's eyes. Those, however, who merely believe the bridegroom, yet have not been able to perceive how great is the beauty in the Word of God, say: "And we saw him, and he had no comeliness nor beauty, but his form was unsightly and wanting beyond the sons of men." But she who has profited well and has surpassed the rank of the maidens and the eighty concubines and the sixty queens, that soul can say: "Behold, you are comely, my kinsman, and indeed beautiful." But also, if, while still set in the body, I understand the denseness of the spiritual senses and the understanding of the divine Scriptures woven together with such frequent shade that the more scorching heat—which is wont to burn up and dry the fruits of many—cannot nevertheless darken me, nor can any force of temptations dry up the seed of faith in me, then I can say that "our couch is shady." But when she says "our couch," indicating, as it were, that the place of her own body is common to her with the bridegroom, understand it to be said after that likeness by which Paul also said that "our bodies are members of Christ." For when he says "our bodies," he shows the body to be, as it were, the bride's. But when he mentions "the members of Christ," he indicates that these same bodies are also the bridegroom's body. If, then, these bodies are shady, as we said above, filled, that is, with good works and heaped with the denseness of spiritual senses, of such as these it can be said: "By day the sun shall not burn you, nor the moon by night." For the sun of temptation does not scorch the just man who rests under the shade of the Word of God. For that sun which scorches the just man is not damnable; but rather that one which transfigures itself into an angel of light. Good, therefore, and comely is the kinsman called; and the more he can be gazed upon with spiritual eyes, so much the more beautiful and fair is he found; because not only will his own comeliness and beauty appear wondrous, but also to the one gazing and looking upon him there will arise a great splendor and a new and wondrous beauty of form, according to that which the Apostle, gazing upon the beauty of the Word of God, says: "For though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Rightly, therefore, does such a soul have its body as a couch in common with the Word. For the divine power reaches even to the grace of the body, when it places in it either the gift of chastity, or of continence, and the grace of the other good works. Consider indeed whether perhaps that body also which Jesus assumed can be named a couch common to him with the bride, since indeed through it the Church seems to be joined to Christ and to have been able to receive a share of the Word of God, according to which he is called the mediator of God and men, and according to which the Apostle says: "For in him we have access through faith into the hope of the glory of God."
Song of Songs 1:17 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
The beams of our houses are cedars. These are the words of the multitude. And they seem to me to be spoken by the men who are with the bridegroom, of whom the discourse spoke above — houses woven with beams of cedar, and roofed with cypresses. For instead of the thorn there shall come up the cypress, and instead of the nettle there shall come up the myrtle. Seeking, then, of what nature these woods are, and finding the cedar to be incorruptible and the cypress of the best fragrance, labor you too so to roof your house, that of you too it may be said: The beams of our houses are cedars, and our rafters cypresses. After these things the bridegroom speaks.
Song of Songs 1:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
The bridegroom seems to be replying graciously to those things which had earlier been spoken by the bride, so as to teach her of what sort these shared dwellings are, and what kind of framing material is found in them. This is what the literal narrative holds. But the Church seems to be described by Christ — the Church which is a spiritual house, the house of God, as Paul teaches when he says: "But if I tarry long, that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." If, then, the Church is the house of God, since all things that the Father has are the Son's, the Church is the house of the Son of God. But frequently they are also called "Churches" in the plural, as he says in that place: "We have no such custom, neither the Churches of God." And again, Paul writes to the Churches of Galatia, and John to the seven Churches. So then, whether it be the Church or the Churches, they are the house of the bridegroom and of the bride, or the house of the soul and of the Word, in which the rafters are of cedar. We read also of certain "cedars of God," over which the vine that was brought over from Egypt is said to have stretched out its shoots, or its branches, as it says in the Psalms: "Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God." Evidently, therefore, through these words certain persons in the Church are named "cedars of God." When, then, the bridegroom says, "The rafters of our houses are cedars," we ought to understand that those who roof over the Church are cedars of God, and that some of these, the stronger ones, are called beams. And I think that fittingly those who administer the episcopate well in the Church can be called beams, by which the whole building is supported and covered, whether from the ruin of the rains or from the burning heat of the sun. But in the second place after these, I think the presbyters are called rafters; and the beams indeed are called cypresses, in which there is both a more robust strength and a scent of sweetness, whereby he designates the bishop as both solid in works and fragrant in the grace of doctrine. But similarly he also called the rafters cedars, so that by this he might indicate that the presbyters ought to be full of the virtue of incorruption and of the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ.
Song of Songs 2:1-2 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. For my sake, who was in the valley, he descended into the valley; and coming into the valley, he becomes a lily. Instead of the tree of life, which was planted in the paradise of God, he became the flower of the whole field, that is, of the whole world and of the entire earth. For what can so be the flower of the world as the name of Christ? His name is ointment poured out. Otherwise: by himself it is said, I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. And these things indeed of himself. Then, praising the bride, he says: As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the lily cannot be compared to the thorns among which it always springs up, in the same way my love, above all the daughters, is a lily among thorns. Hearing this, the bride renders a return to the bridegroom, and, perceiving his sweetness too, she breaks forth into the voice of one who praises. For the fragrance of ointments, though it breathe sweetly and soothe the sense with its odor, is nevertheless not of such a kind as to be sweet to eat. But there is something which is of the best both in savor and in fragrance — that is, which delights the throat with sweetness and soothes the spirit with its scent. Such is the apple; its nature is such that it possesses both in itself. Therefore, wishing to praise not only the graciousness of the bridegroom's word, but also its sweetness, the bride says:
Song of Songs 2:1-2 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
He who is the Bridegroom and the Word and Wisdom seems to be speaking of himself and of the Bride to his friends and companions. But according to the order of the exposition we have set forth, Christ is to be understood as speaking these things about the Church, and to be saying that he himself is the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys. A field is the term for a level stretch of earth, to which cultivation is applied and which is tilled by farmers. The valleys, on the other hand, indicate places that are rather rocky and untilled. But we can also understand that field to be the people that was cultivated through the prophets and the law, and the rocky and untilled valley to be the place of the Gentiles. This Bridegroom, then, was a flower among the people of the Jews; but since the law brought no one to perfection, for that reason the Word of God could not in that people advance to flower and arrive at the perfection of its fruits. Yet in that valley of the Gentiles he became a lily. But what kind of lily? Such, without doubt, as he himself in the Gospels says the heavenly Father clothes. And: "Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these." So the Bridegroom becomes a lily in this valley, in that the heavenly Father clothed him with such a garment of flesh as not even Solomon in all his glory could possess. For Solomon did not have flesh that was immaculate and in no way whatever subject to sin, apart from the desire of a man and the embrace of a woman. But he also seems to show the reason why he who had been a flower in the field willed to be a lily in the valleys. For although he had been a flower in the field for a long time, he says that no flower came forth from that field itself in imitation and likeness of himself. But once he had become a lily in the valleys, straightway by his near imitation there is likewise made a lily; so that it was worth the effort, since he himself became a lily, that also what is near to him — that is, each soul that draws near to him and follows his example and imitation — should become a lily. Therefore, when he says, "As a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my beloved in the midst of the daughters," we shall take it as said of the Church of the Gentiles, either because she has emerged, as it were from thorns, out of the midst of the unfaithful and unbelieving, or because she is said to be set in the midst of thorns on account of the bitings of heretics clamoring around her. And this will seem the more likely from the fact that he says: "So is my beloved in the midst of the daughters." For he would not have called those souls "daughters" who had never at all come to believe. All heretics, therefore, first come to belief, and after this they turn aside from the way of faith and from the truth of the doctrines. Just as the apostle John also says in his Epistle: "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us." But we can also refer this to each individual soul, and say that for the soul which, on account of its simplicity and its levelness or evenness, can be called a field, the Word of God becomes a flower and teaches the beginnings of good works. But for those who now seek deeper things and search out things more profound, as it were in the valleys, he becomes a lily, whether on account of the brightness of chastity or the splendor of wisdom, so that they too may become lilies bursting forth from the midst of thorns — that is, fleeing the thoughts and worldly cares that in the Gospel are compared to thorns.
Song of Songs 2:3 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons. All woods, all trees, in comparison with the word of God, are reckoned barren thickets. Compared to Christ, everything you may name is a wild wood; and all things are unfruitful. For what things, compared to him, can be called fruitful? Even the trees which seemed to be bowed down with fruits, in comparison with his coming, are shown to be unfruitful. Therefore, as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my kinsman among the sons. Under his shadow I desired, and I sat. How beautifully she says, not "under his shadow I desire," but "under his shadow I desired"; and not "I sit," but "I sat." For in the beginning we cannot hold proper converse with him; but in the beginning, so to speak, we enjoy a certain shadow of his majesty. Whence also it is read in the Prophets: Christ the Lord is the spirit of our countenance, to whom we said: Under his shadow we shall live among the nations; and we pass over from shadow to another shadow. For to those sitting in the region and shadow of death, a light has arisen for them. And we pass from the shadow of death to the shadow of life. Such are always the advances, that in the beginning one may desire at least to stand in the shadow of the virtues. I think that for this reason the nativity of Jesus too began from a shadow, and was completed not in shadow but in truth. The Holy Spirit, he says, shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. The nativity of Christ took its beginning from a shadow. And not only in Mary did his nativity begin from a shadow, but in you too, if you are worthy, the Word of God is born. See to it, then, that you can receive his shadow, and, when you have been made worthy of the shadow, there may come to you, so to speak, his body, from which the shadow is born. For he who is faithful in little will be faithful also in greater things. Under his shadow I desired, and I sat. You see that she did not always stand in the shadow, but passed thence to better things, saying: And his fruit is sweet in my throat. I, she says, desired to rest under his shadow; but after his shadow protected me, I was also satisfied with his fruit, and I say: And his fruit is sweet to my throat.
Song of Songs 2:3 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
It was fitting indeed that the bridegroom should speak also of himself, of what he was in the field, and also of what he was in the valleys; and of the bride, of who she was and of what sort she was held to be among the other daughters. But it was not fitting that the bride, in answering these things, should say anything of herself, but rather that she should be wholly moved toward admiration of the bridegroom and should cling to his praises. She therefore compares him to an apple tree. But lest, from the resemblance of the word, some of the simpler folk should think the apple tree (arbor mali) to be an evil tree and named from evil (malitia), let us say "the tree of meli," using indeed a Greek word, but one better known to any of the simpler Latin speakers than "mali." For it is better that we offend the grammarians than that we place some stumbling-block before the readers in the explanation of the truth. She compares him, then, to a meli tree, and his companions to the rest of the trees of the wood. But she says the bridegroom is so like this meli tree that she even says she longed to sit beneath his shadow, and she declares that his fruit has been made sweet to her in her throat. And she seems to speak these things to the young maidens, just as the bridegroom too spoke earlier to his companions. But let us now consider, according to the mystery, whom the bride calls "sons," among whom she asserts that the bridegroom excels, like a meli tree, the rest of the trees of the wood; and see whether we can, according to the things we expounded in a twofold way above concerning the daughters and the thorns, so here too understand that the "sons" are said to be either those who once were and are not, or the multitude of the heavenly ministers. For to all men in the beginning belongs that which is written: "I said: You are gods and all of you sons of the Most High." But a difference intervened through this which he says: "But you shall die as men, and shall fall like one of the princes." And this too has regard to that matter: "For who among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord? or who shall be likened to him among the sons of God?" As therefore the meli tree is among the rest of the trees of the wood, so is the bridegroom among the sons, having a fruit which excels all not only in taste but also in fragrance, and which refreshes two senses of the soul alike, that is, both taste and smell together. For with varied provisions Wisdom prepares her table for us. On it she not only sets the bread of life, but also sacrifices the flesh of the Word; and she not only mixes wine in her bowl, but also applies apples fragrant enough and sweet, which render sweetness not only in the mouth and on the lips, but, delivered to the inner throat, preserve their sweetness. And we can take the trees of the wood to be those angels who have been seen to have arisen as the authors and abettors of each heresy, so that the Church seems, comparing the sweetness of the doctrine of Christ to the harshness of the heretical dogmas and their barren and unfruitful teaching, to say: that the ecclesiastical dogmas, which are proclaimed in the Church of Christ, are indeed pleasant and sweet apples; but that the trees of the wood are those things which are affirmed by the various heretics. And of these unfruitful trees of the wood it will seem to be said, what is written in the Gospel: "Behold, now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire." The bride's kinsman, then, is like a meli tree in the Church of Christ; but the other heresiarchs, like the unfruitful trees of the wood, are by the divine judgment, as by an axe, to be cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore in the shadow of this meli tree the bride longs to abide — or the Church, as we said, in the protection of the Son of God, or the soul fleeing all the remaining doctrines and clinging to the one Word of God alone,…
Song of Songs 2:4 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
These are still the words of the bride, but they are directed, as I think, to the friends and intimates of the bridegroom, from whom she seems to ask that they bring her into the house of gladness, where wine is drunk and a banquet is prepared. For she who had already seen the royal chamber now desires also to enter the royal banquet and to enjoy the wine of gladness. We have already said above that the friends of the bridegroom are to be understood as the prophets and all who have ministered the word of God from the beginning of the world, to whom the Church of Christ, or the soul cleaving to the Word of God, may rightly say that they bring her into the house of wine, that is, where wisdom has mingled her wine in the mixing-bowl, and beseeches through her servants everyone foolish and lacking in sense, saying: "Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you." This is the house of wine, and the house of the banquet, in which banquet all who come from the east and the west shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. To this house and to this banquet the prophets lead the souls — those, at least, who hear and understand them. But so also do the holy angels and the heavenly powers who are sent in ministry, on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation. This is the wine to which are inscribed those psalms which are entitled "for the winepresses." This is the wine gathered from that vine which says: "I am the true vine"; which the heavenly Father, the husbandman, has pressed out. This is the wine which those branches brought forth, which remained in Jesus not only on earth but also in heaven. For thus do I hear that which is said, that "every branch which does not remain in me cannot bear fruit." For no one produces the fruit of this wine except him who remains in the word, and in wisdom, and in truth, and in justice, and in peace, and in all the virtues. This is the wine with which even to be inebriated is deemed desirable by the just and by every holy person. This wine, I think, Noah too was even then contemplating in the spirit when he is said to have been inebriated; and David, marveling at the cup of this banquet, says: "And your cup which inebriates, how excellent it is!" To this house of wine, therefore, the Church, or each soul desiring to enter into the things that are perfect, and to enjoy fully the doctrines of wisdom and the mysteries of knowledge, as with the sweetness of a banquet and the gladness of wine. It must indeed be known that, just as there is this wine which, pressed from the doctrines of truth, is mingled in the mixing-bowl of wisdom, so also there is a contrary wine, when sinners are wickedly inebriated, and those who receive the pernicious doctrines of false knowledge. Concerning whom Solomon says in Proverbs: "But these eat the food of impiety, and are inebriated with the wine of iniquity." Concerning this same wine of iniquity we also read written thus in Deuteronomy: "From the vine of the Sodomites is their vine, and their branch from Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, and their cluster is one of bitterness for them; the fury of dragons is their wine, and the incurable fury of asps." But that wine which proceeds from the true vine is always new. For always, through the advances of those who learn, the recognition of divine knowledge and wisdom is renewed. And therefore Jesus said to his disciples that "I will drink that new wine with you in the kingdom of my Father." For the recognition of secret things and the revelation of hidden things is always renewed through the wisdom of God, not only to men, but also to the angels and the heavenly powers.
Song of Songs 2:4 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Bring me into the house of wine. The bridegroom stood outside, and was received by the bride; for he rested between her breasts. The neighboring maidens are not such as to deserve to have the bridegroom for a guest. To the multitude he speaks outside, in parables. How I fear that perhaps we many are the maidens! Bring me into the house of wine. Why do I remain so long outside? Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If anyone opens to me, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me. Bring me in. And now the divine word says the same: behold, Christ speaks, "Bring me in." To you catechumens also he speaks, "Bring me in" — not simply into the house, but into the house of wine. Let your soul be filled with the wine of gladness, with the wine of the Holy Spirit. And so bring into your house the bridegroom, the Word, Wisdom, Truth. But it can also be said to those who are not yet perfect: Bring me into the house of wine. Set love in order within me. Elegantly he said, "set in order." For the love of very many is disordered: what they ought to love in the first place, they love in the second; what in the second, they love in the first; what they ought to love fourth, they love third; and again the third in the fourth place; and in most people the order of love is perverse. But the love of the saints is well-ordered. To bring this to understanding — what is said, "set love in order within me" — I wish to repeat some examples. The divine word wills you to love father, son, daughter; the divine word wills you to love Christ. Nor does it say to you, "Do not love your children, do not be joined in love to your parents." But what does it say? "Do not have a disordered love; do not love first father or mother, and then me; do not be held by the love of sons and daughters more than by love of me." He who loves father or mother above me is not worthy of me; he who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me. Recall your conscience concerning your affection for father, mother, or brother, and consider what love you have toward the word of God and of Jesus: at once you will detect that you love son and daughter more than the Word, that you love your parents more than Christ. Who, do you think, so advances among us, that he holds the love of the word of God chief and first among all, and puts his children in the second place? In the same way, love your wife. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but loves it as flesh. And the two, he says, shall be in one flesh — and not in one spirit. Love God also; but love him not as flesh and blood, but as spirit. For he who cleaves to God is one spirit. Therefore love is well-ordered in the perfect. And that after God there may be set an order even among ourselves: the first commandment is that we love our parents; the second, that we love our children; the third, that we love our household. But if the son is bad, and the servant good, let the servant be placed in the love due a son. And so it will come about that the love of the saints is well-ordered. Our Master and Lord too, in the Gospel, establishing precepts about love, attached to the love of each one something proper, and gave the understanding of order to those who can hear the Scripture saying, "Set love in order within me." You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself — not the neighbor with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and with all the mind. Again, he says: Love your enemies — and he did not add, "with all the heart." The divine word is not disordered, nor does it command impossible things, nor say, "Love your enemies as yourselves," but only, "Love your enemies"; it is enough for them that we love them and do not hold them in hatred. But the neighbor, as yourself. And God, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and with all the strength. If you…
Song of Songs 2:5 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
In the Greek, indeed, it reads: "Strengthen me with myrrhs"; and by naming "myrrh" a certain kind of tree, which the Latins, supposing it to be so called, rendered as "myrrha," they interpreted it as "perfumes." The sequence of the discourse, then, is of this sort: after the bride had heard the words from the mouth of the bridegroom himself, and had entered the chamber of the king, and the house of wine and the place of the banquet and of wisdom, and had beheld therein the victims and the mixing-bowl blended with his sacred mysteries, then, as if stupefied in admiration of all these things, and wounded, she nonetheless asks of these same friends and companions of the bridegroom that she be strengthened, and, as though fainting, be supported, leaning a little upon the myrrh-tree or the ash-tree. For, struck by the wound of love, she seeks out the solace of trees and of woodlands. These things according to the letter. But that we may be able to pursue from these the spiritual understanding, we have need of that grace which Solomon himself deserved to obtain from God, who learned the natures of all the roots and trees and shrubs that are God's, so that we too might know both what the property and what the nature of the myrrh-tree is, from which a spiritual exposition may fittingly be drawn. Now this is the only thing that could reach us concerning the knowledge of this tree: that it has a sweet fragrance only, yet bears no fruit. But the ash-tree is known to all as one that not only bears fruit, but bears fruit most sweet and most agreeable. All men, therefore, are called trees, whether good or evil, and fruitful or unfruitful, as the Lord also says in the Gospel: "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad"; and: "Every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire." Three distinctions, then, seem to exist among men. There are certain ones who bear no fruit at all, and others who do bear fruit. But among those who bear fruit, the fruits are either bad or good. Here, therefore, the bride, that is, the Church of Christ, asks to be strengthened, and indeed to be made to recline upon a single ash-tree bearing good fruits: and rightly and fittingly. For upon these the Church is strengthened and surrounded, namely upon those who bear fruit and grow in good works. But what does it mean that she wishes to be strengthened among the myrrhs, that is, among unfruitful trees that delight in fragrance alone? I think that those who delight in fragrance alone, and do not yet bear the fruits of faith, are those whom Paul names in writing to the Corinthians, whom he calls: "Those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and of ours." Insofar, then, as they call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, they have within themselves a certain sweetness of fragrance from the very invocation of the name. But insofar as they do not approach the faith with all confidence and freedom, they bear no fruits of faith. In this passage we may understand the catechumens of the Church, upon whom the churches are in some part strengthened. For they too have within themselves no little confidence and very much hope that they also may one day become fruit-bearing trees and be planted in the paradise of God by the Father himself, the husbandman. For it is he who plants trees of this sort in the Church of Christ, which is the paradise of delights: as the Lord also says, "Every planting which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up." The Church, therefore, is surrounded among the ash-trees and rests upon them. And what ash-trees are those souls to be reckoned which are daily renewed unto the image of him who created them. For because through their renewal the sons of God restore the image, deservedly they too are called ash-trees, since their bridegroom himself was also said above to be "as an ash-tree among the trees of the wood." And do not wonder if…
Song of Songs 2:6 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
This is indeed the description of a love-drama hastening toward the marriage of bridegroom and bride, and it runs its course, as it were, in rather more openly bodily terms of the body. But turn yourself more swiftly to the life-giving Spirit, and, fleeing from bodily terms, look closely at what the left hand of the Word of God may be, what the right hand, and also what the head of his bride — that is, of the perfect soul, or of the Church — and do not let a carnal and passible understanding sweep you away. For here this is the right hand and left hand of the bridegroom, which is spoken of concerning Wisdom in the Proverbs, where it says: "For length of life is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and glory." And just as here you will not therefore suppose Wisdom to be some woman because she seems to be called by a feminine name, so neither in this case, because the Word of God as bridegroom is spoken of in the masculine gender, ought you to understand his left hand or his right hand in a bodily way, or to perceive the embraces of the bride according to the feminine gender of the "soul"; but the Word of God — although among the Greeks it is uttered in the masculine, and among us in the neuter gender — is nevertheless to be conceived, in these matters of which we speak, as being above the masculine and neuter and feminine gender, and above absolutely everything that has regard to this: and not only the Word of God, but also his Church, and the perfect soul, which is likewise named the bride. For so also the Apostle says: "For in Christ there is neither male nor female, but we are all one in him." Now these things are set down, on account of men who cannot hear otherwise except by these words which are in common use, after the manner of human speech in the divine Scripture: so that we may hear them indeed by known and customary words, yet may understand them with that meaning which is worthy of divine and incorporeal realities. For just as he who says that he is a lover of the beauty of wisdom shows this — that he has transferred the natural affection of love which is in him to the pursuits of wisdom — so also here the bride, whether the soul or the Church, demands that her bridegroom, who is the Word of God, may with his left hand support her head, and with his right hand embrace and hold fast all the rest of her body. Now the left hand is that in which Wisdom is said to contain riches and glory. But what riches has the Church, and what glory, except those which she has received from him who, though he was rich, was made poor, that by his poverty the Church might be made rich? And what is the glory? That, without doubt, of which he says: "Father, glorify thy Son" — designating, without doubt, the glory of the Passion. Therefore faith in the Passion of Christ is the glory and riches of the Church, which are contained in his left hand. And the left hand of the Word of God I think ought to be understood in this way: since indeed there are in him certain dispensations enacted before the Incarnation, and there are also some enacted through the Incarnation. That part of the Word of God which was accomplished in the dispensations before the assumption of flesh can be seen as the right hand; but this which was accomplished through the Incarnation may be called the left hand. Whence too the left hand is said to have riches and glory. For through the Incarnation he sought riches and glory — namely, the salvation of all. But in the right hand is said to be length of life: by which, without doubt, is indicated that part of him which in the beginning was with God, God the Word — its everlastingness. This left hand, then, the Church, whose head is Christ, desires to have under her head, and to have her head fortified by faith in his Incarnation; but to be embraced by his right hand — that is, to acknowledge and to be instructed in those things which, even before the time of this dispensation carried out through the flesh, are h…
Song of Songs 2:7 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
The bride still speaks to the young maidens, urging them and exhorting them, indeed even adjuring them by those things which she knows to be dear and lovely to them, so that if perhaps they have begun to lift up love — which lies, as it were, dormant within them — and to rouse it, being still asleep among them, they may lift it up and rouse it up only so far as the bridegroom shall will, and may do nothing in it less than his will allows. For this is the perfection of the loving bride: that she wills that nothing be done by anyone contrary to the mind and will of him whom she loves. And that they may do this neither negligently nor sluggishly, they are adjured by the powers of the field — that is, by the seedlings and shrubs that are in the field — and by its strengths, doubtless by the things that have been sown in it. In such an order and such a composition of words is the text of the historical drama set forth. Now, then, let us seek out what secret it conceals within. Every soul is, above all, a daughter of Jerusalem, one that has a certain field of its own, which has been conferred upon it by a certain secret allotment of merits through Jesus. Such was also that field of Jacob, by whose sweetness the patriarch Isaac, moved, said in mystical utterances: "Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field, which the Lord has blessed." Each soul, therefore, as we have said, has its own field; for so also is its manner of life, which is its field. In this field the soul which is loving and zealous for the Word labors much and strives to plant good perceptions, and to cultivate all the virtues of the mind — and not only the virtues of the mind, but also the strengths of works, by which, namely, the ministries of the commandments may be fulfilled. There is therefore, as we have said, to each soul its own field which it cultivates and plants and sows according to those things which we have said. But there is also of all the daughters of Jerusalem together one certain and common field, of which Paul says: "You are God's husbandry." Let us take this field to be the common exercise of ecclesiastical faith and manner of life, in which it is certain that there are heavenly powers, the strengths of spiritual graces. For each single soul which is here now called a daughter of Jerusalem, knowing that it has for its mother the heavenly Jerusalem, must needs contribute something toward the cultivation of this field, and desire that it be made worthy of a heavenly possession. In the powers, then, of this field, the Church declares that the love of Christ is lifted up and roused by the young maidens who have the beginnings of faith, and she says to them: If you lift up and rouse love until it please; that is, if you have now come to this, that you begin to be led not by the spirit of fear but by that of adoption, and have so advanced in this that perfect love within you casts out fear, and so that you lift up and exalt love within you and rouse it — then lift it up for so long, and exalt it for so long, as the son of love himself shall will, nay rather, as he himself shall will who is of God, love itself; lest perchance, thinking that the measures of human love suffice, you should do toward God, in the love of God, something less than is worthy. For this alone is the measure of love: that one be loved only as much as he himself wills; but the will of God is always the same, and is never changed. Never, therefore, is any change, or any end, admitted in the love of God. It is indeed to be noted that she did not say, if you receive love, but if you lift it up — as being something that is indeed within you, but lies and is not yet raised up. And she did not say, if you find, but if you rouse love — as being something that is indeed within, but lies and sleeps in them, until it finds one to awaken it. This same love, I believe, Paul too was awakening, then still sleeping in the disciples, when he said: "Rise up, you who sleep, and you…
Song of Songs 2:7 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the forces of the field. Of what does the bride adjure the daughters of Jerusalem? If you will raise up and awaken love. How long does love sleep in you, O daughters of Jerusalem, O maidens — love which does not sleep in me, because I am wounded with love? But in you, who are many, and maidens, and daughters of Jerusalem, the love of the bridegroom sleeps. I have adjured you, therefore, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you will raise up — and not only raise up, but also awaken — the love that is in you. The Creator of the universe, when he formed you, sowed in your hearts the seeds of love. But now, as it is said elsewhere, Justice slept in her, so love slumbers in you: according to what is also said elsewhere, "The bridegroom rested as a lion, and as a lion's whelp." Still, in the unbelieving and in those who are of a doubtful heart, the divine word slumbers; it is awake in the saints. It slumbers in those who are tossed by storms; but it is awakened by the voices of those who, while the bridegroom is awake, desire to be saved. At once, when he is awake, there is calm; at once the masses of the waves grow still, the contrary winds are rebuked, the raging of the billows is silent. When he sleeps, there is tempest, death, and despair. I adjure you, therefore, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the forces of the field. Of what field? Surely of that field of which it is said: the fragrance of a full field, which the Lord has blessed.
Song of Songs 2:8 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
It is fitting that we frequently remind ourselves that this little book is woven together in the manner of a drama. For the present little verse that we have set before us indicates something of this kind: that whereas the bride's speech had been addressed to the young maidens, the daughters of Jerusalem, suddenly, as though from afar, she perceived the voice of the bridegroom speaking with certain others, and, breaking off the speech she was making to the maidens, the bride turned her ear to the sound that had reached her, and said: The voice of my kinsman. Now understand the bridegroom to have been recognized by the bride at first, before he appeared to her eyes, by his voice alone; but after this to have appeared also to her sight, leaping upon certain mountains near to that place in which the bride was staying, and passing over the hills and mountains with certain great strides—or rather not so much strides as bounds—in the manner of a stag or a goat, and thus coming to his bride with all haste. But when he arrived at the house within which the bride was dwelling, understand that he stood for a little while behind the house, in such a way that he was indeed perceived to be present, yet did not yet wish to enter the house openly and evidently, but first, as under the guise of a lover, wished to gaze upon the bride through the windows. Understand further that certain nets and snares had been set near the bride's house, so that if perchance she herself, or any of her companions among the daughters of Jerusalem, should at some time go out, she might be caught. And it is certain that the bridegroom came to these nets: and since he could not be caught by them, but, being made stronger than they, he tore the nets themselves apart, and, treading upon them, passed over; and after he had accomplished this work, he says: Arise, come, my near one, my bride; and this he says in order that by the very deed he may show her how she ought with confidence to despise the nets which the enemy had stretched out for her, and not to seek out those which she had already seen to be torn asunder by him. And still further, to rouse the bride the more to hasten to him, he says to her: Since all the time that seemed burdensome has passed, and the winter which seemed to have arisen as a cause of trouble for her has departed, and the useless rains have gone away, and now the time of flowering has come, delay not at all to set out upon the journey of coming to me. For behold, the farmers too, because the springtime has now smiled forth, are tending the vines; and the sound now of other birds, now also the pleasing note of the turtledove in springtime, is heard. But the fig tree also, in the sure mildness of spring, has put forth its bud; and the vines indeed so little doubt the calm of the season that they now dare to bring forth their flowers and their fragrance. These things indeed let him say to the bride concerning the calm of the season, that she may dare with greater confidence to seize the journey of proceeding to the bridegroom. But he also describes to her the place in which he wishes her to rest with him; and he says that by the covering of a certain rock which is adjacent to the wall itself, or serves in place of a wall, a most shady place is formed; and to this place he wishes her to come, and, the covering being removed, there to behold her unveiled face, so that face to face she may become known to her bridegroom, and that the bridegroom may not only see her face unveiled and clear, but may there also hear her voice, being now assured both that her face is beautiful and that her voice is sweet and delightful. These things we have joined together by anticipation, lest we should seem to interrupt the order of the drama and the thread of the narrative. But by anticipating a little we have carried forward the order of the story up to that place where he says: For your voice is sweet, your face is comely. Now therefore, taking it up again, let u…
Song of Songs 2:8 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
If you will raise up and awaken love, until the voice of my kinsman will. Behold, here he comes, leaping over the mountains. This the Church still speaks, exhorting the maidens to prepare themselves for the coming of the bridegroom — if indeed he will to come, and to grant them his converse. While she is still speaking, therefore, the bridegroom comes, whom she points out with her finger, and says: Behold, here he comes, leaping over the mountains. Understand the bride to be the blessed and perfect soul, who sooner sees, sooner contemplates the coming of the Word, who perceives that wisdom has come to her, that love has come to her, and says to those who do not see: Behold, here he comes. Pray that I too may be able to say: Behold, here he comes. For if I can discourse of the word of God, in a manner I too say, Behold, here he comes. Whither? Surely not where the valley is, not where the lowly places are. Whither does he come? Leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. If you are a mountain, the word of God leaps upon you. If you cannot be a mountain, but are a hill, second to the mountain, he bounds over you. But how beautiful and fitting to the matters are the words. He leaps over the mountains, because they are greater; he bounds over the hills, because they are smaller. He does not bound over the mountains, he does not leap over the hills. Behold, here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.
Song of Songs 2:9 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
That the roe and the stag are reckoned among the clean animals is plainly shown by what is written in Deuteronomy, for it is written in this manner: "For these are the animals which you shall eat: the calf, and the lamb from the flocks, and the he-goat from among the goats, the stag and the roe, and the buffalo and the tragelaph, and the ibex, the camel and the leopard." But that a holy person is also compared to a stag is found in many passages of divine Scripture, as in the Psalm, where it says: "As the stag longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." Yet in the words which we have taken from Deuteronomy, this too seems worthy of no careless consideration: what dignity of order he observed in enumerating the clean animals, that first he should write of the calf, second the lamb, third the he-goat. But among those which, according to the same Moses, are not offered at the altar, he names first the stag, second the roe; and so after these he describes the remaining animals in order. The reason for these things will become clear and evident to those to whom a more abundant spiritual grace has been granted in the gift of knowledge through the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, since it now falls to us in the exposition of the present verse to speak of the stag and the roe, it seems fitting to gather together, so far as we are able, from the divine Scriptures the things that are related of these animals — of which the same Moses, when he was speaking of the flesh that might be eaten in every desire of the soul, not offered at the altar, said, "like the roe and the stag." And the twenty-eighth Psalm says something excellent, where, writing in order of the powers and efficacy of the voice of God, it says of the stag in this manner: "The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags," that is, making the stags perfect, "and he will reveal the thickets." For just as the voice of the Lord is said to cut through the flame of fire, and to shake the desert, so it is recorded to perfect the stags and to reveal the thickets. But in Job also we find it related thus of the stag, where the Lord, speaking to Job through the whirlwind and the cloud, says: "Or have you observed the bringing forth of the stags, or numbered their months full unto the birth, and loosed their pains, or nourished their young, or will you send forth their offspring without pains? Their young will break away, and be multiplied in birth; they will go out, and not return?" To these must also be joined those things which we read in the Proverbs in this manner: "The stag of friendships, and the foal of graces, speaks to you." These, for the present, are the things concerning the stag that could come to us as written. Which we have taken up for this purpose, that we may speak not in the teaching of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And therefore let us call upon God the Father of the Word, that he may manifest to us the mysteries of his Word, and remove our understanding from the teaching of human wisdom, and exalt and lift it up to the teaching of the Spirit, so that we may speak not those things which carnal hearing perceives, but those things which the will of the Holy Spirit contains. Paul the apostle teaches us that the invisible things of God are understood from the visible things, and that those things which are not seen are contemplated by reason and likeness from those things which are seen; showing by this that this visible world teaches concerning the invisible, and that this earthly arrangement contains certain patterns of the heavenly things; so that from these things which are below we may be able to ascend to those which are above, and from those things which we see on earth may perceive and understand those things which are held in the heavens. To some likeness of these, that through them the diversities might more easily be gathered and perceived, the Creator gave a likeness of the creatures w…
Song of Songs 2:9 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
My kinsman is like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bethel. These two animals are named more frequently in the Scriptures, and — that you may marvel the more — they are often set down joined together. And these are they, he says, which you shall eat, adding a little after, the roe and the hart. In the present book too the hart and the roe are named together. For in a manner these animals are akin and near to one another. The roe, that is, the dorcas, sees most sharply. The hart is a slayer of serpents. Who, do you think, is worthy among us, who according to the dignity of the place and of the mystery could set forth the full account? Let us pray the Lord to bestow on us understanding for the opening of the Scriptures, and that we may be able to say, How Jesus opened to us the Scriptures. What, then, do we say? That the dorcas — that is, the roe — according to the natural science of those who discourse of the natures of all animals, received its name from a power implanted in it. For from the fact that it sees more sharply — that is, ὀξυδερκέστερον — it is called dorcas. But the hart is the enemy and vanquisher of serpents, so that with the breath of its nostrils it draws them out of their caverns, and, the destructive power of their venom being overcome, delights in feeding upon them. Perhaps my Savior becomes a roe according to contemplation (θεωρία), a hart according to works. And what are these works? He himself slays serpents, when he cuts the throats of the opposing powers. Therefore I will say to him: You have crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water. My kinsman is like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of the house of God. For Bethel is interpreted "house of God." Not all mountains are the house of God, but those which are the mountains of the Church. For there are found also other mountains, raised up and rising against the knowledge of God — the mountains of the Egyptians, and of the foreigners. Do you wish to know that my kinsman is like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bethel? Be a mountain of the Church, a mountain of the house of God, and the bridegroom will come to you, like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel. She perceives that the bridegroom has drawn nearer, who before was moving about upon the mountains and hills; she likens him as bounding and leaping, and, recognizing that after these things he has come to her and to the other maidens, she says:
Song of Songs 2:10-12 — EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 31
Each one of the blessed will first be obliged to travel the narrow and hard way in winter to show what knowledge he has acquired for guiding his life, so that afterwards there may take place what is said in the Song of Songs to the bride when she has safely passed through the winter. For she says, "My beloved answers and says to me, 'Arise and come away, my love, my fair one, my dove; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.' " And you must keep in mind that you cannot hear "the winter is past" any other way than by entering the contest of this present winter with all your strength and might and main. And after the winter is past and the rain is over and gone, the flowers will appear that are planted in the house of the Lord and flourish in the courts of our God.
Song of Songs 2:10 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
These are the matters which, as we indicated above, seemed to us to present the greatest difficulty both in setting the order straight and in opening up their meaning. And this, I think, our present renewed investigation of the words will have rendered clearer. But the spiritual interpretation in these passages is not held to be so laborious and difficult. For the soul, the bride of the Word, which abides in the royal house — that is, in the Church — is taught by the Word of God, who is her Bridegroom, whatever things have been laid up and stored away within the royal hall and the king's chamber. In this house, which is the Church of the living God, she learns also the cellars of that wine which has been gathered from the holy winepresses — cellars of wine not only new but also old and sweet, which is the teaching of the law and the prophets. And when she has been sufficiently trained in these, she may receive into herself Him who was in the beginning with God, God the Word — yet He does not always remain with her, for this is not possible for human nature; but at one time she is visited by Him, and at another she is abandoned, so that she may desire Him the more. And when she is visited by the Word of God according to the sense of the verse set before us, He is said to come to her leaping over the mountains — that is, revealing to her the lofty and elevated meanings of heavenly knowledge, so that He arrives even at the building up of the Church, which is the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth, and He stands beside the wall, or behind the wall, so that He is neither wholly hidden nor entirely out in the open. For the Word of God, and the discourse of knowledge, does not appear set out in public and openly, nor to be trampled underfoot; but when it has been sought, it is found, and it is found not, as we said, placed in the open, but covered over, and lying hidden as it were behind a wall. But the soul which is said to be in the Church is not understood to be set within buildings of walls, but placed within the defenses of faith and the buildings of wisdom, and covered over by the lofty summits of charity. Therefore a good resolve, and faith in right doctrines, makes the soul to be in the house of the Church; certain members of which house are called either the chamber, or the house of wine, or others of this kind, according, that is, to the grades of graces and the varieties of spiritual gifts. So then the wall too is now a certain part of this house, which can signify the firmness of doctrines; beneath which the Bridegroom is said to stand, and in which He is so great and so lofty that He rises above the whole building, and looks upon the bride, that is, the soul; and not yet indeed does He show Himself open and wholly manifest to her, but, as it were looking through the nets, He urges her on and provokes her not to sit within, sluggish, but to go out to Him without; and to strive so that now she may see Him not through windows and nets, nor through a mirror in a riddle, but going forth outside, face to face. For now, since she cannot yet gaze upon Him thus, He therefore stands not before her, but behind her and behind the wall. And He leans in through the windows, which without doubt lay open for the receiving of light to illuminate the house. Through these, then, the discourse of God, leaning in and looking through, provokes the soul to rise up and to come to Him. But we may understand the windows to be the bodily senses, through which either death or life enters into the soul; for so does it signify when the prophet Jeremiah speaks concerning sinners, saying: "Death has climbed up through your windows." How does death climb up through the windows? If the eyes of a sinner should look upon a woman, and he should commit adultery with her in his heart, thus death has entered into the soul through the windows of the eyes. But also when someone receives an empty hearing, and especially of the false doctrines…
Song of Songs 2:10-13 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 4
What the sequence of the drama contains we have already described above; but now let us consider what either the Word of God is to be understood as saying to the soul that is worthy of it and suited to it, or what Christ is to be understood as saying to the Church. But meanwhile let the Word of God first speak to this beautiful and comely soul, to whom, through the bodily senses -- that is, through the gaze of reading and through the hearing of teaching -- he appeared as if through windows, and showed the loftiness of his greatness, so that in the passages above he spoke to her while leaning over, and calling her forth, that she might come outside, and, being now made to be beyond the bodily senses, might cease to be in the flesh, so that she might deservedly hear: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit." For the Word of God would not call her his neighbor in such a way unless he joined himself to her and became one spirit with him; nor would he call her beautiful unless he saw his image being renewed in her from day to day; and unless he saw her capable of receiving the Holy Spirit, who descended in the form of a dove upon Jesus in the Jordan, he would not say to her: "My dove." For she had conceived a love of the Word of God, and desired to come to him in swift flight, saying: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I shall fly, and be at rest?" I shall fly with the senses, I shall fly with the spiritual understandings, and I shall be at rest when I have laid hold of the treasures of his wisdom and knowledge. For I think that, just as those who receive the death of Christ, and mortify their members upon the earth, become sharers in the likeness of his death, so also those who receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and are sanctified by him, and filled with his gifts -- since he himself appeared in the form of a dove -- may themselves also become doves, that they may fly up from earthly and bodily places to the heavenly ones, lifted up on the wings of the Holy Spirit. But that this may be the fitting time in which these things can come to be, he consequently added: "For behold," he says, "the winter has passed, the rain has gone." For the soul is not joined and united to the Word of God before every winter of disturbances and every storm of vices has departed from her, so that she may no longer be tossed about, and carried around by every wind of doctrine. When, therefore, all these things have departed from the soul, and the tempest of desires has fled from her, then the flowers of the virtues will begin to bloom in her; then the time of pruning also will come to her mind, and if anything superfluous and less useful has been in her senses or understandings, it will be cut away, and she will be recalled to the buds of spiritual understanding. Then also she will hear the voice of the turtledove -- that voice, without doubt, of the wisdom which the dispenser of the word speaks among the perfect, the higher wisdom of God which is hidden in a mystery. For this is what the naming of the turtledove indicates. For this bird passes its life in more secret places, remote from the multitude, either loving the deserts of the mountains or the hidden recesses of the woods, always set far from the multitude, and a stranger to the crowds. But what else is there that befits the opportuneness and the loveliness of this time? "The fig tree," he says, "has put forth its shoots." Not yet, indeed, the fruits themselves of the Spirit, which are joy, charity, peace, and the rest, but nevertheless the spirit of man -- which in him is singularly named the fig tree -- already begins to bring forth their shoots. For just as generally in the Church the various trees are understood to be each of the souls of believers, of which it is said: "Every tree which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up." And again Paul, who says that he is a fellow worker of God in God's husbandry, himself also says: "I planted, Apollos watered." But t…
Song of Songs 2:10-12 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Rise up, come, my love, my beautiful one, my dove. Why does he say, "Rise up"? Why "make haste"? I for your sake bore the raging of the tempests; I received the billows which were owed to you. My soul was made sorrowful for you, even unto death. I rose from the dead, the stings of death being broken and the bonds of hell dissolved; therefore I say to you: Rise up, come, my love, my beautiful one, my dove: for behold, the winter is past, the rain is gone away, the flowers have appeared in the earth. I, rising from the dead, the tempest being stilled, have restored calm. And because, according to the dispensation of the flesh from the Virgin, and by the will of the Father, I grew, and advanced in wisdom and in age, the flowers have appeared in the earth; the time of pruning is at hand. The pruning is the remission of sins. For every branch, he says, abiding in me and bearing fruit, my Father cleanses, that it may bear greater fruit. Have fruits, and the former things which are unfruitful in you shall be taken away. For the time of pruning is at hand.
Song of Songs 2:11-12 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 53
But from the fig tree learn a parable: for when its branch has now become tender and puts forth leaves, know that summer is near; so also you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, at the door. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. How the comparison of the things that have been said can be understood from the fig tree, we shall expound according to our ability: lest perhaps this whole world and its consummation be likened to a fig tree, and each one of those setting out toward the blessed life, so as to see in himself the glorious and perfect coming of Christ's word, be held to be like a fig tree. For just as the fig tree in the time of winter indeed has in itself the life-giving power, but has it hidden and not sufficiently manifest, and afterward, when that very life-giving power begins to come forth into manifestation as the winter passes, out of its own vigor the branch is made tender, and it puts forth also leaves; and just as the tree in that very power has leaves and fruits, and first indeed there is the bud, then little by little it advances, and last of all also by the actual effect: so also the world and each one of those who are saved, at the end before the coming of Christ (as it were in winter) has in himself the life-giving power hidden, but with Christ breathing upon them, those branches which are tender and not hard-hearted, and the things that were hidden in them, advance into leaves as the summer draws on and show forth manifest fruits, which he who beholds them in Christ already sees. So too it is related in a certain parable of the Shepherd, if it please anyone to read that book also, that "the present age is winter for the just", who appear like their neighbors by nature, namely like the other dry trees, but in the opportune time appear in their fruits. But if in the first Psalm also there be some such thing, which is said concerning that blessed man, that "he shall be as the tree which is planted beside the running waters, which shall give its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall off, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper", do you also consider what is written. "The winter has passed, it has gone its way, the flowers have appeared in the land", as is written in the Song of Songs, from the time that Christ came, who introduced the mild season and made the wintry blasts to cease. And the fig tree, that is, the world, has now indeed made the tender branch, that is, the Church, to put forth leaves, while summer is at hand yet has not yet come; but when summer has come, it will more fully render fruits perfect and ripe for Christ, when according to Jeremiah the good figs are very good, gathered into baskets of good figs, from which Christ wishes to take and, as it were, to eat their sweetness. But far be it from us that, when Jesus comes to us and wishes to eat of the fig tree, no fruit should be found in it. For if no fruit be found in it, he will say to it at his coming, to the tree that has not shown fruits: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". And that fig tree can be understood as the people of the circumcision, to whom the Lord came hungering, and when he had not found "fruit in it" but only the appearance of life, he said: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". Wherefore at his coming "that fig tree was straightway withered", that is, that people; but that other fig tree, which (as regards the earlier times) was barren, which was already to be cut down because it had had no diligence applied to it by its own digger, when dung has begun to be put around it, will put forth fruits; the tree which had once drained the ground, but now will bring forth more abundant fruits even in return for the time gone by in which it was barren. And each one of us, after the winters of temptations and after the sorrow of dangers past, hastens to summer,…
Song of Songs 2:12 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. Not without cause is a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, taken in the sacrifices: for they are of equal worth, and it is never said separately, a pair only of pigeons, but a pair of turtledoves, and two young pigeons. The dove is the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit, when he speaks of great and more hidden mysteries, which many cannot receive, is signified by the name of the turtledove — that is, of that bird which dwells always on the ridges of the mountains and on the tops of the trees; but in the valleys, and in the things which reach even to men, the dove is taken. In short, the Savior, because he deigned to take on manhood, and came to earth, and there were then many sinners about the Jordan: therefore the Holy Spirit is not turned into a turtledove, but becomes a dove. Among us, because of the multitude of men, the tamer bird dwells. But the turtledove seems, for instance, to signify Moses and any one you please of the prophets who withdraw into the mountains and deserts, and there receive the words of God. The voice of the turtledove, then, has been heard in our land. The fig tree has put forth its green figs. From the fig tree learn the parable. When its branch has become tender, and has put forth leaves, know that summer is near. The word of God wishes to announce to us that, after the winter, after the storms, the harvest of souls has drawn near, and it says:
Song of Songs 2:13 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
The fig tree has put forth its green figs; the vines flower, they have given their fragrance. If the vines already burst into flower, the time will come, and there will be grapes. Rise up, come, my love, my beautiful one, my dove. These things which we have expounded above, the bridegroom speaks not while the maidens hear, but while the bride alone hears. But we wish now to hear his own word too, as he speaks to the bride.
Song of Songs 2:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 4
According to the order of the drama set forth, the bridegroom, who leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills had come to the bride, looking upon her and gazing through the windows, now in the second place says to her: Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove. But now he adds this also, in order to show her the place to which she ought to come, which place is set under the covering and shelter of the rock. And let this same place be not so much beside the wall as beside a certain outwork. Now it is called an "outwork" when, outside the walls that encircle the city, another wall is drawn, and there is a wall before the wall. Then next, as though for the sake of reverence the bride herself is covered over and veiled, the bridegroom himself asks that, coming to that place which he showed above — being, as it were, more secret — she may there, with the veil as it were thrown back, show him her face. And because out of much reverence the bride would be silent, the bridegroom at some point desires also to hear her voice, and to be delighted in her words, and he says that she should make her voice heard by him. It seems, however, that her face is not entirely unknown to him, nor is he ignorant of her voice, but that something has come between, in which he has neither seen her face nor heard her voice. Let this be the text of the drama set forth. To which this also is added, that the season of spring seems to be in progress, since flowers are recorded to have appeared in the earth, and the voice of the turtledove to sound, and the trees to have put forth their shoot. On account of this, as at an opportune time, he calls the bride forth to advance — she who undoubtedly had remained the whole winter within the enclosures of the house. But these things seem to me (so far as pertains to the historical narrative) to confer no benefit upon readers, nor at least to preserve any consequence of the narrative itself, such as we find in the other histories of Scripture. Hence it is necessary to transfer everything to the spiritual understanding. First, then, understand for me the winter of the soul, when it is still tossed by the waves of the passions, and beaten by the storms of the vices and by the harsh blasts of the malignant spirits. While she is set in these, the Word of God does not exhort her to go outside, but to gather herself within herself, and to be united on every side, and to be sheltered against the destructive blasts of the malignant spirits. Then no flowers of studies in the divine writings are with her, nor do the secrets of deeper wisdom and the hidden mysteries resound as it were through the voice of the turtledove. But neither does her sense of smell receive anything of grace as it were from the flowers of the vineyard, nor is her sight delighted as it were in the shoot of the fig tree; but it is enough that in the tempests of temptations she remain safe and fortified from the fall of sin. But if she obtains this, that she endure unharmed, the winter passes for her, and spring comes to her. For it is spring for her when rest is given to the soul, tranquillity to the mind. Then the Word of God comes to her, then it calls her to itself and exhorts her to go out, not only outside the house, but outside the city: that is, that she may come to be not only outside the vices of the flesh, but outside whatever is bodily and visible contained in the world. For we have already clearly shown above, figuratively in the law, what the city is. The soul, therefore, is called forth beyond the wall, and is led as far as the outwork, when, casting away and leaving behind those things which are seen and are temporal, she presses on toward those things which are not seen and are eternal. This journey, then, is shown to her as one to be made under the covering of the rock, not under the naked air, nor in such a way that she should suffer the burning of the sun, lest she become dark again, lest she say again, "the sun ha…
Song of Songs 2:14 — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS, HOMILY 2
Rise up, come, my love, my dove; and come, my dove, under the covering of the rock. Moses too is placed under the covering of the rock, that he may see the hinder parts of God under the covering of the outwork. First come to that which is before the wall, and afterward you will be able to enter where the wall of the rock is. Show me your face. Up to the present day like things are said to the bride. For she did not yet have the confidence to contemplate, with unveiled face, the glory of the Lord. But because she is now adorned and set in order, it is said to her: Show me your face. For her voice was not yet so sweet that she deserved to have it said to her, Make me hear your voice. When, then, did she learn to speak? Be silent, and hear, O Israel, and you shall know what the Lord speaks. And her voice was made sweet to the bridegroom, according to that prophetic word: Let my petition be sweet to him. Then the bridegroom declares to her: And make me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet. If you open your mouth to the Word of God, the bridegroom will say to you: Your voice is sweet, your aspect beautiful. Wherefore, rising up, let us beseech the Lord that we may be made worthy of the bridegroom's word, of the wisdom of Christ Jesus, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Song of Songs 2:15 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 4
According to the order of the drama the speaker has changed, for now the bridegroom no longer speaks to the bride, but to the companions, and to them he says that they should catch the little foxes that lie in wait for the vineyards, where they have first put forth their buds, and do not allow them to reach the flower. He commanded, therefore, that they be caught, taking counsel for the welfare and benefit of the vineyards. But these things, as we have begun to do, must be examined by spiritual exposition. And I think that if you consider these things concerning the soul which joins itself to the Word of God, the foxes ought to be understood as the opposing powers and the wickednesses of demons, which through depraved thoughts and perverse understanding destroy the flower of virtues in the soul and kill the fruit of faith. Therefore the foresight of the Word of God, who is the Lord of hosts, commands his angels who are sent for service, on behalf of those who receive the inheritance of salvation, that they catch from each soul thoughts of this kind sent in by the demons, so that, these being cast out, the souls may be able to bring forth the flower of virtue. And they catch the evil thoughts in this way: when they suggest to the mind that these are not from God, but are from the malignant spirit, and they give to the soul the discernment of spirits, so that it may understand which thought is according to God, and which is from the devil. But that you may know that there are thoughts which the devil sends into the hearts of men, see in the Gospel what is written: "When the devil," it says, "had put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him." There are, therefore, thoughts of this kind which are cast by the demons into the hearts of men. But because divine Providence is not lacking, lest perhaps through importunity of this kind the freedom of the will should be disturbed, and there be no just cause for judgment, therefore the care of men is entrusted to the kindly angels and friendly powers, so that when the deceivers, like foxes, begin to assail a man, they may lift him up with their right-hand helps. And therefore it is said: "Catch us the little foxes." Fittingly indeed he commands that they be caught and seized while they are still little. For while an evil thought is in its beginnings, it can easily be cast out of the heart. But if it is frequently repeated, and remains for a long time, it without doubt leads the soul to consent; and after consent, once it has been confirmed within the heart, it is certain that it tends toward the disposition of sin. While therefore it is in its beginnings, and is little, it ought to be caught and cast out, lest, if it should become grown and inveterate, it can then no longer be expelled. Finally, Judas too had the beginning of evil in the love of money, and this was for him the little fox. But when the Lord saw the soul of Judas, like a flowering vineyard, being harmed by this too, wishing to catch it and cast it out of him, he entrusted to him the money-bags, so that, possessing what he loved, he might cease from covetousness. But he, inasmuch as he had the freedom of his own will, did not embrace the wisdom of the physician, but gave himself up rather to that counsel by which his soul was being destroyed, than to that by which it was being healed. But if we understand these things of Christ and the Church, the discourse will seem to be directed to the teachers of the Church, and a charge to be laid upon them concerning the catching of the foxes that lay waste the vineyards. Now by "foxes" we may understand the perverse teachers of heretical doctrines, who by the cunning of their arguments seduce the hearts of the innocent, and lay waste the Lord's vineyard so that it may not flourish in the right faith. A precept, therefore, is given to the catholic teachers, that while these foxes are still small, and have not yet deceived many souls, but the depraved teaching is only at its begin…
Song of Songs 3:6 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 11
They also bring "frankincense," translated as "whitening," since they reject every dark condition, so that the words are fitting for them: "Who is she who comes up all white?" For in this way they will be able to bring praise to the house of the Lord, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any such thing which brings dirt on the church of Christ.
Song of Songs 4:5 — FRAGMENTS ON LUKE 186
And in the song of the bride, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, the neck, and breasts, are praised by the bridegroom. The bride is either the soul of man, which enters into marriage with Christ, or the church. The parts of the body are interpreted figuratively: if they are said of the soul, then they apply to its powers.
Song of Songs 5:12 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 3:8.4
In doves, the eyes are signified. For when it says, "doves over the abundance of the waters," it means this kind of bird when it comes to the waters. There it is accustomed to suffer the attacks of the hawk and to detect its hostile arrival in flight when it sees the shadow of its wings in the waters. And so it escapes the deceit of imminent peril by the keen vision of its eyes. For if you could thus look out for the snares of the devil and avoid them, you would offer "doves" as a sacrifice to God.
Song of Songs 6:8 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 11.2
Hence, then, it is that Scripture records that some of the Patriarchs had several wives at once, others took other wives when the former had died; so that this may be figuratively indicated, that certain men can exercise several virtues at once, while others do not begin those that follow before they have brought the former to perfection. Hence, finally, Solomon is reported to have had several wives at once.
Titus 1:9 — AGAINST CELSUS 3.48
When Paul describes the character of those who are called bishops and portrays what sort of a man a bishop ought to be, he instructs that he should be a teacher. He must be "able also to refute the adversaries," that by his wisdom he may restrain those who speak vainly and deceive souls. He prefers for the episcopate a man once married rather than one twice married, and a man unblamable rather than blameable, and a sober man rather than one not of this character, and a prudent man rather than one imprudent, and an orderly man rather than one even slightly disorderly. In the same way he most wishes that the one who is to be selected as bishop should be a teacher and capable of "refuting adversaries."
Titus 1:14 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5
But let us see what rule of understanding concerning these things Paul the Apostle has handed down to us. Writing to the Corinthians, he says in a certain place thus: "For we know that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ." You see how much Paul's tradition differs from the historical reading: what the Jews think a crossing of the sea, Paul calls baptism; what they reckon a cloud, Paul sets down as the Holy Spirit; and he wishes that to be understood as like this which the Lord commanded in the Gospels, saying: "unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdoms of heaven." And again the manna, which the Jews reckon food for the belly and satiety for the gullet, Paul names "spiritual food." And not only Paul, but the Lord Himself in the Gospel says concerning the same thing: "your fathers ate manna in the desert, and they died. But whoever shall eat of the bread which I give him shall not die for ever." And after this He says: "I am the bread which came down from heaven." Then, further, concerning "the rock that followed" Paul openly declares and says: "and the rock was Christ." What, then, must we do, who have received from Paul, the teacher of the Church, institutions of understanding of this kind? Does it not seem just that we should keep the rule of this kind handed down to us by a like example in the rest? Or shall we, as certain people wish, forsaking these things which so great and such an Apostle handed down, turn back again to "Jewish fables"?
Titus 1:14 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6.3
But the apostles, who were about to say, "If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing," and who were also about to say, "Let no one judge you in food, or in drink, or in participation of a feast day, or in new moons, or sabbaths, which are shadows of what will be," they are prohibited from having two tunics so that they might inwardly and completely repudiate observances of this kind according to the letter of the law and not concern the disciples "with Jewish myths" and "place a yoke on them which neither they nor their fathers would have been able to bear." But one is sufficient for them, and this one "inward." For they do not want this tunic of the law that is external but that which comes from above. For Jesus permits them to have one, and that one is "interior."
Titus 2:3 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.1
Therefore, he wants those for whom "the Lord is their portion" to be sober, to fast, to be vigilant at all times, but especially when they are present at the altar to pray to the Lord and to offer sacrifices in his presence. These commands preserve their force. They ought to be maintained in strict observance. The apostle confirms these as laws of the new covenant. In the same way, setting up the rules of life for the priests or the chief priests to this, he tells them that they ought not to be enslaved "to much wine" but to be "sober." Sobriety is the mother of virtues, drunkenness the mother of vices.
Titus 3:3 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5.1
Paul, the apostle from Israel, came to us as one "blameless according to the justice in the law." Yet he says "we ourselves," those from Israel, "were then deceitful, foolish." So not only those from the pagan nations were "deceitful," nor only sinners, but we "also," who have been taught by the law, were such before the coming of Christ.
TOB 2:6 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 26.3
The people once "was falling in the desert" and dying. Aaron the high priest came and "stood in the midst of those who were dying and those who were living," lest the devastation of death should advance further even upon the rest. Now too my true high priest, the Lord, has come and has interceded in the midst between the dying and the living — that is, between those who from among the Jews received his presence, and those who not only did not receive it, but slew themselves rather than him, saying: "his blood be upon us and upon our children!" Hence also "all the righteous blood which has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah whom they killed between the temple and the altar, shall be required of that generation" which said: "his blood be upon us and upon our children." These, then, are the portion of the people that is dead, because they keep neither the unleavened bread nor the feast days fittingly, but "their feast days are turned into mourning and their songs into lamentation"; who, even if they wished, could not celebrate the feast day in "that place which the Lord God has chosen." And we indeed did not say to them that "there shall be for you no portion" in this altar or in the inheritance of the Lord, but they of their own accord refused the true altar and the heavenly high priest, and were brought to such a pitch of unhappiness that they lost even the image and did not receive the truth, and therefore it is said to them: "behold, your house shall be left to you deserted." For the grace of the Holy Spirit has been transferred to the nations, the solemnities have been transferred to us, because there has passed over to us also a high priest not imaginary but true, "chosen according to the order of Melchizedek": and it is necessary that he offer true victims, that is, spiritual ones, among us, where the temple of God is built out of "living stones," "which is the church of the living God," and where the true Israel is.
TOB 3:1 — ON PRAYER 14:4
Regarding the second kind of prayer, see Daniel: "And Azarias standing up prayed in this manner and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire he said …". And Tobias: "And I began to pray with tears, saying, You are just, O Lord, and all your works are just and all your ways mercy and truth. And your judgments are true and just forever." And since the passage in Daniel has been obelized on the ground that it is not found in the Hebrew text, and those of the circumcision reject the book of Tobias as not being canonical, I shall quote the words of Anna from the first book of Kings: "And she prayed the Lord, shedding many tears. And she made a vow, saying, O Lord of hosts, if you will look down on the affliction of your servant," and so on. And in Habakkuk: "A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet with song. O Lord, I have heard your voice and was afraid. O Lord, I reflected on your works and was astonished. In the midst of two animals you will be known; in the approach of the years you will be recognized." The example just given illustrates very well the definition of prayer inasmuch as he who offers it unites it with praise of God. And again, in the book of Jonah: "Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish. And he said, I cried out of my affliction to the Lord my God, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell you heard the screams of my voice. And you have thrown me into the deep in the heart of the sea, and a flood has surrounded me."
TOB 3:16 — ON PRAYER 11:1
It is not only the high priest who prays with those who truly pray, but also the angels, who "have joy in heaven on one sinner who repents, more than on ninety-nine just who need no repentance, and the souls of the saints who have passed away. This is clear from the case of Raphael offering a reasonable sacrifice to God for Tobias and Sarah. For the Scripture says that after they had prayed, "the prayers of them both were heard in the sight of the glory of the great Raphael, and he was sent to heal them both." And Raphael, in revealing to them his mission to them both, enjoined on him as an angel by God, says, "When you prayed, you and your daughter-in-law Sarah, I offered the memory of your prayer before the Holy One"; and a little further on: "I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who hear the prayers of the saints and enter before the glory of the Holy One." And so, according to the word of Raphael, "prayer is good with fasting and alms and justice." And in the case of Jeremiah, who appears in the Maccabees as "admirable for age and glory" so that "an extraordinary dignity and greatness" was about him, and who "stretched forth his right hand and gave to Judas a sword of gold"21—to him another holy man who had died bore witness saying, "This is he who prays much for the people and for all the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God."
TOB 5:21 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:2.13
There is no other second goodness existing in the Son, except that which is in the Father. And therefore the Savior also rightly says in the Gospel, "There is none good except one only, God the Father." With such an expression it may be understood that the Son is not of a different goodness but of that only that exists in the Father. He is rightly termed the image of the Father because he proceeds from no other source but from that primal goodness. Otherwise there might appear to be in the Son a different goodness from that which is in the Father. Nor is there any dissimilarity or difference of goodness in the Son. Therefore, no one should imagine that there is a kind of blasphemy, as it were, in the words, "There is none good except one only, God the Father," as if someone thinks this denies that either the Son or the Holy Spirit is good. However, as we have already said, the primal goodness is to be understood as residing in God the Father, from whom both the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds, retaining within them, without any doubt, the nature of that goodness that is in the source from which they are derived. And if there is anything else in Scripture that is called good (angels, human beings, servants, treasure, or a good heart or a good tree27), the word good is not used with its proper meaning, since these uses refer to outward goodness, not an essential goodness.
TOB 11:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, FRAGMENT 66
It is necessary to observe the means of expression the Evangelist used as to whether he says to us that the eyes of the blind person were opened or that he saw. He expresses that he opened his eyes with the words, "It was the sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes." But it also says that he saw with the words, "He went and returned seeing." We will be able to find the difference between the expressions from Tobit. When white patches had formed over his eyes, it is not written that his eyes were later opened but that he saw. Of the rest, you will be able to observe one or the other aspect in the course of the entire episode related concerning the blind person, where one person asserts one thing and another that, with quite a bit of dissent from each other.
WIS 1:2 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 3
And although he who is clean of heart and he who is still bespattered with some filth may be in the same place, the one place will be able neither to harm nor to help anyone, because he who has a clean heart will see God, but he who is not such will not see that which is beheld by another. Something of this kind I think must also be understood concerning Christ, when He was seen in the body: that not all who saw Him were able to see Him. For they saw only His body, but according to that which Christ was, they could not see Him. The disciples, however, saw Him and contemplated the greatness of His divinity. On which account I think that to Philip too, who entreated and said: "show us the Father, and it is enough for us", the Savior replied: "am I so long a time with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he who sees me sees also the Father". For neither did Pilate, who was seeing Jesus, behold the Father, nor did the traitor Judas—since neither Pilate himself nor Judas saw Christ according to that which Christ was, nor did the multitude that pressed upon Him. Those alone saw Jesus whom He judged worthy of His sight. Let us therefore, we also, labor that even in the present God may appear to us—for the holy word of the Scriptures has promised: "because He is found by those who do not tempt Him, and He appears to those who are not unbelieving toward Him"—and that in the age to come He may not be hidden from us, but that we may see Him "face to face" and have confidence of a good life and enjoy the sight of Almighty God in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
WIS 1:14 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2:1
"God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them. And the dominion of Hades is not on earth." Then, a little further on in the text, it says, "But by the envy of the devil death entered the world." If therefore God made everything for us in the best possible way, it is we who have caused evil and sins.
WIS 2:20 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
For my Lord Jesus Christ, when he took flesh from the Virgin for our salvation, was indeed glorified, because "he came to seek what had perished," yet he was not "gloriously glorified." For it is said of him: "We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, and his countenance was ignoble beyond the sons of men." He was glorified also when he came to the cross and endured death. Do you wish to know that he was glorified? He himself said: "Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." The passion of the cross, then, was also a glory to him; but this glory was not glorious, but lowly. Finally it is said of him: "He humbled himself even unto death, even the death of the cross," concerning which too the prophet had foretold: "Let us condemn him with a most shameful death." And Isaiah also says of him: "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away." In all these things, therefore, the Lord was glorified, but, so to speak, humbly, not "gloriously glorified."
WIS 2:22 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 16:3
Though such a great light had arisen, and though the Logos had been made manifest, declaring, "Here is a man whose name is Orient," they did not see the light, because "their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know the mysteries of God." Something paradoxical took place with that people and with the pagan nations. The Jews did see a lamp in each of the prophets, but they did not recognize the Sun of righteousness that arose. Therefore, even though it seemed that they had a lamp, this was taken from them. On the other hand, "the people"—the pagans—"who were in darkness saw a great light." Not a small light, as with Israel (though each of the prophets was actually not a small light), but "the people who were in darkness saw a great light," our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His light shines, "extending from one end of the earth to the other with power and governing" the churches "with goodness," since his Spirit fills the whole earth. Thus the prophecy is fulfilled that says, "In the last days the mountain of God will be visible." And now, "all the nations stream toward it." This mountain is Jesus Christ.
WIS 3:6 — HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 1:13
God removes evil from us in two ways, by "wind" and by "fire." If we are good and obedient to his teachings and allow ourselves to be instructed by his Word, the "wind" sweeps away our evils, according to what is written, "If by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live." But if the Spirit has not taken away our evils, there is need of purification by fire. Observe closely, however, each combination of terms. The first is "wind" and "cloud," the second "fire" and "light," the third "electrum" and "splendor." Each of these, as though it were sad, is paired with something more cheerful. Indeed, if the wind dies down, immediately a cloud appears. If fire appears, there is light. If one speaks of electrum, there is brightness all around. We must, "like gold in the furnace" and electrum, be fused by an extremely hot fire. You will find, in the prophet we are commenting on, the Lord who sits in the middle of Jerusalem, fanning those who are a heap of silver, tin, iron and lead. With laments, he reproaches those who bear within themselves the dross of more base material. He says, "You have become the dross of silver, silver that is no longer pure like the grape." When we superimpose on God's creature, which at the beginning is good, the vices and passions that come from our wrongs, then we mix iron, tin and lead with gold and silver. To be purified, fire is necessary. As early as possible, then, we must act in such a way so as, when we arrive at this fire, to pass through it peacefully, like gold and silver and precious stones, which have no blemish of adultery. Not that we would be defeated by the fire, but that we might emerge from it approved.
WIS 3:16 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.15
But now if the soul, joined to the spirit and coupled, so to speak, in its marriage, sometimes turns aside to bodily pleasures and inclines its sense to the delight of the flesh, and sometimes indeed seems to obey the salutary admonitions of the spirit, but sometimes yields to carnal vices, such a soul, as though stained by the adultery of the body, is said neither to increase nor to multiply lawfully, since indeed Scripture designates the sons of adulterers as imperfect. For such a soul, which, having deserted the conjunction of the spirit, prostrates itself wholly to the sense of the flesh and to bodily desires, as though turned away from God will impudently hear that "you have made yourself the face of a harlot, you have become without shame toward all." Therefore as a harlot she will be punished, and her sons are commanded to be prepared for slaughter.
WIS 5:4 — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, PSALM 36, HOMILY 5:5
First, the punishments and the torments of sinners are decreed. The righteous will see their fate and understand the difference between a good and a bad life and from how many evils they have escaped by living well. And those condemned to punishment will see the righteous in glory and exclaim, "And we fools thought their life was madness!" After having thus seen the end of sinners, the righteous will be exalted and lifted up to heaven so as to inherit the earth. Now the psalm speaks and comforts us concerning the problem that almost constantly disturbs the heart of every person. Because often, when we suffer and see that the wicked and impious live surrounded by good fortune in this life—full of success, abounding in riches and honors, having fruitful and numerous children—we are scandalized and murmur in our hearts, Where is God's justice? If human life were ruled by divine providence, would God allow this wicked and godless person to rise to such a degree of prosperity? That is why the divine word, speaking through the mouth of the righteous, says, "I have seen a godless person"—not merely exalted but "exalted and raised beyond all measure," and not above any tree but "above the cedars of Lebanon." He speaks of an exceedingly tall tree and a mountain above all, and yet, having seen all this, he says, "I passed by, and look—he was no more."
WIS 6:6 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 11:3
"Their destiny will be of no benefit to them," because what is of benefit is not the mere fact of sitting in the presbytery but living a life worthy of that position, as the Word demands. The Word requires a good life from both you and from us, but if it is true that "the mighty will be mightily tested," then more is demanded of me than of a deacon, more of a deacon than of a layperson, and of the one entrusted with ecclesial power, even more is demanded.
WIS 7:17 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 21
Great is the heart of man, and spacious and capacious, if only it be clean. Do you wish to know its greatness and breadth? See how great a magnitude of divine perceptions it can contain. It itself says: "he gave me true knowledge of the things that are: to know the constitution of the world and the operations of the elements, the beginning and the end and the middle of the ages, the changes of the seasons and the transitions of the months, the circuits of the years and the positions of the stars, the natures of living creatures and the ragings of beasts, the violences of spirits and the thoughts of men, the diversities of trees and the power of roots". You see that the heart of man is not small, which can contain so much. And understand its greatness not in the quantity of the body, but in the strength of perception, which can contain so great a knowledge of the truth.
WIS 7:17 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 2
According to John, however, it is written thus: "As the Father knows me, and I know the Father." But in the forty-fifth psalm it says: "Be at leisure, and know that I am God." Therefore the chief office of knowledge is to know the Trinity; but in the second place, to know His creature, according to him who said: "For He gave me the true knowledge of the things that are, the substance of the world, and the power of the elements, the beginning, and the end, and the midst of the times," and the rest.
WIS 7:21 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
For this writer of divine wisdom, when he had enumerated each single thing, said at the last that he had received the knowledge of the hidden and the manifest things: showing without doubt that each one of those things which are in the manifest is referred to some one of those things which are in the hidden; that is, that each single visible thing has something of likeness and reason to the invisible things. … he who made all things in wisdom so created each single kind of visible things on earth, that in them he might place a certain teaching and knowledge of the invisible and heavenly things; whereby through these the human mind might ascend to spiritual understanding, and might seek the causes of things in the heavenly places, so that, taught through the wisdom of God, it might itself also be able to say: "The things that are in the hidden, and the things that are in the manifest, I have known." … It knows also the elements of the world, not only the visible, but also the invisible, and the powers of both.
WIS 8:2 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE
you will find that divine Scripture has shunned the word "love" (amor) and has put "charity" and "affection" (dilectio) instead. Sometimes, though rarely, it does name love by its proper word, and it invites and incites souls toward it, as when it says in Proverbs concerning wisdom: "Love her, and she will keep you; surround her, and she will exalt you; honor her, and she will embrace you." But also in that little book which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, it is written thus concerning wisdom itself: "I became a lover of her beauty." … For if it had said that Isaac fell in love with Rebecca, or Jacob with Rachel … But most plainly, in this very little book which is now in hand, the name of love has been exchanged for the word "charity," in the place where it says: "I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my kinsman, that you tell him that I am wounded with charity" … Therefore it makes no difference in the divine Scriptures whether it be called charity, or love, or affection, except that the name of charity is exalted to such a degree that even God himself is called charity, as John said: "Beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God; but he who does not love does not know God, for God is charity."
WIS 8:2 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.1
I think, therefore, that Sarah, who is interpreted 'princess' or 'one exercising rule', holds the figure of ἀρετή, which is the virtue of the soul. This virtue, then, is joined and cleaves to a wise and faithful man, just as also that wise man who said concerning wisdom: "I sought to bring her to me as my bride." Therefore for this reason it is said by God to Abraham: "in all things whatsoever Sarah shall say to you, hearken to her voice."
WIS 8:20 — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 12
Do you not know that when the male child is forty days old, he is presented at the altar to be purified, being impure from the conception itself, on account of both the paternal seed and the mother's womb? Thus every person is impure from his father and his mother, but only my Lord Jesus entered this life purely and was not defiled in the mother. He in fact entered an undefiled body. It was he who once said through Solomon, "Or rather, being good, I entered an undefiled body." Consequently, he was not defiled in the mother, and certainly not in the father. In his generation, Joseph offered nothing other than his service and affection. Thus Scripture, for his faithful service of a father, also gives him the name. Indeed, Mary says in the Gospel, "I and your father have been searching for you in sorrow." Christ alone, therefore, is "the high priest who was not defiled in either the father or the mother."
WIS 9:6 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 69
For it is to be understood by us not concerning wisdom alone, but concerning every virtue, what Solomon says: "and even if anyone be perfect among the sons of men, if your wisdom be absent from him, he shall be reckoned as nothing". So too whoever has been perfect in chastity or in righteousness or in virtue or in piety, but there has not been in him either the chastity or the righteousness or the virtue or the piety which comes from the grace of God, such a man is reckoned "as nothing". Therefore, if we wish that a more perfect virtue be given to us and abound in us, let us by all means acquire through diligence that which is perfect among men; and after we have acquired it, understanding as it were that these things are reckoned as nothing without the grace of God, let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and let us pray lifting up pure hands without anger and dispute, so that the perfection of all the good things that are in us may be given from God, and that he may make us perfect and acceptable to God as sons of God.
WIS 11:24 — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3
let us take our example from God Himself. For He loves all things that are, equally, so that He hates none of the things He has made; for neither did He make anything that He would hold in hatred: not however for this reason did He love the Egyptians alike as the Hebrews, and Pharaoh as Moses and Aaron. Nor again did He love the rest of the sons of Israel alike as Moses and Aaron and Miriam; nor again did He love Aaron and Miriam alike as Moses, although it be true what is said to Him: "But You spare all, because they are Yours, O Lord, lover of souls; for the spirit of incorruption is in all things"; nevertheless He who disposed all things by measure and number and weight, according to the measure without doubt of each one tempers the balance also of His love. Shall we suppose that Paul was not loved by Him alike when he was persecuting the Church of God, and when he was loved while he himself was bearing persecutions and torments for her, and was saying that there was in him the solicitude of all the Churches?
WIS 12:10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 7:1
The God who "judges little by little" those he punishes "gives space for repentance." By not punishing all at once for the sin, he delays the consummation of the punishment for the sinner. He thus punishes, "judging little by little." We have an example of this in Leviticus. In the curses against those who transgress the Law, after the first punishments it is written, "The Lord says, if you do not repent after these things, I will multiply my blows sevenfold." And again he sets forth another punishment, "And if, despite these punishments, you do not want to correct yourselves and turn to me but oppose yourselves to me, I will also oppose you with fury." You will note that God metes out punishments stingily, as it were, since he wants to lead the sinner to conversion instead of making him pay for everything all at once. With respect to the text, then, these are the things that befell the people. And threatening them with how much they might have suffered afterward, the Word says, "And yet in those days, I will not wholly destroy you."
WIS 14:8 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10:6
By the disposition of the universe you find an angel appointed for the earth and another appointed for the waters, another appointed for the air and a fourth appointed for fire. Arise, then—I beg of you—with your reason, and consider the disposition of the animals, the plants and the stars of heaven. There is an angel appointed for the sun, another of the moon and others of the stars. These angels, who accompany us during our time on earth, either rejoice or mourn over us when we sin. "Grieve," it says, "over the earth because of its inhabitants." It calls the angel for the earth using the same name as the earth itself, "earth," as when it says, "The work of human hands and the one who has done it are accursed." It is not that the inanimate thing itself is accursed, but what resides in the inanimate statue is indicated by the expression "human hands," and from this it receives its name. In this way I would say that the angel appointed for the earth is designated also by the name "earth," and the angel appointed for the water is designated by the name "water," as when it is said, "The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and feared. The abyss trembled, a great crash of waters, and the clouds sent out their voice. Behold, your arrows pass."
WIS 16:7 — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 4.2
There is a priestly and Levitical order which is to show the way to the people of God who have gone out from Egypt. For it is they who teach the people to go out from Egypt, that is, from the errors of the world, and to pass through the vast wilderness, that is, to traverse the various kinds of temptations and not to be harmed by the serpents, which are the bites of demons, and to avoid the poisons of evil suggestions. And "if" perhaps "someone has been struck" in the wilderness "by a serpent," that they may show him the "bronze serpent" hung upon the cross, "which whoever shall look upon," that is, whoever believes in him whose figure that serpent displayed, shall through this flee from the diabolical poisons.
WIS 16:28 — ON PRAYER 31:1
It seems to me that, to complete the argument of the prayer, it would not be out of place after this to discuss briefly the disposition and the attitude that one who prays must have, as well as the place where one should pray and the direction he should face (if circumstances permit) and the choice of the appropriate time for praying, and topics of this kind. Disposition refers to the soul, attitude to the body. Thus Paul says … one must pray "without anger or dissension." The attitude consists in "raising pure hands," expressions that seem to me to be derived from the psalms, which say, "May the raising of my hands be like the evening sacrifice." Regarding the place, "I want therefore that people pray in every place." Regarding the orientation, the Wisdom of Solomon says, "To make it known that one must rise before the sun to give you thanks and worship you before the dawning of the light."
WIS 17:1 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:53-54
In the Apocalypse we see "a Lamb, as though sacrificed." This is the Lamb that, for certain ineffable reasons, became the sacrifice of expiation for the entire world, having accepted even to be sacrificed, according to the measure of the Father's love for humanity. By his blood he bought us back from him who had bought us, in that we were corrupted by sins. Leading this lamb to the sacrifice was the God who was in the man, the great high priest, as he himself attests, saying, "No one takes my life from me, but I myself give it. I have the power to give it and the power to take it up again." All of the other sacrifices are related to this sacrifice by affinity, the sacrifices prescribed by the Law being a symbol of it. And in my opinion, the shedding of blood on the part of the noble martyrs are sacrifices similar to this one; not without reason does John the disciple contemplate them as surrounding the heavenly altar. "Who is wise enough to understand these things, intelligent enough to know them?" To grasp somewhat more contemplatively the reason for these sacrifices, which purify those for whom they are offered, we must understand the significance of the sacrifice of the daughter of Jephthah. Jephthah had defeated the Ammonites because of a vow, to which she who was to be sacrificed adhered, responding to her father's words, "I have given my word to the Lord against you," by saying, "Even if it is against me that you have given your word to the Lord, fulfill your vow." In considering such events one could be led to attribute an element of great cruelty to God, to whom such sacrifices are offered for the salvation of human beings. One needs a more open and farsighted mind to reconcile this in light of the designs of providence, so as to be able to justify these things as both ineffable and beyond human nature, saying, "The judgments of God are great and difficult to tell. For this reason, ignorant souls fell into error." Moreover, it is also attested among the pagans that in times of pestilence, many were given over to sacrifice for the common salvation. The faithful Roman Clement also admits that this occurred, basing himself on history; Paul testifies of him saying, "Together with Clement and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life." Someone wanting to insult mysteries that escape the comprehension of the many finds the precepts regarding martyrs similarly absurd. God, however, considers that it would be better for us to confess his divinity at the price of the most atrocious sufferings than to free ourselves for a brief time from apparent evils, declaring our acquiescence to the will of the enemies of truth.
WIS 18:24 — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:3.6
The name "world" is often used in the Scriptures with different meanings. What in Latin we call "world," the Greeks call kosmos, and kosmos not only means "world" but also "ornament." In fact, in Isaiah, when a reproach is made against the powerful children of Zion, it is said, "Instead of golden ornaments you will be bald, because of your works," where "ornament" is indicated with the word that means "world," that is, kosmos. And it is also said that the explanation of the world was contained in the pontifical vestment, as we find in the Wisdom of Solomon, where it says, "The entire world was in the priestly vestment." Our earth with its inhabitants is also called world, as when the Scripture says that "the whole world is in the possession of the evil one." And Clement, disciple of the apostles, refers to those places that the Greeks called antipodes and to the other parts of the earth where no one can reach (just as none of the people there can reach us), and he calls them "world," saying, "The ocean cannot be crossed by people, nor the worlds that are beyond them, which are governed by the very dispositions of the Lord God." We also call world this universe that is formed by the heavens and the earth, as Paul says, "The form of this world is passing away." And our Lord and Savior also speaks of another beyond this visible world, which is difficult to describe and define in its reality. He says, "I do not come from this world." As though he came from another world, he said, "I do not come from this world." We said that it is difficult to describe this world, so as to not provide anyone with occasion to claim that we assert the existence of the images that the Greeks call ideas. In fact, it is foreign to our way of thinking to assert the existence of an incorporeal world, consisting solely in the fantasy of the mind and fallacious thoughts.
Zechariah 1:3 — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1.7
But not all who see are equally enlightened by Christ, but each is enlightened according to that measure by which he is able to receive the force of the light. And just as the eyes of our body are not equally enlightened by the sun, but the higher one ascends into lofty places and beholds its rising by the gazing of a more elevated watchtower, so much the more will he receive both of its splendor and its heat; so also our mind, the more loftily and highly it approaches Christ and presents itself nearer to the splendor of his light, so much the more magnificently and clearly will it be irradiated by his light, as he himself also says through the prophet: "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you, says the Lord." And again he says: "I am a God drawing near, and not a God from afar."
Zechariah 3:3 — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 14
Every soul that has been clothed with a human body has its own "filth". And that you may know that Jesus too was made filthy by his own will, because for our salvation he had assumed a human body, listen to the prophet Zechariah saying: "Jesus was clothed with filthy garments". And this indeed makes against those who deny that our Lord had a human body, but say it was woven of heavenly and spiritual things. For if his body was of heavenly things and, as they falsely assert, of the stars and some other more sublime and spiritual nature, let them answer why a spiritual body could be filthy, or how they interpret what we have set down: "Jesus was clothed with filthy garments". But if they are compelled by necessity to accept that a filthy garment is understood as a spiritual body, they must consequently say that what is set down in the promises has been fulfilled, that is: "an animal body is sown, a spiritual body rises," and that we rise polluted and filthy — which even to think is a sacrilege, especially when one knows it is written: "it is sown in corruption, it will rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it will rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it will rise in strength; an animal body is sown, a spiritual body will rise". It was necessary, therefore, that for our Lord and Savior, who had been "clothed with filthy garments" and had assumed an earthly body, there should be offered those things which by the law were accustomed to purge filth. What is frequently asked among the brethren I take up again, prompted by the occasion of this passage. Little children are baptized "for the remission of sins". Of what "sins"? Or at what time did they sin? Or how can that reasoning of the washing hold in the case of little children, except according to that sense of which we spoke a little before: "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life should be of a single day upon the earth"? And because through the sacrament of baptism the "filth" of birth is laid aside, therefore little children too are baptized: for "unless one be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven".
Zechariah 4:7 — FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 41
On account of the height of the kingdom he calls Babylon a "mountain" which was "ruined" from idolatry and unjust works, through which it "destroyed" the others. And it also was the city on high because of the river nearby from which some stairs went up to the city, the city being in two parts and lying close to the river on each bank, with the walls also of the city being very high. And it mentioned a "hand," the avenging power, the same power of his which destroyed something made from "rocks" for security and for watch. And due to the fire having "obliterated" its "stones," they were useless, as there was not a stone to be put together for a firm building. And for the analogical meaning, the devil is named a "mountain," as in the book of Zechariah: "Who are you, a great mountain before the face of Zerubbabel?" And concerning the one who has the "deaf and dumb" demon, the Savior said, "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: 'Move away,' and it will move away." Thus the devil is a "mountain" which is "ruined" from his own evil and which "destroys" everyone to the extent they have their mind on what is earthly.
Zechariah 5:7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6
"They went down into the deep like a stone." Why did "they go down into the deep like a stone"? Because they were not such "stones as those from which sons of Abraham could be raised up," but such as loved the deep and cherished the liquid element — that is, who seized the bitter and fleeting pleasure of present things. Whence it is said of them: "They were sunk like lead in the mightiest water." Sinners are heavy. Finally, iniquity too is shown "to sit upon a talent of lead," as the prophet Zechariah says: "I saw," he says, "a woman sitting upon a talent of lead, and I said: what is this? And he answered: iniquity." Thence it is, therefore, that the wicked "were sunk into the deep, like lead in the mightiest water."
Zechariah 6:12 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32:315-17
Nor was there night in Peter when he confessed, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," when the heavenly Father revealed it to him, but there was night in him too at the moment of his denial. And in the present instance, moreover, when Judas received the morsel [and] went out immediately, night was present in him at the same time he went out, for the man whose name is "Sunrise" was not present with him because he left "the Sun of justice" behind when he went out. And Judas, who was filled with darkness, pursued Jesus; but the darkness and the one who had taken it up did not apprehend the light that was pursued. Wherefore also, when he said as word of justification, "I have sinned because I betrayed just blood" and "went and hanged himself," Satan, who was in him, led him to the noose and hung him, at which time the devil also touched his soul. For Judas was not such that the Lord could say to the devil on his behalf what he said on Job's behalf, "But touch not his soul."
Zechariah 9:9-10 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 27
Everywhere the cause of the unbelief of the Jews was this: that they did not understand Jesus as the "Christ of God", because they always gave their mind to the corporeal histories, unwilling to believe anything spiritual in them. For example, we introduce for the sake of illustration what is prophesied and said in Zechariah, that as it were "upon an ass and a colt He would enter into Jerusalem and would destroy the chariots out of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem". If anyone wishes to understand this of Christ according to the history of the letter, it does not fit; for Christ is nowhere expounded to have destroyed out of Ephraim corporeal and perceptible chariots, nor a corporeal horse from a corporeal Jerusalem. But if you see among the heretics the assemblies of falsehood itself coupled together as by a certain yoke and in evil concord among themselves, which the word of truth is wont to destroy, you will see how Christ, the Word of God, destroys the spiritual chariots out of the spiritual Ephraim; for Ephraim is always set as a figure of the heresies, which have separated themselves from the Church of Christ, just as Ephraim from the tribe of Judah. For just as the divine word spiritually "cast into the sea" the horse and rider of the Egyptians, that is, the impious man together with the devil as his rider and yoke-fellow, so also it destroyed the horse from Jerusalem — whoever is subject to the devil as his rider and not to Christ, as are those horses acceptable to Christ, of whom Habakkuk says: "because you will mount upon your horses, and your cavalry is salvation", that is, upon the apostles and the other saints in whom Christ dwells. Therefore we say: "these in chariots" (pointing to Ephraim) "and these on horses" (pointing to the adversaries of Jerusalem), "but we shall be magnified in the name of our God. They are bound and have fallen, but we have risen and are set upright".
Zechariah 11:12-13 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 117
But since what the evangelist says after these things (then was fulfilled that which had been spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying the things which are written) — this is not found to have been prophesied by Jeremiah anywhere in his books, whether those which are read in the churches or those which are recited among the Jews — but if anyone can know, let him show where it is written. I suspect, however, that either it is an error of the Scripture and Jeremiah is put for Zechariah, or that there is some secret writing of Jeremiah in which it is written. Now such is the text in Zechariah the prophet: "and I will say to them: if it is good in your sight, give me my wages, or refuse them; and they appointed my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: put them down into the furnace, and see if it is genuine, even as I was proved for their sake. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and put them into the house of the Lord, into the furnace". But if anyone saying this supposes that he stumbles, let him see whether this may be prophesied somewhere in the secret writings of Jeremiah, knowing that the Apostle too brings forward certain writings of the secret books, as he says somewhere: "what eye has not seen nor ear heard"; for in no canonical book is this found set down, except in the secret writings of Elijah the prophet.
Zechariah 12:9-14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 48
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (24, 29—30ᵃ). Since we consider that greater themes here come under discussion than lie within the grasp of human understanding — even of those who have advanced in wisdom far beyond others — let us come and examine the passage: first inquiring into those things which can readily be admitted for an exposition of the Gospel text, as though the Lord Himself were prophesying in it; and afterward we shall look for what the truth of these words may be according to those who judge that there is something deeper and more subtle in the words, keeping to the sequence of the moral traditions in these matters as well, in the same manner as above. Someone, then, will say: just as when great fires begin to be kindled a darkness seems to be raised up out of the abundant smoke, so at the consummation of the world, by the fire which is to be set alight, even the "great lights" shall be darkened, so that, the sun being darkened, and in consequence of the darkening of the sun, the moon too, hindered by the sun from receiving light, is not permitted even to give its own light. And thus of necessity a great darkness must first take hold of the nature of the world. And so, when the light of the stars has thus withered away, the remaining body of them, having become grosser, since it cannot be borne aloft as at first when it was lifted up carried by the light itself, will fall from heaven. And when these things happen, it follows that the rational powers of the heavens, suffering amazement, undergo a certain commotion and are troubled, being, that is, removed from their former functions. So he who understands these things to be thus will add that the sign of the Son of man, in whom "the things that were in the heavens and the things that were on earth" were made heavenly, shall then appear: namely, the power which the Son of man wrought when He was hung upon the tree; and in heaven above all shall His sign shine forth. And men out of all the tribes, who formerly did not believe in the Christianity that was proclaimed but even spoke evil of it, then, recognizing it through that sign made manifest, shall mourn and lament because of their ignorance and their sins, in that they did not receive the word of the Lord. But another will judge otherwise concerning these words, holding that (as these words themselves show) the destruction of the world will not come about by fire, but by its own failing. And he will make use of such an illustration: that just as, when the light of a lamp fails, the light is little by little diminished, so, when the nourishment of the heavenly lights fails, the sun shall be darkened, no longer having the breaths that come to it from them coming upon it. And when the greater light suffers this, all the more will the moon too be unable to display that fiery splendor which appears according to its own phases. When, therefore, these things befall the sun, the light of the stars too will fail, so that what has remained in them, being as it were earthy, falls from heaven, and, these things happening, all the powers of the heavens shall be moved. For just as, in the dispensation of the cross, "when the sun failed, darkness came over all the earth", so also, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, the light of the sun and of the moon shall fail, and yet more that of the stars, as though consumed by the great power of that sign; and when it appears, the tribes that shall then have remained on the earth shall mourn. For these things he will use the illustration of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in this manner: "For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of wrath and fury, to make the circle of the earth a desert and…
Zechariah 12:9-14 — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 49
Nevertheless, when these things have thus been done, there shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then the tribes of the earth shall mourn. For these things it is not absurd to use the examples of the prophet Zechariah, which run thus: "and it shall be in that day that I will seek to take away all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants in Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of compassion; and they shall look upon me because they danced, and they shall mourn over themselves a mourning as over a beloved one, and they shall grieve with grief as over a firstborn. And in that day the mourning shall be magnified in Jerusalem like the mourning of a pomegranate cut down in the field, and the earth shall mourn by tribes: the tribe of the house of David apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; the tribe of the house of Nathan apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; the tribe of the house of Levi apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; the tribe of the house of Shimei apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; and all the remaining tribes apart by themselves and their women apart by themselves". Therefore every earthly company, since it is a tribe of the earth — which rank they attributed to themselves — will mourn together with those like itself, especially if in some category of sinners it must mourn more abundantly. But I think that through these things there are shown the differences of those who seem to have been in the faith and in their own company, yet did not please God. There is, therefore, a house of David that mourns — those who, set up from among the people, did deeds worthy of mourning, or [those drawn] from among kings and magnates. But those from among the teachers who lived badly are the tribe of Nathan that mourns, since Nathan was a prophet; and to teach is to prophesy. So those who are sinners from among those who were set over the Church and had the priesthood enjoined upon them and did not administer their office well, are the tribe of the house of Levi that mourns. And to speak the truth, whether concerning those tribes which we have mentioned or concerning the tribe of Shimei, belongs to God alone. But we, for the present, think that all who were catechized and instructed in the divine mystery, and were not ordained in any of the tribes which we mentioned above, and committed grave sins (such as are very many of the laity), are the tribe of Shimei; while the remaining men are those he called the 'remaining' tribes, which he did not name specifically. But it is no trifling task to speak also concerning the women of the individual tribes, who mourn apart by themselves. And see whether you can, in each and every class, call those who were more bodily and more worldly the 'women', but say that those who by comparison with them were better were the 'men'.
Zechariah 13:7 — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11
If there is anyone who, reading Moses, murmurs against him, and the law which is written according to the letter displeases him, because in many things it does not seem to preserve consistency, Moses shows him the rock, which is Christ, and leads him to it, that he may drink from there and refresh his thirst. But this rock, unless it be struck, will not give waters; but when struck it brings forth fountains. For Christ, when struck and driven to the cross, brought forth the fountains of the New Testament; and therefore it was said of Him that "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered". It was necessary, then, that He be struck; for unless He had been struck and "water and blood had come forth from His side", we should all suffer "a thirst for the word of God". This, then, is what the Apostle also interpreted, that "they all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed; and the rock was Christ". Observe, however, what God said in this place to Moses: "go before the people, and take with you the elders, that is, the presbyters of the people". Not Moses alone leads the people to the waters of the rock, but also the elders of the people with him. For not the law alone announces Christ, but also the prophets and the patriarchs and all the "elders".
Zephaniah 1:14 — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1:161
But since these are light as perceived by the sense, which are said in Moses to have come into existence on the fourth day, they are not the true light because they enlighten the things on the earth. The Savior, on the other hand, is the light of the spiritual world because he shines on those who are rational and intellectual, that their mind may see its proper visions. Now I mean he is the light of those rational souls which are in the sensible world, of which the Savior teaches us that he is the Maker, being, perhaps its directing and principal part, and, so to speak, the sun of the great Day of the Lord.
Zephaniah 3:9-10 — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5:4.3
If anyone is able, insofar as he found that Israel is saved "after the full number of pagan nations," let him consider having passed over by reason the remaining period, when it is that "all serve God under a single yoke," according to what is said in Zephaniah, "And from the ends of Ethiopia they offer sacrifices to him," when, as it is said in the sixty-seventh psalm, "Ethiopia stretches forth its hand to God," and "to the kings of the earth" the word commands, saying, "Sing to the Lord, raise a psalm to the God of Jacob."