Fragments on the Gospel of Luke

Fragments on the Gospel of Luke

continued

Fragment 86

“Were not our hearts burning within us?” [Another way of taking it:] Simon and Cleopas, in confessing “our heart was burning” and what follows, make clear something about the Savior’s words. The words he spoke came from love toward those who heard him. They had in them a flame of fire, and they burned, setting the hearts of the hearers alight with love for God.

Fragment 87

“He lifted up his hands and blessed them.” Something like this is written about Aaron in Leviticus: that “lifting up his hands over the people, he blessed them.” I take the passage to hint here that anyone who blesses another must be adorned with works that are outstanding and lifted above those of the many. Aaron’s hands are lifted up when he is about to bless the people. If someone held his hands down toward earthly things, he could not accomplish what he wanted for anyone. In the same way, Moses’ hands did not help the people when they lay down, but only when they were lifted up. The lifting up of the Savior’s hands was a symbol of this. By works beyond human power he lifted his hands and saved those who believe. So perhaps everyone who is lifted up in his works has been crucified. In this sense Paul said, “I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me.” That is: the account of the world has been understood by me, and it has been lifted up and no longer lies below. For to the one who has not understood the account of the world’s making, the word has not been crucified. I think being crucified is good, as Paul experienced it, crucified with Christ. And the world, in relation to Paul’s mind, was lifted up and understood by him. In another sense, the Lord lifts up his hands in order to put power into the disciples through the blessing.

Fragment 88

“Give us each day our bread for the coming day [epiousion].” “Each day” is more emphatic than Matthew’s “today.” The inner man, who is properly the real being, dies if he does not get living bread, just as the body does if it is not fed. Death is the enemy of life, and he falls to it. Small-minded people suppose that the teacher is speaking about bodily bread when he says “not about tomorrow.” They especially take “epiousion” to mean “the coming” or “the approaching” day. This is clear from his saying, “for you do not know what the coming day will bring forth,” that is, the tomorrow that is approaching. As for the followers of Manes, either they will allegorize, which is not their custom, or they will be asking for the bread of the Creator.

Fragment 89

“Since many have undertaken to compile.” The word “undertaken” indicates that some came to the writing of gospels without a gift of grace. The word “compile” means to set out, to explain, to write down.

Fragment 90

“Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses handed down to us.” Luke plainly admitted that he received his material from those who had seen it with their own eyes and heard it with their own ears. He said, “just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and became servants of the word handed down to us.” We should trust him and Mark as men who wrote down accurately what they had heard. We should trust John and Matthew as men who write what they had seen. So the lawful Gospels are to be honored equally. We honor not only the sight of those who saw but also the hearing of those who heard. For true men succeed true men, and they pass on to us the light that was handed to them, and they receive from us the praise they deserve.

Fragment 91

“Both were righteous.” Perhaps someone will say: the law says, “If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, he will multiply your grain and your wine and your oil, and there will be no one childless or barren among you.” If these two were righteous, then, where is the blessing? The reason is that those whom God advances to something great, such as Isaac, Samson and Samuel, are customarily brought beyond what the law provides. For the labor of a barren woman is close to that of a virgin.

Fragment 92

“For he will be great before the Lord.” He will be great because he continually lifts the eye of his soul toward God and looks to him alone. This is in line with the one who says, “To you I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in heaven.”

Fragment 93

“Wine and strong drink he shall not drink.” “Strong drink” [sikera] is anything that can make a person drunk, [even if] it is not from the vine. It especially means what is prepared from dates.

Fragment 94

“And he will go before him.” “He will go before in the spirit and [power] of Elijah.” That is, he goes before in the spirit and power of Elijah, who is the forerunner of the Lord’s second coming. As the prophet says, “I will send you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and conspicuous day of the Lord comes.” In the same way John became the forerunner of the first coming. He came “in spirit” because the grace of the all-holy Spirit that was on Elijah was likewise on the forerunner. He came “in power” because of the greatness of the ministry that was fulfilled by them both.

Fragment 95

“To turn the hearts of fathers to children.” The same things passed over to John. But this is not how the order of nature wants it, which is that children follow their fathers rather than fathers serving sons. But he wants the ancient people to follow [the new people]. The ancient people stood in the place of fathers, and the second and new people stand in the place of sons, as it says, “Instead of your fathers, sons were born to you.” So he reverses the order, for he puts the synagogue back under the church. Explaining who the fathers are and who the children are, he adds, “and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous.” The old among the Jews must follow the wisdom of the righteous.

Fragment 96

“When he came out he could not speak to them.” Zechariah disbelieved the one who announced the birth of the voice that reveals the Word, and so he lost his own voice. He got it back and ended his painful silence when the forerunner was born, who is the voice of the Word, and when he wrote that “John is his name.” So we must give ear to the voice, so that the mind may receive the word that the voice reveals.

Fragment 97

“When the days of his service were completed.” Zechariah had heard beforehand that something wonderful was going to happen to him. Even so, he did not hurry ahead of the proper time to make way for the prophecy. He stayed until he had finished his spiritual service, and only then served the prophecy through bodily things. In this he teaches that everything must be put second to the honor owed to God.

Fragment 98

“She hid herself for five months.” For this reason Elizabeth said nothing, until almost everyone was exposing her and saying that she was pregnant, because of what they saw, even though she kept the matter hidden.

Fragment 99

The words “he will be” and “he will be called” fit the plan of salvation in the flesh. So does “the Lord will give him.” It is because of this plan [that he is said to receive] “the throne of David.” Yet he is the same one, and in a way fitting for God he is also king forever.

Fragment 100

“Behold, the [servant] of the Lord.” Mary was gracious and said to the angel, “Behold, the [servant] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Fragment 101

“He looked upon her humility.” The Word did not come to be in Mary simply or without discrimination. It was because of her surpassing humility, which God loves and exalts highly, since she imitates him who humbled himself and took the form of a slave. So she says, “when he looked upon the humility of his servant.” In Isaiah he says, “On whom will I look, except on the humble and quiet one who trembles at my words?” Then she says, “because he looked upon the humility of his servant” (for I am his servant as his creature, just like the rest of creation), “from now on they will call me blessed.” Not you alone, Elizabeth, but all [the generations] of those who believe. For even if what the mother of God said was not evident to people at that time, now, day by day, it speaks more widely, and the truth of what she prophesied becomes plain.

Fragment 102

“The Mighty One has done great things for me.” Someone might disbelieve that the conception could really take place, if she conceived while a virgin. So she [sets] the unbelief [to rest] by the name “the Mighty One.” In this way a person may credit the accomplishment to the power of the one who works it. He will then not examine the matter by the course of nature and fall away from true assent to what truly happened.

Fragment 103

“He brought down rulers from their thrones.” He also calls “rulers” the very ones whom he brought down and then lifted up. These are the ones who humbled themselves “under his mighty hand.” To them he has given “authority to tread upon snakes and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy.” The “hungry” are those from the nations, starving for divine things and for teaching. “He filled” them “with good things” of the new covenant.

Fragment 104

“He was in the deserts.” So everything about him was strange. His food was strange. He was chosen out of the world, as one announcing the Christ who is above the world. He was in the desert from the start, living outside the wickedness found among people, so that he would be trustworthy when he rebuked it. He did not begin to frequent the people in the cities until the Spirit in him urged him to show himself publicly.

Fragment 105

“Now it happened in those days.” Which days? Those in which the Baptist was born. The forerunner of the Savior was six months ahead of him in the conception, and was born six months before him. As the more careful students have observed, he also died six months before the Savior’s ascension. “When Augustus was the first to reign,” he says, “a decree went out.” Before Augustus, Julius Caesar alone ruled, and he came after the consuls. Before him the pattern was consuls as kings, each for one year. But when Augustus became king, he ended the rule of many and, having taken hold, stayed on as king. The preaching was about to run to the ends of the earth. The apostles could not pass from nation to nation, struggling with different kings and being attacked by each one. So God leveled the earth beforehand under a single kingdom, so that the apostles might preach as though into one kingdom.

Fragment 106

“He brought him up to Jerusalem.” The Lord is circumcised on the eighth day. He is named Jesus, as had been foretold. Then, when the days were completed, he is brought up to Jerusalem and presented to the Lord according to the law that says, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.” Anyone can grasp one thing here: he himself is the one who sanctifies, and he himself is the one who is sanctified. Not everyone grasps the other: these things were spoken and carried out in the ordinary way, yet they pointed to something deeper than what could be seen. For on behalf of a male firstborn, and on behalf of him as he was brought, “a pair of turtledoves and two pigeons” were offered. I think the turtledoves are meant to show self-control and [the rest of the sentence is missing or corrupt in the Greek].

Fragment 107

“After three days they found him.” They did not find him on the first or the second day, but on the third, when he himself chose to show himself to those seeking him. The account also holds a riddle. In his twelfth year he is hidden for three days. Before the passion, he announces the passion, the one that concerned the twelve disciples. At that time he was hidden from them too, and he rose and appeared [again; the Greek reads “a city”] [before the three], the three-day time before the time. [The last words are uncertain and the text may be corrupt.]

Fragment 108

“In the fifteenth year of Tiberius.” Christ was born in the forty-first year of Caesar Augustus. Augustus reigned fifty-six years, so fifteen remained. Then Tiberius reigned after him. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius’s reign John came baptizing, and at that time Jesus was also baptized, “being about thirty years old,” as the evangelist says further on.

Fragment 109

“In the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.” He also mentions the high priests Annas and Caiaphas to show that they were high priests from the time John came preaching. They began at that time and remained in the high priesthood until the Lord’s passion. For about Caiaphas he says that, when he said about Christ, “It is to our advantage that one man [die] for the people,” the writer immediately added, “for he was high priest of that [year].” So he said this two years before the passion, for the Lord suffered in the thirty-third year, after three months.

Fragment 110

“He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.” Whom does he call captives? Is it those who had earlier been taken captive and bound by the devil, whom Christ set free from captivity when he came and brought down the rebel and boastful tyrant, Satan? He calls the same people “blind” and “broken.” For Christ himself flashed the light of the mind on those whose understanding was darkened. He also released from the bonds of sin those who were “broken and crushed in heart,” that is, those crushed by the weight of sin, or those who are humble in spirit. To these he also proclaims “the acceptable year of the Lord.” And what year is this, in which the Savior’s preaching took place, if not the one in which the true Lamb was offered for the sin of the world?

Fragment 111

“But he, wanting to justify himself, said.” The lawyer had been praised by the Savior for giving a good answer. Even so, he burst out with arrogance. He counted no one as his neighbor, as though no one were a match for him in righteousness. For he thought that only the righteous person is neighbor to the righteous, and only the lofty to the lofty, someone who rivals him in virtue. He did not know that this destroys righteousness: not doing out of love what one does. So he is found lacking in love, both toward God and toward his neighbor.

Fragment 112

13:6 “A certain man had a fig tree planted.” [Others explain his coming three times like this: first, the time of Moses and Aaron; second, the time when Joshua son of Nun lived, and after him the judges; third, after these, the time when “the prophets until John” the Baptist appeared.] Israel was fruitless in its seasons. As far as God’s purpose was concerned, worship carried out in shadows and types could not be accepted. They came to spiritual worship altogether fruitless, and so Israel was cast away. A fourth time can also be understood: the time of the incarnation. In it he pricks Israel and digs around it, warming it so that he might make them fervent in spirit. But since they stayed fruitless even after so many threats, the fig tree was cut out and the Gentiles were grafted in “to their root.” The root remained. Or the vinedresser should be understood as some angel commanded by God to take charge of Jerusalem, which is itself compared to a fruitless fig tree. Let me then set out the account briefly. The fig tree is Jerusalem [or the synagogue of the Jews, or humanity]. The “master of the house,” whose fig tree it was, is God, and the Savior himself. The “vinedresser” is the Son of God. That he came “a third time” means that he came through Moses, through the prophets, and through himself. Or the first year is the one in which he first gave Adam a command, saying, “from every tree in paradise you shall eat for food,” and so on. The second is the one in which he gave commandments to Israel in the law through Moses. The third is the one in which he himself, in person, gave the perfect law in the gospel. Or he means this: the first year is the time of Moses and Aaron; the second is the time of Joshua son of Nun and the judges; the third is the time when “the prophets [until] John” appeared; and the fourth is the time of the incarnation, in which he himself, through the gospel, announced the good news of the kingdom of the heavens to all.

Fragment 113

9:10 But Matthew says … “flee to the other.”

Fragment 114

9:12 But according to the higher sense … feeding each tribe.

Fragment 115

9:18 He asks, not out of ignorance … they have taken up symbolic [features] of him.

Fragment 116

He inquires of the disciples … will enter into it.

Fragment 117

9:23 In another way someone denies himself … in doing right, [the one] being saved.

Fragment 118

9:27 These things refer to Peter and James … of his transfiguration.

Fragment 119

But if one must look into something a little more closely … within the perfect only.

Fragment 120

9:28 And so, in order that, taking it up again … and the holy passion.

Fragment 121

For since in six days … being seen by the one who sees.

Fragment 122

Not bearing the power of the voice … to appear there to many.

Fragment 123

9:30 Origen on the words, “Behold, two men were talking with him”: … for whom it has been prepared, was said on account of these.

Fragment 124

9:34 But the voice from the cloud … from where they had come.

Fragment 125

9:37 But one must look at these things more loftily … in the branches of such a faith.

Fragment 126

9:44 By whom, then, is he going to be handed over? … upon us the light of God.

Fragment 127

9:47 Since the Son is inseparable … and a child free of evil.

Fragment 128

9:48 For such as the child is from its birth … has become toward the children.

Fragment 129

11:51 Therefore, of Elizabeth and the child … the blood with the blood.

Fragment 130

We find Zacharias in the books of Kingdoms … the father of the father.

Fragment 131

14:18 That, then, is the general sense of the parable. But you might also take it differently, according to the passage. As far as we are human … “among gods.”

Fragment 132

17:34 Both can also be signified … as unworthy, being sent away.

Fragment 133

18:24 Observe that he did not shut out the rich man altogether … and the things of what is called.

Fragment 134

19:29 The two disciples, that is, Peter and Paul … into Jerusalem.

Fragment 135

23:17 Why did they need to release … because of the people, Jonathan.

Fragment 136

It is likely that, since a truce had just been made … such a thing was customary for them.

Fragment 137

23:39 Matthew, passing over it, said … “in the [δείσῳ].”

Fragment 138

Matthew 13:44 Likeness and parable, the difference … the word of the sowing.

Fragment 139

Matthew 13:44 According to another interpretation it would be … in his wishes.

Fragment 140

Matthew 13:45 Those who [do] not [speak] about pearls … the knowledge of Christ.

Fragment 141

Matthew 13:47 Further, the dragnet is the one from the ancients … the furnace of fire.

Fragment 142

Matthew 20:1 These five intervals … is referred to the kingdom of God.

Fragment 143

Perhaps, then, the whole life of human beings … the wage of salvation.

Fragment 144

Through which the mark of the kingdom seems to me … is referred to the kingdom.

Fragment 145

But this one alone, besides the three … the prophetic writings, the evangelists.

Fragment 146

It is not unprofitable to set alongside … by himself, a son of God.

Fragment 147

[So also Origen, who says that] … all nourishment of the life of the world.

Fragment 148

The word “epiousios” is found in none of the Greeks … is the bread.

Fragment 149

Historically, after the sending out … all conceit.

Fragment 150

Indeed, the laws concerning leprosy … until the leprosy has disappeared.

Fragment 151

What was said by Daniel to one of the elders who accused holy Susanna: “For already the angel of God, having received [the order],” they say, “from God, will split you in two.” He says this will certainly happen to him at the judgment, in keeping with what the Lord said, that “he will cut him in two.” And Ammonius, in interpreting a prophetic passage, etc. . . .

Fragment 152

What difference do these have … the sayings of the wise and riddles.

Fragment 153

Since prudence is virtue … the Lord prepared the heavens.