THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS - VOLUME 48
Jerome’s Commentaries and Prefaces, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Palladius on Chrysostom
c. AD 380 – 428

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Texts are public domain except where marked in Sources and Credits.

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INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
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HOW THIS BOOK IS ARRANGED

This is the forty-eighth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church
in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This
volume holds Jerome’s Commentaries and Prefaces, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Palladius on
Chrysostom, from the period about AD 380 – 428.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any
passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section
numbers.

THE TRANSLATIONS

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for
SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation.
In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been
altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the
back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the
works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

IN THIS VOLUME

Jerome was born about AD 347 at Stridon and studied in Rome. After some years in the
Syrian desert and at Constantinople he settled in Bethlehem about AD 386, where he lived
as a monk until his death in AD 420. He translated the Bible into Latin, the version
called the Vulgate, wrote commentaries on much of Scripture, and took part in many of the
disputes of his day.

Theodore was born at Antioch about AD 350, was a friend of John Chrysostom, and was bishop
of Mopsuestia in Cilicia from AD 392 until his death in AD 428. He was the foremost
teacher of the Antiochene way of reading Scripture. His teaching was condemned after his
death, and much of what he wrote survives only in Syriac translations.

Palladius was born in Galatia about AD 363 and lived as a monk in Egypt and Palestine. He
became bishop of Helenopolis and was a friend and defender of John Chrysostom. He wrote
the Lausiac History, about AD 419, for a court official named Lausus, and the Dialogue on
the Life of Chrysostom about AD 408.

The commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia are printed from the Syriac translation made by
Alphonse Mingana, and the numbers that appear in the text refer to notes printed at the
end of each commentary.

DATES AND AUTHORSHIP

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short
introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is
uncertain.


COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
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COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES Jerome

c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

INTRODUCTION

1 Translated by Robin McGregor. Available in Latin from public domain Migne Editors,
Patrologiae Cursus Completus.

PREFACE

2 I remember just five years ago when I was still at Rome and studying virtuous Blesilla's
book of Ecclesiastes that I taught her to think lightly of her generation and to esteem
futile everything that she saw in the world. I remember too being asked by her to examine
individually all the difficult passages in a short treatise so that she might be able to
understand what she was reading without me always being present. Accordingly, since she
was taken from us by her sudden death while I was still doing the preparation for my work,
and since we, it seems, dear Paula and Eustochium, did not deserve to have such a
companion in our lives, I then ceased from my work, silenced by the terrible grief of such
a misfortune. Now though, situated in Bethlehem, clearly a more holy city, I can fulfil
that promise to the memory of Blesilla and to you, and remind you briefly that I have used
no authority in this work, but have rather translated directly from the Hebrew itself and
have adapted it to the traditional language of the Septuagint in those passages which do
not differ greatly from the Hebrew. Occasionally I have taken account of the Greek
versions, those of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion so that I do not deter the reader's
enthusiasm with too much novelty. I have also not pursued those streams of conjecture,
which lack a factual basis, for I do not believe this to be sensible.

CHAPTER 1

1 1:1. The words of Ecclesiastes, son of David, King in Jerusalem. The Scriptures state
very clearly that Solomon was known by three names: 'Peace-making', that is 'Solomon';
'Yedidia', that is 'beloved of Yahweh'; and the name used here 'Qoheleth', that is
Ecclesiastes. He is called Ecclesiastes in Greek because he gathered together a crowd of
people, a congregation, which we can call a demagogue because he spoke to the people and
his sermon was not addressed specifically to one man but more usually to all men. Moreover
he is called 'peace-making' and 'beloved of Yahweh' because there was peace during his
reign and the Lord loved him. For also Psalms 44, and 71, are known by titles connected
with love and peace-making. Although these psalms pertain to Christ and the Church they
exhibit Solomon's joy and strength, and according to tradition were composed concerning
Solomon. 2 He also produced an equal number of titles to the three volumes: Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. He teaches for children in Proverbs and gives instruction
in the form of maxims almost with a sense of duty, and his sermons here are repeated
continually to his son. In Ecclesiastes he teaches a man of mature age that he should not
think anything in the world to be perpetual, but that all things that we perceive are in
fact vain and fleeting. In Song of Songs he embraces an elderly man in the covenant, who
has already been prepared in spurning his times. For unless we first abandon our moral
failings and renounce the pomposity of our world, and prepare ourselves so we are ready
for the arrival of Christ, we will not be able to say: "let him kiss me from the kiss of
his mouth". Philosophers educate their followers in a manner similar to this type of
instruction: first of all they teach ethics, then explain physics, and then anyone whom
they see to excel in these first two they then go on to teach theology. Moreover even this
should be examined more closely because Solomon is named differently in the three books.
In Proverbs for example he is thus named: The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, King
of Israel. But in Ecclesiastes: The words of Ecclesiastes, son of David, King of
Jerusalem. 'Israel' in fact is unnecessary here because it is not found in the Greek or
Latin manuscripts.

3 But in Song of Songs he is neither named 'son of David', not 'King of Israel' or 'King
of Jerusalem', but only as The Song of Songs of Solomon. This is just as the Proverbs and
the crude arrangement pertain to the twelve tribes and to the whole of Israel. And
although the contempt of the world only comes to city-dwellers, these are the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, therefore Solomon intends Song of Songs particularly for those who desire
spiritual enlightenment. To those readers just embarking on their education paternal
honour and the authority of the king are claimed in their own merit, but to those who have
completed their learning, and in the case where the disciple has been enlightened not by
fear, but by love, his own name suffices. Then, he is equal to his teacher and he is
unaware that he is a king. This is the case here. But in a more spiritual understanding
Solomon was peace making and beloved of the Lord God, and Ecclesiastes can be seen as our
Christ too, who destroying the inner wall and expelling evil from his flesh, makes each of
them one, saying - "I give you my peace, I relinquish my peace to you", about which the
Lord says to his disciples "This is my chosen son whom I love: listen to him" , and that
is he who is father of the Church.

4 Speaking by no means to the Synagogue of the Jews but to the crowd of people the King of
Jerusalem (that which was built out of the living rocks, not that about which he says
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill prophets" , and "Look, let your empty house be left
for us" ), but that by which it is forbidden to swear because it is the city of a great
king. This is the son of David, to whom the blind cried out in the Gospel: "pity us, son
of David"; and the whole crowd sang out in unison: "Hosanna to the son of David". Then
there is the fact that the word of God does not come to him as is the case with Jeremiah
and the other prophets, but on account of his being rich, being a king, holding power, his
wisdom and his other virtues, he speaks to the men of the church himself, and he speaks
words to the apostles about which Psalm 18.5 tells us: "their sound went out to the whole
world and their words went to the ends of the earth". Some scholars think wrongly,
therefore, that we are tempted into desire and luxury by this book, when it teaches quite
to the contrary: everything we perceive in the world is vain; nor is it fitting for us to
seek those things eagerly which perish while we possess them.

5 1:2. Vanity of vanities said Ecclesiastes, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. If all
things that God made are truly good then how can all things be considered vanity, and not
only vanity, but even vanity of vanities? Just as Song of Songs means a song that stands
out from amongst all songs, so we see that in "vanity of vanities" the degree of vanity is
shown. It is also written similarly in Psalm 38.6: "Nevertheless every living man is
vanity. If living man is vanity then a dead man must be vanity of vanities. We read in
Exodus that Moses' face is glorified so much that the children of Israel are not able to
see him. Paul the apostle said that his glory was not really glory when compared to the
glory of righteousness: "For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this
respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. We are therefore able to say that even we
in this respect, heaven, earth, the seas and all things that are contained within its
compass can be said to be good in themselves, but compared to God they are nothing. And if
I look at the candle in a lamp and am content with its light, then afterwards when the sun
has risen I cannot discern anymore what was once bright;

6 I will also see the light of the stars by the light of the setting sun, so in looking at
the world and the multitudinous varieties of nature I am amazed at the greatness of the
world, but I also remember that all things will pass away and the world will grow old, and
that only God is that which has always been. On account of this realisation I am compelled
to say, not once but twice: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Instead of "vanity of
vanities" the Hebrew text reads 'abal abalim' which all manuscripts excepting that of the
Septuagint translate similarly in Greek as atmos atmidon or atmon which we are able to
translate as 'a breath' and 'a light wind which is quickly dispersed'. In this way it is
shown to be vain and in no way universal by this phrase. For those things which seem to be
temporal, in fact are; but those which do not are eternal. Or since that which will give
rise to vanity has been exposed, he groans and is anxious and awaits the revelation of the
sons of God, and "now we know in part, and we prophesy in part" . All things are and will
be vain, until we find that which is complete and perfect.

7 1:3. What profit is there for a man in exchange for all his toil, which he toils under
the sun? After the general opinion that all things are vain Solomon begins to explain with
regard to mankind: because men exert themselves in vain in the toil of the world, amassing
wealth, teaching children, working their way towards glory, constructing buildings, and
then are taken away in the midst of their work by sudden death, they hear the words: "Thou
fool, this night your soul shall be required of you, then whose will be those things that
you have amassed?" Just as they make nothing for themselves in exchange for all this toil,
so they return naked to the earth from whence they were taken. 1:4. A generation goes, a
generation comes, but the earth remains forever. While some men die, others are born, and
those you had seen, are not seen anymore, and you then see those who have not been before.
What is more vain than this vanity, than that the earth remains, which was made on account
of mankind? And that man himself, the master of the earth, should be suddenly returned to
the dust? Another meaning of this is: the first generation of Jews dies and a generation
formed from all peoples takes its place; but the earth however will remain for so long as
the Synagogue's influence slips away, and the Church becomes more powerful. For when it
was predicted that the Gospel would be known all around the world, then, it was said,
would be the end. When the end is approaching, it is true, the sky and the earth will pass
away. Solomon very precisely does not say the earth remains through the ages but through
that age. More precisely we praise the Lord not in one age, but throughout the ages.

8 1:5. The sun rises and the sun sets, then it rushes to its place, where it rises again.
The sun itself, which is given as light for mankind, shows the orbit of the world by its
rising and it setting every day. After the sun has soaked its burning orb in the ocean, it
returns by routes unknown to me to that place whence it had come; and when the period of
night is over, it again bursts out quickly from its bed. In place of "rushes to its place"
though, because we are following the Vulgate version, the Hebrew reads "soeph" which
Aquila interpreted as eispnei in Greek, that is pants; Symmachus and Theodotion write
'returns' because the sun clearly turns around to its original place and it aspires to
return there, from whence it had come earlier. But all of this is explained so that he can
teach that with the passage of time and the rising and the setting of the stars man's age
slips away and perishes, yet he does not know this for certain. Another meaning of this
is: the sun of righteousness, in whose wings lies reason, rises from those who fear and
sets midday in the false prophets. But when it has risen it takes us to its place. Where
is that? Evidently it means to the Lord himself, for it happens that he raises us from the
earth to heaven, saying, "when the son of man is lifted up, he will lift up all things to
him".

9 Nor is it surprising that the son lifts up men to himself, when even the Lord himself
lifts up to his son: "for no one", he says "comes to me except the Father, who sent me,
draw him". That sun therefore, which we have said sets for some and rises for other, and
once set for Jacob the patriarch as he was leaving the Holy Land, rose again for him when
he entered the promised land from Syria. When Lot too left Sodom and came to the city,
which he was commanded to hasten to, he climbed a mountain and the sun came out above
Segor. 10 1:6. It goes to the South and rotates to the North; turning, revolving, the wind
goes and returns upon its circuits. From this we are able to believe that the sun
approaches the meridian quarter in the time of winter, and in the summer is near to the
Great Bear, and does not commence its movements in the equinox of autumn, but when the
west wind is blowing in the time of spring, when all things give birth. But he actually
says "turning, revolving, the wind goes and returns upon its circuits" as if he calls the
sun itself a breath, like an animal that breathes and lives, completing its annual orbit
in its course, just like the poet Vergil says: "Meanwhile the sun flies around the great
year" and elsewhere "and the year flies through its own footsteps" or that bright sphere
of the moon and Titan's star: "The breath nourishes within: and the intelligence stirs the
whole mass infused through the limbs, and mingles itself with the mighty body". He is not
speaking about the annual course of the sun, but its daily path. For it proceeds sidelong
and towards the North, and thus turns to the East. Another meaning of this verse is: when
the sun moves to the South it is closer to the Earth; when it moves to the North it is
raised to higher orbits. Perhaps therefore it moves to those parts, which are compressed
together by the cold of atmospheric disturbances, and of winter.

11 Severe heat indeed blazes out from the North above the Earth, and that sun is closer to
righteousness than those men who in fact live in the Northern region, and who are deprived
of summer's heat. The sun then moves far away and turns by its circuits to the place
whence it set out. For when it has subdued all things to it and illuminated all things
with its rays, let there be the first restoration and "God may be all in all". Symmachus
interpreted this phrase saying, 'it goes to the meridian, and turns around to the North;
turning the wind goes, and the wind returns by those routes by which it had come around'.
12 1:7. All torrents flow into the sea but the sea is not filled. To the place from which
the torrents come, there they return to go. Some men believe that the fresh waters that
flow into the sea are either dried up by the burning sun above, or are feed for the salt-
thirsty sea. Here our Ecclesiastes, the creator of the very waters, says that they return
to the heads of the springs by means of hidden passages, and always boil out from their
deep channels into their springs. The Hebrews believed that the rivers or sea had more
significance in the metaphor of man, because they return to the earth, whence they
originated. They are also called torrents not rivers because they flow that much more
forcefully, yet the earth however is not filled with a great number of dead men. More
precisely if we go down to the deeper parts, the turbid waters return to the sea where
they used to remain. And unless I am mistaken, apart from the additions to the text,
nowhere is the word 'torrent' found in a good context. For "you will drink those with the
torrent of your desire" , although "of desire" is written in an addition. On the contrary
the Saviour was taken to the brook Cedron, and Elisha at the time of persecution hid away
in the brook of Chorat, which even dried up. But the sea is not filled up completely, in
the same manner as the bloodthirsty daughters in Proverbs.

13 1:8. All things are full of toil, man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with
seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. It is difficult to know not just about physics
but also about ethics. And discourse is not able to explain the natural causes of things,
nor to see those things that are hidden, (as the scope of this work demands); nor, once
you have begun to learn is it possible to arrive at the greatest understanding by
listening alone. For if we now look in the mirror in mystery and in part know and in part
prophesy, consequently discourse will not be able to explain what it does not know; nor is
the eye able to see where it is blind; nor are the ears filled by what they do not hear.
At the same time this must be noted, that all words are wearying and are learnt with great
difficulty, contrary to those who idly make prayers that an acquaintance with the
Scriptures will come to them.

14 1:9. The thing that has been, it is that which will be. And that which is done is that
which shall be done. And there is no new thing under the sun. It seems to me that he now
speaks generally about those things that he enumerated above: about generation after
generation, the globe of the earth, the rising and setting of the sun, the course of
rivers, the vastness of the ocean and all things which we learn either through thought or
through sight or hearing, because there is nothing in nature that has not been before. For
from the beginning of the world men have been born and have died, and the earth stood
level above the waters and the sun lay in its origin. And lest I should go on to list more
things, it is left to God as creator to fly with the birds, to swim with the fish, and
walk with the creatures of the earth and slide with snakes. And the comic said something
similar to this: "Nothing has been said, which has not been said before", about which my
teacher Donatus, when he was lecturing about this verse, said: "Let them die, who have
said our words before us. Then if is possible to say nothing new in discourse, how great
the creation of the world must have been, which has been complete right from the start,
that God was able to rest from his work on the seventh day! Read also in another book:

15 "If everything that is done under the sun has already been done is past centuries, and
man was already made when the sun was made: then man existed before he came under the sun.
But he is excluded, because by this reasoning even packhorses, gnats, and each insect and
large animal is said to have been made before the sky. Unless however he should reply that
talking comes from the consequences of speaking not about other animals but about the man
Ecclesiastes, for he says "there is nothing new under the sun about which one can say
'look this is new!' But he does not speak of animals but of man alone, because if he means
animals to be new, then he refutes his own opinion that nothing is new under the sun. 16
1:10. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see this is new? It has already been for
ages, which were before us. Symmachus translated this more clearly: "Do you think there is
a man who is able to say: look this is new, it has already been done before because it was
before us." But he agrees with his predecessors that there is nothing new in the world,
and that there is none that is able to live and say: 'look this is new', since everything
that he thought he had shown to be new, already existed in former times. But we ought not
to think that the signs, prodigies and the many deeds which are done for the first time by
God's judgement in the world today, have already been done before in former ages, or that
it was Epicurus who found this, asserting that these same things were done in innumerable
periods and in these places and by these same men. Besides, both Judas betrayed repeatedly
and Christ often suffered for us; and other things which have been done and will be done,
are continually repeated in these times. But it could be said too, that those things,
which will be done have already been done, decided out of foreknowledge and the
predestination of God. For those who have been chosen in Christ before the constitution of
the world existed already in previous times.

17 1:11. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance
of things that are to come with those that shall come after. In the same way as the past
is concealed for us in forgetfulness, thus it is with those things which are either done
now, or will be done. And because of this those men who have yet to be born, will not be
able to know these things, and will live life in silence, and will be obscured as if they
never existed, and that verse will be fulfilled, which says, "vanity of vanities, all is
vanity", for even the Seraphim, the first and last, cover up their feet on account of the
appearance of God. The Septuagint is similar here: "There is no memory of former things,
and even of things which are to come, there will be no memory for them with those who will
come after." That is observed from the Gospel because those who were first in time are
first before all others. And because God who is benevolent and forgiving remembers all
things no matter how insignificant, he will not give as much glory to those who deserve to
be first on account of their faults, as he will give to those who humbly wanted to be
first. And so it says consequently: "there is no memory of the wise more than of the fool
for ever."

18 1:12. I, Ecclesiastes, was King over Israel in Jerusalem. Until now the preface has
spoken only generally about all arguments; but here he returns to the subject of himself,
and reveals who he was, and how he knew and experienced all things. The Hebrews say that
Solomon, who was doing repentance, wrote this book, and who, having put his trust in
wisdom and riches, failed God because of his wives. 19 1:13. I applied my mind to seek and
probe by wisdom all that happens beneath the sky - it is a sorry task that God has given
to the sons of man with which to be concerned. Aquila, the Septuagint, and Theodotion have
all translated the Hebrew word anian similarly as peristasmon, which the interpreter
expressed as occupied in Latin, because the mind of man is torn asunder when occupied by
several anxieties. But Symmachus uses the Greek word ascholian, which means business.
Since therefore in this book it is more often called either occupationem, or distentionem,
or whatever else we have called it, they all refer to the higher senses. Ecclesiastes
therefore set his mind first of all to the acquisition of wisdom, and pursuing this beyond
what is allowed, wanted to know the causes and reasoning why children are easily snatched
by the Devil; why the righteous and the wicked are equally punished in shipwrecks; and
whether these events happen as a result of fate, or by the decree of God. And if by fate,
where is providence? If by decree, where is God's justice? With such desire to know these
things, he said, I understand the great care and torturing anxiety experienced in many
things, which was given to man by God, in order that he might desire to know that which he
is not allowed to know. But the cause is inborn first, and God then gives vexation. For it
is written similarly in the epistles to the Romans: "On account of what did God give them
up to the suffering of dishonour?"

20 then again he says: "On account of what did He give them up to uncleanness, so that
they did what was not allowed". And then: "On account of which God gave them up to desire
for their uncleanness". And to the Thessalonians: "And for this cause God will send them
strong delusion." But the causes why they succumb were revealed earlier: either by the
suffering of dishonour, or by vile affections, or by the longing in their heart, or
whatever it is they do to receive strong delusion. In this way and because of their
effectiveness God gave this wicked 'occupation' to man, with which to be concerned,
because he did these things first voluntarily and entirely of his own will. 21 1:14. I
have seen all the deeds done underneath the sun, and behold all is futile and a vexation
of the spirit. We are compelled here by necessity to examine the Hebrew words more closely
than we wish. It is also not possible to know the real meaning of the text, unless we
learn it through studying the original Hebrew words. Aquila and Theodotion translate routh
as the Greek nomen, Symmachus has boskesin. The Septuagint does not express the Hebrew
meaning, but the Syriac, as shown in the Greek word proairesin. Therefore either nome, or
boskesis, is the noun coming from vexation. Proairesis sounds more like 'will' than
'vexation'. Every single man however is said to do what he wishes, and what seems right to
him; and men are borne with different dispositions (i.e. good and wicked) of their own
free will. And all things under the sun are vain, when we displease each other by doing
what is the greatest good and greatest evil. A Hebrew, who was instructing me as I read
the Holy Scriptures, said to me that above the word routh was written "it means rather
suffering and wickedness in this place than vexation and will", and the meaning does not
come from the evil which is contrary to good, but from that which is written in the
Gospel: "Sufficient to the day is its wickedness." The Greeks call this more significantly
kakouchian, so the verse essentially means: "I have considered all things, which are done
in the world, and I discovered nothing except vanity and wickedness, that is distress of
the soul, by which the spirit is afflicted in contrary thoughts.

22 1:15. A twisted thing cannot be made straight, and what is not there cannot be
numbered. Whoever is wicked cannot be corrected, unless he was corrected beforehand.
Anything that is already correct will receive embellishment; and that which is deviated
will receive correction. A man is not called wrong unless he has been diverted from the
correct path. This is contrary to the heretics, who entertained certain characteristics,
which do not seem to be sane. And since what is missing is lacking, it cannot be numbered.
Besides, only the firstborn of Israel were counted. The women, slaves, children and the
people from Egypt, although of a great number, were largely overlooked, being referred to
as a reduction from the army, without a number. The meaning of this can also be: such
wickedness is done in the sphere of the world that the world is scarcely able to return to
its completely good condition; nor is it able to regain easily its order and complete
state, in which it was first created. Another meaning of this is: when all men have been
restored to goodness through repentance, only the devil will remain in his wickedness. For
all things which are done under the sun are done by his will and in the spirit of
malevolence, while sins are piled on sins at his instigation. Then it can also mean: so
great is the number of deviants and of those who have been taken away from God's flock by
the devil that it is impossible to count them.

23 1:16. I said to myself: here I have acquired great wisdom, more than any of my
predecessors over Jerusalem, and my mind has had much experience with wisdom and
knowledge. Solomon was not greater than Abraham and Moses, and other saints, but than
those who were before him in Jerusalem. We read in the book of Kings that Solomon was very
wise, and he claimed this wisdom to have been given by God before all others. It was then
the eye of his heart that saw great wisdom and knowledge in the world, since he does not
say I spoke much wisdom and knowledge but my heart saw much wisdom and knowledge. For
indeed we are not able to speak out all those things which we feel. 1:17. I applied my
mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this, too, is a
vexation of the spirit. Contrary abstract ideas are understood by looking at contrary
facts; and " wisdom is the first to be lacking in foolishness" , but it is not possible to
be lacking in foolishness, unless one has understood it. Many dangerous things are also
created from foolishness, so that while we try to avoid them, we are actually instructed
in wisdom. Solomon wanted to know wisdom and knowledge with equal enthusiasm, and equally
madness and folly, so that whilst seeking some things and shunning others, his true wisdom
might be proved. But in this too, as in other things, he said he found great difficulties
and was not able to grasp the exact truth of matters. What I have said above about
vexation of the spirit or suffering of the soul, as it is more often written in this book,
should be sufficient to understand the rest of this verse.

24 1:18. For with much wisdom comes much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases
pain. The more a man seeks wisdom, the more he finds himself in vice and far from those
virtues, which he is seeking. For those who are powerful suffer torments more gravely, and
more is demanded of the man, to whom more is entrusted. Because of this he increases his
pain who increases his knowledge, and is saddened by grief according to God, and suffers
beyond his offences. The apostle said concerning this: "and who is there, who gladdens me,
unless he is saddened by me?" Unless perchance, and this must be understood, that a wise
man would suffer so much for his wisdom, in secret and deep in his flank, nor would he
show himself to prosper in intelligence, as light is to seeing; but rather through certain
torments and intolerable toil, and through perpetual meditation and enthusiasm.

CHAPTER 2

1 2:1. I said to myself: Come, I will experiment with joy and enjoy pleasure. That, too,
turned out to be futile. After I detected that pain and labour were in the essence of
wisdom and the accumulation of knowledge, and nothing else except vain and endless
struggle, I felt joyful that I would overflow with excess, accrue riches, amass great
wealth, and take temporary pleasures before I die. But even in this I saw my vanity, for
past pleasures do not help the present, and do not fill up what is empty. It is not just
the pleasures of the flesh however, but also spiritual joys that are a temptation for one
who possesses them. Hence I desired greatly, because I had been grabbed by this incentive
and the angel of Satan too, who had knocked me down with such force that I could not
recover. Solomon says about this "Don't give me riches and poverty" , and immediately
writes underneath "lest I be full and a liar", and lest I should ask, "who is looking at
me?", for the devil strikes down in abundance righteous men. In the apostles it is also
written, "lest enraptured by his pride, he should fall into the judgement of the devil ",
that is 'into such a judgement, as the Devil himself falls ". But having said this,
spiritual joy, just as the other kinds, is claimed to be vanity, because we see it through
a mirror and in mystery. But when it has been seen for what it is, then it is called
vanity for no reason, but rather truth.

2 2:2. I said of laughter, It is madness! And of joy, What does it accomplish? Wherever we
read madness the Hebrew text has molal, which Aquila took to be planesin, that is
'delusion', Symmachus has thorubon, 'commotions'. But the Septuagint and Theodotion as in
many places, so too in this, also agree and translate it as periphoran, which we,
expressing word for word, can call 'revolution'. Those men therefore, who are carried
around on the 'breeze' of all doctrines, are unstable and fluctuate between
interpretations. Thus those who guffaw with that laugh, which the Lord says must be muted
in holy weeping, are seized by the delusion of time and its whirlwind, not understanding
the disaster that their sins will cause, nor bewailing their former faults, but thinking
that brief joys are going to be perpetual. Then they exult in these, which are more worthy
of lamentation than joy. Heretics also believe this, who agree with false doctrines and
promise themselves happiness and prosperity.

3 2:3. I thought to stimulate my body with wine while my heart is involved with wisdom,
and to grasp folly, until I can discern which is best for mankind to do under the heavens
during the brief span of their lives. I wanted to stimulate my life with enjoyment, and to
lull my body, as if freed from all worries by wine, in the same way with desire; but my
deep consideration and inborn reasoning, which God the creator mingled even into my sins,
drew me away from the idea and led me back to seek wisdom and to spurn foolishness, so
that I was able to see what was good, that men can do in the span of their lives. But he
has compared desire eloquently with intoxication. Since he intoxicates and destroys the
vitality of his spirit, which he was able to change into wisdom and obtains spiritual
happiness, (as it is written in certain manuscripts), he is able to discern which things
ought to be sought out in this life, and which avoided.

4 2:4. I acted in grand style: I built myself houses, I planted vineyards; and others such
until the point where he says: The wise man has his eyes in his head, whereas the fool
walks in darkness. Before I discuss each of these in turn it seems useful to me to
encompass all of them in a short paragraph, and to reduce their meanings to just one
explanation, so that it is easier to understand what is being said. I had all things that
have been considered good through the ages. I built myself a palace on high, and covered
the hills and mountains with vines. And lest anything be lacking from my excess I planted
gardens and orchards of different kinds of trees, which were watered from above by water
stored in pools, so that the growth was fed for longer periods with continual moisture. I
also had an uncountable number of slaves, buyers and natives, and many flocks of animals,
cows of course, and sheep- no king before me in Jerusalem had such a number. I also
amassed a huge number of treasure houses of gold and of silver, which I obtained as gifts
from various kings and as tributes from conquered races. And because of this it happened
that I was prompted by having too much wealth to even more pleasures, and they called to
me in choirs of music, flutes, lyres and in songs, and each sex served in entertainment.
Those temptations grew in such quantity as I was lacking in wisdom.

5 For desire had dragged me to each and every pleasure and I was being carried along
unbridled and headlong, and I thought that that was the fruit of my labours, if I myself
was consumed with lust and luxury. Having then at last returned to my senses, and as if
waking from a deep sleep, I looked at my hands and saw that my work was full of vanity,
full of squalor, and full of the character of my folly. For I found nothing to be good
that was considered good in the world. Considering therefore those things which were good
for wisdom and which were bad for foolishness I rushed to praise any man, who then
refrained from his sins and was able to pursue true virtues. Certainly there is a great
diversity between wisdom and foolishness, and virtues are as much separated from vices as
day differs from night. It seems to me then that he that follows that path of wisdom
always lifts his eyes to heaven and raises his face aloft, and considers those things
which are above his head; but he that gives in to foolishness and vices fumbles in the
darkness and flounders in his ignorance of the world. I acted in grand style: I built
houses for myself, I planted vineyards. He, who is raised up equal to the face of God in
the heavens, makes his work great; and he builds houses so that the Father and the Son
will come, and will live in them.

6 And he plants vineyards to which Jesus will tie up his ass. 7 2:5. I made for myself
gardens and orchards and planted in them every kind of fruit tree. In my treasure house
are not only gold and silver dishes but even some that are made from wood and pottery. And
even the gardens therefore are made on account of certain weaker and sick men, for anyone
who is sick will eat vegetables. Trees are planted, not all of them fruit-bearing as we
have in the Latin manuscripts, but of all fruits, that is of varied fruits and fruit-
trees, because the grace of the Church is also varied. Thus one type of tree is the eye,
one the hand and another the foot, and on those things which are most prized we bestow our
greatest glory. And amongst those fruit-trees I esteem the wood itself to be primal in
life because it is wisdom, for unless that is planted in their midst the other trees will
dry up.

8 2:6. I constructed pools from which to irrigate a grove of young trees. The wood in
glades and in forests, which is not fruit-bearing, are not nourished by rain from the sky,
not by such rain waters but by water which is collected in pools from rivers. Even low-
lying Egypt is situated low in the land like a vegetable patch, and is irrigated by
waters, which come from Ethiopia. But the Promised Land which is mountainous and raised up
waits for timely or late-coming rain from the sky. 9 2:7. I bought slaves, male and
female, and natives too; I also owned more possessions, both cattle and sheep, than all of
my predecessors in Jerusalem. If we want Ecclesiastes, as we have said before, to refer to
the person of Christ here too, then we are able to say his slaves who have the spirit of
fear in servitude and desire more spiritual things in life than they already have. But we
can also call the slave-girls hearts that till now have been bestowed upon the body and
upon the earth. They surpass also those natives, who are certain of the Church, both
slaves and slave-girls, about whom I have spoken. And the Lord has not yet bestowed upon
them freedom or noble-birth. But there are others in the estate of Ecclesiastes like oxen
and sheep, who are kept on account of work and their innocence, and who work even in the
church without reason and knowledge of the Scriptures. But they have not yet attained such
an understanding, that they deserve to be men and return to the appearance of their
creator. If you look more diligently too, you will notice that the number is not added in
the case of slaves, slave-girls and natives, but in the case of cows and sheep it is said:
"I owned more possessions of cattle and sheep". There is more silver in fact in the Church
than men: more sheep than slaves, slave-girls and natives. But that which is said at the
end- "more than all those who were before me in Jerusalem" does not pertain to the glory
of Solomon, or that he was richer than his father the King, since Saul did not rule in
Jerusalem, and the city was held by the Jebusites who had themselves occupied the city at
that time. Ecclesiastes however was richer at a younger age than were all men, who had
preceded him as kings in Jerusalem.

10 2:8. I amassed even silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and the
provinces; I provided myself with various singers and musical instruments, and with every
human luxury- chests and chests of them. Divine scripture always places silver and gold
above speech and meaning. The dove in the sixty-seventh Psalm represents this too, which
is interpreted as a spirit, and is more noticeable because of its silver wings, so that it
hides the underlying significance of the pallor of gold. But he gathers the treasures of
kings and of the provinces or kingdoms into the Church of believers. He refers to those
kings about whom the psalmist writes "the kings of the earth were there and the chiefs
gathered together". And he refers to those kingdoms to which the Saviour orders us to
raise our eyes, since now they burn with fear. The treasures of kings can be called both
the doctrines of philosophers and also secular knowledge, which Ecclesiastes understands
well: he takes hold of the wise men in their wisdom, and squanders the wisdom of the wise,
and reproves the discretion of the prudent. The choirboys and girls are those who sing
with vitality and with intelligence. A male singer sings like a man who is both strong and
spiritual about heavenly matters. But a girl flits about the matter, which the Greeks call
hulen. Nor is she able to raise her voice loudly into the air.

11 Therefore wherever a woman is mentioned in the Scriptures and the weaker sex, we are to
translate it according to an understanding of the context. Pharaoh does not want the male
children to be allowed to live for example, but only the females in this matter. And
another point is that none of the saints is said to have had a daughter, and it is only
Salphaat, who died for his sins, that had all girls. Jacob is the father of one daughter
amongst the twelve patriarchs, but is endangered by her. The pleasures also of mankind
over wisdom must be understood, which have many fruits and desires like paradise. We are
admonished against them, saying, "take delight in the Lord and he will give you the
request of your heart", and in another place, "you will drink them as the torrent of your
desire". (I had wanted to shun reference to the female sex, and even now use the
distinction of the male, because the Latin language does not take readily to this. Aquila
explains about the wine-pourers, male and female, in a manner very different to the
fashion written here. For Solomon is not naming the sexes of man, clearly either male or
female, but types of dish, and he calls them kulikion and kulikia, which is written in
Hebrew as sadda and saddoth. Then Symmachus, who was not able to express the idea word for
word, translates this in a similar way: types of table and equipment.

12 Therefore Solomon is believed to have had either pitchers, wine goblets, or bowls
arranged in chests, and which were ornate with gold and with jewels. And he drank from a
kulikio in one, (that is, a bowl) and from kilikiois in other places, which are clearly
smaller dishes; and the crowd of drinkers received wine at the hands of his servants.
Because we explain Ecclesiastes as being Christ, therefore wisdom, having mingled her wine
(as it says in Proverbs) calls out to those who wander to come to her. Now we must see the
body of the Lord as a very great bowl, in which is not pure divinity as there is in
heaven, but there God is blended with humanity on account of us, and wisdom is then poured
out by the apostles to smaller kulikia, small goblets and bowls held by believers
throughout the world. 13 2:9. Thus I grew and surpassed any of my predecessors in
Jerusalem; still, my wisdom stayed with me. It seems to me that Ecclesiastes, acting
grandly, agrees less with the Lord, unless by chance we adapt this to him: "He [Jesus]
increased in wisdom and age and grace". And, "on account of which God took him on high".
He also says "those who were before me in Jerusalem" and is referring to those who, before
he arrived, steered the congregation of holy men and the Church. If we explain the text in
a spiritual way then Christ is richer than all men; and he only perceives the Synagogue
better in bodily form than the Church. Therefore he wears a veil, because it was placed
over the face of Moses and he let us see his face in daylight. More precisely "wisdom has
stayed with me", means even in respect to the temptations of the body wisdom stayed with
him. For he who receives a profit from his wisdom will not keep wisdom long, but he who
does not receive a gain, nor grows through change, but always has plenty- he is able to
say, "and wisdom has stayed with me".

14 2:10. Whatever my eyes desired I did not deny them; I did not deprive myself of any
joy. Indeed my heart drew joy from all my activities, and this was my reward for all my
endeavours. The eyes of the heart and the sight of the mind desire to gaze on spiritual
matters, which the sinner does not see, so forbids his heart from true happiness.
Therefore Ecclesiastes gave himself completely over to this cause and balanced eternal
glory lightly in an world of discord. This is our lot, and our continual reward if we work
for our virtues. 2:11. Then I looked at all things that I had done and the energy I had
expended in doing them. He who does all things with diligence and wariness is able to say
this. It was clear that it was all futile and a vexation of the spirit, [and there is no
profit under the sun.] As if he considers that in comparison with other things, all things
are cheap which are under the sun, and are different according to the variety of desires.
And there is no profit under the sun. Christ placed his tabernacle in the sun. So Christ
will not be able to live, nor be plentiful in whoever has not yet obtained the lucidity of
the sun, its regularity and constancy.

15 2:12. Then I turned my attention to appraising wisdom with madness and folly - for what
can man who comes after the king do? This seems to discuss heavenly matters until the
place where he says, "the eyes of a wise man are in his head". I had summed up all things
in one explanation, intending to show the meaning briefly, and because of that, again
according to anagoge, I had only touched lightly on some things, but now I ought to
explain in a manner similar to that in which I began. For the meaning is quite different
here from the interpretation found in the Septuagint. But he says he had returned to
seeking wisdom after pleasures and those desires he had condemned, in which he found more
foolishness and stupidity than true and recognised knowledge. For man, he said, is not
able to know so clearly and truly the wisdom of his creator and of his king, as his
creator knows it himself. And so he says that those things that we know, we only think we
have grasped and value more than know what is true.

16 2:13. And I perceived that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. I am allowed,
he says, to see through that very wisdom of mankind, which is mixed with uncertainty. Nor
is it possible, he adds, for it to flow into our minds so clearly as it does into the king
and our creator. I know however that the difference between wisdom and folly is great even
as much as one can differentiate between day and night, between light and dark. 2:14. The
wise man has his eyes in his head, whereas a fool walks in darkness. But I also realised
that the same fate awaits them all. Whoever attains complete wisdom and has deserved
Christ to be his aim always raises his eyes to the heavens and will therefore never think
about terrestrial matters. When these things are considered in this way and there is such
a distinction between a wise man and a fool, one being compared with day and the other
with darkness, the former raises his eyes to heaven, the latter looks on the ground.
Suddenly this thought occurred to me, why both the wise man and the fool are constrained
by a common mortality - why the same wounds, the same fate, the same death and equal
troubles confine each one.

17 2:15-16. So I said to myself: the fate of the fool will befall me also; to what
advantage then have I become wise? But I concluded that this, too, was vanity. For there
is no comparison between the remembrance of the wise and of the fool at all, for as the
succeeding days roll by, is all forgotten? How can the wise man's death be like the
fool's? I have stated that the wise man and the fool, the righteous and wicked are
destined to die by the same fate and all wicked things in this world will suffer a similar
fate; what profit is there for me then, that I have sought wisdom and worked more than
others? On reconsidering the matter and applying myself to it diligently I saw that my
opinion was unfounded. For the wise and foolish will not have similar remembrance in the
future when the end of the world comes; and they will be confined for no reason by equal
death because the wise man will continue to the joys of heaven and the fool to his
punishment. The Septuagint translates the meaning of the Hebrew here more clearly, for it
doesn't necessarily follow the Hebrew word order: "and to what purpose have I become
wise?" Then I said to myself copiously, (for the fool is he, who speaks too much), 'for
this is also vanity, because there is no remembrance of the wise with the fool for ever,
and so on.' Since he tried to convince us that his prior thoughts were foolish, he bore
witness that he had spoken foolishly, and that he had erred, and it was by doing this that
he realised his folly.

18 2:17. So I hated life, for I was depressed by all that goes on under the sun, because
everything is vain and a vexation of the spirit. The world has been given over to
unkindness and the apostle moans about the tabernacle saying "I am a wretched man, who
will free me from the body of this death?", and he hates quite rightly everything that is
done under the sun. That is however only in comparison with paradise and the beatitude of
that life, in which we would enjoy the fruits of wisdom and the pleasures of virtues. But
now as if we are in a prison camp or cell, and with a wall of tears, we eat our bread in
the sweat of our brow. 19 2:18-19. Thus I hated all my achievements labouring under the
sun, for I must leave it to the man who succeeds me. And who knows whether he will be wise
or foolish? - And he will control all my possessions which I toiled and have shown myself
wise under the sun. This, too, is vanity. He seems to be reconsidering wealth and riches,
because according to the Gospel, being snatched by sudden death, we do not know with which
kind of heir we die - whether he will be a fool or wise who will enjoy the fruits of our
toil. This was also the case with Solomon: for he did not regard his son Roboam as similar
to himself. We learn from this that a son is not worthy of his father's heredity if he is
foolish. But to me studying the work it seems that he is speaking more about spiritual
labour, because a wise man will work on the Scriptures for days and nights, and will
compose books and will hand down his memory to his descendants, and nonetheless all this
will come into the hands of fools, who repeatedly find in them the seeds of heresy,
according to the perversity of their own mind, and waste other men's efforts. For if the
text now refers to Ecclesiastes' personal wealth, it was necessary to say about toil and
wealth: "and he will control all my possessions which I toiled and have shown myself wise
under the sun." For what is wise in the pursuit of earthly riches?

20 2:20-23. So I turned my heart to despair of all that I had achieved by toiling under
the sun. For there is a man who laboured with wisdom, knowledge and skill, yet he must
hand on his portion to one who has not toiled for it. This too is vanity and a great evil.
For what has a man in return for all his toil and his stress, which he toils beneath the
sun? For all his days are painful, and his business is a vexation; even at night his mind
has no rest. This, too, is vanity! Previously he has spoken about the uncertainty of an
heir and not knowing whether he will be foolish or wise, the master of the works of
another. But even now he seeks the same things but this time the meaning is different,
because he might leave his wealth and labours perhaps to his son, to a neighbour, or
someone he knows. Nevertheless it happens time and time again that one man enjoys in the
work of another, and sweet toil is to the dead while pleasures are for the living. He
thinks of himself as every single one and he will see with how much toil he composes his
books, how "often he turns his pen, again he will write those things which are worthy of
law", and for the man who does not work he will give him his own share. For what good to
the wealth of the earth, as I have said clearly, are wisdom, knowledge and virtue, in
which he said he had laboured? For although he may be virtuous, wise and knowledgeable he
spurns worldly things.

21 2:24-26. Is it not good for man that he eats and drinks and shows his soul satisfaction
in his labour? And even that, I perceived, is from the hand of God. For who should eat and
who should make haste except me? To the man who pleases Him He has given wisdom, knowledge
and joy; but to the sinner He has given the urge to gather and amass - that he may hand it
on to one who is pleasing to God. That, too, is vanity and a vexation of the spirit. After
I examined all things and saw that nothing was more unjust than one man enjoying the work
of another, then this work seemed to me to be the most righteous, and like a gift of God,
seeing that a man may enjoy his own labour, drinking and eating, and for a time refraining
from amassed wealth. And sometimes it is a gift of God, that such a mind as is bestowed
upon righteous men, that they squander those things, which they have sought with great
attention and vigilance. In fact on the other hand, it is the character of the anger of
God, which is set against the sinner, so he amasses wealth day and night and uses if for
no purpose, then he bequeaths it to those men who are righteous in the sight of God.

22 But, he says, looking at this more closely and noticing that all things come to a
common end with death, I have judged it to be the most vain of all. These readings are
very close to the text though, so that I do not seem to completely miss the plain meaning
of the words, and while I follow spiritual riches, disdain the poverty of history. For
what is good then, or what kind of gift of God is it, either to covet his wealth and like
a man in flight gather desire prematurely, or to turn someone else's work to ones own
pleasures, and then to think that this is a gift of God, if we take pleasure in others'
discomfort and toil? It is good though, to take our own food and drink, which we have
found by divine will, from the flesh and blood of a Lamb. For who is either able to eat or
when there is need to spare in the absence of God? He warned that sacred food must not be
given to the dogs, and he teaches how rations ought on occasion to be given to slaves, and
similar to another meaning, that is we ought to eat only honey that has been found, and
only as much as is needed. But God gives wisdom and knowledge and happiness to the man who
is good.

23 For unless he was good and corrected his ways beforehand by his own judgement, he will
not be worthy of that wisdom, knowledge and happiness, according to that which is said in
another place: "Plant for yourselves in justice, make a vintage of the fruit of life,
enlighten for yourselves the light of knowledge. In fact, righteousness ought to be
planted first, and the fruit of life must be reaped, only then, afterwards the light of
knowledge will be able to appear. Therefore just as God gave the good man wisdom and other
gifts, in the same way he has forsaken the sinner according to his own judgement, and made
him amass riches and contrive false doctrines therefrom. When a saintly man who is
pleasing to God sees these things, he understands them, since they are vain and composed
of the conceit of the spirit. Nor should we admire what he has said: "he gave vexation to
the sinner" and so on. For this must be seen in concordance with that meaning which I have
often explained: that for this reason anxiety or vexation has been given to him, since he
was a sinner, and the cause of vexation was not in God, but in himself, who had sinned
previously by his own volition.

CHAPTER 3

1 3:1. Everything has its season, and there is a time for everything under the heavens. He
has taught in the previous verses the doubtful and changeable state of humanity; now he
wants to show that all things are opposed to each other in the world, and that nothing
remains forever of those things, which are under the heavens and beyond time, since the
other spiritual substances are contained neither in the heavens nor in time. 2 3:2. A time
to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot that which has been
planted. No one doubts that men are born and die, and God knows that what he has planted
will grow full and well; for to pull out what has been planted is to die. But since we
read in Isaiah "we have conceived, laboured with and given birth out of a fear for You",
this must be said, because when a man is ready, that man in particular, who was born from
fear, will die as soon as he has begun to love God. Since indeed "perfect love sends fear
outside". The Hebrews understand all that he has written about the contradiction of times,
(until it says " a time for war and a time for peace") as concerning Israel. Because it is
not necessary to go through each verse in turn here, commenting on how they are to be
interpreted and what they mean, I will list them briefly, leaving a more detailed study to
the reader's discretion. There was a time for growing and planting in Israel, a time for
dying and leading it into bondage. A time for killing them in Egypt, and a time for
freeing them from Egypt. A time for destroying the Temple under Nebuchadnezer, and a time
for rebuilding under Darius. A time for bewailing the plundering of the city and a time
for laughing and dancing under Zorobabel, Esdra, and Nehemiah.

3 A time for dissemination from Israel and a time for gathering them together again. A
time like a belt or harness put around the Jews by God, and a time for leading them into
bondage in Babylon and there for them to rot across the Euphrates. Read perizoma of
Jeremiah. A time for seeking them out and rescuing, a time for losing and a time for
forsaking. A time for schism in Israel and a time for reunification. A time for hushing
the prophets, now when in Roman bondage and a time for proclaiming them aloud, when even
in enemy lands they weren't lacking in God's presence or comfort. A time for loving, in
which He loved those men before our fathers, a time for hating, since they threw their
hands up against Christ. A time for war, only not for those who are doing repentance for
themselves and a time for peace in the future, when all the tribes return, and all Israel
will be safe.

4 3:3. A time for killing and a time for healing. It is both the time for killing and the
time for healing, he says: "I will kill, and I will revive". He cures, provoking one to
repentance. 'I killed' has the same meaning as "in the morning I murdered all the sinners
of the Earth." A time for destroying and a time for building. We are not able to build
anything good unless we have first destroyed what is bad. Just as the word of Jeremiah
came from God so that he first rooted out, undermined and killed; then he built and
planted. 3:4. A time for weeping and a time for laughter. Now is the time for weeping and
in the future it will be the time for laughter: for "the blessed weep, since they
themselves will laugh." A time for bewailing and a time for dancing. For this reason they
are seized in the Gospel, those to whom God says " I have lamented for you and you have
not moaned; I sang and you did not dance." We must moan at present so that afterwards we
can dance that dance, which David danced before the arc of the covenant, and displeasing
to the daughter of Saul he was more pleasing to God.

5 3:5. A time for dispersing stones and a time for collecting stones. I marvel how an
learned man could have said this ridiculous note about this passage: "this passage speaks
about the destruction and killing of Solomon's houses, because men first destroy, then
build". Some amass stones to construct buildings, others destroy those buildings which
have been erected, according to Horace's lines "he demolished, he builds, exchanges
squares with wheels, he fluctuates and disagrees with the whole order of life itself.
Whether he is correct in saying this or not I leave up to the reader to decide.
Nonetheless we should follow the sequence of the prior explanation-they say it is a time
for scattering and collecting stones, similar to what is written in the Gospel: "God is
powerful enough to raise up the sons of Abraham from these stones". For there was a time
for dispersing the nation and a time for gathering them again into the Church. I have read
in a certain book, (like the Septuagint however, which says "there was a time for throwing
stones and a time for collecting them") that the harshness of the ancient law of the
Gospel was tempered by grace. In fact the stern law, unkind and unforgiving, murders the
sinner, he pities with the grace of the Gospel and provokes men to repentance. And there
is a time for throwing stones, or collecting them, because stones are thrown in law and
are collected in the Gospel. Whether this is true fact or not is credited to the author.

6 A time for embracing and a time for being far from embrace. The meaning of this is
seemingly the simplest understanding- the apostle agrees with the same words: "do not
cheat each other, unless by chance it is agreed for a time that you give yourselves to
fasting and to prayer. Attention must be given to children, and again to self-control. Or
perhaps it was the time for embrace when the opinion was flourishing that we ought to
"grow and multiply, and fill up the Earth". And the time became far from one of embracing
when it passed away: "the times are hard; it remains that both they that have wives be as
though they had none". But if we wanted to climb to the higher parts, we would see wisdom
embracing its lovers: for he says "honour it and it will embrace you", and hold them in
its arms and lap in a tighter embrace. More precisely, it is not always possible to
stretch the human mind to heaven and think about the divine and higher things, or
continually consider celestial matters, but meanwhile to indulge in the necessities of the
flesh. On account of this there is a time for embracing wisdom, and holding it more
tightly, and a time for relaxing the mind from the study and embrace of wisdom, just as of
the care of the body, and we have those things that our life needs in the absence of sin.

7 3:6-7. A time to acquire and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away. As
is in many verses before the meaning is the same here too, which is apparent before and
following this verse, in that he says: A time to destroy and a time to build. And then A
time to rend and a time to mend. Just as the Synagogue is destroyed so that the Church can
be built and schism is only brought about by the law so that the Gospels are unified,
because each preacher has carried it out one by one, unifying from the law and the
prophets the testimonies of the arrival of the Lord. And thus there was a time for seeking
and guarding Israel, a time for losing and discarding it. Or perhaps in fact a time for
seeking a nation in the tribes and a time for losing the people of the Jews. A time for
guarding the believers of the nations and a time for dismissing the faithless from Israel.
A time for silence and a time for speaking. I think that the Pythagoreans, whose
discipline is to remain silent for five years and afterwards to speak to learned men, took
the origin of their decree from this. Let us learn therefore and so remain silent first,
so that afterwards we open our mouths only to speak. Let us be silent for a set period and
depend on the utterances of our teacher.

8 Nothing seems right to us unless we learn that after much silence we are made into
teachers by our pupils. Now though instead of the world slipping day by day into a far
worse situation, we teach in churches what we do not know. And if by composing words or at
the bidding of the devil, who is the patron of madness, we have aroused the applause of
the common people, then we think we understand, (contrary to our conscience), what it is
we were able to dissuade others from. We do not learn all the arts without a teacher, only
those which are so common and easy that they don't require a tutor. 9 3:8. A time for
loving and a time for hating. The time for loving God, children, wife, and relatives is
afterwards, and the time for hating those in martyrdom since hostile piety attacks those
steadfast men for the sake of the confession of Christ. Or maybe there is a time for
loving the law, and those things that the law decrees- that is circumcision, sacrifices,
the Sabbath, Neumania, and a time for hating them when the grace of the Gospel has been
lost. But we cannot say this, since now we look through the mirror in mystery, the time
for loving is the present, and in the future there will come a time when we will see face
to face and then, more accomplished, we will begin to hate and despise what we love. A
time for war and a time for peace. Although we are in the present world, it is the time
for war: when we have left this world the time for peace will come. For the place of God
is in peace and so too is our city of Jerusalem, for it is called 'chosen in peace'.
Therefore no one now thinks he is safe: you must prepare yourselves in the time of war and
put on the apostles arms, so that we may rest in peace at last victorious.

10 3:9-11. What gain, then, has the worker in exchange for all his toil? I have observed
the task which God has given the sons of man to be concerned with: He made everything
beautiful in its time; He has also put an enigma into their minds so that man cannot
comprehend what God has done from the beginning to end. The opinion of many other scholars
on this passage does not escape me, because in this world God conceded to the teachers of
perverse doctrines their true occupation, lest man's idle mind should become slow and
while thinking that God's creations are good, yet nonetheless not be able to see them as
the natural knowledge of the world. But the Hebrew who taught me the Scriptures explained
it in this way: when all things are placed in their own time and there is a time for
destroying or building, weeping and laughing, silence and speaking, and others things
which are said about time, why do we try to survive in vain and believe the labours of
this short life to be perpetual? And according to the Gospel we are not even happy, and it
is called wickedness since we think nothing of tomorrow. For what more are we able to have
in this world than continual striving in that toil, which God has given to man, so that
one man may gain more by following others, in a situation where he is able to learn and
exercise himself? For all that God does is good, but good in his world.

11 It is good to wake and to sleep, but it is not good to be always awake or asleep, since
in turn each and every thing can be considered good, when there is need, according to
God's plan. Moreover God also created the world to be inhabited by men, so that they
should enjoy the variation of time, and not seek the causes nature, how all things are
made, why He made this or that grow or change from the beginning of the world until now.
12 3:12-13. Thus I perceived that there is nothing good for each of them than to rejoice
and do what is good in his life. Indeed every man who eats and drinks and finds
satisfaction in all his labour- it is a gift from God. Therefore the settler and the
foreigner of the world has been charged that he should enjoy the time of his short life,
and when the hope of a longer life has been removed, he sees everything that he has as if
he is about leave this life, and he sees also what he can do well in his life. And his
thoughts are not in vain thus twisted, on account of his amassed wealth. And he doesn't
think that he is able to acquire more from his toil than his food and drink and if he
expends anything from his wealth into good work, then only this is a gift of God. We are
not provoked, as some scholars think, by such words into luxury, pleasures, and
desperation as are animals, according to that phrase of Isaiah: "let us gorge ourselves
and drink, for tomorrow we will die. But according to the apostle: "having sustenance and
clothing, we are content with these. And whatever we have that is more than this, we use
in feeding the poor and our need for charity.

13 More to the point, since the true food is the flesh of the Lord, and his blood is the
true drink, according to anagoge, we only regard this as good in the present world, if we
actually do feed from his flesh and drink from his blood, not only in secret but even in
reading the Scriptures. For true food and drink, which is taken from the word of God, is
knowledge of the Scriptures. But no one believes the word of Balaam of the prophets, who
says "there will be no toil against Jacob, no suffering in Israel". It is in fact contrary
to this, because it is said to be a gift of God: "If anyone eats and drinks and shows he
is good in all of his work". In fact these are the many troubles of the righteous. And the
apostle complains about these, saying he has sweated in toil and suffering. But the Lord
freed us for our future in toil and suffering also: "there will be no toil against Jacob,
no suffering in Israel". And we read how " the blessed weep, since they will laugh", and
our laughter follows the words of Job the prophet: for the "mouth will be filled with the
joy of truths". Thus now we enjoy our toil in good work, by which we restrict and restrain
ourselves so that afterwards we may cease from working.

14 3:14. I realised that whatever God does will endure forever: nothing can be added to it
and nothing taken away, and God has acted so that man should fear Him. There is nothing in
the world that is new. The course of the sun and moon in turn and the dryness and verdure
of the earth and trees are born and take shape with the world itself. And therefore God
governed all things by a defined plan and commanded the elements to be at the disposal of
man, for his use, so that when men see these things they know that there is providence and
fear the appearance of God; while from the equality of the world, the natural season,
order, and constancy they understand their creator. "For his invisible work in the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made,
even his eternal virtue and power". If we want we can read this as if from the beginning,
with the meaning of the first part already understood: "and God has acted so that man
should fear Him" then this is the meaning: God made all these things, so that men fear
him, and reject for another what God once created for man. But he governed perfectly,
saying: "so that they should fear his appearance". The image of the Lord, indeed, is
powerful over those who are wicked.

15 3:15. What has been, already exists, and what is still to be, has already been, and God
seeks him that suffers persecution. All things we perceive in the past, present or future,
they themselves have been, are, and will be. That same sun which now rises, existed before
we were in this world, and after we die, it will rise again. But we have mentioned the
sun, so that we understand other things to be the same as they have been before. Because
if they are seen to die by what we call death, they do not really die, but grow again
given a second life, and nothing dies forever but is reborn and relives as if with a
certain new seed. For this is what he says: "and God seeks him that suffers persecution",
which is said better in Greek kai ho theos zetesei to diokomenon that is what dies, what
has perished, and has ceased to be. But if that speaks about all that are in the world
there is no doubt about man, that having died he will be reborn. But if anyone likes to
choose a beginning as if his own, "and God seeks him that suffers persecution", he uses
this evidence in the persecution of certain people: to comfort him, who had persevered in
martyrdom. And since all in this world, who want to live religiously, follow the apostle,
they suffer persecution and take consolation in the fact that God seeks him that suffers
persecution, just as he seeks out the blood of a man who has been murdered, and comes to
seek what has perished, and carry the wandering sheep back to the flock on his shoulders.

16 3:16-17. Furthermore, I have observed beneath the sun: in the place of justice there is
wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I mused: God will judge
the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for everything and for every deed,
there. The meaning of this is clear but is cloaked by the cloud of interpretation. He
says: I sought truth and righteousness under the sun and I saw that even among the benches
of judges truth is not valued, but gifts. Or differently: I thought some kind of justice
present in this world and either took the pious man on his own merit, or punished the
impious for his crimes; and I found the opposite to that which I had been thinking. For I
saw a righteous man here suffer much injustice and an impious man made to rule instead of
being punished for his crime. But thinking to myself afterwards and considering it
carefully I understood that they judge not in respect of God and treating each case one by
one, but rather reserve judgement for the future, so that all are judged equally and
receive there according to their will and effort. For this is what he says: "and there is
a time for everything and for every deed, there", that is, in judgement when God will have
begun to judge, then there will be truth, now injustice prevails in the world. Such as
when we read in Wisdom, Sirach wrote: "lest you say, what is this or what is that? For all
things are sought in their own time".

17 3:18-21. Then I said to myself concerning men: God has chosen them out, but only to see
that they themselves are as beasts. For the fate of men and the fate of beast - they have
one and the same fate: as one dies so the other dies, and they all have the same spirit.
Man has no superiority over beast, for all is futile. All go to the same place; all
originate from dust and return to dust. Who perceives that the spirit of man is the one
that ascends on high while the spirit of the beast is the one that descends down into the
earth? It is not surprising that there is no distinction in this life between righteous
and wicked, nor that none values virtues, but all things occur with uncertain outcome,
where nothing seems to differ according to the worthlessness of the body between sheep and
men: there is the same birth, common end in death; we proceed similarly towards the light
and are equally dissolved into the dust. But there seems to be this difference, that the
spirit of man ascends to the heavens, and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth,
but from where do we know this for certain? Who can know whether what is hoped is true or
false?

18 But he says this, not because he thinks the spirit dies with the body, or that there's
one place set aside for beasts and for man, but because before the arrival of Christ all
were led equally to the nether regions. Jacob said that he was about to go down to those
regions. And Job complains that the pious and impious are held back in the lower world.
And the Gospel says that with an abyss blocking the way even Abraham and Lazarus were rich
in prayers in the underworld. And in fact before Christ accompanied by a robber opened the
wheel of flames, and the fiery rumpias and the gates of paradise, the heavens were closed
and the equal unworthiness of the spirits of sheep and of men was abridged. One also seems
to be dispersed and the other saved; but there is not much of a difference between dying
with the body or being held in the darkness of the underworld. Let us look over these
things one by one in paragraphs, and discuss them briefly. I considered the eloquence of
the sons of man, whom God chose. Only this eloquence, he says, God wanted to be between
men and beasts, since we speak, they are mute; we possess the will for conversation, they
are stupefied with silence. And though we only differ from beasts in language, though it
is shown to us, how we are like the beasts - weak in body.

19 Just as a beast dies, thus man dies, and one breath is for all, and that is the air
that we breathe. For he says this: "and one spirit is for both, and there is nothing more
for man than for beast. Since lest we think the text refers to the soul he adds: "all are
made from earth and return to the earth. But nothing else except the body is made from
earth, and quite relevant, regarding the body he continues: "you are earth and to the
earth you will return. But this seems to be blasphemy: for who knows if the spirit of the
sons of man ascends upwards, or if the spirit of beasts goes downwards into the earth? He
does not contend that there is no difference between animals and men in reference to the
dignity of the soul, but in adding "who? he wants to show the difficulty of the matter.
For the pronoun "who" is used in the Holy Scriptures not on account of impossibility, but
a difficulty. So here it is said in that passage, "who will describe that man's
generation?", and in the psalm: "Lord, who ascends in your tabernacle, and onto your
sacred mountain?", and other examples that follow this pattern. And in Jeremiah it can be
said differently in Hebrew: "And he is a man, and who knows him?".

20 This then, is the only difference between beast and men, that the spirit of man ascends
to the heaven, and the spirit of the beast descends into the earth and is dispersed with
the flesh; but let any man, who is of the Church and learned in the religious disciplines,
be the real champion of the matter, which is rather doubtful. Then he adds just how much
it refers to a spiritual understanding: "since the Lord will keep both men and beasts
safe", and in another place he says, "beasts, I am among you", and all the prophets say
that both men and beasts will be saved in Jerusalem, and that the promised land will be
filled with sheep and cattle. Who knows whether the saintly man, who is worthy of the name
of man, will ascend to heaven, and whether the sinner, who is called beast, will go down
into the earth? For it is possible in light of the uncertain and dangerous condition of
his life, that the righteous man falls and the sinner rises, and it sometimes happens that
man, having more reason and learned in the Scriptures, does not look about himself, and
although worthy of his knowledge lives out his life and is led down to the nether world;
and the simpler and unlearned man, who is said to be compared to the beasts of men, lives
better and is crowned in martyrdom, and he is then to live in paradise.

21 3:22. I therefore observed that there is nothing better for man than to be happy in
what he is doing, for that is his lot. For who can enable him to see what will be after
him? Instead of that which we have as "to see what will be after him", Symmachus
interprets it more clearly saying, "so that he sees those things which will be after these
ones". Therefore nothing is good in life, unless a man is happy in his work, doing acts of
sympathy, and obtaining his future reward in the realm of heaven. We have this one lot,
which nor neither thief nor robber values, nor any tyrant has the power to take away, and
which follows us after our death. And we will not be able to enjoy our toil again when
this life will be over, or know what things will be afterwards in the world. Another
explanation of this is: I am disturbed by the wickedness of what I have said above, that I
think there is no difference between men and beasts, and I have been led into this opinion
by wrong conclusions, so that I said nothing else was good, except grasping ones present
desire. Nor when death has destroyed us is it possible to enjoy these things, which we,
ungrateful, leave behind. Some have referred to that understanding because it says, "for
who leads him, so that he sees those things, which will be after him", so that they say,
"it is better for a man to enjoy his work" because it is only this that he is able to take
away with him from his possessions. For when death comes he will not know what kind of
heir he will die with, whether worthy or unworthy, who will enjoy his wealth.


COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
==========================

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES continued

CHAPTER 4

1 4:1. And I returned and contemplated all the acts of oppression that are committed
beneath the sun: Behold! Tears of the oppressed with none to comfort them, and their
oppressors have the power - with none to comfort them. After considering this I turned my
eyes and attention to this, so that I saw the slanderers and those sustaining chicanery.
And look on those who, oppressed unjustly by more powerful men, are not able to find a
comforter for their tears. For this is only permitted in disasters and in protest at the
ill will of the matter. And wherever there is more distress and inconsolable suffering
they see the slanderers as stronger in their difficulties. And this is the cause: because
they are not worthy of consolation. He describes this idea more fully in the seventy-
second psalm of David, and Jeremiah in his own book. 2 4:2-3. So I consider more fortunate
the dead, who have already died, than the living, who are still alive. But better than
either of them is he who has not yet been, and has never witnessed the evil that is
committed under the sun. In comparison with the difficulties, which trouble mortal men in
this world, I had judged the dead to be happier than the living according to that which
Job says in his argument regarding the dead: " there they rested with tired bodies, with
those who had been in chains, now without cares, not hearing the voice of the expeller.
But it is better for these two, for the living it seems and for the deceased, who has not
yet been born. For one man will suffer ill, another unclothed will escape it as if from a
shipwreck. Moreover he who has not yet been born is happier in that, becausehe has not yet
experienced the ill of the world. But he says this, not because he who has not yet been
born, exists before he has been born, and he is happier in this, since he has not yet been
weighed down by his body; but better to be sure is not existing, or not having a sense of
wealth, than either being unhappy or living unhappily. Just as the Lord speaks to Judas,
referring to his coming anguish:

3 "it was better for that man never to have been born", since it would have been better
for sure for him not to have existed, than to suffer eternal torture. Some people in fact
understand this passage in this way: they say they are better, who have died, than those
who are living, it is permitted to them before they were sinners. For until now the living
were in battle and were held back as if closed in by the prison of the body; but those who
have opposed death are already without cares and have stopped sinning. Just like John, in
which he was not greater in respect to the sons of women, he is less than him, who is the
lowest in the realm of heaven and is freed from the burden of the body. He does not know
how to say like the apostle: "I am a wretched man, who will free me from the body of this
death?". But he says he is better than those two, who has not yet been born, nor does not
see the wickedness, by which men are oppressed in the world. For our souls mingle among
the gods, before descending to these bodies and are blessed so long as the heavenly ones
are held in Jerusalem and in the choir of angels.

4 4:4. And I saw that all labour and skilful enterprise spring from man's rivalry with his
neighbour. This, too, is futility and a vexation of the spirit! I turned my attention once
again to other things and I saw the strength and honour of those men who were toiling, and
I discovered the good of one man to be the evil of another, while the envious one is
tortured by another's happiness, and the boastful lies open to trickery. For what is more
vain, what is for nothing like the spirit in this way, than for man to weep for
misfortunes that are not his own, or to bemoan his own sins, or be envious of better men.
5 4:5. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. This is the man that is described
as slow to comprehend in Proverbs, holding his chest in his hands. For poverty, although
he is a fast runner, catches up with him and he eats his own flesh because of the extent
of his hunger, but this is said in exaggeration. He is the sort of man who thinks that
having one fist of corn and living idly and in a stupor is better than filling each hand
by working. But he sows everything so that he can show that he that both works and
acquires possessions leaves himself open in the world to envy. Conversely he that desires
to live a simple life is oppressed by poverty and because of this both of these two is
poor: while the one runs a risk on account of his wealth, the other is consumed by want
because of his poverty. Or indeed perhaps it is to be understood in this way: he who
envies the happiness of another man is seized as if by the fury of the spirit, and takes
envy into his lap, and nourishes it in his heart: thus it is he eats his soul and his
flesh. For as much as he sees that man whom he envies as happier, he himself more so
wastes away and perishes, and little by little becomes more full of envy and jealousy.
Another way of reading this is:

6 his hands are taken on many occasions to lead him to work, just as the passage which
states, "the act of the Lord which is done in the hand of Haggai", or of Ecclesiastes, or
of his prophet, because he has done such work, that he appears to be worthy, in whose work
is the speech of the Lord. And the man, who corresponds to this man is David, "who leads
my hands in battle". Therefore the fool embraces his hands, that is he draws them together
and doesn't want to open them, and so does not eat the toil of his hands, which he does
not have, but his flesh, living by the wisdom of his flesh and eating the toil of his
flesh. 7 4:6. Better is one handful of pleasantness than two fistfuls of labour and
vexation of the spirit. It is better to have modest power, than great riches of sins. And
in Proverbs it says, "To receive a little through righteousness is better than gaining
much by injustice." Justice rightly has rest, injustice toil. And since a single number is
always seen in a good context and a dual seen as wickedness, therefore one fist has rest,
and two hands are full of toil.

8 4:7-8. Then I returned and contemplated futility beneath the sun: a lone and solitary
man who has neither son nor brother, yet there is no end to his toil, nor is his eye ever
sated with riches, nor does he ask himself, 'For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of
goodness.' This too is futility, indeed, it is a sorry task. I turned to other people and
I saw that they work more than is necessary and amass wealth by good and bad means and do
not use it once accumulated; they have all things, brood over their riches, keep it for
another, and do not enjoy their work. Then at the end of their life they have neither son
nor brother, nor close friend so that the pious work seems reserved for necessities only.
And so I discovered nothing more vain than that man, who collects riches, or to whom an
ignorant man bequeaths them. We are even able to understand this in a religious
interpretation, and understand it as those, who write books and leave them to fastidious
readers. Some say that this passage from where it says "there is one, but there is not a
second" is about the Saviour, because he came down to save the world alone and without any
companion. And although there are many sons of God, they are called his brothers by
adoption, though not one remains worthy, who should be joined to him in this work. There
is no end to this work, for those carrying our faults and sins and suffering for us; and
his eye will not be filled by riches, but always with those desiring our safety, and the
more you see his sins, the more he encourages him to repent.

9 4:9-12. Two are better than one, for they get a greater return for their labour. For
should they fall, one can raise the other; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and
there is no one to raise him! Also, if two sleep together they keep warm, but how can one
be warm alone? Where one can be overpowered, two can resist attack; A three-ply cord is
not easily severed! After the misfortunes of loneliness in which he has been seized, and
he who torments himself in acquiring wealth without a definite heir, now the subject of
companionship is treated. And it asks what good ther is in a tent of friends and what
comfort there is in company, since one man's distress or domestic strife is lifted by
another's help, (any man who has a faithful friend will sleep better all that night, than
he who sleeps only with his wealth which he has amassed. And if a stronger enemy rises up
against one man, the weakness of one is sustained by the comfort of friends. And just as
two differ from one if they are joined in love, so the tent of three is stronger. For even
true charity, which has been violated by no envy increases as much in number as it grows
in strength. And this idea is conveyed in relatively few words. But since previously we
have placed the discussion of the intelligence of certain men before Christ, those things
which are still left must be discussed by the same order.

10 It is better for two to be equal, than one. For it is better for a man who lives alone
to have Christ, than alone to leave himself vulnerable to ill-intentioned plots. Since the
reward of the tent is shown at once in the very usefulness of society. For if one man
fell, Christ would raise up his partner. Woe indeed to him who collapses, he will not have
Christ rising up in him. For if one sleeps, that is, if he had been dissolved by death and
had Christ with him, he will revive more quickly having been made warm and given life once
again. And if the devil, being stronger in his attack, should attack a man, the man will
stand, and Christ will stand in place of this man, in place of his companion. Not because
virtue is weak (the virtue of Christ alone) against the devil, but because the decision of
man is left free and for us, who are dependent, but virtue itself will become stronger
through fighting. And even if the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit should come,
that friendship is not broken easily. But although it is not broken easily, it will be
broken nonetheless at some point. And the cord from the apostle to Judas was threefold:
but after the breaking of the bread Satan entered him and that cord was broken. More
precisely what he says above is, "and even if two are sleeping, then they will be warm:
and how will one keep warm on his own?

11 We can take an example from Elisha, because he is in a pact with a lad, and slept with
him and warmed his body, and in this way revived the recovering boy. Unless therefore
Christ sleeps with us and rests in death, we are not able to receive the heart of eternal
life. 12 4:13-16. Better is a poor but wise youth, than an old and foolish king who no
longer knows how to take care of himself; because from the prison-house he emerged to
reign, while even in his reign he was born poor. I saw all the living that wander beneath
the sun throng to the succeeding youth that steps into his place. There is no end to the
entire nation, to all that was before them; similarly the ones that come later will not
rejoice in him. For this too is futility and a vexation of the spirit. Symmachus
translates this passage in this way: "better a poor man who has wisdom, than an old and
foolish king who does not know to beware of change". For the one leaves the body to reign
in heaven, and the other indeed, although he had been born a king, is restricted by
poverty. I saw all men living, who grow up under the sun in propitious adolescence, which
increases in them. Each and every nation that was before is unending, and those that come
after do not rejoice in the previous. But this too is empty and a vexation of the spirit.
My Hebrew tutor, whose teachings I often refer to, bore witness while he was reading
Ecclesiastes with me, that Bar Akiba wrote these things above the present passage, and he
is greatly admired by other scholars:

13 better is the inner part of man, which arises in us after the fourteenth year of
puberty, than the outer, physical man, who is born from his mother's womb, and he does not
know how to abstain from vice because it comes to this that he rules over his vices from
the house of chains, that is from his mother's womb. For he is made poor because of his
power and by carrying out all wicked deeds. I saw those men, who lived as those former
men, and were changed afterwards into that second man, in him that has been born in place
of the former. And I understood that all men sinned in that prior manhood, before the
second is born, when they become two men. But once these men have changed for the better,
and after the learning of philosophers, they leave the left path and hurry towards the
right, and they follow the second man, that is the newest man, and do not rejoice in him
that is the former. The apostle agrees with these two types of men and Leviticus also
mentioned them: "Man, man" who desired this or that. That saintly man Gregorius Pontus the
bishop, to whom Origen preached, understands the passage in the following way in his
Metaphrasis of Ecclesiastes:

14 "I however prefer a youth who is poor yet is growing wise, to an old king who is
foolish, to whom it never occurs that it is possible for someone from those whom he has
conquered, will leave the body to reign in heaven; and then he destroys himself from his
unjust power. For it happens though that those who were growing wise at the time of youth
are without sadness; but that they changed before the time of becoming an old king. For
those that have been born afterwards, since they do not know the wickedness that has gone
before, they are not able to praise youth, which arises afterwards, and are led astray by
perverse ideas and by the force of the opposing arguments. Laodicenus has asserted that
great matters are expressed in this short passage, and he wrote here in his accustomed
fashion: "Ecclesiastes now speaks about the change of good men into wicked, expressing the
foolish man as he who tries, and who not thinking of the future, enjoys the transient and
failing things as if they are great and perpetual. And after the many things which usually
happen (or change) to men in their life, he asserts something of a general opinion of
death, since the great number perishes and little by little is consumed and pass across,
with each one leaving the other in his place, and another's successor dying. Origines and
Victorinus did not think very differently on this matter.

15 After the general statement that reveals to all that the poor yet wise youth is better
than an old king who is foolish, and that it often happens that the lad leaves the prison
of the king because of his wisdom, and commands in place of a cruel dictator, and as a
foolish king loses all his power, which he had obtained. They saw this passage in relation
to Christ and the devil, because they wished to view the poor and wise boy as Christ. The
poor boy is the same as that one in "it is great for you to be called my boy", but the
poor man, since he has been made poor, when once he was rich and wise, because "he was
proficient in age and wisdom and thankful to God and men. That man is born in the reign of
an old man and therefore he says, "if this was my rule in the world, that my servants
struggle on my behalf so that I am not handed over to the Jews. But now it is not my rule.
So in the reign of that foolish old man who displays all the rule of the whole world and
his glory, the most excellent boy comes from the house of chains, about which Jeremiah
speaks in Lamentations, saying, "so that he lowers to the feet of that man all those who
have been conquered in the world.

16 And that boy goes on to rule and goes away to a far off region, and as king after some
time is turned against those, who do not want to rule. So with some insight Ecclesiastes
saw that all men who are alive and who are able to be part of youth, say, "I am life",
having left behind them that old foolish king, to follow Christ. At the same time the two
nations of Israel are to be understood here. The first, which was before the arrival of
the Lord, and the next, which will support the Antichrist in place of Christ, for the
first is not deep down despondent, since the first church was formed from Jews and the
apostles; and in the end the Jews, who will support the Antichrist, will not rejoice in
Christ. 17 4:17. Guard your foot when you go to the House of God; better to draw near and
hearken than to offer the sacrifices of fools, for they do not consider that they do evil.
He gives some general precepts for life, and does not want to offend us, who go to church.
Since it is praiseworthy in his view, not just to enter the House of God, but to enter
without offence. And if it was intended for all who are in the church of God to hear this
passage, he would never have added, "and approach so that you might hear". But then it was
only Moses who approached near to God to hear, the other men were not allowed. For the
foolish commit sins, not knowing that there is a remedy; they think that they can satisfy
God with the offering of gifts, and do not know that this is also evil and a sin; for they
want to make correction for what they have done, not with obedience and good work, but
with gifts and sacrifice. What others have said elsewhere agrees with this too: "obedience
above sacrifice". And "I want pity and not sacrifice".

CHAPTER 5

1 5:1-2. Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter a word
before God; for God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. For a
dream comes from much concern, and foolish talk from many words. Several men think that
this teaches here that we should not promise something too quickly in the presence of God,
and without due consideration of our strengths we vow things, which we cannot then fulfil.
God though is present in heaven, but we seem to be on earth, yet he hears what we say and
accuses that our foolishness comes from our love of speech. But some men understand this
better, affirming that this teaches that, either speaking or thinking more about God than
we are able, we hold to our opinions; but we know our stupidity, since, as much as the
heavens differ from the earth, so our thoughts are separated from His character. And
therefore our words ought to be checked. Just as he that is much in thought frequently
dreams about those things about which he thinks during the day; thus he, who wanted to
teach more from divinity, falls into foolishness. Or indeed it could mean this: our words
ought to be few therefore, since even those things, which we think we know, we see through
a mirror and in mystery, and as we understand a dream, which we think we can grasp.
Although we have done many things, as it appears to us, the end of our argument is
foolishness. For we do not escape sin by too much speaking.

2 5:3-4. When you make a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for He has no liking for
fools; what you vow, pay. Better that you not vow at all, than that you vow and not pay. A
simple man does not need understanding by interpretation. It is better not to promise than
not to keep promises, since they displease God and are numbered among fools, who do not
fulfil their vows. But since he says, "There is no will in fools" underneath we hear "of
God", like the word of the apostle, who says, "and just as there was no will, that I
should now come to you". For even if we want to say something more inquiring, it is taught
to a Christian, that he should fulfil his faith by work, and not be like the Jews, who
pledge and say, "we will do all that God commands", and yet worship idols. And afterwards
they beat those slaves and cast stones at them, and immediately killed the very son of the
father of their house. It is better therefore to hold a doubtful opinion for a while,
which is easy to say in words, but difficult to put into practice. For the slave, who
knows the will of his God and will not do it will be defeated by many.

3 5:5. Let not your mouth bring guilt on your flesh, and do not tell the messenger that it
was an error. Why should God be angered by your speech and destroy the work of your hands?
What the Hebrew means is that if you are not able to do these things, do not promise to do
them. For the words do not transgress to the spirit but are carried at once to the Lord by
the angel present, who sticks to one man only as a companion. You who think to disregard
God, since you have promised, you will anger Him, with the result that all your work will
be destroyed. But in that place where he says: "to bring guilt upon your flesh" and he
understood this, though not caring diligently, as if he had said "let not your mouth cause
you not to sin." But there seems to me however another meaning, which is argued by those,
who complain about the strength of the flesh and say they are compelled by the necessity
of the body to do those things that they don't want to do, according to the apostle: "for
I do not do what I want, but what I do not wish" and so on. And so he says, 'don't seek
vain excuses and give occasion to your flesh to sin'. Then in that place where he says
"and do not tell the angel that it was a madness" Aquila takes the Hebrew word segaga to
mean ignorance, and translates it with the Greek word akousion, that is, not of ones will.
For if you say this, he says, you provoke God, as if to say He is like the creator of evil
and sin, and anger Him, so that if you seem to have anything good, He will take it from
your possession. Or indeed he translates such things with the meaning of reproof, so that
you do those things, which are not appropriate.

4 5:6. In spite of all dreams, futility and idle chatter, rather: Fear God! The Hebrews
explain this passage in great detail, and in the following way: and you should not do the
things detailed above, about which he has already spoken, lest you believe too readily in
dreams. For when you see different things, your mind will be troubled by many fears
throughout your night's rest, or aroused by promises, you despise those things that are
dream-like. You should only fear God. For he, who believes in dreams, gives himself over
to vanities and nonsense. Another meaning of this passage is, since I have said and
admonished, "you should not let your mouth bring guilt on your flesh", and to seek this or
that excuse; I introduce this now, since in the dream of that life, and in the appearance,
shade, cloud in which we live, we are able to find many things, which seem true to life to
us and excuse our sins. Therefore I advise that you beware that alone, lest you think God
is absent, but fear Him, and know He is present in all your toil, and do not force
yourself to be hidden in free will, but want whatever it is that you do.

5 5:7-8. If you see oppression of the poor, and the suppression of justice and right of
the State, do not be astonished at the fact, for there is One higher than the high Who
watches and there are high ones above them. The advantage of land is supreme; even a king
is indebted to the soil. Christ's garment, woven on top, was not able to be torn by those
who crucified him; and the Saviour threw him from that demon, and advised him to go away
having put on the clothes of the apostles. So we believe that the clothes of our
Ecclesiastes are not to be torn, nor should we sew on here and there patches in place of
our free-will of opinion, but use the one text itself in dispute, and follow the same
meaning and arrangement all the way through. Above this he had said: "do not tell the
messenger that it was a madness, lest God become angry over your speech", and regarding
the remaining things, he had spoken against those, who do not know that providence rules
over human affairs. Since therefore the question arises many times about the precept, why
the righteous sustain disaster, and why the unjust become judges over all the world, but
God is not vengeful:

6 now he introduces and finishes this argument, saying, 'if you see the calamity of a
pauper, who is said to be blessed in the Gospel, and the situation is assessed according
to his strength and not in justice, do not be astonished or let anything seem new to you.
God, who is highest above the high, sees these things, He that placed His angels above the
judges and kings of the earth, to prevent injustice and they are more important on earth,
than any of man's potentates. But since he will be the Saviour at the end of the judges,
and in the end of the world when the cornfield will be ripe, and the harvesters will come,
he will be ordered that the wheat be separated and the darnel thrown on the fire.
Therefore he now awaits and differs in opinion, although the field of the world is
cultivated carefully more fully. But since that field is interpreted as the world, the
Lord expounds about them in the parable of darnel and wheat.

7 5:9-10. A lover of money will never be satisfied with money; a lover of abundance has no
wheat. This too, is futility! As goods increase, so do those who consume them; what
advantage, then, has the owner except what hi eyes see? Wherever we read 'silver',
according to the ambiguity of the Greek term, it can be translated as 'money', since each
has the meaning of the Greek argurion. More precisely Tullius is said to have called these
men 'pecuniary', who have many small savings, that is wealth in cattle. For they were
called this in antiquity. But little by little the word devolved into the one used here
through misuse. Therefore he is described as greedy because he is never sated by wealth,
and the more he has, the more he desires. Horace also agrees with this sentiment, who
says, "always the miser is wanting", and too the noble historian, since "avarice is
diminished neither by possessions, nor by lack of them". Nothing therefore, says
Ecclesiastes can aid a man who possesses riches, unless only this: that he sees what he
possesses. For the greater his wealth, the more he will have a larger number of servants,
who use up his amassed wealth. But if he will only see what he has, he will be able to
take more than the food of one man.

8 5:11. Sweet is the sleep of the labourer, whether he eats little or much; the satiety of
the rich does not let him sleep. So far the discourse has treated of riches and greed, and
it is compared to a man who works and one who sleeps without worry, or eats little or a
great deal. Because he eats any food obtained from the toil of work and from his sweat, he
enjoys peaceful sleep. For a rich man indeed is busy with banquets and lacerated by many
thoughts, is not able to sleep, and abounds in hangovers and uncooked food boils in the
intestines of his stomach. More precisely, since it is called sleep, and is a common exit
from life, that rest will be better for him, who is busy at present and reserves his
strength for good work, than the riches of those men, about whom it is written: "woe to
you, O rich, for you have received your consolation".

9 5:12-16. There is a sickening evil that I have seen under the sun; riches hoarded by
their owner to his misfortune, and he loses those riches in some bad venture. If he begets
a son, he has nothing in hand. As he had come from his mother's womb, naked will he
return, as he had come; he can salvage nothing from his labour to take with him. This too,
is a sickening evil: Exactly as he came he must depart, and what did he gain in exchange
for toiling for the wind? Indeed, all his life he eats in darkness; he is greatly grieved,
and has illness and anger. Take what follows as linked to what is written above: while
Ecclesiastes describes wealth, even he is not able to enjoy his riches and on many
occasions endangers himself on account of them. Nor to his heir does he leave what he has
amassed; but even he and his son, just as they came nude, will return nude to the earth
and nothing of their toil will accompany them. Surely apathy is the worst, to be tortured
by thought on account of riches, and wealth will perish. And are we able to take it with
us when we die, in sadness, in mourning, in indignation, in laws or to seek it in vain
toil? And all this is according to the apparent simple meaning of the text.

10 But as we are lifted higher, it seems to me that it speaks about the philosophers, or
the heretics, who amass riches of doctrines into their wickedness, and nor are authors
able to follow any usefulness, nor leave perpetual fruit for their followers. But even
they and their disciples return to the earth and lose their riches, from him who said, "I
will lose the wisdom of the wise men, and I will reprove the prudence of the careful.
Truly in fact, just as they left their mother's womb, (apparently as from a heretical
church), contrary to this about which it is written: "but Jerusalem which is above is
free, which is the mother of all. Thus they go nude to become a spirit, and work for
nothing. Those who examine, lack examination, and they are carried on every wind of
doctrine, nor do they have the light, but eat their sacraments in the darkness. They are
always ill, and are easily moved to anger, storing up anger for themselves for the day of
anger, and they do not have the favour of God.

11 5:17-19. So what I have seen to be good is that it is suitable to eat and drink and
enjoy pleasure with all one's labour that he toils beneath the sun during the brief span
of his life that God has given him, for that is his lot. Furthermore, every man to whom
God has given riches and possessions and has given him the power to enjoy them, possess
his share and be happy in his work: this is the gift of God. For he shall remember that
the days of his life are not many, while God provides him with the joy of his heart. This
is in comparison to him, who consumes his wealth in the darkness of his worries, and
carries those things which are about to die throughout the great tedium of his life, and
says that that man is better, who enjoys what he has. For here there is but a small desire
of enjoyment, but there in the latter indeed there is a great magnitude of worries. He
also gives the reasons why the gift of God is to be able to enjoy riches. Since "he will
not remember much of the days of his life". For God turns him to the happiness of his
heart's desire: he will not be sad, he will not be worried by thought, since he is led
away by happiness and desire for present things.

12 But it is better understood as according to the apostle, seen as spiritual food and
spiritual drink which is given by God and I understood to see goodness in all of his toil,
since we are only able to consider true good things with great toil and enthusiasm. For
what is permitted to be good, though, until Christ appears in our life, is not yet openly
considered good. And therefore God will not remember much of the days of our life. We
should also note that here perispasmos is used in a better way, in the place of the
occupation of the spirit and true happiness.

CHAPTER 6

1 6:1-6. There is an evil I have observed beneath the sun, and it is prevalent among
mankind; a man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honour, and he lacks nothing that
his heart could desire, yet God did not give him the power to enjoy it. This is futility
and an evil disease. If a man begets an hundred children and lives many years - great
being the days of his life - and his soul is not content with the good - and he even is
deprived of burial; I say: the stillborn is better off than he. Though its coming is
futile and it departs in darkness, though its very name is enveloped in darkness, though
it never saw the sun nor knew; it has more satisfaction than he. Even if he should live a
thousand years twice over, but find no contentment - do not all go to the same place? He
describes the riches of misers and asserts that this evil is often in men, since none of
those things, which are thought to be good in the world, is lacking in him, and
nonetheless he torments himself with the most inane sparing, saving those things to be
devoured by others. Nor does he say this in exaggeration, for even if he produced an
hundred books and lived longer than Adam, that is almost one thousand years, but lived two
thousand years, he would rot his mind with desire and avarice.

2 He is born prematurely in a worse state that dies, as soon as he seems born. For he did
not see evil things or good things; but although he used to possess good things, he was
tormented by thoughts and sadness, and having been born prematurely he has more rest, than
a greedy man who is old. But both however are seized by the same fate, while both the
first and the last are taken away by the same death. This could also refer to Israel,
because God gave Israel the law, which speaks about the prophets, the testament, the
Promised Land and the Saviour: "let the reign of God be removed from you and given to a
nation that brings forth his fruit". All these things have been given to a foreign and
pilgrim people from peoples who see their good yet do not enjoy it. They say we are of
much better condition, who are considered to be as new-born and premature by those, who
praised themselves in antiquity, finding glory in their fathers, saying: "our father was
Abraham", but however both we and they hasten to one place, that is to the judgement of
God. But what Ecclesiastes says in the middle is this: "but there was no tomb for him".
This either means that that rich man does not think of his death, and while he possesses
all, is greedy even in building a tomb;

3 or that often he is killed on account of those riches, by plots against his life, and is
left unburied, or, what I think is a better interpretation, he needs nothing of good
deeds, from which he is able to obtain for himself memory among those who come after him.
And so that he will not pass through life in silence, just as cattle, although he had a
means, by which he was able to show that he had lived. 4 6:7-8. All man's toil is for his
mouth, yet his wants are never satisfied. What advantage then has the wise man over the
fool? What less has the pauper who knows how to conduct himself among the living? All that
men toil at in this world is consumed by the mouth and taken to be digested in the stomach
after it has been ground down by the teeth. And when a little bit has pleased the palette,
it seems to create a desire, so long as it is held in the mouth. But when it has passed
down to the stomach the difference between foods is no longer distinguishable. And after
all these things the spirit of a man who eats is not filled up; or then he desires again
what he has eaten, and is as wise as the fool without food, who does not know how to live,
and the poor man asks for nothing else but for how he is to sustain the organs of his
meagre body, and not die through starvation. Or because the spirit takes no gain from the
food of the body, and food is of equal use to a wise man and a fool, and the pauper
wanders therefrom, to where he has seen wealth to be. This is better understood regarding
a man of the church, who learned in the heavenly Scriptures, holds all his toil in his
mouth yet his spirit is not filled, for he always desires to learn. And in that respect
the wise man has more than the fool, since when he feels himself to be poor, he presses
that pauper, who is called blessed in the Gospel, to understand those things which are of
life, and walks the restricted and narrow path, which leads to life, and he is poor from
wicked deeds and knows where Christ, (who is life) is to be found.

5 6:9. Better is what the eyes see than what is imagined. That, too, is futility and a
vexation of the spirit. Symmachus interpreted this clearly, he says: "it is better to make
provision, than to walk about as it pleases you". That is, it is better to do all things
according to what you know to be right in your mind, which is the eye of the soul, than to
follow the desire of your heart. For this is to wander in spirit, just as Ezekiel says:
"he who walks by the desire of his heart". For indeed he denounced that man is proud and
only pleases himself and says he is better, who makes provision for all days, than he,
whom nothing pleases, unless he has made it himself. Nothing is worse than him, and more
vane than any breath. And again here "vexation of the spirit" has been interpreted by
Theodotion and Aquila as 'suffering of the soul'. Symmachus too has "affliction of the
spirit". More precisely we must remember that in Hebrew 'spirit' and 'breath' are similar
in usage - that is ruha.

6 6:10. What has been was already named, and it is known that he is but a man. He cannot
contend with one who is mightier than him. Clearly this is predicting the arrival of the
Saviour, since he writes 'he will be'; before he was seen in body his name was already
written in the Scriptures and was known by prophets and holy men of God, since he was a
man; and similar to this, since he is a man, he is not able to walk with his Father. And
in the Gospel it says: "the Father, who sent me, is greater than me." In the following
passages it teaches not to ask more than is written for us by Him, so that a man may not
wish to know more than is attested in the Scriptures. For although we are ignorant of our
condition and our life passes us by like a shadow, and our future is undecided, it is not
useful for us to strive for more than we are able to attain. Some think that this passage
means that God already knows the names of all the men, who will be in the future, and who
will be enclosed within the body of mankind. Nor is a man able to reply to his creator,
and ask why he has been made in this way or that. For however much more we seek, our
vanity and our unnecessary words are exposed all the more. Our choice does not come free
from the foreknowledge of God, but precedes the causes, why any one thing is done in a
particular way.

CHAPTER 7

1 7:1. How does it benefit man? For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the
days of his vain life, which he spends as a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be
after him under the sun? When he says that man is ignorant of his condition, and does not
actually know whatever he seems to know and discern, as if the truth of the matter is not
seen, he does see however the shadow and image as if through a mirror, and he cannot know
what will come, or escape his sin by talkativeness. He should silence his mouth and
believe that He who is written has come, and not ask by what means, how much, or what kind
of man he is that has come. 2 7:1-2. A good name is better than precious ointment; and the
day of death than the day of one's birth. Consider, he says, man, your short days since
you will cease to be quickly when your body gives out; fast longer, so that however
perfume delights your nostrils with its smell, in the same way posterity will delight in
all things to your name. Symmachus interpreted this very clearly, saying, "a good name is
better than a perfume that smells pleasant". We must remember that it is the custom of the
Hebrews to call good perfume 'oil'. He also says, "and the day of death than the day of
one's birth", this shows that it is better to die, and no longer be troubled, or be in an
unsteady condition of life, than sustain all these things while being born into the world.
For in our death we know what we have been like, but when we are born we cannot know what
we will be like or do in life. Since birth is also linked to the freedom of the spirit in
the body, it abolishes moral customs.

3 7:3. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting:
for that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to his heart. It is more
useful to go to the rites of a funeral than to the house where there is a party, since at
the house of mourning we are warned of our creator and of our mortality on account of
seeing the dead body. But in the happiness of a party, even if we seem to have any fear,
we lose it. Symmachus interpreted the last verse by saying, "and he who lives, will look
back in his mind". There is proof in these verses, in that God is seen to approve food and
drink, but not seen to prefer desire to all these things, with the result that many men
value them wrongly. But in comparison with avarice and too much sparing, feasting is
allowed in a small way, or allowed to him, who enjoys his work completely every moment.
For he had never preferred the sadness of mourning to the enjoyment of a party, if he had
thought at any moment to drink and eat.

4 7:4. Anger is better than laughter, for through a sad face the heart is improved.
Laughter weakens the mind, anger reproves and corrects it. Both let us become angry with
ourselves when we sin, and let us get angry with others. Through the sadness of the face,
even the spirit becomes better, as Symmachus saw it. And therefore "woe now to those who
laugh, since they will mourn." 7:5. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but
the heart of fools is in the house of enjoyment. "Blessed", says the Saviour, "are the
mourning, since they will be consoled". And Samuel mourned King Saul all the days of his
life and Paul said he had mourned over those who did not want to repent their many sins.
Therefore the heart of a wise man goes to the house of such a man, who reproves himself
when he is doing wrong, so that he brings forth tears and causes himself to weep for his
own sins; and he does not go to the house of joy, where the learned man flatters and
deceives, not changing the listeners so they are together as one, but asking for praise
and applause from them. Such a teacher, who is rich in speeches and words, is mourned, and
being filled by his knowledge, receives his consolation. Then the following verses agree
with this explanation too, because he says:

5 7:6-7. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of
fools. For as the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this
too is vanity. For it is better to be rebuked by a wise man, than to be deceived by
flattering praise. Similar to this is the passage which says, "better are the wounds of a
friend, than the free kisses of an enemy". Just as the sound of sharp thorns under the pot
gives out a harsh sound, so the words of a flattering teacher are not of any use, or the
worries of the world, which are interpreted as 'thorns', or the sound of one who
encourages his listeners, or of one who prepares them for the fire which is to come. Let
us look at what Symmachus has to say about the passage that we have as "since just as the
sound…fool." Understanding the meaning which we have already explained above, he says,
'for a man is bound in chains by the voice of the ignorant". This means that one listener
is tied up to the word of such teachers, while the chains of his sins restrain another.

6 7:8. Surely oppression makes a wise man mad; and a gift destroys the heart. Now see the
wise man as if regarding profit, according to that passage which says, "accuse the wise
and he will love you". Wise, or even having completed his training, he knows no
accusation, and is perturbed by no disaster. We should use this verse if we see disaster
befall a righteous and wise man, and he is perturbed by the unlawfulness of the judgement,
and in that case when God does not come to his mind readily. Instead of this though the
Septuagint, and Aquila and Theodotion interpret the phrase "destroys the heart" as
eutonias autou that is 'his strength', or 'his vigour'. Symmachus says, "and matthana
destroys his heart' (that is 'a gift'), using the Hebrew word in his interpretation, and
making the same meaning as is written elsewhere: "gifts, too, blind the eyes of the wise".

7 7:9. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning; Perorations are better in
speaking, than just the introductory section. For worry comes to and end in the former,
and commences in the latter. Or it could even mean this: he who begins to hear a speech,
and goes to the teacher, is in first place. For indeed he who listens until the last is
consumed and complete in learning. But this can also be understood in this way: while we
are in this world, all that we know is as a beginning; but when that age is completed, we
will understand everything as newest and completed. My Hebrew tutor explained this passage
together with the following verse as follows: it is better for you to ponder the end of
your business, than the beginning, and be patient, rather than being seized by the frenzy
of impatience. We learn too from this reading that there is no wisdom in men, although it
is better to do than to only say that you will do. And since, when the talk had finished,
the listener thinks over for himself what has been said, and though he begins to speak, he
has not yet understood what he can learn from it. And the patient in spirit is better than
the proud in spirit. Since the heavenly one conceded to anger, saying, "anger is better
than laughter", lest we think anger is to be praised in suffering, now he says that anger
must be removed from deep down inside us. For there he assigns anger instead of correction
in sinners, and learning in children. But here he checks impatience. But patience is not
only necessary in difficult times, but also in happier times, in case we rejoice more than
we should. It seems to me that he who is now called high in the spirit of the Gospel, is
in contrast poor in spirit, and is even blessed.

8 7:10. Be not hasty in your spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the lap of fools. He
does not grant here that anger should be tempered, therefore he now says, "Be not hasty in
your spirit to be angry"; but that when anger is mad and new, it is more easily tempered
because it is dispersed easily and can be removed. And since anger is linked to pride, and
the desire for vengeance, he says it is better and above suffering, than he who is exalted
in his spirit, and now shows the sign of foolishness, since however powerful or wise
someone is esteemed, if he is made angry he will seem foolish in his words: "for anger
lies in the lap of fools". 9 7:11. Do not ask,' what is the cause that the former days
were better than these?' For you do not enquire wisely about this. Do not prefer the
previous age to this one, since God created both one and the other. Virtues create good
days for man, and vices make bad days. Do not say therefore that the days were better in
the time of Moses and Christ, than now they are. For even in that time there were more
disbelievers and their days were made wicked by this; now there are more believers, about
whom the Saviour said, "more blessed are they, who did not see or believe". Or
differently: thus you ought to live so that the days that you live in are always better
than those passed, lest you begin to decrease little by little, it should then be said to
you, "you did run well, who hindered you that you should not have obeyed the truth?"; and
again: "you who began in spirit are now consumed by flesh". Or another meaning of this: do
not say that the times of old are better than now, those of Moses better than Christ, that
they were more lawful than full of grace. For if you were to ask this, you would do it
unwisely, not seeing how much the Gospel differs from the Old Testament.

10 7:12-13. Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see
the sun. For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the advantage of knowledge
is, that wisdom gives life to those that have it. A wise man with riches has more glory
than just a wise man alone. For some men need wisdom, some wealth, but he who is both wise
and not rich is able to teach what is good, but meanwhile he can't show what is to be
sought. Therefore he says, since the protection of wisdom is the protection of money, then
just as wisdom protects, so too money also protects. And lest he seem to detract from
wisdom, while he adds to it by good fortune, (for it is not in our power to obtain riches,
which often the unrighteous own in greater quantity), he therefore shows wisdom to be
greater, saying "but the advantage of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to those that
have it. In that respect, he says, wisdom is greater than riches, because without any
wealth it preserves those who think themselves rich. Certain scholars see this passage in
a different way: they say that he places heredity in place of good association, by which
we are the heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ.

11 Therefore Ecclesiastes wants to teach how much of a difference there is between those
who merit seeing the sun (of justice), and have wisdom by their good association, and
those in contrast, who without wisdom have only enthusiasm for vice and association. Since
even David shows this, saying "the intelligent shine out by their speech, as the shining
bodies of the sky", or as Theodotion interpreted this, "just as the brightness of the
firmament. Indeed those who wrote my speeches are as the stars of the sky". But we ought
to take that protection of silver (or money) according to anagoge from which talents and
coins are collected in the parables of the Gospels, just as when we were under the
protection of wisdom and under the protection of such money: "the sun does not burn us by
day, nor the moon by night". But this can even be said to be true since protection is our
life on the earth: "the breath of our nostrils, the anointed Christ our Lord of whom we
said: under His shadow we should live among the heathen". All of our protection in this
life is like a shade, or like wisdom, or as is said about money, until the day moves on
and the shadows move away. Symmachus interprets this more clearly in his usual manner,
saying, "just as wisdom protects, so too money protects in a similar fashion". But the
following verse openly encourages the enthusiasm for knowledge.

12 7:14. Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he has made
crooked? Symmachus translates this passage in this way: "learn the word of God, because no
one can correct what He has ruined". That is he supplies from the Holy Scriptures, or from
thinking of the elements, to know and understand those things, which are done; but not to
ask the causes and reasons why one thing is done in this way, or why it ought to have been
done differently from the way in which it has been done. For the sake of this passage, if
anyone should ask why God spoke to Moses in this way: "who makes the dumb and the deaf,
the seeing and the blind, am I not the Lord God?", and if he should say, why are the
blind, the deaf, the mute created in this way, and others similar to these? This passage
must be seen in reference to Psalm 17, in which it is said to the Lord: "You will be Holy
with the holy man, and with the wicked You will err". And it must be added that the Holy
Lord is with him, who is holy; and the wicked are with him, who was previously wicked by
his own will. This is similar also to that which is written in Leviticus: "if the wicked
came to me I will go to them, wicked in my madness". Even this can explain why God
hardened the heart of Pharaoh.

13 For just as one and the same quality of the sun melts wax and dries clay, and on
account of each one's constitution, both wax melts and clay dries; so too the one quality
of the portents of God in Egypt softened the heart of those who believed, and hardened
that of the incredulous, who just as their hardness and impatient heart, began to store up
for themselves anger for the day of anger from those portents, which they didn't believe,
though yet they saw them happen. 14 7:15. In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the
day of adversity consider: God also has set the one over against the other, to the end
that man should find nothing after him. I have heard from a certain man in the Church, who
was thought to have a knowledge of the Scriptures, that these verses are to be explained
in this way: while you remain in the present world, and while you are able to do good
work, work hard so that afterwards you may be without worry in the day of wickedness, that
is the day of judgement, when you will see others to be tormented. For just as God made
the present world, in which we can obtain for ourselves the benefits of good work; so too
he made the future age, in which no opportunity will be given for us to do good work. This
man of the Church even seemed to convince those he was preaching to, but to me there seems
a different meaning to this, which Symmachus has translated, saying, 'in the good day, be
good; but be wary of the day of wickedness'. All the same, God made this world similar to
the next, so that man should not be able to find that which he complains against Him.
Suffer both the good things, he says, and the bad, as they happen to you in your life.

15 And do not think that there is only the nature of good or bad alone in the world,
especially when the world itself consists of opposites: hot and cold, dry and wet, hard
and soft, dark and light, bad and good. But God made this ambivalence so that wisdom might
have a place, and it is found by choosing good and avoiding bad: man is given free will,
lest he argue that he has been made unfeeling, and stupid by God. But God has made man so
diverse that man is unable to complain of his manner of being. At the same time this
argument is to be taken with the previous verses, in which he says 'who is able to correct
what God has done?'. 16 7:16. I have seen all things in the days of my vanity: there is a
just man, that dies in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that remains alive in
his wickedness. Similar to this is what the Saviour says in the Gospel: "he who finds his
soul will lose it, and he who loses it on account of me, will find it". The Maccabees are
seen to die on account of their justice by the law and justice of God, and martyrs too,
who shed their blood for Christ. On the other hand, those who at that time ate the flesh
of pigs and sacrificed to idols after the arrival of the Lord, they are seen to live in
this world and to live long lives on account of their wickedness. But it is the endurance
of God in secret which causes suffering in those who are not holy, so that they have
wickedness in their life, and not to visit sinners for their crimes, and it is as if he
saves for the sacrifice so that he can give to the former eternal goodness, and to the
latter eternal wickedness. The Hebrews suspect the righteous, who die for their
righteousness, the sons of Aaron, since while they think they live righteously, they
worship a foreign fire. And they say Manasseh was impious and lived a long life on account
of his wickedness, for he then lived a long time in a long reign after having been
corrected in prison.

17 7:17. Do not be too righteous, do not make yourself too wise: why destroy yourself? If
you should see a man who is harsh and wild to the extent of sinning against his brothers,
so that he pardons neither the sinner in his speaking, or he who is slow on account of
natural slowness, know that this man is more righteous than is good. For when the Saviour
teaches, saying "Do not judge, so that you are not judged", and let none be without sin,
even if it was not his life at any given day, the judgement of God is not ignorant of the
weak state of man. Therefore do not be too righteous, since accursed conduct in the
presence of God carries both a great and a minor burden. Philosophers have placed virtues
therefore in the middle, and everything which is either too much either above or below, is
thought to be at fault. But he also says, "and do not ask too much, lest you become
confused", or "lest you be amazed". For he knows that our mind cannot understand complete
wisdom, (or that which is to be measured), and he says that we ought to know the wisdom
which must be measured in our mortality. Then even Paul asked of him that was able to know
more than man, saying, "why does he yet complain? For who has resisted his will? He
replies, "O man, who are you that reply to God?", and so on.

18 If he had heard the causes of the complaint from the apostle, he who is introduced
while he is questioning, by chance he would have been stupefied by numbness and would have
felt useful gratitude. Since it is a gift according to that same apostle, which is of no
use to him that receives it. The command "do not be too righteous" is interpreted by the
Hebrew as being about Saul, who felt pity for Agag, whom the Lord had commanded to be
killed. But even that servant from the Gospel whom the Lord had pardoned, the Lord himself
didn't want to pardon the servant, yet he can be used in this verse because he was too
righteous. 19 7:18. Do not be too wicked, and do not be foolish: why should you die before
your time? When God says, "I do not want the death of the dying, only let him return and
live", it suffices to have sinned only once. We ought to raise ourselves up after a
catastrophe. For just like those who argue about worldly matters, the swallow knows how to
protect its young from poppy seeds, and wounded roes seek wild marjoram to cure
themselves. Then why are we ignorant that the cure of repentance is proposed for sinners?
But he says, "do not delay in an world that is not yours". We know that Chore, Dathan, and
Habiron, on account of their uprising against Moses and Aaron, were suddenly eaten up by a
gap in the earth, and in emendation of others, many were judged before the day of
judgement even in their lifetime. Therefore he says, "do not add sins to sins, lest you
cause God to punish you"

20 7:19. It is good that you should take hold of this, and do not withdraw your hand; for
he that fears God shall come forth of them all. It is good to do good to righteous men,
but also being kind to sinners is not wicked. It is good to keep slaves faithful to you,
but it is advised to do this only with those who seek your employment. Even he who fears
God and copies his maker, who causes rain to fall over both the righteous and the wicked,
enjoys doing good to all without distinction. Another meaning of this is, because this
life changes daily with many wretched occurrences, as fortunate as unfortunate, the spirit
should be prepared for righteousness and should ask for the pity of God, so that whatever
happens, he suffers with a free conscience. For he who fears God is neither raised to
fortune, nor crushed by misfortune.

21 7:20-21. Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
For there is not a just man on the earth, that does good and does not sin. Therefore
wisdom strengthens the righteous, and not even the aid of all the citizens of the city can
help him, for although someone may be righteous, yet while he is alive he is subject to
vices and sins, and he therefore needs greater protection. Another reading of this is: the
ten who hold power and are in the city are angels, who have arrived at the complete number
of 'denarii' and are here to help mankind. But if anyone should consider different types
of help, the aid of wisdom is better, because that is the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For after the angels said, "we would have protected Babylon yet it is not now protected,
so let us leave it, and let each one of us go out unto his own land". Then the teacher of
doctors himself came down and healed us with a touch of His finger, we who were spattered
with blood, and wet with the blood of sinners, we who weigh out all our possessions
against healing. But He healed in that city which is in that world, and 'strengthened in
wisdom' or as the Septuagint says 'helped'. For it is given and added to everyone who
possesses it. But the man who sins greatly is stuck in deep and needs more help: therefore
Wisdom herself came to his aid.

22 Another meaning of this verse is: above he had said that one should be kind to both the
good and the wicked: therefore someone was able to reply: though I want to be kind to all
men, I have not the power with which to do this. And a righteous man does not have such
riches, which normally come more abundantly to sinners. Therefore he now says, those whom
you can't help with money, help with advice and comfort them with solace. For one is more
able to excel in these ways than any of the greatest of potentates. And you would be wise
to do this, for the scale of justice is great, and must decide for whom, how much, how
long, and of what sort, help is given, either with monetary support or with advice. 23
7:22-23. And do not heed all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you.
For often your own heart knows that you likewise have cursed others. Make sure to do only
those things which have been taught, and strengthened by the help of wisdom, prepare
yourself for either good or bad outcomes, and don't worry about what your enemies might
say about you, or what kind of reputation you have. For just as a cautious man should not
hear his servant complain about him, so he should not want to hear what is said about him
in his absence, (for if he did this he would always be troubled and incensed to anger by
the muttering of the servant). Therefore it is befitting for a wise man to walk with
wisdom following him, and not to dwell upon unfounded rumours. But he teaches by another
example that the righteous man ought not to worry what men say, saying, 'just as your
conscience knows what you have said about others, and that you have often maligned others,
so you ought to pardon others when they think badly of you.' At the same time he teaches
that it is difficult to judge for one who has a rod in his eye, not to speak about the rod
of another.

24 7:24-25. I have proved all this by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from
me. That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? Just as is attested in
the Book of Kings he says that he sought wisdom more than other men, and tried to reach
the pinnacle, but the more he sought, the less he found, and in the midst of his
confusion, he was surrounded by the darkness if ignorance. But at another time, regarding
him who was learned in the Scriptures- the more he wanted to know, the more a greater
obscurity arose each day for him. Another meaning of this is: he seems to mean that
contemplation of wisdom in this life is like looking in a mirror or at a picture;
therefore if I look at my face in the mirror in the future I'll think back to the way it
used to be, and then in the liquid pool I'll recognise that I differ greatly from the way
I used to be.

25 7:26-27. I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the
reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.
And I find that woman is more bitter than death, whose heart is snares and nets, and her
hands are as bands: whoever pleases God shall escape her; but the sinner shall be taken by
her. The Septuagint here has: "I even applied my heart that I should know". Symmachus has
interpreted this saying, 'I have looked into all things with my reasoning to know, to
distinguish and to find out.' Since therefore Ecclesiastes had said above that he had
tried to know all wisdom and the more he sought it the more it eluded him, now he says
even that he sought out another thing in his wisdom, for wickedness precedes all things in
human affairs, and that affair is first and foremost in impiety, stupidity, madness, and
insanity. He also says that he found woman to be the cause of all evil, since through her,
death came into the world and took the most prized spirits of men. And even for all
adulterers, it is like there is a coat of mail on their heart, the heart that makes the
souls of adolescents soar upwards.

26 And when this happens to the mind of a wretched lover, it pushes him into first
position, and he is not allowed to look back at his feet, but like a snare or noose it
ensnares the heart of a youth. 'For he has chains around his wrists', which Aquila
interpreted as being, 'for his hands are in chains'. For he can convince, but he doesn't
have the strength and can't pull himself to those who are unwilling. Those things destroy
him, who was righteous and good before God; but the sinner who has been captured will be
led down to his death. Let us not think that Solomon held this opinion about women
thoughtlessly, he speaks only those things that he has experienced. For this reason he
fears God, since women have captured him. And these interpretations are very literal. But
according to the spiritual understanding of this passage, either we should take every sin
made in general, and call it 'woman' and 'wickedness', for example, she who sits behind
the façade of woman in Zechariah above the talent of lead. Or we can take woman to be the
devil metaphorically on account of effeminate men; or indeed idolatry, and so that we
might proceed more closely, the church or heretics, which calls the fool to itself by
reasoning, so that he receives stolen bread, and stolen water, the false sacrament, and is
led to be baptised in polluted water.

27 7:28-30. Behold, I have found this, says the preacher, counting one by one, to find out
the account. Which still my soul seeks, but I have not found it. I have found one man
among a thousand, but one woman among all those I have not found. Only this have I found:
that God has made man righteous, but he has sought out many inventions. He says, "I found
this", teaching all things diligently, that by sinning little by little, and adding one
crime on top of another, we amass a great number of sins for ourselves. 'esebon' even,
which all translate as logismon in Greek, according to the ambiguity of the Hebrew
language can be said by us to be 'number', 'sum', 'account', and 'consideration'. But, he
says, my spirit sought even this question of whether woman is rightly found to be guilty.
And although I found scarcely any men to be good, thus so that only one from a thousand
can be found, I couldn't even find one woman to be completely good. For all of them have
led me not to virtue but to self-indulgence. And because man's heart is predisposed
towards wickedness from boyhood, and almost all of us offend God in some way, in this
failing of mankind, women are more prone to this fate. The famous poet says about this:
"inconstant and always changeable is woman". And the apostle says, "always learning yet
never arriving at the knowledge of the truth".

28 But he does not condemn this nature as being common to all mankind, or say that God the
creator does evil things, because he is the creator of these things, but he warns subtly
those who are not able to avoid evil, and says that we are created good by God; but he
also says that because we are left with our own free-will to deteriorate into a worse and
worse state through our own vices, while we seek greater things and contemplate many
things beyond our strength. Differently: while I consider the reason behind each and every
one of these verses, I have found no thought, which is not perturbed from outside by
wicked thoughts. But in a thousand men I have found one man, who is made in the image of
his creator; and not in a thousand of any kind, but of one thousand men. There is not a
like number of women corresponding to men. In the thousand, those who have not been close
to a woman have therefore remained the most pure. But all this must be taken as a
metaphor. In many though, who enthuse and every day sweat in their thinking, scarcely can
there be found one pure thought, that is worthy of the name of man. We can take thoughts
for men though, and women for work, and say that the thoughts of man can only be seen as
pure with great difficulty. But since the body does work, it is always mixed up with some
fault.

29 But instead of that which we said above interpreting the Hebrew phrase, "one upon
another, so that a great accumulation is made" we could either say 'account', or
'thought'; Symmachus interprets this more clearly, saying, "one upon another makes an
amount". And we are accustomed to call this complete and neutral, which I sought and had
wanted to find. The Hebrews name this in the case of females, just as in the phrase "I
sought one from God, this I ask", in place of that which is one.


COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
==========================

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES continued

CHAPTER 8

1 8:1. Who is like the wise man? And who knows what things mean? A man's wisdom lights up
his face, and the boldness of his face is transformed. He had taught above that it is hard
to find a good man, and he had answered the question to the contrary, saying that men are
made good by God, but that they fall into sin because of their own free will. Now he lists
what qualities God has given to a good man, to show his glory: wisdom obviously, and
reason and providence, and he knows that the secrets that are hidden by God enter his
heart. But he is also talking about himself here indirectly, because no one was as wise as
Solomon was, and none answered the problems he set. And because his wisdom was praised by
all, wisdom which he not only carried on the inside, but also wore on the surface of his
skin, and which shone from his face, he moreover imbued all men with the wisdom which
shone forth from his visage. Where we have, 'who is like the wise man?' the Septuagint
reads: "who knows wise men? and where we read, 'the boldness of his face is transformed',
the Septuagint has, "and the unwise is disliked by his face". And although in fact there
are many, who engage themselves in the pursuit of wisdom, it is found with great
difficulty, but he is able to tell a wise man though from those, who only seem to be wise.

2 Though too there are even many more, who say that they are able to let themselves tell
the secrets of the Scriptures, it is not common however, that one will actually find the
true answer. But what follows- "the wisdom of a man will light up his face and the wicked
is hated by his face" - can be explained in the way that Paul explains it: "but we all see
the glory of God with our face uncovered". The writer of the Psalms also says, "the light
of your face shines down upon us, O Lord". But he says that the wisdom of man is not
different from the wisdom of God. Although it is the wisdom of God, it then begins to be
also a part of the human faculty, but only when it is in him who merits wisdom. Every
heretic, who defends his false doctrines, shows his foolishness on his face. Then Marcion
and Valentinus say that they are of a better nature than the Creator himself! This can be
seen in another way, if they contend to hope for this wisdom, but do not already possess
it.

3 8:2-4. I counsel you: Obey the king's command, and that in the manner of an oath of God.
Do not hasten to leave his presence, do not persist in an evil thing; for he can do
whatever he pleases. Since a king's word is law, who dare say to him, 'what are you
doing?' Here he seems to teach the same as the apostle - that we should obey kings and
rulers, which is set out in the Septuagint as a command: "guard the command of the king";
but personally I think he is now talking about that king about whom David says, "Lord, the
king will be happy in your virtue". And in another passage, where it means the one reign
of the Father and of the Son, the text reads, "God, give your judgement to the king, and
your righteousness to the son of the king". For the Father does not judge each one, but
gives each judgement to the Son. Moreover, that king who is the Son of God, is the son of
the Father who is the King. Therefore His precepts should be kept, His will done. And this
is exactly what is written in the book of Tobit: "it is good to hide the secret of the
king". He warns in particular why we should not ask why God has taught every single thing,
but see that teaching as a commandment, and this is what an impious man hastens to fulfil.
Then let his will be the same as that of God's law.

4 But because the Septuagint translates this differently, saying, "do not hasten to run
away from God's presence", nor his judgement or his word, you must know that God's
judgement is written in the divine will. Therefore we ought not to recount to anyone or
make public this judgement, which is taken to be sacred and secret from the word of God,
nor should we form rash opinions from it. We should not, too, hasten like Moses, to see
the face of God, but rather wait a while until He Himself passes by and then we will only
see Him passing. Nor too should we do what follows: do not persist in an evil thing, and
so on, especially as we understand, like one who has already come into the madness of
heresy, or as he, who although having faith in the Church, is still overcome by sins, so
that he is unfaithful. Do not persevere in what is wrong, or in swearing, indulgence,
greed, or lust. For if you do the king of vices and devil of sins will fashion in you your
end, and he will be able to do whatever he wants with you.

5 8:5. He who obeys the commandment will know no evil; and a wise man will know time and
justice. Notice here in particular that 'he will know no evil' has been written instead of
'he will not suffer' or even 'evil will not be in him'. Likewise it has also been written
about the Saviour, "for he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." Instead of
'evil' too Symmachus interprets this phrase as saying, "he who keeps the commandment will
experience no wickedness". But he teaches that we should keep the command of a king, and
know why and when he orders. 6 8:6-7. For everything has its time and justice, for man's
evil overwhelms him. Indeed he does not know what will happen, for when it happens , who
will tell him? Many good and bad things can befall a man, but even a righteous man is not
able to know what will befall him, or know the causes and reasons for each thing, (for no
one can know what will happen), but he does know that all things are done by God to the
advantage of man, and nothing is done without His will. For this is a great sufferance for
mankind, since as the poet says: "the mind of man knows not his lot and coming fate". If
he hopes for one thing, then another happens; he expects the enemy to come from one
direction and is wounded by a spear from the opposite direction. But here Theodotion and
the Septuagint have said, "since the knowledge of man overwhelms him", the Hebrew has
'wickedness' not 'knowledge'. But because the Hebrew letters 'Resh' and 'Daleth' are
similar without the serif, instead of raath they have read daat, that is instead of
'wickedness', 'knowledge'. This is easier to understand if you have knowledge of the
language. Note too, that which is written at the end of the verse: 'since he doesn't know
what has been, and what will be after him, who will tell him?' I have translated word for
word here from the Hebrew text, so that we can see that there is a different meaning,
since we are clearly not able to know those things which have already passed away, or
those that will be, as they have yet to be done.

7 8:8. Man is powerless over the spirit-to restrain the spirit; nor is there authority
over the day of death; nor discharge in war; and wickedness cannot save the wrong-doer.
Our mind does not have the power to prevent the spirit from being taken from us, and when
the spirit leaves to the realm of God, it helps nothing to shut out mouth and hold in our
fleeting life. And when we are dead, the enemy of our life will come and we are not able
to take any rest. Note too the kings in one age, which destroying all our things
irreligiously led us by the hands to our death, but we were taken into the ashes and the
earth. Therefore we must not mourn if we cannot know the future and we are often oppressed
by more powerful and wicked men, for all things end in death: for the proud and the
powerful the same end; he who has devastated all things does not deserve to keep his life
when it is taken away. Another meaning could be that the spirit that is the source of life
cannot be prevented from leaving any man, this is the rule of mortality. Above too he also
spoke of this: "turning, turning goes the wind". We have no power in the day of our death,
but when we are alive our enemy is easily avoided. Similarly he who is in time of war and
does not have the peace of God, which overpowers all feeling, he will not have any
discharge therefrom, about which it is said to a bride, "your discharge is paradise with
the fruit of apples". And because piety will not save him who has it, piety will save the
opposite, and impiety can be called the Devil and piety our Lord Jesus Christ.

8 8:9-11. All this have I seen; and I applied my mind to see every deed that is done under
the sun: there is a time when one man rules over another to his detriment. And then I saw
the wicked buried and newly come while those who had done right were gone from the Holy
place and were forgotten in the city. This too is vanity! Because the sentence for wrong-
doing is not executed quickly- that is why men are encouraged to do evil. I have dedicated
my heart, he says, that I should see all that is done under the sun, and this too, that
man takes up arms against man, so that he afflicts and condemns those whom he wants. And
so when I began to look upon those things I saw that the impious were dead by such belief
and buried, and were deemed holy in the earth, but those who were living were thought to
be worthy of the Church, and the temple of God, the bombastic walking above were praised
for their wickedness. "For the sinner is praised for the laxity of his soul, and he who is
wicked is blessed". But this happens moreover because no one dares to confront sinners and
God does not immediately give punishment for crimes, but rather postpones, so that we must
await our repentance. But since those who sin are not immediately arrested and accused,
they think with little regard that their judgement will be in the future, and continue in
their crime.

9 We can see how this evidence pertains to certain bishops, who come to power in the
Church, and speak ill of those, which had taught and had urged them to follow better
pursuits. These men are very often praised after death in the Church, and blessed for
those things, which they in all likelihood did not even do, or openly are warned by their
successors or the congregation. And even this is vanity, since while they live they do not
heed advice and are not immediately visited for their sins, (since none dares accuse his
superior), besides they act as if holy and blessed, and as if they are walking in the
precepts of the Lord, and they increase their sins one on top of another. Such an
accusation of a bishop is difficult. For you see, if he has sinned, it is not believed,
and if he is accused, he is not punished.

10 8:12. Because a sinner does what is wrong an hundred times and He is patient with him,
yet nevertheless I am aware that it will be well with those who fear God that they may
fear Him. Because a sinner has done many wicked deeds, this is what is meant by, 'an
hundred times': God gives a time for repentance, and does not punish him immediately for
his crime, but he waits so that he is converted by his wickedness. I understand how good-
willing and forgiving God will be to those who fear Him and tremble at His word. Symmachus
translated this passage as, "For a sinner dies wicked, long-life is granted him". More
precisely I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear His face, but it
will not be well for the wicked, and he will not live long, for he does not fear God. And
because what Symmachus translated is clear, we can say that the Hebrew word maath is what
the Septuagint has translated as 'from then on', which we have here as 'an hundred times'.
Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion have interpreted 'he has died' as "he has sinned and
done evil, and is dead", because for that which he sinned, he immediately dies. But
according to the interpretation of the Septuagint, instead of 'he is dead' we read 'from
then on', and according to that interpretation, the meaning is, 'a sinner does not sin at
first when he seems to sin, but already even before he has sinned': "Sinners are estranged
from the womb, they have erred since they were in the stomach". And they ask this that
follows- "they have spoken falsity", just as he explains for a simple understanding, there
seems to be no reason that child sinners speak lies as soon as they come out of the womb.

11 8:13. And it will not be well with the wicked, and he will not live long-like a shadow-
because he does not fear God. He invokes wickedness upon those who do not fear God, and
desires that they do not wait long for their punishment, but rather are crucified and
immediately put to death, this punishment is for those who merit such a death. This is
similar to what the apostle says: "I would that those who annoy us were put to death. And
in another place "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, may the Lord reward him
according to his works. We must ask though how these things are said so mildly. This is
very true to the Hebrew meaning of this verse. But we can follow the Septuagint's
interpretation, which seems to take another meaning, and says, "and I know, since those
who fear God will be well, that they fear his face, and the wicked will not be well, and
his day will not be long in shadows, who does not fear God. He could have said this: 'let
there also be those things which I considered a little earlier', but I know clearly that
those fearing God will be well; "for the face of God is above those who do wickedness".
And the wicked will not be well, for he does not fear God and his days will not be longer
in shadows. This is the day of his life, which is like a shadow for the living.

12 Not by this do those who live for a long time lengthen their days, but they make them
great with the number of their good deeds. As if confessing himself to be a sinner, Jacob
says about this: "few and wicked are these days of mine". And confessing in the Psalm he
says, "my days are inclined like shadows, and I am like the hay of the field". Not because
he has sought a long life in the present world, in which all that we live is brief and
looks lie shadow: "for man walks in His likeness", but because he fears the future, lest
the length of his life, if it is indeed life, should be short. 13 8:14. There is a
futility that takes place on earth: sometimes there are righteous men who are treated as
if they had done according to the deeds of the wicked; and there are wicked men who are
treated as if they had done the deeds of the righteous. I declared, this, too, is vanity.
Amongst other vanities, which are borne in the world by good and bad events, even this I
have found to be vain, since those things often happen to the righteous which ought to
happen to the wicked, and the wicked live happily in the world that you would think that
they were the more righteous! He gives the example in the Gospel of the rich courtier and
poor Lazarus. The seventy-second Psalm also talks about the matter of why bad things
happen to good men and vice-versa. But where we read, 'there is a futility that takes
place on earth', Symmachus translates this fully, saying, "it is difficult to understand
what is done on earth". The Hebrews interpret the righteous who suffer wickedness as the
sons of Aaron, and Manasseh, because the former died while sacrificing, and the latter was
restored to power after much wickedness and captivity.

14 8:15. So I praised enjoyment, for man has no other aim under the sun but to eat, drink,
and be joyful; and this will accompany him in his toil during the days of his life which
God has given him beneath the sun. I have interpreted this more fully above, and now I
shall just speak cursorily. He is allowed to prefer to eat and drink, which is the
enjoyment (and must be short and end quickly) in the dire-straits of his life, and in
light of those things, which are seen to happen unfairly in the world, (since man seems to
have only this in return for his toil), he enjoys only modest recompense. But if the
interpretation is read in the way it has been written, it reproves the wretched, the
fasting and the hungry, the thirsty and the mourners, whom the Lord calls blessed in the
Gospel. And we regard food and drink spiritually and above this happiness, which we are
scarcely able to find in the toil of our life. But because these things are expressed in
this way, as I have said, the following verse shows this too, which says, "I dedicated my
heart to seeing wisdom and work", since clearly men work on earth, and consider deeply the
Scriptures day and night in this way so that sleep flees from their eyes, in return for
their study.

15 8:16-17. When I applied my heart to see wisdom and work which takes place on earth- for
even day or night its eyes see no sleep. And I perceived all the work of God. Indeed man
cannot fathom the events that occur under the sun, inasmuch as man tries strenuously to
search, but cannot fathom it. And even though a wise man should presume to know, he cannot
know it. He searches for the causes and understanding of the world, why this or that is
done, and for what reason the world is steered by good or bad turns of events; why one is
born blind and frail, another born healthy and with sight; why one is poor, another rich;
why one is of high birth, another inglorious. Nothing else is of use, unless he is
tortured in his search, and has an argument instead of anguish, but he does not find what
he is looking for. And when he says that he knows, then he has the beginning of ignorance
in him, and starts to sink into deeper madness. But he shows later that justice is the
cause of all things, why things happen the way they do, but that those causes hide in
secret and are not able to be understood by men.

CHAPTER 9

1 9:1. For all this I noted and I sought to ascertain all this: that the righteous and the
wise together with their actions are in the Hand of God; whether love or hate man does not
know; all preceded them. Symmachus also interprets this more clearly, saying: I kept all
these things in my heart so that I could expound all things, since the righteous and the
wise, along with their works are in the hand of God. And besides neither friendship, nor
hatred is known to man; yet all things are not certainin their presence, because they
happen similar to all, both to the righteous and to the wicked alike. More precisely the
meaning is this: I dedicated my heart even to this and wanted to know whom it is that God
loves, and whom He hates. And I found too that even the work of the righteous is in the
hand of God, but though, whether they are loved by God or not, now they know it cannot be
and they remain undecided as to whether they should keep on doing what they are doing
until it is approved, or pray. In the future therefore they will know and all will be on
their faces, that is 'will precede them' when they leave this life. Knowledge of that
matter then will come to them, since then is the judgement, but now the struggle. And
whosoever remains confused as to whether they should keep on through the love of God, as
Job, or through hate, as several sinners, will not be able to know for certain.

2 9:2. All things come alike to all; the same fate awaits the righteous and the wicked,
the good and the clean and the unclean, the one who brings a sacrifice and the one who
does not. As is the good man so is the sinner, as is the one who swears, so is the one who
fears an oath. These things which in themselves are neither good nor bad but are called
'in-between' by the wise, (since equally things happen to both the righteous and the
wicked), they perturb each single man, especially as to why they should happen thus, and
therefore do not think they are being judged, while there will be a distinction between
all things in the future when they have been done, yet now all things are confused. But he
says: "there is one outcome for the just and the unjust", he means either the outcome of
hardships or of death, and therefore they do not know the kingdom of God nor His hate.
Those who bring sacrifice and those who do not, and others in contrast who are not listed
here must be seen in a spiritual understanding, according to that verse which says,
"sacrifice to God with a troubled spirit".

3 9:3-4. This is an evil about all things that are done under the sun: that the same fate
awaits all Therefore the heart of man is full of evil; and madness is in their heart while
they live; and after that, they go to the dead. Symmachus interprets this in his usual
clearer way, saying, "but even the heart of mankind is filled with wickedness and
impudence like their heart in life". But all of them succumb to death, for who is able to
continually live forever? The Scripture has the same meaning regarding this. I said a
little earlier, that when both good and bad things happen equally to everyone, there is no
difference between good and bad, for we are taken from this life by indiscriminate death.
Nonetheless we are filled with wrongdoings and impudence and wickedness, and after all
these trials in life we are suddenly taken by death and afterwards we cannot consort with
the living. Or indeed it could mean this: since the same difficulties afflict both the
just and the unjust, men are therefore provoked to commit sins. Then after he has tried
all things, which are done in vain, while he is unknowing, he descends to the world of the
dead. For he who is attached to all living has hope, a live dog is better than a dead
lion.

4 9:5-6. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all; there
is no more reward for them, their memory is forgotten. Their love, their hate, their
jealousy have already perished- nor will they ever again have a share in whatever is done
beneath the sun. Since he has said above that the heart of man is filled with wickedness
and impudence, and after all things, his life comes to an end in death, then now he
completes this by saying that he has discovered that while men live, they are able to
become righteous, but after death are given no opportunity to do good work. For the sinner
who lives can be better than the dead and righteous man, if he wishes to convert to his
virtues. Or indeed as for him, who threw himself into wickedness, power, and impudence,
then died: any poorest beggar is better than him. Why? Because the living can carry out
good work in the fear of death, but the dead can do nothing to add to that which they took
away from their life when they died. And all things are forgotten, just as it is written
in the Psalm: "I have been given to forget, though dead from my heart". But even their
enjoyment, hatred and jealousy, and all that they were able to hold in their time, comes
to an end with their death; nor can they do anything now in their righteousness or sin, or
add to their virtues, or to their vices.

5 Certain men though can argue against this explanation, asserting that we can even grow
after death, and equally decrease, and quoting that verse which says, "and they will not
share yet in all that is done under the sun", and they understand it in this way, so that
they say that they have no communion in this world, and under this sun that we can see.
But they say that they do have it in another world, about which the Saviour says, "I am
not of this world", and under the sun of justice, but I have not excluded this theory,
which contends that after we leave this earth, we are able to offend reasoning creatures,
and deserve what we get. My Hebrew tutor thought differently of the verse, which says, "a
living dog is better than a dead lion". He explained it in this way according to the
beliefs of his people: an unlearned man is more useful, he who still lives and can teach,
than a trained teacher who is now dead. Because of the text he understands it to mean any
one dog is better than many teachers, and the lion is Moses, or any other prophet. But
because I don't like this explanation I prefer a better one; and Chananaea to whom it is
said: "your faith saves you", we say he is a dog according to the Gospel.

6 But a dead lion, for the people of circumcision is just the same as for Balaam, the
prophet, who says, "behold the people shall rise up as a great lion, and shall lift up
himself as a young lion". Therefore we are a living dog amongst the other nations; but the
Jewish people which has been left by God, is a dead lion. And that living dog is seen as
better in God's eyes than a dead lion. For we who are living know the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. The dead though can know nothing, or await any recompense and profit,
since their memory is complete. They don't remember what they ought to know, and God does
not remember them. Enjoyment too, for which they often loved God, will die, and hatred as
well, about which they say boldly, "surely I hate those who hate You, O Lord, and am I not
grieved with those that rise up against You?". And there does not exist their jealousy,
similar to the Phinees, and the knees of Matathia trembled. But it is very clear that a
part of them is not in that world, for they are not able to say, "my part is the Lord".

7 9:7-8. Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God has
already approved your deeds. Let your garments always be white, and your head never lack
oil. Regarding the passage until that verse where he says: 'like fish caught in a fatal
net, like birds seized in a snare, so are men caught in the moment of disaster when it
falls upon them suddenly'. Before I discuss them individually, it will be useful to link
them together, so that it can be seen how all pertain to the same meaning. Because in a
preceding chapter he had said that after men have died they are cut off from the heart of
the living, and no one loves or hates them, as according to the poet, who says, "there is
no struggle from the dead, who lack breath". And because they can do no more under the
sun, now he introduces the idea of human madness and habit, whereby men of this world
encourage themselves in turn to enjoy good things; and prosopopoiian, using this in the
manner of rhetoricians and poets, saying: "O man, since there is nothing for you after
death, and death herself hears not my complaint, and while you live this brief life, take
pleasure in enjoyment, hold feasts, suppress your worries with wine, and understand, since
they are all given by God to be used by you.

8 Wear white clothes, and let your head smell of ointments, and whichever woman pleases
you, enjoy her embrace, thus lead this empty and vain life in empty and vain pleasure. For
you will not have anything more than this, which you enjoy. Whatever you like, grasp
quickly, lest it disappears. You shouldn't fear the vain things mentioned, for the reason
for each individual work, either good or bad, will be given to you in the world of the
dead. And there is no wisdom in death, no sense of this life after passing away. He also
says that Epicurus, Aristippus, and the philosophers of Cyrene, and other of the
philosophical flock hold this belief. But I prefer my own ideas, and I do not find, as
some people think incorrectly, that everything happens by chance, and good and bad fate
plays on human lives. I rather believe that everything happens by the order of God. For
the fast runner should not think of his running when he runs, nor a strong man have faith
in his strength, or a wise man think amassing great riches and wealth is prudent; the
learned and well-spoken should not be able to find himself amongst a flattering crowd
because of his eloquence and learning, but by attributing all things to be done by God.
And unless he has ruled all things in his own judgement, and built his own home, then they
worked in vain, who built it. Except if he built a city, those, who watch over it, will
stay awake in vain.

9 For it is not as they think it is, that there is one outcome and uncertainty in this
life, since they do not think so, who are suddenly taken away by death and taken to their
judgement. And just as fish are caught by a spear or in nets, and birds are ensnared in a
noose whilst they fly through the air unknowing, in the same way men are led away to
eternal prayer on account of their merits, when sudden death comes and judges against
them, who thought all things in life happened by uncertainty. This is similar to that
meaning by which we wanted to understand all things in brief. Now he speaks not as if from
another person's mouth, but for himself, each phrase must be looked at on its own: "Go,
eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God has already
approved your deeds". Since you learned that all things end with death, and that
repentance is not in the world of the dead, and that there is no recourse to virtues,
while you are in that situation, then hasten, struggle, repent, while you still have the
time. For God acknowledges repentance freely. Another meaning could be, that simply
understanding is of use, according to that verse, which says, "whether therefore you eat,
or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And in another place: drink wine
with warning".

10 For he who uses up more than his means does not have true happiness and a good heart.
But it is better to think this: the works of this man pleased God, nonetheless he had need
of bread and wine, because he has been spurned from the vineyard of Sorek. Therefore this
teaching has been given to us, as he says, "if you desire wisdom, then keep the
commandments and the Lord shall give it to you". Let us then keep the commandments and we
will be able to find bread and wine for the spirit. But he who does not keep the
commandments prides himself in the abundance of his bread and wine, and Isaiah says to
him, "do not even say, I know it, you do not know, or recognise, and your ears have not
heard from the beginning, for I knew that you would deal very treacherously". More
precisely as it is said in the interpretation given in the Septuagint: Come, eat your
bread in happiness, this is the word of Ecclesiastes, who even speaks in the Gospel: "If
any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. And in Proverbs: "Come, eat of my bread,
and drink of the wine. Let your clothes be white forever and may your hair be oiled. He
therefore says, have a clean body and be merciful. Or in this way: 'let there not be a
time in which you do not have white clothes, beware lest you by accident put on clothes
that are not clean'.

11 A known sinner was once described to have enjoyed dirty clothes. But you should put on
the light, not the malediction, which was also written about Judah: "let a curse be worn
like clothes". Wear by your skin mercy, kindness, humility, mildness and patience. And
when you have been stripped, as an old man, of your work, take on new work, which is
renewed each day. He also says, "and let your hair not lack oil", you must remember that
this is the nature of ointment, that it reflects light and reduces the work of tiredness.
It is spiritual ointment, the ointment of exultation, about which is written: "therefore
God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your friends". This oil
must gladden our face. This oil must be put on the head of a faster, for sinners cannot
have it, about whom it is said, "they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment". But they have a different ointment, which the righteous man
abhors, saying, "the oil of a sinner will not stain my head". Heretics have this oil and
wish to pour it over the heads of their beguilers.

12 9:9. Enjoy life with the wife you love through all the fleeting days of your life that
He has granted you under the sun, all of your futile existence; for that is your
compensation in life and in your toil which you exert under the sun. Follow wisdom and
knowledge of the Scriptures, while you are joined in matrimony to your wife, as it is said
in Proverbs: "love her and she will serve you: embrace her and she will embrace you too".
But the day of vanity, the day of this world means nothing. The apostle mentions this too,
and he says, "live life with the woman that you love", but this is said in ambiguity,
either live or contemplate life both you yourself and your wife with you, for you will not
be able to live life alone without such a wife, or consider each one and live life, and
consider the woman in the days of your vanity. And he words this carefully, so that we
seek the true life with our wife and wisdom in the days of our vanity. For this is our lot
and the fruit of our toil, if we, retired, are able to find this true life.

13 9:10. Whatever you are able to do with your strength, do it. For there is neither
doing, nor reckoning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave where you are going. Do
whatever you are presently able to do, and toil at it, because when you go down to the
world of the dead there will be no place for repentance. Similar to this is what is taught
by the Saviour: "work hard, while there is still day left; for night will come, when none
is able to work", but he says this: "to the grave where you are going", remember too that
you believe Samuel was also in the grave, and before the advent of Christ, all men were
retained by the law of the dead, however holy they were. More precisely, the holy were
retained after the resurrection of the Lord in vain in the grave, and the apostle notes
this, remarking, "it is better to die and be with Christ". But he is with Christ, so that
he might not be held back in the grave.

14 9:11. Once more I saw under the sun that the race is not won by the swift; nor the
battle by the strong, nor does bread come to the wise, riches to the intelligent, nor
favour to the learned; but time and death will happen to them all. He who is bound by
manacles and by heavy lead chains is oppressed: "for wickedness sits upon a talent of
lead", and in the Psalm it says, "they weigh on me like a heavy burden". It is not talking
about that race, about which is said, "I took up the race, and I kept my faith". But that
man is swift and his spirit is not weighed down, nonetheless even he is not able to arrive
at the goal without God helping him. But when there has been a war against adverse
leaders, about whom it is written, "make war sacred", even a strong man will not be able
to win with his own strength. This is also true of the sons of man and the wise who cannot
have living bread for the spirit, except through encouraging wisdom: "Come, eat my bread".
And since there are riches, about which the apostle says, "riches come through good
deeds", and in another place, "you have been made rich in every utterance and knowledge";
it must be understood that a wise man cannot amass these riches, unless he receives them
from God, who possesses them. In another place these riches are mentioned too: "redemption
of the spirit for man is his own riches".

15 However learned a man is, he will not be able to find grace too, unless accompanied by
wisdom and given by God. Paul also knows this: "I worked more than all men," he says, "yet
not I but the grace of God which was with me". Then again he says, "His grace in me was
not in vain". And right to the end man does not know when the time will come, when the
unknown fate and end of all things will come. This reading is according to anagoge. But in
order to explain this more easily, I should mention that the epistle to the Romans agrees
with this verse: "So then it is not of him that wants, nor of him that runs, but of God
that shows mercy. He also says this: "there is no bread for the wise", this example is
proved every day for many people, who although they are very wise, still do not have the
necessary sustenance for life. And: "there is no grace for the knowledgeable". For you may
see in the Church that the ignorant and unskilled prosper. And this is both because they
have nourished their boldness, and followed the fluency of their tongue, while they do not
think about what they say, they think that they are wise and learned, and as if they have
the greatest favour of the populous, which delights and is brought together more by more
polished words. On the other hand a learned man lies in obscurity and suffers persecution;

16 and not only does he not have grace in the people's eyes, but also fades away through
poverty and hunger. But these things happen because all things occur by uncertainty, and
there is no retribution of merit in this world, but in the future. 17 9:12. For man does
not even know his time, like fish caught in a fatal net, like birds seized in a snare, so
are men caught in the moment of disaster when it falls upon them suddenly. I have already
said above, that while men are yet unknowing, either disaster or death befalls them. More
precisely we should look at this as allegory, that the realm of the sky is similar to a
net cast into the sea; and on the other hand heretics have nets, in which they capture
fish, leading to their death. Their net though is affable language, flattering speeches,
feigned or forced fasting, poor clothes, and an imitation of virtues. And if they begin to
argue about the divine and raise their face to the heavens to seek the heights of God,
then they cast a noose into the heavenly abodes. So just as fish and birds are seized of a
sudden by such a net, and by such a noose, so wickedness is increased many times and the
kindness of many fails; and the signs and portents are seen in such a way as to entice
even the chosen of God if possible. See too those men of the Church, who are called the
children of men, and are of modest faith, and who can be overcome quickly. Note too, that
the term sons of men is used throughout the whole book, and the Hebrew has sons of man,
this is 'the sons of Adam'. And almost all scripture is filled with this idiom that sees
the sons of Adam as the sons of all men.

18 9:13-15. This, too, I have observed about wisdom under the sun, and it affected me
profoundly: there was a small town with only a few inhabitants; and a mighty king came
upon it and surrounded it, and built great siege works over it. Present in the city was a
poor wise man who by his wisdom saved the town. Yet no one remembered that poor man. While
some people say that all things are uncertain, and that the righteous have no more than
the wicked, I see even the greatest wisdom in this verse, because it happens repeatedly
that there is a small township with only a few inhabitants, and it is surrounded by an
army of a very powerful enemy, and the people inside is killed by the siege and by hunger.
And suddenly and unexpectedly a poor man is found, who has more wisdom than all the rich
men, than all those powerful and pompous men who are in danger, and who fear the siege.
And he thinks, seeks and finds an answer as to how the town might be saved from the
oppressors. But O ungrateful oblivion of men, after they were freed from bondage and
released from captivity, and the freedom was given back to the fatherland, no one
remembers that wise old man, no one gives thanks for their salvation, but all show honour
to the rich, who were able to do nothing to help when in time of danger. My Hebrew tutor
interpreted this passage differently:

19 the small town, he says, is man, who even amongst learned men is called less clean. And
the few men in the town, are the members by which the man shields and covers himself. But
when a great king comes against it, that is the devil, and he searches for a place by
which he might break through, and in the town is found a poor and wise man, that is the
calm thought of that man on the inside, and that is what saves the town, which is
surrounded and besieged by the enemy. And the man has been saved from danger, or
persecution, or disaster, or any other kind of adverse sin. But that man on the outside,
who is the enemy of the wise and poor man on the inside, he does not remember the poor
man, nor does he remember his promises, but yet enjoys his freedom. Differently: the small
town and the few inhabitants in it is the Church in comparison to the whole world. And the
great king the devil often comes against it, not because he is great, but because he
thought to be great, and he surrounds the Church with a siege or persecution, or with
another kind of disaster. He finds in it a poor man who is wise, that is our Lord Jesus
Christ, who was made poor for us and is wisdom itself. And that poor man frees the town
with his wisdom.

20 How many times do we see a reclining lion in a trap with rich men, this is with the
politicians and leaders of our time, who come against the Church, but fail at the wisdom
of that poor man? And when this poor man has won and the town is restored to peace,
scarcely anyone remembers him, scarcely any of his requests are heard, but giving in to
all indulgence and pleasure, the inhabitants seek riches that are not necessary. 21 9:16.
So I said: wisdom is better than might, although a poor man's wisdom is despised and his
words go unheeded. Although no one remembers a poor wise man, and everyone is happy, and
admires power and riches; I however admire this despised wisdom according to all of the
interpretations given above, and the words which none thinks worthy to be heard. 9:17. The
gentle words of the wise are heard above the shouts of a king over fools. Whosoever you
see in the Church declaiming and arousing applause by whatever refinery or charm, he who
shakes off his laughter and incites the crowd to feigned happiness, know that this is a
sign of foolishness, equally of him who speaks, and of those who listen to him. For the
words of the wise are heard in peace and respectful silence. He who is foolish and is
powerful speaks to fools and cannot hear himself because of either the noise of his own
voice or that of the applauding crowd.

22 9:18. And wisdom is better than weapons, but a single rogue can ruin a great deal of
good. Now he also takes wisdom in preference to strength and says that it is worth more in
battle than weapons. But if there is one fool, however small and worthless, he will
repeatedly destroy riches and great wealth by his stupidity. But because the Hebrew can
also be read as: 'and he who sins once, will lose much goodness', much righteousness will
be lost in return and virtues will follow in turn, and he who has one, has all; and he who
sins at one time, leaves himself open to all vices.

CHAPTER 10

1 10:1. Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's oil; a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour.
Here he gives an example to illustrate the idea expressed above, in which he says that
many good things can be outweighed by one fool, since one evil mixed with good in this way
will pollute the greater part of it, just as flies if they die in oil, make it lose its
colour and smell. And since wisdom is often mixed with cleverness and prudence has
wickedness, he teaches that we must search out wisdom alone, or that it be mixed with the
innocence of doves. Let us then be prudent to the good, and simple in the face of the
wicked. And this is the meaning: let the righteous man have little simplicity on account
of his having too much suffering, and while he keeps his retribution for God, he seems
foolish, and does wickedness at once in vindication under the guise of prudence. Another
meaning could be those flies that according to Isaiah inhabit a part of the river of
Egypt, and destroy the sweetness of oil and according to one source leave the smell of
their uncleanness. The chief of these flies is called Beelzebub of the demons, and is
interpreted as either 'the idol of flies' or 'the man of the flies', or 'he who has
flies'.

2 10:2-3. A wise man's mind tends to his right; while a fool's mind tends to his left.
Even on the road as the fool walks, he lacks sense, and proclaims to all that he is a
fool. And in the Gospel it is taught that a wise man's left does not know what his right
is doing. And when we are hit on the right side of the face, we do not show the left cheek
to he who hit us, but the other one. For a wise man does not have a left side in him, but
is in fact completely the right side. And when the Saviour comes to judge us, the lambs
will stand on the right, and the goats on the left. It is written in the prophets that
"the Lord knows the ways to the right, which are wrong, and actually lead to the left.".
Therefore he who is wise always thinks about the future, because it leads him to the
right. But he who is foolish always thinks of the present, because it is set in the left.
What follows has also been said by the philosopher poet, who says, "the right leads to the
walls of the lower world, this is our path to Elysium, but the left is for the wicked.
That gives out punishments and sends people down to the nether regions". Firmianus of our
time in the famous work of his Institute recalls the passage about left and right, and
argues that this is about virtues and about vices.

3 And we shouldn't think that this is contrary to that passage, which says, "do not go to
the right, nor to the left". In the first passage the right is taken to mean good; but in
the second it is not just right but also the decline to the right. We should not know more
than we need to know, since virtues are in the middle and all excess in a vice. In the
following verse though he says, "but on the path that the fool walks, his heart is in
need", and he says: "all is foolishness" or "all are fools". This is the meaning: A fool
hopes that all others sin as he himself sins, and judges all others by his own standards.
Then Symmachus has interpreted it in this way: but when the fool walks along the road, he
supposes that all are stupid as he is. But the Septuagint has another meaning, which says,
'all things which he thinks are foolish, are the most vain'.

4 10:4. If the anger of a ruler flares up against you, do not leave your place, for
defence appeases great offences. Now the Scripture mentions the chief of that world, the
creator of the darkness and he who toils for the sons of despair, whom the apostle also
recalls. For if he rises in our heart and the spirit of bad thoughts is wounded, we ought
not to give way, but fight against the worst thoughts and free ourselves from the greatest
sins, so that we do not fill our work with that thought, since it is one thing in thought,
another in the deed of sinning. Reference to this great sin can also be found in the
Psalm: "if they had not conquered me, I would be clean and purified from the greatest
crime". Symmachus translates the Hebrew word marphe as all the others do: iama, that is,
'cleanliness' or 'neatness'. He has interpreted the meaning too, and he says, "if the
spirit of a ruler defeats you, do not move from your place; since virtue wins over the
greatest sin". That is, if the devil entices your mind and incites you to lust, do not
follow the thought of sin and flattering desire, but stand firm and fast and extinguish
the flame of desire with the cold of chastity. My Hebrew tutor suspected certain things
about this passage for a reason I do not know. If you take any high-up position in the
world, or are appointed a post higher than the other people, do not let go of your former
works and start to forget your former virtues, or cease from your previous work, because
the cure for sins is born out of doing good things, and not from pompous and overflowing
rank.

5 10:5-7. There is an evil that I have observed in the world as if it were an error
proceeding from the ruler: folly is placed on lofty heights, while rich men sit in low
places. I have seen slaves on horses and nobles walking on foot like slaves. Where we read
"as if it were an error proceeding from the ruler" Aquila, Theodotion and the Septuagint
have interpreted this as "as if not of their own will", that is hos akousian, from the
face of the ruler. Symmachus agrees with this, saying, "the fool is placed in great
elevation, but humble riches remain fixed. And he remembers that he has seen this
wickedness in this time, because the judgement of God seems to be unjust. And it happens
either through not knowing, or without his will, that either in the rulers of the world,
or in the leadership of the Church, often these men, who are rich in words and wisdom,
rich too in good deeds, remain ignoble and foolish holding a position in the Church. But
this happens in front of his face, he who has power in that time, while he oppresses the
powerful and learned men, and he does not let them come out in public, but those whom he
knows to be foolish in the Church he makes greater, so that the blind are led by the blind
into pitfalls. The following verse also has this meaning: "I have seen slaves on horses
and nobles walking on foot like slaves".

6 Because these men are slaves of vices and sins, or are so humble, that they are thought
to be slaves by other men, they are suddenly inflated by the devil's pompousness, and they
wear out the public roads with their ponies. And each noble or wise man that is oppressed
by poverty takes the road and occupation of slaves. The Hebrew seems to say that ignorance
seems to leave the face of the powerful and rulers. He explains this as God, because men
think that in this inequality of matter He is not acting justly, and judging as is
correct. More precisely, some men believe as their predecessors do that there must be
judgement so that He himself is powerful, a topic that is mentioned before these verses:
if a ruler comes up against you, do not give way. Should we not be sad therefore if we
seem to be humble in this world, and know from the face of the devil, that the foolish are
raised and the rich thrown down? If we know that slaves have the ranks of their masters
and rulers do the work of their slaves. Remember though that this horse is seen in a good
context, just as in the verse, which says, "and riding will be your salvation".

7 10:8. He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who breaks down a wall will be bitten
by a snake. This is partly unambiguous and partly to be understood in a more complicated
way. Since elsewhere Solomon also says, "he that sets a trap will be caught in it". And in
the seventh Psalm: "he laid out a pond and dug it out, and then he fell into the hole he
had made". But the wall and the fence as well are the doctrines of the Church, and the
institution set up by the apostles and prophets. And whoever knocks them down or wants
them to come to an end is bitten by a snake where he is not looking. Amos writes about
this snake: "if he goes down into the underworld, I will order a snake to kill him". 8
10:9. He who moves about stones will be hurt by them; he who splits logs will be
endangered by them. In Zechariah sacred stones are moved about the earth. For they do not
stay firm in their place, but revolve, and always inclining to other places, they hasten
to move away. The Saviour also teaches about these living stones in the city of the
Apocalypse, and the apostle doesn't forget to mention the building of the Church.
Therefore if anyone doing wrong by their heresy, should take away those stones from the
building of the Church, then he will suffer torture afterwards. Aquila and Symmachus write
about this man, and where we have 'he who moves about stones, will suffer from them', both
write, "he who moves stones, will be wounded by them". But because the Scripture says very
clearly, "he who moves about stones", or 'moves stones', he does not add 'good' or 'bad'.
Moreover and to the contrary it must be understood, that the man of the Church seemingly a
bishop and elder, (if we are taking this according to the mandate of Leviticus), took a
stone away from the house of lepers, and was obliterated in dust and ashes. And he will
suffer for this himself, because he was forced to take away a stone from the Church of
Christ and saying, (according to the apostle), "to weep with the weeping, to mourn with
the mourners", and "who is weak, and I burn not?". Also cutting wood, he will be
endangered by it.

9 Heretics are non-fruit-bearing wood, and copse that do not bear fruit. Pertaining to
this too is that we must not plant a glade in the house of God, and leafy openings, that
is arbours of such sounding words are scorned. However learned and wise a man may be
therefore who chops this wood with the sword of speech, he will be endangered by it,
unless he diligently pays attention. This is similar to what follows, this will happen,
"if iron is shaped" and its appearance is changed. This means that if his argument is
found to be weaker, or if he does not have a point, in which each argument is well
balanced, then the argument of his heart is blunt. Then the strength of wickedness will
come upon him and fortify him. For this is what the Septuagint interprets this passage to
mean: it says, "and he is fortified by strength, and he will begin to have more wisdom
than strength; his wisdom will become strong, and superfluous, but it will not help him
who possesses it.

10 10:10. If a blade is blunt and one has not sharpened the edge, nevertheless it
strengthens the warriors. Wisdom is a more powerful skill. If someone, he says, has seen
himself lose knowledge of the Scriptures through negligence, and the shrewdness of his
intelligence has been blunted, nonetheless he remains disturbed, and he would be just as
he had been when he started. But it happens, meanwhile, that he that has a little
knowledge is led into pride and stops learning and reading, and little by little takes
away from that which now adds nothing to him. Thus the heart of the pupil remains empty,
and a blade that has been sharpened is made blunt. For rest and laziness are like a kind
of rust of wisdom. So then if anyone has suffered this, let him not despair the remedy for
his health, but let him go to his teacher and be instructed again by him, and then after
much toil and hard work, and a great deal of much sweat, he will be able to regain that
wisdom that he had lost. And this is what is said in the Hebrew more to the point: he will
be strengthened by might, that is, by toil, by sweat, by hard work, and daily reading,
then wisdom will follow suit, and his toil will come to an end, so that he might be able
to receive wisdom once more.

11 10:11. If the snake bites because it has not been charmed, then there is no advantage
to the charmer's art. The meaning of this is very apparent: the serpent and the disparager
are of the same ilk. For just as the hidden snake bites and injects its poison, so too the
other disparages in private, and he pours out the poison of his heart against his brother,
and there will be nothing between him and the serpent. For although the tongue of man was
created for benediction and encouragement of others, the disparager makes it equal to that
of the serpent, while he uses his virtues to bad purposes. Another meaning of this is,
that if the serpent devil should bite anyone secretly, and he doesn't know it, he infects
him with the poison of sin; and if he who has been struck keeps silent, and does not
repent, and does not want to confess his wound to his teacher and brother, they who want
to encourage him and see to it that he gets better, are not able to be of any use to him.
For if an ill man is ashamed to confess his wound to a doctor, the doctor will not be able
to cure what he does not know exists.

12 10:12. The words of a wise man win favour, but a fool's lips devour him. Foolishness,
if it is happy in its rusticity, will know less evil. But now he wages war against wisdom,
and whatever prudence he sees in a learned man, he does not take to be incited by
enthusiasm. For a wise man speaks words of knowledge, words of thanks, which are of use to
those that hear them, but the lips of a fool do not receive what is said, as it is said;
on the contrary they try to trip up a wise man and make him similar to a fool. And in fact
a wise man is taught when a foolish man speaks in his ear, and you could almost say that
his words are lost in the deep swell. Therefore he is blessed, who speaks in the ear of a
wise man. 13 10:13-14. His talk begins as foolishness and ends as evil madness. The fool
prates on and on, but man does not know what will be; and who can tell him what will be
after him? So far the discussion has been about the fool, whose lips teach the wise man,
or according to another interpretation, his lips make himself corrupt. The beginning and
the end of his speech are foolishness and evil madness; or as Symmachus has translated it,
confusion, or some kind of inconsistency of words. For while he doesn't keep to the one
opinion, he thinks he can escape sin in the many arguments he speaks at the same time. But
he does not remember all those who have gone before him, and does not know what will
happen after him, and so is confused in ignorance and the darkness, promising himself
false knowledge; by this he thinks that he is wise, and that he is learned, if he uses
lots of words. This can be taken to refer to the heretics, who do not heed the words of
wise men, but continue to argue different sides so they intertwine the beginning and end
of their speech in vanity, confusion, and madness; and though they know nothing, they
speak more than they know.

14 10:15. The toil of fools exhausts them, as one who does not know the way to town. Join
these lines with the verse above; either to those verses that speak in general about
fools, who know not God, or in particular to that one which argues about heretics. Read in
Plato for example: unravel the tricks of Aristotle, read Zeno and Carneas more diligently,
and you will prove to be true what is written here: the toil of fools exhausts them. For
they seek the truth in fact with all their enthusiasm, but since they have no leader or
anyone to lead the way on their journey, they are led by their human instincts to think
that they can understand wisdom, and thus they do not arrive at the town; the Psalm speaks
of this too: "Lord, you will scatter their image in your town". For the Lord will scatter
in the town all shadows and strange appearances or characters, in which they clothe
themselves in their many doctrines. In another place the Psalm says of this: "the force of
a river causes the city of God to rejoice". And in the Gospel: "a town built on a mountain
cannot be hidden". And in Isaiah: "I am a strong city, a city which is attacked". And all
the wise men and heretics of this world are trying to attack this city of truth and
wisdom, although it is strong and fortified. And that which I have said about philosophers
can also be said of heretics, that they toil in vain, and are exhausted in their
enthusiasm for the Scriptures, when they wander in the desert and are not able to find the
town. The Psalmist also mentions their madness too, saying, "they wandered in the
wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in."

15 10:16-17. Woe to you, O land, whose king acts as an adolescent, and whose ministers
dine in the morning. Happy are you, O land, whose king is a man of dignity, and whose
ministers dine at the proper time- in strength and not in drunkenness. He seems in fact
here to reprove the young king and to condemn indulgent judges, which in another place has
been called wisdom that is weakened by age, and even in other places mature age which is
made frail by pleasure. On the other hand he seems to approve the king with good morals,
who is appointed easily. He also seems to praise those judges who nonetheless prefer
pleasure to the business of the town, but after much toil and the running of the township,
are forced to eat as if by necessity. But I find more holy what seems to lie hidden in the
text, because those who depart from old laws and despise the precepts of their ageing
fathers, are called young men in the scripture; they who do not heed the commandments of
God, and desire to change the laws of mankind. The Lord of Israel threatens in Isaiah,
because the people did not want the waters of Shiloah that flows in silence, and averted
the ancient stream, choosing for themselves the rivers of Samaria, and the surges of
Damascus. "And I will give", he says, "children to be their princes, and babes shall rule
over them". Read also Daniel and you will find the old God of Days.

16 Or read the Apocalypse of John where the head of the Saviour is said to be white and
snowy, and you will find it to be like white wool. Look at Jeremiah too because he was
wise and his hair was purported to be white because of his wisdom, and he is forbidden to
call himself a young man. Woe to the land therefore whose king is the devil, who always
desirous of new things, and even rebels against its parent in the case of Abessalon, who
regards as judges and leaders those, who love the pleasures of the world, and who say
before the day of death comes, "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die". For the other
part is the blessed land of the Church whose king, Christ, is the son of all peoples. He
is descended from Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, also from the stock of all the prophets
and saints, for whom sin was not conquered. On account of this they were indeed children.
Born of these was the virgin, more freely Saint Mary, who had no offspring, no seed from
her flank, but all of her fruit burst out in flower, speaking in the Song of Songs: "I am
the flower of the field and the lily of the valley". His leaders too are apostles and all
are saintly, who see their king as the son of all men, the son of a free woman; not of the
slave woman Agar, but born of Sara in freedom.

17 And they do not eat in the morning, or quickly. For they do not seek enjoyment in their
time, but eat in their time, and when the time for retribution will come, they will eat in
strength, and not in disorder. Every good thing of this world is a disorder, but an
everlasting strength in the future. Just this is said in Isaiah: "look at those who serve
me, they will eat; but you will go hungry. And again, "look at those who serve me, they
will be happy; but you will shamed." 18 10:18. Through slothfulness the ceiling sags, and
through idleness of the hands the house leaks. Our house, which is held up by the
condition of mankind, even that abode that we have in heaven, sags if we are lazy and slow
to do good work. And every ceiling, which is supposed to hold the roof up high, falls to
the ground and crushes its inhabitants. And when the help of hands and virtues has
eventually gone numb a great storm of all tempests and rain clouds will fall down upon us
from above. More precisely, although we have interpreted this with regard to one man, it
can be better understood with bearing to the Church, because its stature is brought down
by the neglect of its principate. There in the Church we find the attractions of sins,
where the roof is said to be virtue.

19 10:19. A feast is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, but money answers
everything. I think that what follows relates to the preceding verses. For with regard to
the sloth and the indolence of teachers the Church is lowered, and its roof is made to
fall, and its timbers leak, as we have shown above. Therefore here he is speaking of the
self-same teachers. And he has been seen to accuse them, asking why they remain silent and
do not make use of their duty as teacher, (that is both for bishops and elders in the
Church), saying that they neither work on their speaking nor doctrine, the same that even
Titus admonishes, and is taught by Timothy, so that one does not forget the grace of God,
which is bestowed upon a great man. But in this respect they see themselves as elders and
bishops, so that they receive an allowance, and many teachers ask for a two-fold glory,
which is owed in fact to those who work on their speaking and doctrines. But now he takes
the other side and accuses those who even speak in the Church and teach the congregation,
but they teach the people that which they like to hear, because he flatters the sinner in
his crime and incites the listeners to applaud.

20 For surely when such a teacher is giving a lascivious speech in the Church, does he not
promise the blessing and realm of heaven to the crowd, as it will seem to you that his
laughter makes bread, and he mixes wine with the happiness of those who drink? Or as those
who teach and seek riches, food, and wealth through the promised delights. Or the bread of
the Church, which is the bread of mourners, and not of those who laugh, because those who
weep are blessed, for they will laugh, and will have joy in their happiness. He also goes
on to say: money or silver answers everything, and this must be taken as two-fold: either
that those learned men become rich after their praise, and take their place at the head of
the people, or indeed, since money is always taken in return for a speech: for "the words
of the LORD are pure words: as silver extracted in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times. He asserts this because the ignoble crowd is always moved easily by eloquence and
speeches, which are composed of a great foliage of words. Differently: those who have
free-will and are forbidden to mourn and fast, make bread in their laughter. Isaac gets
his name from this bread as well, and in the happiness of drinking they prepare wine. And
so every holy man, who is teacher of the Church, as Christ commanded, makes bread in his
laughter and happiness, and hands out cups of wine in his joy.

21 Money also, which answers everything, is given out as five, and two and one talent for
the head of the family in the Gospel. And ten coins which are thought to be for slaves in
business. 22 10:20. Even in your thoughts do not curse a king, and in your bed-chamber do
not curse the rich, for a bird of the skies may carry the sound, and some winged creature
may betray the matter. This simple example teaches the listeners that we should not be
overpowered by anger and fury, and curse and blame kings and leaders, since it seems to
happen against one's wish, that what we curse is made known. And we run into danger by the
inability to hold our tongue. He also says, "a bird of the skies may carry the sound, and
some winged creature may betray the matter", this is to be understood as a exaggeration,
just as we are accustomed to saying, 'walls have ears to hear those things, which we think
are said in private'. But it is better to hear a teaching in this way, so that we know
that we have a commandment to follow, not only that nothing should be spoken rashly
against Christ, but also in the secret places of our heart, however we are troubled by our
many problems, nothing should be blasphemed, nothing thought which is impious. And since
we owe love, that we have for Christ, the next part says, "love the Lord your God," and
even " your nearest" and "yourself". He even orders this, so that afterwards we do not
easily take the king away from the holy, and so that we do not slander by the wickedness
of our tongue those who are rich in knowledge, wisdom and virtues, for they are the angels
who fly around the earth and are administrators of the spirit. They say in Zechariah, "we
have traversed the earth and look all the world is inhabited and quiet". And just like
birds, our words and thoughts are carried to heaven. And whatever we think in secret, is
not hidden from God's knowledge.

CHAPTER 11

1 11:1. Send your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it. He
encourages to mercy since it must be given to all that seek wisdom, and work well. For
just as he sows over the well-watered fields and awaits the produce of his seed, so too he
who is generous to the needy does not sow the grain of his seed, but bread itself. And he
waits for it to grow into his future profit; and when the day of judgement comes much more
will be found to have grown than was at first sown. Differently: in each and every man you
can see this water, about which is said, "rivers flow from his stomach, the waters of
life", lest it should trouble you to display the bread of life, the bread of reasoning,
and of speech. For if you do this many times you will find that you have not sown the
seeds of doctrine in vain. I think that this is what is written in Isaiah too: "blessed is
he who sows across the water, where the ox and ass trample". This is also because that
teacher (about whom we have already spoken), is held to be worthy of blessing, because he
sows across the well-watered hearts of his listeners, the hearts of the Jews, as those of
the gentiles in the gathered congregation.

2 11:2. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for you do not know what evil shall be
upon the earth. And in Ezekiel there are found seven or eight steps leading up to the
temple. And after the 'ethical' Psalm, that is one hundred and eighteen, all the psalms
are of fifteen steps by which we are first taught the law, and when the seventh is
finished, we then climb to the Gospel through the 'eight steps'. Therefore it is taught
that we should believe with equal respect in each, the same for the old as for the new.
The Jews dedicated their seventh part, believing in the Sabbath, but did not dedicate that
eighth, denying the resurrection on the day of the Lord. On the other hand, heretics,
Marcion and Manichaeus and all who rip up the ancient law with their savage mouths,
dedicate their eighth part, taking up the Gospel. But they do not save as holy the
seventh, spurning the old law. For we are not able to understand the worthy crucifixions,
the worthy punishments already in mind, which are reserved for those who are moved to
wickedness on earth, that is for the Jews and the heretics, and for those denying the
other of the two. The Hebrews understand this passage in this way: keep both the Sabbath
and the rite of circumcision, for if you do not adhere to these wickedness will come over
you unexpectedly.

3 11:3. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the
tree falls toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there
it shall be. Keep the commandments that have been taught to you above so that the clouds
above you will break open in rain. For wherever you have made your home and seat for the
future, whether to the east or facing the north, when you die you will remain there.
Differently: as I have said above 'send your bread over the water and divide it to all who
ask'. Since when the clouds are full they pour their riches down on mortals, and you are
as a tree: however aged you may be, you will not live forever, but one day suddenly struck
by the storm of death like a storm of winds, there where you fall you will lie forever.
The time of your end will come whether you may be stiff and savage, or mild and merciful.
Differently: God is addressed in the Psalms: "you are truth up to the clouds", and in
Isaiah God warns the sinner of the vineyard, "I will command the clouds not to rain down".

4 Therefore the clouds are as prophets or holy men, who have amassed many talents in their
mind, so that he can rain his teachings of doctrine down on others and say, "their speech
should be awaited just as rain, and they will pour out rain across the earth", to which is
replied, "let the earth hear the words of my mouth". But this follows: "and if a tree
falls to the east, or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will remain. We
can take the example of the book of Hebrews, in which is written, "God will come to
Teyma", which some interpreters have taken to mean that God will come from the south, and
when I come to think about it the south is always used in a good context. This can be seen
in Song of Songs: "arise oh north" that is 'return' and 'go away'; "and come O south
wind". Therefore a tree, if in this life it falls and is cut in its state of mortality,
either must sin before while it stands and is then placed in the north afterwards, or if
the south winds takes away all its worthy fruit, it will lie wounded in the south. The
text does not mean any tree, but only if it lies to the north or south. This means the
same as that which is written: "I will say to the north wind, come, and to the south wind,
do not hold back".

5 Nowhere teaches about the south wind and the east wind together, saying that they blow,
since it is fitting for them to be among those regions, because they are blown afterwards
to the south and east. Therefore it blows from the north to the south and the south wind
blows its inhabitants to the east. And they are not able to blow out if they remain in
their ancient palaces. 6 11:4. He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that
regards the clouds shall not reap. He who considers what is good for him and does not give
out to all who ask him, often destroys what he ought to receive. Differently: he who
proclaims the word of God at the time when the people listen freely and a second wind of
rumour comes, he is a negligent and lazy farmer. But favourably or not in his career he
must proclaim the word of God; and he must not think of the storm of adverse clouds in his
time of faith. This is written in Proverbs: "just as the rains are heavy and unyielding,
so are they who leave wisdom and praise impiety". Therefore you must sow your seeds in the
middle of a storm without thinking of the clouds and without fearing the winds. And you
must not say, 'that time was convenient, this of no use', when we do not know which way
and which will is the one spirit of giving.

7 11:5. As you do not know what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the
womb of her that is with child: even so you know not the works of God who makes all. Just
as you do not know the way of the spirit and of the soul entering a child, and are
unknowing of the types of bone and veins in the stomach of a pregnant woman. It is hard to
know how the human body is formed from the simplest elements into the many varied forms
and limbs, and from the very same seed, one makes soft our hair, another makes our bones
hard; one connects the veins, another links the nerves together. Thus you cannot know the
work of God, who has made all things. From this he teaches that the variety of things in
the world must not be feared, and you must not fear the winds and the clouds, which as we
have mentioned above must be judged. But although the sower ought to reap in the course of
his career, he ought to save the outcome for the judgement of the Lord.

8 11:6-8. In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hand: for you
know not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike
good. Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
But if a man lives many years, and rejoices in them all; yet let him remember the days of
darkness; for they shall be many. All that which comes is vanity. Do not choose which good
deeds you do, but once you have started doing good, never stop. The evening will reveal
the justice of the morning, and the sunrise will collect the mercy of the evening. For it
is uncertain which work pleases God more, and by what means you will obtain the fruit of
righteousness. But it can happen that not one but each one will please God. Another
meaning could be that both in childhood and in old-age you will have equal work. Do not
say therefore, "I worked while I was able, I ought to rest in old-age", for you do not
know whether you please God more in youth or in age. And the thrift of youth too is of no
use if old-age is taken up by indulgence. For the righteous has erred, not even his former
virtues can free him from death. And if you always do well according to each
interpretation and work equal amounts in each age, you will see God the Father, the
sweetest light;

9 you will see Christ, the sun of righteousness. More precisely if you live for many years
and always have good things or do good deeds, you will still know that you are going to
die, and the coming of darkness will continually surround you: you will despise the
present things as if they were transient, frail and failing. Symmachus has interpreted the
end of this idea in this way: if a man lives for many years and if he has been happy in
all this he ought to remember the days of darkness, since they will be many, in which all
will cease. Differently: in another place in the Scripture God promises, saying, "I will
give you timely rain and rain that is late". I will irrigate you with rain: the Old and
the New Testament. He warns about this here so that we may read about the ancient law,
lest we hate the Gospel, and in this way ask about the spiritual understanding in the old
text; lest we think that what we read in the Gospels and apostles is only to be taken at
face value. For we do not know when more knowledge and grace is divested to us by God, and
he who is happy, who joined both together to make it like one. For he who has followed
this will see the light, will see Christ, the light of justice.

10 And if he lives for several years and with knowledge of the Scriptures he will know the
greatest happiness and enjoyment, and he is forced more to this toil by the memory of his
future judgement. Since the time of eternal darkness will come, and perpetual punishments
will be in stone for those who have not sown in the morning and in the evening, and joined
both in vain; they have not seen the light or the sun, whence the light itself comes. 11
11:9-10. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth; and let your heart cheer you in the days of
your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes: but know,
that for all these things God will bring you into judgement. Therefore remove sorrow from
your heart, and put away evil from your flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.


COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
==========================

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES continued

CHAPTER 12

1 12:1. Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them; In this chapter
there were many explanations of all things and almost as many opinions as men themselves.
It would take too long however to recount all the opinions of everyone and their arguments
in which they want to prove their opinions, the matter would require a volume to itself.
But it is enough for wise men to have shown what they feel, and like in a small picture,
to have depicted the thirst of the earth, the waste of the whole earth, and the belt of
the ocean, and to have shown them in such a small collection. The Hebrews believe the
imperative here refers to Israel, to whom it is taught that she should enjoy her riches,
and before the time of bondage comes should change youth to old-age. She should enjoy
whatever is pleasant or fun, just as it seems to the heart so it seems to the eyes; at
that time while she still has them to hand. She knows however that she will be judged in
all things that she has done. And just as from bad thoughts she flees from desires,
knowing that foolishness is joined to youth, and will remember always her Creator, and
before the days of Babylonian and Roman captivity come, in which she will no longer be
free.

2 And all of this passage from the point which says, "before the sun, moon, and stars
become dark", until the place where the Scripture reminds us, "and dust will be swirled on
earth just as it used to be and the soul returned to God who gave it", they explain their
condition. And since as I have said above these things are tiresome and favourable, they
should be touched by us but briefly and superficially. Therefore enjoy your youth O
Israel, and do this or that, that has already been mentioned before your time of bondage
comes; and your glory will leave you and pride, and judges, and your holy men who want to
be interpreted as the sun, moon, and stars, and are taken away. Before Nebuchadnezzar
comes, or Titus, Vespasian's son, before the call of the prophets and their prophecies are
fulfilled. In that day when the angels that protect the temple leave, and the strongest
men in your army are thrown in confusion, and the speeches of the judges will be slow to
come, and the prophets, who are accustomed to receiving the light of their visions from
heaven, they all will become dark. When the doors of the temple are closed Jerusalem will
be made humble and the Chaldeans will come as if by the song of a bird, called thus in the
words of Jeremiah, and the singing girls with the lute in the temple choir will become
silent.

3 At that time, when they will come to Jerusalem, the enemies too will fear the greatness
of God, and in the way of doubt, they will fear the death of Sennacherib. For they also
believe the saying, "and from up high they will fear and tremble in the road". In those
days "the almond tree will flourish", that stick and staff which Jeremiah saw in his
prophecy in the beginning, "and the grasshopper will be a burden". Nebuchadnezzar with his
army, "and desire shall fail ", the friendship between Israel and God. But what desire
wants for itself, although we have begun to speak about them individually will be
explained more fully. But all this will happen to Israel, because man will go out into the
house of his eternity, and having returned from the protection of God to the heavens,
going to his tabernacle, the weeping and crying will wander in the street and will be
hemmed in by the enemy's siege. Be happy therefore Israel in your youth, before the silver
cord is broken, (this is until your glory is with you), before the golden ribbon breaks
off, (that is before the arc of the tabernacle is taken away); before the pitcher is worn
away to the fountain, and the wheel is turned around over the pool.

4 That is until you read the most sacred teachings, for the spirit of a holy man is grace,
and before you return to Babylon, from whence you left the loins of Abraham, and you will
begin to be worn away in Mesopotamia, which once breathed life into you, and all is
returned to He who gave it. The Jews have always taught these things and have understood
this chapter to pertain to themselves. But I prefer to return to the previous argument,
and try to explain each thing individually: "rejoice O youth, in your adolescence, and let
your heart be good in the days of your youth, and walk in the way of your heart and in the
sight of your eyes; and know above all these things, since God will lead you into
judgement". He has said that the light of this world is the sweetest and that man ought to
rejoice in the days of his life, and grasp desire with all enthusiasm. For the eternal
night of death will fall when it's not permitted to enjoy ones amassed wealth and like a
shadow, all things that we possess, will die. Now therefore he encourages man and says, "O
youth, before old-age and death fall upon you, enjoy your youth, and whatever you feel is
good, and seems joyful to see, take it and enjoy as it please you the things of this
world.

5 Again so that he does not think these things say to provoke men to indulgence, and thus
fall into the doctrines of Epicurus, he takes this suspicion, saying, "and know, since
above all these God will lead you to judgement". Thus, he says, take advantage of the
things of the world, so that you know you will be judged in the end. "And force anger from
your heart and take wickedness from your flesh, since youth and foolishness are vanity".
In anger he sees all the problems of the spirit. In the wickedness of the flesh he sees
every desire of the body. In this way therefore, he says, enjoy the goodness of this
world, lest you leave pleasure or flesh. Leave off your former vices, which you did in
your youth of vanity and foolishness, since youth is joined to foolishness. "And remember
in the day of your youth Him, who created you, before the days of wickedness come and the
years approach, in which you will say, 'I have no will'". Always remember your Creator and
walk the route of your youth, so that you remember your end is death, before your time
comes, in which sad things will happen.

6 12:2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the
clouds return after the rain. If we take this from the creation of the world, this chapter
agrees with the words of the Lord, in which He says, "there will be trouble and difficulty
as there has not been since the beginning of creation, but this will not happen. For the
sun will grow dark and the moon will not shed light, and the stars will fall from the sky,
and the virtues of heaven will be moved". Those things are the guardians of the house, as
we understand the 'house' to be this world, and the strong men, deceived by wickedness and
varied strengths must be dispersed. But if a particular consummation of any one person is
kept to the end of his life, then the sun, the moon, and stars, clouds and rain will cease
to be for him, who has died. Differently: enjoy youth, O Christian people, and enjoy the
goodness which has been given to you by God, and know that God will judge you for all
these. Do not think that, since the earlier branches have been broken, you will be placed
in the root of a good olive tree, and therefore you will be without worry. But remove
anger from your heart and desires from your body, and when you have left all other vices
remember your Creator before the day of wickedness comes, the day of madness, in which
punishments have been made for sinners.

7 This is so that when you sin the sun of righteousness will set for you at midday, and
the light of knowledge will die, and the brightness of the moon, (that is of the Church)
will be taken away, and the stars will die, about which is written, "in which you shine
like the lights in the world having reason of life". And elsewhere: "star differs from
star in glory. Before the clouds return after the rain", lest the prophets, who have
watered the hearts of believers by the rain of their speech, after they have seen you to
be unworthy of their rain, return to their seat, clearly to Him from whom they were sent.
8 12:3. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall
bow themselves; The keepers of the house can be interpreted as either the sun and the
moon, and the remaining choir of stars, or the angels who keep watch over this world. The
men of great strength though, or the brave, as Symmachus has interpreted it, are those who
die, or as Aquila has translated it, those who err, and are felt to be demons, for they
are called those chosen by the powerful devil. The Lord overpowered him, and joining him,
according to the parable of the Gospel, destroys his house. Differently: the keepers of
the house, who relate all things, which are written to the body of man, think that it
means ribs, because the intestines are hemmed in by them, and all of the fleshy parts of
the stomach are protected in this way. They think that the strong men are to be
interpreted as legs; the sun and moon and stars therefore pertain to the eyes, nose and
ears, and receive all the sensations of the head. But they do not interpret this to such
an extent, because they are forced deeper by necessity, not by demons, or the sun, moon,
or stars, but to understand what follows according to the limbs of man. And the grinders
cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.

9 In the beginning of the world when the charity of most was cold and the spirits of
teachers were few, who were able to offer the food of heaven to believers, and they were
carried to the heaves; then those who in part see the light of knowledge in this world
began to be darkened. For it is said to Moses: "sit yourself in this hole in the rock, and
you will see me pass". Oh how much more one spirit saw the truth through that opening and
those dark caves! Differently: there are two grinders, from whom one is taken, the other
is left, the Gospel is not silent in this matter. And when they are few, and have ceased,
it is necessary that every light of knowledge is removed from our eyes. Differently: they
think the grinders have ceased because they are few, and that it is talking about teeth.
And when at last old-age comes even teeth are worn away, or they fall out, which usually
grind down food to be sent to the stomach. But seeing it grow dark in the caves, they
think it means eyes because sight darkens with old-age, and sight is made difficult.

10 12:4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is
low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall
be brought low. When the voice of the grinder is weak and the teaching of a tutor has
stopped, then in turn all things will stop. Even the doors are closed in the streets, as
according to the unwieldy virgins of the Gospel, and each one regards her doors as closed
to her in the street, so that she can not buy oil. Or even, while the virgins are
wandering in the streets, husbands close each room when they have entered into it. For if
the road is thin and narrow, which leads to life and that which leads to death is wide and
open, justly, the charity of most being cold, the door of teachings is closed in the
streets. But let us use the following verse, in which he says, "and he rises to the sound
of a bird", (or of a sparrow), if we seem to be a sinner to the voice of the bishop or
elder so to show that we are in repentance. But this could also be different again, if we
do not follow the context of this chapter, it can be taken to mean the real resurrection,
when the death will rise up to the voice of the arch-angel.

11 And it is not surprising, if we compare the trumpet of an angel to a sparrow, when all
night is compared to Christ, if it is clement. And also this is not too surprising, if my
memory serves me right, when I have never read of a sparrow in a bad light. In the tenth
Psalm a righteous man says, "I trust in God, just as you say to my spirit: fly to the
mountain like a sparrow. And in another place: "I woke and I was made as a sparrow alone
on a roof". Nor is it seen in a bad light in another place: "and even the sparrow found a
home for himself". Differently: they want to see this as the closed doors in the street,
as the weak steps of an old man, because he always sits and cannot walk. The weakness of
the voice of the grinder is interpreted as in his jaws, because he cannot chew food, and
scarcely reduced in spirit, his voice is heard only quietly. More precisely he shows him
to rise to the sound of a bird, because now with cold blood and dry organs by which sleep
is nourished, he wakes to a soft sound, and in the middle of the night, when the cock
crows, he rises quickly; but he is not able to move his limbs from his bed.

12 And he becomes silent too, or as it is better put in the Hebrew, the daughters of song
become deaf, (meaning ears), because it is harder for old-men to hear noises and there is
less distinction between voices, or enjoy songs. Also compare what Berzellai says to
David, when he does not want to go to Jordan. 13 12:5. Also when they shall be afraid of
that which is high, and fears shall be in the way. That is, they will not be able to enter
on difficult tasks and with tired knees and frightened footsteps, will not be able to go
out in the open, and will fear the offence of steps. And the almond tree shall flourish,
and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long
home, and the mourners go about the streets. The speech now explains the limbs of a man of
the Church through a metaphor. And when old-age comes his hair will grow white, his feet
will swell, his lust will grow cold and he will be destroyed by death. Then he will be
returned to the earth, and then in the house of his eternity you will remember his tomb
and his ashes with reverence, and a crowd will walk before the mourners at his funeral.
But the flower of the almond-tree, which we have in place of grey hairs, some interpret as
the sacred thorn, because, while the flesh of the buttocks decreases, the thorn grows and
flowers. More precisely, in that verse which says, "the grasshopper will be a burden", you
must note that where we have in our manuscripts 'grasshopper', the Hebrew has aagab, which
is rather ambiguous for us. For it can be translated as 'heel' or as 'grasshopper'.

14 Just as for example in the beginning of Jeremiah, the word soced if the accent is
changed can mean 'a nut' or 'wakefulness'. And this is said to him: "what do you see,
Jeremiah? and he replies, "a nut". And the Lord says to him, "you have seen well, for I
will wake over my work so that I might complete it. Or that explanation: it also has the
etymology of the word 'nut', because God is about to keep awake. And what the people has
deserved it will be given, is what the text seems to say. Thus now he shows the ambiguity
of the word through its etymology, showing that the legs of old men swell up and that gout
weighs upon the organs. This does not happen to all men, but to most, and this is
synecdoche where a part is called by the name of the whole. Indeed where we read 'desire'
the Hebrew has abiona. This in itself has many meanings, and is interpreted as 'love',
'lust', 'longing', or 'desire'. And it has the meaning, as I have said above, that the
lust of an old man grows cold, and the organs of intercourse sag. But this is said because
these words are ambiguous, for although they mean 'almond-tree', and 'grasshopper', and
'desire' in his language, they also mean other derived words in our language, and are
derived from the forms which pertain to old-age.

15 You must note too, that where the Septuagint has the word 'almond-tree' the word itself
is soced, which is found in the beginning of Jeremiah. But there it is meant 'nut' but
here it means 'almond-tree'. Symmachus has interpreted this passage in a greatly different
way, (though I am unsure of what he means): for he says, 'and they will see even above
these things from on high, and they will wander, and waking he will fall asleep, and the
strength of his spirit will be dispersed.' For man will go to the house of his eternity,
and the weeping will wander in the street. Laodicenus followed the interpretation of
Symmachus, which the Hebrews do not like, nor the Christians; for while he is far from the
Hebrews' view, he rejects too the interpretations of the Septuagint. 16 12:6-8. Or ever
the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the
fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as
it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities says
Ecclesiastes; all is vanity. He returns to former matter and after a rather large
exaggeration, -which he interposes in this place, in which he says, "and remember your
Creator, in the day of your youth; before the days of wickedness come, and before the sun,
moon grow dark" and so on, "in the day in which the keepers of the house are renewed". -
now he finishes the point he had begun in a similar way, saying, "before the silver cord
is broken", and this or that happens. But he shows the silver cord to be this white band,
and the space that divides us from heaven. It also means the gold band, which returns to
the place whence it came down. more precisely the two that follow, the wearing of the jug
on the fountain, and the breaking of the wheel by the pond, are metaphorical images of
death. For death is just like the jug, which is worn down, stops to fill, and the wheel by
which water is carried from a well or pond, if it has been broken. Thus the interpretation
of the Septuagint has it that the usage of water is twisted in this rope;

17 thus when the silver cord is broken, and the river of the spirit flows back to the
fountain, the man will die. He goes on more clearly: "the dust will return to the earth,
whence it was taken, and the spirit is returned to God, who gave it". From which there is
enough to smile at in those who think that spirits are produced with bodies, not from God,
but are made from the parent's body. For when the flesh is returned to the earth, and the
spirit goes back to God, who gave it; it is obvious that God is the parent of all spirits,
not man. Then after the description of man's death, he goes back to the beginning of his
book, saying, "vanity of vanities, says Ecclesiastes, all is vanity". For all toil of
mortal men, which is argued all through the books, is pertinent here, so that dust returns
to the earth, and the spirit returns to the place, whence it was taken, it is a great
vanity in this world to toil and obtain nothing for the future from it.

18 12:9-10. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people
knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The
preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even
words of truth. The wisdom in which Solomon judges all kinds of men he now professes at
the end, because he was not happy with the use of the old law, but therefore immersed
himself in trying to solve difficult problems of his own accord, and in teaching people;
he composed parables and proverbs, which say one thing superficially and yet have a deeper
meaning. For proverbs often have different meaning to that which is written, and this is
the method used in teaching in the Gospels, since the Lord spoke to the people in parables
and in proverbs, but He explained them to the apostles in secret. From this we clearly get
the Book of Proverbs, and we shouldn't think that they are but simple stories with
teachings, but rather as gold still in the earth, as a seed within a nut, or as a fruit is
found inside the hairy covering of its peel. Thus we must search for another meaning in
them which pertains to God. Before this though he mentions that he desired to know the
workings of the world and the wisdom and mind of God. He wanted to know why one thing or
another should happen, as David after the death of the body and spirit hoped he would see
the path to heaven, saying, "I will see the heavens, the work of your fingers". But now
Solomon strives to find this wisdom, so that he may know and understand with his human
mind, though confined by the walls of the body, the truth only known by God.

19 12:11. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of
assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. The teacher should not be seen to break
from the law of God and afterwards to justify teaching by himself, more hastily than Moses
not so much of his own will, as first by the anger of God, took teachings therefrom with
enthusiasm. He says that his words are the words of the wise, which like a goad correct
the wicked and they move the slow steps of mortals with a sharp sting, thus they are hard
like nails which hold things up securely and high; and they are not offered with one man's
authority, but with the advice and agreement of all teachers. Let not mankind's wisdom be
despised, for he says it is given from one shepherd. That is, many are allowed to teach,
but there is only one originator of the teachings, who is God. He turns the passage
against those who think there is one God of the Old Law, and one God of the Gospels, since
one shepherd taught the advice of the wise. But the wise are just as much prophets as the
apostles themselves. At the same time it should be remembered that the words of the wise
are said to sting, not to flatter or encourage debauchery by a lack of discipline. But as
I have said above it is to give the wound and slow pain of repentance to those who have
come into wickedness.

20 For if his speech does not sting but it like pleasure for the listeners then that is
not the speech of a wise man. For the words of the wise are like the goad, since after all
they cause the conversion of the wicked, are firm, given on the advice of saints, given by
the one shepherd, and are founded on a strong root. I think I have heard it said in Paul
that Saul was thrown into the way of wickedness by this goad: "it is hard for you to kick
against the pricks." 21 12:12. And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making
many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. If you remove the
words which are given by the one shepherd, related by the advice and agreement of the
wise, do nothing and nothing will be reproved you; follow in the footsteps of the
multitude and do not diverge from their command. Then too for him who seeks to know many
things there is a great number of books that will lead him to wickedness and make the
reader toil in vain. But he also teaches that you must have enthusiasm and follow meanings
more than the words themselves, the opposite that philosophers and teachers of this world
teach, who try to assert the falsities of their doctrines with flamboyant and unnecessary
language. On the other hand divine scripture is restricted by the small quantity of what
is written, and however much it is enlarged by people's opinions it is restricted by the
text itself. This is because the Lord has made speech concise and brief all over the
world, and His word is the same when it is spoken in our mouth and our heart. Differently:
read often, then consider what you have read daily, there is usually more toil of the mind
that that of the body.

22 For just as whatever you do with your hand and body is filled with the toil of the hand
and the body, so that which pertains to reading is more the toil of the mind. It seems to
me from this that the above points from the several books must be considered differently
to the way in which many believe them to be. It is the custom of the Scriptures that, no
matter how many books there are, if they all follow the same matter are have few
differences, then we can say that they are one book. In this way the Gospel and the
"immaculate law of the Lord, converting spirits" are called one, although there are
several books in the Gospel and there are many laws. In this way too there is one volume
of Isaiah, and all of the divine Scripture has one title; Ezekiel and John are also many
books in one book. The Saviour too prophesied in the holy words, saying, "in the title of
the Book is written about me". According to this meaning therefore I think it is a
teaching that there should not be too many books. For whatever you say, if it is told to
him who was with God in the beginning, the word then is God, as one volume, and the many
books are the one law, which is called the Gospel.

23 But if you argue that they are varied and differ too much to be in the same volume, and
look at them with too much curiosity, even within each book you will see that there are
many books. They say about this: "you may not escape the sin of saying too much".
Therefore there is no end to such books, for all is good and the ending locks in truth,
but wickedness and lying have no end. And the more they are sought, the more they come
about. Study and consideration of this is toil of the body. I say of the body here and not
of the spirit. But the spirit even has toil according to what the apostle says: "the more
I worked for all these, not I, but the grace of God which was with me", and the Saviour
says, "I worked shouting". 24 12:13-14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall
bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether
it be evil. The Hebrews say that although it used to be among other writings of Solomon in
the past, they have not persisted in memory; and this book seems as if it ought to have
been omitted, because it asserts that all God's creations are vain and that he thinks
everything is done for nothing, and he prefers food and drink and transient pleasures to
all things; thus he takes his authority from this one title, so it is now included in the
number of divine books, because he argues well and lists many things like anakephaiosei,
and he said that his speeches are the easiest to hear, and to understand; let us therefore
fear God and carry out his commandments. For man is born for this purpose and,
understanding his Creator, he reveres Him in fear and respect, and in the work of his
commandments. And when the time of judgement comes whatever we have done will stand before
the judge and for a long time we will await our judgement which could go one way or the
other, and we will receive our just rewards, whether they be good or bad.

25 But where we read, "with every secret thing", Symmachus and the Septuagint have
interpreted, "from all contempt", or even "from all unknown", which even brought by
reluctant words, not by will, but by ignorance, we will be returned to reason in the day
of our judgement. Differently: since fear is more appropriate to slaves, and perfect love
involves no fear, and fear in the divine Scripture is used to denote those embarking on
and those completing education. Now I think he talks about the fear inherent in virtues,
according to the passage, which says, "nothing is lacking from those who fear Him". Or
even, since until now he is a man and has not yet taken the name of God, he has this
reason of his wealth, so that he fears God while he is still alive. Since every single
deed is judged, that is, God leads all men into judgement about all things, either good or
bad, which are done and said differently than by Him. For indeed, "woe to those who say
wicked is good, and good is wicked".


COMMENTARY ON JONAH
===================

COMMENTARY ON JONAH Jerome

c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

INTRODUCTION

1 Latin Text from public domain Migne Editors, Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Translation
from Patristic Bible Commentary website.

Prologue

2 About three years have now passed since I first started writing the commentaries on the
five Prophets, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai. Detained by another work, I
was not able to finish what I had undertaken. For I was writing a book on famous men and
two volumes against Jovinian, an apology and an essay on 'the best way to translate',
which was addressed to Pammachius, two books to or about Nepotian, and other works which
it would be lengthy to recount. Therefore I retake up my commentaries with Jonah after
such a long absence. Jonah, a type of Saviour, who prefiguring the resurrection of the
Lord by spending "three days and three nights in the belly of a whale" [Mt. 12:40], was
able to attain the first ardour so that we might deserve the arrival of the Holy Spirit to
us. If indeed Jonah is to be translated as 'dove', and if the dove can be seen as the Holy
Spirit, then we can also interpret the Dove as signifying the dove's entrance into us. I
know that some classical authors, both Latin and Greek, have spoken much about this book,
and through all of their Questions have less enlightened than obscured the ideas, so that
in effect their interpretation needs to be interpreted and with the result that the reader
comes away feeling less sure of the meaning than beforehand.

3 I am not saying this to criticise these great minds, to abase others in order to extol
myself, but rather because it is the place of the commentator to clarify in short and
clearly what is obscure; they should be less concerned with displaying their eloquence
than with explaining the meaning of the author. We ask therefore where else the prophet
Jonah appears in the Holy Scriptures apart from this book and the allusion made to him by
the Lord in the Gospels [Mt. 12:39, Luke 11:30]. And if I am not mistaken he is mentioned
in the book of Kings in this way: "in the fifth year of Amasiah, the son of Joash, King of
Judah, began to rule the son of Jeroboam son of Joash King of Israel in Samaria, for
forty-one years. He did much wickedness before the Lord and did not distance himself from
all the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He re-established the
frontier of Israel in Samaria from the entrance of Emathia to the Sea of Solitude,
according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which was spoken by the mouth of his
servant Jonah, son of Amittai the prophet, from Gath which is in Ofer. [4 Kings 14:23-25]
The Hebrews recount that he was the son of the widow of Sarepta, incited by the prophet
Elijah;

4 his mother later said to him, "I know now that you are indeed a man of God, and that the
word of God is truly in your mouth" [3 Kings 17:24]; on account of this the child was
called Truth. For Amittai in Hebrew can be rendered 'truth' in our language, and because
Elijah spoke true, he who was encouraged was called the son of Truth. And Gath is located
two miles from Sepphoris, which is now called Diocaesarea, when you are travelling to
Tiberia: there is a small castle where his tomb can be seen. Others, however, prefer to
place his birth and tomb near Diospolis, which is in Lydia. They do not see that when he
writes 'Ofer', this is to distinguish Gath from other towns of this name that can be seen
now near to Eleutheropolis or Diospolis. The book of Tobit, though not in the canon, is
all the same used by the men of the Church, and it mentions Jonah when Tobit says to his
son, "my son, I am old and ready to leave this life. Take your sons and go to Media, my
son. For I know what the prophet Jonah has said about Nineveh: she will be destroyed"
[Tob. 14:3]. And, indeed, according to the Hebrew and Greek historians, Herodotus in
particular, we read that Nineveh was destroyed in the time of King Josiah according to the
Hebrews, and King Astyage of the Medians. From this we understand that in the past Jonah
predicted that the Ninivites would repent and seek pardon;

5 but afterwards, as they persisted in their sins,they brought the judgement of God upon
themselves. The Hebrew tradition is that Hosea, Amos, Isaiah and Jonah prophesied at the
same time. This is historical tradition. Not forgetting the others of course: the
venerable Pope Chromatius, who took great pains to recount to the Saviour the story of the
prophet: he flees, he sleeps, he is thrown into the sea, he is swallowed by a whale,
thrown back onto the shore and prays for repentance. And saddened by the safety of this
town of many people, he finds comfort in the shade of a fig tree. There he is reproached
by God for having taken more care of a green vine which had dried up, than of such a great
number of men, and the other details I will try to explain in this volume. But to grasp
the complete meaning of the prophet in this short preface there is no better
interpretation than that which inspired the prophets and which marked out the lines of the
truth of the future for its servants. He therefore speaks to the Jews who do not believe
his words and are ignorant of Christ, the son of God: "the men of Nineveh will rise up at
the time of judgement with that generation and they will condemn it, for they repented as
Jonah required, and here there is more than Jonah! [Mt. 12:41]. The generation of the Jews
is condemned, while the world has faith and Nineveh repents, Israel the disbeliever dies.

6 The Jews have the books themselves, we have the Lord of books; they hold the prophets,
we have an understanding of the prophets; "the letter kills them", "the spirit makes us
live" [2 Cor. 3:6]; with them Barabbas the robber is released, for us Christ the Son of
God is freed.

CHAPTER 1

1 Verses 1-2. "Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before
me. Apart from that which the Septuagint translates as, "the noise of their wickedness has
risen up even to me", it has translated the rest similarly. Jonah is sent to the gentiles
to condemn Israel, because Nineveh had to repent, but the Israelites still persisted in
their sin. And when God says, "their wickedness has come up to me", or "the noise of their
wickedness…" it is exactly the text of Genesis: "the noise of Sodom and of Gomorrah is
very loud" [Gen. 18:20], and to Cain: "the blood of your brother cries to me from the
earth" [Gen. 4:10]. According to tropology the Lord, our Jonah, that is to say 'dove' or
'suffering', (he is given both meaning, either because the Holy Spirit descends in the
form of a dove and stays with him [Mark. 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32-33], or because he has
suffered for our wounds, wept for Jerusalem [Luke 19:41], and because we have been cured
by his malice [Is. 53:5]) is truly the son of Truth, for God is Truth [John 14:6]. He is
sent to Nineveh the beautiful, that is to the world, where there is nothing more beautiful
to our eyes than flesh. In Greek the idea of adornment is in the word cosmos.

2 And when everything had been completed, each one by one, it was said, "and God saw that
it was good" [Gen. 1:10]. It is to Nineveh that he goes, the great city, so that although
Israel has not wanted to listen, the whole world of peoples will hear God's word. And this
is because their wickedness has gone up to God. For although God had made the most
beautiful house for man who was devoted to serving his creator, man deprived himself of
this by his own will; from childhood his heart fixed upon wickedness [Gen. 8:21; 6:5]. He
turned his face to the heaven [Ps. 72:9] and constructed a tower of pride [Gen 11]. He
deserves then God to come down to him so that he may be able to rise to heaven by the
destruction of repentance, he that did not succeed by the swell of pride. 3 Verse 3a. "But
Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. The Septuagint here is
similar. The prophet knows by an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the repentance of
the people is the destruction of the Jews. In this situation it is not that he is trying
to save Nineveh, but that moreover he does not want to see it destroyed. In another place
Moses prays for his people: "if you can spare them this sin, spare them; if not, erase me
from your book that you have written" [Ex. 32:31-32]; to this prayer, Israel was saved and
Moses was not erased from the Book: even better the Lord indeed profited from his servant
by sparing his other servants. For when God says, "release me", he shows that he can be
held. This is similar to what the apostle says: "I wished to be anathema for my brothers
who are Israelites according to their flesh" [Rom. 9:3]. Not that he desires to die
however, for whom to live is Christ and to die is a profit [Phil. 1:21]; but he deserves
life more when he wants to save others.

4 Besides, seeing the other prophets sent to the lost flocks of the house of Israel [Mt.
10:6] to incite the people to repent, and Balaam [Num. 23.24] the divine author of a
prophecy about the deliverance of the Israelite people, Jonah feels himself punished by
being chosen alone to speak against the Assyrians, the enemies of Israel, in the foreign
capital where idolatry and ignorance of God still ruled. And what is more he feared that
in spite of his prophesying they would still not be converted to repent, and that Israel
would not be completely abandoned. For he knew by this Spirit which had entrusted him with
the role of hero among the gentiles, that once the nations had come together in belief,
then Israel would surely perish. And he feared that whatever was to happen in the future
would not happen in his time. Thus Jonah does as Cain does: he flees from the face of the
Lord [Gen. 4:16] and wants to flee to Tarshish, which Josephus interprets as that Tarsus
of Cilicia, but changes the first letter. This can also be seen in the book of the
Paralipomenon [2 Chron. 20:36-37], which says that there is a place in India which is
called the same. According to the Hebrews Tarshish means more generally 'sea', according
to this passage: "by a fierce wind you will break the ships of Tarshish! [Ps. 47:8], or
the ships of the sea. And in Isaiah: "cry out, O ships of Tarshish! [Is. 23:1,14].

5 I remember that I have already spoken about this several years ago in a letter to
Marcella. The prophet did not intent to flee to such a place, but throwing himself into
the sea, he just wants to go anywhere. And this is more pertinent when talking of a
fugitive or one who is afraid, that he does not choose carefully where he wants to flee
to, but just jumps at the first opportunity to take to the seas. We can also say this: he
thought that God was "known" only "in Judea", "and in Israel his name is great" [Ps.
75:2]. After he had seen that God was also in the waves he confesses and declares: "I am a
Hebrew and I fear the Lord of heaven" [Jonah 1:9], who made the sea and the dry land. But
if he had made the sea and the dry earth, why believe when you leave the land that you can
escape the creator of the sea on the sea? At the same time when he sees the others sailors
saved and converted, he learns that all the wickedness of Nineveh can be saved and
converted by a similar confession. We can say too about our Lord and Saviour that he
abandoned his home and country: at the incarnation he fled in some manner the heavens for
Tarshish, the sea of that age, according to what is written in another place: "here is the
sea, great and wide; there are numerous beings, animals great and small;

6 there the boats come in and go out, and this dragon that you created to be crushed" [Ps.
103:25-6]. And he says too in his passion, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass
me by! [Mt. 26:39], lest at the unified complaints of the people, saying, "Crucify him,
crucify him! [Luke 23:21], and "we have no king except Caesar" [John 19:15], the crowd of
people should enter all together; and lest the branches of the olive-tree should be
broken, and in their place the shoots of the wild olive should grow [Rom. 11:17-25]. He
had such honour and love of his country in light of the choice of the patriarchs and of
the promise of Abraham, that he said on the cross, "Father, forgive them; they know not
what they do" [Luke 23:34]. Or even since Tarshish can be translated as 'the contemplation
of joy', the prophet, coming to Joppa, whose name means 'beautiful', hastens to hurry
towards the joy and to rejoice in the pleasure of rest, to give himself completely over of
contemplation. For he thinks that it is better to rejoice in beauty and in the variety of
knowledge than to save the other people by letting that people die, from whom Christ would
have been born.

7 Verse 3b. "And went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the
fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of
the LORD. LXX: "and he went up to Joppa, and he found a boat going to Tarshish; after
paying his fare he went on board to sail with them to Tarshish, far from the face of the
Lord. Joppa is a port of Judea [2 Chron. 2:16], and it has been seen in the book of
Kingdoms [i.e. 'Kings'] and of the Paralipomenon. It was there that the King Hiram of Tyr
transported wood from Liban by raft, then they were taken by chariot by road to Jerusalem.
In this place even to this day rocks can be seen on the shore on which the chained
Andromeda was saved by Perseus. The learned reader will know the story. And in light of
the nature of the countryside, it is said quite rightly that the prophet came from a
direction that is mountainous and precipitous, and went down to Joppa in the plain. He
found there a ship that was moored and he went upon the sea. He paid his fare or the price
of embarking, that is of his journey, according to the Hebrew, or the fare for himself, as
the Septuagint has translated it.

8 "and he went down into it" as the Hebrew itself says, (for iered in Hebrew is translated
as 'went down'), for in his flight he took great care to find a hiding place. Or "he goes
up", as it is written in the Vulgate edition, for going where the boat is going, thinking
that he has escaped if he has left Judea. But our Lord is also at the edge of the shore of
Judea, which is called 'very beautiful' because since he was in Judea, he did not want to
take the bread of sons to give it to dogs. [Mt. 15:26] But because he had come for the
lost flocks of the house of Israel [Mt. 10:6] he paid the price to those who transport
him. Thus he who at first wants to heal his people, saves the inhabitants of the sea, and
through great winds and storms, (that is his suffering and the reproof of the cross) he is
plunged into Hell and saves those whom had not noticed by appearing to sleep on the boat
[Mt. 8:24-5]. The wise reader will not want to try to make tropology and history concur.
For the Apostle refers Agar and Sara [Gal. 4:22-31] to the two Testaments, and all the
same we are not able to interpret everything that is recounted in this story in a
tropological way.

9 And when explaining about Adam and Eve to the Ephesians, he says, "this is why man
leaves his mother and father to join with a wife, and both will become one flesh. [Gen.
2:24] There is a great mystery: I mean Christ and the Church. [Eph. 5:31-2] Are we then
first to refer the beginning of Genesis, the creation of the world, the formation of
mankind, to Christ and to the Church under the pretext that the Apostle has used regarding
this text? Let us admit what is written here: "thus man will leave his father" [Gen.
2:24], we can apply this to Christ by saying that he left God his Father in heaven to
unite the people of the world in the Church. But how can we interpret what follows, "his
mother"? Unless perhaps we are to say that he left heavenly Jerusalem, that mother of
saints, and other ideas that are more complicated? And this too is written by the same
Apostle: "they were drinking from a spiritual rock which was accompanying them, and this
rock was Christ" [I Cor. 10:4], but let us not try to relate the entire book of Exodus to
Christ. For what can we say? That this stone was hit by Moses not just once, but twice
[Ex. 17:6; Num. 20:11], that the waters flowed [Ps. 77:20] and that the floods were filled
up. Are we to regard the entire story of this passage in this case as allegory?

10 Is it nor rather that each passage ought to receive a spiritual meaning according to
the diversity of history? Therefore just as these texts each in this way have their
interpretations and do not entail the same allegory in their context, so the prophet will
not be able to be taken completely to the Lord without difficulty for the interpreter. And
if it is said in the Gospel, "O wicked and adulterous generation, that she asks for a
sign? As a sign she will only have the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah spent
three days and three night in the belly of a fish, so the son of man will spend three days
and three nights in the bosom of the earth" [Mt. 12:39-40]. The remainder of this account
does not concern Christ to the same extent. Indeed wherever this reading can be said to
apply without discrepancy, we also try to make it fit.

11 Verse 4. "But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty
tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken." LXX: "and the Lord induced a
great wind over the sea and a great storm was over the sea, and the boat threatened to
break up." The flight of the prophet can be related to man in general, who, forsaking the
commands of God, flees from his face and goes out into the world. But in consequence a
storm of wickedness and the shipwreck of the entire world are sent against him, and he is
made to pay attention to God and to return to that which he had fled. From this we can
understand that what appears to be advantageous to mankind, turns into their downfall by
God's will. And not only is their aid no use to those whom it is offered, but even those
who offer it are destroyed. Therefore we read that the Assyrians conquered Egypt because
she helped Israel against the will of the Lord [Is. 20:3-6]. The boat is in danger because
it has taken on board a dangerous passenger. The waves are aroused by the wind, a storm
begins over a calm sea. When God is opposed nothing is safe.

12 Verse 5a. "Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast
forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them." LXX: "and the
sailors were afraid and each one cried out to his God and they threw the boat's cargo into
the sea to lighten the boat". They believe that the ship with its normal cargo is too
heavy, and do not understand that all the weight comes from the fleeing prophet. The
sailors are afraid, each one cries out to his God. They do not know the truth, but they do
not forget providence, and with a false religion they know that there is something to pray
to. They cast their cargo into the sea so that the ship might cross the immensity of the
waves more lightly. But for Israel, neither prosperity nor wickedness can lead her back to
know God. Christ weeps for the people, but He has dry eyes.

13 Verse 5b. "But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast
asleep." LXX: "Now Jonah went down to the heart of the boat and slept and snored".
According to the history of this passage it describes the peace of the spirit of the
prophet. He is troubled by the storm, or by the dangers; he just keeps the same manner of
spirit when the storm is imminent, as when the weather is calm. The others though cry out
to their gods, and cast the cargo overboard: each man to his own. But Jonah is so
peaceful, so calm, his spirit is so at rest that he goes down to the heart of the ship to
enjoy a peaceful sleep. Indeed we can also say: he knows he is a fugitive and a sinner,
because he has not obeyed the commands of the Lord. It is because all the other men do not
know why there is a storm that Jonah knows that he alone is the cause of it. This is why
he goes down to the interior of the ship and hides himself sadly, so that he does not see
the waves, like the avengers of God, rise up against him. And if he sleeps, this is not
necessarily a sign of his security, but of worry. For we read that the apostles gave in to
sleep on account of great sadness at the sight of the Lord's suffering [Luke 22:45]. For
if we interpret the sleep of the prophet as a sign, his terrible torture, they represent a
man who has fallen asleep from the drug of his wickedness: not only has he fled from God
but moreover he ignores the wrath of God as his spirit is clouded by a sort of madness. He
sleeps therefore in a kind of false security and his deep sleep sounds out through his
nostrils.

14 Verse 6. "So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest you, O
sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish
not." LXX: "and the helmsman come to him and he said to him, what are you doing sleeping?
Get up, and call upon your God. If he can find a way to save us then we may not die. It is
natural that each one has more confidence in someone else when they feel themselves to be
in such danger. This is why the helmsman or captain, who should have been encouraging the
frightened crewmembers, but saw the seriousness of the danger, woke and reprimanded the
sleeper for his thoughtless security and asked him to pray to his God immediately. He
shared everyone's danger, and therefore he had to pray along with everyone else. According
to tropology there are many men sailing with Jonah, who each have their own God and hasten
towards the 'contemplation of joy'. But when Jonah has been discovered by chance and his
death has appeased the all-encompassing storm and made calm the waters, then the one God
is revered and spiritual victims are sacrificed, which according to the text were not
found when they were amongst the waves.

15 Verse 7. "And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we
may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon
Jonah. LXX: 'and they said to each other: come, let us draw lots to see who it is that has
brought this wickedness upon us. And they drew lots, and the lot fell to Jonah.' They knew
the ways of the sea and knew the causes of the storms and winds in such weather. Without a
doubt they had seen the waves rise up as usual, and as they must have seen many times
before, but they must never before have found the person to blame for the shipwreck, and
through him tried to avoid certain danger. We should not be driven by this example to
believe in fate, or to believe that this text should be connected to that of the Acts of
the Apostles where Matthias is chosen by lot [Acts 1:26], because personal privileges do
not make common law. For just as an old lady speaks up for the condemning of Balaam [Num.
22:28], as Pharaoh [Gen. 41] and Nebuchadnezzar [Dan. 2], in their own judgement, knew the
future through dreams and yet do not see that there is a divine judgement in this, like
Caiaphas prophesies unknowing, that it is better for one to die for all [John 11:50;
18:14]:

16 just as this fugitive is betrayed by fate, not by the powers of the fates, above all
the powers of the pagan fates, but by the will of hi who controlled uncertain fate. With
regard to the meaning of the expression "to know by whom this wickedness had come upon
us", we ought to take 'wickedness' as a synonym of affliction, of disaster, as in this
passage: "every day his wickedness was enough" [Mt. 6:34], and in the prophet Amos: "is
there wickedness in a town without God being the author? [Amos 3:6]. And in Isaiah: "It is
I the Lord, who make goodness and wickedness" [Isaiah 45:7]. But in other places too
wickedness can be seen to be the opposite of virtue, as in the passage of our prophet that
we have read above: "the cry of their wickedness went up to me" [Jonah 1:1]. 17 Verse 8.
"Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray you, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What
is thine occupation? and whence do you come? what is thy country? and of what people art
you?" LXX: 'and they said to him, 'tell us how this wickedness has come upon us: what is
your occupation, where do you come from, where you are going to, from which country, and
which people you are from?' '. Fate had shown him to them: they force him to admit why
such a great storm, or for what reason divine wrath had come against them. Tell us, they
say, where this wickedness comes from, which has come upon us, what work you do, from what
land, from what people you flee, and where you are going to so quickly? Let us note the
brevity here that is also seen in Virgil [Aen. 8:112]: young men, what cause has brought
you to try out unknown ways? Where are you going? He says. Your people? From which land?
Do you bring war or peace? This questioning brings his identity, his country, his journey,
the town he comes from, so that the reason for the wickedness can be known.

18 Verse 9. "And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of
heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. LXX: 'and he replied: I am a worshipper
of the Lord, and I revere God of the heavens who made the sea and the dry land'. He did
not say, 'I am a Jew', the name given to the people after the schism between the ten and
two tribes [3 Kings. 12:19; 14:21], but 'I am a Hebrew', that is to say perates [Grk. 'a
pilgrim and traveller'] , passing by as Abraham who was able to say: "I am a guest and a
traveller as all my fathers" [Ps. 38:13], and about whom it is written in another psalm:
"they passed from one nation to another, from one realm to another people" [Ps. 104:13].
Moses says, "I will go so that I might see this great vision. [Ex. 3] I fear the Lord God
of the heavens, not the gods that you have invoked and who cannot save us, but the God of
heaven who made the sea and the dry land. The sea that I flee to, the earth that I flee
from. And appropriately the land is not just called land, but rather dry land so that it
contrasts with the sea. In short here he mentions the creator of the universe who is the
Lord of heaven, earth, and sea. But one question begs to be asked:

19 how do they know that he speaks the truth? 'I fear the Lord God of heaven', since he
has not done what this God has actually commanded him to do. The reply would surely be
that the sinners themselves would fear God, and that it is appropriate for servants of the
Lord not to love, but to fear. Here however you can see fear in the cult according to the
meaning of those who were listening and until now knew not God. 20 Verse 10. "Then were
the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why have you done this? For the men knew
that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. LXX: 'Then the men
were very afraid and said to him, "why have you done this? for the men knew that he had
fled from the face of the Lord, since he had told them.' The chronological order is
reversed here, for you could have said there was no reason to fear because of his
declaration: "I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the
dry land". Immediately we are told why they were afraid: because he had told them that he
was fleeing the presence of the Lord without having carried out his commands. Then they
make excuses and say, "why did you do this?", and this means, "if you fear God, why did
you do this? If this God that you revere is so powerful according to you, then how can you
believe that you will be able to escape him?". They are seized by a great fear, for they
realise that he is holy, and from a holy nation (having set out from Joppa they must have
known the privilege of the Hebrew people), yet nonetheless they are not able to hide the
fugitive. For he who flees may be powerful, but he who seeks is all the more powerful.

21 They do not dare to hand him over to the Lord, yet they cannot hide him. They reprehend
blame, and avow their fear. They pray to Jonah to give himself up for the sin he has
committed. Or indeed, when they say, "why have you done this?", they are not inciting him,
but questioning, wanting to know the cause of his flight, the flight of a servant from his
master, of a son from his father, of a man from his God. They ask, therefore, what is this
great mystery that makes you flee from the land and seek the seas, leave your country and
set out for foreign lands? 22 Verse 11. "Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto
you, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous." LXX:
'then they said to him, what should we do with you, so that the sea is calm for us? For
the sea was surging its waves more and more'. It is because of you, you say, that the
winds, the waves, the sea and swells have been unleashed. You have revealed the cause of
this wickedness, now tell us how to stop it. The sea swells against us, and we know that a
God is angry because we took you on board. If we have sinned by taking you in, then what
can we do so that the Lord does not become angrier? "What should we do with you?" that is
to say: "shall we kill you?" but you are faithful to the Lord. Are we to protect you? But
you flee from Him. All we have to do is carry out whatever you command, all you have to do
is give the command that the sea be calm, for now its wildness attests the wrath of the
creator. The narrator also adds the reason for this question. The sea, he says, was
continually increasing in wildness. It was swelling, in the known way; it was swelling for
the revenge of its Lord; it was swelling, following the fleeing prophet. And at every
moment it was becoming more and more wild, and to the delaying sailors' eyes it rose in
greater waves to show that it would not put off for long the creator's revenge.

23 Verse 12. "And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall
the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. LXX:
'and he said to them, take me and throw me into the sea, and the sea will become calm for
you. For I know well that it is on account of me that these great waves are against you.'
It is against me that the thunder sounds, it seeks me, it threatens to shipwreck you in
order to reach me. It will seize me so that my death might let you live. For I know this,
he says. This great storm is on my account. And I am not unaware that this is my
punishment, this confusion of the elements, this trouble of the world. This wrath is for
me, but you are going to be the victims of a shipwreck. The waves themselves command you
to throw me into the sea. And since I will have felt the full effect of the storm you will
be in calm seas again. We must note here the greatness of spirit of our fugitive: he is
not evasive, he does not hide or deny his guilt, but having confessed his flight he
accepts his punishment willingly. He would rather die so that the other sailors do not
perish on account of him, and so that he does not add murder to desertion. That's it for
the story.

24 But we are also not unaware of the wild winds, which the Lord orders in the Gospel to
quiet, that the ship in danger in which Jonah was sleeping, and that the raised sea which
is reprimanded: "silence, and calm down" [Mk. 4:39], refer to the Lord the Saviour and to
the Church in peril, or even to Christ awaking the apostles, and they themselves leaving
their sufferings behind throw him somehow headlong into the waves. Our Jonah says, "for I
know that it is on account of me that this great storm is upon you", for the winds are
watching me journey to Tarshish with you, that is travel to the contemplation of joy to
lead you with me to goodness so that wherever I am, so is the Father and you will be there
too [John 14:3; 17:27]. This is why this anger rumbles, why the world which is in
wickedness [1 John 5:19] groans. It is in this way that the elements are disturbed. Death
wants to devour me so that you may be killed as well: she does not see that as she took
food in a net, my death will cause her death. Take me and throw me into the sea. For we do
not have to run away from death, but receive it with open arms when it takes us from
others. Thus, in the persecutions it is not allowed to kill oneself, unless chastity is in
danger, but one must put ones neck to the executioner.

25 Go, he says, calm the winds, pour libations on the sea: the storm which savages against
you on account of me will be calmed by my death. 26 Verse 13. "Nevertheless the men rowed
hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous
against them." LXX: 'and the sailors strive to turn the ship to dry land but they cannot,
for the sea swelled up against them'. The prophet has pronounced sentence against himself;
but the sailors do not dare touch him because they have learned that he is a follower of
God. They were striving to return to the dry land, to get out of this danger; they refused
to shed blood, preferring rather to die than kill. O how changed are they now! The people
that had served God [Deut. 10:12] saying, "crucify him, crucify him" [Lk. 23:21]. They are
ordered to kill him: the sea is raging, the storm commands this, and they forget their own
danger and only think to save another. Therefore the phrase of the Septuagint is
appropriate: parebiazonto, they wanted to use all their force and conquer nature so as not
to offend the prophet of God. If the sailors rowed to regain the land, it was because they
believed they could deliver the ship from danger without realising what Jonah, who ought
to have suffered, had said. All the while Jonah was in the sea the ship sat safely in the
water.

27 Verse 14. "Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech you, O LORD, we
beseech you, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood:
for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you. LXX: 'and they cried to the Lord and said,
but no, Lord, let us not die to let this man live. Lay not innocent blood upon us. For O
Lord you have done as you wished.' The sailors' faith is strong: they are all in danger of
losing their lives, and yet pray for the lives of another. They know well that spiritual
death is worse than natural death of the body. Do not lay innocent blood upon us, they
say. They take the Lord as witness not to visit them for what they are about to do, and
say something like this: 'we do not want to kill your prophet, but he himself has
proclaimed your wrath, and the storm shows us that you have done what you wished, O Lord.
Your wish is accomplished by our doing'. This seems to be the confession of Pilate, as he
washes his hands and says, "I am clean of the blood of this man" [Mt. 27:24]. The gentiles
do not want Christ to die, and affirm that it is innocent blood. And the Jew say, "let his
blood fall upon us again and on our son" [Mt. 27:25].

28 This is why when they raise their hands to the sky, they will not be heard, for they
are full of blood. For your will has been done, Lord. We welcomed the passenger, and the
whirlwind began, the winds blew and the sea swelled in waves. The fugitive was brought by
fate, and tells what we must do: all of this, Lord, is the effect of your will. Yes, Lord,
your will has been done. In this way the Saviour speaks in the Psalm, "Lord, I wanted to
do your will" [Ps. 39:9]. 29 Verse 15. "So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the
sea: and the sea ceased from her raging." LXX: 'and they took Jonah and they threw him
into the sea, and the sea became ceased from its agitation'. He did not say, they grabbed
him and threw him but they raised him up as if they were carrying him with respect and
honour, and they threw him into the sea without him struggling, but rather he went
willingly. And the sea ceased because it had found the man it was searching for. Just as
when you pursue a fugitive, and running, catch up with him, then stop to grab hold of him;
so too the sea was wild without Jonah, and then when it had in its lap what it desired it
rejoiced in having him and cherished him, and the calm returned by this joy. If we
consider before the suffering of Christ, the confessions of the world, the contrary winds
of different opinions, the ship and all human kind, that is all creation to be in danger,
then, after the suffering of Christ there is the calm of faith, the peace of the world,
universal safety, conversion to God, and we will see how after Jonah has been thrown
overboard the sea ceases from its raging.

30 Verse 16. "Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the
LORD, and made vows." LXX: similar. Before the anger of the Lord the sailors implored
their gods under the effect of their fear; after his anger they fear the Lord, that is
they revere and worship Him. They do not worship Him in the usual way, as we have seen in
the beginning, but with "a great fear", according to that which is said: "from all their
spirit and all their heart and all their soul" [Deut. 6:5; Mt. 22:37]. And they sacrificed
victims that indeed, to take this literally, they were not able to have out at sea. But
this is because sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit. [Ps. 50:19] And it is said in
another place: "offer to God a sacrifice of praise, acquit your vows to the Highest." [Ps.
49:14] And again: "we acquit ourselves to you of our vows that we have promised". [Hos.
14:3] This is how they offer a sacrifice in the middle of the sea, and they promise others
vowing never to be far from Him whom they have begun to revere and worship. They were
seized by a great fear for they recognised from the calm sea and the disappearing storm
that the prophet had spoken true. Jonah at sea, a fugitive and shipwrecked, once dead
saves the ship in the waves, saves the pagans who had been beforehand divided in different
beliefs by the wickedness of the world. And Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Joel, who prophesied
at the same time did not manage to convert the people in Judea. This shows that the
shipwreck could only be saved by the death of the fugitive.

31 Verse 17a. "Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." LXX: 'and the
Lord ordered a great fish to swallow Jonah'. The Lord commanded death and the underworld
to receive the prophet. To the eager jaws of death he seemed a prey: she had such joy in
swallowing him, and such sadness in spitting him out. Thus happened what is written in
Hosea: "I will be your death, O Death! I will be your bite, Hell!" [Hos. 13:14]. In the
Hebrew we read "a great fish", which the Septuagint and the Lord in the Gospel call a
whale, to explain the matter in short. For the Hebrew says dag gadol that we translate as
'a big fish'. Evidently this means a whale. We must note too that where he awaited death,
he found his salvation. And when it says, "he had prepared", this is even right at the
beginning of creation, the animal which is mentioned in the psalm: "this dragon which you
have created to play with him" [Ps. 103:26]. Or even he makes a fish come near to the ship
to take in its belly Jonah who has been thrown over board, and to provide his rescue not
his death. So he who felt the wrath of God in the boat was to feel his benevolence in his
death.

32 Verse 17b. "And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." LXX:
'and Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights'. The Lord shows
in the Gospel the symbolism of this passage [Mt. 12:40], and it is superfluous to say in
the same terms or even in other terms what he who has suffered has already said. But we
ask ourselves this: how was he three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. Some
scholars take the view according to paraskeuen, because of the solar eclipse from the
sixth to the ninth hour when night followed day, this would be two days and nights, and
adding the Sabbath, believe that we should count this as three days and three nights. But
I prefer to understand this by reason of synecdoche, seeing the whole as a part: where he
is dead in paraskeuen [Lk. 23:54], let us count one day and one night; two with the
Sabbath; the third night which arises from the day of the Lord, let us take that as the
beginning of the next day, for, in Genesis [Genesis 1:5-8] the night is not of the
preceding day, but of the following day, that is to say the beginning of the next day, not
the end of the previous. To understand this better I will say it more simply: if a man
leaves his house at nine and the next day he arrives at his other house at three. And if I
say that he has been two days in travelling, I will not be reprimanded as a liar, because
he has not used all the hours of two days, but only a part for his journey. Nonetheless
this seems to me to be the interpretation. If someone does not agree with this, and he can
explain the meaning in a clearer way, then we should follow his interpretation.

CHAPTER 2

1 Verse 1. "Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly. LXX: similar.
If Jonah is compared to the Lord, and his time of three days and three nights in the belly
of the whale is a sign of the suffering of the Saviour, his prayer also ought to be a kind
of prayer of the Saviour. Some people, I don't doubt, will find it difficult to believe
that a man can spend three days and three nights in the belly of a whale, especially after
a shipwreck. These people can either be religious or not. But if they have faith, they
will believe this all the more: how three children thrown into a furnace of hot fire were
so well protected that their clothes were not even singed [Dan. 3:94/27]; how the sea drew
back on itself into two sides and held itself up like a wall to offer a route for the
people who wanted to pass [Ex. 14:22-29]; how with all human moderation the anger of a
lion that had been increased by hunger was taken by fear at the sight of his prey, and
didn't want to touch it [Dan. 6:23]; and even other such miracles. If they do not have
faith, let them read the fifteen books of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and all Greek and Latin
history. Therein they will see Daphne changed into a bay-tree, or the sister of Phaeton
changed into poplars;

2 how Jupiter the highest god, was transformed into a swan, flowed in gold and became a
raging bull, and other adventures where the ugliness of the stories attest the holiness of
the divinity. They believe in these stories and say that everything is possible for one
god. And while they believe these ugly stories and defend the absolute power of a god,
they do not attribute this same power to honest deeds. With regard to these words: 'then
Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish and said…' we understand
that feeling that he is safe in the belly of the whale he does not despair of divine mercy
and concentrates wholly on praying. For God, who had said, "I am with him in his distress"
[Ps. 90:15], and when he calls to me, I will reply, "I am here. [Is. 58:9], came to his
aid and he whose prayer had been answered was then able to say, "in distress you have made
me greater" [Ps. 4:2].

3 Verse 2. "And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me;
out of the belly of hell cried I, and you heard my voice." LXX: similar except: 'from the
belly of hell I threw out my cries'. He does not say, "I cry", but "I cried". He does not
pray for the future, but gives thanks for the past. That shows us that from the moment he
is thrown into the sea and sees the whale, that great bulk, that immense mouth which
opened wide to swallow him, he remembered God and cried out, either by the waves giving
passage for his cry, or by a feeling from the depths of his heart, according to that which
the apostle says: "crying in your hearts" [Col. 3:16]: "Abba! Father" [Rom. 8:15]. He
cried to him who alone knew the hearts of men and said to Moses, "why do you cry out to
me?" [Ex. 14:15], while the Scriptures remember that Moses had never cried out before this
speech. This is the text that we read in the first psalm of the steps: "I cried to the
Lord in my distress and he replied to me." [Ps. 119:1] By the "belly of hell" we
understand the stomach of a whale of such great size that it took the place of hell. But
this can better be referred to the person of Christ, who under the name of David, sings in
the psalm: "you will not leave my spirit in hell, and you will not allow your saint to see
putrefaction" [Ps. 15:10], living in hell free among the dead.

4 Verse 3a. "For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods
compassed me about. LXX: 'you cast me into the deep of the heart from the sea, and the
waves surrounded me'. The interpretation of the person of Jonah is not difficult: from the
moment when he was closed in the stomach of the whale and found himself at the deepest and
middle of the sea, he was surrounded by waves. For the Lord, the Saviour, prefiguring
psalm 68 in which he says, "I am enshrouded in the deep mud where there is no ground. I
have come to the deepest part of the sea and the storm engulfs me" [Ps. 68:3]. It is said
of him in another psalm: "but you, you have rejected, despised and disquieted your Christ;
you have cursed the covenant of your master, you have dishonoured his sacred place on
earth, you have destroyed all its walls" [Ps. 88:39-41], and so on. For in this comparison
of divine blessing and that place about which is written, "his home is in sacred peace"
[Ps. 75:3], all habitation on earth is full of waves, full of storms. And the "heart of
the sea" means hell, for which we read in the Gospel, "in the heart of the earth" [Mt.
12:40]. For just as the heart is at the middle of animal, so we say that hell is in the
middle of the earth.

5 Or according to anagoge he recalls that he is "in the heart of the sea", that is in the
middle of temptations. However, although he has been among the bitter waters and been
tempted by all things without sin, he has not felt the bitter waters, but has been
surrounded by the waves about which we read elsewhere, "an impetuous wave rejoices in the
city of God" [Ps. 45:5]. Others drank the salty waves; myself, surrounded by temptation, I
endured sweeter currents. And do not think what the Lord says now is impious: "you have
cast me into the deep", who says in the psalm, "for they have followed him that you smote"
[Ps. 68:27], according to the phrase which in Zechariah is spoken by the Father: "I will
smite the shepherd, and the flocks will be scattered" [Zechariah 13:7]. 6 Verse 3b. "All
thy billows and thy waves passed over me." LXX: 'all your whirlwinds and your waves passed
over me'. No one can doubt that the swelling waves of the sea encompassed Jonah, that
there was fierce thunder in the storm. But we ask how all the whirlwinds, billows and the
waves of God encompassed the Saviour. "The life of men on earth is temptation" [Job 7:1],
or as there is in the Hebrew, "a military service", for we serve here to be crowned
elsewhere. There is no man who can sustain all the temptations, except him who has been
tempted by all, in our image, except sin [Heb. 4:15]. This is why it is said in
Corinthians, "no temptation will take you, I hope, unless it is human. God is faithful, he
will not let you try beyond your ability, but he will produce an exit that you may hold on
to." [1 Cor. 10 ,13] And like all persecutions and all wicked things that happen to us
they do not happen without the will of God, we speak of whirlwinds and waves of God, which
have not crushed Jesus, but have come down upon him with a simple threat of shipwreck
which does not happen. Thus all persecutions and whirlwinds which tortured mankind and
broke all the ships have passed thundering on my head. And myself, I have sustained storms
and broken whirlwinds which were raging, to allow others to sail more easily.

7 Verse 4. "Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; LXX: 'I said, I am cast far from your
sight'. Before I cried out from the depths of my distress and before you heard me, me who
had taken the position of slave and imitated its weakness, I said, "I am cast out of your
sight". When I was with you enjoying your light and you, light, being light, I did not say
"I am cast out". But once at the bottom of the sea and surrounded by the flesh of a man, I
say: "I am cast out of your sight". I said this as a man. And as God being in that
condition I did not think of my equality with you, because I wanted to raise mankind to
you, so that wherever I am with you they are there as well and those who have believed in
me and in you, I say: yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. LXX: 'do you not think
I will be able to see your holy temple again?'. To express the Greek ara, the Vulgate
edition's 'do you think' can be interpreted as 'therefore', like the last conclusion of
the proposition, of the assumption and of the confirmation and syllogism, not in the
uncertainty of someone who hesitates but in the confidence of someone who affirms. This
has been translated by, "yet I will look again on your holy temple", according to that
which is said in another psalm by the spokesperson of Christ:

8 "Lord, I have loved beauty of your house and the tabernacle where your glory lives" [Ps.
25:8], and the passage of the Gospel in which it says, "Father, glorify me with you by
that glory which I had before the world existed" [John 17:5]. And the Father replied to
heaven: "I have glorified him, and I shall glorify him" [John 12:28]. Or even because he
says, "the Father is in me, and I am in Him" [John 10:38; 14:10.11; 17:21], for the temple
of the Father is the Son, thus the temple of the Son is the Father. He Himself said, "I
left my Father and have come" [John 16:28], and "the word was with God and the word was
God" [John 1:1]. Or even the Saviour, the one and the same, asks as man and promises as
God, and he is sure of the right that was always his. For the person of Jonah you can
clearly see that with a feeling of desire and confidence, at the bottom of the sea, he
wished to see the temple of the Lord, and with a prophetic spirit he found himself
elsewhere and thought of other things.

9 Verse 5a. "The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round
about," LXX: 'the water ran about me up to my spirit; the last depth closed around me'.
These waters, near to the deep, which cycle and slide about the earth, which drag much mud
with them, tend to kill not the body but the soul, for they are friendly to the body and
warmed by its desires. This is why, according to that which I have said above, the Lord
says in the psalm, "save me, Lord, because the waters have penetrated even to my soul"
[Ps. 68:2], and in another passage, "my soul has passed a torrent" [Ps. 123:5], and, "let
not the well press its mouth on me" [Ps. 68:16], let hell not imprison me! Let it not
refuse me an exit! I freely made the descent; so let me make the ascent back again freely.
I became a captive voluntarily, I ought to free the captives so that this verse is
fulfilled: "ascending into the higher parts he led the captives" [Eph. 4:8]. For those who
were beforehand captives in death, he brought them to life again. We must heed certain
wicked forces in the deep, or the specific powers in torture and supplication; demons, in
the Gospel, ask not to be forced to go to them [Mt. 8:30; Mk. 5:10; Lk. 8:31]. This is why
"the darkness was over the deep" [Gen. 1,2]. Sometimes the deep is taken to mean the
sacraments in a deeper sense, the judgements of God: "the judgements of the Lord are a
great abyss" [Ps. 35:7], and "the deep cries out to the deep in a cry of your cataracts."
[Ps. 41:8]

10 Verse 5b-6a. "the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the
mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever:" LXX: 'my head has penetrated to
the base of mountains; I descended to into the earth whose bars are eternal bonds'. No one
doubts that the ocean covered Jonah's head, that he went down to the roots of mountains
and came to the depths of the earth by which as bars and columns by the will of God the
earthly sphere is supported. This earth about which is said elsewhere, "I consolidated her
columns" [Ps. 74:4]. With regard to the Lord Saviour, according to the two editions, this
seems to me to be what is meant. His heart and his head, that is the spirit that he
thought worthy to take with a body for our safety, went down to the base of the mountains
which were covered by waves; they were restrained by the will of God, the deep covered
them, they were parted by the majesty of God. His spirit then went down into hell, into
those places to which in the last of the mud, the spirits of sinners were held, so too the
psalmist says: "they will go down to the depths of the earth, they will be the lot of
wolves" [Ps. 62:10.11]. These are the bars of the earth and like the locks of a final
prison and tortures, which do not let the captive spirits out of hell. This is why the
Septuagint has translated this is a pertinent way: "eternal bonds", that is, wanting to
keep in all those whom it had once captured. But our Lord, about which we read these lines
of Cyrus in Isaiah: "I will break the bronze bars, I will crack the iron bars" [Is. 45:2],
He went down to the roots of the mountains, and was enclosed by eternal bars to free all
the prisoners.

11 Verse 6b. "yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. LXX: 'and
from corruption my life comes up to me, O Lord my God.' He says rightly "you have brought
up" or "let my life come up from corruption", because it had descended to corruption in
hell. This is what the apostles interpret in the fifteenth psalm as prophetic speech of
the Lord: "for you will not leave my spirit in hell, and you will not permit your holiness
to see the corruption" [Ps. 15:10], given that David is dead and has been buried, but the
Saviour's flesh has not known corruption. Others understand that compared to celestial
blessing and to the Word of God the body of man is corruption itself, for "it is sown in
corruption" [1 Cor. 15:42], and in the psalm one hundred and two, the meaning is applied
to a righteous man: "he who cures all illnesses, who has brought his life back from death"
[Ps. 102:3.4]. This is why the Apostle says, "O wicked man that I am! Who will deliver me
from this body of death? [Rom. 7:24]. It is called "the body of death", or "body of
misery". These people take the text in the sense of their heresy, to see an Antichrist in
the place of Christ, and to take the Churches in order to feed a fat stomach and discuss
contrary to the flesh living in the flesh.

12 But we, we know that the body taken from the pure Virgin was not the corruption of
Christ, but his temple. If we pass then to the thought of the Apostle in Corinthians,
where there is the question of a spiritual body, we would say, in removing any appearance
of chicanery, that the same body, the same flesh rises again, which has been buried and
placed in the soil; but the only thing that changes is the glory, not nature. "for this
corruptible being must cover incorruptibility, this mortal being must clothe immortality.
[1 Cor. 15:53] When he says "this being" it is almost as if one showed the body by
pinching it between two fingers: in which we are born, in which we die, that those who are
guilty fear to receive as punishment, that virginity awaits in recompense, that the
adulterer fears in punishment. For Jonah, this is how we can understand it: he who would
have had to corrupt himself physiologically in the belly of the whale, and get by on the
food of beasts and survive by drinking from the veins and arteries, still managed to
remain safe and sound. And when he says, "Lord my God", this is a feeling of flattery: he
thinks that God, who is common to all, is also common to him, and feels he is his own
because of the greatness of his benevolence.

13 Verse 7a. "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD." LXX: 'when my spirit
failed in me, I remembered the Lord'. Although I hoped for no aid, he says, the memory of
the Lord saved me, according to this passage: "I remembered the Lord and I rejoiced" [Ps.
76:4], and in another passage, "I remembered former days and I remembered the days of
eternity" [Ps. 76:6]. I had lost all hope of finding a way out: my body was so frail in
the intestines of the whale that I could not hope for my life. And so, everything that
seemed impossible I found to be surpassed by the thought of the Lord. I saw myself
imprisoned in the intestines of the whale, and all my hope was the Lord. From this we can
learn that, according to the Septuagint, at the time when our spirit fails us, it is
wrenched from its union with the body, and we ought not to turn our thoughts from Him who
inside and outside our body is the Lord. For the Saviour the interpretation is not very
difficult because he said, "my spirit is sad to die" [Mt. 26:38; Mk. 14:34], and "My
Father, if it is possible let this cup pass me by" [Mt. 26:39], and, "I place my spirit in
your hands" [Ps. 30:6; Lk. 23:46], and other passages which are similar to this. And my
prayer came in unto you, into thine holy temple. LXX: similar. In my distress I remembered
the Lord so and my prayer came in to heaven from the depths of the sea and from the roots
of the mountains, and came to your holy temple where you reside in eternal beatitude. This
new kind of speech should be noted here: a prayer made for a prayer. Jonah asks that his
prayer rise up to the temple of God. He wishes like the Pope that in his body the people
should be freed.

14 Verse 8. "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." LXX: 'those that
keep mistaken vanities lose their mercy'. By nature God is merciful and ready by his
mildness to save those whom he can't save by justice. But because of our vices we lose the
mercy which is reserved for us and is offered to us. Jonah did not say, "those who make
vanities", for "vanity of vanities, all is vanity" [Eccl. 1:1], not to have an air of
condemning everyone, and of refusing mercy to all mankind, but "those who keep vanities"
or the lie "those who have come to love their heart" [Ps. 72:7], who are not happy with
doing, but who keep their vanities as if they cherished them, thinking they have found
some kind of treasure. Note too the greatness of the prophet's spirit: at the bottom of
the sea, surrounded by an eternal night in the intestines of a great beast he is not
thoughtful of his danger, but philosophises on the question of nature. "they will lose" he
says "their mercy". Although mercy is offended and we can understand that it is God
Himself: for "God is merciful and good, patient and full of pity" [Ps. 144:8], yet mercy
does not abandon those who keep their vanities, she does not curse them, but waits for
them to return, while they intentionally abandon the mercy which is before them, offered
to them. This can also be prophesised for the Lord on the subject of the infidelity of the
Jews, who think themselves to observe the precepts of mankind [Mk. 7:7] and the
commandments of the Pharisees, this is vanity and a lie, and they have abandoned God who
always had pity for them.

15 Verse 9. "But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that
that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD." LXX: 'but I will sacrifice to you with the
voice of praise and the action of thanksgiving. I will pay all that I have vowed to you,
Lord, in salutation.' Those who keep their vanities have abandoned their mercy. But I who
have been eaten for the sake of the safety of the multitude, will offer you sacrifices
with the voice of praise and thanksgiving, offering myself. For "Christ, our Easter, has
been sacrificed" [1 Cor. 5:7]. A as a true Pope and lamb he offers himself for us. And I
will give thanks to you, saying, "I bless you Father, lord of heaven and earth" [Mt.
11:25], and I will keep those vows to the Lord that I made for the safety of others, so
that all that " you have given me never dies" [John 6:39; 10:28; 17:12]. We see what the
Lord promised in his suffering for our safety: let us not make Jesus a liar [1 John 1:10],
and let us be pure, delivered from all the uncleanness of sins so that he offers us to God
the Father as the victims he had promised.

16 Verse 10. "And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry
land." LXX: 'and he ordered the whale to vomit Jonah out onto the dry land'. That which we
read above as being about Jonah, the Lord prayed for in the stomach of the whale about
which Job speaks in an unclear way: "let he who curses this day curse him, he who will
capture the great whale" [Job. 3:8 LXX]. The great whale, the deep and hell are then
ordered to give back the Lord to the dry earth; thus he who had died to free those
detained by the chains of death, can lead with him many others towards life. With regard
to the expression 'vomited' we must take this to be said in a very emphatic way, to mean
that triumphant life has emerged from the deepest and most impenetrable parts of death.

CHAPTER 3

1 Verses 1-2. "And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go
unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you." LXX: 'and
the message of God came to Jonah a second time, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, the great
city, and preach there this message that I have told you'. He did not say to the prophet,
"why have you not done what you were ordered to do?." But the punishment of the shipwreck
and his drowning are enough for him to understand the Lord, the liberator, whom he hadn't
known to be ordering. Moreover it is superfluous to see his wounds as those of a false
servant of God, once he has been smitten, for such a punishment is less of a correction
than a reproof. And our Lord is sent to Nineveh a second time after his resurrection: he
who had fled by whatever means beforehand when he said, "My Father, if it is possible let
this cup pass me by" [Mt. 26:39], and who had not wanted to give bread of children to
dogs, now the children have cried out, "crucify him, crucify him! we have no king except
Caesar" [Lk. 23:21; John 19:15], he makes his way towards Nineveh of his own accord to
preach after his resurrection that he underwent as he was ordered to do before his
suffering. The command is given, he hears it, he refuses, then he is forced to want, and
the second time he carries out the will of the Father: all of this is connected to man and
to the "form of a slave" [Phil. 2:7], to whom such expressions are appropriate.

2 Verse 3. "So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now
Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. [And Jonah began to enter into
the city a day's journey]" LXX: 'so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word
of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city of godly size, around three days in journey. Jonah
began to enter the city, about one day's travel.' Jonah immediately carries out the
command that he has been given. Nineveh to which the prophet was journeying, was a great
city, which it took around three days' journey to circle. But he remembers the command he
has been given and the recent shipwreck and makes the normal journey of three days in one
day. However, there are some people who believe that he simply proclaimed his message in a
third of the city, and that his speech quickly was made known to the other inhabitants.
And our Lord is said to arise and speak of his own accord after being in hell, and
announces the word of the Lord when he sends the apostles to baptise those who were in
Nineveh in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit [Mt. 28:19]. So there are
the three days of journey! And this sacrament of mankind's safety is "a journey of one
day", that is it is finished by the proclamation of one sole God. Jonah preaches not so
much to the apostles but more by the method of the apostles.

3 He himself says, "and I will be with you always until the end of the world" [Mt. 28:20].
There is no doubt that Nineveh was a city of godly magnitude because the world and all
things have existed through God and because without Him nothing would ever have existed.
[John 1:3] Note too that he has not said, "of three days and three nights" or "of one day
and of one night", but simply "and of three days", and "of one day", to show that in the
sacrament of the Trinity and of the confession of one sole God there is no darkness. 4
Verse 4. "[And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey], and he cried, and
said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." LXX: 'he proclaimed and said,
another three days and Nineveh will be destroyed". The umber three written in the
Septuagint does not agree with the penitence, and I am quite astonished at this
translation, for in Hebrew neither the letters or syllables or accents or the word show
any common element. For three is said, salos and forty arbaim. Moreover the prophet who
was sent from Judea to the Assyrians was to claim after such a journey penitence worthy of
his prediction to cure with a long-present dressing his old and putrid wounds. Moreover
the number forty is appropriate to sinners, to hunger, to prayer, to sackcloth, to tears
and to perseverance in prayer. In this way Moses fasted for forty days on mount Sinai [Ex.
34:28; Deut. 9:18] and Elijah fleeing Jezebel [3 Kings. 19:8] is presented to us as having
fasted for forty days after having told Israel about the famine [3 Kings. 17:1], when the
anger of God was upon them. And the Lord Himself, the true Jonah who is sent to preach to
the world fasts for forty days [Mt. 4:2]. And he leaves us as hereditary fasting to
prepare our spirits, by this number of forty, as the food of his body. "he cried out": the
Gospel shows this expression more fully: "standing, he cried out in the temple: if anyone
is thirsty, let him come to me and he shall drink" [John 7:37], for all speech of the
Saviour is called a cry because he speaks about weighty subjects.

5 Verse 5. "So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on
sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them." LXX: similar. Nineveh
believed but Israel did not believe; the foreskin believed, but circumcision remained
without faith. First of all the men of Nineveh believed who had arrived at the age of
Christ [Eph. 4:13]: they announced a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest to
the smallest of them. This regime and clothing is very worthy of penitence, so that those
who had offended God through their indulgence or lust appeased him by condemning all that
they had previously offended with. Sackcloth and fasting are the weapons of penitence, the
rescue of sinners. First of all fasting, then sackcloth; first of all what is not seen,
then what is visible; the one is always shown to God, the other sometimes to man. And if
it were necessary to remove one from the two then I would rather keep fasting without
sackcloth than have sackcloth without fasting. Elder men give the example which pertains
to youths: for no one is without sin; and if his life only lasted one day, the years of
his life would still be counted [Job 14:5. LX]. For if the stars are not pure before God,
they are still more so than a worm or putrefaction, and those who are held by the sin of
Adam, the great offender. Note here too the order, which is well written: God commands the
prophet, the prophet proclaims to the city. First of all the men believe, announce
fasting, and then everyone puts on sackcloth. The men do not announce the putting on of
sackcloth, but only the fasting. All the same, with reason, those to whom penitence has
been proscribed wear sackcloth and fast so that empty stomach and mourning clothes give
the Lord more of an opportunity to remit.

6 Verses 6-9. "For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and
he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused
it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his
nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not
feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily
unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in
their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce
anger, that we perish not? LXX: 'the message reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose
from his throne, took off his robe and covered himself with sackcloth, and he sat down
upon the earth. And by the order of the king and his nobles it was announced throughout
Nineveh, saying, it is forbidden for any man or beast or oxen or sheep to eat anything, to
drink any water. Men and beasts were covered in sackcloth and cried out to the Lord
mightily. Let each one turn away from his wicked practises and from the unfairness that
was in his hands, saying, who knows if God will turn and repent, if he will not abandon
the fierceness of his wrath so that we might not die?'.

7 I know certain men for whom the king of Nineveh, (who is the last to hear the
proclamation and who descends from his throne, and forgoes the ornaments of his former
vices and dressed in sackcloth sits on the ground, he is not content with his own
conversion, preaches penitence to others with his leaders, saying, "let the men and
beasts, big and small of size, be tortured by hunger, let them put on sackcloth, condemn
their former sins and betake themselves without reservation to penitence! is the symbol of
the devil, who at the end of the world, (because no spiritual creature that is made
reasoning by God will perish), will descend from his pride and do penitence and will be
restored to his former position. To support this opinion they use this example of Daniel
in which Nebuchadnezzar after seven years of penitence is returned to his former reign.
[Dan. 4:24, 29, 33] But because this idea is not in the Holy Scripture and since it
completely destroys the fear of God, (for men will slide easily into vices if they believe
that even the devil, the creator of wickedness and the source of all sins, can be saved if
he does penitence), we must eradicate this from our spirits. Let us remember though that
the sinners in the Gospel are sent to the eternal fire [Mt. 25:41], which is prepared for
the devil and his angels, about whom is said, "their worm will not die and their fire will
not be extinguished" [Is. 66:24].

8 All the same we know that God is mild, and we sinners do not enjoy his cruelty, but we
read, "the Lord is kindly and righteous, and our God will be merciful" [Ps. 114:5]. The
justice of God is surrounded by mercy, and it is by this route that he proceeds to
judgement: he spares to judge, he judges to be merciful. "Mercy and Truth are to be found
in our path; Justice and Peace are to be embraced" [Ps. 84:11]. Moreover if all spiritual
creatures are equal and if they raise themselves up by their virtues to heaven, or by
their vices take themselves to the depths, then after a long circuit and infinite
centuries, if all are returned to their original state with the same worthiness to all
conflicting, what difference will there be between the virgin and the prostitute? What
distinction will there be between the mother of the Lord and (it is wicked to say) the
victims of public pleasures? Will Gabriel be like the devil? Will the apostles be as
demons? Will the prophets be as pseudoprophets? Martyrs as their persecutors? Imagine all
that you will, increase by two-fold the years and the time, take infinite time for
torture: if the end for all is the same, all the past is then nothing, for what is of
importance to us is not what we are at any given moment, but what we will be forever more.

9 I am not forgetting what is often said to argue against this point, preparing hope for
oneself and some kind of safety with the devil. But this is not the appropriate time to
write at length against the opinion of the wicked and against the synphragma of the devil
from those who teach one thing in private only to deny it in public. It is enough for me
to have shown what I believe this passage signifies, and as is appropriate in a
commentary, to remark briefly who the king of Nineveh is, he who is the last to hear the
word of God. Just how much eloquence and secular knowledge are worth to mankind can be
seen in Demosthenes, Cicero, Plato, Xenophon, Theophrastus, Aristotle and the other
philosophers and orators who are considered kings and their precepts are not taken as the
work of mortals but as oracles of the gods. About which Plato says, happy are those states
where philosophers rule, or if kings are philosophers. How difficult it is for such men to
believe in God! I am neglecting though those examples from daily life, and pass over the
stories of pagans and content myself with the text of the apostle who writes in
Corinthians, saying, "look, brothers, to your vocation, among you. For there are not many
who are wise about their flesh, nor many powerful, or noble. But there is much madness in
the world, and this is what God has chosen to confuse wise men.

10 That which is weak in the world, this is what God has chosen to confuse strength, and
that which is in the world without good birth this is what God has chosen…" [1 Cor.
1:26-8] and again he says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reprove the
knowledge of those who know. [Is. 29:14; 1 Cor. 1:19] And: "see that no one robs you,
through philosophy, this is a vain seduction" [Col. 2:8]. From this the predication of
Christ is clear, the kings of the world hear last; then they put down the clamour of
eloquence and the beautiful appearance of words, they abandon themselves completely to all
simplicity and rusticity, and return to the ways of peasants, sitting in the dirt and
destroying what they had formerly said was good before. Let us take as an example the
benevolent Cyprian: who is firstly the champion of idolatry, and had such a reputation of
good speaking that he taught the art of rhetoric at Carthage. He finishes by listening to
the speech of Jonah, is converted to repent and gains such courage as to preach about
Christ in public and lays his neck under the sword for him. For sure we know that the King
of Nineveh descended from his throne, exchanged his red gown for sackcloth, his perfumes
for mud, and cleanness for uncleanness- not uncleanness of meanings but of his words.

11 In the same way in Jeremiah it is said about Babylon that "Babylon is a golden chalice
which makes all the earth drunk" [Jer. 51:7]. Which man has not been made drunk by secular
eloquence? Whose spirit has not been shot through by the composition of words and by the
brightness of his elegant speech? Those powerful, noble and rich have great difficulty in
believing in God; then how much more so for the masters of speech! Their spirit is blinded
by riches, wealth, abundance, they are prevented by their sins and cannot see their
virtues; they judge the simplicity of the Holy Scripture not on the majesty of its
meanings, but out of the baseness of its words. But when they who have previously taught
wickedness are converted to repent and start to teach what is good then we will see the
people of Nineveh converted with a single proclamation, and the speech that we read in
Isaiah will come true: "is a people thus born in one go?". [Is. 66:8. LX] Men and animals
are covered with sackcloth, crying out to the Lord, this is to be understood by the same
meaning as this: that those who have reason and those who do not, the wise and the simple
repent according to that phrase said elsewhere: "You will save men and the animals O Lord"
[Ps. 35:7].

12 It is possible however to interpret differently the animals covered in sackcloth,
especially according to those passages in which we read, "the sun and moon will be dressed
in sackcloth" [Joel 2:10], and in another passage, "I will cover the heavens with
sackcloth". [Is. 50:3] This will be the clothing of mourning, the worry and sadness that
are designated metaphorically by sackcloth. And this phrase: "who knows if God will turn
and pardon? places us in uncertainty and doubt. Thus men in hypothetical cleanness repent
with more intent and arouse even more God's mercy. 13 Verse 10. "And God saw their works,
that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that
he would do unto them; and he did it not." LXX: 'God saw their works since they turned
from their wicked ways. And God repented for their wickedness that he had said he would do
to them and he did not do it.' According to the two meanings of this passage God is
threatening the town of Assyria and threatens the people of the world every day so that
they repent: if they convert then he will change his judgement, and it will be changed by
the conversion of the people. Jeremiah and Ezekiel explain this more clearly: the Lord has
not fulfilled the good that he has promised to do if the good turn to sinners; nor the
wickedness that he threatened the wicked if they return to safety. Thus now God sees their
works, since they turn from their wicked way. But he did not hear those vain promises that
Israel was in the custom of making: "all that God has said, we shall do" [Ex. 24:3.7], but
he sees the works. And because he prefers a sinner's repentance rather than his death [Ez.
33:11.] he willingly changes his sentence because he has seen a change in the works. Or
rather God has continued in his proposition, since he wanted to pity right from the
beginning. No one in fact who desires to punish, threatens what he will actually do. The
word 'wickedness' as we have noted above, can be taken to mean supplication or torture,
not that God could think to do nothing on account of the wickedness.


COMMENTARY ON JONAH (CHAPTER 4)
===============================

COMMENTARY ON JONAH continued

CHAPTER 4

1 Verse 1-2a. "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry. [And he prayed
unto the LORD, and said]" LXX: 'Jonah was saddened by a great sadness, and he was
confounded. And he prayed to the Lord, and he said'. Seeing the crowd of gentiles enter
[Rom. 11:25], and that fulfils what is written in Deuteronomy: "they annoyed me with these
gods who are not gods, so I will annoy them with a people that is not one; I shall anger
them like a foolish nation" [Deut. 32:21]. He despairs of Israel's safety and is hit by a
great suffering which breaks out in words. He shows the signs of his suffering and more or
less says this: 'I have been the only one of the prophets chosen to announce my people's
ruin to them through the safety of others.' Thus he is not sad that the crowd of gentiles
should be saved, as some people believe, but it is the destruction of Israel. Moreover our
Lord wept for Jerusalem and refused to take bread away from the children to give to the
dogs [Mt. 15:26; Mk. 7:27]. And the apostles preach firstly to Israel, and Paul wishes to
be anathema for his brothers who are Israelites [Act. 13:46] and have adoption, glory,
alliance, promises and law, and from whom the patriarchs come, and from them too according
to the flesh came Christ. [Rom. 9:3-5] But suffering in vain, which is interpreted as the
word Jonah, he is smitten by suffering, and 'the spirit is sad until death' [Mt. 26:38;
Mk. 14:34]. For lest the people of the Jews should die, he has suffered as much as he was
in power. The name of the sufferer also is appropriate to the story, since it signifies
the toil of the prophet, weighed down by the miseries of his journey and the shipwreck.

2 Verses 2-3. "[And he prayed unto the LORD, and said], I pray you, O LORD, was not this
my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew
that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you
repent of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech you, my life from me; for it is
better for me to die than to live. LXX: 'O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still
in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I know that you are rich
in mercy and are kind, patient, and full of compassion, and ready to repent for the evils
that you promised. But now all-powerful Lord, take my spirit, because it is better for me
to die than to live.' What I have interpreted as 'I pray you' and which the Septuagint has
translated as 'O indeed' [[Gr. 'w dh']] is read as anna in Hebrew, which seems to me to
express the prayer with a kind of coaxing . For when he had said quite justly that he
wanted to flee his prayer accuses the Lord of injustice in a certain manner, and he
tempers his complaints by a suppliant and rhetorical speech. Was this not what I said when
I was in my country? I knew that you would do this. I am not unaware that you are
merciful:

3 this is why I refused to denounce you as harsh and cruel. Therefore I wanted to flee to
Tarshish, to be free to think, and I preferred the quiet and rest on the sea of this age.
I abandoned my home and left my inheritance, I left your lap and came here. If I had said
that you are merciful, gentle, that you pardon wickedness, no one would have repented. If
I had denounced you as a cruel God only fit to judge, I should have know that such is not
your nature. In this dilemma I preferred to flee, rather than to deceive the repenters
with mildness, or to preach things about you that you are not. "Therefore Lord take my
spirit for death is better for me than life. [3 Kings 19:4] "Take my spirit which has been
sad even until death. [Mt. 26:38; Mk. 14:34] "Take my spirit. I place my spirit in your
hands. [Ps. 30:6; Lk. 23:46] I was not able to save the whole nation of Israel by living,
but I will die and the whole world will be saved. The story is clear and regarding the
prophet's character, we can note as has often been said before that he is saddened and
wants to die so that Israel should not be destroyed for ever after the conversion of such
a multitude of gentiles.

4 Verse 4. "Then said the LORD, Do you well to be angry?" LXX: 'The Lord replied to Jonah,
are you so much afflicted?' The Hebrew word hara lach can be translated as 'are you
annoyed?' and are you afflicted?'. And each one pertains to the prophet and to the Lord:
either he is annoyed and fears appearing a liar to the inhabitants of Nineveh, or he is
afflicted, knowing that Israel is going to be destroyed. And with reason God does not say
to him: 'you are wrong to get angry' or 'to be afflicted', not wanting to reprehend one
suffering, nor does he say, 'you have reason to be angry or afflicted', so as not to
contradict his former sentence. But he asks him whether he is angry or afflicted so that
he replies the causes of his anger or suffering, or even, if he remains quiet, so that
God's truth can be proved by his silence.

5 Verse 5. "So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there
made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of
the city. LXX: similar. Cain who initiated civilisation by fratricide and homicide in
killing his brother was the first to build a city, and he gave it the name of his son
Enoch. [Gen. 4:17] This is why the prophet Hosea declares, "I am God, and not a man,
amongst you I am a saint, and I will not come into the city". [Os. 11:9] For the Lord,
says the psalmist, is the charge of "the transition of the dead" [Ps. 67:21]. This is why
one of this cities of refuge is called Ramoth [Deut. 4:43], which is translated as 'vision
of death'. Therefore quite justly anyone who is a fugitive and on account of his sins does
not merit living in Jerusalem lives in the city of death and is across the waves of the
Jordan, which signifies 'descent'. The dove, or the suffering, comes out from such a town
and lives in the east whence the sun rises. And it is there in his tent, where having
contemplated every hour that passes, he hears what is going to happen to this city. Before
Nineveh was saved and before the gourd dried up, before the Gospel of Christ becomes
famous and the prophecy of Zechariah is realised:

6 "here is a man whose name is East" [Zac. 6:12], Jonah was under his shelter. And nor had
Truth come, about which the apostle of the Gospel says: "God is truth" [John 3:33; 14:6; 1
John 5:6], and he adds elegantly, "and he made there a shelter" near to Nineveh. He makes
it himself, for no inhabitant of Nineveh of that age would have been able to live with the
prophet, and he was seated under the shade in the attitude of a judge or if you like,
constrained by his majesty, "having pulled in vigorously his reins" [Prov. 31:17], so that
his robe did not fall upon his feet and upon us who are low down, but was held together by
a straighter belt. More precisely with regard to what he says, "to see what would happen
to the city", this uses the accustomed usage of recourse to Scriptures to preach to God
about human feelings.

7 Verse 6. "And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it
might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding
glad of the gourd. LXX: 'and the Lord commanded a gourd to grow up over the head of Jonah
to form a shade to protect him from his evils. And Jonah was very glad of the gourd
indeed. In this place a certain Canterius from the ancient family of Cornelii, (or as he
himself says from the lineage of Asinius Pollion), has accused me recently, it seems, of
sacrilege for having translated 'ivy' instead of 'gourd'. Apparently he feared that if ivy
were taken instead of gourds that there would not be anything to drink in his secret place
and his shade. And justly on the veins of this gourd, which are called saucomariae in
general, it is customary to paint the image of the Apostles from which this individual has
borrowed his name, which is not his own. If it is this easy to change ones name, (after
having been the Cornelii, seditious consuls, they renamed themselves Paul Emile consuls),
I ask myself why in surprise I should not be allowed to translate ivy instead of gourd.
But let us return to more serious matters. For gourd or ivy in Hebrew we read qiqaion,
which is also written qiqaia in the Syriac and Punic languages.

8 It is a type of shrub or sapling with wide leaves like a vine, and which casts a large
shadow and is supported by a trunk and often is found growing in Palestine especially in
sandy areas. It is interesting to note that if the seed is cast on the ground it
germinates quickly and in a few days it can be seen to have grown from a seedling to a
bush. For my part when I was translating the prophets I wanted to just transliterate the
Hebrew word seeing that Latin has no word for this kind of tree. But I feared that the men
of letters would find in this some argument, imagining those animals of India or the
mountains of Boeotia or even other marvels of this type. I have also followed the example
of the former translators who translated it as ivy, in Greek chissos, because they had no
other word to use. let us now look carefully at the story, and having looked at the
mythical meaning then go on to study each word individually. The gourd and the ivy creep
along the ground by their nature, and if they have no restraints or ladders as support
they do not try to climb. How is it possible then that a gourd could grow up without the
prophet knowing in one night to provide shade, if its nature is not to climb unless it has
some supports, reeds or pegs to hold on to?

9 Although the gourd, offering a miracle in its sudden appearance, and showing the power
of God in the protection of a leafy shade, was only following its own nature. Even this
though can refer to the person of the Lord Saviour, let us not completely abandon our
gourd on account of our philocholochunthon, so that we remember that passage of Isaiah,
which says, "and the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, or as a lodge in
a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. [Is. 1:8] And because we do not find a gourd
mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures let us say then that where the cucumber grows gourds
usually grow too. And Israel is compared to this kind of plant because, at a certain time,
it protected Jonah with its shadow whilst he was waiting the conversion of the gentiles
and made him feel greatly happy. It made more a shady shelter for him rather than a house,
and that suggests a roof of some kind but not having the foundations of a house. Moreover
the gourd, our little bush, which grows quickly and dries quickly, could be compared to
Israel, pushing its little roots into the ground and trying to raise itself up, but is not
able to equal the height of cedars [Ps. 79:11] and cypress trees [Is. 37:24; Zac. 11:2] of
God. It seems to me that one could interpret the locusts that were food for John
similarly, who said symbolising Israel, "It must grow but I must die" [John 3:30].

10 The locust, a small animal with weak wings managing to rise up from the ground but not
able to fly very high so that it is better called a reptile yet not similar either to
birds. 11 Verses 7-8. "But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it
smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God
prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted,
and wished in himself to die, and said, it is better for me to die than to live. LXX: 'and
God commanded a worm early the next morning, which smote the gourd that it withered. When
the sun had risen the Lord immediately commanded a hot and burning wind. The sun hit upon
Jonah's head in his distress and suddenly became very exhausted and he said, it is better
for me to die than to live.' Before the sun of justice [Mal. 4:2] rose the shade was
verdant and Israel was not dry. But after it rose, and when the darkness of Nineveh had
been dispersed by its light, a worm obtained for the first light of the next day smote the
gourd, (the worm, which is mentioned in the title to psalm twenty-one: "in honour of the
morning incarnation", and which was born from the earth without any seed, can say, 'I am a
worm and not a man' [Ps. 21:7]. And Jonah, abandoned by God's aid, loses all his strength.
The Lord ordered a hot and burning wind, which was prophesied by Hosea: "the Lord will
bring a wind out of the desert, which will dry up the rivers and abandon his fountain"
[Hos. 13:15].

12 And Jonah began to get hot and once again he wants to die in the baptism of Israel to
receive in this basin the moisture which he lost in his refusal to do God's word. This is
why Peter speaks to the Jews who are parched, saying, "Repent, and let each of you be
baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for payment for your sins, so that you might receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit" [Act. 2:38]. There are those for whom the worm and the
burning wind represent the Roman generals who, after the resurrection of Christ,
completely destroyed Israel. 13 Verse 9. "And God said to Jonah, Do you well to be angry
for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death." LXX: 'and the Lord
God said to Jonah, are you so afflicted for a gourd? He replied, 'I am very afflicted even
to the point of death'. When he was asked about the repentance of the inhabitants of
Nineveh and the safety of the city of the gentiles, 'do you well to be angry?', the
prophet replied nothing, yet justified God's question by his silence. For he knew that God
is kind, merciful, patient, and full of pity [Ex. 34:6; Ps 102:8], pardoning wickedness
and he did not feel sad for the safety of the gentiles; but once the gourd, (Israel) had
dried up, when he is asked, 'do you well to be angry for the gourd?', he replies with
assurance, 'I do well to be angry and to suffer even unto death. I did not want to save
one only to see the others perish, to gain foreigners only to lose my own'. And in truth
up until this day Christ weeps for Jerusalem and he weeps until death; not his own death,
but that of the Jews, so that they die refusing and rise up again confessing the Son of
God.

14 Verses 10-11. "Then said the LORD, You have had pity on the gourd, for the which you
have not laboured, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a
night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore
thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and
also much cattle? LXX: 'and the Lord said, 'you wanted to keep safe a gourd which has done
you no wickedness, that you have not cared for, which was born in one night and died in
one night. But should I not spare Nineveh the great city in which live over three thousand
people who are unknowing of their right and their left, and an equal number of cattle?' It
is too difficult to explain how according to tropology this is said to the Son of man:
'you worry for a gourd that has done you no harm, that you did not plant' [John 1:3],
since all has been done by him and with him absent nothing has been done. This is why
someone interpreting this passage and wanting to resolve the question which he asked
himself, fell into blasphemy. For, if we look at the text of the Gospel, which says, "why
do you call me good? Nothing is good except God himself. [Mk. 10:18] He interprets the
Father as good and places the Son one place lower, in a comparison with one who is
perfectly and completely good.

15 And he has not seen that this opinion made him fall into the heresy of Marcion, who
proposes a God that is uniquely good, with another for judging and for creating, rather
than the opinion of Arius who proposed a superior Father and an inferior Son yet admits
the Son as creator. We must be indulgent therefore for that which we are about to say, and
our attempts ought to be encouraged with good criticism and prayer, rather than declaimed
by an argumentative audience. Criticism and declamation are easy for those who are most
ignorant, but one must be learned and know the labours of workers to stretch out ones hand
to those weaker or to show the way to those who are lost. Our Lord and Saviour did not
work for Israel as for the people of the gentiles. In this instance Israel declares in
faith, "Look these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed I at any time thy
commandment: and yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But
as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, you have
killed for him the fatted calf. [Lk. 15:29-32] And in spite of all he is not reprimanded
by the Father, but he says to him kindly, "Son, you art ever with me, and all that I have
is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was
dead, and is alive again;

16 and was lost, and is found. The fat calf has been slaughtered for the people of the
gentiles, and its precious blood has been spread about, about which Paul to the Hebrews (9
and 10) explains in great detail. And David in the psalm says, "the brother does not
redeem, man will redeem" [Ps. 48:8]. Christ decided that this people would be great and he
died so that they might live; he went down to the underworld so that this people might
rise up to heaven. For Israel there is no comparable toil. This is why he is jealous of
his young brother, seeing that after having spent his fortune on his prostitutes and
pimps, he receives the ring and the robe and recovers his former dignity. The phrase
'which was born in one night' can be applied to the time just before the arrival of
Christ, who was the light of the world [John 8:12;9:5], about which is said, "the night
has passed, and the day is near" [Rom. 13:12]. And this people died in one night when the
sun of righteousness [Mal. 4:2] set for them, and they lost the word of God. The city of
Nineveh which is great and very beautiful, prefigures the Church in which there is a
greater number of inhabitants than the ten tribes of Israel: this is what the rest of the
twelve baskets in the desert represent [Mat. 14:20; Mk. 6:43; Lk. 9:17; John 6:13].

17 "they do not know the difference between their right and their left", either on account
of their innocence and their simplicity (to show first childhood and let it be known what
the number of those is who have reached an older age, when the very young are so
numerous), or even, (because the city was great, and "in a great house there are not only
golden and silver objects but also some made of wood and pottery" [2. Tim. 2:20]) because
there was a great crowd that needed to repent and was ignorant of the difference between
good and bad, between their right and left. And there is a great number of animals and of
men who do not possess the faculty of reason and who can be compared to mad animals to
whom they are similar. [Ps. 48:21.]


PREFACES TO THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
==================================

PREFACES TO THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE Jerome

c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

CHRONICLES

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF SAINT JEROME TO THE BOOK
OF PARALIPOMENON 2 If the version of the Seventy translators is pure and has remained as
it was rendered by them into Greek, you have urged me on superfluously, my Cromatius, most
holy and most learned of bishops, that I translated the Hebrew scrolls into Latin words.
For what has formerly won the ears of men and strengthened the faith of those being born
to the Church was indeed proper to be approved by our silence. Now, in fact, when
different versions are held by a variety of regions, and this genuine and ancient
translation is corrupted and violated, you have considered our opinion, either to judge
which of the many is the true one, or to put together new work with old work, and shutting
off to the Jews, as it is said, "a horn to pierce the eyes. The region of Alexandria and
Egypt praises in their Seventy the authority of Hesychius; the region from Constantinople
to Antioch approves the version of Lucian the Martyr; in the middle, between these
provinces, the people of Palestine read the books which, having been labored over by
Origen, Eusebius and Pamphilius published. And all the world contends among them with this
threefold variety.

3 And Origen certainly not only put together the texts of four editions, writing the words
in a single row so that one regularly differing may be compared to others agreeing among
themselves, but what is more audacious, into the edition of the Seventy he mixed the
edition of Theodotion, marking with asterisks those things which were missing, and placing
virgules by those things which are seen to be superfulous. If, therefore, it was allowed
to others not to hold what they once accepted, and after the seventy chambers, which are
considered without a single author, individual chambers were opened, and thus is read in
the churches what the Seventy did not know, why do my (fellow) Latins not accept me, who
thus put together the new with the inviolate old edition so that I might make my work
acceptable to the Hebrews and, what is greater than these, to the authors, the Apostles? I
have recently written a book, "On the best kind of translating," showing these things in
the Gospel, and others similar to these, to be found in the books of the Hebrews: "Out of
Egypt I called my son," and "For he will be called a Nazarene," and "They will look on him
whom they have pierced," and that of the Apostle, "Things which eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, and had not arisen in the heart of man, which God has prepared for those loving
Him.

4 The Apostles and Evangelists were certainly acquainted with (the version of) the Seventy
interpreters, but from where (were) they (supposed) to say these things which are not in
the Seventy? Christ our God, author of both Testaments, says in the Gospel according to
John, "He who believes in me, as Scripture has said, Rivers of living water will flow from
his belly. Certainly, whatever is witnessed by the Savior to be written, is written. Where
is it written? The Seventy don't have it; the Church ignores the apocrypha; thus the
turning back to the Hebrew (books), from which the Lord spoke and and the disciples took
forth texts. In peace I will say these things of the ancients, and I respond only to my
detractors, who bite me with dogs' teeth, slandering me in public, speaking at corners,
the same (being) both accusers and defenders, when approving for others what they reprove
me for, as though virtue and error were not in conflict, but change with the author. I
have recalled another edition of the Seventy translators corrected from the Greek to have
been distributed by us, and me not to need to be considered their enemy, which things I
always explain in the gatherings of the brothers. And what is now Dabreiamin, that is,
Words of the Days, I have translated.

5 I have therefore made the foreignness of the meanings clearer, and have separated lines
into members, so that the inextribcable spaces and forest of names, which are confused
through the error of the scribes, are, as Hismenius says, "themselves singing to me and
mine," even if the ears of others are deaf. 6 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated
by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California, 2006, published here and released by him into
the public domain. Kevin introduced the text as follows: This prologue gives us an
interesting view into the history of St Jerome's translation work, and some very important
information about the Septuagint in the world of his day. It appears that in addition to
Origen's Hexaplaric text, and the other well-known Septuagintal texts, he had done a
corrected Latin version of the Septuagint, which unfortunately is entirely lost to us. One
of the interesting things in this prologue is the mention of Jerome separating "lines into
members" (per versuum cola). That is, he has separated the members, the individual words,
with spaces, which was then rarely done, but so common now that we don't even notice it.

7 The name "Paralipomenon" means, "things left over." The book was called this because it
included things not mentioned in Kings. I can remember being fascinated as a child by the
exotic mystery of that name, Paralipomenon, like incense, silk, and the Faith itself,
being something from the ancient world, in contrast to the much more prosaic Chronicles, a
boring, uninteresting name to be found at the top of the local paper, and more redolent of
the supermarket and gas station. But enough about me! Enjoy the continuing saga of the
feisty St Jerome!

DANIEL

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF JEROME TO THE BOOK OF
DANIEL The churches of the Lord Savior do not read the Prophet Daniel according to the
Seventy interpreters, using (instead) the edition of Theodotion, and I don't know why this
happened. For whether because the language is Chaldean and differs in certain properties
from our speech, (or) the Seventy interpreters were not willing to keep the same lines in
the translation, or the book was edited under their name by some unknown other who did not
sufficiently know the Chaldean language, or not knowing anything else which was the cause,
I can affirm this one thing, that it often differs from the truth and with proper judgment
is repudiated. Indeed, it is known most of Daniel and some of Ezra were written in Hebrew
letters but the Chaldean language, and one pericope of Jeremiah, and also Job to have much
in common with the Arabic language.

2 When I was a very young man, after the reading and flowery rhetoric of Quintilian and
Cicero, when I had opened myself to the drudgery of this language and with much effort and
much time I with difficulty had begun to pronounce the breathy and buzzing words, as
though walking in a crypt to see a little light from above, I finally dashed myself
against Daniel, and I was affected by such weariness that, sunken in desperation, I wanted
to despise all (my) old work. Indeed, a Hebrew was encouraging me, and he was often
repeating to me by his language "Persistent work conquers all," as in me (?) I saw an
amateur among them, I began again to be a student of Chaldean. And so I might confess the
truth, to the present day I am better able to read and understand than to pronounce the
Chaldean language. 3 Therefore, I have shown these things to you as a difficulty of
Daniel, which among the Hebrews has neither the history of Susanna, nor the hymn of the
three young men, nor the fables of Bel and the dragon, which we, because they are spread
throughout the whole world, have appended by banishing and placing them after the spit (or
"obelus"), so we will not be seen among the unlearned to have cut off a large part of the
scroll. I heard a certain one of the teachers of the Jews, when he derided the history of
Susanna and said it to have been forged by an unknown Greek, to propose that which
Africanus also proposed to Origen, these etymologies to come down from the Greek language:
"to split" from "mastich" and "to saw" from "oak" (απο του σχινου σχισαι και απο του
πρινου πρισαι). On which subject we are able to give this understanding to those of our
own (language), as we might, for example say it to have said of the oak tree (ilice), "you
will perish there (illico)" or of the mastic tree (lentisco), "May the angel crush you
like a lentil bean (lentem)" or "You will not perish slowly (lente)" or "Pliant (lentus),
that is, flexible, you are led to death" or anything which fits the name of the tree.

4 Then he jested for there to have been so much leisure time for the three young men, that
in the furnace of raging fires they played with (poetic) meter, and called in order all
the elements to the praise of God. Or what miracle or Divine inspiration is it, either a
dragon having been killed by a lump of tar or the tricks of the priests of Bel having been
discovered, which things are better accomplished by the wisdom of a clever man rather than
by the prophetic Spirit? When indeed he came to Habakkuk and had read (of him) having been
carried off from Judea to Chaldea carrying a dish, he requested an example where we might
have read in all the Old Testament any one of the saints to have flown with a heavy body
and in a short time to have passed over so great a space of lands. To which, when one of
us rather a little too quick to speaking had brought Ezekiel into the discussion (lit.
"middle") and said him to have been moved from Chaldea to Judea, he derided the man and
from the same scroll proved Ezekiel to have seen himself moved in the Spirit. Finally also
our Apostle, namely as an erudite man and one who had learned the Law from the Hebrews,
was also not daring to affirm himself taken away in the body, but was to have said
"Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows.

5 By these and arguments of such kinds he exposed (or "accused") the apocryphal fables in
the book of the Church. 6 Concerning which subject, leaving the judgment to the decision
of the reader, I warn him Daniel is not to be found in the Prophets among the Hebrews, but
among those which they titled the Hagiographa. Since indeed all of Scripture is divided by
them into three parts, into the Law, into the Prophets, (and) into the Hagiographa, that
is, into five and eight and eleven books, which is not (necessary) to explain at this
time. And to those things of this prophet, or rather against this book, which Porphyry
accused, the witnesses are Methodius, Eusebius, (and) Apollinaris, who, responding to his
madness with many thousands of verses, I do not know whether they are satisfying to the
interested reader. For which reason I entreat you, O Paula and Eustochium, pour out
prayers for me to the Lord, so that as long as I am in this little body, I might write
something pleasing to you, useful to the Church, (and) worthy to posterity. I am indeed
not greatly moved by the judgments of the present, which on either side are in error
either by love or by hate.

7 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: This prologue by St Jerome is a little odd to translate, as it's
dealing in part with some wordplay in both Greek and Latin. I've placed the original words
in parentheses, as I've done in others of the prologue translations, but they're
especially necessary here. I get the distinct impression that St Jerome is actually
showing us a sense of humor, or is at the very least recalling some funny sayings from a
past teacher. There is also the fascinating and rather bittersweet retrospective on his
learning Chaldean, which we call Aramaic these days. Another interesting part is his
mention of the Hebrew Scriptures being divided into three parts: the Law with five books,
the Prophets with eight books, and the Hagiographa with eleven books, for a total of
twenty-four books. And though he doesn't name the books included in those numbers here,
the scheme is close enough to that which he presented in his "Helmeted Introduction" to
Kings (22 books there, as opposed to 24 here), to determine these are the books for each
category: Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Prophets: Joshua, Judges,
Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve; Hagiographa: Job, Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Chronicles, Ezra/Nehemiah, Esther, and somewhere in there
Ruth and Lamentations, which in the "Helmeted Introduction" are attached to Judges and
Jeremiah respectively, presumably to make the total number of books fit the number of
letters in the Hebrew alphabet: twenty-two. So, we have at least that evidence of what was
the canon of at least some Jews in Palestine in the late fourth and early fifth centuries
A.D. Enjoy!

ESTHER

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE TO ESTHER The Book of Esther
stands corrupted by various translators. Which (book) I, lifting up from the archives of
the Hebrews, have translated more accurately word for word. The common edition drags the
book by knotted ropes of words hither and yon, adding to it things which may have been
said or heard at any time. This is as is usual with instruction by schools, when a subject
has been taken up, to figure out from the words which someone could have used, which one
either suffered injury, or which one caused injury (to the text). And you, O Paula and
Eustochium, since you have both studied to enter the libraries of the Hebrews and also
have approved of the battles of the interpreters, holding the Hebrew Book of Esther, look
through each word of our translation, so you may be able to understand me also to
augmented nothing by adding, but rather with faithful witness to have translated, just as
it is found in the Hebrew, the Hebrew history into the Latin language. We are not affected
by the praises of men, nor are we afraid of (their) slanders. For to be pleasing to God we
do not inwardly fear those caring for the minas of men, "for God has scattered the bones
of those desiring to be pleasing to men" (Ps 52.6), and according to the Apostle, those
like this are "not able to be servants of Christ" (Gal 1.10).

2 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: St Jerome has little to say in this prologue about his actual
work, except that the "common edition," presumably the or an Old Latin version, of the
Book of Esther was a mess, and he resorted to the Hebrew text of his day. In this respect,
his translation is a valuable version representing a literal translation of a Hebrew text
found in Palestine in the late fourth century. He unfortunately doesn't describe in this
letter the messy situation of the additions to Esther found in the Septuagint version,
which he included en masse at the end of his version, with short notes indicating where
they belonged in his translation. These additions can be found in various editions of the
apocrypha, but they're best read in the version in the NRSV, which is a full translation
of the Septuagint text, not just of the additions, and includes them all in their places,
not in a bunch at the end. Anyhow, enjoy! UPDATE: Thanks once again to the very much
appreciated help of Michael Gilleland of Laudator Temporis Acti, I've fixed a sentence
(now the second one in the first paragraph) that gave me trouble.

EZEKIEL

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE TO THE PROPHET EZEKIEL The
Prophet Ezekiel was led captive with Joachin king of Judah to Babylon, and he prophesied
there to those who were captives with him, to those repenting that they had willingly
handed over the prophecy of Jeremiah to enemies, and yet saw the city Jerusalem to stand,
which he had predicted would fall. And in his thirtieth year of age, and in the fifth year
of the captivity, he began to speak to his fellow captives. And at the same time, though
later, this one in Chaldea and Jeremiah in Judea prophesied. His style is neither greatly
eloquent nor excessively rustic, but properly proportioned between both. And he was a
priest, as also was Jeremiah, the beginning and ending of the book being wrapped in great
obscurities. But also the common edition of him does not differ much from the Hebrew one.
Because of that I greatly wonder what was the cause, that when we have the same
translators in all the books, in some they translated the same things, in others,
different things. Therefore, read this also according to our translation because, by being
written in words with spaces, it gives a clearer meaning to readers. And if my friends
also mock this, say to them that no one restrains them from writing. But I do not respect
him who follows them, which is more clearly said in Greek, as they are called insult-
swallowers (φαγολοιδοροι).

2 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: There's not much to say about this prologue, as it's pretty
straightforward. Near the end, St Jerome sarcastically calls his detractors "friends." And
there's Greek in this one, too! Enjoy!

EZRA V2

1 [Translated by Mark DelCogliano]

The Prologue of Eusebius Hieronymus on the Book of Ezra

2 Whether it is more difficult to do what you ask or to say no, I have still not decided.
For, on the one hand, it is impossible to refuse you when you are requesting something of
significance. But, on the other hand, the weight of the burden imposed presses down upon
my neck so hard that it would be necessary to lighten it before rushing into it thus
encumbered. In addition to this, there is the hostility of my detractors. They think
everything I write ought to be refuted and rip apart in public what they read in private,
even though their conscience accuses them. They do this to such an extent that I am
compelled to cry out and say, "Lord, free my soul from wicked lips and from the deceitful
tongue!" For three years now you have been continually writing and rewriting to me, asking
that I translate the book of Ezra for you from Hebrew, making your request as if you did
not already have Greek and Latin editions, or as if everyone would not immediately spit
upon whatever I translate. As someone said, "To strive in vain and not to seek anything in
your weariness except hatred is the pinnacle of insanity."

3 And so, I beseech you, my most dear Domnio and Rogatianus: do not make the book known to
the public and be content to read it privately. Do not toss food to those who disdain it
and thus avoid the snobbery of those who know only how to judge others but not how to do
anything themselves. But if there are some of the brothers who are not displeased with my
work, you may give them the master-copy. Advise them to copy the Hebrew names, of which
there is a great abundance in this book, with distinct spaces between them. For it will be
of no benefit to have corrected the book unless the corrections are diligently preserved
by the copyists. 4 No one ought to be bothered by the fact that my edition consists of
only one book, nor ought anyone take delight in the dreams found in the apocryphal third
and fourth books. For among the Hebrews the texts of Ezra and Nehemiah comprise a single
book, and those texts which are not used by them and are not concerned with the twenty-
four elders ought to be rejected outright. But if anyone should oppose you on the basis of
the Septuagint translation (whose very variety of texts indicates that its copies are
corrupt and damaged, nor can it by any means be claimed that what is diverse is true),
have him take a look at the gospels. There are many passages in them which are said to be
from the Old Testament but which are not found in the Septuagint translation. Examples
include: "He shall be called a Nazarene," "Out of Egypt I have called my son," "They shall
look upon him whom they have pierced," and many others that I shall reserve for a more
extensive work. And so, have him attempt to locate where these passages are written in the
Septuagint. When he cannot locate them, you should read aloud from the editions I recently
did, which are continually denigrated by the tongues of those who have nothing good to
say.

5 Though I intend to keep things brief, what I am about to say by way of introduction
certainly makes the most sense. In my version I translated whatever was not contained in
the Greek version or was there in a variant form. What translator do they butcher with
their criticism? Let them ask the Hebrews and judge the fidelity of my translation on the
basis of their authority. It is quite a different matter, if with eyes shut (as the saying
goes), they want to speak ill of me and not follow the example of the Greeks in their
application to study and goodwill. When the Gospel of Christ was already shining brightly,
after they had read the Septuagint translators, the Greeks attentively read the Jewish and
Ebonite translators of the old Law, that is, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. Through
the labors of Origen in his Hexapla, the Greeks caused these three to be used for
ecclesiastical purposes. How much more ought speakers of Latin be grateful for having
discovered that Greece in her exultation borrows something from herself!

6 First of all, it is very expensive and infinitely difficult to procure possession of all
the versions. Secondly, even those who own them but are ignorant of the Hebrew language
will make all the more mistakes, being unable to determine which reading out of the many
is more correct. In fact this is what happened recently among the Greeks to a certain one
of their wisest men. The result was that in some instances he disregarded the sense of
Scripture and followed the mistake of some translator. However, as I have at least a
little bit of knowledge about the Hebrew language and am not at all without facility in
Latin, I am better able than others to make decisions and render things as I myself
understand them in our language. And so, even though the serpent hisses "and victorious
Sinon is scattering firebrands," with the help of Christ my voice shall never be silenced;
even with a severed tongue I shall manage to stammer out something. Those who want to read
my edition should do so; those who do not should put it aside. If they pick apart the
writing, if they find fault with the letters, by your charity I shall be more provoked to
apply myself to study than be discouraged by their detraction and hatred.

7 1 Translated by Mark DelCogliano from B. Fischer, et al., eds., Biblia Sacra iuxta
vulgatam versionem, 4 ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 638-639. Jerome's
preface to his translation of Ezra was written c. 394 to Domnio, a Roman presbyter (see
Jerome, Eps. 47.3 and 50), and Rogatianus, of whom nothing is known. 2 Jerome generally
speaks in the first person singular ("I, me"). He exceptionally uses the first person
plural ("we, us"), which instances are nevertheless rendered in the first person singular
for the sake of consistency. These exceptions are, however, footnoted. 3 Lit. "we write."
4 Ps 119:2. 5 Lit. "whatever is translated by us." 6 Sallust, Iug. 3. 7 Lit. "the book
edited by us." 8 There were several different books which circulated in antiquity under
the name of Ezra (or Esdras). The books which the RSV calls Ezra and Nehemiah were
originally one book in Hebrew, called Ezra. The division of the original Ezra into two
books was a later development. The Latin and Greek traditions, however, each have four
Ezra books, called Esdras A-D (Greek) and I-IV Esdras (Latin). The RSV Ezra corresponds to
Esdras B and I Esdras, while RSV Nehemiah to Esdras C and II Esdras. Jerome's Ezra
contained both I and II Esdras in a single book, in imitation of the Hebrew. Esdras A and
III Esdras corresponds to what the RSV calls 1 Esdras; it sequentially consists of (1) 2
Chronicles 35:1-36:23 (summarized), (2) Ezra 1:1-4:24, (3), additions, (4) Ezra 5:1-10:44,
and (5) Nehemiah 7:38-9:12. The RSV's 2 Esdras, which is an apocryphal apocalypse from the
Christian period, corresponds to Esdras D and IV Esdras. Jerome here explicitly denies
canonicity to III and IV Esdras.

8 9 Jerome's project of translating the scriptures from the Hebrew was continually
challenged by those who appealed to the authority of the Septuagint as the basis for
deciding questions of canonicity. Jerome is here attempting to convince his readers to
follow the Hebrew tradition by undercutting the reliability of the Septuagint text in two
ways: (1) its variety, and (2) its lack of Old Testament passages quoted as such in the
New Testament. 10 Mt 2:23; cf. Jg 13:5. 11 Mt 2:15; cf. Hos 11:1. 12 Jn 19:37; cf. Zech
12:10. 13 Lit. "we shall reserve." 14 Lit. "the editions we recently did." 15 N.b. Jerome
is about to defend his methodology. 16 I.e. whatever in the Greek text varied from the
Hebrew text. 17 I.e. the Greeks were not content with the older Septuagint translation,
but produced newer translations from the Hebrew original in the manner of the Septuagint
translators. Latin speakers should be inspired by their scholarly example.

9 18 I.e. the Greek versions which differ from each other. 19 Lit. "as we have." 20 Lit.
"we are better able." 21 I.e. about the correct reading from among the variants. 22 Lit.
"as we ourselves understand." 23 Vergil, Aen. 2.329 This text was translated and placed in
the public domain by Mark DelCogliano, 2004.

EZRA

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF EUSEBIUS HIERONYMUS TO
THE BOOK OF EZRA 2 Whether it may be more difficult to do or not to do what you have
requested, I have not yet established. For it is also not my desire to refuse your
commands, and the greatness of weight imposed thus press upon the neck, so that before a
falling under the bundle, there might rather be a lightening (of the load). The efforts of
the envious agree with this, who consider all that I write reproof, with conscience
occasionally fighting against them, publicly tearing apart what they read secretly, to
such a degree that I am compelled to cry out and to say: "O Lord, free my soul from
crooked lips and a false tongue" (Ps 119.2). It is the third year that you always write
and write again, that I might translate the book of Ezra for you from Hebrew, as though
you do not have the Greek and Latin scrolls, or whatever it is which is translated by us
might not be something immediately spat upon by all. As a certain person says, "For to
strive without effort, and not to seek anything by wearying except hatred, is extreme
insanity" (Sallust, Jugurtha 3). Therefore, I implore you, my dearest Domnius and
Rogatian, that, keeping the reading private, you will not bring the book forth into the
public, nor throw food to the fastidious, and you will avoid the pride of them who know
only (how) to judge others, and themselves (know how) to do nothing. And if there are any
of the brothers whom we do not displease, give the text to them, admonishing that they
transcribe the Hebrew names, of which there is a great abundance in this book, separately
and with intermediate spaces. For it will profit nothing to correct the book, without
diligence being preserved in the correction of the copiers.

3 Neither should it disturb anyone that the book edited by us is one, nor should they be
delighted by the dreams of the third and fourth books (which are) of the apocrypha, both
because among the Hebrews the discourses of Ezra and Nehemiah are confined to one scroll,
and those things which are not found among them, nor are of the twenty-four elders, are
for throwing away. And if anyone sets the (version of the) Seventy interpreters before
you, the variety of the texts of which shows them torn and perverted, nor indeed can it be
asserted truth is diverse, send him to the Gospels, in which are set down many things as
though from the Old Testament, things which are not found among the Seventy interpreters,
like this: "He will be called a Nazarene," and "From Egypt I have called my son," and
"They will look on him whom they have pierced" and many other things which we are saving
for a more extensive work, and ask of him where they might be written, and when he has not
been able to reveal (where), you must read from these texts which recently were edited by
us, daily pierced by the tongues of the slanderous.

4 But so that I might come to a shortcut, certainly what I will introduce is the most
reasonable. I have given, in what is translated by me, anything that is not found in the
Greek or is found otherwise (than there). Which interpreter do they mangle? They may ask
the Hebrews and their authors, whether they accept or reject the sense of my translation.
Furthermore, it is another thing if, as is said, with eyes closed they want to slander me
and not imitate the study and goodwill of the Greeks, who, after the Seventy translators,
with the Gospel of Christ now shining, they both attentively read the Jewish and Ebionite
interpreters of the Old Law, namely Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and have also
dedicated (them) to the churches, through the labor of Origen in the Hexapla. How much
more should Latins be grateful, having understood that the joy of Greece is to borrow
anything from itself (?). For firstly, it is of great expense and of infinite difficulty
to be able to have all of the texts; then also, those who have (them) and are ignorant of
the Hebrew words will err more, not knowing which ones of the many will have said the
truth. Which thing also happened recently to a certain very wise man among the Greeks, so
that occasionally leaving the sense of the Scriptures, the error of some particular
translator was followed.

5 And we, who at least have a little knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, and our Latin does
not lack style in any way, are both better able than others to judge, and to express those
things of them which we understand in our language. Therefore, even if a serpent hisses,
"and the victor Sinon throws burning torches," with Christ helping, my speech will never
be silenced, for (even my) severed tongue will stutter (something). Those who will, may
read; those who won't, may throw away. They may scatter (? the writings; they may slander
the letters. Much more by your love will I be provoked toward study, rather than be
deterred by their detraction and hatred. 6 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by
Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California, 2006, published here and released by him into the
public domain.

GENESIS

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF SAINT JEROME THE
PRESBYTER ON THE PENTATEUCH I have received the desired letters of my Desiderius, who in a
foretelling of things to happen has obtained with Daniel a certain name [see Vulgate
Daniel 9.23: quia vir desideriorum es tu, "for you are a man of desires"], beseeching that
I might hand over to our hearers a translation of the Pentateuch in the Latin tongue from
the Hebrew words. Certainly a dangerous work, open to the barkings of detractors, who
accuse me of insult to the Seventy to prepare a new interpretation from the old ones, thus
approving ability (or "genius") like wine. As has very often been testified by me, I, for
my part, am able to offer a portion in the Tabernacle of God, without the riches (or
"abilities") of one being damaged by the poverties of others.

2 But that I may have dared, the effort of Origen provoked me, who mixed the translation
of Theodotion to the ancient edition, with asterisk and obelus, that is, star and spit, a
work distinguishing everything, while he either makes to shine those things which were
previously lacking, or he slays and pierces through everything superfluous. And especially
by the authority of the Evangelists and the Apostles, in which we read many things from
the Old Testament which are not found in our books, as it is (with): "Out of Egypt I have
called My Son," and "For He shall be called a Nazarene," and "They will look on Him Whom
they have pierced," and "Rivers of living waters shall flow from his belly," and "Things
which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has arisen in the heart of man, which God has
prepared for those loving Him," and many others which are desiring a proper context (or
"book" [Jerome uses a Greek word here: συνταγμα]).

3 Therefore let us ask them where these are written, and when they are unable to say, we
may produce them from the Hebrew books. The first witness is in Hosea, the second in
Isaiah, the third in Zechariah, the fourth in Proverbs, the fifth is also in Isaiah, of
which many are ignorant, the follies of apocrypha being followed, preferring Iberian
dirges to authentic books. The cause of the error is not for me to explain. The Jews say
it was done wisely in deliberation, so Ptolemy, the worshipper of one god, might not yet
discover a double divinity with the Hebrews; he made them (do so) chiefly for this reason,
because he was seen to fall into the dogma of Plato. Accordingly, wherever anything sacred
in Scripture is witnessed of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, they are either
translated otherwise, or they have passed over all in silence, so they might both satisfy
the king, and might not divulge the secret of the Faith.

4 And I don't know who was the first author to construct with his lying the seventy cells
in Alexandria, into which were divided those who wrote, with Aristeas the champion
[another Greek word: υπερασπιστης] of the same Ptolemy, and many after the time of
Josephus having reported no such thing, but rather (for them) to have gathered in groups,
writing in one basilica, (and) not to have prophesied. For it is one thing to be a seer,
another to be an interpreter. In that one the Spirit predicts things to come; in this one
by his learning and abundance of words he translates those things he has understood.
Unless Tullius (Cicero) is understood to have translated, by inspiration of the spirit of
rhetoric, the Economics of Xenophon, the Protagoras of Plato, and the For Ctesiphon by
Demosthenes. Or the Holy Spirit wove together the witnesses of these books one way through
the Seventy interpreters and another way through the Apostles, so that what they passed
over in silence, what was written by these was invented [? - obscure].

5 Therefore, what? We condemn the ancients? By no means! But after those earlier in the
House of God, we work at what we can. They are interpreted before the coming of Christ and
what they didn't know, they tranlated in ambiguous (or "uncertain") sentences. We write
after His Passion and Resurrection, not so much prophecy as history. For in the one are
told what things were heard, in the other what were seen. What we understand better, we
also translate better. Hear, therefore, O rival; listen, O detractor! I do not condemn, I
do not censure the Seventy, but I confidently prefer the Apostles to all of them. Christ
speaks to me through their mouth, who I read were placed before the prophets among the
Spiritual gifts, among which interpreters hold almost the last place. Why are you tortured
by spite? Why do you incite ignorant souls against me? If anywhere in the translation I
have been seen by you to err, ask the Hebrews. Consult the teachers of the many different
cities. What theirs have of Christ, yours do not have. It is another matter if they have
afterward removed the testimonies used by the Apostles against them, and the Latin copies
are more correct than the Greek, (and) the Greek than the Hebrew! Truth is against these
enviers.

6 Now I pray you, dearest Desiderius, so that in such a great work which you have made me
undertake and take up a beginning from Genesis, you might help in (your) prayers, how I
might, by the same Spirit by Whom the books were written, be able to translate them into
Latin words. END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley,
California, 2006, published online and released by him into the public domain. Kevin
introduced the text as follows: I've decided to translate next all the prologues contained
in the Vulgate, which were written by Jerome except for the Prologue to Paul's Letters,
apparently. I have previously translated Jerome's Prologue to the Gospels, which included
a discussion of the Eusebian canon table system used in the Gospels, in the earliest of my
web pages. This translation of the Prologue to the Pentateuch is just a first draft, of
course. Once I've finished all the prologues, I'll probably have a better grasp on some of
the peculiarities of Jerome's language and be able to fix some of these renderings which I
wasn't so sure of here. So, this isn't written in stone, obviously, but I also beg the
reader's indulgence, now and in the future, for any peculiarities, particularly if you're
familiar with the Latin versions.

GOSPELS

1 Jerome, Letter to Pope Damasus: Preface to the Gospels

PREFACE TO THE GOSPELS

2 BEGINNING OF THE PREFACE FOR THE GOSPELS OF SAINT JEROME THE PRESBYTER To the blessed
Pope Damasus, from Jerome, 3 You urge me to make a new work from the old, and that I might
sit as a kind of judge over the versions of Scripture dispersed throughout the whole
world, and that I might resolve which among such vary, and which of these they may be
which truly agree with the Greek. Pious work, yet perilous presumption, to change the old
and aging language of the world , to carry it back to infancy, for to judge others is to
invite judging by all of them. Is there indeed any learned or unlearned man, who when he
picks up the volume in his hand, and takes a single taste of it, and sees what he will
have read to differ, might not instantly raise his voice, calling me a forger, proclaiming
me now to be a sacrilegious man, that I might dare to add, to change, or to correct
anything in the old books? Against such infamy I am consoled by two causes: that it is
you, who are the highest priest, who so orders, and truth is not to be what might vary, as
even now I am vindicated by the witness of slanderers. If indeed faith is administered by
the Latin version, they might respond by which, for they are nearly as many as the books!

4 If, however, truth is to be a seeking among many, why do we not now return to the Greek
originals to correct those mistakes which either through faulty translators were set
forth, or through confident but unskilled were wrongly revised, or through sleeping
scribes either were added or were changed? Certainly, I do not discuss the Old Testament,
which came from the Seventy Elders in the Greek language, changing in three steps until it
arrived with us . Nor do I seek what Aquila, or what Symmachus may think, or why
Theodotion may walk the middle of the road between old and new. This may be the true
translation which the Apostles have approved. I now speak of the New Testament, which is
undoubtedly Greek, except the Apostle Matthew, who had first set forth the Gospel of
Christ in Hebrew letters in Judea. This (Testament) certainly differs in our language, and
is led in the way of different streams; it is necessary to seek the single fountainhead. I
pass over those books which are called by the name of Lucian and Hesychius, for which a
few men wrongly claim authority, who anyway were not allowed to revise either in the Old
Instrument after the Seventy Translators, or to pour out revisions in the New; with the
Scriptures previously translated into the languages of many nations, the additions may now
be shown to be false.

5 Therefore, this present little preface promises only the four Gospels, the order of
which is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, revised in comparison with only old Greek books. They
do not disagree with many familiar Latin readings, as we have kept our pen in control, but
only those in which the sense will have been seen to have changed (from the Greek) are
corrected; the rest remain as they have been. 6 We have also copied the lists which
Eusebius the bishop of Caesarea, following Ammonius of Alexandria, set out in ten numbers,
as they are had in the Greek, so that if any may then wish through diligence to make known
what in the Gospels may be either the same, or similar, or singular, he may learn their
differences. This is great, since indeed error has sunk into our books; while concerning
the same thing, one Evangelist has said more, into another they have added because they
thought it inferior; or while another has differently expressed the same sense, whichever
one of the four he had read first, he will revise the other to the version he values most.
Whence it happened how in our time that all have been mixed; in Mark are many things of
Luke, and even of Matthew; turned backwards in Matthew are many things of John and of
Mark, yet in the remaining others, they are found to be correct. When, therefore, you will
have read the lists which are attached below, the confusion of errors is removed, and you
will know all the similar passages, and the singular ones, wherever you may turn to. In
the first list, the four agree, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; in the second, three, Matthew,
Mark, John; in the third, three, Matthew, Luke, John; in the fourth, three, Matthew, Mark,
John; in the fifth, two, Matthew, Luke; in the sixth, two, Matthew, Mark; in the seventh,
two, Matthew, John; in the eighth, two, Luke, Mark;

7 in the ninth, two, Luke, John; in the tenth some peculiar ones are given which the
others don't have. Separately in the Gospels are numbered sections of unequal length,
beginning with one and increasing to the end of the books. This is written before the
passage in black, and it has under it a red number, which shows to which of the ten
(lists) to proceed, with the first number to be sought in the list. Therefore, when the
book is open, for example, if you will wish to know of this or that chapter in which list
they may be, you will immediately be shown by the lower number. Returning to the beginning
(of the book) in which the different lists are brought together, and immediately finding
the same lists by the title in front, by that same number which you had sought in the
Evangelist, which you will find marked in the inscription, you may also view other similar
passages, the numbers of which you may note there. And when you know them, you will return
to the single volumes, and immediately finding the number which you will have noted
before, you will learn the places in which either the same things or similar things were
said.

8 I wish that in Christ you may be well, and that you will remember me, most blessed Pope.
END OF THE PREFACE FOR THE GOSPELS OF SAINT JEROME THE PRESBYTER

ISAIAH

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF JEROME TO THE PROPHET
ISAIAH No one, when he will have seen the Prophets to be written in verses, would think
them to be bound in meter among the Hebrews, and to have anything in common with the
Psalms or the works of Solomon. But what is customary to be used in Demosthenes and
Cicero, as they are written in words with divisions, who certainly wrote prose and not in
verses, we also, providing ease of reading, have divided a new translation with a new kind
of writing. And first, knowing of Isaiah what is presented in his speech, certainly as a
man noble and of urbane elegance he does not have anything of rusticity mixed into (his)
speech. For this reason it happens that in comparison with others the translation was not
able to preserve the flower of his speech. And then adding this, that it is being spoken
not only by a prophet, but by an evangelist. For thus all the mysteries of Christ and the
Church are pursued to clarity, so that you would not think them to be prophesied of the
future, but they covered the history of things past. For this reason I suppose the Seventy
interpreters to have been unwilling at that that time to set forth clearly for the
gentiles the sacraments of their faith, not throwing holy things to dogs or pearls to
swine, which things, when you will have read this edition, you will note were hidden by
them.

2 Nor am I unaware of how much work it is to understand the Prophets, or for anyone not to
be easily able to judge from the translation, unless he will have before understood those
things which he will have read, and we to suffer from the bites of many, who, being goaded
by jealousy, what they are not able to follow, they despise. Therefore, knowing and being
wise, I place my hand in the fire, and nevertheless I pray this for the scornful readers:
that just as the Greeks after the Seventy translators read Aquila and Symmachus and
Theodotion, either for study of their doctrines or so that they better understand the
Seventy through their collation, that these are deemed worthy to have at least one
translator after the earlier ones. Reading first and afterward despising, they are seen
not to condemn by judgment, but rather by the ignorant presumption of hatred.

3 And Isaiah prophesied in Jerusalem and Judea when the ten tribes had not yet been led
into captivity, and the oracle covered both kingdoms, now together, now separately. And
while he sometimes looks at present history, and indicated the return of the people to
Judea after the Babylonian captivity, yet is all his concern for the calling of the
nations and for the coming of Christ. Who, how much the more you love, O Paula and
Eustochium, the more strive for him, so that for the present disparagement, by which the
envious incessantly tear me into pieces, the same One may restore a reward to me in the
future, Who knows me to have exerted myself in the learning of foreign languages: the Jews
might not jump all day on the errors of the Scriptures in His Church. END OF THE PROLOGUE
This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California, 2006, published here
and released by him into the public domain.

4 Kevin introduces his translation as follows: St Jerome's preface here to Isaiah is very
interesting for its mention of the way in which he wrote it out: with spaces between the
words. While this is natural for us, it was not the way writing was done in those days.
The addition of the spaces was also mentioned in his prologue to Chronicles, where it was
especially necessary to keep separate all the many Hebrew names in transliteration, which
Latins and Greeks were always mixing up, not knowing Hebrew. His mention of the prophecies
of Isaiah covering "all the mysteries of Christ and the Church" is entirely intriguing,
and it would be nice to have had more on that subject, but here we are. Enjoy!

JEREMIAH

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF JEROME TO THE BOOK OF THE
PROPHET JEREMIAH The Prophet Jeremiah, for whom this prologue is written, was seen among
the Hebrews to be certainly more rustic in style than Isaiah and Hosea and certain other
prophets, but equal in meanings, which the same Spirit obviously prophesied. Furthermore,
his simplicity of speech happened from the place in which he was born. For he was from
Anathoth, which is up to today a village three miles distant from Jerusalem, a priest from
priests and sanctified in his mother's womb, dedicating with her virginity a man of the
Gospel to the Church of Christ. This boy began to prophesy the captivity of the city and
Judea both not only by the Spirit, but also with eyes of flesh. The Assyrians had already
transferred the ten tribes of Israel, and now colonies of gentiles had taken possession of
their lands. For this reason he prophesied only in Judah and Benjamin, and he lamented the
ruins of his city in a fourfold alphabet, which we have presented in the measure of the
meter and in verses. Besides this, the order of visions, which is entirely confused among
the Greeks and Latins, we have corrected to the original truth. And the Book of Baruch,
his scribe, which is neither read nor found among the Hebrews, we have omitted, standing
ready, because of these things, for all the curses from the jealous, to whom it is
necessary for me to respond through a separate short work. And I suffer because you think
this. Otherwise, for the benefit of the wicked, it was more proper to set a limit for
their rage by my silence, rather than any new things written to provoke daily the insanity
of the envious.

2 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: A couple of notes on this prologue by St Jerome to Jeremiah are in
order. He mentions that Jeremiah "lamented the ruins of his city in fourfold alphabet,"
civitatis suae ruinas quadruplici plaxit alfabeto. This is a reference to the acrostic
first four chapters of Lamentations, in which each verse begins with the successive
letters of the Hebrew alphabet, thus "in a fourfold alphabet." Another perhaps puzzling
reference just after that is to his presenting the book "in the measure of the meter and
in verses." This refers to his breaking the verses into separate lines based upon metrical
measurements, probably according to the Hebrew, and written with separation of verses and
words. Basically think of the way that poetry is printed today, in short lines that take
no notice of the width of the page, and that's what he's describing. If I find a picture
of one of the early Vulgate manuscripts reflecting this, I'll post it. St Jerome also
mentions a confusion of the order of the visions in Jeremiah as known among the Greeks and
Latins. This refers to the very different (and probably original) arrangment of the
prophecies as found in the Septuagint and is supported by a Dead Sea Scroll fragment, so
we know that there were Hebrew manuscripts with this order, which Jerome did not. Anyhow,
in the meantime, enjoy yet another prologue. There aren't many left now! Once I've done
all of them, I'll go back through to edit them and then post them all on a single page,
with notes and such.

JEROME'S NOTES TO THE ADDITIONS TO ESTHER

1 [by Kevin P. Edgecomb] I mentioned the Additions to the Book of Esther in the post
Jerome's Prologue to Esther, above (well, below, actually). These additions are usually
found in translations of the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals, and are designated as follows,
with citations for the the Hebrew text of Esther interspersed where it occurs in italics:
Addition A: Vulgate 11.2-12.6 Hebrew 1.1-2.18 Addition B: Vulgate 13.1-7 Hebrew 3.14-4.17
Addition C: Vulgate 13.8-18; 14.1-19 Addition D: Vulgate 15.4-19 (often renumbered in
other versions as 15.1-16; Vulgate 15.1-3 is not generally translated in such collections)
Hebrew 5.3-8.12 Addition E: Vulgate 16.1-24 Hebrew 8.13-10.3 Addition F: Vulgate 10.4-13;
11.1 In the Septuagint, the text is essentially as described above, with the additions
interspersed with the rest of the book (see the NRSV Apocrypha Esther for this in
translation). But St Jerome, in his new Latin edition of Esther, moved all the additions
to the end of the book. And since it was the Vulgate Bible which was the first one to have
both chapter and verse numbers, we're stuck with the peculiar numbering due to that
dislocation. One of the interesting things I noticed in looking at these is that there are
a few notes that St Jerome had written in these Addition chapters. I'm translating them
and posting them here just for fun. I use the Addition A-F convention noted above to show
the placement of the notes.

2 Before Addition A: This was also the beginning in the common edition, which is found
neither in the Hebrew nor among any other translations. After Addition A: Up to here is
the proem. Before Addition B: These which follow are set in the place where it is written
in the scroll "and they plundered their goods" or "their substance," which we find only in
the common edition. After Addition B: Up to here is the text of the letter. Before C:
These which follow I have found written after the place where it is read "and hurrying,
Mordechai did everything which Esther had commanded him," yet they are not found in the
Hebrew and are not found inside any other translations. Before 15.1: These also I found
added to the common edition. Before D: And also these too, which are below. Before E: The
text of the letter of King Artaxerxes, which he sent on behalf of the Jews to all the
provinces of his kingdom, which also is not itself found in the Hebrew scroll. Before F:
Those things which are found in the Hebrew I have expressed with complete accuracy. And
these things which follow I have found written in the common edition in which are
contained the language and letters of the Greeks, and sometimes after the end of the book
this chapter is found, which, according to our custom, we annotate with an obelus, that
is, a spit.

3 Something that might not be immediately obvious is that the section "Before F" just
above is actually a tripartite note. First, it comprises a conclusion to St Jerome's
translation of the Hebrew Book of Esther: "Those things which are found in the Hebrew I
have expressed with complete accuracy." Second is an introduction to all the additions,
which by his arrangement follow just after this point: "And these things which follow I
have found written in the common edition in which are contained the language and letters
of the Greeks." And third comes the introduction to the immediately following chapter,
which is the conclusion of the book in the Septuagint: "and sometimes after the end of the
book this chapter is found, which, according to our custom, we annotate with an obelus,
that is, a spit." This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain.

JOB

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF SAINT JEROME TO THE BOOK
OF JOB I am forced, through each of the books of Divine Scripture, to respond to the
slander of adversaries who accuse my translation of rebuking the Seventy translators, not
as though among the Greeks Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion had also translated either
word for word, or meaning for meaning, or by mixing both together, also a kind of
translation of equal proportion, and also Origen had divided all the scrolls of the Old
Instrument with obeli and asterisks which, either added by him or taken from Theodotion,
he added to the ancient translation, proving what was added to have been lacking.
Therefore my detractors should learn to accept in full what they have accepted in part, or
to erase my translation along with their asterisks. For it should not be, that those who
they accepted to have omitted many things may not be acknowledged to have certainly erred
in some things, especially in Job, in which if you will have removed those things which
are added under the asterisks, the greater part will be cut off. And this is only among
the Greeks. Otherwise, among the Latins, before their translation which we recently edited
under asterisks and obeli, almost seven hundred or eight hundred verses are (missing), so
that the book, shortened and cut up and eaten away, shows its deformity publicly to
readers.

2 And this translation follows no translator of the ancients, but will rather convey from
the speech itself (which is) Hebrew and Arabic and sometimes Syrian, now words, now
meanings, now both together. For even among the Hebrews the whole book is considered
oblique and slippery and what the Greek rhetors call figuratively arranged
(εσχηματισμενος), and while one thing is said, it does another, as if you would hold
tightly an eel or a little murena fish, when you press harder, then the sooner it escapes.
I remember I paid not a little money toward understanding of this scroll, for an
instructor from Lydda who among the Hebrews was thought to have first rank, with whose
teaching I know not whether I accomplished anything; this one thing I know: for me not to
have been able to translate anything that I didn't know before. 3 Therefore, from the
beginning to the words of Job, among the Hebrews the speech is prose. Next, from the words
of Job in which he says, "May the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which
it was said: A man is conceived," to that place, where it is written before the end of the
scroll: "Therefore I accuse myself and make repentance in dust and ashes," the verses are
in hexameter, running in dactyl and spondee and, according to the idiom of the language,
also accepting numerous other (poetic) feet not of the same (number of) syllables, but of
the same intervals. Sometimes also, by breaking the law of (poetic metrical) numbers, the
rhythm itself is found sweet and ringing, which is understood better by prosodists than by
a simple reader. And from the verse mentioned above to the end of the book, the small
section that remains continues with prose speech. If that seems unbelievable to anyone,
namely that among the Hebrews there are meters, and either the Psalter or the Lamentation
of Jermiah or almost all the songs of the Scriptures are to be understood in the manner of
our Flaccus and the Greek Pindar and Alkaios and Sappho, let him read Philo, Josephus,
Origen, and Eusebius of Caesarea, and by their testimony he will prove me to speak the
truth.

4 For which reason, let my dogs therefore hear me to have labored at this scroll, not as
rebuking the ancient translation, but rather so those things in it which are either
obscure or missing or certainly corrupted by the error of scribes may be made more clear
by our translation, who have both learned Hebrew speech in part, and also in Latin, almost
from our cradle we were worn out (?) among grammarians and rhetors and philosophers. But
if among the Greeks, after the edition of the Seventy, with the Gospel of Christ shining,
the Jew Aquila, and Symmachus and Theodotion, judaizing heretics, are accepted, who have
hidden many mysteries of the Savior by sly translation, and yet are found in the Hexapla
among the churches and are explained by men of the Church, how much more should I, a
Christian of Christian parents and bearing the standard of the cross on my forehead, whose
study was to recover the missing, to correct the corrupted, and to open the sacraments of
the Church with pure and faithful speech, not be rejected by either disdainful or by
malicious readers? Let whoever will to keep the old books, either written on purple skins
with gold and silver, or in uncial letters, as they commonly say, loads of writing rather
than books, while they leave to me and mine to have poor little leaves and not such
beautiful books as correct ones. Each edition, the Seventy according to the Greeks and
mine according to the Hebrews, was translated into Latin by my labor. May each one choose
what he will, and prove himself studious rather than malevolent.

5 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin adds: The third
paragraph includes some information on metric poetry which is probably pretty obscure to
most readers, as the language of metric poetry, indeed the composition of such poetry
itself, is no longer so common. If anyone is puzzled by the language of "dactyl" and
"spondee" and "feet," see the very helpful article on Dactylic Hexameter on Wikipedia.
Also, in the beginning of the last paragraph, St Jerome refers to "my dogs." He is not
describing pets, but referring rather insultingly to his detractors, who he elsewhere
describes as "barking" and so on.

JOSHUA

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PREFACE OF SAINT JEROME TO THE BOOK
OF JOSHUA 2 Having finally finished with the Pentateuch of Moses, as though freed for a
great advantage, we set (our) hand to Jesus son of Nave, who the Hebrews call Joshua ben
Nun, that is, Joshua son of Nun, and to the book of Judges, which they call Sopthim, to
Ruth also and Esther, which they extol by the same names. And I admonish the reader, that
he, being careful with Scripture, might preserve the forest of Hebrew names and (their)
separations divided into parts, so that our work and his effort might not be wasted. And
that in the first place, which I often testify, let him know me not to coin the new in
rebuke of the old, as though my friends are accused, but rather to offer, for my part, to
men of my language, those things of ours which still delight, like the copies of the
Hexapla for the Greeks, which require great expense and work, so they might have our
edition, and anywhere the readings of the ancient scrolls are doubtful, comparing this
this to them, they might find what they seek, especially when among the Latins there are
as many versions as there are books, and everyone has, according to his own judgment,
either added or subtracted whatever seemed right to him, and he indeed may not have been
able to be certain what differed.

3 From which may scorpion cease to rise against me with bow-like wound, and poisoned
tongue desist from slandering a holy work, either accepting, if it has pleased, or
condemning, if it has displeased, and remember these verses: "Your mouth has abounded in
malice, and your tongue constructed deceits; sitting, you have spoken against your
brother, and against the son of your mother imposed a scandal. These things you have done
and I was quiet; you wrongly thought that I might be like you: I will accuse you and stand
before your face" [Psalm 49.19-21]. For what advantage is it to the listener for us to
sweat at work and to work at criticizing others, for Jews to lament that the opportunity
has been taken away from them for falsely accusing and insulting Christians, and for men
of the Church to despise, indeed to tear apart, that from which enemies are tortured. If
only what is old in the interpretation pleases them, which things are also not displeasing
to me, and they think of receiving nothing further, why are they reading or not reading
those things which are either added or cut out by the asterisks and obeli? For what reason
have the churches accepted the translation of Daniel by Theodotion? Why are Origen and
Eusebius Pamphilou admired for having treated entire editions similarly? Or what
foolishness was it, after they had spoken true things, to set forth things which are
false?

4 And from where in the New Testament are they able to prove the received testimonies,
which are not supported in the books of the Old (Testament)? Thus, we say, I may be seen
to be not altogether quiet to accusers. 5 Otherwise, after the falling asleep of Paula,
whose life is an example of virtue, and these books, which I was not able to deny to
Eustochium the virgin of Christ, we have decided "while spirit yet rules these limbs" to
incline to the explanation of the Prophets, and to resume, in a kind of return home, a
work long unfinished, especially when the admirable and holy man Pammachius demands the
same in letters, and we, hurrying on to the homeland, need to pass by the deadly songs of
the sirens with deaf ear. END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P.
Edgecomb, Berkeley, California, 2006, published here and released by him into the public
domain. Kevin introduced the text as follows: This one was tough because of some quite
peculiar sentences, which I think I've pretty much figured out now. I don't think there's
any English translation of this one around, certainly not one in my possession, so I
didn't have one as a "cheat sheet" when I got stuck, which is good for my Latin, but not
for my schedule.... Many thanks especially to Michael Gilleland (of Laudator Temporis Acti
fame!) for puzzling over a certain ambiguous scriptura with me! UPDATE: I've changed a
couple of sentences with Michael Gilleland's input. Several formerly questionable
renderings are now resolved. Huzzah!

JUDITH V2

1 St. Jerome, The Preface on the Book of Judith: English translation [Translated by Andrew
S. Jacobs]

THE PREFACE OF JEROME ON THE BOOK OF JUDITH

2 Among the Jews, the book of Judith is considered among the apocrypha; its warrant for
affirming those [apocryphal texts] which have come into dispute is deemed less than
sufficient. Moreover, since it was written in the Chaldean language, it is counted among
the historical books. But since the Nicene Council is considered to have counted this book
among the number of sacred Scriptures, I have acquiesced to your request (or should I say
demand!): and, my other work set aside, from which I was forcibly restrained, I have given
a single night's work , translating according to sense rather than verbatim. I have hacked
away at the excessively error-ridden panoply of the many codices; I conveyed in Latin only
what I could find expressed coherently in the Chaldean words. Receive the widow Judith,
example of chastity, and with triumphant praise acclaim her with eternal public
celebration. For not only for women, but even for men, she has been given as a model by
the one who rewards her chastity, who has ascribed to her such virtue that she conquered
the unconquered among humanity, and surmounted the insurmountable.

3 Footnotes

JUDITH

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE TO JUDITH Among the Hebrews
the Book of Judith is found among the Hagiographa, the authority of which toward
confirming those which have come into contention is judged less appropriate. Yet having
been written in Chaldean words, it is counted among the histories. But because this book
is found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred
Scriptures, I have acquiesced to your request, indeed a demand, and works having been set
aside from which I was forcibly curtailed, I have given to this (book) one short night's
work translating more sense from sense than word from word. I have removed the extremely
faulty variety of the many books; only those which I was able to find in the Chaldean
words with understanding intact did I express in Latin ones. Receive the widow Judith, an
example of chastity, and declare triumphal honor with perpetual praises for her. For this
one, imitable not only for women, but also for men, has the Rewarder of her chastity
given, Who has granted such strength, that she conquered the one unconquered by all men,
she surpassed the insurpassable.

2 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: In this preface, too, St Jerome makes mention of the authority of
the Church, in this case literally the famous First Ecumenical Council of Nicea, as
declaring Judith among the books of Holy Scripture. In fact, he also mentions that "among
the Hebrews" the book was considered as among the "Hagiographa," some would say a somewhat
flexible term, which in the previous prologue (to Tobias), he certainly seems to have
equated with the Scriptures. If this is the case, then at one point in history, in the
late 4th century, Judith was considered by at least some Jews in Palestine to have been
Scripture. He does, however, in that very first sentence note that even though it is
considered an "accepted" book, this is considered to have no bearing on the status of
other books. Interesting. Enjoy!

PSALMS (70)

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PREFACE OF EUSEBIUS HIERONYMUS TO THE
BOOK OF PSALMS Not long ago while located in Rome, I emended the Psalter, and had
corrected it, though cursorily, for the most part according to the (version of the)
Seventy interpreters. Because you see it again, O Paula and Eustochium, corrupted by the
error of the scribes, and the more ancient error to prevail rather than the new
emendation, you urge that I work the land like some kind of field already ploughed, and
uproot with sideways furrows the thorns being reborn, saying it is proper that what so
frequently sprouts badly is just as frequently cut down. For this reason I remind by my
usual preface, both you for whom this mighty work exerts itself, and those who would have
copies of such, that those things to have been diligently emended might be transcribed
with care and diligence. Each may himself note either a horizontal line or a radiant sign,
that is, either an obelus or an asterisk, and wherever he sees a preceding virgule, from
there to the two points which we have marked in, he knows more is to be found in the
(version of the) Seventy interpreters; and where he has looked at the image of a star, he
will have recognized an addition from the Hebrew scrolls, likewise up to the two points,
only according to the edition of Theodotion who did not differ from the Seventy
interpreters in simplicity of speech. I, knowing me to have done this for you and for each
studious person, do not doubt there will be many who, either envious or arrogant, "prefer
to be seen to condemn the brilliant rather than to learn," and to drink from a turbulent
river much rather than from an entirely pure spring.

2 END OF THE PREFACE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: St Jerome did two separate translations of the Psalms. One was
simply a revision of the popular Old Latin psalms (which are still used in some older
rites, most notably the Ambrosian, I recall), with reference to the Greek Psalms version
in the Hexapla. This is the prologue to that edition of the Psalms. The other version,
based directly on the Hebrew Psalms, will follow separately.

PSALMS (HEBREW)

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF ANOTHER PREFACE OF THE SAME Eusebius
Hieronymus to his Sophronius, health! I know some to think the Psalter to be divided into
five books, as though wherever among the (version of the) Seventy interpreters is written
γενοιτο γενοιτο, that is, "may it be, may it be," for which in Hebrew is said "amen amen,"
is the end of the books. And we, the authority of the Hebrews being followed, and
especially of the Apostles, who always in the New Testament name the Book of Psalms, have
asserted one volume. We also testify of all the authors who are set down in the titles of
their psalms, namely of David, and of Asaph, and of Jeduthun, of the Sons of Korah, of
Heman the Ezraite, of Moses, and of Solomon, and of the rest, which Ezra compiled into one
volume. For if amen, for which Aquila translated "trustworthy" (πεπιστωμενος), is only
placed at the end of books and not sometimes wither at the beginning or at the end of
either words or sentences, then both the Savior never said in the Gospel, "Amen, amen, I
say to you," and the letters of Paul (never) contained it in the middle work, also Moses,
and Jeremiah, and others in this way had many books, who in the middle of their books
frequently interposed amen, as also the number of twenty-two Hebrew books and the mystery
of the same number will be changed. For also its Hebrew title, Sephar Thallim, which is
interpreted "Scroll of Hymns," agreeing with the Apostolic authority, shows not many
books, but one volume.

2 Therefore, because recently, when disputing with a Hebrew, you produced certain
testimonies about the Lord Savior from the Psalms, and he, wishing to outmaneuver you,
asserted throughout nearly every one of the words that it is not found thus in Hebrew, so
that you were opposed to the (version of the) Seventy interpreters, you most zealously
demanded that, after Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, I translated a new edition in Latin
speech. For you said yourself to be greatly confused by the variety of interpreters, so
that you are inclined by love to be content with either my translation or my judgment. For
this reason, having been compelled by you, to whom I am unable to deny even those things I
cannot do, I again handed myself over to the barkings of detractors, and I preferred you
to question my strengths rather than my willingness in friendship. Certainly I will speak
confidently and I will cite many witnesses of this work, knowing me in this matter to have
changed nothing of the truth of the Hebrew. Therefore, wherever my edition has differed
from the old ones, ask any of the Hebrews, and you will clearly see me to be torn in
pieces by those striving after error, who "prefer to be seen to condemn the brilliant
rather than to learn," most perverse men. For when they always desire new delicacies, and
their gullets, like the seas, do not suffice, why in only study of the Scriptures are they
content with an old flavor? I do not say this so that I might bite my predecessors, nor
have I considered slandering any translation of those which I very diligently corrected,
(and) formerly gave to men of my language; but that it is one thing to read the Psalms in
the churches of those believing in Christ, another thing to answer the Jews who accuse
every word.

3 But if, as you proffer, you will have translated by little work into Greek, Opposing the
Ridiculers (αντιφιλονεικων τοις διασυρουσιν), and you will have made the most learned men
witnesses to my ignorance, I will say to you that (saying) of Horace, "You do not carry
wood into a forest." Except that I have this solace, if in the common work I know both
praise and slander to be common to me and you. I desire you to be well in the Lord Jesus,
and to remember me. END OF THE PREFACE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb,
Berkeley, California, 2006, published here and released by him into the public domain.
Kevin introduces his translation as follows: This is the preface St Jerome wrote to
accompany his translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew. He apparently wasn't too entirely
sure of his success in this, as seems to be implied at a couple of points in this letter,
which shows St Jerome to have had both a humble and a humorous streak which hasn't been
entirely evident in the other prefaces. I think it helps to put those into a better light,
as well. Most interesting is what he says about this translation's origins, as
specifically designed to reflect the Hebrew for the sake of apologetics, while other
translations have their place in being read in the churches. Of course, it's the other
version of the Psalms, based on the LXX, which were so popular and so ubiquitous before
the modern craze of translating from Hebrew came along. St Jerome is explicit in that he
wouldn't have had a problem with that. Enjoy!

THE "HELMETED" INTRODUCTION TO KINGS

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF SAINT JEROME TO THE BOOK
OF KINGS 2 There are twenty-two letters among the Hebrews, as is also witnessed by the
language of the Syrians and Chaldeans, which is for the most part similar to the Hebrew;
for these twenty-two elements also have the same sound, but different characters. The
Samaritans still write the Pentateuch of Moses in the same number of letters, only they
differ in shapes and points (or "endings" apicibus). And Ezra, the scribe and doctor of
the Law, after the capture of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple under Zerubbabel,
is certain to have found (or "invented" repperisse) other letters, which we now use, when
up to that time the characters of the Samaritans and the Hebrews were the same. In the
book of Numbers this same total is also mystically shown by the census of the Levites and
the priests. And we find in certain Greek scrolls to this day the four-lettered Name of
God written in the ancient letters. But also the thirty-sixth Psalm, and the one hundred
tenth, and the one hundred eleventh, and the one hundred eighteenth, and the one hundred
forty-fourth, although written in different meter, are nevertheless woven with an alphabet
of the same number. And in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and his prayer, also at the end
of the Proverbs of Solomon from that place in which he says "Who can find a strong woman?
are counted the same alphabet or sections. Furthermore, five of the letters among them are
double: chaph, mem, nun, phe, sade.

3 For they write with these one way at the beginning and in the middle of words, another
at the end. From which also five are considered double books by most: Samuel, Malachim,
Dabreiamin, Ezra, Jeremiah with Cinoth, that is, his Lamentantion. Therefore, just as
there are twenty-two elements, by which we write in Hebrew all that we say, and the human
voice is understood by their beginnings (or "parts" initiis), thus twenty-two scrolls are
counted, by which letters and writings a just man is instructed in the doctrine of God, as
though in tender infancy and still nursing. 4 The first book is called among them Bresith,
which we call Genesis; the second, Hellesmoth, which is named Exodus; the third, Vaiecra,
that is Leviticus; the fourth Vaiedabber, which we call Numbers; the fifth, Addebarim,
which is designated Deuteronomy. These are the five books of Moses, which they
appropropriately call Thorat, that is, the Law. The second order is made of the Prophets,
and begins with Jesus son of Nave, which is called among them Joshua benNum. Then they
append Sopthim, that is the book of Judges; and they attach Ruth to the same, because the
history narrated happened in the days of the Judges. Samuel follows third, which we call
First and Second Kingdoms. Fourth is Malachim, that is Kings, which book contains Third
and Fourth Kingdoms; and it is much better to say Malachim, that is Kings, rather than
Malachoth, that is Kingdoms, for it does not describe the kingdoms of many nations, but
only that of the Israelite people which contains twelve tribes. Fifth is Isaiah, sixth
Jeremiah, seventh Ezekiel, eighth the book of the Twelve Prophets, which is called
Thareasra among them.

5 The third order holds the Hagiographa, and begins with Job, the first book, the second
by David, which is also one book of Psalms comprising five sections. The third is Solomon,
having three books: Proverbs, which they call Parables, that is Masaloth, and
Ecclesiastes, that is Accoeleth, and The Song of Songs, which they denote with the title
Sirassirim. Sixth is Daniel, seventh Dabreiamin, that is Words of the Days, which we may
call more clearly a chronicle (Gk here: χρονικον) of all of Divine history, which book is
written among us as First and Second Paralipomenon; eighth is Ezra, which is also in the
same manner among Greeks and Latins divided into two books; ninth is Esther. And thus
there are likewise twenty-two books in the Old (Testament), that is five of Moses, eight
of the Prophets, nine of the Hagiographa. Although some may write Ruth and Cinoth among
the Hagiographa, and think of counting these books among their number, and then by this to
have twenty-four books of the Old Law, which the Apocalypse of John introduces with the
number of twenty-four elders worshipping the Lamb and offering their crowns, prostrated on
their faces, and crying out with unwearying voice: "Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty,
Who was and Who is, and Who will be."

6 This prologue to the Scriptures may be appropriate as a helmeted introduction to all the
books which we turn from Hebrew into Latin, so we may be able to know whatever is outside
of these is set aside among the apocrypha. Therefore, Wisdom, which is commonly ascribed
to Solomon, and the book of Jesus son of Sirach, and Judith and Tobias, and The Shepherd
are not in the canon. I have found the First Book of the Maccabees (is) Hebrew, the Second
is Greek, which may also be proven by their styles. 7 While these things may be so, I
implore you, reader, that you might not consider my work a rebuke of the ancients. Each
one offers to the Tabernacle of God what he is able. Some offer gold and silver and
precious stones; others, linen and purple, scarlet and blue. It will go well with us, if
we offer the skins and hair of goats. For the Apostle still judges our more contemptible
parts more necessary. From which both the whole of the beauty of the Tabernacle and each
individual kind, a distinction of the present and future Church, is covered with skins and
goat-hair coverings, and the heat of the sun and the harmful rain are kept off by those
things which are of lesser value. Therefore, first read my Samuel and Kings; mine, I say,
mine. For whatever we have learned and know by often translating and carefully correcting
is ours. And when you come to understand what you did not know before, either consider me
a translator, if you are grateful, or a paraphraser, if ungrateful, although I am truly
not at all aware of anything of the Hebrew to have been changed by me. Certainly, if you
are incredulous, read the Greek and Latin books and compare (them) with these little
works, and wherever you will see among them to differ, ask any one of the Hebrews, in whom
you might place better faith, and if he confirms us, I think that you will not consider
him a diviner, as he has similarly divined in the very same place with me.

8 But I also ask you, handmaidens of Christ, who have anointed the head of your reclining
Lord with the most precious myrrh of faith, who have in no way sought the Savior in the
tomb, for whom Christ has now ascended to the Father, that you might oppose the shields of
your prayers against the barking dogs which rage against me with rabid mouth and go around
the city, and in it they are considered educated if slandering others. I, knowing my
humility, will always remember these sentences: "I will guard my ways, so I will not
offend with my tongue; I have placed a guard on my mouth, while the sinner stands against
me; I was mute, and humiliated, and silent because of good things." END OF THE PROLOGUE
This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California, 2006, published here
and released by him into the public domain.

9 Kevin introduced the text as follows: This is a translation of Jerome's well-known
"helmeted introduction" (galeatum principium) to Kings (that is 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings)
which is usually considered the most useful of his Old Testament introductions. It's
certainly the longest. Along with the usual defense against critics, Jerome includes an
interesting arrangement of what he considers the canonical books of the Old Testament,
which are 22 in number, just like the Hebrew alphabet. He mentions the tripartite
arrangement of books in the Hebrew Bible as current among the Jews of his day, the
earliest unambiguous description of this arrangement, including the actual names of the
books in each category. I'll revisit this one later and include some notes on the Hebrew
words mentioned here and how the pronunciation, preserved perhaps imperfectly through the
Latin manuscript tradition, differs from today's typical Hebrew pronunciation. For now,
though, I'm focusing on just getting all the prefaces translated in at least a first
draft.

10 Enjoy!

THE BOOKS OF SOLOMON

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF JEROME TO THE BOOKS OF
SOLOMON Jerome to Bishops Cromatius and Heliodorus. May the letter join those joined in
priesthood. Indeed, a sheet may not divide those who the love of Christ has connected. You
request commentaries on Hosea, Amos, Zechariah, and Malachi. I wrote, even if it cost
through ill-health. You have sent the solace of expenses, by our scribes and copyist
having been sustained, so that our genius exerts itself most strongly for you. And behold,
from every side a diverse crowd of those demanding, as though it is equal for me either to
work for you with others hungering, or I might be subject to anyone besides you in matters
of giving and receiving. And so, with a long sickness broken, I have not kept inwardly
silent this year and been mute with you. I have dedicated to your names the work of three
days, namely the translation of the three scrolls of Solomon: Masloth, which are Parables
in Hebrew, called in the common edition Proverbs; Coeleth, which in Greek is Ecclesiastes,
in Latin we could say Preacher; (and) Sirassirim, which is translated into our language
Song of Songs.

2 Also included is the book of the model of virtue (παναρετος) Jesus son of Sirach, and
another falsely ascribed work (ψευδεπιγραφος) which is titled Wisdom of Solomon. The
former of these I have also found in Hebrew, titled not Ecclesiasticus as among the
Latins, but Parables, to which were joined Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, as though it
made of equal worth the likeness not only of the number of the books of Solomon, but also
the kind of subjects. The second was never among the Hebrews, the very style of which
reeks of Greek eloquence. And some of the ancient scribes affirm this one is of Philo
Judaeus. Therefore, just as the Church also reads the books of Judith, Tobias, and the
Maccabees, but does not receive them among the the canonical Scriptures, so also one may
read these two scrolls for the strengthening of the people, (but) not for confirming the
authority of ecclesiastical dogmas.

3 If anyone is truly more pleased by the edition of the Seventy interpreters, he has it
already corrected by us. For it is not as though we build the new so that we destroy the
old. And yes, when one will have read most carefully, he will know our things to be more
understood, which haven't soured by having been poured into a third vessel, but have
rather preserved their flavor by having been entrusted to a new container immediately from
the press. END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley,
California, 2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin
introduces his translation as follows: 4 Here St Jerome gives us not only more information
about his work habits (he translated Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs in
three days), but also a bit more on his understanding of the apocrypha. He implicitly
defines the canon of Scriptures as those books used "for confirming the authority of
eccelsiastical dogmas," and excludes the apocrypha from that category. Granted, the
majority of the apocrypha are not useful for this, but then neither, admittedly, are a
number of canonical works. It's an argument or position against the apocrypha that we have
yet to find the origins of. And although St Jerome here states that the apocrypha that he
names are not "canonical Scriptures," we know that he recognized the authority of the
Council of Nicea in advancing Judith as canonical. So, St Jerome's equivocation on the
matter reveals a more subtle understanding, in which he considers the apocrypha good "for
the strengthening of the people." Anyhow, perhaps St Jerome will have more to say on the
subject in some of the upcoming prologues. We'll see. One fun thing he mentions in this
prologue is the marginal tradition that Philo Judaeus of Alexandria was the author of
Wisdom of Solomon, something also found in the Canon Muratorianus, and various other
places, though not often. Enjoy!

TOBIT

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE TO TOBIAS Jerome to the
Bishops in the Lord Cromatius and Heliodorus, health! I do not cease to wonder at the
constancy of your demanding. For you demand that I bring a book written in Chaldean words
into Latin writing, indeed the book of Tobias, which the Hebrews exclude from the
catalogue of Divine Scriptures, being mindful of those things which they have titled
Hagiographa. I have done enough for your desire, yet not by my study. For the studies of
the Hebrews rebuke us and find fault with us, to translate this for the ears of Latins
contrary to their canon. But it is better to be judging the opinion of the Pharisees to
displease and to be subject to the commands of bishops. I have persisted as I have been
able, and because the language of the Chaldeans is close to Hebrew speech, finding a
speaker very skilled in both languages, I took to the work of one day, and whatever he
expressed to me in Hebrew words, this, with a summoned scribe, I have set forth in Latin
words. I will be paid the price of this work by your prayers, when, by your grace, I will
have learned what you request to have been completed by me was worthy.

2 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: This is the first of St Jerome's Vulgate prologues for one of the
apocrypha that I've done. It's very interesting, if one pays attention to his reasoning in
this prologue, it being actually a letter which accompanied his translation of Tobias to
the Bishops Cromatius and Heliodorus. St Jerome is often considered or claimed to be
vehemently opposed to the apocrypha, especially in antapocryphal Protestant circles. But
we find in this letter that this is only half of the picture. While the apocrypha were not
included in the Hebrew Bible, and St Jerome respects the Hebrew studies on this matter, he
explcitly states here that the decisions of Christian bishops are more important.
Something like this has been the response to critics of the "apocrypha,"
"deuterocanonicals," or whatever you want to call them, throughout the ages: they are
included in the canon because that has been, is, and always will be the practice of the
Church. It's good to see this from St Jerome, and we'll see a similar thing in his
Prologue to Judith, coming up next. Enjoy!

TWELVE MINOR PROPHETS

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE OF THE TWELVE PROPHETS The
order of the Twelve Prophets is not the same among the Hebrews as it is among us. For
which reason, according to how it is read there, they are also arranged here. Hosea is
composed of short clauses and speaking as though by aphorisms. Joel is clear in the
beginning, more obscure at the end. And they each have their individual properties up to
Malachi, who the Hebrews name Ezra the scribe and teacher of the Law. And because it is
too long to speak of all these things now, I would only you were warned this, O Paula and
Eustochium: the book of the Twelve Prophets to be one; and Hosea a contemporary
(συνχρονος) of Isaiah; (and) Malachi in fact to have been of the times of Haggai and
Zechariah. And those (books) in which the time is not set down in the title, under those
kings which they were to have prophesied under, they also prophesied after those which
have titles.

2 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: This is St Jerome's prologue to the Twelve Prophets, or Twelve
Minor Prophets as they're often called, because these books are shorter relative to the
books of the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. It's a very short prologue, but there
are two items of interest in it. One is that St Jerome mentions that "the Hebrews" of his
day considered Malachi to be Ezra. I don't think I'd ever read that before, so it was a
pleasant surprise. The other interesting thing is that St Jerome considered the Twelve
Prophets to be chronologically arranged (which I do too, great, somewhat curmudgeonly
minds thinking alike), and that the books which don't include dating indications can be
dated after those who do. And now, I think my introduction to the prologue has now come to
more words than are actually in it, so with no further ado, here it is. Enjoy!


PREFACES TO THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
==================================

PREFACES TO THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE continued

VULGATE PREFACE TO PAUL'S LETTERS

1 [Translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb] BEGINNING OF THE PROLOGUE TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL THE
APOSTLE First is asked, for what reason after the Gospels, which are a supplement of the
Law and in which are collected for us examples and precepts of living abundantly, the
Apostle wanted to send these letters to individual churches. And it was seen to have been
for this reason, that, as is known, he strengthened the firstborn of the Church from new
arising heresies, so that he cut off present and arising errors and also afterward
excluded future questions by the example of the Prophets, who after the publishing of the
Law of Moses, in which were collected all the commandments of God, nevertheless still by
its revived teaching the people always restrained (their) sins, and because of the example
in the books they indeed also left a memorial for us. Then is asked, for what reason did
he not write more than ten letters to churches. For there are ten with that one which is
called "To the Hebrews," for the remaining four are sent particularly to disciples. So
that he showed the New not to differ from the Old Testament, and himself not to do
(anything) against the Law of Moses, he arranged his letters (according) to the number of
the first Ten Words (decalogi) of the commandments, as many precepts as that one ordered
those freed from Pharaoh, the same number this one taught those purchased from servitude
of the devil and idolatry. And also the most learned men have handed down (the tradition
of) the two stone tablets to have been a figure of the two Testaments.

2 Truly, some have contended the letter which is written to the Hebrews not to be of Paul
because it is not titled with his name, and because of the distance of language and style,
but rather either of Barnabas according to Tertullian, or of Luke according to some
others, or in fact of Clement the disciple of the Apostles and ordained Bishop of the
Roman Church after the apostles. To which one should respond: if, accordingly, it cannot
be of Paul because it does not have his name, therefore it cannot be of anyone because it
is titled with no name. But if that is absurd, it is better to be believing it of him who
shines with such eloquence of his teaching. But because among the churches of the Hebrews
he was considered, with a false suspicion, as a destroyer of the Law, he was willing, with
name unspoken, to render account of the figures of the Law and the truth of Christ, so
hatred of (his) boldly displayed name would not exclude the usefulness of the reading. It
is truly not a wonder, if he is seen more eloquent in his own (language), that is in
Hebrew, rather than in a foreign one, that is in Greek, in which language the other
letters are written.

3 It certainly disturbs some that for some reason the letter to the Romans is placed
first, when reason reveals it not written first. For this is shown by him to have written
travelling to Jerusalem, when he was exhorting the Corinthians and others before now by
letters, as they collected the ministry which was carried with him. For which reason some
want all the epistles to be understood arranged thus: that the first is set down which was
sent later, (and) that through each letter by steps he came to the more perfect. For the
majority of the Romans were so ignorant, that they did not understand themselves to be
saved by the grace of God and not by their merits, and on account of this duo, the people
struggled among themselves. Therefore, he asserted them to need to be strengthened,
recalling the former vices of the gentiles (lit. "of gentileness"; gentilitatis). And now
he says the gift of knowledge to be granted to the Corinthians, for he does not so much
rebuke all, as he censures how they did not rebuke the sinners, as he says, "It is heard
that there is fornication among you," and again, "You are gathered together with my spirit
to deliver such a one to Satan. In the second (letter) they are truly praised and are
admonished to advance more and more. Now the Galatians show no other crimes except they
had most fervently believed in false apostles.

4 The Ephesians are truly worthy of no rebuke but much praise, because they kept the
Apostolic Faith. And the Philippians are much more greatly praised, who were not willing
even to hear false apostles. And the Colossians were of such a kind that, when they had
not been bodily seen by the Apostle, they were considered worthy of this praise: "And if
in the body I am absent, I am with you in the Spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order. The
Thessalonians were yet honored with all praise, to the extent that not only did they keep
the unshaken faith of the Truth, but were indeed found standing together in the
persecution of members. Truly something must be said of the Hebrews, of whom the
Thessalonians, who are so highly praised, are said to have been imitators, as he says:
"And you, brothers, have become imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea, for
you have also suffered the same from your own countrymen as they have from the Judeans.
Among them he also recalls the same Hebrews, saying, "For you both had compassion for the
prisoners and you also received with joy the plundering of your goods, knowing yourselves
to have a greater and lasting substance."

5 END OF THE PROLOGUE This text was translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb, Berkeley, California,
2006, published here and released by him into the public domain. Kevin introduces his
translation as follows: I have a few articles to look up regarding the authorship of this
letter, so I'll end up posting more on that at a later date. Essentially, there are three
contenders: St Jerome, the British heretic Pelagius, and some unknown author. Since
patristic scholarship in the early part of the twentieth century had an unfortunate
tendency to pin the names of heretics to many various works not otherwise demonstrably
theirs or even heretical, I don't, at this point, consider Pelagius a likely candidate,
but rather a faddish suggestion given rather too much attention. These days some idiot
would likely suggest St Mary Magdalene. Also, having just worked through seventeen
authentic prologues of St Jerome, it is definite that this prologue to Paul's letters are
from someone else, judging by the style and even the vocabulary. It's not as rambling as
St Jerome's own letters, which are constructed in a much more oral manner (likely because
he was actually simply dictating to a scribe most of the time), and certain words of the
vocabulary require meanings that are later than the more classical, antiquarian usage of
St Jerome. So I opt for an unknown author. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting preface,
especially his description of why the letters of Paul are arranged as they are: they are
addressed to progressively more accomplished Christians, and apparently in reverse
chronological order. How interesting!

6 I hope everyone has enjoyed my translation of these Vulgate prefaces. I certainly
enjoyed the discovery involved in learning what they say, having not read most of them
before, and the definite education in Latin they provide. I hope they're found to be
useful. This is the last preface included in Weber's Biblia Sacra Vulgata, Fourth Edition,
which means this first stage of my translation of the Vulgate Prefaces is done with this.
Now that I have them all finished in a first draft, I'll be editing them for consistency,
style, etc, and post them all on a single web page. So if anyone wants to use them in a
convenient form, with notes and such things, just wait about a week or so. In the
meantime, I'll post links to the blog posts with all the prefaces, which I'm rather
surprised to have finished in only three weeks, even with some breaks. Enjoy!


PREFACES TO THE VULGATE OLD TESTAMENT
=====================================

PREFACES TO THE VULGATE OLD TESTAMENT Jerome

c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

PREFACES TO THE BOOKS OF THE VULGATE VERSION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

1 This version was not undertaken with ecclesiastical sanction as was the case with the
Gospels, but at the request of private friends, or from Jerome's "own sense of the
imperious necessity of the work." It was wholly made at Bethlehem, and was begun about
a.d. 391, and finished about a.d. 404. The approximate dates of the several books are
given before each Preface in the following pages.

Preface to Genesis.

2 This Preface was addressed to Desiderius, but which of the three correspondents of
Jerome who bore this name is uncertain (See Article Desiderius in Smith and Wace's
"Dictionary of Christian Biography"). We do not give it because it has been given at
length as a specimen of the rest, in Jerome's "Apology," book ii., vol. iii. of this
series, pp. 515-516). Jerome in it complains that he is accused of forging a new version.
He justifies his undertaking by showing that in the versions then current many passages
were left out (though they exist in our copies of the LXX.), such as "Out of Egypt" (Hos.
xi. 1); "They shall look on him whom they pierced" (Zech. xii. 10), etc., which are quoted
in the New Testament and are found in the Hebrew. He accounts for these omissions by the
suggestion that the LXX. were afraid of offending Ptolemy Lagus for whom they worked, and
who was a Platonist. He rejects the fable of the LXX. being shut up in separate cells and
producing an identical version, and protests against the notion that they were inspired,
and he urges his calumniators, by applying to those who knew Hebrew, to test the
correctness of his version.

3 There is no Preface to the other books of the Pentateuch. From the allusion to the work
on the Pentateuch as lately finished, in the Preface to Joshua, which was published in
404, it is presumed that the date of the translation of the Pentateuch is 403.

Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.

4 The Preface to these books was written a.d. 404; Jerome speaks of the death of Paula,
which took place in that year, and the work is addressed to Eustochium alone. The Preface
is chiefly occupied with a defence of his translation. He tells those who carp at it that
they are not bound to read it, and mentions that the Church had given no final sanction to
the LXX., but read the book of Daniel in Theodotion's version. The books of Joshua,
Judges, and Ruth, were probably the last of the Vulgate translation; the Preface declares
Jerome's intention of devoting himself henceforward to the Commentaries on the Prophets, a
work which took up the remainder of his life.

The Books of Samuel and Kings.

5 This Preface was the first in order of publication. It was set forth as an exposition of
the principles adopted by Jerome in all his translations from the Hebrew-the "Helmeted
Preface," as he calls it in the beginning of the last paragraph, with which he was
prepared to do battle against all who impugn his design and methods. It was addressed to
Paula and Eustochium, and published about a.d. 391.That the Hebrews have twenty-two
letters is testified by the Syrian and Chaldaaen languages which are nearly related to the
Hebrew, for they have twenty-two elementary sounds which are pronounced the same way, but
are differently written. The Samaritans also employ just the same number of letters in
their copies of the Pentateuch of Moses, and differ only in the shape and outline of the
letters. And it is certain that Esdras, the scribe and teacher of the law, after the
capture of Jerusalem and the restoration of the temple by Zerubbabel, invented other
letters which we now use, although up to that time the Samaritan and Hebrew characters
were the same. In the book of Numbers, also, where we have the census of the Levites and
priests, the mystic teaching of Scripture conducts us to the same result. And we find the
four-lettered name of the Lord in certainGreek books written to this day in the ancient
characters.

6 The thirty-seventh Psalm, moreover, the one hundred and eleventh, the one hundred and
twelfth, the one hundred and nineteenth, and the one hundred and forty-fifth, although
they are written in different metres,have for their acrostic framework an alphabet of the
same number of letters. The Lamentations of Jeremiah, and his Prayer, the Proverbs of
Solomon also, towards the end, from the place where we read "Who will find a brave woman?
are instances of the same number of letters forming the division into sections. And,
again, five are double letters, viz., Caph, Mem, Nun, Phe, Sade, for at the beginning and
in the middle of words they are written one way, and at the end another way. Whence it
happens that, by most people, five of the books are reckoned as double, viz., Samuel,
Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Jeremiah, with Kinoth, i.e., his Lamentations. As, then, there
are twenty-two elementary characters by means of which we write in Hebrew all we say, and
the compass of the human voice is contained within their limits, so we reckon twenty-two
books, by which, as by the alphabet of the doctrine of God, a righteous man is instructed
in tender infancy, and, as it were, while still at the breast.

7 The first of these books is called Bresith, to which we give the name Genesis. The
second, Elle Smoth, which bears the name Exodus; the third, Vaiecra, that is Leviticus;
the fourth, Vaiedabber, which we call Numbers; the fifth, Elle Addabarim, which is
entitled Deuteronomy. These are the five books of Moses, which they properly call Thorath,
that is law. The second class is composed of the Prophets, and they begin with Jesus the
son of Nave, who among them is called Joshua the son of Nun. Next in the series is
Sophtim, that is the book of Judges; and in the same book they include Ruth, because the
events narrated occurred in the days of the Judges. Then comes Samuel, which we call First
and Second Kings. The fourth is Malachim, that is, Kings, which is contained in the third
and fourth volumes of Kings. And it is far better to say Malachim, that is Kings, than
Malachoth, that is Kingdoms. For the author does not describe the Kingdoms of many
nations, but that of one people, the people of Israel, which is comprised in the twelve
tribes. The fifth is Isaiah, the sixth, Jeremiah, the seventh, Ezekiel, the eighth is the
book of the Twelve Prophets, which is called among the Jews Thare Asra.

8 To the third class belong the Hagiographa, of which the first book begins with Job, the
second with David, whose writings they divide into five parts and comprise in one volume
of Psalms; the third is Solomon, in three books, Proverbs, which they call Parables, that
is Masaloth, Ecclesiastes, that is Coeleth, the Song of Songs, which they denote by the
title Sir Assirim; the sixth is Daniel; the seventh, Dabre Aiamim, that is, Words of Days,
which we may more expressively call a chronicle of the whole of the sacred history, the
book that amongst us is called First and Second Chronicles; the eighth, Ezra, which itself
is likewise divided amongst Greeks and Latins into two books; the ninth is Esther. And so
there are also twenty-two books of the Old Testament; that is, five of Moses, eight of the
prophets, nine of the Hagiographa, though some include Ruth and Kinoth (Lamentations)
amongst the Hagiographa, and think that these books ought to be reckoned separately; we
should thus have twenty-four books of the old law. And these the Apocalypse of John
represents by the twenty-four elders, who adore the Lamb, and with downcast looks offer
their crowns, while in their presence stand the four living creatures with eyes before and
behind, that is, looking to the past and the future, and with unwearied voice crying,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who wast, and art, and art to come.

9 This preface to the Scriptures may serve as a "helmeted" introduction to all the books
which we turn from Hebrew into Latin, so that we may be assured that what is not found in
our list must be placed amongst the Apocryphal writings. Wisdom, therefore, which
generally bears the name of Solomon, and the book of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, and Judith,
and Tobias, and the Shepherd are not in the canon. The first book of Maccabees I have
found to be Hebrew, the second is Greek, as can be proved from the very style. Seeing that
all this is so, I beseech you, my reader, not to think that my labours are in any sense
intended to disparage the old translators. For the service of the tabernacle of God each
one offers what he can; some gold and silver and precious stones, others linen and blue
and purple and scarlet; we shall do well if we offer skins and goats' hair. And yet the
Apostle pronounces ourmore contemptible parts more necessary than others. Accordingly, the
beauty of the tabernacle as a whole and in its several kinds (and the ornaments of the
church present and future) was covered with skins and goats'-hair cloths, and the heat of
the sun and the injurious rain were warded off by those things which are of less account.
First read, then, my Samuel and Kings; mine, I say, mine. For whatever by diligent
translation and by anxious emendation we have learnt and made our own, is ours.

10 And when you understand that whereof you were before ignorant, either, if you are
grateful, reckon me a translator, or, if ungrateful, a para-phraser, albeit I am not in
the least conscious of having deviated from the Hebrew original. At all events, if you are
incredulous, read the Greek and Latin manuscripts and compare them with these poor efforts
of mine, and wherever you see they disagree, ask some Hebrew (though you ought rather to
place confidence in me), and if he confirm our view, I suppose you will not think him a
soothsayer and suppose that he and I have, in rendering the same passage, divined alike.
But I ask you also, the handmaidens of Christ, who anoint the head of your reclining Lord
with the most precious ointment of faith, who by no means seek the Saviour in the tomb,
for whom Christ has long since ascended to the Father-I beg you to confront with the
shields of your prayers the mad dogs who bark and rage against me, and go about the city,
and think themselves learned if they disparage others. I, knowing my lowliness, will
always remember what we are told. "I said, I will take heed to my ways that I offend not
in my tongue. I have set a guard upon my mouth while the sinner standeth against me. I
became dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good words."

Chronicles.

11 This Preface is almost wholly a repetition of the arguments adduced in the Preface to
Genesis. It is addressed to Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia, who took great interest in the
work and provided funds for its continuance. The date is a.d. 395.

Ezra and Nehemiah.

12 This Preface is addressed to Domnio (a Roman presbyter. See Letters L., and XLVII. 3,
Paulinus, Ep. 3) and Rogatianus, of whom nothing is known. It was written a.d. 394. It is
a repetition of his constant ground of self-defence, and contains a noble expression of
his determination to carry the work through. "The serpent may hiss, and "`Victorious Sinon
hurl his brand of fire,' but never shall my mouth be closed. Cut off my tongue; it will
still stammer out something.

Esther.

13 To Paula and Eustochium, early in 404. Merely assures them that he is acting as a
faithful translator, adding nothing of his own; whereas in the version then in common use
(vulgata), "the book is drawn out into all kinds of perplexing entanglements of language."

Job.

14 This was put into circulation about the same time as the sixteen prophets, that is,
about the year 393. It was written in 392. It has no dedication, but is full of personal
interest, and shows the deplorable state in which the text of many parts of Scripture was
before his time, thus justifying his boast, "I have rescued Job from the dunghill." 15 I
am compelled at every step in my treatment of the books of Holy Scripture to reply to the
abuse of my opponents, who charge my translation with being a censure of the Seventy; as
though Aquila among Greek authors, and Symmachus and Theodotion, had not rendered word for
word, or paraphrased, or combined the two methods in a sort of translation which is
neither the one nor the other; and as though Origen had not marked all the books of the
Old Testament with obeli and asterisks, which he either introduced or adopted from
Theodotion, and inserted in the old translation, thus showing that what he added was
deficient in the older version. My detractors must therefore learn either to receive
altogether what they have in part admitted, or they must erase my translation and at the
same time their own asterisks. For they must allow that those translators who it is clear
have left out numerous details, have erred in some points; especially in the book of Job,
where, if you withdraw such passages as have been added and marked with asterisks, the
greater part of the book will be cut away. This, at all events, will be so in Greek. On
the other hand, previous to the publication of our recent translation with asterisks and
obeli, about seven or eight hundred lines were missing in the Latin, so that the book,
mutilated, torn, and disintegrated, exhibits its deformity to those who publicly read it.

16 The present translation follows no ancient translator, but will be found to reproduce
now the exact words, now the meaning, now both together of the original Hebrew, Arabic,
and occasionally the Syriac. For an indirectness and a slipperiness attaches to the whole
book, even in the Hebrew; and, as orators say in Greek, it is tricked out with figures of
speech, and while it says one thing, it does another; just as if you close your hand to
hold an eel or a little muraena, the more you squeeze it, the sooner it escapes. I
remember that in order to understand this volume, I paid a not inconsiderable sum for the
services of a teacher, a native of Lydda, who was amongst the Hebrews reckoned to be in
the front rank; whether I profiled at all by his teaching, I do not know; of this one
thing I am sure, that I could translate only that which I previously understood. Well,
then, from the beginning of the book to the words of Job, the Hebrew version is in prose.
Further, from the words of Job where he says, "May the day perish wherein I was born, and
the night in which it was said, a man-child is conceived," to the place where before the
close of the book it is written "Therefore I blame myself and repent in dust and ashes,"
we have hexameter verses running in dactyl and spondee:

17 and owing to the idiom of the language other feet are frequently introduced not
containing the same number of syllables, but the same quantities. Sometimes, also, a sweet
and musical rhythm is produced by the breaking up of the verses in accordance with the
laws of metre, a fact better known to prosodists than to the ordinary reader. But from the
aforesaid verse to the end of the book the small remaining section is a prose composition.
And if It seem incredible to any one that the Hebrews really have metres, and that,
whether we consider the Psalter or the Lamentations of Jeremiah, or almost all the songs
of Scripture, they bear a resemblance to our Flaccus, and the Greek Pindar, and Alcaeus,
and Sappho, let him read Philo, Josephus, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, and with the aid
of their testimony he will find that I speak the truth. Wherefore, let my barking critics
listen as I tell them that my motive in toiling at this book was not to censure the
ancient translation, but that those passages in it which are obscure, or those which have
been omitted, or at all events, through the fault of copyists have been corrupted, might
have light thrown upon them by our translation; for we have some slight knowledge of
Hebrew, and, as regards Latin, my life, almost from the cradle, has been spent in the
company of grammarians, rhetoricians, and philosophers.

18 But if, since the version of the Seventy was published, and even now, when the Gospel
of Christ is beaming forth, the Jewish Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, judaising
heretics, have been welcomed amongst the Greeks -heretics, who, by their deceitful
translation, have concealed many mysteries of salvation, and yet, in the Hexapla are found
in the Churches and are expounded by churchmen; ought not I, a Christian, born of
Christian parents, and who carry the standard of the cross on my brow, and am zealous to
recover what is lost, to correct what is corrupt, and to disclose in pure and faithful
language the mysteries of the Church, ought not I, let me, ask, much more to escape the
reprobation of fastidious or malicious readers? Let those who will keep the old books with
their gold and silver letters on purple skins, or, to follow the ordinary phrase, in
"uncial characters," loads of writing rather than manuscripts, if only they will leave for
me and mine, our poor pages and copies which are less remarkable for beauty than for
accuracy. I have toiled to translate both the Greek versions of the Seventy, and the
Hebrew which is the basis of my own, into Latin. Let every one choose which he likes, and
he will find out that what he objects to in me, is the result of sound learning, not of
malice.

Psalms.

19 Dedicated to Sophronius about the year 392. Jerome had, while at Rome, made a
translation of the Psalms from the LXX., which he had afterwards corrected by collation
with the Hebrew text see the Preface addressed to Paula and Eustochium, infra). His friend
Sophronius, in quoting the Psalms to the Jews, was constantly met with the reply, "It does
not so stand in the Hebrew." He, therefore, urged Jerome to translate them direct from the
original. Jerome, in presenting the translation to his friend, records the intention which
he had expressed of translating the new Latin version into Greek. This we know was done by
Sophronius, not only for the Psalms, but also for the rest of the Vulgate, and was valued
by the Greeks (Apol. ii. 24, vol. iii. of this series, p. 515).

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.

20 Dedicated to Chromatius and Heliodorus, a.d. 393. The Preface is important as showing
the help given to Jerome by his friends, the rapidity of his work, and his view of the
Apocrypha. We give the two chief passages. It is well that my letter should couple those
who are coupled in the episcopate; and that I should not separate on paper those who are
bound in one by the law of Christ. I would have written the commentaries on Hosea, Amos,
Zechariah, and the Kings, which you ask of me, if I had not been prevented by illness. You
give me comfort by the supplies you send me; you support my secretaries and copyists, so
that the efforts of all my powers may be given to you. And then all at once comes a thick
crowd of people with all sorts of demands, as if it was just that I should neglect your
hunger and work for others, or as if, in the matter of giving and receiving, I had a debt
to any one but you. And so, though I am broken by a long illness, yet, not to be
altogether silent and dumb amongst you this year, I have dedicated to you three days'
work, that is to say, the translation of the three books of Solomon.

21 After speaking of the books of the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, which were
sent at the same time, the Preface continues: As, then, the Church reads Judith, Tobit,
and the books of Maccabees, but does not admit them among the canonical Scriptures, so let
it read these two volumes for the edification of the people, not to give authority to
doctrines of the Church. If any one is better pleased with the edition of the Seventy,
there it is, long since corrected by me. For it is not our aim in producing the new to
destroy the old. And yet if our friend reads carefully, he will find that our version is
the more intelligible, for it has not turned sour by being poured three times over into
different vessels, but has been drawn straight from the press, and stored in a clean jar,
and has thus preserved its own flavour.

Isaiah.

22 Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, about a.d. 393. This Preface speaks of Isaiah as
using the polished diction natural to a man of rank and refinement, as an Evangelist more
than a prophet, and a poet rather than a prose writer. He then reiterates his defence of
his translation, saying that now, "The Jews can no longer scoff at our Churches because of
the falsity of our Scriptures."

Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

23 Short Prefaces without dedication, but probably addressed to Paula and Eustochium,
about a.d. 393.

Daniel.

24 The Preface is interesting as showing the difficulties caused by the incorporation of
apocryphal matter into this book, the fact that Theodotion's version, not the LXX., was
read in the Churches, and that the book was reckoned by the Jews not among the prophets
but among the Hagiographa. It was addressed to Paula and Eustochium about a.d. 392. 25 The
Septuagint version of Daniel the prophet is not read by the Churches of our Lord and
Saviour. They use Theodotion's version, but how this came to pass I cannot tell. Whether
it be that the language is Chaldee, which differs in certain peculiarities from our
speech, and the Seventy were unwilling to follow those deviations in a translation; or
that the book was published in the name of the Seventy, by some one or other not familiar
with Chaldee, or if there be some other reason, I know not; this one thing I can affirm-
that it differs widely from the original, and is rightly rejected. For we must bear in
mind that Daniel and Ezra, the former especially, were written in Hebrew letters, but in
the Chaldee language, as was one section of Jeremiah; and, further, that Job has much
affinity with Arabic. As for myself, when, in lily youth, after reading the flowery
rhetoric of Quintilian and Tully, I entered on the vigorous study of this language, the
expenditure of much time and energy barely enabled me to utter the puffing and hissing
words; I seemed to be walking in a sort of underground chamber with a few scattered rays
of light shining down upon me; and when at last I met with Daniel, such a sense of
weariness came over me that, in a fit of despair, I could have counted all my former toil
as useless.

26 But there was a certain Hebrew who encouraged me, and was for ever quoting for my
benefit the saying that "Persistent labour conquers all things"; and so, conscious that
among Hebrews I was only a smatterer, I once more began to study Chaldee. And, to confess
the truth, to this day I can read and understand Chaldee better than I can pronounce it. I
say this to show you how hard it is to master the book of Daniel, which in Hebrew contains
neither the history of Susanna, nor the hymn of the three youths, nor the fables of Bel
and the Dragon; because, however, they are to be found everywhere, we have formed them
into an appendix, prefixing to them an obelus, and thus making an end of them, so as not
to seem to the uninformed to have cut off a large portion of the volume. I heard a certain
Jewish teacher, when mocking at the history of Susanna, and saying that it was the fiction
of some Greek or other, raise the same objection which Africanus brought against Origen-
that these etymologies of sxisai from sxinoj, and prisai from prinoj, are to be traced to
the Greek. To make the point clear to Latin readers: It is as if he were to say, playing
upon the word ilex, illico pereas;

27 or upon lentiscus, may the angel make a lentil of you, or may you perish nan lente, or
may you lentus (that is pliant or compliant) be led to death, or anything else suiting the
name of the tree. Then he would captiously maintain that the three youths in the furnace
of raging fire had leisure enough to amuse themselves with making poetry, and to summon
all the elements in turn to praise God. Or what was there miraculous, he would say, or
what indication of divine inspiration, in the slaying of the dragon with a lump of pitch,
or in frustrating the schemes of the priests of Bel? Such deeds were more the results of
an able man's forethought than of a prophetic spirit. But when he came to Habakkuk and
read that he was carried from Judaea into Chaldaea to bring a dish of food to Daniel, he
asked where we found an instance in the whole of the Old Testament of any saint with an
ordinary body flying through the air, and in a quarter of an hour traversing vast tracts
of country. And when one of us who was rather too ready to speak adduced the instance of
Ezekiel, and said that he was transported from Chaldaea into Judaea, he derided the man
and proved from the book itself that Ezekiel, in spirit, saw himself carried over.

28 And he argued that even our own Apostle, being an accomplished man and one who had been
taught the law by Hebrews, had not dared to affirm that be was bodily rapt away, but had
said: "Whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth. By these and
similar arguments he used to refute the apocryphal fables in the Church's book. Leaving
this for the reader to pronounce upon as he may think fit, I give warning that Daniel in
Hebrew is not found among the prophets, but amongst the writers of the Hagiographa; for
all Scripture is by them divided into three parts:the law, the Prophets, and the
Hagiographa, which have respectively five, eight, and eleven books, a point which we
cannot now discuss. But as to the objections which Porphyry raises against this prophet,
or rather brings against the book, Methodius, Eusebius, and Apollinaris may be cited as
witnesses, for they replied to his folly in many thousand lines of writing, whether with
satisfaction to the curious reader I know not. Therefore, I beseech you, Paula and
Eustochium, to pour out your supplications for me to the Lord, that so long as I am in
this poor body, I may write something pleasing to you, useful to the Church, worthy of
posterity. As for my contemporaries, I am indifferent to their opinions, for they pass
from side to side as they are moved by love or hatred.

The Twelve Minor Prophets.

29 This Preface, dedicated to Paula and Eustochium in a.d. 392, contains nothing of
importance, merely mentioning the dates of a few of the prophets. and the fact that the
Twelve Prophets were counted by the Hebrews as forming a single book.


PREFACE TO THE VULGATE NEW TESTAMENT
====================================

PREFACE TO THE VULGATE NEW TESTAMENT Jerome

c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

PREFACES TO THE VULGATE VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

1 This version was made at Rome between the years 382 and 385. The only Preface remaining
is that to the translation of the Gospels, but Jerome speaks of, and quotes from, his
version of the other parts also. The work was undertaken at the request and under the
sanction of Pope Damasus, who had consulted Jerome in a.d. 383 on certain points of
Scriptural criticism, and apparently in the same year urged him to revise the current
Latin version by help of the Greek original. It is to be observed that Jerome's aim was
"to revise the old Latin, and not to make a new version. When Augustin expressed to him
his gratitude for `his translation of the Gospels,' he tacitly corrected him by
substituting for this phrase `the correction of the New Testament.' Yet, although he
proposed to himself this limited object, the various forms of corruption which had been
introduced were, as he describes, so numerous that the difference of the old and revised
(Hieronymian) text is throughout clear and striking." See article by Westcott in
"Dictionary of Bible," on the Vulgate, and Fremantle's article on Jerome in "Dictionary of
Christian Biography."

The Four Gospels.

2 Addressed to Pope Damasus, a.d. 383. 3 You urge me to revise the old Latin version, and,
as it were, to sit in judgment on the copies of the Scriptures which are now scattered
throughout the whole world; and, inasmuch as they differ from one another, you would have
me decide which of them agree with the Greek original. The labour is one of love, but at
the same time both perilous and presumptuous; for in judging others I must be content to
be judged by all; and how can I dare to change the language of the world in its hoary old
age, and carry it back to the early days of its infancy? Is there a man, learned or
unlearned, who will not, when he takes the volume into his hands, and perceives that what
he reads does not suit his settled tastes, break out immediately into violent language,
and call me a forger and a profane person for having the audacity to add anything to the
ancient books, or to make any changes or corrections therein? Now there are two consoling
reflections which enable me to bear the odium-in the first place, the command is given by
you who are the supreme bishop; and secondly, even on the showing of those who revile us,
readings at variance with the early copies cannot be right. For if we are to pin our faith
to the Latin texts, it is for our opponents to tell us which; for there are almost as many
forms of texts as there are copies.

4 If, on the other hand, we are to glean the truth from a comparison of many, why not go
back to the original Greek and correct the mistakes introduced by inaccurate translators,
and the blundering alterations of confident but ignorant critics, and, further, all that
has been inserted or changed by copyists more asleep than awake? I am not discussing the
Old Testament, which was turned into Greek by the Seventy elders, and has reached us by a
descent of three steps. I do not ask what Aquila and Symmachus think, or why Theodotion
takes a middle course between theancients and the moderns. I am willing to let that be the
true translation which had apostolic approval. I am now speaking of the New Testament.
This was undoubtedly composed in Greek, with the exception of the work of Matthew the
Apostle, who was the first to commit to writing the Gospel of Christ, and who published
his work in Judaea in Hebrew characters. We must confess that as we have it in our
language it is marked by discrepancies, and now that the stream is distributed into
different channels we must go back to the fountainhead. I pass over those manuscripts
which are associated with the names of Lucian and Hesychius, and the authority of which is
perversely maintained by a handful of disputatious persons. It is obvious that these
writers could not amend anything in the Old Testament after the labours of the Seventy;

5 and it was useless to correct the New, for versions of Scripture which already exist in
the languages of many nations show that their additions are false. I therefore promise in
this short Preface the four Gospels only, which are to be taken in the following order,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, as they have been revised by a comparison of the Greek
manuscripts. Only early ones have been used. But to avoid any great divergences from the
Latin which we are accustomed to read, I have used my pen with some restraint, and while I
have corrected only such passages as seemed to convey a different meaning, I have allowed
the rest to remain as they are. 6 The Preface concludes with a description of lists of
words made by Eusebius and translated by Jerome, designed to show what passages occur in
two or more of the Gospels.


PREFACES TO THE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE SEPTUAGINT AND THE CHALDEE
============================================================

PREFACES TO THE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE SEPTUAGINT AND THE CHALDEE Jerome

c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

PREFACES ON TRANSLATIONS FROM THE SEPTUAGINT AND CHALDEE

1 There are three stages of Jerome's work of Scripture Translation. The first is during
his stay at Rome, a.d. 382-385, when he translated only from the Greek-the New Testament
from the Greek mss., and the Book of Psalms from the LXX. The second is the period
immediately after his settlement at Bethlehem, when he translated still from the LXX., but
marked with obeli and asterisks the passages in which that version differed from the
Hebrew: the third from a.d. 390-404, in which he translated directly from the Hebrew. The
work of the second period is that which is now before us. The whole of the Old Testament
was translated from the LXX. (see his Apology, book ii. c. 24), but most of it was lost
during his lifetime (see Letters CXXXIV. (end) and CXVI. 34 (in Augustin Letter, 62)).
What remains is the Book of Job, the Psalms, Chronicles, the Books of Solomon, and Tobit
and Judith.

Chronicles.

2 This book was dedicated to Domnion and Rogatianus, about a.d. 388. Jerome points out the
advantages he enjoyed, in living in Palestine, for obtaining correct information on
matters illustrative of Scripture, especially the names of places. The mss. of the LXX. on
such points were so corrupt that occasionally three names were run into one, and "you
would think that you had before you, not a heap of Hebrew names, but those of some foreign
and Sarmatian tribe." Jerome had sent for a Jew, highly esteemed among his brethren, from
Tiberias, and, after "examining him from top to toe," had, by his aid, emended the text
and made the translation. But he had not the critical knowledge to guard him against
supposing that the Books of Chronicles are "the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Judah," referred to in the Books of Kings.

Book of Job.

3 This translation was dedicated to Paula and Eustochium, about the year 388. He complains
that even the revision he was now making was the subject of many cavils. Men prefer
ancient faults to new truths, and would rather have handsome copies than correct ones; but
he boasts that "the blessed Job, who, as far as the Latins are concerned, was till now
lying amidst filth and swarming with the worms of error, is now whole and free from
stain."

The Psalms.

4 Jerome first undertook a revision of the Psalter with the help of the Septuagint about
the year 383. when living at Rome. This revision, which obtained the name of the Roman
Psalter "probably because it was made for the use of the Roman Church at the request of
Damasus," was retained until the pontificate of Plus V. (a.d. 1566). Before long "the old
error prevailed over the new correction," the faults of the old version crept in again
through the negligence of copyists; and at the request of Paula and Eustochium, Jerome
commenced a new and more thorough revision. The exact date is not known; the work was in
all probability done at Bethlehem in the years 387 and 388. This edition, which soon
became popular, was introduced by Gregory of Tours into the services of the Church of
France, and thus obtained the name of the Gallican Psalter. In 1566 it superseded the
Roman in all churches except those of the Vatican, Milan, and St. Mark's, Venice.

5 Long ago, when I was living at Rome, I revised the Psalter, and corrected it in a great
measure, though but cursorily, in accordance with the Septuagint version. You now find it,
Paula and Eustochium, again corrupted through the fault of copyists, and realise the fact
that ancient error is more powerful than modern correction; and you therefore urge me, as
it were, to cross-plough the land which has already been broken up, and, by means of the
transverse furrows, to root out the thorns which are beginning to spring again; it is only
right, you say, that rank and noxious growths should be cut down as often as they appear.
And so I issue my custom. ary admonition by way of preface both to you, for whom it
happens that I am undertaking the labour, and to those persons who desire to have copies
such as I describe. Pray see that what I have carefully revised be transcribed with
similar painstaking care. Every reader can observe for himself where there is placed
either a horizontal line or mark issuing from the centre, that is, either an obelus (_) or
an asterisk (*). And wherever he sees the former, he is to understand that between this
mark and the two stops (:) which I have introduced, the Septuagint translation contains
superfluous matter. But where he sees the asterisk (*), an addition to the Hebrew books is
indicated, which also goes as far as the two stops.

Books of Solomon.

6 This is addressed to Paula and Eustochium. Jerome describes the numerous emendations he
has had to make in what was then the received Latin text, but says he has not found the
same necessity in dealing with Ecclesiasticus. He adds, "All I aim at istogive you a
revised edition of the Canonical Scriptures, and to employ my Latin on what is certain
rather than on what is doubtful."

Tobit and Judith.

7 The Preface is to Chromatius and Heliodorus. It recognizes that the books are
apocryphal. After his usual complaints of "the Pharisees" who impugned his translations,
he says: "Inasmuch as the Chaldee is closely allied to the Hebrew, I procured the help of
the most skilful speaker of both languages I could find, and gave to the subject one day's
hasty labour, my method being to explain in Latin, with the aid of a secretary, whatever
an interpreter expressed to me in Hebrew words." As to Judith, he notes that the Council
of Nicaea had, contrary to the Hebrew tradition. included it in the Canon of Scripture,
and this, with his friends' requests, had induced him to undertake the labour of
emendation and translation.


PREFACES TO THE COMMENTARIES
============================

PREFACES TO THE COMMENTARIES Jerome

c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

PREFACES ON THE COMMENTARIES

1 The extant commentaries by Jerome on the books of Holy Scripture may be arranged thus,
chronological sequence being observed as far as possible: a. New Testament:The Epistles to
Philemon, Galatians, Ephesians, Titus. a.d. 387.Origen on St. Luke. a.d. 389.St. Matthew.
a.d. 398. b. Old Testament:Ecclesiastes. a.d. 388. 1. The Twelve Minor Prophets:Nahum.
Michah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Habakkuk. a.d. 392.Jonah. Begun three years after the foregoing
(Preface). Finished between a.d. 395 and a.d. 397.Obadiah. a.d. 403.Zechariah, Malachi,
Hoses, Joel, Amos. Finished by a.d. 406. 2. The Four Greater Prophets:Daniel. a.d.
407.Isaiah. a.d. 408-410.Ezekiel. a.d. 410-414.Jeremiah. Commenced after the death of
Eustochium in a.d. 418. The commentary on this book, which stops short at chapter xxxii.,
was therefore written in a.d. 419, the year which intervened between Eustochium's death
and Jerome's own. We have thought it best to give the Prefaces, as in those to the
Vulgate, in the order of the books as they stand in our Bible, not in the order in which
they were written.

Matthew.

2 The Preface, addressed to Eusebius of Cremona, was written a.d. 398. Eusebius was at
this time starting for Rome, and he was charged to give a copy of this Commentary to
Principia, the friend of Marcella, for whom he bad been unable through sickness to write
on the Song of Songs as he had wished. Jerome begins by distinguishing the Canonical from
the Apocryphal Gospels, quoting the words of St. Luke, that many had taken in hand to
write the life of Christ. He gives his view of the origin of the Gospels as follows: 3 The
first evangelist is Matthew, the publican, who was surnamed Levi. He published his Gospel
in Judaea in the Hebrew language, chiefly for the sake of Jewish believers in Christ, who
adhered in vain to the shadow of the law, although the substance of the Gospel had come.
The second is Mark, the amanuensis of the Apostle Peter, and first bishop of the Church of
Alexandria. He did not himself see our Lord and Saviour, but he related the matter of his
Master's preaching with more regard to minute detail than to historical sequence. The
third is Luke, the physician, by birth a native of Antioch, in Syria, whose praise is in
the Gospel. He was himself a disciple of the Apostle Paul, and composed his book in Achaia
and Boeotia. He thoroughly investigates certain particulars and, as he himself confesses
in the preface, describes what he had heard rather than what he had seen. The last is
John, the Apostle and Evangelist, whom Jesus loved most, who, reclining on the Lord's
bosom, drank the purest streams of doctrine, and was the only one thought worthy of the
words from the cross, "Behold ! thy mother.

4 When he was in Asia, at thetime when the seeds of heresy were springing up (I refer to
Cerinthus, Ebion, and the rest who say that Christ has not come in the flesh, whom he in
his own epistle calls Antichrists, and whom the Apostle Paul frequently assails), he was
urged by almost all the bishops of Asia then living, and by deputations from many
Churches, to write more profoundly concerning the divinity of the Saviour, and to break
through all obstacles so as to attain to the very Word of God (if I may so speak) with a
boldness as successful as it appears audacious. Ecclesiastical history relates that, when
he was urged by the brethren to write, he replied that he would do so if a general fast
were proclaimed and all would offer up prayer to God; and when the fast was over, the
narrative goes on to say, being filled with revelation, he burst into the heaven-sent
Preface: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God:
this was in the beginning with God."

5 Jerome then applies the four symbolical figures of Ezekiel to the Gospels: the Man is
Matthew, the Lion, Mark, the Calf, Luke, "because he began with gacharias the priest," and
the Eagle, John. He then describes the works of his predecessors: Origen with his twenty-
five volumes, Theophilus of Antioch, Hippolytus the martyr, Theodorus of Heraclea,
Apollinaris of Laodicaea, Didymus of Alexandria, and of the Latins. Hilary, Victorinus,
and Fortunatianus; from these last, he says, he had gained but little. He continues as
follows: But you urge me to finish the composition in a fortnight, when Easter is now
rapidly approaching, and the spring breezes are blowing; you do not consider when the
shorthand writers are to take notes, when the sheets are to be written, when corrected,
how long it takes to make a really accurate copy; and this is the more surprising, since
you know that for the last three months I have been so ill that I am now hardly beginning
to walk; and I could not adequately perform so great a task in so short a time. Therefore,
neglecting the authority of ancient writers, since I have no opportunity of reading or
following them, I have confined myself to the brief exposition and translation of the
narrative which you particularly requested; and I have sometimes thrown in a few of the
flowers of the spiritual interpretation, while I reserve the perfect work for a future
day.

Preface to Translation of Origen on St. Luke.

6 Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 388. 7 A few days ago you told me that you had
read some commentaries on Matthew and Luke, of which one was equally dull in perception
and expression, the other frivolous in expression, sleepy in sense. Accordingly you
requested me to translate, without regarding such rubbish, our Adamantius' thirty-nine
"homilies" on Luke, just as they are found in the original Greek; I replied that it was an
irksome task and a mental torment to write, as Cicero phrases it, with another man's heart
not one's own; but yet I will undertake it, as your requests reach no higher than this.
The demand which the sainted Blesilla once made, at Rome, that I should translate into our
language his twenty-five volumes on Matthew, five on Luke, and thirty-two on John is
beyond my powers, my leisure, and my energy. You see what weight your influence and wishes
have with me. I have laid aside for a time my books on Hebrew Questions because you think
my labour will not be in vain, and turn to the translation of these commentaries, which,
good or bad, are his work and not mine. I do this all the more readily because I hear on
the left of me the raven-that ominous bird-croaking and mocking in all extraordinary way
at the colours of all the other birds, though he himself is nothing if not a bird of
gloom. And so, before he change his note, I confess that in these treatises Origen is like
a boy amusing himself with the dice-box;

8 there is a wide difference between his mature efforts and the serious studies of his old
age. If my proposal meet with your approbation, if I am still able to undertake the task,
and if the Lord grant me opportunity to translate them into Latin after completing the
work I have now deferred, you will then beable to see-aye, and all who speak Latin will
learn through you-how much good they knew not, and how much they have now begun to know.
Besides this, I have arranged to send you shortly the Commentaries of Hilary, that master
of eloquence, and of the blessed martyr Victorinus, on the Gospel of Matthew. Their style
is different, but the grace of the Spirit which wrought in them is one. These will give
you some idea of the study which our Latins also have, in former days, bestowed upon the
Holy Scriptures.

Galatians.

9 The Commentary is in three books, with full Prefaces. Book I., Ch. i. 1-iii. 9.
Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 387. The Preface to this book begins with a
striking description of the noble Roman lady Albina, which is as follows: 10 Only a few
days have elapsed since, having finished my exposition of the Epistle of Paul to Philemon,
I had passed to Galatians, turning my course backwards and passing over many intervening
subjects. But all at once letters unexpectedly arrived from Rome with the news that the
venerable Albina has been recalled to the presence of the Lord, and that the saintly
Marcella, bereft of the company of her mother, demands more than ever such solace as you
can give, my dear Paula and Eustochium. This for the present is impossible on account of
the great distance to be traversed by sea and land, and I could, therefore, wish to apply
to the wound so suddenly inflicted at least the healing virtue of Scripture. I know full
well her zeal and faith; I know how brightly the file burns in her bosom, how she rises
superior to her sex, and soars so far above human nature itself, that she crosses the Red
Sea of this world, sounding the loud timbrel of the inspired volumes. Certainly, when I
was at Rome, she never saw me for ever so short a time without putting some question to me
respecting the Scriptures, and she did not, like the Pythagoreans, accept the "Ipse dixit"
of her teacher, nor did authority, unsupported by the verdict of reason, influence her;
but she tested all things, and weighed the whole matter so sagaciously that I perceived I
had not a disciple so much as a judge. And so, believing that my labours would be most
acceptable to her who is at a distance, and profitable for you who are with me here, I
will approach a work unattempted by any writers in our language before me, and which
scarcely any of the Greeks themselves have handled in a manner worthy of the dignity of
the subject.

11 Jerome then speaks of Victorinus, who had published a commentary on St. Paul, but "was
busily engaged with secular literature and knew nothing of the Scriptures," and of the
great Greek writers, Origen. Didymus, and Appolinaris. Eusebius of Eraess, and Theodorus
of Heraclea, and says he has plucked flowers out of their gardens, so that the Commentary
is more theirs than his. The expository part of the Preface is chiefly remarkable as
giving the view of St. Paul's rebuke of St. Peter in Galatians ii., which occasioned the
controversy between Jerome and Augustin. Jerome says: Paul does not go straight to the
point, but is like a man walking in secret passages: his object is to exhibit Peter as
doing what was expedient for the people of the circumcision committed to him, since, if a
too sudden revolt took place from their ancient mode of life, they might be offended and
not believe in the Cross; he wished, moreover, to show, inasmuch as the evangelisation of
the Gentiles had been entrusted to himself that he had justice on his side in defending as
true that which another only pretended was a dispensation. That wretch Porphyry Bataneotes
by no means understood this, and, therefore, in the first book of the work which he wrote
against us, he raised the objection that Peter was rebuked by Paul for not walking
uprightly as an evangelical teacher. His desire was to brand the former with error and the
latter with impudence, and to bring against us as a body the charge of erroneous notions
and false doctrine, on tile ground that the leaders of the Churches are at variance among
themselves.

12 In the Preface to Book II. Jerome describes the origin of the Galatians as a Gaulish
tribe settled in Asia; but he takes them as slow of understanding, and says that the Gauls
still preserve this character, just as the Roman Church preserves the character for which
it was praised by St. Paul, for it still has crowds frequenting its churches and the tombs
of its martyrs, and "nowhere else does the Amen resound so loudly, like spiritual thunder,
and shake the temples of the idols"; and similarly the traits of the churches of Corinth
and Thessalonica are still preserved; in the first, the looseness of behaviour and of
doctrine, and the conceit of worldly knowledge; in the second, the love of the brethren
side by side with the disorderly conduct of busybodies. And he speaks of the condition of
Galatia in his own day as follows: Any one who has seen by how many schisms Ancyra, the
metropolis of Galatia, is rent and torn, and by how many differences and false doctrines
the place is debauched, knows this as well as I do. I say nothing of Cataphrygians,
Ophites, Borborites, and Manichaens; for these are familiar names of human woe. Who ever
heard of Passaloryncitae, and Ascodrobi, and Artotyritae, and other portents-I can hardly
call them names-in any part of the Roman Empire? The traces of the ancient foolishness
remain to this day. One remark I must make, and so fulfil the promise with which I
started. While the Galatians, in common with the whole East, speak Greek, their own
language is almost identical with that of the Treviri; and if through contact with the
Greek they have acquired a few corruptions, it is a matter of no moment. The Africans have
to some extent changed the Phenician language, and Latin itself is daily undergoing
changes through differences of place and time.

13 The Preface to Book III. opens with the following passage. describing, in contrast with
his own simple exposition, the arts of the preachers of his day. We are now busily
occupied with our third book on Galatians, and, my friends, Paula and Eustochium, we are
well aware of our weakness, and are conscious that our slender ability flows in but a
small stream and makes little roar and rattle. For these are the qualities (to such a pass
have we come) which are now expected even in the Churches; the simplicity and purity of
apostolic language is neglected; we meet as if we were in the Athenaeum, or the lecture
rooms, to kindle the applause of the bystanders; what is now required is a discourse
painted and tricked out with spurious rhetorical skill, and which, like a strumpet in the
streets, does not aim at instructing the public, but at winning their favour; like a
psaltery or a sweet-sounding lute, it must soothe the ears of the audience; and the
passage of the prophet Ezekiel is suitable for our times, where the Lord says to him,
"Thou art become unto them as the sound of a pleasant lute which is well made, for they
hear thy words but do them not."

14 Jerome then speaks of the composition of his commentaries as follows: How far I have
profited by my unflagging study of Hebrew I leave to others to decide; what I have lost in
my own language, I can tell. In addition to this, on account of the weakness of my eyes
and bodily infirmity generally, I do not write with my own hand; and I cannot make up for
my slowness of utterance by greater pains and diligence, as is said to have been the case
with Virgil, of whom it is related that he treated his books as a bear treats her cubs,
and licked them into shape. I must summon a secretary, and either say whatever comes
uppermost; or, if I wish to think a little and hope to produce something superior, my
helper silently reproves me, clenches his fist, wrinkles his brow, and plainly declares by
his whole bearing that he has come for nothing.

15 He then points out how the Scriptures have dispossessed the great writers of the pre-
Christian world. How few there are who now read Aristotle. How many are there who know the
books, or even the name of Plato? You may find here and there a few old men, who have
nothing else to do, who study them in a corner. But the whole world speaks the language of
our Christian peasants and fishermen, the whole world re-echoes their words. And so their
sitnple words must be set forth with simplicity of style; for the word simple applies to
their words, not their meaning. But if, in response to your prayers, I could, in
expounding their epistles, have the same spirit which they had when they dictated them,
you would then see in the Apostles as much majesty and breadth of true wisdom as there is
arrogance and vanity in the learned men of the world. To make a brief confession of the
secrets of my heart, I should not like any one who wished to understand the Apostle to
find a difficulty in understanding my writings, and so be compelled to find some one to
interpret the interpreter.

Ephesians.

16 This Commentary was specially prized by Jerome as exhibiting his true views (Letter
LXXXIV. 2), and they became in consequence one of the chief subjects of controversy
between him and Rufinus, who traced in them, not unjustly, the influence of Origen. It was
written immediately after that on the Epistle to the Galatians, in a.d. 387, and, like
that, addressed to Paula and Eustochium. In the Preface to Book i. Jerome defends himself
against various accusations. He declares that he has been, in the main, his own
instructor, but yet that he has constantly consulted others as to Scriptural difficulties,
and that he had, not long before, been to Alexandria to consult, Didymus. "I questioned
him about everything which was not clear to me in the whole range of Scripture. As to his
indebtedness to Origen, he speaks as follows, certainly not blaming his doctrines: "I
remark in the Prefaces, for your information. that Origen composed three volumes on this
Epistle, and I have partly followed him. Apollinarisand Didymus also published some
commentaries, and, though we have gleaned a few things from them, we have added or omitted
such as we thought fit. The studious reader will, therefore, understand at the outset
their this work is partly my own, and that I am in part indebted to others. The Preface to
Books ii. and iii. is short.

17 It speaks in praise of Marcella, who had invited him to his task, and declares that he
in his monastery could not accomplish as much as that noble woman amidst the cares of her
household. "I beseech you," he says, "to bear in mind that the language of this
publication has not been long thought over or highly polished. In revealing the mysteries
of Scripture I use almost the language of the street, and sometimes get through a thousand
lines a day, in order that the explanation of the Apostle which I have begun may be
completed with the aid of the prayers of Paul himself, whose Epistles I am endeavouring to
explain."

Philemon.

18 Written for Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 387. The Preface is a defence of the genuineness
of the Epistle against those who thought its subject beneath the dignity of inspiration.
"There are many degrees of inspiration," Jerome says, "though in Christ alone it is seen
in its fulness." Many of the other Epistles touch upon small affairs of life, like the
cloak left at Troas. To suppose that common life is separate from God is Manichaeanism.
Jerome mentions that Marcion, who altered many of the Epistles, did not touch that to
Philemon; and brevity in a document which has in it so much of the beauty of the Gospel is
a mark of its inspiration.

Titus.

19 Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 387. The Preface speaks of the rejection of the
Epistle by Marcion and Basilides, its acceptance by Tatius, but without assigning reasons.
It ought, Jerome says, to be of special interest to Paula and Eustochium, as being written
from Nicopolis, near Actium, where their property lay.

Isaiah.

20 The Commentary in eighteen books, each with its Preface. It was written in the years
404-410, and addressed to Eustochium alone, her mother Paula having died in 404. The
Preface to Book i. touches generally upon the character and contents of Isaiah, asserting
that many of the prophecies are directly applicable to Christ, and that the nations who
are dealt with have a spiritual meaning. Those to the following books mostly give a short
statement of the contents of the chapters commented on, and entreat the prayers of
Eustochium for the work. The Fifth Book (or chapters xiii. to xxiii.) had been published
before by itself, at the instance of a bishop named Amabilis, but he says he must add the
metaphorical and spiritual meaning of the Visions of the various nations, which is done in
Books vi. and vii. The Preface to Book x. contains a bitter allusion to Rufinus, "the
Scorpion, a dumb and poisonous brute, still grumbling over my former reply," and speaks of
Pammachius as joining in the request for the continuation of the Commentaries.

21 The Preface to Book xi. intimates that his commentary upon Daniel, which expounded the
statue with feet of iron and clay as the Roman Empire, and announced its fall, had been
known at the court and resented by Stilicho, but that all danger from that source had been
removed by the judgment of God, that is, through the death of Stilicho by tile command of
his son in-law Honorius. The Preface to Book xiii. records a severe illness which had
stopped his work, though he was restored to health suddenly; and that to Book xiv. thanks
Eustochium for her kind offices during this illness. The remaining Prefaces, though they
have occasionally some interest in the history of the interpretation of Scripture, need
not delay us.

Jeremiah.

22 The Commentary on Jeremiah is in six books; but Jerome did not live to finish it. It
was written between the years 317 and 319, but only extends to chapter xxxii. It was
dedicated to Eusebius of Cremona. The Prefaces, which are full of vigour, contain many
allusions to the events and controversies of the last years of Jerome's life. In the
Preface to Book i., after speaking of the Book of Daniel and the apocryphal Letter of
Jeremiah as not belonging to the prophet's writings, he continues: 23 I pay little heed to
the ravings of disparaging critics who revile not only my words, but the very syllables of
my words, and suppose they give evidence of some little knowledge if they discredit
another man's work, as was exemplified in that ignorant traducer who lately broke out, and
thought it worth his while to censure my commentaries on Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians.
He does not understand the rules of commenting (for he is more asleep than awake and seems
utterly dazed), and is not aware that in our books we give the opinions of many different
writers, the authors' names being either expressed or understood, so that it is open to
the reader to decide which he may prefer to adopt; although I must add that, in my Preface
to the First Book of that work, I gave fair notice that my remarks would be partly my own,
partly those of other commentators, and that thus the commentary would be the work
conjointly of the ancient writers and of myself. Grunnius, his precursor, overlooked the
same fact, and once upon a time did his best to cavil. I replied to him in two books, and
there I cleared away the objections which he adduced in his own name, though the real
traducer was some one else; to say nothing of my treatises against Jovinianus where, you
may remember, I show that he (Jovinianus) laments that virginity is preferred to marriage,
single marriage to digamy, digamy to polygamy.

24 The stupid fool, labouring under his load of Scotch porridge, does not recollect that
we said, in that very work, "I do not condemn the twice married, nor the thrice married,
and, if it so be, the eight times married; I will go a step farther, and say that I
welcome even a penitent whoremonger; for things equally lawful must be weighed in an even
balance. Let him read the Apology for the same work which was directed against his master,
and was received by Rome with acclamation many years ago. He will then observe that his
revilings are but the echoes of other men's voices, and that his ignorance is so deep that
even his abuse is not his own, but that he employs against us the ravings of foes long
since dead and buried. 25 The Preface to Book ii. is short and contains nothing of special
importance. In that to Book iii. Jerome declares that he will, like Ulysses with the
Sirens, close his ears to the adversary. The devil, who once spoke through Jovinianus,
"now barks through the hound of Albion (Pelagius), who is like a mountain of fat, and
whose fury is more in his heels than in his teeth; for his offspring is among the Scots,
in the neighbourhood of Britain; and, according to the fables of the poet, he must, like
Cerberus, be smitten to death with a spiritual club, that, in company with his master
Pluto, he may forever hold his peace." In the Preface to Book iv. Jerome says he has been
hindered in his work by the harassing of the Pelagian controversy. He regards Pelagius as
reproducing the doctrines of impassibility and sinlessness taught by Pythagoras and Zeno,
and revived by Origen, Rufinus, Evagrius Ponticus, and Jovinian. Their doctrines, he says,
were promulgated chiefly in Sicily, Rhodes, and other islands; they were propagated
secretly, and denied in public. They were full of malice, but were but dumb dogs, and were
refuted in "certain writings," probably those of Augustin; but he declares his intention
of writing against them, which he did in his anti-Pelagian Dialogue.

26 The Prefaces to Books v. and vi. contain nothing noteworthy.

Ezekiel.

27 The Commentary on Ezekiel is in fourteen Books. It was dedicated to Eustochium, and was
written between the years 410 and 414. The Prefaces gain a special interest from their
descriptions of the sack of Rome by Alaric and the consequent immigration into Palestine.
We give several passages. In Preface to Book i. 28 Having completed the eighteen books of
the exposition of Isaiah, I was very desirous, Eustochium, Christ's virgin, to go on to
Ezekiel, in accordance with my frequent promises to you and your mother Paula, of saintly
memory, and thus, as the saying is, put the finishing touches to the work on the prophets;
but alas! intelligence was suddenly brought me of the death of Pammachius and Marcella,
the siege of Rome, and the falling asleep of many of my brethren and sisters. I was so
stupefied and dismayed that day and night I could think of nothing but the welfare of the
community; it seemed as though I was sharing the captivity of the saints, and I could not
open my lips until I knew something more definite; and all the while, full of anxiety, I
was wavering between hope and despair, and was torturing myself with the misfortunes of
other people. But when the bright light of all the world was put out, or, rather, when the
Roman Empire was decapitated, and, to speak more correctly, the whole world perished in
one city, "I became dumb and humbled myself, and kept silence from good words, but my
grief broke out afresh, my heart glowed within me, and while I medirated the fire was
kindled;" and I thought I ought not to disregard the saying, "An untimely story is like
music in a time of grief." But seeing that you persist in making this request, and a
wound, though deep, heals by degrees; and the scorpion lies beneath the ground with
Enceladus and Porphyrion, and the many-headed Hydra has at length ceased to hiss at us;
and since opportunity has been given me which I ought to use, not for replying to
insidious heretics, but for devoting myself to the exposition of Scripture, I will resume
my work upon the prophet Ezekiel.

29 Book ii. has, instead of a Preface, merely a line calling the attention of Eustochium
to its opening words. The Preface to Book iii. has a noteworthy passage on the sack of
Rome and its results. Who would believe that Rome, built up by the conquest of the whole
world, had collapsed, that the mother of nations had become also their tomb; that the
shores of the whole East, of Egypt, of Africa, which once belonged to the imperial city,
were filled with the hosts of her men-servants and maid-servants, that we should every day
be receiving in this holy Bethlehem men and women who once were noble and abounding in
every kind of wealth but are now reduced to poverty? We cannot relieve these sufferers:
all we can do is to sympathise with them, and unite our tears with theirs. The burden of
this holy work was as much as we could carry; the sight of the wanderers, coming in
crowds, caused us deep pain; and we therefore abandoned the exposition of Ezekiel, and
almost all study, and were filled with a longing to turn the words of Scripture into
action, and not to say holy things but to do them. Now, however, in response to your
admonition, Eustochium, Christ's virgin, we resume the interrupted labour, and approach
our third Book.

30 The Prefaces to Books iv., v., and vi. contain nothing remarkable. The following is the
important part of the Preface to Book vii. 31 There is not a single hour, nor a single
moment, in which we are not relieving crowds of brethren, and the quiet of the monastery
has been changed into the bustle of a guest house. And so much is this the case that we
must either close our doors, or abandon the study of the Scriptures on which we depend for
keeping the doors open. And so, turning to profit, or rather stealing the hours of the
nights, which, now that winter is approaching, begin to lengthen somewhat, I am
endeavouring by the light of the lamp to dictate these comments, whatever they maybe
worth, and am trying to mitigate with exposition the weariness of a mind which is a
stranger to rest. I am not boasting, as some perhaps suspect, of the welcome given to the
brethren, but I am simply confessing the causes of the delay. Who could boast when the
flight of the people of the West, and the holy places, crowded as they are with penniless
fugitives, naked and wounded, plainly reveal the ravages of the Barbarians? We cannot see
what has occurred, without tears and moans. Who would have believed that mighty Rome, with
its careless security of wealth, would be reduced to such extremities as to need shelter,
food, and clothing? And yet, some are so hard-hearted and cruel that, instead of showing
compassion, they break up the rags and bundles of the captives, and expect to find gold
about those who are nothing than prisoners.

32 In addition to this hindrance to my dictating, my eyes are growing dim with age and to
some extent I share the suffering of the saintly Isaac: I am quite unable to go through
the Hebrew books with such light as I have at night, for even in the full light of day
they are hidden from my eyes owing to the smallness of the letters. In fact, it is only
the voice of the brethren which enables me to master the commentaries of Greek writers. 33
The Prefaces to Books viii. to xiv. contain nothing of special interest.

Daniel.

34 The Commentary on Daniel was dedicated to Pammachius and Marcella in the year 407. It
is in a single book, and is aimed at the criticisms of Porphyry. who, like most modern
critics, took the predictions in the Book of Daniel as relating to the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes and the Maccabees, and written near that date. The Preface is very similar to
that prefixed to the Vulgate translation of Daniel.

Prefaces to the Commentaries on the Minor Prophets.

35 For the order and date of writing of these Commentaries see the Preface to Amos, Book
iii., and the note there.

Hosea.

36 This Commentary was dedicated to Pammachius, a.d. 406 (sixth consulate of Arcadius-
Preface to Amos, Book iii. The Preface to Book i. is chiefly taken up with a discussion on
Hosea's "wife of whoredoms." He takes the story as allegorical; it cannot be literal, for
"God commands nothing but what is honourable, nor does he, by bidding men do disgraceful
thins, make that conduct honourable which is disgraceful." Jerome then describes, as in
former Prefaces, the chief Greek commentators, of whom Apollinaris and Origen had written
very shortly on Hosea, Pierius at great length, but to little purpose; and says that he
had himself obtained from Didymus of Alexandria that he should complete the Commentary of
Origen. He had himself often judged independently, though with little knowledge of Hebrew,
but he had been in earnest, while most scholars were "more concerned for their bellies
than their hearts, and thought themselves learned if in the doctors' waiting rooms they
could disparage other men's works."

37 In the Preface to Book ii. Jerome complains of his detractors, and appeals from the
present favour of high-placed men to the posthumous authority of sound ability. In Book
iii. he claims Pammachius as his defender, though he fears the judgment of his great
learning.

Joel.

38 This Commentary also is addressed to Pammachius, a.d. 406. It is in one hook. It gives
the order of the Twelve Prophets adopted by the LXX. and the Hebrew respectively, the
Hebrew order being that now in use. It also gives the etymological meaning of their names.

Amos.

39 In three books, addressed also to Pammachius, a.d. 406 (Preface to Amos, Book iii.).
The Preface to Book i. merely gives a description of Tekoa, Amos' birthplace. That to Book
ii. speaks of old age, with its advantages for self-control and its trials in various
infirmities, such as phlegm, dim eyesight, loosened teeth, colic, and gout. That to Book
iii. contains the passage several times referred to for the order of these Commentaries,
which is as follows: We have not discussed them in regular sequence from the first to the
ninth, as they are read, but as we have been able, and in accordance with requests made to
us. Nahum, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, I first addressed to Paula and Eustochium, her
daughter, who are never weary; I next dedicated two books on Habakkuk to Chromatius,
bishop of Aquileia; I then proceeded to explain, at your command, Pammachius, and after a
long interval of silence, Obadiah and Jonah. In the present year, which bears in the
calendar the name of the sixth consulate of Arcadius Augustus and Anitius Probus, I
interpreted Malachi for Exsuperius, bishop of Toulouse, and Minervius and Alexander, monks
of that city. Unable to refuse your request I immediately went back to the beginning of
the volume, and expounded Hosea, Joel, and Amos. A severe sickness followed, and I showed
my rashness in resuming the dictation of this work too hastily; and, whereas others
hesitate to write and frequently correct their work, I entrusted mine to the fortune which
attends those who employ a secretary, and hazarded my reputation for ability and
orthodoxy; for, as I have often testified, I cannot endure the toil of writing with my own
hand; and, in expounding the Holy Scriptures, what we want is not a polished style and
oratorical flourishes, but learning and simple truth.

Obadiah.

40 Addressed to Pammachius a.d. 403. The Preface records how in early youth (some thirty
years before), he had attempted an allegorical commentary of Obadiah, of which he was now
ashamed, though it has lately been praised by a youth of similar years.

Jonah.

41 This was addressed to Chromatius, but belongs to the year 395. It is said in the
Preface to be three years after the commentary on Micah, Nahum, etc. The Preface merely
touches on the various places of Scripture in which Jonah is named.

Micah.

42 Addressed to Paula and Eustochium. a.d. 392. It is in two books. In the Preface to Book
ii., Jerome vindicates himself against the charge of making mere compilations from Origen.
He confesses, however, his great admiration for him. "What they consider a reproach," he
says, "I regard as the highest praise. since I desire to imitate him who, I doubt not, is
acceptable to all wise men, and to you."

Nahum.

43 Also to Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 392. The Preface contains little of importance.
Jerome mentions that the village of Elkosh, Nahum's birthplace, was pointed out to him by
a guide in Galilee.

Habakkuk.

44 Addressed to Chromatius, a.d. 392. The commentary is in two books. The Preface to Book
i. is long, but merely describes the contents of the book. That to Book ii. mentions among
his adversaries, "The Serpent, and Sardanapalus, whose character is worse than his
name"-expressions which have been referred to Rufinus; but the enmity between Jerome and
Rufinus had not broken out in 392.

Zephaniah.

45 Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 392. In the Preface Jerome defends himself for
writing for women, bringing many examples from Scripture and from classical writers to
show the capacity of women.

Haggai.

46 Also to Paula and Eustochinm, a.d. 392. The preface merely describes the occasion of
the book, but says that Haggai's prophecy was contemporary with the reign of Tarquinius
Superbus (b.c. 535-510).

Zechariah.

47 Addressed to Exsuperius, bishop of Toulouse, a.d. 406, in three books, and sent, "in
the closing days of autumn, by the monk, Sisinnius, who had been sent with presents for
the poor saints at Jerusalem, and was hastening to Egypt on a similar errand." The
Prefaces to the three books mention these facts, but have nothing in them of note which
has not been said before.

Malachi.

48 Addressed, a.d. 406, to Minervius and Alexander, presbyters of the diocese of Toulouse.
The Jews, the Preface says. believe Malachi to be a name for Ezra. Origen and his
followers believe that (according to his name) he was an angel. But we reject this view
altogether, lest we be compelled to accept the doctrine of the fall of souls from
heaven.parparpar


PREFACES TO JEROME’S EARLY WORKS
================================

PREFACES TO JEROME’S EARLY WORKS c. AD 347–420

Translator of the Latin Vulgate and prolific biblical scholar.

PREFACES TO JEROME'S EARLY WORKS

Preface to the Chronicle of Eusebius.

1 The "Chronicle" is a book of universal history, giving the dates from the call of
Abraham, and the Olympiads. For an account of it the reader is referred to the article of
Dr. Salmon in the "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities." It was translated by Jerome in
the years 381-82, at Constantinople, where he was staying for the Council. This Preface
shows that Jerome was already becoming aware of the difficulties arising from the various
versions of the Old Testament, and of the necessity of going back to the Hebrew. Jerome to
his friends Vincentius and Gallienus, Greeting: 2 1. It has long been the practice of
learned men to exercise their minds by rendering into Latin the works of Greek writers,
and, what is more difficult, to translate the poems of illustrious authors though
trammelled by the farther requirements of verse. It was thus that our Tully literally
translated whole books of Plato; and after publishing an edition of Aratus (who may now be
considered a Roman) in hexameter verse, he amused himself with the economics of Xenophon.
In this latter work the golden river of eloquence again and again meets with obstacles,
around which its waters break and foam to such an extent that persons unacquainted with
the original would not believe they were reading Cicero's words. And no wonder! It is hard
to follow another man's lines and everywhere keep within bounds. It is an arduous task to
preserve felicity and grace unimpaired in a translation. Some word has forcibly expressed
a given thought; I have no word of my own to convey the meaning; and while I am seeking to
satisfy the sense I may go a long way round and accomplish but a small distance of my
journey. Then we must take into account the ins and outs of transposition, the variations
in cases, the diversity of figures, and, lastly, the peculiar, and, so to speak, the
native idiom of the language. A literal translation sounds absurd; if, on the other hand,
I am obliged to change either the order or the words themselves, I shall appear to have
forsaken the duty of a translator.

3 2. So, my dear Vincentius, and you, Gallienus, whom I love as my own soul, I beseech
you, whatever may be the value of this hurried piece of work, to read it with the feelings
of a friend rather than with those of a critic. And I ask this all the more earnestly
because, as you know, I dictated with great rapidity to my amanuensis; and how difficult
the task is, the sacred records testify; for the old flavour is not preserved in the Greek
version by the Seventy. It was this that stimulated Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion; and
the result of their labors was to impart a totally different character to one and the same
work; one strove to give word for word, another the general meaning, while the third
desired to avoid any great divergency from the ancients. A fifth, sixth, and seventh
edition, though no one knows to what authors they are to be attributed, exhibit so
pleasing a variety of their own that, in spite of their being anonymous, they have won an
authoritative position. Hence, some go so far as to consider the sacred writings somewhat
harsh and grating to the ear; which arises from the fact that the persons of whom I speak
are not aware that the writings in question are a translation from the Hebrew, and
therefore, looking at the surface not at the substance, they shudder at the squalid dress
before they discover the fair body which the language clothes. In fact, what can be more
musical than the Psalter?

4 Like the writings of our own Flaccus and the Grecian Pindar it now trips along in
iambics, now flows in sonorous alcaics, now swells into sapphics, now marches in half-foot
metre. What can be more lovely than the strains of Deuteronomy and Isaiah? What more grave
than Solomon's words? What more finished than Job? All these, as Josephus and Origen tell
us, were composed in hexameters and pentameters, and so circulated amongst their own
people. When we read these in Greek they have some meaning; when in Latin they are utterly
incoherent. But if any one thinks that the grace of language does not suffer through
translation, let him render Homer word for word into Latin. I will go farther and say
that, if he will translate this author into the prose of his own language, the order of
the words will seem ridiculous, and the most eloquent of poets almost dumb.

5 3. What is the drift of all this? I would not have you think it strange if here and
there we stumble; if the language lag; if it bristle with consonants or present gaping
chasms of vowels; or be cramped by condensation of the narrative. The most learned among
men have toiled at the same task; and in addition to the difficulty which all experience,
and which we have alleged to attend all translation, it must not be forgotten that a
peculiar difficulty besets us, inasmuch as the history is manifold, is full of barbarous
names, circumstances of which the Latins know nothing, dates which are tangled knots,
critical marks blended alike with the events and the numbers, so that it is almost harder
to discern the sequence of the words than to come to a knowledge of what is related. [Here
follows a long passage showing an arrange merit according to which the dates are
distinguished by certain colours as belonging to one or another of the kingdoms, the
history of which is dealt with. This passage seems unintelligible in the absence of the
coloured figures, and would be of no use unless the book with its original arrangement
were being studied.]

6 I am well aware that there will be many who, with their customary fondness for universal
detraction (from which the only escape is by writing nothing at all), will drive their
fangs into this volume. They will cavil at the dates, change the order, impugn the
accuracy of events, winnow the syllables, and, as is very frequently the case, will impute
the negligence of copyists to the authors. I should be within my right if I were to rebut
them by saying that they need not read unless they choose; but I would rather send them
away in a calm state of mind, so that they may attribute to the Greek author the credit
which is his due, and may recognize that any insertions for which we are responsible have
been taken from other men of the highest repute. The truth is that I have partly
discharged the office of a translator and partly that of a writer. I have with the utmost
fidelity rendered the Greek portion, and at the same thee have added certain things which
appeared to me to have been allowed to slip, particularly in the Roman history, which
Eusebius, the author of this book, as it seems to me, only glanced at; not so much because
of ignorance, for he was a learned man, as because, writing in Greek, he thought them of
slight importance to his countrymen. So again from Ninus and Abraham, right up to the
captivity of Troy, the translation is from the Greek only.

7 From Troy to the twentieth year of Constantine there is much, at one thee separately
added, at another intermingled, which I have gleaned with great diligence from Tranquillus
and other famous historians. Moreover, the portion from the aforesaid year of Constantine
to the sixth consulship of the Emperor Valens and the second of Valentinianus is entirely
my own. Content to end here, I have reserved the remaining period, that of Gratianus and
Theodosius, for a wider historical survey; not that I am afraid to discuss the living
freely and truthfully, for the fear of God banishes the fear of man; but because while our
country is still exposed to the fury of the barbarians everything is in confusion.

Preface to the Translation of Origen's Two Homilies on the Song of Songs.

8 Written at Rome, a.d. 383. Jerome to the most holy Pope Damasus: Origen, whilst in his
other books he has surpassed all others, has in the Song of Songs surpassed himself. He
wrote ten volumes upon it, which amount to almost twenty thousand lines, and in these he
discussed, first the version of the Seventy Translators, then those of Aquila, Symmachus,
and Theodotion, and lastly, a fifth version which he states that he found on the coast of
Atrium, with such magnificence and fulness, that he appears to me to have realized what is
said in the poem: "The king brought the into his chamber." I have left that work on one
side, since it would require almost boundless leisure and labour and money to translate so
great a work into Latin, even if it could be worthily done; and I have translated these
two short treatises, which he composed in the form of daily lectures for those who were
still like babes and sucklings, and I have studied faithfulness rather than elegance. You
can conceive how great a value the larger work possesses, when the smaller gives you such
satisfaction.

Preface to the Book on Hebrew Names.

9 The origin and scope of this book is described Preface itself. It was written in the
year 388, two years after Jerome had settled at Bethlehem. He had, immediately on arriving
in Palestine, three years previously, set to work to improve his knowledge of Hebrew, with
a view to his translation of the Old Testament, which was begun in 391. This book,
therefore, and the two which follow, may be taken as records of studies preparatory to the
Vulgate. Philo, the most erudite man among the Jews, is declared by Origen to have done
what I am now doing; he set forth a book of Hebrew Names, classing them under their
initial letters, and placing the etymology of each at the side. This work I originally
proposed to translate into Latin. It is well known in the Greek world, and is to be found
in all libraries. But I found that the copies were so discordant to one another, and the
order so I confused, that I judged it to be better to say nothing, rather than to write
what would justly be condemned. A work of this kind, however, appeared likely to be of
use; and my friends Lupulianus and Valerianus urged me to attempt it, because, as they
thought, I had made some progress in the knowledge of Hebrew. I, therefore, went through
all the books of Scripture in order, and in the restoration which I have now made of the
ancient fabric, I think that I have produced a work which may be found valuable by Greeks
as well as Latins.

10 I here in the Preface beg the reader to take notice that, if he finds anything omitted
in this work, it is reserved for mention in another. I have at this moment on hand a book
of Hebrew Questions, an undertaking of a new kind such as has never until now been heard
of amongst either the Greeks or the Latins. I say this, not with a view of arrogantly
puffing up my own work, but because I know how much labour I have spent on it, and wish to
provoke those whose knowledge is deficient to read it. I recommend all those who wish to
possess both that work and the presentone, and also the book of Hebrew Places, which I am
about to publish, to make no account of the Jews and all their ebullitions of vexation.
Moreover, I have added the meaning of the words and names in the New Testament, so that
the fabric might receive its last touch and might stand complete. I wished also in this to
imitate Origen, whom all but the ignorant acknowledge as the greatest teacher of the
Churches next to the Apostles; for in this work, which stands among the noblest monuments
of his genius, he endeavoured as a Christian to supply what Philo, as a Jew, had omitted.

Preface to the Book on the Sites and Names of Hebrew Places.

11 For the scope and value of this book see Prolegomena. It was written a.d. 388. 12
Eusebius, who took his second name from the blessed Martyr Pamphilus, after he had written
the ten books of his "Ecclesiastical History," the Chronicle of Dates, of which I
published a Latin version, the book in which he set forth the names of the different
nations and those given to them of old by the Jews and by those of the present day, the
topography of the and of Judaea and the portions allotted to the tribes, together with a
representation of Jerusalem itself and its temple, which he accompanied with a very short
explanation, bestowed his about at the end of his life upon this little work, of which the
design is to gather for us out of the Holy Scriptures the names of almost ill the cities,
mountains, rivers, hamlets, and other places, whether they remain the same or have since
been changed or in some degree corrupted. I have taken up the work of this admirable man,
and have translated it, following the arrangement of the Greeks, and taking the words in
the order of their initial letters, but leaving out those names which did not seem worthy
of mention, and making a considerable number of alterations. I have explained my method
once for all in the Preface to my translation of the Chronicle, where I said that I might
be called at once a translator and the composer of a new work; but I repeat this
especially because one who had hardly the first tincture of letters has ventured upon a
translation of this very book into Latin, though his language is hardly to be called
Latin. His lack of scholarship will be seen by the observant reader as soon as he compares
it with my translation. i do not pretend to a style which soars to the skies; but I hope
that I can rise above one which grovels on the earth.

Preface to the Book of Hebrew Questions.

13 Written a.d. 388. For the scope and character of this work, see Prolegomena. The object
of the Preface to a book is to set forth the argument of the work which follows; but I am
compelled to begin by answering what has been said against me. My case is somewhat like
that of Terence, who turned the scenic prologues of his plays into a defence of himself.
We have a Luscius Lanuvinus, like the one who worried him, and who brought charges against
the poet as if he had been a plunderer of the treasury. The bard of Mantua suffered in the
same way; he had translated a few verses of Homer very exactly, and they said that he was
nothing but a plagiarist from the ancients. But he answered them that it was no small
proof of strength to wrest the club of Hercules from his hands. Why, even Tully, who
stands on the pinnacle of Roman eloquence, that king of orators and glory of the Latin
tongue, has actions for embezzlement brought against him by the Greeks. I cannot,
therefore, be surprised if a poor little fellow like me is exposed to the gruntings of
vile swine who trample our pearls under their feet, when some of the most learned of men,
men whose glory ought to have hushed the voice of ill will, have felt the flames of envy.
It is true, this happened by a kind of justice to men whose eloquence had filled with its
resonance the theatres and the senate, the public assembly and the rostra; hardihood
always courts detraction, and (as Horace says):

14 "The highest peaks invoke The lightning's stroke." But I am in a corner, remote from
the city and the forum, and the wranglings of crowded courts; yet, even so (as Quintilian
says) ill-will has sought me out. Therefore, I beseech the reader, "If one there be, if
one, Who, rapt by strong desire, these lines shall read," 15 not to expect eloquence or
oratorical grace in those Books of Hebrew Questions, which I propose to write on all the
sacred books; but rather, that he should himself answer my detractors for me, and tell
them that a work of a new kind can claim some indulgence. I am poor and of low estate; I
neither possess riches nor do I think it right to accept them if they are offered me; and,
similarly, let me tell them that it is impossible for them to have the riches of Christ,
that is, the knowledge of the Scriptures, and the world's riches as well. It will be my
simple aim, therefore, first, to point out the mistakes of those who suspect some fault in
the Hebrew Scriptures, and, secondly, to correct the faults, which evidently teem in the
Greek and Latin copies, by a reference to the original authority; and, further, to explain
the etymology of things, names, and countries, when it is not apparent from the sound of
the Latin words, by giving a paraphrase in the vulgar tongue. To enable the student more
easily to take note of these emendations, I propose, in the first place, to set out the
true reading itself, as I am now able to do, and then, by bringing the later readings into
comparison with it, to indicate what has been omitted or added or altered. It is not my
purpose, as snarling ill-will pretends, to convict the LXX.

16 of error, nor do I look upon my own labour as a disparagement of theirs. The fact is
that they, since their work was undertaken for King Ptolemy of Alexandria, did not choose
to bring to light all the mysteries which the sacred writings contain, and especially
those which give the promise of the advent of Christ, for fear that he who held the Jews
in esteem because they were believed to worship one God, would come to think that they
worshipped a second. But we find that the Evangelists, and even our Lord and Saviour, and
the Apostle Paul, also, bring forward many citations as coming from the Old Testament
which are not contained in our copies; and on these I shall dilate more fully in their
proper places. But it is clear from this fact that those are the best mss. which most
correspond with the authoritative words of the New Testament. Add to this that Josephus,
who gives the story of the Seventy Translators, reports them as translating only the five
books of Moses; and we also acknowledge that these are more in harmony with the Hebrew
than the rest. And, further, those who afterward came into the field as translators-I mean
Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion-give a version very different from that which we use.
I have but one word more to say, and it may calm my detractors. Foreign goods are to be
imported only to the regions where there is a demand for them.

17 Country people are not obliged to buy balsam, pepper, and dates. As to Origen, I say
nothing. His name (if I may compare small things with great) is even more than my own the
object of ill-will, because, though following the common version in his Homilies, which
were spoken to common people, yet, in his Tomes, that is, in his fuller discussion of
Scripture, he yields to the Hebrew as the truth, and, though surrounded by his own forces,
occasionally seeks the foreign tongue as his ally. I will only say this about him: that I
should gladly have his knowledge of the Scriptures, even if accompanied with all the ill-
will which clings. to his name, and that I do not care a straw for these shades and
spectral ghosts, whose nature is said to be to chatter in dark corners and be a terror to
babies.

Preface to the Commentary on Ecclesiastes.

18 Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, Bethlehem, a.d. 388. I remember that, about five
years ago, when I was still living at Rome, I read Ecclesiastes to the saintly Blesilla,
so that I might provoke her to the contempt of this earthly scene, and to count as nothing
all that she saw in the world; and that she asked me to throw my remarks upon all the more
obscure passages into the form of a short commentary, so that, when I was absent, she
might still understand what she read. She was withdrawn from us by her sudden death, while
girding herself for our work; we were not counted worthy to have such an one as the
partner of our life; and, therefore, Paula and Eustochium, I kept silence under the stroke
of such a wound. But now, living as I do in the smaller community of Bethlehem, I pay what
I owe to her memory and to you. I would only point out this, that I have followed no one's
authority. I have translated direct from the Hebrew, adapting my words as much as possible
to the form of the Septuagint, but only in those places in which they did not diverge far
from the Hebrew. I have occasionally referred also to the versions of Aquila, Symmachus,
and Theodotion, but so as not to alarm the zealous student by too many novelties, nor yet
to let my commentary follow the side streams of opinion, turning aside, against my
conscientious conviction, from the fountainhead of truth.


COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED
==============================

COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED Theodore of Mopsuestia

c. AD 350–428

Bishop and the leading exegete of Antioch.

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

COMMENTARY OF THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA ON THE NICENE CREED

2 CAMBRIDGE W. HEFFER & SONS LIMITED 1932

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

3 The present volume is the fifth in the series of Woodbrooke Studies, the contents of
which are drawn from MSS. in my collection. Owing to the fact that I have relinquished my
duties in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, it was not found convenient to continue
the publication of the "Studies" in serial parts in the "Bulletin" of that Library. Slight
changes have accordingly been made in the preliminary matter as well as in the headings of
the "Studies," and it is hoped that these will be found more suitable to works of this
kind. This volume contains the hitherto lost commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia (c.
350-428) on the Nicene Creed, which is undoubtedly one of the most important theological
works of the golden age of Christianity. In places I experienced some difficulty in
following the author's method of reasoning, but it may confidently be stated that the
translation which I have adopted in the following pages reveals as accurately as possible
the secret of the author's argumentation, which is nearly always fresh and illuminating.

4 Short passages were by inadvertence omitted in the first part of the work, which was
published in the January issue of the "Bulletin of the John Rylands Library". These have
been inserted in the present edition together with some corrections. It is a pleasing duty
to offer here my sincerest thanks to Mr. Edward Cadbury whose generosity has again made
possible the publication of the "Studies" in their new form. A. MINGANA. Selly Oak
Colleges Library, Birmingham, 5th July, 1932.

PREFATORY NOTE.

5 (i) Theodore of Mopsuestia. IT is a great satisfaction for any scholar to be in a
position to publish the hitherto lost theological works of Theodore of Mopsuestia. In the
Mingana collection of MSS., I have so far discovered two works by this Father, which I
propose to edit and translate according to their chronological order. This is not the
place to write the history of Theodore nor to give a full list of his works, some of which
have, wholly or partially, survived in their Greek original or in East Syrian
translations. He seems to have been the most profound thinker and independent inquirer of
the Fathers of the Church in the golden age of Christianity: the fourth and the fifth
centuries. He is directly or indirectly responsible for the three general Councils of
Ephesus, of Chalcedon and of the Three Chapters. In the Council of Ephesus Nestorianism
was discussed and condemned, but Nestorianism was in reality an amplification of some
points in Theodore's teaching in connection with the mystery of the Incarnation of the
Word, while the Council of Chalcedon seems to have accomplished little except to reveal a
slight reaction against the Christological conclusions drawn from the doctrine established
at Ephesus under the familiar ecclesiastical sanction of anathema sit. The fifth Council,
commonly called the Council of the Three Chapters, is even more directly concerned with
Theodore than its two immediate predecessors.

6 It tells much in favour of the high esteem in which Theodore was held by all his
contemporaries that in condemning doctrinal points which had their origin in his writings
no one dared to mention his name in relation to them, and the first Synodal fulminations
in which his name is found are those of the fifth Council, held about one hundred and
twenty-five years after his death. I will here allude to a few episodes in the life of
Theodore, which might illustrate the respect with which his contemporaries regarded his
scientific attainments. In 394 he was present in Constantinople on the occasion of the
Synod held to decide a question concerning the see of Bostra in the patriarchate of
Antioch. His fame had spread to such an extent in the Capital that the Emperor Theodosius,
who was already making preparations for his last journey to the West, desired to hear him.
Theodore preached before Theodosius, who declared at the end of the sermon that he had
never heard such a teacher: "Qui in desiderio visionis viri factus, in ecclesia ejus
doctrinae fuit auditor magnus ille imperator; nec arbitratus est alterum se talem
comperisse doctorem, superadmiratus quidem ejus doctrinam, et colloquio delectatus atque
obstupefactus." We are also informed by John of Antioch that the Emperor Theodosius the
Younger was often in correspondence with Theodore: "Jam vero et a vestro imperio, pro sui
reverentia, et spiritali sapientia, ei saepius attestatum est, et vestris litteris
honoratus est."

7 The same John of Antioch, who had become Patriarch of the historic see of the Metropolis
of Syria in the year following Theodore's death in 428, speaks in eloquent terms of his
work and teaching: "Qui bene de vita profectus est beatus Theodorus, et quinque et
quadraginta annis clare in doctrina praefulsit, et omnem haeresim expugnavit nullam
alicubi detractionem ab orthodoxis in vita suscipiens." The same prelate addresses, in
glowing words, the Emperor who had shown interest in Theodore's memory: "Iste ille est
Flaviani magni Antiochensium sanctae Dei Ecclesiae pontificis amantissimus discipulus, et
beati Joannis Constantinopolitani episcopi condiscipulus, cujus memoriam redivivam
fecistis, maximam hunc gloriam pietatis vestrae imperio facientes." A glimpse of the early
life of Theodore is supplied by the writings of his bosom friend John Chrysostom who
testifies that his days were spent in reading and his nights in prayer, that his fasts
were long and his bed was the bare ground, that he indulged in every form of asceticism
and self-discipline. [Greek omitted]

8 A letter from Chrysostom to Theodore shows that the former's affection and admiration
for the friend of his childhood remained till the end of his days. The letter was written
while Chrysostom was in exile at Cucusus (a.d. 404-407). In it the exiled Patriarch
testifies that "he can never forget the love of Theodore, so genuine and warm, so sincere
and guileless, a love maintained from early years," and thanks him for the efforts that he
had made to obtain his release, and ends his correspondence with the memorable sentence:
"Exile as I am I reap no ordinary consolation from having such a treasure, such a mine of
wealth within my heart as the love of so vigilant and noble a soul." As the late Dr. Swete
points out, higher testimony could not have been borne, or by a more competent judge. 9
Death did not put a stop to the fame of Theodore. It is recorded in Tillemont that
Meletius, Theodore's successor to the see of Mopsuestia, asserted that he would have
endangered his own life if he had uttered words detrimental to his predecessor. Even Cyril
of Alexandria whose views on the Incarnation were not in harmony with those of Theodore
was obliged to avow that in the Churches of the East one often heard the cry: "We believe
as Theodore believed; long live the faith of Theodore!" The same Cyril of Alexandria
informs us that when a party of bishops was found ready to condemn him, the answer of the
bishops of Syria to them was: "We had rather be burnt than condemn Theodore." Leontius
Byzantinus informs us also that Cyril of Alexandria advised against the condemnation of
Theodore because all the bishops of the Eastern Church considered him an eminent Doctor,
and if he were condemned there would be serious disturbance in that Church. The famous
Church historian, Theodoret, was pleased to call him "Doctor of the Universal Church."
This title is also ascribed to him by a much later Greek author, Nicephorus Callistus, who
calls him "Doctor of all the Churches."

10 There is no need to emphasise the fact that Theodore's memory and especially his
writings have always been considered as the most esteemed treasures of the East Syrian
Church. They were gradually translated after his death; and their authority among the
innumerable adherents of the Eastern Church, which for a long time stretched from the
eastern Mediterranean shores to Manchuria and from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean,
was only one degree below that of Paul. With them he was the "interpreter" par excellence.
The only discordant note seems to have been struck towards the end of the sixth century by
individual teachers of no great importance in the councils of the Church, but the Synod
held in a.d. 596 by the Patriarch Sabrisho` rose vehemently against them: "We reject and
anathematize all those who do not adhere to the commentaries, the traditions and the
teaching of the eminent Doctor, the blessed Theodore the interpreter; and who endeavour to
introduce new and foreign doctrines saturated with errors and blasphemies, which are in
contradiction to the true and exact teaching of this saint and of all the orthodox
Doctors, heads of the schools, who have followed in his steps, corroborated his doctrine
and taught the true faith of the incorruptible orthodoxy in our eastern regions."

11 In the Synod of Gregory I, held in a.d. 605, all the eastern archbishops and bishops
bound themselves to abide by the teaching of Theodore: "We all assembled in this Synod
have decided that each of us should receive and accept all the commentaries and works
written by the blessed Theodore the interpreter, bishop of Mopsuestia, a man by the grace
of God set over the treasures of the two Testaments: the Old and the New, and who like a
river of abundant floods watered and nurtured the children of the Church in his lifetime
and after his death with the true meaning of the sacred Books in which he was instructed
by the Holy Spirit. ... No one, who in these days wishes to perform the office of teaching
in the Church, is allowed to deviate from the works of this eminent and divine man. . . .
All our venerable Fathers who have handed down this true faith to us, in their teaching,
from his day to our own, have studied his writings and adhered to his statements."

12 I will also refer to two of the earliest East Syrian historians: "He (Theodore) did not
astonish the world in his lifetime only, but also astonished every one with his books
after his death. Who is able to narrate the good works of this sea of wisdom, or who is in
a position to describe the prodigies which the Spirit worked in him! When other bishops
came near him, they considered themselves as mere pupils; and philosophers, subtle in
reasoning, were before him as students. Every knotty and difficult problem stopped with
him and never went beyond him, and he explained it before inquirers and made it as clear
as the light of the sun." "At that time shone in all branches of knowledge the truly
divine man St. Theodore the interpreter, who was the first to explain philosophically and
rationally the economy of the divine mysteries of the birth and the passion of our Lord."

13 In the West the only writer who before the fifth Council dared to speak openly against
Theodore was Marius Mercator, who died about 450. As early as the year 431 he accused him
of being the real author of Pelagianism: "Quaestio contra Catholicam fidem apud nonnullos
Syrorum et praecipue in Cilicia a Theodoro quondam episcopo oppidi Mopsuesteni jamdudum
mota. . . ." This hostile note is also clearly found in his Latin translations of some of
Theodore's treatises, in which he denounced him as the master of Nestorius and
Nestorianism: ". . . Pravum ejus de dispensatione Dominica, et a fide Catholica alienum,
ac satis extorrem sensum, quo Nestorium Constantinopolitanae urbis quondam episcopum secum
male decepit. . . ." An anti-Theodorian party, however, was steadily gaining ground in
Egypt where Cyril of Alexandria held sway. Towards the middle of the sixth century the
Alexandrian Doctors, followers of Cyril, counted many adherents in the Metropolis, who
were powerful enough to influence the Emperor Justinian and induce him to summon a Council
and condemn Theodore.

14 Given free rein the outbursts of the Cyrillian Bishops of the Council knew no bounds.
Expressions such as "impious," "blasphemous," "heretical" were continuously hurled against
a man dead one hundred and twenty-five years previously. The following phrases reveal the
spirit which permeated the Fathers of the fifth Council: Isti sunt thesauri impietatis
Theodori. Sceleratum symbolum impii Theodori. . . . Et postquam lectae sunt blasphemiae
Theodori Mopsuesteni et impium ejus symbolum. . . . Et post acclamationes sancta synodus
dixit: Multitudo lectarum blasphemiarum, quas contra magnum Deum et Salvatorem nostrum
Jesum Christum, imo magis contra suam animam Theodorus Mopsuestenus evomuit,justam ejus
facit condemnationem. The condemnation of a dead man gave satisfaction to his adversaries
in the Cyrillian camp, but rent asunder the Catholic Church of the time and caused a deep
wound in the spiritual body of the faithful. The evil effects of that wound are to some
extent felt even in our days, in which the theological admirers of Theodore are, more than
one thousand and five hundred years after his death, still counted in thousands.

15 The condemnation of the works of the great Antiochian theologian decreased their
influence on Western thought, and the MSS. containing them were either burnt or underwent
a gradual process of slow disappearance from the shelves of ecclesiastical libraries.
Fortunately, however, his works were translated shortly after his death by his admirers in
the East, and the Catalogue of `Abdisho` registers almost all of them. When `Abdisho`
wrote his Catalogue in about a.d. 1298 all the works of Theodore were found in the
churches and monasteries of his day, and probably also in his own library at Nisibin. The
numerous persecutions inflicted since that date on the eastern Christians by Mongols,
Turks and Kurds have, however, resulted in their complete disappearance even in East
Syrian lands, and the only complete treatises known to have survived are: (a) his
commentary on the Gospel of John which was edited in 1897, according to a MS. of our Lady
near Alkosh, by J. B. Chabot who, however, did not venture to give any translation of it;
(b) his short controversial treatise against the Macedonians which was edited and
translated in 1913 by F. Nau, from a recently acquired MS. of the British Museum.

16 (ii) The Present Work. The work of which I give an edition and translation in the
following pages is in form of catechetical lectures, and is the one called "The Book on
Faith" by `Abdisho` in his Catalogue, while the Chronicle of Seert calls it more
accurately "The interpretation of the faith of the three hundred and eighteen," i.e., of
the Council of Nicea. In a letter of the Pope Pelagius the work is referred to as "De
interpretatione symboli trecentorum decem et octo Patrum," and the Acts of the fifth
Council mention it also once under the same title: "De interpretatione symboli trecentorum
decem et octo sanctorum Patrum." Nicephorus Theotokes has doubtless this work in mind when
he writes: ἑπμηνεία εἰς τὸ Νικαίᾳ σύμβολον, "An explanation of the Nicene Profession of
faith." From the extracts that I give below it will be seen that the work is more
frequently referred to under the title "Liber ad baptizandos." The Acts of the fifth
Council quote it once under the title " Interpretatio symboli trecentorum decem et octo
sanctorum Patrum" and eight times under the title of "Liber ad baptizandos." Facundus also
quotes it under the slightly modified title of "Liber ad baptizatos."

17 This "Liber ad baptizandos" is divided into two distinct parts which embrace all the
Christian doctrine which the Catechumens had to learn before their baptism. The first part
deals with the explanation of the Nicene Creed, as above, and the second part, which
constitutes a book by itself, contains a commentary on the Lord's Prayer, on the sacrament
of baptism in general, and the Greek liturgy used in his day. I will give now the
quotations from the present work found in the Acts of the fifth Council, in the synodical
letter of the Pope Pelagius, in the works of Facundus and in those of Marius Mercator.
[Material in Latin and Syriac omitted, pp.8-14] From the above quotations we may infer
that the official Latin translator of the Acts of the fifth Council was not always a good
translator. Extenuating circumstances may be pleaded in his favour from the fact that he
was dealing with stray quotations and isolated extracts culled from their context without
any regard to the sequence of events, but when every allowance is made under this head
there still remain some imperfections in his work. Let us take as examples two sentences
from the first and the fourth quotations as given above. In the first quotation Theodore
says: "Nobody believes that he who is from the Jews according to the flesh is God by
nature, nor that God who is above all is from the Jews by nature." This simple and clear
sentence has received the complicated and inaccurate rendering: Nemo igitur neque eum qui
secundum carnem ex Judaeis est, dicat Deum qui est super omnia, secundum carnem ex
Judaeis. The sentence is somewhat better translated in the Synodical letter of the Pope
Pelagius as follows: Nemo igitur, neque eum qui secundum carnem ex Judaeis est, dicat
Deum: nec iterum Deum qui est super omniar secundum camem ex Judaeis.

18 In the second quotation the translator of the Council does not seem to have understood
the meaning of some words in Theodore's sentence. Theodore says: "But He (God) remained
with him (Christ) until He by (His) help assisted him to loose the pains of death. And He
delivered his soul from bonds which were indissoluble; and raised him from the dead and
transferred him to immortal life, and made him immortal and incorruptible, and caused him
to go up to heaven where he is now sitting at the right hand of God." The Latin
translation of this sentence is given as follows: Permanens autem, donec secundum suam
creaturam et virtutem solvens mortis dolores, liberavit eum ineffabilibus illis vinculis
etc. The Latin translator seems here to have misread a possible Greek word ἄρρηκτος
unbroken as ἄρρητος unspeakable, ineffable. So far as Marius Mercator is concerned, we may
point out that he seems to have deliberately omitted to translate two sentences of
Theodore. The first sentence is: "And the separation of natures does not preclude their
being one" [Syriac omitted]

19 The second sentence reads: "It is known that here he (Paul) calls "Son" the one made of
the seed of David in the flesh." Mercator deliberately omits also to translate the
adjective "close" when Theodore uses it to express the " close union " between God the
Word and man. The Syriac expression used in this connection is [omitted] We may
incidentally remark that the technical terms used in the mystery of the Incarnation were
so imperfectly fixed even in the time of Marius Mercator that he translates the word
nature, the Syriac [Syriac] which doubtless renders the Greek φύσις, by the Latin
substantia. This last word generally renders the Greek ὑπόστασις and the Syriac [Syriac]
and hardly ever stands for the word "nature." It should here be stated that some
quotations from the present work of Theodore may be seen in East-Syrian literature,
especially in a MS. recently added to my collection through the good offices of Mr. W. G.
Greenslade.

20 (iii) Theodore's Doctrine. 21 We do not intend to give here a synopsis of the
Christological doctrine of Theodore, which gave rise to such bitter controversies among
Christian theologians who came after him, and which divided the followers of Christ into
so many distinct and hostile groups. We assume that the readers of the present work are
well acquainted with the Trinitarian and Christological dogmas with which it deals, and we
leave to them the task of understanding and assimilating Theodore in his own words. It
will be sufficient to state that in arguing against some early Christian thinkers who had
unduly emphasised the divine side of Christ to the detriment of His humanity, he laid
great stress on the fact that the man Jesus was a true man, endowed with all human
faculties including a true human soul, and that the second person of the Trinity, or God
the Word, Son of God the Father, was to be distinguished from the human son of Mary, born
of the seed of David, although through the very close and intimate union existing between
them, they were not two Sons but one Son. The man Jesus was, so to speak, only
figuratively and honorifically the Son of God, while the true and natural Son of God was
and is the Word-God who assumed the form of the man Jesus. The close union between them
was, as it were, not physical but moral and spiritual, manifesting itself in one visible
individual, or rather personage, who formed the one πρόσωπον or outward appearance of
Christ.

22 Nowhere, however, do we find in Theodore the idea of two persons (ὑποστασις) in Christ.
Such an idea had its full development in the time that followed the Council of Ephesus.
Theodore never goes beyond the idea of two natures and one πρόσωπον. He writes in the
third chapter: "From the fact also that they (the Fathers of the Council of Nicea)
referred both words to the one person (= prosopon) of the Son they showed us the close
union between the two natures": [Syriac] 23 As the present work is a commentary on the
Nicene creed and consequently covers the whole field of Christian religion, the readers
will find in it many other interesting points besides Trinity and Incarnation. These last
two points, however, are treated with much more detail than the others. As a commentator
Theodore has been criticised by no less an authority than Harnack as too prosaic and
monotonous. This stylistic defect is noticeable in the present work which is in some
places marred by many verbal antitheses and repetitions arising from his desire to stress
his point for his readers or rather hearers. (iv) The Manuscript. The MS. containing the
present work of Theodore is found in my collection of MSS. and is therein numbered Mingana
Syr. 561. As the MS. is not throughout in a good state of preservation and is in many
places wormed and damaged by damp, it was not found desirable to reproduce it in
facsimile. For this reason I have had to copy all its text and edit it in the ordinary
Syriac type instead of following the usual practice in my Woodbrooke Studies of giving
facsimiles in case of unique texts.

INTRODUCTION

Translation.

[By Alphonse Mingana] By the power of our Lord Jesus Christ we begin to write the
exposition of the faith of the three hundred and eighteen (Fathers)1 composed by Mar
Theodore the interpreter.

CHAPTER I.

1 What discourse is worthy of, and what mind is equal to, the greatness of the subjects
placed before us? Or which is the tongue that is able to teach these mysteries? It is
indeed difficult for our tongues to speak with accuracy even of the created natures,
because they also are created with great wisdom by the Maker. As for those which are
higher than our nature—because such are those of which we intend to speak—how much are
they not higher than all the minds of men? They truly transcend our words! The blessed
Paul bears witness concerning them in saying: "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love
Him." 2 2 It is with these wonderful things that our discourse wishes to deal, and it is
to the delight of these mysteries that we have been invited, because the time of the great
festival of the holy Passover leads us to teach them. If God had wished those heavenly
gifts not to be known to us, it is evident that we should not have been able to discourse
on them, because how could a man have spoken of unknown things? Since, however, He wished
from the first and before the foundations of the world to make manifest the wisdom that
was in Him 3 through the Economy of our Lord Jesus Christ, He revealed to us these hidden
mysteries and the greatness of these gifts, and He granted their knowledge to men through
the Holy Spirit. It is indeed written that God revealed to us by His Spirit and showed us
the sublime and ineffable mysteries which are performed by the power of the Holy Spirit so
that through them we might proceed in a congruous way, by degrees and by |19 faith, to
these future gifts.4 This is the reason why we desired to discourse with confidence,
according to the grace of God vouchsafed to us, on these unspeakable things which are
higher than ourselves. It is this time of this festival that has led us to speak with
those who wish [to participate in] these awe-inspiring mysteries.

3 Now is the time for me to say: "Sing unto the Lord a new song for He has done marvellous
things." 5 Indeed a new song is required for new things, as we are dealing with the New
Testament which God established for the human race through the Economy of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when He abolished all old things and showed new things in their place. Every man
who is in Christ is a new creature; old things are passed away and all things are become
new.6 Death and corruption have ceased, passions and mutability have passed away, and the
life of the new creature has been made manifest, a life which we hope to reach after 7 our
resurrection from the dead. At the resurrection from the dead He will make us new instead
of old, and incorruptible and immortal instead of corruptible and mortal. He gave us this
new covenant which is fit for those who are renewed; and because of this covenant we
receive the knowledge of these mysteries so that we should put off the old man and put on
the new man who is renewed after the image of Him who created him, where there is neither
Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. This will take place in
reality in the next world when we shall have become immortal and incorruptible, when we
shall only contemplate Christ of whose Kingdom we shall partake, when the incident of
being Jew or Greek, bond or free, shall be taken from us, and when all the ways of the
image of this world shall have completely disappeared. Indeed what incidence of being Jew
or Greek, bond or free, can remain with those who are in an immortal and incorruptible
nature after the image of Christ, according to the testimony of the blessed Paul?

4 Because it was necessary that the faith in the truth of the future gifts should remain
in us so that we should not throw doubts on them on account of their greatness—since we
see them very much alien to our nature and above it—these awe-inspiring mysteries were
confided |20 to us in order that through them as through symbols we might gradually
approach our future hope, and in order to obtain a faith without doubts in these gifts,
while cultivating a conduct that is in harmony with the new world and arranging our work
in this world as much as possible in conformity with the following sentences: "Our
conversation is in heaven," 9 and: "our building is of God," 10 and "we have a house in
heaven not made with hands." 11 5 While still on the earth we have been inscribed 12 in
that awe-inspiring glory of the future world through these mysteries, but we (ought to)
live as much as possible a heavenly life in spurning visible things and aspiring after
future things. Those who are about to partake now of these awe-inspiring mysteries are
inspired to do so by the grace of God. They do not do this in order to partake of small
and ordinary gifts, but to be transformed completely into new men and to possess different
virtues which they will receive by the gift of the grace of God: being mortal they will
become immortal, being corruptible they will become incorruptible, being passible they
will become impassible, being changeable they will become unchangeable, being bond they
will become free, being enemies they will become friends, being strangers they will become
sons. They will no more be considered a part of Adam but of Christ; they will call as
their head not Adam but Christ, who has renewed them; they will not cultivate a ground
that will bring forth thorns and thistles to them,13 but they will dwell in a heaven which
is remote and immune from all sorrow and sighing;nor will death rule over them but they
will become themselves rulers in a new life where they will be not slaves of sin but
warriors of righteousness, not servants of Satan but intimate friends of Christ for all
time.

6 Adam, the father of mankind, received the abode of Paradise from which he was driven out
through his disobedience and sin, and we, who became the heirs of his nature and his
punishment, ascend to heaven by faith in Christ through our participation in these
mysteries, as He said: "Except a man he born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven." 15 The man, however, who receives this spiritual birth is
immediately inscribed in heaven and |21 becomes the heir and partaker of those future
gifts, as the blessed Paul said,16 because those who believed in Christ are in expectation
of making their abode in heaven after the resurrection from the dead. Indeed we hope to go
to heaven where the first man,17 Christ, went on our behalf. Through these mysteries we
are truly inscribed in that abode. We are in need of great care and immense diligence in
order not to fall away from this great promise and suffer the fate of Adam who was driven
out of Paradise. This is the reason why we partake in a wonderful way of these awe-
inspiring mysteries with a true faith which has no doubt,18 and we ought not to forget
this faith but to keep what we have received with great care. When we have received these
heavenly gifts in a perfect manner so that we may delight in them, and when we have become
their heirs in our actions, it is impossible that we should fall away from them. As long
as we are on the earth, however, because we only receive them by hope through our
participation in these mysteries, it is possible to fall away from them, as we have a
changeable nature. We ought, therefore, to have great care and anxiety concerning them and
to endeavour truly to possess the hope of the future in our souls.

7 Now which is the faith and which are the promises through which we have our part in
mysteries in the hope of these heavenly gifts in which we will delight? These are found in
the profession of faith which we make before Christ our Lord at the time of our baptism.
If it were possible to comprehend their power by hearing only, our words would have been
useless, because their mere recitation would have made them understood by those who heard
them. Since, however, there is much power hidden in them—as our holy Fathers confided to
us from the gift of God an ineffable treasure condensed in words which are easy to learn
and to remember—it is necessary to teach those who are about to receive these mysteries
and to show them the sense and the meaning that are hidden in them. When they have learnt
the greatness of the gift to which they wish to make their approach, and have understood
the meaning of their religion and their promises for the sake of which they receive such a
great gift, they will keep with diligence in their souls the faith which has been handed
down to them. |22

8 The principle of your faith and promise which is to be carefully kept in these mysteries
is: I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible. By
the grace of our Lord we will explain these words one after another, because it is good
that you should know the power of all of them. Let us, therefore, rightly begin from where
you also began in your profession of faith: I believe in one God, Father Almighty. This is
the foundation of the religion of the fear of God,19 "for with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."20 This is the
truth of the true teaching of the faith. Because the question of religion lies in the
belief in things that are invisible and indescribable, it is in need of faith, which
causes mind to see a thing that is invisible. The things that are visible we see them with
our eyes, while the things that are invisible are only seen by faith, as "faith is the
substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." 21

9 This faith brings in substance to the mind the things that are not yet existent in
reality. We accept by faith as true the resurrection from the dead to heaven and all the
future existence, which is not yet in existence. Faith causes the soul to see and
understand the things that are invisible and indescribable. We are enabled by faith to be
worthy of seeing the nature of God "who is the sole invisible and incorruptible, who
dwelleth in the bright light which has no equal, and whom no man hath seen nor can see."22
We are able to see the visible thing with material eyes, if these are sound and able to
see, and if there is nothing to hinder them from seeing properly; but if they are affected
by injury, all things that were visible become invisible, although in reality visible. In
this same way we all see with accuracy the invisible and the indescribable things, which
the question of religion has taught us, if our faith is sound, but they are not seen by
those whose faith is not sound. The question of religion consists in two things:
confession concerning God and concerning all the various and numerous things that were and
will be made by Him, and both of these are in need of faith as is shown by the blessed
Paul: "He that cometh to the religion of God must believe that He is" 23 and that the
"worlds were framed by His |23 Word so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear." 24

10 In these he shows first that even confession concerning God cannot consist in anything
but the thought of religion 25 through faith alone; secondly, that we are unable to
understand and confess the things that were made by Him if we do not receive their
knowledge by faith. Faith perfects those who accept it thoroughly in the truth of religion
while those who become remote from it sink in error completely. Paul called the Church of
God "the pillar and ground of the truth," 26 because it is sound in faith and well
established in the teaching of religion. As to those who are outside the faith: pagans,
Jews, and heretics, because they are devoid of faith, they greatly stray from the truth.
Indeed because the pagans had no faith they were unable to understand how God was able to
create and to make everything from nothing and establish it in substance, and in their
error they gave fancifully to God a consort to whom He had given a seat with Him from
eternity; and they strayed from the truth into various other insipid stories. As to Jews
they recoiled from the name of a son, and because of their lack of faith they did not
understand the one who is a true Son.

11 In this way all the heretics who are outside the Church and who have ascribed the name
of Christ with untruth to themselves, because they have no faith, have erred and strayed
from the truth. In order not to mention to your hearing all the heresies, it will be
sufficient to refer to Arius and Eunomius and all those who subscribe to their opinion,
and note how they were affected with the disease of the Jews; and because of their lack of
faith they did not understand nor did they accept that the Son is of Divine nature, and
that everything that is said of the nature of the Father is said also of that of the Son,
while the nature of the Father in no way suffers from the fact that it has a true Son who
in His nature is a true mirror of itself.27 12 These few things have been said out of many
in order to rebuke |24 those who have strayed from the truth, and to show that they have
strayed because of their lack of faith. Indeed, the error of men who have gone astray
because of their lack of faith is great and possesses many ramifications, and as error
increases in proportion to its remoteness from faith, so also knowledge increases in
proportion to its nearness to faith. It is by faith that we know that God is, that He is
the creator of everything and that He created everything from nothing. It is by it that we
understand that those who have passed away and perished will come back again to life and
existence, when the Creator wishes. It is by faith that we have known that the Father has
a Son born of His nature and God like Himself. It is by faith that we have accepted that
the Holy Spirit is of the same nature as God the Father and that He is always with the
Father and the Son. It is by faith that we have no doubt nor suspicion concerning the
preaching of the Economy of Christ which took place in the world.

13 It is, therefore, with justice that our blessed Fathers placed faith like a foundation
in the forefront of our teaching and of the mystery of our covenant, and it is with right
that they intimated to us to begin from there and say: I believe in one God, Father
Almighty. We must not be astonished that our blessed Fathers included and handed down to
us all the teaching of religion in a few words. They thought that a long discourse would
better fit other times and other persons. As to you who for a long time have been weaned
from the world, and have come nigh unto religion with a good will, and have made
yourselves ready to receive the Divine mysteries with a clean conscience at a time full of
fear, condensed words are more useful, as their fewness renders them more easy to keep in
your memory when you wish to remember the faith which you professed and the promises which
you made on account of these mysteries It is right, however, that a detailed teaching of
them should be added to you so that you should understand them more accurately, and beware
in your souls of all the words of the enemies of religion when you stand fast by this
Divine teaching which is confided to you. I believe in one God, Father Almighty. See how
our blessed Fathers, with the first word of the true profession of faith in one God the
Father, removed us with care from the error of polytheism and from the fallacy of Judaism
which puts in practice to-day all the teaching of the Old Testament in its entirety. |25

14 The words of the New Testament concerning Christ were found in the prophets of the Old
Testament; they were indeed found in the prophets as a symbol and a sign whereby the Jews
expected Christ to appear to them as a man, but none of them was aware of the divinity of
the Only Begotten Son—the Word-God. (Our blessed Fathers) gave us a perfect doctrine which
separates from paganism those who become initiated to religion, and which removes
completely from the error of polytheism those who obey its commandments, while teaching
that the natures of the Godhead are not many and separate, but that God is in one, single
and eternal nature which is the cause of everything; that such a one is God, and outside
Him there is no other God; that God is a being who is eternal and the cause of everything;
that a being who is not like this is not God by nature; that a being who is eternal is the
cause of everything; that a being who is not eternal and the cause of everything, is not
God but the work of God, who alone is capable of creating everything from nothing.

15 He said: "The Lord Thy God is one Lord" 28 in order that we might learn that there is
one nature in the Godhead to which is due the name of Lord and God. He also said: "the
gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from
under the heavens " 29 in order that we might understand that he who is not the cause of
everything is not God. The one who is the cause of everything is God alone. He said to
Moses, "I am the cause of everything," 30 in order that we might learn that He is truly
the one who was from eternity and is always, and that He is God. He who does not possess
this attribute and is not eternal, is not truly existent by Himself, but is made and has
actually been made when he was not existent, at the time at which the one who is from
eternity, that is to say God, wished to make him.

16 He also said: "I am the first and the last God and there was no other god before me and
there shall be no other god after me," 31 in order that we might understand that He is the
God who was first and from eternity and that it is impossible that another God that is
created should exist. Divine nature cannot indeed fall within the notion of creation.32
|26 All these words teach us the doctrine of religion and expel the error of paganism.
Among pagans gods are many and of different kinds: some of them are young, and some others
old; some of them can do this, and some others that; some of them perish, and some others
will continue their existence; and they are of different natures. That we ought to reject
all these the Old Testament taught us in the prophets, who spoke through the Holy Spirit
to the effect that all the gods of the Gentiles are false and are not gods because God is
one, who is from eternity and is the cause of everything, as He said: "There shall be no
strange god in thee," 33 that is to say a new god, and, "neither shalt thou worship a
strange god" 34 because everything that is new is not God, and "they are new gods that
came newly up." 35

17 Divine nature is one and eternal. It was in no need to be made by another, because it
is the cause of everything. This is the reason why He is God alone, and anything that is
made cannot by nature be God, as it is made by another. All the created things rightly
attribute their existence to their Creator who is God, to whom they owe their being, and
for this they are under an obligation of gratitude to Him who by His own good will and
power vouchsafed to them to be what they are. Our blessed Fathers succinctly included all
this great teaching in the sentence: I believe in one God. Let us, therefore, accept the
belief in one God according to the preaching of the prophets and the teaching of our
Fathers. Divine nature is truly one, and it exists from eternity and is the cause of
everything; this is not as the pagans erroneously state that there are many gods of
different kinds.

18 It is necessary that we should offer you an oral teaching about everything, little by
little, in order that you may be able to remember the things that are spoken to you, as
these are indispensable to those who adhere to what has preceded. By the help of the grace
of God we will keep our promise to you in other days, and now let the words that have been
spoken suffice, and let us glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now, always
and for ever and ever. Here ends the first chapter. |27

CHAPTER II. ON FAITH.

1 Yesterday we spoke to your love sufficiently, and in the measure granted to us by the
grace of God, of faith which is the foundation of the principle of religion. We approached
the words of our profession of faith and showed how through faith in one God all the error
of the polytheism of the Gentiles vanishes completely. We learned from the holy Books of
the prophets to shake off from us all the aberrations of pagans, whose gods are different
and numerous, and to believe that Divine nature which ought to be called God and Lord is
one, because He alone is from eternity and is the cause of everything. All the created
beings are very remote from this nature, as it is impossible to admit that a created being
is from eternity, and the created beings themselves will not suffer to be called
rightfully Lord and God by nature. A being who is created by another cannot by any means
create another being from nothing, or be called God with justice, but the one who created
him is God by necessity. This is the reason why we say that there is only one God as the
blessed prophets taught us; and by the grace of the Holy Spirit they spoke and defined the
kind of nature which belongs to God. Beyond this they did not teach us anything clearly.

2 The doctrine concerning the Father and the Son was kept (to be promulgated) by Christ
our Lord, who taught His disciples that which was unknown before and was not revealed to
men, and ordered them to teach it to others also in saying to them plainly: "Go ye and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost." 36 As the blessed Moses said when he promulgated his doctrine: "The Lord, Thy
God is one Lord" 37—a doctrine that was taught and handed down by all the prophets—so the
Christ our Lord gave His teaching in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, but did not say what we had to learn and to teach others concerning the Lord and
God, as this had been clearly done by the prophets. He ordered His disciples to teach all
the nations that which was lacking to make the teaching of the prophets perfect, and for
this He said: "Go ye and teach all nations |28 baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," not that we should think that one of these is not
God nor that there is a God beside them, but that we should believe that they alone
constitute Divine nature, which we had formerly learnt from the prophets to be one.

3 Because the Gentiles had previously taught the doctrine of the plurality of gods, who
were numerous and different in youth and old age, in weakness and strength, so that some
of them were able to do this and some others that—Christ ordered His disciples against
this to teach all the nations to turn from all the error of paganism, and to believe in
the unity of nature in the Godhead, as was the case with the doctrine first taught to
mankind, from which the knowledge of religion was received; and also to learn that the one
who is from eternity and is the cause of everything is one Divine nature known in the
three persons of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He would not have induced
the Gentiles to turn away from names of false gods to the knowledge of the Father if He
did not know that He (the Father) was truly Divine nature, nor would He have brought them
to the knowledge of the Son if He did not know that He (the Son) was truly of the same
Divine nature, nor would He have inculcated to them the knowledge of the Holy Spirit if He
knew that He (the Holy Spirit) was alien to that nature, otherwise He would have caused
them to turn from one falsehood to the knowledge of another falsehood. It is known that it
is from false gods, who were wrongly called gods, that He ordered His disciples in His
teaching to turn the Gentiles to the knowledge of the true God, which consists in the
faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each one of these persons is a true God,
but the Divine nature of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit which we believe to
be eternal and the cause of everything, is one.

4 In this way the teaching of the Old Testament is in harmony with the teaching of the New
Testament, and the words which the prophets uttered concerning God are not foreign nor
contradictory to those which Christ our Lord delivered to the Gentiles through the
Apostles, as His words are in full harmony with the true knowledge of religion according
to the teaching of the prophets. Through the prophets we only understood God and the being
to whom an uncreated nature belongs, but the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ gave us
also with |29 certainty the persons in whom is Divine nature. This is the reason why our
blessed Fathers placed first the doctrine of the belief in one God as it was written in
the Old Testament in order to destroy the error of polytheism, and then imparted to us the
knowledge of the persons according to the teaching of Christ. They were in a position—and
it was easy for them—to repeat the words of our Lord "in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," but because they wrote this profession of faith against
the teaching of the heretics, they taught it as succinctly as possible with more words
than those uttered by our Lord, for the demolition of error and the construction of the
doctrine of the Church, so that by their meaning they should reprove those who contradict
the true faith. For this reason they added with justice the name of the Father after they
had said, I believe in one God.

5 After the words concerning God they proceeded to the teaching of the persons, which is
the true teaching of the Christian faith and the true knowledge for those who become
disciples of Christ. Because the sentence denotes Divine nature, it refers to the three
persons, but as the teaching concerning the persons could not be considered as referring
to one of them only, they rightly spoke to us of what is due to each person separately. At
the beginning of their sentence they placed the Father from whom are the Son and the Holy
Spirit. The Father is truly the one who is a Father alone, but we hold each one of the
three persons to be God, because Christ included this true doctrine in His teaching
concerning these three persons. 6 When we hear the name "Father" we do not hear it to no
purpose, but we understand that God is a Father, and a true Father, because He is Father
alone; and we hold that God is Father in a way that belongs only to Divine nature. All the
created beings obtain the power of being fathers after their creation, and there is no
human being that has the attribute of fatherhood concomitantly with his existence. Even
Adam, the first man, who was not born of another man, had not the attribute of fatherhood
concomitantly with his existence. He came first into existence by the will of God the
Creator and afterwards received the power of becoming a father, as it is said: "Adam knew
his wife, and she conceived and bore a son." 38 He became and was called a father after
his intercourse with Eve, after a long time of gestation, after pangs of travail, and
after the birth of his child. It is iniquitous |30 to attribute any of those functions to
Divine nature. He who had no need of time to exist was in no need of time to become a
Father. Because He was from eternity, He was also a Father from eternity.

7 God the Father is truly a father; and He did not receive this in time, because He did
not have a Son after a time, but the latter was with Him from eternity and was from Him as
a Son also from eternity. It is for this that when our Lord gave this wonderful teaching
to His disciples He said, "Teach in the name of the Father," and did not need to add
another sentence in order to show whom He was calling "Father." It was sufficient for Him
to say, "Teach and baptize" to show whom He was calling Father. He called God the Father
in whom they had to believe and in whose name they had to be baptized, the God who was
from eternity according to the teaching of the prophets. 8 It is not possible that the one
who is from eternity should become Father after a time. The very name Father shows this
without further addition. If like us He became Father later, He would also be identical
with us in attribute and in the meaning of the word. Now since this vocable "father" is
one and the same with many men, we should rightly inquire as to whom He called Father.
Because He is a true Father, He is Father alone. As He is eternal by nature so He is
eternally a Father. Since He is alone called by this name and in the full meaning of the
word,39 we do not feel any necessity to inquire who is the one who is called Father, as
His very name indicates to us the true Father. When He says: "I am that I am," this is my
name for ever and this is my memorial unto generations," 40 we understand that God is
called by this name, because He is truly "I am that I am" while all the created beings are
not truly "I am that I am," 41 because they were created from nothing according to the
will of their Maker. Because He is the true being, He is called I am that I am, and He is
not made by another.

9 As He is not like us He is not a Father like us, because He did not receive the power of
becoming a Father in time. So when we hear the word "father" we should rightly think of
that true Father who did not acquire the power of becoming a Father in time, nor was He in
need of an intercourse. He is a Father in truth and from |31 eternity, a complete nature,
with whom His child exists also from eternity. The sentence: I believe in one God the
Father taught us all these things. It is rightly followed by the phrase Creator of all
things visible and invisible, so that we should understand that He is not only the Father
of the Son but also the Creator of all the creatures, and think of the difference which
exists between Father and Creator, and between Son and creatures. He is the Father of the
Son and the Creator of the creatures. The creatures were created later while the Son was
from the beginning with Him and from Him. This is the difference between Father and
Creator. He is called the Father of the one who was born of Him, and the Creator of all
the natures which are outside Him and which were created from nothing by His will. This is
the reason why they added nothing to the doctrine concerning the Father; indeed the very
word Father sufficed to indicate the Son, as there is no father without a son, and as
wherever there is a father there is also a son. As to the Son they were going to teach us
as much as possible concerning Him later.

10 Because He is Creator they added, Of all things visible and invisible in order to show
in this also the difference between the Son and the creatures: that He is the Father of
the Son only, while He is the Creator of everything visible and invisible, as everything
was created from nothing. He would not have been called Father of the Son and Creator of
the creatures if there was not a great difference between the two: the difference that
should exist between a Son and creatures. He is called and He is the Father of the Son,
because He is of the same nature as the one who is said to be His Son, but He is the
Creator of everything because everything was created from nothing; and although the
natures of the visible and invisible things differ among themselves yet all these created
things, whether visible or invisible, came into existence by the will of their Maker. The
fact that they were made from nothing is common to all of them, as all were created from
nothing by the will of their Maker.

11 This is the reason why the blessed David said: "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens.
Praise ye Him all His angels. Praise ye Him all His hosts. Praise ye Him sun and moon." 42
And he gradually enumerated all other creatures found in the heavens and on |32 the earth,
visible and invisible, mortal and immortal, rational and irrational, material and
immaterial, those with life and those without life. When he invited them to the praise of
God he gave one reason which holds good for all of them: "For He commanded, and they were
created. He hath established them for ever and ever. He hath made a decree which shall not
pass." 43 Because everything was created by Him and is sustained by His will, everything
whether visible or not owes praise to the Creator. Two things render it obligatory for us
to praise God: because He is God and because He is Creator. We must, however, understand
the difference between the two. It is not because He is Father that He is also Creator,
and it is not because He is Creator that He is also Father. Indeed He is not the Creator
of the One whose Father He is, nor is He the Father of those whose Creator He is. He is
only the Father of the true and only Son who is in His Father's bosom, because He was born
of Him and is with Him from eternity, but He is the Creator of all the things which are
created and made, which are very remote from His essence and which were created by His
will when He pleased. He is called and He is the Father of the Son because the latter is
from Him and consubstantial with Him, and He is the Maker and the Creator of the creatures
because He brought them to existence from nothing.

12 If He is called Father of men, He is not called their Father because He created them,
but because of their proximity to Him and relation with Him. This is the reason why He is
not called Father of all men but only of those who have relation with Him, such as "I have
nourished and brought up children." 44 To these He granted by special favour to be called
in this way. As such also is the sentence: "Israel is my son, even my first-born," 45
because the others were not sons. 46 Since we know the difference in our calling God: the
Father of the Only Begotten Son who alone is the true Son because consubstantial with Him,
and the Creator of everything which was created and came into |33 being from nothing—we
should retain this meaning in our faith. When, therefore, we say "Father," "Maker" we
ought not to conceive of God that which we conceive of men when we call them fathers and
makers, but we ought to understand the difference between Father and Maker from the way
they may be applied to us. Indeed, as with God so with us, a father is one thing and a
maker another thing. We are called the fathers of those who are from us and are born of
our nature, but the makers of those things which are not of our nature but which were made
and came into existence outside us. A house, a ship and similar things are not of our
nature, and are made by us.

13 Such being the case with us, we ought to think with a clear mind of the differences in
God between the two terms of Father and Creator, and to understand that He is the Father
of the Only Begotten Son who was born of His nature, and the Creator of all the creatures,
which were created and came into existence from nothing. For this He did not need any
matter but He created the natures through which they are seen and exist. 14 Since we were
created in the image of God,47 we picture to ourselves the higher things that are said of
God through an image taken from things that belong to us. In this way it is possible also
to picture to ourselves what and how great is the difference in the belief in God as
Father and as Creator from things belonging to us, although it is clear that there is a
great difference between us and God; and this difference we ought not to overlook when
thinking of Divine nature and the works done 48 by it. Indeed when we speak of Divine
nature we must remove completely from our mind all things that happen to us through
weakness. When we do a work we are in need of labour, matter and time; but God is above
all these, because the moment He wished it, His works were completed out of nothing. From
the fact also that we are born in labour and through human agency,49 when we become
fathers we need the nature of a female as matter, and a long period of time. Without these
we cannot become fathers. As to God He is a Father without all these, because He did not
experience labour nor did He make use of any material agency 49 nor did He need |34
intercourse, nor did He wait for any lapse of time, but He was at once Father from
eternity.

15 We should, therefore, rightly remove from God all unbecoming thoughts of things which
happen to us through weakness whether in the domain of offspring or of work. We do
everything in labour, and our nature itself emanates and suffers from it. As to God, He is
above all these. Even when we reign, when we become governors, when we judge, when we
work, when we speak, when we look, and do any other thing, we do all with labour; and when
fatigue is protracted, it is followed by sweat; and because our nature is mortal and
corruptible, it will perish through labour. As to God He does all things ascribed to Him,
such as governing, providing, judging, reigning and the like without fatigue, without
material agency and without injury.50 It is such an idea that we must have of God, and it
is such a faith that we ought to possess concerning God the Father. When we call Him
Father, we mean 51 Father of the Son; and He is truly a Father by nature, as we are. It is
impossible to understand how He is truly a Father if He were not a Father by nature. He is
eternally a Father because His nature, in which He is a Father, is eternal. When we call
Him Creator we mean that He created everything in wisdom as it is said: "In wisdom Thou
hast made them all," 52 as we also do things in the wisdom of the skill that we possess.
God is creator in the sense that when He wished, the creatures came fully into existence,
and He was in no need of time or any other intervening thing between His wish and the
coming into existence of His creatures. Immediately after He wishes to create a thing, it
comes into existence from nothing.

16 It is in this kind of profession of faith and with this meaning that our blessed
Fathers gave us the belief in one God, Father and Creator, whom we have tried to explain
to your love in a long teaching, which you should keep without modification, so that you
should flee from the iniquitous opinions of the heretics, while your faith is sound, by
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom, in conjunction with His Father and the Holy
Spirit, be glory and honour for ever and ever. Amen. Here ends the second chapter. |35

CHAPTER III. ON FAITH.

1 I believe that from what has been said you have learnt sufficiently which are the things
that those whose solicitude is the fear of God have to understand and utter concerning God
the Father. Let us now quote and examine also the words uttered by our blessed Fathers in
the profession of faith concerning the Son: And in one Lord Jesus Christ the Only Begotten
Son of God, the first-born of all the creatures. It was right that after their doctrine
concerning the Father they should teach concerning the Son according to the teaching of
our Lord, while preserving the order and the sequence of their words. As when speaking of
the Father they not only said "Father" according to the teaching of our Lord, but added,
in one God the Father and the Creator of all things, and first placed the name of God in
the profession of faith by saying that He is one in order to refute the error of
polytheism, and then added, the Father and the Creator of all things—so also they acted
concerning the Son: In one Lord Jesus Christ the Only Begotten Son of God, the first-born
of all the creatures. In this they clearly followed the preaching of the blessed Paul, who
when teaching against idols and erroneous creeds said in refutation of the error of
polytheism: "There is but one God," 53 and because he knew that we hold the doctrine of
the faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, he strove openly to show us that the
question of the faith in these persons does not inflict any injury on us in our faith 54
nor does it lead us to the error of polytheism.

2 Because we know that the Divine nature of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
is one, when he desired to teach us this faith in a succinct manner he said: "To us there
is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things." 55 In saying "one God the Father" he
confuted all the error of polytheism, and showed that to us one Divine nature is preached.
By the addition of the person of the Father he showed us the Son also, as after this he
said: "And one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things" 56 in order to proclaim the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together, while including also in his sentence |36 the
Incarnation of our Lord which took place for our salvation and in which Divine nature
became our Saviour. When he says: "one Lord by whom are all things" he alludes to God the
Word who is a true Son consubstantial with His Father. He called Him rightly Lord in order
to make us understand that He is from the Divine nature of God the Father.

3 We do not say that the Father is one God in the sense that the Son is not God, nor that
the Son is one Lord in the sense that the Father is not Lord, because it is known and
evident that any one who is truly God is also truly Lord, and any one who is truly Lord is
also truly God, and any one who is not truly God is not truly Lord: "The Lord thy God is
one Lord," 57 as He alone is so in truth. He who possesses these true attributes is alone
called Lord and God in truth, and there is no other thing outside this nature which may be
called Lord and God in truth. He who says "one God" shows also that there is one Lord, and
he who says "there is but one Lord" confesses also that there is but one God. He (Paul)
first said: "There is but one God" and immediately after "there is but one Lord," in order
to separate the persons, because in repeating the word "one" about each one of them he
showed that the two persons are to be known as of one Divine nature, which is truly both
Lord and God.

4 In order to include in their sentence the human nature which was assumed for our
salvation they said: In one Lord Jesus Christ. This name is that of the man whom God put
on, as the angel said: "She shall bring forth a Son whose name shall be called 'Jesus.'"
58They added also the word Christ in order to allude to the Holy Spirit, as it is written:
"Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power." 59 And He is God
because of the close union with that Divine nature which is truly God. In this same way
our blessed Fathers who assembled in that wonderful Council of the Catholic Church [of
Nicea] first spoke, like Paul, of Divine nature while coupling with it a word which
denotes the form of humanity which He took upon Him 60 and said: And in one Lord Jesus
Christ the Only Begotten Son of God, the first-born of all creatures. It is thus that they
wished to teach mankind when they spoke of the Divine nature of the Son. His humanity, in
which |37 is Divine nature, is also made known and proclaimed in it, according to the
saying of the blessed Paul: "God was manifest in the flesh," and according to the saying
of John the evangelist, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 62

5 Our Fathers rightly thought not to overlook the humanity of our Lord which possesses
such an ineffable union with Divine nature, but added: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, as if
they had said, 'We believe in one Lord who is of Divine nature, to which the name of Lord
and God is truly due.' In speaking of God the Word they said: By whom are all things,63 as
the evangelist said: "All things were made by Him, and nothing was made without Him." 64
It is as if they had said, ' This one we understand to be one Lord who is of the Divine
nature of God the Father, who for our salvation put on a man in whom He dwelt and through
whom He appeared and became known to mankind. It is this man who was said by the angel
that he would be called Jesus, who was anointed with the Holy Ghost in whom He was
perfected and justified, as the blessed Paul testifies.' 65After saying these and showing
the Divine nature and the human nature which God put on, they added: The "Only Begotten
Son," the "first-born" of all creatures. With these two words they alluded to the two
natures, and by the difference between the words they made us understand the difference
between the natures. From the fact also that they referred both words to the one person 66
of the Son they showed us the close union between the two natures.

6 They did not make use of these words out of their own head but they took them from the
teaching of Holy Writ. The blessed Paul said: "Of whom Christ in the flesh, who is God
over all," 67 not that He is God by nature from the fact that He is of the House of David
in the flesh, but he said "in the flesh" in order to indicate the human nature that was
assumed. He said "God over all" in order to indicate the Divine nature which is higher
than all, and which is the Lord. He used both words of one person in order to teach the
close union of the two natures, and in order to make manifest the majesty and the honour
that came to the man who was assumed by God who put Him on. |38 7 In this same way they
said also: The Only Begotten Son, the first-born of all creatures. Because they were on
the point of enlightening us concerning the two natures: how they are, which was the
Divine nature which came down, and which was the human nature which was assumed—they used
in advance these two expressions together in order to indicate the two natures through
them. It is clear that they do not speak of one nature when they say: The Only Begotten
Son, the first-born of all creatures, because the two expressions cannot be said of one
nature, as there is a great difference between an only son and a first-born. It is not
possible that an only son and a first-born should denote the same man. A first-born is the
one who has many brothers while an only son is the one who has no brothers. So great is
the difference between an only son and a firstborn that it may be compared with the
difference that nature places between the one who is alone and the one who is in company
of others.

8 We call an only son one who has no other brothers at all while we call a first-born one
who clearly has other brothers. This the Sacred Book teaches us also without ambiguity. In
wishing to speak of an only son it says: "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 68 It says also: "The only begotten Son
who is in the bosom of the Father," 69 so that by His close proximity to His Father He
might be known as an only Son. The sentence, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of an only
begotten of the Father" shows that He alone is of the nature of the Father by birth, and
He alone is a Son. In using the word "bosom" it conveys to us a union that never ceases,
as it is unbecoming to understand this word to refer to a corporeal bosom of God. Inasmuch
as they call eye "sight" and ear "hearing," so also they call a union that never ceases
"bosom," as it is said: "Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom," 70 that
is to say let them receive punishment continually and always. The expression "only Son"
that has been used signifies, therefore, that He is alone born of the Father, that He is
alone Son, that He is always with His Father and is known with Him, because He is truly a
Son from His Father.

9 As to the expression "the first-born of all the creatures," we |39 understand it in the
sense in which it is said: "For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate, and He
formed them to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren."
71 (Paul) did not make use of this word in order to show us that He is Son alone, but in
order to make us understand that He has many brethren and that He is known among many
since they acquired with Him participation in the adoption of sons,72 and because of them
He is called first-born as they are His brothers. In another passage He is called "first-
born of all the creatures." 73 This is also said about the humanity of Christ, because
(Paul) did not simply say "first-born" but "first-born of all the creatures." No one is
called first-born if he has no other brothers because of whom he is called and is a first-
born, so the expression "the first-born of all creatures" means that He was the first to
be renewed by His resurrection from the dead; and He changed into a new and wonderful
life, and He renewed also all the creatures and brought them to a new and a higher
creation. It is indeed said: "Everything that is in Christ is a new creature. Old things
are passed away, and all things are become new through our Lord Jesus Christ." 74 He is
the firstborn of all the creatures because all the creation was renewed and changed
through the renewal which He granted to it by His grace from the renewal into which He
Himself was renewed, and through which He moved to a new life and ascended high above all
creatures.

10 He is rightly called the first-born of all the creatures, because He was first renewed,
and then He renewed the creatures, while He is higher in honour than all of them. This is
how we understand the difference between the two names. Our Fathers, who took their wisdom
from Holy Writ, referred this difference to one person and said: In the Only Begotten Son,
the first-born of all creatures, in order to show us, as I said previously, the close
union of the two natures. It is with justice, therefore, that they first said, "an only
Son" and then, "the first-born." Indeed they had first to show us who was the one who was
in the form of God,75 and who, because of His grace, took upon Him our nature, and
afterwards to speak of that form of a servant which was assumed for our salvation. In this
way and by the change in the terms that they used, they made manifest to us the two
natures and |40 differences, and also the unity of sonship arising out of the closeness of
the union of the natures, which was effected by the will of God. In this they kept also
the right order of things as they taught first concerning Divine nature which by its grace
came down to us and put on humanity, and then concerning that humanity which was assumed
through grace, and afterwards they gave the true doctrine for the refutation of the
heretics who strove to twist the truth.

11 In their teaching they began later to speak of Divine nature about which they had
already spoken at the beginning of the profession of faith: Who was bom before all the
worlds, and not made. It is clear that they said these words concerning Divine nature,
although the word "only Son" was sufficient to teach the true doctrine concerning the Son
to all non-contentious. If He is an only Son, it is clear that He alone is born of God,
and He alone is a Son con-substantial with His Father. The expression "only Son" denotes
all these things, and even more, because those who are called sons of God are numerous,
while this one is alone the only Son. It is, indeed written: "I have said, Ye are gods,
and all of you children of the Most High," 76 and again, "I have nourished and brought up
children." 77 Since there are many who are called "sons" this one would not have been
called "an only Son" if there was not a great difference between them. They were called
sons by grace because they became near to God and members of the household,78 and because
of this membership of the household they deserved by grace to be called by this name. This
one, however, was called an only Son because He alone is a Son consubstantial with His
Father. He was not called a Son, because He, like others, became by grace worthy of the
adoption of sons, but because He was born of the very nature (of the Father) He was called
and He is a Son. Although these things are clear and evident in the Sacred Books, and
although it is patent to every one that no one can be called an only son except the one
who is truly of the same nature as his father, the unholy and erroneous opinion of the
heretics remained for some time without rectification.

12 Of all those who had received the knowledge of Christ, Arius was the first to dare and
to say impiously that the Son was a creature 79 and was made from nothing: a novel theory
alien to public opinion and |41 to the laws of nature, as any one who is created is not a
Son, and any one who is a Son is not a creature, because it is impossible that a creature
should be called a true Son or a true Son to be called a creature. This compelled our
blessed Fathers to assemble from all regions and hold a holy Synod in the town of Nicea in
the district of Bithynia, and to write this (profession of) faith in order to uphold the
true faith, to confute the wickedness of Arius, to refute those who sprang up later and
who are called by the name of their deceiver Eunomius, and to overthrow those heresies
which arose out of erroneous opinions. Although the question was clear and evident to all
from the law of nature, from common consent and from the teaching of the Sacred Books,
they added and said: Born and not made.

13 They used words suitable to the belief in the Son, as if they had said: we call Him a
Son, not a mere man and not like one who is figuratively called so—such as those who are
by grace called children because of their adoption in the household—but alone a true Son.
He is a true Son because He is an only Son; and He is truly born of His Father, is from
Him and from His nature, and is eternally like Him. There is no created thing that is
before the worlds, as the one who is before the worlds is the one who is alone from
eternity. As the Father is from eternity so also the Son who is from Him is from eternity.
He did not come into existence after a time nor was He born later, but He was born
eternally before all the worlds from the one who is from eternity, and He is with Him from
eternity as the evangelist said: "In the beginning was the Word." 80

14 He is from eternity, and did not come into existence later, but He was in the beginning
before everything. He who comes into existence later is called "the last," and the last is
not the first; and he who is not the first was not in the beginning. If, therefore, He was
in the beginning, He was also the first, as there is nothing that precedes the beginning.
If He is the first He is not the last, and if He is not the last He did not come into
existence later. In the beginning He was,81 and He was in the beginning from God, that is
to say He was from eternity and before all the worlds with God. And to show that He was
with God, and not from outside, as something foreign and not from the very nature of
Divinity, the blessed evangelist called Him "Word," because a word belongs to |42 a man
and is from a man; and since it is possible that the being who was with Him was from
another he made use of this illustration so that the hearers should not doubt that He was
from eternity from the one who is eternally from eternity. Indeed, the word of the soul,
the rational character of which is accomplished in itself, is with it and in it by nature,
and it is through it that this same soul is known to be rational. And it comes out of the
soul, and is seen from it and in it, and is always with it and known through it.

15 In this same way the Son is from the Father like the word is from the soul. He is
eternally from Him, with Him and in Him, and He is known from eternity with Him. "He was
in the beginning," that is to say He was from eternity, from the beginning, and before
everything; not that He came into existence later, but that He was in the beginning and
always; that He was eternally from Him and eternally with Him, like the word is with the
soul, from which and with which it always is. The word, however, is seen as something
different from the soul, and is the personality82 of the soul, because not having its own
personality it is seen in the soul. In order that, by following this illustration, we may
not believe that the Son has no personality 82 or that He was alien to the nature of the
Father he quickly added: "And the Word was God." After saying that He "was" and that He
"was with God" he added "And the Word was God" so that he should show clearly that He was
not from a nature different from that of God, or that He was different from Him in the
Godhead, but that He was identical with the one from whom He was and that He was God with
the one who was God.

16 He said wonderfully: "And the Word was God" in order to show that He is what God is,
and that He is what our blessed Fathers rightly described: Born of Him before all the
worlds. In this they wished to convey that from eternity and before all the worlds He was
in the beginning from Him and with Him. Their words did not stop here but to complete the
doctrine of truth, to warn the children of faith and to overthrow the error of the
heretics, they added the sentence: And not made. We should be in need of many words if we
intended to comment fully upon all things said by our blessed Fathers concerning the
Divinity |43 of the Only Begotten. In order, however, to lighten to you the burden of the
many things that are said to you we shall utter them little by little so that you may
better be able to hear and to learn them. With your permission, therefore, we shall put an
end here to the things that were said to-day, and keep the things that follow (in the
credo) to another day, and for all of them let us praise the Father, the Only Begotten Son
and the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

17 Here ends the third chapter.


COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED
==============================

COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED continued

CHAPTER IV.

1 Yesterday we endeavoured to interpret to your love, according to our ability and in a
succinct manner, the things said by our blessed Fathers concerning the Divinity of the
Only Begotten, while we kept the remainder of them for another day. In our commentary we
reached, as you remember, the sentence in which it is said: Born of His Father before all
the worlds, and not made, and there we ended our speech. If you wish, let us now begin by
the grace of our Lord with this sentence. We were stating that in saying: Born of His
Father before all the worlds they showed us that He is a Son truly and not figuratively
only, as the heretics pretend that He is a Son only in a borrowed name like those who were
called sons by grace. He is indeed alone the true Son of God the Father because He is the
Only Begotten and is alone born of God His Father. This is the reason why they added: Born
of His Father before all the worlds.

2 This was due to the Only Begotten Son of God, who is a true Son and not in name only.
And He is from the nature of the Father and eternally from Him and with Him. It is not
possible for us to imagine that there is anything between God the Father and God the Son,
as God is high above everything. He who is above everything is also above the time and
from eternity. If, therefore, God the Father is eternal, and if the Son is God, He is also
eternal, God from God, and Eternal from Eternal, and there is nothing between God and God.
As it is not possible to imagine that either times or worlds precede God, so there is
nothing before the Son as He also is God, because He is born of His Father before
everything, and is eternal, born of the One who is eternal. |44

3 For a perfect faith to those who have the good-will of religion this name of "Only
Begotten" would have been sufficient, and they would have agreed to say that He was a true
Son. (Our Fathers), however, added to it the sentence: Born of Him before all the worlds.
Both phrases demonstrate how the Only Begotten is the Son of God, and it is with justice
that they added for the refutation of the haters of truth: And not made. We confess that
He is the Only Begotten, the Son of God, born of the Father before all the worlds, and
that He is consubstantial with the Father; and we completely reject the opinion held by
the ungodly people who said that the Son of God is created. He is indeed born of God and
He is not made, and He is of the same nature as God and not a creature.83 A Son is very
different from a creature.

4 If He is a Son He is not a creature, and if He is a creature He is not a Son. If He is a
Son He is from Him and not from outside Him, and if He is a creature He is from outside
Him. If He is a Son He is from Him and like Him, and if He is a creature He is from
outside Him and not from Him and like Him. The natural law teaches us also these things,
because we call sons those who are born of us; as to creatures they are made outside us
while they were not. Likewise we understand that there are many creatures of God, but the
Son is One whom we also call Only Begotten. The Son is one alone, and He is eternally from
Him; as to creatures they are many and exceed all numbering, and are composed of many
natures which came into existence later according to the will of their Maker, both
individually and collectively. He knew that diversity was useful to the creature because
it is created, and some parts of it came into existence earlier, some later and some
others later still; parts of it came into existence at the same time, and parts after many
others. Since all the created things were to come into existence it was justifiable that
some should come earlier and some later.

5 As there is a beginning to the existence of all created things, those which came into
existence later are like those which came into existence earlier. As to the Son, because
He did not come into existence to His Father later but was in the beginning from Him and
was from eternity with Him, is alone Son. It was not possible that the one |45 who was
similar to the one who is from eternity should have come into existence later, nor was it
possible that the one who has a beginning should have been similar to the one who is from
eternity. Indeed there is a great difference between one who is from eternity and one who
began his existence later; the difference is so great that the two cannot exist
concomitantly. What possible relation can exist between one who is eternal and another who
was at one time nonexistent and began his existence later?

6 It is well known that the one who is eternal and the one whose existence has a beginning
are greatly separated from each other, and the gulf found between them is unbridgeable.
The one who is eternal has no limits, while the one whose existence has a beginning, his
very existence is limited, and the one the beginning of whose existence is limited, the
time that elapsed before he came into existence is also limited. It is not possible to
limit and define the chasm that exists between the one who is from eternity and the one
who began to exist at a time when he was not. What possible resemblance and relation can
exist between two beings so widely separated from each other? And because the Son is from
eternity, and from a Father who is from eternity, no other son like Him came into
existence later. He remained Son alone because He is from eternity from one who is from
eternity. It was fitting that such a one should be alone the Son from the Father.

7 In this way our Fathers warned us concerning the knowledge of the Son, and wrote to us
the true doctrine to the effect that when we believe in the Only Begotten Son we should
understand that He is from the Father. They taught us also to flee from the impiety of the
heretics and reject their contention that the Son is made, as this is very remote from the
truth. The Son should not be thought of as a made being nor as a creature, but we ought to
profess concerning Father and Son what is congruous to both of them, namely that the Son
is from the nature of the Father and is not a being made by the Father and created outside
Him from nothing. Our blessed Fathers taught us these and added something that fits the
sequence of the sentence: True God of true God. Indeed what else were we justified in
thinking of the one who is from God and not from outside Him but from the very nature of
the Father, except that He was what God is by nature, that is to say a true God? |46

8 In this they followed the teaching of the Gospel in which it is said: "And the Word was
with God, and the Word was God," 84 as if the evangelist had said, "And God was with God,
and He was what He was, as He was with Him and from Him." In this way our Fathers said
also: True God of true God. They added to the sentence, "God from God" that of, "True from
true" because of the wickedness of those who wish to show contention and insolence even
concerning heavenly 85 things. The sentence which they used does not differ from that
found in the Gospel, as it is clear that the one who says, "God with God" says also "A
true one with a true one." The (Gospel) does not say "And He is called God," like those
who are called gods by men, nor, "He was with the one who was called God by name only,"
but, He was God with the one who was God, and God by nature with the one who was God by
nature. Men are called gods, but are not assumed to be gods by nature: "I have said, Ye
are gods, and all of you children of the Most High, but ye shall die like men,86 because I
only called you so to bestow honour upon you, as you are not gods by nature; you are
mortal men by nature, which is very different from Divine nature; this is evident from the
nature of things, because if you had been gods by nature you would not have been entangled
in sin for which you received death."

9 God is not only called God by name, but He is in reality by nature that which is implied
by His name; and God the Word who is with Him is not only called God figuratively, but is
also God by nature; and he who is God by nature what else can he be except true God? What
is there truer than nature, and how is it possible that the one who is (God) by nature
should not be so in truth? If He is not God by nature, He is neither God in truth. Indeed
this name "god" is either applied to demons, who falsely and insolently dare to call
themselves by it in their arrogance, or to men who are called so by God's gracious
permission as an honour. As to the Son He is God by nature like the Father. 10 Although
the heretics dare to call the Only Begotten, "Son of God" in a different sense, yet since
He is God by nature it is evident that He is also God in truth, as there is nothing truer
than the one who is what he is by nature. It is indeed evident that the one who is God by
nature is also God in truth. And there is nothing truer than |47 a true one—(and this
contrary to) the new wisdom of the heretics— when each of them is a true (God) by nature.
Indeed they say that God the Father is God by nature and that God the Son is also God by
nature, but they refuse to admit that the Son is God in truth, in spite of the fact that
they admit that He is God by nature, and in this they introduce a new law to us in their
innovations to the effect that He is a true God but not like God His Father. If each one
of them is God by nature, how is it possible for us to understand that one of them is
higher and the other lower while both of them are assumed to have an identical nature? It
is impossible to find an addition or a diminution in the one whom the Sacred Books and
those who followed their doctrine teach us that He is God by nature.

11 Our blessed Fathers also followed the Books and warned us against the unholy opinion
and the ineptitude of the heretics, in saying: True God of true God. The Books had already
stated that He was "God," and they (our Fathers) added prudently the word "true" so that
we might believe that the Son is a true God like the Father, because like the Father He is
a true God by nature. And as the Father was confessed as God for the confutation of the
error of the multiplicity of gods—who were falsely called gods by the peoples of the
earth—so also is the case with the Son of God, because we believe that God the Father and
God the Son are one God, inasmuch as the Divine nature of the Father and of the Son is
one. 12 To this our blessed Fathers added that the Son was "consubstantial" with His
Father, a word that confirms (the faith of) the children of faith and rebukes the
unbelievers. Although this is not explicitly written in Holy Writ yet its meaning is found
therein. They explained here by means of a clear word the meaning of that which they had
previously stated, because the sentence: Consubstantial with the Father is not different
from that of: True God of true God. They did not wish to insinuate by this sentence
"Consubstantial with the Father any other thing than that the being who, as previously
stated by them, was God and born of His Father before all the worlds and not made—is God.
Indeed, if He is born of Him before all the worlds and is not made, and if He is not a
creature but a true Son of His Father, it is evident that He is from Him and not from
outside Him, and that He is born of the nature of the Father and consubstantial with Him;
and if He is true God of true God, it is |48 evident that He is consubstantial with Him,87
because any one who is truly God in nature is consubstantial with one who is truly God in
nature.

13 The meaning of the sentence "consubstantial with His Father" is clearly found in the
Book. When it says: "In the beginning He was with God and He was God," 88 it shows by
means of these two phrases that He is God in nature and that He is consubstantial with
God. This is also the meaning of the sentence: "My Father and I are one." 89 If the Son is
one with His Father in power and in nature, He is consubstantial with Him. By His
statement: "My sheep hear my voice and follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and
no man shall pluck them out of my hand," 90 He bore witness to His omnipotence and to the
fact that no man can prevail against Him; and because this sentence conveyed higher things
than the simple man who was seen in Him, He added: "My Father who gave them me is greater
than all, and no man is able to pluck (them) out of my Father's hand." 91 He lowered the
significance of the sentence by the addition: "He gave me." What He said of Himself to the
effect that no man can prevail against Him, He said it of His person; and to show that He
did make use of such words for the purpose of showing that the power of both (the Father
and the Son) was identical and that no man was able to prevail against Him in the same way
as no man was able to prevail against the Father who was believed to be higher than all,
He said: "My Father and I are one."

14 He made clear in this (sentence) that which He had implicitly insinuated in the meaning
of the preceding words which He had uttered; it is as if He had said, "my power is
identical with that of my Father and higher than all like His power, and no man can
prevail against me even as no man can prevail against my Father, because my Father and I
are one, and have one power and one dominion that is higher than all." This is the reason
why the Jews called Him a blasphemer. Indeed they did not know the Divine nature that was
dwelling in Him, but knew only that which was visible in Him, and wished to stone Him like
a man making use of blasphemous words. To the same effect is the sentence: "He that hath
seen me hath |49 seen my Father," 92 and: "I am in my Father and my Father in me." 93If
the Father is seen in the Son it is evident that both have one nature, and each of them is
seen and known in the other. In this way their mutual equality shows also the unity of
their nature, and the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father. This is likewise the
meaning of the sentence: "No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man
the Father save the Son." 94 If each of them is not known and seen except by the other, it
is evident that they are invisible to all men because of their equality in nature, each of
them only knowing the other. If this is so then the Son is consubstantial with the Father.

15 In spite of the fact that all these things are manifestly evident in the Sacred Books,
those who incline towards evil, to the condemnation of their souls, and are not upright,
dared to say that the nature of the Son is different from that of the Father, a saying
which also implies that He is not a Son. It is known that he who is truly a son is of the
same nature as his father. Our blessed Fathers were well advised, therefore, to make use
of this expression the meaning of which was implicitly found in many words of the Sacred
Books, in order to warn the faithful of their time and to rebuke the heretics; and they
wished also to make it known in condensed words. If the blessed Paul did not hesitate to
quote in his teaching sentences that were used by Greek philosophers, such as: "we are of
the offspring of gods," 95 and: "The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies,"
96 and if he did not shrink from writing them for the reproval of his adversaries, it was
all the more right for our blessed Fathers to make use in the profession of faith of the
expression that the Son was Consubstantial with the Father, and although this word is not
explicitly written in the Sacred Books, its meaning was implicitly found in many passages.

16 After this they said: By Whom the worlds were made and all things were created. As in
the section of the faith which deals with the Father, after the word "Father" they added
"Creator of all things," so also in the section which deals with the Son, after stating
that He was born of the Father and was consubstantial with Him, they rightly added that He
was the creator of all things, because a true Son |50 who is consubstantial with His
Father is also a true creator like Him. In this same way the blessed John the evangelist,
after having said "in the beginning He was with God, and He was God" 97 added: "All things
were made by Him and without Him was not anything made," 98 in order to show us that He
was a creator like God His Father. In this same way after our blessed Fathers had said
that the Son was from the Father, that He was true God from true God and that He was
consubstantial with His Father, they added: By whom the worlds were made and all things
were created. They said this because as He is with His Father before all the worlds, He is
the creator of all things like God His Father. And since the worlds were made by Him, He
is the creator of all creatures, and He is before all the worlds, because He is from
eternity and did not begin to exist later, but was in the beginning and is the creator of
all the worlds, as the blessed Paul said: "By Him He made the worlds." 99

17 Our blessed Fathers also after saying like him: "By Him the worlds were made," added
that He was the creator of all things. In this way they taught us the divinity of the Only
Begotten while stating something which was in harmony with the Sacred Books; and gave also
encouragement to those who are zealous in their religion, and confuted those who deny the
divinity of the Only Begotten. As to us we have explained to your love the meaning of the
(profession of) faith in a succinct manner, according to our ability. If you wish it let
the measure of the things which we said suffice for our teaching of to-day, and let us
praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. Here ends the
fourth chapter.

CHAPTER V.

1 I know that you remember what we spoke to your love concerning the divinity of the Only
Begotten, and how our blessed Fathers after their teaching about the Father came to the
words written in the Sacred Books concerning the Son, and taught us both about the
divinity of the Son and the form of man which He assumed for our |51 salvation.100 They
thought not to keep silent on the human nature which He put on because it is through it
that we received the knowledge of the Divine nature of the Only Begotten. After saying:
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, in order to make manifest the Divine nature and the human
nature they added: The Only Begotten Son, the first-born of all creatures, and they
further instructed us concerning Divine nature and the form of man which was put on for
our salvation so that little by little they might teach us everything with accuracy.

2 They first taught us how to believe in the divinity of the Only Begotten by saying that
the Only Begotten Son was consubstantial with the Father, and not a Son with only an
assumed name like other men who are so by grace and not by nature, but that He was a true
Son from the Father; that He was an only Son, because He alone was born of the nature of
His Father; that He did not become Son or was called so later, but that He was in the
beginning, before all the worlds and eternally from His Father, and was not made. The
reason why the Son of God should not be called a creature of God, is that He did not come
into existence from nothing according to the law of all created beings, but He is
eternally from His Father, "a true God of true God, and consubstantial with His Father,"
because He is a true Son and is by nature what the one who begat Him is.

3 Our fathers taught us these things with accuracy concerning the divinity of the Only
Begotten, and fixed the profession of faith in our souls while removing from us the
contention of the ungodly who dare to assert that the Son of God, who was born eternally
from His Father before all the worlds, is made and created. After having shaken from our
mind all the falsehood of the error of the heretics, they began to speak of the
Incarnation of our Lord which took place for our salvation, in saying: Who for us children
of men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate and became a man. 4 It
is with justice that they first used the sentence "for us children of men and for our
salvation." Because they were on the point of speaking about the Economy of His humanity,
they were bound to show the purpose of it, as they could not do this with the words which
|52 dealt with the divinity of the Only Begotten and in which they spoke to us how He was
eternally from His Father. Since they took pains to teach us concerning His humanity, it
is with justice that before everything they set forth the reason for which Divine nature
humbled itself to the extent of taking upon itself the form of a servant for us and of its
caring for our salvation. It is with justice, therefore, that our Fathers, in beginning
their teaching concerning the Economy of His humanity, formed the starting-point of their
discourse from this purpose: For us children of men and for our salvation. It was also
fitting on their part to place the words "for our salvation" after the words "for us
children of men," in order that they might show the aim of His coming, which was not only
for the "children of men" but also "for their salvation." He came down from heaven to save
and to deliver from evil, by an ineffable grace, those who were lost 102 and given up to
iniquities.

5 He came down not in the sense that He moved from place to place. We are not to think
that Divine nature which is everywhere moves from place to place; because this Divine
nature has no body, it cannot be circumscribed in a place.. He who is not circumscribed is
everywhere, and He who is everywhere it is not possible for us to think of Him that He
moves from place to place. To this the blessed John bears witness when he says: "He was in
the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own
and His own received Him not." 103 He says here that "He was in the world" and that "He
came unto the world"; but if He was in the world how did He come to it? Indeed, how can we
say that a man came to a place where he was? He, therefore, said "He was in the world" in
order to show that He is everywhere; and he added: "He came unto His own," about the
Economy of His humanity. Likewise the blessed David said: "He bowed the heavens and came
down," 104 in order to make manifest to us the deliverance from their tribulations which
God effected for them. He called the condescension of God the "coming down" of God, in the
sense that He who was so much above all condescended to deliver them from their
tribulations. |53

6 It is in this sense that God the Word, the only Son of God, is said to have come down
for our salvation, because He is eternally from His Father, is always with Him, and is
above all as He is the cause of everything. For our salvation He condescended to come down
to such a humility as to take upon Him the form of a servant and be in it so that through
it 106 He might grant us the delight of His abundant gift. It is with justice, therefore,
that our blessed Fathers said: Who for us children of men and for our salvation came down
from heaven. They called the Economy of His humanity a "coming down from heaven," at which
the blessed David was awe-struck and said: "What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and
the son of man that Thou visitest him?" 107

7 Who for us children of men and for our salvation came down from heaven: what is His
coming down and what is its aim? And what did [man] do that He humbled Himself to such an
extent for him as to become like him, and to take upon Him the form of a servant, and to
be a man for our salvation, and to make Himself manifest to all, and to assume upon
Himself all that which belonged to the nature of that man, and to be exercised in all
(human) faculties? And He perfected him by His power, so that He did not remove from him
the (bodily) death which he received according to the law of his nature,—but while He was
with him He delivered him by act of grace from (real) death and from the corruption of the
grave,108 and raised him from the dead, and made him worthy of a high honour concerning
which he said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," 109 which he
did; and He was not separated from him in his crucifixion nor did He leave him at death,
but He remained with him until He helped him to loose 110 the pains of death,111 and He
delivered his soul from bonds which were indissoluble; and He raised him from the dead and
transferred him to immortal life,112 and made him immortal, incorruptible and immutable;
and He caused him to go up to heaven where he is now sitting at the right hand of God; |54
and he is "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come" 113 as the
blessed Paul testifies; and he constantly receives adoration from all creation because of
his close union with God the Word.

8 It is with justice, therefore, that our blessed Fathers said that He was incarnate and
became a man, so that for the sake of our salvation He might act according to all this
Economy whereby He was believed to be a mere man by those who were unaware of the Godhead
which was dwelling in Him and who only saw that which was visible. Indeed the Jews said to
Him: "For good works we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a
man, makest Thyself God." 114 And Paul also said, "He was in the likeness of men, and was
found in fashion as a man." 115 The (sentence) "He was in the likeness of men" does not
mean any other thing than that He became a man. When the Book said: "God sent His own Son
who became in the likeness of the sinful flesh," 116 the "likeness of the flesh" does not
mean any other thing than flesh itself; and so also when in another passage it says: "He
was manifest in the flesh." 117In this passage it uses "flesh" and in the other "likeness
of the flesh," but by the two expressions "flesh" and "likeness of the flesh" it does not
show us any other thing than that it teaches us that He was manifest in the flesh, in the
same way as "in the likeness of man" does not mean any other thing than "man."

9 It is with justice, therefore, that our blessed Fathers said: He was incarnate and
became a man in order to show that He was a man, as the blessed Paul testifies, and that
He fulfilled this Economy for the salvation of all. It is with justice then that our
blessed Fathers made use of this word in the profession of faith for the refutation of the
error of the heretics, while conforming with the true belief of the Church. And on account
of the numerous schisms that had taken place among men concerning that ineffable Economy
and concerning the man whom our Lord assumed, they rightly made use of the sentence: He
was incarnate and became a man. The Marcionites and the Manicheans together with the
followers of Valentinus and the rest of the heretics who were affected with |55 a like
malady, say that our Lord did not assume any of our natures either of the body or the
soul, but that He was a phantasm that struck the eyes of men like the form of the visions
which the prophets saw and the apparition seen by Abraham of three men of whom none had a
corporeal nature but who were only in appearance men who performed human acts, walked,
talked, were washed, ate and drank. They say that in this same way our Lord did not assume
any body but that He was only in appearance a man who performed and felt everything
according to the requirements of men, while the one who was seen had no human nature but
was only seen in appearance to be so, and that in reality He felt nothing but only the
onlookers believed that He was feeling.

10 The partisans of Arius and Eunomius, however, say that He assumed a body but not a
soul, and that the nature of the Godhead took the place of the soul. They lowered the
Divine nature of the Only Begotten to the extent that from the greatness of its nature it
moved and performed the acts of the soul and imprisoned itself in the body and did
everything for its sustenance. Lo, if the Godhead had replaced the soul He would not have
been hungry or thirsty, nor would He have tired or been in need of food. All these things
befall the body because of its weakness, as the soul is not able to satisfy its wants, but
does for it only those things that belong to itself according to the nature given to it by
God. The soul is in need of a body which is perfect in everything that deals with its
sustenance, and if something is missing in it, not only this same soul is unable to help
it but will itself be overcome by the weakness of the body, and will be compelled to leave
it against its own will.

11 If, therefore, the Godhead was performing the acts of the soul, it would also by
necessity have performed the acts of the body. Only in this way could be right the opinion
of the misleading heretics who deny that He assumed a body and was only seen in the same
way as the angels (were seen in the Old Testament), and was a man in appearance only while
He did not possess any qualities of human nature. Indeed the Godhead was able to
accomplish everything so that the eyes which were seeing believed that they were seeing a
real man,119 in the same way as the angels were, by the will of God, seen by Abraham. |56
12 If, however, Divine nature was sufficient for all these things, human nature which was
in need of the grace of salvation from God should not have been assumed, as according to
the opinion of the heretics this same Godhead would have satisfied the requirements of
human nature, and in this case it would have been superfluous to assume a body at all as
the Godhead was able to perform all its acts. This, however, was not the will of God, who
indeed wished to put on and raise the fallen man who is composed of a body and of an
immortal and rational soul, so that "as by one man sin entered the world, and death by
sin, so also the free gift and the grace of God by the righteousness of one man might
abound unto many." 120 As death was by man so also the resurrection from the dead (will
be) by man, because "as we all die in Adam, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,"
121 as the blessed Paul testifies. Therefore it was necessary that He should assume not
only the body but also the immortal and rational soul; and not only the death of the body
had to cease but also that of the soul, which is sin. Since according to the sentence of
the blessed (Paul) sin entered the world through man, and death entered through sin, it
was necessary that sin which was the cause of death should have first been abolished, and
then the abolition of death would have followed by itself. If sin were not abolished we
would have by necessity remained in mortality, and we would have sinned in our mutability;
and when we sin, we are under punishment, and consequently the power of death will by
necessity remain.

13 It was, therefore, necessary that sin should have first been abolished, as after its
abolition there would be no entry for death. It is indeed clear that the strength of the
sin 122 has its origin in the will of the soul. In the case of Adam also it was his soul
which first accepted the advice of error and not his body, because it was not his body
that Satan persuaded to yield to him, to forsake God and to believe that his Helper was a
deceiver, in his desire for higher things; and in following the advice of Satan he
transgressed the commandment of God and chose for himself those things which were contrary
to the commandment of God. It was not his body that had to know these things but his soul
which, on the promise of higher things, yielded and accepted the advice of the deceiver
and lost the good things that it possessed. |57

14 It was, therefore, necessary that Christ should assume not only the body but also the
soul. The enemy of the soul had to be removed first and then for the sake of it that of
the body, because if death is from sin and the same death is the corruption of the body,
sin would have first to be abolished and the abolition of death would follow by itself. It
would be possible to save the body from death and corruption if we first made the soul
immutable and delivered it from the passions of sin, so that by acquiring immutability we
would also obtain deliverance from sin. The abolition of death would then be effected by
the abolition of sin, and after the abolition of death it would be possible that our body
should remain without dissolution and corruption. If the soul had only sinned in those
things that befall it from the passions of the body, it would perhaps have been sufficient
for our Lord to have assumed only the body in order to deliver (the soul) from sin. Many,
however, and of different kinds are the iniquities and sins that are born of the soul. The
first (sin) through which it shows its association with Satan is that of pride, about
which the Apostle said: "Lest being lifted up in pride he should fall into the
condemnation of the Devil." 123 In this sentence the Apostle has shown that any one who
falls into pride becomes the associate of the Devil in condemnation. The one, therefore,
who possesses the uncorporeal Devil in his evil thought, feels passion in his soul; and
consequently it is clearly evident that the soul was greatly in need to be delivered from
sins and be saved also from the passions of the body which overcome it by the power that
the latter adequately possesses.

15 The blessed Paul bears witness to our words when he counts the evils to which men were
drawn, to which they degraded themselves and from which Christ came into the world to
deliver them; he says thus: "Wherefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do that
thing which is not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness,
covetousness, fornication, maliciousness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; and are
disobedient to their parents, implacable and unmerciful." 124 These (evils) are clear and
evident and in no need of a comment, and the majority of them are not born of the passions
of the body but exclusively of the will of the soul. Indeed wickedness, maliciousness,
envy, debate, deceit and malignity, together with pride, boasting, invention of evil
things, disobedience to parents, |58 non-understanding, covenant-breaking, and
unmercifulness—all these are clearly from the soul. It is with justice, therefore, that
our Lord assumed the soul so that it should be first delivered from sin and be transferred
to immutability by the grace of God through which it overcomes also the passions of the
body. When sin is abolished from every place and has no more entry into the soul which has
become immutable, every kind of condemnation will rightly be abolished and death also will
perish. The body will thus remain immune from death because it has received participation
in immortality. The blessed Paul confirms this in saying: "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, for the law of
life in Christ Jesus hath made thee free from the law of sin and death." 125

16 He said that all the sentence of death,126 together with all condemnation, has been
removed to those who believed in Christ, because they became alien to the way of mortality
and received the Spirit and immortality, and with it they assumed immutability and became
completely free from sin and mortality. It is, therefore, great madness not to believe
that Christ assumed the soul; and he would even be madder who would say that He did not
assume human mind, because such a one would imply that He either did not assume the soul
or that He did assume the soul not of man but an irrational one akin to that of animals
and beasts. 17 Human soul differs only from that of animals in the fact that the latter
has no distinct person 127 of the soul except in the (material) composition of the
animal,128 and so it has no separate existence, and is not believed to survive after the
death of the animal. This is the reason why what is called the soul of the animal, which
is said to reside in its blood,129 perishes when the blood is shed; and it is the soul
that was believed to reside in the person and in the movements of the animal |59 before
its death. The soul of men, however, is not like this, but it resides in its own person
and is much higher than the body, as the body is mortal and acquires its life from the
soul and dies and perishes whenever the soul happens to leave it. As to the soul, when it
goes out it remains and does not perish but lasts forever in its own person because it is
immortal and is incapable of receiving any injury 130 in its nature from men. When
(Christ) said: "Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul," 131
He clearly showed that the body is capable of death because it is mortal, but that the
soul will remain immortal because it cannot be injured by men in its nature.

18 The difference between the soul of men and the soul of animals is such that the latter
is irrational and has no person,132 while the former is immortal and is rightly believed
to be also rational. Who is, therefore, so mad and devoid of human understanding as to
assert that human soul is without knowledge and without reason, unless he wishes to be a
teacher of a novel theory not found previously in the world to the effect that there
exists an immortal nature which lives in an imperishable life but which is itself
irrational? Such a thing is indeed impossible, because anything that is immortal in its
nature and dwells in an imperishable life is also truly rational and endowed with reason.
Because of all this our blessed Fathers warned us and said: He was incarnate and became a
man, so that we should believe that the one who was assumed and in whom God the Word dwelt
was a complete man, perfect in everything that belongs to human nature, and composed of a
mortal body and a rational soul, because it is for man and for his salvation that He came
down from heaven.

19 They rightly said that He assumed a man who resembles 133 those from whom He was
assumed, because the man whom He assumed resembles Adam who introduced sin into the world,
so that He might abolish sin by one who was of the same nature. Indeed, He put on a man
resembling Adam who after having sinned received the punishment of death, so that He might
eradicate sin from us and abolish death by similar means. When He said: "The prince of
this world cometh, and hath nothing in me," 134 He showed that such was the |60 reason for
His resurrection from the dead, because Satan was holding the reins of the power of death
on account of the sin that was cleaving to us, as Paul said,135 and was always working 136
for death. And because when we were subjected to sin 137 we had no hope of deliverance,
the grace of God kept that man whom God put on for us free from sin, but Satan came with
his deceitfulness and brought death upon Him as upon (any other) man, when he roused all
the Jews against Him; and since He was not touched by sin which would subject Him to
death, Christ our Lord received also upon Himself the death which with wickedness the
tyrannical Satan brought upon Him. He showed to God that there was no sin in Him and that
it was through injustice that He was enduring the trial of death. And He effected the
abolition of condemnation with ease, and He rose from the dead by the power of God and
became worthy of a new and ineffable life which He generalised to all the human kind.

20 This is the reason why our Lord said here: "The prince of this world cometh, and hath
nothing in me." In another passage He said: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall
the prince of this world be condemned and cast out, and I when I am lifted up from the
earth will draw all (men) unto me." 139 In the first passage He shows that Satan had not
one just cause for bringing death upon Him, and in the second that He had summoned the
Rebel to a kind of judgment 140 where he had condemned him and cast him out of his
iniquitous power, and that after obtaining these good things He would make all men
partakers of His glory. 21 Our blessed Fathers said that He became incarnate so that you
might understand that He assumed a complete man, who was a man not only in appearance but
a man in a true human nature, and that you might believe that He assumed not only the body
but the whole man who is composed of a body and of an immortal and rational soul. It is
such a man that He assumed for our salvation and it is through Him that He effected
salvation for our life, because He was justified and became blameless by the power of the
Holy Spirit, as the blessed |61 Paul said: "He was justified in the Spirit," 141 and
again: "Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God." 142 If He
suffered death according to the law of men, because He had no sin He rose from the dead by
the power of the Holy Spirit and became worthy of a new life in which the wishes of the
soul are immutable, and He made the body immortal and incorruptible.143 In this He made us
all participants in His promises, and as an earnest of His promises He gave us the first-
fruits of the Spirit 144 so that we might possess a faith without doubts concerning future
things; and "He established us with you in Christ and sealed us and gave the earnest of
His spirit in our hearts." 145

22 We also expect to be immortal and incorruptible at the resurrection from the dead when
there will be no entry for sin into us. The blessed Paul bears witness to this in saying:
"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality; and when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality, there shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, ' Death is swallowed up in victory. O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law." 146 He means that when we have risen from the dead immortal
and incorruptible and our nature has received immutability, we shall be unable to sin, and
when we have been freed from sin we shall not need the law. Indeed what is the need of the
law for a nature which is freed from sin and which has no inclination towards evil.

23 Well did the blessed Paul say after these: "Who gave us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ." 147 This shows that it is God who was for us the source of all good things,
and it is He who gave us the victory over all adversaries, either death or sin or any
other evil born of them: He who for us put on the man our Lord Jesus and transferred Him
through His resurrection from the dead to a new life, and placed Him at His right hand,
and gave us by His grace |62 communion with Him,148 when, in truth, as the blessed Paul
said: "our vile body shall be changed and be fashioned like unto His glory." 149 Because
the things said by our blessed Fathers concerning the humanity of our Lord are many let us
put an end here to our teaching of to-day, and let us praise the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit now, always, and for ever and ever.

24 Here ends the fifth chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

1 In what we have already said we have explained to your love that which was said by our
blessed Fathers concerning the humanity of our Lord in the profession of faith, which they
wrote and handed down to us according to the teaching of the Books. We were obliged to use
many words so that you might thoroughly understand all the meaning of their sentences, and
if it were possible we would have said more in order to confirm the truth and to refute
the deceitful words of the heretics, but the measure of what we said was considered by us
to be sufficient to all those who possess goodwill in religion, because to those who have
an unwilling mind, even a long discourse will be of no avail, while to those who possess a
good will a short discourse will suffice for the demonstration of the truth, when (this
discourse) is drawn from the testimony of Holy Writ. Let us then embark to-day, by the
assistance of the grace of God, on the continuation of that which we said previously.

2 After having said: Who for us children of men and for our salvation came down from
heaven and was incarnate and became a man (our blessed Fathers) added: And was bom of the
Virgin Mary and crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate. They might have said many things
that happened in the meantime such as He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, was laid in a
manger, was under the law,150 was baptised and made manifest the works of the Gospel and
many more things. If they had wished it they would have narrated all that the Sacred Books
have taught us about Him and that |63 which was accomplished by Him for our salvation, as
He fulfilled thoroughly the law of nature for us, because He was going to reform our
nature, and He further observed the law of Moses so that He might pay our debt to the
Lawgiver; and He was baptised so that He might give an emblem to the grace of our baptism;
and He showed effectively in Himself the Economy of the Gospel to all men. After all these
He went to crucifixion and death so that He might destroy the last enemy, which is death,
and make manifest the new and immortal life.

3 Our Fathers, however, took trouble to say all these things in short terms so that the
hearers might learn them with ease, and so that we might also learn thoroughly every one
of them from the Sacred Books. They wrote and arranged the Creed in short terms, and this
is the reason why they said: Who was born of the Virgin Mary and was crucified in the days
of Pontius Pilate. They only said the beginning and the end of the Economy that took place
on our behalf, as the beginning of all grace is His birth of Mary, and its end is
crucifixion. They called crucifixion the Passion, and all those things which took place in
it. They included all of them in one word because from the Cross arose death and from
death immortal life, as the blessed Paul said also 151: "The preaching of the Cross is to
them that do not believe 152 foolishness, but unto us which are saved 153 it is the power
of God." He also said: "Though He was crucified through weakness yet He liveth by the
power of God." 154He showed here that the word of the Cross is the power of God to those
who are saved because it is with His hand that He destroyed death and made new life
manifest.

4 In their profession of faith our blessed Fathers wrote, therefore, in short terms, at
the beginning and at the end, all those things that were done in the interval, in order to
extend their knowledge to all those willing to learn the truth. It is obvious that they do
not teach that the Divine nature of the Only Begotten was born of a woman, as if it had
its beginning in her, because they did not say that the one who was born of His Father
before all the worlds and who is eternally from Him and with Him had His beginning from
Mary, but they followed the Sacred Books which speak differently of natures |64 while
referring (them) to one prosopon on account of the close union that took place between
them, so that they might not be believed that they were separating the perfect union
between the one who was assumed and the one who assumed. If this union were destroyed the
one who was assumed would not be seen more than a mere man like ourselves. The Sacred
Books refer the two words 155 as if to one Son, so that they might show in the same faith
both the glory of the Only Begotten and the honour of the man whom He assumed.

5 Indeed, after the blessed Paul had said: "Of whom Christ (came)," he added: "according
to the flesh," 156 in order to separate the natures and to show that he is speaking of
Christ who is from the Jews according to the flesh and that he is naming neither the
nature of the Godhead of the Only Begotten, nor God the Word who was from the beginning
with God and who is eternally in the bosom of His Father, but the form of the man which He
assumed. And so that by this word and this addition to the effect that the human nature of
Christ was taken "from the Jews" the glory of Christ might not be brought low, or that He
might be believed that since He is man by nature and is born of children of men, He has
nothing more, he added the sentence which follows: "He is God over all" in order to show
the glory of Christ, which is from God the Word who assumed Him and united Him to Himself,
as He is the cause of all and Lord over all. And because of the close union that this man
has with God the Son, He is honoured and worshipped by all the creation.

6 While the blessed Paul might have said: "In whom is God over all" he did not do so, but
said: "He is God over all," because of the close union between the two natures. He did not
believe that He who was born of the Jews according to the flesh is God over all by nature,
nor did he profess that the human nature is the cause of all and is Lord of all by nature,
but he professed that the form of man which He assumed was Christ in the flesh, and Him
who assumed that form he called God over all; he, however, mentioned these two things
together in order to show the distinction found between the natures. Nobody believes that
He who is from the Jews according to the flesh is God by nature, nor that God who is above
|65 all is from the Jews by nature;157 he said the two things together in order to show
the close union that took place between the one who was assumed and the one who assumed,
and in order that together with the difference in natures the honour and the glory that
came to the man who was assumed from his union with God who assumed him, might be known to
all.

7 He wrote something similar to this to the Philippians in saying: "Who, being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and
took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and was found in
the fashion of a man." 158 Here also he clearly made a distinction between the natures and
between Him who is in the form of God and Him who is in the form of a servant, between Him
who assumed and Him who was assumed, and (he showed) also that He who assumed became in
the fashion of a man in Him who was assumed. He who was assumed was truly in the fashion
of a man, in whom was found the one who assumed Him; and He who assumed, while not a man,
became in His incorporeal and immaterial nature in the form of a servant, which by nature
was corporeal and material; and He was a man 159 according to the law of human body. He
thus hid Himself at the time in which. He was in the world and conducted Himself with the
children of men in such a way that all those who beheld Him in a human way and did not
understand anything more, believed Him to be a mere man.

8 In saying this he made a clear distinction between the natures of the one who is in the
form of God and the one who is in the form of a servant, of the one who assumed and the
one who was assumed. And he taught us also about the human nature in which our Lord was,
as he said congruous things concerning the form of the servant which He assumed: "He
humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every |66 tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
glory of God His Father." 160 9 It is not Divine nature that received death, but it is
clear that it was that man who was assumed as a temple to God the Word, (a temple) which
was dissolved and then raised by the one who had assumed it. And after the Crucifixion it
was not Divine nature that was raised but the temple which was assumed, which rose from
the dead, ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of God;161 nor is it to Divine
nature—the cause of everything—that it was given that every one should worship it and
every knee should bow, but worship was granted to the form of a servant which did not in
its nature possess (the right to be worshipped). While all these things are clearly and
obviously said of human nature he referred them successively to Divine nature so that his
sentence might be strengthened and be acceptable to hearers. Indeed, since it is above
human nature that it should be worshipped by all, it is with justice that all this has
been said as of one, so that the belief in a close union between the natures might be
strengthened, because he clearly showed that the one who was assumed did not receive all
this great honour except from the Divine nature which assumed Him and dwelt in Him.

10 Our blessed Fathers wrote in the Creed something that is in harmony with this. They
first taught us about the nature of the Godhead of the Only Begotten, that He is from the
Father before all the worlds, that He is born of the nature of the Father and not made,
and that He is a true God and consubstantial with God because He is born of His Father.
After having taught us these things concerning the divinity of the Only Begotten they
proceeded to teach us concerning the Economy of His humanity and said: Who for us children
of men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate and became a man like
us in order to effect salvation for all the human race. And they taught all those things
that happened to the human nature: things through which God wished His Economy to be
accomplished on our behalf. And He who was assumed for our salvation bore upon Himself all
things affecting mankind, and became worthy of perfection and a source of benefits for us
through our communion with Him. |67

11 They said the above things as of one in conformity with the teaching of the Books; not
that human acts were affecting God in His nature, but they referred these human acts to
Him because of the close union, so that the high things that happened to Him after the
Passion—things that transcend human nature—might be believed, and so that all might accept
them when learning that it was Divine nature which put on man and that by its union with
Him He received all this honour and glory. Many things, as we have said, happened to Him
according to human law; things which we may learn from the Gospel. He was wrapped in
swaddling clothes after He was born and laid in a manger;162 He was circumcised after the
custom of the law and was brought to the temple according to the order of Moses; He was
shown before the Lord and endured all things dealing 163 with His increase in stature,
wisdom and favour, while He was subject unto His parents;164 He practised in a right way
all (things dealing with) the justification of the law, and then received baptism, from
which He gave the New Testament as in a symbol; He endured the temptation of Satan and
bore upon Himself the toil of journeys and the offering of prayers with great devotion;
and, to shorten my speech, He performed all the work of the Gospel with much labour and
sweating, showed much patience with His enemies, and finally drew nigh unto death by
crucifixion, through which He abolished death by His resurrection from the dead.

12 Our blessed Fathers omitted all these and said: And was born of Mary and crucified in
the days of Pontius Pilate, because the beginning of His Economy for us is one thing and
its end is another, and they included between both headings, one after another, all those
things that the Book of the Gospel taught us. He was born of the Virgin Mary as a man,
according to the law of human nature,165 and was made of a woman.166 Indeed the Apostle
said thus: "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." 167 In saying that
He was made of a woman He showed that He entered into the world from a woman according to
|68 the law of the children of men, and the fact that "He was under the law to redeem them
that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons," happened so that He
might pay our debt to the Lawgiver and procure life for us.

13 Since He became one of us in nature it is with justice that He paid the debt of His
human kinship; on account of His nature which was identical with ours He was bound to do
this, and He did it. We were delivered from the yoke of bondage 168 because of the freedom
which He gave us in His grace. The fact that He was not born of a man but was only
fashioned by the Holy Spirit in the womb of His mother, is beyond the nature of the
children of men, and the (Apostle said) that He was made of a woman in order to show us
that He was fashioned from the nature of a woman and was born according to the law of
nature; and this does not cause any injury to nature, because Eve also was made of Adam,
and her birth is different from that of all men since she received her existence from a
rib only, without marital intercourse. She had an identical nature with Adam because she
received the beginning of her existence from him.

14 In this way we should also think about Christ our Lord. It was a novel thing to have
been fashioned from a woman without marital intercourse, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
but He is associated with the human nature by the fact that He is from the nature of Mary,
and it is for this that He is said also to be the seed of David 169 and Abraham, as in His
Nature He is related to them. This is the reason why the blessed Paul said: "For unto the
angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak, but unto the one
concerning whom the Book testifies, saying, 'What is man that thou art mindful of him, or
the Son of Man that thou visitest him'?" 170 And again: "He took not from the nature of
angels but from the seed of Abraham." 171 His words show that our Lord did not take a body
from the angels, nor did He make the angels the head and renovator of the future creation
which we are expecting, but the man whom He assumed from the seed of Abraham and through
whom He performed all this ineffable Economy and whom He first raised from the dead and
transferred to immortal and unchangeable life, Him He made the head and renovator of all
the |69 creation, so that He was with justice set over the government of the new creation.

15 As a man He was born of a woman according to the law of nature, and although this
happened to Him in a novel way, in the sense that He alone, to the exclusion of the rest
of mankind, was fashioned in the womb by the Holy Spirit without any marital intercourse,
yet all that which He did for us He did according to the law of our nature, so that He
grew little by little, reached full age and performed also carefully the requirements of
the law. And because He paid our debt to the law and received victory from the Giver of
the law on account of His having put into practice all the requirements of the law, He
drew, with His own hand, to all His human race that blessing which the law had promised to
all those who keep it. 16 He was also baptised so that He might perform the Economy of the
Gospel according to order, and in this (Economy) He died and abolished death. It was easy
and not difficult for God to have made Him at once immortal, incorruptible and immutable
as He became after His resurrection, but because it was not He alone whom He wished to
make immortal and immutable, but us also who are partakers of His nature, He rightly, and
on account of this association, did not so make the firstfruits of us all 172 in order
that, as the blessed Paul said, "He might have the pre-eminence in all things." 173 In
this way, because of the communion that we have with Him in this world, we will, with
justice, be partakers with Him of the future good things. And as after He was born of a
woman He increased little by little according to the law of humanity, and grew up
fully,174 and was under the law and acted according to it, so also in the life of the
Gospel He became an example as man to man.

17 Because it was necessary that we who were born later should receive faith concerning
the above future good things and that we should believe that our Saviour, our head and the
cause of all of them for us, was Christ our Lord, it was imperative that He should also
arrange as much as possible our mode of life in this world according to the hope of the
future. It is with justice, therefore, that in this also He became our model.175 He was
baptised so that He might give a symbol to our own baptism. In it 176 He was freed from
all the |70 obligations of the law. He performed also all the Economy of the Gospel: He
chose disciples to Himself, established the teaching of a new law and a new doctrine,
promulgated ways of acting congruous to His teaching and different from the teaching of
the (old) law, and taught that the ways of acting of us who believe should be in harmony
with His new teaching.177

18 We also when we are baptised show (in ourselves) the symbol of the world 178 to come;
we die with Him in baptism, and we rise symbolically with Him, and we endeavour to live
according to His law in the hope of the future good things which we expect to share with
Him at the resurrection from the dead. If Christ our Lord had immediately after His rising
from the dead, raised also all men who had previously died, and had bestowed upon them new
life fully and immediately, we should have been in no need of doing anything; as, however,
He actually performed only on Himself the renewal which is to come and through which He
rose from the dead and His body became immortal and His soul immutable, it became
necessary that this decrepit and mortal world should last further in order that mankind
might believe in Him and receive the hope of communion (with Him) and future life.

19 It is with justice, therefore, that He paid the debt of the law, received baptism, and
showed the new Economy of the Gospel, which is the symbol of the world to come, so that we
also, who believed in Christ and became worthy of baptism, through which we received the
symbol of the world to come, should live according to His commandments. This is the reason
why the blessed Paul said: "God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." 179 In this he shows
that through baptism we have received the teaching of the new Economy which is the symbol
of the world to come, and as much as possible we strive to live according to it, while
remote from all sin, and so not according to law. Indeed we are baptised as men who die
with Him and will rise symbolically with Him, because "so many of us as were baptised into
Jesus Christ were baptised into His death and were buried with Him by baptism into death;
that like as Jesus Christ was raised up from the dead in the glory of His Father, even so
we should walk in newness of life." 180 |71

20 After having received the grace of baptism we become strangers to all the observances
of the law and we are as in another life: "You are become dead to the law by the body of
Jesus Christ." 181 He (Paul) said this because you have attained new life in the baptismal
birth and have become part of the body of Christ our Lord; and we hope to have communion
with Him now that we are freed from the life of this world and dead to the world and to
the law, because the law has power in this world and we become strangers to all this world
according to the symbol of baptism. When Christ our Lord performed all these things for us
He drew nigh unto death, which He received by crucifixion, not a secret death, but a death
that was conspicuous and witnessed by all because our Lord's resurrection was going to be
proclaimed by the blessed Apostles, while the miracles wrought wonderfully by the Holy
Spirit were sufficient for the corroboration of their testimony. His death had to be seen
by all, as His resurrection meant the abolition of death. Indeed, He loosed the pains of
death 182 completely by his resurrection from the dead, ascended unto heaven and sat at
the right hand 183 of God, and is for us a true surety 184 by our participation in His
resurrection. "You were saved by the grace of Him who raised us with Him 185 and placed us
at the right hand in heaven in order that He might show to the future worlds the greatness
of the wealth and the sweetness of His mercy which was shed on us abundantly through our
Lord Jesus Christ." 186

21 And in order that we may believe in the good things which He promised to us, in spite
of their greatness and in spite of the fact that they transcend us, He gave us the earnest
of the future things, the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit,187 as the blessed Peter said:
"He was exalted by the right hand of God, and He confirmed the promise of the Holy Ghost
which He had received, and shed forth this upon us abundantly, as you now see and hear."
188 He calls "the promise of the Holy Ghost" the grace which was given for the
confirmation of the future good things by the Holy Ghost. Indeed, these future things are
confirmed in us by the power of the Holy Ghost. As the blessed Paul said: "It is sown a
natural body and it will rise a |72 spiritual body." 189 And in order that we may possess
these future good things in a firm faith 190 without doubt, He gave us even in this world
191 the firstfruits of the Spirit which we received as the earnest, of which the blessed
Paul said: "In whom ye believed, and ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit (of promise)
which is the earnest of our inheritance." 192 And the Economy of the grace of Christ our
Lord, for which we receive baptism, is like unto this.

22 Our blessed Fathers did well, therefore, to hand to us our faith by going to the
firstfruits of the faith, and including in them all the necessary things in saying: And
was born of the Virgin Mary and crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate. I believe,
however, that my speech has exceeded the limits as the words (which express) the Economy
of the grace of Christ have only been delivered to us (in short terms) as given above. In
order, therefore, that you may not receive a teaching which is not perfect and that we may
not trouble you with many words, let us, by the permission of God, leave off here the
things which will follow what has been said, and be satisfied with what has already been
spoken to-day, and let us praise the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit now, always, and
for ever and ever.—Amen.

23 Here ends the sixth chapter.


COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED
==============================

COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED continued

CHAPTER VII.

1 Let us proceed now to deal with the grace of the Economy of the humanity of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, and see what our blessed Fathers have handed down to us about it in
the creed. This is the third day I am discoursing on this subject to your love, as I am
anxious that you should learn it little by little and keep my words in your memory. Let
us, therefore, begin to-day also to speak to you concerning things that fit the sequence
of those already said. 2 Immediately they began the words which deal with the Economy (of
our Lord) our blessed Fathers first showed for whom was all this Economy accomplished, and
said: Who for us children of men, to which they added: And for our salvation in order that
the purpose of the Economy might be known. To this they added also: Came down from heaven,
in order that they might make us understand the |73 boundless humility that was involved
in His coming down to us, as if they were repeating the sentence of the blessed Paul:
"Though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor," 193 and humbled Himself to our
wretchedness from the height of His glory and from His mighty greatness. And in order to
show us how He came down they said: And became a man. He did not humble Himself here by an
ordinary act of Providence nor by the gift of the assistance of (Divine) power that He had
in the same way as He performed many other things, but He assumed and put on our nature in
which He was,194 and in which He dwelt so that He might perfect it with sufferings and
unite it to Him. In this they (our blessed Fathers) showed us the gift of His grace which
they saw in the human race, and through which He assumed a man from us, was in Him and
dwelt in Him, and they taught us that He endured and bore all according to human nature so
that we might understand that He was not a man in appearance only, but that He was a real
man who suffered all the human [passions] according to human nature.

3 And in order not to lengthen their speech they omitted all the things which He gradually
performed and which we may learn with accuracy from the reading of the Gospel, and they
rightly made use of condensed words and said: And was born of the Virgin Mary and was
crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and in this way they included all the Economy in
its beginning and its end. We remember that we told your love that it is the habit of the
Books to include all the Economy of Christ in the mention of the crucifixion, because
death came to Him by crucifixion, and He abolished death by death and made manifest the
new, immortal and immutable life. In this way our blessed Fathers included also all the
Economy in these words, but were aware that especial attention had to be paid to the words
said of the Passion or of the things that happened in the Passion, as they transcend all
human intellect. In order that no doubt concerning the reality of the Passion might enter
the mind of the hearers on account of the sublimity of this same Passion, and in order
that they might not think that it took place in appearance only, they stressed their words
so that they should be believed in the sense that He died in reality and so as to show
that human death and all |74 passions were abolished by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, if Christ endured death by crucifixion in order to make manifest His death to all
and with His death His resurrection also by which death was abolished, it is with justice
that our blessed Fathers warned us first on the subject of His death and then taught us
concerning His resurrection.

4 This is the reason why, after having said, And was crucified in the days of Pontius
Pilate, they added: And was buried, in order to teach us that He did not die only in
appearance and in an unreal way but that He actually died a natural death so that after
His death His body was also buried according to the law of human nature. In this they
followed also the teaching of the blessed Paul, who, when speaking to the Corinthians of
the resurrection of the dead because of which he made mention of the resurrection of
Christ our Lord—so that he might confirm the general resurrection from the resurrection of
Christ— first taught about His death in saying that Christ died a real death, since His
death once established the words concerning the preaching of His resurrection will be
readily accepted. He said in effect: "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was
buried." He did not make use of the additional sentence "and was buried" to no purpose,
but he made use of it to show that He truly died according to the law of human nature and
that He duly endured death according to a mortal nature.

5 In this same way, after our blessed Fathers had said, And was crucified in the days of
Pontius Pilate, in order to show that He had died they added the sentence: And was buried,
so as to demonstrate, according to the preaching of the Apostle, that He had truly died.
Further, as the blessed Paul, after having said that He was buried and that He had truly
died, added: "He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" —and it was in this
way that he was able to teach concerning the resurrection of Christ after His death and to
fix the true belief in His death in the souls of the hearers—so also our blessed Fathers,
after having said, And was buried, added: And rose the third day according to the
Scriptures. They made |75 an accurate use of the words of the Scriptures in delivering to
us the belief in the resurrection. The question involved in the resurrection is not an
unimportant one because to those who do not believe it implies the danger of death and of
falling away from all benefits, but on those who believe this same resurrection bestows
confidence, and puts the seal on all the wonderful things accomplished in the Economy of
Christ. Indeed this resurrection is the end of all the Economy of Christ and the principal
object of all the reforms wrought by Him, as it is through it that death was abolished,
corruption destroyed, passions extinguished, mutability removed, the inordinate emotions
of sin consumed, the power of Satan overthrown, the urge of demons brought to nought and
the affliction resulting from the law wiped out. An immortal and immutable life reigns by
which all the above evils are abolished and destroyed, and it was through them that the
demons entered to fight against us.

6 This is the reason why the blessed Paul said: "If the dead rise not, then is not Christ
raised, and if Christ be not raised then our preaching is vain and your faith is also
vain." 197 If it is not possible that the dead should rise it is evident that Christ also
did not rise, because in His body He was of the same nature and received death according
to the law of nature. If we believe that Christ rose it is clear and obvious that
resurrection is a true fact, as that which is impossible would not have happened, even to
Him, but since it happened to Him it is clear and evident that it is possible. 7 We ought
not, therefore, to deny resurrection as an impossible thing, but it is imperative for us
to believe in it, because it did happen once and had its beginning in Christ our Lord. He
who denies the general resurrection denies also the resurrection of Christ, because in His
flesh He was part of human nature, and he who denies this shows that "our preaching is
vain and your faith is also vain." Because resurrection is the principal benefit of all
the Economy of Christ in the flesh—since by it all evil things vanish and an entry is
effected for all good things—He who denies this same resurrection makes our preaching and
your faith vain. If death is not abolished the dominion of evil things is still standing
and we do not look yet for good things. It is indeed plain that if the resurrection did
not take place death |76 would still be holding dominion, from which it could not have
been overthrown, and because of this same death sin would also be in the ascendant and all
evil things would be surrounding us, because he (Paul) said: "If the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised then your faith is vain and you are yet
in your sins." 198 In this he shows that death was abolished through resurrection, and sin
through death, as after the resurrection we become immortal and immutable, and if the
resurrection does not take place faith is vain and death holds sway together with sin, and
you also are still in your sins and have no hope of good things which we announced as
coming to you through the resurrection.

8 It is with justice, therefore, that in accordance with the words of the Apostle our
blessed Fathers first mentioned the principal benefit of the Economy of Christ in saying:
And rose from the dead, and then added the sentence: And ascended into heaven. It was
necessary that after having known that He rose from the dead we should also know where He
is after His resurrection. As the Sacred Book, after saying that God made Adam, added how,
from what, and also in which locality He placed him to lead his earthly life, so also in
the case of Christ our Lord who was assumed from us and was according to our nature,
because after (our blessed Fathers) said that He rose from the dead they rightly added
that He ascended into heaven so that we should learn that He moved into an immortal nature
and ascended into heaven, as it was necessary for Him to be high above all. All the
evangelists narrated to us His resurrection from the dead and with it they ended their
respective Gospels, because they knew that it was sufficient for us to learn that He rose
from the dead, moved to an immortal and immutable life and gave us the hope of
participating with Him in the future good things. The blessed Luke, however, who is also
the writer of a Gospel, added that He ascended into heaven 199 so that we should know
where He is after His resurrection. It is also known that he taught us this at the
beginning of his teaching when he wrote the Acts of the Apostles,200where he further added
the rest of the facts, one after another, as it fitted the sequence of the narration.

9 As it is not only in His resurrection that Christ became our |77 firstfruits 201 but
also in His ascension into heaven—in both of which He made us partakers of His grace—it is
right that we should be instructed in both of them, because we do not expect only to rise
from the dead but also to ascend into heaven, where we will be with Christ our Lord. In
this same way the blessed Paul said also that "our Lord Himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet our Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with our
Lord." 202 In another passage he said also: "For our conversation is in heaven from whence
we look for the Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may
resemble His glorious body," 203 in order to show us that we shall be transferred to
heaven from whence Christ our Lord will come and change us at the resurrection from the
dead and make us like the form of His body and take us up to heaven so that we may ever be
with Him. And again he said:

10 "For we know if this our earthly house were dissolved, we have a building of God and an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," 204 in order to teach us that at the
resurrection we will become immortal and dwell in heaven. And a little further on he said:
"While we are in the body, we are absent from our Lord, for we walk by faith and not by
sight; we are confident and willing to be absent from the body and to be present with
Christ," 205 and showed that as long as we are in this mortal body we are as it were
absent and remote from our Lord, as we are not actually enjoying yet the future good
things since we have only received them by faith, but in spite of their being so we have
great confidence in possessing them,206 and we are looking with great eagerness to the
time when we will divest ourselves of this mortal body and cast it away from us and become
immortal and immutable at the resurrection from the dead, and then we will be with our
Lord like men who for a long time and for the duration of this world were absent and
expecting to be present with Him.

11 This is the reason why he said: "Jerusalem which is above is |78 free, which is the
mother of us all." 207 He called "Jerusalem which is above" the abode which is in heaven
and in which we, reborn at the resurrection, shall become immortal and immutable, when we
shall truly enjoy perfect freedom and happiness, and when nothing will constrain us and no
pain will affect us, but we will be in ineffable pleasures and in a happiness that will
have no end; and we are expecting to enjoy these pleasures in which Christ our Lord became
our firstfruits,208 (Christ) whom God the Word put on, and who through the close union
that He had with Him became worthy of all this glory and gave to us also the hope of
communion with Him. It is with justice, therefore, that the Sacred Book taught us that not
only He rose from the dead but ascended also into heaven, so that we too should preach
that which is implied by our blessed Fathers who, after having said, He rose the third
day, added: And ascended into heaven. And they further added to their words: And sat at
the right hand of God, in order to show first the great honour that came to the man who
was assumed, from His union with God the Word who had put Him on, and secondly in order
that we might understand the nature of the good things in which we shall dwell if we have
truly communion with Him. Indeed, after the blessed Paul had said, "You were dead in your
trespasses and your sins and He quickened you with Christ," 209 he added: "Ye are
saved.210And He hath raised you up and made you sit together in heaven in Jesus Christ"
211 in order to show us the sublimity of the communion that we shall have with Him.

12 After our Fathers wrote down this they added with justice: And He shall come again to
judge the living and the dead, in order to inform us concerning His second coming in which
we shall receive communion with Him while truly looking for Him coming from heaven to
fashion us, according to the saying of the Apostle, like unto His glorious body.212 They
added after His coming the sentence: To judge the dead and the living, so that with the
mention of the good things done to us they should also implant fear into us and make us
ready for the gift of the glory of all this Economy. They said, "of the dead and the
living," not that the dead shall be judged—what kind of judgment can there be to the dead
who do not feel?—but |79 that at the time of His coming He will raise all of us born of
Adam, that is all the children of men who had died, and will transform them into an
immortal nature.

13 Those men who will be overtaken by the general resurrection while still alive He will
only transform, and from being mortal He will make immortal. This is the reason why they
said, "the living and the dead." Those who will be alive at that time they called "the
living," and those who had already died and passed away they called "the dead," in order
to show us that all the children of men shall be judged and none shall escape scrutiny,
and that when they have been judged they shall receive a judgment commensurate with the
nature of their actions in a way that some of them will be rewarded and some others
punished. The blessed Paul said also in the Epistle to the Corinthians: "We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trump, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 213 By these
words he shows that all of us shall not die but that all of us shall be changed; the dead
shall rise incorruptible and immortal, and the living shall be changed into an immortal
nature. Both acts will be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye. He said the sentence,
"we shall be changed" of those who shall then be alive because when he wrote it he himself
was alive, and thus he personified the living.

14 He wrote something similar to this to the Thessalonians: "We which are alive and remain
shall not prevent them which are asleep, for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with
our Lord." He says that all these things will happen with the swiftness of the twinkling
of an eye and that those who are alive will not prevent those who are dead when these go
out to meet our Lord, and he shows that the latter will rise and the former will be
changed, and both will be caught up together to meet our Lord.

15 Our blessed Fathers said these things to warn us, to inspire us with fear and to induce
us to prepare for the future account (that we |80 shall give of ourselves). They rightly
ascribed the sentence: To judge the living and the dead to the prosopon of the man who was
assumed on our behalf so that they should show us the honour that came to the temple 215
of God the Word, that is to say to the man who was assumed for our salvation, and so that
they should implant fear into us when teaching us by their words concerning the future
judgment, which will be all the harder for us if we have a bad and inordinate will. It
would be against our duty to minimise that man who was assumed on our behalf; who
possesses such a great honour; who will judge the living and the dead because He was freed
from all sin and was, on account of the honour that came to Him, in a position to be
immune from death—as He said: "I have power to lay my life down, and I have power to take
it up again," 216 in order to show that He was the Lord and had power to die and not to
die—who received the death that came His way, and in the confidence that He had (with God)
was able to conquer it; who granted immunity from death to all the human race;

16 who was from us and from our human nature and was immune from death because of the
greatness of His excellence and was always without stain by the power of the Holy Spirit,
but nevertheless received upon Himself death and passion—an ignominious death by
crucifixion—so that He should grant us to delight in the future pleasures, (it would
indeed, I say, be against our duty to minimise that man) who endured all these things for
us and not to remain steadfast in His love and not follow His commandments and value His
love and affection more highly than anything else. We ought to show forth such feelings
because of the ineffable benefits that through Him will accrue to us. 17 Examine the
strength of their statement from the fact that in speaking of His humanity, His Passion
and His resurrection they affirmed that the very same prosopon to whom all this happened
shall sit in judgment. In order, however, that no one might be led to believe that a mere
man will be the judge of all the creation they added the word Again, so that they should
refer (the act of judging) as by a sign to the Godhead of the Only Begotten who was in Him
and from whom He received all that honour. If they did not wish to imply this it would
have been sufficient to say: He shall come to judge the living |81 and the dead, but with
the addition of again they referred to His Godhead. He who shall come openly is in truth
the man who has been assumed from us, and it is He who shall come from heaven, and He of
whom it may rightly be said that He moves from place to place, as it is written: "This
same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have
seen Him go into heaven." 217 This was to demonstrate to them that it would be the very
man who was seen by them, and was with them, and was now being separated from them, who
would be coming and be seen by all men. To this man the word again is not fitting.

18 Indeed, it is not He who came but it is the Godhead that came down from heaven, not
that it moved from place to place, but by its condescension and its Providence for us
which it manifested in the man who was assumed on our behalf. The word again will refer in
the next world to the man whom (the Godhead) assumed on our behalf. The man who was
assumed on our behalf went now first into heaven and will come again first from heaven,
but because they (our blessed Fathers) were referring in their words to the Divine nature
they counted His coming twice, first when He came down through that man, and secondly when
He will come again through the same man who has been assumed, because of the ineffable
union that that man had with God. 19 This is the reason why the blessed Paul, after
saying, "We look for the glorious appearing of the great God," added: "and the Saviour
Jesus Christ." 219 He shows that we are looking for the Divine nature, which is higher
than everything, to come and appear to all men, and because this Divine nature cannot be
seen with material eyes, it will make its appearance to men according to the power of the
onlookers. And he showed us the way in which we expect the Divine nature to appear by
adding: "and our Saviour Jesus Christ." He refers here to that corporeal man and shows
clearly that it is in the coming and the vision of that man that the Divine nature will
make its appearance. It is in this man by whom it had formerly saved us that it will make
its appearance in order to grant these ineffable benefits.

20 It is with justice, therefore, that our blessed Fathers added the word again in order
to show us the Divine nature from which the |82 great honour of judging was given to that
visible (man). It is that (Divine nature) that will judge all the world according to the
sentence of the Apostle who said that it will judge all the earth through the man
Jesus.220 It is clear that the blessed Paul shows us that it is God who will judge all the
earth through that man who was assumed on our behalf and who rose again from the dead for
the confirmation of our faith. Let what has been spoken suffice for the teaching of to-
day, and let us praise God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now,
always and for ever and ever. Here ends the seventh chapter.

CHAPTER VIII.

1 In the last days we spoke gradually and sufficiently to your love of the doctrine
concerning Christ, according to the teaching of our blessed Fathers. It behoves you now to
remember the things spoken to you with so much care. They gave us a two-fold teaching
concerning Christ our Lord according to the meaning of the Books, that He is not God alone
nor man alone, but He is truly both by nature, that is to say God and man: God the Word
who assumed, and man who was assumed. It is the one who was in the form of God that took
upon Him the form of a servant,221 and it is not the form of a servant that took upon it
the form of God. The one who is in the form of God is God by nature, who assumed the form
of a servant, while the one who is in the form of a servant is the one who is man by
nature and who was assumed for our salvation.

2 The one who assumed is not the same as the one who was assumed nor is the one who was
assumed the same as the one who assumed, but the one who assumed is God while the one who
was assumed is a man. The one who assumed is by nature that which God the Father is by
nature, as He is God with God, and He is that which the one with whom He was, is, while
the one who was assumed is by nature that which David and Abraham, whose son and from
whose seed He is, are by nature. This is the reason why He is both Lord and Son of David:
Son of David because of His nature, and Lord because of the honour that came to Him. And
He is high above David His father because of the nature that assumed Him. |83 3 This is
the reason why when our Lord asked the Pharisees: "Whose son was the Christ?" and they
answered: "The son of David," 222 He did not disapprove of the answer given. It is the
same evangelist Matthew, in whose account is the fact that the Pharisees were asked this
question by our Lord, who wrote also at the beginning of his Gospel: "The beginning of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham." 223 He would not have taught
this at the beginning of his Gospel had he known that our Lord did not approve of it;
indeed he who took so much trouble to write faithfully his Gospel according to the orders
of Christ would not have dared to put down in writing a statement that was detrimental to
Christ. It is indeed evident that our Lord did not disapprove of that which was said to
the effect that Christ was the son of David, in the sense that it was not well and rightly
said, the reason being that all the Pharisees and the Jews were expecting Christ to come
as a simple man from the seed of David. In this they were in harmony with the words of the
prophets, and were not aware that the one who assumed the other who is from the seed of
David, was the Only Begotton of God, who dwelt in Him and through Him performed all the
Economy of our salvation, and united Him to Himself and made Him higher than all the
creation.

4 It is because the Pharisees were not aware of all this that our Lord asked them: "Whose
son was the Christ?"; and after they answered what they knew to the effect that He was the
son of David, He said to them: "How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying: 'The
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool?' If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?" 224 In these words He gave
them, by a hint only and not openly, the doctrine concerning the Godhead. At that time
they transcended the intelligence of the Jews so much so that even the blessed Disciples
were not aware of their meaning before the crucifixion. "If ye had known me ye should have
known my Father also." 225 And again: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast
thou not known me, Philip?" 226 And again: "These things have I spoken unto you in
proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall
|84 shew you plainly of the Father." 227 And again: "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my
name." 228 And again: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now; howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth." 229

5 One finds in the Book of the Gospel many passages which demonstrate that the Apostles
were not aware of the Divinity of the Only Begotten before the Crucifixion, nor were they
aware that God the Word was the Son of the Father and a true Son of God, whom we
understand to be consubstantial with His Father. He knew that it was not yet time to
promulgate openly this doctrine of His Godhead, but in His question He only gave a hint
that they would not possess a complete knowledge about Christ as long as they believed
that He was only a man and did not understand the Divine nature which was in Him and
because of which the one who was from the seed of David became worthy of the honour of
being Lord. David, from whose seed He was by nature, would not have called him His Lord if
he did not believe that the one who was of the same nature as himself was something higher
and better than the nature of men, and one who by His union with the Lord was elevated to
such a great honour that He was believed to be Lord. He is, therefore, of the same nature
as David because He is of his seed, but we understand Him to be also Lord because of the
union that He had with the Divine nature which is the cause and the Lord of all.

6 We ought, therefore, to know the natures of both, the one who assumed and the one who
was assumed, and realise that the former is God and the latter is the form of a servant,
and that it is God who dwells and man is His temple which He built and constituted as His
dwelling. This is the reason why He said: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will
raise it up," 230 which the evangelist interpreted and said: "For He spake of the temple
of His body." 231 He called the man who was assumed His temple while showing that He
Himself was dwelling in that temple, and through His dwelling He clearly showed us His
power when He delivered it (His dwelling) to the destruction of death, according to His
desire, and then raised it by the greatness of His might; and so that it might die He
allowed it to suffer according to its nature while He, as Lord, impeded it from seeing |85
corruption 232 and from being delivered to dissolution. He allowed it to die because He
wished it, and after its death, He raised it up according to His will.

7 He would not have said, "Destroy this temple" had He not known that He had the power (to
say so), and since He is Lord He implied two things in the sentence "Destroy this temple":
although it is in its nature to be destroyed yet I have it in My power that this should
happen or not. I will allow it to be destroyed according to its nature, and if I do not
wish it I have the power to impede it from being destroyed. "Destroy this temple," because
it is impossible that I myself should be destroyed, as My nature is undestroyable, but I
will allow this (temple) to be destroyed because such a thing is inherent in its nature; I
would not have allowed this to happen to it had I not intended to do a higher thing to it;
I am allowing this (to happen) to it because I am prepared to do another thing:

8 What is the meaning of the sentence "and in three days I will raise it up"? (It means)
that when it has been destroyed I will build it up again and will raise it up at the
resurrection from the dead in a state higher and better than the first; it will not be
then mortal and destroyable in its nature as it is now, but immortal, indissoluble,
impassible, and immutable; it is in this way that I will raise it up to a much higher
state than that in which it is at present by nature; I will allow it to be destroyed in
order that I may do something higher to it. Destroy, therefore, this temple; fulfil your
wish; make use of your artifice; I will allow you to do what you wish so that after you
have done it you should feel my power which is higher than all, as it is by it that I will
raise it up from the dead and make it 233 into something higher than it is now. You will
then realise that you would not even have been in a position to destroy it if I had not
willed it, and that it would not have died if I had not permitted it; since I will it,
however, it will be good to it: "destroy, therefore, this temple and m three days I will
raise it up."

9 In these words He showed sufficiently the difference between Him and the one who was
destroyable, because the latter was the temple and the former its dweller; the latter His
dwelling as a temple, and the former its dweller as a God; not a temple for a short time
only |86 and not one in which God the Word sometimes dwelt and sometimes not, but a temple
from which it will never be separated, as it possesses an ineffable union with the one who
is dwelling in it. He made Him perfect through His sufferings, as the blessed Paul
said,234 and He received these sufferings according to His nature while He was in need of
the One who was to deliver him from passion, the One who changed His nature and made Him
impassible and crowned Him with sufferings. As to Himself He dwelt in Him, and He is by
nature impassible, and has the power to make Him impassible also although (by nature)
passible. In this way He perfected through sufferings and made immortal and immutable in
everything the form of a servant 235 which was assumed as His temple, that is to say the
man who was assumed for our salvation.

10 The blessed Paul said: "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to
come whereof we speak, but unto the one about whom the Book testifies, 'What is man that
Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a
little lower than the angels, Thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him
over the works of Thy hands and Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.'"
236 After having shown that He did not take on Him the nature of angels but of man,237he
explained to us who was this man and said: "We see Jesus Christ who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of His death crowned with glory and honour " 238
in order to show that this man Jesus, who was assumed for our salvation, became a little
lower than the angels because He tasted death, and that honour and glory are also placed
on His head because He rose from the dead and through His union with God became higher
than all creation.

11 And in order to teach us why He suffered and became "a little lower" he said: "Apart
from God He tasted death for every man." 239 |87 In this he shows that Divine nature
willed that He should taste death for the benefit of every man, and also that the Godhead
was separated from the one who was suffering in the trial of death, because it was
impossible for Him to taste the trial of death if (the Godhead) were not cautiously remote
from Him,240 but also near enough to do the needful and necessary things for the nature
that was assumed by it. It was necessary for the one through whom and for whom everything
was (done) to perfect with sufferings the source 241 of the life of the many children whom
he 242 brought to His 243 glory. He 244 Himself was not tried with the trial of death but
He was near to him 245 and doing to him the things that were congruous to His nature as
the Maker who is the cause of everything, i.e. He brought him to perfection through
sufferings and made him for ever immortal, impassible, incorruptible, and immutable for
the salvation of the multitudes who would be receiving communion with him.

12 In this way the Sacred Books teach us the difference between the two natures, and so it
is indispensable for us to ascertain who is the one who assumed and the one who was
assumed. The one who assumed is the Divine nature that does 246 everything for us, and the
other is the human nature which was assumed on behalf of all of us by the One who is the
cause of everything, and is united to it 247 in an ineffable union which will never be
separated. This is the reason why on account of our association with it the gift which we
are expecting to receive will also remain truly with us. The Sacred Books also teach us
this union, not only when they impart to us the knowledge of each nature but also when
they affirm that what is due to one is also due to the other, so that we should understand
the wonderfulness and the sublimity of the union that took place (between |88 them). As
such is the statement: "Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ (came), who is God over
all." 248 It is not the one who is of the Jews in the flesh who is by nature God over all,
nor the one who by nature is God over all is also by nature from the Jews, but in his
sentence the Apostle showed us the two natures. In saying, "of whom is Christ concerning
the flesh" he alluded to His humanity, and in saying, "who is God over all" he taught us
concerning the nature of His divinity; and he referred his teaching to one only by saying,
"of whom Christ concerning the flesh, who is God over all."

13 As such also are the words uttered by our Lord in the Gospel: "If ye shall see the Son
of man ascend up where He was before." 249Lo, it is known that the Son of man who was a
man by His nature was not in heaven before, but ascended up because of the Divine nature
which was in Him, and which was in heaven. When He said also of His body that it can give
immortal life to those who eat it,250 because the words that He uttered were not believed
by the hearers, He endeavoured to convince them from the fact that although His words were
incredible at the present time they will be credible later, as if He were saying to them:
When you see that I have become immortal and have ascended up to heaven you will believe
that you will partake of the things that will happen to me because of your association
with me in those things, as the Divine nature which dwells in me and which was before in
heaven will grant immortality to this one 251 and will take Him up to heaven and will
grant you also communion with Him. He (Christ) uttered these words as of one in order to
demonstrate the close union that took place:252 If ye shall see the Son of man ascend up
where He was before—If this were not as we said He was bound to say: If ye shall see the
Son of man ascend up where the One who is in Him was,—you will understand the greatness of
the Divine nature which is dwelling in Me and you will be astonished at the wonderfulness
of the things that will happen to Me, and because of Me to you also.

14 As such also is the meaning of the sentence: "And no man hath ascended up to heaven,
but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in heaven." 253 He did not say
that no man hath |89 ascended up to heaven, and I ascended up because of the Divine nature
which dwells in Me and which is even now in heaven, but He referred His words jointly to
one: "no man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man
which is in heaven." He did not wish to say separately that no man ascended up to heaven
but the Son of man who was dwelling in Him and who came down and was in heaven. He did not
approve of this method of speaking and uttered His sentence in a way that it refers to one
individual, and this in order to demonstrate and confirm the wonderful things done to the
one 254 who was visible.

15 Any time the Book wishes to speak of the things done to the human nature, it rightly
refers them to the Divine nature because they are high above our nature; in this it shows
the union (of the Divine nature) with that man in order to make credible the things done
to Him: it shows also that it is through the wonderful Divine nature which was united to
Him that He became worthy of all this honour and glory, and it assures us that these same
things will in the future be done to us. Indeed that man would not have been the possessor
of such great benefits if He had no union with God, nor would we be hoping for all the
future good things if the Divine nature that put on the form of a servant had not wished
to grant to Him all those good things and extended their delight to us.

16 Because of all this let us learn the distinction between the natures and their union
from the Holy Scripture and let us hold steadfast to this doctrine and understand the
difference between these natures: that the one who assumed was God and the Only Begotten
Son, while the one who was assumed was the form of a servant, which is man; that God
assumed (man) for the benefit of our human race, and that (man) was assumed so that He 255
should remain in virtues and bestow on us the communion of His grace. We should also be
mindful of that inseparable union through which that form of man can never and under no
circumstances be separated from the Divine nature which put it on. The distinction between
the natures does not annul the close union nor does the close union destroy the
distinction between the natures, but the natures remain in their respective existence
while separated, and the union remains intact, because the one who |90 was assumed is
united in honour and glory with the one who assumed according to the will of the one who
assumed Him.

17 From the fact that we say two natures we are not constrained to say two Lords nor two
sons; this would be extreme folly.256 All things that in one respect are two and in
another respect one, their union through which they are one does not annul the distinction
between the natures, and the distinction between the natures impedes them from being one.
So in the sentence: "I and my Father are one" 257 the word "one" does not annul the fact
of "I and my Father," who are two. In another passage He said about the husband and wife
that "they are no more twain but one flesh." 258 The fact that the husband and wife are
one flesh does not impede them from being two. Indeed they will remain two because they
are two, but they are one because they are also one and not two. In this same way here (in
the Incarnation) they are two by nature and one by union: two by nature, because there is
a great difference between the natures, and one by union because the adoration offered to
the one who has been assumed is not differentiated from that to the one who assumed Him,
as the former is the temple from which it is not possible for the one who dwells in it to
depart.

18 All things said of two take the qualification of two when one of them is not
differentiated by the object through which it receives the number two; as such is the
sentence of the Scripture in which mention is made of four beasts: a lion, a bear, a
leopard and another more dreadful.259 The Book said "four" because each one of them is a
beast in its nature. As such also is the sentence: "The testimony of two men is true," 260
because each one of them is by nature that which the other is. Likewise in the sentence:
"No man can serve two masters" 261 because any man who serves mammon with the same care as
he serves God has both as masters. Here 262 also if each of them was Son and Lord by
nature it would be possible for us to say two Sons and two Lords, according to the number
of the persons,263 but one 264 being Son and Lord by nature and |91 the other 265 being
neither Son nor Lord by nature, we believe that the latter received these (attributes)
through His close union with the Only Begotten God the Word, and so we hold that there is
one Son only; and we understand that the one who is truly Son and Lord is the one who
possesses these (attributes) by nature, and we add in our thought the temple in which He
dwells and in which He will always and inseparably remain on account of the inseparable
union which He has with Him and because of which we believe that He is both Son and Lord.

19 In any other passage in which the Book calls the one who was assumed "Son," it will be
seen that He is called Son because of the close union that He had with the one who assumed
Him. When it says: "Concerning His Son who was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh," 266 it is evident that it calls here Son the one who was made of the seed of David
in the flesh and not God the Word but the form of the servant which was assumed. Indeed it
is not God who became flesh nor was it God who was made of the seed of David but the man
who was assumed for us, and it is Him that the blessed Paul clearly called Son.267 We
understand Him to be Son and we call Him so; not for Himself 268 but because of the union
that He had with the true Son.269 It is in this sense that our Lord taught His disciples
when He said: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 270

20 This teaching we uphold in this way: as we call the Father Divine nature, and the Holy
Ghost Divine nature from God the Father,271 so we call the Son the Divine nature of the
Only Begotten, as in the case of the Father and of the Spirit, but to our knowledge
concerning the Godhead we add the man who was assumed and through whom we received our
knowledge of the Divine nature of which is the one who assumed Him, who is God the Word,
and also His Father |92 and of the Holy Ghost. It is written: "The Father that dwelleth in
me, He doeth these works" 272 and of the Holy Spirit it is written that it descended like
a dove and dwelled in Him.273 Indeed as the Father cannot be separated from the Son nor
the Son from the Father—"I am in my Father and my Father is in me 274—so also the Father
cannot be separated from the Holy Spirit. The Scripture says: "For what man knoweth the
things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God," 275 in order to show us that the Holy Spirit is always and
without separation with God the Father in the same way as our soul is never separated from
us as long as we live and are human beings. He was, therefore, Son by necessity in that
form of a servant which was assumed, and the Father was with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

21 If He said concerning all men: "He that loveth me keepeth my commandments, and I will
love him and will manifest myself to him," 276and: "I and my Father will come unto him and
make our abode with him," why should you wonder if in the Lord Christ according to the
flesh dwelleth the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit? Inasmuch as when we
say ' Father, Son and Holy Spirit,' we name the Godhead 278 in which we ought to be
initiated to religion and be baptised, so also when we say "Son" we refer to the Divine
nature of the Only Begotten while rightly including also in our thought the man who was
assumed on our behalf and in whom God the Word was made known and preached and is now in
Him, while the Father and the Holy Spirit are not remote from Him, because Trinity is not
separable, consisting as it does of one, incorporeal and uncircumscribed nature. We
learned these things from the Sacred Books, and we ought to think and to believe
accordingly.

22 Since the measure of things said suffices let us add here to our discourse glory to God
the Father, to the Only Begotten Son, and to the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.—Amen.
Here ends the eighth chapter. |93

CHAPTER IX.

1 You have heard from what has been spoken to you how our blessed Fathers instructed us
successively and according to the teaching of the Sacred Books concerning the Father and
the Son without neglecting the Economy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us now
bring forth what is written after this. The question will deal now with the Holy Spirit,
and our blessed Fathers who assembled from all parts in the town of Nicea for the sake of
that wonderful Council wrote about Him simply and without amplification by saying: And in
the Holy Spirit. They thought that this would be sufficient for the ears of that period.
Those who after them handed to us a complete doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit were the
Western Bishops who by themselves assembled in a Synod, as they were unable to come to the
East on account of the persecution that the Arians inflicted on this country. And later,
when Divine grace put an end to the persecution, the Eastern Bishops gladly accepted the
doctrine handed down by (the Bishops of) that Western Synod, concurred in their decision,
and by subscribing to what they had said, showed their adhesion to them.279 If one looks
deeply into the matter, however, one will find that they derived their reason for the
complementary addition that they made later in their teaching concerning the Holy Spirit
from the blessed Fathers who had assembled from the whole world in the first Council held
in the town of Nicea.

2 The reason why our blessed Fathers did not hand down to us in a complete form all things
that were said later concerning the Holy Spirit is clear and evident, and it is that at
that time had risen the unholy Arius who was the first to blaspheme against the Son of
God, and assert wickedly that the Only Begotten Son of God, and God the Word, was created
and made from nothing. Because of this our |94 blessed Fathers rightly assembled and held
a wonderful Council. The time was propitious for their gathering because the God-loving
and the blessed Constantine urged them to it in order to destroy the wickedness of the
heretics and to confirm the faith of the Church. This is the reason why they made use in
their doctrine concerning the Son of clear statements and copious words for the
destruction of the heresy of Arius and the confirmation of the true faith of the Church of
God. They did not do the same in the case of the Holy Spirit because at that time no
question had yet been raised concerning Him by the heretics. They thought that for a
complete belief in the true faith it would be sufficient to insert in their creed the name
of the Spirit in its right place according to the teaching of our Lord, and to teach all
men that in the Creed and in the profession of faith it ought to be pronounced with that
of the Father and of the Son. It is not possible for any one to have faith 280 if he does
not name, profess, and believe in, the Holy Spirit together with the Father and the Son.

3 This is the meaning of their words in saying: And in the Holy Spirit. Men who did not
include (in their words) any created being would not have inserted the Holy Spirit with so
much care in their faith and in their creed side by side with the Father and the Son had
they not wished to separate in this same creed all the created beings from the uncreated
nature. It was thus necessary that the Spirit should be named and professed side by side
with the Father and the Son, because He also is from the uncreated nature, existing from
eternity, and cause of everything, to which adoration is due to the exclusion of all
created beings. That this is so our profession of faith testifies; indeed faith is not
professed in a created nature but in a Divine and uncreated nature; nor did our blessed
Fathers discover and write a new doctrine from their own head but they clearly followed
the teaching of our Lord who taught His disciples, saying: "Go ye and teach all nations,
baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 281

4 It is clear and evident that He made His disciples the teachers of all the world and
ordered them to convert all men from the error of polytheism to which they were formerly
clinging—by ascribing the name of God to creatures and giving honour to natures which did
not |95 deserve honour—and to teach them to offer true worship only to the Divine nature
which is eternal, not made, and the cause of everything. He did not order them to convert
all nations from the error of worshipping those who are not gods by nature in order to
bring them to the discipleship of one who is not God by nature, but He did order them to
preach, instead of those who were wrongly called gods, the nature which is not made, is
eternal and the cause of everything, and to which is rightly due the name of Lord and God
because it is Lord and God by nature. The knowledge of religion consists in this faith,
and it is (this faith) that is the cause of all good things.

5 It is in this name that we are baptised and expect that the communion of the ineffable
Divine benefits will accrue to us through baptism. We would not have named at baptism a
being that was not the cause of the benefits that we are expecting to possess. We name
(Him) because we know that He has the power to grant us the heavenly and imperishable
benefits in the hope of which we receive the gift of baptism. In the same way as (the
Book) said: "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk" 282 and showed that it was
Christ who was the cause of the cure of the lame man, in this same way where it 283
ordered: "Baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" it
clearly showed that these names which are pronounced at baptism are the cause of all the
benefits which we are expecting to possess. It is not to no purpose that it says: "in the
name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," but in order that from their
names we may derive our hope of enjoying the future good things.

6 As such also is the sentence uttered by the prophet: "Beside Thee we know no other Lord.
We are called by Thy name." (The prophet) shows here that they did not recognise nor did
they name another Lord beside the one who is truly Lord. And again: "Because of Thy name
we shall tread down our enemies," 285 and: "In Thy name our horn shall be exalted," 286 in
order to show that they prevailed against their enemies through His name. In another
passage he said: "I will call on the name of the Lord," 287 that is to say, I have
believed that He is the Lord and also the cause of all |96 good things to me. (Our Lord)
said here also: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" in
order that His disciples might learn from Him that all the nations were looking for this
name as the cause of all their good things, because the nature which is called "Father,
and Son and Holy Ghost," and in which we are baptised, is truly the Lord who is able to
give us the heavenly good things which we are expecting and in the hope of which we draw
nigh unto the grace of baptism.

7 As He ordered us to name the Father in the act of our disciple-ship and our baptism,
because He is the Divine nature which is eternal and cause of everything and because He is
able to vouchsafe unto us the benefits involved in the promise of baptism; and as He
ordered us to name the Son because He has an identical nature and is able to vouchsafe
unto us the same benefits, it is likewise evident that He named the Holy Spirit side by
side with the Father and the Son for this very reason, that is to say because He is of the
same nature as that which is eternal and cause of everything, to which is truly due the
name of Lord and God. If in this creed He had wished to refer to a nature which was
created and to another which was uncreated, we must admit that He neglected to name
myriads of other created natures, that is to say, everything! A man with a sound mind will
not think of such a thing.

8 It is clear that our Lord was handing down to us the doctrine of the Divine knowledge
and teaching us the religious name which was congruous to the Divine nature in which we
were to be baptised and which was able to vouchsafe unto us the future good things. We are
thus ordered not to look for another name as the cause of the future good things except to
that of the Divine nature which is eternal and cause of everything. It is, therefore,
evident that He would not have named the Spirit side by side with the Father if they were
not one Divine nature which was eternal and cause of everything, to which the name of Lord
and God was truly due, and by the grace of which we shall also participate in the future
good things. Our blessed Fathers also meant this when they said: And in the Holy Spirit.
They said this so that they might be understood by others that they were following the
teaching of our Lord and so that they might intimate to every one that they also named the
Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son according to our Lord's doctrine, |97 because He
also is, like the Son, of the same Divine nature of the Father, and we ought to believe in
Him and to worship Him as the cause of the future good things. They left their statement
in the above simple sentence without any amplification because no question had yet been
raised by the heretics against the Holy Spirit; and they thought that the addition "Holy"
placed after the name of the Spirit, according to the teaching of our Lord, was sufficient
as a perfect doctrine for those by whom truth is honoured.

9 To men of good will the sentence used by our blessed Fathers according to the teaching
of our Lord was indeed adequate, because they could not have taught us how to believe in
things concerning a man in our profession of faith concerning God. They who taught clearly
concerning the Son of God to the effect that we ought to believe in Him as consubstantial
with God, would not have added in their profession of faith a word concerning the Holy
Spirit had they not known that He also was of the same Divine nature of God the Father.
The mere 288 mention of the name "Holy Spirit" was sufficient to demonstrate His nature as
taught to us by the Divine Book, which indeed would not have called Him by this exclusive
name if He was not of Divine nature. Actually there are many things referred to by the
word "spirit" in the Holy Scripture: the angels are called by it: "He made his angels a
spirit," 289 and also our soul: "His spirit goeth out and he returneth to his earth," 290
and likewise the winds: "He causeth the spirits to blow and they cause waters to flow."
291 Similarly all things which have a subtile nature in comparison with the visible
objects, which our senses cannot accurately comprehend and which are not clearly defined,
we call spirits.

10 Although numerous are the things which in common parlance are called spirits, yet this
word "spirit" refers in an exclusive way, as the Holy Scripture teaches us, to the
Godhead,292 which is incorporeal and can never be circumscribed. Holy Writ bears witness
to the fact that it is called and is truly a spirit. This is the reason why our Lord said
to the Samaritan woman who had believed that God was worshipped in a special place, and
was contending against the Jews and asking |98 whether the place which was fit for worship
was Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem: "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth." 293 What He showed here amounted to this: all of you are in
great error in believing that God is more in this or in that place. God being incorporeal
and uncircumscribed is not confined to a place, but is in all places equally. A worship of
duty and of truth 294 is good and obligatory when man worships while believing that God is
incorporeal and uncircumscribed, and thinks in clear conscience that God is not confined
nor circumscribed in a place.

11 As there are many beings who bear the name of "I am" 295—as all things created from
nothing are so called because they "are"— when God was asked by the blessed Moses about
His name He answered: "I am that I am. This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial
unto all generations." 296 He did not mean to say that there is nothing else that is "I
am," but that this name "I am" belongs prominently to Him, not that He once was "I am" and
once was not, but that He was "I am" eternally and always. In this same way there are many
beings who bear the name of "spirits," but the word "Spirit" refers pre-eminently and is
due to Divine nature which is truly incorporeal and uncircumscribed. If, therefore, it
were possible to contend that when the Scripture says "Holy Spirit" it says it in a
general sense and throws ambiguity in the minds of the hearers, who in hearing this very
name "Holy Spirit" mentioned might think and say: "What is the precise meaning conveyed by
the Scripture, since this name is applied to all the other beings who are called
spirits?"—the case would be similar with regard to the name "I am" which Holy Writ applies
to God because we would not be able to understand to whom it is precisely ascribed, as
there are many beings who are referred to by the word "I am" 297 and it is not known
whether man or another being is implied;

12 this general term would, therefore, be in need of an addition through which the one who
is called by it is distinguished. |99 We do not, however, understand God in this sense,
either when we call Him "I am" or when we call Him "Spirit," because if we call Him "I am"
we understand that in truth He is "I am" alone, and if we call Him "Spirit," He is in
truth "Spirit" alone. 13 It is imperative now that we should discuss also the Holy Spirit
and see to what kind of "Spirit" (the Book) refers when it says, "In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." There is no one who is so mad as to
believe that this passage requires discussion, because it is known that the Divine Book is
wont to refer by this name exclusively to one whom it everywhere names side by side with
the Father and the Son, in the same way as it named Him when baptism was handed down to
us. While all spirits have by general usage assumed one common name (of spirit) because
they are subtile in their nature in comparison with the visible things, which are in no
way grasped by any of our visible senses—this name "spirit" is rightly said with pre-
eminence of the Divine nature as it is truly a spirit which is incorporeal and
uncircumscribed. Thus we have understood Divine nature to be, and the Holy Spirit is
called and professed by this name alone side by side with the Father and the Son because
He possesses an identical nature with them.

14 As when we hear the name of the Father, although there are many other fathers, we
nevertheless understand it to refer truly to one mighty God who is eternal; and as,
although many are called sons, we, nevertheless, think only of one Son, who did not
become, neither is He, a Son through the process of transformation—like the sons whom we
have with us and who are born through the transformation of the (human) seed and are
afterwards called sons—but He is truly alone Son of a Father who is eternal, and He is
eternally from Him and with Him—, in this same way when we hear [the name of] the Holy
Spirit we do not think of one of those beings who are called spirits but of the one who is
truly called alone by this name and is incorporeal, uncircumscribed and confessed side by
side with the Father and the Son in one Divine nature.

15 The addition "Holy" is characterised by the same implications as the name "Spirit."
Although there are many beings that are "holy," as in the sentence, "When He shall come in
the glory of His Father and of His holy angels," 298 and although there are also |100 many
objects called by this name of holiness, such as "The tabernacle of the Most High is
holy," 299 these are called holy by common usage only as having derived their holiness
from God. The one who is truly holy is Divine nature. It is indeed said: "Thou art holy
and Thy name is reverend"; 300 and even the Seraphim when they glorify they say in their
canticle which is congruous to this Divine nature as follows: "Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts: the whole heaven and earth are full of His glory." 301 The one who is truly
holy is He whose nature is immutable and unchangeable and He who has not received holiness
from another but alone can bestow holiness on all He pleases. In this way the Divine Book
calls Holy Spirit the one who is alone confessed, at baptism and in the act of
discipleship, side by side with the Father and the Son, because this name Holy Spirit is
truly due only to Divine nature. This is the reason why when we hear this name Holy Spirit
we do not ask who is meant by it, because we know that He is the one who is alone (holy)
by nature and who is named with the Father and the Son as an act due to His nature,
because the nature of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one.

16 From this it is easily understood by men of good will that our blessed Fathers taught
us sufficiently concerning the nature of the Holy Spirit when they placed Him on the same
level with the Father and the Son, because in this they clearly taught us something that
is in harmony with the words which our Lord pronounced to His disciples and which ascribed
to Him a name congruous to Divine nature. It was deemed sufficient by them simply to
insert this name in the profession of faith which they taught, because by its
exclusiveness it is capable of demonstrating the nature of the one who is named. This
being the case it is only men of ill will who make show of insolence and call the Holy
Spirit a servant or a creature, while some others amongst them although refraining from
these words yet refuse to call Him God. It is with a sense of duty, therefore, that the
Doctors of the Church,302 who assembled from all parts of the world and who were the heirs
of the first blessed Fathers,303 proclaimed before all men the wish of their Fathers and
in accurate deliberations made |101 manifest the truth of their faith and interpreted also
their mind.304 They wrote to us words which warn the children of faith and destroy the
error of the heretics. As their Fathers did in the profession of faith concerning the Son
for the refutation of the ungodliness of Arius, so they did in their words concerning the
Holy Spirit for the confutation of those who blasphemed against Him.

17 They thought that it would be the height of folly to call creature and servant one who
by the mention of His name frees us from death and corruption through baptism, and renews
us according to the teaching of our Lord, because a creature is not able to free us nor is
a servant able to renew us. It was considered by them to be folly to hesitate to call God
one who is truly God, as it is clear that one who is neither a creature nor a servant is
God. If He be a creature, He is also a servant, and no creature and no servant are truly
God. To call creature or servant one by whose name we expect to be renewed and freed—since
in calling Him by His name side by side with that of the Father and the Son we believe
that He will grant us renewal and freedom—is a great error 305 and an outrageous
blasphemy. Duty compels us, therefore, to call Him God because no other nature can create,
renew and free except Divine nature, which is neither created nor made, but is the cause
of everything, is able to renew its works according to its will and has the power to give
us freedom as it wishes.

18 Because of this and for it, it was right on the part of our blessed Fathers to proclaim
in their creed that the Holy Spirit was Divine nature with the Father and the Son, and by
the addition of short words to confirm the true doctrine of the Church which was to be
made manifest to those who draw nigh unto the holy baptism: And in ONE Holy Spirit. What
our Fathers wrote does not differ in meaning from: And in Holy Spirit. Although they made
use of this word,306 well knowing that the Holy Spirit that was called by this name was
one as the Divine Books had taught us, they nevertheless made its meaning clear by saying:
And in one Holy Spirit, and thus brought themselves into harmony with the usage adopted by
Holy Writ which in saying "one" Father and "one" Son says also "one" Holy Spirit. |102

19 This is the reason why the blessed Paul said in one passage: "By one Spirit we are all
baptized into one body." 307 And in another passage: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one body, one Spirit, one God Father of all, who is above all and through all and in us
all." 308And again: "There are diversities of gifts but the Spirit is one, and there are
diversities of administration but the Lord is one, and there are diversities of operations
but it is the same God which worketh all in all." 309 He clearly shows here that as there
is one Lord, because He is the Lord and there is no other beside Him, and as there is one
God and there is no other beside Him, so there is one Spirit and there is no other beside
Him. The created beings are numerous and different in their nature, but there is only one
immutable nature which is the cause of everything, and outside this nature there is no
uncreated being who is the cause of the created beings, and He who is of that nature is
truly uncreated and cause of everything.

20 This is the reason why there is only one Father who is truly Father alone and Divine
nature, and there is only one Son who is truly Son alone from the Divine nature of God,
and there is only one Holy Spirit who is Holy Spirit alone and whom we have learnt from
the sacred Books to call by this name, because He also is from that eternal nature and is
God and cause of everything. He is also truly God and Lord alone because He created
everything, and has power over everything, and is called and is truly Spirit because He is
truly incorporeal and uncircumscribed, and to Him is due the attribute of holiness, as He
is alone holy and immutable by nature, and as it is He who bestows holiness upon those He
pleases and frees them from inclination towards evil. 21 All the created beings are not
holy by nature but are receivers of holiness from the one who is the cause of their being.
It is with justice, therefore, that when the blessed Paul exhorted the Ephesians to unity
and to be of one mind, made mention of this nature by which they were to be of one mind:
"Endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," 310 and as you were born
of one Spirit in order to be one in your motherly bond 311 so you ought to be united and
|103 joined one to another. In amplifying his sentence he said: "one body and one Spirit
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling," 312 because as you were born of one
spirit you have become one body of Christ who is the head:313 the man who was assumed so
that through Him we might have relationship with Divine nature, as we are expecting to
have communion with Him in the next world, because we believe that our vile body shall be
changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body.314 We have been called to the hope of
these (benefits), and we were born of baptism by the power of the Holy Spirit; and as a
symbol and earnest of the future things we received the firstfruits of the Spirit,315
through whom we were reborn and by whom we obtained the gift of being one body of Christ.

22 In expanding further his sentence the blessed Paul said: "One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one body, one Spirit, and one God the Father who is above all and through all and
in us all." 316 One is the Spirit of whom you were born, in the same way as one is the
Lord and one is God whom we believe to be our Lord and our Maker and whom by the grace of
baptism we have been worthy to call Father. One faith and one baptism: because although we
say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we only profess one nature of the Father, of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, in which we are initiated to our faith and which we have agreed to
name at baptism. It is evident that he would not have said one faith if he did not know
that the names of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit through whom disciple-
ship is effected were one nature; nor would he have said one baptism had he not been aware
that those names which are pronounced at baptism had only one power, one will and one act
through which the grace of our second birth 317 was accomplished.

23 The addition of the word one has, therefore, taught us sufficiently and accurately the
Divine nature of the Holy Spirit. He is one as the Father is one and as the Son is one,
and we believe that the (nature) of each one of them is identical, because the Divine
nature, which is uncreated, eternal, and cause of everything, is one. It is known that the
created beings are numerous and possess various and |104 different natures according to
the wish of their Maker, and are bound to be always dependent on 318 that nature which is
uncreated and the cause of everything. Things that have now been spoken will suffice us
for to-day, and we will leave off the rest for another day if God wishes. Let us,
therefore, put an end here to our discourse and praise God the Father, the Only Begotten
Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen. Amen.

24 Here ends the ninth chapter.


COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED
==============================

COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED continued

CHAPTER X.

I know that you remember what we spoke to your love concerning the Holy Spirit, when we
showed the greatness of His glory from the fact that in the initiation 319 of baptism He
is believed in side by side with the Father and the Son. We adduced another reason which
is no less cogent than this from the fact that He is alone called exclusively Holy Spirit,
a name which in the teaching of the Books is simply ascribed to Divine nature; and also
from the fact that He is called one Spirit like one Son, one God and one Lord. To those
who have goodwill in religion the words written in the sacred Books would have been
sufficient; these have been written also in the teaching of our blessed Fathers, who,
however, because there are no adequate words easily to convince an evil mind, added of
necessity to their teaching a statement which they chose in order to warn the children of
the faith and refute the error of the heretics. They inserted, therefore, in their
doctrine words that resemble those said of the Son. In speaking of the Son it was
sufficient for those who do not refuse to be convinced to state that the one who was
called an Only Begotten Son was truly a Son consubstantial with His Father, but on account
of the wicked men who are bent on perversion they added: Born of Him before all the
worlds, and not made, true God of true God, consubstantial with His Father, and in this
they made |105 clear to all the meaning of the name '' Only Begotten" in order to confirm
the faithful and rebuke the haters of truth.

In this same way they inserted here also a word which gives us the true meaning of the
name which is handed down to us by the Divine Books concerning the Spirit, who at the time
of our initiation and baptism is confessed side by side with the Father and the Son. For
people of goodwill in religion a word which would show that the Holy Spirit was of the
Divine nature of God the Father would have been sufficient, but on account of people
inclined to insolence 320 and steadfast in it and in blasphemy, our blessed Fathers were
rightly advised, even after all this credible teaching, to corroborate the doctrine of
faith by means of a short addition, for the benefit of all and especially for your
benefit, you who are on the point of drawing nigh unto the gift of the Spirit. They,
therefore, said: And in ONE Holy Spirit. They did not invent this expression but took it
from the teaching of our Lord, who, speaking to all His disciples before His passion
wished to instruct them on the kind of resurrection from the dead which He will grant to
mankind, and said that He will bestow upon them the grace of the Holy Spirit from which is
derived the happiness of the future good things, which are so wonderful and have such a
permanent effect on those who are worthy to receive them.

He rightly instructed us in His teaching on the greatness and glory of the Holy Spirit,
and by this He showed us the greatness of the grace which was to be given to the faithful,
so that we should firmly believe in the wonderful benefits which from it would be granted
to us and would never be taken from us. He said thus: "If ye love me, keep My
commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter, that He
may abide with you for ever." He showed them in these words: You should persevere in
keeping My commandments, never to deviate from them in any way, and since you will not be
receiving a casual and ordinary thing only, you will have to show great care and
diligence: you will be receivers of no less a gift than the grace of the Holy Spirit,
which will be always with you and bestow heavenly gifts upon you. And in corroboration of
what had been said He added something that shows the honour due to the Holy Spirit, and
said: "The Spirit of Truth." 322 Indeed, it is |106 the nature of the Spirit to give
everything in truth without any change, and because He is eternal, immutable and
unchangeable in His nature He is able to bestow upon others the delight of heavenly gifts
which will not perish nor suffer any change.

(The Book) calls falsehood a perishable thing that is not permanent, and truth an
imperishable thing that is permanent. Because the one who affirms a thing which does not
exist lies, and the one who affirms a thing which exists tells the truth, it (the Book)
calls falsehood a thing which does not last because it becomes like a thing which does not
exist, while it calls truth a thing which lasts and exists permanently. This is the reason
why the blessed David said: "I said in my haste, All men are liars," 323 that is to say
because I became proud and thought highly of myself I suddenly fell into dire calamities
and was in danger, as if I was nothing, and was about to perish, if Thy wonderful help had
not assisted me; I was astonished at the great number of calamities that assailed me and
understood that it was falsely that I had thought highly of myself; I found by experience
that human things are nothing and that in truth they are all false: wealth, power, might,
and all things which are considered by men to be great and wonderful. All these things,
nay, even the fact of our existence are also false, because we make show of this fact of
our existence to deceive those who see us, while eventually we are cut off by death and
reminded that we are nothing, and all the great things that we are supposed to possess
leave us at the end of our life.

As (the Book) calls falsehood a thing that has no enduring effect so it calls truth a
thing that is lasting and does not perish, as it is said, "Mercy and truth will meet us"
324 to show us that He (God) will truly grant us mercy. He is, therefore, called God of
truth because He is truly able to give us all. It is said: "Thou hast saved us O Lord God
of truth," 325 that is to say, Thou hast saved us from the calamities that are known to us
because Thou alone art able to grant benefits that are lasting and imperishable to
whomsoever Thou wishest. The blessed David said these things of God and called Him God of
truth in order to show that He is truly able to grant everything. Our Lord also said
similar things of the Holy Spirit in order to confirm the truth of the future good things
that will be granted to us |107 in the next world by the same Holy Spirit. It is as if He
had said: The Holy Spirit, the gift of whose grace you will receive, is one who gives
heavenly and imperishable benefits to all He pleases, and because He is eternal in His
nature and immutable and unchangeable, the things which He will give will also last for
ever and will not change or perish. It is not possible that the one who grants benefits
which are unchangeable and imperishable should not Himself be eternal and imperishable in
His nature, and such a one is indeed Divine nature which is eternal. In created things
there is nothing that can last by itself; the one who may be so constituted is so through
another; indeed, how can a created being have by himself the attribute of permanency
unless this be given to him by his Maker? The one, however, who is eternal, because
immutable in His nature, is able to grant imperishable benefits to others as He pleases.

In short, Christ our Lord gave us a great testimony about the nature of the Spirit, in
saying, "The Spirit of Truth." This expression cannot in any way fit the created beings
because they are very far from being able to give any lasting thing to others, as they
themselves are in need of their Maker to remain in the state in which they had once been
created. And He fittingly added: "Whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not,
neither knoweth Him." 326 There is no reason to wonder that the Holy Spirit is so in His
nature and in His power, as in His nature He is higher than all creation and there is no
created being that can see Him and receive Him in His nature or understand Him, if He
Himself does not reveal His knowledge to mankind by His will. This is the reason why He
added: "But you know Him for He is with you and dwelleth in you," 327 and you rightly
receive His knowledge because you have received from Him the gift of grace, which will
remain with you for ever for the confirmation of the pleasures of the future good things
in which you will be immortal and immutable.

Our blessed Fathers inserted this expression concerning the Holy Spirit as they had
received it from our Lord, and added another: Who proceeds from the Father. This is also
found in the teaching of our Lord to His disciples: "When the Spirit Paraclete is come,
whom I will send unto you, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, He
will testify of me." 328 Here also He |108 revealed in advance the gift of the grace of
the Holy Spirit which was to be bestowed upon all the disciples after His ascension. In
saying: "When the Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you" He refers to the grace of
the Spirit which He was about to bestow on them. He was not going to send unto them the
Divine nature of the Spirit which was everywhere, but He said this of the gift of the
grace which was poured upon them and in which He called also the Paraclete the
"Comforter," because He was able to impart unto them the knowledge which was required of
them for comforting their souls in the numerous trials of this world.

After having spoken of the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit He began to speak of His
nature and of the greatness of the honour due to Him, in order to show the character of
the grace which they were going to receive, and said: "The Spirit of Truth." This
expression denotes the greatness of His nature and His power to grant imperishable
benefits to all He pleases. Then He added the sentence that "He proceeds from the Father"
to signify that He is always with God the Father and inseparable from Him. This has also
been said by the blessed Paul: "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit who is from
God." 329 He meant by this that as the spirit of man is not separated from him as long as
he is and remains a man, so also the Holy Spirit is not separated from God the Father
because He is from Him and from His nature, and is always known and confessed side by side
with Him To this our Lord referred as by a hint when He said: "He proceeds from the
Father," because the Holy Spirit is a spring which is always with God and has never been
separated from Him. He has not been created later but He is eternally in Him, and He is
from the nature of God the Father, and eternal; and like a river with undiminishing flow,
He bestows His gifts upon whom He pleases.

In this way He said also in another passage: "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," 330 and the blessed
evangelist interpreting this expression said: "This spake He of the Spirit, which they
that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because that Jesus
was not yet glorified." 331 He explains here clearly that He was |109 speaking of the gift
of the Spirit. He did not speak of the person or of the nature of the Holy Spirit that
they were not yet, when he said that Jesus was not yet glorified, because He was eternally
before all creation, but He said it of the gift of the Holy Spirit which after the
ascension of our Lord into heaven was poured and seen on the blessed Apostles and on those
who were with them. He said that the gift of the Holy Spirit will be poured on those who
will believe in Him, like an undiminishing flow of water, because it 333 will be given by
God the Spirit, who thus makes manifest His work of giving eternal life to those who
believe in Him.

He who says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father shows that He is eternally with
God the Father and is not separated from Him, because He is always and eternally in Him.
Indeed if gifts proceed from the Holy Spirit like a river, and if this Spirit proceeds
from God the Father, it is clear that He is eternally from Him and with Him and He did not
come into existence later. As when the Book says that "a river proceeded from 334 Eden to
water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads," 335 we
rightly understand that the source which made these rivers to flow from Eden was not
parted for the reason that it was from thence that it had to flow, so also when our Lord
says in parable of the Holy Spirit that He proceeds from the Father, He gives us to
understand that the Holy Spirit is not separated from Him, but He is eternally from Him,
in Him and with Him, and like an undiminishing river He distributes gifts to all creatures
according to the measure of the faith of His receivers, as the blessed Paul said: "There
are diversities of Gifts but the Spirit is one," 336 and also "the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." 337

In explaining this expression of our Lord our blessed Fathers said that He proceeds from
the nature of the Father, that He proceeds from Him eternally, and that He was always in
the Father and did not come into existence later. It is evident that he who is eternally
from the Father and with Him, proceeds also from His nature, because it is impossible that
anything should be with God which is not by nature from Him. |110 After this they added in
their teaching concerning the Spirit: Giver of Life,338 an expression which aptly
demonstrates that the Holy Spirit is God like the expressions 339 discussed above. Our
Lord said: "The water that I shall give shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life." 340 He refers by His words to the gift of the Holy Spirit which gives
everlasting life to those who are worthy of it. And again in another passage: "He that
believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." 341 He calls living water the gift of the Holy Spirit because it can grant
everlasting life. And the Apostle also said: "The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth
life" 342 and showed us that He will make us immortal. And again in another passage: "The
first Adam was made a living soul and the second Adam a quickening Spirit." 343 He shows
by his words that Christ our Lord was changed in His body, at the resurrection from the
dead, to immortality by the power of the Holy Spirit. He likewise said in another passage:
"He was declared to be the Son of God with power and by the Spirit of holiness, and rose
up from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." 344 And: "If the Spirit of Him that raised up
our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Jesus Christ from the
dead shall also quicken your dead bodies because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you." 345

Our Lord also said when teaching us concerning His body: "It is the Spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing" 346 in order to show that He also had immortality
from the Holy Spirit and to demonstrate this point to others. Such an act belongs indeed
to the nature that is eternal and cause of everything, because to Him who is able to
create something from nothing belongs the act of giving life, that is to say, to make us
immortal so that we should always live. Even among created beings those who have an
immortal nature are considered higher in rank, and it is, therefore, clear and evident
that he who is able to perform this act 347 is also able to perform other acts. God
Himself shows that it is the prerogative of the Divine nature to |111 do this in saying:
"Know now that I am He and there is no God beside Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound,
and I heal." 348 He shows that it is His exclusive prerogative to raise from the dead and
to free from their pain those who are wounded.

It is with the (above) words that our blessed Fathers warned us and taught us that we
ought to believe that the Holy Spirit was from the Divine nature of God the Father. This
is the reason why He is confessed and believed in side by side with the Father and the Son
at the time of initiation and baptism. Each one of us is baptised in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, according to the doctrine of our Fathers,
which is derived from the teaching of our Lord, so that it should be made clear and
manifest to all that our blessed Fathers handed down to us the doctrine of the true faith
by following the order of Christ. Even the words of the creed contain nothing but an
explanation and interpretation of the words found in the teaching of our Lord. Indeed, He
who ordered to baptise the Gentiles in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit showed us clearly that the Divine nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit is one.

It was not possible that He should induce the Gentiles—who were converted to the true
faith by casting away from them the error of polytheism and rejecting those who were
falsely called gods—to receive a teaching that drew them nigh unto the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit, if He did not know the oneness of their Divine nature which exists
eternally and which is the cause of everything; (nor would He have induced us) to secede
from those who are not truly gods and to believe in one Divine nature which is Father, Son
and Holy Spirit; to desist from calling creatures gods and to believe that the uncreated
nature is one, which from nothing can make everything because it is truly Lord and God to
whom this name and this honour are justly due. This is the reason why our Lord caused
baptism to follow catechumenate 349 so that baptism should be the end of catechumenate. It
was necessary for those who had rejected false gods and learnt that Divine nature was one,
eternal and cause of everything, which is |112 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to receive
through these names the gift of baptism which is bestowed for the sake of a wonderful
happiness and is the earnest of the future and ineffable benefits. Faith is professed at
baptism by the mention of these names, because those who mention them 350 designate one
Divine nature which is eternal, cause of everything, and able to create all things from
nothing while always caring and providing for them. We also rightly expect to be renewed
and to receive the freedom of truth through these names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
which are pronounced at baptism.

Immediately after the profession of faith in baptism they (our blessed Fathers) added the
profession of faith in: One Catholic Church. (It is as if the catechumen says): I shall be
baptised in order to be a member of the great body of the Church, as the blessed Paul
said: "One body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." 351 He
does not call Church the building made with hands, even if we suppose that it has been so
called because of the congregation of the faithful who are in it, but he calls Church all
the congregation of the faithful who worship God in the right way and those who after the
coming of Christ believed in Him from all countries till the end of the world and the
second coming of our Saviour from heaven, which we are expecting. When our Lord also said
to His blessed disciples: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have
commanded you," He added: "Lo, I am with you in all days even unto the end of the world."
352 He said the words "with you" in the person of the Apostles to all who will believe in
Him in every country, and who will be baptised according to this teaching till the end of
the world.

This congregation of the faithful and God-fearing men our Lord called also Church when He
said: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it." 353 He promised to assemble together all God-fearing men to
this faith and to this creed, and their gathering will not perish nor be prevailed
against, in their fight with the enemies. Upon this the blessed Paul said: "To the intent
that unto the principalities and powers in heaven might be known by the Church the depth
of the wisdom |113 of God, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord before the worlds."
354 He shows here that in this manifold wisdom of God the invisible powers were astonished
that He assembled together all men to the worship of God, and made them as one body of
Christ at the second birth from the holy baptism, and prepared them to hope that they will
participate with Him in the future good things of the next world. He calls this Church the
body of Christ because it received communion with Him through the regeneration of baptism,
symbolically in this world but truly and effectively in the next, when "our vile body
shall be changed, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." 355 As we are in
this world like unto the body of Adam and we resemble him also in our body, so we shall be
called the body of Christ our Lord, because when our vile body is changed we shall receive
the glory of His body.

The blessed Paul shows this in another passage: "I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and
fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake,
which is His church, whereof I am made a minister." 356 He clearly calls the Church the
body of Christ, for the maintenance of which he became a minister, and because of this he
endured and suffered much; and he shows also that all the faithful became one body through
one power of the Holy Spirit because they were called to one future hope. This is the
reason why in writing to the Corinthians he said: "You are the body of Christ our Lord."
Our Lord also said by way of prayer in His words to His disciples: "Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may
be one as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us," 358 i.e.
I desire that not only these but all those who shall believe in me through them, be one in
the change (which they will undergo for the possession) of the future benefits; as I have
with Thee a close and ineffable union so let them also be one in their faith in Us,
through the perfection of their change (for the possession) of those benefits, and be like
unto My glory and possess union with Me, by means of which they will gradually move to the
honour of relationship with the Divine nature.

We symbolise this state in baptism, since we die with Christ in baptism and rise again
according to the testimony of the blessed Paul.359 |114 This is the reason why each one of
us declares: "I will believe and be baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit through one holy Catholic Church." (The catachumen) shows by his
words: I am not preparing for baptism for the sake of little things but for the sake of
great and wonderful things and heavenly benefits, as I am expecting that through baptism I
shall be made a member of the Church, which is the congregation of the faithful, who
through baptism became worthy to be called the body of Christ our Lord and received an
ineffable holiness and the hope of the future immortality and immutability. And it is one
Church, which embraces all, on account of those who believe in all countries and expect to
receive heavenly life, as the blessed Paul said: "The heavenly Church in which are written
the firstborn of God." 360 He called them "The firstborn" because they will receive the
wonderful adoption of sons 361 in a primary predestination, not like that of the Jews
which was of a changing character, but an ineffable immortality and immutability in good,
which is granted to those who are worthy of it. He called them also "written in heaven,"
because it is there that they will dwell.

They called the Church "holy" because of the holiness and the immutability which it will
receive from the Holy Spirit, and "Catholic" in order to refer to all those who believed
in all countries and at all times, and "one" because only those who believed in Christ
will receive the future good things, and it is they who are "one holy Church." 362 In
order to show the utility that accrues from this profession of faith they (our blessed
Fathers) said: For the remission of sins. In these words they did not mean a simple
remission of sin but its complete abolition. Our Lord said also: "This is My body which is
broken on behalf of many for remission of sins," 363 that is to say all |115 sins will be
wiped off, because a true remission consists in the remission not of some sins but of all
of them, as the blessed John said: "Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world." 364 This, however, will take place fully in the next world when after the
resurrection we shall be immortal and immutable and when all the impulses of sins will
cease. This is the reason why the blessed Paul also said: "If the dead rise not, then is
not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain and ye are yet in your
sins." 365 He shows in this that in the future resurrection from the dead we are expecting
complete abolition of sin.

Our blessed Fathers, therefore, after having said, Remission of sins, added: For the
resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting. They show here that we shall receive these
when we shall have risen from the dead and received the happiness of the everlasting good
things, and then after we have become truly immutable, the complete abolition of sin will
take place, and we shall become one, holy and Catholic Church, as we shall receive an
ineffable holiness and become immortal and immutable and be worthy to be always with
Christ: "When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is
swallowed up in victory. O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?' The
sting of death is sin, and the strength of the sin is the law." 366 Then will truly take
place the abolition of all these: of death, sin and corruption, and with them the law also
will be abolished because saints who have become immortal and incorruptible are in no need
of the law.

Our blessed Fathers did, therefore, well to give us first the profession of faith through
which we receive our teaching according to the doctrine of our Lord, and understand that
which we have to learn concerning the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to the effect
that the same Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one Divine nature, which is eternal and
cause of everything, and that this nature is rightly and alone called Lord and God, whom
we ought to confess, in whom we ought to believe and to whom worship is due from all
created beings. After this, they taught us the profession of faith (which is to be made)
at baptism in order to show that all this is in |116 accordance with the sequence of the
teaching of our Lord who said: "Go ye, teach and baptise in the name of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 367 Thus they 368 are taught and thus they perform the
(sacrament of) baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Those who are about to be baptised in the hope of ineffable benefits ought not to name
another nature beside the one from which all benefits are bestowed on all created beings.
This is the reason why they added to this the profession of faith concerning the future
benefits in the hope of which we draw nigh unto the grace of baptism, as by necessity we
have to know what kind of benefits are granted to this discipleship, and also that the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one Divine nature, and also that at the second
birth from the holy baptism we receive the faith in the heavenly and imperishable benefits
that the Divine nature, which is eternal and cause of everything, is able to bestow upon
us. We have in many past days spoken to your love in a comprehensive way that embraces the
explanation of all the creed. It behoves you now to remember carefully the words that have
been spoken to you in order that by keeping without modification the creed of the religion
of the fear of God you may truly receive the happiness of the future benefits, of which
may God make us worthy by the grace of His Only Begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
and His Father, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, be glory and honour, now, always and
for ever and ever. Amen. Amen.

Here ends the transcription of the ten chapters 369 on the exposition of the creed,
written by the righteous and lover of Christ, Mar Theodore, bishop and interpreter of the
Divine Books. 1. Of the Council of Nicea. 2. 1 Cor. ii. 9. 3. Cf . Eph. i. 8-9; Col. i.
26; iv. 3-4, etc. 4. 1 Cor. ii. 11-13. 5. Ps. xcviii. 1. (Peshitta has "a marvellous
thing.") 6. 2 Cor. v. 1 7. 7. Lit. from. 8. Col. iii. 10-11. 9. Phil. iii. 20. 10. 2 Cor.
v. 1. 11. 3 Ibid. Cf Heb. ix. 11, 24. 12. Or written. 13. Cf. Gen. iii. 18 etc. 14. Cf.
Is. xxxv. 10. 15. John iii. 5. 16. Cf. Rom. viii. 1 7; Gal. iii. 29; iv. 7; Tit. iii. 7.
17. Lit. our first. 18. Or: religion, confession. 19. Or: godliness. Does it possibly
render the Greek Θεοσέβεια? 20. Rom. x. 10.

21. Heb. xi. 1. 22. 1 Tim. vi. 16. 23. Heb. xi. 6. 24. Heb. xi. 3. 25. The word that I
translate by "religion" literally means "fear of God," and it is possibly the Greek word
used by Paul (θεοσέβεια) which the English Bible renders by "godliness." 26. 1 Tim. iii.
15. 27. Lit. " who fully shows His Father in it." 28. Deut. vi. 4; Mark xii. 29, etc. 29.
Jer. x. 11. 30. Cf also Deut. xxxii. 39. 31. Is. xliv. 6, etc. 32. Lit. high above
creation. 33. Ps. lxxxi. 9. 34. Ibid. 35. Deut. xxxii. 1 7. 36. Matt, xxviii. 19. 37.
Deut. vi 4. 38. Gen. iv. 1. 39. i.e.. He is Father par excellence. 40. Exod. iii. 14-15.
41. See on all this, p. 98. 42. Ps. cxlviii. 1 -3. 43. Ps. cxlviii. 5-6. 44. Is. i. 2. 45.
Exod. iv. 22. 46. The words baitayutha and kaributha used in these sentences may also be
understood in the sense of the Pauline "adoption of Children" and of the doctrine of the
membership of the Household of God spoken of in Eph. ii. 19. See the following chapter.

47. Gen. i. 24. 48. Or: "servants created," if we read `abde for `ebade of the MS. 49. Or
"human seed," or "movement" or "lapse of time." (Syr. marditha.) 50. Here again is the
Syriac word marditha. 51. Lit. let us call Him. 52. Ps. civ. 24. 53. 1 Cor. viii. 6. 54.
Lit. fear of God. 55. 1 Cor. viii. 6. 56. Ibid. 57. Deut. vi. 4. 58. Matt. i. 21; Luke i.
31. 59. Acts x. 38. 60. Philip. ii. 7. 61. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 62. John i. 14. 63. 1 Cor.
viii. 6. 64. John i. 3. 65. Acts x. 38; 1 Tim. iii. 16; Heb. ii. 9-10. 66. In the text:
Parsopa = πρόσωπον. 67. Rom. ix. 5. 68. John i. 14. 69. Ibid, 18. 70. Ps. lxxi. 9, 12. 71.
Rom. viii. 29. 72. Ibid., 23; Galat. iv. 5; Eph. i. 5. 73. Col. i. 15.

74. 2 Cor. v. 17. 75. Phil. ii. 7. 76. Ps. lxxxii. 6. 77. Is. i. 2. 78. Eph. ii. 19. 79.
Or "a servant," if we read `abda, instead of `ebadha. 80. John i. 1. 81. Ibid. 82. Lit.
person (Kenoma). 83. The word "creature" may be translated in all this section by "work,"
"a created being," a sense which in reality fits some sentences better. 84. John i. 1. 85.
Lit. high. 86. Ps. lxxxii. 6. 87. Lit. "one is consubstantial with the other," or "this is
consubstantial with that." 88. John i. 1. 89. John x. 30. 90. Ibid, 27-28. 91. Ibid, 29.
92. John xiv. 9. 93. Ibid., 11. 94. Matt. xi. 2 7. 95. Acts xvii. 28. 96. Tit. i. 12. 97.
John i. 1. 98. Ibid, 3. 99. Heb. i. 2. 100. Cf. Rom. viii. 3; Phil. ii. 7, etc. 101. Phil.
ii. 7.

102. Cf. Matt, xviii. 11. 103. John i. 10-11. 104. Ps. xviii. 9. 105. Cf Phil. ii. 7. 106.
Lit. "from there." 107. Ps. viii. 4. 108. Cf Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 27; xiii. 35. 109. John
ii. 19. 110. Lit. "until with help he loosed." 111. Acts ii. 24. 112. This passage is
quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix., p. 218). It is stated in this Council
that it is culled from Theodore's book ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory Note." 113.
Ephes. i. 21. 114. John x. 33. 115. Phil. ii. 7-8. 116. Rom. viii. 3. 117. 1 Tim. iii. 16.
118. I.e. to the soul. 119. Lit. "a man like a man." 120. Rom. v. 12, 15 and 1 7. 121. 1
Cor. xv. 22. 122. Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 56. 123. 1 Tim. iii. 6. 124. Rom. i. 28-31. 125. Rom.
viii. 1-2 where "me" for "thee."

126. Cf. 2 Cor. i. 9. 127. I.e., personality, existence. I prefer here also to use the
word "person" (in Syr. Kenoma) which is probably a translation of the Greek u9po/stasij in
order to preserve the nature and the character of the theological terms used in the fourth
century. 128. I.e., as long as the animal qua animal is alive. 129. The ancients believed
the soul of the animal to reside in the blood. See Barsalibi's treatise against the
Armenians, vol. iv., p. 33 of my Woodbrooke Studies, and `Ali Tabari's Book of Religion
and Empire, p. 82 of my edition. Cf. Aristotle, De anima, i. 2, and Levit. xvii. 18. 130.
Lit. Receiving anything. 131. Matt. x. 28. 132. Lit. person of the soul. 133. Possibly:
because he resembles. 134. John xiv. 30 135. Rom. v. 21. 136. Note the use of the word
ethhayyal. 137. Cf. Rom. vi. 17, etc.

138. Lit. received. 139. John xii. 31 -32. 140. Lit. "that He had a kind of judgment with
the Rebel." 141. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 142. Heb. ix. 14. 143. This passage is also quoted in the
Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix. 218). It is again stated in this Council that it is
culled from Theodore's work ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory Note." 144. Rom. viii. 23.
145. 2 Cor. i. 21-22. 146. 1 Cor. xv. 53-56. 147. Ibid, 57. 148. This passage is also
quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix. 218). It is again stated in this
Council that it is excerpted from Theodore's work ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory
Note." 149. Phil. iii. 21. 150. Gal. iv. 4, etc. 151. 1 Cor. i. 18. 152. Lit. in all
versions: "that perish." 153. Lit. "alive," as in the Peshitta. 154. 2 Cor. xiii. 4.

155. I.e. natures. 156. Rom. ix. 5. 157. This sentence is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth
Council. See "Prefatory Note." 158. Phil. ii. 6-7. 159. Lit. was found to be a man. 160.
Phil. ii. 8-11. 161. Col. iii. 1, etc. 162. Luke ii. 7. 163. Text: All these together
with. 164. Luke ii. 51-52. 165. Lit. of men. 166. Gal. iv. 4. 167. Gal. iv. 4-5. 168. Gal.
v. 1. 169. 2 Tim. ii. 8, etc. 170. Heb. ii. 5-6. 171. Ibid., 16. 172. I.e. Christ; cf. 1
Cor. xv. 23 173. Col. i. 18. 174. Lit. was perfected. 175. Lit. head. 176. In His baptism.
177. Lit. with those. 178. Lit. that world. 179. Rom. vi. 17. 180. Ibid., 3-4. 181. Rom.
vii. 4, where no "Jesus." 182. Acts. ii. 24. 183. Col. iii. 1, etc. 184. Heb. vii. 22.
185. 2 Tim. i. 9, etc.

186. Tit. iii. 6. 187. 2 Cor. v. 5; Eph. i. 14. 188. Acts ii. 33. 189. 1 Cor. xv. 44. 190.
Lit. faith like this. 191. Lit. here. 192. Eph. i. 13. 193. 2 Cor. viii. 9. 194. I
translate "He was" literally. 195. 1 Cor. xv. 3-4. 196. Ibid., 4. 197. 1 Cor. xv. 14,
16-17. 198. 1 Cor. xv. 17. 199. Luke xxiv. 51. 200. Acts i. 9-10. 201. 1 Cor. xv. 23. 202.
1 Thess. iv. 16-17. 203. Phil. iii. 20-21. 204. 2 Cor. v. 1. 205. Ibid., 6-8, where "with
the Lord" for" with Christ." 206. Lit. those future things. 207. Gal. iv. 26. 208. 1 Cor.
xv. 23. 209. Eph. ii. 1. 210. Ibid., 5. 211. Ibid, 7. 212. Phil. iii. 21. 213. 1 Cor. xv.
51-52. 214. 1 Thess. iv. 15-17. 215. John ii. 21. 216. John x. 18. 217. Acts. i. 1 1.

218. Lit. did. 219. Tit. ii. 13. 220. 2 Tim. iv. 1. 221. Phil. ii. 6-7. 222. Matt. xxii.
42. 223. Matt. i. 1 (not literal quotation). 224. Matt. xxii. 43-45. 225. John viii. 19.
226. John xiv. 9. 227. John xvi. 25. 228. Ibid., 24. 229. Ibid., 12-13. 230. John ii. 19.
231. Ibid, 21. 232. Cf. Ps. xvi. 10. 233. Or: do to it. 234. Heb. ii. 10. 235. Phil. ii.
7. 236. Heb. ii. 5-8. 237. Ibid., 16. 238. Ibid, 9. 239. Ibid. The Pauline sentence ὅπως
χάριτι Θεοῦ ὑπερ παντὸς γεύσηται θανάτου is rendered in the English Bible as follows:
"That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." In this translation Jesus
tastes death by the grace of God. In the West Syrian or Monophysite Versions of the Bible
we generally read: "Because He, God, by His grace tasted death for every man." ([Syriac])
In this translation it is God who tastes death. Against such an idea the East Syrian or
Diophysite versions of the Bible read as above: "Apart from God He (Jesus) tasted death."
In this rendering death is removed from God. The sentence played a great part in the
Christological controveries of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. The Vulgate reads:
"Ut gratia Dei pro omnibus gustaret mortem." For a full discussion of this passage and the
different readings of the ancient Greek MSS. concerning it see Moffatt in International
Critical Commentary (Hebrews), pp. 25-28.

240. This passage is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix., 21 7). See the
"Prefatory Note." 241. Lit. "the head" designating Christ. 242. I.e. the man Jesus. 243.
I.e. God's glory. 244. I.e. God. 245. I.e. Christ. 246. or: did. 247. I.e. human nature of
Christ. 248. Rom. ix. 5. 249. John vi. 62. 250. Ibid. 51. 251. I.e. Christ. 252. Between
the two natures, the human and the Divine. 253. John iii. 13. 254. I.e. one person,
individual. 255. I.e. man—Jesus. 256. This sentence is quoted by Facundus and Marius
Mercator. See the "Prefatory Note." 257. John x. 30. 258. Matt. xix. 6. 259. Dan. vii. 4
sqq. 260. John viii. 1 7. 261. Matt. vi. 24. 262. I.e. in the case of Christ. 263. Text:
[Syriac] = πρόσωπον. 264. Lit. this. 265. Lit. this, or that. 266. Rom. i. 3. 267. This
sentence is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (Mansi, ix., 21 7) as from Theodore's
work ad baptizandos. See the "Prefatory note."

268. Lit. nakedly. 269. All this long passage is quoted by Marius Mercator in his book.
See the "Prefatory Note." 270. Matt, xxviii. 19. 271. There is no mention of the Spirit
proceeding also from the Son. 272. John xiv. 10. 273. Matt. iii. 16 where "lighting upon
Him." 274. John xvii. 21. 275. 1 Cor. ii. 11. 276. John xiv. 21. 277. John xiv. 23. 278.
Lit. Divine nature. 279. Theodore is referring here either to the "tome of Damasus"
against the Macedonians, which in 378 received at Antioch the subscriptions of 146 Bishops
(see Hefele's History of the Councils, ii., 291 and 360-363) or to the Council of
Constantinople in 381, or even possibly to the Synod held at Alexandria in 363 under the
guidance of Athanasius, in which the Deity of the Spirit was affirmed. See Migne, Pat.
Gr., xxvi., 820. On an earlier Synod held at Alexandria on the same subject in 362, see
Socrates, H.E., iii., 7 and Rufinus, H.E., i., 28.

280. Lit. to be fearer of God. 281. Matt. xxviii. 19. 282. Acts iii. 6. 283. or: He
(Christ). 284. Isa. xxvii. 13 (Septuagint). 285. Ps. xliv. 5. 286. Ps. lxxxix. 24 (where
his horn). 287. Ps. cxvi. 17. 288. Lit. oneness. 289. Ps. civ. 4. 290. Ps. cxlvi. 4
(Septuagint and Peshitta). 291. Ps. cxlvii. 18 (Septuagint and Peshitta). 292. Lit. Divine
nature. 293. John iv. 24. 294. Lit. "of name," i.e. the name of the true God. 295. I.e.
who exist. 296. Ex. iii. 14-15. 297. In all this passage I have (for the sake of
convenience) followed in the translation of the Divine name the English Version which
renders the Hebrew words [Hebrew] by I am that I am and I have preserved throughout the
first pron. sing. which is not always the case in the text. 298. Luke ix. 26, cf. Matt.
xxv. 31. 299. Ps. xlvi. 4 (Septuagint and Peshitta).

300. Ps. cxi. 9 (with changes). 301. Isa. vi. 3. 302. Allusion to the Fathers of the
Council of Constantinople in 381. 303. Allusion to the Fathers of the Council of Nicea.
304. The text repeats "of their Fathers." 305. In a more literal sense: fear. 306.
Theodore refers here to the word "one" added to the creed by the Council of Constantinople
in 381, or possibly to the "tome of Damasus" as accepted by 146 Bishops assembled at
Antioch in 378. 307. 1 Cor. xii. 13. 308. Eph. iv. 4-6. 309. 1 Cor. xii. 4-6. 310. Eph.
iv. 3. 311. Lit. "from your mother." I.e. the Spirit. That the Spirit is our mother is
found in John iii. 5. The word ruha, "spirit," is feminine in Syriac and corresponds
linguistically with the neuter pneu=ma. 312. Eph. iv. 4. 313. Ibid. 15. 314. Phil. iii.
21. 315. Rom. viii. 23.

316. Eph., ibid, (where in you all). 317. Spiritual birth through baptism. 318. Lit. "to
have their whole look at." 319. In the text talmidhutha. Evidently the author refers
sometimes by this word to the "catechumenate" or the state of the "Catachumens" who were
taught the principles of the Christian faith before their baptism. I have rendered it a
few times by "initiation," "teaching," "discipleship." 320. Lit. whose all look is towards
insolence. 321. John xiv. 15-16. 322. Ibid.. 1 7. 323. Ps. cxvi. 11. 324. Ps. lxxxv. 10
(Septuagint and Peshitta). 325. Ps. xxxi. 5. 326. John xiv. 17. 327. Ibid. 328. John. xv.
26. 329. 1 Cor. ii. 1 1 (where τοῦ Θεοῦ). 330. John vii. 38. 331. Ibid., 39. 332. Text:
kenoma. 333. Text: He. 334. I use in this section the verb "to proceed" in order better to
follow the author's argumentation. 335. Gen. ii. 10.

336. 1 Cor. xii. 4. 337. Ibid., 7. 338. It is said that the expression "Giver of life" was
added by the Council of Constantinople in 381. 339. Text only, "those." 340. John iv. 14.
341. John vii. 38. 342. 2 Cor. iii. 6. 343. 1 Cor. xv. 45. 344. Rom. i. 4 (Peshitta and
partly also the Greek text). 345. Rom. viii. 11. 346. John vi. 63. 347. I.e. to give
immortal life. 348. Deut. xxxii. 39. 349. See Matt, xxviii. 19. As stated above Theodore
seems to refer by the word talmidhutha to the state of the "Catechumens" who were taught
the principles of the Christian faith before their baptism. 350. The text repeats "names."
351. Eph. iv. 4. 352. Matt, xxviii. 19-20. 353. Matt. xvi. 18. 354. Eph. iii. 10-11. 355.
Phil. iii. 21. 356. Col. i. 24. 357. 1 Cor. xii. 27. 358. John xvii. 20-21.

359. Rom. vi. 4. 360. Heb. xii. 23 (not literal). 361. Gal. iv. 5; cf. Eph. i. 5. 362. It
is to be noted that Theodore does not mention the article of the Council of Constantinople
in 381: "We acknowledge one baptism." This article was evidently lacking in the Nicene
Creed. Below he refers to baptism but only in connection with the words pronounced by the
baptizandus. There is, however, a reference above to the fact that after the "profession
of faith in baptism they added the profession of faith in one Catholic Church." This
sentence may possibly refer to the addition inserted by the Council of Constantinople.
363. Matt. xxvi. 26, etc. (not literal but in a liturgical sense; cf. 1 Cor. xi. 24). 364.
John i. 29. 365. 1 Cor. xv. 16-17. 366. Ibid, 54-56. 367. Matt, xxviii. 19. 368. The
catechumens. 369. Maimra more often means "discourse," "homily," and this sense seems to
be more fitting for these catechetical lectures of Theodore. I have used the word
"Chapter" throughout in order to maintain more clearly the book character given to the
work either by the author or by his disciples.


COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST
==========================================================

COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST Theodore of Mopsuestia

c. AD 350–428

Bishop and the leading exegete of Antioch.

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

PREFATORY NOTE.

2 THE following pages contain the text and the translation of the second part of the Liber
ad Baptizandos by Theodore of Mopsuestia. The first part, dealing with the Commentary on
the Nicene Creed, was published in the preceding volume of the Woodbrooke Studies. This
second part is divided into six homilies or discourses which treat successively of the
Lord's Prayer, the sacrament of baptism and that of the Eucharist, and like the first part
is characterised by the high standard of Biblical erudition and theological acumen that
stamp their illustrious author as one of the most profound thinkers of the Golden Age of
Christianity. In the opinion of some East Syrian scholars this second part of the Liber ad
Baptizandos constituted a separate work from the preceding part. `Abdisho` in his
Catalogue calls the first part "Book on the Faith," and this second part "Book on the
Sacraments." The same thing is done by the author of the Chronicle of Seert who even makes
use of the Syriac word raze. The indications of the MS. favour this opinion. On the other
hand, the Acts of the Fifth Council, as will be seen from the quotation given below,
rightly attach it to the first part as one continuous text.

3 The Manuscript which contains the text of this volume is Mingana Syriac 561 from which I
gave a facsimile reproduction in the preceding volume of the Woodbrooke Studies. Although
the headings of the work give it, in the MS., as a separate treatise, we are entitled to
consider it as one work with the commentary on the Nicene Creed, since the copyist
himself, the actual author of these headings, places it in an unbroken sequence side by
side with that commentary. From the fact that all the discourses dealing with the
sacraments of baptism and of the Eucharist are preceded in the text by a synopsis of their
contents, we may infer that they were used in the Greek Church of the Patriarchate of
Antioch as a kind of text-book for the Catachumens, before they were translated into
Syriac. On linguistic grounds we may also state with confidence that the first part and
the second part of the work were not translated by the same man, and that the translator
of the second part must have lived some years after the translator of the first part.

4 In the chapter that deals with the Lord's prayer, Theodore argues from the short words
of the prayer which our Lord ordered us to recite that "Prayer does not consist so much in
words as in good works, love and zeal for duty. Indeed, any one who is inclined to good
works, all his life must needs be in prayer. . . . Prayer is by necessity connected with
good works, because a thing that is not good to be looked for, is not good to be prayed
for. ... If you care for prayer, know that it is not performed by words but by the choice
of a virtuous life and by the love of God and diligence in one's duty. If you are zealous
in these things you will be praying all your life." So far as the words "daily bread" are
concerned Theodore holds that they mean our necessary food, i.e., the food that is
necessary for the sustenance of the human body.

5 Theodore's Commentary on baptism and the Eucharist is of outstanding importance for the
right understanding of the historical and theological background of these two Christian
sacraments. In the sphere of history this importance can hardly be overestimated. In
examining the extant Greek liturgical Manuscripts which contain these two sacraments, one
is struck by the scarcity of old Manuscripts, and by the changes that their contents have
undergone at the hand of liturgiologists and copyists of later generations. In this
connection it is useful to remark that the text and the sequence of events, as exhibited
by Theodore, are to be considered identical in every detail with the very text and
sequence of events that were current in the liturgical book of the Greek Church of the
fourth century. Theodore's work is a commentary on the text of the Liturgy, and this
commentary having been translated into Syriac shortly after his death, there is every
reason to believe that it has come down to us without any alteration, addition or
subtraction.

6 In the domain of Liturgy, the Byzantine Church generally made use of the Liturgies
attributed to St. James and to St. Mark, and later, of the Liturgies attributed to SS.
Chrysostom and Basil. In early times the Greek speaking Church of Antioch apparently made
use of some such Liturgy as that found in the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions
and, with some omission and modification, in Didascalia Apostolorum. 7 Taking first the
Liturgies of SS. James and Mark, we find that the oldest Greek Manuscripts are represented
by two pieces of a parchment roll of the end of the tenth, or the beginning of the
eleventh century, formerly belonging to the Basilian Monastery of S. Salvator in Messina,
and by Vat. Gr. 1970 of the thirteenth century. All other MSS. are of the fifteenth
century and later. For the Liturgy of St. James, however, we have also Cod. Vat. 2282, of
the ninth century, and for that of St. Basil we have MS. iii, 55 of Biblioth. Barberina,
of the end of the eighth century. The manuscript evidence of the oldest of the above
Liturgies is, therefore, some four hundred years after the time of Theod ore. Hans
Lietzmann, who submitted all of them to a masterly study, does not seem to have a very
high opinion of their authenticity through the ages. On page 261 of his work he rightly
thinks that the Nestorian Liturgy of the Apostles may be older than all of them. "Aus der
gleichen antiochenischen Wurzel ist die fär den Jerusalemer Sprengel massgebende
Jakobusliturgie erwachsen, die vielfach wie eine Parallelbildung zur byzantinischen
Liturgie wirkt, vermutlich auch direkte Einflässe von dort erfahren hat. Sie ist
ihrerseits wieder Vorbild fär die meisten der zahlreichen national syrischen Formulare
geworden, die im Gegensatz zu der Erstarrung der Byzantiner in immer neuer Schöpfung die
produktive liturgische Freiheit der alten Kirche bewahrt haben. Möglich, dass die
nestorianische Apostelliturgie eine ältere Form repräsentiert."

8 As to the section of the Liturgy found in the Apostolic Constitutions Lietzmann is of
opinion that many ceremonies described in it are of Jewish origin. The Liturgy commented
upon by Theodore has many points of resemblance with that exhibited in the aforesaid
Apostolic Constitutions, and with the exception of the generalities that are found more or
less in all Liturgies, it has much less in common with the Liturgy of St. James, and that
of St. Mark. Historical reasons would strongly militate against the theory that the
Liturgies that pass under the names of SS. Chrysostom and Basil had spread to such an
extent in North Syria as to justify a theologian like Theodore to comment upon them.
Theodore himself makes use of sentences which suggest that he was commenting on an ancient
and not a modern Liturgy ascribed to one of his contemporaries of the fourth century:
"There is an ordinance found (in the Church) from the beginning, to the effect that all
those who have been deemed worthy to do the work of priesthood, should begin all the
functions performed in a Church assembly with the phrase 'Peace be with you'" (p. 90).

9 "It is in this sense that the phrase: 'And to your spirit' is addressed to the priest by
the congregation, according to the regulations found in the Church from the beginning"
(pp. 91-92). The ritual of baptism on which the author commented was also ancient: "From
what we have said, you have sufficiently understood the ceremonies which are duly
performed, prior to the sacrament, and according to an early tradition, upon those who are
baptised" (p. 35). I shall not enter here into details and examine the points of
resemblance and divergence that characterise the Liturgy explained by Theodore and the
Greek liturgies described above. A whole volume would be required for such a comparison,
and I will leave this task to professional liturgiologists, but it would be useful to
state that the Liturgy commented upon by Theodore has nothing in common with the Liturgy
ascribed to him, in the East Syrian Church, under the title of "Liturgy of Mar Theodore
the Interpreter," nor has it any points of contact with the numerous anaphoras attributed,
in the West Syrian Church, to various apostles, disciples and saints.

10 In the following lines I will give a short summary of the sequence of events and
ceremonies of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist as described by Theodore.
Baptism. The catechumen comes to church attended by his godfather,and his name is written
down in church books by the Registrar of baptisms. The godfather answers the questions put
to the catechumen by the Registrar of Baptisms and becomes his surety for his past life,
his preparedness and his competence to receive the sacrament of baptism. Then the
exorcists come and "ask in a loud and prolonged voice that our Enemy should be punished
and by a verdict from the Judge (God) be ordered to retire and stand far." During all this
time the catechumen remains silent and stands barefooted on sackcloth; his outer garments
are taken off from him while his head is bent and his arms are outstretched. Then he goes
to the priest before whom he genuflects and recites the Creed and the Lord's Prayer and
the words of abjuration which are: "I abjure Satan and all his angels, and all his works,
and all his service, and all his deception, and all his worldly glamour; and I engage
myself and believe, and am baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit."

11 Then the priest "clad in a robe of clean and radiant linen" signs him on the forehead
with the holy Chrism and says: "So-and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Theodore calls this signing the first-fruits of the
sacrament of baptism, which stamp the catechumen as a soldier of Christ, and as a lamb
belonging to His fold. After the priest has finished his recital of the above formula, the
catechumen's godfather, who is standing behind him, spreads an orarium of linen on the
crown of his head, raises him and makes him stand erect. The above ceremony has nothing to
do with the sacrament of Confirmation which, as is seen below, is given after baptism
proper. Then the catechumen receives the holy baptism. He first takes off all his
garments, and then is anointed by a deacon all over his body with the holy Chrism, while
the priest pronounces over him the following words: "So-and-so is anointed in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

12 After this, the catechumen is brought to a pond full of water, which the priest
consecrates. Then the latter stands up and puts his hand on the head of the catechumen and
says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit." At the mention of each name of the Holy Trinity, he causes him to immerse himself
in water and bend his head downwards. There are three immersions as there are three
persons in the Trinity. After his baptism, the catechumen "wears a garment that is wholly
radiant." Then the priest approaches and signs him on his forehead, apparently with the
holy Chrism, and says: "So-and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit." It would not be out of place here to compare the summary of the above
sequence of events and ceremonies connected with the sacrament of baptism, as described by
Theodore, with the corresponding ceremonies outlined in the VIIth Book of the Apostolic
Constitutions:

13 You shall beforehand anoint the person who is to be baptised with the holy oil, and
afterwards baptise him with water, and in conclusion shall seal him with ointment; that
the anointing with oil may be the participation of the Holy Spirit, and the water the
symbol of the death of Christ, and the ointment the seal of the Covenant. Before baptism,
let him that is to be baptised fast. And when it remains that the catechumen is to be
baptised, let him learn what concerns the renunciation of the Devil and the joining
himself with Christ. Let, therefore, the candidate for baptism declare thus in his
renunciation: "I abjure Satan, and his works, and his pomps, and his worships, and his
angels, and his inventions, and all things that are under him. And I associate myself with
Christ, and believe, and am baptised, into One Unbegotten Being, the only true God
Almighty, etc."

14 After this, he comes to the water and the priest baptises him. And after he has
baptised him in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he anoints
him with ointment and recite the following prayer which begins: "O Lord God." After this,
let the catechumen stand up and recite the Lord's prayer. Without entering into minute
details, we may assert that there are points of resemblance between the ceremonies and
prayers described by Theodore and those found in the Apostolic Constitutions. There are,
however, so many discrepancies also between the two texts that we are compelled to state
that, if our author was drawing upon the book of the Apostolic Constitutions, that book
must have been in many points different from that with which we are familiar in our days.
By common consent the Apostolic Constitutions are believed to have been composed in
Antioch in the latter half of the fourth century. The text of the ritual of baptism
commented upon by Theodore seems to be shorter and more archaic than that exhibited in the
Apostolic Constitutions.

15 Eucharist. After their baptism the catechumens were admitted to the Church and allowed
to participate in the Eucharist. The author first speaks of deacons, whose function it is
to bring the oblation to the altar and spread linens on it, as symbols of the linen
clothes of the burial of our Lord. At the end of this preliminary act they stand on both
sides of the altar and agitate the air with fans. All these things take place while
everybody is silent. Then comes a vocal prayer "announced in the loud voice of the
deacon." After this all become silent again, and the priest begins a service in which he
offers "thanksgivings to our Lord for the great things which He has provided for the
salvation and deliverance of men"; and "he offers also thanksgivings for himself for
having been appointed servant of such an awe-inspiring Sacrament." At the close of this
prayer the congregation says Amen." Then the priest says "Peace be to you," to which those
present respond: "And to your spirit."

16 After this benediction the priest says: "Lift up your minds," and the people answer "To
You, O Lord"; and the priest says: "Let us thank the Lord," and the people answer: "It is
fit and right." Then the priest recites the prayer which contains the words: "The
greatness of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," and asserts that praises
and glorifications are offered at all time to the Trinity. At the end of this the priest
recites the preliminary prayer to the Canticle of the Seraphim, and then all the
congregation sings in a loud voice the Sanctus. Then the people resort to silence, and the
priest proceeds with the service and recites the prayer which begins with the words: "Holy
is the Father, holy also is the Son, and holy also is the Holy Spirit." Then the deacon
shouts: "Let us all stand up in great fear," at the end of which the priest begins the
Epiclesis in which he prays that the Holy Spirit may come down and change the bread and
wine which are on the altar into the body and blood of Christ. He prays also that the
grace of the Holy Spirit may come down on all those present and on all those "of whom, by
regulation, mention is to be made always in the Church." He recites these prayers quietly,
and after that he takes the holy bread with his hand and looks towards heaven, offers a
prayer of thanksgiving and breaks the bread. While breaking it he prays for the people and
says: "May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you," to which the people
respond, "And with your spirit." He then makes the sign of the Cross with the bread over
the blood, and with the blood over the bread, and breaks the bread and joins it with the
blood.

17 Then the church crier shouts and mentions by name those for whom every one ought to
pray, and before any other thing, he says: "We ought to pray for those who presented this
holy oblation." Then the priest offers a prayer, at the end of which he says: "Peace be to
you!" and the people answer: "And to your spirit," while duly bowing their heads. A little
while after, the church crier, who is always the deacon, shouts: "Let us be attentive,"
and the priest says loudly, "The holy thing to the holies," and the people answer: "One
Holy Father, one Holy Son and one Holy Spirit," and add "Glory be to the Father, and to
the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen." After this all hasten to
receive the Communion from the Communion table. The priest receives the Communion from the
altar, and after him the congregation, from a distance.

18 "To receive the sacrament, a person stretches out his right hand, and under it he
places the left hand." The communicant eats then the consecrated bread placed by the
priest in his right hand. In giving the consecrated bread the priest says: "The body of
Christ," and in giving the consecrated wine he says: "The cup of Christ," and the
communicant answers "Amen." After some prayers of thanksgivings, recited by all the
congregation, the Communion service and the liturgical prayers connected with it come to
an end. Of all the ancient Liturgies which I have consulted, the one which exhibits the
nearest text to that given by Theodore seems to be the Liturgy found in the VIIIth Book of
the Apostolic Constitutions, and, for the reader's convenience, I will give here a summary
of it, similar to that given above in the case of Theodore, and will exclude from it the
part which deals with the catechumens:

19 Let the deacons bring the gifts to the bishop at the altar, and let the priests stand
on his right hand and on his left, as disciples stand before their Master. And let two
deacons, each side of the altar, hold a fan made up of thin membranes or of the feathers
of the peacock, or of fine cloth, and let them silently drive away the small animals that
fly about, that they may not come near to the cups. Let the high priest, together with the
priests, pray, and let him put on his radiant garment and stand at the altar and make the
sign of the Cross upon his forehead with his hand, and say: "The grace of Almighty God,
and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you
all"; and let all with one voice say: "And with your spirit." And the high priest says:
"Lift up your mind," and the people say: "We lift it to the Lord"; and the high priest
says: "Let us give thanks to the Lord," and the people say: "It is fit and right."

20 After this, the high priest recites a long prayer which ends with the Sanctus recited
by all the congregation. Afterwards, the high priest recites a prayer which begins: "For
You are truly holy," in which are found the words of the Institution. At the end of it the
people say "Amen"; and the bishop says: "The peace of God be with you all"; and the people
answer: "And with your spirit." After this the deacon recites a long prayer at the end of
which the congregation says "Amen." Then the deacon says: "Let us be attentive," after
which the bishop says: "Holy things for holy persons," at the end of which the people
answer, "There is One that is holy, there is one Lord, one Jesus Christ blessed for ever,
to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good
will among men. Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the
Lord, being the Lord God who appeared to us. Hosanna in the highest."

21 After this, "Let the bishop partake, then the presbyters and deacons and sub-deacons
and the readers and the singers and the ascetics; and then of the women, the deaconesses
and the virgins and the widows; then the children; and then all the people in order, with
reverence and godly fear, without tumult. And let the bishop give the oblation saying:
'The body of Christ'; and let him that receiveth say, 'Amen.' And let the deacon take the
cup; and when he gives it, say: the blood of Christ, the cup of Life'; and let him that
drinketh say, 'Amen.' And let the 33rd Psalm be said, while all the rest are partaking,
and when all, both men and women, have partaken, let the deacons carry what remains into
the vestry. "And then let the deacon recite the prayer which begins: 'Now we have received
the precious body and the precious blood of Christ, let us give thanks to Him who has
thought us worthy to partake of these His holy mysteries.' "

22 After this the bishop gives thanks in a long prayer which begins: "O Lord God
Almighty," at the end of which the deacon says: "Depart in peace." As I stated above, I do
not intend to make a thorough comparison with the points of resemblance and divergence
found in the Liturgy commented upon by Theodore and the text of the Apostolic
Constitutions. It appears to me, however, that, in the Eucharist as in baptism, the text
commented upon by Theodore represents a more ancient layer in the development of the
Liturgy. The next liturgical text with which it would be useful to compare the present
work of Theodore is that of the early Clementine literature, better known under the name
of Testamentum Domini: Then the bishop, in offering thanksgivings, says the awe-inspiring
words: "Our Lord be with you," and the people answer: "And with your spirit," and the
bishop says: "Lift up your hearts," and the people answer: "They are with the Lord"; and
the bishop says: "Let us thank the Lord," and the people answer: "It is fit and right";
and the bishop shouts: "The holy things with the holy people," and the people answer: "In
heaven and earth without ceasing."

23 Then the bishop offers thanksgivings for the oblation and recites a prayer which
begins: "We thank You, O God," followed by another prayer recited also by the people,
which begins: "In remembering Thy death and resurrection." Then the bishop recites the
prayer which begins: "We offer You these thanksgivings," at the end of which the people
say: "Amen." After this, the deacon exhorts to prayer and the bishop recites a short
invocation to which the people respond "Amen," while reciting it with the bishop. At the
end of all this comes the prayer of dismissal, which is: "May the name of the Lord be
blessed for ever." The congregation proceeds then to receive the holy communion in the
following order: bishops, priests, deacons, widows, readers, sub-deacons, those endowed
with gifts, those who have been newly baptised, and last of all, the children. The order
of the communion for the laity is as follows: old men, ascetics, and the rest; and for the
women: first the deaconesses, and then the rest.

24 Before receiving the communion, the communicant says "Amen," and after the communion,
he says: "Holy, holy, holy, the ineffable Trinity. Grant me to receive this Eucharistic
bread to salvation and not to damnation," etc. In partaking of the cup, let the
communicant say twice: "Amen." After this the service comes to an end. It is easily seen
that the text of the Testamentum Domini has fewer points of contact with the text of the
Apostolic Constitutions than the Liturgy commented upon by Theodore. There is no need here
to dilate on the additions to all the aforesaid liturgical texts made by A. Baumstark, A.
Rucker, and Rahmani, nor to the papyrus of Dair-Balizah, edited by Schermann, nor to the
much advertised Euchologium of Serapion,as none of them could possibly have had any
influence on the Church of North Syria in the time of Theodore. As in the preceding part I
shall not attempt to give a synopsis of Theodore's views concerning the sacraments of
baptism and the Eucharist and other Christian doctrines of the Golden Age of Christianity
which are discussed in this part of his work. Let Theodore speak for himself in his own
words, which can easily be understood by any intelligent reader familiar with the
phraseology of the Fathers of the fourth century. I will, however, quote here the
following beautiful passage concerning the sacrament of penitence:—

25 "It is right for us to draw near to the priests with great confidence and to reveal our
sins to them, and they, with all diligence, pain and love, and according to the rules laid
down above, will give healing to sinners. And they will not disclose the things that are
not to be disclosed, but they will keep to themselves the things that have happened, as
fits true and loving fathers, bound to safeguard the shame of their children, while
striving to heal their bodies" (p. 123). 26 About the reception of the holy communion I
will quote the following passage: "It is right for us, therefore, neither wholly to
abstain from communion nor to go to it unworthily, but we must strive with all our power
after the things that are right, and after having thus striven we must hasten to receive
communion, well aware that if we devote our life to unworthiness, and sin fearlessly, and
do anything we take fancy to, and are careless of our duty, we shall eat and drink this
food and this beverage which words cannot describe, to our damnation; but if we are
careful of our salvation, and hasten towards good works and meditate upon them continually
in our mind, the sins that come to us involuntarily from (human) weakness will not injure
us; on the contrary, we will acquire great help from our communion. Indeed, the body and
the blood of our Lord, and the grace of the Holy Spirit that is promised to us therefrom,
will strengthen us in doing good works, and invigorate our minds, while driving away from
us all ungodly thoughts and surely quenching (the fire) of sins, as long as we have
committed them involuntarily, and they have come to us against our will, from the weakness
of our nature, and we have fallen into them against our desire, and because of them we
have sorrowed intensely and prayed God in great repentance for our trespasses. The
communion of the holy Sacrament will, without doubt, grant us the remission of trespasses
of this kind, since our Lord plainly said: 'This is my body which is broken for you for
the remission of sins, and this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of
sins,' and: 'I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.'

27 If therefore we sin carelessly, it is hard for us to draw near to the holy Sacrament,
but if we do good works with diligence and turn away from evil works and truly repent of
the sins that come to us, we will undoubtedly obtain the gift of the remission of sins in
our reception of the holy Sacrament, according to the words of Christ our Lord, because
while we were sinners we have been chosen to a penitence, a deliverance and a salvation
that embrace all, solely by the grace of the One who has called us" (p. 117). For the time
following the reception of the Sacrament, the following passage is also worth quoting: "As
to you, after you have received the body, you offer adoration as a confession of the power
placed in your hands, while remembering the words uttered by our Lord to His disciples
after He rose from the dead: 'All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.' You press
it with great and true love to your eyes and kiss it, and you offer (to it) your prayers
as if to Christ our Lord, who is at present so near to you, and in whom you believed
before that you had confidence, which you will receive now that you have drawn near to Him
and held Him. You pray, while confessing your weakness, the great number of your sins, and
your great unworthiness for such a gift. You glorify also in a fitting manner the One who
granted these things to a person such as you, and rendered you worthy to receive help from
Him to the extent that you became worthy to receive the communion, free from all evil
things and doing all the things that please Him" (p. 113).

28 A general note that rings through all Theodore's doctrine about the sacraments of
baptism and the Eucharist is that what happens in them is a figure of the reality that
will take place in the Kingdom of Heaven, which God established in the next world. All the
benefits which we derive from baptism and the Eucharist are symbols of the real gifts of
God which will be bestowed upon us in our future life "in Jerusalem which is above, free,
and mother of us all" (Gal. iv. 26). The author quotes also, in this connection, the
sentence in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "You are come into Mount Zion and into the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to
the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven" (Heb. xii. 22-23). In Theodore's
opinion we shall go to the Kingdom of Heaven because, in Christ's words: "We shall be the
children of God, being the children of the Resurrection" (Luke xx. 36).

29 It may be useful also to remark that what the author means by discipleship (Syr.
talmidhutha) throughout his work, may possibly refer to the act of anointing or signing
which the catechumens received before their baptism. This ceremony, which was performed in
the early Church, seems to imply that a believer was "stamped" as a lamb belonging to the
fold of Christ. In the first part of the book I gave six quotations from Theodore's work
found in the Acts of the fifth Council. The following quotation from the Acts of this
Council is found in the present volume:— Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima
Collectio (Vol. IX, p. 217). Ejusdem Theodori ex eodem libro: [Latin, Syriac omitted] In
reading the first part of Theodore's work ad Baptizandos, which was published in the fifth
volume of the Woodbrooke Studies, I came across a few inaccuracies to which I wish to draw
attention.

30 P. 19, 11.25 and 28. The word translated by "incident" literally means "distinction."
P. 21, 1. 4. For "the first man" read "our forerunner" and change the Note to "Cf. Heb.
vi. 20." P. 21, 1. 11. Attach note 3 to "faith." P. 84,1.16. Read "his" not with a capital
"H." P. 87, 1. 8. Read (made) for (done). P. 90 1. 22. Instead of "differentiated" it
would be better to read "affected." Although "differentiated" corresponds more literally
with the text, "affected" will be better understood by an English reader. P. 92, 1. 1.
Delete "of." P. 98, 1. 16. For "prominently" read "pre-eminently." P. 101, 1. 29. Add
"the" before "Holy Spirit." P. 114, 1. 1. For "I will believe and be baptised" read "I
believe and am baptised." It is a pleasing duty to offer here my sincerest thanks to Mr.
Edward Cadbury for his generosity and unfailing interest in the Woodbrooke Studies, which
are making no small contribution towards the solution of many problems dealing with the
history and doctrine of early Church; and to the Aberdeen University Press for the
satisfactory way in which they have performed their difficult task.

31 Selly Oak Colleges Library, Birmingham, 16th December, 1932. [Footnotes renumbered and
moved to the end]

INTRODUCTION

[Translated by Alphonse Mingana] With your assistance, O Lord Jesus Christ, I will begin
to write the explanation of the sacraments by the blessed Mar Theodore. Help me, our Lord,
and bring my work to completion. Amen.

CHAPTER I.

1 Because by the grace of God we spoke to you yesterday of the subject of faith, which our
blessed Fathers wrote for our instruction according to the words of the Divine Books, in
order to initiate us, in accordance with the doctrine of our Lord, in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit— it is fitting that we should speak to-day of
the necessary things concerning the prayer which was taught by our Lord, and which they
made to follow the words of the Creed, so that it should be learnt and kept in memory by
those who come near to the faith of baptism. Our Lord also, after having said: "Go you,
therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit," added: And teach them to observe all things I have commanded
you." He showed in this that, alongside the doctrine of religion and the right knowledge,
we should endeavour to harmonise our lives with the Divine commandments. They added to the
words of the Creed the prayer which our Lord taught in short terms to His disciples,
because it contains the teaching for good works, in a sufficient manner. Every prayer
contains teaching of good works to any one who cares to think attentively of duty, because
we wish our works to be that which we ask in our prayer that they should be. He who cares,
therefore, for perfection and is anxious to do the things that are pleasing to God, will
pay more attention to prayer than any other thing, and he who does not care for any virtue
and is not anxious to do the things that are pleasing to God, it is clear that he will
show also no interestin prayer.

2 As we are pleased at all times to meet, and to deal and converse with, a person whom we
love most, and as we do not care to meet or to speak to people whom we do not love, so
those who possess God in their mind and are very anxious to do the things that please Him
are wont to make use of frequent prayers, because they believe that they work and converse
with Him when they pray. He, therefore, who despises Divine things and cares for other
things is not anxious to pray. This is the reason why the blessed Paul orders us to pray
always so that by the frequency of prayer we should implant in us the love of God and the
zeal for the things that please Him. This is the reason why our Lord also, who was man by
sight and by nature, and who put in practice this mode of life and good works, showed
great zeal for prayer; and because He was busy in day-time with teaching the things that
were necessary, He devoted the hours of His night to the work of prayer. He used to go to
lonely places in order to teach that it is necessary for the one who prays to be free from
every care, so that he might extend the sight of his soul towards God and contemplate Him,
and not be drawn to any other thing. He chose His times and places so that He might
attract us and save us from all the disquietude by which the soul is disturbed and
agitated, and sometimes involuntarily distracted from the subject it has in mind.

3 Because He used to do these things in this way, as the blessed Luke said, His disciples
came and asked Him how it was fitting to pray, since John had also taught his disciples;
and He taught perfection conveniently in the short words of prayer, which He uttered,
saying: "After this manner, therefore, pray you: "Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be
Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done as in heaven so in earth. Give us to-day
our necessary bread, and forgive us our debts and our sins as we have forgiven our
debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for Yours is the
Kingdom, and the power, and the glory now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen." 4 He made
use of these short words as if to say that prayer does not consist so much in words as in
good works, love and zeal for duty. Indeed, any one who is inclined to good works, all his
life must needs be in prayer, which is seen in his choice of these good works. Prayer is
by necessity connected with good works, because a thing that is not good to be looked for
is not good to be prayed for. More wicked than death by stoning is death, which would come
to us if we asked God to grant us things which contradict His commandments. He who offers
such prayers incites God to wrath rather than to reconciliation and mercy. A true prayer
consists in good works, in love of God, and diligence in the things that please Him. He
who is intent on these things and whose mind contemplates them, prays without hindrance
always, and at all times, whenever he does the things that please (God). To such a one
invocations of prayers are always needful, because it is fitting for him who strives after
good things to ask God to help him in these same things after which he is striving, in
order that all his life might be in accordance with God's will. And it is known that such
a one will have his prayers answered, because it is impossible that he who is diligent in
the Divine commandments and acts according to them and does not break them, should not
assuredly receive help from Him who enacted them; it is likewise clear beforehand that he
who leads a life that is not in harmony with them, will not receive any help from prayer,
since he is caring for things which do not please God and asking for such things as he
himself chose to do all his life.

5 This is the reason why our Lord also taught us, as the blessed Luke said, not to faint
in praying, and by means of a parable instructed us about it. He said: "There was in a
city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And a widow who was being injured
by a man who was stronger than she was, came to him incessantly and asked him for the
cessation of the injustice that was done to her. He postponed her (case) for a long time,
but at the end he was overcome by the persistence of the woman, who was urging on him to
take up her case and deliver her from the tyrant, who was doing injustice to her and who
was stronger than she was." And He added this: "Hear what the unjust judge said: Because
this widow troubles me I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me. And
shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night to Him, though He bear long
with them "?

6 Because those who strive after perfection have unceasing molestation from the urges of
nature, from the promptings of the demons, and from daily happenings which often cause
many to stumble and deviate from the path of duty, they have a constant struggle in this
world; and in order that they might not think that God had forsaken them, from the fact
that they have not a moment of rest from their daily struggle, He did well to allude to an
unjust judge, so that by a comparison with him, He might confirm the fact that it is not
possible that God should forsake those who chose to do good things. Indeed, if that tyrant
who had not the smallest care for justice, and did not fear God and regard man, was
overcome by the troublesome persistence of the woman and did his duty and avenged her,
without hope of reward, against the man who was acting unjustly towards her, now do you
think that God, who is so merciful and compassionate, who did everything for our salvation
and deliverance, and who does not bear to forsake even those who sin, will forsake those
who strive after good things and are diligent in things that please Him? Indeed, it is not
because He forsakes them that He permits them to be beset by tribulations and daily
temptations, which they are forced to endure against their will, either from the
promptings of natural passions or from the weakness which is inherent in them and because
of which they are often drawn against their will towards things that are not laudable, and
have to endure a great fight against the demons, as they are constantly compelled to
struggle against the passions which arise from natural happenings.

7 The benefits that are promised to them because of these tribulations are no ordinary
ones, and He fulfils their desires and makes them worthy of His great Providence. He
permits them to endure tribulations and afflictions in this world in order that, because
of them, they may receive eternal and ineffable gifts. This is the reason why here also He
uttered the above words to the disciples who had asked Him how to pray, as if He had said
to them: If you care for prayer know that it is not performed by words but by the choice
of a virtuous life and by the love of God and diligence in one's duty. If you are zealous
in these things you will be praying all your life, and from your good will towards them
and your choice of them you will acquire a great desire for prayer, and will undoubtedly
also know what to ask (in it). If you chose (the path of) duty, you will not be induced to
ask for things that lie outside it, as you will not be willing to ask for things in which
you have no interest. Your interest being in virtues after which you are striving, it is
evident that you will offer to God prayers that are consonant with them. If you live thus
and ask also of Him in this wise with all fervour, you know that you will receive.

8 Hear now in short words which are the things in which you have to show diligence, the
works and the mode of life which are required of you, the things in which you have to
persevere, and those for which you have to offer prayers and in which your demands will
undoubtedly be answered: The evangelist said that "as He was praying in a certain place,
when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also
taught his disciples. And He said to them, when you pray, say, Our Father which are in
heaven hallowed be Your name." The sentence "as He was praying in a certain place" is
similar to that which the same evangelist uses in another passage: "It came to pass in
those days that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to
God." The sentence "in a certain place" means, therefore, that He was offering prayer in a
place which was quiet and free from the noise of men. When the disciples saw Him that He
was praying with eagerness, they understood that this was not an ordinary thing but that
it was a matter of more importance than any other, and they, therefore, asked Him that
they should learn how to pray as John had also taught his disciples. He then pronounced to
them the above words of prayer, as if meaning to say: if you are eager to pray, you should
clearly know the things which you have to say to God and be careful about the things that
are to be asked of Him.

9 What are you then to say when you pray, and what are the things in which you have to
show care?: Our Father who is in heaven. Before everything else you should learn what you
were and what is the nature and the measure of the gift that you received from God. The
things that have happened to you are greater than those that happened to the children of
men that were before you. Such a thing will happen through Me to those who believe in Me
and choose My discipleship, as they will be much higher than those who were working under
the law of Moses, because that first law, which was given from Mount Sinai, gave birth to
servitude, and both itself and its children worked in servitude. Indeed, all those who
were under the law of the commandments were slaves. They received orders how they were to
conduct themselves, and through the punishment of death that none of them could escape
they were bound to the transgression of the law. As to you, you have received through Me
the grace of the Holy Spirit whereby you have obtained adoption of sons and confidence to
call God, Father. You have not received the Spirit in order to be again in servitude and
fear but to be worthy of the Spirit of adoption of sons through which you call God,
Father, with confidence. From this you have obtained conversation in Jerusalem which is
above and have been worthy of that life of freedom which will be the lot of those who, in
the resurrection, will become immortal and immutable, and will live in heaven in such a
nature.

10 If, therefore, there is this difference between you and those who were under the law—in
the sense that the "letter, which is the law, kills," and thus brought punishment of death
from which there was no escape on those who transgressed it, and in the sense that it is
"the Spirit that gives life" and will make you immortal and immutable through the
resurrection—it is fitting that you should know before anything else the nature of the
works, worthy of this freedom, which you should possess. Those who live in the Spirit of
God are the children of God, while those who are under the law have only received a mere
name of children: "I have said, You are gods, and all of you children of the Most High,
but you shall die like men." Those who have received the Holy Spirit by whom they
necessarily expect immortality, while still in this world, it is fitting that they should
live in the Spirit, resign themselves to the Spirit and possess a mind worthy of the
freedom of men led by the Holy Spirit, and that they should also flee from all the works
of sin and acquire a conduct that is in harmony with the citizenship of the heavenly
abode.

11 This is the reason why I do not teach you to say our Lord and our God, although it is
evident that you ought to know that He is God, Lord and Maker of everything and of you
also, and that it is He who will transfer you to the delight of these benefits. I order
you to call Him our Father, so that when you have been made aware of your freedom and of
the honour in which you have participated and the greatness which you have acquired—
things by which you are called the sons of the Lord of all and your own Lord—you will act
accordingly till the end. I do not wish you to say my Father but our Father, because He is
a Father common to all in the same way as His grace, from which we received adoption of
sons, is common to all. In this way you should not only offer congruous things to God, but
you should also possess and keep fellowship with one another, because you are brothers and
under the hand of one Father.

12 I added who is in heaven, so that the figure of the life in heaven, to which it has
been granted to you to be transferred, might be drawn before your eyes. When you have
received the adoption of sons, you will dwell in heaven, and this abode is fit for the
sons of God. What ought those who think in this way to do?: Hallowed be Your name. 13
Before everything else you should do the things that redound to the glory of God your
Father. The very one who said in another passage: "Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven," said also here:
"Hallowed be Your name," as if Hewere saying: you should strive to do the things by which
the name of God will be glorified by all men, while contemplating in amazement His mercy
and His grace which have been poured upon you, and thinking that He did not make you His
children to no purpose, but that in His mercy He granted you the Spirit, so that you might
increase in virtue and do the work of those who were found worthy to call God their
Father. As when we do ungodly works we give rise to blasphemy (by others), because all the
outsiders who see us doing these ungodly works will say about us that we are unworthy to
be children of God—so also when we do good works we corroborate the fact that we are
children of God, worthy of the freedom of our Father, and show that we have been well
educated and that we are living a life worthy of our Father. In order to impede such a
blasphemy from being uttered, and in order that there might be praise from the mouth of
all men to God who brought you up to such a greatness, strive to do the things that effect
this:

14 Your kingdom come. He did well to add this (sentence) to the preceding one. It is right
for those who have been called to the Kingdom of Heaven in the adoption of sons, and who
expect to dwell in heaven with Christ when, as the blessed Paul said: "we shall be caught
up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord"—to
think of things which are worthy of that Kingdom, to do the things that are congruous to
the heavenly citizenship, to consider the earthly things small and believe them to be
below their dignity to speak and think of them. No one who is so placed as to live in the
court of a king, and is considered worthy to see him always and converse with him, will go
and wander in the bazaars and inns and such like, but will have intercourse only with
those who always frequent the places where he is. In this same way, we who are called to
the Kingdom of Heaven, are not allowed to relinquish our fellowship with it or with the
things that suit the citizenship therein, and busy ourselves with the commerce of this
world in which there is much evil trading and unholy work.

15 How could this be effected, and how should we do the things that are commensurate with
the freedom of our Father, and how should we pursue heavenly citizenship, and how should
we do the things which engender great praise to the name of God?: Your will be done as in
heaven so in earth. (This will happen) if in this world we strive as much as possible to
imitate the life which we shall live in heaven, because heaven contains nothing that is
contrary to God, as sin will be abolished and the power of the demons will cease, and, in
short, all things that fight against us will be destroyed. When all earthly things have
ceased to exist, we shall rise from the dead and dwell in heaven in an immortal and
immutable nature. We will do the will of God better than in anything else by wishing and
acting as God wishes, and by thinking of things belonging to heaven, where there will be
no power and no passion which will incite us against the will of God.

16 In this world we ought to persevere as much as possible in the will of God and not to
will or do things that are against Him. As we believe that the will of God reigns in
heaven, so it should also hold sway in earth; and in the same way as it shall be in
heaven, it is right for us not to do now the smallest act which by our will or our thought
would contradict that will. This, however, is not possible as long as we are in our mortal
and changeable nature, but we must turn our will away from the passions that are contrary
(to the will of God) and not listen to them in any way, and do that which the blessed Paul
commanded in saying: "Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect
will of God." He does not command that passions should not beset us, but that we should
not be conformed to things that will surely vanish with this world, and that the will of
our soul should not be conformed to the ways of acting of this world.

17 Let us strive against all happenings whether painful or joyful, sublime or abject, in
one word in any capacity high or low, which are capable more than others to lead us astray
towards harmful thoughts and to divert our mind from good will, and let us be careful not
to let our love fall on them, but let us strengthen our thoughts with daily improvements
and cast away from us the injurious insinuations that come to us from the passions of this
world, and bend our will day by day towards virtues, in our search for the things which
are pleasing to God. We should only consider as unqualified good that which is pleasing to
God, and endeavour in everything to spurn the pleasures of this world. We should also bear
the tribulations that befall us, place the will of God before everything, and consider
ourselves happy when we act thus, even if all the afflictions of this world should
surround us. If we do not act in this way we shall be more wretched than all men, even if
we are prosperous in all earthly things.

18 In the above short words, our Lord taught us, therefore, perfection of works, and
ordered those who follow Him to strive after good works, think of the heavenly life,
despise all that is found in this world and endeavour to imitate as much as possible the
things of the next world; and He wished them to ask these things of God till the end. And
because we ought to possess a healthy mind and a true love for all these things, and
because we know that we are not able to do anything without the help of God, He rightly
ordered us to do these things by way of prayer, so that we might approach them with
perfect love and persevere ardently and zealously in asking them of God as good and useful
things, which will not come to us even if we chose them and wished to have them myriads of
times, if God does not help us in them. They will surely come to us, however, if first we
choose them and ask them of God.

19 The blessed Luke added many things to the prayer said by Christ our Lord, in order to
confirm the fact that things asked by those who pray will surely be granted. And because
He wished to invite us to imitate the world to come, in which when we dwell, we shall
always be high above the earthly things and shall never be in need of anything, and in
order that He might not be believed that He was ordering a thing that was impossible for
men who are mortal by nature and are in need of many things in this world, in that He was
asking them to imitate an immortal life—He added: Give us to-day our necessary bread. It
is as if He had said: I wish you to look at things belonging to the next world, and while
you are in this world to arrange your life as much as possible as if you had been for a
long time in the next world, not that you should not eat or drink or make use of the
necessities of life, but in the sense that your choice (of the next world) is good, that
you love it and constantly think of it. As to the things belonging to this world, I allow
you to make use of such of them as are necessary; and you should not ask nor strive to
have more than this use. That which the blessed Paul implies: "And having food and raiment
let us be therewith content," our Lord called here "bread," and by it He alludes to a
thing which is indispensable. Indeed, bread is considered to be more necessary for the
maintenance and sustenance of this earthly life than anything else. He means by "to-day"
now, as we are in "to-day" and not in "to-morrow." We are in "to-day" as long as we are in
it, although we might see to-morrow.

20 Holy Writ calls to-day a thing that exists now and is near, as the blessed Paul puts
it: "To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, but
exhort yourselves daily while you call it to-day." As if one had said: as long as we are
in this world let us always suppose that we hear this word which every day impresses our
mind with an identical sound, and let us awaken our soul and raise it for the amelioration
of our conduct, the rejection of vices and exhortation to virtues; and let us progress day
by day as long as we are in this world in which there is time for amelioration and
repentance, because when we have left it the time for repentance and amelioration will
have passed away from us, and the time of judgment will have arrived. Our Lord said here:
"Give us to-day our necessary bread," in the sense of the necessary food of which we are
in need as long as we are in this world, and He did not prohibit nor did He forbid the
food, drink and raiment which are necessary to the sustenance of the body. It is not
blameworthy to ask of God that which is necessary to us, and that of which we are allowed
to make use when we have it, and that which is not considered blameworthy to receive from
others. Indeed, how can one consider blameworthy the use of a thing which we are permitted
to ask of God, as necessary for keeping and sustaining (human) nature?

21 He calls "bread," therefore, that which is necessary for the sustenance of (human)
nature. He used the expression "which is necessary to us in the sense of "according to our
nature," that is to say that which is useful and necessary to nature and its sustenance,
and which has been ordained by the Creator as a thing that we must necessarily have for
food. It is not advisable for those who wish to strive after perfection to possess and
hoard things which are beyond the domain of the necessities of life. He rightly alluded,
therefore, in prayer to the necessities of life by the words "which is necessary," that is
to say, a thing that is useful and necessary to our nature. As to "to-day," it means that
since those necessities of life are established by the Creator for the sustenance of
(human) nature, it is lawful to ask them and make use of them, but that no one is allowed
to ask of God and zealously endeavour to possess more than these necessary things. Indeed,
all things that are not necessary for our sustenance and for our food in this world, if
amassed by us, will go to others, and will be of no use to the one who had managed them or
to the one who had striven to collect and possess them. They even go to others after his
death, not by his will. And because our Lord completely disregarded the care for
superfluous things, and because He did not forbid the use of the things which are
necessary for our sustenance but, on the contrary, ordered us to ask them of God, He
added:

22 And forgive us our debts. In the first sentences He laid down the principles of
perfection and of blameless conduct, and by the addition "give us this day our necessary
bread" He limited our cares to that which is necessary; and because however much we strive
after perfection it is impossible for us to be always without sins—as we are compelled to
fall involuntarily into many, owing to the weakness of our nature —He found a quick remedy
for them in the request for forgiveness. It is as if He had said: If you are eager to do
good and strive after it, and if you are unwilling to pray for superfluous things but only
(wish to possess) those which are necessary for sustenance, you should have confidence
that you will receive forgiveness of the sins which you may have involuntarily committed.
It is evident that the one who had striven after good things and had been eager to avoid
ungodly things has only fallen involuntarily. Indeed, how could a man who hates bad things
and desires good things have stumbled voluntarily? It is clear that such a one will
undoubtedly receive forgiveness of those sins that were involuntarily committed by him.

23 And He added: As we have forgiven our debtors. He shows that we must have confidence
that we shall receive forgiveness of our (sins) if we do the same, according to our power,
to those who trespass against us. In case we have chosen good and are pleased with it, but
by accident we trespass in many things against God and man, He found a convenient remedy
for both sins in the fact that if we forgive those who trespass against us we have
confidence that we will undoubtedly receive, in the same way, forgiveness of our
trespasses from God. As when we ourselves trespass we rightly prostrate ourselves, beseech
God and ask forgiveness of Him, so also we have to forgive those who trespass against us
and apologise to us; and we should also receive affectionately those who have sinned
against us or injured us in any way. It is evident that if we do not consider that those
who have been sinned against or injured have to forgive those who have sinned against
them—if they repent and ask forgiveness of them for the wrong they have done —the same
thing would happen to them from those who have been sinned against, when they wish to pray
to God. Our Lord clearly ordered us to ask forgiveness as we also forgave those who had
trespassed against us.

24 And because we are in this world assailed by many afflictions dealing with sickness of
the body, evil deeds of men and many other things which irritate us and annoy us to the
extent that sometimes our soul is so perturbed by thoughts that it is tempted to throw
away from it the love of virtues, He rightly added: And lead us not into temptation, 25 so
that we may be saved from temptations in the measure of our power, but if these should
assail us let us do our utmost to bear with fortitude the afflictions which we had not
expected. Before everything we must pray to God that no temptation should come near us,
but if we should be led into it let us bear it with courage and pray that it should come
speedily to an end. It is well known that in this world many tribulations disturb our mind
in different ways; even a long and severe illness of the body has thrown into great
confusion those who were affected by it, and the inordinate impulses of the body have
involuntarily made us stumble and stray away from the path of duty, and beautiful faces
suddenly seen have kindled the passion found in our nature. There are other things which
assail us on unexpected occasions and involuntarily and strongly divert our choice and our
mind from good things to ungodly things. This is especially the case with the opinions of
unholy and contumelious men who are eager to do evil, because those (opinions) are very
apt to divert us in one way or another from a thing with which we were pleased. They can
even do that to a person who has a great zeal for perfection. It would be all the more
painful if those who acted against us in this way belonged to the household of the faith.
Against them our Lord said:

26 "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for
him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of
the sea. He said this about the obstinate people amongst us, and He threatened them with
severe punishment if by their contumely and wickedness they endeavour to divert from the
path of duty those who are humble and pure. He calls "to offend" the act of injuring by
wickedness and obstinacy those who for the sake of perfection strive to lead a humble and
pure life. Because of all this, after He had said, "And lead us not into temptation," He
added: 27 But deliver us from evil, because the wicked Satan injures us much in all the
above things, as he endeavours in different ways to do things through which he thinks that
he is able to divert us from our love and choice of duty. Our Lord embodied perfection of
works in the above words of prayer and taught us clearly how we are to be, in what we are
to be diligent, from what we have to flee, and what to ask of God. And our blessed Fathers
who thought that, together with the right teaching and the true faith, we ought also to
strive after a good life and good works, ordered this prayer for those who draw near to
the gift of baptism so that side by side with an accurate doctrine concerning the creed of
the faith they might through prayer so order our life as to possess that perfection which
is required of those who receive the gift of baptism, and through which they are counted
in the number of the citizens of the heavenly life, while still on this earth.

28 Endeavour now to keep clearly in your mind the things which you have learnt in short
words from the Lord's prayer, and meditate upon them with diligence in order that, while
still in this world and far from the next, you may imitate and follow the teaching of our
Lord, and thus be worthy of the heavenly benefits in which we are all enabled to
participate by the grace of the Only Begotten Son of God, to whom, in conjunction with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen.


COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST
==========================================================

COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST continued

CHAPTER II.

1 Synopsis. He who is desirous of drawing near to the gift of the holy baptism comes to
the Church of God where he is received by a duly appointed person —as there is a habit to
register those who draw near to baptism—who will question him about his mode of life. This
rite is performed for those who are baptised by the person called godfather. The duly
appointed person writes your name in the Church register together with that of the one who
is acting as your sponsor or guide in the town. The services of the persons called
exorcists have also been found indispensable, as it is necessary that when a case is being
heard in the judgment hall the litigant should remain silent. You stand with outstretched
arms in the posture of one who prays, and you look downwards. This is the reason why you
take off your outer garment and stand barefooted, and you stand also on sackcloth. You are
ordered in those days to meditate on the words of the faith.

2 I think that in past days I spoke sufficiently to your love about the profession of
faith which our blessed Fathers wrote according to the teaching of our Lord, who through
it wished us to be taught and baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. (I spoke) in those days to you, who draw near to the gift of baptism, in
order that you might learn what to believe, and in the name of whom you are baptised so
that you might see that you are receiving instruction according to the teaching of our
Lord, and that you are being baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. I added to the above a discourse on prayer in order that you might
rightly know the teaching of good works consonant with the way in which those who receive
this great gift of baptism have to live. As, however, the time of the sacrament has drawn
near, and you are by the grace of God about to participate in the holy baptism, it is
right and necessary that we should explain before you the power of the sacrament and of
the ceremonies which are accomplished in it, and the reason for which each of them is
accomplished, in order that when you have learnt what is the reason for all of them you
may receive the things that take place with great love.

3 Every sacrament consists in the representation of unseen and unspeakable things through
signs and emblems. Such things require explanation and interpretation, for the sake of the
person who draws near to the sacrament, so that he might know its power. If it only
consisted of the (visible) elements themselves, words would have been useless, as sight
itself would have been able to show us one by one all the happenings that take place, but
since a sacrament contains the signs of things that take place or have already taken
place, words are needed to explain the power of signs and mysteries. The Jews performed
their service for the heavenly things as in signs and shadows, because the law only
contained the shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, as the
blessed Paul said. A shadow implies the proximity of a body, as it cannot exist without a
body, but it does not represent the body which it reflects in the same way as it happens
in an image. When we look at an image we recognise the person who is represented in it—if
we knew that person beforehand—on account of the accurately drawn picture, but we are
never able to recognise a man represented only by his shadow, as this shadow has no
likeness whatever to the real body from which it emanates. All things of the law were
similar to this. They were only a shadow of the heavenly things, as the Apostle said. You
must now learn the nature of this shadow:

4 According to what he had learnt in a Divine vision the blessed Moses made two
tabernacles, one of which they named holy, and the other holy of holies. The first was the
likeness of the life and sojourn on the earth on which we now dwell, and the second, which
they called holy of holies, was the likeness of the regions which are above the visible
heaven, to which our Lord Christ, who was assumed for our salvation, ascended, in which He
now is, and to which He granted us to go in order to be there and dwell with Him, as the
blessed Paul said: "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, Christ, who became a high
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec. He said of Him that He became after the
order of high priests because He was the first to enter there, and through Him the favour
of entering was promised to us. The work of a high priest is indeed that he should draw
near to God first, and then after him and through him the rest should draw near;

5 but because all these things have not yet taken place but will take place at the end,
the priests of the law did not perform a single one of them through their service
according to the law, in the place called holy of holies, which indeed was never entered
by any one, as the high priest entered it once a year alone, and offered a sacrifice
before entering it, and had no right to enter it at all times. He entered it once a year
so that it might be made manifest that all those acts of the law only embraced the mortal
life on this earth, and had no relation of any kind with the heavenly things; in the same
way as we ourselves cannot enter heaven as long as we remain mortal in our nature. Men
would only have entered heavenly places after a man from us had been assumed, and had died
according to the natural law of men, and risen in glory from the dead, and become immortal
and incorruptible by nature, and had ascended into heaven, and been constituted a high
priest to the rest of mankind and an earnest of the ascension into heaven.

6 Thus the law contained the shadow of the good things to come, as those who lived under
it had only a figure of the future things. In this way they only performed their service
as a sign and a shadow of the heavenly things, because that service gave, by means of the
tabernacle and the things that took place in it, a kind of revelation, in figure, of the
life which is going to be in heaven, and which our Lord Christ showed to us by His
ascension into it, while He granted all of us to participate in an event which was so much
hidden from those who lived in that time that the Jews, in their expectation of the
resurrection, had only a base conception of it. They did not think, as we do, that we
shall be changed into an immortal life, but they thought of it as a place in which we
shall continue to eat, drink and marry. This we consider a great shame if we are to
believe the words of our Lord to the effect that: "You do err, not knowing the scriptures
nor the power of God, for in the resurrection from the dead they neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are as the angels," and "they are the children of God because they
are the children of the resurrection." In this He both reprimanded their error concerning
the resurrection and taught that we ought to believe that something like a Divine life
will come to those who will rise, as He clearly said that they will be like angels.

7 The things that the ancients held as figures and shadows came now into reality when our
Lord Jesus Christ, who was assumed from us and for us died according to the human law, and
through His resurrection became immortal, incorruptible and for ever immutable, and as
such ascended into heaven, as by His union with our nature He became to us an earnest of
our own participation in the event. In saying: "If Christ rose from the dead, how say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead," (the Apostle) clearly showed that it
was necessary for all to believe that there is a resurrection, and in believing in it we
had also to believe that we will equally clearly participate in it. As we have a firm
belief that things that have already happened will happen to us, so [the things that
happened at the resurrection of our Lord] we believe that they will happen to us. We
perform, therefore, this ineffable sacrament which contains the incomprehensible signs of
the Economy of Christ our Lord, as we believe that the things implied in it will happen to
us.

8 It is indeed evident to us, according to the words of the Apostle, that when we perform
either baptism or the Eucharist we perform them in remembrance of the death and
resurrection of Christ, in order that the hope of the latter may be strengthened in us. So
far as the resurrection is concerned he said: "So many of us as were baptised into Christ
Jesus, were buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also shall walk in newness of life." He
clearly taught here that we are baptised so that we might imitate in ourselves the death
and the resurrection of our Lord, and that we might receive from our remembrance of the
happenings that took place the confirmation of our hope in future things. As for the
communion of the holy Sacrament he said: "As often as you eat this bread and drink this
cup, you do show the Lord's death till He come." Our Lord also said: "This is my body
which is broken for you, and this is my blood which is shed for many for the remission of
sins." From all this it is clear that both the service and the Communion are in
remembrance of the death and the resurrection of Christ, from which arose our hope that we
all expect communion with Him. And we sacramentally perform the events that took place in
connection with Christ our Lord, in order that—as we have learnt by experience—our
communion with Him may strengthen our hope. It would be useful, therefore, to discuss
before you the reason for all the mysteries and signs.

9 Our Lord God made man from dust in His image and honoured him with many other things. He
especially honoured him by calling him His image, from which man alone became worthy to be
called God and Son of God; and if he had been wise he would have remained with the One who
was to him the source of all good things, which he truly possessed, but he accepted and
completed the image of the Devil, who like a rebel had risen against God and wished to
usurp for himself the glory that was due to Him, and had striven to detach man from God by
all sorts of stratagems and appropriate God's honour, so that he might insult Him by
rivalry. He (the Rebel) assumed, therefore, the attributes and the glory of a helper, and
because man yielded to his words and rejected the injunctions which God had imposed upon
him and followed the Rebel as his true helper, God inflicted upon him the punishment of
reverting to the dust from which he had been taken.

10 And from the above sin death entered, and this death weakened (human) nature and
generated in it a great inclination towards sin. Both of these grew side by side, while
the inexorable death strengthened and multiplied sin, as the condition of mortality by
weakening (human nature) caused the perpetration of many sins. Even the commandments which
God gave in order to check them tended to multiply them, and those who infringed the
commandments strengthened the punishment by the frequency of the sins. From these grew the
ill will of the Rebel, who jubilated and rejoiced at the great injury that he was
inflicting on us, and at the state of our affairs which was becoming daily more corrupt
and iniquitous. 11 When this state of our affairs became desperate, our Lord God willed in
His mercy to rectify it. With this end in view He assumed a man from us, who was a
faithful keeper of the Divine commandments, and was found to be free from all sin with the
exception of the punishment of death. The Tyrant, however, who could do nothing else,
brought an unjust death upon Him at the hand of the Jews, his servants, but He willingly
accepted it and sat in judgment with him before God, the just judge, who pronounced Him
not liable to the punishment of death which had been wickedly and unjustly brought upon
Him. And He became for ever immune from death, and immortal and incorruptible by nature.
And as such He ascended into heaven and became for ever beyond the reach of the harm and
injury of Satan, who was thus unable to do any harm to a man who was immortal,
incorruptible and immutable, and who dwelt in heaven and possessed a close union with the
Divine nature. From the fact that the man who was assumed from us had such a confidence
(with God), He became a messenger on behalf of all the (human) race so that the rest of
mankind might participate with Him in His great change, as the blessed Paul said: "Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is he that
condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." He shows here that the benefits accruing
to us are immutable and unchangeable, since Christ who died for us, and who rose from the
dead and received close union with Divine nature, draws us, by His intercession for us, to
the participation in resurrection and in the good things that emanate from it.

12 We draw near to the sacrament because we perform in it the symbols of the freedom from
calamities from which we were unexpectedly delivered, and of our participation in these
new and great benefits which had their beginning in Christ our Lord. Indeed we expect to
be partakers of these benefits which are higher than our nature, while even the
possibility of their coming to us we had never expected. We have spoken in this way so
that our words might be better understood; and it is time now to show you the reason for
every act (performed in the sacrament). He who wishes to draw near to the gift of the holy
baptism comes to the Church of God, which Christ our Lord showed to be a symbol of the
heavenly things to the faithful in this world, when He said: "You are Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I
will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven." He showed in this that He granted to the Church the power that any one who
becomes related to it should also be related to the heavenly things, and any one who
becomes a stranger to it should also be clearly a stranger to the heavenly things.

13 Owing to the fact that to those who are at the head of the Church is allotted the task
of governing it, it is to them that He referred in His saying to the blessed Peter that
they have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and things that are bound by them on earth
shall be bound in heaven, and things that are loosed by them on earth shall be loosed in
heaven; not in the sense that they are masters of men in it, but in the sense that the
Church received power from God that those who are related to it and under the care of
those who are at its head, acquire by necessity a relationship with heaven, inasmuch as
those who are outside this have no association of any kind with heavenly things. Christ
our Lord established a kingdom in heaven, and established it there as a city in which He
has His kingdom, which the blessed Paul calls "Jerusalem which is above, free, and mother
of us all," since it is in it that we are expecting to dwell and abide. That city is full
of innumerable companies of angels and men who are all immortal and immutable. Indeed the
blessed Paul said: "You are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the Church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven." He calls the firstborn those who are immortal and
immutable, like those who are worthy of the adoption of sons of whom our Lord said that
"they are the children of God because they are the children of the resurrection"; and they
are enrolled in heaven as its inhabitants.

14 These things will be seen so in reality in the world to come, when, according to the
words of the Apostle, "we are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so that
we may be ever with Him." He will take us up and ascend into heaven where His Kingdom is
seen and where all of us shall be with Him, free and exempt from all troubles, in
happiness and pleasure, and enjoying to the full the benefits of that kingdom. Those who
draw near to Him in this world He wished them to be, through religion and faith, as in the
symbol of the heavenly things, and He so constituted the Church as to be a symbol of the
heavenly things; and He wished that those who believe in Him should live in it. This is
the reason why the blessed Paul also said: "that you may know how you ought to behave
yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground
of the truth." Church "of the living God" means that His name is for ever and ever, and
this demonstrates that the believers will enjoy life eternally, while the expression
"pillar and ground of the truth" denotes that life firm, solid, unshakeable and
unchangeable in which (the believer) will be seen and from which he will also receive his
power.

15 He, therefore, who is desirous of drawing near to baptism comes to the Church of God
through which he expects to reach that life of the heavenly abode. He ought to think that
he is coming to be the citizen of a new and great city, and he should, therefore, show
great care in everything that is required of him before his enrolment in it. He comes to
the Church of God where he is received by a duly appointed person —as there is a habit to
register those who draw near to baptism—who will question him about his mode of life in
order to find out whether it possesses all the requisites of the citizenship of that great
city. After he has abjured all the evil found in this world and cast it completely out of
his mind, he has to show that he is worthy of the citizenship of the city and of his
enrolment in it. This is the reason why, as if he were a stranger to the city and to its
citizenship, a specially appointed person, who is from the city in which he is going to be
enrolled and who is well versed in its mode of life, conducts him to the registrar and
testifies for him to the effect that he is worthy of the city and of its citizenship and
that, as he is not versed in the life of the city or in the knowledge of how to behave in
it, he himself would be willing to act as a guide to his inexperience.

16 This rite is performed for those who are baptised by the person called godfather, who,
however, does not make himself responsible for them in connection with future sins, as
each one of us answers for his own sins before God. He only bears witness to what the
catechumen has done and to the fact that he has prepared himself in the past to be worthy
of the city and of its citizenship. He is justly called a sponsor because by his words
(the catechumen) is deemed worthy to receive baptism. When in this world there is an order
of the Government for a census of countries and of people who are in them, it is right for
those who are registered in particular countries to obtain a title which would assure for
them the cultivation of the fields which are registered in their name, and to pay readily
the land taxes to the king. The same thing is required of the one who is enrolled in the
heavenly city and in its citizenship, as "our conversation is in heaven." Indeed he ought
to reject all earthly things, as is suitable to the one who is inscribed in heaven, and to
do only the things that fit the life and conversation in heaven. He will also, if he is
wise, pay perpetual taxes to the king and live a life which is consonant with baptism.

17 As the Romans—when they held Judea under their domination—ordered that every one should
be enrolled in his own city, and as Joseph with the blessed Mary went to Bethlehem to be
enrolled in it, because he was from the house and the tribe of David, so also we, who
believe in Christ, have to do. Indeed He conquered, by right of war, all the enemies,
delivered the human race from the power of the demons, freed us from the servitude of the
captivity, and brought us under His dominion, as it is said: "He has ascended on high and
has led captivity captive." He showed the new world to come and the wonderful dispensation
of that which is called the heavenly Jerusalem,in which Christ established His
imperishable Kingdom. It is, therefore, incumbent on us all, who are under the power of
His Kingdom, to pray and desire that through faith we might draw near to baptism and be
worthy of being enrolled in heaven.

18 It is for this reason that as regards you also who draw near to the gift of baptism, a
duly appointed person inscribes your name in the Church book, together with that of your
godfather, who answers for you and becomes your guide in the city and the leader of your
citizenship therein. This is done in order that you may know that you are, long before the
time and while still on the earth, enrolled in heaven, and that your godfather who is in
it is possessed of great diligence to teach you, who are a stranger and a newcomer to that
great city, all the things that pertain to it and to its citizenship, so that you should
be conversant with its life without any trouble and anxiety. 19 You should learn now the
reason for the remaining events, as your enrolment is not effected to no purpose and
accidentally only, but after a great judgment had taken place on your behalf. It was
necessary for you, who have drawn near to Divine Providence, to have been first delivered
from the Tyrant who had attacked you so that, after having been enabled to flee from all
the harm of the enemies and avoid another servitude, you might be in a position to enjoy
to the full the happiness of this enrolment. When by order of the Government a census is
taken in this world, and one comes to establish his legal title to a land fertile in corn
and rich in good things, in which there is much happiness to those who are registered for
it—if a person who was previously his enemy learns this, and envying him for this
happiness which he was himself previously enjoying, because (the land) for a long time
belonged to him, goes and tells the one who is about to be registered that the land
belonged to him by right of succession and that he ought not to be dispossessed of his
right of ownership and be given the ownership of another land—it is right for the one who
is about to be registered, if he is endowed with great zeal, to go to a magistrate and
make use of the title which he possesses, and show the supposed owner of the land, for
which he wishes to be registered, that he is desirous of bringing the matter before a
judge.

20 In this same way God placed the kingdom of heaven before men, and willed that all of
them should be in it in an immortal and immutable state, as is suitable to the dwellers in
heaven, and granted to the Church to be the symbol of heavenly things in this world, and
we pray and implore Him to draw us near through baptism to that heavenly city, and to make
us participate in its life; but it is necessary that a judgment should be given for us
against the Tyrant, who is fighting the case against us, that is to say Satan, who is
always envious of our deliverance and salvation. He shows here also the same ill will
towards us, and tries and endeavours to bring us to the judgment hall as if we had no
right to be outside his ownership. He pleads that from ancient times and from the creation
of the head of our race we belong to him by right; he narrates the story of Adam, of how
he listened to his words and by his will rejected his Maker and preferred to serve him; of
how this kindled the wrath of God, who drove him out of Paradise, pronounced the death
sentence upon him and bound him to this world in saying: "In the sweat of your face shall
you eat bread," and: "Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, for dust you are
and to dust shall you return.

21 From these words which condemned him to the servitude of this world, and from the fact
that by his will he chose my lordship he clearly appears to belong to me, as I am "the
prince of the power of the air, and work in the children of disobedience. How, then, is it
possible that this man, who from the beginning and from the time of his forefathers
belongs to me—as a just judgment was pronounced against him in this mortal world, in which
as long as he is I hold sway over him—should be taken away from this world and from its
life, and consequently from my lordship also, which he himself chose willingly, and should
become immortal, a thing which is higher than his nature, and be seen in the life and
citizenship of the abode of heaven, a thing which does not pertain to men or to beings who
have this (human) nature, from which those who are endowed with a higher nature are
different?

22 As, in our supposition, such things are now pleaded and said by Satan, who was seen
from the very beginning to fight inimically against us, and at present envies us all the
more because we expect to receive this ineffable enrolment, which is high above all words
and all human mind, as: "eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered the heart of
man the things which God has prepared for them that love him" —we must run with all
diligence to the judge and show and establish the title which we possess: that we did not
belong to Satan from the beginning and from the time of our forefathers, but to God who
created us while we were not and made us in His own image, and that it was through the
iniquity and wickedness of the Tyrant and through our own negligence that we were driven
towards evil, from which we lost also the honour and greatness of our image, and because
of our sinfulness we further received the punishment of death. And the long time that
intervened strengthened the hold of Satan on us, and we on our part, owing to the fact
that we lived for a great length of time in this cruel and dire servitude, the wrong and
fearful acts of sin became sweet and pleasing to us, and with them we strengthened the
power of Satan over us.

23 While things were proceeding in this way, He who is truly our Creator and our Lord, He
who created us while we were not, and formed our body of dust with His hands and breathed
into it a soul which did not previously exist, was pleased to make manifest a providence
consonant with the works which He himself had made and which were now perishing through
the wickedness of the Tyrant, in order that He might not permit him to harm us till the
end. He also abolished our sins and our transgression against Him, and wished by His grace
to straighten our affairs. For this He took one of us, and in Him made the beginning of
all our good things, and permitted Him to receive the impact of all the trials of the
wickedness of Satan, but showed Him also to be high above his wickedness and his harm, and
although He had allowed Him to be even in His Death the victim of his stratagems, through
which He had been drawn to combat, He now receives, on our behalf and against Satan, the
intercession of the One who was assumed.

24 He (Satan) brought forward all his subtle arguments (against Him) and did not cease
from inflicting injuries, from beginning to end, and finally, in spite of the fact that he
found not a single just cause against Him, brought an unjust death upon Him. He further
added (in his brief) how he had cruelly harmed all our race from the beginning. God,
however, who was listening to all the story, after having heard the things that were said
by both sides, condemned the Tyrant for the ill will of which he had made use against
Christ and against all our race, and pronounced judgment against him, while He raised
Christ our Lord from the dead, and made Him immortal and immutable, and took Him up to
heaven. And He promised to all the (human) race, while still on the earth, the joy of
(His) gifts so that no room might be left to Satan from which to inflict injuries on us.
We are thus in a virtuous nature and in a high dwelling, which is higher than all the
trials arising out of the wickedness of Satan, and absent and remote from all sin. Have we
not learnt also all this from the words of our Lord who said: "Now is the judgment of this
world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out, and I when I am lifted up from the
earth will draw all men to Me?"

25 We must believe now that all these things have happened and taken place, and that in
nothing shall we appear henceforth to belong to the Devil. We have rightly reverted to our
Lord to whom we belonged before the wickedness of Satan, and we are, as we were at the
beginning, in the image of God. We had lost the honour of this image through our
carelessness, but by the grace of God we have retaken this honour, and because of this we
have become immortal and we will dwell in heaven. Indeed it is in this way that the image
of God ought to rejoice and acquire the honour that is due to the One who by promise was
to be called, and was to be, in His image. By His grace we rightly left for ever the
mortal world, moved to the heavenly abode and citizenship, recognised our Lord, and are
now hastening to go to our firstfruits (i.e. Christ) which were picked on our behalf and
through which the Maker and the Lord of all gave us immortal life and a heavenly abode and
conversation. We rightly draw near now to the Church of God because of our deliverance
from tribulations and our delight in good things, and because we expect to be enrolled in
heaven through the gift of the holy baptism.

26 It is you who furnish the reason for this question and for this examination as you
clearly show that through the gift of the holy baptism you are separating yourselves from
the servitude of the Tyrant, which all our fathers from the time of Adam downwards
received, and in which they lived. This, however, goads Satan to fight fiercely against
us, so much so that he did not even desist from fighting against our Lord because he
believed Him to be a mere man on account of His resemblance (to men), and thought that by
his stratagems and temptations he might detach Him from the love of God. 27 Because you
are unable by yourselves to plead against Satan and to fight against him, the services of
the persons called exorcists have been found indispensable, as they act as your surety for
Divine help. They ask in a loud and prolonged voice that our enemy should be punished and
by a verdict from the judge be ordered to retire and stand far, so that no room and no
entry of any kind might be left to him from which to inflict harm on us, and so that we
might be delivered for ever from his servitude, and allowed to live in perfect freedom,
and enjoy the happiness of our present enrolment. You are doubtless aware of the fact that
when a case is being judged before a judge and when a litigant shouts that he is innocent,
and complains of a dire and cruel servitude in which he had lived, and contends that a
powerful man had forcibly and unjustly brought him under his rule, it is necessary that
when the case is being judged this same litigant should remain silent, so that he might by
his demeanour and behaviour induce the judge to have mercy upon him. Another man, in the
person of the advocate, will demonstrate to the judge the truth of the complaint of those
who contend that they are ill-treated, and will invoke also the laws of the kingdom in
order that through them he may redress the wrong that was done.

28 In this same way when the words called the words of exorcism are pronounced you stand
perfectly quiet, as if you had no voice and as if you were still in fear and dread of the
Tyrant, not being in a position even to look at him on account of the great injustice
which he did to you and to your fathers, in the fact that he led you into captivity,
brought you into a dire and cruel servitude, and inflicted upon you wounds that leave
indelible scars, through the punishment of death which he placed in your midst; and in the
fact that he has been for a long time the master of the servitude which you, with your own
hands, brought upon yourselves. You stand, therefore, with outstretched arms in the
posture of one who prays, and look downwards and remain in that state in order to move the
judge to mercy. And you take off your outer garment and stand barefooted in order to show
in yourself the state of the cruel servitude in which you served the Devil for a long
time, according to the rules of captivity, and in which you did all his work for him
according to his requirements. Your aim in this posture is also to move the judge to
mercy, and it is this picture of captivity that is implied in the words of God who spoke
thus through the prophet Isaiah: "Like as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot
three years in order that he might become a sign for the Egyptians and Ethiopians, so
shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians and Ethiopians captives, young and old,
naked and barefoot."

29 You stand also on garments of sackcloth so that from the fact that your feet are
pricked and stung by the roughness of the cloth you may remember your old sins and show
penitence and repentance of the sins of your fathers, because of which we have been driven
to all this wretchedness of iniquities, and so that you may call for mercy on the part of
the judge and rightly say: "You has put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness." As
to the words of exorcism they have the power to induce you, after having made up your mind
to acquire such a great gain, not to remain idle and without work. You are, therefore,
ordered in those intermediary days to meditate on the words of the profession of faith in
order that you may learn it, and they are put in your mouth in order that through a
continuous meditation you may strive to be in a position to recite them by heart. It would
indeed be strange that the Jews should have the law written in a book hanging from their
hands so that they might always remember the commandments, and we did not impress
indelibly in our memory the words of a faith which is so much higher. Owing to the fact
that immediately after having received the Divine order Adam met the Demon and was easily
overcome by him because of his lack of meditation and contemplation of that order, it is
imperative that in all this time you should continually meditate on the words of the Creed
so that it may be strengthened in you and deeply fixed in your mind, and so that you may
love your religion without which you cannot receive the Divine gift, or if you receive it,
you cannot keep it and hold fast to it.

30 When the time for (the reception of) the sacrament draws near and the judgment and
fight with the Demon—for the sake of which the words of exorcism have been used—are at an
end; and when by God's decision the Tyrant has submitted and yielded to the shouts of the
exorcist and been condemned, so that he is in nothing near to you and you are completely
free from any disturbance from him; and when you have possessed the happiness of this
enrolment without any hindrance —you are brought by duly appointed persons to the priest,
as it is before him that you have to make your engagements and promises to God. These deal
with the faith and the Creed, which by a solemn asseveration you declare that you will
keep steadfastly, and that you will not, like Adam, the father of our race, reject the
cause of all good things, but that you will remain till the end in the doctrine of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, while thinking of the same Father, Son and Holy
Spirit as one Divine nature which is eternal and cause of everything, and to the
discipleship of which you have been admitted by faith. It is in their names that you
receive the happiness of this enrolment which consists in the participation in heavenly
benefits.

31 When a person wishes to enter the house of a man of power in this world, with the
intention of doing some work in it, he does not go direct to the master of the house and
make his engagement and his contract with him—as it is unbecoming to the master of the
house to condescend to such a conversation —but goes to the majordomo and agrees with him
about his work, and through him agrees with the master of the house, to whom the house and
all its contents belong. In this same way you act, you who draw near to the house of God,
which is the Church of the living God, as the blessed Paul says, because God is as much
greater than we are as He is higher in His nature than we are, and is for ever invisible,
and dwells in a light which is ineffable, according to the words of the blessed Paul. We
approach, therefore, the majordomo of this house, that is to say, of the Church, and this
majordomo is the priest, who has been found worthy to preside over the Church; and after
we have recited our profession of faith before him, we make with God, through him, our
contract and our engagements concerning the faith, and we solemnly declare that we will be
His servants, that we will work for Him and remain with Him till the end, and that we will
keep His love always and without a change. After we have, by our profession of faith, made
our contracts and engagements with God our Lord, through the intermediary of the priest,
we become worthy to enter His house and enjoy its sight, its knowledge and its habitation,
and to be also enrolled in the city and its citizenship. We then become the owners of a
great confidence.

32 As all this happens to us through the Sacrament, to which we draw near after our
profession of faith, it is necessary to say what it is and how it is performed. It would
indeed be strange to explain the reasons for the ceremonies that precede the Sacrament and
neglect the teaching of the Sacrament itself. As, however, we have exceeded our usual time
limits, and as the things that have been, said are difficult to remember, we shall
postpone what we have to say to another day, and we shall put here an end to our speech
while glorifying God the Father, and His Only Begotten Son, and His Holy Spirit, now,
always and for ever and ever. Amen. Here ends the second chapter.

CHAPTER III.

1 Synopsis of the Third Chapter. You stand barefooted on sackcloth while your outer
garment is taken off from you and your hands are stretched towards God in the posture of
one who prays. First you genuflect while the rest of your body is erect, and then you say:
"I abjure Satan and all his angels, and all his works, and all his service, and all his
deception, and all his worldly glamour; and I engage myself and believe, and am baptised
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." While you are
genuflecting, and the rest of your body is erect, and your look is directed towards
heaven, and your hands are outstretched in the posture of one who prays, the priest, clad
in linen robes that are clean and shining, signs you on your forehead with the holy Chrism
and says: "So-and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit." And your godfather who is standing behind you spreads an orarium of linen on the
crown of your head, raises you and makes you stand up erect.

2 From what we have previously said, you have sufficiently understood the ceremonies which
are duly performed, prior to the Sacrament, and according to an early tradition, upon
those who are baptised. When you go to be enrolled in the hope of acquiring the abode and
citizenship of heaven, you have, in the ceremony of exorcism, a kind of law-suit with the
Demon, and by a Divine verdict you receive your freedom from his servitude. And thus you
recite the words of the profession of faith and of prayer, and through them you make an
engagement and a promise to God, before the priests, that you will remain in the love of
the Divine nature—concerning which, if you think the right things, it will be to you the
source of great benefits; and it consists of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—and
that you will live in this world to the best of your ability in a way that is consonant
with the life and citizenship of heaven. It is right now that you should receive the
teaching of the ceremonies that take place in the Sacrament itself, because if you learn
the reason for each one of them, you will acquire a knowledge that is by no means small.
After you have been taken away from the servitude of the Tyrant by means of the words of
exorcism, and have made solemn engagements to God along with the recitation of the Creed,
you draw near to the Sacrament itself; you must learn how this is done.

3 You stand barefooted on sackcloth while your outer garment is taken off from you, and
your hands are stretched towards God in the posture of one who prays. In all this you are
in the likeness of the posture that fits the words of exorcism, as in it you have shown
your old captivity and the servitude which through a dire punishment you have rendered to
the Tyrant; but it is right that after you have cast away that posture and those memories
you should draw near to the Sacrament which implies participation in the future benefits.
You recall in your memory your old tribulations in order that you may all the better know
the nature of the things which you cast away and that of the things to which you will be
transferred. 4 First you genuflect while the rest of your body is erect, and in the
posture of one who prays you stretch your arms towards God. As we have all of us fallen
into sin and been driven to the dust by the sentence of death, it is right for us to "bow
our knees in the name of Jesus Christ," as the blessed Paul said, and to "confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God His Father." In this confession we show the
things that accrued to us from the Divine nature through the Economy of Christ our Lord,
whom (God) raised up to heaven and showed as Lord of all and head of our salvation.
Because all these things have to be performed by us all, who "are fallen to the earth"
according to the words of the blessed Paul, it is with justice that you, who through the
Sacrament become partakers of the ineffable benefits,to which you have been called by your
faith in Christ, bow your knees, and make manifest your ancient fall, and worship God, the
cause of those benefits.

5 The rest of all your body is erect and looks towards heaven. In this posture you offer
prayer to God, and implore Him to grant you deliverance from the ancient fall and
participation in the heavenly benefits. While you are in this posture, the persons who are
appointed for the service draw near to you and say to you something more than that which
the angel who appeared to the blessed Cornelius said to him: your prayers have been heard
and your supplications answered. God has looked upon your tribulations which you were
previously undergoing, and had mercy upon you because you were for a long time captives of
the Tyrant, and served a cruel servitude to him. He saw the number and the nature of the
calamities which you have endured, and this moved Him to deliver you from that servitude
and from the great number of your ancient tribulations, and to bring you to freedom and
grant you to participate in the ineffable heavenly benefits, which immediately after you
have received, you become undoubtedly free from all calamities. It is now time for you to
learn the things through which you will surely receive deliverance from your ancient
tribulations, and enjoy the good things that have been shown to you.

6 What are then the engagements and promises which you make at that time, and through
which you receive deliverance from the ancient tribulations, and participation in the
future benefits?: "I abjure Satan and all his angels, and all his service, and all his
deception, and all his worldly glamour; and I engage myself, and believe, and am baptised
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." 7 The deacons who at
that time draw near to you prepare you to recite these words. It is in place here to
explain to you the power of these words, in order that you may know the force of the
engagements, promises and words of asseveration through which you receive the happiness of
this great gift. Because the Devil, to whom you had listened, was for you the cause of
numerous and great calamities—as he has begun (his work) from the time of the fathers of
your race—you promise to abjure him, since facts themselves and your own experience had
made you feel his injuries. This is the reason why you say "I abjure Satan." Formerly,
even if you wished it, you did not dare to make use of these words, because you were
afraid of his servitude, but as you have, by a Divine decree, received deliverance from
him, you proclaim and abjure him with confidence and by your own words, and this is the
reason why you say "I abjure Satan." In this you imply both your present separation from
him and the former association that you had with him. Indeed, no one says that he abjures
a thing with which he had formerly no association. The use of this expression is
especially incumbent upon you as you had relation with him from the time of your
forefathers, together with that cruel and ancient pact, which resulted in the calamitous
servitude to him, under which you lived.

8 You rightly say "I abjure Satan," but you can hardly realise that after having formerly
felt the injury which he inflicted upon you in his relation with you, you could be in a
position to be delivered from him. In uttering these words you really imply that you have
no association of any kind left with him any more. It is indeed difficult for you to
realise the extent of the calamities into which he was daily planning to cast us. Did you
realise the extent to which Adam, our common father, who had listened to him, has been
injured, and into how many calamities he has fallen? or the extent to which his
descendants have given themselves up to Satan? or the gravity of the calamities which were
borne by men, who later chose to become his servants? Now, however, that the great and
wonderful grace, which was manifest through Christ, freed us from the yoke of the Tyrant
and delivered us from his servitude, and granted us this wonderful participation in
benefits, I have recognised my benefactor. I know now my Lord, and He is truly my Lord,
who created me while I was not, who does not relent in His daily beneficence to me, who
did not forsake me even when I sinned against Him but bestowed favour on me, who revealed
to us an awe-inspiring gift, who did not only vouchsafe to us deliverance from
tribulations, but placed also before us the hope of ineffable benefits.

9 I abjure, therefore, Satan, I flee from communion with him, and engage myself that
henceforth I shall not run towards him nor shall I have any intercourse with him, but I
shall flee completely from him as from an enemy and an evildoer, who became to us the
cause of innumerable calamities, who does not know how to do good, and who strives with
all his power to fight us and overcome us. The expression "I abjure" means that I will no
more choose and accept any communion with him. 10 If Satan was striving alone and single-
handed to fight against us and injure us, the above expression, which contains the
profession of abjuring him and completely renouncing communion with him, would have been
sufficient; as, however, although invisible, he knows how to fight against us by means of
visible beings, the men whom he once subjected and made tools of his iniquity, and whom he
employs to cause others to stumble—you add: "and his angels." The expression "his angels"
refers to all men who received evil of some kind from him, which they practise to harm
other people. At the beginning, when he had no one to cause to fall into sin and
consequently to suit him in the service of injuring others, the serpent became a tool in
his hands, of which he made use to deceive man and cause him to fall. Since, however, he
caught in his net the children of men and brought them under subjection a long time ago,
he employs those among them who are suitable to the task of injuring others. This is the
reason why the blessed Paul said: "I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." He
shows here that men of this world are anxious to divert them from duty, and play the same
role to the Devil in the deception of mankind as that played by the serpent. This is the
reason why, after saying: "I abjure Satan" you add:

11 "and his angels." 12 You call angels of Satan all those who serve his will for the
purpose of deceiving people and causing them to fall. We must believe to be servants of
Satan all those who occupy themselves with the outside wisdom and bring the error of
paganism into the world. Clearly are angels of Satan all the poets who maintained idolatry
by their vain stories, and strengthened the error of heathenism by their wisdom. Angels of
Satan are those men who under the name of philosophy established devastating doctrines
among pagans, and corrupted them to such an extent that they do not acquiesce in the words
of the true religion. Angels of Satan are also the heads of heresies, those who after the
coming of Christ our Lord devised in an ungodly way, and introduced into the world, things
contrary to the true faith. Angels of Satan are Mani, Marcion, and Valentinus, who
detached the visible things from the creative act of God, and pretended that these visible
things were created by another cause outside God. An angel of Satan is Paul of Samosata,
who asserted that Christ our Lord was a simple man and denied (the existence) before the
worlds of the person of the Divinity of the Only Begotten. Angels of Satan are Arius and
Eunomius, who dared to affirm that the nature of the Divinity of the Only Begotten was
created and not existing from the beginning, but that it came into existence from nothing
according to the law of created beings.

13 In this they imitate the pagans, as they assert that although the nature of the Son is
created, they nevertheless believe Him to be God by nature. They also imitate the
ignorance of the Jews who deny that He is a Son from the Father and that He is eternally
from His Divinity, as He is truly a true Son, and pretend that He is a son in a way
similar to those who among the Jews are called sons of God, who have acquired this sonship
by grace and not by virtue of their Divinity. 14 An angel of Satan is also Apollinarius,
who falsified the doctrine of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and who,
under the pretence of an orthodoxy which would leave our salvation incomplete,
categorically asserted that our mind was not assumed and did not participate like the body
in the assumption of grace. Angels of Satan are those who in all heresies are the heads
and the teachers of error, whether they be honoured with the name of episcopacy or of
priesthood, because they are upholders and protectors of the words of error, and as such
all of them serve the will of Satan, and clad in the robe of ecclesiastical service,
strive to lean towards error. Angels of Satan are also those who, after the abolition of
the law, think of drawing those who believed in Christ to the observances of the Jews.
Angels of Satan are also those who give to mankind admonitions which are iniquitous,
mischievous and contrary to the Divine commandments, and who endeavour to lead it to the
service of evil.

15 You abjure all the above (men) in a way that leaves you no association of any kind with
them, because you have drawn near to Christ and have been enrolled in the Church of God,
and expect to be the body and the members of Christ through the birth of the holy baptism.
Your association should be with Christ our Lord, as a member united to His head and far
from those who endeavour to detach you from the faith and the creed of the Church. After
having said: "I abjure Satan and all his angels" you add: "and all his service." 16 This
means that you should strive to turn away from and reject both the men who serve the will
of the Evil One and the things done by them in the name of teaching, as they are palpable
iniquity. Service of Satan is everything dealing with paganism, not only the sacrifices
and the worship of idols and all the ceremonies involved in their service, according to
the ancient custom, but also the things that have their beginning in it. Service of Satan
is clearly that a person should follow astrology and watch the positions and motions of
the sun, the moon and the stars for the purpose of travelling, going forth, or undertaking
a given work, while believing that he is benefited or harmed by their motion and their
course; and that one should believe the men who, after watching the motions of the stars,
prognosticate by them. This is clearly service of Satan, and the one who puts his
confidence in God alone and trusts His Providence, strives to turn away from this and
similar things, and expects everything from Him: the bestowal of good things and the
abolition of bad things; and does not think that anything like these can happen from
another quarter, but knows that anything that is outside the love of God and confidence in
Him is under the influence of the tyranny and power of the Evil One.

17 [These] are service of Satan: the purifications, the washings, the knots, the hanging
of yeast, the observances of the body, the fluttering or the voice of birds and any
similar thing. It is service of Satan that one should indulge in the observances of
Judaism. Service of Satan is also that service which is found among the heretics under the
name of religion, because although it has some resemblance to an ecclesiastical service,
yet it is devoid of the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and is performed in impiety.
It is clearly service of Satan if true are the words of our Lord who said: "Not everyone
that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that does the
will of my Father which is in heaven." It is evident that you will have no utility in
calling upon the name of our Lord while in your mind you are with the ungodly, outside the
fear of God. None of those things that are done by them in imitation of the ecclesiastical
teaching brings any utility to those who perform them, because the things done (by them)
are forbidden by God, and all of them are thus devoid of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

18 As when in a theatrical performance and in a play you see kings and you do not consider
them kings because of the imitation of their dresses, but all of them as a ludicrous
representation and a burlesque worthy to be laughed at—they only show before the eyes
things taken from the ordinary life of the world—so also the things performed by the
heretics under the name of doctrine, whether it be their baptism or their Eucharist,
deserve laughter; and we ought to turn away from them as from the service of Satan,
because all of them tend to strengthen impiety. You also say: "and all his deception."
They named in clear words as deception of Satan all the things that were done by pagans
under the name of doctrine, because they displayed all of them ostentatiously and
performed them with the intention of fascinating the spectators and deceiving the others.
All these things have by the grace of God disappeared to-day; but we must not think any
the less of the service performed by heretics, because having noticed that the error of
paganism had disappeared in the name of Christ, Satan strove to deceive the children of
men by other means, and discovered the heresies, and found out that those who presided
over them were, by their imitation of ecclesiastical ceremonies both in the invocation of
the (Divine) names and in their fanciful communion service, in a position to deceive
simple people and so lead them to the perdition of impiety. After this you say:

19 "And all his worldly glamour." They called his glamour, the theatre, the circus, the
racecourse, the contests of the athletes, the profane songs, the water-organs and the
dances, which the Devil introduced into this world under the pretext of amusement, and
through which he leads the souls of men to perdition. It is not difficult to know the
great injury caused by these things to the souls of men, and we ought to remove from all
of them the son of the Sacrament of the New Testament, who is being enrolled in the
citizenship of heaven, who is the heir of the future benefits, and who is expecting to
become henceforth, through the regeneration of baptism, a member of Christ our Lord, the
head of us all who is in heaven. We who are playing the part of members to Himought to
lead a life that is congruous to Him.

20 It is for this reason that at the time (preceding your baptism) you make these promises
and engagements in the posture which we have described above: I abjure Satan, and all his
angels, and all his service, and all his deception, and all his worldly glamour; and I
engage myself before the Divine, the blessed and the eternal nature of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit." After having said: "I abjure Satan, and his angels, and
his service, and his deception, and all his worldly glamour" you add: "And I engage
myself, and believe and am baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit." As when you say "I abjure (Satan)" you mean to reject him for always, and
not to revert to him nor be pleased to associate yourself with him any more, so also when
you say "I engage myself before God" you show that you will remain steadfastly with Him,
that you will henceforth be unshakeably with Him, that you will never separate yourself
from Him, and that you will think it higher than anything else to be and to live with Him
and to conduct yourself in a way that is in harmony with His commandments.

21 The addition "And I believe" is necessary because the person who draws near to God
ought to believe that He is, as the blessed Paul said. As Divine nature is invisible,
faith is called to the help of the person who draws near to it, and who promises to be
constantly in its household. The good things that (God) prepared for us, through the
Economy of Christ our Lord, are likewise invisible and unspeakable, and since it is in
their hope that we draw near to Him and receive the sacrament of baptism, faith is
required so that we may possess a strong belief without doubt concerning these good things
which are prepared for us and which are now invisible. You add also the sentence "and I am
baptised" to that of "and I believe" so that you may draw near to the gift of the holy
baptism, in the hope of future benefits, and be thus enabled to be reborn and to die with
Christ and rise with Him from there, and so that after having received another birth,
instead of your first one, you may be able to participate in heaven. As long as you are
mortal by nature you are not able to enter the abode of heaven, but after you have cast
away such a nature in baptism and have risen also with Christ through baptism, and
received the symbol of the new birth which we are expecting, you will be seen as a citizen
of heaven and an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven.

22 To all the above (sentences) you add: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit." This is the Divine nature, this is the eternal Godhead, this is the
cause of everything, and this is that which first created us and now is renewing us. This
is, indeed, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is to it that we are drawing near
now, and it is to it that we are rightly making our promises, because it has been to us
the cause of numerous and great benefits, as at the beginning even so now. It is to it
that we make these ineffable promises, and it is in it that we engage ourselves to believe
henceforth. It is in its names that we are baptised, and through it that we expect to
receive the future good things which are now promised to us as in a symbol, and it is to
it that we look for the happiness which is to come, when we shall rise in reality from the
dead, and become immortal and immutable in our nature, and heirs and partakers of the
abode and citizenship of heaven.

23 These engagements and promises you make in the posture which we have described above,
while your knee is bowed to the ground both as a sign of adoration which is due from you
to God, and as a manifestation of your ancient fall to the ground; the rest of your body
is erect and looks upwards towards heaven, and your hands are outstretched in the guise of
one who prays so that you may be seen to worship the God who is in heaven, from whom you
expect to rise from your ancient fall. This is the reason why you have, through the
promises and engagements which we have already described, directed your course towards Him
and have promised to Him that you will make yourself worthy of the expected gift. After
you have looked towards Him with outstretched hands, asked grace from Him, risen from your
fall and rejoiced in (future) benefits, you will necessarily receive the firstfruits of
the sacrament which we believe to be the earnest of the good and ineffable things found in
heaven. When you have, therefore, made your promises and engagements, the priest draws
near to you, wearing, not his ordinary garments or the covering with which he was covered
before, but clad in a robe of clean and radiant linen, the joyful appearance of which
denotes the joy of the world to which you will move in the future, and the shining colour
of which designates your own radiance in the life to come, while its cleanness indicates
the ease and happiness of the next world.

24 He depicts these things to you by means of the garments in which he is clad, and by the
hidden symbol of the same garments he inspires you with fear, and with fear he infuses
love into you, so that you may through the newness of his garments look into the power
which it represents. And he signs you on your forehead with the holy Chrism and says: "So-
and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." 25 He
offers you these firstfruits of the sacrament, and he does it in no other way than in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Where you expect to find the
cause of all the benefits, there the priest also begins the sacrament. In fact, it is from
there that the priest draws you near to the calling towards which you must look, and in
consequence of which you ought to live above all things according to the will (of God).
The sign with which you are signed means that you have been stamped as a lamb of Christ
and as a soldier of the heavenly King. Indeed, immediately we possess a lamb we stamp it
with a stamp which shows to which master it belongs, so that it may graze the same grass
as that which the rest of the lambs of the owner graze, and be in the same fold as that in
which they are. A soldier who has enlisted for military service, and been found worthy of
this service of the State because of his stature and the structure of his body, is first
stamped on his hand with a stamp which shows to which king he will henceforth offer his
service; in this same way you also, who have been chosen for the Kingdom of Heaven, and
after examination been appointed a soldier to the heavenly King, are first stamped on your
forehead, that part of your head which is higher than the rest of your body, which is
placed above all your body and above your face, and with which we usually draw near to one
another and look at one another when we speak. You are stamped at that place so that you
may be seen to possess great confidence.

26 "Because now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, and with an open
face we shall behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and shall be changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord," as the blessed Paul
said, we are rightly stamped in a place that is higher than our face, so that from far we
may frighten the demons, who will not then be able to come near us and injure us, and so
that we may be known to possess so much confidence with God that we look at Him with an
open face, and display before Him the stamp by which we are seen to be members of the
household and soldiers of Christ our Lord. When the priest performs these things for you
and signs you with a sign on your forehead, he separates you from the rest as a
consequence of the aforesaid words, and decides that you are the soldier of the true King
and a citizen of heaven. The sign (with which you have been signed) demonstrates that you
have communion with, and participation in, all these things.

27 Immediately after your godfather, who is standing behind you, spreads an orarium of
linen on the crown of your head, raises you and makes you stand erect. By your rising from
your genuflexion you show that you have cast away your ancient fall, that you have no more
communion with earth and earthly things, that your adoration and prayer to God have been
accepted, that you have received the stamp which is the sign of your election to the
ineffable military service, that you have been called to heaven, and that you ought
henceforth to direct your course to its life and citizenship while spurning all earthly
things. The linen which he spreads on the crown of your head denotes the freedom to which
you have been called. You were before standing bareheaded, as this is the habit of the
exiles and the slaves, but after you have been signed he throws on your head linen, which
is the emblem of the freedom to which you have been called. Men such as these (=freemen)
are in the habit of spreading linen on their heads, and it serves them as an adornment
both in the house and in the market-place.

28 After you have been singled out and stamped as a soldier of Christ our Lord you receive
the remaining part of the sacrament and are invested with the complete armour of the
Spirit, and with the sacrament you receive participation in the heavenly benefits. We
ought to explain little by little how these things are effected, but let what has been
said suffice for to-day, and let us end our discourse as usual by offering praise to God
the Father, and to His Only Begotten Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for
ever and ever. Amen. Here ends the third Chapter.


COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST
==========================================================

COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST continued

CHAPTER IV.

1 Synopsis of this Chapter. You draw near to the holy baptism, and first take off all your
garments, after which you are duly and thoroughly anointed with holy Chrism. The priest
begins and says: "So-and-so is anointed in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit." Then you descend into the water that has been consecrated by the
benediction of the priest, who, clad in the aforesaid apparel, stands up and approaches
his hand, which he places on your head and says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He places his hand on your head and says,
"in the name of the Father," and with these words he causes you to immerse yourself in the
water. If you were allowed to speak there you would have said ""Amen!", but you simply
plunge into the water and incline your head downwards; and the priest says "and of the
Son" and causes you with his hand to immerse yourself again while inclining also your head
downwards; and the priest says "and of the Holy Spirit" and presses you down and causes
you again to immerse in a similar way. After you have left that place, you put on a very
radiant garment, and the priest draws near and signs you on your forehead and says: "So-
and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

2 We left off yesterday our catechetical discourse with the words which deal with the fact
that you have been signed with the oil of baptism, enlisted in the service of heaven, and
counted among the chosen and the elect. The Kingdom of Heaven has been made manifest
through the Economy of Christ our Lord, who after His Passion and resurrection ascended
into heaven where He established His Kingdom. Now it is right for us—all of us who have
been called to that service of heaven—to have communion with heaven, where all of us will
move and where our King is, as He Himself said: "I will that they be with Me where I am."
We expect to reign with Him if, as the blessed Paul said, through suffering we show our
love to Him; and we shall be with Him in heaven and partakers of that great glory. It is
for this task that you have been signed, and it is through this signing that you are known
to have been chosen for the service of heaven. This is the reason why immediately you rise
up you spread on your head linen, which is a mark of freedom, and this signifies that you
have been chosen for the heavenly service and been freed from communion with earthly
things, while obtaining the freedom which is in heaven. If a slave is not allowed in this
world to do military service to a king, how much more ought the person who has been
detailed for the service of heaven to be remote from servitude? AH of us, therefore, who
have received communion with heavenly things are freemen of that "free Jerusalem which is
above and which is the mother of us all," as the blessed Paul said.

3 Yesterday we spoke sufficiently of the signing and of the meaning of the ceremonies that
take place in it, and it is right for us to speak to-day of the things that follow it. You
should now proceed towards baptism in which the symbols of this second birth are
performed, because you will in reality receive the true second birth only after you have
risen from the dead and obtained the favour to be in the state of which you were deprived
by death. It is indeed plain that he who is born afresh returns to the state in which he
was before, while it is equally clear that the one who dies relinquishes his present
state. You will, therefore, have the second birth, at the resurrection, when you will be
given to be in the state in which you were after you were born of a woman, and of which
you were deprived by death. All these things will happen to you in reality at the time
appointed for your birth at the resurrection; as to now you have for them the word of
Christ our Lord, and in the expectation of them taking place you rightly receive their
symbols and their signs through this awe-inspiring Sacrament, so that you may not question
your participation in future things.

4 You draw, therefore, near to the holy baptism which contains the symbol of the birth
which we expect. This is the reason why our Lord called it second birth when He said to
Nicodemus: "Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. In this He
showed that those who will enter the Kingdom of God must have a second birth. Nicodemus,
however, thought that they will be born according to a carnal birth from a woman, and
said: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his
mother's womb, and be born? " He said this because he believed that we shall be born in a
way similar to our first birth. As to our Lord He did not disclose to him then that there
are two ways in which we shall in reality receive this, one of which is at the
resurrection, because He knew that the subject was too much for his hearing. He,
therefore, only disclosed to him then the symbolical birth which is accomplished through
baptism, to which all those who believe must draw near so that by means of its symbols
they may move to the happiness of the reality itself, and answered: "Unless a man is born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. He mentioned the
method by saying "of water," and He revealed the cause by the mention of "the Spirit. This
is the reason why He added:

5 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. He did not make mention here of the water, because it plays the part of the symbol
of Sacrament, while He did mention the Spirit, because this birth is accomplished by His
action. Illuminatingly he implied by these words that he who is born of the flesh is flesh
by nature, and is mortal, passible, corruptible, and changeable in everything. 6 When
Nicodemus asked: "How can these things be? ", He answered Him: "The Spirit blows where He
wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell from where He comes, and to where He
goes; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." He did not mention the water at all, but
He lifted the veil of doubt from the point and showed it to be credible from the truth of
the Spirit. The sentence "He blows where He wishes" demonstrates His power through which
He does everything He wishes, which implies that He can do everything. Indeed, anyone who
has it in his power to do everything He wishes, has also by necessity the power to
accomplish anything He wishes with ease. He used, therefore, the sentence "so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit" with a purpose. He implied by it that we ought to think that
the Spirit possesses such a great power and such a great might that we are not to doubt
and question anything that comes from Him although it be above, and higher than, our
intelligence.

7 He called baptism a second birth because it contains the symbol of the second birth, and
because through baptism we participate as in symbol in this second birth. Indeed, we
receive from baptism participation in this second birth without any question and doubt.
This is the reason why the blessed Paul said: "As many of us as were baptised into Jesus
Christ were baptised into His death, and were buried with Him by baptism into death: that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of His Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. Formerly, and before the coming of Christ, death held sway
over us by a Divine decree which was all-binding, and possessed great sovereignty over us;
but because Christ our Lord died and rose again, He changed that decree and abolished the
sovereignty of death, which to those who believe in Christ resembles a long sleep, as the
blessed Paul said: "But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of
them that sleep. He calls "them that sleep" those who die after the resurrection of
Christ, because they will rise and divest themselves of death through the resurrection.
Because Christ our Lord abolished the power of death by His own resurrection (the Apostle)
said: "As many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death. As
if one were saying:

8 We know that death has been abolished a long time ago by Christ our Lord, and we draw
near to Him and are baptised with such a faith because we desire to participate in His
death, in the hope of participating also in the resurrection from the dead, in the way in
which He himself rose. This is the reason why, when at my baptism I plunge my head I
receive the death of Christ our Lord, and desire to have His burial, and because of this I
firmly believe in the resurrection of our Lord; and when I rise from the water I think
that I have symbolically risen a long time ago. 9 Since, however, all this is done in
symbols and in signs, in order to show that we do not make use of vain signs only, but of
realities in which we believe and which we ardently desire, he said: "For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death we shall be also (in the likeness) of His
resurrection." In using the future tense he confirms the present event by the future
reality, and from the greatness of the coming reality he demonstrates the credibility of
the greatness of its symbols, and the symbol of the coming realities is baptism. The
working of the Holy Spirit is that it is in the hope of the future things that you receive
the grace of baptism, and that you draw near to the gift of baptism in order to die and to
rise with Christ so that you may be born again to the new life, and thus, after having
been led by these symbols to the participation in the realities, you will perform the
symbol of that true second birth.

10 If you say that the greatness of the symbols and of the signs is in the visible water,
it would be an unimportant affair, as this has already happened before, but because this
second birth, which you receive now sacramentally as the symbol of an earnest, is
accomplished by the action of the Holy Spirit, great is the Sacrament which is performed
and awe-inspiring and worthy of credence is the virtue of the symbols, which will also
without doubt grant us to participate in the future benefits. We expect to delight in
these benefits because as an earnest of them we have received the grace of the Holy
Spirit, from which we have now obtained also the gift of performing this Sacrament. This
is the reason why the blessed Paul said: "In whom we believed and were sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance to the praise of His
glory." He calls here the Spirit of promise the grace which is promised to us by the Holy
Spirit, as we receive it in the promise of the future benefits, and he calls it the
earnest of our inheritance because it is from it that we become partakers of those future
benefits.

11 He said, therefore, in another passage: "God has established us with you in Christ and
anointed us and sealed us and given the earnest of His Spirit in our hearts." And again he
said in another passage: "And not only they but ourselves also which have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption of
children to the redemption of our bodies." He uses the words "firstfruits of the Spirit
which we have here" to imply that, when we shall dwell in the joy of the realities, we
shall receive all the grace, and by the words "we wait for the adoption of children, to
the redemption of our bodies" he shows that here we only receive the symbol of the
adoption of children but that thereafter, having been born afresh, risen from the dead,
become also immortal and incorruptible, and received complete abolition of pains from our
bodies, we shall receive the real adoption. He clearly calls "redemption of our bodies"
the assumption of incorruptibility and immortality, because it is through these things
that a complete abolition of calamities from our bodies is effected. The power of the holy
baptism consists in this: it implants in you the hope of the future benefits, enables you
to participate in the things which we expect, and by means of the symbols and signs of the
future good things, it informs you with the gift of the Holy Spirit the firstfruits of
whom you receive when you are baptised.

12 You draw, therefore, near to the holy baptism, and before everything you take off your
garments. As when Adam was formerly naked and was in nothing ashamed of himself, but after
having broken the commandment and become mortal, he found himself in need of an outer
covering, so also you, who are ready to draw near to the gift of the holy baptism so that
through it you may be born afresh and become symbolically immortal, rightly remove your
covering, which is a sign of mortality and a reproving mark of that (Divine) decree by
which you were brought low to the necessity of a covering. After you have taken off your
garments, you are rightly anointed all over your body with the holy Chrism: a mark and a
sign that you will be receiving the covering of immortality, which through baptism you are
about to put on. After you have taken off the covering which involves the sign of
mortality, you receive through your anointing the sign of the covering ot immortality,
which you expect to receive through baptism. And you are anointed all over your body as a
sign that unlike the covering used as a garment, which does not always cover all the parts
of the body, because although it may cover all the external limbs, it by no means covers
the internal ones—all our nature will put on immortality at the time of the resurrection,
and all that is seen in us, whether internal or external, will undoubtedly be changed into
incorruptibility according to the working of the Holy Spirit which shall then be with us.

13 While you are receiving this anointing, the one who has been found worthy of the honour
of priesthood begins and says: "So-and-so is anointed in the name of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit." And then the persons appointed for this service anoint
all your body. After these things have happened to you, at the time which we have
indicated, you descend into the water, which has been consecrated by the benediction of
the priest, as you are not baptised only with ordinary water, but with the water of the
second birth, which cannot become so except through the coming of the Holy Spirit (on it).
For this it is necessary that the priest should have beforehand made use of clear words,
according to the rite of the priestly service, and asked God that the grace of the Holy
Spirit might come on the water and impart to it the power both of conceiving that awe-
inspiring child and becoming a womb to the sacramental birth.

14 Our Lord also, when Nicodemus asked Him whether a man "can enter the second time into
his mother's womb, and be born," answered: "Unless a man is born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." He shows in this that as in a carnal
birth the womb of the mother receives the human seed, and the Divine hand fashions it
according to an ancient decree, so also in baptism, the water of which becomes a womb to
the one who is being born, and the grace of the Spirit fashions in it, into the second
birth, the one who is being baptised, and changes him completely into a new man. And
inasmuch as the seed that falls into the womb of the mother has neither life, nor soul nor
feeling, but after it has been fashioned by the Divine hand, it results in a living man,
endowed with soul and feeling, and in a human nature capable of all human acts, so also
here the one who is baptised falls into the water as into a womb, like a seed which bears
no resemblance of any kind to the mark of an immortal nature, but after he has been
baptised and has received the Divine and spiritual grace, he will undoubtedly undergo a
complete change: he will be fashioned from a mortal into an immortal, from a corruptible
into an incorruptible, and from a mutable into an immutable, nature; and he will be
changed completely into a new man according to the power of the One who fashions him.

15 And inasmuch as the one who is born of a woman has potentially in him the faculty of
speaking, hearing, walking and working with his hands, but is very weak to perform all
these acts in reality till the time in which God has decreed for him to perform them, so
also is the case here in connection with the one who is born of baptism. This one has
indeed in him and possesses potentially all the faculties of an immortal and incorruptible
nature, but is not now in a position to make use of them and put them into a complete and
perfect act of incorruptibility, immortality, impassibility and immutability. He who
receives through baptism the potential faculty of performing all these acts, will receive
the power of performing them in reality at the time when he is no more a natural but a
spiritual man, and when the working of the (Holy) Spirit renders the body incorruptible
and the soul immutable, while sustaining and keeping both of them by His power, as the
blessed Paul said: "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." He shows here that incorruption,
glory and power will come then to man through the working of the Holy Spirit, which
affects both his soul and body, the former with immortality and the latter with
immutability; and that the body which will rise from the dead and which (man) will put on
will be a spiritual and not a natural body.

16 It is owing to the fact that the nature of the water does not possess all these
attributes, which are implanted in it at our immersion by the working of the Holy Spirit,
that the priest makes use beforehand of his priestly service and of clear words and
benedictions, written for the purpose, and prays that the grace of the Holy Spirit come
upon the water and prepare it with His holy and awe-inspiring presence for the task of
performing all these things, so that it may become a reverential womb for the second
birth, and so that those who descend into it may be fashioned afresh by the grace of the
Holy Spirit and born again into a new and virtuous human nature. When the water has been
prepared for this and has received such a power by the coming of the Holy Spirit, you
plunge into it hoping to receive from it benefits such as those (described above), and an
awe-inspiring salvation. It is right for you, therefore, to think that you are going into
the water as into a furnace, where you will be renewed and refashioned in order that you
may move to a higher nature, after having cast away your old mortality and fully assumed
an immortal and incorruptible nature. These things dealing with birth happen to you in the
water because you were fashioned at the beginning from earth and water, and having fallen
later into sin you assumed a thorough corruption through the sentence of death.

17 The potters are also in the habit, when the vessels which they fashion are damaged, to
refashion them again with water so that they may be remade and reconstructed and given the
wanted form. This is the reason why God ordered also the prophet Jeremiah to repair to a
potter; and he went and saw him working on a vessel, which, because it was marred, he cast
in water, remade, and brought to its former state; and then God said to him: "O house of
Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the Lord." Because we also were made of
earth and clay—as it is said: "For you are also made of clay like me," and "forgive them
that dwell in a house of clay because we also are made of the same clay"—when we fell and
sin corrupted us, we received a complete dissolution from the (Divine) sentence of death,
but afterwards our Maker and our Lord refashioned us and remade us by His ineffable power,
because He abolished death by resurrection and granted to all of us the hope of
resurrection from the dead, and a world higher than the present, where we shall not only
dwell but also become immortal and incorruptible.

18 Of these things which are believed to take place in such a wonderful way that no one is
able to describe, we perform the symbols and the signs in baptism and in water. We were
rightly taught to perform the symbol of the resurrection so that we might think that we
were by nature made of clay, that we fell and sin corrupted us, that because of this we
received the sentence of death, but that we were renewed and remodelled by Divine grace,
which brought us to an immortal nature; a thing that no man had believed or imagined. We
perform the symbols and signs (of these things) in water, and are renewed and
reconstructed according to the working of the Spirit on it. We who draw near to baptism
receive, therefore, these benefits from the Sacrament in symbol, while in the next world
we shall all of us receive renewal of our nature in reality. As an earthen vessel, which
is being remade and refashioned in water, will remain in its soft nature and be clay as
long as it has not come in contact with fire, but when it has been thrown on fire and
baked on it, it will undoubtedly be remade and refashioned—so also we, who are in a mortal
nature, rightly receive our renewal through baptism and are refashioned through this same
baptism and receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, which hardens us more than any fire can
do.

19 As we do not expect a second renewal, so we do not expect a second baptism. Because we
expect but one resurrection, from which we shall become immortal and shall never be liable
to death, we shall not be in need of a second renewal. This is the case also with Christ
our Lord, as the blessed Paul said: "Christ rose from the dead and dies no more, and death
has no more dominion over Him." The things that happen to you through the gift of the holy
baptism are after this pattern. It is now time to know who is the one who is the cause of
all benefits to you, who casts you into the fire and renews you, who transfers you to a
higher nature, who from being mortal makes you immortal, and from corruption brings you to
incorruption. 20 The priest stands up and approaches his hand, which he places on your
head, and says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit," while wearing the aforesaid apparel which he wore when you were on your
knees and he signed you on your forehead, and when he consecrated the water. It is in this
apparel that he performs the gift of baptism, because it is right for him to perform all
the Sacrament while wearing it, as it denotes the renovation found in the next world, to
which you will be transferred through this same Sacrament. He says: "So-and-so is baptised
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" in order to show by
these words who is the cause of this grace. As he says: "So-and-so is signed in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," so he says: "So-and-so is baptised
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." All this is in harmony
with the teaching of our Lord who said: "Go you and teach all nations, baptising them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He shows by these words
that all the cause of the good things is in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, an
eternal nature and cause of everything, by which we were created at the beginning, and
expect now to be renewed. It is not possible that one should be the cause of our first
creation and another the cause of this second, which is higher than the first.

21 It is indeed known that the One who at the beginning willed and made us mortal, is the
One who is now pleased to make us immortal, and the One who at the beginning made us
corruptible is the One who now makes us incorruptible. He willed at the beginning and made
us passible and changeable, and at the end He will make us impassible and unchangeable. He
is the Lord, and has power to accomplish both. He rightly and justly leads us from low to
high things, so that by this transference from small to great things we may perceptibly
feel that our Maker and the cause of all our good things, who at the beginning made us as
He wished and willed, and who at the end brought us to perfection, did do so in order to
teach us to consider Him as the cause also of our first state, and thus to think that
since we were in need to be transferred to perfection, we could not have existed at the
beginning if He had not brought us into existence.

22 The priest places his hand on your head and says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," and does not say "I baptise (So-and-
so)," but "So-and-so is baptised"—in the same way as he had previously said "So-and-so is
signed" and not "I sign So-and-so"—in order to show that as a man like the rest of men he
is not able to bestow such benefits, which only Divine grace can bestow. This is the
reason why he rightly does not say "I baptise" and "I sign" but "So-and-so is signed and
baptised." In this he immediately refers to the One by whom a person is signed and
baptised, namely "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," and
shows that these are the cause of the things that happen to him, and demonstrates that he
himself is a subordinate and a servant of the things that take place, and a revealer of
the cause which gives effect to them.

23 When, therefore, (the priest) utters the words: "In the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit," he reveals to you the cause of the things that take place.
Inasmuch as the one who said: "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk," alluded
to Christ as the cause of what would take place, and to the fact that it would be He who
would give (to the lame man) the power of rising up and walking, so also the (priest) who
says: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" refers to them as
the cause of the benefits conferred upon us in baptism, and implies that it is by them
that our renewal is accomplished, by them the second birth is granted to us, by them we
are fashioned into immortal, incorruptible, impassible and immutable men, and by them we
cast away the old servitude and receive the freedom which involves complete abolition of
tribulations, and delight in the eternal and ineffable benefits.

24 He says "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" as if he
were saying "in the call upon the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." The prophet
Isaiah said thus: "Beside You we know no other Lord. We are called by Your name." It is as
if he were saying: He said, Beside You we know no other Lord, O cause of everything,
because it is by You that all evil is abolished, it is from You that we expect to receive
the delight in all good things, and it is upon You that we were ordered to call for all
our necessities. You are the cause of everything, and You alone are able to grant
everything and do everything as You wish. Here also (the priest) says: "in the name" of
the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as if he were saying: we are baptised by
the call upon the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is upon this nature that we call
for the gifts of the benefits which we are expecting, as it is the cause of everything,
and it alone is able to do everything as it wishes.

25 The priest does not say "in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in
the name of the Holy Spirit," because every one of them has a separate name that does not
fit that of the other. Indeed, the name of the Father is one thing, if I may so express
myself, and the name of the Son is another thing, and the name of the Holy Spirit is
another thing still, but because (the priest) does not pronounce the name by which each
one of them is called, that is to say, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but refers by the word
"name" to the invocation which is the cause of our benefits, namely the eternal nature of
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and because this invocation of the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit is one, he says, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit."

26 We do not name Father as one cause, and the Son as another cause, and the Holy Spirit
as another cause still, but because these three form the one cause from which we expect
the delight in the benefits which are looked for in baptism, we rightly make use of one
invocation only with which we name the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Think of these
names as if you were performing a prayer with them, and when the priest says "in the name
of the Father" suppose that he is saying "Grant, O Father, these eternal and ineffable
benefits for which this person is now being baptised"; and likewise when he says "of the
Son" suppose that he is saying "Grant, O Son, the gift of the benefits of baptism"; and
similarly when he says "of the Holy Spirit," suppose that he is saying "Grant in baptism,
O Holy Spirit, the benefits for which this person has come to be baptised." In the same
way as one who says: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" means
this: O Lord Jesus Christ, grant this person to rise up and to walk, so also when (the
priest) says "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," he does
not imply anything else but: O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, grant this person who is being
baptised the grace of the second birth. The sentence "in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth rise up and walk 'is similar to that: "Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole." As
he revealed here to Aeneas, who was healed, and to those who were present, the One who was
the cause of healing, so also in the sentence "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" he
revealed the cause of healing.

27 In this same way the sentence: "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit" reveals the giver of the benefits of baptism, which are: second birth,
renewal, immortality, incorruptibility, impassibility, immutability, deliverance from
death and servitude and all evils, happiness of freedom, and participation in the
ineffable good things which we are expecting. The person who is baptised is baptised for
these things. The call upon the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is, therefore, used for the
purpose of knowing from whom the benefits of baptism are expected. 28 The priest places
his hand on your head and says "of the Father," and with these words he causes you to
immerse yourself in water, while you obediently follow the sign of the hand of the priest
and immediately, at his words and at the sign of his hand, immerse yourself in water. By
the downward inclination of your head you show as by a hint your agreement and your belief
that it is from the Father that you will receive the benefits of baptism, according to the
words of the priest. If you were allowed to speak at that time, you would have said:
"Amen," a word which we believe to mean that we subscribe to the things said by the
priest, as the blessed Paul said: "He that occupies the room of the unlearned says 'Amen'
at your giving of thanks. He shows here that this word is said by the congregation at the
giving of thanks by the priests to signify by it that they subscribe to the things that
are said. You are, however, not allowed to speak at the time of baptism, as it is right
for you to receive the renewal through the Sacrament, when you are baptised, in silence
and fear, while by inclining your head downwards you signify that you subscribe to the
things said by the priest. You, therefore, immerse and bow your head while the priest says
"and of the Son," and causes you with his hand to immerse again in the same way.

29 And you show that you subscribe to the words of the priest, and as a sign also that you
are expecting to receive the benefits of baptism from the Son, you bow your head. Then the
priest says "and of the Holy Spirit" and likewise presses you down into the water, while
you immerse yourself and look downwards as a sign that here also you make the same
confession to the effect that you are expecting the benefits of baptism from the Holy
Spirit. After this you go out of the water. 30 When the priest says "of the Father" you
immerse, bow your head, but do not go out of the water; and when he says "and of the Son,"
you immerse and bow your head likewise, but do not go out of the water; and after he has
said "and of the Holy Spirit," he has finished the complete call upon the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, and so after immersing again and bowing your head, you go out of the water of
baptism, which, so far as you are concerned, comes to an end, because, as you remember,
there is no name left for you on which to call, as the cause of the expected benefits.

31 You perform three identical immersions, one in the name of the Father, another in the
name of the Son, and another in the name of the Holy Spirit; your immersions are done in
an identical way in order that you may know that each one of those names is equally
perfect and able to confer the benefits of baptism. You immerse yourself in water three
times, according to the words of the priests, but you go out of the water once in order
that you may know that baptism is one, and one also the grace which is accomplished in it
by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who are never separated from one another as
they are one nature. This is the reason why, although each one of them is able to confer
the gift—as the baptism by which you are baptised in the name of each one of them
shows—yet we believe that we only receive a complete baptism when the call upon the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit is finished. Because the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
have one essence and one Godhead, it is necessary to assume that they have also one will
and one action whereby everything is usually done by them to the creatures. It follows
that we also expect the second birth, the second creation, and, in short, all the benefits
of baptism, in no other way than by calling upon the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit;
and this call we consider to be the cause of all good things to us.

32 This is the reason why the blessed Paul said: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
body and one Spirit, one God and Father of all, and through all, and in you all. He does
not mean to say that one is Lord but not God and Spirit, and that another is God but not
Lord and Spirit, and that the third is Spirit but not Lord and God, because it is
necessary for anyone who is Lord to be also both God and Spirit, and for anyone who is God
to be both Lord and Spirit, and for anyone who is truly Spirit—I mean the Holy Spirit—to
be both God and Lord, but he teaches us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are
one incorporeal and uncircumscribed Lordship, one Godhead and one essence, which grants us
through baptism the adoption of children. In it we believe and are baptised and through it
we become one body, according to the working on us of the Holy Spirit, in baptism, which
makes us children of God and one body of Christ our Lord, whom we consider our head, as He
is from our nature, and was the first to rise from the dead, and as it is through Him that
we received participation in benefits. By naming the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
we name the cause of all benefits.

33 He would not have said that the faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was
one had He known that they had a different nature, nor would He have said that the baptism
in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was one had He known that they had
a different will, power and action. It is indeed evident that faith is one because the
Godhead in which we believe is one, and that baptism is one because the persons who are
named in it have one will, one power and one action, by which we receive the second birth.
And we become one body of Christ, because we consider Christ our Lord in the flesh as our
head, since He was assumed from us and was the first to rise from the dead, and thus He
confirmed for us our participation in the resurrection from which we expect our body to be
similar to His body. Indeed "our conversation is in heaven from from where also we look
for our Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be
fashioned like to His glorious body."

34 This will take place in reality in heaven, but we perform its symbols and its signs in
baptism. We are also called the body of Christ our Lord, Christ our Lord being our head,
as the blessed Paul said: "Christ is the head from which all the body is joined and knit
together and increases with the increase of God." The same Christ our Lord was seen before
His resurrection from the dead to receive baptism in the Jordan from John the Baptist, so
that He might draw in it beforehand the figure of this baptism which we were to receive by
His grace. He was "the firstborn from the dead," as the blessed Paul said, "so that in all
things He might have the pre-eminence." Not only in the reality of the resurrection,
therefore, did He wish to have the pre-eminence over you but also in its symbol, and this
is the reason why He condescended to be baptised by John. He thus drew beforehand in
Himself the figure of the grace of this baptism which you are about to receive, in order
that He might have the pre-eminence over you in it also. The blessed John the Baptist said
to Him: "I have need to be baptised by You, and You come to me?" so that he might show
that there was a great difference between himself and Him; but He replied: "Allow it to be
so now, for thus it appears right for us to fulfil all righteousness." He meant by this
that righteousness is fulfilled by grace in baptism, and that it is through you that it
has to find an entry into those who are under the law, so that this same law might be
considered praiseworthy from the fact that it was through it that righteousness found an
entry.

35 Our Lord was, therefore, baptised by John, but not in the baptism of John, which was
that of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Our Lord, who was completely free from
sin, was in no need of it, but He was baptised in our own baptism the symbol of which He
depicted in this way. This is the reason why He received also the Holy Spirit who, as the
evangelist said, "descended like a dove and lighted on Him." Indeed, John had no power to
confer the Spirit: "It is He that will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." In
this he clearly revealed that it did not belong to him to confer the Spirit. His task was
only to baptise with water in a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, while
it only belonged to our Lord to confer the Spirit, whom He conferred now upon us in
baptism as the firstfruits of the future benefits, which He will confer upon us in their
entirety at the time of the resurrection, when our nature will receive a complete
transformation into virtue. It is right for you, therefore, to know that you are baptised
in the same baptism as that in which Christ our Lord in the flesh was baptised, and this
is the reason why you are baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit.

36 (The baptism of our Lord) was in fact symbolically drawn to the pattern of ours. In it
the Father cried and said: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." In this He
showed the grace of the adoption of children for which baptism takes place, and the
sentence "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" is as if one were saying: this
is truly adoption of children; this is the beloved who pleased me; this is the Son who
received such an adoption of children as this, which is much higher than that ruling among
the Jews, as the latter underwent change: "I have said, You are gods, and all of you
children of the Most High, but you shall die like men," while the former will remain
unchangeable. Indeed anyone who receives this adoption of children will remain immortal,
because he moves, through the symbols (of baptism), to that adoption of children which
will take place at the resurrection, from which he will be transformed into an immortal
and incorruptible nature. There was also the Son in the One who was baptised, and by His
proximity to Him and by His union with the one who was assumed, He was confirming the
adoption of children. And there was also the Holy Spirit who descended like a dove and
lighted on Him. In this He was also baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.

37 When, therefore, the priest says "in the name of the Father remember the sentence "this
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," and think of the adoption of children which
is conferred upon you by the Father; and when he says "and of the Son" think of the One
who was near to the One who was baptised, and understand that He became to you the cause
of the adoption of children; and when he says "and of the Holy Spirit" think of the One
who descended like a dove and lighted upon Him, and expect from Him the confirmation of
the adoption of children. The blessed Paul said: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the children of God." The true adoption of children is, therefore, that
which is conferred by the Holy Spirit; and that to which the Spirit is not near, and that
in which He does not work and lead (men) to the gift of the things that are believed, is
not the true one.

38 You receive, therefore, the grace of the adoption of children in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and you go out of the water. You have now received
baptism which is the second birth; you have fulfilled by your baptism in water the rite of
the burial, and you have received the sign of the resurrection by your rising out of the
water; you have been born and have become a new man; you are no more part of Adam who was
mutable and burdened and made wretched by sin, but of Christ who was completely freed from
sin through resurrection,while even before it He never drew near to it. It was congruous
that (this sinless state) should have had its beginning in Him before (His resurrection),
and that at His resurrection He should fully receive an immutable nature. In this way He
confirmed to us the resurrection from the dead and our participation in incorruptibility.

39 When you go out (of the water) you wear a garment that is wholly radiant. This denotes
the next world which is shining and radiant, and the life into which you had a long time
beforehand moved through symbols. When you have received the resurrection in reality and
put on immortality and incorruptibility, such a garment will be wholly unnecessary, but
since now you do not possess these things in reality and have only received them
sacramentally and symbolically, you are in need of garments. Of these you wear those which
denote the happiness, which you have now received symbolically but which you will one day
possess in reality. After you have received the grace of baptism and worn a white garment
that shines, the priest draws near to you and signs you on your forehead and says: "So-
and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." When
Jesus came out of the water He received the grace of the Holy Spirit who descended like a
dove and lighted on Him, and this is the reason why He is said to have been anointed: "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which the Lord has anointed me," and: "Jesus of
Nazareth whom God has anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power": texts which show that
the Holy Spirit is never separated from Him, like the anointment with oil which has a
durable effect on the men who are anointed, and is not separated from them. It is right,
therefore, that you also should receive the signing on your forehead.

40 When (the priest) signs you he says: "So-and-so is signed in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," so that it may be an indication and a sign to you
that it is in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit descended
on you also, and you were anointed and received grace; and He will be and remain with you,
as it is through Him that you possess now the firstfruits. Indeed, at present you only
receive symbolically the happiness of the future benefits, but at the time of the
resurrection you will receive all the grace, from which you will become immortal,
incorruptible, impassible and immutable; even your body will then remain for ever and will
not perish, while your soul will be exempt from all inclination, however slight, towards
evil. 41 As such is the second birth that comes to us through baptism, to which you are
about to draw near, and from which we expect to move into that real and awe-inspiring
second birth of the resurrection. It confirms in us that which comes to us in symbols and
signs through faith, and strengthens us in relation to it. It is not to be wondered at
that we receive two births, and that we shall move from the present birth to the future
one, as even in our carnal birth we receive a two-fold birth, one of which from the male
and the other, which comes later, from the female. We are first born of the male in the
form of human semen, which has not a single vestige of human form. It is indeed clear to
every one that the semen has no human form of any kind, and that it receives the form of
the human nature according to the laws formulated by God for our nature after it has been
conceived, fashioned, formed and born of a woman. It is in this same way that we are also
born, first in the form of semen through baptism, before we are born of the resurrection,
and have taken shape in the immortal nature into which we expect to be changed, but when
by faith and hope in the future things we have been formed and fashioned into the life of
Christ and remained till the time of the resurrection, then we shall receive according to
the decree of God, a second birth from dust, and assume an immortal and incorruptible
nature, and "our vile body will be changed by Christ our Lord that it may be fashioned
into His glorious body," as the blessed Paul said.

42 After you have received in this way a sacramental birth through baptism, you draw near
to an immortal food, consonant with your birth, with which you will be nourished. You will
have now to learn, at an opportune time, the nature of this food and the way in which it
is presented to you. For the present, however, because you have received through (our)
teaching the birth of baptism, and have drawn near, through this second birth, to
communion with that ineffable light, and because we have, by what we have said, wrapped
you tightly in swaddling clothes, so that you may grasp and remember firmly and
unshakeably the birth that takes place, we shall soothe you by silence, and by the
permission of God we shall bring you at an opportune time near to the Divine food and our
discourse thereon. And now let us put the usual end to our speech by glorifying God the
Father, and His Only Begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for ever and
ever. Amen.

43 Here ends the fourth chapter.


COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST
==========================================================

COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST continued

CHAPTER V.

1 Synopsis of this Chapter. We must first of all realise that we perform a sacrifice of
which we eat, and that it is the office of the priest of the New Testament to offer this
sacrifice, as it is through it that the New Covenant appears to be maintained. We must
think that the priest who now draws near to the altar performs the image of the
(heavenly)sacrifice, and we must also think that the deacons represent the image of the
service of the invisible hosts. They have an apparel which is consonant with their office,
since their outer garment is taller than they are. They place a stole on their left
shoulders, and it floats on either side equally. We must think of Christ being at one time
led and brought to His Passion, and at another time being stretched on the altar to be
sacrificed for us. This is the reason why those deacons who spread linens on the altar
represent the figure of the linen clothes of the burial (of our Lord), while those who
stand on both sides (of the altar) agitate all the air found upon the holy body with fans.
These things take place while everybody is silent, then comes prayer —not a silent
prayer—announced beforehand in the loud voice of the deacon. When everyone is silent the
priest begins with the appointed service.

2 And the priest finishes his prayer, after which he offers thanksgivings for himself; and
all the congregation says: "Amen." And the priest prays: "Peace he to you" and for this
the congregation answers: "And to your spirit" And the priest begins to give peace, and
the Church crier shouts and orders all to give peace one to another. While this is taking
place the priest washes his hands first, and then all those who, whatever their number,
are counted in the assembly of priesthood. Then the names of the living and the dead are
read from Church books. After this the priest draws near to the service while the Church
crier shouts: "Look at the oblation." It is the habit of men to wrap the newborn babes in
swaddling clothes so that a freshly constituted and still soft body may not receive any
injury, but that it should remain firm in its composition. They first stretch and place
them restfully in swaddling clothes, and then bring to them a natural food that is fitting
and suitable to them. In this same way we have also tightly wrapped in our teaching, as in
swaddling clothes, those who were newly born of baptism so that the memory of the grace
promised to them might be firmly established in them; and we soothed them by the cessation
of our speech, because the measure of things that were said was adequate. To-day, however,
I am contemplating to draw you, by the grace of God, to the nourishment of a bread, the
nature of which you must know and the greatness of which you must learn with accuracy.

3 When we shall have received the true birth through the resurrection, you will receive
another food that cannot be described with words, and you will then be clearly fed by the
grace of the Spirit whereby you will remain immortal in your bodies and immutable in your
souls. It is a food such as this that is suitable to that birth; and the grace of the
Spirit will grant those who shall be born of the resurrection to remain firm, so that
their bodies shall not suffer dissolution and their souls shall not be affected by any
change that may incline them to evil. And because we are born now symbolically through
baptism, in the hope of that other birth which we are expecting, we receive at present, in
form of an earnest, the firstfruits of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which will then be
given to us, as we expect to receive it fully in the next world through the resurrection.
It is only after its reception that we hope to become immortal and immutable, and it is
right for us now to eat symbolically, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, a food suitable to
the present life.

4 For this reason the blessed Paul said: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink
this cup, you do remember the Lords death till He come." He shows that when our Lord shall
come from heaven, and make manifest the future life, and effect the resurrection of all of
us—from which we shall become immortal in our bodies and immutable in our souls—the use of
sacraments and symbols shall by necessity cease. Since we shall be in the reality itself,
we shall be in no need of visible signs to remind us of the things that shall take place.
Inasmuch as in this world we exist by two acts: birth and food—in birth we receive our
existence and in feeding ourselves we are enabled to maintain our existence, as those who
are born will surely die if they are short of food—so also is the case with the next
world, in which having been born of resurrection we shall receive our existence, and
having become immortal, we shall continue to remain in that state.

5 The blessed Paul therefore said: "For we know that if this our earthly house were
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens."In this world we contrive to feed ourselves by the labour of our hands, and so we
maintain our existence; but when, at the resurrection, we have become immortal and
received the heavenly abode, we shall have no more need of this food of the labour of our
hands, because immortality, which we shall then assume, will maintain us in our existence
by the power of grace, as with food. This is the reason why the blessed Paul calls our
abode of that time "an house not made with hands, and a building of God in heaven." These
things will, as I have said, happen to us in the future, at the resurrection; and because
we are now born in baptism through symbols and signs, it is right for us also to take our
food according to the same symbols, so that we may be enabled to maintain the existence
which we receive from baptism. Indeed, every animal is born of another animal and feeds on
the body of the animal that brings it forth, and God has so arranged it at the beginning,
with the creatures, that every animal that brings forth possesses food suitable to those
that are born of it. In this same way it is necessary for us, who have symbolically
received the grace of God, to receive our food from where we had our birth, and the death
of Christ our Lord, when abolished by His resurrection, showed to us the birth that will
come to us in the next world through the resurrection.

6 This is the reason why the blessed Paul said also: "As many of us as were baptised into
Christ Jesus were baptised into His death, because we were buried with Him by baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of His Father, even so
we also should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been planted with Him in the
likeness of His death, we shall also live in His life." He shows here that resurrection
was made manifest in the death of Christ our Lord, and that we are buried with Him in
baptism, and after we have been here partakers of His death in faith, we shall also
participate in the resurrection. As we receive birth of baptism in the death of Christ our
Lord, so also we receive food symbolically in death. The blessed Paul bears witness to
this when he says: "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do remember the
Lord's death till He come."He shows that in our communion and participation in the
Sacrament we remember our Lord from whom we receive resurrection and happiness of
immortality. Indeed, it is right for us who have received a sacramental birth in the death
of Christ our Lord, to receive the sacramental food of immortality in this same death, and
to feed ourselves in the future from where we had also received our birth, as it is the
habit of all the animals which are brought forth to be in a position to feed themselves
from those which bring them forth.

7 Our Lord also testifies to this, because in the institution of the Sacrament He said:
Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins," and: "Take,
drink, this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins."He said this
because in His death He gave us the next world in which there will be abolition of all
sins. As to us it is right for us to perform symbolically the remembrance of His death by
our participation in the Sacrament, from which we derive the possession of the future
benefits and the abolition of sins. The food of the holy Sacrament possesses such a power,
and fits the birth of those who eat it. Indeed, as in this world we take the spiritual
food in signs and symbols, it is necessary that the nature of these signs and symbols
should fit our present condition in which we take the symbolical food.

8 As we received the second birth in water, which is useful and necessary to life in this
world—so much so that we are not even able to make bread without water—so also we take our
food in bread and in wine mixed with water, as they eminently fit this life and sustain us
to live in it. As we are sufficiently enabled to maintain ourselves in this life, and to
remain in it by necessity through the suitable symbols of that spiritual food which shall
be ours, let us think in our mind that it is from this food that we are expecting to
become immortal and remain for ever. These are the things in the hope of which we partake
of this holy food of the Sacrament. 9 Indeed, He (our Lord) gave us the bread and the cup
because it is with food and drink that we maintain ourselves in this world, and He called
the bread "body" and the cup "blood," because, as it was His Passion that affected His
body which it tormented and from which it caused blood to flow, He wished to reveal, by
means of these two objects through which His Passion was accomplished, and also in the
symbol of food and drink, the immortal life, in which we expect to participate when we
perform this Sacrament from which we believe to derive a strong hope for the future
benefits. It is with justice, therefore, that when He gave the bread He did not say: "This
is the symbol of my body," but: "This is my body"; likewise when He gave the cup He did
not say: "This is the symbol of my blood" but: "This is my blood," because He wished us to
look upon these (elements) after their reception of grace and the coming of the Spirit,
not according to their nature, but to receive them as if they were the body and the blood
of our Lord. Indeed, even the body of our Lord does not possess immortality and the power
of bestowing immortality in its own nature, as this was given to it by the Holy Spirit;
and at its resurrection from the dead it received close union with Divine nature and
became immortal and instrumental for conferring immortality on others.

10 This is the reason why, when our Lord said: "He that eats my body and drinks my blood
has eternal life,"and saw that the Jews were murmuring and doubting the things that were
said, and thinking that it was impossible to receive immortality from mortal flesh, He
added immediately for the purpose of removing this doubt: "If you see the Son of Man
ascend up where He was before. It is as if He were saying: the thing that is being said
about my body does not appear now true to you, but when you see Me rising up from the dead
and ascending into heaven, it will be made manifest (to you) that you were not to think
that what had been said was harsh and unseemly, as the facts themselves will convince you
that I have moved to an immortal nature, because if I were not in such a nature I would
not have ascended into heaven. And in order to show from where these things came to Him He
added quickly: "It is the Spirit that lives, the flesh profites nothing," as if He were
saying: these things will come to it from the nature of the vivifying Spirit, and it is
through Him that it will be given to it to become immortal and to confer also immortality
on others.

11 These things it did not possess, and was not, therefore, in a position to confer upon
others as coming from its nature, because the nature of the flesh is not able by itself to
grant a gift and a help of this kind. If, therefore, the nature of the vivifying Spirit
made the body of our Lord into what its nature did not possess before, we ought, we also,
who have received the grace of the Holy spirit through the symbols of the Sacrament, not
to regard the elements merely as bread and cup, but as the body and the blood of Christ,
into which they were so transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit, by whom they become
to the partakers of them that which we believe to happen to the faithful through the body
and blood of our Lord. This is the reason why He said: "I am the bread which came down
from heaven," and "I am the bread of life"; and to show them what was that which He called
bread, He said: "And the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life
of the world."

12 Because we sustain ourselves in this life with bread and food, He called Himself the
bread of life that came down from heaven, as if He were saying: I am truly the bread of
life and give immortality to those who believe in Me through this visible (body) for the
sake of which I came down and to which I granted immortality, which through it will extend
to those who believe in Me. While He might have said: "It is I who give life," He did not
say it, but said "I am the bread of life," because as we would be receiving the promise
given us here of the immortality, which we expect in sacramental symbols, through bread
and cup, we had to honour also the symbol which became worthy of this appellation. He
called Himself bread as an allusion to the things that were to be given, as He wished to
convince us, from things belonging to this world, that we shall receive also without doubt
the benefits that are high above words. The fact that in order to sustain ourselves in
this life we eat bread, and the fact that bread cannot fulfil this function by its nature,
but has been enabled to do so by order of God who imparted this power to it, should by
necessity convince us not to doubt that we shall receive immortality by eating the
sacramental bread.

13 Indeed, although bread does not possess such a nature, yet when it receives the Holy
Spirit and His grace it is enabled to impart to those who eat it the happiness of
immortality. If it is capable of sustaining us in this life by a decree of God, although
not possessing this power by nature, how much more will it not be capable, after it has
received the descent of the Holy Spirit, of helping us to assume immortality. It does not
do this by its own nature but by the Spirit who is dwelling in it, as the body of our
Lord, of which this one is the symbol, received immortality by the power of the Spirit,
and imparted this immortality to others, while in no way possessing it by nature. 14 (Our
Lord) chose, therefore, very fittingly bread as food, and the cup—which consists of wine
mixed with water—as drink. The Old Testament had already taken blood to mean wine: "He
gave him to drink the blood of the grapes,"while in another passage it says: "He shall
wash his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes." That what He gave was
wine He made perfectly clear by saying: I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the
vine until I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom." He alludes by the Kingdom of
God to the resurrection, because it is for those who shall rise from the dead in the next
world that He has established the Kingdom of God. And since He was about to commune with
them in food and drink after His resurrection, and before His ascension into heaven, as
the blessed Luke said,He meant by the above words that His Passion was near and that He
would not be taking any food with them before this Passion, but that after His
resurrection from the dead He would be eating and drinking with them in order to confirm
this resurrection.

15 This is the reason why He said: "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine
until I drink it new with you in the Kingdom of God." As if He were saying: I shall not
take food or drink with you before my Passion, because it is very near, but when I have
risen from the dead I shall both eat and drink, and in this I shall do a novel thing. It
is indeed a novel thing for one who rose from the dead and became immortal in his nature
to eat and drink, but I shall do violence to the natural laws so that you may possess a
strong faith about Me that I rose from the dead. It is I—whom you previously knew to have
eaten and drunk with you—who rose. Because you will have much doubt about my resurrection,
it is necessary that I should do violence to the natural laws in order to confirm it to
you, and that I should perform a novel thing that has never happened before, namely to eat
and drink after having assumed immortal nature. A firm knowledge of my resurrection is all
the more required of you because you will be the teachers of this resurrection to others.

16 That what is given to you in the cup by Christ our Lord as a symbol of His blood is
wine, one is able also to see from the fact that it is mixed with water. This is either
due to the fact that it is generally drunk in this way, or to the fact that having already
taken bread it was fitting as a counterpart of it to take a cup of water—as bread cannot
be made without a mixture of water—or also to the fact that having made use of this symbol
in the birth of baptism we do likewise make use of it for the delight of the Sacrament of
our nourishment. As it was necessary to remember the death of our Lord in our
participation in the holy Sacrament, as the blessed Paul said, in the same way as we
remember it in the things that take place in baptism, what was necessary for us to find in
the elements of the gift of the holy baptism, from which we believe that we symbolically
receive the second birth, had also to be found in the elements of the symbols of the
Sacrament.

17 This is the power of the Sacrament, and these are the symbols and the signs of the
Sacrament in its twofold side of eating and drinking. It is useful now to speak to you,
for the sake of your sound teaching, of the way in which they are effected. We must first
of all realise that we perform a sacrifice of which we eat. Although we remember the death
of our Lord in food and drink, and although we believe these to be the remembrance of His
Passion—because He said: "This is my body which is broken for you, and this is my blood
which is shed for you"—we nevertheless perform, in their service, a sacrifice; and it is
the office of the priest of the New Testament to offer this sacrifice, as it is through it
that the New Covenant appears to be maintained. It is indeed evident that it is a
sacrifice, but not a new one and one that (the priest) performs as his, but it is a
remembrance of that other real sacrifice (of Christ). Because the priest performs things
found in heaven through symbols and signs, it is necessary that his sacrifice also should
be as their image, and that he should represent a likeness of the service of heaven. It
would be impossible for us to be priests and do priestly service outside the ancient law
if we did not possess the likeness of heavenly things.

18 The blessed Paul said about Christ our Lord that "if He were on the earth He should not
be a high priest, seeing that there were priests of the law who offer gifts according to
the law and who serve to the example and shadow of heavenly things." He means by this that
all the priests according to the law performed their priestly service on earth, where all
the law was made to suit mortal men, and the sacrifices consisted of irrational beasts led
to be slaughtered to death, which meant that they were fit for this mortal sojourn on
earth. It is indeed clear that all the injunctions and ritual of the law were only
partially suitable. Circumcision, Sabbath, holy days, observances of days, and
distinctions in food: all these suited a mortal nature, and none of them has any place in
an immortal nature, and to people who performed such things even sacrifices of irrational
beasts are not suitable, as these are slaughtered and die in the act of sacrifice. As to
Christ our Lord, if He were about to perform His priestly service on earth, it was
necessary that He also should perform this service according to the Divine law, which was
something that harmonised with the (Mosaic) law; and if He did not perform a priestly
service according to the law, He would not have been a high priest, as He would then be
performing a priestly service not according to the law of God. Now, however, He performs
the priestly service in heaven and not on earth, because He died, rose, ascended into
heaven in order to raise us all up and cause us to ascend into heaven, and made a covenant
with those who believe in Him that He will grant them participation in the resurrection
from the dead and ascension into heaven.

19 He performs a real high priesthood and offers to God no other sacrifice than Himself,
as He had delivered also Himself to death for all. He was the first to rise from the dead,
and He ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God in order to destroy all our
adversaries, as the blessed Paul said: "He offered one sacrifice for our sins for ever,
sat on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. For by one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. He
calls His enemies those who fight against us, and their destruction is clearly seen in our
perfection, as the work of a high priest consists in his drawing near to God first and
then in drawing also the others to Him through himself. The blessed Paul rightly calls Him
high priest because He was so in reality, as through His resurrection He was the first to
ascend into heaven; and He sat on the right hand of God, and granted us through Himself to
be near to God and partakers of good things. "The high priest of all of us is," as the
blessed Paul said, "Christ our Lord, who did not, like the high priests of the law, serve
to the example and shadow of heavenly things, but He is the minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle which God pitched and not man," so that through them He might make
manifest the heavenly things.

20 He refers by the word "sanctuary" to heavenly things which do not contain anything that
is contrary or reprehensible, and by the sentence "the true tabernacle which God pitched
and not man" to the heavenly abode, because the tabernacle of the law was pitched by man,
but heaven is made not by men but by God, and it is of it that the Apostle said that
Christ is the minister, as He ascended into heaven and there performs service for all of
us, so that He might draw us to Him by all means, according to His promise. It is for this
reason that he said in another passage that "He is at the right hand of God and making
intercession for us. He calls "intercession" not a supplication made for us in words, as
this intercession is made in deeds, because through His ascension into heaven He makes
intercession for us to God and is anxious that all of us should ascend into heaven to Him.

21 If, as the blessed Paul said, Christ our Lord should not be a priest if He performed
His priestly service on earth, it follows that He does not perform His service according
to the ritual of the law, but since priesthood and the service of the law were made
manifest by God on earth, it was not necessary that it should be rejected by God and
another one be substituted on the same earth. He is then rightly a priest because He
performs priestly service in heaven, where there is not a single association with earthly
things, and in this way no blame attaches to the priests of the law. Since these are said
in another place to do their work among mortal and earthly men, while He performs His
priestly service in immortal and heavenly things, which are much higher and loftier, is it
not clear that neither can we be priests appointed to do priestly service for earthly
things? It is indeed well known that the priesthood of the law suited earthly and mortal
men, while Christ is the high priest of heavenly things, and will cause all of us to
ascend into heaven at the right time.

22 As to us who are called to a new covenant, as the blessed Paul said, we received
salvation and deliverance in hope, and although we have not seen them we expect "by our
patience to be absent from the body and be with our Lord." We walk by faith and not by
sight because we are not yet in the reality, as we are not yet in the heavenly benefits.
We wait here in faith until we ascend into heaven and set out on our journey to our Lord,
where we shall not see through a glass and in a riddle but shall look face to face. These
things, however, we expect to receive in reality through the resurrection at the time
decreed by God, and now it is only by faith that we draw near to the firstfruits of these
good things: to Christ our Lord and the high priest of things that belong to us. We are
ordered to perform in this world the symbols and signs of the future things so that,
through the service of the Sacrament, we may be like men who enjoy symbolically the
happiness of the heavenly benefits, and thus acquire a sense of possession and a strong
hope of the things for which we look.

23 As the real new birth is the one which we expect through the resurrection, and we
nevertheless perform this new birth symbolically and sacramentally through baptism, so
also the real food of immortality is that which we hope to receive truly in heaven by the
grace of the Holy Spirit, but now we symbolically eat the immortal food which is given to
us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, whether in symbols or through symbols. It follows that
a role of a high priest must needs be filled,and it is found in those who are appointed
for the service of these symbols. Those who have been chosen as the priests of the New
Testament are believed to perform sacramentally, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, and
for the confirmation and admonition of the children of the Sacrament, these things which
we believe that Christ our Lord performed and will perform in reality.

24 This is the reason why they do not immolate at all times new sacrifices like the
priests of the law. These were ordered to offer to God numerous and different sacrifices
of oxen, goats and sheep, and offered new sacrifices at all times. When first sacrificial
beasts had been slaughtered, had died and suffered complete dissolution, others were
always immolated in the place of those which had been slaughtered a long time previously.
As to the priests of the New Testament they immolate the same sacrifice always and
everywhere, because one is the sacrifice which has been immolated for us, that of Christ
our Lord who suffered death for us and who, by His offering this sacrifice, obtained
perfection for us, as the blessed Paul said: "By one offering He perfected for ever them
that are sanctified." All of us, everywhere, at all times, and always, observe the
commemoration of that sacrifice, "for as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we
do show the Lord's death till He come." As often, therefore, as the service of this awe-
inspiring sacrifice is performed, which is clearly the likeness of heavenly things and of
which, after it has been perfected, we become worthy to partake through food and drink, as
a true participation in our future benefits—we must picture in our mind that we are dimly
in heaven, and, through faith, draw in our imagination the image of heavenly things, while
thinking that Christ who is in heaven and who died for us, rose and ascended into heaven
and is now being immolated. In contemplating with our eyes, through faith, the facts that
are now being re-enacted: that He is again dying, rising and ascending into heaven, we
shall be led to the vision of the things that had taken place beforehand on our behalf.

25 Because Christ our Lord offered Himself in sacrifice for us and thus became our high
priest in reality, we must think that the priest who draws near to the altar is
representing His image, not that he offers himself in sacrifice, any more than he is truly
a high priest, but because he performs the figure of the service of the ineffable
sacrifice (of Christ), and through this figure he dimly represents the image of the
unspeakable heavenly things and of the supernatural and incorporeal hosts. Indeed, all the
invisible hosts did service to that Economy which transcends our words and which Christ
our Lord accomplished for us. "They are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for
them who shall be heirs of salvation" as the blessed Paul said. Matthew, the evangelist,
showed also this when he said: "and the angels came, and ministered to Him." This is also
attested by our Lord who said: "Hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God
ascending and descending to the Son of Man." Incidents in the Gospel show also events that
happened through them, whether it be through those who at the birth of our Lord sang:
"Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good hope to men," or through those who
at His resurrection revealed to women what had occurred, or through those who at His
ascension explained to the Apostles that which they did not know. It is necessary,
therefore, that here also, when this awe-inspiring service is performed, we should think
that the deacons represent an image of the service of these invisible spirits, and that
they have been appointed to minister to this awe-inspiring service by the grace of the
Holy Spirit which they received.

26 This is the reason why all of us are called the ministers of Christ, as the blessed
Paul said: "Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles I magnify my ministry." This
name, however, is especially applied to those who perform this ministry, and are called by
all "deacons," as they are alone appointed to perform this ministry, and represent a
likeness of the service of the spiritual messengers and ministers. They have also an
apparel which is consonant with their office, since their outer garment is taller than
they are, as wearing such an apparel in such a way is suitable to those who serve. They
place on their left shoulders a stole, which floats equally on either side, forwards and
backwards. This is a sign that they are not performing a ministry of servitude but of
freedom, as they are ministering to things that lead to freedom all those who are worthy
of the great house of God, that is to say the Church. They do not place the stole on their
neck in a way that it floats on either side but not in front, because there is no one
serving in a house who wears such an apparel; it is only those who are masters of
themselves and remote from servitude of any kind who wear it in this way, but the deacons
place it on their shoulders because they are appointed for service. The stole is their
only sign of that freedom to which all of us, who believed in Christ, have been called;
and we hasten to go to, and be in, "the house of God, which is the Church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth," as the blessed Paul says; and they are clearly
appointed for the service of all things performed in it.

27 Because the things performed for us by Christ our Lord are awe-inspiring, and because
we expect their complete fulfilment in the next world, we receive them now only by faith,
and we proceed gradually in this world in a way that we are in nothing absent from our
faith in them. This being the case, we are necessarily confirmed in the faith of the
things revealed to us through this ministry of the Sacrament, as we are led through it to
the future reality, because it contains an image of the ineffable Economy of Christ our
Lord, in which we receive the vision and the shadow of the happenings that took place.
This is the reason why through the priest we picture Christ our Lord in our mind, as
through him we see the One who saved us and delivered us by the sacrifice of Himself; and
through the deacons who serve the things that take place, we picture in our mind the
invisible hosts who served with that ineffable service. It is the deacons who bring out
this oblation—or the symbols of this oblation—which they arrange and place on the awe-
inspiring altar, (an oblation) which in its vision, as represented in the imagination, is
an awe-inspiring event to the onlookers.

28 We must also think of Christ being at one time led and brought to His Passion, and at
another time stretched on the altar to be sacrificed for us. And when the offering which
is about to be placed (on the altar) is brought out in the sacred vessels of the paten and
the chalice, we must think that Christ our Lord is being led and brought to His Passion,
not, however, by the Jews—as it is incongruous and impermissible that an iniquitous image
be found in the symbols of our deliverance and our salvation—but by the invisible hosts of
ministry, who are sent to us and who were also present when the Passion of our Salvation
was being accomplished, and were doing their service. Indeed, they performed their service
to all the Economy of Christ our Lord without any exception, and were present with their
service at the time of the Passion, endeavouring to perform it according to the will of
God. When our Lord was in deep thought and fear at the approach of His Passion, the
blessed Luke said that "an angel appeared to Him strengthening and encouraging Him," and
like those persons who are wont to stir up the courage of the athletes with their voices,
he anointed Him to bear tribulations, and by encouraging words persuaded Him to endure
pains with patience, and showed Him that His Passion was small in comparison with the
benefit that will accrue from it, as He would be invested with great glory after His
Passion and His death, from which He would be the cause of numerous benefits not only to
men but to all the creation.

29 We must think, therefore, that the deacons who now carry the Eucharistic bread and
bring it out for the sacrifice represent the image of the invisible hosts of ministry,
with this difference, that, through their ministry and in these remembrances, they do not
send Christ our Lord to His salvation-giving Passion. When they bring out (the Eucharistic
bread) they place it on the holy altar, for the complete representation of the Passion, so
that we may think of Him on the altar, as if He were placed in the sepulchre, after having
received His Passion. This is the reason why those deacons who spread linens on the altar
represent the figure of the linen clothes of the burial (of our Lord). Sometime after
these have been spread, they stand up on both sides, and agitate all the air above the
holy body with fans, thus keeping it from any defiling object. They make manifest by this
ritual the greatness of the body which is lying there, as it is the habit, when the dead
body of the high personages of this world is carried on a bier, that some men should fan
the air above it. It is, therefore, with justice that the same thing is done here with the
body which lies on the altar, and which is holy, awe-inspiring and remote from all
corruption; a body which will very shortly rise to an immortal nature.

30 It is on all sides of this body that persons, who are especially appointed to serve,
stand up and fan. They offer to it an honour that is suitable, and by this ritual they
make manifest to those present the greatness of the sacred body that is lying there. It is
indeed clear to us from the Divine Book that angels sat upon the stone near the sepulchre
and announced His resurrection to the women, and remained there all the time of His death,
in honour of the One who was laid there, till they witnessed the resurrection, which was
proclaimed by them to be good to all mankind, and to imply a renewal of all the creation,
as the blessed Paul said: "Any man who is in Christ is a new creature. Old things are
passed away and all things are become new. 31 Was it not right, therefore, that here also
(the deacons) should represent as in an image the ministry of the angels? It is in
remembrance of those who constantly came to the Passion and death of our Lord, that they
also stand in a circle and agitate the air with fans, and offer honour and adoration to
the sacred and awe-inspiring body which is lying there. In this they make manifest to all
those present the greatness of the object that is lying there, and induce all the
onlookers to think of it as awe-inspiring and truly sacred, and to realise that it is for
this reason that they keep it from all defiling things, and do not even allow the dirty
tricklings of birds to fall upon it and come near it. This they do now according to their
habit in order to show that because the body which is lying there is high, awe-inspiring,
holy, and truly Lord through its union with the Divine nature, it is with great fear that
it must be handled, seen and kept.

32 These things take place while every one is silent, because when the service has not yet
begun, every one must look at the bringing out and spreading of such a great and wonderful
object with a quiet and reverential fear and a silent and noiseless prayer. When our Lord
also had died the Apostles moved away and were in the house in great silence and immense
fear; so great indeed was the silence that overtook every one that even the invisible
hosts kept quiet while looking for the expected resurrection, until time came and Christ
our Lord rose, and a great joy and an ineffable happiness spread over those invisible
hosts. And the women who came to honour the body received from the angels the new message
of the resurrection that had taken place, and when the disciples also learnt through them
what had occurred they run together with great zeal to the sepulchre. We are drawn now by
similar happenings to the remembrance of the Passion of our Lord, and when we see the
oblation on the communion-table—something which denotes that it is being placed in a kind
of a sepulchre after its death— great silence falls on those present. Because that which
takes place is awe-inspiring, they must look at it with a quiet and reverential fear,
since it is necessary that Christ our Lord should rise in the awe-inspiring service which
is performed with the sacerdotal ceremonies, and announce our participation in ineffable
benefits to every one. We remember, therefore, the death of our Lord in the oblation
because it makes manifest the resurrection and the ineffable benefits.

33 Then comes prayer—not a silent prayer—announced beforehand in the loud voice of the
deacon, who, as we ought to know, explains the sign and the aim of all the things that
take place. The ceremonies that are to be performed by all those present are made known by
the proclamation of the deacon, who orders and reminds every one of the statutory acts
that are to be performed and accomplished by those who are assembled in the Church of God.
34 After he has finished his congruous service and admonished all with his voice and
exhorted them to recite the prayers that are suitable to ecclesiastical gatherings, and
while all are silent, the priest begins with the appointed service, and before everything
else he offers prayer to God, because before all other things that are indispensable to
religion he has necessarily to begin with prayer. This is especially the case with this
awe-inspiring service in which we are in need of God's help, as He alone is able to
perform things such as those (implied in it). And the priest brings his prayer to a close
after having offered thanksgivings to our Lord for the great things which He has provided
for the salvation and the deliverance of men, and for His having given us the knowledge of
these wonderful mysteries which are a remembrance of that ineffable gift which He bestowed
upon us through His Passion, in that He promised to raise us all from the dead and take us
up to heaven. After this he offers also thanksgivings for himself for having been
appointed servant of such an awe-inspiring Sacrament. With this he prays also for the
grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may be now made by Him worthy of the greatness of
this service, as he had been rendered by Him worthy of priesthood; and so that he may
perform this service free, by the grace of God, from all evil conscience, and not fearing
any punishment, as he, being infinitely below the dignity of such a service, is drawing
near to things that are much higher than himself.

35 After the priest has finished his prayer with this and similar things, all the
congregation says: "Amen," a word that signifies agreement with, and confirmation of, the
prayer of the priest, as it is said: "He that occupies the room of the unlearned says Amen
at your giving of thanks, while he does not understand what you say." The congregation
must make use of this word to signify their agreement with the prayers and thanksgivings
of the priest. After the congregation has said this word the priest prays: "Peace be to
you." It is appropriate to begin with this phrase every service that takes place in a
Church gathering, and especially this awe-inspiring service which is about to be
performed. The blessed Paul also placed at the beginning of all his Epistles: "Grace and
peace be to you." (The priest) prays for us concerning the benefits granted for the
happiness of all of us through the Economy of Christ our Lord, who by His coming abolished
all wars, and completely destroyed all hatred and all fight against us, and by His
resurrection delivered us from death, corruption, sin, passion, vexations of the demons
and all harassing things, and made us completely immortal and immutable, and will take us
up to heaven where He will give us His full confidence and prepare for us great friendship
and fellowship with the invisible hosts, the trusted messengers of God. The reason why the
blessed Paul writes at the beginning of all his Epistles the word "grace" before the word
"peace" is found in the fact that it was not we who began or did anything by ourselves to
merit the reception of such a gift, but it was God Himself who bestowed it on us by His
grace.

36 There is an ordinance, found (in the Church) from the beginning, to the effect that all
those who have been deemed worthy to do the work of priesthood, should begin all the
functions performed in a Church assembly with the above phrase, which is more than
anything else suitable to this awe-inspiring service. The priest prays for peace to all
because it is he who makes manifest these great benefits, of which this Divine service,
which is the remembrance of the death of our Lord, is a figure and a symbol, and because
it is through him that the greatness of these and similar benefits has been promised to
us. 37 And those present answer him: "And to your spirit." They requite him with an
identical prayer so that it may be made manifest to the priest and also to all of them
that it is not only they that are in need of the benediction and the prayer of the priest,
but that he also is in need of the prayer of all of them. This is the reason why, by an
ordinance found in the Church from the beginning, the priests are also mentioned in all
the ecclesiastical prayers side by side with the rest of the congregation. Indeed all of
us are one body of Christ our Lord and all of us are members one of another, and the
priest only fills the role of a member that is higher than the other members of the body,
such as the eye or the tongue. Lo, like the eye he sees the works of every one, and with
the diligence pertaining to a priest he also leads and directs every one according to the
rule of priesthood, to that which is necessary; and like the tongue he offers the prayers
of every one; and as every one requires that the members that are attached to his body
should perform their particular function, and as for this it is necessary that they should
be healthy and sound in their structure so that they may be in a position to perform this
function when asked to do so, in this same way the priest, who is also attached to the
body of the Church, is required to be healthy in his office, so that after making manifest
the health of good works and priesthood, which are required of him, he may be seen to be
worthy of the honour that he possesses, and capable of filling helpfully and suitably the
needs of every member of the community.

38 This is the reason why he blesses those present with the voice of greeting, and for
this receives also blessing from them, when they answer him: "And to your spirit." In
saying and to your spirit" they do not refer to his soul, but to the grace of the Holy
Spirit by which those who are under him believe that he drew near to priesthood, as the
blessed Paul said: "I serve Him with the Spirit in the Gospel of His Son." It is as if he
were saying: so that, through the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit which is promised
to me, I may fulfil the service of the Gospel, and all of you may join with my spirit;
meaning by this that "I received from God to be in a position to perform these and similar
things and did not find peace for my spirit"; meaning also that "I was not able to do the
thing that any one who serves with the Holy Spirit has to do for the utility of others,
because the one who had to be my fellow-worker was absent."

39 It is in this sense that the phrase: "And to your spirit" is addressed to the priest by
the congregation, according to the regulations found in the Church from the beginning, the
reason for it being that when the conduct of the priest is good, it is a gain to the body
of the Church, and when the conduct of the priest is unholy, it is a loss to all. All of
them pray that through peace the grace of the Holy Spirit may be promised to him, so that
he may strive to perform his service to the public suitably and rightly. In this way the
priest obtains more abundant peace from the overflow of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and
from it he receives help for the works required of him, because, as in other affairs so in
service, the priest will appear to be doing the right thing when the blessing goes from
him to the congregation and from it to him.

40 The priest, then, begins by giving peace, and the Church crier, who is the deacon,
cries and orders all to give peace one to another so that they may do that which the
priest is doing, and so that in giving peace one to another and in embracing one another
they may make a profession of their mutual concord and of their love to one another. Every
one of us gives peace as far as possible to the one next to him, but by implication all of
us give peace one to another, because that which is taking place implies that all of us
ought to be one body of Christ our Lord, to possess towards one another the harmony which
is found between the members of one body, mutually to love one another, to help and assist
one another, to count our private affairs as affairs of us all, and to suffer with the
sufferings of one another and rejoice with the joys of one another.

41 Owing to the fact that we received one new birth of baptism, through which we are
joined as if into one natural close union, and owing to the fact that all of us partake of
one food in which we receive the same flesh and blood and become more strongly united in
the single body of baptism, as the blessed Paul said: "For we are all partakers of one
bread, because the bread is one and we also being many bodies are one bread"—it is right
that the rite of giving peace should be performed before we draw near to the Sacrament and
to the service, as it is in it that we make our profession of mutual concord and love to
one another. It is indeed unsuitable to those who fill the role of members of one
ecclesiastical body to consider as an enemy a child of the faith, who through the same
birth drew near to the same body, whom we believe to be like us a member of Christ our
Lord, and who partakes of the same food from the holy communion-table. This is the reason
why our Lord said: "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to
judgment."

42 That which takes place is not only a profession of love but a reminder that we must
remove and cast away from us every enmity, if it appears to us that we have aught against
a child of our faith. Our Lord, who decreed that under no circumstances an undue anger
should occur, gave also a remedy to those who sin in any way: "Therefore, if you bring
your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
leave your gift before the altar and go and first be reconciled to your brother, and then
come and offer your gift." He orders the one who has sinned to make haste and be
reconciled to the one who has been sinned against, and not to offer the gift before he has
placated the one who has been angered, and be reconciled to him with all his might.
Indeed, all of us offer the gift with the priest, and although the latter stands up alone
to offer it he nevertheless offers it, like the tongue, for all the body. Thus the gift
that is being offered belongs to all of us in the same way as the grace which it contains
belongs to all, and is placed before all of us so that we may partake of it equally. In
this sense the blessed Paul said about a high priest that "he ought, as for himself so
also for the people, to offer for sins" in order, to show that the priest offers the gift
for all, and is ordered to offer both for himself and for the rest of the people.

43 It is incumbent, therefore, on the one who has sinned to placate with all his might the
one against whom he has sinned, and to be reconciled to him. If the one who has been
sinned against be near, he should put in practice the order of Christ literally, and if he
be not near let him decide in his mind to do this to him at the right time, and then draw
near to the communion of the offering. On the other hand, the one who has been sinned
against must accept the reconciliation of the one who had sinned against him, because the
one who has been sinned against must show the same promptness as the one who has sinned.
Indeed, he must remove from his mind all the things in which he has been sinned against,
while remembering the sentence: "If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses. We must think of this greeting as an
acceptance and a remembrance of all this, if we are, like the blessed Paul, to salute one
another with a holy kiss, and not, like Judas, to kiss with our mouth while striving to
show hatred and evil things against the children of our faith.

44 While this thing is taking place the priest washes (his hands) first, and then all
those, whatever their number, who are counted in the assembly of priesthood. This is not
done for the cleanliness of hands—if it were so all would be bound to do it, some on
account of their service and some others because of the Sacrament which they are about to
receive—but because the officiating priests offer the sacrifice for all, and in this they
remind all of us to draw near to the Sacrament which is offered, with clean consciences.
Having thus, after the giving of the peace, proclaimed that we have removed and cast away
from us all hatred and enmity against the children of our faith, and having washed away
the remembrance of trespasses, we may believe that we have freed ourselves, to the best of
our ability, from all uncleanness. Then all rise, according to the sign given to them by
the deacon, and look at what is taking place. The names of the living and the dead who
have passed away in the faith of Christ are then read from Church books,and it is clear
that in the few of them who are mentioned, all the living and the departed are implicitly
mentioned. This is done for the teaching of what took place in the Economy of Christ our
Lord, of which the present service, which is (Divine) help for all, living and dead alike,
is the commemoration. Indeed the living look to the future hope, while the dead are not
really dead but cast in a sleep in which they remain in the hope, for which our Lord
received His death, which we are commemorating in this Sacrament.

45 When the above reading is brought to an end, the priest draws near to the service,
while the Church crier, that is to say the deacon, whose voice is a clear indication of
what the congregation has to do while following the priestly signs which are given to
them—first shouts: "Look at the oblation." In this he exhorts every one to look at the
sacrifice, as if a public service was about to be performed, and a public sacrifice was
about to be immolated, and a public sacrifice was about to be offered for all, not only
for those who are present but also for those who are absent, as long as they were in
communion with us in faith and were counted in the Church of God and had finished their
life in it. It is clear that we call also this service "offering the sacrifice" and
"immolating the sacrifice," because an awe-inspiring sacrifice is being immolated, and if
He is offered to God, "He did this once, when He offered up Himself" as the blessed Paul
says, and another time now when (the priest) must needs have something to sacrifice. This
is the reason why we call "sacrifice" or "immolating the sacrifice the likeness of the
sacrifice (of Christ), and this is the reason why the deacon also rightly says before the
offering of the sacrifice: "Look at the sacrifice."

46 When every one has been prepared to look at the object that is being placed (on the
altar), and when all those things of which we have spoken are accomplished—things which
had necessarily to be performed before the service, and which were indispensable to your
instruction and your remembrance— the priest begins with the sacrifice itself. You must
now learn the way in which this is done; but since a measure had to be fixed for the
things already said, I will keep what I have to say on this subject and say it on another
day, if God permit; and for all of them let us glorify God the Father, and His Only
Begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen. Here ends the
fifth Chapter.


COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST
==========================================================

COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST continued

CHAPTER VI.

1 Synopsis of this Chapter. The priest begins the Anaphora, and before anything else he
blesses the people with these words: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." For this the people
answer him: "And with your spirit." And the priest says to the congregation: "Lift up your
minds ": and the congregation answers: "To You, O Lord." And the priest says: "Let us
thank the Lord." And the people answer: "It is fit and right." The priest begins the
Anaphora, and offers a public sacrifice and says: "In singing loudly and glorifying, Holy,
Holy, Holy, the mighty Lord. Heaven and earth are full of His praises." While all have
resorted to silence, and while we look downwards, the Church crier shouts: "Let us all
stand up in great fear and tremor." Indeed, by the power of the things that are taking
place it is necessary that Christ our Lord should rise from the dead and spread His grace
over all of us. And the priest prays that the grace of the Holy Spirit may descend also on
those present. And the priest offers a supplication for all those of whom, by regulation,
mention is made in the Church, and then begins to mention the departed.

2 The priest recites quietly these prayers, and immediately after takes the holy bread and
looks towards heaven. He breaks the bread while praying over the congregation: "May the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." And the congregation replies with the usual
words, and he with the bread makes the sign of the Cross over the blood and with the blood
over the bread. For this reason it is customary to throw the vivifying bread little by
little into the chalice. Before any other thing we must pray our Lord for those who
presented this holy offering. And the priest blesses the people with "peace be to you" and
the latter answer with the usual words, which are recited while their heads are duly
bowed. And the Church crier shouts: "Let us be attentive." And the priest cries: "The holy
thing to the holies." And all answer and say: "One holy Father, one holy Son, one holy
Spirit," and add: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit."

3 And he receives the communion, and all of us hasten to do the same. The priest who
offers the sacrifice draws near and partakes of it first, and then every one of us draws
near, while looking downwards and stretching out both hands to receive the sacrament which
is given. A person stretches out his right hand, and under it he places the left hand.
When the priest gives it he says: "the body of Christ." The same thing is done with the
reception of the cup. This is the reason why you say after him: "Amen." You receive
communion and you send the participation of the sacrament inside. After you have received
the communion, you offer thanksgiving and praise to God, and you remain (in the Church) so
that you may also offer this thanksgiving and praise to God with all others, according to
the regulations of the Church.

4 It is time now to give you, if God permit, what was left off.We began to speak to you of
the spiritual food of which you partake when you receive the holy communion, and we
discoursed also to your love on some other indispensable things dealing with this subject.
We further taught you the service which is performed in it, and reached the sentence:
"Look at the sacrifice" which the deacon utters loudly according to the Church ritual, and
after which the priest must begin the Anaphora. Since, however, the things that had to be
said were many, we rightly put an end to our speech and kept the service of the priest
concerning them for another discourse, and I hope, by the grace of God, to bring them also
to an end to-day. After the deacon has said: "Look at the sacrifice," and while, according
to his announcement, all look at what is taking place, the priest begins the Anaphora, and
before anything else he blesses the people with these words: "The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all," because he thinks that before anything else the people ought to be blessed, prior to
this service, with these words of the Apostle, on account of their great usefulness; and
because of the honour due to them, he uttered them first and confided them to writing,
since, according to the words of the Gospel, "God so loved the world that He gave His Only
Begotten Son for it, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life."

5 He showed all this love to men, not because He received from us anything worthy of this
good will, as it is by His grace and mercy that He made manifest to us a love for the sake
of which the Only Begotten Son of God, God the Word, was pleased to assume a man for us,
whom He raised from the dead, took up to heaven, united to Himself, and placed at the
right hand of God. And He promised to us participation in all these, and gave us also the
Holy Spirit, whose firstfruits we are receiving now as an earnest. We shall receive all
(the fruits) when we shall have communion with Him in reality and when our vile body shall
be fashioned like to His glorious body.This is the reason why the blessed Paul prayed in
his Epistles for the faithful so that they may be seen worthy of the love of God, which He
by His grace made manifest to all our race, and made us all worthy of the grace of the
Holy Spirit by whose gift He promised to us communion with Him.

6 It is with justice, therefore, that the priest who is about to perform such a great
service, from which we are led to the hope of these (benefits), should first bless the
people with the above words. Some priests only say: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you," and include in, and restrict with these, words all the sentence of the Apostle.
For these words the people answer: "And with your spirit," according to an ordinance which
states that whenever the priest blesses the people with "grace" or with "peace" all those
present should, for the reasons which I have already explained, answer him with these
words. After this benediction the priest prepares the people by saying: "Lift up your
minds," in order to show that although we are supposed to perform this awe-inspiring and
ineffable service on earth, we, nevertheless, ought to look upwards towards heaven and to
extend the sight of our soul to God, as we are performing the remembrance of the sacrifice
and death of Christ our Lord, who for us suffered and rose, is united to Divine nature, is
sitting at the right hand of God, and is in heaven, to which we must extend the sight of
our soul and transfer our thoughts by means of the present remembrances. And the people
answer: "To You, O Lord," and in this they confess with their voices that they are anxious
to do so

7 After the priest has prepared and set in the right direction the souls and the minds of
the congregation, he says: "Let us thank the Lord." This means that for all these things
which were accomplished for us, and which we are about to perform in this service, we owe,
before anything else, gratitude to God, who is the cause of all these benefits. To the
above words the people answer: "It is fit and right." In this they confess that we
certainly ought to do it for two reasons: because of the greatness of God, who granted us
things such as these, and in order to show that it is right on the part of those who were
granted such benefits not to be ungrateful to the One by whom they were promised to them.
8 After we have all of us performed this, and while we are silent, in a great reverential
fear, the priest begins the Anaphora. He offers a sacrifice for the community, and a
reverential fear, which embraces both himself and us all, is cast upon him on account of
what has happened, namely that our Lord suffered for us all a death, the remembrance of
which is about to be performed in the present sacrifice. Let the priest be at that time
the tongue of the ecclesiastical community, and let him make use of the right words in
this great service. The right praises of God consist in professing that all praises and
all glorifications are due to Him, inasmuch as adoration and service are due to Him from
all of us; and of all other services the present one, which consists in the commemoration
of the grace which came to us and which cannot be described by the creatures, takes
precedence. And because we have been initiated and baptised in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and because we ought to expect therefrom the full
accomplishment of the things that are performed, he says: "the greatness of the Father."
He adds also "and of the Son," because the same thing that is due to the Father is also
due to the Son, who is really and truly a Son with an identical substance with His Father,
and in nothing lower than He. He adds necessarily in the same sentence: "and of the Holy
Spirit," and confesses that the Spirit is also of Divine substance. He asserts that
praises and glorifications are offered at all times, and before all other (beings), to
this eternal and Divine nature, by all the visible creatures and by the invisible hosts.

9 He makes then mention, before other (creatures), of the Seraphim, who offer that praise
which the blessed Isaiah learned in a Divine vision and committed to writing, and which
all of us in the congregation sing in a loud voice, as if we were also singing that which
the invisible natures sing: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole heaven
and earth are full of His praises." Indeed, while the blessed Isaiah foresaw, by the
working of the Spirit, the benefits that were to be granted to the human race, he heard in
vision the Seraphim uttering these words. The prophet saw through revelation that a great
service was being performed, which was high above human nature. The prophet noticed that
the spiritual hosts appeared to look with great awe and reverence, since they were looking
downwards and covering their faces completely with their wings. The doctrine of the
Trinity was also revealed at that time when one Godhead was proclaimed in three persons.
This was revealed by their saying "holy" three times, and once only "Lord." In saying
"holy" three times, they showed three persons: the person of the Father, the person of the
Son, and the person of the Holy Spirit. We must believe that each one of them is eternal
and truly holy, because the Godhead is really holy and immutable, while a creature may be
said to be or to become holy by an act of grace from it. The words said at the end, "the
Lord of Sabaoth" mean Lord and God of hosts, and omnipotent God. The expression "Lord of
Sabaoth" shows all these, and is congruous to the nature of the Trinity, which is alone
eternal and God.

10 It is necessary, therefore, that the priest also should, after having mentioned in this
service the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, say: "Praise and adoration are offered
by all the creatures to Divine nature." He makes also mention of the Seraphim, as they are
found in the Divine Book singing the praise which all of us who are present sing loudly in
the Divine song which we recite, along with the invisible hosts, in order to serve God. We
ought to think of them and to offer a thanksgiving that is equal to theirs. Indeed, the
Economy of our Lord granted us to become immortal and incorruptible, and to serve God with
the invisible hosts "when we are caught up in the clouds to meet our Lord in the air, and
so shall we ever be with the Lord," according to the saying of the Apostle. Nor are the
words of our Lord false, who says that the children of God "are like the angels of God,
because they are the children of the resurrection."

11 When Isaiah heard the above words in a spiritual vision, he fell upon his face and
said: "Woe is me. I am wretched, and sorrowful, and a man, and have unclean lips and dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
Sabaoth," as if he were sorrowing in his heart for all human nature, for what we are and
what we receive. He said "I am a man," so that by the mention of human nature he might
show that it is an attribute of this same human nature to lean towards evil, as God said:
"for the desire of a man's heart is set on evil from his youth." This is the reason why,
while Isaiah was sorrowing for all the human race, he was astonished at the boundless
mercy of God, who granted such a grace to a race full of sins such as these.

12 As to us, because we are ordered to perform the greatness of the gift that was shown a
long time previously to the prophet, and was afterwards seen and realised sometime ago as
a sacrifice on our behalf, we all stand in reverential fear while we bow our heads, as if
unable even to look at the greatness of this service. And we make use of the words of the
invisible hosts, in order to make manifest the greatness of the grace which has been so
unexpectedly outpoured upon us. We do not cast away the awe from our mind, but on account
of the greatness of the things that are taking place, we keep it throughout the service
equally, and we bow our heads both before and after we recite loudly the Sanctus, and make
manifest this fear in a congruous way. In all this the priest also associates himself
loudly with the invisible hosts, and prays and glorifies the Godhead, and is like the
others in fear of the things that are taking place, as it is right that in connection with
them he should not be less than the rest; on the contrary, he is to be in awe and fear
more than all, as he is performing for all this service which is so awe-inspiring.

13 After all those present have recited loudly: "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of Sabaoth,"
and have reverted little by little to silence, the priest proceeds with the holy service
and says before anything else: "Holy is the Father, holy also is the Son, and holy also
the Holy Spirit," in order to proclaim that they are the eternal and holy nature, and in
order that he may be seen that he understands clearly the meaning of the praise of the
Seraphim which the prophet heard and confided to writing. He afterwards makes mention also
of the ineffable grace of (God) for which He made manifest the Economy which took place in
Christ, and by which the One who was in the form of God was pleased to take upon Him the
form of a servant, so that He might assume a perfect and complete man for the salvation of
all the human race; and He abolished the old and harsh observances which were formerly
enjoined upon us through the deadweight of the law, and also the dominion of death which
was dating from ancient times; and He granted us ineffable benefits which are higher than
all human intelligence and for which He agreed to suffer, so that through His resurrection
He might effect a complete abolition of death; and He promised us communion with Him in
the happiness of the future benefits.

14 It is with great justice, therefore, that He gave us this Sacrament which is capable of
leading us efficiently to those benefits, as through it we are born again in the symbo1 of
baptism, and we commemorate the death of our Lord through this awe-inspiring service, and
receive the immortal and spiritual food of the body and blood of our Lord, for the sake of
which, when our Lord was about to draw near to His Passion, He instructed His disciples
that all of us who believe in Christ had to receive them and perform them through these
(elements), and in this way to commemorate by stages the death of Chnst our Lord, and
obtain therefrom an ineffable nourishment. From these things we derive a hope that is
strong enough to lead us to the participation in the future benefits. The priest says
these and similar things in this holy service, and in his remembrance of the things that
had taken place previously, and prepares us all to see through the oblations the gift of
Christ our Lord. It is necessary, therefore, that our Lord should now rise from the dead
by the power of the things which are taking place and that He should spread His grace over
us. This cannot happen otherwise than by the coming of the grace of the Holy Spirit,
through which the latter had also raised Him previously, as the blessed Paul showed when
he said in one passage: "He was declared to be the Son of God, by power and by the Spirit
of holiness, from the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord," and in another
passage:

15 "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your dead bodies, because of His Spirit
that dwelleth in you." Our Lord also said: It is the Spirit that lives; the flesh profits
nothing." It is with great justice, therefore, that the priest offers, according to the
rules of priesthood, prayer and supplication to God that the Holy Spirit may descend, and
that grace may come therefrom upon the bread and the wine that are laid (on the altar) so
that they may be seen to be truly the body and the blood of our Lord, which are the
remembrance of immortality. Indeed, the body of our Lord, which is from our own nature,
was previously mortal by nature, but through the resurrection it moved to an immortal and
immutable nature. When the priest, therefore, declares them to be the body and the blood
of Christ, he clearly reveals that they have so become by the descent of the Holy Spirit,
through whom they have also become immortal, inasmuch as the body of our Lord, after it
was anointed and had received the Spirit, was clearly seen so to become. In this same way,
after the Holy Spirit has come here also, we believe that the elements of bread and wine
have received a kind of an anointing from the grace that comes upon them, and we hold them
to be henceforth immortal, incorruptible, impassible, and immutable by nature, as the body
of our Lord was after the resurrection.

16 And the priest prays that the grace of the Holy Spirit may come also on all those
present, in order that as they have been perfected into one body in the likeness of the
second birth, so also they may be knit here as if into one body by the communion of the
flesh of our Lord, and in order also that they may embrace and follow one purpose with
concord, peace, and diligence in good works. In this way, all of us pray God with a pure
mind not to receive the communion of the Holy Spirit for punishment, as if we were divided
in our thoughts and bent on disunions, bickerings, jealousy and envy, and despising good
works, but to be considered worthy to receive (that communion) because the eye of our soul
looks towards God with concord, peace, diligence in good works, and purity of mind. We
must draw near in this way to the communion of the Holy Sacrament, and through it we will
be united to our head, Christ our Lord, whose body we believe ourselves to be, and from
whom we have communion with Divine nature.

17 The priest performs Divine service in this way, and offers supplication on behalf of
all those of whom by regulation mention is to be made always in the Church; and later he
begins to make mention of those who have departed, as if to show that this sacrifice keeps
us in this world, and grants also after death, to those who have died in the faith, that
ineffable hope which all the children of the Sacrament of Christ earnestly desire and
expect. 18 The priest recites quietly these prayers, and immediately after, takes the holy
bread with his hands and looks towards heaven, and directs his eyes upwards. He offers a
prayer of thanksgivings for these great gifts, and breaks the bread. While breaking it he
prays for the people, that the grace of God may be upon them, and says thus: "May the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you." The people accept this and answer with
the usual words. And with the bread he makes the sign of the Cross over the blood, and
with the blood over the bread, and he unites and joins them together, in order to reveal
to all that although these elements are two, they are nevertheless one in power, and are
the remembrance of the death and the Passion that affected the body of our Lord, when His
blood was shed on the Cross for us all. When the priest makes the sign of the Cross over
them he unites them and joins them together, because the human body is one with its blood,
and where the body is there also is the blood; and from whatever slit or cut, whether
large or small, that is made in it, blood will necessarily flow according to the size of
the cut. The body of our Lord was so constituted before His Passion, and much blood must
necessarily have been shed from it by the wounds of the crucifixion. When our Lord gave
both of them, He said: "This is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins,
and this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins." In the first
sentence He referred to His Passion, and in the second to the severity and length of His
Passion, in which much blood was shed.

19 It is with justice, therefore, that according to this teaching, we place both of them
on the altar, in order to refer to happenings that took place afore, and to show that both
of them are one in power, as they belong to the one person who received the Passion, that
is to say to the flesh of our Lord, from which blood was also shed. This is the reason why
the priest, at the end of the Anaphora, rightly breaks the bread and joins it with the
blood while making the sign of the Cross, and then likewise brings the blood near the
bread in order to show that both of them, which the Passion affected, are one, and that we
also are ordered to perform the remembrance of this Passion in this way. 20 It is
customary to throw the vivifying bread into the chalice in order to show that they are not
separable, that they are one in power, and that they vouchsafe the same grace to those who
receive them. The priest does not break the bread to no purpose, but in remembrance of
Christ our Lord, who after His resurrection from the dead appeared to all His followers:
He first appeared to the women, then to the eleven Apostles, and later, little by little,
to individuals and to the rest of the believers while they were gathered together, as when
He appeared to Cleophas and his companion, who were two in number. His aim in this was to
show Himself to them that He had risen, and by His resurrection He revealed and announced
to them that they also will participate with Him in those great benefits with which He
greeted them, and He thus prepared them to rejoice in the expectation of the future good
things. This is the reason why even to the women, to whom He immediately appeared after
His resurrection, He said: "Peace be with you." For these reasons it is with justice that
now also the priest does the same thing after the service has come to a complete end,
according to the teaching of our Lord, and the remembrance of the death and the
resurrection has been accomplished.

21 He breaks the bread according to the first method (used by our Lord), who varied His
apparitions, once appearing to this and once to that, and another time showing Himself to
many, so that He might draw all to Him; and (in the present case) so that they may embrace
the good thing that was made manifest to them, and worship Him while acknowledging the
greatness of the honour that came to Him. They think in their minds, while eating the holy
bread, that they also are receiving an ineffable communion with Him. By this we are
steadfastly led with much happiness, a great joy and a strong hope to the greatness which,
through the resurrection, we expect to have with Him in the next world. At the end all the
bread is broken, so that all of us who are present may be able to receive (communion).
Each one of us takes a small portion, but we believe that we receive all of Him in that
small portion. It would, indeed, be very strange if the woman, who had an issue of blood,
received Divine gift by touching the border of His garment, which was not even part of His
body but only of His garment, and we did not believe that we receive all of Him in a part
of His body. This is also illustrated by the fact that when we kiss we are in the habit of
kissing only with the mouth, which is but a small part of the body, but we believe that we
embrace all the body. Furthermore, how many times do we not hold one another by the arms
in walking together, and show our whole fellowship with one another through parts only?

22 For the sake of the things that will take place at the end, it is necessary that the
priest, who offers this holy and ineffable sacrifice, should begin also with this (act).
When, therefore, the priest has finished all the service of the Anaphora, he rightly
begins to break the bread, from which we must picture in our mind that Christ our Lord,
through each portion of the bread, draws near to the person who receives Him, while
greeting him and speaking to him of his resurrection, and while becoming surety for us
concerning the future benefits for the sake of which we draw near to the holy Sacrament,
and obtain the gift of immortality through an immortal nourishment. When everything comes
to an end, the Church crier shouts and mentions in short words those for whom every one
ought to pray, and before any other thing he says: "We ought to pray for those who
presented this holy offering," as if one were saying: for those who (gave us the occasion)
of becoming worthy of this offering; and for this let us also pray that we may be found
worthy of looking at it, standing by its side, and partaking of it. The priest finishes
the prayer by imploring that this sacrifice may be acceptable to God, and that the grace
of the Holy Spirit may come upon all, so that we may be able to be worthy of its
communion, and not to receive it to punishment, as it is much and immeasurably higher and
loftier than we are. After he has finished the prayer with words such as these and has
blessed the people with "peace be to you," they answer him with the usual words which are
recited by all those present, while duly bowing their heads.

23 Sometime after the priest has finished this prayer, and after all the above services
have been brought to an end, and while every one of those who is about to receive the
communion is looking, the Church crier shouts: "Let us be attentive. He prepares loudly
every one to pay attention to the thing which is about to be said. And the priest says
loudly: "The holy thing to the holies," because this food is holy and immortal, as it is
the body and the blood of our Lord, and is replete of holiness on account of the Holy
Spirit who dwells in it. Not everybody partakes of this food, but only those who have been
sanctified for some time. This is the reason why only the baptised ones partake of it,
those who have received the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit in the second birth of baptism,
and have been found worthy to receive holiness therefrom. It is for this reason that the
priest says: "The holy thing to the holies" and directs the mind of all to look at the
greatness of the oblation. He says in this way that you ought to observe the greatness of
the offering which is laid (on the altar). You should know that you partake of a food of
which, by your nature, you are not worthy, as it is immortal and immutable in everything;
and it is not right for every one to partake of it, as it belongs to those who have been
sanctified.

24 This is the reason why when you alone partake of this food, as men who have received
holiness through baptism, you ought to know the greatness of the gift, and what you had to
make you worthy of this holy food. You must, therefore, strengthen in you the gift, which
has been bestowed upon you, with good works, so that in doing, in the measure of your
power, the works that are worthy of the thing given to you, you may partake of this food,
which would then be fit for you. 25 God has provided in every animal, which is born of
another animal, the food that is suitable to the one which is born. Indeed, every animal
is born of another of its species and feeds itself from it. A sheep is born of a sheep,
and feeds itself from the nature of a sheep; and so a horse in a like manner; and so also
all other animals of one species are born of others of the same species, and have their
food in the nature of the one which brought it forth. In this way it is right and fit also
for you, who were born in baptism of the grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and who
have received holiness therefrom, to partake of a food similar to it, from the grace and
the coming of the Holy Spirit, in order to confirm and increase the holiness which has
been promised to you, and perfect the expected benefits which will come to us in the next
world and through which all of us will be wholly holy. It is in this meaning that we must
understand the (sentence) "The holy thing to the holies"; and it is with these things that
we draw near to the greatness of this communion; and it is with this mind, with this
faith, with this diligence, with this reverential fear, and with this love that we must
partake of the holy and immortal food.

26 In this sense, after the priest has said, "The holy thing to the holies," all answer
and say: "One holy Father, one holy Son, one holy Spirit." They profess that one is the
nature that is truly holy, and this is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a nature
that is alone eternal, alone immutable, and alone capable of bestowing holiness upon
whomsoever it wishes. And they add: "Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen," as it is fit that those who make a profession of faith
in the holy nature should glorify it with their duty of glorifying. 27 After all these
things have taken place, and all the service has come to an end, all of us hasten to
receive the communion, and from a communion-table which is awe-inspiring and higher than
words, we partake of the immortal and holy food. Although those who wait at the altar and
are appointed for Divine service draw near to the altar and partake of the Divine food,
while the rest partake of it from a distance, there is nevertheless no distinction in the
food itself, because one is the bread and one is the body of Christ our Lord, into which
the element of bread is changed; and it receives this great change from one descent of the
Holy Spirit, and all of us partake of it equally, as all of us are one body of Christ our
Lord, and all of us partake of the same body and blood. As through the second birth and
through the Holy Spirit all of us become one body of Christ, so also by the one
nourishment of the holy Sacrament, through which the grace of the Holy Spirit feeds us,
all of us are in one fellowship with Christ our Lord. In one passage it is said: "For by
one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we
be bond or free," and in another passage: "For we are all partakers of one bread, because
the bread is one, and we are many but one bread."

28 When all of us partake, therefore, of the one body of Christ, and receive communion
with Him through this nourishment, we become one body of Christ, and from this we receive
communion and close union with Him as (the members) with the head, because: "the bread
which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ, and the cup which we bless,
is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" (The Apostle) shows here that by our
partaking of these we are united to the body and the blood of our Lord, and so when we
partake of them we remain in communion with Him, while we are the body of Christ; and
through this communion we strengthen that which we had received from the second birth of
baptism, by becoming His body, according to the words of the Apostle who said: "You are
the body of Christ," and in another passage: "The Christ is the head from which all the
body is joined and knit together, and increases with the increase of God."

29 The gift of the communion of the Sacrament is thus granted in a general way to all of
us, because all of us are equally in need of it, as we believe that in it is found the
happiness of the eternal life. The priest who is offering the sacrifice draws near first
and partakes of (it), so that it may be made clear that he is offering the sacrifice for
all according to the order written in the rules for priesthood, but that he is in equal
need with the others of partaking of it, and asserts that there is utility in this food
and drink. In saying: "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood, shall live for ever," He
(our Lord) refers not to the one who offers the sacrifice but to the one who eats (of it),
and this, like the sacrifice, belongs equally to all of us. It is indeed offered so that
by the coming of the Holy Spirit it should become that which it is said to be: the body
and the blood of Christ. All of us partake of them, when they become like this, because
all of us believe that in this food and in this drink of which we are ordered to partake,
there is life, according to the words of our Lord.

30 To partake of them is common to all, but the one who, through love, faith and good
works, shows himself, in the measure of human capability, to be worthy of them, obtains
something more from them. It is, however, clear that not a single man is worthy of
partaking of them, because how can a man who is mortal, corruptible and burdened with sin,
be deemed worthy to take and to receive that body which became immortal and incorruptible,
which is in heaven, and at the right-hand of God, and which receives honour from all as
Lord and King? We have confidence, however, because of the grace of our Lord who granted
these things, and we draw near to them with the best zeal and diligence which we can
possess and produce by ourselves. We draw near to them in the measure of the power of the
human nature. It is with these expectations that all of us draw near to Christ our Lord,
who promised to us the second birth in baptism, in which He made us His flesh and His
body—as it is written "Behold I, and the children which God has given me"—and who, firstly
in the likeness of the love of a carnal mother, strove to feed us from His body, and
secondly placed before us the elements of bread and cup which are His body and His blood
through which we eat the food of immortality, and through which the grace of the Holy
Spirit flows to us and feeds us into an immortal and incorruptible existence, by hope; and
through these leads us steadfastly and, in a way that no one can describe, to the
participation in the future benefits, when we shall really feed ourselves from the grace
of the Holy Spirit, without signs and symbols, and shall become completely immortal,
incorruptible, and unchangeable by nature.

31 It is in this way and through these remembrances and these signs and symbols which have
been performed that all of us draw near to Christ our Lord risen from the dead, with a
great joy and happiness. And we joyfully embrace Him with all our power as we see Him
risen from the tomb, and we hope also to participate (with Him) in the resurrection,
because He also rose from the tomb of the holy communion-table as from the dead, according
to the symbol that has been performed; and He draws near to us by His apparition, and
announces resurrection to us through our communion with Him. Although He comes to us after
having divided Himself, all of Him is nevertheless in every portion (of the bread), and is
near to all of us, and gives Himself to each one of us, in order that we may hold Him and
embrace Him with all our might, and make manifest our love to Him, according to the
pleasure of each one of us. It is in this way that we partake of the body and the blood of
our Lord, and expect to be changed into an immortal and incorruptible nature. It is with
these (expectations) that each one of us draws near while looking downwards and stretching
out both hands. By his looking downwards he signifies that he is offering a congruous
thing (to God) through adoration, and giving thanks for his receiving the body of the
King, who became the Lord of all through His union with the Divine nature, and who is
worshipped as a Lord by the whole creation; and in the fact that both his hands are
stretched out, he confesses the greatness of the gift which he is about to receive.

32 To receive the Sacrament which is given, a person stretches out his right hand, and
under it he places the left hand. In this he shows a great fear, and since the hand that
is stretched out holds a higher rank, it is the one that is extended for receiving the
body of the King, and the other hand bears and brings its sister hand, while not thinking
that it is playing the role of a servant, as it is equal with it in honour, on account of
the bread of the King, which is also borne by it. When the priest gives it he says: "The
body of Christ." He teaches you by this word not to look at that which is visible, but to
picture in your mind the nature of this oblation, which, by the coming of the Holy Spirit,
is the body of Christ. You should thus draw near with great awe and love, according to the
greatness of that which is given: with awe, because of the greatness of (its) honour; and
with love, because of (its) grace. This is the reason why you say after him: "Amen." With
your answer to the words of the priest, you confirm and subscribe to the words of the one
who gives. The same thing happens in the communion of the chalice.

33 As to you, after you have received the body, you offer adoration as a confession of the
power placed in your hands, while remembering the words uttered by our Lord to His
disciples after He rose from the dead: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth."
You press it with great and true love to your eyes and kiss it, and you offer (to it) your
prayers as if to Christ our Lord, who is at present so near to you, and in whom you
believed before that you had confidence, which you will receive now that you have drawn
near to Him and held Him. You pray, while confessing your weakness, the great number of
your sins, and your great unworthiness for such a gift. You glorify also in a fitting
manner the One who granted these things to a person such as you, and rendered you worthy
to receive help from Him to the extent that you became worthy to receive the communion,
free from all evil things and doing all the things that please Him.

34 You receive the communion with these and similar (devotional acts), and you send the
participation of the Sacrament inside, as not only the body but also—and even before the
body —the soul does the grace of the Holy Spirit nourish through this awe-inspiring
communion, when in the next world it will render the body immortal and the soul immutable,
and not subject to any sin whatever. After you have received the communion you rightly and
spontaneously offer thanksgiving and praise to God, so that you may not be ungrateful with
regard to this Divine gift. And you remain (in the Church), so that you may also offer
thanksgiving and praise with every one, according to the regulations of the Church,
because it is right for all those who received this spiritual food to offer thanksgiving
to God publicly for this great gift. 35 We have, as you know, spoken in many past days of
things pertaining to such a Sacrament the greatness of which far exceeds what the words
are able to express. Indeed, what can mortal words say that is worthy of immortal,
heavenly and unspeakable things? It was necessary, however, to speak of them to your
hearing, so that you might not remain completely ignorant of the greatness of the gift. It
is right for you now to make use of an intelligence consonant with these sublime things of
which you have been rendered worthy, and to think well, according to the measure of the
greatness of a gift such as this, what we were and into what we have been transformed:
that we were mortal by nature and we expect to receive immortality, that from being
corruptible we shall become incorruptible, from passible impassible, from mutable, for
ever immutable; and that we shall be transferred from the evils of the earth to heaven;
and that we shall enjoy all the good and delightful things found in heaven. We have
acquired this hope from the Economy of Christ our Lord, who was assumed from us. He was
the first to receive this change, from Divine nature, and in this way He became to us the
usherer of our participation in these great things. We strive, therefore, to partake of
the Sacrament because we believe that through symbols, as through unspeakable signs, we
possess, sometime beforehand, the realities themselves, and also because after having
received the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit in our participation in the
Sacrament—firstfruits which we obtain when we are baptised into the second birth—we
believe that, when we receive the communion, we do receive it for the nourishment and the
sustenance of our (spiritual) life.

36 We ought to think of these and similar things every day and in all our life, and to
endeavour to make ourselves worthy, as much as possible, of the Sacrament; and we shall be
worthy of it if we obey the commandments of Christ our Lord, who promised afore these and
similar benefits to us, if we strive to turn away from evil things and cleave to good
things, and to reject cruelty and adopt mercy, which brought us benefits such as these.
Indeed if our Lord, who ordered those who pray to say: "Forgive us our debts as we also
have forgiven our debtors," added: "For if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither
will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses" —we will all the more not
receive the grace and the benefits prepared for us by God, while still in this world, if
we do not strive with all our power to have mercy upon our neighbours. We become,
therefore, worthy of this awe-inspiring Sacrament if we think of things of which we spoke
above; and if we acquire in the measure of our power, a mind higher than earthly things;
and if we contemplate heavenly things, and think continually that it is in their hope that
we have received this Sacrament.

37 It is fitting for those who always lead an unmarried life to spurn earthly things and
constantly look towards heavenly things, and remember the words of the blessed Paul: "He
that is unmarried thinks about the things that belong to His Lord, how he may please Him;
and he that is married thinks about the things that are of the world, how he may please
his wife." He shows here that it is suitable to the one who is unmarried to be free from
all worldly care, and to have his entire regard for the things that please God, to whom he
also joined himself by promise. It fits such a one, who has drawn near to this Sacrament
and has been called to heaven where there is neither marriage, nor food nor drink, to
live, in the measure of his power, beforehand, while still in this world, according to
that which is congruous to a world in imitation of which he chose to be unmarried. It is
also fitting for the married persons not to be tied to the cares of this world, as through
the Sacrament they have received the hope of the happiness of the world to come in which
we shall cast away marriage, and—to express myself succinctly—all the affairs of this
world. It is creditable for those who lead a married life to strive, with all their power,
to imitate the world to come, as the blessed Paul said: "It remains for those that have
wives to be as though they had none, and they that weep to be as though they wept not, and
they that buy to be as though they possessed not, and they that rejoice in possessions to
be as though they rejoiced not, and they that use this world to be as not abusing it, for
the fashion of this world passes away."

38 Because all this world stands in a worldly fashion which will pass away, according to
the words of the Apostle, and will undoubtedly suffer dissolution, and because we are
expecting the world to come which will remain eternally, it is right for us all to order
our life according to the things of the next world. This is especially good and suitable
to us, who partake of the food of the Sacrament and look for the things in the hope of
which we participate in the holy communion. The sins which come to us from human weakness
are not capable of deterring us from the communion of the holy Sacrament. As those who
live in sins are not to draw near to this communion without fear, so also those who care
for their salvation ought to draw near and receive the holy communion, while thinking that
as for the sustenance of our present existence we are by necessity obliged to take food,
so also for our future existence we partake of spiritual food from Divine grace, through
the Economy of Christ.

39 It is right for us, therefore, neither wholly to abstain from communion nor to go to it
unworthily, but we must strive with all our power after the things that are right, and
after having thus striven we must hasten to receive communion, well aware that if we
devote our life to unworthiness, and sin fearlessly, and do anything we take fancy to, and
are careless of our duty, we shall eat and drink this food and this beverage which words
cannot describe, to our damnation; but if we are careful of our salvation, and hasten
towards good works and meditate upon them continually in our mind, the sins that come to
us involuntarily from (human) weakness will not injure us; on the contrary, we will
acquire great help from our communion. Indeed, the body and the blood of our Lord, and the
grace of the Holy Spirit that is promised to us therefrom, will strengthen us in doing
good works, and invigorate our minds, while driving away from us all ungodly thoughts and
surely quenching (the fire) of sins, as long as we have committed them involuntarily, and
they have come to us against our will, from the weakness of our nature, and we have fallen
into them against our desire, and because of them we have sorrowed intensely and prayed
God in great repentance for our trespasses. The communion of the holy Sacrament will,
without doubt, grant us the remission of trespasses of this kind, since our Lord plainly
said: "This is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins, and this is my
blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins," and: "I am not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance.

40 If, therefore, we sin carelessly, it is hard for us to draw near to the holy Sacrament,
but if we do good works with diligence and turn away from evil works and truly repent of
the sins that come to us, we will undoubtedly obtain the gift of the remission of sins in
our reception of the holy Sacrament, according to the words of Christ our Lord, because
while we were sinners we have been chosen to a penitence, a deliverance and a salvation
that embrace all, solely by the grace of the One who has called us. This may also be
learnt from the words of the blessed Isaiah, because the awe-inspiring vision which he saw
was a sign of the Economy of Christ our Lord, from which all the earth was about to be
filled with Divine glory, was to learn also the mystery of the Trinity, and receive
evangelisation, faith and baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
To make this manifest, the Seraphim shouted in a loud voice the canticle: "Holy, holy,
holy the Lord of Sabaoth, the heaven and the earth are full of His praises."

41 When the prophet saw these things in a spiritual vision, he fell upon his face, because
he remembered human weakness, which is full of sin and iniquity; and one of the Seraphim
was sent to him, and took with tongs a live coal from the altar, and brought it to his
lips and said: "This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sins
are forgiven." There were, therefore, live coals on the altar: a figure of the Sacrament
that was to be given to us. A piece of coal is at first dark and cold, but when it is
brought to the fire it becomes luminous and hot. The food of the holy Sacrament was going
to be similar to this: at first it is laid upon the altar as a mere bread and wine mixed
with water, but by the coming of the Holy Spirit it is transformed into body and blood,
and thus it is changed into the power of a spiritual and immortal nourishment. This is the
reason why he (the prophet) saw the sign and the figure of what was to take place in the
form of live coals. The Holy Spirit also came down from heaven in the form of fire upon
the blessed Apostles, through whom the grace of the Holy Spirit was united to all the
human race. As the Seraph drew near, purified, and forgave all the sins of the prophet, so
also we ought to believe that by participation in the holy Sacrament our trespasses will
be completely wiped out, if we repent and are grieved and afflicted in our mind for our
sins.

42 When the prophet was granted this (vision) he fell upon his face and said: "Woe is me,
for I am wretched, sorrowful, and a man, and my lips are unclean, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips, and I have seen with mine eyes the King, the Lord of
Sabaoth." Because these are words of a repentant man, smitten by his conscience for his
sins, while he was in this state it was given to him to hear the above words when a live
coal was brought to him by the Seraph. And if we also strive to act similarly, it is clear
and evident that the grace of the Holy Spirit will promise us help to do good things, and
like fire which consumes thorns, will completely obliterate our sins. And the Seraph did
not hold the live coal with his hand but with tongs. This vision demonstrates that the
(faithful) should be afraid to draw near to the Sacrament without an intermediary, and
this is the priest, who, with his hand, gives you the Sacrament and says: "The body of
Christ," while he himself does not believe that he is worthy to hold and give such things;
but in the place of tongs he possesses the spiritual grace, which he received in his
priesthood, and from which he acquired the confidence for giving such things. He holds
(the elements) with his hand, so that he may himself receive confidence with his own
hands; and he not only is not in fear because of (their) greatness, but has much
confidence because of (their) grace.

43 If the live coal that was carried with tongs by the Seraph took away sins when brought
into contact with the lips, and did not scorch or wholly consume according to the nature
of the object that was seen, how much more will it not be right for you, when you see the
priest bestowing upon you this gift with his hands, and with great confidence, because of
the grace of the Spirit conferred upon him for this service—to have also confidence and to
receive it with great hope? You have fear because of the greatness of the gift, but when
you have received it, you will put your trust on Him who granted such things to mankind,
and who bestowed also such a confidence upon the priest; not only upon himself alone, but
upon those who are in need of the grace of God, if according to the words of the blessed
Paul, he stands "to offer sacrifice for his own sins and for the people's."

44 It is such a thought and such a love that we ought to possess concerning the holy
Sacrament. If a great sin, contrary to the commandments, is committed by us, and if we do
not induce ourselves to turn away from sins of this kind, it is right for us to refrain
always and without reservation from receiving the communion, because what utility can come
to us from this act if we are seen to persist in these sins? We must first induce our
conscience with all our power to make haste and fittingly repent of our sins, and not
permit any other medicine to ourselves. Let us know that as God gave to our body, which He
made passible, medicinal herbs of which the experts make use for our healing, so also He
gave penitence, as a medicine for sins, to our soul, which is changeable. Regulations for
this (penitence) were laid down from the beginning, and the priests and the experts, who
heal and care for the sinners, bring medicine to the mind of the penitents who are in
need, according to the ecclesiastical ordinance and wisdom, which is regulated in
accordance with the measure of the sins. This is the reason why our Lord said: "If your
brother shall sin against you, tell him his fault between you and him alone: if he shall
hear you, you have gained your brother, but if he will not, then take with you one or two,
that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established; and if he will
not hear them also, tell (it) to the Church, and if he will not hear even the Church, let
him be to you as a publican and an heathen man."

45 This is the medicine for the sins, which was established by God and delivered to the
priests of the Church, who in making use of it with diligence, will heal the afflictions
of men. The blessed Paul also said thus: "Teach in season and out of season, reprove,
rebuke, and comfort." He ordered that the sinners should be reproved "with all long-
suffering and doctrine," so that they should reveal their sins to (the priests); and the
"rebuke" is administered so that they may receive correction by some ordinances, and
obtain help therefrom for themselves. He ordered also to "comfort them," in the sense that
after they have been seen, through reproofs and rebukes, to be eagerly willing to amend
themselves, turn away from evil and be desirous of drawing near to good, he necessarily
added "doctrine and long-suffering" to all of them. He singled out "long-suffering"
because it is highly necessary, as it soothes the one who is gained; and also "doctrine"
because in everything that takes place, whether he (the sinner) be reproved or rebuked or
comforted, it is by words that he learns what is necessary and draws near to what is fit.

46 This the blessed Paul seems to have done when he learned that among the Corinthians an
insolent man had taken his father's wife. He ordered him to be delivered to Satan, who had
caused him to be driven out of the Church, and he showed the purpose of this by saying:
"for the destruction of his flesh, that he may live in spirit in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. As if he were saying: I order this so that he may suffer and be conscious of his
sins, and receive reproof; and that through rebuke he may be reprimanded, learn wisdom and
turn away from sin and draw near to duty; and after he has thus moved away from sin, he
will receive full salvation in the next world, because, at his baptism, he had received
the grace of the Spirit, which left him when he sinned and persisted in his sin. He
undoubtedly calls the salvation of the spirit the turning away from sins and the full
reception of the Holy Spirit, who will cause him to revert to his previous state.

47 When (that man) had repented in this way he (the Apostle) ordered in the second Epistle
that he should be received, and said: "Sufficient to such a man is his reproof, and you
ought contrariwise to love him and to comfort him more, lest perhaps such a one should be
swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your
love toward him. To whom you forgive, I forgive also." With these words he ordered that he
should be reinstated in the same confidence as that he had before, because he had been
rebuked and had amended his ways, and, through true repentance, had received forgiveness
of his sins. Afterwards he laid down rules concerning these things and said: "If any man
that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a drunkard, or a
railer, or an extortioner; with such a one do not eat. For what have I to do to judge them
also that are outsiders? do not you judge them that are insiders?"

48 He shows here that this correction is not to be given by us to those who are outsiders
but to those who are insiders: those who obey the things that are said and rightfully
accept a correction that comes from us. He shows also the nature of the gain that accrues
to those who are insiders, by saying: "But those who are outsiders, God judges." He
demonstrates here that if those who are outsiders remain without correction, they will
undoubtedly receive punishment, as being strangers also to religion; as to the children of
the faith, if they are willing to receive that correction, they will obtain the
forgiveness of their sins, and will be delivered from the threat of the punishment of the
world to come. Owing to the fact, therefore, that it may happen that some people do not
accept the correction that is offered to them, he said: "Put away from amongst yourselves
that wicked person," as if one were saying: let him be completely outside you. This is
similar to the sentence which our Lord uttered: "And if he will not hear the Church, let
him be to you as an heathen man and a publican."

49 Since you are aware of these things, and also of the fact that because God greatly
cares for us gave us penitence and showed us the medicine of repentance, and established
some men, who are the priests, as physicians of sins, so that if we receive in this world
through them, healing and forgiveness of sins, we shall be delivered from the judgment to
come—it is right for us to draw near to the priests with great confidence and to reveal
our sins to them, and they, with all diligence, pain and love, and according to the rules
laid down above, will give healing to sinners. And they will not disclose the things that
are not to be disclosed, but they will keep to themselves the things that have happened,
as fits true and loving fathers, bound to safeguard the shame of their children while
striving to heal their bodies.

50 After we have thus regulated our life, and known the greatness of the Sacrament, and of
the boundless grace to which we have been called; and been solicitous for our salvation,
and endeavoured to rectify our trespasses in the right way—we shall be deemed as deserving
the future hope for the sake of which we have been rendered worthy, by Divine grace, to
perform this Sacrament. And we shall delight in the Kingdom of Heaven and in all those
ineffable and eternal benefits, which all of us will be enabled to receive by the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory,
now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen. Here end the six discourses on the
interpretation of the sacraments of the holy Church, composed by Mar Theodore, bishop and
commentator of the Divine Books. Glory be to Christ our Lord.

51 [Most footnotes omitted, as being biblical references or explanation where the
translator deviated from the literal meaning. I have also removed Thou and Thee etc.]


PROLOGUE TO THE COMMENTARY ON ACTS
==================================

PROLOGUE TO THE COMMENTARY ON ACTS Theodore of Mopsuestia

c. AD 350–428

Bishop and the leading exegete of Antioch.

PROLOGUE TO THE COMMENTARY ON ACTS

PROLOGUE TO THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

1 [Translated by Ernst von Dobschütz] I. Long ago, indeed very long ago, by the grace of
God we finished the commentary upon the gospel of the most blessed Luke, and accordingly
without delay sent to thee the book as thou didst request by letter, O most admirable
Eusebius, of all bishops most dear to me, by that writing discharging my obligation to the
blessed Eusebius who was at that time living, and who not only bore the same name as thou
but had also the same zeal for virtue; and indeed he was also succeeded by thee in his
ecclesiastical dignity. And you both have had like zeal for the sacred Scriptures, so that
you manifested like desire for the labors of the blessed Luke which he expended in the
writing addressed to Theophilus, dedicating to him both the gospel and the Acts of the
Apostles. For he requested from us the commentary upon the gospel, intending, no doubt,
later to ask also from us one upon the Acts of the Apostles; but thou prizing very highly
the possession of the interpretation of the gospel, didst desire that the exposition of
the Acts of the Apostles, still lacking, be undertaken by me.

2 II. Now that the blessed Luke composed this writing, it is not difficult for him who
does not merely superficially glance over the sacred books to see; but it would be well
that the scope of the book be set forth by us also; for the gospels afford us accurate
knowledge of the economy (of salvation) and the (ideal of) conduct which are according to
Christ; in what manner he was begotten, what were the circumstances which attended his
birth, how submitting with great fidelity to the conduct prescribed by the law until he
was thirty years of age, he came to his baptism, initiating the new covenant in prototype,
the reality of which is the resurrection but the type of which is Christian baptism, as
this symbolizes both death and resurrection according to the saying of the blessed Paul
which saith, "As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death; we were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, in order that as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in
newness of life. For if we have become united with him by the likeness of his death we
shall be also by that of his resurrection. For it is manifest that in the baptism with
which the Lord Christ was baptized our baptism was accomplished;

3 with which therefore he commanded the apostles also to baptize men throughout the world,
since indeed he himself having withdrawn from the conduct that is according to the law set
forth the gospel way of life, having chosen disciples whom he thought adapted to his
teaching, and having set forth the laws which were especially adapted to such way of life,
and thus having by wonders and various words and deeds rendered them fully receptive of
the grace of the Holy Spirit, by which grace now especially they received all knowledge
with accuracy and were made competent for the instruction of the whole world, as the Lord
himself saith in the gospels, " Yet many things I have to say but ye cannot bear (them)
now; when he, the Spirit of truth shall come he will lead you into all truth," and in the
Acts of the Apostles, "But ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon |364
you, and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the
ends of the earth. And to all these things as a crowning conclusion he added the
resurrection, which is a token of the general resurrection of men, but above all of the
new creation in which all creation is to be recreated with men----"If any man is in Christ
he is a new creature. The old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.
But this (i.

4 e., the resurrection, or perhaps the new creation) we learn perfectly from the gospels
when the Lord Christ rising from the dead commanded his own disciples to transmit to all
men the faith in him ---- "Make them disciples, baptizing into the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit "----and to teach them that they should observe with
carefulness all things which he has commanded. But it remained for us to learn in what
manner it was possible for the disciples to bring these things to accomplishment, since it
was a wholly new thing and altogether incredible that fishermen, born in the country,
acquainted only with the language of the Syrians, altogether uneducated, twelve in number,
should fill the world with a story so incredible that a man crucified in Judea rose from
the dead, giving to all men assurance of the resurrection. 5 III. (1) On this account the
blessed Luke, in addition to the writing of the gospel, composed this book for us,
teaching how the Lord Christ has ascended into the heavens and how the Holy Spirit has
come down upon his apostles, and in what way by his grace it became possible that the
whole world should be filled with the teaching of Christ, and in what order God has
wrought these things with much wisdom, having formerly brought Jews to piety (i. e.,
Christianity) in order that it might be evident that the way of life and the faith which
are according to Christ are not opposed or hostile to the ordinance of the law or rather
to the God who put forth the law; and having after this with mysterious dispensations sent
forth upon the rest of men the instruction in piety in many and very various ways; and
first by the scattering of many of the pious in consequence of the things that happened in
respect to Stephen; as a result of which then Philip brought piety (Christianity) to the
Samaritans and taught it also to the eunuch from Ethiopia; and certain Cyprians and
Cyrenians came as far as to Antioch teaching the things of Christ not to Jews only but
also to Greeks;

6 and when they that were in Judea learned these things they were astonished at that which
had taken place, and sent Barnabas, who by his own words confirmed what had previously
been taught them, and taking along Paul as a fellow-helper of the word, by his assistance
brought it about by further teaching that at Antioch the disciples were first called
Christians, for the manifestation of the law then in force, and that they renouncing all
others chose to cleave to Christ only. And in the midst of these things the divine grace
of the Holy Spirit brought Cornelius and those with him from the Gentiles, through the
blessed Peter, to the doctrine of piety (Christianity), by clear and very fearful
manifestations, making it plain to all that this even had been decreed by God concerning
the |365 Gentiles in order that no place for gainsaying might be left for those who from
among the Jewish Christians wished to strive against these things.

7 (2) Many ways, therefore, as I said, God used to this end, not all of which there is now
time to enumerate, but we shall learn about them when we come to details: as last and
greatest, however, this, that with all force he drew from the law itself its most zealous
advocate and the one most hostile to the teaching of Christ----I mean the blessed Paul
----and led him to the knowledge of himself so that he became the most zealous herald of
Christ throughout the whole world, and exceeded all in his zeal for him, and with great
eagerness chose to do and suffer anything whatever so that he might teach all men that,
relinquishing all others, they should regard Christ both as Savior and as the author for
them of all things which are good; for the Gentiles had need of such a teacher, who being
plainly rescued by grace from an opinion godless and contrary to law, was then ready to
transmit piety (Christianity) to the Gentiles that were to be saved by grace.

8 (3) Therefore the blessed Luke has composed a detailed narrative of many things very
necessary to know and a teaching useful to those who are zealous to devote themselves to
piety; but above all things through his present writing he taught us this especially, how
by the mysterious dispensations and ordinances of the Holy Spirit it came to be necessary
that among all men the Christian conduct and way of life should prevail apart from all
legal observance. Now this doctrine the blessed Paul represented according to the grace of
the Holy Spirit which was given to him; for since through the apostles Jews were brought
to piety (Christianity) for the demonstration of the relation of Christians to the law, as
I said, and it was necessary for them to continue in the legal way of life lest abandoning
the former teaching they should lead those who were proselytes from among the Jews away
from piety (Christianity), the divine grace was constrained to appoint the blessed Paul to
this work, that wholly apart from legal observance he should preach piety (Christianity)
to the Gentiles; and the Holy Spirit caused that the apostles also, together with all
those (Christians) who were in Judea should with befitting readiness (or perhaps:
obligation = the contribution for the poor of Jerusalem) agree with him.

9 For precisely this made him in his task of teaching most worthy of credence, that having
been formerly a persecutor and having spoken against the disciples of Christ, he had
turned to piety (Christianity), who indeed having ventured so much formerly on behalf of
the law against piety (Christianity), would not have chosen now to teach these things
instead of those, viz., to separate Christian discipleship wholly from the legal conduct,
if he had not been compelled by the truth itself and so abandoned the former things and
went over to this doctrine. Therefore also Luke set forth first his (former) opinion which
was against Christianity and in favor of the law, and after this he relates in order his
calling and the things which were done by him on behalf of piety (Christianity), and how,
having gone even to Rome, he delivered piety (Christianity) to the Gentiles. |366 10 IV.
But having used no small part of the book for the narrative concerning these things and
having thus composed the whole writing in order that we might be able to learn from it how
the preaching of piety (Christianity) began among the Jews, and how from them it passed
over to the Gentiles, they having without the observance of the law received piety
(Christianity)----with this purpose, then, he put forth the book before us; which
purposing to interpret we shall now try as the grace of God shall grant us, to give the
necessary attention not only to clearness but also to brevity. On this account we shall on
the one side investigate everything, in order not to mutilate the body of the book which
is to be explained, and on the other hand shall not copy out all the sentences adding
thereto the detailed interpretation, lest we unduly extend the writing; but recalling in
many places also the explanations of the apostolic men which they have made, whether to
their opponents or else also to their own people, and in many places also the narratives
(we will be satisfied) to give only the meaning of the sentences, so that together with
clearness there may also be brevity in the writing.

11 Now the blessed Luke makes the beginning of the book of the Acts of the Apostles as
follows:...


INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF CHRYSOSTOM
======================================================

INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF CHRYSOSTOM Palladius of Galatia

c. AD 363–420

Author of the Lausiac History of the desert monks.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

1 [by Herbert MOORE] I. The Subject of the Memoir This treatise, obviously written by one
who had full information, and was an eye-witness of many of the incidents which he
narrates, is our best authority for the life of St. Chrysostom; we have other "lives," of
no great value, by Theodore, Bishop of Trimithus (c. 680), George, Bishop of Alexandria
(c. 620), " Leo the Emperor" (c. 900), and an anonymous writer; and accounts contained in
the fifth-century Church Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret and Philostorgius, the
theologian Photius (c. 850), and the pagan writer Zosimus, besides a few other references
in ancient authors. From these various sources we are able to draw not only a record of
Chrysostom's life, but also a picture of the man himself; and, incidentally, to gather
light upon the life of the Church in his days, and information as to uses and observances,
some of which have fallen into desuetude, while others are still practised among us.

2 The more carefully we study his life, the more lovable the man appears, and the more
conscious we are of our debt to him, for the noble standard of devotional, ministerial and
intellectual Christian life which he so fearlessly, faithfully and outspokenly maintained,
and bequeathed to us; and the more admirable seems his life, by contrast with the lives of
many of his contemporaries, pagan and, alas! even Christian. But he had the defects of his
good qualities. "He was a man who in his enthusiasm for virtue was over-bitter, and given
to wrath rather than to modest dealings; from the uprightness of his life he took no
thought for the future, and from his simplicity of character acted without deep
consideration. He used unmeasured freedom of speech with those whom he encountered, and as
a teacher greatly benefited his hearers; but was considered by those who did not know him
to be arrogant in his behaviour."

3 The Dialogue shows us the grounds on which these criticisms were based, and the author
offers various answers to them. "He had qualities admirable in a man of action; what could
be more precious than his generous and sanguine enthusiasm? He lacked the command over
himself, the coolness and tact, of a politician; we shall often notice this; but if he had
possessed these, would he have been Chrysostom?" (Puech). 4 It is impossible here to deal
with Chrysostom's literary work, which is more abundant than that of any other Greek
Church writer. While at Antioch he preached, chiefly during Lent, series after series of
homilies, or expositions of Scripture, in which he dealt with most of the books of the
Bible. "I think," writes Isidore of Pelusium, "that if the divine Paul had wished to
expound his own writings, he would not have spoken otherwise than this famous master; so
remarkable is his exposition for its contents, beauty of form, and propriety of
expression." Suidas, in the tenth century, says: "Since the world began, no one has
possessed such gifts as an orator: he alone merited the name of Golden-mouthed and divine
orator." Most of these homilies were taken down by shorthand writers, and apparently
corrected by himself. There are also extant a large number of sermons on special subjects,
the most famous of which are the twenty-one "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch in 387,
when the city was threatened with destruction by the Emperor, in punishment for a disloyal
outbreak; and many treatises on moral and theological subjects, including his splendid
work "On the Priesthood." Most of his remains are of the period of his life spent at
Antioch; at Constantinople he lacked the time, if not the opportunity, for such highly
intellectual work. A considerable number of spurious works are also attributed to him,
including some which were probably forged, or at least misreported, by his enemies, in
order to enrage the Empress against him.

5 II. The Teaching of the Dialogue Chrysostom's career is one more exemplification of the
perennial conflict between the Church and the world. The Church is to act as the salt of
the earth, the city set on an hill, the light of the world, the temple of the Living God;
her ideals will always be too high even for the saints to attain, but it is the few who
reach forth unto those things which are before that raise the average attainments of
mankind. Yet she must not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax, by pitching
her requirements too high for the practical use of the ordinary man living in the world,
and condemning things which God hath not condemned. She may neither make the heart of the
righteous sad, nor strengthen the hands of the wicked, by promising them life. Thus the
problem before the Church at all times is to steer her way between the two extremes of
undue severity and compliant subservience. Hence men of different temperaments will form
different judgments upon Chrysostom's career. One temperament is all for severity,
sometimes with the highest motives, sometimes, unconsciously it may be, otherwise; it
demands asceticism in life, rigour in doctrine, strictness in the enjoyment of the
pleasures of the world. Another, with high or (again perhaps unconsciously) with low
motives, thinks that men may best be won by being content with a low standard, with an eye
to the possibilities of the multitude, rather than of the few; it seeks to teach that all
worldly things are gifts of God, richly given us to enjoy. The first condemns the second
as truckling to the world; the second looks upon the first as a dreamer of vain dreams.
The first rebukes out of season as well as in season; the second marvels at his want of
tact.

6 There can be no doubt which is the point of view taken in this Dialogue. Records of
events which so deeply stirred the hearts of men are naturally coloured by the prejudices
of their writers; it is hard to believe that all the denunciations of Chrysostom's enemies
contained in the treatise were truly deserved. The strong common sense shown in
Chrysostom's writings, though sometimes obscured by extravagance of expression and
ignorance of economic laws, in regard to the riches, the pomps and the vanities of the
world, generally preserved him from the bitterness with which his disciple denounces them.
But those who fall short of our author's ideal have "leaped upon the ministry," dealt
deceitfully with the word of God, and perverted the Christian teaching. No language is too
strong; the priest who has not the virtues of the monk is worthy only of a company of
satyrs, or a priesthood of Dionysus. True, " the sword could not be blunt, or the bold
word be left unspoken," and Chrysostom did indeed "lift up his voice more clearly than a
trumpet. Yet in spite of Palladius' defence of Chrysostom's zeal, it is difficult to rise
from the study of the various records without forming the conclusion that in regard to
Eudoxia he spake unadvisedly with his lips; it seems impossible to doubt that the charges
of comparing her publicly to Jezebel and Herodias were founded on fact.

7 Because his eloquence had stirred the populace to reform, and he had the support of many
warm friends, he thought himself, like Savonarola in later days, strong enough to attack
her; and the shining of his light in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation was
extinguished for ever. Was he right or wrong? We answer the question according to our
respective temperaments. Yet whatever be our judgment, we know that the world does, after
all, respect high ideals, and unconsciously is raised by them, though it may seem to go on
its own way, and prefer to join in the censure upon the outspoken tongue. Chrysostom's
life and death were not in vain. 8 So far as we can judge, making all allowances for the
prejudices of our author, Theophilus' motives were not good, but evil. Chrysostom, like
Cranmer, appealed to an oecumenical council, which never was held, and never can be held.
"This world is a wrestling-ground," and Palladius sees that there is no such rough-and-
ready way to solve our problems. We are come to the general assembly of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven; but we are also come to God, the Judge of all.

9 But the world is not only a spiritual force, seductive and attractive, continually
tending to drag the ideal down to its own level. It has also its coercive power; its
rulers bear the sword, and can help forward or restrain the work of the Church. Its good-
will may be won by "tables" or by "flattery," but always with disastrous results. We find
Chrysostom and the monks, no less than Theophilus and Atticus, appealing to the civil
power, and using it, not as an impartial judge between conflicting parties, but as a means
of forwarding their respective views of the doctrine and discipline of the Church. But
Chrysostom found at last that the sword borne by the temporal power is two-edged.
Theophilus' party gained the upper hand, by a dexterous use of the selfish passions which
animate rulers and subjects alike; and the Church never regained her position as a power
for righteousness. No check was left upon the absolutism of the Emperor, henceforth
supreme in Church and State. No Ambrose said to him, " Thou hast imitated the guilt of
David; imitate him also in thy penance; no Hildebrand could raise the swan-like cry, "I
have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile. But as the world
advances in its conceptions of the worth of the individual, and of his rights and
liberties, absolutism becomes impossible, and the long-pent-up forces at last break out in
revolution, the more savage in proportion to the repression of the past.

10 "Though the wheels of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small. Our author,
like other early historians, may or may not have been right in attributing various
disasters to the Divine wrath at the judicial murder of Chrysostom; we see God's Hand in
greater things than these. A meeting of forty discontented bishops in a suburb, fourteen
hundred years ago, may seem of small importance to us; but it was one of the first steps
to the placing of the Church, like the State, under the heel of the Emperors----the
conception which has prevailed through the centuries in the Eastern Church. 11 A certain
nameless bishop is represented as paying a visit to Rome, where he has a conversation,
lasting several days (p. 148), with a deacon, Theodorus, who has heard only one side of
the story, emanating from Chrysostom's enemies, and wishes to know the truth, both as to
the facts, and as to the cavils at Chrysostom's personal character, embodied in the
charges brought against him at The Oak. Other persons are present during the discussion
(pp. 6, 60, 119, 165), one of whom joins in for a moment; and the final result is that
Theodorus rejects the disparaging accounts he has received, and utters an eulogy upon the
martyred saint. The supposed date of the Dialogue is shortly after Chrysostom's death, as
the news of it which has reached the deacon needs confirmation (p. 33). The events
referred to in the Dialogue may be arranged in historical order thus:----

12 A.D. PAGE 344-347. Chrysostom born at Antioch His education 370. Baptized 373. Enters
monastery near Antioch 381. Ordained deacon at Antioch 386.. Ordained priest at Antioch
398 (Feb. 26). Ordained bishop at Constantinople Reforms in the Church and in the city 44
ff. 399. Healing of the schism at Antioch 400. Revolt of Gainas Eusebius' accusation of
Antoninus 117 ff. 401 (Jan.). Visit to Ephesus Deposition of six bishops Theophilus'
condemnation of Origenism 402. Arrival of the monks at Constantinople 403. The Synod of
The Oak 65 ff First expulsion of Chrysostom Theophilus' intrigues 74 ff 404 (Easter----
April 16). Tumult in the Church Chrysostom's letter to Innocent 10 ff. Attempt upon his
life (June 20). Second expulsion 85 ff Burning of the Church Reception of the news at Rome
21 ff Deputation of Western Bishops 28 ff. Cruel treatment of Chrysostom's supporters 174
ff. (Sept.). Arrival at Cucusus 407 (June). Removal to Pityus

13 (Sept. 14). Death Accounts are introduced of Olympias (p. 150), of Porphyrius (p. 133
ff.) and of various monks (p. 145). The charges brought against Chrysostom which are met
are those of eating alone (pp. 98, 112), of deposing sixteen bishops (p. 116), of
excessive outspokenness (p. 160), of personal attacks upon individuals (p. 163), and of
haughtiness and insolence towards clergy (p. 165). The author also moralizes at great
length upon various subjects, which will be found in the General Index. III. The Author
The treatise as it stands is anonymous, but it is generally attributed to Palladius,
Bishop of Helenopolis. Its present title is "An historical dialogue of Palladius, Bishop
of Helenopolis, held with Theodorus, Deacon of Rome, concerning the life and conversation
of the blessed John, Bishop of Constantinople, the Golden-mouthed." And in the margin the
words are added, "In other (copies) it is written, Bishop of Aspona."

14 Thus the title represents, not that Palladius of Helenopolis, or of Aspona, is the
writer of the treatise, but that he is the nameless bishop who takes the chief part in the
Dialogue. Yet this is nowhere stated. He is described simply as a member of John's synod
(pp. 7, 66), from the east (p. 6), though not of Constantinople (p. 150), who had suffered
on his behalf (p. 173). Nor can it be intended to identify the bishop with Palladius; it
is asserted that it is the bishop's first visit to Rome (p. 6), yet within a few pages (p.
25) that Palladius of Helenopolis had been one of the first who brought to Rome the news
of the troubles. He is represented as an old man (p. 33), while Palladius was not forty-
five years old at the time of Chrysostom's death. There is nothing except the title to
suggest that the interlocutor is Palladius, who is always spoken of in the third person
----a fact which some have supposed to forbid the idea of his being the author. The same
argument would show that Boswell was not the author of the Life of Johnson. In fact, it is
quite clear that the bishop of the Dialogue is an entirely imaginary person. Yet George
tells us that he has made extracts from "the Dialogue of Bishop Palladius with Theodore,"
without naming his diocese; Theodore of Trimuthus also regards him as the bishop of the
Dialogue. Neither of these writers had better information than we possess; they simply
accepted the statement of the title as we have it.

15 Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis (Drepanum, in Bithynia), is known to us as the author
of the Lausiac History, an English translation of which, by W. K. Lowther Clarke, is
published in the present Series; this consists of a number of brief biographies or
anecdotes of worthies, chiefly monks, whom he had known, or of whom he had heard, during
his life as a monk in the desert, or in the course of his travels. The Introduction to
this work states that it was compiled for the same purpose of moral instruction which is
alleged for the Dialogue. He was evidently a friend of Chrysostom, who writes to him from
Cucusus, asking for his prayers, and saying that he ceases not daily to be anxious for his
welfare (Ep. 113). The History shows that he was consecrated Bishop of Helenopolis after
leaving the desert, in the year 400, "having become embroiled in the disturbance connected
with the blessed John"; the Dialogue gives us the account of his journey to Ephesus (p.
125 ff.), of his visit to Rome (p. 25), his voyage to Constantinople (p. 29), and his
exile to Syene (pp. 174, 178). On his return, he lived for two years in Galatia, and (in
417), as Socrates informs us, he was translated as bishop to Aspona, in Galatia. Two years
later he wrote his Lausiac History, and some time between 420 and 430 he died.

16 IV. The Treatise The only manuscript copy of the treatise appears to be one of the
eleventh century (Bigot in error says the seventh) in the Medicean Library at Florence;
the Life of Chrysostom by George contains copious extracts from the work, by which our
text may be checked. It was first edited, with a Latin translation, by Emeritus Bigot, in
1680. It is written in late Greek, many words being used in senses unknown to classical
authors, and grammatical mistakes are frequent. The historical order of events is
disregarded, as it is the chief object of the author, not so much to write a biography, as
to set forth an ideal, to stimulate his readers to follow the good example of the saint,
and to warn them against improperly seeking the priesthood (p. 173). 17 It is cast in the
form of a dialogue, a recognized method of presenting a moral treatise. Chrysostom's
famous work On the Priesthood is so written; the "liberal education "----of which
Palladius both here and in the Lausiac History speaks with admiration-----which he had
received certainly included the dialogues of Plato, and it was natural to him to use this
vehicle of thought. Palladius' love for his master led him to follow his example; but he
had not his knowledge of Plato, or his ability, and at times the Dialogue is somewhat
wearisome, and the form unsuitable to the subject. He cannot do two things at once----give
a memoir of a good man, and compile a moral treatise; when he introduces long accounts of
historical incidents, and, above all, the letter to Innocent (p. 10), he makes a wide
departure from the methods followed in the Platonic dialogues which have a similar purpose
to his own, such as the Apology of Socrates and Crito. We forget that we are reading a
dialogue, and have a sense of annoyance when the deacon interrupts with his jejune
questions and remarks.

18 The titles of ancient writings are frequently unreliable. I take it as probable that
something of this sort occurred; the original heading was simply "An historical dialogue
of Palladius"----that is, " by Palladius." Some copyist, noticing that the chief
interlocutor was a bishop, and that "Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis," was mentioned in
the treatise, supposed that the indication of authorship was meant to identify the
imaginary character in the Dialogue, and took upon himself to add the rest. Then a later
scribe, who knew that Palladius, the author of the History, had been translated to Aspona,
inserted the correction. The title "Golden-mouthed," at least, is unquestionably an
addition; it took the place of "John" in common parlance at a later time----about the
middle of the fifth century. This addition casts suspicion upon the rest of the heading.
But why should Palladius of Helenopolis have been picked out as the interlocutor from all
the Eastern bishops mentioned, unless there was a tradition, or more probably written
evidence in the heading as it then stood, specially connecting a Palladius with the
treatise, not as interlocutor, but as author? There certainly was such a tradition; in a
list of eighteen persons who wrote on the life of Chrysostom, contained in a "very ancient
codex" examined by Petavius, "Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis," is included; Photius says
that "Palladius was a bishop, and wrote of Chrysostom's doings in the form of a dialogue."

19 Palladius was by no means an uncommon name at the time; Dom Butler finds eleven persons
who bore it. If the author was named Palladius, the question arises: Was this Palladius
the Bishop of Helenopolis, the author also of the Lausiac History, or another man of the
same name? Bigot goes so far as to suggest that another Palladius succeeded the Lausiac
author at Helenopolis, and wrote the Dialogue. The learned Benedictine, Dom Cuthbert
Butler, Abbot of Downside Abbey, to whom we owe an edition of the Lausiac History
(Cambridge, 1904) which for accurate scholarship and minute research ranks with the finest
works of the kind ever issued, forms the conclusion that both writings have the same
authorship (in his monograph Authorship of the Dialogus de Vita Chrysostomi, Rome, 1908).
Bardenhewer says that " the author of the Lausiac History is easily identified with the
biographer of Chrysostom," though, for reasons which he does not give, he adds that "he
must not be confounded with the Bishop of Helenopolis." He had not the advantage of
reading Dom Butler's work, which shows conclusively that the Lausiac History was written
by this bishop.

20 Abbot Butler first weighs the evidence of style, and admits that there is a wide
difference, not only in vocabulary, but also in use of phrases and manner of diction
generally. We know that an author is usually rather proud of a telling word or phrase, and
is apt to repeat it again and again; and every one has little tricks of expression, which
are apt to occur all through his various works. About seventy words in Dom Butler's Index
appear in the Dialogue; but many even of these are common in Patristic literature, and a
great many curious words, as well as a great many characteristic expressions and phrases,
are found in the one, not in the other. Mr. Clarke remarks that a distinguishing feature
of Palladius style is his incessant use of the particle οὖν; this is not the case in the
Dialogue. The Dialogue abounds in grammatical mistakes; the author continually forgets the
construction with which he began one of his long sentences, and changes the subject in its
course. Few such errors occur in the simpler narratives of the History. The Dialogue has
many more quotations from Scripture, even in proportion to its length (219, as against
50). This is partly because in the non-historical portions the author is justifying
Chrysostom's actions by scriptural precedent; but while the quotations in the History are
brief, in the Dialogue they are sometimes very lengthy. Only eight are common to both
treatises, though in two other cases words from the same context are quoted to the same
effect.

21 On the other hand, Butler tells us that Dr. Zöckler speaks of "the essential similarity
of style," and that Dr. Preuschen considers the dissimilarity not sufficient to disprove
common authorship. The reader of one constantly meets with strange words, or uses of
words, or phrases, which recall the other; he feels that the writer who devised, or
appropriated, one set of words or expressions was capable of doing so with the other. If
we do not find so many "tricks of expression" as we should expect, we certainly find a
large number. Butler prints side by side thirteen such noteworthy phrases, showing a
remarkable amount of similarity. I have collected about seventy more, which may be found
through the key-words given in my Index I.; many other verbal coincidences might be added.
Further, Butler brings out a still more striking point: that both authors (if they be two)
use the same expressions about the same persons and things. I think that any reader who
takes the trouble to compare, not only the words and usages of words, but the phrases and
passages in which they occur, in the respective treatises, will see how unlikely it is
that two separate authors should have used so many identical expressions and descriptions.
Even one who does not know Greek will agree that so many characteristic phrases occurring
alike in Coriolanus and in Cymbeline would be a strong argument for identity of
authorship.

22 Style, however, is largely a matter of taste; Abbot Butler's scholarly instinct leads
him to attach more weight to the comparative use of Scripture texts. In both treatises the
quotations are made freely, more particularly in the Dialogue, variations being introduced
which are not found in any existing MS. It must not be supposed that ancient writers
habitually "verified their references." There was no Authorized Version in those days, and
the discovery of a number of passages in the cumbrous roll-volumes of manuscript
Scriptures, undivided into chapters and verses, without the help of a concordance, would
require great time and trouble. We have to compare the use of Scripture by ancient writers
with that of a preacher, rather than with that of a writer, of to-day. But we know that
the monks, of whom Palladius was one, devoted much of their time to committing the sacred
writings to memory (pp. 131, 149); many knew whole books by heart (Pall., L. H., xi.,
xxvi., xxxvii.). Quotations may thus be regarded as tolerably well representing MS. texts;
at least, it is generally more or less clear when a variation is due to defective memory,
when to difference in the original documents. Thus our author gets into trouble over his
quotation from Ezek. xxxiv., in which he evidently trusted to his memory; the two long
passages from Deut. xxxiii. and Ezek. ix. present but slight variations from the text, and
one of these (Deut. xxxiii. 16, 17) is of such a nature as to suggest that it was found in
the text the author used.

23 Dom Butler points out that in both treatises St. Matt. xi. 18 is combined with St.
Matt. xxi. 32, and that in each case the quotation is prefaced with "in reproach." Also
that St. Mark ii. 16 is combined with St. Matt. ix. 11; both in a manner which has no MS.
support or literary parallel. Both quote 1 St. John ii. 18, with the remark that "it was
the last hour 400 years ago." It is almost incredible that this should be mere
coincidence. Here again I have carried Dom Butler's argument further. An examination of
the O.T. quotations in the two treatises shows that where such variations occur from the
text of the LXX known as "B" (which Dr. Swete considers nearest the original version) as
are obviously not due to lapse of memory, but are confirmed by MSS. which we possess,
these variations are all found in one, or both, of the MSS. known as "Aleph" or "A." It
would certainly be strange that, with the multiplication of copies of the Septuagint which
must have taken place by A.D. 400, two different writers should have stumbled upon the
same texts. It is specially remarkable that in one text (Ecclus. viii. 9) inaccurately
quoted from memory in both treatises, exactly the same alteration of words, and exactly
the same alteration of order, appears in both. Is not this just what we find in the
habitual misquotations in which a preacher of to-day is found to persist?

24 Again, the author of the Dialogue, like Palladius of Helenopolis, has seen Egyptian
temples (p. 36); he has conversed with Hierax (p. 145); he is one of the forty bishops who
struggled on Chrysostom's side; he is full of admiration for monks; he knows the same
people----Isidore, Ammon, Dioscorus, Chronius, Macarius, Olympias. Finally, the knowledge
of Palladius' doings shown by the writer is extraordinary, if he was other than Palladius
himself. In four passages he gives a vivid and minute account of incidents in which
"Palladius of Helenopolis" is stated to have taken part: the deputation to Constantinople
(p. 29), the incidents connected with the Synod of The Oak (p. 66 ff.), the mission to
Ephesus (p. 125 ff.), and the journey of the Eastern bishops (p. 178), which continues the
narrative of the deputation. Only the account of the death-bed scene approaches these;
details of this he would easily obtain. And he not only uses the same literary devices as
in the History (such as "a soldier told me," "they say,"----p. 178----"it is said") when
recording incidents of which he was an eyewitness; but once (p. 29) he forgets that he is
writing anonymously, and passes, like the author of the History, from indirect to direct
narration, as St. Luke does in the Acts. We note that in both treatises proverbs and
sententious observations are frequent, and that in both an inordinate amount of space is
devoted to food and drink----or abstinence from them.

25 It is, of course, possible that some later writer "edited" the original work. It may be
fanciful to suggest that pains seem to be taken to avoid the use of the particle
"therefore," as though the author, or his editor, had deliberately substituted other
connecting words; the particle appears at times in several sentences together, as if the
self-imposed rule had been forgotten. But we may account for the difference of style which
has led some to deny to the author of the History the authorship of the Dialogue, by
considerations of the difference of subject, the lapse of time, and the likelihood of his
employment of an amanuensis. There is no need to argue the probability that the smaller
work preceded the greater, since the design of both is stated to be the same----to edify
readers by setting before them high examples of the Christian life. When the author found
that the brief records of the History proved of interest and value, he would naturally try
to do the same thing on a larger scale with the life of a single man, the most eminent
Christian of the day. He could not write a lengthy treatise at Syene, if only for the want
of "prime parchment" (p. 173), and is not likely to have done so during his stay in
Galatia, with his mind distracted by current events, and his uncertainty as to his future.
The reference to Theophilus (who died in 412) on p. 190 does not necessarily imply that he
was still alive; on the other hand, the mention of a collection of Chrysostom's writings,
especially of his letters (p. 100), seems to demand a certain lapse of time.

26 Palladius wrote his History, as we saw, when he was about fifty-three years old. He had
gone about, like Herodotus, with a notebook----mental, if not material----from which he
afterwards drew his narratives and tales. Probably he had often rehearsed them in
conversation, as men do, to fellow-travellers, and to little knots of friends interested
in the monkish life, in the winter evenings, and wrote them down much as he had told them
by word of mouth. Hence the "simple and natural air" of which Tillemont speaks. But in the
Dialogue he is setting himself a more serious task. He is aiming at the standard set him
by his models, Plato and Chrysostom himself; the author of a chatty volume of
reminiscences naturally adopts a more grandiose style when making a solid contribution to
literature. But he had not the gifts to do this successfully; he falls into the "more
affected style of a man who has some taint of naughty rhetoric" (Tillemont). His mind had
been widened, and his vocabulary enlarged, by his intercourse with men, since the days
when, as a monk, he had conned over the materials of his History; but the expressions
which he had used of his friends were still connected with them in his mind.

27 But more. He had lived a hard life; after thirteen years of ascetic toil as a monk, he
had travelled through Palestine, to Constantinople, visited Rome, suffered on Chrysostom's
behalf, endured a trying journey to Syene, and there spent six years in exile. What had
been the effect of these years of hardship upon his health, and especially upon his eyes,
in the sand and glare of Egypt? We have spoken of the kind of grammatical errors which are
frequent in the Dialogue; are they not just such as might be expected to occur if a man
who was more or less accustomed to writing for himself was dictating to an amanuensis? Not
being able to see his sentences as they rolled from his pen, his thoughts wandering while
the scribe committed them to paper, he would be very likely to fall into such mistakes. In
several places where the text needs correction, the slips seem to be due to mishearing as
much as to mis-copying; in one passage especially (p. 108) the words are thrown down
almost at random, as if the reciter had gone too fast.

28 "My conclusion," Dom Butler is good enough to write to me, "has been accepted by the
great majority of the critics, though a Dutch professor, Aengenvoort, has contested it." I
venture to hope that the additional evidence which I have collected may have the same
effect upon the Dutch professor as the arguments of the imaginary bishop in support of the
scholarly divine whom he held in honour had upon the deacon. "But if any one can speak
more truthfully," by tracing the vocabulary of the author elsewhere in Patristic
literature, " I will welcome him as a corrector of error and a lover of the brethren." In
any case, the author is so clearly a contemporary, and in many cases a careful eye-
witness, of the events which he narrates, that his work may be regarded as a reliable
authority for the life of the saint. V. The Present Edition

29 I have followed Bigot's text, as given by Migne (Patr. Gr., vol. xlvii.), though where
Migne offers a good emendation or conjecture, I have not scrupled to avail myself of it,
without necessarily calling attention to the matter in the notes. The notes are somewhat
more full than those generally given in this series of translations. It is my hope that
the attraction of St. Chrysostom's name, and the simplicity of a biography as compared
with a theological treatise, may secure a wider circle of readers from among those who do
not make theology and Church antiquities their special study. I have therefore given some
information upon points of history and Church life which such readers may not have leisure
to investigate for themselves. I have referred to other writers of the time, where their
records amplify, or explain, events in the Dialogue, and given a certain number of
quotations from Chrysostom's writings, to show how far the author's thoughts were directly
influenced by them. Also I have given references to the Lausiac History----not by any
means so fully as would be possible, but to keep in the reader's mind the question of
authorship, by showing a few of the resemblances which justify the assignment of both
treatises to the same author.

30 The numbers at the top of the page refer to the pages in Migne's text. I have provided
headings for the chapters and for divisions within the chapters for the convenience of the
English reader. An excellent Life of Chrysostom was published by Dean Stephens (John
Murray, 1880), which supersedes an earlier Life by Neander (1848). St. Jean Chrysostome,
by Aimé Puech (Paris: Lecoffre, 1913), a slighter work, combines French insight with
French grace of style and phrase, while Dom Chr. Baur has published (Louvain, 1907) a
"very complete and conscientious" study of Saint Jean Chrysostome et ses œuvres dans
l'histoire littéraire. [Footnotes renumbered and moved to the end]


DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
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DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM Palladius of Galatia

c. AD 363–420

Author of the Lausiac History of the desert monks.

INTRODUCTION

THE DIALOGUE OF PALLADIUS

[Translated by Herbert Moore]

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY

1 The Sin of Self-seeking in Spiritual Things The gifts of God, my excellent brother
Theodorus, seem to me to fall into three classes. Some are common to all, and not
apportioned to individuals, while others are common to all, yet apportioned. The third
class consists of those which are not common to all, nor apportioned to individuals, nor
unapportioned, but given as a special privilege to those to whom they have been given.
Deacon. Your opening observation sounds reasonable; please tell us the kind of gifts you
assign to each class. Bishop. The gifts which are essentially noble, without which life
would be wretched, are common to all, and not apportioned. Deac. For example, father?
Bish. First, the God of all, together with His |2 Only-begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit,
is common to all, and not apportioned; every one who wishes can by contemplation possess
Him in His entirety, without material aids. Next to God, there are the divine scriptures,
and the supra-mundane powers. Besides these, the sky, the sun, the moon, and all the host
of stars, and the air itself, are common, and not apportioned; they are shared in their
entirety by all. We need not give further illustrations of the class of unapportioned
gifts. The land was at one time common to all, and unapportioned, and so were the streams
of water; but since the mad craving for possessions became intensified in the souls of
lovers of pleasure, the weightier elements of earth and water came to be apportioned.

2 Deac. What you say is very clear; complete your account of the second class, that of
apportioned gifts. Bish. I will; we cannot leave the web of our subject incomplete. Well,
gold, and silver, and every sort of metal, and timber, and in short every kind of raw
material, are common to all, yet apportioned; for they are not at the unreserved disposal
of every one who likes. Deac. Again a very satisfactory account. I am wondering if you
will not be hard put to it to demonstrate your third class, of special gifts. You laid it
down, that there are some gifts which are neither common to all, nor apportioned, but are
the special privilege of those who are worthy of their bestowal. |3 So make your final
flourish, and then tell us where you have come from, and the facts in regard to which we
desire to learn the truth.

3 Bish. If it lies in my power, and if I have the requisite knowledge of these matters
about which you wish to inquire, I will not hesitate, and will add nothing; but first, I
suppose, I will pay off the debt owing from my argument as best I can. Well, you will find
that there is no apportionment in virginity, and in the unmarried state generally; these
do not belong to the class of gifts common to all, or to that of those which are
apportioned. Not every one who desires it is unwedded, but he who is able; for many
married people long that they might be in the virgin state, but cannot attain to it, as
they are already in wedlock. At the Olympic games, the herald calls him who wishes to run,
but crowns only the victor; so it is with chastity, as the gospel says. Peter, you
remember, raised the objection to the Saviour's teaching, that "If the case of the man be
so with his wife, it is not good to marry"; and the Saviour answered, "But it is not for
all men to receive this saying, but they to whom it is given." Do you see, that it is not
for all, but for those to whom it is given?

4 Deac. I expected that you would have some difficulty in your demonstration of the
special gifts, but it appears that you have won us to your view by your forcible and
scriptural language. |4 Illustrations from the Old Testament Bish. As you have grasped
this, I will enrich my argument with other scripture proofs, so that evil-minded people
may be persuaded to give up grasping at what they cannot get. We find that in the divine
scriptures the priesthood is not common to all, nor apportioned, but is the special
privilege of those who are worthy of it. Thus the great-souled Paul declares in his
instructions to the Hebrews: "For no man taketh to himself the honour, but he who is
called by God; so also Aaron," he says, "did not glorify himself, to be made a high
priest." For there were six hundred thousand men, many of them full of zeal; but one,
Aaron, was proclaimed high priest, and the miracle of the rod which put forth nuts
convinced the mass of the people that the priest was chosen of God. Some, however, in
their ignorance of what is good, were bitten with the lust of vain reputation, and
supposing that this was one of the common or apportioned gifts, leaped upon the office as
self-ordained priests. They received the reward which their madness deserved; they made
the very ground upon which their gathering was held bear witness to their wilfulness. It
was Dathan and Abiram who were enamoured of the dignity, like men looking upon an harlot;
they and their dupes were plunged into destruction beneath the earth, and found their
places of assemblage to be their unexpected tomb.

5 Next, Uzzah, unmindful of the events I have mentioned, was led by the lust of power to
fall in love with the office; and one day, as the ark was being carried along the road
upon a wagon, it happened that the ox which drew it jolted and shook the ark. Uzzah, who
was in attendance, took hold of it with his hand, to prevent the coffer from being |5
overturned. God saw it, and it pleased Him not, as it afforded a precedent to headstrong
persons; He prevented this, by smiting Uzzah even unto death, as a warning to posterity to
refrain from such folly. An Illustration from the New Testament 6 Long afterwards, after
the advent of Christ, Simon Magus, of the village of Gethae, a cunning professor of the
teaching opposed to the truth, really a bad man of wicked life, hit upon a subtle plan to
satisfy his lust of power; afraid, apparently, of the punishment which befel these men of
old time, he did not wish to reap as they reaped, through sowing as they sowed. So he hid
the wolf in the sheepskin, and approached the apostles with flattery, offering them money,
so as not to seem to grasp what he was wrongfully anxious to buy, and saying what we
should expect of him and his like. "Take this money," he said, "and give me the power of
your high office, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive (the gifts of the) Holy
Ghost. And he had been baptized into the name of Jesus! The answer of the apostolic band
was this: "Begone, man; the grace of God does not allow itself to be sold. And as he
continued knocking at the door with his appeals, they said again: "Why buy that which you
can get for nothing, if you live worthily of it? But as he considered the burdens of the
life, and his own unwillingness to bear them, and the uncertainty of the matter, he again
produced the money from his purse, thinking to ensnare the disciples of the Saviour by
deceit. He Who takes |6 the wise in their own craftiness expressed His indignation at this
by the mouth of Peter.

7 "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought to purchase the gift of God with
money. Yet He offered him the medicine of repentance, applying oil to his ailment, in His
long-suffering. "Repent," He said; "it may be that the thought of thine heart shall be
forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of
iniquity. For God, in His love of souls, wills not the destruction of offenders. 8 The
Characters in the Dialogue Introduced Now, then, that I have explained my first remarks to
the best of my powers, Theodorus of noble name, and deacon of the mysteries of the truth,
ask us what you wanted to find out. Deac. "Where have you come from to give us your
company? Bish. From the east. You may be sure of that, for I have never seen Rome before.
Deac. What particular object brought you here? Bish. My desire for your peace. Deac. Is
our peace different from yours? Bish. No, it is not different, but. one and the same; the
peace which the Saviour has given from heaven, saying to His disciples, "My peace I give
unto you." And to confirm His gift of grace He repeated, "My peace I leave to you." The
word "give" He applies to His own work, "leave" to the Holy Spirit's; in the Spirit,
through Christ, they are to reveal to the Gentiles the knowledge of the Father. But the
sad condition of the poor East is like that of a man with his limbs paralyzed, who finds
that the vital forces make their way to the |7 healthier parts of his body. Her limbs are
paralyzed and unable to perform their proper functions, because concord has fled from her;
most of us, her champions and lovers, have become exiles from our country, as we cannot
live in our native land safely and quietly, on account of our attachment to the truth. We
venture to hope that we may spend among you the few days of life that still remain to us
in accordance with the gospel.

9 Deac. It seems to me that you have been sent, to us, excellent father, by divine
providence; for I find that your sorrow is in tune with our troubles. I think that you
must be a member of the synod of John the bishop of Constantinople. Episc. That is so.
Deac. I urge you then, as in the presence of God, to give us a really true account of
events there, the details of which we are anxious to hear; remembering, that if you tell
us anything contrary to the truth, you will have God as your inquisitor and judge, and
will be convicted by us as well, when we learn the discrepancy. For it is not one, or two,
or three, or ten persons, but more, who have given us accounts of what has happened at
Constantinople; nor were they casual travellers, but some of them bishops, and presbyters,
and members of the monastic order. As you may wish to have a short statement of the part
the Roman Church has played, I will give you some information on the point.

10 How the News reached Rome The first to arrive here was a reader from |8 Alexandria,
with letters from Pope Theophilus, notifying us that he had deposed John. Upon reading
this letter, the blessed Pope Innocent was somewhat troubled; he condemned the impetuosity
and pride of Theophilus, as he had not only written on his own single authority, but also
had neglected to make it clear why he had deposed him, or who had joined him in the
sentence of deposition. He thus found himself in difficulty; he was disinclined to answer
the letter, as the case was so obscure. Meanwhile, one Eusebius, a deacon of the Church of
Constantinople, who was staying in Rome upon ecclesiastical business, came to Pope
Innocent, and presented written memorials,adjuring him to wait for a short time, to see
the unmasking of the plot. Three days afterwards |9 arrived four bishops of John's party,
all devout persons----Pansophius of Pisidia, Pappus of Syria, Demetrius of the Second
Galatia, and Eugenius of Phrygia; they delivered two letters, followed by a third, one
from Bishop John, one from forty other bishops in communion with John, the last from
John's clergy. All three letters agreed in their representation of the disturbance caused
by ignorant persons. The substance of John's letter was as follows:---- |10

CHAPTER II. CHRYSOSTOM'S LETTER TO INNOCENT

1 The Urgent Need for Action "To my Lord the reverend and most holy Bishop Innocent, John
sends greetings in the Lord. "Your piety has doubtless heard, before the receipt of this
letter, of the daring illegalities committed here; for the magnitude of the crime has left
no part of the world in ignorance of the cruel tragedy. Rumour has carried the news to the
furthest bounds of the earth, and caused everywhere much grief and sorrow. But as the
circumstances call not only for lamentation, but for remedial action, and consideration of
the steps to be taken to stay this furious tempest raging within the Church, we thought it
necessary to instruct my most honoured and devout lords, the Bishops Demetrius,
Pansophius, Pappus, and Eugenius, to leave their own Churches, and to face the dangers of
a long sea voyage, and set out for a lengthy absence from home; to fly to your love, and
explain all the facts clearly, so as to arrange for the speediest possible redress. With
them we have sent the most honoured and well-beloved deacons Paul and Cyriacus. These
persons shall take the place of a letter, and quickly inform your love of what has
happened. |11

2 Theophilus reveals his Hostility "The fact is, that Theophilus, to whose hands has been
entrusted the bishopric of the Church of Alexandria, on representations made against him
to our most pious king, was commanded to appear before him alone; but he arrived with a
large company of Egyptians, as if anxious to show, from the very beginning, that he came
for war and conflict. Next, on landing at the great and godly city of Constantinople, he
did not go to Church, according to the rule which has prevailed from ancient times, or
have any dealings with us, or join with us in conversation, in prayer, or in communion,
but came off the ship, hurried past the porch of the Church, and went somewhere outside of
the city to lodge. We repeatedly invited both him and his companions to make their stay
with us (indeed, we had everything ready, including rooms and all proper accommodation);
but both they and he refused the offer. We were much perplexed at this conduct, as we
could not find any reason for such undeserved enmity; none the less, we did all that could
be required of us, and acted correctly, continually inviting him to confer with us, and to
say why he, at the very outset, kindled such a conflict, and caused offence to so
important a city. But as he still persisted in refusing to state his reason, and his
accusers were urgent, the most pious king commanded us to go across to his lodging, and
hear his statement of his case; for he was charged with violence and murder, and countless
other crimes.

3 Chrysostom's Correct Attitude "We, however, had too much respect and honour for the laws
laid down by the fathers, and for |12 Theophilus himself; and we had in our possession his
own letter, in which he said that cases ought not to be taken beyond the boundaries [of a
province], but the affairs of each province should be dealt with in that province. We
therefore declined to try the case, and even protested most vigorously. Theophilus Secures
his Expulsion 4 "But Theophilus seemed to think he was dealing with his old enemies; he
summoned my archdeacon |13 in a very high-handed manner, as if the Church was already a
widow, and had no bishop, and through him brought all the clergy over to his side. Thus
the Churches were in a state of disorder; the clergy attached to them were led astray, and
persuaded to present memorials against us, and egged on to become our accusers. Having
succeeded so far, he sent and called us to come before him for judgment, although he had
not cleared himself of the charges brought against him; a thing distinctly contrary to the
canons and all the laws of the Church. But as we were aware that we were not to come
before a judge (we would have appeared ten thousand times before a judge!), but before an
enemy and a foe, as his actions before and afterwards showed, we sent |14 to him the
Bishops Demetrius of Pisinum, Eulysius of Apameia, and Luppicianus of Appiaria, and the
priests Germanus and Serus; we answered with becoming moderation, and said that we raised
no objection to a trial, but to trial by an open enemy and foe. Seeing that he had as yet
received no charges against us, and had from the first acted as he had, and dissociated
himself from Church, and communion, and prayer, and was bribing accusers, winning over our
clergy, and leaving Churches without shepherds, how could he with justice mount the
judge's throne, which in no sense belonged to him?

5 For it was out of order for an Egyptian bishop to act as judge in Thrace, when he
himself was under accusation, and an enemy and foe of the accused. Yet he was unabashed by
all these considerations, and persevered in his design; when we declared that we were
ready to clear ourselves of the charges in the presence of a hundred or of a thousand
bishops, and to prove our innocence, shown by the very fact of our offer, he would not
allow it. In our absence, in spite of our appeal to a synod, and our request for a trial
(it was not a fair hearing, but open hostility, that we wished to avoid), he admitted our
accusers, and set free offenders whom I had placed in confinement, and without waiting for
them to clear themselves of the charges against them, accepted their memorials, and drew
up minutes. All this was contrary to rule, and canon, and order. In fact, to make a long
story short, he left no stone unturned, until by |15 sheer force and tyrannical action he
drove us from the city and the Church.

6 Chrysostom's Expulsion and Return "Late one evening, when I was being escorted through
the streets by the whole of the populace, I was arrested by the city governor's agent in
the middle of the city, dragged away by force, and put on board a ship, which set sail by
night; when I was summoning a synod for a just trial. Who could hear of these doings
without shedding tears, though he had a heart of stone? But, as I said before, they call
not only for lamentation, but for redress; I therefore appeal to your love, to arise and
grieve with me, and do all you can to stay these evils. For there is more yet. Even after
my departure, Theophilus did not put a stop to the lawless doings of his party, but girded
himself for further action. Our most pious king expelled those who had so shamelessly and
unrighteously intruded themselves upon the Church, and many of the bishops, when they
observed the lawlessness of my opponents, retired to their own homes, so as to avoid their
attacks, as they would an universal conflagration; while we were recalled to the city and
to the Church, from which we had been unrighteously expelled, thirty bishops introducing
us, and our most reverent king sending a notary for the purpose. Then Theophilus, for no
rhyme or reason known to us, at once went off like a runaway slave.

7 The Emperor summons a Synod "Upon our re-entry into the city, we petitioned the most
reverent king to summon a synod to exact |16 retribution for all that had been done.
Conscious of his guilt, and afraid of conviction, when the royal letters had been issued
throughout the realm and gathered the whole episcopate from every quarter, at dead of
night he secretly flung himself into a boat, and so made off, taking all his party with
him. Even so, we could not let the matter drop, in the confidence our good conscience gave
us, but renewed our request to the most pious king. He did as became his piety, sending a
despatch to Theophilus, requiring him to return at once from Egypt, with all his
followers, to give an account of what had taken place, and not to think that his
unrighteous proceedings, conducted in our absence, with one side only heard, and contrary
to so many canons, were sufficient to exculpate him.

8 Chrysostom's Second Expulsion "But he paid no attention even to the royal letters, but
stayed at home, pleading in excuse a possible uprising of the people and an unfortunate
outburst of zeal, on the part, presumably, of some of his supporters; although before the
king's letter was issued this same people had loaded him with abuse. But we will not
labour this point now; we only mention it to show that his actions proved his guilt.
"However, even after this we did not rest, but persisted in our claim for a trial, with
proper inquiry and response; for we were ready to prove our innocence, and their
outrageous lawlessness. Now he had left behind some Syrians, who had accompanied him, his
fellow-actors in the whole drama. We were ready to face these before a judge, and
repeatedly pressed our application, claiming that either minutes of the proceedings should
be given us, or the memorials of our accusers, or at least that the nature of the charges,
or the accusers themselves, should be made known to us; we were granted none of these
requests, but were again expelled from the city. |17

9 Acts of Sacrilege at Constantinople "How can I tell you what followed, a tale more
harrowing than any tragedy? What words can express it? What ears can hear it without a
shudder? While we were pressing the requests I have mentioned, a strong body of soldiers
invaded the Church, on the Great Sabbath, when evening was fast closing in, forcibly
expelled all the clergy who were with us, and surrounded the chancel with arms. Women who
were in the houses of prayer,unrobed in readiness for baptism on that day, fled naked in
face of this savage attack, not even allowed to clothe themselves as womanly decency
requires. Many of these were even thrown outside injured, and the fonts were filled with
blood, and the holy water dyed red from their wounds. |18 10 "Even this was not the end of
the horror; the soldiers then entered the chamber in which the sacred vessels were kept,
some of them, we know, being unbaptized, and saw all that was within; in the turmoil the
most holy blood of Christ was poured out upon the garments of the women of whom I spoke.
It was exactly like a barbarian man-hunting raid. The people were driven out into the
country, and all the laity fled from the city; high festival though it was, the churches
were emptied of their congregations, and more than forty bishops, in communion with us,
were driven out, with the laity, for no possible reason. Everywhere, in the marketplaces,
the houses, the country districts, were cries, groans, wailings, lamentations, and streams
of tears; no part of the city escaped these calamities. Lawlessness reached such a pitch,
that not only the actual victims, but even those who had not actually suffered as we did,
were distressed in sympathy with us, including not only our fellow-believers, but
heretics, Jews, and Greeks, as well; everything was in a state of disturbance, and
confusion, and lamentation, as if the city had been captured by force of arms. And all
this wickedness was done against the wishes of the most pious king, under cover of night,
at the instigation of bishops, who were not ashamed to have corporals marching in front of
them, instead of deacons.

11 The Injury to the whole Church "When day came, the whole city moved outside |19 the
walls, and kept the feast under trees and thickets, like sheep scattered abroad. I leave
you to imagine all that followed; for, as I said, it is impossible to go into all the
details in words. It is especially hard, that even now we have not seen the end of all
this long series of crying evils, or even any prospect of it; on the contrary, the evil
spreads every day, and we are a laughing-stock to every one----though it would be more
true to say that no one, even the most hardened offender against law, laughs----but, as I
said, every one laments this new form of lawlessness, the very crown of evils. Who can
tell the disorders of the other Churches? For the trouble has not been confined to
Constantinople, but has extended into the east. When some evil matter discharges from the
head, all the limbs are corrupted; in the same way, now that the evil has begun in this
great city, disorder has made its way everywhere, like water from a spring. Everywhere
clergy are in revolt against bishops, and as for the lay congregations, some are split up
into factions, others arc likely to be so; everywhere we find the throes of evil, and the
undoing of the whole world.

12 An Appeal for Help "With the whole of the facts before you, my most learned and
reverent lords, show, we pray you, the courage and zeal which we expect of you, so as to
check this flood of lawlessness which has burst upon the Churches. For if these
proceedings become a precedent; if it come to be within the powers of all who wish, to
invade other provinces, however distant from their own, and expel whom they will, and to
do on their own authority whatever they will; be sure that everything will go by the
board, and implacable war will overrun the whole world. |20 Every one will expel his
neighbour, and be expelled in turn. To prevent such universal confusion, I beg you to
declare in writing, that these lawless proceedings, transacted in our absence, and with
only one side heard, while we raised no objections to a fair trial, have no force (as
indeed, from their very nature, they cannot), and that those who have been guilty of such
lawlessness lie under penalty for breach of ecclesiastical law; while to us, "who have not
been arrested, nor convicted, nor shown to be guilty, grant that we may have the benefit
of your customary good services, and of your love, and your help in every way, as
heretofore.

13 Request for a Trial "But if these grievous law-breakers, even now, are willing to
declare the charges on the strength of which they undeservedly expelled us, let the
documents be presented to us, the memorials of our accusers be produced, and an
unprejudiced court sit; so let us be tried, and make our defence, and let us show
ourselves guiltless, as indeed we are, of the allegations brought against us. For their
present proceedings are beyond all order, and all ecclesiastical law and canon. Such
outrages have never been known even in heathen courts of justice, or even in a barbarian
court. Scythians and Sarmatians would never have decided a case after hearing one side
only, in the absence of the accused, when he raised no objections to a trial, but only to
personal hatred, and when he asked for judges to any number, declaring himself to be
innocent, and was ready in the presence of the whole world to clear himself of the
charges, and to show himself to be absolutely guiltless.

14 "Take all these points, I pray you, into consideration, and make full inquiries of our
most reverent brother lord bishops; and take such steps |21 as commend themselves to you.
In so doing you will render service not only to us, but to the general welfare of the
Churches, and you will receive your due reward from God, Who unceasingly works for the
good of the Churches. I address this letter also to Venerius, Bishop of Milan, and to
Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileia. Farewell in the Lord."

CHAPTER III. THE EMPEROR OF ROME TAKES ACTION

1 Innocent calls for a Synod of Inquiry In answer to this letter, the blessed Pope
Innocent sent to each party a formal letter, declaring himself to be in communion with
them both, at the same time nullifying the judgment supposed to have been given by
Theophilus, and stating that another synod, in which full confidence could be placed, of
western and eastern bishops, must be summoned, first the friends, and then the enemies, of
the respective |22 parties to retire from the assemblage, since as a general rule neither
of these gives an unprejudiced verdict. After a few days, Peter, one of Theophilus'
priests, arrived, and with him Martyrius, a deacon of the Church of Constantinople, who
presented letters from Theophilus, and what professed to be certain minutes; in which it
appeared that John had been condemned by thirty-six bishops, of whom twenty-nine were from
Egypt, seven from other parts. Pope Innocent read these minutes, and finding that the
charges were not serious, and also that John had not been present in person at his
conviction, renewed his denunciation of the mad fury of Theophilus, in issuing, like an
evil discharge, a hasty sentence against an absent man. He dismissed them, therefore, with
letters expressing his censure, and besought God with prayer and fasting, that the breach
of unity in the Church might be closed, and brotherly love be cemented. The tenor of his
letter was as follows:----

2 "Brother Theophilus, we recognize both you and your brother John to be in communion with
us; we expressed our views to this effect in our previous letter. And now, without
departing from this our determined policy, we can only write to you again the same
message, however many letters you may send us. This is, that unless a proper judgment
confirms these childish proceedings, it is impossible for us, without reason given, to
separate ourselves from communion with John. If then you are sure of your verdict, meet a
synod assembled as Christ ordained, and there openly state your accusation under appeal to
the canons of Nicaea (for the |23 Church of Rome accepts no other canon); so you will
stand on firm ground against all cavil." Further News Arrives A little time slipped by,
and then a priest of Constantinople, Theotecnus by name, arrived, presenting letters from
John's synod, of twenty-five bishops or rather more; in which they advised us, that John
had been expelled from the city with the help of the military, and sent into exile at
Cucusus, and that the church had been burnt. Innocent gave him letters of communion,
addressed to Bishop John and to those in communion with him, begging them with tears to be
patient, as he could not help them owing to the hostile action of certain persons with
power to do wrong.

3 A Foul Charge A short time afterwards a second messenger arrived, a mannikin, ugly in
appearance, difficult to understand; Paternus was his name. He said that he was a priest
of the Church of Constantinople; he was in a state of furious excitement, and showed his
hostility by his behaviour. After loading Bishop John with abuse, he presented letters
from a few bishops, Acacius, Paulus, Antiochus, Cyrinus, and Severianus, and some others,
in which they laid against John the false charge of having set the church on fire. The |24
story seemed to us so palpably false, that John did not even offer any defence in an
important synod; Pope Innocent treated it with contempt, and did not think it worthy of an
answer. Chrysostom's Friends denounced by Imperial Edicts Bish. Be so good as to give me
your attention, that I may tell you the exact facts; for most truly, as Elihu says to Job,
"The spirit of my belly constrains me" ----meaning by "belly," his mind, filled with
words.

4 Deac. I must first insist upon making complete, as well as accurate, my account of all
that has happened among us, most excellent father. Only then can I begin to put my
questions to you. Well, after a few days the bishop of the Synadi arrived; he carried no
letter, but was qualified to give a harmonious narrative. He said that he had left
Constantinople in consequence of the threat conveyed in the royal edict, containing the
order that "if any one is not in communion with Theophilus and Arsacius and Porphyrius, he
is to be restrained from exercise of the episcopal office; and further, if he appears to
hold property in money or goods he shall be deprived of it." Later News Cyriacus was
followed by Eulysius, Bishop of Apameia, in Bithynia, who presented letters from fifteen
bishops of John's synod and from the venerable Anysius, Bishop of Thessalonica; in which
the fifteen |25 bishops described the pillage which had occurred, and was occurring, all
over Constantinople, and Anysius declared that he abided by the judgment of the Church of
Rome. Eulysius' account agreed with that of Cyriacus.

5 A month later, Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis, arrived, without letters, saying that
he too had fled from the fury of the civil authorities; he was able to add point to his
account by producing a copy of the edict, containing the order, that "the house of any one
who conceals, or receives into his house, under any pretext, a bishop or priest in
communion with John, is to be confiscated." After Palladius arrived Germanus, a priest,
and with him Cassianus, a deacon, of John's party, both discreet men, presenting letters
from the whole of John's clergy. They wrote that their Church had been subjected to
violence and tyranny; their bishop had been expelled with the help of the military, and
sent into exile through a plot formed by Acacius of Berea, Theophilus of Alexandria,
Antiochus of Ptolemais, and Severianus of Gabala. They also presented a receipt, showing
that they had deposited with the magistrates, as witnesses to the deed, namely, Studius
the city prefect, Eutychianus, chief of the guard, John the city treasurer, and
Eustathius, chief of police, and keeper of the records, valuables in gold, silver, and
clothing, by way of clearing Bishop John of the charges laid against him.

6 After these came Demetrius, Bishop of Pisinum, for the second time, from a long journey
through the east. He announced that the Roman Church was in communion with Bishop John, as
shown by letters from Pope Innocent, and brought letters from the bishops of Caria, in
which they declared their adherence to the communion of John, and from the bishops of
Antioch, appealing to the love of order of the Roman Church, and lamenting the ordination
of Porphyrius, as illegally and impiously performed. Last of all came the priest Domitian,
steward of the Church of Constantinople, and one Vallagas, a Nisibian priest, who related
the troubles of the monasteries of Mesopotamia, and presented memoranda from one Optatus,
the prefect, showing that respectable women of the upper classes, deaconesses of the
Church of Constantinople, were publicly brought before him, and compelled either to
communicate with Arsacius, or to pay two hundred pounds in gold to the treasury. As for
the treatment of anchorites and virgins, I dare not speak of that. They could point to
ribs scraped upon the rack, and mutilated ears. |27

7 Honorius Intervenes Pope Innocent could restrain himself no longer; he sent a letter to
the pious King Honorius, submitting in detail the main points of the letters. His
reverence was deeply moved by this statement, and ordered a synod of the western bishops
to be summoned, which should pass an unanimous resolution, to be transmitted to him. The
bishops of Italy accordingly met, and petitioned the king to write to his brother and
fellow-king Arcadius, that he should command a synod to be held in Thessalonica. This
would enable those from both hemispheres, east and west alike, to attend without
difficulty, and so secure that a full synod, characterized by good judgment rather than by
numbers, should issue an indisputable resolution. His reverence was so much inflamed by
this letter, that he wrote to the Bishop of Rome, that he had sent five bishops, two
priests, and one deacon, of Rome, to convey his letter to his brother. The import of this
letter was as follows:----

8 Honorius' Letter to Arcadius "This is the third time that I write to your gentleness,
begging you to take measures for redress in regard to the plot against John, Bishop of
Constantinople, and so far as it appears, nothing has been done. Once more, then, I
address you, by the hands of the bishops and priests, in my anxiety for the peace of the
Church, upon which the peace of your kingdom depends, urging you to be so good as to
command that the bishops of the cast shall meet at Thessalonica. I may add that our
bishops of the west have made careful choice of messengers, beyond the influence of malice
or deceit----five bishops, two priests, and a deacon, of the greatest Church, that of
Rome. Be so good as to hold them worthy of |28 all honour, so that either they may be
convinced that Bishop John was justly expelled, and instruct me to separate from communion
with him; or else, if they prove that the bishops of the east were deliberately influenced
by malice, they may induce you to break off communion with them. To show you the mind of
the westerns in regard to Bishop John, I append two of the various letters they have
addressed to me, which are of the same import as the rest; those of the bishops of Rome
and of Aquileia. But what I specially press upon your gentleness is, that you require the
presence, however unwilling, of Theophilus of Alexandria, who is alleged to be the chief
cause of all the trouble; that so the bishops assembled in synod may meet with no
hindrance in deciding upon the peaceful settlement which our times require."

CHAPTER IV. THE BISHOP BEGINS HIS NARRATIVE

1 The Deputation from Rome So the holy bishops Aemilius of Beneventum and Cythegius, and
Gaudentius, with the priests Valentianus and Bonifacius and others, took charge of the
letters of Innocent and the Italian bishops, Chromatius of Aquileia and Venerius of Milan
and the rest, and of a memorandum from the synod of the whole of the west, and were
despatched to Constantinople at public expense, accompanied by Bishops Cyriacus, |29
Demetrius, Palladius, and Eulysius. The memorandum was to the effect that John ought not
to come up for judgment until his Church and rights of communion were restored to him; so
that he might take his place in the synod of his own free will, without any excuse for
ignoring the summons. The Despiteful Treatment of the Delegates 2 They arrived safely at
Constantinople, but returned after four months, reporting proceedings which recalled
Babylonian oppression. "We coasted Greece," they said, "and reached Athens; where we were
detained by some wretched officer, who at once put us under the guard of a centurion, and
forbad us to proceed to Thessalonica," where they proposed to commence their mission by
presenting the letters to Bishop Anysius. "So he embarked us," the narrator continued, "in
two ships, and sent us off. A violent storm from the south came on, and we were three days
without food, crossing the Aegean Sea and the straits, and at the twelfth hour of the
third day anchored before the city, near the suburb of Victor. Here we were arrested by
the harbour masters, by whose orders we did not know, and taken to the outskirts of the
city. We were confined in a fortress in Thrace, called Athyra, near the sea, to our
absolute torture; the Roman envoys together in one small |30 building, Cyriacus and his
companions in others, without even a slave to wait upon us. We were asked for our letters,
but refused to surrender them, maintaining that it was impossible for us as delegates to
present the letters of the king and the bishops to other than the king himself. As we
persisted in our refusal, we were visited first by Patricius, a notary, then by various
others, and last of all by a company captain named Valerianus, a Cappadocian, who broke
the thumb of Bishop Marianus, and carried off the sealed letter of the king, with the
other letters.

3 "On the following day, messengers were sent to us (whether by members of the royal
court, or by Atticus, who was reported to have leaped upon the throne of the Church, we do
not know), offering us three thousand cash, and urging us to accept their offer, and to
communicate with Atticus, and say no more about the case of John. We refused the offer,
and continued in prayer, that if we could do nothing to bring about peace, we might at
least return in safety to our Churches----such was the ferocity we observed in them. That
this should be so, God the Saviour made clear to them by various revelations. Paul, the
deacon of the holy Emmelius, a very gentle and sensible man, while on the ship, saw a
vision of Paul the apostle, saying to him, 'Take heed how ye walk, not as fools, but as
wise, knowing that the days are evil.' The dream was a warning against their various
unprincipled efforts to persuade us to pervert the truth, by bribes and flattery." |31

4 Return of the Delegates "Captain Valerianus came again," our informant said, "and placed
us on board a very poor vessel, with a guard of twenty soldiers drawn from different
ranks, after bribing the skipper, so it was rumoured, to get rid of his episcopal
passengers, and packed us from Athyra at a moment's notice. So we sailed for a long
distance, and were like to lose our lives, when we moored off Lampsacus; there we were
transhipped, and on the twentieth day brought up at Hydrun in Calabria. As to the
whereabouts of the blessed Bishop John, or where were the Bishops Demetrius, Cyriacus,
Eulysius, and Palladius, who had accompanied our bishops upon their mission, they could
tell us nothing." The Authors of the Mischief 5 Bish. Come now, you have had your say,
most reverent sir. Now give me your attention, and listen carefully to what I have to tell
you; and I will make known to you point by point the public disturbances, worthy of a
company of satyrs, which have characterized the whole tragedy, and the sources from which
the delirium arose, and the point at which our enemies expected to stop----but they have
not stopped yet. Well, the fountain-head and beginning of all the troubles, I suppose one
must say, was the devil, the hater of good, who always opposes the reasonable flocks of
Christ, pitilessly harassing the experienced shepherds with various kinds of torments,
just as the King of Egypt treated the male children |32 of the Jews, and seducing the
impostors, the false shepherds, with the deceits of earthly pleasures. The channels
conveying the foul effluence, as all the round world knows, are Acacius, Antiochus,
Theophilus, and Severianus, who are called what they are not, and really are what they
cannot bear to be called; and some of the clerical order, two priests and five deacons,
some of them gathered from the unclean, some from the malicious----I do not know if one
can safely call such people priests or deacons. Then there are two, or at the most three,
from the royal court, who strengthened Theophilus' party, lending them the support of the
military;

6 and three women, besides those who are well known, widows, left wealthy, possessed of
money made by extortion, to the loss of their own salvation, husband-baiters and
disturbers of the peace. The three are Marsa, wife of Promotus, Castricia, wife of
Saturninus, and |33 Eugraphia, an absolute maniac. For very shame, I will say no more.
These are the men and the women, sluggard-hearted in the matter of the faith, who have
formed themselves into a kind of drunken regiment, united in their hatred of Christian
teaching, and have organized a flood of destruction against the peace of the Church. 7
Theodorus desires the Truth, and Nothing but the Truth Deac. I understand. Now then,
father, I beg you to tell us, as in the presence of God, why they hated Bishop John, and
what grounds he had for persistently vexing such highly placed people; and let us know
where he began his career, and how he reached the episcopal throne of Constantinople, and
how long he held office, and his character, and how he came to his death, if it is true
that, as we hear, he has fallen asleep. True, the man is universally held in respect and
honourable memory; still, I make it a rule not to believe hastily in rumours, until their
truth is confirmed by those who have sufficient knowledge to bestow blame or praise. The
Tests of Truth

8 Bish. I commend your love of accuracy, most truth-loving gentleman and man of God,
Theodorus, but I do not accept your distinction. You ought to have been satisfied (excuse
a personal remark) by the sight of my white hairs, and by the office I hold, that you had
the truth laid before you; but as you have not done so, but a second time call God to be
my judge, do promise me an unprejudiced hearing, at least from now, and let me not pipe my
chants to no purpose. I know what is written in |34 the divine law----" The Lord shall
destroy all them that speak leasing," and in the apostle John, "He who speaketh a lie is
not of God," and again in David, "For the mouth of them that speak lies is stopped. It is
true that a liar does harm to the man who believes him; but it is also true that he who
believes him does wrong to the liar, by being ready to trust him. As both are equally
guilty, let neither of us do wrong to his neighbour. It is a virtue in a speaker, to speak
the truth, and a virtue in a hearer, to test unrighteous statements; for the Scripture
says, "Be ye reliable money-changers," rejecting the spurious from among the genuine
coins.

9 We are not to receive everything we hear merely because it rings true, but to weigh it
by the testimony of the facts, whether it be spoken or written, with a good conscience,
and in the fear of God. Grave is the danger from ears and tongue; this is why God, the
good artificer, has caused the tongue to be guarded by two lips, and fixed the rampart of
the teeth within, as a secure defence to moderate its activity (as it is written, "Set a
watch, O Lord, before my mouth, a door of confinement about my lips, that I offend not
with my tongue "), while He has bored the channel of the ears in spiral form. The
significance of this shape is, that words do not enter too quickly, as the time occupied
by their winding course is sufficient to deposit the crass matter of falsehood, and the
sludge of malice, which arc left upon the walls of the orifice. Not that these |35 were
the only organs upon which He bestowed His care, as though they were the only ones that
trip; we find that He has set veils before the eyes, like window curtains, to keep them
from admitting the death of licentiousness, to which the prophet bears witness in the
words, "Death ascended. through the doors."

10 Grey Hair no Criterion of Truth Deac. If our inquiry dealt with ordinary matters, most
holy father, your appearance would have been enough to guarantee the truth of your
account; but as we are in quest of the truth, in a matter which involves no small blame in
this world, and condemnation in the next, when rulers and peoples arc gathered before the
awful tribunal, pardon me, my dear sir, if I do not accept your white hairs as evidence.
Many bad men have reached old age, men who have not whitened their souls with virtue, but
wrinkled their bodies with the lapse of time; such as were the false priests at Babylon,
and Ephraim, in Jeremiah, of whom the Word cries in reproof, "Ephraim is a silly dove,
having no heart; grey hairs have blossomed forth upon him, but he himself knoweth it not."
And again, more severely, "Ephraim is a cake not turned, and strangers have devoured his
strength."

11 And I must add, at the risk of being prolix, who is whiter, or more amiable, than
Acacius of Berea, whom you and your friends accuse of being the rebel chief, and the
leader of the revolutionaries in misbehaviour? Yet his very nostrils bore a crop of long
white hairs, when he visited Rome to bring the formal announcement of the ordination of
John. |36 Bish. Now I know for certain, that you are a reliable money-changer; you are not
content with the look of the tent-skins, but insist upon full knowledge of the man who
lives inside. The temples of the Egyptians, we know, are very large, and glory in the
magnificence of their stones, but have within them apes, and ibises, and dogs, which pass
as gods; while our Lord and God, in making known to Samuel His will as to the appointment
of a ruler for Israel, instructs him not to look upon the condition and moulding of the
body of clay, with the words, "God seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh upon the
countenance, but God upon the heart." Hence those who follow the example of God, in
everything search out what lies beneath the surface. So I gladly trust myself to you, now
that I have found that your scales are free from bias. Those two Babylonians, who were old
in body, but perfect infants in their clownish minds, if they had believed in the
resurrection of the dead, would have been fortified in wisdom against falling in love with
Susanna, the wife of another man; and further, if they had possessed the fear of God, they
would not have interwoven false accusations with their licentiousness. The |37 misuse of
youth is a sure proof of dishonour in old age.

CHAPTER V. THE EARLY CAREER OF CHRYSOSTOM

1 Chrysostom's Birth and Early Years This John was (yes, he has fallen asleep) by birth a
man of Antioch, the son of honourable parents, his father holding the office of military
commander in Syria; an elder sister was the only other child. He was gifted with unusual
ability, and was carefully trained in letters, for the ministry of the oracles of |38 God.
At the age of eighteen, a boy in years, he revolted against the professors of verbosities;
and a man in intellect, he delighted in divine learning. At that time the blessed Meletius
the Confessor, an Armenian by race, was ruling the Church of Antioch; he noticed the
bright lad, and was so much attracted by the beauty of his character, that he allowed him
to be continually in his company. His prophetic eye foresaw the boy's future. He was
admitted to the mystery of the washing of regeneration, and after three years of
attendance on the bishop, advanced to be reader.

2 But as his conscience would not allow him to be satisfied with work in the city, for
youth was hot within him, though his mind was sound, he turned to the neighbouring
mountains; here he fell in with an old man named Syrus, living in self-discipline, whose
hard life he resolved to share. With him he spent four years, battling with the rocks of
pleasure. When |39 he found it more easy to master these, not so much by toil as by
reason, he retired to a cave by himself, in his eagerness to hide himself from the world,
and there spent twenty-four months, for the greater part of which he denied himself sleep,
while he studied the covenants of Christ, the better to dispel ignorance. Two years spent
without lying down by night or day deadened his gastric organs, and the functions of the
kidneys were impaired by the cold. As he could not doctor himself, he returned to the
haven of the Church.

3 And here we see the providence of the Saviour, in withdrawing him by his infirmity, for
the good of the Church, from ascetic toils, and compelling him by this obstacle of ill-
health to leave the caves. Chrysostom as Deacon and Priest. Next, after serving the altar
for five years, he was ordained deacon by Meletius. By this time his brilliant abilities
as a teacher were famous, and the |40 people found in intercourse with him sweet
refreshment from the bitterness of life; Bishop Flavianus therefore ordained him
presbyter. For twelve years he was a shining light in the Church of Antioch, lending
dignity to the priesthood there by the strictness of his life; some he salted with
sobriety, some he illuminated by his teaching, some he refreshed with draughts of the
spirit. Thus all was fair sailing under the steersmanship of Christ, when the blessed
Nectarius, bishop of the Church of Constantinople, fell asleep. Immediately a crowd of
people who were not called for rushed forward to secure the supreme position----men who
were not men, presbyters by office, yet unworthy of the priesthood; some battering at the
doors of officials, others offering bribes, others again going on their knees to the
populace. The orthodox laity were much disturbed by all this, and importuned the king with
petitions for an experienced priest. |41

4 Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople The most influential man of affairs was Eutropius
the eunuch, chief of the royal chamberlains. It was his wish to have John in charge of the
city, as he had gained some experience of his high character when some business of the
king took him to the further East; so he advised the king to send instructions to the
governor of Antioch, to send John quietly out of the city, without disturbing the Church.
The governor, immediately on receipt of the letter, summoned him to present himself at the
shrines of the |42 martyrs, outside the city, near the gate known as Romanesia; where he
put him in a public conveyance, and entrusted him to the care of the eunuch sent by
Eutropius, and the magistrate's guard. Thus he reached Constantinople, and was ordained
bishop of the Church of that city. Theophilus' Hostility Now Theophilus, Bishop of
Alexandria, as he observed his bearing, and the irreproachable outspokenness of his
language, was from the beginning |43 bitterly opposed to his ordination. For Theophilus is
very clever at judging faces; the will and mind of a man are not easy to read.

5 Deac. One moment, father. I must raise a slight objection. Bish. What is your
difficulty? Deac. If Theophilus is so sharp-sighted, how is it that he was unaware that if
he expelled John from his see, he would disturb the whole world? Bish. There is nothing
wonderful in this, my dear sir; even the demons recognized the advent of the Saviour, and
yet were unaware that they would be made powerless by a single breath from those who
believed in Him. Deac. Where do we find that they recognized the Saviour's presence? Bish.
When they cried, "We know Thee who Thou art, the holy one of God; why hast Thou come to
torment us before the time?" You see that they knew, even then, that He is not only holy,
but also judge. But apart from demons, unfortunate prostitutes recognize men of self-
control from the bearing of their eyes, and avoid them, just as a diseased eye avoids the
light of the sun, or the vulture sweet scent. How is it that "Godliness is an abomination
to sinners," if they cannot recognize godliness? So it was that Theophilus, not finding
anything in John's face corresponding to his own eye, or that which he desired to find,
inferred his hostility, as a matter of unsupported conjecture. |44

6 Deac. You surprise me, father. But why did he oppose his ordination? Bish. It was always
his policy not to ordain good and sensible men, except by inadvertence, as he wished them
all to be weak-minded persons, over whom he could dominate; he thought it better to
dominate over weak-minded men than to hear the wisdom of the prudent. None the less,
willing or unwilling, he had to yield to saving Providence. Reforms of the Life of the
Clergy Thus John was ordained, and entered upon the care of affairs. At first, he tested
his flock by playing to them upon the pipe of reason. But occasionally he exercised the
staff of correction as well; he inveighed against the mode of life, white-washed under the
name of "brotherly life," which he called by its right name of "evil life," in connection
with the women known as "introduced." He showed it to be worse, if a choice of evils had
to be made, than that of brothel-keepers; for they live far from the surgery, and keep the
disease to themselves, for those who desire it, while the "brothers" live within the
workshop of salvation, and invite healthy people to come and catch the disease. This
caused great indignation to those among the clergy who were without the love of God, and
blazing with passion. |45

7 Reform of the Life of the Laity He next took action against injustice, pulling down
avarice, that metropolis of evils, to build an habitation of righteousness. This is
characteristic of wise master-builders, first to pull down the habitation of falsehood,
and then to lay the foundation of truth, as it is said in the prophet, "I have set thee
over peoples and kingdoms, to root up and to plant, to dig down and to rebuild." The first
expressions refer to his work as husbandman, the second as a builder. Next, he disturbed
the numerous purse-worshippers, and then attended to their manner of life, urging them to
be content with their own earnings, and not to be always dangling after the savoury odours
of the rich. To follow smoke as their torch-bearer meant handing themselves over to the
fire of licence; this was the result of following the life of the flatterer and the
parasite. Then, most of the gluttons were dug out of their holes, and the sharp people who
bring false accusations shared the same fate.

8 Reform of Church Finance Then he examined the account books of the Church treasurer, and
found expenditure which was of no benefit to the Church; these grants he ordered to be
stopped. This brought him to another financial question----the bishop's expenditure. Here
he found extraordinary extravagance, and ordered the large sums so spent to be transferred
to the hospital. As |46 the need of treatment was very great, he erected other hospitals,
over which he appointed two devout priests, as well as doctors and cooks, and kindly
workers from among his celibates to assist them; so that strangers coming to the city, and
there falling ill, could obtain medical care, as a thing which was not only good in
itself, but also for the glory of the Saviour. Reform of the Order of Widows Then he
summoned the members of the order of widows, and made a searching investigation into cases
of misconduct; some, whom he found too fond of carnal pursuits, he admonished either to
adopt the practice of fasting, and to abstain from the bath and from over-dressing, or
else to proceed without delay to a second marriage, that the law of the Lord might not be
brought into disrepute.

9 Reform of Devotion Next, he urged the people to join in the intercessions offered during
the night, as the men had no |47 leisure during the day, while their wives were to stay at
home, and say their prayers by day. All this annoyed the less strenuous clergy, who made a
practice of sleeping all night. Then he put his hand to the sword of correction against
the rich, lancing the abscesses of their souls, and teaching them humility and courtesy
towards others. In this he followed the apostolic precept to Timothy, "Charge them who are
rich in this world not to be high-minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches." Results of
these Reforms As the result of these reforms, the Church put forth daily more abundant
blossoms; the tone of the whole city was changed to piety, men delighting their souls with
soberness and psalmody. But the devil, who hates all that is good, could not tolerate the
escape of those whom he held in dominion, now taken from his grasp by the word of the Lord
through the teaching of John; so much so, that the horse-racing and theatre-going
fraternity left the courts of the devil, and hastened to the fold of the Saviour, in their
love for the pipe of the shepherd who loves his sheep. |48

CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE

1 The Plot against Chrysostom In consequence of this, envy took possession of the minds of
the hireling shepherds, who were by implication convicted. As they could not get the
better of him, because they did not call upon the Saviour, the destroyer of envy, they
devised various slanders against John; representing certain homilies of his as jests at
the expense of the queen and of the royal court. Now it happened that just at this time
Acacius, Bishop of Berea, paid him a visit, and according to his own statement, was not
given a decent lodging; he was much vexed at this, and swelled with indignation at what he
regarded as a slight put upon him by John. Unable to control his feelings, he indulged in
a witless witticism, "out of the abundance of his heart," worthy of his great mind. He
said in the presence of some of John's clergy, "I am seasoning a pot for him." At once he
threw in his lot with Severianus and Antiochus, and Isaac Syriscus, the leading spirit of
the impostor monks, a plausible |49 rascal, who spent all his time in abuse of bishops.
These worthies looked themselves out arms, nominally against John, but really against the
glory of the Saviour.

2 First, they sent to Antioch, and tried to discover any youthful offences of his. But as
"they that seek failed," and found nothing, they sent messengers to Alexandria, to the
unprincipled Theophilus, known as "weather-cock," who was very clever at engineering such
things. He at once opened the books of his mind, with all the stealth of a thief, and set
himself to find any pretext whatever for taking action. The Charge of a Breach of Canon
Law Deac. Stay the torrent of your words, father, before I forget what is in my mind, and
let me tell you the charge which reached us from Alexandria, and generally gained
acceptance. The story is, that John received into communion some clergy who had been
deposed by Theophilus. This improper action annoyed Theophilus, who in consequence had a
disagreement with John, and proceeded to act against him. Bish. Granted that the popular
account is true; still, is it for a bishop to remedy evil by evil? What then of the gospel
saying, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath"? Or of the apostle's words, "Overcome
evil with good"? Or the prophet's, "If I have rewarded evil to them that dealt evil to
me"? Surely, then, it would have been more gallant for him, in dealing with devout
bishops, to say, Brother John, in inadvertence you have done this or that? And for John to
be able to plead in self-defence, that he knew nothing about the matter?

3 Deac. That is true, provided that his will was |50 good, and that he was not trumping up
the charge of befriending these clergy to satisfy his private animosity. Bish. Then, by
the fear of God, Who ruleth over the illimitable fears, I swear that I will speak no word
that is not consonant with fact, in regard to these clergy of whom you speak. Isidore and
the Widow's Gift There was one Isidore, one of the priests ordained by the blessed
Athanasius the Great, still surviving, in his eightieth year. Most of the people of Rome
know him, as he visited the city on ecclesiastical business, as the guest-master of the
Church of Alexandria; and you know him yourselves, from his coming with Acacius to convey
the announcement of the establishment of communion between Flavian us and Theophilus,
after it had been interrupted for twenty years, on account of the blessed Evagrius,who
fought many a fight in the course of his labours for the good of the Church. The widow of
one of the great men of the city gave this Isidore a thousand |51 gold pieces, putting him
under oath by the table of the Saviour, for the purchase of clothes for the poor women of
Alexandria; he was not to mention the matter to Theophilus, for fear that he would take
the money, and spend it on his stones. For Theophilus is obsessed, like Pharaoh, with a
craving for stone for buildings, of which the Church stands in no need. Never mind that
now; I want to come to the point about Isidore.

4 Isidore took the money, and spent it for the benefit of the poor women and widows.
Theophilus somehow got to know; nothing could escape him, wherever done or spoken, with
his gang of spies and eavesdroppers, not to call them anything else. He summoned Isidore,
and with apparent civility asked if his information was true. Isidore did not deny it, and
gave an account of his dealings in the matter. On hearing this, Theophilus changed his
behaviour, and he who a moment before, when he made the inquiry, was gentle and kindly,
next moment swelled all over his body with wrath; his very appearance changed, when
Isidore's answer reached his ears. Theophilus' Accusation of Isidore He kept quiet for a
while, like a dog that bites you when you are off your guard, but two months later
convened the clergy, before whom he produced a document, and said in the presence of
Isidore: "I received this charge against you, Isidore, eighteen years ago; but as I was
very busy, I forgot the matter. Just now, as I was looking up some other papers, I found
this document, which concerns you. What have you to say in defence?" The paper contained a
charge of sodomy. |52

5 Isidore began his defence by saying to Theophilus: "Granted that it is true, that you
received the paper, and also that it slipped your memory, was not the man who presented
the memorial available for a second inquiry?" Theophilus answered, "No; the lad did not
appear, as he was a sailor." Then Isidore: "He did not appear at the moment, as you say,
Pope; did he not appear after his voyage? Did he not appear the year after, or the year
after that? It is not too late even now; if he is here, tell the fellow to stand forth."
Theophilus Excommunicates Isidore Hereupon Theophilus, finding himself likely to be
humiliated in face of the actual truth, adjourned the inquiry to another day; and by large
promises induced a boy to lay an accusation against Isidore, giving him a bribe, it is
said, of twenty-five gold pieces, which he at once handed over to his mother. The mother
refused to accept the money, deterred partly by the thought of the unbiassed Eye, partly
by fear of the laws of the land; she reflected that Isidore, if falsely accused, might
appeal to the magistrate. So she came and told Isidore the whole story, and showed him the
coins, which she said she had received from Theophilus' sister as "a reward against the
innocent." The woman paid the due penalty for her many sins, and for this one in
particular; she died under an operation on the breasts. All this time Isidore stayed at
home, making supplication to God. The boy, partly in fear of the laws, partly at the
thought of Theophilus' rage at his failure, fled to the efficacious protection of the
Church, and took refuge at the altar.

6 Thus, on a revolting allegation, the rights of which were never heard, Theophilus
declared Isidore to be outcast from the Church; a solemn farce to disguise his own
wickedness. Isidore now took alarm, lest |53 Theophilus in his increasing fury should take
measures against his personal safety (for by all accounts, he actually went as far as
this), and made his way with all speed to the community of monks of the mountain of
Nitria, where he had spent his youth; here he sat in his cell, and addressed himself in
prayer to the long-suffering God. The Charge of Origenism Meanwhile Theophilus, conscious
of the indecency and doubtfulness of his victory, sent letters to the neighbouring
bishops, ordering some of the principal monks, the heads of the monasteries, to be
expelled from the mountain and from the further desert, without giving his reasons. These
monks went down to Alexandria, with their priests, and begged Theophilus to state the
grounds on which they were condemned to expulsion. Theophilus stared at them, like. a
dragon, with bloodshot eyes, glaring like a bull; in his uncontrollable temper, he was
livid one moment, pale the next, the next again smiling sarcastically. He took the tippet
upon the shoulders of the aged Ammonius, and twisted it round his neck with his own hands,
punching him in the face, making his nose bleed with his clenched fists, and |54 shouting,
"Anathematize Origen, you heretic!" when the only point at issue was the petition on
behalf of Isidore. This is the way with bad tempers; their actions and words are like
puppies, born blind. So they returned, all bloodstained, to their monasteries, without
receiving an answer; and continued their usual life of austerity, sharpening their natural
powers by the study of the scriptures, through which we win salvation. They thought the
less of the man's frenzy, because they were conscious of their own innocence. |55

CHAPTER VII. THEOPHILUS, THE MONKS AND CHRYSOSTOM

1 Synodical Action against the Monks Not content with this, Theophilus sent to the
neighbouring bishops, and convened a synod to condemn the monks; without calling them to
defend themselves, or letting them speak a word, he declared outcast three of the most
eminent of them (he was afraid to issue sentence of punishment upon the whole body at
once), trumping up a charge of perversion of doctrine. The very men whom he had often
honoured above bishops as teachers, for their lives, their gifts of speech, and their
length of service, he was not ashamed to call impostors, for their attitude towards
Isidore. Following up this declaration, he secured five mannikins from Mount Nitria
itself, who never had a place in the chapter-meeting of the elders of the desert,
creatures not fit, much as it pains me to say so, to keep the doors; one of them he
ordained bishop, and as he had not a city at his disposal, placed him in charge of a
little village. He had no scruples about revolutionary acts, as he called himself a second
Moses. Another he ordained priest, and the other three deacons. These were not Egyptians,
but from different countries----one from Libya, one from Alexandria, one from Pharana, one
from Paralus; as they had no hope of making anything out of their native countries, they
fell in with his ridiculous measures.

2 Appeal to the Civil Authority Next, he persuaded them to present memorials against the
three excommunicate bishops, concocting the terms of the accusation himself; their only
contribution was the signature. This done, he |56 accepted the memorials from them in the
presence of the Church, and proceeded to the governor under the crown, with whom he lodged
a representation against them in his own name, as archbishop of the diocese of Egypt,
together with the falsely incriminating memorials, demanding the expulsion of the men,
with the help of the military, from every part of Egypt. Savage Attack upon the
Monasteries Armed with the governor's order, and taking the military with him to cover his
doings, he gathered a mob of ruffians, who cared nothing about dignities, and fell upon
the monasteries in the dead of night, after priming his young fellows with liquor. First,
he ordered their saintly brother Dioscorus, bishop of the mountain, to be expelled from
his throne, literally dragged away by Ethiopian slaves, probably unbaptized into the
bargain, and took possession of his |57 see, which since the coming of Christ had been in
the possession of the city of Dioscorus. Next, he raided the mountain, and gave the
trifling property of the monks to his youths; when he had stripped the cells, he searched
for the three bishops, whom they had let down into a well, putting rushes upon its mouth.
As he could not find them, he set their cells on fire with faggots, burning up with them
all their copies of the canonical scriptures, and other valuable writings, as well as a
boy (so eye-witnesses said), and the sacred elements.

3 Flight of the Monks to Palestine When he had thus relieved his senseless fury, he wcnt
down again to Alexandria, giving the saintly men an opportunity of escape; they at once
took their sheepskin habits, and fled to Palestine, making their way to Aelia, accompanied
by 300 of the |58 worthy monks of the mountain, and a body of priests and deacons. The
rest were scattered abroad in different places. Theophilus pursues Them The serpent who
creeps by crooked ways could not tolerate their freedom, and again stirred up Theophilus
against them; boiling with rage, he wrote letters to the bishops of Palestine, as follows:
"You ought not to have received these men into your cities, contrary to my judgment; but
as you did it in ignorance, I grant you pardon. Look to it then in the future, that you
admit them neither into ecclesiastical, nor into private premises." In the extravagance of
his pride, he not only said, but actually imagined that he was a god.

4 The Monks arrive at Constantinople The fugitives, sorely distressed by this continual
movement from place to place, arrived at the capital,where Bishop John had been enthroned
under the good hand of God for the spiritual care of our rulers; they fell at his feet,
begging him to help souls slandered and plundered by men better accustomed to this sort of
thing than to doing good. Appeal to Chrysostom John stood up, and saw fifty first-rate
men, their habits worn grey with their holy toils. With his keen sense of brotherly love,
he was deeply moved, and bursting, like Joseph, into tears, inquired what wild boar from
the forests, or rogue beast, had been doing mischief to this fruitful vine. "Be seated,
father," they answered; "give us dressings for our ghastly wounds, inflicted through the
frenzy of Pope Theophilus, and see if you can bind up our swelling gashes. If even you
give us no attention, through respect to, |59 or fear of, Theophilus, as the other bishops
have done, there is nothing left for us to do, but to go to the king, and inform him of
this man's ill-doings, to the disrepute of the Church. If then you have any concern for
the good name of the Church, receive our petition, and persuade him to allow us our home
in Egypt. We have committed no offence, either against the law of the Saviour or against
the Pope himself."

5 Chrysostom' s Dealings with the Monks John thought that he would have no difficulty in
changing the revengeful feelings of Theophilus towards them, and gladly took the matter in
hand. He instructed the men, for the love of God, to keep silence, and to tell no one why
they were there, until he should send word to his brother Theophilus. He gave them
sleeping-quarters in the Church of the Resurrection,but did not supply them with any of
the necessities of life. Some godly women provided them with food, and they made their own
contribution by the labours of their hands. It happened that at that time there were some
of Theophilus' clergy in Constantinople, who had come to purchase promotion from the
newly-appointed governors in the province of Egypt, and to secure their favour towards
him, in carrying out his plans for the destruction of those who were an annoyance to him.
So John called these men, and inquired if they knew the ascetics who were in the city.
They frankly gave the men a good character. "We know them," they told John; "it is true
that they have been treated with great violence. If it please you, my lord, refuse them
communion in the spiritual |60 feast, so as not to annoy the Pope, but deal kindly with
them in everything else. This will be expected of you, as bishop."

6 Chrysostom' s Letter to Theophilus So John did not receive them into communion,but wrote
to Theophilus, courteously asking him to do him, as Theophilus' son and brother, the
favour of taking the men like little children in his arms. Theophilus refused to do John
the favour, and sent to him certain persons well versed in verbal disputes ----the men we
have just mentioned----instructing them to present requirements, which as usual he
dictated himself, containing statements admittedly false, but dressed out with all sorts
of calumnies in regard to the men's spiritual condition, as he had nothing to bring
against their outward lives. Thus they were to be pointed at as impostors at the palace.
Theophilus Implacable Seeing that Theophilus, so far from coming to a right mind, was all
the more bitter against them, the ascetics sent a numerous deputation to him, declaring
that they anathematized all false doctrine; and presented a petition to John, detailing
the various forms of oppression from which they suffered, and some specific points of
complaint. I am ashamed to speak of them in the presence of these young people, for fear
of shaking their confidence in my veracity; perhaps, too, even more experienced Christians
might not believe me.

7 John again, both in person and through other bishops, urged them to drop the charges
against Theophilus, in view of the mischief which the suit would cause, and wrote to
Theophilus: "They are |61 reduced to such extremities, that they are filing a formal
indictment against you. I leave it to you to deal with it as you think best; for I cannot
persuade them to leave the capital." At this, Theophilus blazed with anger, and suspended
the brother of the monks, Bishop Dioscorus, a man who had grown old in the service of the
Church, from ministering in his own church; while he wrote to John: "I think that you are
unaware of the order of the Nicene Canons, in which it is laid down that a bishop shall
not exercise jurisdiction beyond his boundaries; if so, now that you know it, leave these
charges against me alone, if there was any need for me to be put on my trial, it should be
before Egyptian judges, not before you, at the distance of a seventy-five days' journey."


DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
=======================================

DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM continued

CHAPTER VIII. FIRST EXPULSION OF CHRYSOSTOM

1 The Monks' Appeal to Eudoxia and its Result John received the letter, but kept it to
himself, and discussed measures for peace with the ascetics of both parties. Both were
exasperated at what he said to them; the exiles, because they had been tyrannically
treated, the others, because they had no power to make peace without Theophilus, as it was
at his orders that they had presented the falsely incriminating petitions. This done, John
dismissed the matter from his mind, as he considered them to be answered. Hereupon the
monks of the aggrieved party withdrew, and compiled a lengthy petition, formally charging
the other monks with libel, and Theophilus |62 ----well, to tell the truth, with
everything that any one of them knew him to have done. They appealed to their majesties,
approaching the queen in the shrine of the holy John, with the petition that the case of
the disputant monks might be investigated before the prefects, and that Theophilus,
however much against his will, might appear to stand his trial before John. The petition
was made, and the answer was, that Theophilus should be summoned by the magistrate to
appear, whether willing or unwilling, and take his trial before John; and that Theophilus'
monks should substantiate the charges preferred against the aged saints or pay the penalty
of false accusation.

2 Theophilus Summoned to Constantinople So Captain (retired) Elaphius was sent to
Alexandria to bring Theophilus, while the justices carried out the rest of the Empress'
answer. The investigation was held, and an indecisive result obtained; but as they were
still threatened with the glittering sword of the law, the poor wretches took fright at
the possible issue, and got the matter adjourned until Theophilus' arrival, on the ground
that he had suborned, them, and had dictated the petitions. So the officials put them in
prison, until Theophilus should arrive, bail being refused under the circumstances of the
case. Some of them lingered in prison until they died, owing to the slow movements of
Theophilus; others, subsequently to his arrival, when he |63 hurried forward the matter by
means of bribes, were at the final inquiry sentenced to transportation to Proconnesus for
malicious accusation. Theophilus' Arrival So Theophilus arrived at Constantinople, like a
beetle loaded with the dung of the best that Egypt, or India itself, produces, emitting
sweet scent to cover his stinking jealousy; he entered the city at mid-day on the fifth
day of the week, cheered by a mob of sailors. Such was the palm of dishonourable glory
which he had to bear----the glory of which the apostle said long ago, "Whose glory is in
their shame," and added, "who mind earthly things." He took up his quarters in the tents
of the unrighteous, and avoided the Church, forgetful of David's verse, "I had rather be
cast away in the house of my God, than to dwell in tents of sinners." It was his own
conscience that shut him out from the Church. |64

3 Theophilus' Machinations In the course of three whole weeks he never held any
conversation with John, such as is customary among bishops, and never went near the
church, but linked his new hostility with the old, and spent night and day in his efforts
to expel Bishop John not only from the Church, but even from life itself. He lavished
money in purchasing the support of the superstitious spirits among the authorities against
the truth, made the greedy ones his slaves by the abundance of his table, and further, by
flattery and promises of promotion, won over his fellow-impostors among the clergy. When
he had put all these in bonds----of pleasure, not of rope----like some seducing demon, and
bewitched the discerning faculties of their souls, he looked about for some demoniacal
person to be his understudy in the play, and succeeded in finding what he wanted. The
Memorials of the Renegade Deacons

4 There were two deacons, who had been expelled from the Church by Bishop John for
criminal offences. He availed himself of their frailty, and persuaded them to present
memorials against John, promising to restore them to their office. Their offences were
murder and fornication respectively. He fulfilled his promise; for after the banishment of
John he restored them to their places, obviously because they had presented the memorials
which Theophilus himself dictated. They contained not a word of truth, except the one
point, that he advised every one, after communion, to take a little water, or a pastille,
for fear that they might involuntarily spit out a portion of the elements with the saliva
or phlegm. He first adopted the practice himself, to teach reverent care to those who
would learn. |65 The Conclave at Eugraphia' s House On receiving the memorials, Theophilus
held a meeting at the house of Eugraphia; at which were present Severianus, Antiochus,
Acacius, and every one else who had a grudge against John for his seemly exhortations. For
the blessed bishop, like St. Paul, made a practice in his teaching, "both publicly and
from house to house," of urging dignified behaviour; he was especially severe with women
like Eugraphia. "At your age," he would say, "when you are really old women, and widows
into the bargain, why do you force your bodies to become young again, wearing curls on
your foreheads like the women of the street, bringing every other lady into disrepute, and
giving people generally a false impression?"

5 The Hostile Synod Meets So they held a gathering, and took steps to bring a suit against
John. One of them suggested that they should present petitions to the king, and insist
upon his appearing before the synod, however unwilling. This was the course adopted; as
with the Jews, so with them, money made everything easy. Chrysostom' s Forebodings We were
seated, a company of forty bishops, in the refectory at the bishop's house, with Bishop
John, marvelling that a man who had been put on his trial, and ordered to appear at the
capital on disgraceful charges, had arrived with such a numerous following of bishops, and
that he had suddenly brought about such a change in the minds of the authorities, and
perverted the majority of the clergy. While we could see no answer to the question, John
was inspired by the Spirit, and said to us all: "Pray for me, brethren, and, if ye love
Christ, let none desert the Church of which he is in charge on my account; for like the
writer of the words, 'I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is at
hand.' And I shall endure much persecution, and depart from this life, I see. For I know
the cunning of Satan; he can no longer bear the annoyance of my invectives against him.
The Lord have mercy upon you. Remember me in your prayers."

6 Words of Consolation So profound was our distress, that some of us began to cry, others
left the gathering with tears, and broken hearts. We kissed his eyes, and his sanctified
head, and his facile and blessed lips. But he bade |67 us, as we were flying hither and
thither, like bees buzzing round a hive, to come back to the gathering, and said: "Be
seated, brethren, and do not weep, to give me greater pain. For to me 'to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.' It was often said, that I should lose my head for being too
outspoken. I think you will remember, if you look into your memories, that I always used
to say to you, This present life is a journey, and its joys and sorrows are ever passing
away. What is before our eyes is but a fair; we finish our buying and selling, and we move
elsewhere. Are we better than the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, that this state
of life should abide with us for ever? "

7 Then one of the company sobbed aloud, saying, "Nay, we lament our orphaned condition,
the widowhood of the Church, the confounding of ordinances, the ambition of those who do
not fear the Lord, and leap upon high offices in the Church, the defenceless state of the
poor, the famine of teaching." The Christ-loving bishop tapped the palm of his left hand
with the forefinger of his right, a familiar gesture when he was in deep thought, and said
to the speaker: "Say no more, brother, only remember what I said; do not desert your
Churches. The teaching office did not begin with me, nor did it come to an end in me. Did
not Moses die, and was not Joshua found? Did not Samuel end his days, and was not David
anointed? Jeremiah departed this life, but was there not Baruch? Elijah was taken up, but
did not Elisha take his place as prophet? Paul was beheaded, but did he not leave behind
him Timothy, Titus, Apollos, and countless others?"

8 Eulysius, Bishop of Apameia in Bithynia, was the next to speak. "It is inevitable," he
said, "if we keep our Churches, that we shall be forced to communicate with them and to
sign (your sentence of condemnation)." Said the holy John, "Communicate with them, lest
you rend the Church; but |68 do not sign. For my conscience is clear of any thought
deserving my deposition." The Summons from the Council of The Oak At this moment,
messengers from Theophilus were announced. John ordered that they should be admitted; and
on their entry, asked to what order they belonged. "We are bishops," they replied. He
requested them to be seated, and to state their business. "We only have a letter," they
said, "to be read aloud; cause it to be so read." John directed that it should be read,
and they ordered Theophilus' young servant to read the communication, which he did. The
substance was as follows: "The holy synod assembled at The Oak" (that was the name of the
place where they had met----in the suburb of Rufinus, on the other side of the sea), "to
John" (they omitted his proper title of bishop; the darkened soul never does see things as
they are, but imagines what its evil desires dictate). "We have received certain
memorials, containing countless grave charges against you; appear, therefore, bringing
with you the priests Serapion and Tigrius; for they are needed." The two bishops who came
to John were Dioscorus and Paulus, young men who had recently been consecrated in Libya.

9 The Answer of Chrysostom's Friends When the document had been read, John's fellow-
bishops replied with a statement drawn up by three bishops, Luppicianus, Demetrius, and
Eulysius, and two priests, Germanus and Severus, all of them saintly and honourable men.
"Overthrow not the estate of the Church, and rend not the Church, for whose sake God from
above entered into flesh. As it appears |69 that by your disorderly action you are
overthrowing the canons of the 318 bishops at Nicaea, and are trying a case beyond your
boundaries, do you cross over to us, that we may first hear what you have to say, in this
city where good laws prevail, and do not be like Cain, when he invited Abel to come into
the field.For we have memorials against you, under seventy counts, alleging palpably
criminous actions. Moreover, we, assembled by the grace of God, not for the overthrow of
the Church, but in peace, are more in number than your synod. For you number thirty-six,
from one province; while we are forty, from various provinces, and among us are seven
metropolitans. It is only reason that the smaller body should be judged according to the
canons by the larger and the more honourable. Besides this, we hold your letter, in which
you press upon our brother-minister John, that he ought not to accept cases from beyond
his boundaries. Wherefore do you, in obedience to the laws of the Church, urge your
accusers either to desist from their accusations against you, or from their approaches to
John."

10 Chrysostom's own Answer 11 John was distressed at this answer, and said to his bishops,
"Write what seems good to you; I feel bound to make a statement for myself in answer to
the allegations." So he sent the following reply to Theophilus and his party: "I hereby
declare that if any man has aught to say against me, up to this moment I do not know what
it is; but if any one has spoken against me, and you wish me to appear before you, put out
of your assemblage my open enemies, who are filled with malice towards me |70 because they
think themselves slighted. Further, I raise no question as to the venue of my trial,
though the fittest place would be the city. Those to whom I object as judges are
Theophilus, whom I call to account for having said both at Alexandria and in Lycia, 'I go
to the court to depose John.' I know this to be true, because when he arrived, he did not
have any intercourse with me, or communicate with me. If then he behaved as an enemy
before the hearing, what would he do after the trial? Similarly, I charge Acacius with
saying, 'I am seasoning a pot for him.' As for Severianus and Antiochus, whom the divine
sentence will soon overtake, what need to speak of them, when even the secular theatres
make songs upon their revolutionary doings? I beg you therefore, if you really desire me
to appear, in regard to these four; if they are entered as judges, remove them from the
panel; if as accusers, put them into the witness-box, that I may know how to prepare to
meet them----whether as opponents or as judges. Then I will appear at all costs, not only
before your love, but before any synod in the world. Now, then, I give you notice, that
however often you write to me, you will hear no more from me."

12 The Emperor's Summons to Trial So the envoys withdrew, and a notary immediately
arrived, bearing a letter from the king, enclosing the petition (of Theophilus' synod)
that John should come up for judgment whether he would or no, and bade him hasten to the
trial. When the notary had received his answer, two of John's priests appeared; one
Eugenius, who was given the bishopric of Heracleia in payment for the part he had played
in the plot against Bishop John, and Isaac, the monk under rule of silence----not to call
him anything else. These said, "The synod sends you this message; |71 come over to us, and
defend yourself against the charges.'" Chrysostom Refuses to Appear To this John answered,
through other bishops, "How can you judge me with any show of order, when you have not put
forth from among you my enemies, and when you send my own clergy to summon me?"

13 They seized the bishops, and beat one, and stripped another of his robes, and put round
the neck of a third the chains which they had in readiness for the saint, intending so to
put him on shipboard, and carry him off to some unknown place; the devil had made them as
savage as lions. The holy bishop, aware of their shameful intention, took no steps to meet
it; but these worthy gentlemen compiled some paltry dockets, more frail than spider's web,
for the sake of form, making representations against the blessed bishop, whose face they
had never seen and whose voice they had never heard, and in a single day consummated the
villainy which they had long been forging. For the onslaught of the devil none can
restrain; it waits not for reflection. Chrysostom Guilty of Lèse Majesté So they sent an
address to the king setting forth that: "Whereas John is accused of various offences, and
in consciousness of his guilt has refused to appear,he is by the laws degraded from his
bishopric, and this has been done. The memorials include a charge of treason. Your piety,
therefore, will command, |72 that whether he will or no, he be expelled from his office,
and pay the penalty for his treason, as we have no powers to inquire into this charge."

14 You thrice miserable wretches, what thoughts are these? What deeds? They should fill
you with shame, if you have any fear or reverence for men, much more any for God. The
treason consisted in offensive language against the queen, whom, as they alleged, he had
called Jezebel. So this was the allegation of these wonderful people, longing to see John
killed with the sword; but God brought to light the malice lurking within them, and
softened the hearts of the magistrates, as with Daniel at Babylon. For there, the lions
turned gentle, and spared Daniel, while the men turned savage, and did not spare the
prophet; but God vanquished the unnatural savagery of man, by the unnatural gentleness of
the savage beasts. |73

CHAPTER IX. INTRIGUES AND VIOLENCE AT CONSTANTINOPLE

1 Chrysostom' s Expulsion and Return Thus was John ejected from the Church; a court
official was despatched for the purpose, with a body of soldiers, as if it was an
expedition against barbarians. On his expulsion he went first to the country district of
Prametum, in Bithynia. But only a single day had passed, when a catastrophe occurred in
the royal palace, which caused such alarm, that a few days afterwards they recalled John,
through a notary of the household, and restored him to his own throne. So Theophilus, with
the Egyptian |74 bishops, secured his own safety by flight; for the populace wished to
drown him. But two months later, recovering from their wound, they again uplifted
themselves against John; and as they could not find a promising opening, they sent to the
clever man who managed such things at Alexandria, to this effect: Do you either come here
again to take the lead in the campaign against John, or, if you will not do this for fear
of the people, suggest to us some scheme, so that we may make a beginning.

2 Theophilus' New Ground of Accusation In answer to this, Theophilus did not go himself,
remembering how he had escaped, but sent three miserable bishops, Paul, and Poimen, and
another, newly consecrated, and at the same time despatched certain canons, which the
Arians had framed against the blessed Athanasius, suggesting that by use of these they
might manipulate a suit against John for having on his own initiative re-entered his
bishopric after deposition. For Theophilus is naturally an impetuous person, headstrong,
bold, and extraordinarily fond of quarrelling; whatever it be that presents itself to his
vision, he rushes at it in needless haste, without any restraint, giving himself no time
for judgment or consideration. So he proceeded with a mad fury which carried him beyond
the bounds of order, to secure John's submission, and in sure confidence in the verdict
passed upon him, vigorously opposed all who wished to bring a counter-charge; |75 his one
aim, as ever, being to show that his own judgment and decision conquered and prevailed.

3 The Plotters and the Plot 4 Knowing his character, his agents fell in with his scheme.
They summoned metropolitans and bishops from Syria, Cappadocia, and the whole province of
Phrygia, and Pontus, to a conference at Constantinople. These on their arrival
communicated with John in accordance with the canons, so as not to repeat their first
mistake. The authorities were annoyed to hear of their act of communion; Theodorus, the
respected Bishop of Tyana, aware of the conspiracy from the information which had reached
his ears, refused to join in the hasty action of Theophilus, and deserted the main body
without further concern, bidding a long farewell to the capital as he retired to his own
Church. He fortified his own province with the rampart of his piety, and continued to the
end in the communion of the faithful of Rome, to whom Paul bears witness in the words,
"Your faith is spoken of in all the world. On the other hand, Pharetrius, Bishop of
Caesarea, near Mount Argaeus, alarmed beyond measure, like a little child frightened by a
bogey, without even leaving his own city, conferred by letters with John's enemies,
although he had not even been invited to take any part in the matter; in his ignorance of
episcopacy, he knew no better. Leontius, Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, joined with
Ammonius, Bishop of Burnt Laodicea, in burning the church.

5 These two, yielding to the threats of the authorities, and at the same beguiled by the
hope of gifts from the king, at the second session made a vile suggestion |76 to the party
of Acacius and Antiochus: namely, that Theophilus' judgment, which was no judgment, should
prevail, and that no opportunity should be given to John even to defend himself, appealing
to the canons sent by Theophilus, which the forty bishops in communion with Arius had
passed, containing the clause, "If any bishop or priest who has been justly or unjustly
deposed of his own initiative re-enters his Church, without sanction of a synod; such an
one shall thereafter have no opportunity of defence, but shall be absolutely excluded.
This canon was rejected, as being illegal and passed by illegal persons, at Sardica, by
the bishops of Rome, Italy, Illyria, Macedonia, and Greece, as you know better than I, my
famous friend Theodorus, when Liberius, or rather Julius, in the reign of Constans
received into communion Athanasius and Marcellus of Galatia, on whose account the canon
was laid down.

6 The Question of Canon Law This wonderful pair, Ammonius and Leontius, formed a league
with Acacius and Antiochus, and |77 Cyrinus of Chalcedon, and Severianus, and came before
the king, recommending that ten bishops of John's party, which numbered more than forty,
should be summoned, to maintain the authority of the canons; as some asserted that they
were the work of orthodox persons, while others maintained that they were of Arian origin.
However, Elpidius,old in spirit and in the years which had whitened his head, Bishop of
Laodicea in Syria, and Tranquilius, with their supporters, came and urged upon the king
that John ought not to be unreasonably ejected. "For," they said, "John had not been
previously deposed, but was expelled by the civil official; nor did he re-enter it upon
his own initiative, but obeyed the order of your piety, conveyed by a notary; moreover, we
can prove that the canons to which they appeal are of heretical origin."

7 John's opponents continued very improperly to press their views, some shouting at the
top of their voices, others, wild with excitement, impudently gesticulating, and twitching
their chests in the presence of the king. Then Elpidius, a most profound student of Church
law, in a moment of silence said meekly to the king: "Your majesty, let us not trouble
your gentleness further, but let this be done; let our brothers Acacius and Antiochus
subscribe the canons which they put forward as the work of orthodox persons, and declare
themselves to be of the same faith as those who issued them. Then the whole dispute is at
an end." Failure of the Plot The king noted the simplicity of the solution proposed, and
said to Antiochus, with a smile, "Nothing could be better." The king was throughout
entirely free from blame; it was others who |78 altered his excellent decrees. Severianus
and his party reeled, and began to swirl against one another like water that has burst its
bounds; they were struck dumb at the bishop's thoughtful observation, and at the opinion
expressed by the king. Their faces turned livid, but in the king's audience chamber they
had to restrain themselves. So they promised, sorely against their will, to subscribe the
canons, and departed. But as they were afraid of being worsted, they did not carry out
their promise, on the ground that it was given against their will; and began instead to
devise means to secure John's expulsion.

8 In these various manœuvres and counter-manceuvres nine or ten months passed, John
foregathering with his forty-two bishops, while the people enjoyed the benefit of his
teaching with much gladness. For the unselfish mind always expresses itself with greater
grace and power in times of difficulty. The Emperor takes the Side of the Enemy Such was
the state of things when the Lord's fast recurred, like the spring which puts forth its
blossoms year by year. Again Antiochus and his party approached the king, in private, and
informed him that John had been deposed, begging him to order his expulsion at the
approaching Paschal season,and the king, wearied by their importunity, could not but
listen to them, seeing that they were bishops. |79 For the true priest or bishop knows not
falsehood; these titles belong to the higher sphere, since there is nothing more priestly
or more episcopal than God, for it is God Who is the bishop and beholder of all things.
The true bishop, then, or the true priest, inasmuch as he bears these titles in fellowship
with God, ought also to be in fellowship with Him in His actions. The king accordingly
sent word to John, "Leave the Church." "I have received this Church," John sent word back,
"from God our Saviour, for the care of the salvation of the people, and I cannot desert
it; if, then, this is your will----for the city is yours----thrust me out by force, that I
may plead your authority in defence of my desertion of my post."

9 Chrysostom Ejected by the Civil Power So they sent men from the palace, with a certain
show of respect, and ejected him; but in apprehension of a possible visitation of the
wrath of God, bade him stay in the bishop's house for the time being, so that if any
misfortune should occur which affected them, they could at once appease the Divinity by
restoring him to the Church, while if nothing happened, they could proceed further against
him, as Pharaoh did against Moses. The Storm Gathers Meanwhile, the Great Sabbath drew
near, in which the Saviour spoiled Hades by His crucifixion. Again they sent word to John,
"Leave the Church"; to which he sent a suitable reply. So the king, in consideration of
the sanctity of the day, and the disturbed state of the city, summoned Acacius and
Antiochus, and said to them, "What is to be done? |80 Take care that you are not acting
unadvisedly." Then the worthies, high-spirited to a fault, said to the king, "Your
majesty, the deposition of John be on our heads." As a last resource, the bishops on
John's side, to the number of the days of the holy fast, approached the king and queen in
the shrines of the martyrs, and besought them with tears to spare the Church of Christ,
remembering especially the Paschal festival, and those already prepared for the sacrament
of the new birth to be received on that day, and to restore to her her prelate. The
request was unheeded; Paul of Crateia went so far as to say, with fearless out-spokenness,
"Eudoxia, fear God, and pity your own children; do not dishonour the festival of Christ by
the shedding of blood."

10 The Easier Vigil 11 So the forty bishops returned to their lodgings, and spent the
night without sleep, some weeping, others grieving, others again held inactive by a stupor
of pacificism which dulled their minds-according as their individual feelings disposed
them. However, those of John's priests who had the fear of God in their hearts, gathered
the faithful laity in the public baths, called the baths of Constans, and occupied the
night vigil in reading aloud the divine oracles, or in baptizing the catechumens, as usual
|81 at the Paschal festival. These proceedings were reported by those corrupters of mind
and perverters of sense, Antiochus, Severianus, and Acacius, to their champions, with the
demand that the people should be prevented from assembling there. The magistrate on duty
objected that it was night, and that the crowds of people were large; some regrettable
incident might well occur. Acacius and his party urged against this: "Not a soul has
stayed in the churches; we are afraid that if the king goes to church and finds no one
there, he may recognize the affection of the people for John, and condemn us as
slanderers, especially after our telling him that there is absolutely no one who is kindly
disposed towards him, but that he is regarded as an outlaw. So the magistrate, under
protest, on the ground of what was likely to result, granted them the services of one
Lucius, reported to be a Greek, and his commando of armed men, giving him instructions to
go and call the people, gently, to the church.

12 This he did, but as they would not obey, he returned to Acacius and his party, and
explained the zeal and dense numbers of the people. Hearing this, they seduced him with
golden words, and promises of further promotion, urging him to hinder the glory of the
Lord; instructing him either to bring the people to church by verbal persuasion, or to
excite them, and by drastic action prevent the festival from being celebrated. 13 The
Outrages in the Church So Lucius at once set out upon his mission, accompanied by the
clergy of Acacius' party. This was in the second watch of the night; for in our parts of
the world they keep the people at church till the first cock-crow. He took 400 Thracian
swordsmen (the same number that Esau had), newly enlisted, and absolutely reckless, and at
a moment's notice threw himself, like a savage wolf, with the clergy |82 to guide his
movements, upon the crowd of people, hacking a way through with flashing swords. He
pressed forwards to the blessed water within, to stop those who were being initiated into
(the sacrament of) the Saviour's resurrection, pinioned the deacon, and poured away the
sacramental elements; he beat the priests, men advanced in years, about the head with
bludgeons, until the laver was dyed with blood. Sad it was to see that angelic night, in
which even demons fall prostrate in terror, turned into a labyrinth. Here were women,
stripped for baptism, running by the side of their husbands, glad so to escape in
dishonour, in their terror of murder or dishonour; here was a man, with a wounded hand,
making off, crying; another fellow dragging after him a maiden whose clothes he had torn
off. All of them were carrying away loot which they had pillaged.

14 The Devotion of the Faithful So those priests and deacons who were seized were thrown
into the gaol; the better-class lay folk were expelled from the capital. Orders were
issued one after the other, containing various threats against those who would not
renounce communion with John. Yet in spite of all this, the bishops of whom I have told
devoted themselves to their duties in the open air all the more earnestly; and the
gathering of those who love Christian teaching, or rather, love God, was not brought to an
end. As we read in the book of Exodus, the more they killed them, the more numerous they
were. Further Imprisonments So when the king went out next day, to take exercise in the
plain beside the city, he saw the |83 waste ground round Pempton clothed in white; and in
astonishment at the sight of the newly baptized, thick as blossoms in spring (there were
about 3000 of them), he asked the guard what was the great crowd gathered there. Instead
of telling him the truth, they said that they were the mis-believers; so as to bring upon
them the wrath of the king. Hearing of this incident, those who were responsible, for the
affair, the champions of envy, sent to the suburb the most pitiless of their followers, to
scatter the audience and arrest the teachers. So once more some few of the clergy, and a
larger number of the laity, were arrested.

15 Blessed are the Poor in Spirit Deac. Most blessed father, how was it that, when they
were so many that the newly baptized alone numbered 3000, these few soldiers mastered
them, and broke up the assemblage? Bish. There is no indication here of small numbers, nor
proof of want of zeal. It only shows their exceeding piety, and proves their attention to
their teachers, who continually urged them to cultivate a peaceful habit of mind. And
Theodorus said---- Deac. Excellently spoken; certainly it was not to be expected that men
who had learnt prudence and gentleness from the holy John should maintain his cause by
folly and turbulence. |84

CHAPTER X. CHRYSOSTOM'S DEPARTURE, AND ITS SEQUEL

1 Prisons become Churches Bish. So you are satisfied with this explanation. Do not, then,
I beg, interrupt my words; they are begotten of sad events. As a general rule, it is
events that beget more words than anything else.Well, the wives of some eminent men were
arrested, as well us the clergy and laity who were taken prisoners. From some of these
they snatched their veils, and tore their earrings, with the lobe of the ear, from others;
seeing this, a very wealthy lady, the wife of one Eleutherus, threw off her veil of her
own accord, and ran into the city, disguised in the dress of a female slave, to shield her
modesty. For she was endowed with a beautiful face and comely figure. So the prisons of
the magistrates were filled, but they were turned into churches; hymns were sung, and
oblations of the mysteries celebrated in the prisons, while in the churches floggings and
tortures and terrible oaths were brought to bear, to compel people to anathematize John,
who had fought against the malice of the devil even to the death.

2 Final Appeal to the Emperor The feast of Pentecost passed, and five days afterwards
Acacius, Antiochus, Severianus, and Cyrinus came to the king, and said: "Your majesty, as
by God's appointment you are not under our authority, |85 but have authority over all, you
can do whatever you will. Be not more mild than a priest, and more holy than a bishop; we
said to you publicly, Upon our heads be the deposition of John. Do not then be unmerciful
to all of us, in being merciful to one man." They employed the same language, I might say
the same actions, as the Jews, to persuade the king. "Leave the Church" So the king
despatched Patricius the notary, with the following message to John: "Acacius, Antiochus,
Severianus, and Cyrinus have taken your condemnation upon their own heads. Commend,
therefore, your affairs to God, and leave the Church." So Bishop John came down from the
bishop's house, with the bishops, and after giving them clear and definite instructions,
said to all, "Come, and let us with prayer take leave of the angel of the Church." He
rejoiced at what had happened, but grieved over the misfortune of the people.

3 Farewell to the Devout Women At this moment one of the officials who loved God sent word
to John: "A savage and brazen-laced man, |86 named Lucius, is waiting with his commando in
the public bath, ready to drag you out, and expel you from the city by force, if you
refuse to go, or delay; and the people of the city are in a ferment. Do your best to get
away unnoticed, to prevent the people from coming into conflict with the military, in
trying to help you." Then John with tears kissed some of the bishops (his emotion would
not allow him to do so to all), and took his leave of them, saying to the rest, within the
vestry, "Stay here for the present, and let me go and have a little rest." But he went
into the baptistery, and called Olympias, a lady who spent all her time in the church, and
Pentadia, and Procle, the deaconesses, and Silvina, the widow of the blessed Nevridius,
who adorned her widowhood by a beautiful life, and said to them, "Come here, my daughters,
and listen to me. I see that the things concerning me have an end; I have finished my
course and perhaps you will see my face no more. What I want to ask you is this: let no
one dissever you from the good-will you have always borne to the Church; and whoever
succeeds me, if |87 he be brought forward for ordination not by his own wish, and without
place-hunting, with the approval of all, bow your heads to him, as you have done to John.
The Church cannot exist without a bishop. And so may you find mercy. Remember me in your
prayers."

4 Chrysostom's Departure from the Church The ladies burst into tears, and threw themselves
at his feet. Then he made a sign to one of the reverend priests, and said, "Take them
away, for fear of their raising a disturbance." So they were kept under control for a
while, and apparently acquiesced. And so he moved away to the eastern part of the church
(there was nothing western about him!); but he had given orders for the mule which he
generally rode to be waiting at the west end, where was the porch of the church, in front
of the main door, so as to mislead the people, who were waiting for him there. With him
went forth the angel, unable to bear the desolation of the Church, brought about by wicked
principalities and powers, who had produced a sort of theatrical exhibition. Yes, there
was a roar, like that one hears in a theatre; the ungodly hissed and booed, Jews and
Greeks yelled at the top of their voices. And there were blows and body wounds, inflicted
by the soldiers, as if they were dealing with criminals in a prison; while every faculty
of the soul was tortured by the withdrawal of the teacher, and by the blasphemy against
God. For in the place appointed for the remission of sins, there took place the shedding
of blood.

5 The Church on Fire Now after this scene of awful and inexplicable |88 darkness, a flame
appeared from the middle of the throne in which John usually sat, like a heart set in the
midst of a body, to expound to the other organs the oracles of the Lord; and sought for
the interpreter of the Word. Not finding him, it devoured the chamber used for the Church
vessels. Then it spread like a tree, and crept through the rafters to the roof; and
consuming the belly like a viper, it leapt upon the back of the church building. It seemed
as though God was paying the reward of iniquity appointed as its penalty, to admonish and
warn those who will not be warned, except by the sight of such heaven-sent calamities; and
more, leaving to posterity a memorial of the savage synod. The Strange Behaviour of the
Flames 6 But what happened to the church was nothing wonderful, in comparison with the
destruction of the building, commonly called the Senate, which lies opposite the church,
many paces away to the south. The fire seemed to be possessed of reason; it passed over
the heads of the people in the street between, like a man crossing a bridge, and first
caught, not the part nearest to the church, so that we cannot ascribe the misfortune to
the proximity of the two buildings, but the part on the side of the king's palace. This
clearly showed that the marvel was heaven-sent; for one could see crowds of people passing
without harm upon their ordinary business |89 between the mountains of fire. In the same
way the flames, whirling and surging like the sea tossed by a fierce wind, seemed to
advance in obedience to signal; they seized the buildings all round without mercy, but
showed consideration for one little outhouse, that in which the bulk of the sacred vessels
was stored. Not that they reverenced the gold, or the rest of the precious materials; it
was to give no ground to his accusers for the false charge against the good bishop, that
he had appropriated part of the valuables.

7 So the fire, after doing all this mischief, gradually withdrew to the back parts of the
city, following the track of the malice of the criminals; to expose the madness of
Theophilus, who apparently had been scheming to use the treasures of the Church as a plea
for John's ejection. There was no loss of life from the fire, of man or beast, among the
great crowd; but the filthiness of the men who were behaving so foully was purged by the
violence of the flames, which in three hours of a single day, between twelve and three
o'clock, destroyed the work of years.

CHAPTER XI. EXILE AND DEATH OF CHRYSOSTOM

1 Chrysostom sent to Cucusus Deac. And where were John and the rest of the bishops,
father, while this was going on? Bish. The rest of the bishops were put in prison, or
haled out of the city, or found means of concealment; John, Cyriacus, and Eulysius were
carried off in bonds to Bithynia by the soldiers of the prefect,under threats of
punishment for setting fire to the church. Later on, Cyriacus and Eulysius, with other
clergy, were brought up for trial, but were acquitted, and set at liberty, while the holy
John, outspoken as ever, sent them this last message: "You refused to give me the
opportunity of defending myself on the other matters; at least let me have a hearing in
regard to what happened to the church, as to whether I am guilty, as you allege, of the
incendiarism." His request for a hearing on this point was equally unsuccessful, and he
was sent in charge of soldiers to a very lonely village in Armenia, called Cucusus, in the
hope of getting him killed by the Isaurians, who were continually raiding the place, by
night and by day.

2 Arsacius succeeds Chrysostom The successor appointed in the place of John the inspired
teacher was Arsacius, brother of the blessed Nectarius; a man with less power of speech
than a fish, and of action than a frog. For there are times when action speaks, especially
when it is for good. However, Arsacius only held on to life for fourteen months, when he
died; for he had broken an oath upon the gospels. He had sworn to his brother Nectarius,
that he would never accept consecration as bishop, when Nectarius reproached him for
refusing to be Bishop of Tarsus, saying that he was waiting for his own death. What led to
his perjury was first of all ambition, for the sake of which he wooed, so to speak, his
brother's wife; and after that, shame. His brother's reproof was indeed prophetic. |91
Atticus succeeds Arsacius. Coercive Edicts against the Johnnites 3 A priest named Atticus,
who had taken an active part in the schemes against John, was appointed as successor to
Arsacius. Observing that none of the eastern bishops, or even of the laity of
Constantinople, would communicate with him, because of the lawless and irregular
proceedings which had taken place, in his ignorance of the divine scriptures he set to
work to coerce those who would not communicate with him by means of rescripts. The edict
against the bishops contained the following threat: "If any of the bishops does not
communicate with Theophilus and Porphyrius and Atticus, let him be expelled from the
Church, and deprived of his personal property." Some of them, crushed by the pressure of
circumstances, thereupon communicated, against their will; those who were poorer, and less
firm in a sound faith, were induced by promises of gifts to communicate, while those who
set no store by birth and possessions and fatherland, and perishable glory, and bodily
suffering, preserved the nobility of their souls by flight, mindful of the gospel oracle,
"If they persecute you in one city, flee unto another," and repeating to themselves the
words of the Proverb, "Possessions shall not benefit in the day of wrath." Some of them
reached Rome, some the mountains, and others escaped from wickedness like that of the Jews
in the retreats of anchorites.

4 The edict against the lay-people contained the clause, "Those in high position are to be
deprived of their official dignities, soldiers are to lose their |92 girdles, the common
people are to be heavily fined, and submit to banishment." In spite of all this, the
prayers of the devout were offered in the open air, amid much suffering; because they were
friends of the Saviour, Who said, "I am the way and the truth," and again, "Be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world." Chrysostom Transferred to Arabissus Meanwhile, the
blessed John resided at Cucusus for a year, feeding great numbers of the poor of Armenia,
where a great famine occurred at the. time; not with corn, so much as with words. This
again roused the malignity of the fratricides, who transferred him to Arabissus, exposing
him to hardships of all sorts, in the hope of bringing about his death. Here once more the
light of his virtues shone brightly (for a city set upon a hill cannot be hid, nor can a
clearly burning lamp be hidden under a wooden bushel-measure); he awoke people from all
the surrounding districts who were slumbering in the depths of unbelief, from the sleep of
ignorance to the rays of the word. |93

5 Renewed Malevolence Then the flames of malignity blazed yet more fiercely in Severianus
and Porphyrius and other bishops of Syria, and they set to work to get him again
transferred elsewhere; for he was obnoxious to them not only in his days of what men call
prosperity, but also, and much more, in his adversities. They were dunces in knowledge of
the nature of temptations, and forgot the divine message to the apostle when tribulations
befell him, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is perfected in weakness."
So when they saw the Church of Antioch migrating to the Church of Armenia, and the
gracious philosophy of John chanted from there back again to the Church of Antioch, they
longed to cut short his life. The accounts they heard tortured them like blows of a whip
----such is the power of malice, which hates the good----until their clerical followers
saw what was going on, and said in astonishment, Here is a formidable dead man, who
frightens living men, and men in authority too, as bogies frighten children. The wonder of
it! Men supported by the powers of the world and by the wealth of the Church, men with
authority and control of affairs in their hands, turning pale and writhing |94 in fear of
a priest, alone, disfranchised, infirm, exiled!

6 The Terrible Journey to Pityus At last they could hide the serpent in their tent no
longer; so they sent to the capital, and again produced a rescript, more severe than the
last, prescribing a narrow limit of time, within which, under penalty of a fine, John was
to be transferred to Pityus, a desolate spot in Tzane, situated on the shore of the Black
Sea. The soldiers of the praetorian prefect who formed his escort accordingly hurried him
over the ground at forced speed. They said that such were their instructions; if he died
by the roadside, the higher the promotion they would earn. One of them, who thought less
of service in the present world, showed him by stealth a certain amount of kindness; the
other was so savage and ill-tempered, that he took as insults the courteous requests made
to him by persons who fell in with them, that he would spare the saint. The only thing he
cared about was, that John should die a miserable death. For instance, he started out
regardless of a heavy shower of rain which was falling, so that the water ran in streams
down his neck and chest. Another time, an unusually hot sun gave him great delight, as he
knew that the head of the blessed bishop, which was like Elisha's, ached under it. When
they reached a city or village where the refreshment of a bath was available, the wretch
would not allow a moment's delay. This most distressing journey took three months; yet the
saint among all these annoyances was always the same shining star, his poor body like an
apple reddening in the sun at the tip of a branch. |95

7 Chrysostom' s Last Hours and Death They approached Comana, but passed through the town
as men cross a river by a bridge, and lodged outside the wall in the shrine of a martyr,
five or six miles from the town. The name of the martyr of the place was Basiliscus, who
was Bishop of Comana, martyred under Maximian at Nicomedia,at the same time as Lucianus,
priest of the Church of Antioch in Bithynia. That night the martyr stood by him and said,
"Be of good cheer, brother; to-morrow we shall be together." It is said that he had first
called to the priest who shared his abode, "Get ready the place for our brother John; he
is coming." John took this as a sure warning, and next day begged them to stay where they
were till eleven o'clock. They refused, and pushed on; but when they had covered about
thirty furlongs, he had such a sharp attack of illness, that they had to return to the
shrine from which they had started. On his arrival, he asked for white clothes ----clothes
befitting his life----and taking off those he was wearing, he put these on, deliberately
changing everything down to his shoes. All but these he distributed |96 among those
present. Then he partook of the symbols of the Lord's appointment, and offered his last
prayer, in the presence of those who stood by, using his customary formula, "Glory to God
for all things;" and signing himself at the last Amen, he raised his feet, which were so
beautiful as they sped for the salvation of those who chose repentance, and the reproof of
those who persistently cultivate the fields of sin. If reproof did not benefit the wicked,
it was not from the carelessness of him who had spoken out so fearlessly, but from the
recklessness of those who would not accept them.

8 His Burial Thus was he gathered to his fathers, shaking off |97 the dust from his feet,
and passing over to Christ, as it is written, "Thou shalt come to thy grave, as ripe corn
gathered in its season; but the souls of the transgressors shall die before their time."
Such a concourse of virgins and ascetics and men renowned for their devout lives came
together from Syria, and Cilicia, and Pontus, and Armenia, that many supposed that they
had been summoned by signal. The rites of internment and the funeral gathering took place;
and so his poor body, like a victorious athlete's, was buried in the same shrine as
Basiliscus.

CHAPTER XII. A DEFENCE OF CHRYSOSTOM'S ABSTEMIOUS HABITS

1 Theodorus, amazed at what he had heard, here asked a question, quoting scripture
words---- The "Cyclopean Meals" Deac. As it is written, "Neglect not the recital of
elders, for they also have learnt from their fathers," I will trouble you to tell us what
was the reason for his custom of eating alone, and whether it is true that he used to eat
alone, as they say he did. Bish. I admit that he used to eat alone; but I am sorry to find
such a very careful person as you, Theodorus, asking the questions that greedy children
put. A grown man like you ought to inquire about the virtues which belong to men; what was
his disposition in regard to courage, wealth, self-control, gentleness and righteousness,
almsgiving, practical wisdom, manliness, memory or forgetfulness. For meat does not
commend us to God, neither if we eat nor if we do not eat; but knowledge working with
activity.

2 Personal Reasons Yes, he did eat alone, and I know that in part at least it was for the
following reasons: first of all, he drank no wine, because it sent the blood to his head,
except that in the heat of summer he took rose-water. Secondly, owing to some ailment, his
stomach was disordered, so that often he found the food prepared for him distasteful, and
asked for something not on the table. Next, at times he forgot his meals, and put them off
until evening; either because he was occupied in ecclesiastical concerns, or because he
was absorbed in spiritual meditation.. For he was ever striving to grapple with every
difficulty in holy scripture, and such researches require a light diet, or no diet at all.
Again, bons vivants, if they have a friend to sit at table with them, or to swill with
them, or to cackle with them in unseemly mirth, with the cup of warm wine held in the tips
|99 of his fingers, generally turn the good fellowship of the table into malicious gossip.

3 Delicate Living an Abuse of Stewardship But in my opinion, the whole secret, and the
truer explanation, was this: he was careful to excess in dealing with men of pleasure,
counting the expenditure of money on such people as sacrilege. At the same time, it was a
way of minimizing opportunities for theft on the part of his stewards, preventing them
from multiplying by ten the costs of the food, and securing for themselves what the poor
needed. Besides this, with the whole population of the city in his mind, he considered
that as the steward of Christ he ought to regard every one, of whatever rank, as worthy of
the honour of dining with him, or else to grant the privilege to none. And he dwelt upon
the bad behaviour which occurred at table, and the many expenses which fell upon the poor,
until he detested the whole business, and would put out of his mind the malicious comments
you mention, repeating to himself the words of the Acts, "Men and brethren, it is not meet
that we should serve tables; but let us appoint devout men over the matter, and let us
give ourselves to the word and to prayer."

4 The Snare of the Table When a racehorse is too old to run a race, he is relegated to the
mill, and tramps round and round in an endless circle. In the same way, a teacher, if he
lacks the spirit to speak the words of virtue, sets himself to catch men with the net of
the table. And well for him, if it be among the hungry and the needy, from whom he may win
the blessing promised by the Lord, "I was hungred, and ye gave me meat." |100 Alas, it is
often only among the rich that he lays his snare, to earn a good name, or reputation which
fades away, or to secure return-invitations of the same kind, or at least to avoid having
a bad name. Such a man forgets the curse pronounced by the Lord, "Woe unto you, when all
men speak well of you." He did not say, "All the poor," but, "All men." "For even so did
their fathers unto the false prophets." Let us not, then, Theodorus, seek for the
reputation of a false prophet, as the vainglorious do. "For John came neither eating nor
drinking, in the way of righteousness, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came
eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, the friend
of publicans and sinners."

5 The Need of Discretion in Hospitality Deac. It was not, O excellent father, to blame, or
to run down such austerity, that I put my inquiry to your accuracy; for I knew the mind of
the man from common report, and from those writings of his, homilies and letters, which
have come into our hands. I wished to learn his aim, and so to emulate his actions. Who
could be so absolutely stupid, as to be unaware that one loses more than one gains from
the table, unless there be need to entertain saints in their necessity? 6 Bish. Nor did I
say what I did, Theodorus, most careful seeker after truth, to belittle the virtue of |101
our fathers, least of all their virtue of hospitality. It is one of the many virtues which
make for piety, practised by the lord patriarchs. One caught in the snare of his table the
Saviour God, another entertained the angels; one was rewarded by a son in his old age,
another by deliverance, with his daughters, from Sodom. The apostle himself speaks of
them, urging us to follow their example. "Be not forgetful," he says, "of hospitality; for
by it some have entertained angels unawares." But an host must have the practical wisdom
of the serpent, as well as the harmlessness of the dove; he must give heed to both the
oracles, "Give to every man that asketh of thee," and also "Admit not every man into thine
house," or else he will entertain a wolf instead of a sheep, or a bear instead of an ox,
and barter away his gain for loss. And first he ought to investigate the place in which a
man has been set----whether it be desolate or populous; and then his own fitness for the
position of host----whether he can bear with the manners of other people. Then he must use
discrimination in regard to the man who claims his services----whether he be rich or poor,
well or ill, in need of food, or of clothes; for it is with these things that operative
charity deals.

7 The Danger to a Priest of Excess in Hospitality The blessed Abraham did not entertain
governors, or generals, or the great men of the world around him, vaunting horses with
glittering bits and bridles, or trousers set with metal bells, eructating their conceited
tinkling far abroad. He lived in a desolate |102 district, and entertained those who
visited it; they came to the patriarch across the desert, either attracted by his virtue
or under the stress of penury and poverty. Poverty is a mean between excess and
deficiency; the excess of wealth, and the deficiency of penury. In the same way, Lot lived
in a city which was worse than a desert, and entertained the strangers who visited it,
because of the bad manners of its inhabitants. But a priest living in a very well-ordered
city, like Constantinople, where everybody entertains, may easily come to neglect the
ministry of the word, even to excess, and be always busy with food-bills. Such a man
unconsciously comes to regard himself as an innkeeper, rather than as a teacher, till pure
knowledge vanishes in wishy-washy talk; and he earns the reproach of the prophet, "Thine
inn-keepers mingle the wine with water." For teaching is as much superior to hospitality,
as wine is to water if one is run down. The one benefits a man's contemporaries, the other
posterity; the one does good to those present at the time, the other to those who are not
present as well; those present, by word of mouth, those not present, by writing. So it was
with the Saviour, in the days of His flesh. He fed five thousand men with the loaves, not
in a city, but in a wilderness; but He taught those who were present by word of mouth,
while He saved the world through the written gospels. This is true especially of the words
of inspired men.

8 Bodily and Spiritual Food And do not be impressed, Theodorus, when a man satisfies the
hungry with food, but when he delivers a soul from some form of ignorance. For plenty of
|103 people can be found to feed the belly, either gratis, or for money, with bread or
vegetables, in case of need; while it is rare to, find one who provides the nourishment of
the word, and when he is found, he wins acceptance for his message with difficulty, if at
all. For the evil spirits always do their best to prevent the salvation of souls. It was
this famine of the word of teaching, that the Lord God threatened to bring upon the people
by way of punishment, when He said to the prophet, "I will bring upon them a famine, not a
famine of bread and water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." Moreover, in the
case of a famine of material food, it is always possible to leave the city or the country
where the shortage exists, and find safety in another, as the holy patriarchs did, when
they went down to Egypt from Palestine; while in regard to famine of mental food, which
befalls the Churches only for want of teachers, the prophet said again, "They will run
from the east to the west, seeking the word of God, and shall not find it."

9 Old Testament Warnings against High Living 10 Why, what good thing is there, that does
not spring from teaching? And what trouble, that is not to be. traced to errors of eating
and drinking? I mean ailments, quarrels, disorders in the sub-gastric regions, and the
sequelae of these. When was it that Eve was expelled from Paradise? Was it not when she
ate of the tree at the serpent's suggestion, instead of being satisfied with her appointed
food? When did Cain commit the foul crime of fratricide? Was it not when he kept the best
for his own greedy self, and ate the first-fruits before offering them to God? When did
the children of Job meet with the disaster which at a moment's notice made their table a
grave? Was it not when they were eating and drinking? |104 When did Esau lose the
blessing? Was it not when he yielded to the lure of the kitchen, a slave to his belly?
When did Saul lose his kingdom? Was it not when he ate the best of the sheep, contrary to
the law? And when did the people of Israel provoke God? Was it not when they lusted after
the table of Egypt, and required of the teacher flesh and cauldrons? Why were Hophni and
Phinehas, the sons of Eli, slain in one hour, in the war? Was it not because they used to
draw the meat which belonged to the sacrifice out of the cauldrons with their flesh-hooks?
And why did Jacob, the blamed,kick?

11 Was it not when he was "filled with bread, and anointed, and waxen fat, and enlarged"?
When did the people of Sodom ran unnatural riot? Was it not when they had ruined their
powers of sound judgment by continual drinking? So they are scornfully referred to by the
prophet Ezechiel,in the words, "In abundance of wine and fulness of bread they lusted,
themselves" (that is, the city) "and her daughters" (that is, the villages, which always
follow the example of the city). When was it that the principle of moderation passed away
from the people of old? Was it not when they, too, had grown old upon their beds, as the
prophet complains, "They that eat the lambs out of the flock, and sucking calves out of
the stalls, that drink strained wine, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, and
they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Upon whom did Isaiah pronounce the
woe? Was it not upon those who rise up early to drink? Here are his words: "Woe unto them
that rise up early, and follow strong drink; who tarry late into the night; for wine shall
inflame them; for with the harp and the lute they drink wine, but they regard not the work
of the Lord. When were the priests of Bel put to shame by Daniel? Was it not when the |105
dust ensnared them, and proved their guilt by means of food and drink?

12 No need for me to talk of those who have chosen to go by the broad way, and abuse the
narrow; the words of the Saviour are to my mind sufficient condemnation of the roast-
hunters, in the passage in which he shows the unnamed rich man, who fared sumptuously
every day in this life present, longing for the poor man Lazarus to bring him crumbs and
drops of water, and not getting them. Let us look, too, at the company of the saints of
old, and see what kind of teaching they employed; whether that of a devout life and words
of uprightness, or that of drinking parties and high living. Enoch was the first to be
translated; was it by faith, or by joining in drinking parties? Then Noah preserved the
human race on the face of the earth, by faith, in the ark of wood, when the world around
was purified; was this through a course of drinking parties and unclean works, or by
fasting and prayers? And when after this tremendous flood he found a little relief in
drinking, do not the scriptures proclaim his disgrace, and not his honour? When the
blessed Abraham overcame the five kings at Sodom, and rescued Lot, was it by faith and
righteousness, or by eating and drinking?

13 A Single Instance no Basis for a Universal Rule Then Theodorus said---- Deac. If you
bring Abraham into the discussion, let me call your attention to this point; some one will
tell you, that he won the war by faith, but he ensnared God, as you yourself explained
just now, by means of the table. Bish. What an idea! As Abraham ensnared God by means of
the table, had we not all better abandon faith and the rest of the virtues, and cultivate
|106 drinking parties? Then we shall be no better than inn-keepers and caterers, who line
the streets with buildings for the purpose, for filthy lucre's sake. And then the virgins,
who strive to be holy in body and spirit, for the glory of God, had better bear children,
because Mary bore Christ; if they do so, they will be no better than prostitutes. If our
teachers must furnish the pleasures of the table because Abraham did so, then our virgins
should bear children because Mary did so.

14 No, no, my honoured friend; we must not bring ridicule upon things which have been
done, or are being done, with the justification of special circumstances; for each man's
conscience tells him his duty, if he will have it so. Further Old Testament Illustrations
Again, did Jacob the wrestler carry off the goods of Laban by austerity, or by taking the
chair at drinking parties? "I was consumed by the heat," he said, "and by the frost at
night, and sleep departed from me." And he asked in his prayer for no more than bread and
clothes: "If thou wilt give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, of all that thou shalt
give me I will give the tenth part unto thee." He did not say, "I will spend it on
tables." What sort of table did Moses, the spokesman and faithful minister of God,
prepare, when he gathered the people to the assembly upon the mountain? What sort of
drinking cups did he have? He melted the rock with his rod, because of the unbelief of the
people; he led six hundred thousand men out of Egypt; he carried the tables of the law to
guide the people in the right way; was it transparent bowls, and pork haggis, and birds
from Phasis, and fish from the sea, and Tyrian wine well refined, and snow-white loaves,
that he set before those under instruction, or was it words? |107

15 Deac. But some one will meet your argument by saying, Give me too manna, and the water
that Moses produced, and I ask for no more. Bish. Who is so dull of wit as to prefer
material manna, and water from the stream, to spiritual teaching? Let us pass on. Whom did
Samuel, the teacher of the people, after his twenty-five years of retirement at Armathem,
ever turn away from idols by means of the table, and not by words? And the king who was at
the same time prophet and psalmist; he who said, "I have eaten ashes as bread, and mingled
my drink with weeping"; when did he set a luxurious table? Elijah the Tishbite, who
brought about a fast all the world over, and made the greedy to go short of food against
their will for three years and six months-----by what sort of table did he deliver them
from their sin? What cooks had he? Did he not receive his daily bread through ravens?

16 Daniel the wise, the seer of the future----by what sort of table did he instruct the
Assyrians? Was it not by prayer and fasting that he destroyed the dragon, and overthrew
Bel, and stopped the mouths of the lions, and moved the king to deny his ancestral gods by
the confession of the God who essentially is? What tables, and what sort of good cheer,
did the rest of the company of prophets, or of apostles, employ? Were they not teachers?
Was not the whole world entrusted to them? Are we not their successors? Does not the word
wish us to be imitators of them and observant of their ways, as Paul teaches, when he
says, "And considering the issue of their manner of life, imitate their faith"? The
Teaching of John the Baptist What sort of honey-cakes had John the Baptist, the herald of
repentance, in the wilderness; he who was so far from providing meals for those who came
to him, that the bitterness of his reproofs actually |108 offended his visitors' taste?
His fierce looks, and even his appearance, shook their defiled consciences like an
earthquake; much more did his words cut away the abscesses of their souls like knives. "Ye
offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore
fruits worthy of repentance," and do not rely upon baptism by itself, or upon your descent
from Abraham.

17 The Teaching of the Apostle Paul What of the teacher of the Gentiles, who abolished
circumcision, to establish the circumcision of faith, the chosen vessel, Paul? Do we find
him busying himself with a table? He was a debtor; but this was the last item of his debt.
Does he owe it to the unbelieving Gentiles, first of all, to have table relations with
them? Again, what does he write to Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus? "Take heed unto"----the
splendour of thy table? Or "Unto the reading, the exhortation, the doctrine "? These were
just the duties in which the blessed John was diligent and strenuous. "Be instant out of
season, in season," he continues. "Reprove, rebuke, exhort." No one raises the objection
that two of these methods of address are bitter, and one pleasant; or suggests that he
brings in the third with a touch of leniency. The exceedingly bitter "Reprove, rebuke,"
are coupled with "Exhort" (not "flatter"). Exhortation, given scientifically, is more
bitter to lovers of pleasure and degenerates, than reproofs, though they may find these
the more vexatious. For under the influence |109 of some passion, the soul may perhaps set
itself in opposition to reproof, and remain indifferent to what is said; but by
exhortation, gently and gradually administered in kindly and truthful language, it is
consciously devoured, so to speak, in a slow fire, and sawn in pieces. Now of what does he
remind Timothy? Of drinking parties and festivities, or of the revered stories of his
tribulations? "Thou hast fully known," he says, "my manner of life," how in my
persecutions I set myself with purpose of heart to do all to the glory of God. Does he
anywhere mention a table, when reproving error?

18 Again, let us see what he writes to Titus, Bishop of Crete. Does he discuss meat and
drink, or reproofs and teaching? This is what he says: "For this cause left I thee in
Crete, that thou mightest set in order the things that are wanting, and persuade them not
to teach a different doctrine, nor to give heed to tales and endless genealogies"; and he
adds the kind of reproof needed: "The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle
gluttons." We may ask the belly-olaters, and table-giants, and women-preying hawks, who
find fault with John's asceticism, to look through the Old and the New Testaments, and
tell us when they find drinking commended, except perhaps in dealing with aliens, and that
only as a pledge of peace, since barbarians, like wild beasts, are softened by table law?
The Mischief wrought by Excess 19 And when did drinking parties lead to anything but sin?
When I say "sin," I ought perhaps rather to say, "more grievous idolatry, and fratricide";
as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." The play
was the issue of |110 drunkenness. "Come, let us make gods, who shall go before us." They
were so much shaken by wine, that they looked for gods who could be moved, and departed
from the God Who is unshaken, and fills all things without walking a step. And what says
the prophet? "The priest's lips should meditate upon drinking parties, for they shall seek
from him dinners and lunches"? Or that, "The priest's lips shall guard law, and they shall
seek the word from his mouth"? "For he is a messenger of the Lord," and not a cook. Once
more, when was it that the, tower was built in Chalane? Before wine, or after wine? Was it
not with wine, when Noah had planted the vine-stock, and was the first to gather the fruit
of reproach? This shows that it was not the result of drinking, or of planting, but of
excess.

20 When was Joseph sold by his brethren? Was it when they were busy tending the sheep, or
when they were killing and eating the best of the flock in idleness, and devising
malicious schemes against him over their cups? When did they deliver the head of John the
Baptist on a charger to the young harlot? In an assemblage of the wise, or at a drinking
party of the lawless? Was it in drinking and eating that the blessed Paul continued his
discourse until midnight, or in fasting and teaching, and leading to faith those who knew
not God? As for the Chief of shepherds, the Chief of teachers, the Chief of wise men,
Jesus the Christ, the Corrector of human error, where do we find Him eating in a city,
except at the Passover?----and this was the fulfilling of mysteries. And what do we find
Him discussing with His disciples, when they were anxious? Food, or reading? "Labour," He
says, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth." |111

21 Chrysostom's Action Justified So the good John may well say, with the Lord, My
drinking-party is the teaching and distribution of the word, for which I was chosen, for
the salvation of the people. For meat does not commend us to God, neither if we eat it,
nor if we do not eat it.It is with the Gentiles that the custom prevails, of winning with
tables those whom they seek to ensnare; as they cannot persuade them with words, they say,
"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." The apostle launches upon them an unusually
severe correction: "Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners." By "evil
communications" he means the whirl of talking which goes on over such things.

CHAPTER XIII. A DEFENCE AGAINST THE CHARGE OF TYRANNICAL DEPOSITIONS

1 No Exception made for Bishops Deac. You have delivered yourself with sincerity and
learning; your contention is sound. "Woe unto him that calleth sweet bitter, and bitter
sweet. Woe unto him that setteth darkness as light, and light as darkness." Still, some
one will say, We do not assert, any more than you do; that John was given to such tables
as these. It is true that extravagant ambition is at the bottom of the love of pleasure;
excessive parsimony is equally a proof of slovenliness |112 and pettiness of mind. He
might have invited bishops only, especially the more devout bishops; if not bishops, at
least his own clergy, after the example of the Lord when He ate with the twelve apostles.
2 Bish. The objection you raise, most truth-loving of men, would be most valid, if only
the clergy would have been content to have their meals with John, and get their food an
hour, or a day, late; but they expected lavish hospitality, and great style, punctually to
the minute. It would have been absurd to waste the food of the sick or the poor on
feasting the healthy. Besides, what an idea it is, for the pupils to lay down the law for
the teacher, or the patients for the doctor, or the passengers for the pilot. It is always
the doctor who cures the sick, the teacher who instructs the pupils, the pilot who woos
the welfare of the passengers. Moreover, the love of life makes those who take the advice
of a doctor or a pilot willing to bear any pain or hardship, though they cannot guarantee
success; the teacher of the higher life is entrusted with the duty of eradicating diseases
and infirmities, and trained to overcome the fiercest waves of lust. Yet people do their
utmost to oppose him with their unbridled tongues, and stir up all the mud with unwashed
feet. And if John had surrendered himself, and given himself over to tables, how many of
the important people could he have satisfied, living as he did in a great city, where
every one wanted to dine with him, either to get a blessing,or because he was poor, or
because he was greedy?

3 And how could he have found time for religious meditation, the ministrations to his
flock, the study of holy scripture, the care of the widows, the en couragement of the
virgins, the nursing of the sick, the assistance of those in distress, the conversion of
those in error, the anxious thought for the broken in heart, the visiting of the
prisoners? How could he have escaped the reproachful curse of God, pronounced in Ezekiel?
"Woe unto the shepherds who feed themselves, and feed not the flock! Ye did not bring
again that which had wandered, that which was lost ye sought not, the weak ye visited not,
that which was broken ye bound not up; the fatlings ye killed and ate. Of whom Paul
writes, "Ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he
taketh you captive. "And ye clothe yourselves with the wool, but ye feed not the flock.
And He says in Jeremiah of the idle shepherds, "Many shepherds have destroyed my
vineyard."

4 The Good Name of a Priest Deac. In time, he might have paid his respects to these
people, without neglecting ecclesiastical duties, so as not to get himself a bad name,
when in everything else he was so eminent. Bish. This is just what is wanted in a priest
----not to get himself a bad name, so as to have full scope for his gifts of speech, his
energy, his zeal, and |114 all the other right dispositions of a priest. Do you not know,
my most honoured Theodorus, that one of the beatitudes laid down by the Lord deals with
unreasonable accusations? "Blessed are ye, when men shall reproach you, and say all manner
of evil things against you. But woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you; for so
did their fathers to the prophets." And how could lips trained in divine oracles, and an
car accustomed to listen to divine precepts, endure the gossip of the table, when the Lord
says, "No man can serve two masters," continuing, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon"? We had
better find out what is mammon, or we may find ourselves not even serving the two masters,
but mammon only. For in this passage He does not mean by "mammon" "the devil," but the
vain industry of this world, from which the word of God bids His disciples to stand aloof.

5 True Priestly Work not in Earthly, but in Spiritual Things Deac. I am quite satisfied
with the light you have thrown upon this question of the table. Now, most holy father,
come back to your narrative of events. And do not be vexed with me for raising objections;
it is only because I wanted to learn more that I kept questioning your abundant learning
at greater length than you liked. Bish. Let me make this point still more clear to you,
Theodorus, most earnest lover of learning. I was myself once one of those who are bent on
pleasing the masses with the table; and I say that a bishop, especially the bishop of a
large city, who leaves the ministry of the word, and has not in his hands by night and day
the tables of the law, and performs his ministrations to the poor not in person, but by
proxy, is quite a different person from those who said, "Lo, we have left all, and
followed thee; what |115 shall we have therefore?" He must be ranked with those who said,
"Lord, did we not in thy name do this or that?" and like them, he will hear the answer,
"Depart from me, ye cursed; I know you not whence ye are."

6 For the Word knows not wordless workers; His eye is too pure to look upon evil things.
For many so-called bishops, anxious to get rid of the quite reasonable hatred in which
they are held, owing to their own characters, and their indifference to spiritual things,
do but exchange one evil affection for another----covetousness for vain-glory. While with
one hand they do wrong without stint for the sake of unrighteous gain, with the other they
set elaborate tables, and rear pillars for lofty buildings, so as to gain a reputation for
being good and laborious workers, and win honour instead of dishonour. They forget the
Ecclesiast, who built great buildings, and hated them; and clearly forbad such things,
when he wrote, "I built me houses and gardens," etc., "and behold, all are vanity; and I
hated all my labour, wherein I labour under the sun." He did not say, "Above the sun," or
he would have brought spiritual toil into disrepute. In saying this, I do not include in
my condemnation those who build reasonably, and of necessity, or beautify Church property;
I am thinking of those who waste the money of the poor on hanging corridors, and water-
cisterns raised into the air three storeys high, and disreputable baths, hidden from
sight, for effeminate men; or spend their gifts of energy upon buildings, either as an
excuse for collecting more money, or again, to win the esteem of popular favourites. That
is simply to sacrifice everything to give pleasure to sinners. As for me, God forbid,
famous Theodorus, that I should ever |116 please bad people, for I shall never please
them, except by methods which do not please Christ.

7 The Alleged Deposition of Sixteen Bishops The deacon, much impressed by these remarks,
here made a request to the bishop:---- Deac. Your observations are perfectly sound, and
there is nothing to be said against them. Now, if you have any knowledge of the
arrangements made by the holy John in Asia, as it is with him that our discussion is
concerned, let me share it. Bish. Certainly I have such knowledge. Deac. From being
personally present? Or did you gain your information from others? Bish. No; I did not miss
a word of the trial. Deac. Then tell me in detail what followed, and how it ended, and how
it began. I especially wish to know, because Theophilus said in his indictment, in his
anxiety to dignify or to hide his own rash conduct, that the blessed John was so much
influenced by the love of power, that he deposed sixteen bishops in a single day and
ordained creatures of his own in their stead.

8 Bish. It was just what one would expect from the character of this wonderful person, to
write, and to write falsehoods, against John. By the very steps which he took to hide his
own shame, he made it the more conspicuous, and involuntarily established the innocence of
John; just as it was in the case of Balaam. If he had succeeded in deposing him, there
would have been no need of indictment, or of banishment, |117 as the deposition is enough
to disgrace a deposed person; but as our bishop stood firm in his virtue, against the
attempts to depose him, and won victory in defeat, his opponent's malice is as fierce as
ever, bearing the palm of defeat for its senseless victory. He swells like a bubble,
chafing against himself, writing tracts and detractions. This is what Isaiah meant, when
he cried woe upon him who seizes every opportunity of doing, and telling, and writing,
lies; "Woe unto them," he says, "who write; for they write iniquity."

9 The Accusation brought by Eusebius against Antoninus The number of the bishops whom John
deposed in Asia was not sixteen, but six; I make the assertion as at God's judgment
throne, not subtracting a single unit from the figures, nor adding a single qualification
of his action. My statements are in exact accordance with the facts. 10 In the thirteenth
year of the sixth indictionsome bishops from Asia came to Constantinople on business and
stayed with us. Besides these, there were other bishops, including one from Scythia,
Theotimus, one from Thrace, Ammon the Egyptian, and one from Galatia, Arabianus----all
metropolitans, advanced in years; making a total of twenty-two bishops. A certain
Eusebius, from the district known |118 as Kilbia, Bishop of Valentinopolis, took the
opportunity of these being assembled and holding communion together to come forward in the
assembled synod, on the first day of the week, and lay memorials before it, against
Antoninus, Bishop of Ephesus; to these charges, so as to be in order, he of course
prefixed the name of John. The charges fell under seven heads; first, that he had melted
down Church plate, and placed the proceeds to the account of his son; second, that he had
carried away marble from the entrance of the baptistery, and used it for the improvement
of his own bathroom; next, that he had set up pillars belonging to the Church, which had
been in position for many years, in his own dining-room; fourth, that his servant had
committed murder, and that he was still keeping him in his service, without bringing him
to trial; fifth, that he had sold some land bequeathed to the Church by Basilina, the
mother of King Julian, and kept the money; sixth, that after separating from his married
wife, he had taken her again, and had had children born to him by her; seventh, that he
regarded it as law, and dogma, to sell consecration to bishopricks at prices in proportion
to the emoluments. He added that there were persons present who had paid such money, and
been consecrated, as well as the man who had received it; and that he had proofs of his
statements. |119


DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
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DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM continued

CHAPTER XIV. THE TRIAL OF ANTONINUS----CHRYSOSTOM 'S VISIT TO EPHESUS

1 John's Moderation Deac. Pray, father, cut your narrative short; for those who are here
with us are grieved to hear of bishops making such assertions, to say nothing of bishops
doing such things. Bish. Woe is me, that I have lived to see these days, in which a sacred
office----if under the circumstances it is a sacred office----is being sold for money. "I
have become a fool" in giving my account of the doings of John's accusers, who have
brought us to this pass. But be patient with me, and you will be surprised at the
reasonableness which John showed in this matter, as in others. He restrained his
indignation for the time, and said to Eusebius: "Brother Eusebius, as accusations made in
a moment of vexation are often not easy to prove, I beg you not to bring a written charge
against our brother Antoninus; we will set right the matters which have vexed you."

2 Eusebius' Persistence At this Eusebius was very angry, and indulged in harsh language,
raging with all his might against Antoninus, and persisting in his accusations. So |120
John requested Paul of Heracleia, who seemed to be a warm supporter of Antoninus, to bring
about a reconciliation between the two. Then he rose, and went into the church, as it was
time for the sacrifice; gave the people the usual salutation, and took his seat with the
other bishops. But Eusebius, the accuser, came in unobserved, and in the presence of all
the people, and the bishops, presented another memorial, containing the same charges;
conjuring John by terrible oaths, nothing less than "by the salvation of the king and
queen." He made such a disturbance that the people took alarm at his audacity, and
supposed that he was urging John to petition the king for reprieve from a death sentence.
So John, struck by the man's persistence, and anxious to keep the people quiet, accepted
the document, and after the reading of the divine oracles requested Pansophius, Bishop of
Pisidia, to offer the gifts, while he himself retired with the rest of the bishops. For he
always objected to offering the sacrifice with a disturbed mind, as the gospel requires:
"When thou bringest thy gift," etc.

3 The Charges made Public After the dismissal of the people, he carefully considered the
situation, and taking his seat in the baptistery with the other bishops, called the
accuser, and said to him in the presence of all, "I repeat what I said before, that people
under the influence of |121 vexation or anger, often say and write a great deal, while
their proofs are feeble. If, then, you have certain knowledge of the charges which you
wish to bring----for if you can maintain them we do not reject them, nor, if you cannot,
do we invite them----before the memorial is read, decide what is best to be done; for
after the charges are read, and reach the cars of the public, the proceedings will be on
record, and you cannot then, as a bishop, ask for an annulment.However, Eusebius still
persisted; so orders were given for the document to be read, and the seven counts which I
detailed were read.

4 The Charge of Simony to be first Investigated With the contents of the document thus
brought to their ears, the senior bishops said to John, Without doubt, each single point
of each single count is impious, and forbidden from every point of view by the sacred
laws; but we must not appear to spend all our time upon the less weighty charges. The
investigation therefore should begin with the most awful of the points; for if that be
found to be true, there is no answer to be made upon the other counts, as that one count
contains the root which bears fruit in every kind of evil, as the writer said, "The love
of money is the root of all evils." For if a man has accepted bribes against the innocent,
and thought fit to barter for money his powers of distributing the Holy Spirit, how is he
likely to spare the plate,or the stones, or the property, of the Church?

5 Then John began the investigation, asking Antoninus, "What answer do you make to these
charges, brother Antoninus?" He, of course, denied them; |122 for how could he admit his
disgrace at the very beginning? Those who had paid the money were questioned, and they,
too, denied the charge. These stages of the carefully conducted investigation lasted till
two in the afternoon, when the verdict began to take shape on the strength of certain
points of evidence. Absence of the Necessary Witnesses At last, the result of the inquiry
turned upon the question of witnesses, in whose presence the money had been given and
accepted. These witnesses were not at hand, and their presence was necessary. In view of
the trouble which their attendance would involve, John expressed his readiness to secure
the purification of the church, and to save the witnesses inconvenience, by going to Asia
in person, and completing the investigation there. Then Antoninus, conscious of his guilt,
and observing the resolution and impartiality of John, went secretly to one of the
officials, for whom he was looking after some estates in Asia, and begged him to arrange
that John should be prevented from going to Asia, promising that he would himself see to
the attendance of the witnesses. This man at once had a communication sent from the palace
to Bishop John, to this effect: "It is out of the question for you, the bishop, the
champion of our souls, to leave the city, when there is such grave expectation of
disturbance, and commit yourself to a long absence in Asia, when the witnesses can easily
be brought over." It was Gainas, the barbarian, who was expected to cause the disturbance.
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6 The Delegation of Bishops to meet the Witnesses Well, to make a long story short, he
consented to stay in Constantinople, as he had to consider not only the burden placed upon
the witnesses, but also the claims of justice. This postponement for the appearance of the
witnesses was a godsend for the accused, as it was now possible to get rid of them by
bribery or by pressure. This John foresaw; and accordingly deliberated with the assembled
synod the question of sending to Asia some of the bishops present, to examine the
witnesses. Chicanery and Delay 7 Three bishops were at once appointed to go-----
Syncletius, metropolitan of Trajanopolis, Hesychius, Bishop of Parius, and Palladius,
Bishop of Helenopolis; a resolution of the synod being entered upon the minutes, that if
either of the litigants did not within two months appear, and stand by his pleas, in
Hypoepi, a city of Asia (chosen as at a convenient distance both for the accused persons,
and for the other bishops who had to take part with Syncletius and his companions in, the
trial), he should be |124 excommunicated. Two of the bishops nominated, Syncletms and
Palladius, went down to Smyrna; for Hesychius, who was a friend of Antoninus, pretended
that he had fallen ill. They at once notified both parties, by letter, of their arrival,
bidding them to go together without delay to the city designated in the resolution, and
carry out their promises. Instead of this, they came to terms with one another, thanks to
bribery on one side, met by an oath on the other, and before the judges arrived, had
become friends. Then they made a great show of hastening to the district of Hypoepi, and
calculated to fool the judges by putting off the appearance of witnesses again, on the
ground that they were away from home for various unavoidable reasons. Upon this, the
judges asked the accuser: "Within how many days will you produce the witnesses? We will
wait for them for so long." As he expected that they would soon leave the place, owing to
the oppressive weather ----it was the hottest period of summer----he promised in writing
that within forty days he would either produce the witnesses, or submit to the penalties
prescribed by the canons. He was accordingly set free to look for his witnesses; but he
did nothing of the sort, but came down to Constantinople, and there remained in hiding.

8 Death of Antoninus The judges duly waited for the forty days, and as he did not appear,
they sent word to all the bishops of Asia, declaring him to be excommunicate, either as a
shirker or as a false accuser. Then they held out for thirty days more, and as he still
did not appear, they departed, and came to Constantinople, where they fell in with him,
and reproved him for his contemptuous action. He again pleaded the excuse of ill health,
and promised to produce the witnesses. |125 Thus matters dragged on, until Antoninus, the
defendant in Eusebius' suit, died. The Invitation from Ephesus At this juncture John
received a resolution forwarded from Asia, on the part of the clergy of the Ephesian
Church, on the one hand, and of the bishops on the other, making requirement of him, with
an awful adjuration, as follows: "Whereas for years past the laws of the Church, and we
ourselves, have been in a sad state of confusion for want of good shepherds, we beg your
honour to come and lay down an order issued of God for the Church of Ephesus, so long
oppressed, on the one hand, by persons holding the views of Arius, on the other, by those
who make a great show of professing the views we hold, to secure advantage and domination
for themselves; especially as there are many who are lurking like savage wolves, eager to
seize the episcopal throne with the help of money."

9 Chrysostom' s Visit to Ephesus Now John was seriously ill, and it was the stormy season
of winter; but he dismissed every difficulty from consideration, and thought only of the
settlement of the troubles from which the whole province of Asia was suffering through the
inexperience, or lack, of shepherds. Strengthened by his zeal, he embarked and left the
city. A violent storm from the north came on, and the sailors were afraid of being cast
upon the Proconnesus, so they set the prow to windward, and ran under Mount Trito, where
they |126 cast the anchors, and rode, waiting for the south wind to enable them to reach
Apameia. For two whole days they lay without food, the ship rolling heavily, but on the
third they arrived at Apameia, where Bishops Paul, Cyrinus, and Palladius were waiting for
them; for John had appointed them to be his companions on his visit.

10 They accomplished the journey to Ephesus on foot, and on their arrival gathered
together the bishops of Lydia, Asia, and Caria, making in all seventy persons. Thus they
held the ordination, the majority meeting them in the most friendly spirit, especially the
Phrygian bishops; so much did they appreciate the wisdom which fell from his mouth, as it
is written, "Wisdom is praised in the streets"----that is, in those that speak; "in the
broad places she uttereth her voice with outspokenness," that is, in the hearts that have
been enlarged through manifold distresses, as the scripture saith, "In distress thou didst
enlarge me." For wisdom is straitened in those that cultivate tares, and choke the word.
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CHAPTER XV. SIX BISHOPS DEPOSED----CHRYSOSTOM'S WORK UNDONE

1 Eusebius' Request for Immediate Procedure This was the state of things when the man who
caused us all this long story, Eusebius, the accuser of the six other bishops, presented
himself to the whole body of bishops, claiming to be admitted to communion with them. Some
of the bishops objected, maintaining that as a false accuser he ought not to be admitted.
Upon this he played the suppliant, saying, "As the main part of the case has been under
investigation for two years, and the adjournment was made to enable the witnesses to be
examined, I beseech your love of God, to let me produce the witnesses this very day. For
although Bishop Antoninus, who accepted the money, and performed the act of ordination, is
dead, there yet remain those who gave the money, and received ordination." Confession of
the Accused Bishops 2 The assembled synod resolved that the inquiry should be held, and
the proceedings began with the reading of the minutes of the previous transactions. Then
the witnesses were introduced, and also six of those who had given bribes and received
ordination. At first they denied the charge; but the witnesses, some of whom were laymen,
others priests, in whom they had evidently trusted, others again women, held to their
assertions, and stated the nature of the pledges exchanged, the places, the dates, and the
amount. At last, their consciences so much troubled them, that with very little pressure
they confessed of their own free will. "We have given bribes," they said; "the thing is
admitted, and we have been made bishops, in the expectation that we should be |128
regarded as exempt from civil duties. And now we beg to be allowed to continue in the
ministry of this Church, if there is no impiety in our doing so; or, if that is
impossible, that we may receive back the money we have paid. For some of us have given
furniture belonging to our wives."

3 The Sentence John in answer promised the synod, that with the help of God he would
present a petition to the king, and get them freed from civil duties; and bade them order
the accused to recover what they had paid from the heirs of Antoninus. So the synod
ordered, that they should recover from the heirs of Antoninus, and should communicate
within the sanctuary,but not be reckoned as priests, for fear that if their doings were
condoned, a custom might arise worthy of Jews or Egyptians, of selling and buying the
priesthood. They say that the pestilential patriarch |129 of the Jews, whose acts belied
his title, used to change the rulers of the synagogues every year, or every other year, as
a means of raising money; and that the Patriarch of Egypt emulated him by doing the same,
that the word of prophecy might be fulfilled, "Her priests made answer for gifts, and her
prophets divined for money."

4 Re-introduction of the Condemned Bishops The minutes of all those proceedings, and the
names of the judges, are on record. Further, the investigation was not a matter of a
single day, as Theophilus falsely asserted, but of two years. Moreover, those who were
deposed acquiesced, thankful to be delivered from the judgment to come; indeed, one of
them was appointed solicitor for dealing with public affairs. In their places six others
were instituted, unmarried men, adorned by graces both of life and speech. And the noble
and quarrelsome gentlemen, after John had been exiled, got what they did get (for their
villainy has no name, any more than it has a substantial existence), and brought back into
the Churches those who had four years before been expelled, while those who had been
enthroned with due order they thrust out, scattering the sheep of Christ. A Vile Person
enthroned at Ephesus

5 Yet the most ridiculous thing of all, though it calls for lamentation rather than
laughter, Theodorus, |130 best friend of learning, is yet to follow. As the prophet says,
"Both thine ears shall tingle," if you hear it, but as a lover of God you will mourn for
the bishops who are behaving as madmen, and with darkened hands outraging the gifts of
Christ. The ordinations which Peter and John and their brethren administered with fasting
and prayer, and with careful testing by lot, and fear, they administered with revelry and
drunkenness, and lamentable bribes, to abortions of men, not worthy to be set with pigs or
dogs, creatures without reason; as Job prophesied, impersonating the Saviour, "Whom I
thought not worthy of the dogs of my flocks, who lived beneath the nettles." 6 So these
companions of actors and Jews are entrusted by our clever friends with the secrets of the
priesthood, as if they were friends of the Saviour, and in consequence the orthodox laity
avoid the houses of prayer. For this new and most contemptible form of audacity has
actually spread from the Church of Ephesus as far as to us; and it is not to be wondered
at, as Ephesus stands upon the sea, and exports its news as easily as its cargoes. For in
the place of ----no, I will say, in the place of John, the author of the gospel, the loyal
disciple who leaned upon the bosom of wisdom, called in Scripture the disciple whom Jesus
loved; who was succeeded by Timothy, the disciple of Paul, to whom are addressed |131 the
two epistles of the apostle----there succeeds an abomination of desolation. For they
consecrated and enthroned the eunuch Victor the tribune, and cast into prison, where he is
still languishing, the bishop enthroned by seventy bishops; a man who had lived a solitary
life in the desert, trained in every branch of learning, possessed of a profound knowledge
of Holy Scripture, and with three years of service as deacon to his record. Would that the
eunuch who was consecrated had been trained by a holy life, for then the evil would have
been halved;

7 but as it is, we have a worm of earth, a slave of the belly, lustful, fierce, drunken,
profligate, venal, illiberal, covetous, a jail-bird from his birth, a sexless creature,
neither man nor woman, raging mad; a man who (so I have often been told) carried theatre
girls upon his shoulders at drinking parties lit for satyrs, his head garlanded with ivy,
and a bowl clasped in his hand, playing the rôle of Dionysus in the fable, as master of
libations. All this he did, not before his initiation into the mysteries of Christ, but
after his baptism; from which it is a plain inference, that he does not even believe in
the resurrection. For how can a man believe in the resurrection, who has made rotten the
foundation of the resurrection? As the apostle says, "How shall they preach, unless they
believe? He is moral, thanks to the knife, as to deeds which bring no reward; but |132 he
is mad upon unfruitful works, from his natural depravity.

8 Now I have answered your inquiry as to events in Asia, which arose from the statement in
Theophilus' letter that John had deposed sixteen bishops. You may be quite sure that the
number is six. We have the records preserved, with the signatures of the twenty-two
bishops who heard the case from the beginning, and the seventy who effected the
deposition, and brought the trial to a conclusion.

CHAPTER XVI. PORPHYRIUS

1 The Deacon's Inquiry Deac. Pardon me, father; such deeds overpass drunkenness, and
madness, and youthful folly. Madmen, drunkards, and young men, when they are sober again,
or have digested their food, or when they have come to years of discretion, as the case
may be, are ashamed of their disgraceful or disorderly doings or sayings, and renounce
them; these people, after all they have done in mature age and apparently in a sober frame
of mind, so far from repenting of their deeds, hope and pray that their wickedness may be
permanent and undisturbed. When men have not shrunk from placing the gospel on a polluted
head, upon which coarse women have danced; |133 with whom are they fit to be ranked, but
with those who put the crown of thorns about the head of the Son of God? However, if you
have personal knowledge of the circumstances of the consecration of Porphyrius to the
bishopric of Antioch, or of those who performed the act of consecration, or of the
previous life of the man, whether it was distinguished or not, and of his teaching,
whether it be true or false, tell us what you know; especially as he has sent a letter to
the Church of Rome, and was not considered worthy of an answer.

2 A Protestation of Veracity Bish. My words shall again be the words of truth, for I will
not forget the voice of the Master, which says, "For every idle word shall men give
account in the day of judgment." Let me venture to add a clause, and say, "For every idle
hearing." Do you then guard yourself; if you find me not speaking the truth, do not let my
grey hair weigh with you, but only the veracity of my statements. For what profit shall I
have from what I have said to-day, or yesterday, if I have told lies, when I am put to
shame for ever before the unerring judgment throne? And how shall I bear the mill-stone of
slander cast about the neck of my mind, when I am cast down into the pit of hell for the
souls who have been caused to offend by my lies?

3 Porphyrius' Career Well, this Porphyrius had long been in the Church, |134 and held
office both as deacon and as priest in the presbytery; but his character was quite out of
keeping with his long tenure of office, and he was never of the slightest spiritual
benefit to the Church. He was always in opposition to the devout bishops in his
neighbourhood, and used his position as bishop of the most important city, with the
magistrates under his jurisdiction, to make ordination a matter of barter; he exerted his
ingenuity to prevent seemly ordinations, and by his uncanny abilities wormed himself into
friendship with the bishops in office for the moment, as one may call them, even dragging
them down with him against their will, to hold ordinations blasted by the wind. Flattery,
coupled with an evil disposition, is a terrible thing; as the comic poet Menander says,
"It is hard, Pamphile, for an honest woman to fight with an harlot."

4 Porphyrius' Character The more such a man knows the more harm he does. He is ashamed of
no one, but the worse a man is, the more he flatters him. As the wise Solomon says, "The
words of flatterers are soft; they smite upon the innermost chambers of the belly." He is
as much a stranger, or rather an enemy, to self-control in the pleasures of the flesh, as
the vulture is to scent; indeed, common report credits him with the unnatural wickedness
of Sodom. Nature imposes upon our pleasures laws, and limits, and barriers; if what they
say is true, he has trodden down the barrier, burst |135 the limit, and made despite of
the law, until he has produced the impression that he takes the chair and joins in the
convivial gatherings of jugglers, and jockeys, and actors who represent incidents of
ancient times with improper posturings and distortions of the leg. He had the hardihood to
enter into contests of skill with jugglers, and have friendly intercourse with them;
indeed, charges of so doing are entered in the records of several of the magistrates. Pie
has not read the gnomic poet's words, "What thou ought-est not to do, do not even think."
[Thanks to him the Mediator was slain with blows, and "he who found was exiled, and the
juggler was put to flight."]

5 They say that besides all this wickedness, he was guilty, after his ordination, of
melting down (Church) plate, and lavishing the proceeds upon the magistrates, to produce
the appearance of having the authority, not of a spiritual guide, but of a tyrant, over
those who unhappily fell into his power. Constantius desired as Bishop 6 Now the death of
Flavianus, Bishop of Antioch, coincided with the exile of John to Armenia. Porphyrius
observed that the whole population, men and women alike, hung upon the neck of Constantius
the priest, longing to have him (as bishop). He had been the servant of the Church from
his earliest childhood; an ambidextrous man, to use a term from the book of Judges. What
is generally considered the left hand, was in him stronger than the right of other men. He
had first rendered service by writing letters, and been found blameless in regard to
unrighteous gain and bribes; next he had been promoted to be reader and |136 deacon, and
without an effort had mastered the sexual delights which reign among men. As the author of
Proverbs says, "The hand of the elect shall easily prevail." For possibly even the vilest
of men can master pleasure; either through fear of consequences, or from shame, they may
by great exertion restrain their bodily impulses. But it is only those that love God, who
through love of the higher can rise superior to the lower----those whom the scripture
calls "elect," in the text, "The hand of the elect shall easily prevail." If ever a man
was gentle, it was he; or if ever a man was self-disciplined, penetrating of vision, sharp
of comprehension, slow to punish, thoughtful, able to draw inferences by reflection,
merciful, generous, just in judgment, long-suffering under insults, of ability to win men,
oft continuing fasting until evening, so as to relieve the oppressed, of dignified
appearance, stern of look, swift of step, celibate, as a bishop should be, ever wearing
upon his face, even in sickness, the blossom of a smile.

7 Porphyrius' Private Ordination as Bishop Such a man it was whose banishment Porphyrius
set himself to bring about by means of bribery; and his method was this. He sent to the
capital a message addressed to the officials in authority over the bishops, and procured
his exile to Oasis by royal edict, as a seditious agitator. Constantius, however, at once
heard of this, and with the help of his friends escaped to Cyprus. But Porphyrius himself
had Cyriacus and Diophantus, priests, and other clergy, put under arrest; and then,
keeping by his side in hiding the party of Acacius, Severianus, and Antiochus, he waited
for the occasion when the whole city went abroad to the suburbs on one of the great pagan
festivals, observed every four years in honour of the labours of Hercules, called Olympia,
upon which flocks of women stream out with the crowds to Daphne, to |137 see the sports.
Bursting into the church, with the bishops I mentioned, and a few clergy, he was privately
ordained, with closed doors, and in such haste, through fear of discovery, that they did
not give themselves time to finish the prayer. Such is adultery, its offspring and its
deeds ever bastard.

8 Porphyrius' Acts of Violence Severianus and his friends took their bribe-money, and fled
through mountains and pathless wastes; they escaped the terror of man, but were pierced
through by the terror of God, which they had ignored. Now when the public theatre emptied,
and the crowds re-entered the city, they were told what had been done to Porphyrius, and
of the drama that Acacius had played. That evening the people forbore, like men flogged
for adultery; but next day they rose, and poured through the streets in a great throng,
with fire and faggots, determined to destroy Porphyrius with his house. Porphyrius,
however, quite aware of the hatred in which he was held, deserted God, and fled to the
officer in command of the camp, put money in his hands; and so diverting him from the war
with the Isaurians, opened a campaign against the disciples of the Saviour. So the
marauding Isaurian savages ravaged Rhosus and Seleucia, while Porphyrius and Valentinus
the governor pillaged the Church of the orthodox with an armed force; trampling with their
own feet upon the most awful sign of the Cross, which they (the orthodox) bore upon their
shoulders to be their teacher, while they offered litanies upon the desolated land. |138

9 The Indignation of the People A few days afterwards, Porphyrius sent to the capital in
great haste, and urged upon the magistrates, who were such men as himself, that a certain
creature of their own, old but active, and of an evil disposition and a twisted mind,
should be appointed night-prefect, that he might so make himself master of the city by
bringing false charges against the good citizens without fear of consequences. It was a
fine imitation of the ways of Nero the fighter against God. It is not in him to win men by
reason, but to vex them with unreason and cruelty; since he does not make it his aim to
please God by leading to Him wandering souls, but to fill his serpent-like belly that
crawls upon its chest. So a certain number of the laity, in fear of rough treatment,
unwillingly assembled in the church, for the sake of appearances, but in reality, they
vituperated the lives of the men, and awaited succour from God.

10 Cruelty Preferred to Flattery At this point Theodorus said, in amazement----Deac. I
note something contrary to natural order in these events, father. As a general rule,
vainglorious persons are men-pleasers, and prove to be flatterers, and provide sumptuous
tables, to get themselves liked and well spoken of. Often they will even let people spit
upon them. So I cannot see how Porphyrius, or any one else, can have practised methods of
threats, and punishment, and banishment. 11 Bish. Yes, this is the extraordinary thing,
Theodorus, that they reached such a pitch of wickedness, that so far from being anxious to
please men, they did not even give a thought to the disgraceful character of their doings;
for wickedness outdoes wickedness in wickedness. Wickedness casts the net of vainglory,
when it hopes to catch simple folks by means of |139 flattery; but when the quarry proves
to be superior to flattery and the pleasures of the table, it brings up threats and
torments, to terrify by cruelty and fear those whom it could not seduce by the pleasures
of the table or by flattery. We have seen this in the case of the martyrs. Both methods
were employed against them; the snare constructed of bribes and honours, which caught
those who had their mouths open for worthless reputation, and also the threat of
punishment, which provided the roasting iron, the rack, and the wild beasts, and every
kind of horrible torture, and revealed the courageous and the lovers of God. But to return
to my story. The leading clergy of Antioch met in secret, without even going near the
walls of the church, and all the leading women, for whose sake more particularly the
covetous prelates have gone out of their wits. I need not tell you what happened in
Constantinople, or what numbers of people, as I told you before, left the church, and
gathered in the open air, so that not even our rulers in ecclesiastical affairs had so
many auditors----of their silence, for they never tried to speak.

12 Olympias and Theophilus Deac. You have relieved the doubts which were in my mind,
father, by your presentation of the facts to my eyes. The consistency of your narrative,
and your ingenuous explanation, convinces me that these events really happened; for a
fictitious narrative cannot be consistent with itself. If it will not burden you, please
tell us about Olympias, if you know anything of her. Bish. Which Olympias? There are
several ladies of that name. Deac. The deaconess of Constantinople, who was the wife of
Nevridius the ex-prefect. |140 Bish. I know her very well. Deac. What sort of a woman is
she? Bish. Do not say woman, but manly creature;she is a man in everything but body. Deac.
How so? Bish. In life, and in work, and in knowledge, and in her patience under
afflictions. Deac. Why then did Theophilus revile her? Bish. Which Theophilus? Deac. The
Bishop of Alexandria.

13 Bish. You appear to me, Theodorus, to have buried in oblivion oceans of words. Deac.
How so? Bish. The man who did not spare the truth, but trod it underfoot, as my narrative
has established, and did not respect the Church universal, for whose sake the Only-
begotten, as we proclaim, was done to death, that He might make it one, but disgraced it
by his behaviour----has he it in him to spare a widow woman, who spends her life in
prayer? Look all round, and see if he ever reviled a bad man; he always has hated
devoutness. Why do you not gather from his very letters, how contrary they are one to
another? He vituperated Epiphanius, the blessed Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, who for
thirty-six years ruled the Church there, as a heretic, or a paltry schismatic, in the time
of Damas us or of the blessed Sericius; but afterwards, in his letter to Pope Innocent, in
which he reviled the blessed John, we find him calling Epiphanius a most holy saint. How
often do you suppose he kissed Olympias' knees, when he |141 hoped to get money from her,
the woman whom he now reviles; while she threw herself upon the ground in vexation, and
shed tears at such things being done by a bishop. However, what were the grounds on which
he reviled her?

14 Olympias' Reception of the Monks Deac. He said that she had received into her house the
monks whom he had expelled. Bish. Well, is it right or fitting for a bishop to expel any
disciple whatever; to say nothing of a monk? Deac. Yes, if they have offended him, or
slandered him. Bish. Even if they did, ought he to have satisfied his personal
indignation? How then shall Theophilus look for the insults which Christ endured, when he
is always thinking of his own reputation? Why did he never imitate the teacher who said,
"Being reviled, we bless"? Deac. Then what was he to do, if the monks were unorthodox?
Bish. Whatever they were, he ought to have corrected them and convinced them, not to have
expelled them. Deac. But what if he did this, and they were so contentious, that they
refused to be convinced? Bish. He ought to have carried out the apostle's precept, "The
man that is an heretic after one or two admonitions refuse, knowing that such an one is
perverted." He does not say, expel him, and rob him, and drive him from his native land,
under threat of magistrate's sentence.

15 Deac. You tell me of rules for a perfect man, a lover of God, enduring of evil. Bish.
And yet it is not a matter for great praise, to bear with an inferior. But if a man is not
perfect, so far as is possible, how can he be a bishop? The imperfect will never have
consideration for the |142 imperfect. And how can he be called Theophilus, if he does not
love God, for Whose sake he ought readily to have borne the insults of men? And if he does
not love God, clearly he does not love himself either; and how shall he who is his own
enemy love others? So it is not at all strange, that he blamed Olympias for receiving the
monks. Deac. I admit that Theophilus was carried away by his temper when he expelled them,
whether they were orthodox or heretical; still, the deaconess ought not to have received
them.

16 The Rightfulness of Olympias' Action Bish. Well, what did you think of it? That she did
right or wrong? Deac. I said, that she did wrong. Bish. And doing good is sometimes
judged? Deac. Most certainly, when good is done to bad people, and people who ought not to
be treated well. Bish. Then what were the five thousand, whom the Saviour fed with five
barley loaves----good or bad? Deac. As they were fed by the Saviour, clearly they were
good. Bish. If they were good, why did he feed them with loaves of barley? Deac. Perhaps
because wheaten loaves were scarce, and they were hungry. Bish. Then how is it that they
are reproved for want of faith; as good, or as bad men? Deac. If they are reproved,
clearly they were bad. Bish. Well, can the same man be both good and bad? Deac. Certainly.
Bish. How? Deac. They can be good in comparison with the worse, and bad in comparison with
the better.

17 Bish. Splendid. According to this, the monks were both good and bad. And the most
faithful |143 deaconess provided hospitality for them, as good men, but our wonderful
bishop expelled them, as bad. He ought not to have done so. Deac. But he will say to you,
"You received my enemies, to my hurt." Bish. I object. It was wrong for him to call them
enemies at all. As an imitator of Christ he ought to endure insults. Deac. One moment;
where are the five thousand reproved, as you said they were, by the Saviour? There is no
record of reproof of them in scripture. Bish. When they assembled and came to Jesus the
second time, and were told, "Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs and wonders, but because
ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." That is very clear, said Theodorus. Bish. If a
man is blamed, he is so far bad.

18 Deac. Very true. Bish. Then were those whom the Saviour fed bad, or good? Deac. I admit
that they were bad; for "they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that
are sick." Bish. Well then; did Olympias do wrong in imitating her Lord, who "maketh his
own sun to rise, and sendeth rain, upon righteous and unrighteous"? Even though the
Pharisees reproach Him, and say to the disciples, "Your master eateth and drinketh with
publicans and sinners." Deac. It appears that, contrary to the general instincts of
mankind, noble actions are being condemned, and disgraceful actions approved. Bish. What
makes you say that, Theodorus, most truth-loving of men? Deac. I mean that, if you had not
made the matter |144 clear to me, by your logical explanation, I should have been led
astray to hold the same senseless opinion as other people; the babblings of Theophilus
caught my attention more than the ideal of truth.

19 Bish. Then conversely, if these holy men are proved not only to be not bad men, but men
who have turned many from vice to virtue, clearly their persecutor deserves not to be
persecuted in his turn, but to be pitied, as one who is always oppressing the good, and
receiving the bad. Deac. Just so. Even if they cannot be proved to be wise and holy men,
as most people say they are; by the lines of reasoning we have been following, Olympias
must be freed from blame, as she put into practice the imitation of the Saviour. Bish. And
which testimony to the value of actions do you regard as strongest; that of the gospels,
or that of Theophilus? Deac. Hush, I beg you; I admit that he expelled the men through ill
temper and love of domination, and that he reviled Olympias through superstition and
enmity, making the monks his excuse. The fact is, that when he found his servile
flatteries fail in getting anything out of her beyond food and hospitality, he turned and
reviled her; this is his way with every one. |145

CHAPTER XVII. THE VIRTUES OF THE MONKS, AND OF OLYMPIAS

1 Hierax and Ammonius Bish. Listen, then, best of deacons. [You are worth the trouble],
for I see that you will do much good in the world; your youthful zeal is a pledge of an
honourable old age. These men from their earliest childhood, brought up by Christian
parents, submitted themselves to God, and when quite young refused to be the slaves of
vanity, and to associate with the multitude, but found a desolate spot far out of the
world, in the south, where they set up huts, to shield them from the fierce heat of the
sun, and the dew from the air. Here they lived, spending their time in prayer and reading,
producing by manual labour enough fruit of their toil to provide for their frugal
nourishment; thinking it better to herd with deer and sparrows and buffaloes, than to
feast with people who knew not God. The eldest of them, who was called Hierax, and is
still generally known by that name, once an associate of the blessed Antonius, had
attained the age of ninety years, or thereabouts; another was Ammonius, sixty years old,
and there were besides two anchorite brethren, and one bishop, who were put in pillory and
banished under Valens, as all Alexandria knows. Such masters of learning were they, that
not a single |146 point of difficulty which men generally find in the scriptures escaped
them. Two of them fell asleep, ending their days in Constantinople; Ammonius, as Aurelius
and Sisinnius related, had prophesied of his decease, that there would first be a great
persecution and schism among the Churches, but that the originators of it would come to a
most disgraceful end, and that so the Churches should be made one. This shall come to
pass, as it has already come to pass in part.

2 The Divine Punishment of the Persecutors For presently certain of the bishops, and of
the lay people as well, were attacked by disease, which rent them with sufferings of
various kinds, burning their vitals with slow fever, and setting up such intolerable
itchings, that they excoriated with their nails the whole surface of their bodies, and by
continual intestinal pains. One man had livid dropsical swellings in the feet; another
found the fingers which had written the unrighteous signature shaking with discharges, now
hot, now cold, which ran from his four limbs. The abdomen was inflamed, and putrefaction
in one member exhaled a far-reaching stench, and bred worms. Other symptoms were asthma,
and difficulty of breathing, and tensions of all the limbs; nightmares of ravening dogs
changing to savages brandishing swords and yelling in strange tongues like the roaring of
the sea, made their sleep to be no sleep. One had his right leg broken like a cabbage
stalk, by a fall from his horse, and died immediately from the shock; another entirely
lost the use of his voice, and for eight months suffered torments upon his bed, unable to
lift his |147 hand to his mouth. Another's legs were almost eaten away as far as the
knees, apparently by aggravated erysipelas; the tongue of another swelled so terribly,
they say, with raging fever, that it pressed against his teeth, and blocked the [main
channel of] the body. As there was no room for his tongue in the space naturally appointed
for it, he wrote a confession of his sins upon a tablet.

3 One could see the divine wrath carrying out its punitive operations by various forms of
vengeance.For as they had provoked the Physician who brings relief to souls, and had
driven His mouth-piece from the workshop of salvation, they were delivered over for
torture to physicians of the body, who administered pains by the drugs usually prescribed
as remedies, and wrought no salvation. For who shall heal him who is being punished by
God? As the prophet says, "Shall physicians rise, and praise thee?" Thus perished all who
work against the peace of Thy Church, O Lord. More of the Monks On the other hand, it is
said that the tomb of the monk Ammonius expels the shivering fever; he was buried in the
shrine of the apostles, beyond the sea. Bishop Dioscorus, they say, had made it his
special petition, that he might see either the peace of the Church, or his own death; as
the world was |148 not worthy of peace, he was granted death, and was buried in the
martyr's shrine facing the gate of the city, with the result that most of the women gave
up taking oaths by the martyr, and now swear by the prayers of Dioscorus. As for the rest
of the anchorites, the telling of the tale would take many words; and perhaps you cannot
spare the time, famous sir.

4 Deac. Nay, who is so sorely pressed, that he must refuse a hearing to tales of heroism?
Speak, I pray you, and by every fair word at your command draw away my mind from earthly
thoughts. Bish. Well, there is another Hierax; though he bears a Greek name, his life is
adorned by the beauty of his character. On first embracing the life of solitary
retirement, he withdrew to Mount Porphyrites, quite outside the boundaries of Egypt and
Thebais, free from the breath of men; where he lived for four years of strict devotion,
finding the virtues of the life themselves sufficient for his comfort. Then he spent
twenty-five years in Nitria, with the fathers I have mentioned. He was assailed by demons,
as he told us himself, who were transformed into angels of light, and tried to shake him
from the hope set before him, by promising him a long life. "You have fifty years to
live," they said; "how shall you endure, here in the desert?" But he with the intelligence
of faith replied, "You distress me when you tell me of a period shorter than my purpose; I
had prepared myself for two hundred years in the desert." Hearing this they vanished
howling. Such was the man, whom demons could not shake by the invention of a vast space of
time to bring him to accidie, whom Pope |149 Theophilus drove from his home by an edict,
and brought to such distress, that he made his way to the capital; a man who now has
again, since the falling asleep of Ammonius, returned to the sheer desert, in fearful
remembrance of the parable of the plough.

5 Another, a priest called Isaac, a disciple of Macarius the disciple of Antonius, a man
who loved the desert to a fault, fifty years of age, who had the whole scripture by heart,
and took up horned snakes in his hands unharmed, a virgin from his mother's womb, who at
seven years of age had taken to the desert, after forty years was sifted out by Pope
Theophilus, with the aforesaid monks. Another priest Isaac, also the disciple of a
disciple of Antonius, the priest Cronius, whom he succeeded, extraordinarily learned, like
the first Isaac, in the scriptures, hospitable if ever man was----so much so, that in his
extraordinary love of his fellow-men, he established a hostel in the sheer desert for the
refreshment of sick monks, and of strangers who visited the district to see the blessed
fathers----a stranger, they say, to anger, who had lived for thirty years in retirement,
was cruelly treated along with the others. The first of these Isaacs had a hundred and
fifty ascetics under him; Theophilus, while he was really a Theophilus, appointed
disciples of his, to the number of seven or eight, as bishops. The other had two hundred
and ten, and many of his disciples, too, are on the roll of bishops.

6 These are the men of whom I told you two days ago; how they were driven by Pope
Theophilus |150 from the desert, on account of Isidore the priest. Those are the men, whom
priests and Levites passed by, and whom to the shame of men a manly woman received, and to
the condemnation of bishops a deaconess hospitably entertained; a woman whose praise
dwells in the Churches for many reasons. She followed the example of the famous Samaritan,
whoever he was, who found the man maltreated by the robbers half dead in the descent to
Jericho, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to the inn, and mingled the oil of
love for his fellow-men with the astringent wine, and so healed his swelling wounds. The
Life of Olympias 7 Now I must leave the monks, to speak of her. What wealth of money or of
goods she distributed to the needy it is not for me to say, but for those who benefited by
her generosity; as I lived elsewhere, I had no need to be a burden to her. But listen
while I tell of greater virtue yet. She was an orphan, and married; but she was not
allowed by the foreknowing God, Who sees the issues of men's lives before they come to
pass, to be the slave of the pleasure of the flesh which claims the obedience of all, even
for twenty months; her husband being speedily called to pay the debt of nature. It is
reported by common rumour that she is still a virgin; while she might have yielded to the
apostolic rule, "I will that the younger widows marry, keep the house," she could not
bring herself to do so, although she had all the advantages of noble birth, and wealth,
and an expensive education, as well as personal beauty and the grace of blossoming
womanhood----but leapt free as a gazelle over the snare of second marriage. "For the law
is not laid down for a righteous man, but for lawless persons, profane," insatiate for
destruction. |151

8 Now it happened that through some kind of satanic malice, her premature widowhood was
reported to the ears of King Theodosius, who at once set himself to marry her to a kinsman
of his own, one Elpidius, a Spaniard. He again and again urged the brave creature to
consent, but to his vexation she refused, declaring, "If my King had desired me to live
with a husband, he would not have taken away my first; but as He knew me to be unsuitable
to the conjugal life, since I am unable to please a husband, He at once set him free from
the bond, and delivered me from the burdensome yoke, and from slavery to a husband, while
He laid upon my mind His gentle yoke of continence. At this reply, he ordered the prefect,
that her property should be held under trust, until she reached her thirtieth year. The
officer, instigated by Elpidius, carried out the king's command by causing her all
possible annoyance; she was not allowed to have any dealings even with the most eminent of
the bishops, or to attend church, in the hope that in utter weariness she might be driven
to prefer the proposed marriage. But she rejoiced all the more, and gave thanks to God,
and made answer to the king: "You have shown towards my humble self kindness worthy of a
king, and suitable to a bishop, in commanding this very heavy burden, which caused me
anxiety, to be put in trust for proper administration;

9 you will do better yet, if you order it to be dispersed among the poor, and the
Churches. Indeed, it has long been my prayer, to be delivered from the vainglory which
might come from distributing it in charity, that I may not be so engrossed in material
things as to lose the soul's true wealth. Hearing on his return from the war with Maximus
of her enthusiasm for the disciplined |152 life, the king ordered that she should have the
control of her property. 10 Deac. Then John had good reason to hold her in honour, if she
was so strict in her self-discipline. Bish. Yes indeed; she abstains from flesh food, and
seldom visits the baths; if her health requires it (she has chronic stomach troubles) she
enters the water in her chemise, because, they say, modesty forbids her to look upon
herself. Olympias' Charities Deac. It is reported that she has entirely maintained the
blessed John. Bish. Even if she has, what kindness did she show to him that was worthy of
his virtue? She certainly spared him anxiety for his daily barley bread; and this is no
small thing for Christ's workers, whose care, night and day, is for the things of Christ.
As Paul says, in saluting Persis, who probably had toiled like Olympias; "Salute," he
writes, "Persis the beloved, who laboured much in the Lord," "for all seek their own, and
not the things of Christ." I know that she did more to maintain the blessed Nectarius----
so much so, that he took her advice even in ecclesiastical affairs----and I need not
mention Amphilochius, Optimus, Gregorius, Peter the brother of Basil, and Epiphanius
Bishop of Cyprus, those saints to whom she actually made gifts of lands and money. When
Optimus was dying in Constantinople, she closed his eyes with her own hands. Besides
these, she generously provided everything they required for the wretched Antiochus,
Acacius, and Severianus; and to put it briefly, for every priest who visited the city, and
a host of ascetics and virgins. |153

11 Chrysostom's Sparing Acceptance However, as John had decided that he was sent to be a
pattern, so to speak, to future bishops of the manner of life required of them, and
therefore, that he should preach Christian repentance, as Paul says, at his own charge,
without touching anything that belonged to the Church, he accepted meat for each day as it
came, and avoided anxiety about such things. They say that he was like a man ashamed of
himself,when he partook of material food. When apples are fully ripe, they cannot endure
to stay on the branch, but look for the hand of their master; so it is with the saints.
When they rise above nature in their love for the beauty of heavenly things, they long,
even before the time appointed for their decease, to attain to the promise. We see the
same thing in the children of great houses; when they know that honey-cakes are to follow,
they often refuse to touch the food set before them, so as to save their appetites for the
sweets with which they look forward to satisfying themselves. I leave my observations to
the judgment of those who have set out upon the same track in the spiritual journey; for
"if the wise man hear a prudent man, he will commend him, and add unto it." |154

CHAPTER XVIII. CHRYSOSTOM'S IDEALS

1 The Example of St. Paul Deac. You have eased my mind, honoured father, by your
painstaking and complete explanation; your narrative is quite consistent with the rumours
which had reached our ears, but gives them a new flavour of grace. Yet I must say, that
the maintenance of the bishop would have been no burden to the Church, if the holy John
had taken his share from the Church; as the writer says, "For the labourer is worthy of
his food," and again, "Who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Who
planteth a vineyard, and partakes not of its fruit?" Do we not find these words, and many
others to the same effect, in scripture? 2 Bish. Appropriately and intelligently spoken,
Theodorus; but add to the texts you have quoted the words that follow. True, the sacred
law gives to those employed upon sacred things the right to eat of the sacrifice, but note
what Paul, ever covetous of the good, adds: "I did not use the power" in things of the
body, "that I may be a partaker of the gospel" in things of the spirit. He would not be "a
stumbling-block to the weak"; as he says, "If any one see thee, who hast knowledge,
sitting at meat" in weakness, "will not his conscience, as he is weak, be edified" into
imitating thy weak doings? If the matter ended with us, and there were none coming after
us to receive in their turn maintenance from the laity, it would be possible for an
offender to say, Let us live as we will, and enjoy the good things of life. But as those
who come after us treat us as teachers, and set our rule and our behaviour before their
eyes, we are bound to live |155 not only for ourselves, but for Him Who died and rose for
us; to constrain the weakness of the laity, and to lead their ranks to a higher standard
of temperance and simplicity, admonishing ourselves. As the writer says, "What man is he
that feareth the Lord? He will lay down for him a law in the way that he hath chosen."

3 The Sense of Responsibility For the Master lays down the law for the self-willed and
miserable people who sin in thoughtlessness, welcoming the spirit of bondage; as the
psalmist David says, "The Lord shall lay down a law for sinners in the way," but will
punish transgressors. But the righteous man, breaking the bounds of the law of bondage,
for his love of the Master, presses on to his rights of sonship by adoption, and becomes
his own law-giver. Such was Job, both in deed and word---- "I made a covenant with my
eyes; I will not look upon a maid." Now what was this covenant? That they who rebel
against temperance should have their eyes cut out. In the same way David says, "I have
sworn, and am steadfastly purposed, to keep thy righteous judgments;" where his will was
hesitating and wavering, he bound it with an oath. John followed the example of these
fathers, as no bastard, but a true son, and in his longing to make the way easy for the
common herd of men, enervated through divers lusts, to a sounder standard of life, he made
himself his own law-giver; steeling himself by an unalterable decision, he withdrew
himself from drinking parties and gatherings of triflers, jokers, and gossips, arming the
eye of his soul with the panoply of the spirit, lest folly should find an entrance through
revelry and improper talk, and make havoc of |156 temperance. As the writer says, "Evil
communications corrupt good manners."

4 Chrysostom's Action in Accordance with Scripture This is why plots were laid against
him; for even when his light shone brightly, he was offensive to them, as a lamp is
offensive to watering eyes. Such was his fellow-sufferer, Jeremiah, who lamented with
tears the faithlessness of the rulers and the priests, crying, "Who will give to my head
water, and fountains of tears to my eyes? And I will weep for my people day and night;"
and again, "Who will give me a lodging-place, the furthest in the desert? And I will leave
my people, and go from them, for all commit adultery." He calls the assembly of the false
prophets and priests a gathering of them that disannul the law. So in another passage he
appeals to God, not because God did not know, but because we have to follow his example:
"Lord, if I have sat in the assembly of them that make merry; but I lived in godly fear
away from thy face; I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness." Similarly David
sings, "I have not sat with the assembly of vanity, and with the transgressors I will not
enter;" and he adds, to make his meaning clear, "I have hated the congregation of the
evil-doers, and with the ungodly I will not sit; I will wash my hands"----my active
powers----"in innocency, and will go round thine altar, O Lord."

5 But these men cared less than he for the altar, and turned their back upon it, not only
in purpose, but in their manner of life; not content with defiling it with unwashed and
blood-stained hands, with giving and accepting bribes, and making false statements in
writing, they trampled upon it with muddy feet. It is of them that Ezekiel speaks in
figure: "And he brought me to the door of the court, and I saw, and behold a hole in the
wall. And he said unto me, |157 Dig through, son of man. And I dug through, and behold, a
door. And he said unto me, Go in, and see the wicked lawlessness, which they do here. And
I went in, and behold, every likeness of creeping thing, and beast, and vain idols,
abominations. And he said unto me, Thou hast seen, son of man, what the elders of the
house of Israel do in the dark, in the chamber" (he means, in their minds). "For they
said, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. And he said unto me, Thou
shalt see yet greater lawlessness, which these do. And he brought me to another place, and
showed me; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz." And again, "He brought me into
the inner house of the Lord; and behold there, twenty and four men, and their faces turned
away, and their backs to the altar. And he said unto me, Are these small things, that the
house of Israel doeth?"

6 We could not help calling to mind the passage of the prophet, at the thought of these
particularly reckless people, who think that they are somewhat and deceive themselves; who
disturb the peace of the Church, because they have given their backs to the Lord's table,
"Whose judgment ceaseth not, and their destruction slumbereth not; "who mind earthly
things. Of them Judas the brother of James says, "These are they who are hidden rocks in
your love feasts, feasting with you without fear, shepherds that feed themselves; clouds
without water, carried along by winds, wild waves of the sea foaming out their own shame,
wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever. In
calling them "clouds without water," he suggested the evil hail with which they mar the
vine; "wandering stars" more distantly suggests the plot against the ship. Both ship and
vine are the Church. What consequences are bound to follow from such things? Hear again
the same prophet Ezekiel, telling us: "And he |158 showed me, and behold men came from the
way of the upper gate, which looketh toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon
in his hand. And one man in the midst of them, clothed down to the feet, and a girdle of
sapphire upon his loins. And they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar, and the
glory of the God of Israel which was upon them went up from the cherubim to the threshold
of the house.

7 And he called the man who was clothed down to the feet, who had the girdle upon his
loins. And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, even Jerusalem, and
set the sign upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the lawlessness
that is done in the midst of them. And to them he said"----clearly, to the six who had the
slaughter weapons----"in mine hearing, Go into the city after him"----clearly, after the
man who put the signs upon their foreheads----"and smite; let not your eye spare, neither
have ye pity; slay utterly the old man, the young man, and maiden, and little children and
women. But come not near any man upon whom is the sign, and begin at my sanctuary. Then
they began at the elders which were in the house of the Lord." 8 A Piece of Exegesis If
any one should imagine that this prophecy is concerned only with occurrences in Judaea, I
should consider him to be in ignorance of the fact of the Lord's sojourn upon earth; for
Ezekiel was not a priest prior to the Captivity. Under the dispensation of God, he was
carried into captivity while quite a child, with the rest of the tribe of Levi, and only
in his thirtieth year, while fulfilling his office as a priest among the exiles, was he
found worthy of the vision of things to be; as he tells us himself, "And it came to pass
in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month; and I was in
the midst of the captivity by the river Chebar." And again, shortly |159 afterwards: "The
word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the
Chaldaeans by the river Chebar."

9 If our objector, finding himself in difficulties, should now say to us: It is the
Saviour who went first and set the sign of the cross upon the foreheads of the men, and
then, when they would not believe the Saviour, the Roman empire followed, in the days of
Vespasian, who forty years later destroyed the synagogue which had worked iniquity; we
accept [as a Christian] a man who holds these views, but we urge him, as a son of the New
Covenant, to follow the guidance of Paul our instructor in these mysteries, who says of
all the books of this kind, "These things happened to them in figure, and they are written
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Now I do not say this
because I make it my prayer that the sword may come upon the enemies of God. God forbid.
The prophet does not indicate a sword of steel, but some other punitive force, of which
the same Ezekiel says, "The land upon which I bring a sword" ("I bring" for "I will
allow"), "and the people of the land take a man, and set him for their watchman, and the
watchman seeth the sword coming, and bloweth with the trumpet, and warneth the people, and
he that heareth hear, and keepeth not guard; and the sword come and take any one, his
blood will I require of him, because he heard not the sound of of the trumpet." And again:
"But if the watchman seeth the sword coming, and blow not the trumpet, and give not
warning to the people, and the sword come and take any one, his blood will I require at
the watchman's hand, because he saw the sword, yet did not blow."

10 Now the blessed John slept not the sleep of unbelief, |160 nor was he heedless with the
heedlessness of pleasure-seeking, but with this peril ever before his eyes, he cried more
clearly than a trumpet; no uncertain sound he uttered, but gave men certain knowledge of
the sword of the devil, and urged all men to flee from it. And all who had a clear
conscience like a sign upon the forehead of their souls, by the grace of God were saved
with you the faithful of Rome, while all whose conscience is defiled set people and
priests on fire with quarrels among themselves, so as to hide their own in the general
wickedness. The Use of the Opportunity Deac. Admirably said. But it is admitted that it is
impossible for a man to be found blameless and perfect in this earthly life; for the
Scripture says repeatedly, "Who shall boast that he hath his heart pure? Or who shall be
confident that he is clean from sin?" Be that as may be, the blessed John at any rate did
not know how to use the opportunity, for one ought not to interfere with those in power.

11 Bish. My good Theodorus, I believe you are a rascal. At first you showed us the
sympathy that we expected of you, and a certain amount of compunction; but little by
little you are proving to have a liking for scurrilities. Why, even his recognized enemies
never found such severe fault with his behaviour. Deac. Why are you angry, father, you who
have the reputation for being a lover of truth, because I said that the blessed John did
not grasp the opportunity? The scripture says, "Stand not in the place of rulers," and
again, "Buying up the opportunity." |161 A specially necessary rule in dealing with men
who will not accept advice or improvement. Bish. Blessed are ye, who so interpret the
scriptures. The verse in Ecclesiastes, "Stand not in the place of rulers," is addressed to
those who are unworthy of, and unequal to, the priesthood, to prevent them from seizing
upon it. By "rulers," he means the teachers of righteousness; first the apostles, who were
rulers, clothed with the spirit of power, and next, those who follow their example. And
the phrase "to buy up the opportunity" is used, not to make us hypocrites, but to bid us,
when the opportunity of sin arises, to buy the opportunity by means of virtue, and not to
sell it to sin. He who little by little thus buys up the opportunity, finds that he has
bought up his whole existence; he has passed by the pleasures of life, to find those that
are above life. This is what the martyrs have done; they gave away their life in the
flesh, and inherited immortality. So they bought up the opportunity in the true sense.

12 Scriptural Illustrations If my view is unsound, it will appear that Moses, Elias,
Michaiah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Esaias, Peter and Paul, not to mention others, were
ignorant of their own opportunities. Moses, because he reproved a man, secured his safety
by flight, and fed the flocks of a Gentile upon the mountains; Elias, overcome by
drowsiness in his grief, fell asleep, but as he could find no shade of wall or rock, it
was under a juniper bush, which gave him scanty shelter. Esaias was sawn asunder; Daniel
for his piety was let down into a den of lions; Michaiah was kept a prisoner in gaol |162
(by which we must understand some underground chamber), condemned to be fed with the bread
of affliction and a bare allowance of water, that after prolonged languishing there his
life might be cut short through his bad treatment; all because of his outspoken language
to one of the kings. What will you say to me of John, unequalled among them that are born
of women? Did he not know how to use the opportunity, because he had his head cut off for
his undisguised reproof of the king's adultery; he who showed the same care for Herod as a
physician, when he cuts away, or cauterizes, the incurable ailment of a patient?

13 No Shrinking from Reproof On the same principle, John reproved his patients, from pity
or from affection. If the Baptist did not know the opportunity, how is it that he
recognized the Artificer and Maker of the ages, when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who
beareth the sin of the world "? And how is it that Paul and Peter did not know the
opportunity; those pillars of the Church, who even after their deaths shut and open the
opportunities of repentance to those who desire it, and knock at the door? I suppose they
were specially ignorant, as one was crucified with feet in air, as a sign of his
heavenward journey, the other beheaded, because of his bold speaking in Christ; that he
might not fall away from the Head Who is Head indeed. Do not then listen to those who
criticize and revile the bold speaking of the saints. This is the practice of the
Gentiles, and of those who think themselves clever, to whom life, and scurrilous jests at
the courage of the saints are dear.

14 Reproof must not be Personal No, the sword must not be blunt, and the bold word must
not be left unspoken. Kindness and bold speaking are as inseparable as scent and perfume.
I |163 will admit that if reproofs were offered personally,before a man's own household,
or friends, or relatives, in whose presence he would not like even to blush, the bold
speaker would be open, possibly, to the charge of ignorance of the right opportunity or
place; but if the Church is like a butcher's shop, in which praise is given to those who
do well, and blame to those who are careless, why should we be vexed at reproofs given
without names being mentioned, and for our good? That means feeding our faults, instead of
obeying him who said, "All that is sold in the shambles eat, asking no questions."
Otherwise, we shall again find the saints to have been the occasion of stumbling to some
cities and countries through their reproofs, and to have ruined others by their praises. .

15 The Universal in the Particular Job is the first instance in point; he censures the
land of Phoenicia, for inviting his enemy, Satan; as he says, "The peoples of the
Phoenicians part him among themselves." Next, Moses and the prophets censure Egypt, and
call it an iron furnace, and darkness, while they praise Palestine, and call it a land of
promise; yet Egypt proves to be a land of promise to the good, and Palestine, not only an
iron furnace, but outer darkness, through unbelief, to the |164 sluggard. It is not the
places that are blamed or praised, but the practices of their inhabitants. However, I need
not elaborate my argument at length; it will serve for a beginning, briefly to suggest
instances. When Paul calls the Cretans liars, and the Galatians foolish, and the
Corinthians puffed up, and so on, was he thinking only of the faults of these particular
peoples, and reproving them alone, or of those of men in general? Or again, when he calls
the Romans faithful, and the Ephesians, to whom he writes in a loftier strain,
enlightened, and the Thessalonians, lovers of the brethren, was his commendation intended
only for those peoples? Certainly not; guided by the Spirit, he bestowed praise and blame,
that the man who is worthy of praise may know it, and be strengthened in his zeal, while
he who is otherwise may be distressed as he reads, and purge himself from the .cause of
blame. So the Galatians are not the only foolish people, the Cretans the only liars, the
Corinthians the only proud; for all these are universal failings, because the human nature
which sins and works righteousness is one, and in one and the same matter tends to
sinfulness or to righteousness, according to the man's conscious choice.

16 This was the principle of John's boldness of speech in the Church; it would be more
true to say, that to the hungry he gave their portion of the meat of virtue, and banished
sin with open reproofs, in obedience to him who said, "Him who sins, reprove before all,
that the rest also may fear." But if some people are so grievously afflicted with pride or
|165 folly, that they wish the pleasures in which they indulge to be commended, the
servants of God have no such custom. You see, those who are indignant at reproof given to
covetousness, and fornication, and other foul pleasures, virtualfy declare simply that
these offences, however poisonous, ought to be accepted (as Christian).

CHAPTER XIX. A DEFENCE AGAINST THE CHARGES OF PRIDE AND INSOLENCE

1 Pride shown by Self-isolation Deac. Very many thanks, father, for the visit of your
brotherly love; it has been helpful to us, and a remembrance for all our lives. After
these high compliments, Theodorus held his peace; but one of the company burst in with:
Well then, how do you account for his being haughty, if he was adorned with all these
excellencies? Bish. Did you know him to be haughty by personal experience, or did some one
tell you that he was so? The speaker answered: I do not know the man; but I heard the
remark made by a certain tanner, that it was rare for him to enter into company, except in
the Church, and that he chafed at lengthy interviews with persons who wished for them. It
is a proof of conceit and pride,to avoid intercourse with those who desire it. The Example
of Our Lord and of the Baptist

2 Bish. Ah, a tanner; a man who takes the stench of his workshop home to live with him.
Quite the right man to find fault with John's philosophy. |166 If it is a proof of conceit
to avoid crowds, according to your argument, John the Baptist must have been a conceited
man, when he retired into the deserts. One step further, and it will be the Saviour
Himself; for it is written, "Jesus, seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain, and
when he was set, his disciples came unto him" ----not the multitudes----and again, "Seeing
the multitudes, he withdrew apart." It was to follow His example, so far as he could, that
good Bishop John too withdrew from the multitudes, while he delighted in the company of
those who really wished to learn. Deac. A good argument from scripture proofs. But what
have you to say to the charge that he was insolent, when he kept himself in retirement not
only from large gatherings, but even from the society of one or two individuals?

3 A Single Person can be a Crowd Bish. A single person can be a particularly unprofitable
and misleading crowd. Such was the man who said to Jesus, "Master, I will follow thee
whithersoever thou goest." Do you not see that the Saviour was escaping from the crowd,
when He said, "Foxes have holes," etc.? But you cannot convince me, that after his baptism
John ever swore, or made another swear, or slandered, or lied, or cursed, or indulged in
frivolities. Deac. No, I make no assertion of this sort; only that he was insolent. Bish.
My excellent friend, how was it possible for the man who was guilty of none of these
things to be insolent, and lose control over his tongue? A small sin defiles as much as a
great one. Deac. Well then, tell me, what do these popular statements mean? And when will
they cease? |167 Christ Himself was Similarly Reviled

4 Bish. Hear the whole story, and do not pay attention to idle reports; you will never
find an excuse for doing that. People whose lives are not upright never have upright
thoughts; they are for ever gossiping, and have no time for anything else, especially if
no one dares to disagree with them. Why, they made all sorts of monstrous statements about
the Saviour----God Himself, Who in life, and speech, and act, was above man, above
prophet. They heaped insult upon insult, as thick as a herd of swine or a swarm of flies;
such was the manner of the time. Some said, "He deceives the world;" others, "He casts out
devils in Beelzebul, chief of the devils;" others, "Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-
bibber;" others again, "He is a Samaritan, and has a devil." What would be the good of my
gathering all their vapourings together? The Saviour Himself knew what was going on, when
He said to His apostles, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" The disciples
replied by mentioning the most complimentary of the current ideas about Him: "Some say
Elias, some Jeremias, others, John the Baptist;" they do not quote the language of the
vilest of men. So He asked them again, distinguishing them from the "men" of whom He had
spoken before (and rightly; for in mind they were not men, but the sons of God, for to us
the Word "gave power to become children of God"), "But whom say ye that I am?" Then Peter,
expressing the mind of them all, answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God." The Saviour accepted the correctness of this answer, and declared, "Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock," that is, "the confession," I will build my Church, and gates of Hades
shall not prevail against it." |168

5 Abuse of the Living turns to Honour of the Dead You will find the same characteristics
in the blame or praise given not only to John, but to all. Just as at that time all the
work of Christ and His apostles was being reviled----the Ephesians shouted, "These are
they that have turned the world upside down," ----but all that has ceased now, and they
are glorified; so you will find it when this generation has passed. John will be honoured
as a martyr, when those who are set against his good reputation are brought to dust;
people on the level of pigs or dogs will say, "He deceives the world," etc., while
disciples will honestly and cautiously inquire into his conduct, and say,Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God." And if, in the case, of the Saviour Christ, among so
many thousands of men only twelve were found at first to recognize Jesus, while the
majority even to this day talk nonsense about Him; why need we be so particular as to what
is said about John, a man who was not fit to be compared with the spittle of Christ? With
the spittle, do I say? Not with the hem of His |169 garment. "All the nations," says
Esaias, "shall be counted as a drop from a bottle, and as spittle."

6 Jesting Words taken Seriously As for what you said about his being insolent, the facts
are these. In the first place, it was impossible for him to grant favours, much less to be
insolent, to everybody; but in dealing with any of his genuine disciples, or clergy, or
bishops, if he noticed them boasting of their abstinence from anything, or of their
correctness in the practice of bodily discipline, he playfully rallied them, by giving
them nicknames expressing the opposite. For instance, he would call the teetotaller a
drunkard, the man living in holy poverty covetous, the charitable man a thief. It is a
kindly method of instruction for true men, to strengthen qualities which they possess, by
speaking of qualities which they do not possess. The truth is, that he used to honour a
self-restrained youth more than a licentious senior, a studious senior more than an
ignorant junior, a layman who had embraced holy poverty more than a trained scholar who
was covetous, a virtuous man living in the world more than an idle monk.

7 Scriptural Reproofs far more Severe Perhaps people who are always on the look-out for
honours call this insolence; but John says to those who came to put themselves under his
instruction, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
And Paul, in the Acts, says to the chief priest, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall;"
and the Saviour in one place says to the Jews, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks
after a sign," and in another, to all the apostles, |170 "O fools and slow of heart." In
yet another He calls Peter, Satan----" Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou art an offence
unto me." Yet there was no grave offence, which called for these severe expressions. The
Purpose of Self-isolation; with Scriptural Examples 8 Let us then make the love of
learning our delight in silence, as we cannot judge spiritual persons.They are not
insolent to us because they hate us, nor do they love solitude because they are puffed up
with pride; their one aim is service springing from love. This again is why we find all
those that are described to us in the holy records as good men, declining and turning away
from ignorant persons, for fear that they may in time become used to their ways through
familiarity, and so adopt a lower standard of virtue, or acquire their failings. Let Sarah
be our first instance. She urged her husband Abraham to banish from the domestic hearth
the son of the bond-maid, while he was still quite a child; for she objected to his
playing with her son Isaac, for fear that if they amused themselves together, he might be
demoralized by Ishmael's behaviour and manners. Then Jacob secured his safety by flight,
and set out for Mesopotamia, to sojourn there. Next, Lot was warned by the angels to move
from among the impious men of Sodom; yes, and Moses, as I said before, when he grew up,
and had refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, determined to separate himself
from the tyrant and his men-at-arms, and warned those who were of the same mind as himself
to start off with him, and make the exodus their first care. The prophets, too, shunned
the |171 worthless crowd, and generally lived in the deserts;

9 the apostle said of them, "They wandered in deserts, and mountains, and caves, and the
holes of the earth. This was to avoid mingling with the lawless, and because they knew
that association has power to deceive, and reduce to a common level those who spend their
days together, and more, that such intercourse is of itself blameworthy and poisonous, and
even disgraceful. It is against nature to put up with a thing one dislikes, or even to
tolerate it for a short time; for like always attracts like (as the saying is, "Every
beast loveth his like; but the unlike is hostile and alien). Who in the world can train a
grain-eating dove or pigeon to feed with carnivorous martens or ravens? Or the herbivorous
goose or crane to herd with vultures that pick bones? For what communion hath light with
darkness, or virtue with vice, or the bad with the good?

10 The Meaning of "all Things to all Men" Deac. How then is it that the apostle says, "I
became all things to all men, to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to the weak as
weak, that I might gain the weak; to them that are without law as without law, that I
might gain them that are without law"? 11 Bish. This quotation, my dear sir, does not
support your contention; for Paul did not say, I became careless to the careless, or
frivolous to the frivolous, or covetous to the covetous, or anything of the sort, but, "I
became as this or that"----not, "I became this." For "I became as this" is not the same as
"I became this." The words and deeds of the apostle are "such as" (those of others). His
condescension possibly did no great good, but it certainly did no harm; "I became to the
Jews as a Jew, that I might gain Jews." And yet he was of the Jews, for he was
circumcised; in what sense then does he say, |172 "As a Jew," not, "I became a Jew"? He
was often to be found keeping the Sabbath, and fasting, with Jews, without detriment to
the teachings of the Saviour, in hopes of leading them on to a more perfect knowledge,
through familiarity and companionship with him; just as physicians do not always stay with
their patients, or surfer from the same complaints or the same delirious cravings as they.
The manner of life which befits a teacher requires that he does not spend much time among
crowds, but that he keeps quiet, and investigates the differences between various
characters by careful research. This is the method of scientific physicians. They devote
themselves mostly to their books, and so can diagnose the causes of complaints, and
prescribe the remedies for them; they only come near to the sick so far as is necessary to
discover the mischief, and administer the medicine, and do not play, or take meals, with
them. Medical skill does not profess to be able to eat or play with patients, but to
restore the sick to health.

12 Have done then, I beg, and do not keep worrying me with the same objections. Virtue is
never vanquished by the cavils of chatterers. Instead of that, accept my view, and set a
guard at the doors of your cars, to keep them from reporting everything they hear, and
receiving it into the store-room, to the disturbance of your mind. And now allow me to
tell the rest of my story; for I must hasten on my way. And Theodorus said---- Deac. Where
are the bishops who were sent with our delegates, Eulysius and Palladius, and Cyriacus and
Demetrius? We have heard a vague rumour that they were banished. Bish. If my account of
the career of the blessed John appears to you clear, and to contain no hidden falsehood,
and if you bear in mind what I have said, I will answer any question you wish to ask. |173


DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
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DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM continued

CHAPTER XX. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SAINTS, AND THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

1 The Value of Saintly Example Deac. I am as fully persuaded of the truth as if I had been
on the spot myself. The best proof of my acceptance of your narrative is the attention I
have paid to it. While I have the recollection of it still ringing in my ears, I shall
possibly commit it to writing in ink, upon a prime piece of parchment, as a memorial to
our own generation, and for the benefit of those who aspire to the episcopate; so that
they may either be such as was the holy John, or such as you, who have emulated the way of
the martyrs on behalf of the truth, or else may give up trying to bear a burden beyond
their strength, and be content with the unadventurous life of the layman. 2 When
experienced pilots are available, it is better to pay one's fare, and get safely to port
as a passenger, than to take the pilot's place oneself, and lose vessel and cargo together
by shipwreck. , You have given us an account of the career of the blessed John; of the
strict ordering of his life, of his splendid work in the Churches of Antioch and
Constantinople, of his advancement, of the plots formed against him, and of all his |174
bitter trials, laboriously brought upon him by ill-disposed persons in carrying out these
plots. You have told us, too, about Porphyrius, and the eunuch of Ephesus. Now tell us the
rest. Who died in prison? Which of those in communion with John were banished? It is but
common justice that we should hold such men in memory, to encourage the living. In things
which belong to earthly life, servants who for their masters' sake suffer imprisonment, or
blows, or torture, are rewarded by them with kindness and emancipation; how much more do
those deserve honour and good-will from the Church who suffer for the sake of Christ? The
apostle says of them, "As prisoners with the prisoners, evil entreated with those that are
evil entreated, as being yourselves in the body." For "right dear in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints."

3 The Sufferings of Chrysostom's Adherents Bish. Excellently spoken. Listen then. At
first, a rumour was circulated that the bishops had been thrown into the sea; but the true
account shows that they were sent into banishment beyond the boundaries of their native
provinces, into barbarian climes, where they are still kept under the guard of the police.
A deacon who had been their fellow-traveller told us on his arrival that Cyriacus was at
Palmyra, the frontier fort of Persia, eighty miles further inland from Emesa ; that
Eulysius of Bostra in Arabia was about three days' march away at a fort called Misphas,
near the land of the Saracens; Palladius was under guard in the neighbourhood of the
Blemmyans, |175 a tribe of Ethiopians, at a place called Syene; Demetrius was far inland
at Oasis----the one in the neighbourhood of the Mazici (there are other Oases)----and that
Serapion, accused of countless unproved charges, sustained personal injuries from his
savage judges (who went so far, it is said, as to draw his teeth), and was then banished
to his own native country.

4 Hilarius, a holy man, advanced in years, was transported to the innermost Pontus, after
being beaten, not by the judge, but by the clergy; a man who for eighteen years had not
tasted bread, but lived on nothing but herbs and boiled wheat. Antonius went into
voluntary exile among the caves of Palestine; Timotheus of Maroneia, and John of Lydia,
are said to be in Macedonia; Rhodon of Asia made his way to Mitylene; Gregory of Lydia is
said to be in Phrygia; Brisson, brother of Palladius, of his own free will left his
Church, and is living on his own little farm, working the land with his own hands.
Lampetius, they say, is being maintained in some place in Lydia, by one Eleutherus, and
devoting himself to reading; Eugenius is in his own native country; Elpidius, the great
Bishop of Laodicea, and Pappus, have spent three whole years without coming down the
house-stairs, in their devotion to prayer. Heracleides of Ephesus has been confined for
these four years in the prison of Nicomedeia.

5 As to the rest of the bishops in communion with John, some lost heart altogether, and
communicated with Atticus, and were transferred to other Churches, in |176 Thrace; others
are lost to sight. Anatolius is said to be in Gaul. To turn now to the priests; some were
banished to Arabia and Palestine; Tigrius to Mesopotamia. Philip escaped to Pontus, and
died; Theophilus is living in Paphlagonia; John, son of Aethrius, founded a monastery in
Csesarea; Stephanus was banished to Arabia, but was taken by the Isaurians out of the
hands of the guard, and allowed to go up to the Taurus district. Salustius is said to be
in Crete. I understand that Philip the anchorite, priest in charge of the school, is lying
sick in Campania. Sophronius the deacon is in prison in the Thebaid; Paul the deacon, the
assistant steward, is said to be in Africa; another Paul, deacon of the Church of the
Resurrection, is in Jerusalem. Helladius, the presbyter of the palace,is living on his own
little farm in Bithynia. A large number are in hiding in Constantinople, others have gone
to their own native countries. Silvanus the holy bishop is in Troas, supporting himself by
fishing; Stephanus the ascetic was flogged at Constantinople, and thrown into prison for
ten months, simply for |177 having brought the letters from the Church of Rome.He was
offered his freedom, on condition of communicating [with Atticus], and on his refusal had
the skin most cruelly torn from his ribs and breast; I myself have seen the marks.
However, in the gracious care of Christ his life was preserved, possibly for struggles yet
to come, and after ten months of medical treatment he was banished to Pelusium.

6 A soldier named Provincialus, of the Imperial guard,accused of being a lover of John,
was first flogged repeatedly and tortured unmercifully, and then banished to Petrae. A
servant of Elpidius the priest accepted a bribe, they say, of fifty pieces of money, to
kill the holy John by treachery, but was caught in the attempt with three swords upon his
person, and injured seven of his captors one after the other. Four of them were at once
buried, and three were under treatment for a long time before they recovered; yet the
murderer was acquitted. The blessed Eutropius, undefiled of women, a singer, was terribly
flogged, and the skin torn from his ribs and forehead; his eyebrows were torn off, and
finally his ribs were laid bare on both sides, and burning oil-lamps placed |178 against
the bones, until he expired upon the rack, and was buried at midnight by the priestly
perpetrators of the crime. But God bore witness to his death, by a vision of singers, in
token of its likeness to the passion of the Saviour.

7 The deacon who came back to us from the bishops reported that the prefect's officers in
charge of them treated them so badly, in accordance with instructions received from some
source or other, that they prayed for death and release from life. 8 They robbed the
bishops of every penny they had for the expenses of the journey, and divided it among
themselves; they set them on bare-boned asses, and made a two days' journey into one,
going on till late at night, and starting off before it was light in the morning, until
their stomachs could not keep down even the meagre food allowed them. They never lost an
opportunity of insulting them with foul and disgraceful language. They carried off the
servant of Palladius, and compelled him to surrender his ledger. One of those in charge,
who had cruelly ill-treated Demetrius, so as to reach Zibyne late in the evening, was
racked with pain from head to foot, and died in agony; inspired men recognized this as the
punishment for his cruelty. Palladius had told him before, as a fellow-soldier who
returned informed us, that "Thou shalt not make another journey, but shalt die in misery.
They would not allow them to go near a church, but lodged either in inns, where there were
numbers of prostitutes, or in the synagogues of Samaritans or Jews, mostly from Tarsus;
where their distress suggested to them a new thought, which had not occurred to them
before. Said one of the bishops: "Why should we trouble about our |179 lodgings? Does it
lie with us where to stay, so that we can be responsible, as if we misbehaved ourselves of
our own choice? Do you not know, that by all this that has happened, and will happen, God
is being glorified in all things?

9 How many of these prostitutes, who have forgotten God, or never had the knowledge of
Him, have been brought by the sight of us in this condition to the fear and thought of
God, and so perhaps been turned to better things, or at least been kept from plunging into
worse? It is no small thing, to a reasonable soul, in a time of suffering, to have even a
little respite; we must regard it as a stimulus to self-control. Paul the seer, who
himself suffered like us, says: 'We are a sweet savour of Christ among them that are being
saved and among them that are perishing, because we have been made a spectacle to angels
and to men.'" 10 The local bishops in communion with Theophilus all over the East went so
far in their savage cruelty, that some of them, so far from showing ordinary humanity,
actually bribed the officers to get them out of the cities more speedily. The chief
offenders in this respect were the Bishops of Tarsus and Antioch, Eulogius, Bishop of
Caesarea in Palestine, and especially the Bishop of Ancyra, and Ammonius, Bishop of
Pelusium, who made the soldiers in charge of them still more savage against them by bribes
or by threats, urging them not even to allow those of the laity who wished to do so to
give them hospitality. History Repeals Itself On similar grounds the blessed John, writing
to Gaius, in his Catholic epistles, condemns a certain bishop, but commends the
hospitality of Gaius, and exhorts him not to imitate wicked bishops. The words are these:
"Unto Gaius the beloved, whom I |180 love in truth. Beloved, I pray that in all things
thou may est prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced
greatly, when some came and declared to me, that thou walkest in truth, and wherein thou
didst refresh the saints. I have no greater joy than this." And after this he adds, "I
wrote unto the Church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them,
receiveth us not, prating against us with wicked words; and not content therewith, neither
doth he himself receive the brethren, and them that would he forbiddeth, and casteth them
out of the Church." A little later he gives him the advice, "Beloved, imitate not that
which is evil; for he that doeth good is of God; he that doeth evil hath not seen God."

11 I have quoted this whole passage, relating to the wickedness of by-gone days, to
pourtray the mind of the Diotrephes' of to-day. But (my friend) praised and admired the
bishops of the second Cappadocia, for their deep sympathy, even to tears, with the
banished bishops; especially the most gentle Theodorus of Tyana, and Bosphorus of
Coloneia, a bishop of forty-eight years' standing,, and Serapion of Ostracine, who has
held the episcopal office for forty-five years. The Problem of the Prosperity of the
Wicked Long was Theodorus speechless with distress, and at last said---- Deac. What shall
we say to all this, father? Can it be that it is the last hour, and the falling away of
which Paul speaks is being ushered in by these events, "that the son of perdition, who
opposeth, may be revealed"? The thought of the wicked prospering, and succeeding in their
aims, and going on for so long, and having such power, while the good are |181 being
persecuted and pillaged, fills me with dread that this person is near at hand.

12 The Last Hour Bish. Very certainly, most intelligent sir, the end is near; as we read,
"Little children, it is the last hour;" and "The master of the house went out about the
eleventh hour to hire labourers into his vineyard." The last hour is the twelfth; and if
the apostle spoke of the last hour four hundred years ago, much more, by all showing, is
it the last hour now. The Test of Suffering Again, we have to remember that from the first
these things have occurred by the permission of the Lord, for the training of the saints;
the devil desires to have them, as the word of the Saviour says, "Simon, Simon, Satan
asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I made supplication for thee, that
thy faith fail not." Assuredly the Lord did not pray for Simon alone, but for all who have
Peter's faith; the sieve can only mean, the circle of earth filled with pleasures and
pains, which form, so to speak, holes through which earthly people fall down to hell,
separated as dust from nourishing grain by the perforations.

13 Some pass through the hole of gluttony----those "whose god is their belly"; some
through that of love of pleasure, those of whom the prophet speaks, who were "led astray
by the spirit of fornication"; for "neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor abusers of
themselves, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Others pass through the hole of
covetousness----those who have espoused the bride of idolatry; others |182 through that of
anger and passion----those who loved bestial darkness, of whom John says, "He that hateth
his brother is in darkness until now," for "Anger," says the author of Proverbs, "destroys
even the prudent;" others through accidie and forgetfulness, because they do not persevere
in sleepless remembrance; whose address to God is, "My heart slept through weariness."
"Woe unto you," the word warns them, "who have lost patience, and what will ye do when the
Lord shall visit you?" Others pass through the hole of senseless ostentation; of whom the
Psalmist declares, "For God hath scattered the bones of the men-pleasers;" others, again,
through that of false pretension or pride, which is arrogance. It is these whom the
prophet rebukes as deserters----" The proud have transgressed exceedingly, yet have I not
swerved from thy law." Each of these vices is followed by others, worse than itself; pride
by envy, covetousness by hatred, and stinginess and lying, passion by anger or
revengefulness, insolence, and envyings; fornication by forgetfulness, deadness of
conscience, idleness, indifference, unprofitable loss of sleep; vainglory by
meddlesomeness, acts of bribery, idle fancies, hypocrisy, respect of persons, deceits;
pride by foolish ideas, pitilessness, impiety, folly; and so on. I need not over-weight my
argument by giving further illustrations, as what I have said is perfectly clear.

14 Righteousness Revealed through Trials To each of these vices God has appointed its
contrary virtue; for instance, self-control is opposed to lust, temperance to greediness,
justice to |183 covetousness, gentleness to anger, joy to sorrow, mindfulness to
forgetfulness, patience to accidie, good sense to folly, courage to cowardice, humility to
vainglory, and so on; and to all, holy scripture. Only to pride has He not given its
contrary virtue, because of its exceeding viciousness, but has reserved Himself as its
contrary, as He said, "God resisteth the proud," So, too, the prophet prays, "Lift up
thine hand against their pride, even to the end," and again, "Render to the proud their
desert." And just as the tree is known by its fruit (as the Lord says, "By their fruits ye
shall know them"), so is each man, whether he be a saint in fact, or only in name.
Scriptural Illustrations

15 This is why the happiness of the wicked is always long-continued; because God bears
long with them. This is always His property; He has told us to expect it, in the part
played by the afflicted saints in times past, as an encouragement to us who suffer to-day.
Look first at Job, the son of patience; what says he, after much suffering? Mark it well.
"As for me, is my reproof of men?" he points to his blamelessness. "Why should I not be
impatient? . Look unto me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. For if I
remember, I am troubled, and pains take hold of my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live,
and become old in riches? Their seed is according to their desire, and their children are
before their eyes; their houses prosper, nowhere is fear; the rod of the Lord is not upon
them. Their cow casts not her calf; she is preserved from heat; she is with young, and
faileth not. They abide as sheep for ever. Their children play, taking the psaltery and
harp, and rejoice at the sound of the psalm, they fulfil their life in good things, and
they sleep in the rest of Hades. Yet he saith unto God, Depart from me, I desire not to
know thy ways." |184

16 David the forbearing, the singer of the divine judgments, uses similar language: "I
will sing to thee of mercy and judgment, O Lord." "How good is God to Israel, even unto
them that are pure in heart. But my feet were almost shaken; my steps had well-nigh
slipped." Why? "For I was stirred at the lawless, when I saw the peace of sinners." And in
another passage he inveighs against their wealth, as follows: "Their oxen are fat, their
sheep bring forth abundantly, abounding in their streets; their garners are full,
affording store from this unto that; their daughters are beautiful, adorned in the
likeness of a temple." And he adds, in astonishment at the harmony and peace which they
enjoy, "There is no outcry in their streets, nor falling of a fence in their houses." Then
he attacks the corrupted opinions of the common herd of men, saying, "They counted as
blessed the people who have these things." And he adds, "Blessed is the people whose
helper is the Lord God of Jacob."

17 I must not end my quotations here, or I shall imperil my argument for want of
completeness. Hear what Habakkuk says, as he seems to beat his breast in his distress at
the same problem: "O Lord, how long shall I cry, suffering wrongfully, and thou wilt not
hear?" He calls the wrongs of his neighbour his own; and in his love for his brethren he
adds, "I will cry unto thee, and thou wilt not save. Why didst thou show me iniquity, and
that I should look upon labours that lead to hardship and impiety? Judgment is against me,
and the judge taketh reward. Therefore is the law perverted, and |185 judgment goeth not
forth, unto the end; for the wicked doth oppress the righteous." 18 In the same spirit
Jeremiah, the most sympathetic of the saints, perplexed beyond all other men, cries,
"Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I, shall plead with thee; yet will I speak judgments
unto thee, O Lord. Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? All they that set at nought are
at ease; thou didst plant them, and they took root" (this is instead of saying, "they
spend their days in profligacy"); "and they bore fruit" (certainly not of the spirit).
"Thou art near their mouth, and far from their reins." The prophet Sophonias the wise has
a passage to exactly the same effect. He is reproaching men for slandering their
neighbours, finding fault with the providence of God, and calling the saints unhappy.
"You," he says in the person of the Lord, "made your words stout against me, saith the
Lord. And ye said, Wherein did we speak against thee? Ye said, He is vain who serveth God;
and what profit, that we kept his charges, and that we walked as suppliants before the
Lord Almighty? And now we call strangers happy, and all that work lawless things are built
up, and they resisted God, and are delivered. These things spake they that feared the
Lord, each one to his neighbour."

19 Paul, the preacher of piety, adds his testimony to the same truth: "But evil men and
impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." |186 Then he points
out the low esteem in which the saints are held: "For I think that God hath set forth us
the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the
world, and to angels, and to men. For even unto this present hour we both hunger, and
thirst, and are naked, and have no certain dwelling-place, and labour, working with our
own hands" (a description of his bodily sufferings); "being reviled, we bless, being
persecuted, we endure, being defamed, we entreat, we are made as the filth of the world,
the offscouring of all things even until now." The good and just God spreads the world
before us, for certain ineffable reasons, like a racecourse; and has given us free will,
that we may deal with circumstances according to our own choice, and pay the just penalty
for our deeds. As the law says, "1 have set before thy face, death and life, choose what
thou wilt." Why He set it so, it is not for us to say in this present life; the fact
remains, that He has so set it. It would not have been wise for us to be created
impeccable, with no struggles before us, and minds not established in righteousness.
Impeccability is the attribute of the eternal Godhead alone.

20 Deac. You have met our difficulty admirably and wisely, father; you have given eyes to
the souls of our friends here, who have found this matter a continual perplexity, arising
partly from their lack of acquaintance with scripture, partly from the very fact that the
Church is throughout the ages appointed as a training school. She points to her victors,
|187 men and women alike, as not having eaten of the flesh of Christ in times past without
paying a price. Yet the disorders among you, and the break-up of the Church, cause us
distress. The Blessedness of Truth Countervails all Suffering 21 Bish. You astonish me,
most honoured of men. You almost unreservedly admit the beneficial results of suffering,
and then turn round and say something to the contrary effect. You call us blessed, as
victors, and yet you call us miserable, as banished men, because we have been deprived of
our Church buildings. You seem to me to be in the same state of mind as the rustic
spectators at the Olympic games, who gape with delight at the prizes, but shed tears of
pity at the blows exchanged between the combatants. To my mind, it is better to hasten
away to ravines, and thickets, and seas, in company with the truth, than to be burdened
with falsehood, while enjoying high honour for what is in this life considered prosperity.
For if I possess truth, I shall possess all things, for all things are her servants; if I
have made falsehood my own, I do not possess even myself, as I am not hers. But if I
possess truth, I do not wish to possess her merely as a mistress, or a servant, or a
neighbour, but as a sister; nay, if it be possible, as a bride, whose sweetness I may
enjoy and presently inherit as my very own wife. For she is the sister of the absolute
truth, whose son-in-law the good man is. For he that bears this seal becomes young a
second time, grows not old, and |188 fades not away; he has zeal fiercer than fire, words
sharper than swords, life freer than an eagle's;

22 he devotes himself untiringly to meditation upon the scriptures, as to a house-mother;
he never ceases to blossom with gladness, he is not overcome by fear, he holds up his head
undaunted, he dances in his holy enthusiasm, he hates no man, he pities those who misuse
life, he calls blessed those who mind their own business in contentment, he sorrows with
the sorrow of the spirit at the careless lives of priests, of whom the apostle said,
"Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. He it is
that grieves the Spirit, who turns his back upon Him in carelessness. 23 And at last
(there is much that I must pass by) in his out-spokenness he dies; he has given pain to
none, save to the demons, and to those who are like them. His time has been more than
enough; he did not higgle away his days in evil doings. He doubled the money that was
given to him, he forwarded interest, of good works, in a short time he fulfilled long
years; he makes no will disposing of his property, for by his life and thought he wrestled
with it, and gravelled it. Did Death knock at the door of his frail flesh? Before he sees
him outside, he cries, Let us go hence, and sings, "Woe is me, that my sojourn has been so
long;" and were it not for the Master Who sent him on his mission, he would have, served
him with a summons, and sued him at law, for coming too late. Well content is he, when at
last he is set free from the frail flesh, with its manifold ailments, as if he were
leaving a ruinous hostel, threatening to fall; he pricked up his ears at the voice of Him
Who says, "Well done, good and faithful servant," confident of hearing the rest as well.
|189 Take this torrent of words as a proof of my contention; "for out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh."

24 The Misery of Falsehood But he who dwells with falsehood has a disturbed life; one
moment in boundless delight at an addition to his wealth, or to his poor little
reputation, or at the friendship of a wretched harlot, or at the misfortunes of his
enemies; the next, sick to death with sorrow, dreaming of changes and uncertainties. He
passes restless or sleepless nights, he imagines plots made against him by his closest
friends, he has no confidence even in himself, and distrusts all men, as liars. Such is
he; cowardly as a hare, bold as a pig, deceitful as a chameleon, unreliable as a
partridge, pitiless as a wolf, untameable as a mouse; his own enemy, unceasingly jealous,
inevitably punishing himself, though he does not know it; for he who is always planning
evil against another, first brings evil upon himself. 25 Did Death prick his skin? He
gives away everything, to gain a little respite, so precious is his life to him; the time
given him he higgled away to no profit, so far from doubling his penny he did not even
keep it safe. He trembles continually, like a leaf, in his dread of the approach of old
age; he is troubled with the silly ideas of old men, he fears death as a god; for to him
the visible world is God. And what then? He turns pale, he shivers with fright, he is in
an agony of distress; he anticipates the judgment of God, and inflicts punishment upon
himself. His conscience torments him without mercy, and reminds him of his evil doings one
by one, till his sufferings are more terrible than those of criminals under the lash. He
grovels like a slave to those in office for the moment, and flatters the world to his
disgrace; instead of One Lord he has ten thousand |190 masters, to save himself from being
the servant of the truth. He does all he can to get himself feared, yet he himself fears
every one.

26 The Decision of the Church of Rome I will say no more; I have done all I can. If any
one can speak more truthfully or elegantly, and put my nothingness right, I will gladly
welcome him as a corrector of error and a lover of the brethren, and give thanks to the
Saviour for all things. Now do you in return give me an account of the decision of the
western synod, and set the seal upon my words, if they commended themselves to you as
being of any value. So the narrator ceased, and Theodorus said----Deac. The Lord grant to
you who have given us this narrative, to find mercy in that day, for your refusal to hold
communion with such people, and for the clear account you have given us. And may the Lord
remember every sacrifice of John, because he surrendered not his out-spokenness, even unto
death. The decision of the Church of Rome was, under no circumstances to communicate with
the eastern bishops, especially with Theophilus, until the Lord grants the opportunity for
an ecumenical synod, to heal the putrefied limbs of the men guilty of these crimes. For
though the blessed John has fallen asleep, yet the truth is awake, and for the truth
search will be made. |191

27 Chrysostom's Enemies Interrogated As for those that have committed these offences in
the Church, gladly would I meet them face to face, and ask them, Where is your priesthood?
Where is the holiness required of you? Where is the gentleness and unselfishness of the
Christian character? Where are the commandments of the Saviour----" If thou art offering
thy gift, and remem-berest that thy brother hath aught against thee, go thy way, first be
reconciled to thy brother, and so offer thy gift"? Where is that saying, "If any man smite
thce on the right cheek, turn to him the other also "? Where is your meditation upon the
scriptures? What of the verse, "Behold, what is beautiful, and what is pleasant, but for
brethren to dwell together in unity"? Or, "Let brothers be helpful in times of necessity"?
Why have you perverted by your actions the words, "A brother helped by a brother, is as a
strong city"? A brother falsely accused, or robbed, by a brother, is like a city
distressed and defenceless. Why in the world then did you, who are wretched, nay, wretched
to the third degree, try to carry through this project of yours, as if no reconciliation
were possible? On what principle did you let your murderous rage against John run its
course, as if he were your enemy? And how has it come to you, to be so savage towards one
another? Why did you let the world see such an extraordinary change in you, from
gentleness to ungentleness and savagery? I am amazed, indeed, I am overwhelmed with
amazement at your perversion; as I see everything thrown into this hopeless state of
confusion.

28 And why have you so far exalted yourselves in your daring, as to insult this suckling,
nursing |192 mother, this teeming womb, the Church of God, and hack her in pieces? In you
is fulfilled the prophet's words, "Because they did pursue their brother with the sword,
and brought to destruction the womb upon the earth." With this womb the divine and saving
Word combined, to sow and to plant you and John alike, for good and profitable works
without number. What has happened to you that instead of helping one another to do your
duty, you have made up your mind that you will not keep quiet, and live at peace, even in
the future? You were created for mutual service; why did you mishandle the grace of God,
and instead of lightening other men's burdens, actually thrust them away from you, and cut
them off from their own kindred? while the prophet cries to you, "Have we not all one
Father? Did not One God create us?"

29 The Real Law-Breakers But you will tell me that John sinned against the law. What law?
The law which you trod underfoot, and shivered into fragments by your wickedness. Where,
then, is the law of nature, which bids us to right wrongs with gentleness? Why, pray, do
you abuse even the law which holds between enemies, and persecute them, and carry out
these schemes which you devise against them, schemes bearing all the marks of hostility?
How much better would it have been, to live in harmony with them, and to share their life;
to join with one another in counsels for the common good, unto rendering of thanks and
well-pleasing of the Father of you all? Harmony in their enjoyment of blessings is one of
the virtues of children; and this is specially acceptable to their parents, who look for
nothing else from their offspring, save this. And be assured that there is no other bond
of friendship and goodwill, but to be in earnest, and to do everything as it is well-
pleasing to the |193 Father, to Him Who is the source of our being, of our sustenance, of
our preservation.

30 The Divine Vengeance in Store But you have despised Him as a fool, and kindled wars
within the Church, as the prophet said, "They established madness in the Lord's house;"
instead of spurring and urging one another forward. More, you have carried on truceless
wars among one another, contrary to the mind and purpose of the Father. I will go further,
and say, that the thing sorely maddens, and stirs to wrath, even God Himself, and all who
draw nigh to Him----His sons, your brethren----and suffers Him not to hold His peace. For
He is not neglectful, or unmindful of the welfare of His children. Therefore is He wroth
at your folly, and at your tyrannical oppression of those whom you wrong; and therefore He
judges it not right to pass you over without punishing you, as indeed He has begun to do.
For this would not be becoming in Him, nor would it be without peril to you; your
complaint is intolerable, and needs more than ordinary treatment. He sees you actually the
worse for bruises, and weals without number, the result of your chastisement. Yes, a cloud
of senseless and most obdurate wrong rests upon you, your brothers, your kinsfolk, and
your households, even your allies, those who share with you bed and board, those who are
bound to you by the closest ties of blood----all these relationships you have perverted
into the bitterest hatred; insomuch that they are expelled from their own countries and
from their family hearths, and wander far away, without a city or a home to dwell in.
Further yet, you have made them exiles, so far as it was in your power, and that, not with
a limit of time fixed for their exile, but for ever, so far as it lay with you; so savage
were you, so desperately thrown off your balance. |194

31 Chrysostom the Blessed This is what you have gained by your victory over them, and the
blessed John; by fanning your spiteful enmity, and letting your tongue run wild against
him, like a sharpened sword. Instead of profitable instruction, you nurse your ill-temper,
and pour out upon the Church your false accusations, defiling the cars of those who hear
them; accusations against men to whom the Lord in mercy and loving-kindness will give
according to their works. But for you, O blessed John, with what words shall I weave you
an unfading crown? I need not fear to praise you now, as you have passed from the field of
combat, the fiercest waves of struggle breasted. Shall they be the words of the law of
Moses, which he used in the blessing of Joseph the strenuous, and Levi the contemplative,
the priest? For in you I see both of these. "Blessed of the Lord be his land, and from the
mountains of heaven, and dew, and abysses of springs beneath, and in the time of fruits,
the turnings of the sun and the comings together of the months, from the heads of the
mountains which are from the beginning, and from the heads of the everlasting hills; they
shall be on the head of Joseph" (and every man who shall be as Joseph) "and upon the head
of the brethren whom he ruled, glorified among his brethren as the first-born. The beauty
of a bull are his horns, his horns are the horns of an unicorn; with them he shall push
the nation, even unto the end of the earth."

32 And to Levi he said (and to whosoever imitates him), "Give to Levi his signs, and his
truth to the holy man, whom they tried in trial, and reviled at the water of
contradiction. Who saith to his father and mother, I have not seen thee, neither did he
acknowledge his brethren, he observed thine oracles, and kept thy covenant; he showed thy
judgments to |195 Jacob, and thy law to Israel. He shall ever place incense upon thine
altar upon thy feast day. Bless, Lord, his strength, and accept the works of his hands;
smite the eyebrow of the enemies that rise up against him, and let them that hate him rise
not up again." And I would weave with these one word more: "Let them that love him, O
Jesus Christ, be not ashamed; for Thine is the power for ever. Amen." 33 Bish. This is the
constant effort of your understanding mind, Theodorus, seeker of noble thoughts, to bring
forth from the treasure of your mind, as the Saviour said, "Things new and old;" things
old, the lessons of human wisdom; things new, the oracles of the Holy Spirit. From these
treasures you have given its due to each side of his character. It was worthy of your
sound judgment to express yourself in language so well suited to the offences committed,
and to weave from the blessing of Moses the crown John deserves; who served as a priest
without thought of self, and in his extraordinary righteousness did indeed know not father
or mother, or ties of blood, but only those who love, and practise, the word of God. But
those who in our time profess to be bishops, have run their muddy breed aground upon
money-getting, and military operations, and high position; transgressing the law which
says, "The priests shall not give their sons to be rulers, and them that run beside the
king," while they waste the things of the spirit upon plots, and vexations, and
imprisonments, and banishments, drinking madness undiluted, thinking by these methods to
dishonour the friends of virtue.

34 The Curse of Ambition Of them the Saviour said, "The days shall come, in which they who
kill you will think that they do God service." I take it that He did not speak of |196
Gentiles, for then He would have said "gods," as they profess not one, but many, gods;
when He made mention of the One and Only God, He pointed to those who are now despoiling
us, under pretence of benefit to the Church. They hide their own depravity and jealousy,
representing themselves in words as concerned for the welfare of the Church which they
have ruined by their deeds. But however clever they are, the outcome of events will prove
them to have been underlings of him who boasted, "I shall never be shaken from generation
to generation, without evil." For the serpent, the deviser of lawlessness and cultivator
of the vilest covetousness, as he could devise no more novel form of heresy, goaded those
in authority in the Church to mutual destruction, to satisfy their craving for high
position, and the highest position of all; for the sake of these they rent the Church in
twain.

35 The Satanic Work of Chrysostom's Enemies 36 For if the harmony of God the Spirit had
existed among the bishops, and John deserved deprivation from his office, whether for
causing wrong-doing, or as being unworthy of the priesthood, or, as Theophilus maintains,
as being guilty of pride; the all-powerful wisdom of God was well able to debar him from
the exercise of the priesthood by constitutional restraints, or devise means by which he
could be expelled without all this confusion and lamentation, whether by death, or by
paralysis, or by loss of voice----as we know some of those who have thrown themselves
against him have suffered, and others will suffer. But seeing that the steps taken against
him were unworthy of the Saviour----he was not deposed, but exiled ----it is |197
abundantly clear that it was the work of the devil, whose kingdom was being destroyed by
John's teaching. I know that John deservedly deposed from their office six persons, of
whom I spoke earlier, for buying the dignity of the priesthood. Who wept then? Whose nose
bled? What spider's web was broken? Who left his home? Who was fined a farthing? Who in
the whole of Asia----vagabond, mob orator, farm-labourer, cobbler, or plebeian----was not
glad at what had been done to vindicate the sacred laws? "How," each cried, "are thy works
magnified, O Lord? In wisdom didst thou do them all." For where God is at work, all is
done in wisdom; where the malevolent demon, everything is correspondently done in
unwisdom. And upon unwisdom follow monstrous evils----envyings, murders, strife,
emulations, evil tempers, quarrels, discord, noise, conspiracies of ignorant men, hot-
headed actions of men in authority, crucifixions, tortures, burnings, streams of blood,
intolerable fines, stakes, breaches of the divine ordinances, contempt of law, rejection
of self-control, world-wide schism, watch set upon land and sea, engines employed on
shipboard, on horseback, on foot, to hinder those who travel for the truth's sake.

37 God had not Forgotten How then can they dare to say, John was expelled in the
dispensation of God? I ask those who use such words, Was the all-powerful wisdom of God,
as I said, without resource to stop John, if he was unworthy, by unseen power? Or to
persuade those who disagreed with him, patiently to bear with his action, without all this
exercise of force by the magistrates? For if God is the same God Who worked with Moses for
the freedom and obedience of Israel, when Pharaoh openly cried, "I know not God, and I
will not let the people go," how, in dealing with |198 John, did He need the help of
earthly magistrates? He had grown old, I suppose, or weak, or resource-less. And was He
Who brought to light the adulteries of some, the unnatural crimes of others, and again the
impostures of others, now without resource to convict John? Or again, He Who made the
tongue of a man to swell with constriction, until he had to make his confession in
writing, and allowed another to meet with his death from a sudden seizure; He Who
tormented another with a brood of worms, as he lay speechless upon his bed for nearly a
whole year, or laid upon another unspeakable horrors from chronic gout, or burnt the legs
of another, because He so willed; or Who prematurely snatched away another, whom every one
knows, by a nauseating death; was He too weak, as you assert, in the case of John, if he
was a sacrilegious man, to do any of these things, but was in need of so and so, before He
could expel John in disgrace, and thereby add to His glory?

38 God will Recompense No. They deceive themselves, in their ignorance of the command of
the word of God. For he cannot properly be called sacrilegious, who distributed to the
poor gold, and silver, and fabrics of silk, the food of moths ; but he who for money and
reputation and the pleasures of the table sells the teachings and ordinances of the
Saviour; and after him, he who ruins a holy man, adorned by his life and words, through
whom, as by a chalice or a piece of plate, the Saviour oft gave the drink of the word, the
diet of their salvation, to those who love the word of God. No, let them be called
sacrilegious, who have sacrilegiously robbed the apostolic Church, and |199 deprived her
of such teachers, and who sell ordinations for money; whom divine justice will pursue, to
correct their wickedness. For if those who corrupted the law of Moses were for their
wanton heedlessness driven out of the temple by the Saviour with a scourge, a scourge of
cords, because they were selling doves within it; what punishment shall they have, who
higgle the priesthood of the New Testament, except to be shattered by the Chief Shepherd
with His rod of iron? As the apostle says, "A man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth
without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment,
think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath
counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath
done despite to the spirit of grace? For we know him who saith, Vengeance belongeth unto
me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God."

39 May God, Who glorified this holy man, this saintly shepherd, this lamp of
righteousness, grant to us to find part and lot with him, in His awful day of righteous
judgment; to Whom belongs glory, honour, majesty, and magnificence, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, now and ever, and unto all ages. Amen.


SERMON ON THE FIRST DAY OF CREATION
===================================

SERMON ON THE FIRST DAY OF CREATION Severian of Gabala

d. after AD 408

Preacher and rival of Chrysostom.

SERMONS ON GENESIS

SEVERIAN OF GABALA ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.

[Translated by J. Bareille]

SERMON 1.

On the first day of Creation. 1. There is no subject of piety that does not produce
edification of our souls, and it is to procure our salvation that all the teachings of
religion combine. Salvation, this is what is wrought by the word of God, which the law of
Moses commands, which the spiritual language of the prophets preaches, which the apostles
proclaimed without ceasing. Everything is for us, all is directed to us, so that, working
in every way to our improvement, we may acquire true piety. As I said earlier, there is no
holy book that does not have as its purpose the salvation of our souls. However, this book
on the creation of the world is the principal, the source and foundation of all that
contain the law and the prophets. If a building can not exist without solid foundations,
the various things created also can not shine in all their glory if the creation was not
in the beginning. I know that many of our holy Fathers have treated this subject of the
creation of the world, they said on this some great and beautiful things, according to the
measure of grace which the Holy Spirit dispensed to them. However numerous, great and
admirable may have been their considerations, we should not keep silent for that, and not
expose the thoughts the grace of the Spirit suggests to us. Just as our predecessors were
not silent out of respect for those who preceded them, so we will not do so for the sake
of authors belonging to previous generations;

especially more so as for us as for them and their predecessors, it is one and the same
grace that gives us the power of the divine Spirit. "All these things," it is written,
"are the work of one and the same Spirit, who distributes to each as he wishes.". So,
without rejecting what our fathers have said, we will set out our own thoughts. Although
their work is great and ours small, we will all compete in building the same building. If
a large stone used in a construction starts to move, a small stone placed underneath will
suffice to strengthen it; likewise the teaching of our forefathers, joined by our feeble
additions, ensures the expansion of the edifice of the Church. I beseech your charity to
consider especially the foundation of our discourse; look, not whether the thoughts are
new, but whether they are solid; for what is old is not always true for all that, and what
is new is not thereby always false: in all circumstances it is necessary to search whether
what is advanced is true or an error. What I am asking is not to accept without our
language without hesitation, as a friend would do, or reject it because of what may be
strange, as would an enemy, but that you always ask whether our words are the truth.

2. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This story is the work of the
legislator Moses and a revelation of the Holy Spirit. It describes the creation of the
world carried out by the power of God, in which Moses had been instructed by a revelation
and a prophetic grace. For Moses, in this book does not speak as a historian, but as a
prophet: what stated he did not see, what he says, he did not witness. We have previously
distinguished three kinds of prophecy: one in word, another in deeds, another both in word
and deed: similarly, we distinguish three specific types of it today: one concerning the
present, another the future, the third the past. Thus a prophet, Isaiah for example, was
not present at the events that happened in the time of Moses, but as the spirit of Moses
was in him and revealed them to him, Isaiah spoke of them as a prophet. Similarly, for
prophecy concerning the present: for example, when in the presence of a prophet someone is
trying to conceal something and the prophet divines it, as happened to Gehazi, whose
secret thought Elisha discovered and to whom he told the future. Moses prophesied of the
past, as others did about the future, and that is why we must listen to his story, not as
an ordinary story, but as a true prophecy, whose author is the Holy Spirit himself. What
is the purpose of the prophet?

Moses suggests two things, to set forth a doctrine and to formulate laws. Although a
legislator, he begins, not by setting out his legislation, but by recounting the creation.
And why does he first want to show us God as the author and the ruler of the universe? It
is because unless he first showed God as the author of the world, he could not establish
his authority as legislator of the world: to impose laws on those who are not your
subjects is tyranny, while it is natural to issue subjects the rules that they must
follow. Also John the Evangelist does he not set forth the law of Christ after
establishing His sovereignty in these terms? -- "In the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by him and without him
absolutely nothing has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He
came to his own, and His own did not receive him. Only after presenting him as the author
and the architect of creation does he present him as the teacher and universal legislator.

Another element in Moses may be mentioned. The blessed Prophet speaks of heaven, earth,
the sea, the waters and of the beings that come from these, why does he not mention the
angels, archangels, seraphim, and cherubim? Because he wanted his legislation to be in
harmony with the circumstances in which he was living. He knew too well those to whom it
was addressed, to a people recently come out of Egypt and instructed in the errors in that
country about the sun, moon, stars, flowers, fountains, and waters. Leaving aside the
creation of invisible beings, he only deals with visible beings, to teach those who
worshiped them that these beings, far from being gods, were instead the work of one God
only, so there was no need to discuss angels and archangels; that would instead have only
fueled their disease. If, although they had not seen them, the Hebrews spoke about angels,
still more, if they had been informed of angels and archangels, would they have taken them
for gods. He therefore concerns himself with heaven, earth, the waters, mountains and all
the beings that inhabit them, to lead his listeners to the knowledge of things visible
than invisible, from the work to the Author. This was also the behavior of the three young
men in Babylon. Finding themselves amidst a people hostile to God, in a country where the
true God was unknown and idols adored, they sang in the flames of the furnace: "Works of
the Lord, bless the Lord. Why did they not say:

Angels, heavens, earth, fire, cold, waters, heat, etc.; why not list all the parts of the
whole creation? To purify all creatures, all the works of the Creator, and not let in even
a glimmer of godlessness. In the same way Moses, in the text quoted, wishing to extirpate
from the Jewish way of thinking all the errors of Egypt, said that the heaven and the
earth were created, thus bringing into the light the works and their author. "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth." 3. Lend me now your attention: one thing
that strikes me is that John and Moses begin in the same way. "In the beginning God
created...," said one; "In the beginning was the Word...," said the other. This language
is appropriate in any case, and extremely accurate in the other. Isn't it of the creation
that Moses uses the term: "made"; is it not of the Creator that the evangelist said:
"Was"? However, there is clearly a notable difference between these expressions, "made"
and "was". "In the beginning God made. — In the beginning was the Word. God is, the
creatures are made, as the Evangelists very pertinently signals. It said of the Saviour
that he says: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was
God. This was in the beginning. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Six
times the sacred writer repeats the word "was" to impress upon us the being of God. After
announcing that he was, and that he came to be a servant, after speaking of John, he adds:
"He became man. He was God, and he became man. What if someone dares to speak about the
Saviour in these words: "The Saviour has also been made by him, he would be like the
earth. Apply yourselves, I pray you. If a heretic speaks like this: The Christ has been
made, He was not before being made, how could the Son prevail on the earth? For Moses also
says: "The earth was.

So if we understand these words: "In the beginning was... of a genuine creation and not an
eternal nature, the Saviour will be in no better condition than the earth. Both the Word
of God was, and the earth was: only one was in the beginning, not having been made,
existing from eternity, while the earth was created. Indeed, the historian does not say:
"The earth was," before he said: "In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. He
began by putting: "God made," prior to: "was. We know very well, brothers, that these
considerations are somewhat subtle for many; but it is right that in the days of fasting,
while souls are more vigilant, we undertake higher subjects. "In the beginning was.... In
the beginning God made.... I proposed, in showing the identity of these two beginnings:
"In the beginning... in the beginning... to show you that there is only a single source
for religion, and the same light that led the legislator has also informed the theologian.
The two Testaments are brothers: they issue from the same father, and that is why they
express themselves in similar terms. They have almost exactly the same appearance, the
same traits. Just as there many points of similarity between two brothers, whom the same
father brought into the world, there is the same close relationship between the two
Testaments, whose origin is the same. In the Old Testament, the law appeared first,
followed by the prophets ; in the New Grace, the Gospel is first and the apostles follow.
Here we find twelve prophets, namely Hosea and others: then the four famous ones, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. In turn the New Testament gives us twelve apostles and four
evangelists. It is by brothers that the voice of God in the Old Testament is made known;
because Moses and Aaron were the first ones charged to set forth the will of the Lord:
similarly, in the Gospel, the first that were called were Peter and Andrew. There was only
a regular grace, here a grace two times more precious. There the were two brothers were
called Aaron and Moses ; here there are two brothers twice, Peter and Andrew, and James
and John.

It was the intention of Christ to offer us an image of love in the Holy Spirit, and to
make us brothers at the same time by feeling and spirit: in consequence he takes nature as
a foundation; he joins to it the tender feelings of humanity, and with that he built the
foundations of his Church. In the Old Testament, the first miracle that appears is the
changing of the waters from a river into blood ; the first miracle that we see in the New
is the changing of water into wine. But as this is not the time to push through this
parallel, we will resume the proposed topic. "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth." In six days God made everything. However, there is a profound difference
between the first day and the following ones: on the first day, God made everything from
nothing: starting from the second day, he made no more from nothing, and he merely changed
as he wished the elements created on the first day. Now you who want to, repeat what is
being said, give your consent then if you find it truth; condemn it, on the contrary, if
you do not discover then that it is the truth. And I will respond to your criticisms,
especially because it is very easy for me to justify myself.

4. On the first day, therefore, the Lord created the raw material of his creatures; on the
other days he gave them their shape and ornament. For example, he made the heavens that
previously did not exist, not the current heavens, but the heavens which are above it; the
other he made on the second day. He made the upper heavens about which David sang: "The
heaven of the heavens is the Lord's. This heaven forms in a certain way the upper stage of
the firmament. As in any two-story house, there is an intermediate stage; well in this
building which is the world, the Creator has prepared the sky as an intermediate level,
and he has put it over the waters; from where this passage of David: "It is you who
covered with water its upper part. So God made the sky which did not exist before, the
earth which did not exist before, as well as the depths of the sea, the winds, air, fire
and water. On the first day, the material of everything which appeared afterwards was
created. Here someone may certainly exclaim: Yes, they will say, it is written that God
created the heavens and the earth, but it is not said that he made the water, air and
fire. And first, my brothers, it is not just a question of heaven and earth, it is
question of what they contain. Similarly in saying:

"God made man from a handful of dust taken from the earth," Scripture clearly indicates
the whole man, yet it does not list his members and does not add: God made the eyes, ears,
and nose; all the bits were sufficiently within the concept of man ; also, saying that God
created the heavens and the earth, that embraces everything, and it indicates clearly
enough the creation of darkness and the abysses. "The darkness was upon the face of the
abyss." 'Abyss' is used here to mean the great masses of water. However the Bible says
that the abyss was created in this passage: "Before he formed the abyss, before he created
the earth. Therefore, the abysses were created. Regarding the creation of the air, listen
to this: "And the Spirit of God was moving over the waters. There is no question here of
the Holy Spirit, because the created and uncreated are not put together; this means the
movement of air. We read about this in the prophet Elijah, "that he obscures the sky by
clouds and by the spirit," namely by the wind; so in this place the word 'spirit' means
the air. It remains to show the creation of fire.

"God said: Let there be light," and fire was therefore created. The fire of the earth is
not the only one that exists; the powers above are also of fire, and there are close links
between the fire from above and that down here. However, why is one up there and not the
other? God made the angels as spirits, our souls also are spirits, only our souls are
united to bodies, while the angels have no body. But what we notice in our souls and in
the angels is also noticeable in fire; the one above is separate from matter, the lower
one is inseparable, the one above is close to the angelic nature as are our souls
themselves, for if the angels are spiritual, our souls are spiritual, according to these
words of the three young men: "Bless him, spirits and souls of the righteous; and these
others: "It is he who makes his angels spirits. But the soul reveals itself only through
the body, just as fire through the means of tallow, brushwood or other flammable
materials. That fire is of a foreign nature, the facts themselves indicate: many times,
actually, we use the heat of the sun to light a fire, and we get fire, yet if the fire of
heaven was of a different nature, how can it communicate to us the terrestrial fire?

Moreover, in heaven there is so much immaterial fire that, when Sinai was covered with
flames one day, obviously the Lord had detached from the immaterial fire a chunk of it for
a spectacle, as the flames were not fed by any fuel. So Moses said: "The Lord has heard
his voice from heaven, and he has showed his treasures of fire," declaring then how the
fire of Sinai was just a little in comparison. Consequently the stars, lightning, sun,
moon are simply that fire, and fire of a similar nature to that of terrestrial fire. It's
not just in the words by which the lightning and the stars are identified, which
participate in this natural resemblance, ἀστραπή and ἀστέρες, ἀστραπή and ἄστρα. In
support of this affinity between lightning and fire, the Saviour said in his Gospel: "The
eye is the flame of the body, if your eye is clear, your body will be in the light. And
elsewhere he adds: "In this way, this torch will illuminate you by its light," calling
light of the torch light the light which it casts.

5. So everything was made, the fire was made, the abyss also, the winds also, the four
elements as well, namely earth, fire, water, air. What he has failed to mention, Moses
discusses later in a strange way: "In six days, he said, God made heaven, earth and all
things therein. For, just as he did not name all the members of the body, so he did not
list all the creatures, although they were made at the same time as the universe. If the
fire had never been given to the earth, we would not today get light whether from a stone
or from wood, the rubbing of wood making flames. Keep up your attention! "The darkness was
upon the face of the abyss. Did the Lord create the darkness? you ask. This is, I know, a
difficult issue, but since we are at a meeting where one part is listening sympathetically
and where another would be glad to catch us out in a default, it is essential to examine
this text in order not to give little, after promising much. So where does the darkness
come from? God did not make it, it is said; he is the author neither of darkness, nor of
obscurity. And first, what is the darkness? The shadow of heaven, answer a few. When the
upper heaven was created, they say, as the stars did not exist, the earth was lacking in
everything and the darkness covered everything.

But the upper heaven was bright and not shrouded in darkness and there was then no sun,
moon, stars, it shone sufficiently by itself; and as it was over the earth, and it shone
on it and illuminated it with its light, and the darkness could not come in. This is my
feeling: the earth was covered entirely by water, and mist and dense vapours were piled up
above the water, as still happens today above the rivers; these vapours intercepted the
light, forming clouds, which thickening produced darkness. The Scripture says that clouds
produce darkness in this passage: "And the sky was obscured by clouds." However we should
not ignore the fables of the heretics. Some of them have dared to say that the darkness
was the devil, the demons and the abyss. When God said: "Let there be light," it is of the
Son that he spoke. So that not only is he his equal in dignity, but he is even older. This
impious fable is definitely not worth repeating; if we have talked about it, it is to keep
you informed of what was said. The darkness then was produced by clouds. Similarly, the
darkness of Egypt did not come from the night, but from the obscurity that had taken the
place of day. Likewise again on Sinai, the darkness which covered it came not from the
night, but the obscurity produced by clouds. And finally the darkness that covered the
earth when Christ was on the cross, was due to the interposition of a barrier between the
earth and the light, not the onset of the night. So we must not touch the sacred texts
without thinking.

"And the Spirit of God was moving upon the waters." The term 'spirit' means 'wind' here,
as in this passage: "By the violence of your spirit, you break the ships of Tarshish;" a
passage where the word spirit means clearly the movement of air. For do not imagine that
the air is one thing and the wind another; the agitation of the air is what produces wind,
as experience shows. Just a few sheets can stir the air, and by shaking them you can
produce wind. To show that the wind is the air in motion, the sacred writer uses the
expression "was moving over." To move over the world is, indeed, something that
characterizes the wind. "God says: Let there be light." Why did Moses not add: "God said:
Let the sky be, let the sea be...., " why in one case: "God made," and the other: "God
said?" With us, the word always precedes action, we say first what we want to do, and then
we do it. This is what God began by doing: the world was made in less time than it takes
to pronounce a word. When the Lord created matter by his power, Moses puts: "God made."
When the Lord merely wants to embellish his work — and light is the chief ornament, — then
Moses uses terms related to this purpose. The first of these works was light, and the
last, man, so God made the first with his word and the last with his own hands, thus
beginning and ending with the light.

6. How is man "light"? Like this: light is what makes things visible. Now man is the light
of the world. No sooner did he enter it than he illuminated you with the light of art, the
light of science. The light reveals the wheat; the intelligence of man is the bread: the
light reveals the grape; intelligence turns grape juice into wine: the light shows us the
wool; intelligence transforms it into clothing: the light shows us the mountain;
intelligence extracts diamonds from it. The Saviour, does he not call his apostles a
light, when he said: "You are the light of the world?" Why does he call them that? This is
not only to honour them, it is more to strengthen the hope of resurrection. Just as the
light, disappearing into the night, does not vanish for good, and appears again after
being hidden for some time, so man goes down into the tomb in the evening of his life, to
participate in the blessing of the resurrection. "Let there be light." Moses affirms the
fact of creation; in what way it happened, he does not indicate, he did not even know.
That light has been made, I know without a doubt, he says; how it was made is a matter
that I do not know. As the Saviour said to his Apostles: "It is not for you to know the
times and seasons which the Father has appointed in his power." If it is not for us to
know those times and those dates, how could human reason understand the Sovereign of time
and the Creator of the ages? "God said: Let there be light: and there was light." O all
holy and unlimited power! O ineffable wonders! "And there was light. And God called the
light day and the night darkness."

Why this name for the day, ἡμέρα? The word ἥμερον designates all that is cheerful and
friendly, hence the name of ἡμερότης to describe kindness and ἥμερα given to domestic
animals. "And God called the light day and the darkness night." Why "night"? Because night
recalls man to the thought of death, of which sleep is the image. Know, O man, what you
are. You are mortal, subject to the law of sleep; why do you worry about what is beyond
you? Night means compunction; and this is why David said: "Whatever you say in your
hearts, weep it with compunction upon your bed." Indeed, during the night, isn't a man
lying in a state that is neither life nor death? Ask the heretic: In what state is he? Is
he dead or alive? If he answers, "living": how so, do you object, when he does not hear or
speak or walk? And if he answers that he is dead, say this: But he breathes, yet he who
breathes is not dead. On the other hand, he who does not feel is not living, so it follows
that you do not understand your own views, and that you are worrying about something that
is beyond you. But that is quite enough on the first day; see it is evening. However
difficult the explanation may be, we have done our best to set forth what relates to the
first day. To teach the faithful to understand more deeply what they have been told, and
to seek further.

7. For we who are the children of sacred fasting, and amid bodily privations taste
heavenly delights, let us apply ourselves to observing the holy fast. "Sanctify the fast,"
it is written. Is it we who sanctify it, or it that sanctifies us? It is for we who
observe it faithfully that the prophet speaks this way. Similarly, when we say in our
prayers: "Let your name be sanctified," we do not pray for the benefit of the divine name,
which in fact is the source of all holiness. But because that name has been applied to us,
since we are called Christians, of even the name of Christ, we say; "Let your name be
sanctified by us." Everything must be holy for him who is holy; things which are not holy
have no access to God because God is holy, and he love to recline among the saints. The
heaven he lives in is itself holy; "He will answer him from his holy heaven," said the
Psalmist. The angels also are holy, according to this gospel word: "The Son of Man will
come in his glory with his holy angels." The earth on which God is honoured is holy. "He
will destroy their alliance in the holy land which belongs to him." David speaks of the
holy court of the the Lord: "Worship the Lord in his holy court."

Isaiah describes the temple of God as holy. "Your temple is holy," he says again, "and
admirable in fairness."The sheep offered him in sacrifice are also referred to as holy,
although devoid of reason: "Like your holy sheep in Jerusalem." The Testament is holy.
"And he will confirm with many his holy Testament." Jerusalem was called the holy city:
"...And over the holy city of our fathers, Jerusalem...." Again, nothing comes to God
which is not holy, which is why the Apostle speaks of "the holiness without which no man
shall see God." We have abstained from bread, let us refrain from iniquity. You do not eat
bread, do not devour the entrails of the poor, lest God say to you also: "They devour my
people like they devour bread." You do not drink wine; don't let anger intoxicate you any
more, so that the legislator does not apply this text: "Their anger makes them like
serpents; — their life is like the breath of dragons." When you have oppressed and forced
the poor man to lament, he has been found eating bread before God in tears, and the Lord
says about this; "You cover my altar with tears." Is God angry with those who weep before
his altar, he who has said: "Priests, enter and weep?" No, God is not angry with those who
weep, but because he sees before his altar the oppressed, the orphans and widows. To show
that it is these he is concerned with, he adds: "With tears, groans and sorrow."

We must also take a look at the spiritual offerings. The food of the soul is set forth,
namely the word of God. Fasting sanctifies the body, the soul is corrupted without bread.
Let the body the fast from sins; let the soul instead feast on divine teachings. You can
not eat at the same time the bread of Christ and the bread of tears, it is Paul who tells
you this: "You can not sit at both the table of Christ and the table of demons." Let
whoever fasts refrain from food, but especially to refrain from sin. Every day the angels
note those who set out to renounce greed, impurity, and iniquity. The angels take heed of
these fasts, and God holds them in his treasury. As the officers responsible for receiving
petitions addressed to the emperor, communicate to him all their information, so the
angels of the Lord convey to the Lord everything that happens, certainly not to teach him
things of which he is ignorant, but to perform the duties that their place in creation
imposes. In my opinion, he who does not fast is incomparably superior to one who, while
fasting, commits iniquity. I say this, not to disparage fasting, but to recommend piety.
This is not a bad thing to eat; it is to sin. So the Lord has said justly: "Does your
father, while taking food, not do my will? — The fourth, the fifth, the tenth fast will be
for you a subject of joy, contentment and celebration; only love truth." Light is
perceptible to us in order to proclaim the author of light. Evening has come to put an end
to the course of the day. To a good beginning, let us add a good end. Do not reject the
truth; give ear to this advice from David: "At the end, do not give in to corruption."

May the God of light who enlightens us by his word, his law and his faith, by justice and
by chastity; in Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father
and the Holy Spirit in the ages of ages. Amen. 1. This translation has been made from the
French of Bareille: Bareille, J., OEuvres complètes de S. Jean Chrysostome, traduction
nouvelle, Paris, 1865, 20 vols. Bareille begins his translation of the six sermons on
Genesis with the following words: "The following discourses, which are given in the
Vatican manuscript and several other manuscripts as discourses by Chrysostom, are
unquestionably by Severian, Bishop of Gabala. Cosmas the Egyptian in his Christian
Topography provides conclusive evidence ; there he quotes long fragments extracted from
the works of Severian. However, these fragments are found word for word in the speeches
that follow. We need not expect the eloquence of the works of Chrysostom, although in this
respect Severian has been compared by his contemporaries to our great orator. It is not
eloquence that the discourses on creation offer us, but rather verbiage : ineptitude and
futility erupt at every step. So the orator uses the text: "This is bone of my bones" to
prove that Adam had the spirit of prophecy, in the following way: "How could he know that
he had bones, without the aid of the prophetic spirit, because he had never seen his
bones?" Similarly, he said, the first man was named Adam, because the letters of his name
are the first words that in Greek designate the four cardinal points, ἀνατολή, east,
δύσις, west; ἄρκτος, north: μεσημδρία, south" These speeches were delivered during Lent,
as Severian himself tells us in the first discourse."

It is unfortunate that Bareille was unable to perceive the splendour of Severian's
oratory, and the kind of golden halo with which he begins so many of his sermons, and that
must have contributed greatly to his reputation. That he was a speaker that men wanted to
hear, even when they disagreed with him, is evident from this sermon. Likewise he was an
original thinker. Not content to accept the traditional approach of the early Christian
writers to Genesis, he contrived to come up with an original theory. His approach to
demands for blind acceptance of authority are interesting; he accepts that the Fathers are
holy, but denies that this means that they are always right. This sane approach would be
held by everyone today. His preaching demands that his listeners question their
assumptions. He uses scripture in ways that might not be usual, but that are difficult to
show are mistaken. In a way he is a late representative of the Greek philosophical
tendency to investigate.

It is unfortunate that his name is associated indelibly with the Flat Earth. He owes this
to the uncritical enthusiasm of Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose Christian Topography has
attracted derision since its composition. But Severian undoubtedly was not thus committed
to his own idea. It was orthodox, it was biblical, it was possible. Whether it was right
was for his listeners to determine. 2. 1 Cor. 12:2. 3. Gen. 1: 4. 4. John., 1:1-2. 5.
Dan., 3:57. 6. Psalm. 115:16. The references given by Bareille can be hard to find in an
English version of the Psalms. Some have been checked and adjusted. Those which have not
have been left in Roman numerals. 7. Psalm. 103: 3. 8. Gen. 2:7. 9. Gen. 1:2. 10. Prov. 8:
24-26. 11. III Kingdoms, 18:45. 12. Dan. 3:86. 13. Psalm 103:4 (???). 14. Deut. 4:36. 15.
Matth., 6:22. 16. Luke., 11:36. 17. Exod., xx, 11.

18. III Kingdoms 18: 45. 19. Psalm 48:7. 20. Matth. 5: 14. 21. Acts 1: 7. 22. Psalm.4:4
(??). 23. Joel 1: 14. 24. Matt. 6:9. 25. Psalm. 20:6. 26. Mark, end of 38. (?) 27. Psalm.
96:9. 28. Psalm. lxiv , 5-6. 29. Ezech. 36: 38. 30. Dan., 9: 24-27. 31. Hebr. 12:14. 32.
Psalm.xiii, 4. 33. Psalm.lvii, 5; Deut., xxxii, 33. 34. Malach., 2: 13. 35. Joel 1:3. 36.
Joel 2: 12. 37. I Cor. 10: 21. 38. Zech., 8: 19. 39. Psalm. 74, heading.


ON THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA
========================

ON THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA Maruthas of Martyropolis

d. c. AD 420

Bishop who worked between the Roman and Persian churches.

ON THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA

1 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. In a recent Hugoye
(http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol9No2/HV9N2Depuydt.html) there was a list of Syriac Mss at
Yale. I noticed this item in it: 8. Maruta of Maiperqat, On the Council of Nicaea Rn/M36.
— A paper booklet consisting of two quires (Clemons, "Checklist," No. 241). The hand is
the same as No. 12. Contents: Maruta of Maiperqat, On the Council of Nicaea. Baumstark,
Geschichte, 53,27-54,10. One quire contains the text, the other a handwritten English
translation. Now unpublished English translations are something which I think should
appear online, where they can promote interest among the general public. So I wrote to
Yale and found that this was just a modern booklet of some 14 pages. I did ask them if
they could just run a digital camera over it -- it wouldn't take long to press a shutter
28 times, after all -- but they've been saddled with a rogue supplier of reproductions and
wanted $216 (!) to do this. However they did kindly supply me with a rather terrible
printoff from a microfilm, albeit very slowly.

2 This contained the Syriac text, in the East Syriac hand, followed by the following
translation. The microfilm contained a book-plate indicating that the booklet was given by
a certain A.H.Wright to the American Oriental Society. There were also two footnotes in a
different hand, marked with an asterisk and a cross, rather than a number. These were
signed AHW, and I would infer from this that he did not make the translation but acquired
it from elsewhere. A google search revealed this reference to a book, Bâb und seine Secte
in Persien, written by a Dr. A. H. Wright of the American Mission at Urúmiyya, Persia,
which was contributed by J. Perkins, also of the aforesaid Mission, to the German Oriental
Society, and published in Vol. v of the Z. D. M. G. (Leipzig, 1851, pp. 384-385). This
would appear to be our A.H.Wright: Austin H. Wright, who in 1852 assisted Justin Perkins
to publish an edition of the OT Peshitta at Urmiah.

3 David G.K. Taylor added in the Hugoye list that there is also an extensive German
translation of the whole of this text by Oscar Braun, De Sancta Nicaena Synodo. Syrische
Texte des Maruta von Maipherkat nach einer Handschrift der Propaganda zu Rom Übersetzte,
(Muenster 1898), iv, 128pp. (What we have in the newly available English translation is
only a part of the whole work.) There are some illuminating notes regarding the
problematic Syriac manuscript base of Braun's translation in Robert Murray's indispensable
'Symbols of Church and Kingdom' (p.34 and esp. n.2). Roger PEARSE May 2007 (Translation) A
brief account of the council (of Nice), as given by Marutha of Meparkat by direction of
the Patriarch Isaac. 4 The blessed Apostles, when they went forth to proclaim the glad
tidings of the glorious Gospel of Christ, did not establish creeds and confessions, but
their main care was to turn men from the worship of idols to the worship of the holy cross
*; and that those, who were discipled should keep themselves from fornication, from the
uncleanness of things offered to idols, from strangled and from blood. But when their
message went forth into all the world and their words into all the earth, and the faith of
Christ was spread abroad in every country through their instrumentality and Jews [21] and
Gentiles received and became subject unto it, Satan showed his wickedness and his servants
became manifest and clothed themselves with disgrace and shame; and since the evil one
gained nothing in his first war but reproach, he set his forces in battle array again with
more bitterness than ever, and spread wide dissentions, controversies, and confusion among
those who were invited to Heaven, and introduced numerous heresies into the church. So
that the number of heresies equalled the number of bishops and right was oppressed and the
truth was persecuted. True believers diminished and heretics increased.

5 Then, like the rays of the Sun in the midst of dark clouds, was seen the faithful crown
of the pure kingdom of the blessed Constantine, the holy emperor and [20] worthy of
immortal honor, who, being stimulated by zeal from the true faith, wrote to the most
excellent and orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem, Alexander, to wit, "I have learned from the
Holy Scriptures that out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. You will then immediately upon the reception of this my royal epistle, come to
my presence, for it is necessary to the Holy Church, that the true faith of Christ should
issue from those sacred temples (of Jerusalem). I have two Bishops who give me trouble
daily, and by their controversies produce confusion and irregularity. It has not been
practicable for me hitherto to give attention to this subject in consequence of the many
wars which we have been prosecuting against our enemies, and especially against Jews and
Heathens who are without [(unnumbered)] the Christian fold. But now that we are at peace
with all around, and both friends and enemies are subject to our authority, I have no
other care than to settle the disputes which have arisen in the church. We now wait for
your arrival in order that we may learn from you the truth and then proceed to action. You
will of course do as we have directed, and we desire your prayers in behalf of our
kingdom.

6 When the blessed Alexander received the letter, ordering hum to proceed to the Capital,
he immediately made preparations for his journey and fearing to go by land on account of
the heretics that he would meet with, he selected a ship to go by sea. The very day that
he went on board, a man appeared unto him in a dream and said to him, "You will not see
the face of [(unnumbered)] the earthly king, for you will be taken speedily to behold the
face of the heavenly king. He then wrote a letter in relation to the true faith of Christ,
that the emperor desired to learn, which he sealed and committed to Priest Makaris to
carry by land to the Capital. Alexander then proceeded by sea and arrived at an island
called Pataia. There he was seized by the heretics, who made him large promises if he
would join himself to their party. But as he did not listen to their alluring words, they
sent his soul to the presence of the Lord, with excruciating torture. He was thus honored
with the crown of martyrdom for the sake of the words of Christ, and departed from this
world of sorrow. When the Emperor Constantine received the news of his death, he was
overwhelmed with grief, and when the letter of Alexander [19] which was brought by Priest
Makaris reached hum, he burned with divine zeal and wrote the following order to all the
Bishops in the world; viz.

7 Constantine Augustus Caesar, Constantine Autocrat and king, to every church under
heaven, obedient and not obedient to Christ our king, be peace. Give heed all of you to
this order, and delay not to assemble in General Council at the city of Nice in the
province of Bithynia for the investigation of the true Christian faith. Let not any delay
to come either of those who agree in sentiment or of those who disagree, and let no man
prevent another's coming that he may declare his faith in the council in the presence of
all the Bishops, in order that there may be one mind and one bond of faith and perfect
unity, and that the whole church may stand in one body with an undivided faith [18] with
one perfect will, and that no man may transgress or despise the command of the church or
state. We will allow one year and two months which will be sufficient time for all to
assemble from every quarter. In the month of October let all the Bishops be found in Nice,
a city of Bithynia, which is in the neighborhood of our Christian Capital. May you all be
prospered in the Lord."

8 As the presence of all Bishops whether in the dominions of Constantine or not of them
was desired, Mar Shimeon, Bar Sabae, Patriarch of Seleucia and Ctesiphon was desired to be
present, but on account of the disturbed state of the surrounding countries he was
prevented from going. He wrote a letter, which he forwarded by the hand of Priest
Shahdost, of the following purport: "If it were not that [17] the heathen are thirsting
for my blood, I should by all means attend and be blessed by the ecclesiastical council
and by the pure state of Constantine. But whatever the Bishops in council assembled who
have been persecuted for the sake of the true faith may do, I shall gladly agree to." 9
When the Bishops had assembled according to the royal command, the king read the
declaration of faith, which Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem had written and forwarded by
the hand of Priest Makaris. It was read in the presence of 2048 Bishops, but only 318 of
these assented to it. The king then took his ring, sceptre and sword and gave them into
their hands, saying, Here is given to you authority over the whole church, over
ecclesiastical and civil affairs, and over all the orders in church and state. [16] Do
whatever you please, and God will require at your hands an account of the sons of the
church. The General Council having thus received authority from the king, the fathers
directed that there should be gradations in the assembly and that each Bishop should sit
in his place according to his rank. Chairs were there made for all and the king entered
and sat with them. He kissed the spots which were the marks of Christ in their bodies. Of
the 318 fathers, only 11 were free from such marks, whose name were Absalom, Bishop of
Edessa, and son of Mar Ephrem's sister, Jonah of Raikson, Mara of Dora, George of Shegar,
Jacob of Nisibis, Marouta of Mepairkat, John of Goostia, Shimon of Diarbekir, Adai of
Agal, Eusebius of Caesarea and Joseph of Nicomedia. But all the others were more or less
maimed in their persecutions [15] from heretics. Some had their eyes taken out; some had
their ears cut off.

10 Some had their teeth dug out by the roots. Some had the nails of their fingers and toes
torn out; some were otherwise mutilated; in a word there was no one without marks of
violence; save the above-named persons. But Thomas, Bishop of Marash was an object almost
frightful to look upon; he had been mutilated by the removal of his eyes, nose and lips;
his teeth had been dug out and both his legs and arms had been cut off. He had been kept
in prison 22 years by the Armanites [Armenians] who used to cut off a member of his body
or mutilate him in some way every year, to induce him to consent to their blasphemy, but
he conquered in this fearful contest to the glory of believers and to the manifestation of
the unmercifulness of the heretics. The fathers took him with them to the Council and when
[14] the king saw him, he fell down upon the ground and worshipped + him saying, "I
worship thee, O thou martyr of Christ, who art adorned with many crowns."

11 To describe the doings of the Council from the beginning to the end is a great task,
for the fathers were in sessions three years engaged in discussions about every kind of
heresy. Protracted controversies took place between the fathers and the heretics, once
party giving their views in writing and the other answering them in the same manner. The
following Confession of Faith was agreed upon by the 318 holy fathers, who assembled in
Nice a city of Bithynia in the time of the Emperor Constantine, on account of the
blasphemous doctrines of the accursed Arius. We believe [13] in one God, Father Almighty,
maker of things visible and invisible; and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, only
Begotten and first born of all creatures; who was born of the Father before all worlds and
was not created; true God, of the true God, of the nature of the Father, and by whom the
worlds were made and all things created, and who for our sakes and for our salvation
descended from Heaven, took a bodily form by the power of the Holy Ghost, and became man;
was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, suffered and was crucified in the days of
Pontius Pilate, was buried and rose again the third day as it is written, ascended to
Heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the dead
and the living; and in the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth that proceedeth from the
Father, a life giving [12] Spirit and in one holy Apostolic Catholic church; and in one
Baptism for the remission of sins; and in the resurrection of the body, and in life
everlasting.


SOURCES AND CREDITS
===================

Where each text comes from, and the licence under which it may be reused.

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES English translation: an older public-domain translation as
collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-
Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Licence: Public domain.

COMMENTARY ON JONAH English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

PREFACES TO THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE English translation: an older public-domain translation
as collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-
Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Note from the source file. 329 This text was translated and placed
in the public domain by Mark DelCogliano, 2004. Licence: Public domain.

PREFACES TO THE VULGATE OLD TESTAMENT English translation: an older public-domain
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PREFACE TO THE VULGATE NEW TESTAMENT English translation: an older public-domain
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PREFACES TO THE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE SEPTUAGINT AND THE CHALDEE English translation: an
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PREFACES TO THE COMMENTARIES English translation: an older public-domain translation as
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PREFACES TO JEROME’S EARLY WORKS English translation: an older public-domain translation
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COMMENTARY ON THE NICENE CREED English translation: an older public-domain translation as
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COMMENTARY ON THE LORD’S PRAYER, BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST English translation: an older
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and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and
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PROLOGUE TO THE COMMENTARY ON ACTS English translation: an out-of-copyright translation as
transcribed, or commissioned and given to the public domain, by Roger Pearse for his
collection Early Church Fathers – Additional Texts ( tertullian.org/fathers ). SermonIndex
has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own.
No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been
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INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF CHRYSOSTOM English translation: an older
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and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and
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DIALOGUE ON THE LIFE OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM English translation: an out-of-copyright
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Pearse for his collection Early Church Fathers – Additional Texts ( tertullian.org/fathers
). SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
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SERMON ON THE FIRST DAY OF CREATION English translation: an out-of-copyright translation
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has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own.
No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been
made. Licence. turned into english for the site and dedicated to the public domain (2010).
Licence: Public domain.

ON THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA English translation: an older public-domain translation as
collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-
Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Licence: Public domain.