THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS - VOLUME 12
Origen’s Homilies on Jeremiah, and the Greek Fragments and Scholia
c. AD 230 – 250

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INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
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HOW THIS BOOK IS ARRANGED

This is the twelfth 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 completes the writings of Origen with his Homilies on Jeremiah and the Greek
fragments and scholia that remain.

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 the modern English versions prepared for SermonIndex.

IN THIS VOLUME

The Homilies on Jeremiah are twenty sermons preached by Origen to a church congregation at
Caesarea, and they are among the few of his sermons that survive in the original Greek.
They show him at work as a preacher: reading the text, pressing its meaning on his
hearers, and turning to the life of the church.

The rest of the volume gathers what remains of Origen’s commentaries in Greek. Much of it
comes from catenae, which are “commentary chains” in which a later compiler set the
comments of several Fathers beside each verse. A fragment may be shortened or reworded by
the compiler, and some of the pieces are ascribed to Origen by editors without full
certainty. The introduction to each work says what is known.

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.


HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH
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HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 240–250

Twenty homilies preached by Origen on the prophet Jeremiah, in Greek, for a church
congregation in Caesarea. They are among the few of Origen’s sermons that survive in the
original language. Homilies 1 to 11 are in the Sources Chrétiennes tradition, and the
Greek of 12 to 20 follows the Philocalia and the Vatican manuscript. Twelve more survive
only in Jerome’s Latin and are not included.

HOMILY 1

1 God is quick to do good, but slow to punish those who deserve punishment. He could bring
punishment on those he has condemned in silence, without giving any warning beforehand.
But he never does this. Even when he condemns, he speaks, so that the one who is about to
be condemned may turn back from the sentence. We could take many examples of this from the
Scriptures, but a few that lie close at hand are enough, so that we may come to the
purpose of the passages that have been read. The Ninevites had become sinners and had been
condemned by God. In three more days Nineveh was to [be overthrown]. God did not want to
condemn it in silence. He gave them room for repentance and conversion and sent a prophet,
so that when he said, “Three more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown,” those who had
been condemned might not be condemned after all, but might repent and receive God’s mercy.
The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were also condemned, as is clear from God’s words to
Abraham. Yet the angels still did their part. They wanted to save people who did not want
to be saved, and said to Lot, “Do you have anyone here, sons-in-law, or sons, or
daughters?” They were not ignorant that those people would not follow Lot. They were
acting out of their own kindness and love for humanity, and at the same time that of the
one who sent them.

2 You will find the same thing in the case of Jeremiah. The time of his prophecy has been
recorded: when he began and how long he prophesied. Now a reader who does not pay
attention to the reading, and does not examine the intention of the passages written down,
will say, “This is just history. It is recorded when Jeremiah began to prophesy, and for
how long he prophesied before he stopped. What is that to me?” I read it and learned that
he began to prophesy “in the days of Josiah son of Amos, king of Judah, until the
thirteenth year of his reign.” Then “it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim son of
Josiah, king of Judah,” that he was prophesying, “until the end of the eleventh year of
Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah.” And I learned that his prophecy extended through
three kings, “until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.” So what are we taught
by these things, if we pay attention to the reading?

3 God had condemned Jerusalem because of her sins, and the people had been judged to be
abandoned to captivity. Even so, God, who loves humanity, when the time was at hand, sent
this prophet too, well before the third reign, the one in which the captivity came, so
that those who were willing might understand and repent because of the prophetic words. He
sent a prophet to prophesy under the second king after the first, and under the third,
right up to the time of the captivity itself. For the patient God was granting forbearance
even one day, so to speak, before the captivity, urging those who heard to repent so that
the gloom of captivity might cease. This is why it is written that “Jeremiah prophesied
until the captivity of Jerusalem, until the fifth month.” He began, and was still
prophesying, as if to say: “You have become captives. Even so, repent! If you repent, the
captivity will make no further progress, but God’s mercy will come upon you.” So we gain
something useful from the record that gives the times of the prophecy: God, in his love
for humanity, urges those who hear not to suffer the captivity. The same kind of thing
applies to us. If we sin, we too are going to become captives. For “to hand such a person
over to Satan” is no different from handing over the people of Jerusalem to
Nebuchadnezzar. As they were handed over to him because of their sins, so we are handed
over to Satan because of our sins, since Satan is Nebuchadnezzar. And the apostle says of
other sinners, “whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may be taught not to
blaspheme.”

4 So consider how great an evil it is to sin. Those who sin are handed over to Satan, who
takes captive the souls of those whom God has abandoned. Yet God does not abandon without
cause or without judgment those he has abandoned. When he sends rain on a vineyard, and
the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, what will God do but “command the clouds not
to rain” on that vineyard? Because of our sins, captivity hangs over us too. Unless we
repent, we are going to be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, so that the
Babylonians of the mind may tear us apart. While this threatens us, the words of the
prophets, the words of the law, the words of the apostles, and the words of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ speak to us about repentance and urge us to turn back. If we listen,
let us believe the one who said: “I too will repent of all the evils that I spoke of doing
to them.” That is enough for the introduction.

5 After the introduction it is written that “the word of the Lord came to him” — clearly,
to Jeremiah. And what does the word of the Lord say to him? Something set apart from what
was said to the other prophets. We have found this said to none of the prophets. Abraham
was called a prophet in the words “he is a prophet and will pray for you,” and yet God did
not say to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of
the womb I sanctified you.” Rather, Abraham was sanctified at some later time, when he
went out from his land, from his kindred, and from his father’s house. He was born by
promise, and we did not find this word spoken even to him. And why do I need to list the
others in turn? Jeremiah received a distinctive gift: “Before I formed you in the womb I
knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you.”

6a We are not unaware that some people apply these words to our Savior and Lord, as being
too great for Jeremiah. We should know that many of them fit him well and can be applied
to the Savior, and I will set them out. But a few of the things said to Jeremiah put
pressure on that interpretation, because they cannot be fitted to the Savior in the same
way as the many. Which ones, then, fit the Savior? “You shall go to all to whom I send
you, and you shall speak according to all that I command you. Do not be afraid before
their face, for I am with you to rescue you, says the Lord.” These words perhaps would not
yet seem to apply to the Savior. But what follows puts pressure on the interpretation
concerning Jeremiah: “And the Lord stretched out his hand to me and touched my mouth, and
the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. Behold, I have
appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down.” What nations
did Jeremiah uproot? What kingdoms did he overthrow? For it is written: “Behold, I have
appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down.” And what
authority did Jeremiah have “to destroy,” which is said to Jeremiah in the words “and to
destroy”? Whom did Jeremiah build up, so many that it could be said “and to build”?
Jeremiah says: “I have not benefited anyone, and no one has benefited me.” So how was “to
build and to plant” given to him? How will “to plant” fit Jeremiah?

6b The passages that refer to the Savior do not trouble the interpreter, because in these
Jeremiah is a symbol of the Savior. But the passages I have set beside them trouble even
the wisest person who wants to show how they too could fit the Savior. “And I said: O
Lord, Master, you who are, behold, I do not know how to speak.” He who is wisdom and power
brought us [the fullness of the deity, which dwelt in him bodily]. So how can “I do not
[know how to speak]” fit the Savior? And “I am younger” is something the Savior is
forbidden to say, as though he were speaking wrongly. For if the Lord says to him, “Do not
say this,” it is clear that he forbids it because it is not well said. So these words do
not fit the Savior. The others, however, do not seem to be an obstacle with regard to the
Savior. It would not be hard to say that these words refer to Jeremiah and those to the
Savior. But the fair-minded person will be greatly troubled at this passage. He sees that
it is the mark of unreasonable people to cut up a connected sequence of words that were
spoken either to Jeremiah or to the Savior. They say of some: “Since these are lesser
things, they fit Jeremiah and not Christ.” And of others: “Since these are greater than
Jeremiah, they fit not Jeremiah but Christ.” So should the whole passage be referred to
Jeremiah? Then let those words that seem greater than Jeremiah be interpreted [in that
light].

7a Everyone who has received words from God and has the grace of heavenly words has
received them for this: “to uproot and tear down nations and kingdoms.” But if “nations
and kingdoms” are said to be “uprooted” by everyone who has received words from God, do
not understand the nations and kingdoms in a bodily way. Understand instead human souls
ruled by sin, as the apostle says: “Let sin not reign in our mortal body.” Look also at
the many kinds of sins, and read the nations and kingdoms figuratively as the evil things
in human souls. These are uprooted and torn down by the words of God given to Jeremiah or
to anyone at all. So the first set of sayings, the ones that trouble us when applied to
the Savior, can fit Jeremiah. And the second set, for someone who knows how to read
figuratively, can also fit Jeremiah. Someone among the hearers will say to me: “Work out
the other part of the argument too, and try to show that everything that is written fits
the Savior.” About the second set, do not worry. It is plain that the Savior uprooted the
kingdoms of the devil and tore down the nations, by demolishing the pagan way of life. But
here is the part that seems to speak ill of the Savior. Work out somehow how the Savior
can say, “I do not know how to speak, because I am younger.” Do you see how the argument
is cramped? We know the Savior as Lord. We are seeking to apply these words to the Savior
in a way that is worthy of the word and true to the truth.

7b We must take the Scriptures as witnesses. Our own proposals without witnesses, and our
interpretations, are not to be trusted. The saying “At the mouth of two and three
witnesses every word will be established” fits interpretations better than it fits people.
So I will establish the words of my interpretation by taking two witnesses, from the New
and the Old Testament, and three witnesses, from gospel, prophet and apostle. For in this
way every word will be established. How then can we apply these words to the Savior? Bring
a witness from the Old Testament: “For before the child knows good or evil, he refuses to
obey wickedness, so as to choose the good.” This was said plainly about the Savior in
Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they will call
his name Emmanuel.” And there the words “before the child knows” are added. And if we must
also take an example from the gospel: Jesus did not become a grown man at once but was
still a child, since “he emptied himself,” and he was advancing. For no one who has been
made perfect advances; only someone who needs to advance does so. So he advanced in
stature, advanced in wisdom, and in favor with God and people, coming down here. Having
emptied himself, he received again from the very things from which “he emptied himself.”
Since he emptied himself willingly, what is absurd about his also advancing “in wisdom and
stature and favor with God and people”? What is absurd about its being truly said of him,
“Before he knows good or evil, he will choose the good and refuses to obey wickedness,”
and about what I quoted from Isaiah?

8a But someone will say: “Even if you can bring yourself to apply the words ‘he does not
know’ to the Savior, does it not trouble you to say this about the only-begotten, about
the firstborn of all creation, about the one announced before his conception in the words,
‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’?
And you say, ‘He does not know how to speak’?” See whether you can discern something
worthy and great about the Savior in this passage: when someone does not know certain
things, he can be greater in not knowing them than in knowing them. And I use his own
voice as witness that there are things he does not know. He says, for instance, to those
who say to him, “Did we not eat in your name, and drink in your name, and cast out demons
in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” “Depart from me; I never knew you.”
Does the “I never knew you” spoken there by the Savior show his power to be less, or
greater and more wonderful, because he did not know those who were worse and were
perishing? For he knew what is better and excellent, and “the Lord knew those who are
his,” and “if anyone is ignorant, he is not known.” So the sinner is not known by God. One
of the hearers will say to me: “You have shown that he does not know sinners, that he does
not know those who work lawlessness, for they are not worthy of his knowledge. But how
will you show that it is something great and glorious when the Savior says, ‘I do not know
how to speak’? Speaking is a human thing. To speak is to use a language, so as to utter,
say, a Hebrew voice, or a Greek one, or that of some other people.”

8b If you go up to the Savior and see him as the Word who was “in the beginning with God,”
you will see that he does not know how to speak, since speaking is a human thing. But the
reason he does not know is that what he does know is greater than speaking. And if you
compare the tongues of angels with the tongues of human beings, and recognize that he is
greater even than the angels, as the apostle testified in the letter to the Hebrews, you
will say that he was greater even than the tongue of angels when he was God, the Word with
the Father. So he learns, and as it were takes up a knowledge not of great things but of
lesser and smaller ones. It is like my own case: I force myself to learn to stammer when I
talk with little children. Since I do not really know how to speak the way children do, so
to say, I compel myself, though I am mature, to converse with children. In the same way
the Savior, while he is “in the Father” and in the majesty of God’s glory, does not speak
human things and does not know how to utter sounds to those below. But when he comes into
a human body, he says at the beginning, “I do not know how to speak, for I am younger.” He
is younger because of his bodily birth, but older according to the title “firstborn of all
creation.” He is younger because he came to live among us at the consummation of the ages,
later in time. So when he says “I do not know how to speak,” he means: I know something
greater than speaking, I know something greater than this human sound. Do you want me to
speak to human beings? I have not yet taken up a human language. I have your language,
Father; I am your Word, God’s Word; I know how to converse with you, but I do not know how
to speak to human beings. “I am younger.”

9 “Do not say, ‘I am younger,’ for you shall go to everyone to whom I send you.” In this
way he stretches out his hand, touches his mouth, and gives him words. He gives him words
because of the kingdoms, so that he may uproot them. But when he was “in the Father,” he
had no need of words that uproot; he had no words that tear down and demolish the worse
things. For nothing there was worthy of being torn down, nothing worthy of being uprooted.
It is a great thing, as in “I do not know you; you are workers of lawlessness.” So when
the Savior says it because of the surpassing greatness of his glory, “I do not know how to
speak” carries the same force as “I do not know how to speak human things.” 10a Whether
this is said to Jeremiah or to the Savior, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,”
read Genesis and pay attention to what it says about the creation of the world. You will
find that Scripture, with great precision, did not say, “Before I made you in the womb I
knew you.” When the one “in the image” was created, “God said, Let us make man according
to our image and likeness.” He did not say, “Let us form.” But when he took “dust from the
earth,” he did not “make” the man; rather he “formed the man,” and “he put in the garden
the man whom he had formed.” [The text is badly damaged here and cannot be restored with
confidence.] So the Lord, whether speaking to Jeremiah or to the Savior, did not say,
“Before I made you in the womb”; he said “formed,” because this one, from the dust of the
earth, is created in the womb. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” If the Lord
knew everyone in this way [the text is corrupt here], he would not have said “and I know
you” to Jeremiah as something special.

10b So God knows those who stand out. God knows those who are worthy of his knowledge, and
“the Lord knew those who are his.” But the unworthy God does not know, just as the Savior
said, “I never knew you.” We too, being human, judge according to our progress that some
things are worthy of our knowing them. Some things we do not even want to hear, so that we
may not come to know them or be acquainted with them, while others we want to know. What
of the God of all? He wants to know Pharaoh, he wants to know the Egyptians, yet they are
not worthy of God’s knowledge. Moses is worthy, and so is each of the prophets of such a
stature. You must set right many things before God begins to know you. Jeremiah he knew
before he formed him in the womb. Another he begins to know at thirty years of age,
another at forty. These are hidden matters. Concerning the Savior they are not in
question, but concerning Jeremiah they call for careful attention from those who have
ears.

11 How does he say it? “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came
out of the womb I sanctified you.” God sanctifies certain people for himself. He did not
wait for this man to come into being and then sanctify him; before he came out of the womb
he had already sanctified him. If you refer this to the Savior, it is not hard to say that
he was sanctified before coming out of the womb. If you refer it to the Savior, he was
sanctified not only before he came out, but even earlier still. But this Jeremiah was
sanctified before he came out of the womb. 12 “I have appointed you a prophet to the
nations.” If you look into this “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” as said of
Jeremiah, notice in what follows that he is commanded to prophesy “against all the
nations,” and there is a heading: “What Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations,” to
“Elam,” “Damascus,” “Moab.” And so we have it that he “prophesied against all the
nations,” as the literal fulfillment of “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations,”
said to him. But if the words are taken in a higher sense: for Jeremiah we have already
said what is needed; for the Savior, what need is there to say anything? He truly
prophesied against all the nations. For just as he is countless other things, so he is
also a prophet. As he is high priest, as he is Savior, as he is physician, so he is also
prophet. Moses, at any rate, prophesying about him, spoke of him not simply as a prophet
but in a special way, saying: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from
among your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen, and whoever does not listen to that
prophet will be utterly destroyed from his people.” So this is the one who has been
appointed a prophet “to the nations.” He received grace from God poured out on his lips,
so that not only when he was present in the body, but now also, when he is present in
power and in the Spirit, he prophesies “to all the nations,” so that his prophecy is
carried out among all the nations and draws people to salvation.

13a “And I said: O Being, Master and Lord, see, I do not know how to speak, because I am
younger.” “And the Lord said to me: Do not say, ‘I am younger,’ because you shall go to
all those to whom I send you.” We have often said that a person can be a child in the
inner man even if he is of an old man’s age in the body. And sometimes a person can be a
child in the outer man while being a grown man in the inner man. Jeremiah was like this:
he already had grace from God while still a child in bodily age. That is why the Lord says
to him, “Do not say, ‘I am younger.’” The sign that he was not younger, but a “perfect
man,” is this: “You shall go to all those to whom I send you, and you shall speak
according to everything I command you. Do not be afraid of their faces.” The word of God
knows that those who carry out its embassy are in danger from those who hear. When they
are rebuked, they hate the messengers; when they are reproved, they persecute them. The
prophets suffer absolutely anything: “A prophet is not without honor except in his own
country and in his own house.”

13b We mentioned this verse not long ago. So God, when he sends the prophet, knows how
many dangers he will take on, and he says to him: “Do not be afraid of their faces,
because I am with you to rescue you, says the Lord.” What Jeremiah suffered is on record.
He was thrown into a pit of mud and stayed there, “eating one loaf a day” and drinking
only water. His prophecy has made known countless other things he suffered. “Which of the
prophets did your fathers not persecute?” That was said to the Jews. And it is necessary
that “those who want to live godly in Christ Jesus” be persecuted, by the opposing powers,
through whatever instruments they find. So let those who are persecuted not be surprised,
but let them do everything they should, only praying that they be persecuted unjustly and
not justly: not for wrongdoing, not for sin, not for greed. But if someone is ever
persecuted for righteousness’ sake, let him hear: “Blessed are you when they reproach you
and persecute you and say every evil word against you, lying, on my account. Rejoice and
be glad, because your reward is great in heaven. For in this way they persecuted the
prophets before you.”

14a “Because I am with you to rescue you, says the Lord. And the Lord stretched out his
hand to me and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me.” Notice the differences between
Jeremiah and Isaiah. Isaiah says: “I have unclean lips, and I live among a people who have
unclean lips, and with my eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth.” Since he confessed
that what was unclean in him was not deeds but only little words (up to this point he was
a sinner), “the Lord” did not “stretch out his hand.” Instead, “one of the Seraphim
touched his lips with his hand and said: See, I have taken away your lawless acts.” But
this man, Jeremiah, was sanctified “from the womb.” So no tongs are sent to him, nor a
coal “from the altar” (he had nothing in him that deserved the fire). Rather, the Lord’s
own hand touched him. That is why he says: “The Lord stretched out his hand to me and
touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: See, I have given my words into your mouth.
See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot.” Who is so blessed
as to uproot, by the words God gives, the many kingdoms that “the devil shows”? These are
kingdoms of the opposing powers, kingdoms that rest on sins. For it is written: “See, I
have given my words into your mouth. See, I have appointed you today over nations and
kingdoms, to uproot.” Just as there are kingdoms, so there are nations. And nothing can be
called a kingdom unless it has nations under it. For example, there is a kingdom of
fornication, and each particular fornication is a nation of fornication. The general sin
of greed and of defrauding is one kingdom, and there are many kingdoms among those who
commit many kinds of sins.

14b Next, think of the nations under each kingdom as belonging to each sinner. One person,
we might say, has many nations belonging to the kingdom of fornication. Another has many
nations belonging to the kingdom of defrauding, or of slander, or of anger. When God’s
words are sent out “over nations and kingdoms,” their work is “to uproot and to dig down.”
Uproot what? The Savior taught us when he said, “Every planting which my heavenly Father
did not plant will be uprooted.” There are things inside our souls which “the heavenly
Father did not plant.” All the “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witnessings, blasphemies” are plantings, and the heavenly Father did not plant them.
If you want to know whose plantings such thoughts are, hear this: “An enemy man did this,”
the one who sowed the “weeds in the middle of the wheat.” So God stands there with his
seeds, and the devil stands there with his. If we give “place to the devil,” “the enemy”
sows a planting [which the Father did not plant, but the devil did], and it will certainly
be uprooted. If we do not give “place to the devil,” but give place to God, God gladly
sows his seeds on the ruling part of our soul. So do not suppose that Jeremiah received a
gloomy gift from God because he was appointed “over nations and over kingdoms, to uproot.”
God is good, because through his words he uproots what is worthless: the kingdoms hostile
to the kingdom of the heavens, and the warring nations hostile to the nation of God. “To
uproot and to dig down.”

15 There is a building of the devil, and there is a building of God. The building “on the
sand” is the devil’s, because it is fixed on nothing firm, solid or united. The building
“on the rock” is God’s. See what is said to those who belong to God: “You are God’s field,
God’s building.” So God’s words are “over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to dig down
and to destroy.” Suppose something is uprooted, but the thing uprooted is not destroyed.
Then it still exists. Suppose something is dug down, but the stones of what was dug down
are not destroyed. Then it still exists. So it belongs to God’s goodness, after uprooting,
to destroy what has been uprooted, and after pulling down, to destroy what has been pulled
down. Read carefully how such things are destroyed in the case of what is destroyed and
uprooted: “Burn the chaff with unquenchable fire,” and “Bind the weeds in bundles and hand
them over to fire.” So after being uprooted, they are destroyed. If you want to see what
is destroyed even after a demolition, take the building made of worthless material. That
house which was pulled down because of leprosy becomes dust, and once it has become dust
it is thrown out “outside the city,” so that not even a stone remains. This is like “I
will grind them fine like the mud of the streets.” For the worse things must not hold
together in any way. If something has been dug down, the stones must not be useful for
another building, which the evil one could build. If something has been uprooted, he must
not [again] find seeds among the uprooted things, so that he could sow weeds over them
again. For surely, since he had the seeds of the weeds, he sowed them. For this reason:
“Bind the weeds and burn them with fire.” Then, after being uprooted, the devil’s planting
is destroyed, and after being dug down, the devil’s building is destroyed.

16a But the words of God do not stop at “uprooting, tearing down and destroying.” Suppose
the evil things have been uprooted from me and the worse things torn down. What good is
that to me, unless better things are planted in place of what was uprooted? What good is
it, unless something of greater worth is built in place of what was torn down? For this
reason the words of God of necessity first do the “uprooting, tearing down and
destroying,” and after these the “building and planting.” In Scripture we have always
observed that the grim-looking things, if I may call them that, are named first, and then
the things that seem cheerful are spoken of second. “I will kill and I will make alive.”
He did not say, “I will make alive,” and after that, “I will kill.” For it is impossible
for what God has made alive to be killed, either by him or by anyone else. But he says, “I
will kill and I will make alive.” Whom will I kill? Paul the betrayer, Paul the
persecutor. “And I will make alive,” so that he becomes “Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ.” If the wretched people from the heresies had understood these things, they would
not keep throwing such words at us and saying: “Do you see how savage and inhuman the God
of the law is? He says, ‘I will kill and I will make alive.’” Do you not see in the
Scriptures a promise of the resurrection of the dead? Or do you not see the resurrection
of the dead already being previewed in each one of us? “We were buried together” with
Christ “through baptism,” and we have been raised together with him. So he begins with
sterner words, yet necessary ones, such as “I will kill,” and then, having killed, “I will
also make alive. I will strike, and I will heal.” For “the Lord disciplines the one he
loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.” First he strikes, and after this he
heals. For “he himself causes pain, and he restores again.”

16b So it is here too: “I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, to uproot
and to tear down and to destroy and to build and to plant.” Still, the first thing is for
those evil things to be taken away from us. God cannot build on the site of an evil
building. “For what share does righteousness have with lawlessness? What fellowship does
light have with darkness?” Evil must be uprooted from its foundations. The building of
evil must be consumed and removed from our soul, so that afterward the words of God may
build and plant. I cannot understand what is written in any other way: “See, I have put my
words in your mouth.” What do the words do? “Uproot, tear down and destroy.” Words uproot
“nations”; words tear down kingdoms. [The text here is damaged; the sense seems to be that
these are not only the worldly nations and kingdoms.] Think of what is uprooted by words,
and what is torn down by words, in a way worthy of words that tear down and uproot. Is
there not power even now in what is being said, if God gives it, according to the saying,
“The Lord will give a word to those who proclaim the good news with great power”? Is it
not a power that uproots any unbelief, any hypocrisy, any wickedness, any self-indulgence?
Is it not a power that tears down any idol-temple that has been built in the heart? Then,
when that has been torn down, a temple of God may be built, and the glory of God may be
found in the rebuilt temple. And it will become not a sacred grove but a planting, a
paradise of God, where the temple of God is in Christ Jesus. To him belong the glory and
the might forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY 2

1a “God did not make death, and he takes no pleasure in the destruction of the living. For
he created all things so that they might exist, and the generations of the world are
saving, and there is no deadly poison in them, nor a kingdom of Hades on earth.” Then,
skipping ahead a little in the passage, I will say where death came in: “But through the
envy of the devil death entered the world.” So whatever is best for us, God has made; but
we ourselves have built evil and sins for ourselves. For this reason the opening of the
reading here in the prophet speaks as if in perplexity to those who have in the soul a
bitterness opposed to the sweetness God prepared for it: “How have you turned into
bitterness, foreign vine?” It is as if he were saying: God did not make lameness, but made
everyone sound of foot. So what has been the cause of those who are lame? God first of all
made all the limbs healthy. So what has been the cause of someone’s suffering harm? In the
same way the soul was made “in the image” not only in the first man but in every human
being. For “Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness” reaches to all
human beings.

1b And just as in Adam there is something older, namely what most people understand as the
“according to the image” that was later taken on by him, when through sin he put on “the
image of the man of dust,” so in everyone the “according to the image of God” is older
than the worse image. “Being sinners, we put on the image of the man of dust; let us put
on,” by repenting, “the image of the heavenly man.” Still, creation came about in the
image of the heavenly one. So here the word is perplexed and speaks to sinners in rebuke:
“How have you turned into bitterness, you foreign vine? For I planted you a fruit-bearing
vine, wholly true.” This was said in the passages before these, and I will repeat it
briefly to persuade you that God planted the soul of man as a good vine, but each person,
having turned, has become opposed to the purpose of the one who made him. “But I planted
you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly” – not partly – “true.” It is not that one part is true
and another false, but “I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true. How have you
turned?” That is: I made you a wholly true vine; how have you turned into bitterness and
become a foreign vine?

2a After this, let us look at the words: “If you wash with soda and multiply herb for
yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord.” Did someone think
that a soul which had sinned, by taking soda and washing with ordinary, physical soda,
would be rid of the stain and rid of sin? Did someone suppose that by taking this herb
that springs up from the earth, and washing and scrubbing with it, the soul would be
cleansed? For here the word speaks to the vine that had turned to bitterness and become
foreign: “If you wash with soda and multiply herb for yourself, you are stained in your
iniquities before me, says the Lord.” But we must know that the word has every power. Just
as it has the power of all Scripture, so the word has the power of every medicine, and it
is the power of everything that cleanses, and it scrubs most thoroughly. “For the word of
God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Whatever you may say is
needed, that is in the power of the word. So there is a certain word that is soda, and a
certain word that is herb, which cleanses such filth when it is spoken. But not every sin
is healed by such a word, whether the one that is soda or the one that is herb. There are
sins that need neither soda nor herb. So to the soul that thinks its sins can be got rid
of with soda and herb it is said: “If you wash with soda and multiply herb for yourself,
you are stained before me in your iniquities, says the Lord.”

2b Consider wounds. Some are healed by a salve, others by oil, others need a bandage and
are healed that way. But there are other wounds about which it is said: “There is no salve
to apply, nor oil, nor bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire.”
So it is with sins. Some sins make the soul filthy, and for these sins a person needs a
word that is soda, a word that is herb. But there are other sins that are not healed this
way, for they are not even compared to dirt. Because the Lord knows the differences
between sins, see how he speaks in Isaiah: “The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons
and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment
and a spirit of burning.” Filth and blood: the filth by a spirit of judgment, the blood by
a spirit of burning. If you have sinned, but not “to death,” you have been made filthy.
“So the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse
the blood from their midst.” Then there is the matching response: for “the filth,” a
“spirit of judgment,” and for “the blood,” a “spirit of burning.” And many of us, having
sinned worse sins, need neither soda nor the multiplying of herb, but the spirit of
burning.

3 This is why Jesus baptizes “in the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Perhaps I have only now found
the explanation.) He does not baptize the same person “in the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Rather, he baptizes the holy person “in the Holy Spirit.” But the person who, after
believing and after being counted worthy of the Holy Spirit, has sinned again, he washes
in “fire.” So the one baptized by Jesus “in the Holy Spirit and fire” is not the same
person in both cases. Blessed, then, is the one baptized in the Holy Spirit who has no
need of the baptism of fire. But three times wretched is the one who needs to be baptized
with fire. Still, Jesus has both. For “a rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a
flower will rise from the root.” The “rod” is for those who are being punished, the
“flower” for the righteous. In the same way “God is a consuming fire,” and “God is light”:
a consuming fire for sinners, light for the righteous and holy. And “blessed is the one
who has a share in the first resurrection,” the one who has kept the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. Who, then, is the one saved in another resurrection? It is the one who needs the
baptism of fire. When he comes to that fire, the fire tests him. If it finds wood, hay,
[and stubble], it burns them up. So, since these things are being said, let us gather up
as best we can the words of the Scriptures, store them in our heart, and try to live by
them. Perhaps we may be able to become clean before our departure. Having made our works
ready for the departure, we may go out with those good works, be received, and be saved in
Christ Jesus. To him belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY 3

1 At the beginning of the passage that was read, the Lord says about Israel that he had
not been a “desert” to them, nor “a land left unploughed.” Now who, coming to this place,
would not stop to look into it and examine what the writing means? Granted: God has not
become a desert in Israel, and he has not become an unploughed land in Israel. But has the
Lord then become a desert to Israel today? Or is he now an unploughed land to them? And
what of this: when he was not a desert or an unploughed land to Israel, was he a desert
and an unploughed land to the nations? For if he is never a desert to anyone, and is never
an unploughed land to anyone, what need was there for it to be said specially and
particularly to Israel: “Have I been a desert to the house of Israel, or a land left
unploughed?” But we can go first to God’s general benefits, and then, after his general
benefits, to his particular ones.

2 To no one is God a desert. He makes his sun rise on the evil and [the good]. To no one
is he an unploughed land. He sends rain on [the righteous] and the unrighteous. How is he
a desert, when he brings up the day and makes the night for rest? How is he a desert, when
he makes the earth bear fruit? How is he a desert, when he orders each person’s life
according to the soul, so that he may be rational, so that he may take up knowledge, so
that his understanding may be exercised, and, as to the body, so that he may have “the
senses” in good health? So, as regards the general account, God is a desert to no one. But
as regards the particular account, I come to the affairs of Israel, and I say: he was
neither a desert nor an unploughed land when he did the signs and wonders for the people
in Egypt. And if there was ever a time when they were abandoned, it was as though he were
a desert to them. He became that, though he himself was not a desert. Yet when he was not
a desert or an unploughed land to Israel, then, according to the particular account, he
was a desert and an unploughed land to the nations. But when he turned away from Israel
and became a desert and an unploughed land to that Israel, then grace was poured out on
the nations. And now Christ Jesus has become to us not a desert but fullness, not an
unploughed land but one that bears fruit. For “many are the children of the desert, more
than of the woman who has the husband.” And he threatens those to whom he has not become a
desert or an unploughed land, saying: I have not been to you a “desert” or “an unploughed
land,” but you have said: “We will not be ruled; we will not come to you any more.” Did
the sons of Israel say, in a desperate frame of mind, as the words suggest: “We will not
be ruled”?

HOMILY 4

1a The wording of the passage that was read has something obscure in it. Let us first work
out what it means. After that, if God allows, we will learn his hidden purpose in it. He
wants us to know, then, that, as it is written in the books of Kingdoms, in the days of
Rehoboam the people were divided into two kingdoms. Ten tribes came under Jeroboam, and
two tribes under Rehoboam. Those under Jeroboam were called Israel, and those under
Rehoboam were called Judah. As far as the history goes, this division of the people has
lasted until now. We know of no history in which Israel and Judah were brought together
again as one. Israel sinned first, and sinned more: the Israel under Jeroboam and his
successors. They sinned so much more than Judah that Providence condemned them to be taken
captive to the Assyrians, and, as the Scripture says, “until today.” After this the sons
of Judah also sinned, and they were condemned to captivity in Babylon. That was not “until
today,” as with Israel, but for “seventy years.” Jeremiah prophesied about those years,
and Daniel also recalled them. If we understand these things as applying to the people of
that time, see whether the prophet’s words do not show something like this. He accuses
Israel of its sins, in a manner of speaking. He says that although Israel had committed so
many sins, the assembly of Judah heard of their failures, and how I made them go into
captivity, [and was not instructed, but added to its sins.]

1b So because of this addition of sins, when Judah’s sins were compared with those of
Israel, righteousness was found in Israel rather than in Judah. Then, after this, the
prophet is commanded to prophesy, as though Judah were worse than Israel, so that after
their sins Judah might turn back. After the prophecy to Israel, which commanded it to turn
back, the prophet prophesies that Israel and Judah will one day come together, and that
there will someday be one kingdom of both. Let anyone who cares about the readings take
the words of today’s whole reading, and then he will see that these meanings are made
plain. “And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what the
dwelling of Israel did to me?” Notice: not Judah, but Israel first. “It went up on every
high mountain and under every leafy tree, and played the prostitute there. And after it
had done all this, I said: Turn back to me. And it did not turn back. And she saw its
faithlessness”, that is, the assembly of Israel, “the faithless Judah. And I saw”, those
from Judah, “that in all the things in which the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, I
also sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce.” Judah ought to have been
instructed by this. For I sent Israel away, the assembly of Israel; I cast them out to the
Assyrians, “and I gave her a certificate of divorce into her hands.” “And faithless Judah
was not afraid.”

1c After all that I did to Israel, sending it away and giving it a certificate of divorce,
the assembly of Judah ought to have been instructed by what those others suffered. But
they not only were not instructed; they added to their sins. So the sins of the assembly
of Israel, compared with the sins of the assembly of Judah, seem to be righteousness. “And
I gave her a certificate of divorce into her hands. And faithless Judah, her sister, was
not afraid, and she went and played the prostitute, she too. And her prostitution came to
nothing, and she committed adultery with the wood and the stone. And in all this faithless
Judah did not turn back to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood.” She was not ashamed
before me because of what I had done to Israel, so that she might turn back completely.
She ought to have turned back in truth, but she turned back in falsehood. “And in all this
faithless Judah did not turn back to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood. And the
Lord said to me: Israel has justified her soul compared with faithless Judah.” The sins of
Israel, compared with the failures of Judah, became a justification of the soul of the
assembly of Israel.

2a “Go, then, and read these words toward the north.” If the saying is understood, let us
see what it means to show by this. The calling of the nations began from the fall of
Israel. When the apostles preached in the synagogues of the Jews, they said, “The word of
salvation was sent out to you. Since you judge yourselves unworthy, see, we turn to the
[nations].” The apostle also, knowing what he knows about these people, says, “By their
transgression salvation has come to the nations, to make them jealous.” So the many sins
of that people caused them to be abandoned. They also brought us to the hope of the
[promise], we who were [strangers to] the covenants and aliens from the [commonwealth].
For how could I, a foreigner, wherever I came from, to the so-called holy land, now be
discussing the promises of God? How could I believe in the God of the patriarchs Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, and by God’s grace receive Jesus Christ, [announced] by the prophets? If
you understand these two peoples, the one from Israel and the one from the nations, then
consider with me the exile of Israel, and understand that it was written about that people
of Israel: “I sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce.” For God sent that
people away and gave them a certificate of divorce.

2b This is like the case of married people. The law of Moses says that if a wife was
displeasing to her husband, a “certificate of divorce” was drawn up by the husband and the
wife was sent away. The man who had sent away his first wife because she seemed to have
behaved shamefully was then permitted to marry another woman. In the same way, see those
people receiving a certificate of divorce. And because they received the certificate of
divorce, they were completely abandoned. For where are prophets among them any longer?
Where are signs among them any longer? Where is the appearing of God? Where is the
worship, the temple, the sacrifices? They were thrown out of their own place. So he gave
Israel “a certificate of divorce.” Then we are Judah. (We are called Judah because of the
Savior who rose from Judah, for it is plain that our Lord has risen from Judah.) We turned
to the Lord. Yet our latter end, [if] it is not already so, seems about to become like
theirs, if not indeed worse.

3 That our own affairs will be like this at the close of this age is clear from what the
Savior said in the gospel. There he says, “Because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of
the many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” And he says,
“[The deceiver] will do signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the
elect.” Our situation will be such that the Savior says of his own coming, as though a
faithful person would hardly be found among so many churches, “Nevertheless, when the Son
of Man comes, will he indeed find faith on the earth?” And truly, if we judge matters by
the truth and not by crowds, and judge them by the choice of the heart and not by seeing
many gathered together, we will see that we are not faithful now. But they were faithful
then, when the noble martyrdoms were taking place. We would escort the martyrs from the
burial grounds and come to the assemblies, and the whole church came without being
distressed. The catechumens were taught at the martyrdoms and at the deaths of those who
confessed the truth “to death,” “not frightened” or shaken before “the living God.” We
know that in those days people also saw extraordinary signs and wonders. Then the faithful
were few, but they were truly faithful, walking the narrow and hard road that leads “to
life.” But now we have become many. Yet it is impossible for many to be elect, for Jesus
who said it does not lie: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Out of the multitude of
those who [profess] reverence for God, very few reach God’s election and blessedness.

4a So when he says, “First I sent Israel away because of their sins, and I sent them off
into exile, but Judah heard what happened to Israel and did not turn back,” he is speaking
about our sins. The things that happened to Israel are read aloud, and the failures of
that people, and we ought to be afraid. “If he did not spare the natural branches, how
much less will he spare you?” If the kind and loving God did not spare those who boasted
of being the “good olive tree,” those rooted in “the root” of the patriarchs Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, but cut them off, how much less will he spare us! For God is not kind
without also being severe, nor severe without also being kind. If he were only kind and
not severe, we would despise “his kindness” all the more. If he were severe and not kind,
we might perhaps despair over our sins. As it is, he is God, and so he is both kind and
severe. We human beings need his kindness when we repent, but we need his severity when we
stay in our sins. So he speaks to us through the prophets and says, “Have you seen what
the dwelling of Israel did to me?” Understand by Israel that people of old. “She went up
on every high mountain and under every shady tree.”

4b Suppose you see the Pharisee going up into the temple in his arrogance. He does not
beat his breast and does not grieve over his own evils. Instead he says, “I thank you that
I am not like the rest of men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax
collector. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all I have.” You will see that he has
gone up “on every high mountain” in a blameworthy way. He loved loftiness of mind, and in
his boasting and pride he loved every high hill. And he has come to be “under every tree”
that is not fruitful but “shady like a grove.” A grove tree is one thing, and a fruit tree
is another. When people plant trees for groves, they do not plant the ones that bear
fruit, not a fig tree or a vine, but only trees without fruit, for the sake of enjoyment.
You will find the teachings of those who hold other doctrines to be like that: the beauty
of their persuasive arguments does not turn their hearers back to God. So when someone
gives himself over to such teachings, he has gone “under every grove-like tree.” The text
did not say “every tree” and then stop. Nor did it add “every fruit-bearing tree.” It
said, “under every shady, grove-like tree.” For this reason you will understand why the
lawgiver says, “You shall not plant any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, and
you shall not make a grove.” You see, even the very name of the grove has been forbidden.

5a “And she committed fornication there. And after she had committed all this fornication,
I said: Return to me. But she did not return, and unfaithful Judah saw her
unfaithfulness.” We too are rebuked, I mean we who sin and do not keep God’s covenants. We
do not see that those people lost the covenant, though they were well born, descended from
Abraham, and had received the promise. We ought therefore to reckon that they fell away
from the blessings and the promises, and that being descended from the fathers did them no
good. How much more shall we be abandoned if we sin! The Savior says to them, “If you were
children of Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham.” And John says again, “Do
not begin to say among yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God
is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” By stones he hints at us, who
have a heart of stone and are hardened against the truth. And truly God has raised up
children to Abraham from the stones, if we remain in that childbearing and keep the spirit
of [the adoption?]. So “her unfaithfulness” is that of the dwelling of Israel, and
“unfaithful Judah” is the one who did not keep the covenants with God. And Judah saw,
concerning everything for which that people was abandoned (for we, who are Judah, see all
this if we read the Scripture), that for the things in which the dwelling of Israel
committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce. This was so
that we might be instructed by what he did to them. He judged them according to their
sins, abandoned them, and handed them over to captivity, to slaughter, and to their
enemies. From these things we ought to turn back, and each of us ought to reckon that if
God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us. If he thus
cast out those who came from the fathers when they became sinners, what shall we suffer,
we who were called from the nations? We have reckoned none of this, though we were called
so that that people might be provoked to jealousy when they see the slave honored and see
the low-born one come forward.

5b But if they suffered so much, how much more shall we be abandoned if we sin? “For the
things in which the dwelling of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a
certificate of divorce into her hands. And unfaithful Judah was not afraid.” God means
what he has done to the dwelling of Israel, that “I sent her away and gave her a
certificate of divorce.” Judah “was not afraid” because of what had happened to them.
Consider someone who enters the house of a master and has only recently been bought. He
asks which of the earlier servants the master honored and why, and which of the servants
he dishonored and why. When he has understood this, if he wants to stay in the master’s
house, he takes care not to fall into what the earlier servants did, who sinned, were
thrown out, and were handed over to punishment. Then, having learned what the earlier
servants did who won approval, and for what kind of conduct they obtained freedom, he
strives to imitate them. So it is with us. We were not servants of God but of idols and
demons, Gentiles, and only yesterday and the day before we came to God. Let us read the
Scripture. Let us see who was justified and who was condemned. Let us imitate those who
were justified. Let us take care not to fall into the things that those who were taken
captive fell into, those who were cast out from God.

6 “And unfaithful Judah was not afraid, but went and played the harlot, even she herself.”
Israel had played the harlot first; afterward Judah played the harlot too. “And her
harlotry came to nothing, and she committed adultery with the wood and the stone.” When we
sin, we do nothing other than become stone-hearted and commit adultery with “the stone.”
When we sin and play the harlot “under every shady tree,” we too commit adultery with the
wood. “And unfaithful Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood.” If
we have turned to God, but only in part, we are charged with not having turned “with the
whole heart.” So “unfaithful Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart.” He did not
say, “Unfaithful Judah turned, and stood firm.” He said, “Unfaithful Judah did not turn to
me with her whole heart, but” turned “in falsehood.” What, then, is true turning? It is to
read the ancient writings, to know those who were justified, and to imitate them. It is to
read those writings and see those who were blamed, and to guard ourselves against falling
under the same blame. It is to read the books of the new covenant, the words of the
apostles, and after reading, to write all these things on the heart and to live by them.
Then no bill of divorce will be given to us as well, but we shall be able to come to the
holy inheritance. And when the fullness of the Gentiles has been saved, Israel will then
be able to enter. For if the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then all Israel will be
saved, “and there will be one flock, one shepherd,” teaching us to glorify the almighty
God in Christ Jesus himself, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.


HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH
====================

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH continued

HOMILY 5

1a It is written plainly in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles first went into the
Jewish synagogue. They announced to the Jews, as to kinsmen through Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, what was written about the coming of Jesus Christ. But when those people did not
accept what was said, and others had to become the hearers of the message, then the
apostles made their defense to the Jews and left them. For it is written: “It was
necessary that the word of God be announced to you first; but since you judge yourselves
unworthy, look, we turn to the Gentiles.” What is said plainly in the Acts of the Apostles
has been said in effect in many places by the prophets too. The Holy Spirit speaks first
and foremost to those from that people. But if at some point, after saying much, he is not
listened to, he prophesies the word that is proclaimed to the Gentiles. This has also
happened at the beginning of today’s reading. Before it, these words are spoken to those
from Israel: “Even if you call me Father, you will not turn away from me. Yet as a woman
is faithless to the man who lives with her, so the house of Israel has been faithless to
me, says the Lord.” When these things had first been said about Israel, and the sons of
Israel had heard that “they had done wrong in their ways and forgotten their holy God,”
then the Holy Spirit moves the word on to us who are from the Gentiles and says: “Turn
back, sons who turn back, and I will heal your fractures.”

1b For we are the ones full of fractures, each one of us might say, even if now he has
been cleansed and healed of the fractures. “For we too were foolish, foolish, going
astray, slaves to desires and many varied pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy,
hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness and love for humanity of our Savior God
appeared, through the washing of rebirth he poured out his mercy upon us.” I will try to
make that apostolic saying clearer, though I have mentioned it once already. For he did
not say, “We were once foolish, disobedient,” as though speaking of others. Paul, the
apostle, who was from Israel, who had become “blameless in the righteousness that is in
the law,” says: “For we too were once (those from Israel) disobedient, foolish.” Not only
were those from the Gentiles foolish, and not only were those from the Gentiles
disobedient, and not only were they sinners. We too, who had been taught the law, were
like that before the coming of Christ. So after what has been said to Israel, these words
are spoken to us who are from the Gentiles: “Turn back, sons who turn back, and I will
heal your fractures.”

2a But someone will object: “This was said to Israel, and you are dragging it over to the
Gentiles.” We want to show that when God wishes to speak to Israel about repentance, he
does not wait a long while but adds the name of Israel at once. So the very next words
are: “If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, he will indeed turn back; and if he
removes his abominations from his mouth, and is reverent before my face, and swears, ‘As
the Lord lives,’ in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations will
bless themselves in him.” So the earlier words were spoken to those from the Gentiles. For
when the full number of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved, according
to what the apostle says in the letter to the Romans. Notice how God urges us who are
turning to turn completely. He promises that if we turn to him, “turning back,” he will
heal our “fractures” through Jesus Christ. And we answer, as people who do not hesitate or
delay over our salvation the way that Israel did: “Here we are; we shall be yours.” God
said, “Turn back, sons who are turning back, and I will heal your fractures.” And those
from the Gentiles say, “We shall be your servants.” Yet we were not yours before. We
belonged to demons, and we found ourselves under opposing powers. For when the Most High
divided the nations, we did not become your portion, nor the measured share of your
inheritance with the people of Jacob. We became the portions of others. Even so, we who
were once those portions hear you say to us, “Turn back, sons who are turning back, and I
will heal your fractures,” and we answer, “Here we are.” This is what we were waiting for,
the calling. We do not decline when we are called, as those others were called and
declined.

2b For we have it in the parables of the gospel that when some were invited first, one
said, “Hold me excused, I have married a wife,” and another said, “I have bought five yoke
of oxen and I am going to try them out; hold me excused.” We from the Gentiles are not
like that: we are called, and we do not decline. Why? What field would we need to be busy
with? What wise woman? What else should we be occupied with? So God has said to us, “Turn
back, sons who are turning back, and I will heal your fractures.” And when we see our own
fractures and the promise of healing, we answer at once and say, “Here we are; we shall be
yours, because you are the Lord our God.” Having heard, then, and having said “We shall be
yours,” let us remember that we made a promise to God when we said to him, “We shall be
yours.” And having said “We shall be yours,” let us not become anyone else’s. Let us not
belong to a spirit of anger, or a spirit of grief, or a spirit of desire. Let us not
belong to the devil or to his angels. Rather, having been called and having said, “Here we
are; we shall be yours,” let us show by our works that we have become his and have given
ourselves to no one but him. And we say, “Because you are the Lord our God.” For we
confess no other god. It is not the belly, as the gluttons do, “whose god is the belly.”
It is not silver, as the lovers of money do, and not greed, which is idolatry. We do not
deify or make gods of anything else that the many make gods of. For us the God over all,
the one who is over all and through all and in all, is God. And since we are bound to God
by love, for love glues us to God, we say, “Here we are; we shall be yours, because you
are the Lord our God.”

3a Then, having condemned our former evils, we speak as people who are turning back. There
was a time when we thought the idols great and lofty. We bowed down to them and thought
the things we served were wonderful. Now we have judged that all of that was false and was
nothing at all. So we say as we turn: “Truly the hills were for a lie.” We say it because
we have condemned the lofty things we once held and the wonders we once admired. Perhaps,
if we take the trouble, we will find a difference between the hills and the mountains
among the nations. Those who said, “Behold, here we are, we will be yours, for you are the
Lord our God,” have left them behind and accuse them of being false, both hills and
mountains. What, then, is the difference between the mountains and the hills among the
nations? Having condemned them, we say, “Truly the hills were for a lie, and so was the
power of the mountains.” This is what we say when we condemn our former ways. Among the
nations, some of the things they worship are worshipped as gods and some as heroes. For
they themselves admit that some of them were once human beings and were made gods. They
worship Heracles, not as a god who was born a god, but as one changed from a man into a
god. They worship Asclepius as one who was changed from a man into a god because of his
virtue. But when they worship the fathers of these, whom they call gods, they do not
worship them as men who were changed into gods. As those people suppose, these have been
gods from the beginning.

3b So the mountains, and “the power of the mountains,” will be those the nations have
thought to be gods from the beginning. Those they now think to be gods, but who were
formerly human beings, are “the hills.” Having come to know both ranks of the things
worshipped, we say, “Truly the hills were for a lie, and so was the power of the
mountains.” For those who serve them do not suppose that these things are false. So they
think the oracles and the healings are true healings. They do not see the difference in
“all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, with every deceit of wickedness for those
who are perishing.” [The text is corrupt at this point; a few words are lost or garbled in
the Greek, and the Greek then runs on into a reference to “the fullness of the nations”
coming in and “all Israel” being saved, and to Christ Jesus.] The things Christ Jesus did
were signs of truth. Before him, what Moses did was a power of truth. But what the
Egyptians did were signs and wonders too, yet of falsehood. So also with what Simon the
magician did after Jesus’ time. He led the nation of Samaria astray, and he was thought to
be the power of God. These too were signs and wonders of falsehood. So when we condemn
those things, we who have condemned them say, “Truly the hills were for a lie, and so was
the power of the mountains.”

4 Next, we who are from the Gentiles know that “by their transgression we received the way
of salvation,” and that Israel has been thrown out until our fullness comes in. We also
know that if “the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, after this all Israel will be saved.”
That is why we say first, “Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the
mountains.” Second, we speak about Israel after the fullness of the [Gentiles]: “Yet the
salvation of Israel is through the Lord our God.” Since we have now mentioned the
apostle’s saying, that salvation has come to the Gentiles through the transgression by
which Israel fell, let us unfold what these passages say. The saying goes on: when “the
fullness of the Gentiles comes in,” Israel remains outside, and after that fullness has
come in, “then all Israel will be saved.” There was an Israel that was being saved. The
great mass of Israel fell away, but “a remnant according to the election of grace came to
be.” It was about this remnant that the saying was spoken in a hidden way “in Elijah”: “I
have left for myself seven thousand men, who did not bend the knee to Baal.” The apostle
explains this remnant when he says, “So then, in the present time also, a remnant
according to the election of grace has come to be.” So there is an Israel being saved,
even if only a remnant, while the rest of Israel is left behind. If you are able, carry
these two groups over for me to those from the Gentiles. He did not say, “When all the
Gentiles are saved, then all Israel will be saved.” He said, “When the fullness of the
Gentiles comes in.” So [the saved Israel] comes after “the fullness of the Gentiles,” not
after all the Gentiles without exception. If anyone is able, let him go further. Just as
he found Israel being saved after the fullness of the Gentiles, let him consider when all
will serve God under one yoke, as it is said [in the prophet], with sacrifices coming from
the ends of Ethiopia. That is the time when, as the sixty-seventh Psalm says, “Ethiopia
will hasten to stretch out her hand to God.” And the word commands the kingdoms “of the
earth,” saying, “Sing to the Lord, sing psalms to the God of Jacob.”

5 So we who are from the Gentiles speak about ourselves, repenting of the falsehoods we
used to think were true: “Truly the hills were for a lie, and the power of the mountains.”
About the Israel that will be saved after us we say: “Yet the salvation of the house of
Israel is through the Lord our God.” Then we confess the sins in which our fathers lived,
and we ourselves too, serving idols, and we say: “But shame has consumed the labors of our
fathers from their youth, their sheep and their oxen, their sons and their daughters.”
“Shame has consumed the labors of our fathers,” and the words that follow. So if the
wretched labor and false work of the fathers is going to be consumed, shame must come.
Before shame, the labor of the fathers is not consumed, nor are the things that follow.
Therefore let us consider the differences among sinners. There are people who sin and are
not ashamed. They feel no embarrassment over their sins and do not blush. Such are those
who have become callous and have handed themselves over to every kind of licentiousness
and uncleanness. [The text here is unclear.] Among the Gentiles, for example, people
sometimes list their fornications and adulteries as if they were heroic achievements. They
are not even embarrassed to admit that they have done such things, and they do not call
them sins. As long as they are not ashamed, their labors are not consumed, and their sins
are not consumed. The beginning of good things is for someone to be ashamed of what he was
not ashamed of before. For this reason I do not take it as a curse when the prophets say,
“Let all who hate Zion be ashamed and turned back.” The prophet is praying that those who
feel nothing about their shameful deeds will come to a sense of them. Then, having been
ashamed, they will be able to consume their labors and their sins.

6 The irrational impulses of our fathers he called “sheep” and “calves.” For not
everything irrational is praiseworthy. Some of it is blameworthy, like the sheep of the
fathers who sinned. But some irrational things are praiseworthy, for example: “My sheep
hear my voice.” These too were sheep, but sheep to whom we have a counterpart in reason,
since we have the good shepherd in our souls. For when the Savior says, “I am the good
shepherd,” I do not hear it only as everyone hears it, that he is the shepherd of those
who believe (and that is sound and true). I must also have Christ within me, in my own
soul: the good shepherd within me. He shepherds the irrational impulses in me, so that
they no longer go out to pasture wherever they happen to go. Led by the shepherd, those
that were once strangers to him become his own. For this reason, if the shepherd is in me,
he now rules over my senses. They are no longer under an alien mind, or under Pharaoh, or
under Nebuchadnezzar, but under the good shepherd.

7 “Shame, then, consumed the labors of our fathers from their youth, their sheep and their
oxen.” There is something in us that works the land, and it works it either badly or well;
we speak of “badly” or “well” for the one who farms. If it farms badly, there is a labor
of the fathers that is consumed by their shame. But if it farms well, it is not the
fathers’ labor [in that sense]; it is a labor from which the firstborn are brought up to
the altar of God. “Their sons and their daughters,” these people say. Whose sons and
daughters? “Of the fathers.” The sons are consumed by their shame. As we have often said,
these are the offspring of the soul: thoughts are the sons, and the works and actions done
through the body are the daughters. Since there are some wretched thoughts, such as the
Gentiles thought, and also wretched deeds, therefore sons and daughters are consumed by
those who made them, if shame comes upon them over their sins. May we never produce sons
and daughters for that kind of consuming by shame.

8a After this, those who are confessing say, “We lay down in our shame.” And after that
they say, “and our dishonor covered us.” We have often spoken about the veil that lies
over the face of those who do not turn to the Lord. Because of that veil, “whenever Moses
is read,” the sinner does not understand him, for “a veil lies over his heart.” Because of
that veil, when the old covenant is read, the hearer will not understand. Because of that
veil the gospel too is hidden for those who are perishing. So we were saying about the
veil that shame is the veil. As long as we have “the works of shame,” clearly we have the
veil, according to what is said somewhere in the forty-third Psalm: “and the shame of my
face covered me.” I put this beside it because the person who has no works of shame has no
veil. Paul was like that when he said, “But we all, with unveiled face, behold as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord.” So Paul has an unveiled face, for he has no works of shame.
Whoever is not like Paul has a veiled face. So just as it is said there, in the forty-
third Psalm, “the shame of my face covered me,” in the same way it is said here: “our
dishonor covered us.” As long as we do works of dishonor, we have a veil lying on our
heart. If we want to put away the veil that comes from dishonor, let us come to the works
of honor. Let us understand what was said by the Savior, “that all may honor the Son just
as they honor the Father,” and let us also understand what is said in the apostle:
“Through the breaking of the law you dishonor God.”

8b The righteous person, as he honors the Father, honors the Son. Dishonor, when I
dishonor the Son (this is the very thing by which I dishonor the Father or the Son),
becomes a covering over my face, and I say, “And our dishonor covered us.” So then, now
that we understand the veil that lies on us from works of shame, from our deeds, let us
take the veil away, let us take it away. It is up to us to have the veil removed; it is up
to no one else. For “when Moses turned to the Lord, the veil was taken away.” Do you see
how Moses is sometimes taken to stand for the people? As long as he did not turn to the
Lord, being a symbol of the people who do not turn to the Lord, he had a veil lying over
his face. But when he turned to the Lord, becoming a symbol of those who turn to the Lord,
then “the veil was taken away.” And it was not as though God commanded him, “Put on the
veil” (for the Lord did not say to Moses, “Put on the veil”). Rather, Moses saw that the
people could not look at his glory, and then he put “the veil over his face.” And he did
not wait for God to say, “Take off the veil,” whenever he turned to the Lord.

9 This has been written so that you also, when you put the veil on your face through works
of dishonor and shame, may yourself bring about the removal of the veil. If you turn to
the Lord, then you take the veil away, and you will no longer say, “Our dishonor covered
us.” For example, when anger against someone lies on our soul, a veil lies over our face.
For this reason, if we want to say in prayer, “The light of your face has been marked upon
us, Lord,” let us take away the veil and do what the apostle says: “I want the men, then,
to pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without anger and disputing.” If we remove
anger, we have removed the veil, and so too if we remove all the passions. But as long as
these things are in our mind, in our reasoning, the veil and the dishonor lie over the
inner face, our governing faculty, so that we do not see the glory of God shining. It is
not God who hides his glory from us; it is we who, because of wickedness, put the veil on
the governing faculty.

10 “Because we have sinned before our God, we and our fathers.” I wish that we too would
speak as these people do, in the person the prophet takes on for them. “We have sinned.”
“We have sinned” is not the same as “we are sinning.” Let the one who is still in sin not
say “we have sinned.” Let the one who has sinned before, and has repented thoroughly, say
“we have sinned.” So it is written in Daniel, a confession of people who no longer sin,
saying, “We have sinned, we have acted lawlessly.” And in the Psalms the prophet says, “Do
not remember our ancient lawless deeds.” So let us also confess our sins. I wish they were
not those of yesterday or of three days ago. I wish that our confession would be about
sins committed fifteen years before, because we have had no sin since then for fifteen
years. But if we sinned yesterday, we are not yet trustworthy when we confess our sins,
and there is no room yet for these sins of ours to be wiped out. “Because we have sinned,
we and our fathers, from our youth until this day.” Let the earlier remarks be taken
otherwise, as teaching about the best way of confessing. But these words are an accusation
of having sinned for a long time. “From our youth,” he says, “until this day, and we have
not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.” We have sinned, and we have not obeyed up to
the present. Then, having turned and having the beginning of conversion, they say, “We
have sinned, and we have not obeyed.” For we do not obey immediately, the moment we wish
to obey. Time is still needed. As with wounds there is time needed for healing, so with
conversion there is time needed to turn to God completely and purely.

11 After this God says about Israel: “If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, he will
indeed be turned back.” That is, if he turns back completely, he will be turned back in
earnest, and not merely if he has, so to speak, begun to turn. Then he says: “And if he
removes his abominations from his mouth, and takes care before my face, and swears, ‘As
the Lord lives,’ in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations will
bless themselves in him.” If they do these things, “the nations will bless themselves in
him.” And what must they do, so that the nations will bless themselves in him? “If he
removes his abominations from his mouth.” What does it mean to remove abominations from
the mouth? Whatever evil we speak is an abomination in our mouth. So let us remove the
abominations from our mouth: let us take away slander, empty words, idle words, the kind
that will bring charges against us “in the day of judgment; for by your words you will be
justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” If, then, we want this to come true
for us, “and the nations will bless themselves in him, and in him they will praise God in
Jerusalem,” let us do what was said at the beginning. And what is the first thing? To
remove “the abominations from our mouth.” Next comes “you will take care before my face.”
Let us do this second thing, and not carelessly, merely to be cautious. For there can be a
caution that does not come from the face of God. Those who fear without understanding, who
simply set themselves to be afraid, are not taking care before the face of God. But those
who take care with understanding are those who always look at, and picture to themselves,
“the face of God set against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the
earth.” These are the ones who take care before the face of God.

12 “If he removes his abominations from his mouth, and takes care before my face, and
swears, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth and in judgment and in righteousness.” Let us who
swear oaths examine ourselves, and see how we swear not in judgment but without judgment,
so that our oaths come from habit rather than from judgment. We get carried away, and the
word exposes this when it says: “And if he swears, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth and in
judgment and in righteousness.” We know that in the Gospel the Lord said to the disciples:
“But I say to you, do not swear at all.” Let us look at this saying of Jeremiah as well,
and if God grants it, we will examine the two together. For perhaps a person must first
swear “in truth and in judgment and in righteousness,” so that afterward, having made
progress, he may become worthy not to swear at all, but to have a “yes” that needs no
witnesses to show that it is yes, and a “no” that needs no witnesses to show that it is
truly no. “And if he swears, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth.” In the one who swears I look
first for no falsehood but truth, so that he swears with truth. But we, wretched as we
are, even swear falsely. Yet suppose it is “with truth”: even so the oath is not rightly
made unless it is also “in judgment.” Grant that I swear out of habit: then I am not
swearing “in judgment.” If it were necessary to bring the God of the universe, and his
Christ, into such an oath for this matter, how great would the matter have to be before I
would bend my knees and swear? Perhaps I might do it at some time, to cure the unbelief
that has arisen in some people about my word. But if I swear just as it happens, I would
sin. “If he swears, then, ‘As the Lord lives,’ with truth and in judgment,” not without
judgment, “and in righteousness,” not unjustly, “then the nations will bless themselves in
him.” He has joined both together, those from the nations and Israel. He has spoken about
the nations, and he has spoken about Israel too.

13a The prophet goes on: “And the nations will bless themselves in him, and in him they
will praise God in Jerusalem. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who
live in Jerusalem.” He has spoken to those from the nations, and he has spoken to those
from Israel; now he speaks to those from Judah. I remember what was said earlier about the
figurative meanings of Judah and of those who live in Jerusalem. For we live in Jerusalem,
if God grants it. “Where the treasure is, there the heart is also.” If we store up
treasure in heaven, we have our heart in the Jerusalem above, of which the apostle says,
“But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother, as it is written,” and so on.
“Thus,” then, “says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem: Break
up fresh ground for yourselves, and do not sow among thorns.” This word is spoken above
all to teachers, so that they do not entrust what they say to their hearers before they
have made fresh ground in their souls. For when people “put their hand to the plow” and
make fresh ground in their souls, and those who hear them are “good and fine soil,” then
they sow, and not among thorns. But suppose someone takes the holy seeds before the plow,
before fresh ground has been made in the ruling part of the hearers. The seeds are the
word about the Father, the word about the Son, the word about the Holy Spirit, the word
about the resurrection, the word about punishment, the word about rest, the word about the
law, about the prophets, and in short about each of the things written. If he sows them,
he breaks the commandment that says first, “Break up fresh ground for yourselves,” and
second, “do not sow among thorns.” But one of the hearers will say: “I am not a teacher; I
am not subject to this commandment.” You too must become a farmer of yourself, and not sow
among thorns. Make fresh ground for me of the field that the God of the universe has
entrusted to you. Look carefully at the field. See where the thorns are: where “the cares
of life and the deceitfulness of wealth and the love of pleasure” are.

13b When you have seen the thorns in your soul, look for the rational plow, of which Jesus
says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Seek it and find it. Then gather from the Scriptures the clean working oxen, plow, and
break up the ground. So that it may no longer be old, make it new. “Having put off the old
man with his practices and put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge,” you
will make fresh ground for yourself. When you have made the fresh ground, take seeds from
those who teach. Take seeds from the law, take them from the prophets, from the writings
of the gospels, and from the words of the apostles. Having taken these seeds, sow your
soul through remembering and meditation. These seeds will seem to spring up on their own.
But in truth they will not spring up of themselves after you have remembered them; God
will make them grow. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” And if anyone
has been able to understand the Scriptures, he has made fresh ground, and having made
fresh ground he has sown, and not among thorns. God arranges that these seeds do not
suddenly become an ear of grain. Rather, as in the Gospel according to Mark, “first the
blade, then the ear, then” the full grain. When it is ready for harvest, those who are
sent out to reap will come. When it is ready for harvest, they will come to those to whom
the word says, “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are already white for
harvest.” So he says to us: “Break up fresh ground for yourselves, and do not sow among
thorns.” But suppose that before you have cleansed your soul, while you still have thorns,
you approach a teacher, whether he is truly able or only thought to be, or you ask for
lessons and spiritual seeds. Then you break the commandment that says, “Do not sow among
thorns.”

14a Next it says: “Be circumcised to your God; circumcise the foreskin of your heart.” “Be
circumcised to your God.” The words “to your God” are added of necessity. You will
understand it from the example we can see with our senses. I mean that not only those of
the circumcision under the law of Moses are circumcised, but many others as well. The
priests of the Egyptians are circumcised to idols. But that circumcision belongs to idols,
and it is not a circumcision done to God. The circumcision of the Jews, perhaps, but
certainly at that time, was done to God. So if the word says, “Be circumcised to your
God,” once you have grasped the plain sense, go on to the figurative meaning. There you
will find how, among those who are circumcised in the figurative sense (so that some of
them might even say, “We are the circumcision”), some are circumcised to God, while others
are circumcised, but not to God. For there are other teachings besides the teaching of the
truth, besides the teaching of the church. Those who practice philosophy have their habits
and their heart circumcised, so to speak; they discipline themselves. So do those from the
heresies, and a circumcision comes about for them. But it is a circumcision, and not to
God. For among them the circumcision comes about by a false teaching.

14b But when you share in the rule of the church and in the purpose of sound teaching, you
are not merely circumcised, you are circumcised “to God.” “Be circumcised,” then, to your
God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart. Who would not pass over this as plain? So
there is such a thing as a foreskin of the heart, and it must be circumcised. Whoever
examines the word carefully will look into this passage for questions like these: the
foreskin is born with a person, while circumcision is acquired, and circumcision removes
what came with birth. If, then, the word commands us to remove “the foreskin of the
heart,” something must have been born together with the heart, which it calls a foreskin,
and which must be removed so that someone is circumcised in “the foreskin of the heart.”
Suppose someone understands the saying, “We were by nature children of wrath, like the
rest.” Suppose someone understands “the body of humiliation” in which we were born.
Suppose someone understands the saying, “No one is clean from filth, not even if his life
were one day; his months are numbered.” He will see how we were born with uncleanness and
with a foreskin of our heart.

15a To put it by a simpler example, one that can lead you to see “the foreskin of the
heart,” I will point out that in the earliest stage of life false opinions inevitably
arise in the soul. For it is not possible for a person to receive true doctrines from the
beginning. The divine Word made provision for history and for the Scripture according to
the letter, so that it might first nourish the one born to Abraham according to the flesh
with words that belong to the flesh. [The text is corrupt here: it seems to say that he
might first be born of the slave woman] so that after him the son of the free woman, the
one born through the promise, might be able to be born. [Corrupt: “why this was taken up”]
The foreskin of the heart can be understood as what comes before circumcision. We
therefore need to receive the word that cleanses our doctrines and removes everything that
has arisen in us through false opinion. This is what it means to put off the foreskin of
our heart. For if the heart, in our case, is the ruling part, where thoughts are, from
which “the evil reasonings” come out, then the one who removes the evil reasonings removes
“the foreskin of the heart.” The one who puts away false opinion has been circumcised in
“the foreskin of his heart.” He becomes a man of Judah and a dweller in Jerusalem, being
circumcised.

15b But if someone does not put away “the foreskin of his heart,” let us see what the word
threatens him with: “Lest my anger go out like fire and burn, and there be no one to
quench it.” So the anger of the Lord goes out like fire against those who have not been
circumcised to God, against those who have not put away “the foreskin of their heart.”
“And there will be no one to quench it, because of the wickedness of their practices.”
That fire has as its fuel the wickedness of our practices. Where there is no wickedness of
practices, the fire has nothing to feed on. And that the fuel of that fire is the
wickedness of our practices, hear the prophet say: “And there will be no one to quench it,
because of the wickedness of your practices.” “Announce it in Judah, and let it be heard
in Jerusalem. Speak, announce, sound the trumpet over the land, and cry out loudly.” He
means: say these things that are being announced to those of the tribe of Judah, the tribe
of Christ. “For it is plain that our Saviour has risen from Judah.”

16a “Sound the trumpet over the land.” The trumpet stands for the lofty word that wakes up
the hearer. It prepares him for the struggle against the passions and against the working
of the opposing powers. It also prepares him for the heavenly feasts. (The trumpet is
mentioned for both of these purposes.) In the book of Numbers, a word of this kind is a
trumpet. For example, the word commands me, and anyone else to whom it is given (it is
given to the one who wishes and who searches out the mind of the Scriptures), to make
“silver trumpets, hammered out.” So the word says: “Sound the trumpet over the land, and
cry out loudly. Say: Gather together, and let us go into the fortified cities.” The word
of God does not want us to enter an unwalled city, but [the city] of the living God, the
church, fortified by the [power] of the word. (For he is the wall.) It is in the
seventeenth Psalm, that God is also a wall. “Gather your things and flee to Zion.” All of
you who are outside Zion, “gather your things and flee to Zion. Hurry, do not stand
still.” You who are making progress, hurry to the Watchtower, “for I am bringing evils
from the north, and a great destruction.” These evils are brought “from the north,” the
north of the adversary, as has often been said. If anyone is found not to have hurried and
not to have entered “into the fortified cities,” not to have come to be “in the churches
of God,” but standing outside, he will be caught by the enemies and destroyed.

16b Who is the enemy? Let us see from what follows how he is described: “A lion has come
up from his lair; he has set out to destroy nations.” This is the enemy we must flee. A
lion is hunting us down. Who is this? Peter teaches us, saying: “Your adversary the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to swallow. Resist him, firm in the
faith.” And according to the ninth Psalm: “He lies in ambush in secret; he lies in ambush
like a lion in his lair.” And this lion lies in ambush not by day, but when night comes.
For according to the hundred and third Psalm: “You appointed darkness, and it became
night. In it all the beasts of the forest will prowl, young lions roaring to seize their
prey and to seek their food from God.” 17 “A lion has come up from his lair.” Where from?
When? He is down below, fallen; he has gone down into the lowest parts of the earth. “A
lion has come up from his lair.” You are a human being, and you are higher than the devil.
You are stronger than he is, whatever kind of person you are, because he is down below on
account of his wickedness. “A lion has come up from his lair; he has destroyed nations and
carried them off.” He has come up “from his lair,” the place that fits his own punishment.
“He has destroyed nations and carried them off. He has gone out from his place to turn
your land into a desolation.” He wants to get into your land, of which we were speaking a
little while ago. He wants to graze on each one of us. So he comes “to turn your land into
a desolation,” so that the lion may trample down the seeds and make your land a
wilderness. “And your cities will be pulled down, so that no one lives in them. Because of
this, gird yourselves with sackcloth.” Since a lion has come up, and a lion threatens you
and wants to wipe out your land, put on sackcloth. Weep and mourn. Through your prayers
call upon God to destroy this lion away from you, so that you do not fall into his mouth.
For it says, “As when the shepherd snatches from the lion’s mouth two legs or the lobe of
an ear.” This lion is trying to seize you by the ears, so that through your itching
appetite he can set false words before you and drive you away from the truth. He wants to
seize your feet from the truth and devour you. But you, gird yourself with sackcloth, beat
your breast, weep and wail, seeing the enemy standing over you, so that “the fury of the
Lord’s anger” may turn away from you. And when that fury has turned away, may you be free
from anxiety, with the lion no longer creeping up on you because you have entered the
walled city, and may you be able to glorify God, who rescues you in Christ Jesus, to whom
be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY 6

1 “Lord,” he says, “your eyes are upon faith.” Just as “the eyes of the Lord are upon the
righteous” (for he turns them away from the unrighteous), so the eyes of the Lord are upon
faith, for he turns them away from unbelief. So it was well said by the one who understood
what he is saying in the prayer: “Lord, your eyes are upon faith.” What is written here,
then, is: “Lord, your eyes are upon faith.” But “if a man of understanding hears a wise
word, he will praise it and add to it.” So see how much can be drawn out from “Lord, your
eyes are upon faith.” Paul says, “But now these three remain: faith, hope, love; and the
greatest of these is love.” Just as the eyes of the Lord are upon faith, so the eyes of
the Lord are upon hope, and the eyes of the Lord are upon love. And since there is “a
spirit of power and of love and of self-control,” as the eyes of the Lord are upon love,
so the eyes of the Lord are upon power, and so the eyes of the Lord are upon self-control.
[The text seems to have a gap here.] The eyes of the Lord are upon righteousness. So the
eyes of the Lord are upon all the virtues. If, then, you also want the rays of God’s
intelligible eyes to reach you, take up the virtues. And just as it says, “Lord, your eyes
are upon faith,” so it will be “Lord, your eyes” are upon each of the good things you
acquire. And if you become such a person that the eyes of the Lord shine upon you, you
will say, “The light of your face, Lord, has been marked upon us.”

2a Next, let us look at what is said about sinners: “You scourged them, and they did not
suffer.” These perceptible scourges, when they are laid on living bodies, cause pain
whether the people scourged want it or not. God’s scourges are of a different kind. Some
of those who are scourged feel pain, and some do not. Let us see whether we can explain
what it is to feel pain from God’s scourges and what it is not to feel it. Those who feel
no pain from God’s scourges are wretched, and those who do feel pain from them are
blessed. For Wisdom says: “Who will set scourges over my mind, and over my lips a seal of
cunning, so that they may not spare me for my ignorances, and my sins may not destroy me?”
Notice the words “Who will set scourges over my mind?” So there are scourges that scourge
the mind. The scourges of God scourge the mind. A word that takes hold of the soul and
brings it to a sense of what it has done wrong scourges it. It scourges the blessed
person, who feels pain under the scourges, because what is said strikes home and he does
not despise the one who rebukes him. But when someone is found, so to speak, past feeling,
it will be said of him: “You scourged them, and they did not suffer.” Take the same word
spoken in rebuke, for example, aimed at the mind of a person whose conscience has been
defiled by some sin. If one of the hearers is pained, so that it is said of him, “Did you
see how he was cut to the heart?”, and another of the hearers feels no pain but is numb to
those who rebuke him, then clearly it will be said of the one who feels nothing: “You
scourged them, and they did not suffer.” That is one explanation of “they did not suffer”
or “they suffered.” Let us see whether we can find another. In bodies, some parts become
dead and dried up, and often the dead limbs behave differently from the living ones. When
things able to cause pain are applied to a living limb, the person to whom they are
applied feels pain. But when the same things are applied to the insensible limb, he does
not feel it, since deadness is in it.

2b If you have seen this in the body, transfer it to the soul, and see that there is also
a soul whose members are deadened, so that it does not feel the scourges, even if painful
things are brought to it. Terrible things are brought to it, but this particular soul will
not feel them, while another soul will. And perhaps the one who feels nothing under the
pains brought to him grieves more over not feeling than over feeling. He would rather
suffer pain if painful things were applied, since that is a sign that he is alive. He is
distressed at feeling nothing under painful things. Just as this happens with bodies, so I
think that in the words “they would wish they had been burned by fire” something like this
is shown. When fire is applied to someone and the one being burned does not feel it, those
people, having understood the contrast between those who feel nothing under their pains
and those who do feel, would wish to feel the fire rather than not feel it. And when that
fire which has been appointed for sinners is applied to them, a person might pray to feel
it rather than not feel it. All this is on account of “You scourged them, and they did not
suffer.” “You consumed them, and they were not willing to accept instruction.” When God,
who provides for all things, applies cleansing remedies for the salvation of the soul, he
has, for his part, finished the work. You will understand “You consumed them, and they
were not willing to accept instruction” from the example of one who hands on knowledge and
one who is unwilling to receive knowledge from the one handing it on. Let the teacher do
everything on his side and spend himself wholly on handing on knowledge, and let the pupil
refuse to accept what is said. I could say to the teacher about such a pupil: “You have
finished your work with this man, and he was not willing to accept instruction.” So if
everything from providence is directed toward us so that we may be brought to completion
and made perfect, and we do not accept what providence does, which draws us toward
perfection, then someone who understands might say to God: “Lord, you have consumed them,
and they were not willing to accept instruction.”

3a “They made their faces harder than rock.” You can understand this too from more bodily
things. Among those who sin, some hear words of rebuke for their sin and blush, shrink
back, and bow down when the word of rebuke touches them. Others are such that they are
shameless. They feel no shame over what they are rebuked for, over what they have done
wrong. Of these who feel no shame you could say, “They made their faces harder than rock.”
If you have understood this about the body, then let my argument carry you over to the
soul, and think of a face of which it is said, “but then face to face.” Picture a hard
soul, like the hardened heart of Pharaoh. In the face of what is announced to it, it
stands resistant. It throws off what is said, as it were, and is not shaped by what is
proclaimed. For there you will find that the words fit: “They made their faces harder than
rock, and they were unwilling to turn back. And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because
they were unwilling to know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God. I will go to the
great ones and speak to them.” The prophet has thought about those who are unwilling to be
disciplined and who take no notice of God’s scourges, and he says that he has understood
the cause. Their soul is poor. “And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they were not
able, because they did not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God.”

3b “I will go to the great ones and speak to them.” Those who are “great” in their souls
are spoken of in praise. Among the Greeks too the word “great-hearted” is constantly used,
along with the greatness of the rational soul. When someone takes on great matters, has
worthy purposes, and always looks to what is needed, namely how to live according to right
reason, wanting and seeing nothing low or petty, such a person has this greatness and
largeness in the soul. So the first group, whom the word rebuked, did not listen, says the
prophet, because they were poor. That is why they did not listen: they are poor. “I will
go to the great ones and speak to them.” And if there is a blessing in speaking “into the
ears of those who listen,” then it is a blessing when a speaker finds a great-souled
hearer. Since this is so, and since we know that the loss is not so much the speakers’ as
the hearers’, when they do not accept what is proclaimed (and the prophet accuses them of
poverty of mind and understanding), let us ask God to receive, as the word grows in us,
greatness and largeness of soul in Christ Jesus. Then we will be able to hear the holy and
sacred words. To him belong glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY 7

1a God, who judges [according to . . .], gives those he punishes room. He does not, the
moment a person sins, bring the full end of punishment down on the sinner. That is why he
punishes “by little and little” as he judges. There is an example of this in Leviticus. In
the curses on those who transgress the law, after the earlier punishments it is written:
“And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, says the Lord, I will add to
you seven plagues as well.” And again it describes another punishment: “And it shall be,
if after these things you do not turn back, but walk toward me crookedly, I also will walk
with you in crooked anger.” You will find God measuring out punishments sparingly, because
he wants to bring the sinner to repentance, and not paying back all of them at once. So
this is what happened to the people, as far as the letter of the text goes. And after the
word threatens them with what they will suffer after those things, it says: “And it shall
be in those days, says the Lord your God, I will not strike you to the point of complete
destruction.” [But if this reaches especially to the punishments to come, ...] If not, let
whoever is able move on from what happened to the people in this life to those coming
punishments as well. For I would say, being persuaded of it, that just as they “serve a
copy and shadow of heavenly things,” so that people was punished for their own sins as a
copy and shadow of the true punishments. So the whole punishment in the law and the
prophets that touches the people contains a shadow of true punishments.

1b If, then, there was no final destruction for those people because of their sins, but
only an end at some point, and if it will not be that there is never any punishment on
sinners even after death, [the text is unclear here], then final destruction came on
Jerusalem when the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar took place. Yet someone will say that
even then it was not a final destruction, nor was it in the time of the Maccabees. But the
final destruction of the people came at the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ. For as long as
the Savior had not said to them, “Look, your house is left to you,” it was not left. But
when he wept over Jerusalem and said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and
stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! Look, your house is left to
you desolate,” the house was left. “Jerusalem is surrounded by armies,” as though the
house had been abandoned, and “her desolation has drawn near.” Then, after their fall,
salvation came to us, [who were of the nations]. So they were being punished, and the
final destruction did not reach them until the coming of my Lord Jesus.

2 I wonder whether the same kind of thing happens with us too, and some punishments come
in such a way that some people never experience a second punishment but are satisfied with
the first ones. Others come to the second, though not to the third, and others will come
even to the fourth. For the words “I will add seven plagues” point to some mystery: first
one plague happens, then a second, then a third, up to the seven mentioned, in the case of
some people. But not everyone is struck with seven plagues. I think some will be struck
with six, others with five, others with four, others with three or two. And the one who is
lowest of all in punishments, I think, will be struck with a single plague. God, then,
knows what concerns the plagues. That is why it is written here, at the beginning of the
reading, “And it shall be in those days,” the days concerning the things mentioned, “I
will not make an end of you.” But the final destruction does not come in those days. For
there are certain days when he will bring to final destruction those whom he will bring.

3a “And it shall be, when you say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these evils to us?’
you shall say to them, ‘Because you forsook me and served other gods in your own land, so
you will serve them in a land that is not yours.’” Let the plain wording be understood;
for now it is enough to bring the reminder, drawn from the wording, to those who are able
to hear. The sons of Israel, then, had the holy land and the temple, the house of prayer.
They ought to have served God. But they transgressed the divine commandments, worshiped
idols, and took over the idols of Damascus, as it is written in the books of Kings, and
took up other idols of the nations into the holy land. By taking in the idols of the
nations they made themselves deserving of being thrown down into the land of the idols, to
end up there, where they bowed down to the idols. So the word says to them, according to
the plain text: “Because you forsook me and served foreign gods in your own land, so you
will serve foreign gods in a land that is not yours.” But everyone who makes a god of
something serves foreign gods. Do you treat food and drink as divine? Your god is “the
belly.” Do you honor silver as a great good, and the wealth of this earth below? Your god
and lord is Mammon. Jesus himself named it, calling it the lord of those who love money,
when he said, “You cannot serve God and Mammon,” and “No one can serve two lords.” So
whoever honors silver, admires wealth, thinks it a good thing, welcomes the rich as though
they were gods, and despises the poor as though they had no god of their own, that person
makes silver into a god.

3b If someone who is in the church of God worships foreign gods, making gods of things
that do not deserve to be made gods, he will be thrown out into a foreign land. Let him
worship there the gods he worshiped while he was inside. Let the lover of money be outside
the church, thrown out. Let the glutton be outside the church. This is one figurative
reading. I do not want to pry now into things beyond me, such as the land about which the
Savior said, “Who will give you what is ours?” God also arranged it so that when worship
was given to idols in a certain land, some were cast out of their own land and came to the
land about which it is written: “Hear, Israel: why are you in the land of your enemies?
You were counted with those going down to Hades. You forsook the fountain of life, the
Lord. If you had walked in the way of God, you would have lived in peace for all time.”
Now, then, we are in a foreign land, and we pray to do the opposite of what the sons of
Israel did in the holy land. They worshiped foreign things in the holy land. We, in a
foreign land, worship the God who is foreign to the land, foreign to the affairs of earth.
For the ruler of this age rules here, and God is foreign to his sons. But when I say
“foreign,” I do not mean this: I do not mean that God did not create the world. I mean
that he is foreign to the lord of wickedness, foreign to the sins now present.

3c And yet, even when we want to worship in this land of affliction the God who is foreign
to the works of sin, let us see what we do. We do not say, “How shall we sing the Lord’s
song in a foreign land?” Rather we say, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song, [not] in a
foreign land?” We are looking for a place to sing the Lord’s song, a place to worship the
Lord our God, on foreign ground. What, then, is that place? I have found it. He came to
this land wearing the body that saves. He took “the body of sin” “in the likeness of
sinful flesh,” so that in this place, through Christ Jesus who came to live here and
brought to nothing the ruler of this age and brought sin to nothing, I might be able to
worship God here, and after this worship him in the holy land. For if someone who
worshiped idols in the holy land has gone away into the foreign land, then someone who has
worshiped God in the foreign land will go away to the holy land in Christ Jesus. To him be
glory and power forever. Amen.

HOMILY 8

1a The prophet takes up three virtues of God, as it were: his strength, his wisdom, and
his understanding. To each of them he assigns its own work: to strength, the earth; to
wisdom, the inhabited world; to understanding, the heaven. Listen to what the text says:
“The Lord who made the earth by his strength, who set the inhabited world upright by his
wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heaven.” Let us apply this to our own
earth too, for it was said to Adam, “Earth you are.” We need God’s strength. Without the
power of God we cannot accomplish the things that are not “according to the mind of the
flesh.” But when the members that are upon the earth have been put to death, what accords
with the wish of the Spirit will come about, since, as the apostle says, the deeds of the
flesh are put to death by the Spirit. So “the Lord is the one who made the earth by his
strength.” And if you come to this earth as well, and are able to see what is written in
Job (as we found it in the more accurate copies), that he set it “upon nothing,” you will
see that by God’s strength it lies at the very center. I come now to the inhabited world.
I know a soul that is inhabited, and I know a soul that is desolate. If a soul does not
have God, if it does not have Christ who said, “I and my Father will come to him and make
our dwelling with him,” if it does not have the Holy Spirit, it is desolate. It is
inhabited when it has been filled with God, when it has Christ, when the Holy Spirit is in
it. The Scriptures speak of this in various and different ways: that the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit are in the soul of a human being. David, for example, in the psalm of
confession, asks the Father for these very spirits, saying, “Establish me with a guiding
spirit,” “Renew an upright spirit within my inward parts,” “and do not take your Holy
Spirit away from me.”

1b What are these three spirits? The guiding spirit is the Father, the upright spirit is
Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. [The Greek of the next clause is damaged;
the sense is that] these serve to establish the inhabited world, which stands in no other
way than in the wisdom of God. For “wisdom will help the wise man more than ten rulers who
are in a city.” And “whoever despises wisdom and instruction is wretched; his hope is
empty, his labors are profitless, and his works are useless,” says the book entitled the
Wisdom of Solomon. For this reason, as far as we are able, since the inhabited world is
set upright by the wisdom of God, let us ourselves also wish to have our own inhabited
world set upright, since it has perhaps fallen. For this inhabited world fell when we came
into the place of affliction. It fell when “we sinned, we acted impiously, we did wrong,”
and it needs to be set upright. So it is God who set the inhabited world upright. But if
you do not take “set the inhabited world upright” in this way, and understand the
inhabited world in a more ordinary sense, then ask from what he set the inhabited world
upright. Ask about the fall of the world, so that when you find its fall you may see its
restoration. If anyone, then, is in this inhabited world, if you understand the world in
this way, he is [still] before the setting upright. If it has fallen, it clearly needs to
be set upright, yet no one who has not fallen needs to be set upright. And if it has been
set upright, let us see who it is; clearly each one of those in the world has fallen
through sin. It is the Lord who sets upright “those who have been broken down,” and who
“upholds all who fall.” “In Adam all die,” and so the world has fallen and needs to be set
upright, so that “in Christ all” may be made alive. So I have explained what concerns the
inhabited world in two ways: in one, showing in the case of each individual how every soul
is either inhabited or desolate; in the other, fixing the discussion on the world itself.

2a “And by his understanding he stretched out the heaven.” It was not by accident that the
prophet took “understanding” in connection with heaven. You will find it said in Proverbs:
“God by wisdom founded the earth, and by understanding he prepared the heavens.” So there
is a certain understanding of God, and you should look for it nowhere except in Christ
Jesus. Everything of this kind that belongs to God is Christ. He himself is the wisdom of
God, he himself is the [power] of God, he himself is the righteousness of God, he himself
is sanctification, he himself is redemption. In the same way he himself is the
understanding of God. The subject underneath is one, but by our different ways of thinking
about him the many names apply to different things. You do not think the same thing about
Christ when you think of him as wisdom as when you think of him as righteousness. When you
think of wisdom, you take it as knowledge of divine and human things. When you think of
righteousness, you take it as the power that gives to each in the universe what he
deserves. When you think of sanctification, you take it as the power that brings it about
that those who believe and are dedicated to God become holy. So also you will think of him
as understanding when you take it as knowledge of good things, bad things, and things that
are neither. [The next lines are corrupt in the Greek, and this is my best reading:] Now
evil is separated from good for those who dwell in heaven, or who wear the heavenly man,
so that that heaven may no longer be defiled, because heaven was stretched out by the
understanding of God. Neither is the righteous man defiled, who is himself heaven. For the
righteous man also is heaven, as has been said: “And he stretched out the heaven by his
understanding.”

2b How then is heaven stretched out? By wisdom stretching it out. That wisdom does the
stretching is shown in the words “Since I stretched out words and you paid no attention.”
There he speaks of a kind of stretching out of words, and that is how heaven is stretched
out. In the hundred and third psalm it is also said, “stretching out the heaven like a
skin.” Our soul too, which was drawn in before, is stretched out, so that it can take in
the wisdom of God. But let us return to what we have before us. We were speaking of heaven
having been made by understanding. And we say that those who wear the heavenly man are
themselves heaven. For if it is said to the sinner, “You are earth, and to earth you will
go,” could it not be said to the righteous man, to whom the kingdom of the heavens
belongs, “You are heaven, and to heaven you will go”? Or is it rather that, on account of
the earthly man, “You are earth, and to earth you will go” is said to the one who wears
“the image of the earthly,” but on account of the heavenly man, once you wear “the image
of the heavenly,” it will no longer be fitting to say, “You are heaven, and to heaven you
will go”? Each of us has heavenly works and earthly works. Earthly works are those that
bring down to the earth, which is akin to them, the one who stores them up on earth and
does not store up [treasure in heaven]. Again, heavenly works lead up to the places in
heaven that are akin to the works the one who stores up [treasure in heaven], the one who
has worn “the image of the heavenly,” the things done according to virtue.

3a “And he brought up clouds from the end of the earth.” This saying came up recently in
the psalm as well, and we were saying how God “brought up clouds from the end of the
earth.” It is necessary to go over these things again. For those who know them, it serves
as clarification and a reminder of what was said. For those who have forgotten, or who
were not present, it serves to make this clear, whether it is revealed and made plain or
understood in some other way. We said that the saints are clouds. For the words “Your
truth reaches to the clouds” cannot refer to lifeless clouds. Rather, the truth of God
reaches to the clouds that hear God’s command and know where to send rain and from whom to
hold it back. Since there are clouds which God commands to rain or not to rain, it is
written, “I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.” Now with these clouds in
the sky, if there is no rain, God has not commanded the clouds not to rain on the vineyard
or the land. Rather, no cloud appears at all, as it is written in the third book of
Kingdoms. There, in the time of drought, no cloud appeared. But when, according to the
word of Elijah’s prophecy, the rain was about to come, a trace of a cloud appeared, “like
a man’s footprint,” and it became a cloud producing rain.

3b But when the clouds exist and are commanded not to rain, because the soul is unworthy
of the rain, then it is said, “I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.” So
each of the saints is a cloud. Moses was a cloud, and he spoke as a cloud: “Give heed,
heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my utterance
be awaited like rain, and let my words come down like dew.” If he had not been a cloud, he
would never have said, “Let my utterance be like rain, and let my words come down like
dew.” He speaks as a cloud: “like a shower on the grass, and like snow on the hay, for I
called on the name of the Lord.” In the same way Isaiah also speaks as a cloud: “Hear,
heaven, and give ear, earth, for the Lord has spoken.” And since he himself was a cloud,
and was calling the ones who prophesied alongside him clouds, he says in his prophecy: “I
will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.”

4 Now that we have understood who the clouds are, let us see how God is the one who
“brings up clouds from the end of the earth.” How is it “from the end of the earth”? The
Savior says: “Whoever wants to be first among you will be last of all.” Paul kept this
commandment, and in this world he was last. So he says: “For I think that God has
displayed us apostles last, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle
to the world, to angels and to men.” If anyone, then, keeps the Savior’s commandment and
becomes last as far as this life is concerned, that person becomes a cloud. God does not
bring up clouds from the first men of the earth. He does not bring up clouds from consuls,
or from rulers, or from the rich. For “blessed are the poor, because yours is the kingdom
of God.” Do you see how God brings up from the last, and gives bodily form to the clouds?
Therefore, if we want to become clouds, ones that the truth of God reaches, let us become
last of all. Let us say in our works and in our disposition, “For I think that God has
displayed us apostles last.” Even if I am not an apostle, I am free to become last, so
that God, who brings up clouds from “the end of the earth,” may bring me up. “And he made
lightnings for the rain.” Those who are skilled in these matters say that lightning comes
about when clouds rub against one another. What happens on earth with flint stones, when
two stones strike together and fire is produced, they say happens also with the clouds.
When clouds collide in the winter, lightning is produced. That is why lightning generally
comes together with thunder: the thunder gives the sound of the clouds colliding, and the
lightning produces the light.

5 If you have understood the illustration, now look at the spiritual cloud as well. Moses
was a cloud; Joshua son of Nun was a cloud. These speak with one another, and from their
words lightning comes. Jeremiah was a cloud; Baruch was a cloud. They converse with each
other, and the lightning came from the words of Jeremiah and the words of Baruch. In the
same way, if you can, gather from the Scriptures how lightning comes. And in the New
Testament, Paul and Silvanus were two clouds. They came together, and the lightning of the
letter came to be. So God “made lightnings for the rain, and brought out winds from his
treasuries.” Are these winds, then, really in treasuries? Or is it not plain that the
nature of these winds, as they blow over the earth, is of another kind? No, there are
certain treasuries of winds, treasuries of spirits: “a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and godliness,” “a spirit of the
fear of God,” “a spirit of power and love and self-control.” And you can gather these
winds yourself from the Scriptures. These spirits are in treasuries. What are the
treasuries? “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” These
treasures are in Christ. From there, then, come these winds, these spirits, so that one
person is wise, another faithful, another has knowledge, and another receives some other
gift of God whatever it may be. “For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom,
to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same
Spirit.”

6 So God “brought up clouds from the end of the earth, and made lightning for the rain,
and brought out winds from his storehouses.” By God’s grace, we too hope to arrive at
these storehouses. And since there are many storehouses, perhaps there will be different
resting places in God’s storehouses for those who rise again. What I mean is this. The
resurrection of the dead takes place in certain ranks. The apostle says, “each in his own
rank.” And since the ranks are not mixed together at random, this rank will be in one
storehouse of God, that rank in another storehouse of God, and a third rank in yet another
storehouse. All these storehouses, however, have one storehouse in which they dwell. That
is why Paul said, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Just as
I acquire the “one precious pearl” through the many pearls, so I come to the storehouse of
storehouses, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, when I have become worthy of the
spirits that come from God’s storehouses. For “he brought out winds from his storehouses.”

7 “Every man has been made foolish by knowledge.” If every man has been made foolish by
knowledge, and Paul is a man, then Paul too was made foolish by knowledge. He knew “in
part,” and in part he was made foolish by knowledge. He saw “through a mirror,” seeing
only a very small fraction of things, and, if one may say so, an infinitely small fraction
of what he grasped. You will understand “every man has been made foolish by knowledge”
from the opposite side. There are sins of Jerusalem, and there are sins of Sodom too. But
compared with the worse sins of Jerusalem, the sins of Sodom are righteousness. For it
says, “Sodom was justified by you.” Now the sins of Sodom are not really righteousness.
They are righteousness only in comparison with the greater injustice. In the same way,
what Paul knew, compared with that knowledge which is in the heavens, compared with
perfect knowledge, is foolishness. This is why “every man has been made foolish by
knowledge.” I think the Preacher grasped something like this when he said, “I said, I will
become wise; but wisdom was far removed from me, farther than it was, and it is a deep
depth. Who will find it?”

8 The argument is about to venture something bold: it will say that the one who came to
live among us in this life emptied himself, so that the world might be filled by his
emptying. But if that one who came to live in this life emptied himself, that emptying was
wisdom. “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men.” If I had said “the foolishness
of God,” how the fault-finders would have accused me! How they would have blamed me! Other
things are said which they themselves consider good, but for this, which they think was
not well said, I would have been condemned because I said “the foolishness of God.” But
now Paul, as a wise man with apostolic authority, dared to say that all the wisdom that
has come to earth, both the wisdom in himself and in Peter and the apostles, all the
wisdom that has come to live in the world, is “the foolishness of God.” For compared with
that wisdom, which no place on earth can contain, compared with that wisdom above the
heavens and above the world, this wisdom that came among us is the foolishness of God. Yet
this “foolishness of God is wiser than men.” Which men? I do not mean the foolish ones. It
is wiser even than wise men. And even if you speak of the wise of this age, whether rulers
or prophets, still the “foolishness of God” that I have described “is wiser than” the
rulers of this age.

9 The word is about to say something startling: “the wisdom of the world is foolishness
with God,” and “God made the wisdom of the world foolish.” Did he make the wisdom of the
world foolish by wisdom? Can the wisdom of the world even take in wisdom, so that it is
shown to be foolish? Does the wisdom of God have to struggle against the wisdom of the
world in order to prove it wrong? No. Only a little is needed, and that little is the
“foolish thing of God.” By this small foolish thing of God the wisdom of this world is
made foolish and exposed. For the wisdom of this world could not bear the wisdom of God.
Take an example, so that you can see how “the foolish thing of God” “made the wisdom of
the world foolish.” Suppose I, who seem to know many things, and more than most, had to
argue with someone senseless and uneducated, who understands nothing and has never
struggled over any noble arguments at all. Do I need logic against him, or deeper
insights, if his thoughts are foolish? Do I not need only a single little word, a bit
sharper than his own wording, so that I can expose his folly? So it is with the wisdom of
this world, to make it foolish. There is no need for the wisdom of God to fight against
it, for that wisdom is down below. The foolish thing of God is enough, because “the
foolish thing of God is wiser than men,” and “the weak thing of God is stronger than men.”
My Savior and Lord has taken on all these opposites, so that by opposites he might undo
opposites. In this way we are made strong by the weakness of Jesus and made wise by the
foolish thing of God. Once brought into these, we may be able to go up to the wisdom and
the power of God, Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and might for ever. Amen.


HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH
====================

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH continued

HOMILY 9

1a As for the recorded coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, his visit in the body was
universal and shone out on the whole world, when “the Word became flesh and lived among
us.” For “the true light was there, which lights every person coming into the world. He
was in the world, and the world came to be through him, and the world did not know him. He
came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” But we must know that he also visited
earlier, though not in the body, in each of the saints. And after this visit of his which
could be seen, he visits us again. If you want proof of this, pay attention to “the word
that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Hear,” and so on. For who is “the word that
came from the Lord,” whether to Jeremiah or to Isaiah or to Ezekiel or to anyone at all,
if not the one who “in the beginning was with God”? I know of no other word of the Lord
than the one of whom the evangelist said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.” We must also know this: the Word’s visit is made to each
person, especially those who can be helped by it. For what good is it to me if the Word
has visited the world, but I do not have him?

1b On the other hand, even if he has not yet come to the whole world, grant that I have
become like the prophets, and then I have the Word. I would say that Christ came to Moses,
to Jeremiah, to Isaiah, to each of the righteous. What he said to the disciples, “Behold,
I am with you all the days until the end of the age,” was already being fulfilled in fact
before his coming. For he was with Moses, he was with Isaiah, and with each of the saints.
How could those men have spoken a word of God if the Word of God had not come to them?
This needs to be understood above all by us who belong to the Church, who want the God of
the law and the God of the gospel to be the same, and the same Christ then and now and for
all ages. There will be people who cut off the older divinity, the one before the Savior’s
coming, from the divinity proclaimed by Jesus Christ. That is at least their own opinion.
But we know one God, then and now, and one Christ, then and now. I say this because of the
words, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying.” So what should we hear?
“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to those living in
Jerusalem.” We are the men of Judah, through Christ. For it is plain that “our Lord has
risen out of Judah.” And if I show that the name of Judah, according to the Scripture,
refers to Christ, then the men of Judah are not the Jews who disbelieve in Christ, but all
of us who believe in Christ.

1c “Judah, may your brothers praise you. Your hands are on the back of your enemies.” “May
they praise you.” His brothers did not praise that Judah, the son of Jacob. But the
brothers will praise this Judah, since he says, “I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the church I will sing hymns to you.” That is not said to the other Judah.
“Your hands are on the back of your enemies.” Where is that Judah found laying his hands
on the back of his enemies? The history records nothing of the kind about him. But if you
understand the coming of the Lord Jesus, who brings the devil to nothing, who strips off
“the principalities and powers,” and makes a public spectacle of them, and leads them in
triumph on the wood, you see how the prophecy that says, “Your hands are on the back of
your enemies,” has been fulfilled in this Judah. If that is so, and the word is now spoken
“to the men of Judah,” to whom could it be speaking if not to those who believe in Christ,
who are somehow also called Judah on account of the tribe of Judah?

2a The word is spoken “to the men of Judah” and “to those living in Jerusalem.” This is
the Church. For the city of God is the Church, the “vision of peace.” In her is the peace
that he brought to us. If we are indeed children of peace, that peace increases and is
seen. So “hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to those
living in Jerusalem. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:
Cursed is the man who does not listen to the words of the covenant that I commanded your
fathers.” Who above all listens to “the words of the covenant that God commanded the
fathers”? Is it those who believe in him? Or those who are shown, by their not believing
in the Lord, not even to believe Moses? For the Savior says to them, “If you believed
Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his
writings, how will you believe my words?” So they have not believed Moses. But we,
believing in Christ, believe the covenant given through Moses, and it is also spoken to
us, so that we may not become accursed: “Cursed is the man who does not listen to the
words of the covenant that I commanded your fathers.” They, then, are the ones under the
curse, for they did not listen to “the covenant that God commanded the fathers.” “In the
day,” he says, “when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace.”

2b God has also brought us out “of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace.” This is
especially so for anyone who understands what is written in John’s Revelation, that the
place “where their Lord was crucified is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt.” If it is
“called spiritually Egypt,” then it is not this Egypt, the one we can see, that is
spiritually called Egypt. Clearly, then, if you understand the Egypt that is called so
spiritually and you come out of it, you are the one who has come out “of the land of Egypt
and out of the iron furnace,” and the word is spoken to you: “Listen to my voice and do
according to all” these things. Then there is a promise of God to those who listen, if
they do what has been commanded: “And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” Not
everyone who says he is God’s people is God’s people. So the one who promised to be God’s
people heard the words “you are not my people,” in the saying “because you are not my
people.” That people was told “not my people,” and then this other people was in turn
called a people. For “they made me jealous with what is no god.” He says this about those
others: “They provoked me to anger with their idols. And I will make them jealous with
what is no nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke them to anger.”

3a So we have become a people for God, and “the righteousness of God” belongs to the
people who come from the nations. For this people is born all at once. It is also said in
the prophet: “If a nation was born at one time.” A nation was born at one time when the
Savior came to live among us, and five thousand believed in a single day, and on another
day three thousand more were added. We can see a whole people being born by the word of
God, and the barren woman, who had not borne children before, giving birth all at once. To
her it is said: “Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who
are not in labor, because the children of the desolate one are more than those of the
woman who has a husband.” The church is “desolate” of the law; she was desolate of God.
The synagogue is the one called the woman who has a husband, the law. What, then, does God
promise me? “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.” He is not God of everyone,
but only of those to whom he gives himself, just as he gave himself to that patriarch to
whom he said, “I am your God,” and again to another, “I will be your God,” and about
others, “I will be their God.” When, then, do we attain, each one of us individually, to
having God be our God? And if you want to learn whose God he is and to whom he grants his
own name, he says: “I am the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God [of Jacob].”

3b Explaining this, the Savior says: “God is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Who is the dead person? The sinner, the one who does not have the one who said, “I am the
[life]”; the one who has dead works, who has not yet repented from dead works. Of these
the apostle says: “not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works.” If, then,
“God is not the God of the dead but of the living,” and we know who the living person is,
namely the one who lives as a citizen according to Christ and remains with him, then if we
want God to be the God of each one of us, let us renounce the works of death. Then he will
fulfill his promise, which says: “And I will be your God, so that I may establish my oath
which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” Notice
that he says, “I will establish my oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land
flowing with milk and honey,” as though he had not yet given them “the land flowing with
milk and honey.” For this is not the land that God called “flowing with milk and honey.”
It is the land the Savior taught about when he said: “Blessed are the meek, for they will
inherit the earth.”

4a Next the prophet answers what the Lord had said before. The Lord had said, “Cursed is
the man who will not listen to the words of this covenant.” And the prophet says, “I
answered and said, ‘So be it, Lord.’” What does “So be it, Lord” mean? Cursed is the one
who will not remain in the words of this covenant. “And the Lord said to me: Read these
words in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem.” We too read the words of God to those
outside, calling them to salvation. “Hear the words of this covenant and do them.” And
they did not do them. “And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy was found among the men of
Judah and among those living in Jerusalem.” Or are we going to repent over the sins spoken
of concerning the men of Judah, knowing that we are the men of Judah, since Christ was
prophesied and spoken of as Judah? Perhaps, because there are some among us who are
sinners and act contrary to the right word, the prophet says for this reason, “A
conspiracy was found among the men of Judah and among those living in Jerusalem.” For when
a bond of injustice and a bond of sins is found in some who are called by the name of the
church, so that what is said of the sinner fits them, “each man is held fast by the cords
of his own sins,” then God might say, “A bond was found among the men of Judah.” May no
such bond be found among us! But how is no bond found among us, if even to this day there
is a bond in some? “Loosen every bond of injustice, undo the knots of violent contracts,
tear up every unjust written agreement. Break your bread for the hungry.” So “a bond was
found among the men of Judah and among those living in Jerusalem. They turned back to the
injustices of their fathers, those of earlier times.”

4b “They turned back to the injustices.” Whose? He does not simply say “of the fathers.”
What is the addition? “They turned back to the injustices of their fathers, those of
earlier times.” We were saying that these things are said to us, and to those among us who
sin. How then did those among us who sin turn back not simply to “the injustices of the
fathers,” but to those “of their fathers of earlier times”? Perhaps our fathers are of two
kinds, and there is among us a worse kind of fathers. Before we believed, we were, let us
say, sons of the devil, as the word of the Gospel shows when it says, “You are of your
father the devil.” But when we believed, we became sons of God. So whenever we sin, we
turn back to the injustices not simply of the fathers, but of our earlier fathers. To show
that we have two fathers, I will use words from the forty-fourth Psalm, which read:
“Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of
your father.” He says “forget the house of your father” as a father himself, for as a
father he says, “Listen, daughter.” So then we have two fathers. But “forget the house of
your father” means the earlier one. If you forget your earlier house and then turn back
again to sins, you have committed the sins spoken of here. “They turned back to the
injustices of their fathers, those of earlier times.” I was saying that the devil was once
our father, before God became our Father, since now the devil is not our father. We will
show this also from the catholic letter of John, where it is written, “Everyone who
practices sin has been born of the devil.”

4c If “everyone who practices sin has been born of the devil,” then in a sense we are born
of the devil as many times as we sin. So the one who is always being born of the devil is
wretched, just as, on the other side, the one who is always being born of God is blessed.
For I will not say that the righteous person was born of God once for all. He is always
being born, with each good deed, in which God begets the righteous person. Now suppose I
bring you to the Savior and show that the Father did not beget the Son once and then
release him from his begetting, but always begets him. Then I will show that something
similar holds for the righteous person. Let us see who our Savior is. He is “the radiance
of glory.” The radiance of glory was not begotten once and then ceased to be begotten.
Rather, as long as the light is producing the radiance, so long is the radiance of God’s
glory being begotten. Our Savior is the wisdom of God, and wisdom is “a radiance of
eternal light.” If, then, the Savior is always being begotten, this is also why he says,
“Before all the hills he begets me.” He does not say, “Before all the hills he has
begotten me,” but “Before all the hills he begets me.” And so the Savior is always being
begotten by the Father. In the same way, you also, if you have the Spirit of adoption, are
always being begotten by God in him, in each work and in each thought. Being begotten in
this way, you become one who is always being begotten as a son of God in Christ Jesus. To
him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY 10

1a If the oracles of God are in the Law and the Prophets, in the Gospels and the Apostles,
then the one who is learning from the oracles of God must have God as his teacher. For
“the one who teaches man knowledge” is God, as it is written in the Psalms. And the Savior
also testifies that no one should be given the title of teacher on earth, saying, “And do
not call anyone teacher on earth, for you have one teacher, the Father in heaven.” The
Father in heaven teaches either by himself, or through Christ, or in the Holy Spirit, or
through Paul, say, or through Peter, or through some other of the saints. Only let the
Spirit of God and the Word of God come to dwell among us and teach. Why have I said this?
Because the prophet says, “Make it known to me, Lord, and I shall know.” For I shall not
know unless you make it known to me. But if I come to know because you make it known to
me, “then I shall see their practices,” and I shall understand what each one is doing and
what his purpose is. That is what the prophet says. Next, let us see what the Savior says
in the prophet: “I, like an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed, did not know.

1b They devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread, and wipe
him out from the land of the living, so that his name will be remembered no more.” As the
prophet Isaiah also says, Christ “was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb
silent before the one who shears it, so he does not open his mouth.” There, then, Isaiah
speaks about him. Here Christ speaks about himself: “I, like an innocent lamb led to
slaughter to be sacrificed, did not know.” He did not say what he did not know. He did not
say, “I did not know evil things,” nor “I did not know good things,” nor “I did not know
sin.” He said simply, “I did not know.” So he has left it to you to investigate what he
did not know. And learn what he did not know from the words, “He made him who did not know
sin to be sin for us.” For to know sin is to commit sin, just as to know righteousness is
to practice righteousness. So the one who proclaims what concerns righteousness but does
not practice righteousness has not known righteousness.

2 “They devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread.” That the
Jews crucified him is plain, and we proclaim it openly. But how you are to fit this to the
words “they devised a plan against me, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread” takes
some effort to understand. The bread of Jesus is the word, on which we are fed. So when he
was teaching among the people, they wanted to attach a stumbling block to his teaching by
crucifying him, and they said, “Let us put wood into his bread.” For whenever the fact
that the teacher was crucified is attached to the word of Jesus’ teaching, wood has been
put into his bread. Let them, then, speak as men who plotted with malice: “Come, let us
put wood into his bread.” But I will say something even more surprising: the wood put into
his bread has made the bread better. I take an example from the law of Moses: the wood
thrown into the bitter water made it [sweet]. In the same way the wood of the suffering of
Jesus Christ, coming into the word, has made his bread sweeter. Before the wood came into
his bread, when it was only bread and there was no wood in his teaching, “his voice did
not go out into all the earth.” But since the bread received power through the wood put
into it, the word of his teaching has been distributed over the whole inhabited world. And
the wood then was a symbol of the suffering of Jesus, through which the bitter water
becomes sweet. For I say that the law, when it is not understood, is bitter water. But if
the wood of Jesus comes, and the teaching of my Savior takes up residence, the law of
Moses becomes sweet and most pleasant when it is read and understood. So they said, “Come,
let us put wood into his bread.”

3 They also say, “Let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and let his name be
remembered no more.” That was how they killed him: as though they were erasing his name.
But Jesus knows how he dies and why. So he says, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” So the death of
Jesus becomes an ear of wheat, making what was sown many times over and abundant in yield.
Suppose, for the sake of argument, he had not been crucified and had not died: the grain
of wheat would have remained alone, and many would not have come from it. Consider his
words, then, to see whether he did not mean this: “If the grain of wheat does not fall
into the earth and die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The death
of Jesus bore fruit in all these people. And if his death bore fruit in so many, in how
many will the resurrection bear fruit?

4a “Lord of hosts, who judge justly, who test the kidneys and hearts, may I see your
vengeance on them.” He prays this prophetically: to see God’s vengeance on them. For
Jerusalem has been surrounded by armies, and its desolation has drawn near, and it has
been told, “See, your house is left to you.” So: “May I see your vengeance on them, for to
you I have revealed my cause. Therefore the Lord says this concerning the men of Anathoth
who seek my life, who say: Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die at our
hands. See, I will visit them: their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and
daughters will perish by famine. And there will be no remnant of them, for I will bring
evil on the inhabitants of Anathoth in the year of their visitation.” The name of Anathoth
is taken here for the sake of a pretext. But the whole Jewish mystery is spoken of in it
figuratively, for Anathoth is interpreted “Obedience [of hearing]” (or “Answering”). Since
there was a hearing of God among that people, as there was also the kingdom of God, and
the saying came true about the kingdom, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and
given to a nation producing its fruits,” so too it came about that “the men of Anathoth,”
those who were in the place of Hearing, sought the life, not of Jeremiah (for the history
does not say that the men of Anathoth sought the life of Jeremiah.

4b We have the books of Kings, where Scripture mentions Jeremiah, and nothing of the kind
is said there, nor in Chronicles. We also have the prophet’s own book, and the men of
Anathoth have said nothing like this there. So these words are spoken about Christ. “Those
who seek my soul, who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord.” The Jews
forbade Jesus to teach. “Otherwise you will die at our hands. See, I will visit them.
Their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and daughters will die by famine.”
They did not die by the sword at that time. But after his coming, famine has now come upon
them: “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of the word of the
Lord.” For among them it is no longer said, “Thus says the Lord Almighty.” This is the
famine: that there is no longer any prophecy among them. And why do I say prophecy? There
is not even teaching. Though they may be called wise ten thousand times over, the word of
the Lord is no longer in them. For this has been fulfilled: “The Lord will take away from
Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the giant and the mighty
man, the warrior and the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the elder and the
captain of fifty and the wonderful counselor and the wise master builder and the
understanding hearer.” There is no longer anyone among them who can say, “As a wise master
builder I have laid a foundation.” The master builders have moved over; they came to the
church and laid the foundation, Jesus Christ. Those who come after them build on this.

5 So that people have been left behind in famine. For he will bring “evils upon those who
live in Anathoth, in the year of their visitation.” “You are righteous, Lord, so I will
plead my case before you. Yet I will speak my judgments to you. Why does the way of the
ungodly prosper? Those who deal treacherously have flourished.” We still ask whether the
God who gave the law and the prophets is good, when we see that “the way of the ungodly
prospers” and he does not punish the ungodly. “All who deal treacherously have
flourished.” These are the very people who speak against the Creator and slander him:
“They have flourished, they have been planted and have taken root, they have produced
children and borne fruit.” How great was the fruit when Marcion produced children, or
Basilides, or Valentinus! For this is what is prophesied about the ungodly and said in the
words, “They have produced children and borne fruit.” “You are near in their mouth, but
far from their inward parts.” They name the name of Jesus, but they do not have Jesus, for
they do not confess him as they ought. “And you, Lord, know me; you have seen me; you have
tested my heart before you. Purify them for the day of their slaughter.” What shall I do
to make this clear? He calls punishments a purification of those who are punished. For he
says, “Purify them for the day of their slaughter.” Purify them by their being
slaughtered. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he
receives.”

6 “How long will the earth mourn, and the grass of the field wither because of the
wickedness of those who live in it?” Here too the prophet speaks as though the earth were
a living being, saying that the earth mourns because of the wickedness of those who walk
upon it. So in the case of each one of us, the earth either mourns or rejoices. For it
either mourns “because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it,” or it rejoices because
of the virtue of those who dwell in it. In each one of us, then, this very element either
rejoices or mourns. And perhaps the other elements do the same. I will say the same of
water, and of the angel appointed over the water, so that I may explain what is meant by
the earth mourning or not mourning. For it is not this body, “the earth,” that mourns
“because of those who live in it.” Rather, understand with me that in the ordering of the
whole, one being is appointed over the earth, another over the waters, another over the
air, and a fourth over the fire. In the same way, let my argument carry you up to the
whole order among living creatures, and among the heavenly stars. An angel is appointed
over the sun, another over the moon, another over the stars. These angels, with whom we
are, as far as we are earth, either rejoice if we act justly, or mourn over us when we
sin. “The earth mourns,” he says, “because of those who live in it.” He gave the angel the
same name as the earth itself. For it is like the saying, “The thing made by hands is
accursed, and so is the one who made it.” That does not mean the lifeless thing itself is
accursed. What is called “made by hands” is the one who sits beside the lifeless idol and
answers to that name. In the same way, I will say that the angel appointed over the earth
is called “earth,” and the angel appointed over the water is called “water.” This is the
sense of the saying: “The waters saw you, O God; the waters saw you and were afraid; the
depths were troubled by the roar of many waters; the clouds gave a voice, for your arrows
go forth.”

7 “I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul
into the hands of her enemies.” See the one who exists “in the form of God,” who was in
the heavens. See his house, which is above the heavens. If you want to look higher still
(for he is “in the Father”), see that God himself is his house. He leaves “father and
mother,” the “Jerusalem above,” and comes into the region around the earth, and says, “I
have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance.” For that was his inheritance:
the places with the angels, the rank among the holy powers. “I have given my beloved soul
into the hands of her enemies.” He handed over his soul into the hands of the enemies of
the soul: into the hands of the Jews who killed him, into the hands of rulers gathered
against him, into the hands of kings, when “the kings of the earth stood by, and the
rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.”

8 “My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest.” This inheritance of his on
earth, the one he had inherited, turned wild against him. The Jews, enraged against him,
became his inheritance “like a lion in the forest.” It is no wonder that his inheritance
then became “like a lion in the forest,” because even now there are lions in the forest,
who want to curse Jesus, who speak evil of him and plot against those who believe in him.
“My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. It has raised its voice
against me; therefore I hated it. Is my inheritance to me a hyena’s den?” He prophesies
about this inheritance. Has the inheritance become a hyena’s den? A hyena is the fiercest
of creatures, a devourer of corpses that haunts the tombs and eats the bodies of the dead.
“Is my inheritance to me a hyena’s den?” “Or is there a den against it all around? Go!”
Since they have become such, I command you, the angels, to go and gather the wild beasts
and hand them over to the beasts. “Go and gather all the beasts of the field, and let them
come to devour it.” The “beasts of the field” have come and are devouring that people. You
can see their hearts being devoured by the opposing powers. If Jesus did not spare those
people, but said, “Go, gather the beasts,” how much more will he not spare us? If we do
not keep the law of God, the word of the gospel, he will say again: Go, gather the beasts
and hand it over. But we have boldness to say in our prayers, “Do not hand over to the
beasts a soul that confesses you.” Let us confess our offenses and repent, and we will not
be handed over to the beasts. Instead we will be handed over to holy angels, who will be
our nurses, carrying us in their arms and bringing us across from this age to the age to
come, in Christ Jesus, to whom belong the power and the glory forever. Amen.

HOMILY 11

1 Who is the one who says, “Because of me the whole land has been laid waste with utter
desolation”? It is Christ who says this. Before his coming among us, the people had
committed many sins, but not such as would cause them to be abandoned completely and
handed over to a long captivity. But when they filled up “the measure of their fathers,”
and added to the killing of the prophets and the persecution of the righteous the murder
of “the Christ of God,” then came the word, “Your house is left to you.” And they suffered
these things because of him, and “the whole land was laid waste with utter desolation.” 2
But if you want to hear a higher meaning of “Because of me the whole land has been laid
waste with utter desolation,” look at the land within you, and how it was laid waste when
Jesus came. It was laid waste when the members that are on the earth were put to death,
and the land no longer does its own works. In the righteous person the works of the flesh,
with which the flesh used to flourish, no longer appear: no more fornication, no more
uncleanness, no more licentiousness, no more idolatry, no more sorcery, and the rest. The
Savior also says, “Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? I did not come to
bring peace but a sword.” It is true: before he came there was no sword on the earth, and
neither did the flesh desire against the spirit nor the spirit against the flesh. But when
he came, and we were taught what belongs to the flesh and what belongs to the Spirit, the
teaching became like a sword on the earth and divided the flesh, the land, from the
Spirit. So “the land was laid waste” when we carry about in the body the putting to death
of Jesus, and no longer live according to the flesh, but the Spirit lives. We sow nothing
to the flesh but everything to the Spirit, so that we may not reap corruption from the
flesh but eternal life from the Spirit.

3a The sinners are told, “Sow wheat and reap thorns.” Even if people busy themselves with
the oracles of God, those who do not handle them well, who do not live as they should and
do not believe, sow wheat and reap thorns. This is best understood of those who hold other
doctrines and read the Scriptures. They reap thorns, not from the Scriptures, but from
their own inventions. “Their lots will not profit them.” Others have also explained these
words. Since we do not reject their explanation, we gladly bring it forward, not as though
we had discovered it, but as those who have learned a good lesson. This word will profit
you and us alike, if we pay attention to what is written. We seem to belong to a certain
“lot,” since we preside over you, so that some people want to come to this lot. But you
know that the lot does not by any means save. Many presbyters will perish, and many lay
people will prove blessed. Some in the clergy do not live in a way that profits them or
adorns the clergy. For this reason, say those who explained the passage, it is written,
“Their lots will not profit them.” What profits is not simply sitting in the presbyters’
seat, but living worthily of the place, as the word demands. The word demands that you
live well, and that we do too.

3b But if one may put it this way, “the mighty will be mightily tested.” More is required
of me than of the deacon, more of the deacon than of the lay person, and still more is
required of the one who has been entrusted with the leadership over all of us, the
leadership of the church itself. For this reason the apostle, who was entrusted with great
things, says (listen): “So let a person regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of
the mysteries of God. Here, moreover, it is required of stewards that someone be found
faithful.” And so it is rare to find a faithful and good steward. Jesus, “who knows all
things before they come to be,” says: “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his
master will set over his household to give the portion of food to his servants at the
proper time?” Then he blames certain stewards and says: “But if that wicked servant begins
to say, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and the
maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on
a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in
two, and will put his portion with the unfaithful.” So much for “Their lots will not
profit them.”

4 Let us look next at a necessary rebuke, which it is good to take up on the moral level:
“Be ashamed of your boasting, of your reproach before the Lord.” There are things in which
we boast out of foolishness, though they are not worth boasting about. For instance, if
someone boasts that he is rich and has acquired many possessions, it may be said to him,
“Be ashamed of your boasting.” If someone boasts of this outward nobility of birth, it
will be said to him, “Be ashamed of your boasting.” If someone boasts of expensive
clothes, or of building a richly furnished house, such boasting is foreign to the boasting
of the saints. So it will be said to such a person, “Be ashamed of your boasting.” Listen
to the word of the prophet Jeremiah, who commands us not to boast even in wisdom. “Let not
the wise man boast in his wisdom,” he says, “nor the strong man in his strength, nor the
rich man in his riches. But let the one who boasts boast in this: to understand and know
that I am the Lord.” If you want to boast, and not hear “Be ashamed of your boasting,”
boast as the apostle did and say: “But may it never happen to me to boast, except in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to
the world.” If you want to boast so that it is not said, “Be ashamed of your boasting,”
listen to Paul boasting and learn when he says: “Most gladly, then, I will boast in my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Listen to what kind of things
he boasts of: “in labors more abundantly” (which of us can say this?), “in prisons beyond
measure, in deaths often. Five times I received forty lashes less one, three times I was
beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked.” So we learn that
there are differences among kinds of boasting. Some boasting deserves shame, and of it
that apostolic saying could be used: “and their glory is in their shame.” They think they
are glorified in the very things over which they ought to be ashamed.

5a After this, let us look at the matter of the loincloth. For “Thus says the Lord: Go and
buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it around your waist, and you will not pass
through water. And I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it
around my waist. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take the loincloth that is
around your waist, and get up and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the
rock.” After some days he comes there and finds the loincloth rotted. Then the Lord adds,
giving the starting point for explaining the loincloth: “As the loincloth clings to a
man’s waist, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to
myself, says the Lord, so that they would be for me a renowned people, a boast and a
glory. And they did not listen to me.” So the prophet is taken to stand in the place of
God. He wraps the linen loincloth around his waist, as God does with the people. For God
says, “I made this people cling to myself.” So the people become, as it were, the
loincloth of God. But why does the people become a loincloth around God’s waist? Let
anyone who is able read Ezekiel, and see God, as it were, given a body in the account. In
Ezekiel the parts of him from the waist down [are fire], and the parts from the waist up
are electrum. Let that reader search out the reason why the lower part of God is fire. The
things that belong to the waist and to birth, these are fire. For everything that exists
in the realm of birth needs the cleansing that comes from fire. Everything in the realm of
birth needs punishment.

5b But the parts above the waist, which have passed beyond birth, are made of a substance
that is, as it were, the purest and most precious. For electrum is said to be more
precious than gold. Scripture uses illustrations to teach that the upper part of God’s
body is more honorable and the lower part less so. This is why it presents God as made up
of fire and electrum. [And there is a body of God † and he himself] In the realm of birth
each of us is fire; we are not the electrum. But if we ascend and make progress, we shall
pass through the fire and be the electrum around the higher part of God’s body. (For it is
possible to move from being among the lower things today to becoming the upper part of
God’s body.) 6. So he makes the linen loincloth cling around his waist. Why? To show that
the people are, as it were, a covering for God. For against those who want to accuse God,
the people stand up and, as it were, shield him, and do not allow anything improper to be
said about God. But when we sin, it is as when the prophet takes off this loincloth and
condemns it to the river Euphrates so that it may be ruined there. In the same way the one
who sins is thrown off from God’s waist. Once thrown off, he is cast into the river
Euphrates, the river of Mesopotamia, where the Assyrians, Israel’s enemies, are, and where
the Babylonians are. And there he is ruined. For although there are so many rivers, the
prophet is sent from Judea to the river Euphrates to do business there and to carry away a
little linen loincloth. Why also “linen”? Because it has its origin from the earth. It is
a plant that grows up from the ground. Then, after it has been farmed, it is combed,
washed, and scoured, [and worked on at great length], so that it becomes fit to be a
loincloth or whatever else.

5c So all of us, too, have our origin like the Lord’s waistcloth. Since we have our origin
from the earth, we need a great deal of preparation: to be combed, to be washed, to lose
the color of the earth. The natural color of flax in its origin is one thing, and the
color it gets from the working is another. The color of flax in its origin is rather dark,
but through the working it becomes brilliantly bright. Something like this happens to us
who are in the realm of birth. We are dark at the beginning of believing. That is why it
is said at the beginning of the Song of Songs, “I am dark and beautiful.” At the beginning
we resemble Ethiopians in our soul. Then we are cleaned so that we may become brighter, as
in the words, “Who is this who comes up made white?” And we become “bright and clean
linen.” Then we are also woven into God’s waistcloth, when we are worthy to be joined to
God. God does not set us aside. He set aside the first people, “the whole house of Judah”
and “the house of Israel.” It came to the point that they were no longer of use, for he no
longer girds himself with them. In their place God has girded himself with us. He did not
throw away the waistcloth and stay naked; he wove himself another waistcloth. This
waistcloth is the church from the nations. Let her know that if God did not spare the
former ones, how much more will he not spare her if she sins, unless she is worthy of
God’s waist. “But the one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit,” in Christ Jesus, to
whom belong glory and power forever. Amen.

HOMILY 12

1a What the prophet is commanded by God to say must be worthy of God. But if we stay with
the letter, it appears not to be worthy of God, so that someone who hears the letter might
say, “These writings are foolishness.” The natural person will say this: “The natural
person does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him.”
So look at what the text says. “And you shall say to this people: Thus says the Lord, the
God of Israel.” What he says as “the Lord, the God of Israel” must be worthy of the Lord
of Israel. “Every wineskin will be filled with wine. And if they say to you, ‘Shall we not
indeed know that every wineskin will be filled with wine?’” Now if those who answer,
standing on the plain wording, say this, claiming to know that “every wineskin will be
filled with wine,” they are lying. For not “every wineskin will be filled with wine.”
There are, at any rate, wineskins filled with oil or some other liquid. [Some, then, are
lying; for not every wineskin will be filled with wine.] And the people answer, saying,
“Shall we not indeed know that every wineskin will be filled with wine?” This will receive
from us, as far as we are able, an explanation of the following kind. If we know the
differences among wines and what is said about them, then, following these, we will see
about the wineskins that it is true that “every wineskin will be filled with wine.”

1b For if a wineskin is good (let us name one that way, a wineskin among wineskins), it
will be filled with wine according to its own goodness. And if it is worthless, when
wineskins are compared and judged, it too will be filled with worthless wine according to
its worthlessness. How then can we take from Scripture what it says about the different
wines? About the worse ones it is written: “For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and
their branch from Gomorrah. Their grape is a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness for
them. Their wine is the rage of dragons, and the incurable rage of asps.” About the better
ones: “Your cup makes me drunk, like the strongest.” And Wisdom calls people together to
her own mixing bowl, saying, “Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed
for you.” So there is wine from Sodom, and there is wine which Wisdom mixes. And again: “A
vineyard was made for the beloved on a horn, in a fertile place,” planted by God, the one
called the vine of Sorek, being something chosen and wonderful. And there is also a vine
of the Egyptians, which God strikes, according to what is written: “God struck their vine
with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.”

2a Now consider with me that all human beings, figuratively speaking, are able to hold
wine. In that sense I call them wineskins. I say that the wicked person has been filled
with “wine from the vine of Sodom,” with Egyptian wine, and with the wine of Israel’s
enemies. But the holy person, who has been helped, has been filled with wine from the vine
of Sorek, with the wine about which it is written, “Your cup makes me drunk, as the
strongest [wine] does,” and again, the holy person has been filled with the wine which
Wisdom mixed. Let me understand these things in terms of evil and virtue, so that the
saying “every wineskin is filled with wine” may be seen to hold. But if we must also look
at what comes through evil and through virtue (punishments for evil, blessings and
promises for virtue), let us show from the sacred writings how punishments and promises
are both called wine. “Take the cup of this unmixed wine, and you shall make all the
nations drink, those to whom I send you.” Jeremiah says this, and the text goes on: “And
they will drink and vomit and go mad and fall.” So here he has called punishments unmixed
wine, which those drink who are worthy of unmixed wine, that is, of unmixed punishment.
But there are others who drink a punishment that is not unmixed but mixed. For “there is a
cup in the hand of the Lord, full of unmixed wine, a mixture. He tilted it from this one
into that one. Yet its dregs were not emptied out; all the sinners of the [earth] will
drink.” If you also want to see a cup of blessing, which the righteous drink, the cup of
Wisdom would be enough, about which she said, “Drink the wine which I have mixed for you.”
But look also at the Savior going up for the Passover into “a large upper room, furnished
and prepared.” He keeps the feast with his disciples and gives them a cup. About this it
is not written that he mixed it. For when Jesus gladdens his disciples, he gladdens them
with unmixed wine, and he says to them: “Take, drink; this is my blood, poured out for you
for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink, in remembrance of me.” And:
“Truly I tell you, I will not drink it from now on until I drink it new with you in the
kingdom of God.”

2b Do you see that the promise is the cup of the new covenant? Do you see that punishments
are a cup of unmixed wine, and that another kind of punishment is a mixed cup? So for each
person the cup is mixed according to the worth of the good deeds mingled with the bad
deeds, and that is what he will drink. Understand it this way. Those who are altogether
strangers to godliness, who pay no attention to themselves at all but live however they
happen to, drink the unmixed wine, about which we quoted the words of Jeremiah. But those
who have not wholly fallen away and are not simply sinners, though they are unworthy of
the cup “of the new covenant,” and who do now better deeds and now opposite ones, drink
wine “of an unmixed mixture.” For God “tilted it from this one into that one.” Which “this
one”? I see two cups, according to what is said: “He tilted it from this one into that
one; yet its dregs were not emptied out.” Think of the cup of your good works in one hand
of God. Or, if you want me to say it more boldly, let the cup of your good works be in
God’s right hand, and let the cup of your sins be in God’s left hand. So when you are
about to be punished for your sins, since you have also done some better works, there is a
cup “in the hand of the Lord, full of unmixed wine, a mixture. And he tilted it from this
one into that one,” from the one in the left hand into the one in the right. For you
cannot drink only the cup of good deeds, since you have not done only good works. Nor can
you drink only the cup of sins, for some good things have also been done by you.

2c This is why “he tipped it from this one into that one.” Wrath and punishment are mixed
for you in proportion to your works, so that your punishment is either more diluted or
sharper and more painful. As I said before, the sins are weighed against the good deeds in
proportion. The effect of the cup of wrath, which is given [in measure] for each of the
sins, is somehow softened or else not softened. But if you are good and noble through and
through, you say, “I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call on the name of the
Lord.” So “every wineskin,” whether good or wicked, “will be filled with wine.” According
to the fitness of the skin, wine will be poured into it, following the sense of the
“wineskins” named here. Oil is not poured into wineskins, nor any other liquid. Every
wineskin must be filled with wine.

3a Next he teaches, on account of those who sinned then in Jerusalem and in Judea (as far
as the plain wording goes), what kind of wine God means to fill these wineskins with, that
is, the sinners. For it is written: “If they say to you, ‘Will we not know for certain
that every wineskin will be filled with wine?’ then you shall say to them: This is what
the Lord says: Look, I am filling all who live in this land, and the kings, the sons of
David who sit on his throne, and the priests.” The one who is about to punish spares no
one. It is not the case that because someone served as a prophet, yet has sins, he will
not be filled with the threats that are spoken. Nor does God spare a priest, who held the
office and seemed to have a more honored name among the people, so as to keep him from
being punished when he sins. The things written about those people, the apostle says, were
written for our sake, “upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” So if anyone sins among
these priests (by which I mean us, the presbyters), or among these Levites who stand
around the people (I mean the deacons), he will receive this punishment. In the same way
there are certain priestly blessings. God willing, we shall learn about them not long from
now, after we have worked through the prophetic word, when Numbers is read, for something
is going to be said there about priests. So God says he will fill “the priests and the
prophets and Judah and all who live in Jerusalem” with “drunkenness,” and will scatter
“them, a man and his brother, their fathers and their sons.” Let us understand this as
follows: God gathers the righteous together, but scatters sinners. For this reason, as
long as people did not move away from the east, God did not scatter them. But when they
moved “from the east” and “each man said to his neighbor, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a
city and a tower whose top will reach to heaven,’” God says about them, “Come, let us go
down and confuse their language there.” Then each one is confused and scattered to some
place on the earth.

3b The people of Israel, too, were in Judea so long as they did not sin. But once they
sinned, they were scattered from the inhabited world and spread everywhere. Think of
something like this for all of us. There is a church of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven,
[where there is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem]. The
blessed will be gathered there, so that they may be together. But sinners are punished in
just this way: they are not with one another. I know of people in this life who, to punish
and torment, want to hand someone over to an island, and who scatter the household of one
who has offended the kingdom. The wife goes here, one son there, another son somewhere
else, so that even in their misfortune the mother cannot enjoy her son, or the brother his
brother. Think of something like this in the case of the unjust. You, the sinner, being
managed by God, must taste something more bitter, so that you may be taught and saved. You
do not punish your servant or your son simply because you want to torment him, but to turn
him around through hardship. In the same way God will discipline, through the pains that
come from suffering, those who are not turned by the word and have not been healed. What
he puts around them, he puts around them for discipline, as it has been said: “Continually
you will be disciplined, Jerusalem, by hardship and the lash.” So that the disciplining
pain may increase, those who suffer are scattered from one another, so that this one and
that one are not together. For the severity of the pain would be broken if each one found
comfort in the other.

4 If I should add to the argument another reason for the scattering, I will set that out
too. Wicked people who are together look to wicked things and increase them, just as good
people together with good people think about good things. So the evil plan, which would
have been strong among like-minded people, is broken up and divided when the wicked are
scattered from one another. For this reason God arranges that the base are not with one
another. Perhaps he is even looking out for them, so that their wickedness may not grow
together, but may be diminished by being dissolved. This is the point of the words: “I
will scatter them, a man and his brother, and their fathers and their sons together, says
the Lord.” “I will not long for them, and I will not spare, and I will not pity, because
of their corruption.” 5a Those from the heresies seize on sayings like these and say: “Do
you see what the Creator is like? The God of the prophets, who says, ‘I will not spare and
I will not pity, because of their corruption’? How can this one be good?” But suppose I
take as an example a judge who, for the good of the community, does not show pity, and a
magistrate who rightly shows no mercy. From that example I will be able to persuade you
that God, while sparing many, does not spare one. I will also take the example of a
doctor, to show that in sparing the whole body he does not spare one limb. Suppose, for
example, that the task set before a judge is to bring about peace and to establish what is
beneficial for the nation under him. Suppose a murderer is brought before him, handsome in
appearance and good to look at. Suppose a mother comes and offers pitiful words to the
judge, so that her old age may be pitied. Suppose the wife of this man, who does not
deserve pity, begs for mercy, and the children stand around and plead for him. In these
circumstances, what benefits the community? Is it that he be shown mercy or not shown
mercy? If he is shown mercy, he will go back to the same things. If he is not shown mercy,
he himself will die, but the community will be improved. So if God spares the sinner, and
has mercy and pity on him so as not to punish, who will not be ruined? Which of the base,
if their sins were stopped only by the fear of punishments, will not be ruined, and will
not become worse? One can see such things happening in the churches too. Someone has
sinned, and after the sin has asked for communion. If he is pardoned too quickly, the
community is ruined.

5b Then the sin of others grows. But suppose the judge reasons it out. He is not
unmerciful or cruel; he cares for the one man too, but he cares more for the many than for
the one. He considers the harm that will come to the community if that one man is kept in
fellowship and his sin is pardoned. Plainly he will have the one cast out, so that he may
save the many. Look also at a physician. Suppose he spares himself the cutting of what
needs to be cut, and the burning of what needs to be burned, because of the pains that
follow such treatments. In that case the disease grows and gets worse. But if he boldly
goes to the knife and the cautery, he will heal by showing no pity, by seeming to have no
compassion on the man who is burned and cut. So it is with God. He does not manage one
human being; he manages the whole world, and governs everything in heaven and on earth
everywhere. So he considers what is good for the whole world and for all that exists. As
far as possible he considers also what is good for the one, but not so that the good of
the one comes at the cost of the world. For this reason eternal fire has been prepared,
for this reason Gehenna has been made ready, and for this reason there is an outer
darkness. These are needed not only for the one who is punished, but above all for the
community.

6 If you want Scripture as a witness that sinners are punished also for the instruction of
others, even if they themselves may sometimes be past hope of cure, listen to Solomon in
Proverbs: “When a scoffer is flogged, the fool will become shrewder.” He did not say that
the one being flogged would become shrewder and wiser because of the lashes. He says that
the fool changes from folly to wisdom because of the lashes laid on the scoffer. That is
what the word “shrewdness” signifies here. And the fool changes by seeing others flogged.
So the punishment of others is good for us, provided we become worthy of salvation through
others being punished. And just as the fall of Israel brought about the salvation of the
Gentiles, so the punishment of some will bring about the salvation of others. This is why
God, who is good, says: “I will not spare, and I will not have compassion, because of
their corruption.”

7 Now that we have set one main point within its limits, let us see what the other teaches
us. “Hear and give ear, and do not be lifted up, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to
the Lord our God before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble on dark mountains. You
will wait for light, and there will be the shadow of death, and they will be set in
darkness. But if you will not hear in secret, your soul will weep before the face of
insolence, and your eyes will shed tears, because the Lord’s flock has been crushed.” He
wants the same people both to hear and to give ear. He is not satisfied with their only
hearing, or only giving ear. That is why he says, “Hear and give ear.” Then after this he
commands them not to be lifted up, and teaches what must be done. Let us understand from
the wording itself what hearing is and what giving ear is. “Give ear” means: take it in
with the ears. And “hear,” if it is said in contrast with “give ear,” may perhaps mean:
take it into the mind. Among the things said in the Scriptures, some are more hidden and
mysterious, and others are useful in themselves to those who understand. I think “hear” is
said about the more hidden things, and “give ear” about those that are useful in
themselves and can benefit the hearer even without interpretation. So if we examine the
whole of Scripture, and prove ourselves skilled money-changers, we will say: this part
calls for “hear,” and this part for “give ear.” Then, when we have listened and given ear,
he commands us: “And do not be lifted up.” For “everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled.” And the Savior, when he says, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls,” teaches us not to be lifted up. Along with
the other human evils, this sin is strong in us. Sometimes we are lifted up quite
irrationally, over things we should not be lifted up about even in the smallest degree. At
other times we are lifted up with some plausibility, because what we are proud of seems
reasonable. Yet even being lifted up over that is not healthy.

8a What I mean will become clear like this. Some people are puffed up because they are the
sons of rulers, or because they come from a family with great worldly honors. People like
that are puffed up over something that is not their own choice and makes no moral
difference. They don’t even have a reasonable-sounding excuse to draw them toward pride.
Others are puffed up because they have the power to put people to death. Others are puffed
up because they have received what they call a “promotion” so high that they can cut off
men’s heads. The “glory” of such people “is in their shame.” Others are puffed up over
wealth, and not the true wealth but the wealth down here. Others, let us say, are puffed
up because they own a beautiful house or many fields. None of these things is worth
talking about, and no one should be puffed up over any of them. But there is a plausible
case for being puffed up when someone is puffed up because he is wise. Or he is puffed up
because he knows in his own conscience that for ten years now he has not touched sexual
pleasure, or has not touched it since boyhood. Or another man is puffed up because he has
worn chains for Christ’s sake. Here there is a plausibility that suggests it is reasonable
to be puffed up. Yet even over these things, measured by the true account, no one is
reasonably puffed up. So it is not reasonable to be puffed up even over these. Paul had
material for being puffed up: the appearances, the visions, the wonders and signs, the
labors he labored for Christ, and the churches he established. He was ambitious to lay the
foundation of a church where Christ had not been named.

8b All this was material for him, if one may speak with that plausibility about being
puffed up, so that some people might have thought it right for him to be puffed up. But
even so, since being puffed up over such things is not free of danger either, the good
Father gave him visions and sights, and in the same way he gave him, as a kind of gift, “a
messenger of Satan to strike him, so that he would not be exalted too highly. Three times
he begged the Lord about this, that the messenger of Satan would leave him.” That
messenger was given to him precisely so that he would not be puffed up. And the Lord
answered him (for Paul was worthy of an answer from the Lord) and said to him: “My grace
is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So there is nothing over
which one should be puffed up. A fall follows being puffed up, as it says: “Before
destruction a man’s heart is lifted up, and before glory it is humbled.” That is what I
have to say on “Hear and listen, and do not be puffed up, for the Lord has spoken.”

9 Let us see also what he commands us to do after this. “Give,” he says, “glory to the
Lord our God before it grows dark, before your feet stumble on dark mountains, and you
wait for light.” He wants the one who gives “glory to God” to give “glory to God” while
there is light, as if God’s glory could not be declared once darkness has fallen and it
has become dark. So when does it grow dark, and when does the darkening not happen? “Work
as though the light is in you.” The light is in you if you have in you the one who said,
“I am the light of the world.” As long as he rises for you, glorify God. But know that
some darkening can come, and that this darkness must not remain. Before it grows dark,
give glory to God. 10a Perhaps we will understand what is written if we use a saying from
the Gospel, spoken by the Savior, which goes like this: “Work while it is day; night is
coming, when no one can work.” There he called this present age “day.” (I had to add
“there,” because I know that “day” is used of other things in other places.) So he called
this present age “day,” and he called the end of the age “darkness” and “night,” because
of the punishments. For the prophet Amos says, “Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
It too is darkness and not light.” Consider what is grim after the end of the world, what
follows when almost the whole human race is being punished for its sins. You will see that
then the surrounding air has grown dark, and no one can any longer glorify God. Even to
the righteous the word of God gives this command: “Go, my people, enter into your chamber,
shut your door, hide yourself for a little, just a little, until the fury of my anger
passes by.” At the same time, if anyone is able, let him pay attention to what is said
here: “a little, just a little.” But that “little” is little to God; it is not little to a
human being. For we must see that to each creature there is something small and something
great. Let me show by an example that for each one something is small or great.

10b For any living creature, a certain amount of food is small compared with the size of
its body, and a certain amount is large compared with its build. So what is small to a
human being is great to another creature. What is small to a grown man, say, is a lot to a
child. In the same way, the whole span of human life, even of a long-lived man, is a short
time compared with the whole age of the universe as it now stands. So too, what is small
to God is a great deal to us, and God’s “little” is a whole age. If it is said, then, “Go,
my people, enter into your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a little, just a
little,” we must suppose that the “little” is spoken not in relation to the one who is
told to go and enter his chambers, but in relation to the one who gives the command, to
whom what is much for the other is small. For if some people must enter their chambers
“until the fury of the anger” of God passes by, and there are some whose sins are not
forgiven, not only throughout this whole age but also throughout the whole age to come,
then it is clear that the “little” stretches out to cover what has been said.

11 “Give glory, then, to the Lord our God.” How do we give glory to the Lord our God? I do
not look for giving glory to the Lord our God in voices and little phrases. The one who
gives glory to the Lord our God gives it to him in deeds. Glorify God in self-control, in
righteousness, in doing good. Give glory to God in courage and endurance. Give glory to
God in godliness, in holiness, and in the other virtues. But if this is so, and this is
how someone glorifies God, then if I say the opposite, do not think that I am blaspheming,
for I will bring Scripture forward as a witness for those things too. The self-controlled
person glorifies God; the one who lives without restraint dishonors God. For such a person
tears down the temple of God as Nebuchadnezzar did, and “destroys the temple of God,” and
“through breaking the law dishonors God.” (This last is also an apostolic saying.) So the
sinner puts dishonor on God. Questions about providence are raised too, so that some doubt
whether there is providence at all, and the cause is nothing other than wickedness. Take
wickedness away, and you do not stumble over providence. Those who stumble over providence
say, over and over, things like this: “Why are there so many adulterers and so many
effeminate men? Why are there so many godless and ungodly people?” And it is those who sin
who have produced the dishonor to providence, the stumbling blocks to God, and the
blasphemy against the creator of the world. Some, then, do give glory to God, but those
who by their sins do the opposite of what is for God’s glory do not give him glory.

12a “Give glory to the Lord our God before it grows dark, before your feet stumble on dark
mountains.” There are dark mountains, and there are mountains full of light. Which is
which? The holy angels of God are mountains of light, and so are the prophets, Moses the
servant, and the apostles of Jesus Christ. All these are bright mountains, and I think the
Psalms speak of them: “His foundations are in the holy mountains.” What, then, are the
dark mountains? They are those who raise up high things against the knowledge of God. The
devil is a dark mountain. The rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing, are
dark mountains. The demon that caused the epileptic fit was also a mountain, and a dark
one. The Savior said of it, “You will say to this mountain.” The question was about the
epileptic spirit. The disciples said, “Why could we not cast it out?” and the Savior
answered, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,”
the one you brought up, the one you asked about, “you will say to this mountain: Move from
here to there, and it will move.” “From here” means from the man; “to there” means to its
own place. So those who stumble do not stumble on mountains of light but on dark
mountains, when they come to be with the devil and his angels, the dark mountains. “And
you will wait for light.” This phrase can be joined with “Give glory to the Lord our God.”
If you give glory to the Lord our God before it grows dark, before your feet stumble on
dark mountains, then clearly, even if darkness falls, “you will wait for the light,” and
the light will take you up. Someone else might say, though I do not know whether he
understands it soundly or not, that even those who stumble on dark mountains will wait
among the dark mountains, waiting for the light of mercy. For this, he thinks, would be
the meaning of “and you will wait for light.”

12b But when someone has come to the dark mountains, let us see what is there: “the shadow
of death.” Where the dark mountains are, the shadow of death arises from the dark
mountains themselves. 13. “And they will be set in darkness.” “But if you do not listen in
a hidden way, your soul will weep before the face of insolence.” Of those who hear, some
hear in a hidden way, and others, even if they hear, do not hear in a hidden way. What is
it, then, to hear in a hidden way? It is what is meant by “But we speak God’s wisdom in a
mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory.” And
elsewhere it is said again that “most of God’s works are in hidden things.” When I hear
the law, either I hear it in a hidden way or I do not. The Jew does not hear the law in a
hidden way. That is why he is circumcised openly, not knowing that “the Jew is not the one
who is so openly, nor is circumcision the outward one in the flesh.” But the one who hears
about circumcision in a hidden way will be circumcised in secret. The one who hears in a
hidden way what is laid down about the Passover eats from the lamb, Christ, for “Christ
our Passover has been sacrificed.” He knows what the flesh of the Word is like, and knows
that it is “true food,” and he shares in it. For he heard about the Passover in a hidden
way. But this great crowd of Jews killed the Lord Jesus for this reason, and is guilty
even today of the murder of Jesus: they did not hear the law or the prophets in a hidden
way. If you read about the unleavened bread, you can hear the commandment in a hidden way,
or you can hear it openly. Those of you (for the Passover is near) who keep unleavened
bread in the bodily sense do not hear the commandment that says, “If you do not listen in
a hidden way, your soul will weep.”

12c The same is true of the Sabbath. Women who have not heard the prophet “in a hidden
way” do not hear in a hidden way; they hear only on the surface. They do not bathe on the
Sabbath day. They go back “to the poor and weak elements,” as though Christ had never come
among us, he who brings us to maturity and carries us over from the elements of the law to
the perfection of the gospel. So let us take care when we read the law and the prophets,
so that we do not fall under the prophecy that says, “But if you do not listen in a hidden
way, your soul will weep because of the insult.” Some of you keep the Jewish fast, not
understanding it, and observe the day of atonement even after the coming of Jesus Christ.
You have not heard about the atonement in a hidden way, but only on the surface. To hear
about the atonement in a hidden way is to hear how God [set forth] Jesus as an atonement
for our sins, and that “he himself is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the whole world.” Even when the parables of the gospel are read, if the
hearer is one of those “outside,” he will not hear them in a hidden way. But if the hearer
is an apostle, or one of those who go in “to the house” of Jesus, he comes to Jesus and
asks about the obscurity of the parable, and Jesus explains it. Then that hearer of the
gospel hears it in a hidden way, so that his soul will not weep. For the soul weeps for
those who do not hear in a hidden way. Notice how wonderfully he did not say, “You will
weep, if you do not hear in a hidden way,” but, “Your soul will weep.” There is a weeping
of the soul alone, a soul weeping by itself. Perhaps that is the weeping the Savior
teaches us about when he says, “There will be the weeping.” And when he says, “Woe to
those who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep,” he speaks of that same weeping, which
the prophet also threatens here when he says, “But if you do not listen in a hidden way,
your soul will weep because of the insult.”

12d For when you are insulted, then you will weep, and your eyes will pour down tears,
“because the Lord’s flock has been broken.” Suppose someone now looks at the state of the
Jews and compares it with their ancient condition. He will see how “the Lord’s flock was
broken.” For this people was once the Lord’s flock, and because they judged themselves
unworthy, the word turned to the Gentiles. So if that flock of the Lord was broken, should
we not fear even more, we who are the wild olive, grafted contrary to its nature into the
cultivated olive of the fathers, that this “flock of the Lord” may also be broken? For it
is going to be broken at some time, according to what the Savior said, when “because
lawlessness increases, the love of the many will grow cold.” Of whom is this said? Is it
not said of those called Christians, “the love of the many will grow cold”? Of whom is it
said, “when the Son of Man comes, will he indeed find faith on the earth?” Is it not about
us? Therefore let us pay attention to ourselves in everything we do, so that day by day
this flock of God may be improved, healed and cared for, and every brokenness may be
removed from our souls. So may we be brought to perfection in Christ Jesus, to whom belong
glory and power forever. Amen.

HOMILY 13

1a We want to understand the words spoken to Jerusalem, with all their heavy threat, in
this way: “Who will spare you, Jerusalem? Or who will look sorrowful over you? Or who will
turn back to ask after your peace? You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You will
go backward. I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you, and I will not let
you go any more. And I will scatter them in a dispersion.” Then: “I have been made
childless.” I am at a loss over this, so I take an example. Suppose someone has been
proved an enemy of the king who reigns on earth. It is not permitted to show mercy to such
a man, so that no one may seem to offend the king who condemned him. Some go further: it
is not allowed even to share in showing pity to him. They will not even look sorrowful
over him, so that by looking sorrowful they may not seem to be displeased with the one the
king has judged. If you have understood this, then look at the man condemned by God
because of his many sins, and consider him. There are legions of angels appointed to help
human nature, yet no one has mercy on him. For each of the angels sees that the one who
condemned him is God. He sees that the one who was turned away from is the Creator. He
sees that the nature of the sins is such that the good God was compelled, so to speak, to
bring the sentence against the one who sinned. So each of those who see it does not spare
him, does not look sorrowful, does not show mercy, does not come back to plead for peace
with such a man. So let this Jerusalem (for it will be called so because of the letter)
sin against me, and let it do such things that Jesus says of it: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your
children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

1b Look, your house is left to you.” Let this Jerusalem be left, as it has been left. Let
the angels who always helped Jerusalem, through whom even the law of Moses was ordained,
“ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator,” leave Jerusalem and say: Its sins
have become great. They killed Jesus. They laid their hands on Christ. If the sins had
still been smaller, we could still have appealed and pleaded for them. We could have
spared Jerusalem. But who will spare it over this? “If a man sins against a man, they will
pray for him. But if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?” “Jerusalem has
sinned a sin, therefore it has become an object of tossing and shaking.” And it is said to
this very city first: “Who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will look sorrowful over
you?” We do not look sorrowful over Jerusalem and its misfortunes, or over what has
happened to that whole people. For through their transgression salvation has come to us,
to make them jealous. Their transgression became so great a sin that the voice of the Lord
said: “Who then will spare you?” And I too say to the city that killed my Jesus: “Who will
spare you, Jerusalem? And who will look sorrowful over you?”

2 I now move on from the letter. I have trained myself [in the way the Word gave], and I
turn to every soul already counted worthy to see peace. After the divine lessons you have
become Jerusalem, though before you were Jebus. The history says that its name was Jebus,
and that it later changed its name to Jerusalem. The children of the Hebrews say that
Jebus means “Trodden Down.” So Jebus, the soul trodden down by opposing powers, has been
changed and has become Jerusalem, “Vision of Peace.” Suppose that, after changing from
Jebus into Jerusalem, you sinned. Suppose you trampled the Son of God, as that Jerusalem
did, and counted the blood of the new covenant common, and lived in grievous sins. Then it
will be said of you also: “Who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will look sad over you?”
That is what will be said if you become the kind of person who betrays Jesus. Each of us,
when he sins, and above all when he sins greatly, sins against Jesus. And if he is also an
apostate, he does to Jesus in spirit, and all the more, what Jerusalem did to him in the
body. Therefore: “How much worse a punishment do you think he will be counted worthy of,
who has trampled the Son of God, and counted common the blood of the covenant by which he
was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” If you have trampled the Son of God and
insulted the Spirit of grace, “who will spare you? Who will look sad over you? Who will
turn back to ask about what makes for your peace?” The sinner’s soul has betrayed the very
Son of God, who asked about what makes for your peace. Who, then, can turn back again and
plead for peace? We know that it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, who
tasted the heavenly gift, who became partakers of the Holy Spirit, and who tasted the good
word of God and the powers of the coming age, and then fell away, to be renewed again to
repentance. They crucify the Son of God again in themselves and hold him up to public
shame. So let us do everything we can so that it is not said of us: “Who will spare you,
Jerusalem? And who will look sad over you? Or who will turn back to ask about peace for
you?”

3a The next words fit either interpretation of Jerusalem: “You turned away from me, says
the Lord. You will go backward.” Why say more about the fact that you turned away from the
Son of God, and that by turning away from the Son of God you turned away from God? The
Jerusalem in Judea turned away from Christ, and by it we must understand all the Jews.
That is why “you will go backward.” There was a time when it did not go backward but
forward. Now it goes backward: “and they turned in their hearts to Egypt,” clearly so as
to go backward. What does “you will go backward” mean, and what does it mean to stretch
forward to what lies ahead? We will explain it this way. The righteous man stretches
forward to what lies ahead, [forgetting] what lies behind. Clearly, the one who is the
opposite of the righteous man remembers what lies behind and does not stretch forward. And
whoever remembers what lies behind refuses to listen to Jesus when he teaches and says:
“Let him not turn back to the things behind to take his cloak.” He refuses to listen to
Jesus when he says: “Remember Lot’s wife.” He refuses to listen to Jesus when he says: “No
one who puts his hand to the plough and turns back to the things behind is fit for the
kingdom of God.” It is also written in the Law that the angels said to Lot, who was
leaving Sodom: “Do not look back at the things behind, and do not stand anywhere in all
the surrounding country. Save yourself on the mountain.”

3b “…lest you be swept away with them.” This also has a meaning worthy of an angelic
spirit: “Do not look back.” Always stretch forward to what lies ahead. You have left
Sodom; do not turn back toward Sodom. You have left wickedness and sin; do not return to
them. “Do not stand anywhere in the surrounding region.” Even if you keep the first
command, “Do not look back,” that is not enough for you to be saved unless you also obey
the second command: “Do not stand anywhere in the surrounding region.” Someone who has
begun to make progress must not stand in the region around Sodom, even if he has passed
through Sodom itself. Having passed through, he must go on from standing in the
surrounding region and be saved on the mountain, as it says: “Do not look back, and do not
stand anywhere in the surrounding region; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away
with them.” If you do not want to be swept away with the Sodomites, never turn back, do
not stand in the region around Sodom, and do not go anywhere else except to the mountain.
For only there is it possible to be saved. The mountain is the Lord Jesus, to whom belong
glory and power forever. Amen.


HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH
====================

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH continued

HOMILY 14

1 Doctors of the body spend their time with the sick. They give themselves constantly to
caring for the sick, as the purpose of the medical art requires. They see dreadful things
and touch unpleasant ones. From other people’s misfortunes they harvest sorrows of their
own, and their whole life is spent in difficult circumstances. They are never with the
healthy, but always with the wounded, with those who have spreading ulcers, with those
full of pus, fevers and every kind of disease. And if someone wants to practice medicine,
he will not be vexed, nor neglect the purpose of the art he has taken up, when he is among
such people as I have described. I have said this by way of introduction because the
prophets too are, as it were, doctors of souls, and they always spend their time where
those who need healing are. “For those who are well,” it says, “have no need of a doctor,
but those who are ill.” What doctors suffer from undisciplined patients, the prophets and
teachers suffer from those who do not want to be healed. They are hated because they give
orders contrary to the sick people’s chosen desires, as though they were forbidding
pleasure and indulgence to people who, even in their sickness, do not want to receive what
their sicknesses deserve. So the undisciplined among the sick run away from their doctors.
Often they even abuse them and speak evil of them and do whatever an enemy would do to an
enemy. They forget that the doctors come as friends. They look only at the hardship of the
diet and at the pain of the doctor’s iron instrument, not at the end that comes after the
pain. They hate the doctors as though they were only fathers of pains, and not of pains
that lead the patients to health.

2 That people was sick, then. There were all kinds of diseases among the people who bore
God’s name. God sent them doctors, the prophets. Jeremiah was one of these doctors. He
rebuked those who were sinning, wanting to turn back those who were doing wrong. But when
they ought to have listened to what he said, they accused the prophet, and they accused
him before judges just like themselves. The prophet was always in lawsuits, brought by
people who, as far as his prophecy went, might have been healed, but were not healed
because of their own disobedience. Over these things he sometimes says: “And I said, I
will not speak, and I will not name the name of the Lord. And it became like a burning
fire blazing in my bones, and I am worn out on every side and cannot bear it.” At other
times, seeing himself always in court, abused, accused and falsely testified against, he
says: “Woe is me, mother, that you bore me as what?” He called himself a man who does not
judge but is judged, who does not decide but is contended against “by the whole earth.”
And since the sick would not listen to his good and medical counsel, he says: “I have not
helped.” And since, though he lent them spiritual silver, they did not want to hear what
he said, so that they might profit from what they heard, he says: “No one has owed me
anything, and I have not owed anyone.”

3 But I said these things ahead of time, before explaining the words “I have not owed, and
no one has owed me.” The reading comes in two forms. In most copies it is “I have not
helped, and no one has helped me.” But in the most accurate copies, which agree with the
Hebrew, it is “I have not owed, and no one has owed me.” So I must explain the reading
that is well worn and in circulation in the churches, and I must not leave unexplained the
reading that comes from the Hebrew Scriptures. So then, he proclaimed the word, and no one
accepted what was said. It was like a physician who used up his medicines on patients who
were undisciplined and kept indulging their own desires. It is as if he said, “I have not
helped, and no one has helped me.” Perhaps there is a kind of mutual response, owing to
the kindness of the one who has been helped toward the one who helped him. So the speaker
too comes to be helped, since “blessed is the one who speaks into the ears of those who
listen.” In this way, then, a teacher would be helped by hearers who are advancing and
improving; he would be helped by having fruits among them. [Having no such help from the
Jews, Jeremiah says:] “No one has helped me.” For suppose the speaker ought to have fruit
among his hearers, but the hearer turns aside and stays outside what is said. Then it is
said, “No one has helped me.” For he does not receive the help he would have received if
the hearer, once helped, had become a cause of progress and blessedness to the one who
helped him. And in another way, too, every teacher, in the very act of teaching, is helped
in what he teaches and what he learns, the more intelligent his pupil is. Those who speak
become stronger in the lessons they pass on when the hearers are intelligent and do not
simply accept them, but test them in return, ask questions, and examine the meaning of
what is said. [So I have not helped, and no one has helped me.]

4 But since another explanation is also necessary, because the more accurate copies read
“I have not owed, and no one has owed me,” let us explain the passage in that form as
well. Consider the person who pays everyone what is owed: fear to the one due fear, tax to
the one due tax, tribute to the one due tribute, honor to the one due honor. He gives
everyone what is fitting, so that he owes no one the duties he should do. He honors
parents as parents, so to speak, brothers as brothers, sons as sons, bishops as bishops,
presbyters as presbyters, deacons as deacons, believers as believers, catechumens as
catechumens. If he pays all that is fitting, he has not owed. But if he owes a fitting
duty and has not done it, he cannot say, “I have not owed,” for he owed and did not pay.
How then shall I explain “and no one has owed me”? I was lending, and I wanted to give the
spiritual money. But they turned away from what was said and did not make themselves ready
to receive, so that they might owe. For this reason no one owed me. For who accepted what
was said, so that by accepting it he would become a debtor for what he heard, and be
required, as a debtor, to pay interest on what was said? In this respect, then, it is
better for the hearer to receive rational silver from the speaker and owe, than not to
accept and not to receive, and so not to owe. For “no one has owed me” is also set down as
a charge against them.

5a “Woe is me, mother, that you bore me as a man of lawsuit and dispute to all the earth.”
I do not think this fits the other prophets as it fits Jeremiah. Most of the prophets
began to prophesy after some time had passed, after a change that followed their
wickedness and sins. Jeremiah, though, prophesies from childhood. We can give an example
from what is written. Isaiah did not hear, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you; I have made you a prophet to the
nations.” Nor did he say, “I do not know how to speak, because I am too young.” But when
he saw the vision recorded in his prophecy, he saw it and said, “Woe to me, wretched man,
for I have unclean lips and I live among a people with unclean lips, and my eyes have seen
the King, the Lord Sabaoth.” He says, “One of the Seraphim was sent to me, and touched my
lips and said: See, I have taken away your lawless deeds, and this will cleanse your
sins.” So it was after the sins he had committed earlier that Isaiah was later made worthy
of the Holy Spirit and prophesied. You could find something similar in the case of another
prophet. Jeremiah was not like this. Adorned with the prophetic Spirit even from his
swaddling clothes, he prophesied from childhood. So he said (I am explaining the plain
sense first): “Woe is me, mother, that you bore me as a man of lawsuit and dispute to all
the earth.” One of those before me made a comment on this passage, saying that he spoke
these words not to his bodily mother but to the mother who gives birth to prophets.

5b Who gives birth to prophets, if not the wisdom of God? So he was saying, “Woe is me,
mother”; “to what sort of man did you bear me, O Wisdom?” The children of wisdom are also
recorded in the Gospel: “And wisdom sends out her children.” So the meaning is: “Woe is
me, my mother Wisdom, that you bore me as a man of lawsuit. Who am I, that I have been
born to such a destiny, to be put on trial and in dispute because of my rebukes, my
reproaches and my teaching, before all who are on the earth?” If Jeremiah says this, “that
you bore me as a man of lawsuit and dispute to all the earth,” I cannot explain the words
“to all the earth.” Jeremiah was not in dispute with all the earth. Or shall we force the
sense and say that “all the earth” means “all Judea”? For his prophecy, as he prophesied
then, did not reach the whole earth. But perhaps, as I have shown in countless other
places that the name Jeremiah was spoken in place of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall say
the same here too. At the beginning I noted the words: “See, I have set you over nations
and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down and to destroy and to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah did not do this. But Jesus Christ uprooted the kingdoms of the [earth’s] sins,
tore down the buildings of wickedness, and in place of those kingdoms made righteousness
and truth reign [in us], in our souls. Just as those words fit better when applied to
Christ than to Jeremiah, so I think many other words do too, and these as well.

6a First we must ask about the cry “Woe is me.” Because the words sound so ill-omened, can
the Savior say it, when he himself pities others with a “woe”? I will show from words
everyone accepts, words that suit no one but the Savior, how he even wept over Jerusalem.
Now “Woe is me” is the voice of someone weeping. And it is written in the Gospel that when
he saw Jerusalem he wept over it and said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the
prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children
together,” and so on. These other words, too, were plainly spoken by the Savior in the
cry: “Woe is me, for I have become like one gathering stubble at harvest, and like a
gleaning at the grape harvest, when there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripened fruit.
Woe, my soul, for the devout man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright
among men. All of them are on trial for blood.” For he came to the harvest to reap, and he
finds many sinners, and says, “Woe is me, for I have become like one gathering stubble at
harvest.” He came to gather the fruit of life among men, and he finds many sins in us, and
so he says, “and like a gleaning at the grape harvest, when there is no cluster to eat, no
first-ripened fruit.”

6b Elsewhere he says something similar to these words, speaking to the Father: “What
profit is there in my blood, in my going down to corruption?” What good have I done for
human beings, great as it was? What have they done that is worth the blood I poured out
for them? “What profit is there in my blood, in my going down” from the heavens? I came
down, I came to the earth, I gave myself up to corruption, I put on a human body. What
worthwhile thing has been set right among men? “What profit is there in my blood, in my
going down to corruption? Will dust confess you, or declare your truth?” So then, is the
first thing the Savior says here, “Woe is me, mother, that you bore me as a man of
strife,” of the same kind? The Savior does not say “Woe is me, mother” as God, but as man,
as in the prophet: “Woe, my soul, for the devout man has perished from the earth.” His
soul was a human soul; for that reason it was troubled, and for that reason it was deeply
grieved. But the Word who was in the beginning with God was not troubled; he would not say
“Woe.” For the Word does not admit death. It is the human nature that admitted it, as we
have often shown.

7 “Mother, why did you bear me as a man put on trial and judged in all the earth?” If you
will look with me at the martyrs everywhere, brought to trial and standing before judges
in every church, you will see how Jesus Christ is tried in each of the martyrs. For he is
the one on trial in those who bear witness to the truth. You will be persuaded to accept
this when you notice that he does not say you are in prison when you are in prison, but
himself; not you who are hungry when you are hungry, but himself; not you who are thirsty,
but himself. “I was in prison and you came to me. I was hungry and you gave me food, I was
thirsty and you gave me drink.” So then, even if a Christian is put on trial for no other
reason, not for his own sins but because he is a Christian, it is Christ who is on trial.
Christ Jesus is therefore on trial in all the earth. As often as a Christian is tried, it
is Christ who is on trial. And not only in these courts. Suppose a Christian is slandered,
accused falsely of something; even then Christ is unjustly tried. “Mother, why did you
bear me as a man put on trial and judged in all the earth?”

8 And here is another way to understand how he is “judged and contended over in all the
earth.” Who does not put the Christian message on trial? Which of the nations does not at
least examine it in some fashion? Which of the Jews does not have something to say about
Christians? Which of the Greeks? Which of the philosophers? Which of the ordinary people?
Everywhere Jesus is tried and judged. Some condemn him, and others do not condemn him. If
you do not condemn him, he becomes welcome: you open the windows to him, he comes in to
you; you believe in him, and he dines with you. But if you hear about Christianity and
refuse to accept it, you have done nothing other than condemn Jesus as a liar, as one who
led people astray, as one who does not speak the truth, because you have not believed the
word he teaches. “Why did you bear me, mother, as a man being judged and contended over in
all the earth?” Those who are completely unbelieving condemn him. Those who do not
disbelieve but are in doubt about him are divided over him. Jesus suffers two things among
human beings: by the unbelieving he is condemned, and by the double-minded he is contended
over. If you put on “the image of the heavenly one” and lay aside “the image of the
earthly one,” you are not the earth that condemns him. You are not the earth in which he
is condemned. You are no longer earth, contending over him.

9 “My strength has failed among those who curse me.” The apostle says of the Savior that
“he was crucified out of weakness.” And the prophet says things much like this: “Lord, who
has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We
proclaimed before him like a child, like a root in a thirsty land. We saw him, and he had
no form or beauty, but his form was without honor, lacking beside the sons of men. He was
a man in affliction and in toil, who knew how to bear weakness, because his face was
turned away from dishonor; he was dishonored and not esteemed. He bears our lawless deeds
and suffers pain for us, and we considered him to be in toil and in affliction and in ill-
treatment. But he was wounded for our lawless deeds, and made weak for our sins. The
discipline that brings our peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed.” So he took
up the weakness of our sins and bore us, and he came to those who cursed him. As he came
down from heaven, his strength failed among those who cursed him. For at the same time he
took the form of a slave and emptied himself, as the apostle said: “he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave.” So he says, “My strength has failed among those who curse
me.”

10 Let us see whether, if the Word himself grants it, we can say something clearer than
what has been said on the words, “My strength has failed among those who curse me.” “There
was the true light, which lights every person coming into the world.” The “true light” is
the Son of God, “who lights every person coming into the world.” Whoever is rational
shares in the true light, and every human being is rational. Now among all the people who
share in the Word, in some the strength of the Word has grown, and in others it fails. If
you see a soul that is ruled by passions and sinful, you will see there the strength of
the Word failing. But if you see a holy and righteous soul, you will see the strength of
the Word bearing fruit day by day, and you will apply to the righteous what was said about
Jesus. For it is not only in himself that “Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in
favor with God and people.” In each of those who receive advancement in wisdom, stature
and grace, “Jesus” also advances “in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and people.”
So the Word, the Son of God, who is in the one who said, “Woe is me, mother,” and so on,
says, “My strength has failed among those who curse me.” Whoever curses the Word
immediately receives punishment for cursing the Word and finding fault with the teaching
of Jesus. For the strength of Jesus fails in such a person, and there is no strength of
the Word in him. Then again, from the opposite side: if you bless Jesus and receive him,
his strength experiences the opposite of what it suffered among those who curse him. As it
failed there among those who cursed, so here it grows among those who bless.

11 “May it be so, Lord, as they are set straight. Did I not stand before you in the time
of their evils?” What is the meaning of “May it be so, Lord”? Let anyone who can gather
this out for himself. “Master and Lord, as they are set straight,” let it be so: let the
strength be failing among those who curse, when, after speaking evil of me, they repent,
turn to the straight way, and walk it. “May it be so, Master, as they are set straight.
Did I not stand before you?” Then he defends himself concerning those who slander him,
saying, “Did I not stand before you in the time of their evils?” He stood before the
Father, being “the propitiation for our sins,” and he pleaded for them in the very time of
our evils. For he did not stand before him after the time of our evils; rather, “while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “Did I not stand before you in the time of their
evils, in the time of their afflictions, for good things toward the enemy?” He says: in
the time of their affliction, the affliction they suffered from the enemy, I stood before
you on their behalf. Who is the enemy but “our adversary the devil,” who afflicted us? And
clearly, in the time of that enemy’s hostility against human beings, our Savior stood
before the Father and pleaded for our captivity, so that we might be ransomed and rescued
from the enemy. Let the Savior, or the prophet, have said these things. For the prophet
too could have said such things and prayed them on behalf of the people “in the time of
their evils.”

12a After this, what does God answer to the people who were accused by the prophet, or by
Christ? He says this to them: “Your strength is iron and a bronze covering.” That is, it
is hard, unyielding, not to be driven. “Your strength is iron and a bronze covering” means
that your strength is a kind of cutting and dividing strength, a strength that is not used
for good. “And I will give your treasures for plunder, as an exchange for all your sins.”
Which treasures of the sinners does God give “for plunder,” and give “as an exchange for
all their sins”? Is it the treasures they store up for themselves on earth? Every person
stores up treasure. If he is worthless, he stores it on earth. If he is good, he stores it
in heaven, as we were taught from the Gospel. Or is God saying to that people, “Because of
your sins I am going to give your treasures for plunder”? Then which treasures of that
people were given for plunder? Look: Jeremiah was one of the treasures, Isaiah another,
and Moses was a treasure too. God took these treasures from that people and gave them to
us, through Christ, who said, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a
nation that produces its fruits.” So “because of your sins I will give your treasures for
plunder.” And he did give the treasures of that people to us. They were the first to be
entrusted with the oracles of God. Then after them we were entrusted, when the oracles of
God were taken from them and given to us. And we say that the saying “The kingdom of God
will be taken from you and given to a nation that produces its fruits” was spoken by the
Savior and has been fulfilled. It is not that the Scripture was taken from them. It is
that they no longer possess the law and the prophets, because they do not see the meaning
in them.

12b For they do have the books. But how was the kingdom of God taken from them? The
meaning of the Scriptures was taken from them. No longer is there kept among them any
[legal] explanation or [prophetic ...] concerning the coming of Christ. “I said to that
people: You will hear with your ears and never understand, and you will look and look and
never see. For the heart of this people has grown fat.” What Isaiah said has also been
fulfilled: “The Lord will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the
strong woman, the giant and the man of war, the judge and the prophet and the diviner, the
wise master builder and the understanding listener.” God took all these things away from
them, and gave them to us who are from the nations, if only we will receive them. All this
is because of the words, “And I will give your treasures for plunder.” “An exchange for
all your sins, and in all your borders.” It is as if he were saying: because of your sins,
which have reached to all your borders. For there is no border of that people that has not
been filled with sin. And how could every border of theirs not be filled with sin, when
they, as far as it lay in them, killed righteousness, if Christ is righteousness, killed
wisdom, if Christ is wisdom, and killed truth, if Christ is truth? By condemning the Son
of God to death, they threw away and lost all these things. And when my Lord Jesus rose
from the dead, he never again appeared to those who had killed him. We do not have it in
the history that he appeared to those who killed him. He appeared, risen from the dead,
only to those who believed.

13 “And I will enslave you among all your enemies in a land you did not know.” That people
has been enslaved among its enemies, and has come to be in a land it did not know.
“Because a fire has been kindled from my anger; it will burn against you.” After this, the
one who prayed earlier completes his prayer, after the threats spoken against the people,
and joins these words to what came before: “You know, Lord; remember me and visit me, and
clear me of those who pursue me, not in your patience.” Let the prophet say this, since he
was pursued by those he rebuked and hated by those who could not bear the truth. For he
became an enemy to his hearers by telling them the truth. But let our Savior say the same,
for he too was pursued by the people, and he says, “not in your patience.” What does “not
in your patience” mean? You have always been patient with the people over their sins; but
over what they have dared against me, do not be patient. And truly God was not patient. If
you examine the times of the suffering and fall of Jerusalem and the razing of the city,
and how God abandoned that people because they killed Christ, you will see that he no
longer showed the people patience. If you wish, listen: from the fifteenth year of
Tiberius Caesar to the razing of the temple, forty-two years were completed. For a short
time had to be allowed for repentance, above all for the sake of those from the people who
were going to believe because of the signs and wonders that would be done by the apostles.

14a “Know that I have borne reproach for your sake from those who set aside your words.”
Let this be the prophet, speaking and despised for what he said, set aside by sinners. For
he himself says, “I have continually been mocked.” So he was reproached by those who set
aside the words that God spoke through him, and because of the reproach he prays to be
helped by God, saying, “Know that I have borne reproach for your sake from those who set
aside your words; bring them to an end.” Let the prophet say it. But “bring them to an
end” fits better when spoken by the Savior. For an end did come on Jerusalem and the
people, because of what happened through the people’s plotting against our Savior. After
this it is necessary, because the prophets suffered much in rebuking, in speaking on
behalf of the word, and in receiving what God commanded, to remind the hearers of their
way of life, of their promises, and of our own purpose. Then, as far as we are able, if we
want to have rest with the prophets, we should strive to imitate the works of the
prophets. What I mean is this. We often say in our prayers: “Almighty God, give us our
portion with the prophets; give us our portion with the apostles of your Christ, so that
we may be found with Christ himself.” But when we say this we do not realize what we are
praying. For in effect we are saying: grant us to suffer what the prophets suffered; grant
that we too be hated as the prophets were hated; give us such words that we will be hated
for them; grant that we fall into as many trials as the apostles did. For to say “Give me
a portion with the prophets,” when I have not suffered what the prophets suffered and do
not even want to suffer it, is unjust. To say “Give me a portion with the apostles,” when
I do not want to be able to say truthfully, from Paul’s own disposition, “in labors far
more, in beatings far more, in imprisonments beyond measure, in deaths often,” and so on,
is the most unjust thing of all.

14b So if we want to be with the prophets, look at the prophets’ lives. They were brought
to trial, cross-examined and condemned for rebuking, reproaching and reprimanding. “They
were stoned, sawn in two, tested, they died by the slaughter of the sword, they went about
in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts.”
This was at a time when the Jews had many synagogues. Yet these men were “wandering in
deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth.” Why then is it strange if
someone who wants to imitate the prophetic life is slandered, hated and plotted against
for rebuking and reprimanding the sinner? The same thing had to happen in the church of
God in the present case. The man who was condemned was condemned; so-and-so [sitting?] was
doing such-and-such things. Church discipline had to take place, and it did. The one
entrusted with the task did what he had to do. Now that man goes around speaking ill of
the one who upheld the truth. But let us not do this. Let us not lend our ears to those
who, because they have been expelled, speak ill of the one who expelled them or of the one
who voted with him. [The text is corrupt here: something like “when injustice is exposed
and has been done.”] The wonderful apostles were insulted countless times for the truth,
and they say, “I am content in weaknesses, in insults and necessities, in persecutions and
distresses, for Christ.” May I only know, when I am insulted, that I am insulted for no
other reason than Christ. When I am in hardship, may I know that the cause of the hardship
is Christ. When I am reviled, may I know that the reason for the reviling is nothing other
than this: I uphold the truth and speak on behalf of what is written, so that everything
may happen according to God’s word. For this I am blasphemed. So let all of us, as far as
we are able, hurry toward the prophetic life and the apostolic life, and not run away from
what is troublesome. For an athlete who runs from the trouble of the contest will not
receive the sweetness of the crown.

15 “And your word will be to me for gladness.” It is not so now, but “will be.” For at
present your word brings me prisons, lawsuits, troubles, slander and labors. But the end
of these things will be gladness. “And your word will be to me for gladness and the joy of
my heart, because your name has been called upon me, Lord Almighty.” Even when Christ is
the speaker, the name of the Father has been called upon him. “I did not sit in the
assembly of those who play.” If the prophet ever saw an assembly of people who were not in
earnest but playing, he avoided gathering with them rather than hurrying to the gathering
of those who play. So you need to understand the difference between an assembly of those
who play and an assembly of those who are in earnest. This assembly here is in earnest. It
does everything with earnestness and things worthy of earnestness, and, as the saying
goes, its word is earnestness and its life is earnestness. It is wholly an assembly not of
those who play but of those who are in earnest. But when an assembly abandons earnestness
about what is necessary and spends its leisure on the games of this age and on games that
come from wickedness, it becomes an assembly of those who play. So this man says, “I did
not sit in the assembly of those who play, but I stood in awe before the face of your
hand.” Two choices lay before him. One was to sit in an assembly of those who play, to
stumble against you, God, and not please you. The other was to rise from the assembly of
those who play and do what was dear to you. He says: I chose rather to get up from the
assembly of those who play and be your friend, than to do the opposite and become an enemy
of your blessedness. “I did not sit in the assembly of those who play, but I stood in awe
before the face of your hand.” Our Saviour also did not sit “in the assembly of those who
play,” but withdrew from them. A sign that the Saviour rose up from an assembly of those
who play is his saying: “Your house is left to you desolate.” For the Word of God
abandoned the council of the Jews and made for himself another council and a church, the
one from the nations.

16a “I sat alone.” Here too the words are fitting. When there is a crowd of sinners who
cannot bear a righteous man living righteously, it is not out of place for him to flee the
council of wickedness and imitate the one who said, “I sat alone.” He may also imitate
Elijah, who says, “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars,
and I am left all alone, and they seek my life to take it.” Perhaps, if you examine “I sat
alone” more deeply, you will find a meaning worthy of the prophet’s depth. When we imitate
the life of the many, so that a person is not set apart, better than the many and
distinguished from them, I cannot say, “I sat alone,” but rather, “I sat with many.” But
when my life becomes hard to imitate, so that I become such a person that no one is like
me in character, in speech, in actions, in wisdom, then, because I am alone in being such
and no one imitates me, I can say, “I sat alone.” So even if you are not a presbyter, not
a bishop, and not honored with any church office, you may say this. Strive after “I sat
alone,” and take up a way of life that lets you say, “I sat alone.” “For I was filled with
bitterness.” [If] “the way is narrow and hard,” is your feast kept with bitter herbs? For
when you keep the feast, it says, “you shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs.”

16b We must consider what the word means when it says that the one who keeps a feast to
God must eat “unleavened bread with bitter herbs.” The apostle has explained the
unleavened bread; the interpretation is not mine. But the interpretation that follows must
necessarily be like the apostle’s explanation. The apostle explained the matter of the
unleavened bread when he said, “Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” So
we must give an account of the bitter herbs that fits with the unleavened bread being the
bread of sincerity and truth. Have sincerity and truth, and there will be bitter herbs for
you, and you will eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth with bitter herbs, as
Paul did. Since he ate the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, he also ate bitter
herbs. How did he eat bitter herbs? When he said, “I have become your enemy by telling you
the truth.” How did he eat bitter herbs? “In toil and hardship, in many sleepless nights,
in hunger and thirst, apart from the things I leave out.” Now the law said, “You shall eat
unleavened bread with bitter herbs.” It did not say, “Eat unleavened bread with bitter
herbs until you are full,” as it is said of certain other things: “You shall eat and be
filled.” But the prophet intensifies it, saying that he did not merely eat bitterness but
“was filled with bitterness.” As far as he was able, he shared in bitter experiences, so
that he partook of the very fullest bitter herbs.

17 “Why do those who hate me prevail?” He had many troubles. He suffered from those who
did not want to hear the truth, and they were stronger than he, here in this age. For the
kingdom of God is not from this age but from better regions, as the Savior says: “If my
kingdom were from this world, my servants would have fought, so that I would not be handed
over to the Jews.” So those who grieved the prophet prevailed over him in this world. That
they do prevail, look at the martyrs. The judge sits in judgment and lives in luxury in
the courtroom. The Christian, in whom Christ is on trial, is filled with bitterness, is
overpowered by the unjust man, and is condemned. 18 “My wound is hard; from where shall I
be healed?” Those who overpower me strike me, and my wound is hard. The words may prophesy
the cross of the Lord, for the cross is a hard wound, as far as those who crucify him are
concerned. Or they may be said about all the righteous, in whom he receives a hard wound.
Or you may hear them as said about the prophet himself, who also suffered the things
written in the prophecy. In every case the phrase “my wound is hard” carries the same
sense. “From where shall I be healed?” Even if it is the Savior who says “from where shall
I be healed?”, he is prophesying the resurrection from the dead after the hard wound. And
if it is taken of the righteous man, there is healing again after the wounds. “It has
become for me like deceitful water, which has no faithfulness.” For the wound does not
remain; it passes away. “Therefore thus says the Lord: if you turn back, I will also
restore you.” This is said again to each person whom God will call to turn back to him.
And it seems to me that a mystery is hidden here in the words “I will restore you.” No one
is restored to a place where he has never been at all; restoration is to what is one’s
own. For example, if a member of my body is dislocated, the physician tries to bring about
the restoration of the dislocated joint. When someone is outside his homeland, whether
justly or unjustly, and receives back the ability to live again in his homeland according
to its laws, he has been restored to his own homeland. Understand the same of a soldier
who has been driven out of his own battle line and is restored to it. So here he is saying
to us who have turned away that, if we turn back, he will restore us. For the end of the
promise is of this kind, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles in the words “until
the times of the restoration of all things that God spoke through the mouth of his holy
prophets from of old,” in Christ Jesus, to whom belong glory and might forever and ever.
Amen.

HOMILY 15

1 Those who call the prophets blessed, and by calling them blessed pray to have a share
with the prophets, should gather from the prophetic words the choice qualities of their
prophesying. If they seek these out and live by them (even if it will seem hard to them in
this life to imitate the prophetic life), they may be persuaded that they will obtain rest
and blessedness with the prophets. There are many places from which one can gather the
choice qualities of the prophets: their freedom, their vigor, their watchfulness, their
alertness. Because of their freedom they did not worry about the dangers they fell into.
They cared only to rebuke and to turn people back. The prophets did this by speaking the
word of God boldly, with sharp reproof to those who sinned, even when those under rebuke
seemed to have great power. Still, even though one can do this from anywhere in the
prophets, let us look at what was read today. The prophet rebuked many, and spoke to many.
For he arose against people who had become sinners, as is plain from the fact that the
captivity happened in his time. Having rebuked many, and been judged by many, he utters
words like these.

2 First let us look at this from the prophetic word itself, and then, by way of a higher
reading, see whether it is a prophet’s foretelling. “Woe is me, mother! To what sort of
life did you bear me, a man at law and in dispute with the whole earth?” O mother, why did
you bring me into the world as a man who goes to court against everyone on earth and is
set in dispute against everyone on earth? For this prophet, like Isaiah and the rest, had
the prophet’s task laid before him: to teach, to rebuke and to turn people back. So this
prophet too had it laid before him to judge between people and to rebuke. He was able to
contend, and to be contended against, with sinners, and to expose the sins of the people.
And what the people did to them, why should I even say? One they stoned, another they
sawed in two, another they killed “between the temple and the altar,” and this one,
because he rebuked them, they threw into a pit of mud. Our Savior did the same thing
toward them all, and did it better than they, as the Lord of the prophets. For indeed,
though he was himself scourged, crucified and handed over by the Jews, or by the teachers
of the Jews and the ruler of the people, he said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites.” And he adds to each charge “Woe,” and “because of this,” this and that. So we
too, if we are eager for the blessings pronounced on the prophets, should do the same.
Then, because we speak and are put on trial before many people, we may say, “Woe is me,
mother! To what sort of life did you bear me, a man at law and in dispute with the whole
earth?”

3a This saying can apply more properly to the Savior. Suppose we grant that the prophet
says it. Still he will not say it truly, but perhaps by exaggeration, for he was not in
dispute with the whole earth. But if I come to my Savior and Lord, and above all because
of the words “he will come into judgment” and “that you may be justified in your words,
and may prevail when you are judged,” I will see that my Savior and Lord is going to stand
before the Father, judged along with all of us human beings. And he is judged along with
all people. I say he is judged, he too is examined. He stood as one who vindicates the
truth, not as an accuser. “Woe is me, mother! To what sort of life did you bear me, a man
at law and in dispute with the whole earth?” A prophet cannot say “the whole earth.” But
some who love our Lord are indignant and say that the Savior does not say this, that the
voice does not fit the Son of God. We must show, then, that “Woe is me, mother” is not
foreign to the Son of God. “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death,” and “my soul is
troubled,” and in the same way what is said in the prophets, as here: “Woe is me, mother!
To what sort of life did you bear me, a man at law and in dispute with the whole earth,”
or when the gleaning is lost, so that no cluster can be found: “Woe, my soul, for the
devout man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among people.”

3b Who is it that says there, “Alas, for I have become like one gathering stubble at
harvest”? Did the prophet gather, and does he want to gather? Does the prophet have a
field? No. Gathering everything from the harvest and from what has been sown belongs to no
one except the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are many fallen among the nations, and
among us too there are sins. So he says, “Alas for me, for I have become like one
gathering stubble.” Let each of us examine himself. Is he an ear of grain? Will the Son of
God find in him something to gather or to reap? We will find that some of us are wind-
blasted. Perhaps we have a little left in us, two or three grains, and our sins are many
against us. So when he sees the churches, those that bear the name, full of sinners, he
says, “Alas, for I have become like one gathering stubble at harvest and like a gleaning
at the grape harvest.” He came looking for fruit in the vineyard. Each of us is planted [.
. .], and as a vine “in a fertile place.” “He brought a vine out of Egypt.” “I planted you
a fruitful vine, wholly true.” He comes and looks for something to gather. He finds a bit
of gleaning and a few small clusters, not flourishing and not many. Which of us has
clusters of virtue? Which of us has the fruits of God? “O Lord our God, how wonderful is
your name in all the earth.”

4 Let this be said by way of a digression, on the words “Alas for me, mother.” My point is
that it is not foreign to the divinity of our Savior, as he looks at the sins of human
beings, to say “Alas” now. He says it not as God but as man, not as wisdom but as soul.
That is why I set beside it that prophetic word: “Alas, my soul, for the devout man has
perished from the earth, and there is none among men who acts uprightly.” The blessed soul
came into human life and took a body for the sake of human beings. If he sees our sins, he
says to the Father, “What profit is there in my blood, in my going down into corruption?
Will dust confess you?” But let him not say “Alas” over us. Let the angels of heaven not
say it over us. If our Savior says “Alas,” they will say “Alas” too. They are not greater
than our Savior, and they also see our failings. But blessed are those over whom the
angels will not say “Alas,” but who are counted blessed. For “there is joy in heaven over
one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine who have no need of repentance.” This
is said by way of comfort. “Alas for me, mother, what kind of man did you bear me to be?”
Whom does he mean by mother? Among women, could he mean the soul, and Mary? But if someone
accepts the saying, “Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me and carried me up to the
great mountain, Tabor,” and what follows, he can see his mother in that. “Alas for me,
mother, what kind of man did you bear me to be, a man in dispute and in judgment in all
the earth?” He is brought to trial before all the earth and is examined, and he will say
to each person: “I did this and this. My dispensation accomplished this and this, and I
endured for your salvation.” When the Savior says these things, what shall we do? For he
is going to be examined in all the earth.

5 Next I want to look at what follows. By one line of interpretation it can refer to the
prophet, and it can also refer to the Savior. Let us look at the next words: “I have not
owed, and no one has owed me.” “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in
me.” And truly he did not owe. But each of us is a debtor through our sins, a debtor who
holds a written bond. [The text is damaged here: after his bond was wiped out, how many
bonds have they made?] “He who did no sin, and in whose mouth no deceit was found” made no
bond. What does “no one has owed me” mean? How shall we explain “no one has owed me” in
the case of the Savior? Even if we read it this way, we should know that most copies of
the Septuagint edition do not have it so. Later we examined the other editions as well,
and we recognized it as a scribe’s error. [The Greek here is corrupt: “yet to me not even
one”?] So no one owed him, because he forgave everyone their debts. “A certain creditor
had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Since they had
nothing to pay back, he forgave them both.” Do you want to see the two debtors, the one
who owes five hundred and the one who owes fifty? People from two peoples have believed in
God. The people from the Jews, who do not believe in Christ, owe the fifty. Perhaps we
from the nations, who had become the most ungodly of all, owe the five hundred. That is
the point of what is said about that repentant prostitute. Someone might ask how the five
hundred applies to her. It comes from the words “what sort of woman is this who is
touching him,” in answer to which he said to Simon, “A certain creditor had two debtors.
One owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty,” and so on. I had to explain all this to
you because of the words “I have not owed, and no one has owed me.” “I have not owed, and
no one has owed me; my strength has failed among those who curse me.” Even if he died
“from weakness, yet he lives by the power of God.”

6a After many words had passed, there was more to say about each of the things already
mentioned, but time does not allow it. So let us speak on the next passage that was read:
“Cursed is the man who has his hope in man.” [The text is damaged here] aimed at those who
think that the Savior, the Son of God, was a man. For along with their many other human
evils, they have dared to say this too: that he is not God, “the only-begotten,” “the
firstborn of all creation.” For “cursed is whoever has his hope in man.” Clearly those who
put their hope in a man are cursed. I would say: I do not put my hope in a man. Hoping in
Christ Jesus, I know no man. Not only do I know no man, but I know wisdom, righteousness
itself, the one through whom “all things were created” [in the authorities; the Greek here
is uncertain]. “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man.” Even if the Savior bears
witness that the one he put on was a man, then even if he was a man, he is now in no way a
man. For the apostle says, “Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, we no
longer know him so.” Because of him I am no longer a man, if I follow his words. For he
says, “I said: you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.”

6b So, just as he is “the firstborn from the dead,” in the same way he became the
firstborn of all human beings, having changed into God. “Cursed, then, is the man who has
his hope in man, and will make the flesh of his arm firm.” That means anyone who gives
authority to fleshly things, who gains bodily strength and wages war according to the
flesh. But the holy person is not like that. “He does not make the flesh of his arm firm,”
for he “always carries about the putting to death of Jesus in his body,” and he puts to
death “the members that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness.” Having put these to
death, “he does not make the flesh of his arm firm.” “Cursed is whoever has his hope in
man.” This is also said against those who hope in high positions. “So-and-so is my friend,
he is a centurion, he is a procurator. So-and-so is my friend, and he is rich and provides
for me.” Then this saying is spoken to such a person as well: “Cursed is the man who has
his hope in man.” We hope in no man, even if they seem to be our friends. For we hope not
in them but in our Lord, who is Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and power forever and ever.
Amen.

HOMILY 16

1a In the Gospel according to Matthew it is written that our Savior came to the Sea of
Galilee and saw “Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were
fishermen.” Then the account says that the Savior saw them and said, “Come after me, and I
will make you fishers of men.” And they left their nets and followed him. Jesus made them
take up fishing again, this time for people. He also found two other brothers, James the
son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with their father, mending their nets.
These he called to the same craft, and he made them fishers of men too. Consider those who
have received from God the grace of speech. That speech is woven like nets and put
together from the holy Scriptures like a casting-net, so that the woven mesh is thrown
around the souls of the hearers. Consider also that this is done skillfully, according to
the craft. Now our Savior sends out fishers of men, having trained them, so that we may be
able to come up out of the sea and escape its bitter waves. But those lifeless fish, when
they are brought up in the dragnets, the casting-nets, the nets or on the hooks, die a
death that is not followed by life. The one who is caught by the fishers of Jesus and
brought up out of the sea dies too. But he dies to the world and dies to sin. After he has
died to the world and to sin, he is made alive by the Word of God and takes up another
life. Suppose you could imagine, for the sake of argument, the soul of a fish changing
after it leaves the body of the fish and becoming something better than a fish. I am only
offering an illustration; let no one take occasion from it [as though he had not heard].
Think of something like this.

1b You have come up out of the sea, having fallen into the nets of Jesus’ disciples. When
you come out, your soul changes. You are no longer a fish spending your time in the salty
waves of the sea. At once your soul changes and is transformed, and becomes something
better and more divine than it was before. That it is transformed and changed, hear Paul
saying: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the
Spirit.” And this fish that was caught by the fishers of Jesus, once transformed, leaves
its former haunts in the sea and makes its home in the mountains. So it no longer needs
fishers to bring it up from the sea, but a second kind of men, who are called hunters, who
hunt “from every mountain and from every hill.” So you, having come up from the sea and
been caught in the nets of Jesus’ disciples, change from the sea. Forget it. Come to the
mountains, the prophets, and to the hills, the righteous, and make your dwelling there.
Then afterward, when the time [of your hunting comes, you may be taken by the hunters,
just as you were first taken by the fishers]. Who might these be but those appointed to
receive the souls that are on the hills, the ones not lying down below? And see whether
the prophet did not cry out these things in a mystery, setting forth this very meaning in
the words: “Behold, I am sending many fishers, says the Lord, and they will fish them. And
after this I will send many hunters, and they will hunt them on every mountain and on
every hill.”

2 So if you want to be caught by the hunters, take care not to make your dwelling in the
hollows, and do not linger down below anywhere. Seek the mountains. Go up the mountain
where Jesus was transfigured. Go up the mountain to which Jesus went up when he saw the
crowds, and the disciples followed him, where “he opened his mouth and taught, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and then the
blessings that follow these. These hunters are not permitted to catch anyone from anywhere
except from the mountains, the hills, and the holes of the rocks. For these three things
are mentioned in the prophet: “For I will send many hunters, and they will hunt them on
every mountain, on every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” So where am I to find
the meaning of the rocks, and of the holes in the rocks? I go to Exodus and look for a
trace of an account of the holes of the rocks. There I find Moses wanting to know God, and
God promising him and saying: “Look, I will put you in a hole of the rock, and you will
see my back parts, but my face will not be seen by you.” If you understand the rock there,
and see the hole in the rock, [and the one who looks sees God through the hole of the
rock], you will also see the many rocks and their holes. Then who is that rock, the one
rock? “The rock was Christ.” “For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them.”
And in the thirty-ninth Psalm it is said: “He set my feet upon a rock.” What is the hole
in the rock? If you look at the coming of Jesus, understanding him as a whole to be the
rock, you will see the hole in connection with his coming. Through that hole the things
that come after God are seen. This is what is meant by “and you will see my back parts.”

3 But I have found one hole of one rock. Now I move in my discourse from the “hole” to the
“cleft” of the rock, and I look for the many rocks as well. If I come to the company of
the prophets, or of the apostles, or even of the holy angels who have gone up higher, I
say that all the imitators of Christ become rocks, just as he is a rock. And just as he
has a hole through which the back parts of God are perceived, in the same way each one,
giving a way for God to be understood through the things he says, makes a hole in himself,
or, if you prefer another name, a cleft. Through that hole or cleft you will see the law
through Moses, his prophecy through Isaiah, and other words of God through Jeremiah. And
if it is an angel who is speaking, as in the saying, “the angel who speaks in me,” then
there too I stop at the angel. There also I see a rock and a hole of the rock, and I see
God in an angelic way.

4a But I need an example to show how one can come to an angel and see God through the
angel. It is written in Exodus: “An angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire
from a bush. And Moses sees that the bush is burning with fire, and the bush is not
consumed.” The Scripture did not go on to say “the angel of the Lord,” as it said at the
beginning, “an angel appeared.” Instead it says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” So God was there, seen in the angel, just as God is known
through the rock and through the opening in it. You do not know, then, when the hunters
are sent. So never come down from the mountains. Do not leave the hills. Do not be outside
the holes of the rocks. For if you are found outside, you will be spoken to as one who is
outside and speaks the words of those outside: “Fool, this very night they are demanding
your soul from you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” These words
will be said to you if you say: “I will tear down my storehouses and build bigger ones,
and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many good things laid up for many years. Rest,
eat, drink, be merry.” You see the man who is below the mountains, below the hills,
outside the holes of the rocks. He goes astray even in his judgment about what is good,
thinking that these things are good. That is why he says: “And I will say to my soul:
Soul, you have many good things laid up for many years.” He has supposed that grain and
the abundance of earthly things are good. He did not see that the truly good things are
not in the cursed earth; the truly good things are in heaven. He stored up treasure on
earth because he thought the things on earth were good. But if someone, obeying Jesus,
changes from storing up treasure “on earth” to storing it up “in heaven,” it will not be
said to him, “Fool, this very night they are demanding your soul from you.” Instead the
hunters will come. They are not looking for the creatures down below, but for those in the
mountains, those on the hills, those sheltered in the holes of the rocks. They will catch
these and carry them away from that hunt.

4b To where? To the rest of the holy and blessed ones in Christ Jesus. For he says, “My
eyes are on all their ways.” God has his eyes on such people, those who make their
dwelling on the mountains, on the hills and in the holes of the rocks, and on all their
ways. “And they were not hidden from my face”; that is true of such people, for it is the
wicked who hide from the face of God. After the transgression, Adam heard “the voice of
the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” and he hid. But the holy
person does not hide. He has a heart that is bold toward God, a boldness that comes from a
holy way of life. For “if our conscience does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God,
and whatever we ask we receive from him.” Now Adam, though he sinned, did not sin to an
extreme and grievous degree. That is why he hid “from the face of God.” But what did Cain
do, who was more sinful than Adam, and utterly impious, the killer of his brother? “He
went out from the face of God.” So, comparing evils, hiding from the face of God is the
lesser one. For Adam hides not because he has lost all shame, but because he is ashamed
before God. “They were not hidden, then, from my face.” These people who did these things
were once in sins, and they were fished out of the sins that are in the sea.

5a So that those who have been “fished” and afterward have come to the mountains do not
suppose that all this happened to them because of their righteousness, the word reminds
not only them but us also of our earlier sins. That is why, after the acts of kindness, it
is said: “And their wrongdoings were not hidden from before my eyes.” What follows is
going to cause us a struggle. If we understand it as consistent with what came before, we
will take careful thought about the repayment of sins. If it seems not to be consistent
with what was said earlier about people being fished and hunted, then it throws us into no
ordinary struggle. For he says: “And I will repay first, double, their injustices and
their sins, by which they defiled my land with the corpses of their abominations, and by
their lawless deeds with which they filled my inheritance.” Whether some people removed
the word “first” from what was written because they did not understand it, or whether the
Seventy arranged to remove it on purpose, God would know. But we compared the other
editions and found it standing there: “And I will repay first, double, their injustices.”
The point is to show this: even if they are worthy of blessedness because of their later
works, they are still human beings and have fallen into sins, so they must first receive
back their sins. And see whether this is not true. Who will not receive back his sins,
except the one who, after believing and receiving forgiveness of sins (so that he hears
Jesus saying, “Your sins are forgiven you”), sins no more? But suppose we sin after the
forgiveness of sins and after the dispensation of the washing of rebirth. That is what the
many of us do, who have not been made perfect as the apostles were. And suppose that after
sinning, and even along with sinning, we do some things as we ought. What awaits us? That
needs to be considered.

5b Then if we depart this life having sins, but also having good and courageous deeds,
will we be saved on account of the good deeds, and be acquitted of the sins we committed
knowingly? Or will we be punished for the sins, and nowhere receive a reward for the good
deeds? But neither alternative is in accord with God’s justice. It is not just that we
receive the worse things and not the better. It is also not just that we receive the
better things and not the worse, since God wishes to cleanse and cut out wickedness.
Suppose you have built, on the foundation, Christ Jesus, whom you have been taught, not
only “gold and silver and precious stone” (if you have gold, much gold or a little;
suppose you have silver and precious stone). But I do not say only these. Suppose you also
have “wood and hay and straw.” What do you want to happen to you after your departure? Do
you want to enter the holy places with your wood and your hay and your straw, and so
defile the kingdom of God? Or, on the other hand, do you want to be left behind in the
fire because of the hay, the wood and the straw, and receive nothing for the gold and
silver and precious stone? That is not reasonable either.

6a What then? First it follows that he receives, on account of the wood, the fire that
consumes the wood, the hay and the straw. For our God, in his essence, is said, by those
who can understand, to be a consuming fire. The prophet kept silent about what it consumes
when he said, “Our God is a consuming fire,” but he has left it to us to work out. Since
he said, “God is a consuming fire,” there is something that is consumed. What then is
consumed? It is not what is according to the image and likeness that he consumes. He does
not consume his own creature. He consumes the hay that was built on, the wood that was
built on, the straw that was built on. The passage was very hard to explain. There were
promises, and after the promises he says: “And I will repay first, double, their
injustices.” The word “first” is added of necessity. First the things of injustice, then
the things of righteousness are paid back, for God does not repay in the opposite order.
If he first paid back the good things, so that we might receive the good things, but now
he pays back the evil things, then the good things would have to come to an end so that we
could receive the evil things. But we will receive the evil things first, and after that
the good things. In this way the punishment of those who suffered it reaches its end
through the destruction of the evils, so that after that he may pay back the good things.

6b This is why you will find God in the holy Scriptures saying first the things that seem
harsher, and after that the better things. “I will kill and I will make alive; I will
strike, and I will heal.” “He himself causes pain and restores again; he struck, and his
hands healed.” After hearing this, the person who understands and is rightly disposed
toward these words can say: “Lord, who will dwell in your tent? Or who will settle on your
holy mountain? He who walks blameless and works righteousness, who speaks truth in his
heart; who has not deceived with his tongue, and has done no evil to his neighbor, and has
not taken up a reproach against those nearest him.” (But we reproach even those who repent
and turn back, though the Scripture says, “Do not reproach a man who is turning away from
sin.”) “He has not taken up a reproach against those nearest him; the one who does evil is
despised in his sight, but those who fear the Lord we will receive [back], and our sins
[with them].”

7 But one of you who are listening will say: “Explain the word ‘double’ as well. Suppose I
do receive my sins back first, so that once I have received them, what the apostle said
may then be fulfilled: ‘If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself
will be saved, yet so as through fire.’ Why then do I receive my sins back ‘double’?” We
must answer that “the servant who knew the master’s will and did not act according to his
will will be beaten”, and not with few stripes but with “many.” So it is fitting that
those from the nations who sin should receive their sins back single, but that we should
receive our failings back double. For “if we sin willingly after receiving the knowledge
of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of
judgment and a jealous fire that is about to consume the adversaries.” What was prophesied
concerned those who would be fished and hunted and would first receive their sins back
double. After this the calling of the nations is prophesied more clearly. They are no
longer being called but have been called. They are no longer ignorant of what to confess
or what to give thanks for, but have already learned. For in the earlier passages we
learned that they were called, fished, and hunted, and what they would suffer; in the
later passages we learn what happens next. Let us see what the prophet says about us, who
are now learning to pray, or rather who have already learned.

8 “Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils: to you nations will
come from the end of the earth and will say, ‘Our fathers possessed false idols, and there
is no profit in them.’” Did the nations come to God from the end of the earth, and did the
nations say, “Our fathers possessed false idols, and there is no profit in them”? How is
it “from the end of the earth”? Some people on earth are first and some are last. Who are
the first? “The wise of the world” are the first of the earth, and not simply first: “the
wise of the world, the well-born,” the rich, those of rank. Who are the last? “God chose
the foolish things of the world, the lowborn, the despised, the things that are not.” So
“nations will come from the end of the earth” is as if he said: from the least of the
people on earth, from the foolish, from the lowborn, from the despised. “And they will
say: ‘Our fathers possessed false idols, and there is no profit in them.’” He does not
mean that some idols are true, so that these are called false by contrast. He means idols
that are false by their very nature: “and there is no profit in them.”

9 “If a man makes gods for himself.” People make gods for themselves not only out of
statues. You will find people making gods for themselves out of their own inventions as
well. Anyone who can invent another god, or another account of the making of the world
different from the one the Spirit has written down, an arrangement of the world different
from the true world [concerning the arrangement of the world], has made gods for himself
and bowed down to the works of his hands. Think, for example, of those among the Greeks
who first produced the teachings of this philosophy or that one, or, among the heresies,
of those who first produced their doctrines. These people made idols for themselves,
inventions of the soul, and they turned and bowed down to the works of their own hands,
welcoming their own inventions as truth. So the Word refutes everyone who makes gods for
himself, whether by the senses or by the mind, and says: “If a man makes gods for himself,
are they not gods? Therefore I will show them my hand at this time, and I will make known
to them my power.” What time is this, if not the time of the Lord’s coming? He shows us
the time. “And they will know,” he says, “that my name is Lord.”

10a Then there is another prophecy, which, I do not know why, we did not find in the
Septuagint. We did find it in the other editions, so it was clearly in the Hebrew. It is
full of very necessary matters, able to turn our soul back if we pay attention. The words
are these: “The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with a diamond point on
the tablet of their heart.” One could take the easier course and say: this was written
about the Jews, that their sin “is written.” But if you see, as we have often shown, that
Christ is spoken of figuratively as Judah, then perhaps “the sin of Judah” is the sin of
us who believe in Christ, who came from the tribe of Judah. And if you can hear it in a
still more hidden sense, perhaps the prophecy is about Judas who betrayed him, so that the
prophecy says of him: “The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with a
diamond point on the breast of the heart.” But again, the word “their” does not fit in his
case. Perhaps, then, the prophet was speaking about us, saying that if we become sinners,
these prophecies reach us. We have sinned, and our sin is not written outside us but in
our heart, and it is written “with an iron pen, with a diamond point.” The very fact will
show that the sins we commit are engraved on us by our sinning. I was not conscious of
this deed or this sin in myself.

10b Once I have done it, I have an imprint of it, and the imprint of my sin, committed in
my soul, is, as it were, written there. If my sin had been written in ink, I could have
wiped it out. But now it is written “with an iron pen,” written “with a diamond point,”
written “on the breast of the heart” of us all. So when I come to the place of
instruction, the saying of the prophecy is fulfilled: “Nothing is hidden that will not be
made known, and nothing is covered that will not be uncovered.” My breast is laid bare,
and my heart, with the letters of sin engraved on it, “by the pen” on my breast, and the
imprints of my sins in my heart. “For nothing is hidden that will not be made known,” but
also “among one another the thoughts accusing or even defending,” and “Do not judge
anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden
things of darkness and reveal the purposes of the hearts.” To whom will he reveal them?
Not to himself, for he knows “all things before they come to be.” But to whom, then, will
he reveal them? To all who are going to see, because of their own purity, the sin of the
one who has sinned, so that sinners may “rise to reproach and to everlasting shame.” May
the God of all deliver us from these things, that we may rise to the glory that is in
Christ, to whom belong glory and power forever. Amen.

HOMILY 17

1 We have come to a much-discussed question: who is the partridge, of which Scripture now
says, “The partridge called out, it gathered what it did not bring to birth, making its
wealth without justice. In the middle of his days they will abandon him, and at his end he
will be a fool”? We must take from the writings on the nature of animals what is recorded
about the partridge. Then, knowing the facts about the creature, we can tell whether the
partridge named here should be put in a better class or a worse one. It is said to be a
very malicious, deceitful and crafty creature. It wants to trick those who hunt it, and
often rolls about at the hunter’s feet, so that it seems to be close at hand and draws him
away from the nest. When it judges that it has drawn the hunter off and that the chicks
have escaped, then it flies away too. The creature is also so unclean that the males fight
one another over mating, and a male mounts a male. So if this creature is malicious,
unclean, crafty and deceitful, it is clear that to place it in a better class and apply it
to the Savior would be impious. If we want to interpret it of the Adversary, we must see
whether the whole interpretation follows from that.

2 Let us begin, then, with “The partridge called out, it gathered what it did not bring to
birth.” The devil, then, does not gather his own creatures, nor what he has begotten. When
he calls out, he gathers the creatures of another and makes them his own. The partridge
called out through Valentinus, through Marcion, through Basilides, through all the
teachers of other doctrines. For none of them could speak the voice of Jesus: “My sheep
will hear my voice.” The voice of Jesus is in Paul and Peter. That is why Paul said, “Do
you seek proof of Christ speaking in me?” But the voice of the partridge, which gathered
what it did not bring to birth, is in those who lead astray and deceive, preying on the
simplicity and unpreparedness of the more plain-minded believers. So “the partridge called
out, it gathered what it did not bring to birth, making its wealth without justice.” The
partridge has grown rich. See how many tens of thousands it has. Many have become the
partridge’s, that is, of the opposing power. And it made its wealth without caring about
justice or having any judgment, acting without discrimination. That is why it says the
partridge is “making its wealth without justice.” But my Savior makes his wealth with
judgment, and his wealth is sifted and chosen out.

3 “In the middle of his days they will abandon him.” This means all of us who were once
under the partridge that called out. For it called out not only through those already
mentioned but through absolutely all who deceive, and who invite people to godlessness as
though it were piety, toward teachings contrary to the truth. But “in the middle of his
days” we have abandoned him. All his days are the days of this age. But since Christ Jesus
has rescued “us from the present evil age,” therefore “in the middle of his days” we have
abandoned him. “And at his end he will be a fool.” For when was he ever wise, that at his
end he should become a fool? But we will say that he was wise. For “the serpent was the
wisest of all the wild animals on the earth which the Lord God made.” He was wise, in line
with what is said in Isaiah: “I will bring upon the mind, the great one, the ruler of the
Assyrians. For he said: I will act by my strength, and by my wisdom

4a …you may receive: “If anyone among you seems to himself to be wise in this age, let him
become foolish.” He who cried out before resolves it: “Be foolish and silly, so that you
may become wise.” So if there is a kind of wisdom that deserves blame, the kind by which
“the children of this age are wiser than the children of light in their generation,” then
God is good. He overturns varied things by their opposites, so that what was said is
fulfilled: “his last end will be foolish.” When will his last end be foolish? Christ must
“reign until God puts all his enemies under his feet.” When God has made everything
subject to him, “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” When death has been destroyed,
then the partridge’s last days will have come, and his end will have become foolish. That
is enough about the partridge. 4. The beginning of the second chapter was also read: “A
throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, the place of our sanctification, our support,
the endurance of Israel. Lord, let all who have forsaken you be put to shame; let those
who depart be written on the earth, because they have forsaken the fountain of life, the
Lord.” The blessed prophet Isaiah, seeing the Lord and his kingdom, said: “I saw the Lord
of Hosts sitting on a high and lofty throne.” Jeremiah also saw how God reigns, and so,
glorifying him, he says: “A throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, the place of our
sanctification.”

4b If you want to understand these words of Christ, you will not sin. If you understand
them of the Father, you will not think impiously. For the Savior is [also] a throne of
glory, high and from the beginning. He is “a throne of glory,” and that is why his kingdom
is exalted. And “our sanctification” is Christ: “For both the one who sanctifies and those
who are sanctified are all from one.” “The endurance of Israel”: just as the Savior is
righteousness itself, truth itself, sanctification itself, so he is endurance itself. It
is not possible to be righteous without Christ, or holy without him, or to endure without
having Christ. For he himself is the endurance of Israel. Even if you refer the words to
God, you will not be impious in doing so. “Lord, let all who have forsaken you be put to
shame, those who have departed.” Each of us, when we sin, forsakes Christ through the very
things by which we sin, and by forsaking Christ we forsake God. For in doing wrong he
forsakes righteousness. In becoming profane he forsakes sanctification. In making war he
forsakes peace. In coming under the enemy he forsakes redemption. And in being outside the
wisdom of God he forsakes wisdom. So the prophet pronounces a curse on all who forsake
God, teaching us what will happen to them, when he says: “Let all who forsake you be put
to shame.” The further they have departed, the more let them be put to shame. “Let them be
written on the earth.” All people are written down: the holy in heaven, and sinners on the
earth. It is to the disciples that [the Savior] says, “Rejoice that your names are written
in the heavens.” So we ought to rejoice if someone becomes the kind of person whose name
is written in the heavens.

4c As the names of the saints are written in heaven, so the names of those who live in an
earthly way are written on the earth. These people do not pass through the land of Edom.
They hold the fields of the land of Edom and its vineyards, and they are written on the
earth as people who have abandoned God. For he says, “Let those who have turned away be
put to shame; let them be written on the earth.” And indeed, “with the measure you
measure, it will be measured to you.” Each person is himself the cause of being written
there. If you seek what is on earth, you are not seeking heavenly things. If your soul has
leaned toward the things of this world, you are the cause of it yourself, since Jesus
says, “Do not store up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust destroy,
and where thieves dig through and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
Are you storing up treasure in heaven? Then you are yourself the cause of your name being
written in heaven. All this is on account of the words “let them be written on the earth.”
And the prophet gives the reason: “because they abandoned the Lord, the fountain of life.”
At the beginning the same prophet spoke in the person of God: “They abandoned me, the
fountain of the water of life.” And now: “They abandoned the Lord, the fountain of life.”
So let us also speak, if we do not want to abandon the Lord, the fountain of life. Let us
use the voice of Jesus’ genuine disciples, which they spoke to the teacher when he said to
them, “Do you also want to go away?” What then shall we say? “Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.” Here the second passage came to an end.

5a Then there is another prayer, which goes like this: “Heal me, Lord, and I shall be
healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my boast. Look, they say to me, ‘Where
is the word of the Lord? Let it come.’ But I did not grow weary following after you, and I
did not desire the day of man; you know.” Only to the one who came for those who are sick,
the physician who says, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who
are sick,” can everyone who wants to be cured of the sickness of his soul say with
confidence, “Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed.” But if someone else besides him
promises the medicine of souls, you could not truthfully say to that one, “Heal me, Lord,
and I shall be healed.” For that woman with the “flow of blood” spent “all that she had”
on physicians, and “could not be healed by any of them.” It would not have been reasonable
to say to any of them, “Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed.” She could say it only to
him, for whom it is enough to touch “the fringe of the garment.” So I say to him, “Heal
me, Lord, and I shall be healed.” For if you heal, the end will follow upon your healing:
the cure, so that I am saved.

5b As for all the others who will try to save me, I shall not be saved. The only true
salvation is if Christ saves, because then I shall be saved. “The horse is a false hope
for salvation”: so everything else apart from God is a false hope for salvation. For this
reason I would say to him, “Save me, Lord, and I shall be saved.” And I say this if I am
also able to say the next words, having renounced every other boast, so that I may say,
“for you are my boast,” or when I fulfil the commandment that says, “Let not the wise man
boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches;
but let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows that I am the
Lord.” Blessed, then, is the one who has renounced every boasting here below, such as in
so-called noble birth, in beauty and bodily things, in wealth, in reputation, and who is
content with one boast, so that he can say, “for you are my boast.”

6 “See, they say to me: ‘Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come.’ But I did not grow
weary following after you.” Jesus says to you, “Take up your cross and follow me,” and
“Leave everything and follow me,” and “Whoever does not leave father and mother and follow
after me is not worthy to be my disciple.” So if you become the kind of person who always
follows Jesus, you will follow, and as long as you follow you will not grow weary. For
“there will be no toil in Jacob, and no labor will be seen in Israel.” There is no
weariness for the one who follows Jesus; the following itself takes the weariness away.
For this reason he himself says, so that we may no longer be weary, since we were weary
before we began to follow him: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest.” So if we come to him weary and follow him, we will say, “I did not grow
weary following after you.” It follows from this that we should also say, “I did not
desire the day of a man.” There is a day of a man, and there is a day of God. Let each of
us long for the day of the resurrection of the saints, not for the day of which it is
written: “Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord; and it is darkness and not light.”
Who is the one who says, “And I did not desire the day of a man”? The plain sense of the
saying will convict us, because we [did] desire the day of a man. Often when we have
fallen ill and seem to be facing death, as we are about to depart, we plead with the
brothers who visit us and say: “Ask for my recovery; ask that I may remain in this life.”
In saying this we are not longing for the holy day of God, but for the day of a man. So
let us put away this love of life and this longing for a human day, and let us seek to see
that day on which we will obtain the blessedness that is in Christ Jesus, to whom belong
glory and power forever. Amen.


HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH
====================

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH continued

HOMILY 18

1a There are two visions in a row that have been read from Jeremiah. The first concerns
the clay vessel in the potter’s hand, which, after it is broken, can be put right, for it
can be reshaped. The second vision concerns the earthenware jar, which, once it has been
smashed, cannot be mended. When it was clay, if it was broken, even if it had already been
shaped, then because it was clay it could become dough again a second time and be made a
second time. But when, after being clay, it has become fired earthenware and has been
hardened by the fire, then after the earthenware is broken it cannot be mended. What this
means, let us first consider in general terms, and then, if God grants it, we will examine
it word by word. As long as we are in this life, we are being shaped, if I may put it this
way, like clay vessels by a potter, and we are shaped either toward evil or toward virtue.
But we are shaped in such a way that our wickedness can be broken, so that a new and
better creation may come about, and so that our progress, after it has been given form,
can be dissolved back into a clay vessel.

1b But when we have passed beyond the present age and come to the end of life, and are
then set on fire, either by the fire of the burning arrows of the evil one, whatever we
then become, or by the divine fire (for indeed “our God is a consuming fire”), if, I say,
we become whatever we become under this fire or that, and if we are broken, whether we are
broken and lost after having been good vessels or after having been worthless vessels, we
are not made anew, and our make-up admits no improvement. For this reason, as long as we
are here, as if in the potter’s hand, even if the vessel slips from his hands, it can be
healed and made anew. This much has been said somewhat in a preliminary way, before we
examine the rest in the discourse: let it be said of the two kinds of vessels, the clay
one which has not yet been hardened into earthenware, and the second one, which has
already become earthenware.

2a Let us now look at the words themselves, and at what is said about the clay vessel in
the potter’s hand. Let us see how the word in the prophet, the Lord who prophesies in him,
gives us other and not small openings for interpreting what happens with the thing formed
in the potter’s hand. “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Rise and go
down to the house of the potter.” Jeremiah is above; he has gone up beyond the clay
vessels. The clay vessels are below, and the nature that governs the clay vessels, coming
down together with those it governs, is below. For this reason the word spoken to Jeremiah
from the Lord says to him: “Rise and go down to the house of the potter, and there you
will hear my words.” To Moses it is said, “Go up the mountain and hear.” To Jeremiah it is
said, “Go down to the house of the potter and hear.” For each one who hears a word is
either taught about things higher up or learns about things lower down. If I am being
taught about the lower things, I go down in the word, so that I may see the lower things.
If I am learning about the higher things, I go up in the word to the higher things, so
that I may behold what is there. So that all of you may follow what is said as well as you
can, I will use examples from Scripture too, and along with the example I will bring out
clearly the interpretation I have given. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of
those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

2b There is a certain wisdom concerning each of these: wisdom about the heavenly things,
how the heavenly things are arranged; wisdom about the things under the earth, since there
is also a wisdom of God about the ordering of the things under the earth; and likewise
about the things on earth. If I am going to take in the wisdom about the heavenly things,
I go up to the heavens, as Moses went up to the top of the mountain, so that the voice
from heaven might be heard by him, as it is written. For he was about to be taught
heavenly forms of worship. There is a shadow and a pattern of heavenly mysteries in the
written laws of worship, as the apostle taught when he said: “They serve a pattern and
shadow of the heavenly things.” So just as I go up when I am about to be taught about the
heavenly things, in the same way, if I need to learn about the things under the earth,
even if I have become a prophet, I go down. And perhaps for this reason Samuel, when he
was taught the things under the earth, went down below and came to be in Hades. He was not
condemned to be in Hades, but became a scout and an observer of the mysteries under the
earth. The things the apostle says about wisdom may be of this kind too, distinguished by
the knowing of “what is the breadth and length and depth and height.” If you are going to
know the height, you go up in the word to the height. If you are going to know what lies
between the height and the depth, you know the breadth and the length. The mind that is
able to follow the Son of God, led by the word that teaches about everything, reaches
everywhere. And it follows him by renouncing the world and taking up the cross. For the
one who can follow Jesus is the one who can say: “The world has been crucified to me, and
I to the world.”

2c This saying needs some comfort and explanation: “Go down to the potter’s house, and
there you will hear my words.” It has to be compared with the saying, “Go up, and you will
hear my words.” Some of those who hear go up in order to be taught, though they do not
necessarily go up in the body. Others go down while their soul stays on high, in order to
see the Word who is highest speaking about the lowest things. My Lord Jesus Christ himself
has gone up and has come down: “The one who went up is the same one who came down, far
above all the heavens.” So if you too intend to understand the one who went up to the
highest place, the Word who speaks about the highest things, and to grasp the one who came
down to the lowest places, who teaches about the lowest things, then “do not say, Who will
go up into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down), “or, Who will go down into the
abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). “But what does the Scripture say? The
word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Through this word you go up into
heaven. The word is near you concerning the ascent, and the word is near you concerning
the lowest things. What else could this be but the Word, whom the holy person can have
within himself everywhere? For “the kingdom of heaven is within you.”

3 So the prophet goes down to the potter’s house and tells what he saw. He says: “And
behold, he was doing work with his hands, and the vessel that he was making in the clay
fell apart in his hands. And he made it again into another vessel, as it pleased him to
make it.” But I do not know what the prophet saw when he was at the potter’s. He saw the
potter working. The vessel being made was of clay. The vessel fell apart. Why exactly did
he not say, “He let the vessel go from his hand,” or lay the blame on the potter? It is
because the passage is about living vessels, which fall apart through their own doing.
That is why it says, “The vessel fell apart from his hands.” So pay attention to yourself
as well. You are in the hands of the potter and are still being shaped. Take care that you
do not, through your own fault, fall out of his hands. No one snatches anyone “out of his
hands,” as it is said in the Gospel according to John. But it is not written that, just as
no one snatches, so no one falls out of his hands. For free will is free. And I say: no
one will snatch anyone from the hand of the shepherd, and no one can take us from the hand
of God. But we ourselves, if we are careless, can fall out of his hands.

4 “And the word of the Lord came to me: Shall I not be able to do with you, house of
Israel, as this potter does? says the Lord.” Each person understands what is written
according to his ability. One takes its meaning more on the surface, as if drawing from a
spring on level ground. Another goes deeper, as if drawing up water from a well. Both can
be helped, since the same thing is a spring to one and a well to the other. The Gospel
bears witness to this when it tells the story of the Samaritan woman. There the same thing
is called both “spring” and “well,” sometimes one and sometimes the other. Let anyone who
is able consider this closely, so as to see that what is the same in substance is a spring
to the shallower view and a well to the deeper. This is my introduction to the explanation
that is coming, concerning the clay vessel that fell from the potter’s hand and was shaped
again. Some have looked at this more simply and understood it that way. I will set before
you their account and explanation. After that, if we have something deeper, we will
explain that too. They say that what is shown here may be the resurrection. If the clay
vessel fell from the potter’s hands and he makes “another vessel” from the same material,
the same clay, “as it pleased him,” then God, the potter of our bodies and the craftsman
who built us, can do the same. When this body falls apart and is broken for whatever
reason, he can take it up again, renew it, and make it more beautiful and better, “another
vessel, as it pleased him to make.” Let this explanation also have its due.

5a Let us listen to the Lord himself as he explains and says: “Shall I not be able to do
with you, house of Israel, as this potter does? says the Lord. Look, as the clay is in the
potter’s hand, so are you in my hands. At one moment I will speak against a nation and a
kingdom, to uproot them and destroy them; and that nation will turn back from the evils
about which I spoke to it, and I will change my mind about the evils I had planned to do
to them. And at another moment I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, that it be
built up and planted; and they will do evil in my sight and not listen to my voice, and I
will change my mind about the good things I said I would do for them, says the Lord.” We
see that this passage about the potter’s house does not refer to any individual, but to
two nations. For at the start he says he is going to speak about nations, to hint
something to those who are able to hear unspeakable mysteries: “At one moment I will speak
against a nation.” Look for the “moment” and for the first nation, against whom he speaks
of destruction because of their sins. Yet even after speaking of destruction because of
their sins, he still promises that if they repent, he will change his mind about the evils
he said he would do to them. Then again he speaks about a second nation, that a whole
nation be “built up and planted.” And since this nation, which is being built up and
planted, has a good promise but is able to sin, he says, after saying these things, that
if they fall away from good works, “I will change my mind about the good things I said I
would do for them.” Who, then, are the two nations: the first one named, against which the
word utters a threat, and the second, to which a promise is made? He threatens in such a
way that, if they repent, he will not carry out the threat. He promises in such a way
that, if the second nation falls away and proves unworthy of the promises, it will not
obtain them.

5b The whole plan of God for the people of the world is set out above all with regard to
two nations. The first nation was Israel; the second, since the coming of Christ, is this
nation of ours. To the first, God made the threats he made, and we see what became of the
threats against the first nation. They have been taken into captivity; their city was
razed; the holy place was torn down; the altar was thrown down; nothing of their ancient
sacred things is still preserved among them. For God said to that nation: Repent; and they
did not repent. After this had been said to them, God speaks to this second nation about
its being built up. But he sees that this nation too consists of human beings who can fall
away again. For this reason he threatens this nation also, and says: Even though I have
spoken beforehand about the building, the planting, and the cultivation, this nation too
is going to sin; and if it sins, the same things that were said to those others because of
their sins will happen to it, and they will suffer them unless they repent. Search the
whole Scripture, and you will find that most of what is said concerns these two nations.
God chose the fathers and gave them a promise. He brought out of Egypt a people from the
fathers’ stock. He was patient with them when they sinned. He trained them as a father
does. He brought them in and gave them the land of promise. He sent them prophets at the
proper times; he disciplined them and turned them back from their sins. He was patient,
always sending those who would heal them, until the chief physician came: the prophet who
surpasses prophets, the physician who surpasses physicians. When he came, they betrayed
and killed him, saying, “Away with him, away with him from the earth! Crucify him, crucify
him!” Immediately visitation came upon the nation. The place where my Jesus was crucified
was made desolate, and God chose another nation. See how great the harvest is, even if the
workers are few.

5c God also arranges things in another way. The net is always being cast into the sea of
this life, and fish of every kind are gathered. He sends out “the many fishermen.” He
sends out “the many hunters,” and they hunt on “every mountain” and on “every hill.” See
how great a plan there is for the salvation of the nations. “See then the kindness and the
severity of God: severity toward” the first nation, which fell; but toward you, the second
nation, promises and “kindness, if you continue in the kindness; for you also will be cut
off.” For the axe did not lie at the root of the trees only at that time. The axe is ready
to come again. “The axe lies at the root of the trees” — that is what my Jesus said then,
prophesying about Israel, among whom the axe was present. He himself was the axe for the
unfruitful tree, and he said, “Already the axe lies at the root of the trees.” All the
trees there that bore no fruit were cut down, thrown into the fire, and punished. But now
another field has come into being, corresponding to the first, of which it was said:
“Bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, in your prepared
dwelling place.” God has brought his nation in to the mountain of his inheritance. As for
the mountain, I do not look for it as the Jews do, among lifeless woods. The mountain is
Christ. In him we were planted; on him we have been kept safe. So take care. Even if God
is patient, the master of the house may come and say, “For three years now I have been
coming to this fig tree, and it has borne no fruit. Cut it down. Why should it also use up
the ground?” For the one who comes to the gathering and bears no fruit is using up good
ground, Christ, the mystery of the church.

6a “At the end I will speak concerning a nation or a kingdom.” The word “end” might seem
to be used casually. But it is said with a particular meaning. In the phrase “I will speak
concerning a nation or a kingdom,” the “end” is of this kind: to the first nation the
“end” is spoken as “I will tear down,” and to the second nation, “I will build you up.”
Again, “I will uproot” is said to the first, and “I will plant” to the second. Now, since
the “end” has been spoken, must the end therefore happen? According to Scripture, God, who
does not change his mind, is said to change his mind. Let us pay attention to the wording,
so that, if we are able to give an answer about how these things are said, we may accept
the passage. “At the end I will speak,” he says, “concerning a nation or a kingdom, to
remove them and destroy them; and if that nation turns from the evils that I spoke against
it, I will also change my mind about the evils that I planned to do to them. And at the
end I will speak concerning a nation or a kingdom, to build it up and plant it; and they
will do evil in my sight so as not to hear my voice, and I will change my mind about the
good things that I spoke of doing to them.” We are required to give an answer about God’s
change of mind. For changing one’s mind seems to be a fault, and unworthy not only of God
but even of a wise man. I cannot imagine a wise man changing his mind. As the word is
commonly used, the one who changes his mind does so because he has not planned well. But
God, who foreknows what is to come, cannot have planned badly and therefore change his
mind. How then does Scripture bring him in saying “I will change my mind”? And I am not
yet saying that in the books of Kingdoms it is written, “I regret that I anointed Saul as
king,” and that it is said of him in general, “and changing his mind about evils.” But see
what we are taught about God in general.

6b Take note of what we are taught about God in general. In one place we read, “God is not
like a man, to be threatened, nor like a son of man, to be warned.” From that saying we
learn that God is not like a man. But another passage teaches that God is like a man. It
says, “The Lord your God disciplined you, as a man might discipline his son,” and again,
“he bore with his ways as a man bears with his son.” So when the Scriptures speak of God
as he is in himself, and do not mix his dealings with human affairs, they say he is not
like a man. “Of his greatness there will be no end,” and “he is to be feared above all
gods,” and “Praise him, all you angels of God; praise him, all his powers; praise him, sun
and moon; praise him, all you stars and light.” If you gather up the sacred writings, you
would find countless other passages to which you can apply “God is not like a man.” But
when the divine ordering of things is woven into human affairs, it takes on a human mind,
manner and language. Think of how we speak to a two-year-old child: we lisp for the
child’s sake. If we kept up the dignity of grown men and spoke to children without coming
down to their way of talking, the children could not understand. Think of God in the same
way when he deals with the human race, and especially with those who are still infants.
Notice how we who are grown men change our words for babies. We give bread a special name
for them, and we call drinking by another word. We do not use the speech we use with grown
people our own age, but some other childish, baby-like word. And if we name their clothes
for the children, we give those a different name too, as though inventing a child’s name.

6c Are we then imperfect at such times? And if someone overheard us talking with children,
would he say, “This old man has become a fool; this man has forgotten his beard and his
grown age”? Or is it allowed, in accommodating ourselves to a child, not to speak the
language of an elder or of a fully grown person, but a child’s language? God also speaks
to children. The Savior says, “Behold, I and the children whom God gave me.” It could be
said to the old man who speaks to the child like a child (or, to put it more strongly,
like a baby): “You have borne your son’s ways; you have put on the baby’s manner and taken
up his condition.” Understand the Scripture in the same way when it says, “The Lord your
God bore your ways, as a man might bear the ways of his son.” Those who translated from
the Hebrew seem not to have found this word in use among the Greeks. As in many other
cases, they fashioned it themselves and made up “he bore your ways” (that is, he put on
your ways), “as a man might bear his son’s ways” (following the example I have given). So
since we repent, when God speaks to us while we are repenting, he says, “I repent.” And
when he threatens us, he does not pretend to be one who foreknows, but threatens as one
speaking to babies. He does not make a show of having known “all things before they came
to be.” Rather, if I may put it this way, he plays the part of the baby and pretends not
even to know what is going to happen. So he threatens a nation for its sins and says, “If
the nation repents, I also will repent.” O God, when you threatened, did you not know
whether the nation would repent or not? And what of when you made your promise? Did you
not know whether the man, or the nation to whom the word was spoken, would stay worthy of
the promises or not?

6d But he does not pretend to know. You could find many such human-sounding expressions in
Scripture, such as: “Speak to the sons of Israel; perhaps they will listen and repent.”
God did not say “perhaps they will listen” as though he were in doubt. God does not doubt,
so that he should say “perhaps they will listen and repent.” He says it to show you at
length your own free will, so that you will not say: “If he foreknew that I would be lost,
I must be lost; if he foreknew that I would be saved, I must by all means be saved.” So he
does not pretend to know what is going to happen with you, in order to preserve your free
will by not having settled beforehand, or foreknown, whether you will repent or not. And
he says to the prophet, “Speak, perhaps they will repent.” You will find countless other
things like this said about God bearing the ways of man. If you hear of God’s wrath and
his anger, do not suppose that wrath and anger are passions in God. They are arrangements
of the use of words, meant to turn the infant around and make him better. We too put on a
fearsome face for children, not out of our real disposition but as a matter of management.
If we kept the gentleness of our soul toward the infant in our face, and showed him the
tender affection we have for him, without turning ourselves aside or, so to speak,
changing ourselves for the sake of his turning around, we would ruin him and make him
worse. So in the same way God is said to be angry, and he says he is furious, so that you
may turn and be made better. And truly he is neither angry nor furious; but you will
experience what belongs to anger and fury, when, because of your wickedness, you fall into
hardships that are hard to bear, whenever he disciplines you with what is called the wrath
of God.

7 Next, after the account of the two nations, the first to which the threat is given and
the second to which the promise is given, he says (evidently speaking to the first group):
“And now speak to the men of Judah and to those living in Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord:
Look, I am shaping evils against you.” Because these things that I am shaping against you
are in my hand, they can fall through. Make them fall from my hand, so that I may change
the evils I am shaping against you and make them good. You would not find it said: “Look,
I am shaping good things against you,” with the corresponding things following, so as then
to show that he lets the good things he is shaping fall from his hands in order to make
them evil. No, he shapes evils according to the example already given, and in shaping
evils he is managing things. (Leaving aside the interpretation already given for “it fell
from my hands.”) The point is that if it falls, I do not know what the end of the evils
being shaped will turn out to be.

8a “Let each one turn back from his evil way, and make your practices better.” Sometimes
the simpler folk say: “Blessed are the people of old, because they heard the Lord speaking
through the prophet”: “And the Lord spoke to them.” But the Lord also says to us now,
through what is written, “Let each one turn back from his evil way.” The Lord himself
speaks with you, saying: “And make your practices better.” But those to whom the words of
exhortation about repentance were spoken gave an answer. Let us see what they answered, so
that we do not give such answers ourselves. What do they say in reply? “We will be brave,
for we will go after our own turnings away, and each of us will do what is pleasing to his
evil heart.” Even if you do not say it in words, if your life is such that you sin, then
by your wicked actions after the words of exhortation you are saying the same thing in
effect: “We will be brave, for we will go after our own turnings away, and each of us will
do what is pleasing to his evil heart.” What is “we will go after our turnings away”?
There are those who began to put [their hand to the plough] and to [take hold of] the
good, and then turned away from it into worthless things. So whenever someone puts [his
hand to the plough] and turns back, he will go “after his turnings away.” For he will go
after those things he turned away from, and runs back to those sins which he had
abandoned.

8b So consider those who hear these words. Some are catechumens who have left the Gentile
way of life. Others are believers who have already made progress in “stretching forward to
what lies ahead.” If their life has become wicked, they are saying nothing other than
this: “We will go after our turnings back, and each of us will do what pleases his heart.”
And note that it is not just any heart, but “his evil heart.” For there is an evil heart,
and there is a good heart. So let no one go “after his turnings back,” and let no one do
“what pleases his evil heart.” “Therefore,” the Lord says to those who answer this way,
“ask among the nations: who has heard such dreadful things as the virgin Israel has done,
and done to excess?” This too may seem to have been said without any deeper meaning. But
consider the church that comes from the nations. [The text here is corrupt; the sense
seems to be that it is addressed among the nations, and that it will be said:] “Ask among
the nations; hear what dreadful things the virgin Israel has done, and done to excess.”
Let us compare the life of those who sinned with the life of those who turned and
believed, and we will see the difference. Those people did dreadful things, for they
killed “the Lord of glory.” These others, though those people did dreadful things, turned
to him, who was put to death and died at their hands for the sins of the world. So “ask
among the nations: who has heard such dreadful things as the virgin Israel has done, and
done to excess?”

9a “Will breasts fail from the rock, or snow from Lebanon? Or will water carried violently
by the wind turn aside? For my people have forgotten me. They burned incense to emptiness,
and they will grow weak in their ways, [on] everlasting [lines/ropes], so as to walk on
paths that have no road for a journey, so as to hand their land over to desolation and to
everlasting hissing.” Here he has spoken of different kinds of water. The first is in the
words “Will breasts fail from the rock?” The second is in the words “or snow from
Lebanon?” The third is in the words “Will water carried violently by the wind turn aside?”
These three kinds of water are the springs of water for which the soul of the righteous
longs, as it is likened to the deer. So each one may say: “As the deer longs for the
springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.” Who, then, has become like the deer,
an enemy of the race of snakes, and untouched by their venom, as the story is told of the
deer? Who has thirsted for God so much that he can say, “My soul has thirsted for the
living God”? Who has so thirsted for the breasts of the rock? “And the rock was Christ.”
Who has so thirsted for the Holy Spirit that he can say, “As the deer longs for the
springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God”? If we do not thirst for the three
springs of water, we will not find even one spring of water. The Jews seemed to thirst for
one spring of water, God. But because they did not thirst for Christ and the Holy Spirit,
they have nothing to drink even from God. Those from the heresies seemed to thirst for
Christ Jesus. But because they did not thirst for the Father, who is the God of the law
and the prophets, for that reason they do not drink even from Jesus Christ.

9b Others hold to one God but despise the prophecies. They have not thirsted for the Holy
Spirit who is in the prophets. For that reason they will not drink from the Father’s
spring either, or from the one who cried out in the temple and said, “If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” So the “breasts” do not “fail from the rock.” It
is those people who “forsook the spring of living water.” The spring of living water did
not forsake them. God puts himself far from no one. Rather, “those who put themselves far
from him will perish.” God draws near to some, and he meets the one who comes to him. When
the son who had eaten up his property came back, his father met him. And God promises
through the prophets, “I will be nearer to them than the tunic is to their skin.” For he
says, “I am a God who draws near, and not a God far off, says the Lord.” So the “breasts”
will not “fail from the rock.” These are the waters of Jesus. Nor will “the snow from
Lebanon” fail. These are the waters of the Father. For “frankincense” (libanos) is the
sacred incense according to the law of God, and it is offered on the altar, “pure
frankincense, in equal measure.” The mountain has the same name as this frankincense, and
snow comes down from Lebanon, just as the water of the Holy Spirit does. About that water
it is said, “Will water carried violently by the wind turn aside?” For it is indeed
carried by the wind. The water of the Holy Spirit does not “turn aside” and does not flee.
Rather, each of us, when we sin, becomes a runaway from drinking of the Holy Spirit.

10 “For my people have forgotten me; they have burned incense in vain.” Everyone who sins
has forgotten God. But the righteous man says, “All this has come upon us, and we have not
forgotten you, nor have we acted unjustly,” and he has not burned incense in vain. We must
understand what “they burned incense in vain” means. If we take up again what was said
earlier on the hundred and fortieth Psalm, we will see what “they burned incense in vain”
is. In that Psalm something like this was said: “Let my prayer be set before you like
incense.” So my prayer is a compound [made of?] . . . a fine and delicate heart. When our
heart is not made thick and heavy, the prayer sent up becomes like incense before God. If
then the prayer of the righteous man is incense before God, the prayer of the unrighteous
man is also incense, but incense of such a kind that it can be said of it and of the
unrighteous man praying, “They burned incense in vain.” It is like what is written about
Judas: “Let his prayer become sin.” In praying, he burned incense in vain. Let us
understand still more who it is that burns incense in vain. “Three times a year,” it says,
“every male of yours shall appear before the Lord your God.” Right after this it adds,
“You shall not appear before me empty.” So of those who come, [the text breaks off here;
the Greek that follows is lost.]

HOMILY 19

10 . . . [the beginning is lost] . . . of the meaning of Scripture, which comes upon an
eye able to take in the clarity of the sacred writings. I have said these things by way of
introduction, to stir up and rouse both myself and those who are listening to pay
attention to what has been read. Let us ask that Jesus come and appear to us, and that he
teach us now what is written here. 11a “Jeremiah prophesied. And Pashhur son of Immer, the
priest, heard the words of the prophecy.” Many others, we may suppose, heard Jeremiah, at
least as far as the plain sequence of the prophecy goes, yet no one else is recorded as
having heard him so readily except Pashhur. The Scripture took care to say whose son he
was: Immer’s. It also says that he held the office of priest, and what rank he had among
the people: he was appointed chief officer of the house of the Lord at the time when
Jeremiah was prophesying these words. It is recorded that when Pashhur heard the words of
this prophecy, he struck Jeremiah. Nor was he content with striking him; he also threw him
into a kind of pit [or: stocks, cistern, a “cataract”]. The Scripture took care to say
where this pit was: at the Gate of Benjamin. It was in a place where there was an upper
room, and an upper room belonging to nothing other than the house of the Lord. The Holy
Spirit recorded that these things happened to Jeremiah because of his prophecy, and that
they were done by Pashhur. Then it says: on the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of
the pit. And Jeremiah, once brought out, said to Pashhur: the Lord did not give you the
name Pashhur. Another name has been set on you. As Jacob was given Israel, as Abram was
given Abraham, as Sarah was given Sarra, so he has given you the name Exile [or:
Sojourner]. And the reason he has called you Exile is that the Lord says: “See, I am
giving you over to exile, together with all”—with whom? Not with your wife, your sons and
your daughters, but with your friends. And when you are given over to exile, your friends
will fall by the sword. Then, as though there were a difference for those who fall by the
sword, whether they fall by the sword of enemies or by the sword of others, it says that
the friends of the man who threw Jeremiah into the pit will fall by the sword of their
enemies.

11b “And your eyes,” it says, “will see these things that are prophesied. But I will give
you and all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon,” after your friends have suffered
these things. They will carry them off into exile in Babylon and cut them down. For they
will cut down the king of Judah and the people of Judah with the sword, and this time the
words “of their enemies” are no longer added, as they were in the earlier case of those
who were called friends of Pashhur. Then it says: “And I will give all the strength of
this city, and all the treasures of the king of Judah, and all the labors of this city
into the hands of their enemies.” The enemies will plunder the treasures, take what has
been mentioned, and lead Judah and its king away to Babylon. “And you, Pashhur, and all
who live in your house, go into captivity in Babylon. There you will die, and there you
will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied lies.” The whole passage
needed to be cut short and made clear. I am not yet speaking of its deep meaning (if we
are able to take that in at all), but only of its wording and the plain statement itself.
Even an ordinary reader, who looks carefully at the letters and does not read casually,
can understand it that far. What then do these words intend? Here is the struggle: to set
out the purpose of these writings. And I admit that on my own I cannot explain them. I
need, as I said before, the appearing of the power of Jesus, in so far as he is wisdom, in
so far as he is word, in so far as he is truth, so that his appearing may make light upon
the face of my soul.

12a [The text is missing here.] The magicians of the Egyptians also had staffs, which were
meant to discredit the staffs of Moses and Aaron as not coming from God. But the staffs
that come from God overturn those of the sophists and magicians: “Aaron’s swallowed them
up.” For his staff was enough for this even without the staff of Moses. So Pashhur “struck
Jeremiah the prophet,” and he did it in keeping with his character: “and he struck
Jeremiah the prophet.” The words “the prophet” are added as well. Here, then, the man who
struck Jeremiah struck the prophet. It is also recorded in Acts that someone struck Paul,
ordered to do so by Ananias the high priest. That is why Paul said, “God is going to
strike you, you whitewashed wall.” Even to this day the Ebionites, commanded by a lawless
high priest of the word, strike the apostle of Jesus Christ with abusive words. And Paul
says to such a high priest of the word, “God is going to strike you.” Such a high priest
looks handsome on the outside, and is a whitewashed wall. Christ says: “I gave my back to
the whips, my cheeks to the slaps, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of
spitting.”

12b Simple believers understand this as referring only to that one time, when Pilate
scourged him and the Jews plotted against him. But I see Jesus every day “giving his back
to the whips.” Go into the synagogues of the Jews, and see Jesus being scourged by them
with the tongue of blasphemy. See those gathered from the nations, plotting against
Christians, working out how they may seize Jesus; and he “gives his own back to the
whips.” Consider the Word of God being insulted, slandered, hated by unbelievers. See that
“he gave his cheeks to slaps.” He taught that if someone strikes you on the cheek, you
should turn the other as well, and he does this himself. So many strike and scourge him,
and he is silent and does not speak. For it is written that he did not speak while he was
being scourged. And to this day Jesus has not “turned his face away from the shame of
spitting.” Who among those who treat the teaching with contempt does not, in a sense, spit
even now on Jesus, who puts up with it?

13a Now that the prophet has been struck, it follows that we should tell of others who
were struck, such as the apostle and anyone else who has been struck, and so set beside
them what concerns Jesus himself. So “Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and threw him
into the cataract that was in the gate of Benjamin of the upper room.” The cataract
belonged to the upper room of Benjamin. Jerusalem, where God’s temple stands, is in the
inheritance of Benjamin. Anyone who can listen to the divine readings will find this in
the inheritance as recorded in the book of Joshua son of Nun. Since the temple was in the
inheritance of Benjamin, whose name means “Son of the right hand” (for nothing about the
temple of God is on the left), he threw him “into the cataract that was in the gate of
Benjamin of the upper room of the house of the Lord.” Since there was an “upper room in
the house of the Lord,” he “threw” the prophet “into the cataract.” Let us also pray that
we may now take Jeremiah and bring him up into the upper room “in the house of the Lord.”
I will show from Scripture that the upper room stands for the mind that is high and lifted
up, because Scripture bears witness of the saints that they received the prophets into
upper rooms. In the third book of Kingdoms it is recorded that a widow received Elijah the
prophet at Zarephath in the region of Sidon, and she lodged the prophet “in her upper
room.” And in the fourth book, the woman who received Elisha prepared a room for him in
the upper chamber. The sinner Ahaziah, on the other hand, fell from the upper room. Jesus
also commands you not to come down from the housetop. For he says that when such and such
things happen, “then let the one on the housetop not come down to take what is in his
house.” The one who flees in persecutions is not forbidden to go up onto the housetop; he
is told not to “come down from the housetop to take what is in his house.” It is good,
then, to be in upper rooms, good to be on housetops and to find oneself somewhere high up.
And the wonderful apostles too, as it is recorded of them in Acts, when they were together
and devoted themselves to prayer and to the word of God, were in an upper room.

13b And because they were in an upper room, they were not down below. That is why “tongues
as of fire appeared to them, distributing themselves.” Peter also, when he was sending up
his prayer to God, “went up on the roof.” If he had not gone up on the roof, he would not
have seen “a vessel coming down from heaven, like a linen sheet, let down from heaven by
four corners.” And she who did the acts of charity, “Tabitha, which when translated is
called Dorcas,” was not down below either, but “in the upper room.” Peter went up there
and raised her from the dead. Jesus also was about to celebrate this feast, of which we
keep the symbol in the Passover, with his disciples. They asked him, “Where do you want us
to prepare the Passover for you?” He said, “As you go, a man carrying a jar of water will
meet you. Follow him. He will show you a large upper room, spread with couches, swept and
ready. Prepare the Passover there.” So no one who keeps the Passover [as Jesus does, with
Jesus] is down below. He is up in a large upper room, a swept upper room, an upper room
that is adorned and ready. And if you go up with him to celebrate the Passover, he gives
you the cup of the new covenant. He gives you the bread of blessing as well, and he freely
gives you his own body and his own blood. For this reason we urge you: “Go up to the
height; lift up your eyes on high.” And as for me, if I teach the divine word, the Word
says: “Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion. Lift up your voice with
strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem. Lift it up, do not be afraid.” I say all
this because of Pashhur. There was “an upper room in the house of the Lord, at the gate of
Benjamin,” right at hand. Yet he did not bring the prophet up to the upper room. Instead
he “threw him into the cataract,” down below.

14a “And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the cataract.” O
Lord Jesus, come again! Make these things clear to me, and to those who have come for
spiritual food. How is it that “on the next day” he brings “Jeremiah out of the cataract”?
For as long as today lasts (and “today” is this whole present age), the sinner throws the
prophet down into the cataract. But when the present day stops and tomorrow comes, then he
repents and brings him out of the cataract. Then Jeremiah tells him what Pashhur will
suffer. What does he say to him? “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but Migrant.
For thus says the Lord.” This Pashhur, as his sins deserve, is going to be carried off to
Babylon. He will not go alone but with his friends. For he is handed over to
Nebuchadnezzar, goes off into Confusion, and is punished for his sins, because he “threw
the prophet into the cataract.” Who, then, are the friends of Pashhur, whose name goes
with the blackness of the mouth? They are all who accepted his words, who were blackened
together with his blackened mouth, who took in the teachings of blackness. “And they will
fall by the sword of their enemies.” Those appointed over the punishments are the ones who
hold the swords and [drink and] make them fall. The Word prophesies about them and says,
“And your eyes will see.” These things that are prophesied, he says, “your eyes will see.”
“And I will give you and all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon.” Whoever in Judah
is found so sinful as to be worthy of the king of Babylon, of Confusion, will be handed
over to him. And the king of Babylon takes those who sin. By the historical account the
king of Babylon is Nebuchadnezzar, but by the deeper meaning he is the evil one. The
sinner is handed over to him, since he is both an enemy and an avenger.

14b That the sinner is handed over to him, let Paul teach you. In one place he speaks
about Phygelus and Hermogenes: “whom I handed over to the one who had committed
fornication” [the text seems confused here]. Elsewhere he says: “When you are gathered
together, and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to hand such a
person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in
the day of [the mouth Melania, into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they carry him
off to Babylon].” [The last words are garbled in the Greek and mix Paul’s text with
Jeremiah’s.] “And they will cut them down with the sword. And I will give all the strength
of this city.” It is easy to say that this is prophesied about Jerusalem. All its
strength, and everything brought into it, was then handed over to the king of the
Babylonians. It is easy to say that this is prophesied about “this city,” which in the
days of the Savior was handed over to its enemies. The sons of Jerusalem went into
captivity, and the city was torn down. But if you examine the matter and look at the city
as made not of stones but of people, you will see that those people, that Jerusalem, were
handed over “into the hands of the king of Babylon” because of their impiety and sin
against Christ. And you are Jerusalem now. So if the word now threatens Jerusalem, be
afraid. If you sin, you are a sinful Jerusalem, and you may be handed over, so that you
are no longer Jerusalem but become Babylon and Confusion, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of the
Babylonians, takes you. “And all the labors” of Jerusalem he hands over. How does he hand
over “all the labors”? If after training and struggling you fall away and sin, all your
labors have come into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. How are they all your labors? If you
fall after toiling much for the truth, it will be said to you: “Did you suffer so many
things for nothing?” Those who know that they have drawn up many labors for virtue’s sake
ought especially to be afraid. They should fear that, [when they have become Jerusalem]
and some sin has happened, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, may [take] their labors.

14c To help you see more clearly how Nebuchadnezzar takes the labors of Jerusalem when she
sins, I will use what is written in Ezekiel, which reads like this: “If the righteous man
turns away from his righteous deeds and commits a transgression, I will not remember his
righteous deeds which he did.” Why? Because Nebuchadnezzar takes the righteous deeds that
were done with labor, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, wipes them out. “And all
the honor” of Jerusalem he takes. This is when a person has been given honor by God, and
“being in honor” “did not understand” and sinned. So if you know you are in honor, and you
were called to that honor, and then you dishonor yourself again through your sins, the
Babylonian king takes the honor of Jerusalem. “And all the treasures of the king of
Judah.” Jerusalem is rich, but if she sins, the Babylonian takes her treasures. “And they
will plunder them and take them and bring them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who
live in your house, go into captivity in Babylon, and there you will die, and there you
will be buried.” The one caught in Confusion dies in Babylon. And the one who is set
against being buried together with Christ is buried in Babylon. For there is also a good
burial with Christ, through baptism, as in “we were buried with Christ, and we were raised
with him.” Being buried with Christ is a mystery. In the same way it is a mystery, [when
it happens] through lawlessness, for someone who is a sinner to be buried in Babylon. “And
all your friends,” he says, “to whom you prophesied lies, will go there.” Whoever explains
the words of God badly, and throws the prophetic words into the pit, does prophesy, but he
prophesies lies. For when someone explains the prophetic words, if he speaks truly, he
himself also prophesies, and prophesies true things. But if he lies, he is a false
prophet, speaking falsely about the prophetic words.

15a Now the first passage is finished, so let us begin the second. Right from its opening
words it contains matters of no small importance. As we pay attention to the text, let us
again ask Jesus to come. Let us urge him to come more visibly and more brightly, so that
when he comes he may teach all of us whether the prophet was speaking the truth in what
follows, as we ought to think of a prophet, or was lying, which it is not right to say of
a holy prophet. He says to God: “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You took hold
of me and you prevailed. I became a laughingstock; all day long I have gone on being
mocked. For I will laugh at my bitter word; I will call upon faithlessness and misery. For
the word of the Lord has become a reproach to me and a mockery all day long. And I said, I
will not name the name of the Lord, and I will not speak any more in his name. And it
became in my heart like a burning fire, blazing in my bones. I am worn out on every side
and cannot bear it, for I heard the slander of many gathering around me.” They were
obviously saying: “Rise up, and let us rise up against him, you men who are his friends.
Watch for his scheme, to see whether he will be deceived. Then we will be able to overcome
him and take our vengeance on him.” But while they were saying these things, the prophet
says: “And the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior. Therefore they pursued, and they
could not understand. They were greatly ashamed, because they did not understand their
dishonors, which will never be forgotten.” This is the second passage of the reading. How,
then, can the prophet say, “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived”? Does God deceive?
I am at a loss how to handle this text. If, out of regard for God and his word, I look for
anything fitting to say about him, what I am going to say needs a generous and careful
handling. The prophet speaks as one who has ceased to be deceived. He says, “You deceived
me, Lord, and I was deceived,” as though his first schooling and introduction had come to
him through deception. It is as though he could not be schooled in the basics and brought
into godliness unless he were deceived first, so that later he might come to recognize the
deception.

15b One useful example is enough for the matter before us. We speak to children as we
guide them. We do not speak to them as to adults. We speak to them as to children who need
training. We deceive children by frightening them, so that they stop the undisciplined
behavior of children. We frighten them by telling tales of deception, because of what
belongs to their childishness. By deception we make them afraid, so that they go to their
teachers, recite their lessons, and do what suits the progress of children. We are all
children to God, and we need the upbringing that children need. For this reason God, in
sparing us, deceives us, even if we do not perceive the deception in time. His purpose is
that, once we have grown beyond infancy, we are no longer trained by deception but by
actual events. A child is led to fear in one way, and a person who has advanced in age and
passed beyond childhood is led in another. For if I am able to guide him by deception
[text uncertain], then God who deceives may say, “I will train them by the hearing of
their affliction.” I will set out accounts of how God deceives for salvation, and speaks
to someone so that the sinner stops doing what he would have done if he had not heard
certain words. Take the one who said, “Yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Was
he speaking the truth, or was he not speaking the truth, but deceiving with a deception
that turns people around? If that turning around had not happened, it would no longer have
been a deception but already the truth of what was said, and the overthrow would have
followed for Nineveh. It was up to the hearers. Either they were deceived and believed
what was said as true, and so were benefited and not overthrown. Or, if what was said had
not come true and they had not been deceived but had realized that it would not happen,
they would have despised what was said as a deception. Then they would have suffered not
“Yet three days and Nineveh will be overthrown,” but, I dare to say, things much harsher
than that.

15c For the Ninevites had sinned. If they had not repented, then perhaps “Yet three days
and Nineveh will be overthrown” would have happened. But suppose that this had not
happened; something worse would have happened: they would have been handed over to eternal
fire. For this reason a different punishment is stated in the law for those who are being
trained like children. But for those to whom “the fullness of time” has come, other
punishments are written down. Compare the punishments of sinners under the law with the
punishments of sinners under the gospel, and you will see that those people, like infants,
heard of punishments suited to infants, while we, as those who have come of age, hear of
harsher punishments. If a man or a woman was an adulterer back then, the threat was not
Gehenna, not eternal fire, but this: “he shall be stoned with stones”; “let the whole
congregation stone him.” The adulterer found among those people, the adulteress found
among them, will say when departing: “If only the word had said this of me as well: the
people threw stones at me, and I was not being kept for the eternal fire!” For not only
the adulterer but also the one who says to his brother “Fool!” is “liable to the Gehenna
of fire.” But if the one who says “Fool!” to his brother “will be liable to the Gehenna of
fire,” what will the adulterer be liable to? I look for some punishment greater than the
Gehenna of fire. And perhaps I would say that Gehenna is for involuntary sins, for those
who can be cleansed. But just as, for the good, the righteous, “what God has prepared for
those who love him has not entered the heart of man,” so what he has prepared for sinners,
for fornicating and committing adultery, “has not entered the heart of man.” For if what
makes the one who says “Fool!” to his brother liable had entered the heart, it is clear
that what has been prepared for those who have sinned in worse ways is greater than
anything that enters the heart.

15d I cannot conceive of anything greater than Gehenna; I only believe that what has been
prepared for adulterers is something greater than Gehenna. In this way I come also to the
remaining punishments under the law. And I take an apostolic saying that agrees with these
and that stays silent about my punishment if I sin, since I do not want to accept “You
deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived” and be rightly deceived. But what does the apostle
say? “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two
or three witnesses. How much worse a punishment, do you think, will he be thought worthy
of who has trampled on the Son of God?” Name the punishment, Paul; tell us what it is. But
he says, “I do not state it.” The punishment of those who sin under the gospel is greater
than what is said, greater than what is heard, greater than what is imagined. For this
reason the prophet was brought in like a child: he heard, and was afraid, and was
disciplined, and after this was brought to maturity, saying: “You deceived me, Lord, and I
was deceived.” And you also, as long as you are a child, fear the threats, so that you do
not suffer what lies beyond the threats: the eternal punishments, the unquenchable fire,
or perhaps something even greater than that, which is laid up for those who have lived
beyond the bounds of the right word. May we never experience any of these things. Instead,
being brought to maturity in Christ Jesus, may we be justified in a way worthy of the
heavenly feasts and of the Passover there, in the ascent in Christ Jesus, to whom belong
the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.


HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH
====================

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH continued

HOMILY 20

1a Everything that is written about God, even when it looks unfitting on the surface, must
be understood in a way that is worthy of a good God. Who would not say it is unfitting to
attribute to God that he has anger, that he uses wrath, that he repents, or even that he
sleeps? Yet each of these, in the hands of someone who knows how to hear “dark sayings,”
will be found worthy of God. His anger is not fruitless. As his word trains us, so his
anger trains us too. Those who have not been trained by the word he trains by anger. So
God must use what is called anger just as he uses what is called the Word. For his Word is
not the kind of thing that everyone else’s word is. No one else’s word is “a living
being.” No one else’s word is “God.” No one else’s word was “in the beginning” with the
one whose word it was, even if it is only [from some beginning]. In the same way, God’s
anger is called anger, but not as anyone else’s anger is. And just as the Word of God has
something foreign about it compared with every other word whatever (he is God, he is a
living Word, he has his own existence, he serves the Father), so too, since what is called
God’s anger has once been given that name, it has something foreign and quite different
from the anger of anyone we could define. His wrath likewise has something peculiar to it.
It belongs to the purpose of one who rebukes in wrath, wishing the person rebuked to turn
back through the rebuke.

1b The word also rebukes, just as the word trains. But the word does not rebuke in the way
wrath rebukes. Those who have not been helped by the rebuke that comes from the word will
need the rebuke that comes from wrath. We said that there is also a repentance of God that
looks unfitting on the surface, since it is written: “I have repented that I anointed Saul
as king.” You must investigate this repentance in a worthy way. Do not suppose that his
repenting has any kinship with the repenting of those who repent. As his word had
something set apart, and his anger, and his wrath had something surpassing, and none of
them was akin to the things that share their names, so his repentance shares only a name
with our repentance. Things are “homonyms” when only the name is common, while the account
of the essence that goes with the name is different. So only the name is common between
the wrath of God and the wrath of anyone else, and only the name is common between
anyone’s anger and the anger of God. We must understand repentance in the same way. Anyone
who can should ask what God’s repentance accomplishes, and what it accomplished. It
brought down Saul, who was reigning lawlessly, and raised up for the people a king after
God’s own heart. For because of that good repentance he said: “I have found a man after my
heart, David, son of Jesse.” But all this is only my introduction, because the reading
from Jeremiah begins like this: “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.”

2a We are asking whether it works like this. Everyone else’s wrath is evil, but God’s
wrath is meant to expose and correct. Everyone else’s anger is harsh, but what is called
God’s anger is meant to train. The regret of any of us accuses the weakness of the one
[who acted] before the regret. But in God’s case his regret does not accuse God. It speaks
of the outward circumstances that prompt the regret. In the same way we must understand
that God’s deception is of a different kind from our deception, the kind by which we
deceive. So what is this deception from God? The prophet understood it. When he stopped
being deceived, and knew the benefit of having been deceived, he said, “You deceived me,
Lord, and I was deceived.” First I will use a Hebrew tradition that reached us through a
man who had fled because of faith in Christ. He had come up from the law and had come to
the place where we live. He told a story that may look like a myth or may be a sound
account able to win over those who hear it, as a way into the words “You deceived me,
Lord, and I was deceived.” He said something like this. God does not rule as a tyrant but
as a king. As king he does not use force but persuades. He wants those under him to give
themselves willingly to his plan, so that a person’s goodness comes from willing choice
and not from compulsion. Paul knew this, and wrote to Philemon about Onesimus in the
letter to Philemon: “that your good deed might not be by compulsion but of your own free
will.”

2b So the God of the universe could have worked in us what is thought of as good, so that
we gave alms by compulsion and practiced self-control by compulsion. But he did not wish
to. For this reason he does not command us to do what we do out of grief or compulsion, so
that what is done may be voluntary. He looks, so to speak, for a way for someone to do
willingly what God wants. The tradition told me something like this. God wanted to send
Jeremiah to prophesy to all the nations, and before all the nations, to the people. But
the prophecies were rather grim, for they announced punishments, by which each person
would be punished according to what he deserved. God also knew the prophet’s inclination,
that he did not want to prophesy the worse things to the people of Israel. So he arranged
to say: “Take this cup, and you shall give it to drink to all the nations to whom I send
you.” God commanded Jeremiah to take a cup. To encourage him to take the cup of unmixed
wine, he said, “And I will send you to all the nations, with this cup of unmixed wine.”
Jeremiah heard that he was being sent to all the nations to serve them a cup of anger, a
cup of punishments. He did not suspect that Israel too would have to drink from the cup of
punishment. So he was deceived and took the cup in order to give all the nations a drink.
Once he had taken the cup, he heard: “And you shall first give drink to [text missing].”

2c He had expected one thing, and something else met him. About this he says, “You
deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.” Isaiah gave a similar account. He too did not know
what he would be commanded to say to the people. He hears God saying, as it is written,
“Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?” He answered, it says, “Here I am;
send me.” Then he hears: “Go and say to this people: You will hear with your ears and
never understand, and you will look and look and never see. For the heart of this people
has grown fat,” and so on. Since he did not know what he would prophesy, or that he would
have to threaten the people with such things, he said, “Here I am; send me.” Because of
this, it says, in what follows there is “a voice of [a lion; perhaps ‘of one speaking’]:
Cry out.” And he did not answer as one eager to do what was commanded. He said, “What
shall I cry?” For he was afraid that he might again hear what he heard in the earlier
prophecy: “Go and say to this people: You will hear with your ears and never understand.”
“What then shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of
grass,” and so on. In these words he heard nothing against Israel. This is what that man
told us, handing down the meaning of “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.”

3a (Jer 19) For my part, I pray that what I receive from those who teach me I will not
merely keep. I pray that I will not bury the talent in the ground, as the passage says,
nor tie up in a cloth the mina of those who teach something useful. Instead I pray to
multiply the lessons I receive from the one who hands them on and is able to hand on what
is useful. I pray to make the mina, whether of the gospel, or of an apostle, or of a
prophet, or of the law, yield many times over. So when I heard these words, I began to
think to myself about “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.” And as I think about
it, I pray to find something true for this passage. Perhaps it is like this. A father
wants to deceive his son, who is still a small child, for the child’s good, because the
child cannot be helped in any other way unless he is deceived. A doctor works to deceive a
sick man who cannot be healed unless he accepts words of deception. In the same way the
God of all acts, since he has set before himself the benefit of the human race. Let the
doctor say to the sick man, “You must be cut, you must be cauterized, you must suffer
other, harsher things.” The patient would not hand himself over. So sometimes the doctor
says something else. He hides the cutting iron, the blade that divides, under a sponge.
Again, if I may put it this way, he hides the nature of what is bitter, the unpleasant
medicine, under honey. He wants not to harm but to heal the one he is treating. The whole
of divine Scripture is full of such medicines. Some are good things that are hidden, and
some are bitter things that are hidden. Suppose you see a father threatening his son as if
he hated him, speaking fearful words to him and not showing his affection, but hiding his
love for his son. You will see that he wants to deceive the child. For it is not good for
the son to know his father’s love, his friendly disposition. The boy would go slack and
would not be trained. For this reason the father hides the sweetness of his affection and
shows the bitterness of his threat. God does something like this, in proportion, as a
father and as a doctor.

3b There are some bitter things that heal even the most righteous and the wisest man. [The
text seems to have a gap here.] For everyone who has sinned must be punished for his sins.
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked.” “Whether fornicator or adulterer, or effeminate,
or homosexual, or thief, or drunkard, or slanderer, or swindler, they will not inherit the
kingdom of God.” If this is understood and taken exactly, by people who cannot see the
doctor’s iron under the sponge, by people who cannot perceive the bitter medicine under
the honey, someone will lose heart. For which of us is not aware in himself of having
drunk without good judgment and been drunk? Which of us is clean from theft, and from
failing to provide what is needed as one ought? Yet see what the word says: “Do not be
deceived, for these will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The mystery in this passage has
to be hidden, so that the many do not lose heart, so that they do not learn the facts and
expect their departure from this life to be not a rest but a punishment. For who will be
found to be a Paul, able to say, “It is far better to depart and be with Christ”? My own
wood must be burned in me. For I know that if I depart, my own wood must be burned in me.
And what wood do I have? I have slanders for wood, I have drunken bouts for wood, thefts
for wood, and countless other pieces of wood I have built into my building. You see that
all this escapes the notice of most believers, and it is well that it does. Each of us
supposes that because he has not worshiped idols and has not committed fornication (if
only we were clean at least in such matters!), he will be saved when he leaves this life.
Do we not see that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each
may receive what is due for what he did through the body, whether good or bad”? Do we not
see the one who said, “You only have I known out of all the tribes of the earth; therefore
I will take vengeance on you for all your practices”? He did not say some of them and not
others.

3c So then, the doctor sometimes hides his surgical knife under a soft, gentle sponge. The
father also hides his tender affection behind the look of a threat. Some deceptions remove
fatty growths and swollen veins and anything else that harms the make-up of the body;
another removes a child’s lack of discipline and softness. The prophet understood God to
be doing something of this kind in a hidden way. He saw how he had been deceived by God
for his good, and he says, “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.” God brought him to
so great a grace that he prayed and said to God, “Deceive me, if that is for my benefit.”
For the deception that comes from God is one thing, and the deception that comes from the
serpent is another. Notice what the woman says to God: “The serpent deceived me, and I
ate.” The serpent’s deception drove Adam and his wife out of God’s paradise. But the
deception that came to the prophet who said, “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived,”
brought him to so great a grace of prophecy: it increased the power in him, it brought him
to maturity, and it enabled him to serve the purpose of God’s word without fearing any
human being. So let us also understand these things, and let us pray, for the present and
for the future, to be deceived by God. Only let the serpent not deceive us. Something
related is written elsewhere, for it is said in Isaiah: “For the Lord mixed for them a
spirit of error.” You will stop there too and consider what the spirit of error does when
it is mixed by God. And it is fitting that God did not give the spirit of error undiluted;
rather, as the prophet put it, he mixed it.

4a I want to take a risk and give an example of people who were helped by being deceived.
There are some who practise purity and chastity for this reason, and others who practise
being married only once, because they expected that a person who has had marital relations
would be lost, and that a person who has married twice would be lost. Let us compare the
cases themselves. What is better for the woman who has married only once: to be deceived,
to suppose that a twice-married woman is punished and handed over to eternal punishment,
and so to stay married only once and pure, or to know the truth and marry a second time? I
think anyone who sees the consequence can say this: it would be more blessed to stay pure
and not marry twice without being deceived, and to see that the twice-married woman does
share in some salvation, though not in as great a blessedness as the one who could have
married twice and kept herself pure. But if she cannot do this, it is better to be
deceived, thinking that the twice-married are lost, and to remain pure because of the
deception, than to have known the truth and to have come to be in the lesser rank, that of
the twice-married. You will find something like this also in some who practise complete
chastity and purity. Many other things could be found that we do under a deception and
that benefit us. And how many people who are thought wise have found the truth about
punishment, and have gone through the matter of the deception, so to speak, and have ended
up living worse lives? It would have profited them to think as they did before, about
“their worm will not die,” and that “their fire will not be quenched,” and that “they will
be a sight for all flesh,” and that “the chaff will be burned up with unquenchable fire.”
But if they imagine something different from their first understanding, and so are “about
to despise the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance and patience,” see whether it is not
true that, just because they did not seem to have been deceived, they stored up for
themselves “wrath on the day of wrath, of revelation and of God’s righteous judgment.”
They would not have stored it up if they had been deceived.

4b All this is said because of the deception that comes from God, since the prophet said,
“You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.” Let us now look separately at the words “I
was deceived.” Why did he not say only, “You deceived me, Lord,” but add, “and I was
deceived”? Sometimes one person may be working a deception while another is on guard and
is not deceived. But when one person works at deceiving and the other does not guard
himself against being deceived, and falls into the deception, then he might say, “You
deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.” Now if I were in the prophet’s place, I might say
something like this. Whatever the serpent says to me, whether he tells me the truth or
wants to deceive me, I am suspicious of his words. I am convinced that, whether he
deceives me or speaks truly, he harms me. Even his truth does harm. Nothing useful comes
from the serpent, since “a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” But whatever God says to me,
and I am persuaded that it is God who speaks, I am ready to give myself over to him. If he
speaks the truth, I accept it. If he wants to deceive me, I am willingly deceived; let God
alone deceive me. And because I give myself over, persuaded that it is God who speaks,
even to being deceived, and because I do not pry, wanting to be deceived not by another
but by God, I therefore say: “Not only did you work the deception, but I also underwent
being deceived by you.” In this sense I say, “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.”
And what follows when God is the one deceiving and a human being the one deceived? “You
prevailed and you were able.” Once he has prevailed, he is able. But if he does not
prevail, then I need labors. “You prevailed and you were able.”

5a Next he says: “I came to the passage...” I heard these things: that Jeremiah lived in
the times of the most sinful people (in his days, at any rate, the captivity took place).
They were so sinful that they mocked and laughed and jeered whenever the prophet spoke the
prophetic opening, “Thus says the Lord.” Those who heard laughed and mocked what was said.
So the one who had been deceived, and had been helped by being deceived, took care not to
say “Thus says the Lord.” For this reason he himself, wanting to deceive for the sake of
their benefit, said: “I am speaking to you my own words, since you do not listen to the
words of the Lord.” Then they lent their ears as if to the words of Jeremiah, and they
were hearing the words of God. The man who handed the passage down to me told me these
things, as he examined the openings and beginnings of the prophecies. So the beginning of
Jeremiah’s prophecy is, in our version, as the Seventy handed it down (I do not know what
they had in view): “The word of God that came to Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, of the
priests.” But in the Hebrew and the remaining editions it is: “Words of Jeremiah, son of
Hilkiah.” All of them agree in saying, “Words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah.” Why then
“words of Jeremiah”? Because his opening, in speaking to those unwilling to listen, was:
“Hear my words.” We too sometimes do such things when it seems useful to us. At times we
bring words to people from the nations, wanting to bring them to the faith. If we see that
they are prejudiced against Christianity, that they loathe the name and hate to hear “This
is a Christian word,” we do not pretend that we are speaking a Christian word, though it
is a useful one.

5b But when we have built up that speech as well as we can, and we think we are winning
the hearer, who has not listened to what was said in a casual way, then we admit that this
praiseworthy speech was a speech of Christians. We do something close to what the prophet
did when he no longer said, “Thus says the Lord,” but, “Hear the words of me, Jeremiah.”
All this is because of the words, “I became a laughingstock.” And do we get angry if we
are ever laughed at while we are speaking, when a man like Jeremiah says, “I became a
laughingstock; all day long I was continually mocked”? Why do I say Jeremiah? My own Jesus
was mocked too. For it says, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these
things, and they mocked him.” But the Lord mocks all who mock the words of God. “I became
a laughingstock.” See what kinds of lives the prophets lived. At one moment they were
laughed at, at another they were in danger, struck down and stoned by the people, killed,
hated, driven out. They suffered and endured all of this so that, in keeping with God’s
will, seeking the glory that comes from the One alone, they might proclaim the word and
reach the end that comes from God. “All day long I was continually mocked.” He spent the
day being mocked.

6a “For at my bitter word I will laugh.” Laughter is a kind of promise, and the patriarch
Isaac is named after that promise, for his name is translated “Laughter.” That laughter is
a promise is clear from the words, “Blessed are those who weep now”; the promise is “for
they will laugh.” Just as there is a promise, “They will be called sons of God,” and “They
will see God,” and “They will inherit the earth,” and “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven,”
so laughter is a promise. The opposite of that promise is the weeping of the one who is
called blessed. But you will ask whether, in this good laughter, the weeping that is
blessed fits with it in one sense or another, while a different weeping is set against it,
the weeping kept in store for those who are pitied for the opposite reasons. For it says,
“Woe to those who laugh now, for they will mourn and weep.” So the weeping that is blessed
is one thing, and the weeping stored up for those who have lived badly is another. Whether
that second weeping also has some useful end, I do not know. Why do I say this? Hear Paul.
He taught, and he worked at it, saying that he grieved his hearers. And he admits that he
was most glad just when someone was grieved by him. For he says, “And who is it that makes
me glad, if not the one who is grieved by me?” And if anyone is able to move the soul of a
hearer who has sinned greatly, he prays to speak words of this kind. Spoken with power,
with order, with divinity and with holy thoughts, they will shake the soul of the hearer
and move him to mourning, to weeping and to tears. So the speaker rejoices [when he sees
the audience delighted and full of what is said].

6b For when a speaker leads people toward the promises, as “through the narrow and hard
way” of sorrow “to life,” he leads them through weeping to the laughter that is called
blessed. But when he does not achieve this, I am afraid that he may be saying something
like this: “Woe to those who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.” Why have I said this
to you? I wanted to hint at what he means by “at my bitter word I will laugh.” I wanted to
show a laughter that comes out of weeping, and the other weeping which those who laugh
here will weep, perhaps because God is working to produce weeping in them. For “there will
be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” And God works this because he sees that the one
who weeps over his own sins, who laments over his own lawless acts, has already come to a
true awareness of his own evils. If only each one of us would say, over each sin, “Every
night I will wash my bed; with my tears I will drench my couch.” If only each of us,
weeping over his own sins, would say, “My tears have become my bread day and night.” If my
word is rather bitter here, and bitter because I am distressed for their sake, then the
hearers are put off. Those who are rebuked are burdened by the speaker. But I know that
the end of my bitter word is to laugh, and to laugh with the laughter of the blessed. The
prophet perhaps knew this when he said, “At my bitter word I will laugh.” Already there is
“a bitter word,” but I do not yet laugh. “At my bitter word I will laugh.”

7a “I will call upon faithlessness and misery.” The righteous man calls upon God; the
unrighteous man also calls upon wisdom. For it says, “It will be that when you call upon
me, I will not listen to you.” That is said of the unrighteous. And it is clear that the
righteous also call upon wisdom at times: “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord
will be saved.” Here, though, the prophet says, “I will call upon faithlessness and
misery,” as if he called upon faithlessness the way one calls upon God, and upon misery
the way one calls upon the Lord. Is it a good thing you are calling upon, Jeremiah, when
you announce, “I will call upon faithlessness and misery”? But we must consider the
agreements we make and the breaking of them, because there are times when one makes an
agreement badly. And after making a bad agreement, I wish we would call upon
faithlessness. So too, if I consider “the wide and roomy road that leads to destruction,”
and see that I am not miserable while I travel on it, then I move away “from the wide and
roomy road” and come “to the narrow and constricted one.” There I become miserable, and I
say, “I will call upon misery.” I am about to break the agreements I made with the world
and worldly things, so that I may take up heavenly agreements. “I will call upon
faithlessness.” So I leave “the wide and roomy road” and come “to the narrow and
constricted one,” so that I may become miserable as Paul was, and I say, “I will call upon
misery.” For not every person will say, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from
this body of death?” Only the one who has understood the body of death, the one who wants
to be rescued from this body of death, will say, “Wretched man that I am.”

7b But the lover of the body, the common sort of man, who does not believe in the age to
come, does not say, “Wretched man that I am.” He counts himself happy to be a man, and
happy to be in the body of death. So if I can understand how Paul came to say, “Wretched
man that I am,” though I have not yet called upon misery, I will call upon it by breaking
the agreements I made with wickedness, and I will say as Jeremiah did, “I will call upon
faithlessness and misery.” For he did not say, “I will call upon faithlessness toward
God.” I want to give an example from Scripture of a righteous person breaking agreements,
to show how that person by deed called upon faithlessness. Judith made an agreement with
Holofernes: for so many days she would go out and pray to God, and after those days she
would give herself to the bed of Holofernes. Holofernes accepted this agreement. He let
Judith go outside the camp to pray. What ought Judith to have done? Keep the agreement or
break it? All agree: break it. For to break the agreements made with Holofernes was a
blessed thing before God. Judith was about to break her agreements with Holofernes; she
was about to say, “I will call upon faithlessness.” And she did call upon faithlessness. I
wish that I too might become such a person, that I might say, “I will call upon
faithlessness,” and call upon faithlessness toward the serpent, toward the devil. The
serpent once made an agreement with Eve, and the serpent was a friend to the woman, and
she to him. But God, being good, arranged for this agreement to be dissolved and this evil
friendship to be broken up. And as a good God he says, “I will put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your seed and her seed.”

7c So let us listen with good sense to how God creates enmity toward one party, in order
to create friendship toward Christ. It is impossible to be a friend of opposites at the
same time. Just as “no one can serve two masters,” so no one can be a friend both of God
and of mammon, a friend both of Christ and of the serpent. Friendship with Christ must
create enmity toward the serpent, and friendship with the serpent must breed enmity toward
Christ. “I will call upon faithlessness and misery.” To help you understand better the
words “I will call upon misery,” I will describe something that happens to those who
practice self-discipline. Often a man has the chance to marry and avoid trouble, while the
flesh rises up against the spirit. Yet he chooses not to use his freedom to marry. He
chooses instead to suffer hardship and toil, to “batter the body with fasting” and bring
it into slavery by abstaining from certain foods, and in every way to “put to death the
deeds of the body” by the spirit. Has such a person not called upon misery, when he could
have given himself over to luxury and pleasure and not called upon misery at all? So if
anyone is able to imitate the prophet, let him call upon faithlessness, as we have
explained, and let him also call upon misery in his disciplines. It also happens that the
account about Jeremiah is true, that he lived in purity. For the Lord said to him, “You
shall not take a wife, and you shall not have children.” And he lived in purity. For he
called upon faithlessness and misery.

8a “Because the word of the Lord has become to me a reproach.” Blessed is Jeremiah, who
had no other reproach than the word of the Lord. But we, wretched as we are, have
reproaches that come not from the word of the Lord but from our own sins. We are
reproached for the things in which we stumble and have stumbled, and we are abused for our
wickedness. The Savior does not want us to be reproached in that way. He says, “Blessed
are you when they reproach you and persecute you and say every evil word against you for
my sake.” “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy.” So he says, “The word of the Lord has
become to me a reproach and a mockery all day long.” Then notice how honest the prophets
are. They do not hide their own sins, as we do. They speak of sins committed not only in
their own time but in all generations. I myself hesitate to confess my sins before the few
who are here, because those who hear me will condemn me. But Jeremiah felt no shame over
something he had suffered that was sinful. He wrote down his own sin. What follows in the
passage was a sin: “And I said, I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer
speak in his name.” You were taught to do everything in the name of the Lord, to act in
the name of God. Yet you say, “I will not name the name of the Lord”? What name will you
name instead? “You shall not remember the name of other gods in your hearts.” And yet you
say, “I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name”? So he
speaks as one who has suffered something human, which we too have often been in danger of
suffering. This is especially so when someone knows in his own conscience that he once
endured hardship, suffering and hatred for the sake of teaching and the word. He often
says, “I am withdrawing. Why should I have all this trouble? If I am in trouble because of
this, because of teaching and putting out the word, why not rather withdraw into solitude
and quiet?”

8b The prophet suffered something like this when he said, “And I said: I will not name the
name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name.” But the Lord is good, for he
prevents sins like this in men of such stature. He did not let the prophet stand by what
he had just said. Even here he made Jeremiah call down “unbelief” on himself, and set
aside what he had said. For he said, “I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no
longer speak in his name.” Then he says, “It became in my heart like a burning fire,
flaming in my bones, and I am helpless on every side and cannot bear it.” The word of the
Lord had become a fire burning his heart. “It became in my heart like a flaming fire,
burning in my bones.” Jeremiah threw off the sin he had committed when he said, “I will
not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name.” And he threw it
off in the very moment he spoke. I wish that I, at the very moment I sin and speak a
sinful word, would feel that a fire had come into my heart, burning and flaming, so that I
could not bear it. The word is about to venture something, though I do not know whether it
is good for such an audience as this. It has said that there is a kind of fire, not a fire
perceived by the senses, which punishes the one punished with such pain that he cannot
bear it. For he said, “It became in my heart like a flaming fire,” and “burning” not only
in my heart but also “in my bones, and I am helpless on every side and cannot bear it.” I
fear that what is laid up for us may be like this: a fire arising as it arose in the heart
of Jeremiah. But we have not experienced it. If we had experienced it, and if the two
fires were set before us, this fire and the outer fire we see in those who are burned by
the rulers of the nations, we would choose that outer fire rather than this one.

8c For that fire burns the surface, but this one burns the heart. Beginning from the
heart, it reaches through all the bones, and passing through the bones it spreads over the
whole person who is burning, and it comes in such a way that the one burning cannot bear
it. Who, under this fire, is able to say, “And I cannot bear it”? I know that even robbers
have managed to endure that other fire, the pain that comes from it. The pain from this
fire is of a different kind, the one Jeremiah described when he said, “And it became in my
heart like a burning fire, flaming in my bones, and I am helpless on every side and cannot
bear it.” The Savior, who said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth,” is the one who
kindles that fire. And because the Savior kindles that fire, for those who begin to listen
to him he begins with the fire, and first casts fire into their heart. This is what Simon
and Cleopas confess when they say, concerning his words, “Was not our heart burning on the
road, as he opened the Scriptures to us?” Here the heart of Simon and of Cleopas is burned
with fire. Hear them as they say, “Was not our heart burning?” 9. Who is worthy now to
receive that fire in the heart, so that he does not receive it there, in the other place?
I want to describe who it is that has this fire in the heart. Picture for me two people
who have committed the same kind of sin, the foul, unclean sin of fornication. Of these
two who have fornicated, one is not grieved or pained or stung. He experiences what was
said in Proverbs about the immoral woman: “Whatever she does, she washes herself and says
she has done nothing out of place.” But look at the other. After his fall he cannot keep
quiet. He is punished in his conscience and tormented in his heart. He cannot eat or
drink; he fasts not by decision but from the pain of repentance. Picture such a man for
me: gloomy and worn down all day long as he goes about, groaning aloud from the sighing of
his heart, seeing his sin before him, constantly accusing him to his face.

8d And look at such a person: he is punished not for one day or one night, but for a long
time. Which of the two do you prefer? Which do you say has hopes with God? The one who
committed fornication and gave it no thought, but became callous, as one who has handed
himself over to licentiousness? Or the one who mourns and weeps after a single sin? This
second man [has grounds for hope]. The more he is burned by the fire of grief, the more
mercy he receives, and he has enough time for his breaking, as much time as is given for
punishment to that man who fornicated and was grieved. And since this time of punishment
here is profitable to him, the apostle took pains to punish the one who had fornicated.
When he had punished him with grief and saw that the grief was enough, he said, “Lest such
a man be swallowed up by excessive grief, confirm your love toward him.” Let each of us
examine his own conscience and see what he has sinned, because he needs to be punished.
Let him pray to God that this fire which was in Jeremiah would come upon him, and then the
fire that was on Simon and Cleopas. But the one who has both sinned and has not cared will
be kept for that other fire. “And it became in my heart like a burning fire, flaming in my
bones, and I am relaxed on every side and cannot bear it, for I heard the slander of many
gathering around.” The blameless, blessed Jeremiah (I say this setting aside that small
sin, and any other slight thing he did) was slandered by many. But the slander of the many
was praise for him with God. For those who slandered him said, “Band together, and let us
band together against him, all you men who are his friends. Watch for his plan, and he
will be deceived.” They wanted to deceive him with a different deception, a deadly one,
the opposite of the deception about which he said, “You deceived me, Lord, and I was
deceived.” And these who band together against him say, “And we will prevail against him,
and we will take our vengeance from him.” Those who were rebuked for their own sins think
they have been wronged, and because they think they have been wronged they say, “We will
take our vengeance from him.”

8e Those who sawed Isaiah in two did something like this. They acted as men wronged (since
the prophecies turned them back, punished them, rebuked them, and reproached them), so
they sawed him in two and condemned him with a vote of death. But Jeremiah says about
these who banded together against him, “And the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior.” If
we become the kind of people we ought to be, and accept that fire when it comes upon us
for our sins, as it did upon Jeremiah and those like him, then after this the Lord is with
us “like a mighty warrior.” “Therefore they persecuted, and they could not understand.”
[The Jews who persecuted him: “They were greatly ashamed, and did not understand their
dishonor”; though dishonored for so long a time, they do not name their own sins.] The
Lord was with the one being persecuted, and so the persecuted one could not be put into
their hands. Might it be, then, since many things in Jeremiah are referred to the Savior,
that this too can be of that kind? For “Band together, and let us band together against
him” was said also about the Savior. And the “Lord” was with him “like a mighty warrior.
Therefore they persecuted, and they could not understand,” the Jews who persecuted him.
“They were greatly ashamed, and did not understand their dishonor.” Though dishonored for
so long a time, they do not name their own sins, “which will not be forgotten forever.”
Instead they suppose that in this age their lawless deeds will be forgotten. But we see
that their lawless deeds will not be forgotten forever. And as we see this, we remember
the words, “Do not be high-minded, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural
branches, how much more will he not spare” the unnatural ones? So the “Lord of hosts” is
with us, “who tests the righteous, who understands the kidneys and hearts.” The Lord
approves what is just and rejects what is unjust. He is, so to speak, a banker of the just
and the unjust. And this same Lord “understands kidneys and hearts.” I ask what the
difference is between “understanding kidneys and hearts” and “examining hearts and
kidneys.” He does not examine the hearts and kidneys of everyone, but of those who have
sinned. I take “examine” in the sense it has in everyday life, when it is said of people
being put to the torture.

8f In the law courts some people conduct the examination, some are examined, and some are
in the severest suffering. But the Lord alone has a new kind of examination, for he is the
one who examines hearts, and to the Lord alone belongs the searching of hearts and
kidneys. Robbers here are examined in their sides by the order of the governor. There,
however, a person is not examined by an order of God but by the Lord himself, who tests
kidneys and hearts. Unless perhaps I should say here that the one receiving the order is
the Son, the one giving the order is the Father, and the Word is the one who examines
hearts and kidneys. And I think that, of all tortures and all sufferings, the heaviest are
those that come from the Word when he examines both hearts and kidneys. So let us do
everything we can so that we are not handed over to that examination. I think those who
are handed over to the “tormentors” mentioned in the Gospel suffer less than that. For
they are handed over to many, perhaps to a greater number of tormentors at the beginning,
since they are not yet worthy to be handed over to the one Word who examines hearts and
kidneys. That rich man was not yet worthy to be handed over to the one who examines hearts
and kidneys, and so he was tormented by several. Whether he suffers this later or not, let
the one who is able examine it. But what awaits us is this: tormentors, and the one who
examines hearts and kidneys over our sins. If we are not quickly set free from those sins,
we will be in them. So let us rise and ask for help from God, that we may be blessed in
Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever. Amen.


FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH
=====================

FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 240–250

Greek fragments of Origen’s commentary on Jeremiah, taken from the catena tradition,
followed by a few short fragments on Jeremiah preserved in the Philocalia, the anthology
of Origen compiled by Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus.

FRAGMENT 1

Jeremiah 1:10. The righteous person is not “in youth,” since “having been made perfect in
a short time, he fulfilled long years.” For the words “Do not say, I am younger” are
addressed to someone who is not in blameworthy ways. Rehoboam was the kind of person who
was in them: he “abandoned the counsel of the elders” and followed that of the younger
men. For this reason he did not keep the kingdom as he had received it.

FRAGMENT 2

Jeremiah 1:13, 14. The pot that is being heated is heated “from the face of the north,”
for this enemy is at the same time an avenger. So the one who has sinned, whether in
blasphemy, “is handed over to Satan, that he may be taught not to blaspheme,” or in sexual
immorality, is handed over “to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord.” Whom does it heat? Those who dwell in the land, not
those who live there as sojourners. For he looses “fiery arrows” on those who do not guard
their hearts with all vigilance, so that they are set on fire by any sin whatever.

FRAGMENT 3

Jeremiah 5:6. He speaks of those who strike them, naming a lion, a wolf and a leopard. It
seems that the plotting aimed at people’s actions comes from those figuratively called
lions, while the plotting aimed at knowledge comes from those who want to harm the soul’s
power of clear sight. For the leopard is said to leap especially at the eyes. The lion, as
the story goes, when it has grown old, haunts the cities, wanting to hunt human beings. It
is also said that when its bones are broken or crushed, fire comes out. Perhaps
Nebuchadnezzar would be both lion and leopard: he took the city and, like a leopard, tore
out its eyes, the king together with the leading men, and later he also put out the eyes
of Zedekiah. His bones might be understood as Nebuzaradan, who set the city on fire.

FRAGMENT 4

Jeremiah 7:21. He teaches us to examine clearly what the matter of sacrifices is about,
and the oracles give a starting point, saying: “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,”
and “Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness.” But the Savior was turning back those who
were not like this and who were stirred up about bodily sacrifices, saying: “If you had
known what it is, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the
guiltless.” And that this kind of legislation is about mystical things, Paul taught when
he said: “who serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.”

FRAGMENT 5

Jeremiah 8:7. The turtledove and the swallow, the sparrows of the field, are the
understanding hearers and those able to say better things. They took care to make their
own entrances at the right time, so that what is said reaches those who hear it, the
swallow’s coming in coinciding with the turtledove’s coming in.

FRAGMENT 6

Jeremiah 10:16. Aquila and Theodotion have rendered it: “For he is the one who formed all
things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance.” But if he is that one, and Israel is
the rod of his inheritance, and the nations too have received an inheritance, according to
“Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,” then the nations also
will be Israel.

FRAGMENT 7

Jeremiah 11:11, 12. God rightly does not listen to those who did not listen to him. And
the demons will not be able to save what is just for those who offered incense to them,
when the time of evils comes. So when God does not listen, it is a terrible thing to seek
help from demons. Rather, we must hold fast to God, who has turned away because of sins
that were committed, but who does not despise a great and persistent flight to him for
refuge.

FRAGMENT 8

Jeremiah 11:14 (11). He did not say, “I will not listen to you,” but “to them.” This shows
that even then, if they repent and you ask on their behalf, I will listen.

FRAGMENT 9

Jeremiah 15:6, 7. He called the abandonment an active work, for God is said to destroy his
own tent when he lifts it up. In another sense, a destruction worthy of God’s hand is the
change from wickedness to virtue, as in “I will bring my hands upon you, and I will refine
you to purity,” the former ruinous damage that sin caused in us having been destroyed. “I
will scatter them” is of the same kind. Since they were of one accord in their ungodliness
toward me, I will break up their most wicked gathering and agreement. In the same way he
divided the tongues of those who built the tower, preventing a ungodliness that was
growing in unity. The words “they were made childless, they destroyed my people” carry an
accusation against the rulers and priests. For these were in the place of fathers to the
peoples and became bereft of children, since in place of godly teaching they introduced
ungodliness. But perhaps it is not even possible to destroy a people without first making
one’s own soul childless of the offspring that come from virtue. For no one who is good
destroys another.

FRAGMENT 10

The souls of the ungodly may be called widows, because they have lost Christ the
bridegroom. When they perish, their mothers suffer too. These are the ones who “gave birth
to them in Christ,” who “labored in birth until Christ was formed in them,” and who, after
the milk, raised them on solid food to young manhood. The multitude of the widows is not
“like the stars of heaven” but like the sand of the sea. According to the letter, very
many fell in war, so their wives became widows, and their mothers suffered.

FRAGMENT 11

He commands us not to lift up a load of sins, and not to say, “They have weighed on me
like a heavy burden.” In this way we may become kings and rulers, sitting securely on the
throne of David, which is the church of Christ, so that it may be said of us, “You set a
crown of precious stone upon their head.” People like this also ride on chariots and
horses. They hold the body in check with the bridle and restrain its irrational impulses.
In this way the city too will be inhabited forever. From every side, because of the virtue
of its leaders and the excellent conduct of its inhabitants, there will come those who
bring gifts. They will come from the cities of Judah, which are those who confess to God.
They will come from those who surround Jerusalem, “Vision of Peace.” They will come from
the land of Benjamin, “of the Son,” the level country, which has no “height raised up
against the knowledge of God.” They will come from the mountain, which is the gospel word,
and from the region toward the south, which is opposed to the one who blows from the
north. These people will bring a “holy sacrifice, well-pleasing to God,” the dedication of
the soul, and spiritual whole burnt offerings. By the Spirit they burn up all matter that
is liable to the eternal fire. Their prayer is “like incense, and the lifting up of their
hands an evening sacrifice.” They also offer frankincense, which is translated
“Whitening,” because they cast off every dark disposition. So the words fit them, “Who is
this that comes up made white?” In this way they will be able to bring their praise into
the house of the Lord, “having no spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind” rubbed upon the
church of Christ. And if nothing like that comes from us, we will [endure] the things of
the threat that is brought upon us.

FRAGMENT 12

The apostle showed what a house built with righteousness is when he said, “You are God’s
field, God’s building.” He also says, “No one can lay another foundation besides the one
that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. But if anyone builds on it,” and so on. So the
believer has Christ Jesus as his foundation through the one who taught him. Then someone
builds on that foundation. If he builds well, “gold” is the doctrines of the truth,
“silver” is the saving word, and “precious stones” are a structure built from virtues. But
if he builds badly, putting evil things on Jesus, I mean “wood, hay, straw,” how is he not
ungodly? The “woe” comes upon him, the one who builds his house not with righteousness.
The one who makes a lofty building that is not according to the word of God and the truth
does not make upper rooms “in judgment.” Understand it in the same way of those who teach
either the truth or “falsely named knowledge.” For example, Paul builds the church as a
house with righteousness, but Timothy, Luke and people like them he builds as upper rooms
in judgment.

FRAGMENT 13

You could say that what is said about the false teachers follows from what came before.
Solomon says, “He who stores up treasures with a lying tongue pursues vain things, and
will come into a snare of death.” Such people build houses for themselves under the name
of “church,” but it is a church “of evildoers.” To them it is said with irony: “You built
yourself a well-proportioned house, with airy upper rooms.” In those rooms they thought
they had built a place of refreshment. You suppose that through the windows you have lit
your buildings with the light of knowledge, and that you used incorruptible timbers to
build the house. You paint it with red ochre, imitating the blood of Christ. “But you will
not reign, even though you were provoked in the cedar of your father.” The cedar, the
father of the sinner, is a tall, proud tree that stands opposed. It stands for the devil,
or for the ruler of wicked words. Those who build such houses will perish by famine, for
they will neither eat nor drink. They did not even know righteousness, since they did not
know Christ. Doing what is right, he says, belongs to those who know God. As for those who
are not like that, their eyes are not good, because they do not see the truth. Nor is
their heart [good], since it is full of false doctrines. By these doctrines they make
others stumble and murder their souls, pouring out innocent blood with a false and
deceitful tongue. This is worse than slaughter by the sword.

FRAGMENT 14

Jeremiah calls this Joiakim “Jechoniah.” Pharaoh Necho gave the name Joiakim to his
father, who was called Eliakim. The Babylonian killed him and threw him out before the
gate, as the present prophet says, and as Josephus says in the tenth book of his
Antiquities. The word “signet” is given as “seal” by the Rest [of the translators]. Anyone
who takes up the image through repentance becomes a seal, or signet ring, in the right
hand of God. By the right hand of God, who sets the sheep “on the right,” good works are
understood. The father gave this seal to the prodigal son when he returned. If Jechoniah
had done this, he would have become a pattern of godliness for those who obey. But it did
not happen. Still, he seemed to obey the prophet who said, “The one who goes out to join
the Chaldeans who have shut you in will live.” For he went out, bringing his mother and
the mighty men with him, and defected to the Babylonians. But suppose, he says, that he
had shown complete repentance, so that he became “a seal of the righteousness [that comes]
in circumcision,” as the divine apostle puts it, and so seemed to be in God’s right hand.
Even then he would surely have been handed over to pay the penalty for his earlier sins,
though a milder one. For in Babylon he was brought to his senses in prison and in chains.
Later, under Evil-merodach, he was moved to relief, sharing the king’s table. And so he
ended his life in a foreign land.

FRAGMENT 15

He forbids us not simply to listen to a prophet, but to listen to words of prophets that
are put forward as imitation. The one who listens to a prophet such as Moses is listening
not to Moses but to the Lord, who speaks through him. The false prophets make people vain.
By not turning them back, they make their hearer vain, since they speak “a vision of the
heart.” For a mind that applies itself to matters without God’s help speaks a vision of
the heart. It does not speak from the mouth of the One who supplies the words and gives
light. There are times, though, when a vision of the heart and a word from the Lord’s
mouth run together. So he does not condemn the vision of the heart simply as such, but
only when the other is missing. They do run together in the one who says, “I pray with the
mouth, and I pray also with the mind.”

FRAGMENT 16

He prophesies about a shaking and about the Lord’s wrath going out against the ungodly.
“The anger has not turned back.” He does not say this simply, but adds “until it has done
it,” as if the anger will turn back when it has done it. What “the word of the Lord” has
not yet done, the Lord’s anger does. What the Lord’s anger does, David tells us when he
says, “Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger.” So the anger does not stop rebuking until it
has accomplished the thing for which it rebukes. In the same way the wrath does not stop
until it has fully disciplined. And it will not only do it, but also establish it and make
it firm. As for “the purpose of his heart,” which is a riddle, he says it will be
understood at the end. That is, it will be understood concerning what has been said about
anger and wrath. So thanks be to the One who has revealed to us what until now had been
hidden.

FRAGMENT 17

“Therefore those who pushed my people toward evil did not escape my notice.” The one who
lets even a prophet know what happens everywhere knows it much better himself. “The Spirit
of the Lord has filled the world,” and “in him we live and move and are,” as Paul told the
Athenians. The same sense is in “Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?” By his
power he draws near to all things. So our prayers are not offered as to a God who is far
away. It is also said of the Son, “He was in the world, and the world came to be through
him.” He is the one who says, “I am a God who draws near.” For he said, “Where two or
three are gathered in my name, I too am in the midst of them.” He is also the one who
says, “Behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”

FRAGMENT 18

Our soul leaves no part of the body empty. Where there is sensation, there the soul is,
and it reaches the whole body. In the same way nothing is empty of God. Yet although he
fills all things, he does not fill the sinner. The sinner has been filled with unclean
spirits, and it is impossible for such a person to be filled by God unless he is first set
free from the others who fill him. God fills the worthy, in heaven and on earth. Notice
that it does not say, “The earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord,” but “the earth
and its fullness.” This implies that there are some in the earth who are not the fullness
of the earth. The fullness of the earth is those who have been filled by the one who said,
“Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.”

FRAGMENT 19

The false prophets also made a habit of saying “Thus says the Lord,” acting the part of
the true prophets. So there had to be signs that distinguished the two groups. Now there
was, as the apostle says, the gift of discerning spirits. The one who had it distinguished
spirits, divine and evil, as a money-changer tells good coin from counterfeit. But even
without that general knowledge, what is said here is enough for discernment. For he says,
“My word” is not empty, [nor] food for irrational creatures. It is like wheat, food for
rational beings.

FRAGMENT 20

Why did he say “what has the chaff to do with the wheat” and not “with barley”? Because
the Lord set out loaves, barley ones for the less rational and wheat ones for the
rational. So here too he did not say, “What has the chaff to do with barley?” but “with
wheat.” He is showing precisely that this is food for the rational. There is another sign:
the words of the Lord are like an axe that cuts rock. When the hearer is reproved and
burns, so that he says, “Was not my heart burning within me?”, the word is fire and wheat.
But if he enjoys listening to things that suit his pleasure, it is chaff. The word of God
is also an axe. It can split not only wood but even rock. This is not the rock [that is,
the Word] understood as Christ, but the opposite kind, the one that must be cut, as in
“Rocks will be shattered before the Lord.”

FRAGMENT 21

Suppose someone buys a garment from the person he should buy it from. He holds it
lawfully. A thief also holds a garment, but not justly. In the same way, among those who
teach from Scripture, the ones who bring the words with a spurious and [counterfeit] soul
are stealing. Of them it could be said, “All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
and the sheep did not hear them.” Such is the person who uses the gospel word but is not
disposed toward it in faith and does not live by it. He puts the message of the word to
use for some purpose foreign to it. He is a thief, and it will be said to him, “You who
preach not to steal, do you steal?”

FRAGMENT 22

22a Jeremiah 24:1–3. What the whole world is, in a certain proportion, the human being is
by himself. For you will find one person called heaven, when he bears “the image of the
heavenly.” Another is called earth, if he has “the image of the earthly” (for to the one
who sinned it was said, “You are earth”). Another has rivers in him “leaping up to eternal
life,” if he has the most drinkable words. [The text seems defective here: “whom God
formed to play with him.”] And in particular you will find one called sun, another moon,
and others stars, since “so also is the resurrection of the dead.” And after a little: But
here the parable says that he is a very bad fig. Virtue sweetens a person through
ripening, so that the whole soul, spirit and body become sweet, because the quality that
comes from the virtues has been put into him. Wickedness, on the other hand, makes him bad
and inedible. But if someone looks for figs that are not very good, he looks for them
outside the mysteries of godliness and the temple of God, just as he does for those that
are not very bad. For if he comes to the discipleship itself, then before the face of the
temple of the Lord there are figs that are either very good (the kind Christ knows how to
make) or bad. [For not even the bad fig outside cast the words of God behind it; this
clause is uncertain.]

22b So around the temple of God and the divine teachings two baskets are set. The one who
does the choosing knows how to place each fig. He will not allow the quality of a bad fig
to be mixed in with the very good ones (“a little leaven leavens the whole lump”), nor the
reverse. And perhaps the basket of bad figs is the Gehenna of the eternal fire, and the
basket of good ones is the kingdom of the heavens. And after a little: But when did the
prophet see the baskets? After the captivity, he says. For if you look at the coming of
the Savior, and at the captivity of the people, and at us, who were strangers by nature
and are now outside Jerusalem but through faith in God and the sweetness of the truth are
becoming good figs, you will see the basket of good figs. But if you look at those of the
circumcision after this captivity, you will see the basket of bad and inedible figs. It is
not enough for the figs to be very good. They should also be like early figs, for a late
fig is not what the one being saved is compared to.

FRAGMENT 23

Jeremiah 24:6. Christ is builder and architect. Of him it is said among the prophets:
“This one will build my city, and he will turn back the captivity of my people.” So the
Lord says: “I will build them, and I will not tear them down.” Though God is good, he does
tear down some buildings. For the building of unclean spirits in us must be demolished,
and only then can a temple be built for God out of virtues and right teachings, so that
his glory may be seen in it. He is also a farmer, planting and grafting in those who are
worthy. For the Savior, who as the root holds up all the branches, says: “I am the true
vine, and you are the branches, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that
remains and bears good fruit, my Father cleans, so that it may bear more fruit. But every
branch in me that remains and does not bear fruit, my Father cuts out and throws into the
fire.” The one who remains in him and does not bear fruit is found not among the Gentiles
but among believers. He is the sort of person who says he is a believer yet does wrong
without fear. Such a person is rightly cut out. But the Father cleans the branch that
bears fruit, so that if it overlooks anything, as a human being will, it may be set right.

FRAGMENT 24

Jeremiah 25:14. As we were saying, the Seventy placed this one first among the visions
against the nations, but the others [that is, the other translators] have the opposite
order. Elam is an Arabian nation lying near the Red Sea.

FRAGMENT 25

25a They prided themselves on their archery and had never learned to sing, “For I will not
hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me.” He threatens to stir up nations against
him from every side, and so he calls winds from the places where those nations set out.
Each of us, according to his condition, is by name an Elamite, or an Edomite, or a
Moabite, or an Egyptian, or an Israelite. It is possible to change from one nation to
another, for the better or for the worse, since the nations of the soul know how to fall
into one another. In any case, each of us, in proportion to what he has stored up, will
drink the cup of the Lord’s wrath, either unmixed or mixed. For we have all sinned, some
more and some less. Israel took his name from what he did, because he prevailed with God
in the wrestling. In the same way there are some who are “Compared,” “Blameworthy”
Elamites, for that is how the name is interpreted. [He who sets his mind alongside
passions of dishonor (the Greek here is corrupt).] Paul also makes clear who the winds in
question are, when he says: “So that we may no longer be tossed about and carried around
by every wind of teaching, in the dice-play of men, toward the scheming of error.” The one
who is “Compared” is carried around by every wind, whether of teaching, or of anger, or of
desire.

25b There are four general winds that disturb the soul of a human being: desire, fear,
pleasure and grief. The Elamite, once God has abandoned him, is handed over to these. But
what is the Elamite’s bow, in which the beginning of their power lies? David himself said,
as he sang: “Look, the sinners have bent a bow, they have made ready arrows in the quiver,
to shoot in the dark of the moon at those who are upright in heart.” And a little later:
But the Savior, when he came to live among us, brought the four winds against the Elamites
who surround us, in order to scatter them. For opposing powers are handed over to other
opposing powers for punishment, as Pharaoh was handed over to Nebuchadnezzar. If you shut
up venomous snakes together, the weaker are eaten by the stronger because of hunger.
Finally the strongest of all, filled with the snakes it has devoured, becomes what is
called the basilisk, which has venom that by its look alone withers a fruit-bearing tree.
In the same way the wicked powers are punished by one another, until at last there is left
“the last enemy of Christ, death,” the basilisk of which Scripture says, “You will tread
on the asp and the basilisk.” For Christ, being stronger than the basilisk, has trodden on
it, and has given us “authority to tread on snakes and scorpions.”

FRAGMENT 26

There is a Babylonian man and a Babylonian infant, and we must struggle against both. That
is, we must struggle against passions that are already great and against those that are
only now beginning. “Blessed is the one who seizes the infants of Babylon and dashes them
against the rock” (that is, Christ), before they grow into men. It is more blessed still
to destroy the Babylonian seed, meaning a confusing thought. (Opposite to this is the seed
of which it is said, “Blessed is he who has seed in Zion,” and “Blessed are those who sow
upon every water, where the ox and the donkey tread.”) We must destroy not only a grown
man or a child, but even the bare seed, for it can bear fruit if it is cultivated. And
what is the water on which the good seed must be sown? It is the washing of regeneration.
There “the ox and the donkey tread.” The ox is the clean one, the Israelite. The donkey is
the one who is unclean by birth, the Gentile. These animals are symbols of the word
announced to the Israelites and of the word proclaimed to the nations.

FRAGMENT 27

The Babylonian holds a sickle, not to save but [to cut off and to reap the holy church]
(the Greek here is corrupt). Before the church suffers this, let us destroy him by wiping
out the arguments of the heretics. Such was Paul, who said, “Having in readiness to punish
every disobedience,” and “tearing down every height that is raised up against the
knowledge of God.” Then he bears witness to the power of Greek reasoning, saying that all
the nations give way to it, since it seems in some sense to be demonstrative.

FRAGMENT 28

28a Jeremiah 27:17. He says, “a sheep,” as if speaking of one that has gone astray. In the
Gospel he also says, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” In the
parable too, only one out of the hundred was lost. The shepherd who came to visit us came
to find that one. He lifted it onto his shoulders and restored it to the number of the
ninety-nine. For we are all one body and one sheep. One is a foot, another a head, another
some other part. The shepherd came and gathered “bone to bone and joint to joint,” and
having united them, he took them up into his own place. This unity comes about through
love, truth and a good choice of the will. By his own word, then, he united everyone. But
if some were found disobedient, they brought on themselves an incurable condition. So
every Israelite is one, according to true kinship, “for we are all one body and one bread,
and we share in one Spirit.” A straying sheep is one who fails to catch what is fitting,
in word and in deed, either by not seeking it or by not finding it.

28b But the one who knows and does what belongs to true knowledge does not go astray. The
one who goes astray is driven out by lions. For “our adversary the devil prowls like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Already “young lions roaring to seize, and
seeking their food from God” are plotting against the righteous. They want to drive us out
from the borders of peace. But as David seized the lion by its beard and strangled it, so
let us ask the spiritual David, Christ, to seize the lion and destroy the whole gathering
of beasts. Now he takes two lions that stand for whole kinds, the Assyrian and the
Babylonian. According to the history in the fourth book of Kingdoms, there are two. The
Assyrian carried the sons of Israel away “to the Assyrians, until this day,” and the
Babylonian carried the sons of Judah “to Babylon.” But the text does not say “first and
second” here; it says “first and last.” For the first lion is the opposing devil, “the
murderer” himself. The last, at the end of the age, is “the man of sin, the son of
destruction, who exalts himself above everything called god or object of worship.”

FRAGMENT 29

Jeremiah 27:17–19. Israel cannot be restored to its pasture unless the two kings suffer
what they must suffer, as vengeance for those who suffered evil. Do not take this word as
referring only to the devil or the antichrist. For let it be destroyed in me: “Satan
crushed under my feet quickly.” When he has destroyed these two, and those between them,
he will restore Israel to its pasture. Then he will also graze on Carmel and Bashan, on
Mount Ephraim and in Gilead. Though there were so many places in Judea and in the [land]
that was to be inherited, he named only these.

FRAGMENT 30

He calls Babylon a hammer, because by its own greed it wore down those on the earth. When
Solomon was building the divine temple, the third book of Kingdoms says in praise of it
that “a hammer and an axe were not heard in the house of God.” The house is the church of
God, in which no hammer ought to be heard. The devil is the hammer of the whole earth. The
person who pays no attention to him is like a piece of material that is struck by the
hammer but does not suffer. For it says, “Behold, a man standing on an adamant wall, and
in his hand an adamant.” No hammer can crush an adamant. So even if the devil stands over
him as the hammer, and the dragon lies beneath him “like an unhammered anvil,” the adamant
in the Lord’s hand and under his shelter will suffer nothing. For the holy person is an
adamant wall. Remaining in the Lord’s hands, he is unharmed, even if he is caught between
the hammer and the dragon. The more he is struck, the more brilliantly he shows his
virtue. The devil is like someone who does not know the nature of [stones], and so he
tests with many blows the one who is like adamant. God alone knows well the nature of such
people. If there were no hammer, there would be no “beaten trumpet” of the law, rousing
the hearers to the feasts of God or stirring them up for war. The hammer made Paul such a
man through various trials. He suffered nothing from it, yet with a great voice he roused
people to the war against evil. So the hammer produces the temptation, and the one who
serves the hammer is the descendant of Cain, “the hammer-striker, the smith of bronze and
iron.” In the time of the Savior, Judas was such a man, and so were those who shouted,
“Crucify, crucify him.” By such acts they served the hammer.

FRAGMENT 31

The apostle also knows of “vessels of wrath,” “prepared for destruction, in order that he
might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy.” He divided all people
into these two kinds of vessels, those of wrath and those of mercy. The first kind are
like Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and the second like Paul and those who believed. But what
is the Lord’s treasury, in which the vessels of wrath are kept? Perhaps it is the church,
in which such people often go unnoticed. But there will be a time when he opens the
church. For now it is shut, and the vessels of wrath feed together with the vessels of
mercy. The chaff is there with the wheat, and in one net are both the rejected fish and
the chosen ones. The Lord opens his treasury at the time of judgment. When the vessels of
wrath are cast out, the one who is a vessel of mercy may fittingly say, “They went out
from us, for they were not of us.” But vessels that sin outside the treasury are not yet
vessels of wrath. They are lesser ones. For they are “servants who do not know the will of
their lord and do not do it.” So they are simply vessels kept for other purposes.

FRAGMENT 32

He says that some of the captives of Judea will come, bringing the good news of vengeance
on Babylon. He could also be speaking of those who turn back from idolatry, which he calls
Babylon. They come to Zion, the Watchtower, which is the church, and announce the
vengeance that comes from the Lord our God.

FRAGMENT 33

Those in Babylon are many, and those in Jerusalem are very few. For it has been said, “The
Lord your God did not love you because you are the most numerous, for you are the fewest
of all the nations.” Truly “few are those who are saved and who enter through the narrow
door.” Everyone who bends a bow is commanded to aim it at Babylon, which is “broad and
spacious,” and to keep none of it for himself.

FRAGMENT 34

However many thoughts a person has that stand against godliness, that is how many
Babylonians he has. They must be destroyed, since they are sinners of the earth. The one
who has been cleansed of them becomes, in the city, one who belongs to God, who avenges
the insolence of Babylon. For Babylon supposed that it had conquered by its own power, and
it boasted against God. When the temple was burned, the sacred vessels were given to the
concubines for their use. Therefore God consumed the fruitless nation with fire, like a
thicket. For this reason he says, “Behold, I am against you, you insolent one, says the
Lord of hosts.”

FRAGMENT 35

Jeremiah prophesies that the end will come all at once. “For as in the days of the flood”
and “in the days of Lot” everyone went about the business of ordinary life, “until the
flood came, and the fire, and took everyone away,” so the end will come suddenly. Jericho
was a symbol of this, for it fell all at once at a voice and the sound of trumpets alone.
Babylon too fell suddenly at the time of the saving passion, when Christ abolished the
teachings about the idols of the nations and rescued those from the nations who believed.

FRAGMENT 36

Nebuchadnezzar’s cup is gold, “for the deception of men,” so that they take it and drink,
looking at the gold and not considering the judgment in it. His wretched teachings are
decked out with fine language. They lure people by the beauty of their style and by
skilled technique. Every poet who thinks himself supreme has likewise made a golden cup,
and put into it the poison of idolatry, of shameful speech, and of every evil of the soul.
But Jesus did not provide a golden cup, lest he seem to be like that one. (This is why “we
have this treasure in earthen vessels.”) He provided instead for the salvation that is in
him. But the golden cup, Babylon, when it comes to carry out vengeance, comes into the
Lord’s hand, the hand that once touched Job. It makes the whole earth drunk with anger,
grief, passions [or loves] and vainglory. (As many as there are sins, so many are the
kinds of drunkenness.) Everything is shaken as if by wine, and nothing stands firm. But
the righteous person is not earth. Though he is on earth, he has “his citizenship in
heaven.” He would not hear, “You are earth, and to earth you will go.” Rather, in keeping
with what is fitting, he hears, “You are heaven, and to the heavens you will go,” for you
bear “the image of the heavenly,” and you stand firm.

FRAGMENT 37

If Babylon has not been given up on (for he would not have said, “perhaps she will be
healed”), what other soul shall we despair of? If she has not been saved, that has come
about through her own fault. So the best physicians defend themselves and say, “We tried
to heal Babylon, and she was not healed. Let us leave her.” The failure to heal her is not
due to them, nor to the physicians [text uncertain], nor to the balm [or resin]. The
physicians are angels. They serve under the great physician, God, and are willing to heal
those who are obedient. If not, they will say, “Let us leave her, and let each of us go to
his own place and his own work, because her judgment has reached up to heaven.” They
condemn her as incurable, one who will suffer the consequences of being given up on.
Physicians of the body also leave the incurable, so that they do not die in their hands;
and this is what the angels do. The more we sin, the more our judgment grows, and it is
lifted up as far as the stars, that is, the holy ones. Then God brings out his judgment to
humble the judgment that sin has raised high. He humbles the sin and gives back what is
deserved.

FRAGMENT 38

Isaiah also prophesied: “On a level mountain raise a signal, lift up your voice to them;
beckon with the hand.” The prophets were giving these orders to the Persians and Medes,
who were about to take Babylon. They were to hold up the signal of war over her walls, as
over a city about to be captured. By this signal they let the soldiers know the moment of
attack. He also commands them to keep their weapons ready; the bows, he says, are for the
Medes.

FRAGMENT 39

Paul agrees with the saying “every man has been made foolish [away] from knowledge” when
he says, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” The time of visitation is
above all the tearing down of idolatry by the coming of Christ. The vessels of war that
the Babylonian scattered are the men of Israel and Judah who were experienced in wars. In
return for this, he threatens to show no pity to anyone.

FRAGMENT 40

Jer. 28:21–24. The riders of horses are the demons who sit on top of fleshly pleasures.
Long ago, too, “horse and rider he threw into the sea” of Egypt. These demons harness
various passions in us, set against the four virtues, and so build chariots. The man who
is hot-tempered and strong toward evil is “man.” The man who is slack toward pleasures is
“woman.” The “old man” is the one “worn out in evil days.” The “young men” are those of
whom Isaiah says, “The young will hunger, the youths will grow weary, and the chosen will
be powerless.” And on the other side he says, “Those who wait on God will renew their
strength, they will grow wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary.” Here,
though, he speaks of the “chosen” in a bad sense, as in the phrase “and his food is
choice.” People who are chosen in the way of virtue are swallowed up by Nebuchadnezzar. He
has virgins too: some are Vestals, some are Pythian priestesses, and some are of other
kinds. A soul that has not received the divine seed is also a virgin to him. He has
shepherds as well, who train their followers in evil teaching. He has farmers, who sow
“the weeds” and cultivate “thorns and thistles,” meaning the worldly cares among people.
He also has leaders and rulers in evil, and above all “those against whom our struggle is,
the principalities and the authorities.” To all these, then, God gives their due, in the
presence of those who have just said, “Come, and let us declare in Zion the great deeds of
God.”

FRAGMENT 41

Jer. 28:25, 26. He calls Babylon a mountain because of the height of its kingdom. It was a
corrupted mountain, corrupted by idolatry and unjust deeds, by which it corrupted others.
The city was also set on a height because of the river beside it. Steps led up from the
river to the city, which was in two parts, lying along both banks of the river, and in
addition the city’s walls were very high. The “hand” is the power that punishes. It brings
the city down from its own security and [defense], as if from rocks. It also makes its
stones useless by fire, so that no stone is left fit for a sturdier building. In a higher
sense the devil too is called a mountain, as in Zechariah: “Who are you, the great
mountain before Zerubbabel?” And about the man who had a deaf and mute demon the Savior
said, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,
‘Move,’ and it will move.” So the devil is the mountain. He is corrupted by his own
wickedness, and he corrupts all who set their minds on earthly things.

FRAGMENT 42

Jer. 28:27. “Sanctify the nations” means “set them apart.” For sanctification is service
to God, even if that service is one of punishment and the person set apart for it is
profane. Such was Cyrus, to whom he says through Isaiah, “But you did not know me.” He
called some of those who campaigned against Babylon “nations,” and among them he calls the
Armenians “Ararat.”

FRAGMENT 43

Jer. 28:29. The earth was shaken. In earlier times the people on it had been firmly
settled and secure in their powers and kingdoms, but now they underwent a bad and painful
change, into desolation. Likewise every mind that has held a Babylonian land is shaken out
of its attachment to such impiety and confusion. It throws off that disposition so that it
may take up a spiritual and heavenly state.

FRAGMENT 44

Jer. 28:30–33. For it was God who did this. He is the one who also said to Cyrus through
Isaiah, “I will go before you and level the mountains; I will shatter doors of bronze and
break bars of iron in pieces.” Among writers outside the faith, too, it is recorded that
Babylon had gates like these. It is also recorded that the city was taken by way of the
descents into the river that ran through the middle. Each part of the city was joined by
bridges at the ascents leading up into it, since the city was divided into two parts. The
history also says that when the people at the far edges of the city were being captured,
the others, because of the city’s size, did not notice, as they were holding a festival.
In the meantime, as one would expect, some ran to carry the news and others came back from
there, and the city was full of uproar. Now he seems to call the houses “groupings,” for
they stood joined to one another in unbroken rows. Therefore he adds: “The houses of the
king of Babylon,” and so on. That is to say, the strongholds [were formed] from what was
built together in them.

FRAGMENT 45

Where the text reads “they will tilt him and crush his vessels,” Symmachus said: “they
will strain him and empty his vessels.” He kept to the figure of wine, to show that Moab
will be emptied of good things. So prosperity is not good for boasters. It was not good
for the rich man in Hades either, and it was the reason he was punished. The “mixtures”
are spoken of as if they were wine, but Aquila gave “horns.” The horn was an ancient kind
of cup, for people used to drink from horns, and that is why the word “to mix” stayed in
use. The vessels, then, are the cities, and what is inside them is the people and their
wealth. The enemies led off the one and burned the other. The disaster puts to shame the
hopes people place in demons, but “hope” in God “does not put to shame.” Jeroboam set up
the calves in Bethel, in Samaria. The man who claims to be strong is not saved, for “a
king is not saved by great power.” The “day of Moab” is the time of punishment, and the
“evil” is the painful things that will overtake him. The text calls on everyone around him
to trample on him. That is the meaning of “move him,” plainly to bring him shame and
grief, for “God opposes the proud.”

FRAGMENT 46

“Epicheirion” means either the scepter, or those under the ruler’s authority, or hired
workers, since “epicheira” means wages.

FRAGMENT 47

“He will clap with his hands.” These are the hands with which Moab clapped, rejoicing over
Israel and acting boldly against God. Those “who trusted in the fortresses” of their
cities gave them up and lived in rocks beside the ravines. They imitated doves in their
licentiousness and their folly, for doves sometimes nest in places where anyone who wants
can easily take their young. A person is licentious and foolish when he is [initiated]
into Beelphegor and clings to useless and empty idols, and Moab was like that. For “the
fool said in his heart, There is no God.” Such a person is either wholly godless, or he
reckons that the God who truly is does not exist at all.

FRAGMENT 48

As has often been said, Jerusalem is taken to mean the church. It is the city of God,
built of living stones. When someone sins, he is thrown out of it and handed over to
Nebuchadnezzar, that is, to Satan. Paul says about the man who had committed fornication,
“to hand such a man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord.” And in the first letter to Timothy, about blasphemers:
“whom I handed over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.” Let the person
cast out of Jerusalem know this: unless he spends enough time outside the church doing
what he ought, he will not come back to Jerusalem. A man who sins is cast out even if no
human being throws him out. But once he is outside, he must not neglect building a house
and planting gardens. If he does not do these things, and does not complete the symbolic
number “of the seventy years,” which stands for sabbath and rest, he will not return to
share in the church. He stays condemned outside. [The text is corrupt here.] It is as the
one who spoke about wisdom said: “I sought to take her as a bride for myself, and I became
a lover of her beauty.” We must love her, as Solomon urged in Proverbs when he said, “Love
her, and she will keep you,” and “fence her about, and she will lift you high.” Understand
also that the other women beside wisdom are the remaining virtues. In this way it will be
possible to take many wives, and to father children by them. From wisdom you beget a word
of wisdom, so that you may build up others as well. From self-control you beget works of
self-control, so that you make others self-controlled in life and in speech. From
righteousness you beget works of righteousness in fellowship and in dealings with others.
Even in teaching the righteous you will beget children from righteousness. And once you
have made sons, you will beget daughters from the sons. The sons are divine thoughts and
doctrines, and the daughters are actions.

FRAGMENT 49

When Jerusalem was thrown into turmoil with the Babylonian pressing in on her, people
naturally ran to foreknowledge, since they wanted to know what was coming. The false
prophets insisted that they were foretelling by the Holy Spirit. Of the others, some
brought forward divinations and others dreams. For this reason we must in general refuse
every ungodly kind of foreknowledge. If the stars happen to be at work, we pray in vain.
So Scripture says, “Let the astrologers of heaven say what the Lord plans for you,” and
“There will be no omen-reading in Jacob, nor divination in Israel.” Therefore make
yourself worthy of divine foreknowledge. For after “there will be no divination in
Israel,” Scripture adds: “At the proper time it will be told to Jacob and to Israel what
God will accomplish.”

FRAGMENT 50

Every presbyter who acts in this way will suffer such things at the hands of the king of
Babylon. If the one who takes part in the Eucharist unworthily will receive judgment on
himself, how much more will the one who sits in the presbytery with a defiled conscience
and pollutes the council of Christ? For what devout man sitting beside him will dare to
say, “I did not sit with the council of vanity,” and the words that follow?

FRAGMENT 51

You could say that he is also showing his own goodness, and that this is why he brings
severity on those who need it. So after the painful healing, he says, the city will be
built up on its height. What height? “A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.” Such a
city thinks nothing lowly or merely human. By that I mean pleasures, wealth on earth, and
petty glories. For “it was raised together with Christ and seeks the things above.” If you
do these things, “your city will be built up on its height.”

FRAGMENT 52

52a He speaks as of something rare. It is the custom of Scripture to speak kindly after
bitter words. From Origen’s letter to Africanus, on Susanna: “I remember meeting a Hebrew
who loved learning and was counted a wise man among them, and talking with him on many
subjects. From him I learned, since the story of Susanna is not rejected, that the names
of the elders are also found in Jeremiah, in this form: ‘May the Lord make you as he made
Zedekiah and as Achiab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in fire, because of the
lawlessness they committed in Jerusalem.’” And a little later: “I know of another Hebrew
who passes on such traditions about these elders. Those in the captivity were hoping to be
freed from slavery to the enemy through the [coming] of Christ. These elders pretended to
be able to make clear the things concerning Christ. They claimed in secret that God had
granted to one of them to sow the Christ.”

52b Then the woman, deceived by the hope of bearing the Christ, gave herself to the
deceiver. In this way the elders Achiab and Zedekiah “committed adultery with the wives of
their fellow citizens.” So Daniel rightly says of one that he was “worn out with evil
days,” while the other heard, “This is how you used to treat the daughters of Israel,” and
what follows. These, then, are the two elders who bore false witness against Susanna.
There is consolation, and then after the kind words something harsher again, so that
people do not despise “the riches of his kindness” and store up for themselves “wrath on
the day of wrath.” So he says: “If wrath comes, it will not depart until it has done what
God wills.” God wills, and wrath comes, so that what God wills may be done. For if someone
does not want to be within the will of the word of God, wrath is let loose against him. So
let us not need a disciplining wrath or anger.

FRAGMENT 53

For they will not go through a desert, as before, but by the lawful road through inhabited
land. And figuratively it is said in the way of comfort: “Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted.”

FRAGMENT 54

“Islands far off” means those tossed by the waves of life, which are far from the truth
until they come to salvation. God redeemed Jacob. For “the yoke lying on them has been
taken away, and the rod on their neck,” as Isaiah says. This also shows that he himself
rescued us from the devil’s power. For what could we have done against the one who said,
among other things, “I will take the whole inhabited world in my hand like a nest”?
Against him, through Christ, we say: “Where, death, is your victory? Where, Hades, is your
sting?”

FRAGMENT 55

To those who weep and are worthy of blessing, let it be said, “Let your voice rest from
weeping.” They are the ones who say in the Holy Spirit: “By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.”

FRAGMENT 56

It is also written in Baruch: “Why are you in the land of your enemies? You have been
defiled with the dead.” When righteous people set foot on a land, it is a land of saints.
When many sinners are in it, it is a land of enemies. “In this way,” he says, “they will
return, so that it will be a settled thing for your children to return from the land of
enemies.” These are the children who have been helped by you, and who are your fruits. It
is also written in Exodus that “God heard the people, their groaning under the works.”
That is like what is set down here, except that it is not about everyone, but about
Ephraim lamenting. Ephraim is interpreted “Fruitfulness.”

FRAGMENT 57

God hears the voice of weeping from those who repent. But why did he say that Ephraim was
lamenting over sins? The third book of Kingdoms shows it. Rehoboam ruled them harshly, and
they should have endured and not revolted. Instead they cried out, “We have no portion in
David.” Then Jeroboam led the rebels. He belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, and he made
calves and drew the ten tribes away from the worship of God. For these things they
naturally lamented in repentance. Disciplined by their capture, they cried out: “You
disciplined me, Lord, and I was disciplined.” Like a calf that has bolted from the herd, I
left your pasture, and now I need your help. If you do not strengthen me, I am too weak to
turn back. I ought to have repented before I was captured, and obeyed your prophets.
Instead I repented only after the capture. But now that he knows, he groans. For how could
anyone groan who did not know he was sinning, having done things worthy of shame in his
sins, and above all in his licentiousness? “I have repented so greatly that I point you
out to others [?].” Ephraim’s repentance is so great that God takes up the very words of
his confession from his mouth, and Ephraim hears the voice saying: “From your youth you
have been a beloved son, Ephraim.”

FRAGMENT 58

A certain Nebuchadnezzar the Assyrian held all people, until Christ ransomed us. That is
why Matthew, drawing on Isaiah, says: “to proclaim release to captives.” For he did not
proclaim it to captives in the literal, historical sense. He himself is also the righteous
and holy mountain, for how could the title fit a lifeless thing? If we are in him, as in
“and you in me,” let us build on the righteous mountain. A person does this by coming to
Judea, which is interpreted “Confessing.” He confesses his sins to God and gives thanks.
For it says, “Be the first to state your lawless deeds, so that you may be justified.”
There are certain cities of God, and buildings and fields of his. Paul also says: “You are
God’s field, God’s building.” In whoever the mysteries of God and his unspeakable
teachings are being built up, in that person there is a temple of God and the holy of
holies. That person is the mother-city of all Judea.

FRAGMENT 59

“I will not reject Israel” seems to contradict the one who says to them, “and the race of
Israel will cease.” Perhaps the one statement was made about the fleshly Israel. As for
the word “reject,” it is not found in the other translators, but only in the Seventy. You
may also understand it this way: now I reject, but if he is lifted up, I will not reject.

FRAGMENT 60

We are all in prison, and especially those who are being tempted. Then a person acquires a
field, but without having left the prison. The acquisition comes by God’s will to those
who contend well. Now Hilkiah’s [relatives] are brothers [?]. For the business of brothers
is peace and a portion. The fruit of God’s portion is “God’s Lifting-up,” for that is how
Jeremiah is interpreted. The fruit of peace is “Grace of God,” for that is what Anameel
means. So the grace of God, being the offspring of peace, brings to the prophet in prison
his own field, according to God’s command.

FRAGMENT 61

This man makes a deed of purchase. Perhaps this stands for the understandings, the
memories and the teachings by which we have acquired the field, that is, the labors of the
way of life. For the one who is going to practice righteousness must first know about
righteousness, and the same can be said of the other virtues. God takes care that the book
is put into a jar so that it will last longer. For “we have this treasure in earthen
vessels.” These vessels may be our own jars, or the plainness of the wording of Scripture.
So “the ruler of this world” was deceived. He despised the word of godliness because it
was not in golden vessels adorned with fine diction and persuasive phrasing, and for that
reason it remained many days. For the one who holds the deed of purchase says, “My word
and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of Spirit
and power.” When Jeremiah had done what he was commanded, he gave thanks to God. Notice
the prophet’s obedience, which came before any visible advantage. Then he adds a prophecy
of the land’s recovery. For prophecy given through deeds makes what is heard visible, and
makes the future as if it were present, showing the whole in the part.

FRAGMENT 62

It is not believable that the prophet would give such great thanks for a field bought for
“ten and seven shekels,” when he was “sanctified from the womb” and full of the divine
Spirit. But look at the sabbath number, the symbol of rest, and at ten, which is perfect
and belongs to God. (For tithes are offered on the tenth day of the atonements, and the
first lawgiving was the Decalogue.) Then you will know what “the field” is: it is full of
fruits fitting for saints. Such was the field of Jacob, which Isaac smelled. “Behold,” he
says, “the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed.”
Such is the person who “has the fruits of the Spirit,” so that he may “sow to the Spirit
and reap eternal life.” For he breathed out patience, kindness, [the text is broken here],
and gives thanks, saying, “O Lord, you who are.” For he looks to the one who truly is,
“not looking at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen.”

FRAGMENT 63

Jeremiah wrote down not only prophecies but also his own sufferings. By the one he taught
some the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and by the other he taught others examples of
endurance, while the false prophets suffered nothing of the kind because of their
flattery. So let us be ready, in a time of persecution, to be ranked with Jeremiah and
with the apostle who said, “in prisons often.” The statement that the king was not able to
oppose them shows that his own intention toward Jeremiah was rather kindly. A righteous
king must not be carried along with the wicked men around him. Often, too, it is useful to
have the protection of the powerful, through which God often does good.

FRAGMENT 64

“I am afraid,” he says, “that I will become a laughingstock to the deserters; for this is
what I take into account and worry about.” Jerusalem is handed over because of sin, and
the church is too. If someone governs it like Hezekiah, it is saved. If he governs it like
Zedekiah, then by being separated from it he saves it, but by staying he destroys it. So
if someone who is defiling the church goes out, he saves both the church and his own soul.
But if, like Zedekiah, he hesitates about going out, then “a little leaven leavens the
whole lump.”

FRAGMENT 65

Jeremiah tells him what the women being led into exile will say: “Those who spoke
peaceably to you have deceived you, saying that they would not hand you over to the
Babylonian.” [They will join in the charge, or: they will be named,] as those who were the
cause of the fall. For you will certainly be captured. Perhaps he is also blaming the
false prophets, who promised peace in words. But the prophet, out of kindness and concern
for the king, hid the truth from the rulers. His silence now did no harm to it, since he
had already read the words publicly.

FRAGMENT 66

The prophet was given a choice of where he wished to live. He passes over Babylon and
chooses Judea. He is fleeing the honor offered by the king, and he chooses Judea for the
sake of the poor who stayed behind to farm. In this way he could look after the land for
the sake of the poor, and by his prophecies cultivate their souls. For the prophets
divided the work between them: this one took Judea, and Daniel and the three young men
took Babylon.

FRAGMENT 67

A good man does not suspect anyone of being so wicked as to murder even those who have
done no wrong. Why God allowed Gedaliah to be killed would be a matter for another
discussion, and belongs among the unsearchable judgments of God.

FRAGMENT 68

68a Connect the “not” about the incense with “the Lord remembered.” It is clear that he is
speaking of those who burn incense to idols, since the statements before this follow once
they had confessed it. But let us ask whether someone who burns incense to God in the
wrong way also becomes responsible for the land becoming impassable. Suppose you offer
physical incense, as the Jews do. If you have virtue, you offer it well, because the
fragrance within matches the fragrance outside. But if you offer it with wickedness, you
taint the outward fragrance, so to speak, and turn it into a stench. Then it could not be
said, “The Lord smelled a fragrant aroma,” but the opposite. As for the “aroma of
fragrance” with God, it is not said of the clean animals Noah offered. It is said of his
righteousness and perfection, which he himself had in his generation. For God does not
delight in blood and the smoke of fat, as demons do. Let us rather, “raised together with
Christ, seek the things above,” keeping in mind the words “Let my prayer be as incense
before you.” For John says in Revelation, “The prayers of the saints are incense.”

68b But if we defile prayer with wicked thoughts, then what happens is “Let their prayer
become sin.” If instead we pray out of righteousness, the opposite happens. For when
people say because of their sin, “My wounds stank and festered because of my folly,” their
incense becomes foul-smelling. For this reason Isaiah said, “If you bring fine flour, it
is vain; incense is an abomination to me.” The apostle taught how we should pray, saying,
“I want the men to pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without anger and
disputing.” When Moses’ hands were lifted up like that, Israel prevailed; when they were
lowered, Amalek prevailed. Whoever prays this way does not fail, for the saying is true:
“While you are still speaking, he will say, ‘Look, I am here.’” So the Lord, he says,
could no longer bear the incense of the wicked. We too may put up with some stench, but
when it grows worse we flee from it. God likewise has a measure of patience, and he goes
after those who do not repent. He did this in Noah’s time, when he could no longer bear
the stench of those who were then doing wrong. Therefore he says among the prophets, “I
have kept silent; shall I be silent forever?”

FRAGMENT 69

When bodies decay, the surrounding air takes in the decay and is itself corrupted, and it
brings plague on those who come near, so that the place becomes impassable. In the same
way the sins of souls bring about a plague of souls.

FRAGMENT 70

Baruch suffered with the people and lamented, and he pleaded with God on their behalf. For
this reason he receives a promise of help in their troubles, with God saying, in effect,
“Those I tear down, I will build up again.” For first “he causes pain, and then he
restores,” and so on. The good things cannot be received unless the evils have first been
removed. For God, as the architect of “the true tent, which the Lord pitched, and not
man,” also pulls down the wretched buildings of unbelievers. Paul speaks of that tent:
“You are God’s building.” And like a farmer he pulls up what bears no fruit, for “every
plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.” He plants a “fruitful
vine.” This is not like the one “turned to bitterness and foreign,” which he cuts down so
that he may make it again “true” and “God’s field.” In the same way, according to David,
he “took down the hedge” of the vine from Egypt, and David prays for it: “Look down from
heaven, and visit this vine.” So these people too are being disciplined for their benefit:
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves.” “For who is it that makes me glad, if not the
one who is grieved by me?” “For godly grief produces a repentance without regret that
leads to salvation.” “For this reason I bring evils upon all flesh”: upon those who set
their minds on earthly things.

FRAGMENT 71

For God finds the souls of the righteous. “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of
God,” but the souls of sinners are reckoned as though they did not even exist.

FRAGMENT 72

72a {Just as all God’s gifts are immeasurably greater than our mortal frame, so too the
exact account of the wisdom behind all these things lies with God, who also arranged for
them to be written. If the Father of the Word is willing, it may be given to the soul that
has been thoroughly purified, one that approaches with all earnestness and with a sense of
human weakness in grasping wisdom. But suppose someone throws himself in too rashly. He
has not considered that God’s wisdom is unspeakable, nor the Word who was “in the
beginning” and “with God” and himself God, nor that these things must be sought and found
in keeping with the Word who is God and with the wisdom that is with him. Such a person
must fall into fables, idle talk and invented stories, and put himself in danger of
impiety. So we should also remember the command about such matters that Solomon gives in
Ecclesiastes: “Do not hurry to bring out a word before the face of God. For God is in
heaven above, and you are on earth below. Therefore let your words be few.”} We ought to
believe that no stroke of the holy Scriptures is empty of God’s wisdom. For he who
commanded me, a man, “You shall not appear before me empty,” will much more himself say
nothing empty.

72b The prophets speak because they have received “from his fullness.” That is why
everything of theirs breathes out of fullness. There is nothing in prophecy, law, gospel
or apostle that is not from fullness. Because it is from fullness, it breathes of that
fullness to those who have eyes that see the things of fullness, ears that hear what comes
from fullness, and a sense of smell for the fragrance of what breathes from fullness. And
if you ever stumble while reading Scripture over a thought that is really a fine “stone of
stumbling and rock of offense,” blame yourself. Do not give up hope that this stone of
stumbling and rock of offense holds meanings, so that what was said may come true: “and
the one who believes will not be put to shame.” Believe first, and under what seems to be
an offense you will find much holy benefit.

722 If you ever stumble while reading Scripture over a thought that is really a fine
“stone of stumbling and rock of offense,” blame yourself. Do not give up hope that this
stone of stumbling and rock of offense holds meanings, so that what was said may come
true: “and the one who believes will not be put to shame.” Believe first, and under what
seems to be an offense you will find much holy benefit. For we have received a command not
to speak an idle word, since we shall give account for it on the day of judgment. And as
far as we are able, we strive to make every word that comes out of our mouth do something,
both in us who speak and in those who hear. What then should we understand about the
prophets, except that every word spoken through their mouth was effective? It is no wonder
if every word spoken by the prophets accomplished the work that fits a word. But I think
that every wonderful letter written in the oracles of God also does its work. There is not
one “iota or one stroke” written in Scripture that does not do its own work for those who
know how to use the power of the letters.

FRAGMENT 73

Think of herbs. Each one has its own power, whether for the health of the body or for some
other purpose. But not everyone can know what each herb is good for. Only those who have
gained that knowledge, the ones who spend their time among herbs, know when to gather a
plant, where on the body to apply it, and how to prepare it so that it helps the person
who uses it. In the same way, the saint is a kind of spiritual herbalist. He gathers from
the sacred writings each single iota and each ordinary letter. He finds the power of the
letter, what it is useful for, and that nothing written there is superfluous. If you want
to hear a second example, consider that each part of our body was made by God the
craftsman for some particular work. But not everyone can know the power and use of each
part, even down to the most ordinary ones. Those physicians who have worked at anatomy can
say, of each part and even the smallest piece, what use providence made it for. So think
of the Scriptures in the same way: as all the herbs, or as one complete body of words. If
you are not an herbalist of the Scriptures, and not an anatomist of the prophetic words,
do not suppose that anything written is superfluous. Blame yourself rather than the sacred
writings when you do not find the meaning of what is written. I have said this by way of
introduction. It can be useful in a general way for the whole of Scripture. Let it
encourage those who want to give attention to their reading never to pass over any letter
without examining and searching it.


FRAGMENTS ON LAMENTATIONS
=========================

FRAGMENTS ON LAMENTATIONS Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 240–250

Origen wrote a commentary on Lamentations that is now lost. These are the Greek fragments
of it, taken from commentary-chains on the prophets (and, at the end, one fragment from
the chain on the first eight books of the Bible).

FRAGMENT 1

Jeremiah, after the people had been taken captive and while he was in Babylon, mourns for
the city, the land and the people because of what had happened. He mourns in sections and
divisions, which he marks off in order, beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
After he has finished the lament for each letter, and last of all the one beginning with
Tau, which is the final Hebrew letter, he returns to Aleph and laments again. He does this
four times, going through the twenty-two letters.

FRAGMENT 2

If we see the soul placed under the hand of the devil, or of his angels, or in short of
the hostile powers (the soul, which by nature is able to contemplate, to see what is real
and to take its stand upon it), then we will somehow understand the captivity and the one
who took the captive. But if we take refuge in Christ, who according to the prophet Isaiah
proclaimed “release to captives,” we will be set free from the captivity, even if the one
who took us captive has gone as far as binding us. For Jesus came “to bring out those who
are bound from their chains, and those who sit in darkness from the house of the prison.”

FRAGMENT 3

For this reason the Hebrews say that the books of the old Scripture are equal in number to
the letters, so that there is a complete introduction to the knowledge of God, just as the
letters are the introduction to all wisdom for those who are learning. And it is fourfold,
perhaps because the elements of bodies are also four. And a little later: The edition of
Aquila and Theodotion is not found in the Lamentations; only that of Symmachus and the
Septuagint. And again: Someone might ask how, when the title of the book is in the plural,
“Lamentations,” in the prologue he speaks of this lament in the singular. But the
individual laments are many, divided according to the letters, while all of them are
brought back to one, since they all refer to a single subject, Israel.

FRAGMENT 4

Weeping that comes from love is called blessed. For it belongs to the holy person “to weep
with those who weep.”

FRAGMENT 5

As the Lord drew near to Jerusalem he wept and said, “If you too had known the things that
make for your peace.” “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those
sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

FRAGMENT 6

So if “blessed are those who weep, for they will laugh,” then Jeremiah, this man of
mystery, had to weep this weeping. And in keeping with “blessed are those who mourn,” he
had to mourn for those who deserved to be mourned.

FRAGMENT 7

As far as the wording goes, the “multitude of the people” seems to mean the Israelites who
lived there, and the “multitude of the nations,” as we said before, the proselytes. But
for the higher meaning: since contemplative matters are closer kin to the soul and less
distracting than practical ones, the multitude of the people means the wealth of insights,
and the multitude of the nations means the great number of good deeds. And a little later:
“She who was full of people sits alone.” The bride has cast out the bridegroom, the Word,
and so has become like a widow, she who was once full of the nations just mentioned.

FRAGMENT 8

As far as the wording goes, it fits that Jerusalem is spoken of with wonder, because of
the change to something more grim: she sits bereft, she who was once full of people, so
that her loneliness is her desolation. She had a husband, the living Word who was her
protector, when she followed him while he was present and helping her. Now she is widowed
and abandoned because of what has been sinned. And after other things: So much for the
literal text. As for the meaning, Jerusalem, prospering and full of people and of nations
and ruling over regions, is the divine soul. It is no wonder if the perfect soul is called
Jerusalem, not merely a house or a farmstead or a village (which is greater than that) or
some ordinary city, but one that surpasses all cities and is honored before God. The
greatest city is clothed with a greatness worthy of note, and for her wisdom and every
virtue [the text is corrupt here: something like “many times over the buildings”] abound.
And a little later: Just as one can see Jerusalem flourishing, filling with people and
nations and ruling over regions, so, if virtue can be lost, one can see her at some time
left alone, widowed and enslaved, so that she even pays tribute to the enemy who has
conquered her. This is according to the soul of the person who has fallen away from the
truth.

FRAGMENT 9

Lamentations 1:1. Why speak of how she, who once ruled over regions, is enslaved among her
enemies to such a degree that she must always pay tribute, [doing everything the masters
command]? And they command nothing good. Perhaps for each sin she commits here she pays
some tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, whose name is interpreted “Settling-in” and “knowledge of
restraint.” And she pays not to Nebuchadnezzar alone, but also to his satraps.

FRAGMENT 10

Lamentations 1:2. In the first lament, the one beginning with Aleph, we were able to keep
to the wording. But what could anyone say about this one, where a city is said to have
wept in the night so that her tears are on her cheeks? Perhaps someone will say that the
people who are called “the city,” and who also pay tribute, wept when they remembered from
what peace and freedom they had fallen into such great slavery and humiliation. How, then,
shall we explain “in the night”? Perhaps it means that at the time of rest common to all
people, the city, being reminded, wept while they lay at rest. They wept in streams, with
tears running down their cheeks. Their weeping grew especially strong and the tears
flowed, because not one of so many who loved her was there to console them. Everyone who
was fond of her had rejected the friendship they had with her and turned it into hatred.
Who, then, as far as the wording goes, were those who loved her before, and of whom not
one was there to console her? Perhaps the other cities of Judea. Perhaps because they
loved the mother city, they did not comfort her in her time of distress. And a little
later: So much for the literal text. [Now if the word “weep” is taken, as in the earlier
passages, of one who has fallen from her own country and come into confusion, then she has
a condition opposite to laughing, the laughter that comes from joy and cheerfulness.] Our
Lord promises this laughter to those who weep the blessed weeping, saying: “Blessed are
those who weep now, for they will laugh.” And in Job it says: “He will fill the mouth of
the truthful with laughter.” Perhaps this is also why one of the patriarchs is called
Laughter. The apostle, then, who groans, made this clear when he said: “For indeed we who
are in the tent groan, being burdened.” Because of the promise of cheerfulness, he weeps a
weeping that is most nourishing and that benefits the soul.

FRAGMENT 11

Lamentations 1:2. We think that loving [agapan] is the more divine, and, so to speak, the
spiritual kind of love, while being fond [philein] is bodily and more human. Perhaps,
since no wicked person loves in the first sense, we should notice that about the better
ones it says: “There is no one to console her from all who love her.” About the lesser
ones it says: “All who were fond of her rejected her; they became enemies to her.” The
lesser ones both rejected her and became her enemies, while the better ones simply did not
console her.

FRAGMENT 12

Lamentations 1:3. As for the literal text, the sense would be this. Judea exchanged her
own place. The causes of this were her humiliation (she was humbled by sinning, and she
abandoned the high and lofty standing she once had when she lived in godliness), and also
her heavy slavery, in which she was enslaved by being subjected to the passions. Removed
to a new home, she was settled among the nations, where she was unable to find rest. All
her enemies pursued her, overtook her and overpowered her, and she came under the power of
the nations who oppressed her.

FRAGMENT 13

On the literal level, the sense is this. The law says, “Three times a year every male of
yours shall appear before the Lord your God.” So after the temple was built in Zion, from
the time of Solomon, the people hurried to carry out what was commanded. The cities of
Judea lay around Jerusalem, and roads led from every direction to Zion. The prophet says
that because of the captivity these roads mourn: they are gloomy and wholly deserted. [The
text is damaged here.] In those earlier times there was great joy and gladness on them, as
Jews from every quarter hurried to Mount Zion for the feast. There were also many gates
built in Zion, facing every region, and the text says that all of them have been
destroyed. The priests can no longer carry out their [duties] on other days, either
because they have been taken captive or because no one is left to come to them and ask for
the priestly services. Moreover, he says, the virgins of Zion are being led away,
evidently by the enemies who have conquered them.

FRAGMENT 14

On the deeper sense: Zion is the name for the power of the soul that watches and
contemplates. To it lead many roads of varied teachings, whether mystical, natural or
moral, and perhaps also logical. These roads lead to the understanding and contemplation
of the matters set before us. But suppose someone loses the discipline of practicing these
things and falls into confusion. Then all these roads mourn, because no one travels them.
They keep festival when they are traveled, examined and, so to speak, crossed from end to
end. They mourn when they are deserted, when no one searches them or goes through them,
because the travelers have fallen away, have been taken captive by the passions, and have
been drawn off to worse things.

FRAGMENT 15

Zion, having nothing sweet at all, lives in bitterness by herself. The words “she is
embittered” here should not be taken as a kind of anger.

FRAGMENT 16

The plain sense of the wording is something like this. Before the time of the captivity,
some were oppressing the land of Judea, or at least wanted to, but they did not prevail,
because God shielded the Jews. That was when the Jews showed themselves worthy of help.
But when they sinned, and besides not listening to the prophets the sons of Israel even
put them to death, then they were handed over into the power of their oppressors. So their
enemies became “head,” that is, as Symmachus translated it, “rulers.” Others, however, who
were enemies alongside the oppressors, either in intention or in actual fact, were
prospering, while those who had been abandoned because of their sins fell into the power
of the oppressors. The Lord humbled the transgressors because of the multitude of their
ungodly acts. He did it so thoroughly that no mercy was left even for their little
children, but they went into captivity, driven along by every oppressor.

FRAGMENT 17

And those who had not kept their covenants with him, given in the holy oracles, were
handed over to humiliation by the Lord because of the multitude of their ungodly acts.
Their enemies took the lead and rejoiced over it.

FRAGMENT 18

We must explain the wording as far as we are able. We ask who the daughter of Zion is, and
in what her beauty lies. We ask also what the pasture is that the rulers of the daughter
of Zion do not have, like rams without grazing, and how, stripped of strength, they walk
before the face of the pursuer. Our understanding is this. Mount Zion is the mother of the
assembly in it, and the assembly is called the daughter of Zion. The beauty of the
daughter of Zion is the wealth she had in her robes. When the enemies plundered, this
wealth “went out” from the things it adorned. That is, it was carried off; “went out” is
the stronger way he says it. The leaders of the assembly, with the enemies pressing upon
them and taking captives, lacked their usual provisions. They became like rams that find
no food. Rams that are driven along without being fed walk feebly, giving way to the force
of those chasing them. In the same way the rulers became captives and were led away to the
country of their captors. They did not walk in strength before the face of the pursuer.

FRAGMENT 19

Lamentations 1:6. As for the deeper meaning, a soul of this kind is a daughter of Zion.
Just as the righteous soul is a daughter of righteousness, and the wise soul a child of
wisdom, so, since Zion means “Watchtower,” the soul that keeps watch and passes through
things by contemplation could be called a daughter of Zion. What else could I fittingly
take to be her beauty and her dignity than the wealth of the holy doctrines of truth, seen
with wisdom? So when someone, after gaining beauty and dignity, neglects to hold these
doctrines fast and to increase the divine wealth, what had been her adornment drains away
and goes out from her. The rulers are those who led the way in the word and guided her by
the hand to the possession of the beauty just described. Like rams that lead the flock of
sheep and find no pasture, they too have fallen into want, because they let go of
attention to the things that could feed them and, so to speak, fatten the sheep as well.
Because of this they grow weak and are overtaken by the pursuer, who is our adversary the
devil. They walk before him, driven wherever he wishes to lead them. But if the daughter
of Zion just mentioned takes care of her beauty and her splendor, and takes thought to
guard her dignity, she despises and mocks the king of the Assyrians, as we have learned
from Isaiah, who says: “The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you.”

FRAGMENT 20

Lamentations 1:7. For the one who remembers, in suffering such things, is not remembering
the present but the past. And a little later: Having raised these difficulties at this
passage, and looking for the reminder of her past humiliation and her rejections (that is,
that her people fell into the hand of the oppressor and the things brought upon her came
to pass), we ask whether humiliation in the proper sense is anything other than sin, just
as exaltation is right conduct. Rejection too comes about through nothing at work except
wicked action, for this is enough to cast a person away from God and from everything that
is by nature most beautiful. So when Jerusalem, that is, those who live in her, was drunk
and beside herself with sin and was being humbled, she did not take pleasure in her
failings. But when her repayments came, through her people falling into the hand of the
oppressor with no one to help her, then she remembered the things on account of which she
was suffering, understanding them to be the causes both of her people’s fall and of her
being left without help. And a little later: But if a soul of this kind is Jerusalem, it
is worth asking who her people are. When they fall into the hand of the oppressor because
there is no helper, she herself remembers the days of her humiliation, and also her own
rejections by which she was cast away, and in addition all her desires from ancient days.
Consider whether the people of Jerusalem are not the insights in the soul that has
knowledge. Because the soul has fallen into inattention and carelessness, these insights
fall, thrown down by everything that oppresses. For the doctrines of the careless drain
away, squeezed out by the sins that gain room in the person who neglects better things,
since they no longer have any help from reason.

FRAGMENT 21

Lamentations 1:8. The sense of the passage is this. Since Jerusalem sinned a sin, she has
become unstable and troubled, so much so that all who formerly honored her changed their
minds and dishonored such a city, when they saw her disgrace. And she, for what she has
suffered because of her sins, fallen into turmoil and into dishonor from those who once
honored her, groans. She no longer goes forward in her sins but has lessened them and
withdrawn backward. And a little later: But if a soul of this kind is called Jerusalem,
quick-witted, sharp-sighted, and able to understand the peace of God that surpasses all
understanding, then, since it is possible for her to sin for many reasons, the passage
shows that she has fallen into turmoil, having withdrawn from good things and come to be
among worse ones. Everyone who has fallen from virtue and lives together with vice is
rightly said to be in turmoil.

FRAGMENT 22

It shows the checking of Jerusalem’s sins. She no longer stretches forward to the failings
that lie ahead, nor does she go on in her sins, but turns back, toward what is good and
her own.

FRAGMENT 23

23a Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:9. On the literal, bodily reading, what is said here about
Jerusalem is this: the uncleanness of Jerusalem is an obstacle. The prophet leaves us to
work out what it is an obstacle to. Perhaps he does not only mean that the uncleanness
hinders her journey. Even while she was in that state, he shows that Jerusalem did not
remember her last things. Whoever keeps these before his eyes, and sees what will meet him
because of his sins, will not sin. So because of this uncleanness there is an obstacle for
her. And because she did not remember her last things, she brought down her wonderful and
great possessions, which she had when she was worthy of being watched over, and she
carried them down into lowliness. Before, they were immense and beyond all praise. Yet
even after all this there was no one to comfort her. [The text here is corrupt; the sense
seems to be:] “Consider her greatest losses; consider my humiliation, I who say, Lord,
since the enemy is magnified over what has happened to my homeland.” And after a few
lines: But following the rules of allegorical interpretation, we must ask whether it is
possible for uncleanness to be in someone who is not the cause of it. Let us also look at
the first thoughts of the Lament.

23b A soul of this kind that has fallen is altogether in uncleanness, and this uncleanness
prevents it from walking the holy way. God commanded holy Moses, and Jesus his successor,
to take off their sandals when they stepped on a holy place, because it was not fitting to
wear a dead skin on the feet in a sacred place. In the same way, if someone is to walk
without hindrance, perhaps he must not only take off his sandals but also wash away the
uncleanness that the dust has left around his feet. We think the Savior’s act is a symbol
of this. He put water into the basin and washed the disciples’ feet. He spoke to Peter,
who did not yet understand the mystery and so tried to stop him: “If I do not wash you,
you have no part with me,” and “What I am doing you do not know now, but you will know
after these things.” So it will be necessary [for us to recognize] the uncleanness around
the feet, so to speak, of the soul, and to ask Jesus to wash it off, so that we may be
able to have a part with him. For if that uncleanness remains, it is an obstacle to our
walking the way in accordance with sound doctrine, that is, the Savior who said, “I am the
way.”

FRAGMENT 24

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:9. It is clear that the healthy soul, or at least the soul that
wants to be healthy, does these things. It looks not so much at the present alone as ahead
to what will meet it in the future from what is being done. Suppose something seems good
in the present, but the soul foresees bitterness in the future. Then it sets aside what
seems sweet and does the opposite, so that it will not later fall into something harsh.
But suppose the present is painful, yet good hopes follow what looks hard. Then the soul
gives itself willingly to the roughness of what some would think terrible, so that through
having endured these hard things it may gain the sweet things that follow them.

FRAGMENT 25

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:9. He says that after suffering all this, the city more
figuratively called Jerusalem did not even find anyone to comfort her. She turned away
from the Word within her and gave herself wholly to passion. So she has lost her helper,
who always arms against toils and against what are thought to be terrors the disposition
that pays attention to him. Then see my humiliation, as the citizen’s kinsman of soul
might say: the suffering of my fellow citizen, through which I was taught love for people,
is my own misfortune. “Consider, then, O Lord, and do not abandon altogether the one who
has suffered what was described. Do not overlook her enemy.” I mean evil, grown great and
poured out against her. The words “See, Lord, my humiliation” can be taken more
figuratively as spoken by the Word who is within the soul, who has been dishonored and
humbled and, so to speak, has lost his own kingdom.

FRAGMENT 26

The “desirable things” of Jerusalem should be understood as the things in the temple.
These are the holy of holies, the [vessels] kept for the priestly service, and the other
things believed to be divine because they were stored in the temple, such as the golden
lampstand and the rest. The people were convinced that these things were kept in the
temple for the glory of God. So they valued them above everything, and would themselves
rather have suffered something harsh at the hands of the enemy than see any of these
things fall into enemy hands. Those of the circumcision are accustomed to call the temple
“the sanctuary.”

FRAGMENT 27

Jerusalem suffered something most astonishing at the time of the captivity. She saw
nations that God had commanded not to enter the assembly trampling the sanctuary. Even
Israelites are not permitted to enter that place. Only the priests were counted worthy to
be there, and only those who had received the purifications. The enemies went even as far
as the forbidden places, into a place which the high priest enters only once a year, and
then only barely and with great purification. And a little later: If Jerusalem, as we
explained above, is a soul of this kind, then the good things that belong to her by nature
should be understood as her adornment. By these she served the divine. They are stored in
her inner places, which are closed to every word except the high priest, and they are
called her “desirable things.” Against all these things came the enemy who had won the
wrestling match. He had pressed hard on the soul that was not fighting well on her own
behalf but was deservedly abandoned by divine help. He stretched himself out with his
power, which is active toward what is wicked, and tore her away from her ruling faculty.
He left the soul that had fallen away from God empty of good things. The nations in this
passage should also be taken allegorically. They are the crowd of vices that has entered
the ruling faculty. That faculty was made able to receive God, and to be a true sanctuary
for the one who wishes to rest in a pure mind. God forbids these nations absolutely to
enter the assembly. For what could we suppose God more properly forbids to enter a soul
counted among the assembly of God than the works and mindset of the flesh? They are truly
nations hostile to God. “For the flesh wars against the spirit,” and the mindset of the
flesh is enmity toward God. “For it is not subject to the law of God; indeed, it cannot
be.”

FRAGMENT 28

They groaned because of famine. For a little food, to bring back a fainting soul, they
gave away their most precious things. But how could they give the treasures mentioned
above to buy food, when the enemies had carried them off? The enemy “stretched out his
hand over everything,” but when he had taken his fill of what he wanted, he left the rest.
In exchange for that remainder, they bought food.

FRAGMENT 29

“Look, Lord, at my dishonor” is a prayer from Jerusalem, who has lost her adornment
because of the famine. Perhaps the treasures are of two kinds. The first are those
described earlier, “against which the enemy stretched out his [hand].” The second are
those belonging to each individual of the people. The enemy took the common treasures, and
in place of their private ones each person bought food. Now for the higher meaning. Esau
sold his birthright for the sake of red stew, from which he got the name Edom, that is,
Red Land. He became earthly, since he despised the birthright and put earthly things
first. Jacob pursued the same things only in second place, as necessities, because he was
in a body. Jerusalem is like this too. But Esau gave Jacob, the worthy one, the desirable
things he had, even if he had not chosen them first. The people of Jerusalem also gave
their treasures for the sake of food. But they did not give them to a holy man who had
prepared the food. They gave them to Babylonians, who were going to treat the treasures
they were given with contempt. Jacob knows how to adorn what comes from Esau, but the
Babylonians do not use what they are given for any good of their own. In the same way a
soul, for lack of necessary provisions, throws away the divine teachings to those who, out
of idle curiosity, want to learn them in order to slander and mock.

FRAGMENT 30

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:13. He has described the fire that came with the capture, which
took hold of the strongest buildings, or else the capture of the leading citizens in the
city, who were burned, as it were, in soul and in outward things by their calamities. He
also shows the seizing of the lower classes into slavery, as in a field of nets. These
were the people who had not used their freedom well. They were not stretching forward to
the things ahead of them [text uncertain: something seems to be missing], but turned back
to the things behind. They turned from glory to dishonor and from freedom to slavery.
Instead of being honored, they became dimmed and obscure, through dishonor and outrage.
Because of all this the city has fallen into endless grief.

FRAGMENT 31

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:14. Providence, she says, has not been asleep over my ungodly
acts. God, as though taking them into his hands, has examined them and woven them into the
works of recompense. They have become for me like a yoke on the neck, and he has laid
slavery upon me. For the slavery I served to Nebuchadnezzar is my own ungodliness. So I
have become powerless, handed over to masters whose rule I cannot endure. And a little
later: “His yoke is on my neck.” This present text shows that what is said of God as if it
were about our own passions must be taken more figuratively. For how else could
Jerusalem’s ungodly acts be woven together by the hand of God, except figuratively? No one
would say that these things happen in a bodily way. And would it not be absurd to take the
neck figuratively, since Jerusalem is a city, and yet not to hear the members spoken of as
God’s in the same manner? Let it now be said as if by a soul that has fallen asleep into
ungodliness. It has kicked free from the saving yoke of sound reason, which the Savior
calls “easy,” and has slipped under the yoke of its ungodly acts. Through these it grew
weak, abandoned by God’s oversight and handed over to sin, the ruler of evils. Because
wickedness is boundless and without limit, the soul cannot fully serve sin’s wishes or
ever give it enough. Sin truly humbles, chokes, and makes a person look downward. A yoke,
too, is the conscience that always chokes and wounds, will not allow the head to be
lifted, and strips away all boldness. It has caused, she says, a slackening even of the
strength which I did not use well, and I am undone as I look at the evils that hold me
fast.

FRAGMENT 32

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:15. He did not take them from my midst. For even if I had been
deprived of them, it would have been possible to use them for other purposes. Instead he
condemned them to suffer in my midst because of the ungodly things I did. My chosen ones
have suffered the most grievous things, since the Lord himself trod the wine of his wrath
in the winepress, to the full, for me and for the virgin of Judah, the most royal. By
“strong men” he might mean those mighty in war who defended the homeland, and by “chosen”
the well-born or the wise. The phrase “he trod the winepress” is made clear by what is
said in the Psalms about the punishment of sinners: “a cup in the hand of the Lord, full
of unmixed mixture.” It is tipped from one person being punished to the next, until “all
the sinners of the earth” drink. The dregs are left for those who are still more sinful
than these, and into these last “the dregs” will be emptied.

FRAGMENT 33

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:15. It is not hard to see how the Lord trod a winepress for the
virgin daughter of Judah. For “what each person sows, that he will also reap,” and perhaps
also what he cultivates, that he will also harvest as grapes. So the one who has made a
better wine will rejoice in his own produce. But the one who has cultivated the vine of
Sodom and the shoot of Gomorrah, and has borne the grape of gall, the cluster of
bitterness, and the incurable wrath of asps, will have all these gathered by the Lord into
one winepress. His evil works will be trodden and squeezed, and in keeping with such
fruits he will drink, so as to vomit up the gall, the bitterness, and the wrath. And he
will drink: according to Jeremiah, in order to vomit it out; according to Isaiah, in order
to be roused and to put on the glory that is his by kinship. For the Lord does not tread a
winepress for nothing, least of all for the virgin daughter of Judah.

FRAGMENT 34

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:15. The soul received from its Creator many powerful and choice
gifts. Now it has lost them through wickedness and is paying the penalty, and it confesses
what it has suffered. The time summoned to crush it is the time of repayment. According to
Ezekiel, at that time none of all the righteous deeds the righteous man has done will be
remembered in the day of sin. But by mourning over what has happened, the soul is helped,
since those who mourn and weep have the promise of comfort and laughter.

FRAGMENT 35

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:16. She said that the cause of her groaning is that there is no
one to turn her soul back, or, in Symmachus’s words, no one to restore it. She says also
that the sons have been wiped out, because the enemy has grown strong through the things
in which they sinned. For when we are godly he has no strength. He grows weak as we
advance and is put to death as we are made perfect. He is crushed under our feet, ground
fine like dust before the face of the wind, and ground fine like the mud of the streets.
For he is fed, and gains power, in proportion to our sins. But when we stop doing wrong,
he is destroyed as if by famine. Conversely, when we do well we strengthen the divine
powers for ourselves, and when we sin we drive them away. That is why Symmachus, in place
of “wiped out,” gave “desolate.” These words could be spoken by a soul that has been
contemplating the truth but through carelessness has lost the Word who gladdened it, and
all her fruits, which are called her sons. This happened because evil, her enemy, has been
strengthened against her.

FRAGMENT 36

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:17. By Zion he means the mountain, by Jacob the people, and by
Jerusalem the mother city. God gave Jacob commandments, and because they were
transgressed, Jacob was surrounded by enemies. But according to Symmachus, and according
to another edition of the Seventy, the Lord commanded that those who afflict him be all
around him. This was done through the powers assigned to do harm.

FRAGMENT 37

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:17. By the phrase “as a woman set apart,” he has shown the
uncleanness of Jerusalem that came through sin. By “in the midst” he means either between
Zion and Jacob, or in the middle of the whole mountain (for Jerusalem is built on only
part of it) and of the whole people, with Jacob here meaning the twelve tribes. Taken
literally, Zion and Jerusalem can be understood in two ways: either as places or as the
people who live in them. If Zion is a place, her hands are her works, such as farming and
whatever is made by hand. He says these hands are spread out and not busy, not doing with
the hands the fitting work, as in an idle and desolate land. If he means the inhabitants,
the hands would be the farmers and workers, who do not set their hands to work because of
what has surrounded them. And if the hands of Zion are interpreted figuratively, how much
more the “members” of God in Scripture. The mountain itself, so to speak, groans together
with the nation, having no comfort, neither God nor any holy man.

FRAGMENT 38

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:18. By “the mouth of the Lord” we should understand the
prophets. Isaiah was one of them, and he said, “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these
things.” Jerusalem was reproached by the Savior as “the one who kills the prophets.” In
this sense she also embittered the mouth of the Lord, by handing the prophets over to the
most bitter sufferings. God, who seeks the blood of the prophets, hands over her young men
and virgins to the sufferings of wars, and then again to captivities. So she confesses for
the things she has suffered, offering herself as an example to others, so that they may
learn God’s righteousness and not suffer similar things.

FRAGMENT 39

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:18. Beyond the literal sense, take the virgins to be those who
live in purity and incorruption, and the young men to be those who are well regarded for
virtue. For often the saints also suffer together with those who are guilty.

FRAGMENT 40

Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:19. Ezekiel has shown who the lovers are. He says to Jerusalem,
whom he calls Oholibah: “Thus says the Lord Lord: Look, I am rousing your lovers against
you from every side, the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans.” These had formerly been
friends, but by divine providence they turned into enemies. This often happens when love
turns to hatred. For about Samaria he says: “And Holla played the whore away from me and
attached herself to her lovers, the Assyrians.” A little later he says: “Therefore he
handed her over into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of the
Assyrians.” And he says about Jerusalem: “And her sister Oliba saw it, and she made her
attachment more corrupt than the whoring of her sister, and she attached herself to the
sons of the Assyrians.”

FRAGMENT 41

Lamentations 1:20. In the prophecy, the soul is in pain as one who is about to suffer
terrible things. In the present Lament, as though these things have already happened, she
is distressed. She confesses that, because of sin, the kindness of God has made itself
most bitter. The result is that she who had many children has been made childless, and,
worst of all, by the hand of an enemy. Since this is personification, we should not look
for a city’s womb that gave birth, or for a heart that has been loosened.

FRAGMENT 42

Lamentations 1:21. Jerusalem divides her speech between the enemies, whom she wants to
hear her, and God. But why does she urge the enemies to listen? And why does she tell God
about them, that they rejoiced? Perhaps it is because salvation came to the Gentiles
through her own and Israel’s transgression, to make them jealous. And when the fullness of
the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved. So she speaks the first words
prophetically [to those] from the Gentiles, and the second words to God. “I was abandoned
to suffer, so that you might receive room. Because of you I have become an enemy of God,
although by election I am beloved because of the fathers. So when you hear my groaning,
understand also its cause. I have been abandoned completely for the sake of your
salvation, and I have no one to comfort me always after the trial of evils. For now a
ruler has failed from Judah, and a leader from his thighs. For he came for whom the things
laid up were [gap in the text], the expectation of the [gap in the text]. And since his
blood is being avenged, there is no one still to comfort Jerusalem.”

FRAGMENT 43

Lamentations 1:22. That is: let their wickedness not be allowed to go further, but let it
come under your oversight. It is like someone praying that his wounds might come to the
eye of a doctor so as to receive a complete cure. This is the meaning of “all.” It is
blessed above all not to sin. The second blessing is that all our wickedness be overseen
by God.

FRAGMENT 44

Lamentations 1:22. “To glean” means, after the harvest, to gather the small amounts of
what was left behind, which is what the poor do. So when you oversaw me carefully, you
used to cleanse my vine shoots, removing everything worse, down to the smallest things,
[of the grape and of the cluster of bitterness]. In the same way, deal so with my enemies.
This is to my advantage, since if they are completely saved, then I too, Lord, will obtain
salvation according to your judgment. Seeing them, I am deeply grieved and I condemn
myself, because I need your oversight.

FRAGMENT 45

Lamentations 2:3. A similar statement is in David: “He will crush all the horns of
sinners.” Here he means the rulers, in whom the strength of the nation lies, as it does in
the horned animals. They also stand out above the body, as rulers do above their subjects.
Daniel also compared kingdoms to horns. The horn also shows the arrogance of those in
command, as in the words, “Do not lift up your horn on high.” So he turned away his saving
hand and made them easy prey for their enemies, whom he also called a flame consuming
everything. You could also say that every outstanding thought is a horn, and that the
“passions of dishonor” are the fire. The wrongdoer is handed over to these, having lost
all the help that surrounded him, in line with the words, “The angel of the Lord will
encamp around those who fear him.”

FRAGMENT 46

Lamentations 2:4. For the enemies dared to carry out slaughter in the temple, with God
allowing it. “As an enemy” is well said, for God does not punish out of enmity. He wants
to benefit either those who suffer or those who watch. He calls the temple a “tent,” in
keeping with the sanctuary from the beginning. He calls the bow his power to punish, as in
Habakkuk: “You will surely stretch your bow against the scepters, says the Lord,” meaning
the opposing rulers and authorities. The Son, who is the right hand of God and Father,
fought mightily [gap in the text]. He overthrew even the idols that they had set up in the
temple of God (for these were “the desire of the eyes”), and in place of the idols he
killed the demons who had made their dwelling there.

FRAGMENT 47

He says “baris,” meaning the houses, which Symmachus rendered “royal residences.” He takes
up the laments again, like someone racked with grief in mourning. Again he shows that [the
soul] has taken on a lowly way of reasoning and a lowly frame of mind. The things that
were like dwellings and fortresses, which as it were filled the ruling faculty, have been
pulled down. The virtues are the dwellings, for they shelter us, and the strongholds are
the irrefutable lines of reasoning. For this time the pulling down is not of the worse
kind of height, those that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, [nor of the
humility by which one learns the ordinances of the Lord]. These are matters for joy, and
they are not by nature worthy [of mourning].

FRAGMENT 48

By “tent” he means the temple. By “vine” and “vineyard” he means Israel, as in David’s
words, “You brought a vine out of Egypt,” and in Isaiah, “a vineyard, a vineyard, came to
be for the beloved.” David goes on, “Why did you tear down its hedge?” and what follows.
Isaiah says, “You took away its hedge,” and what follows that. The present Lament also
made these things plain. For God drew in his own guard and gave them over to the enemies.
[The angel of the Lord] no longer encamped around him, because [he] did not fear [the
Lord]. He also did away with the appointed times of worship under the law, as he says in
Isaiah: “My soul hates your fasting, your idleness and your feasts.” This he called
“forgetting,” but not as though it were a human passion. He stirred up king and priest to
anger. They were indignant that, though they were God’s own portion, they suffered such
things at the hands of the ungodly.

FRAGMENT 49

He gave up the vessels used in worship. He was no longer pleased with sacrifices from the
ungodly, as in the words, “I do not want whole burnt offerings of rams, the fat of lambs,
or the blood of bulls and goats.” He also gave up the wall that held the city’s houses
together, that is, the royal palaces, as Symmachus rendered it. The enemy took the temple
as well, as though this were their final victory, and from then on they held a festival,
shouting loudly. The altar of the soul is the rational part in us, through which the
passions are offered up as sacrifice, being put to death.

FRAGMENT 50

For he took away all her security, stretching out the measure of the punishment. Zechariah
also saw this.

FRAGMENT 51

The wall and the outer wall mourn. These are things worthy of mourning, and they become a
cause of weeping even for those who see them. As blessed Isaiah says, “For who will
scatter the Lord’s counsel? And who will turn back his lifted hand?” When a city, or a
soul, mourns such things, so that it becomes a thing trampled by its enemies, it is likely
that the angels mourn who formerly guarded it, one after another, both greater and lesser.
For if they rejoice over those who are saved, how will they not mourn over those who fall?

FRAGMENT 52

For they have become invisible, as though swallowed up by earth or sea. King and rulers
perished, and the false prophets, and her law as well, through the necessity of slavery.
In fact they had abolished that law by their own choice even before they were captured.
The gates of the soul are the senses. When the soul sins, they are flooded with passions
and become earthly. The powers of the soul that guard the senses are also loosened, since
the mind that rules and the ruling lines of reasoning are lost among the passions. Then
the law and order of the soul are destroyed, and it becomes Babylon, full of confusion,
with nothing of providence left that is helped by God.

FRAGMENT 53

He relates grievous sights that happened in the place of gladness. For out of fear they
would not even let the elders lament, and they made the foremost virgins look at the
ground. They did this so that, if they appeared, they might not draw the enemy [to
violence] by the beauty in which they excelled. You could also say this of those who were
long ago elders in virtue, which is why they were so called. They have become earthly and
settled among irrational passions, so that they no longer do anything according to reason.
They have made the ruling spirit in them earthbound. They have made the self-control they
once had something worthy of mourning. And they have corrupted the lines of reasoning that
they once kept uncorrupted.

FRAGMENT 54

The prophet speaks of their “own glory”: the temple of God and the piety of the
fatherland. It was famine that caused the fainting of the infants. You could say something
loftier: that he makes his own the sufferings of his kinsmen according to the flesh, as in
“Who is weak, and I am not weak?” He takes on their afflictions of soul. These are the
withering of true knowledge, the unsteady drift of reasoning toward earthly things, and
the loss of the one who lifts up the head, as in “You, Lord, are my helper, my glory, and
the one who lifts up my head.”

FRAGMENT 55

He showed complete wickedness, so that it has no testimony of virtue, and no sinner has
anything comparable. For what sin is like that of the one who is far from God, or who drew
near and then became unruly? “For if I had not come,” he says, “and spoken to them, they
would not have had sin.” So also: “I will be sanctified among those who draw near to me.”
For the one who does not know the Lord’s will and does not do it will be beaten with few
blows, but the one who knows and does not do it will be beaten with many. A suffering this
great, which prophets have not been able to heal, needs God alone. That is why he also
took on flesh, since the prophets confessed their weakness in the words “Lord, who has
believed our report?” Jerusalem also said earlier: “See whether there is any suffering
like my suffering.” So the one who struck will heal. For he himself causes pain, and he
restores again. The word “who” is used both of what is rare and of what is nothing. For no
human being can heal the blow that God brings.

FRAGMENT 56

A vain prophecy is one that has no outcome, and the kind that vain idols provide. Some
also prophesied from themselves, supposedly “for a handful of barley and a piece of
bread,” as it is written. They do not know how to expose sins or to rescue people from
captivity to demons, but twist souls with their smooth talk. What the true prophets
receive, and the word they take from God, is true and joins people to God. In the same
way, what comes from demons is false, takes people far from God, and drives them out from
the inclination that comes from him. Which “banishments” and “receipts” are not vain, as
has been shown? Clearly, those that drive out error and bring people to God.

FRAGMENT 57

“For our enemy the devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to swallow.” He is
also like a snake hissing at us. But may it never happen that he says, “I have swallowed
him,” or that he [find] in us the day that the scorching sun produces. For it is said: “By
day the sun will not scorch you.” The sun scorches with pleasures and anger, and it offers
error as if it were light and knowledge. So as we sing the psalms we will say: “If the
Lord had not been among us, they would then have swallowed us alive,” and “the lamp of the
ungodly will be put out.”

FRAGMENT 58

He says that the enemies did nothing of themselves. It seemed good to God, and so it
happened. That is why Nebuzaradan also said: “The Lord your God spoke these evils against
this place, and the Lord brought them, because you sinned against him.” So everyone who
does not believe will hear the judgment contained in these words. All the prophets
foretold these things, and from ancient days Moses indicated them beforehand in
Deuteronomy.

FRAGMENT 59

Scripture sometimes makes its words full of feeling and gives perception to what cannot
perceive. It introduces hills leaping and mountains skipping, and calls on hills and
stones as witnesses. That is impossible in this case, since the wall has already been
pulled down by enemies. So the wall here means the king, the rulers, and all who fortify
the city with their power. He asks them to pour out unceasing tears of repentance, which
the fallen wall constantly causes in those who see it. These tears, he says, belong to
them, unless it again signifies the grief of the power that once guarded the city, and he
is showing this by exaggeration. “In affliction,” he says, “they remembered the Lord with
their whole heart.” So do this, he says: weep night and day, and “be pierced with remorse
upon your beds.” Do not think that being released from these things is sobriety, for
repentance leads to salvation. A person becomes sober by ceasing from worse things, not
from good ones. Keep your mind joined to Christ at all times, so that he may guard you as
the apple of his eye and become a wall for you.

FRAGMENT 60

Night calls for attention, because in it the soul is gathered in on itself while the
senses are at rest. Then the text tells us to meditate on the commandments of God and to
say with David: “By night I meditated with my heart, and my spirit searched.” The night is
divided into four watches, so say with David: “My eyes got ahead of the watches.” Say also
with Habakkuk: “I will stand at my watch, and I will keep looking out to see what the Lord
God will say in me.” For then you will say: “He will speak peace to his people.” So
meditate in the night of the present age. “Your wrestling is not against blood and flesh,
but against the rulers, against the authorities.” “For you do not know when the master of
the house is coming, late, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning; he may come
suddenly and find you asleep.” And again: “If you had known in what watch the thief was
coming, you would have stayed awake and would not have let your house be broken into.”

FRAGMENT 61

Lift up your hands to him by working what is good. The struggle is no small matter. For
lack of the divine word, your little ones are fainting. They stand at the beginning of
every way out, which is the commandments of God, and they cannot go forward without God’s
help and without the bread that strengthens the heart.

FRAGMENT 62

After the prophet urged her, Jerusalem was persuaded and says to God: “Do not turn your
face away from me.” “Look upon me and have mercy on me.” “Do not reprove me in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.” The blow is greater than human nature can bear. I know
that I broke the law, and I know the penalties that follow from it. Among them is this:
“You shall eat the offspring of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters.” I
thought those words went no further than a threat. But, Lord, “your law is truth.” What I
had never heard of was the slaughter of priest and prophet in the middle of the temple.

FRAGMENT 63

All who were too weak for hard labor because of their age lay thrown on the ground. It was
a most pitiable sight, as was the slaughter of young men and virgins. [text uncertain]
Would that they had been slaughtered before being led off to a more bitter life. The
“outlets of the earth” are the affairs of ordinary life. In these they fell asleep,
without having kept watch or prayed, and folly had closed the eyes of their souls. And who
are these people? If they were children, it would not be so surprising. But now it is
those who seemed to have advanced in virtue, everyone whose soul was uncorrupted and
strong in battle, who have fallen into the hands of their enemies. You, you, as the good
one, put an end to such a life of theirs, and cut to pieces their whole combined strength
set against what is good.

FRAGMENT 64

Those around me, he says, who live in Judea, thought of the feast held for me as a refuge,
hoping to find salvation from it. Not one of them is left, because of the anger you
brought upon them. For through the very things they sinned, their enemies have become many
and strong.

FRAGMENT 65

Terrible things happened to the prophet, both before the city was captured and after it
had been taken. So he begins another letter of the alphabet and laments for himself, as he
sees the poverty and desolation of the city because of the Lord’s discipline. He himself
came to be no less in want of good things. He was in difficult circumstances when he was
rebuking these people, so that he says: “I was mocked all day long.” He was also sharing
in the calamities of their sufferings, and in the [sympathy] that comes from it [text
incomplete]. He says also, in the words of David: “The shadow of death overshadowed me.”
For whenever he seems to give a brief rest from the labors, he turns back again and makes
the punishment unending.

FRAGMENT 66

“All the day” means every day, as in David: “All day long he fought against me and
afflicted me.” “He turned his hand” could also mean this: he once supplied me with good
things, but now he brings discipline, as if he had changed his hand.

FRAGMENT 67

He means the rottenness that has come upon us from sin.

FRAGMENT 68

For lasting calamity produces the weakness of old age.

FRAGMENT 69

For he did not let me escape the terrors, since I was besieged on every side. He may also
mean the hostile wall thrown around the city. He gave voice to the same words as David,
who said, “They made me sit in dark places, like those long dead.” This was because of the
prisons the enemy made, and at the same time because of the calamities that came from God;
for trials are a darkness of the soul. Jeremiah knew this also from the pit into which
Pashhur threw him, a place dark and without light, like the cave in which David hid from
Saul. The two Lamentations could also be taken as spoken of Christ, of whom Jeremiah was a
type, since he suffered so much at the hands of the Jews and in the end was handed over to
the tomb.

FRAGMENT 70

He has wrapped me in evils I cannot escape. He has laid on my neck a harsh and bitter
people, a burden greater than I am. Though I often prayed to be relieved, I was not heard;
for circumstances sometimes prevent the saints from being heard. He may also mean the yoke
and the iron collars which, at God’s command, he put on in place of wooden ones; for
Scripture also says, “He made the bronze on my neck heavy.” For he blocked my prayer, and
he said to him, “Do not pray for them, for I will not listen to you.”

FRAGMENT 71

For though he often set out to do so, he was not permitted to refuse the service. He used
to say, “I will not mention the name of the Lord,” and yet he was driven on as if by fire.
God also blocks the ways of sinners, not allowing them to sin. But the prophet is not like
that, for he says, “I did not sit in the company of those who make sport.”

FRAGMENT 72

He says: he has shot every arrow of his against me, wounding my desire and not allowing me
to act as I wish.

FRAGMENT 73

In Scripture the “kidneys” stand for the faculty of desire, and the “arrows” are the
shafts. They went on ridiculing me as a liar and made me their song. He had said earlier,
“I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness,” and what follows. For he pleaded on
their behalf, while they plotted against him, and still he could not refuse the service.
So he was embittered: by what he suffered at their hands, by sharing the pain of those who
suffered, and by his deep distress over the ungodly.

FRAGMENT 74

He says “with a pebble” or “by number,” as when each tooth is struck on the jaw, or with a
hard stone. And in keeping with David he says, “I ate ashes for my bread,” meaning that
under affliction he could not even take bread with pleasure. So the soul could not be at
peace, since it was itself troubled and saw besides, outside, uproars, and inside,
battles. Therefore, hoping for nothing good, I let out the words of Job: “Mercy has given
me up, and my hope from the Lord.” For it was not possible to overcome the terrors that
surrounded me.

FRAGMENT 75

For though he is good to all, he asks of us patience. For to the soul that will seek him,
the seeking is good, if it endures without being disturbed until mercy meets it, and
without moving away, until the salvation of the Lord appears, to hope in another. Perhaps
he also means that it will be quiet, not meddling in the judgments of providence. So even
if we do not understand, we must not kick against the Lord.

FRAGMENT 76

Because “his yoke is easy and his burden light.” Let no one agree with him about anything,
we must not be carried off with him; but even if we are left alone in this, we must hold
firm to what has been decided and be firmly rooted. For David says, “The Lord settles the
single-minded in a house,” and “I am alone, until I pass over,” clearly meaning that he
obtains kindness through the trials.

FRAGMENT 77

For he will humble himself, saying, “But I am earth and ashes,” if he is truly a man, and
he is filled with a hope that does not put to shame, like the words, “My soul clung to the
ground.”

FRAGMENT 78

This also fits those in the captivity who say what is in the seventy-third Psalm: “Why, O
God, have you rejected us to the end? Has your anger burned against the sheep of your
pasture?” In agreement is the saying, “The Lord will not reject to the end, nor be angry
forever.” And to the one who repents as he deserves, he will say, “Let your voice cease
from weeping, and your eyes from tears.”

FRAGMENT 79

From these words we learn that the Lord did not say, and is not the cause, that the
prisoners of the earth are humbled by sin. Nor does he bend human judgments aside before
God [text corrupt]. “He loves what is just and right.” Nor is he the cause of a man
becoming deserving of condemnation. For, he says, opposites cannot come out of the mouth
of the Lord, the good things and the evil. Neither does a good tree produce bad fruit, nor
a bad tree good fruit. So men being wronged by wicked people is [contrary to] divine
judgment. Yet it still happens among those whom God overlooks, as happened to the
Israelites at the hands of their enemies, and it is undone when they turn back to God.
Therefore those handed over to punishment must look for this turning.

FRAGMENT 80

So when we grumble, we lay the blame on the Creator in vain. A living man cannot do this.
Such a choice belongs to those who are dead in sins, unless it exposes the one who lives
in sin and blames God. Since, then, we have no other cause than ourselves alone, let us
judge what we ourselves have done, and turn back.

FRAGMENT 81

For it is not possible to turn back to the Lord while ignorant of oneself. A person comes
to know himself by bringing his mind to bear on his actions. He examines them, and at the
same time makes them rational [or: spiritual]. For then “with unveiled face we behold as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord.” Confessing our former deeds, we will say that “we have
sinned and fallen away from you,” and that “you are righteous in all that you have brought
upon us.”

FRAGMENT 82

“To lift up our hearts upon our hands” seems to mean this: taking our own thoughts, as it
were, into our hands, let us examine whether they are pure.

FRAGMENT 83

These words too are part of the confession already made. For you brought the troubles of
terrible things on us like darkness out of a cloud. You pursued us when we were far from
you. Through punishment you destroyed us, who were dead in sin. Our sins separated us from
you, like a cloud building a wall between us. So our prayer did not reach you. For we did
not have “the wings of a dove” to fly over and say, “By my God I will leap over a wall.”
It was not easy to get past sin, which is solid and dark and has no share in the Holy
Spirit.

FRAGMENT 84

Symmachus: “terror.” “They swallowed us with a whole mouth.” We were carried down into a
depth of evils, filled with fear and confusion. For the sinner falls into the pit he dug,
paying the penalty for what he sinned. And since, according to Solomon, “arrogance goes
before destruction” (that is, pride), we were puffed up and we were crushed. Hence David
sings: “Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of a sinner shake me.”

FRAGMENT 85

Though he has suffered so much, he grieves deeply for those who did it. So it is that
“love does not reckon evil.”

FRAGMENT 86

Where the Septuagint has “my eye was worn out, and will not be silent, so that there is no
sobering up,” Symmachus said: “my eye persisted and did not cease, so that there is no
relief.” The Seventy show that, although his eyes had been weakened by the great quantity
of tears, he did not stop, being unable to recover from his weeping. Symmachus shows that
I persisted in tears and did not stop. For earnest prayer and intense tears draw God to
mercy.

FRAGMENT 87

“For the tears cut me down,” he says, “like a careful grape-harvester cutting a vine.”
According to Symmachus, “the tears drowned me,” a metaphor taken from people choking in
water. “But enduring, I will endure the Lord, until he [turns] his face away from us.”
God’s looking down means that he counts us worthy of his oversight. He explains the phrase
“beyond all” by adding “upon all,” that is, upon their misfortunes. For the female sex is
more pitiable than the male.

FRAGMENT 88

Or he is telling what he has suffered. For he was thrown into a pit, and [as far as it
went, he died]. But he was saved beyond hope, and says with David: “My soul was delivered
like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters.” For, according to the Savior’s word, it was
not possible to “fall to the ground without the Father.” So then, either he is speaking of
himself, or he is making the sufferings of the people his own. But the words “without
cause” would reasonably be said of him. For how did he wrong them? Or rather, did he not
do them good?

FRAGMENT 89

God passed judgment by killing the false prophet and handing over the king. In the time of
Christ he handed the nation over to be captured. The words “I am before their eyes” mean
that I was a burden to them, even just by being seen.

FRAGMENT 90

He also said earlier: “Make an end of them, and your word will be to me for gladness and
joy of my heart.” He said this after the plot against the Saviour, when they were
scattered everywhere. For [all that is just] came upon them. So this shows that their
worship came to an end, and that they are no longer called a nation of God.

FRAGMENT 91

The phrase “the shielding of the heart—toil for them” means this: you will give them toil,
so that they come to feel how great a protector of them you were, and so seek you again.
If not, you will pursue them in your anger.

FRAGMENT 92

He begins the fourth alphabetic section, which is now before us. He takes up again the
lament over the distinguished, in a special way. He says that their splendor has grown dim
and has vanished, as if poured out like water.

FRAGMENT 93

“Holy” here means chosen, either on account of the fathers or on account of the holy ones
taken captive with Joakim, whom he compared to good figs. And a little later: [the
departures] from the holy land lead [away] into the spiritual Babylonian [realm], “that
they may be taught not to blaspheme.” You could also say that the lament applies to those
who have turned away from godliness, if they were notable and became leaders of error for
others. They have left the fountain of living water and have become broken cisterns that
cannot hold water. So it is fitting that they are poured out around error, groaning before
their time.

FRAGMENT 94

Those who prided themselves on wealth, he says, who were even more precious than gold: how
were they led into slavery and likened to cheap, shattered things? It was said that they
are compared to such things also when [Jeremiah] went down to the potter’s house and took
a vessel [...]. Isaiah likewise says of a fallen city, “its ruins will be like the
fragments of a vessel.”

FRAGMENT 95

He speaks of the famine among the infants of the glorious. Jerusalem could not even offer
them the breast as wild animals do. The extremity of the suffering causes even nature to
be forgotten. “Dragons,” or “Sirens” in Symmachus, is to be understood of the evil
spirits, who nurse their own newborn with evil milk. Such are those who are led in by the
teachings of the ungodly.

FRAGMENT 96

For how are they not “daughters,” those who have been made effeminate, whom even Pharaoh
keeps alive while he kills the males? They feed on the teaching, the desert of God. They
cannot fly away like ostriches, but are always running along the ground. (Symmachus
rendered “the sparrow” in this way.) It is not unfitting that he called their teachers
Sirens. According to the myth outside the faith, the Sirens destroyed those who came by,
through pleasure, just as dragons do once they have sunk in their venom. So he rebukes
these supposedly good teachers, because they did not take as much care of their pupils as
even these creatures do.

FRAGMENT 97

They suffered these things while under siege and while being led away. You could also say
that they endured “a famine, not of bread, nor of water,” as the prophet says, “but of
hearing the word of the Lord.” For this reason he prophesies about them as newborn
infants.

FRAGMENT 98

In the historical sense he has gone back to what happened in the captivity. But in the
deeper sense he is speaking of the famine of the teaching word.

FRAGMENT 99

For the poor who are ill-treated are not so pitiable as these. Paul also laments over
these, saying, “to whom belong the adoption and the glory.” For now they busy themselves
with empty things, and they take no delight in [Moses] and the prophets, in the words
“delight yourself in the Lord.” There is no one to prepare the nourishing word for them.
Nor do they share in the fattened calf, even though they themselves have offered the
sacrifice. By “outlets” he means the dispersions, or else the distortions of the written
letters of the Law.

FRAGMENT 100

Formerly they were brought up in scarlet, hearing beforehand, in prophecy, of the
Saviour’s blood that was to be poured out. Now, because of their earthly thoughts, they
are dressed in rags.

FRAGMENT 101

Symmachus renders one phrase as “as if in haste, suddenly he gave her up,” and the other
as “they did not suffer, [she] whom they did not wound.” What is quicker than the divine
word, which said, “Behold, your house is left to you desolate,” and handed it over by
willing alone? The lawlessness of Jerusalem was made greater than that of Sodom. The
Sodomites had only the natural law. These people had the written law as well, and the
prophets, and everything God did among them in marvelous ways. Those others sinned against
angels and against men like themselves. These sinned against the Savior and Redeemer. Long
ago he redeemed them from Egypt, and now from the worship of demons. This is so if they
really did receive [him] who came to them first of all. For he says, “I was not sent
except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

FRAGMENT 102

Symmachus: “Her undefiled ones, set apart, [were] snow, brighter than milk, ruddier in
bodily condition than the things men gaze at; their limbs were sapphire; their appearance
was darker than soot.” He means those who sanctified themselves to God. “Sanctified”
indicates the Nazirites. For this is how Symmachus and Theodotion rendered “the
sanctified” in Amos, calling them Nazirites. Moses also mentions them, and Samson was one
of this kind. They were also distinguished among the Jews. So he compared their purity to
snow and their brightness to milk. They were made red as with fire, tested by the
discipline of what they had promised to God. Their chosen ones [this is the excerpt] have
a heavenly way of life, for that is the color of sapphire. The sapphire also has golden
veins, and Symmachus likens their condition to these. It has incorruptibility and a fiery
zeal in the worship of God.

FRAGMENT 103

They fell away from spiritual illumination and wasted away with a famine of the mind. So
they came to look like dry trees, those not planted beside the channels of the waters.
Such now are their priests, who [lack] good spiritual nourishment. Taking the words
literally, their faces were blackened with the utmost shame, because they were sinning
like the others and were led away. Even now common usage employs this word for those who
are put to shame.

FRAGMENT 104

It is better to die quickly in war than to be broken by famine through the lack of the
produce of the field. You could say that the word of God is a sword and a blade. For Paul
says, “and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The bride says she is
“wounded with love” by it. David also says, “Gird your sword upon your thigh, mighty one,
in your splendor and your beauty.” Those struck by such a sword fall under the feet of
Jesus, according to the words “peoples will fall under you.” They confess his kingdom, and
are not captured by a famine of the soul. For Christ is the produce of the land, he who
was born in Bethlehem, which means “House of Bread.” The Jews, having never tasted him,
were carried off to the land of demons. The field blessed by the Lord, and very fragrant,
which Jacob breathed in, signifies the church of Christ.

FRAGMENT 105

So that the women would not seem to have eaten their children out of cruelty, he says that
they were compassionate. He attributes the terrible deed to the pressure of want. The word
“they boiled” means they kindled a fire and roasted. This is what happened in the Roman
siege. So he calls the total destruction of the nation a “ruin.” In the second
alphabetical section of the Lamentations he also mentions the present suffering. Josephus
recorded this and the other sufferings accurately in his work on the capture of the city.

FRAGMENT 106

For after the coming of Christ these things were brought to completion.

FRAGMENT 107

Perhaps it was because of the strength of the place, the wall, and the might of its
inhabitants. But most of all it was because of God, who always shielded the city. Even so,
before Nebuchadnezzar the Egyptian came in and often took the treasures from the house of
the Lord, yet he did not sack the city. He did not press it too hard, even though he was
an enemy, so that it would not seem out of place for the unexpected thing to happen twice
and three times. The text could also mean by “kings of the earth” the demons who ruled
over the earthly (those made of dust). Of them it was said: “All the kings of the earth
stood by, and their rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his
Christ.” Who these are is made clear by the words “for if they had known, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory,” and by “so that the manifold wisdom of God might be
made known through the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”
For they thought Jerusalem would not be handed over to the end. They supposed the promise
made to the fathers reached no further than this nation, and they knew nothing about
Christ.

FRAGMENT 108

“Righteous blood” in the proper sense is the blood of the Saviour Christ. When they shed
it they were utterly destroyed, whereas for the blood of the prophets they had been only
moderately disciplined.

FRAGMENT 109

Symmachus says: “They became unsettled, blind in their goings out; they were defiled with
blood, so that they could not touch their garments.” Scripture calls the angels
“watchers,” as in Daniel. These were perhaps the ones through whom the law was given by
Moses, according to the words “for if the law spoken through angels.” So these angels, who
had remained devoted to Jerusalem and to the divine temple, were shaken and departed. For
Josephus records, in his work on the capture of the city, that “at night the priests went
into the temple, as was their custom for the services. They said that first they felt a
movement, and after that a sudden voice: ‘Let us depart from here.’” At that time,
according to Symmachus, they became unsettled, wanderers, and “blind in their goings out.”
For there was no vision to make distinctions, no prophet, and no leader. They failed
because the one had come for whom it was all kept in store, the one who was the
expectation of the nations.

FRAGMENT 110

He commands the apostles to flee from the midst of the Jews, who had been defiled by the
blood of Christ. But the task of calling them he also entrusted to the angels. Unless,
perhaps, he commands the apostles to call these unclean people to repentance, which they
did when they said: “It was necessary that the word be spoken to you first.” When the Jews
were unwilling, he orders the apostles to flee. That is why they say, of those who were
unwilling, “Behold, we turn to the Gentiles.”

FRAGMENT 111

“They were kindled” shows the fire of the capture. “They were shaken” shows their removal
into slavery. “They shall not add to sojourn” shows that they will have a lasting sojourn
and will no longer need a second one.

FRAGMENT 112

This shows the punishment that comes from Christ. For David says: “[the face] of the Lord
is against those who do evil.” They are not looked upon by him; they remain what they are.
For when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, all Israel will be saved, and from then on
it is as a believer [that each is saved]. If the reading is “their portion,” he clearly
means those who go out from the midst. As for the enemies, “they did not respect the face
of priests,” for they led all of them away.

FRAGMENT 113

The words seem to come from the captives, who repent that they had leaned on the Egyptians
and the Assyrians for help. They could also be said, fittingly, by those who believed from
the circumcision: “We failed in vain, hoping in the law.” For the law saves no one, as
Paul said. So those who cling to the law will not be able to help anyone after grace has
come.

FRAGMENT 114

The ones who hunted the Jews, who were infants in mind, had been shown by the Saviour to
be “fishers of men.” They hunted them so that they would not walk the broad and spacious
road of their fathers. The Saviour hinted at these same people when he said: “Let the
little children come to me.”

FRAGMENT 115

For Josephus records that not even the mountains saved those who fled. There, then, they
dragged us away and seized us; that is, they were kindled against us for judgment. The
verse could also be understood of the apostles, whose “youth was renewed like an eagle’s.”

FRAGMENT 116

116a Lamentations 4:20. Some have said that in the select passages [or: “Excerpts”] he
laments Josiah more clearly. They hoped that through Josiah’s godliness Jerusalem would be
raised up in the midst of the nations for glory, for Jerusalem is in the midst of the
nations. This man, they say, is a type of Christ, since he died because of the lawless
acts of the people. Yet he was not caught up in the corruptions of the people. Rather,
although the prophet had forbidden it, he met Necho Pharaoh, who did not even wish to
fight him. Now according to the divine apostle, “a veil lies over the face of the Jews
when it is read; but if one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away; and the Lord is the
Spirit.” Through the prophet he calls the Lord “spirit.” So those over whom the veil lies
could not say, “The Spirit of our face, Christ the Lord.” Only those could say it who
“with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror,” those for whom the Lord
is always before the eyes of the mind. So it is clear that the Spirit who worked in the
prophets was Christ. When he became man he said, “I am present, the very one who speaks,”
being himself Spirit and Lord and Christ. This is the one they seized, those who had first
corrupted in themselves the seeds of godliness. But we, the prophets, do not think that
the Spirit of our face is anyone else. After our seizure we no longer have a place among
them, and we will live under the shadow of Christ. We will live no longer among the Jews
but among all the nations, when “the kingdom of God was taken away from them” because of
their daring deed against Christ and “was given to the nations.” For look, the prophets
are alive, speaking about him and proclaiming him. But they are no longer alive among
those who even now wrap him in their own corruptions and blaspheme him day after day.

116b Aquila said “the spirit of our nostrils,” and Symmachus “the breath of our nostrils.”
For those who love God breathe Christ continually, keeping him before their eyes. It
should be noted that, just as Christ, being Spirit, spoke in the prophets, so also did the
Father. Paul says in the letter to the Hebrews, “God, having spoken long ago in many parts
and in many ways in the prophets, in these last days spoke to us in a Son.” So also did
the Holy Spirit. The Savior says, “The Holy Spirit spoke well in Isaiah: ‘You will hear
with your ears, and you will not understand.’” And in the letter to the Corinthians, after
listing the gifts, among which is prophecy, Paul says, “One and the same Spirit works all
these things, supplying to each one as he wills.” That is, he does so with his own
authority, not as a servant. You could also say that the “Spirit of our face” is Christ,
who gave us the spirit of prophecy. For this is the face of the prophets; the Spirit is
the gift; and the shadow is the law, for the law has “a shadow of the good things to
come.” So the prophets lived in us, and also in the shadow of the law. The prophetic gift,
then, to which the outcome of all prophecy looks, is Christ; that is, it is from Christ.
For “Christ is the end of the law and the prophets.” It could also be said in the person
of the apostles and believers, “In him we live and move and are.” So when we said, “We
shall live in his shadow,” it means by imitation of him. For the divine apostle says,
“Become imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

FRAGMENT 117

Lamentations 4:21. The word is addressed to those from Edom and Esau, the brother of
Jacob. It announces to them in advance an excess of evils, for this is the meaning of “you
will be drunk and pour yourself out.” David also speaks about them: “Remember, Lord, the
sons of Edom, on the day of Jerusalem, who said, ‘Empty it, empty it, down to its
foundation.’” Though they were brothers and neighbors, they kept the hatred of their
forefathers. Having spoken about Christ for a time, he recalled this too. For Christ was
going to lay waste the one called “earthly,” and to make a heavenly one. Virtue and
knowledge are threatening toward those who delight in errors and passions. For them,
drunkenness is the deadening of the flesh, and the pouring out is also the putting to
death of its way of thinking.

FRAGMENT 118

Lamentations 4:22. “You have paid a sufficient penalty; in it Edom will [take over].” The
words “he will not go on to carry you into exile” may refer to the recall from exile. The
sense would be: you will not stay in captivity, because you have filled up the full
measure. God reduces the penalty; he does not add to it. Or, if it was said of a second
capture, as one that would not happen, how did the later capture by the Romans take place?
Perhaps, then, the word is about the last capture, the one that came because of Christ,
after which there was no other. “And all Israel will be saved” after the fullness of the
[text incomplete: Gentiles?], when Israel has left lawlessness behind. After that comes
the end, with the punishment of the earthly-minded, since judgment awaits them. The word
could also be spoken to the church, which is the daughter of the old synagogue. “For the
gifts of God are irrevocable.” The church’s lawlessness has come to an end through divine
baptism. He no longer hands her over to her enemies, the one who said, “Here I will dwell,
for I have chosen it,” and “Behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”
At that time he also put on public record the ungodliness of those who set their minds on
earthly things.

FRAGMENT 119

From the chain on the Octateuch. Origen, on the same passage, from the books on
Lamentations. “For who [pursues] what is just, and not justly?” Once we have settled that
point, we will easily move on to this one: it is possible to pursue what is unjust justly.
Here is the explanation of pursuing the just justly. It is when the thing done is fitting
and is carried out from a sound disposition. Joseph is recorded as having practiced self-
control in this way, for no other reason than to do it rightly for its own sake. The
meaning of pursuing the just unjustly is this. A person carries out what is fitting, but
with a wicked purpose. For example, someone who hunts for glory among men shares his
possessions with the poor. The Savior forbids this when he says: “When you give alms, do
not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
so that they may be glorified by men.” Doing what is unjust justly may be understood like
this. A person chooses on purpose to do what is better, but through ignorance of what is
good he does what is worse. Such was Paul at one time, when he persecuted the churches out
of zeal for godliness. Doing what is unjust unjustly is when the thing done is unjust and
the choice behind it is evil-doing.


FRAGMENTS OF THE HOMILIES ON JOB (PART 1: THE CATENA FRAGMENTS – PART 2: FRAGMENTS FROM THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPTS)
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FRAGMENTS OF THE HOMILIES ON JOB Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 230–250

Origen’s homilies and commentary on Job are lost, apart from fragments quoted in Greek
catenae on Job. These are the fragments the editors attribute to him, in two groups. As in
any catena, a fragment may be shortened by the compiler, and attribution is sometimes
uncertain.

PART 1: THE CATENA FRAGMENTS

FRAGMENT 1

10 Verse 10: “Have you not fenced in what is outside him?” How do you know that he has
been fenced in? This is our adversary the devil, who “goes about like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour.” So he came after Job too, wanting to do the same things.
Later, when he received permission, he did them. He also understood that everything had
been fenced around, because he had been prevented from doing what he wanted to Job. So he
said, “You have fenced in what is inside him and what is outside him.” Everything, then,
as far as it is not given over to the devil, you have fenced in. 18 Verse 18: While this
man was still speaking, another messenger came, saying to Job: “While your sons and your
daughters were eating and drinking, at the house of their oldest brother, 19 Verse 19:
“suddenly a great wind came from the desert and struck the four corners of the house, and
the house fell on your children, and they died. I alone have escaped, and I have come to
tell you.” So he caused the camels to fall into the hands of the horsemen, and the donkeys
and the yokes of oxen into the hands of those taking captives. But the sheep he hated, and
for this reason he brought fire down on them. He also plotted against the sons, and he was
looking for an opportunity to destroy them. If he had found them reading, he would not
have touched the house, and he would have had no ground for killing them. If he had found
them praying, he could have done nothing against them. But when he found an opportunity,
he had power. What was the opportunity? It was drunkenness; it was a drinking party.
Notice that the wind touched the corners of the house: it is in the broad places at the
corners that the hypocrites stand and pray. Everyone who has not set foot on the straight
way uses the corners. A broad corner is abundant and unrestrained wickedness.

FRAGMENT 2

2 Verse 2: And the Lord said to the devil, “Where do you come from?” God was watching how
Satan, put to shame, was laboring. When he questions someone and sees him behaving without
conscience, then he convicts the wrongdoer, as he convicted Cain. 9a Verse 9: When time
had passed, his wife said to him. Notice the villainy. When a long time has gone by, then
he attacks, for it is then above all that strength fails. The weakness was double: the one
enduring had become weaker through the length of time, and hope had been more fully given
up. And a little later: Let us not look at the fact that she is a woman, but at what she
advises. This is what I urge on people today as well: do not look at the standing of the
persons, but at the manner of the counsel. A wife is there to help, not to trip her
husband up. Verse 9: His wife said to him, “How long will you endure?” The devil brings
forward last the strongest of all the schemes that came before. If only you had taken her
too! If only you had buried her with the children! Some say that these words are not even
the wife’s, but that he himself, taking on her likeness, spoke them. For Job’s wife could
not have been like this, unless someone says that she was overturned by disaster and
became like this. And a little later: It is likely that this was not the first such
counsel, but that many times she had said many things harsher than this.

9b Notice the devil’s deceit. He had Eve in mind. This, he says, brought down the first
man; this will be able to overcome this man too. But you wretched, foolish one! When she
found that man overcome by his belly, she sowed her own poison. But this man you see
practicing philosophy and having risen above nature itself. Neither the loss of his
wealth, nor the untimely death of his children, nor the torment of a body without relief,
nor so great a length of time bent him. And do you expect to overpower with words the man
who was not taken by events? From the same author: Why do you weaken the athlete? Why do
you hold back his hands? You ought to say, as the Apostle did, “A little longer, a little
longer.” Verse 9: “But say a word to the Lord, and die.” After describing the tragedy in
full, then he brings in the shameless counsel. And he did not even say to him openly,
“Blaspheme.” Those who give evil advice do not dare to present the counsel uncovered. What
are you saying, woman? When he ought to be appeased, when he ought to be reconciled, are
you urging him to provoke him all the more? If God did these things, one should entreat
him, not blaspheme. But how is it clear that I will die even as one loved? Still, notice
how the woman regarded blasphemy: as though she thought it enough to bring death at once.

10a (Verse 10) “If we received good things from the Lord’s hand, shall we not endure the
bad?” This blessed man was struck from every side, yet he stood more firmly, and though he
took countless arrows he did not give way. He emptied the devil’s quiver, and he himself
did not fall or get tripped up. Like an excellent helmsman, he was not sunk when the sea
raged and the waves rose, and he did not grow careless when it was calm. In each change of
circumstances he kept his skill the same. Wealth did not puff him up, and poverty did not
humble him. When affairs flowed along smoothly he was not slack and lying back, and when
almost his whole household was overturned and destroyed, he was not thrown into confusion,
nor did he show his courage to be false. Let the rich hear this, and let the poor hear it.
The story is useful to both, and the account profits all people, those who are prospering
and those who are in misfortune. For this champion of godliness, crowned before the whole
world, handled both kinds of weapons and set up his trophy in both. When the demon came
against him with every kind of warfare, he took his stand against all of it and was
proclaimed victor in every part. He was like a noble soldier who knows how to fight by
night, to attack walls, to fight on foot and at sea, to shoot the bow, to wield the spear,
and to overcome the enemy with slings and javelins and every manner of battle, and so to
prevail everywhere. In the same way that noble man bore every trial with great courage:
the trial of poverty, of hunger, of disease, of pain, of the loss of his children, of
friends, of enemies, of his wife, and of his servants. There was no human misfortune that
was not poured out on his body. Yet he rose above all the nets, and became higher than the
devil’s reeds.

10b What is more wonderful still is that all of it came on him, all of it in the extreme,
and all of it at once. Do not look only at how much he suffered. Add that it did not come
little by little, nor with gaps between, but all together and in one stroke. That is no
small addition to his trials. For first, no other man would be found who endured
everything at the same time. If one wrestles with poverty, he still enjoys health. If he
is pierced through with both poverty and disease, he has often had a wife to comfort him
in his troubles, a harbor for him. If he did not have such a wife, at least she did not
give him such deadly advice. If she did, at least he did not lose all his children
together. If he lost them together, at least not by such a kind of death. If by such a
death, at least he had friends to console him. If he had no friends to console him, at
least they did not trample on him as well. If they did trample on him, at least he did not
have servants reproaching him. If they reproached him, at least they did not spit in his
face. If they spat in his face, at least he was not pierced through with such a disease;
he enjoyed a room and a shelter, and he did not sit on the dung heap. And if he did sit on
the dung heap, if he had no one to stretch out a hand to him, at least [the text breaks
off here and is corrupt]. (Verse 11) “Each came from his own country to him: Eliphaz the
king of the Temanites, Baldad the ruler of the Sauchites, Sophar the king of the
Minaeans.” Your coming is friendly, and your advice is friendly. Eliphaz: “God has
scattered me,” or “my God’s contempt.” Theman: “their failing.” Sophar: “watchtower,” or
“contempt.” Baldad: “growing old,” and “glorious.” Sauchaeans: “their idle talk.”

11 Verse 11. “When his three friends heard all the evils that had come upon him, each one
came from his own country to him.” Someone may ask why the friends came after so long a
time. Let him consider first that they lived in different countries. After a long while
many people may have heard the news, but the strangeness of the disaster made it seem
unbelievable, that Job should be sitting on a dung heap with no one to help him. So they
waited to confirm the report through several witnesses, or even to send someone to see
whether what was being said was true. In these matters time passed. Besides this, when
they learned the truth, they were kings who were about to travel abroad. They first had to
put their households in good order and set others over their subjects in their place. All
this occupied them and caused delay. And unless they had been very devoted and righteous
men, they would not have left their own lands and kingdoms to come and visit him, but
would have met the need through others. One can also think that the delay of their arrival
was part of a divine plan. For the whole contest was resolved together with the friends’
discussion: God gave his verdict, recovered the righteous man and crowned him. So it was a
divine arrangement that the friends were delayed, so that the illness would be prolonged,
and the righteous man, having contended all the more, would be declared righteous by God
with greater justice. Verse 11. “And they came to him together, to comfort him and to
visit him.” Symmachus rendered it thus: “For they agreed together to come and sympathize
with him and console him.” Notice from this too that further time passed, until they sent
messages to one another and made their meeting and arrival together.

12 Verse 12. “And they sprinkled earth on their heads.” 13 Verse 13. “They sat with him
seven days and seven nights.” The Scripture did not say that they sat with him seven days
from morning until evening, nor seven nights from evening until morning. So it is clear
that they sat with him for most of the day, but withdrew at times to attend to necessary
needs. Then they came back and sat with him far into the night, and going away again,
returned to him at dawn. This is the mark of the most genuine and sympathetic friends. But
Scripture, using common manner of speech, simply said: “They sat with him seven days and
seven nights.” So too when it says that Jacob served fourteen years and was scorched by
the heat of the day and the frost of the night, did he never go under a roof? Did he get
no rest at all in all that time? To pick at such things is nonsense. For, as I said,
Scripture uses common manner of speech. But some people mock Scripture and from this too
they ridicule it as false. “How,” they say, “could they have gone on without food and
without sleep for so many days?” [The Greek of the last sentence is garbled; its sense
seems to be: “We were forced to be dragged along with their ill-timed difficulty.”]

FRAGMENT 3

1a With this the second chapter is finished. As we look ahead to the third, we say this:
the righteous man does feel pain, and no one could deny it. Virtue does not belong to
people who feel nothing. It belongs to those who keep their wisdom in the midst of
suffering. On the surface, he cannot help being stung most sharply by the blow in his
flesh. In the deeper sense, he is a righteous man who loves God, and he sees some people
stumbling over his sufferings, as though God’s glory were being slandered through him if
the righteous man has to endure such things. For when he says, “Why have you set me as a
target for your attack?”, he was not speaking against God, God forbid! Against whom would
he have made his plea? What he means is this: “Why, Master, is your name blasphemed
because of me?” He is troubled all the same and dizzy with fear that he may have suffered
a still deeper abandonment by God. A soul that loves God is not punished by anything so
much as by the suspicion that God has forsaken it. Ten thousand times over it would choose
death rather than be counted among the living with such pain and such a suspicion. At the
loss of his possessions and the sudden death of his children, we heard what words of
thanks he uttered. We heard how he instructed his wife when she thought something unworthy
about the Master, and what he said after the trial, the contempt and the bitter suffering,
and how none of the misfortunes of men shook him. But when his friends arrived, righteous
and sympathetic men, he thought the time was right. He saw their patience and their love
toward him, and so he spoke and made public the pains of his soul. He speaks, however, in
a way that carries no danger.

1b For the devil had one aim: to bring the righteous man to blaspheme God. Job clearly did
not do this. Rather, he spoke well of God and sent up words of thanks. He does curse the
day of his birth and long for death, for the reasons given above. But in the deeper sense
he speaks mysteries. He reflects on things that have already happened, and he assures us
of what is to come. Such are always the sayings of the holy prophets. Now that we have
come to the words themselves, let us make their meaning clear, with him guiding us to the
interpretation, the one who also strengthened holy Job for his struggles. 2 Verse 1:
“After this Job opened his mouth.” When a righteous man opens his mouth, we should not
listen to what is said in a casual way, but should look for the benefit that comes from
his words. For such sayings of the saints are always full of benefit, and a righteous man
who opens his mouth brings hidden treasures into public view. That is why Paul, the chosen
vessel, writes: “My mouth is opened to you, Corinthians.” And it is written of the Lord
that “he opened his mouth and taught.” Only the one who has first learned the measures of
silence is rightly said to open his mouth. So Job also opens his mouth “after this.” That
is, after the great victory and after those sufferings, he does not speak without testing
his words, as one racked with pain in the body whose tongue runs ahead of the lawful
bounds of good sense. He shows his self-control even in his words. The statement that he
opened his mouth shows both the calm of his soul and the fitness of his words.

FRAGMENT 19

1 “How long will you wear out my soul?” Heavy loads laid on animals make the animals that
carry them grow weary. In the same way there are heavy words, and a man who hears them
grows weary as if crushed under a weight. The other two who came with Baldad spoke words
that were not good, harsh, or meant as abuse. Job felt the force of those words like a
heavy burden. Worn out in soul by what they said, he says, “How long will you wear out my
soul?” And a little later: You see how the tyrant of the Sauchaeans was described earlier.
His words are tyrannical, and when Job heard them he said, “How long will you wear out my
soul?” Nothing else strikes a person’s soul as a harsh word does. Many a man who has
endured tortures inflicted on his body has not endured words. Yet the perfect athlete,
though weary, still bears harsh words, for it belongs to a great man to bear insult. So
the Apostle, listing his brave deeds, says: “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we
endure; when slandered, we encourage. We have become like the refuse of the world, the
scum of all things, to this very day.” And a little later he speaks again, because of the
words “How long will you wear out my soul?” Do you see? This is Job, whose book contains
nothing else so distinctive as his courage and his endurance. Even so, he feels the
weariness he has suffered from the harsh speech of those who came to look in on him.

3 “Only know that the Lord made me thus.” Do not suppose that what you see happening to me
has come from anywhere other than God. So be afraid. The one who brings these things on me
is able to bring them on you also. “You speak against me; without shame you press upon
me.” Often a person speaks against another while he himself is doing wrong. When he does
not blush, he says it to the man’s face. He does not do it to rebuke him or to tell the
truth. He does it to reproach and insult him. One must not trample on those whom God is
punishing. One should grieve over them and fear. 4 “Yes indeed, in truth I have gone
astray, and error lodges with me, so that I spoke a word I should not have.” Then he says
it as a supposition: I grant you, [as if conceding the point], that I suffer because of
these sins. Even so, was it right for you to reproach me like this? “Error lodges with
me.” Suppose I really had done such things as I should not have done. Suppose I really
were such a man. Ought you not, when you see the scourgings, the festering matter, the
worms, and the loss of my possessions, to feel shame? But you trample on me further. You
neither pity me nor sympathize with me in my plight.

5 “But enough, for you magnify yourselves over me, and leap upon me with reproach.” You do
not reproach me in moderation. You leap upon me. You reproach me as men who stand on me
and trample me down. 6 “And he has raised his fortress against me.” It is as though I am
under the wall of my circumstances, a fortress I cannot flee. I must stay there until God
decides to tear it down. 7 “Behold, I laugh at the reproach, and I will not speak.” This
is the saying, “Overcome evil with good.” From the same author: Behold, I am thought to be
laughing at your reproach, not to be speaking.

FRAGMENT 20

6 “If his gifts go up to heaven, and his sacrifice touches the clouds.” This is about the
ungodly man. Suppose his gifts go up to heaven, suppose he is greatly exalted, suppose his
sacrifice touches the clouds. When the heretic prays, when his sacrifice rises up with
lofty speech, when he seems to be firmly established, then he will perish utterly. His
prayer is counted against him as sin, and that very prayer of his is sin. 7 “For when he
seems already to be established, then he will perish utterly.” Compare: “But the enemies
of the Lord, as soon as they were glorified and exalted, vanished like smoke.” “Those who
saw him will say, ‘Where is he?’” Who are those who saw him? The churchmen, who saw the
failings of those men, will say, “Where is he?” “Like a dream that has flown away, he will
not be found.” Such people dream. They fashion phantoms and do not set their minds on the
truth, and so they stumble. They become like a dream that has flown away, which will not
be found.

10 Verse 10: “May the lesser ones destroy his sons.” These are the sons and disciples of
the one who taught these things. Verse 10: “May his hands kindle pains.” His hands, he
says, that is, his deeds, will kindle punishment for him. “His hands”: this is said of the
impious and mistaken man whose prayer is counted as sin. If his sacrifice goes up to
heaven and touches the clouds, then he is destroyed in the end. His hands will kindle
pains for him, that is, he will pass his life in the last extremes of pain. And he says
this about the sons of the lawless man. 13 Verse 13: “The gall of an asp is in his belly.”
For he has lessons that are not sweet but are the gall of an asp, evil as it were, [this
being the teaching] about the wine of their instruction. “For their vine is from the vine
of Sodom,” and so on. And a little later: the gall of an asp is in the belly of the man of
different doctrine, who is impious in his teachings, which are opposed to the truth.

15 Verse 15: “Wealth gathered unjustly will be vomited up.” What other wealth is gathered
unjustly than the wealth in their words? For it is gathered unjustly. But the Good One
will not leave them fallen, always holding in themselves wealth that was unjustly
gathered. He will make them vomit it up. Verse 15: “An angel will drag him out of his
house.” By the working and kindness of God an angel will drag him out of that badly built
house itself, which is the church of the evildoers. For this is his house. But an angel
will drag him out of his house. 17 Verse 17: “May he not see the milking of the grazing
flocks.” The man of different doctrine does not see the milking of the grazing flocks. The
grazing flocks are certain souls that feed under the good Shepherd, who said: “I am the
door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved. And he will go in and go out and find
pasture.”

18 Verse 18: “Like a tough herb, unchewed, not to be swallowed.” Their words and teachings
are tough and dense; those things that are done against God have nothing sweet in them.
The “tough herb” is a certain plant that grows rough on the tongue of the one chewing it.
Just as, he says, no matter how hard someone struggles, grinding that plant with his
teeth, he cannot swallow it, so also the one who wants to enjoy what belongs to others
will carry off no profit from his labors. 20 Verse 20: “Therefore his good things will not
bloom.” The things he seems to do as good will not flourish. When he seems already to be
filled full, he will be crushed. Verse 20: “There will be no salvation for him in his
possessions.” His possessions cannot secure salvation for him. Otherwise: 22 Verse 22:
“Every necessity will come upon him, and he will send upon him a fury of wrath.” Verse 22:
“Every necessity will come upon him.” These words are meant to urge us to keep away from
what belongs to others. Verse 22: “Let it snow pains upon him.” Instead of snow, pains
come upon such a man.

24 Verse 24: “And he will not be saved from the hand of iron.” He does not mean this iron
that we perceive with the senses, but a most cutting word. 25 Verse 25: “May an arrow pass
through his body.” These fiery arrows wound him. Verse 25: “An unkindled fire will devour
him.” Here we learn a mystery about the punishment laid up for sinners, so that we may
guard against suffering it. He said that an unkindled fire will devour the impious man.
The material fire we know is not an “unkindled” fire, for it is seen. But that fire is
invisible, the fire that comes upon sinners and burns them from within. It is perceived by
the mind, and it punishes. If you want to take an image of that fire, think of someone
burning with an extreme fever, inflamed as if by fire. You will not find the fire in him
by sight, yet it lies underneath and sets his inner parts ablaze. In the same way a
person, fevered by his sins, is burned up. Verse 25: “May a newcomer mistreat his house.”
The one who made war on that people was a newcomer, not a proselyte. He mistreated their
house by destroying what was thought to be a holy place, and the city which they said was
holy.

27 Verse 27: “May heaven uncover his lawless deeds.” This means: the terrors will stand
against him both from God and from heaven. He said this because Job, who said he had been
struck by God, also recalled that he had been wronged by men. So he argues that everything
was brought on him because of sin. The very earth rises up against that people. 29 Verse
29: “And the possession of his goods is from the overseer [bishop].” Here we learn who the
overseer is. He is called an overseer because God himself is called Overseer, and the
bishops, the good and noble ones, strive in every way to bear his image. A man who copies
a royal portrait is honored for copying it well, and he is honored also for having adorned
it. In the same way, blessed is the bishop who has understood the true Overseer, and who
zealously imitates him and becomes like a god among men. Or blessed is the one who has as
his own overseer the one who truly makes him a bishop in Christ Jesus. To him be glory and
power forever and ever. Amen.

FRAGMENT 21

5 Verse 5: “Look at me and be astonished.” You claim to be wise, and to know why I suffer
these things, as though God were asleep to the sins of men. And you have dared to call me
a sinner, and to say that I have justly come to this. 7 Verse 7: “They have grown old even
in wealth.” They are not newly rich. They have been wealthy for many years, and they keep
increasing their wealth. 8 Verse 8: “Their seed is according to the soul.” The righteous
man’s seed is according to the spirit: “for he sows to the Spirit, and from the Spirit he
reaps eternal life.” But since the soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit
(for they are foolishness to him), the seed of such people is not according to the spirit
but according to the soul, the lower thing. “And their children are before their eyes.”
Everything they do, they do to be seen by men. For a person’s children are his works. The
children of those who hold other teachings are not in the heart, among good thoughts, but
in the eyes, to be seen by men.

9 Verse 9: “Their houses prosper.” When you enter a gathering of heretics and see a crowd
assembled there, notice that “their houses prosper.” “And there is no fear anywhere.” They
are without fear. They do not fear God; they despise the Godhead. They say such things
about God and are not afraid, though they are speaking about God. “And there is no scourge
from the Lord upon them.” The same author: If you see a man speaking such things against
God, healthy in body, seeing well, with his senses intact, and sometimes even seeming to
prosper in worldly matters, observe that in this ungodly man the saying has been
fulfilled: “And there is no scourge from the Lord upon them.” 10 Verse 10: “Their cow did
not miscarry.” The same author: The ox is an animal of farming, and works together with
the farmer. These people also farm. Sodom and Gomorrah are farmed, and Egypt is farmed.
“Their cow did not miscarry,” but it bore and gave birth to a calf, so that their wicked
land might be farmed. “She was kept safe in their womb, carrying, and did not fail.”
Whatever they conceive, they also bring to term. They do not conceive from the fear of God
but from wickedness. “Behold, he travailed with injustice, conceived trouble, and gave
birth to lawlessness.”

11 Verse 11: “They remain like eternal sheep.” What is the meaning of “they will remain
like eternal sheep”? Of those sheep Christ says: “My sheep hear my voice, and I give them
eternal life,” and so on. These are the eternal sheep. Now since those who hold other
teachings are mimics, and want to imitate the flock of Christ by ordaining for themselves
bishops, presbyters, deacons, teachers, a laity, and catechumens, imitating the eternal
sheep, they fulfill the words, “They remain like eternal sheep.” But they are not eternal
sheep; they only remain like eternal sheep. “And their little ones play.” 12 Verse 12:
“Taking up the psaltery and the lyre.” Our people take up the psaltery and the lyre,
singing hymns to God and giving him glory. But their children, the foolish ones among
them, play, taking up the psaltery and the lyre. When they take up the words of the Old
Testament, they play, and laugh at the sayings of the law and the prophets. They take up
the harmonious instruments, the psaltery of the law and the lyre of the prophets, and make
sport of them. “And they rejoice at the sound of a psalm.” They too recite the psalms of
Valentinus and the odes of Basilides, and utter other such things, rejoicing at the sound
of a psalm.

13 Verse 13: “And they fell asleep in the rest of Hades.” They fell asleep in the rest not
of heaven but of Hades. But we pray that we may not fall asleep in the rest of Hades, but
in the rest of God, in the holy heavens, with Christ who reigns over us. To him be glory
and power forever and ever. Amen.

FRAGMENT 22

2 Verse 2. “Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge?” What the Holy
Spirit arranges deserves to be written down. It is written down so that the reader may be
helped by what he reads. So if the words of the three men who came to Job were not useful,
so that the reader could take something from what they said to Job, providence would not
have caused the words of the three to be recorded in the book of Job. It is possible,
then, to be helped by their words, by looking closely at the teachings in them. But we
should see that the fault in their words lies in one thing only: they accuse Job,
supposing that he suffers because of sins he has committed. They do not see that there are
many other causes of what happens to people. Such things are reckoned good or hard, or
whatever else one wishes to call them. And after a little: “Is it not the Lord who teaches
understanding and knowledge?” The teaching is sound: a human being cannot be the true
teacher of virtue. For it is written in the Psalms too that the one who teaches man
knowledge is none other than God. And the prophet says, “Teach me your statutes,” knowing
that God is the true and perfect teacher. God teaches by shining into the soul of the one
who learns from him, and by lighting up the mind with the light, his true Word. So then,
righteous men also teach us, having received the grace of teaching.

4 Verse 4. “And he will enter into judgment with you.” God takes account of the one he
looks after, and so he reproves him. “And he will enter into judgment with you.” We have
often said, whenever this teaching has come up in other words, that God is so kind to
humankind that even when he judges us with goodness, he allows us to speak to him about
whatever we wish, as though he were being judged along with us. So I used the words from
Isaiah: “Come, and let us reason together, says the Lord.” For “let us reason together”
means this: If you have anything to charge me with, and my providence, as though I had
neglected you, as though I had not done what I should, say so. And I will say whatever I
have, and persuade you, condemning you as one who deserves to be condemned.

5 Verse 5. “Is not your wickedness great?” Reasonably I say that he has not become unjust
without cause, since he suffers such things as none of them has ever fallen into so severe
as you have. It is likely that these things have come on you because of your countless
faults. From the same author: He did not name sin first and then wickedness. Rather, he
saw wickedness as a bad settled condition, and after that the sins committed out of that
bad condition, which he said were countless sins. Verse 5. “And your sins are countless.”
Eliphaz supposes this about Job. He knew that Job was rich, and he says: “You took pledges
from your brothers, as though they owed when they did not owe.” For “you took pledges for
nothing” means this. 6 Verse 6. “You took pledges from your brothers for nothing.” From
the same author: He adds yet another sin of Job’s. Is it ever possible to take a garment?
Not from a naked man, but from a rich man who has many clothes laid away. [Text uncertain]
Those who took clothing there took it from a man who had many; but this is from a naked
man, from a rich man. If, however, someone has only one tunic, and I strip him of that
tunic on the pretext of demanding what is mine, without having pity on that naked man, I
have taken away the clothing of a naked man. Many such things happen among us when we
lend, when we go to our debtors. Often our debtor is extremely poor and cannot repay. And
we, shutting up our hearts, become merciless and harsh. We do not see that he is feeding a
wife and children, and that he barely feeds them from the few coins he manages to get.
Sometimes we demand payment bitterly even though we ourselves have more than enough. So
Eliphaz says these things, accusing Job of having taken away the clothing of the naked.

7 Verse 7. “You gave no water to the thirsty, and you kept bread from the hungry.” On the
same verse: So not only doing wrong, but also failing to do good, makes a person
accountable. All these are accusations, and truly blameworthy things. But they were not
true of Job, and it was not rightly said of him. From the same author: Such things happen
in bitter demands for payment. Sometimes a person has only one morsel of bread. Even if he
does not have a whole loaf, we take it from him, saying, “But you owe.” 9 Verse 9: “You
sent widows away empty.” Let us take care that if a widow comes into our house, we never
send her away empty. Let each one, according to his means and out of what he has, fill the
widow’s lap. Verse 9: “You mistreated orphans.” The same author: We must harm no one, but
we ought especially to spare orphans. For God has commanded that he will fight on behalf
of souls that have no helper. More than other people, the poor, widows and orphans need
help.

10 Verse 10: “Therefore snares have surrounded you.” He calls the things that had happened
to him “snares.” He had fallen into them, and his soul is being trapped by what has
happened to him. 11 Verse 11: “Your light has turned into darkness.” You were in the light
when you had your possessions, when your children were alive, when your body was healthy.
Now you have gone down, as it were, into darkness, into these troubles. On the same verse:
That is, into desolation, out in the open air, a wanderer, a fugitive, without a home.
Verse 11: “And as you slept, water covered you.” The words “as you slept, water covered
you” mean this: the opposing power covered you, since you were not awake and did not
[sleep rightly]. Scripture knows of a certain sleep of sin. For this reason it commands
us, saying: “Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, so that you may
live, like a gazelle from the nets, and like a bird from the snare.”

12 Verse 12: “Does not the one who dwells on high look on?” But you suppose that God, who
dwells on high, does not see what is done. Since he sees everything, he brings down those
who are lifted up in mind by a habit of arrogance. Verse 12: “He has humbled those who are
carried along by arrogance.” If anyone is carried along by arrogance, and is, so to speak,
swept away by an arrogant habit and way of acting, he is humbled by God. So it is likely
that, because you also treated widows and orphans arrogantly and took pledges from your
brothers for no reason, you have suffered these things and have been humbled. 13 Verse 13:
“And you said, ‘What does the Mighty One know?’” It is likely that you were saying within
yourself, “What does the Mighty One know?” That is, “Can God know everything?” Verse 13:
“Or will he judge through the thick darkness?” The same author: But God is able to judge
even when he is in the midst of a storm.

14 Verse 14: “And he walks about the circle of heaven.” God’s providence goes all the way
around. “And a multitude of waters will cover you.” 15 Verse 15: “Will you guard the
everlasting path?” Can you keep watch over the everlasting path along which God’s
providence travels? Verse 15: “Which righteous men have trodden.” The same author:
Righteous men have trodden the everlasting path, for they walk on an everlasting path.
Everything they do is set before them with this aim, that they may attain the age to come.
Even if they seem to walk just as everyone else does, the soul itself steps onto
everlasting paths. 16 Verse 16: “Who were seized before their time.” Often the righteous
die before their time. For the righteous man, brought to perfection in a short time, has
fulfilled long years; his soul is virtue in the Lord. Verse 16: “A river flowing over
their foundations.” The same author: What are the foundations of the righteous like? They
are always advancing, always growing in good things.

18 Verse 18: “But he filled their houses with good things.” The same author: He filled the
houses of the righteous with good things. I do not understand these as houses of this
kind; rather, he filled their houses, those that belong to the governing part of the soul,
with good things. What good things? Self-control, righteousness, courage, prudence, the
good things that come from works. That is what it means for houses to be filled with good
things. 19 Verse 19: “The blameless man mocked them.” Whom? Or the counsel of the ungodly?
For example, they want to teach things contrary to the truth, by saying what they say,
holding wretched doctrines. The blameless man, seeing these things, mocks them. 20 Verse
20: “And fire will devour their remnant.” The same author: What is left over among the
ungodly, once the former ones have died, the fire will devour. 22 Verse 22: “And he
received a declaration from his mouth.” I was asking myself what “declaration” means, and
I found in another edition “confession” in its place. So it says rather: Confess your
sins; receive instruction from the mouth of God together with confession; and take up his
words from your heart. Eliphaz said these things, admonishing Job, as he supposed.

23 Verse 23: “But if you turn back and humble yourself before the Lord.” He admonishes him
to turn back, supposing that Job was suffering these things because he had sinned. 24
Verse 24: “And like a torrent [Sophir].” For you, as it were, your speech will be varied
and beautiful. 25 Verse 25. “Then the Almighty will be your helper against your enemies.”
If you submit yourself, if you confess. Verse 25. “And he will give you back purified,
like refined silver.” Sound doctrine is what has been refined by fire; God does the
refining. 26 Verse 26. “Then you will speak boldly before the Lord.” From the same author:
If you humble yourself and endure what has happened, you will speak boldly before the
Lord. You will have confidence, as one who has laid his sins aside. 28 Verse 28. “On your
ways you will be safe.” From the same author: If you keep the warning I give you, and turn
back, and confess. These things were said to Job, but they were not said justly, for he
had not sinned. If they are said to us, however, they are said justly. Verse 28. “And he
will restore to you a dwelling of righteousness.” To put it simply: he says, “He will
restore to you every lasting condition that fits a righteous practice, so that your deeds
will be bright and honored.”

FRAGMENT 23

Verse 2. “His hand has become heavy upon my groaning.” Job says: if it were possible for
the sentence of punishment to be handed down at once, it would be possible to find him.
“If only it were possible,” he says, “to stand trial, to meet him, and to learn what he
was going to say to me in answer to the things I was going to say.” Do you see how he
obtained what he prayed for? For this came at the very end of the book. “I wanted to learn
what he would say to me, and whether he intended to punish me in the same way.” But I said
these things not as one condemning him of injustice.

FRAGMENT 24

Verse 6. “Their bread was made sweet for the young.” He says it is sweet to the ungodly to
feed young men, so that through them they can carry out their acts of spite.

FRAGMENT 27

1 Verse 2. “As the Lord lives, who has judged me in this way.” The devil received
authority over Job and tested him night and day: first through outward things, then
through his own body, and after that through his friends. When he had tried Job through
his wife and Job was not defeated, the devil brought three friends. They were not enemies,
and they did not hold hostile teachings. They spoke words of truth, but not rightly and
not at the right time. The devil was planning to use these friends to make Job say
something against Providence, to act impiously because of his troubles, and to lose heart
because of his pains. But look at what the truly brave and enduring man says after the
words of the three. Eliphaz finished three speeches and Zophar two. When these were
finished and they fell silent, look at how Job answers, after the introduction he has
made, which Scripture names in this way. What does he answer? Let us pay attention to the
wording.

2 Verse 1. And Job went on and added to his introduction, saying: 3 Verse 2. “As the Lord
lives, who has judged me in this way, and the Almighty, who has embittered my soul,” and
so on. I know what has stirred you up to provoke me. I swear to you, and I swear by his
living Lord, who judged that I should suffer these things, who himself handed me over to
these circumstances, who gave authority for me to be examined and tormented by such
trials. I swear by the Lord, and I say: the Lord lives, who has judged me in this way, and
the Almighty, who has embittered my soul. 4 Verse 5. “May it never be that I declare you
righteous, until I die.” If we agree with what you say, that you have understood why I
have suffered these things, then I would have declared you righteous until I die. Verse 5.
“For I will not put away my innocence.” I will not give up paying attention to
righteousness. I will always remember to hold fast to it.

5 Verse 6. “For I am not conscious of having done anything out of place.” His confidence
is great, both about his earlier life and about his conduct during the time of his trial,
so that he can say: “I am not conscious of having done anything out of place.”

FRAGMENT 28

12 Verse 12. “And what is the place of knowledge?” Knowledge is the grasp, by
contemplation, of things that stay always the same. Understanding is discernment. 15 Verse
15. “And silver will not be weighed out as its price.” Nothing is worth as much as wisdom.
If you take the silver and the gold in a rather simple sense, Job will say at once that
nothing is worth as much as wisdom. 16 Verse 16. “With precious onyx and sapphire.” Wisdom
will not be compared even with precious onyx, nor will it be made equal to sapphire. 18
Verse 18: “Things on high and gabeis will not be remembered.” Neither things on high nor
“gadis” are worth as much as wisdom. It seems to refer to things that can be set in order,
something like “gigartic” things. Some say that “gabis” is the part that rises above the
rim of the grain measure, which is called a “heaped measure” (kommoulaton). Verse 18: “And
draw wisdom out from beyond the innermost parts.” The innermost parts are around India, or
the region beyond it, where the precious stones are. That country brings forth for people
these things which the rich consider marvelous. So draw wisdom to yourself from beyond
those innermost parts. Or else, “beyond the innermost parts” means the holy, inward
mysteries of God, which are utterly unspeakable. Though they are many, draw wisdom to
yourself beyond them all.

21 Verse 21: “It is hidden from every man.” It is hidden from every man, even if he is a
prophet, even if he is an apostle.

FRAGMENT 29

6 Verse 6: “When my ways were flowing with butter.” We have said before about Job’s ways,
the ones he travelled, that they were virtues. So his ways were flowing with butter: he
walked in self-control, and self-control, so to speak, flowed out, so that many, even
infants, were fed from Job’s self-control, from Job’s righteousness, from his courage.
This is what it means: “When my ways were flowing with butter.” Verse 6: “And my mountains
were flowing with milk.” All the lofty and great thoughts were Job’s mountains, which he
used to climb. 7 Verse 7: “When I went out upright in the city.” He devoted himself to
teaching and to doing good. He spoke not as a lover of himself but as one who had love,
which seeks the common good. 9 Verse 9: “Putting a finger on their mouth.” The phrase
“putting a finger on their mouth” may seem to be a sign of silence. But perhaps it shows
something else. Since the hand is taken for works, as we have often shown, they put their
work upon their mouth. They perceived, from a small work, that they were not worthy to
speak in Job’s presence, since he had done greater works.

10 Verse 10: “And those who heard me called me blessed.” Such was he before he was yet
tested, that those who heard him called him blessed. They marveled at how he understood
and grasped so many things, and was able to help those who listened. Verse 10: “For their
tongue stuck to their throat.” Of those who heard me and called me blessed for what I
said, the tongue stuck to the throat. 11 Verse 11: “For an ear heard, and called me
blessed.” (The same author.) It is written of Moses that he was afraid to look in the face
of God because of the excess of God’s brightness. In the same way you could understand
that Job’s advance in wisdom was so great that those who heard him could not look at the
dazzling brightness of his thoughts. Unable to follow the great depth of his mind, they
therefore turned their eyes away. This is why he says: Verse 11: “An eye that saw me
turned away.” Aquila and Symmachus give it as “It bore witness about me.” Others have “An
eye that saw turned away,” meaning “I am not strong enough to speak against him.”

12 Verse 12: “For I rescued the poor man from the hand of the powerful.” Let us look at
his brave deeds and take them in fully. This verse makes sense according to the letter,
and it has much more to give by a higher interpretation. According to the letter, as far
as we are able, we ought to help the poor who are oppressed by the powerful. 15 Verse 15:
“A foot to the lame.” He gave freely, even to those whose steps were lame, that is, the
feet of the soul. By his word he himself became their foot. 16 Verse 16: “A case that I
did not know, I searched out.” He teaches us how we must judge, if we are ever called to
the arbitration of brothers, so as to settle their affairs.

FRAGMENT 32

1 Verse 1: “And Job ceased with words.” His three friends also fell silent and stopped
answering Job any further, for Job was righteous in their sight. He did not cease simply.
His heart, which understood divine things, did not cease. For there is already a time for
every matter under heaven, a time to be silent and a time to speak. So when it was time to
answer the three, he spoke. When the time came, after he had stopped their mouths, he fell
silent. And I think the words “Job ceased” are said in praise. 7 Verse 7. “So I kept
quiet, afraid to tell you my knowledge.” He has knowledge of how people suffer. He knows
why people end up in certain troubles in this life alone, and why so many who are unjust
prosper. “I saw those who do wrong and break the law, and my feet almost slipped.” If I
look only at this life, my steps were almost poured out.

10 Verse 10. “The long-lived are not the wise.” He says it is not necessary that only the
old be wise. One can also hear something noble from the young. For if time makes people
wise, much more does God. 11 Verse 18. “For the spirit of my belly was distressing me.” A
woman becomes pregnant, and when the child has been formed within her, she comes to labor
pains, until she gives birth to what she conceived earlier. Understand that something like
this happens in the soul of the one who loves learning. For it conceives the word, and as
the word is spoken, it shapes it and gives it form in order. But when, after shaping and
forming it, the word has become ready, the soul does not hand it over like an untimely
miscarriage, unready and incomplete, but as something brought to fruition and perfected.
[So I would say.]

19 Verse 19. “My belly is like a skin of new wine, boiling, tied shut.” It seems to me
that what is in the Gospel was said with this in view: No one puts new wine into old
wineskins [the text breaks off here]. 20 Verse 20. “I will speak, so that I may find
relief, opening my lips.” A person who finds an understanding listener, and who is full of
words, finds relief in speaking, and says, “I will speak, so that I may find relief.” 22
Verse 22. “For I do not know how to admire a face.” I do not have this knowledge, of how
to admire a face. Instead I despise human beings, and the shame mortals feel among
themselves, and the respect they show one another. Verse 22 continues: “Otherwise, moths
will eat me too.” The moths devour those who accept the faces of men.

FRAGMENT 35

6 Verse 6. “If you have sinned, what will you do?” If you look up to heaven and consider
the clouds, you will understand what you have sinned. What must you do? Go to the high
priest and ask him to offer a sacrifice for you. For if anyone sins, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our
sins. Verse 6 continues: “And if you have done many lawless things, what can you do?” You
will do something so great: you will undo your many lawless deeds. For this reason, for
the incurable cases, which we cannot heal ourselves, Jesus Christ came from heaven to heal
the incurable. So it comes about that “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven
and whose sins are uncovered.” 7 Verse 7. “Since then you are righteous, what will you
give him?” But if you are righteous before God, what do you have to give on account of
your righteousness? And even if you are righteous, as you say, what will you add to him?

10 Verse 10. “He who appoints the night watches.” He goes through the praises of God, and
his songs of praise and hymns. The one who appoints the night watches is God himself. I
want to see how God appoints night watches. This whole age is night; it is darkness. The
light is being kept for you. The light you see now, you see through a mirror. And “in your
light we shall see light.” We are going to see it at some point. So the whole age is
night, and since it is night there are many wars, and many wild beasts prowl about. 11
Verse 11. “He who separates me from the four-footed beasts of the earth.” If you are a
sinner, you have not been separated from the four-footed beasts of the earth. For “man,
being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts and became
like them.” If you are a sinner, you have not been separated from the four-footed beasts
of the earth. Instead it is said to you, “Do not be like a horse or a mule, which have no
understanding.” And a little later: If you are a sinner, if you are a fornicator, if you
are given to sensual indulgence, you will not be separated from the four-footed beasts.
Horses were born mad for the female. Therefore he says with confidence that he has been
separated: “He who separates me from the four-footed beasts of the earth.”

FRAGMENT 40

3a Verse 3. “No; gird up your loins like a man. I give you freedom to speak. I will
question you, and you answer me.” God is already giving him the prize. He questions a
human being, because he asks him and gives him the right to answer. If Job had not won the
victory, he would not have received this; if he had not endured, he would not have heard,
“Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you, and you answer me.” By the same
author: Let no one answer God until he has become a man and girded his loins like a man.
As long as his loins are not girded but loose, not tied up or drawn tight, he cannot
reasonably answer the Lord. Verse 3. “I will question you, and you answer me.” The full
rewards of the struggle are kept for those who have contended well, after this life. Even
so, God’s grace already gives the contenders a down payment. So when Job had struggled to
the utmost, when he lost his possessions and glorified the one who had given them, when he
lost his children and thanked the one who had taken them, when he understood that worms
were being brought up out of his body and was still not overcome by his sufferings, God
gave him a foretaste and a down payment of the contenders’ reward, speaking to him out of
the storm and the clouds. Yet when Job had heard the earlier words, and ought to have
answered God, he is silent, as one who has no boldness to answer him. For he did not yet
know what Moses wrote later, that Moses spoke and God answered him with a voice. Not
knowing this, he is unwilling to answer God.

3b But God gives him freedom to speak. And after other remarks: God’s kindness is so great
that he takes on the role of one who is not judging but is himself being judged along with
the man. Many passages of Scripture have taught this. “Come, let us reason together,” says
the Lord. And, “My people” (or rather, God will reason with the people), “my people, what
have I done to you, or how have I troubled you? Answer me,” and so on. Verse 3. “Do not
set aside my judgment.” Do not set aside this judgment of mine. Let us remember this
saying as a useful one. Whenever God decides that we should suffer something, such as
losing a child, losing a ruler, falling ill in body, or enduring anything of that kind,
none of it could happen to us unless God judged it so. Not even a sparrow falls into a
snare without the will of the Father in heaven. Since none of these things happens apart
from God’s judgment, it is said to the sufferer, “Do not set aside my judgment; do not
deny that I have judged concerning you.” Verse 3. “Do you think I have dealt with you for
any other reason than that you might be shown to be righteous?” I defend myself to you.
You were righteous, but you were not plainly seen to be. You had patience; I had to give
an occasion for your patience to shine. You had courage, but it was hidden in you; the
hardships that came upon you showed your courage. And after a little: Let us remember this
in times of trial, and let us imagine we hear God present with us, saying, “Do you think I
have dealt with you for any other reason than that you might be shown to be righteous?”
Let us not be shown to be unrighteous or ungodly.

5 Verse 5. “Take up height and power.” Be crowned; put on glory; put on honor. 6 Verse 6.
“Send out angels in wrath, and humble every arrogant person.” 7 Verse 7. “Put out the
proud.” The arrogant one took the field against you. He once said to me, “Send out your
hand.” He said to me, “Touch everything he has.” He said to me about you that he would
surely bless me to my face. But you have won the victory. So I tell you: Take courage.
“Humble every arrogant person,” and humble his angels too. He has become proud against
you, but you, put out the proud. He is ungodly toward you, but you, strike the ungodly
down at once. 8 Verse 8. “Fill their faces with dishonor.” Expose sinners by showing them
to be sinners. Fill their faces with dishonor through the rebuke that is in you. 10 Verse
10. “But look, there are beasts beside you; he eats grass like oxen.” The beasts are the
opposing powers. The Prophet prayed about them when he said, “Do not hand over to the
beasts the soul that confesses you.” The beasts are the opposing powers, and you, O man,
have received authority over them. If you serve God, you will tread upon the asp and the
basilisk. Verse 10. “But look, there are beasts beside you.” By the same author: Beside
you, Job; beside everyone who [is mindful]; beside everyone who has conquered. Verse 10.
“He eats grass like oxen.” He means the worms, which eat him from out of himself. “For
[the completion],” he says, “my hand is [under] you; and look, he devours like grass.”

11 Verse 11. “But his strength is on the navel of the belly.” This is the first power he
uses against the man. From here he begins to make a man a fornicator. By the same author:
He says this to point to the female, to show that he makes war not only on those who have
the seed. He very fittingly named the loin in the case of a male, and the navel of the
belly in the case of a woman: “Look, his strength is in his loins, and his power is on the
navel of the belly.” 25 Verse 25. “The nations of the Phoenicians will divide him up among
themselves.” The Canaanites, who are also the Phoenicians, are accused of great
wickedness. That is why he says, “The nations of the Phoenicians will divide him up among
themselves.” Each one takes some share from the dragon, if his people are Canaanite and
Phoenician.

26 Verse 26. “All the ships together will not be able to carry one hide of his tail.” The
last parts and extremities of the dragon: all the vessels together cannot put them to
death. People, who use their bodies as ships, cannot carry one hide of his tail. By
themselves they cannot. But when divine power watches over us, we can carry away not only
one hide of his tail but the whole of him, and put the whole of him to death. Each of us,
as far as it depends on himself, puts the devil to death, according to what was said by
the Apostle: “And may God crush Satan under your feet quickly.”

FRAGMENT 41

4 Verse 4. “Who will uncover the face of his clothing?” Why did he not say, “Who will
uncover his face?” What is the clothing doing here? “For who,” he says, “will uncover the
face of his clothing?” To make clear what is said, let us use the example of masks that
people put on. They do not appear as what they are, but as what they want to seem. Take,
for example, those actors on the stage who put on masks, now of leaders, now of other
kings, now of women. Their own face is hidden, and what they are is not seen; what they
seem to be is what is seen. The dragon is like this. He never shows his own face. He takes
a face to deceive people, and he uses that. This enemy has many masks, and for each vice
he puts on the face of a virtue. And a little later, going on: The rest of the verse
written above. The face he has put on—who is able to expose it? Who is able to uncover and
[discover] what the dragon is inside? There are also others like this, his disciples, “who
come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inside are ravenous wolves.” Verse 4. “And who could
enter into the folds of his breastplate?” Do you see? It is called a breastplate—the chest
and breastplate, where the ruling part is. His breastplate is not simple. He has nothing
simple. He is crafty; he is folded. So who could enter into the folds of his breastplate?
Only a holy person can expose him and show that his breastplate is folded, whereas that of
the holy person is not folded.

5 Verse 5. “Who will open the doors of his face?” He hides what is stored up inside. So
who will open the doors of his face? Who is such a one as to expose and show how much
deceit, how much poison, how many evils he has stored away? Verse 5. “Around his teeth is
fear.” Of these teeth it is said, “You broke the teeth of sinners,” and, “[The Lord] will
break the molars of the lions” [the text reads “Cyrus”]. This is not the fear of God; it
is the fear that is around his teeth. But if you have Christ in yourself, do not worry
about this fear. For “you shall fear the Lord your God,” and besides him you shall fear no
other. 6 Verse 6. “His inner parts are bronze asps [or shields].” These are his doctrines,
his hidden thoughts. Everything inside him is the venom of asps. And they are asps [or
shields] that are not soft at all, but hard. For asps [or shields] are hard.

10 Verse 10: “From his mouth.” These are the blasphemies and words of impious and godless
teachers. Verse 10: “From his mouth burning torches go out, and hearths of fire are
scattered.” I think that all the impious who bring in godless doctrines are properly
members of the dragon. And if you want to hear the names of the dragon’s members, who are
they? The dragon’s mouth may also be understood in a figurative sense, and beyond that it
is the place from which the destroying words come. For from his mouth torches of fire are
[destroyed; or perhaps “let loose”]. From his mouth hearths of fire are [destroyed; or
“let loose”]. Suppose I hear a speech that accuses the Creator under the pretext of
Christianity. Say it upholds the teachings of Marcion, of Valentinus, or of Basilides.
They speak evil of the Maker of heaven and earth. They say he does not exist, or that he
is not of spiritual substance, as these men claim. Then you will see that from the mouth
of such people burning torches go out, and hearths of fire are scattered. Therefore let
us, knowing this, guard ourselves. Let the torches not burn us, and let the hearths of
fire not touch us.

13 Verse 13: “In his neck power makes its lodging.” There is a certain evil power. But the
weakness that my Savior and Lord took on for my sake, which is called the weakness of God,
defeated that power. For the Apostle says that the weak thing of God is stronger than men.
I would say it is stronger than the power of the dragon. 14 Verse 14: “The flesh of his
body is glued together.” He could have said, “The flesh of the body is united.” But he did
not say that, for they are not united; that is not the case. What is one in him is in fact
many. Or, if things seem to be one, the word “glued together” shows that they are not
united. 15 Verse 15: “His heart is set hard like stone, and it stands like an anvil that
cannot be beaten out.” It is not hammered out and does not follow reason. It is [properly]
hard, unbeaten, and unyielding. If anyone has drawn power from the devil, from this
dragon, he himself has a heart that cannot be beaten out and will not be worked. But if
someone is gold, he follows the word of the goldsmith. He yields in this way until he
becomes a thin leaf of gold and receives the impressions of God’s letters, in Christ
Jesus, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

FRAGMENT 42

Verse 10: “The Lord gave double what Job had before, to make it twice as much.” The noble
athlete, the most courageous Job, endured every trial and receives the prizes for his
endurance. As Scripture says, he received everything double what he had before. But the
Lord Jesus Christ gives prizes that are not double but a hundredfold. For he says, as it
is written in Mark: “Whoever leaves father or mother, house, brothers, or sisters for my
sake, or for the sake of the Gospel, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal
life.” Job would not have received double what he had before, unless he had shown double
the virtue.

PART 2: FRAGMENTS FROM THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPTS

FRAGMENT 1

1 Chapters 1 and 2. “And that man was true, blameless, righteous, God-fearing, abstaining
from every evil thing.” For worthless people are false, like those who have a picture
painted of God. Fear God and keep the commandments, for this is the whole of man. He is
blameless because he is righteous. He is God-fearing, for a good life leads a person to
know God, and the knowledge of God becomes the guard of that life. 2 Verses 16 and 17:
“Fire fell from heaven and burned up the sheep...” “And they surrounded the camels and
took them captive...” He caused the camels to come under the horsemen. The donkeys and the
oxen, which plowed and worked the earth, he caused to come under those who took them
captive. But he hated the sheep, and for that reason he brought fire down from heaven upon
the sheep...

FRAGMENT 2

Chapter 2, verse 9: “And when much time had passed, his wife said to him...” Look at the
wickedness: when much time had gone by, then he attacks. For then above all the things of
hope are put to the test, and then above all the things of strength grow weak. For Job the
weakness was double. He himself had become weaker through the length of the time, and his
hope was more nearly given up.

FRAGMENT 7

Chapter 7, verse 1. “Is not the life of man upon the earth a time of testing, and his life
like that of a hired man who works by the day?” Like hired workers, everyone toils for
their own living. The farmer gathers his food in one way, the man who practices a manual
trade in another, and those in positions of honor in yet another way. There is simply no
one who does not worry about the necessities of life.

FRAGMENT 10

Chapter 10, verse 8. “Your hands shaped me and made me.” The body has been shaped out of a
material that already lay at hand, the earth, that is, the woman. The soul, however, has
been made with nothing existing beforehand, since it is without body and without parts. I
beg you, remember also how cheap and short-lived our nature is.

FRAGMENT 12

Chapter 12, verse 5. “For he was made ready to fall, at an appointed time, at the hands of
others.” Here those who believe in fate say, “Look, the Scripture says that it was fated
for him to suffer.” But that is not what the Scripture says. God forbid! Our affairs are
not under compulsion. Rather, God governs everything that concerns us in due measure, by
the principles of his own providence. He knows how far it is good for us to suffer, and he
brings on the trials in proportion. Job said this in order to leave the judgment to God.
It is almost as if he were saying: “Do not let the righteous be laughed at when they
suffer. They suffer only as far as God wishes.”

FRAGMENT 13

1 Chapter 13, verse 1. “Look, my eye has seen these things, and my ear has heard them, and
I know as much as you know, and I am no less understanding than you.” Even if I seem to be
younger than you, I am in no way lacking in understanding, least of all in the knowledge
of divine things, and I am not at all inferior to you. 28 Verse 28. “He wears out like a
wineskin, or like a garment eaten by moths.” Job does not say this according to his own
conviction. He says it with regard to the assumption that everyone who is afflicted is
enduring this because he has sinned.

FRAGMENT 14

Chapter 14, verse 1. “Or like a flower that has bloomed and fallen off; he has fled away
like a shadow, and he will not stand.” Like a shadow, a person passes through life and
leaves behind no memorial for the living. Here Job makes clear the providence that governs
human beings. They do not remain in life by chance or at random, but by the word of God,
who does not go beyond the life he has himself appointed. But this should not be said as
though fate were in control. Rather, it is the will of God that has arranged each thing by
limits and measures.

FRAGMENT 15

Chapter 15, verses 7–8. “What then? Were you the first of mankind to be born? Or were you
fixed firm before the sandhills? Have you heard the counsel of the Lord?” That is: Did you
come into being before all other human beings, and have you stretched your life out until
now, so that you have had experience of more things than others of the same nature? —
Theodotion: “where there is a high place, hard to climb, or sandy.” — The Hebrew: “You
were conceived.” — Here he calls the hills “sandhills,” as if to say: “Do you know what
existed before creation?”

FRAGMENT 16

Chapter 16, verses 18–19. “Earth, do not cover over the blood of my flesh, and let there
be no place for my cry. And now, look, my witness is in heaven, and the one who knows my
case is in the highest places.” In his helplessness he speaks to the earth, and to draw
out its sympathy he speaks words that are put as a wish. He says: “Do not keep silent
about my affairs, O earth, and do not hide the blood that is being poured out unjustly
from my flesh through the running sores. Let it not stop in one place and be hidden, and
let the story of my sufferings not pass into oblivion. Let many, he says, be built up
through my trials.” Or it means: “Let the earth not hide my blood, but call out to God for
vengeance, having the very discharges of my body as witnesses. And let the air not hold
back my cry, but let the strength of my voice reach heaven, so that God, taking up the
cause of the evils done to me and punishing those responsible, may in this way show
everyone the blamelessness of the life I have lived.” The words “Look, my witness is in
heaven” come from a perfectly clean conscience.

FRAGMENT 19

1 Chapter 19, verse 3. “Only know that the Lord has made me so.” He strikes fear into
them, as if to say: “Do not trample on me like this while I am suffering, or you
yourselves may fall into the same things, since you have the same nature.” 2 “Yes indeed,
in truth I have erred. Error lodges with me, so that I speak words I should not, and my
words wander, and not at the right time.” “Leave off, because you exalt yourselves over me
and leap on me with reproach.” Let it be granted, he says, for the sake of argument, that
I have erred. “Error lodges with me”: the error is the devil. What harm comes to you from
this, he says, and what need is there to judge me as ungodly and trample on a man who is
suffering? You ought to forgive someone who speaks out of pain. Even if I had done things
I should not have done, was it right for you to reproach me like this? And I, who have
long cared for godliness, ought now to have confidence from my works. But it has not
turned out so, and I am judged as a deceiver. He adds here also:

3 “Know then that the Lord is the one who has troubled me; he has raised his fortress
against me. Look, I laugh at the reproach, I will not speak. I will cry out, and there is
no justice anywhere.” Think about it, he says: it is not without reason that I am in pain,
hemmed in by terrors as if by a wall. I speak, he says, with truth, as things stand with
me, and you do not accept my words. “In reproach” means: to tell the facts. “I will not
speak” means: because you contradict me, I seem to have said nothing. And if I also cry
out to God, to bring my case into the open before everyone, I do not obtain my plea. No
one hears, no one [judges], I see no one, I have nowhere to go. Should these things not
move you to pity? So stop accusing me so rashly, lest God bring you to judgment and exact
from you the penalty for senseless boldness. For God does not leave such things
unanswered, he says. It will come about, if it is stirred up against you, that your
conceit about knowing the good, and the security you feel in what you have, will appear to
you useless. A. S.: Why do you say that I suffer these things because I am in wickedness,
and that you ought to fear the same? “Hurry, then,” he says, “although the facts bear
witness in words. So take hold of [me] in words, so that not even by the truth could one
vote [me] free of liability.” [The sense is uncertain.] The Hebrew, at any rate, also has
“a sin of speech.”

FRAGMENT 20

10 “May lesser men destroy his sons, and may his hands kindle [torments].” Even those who
were formerly inferior, he says, will take possession of the children of the lawbreaker.
15 “Wealth gathered unjustly will be vomited up; an angel will drag him out of his house.”
The ungodly man does everything to get hold of other people’s goods, and all that he does
aims at this. But when he seems to be master of everything, then he will see it all
transferred to others. 18 “Like gristle, not to be chewed, not to be swallowed.” The words
and teachings of the [ungodly man] are tough and [like carrion], for the things done
against God have nothing sweet in them. 22 “When he seems to be already full, he will be
hard pressed, and every distress will come upon him.” He means this: because of the cause,
what has been acquired is lost, and it is not handed down to his forebears.

23 “May he send upon him the fury of wrath; may he [pour] pains upon him.” That is: from
God and from heaven he will endure terrible things. He said this because Job, after saying
that he had been struck by God, also mentioned that he had been wronged by men. So Zophar
argues that everything was brought on Job because of sin. 25 “May stars walk about in his
dwellings.” ... For they are in ignorance. They threw the light away from themselves,
those to whom he said, “I am the light of the world.” 26 “A fire not kindled will consume
him.” As to the hidden meaning, it is a fire that is not kindled. It is either the fire
that works through conscience, or the fire laid up in the places of judgment to come. And
he says he will be consumed “as by fire” in order to say: he is not counted worthy even of
burial.

29 “This is the portion of an ungodly person from the Lord, and the possession of his
goods from the overseer.” By this portion God’s judgment is stirred against him. It may be
the man of the circumcision who, through Christ, acted impiously toward God; or the man of
the unexpected kind; or whoever else is ungodly in whatever way. The portion described
belongs to him. — Learn who is called “overseer” (bishop) here. God is called overseer,
and the bishops, the good and noble ones, strive in every way to bear his image. A man who
copies a royal image is honored for copying it well, and honored also for having adorned
it. In the same way a bishop is blessed who has understood the true Overseer, who imitates
him and becomes, among men, like God. He has as his Overseer the one who truly makes him a
bishop in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

FRAGMENT 21

“Their children play, taking up the psaltery and the harp, and they rejoice at the sound
of a psalm.” See, even their foolish children play among themselves. For these people
recite the psalms of Valentinus and the odes of Basilides, and they utter other things of
that sort, rejoicing at the sound of a psalm.

FRAGMENT 22

1 “Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge?” Let us see what Eliphaz
says to the righteous man: “Is it not...” and so on. After Job has said this, Eliphaz
agrees with the statement and says: “I also know that God, who alone is wise, knows the
reasons by which one man, being ungodly, is set right and another is punished. I also know
this: that God, as you yourself said, is the giver of good things, while wickedness brings
punishments.” — The doctrine is sound. Knowledge is the contemplation that embraces things
that stay always the same; understanding is discernment. 2 “Is not your wickedness great,
and your sins without number?” So I rightly say that you have not simply become
unrighteous, since you suffer things such as none of the wicked suffer. Rather, it was in
these matters that you were born; clearly you have had more wickedness than the others
[than the wicked]. Wickedness is a bad condition in the soul, such as grief, anger, and
unseemly desire; sin is the activity. That is why he named wickedness first, then sin,
saying that the one is great and the others countless. I see very many sinners, and none
of them has fallen into such misfortunes as you. It is likely that these things have come
upon you because of the countless number of your sins and the multitude of your failings.

3 “You took pledges from your brothers for nothing, and you stripped the clothing from the
naked.” Let us take heed, we who lend at interest, lest we ever take pledges for nothing.
These words are useful, since they speak rightly of sins that really are committed, and
are blameworthy among men. Eliphaz assumes this about Job because he knew he was rich and
suspected he had grown rich from sources like these. So he says, “You took pledges for
nothing,” that is, when nothing was owed you. — But suppose I lent, and not trusting the
borrower, took a pledge worth the loan: then I took a pledge, but not for nothing. If,
however, I slander him, say he owes me and cannot pay, and demand and take, then I take a
pledge for nothing. He then presses further, thinking Job has committed another sin. One
may take garments not from a naked person but from a rich man who has many other garments
laid up. In that case [I take] three; of those many I took clothing, and some belonged to
a naked person, others to a rich man. But if someone has one tunic, and on the pretext of
collecting what is mine I strip him of that tunic, without pity for that naked man, then I
have taken away the clothing of the naked. Many such things happen among us when we lend,
when we go to our debtors. Often our debtor is extremely poor and cannot repay. We shut up
our compassion and become merciless and cruel, not seeing that he feeds a wife and
children and barely lives on the few small coins he gets. We demand harshly, sometimes
even when we have more than enough ourselves. This is what happens in bitter collections:
sometimes a person has one morsel, and even if he has no whole loaf, we take it from him,
saying, “But you owe.” So Eliphaz says this, accusing Job of having taken away the
clothing of the naked.

4 Verses 7–9: “You did not give water to the thirsty, but you withheld a morsel from the
hungry. You showed admiration for the face of certain people, and you [settled] those on
the earth. You sent widows away empty, and you mistreated orphans.” So not only doing
wrong, but also failing to do good, makes a person accountable. He points out how far we
ought to extend kindness, since it is blameworthy not to give drink to the thirsty. We
receive a reward for a cup of cold water. So he condemns Job for great harshness, as one
who would not give even water, a favor that costs nothing, and to a thirsty man, which
makes it worse. “But you withheld a morsel from the hungry.” Why do I say, he asks, that
you gave nothing to the one in need? You even took away the small comfort of bread from
the hungry man. By “morsel” he means a piece of bread, as it is also used in Ruth: “Dip
your morsel in the vinegar.” “You showed admiration for the face of certain people.” That
is, you did not give your judgments justly or without partiality, but to please men. You
became a respecter of persons. When you sat in judgment, you lifted up some and humbled
others, forcing the lowly and admiring and honoring those in positions of power. “You
[settled] those on the earth.” Some copies have “you made them lie down” in place of “you
settled.” The sense is: you took away even the poor man’s bedding, so that they were
forced to sleep on the ground with nothing spread under them... “You sent widows away.”
Either you stripped them of what they had, or, worse, when they came to you and asked for
charity you gave them nothing, and sent them away having received nothing from you... “You
mistreated orphans.” To mistreat orphans, who have no one to help them, is the mark of the
utmost wickedness. No one ought to be mistreated, but orphans above all must be spared,
for God commanded that he would fight on behalf of those souls who have no helper. The
poor, widows and orphans need help more than other people do.

5 Verse 18: “But the counsel of the ungodly is far from him. The righteous saw it and
laughed.” What the ungodly plan is far from God. When [the righteous] saw the counsel of
the ungodly, they laughed at them. 6 Verse 22: “Take instruction from his mouth, and take
up his words into your heart.” I asked myself what the word “exegoria” means. In another
edition I found, in Symmachus, “confession” in its place, and in Aquila, “law.” According
to the one reading it says: Confess your sins, and learn from God the manner of
confession. According to the other: Receive law from God, and make his words a matter of
the heart. If you are righteous and worthy, let God dictate to you, and receive divine
words in your heart, as Jeremiah later heard: “Behold, I have put my words into your
mouth.” Or by “exegoria” he means confession, urging the righteous man to repentance. Or
he means this: change your way of life, and take up the divine laws. That is, confess what
you have done wrong, and from now on keep the words of God. I got the occasion for this
twofold sense from the word “exegoria.”

7 Verse 24: “You will set it on a mound, on a rock, and like the rock of a torrent,
Sophir.” You will throw him to the ground, and as it were do him harm.

FRAGMENT 23

Chapter 23, verse 2: “And indeed I know that the reproof is from my hand, and his hand has
become heavy upon my groaning.” That is: I carry my accuser around with me; I have the
proof of my troubles from my own house. — I know, he says, that you think you bring your
reproofs from what is in my hands, that is, from the blow, and not from what I have done.
For God has laid himself on me so heavily that I groan. — I know, he says, that people’s
judgments come from their deeds. But what was laid on me was beyond my strength, that is,
the reproof lies outside anything I did. Verse 6: “And will he come upon me with great
strength? Then he will not use threats against me.” For even if he uses great strength and
threats against me, still I know that truth is with him.

Verse 7: “For truth and reproof are from him, and may he bring my judgment out to the
end.” This is what he prayed for, and this is what he means: that an end be put to my
sufferings. Then he says that he wanted these things to happen so that he might die, not
as though he were now about to judge. — Among the Hebrews, “end” and “victory” are
signified by one word. 10. “For he already knows my way.” He knows my way, he says, and
that I have always been eager to obey him. But when he comes to judge, who will speak
against him? 15. “Because of this I am troubled before his face; I will consider, and I
will be terrified of him.” I have not sinned, he says, but what of that? God is not
permitted to punish only on the strength of sins committed. I say this even apart from any
sins.

17. “For I did not know that darkness would come upon me, and a thick gloom has covered me
before my face.” This evil, he says, did not come in any way that human reasoning could
follow; it was completely unexpected. I suspect the blow is from the hand of God. And he
says well, “before my face,” for the darkness is not a common one, but belongs to my own
despondency.

FRAGMENT 24

13 Chapter 24, 13. “But why has he not made an inspection of these men, while they are on
the earth? And they did not recognize it.” That is, they despised everything and mocked
everything. No one wrongs them or does them harm. But he has not yet made an inspection of
them. So he will make it after this, and he will examine what they have done wrong, and
will not overlook it. “They greedily devoured orphans.” 14. “But when he knew their works,
he handed them over to darkness.” That is, having learned their works, or having examined
and tested them, that is, having known them.

FRAGMENT 27

Chapter 27, 4. “Nor will my soul practice unrighteous things.” That is, I will stand by
the same verdict. No one will be able to turn me aside, no one to strike me down, no one
to lead me away from what I have set before me. 5. “May it not be for me to declare you
righteous until I die, for I will not put away my blamelessness.” That is, I will not
accuse myself, nor will I change my position, even if you say ten thousand things. I will
not give up my verdict, even if you think you have put an end to the charge against me.
Even if I were to agree with what you say, once you have understood why I have suffered
these things, I would be declaring you righteous. I will not cast off my blamelessness by
thinking one thing about you and saying another.

10. “When necessity has come upon him, does he have any boldness before him?” What he
means is this: the one who does wrong has no boldness, and cannot speak out or say what I
am saying now, but is deprived of it and has been silenced. I have not suffered this, but
I speak and argue back. The unrighteous are not like this.

FRAGMENT 28

1 Chapter 28, 1. “For there is a place for silver,” and so on. He means this: the one who
has fixed an order among ordinary things has done so much more among human affairs. 2 2,
3. “For iron comes from the earth, and bronze is quarried like stone. He set an order for
darkness, and he himself searches out every limit.” This means that he takes thought for
affairs and cares about them, and nothing simply or randomly passes him by. Or rather, he
means that other matters are plain, but God’s ordering of things is beyond tracing and
unknowable. And a little later: He said well, “He set an order for darkness,” showing that
he knows how to yield and to withdraw. Who drives away that gloom? Where does such good
order come from in such a matter? Then he recounts God’s power, then his wisdom,
persuading Job not to want to demand an account from him.


FRAGMENTS OF THE HOMILIES ON JOB (PART 2: FRAGMENTS FROM THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPTS)
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FRAGMENTS OF THE HOMILIES ON JOB continued

FRAGMENT 29

Chapter 29, 3. “As when his lamp shone over my head, when by his light I walked in
darkness.” That he sought his former prosperity for this reason, so that God’s providence
might be shown, is clear from his saying, “when God was guarding me.” 4. “When God was
making an inspection of my house.” Symmachus has: “When God fenced around my tent.” You
see that this is what he longed for: to show God’s oversight and providence. Since I was
young, he says, being righteous, I made virtue the material useful to me, for I dealt well
with everyone. 7. “When I went out early in the morning in the city, and in the squares my
seat was set.” Like a ruler and teacher of virtue, he did not devote himself to sleep and
drunkenness, but out of love sat in the squares at dawn, becoming a law and a pattern for
those in the city.

13. “May the blessing of one who is perishing come upon me.” From Severus, in his letter
to the deaconess Julian. In the Gospels the Lord speaks of those who put themselves to
death to the world. Some give up their bodies for the contest of martyrdom, and some give
them up to the labors of ascetic discipline. In this way they seem to destroy themselves
and kill themselves by being deprived of the enjoyment of this life. Of them he says:
“Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” So for one who is “perishing” in this
way, according to the Savior’s word, and who finds his life, the prayer and the blessing
are something great. Any sensible person might pray that this blessing come upon him, and
would wisely say: “May the blessing, etc.” 15. “I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to
the lame.” Vat. 794, 2. As for the meaning: he opened blind minds, and he owed it to those
whose souls were maimed to become their eye himself. To those lame in the steps of the
soul he gave feet; by his word he became their foot, and he led each group by the hand.
The eye is taken to stand for guidance in understanding, and the foot for guidance in
conduct.

16. “I was a father to the powerless.” Same source. In these words we are shown the voice
of one who helps the powerless, the weak. 16. “And a case that I did not know, I searched
out.” You see his care as a protector. It went beyond money, beyond food and clothing: he
even stood in danger for the sake of another man’s fight. 17. “And I broke the molars of
the unjust.” Note how hard the task was. He says, in effect: from where could it come that
I set right a matter that had already been seized? Truly, when Christ came, he crushed the
molars of the opposing powers. The Lord broke the molars of the lions, and it is written
in the prophet: “From the midst of their teeth I snatched the plunder.” 18. “And I said:
My age will grow old like the trunk of a palm tree.” Notice how much time has passed when
he says this. He does not boast or think highly of himself. He is compelled to speak of
God’s providence, of the things in which he enjoyed it, and of the things in which he now
finds himself.

FRAGMENT 30

Chapter 30, 1. “But now the least of men laugh at me; now they admonish me in turn, men
whose fathers I used to despise.” Vat. 794, 2. He does not say this out of contempt. He
knew them clearly, just as the prophet said: “Every evildoer is despised in his sight.”
Such people he counted as nothing. 2, 3. “Even the strength of their hands, what was it to
me? Completion perished upon them. In want and hunger they were barren, those who fled the
waterless land, yesterday’s distress and misery.” Olympiodorus, Origen. He says: But I
never asked for any help from them, so that they might therefore speak such words to me.
They were long since in debt to justice, being wicked, and somehow the punishment flew
away from them. Or perhaps they longed for death because of extreme poverty and did not
obtain it, and not even want taught them sense, so as to become begetters of what is good.
They remained barren, those who only yesterday, or a little while ago, had escaped the
desert and its calamities. He seems to slander them as base-born, as coming from ignoble
stock and from poor fathers. “Completion perished upon them” means: they never
accomplished anything good.

4. “Those who go around gathering salt-herb on the echoing ground, whose food was salt-
herb.” The salt-herb, they say, is a certain plant that quickly fills the one who eats it.
“On the echoing ground” means in ravines and rocky places, for such places resound well
and echo back to those who speak. Or he may mean by “echoing” a wooded place in which the
blowing of the winds, stirring the trees, makes a sound. So he says that, because of their
extreme need, these men wandered through the woods, the ravines, and the places beside
which running waters sound and murmur. They searched for plants and scraped the roots of
trees for food, as a comfort [for hunger]. 4. “Dishonored and despised, lacking every good
thing.” Vat. 795, 1. It is another wickedness, to be such men even in poverty. 24. “If
only I could get control of myself.” Vat. 795, 2. You see that when he says “if I could,”
he does not say it from weakness, but because he is prevented.

28. “I stand in the assembly crying out.” Same source. Because of the extremity of his
sufferings, he is not even ashamed before a crowded gathering. 29. “I have become a
brother of sirens, and a companion of ostriches.” Same source. He says: I have fallen into
the wildness of birds. I have lost sight of my own nature, and I am in no better condition
than they.

FRAGMENT 31

1 “For I stand in a just balance, and the Lord knows my innocence, if my foot turned aside
from the way...” Wonderful precision! No one could say, “I used my wealth and my former
good things for carelessness and dissipation, so I am paying this kind of penalty, and I
have been changed, since God has applied a fitting remedy.” For a man who loves laughter
and tripping others up [and has given himself to luxury], it would be reasonable for God
to set the opposite condition against him. He would hand him over to a life of groaning
and many tears. But take the man who even before these things avoided revelry and drove
away people who play and make jokes. What reason would there be for him to fall into a
gloomy, downcast life? Since I was withered and stern, I did not fall into the vices that
tear that kind of life apart.

2 “And if my maidservants often said, ‘Who will grant us to be filled with his flesh?’
since I was very kind.” That is, to enjoy his life, because I was sweet to them. 3 “A
stranger did not lodge outside, and my door was open to everyone who came.” For he did not
serve them merely by receiving them. He also gave them provisions for the poverty that
would follow.

FRAGMENT 32

1 “And Job stopped speaking.” Job fell silent, giving them room to speak. But he saw what
was happening, called God as witness, and laid a curse on himself, because the friends had
been silenced. 11 “For I will speak while you listen, until you have examined my words,
and I will understand as far as you are concerned.” Either he means this: that not even
when you were refuting me did you refute me as you should have; or that afterward you fell
silent. So it stands in relation to the words, “For I will speak while you listen.”

FRAGMENT 33

12 “For how can you say, ‘I am righteous, and he has not listened to me’?” What then
happened? Job did not think this. Elihu supposed it, but Job did not speak with the
intention of saying that he was more righteous than God. He meant that these things had
been done by him, yet he was not charging God with injustice. Elihu, however, took it that
way. But he rightly accused those others, who had [taken up] God’s side and then denied
it. 20 “I will speak, so that I may find relief, opening my lips.” A man who has an
understanding listener and is full of words finds relief by speaking. He empties himself,
as it were, of the excess and throws it off, and says, “I will speak so that I may find
relief.”

FRAGMENT 34

19 “He who is not ashamed before the face of an honored man, nor knows how to give honor
to the great.” For even if you do not know, you ought to yield much to him and to his
glory, so as not to seek to learn everything. 23 “For he will no longer lay anything upon
a man.” He seems to mean this: that now good and evil lie in our hands, but in the age to
come it will no longer be so. 31 “For to the mighty one he says: ‘I have taken, I will not
take a pledge; without myself I will see; you show me.’” Some interpreted it this way: no
one dares to say to someone stronger, “You have taken my things unjustly. You did not take
them as a pledge, as though they were owed, but against my will. Show that you did this
with good reason.” But if no one dares to say this to the powerful man, how, he says, can
you be so bold against God? Symmachus rendered it this way: “I have taken up a speech
before God; I will not [hold back], without hindrance; you make it clear to me.” And he
understood it thus: since I have taken up speech on behalf of God, says Elihu, I do not
hold back, but go on with my argument without hindrance. And if I am not speaking well,
you make it clear, that is, refute the argument. I think, rather, that the text is to be
understood like this: it is not because I chose to speak on behalf of God that you must
therefore simply agree with me, as if I were demanding a debt. “Without myself I will see;
you show me” means: apart from my own argument I want to know whether you have anything to
say in reply. So say that I am keeping silent, and take hold of the argument, if you can.

FRAGMENT 35

5 “Look up to heaven.” No lover of the world looks up to heaven. Let us not love the
world, nor the things in the world. If we love the things down here, we do not look up to
heaven. 6 “If you sinned, what will you do?” That is, you will not wrong him, and you will
not benefit him either, if you are righteous. For since he was saying, “If I sinned, what
can I do?”, he asks, “What shall I do?” He says this to make the point: “Why? Is he
wronged, so that he worries about you when you sin? Is he suffering some harm?” 10 “He who
appoints night watches.” Do you want to see how God appoints night watches? This whole age
is night; it is darkness. The light is being kept for you. The light you see now, you see
through a mirror. And it says, “In your light we shall see light”; so we are someday going
to see it. Is the whole age, then, night? Since it is night, many enemies and many wild
beasts go about. Since the affairs of this life, lived in darkness, are night, there is
need of watchmen appointed for this night. These watchmen, who serve through the nights,
guard those who are in the night. They come and protect us from robbers. Who, then, are
the watchmen appointed by God for the night watches? “The angel of the Lord will encamp
around those who fear him, and will deliver them.” These are the angels who guard us in
the night.

FRAGMENT 38

5 “Who set its measures, if you know? Or who stretched a line over it?” The Greeks wanted
to say something about the measure of the earth. They say the diameter of the earth is
250,000 stadia. But the saying seems to show that the measure of the earth cannot be
grasped by anyone. Only the Savior knows it, who is also the Creator. He said “measures,”
not “measure,” to point out the differences within the earth. What is the measure of a
land like the East, for example, which produces spices? What is the measure of the land
that produces pepper, or of the one that produces animals? For not everything grows
everywhere. These measures, then, are with the Word of God. Surely the earth has not
become this size by chance or at random. It seems to me that if even the smallest thing
were added, it would be out of place, and if anything were taken away, by the same
reasoning it would ruin the whole. This is what the measures and the line hint at.

6 “And who is he who laid a cornerstone upon it?” Who laid a cornerstone upon it, so that
it stands so firmly, as though he had built it on a secure and settled foundation? It is
the will of God, for in his hand are all the ends of the earth. “Cornerstone” can also be
understood of the only-begotten [Son] of God, who became flesh for us, in keeping with the
saying in the Psalms: “The stone which they rejected has become the head of the corner.”
For he came to earth by the good pleasure of the Father and joined the two peoples, Jews
and Gentiles, together in himself, just as a cornerstone binds together the two walls. 11
“And I said to it, ‘You will come as far as this and you will not go beyond.’” Symmachus
has: “Let the swelling of your waves be set as far as here.” In the one version he holds
the sea securely, as if with bars; in the other he holds it easily, as if by an order.
“For I spoke,” he says, “and there is no answering back,” when this happens with no
necessity forcing it, even while great violence and strength lash the sea. For this is why
he did not allow it to be calm or gentle: so that it might proclaim the power of God, with
its nature fighting against the command and the command winning everywhere. If the water
were gentle, many would credit its good order to the nature of water. But now, stirred up,
lashed, driven from within, and unable to cross its boundaries, it proclaims the power of
God through its turmoil.

41 “And who has prepared food for the raven?” It is said that ravens do not feed their
young. The ravens themselves, being large, naturally find food for themselves. But who
feeds the young? Is it not the word of God? As the Gospel also says: “The birds of heaven
do not sow or reap, and your heavenly Father feeds them.”

FRAGMENT 39

27 “Is it at your command that the eagle is lifted up? And does the vulture sit on its
nest and lodge on a projecting rock and a hidden place?” .... If among flesh-eating
creatures there is [some reasoning wisdom], present in each from natural knowledge, and
directed toward knowledge, in some of war, in others of the dead, you also see the
vulture, alone, borne along in the air. [The text is uncertain here.] 34 “Why am I still
being judged, I who am corrected and who reprove the Lord, when I hear such things and am
nothing?” Ibid. “Why,” he says, “am I still being judged?” This is by way of an
introduction; from the start he yielded the first place. “I have been defeated,” he says,
“the right is yours. Why do you carry the case further? What can I answer? How can anyone
face such a Master eye to eye?” “I kept on,” he says, “looking for the reason for the blow
that fell on me. But I brought no charge against the creation, and I have nothing to say
to what has been said.” — [The text is incomplete here:] the poor man is not reproving the
Lord, but is being corrected.

FRAGMENT 40

2 “But gird up your loins like a man. I will question you, and you answer me.” Vat. 805,
2. Those who are confident in the abundance of their rights do not even let their
opponents run away, so that the victory may be won out of that abundance. Then he also
defends himself to Job, saying, “I care about human beings.” From this it is clear why I
brought this trial on you. “I give you freedom of speech. I will question you, and you
answer me.” 3 “Do you think I have dealt with you for any other reason than that you might
appear righteous?” Vat. 805, 2. He means the present dealing. “I am not saying this in
order to condemn you,” he says, “but to show that you are righteous.” Or he is speaking
about the trial, using “dealing” for the permission given, that is, that I had arranged
beforehand for this to happen for some other purpose. He did not say, “so that you might
become righteous” (for you had practiced righteousness strictly), but “so that you might
appear so.” Let us not turn out to be unrighteous or ungodly. Let us remember these things
in times of trouble, and let us think we hear God present and saying to us, “Do you think
I have dealt with you for any other reason than that your righteousness might become plain
to those who do not know it?”

5 “Take up height and power, and clothe yourself with glory and honor.” Ibid. “Be crowned,
put on glory, put on honor, put on splendor. The insolent man marched out against you, but
you humbled the arrogant one and turned his armies back far away in shame. Reprove
sinners, showing them to be sinners. Fill their faces with dishonor through the rebuke
that is in you.” — So it was not for display [text corrupt: or for all the other things,
or also for the knowledge of God]. See how much the lowliness of his own nature convicts
him. God does not say, “You are lowly,” but “I am great, and you cannot do what I do.” 10
“But look, there are wild beasts beside you.” Like an athlete, learn about the dragon,
your opponent. — “Beside you, then,” he says, “and beside everyone who is patient, these
beasts are tamed and made subject. There is, however, etc.”

20 “Will you draw the dragon out with a hook, and put a muzzle around his nose?” “Can you,
then, Job,” he says, “do what the Only-begotten did later? For he put out his own flesh as
a kind of bait, and through his own nails, as through hooks, he caught the fish Leviathan.
For this is how the Hebrew has it, and it means the dragon.” 27 “Will you lay a hand on
him, remembering the war that takes place in his body [and let it happen no more]?” Vat.
806, 2. By “war” he means here the turmoil, the savagery, the attacking of him. “How does
it happen?” he says. Such is this wild, powerful, and frenzied beast. “Can you bind him by
your own power,” he says, “or even remember and take thought of the war that is going to
take place in his body?” By his “body” he means the demons, since the dragon is their
head. The Lord won this war by the trophy of the cross. [Then the text adds:] “Let it
happen no more,” since the cross happened once for all. For “the one who died to sin,” he
says, “died once for all.”

FRAGMENT 41

1 Chapter 41, verse 4. “Who will uncover the face of his clothing?” Who is able to expose
the face of what he has put on? Who is able to uncover and show what the dragon is on the
inside? And a little later: I recalled the sacred writings contained in this divinely
inspired book of Job. In them, as in a bodily form, the devil is described, the originator
of evil among demons and wicked beings. His great ugliness and the variety of his schemes
lie hidden, and so does the stripping away of the outer masks. For it says: “Who will
uncover the face of his clothing?” And since the text had been speaking of this variety
that appears on the outside, as though it rises from some depth of unseen wickedness,
these words are added to what was said: “Who will uncover the face of his clothing?” That
is, who is able to enter into the thoughts of his heart, since they are folded up and
hidden?

2 Verses 24–25 (14–15 in the Greek numbering). “It will not be shaken. His heart is set
like a stone, and he stands like an anvil that cannot be beaten.” His heart, it says, has
turned to stone, and it cannot be beaten out. He is altogether hardened and reckless. He
is not driven, he does not follow reason, he does not yield. He is hard, unbeatable,
unyielding. And if anyone has drawn power from the devil, he too has the heart of this
dragon, unbeatable and not to be driven. But if someone is gold and follows the word, he
yields to the goldsmith until he becomes a sheet of gold and receives the impressions of
God’s letters, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

FRAGMENT 42

Chapter 42, verse 10. “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before, doubling it.”
Verse 12. “And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the former. His livestock
were fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen.” Verse 13.
“And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.” If the Lord gave Job double of
everything he had before, after the blow, as the sacred writing says, then the children
also ought to have been doubled. Look at the livestock. It says he had fourteen thousand
sheep, for at the beginning he had seven thousand. He had six thousand camels, for at the
beginning he had three thousand. He had a thousand yoke of oxen, for at first there were
five hundred. The same holds for the wild donkeys. But it says seven sons and three
daughters were born to him, as many as there were before. Yet there ought to have been
fourteen sons and six daughters, so that they would be double the children who were lost.
So we say this: the sheep and the livestock were lost, but the sons and daughters died;
they were not lost. God therefore gave him the same number of other children, so that in
the resurrection he would have them doubled. In this way God made him father of twice as
many children as he had been father of before. But if the soul were extinguished after
death, and the things of the resurrection were not true, fourteen sons and six daughters
would have had to be given. So the Scripture has held faithfully to the fact that he
received seven sons. If he had been given fourteen sons and six daughters, while the
teaching about the resurrection still stood, the children would not have been given to him
double, but triple, compared with what he had at first.

16. “After the plague Job lived one hundred and seventy years, and in all he lived two
hundred and forty [eight] years.” How are we to understand that Job lived a hundred and
seventy years after the plague, when all the years of his life total two hundred and
forty-eight? Examining the matter closely, we say this. He received back all his good
things doubled. If the years of his earlier prosperity were also received back doubled,
then this is how the count should go. He lived seventy-eight years in his earlier
prosperity, and from the time he received the plague he remained in suffering for fourteen
years. So “after the plague” must be understood not as from the time the plague stopped,
but from the time it began. After those fourteen years, the time of his sickness, he lived
another one hundred and fifty-six. The years of his earlier prosperity came to seventy-
eight, so the doubled time of his later well-being comes to one hundred and fifty-six
years. When the fourteen years of the plague are added in front, the total is one hundred
and seventy years. So he is found to have lived one hundred and seventy years “after the
plague,” that is, from the time the plague was brought upon him, as the Scripture says. In
this way the doubled repayment of his prosperity is also preserved. To sum up, then, you
will count it like this: he lived seventy-eight years in wealth and with fine children;
fourteen years in the loss of everything and the ruin of his body; and one hundred and
fifty-seven years in his second prosperity. So the whole time of his life is two hundred
and forty-eight years, as the sacred book about him says.

17. “And Job died, an old man and full of days. It is written that he will rise again with
those whom the Lord raises up.” Aquila and Symmachus, when they came, concluded the book
there, supposedly following the Hebrew. But Theodotion concludes in agreement with the
Seventy, lacking nothing, neither time nor life. It is written that he will rise again
with those whom the Lord raises, that is, with the righteous. For “the ungodly,” it says,
“will not rise in judgment, nor sinners in the council of the righteous.” We accept these
words too, even if they are not part of the whole fabric of the book, but were woven into
it by one of the saints. Still, we accept everything, since we have received the book in
this form from the fathers. 18. “This is translated from the book of the Lord.” Here he
calls the Hebrew language “Syriac,” since many people call Judea “Syria” and the
Palestinians “Syrians.” The historian Herodotus also says, “The Indians, the Egyptians,
the Arabs, and the Syrians in Palestine are circumcised.” This is how they name the Jews.


SELECTED NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH AND OTHER BOOKS (SELECTA ON GENESIS – SELECTA ON EXODUS)
============================================================

SELECTED NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH AND OTHER BOOKS Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 230–250

The short Greek remains of Origen’s comments on the first books of the Bible and on Job
and Ezekiel: the ‘Selecta’ (selected comments printed in Migne’s Patrologia Graeca under
his name) and short annotations gathered from commentary-chains. They are brief, scattered
notes rather than complete works, and the attribution of some is uncertain. We found no
English translation of these.

SELECTA ON GENESIS

PREFACE

The holy apostles and disciples of our Saviour were scattered over the whole world.
According to tradition, Thomas received Parthia by lot, Andrew Scythia, and John Asia.
John stayed among the people there and died at Ephesus. Peter seems to have preached in
Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia and Asia to the Jews of the dispersion. At the end
he came to Rome and was crucified head downward, since he himself asked to suffer in this
way. What need is there to speak of Paul? He fulfilled the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem
as far as Illyricum, and later was martyred at Rome under Nero.

NOTE 1

2 “And God said: Let the earth sprout plant of grass, sowing seed according to kind and
according to likeness.” We should not pass over the fact that the wording, “God said: Let
the earth sprout plant of grass, sowing seed according to kind and according to likeness,”
might seem to be a grammatical error. “Sowing” does not fit easily with “plant of grass.”
How then can it be understood without a grammatical error, since most people will suppose
that “sowing” is said of “plant of grass”? It is possible to read it with a slight pause,
at a mid-point mark, like this: “Let the earth sprout plant of grass.” Then, after the
break, add “sowing seed according to kind.” So it would be: “Let the earth sprout plant of
grass, according to kind sowing seed,” with “sowing seed” attached to “kind.” 3 “Increase
and multiply.” Increase means growth in size. Multiplying means succession into a
multitude through union.

4a “And God said: Let us make man according to our image and according to likeness.” First
we must settle where the “according to the image” lies: in the body or in the soul. Let us
first look at the arguments of those who hold the first view. Melito is one of them, and
he left writings on God having a body. They find that members are ascribed to God: eyes of
God looking upon the whole world, and his ears inclined to the petition of the righteous.
“The Lord smelled a fragrant aroma.” “The mouth of the Lord spoke these things.” There are
also God’s arm, hands, feet and fingers. So they say outright that these teach nothing
other than the shape of God. “How,” they say, “was God seen by Abraham, and Moses, and the
saints, if he had no form? And if he had a form, what character could it be but the human
one?” And they collect countless sayings that name members of God. We must contend with
them first from the wording. Against those who know nothing beyond the letter, we will set
passages that contradict their assumption. From Zechariah: “Seven are the eyes of the Lord
that look upon all the earth.” But if God has seven eyes and we have two, then we were not
made according to his image.

4b Again, we have no wings, but about God it says in the ninety-first psalm, “Under his
wings you will hope.” If he has wings and we are wingless creatures, then man was not made
according to the image of God. And how can the heaven, which is spherical and always in
motion, be God’s throne, as they suppose? And how is the earth the footstool of his feet?
Let them explain it to us. Is the body from the knees to the soles that of the one who
contains all that lies between heaven and earth? The earth lies in the middle of the whole
universe and is contained by him, as geometrical proofs show. So are God’s soles with us,
or with those on the opposite side of the earth? Do they fill our whole inhabited world,
or take up somewhat more or somewhat less? Are his feet kept apart by the seas and rivers,
or do they also tread upon the waters? And how is it that the one whose throne is a heaven
so vast, and whose footstool is the earth, is found walking only in paradise, or appears
to Moses only on the summit of Sinai? Whoever holds such opinions about God, will he not
be called a fool?

5 Then, having said much to overturn such an opinion, he adds: 6 Someone who says that
“according to the image” is not in the body but in the rational soul will offer a view
that should not be despised, once he understands what powers the soul has. The power of
knowing in a human being is able to judge and to do good, to act justly and to be strong,
and in a word to accomplish every good. These powers were made in him by God according to
the image. The Apostle shows clearly in the letter to the Corinthians that actions mark
out the image, and not the shape of the body. He says: “Just as we have borne the image of
the earthly one, so let us also bear the image of the heavenly one.” The one who lives
according to the flesh and does the works of the flesh bears the image of the earthly. The
one who by the Spirit puts to death the actions of the flesh bears the image of the
heavenly. In another letter too, when he teaches how one must live, he adds to the
commandments: “that you may become according to the image of the one who created [you].”
The Lord is patient, and the patient person has the “according to the image of God.” The
Lord is righteous and holy, and the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Therefore the one
who loves righteousness and holiness, who does and keeps the Savior’s commandment, “Be
compassionate, as your Father is compassionate,” and “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect,” becomes an image of God in every respect.

7a “And rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and all the cattle, and
all the earth, and all the reptiles that creep on the earth.” We should observe that in
the list of the creation of living creatures, the sea monsters are one thing and the
[creeping things of souls] another. And although man is now said to rule over the fish of
the sea, the class of sea monsters and the class of wild beasts are passed over in
silence. We must not suppose that these are left out for no reason, when it could have
been written: “And let them rule over the fish, and the sea monsters of the sea, and the
wild beasts of the earth, and the birds of the sky, and the cattle.” Consider also
whether, because of this silence, it is possible that not all living creatures came to be
for the sake of man. Rather, only those he is said to rule did: the fish of the sea, the
birds of the sky, the cattle of the earth, and perhaps also the reptiles of the earth,
because of the very necessary uses of medicines made from them. But these great sea
monsters and the wild beasts of the earth did not come to be for man’s sake. Otherwise
their naming would have been added to the authority given to human beings.

7b We do not find in Scripture that the class of snakes is placed among the reptiles, but
among the wild beasts. [The text here is unclear and the wording appears corrupt:] “For
the serpent… legs above its feet, to leap with them on the earth. And these you may eat of
them: the locust and those like it, the akris and those like it, the attakes and those
like it, and the ophiomachês and those like it. And every reptile among the winged
creatures that has four feet is an abomination to you, and by these you will be made
unclean.” So man rules neither the great sea monsters nor the wild beasts, perhaps because
from the beginning they were not made for his sake. Something similar to what is written
here about what is under man’s authority is said in the eighth Psalm: “You have subjected
all things under his feet, sheep and all oxen, and moreover the cattle of the field; the
birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, that pass through the paths of the seas.” Here
too the sea monsters and the wild beasts are passed over in silence.

8 “And on the sixth day God completed his works which he made.” Some people think it
absurd that God should have completed the world over several days, like a builder who
cannot finish a building without many days. They say that all things came to be at one
time, and from this they build their argument. They think the list of the days, and of
what happened in them, was given for the sake of order. For this argument they could
plausibly use the verse: “He spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were
created.” 9 “This is the book of the origin of heaven and earth, when it came to be, in
the day when the Lord God made heaven and earth.” The word “book” is not found in this
place at all among the Hebrews. It is an error of a Hebrew scribe, who was misled by the
same error that appears in Aquila: “This is the book of the offspring of Adam,” and in the
Seventy: “This is the book of the origin of men.” For the scribe supposed that a “book”
had been left out in this place too, and so he added it.

10 “And God planted a garden in Eden toward the east, and put there the man whom he had
formed. And God made to spring up out of the earth every tree beautiful to look at and
good for food.” When we read this and rise above the myths and the literal sense, and ask
what those trees are which God tends, we say that there are no trees perceptible to the
senses in that place. 11 By the same author. In the translation the phrase “a garden in
Eden” is set down, with the translator using the Hebrew word itself. The proper meaning of
“Eden” is “sweet” or “delightful.” The Hebrews have handed down that the place in which
the Lord God planted the paradise, or garden, is called Eden. They say it is the middle of
the world, like the pupil of the eye. For that reason they say the river Pheison is
interpreted “mouth of the pupil,” since the first river flows out of Eden. What they hand
down is this: Eden, which means “delight,” existed before the garden came to be, for the
garden was planted in it.

12 “And the gold of that land is good.” When our mouth is changed by virtue, and the soul
gains mastery over good thoughts, then it feeds good doctrines. The word hinted at these
things when it said “good gold.” “And the name of the second river is Geon; this is the
one that circles the whole land of Ethiopia.” Ethiopia is in Hebrew Chous, which also
means “darkening.” So it is named from Ethiopia, that is, from Chous, because of the dark
color of skin which he had beyond his other brothers. 13 “And he put him in the paradise.”
Those who are born again through divine baptism are put in the paradise, that is, in the
Church, to work the spiritual works that are within. They receive a commandment to love
all the brothers and to eat the coming fruit through endurance, as it was said: “From
every tree that is in the paradise you shall freely eat.” But a person breaks the
commandment of the one who gave him new birth when he uses the reasonings of the serpent,
loving some people as good and hating others as wicked. This is the tree of knowing good.
Whoever tastes of it dies unhindered. It is not that God made the death, but that the man
hated his neighbor. For God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of
the living. He is not moved by the passion of anger, nor does he devise some act of
vengeance, nor is he changed to suit the condition each person deserves. Rather, he made
all things in wisdom, having determined beforehand that they should be judged under a
spiritual law. For this reason he says to Adam: “In the day that you eat, you shall die
the death.” In this way he assigned to each deed, whether good or bad, the fitting result
that naturally follows it. It is not a matter of contrivance, as some suppose who are
ignorant of the spiritual law.

14 “And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” What
should we understand by the garments of skin? It is quite silly, like an old woman’s tale,
and unworthy of God, to suppose that God took skins from some animals, killed or dead some
other way, and made the shapes of tunics by sewing the skins together like a cobbler.
Others avoid this absurdity and say the garments of skin are nothing other than the
bodies. That is plausible and can win agreement, but it is not clearly true. For if the
garments of skin are flesh and bones, how does Adam say before this: “This now is bone
from my bones and flesh from my flesh”? Some, then, caught in these difficulties, declared
that the garments of skin are the deadness with which Adam and Eve are clothed, having
been put to death because of sin. But these people too cannot easily explain how God, and
not sin, brings deadness on the one who transgressed. Besides, they are forced to say that
flesh and bones are by their own nature not perishable, if our fathers received the
deadness later, because of sin. And if paradise is some divine place, let them say how
each of the bodily members, which were not created in vain, carried out its own function
there. As for the word “nostril” in Aquila and Symmachus, or “face” in the Seventy, for
the one who was formed and into whom God breathed the breath of life, we must say this:
one should not cling to the letter of Scripture as if it were the truth, but should look
for the treasure hidden in the letter.

15 “And he stationed the cherubim.” It is not only the ministering spirits, sent out for
the sake of those who are going to inherit salvation, who guard the way to the tree of
life. Opposing powers also guard it, hindering those who wish to approach the tree of
life. 16 “And Cain said to Abel his brother, ‘Let us go out into the plain.’” In the
Hebrew, what Cain said to Abel is not written. Aquila and his company showed this, and the
Hebrews say that this saying is kept in a hidden (apocryphal) writing, and that it [is
placed] here in the Septuagint version. 17 “And Cain said to the Lord God, ‘My sin is too
great for me to be forgiven.’” He did not judge rightly. He despised the divine law. He
killed a brother, and on top of that he killed a righteous man. He lied. He asked for
death, rejecting life and repentance.

18 “And he begot [a son] according to his own form and according to his own image.”
Against those who think that the image of God is one thing and the one made in the image
another, we must say this: if Adam is one and his image another, then there is a third, in
whose image Adam was made. They will use the text, “Lord, in your city you will despise
their image,” and the text, “Surely man walks about in an image.” But we must ask how
Adam’s form differs from his image. 19 “And Enoch pleased God after he begot Methuselah.”
If he pleased God after he begot Methuselah, then according to Scripture he was not
pleasing before this. Clearly he pleased God through repentance, when he begot “the
sending away of death,” which they [had] before he begot him. 20 “And God said, ‘I will
wipe out man, whom I made, from the face of the earth.’” He does not say simply “I will
wipe out,” but “from the earth.” For what was made is not by nature wiped out entirely,
since what was made was made in the image of God.

21 “These are the generations of Noah,” and so on. If this had been written in the more
ordinary way, “These are the generations of Noah” would have been followed by “Noah begot
three sons.” But as it is, his generation concerns righteousness. So “These are the
generations” is put first, and then is added, “being a righteous man.” 22 “Noah was well-
pleasing to God. And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.” Earlier the text
says: “Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-eight years, and fathered Noah. And after
fathering Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and sixty-five years. All the days of Lamech
came to seven hundred and fifty-three years, and he died.” And it says, “Noah was five
hundred years old, and he fathered three sons.” In this we find a discrepancy of sixty-
five years in Noah’s age. But here the Scripture says that Noah was well-pleasing to God,
as it is also written about Enoch. For when Enoch pleased God, then God also took him up.
In the same way, then, the divine Scripture did not count to Noah the sixty-five years
before he became well-pleasing. So too with Abraham: the sixty years before he knew God
were not counted as life for him. The same is true of thirty years for Enoch, twenty years
for Saul, forty years for Solomon, and seventeen years for Hezekiah. And a discrepancy of
fifteen years is found concerning Methuselah as well.

23 “And the earth was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with injustice. And
the Lord God saw the earth, and it was corrupted, because all flesh had corrupted its way
upon the earth.” Injustice corrupts the earth, but righteousness saves it. And everyone
who sins, as far as it depends on him, corrupts the earth. The earth did not become
corrupted in the flood (for then it was washed clean of its corruption), but in injustice.
What corrupted the way of God is not spirit but flesh. For “the mind of the flesh is
enmity toward God,” and “those who live in the flesh cannot please God.” 24 “Two by two
from all you shall bring into the ark, to feed with yourself. They shall be male and
female.” Because God wanted the people who entered the ark to remain pure from
intercourse, he brings them in this way, and by the manner of their entering he commands
them to spend their time in the ark. For it was not fitting, while their own kind were
perishing, that these should be busy with marriage-beds and the begetting of children. But
when the terrors had passed and need called for the earth to be filled with people again,
he sends them out as married couples, saying: “Go out, you and your wife, and your sons,
and the wives of your sons.”

25 “And from all the clean animals bring in to yourself seven by seven, male and female;
and from the animals that are not clean, two,” and so on. Someone might ask how this was
said to Noah as though he knew the difference between clean and unclean, when the law had
not yet distinguished clean from unclean. So it is worth considering whether Noah knew
these things not in the sense of “when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the
things of the law,” but from the natural law. 26 “Noah was six hundred years old, and the
flood of water came upon the earth.” Perhaps “of water” is added here to mark it off from
a flood that is going to come by fire. 27 “And there went in to Noah into the ark two by
two from all flesh.” As to the literal text, someone might ask why it is not said that the
unclean went in two by two and the clean seven by seven, but the clean are passed over in
silence. But consider whether the answer lies in the words “from all flesh,” where only
the unclean are indicated by “from all flesh.”

28 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Increase and multiply, and fill
the earth.” How had Noah increased and multiplied, when he had not yet fathered anyone
after the flood? Perhaps, then, “Increase and multiply” should not be understood bodily.
But if it is not bodily here, because of Noah, it is clear that it was in line with the
intention of the spiritual law in the beginning as well. 29 “And the trembling and the
fear of you shall be upon all the wild animals of the earth,” and so on. Someone does
violence to the literal text by claiming that every living creature is afraid when it sees
a human being, even the wild animals in the wilderness. But perhaps it is better to
understand the wicked powers as the wild beasts of the earth, and the other kinds
likewise, as suffering fear from the righteous man, with trembling upon such beings. For
the wicked powers fear the righteous man.

30 “Only, you shall not eat flesh with the life-blood in it. For I will also require your
blood, the blood of your souls. From the hand of all the wild beasts I will require it.”
Since the wording on its face is unfitting, we must say that the “beasts” are opposing
powers. The soul that sins dies, and the death of the one who has sinned will be required
from the hand of those powers. It is also possible to take it of the cattle, since the Law
commanded that a bull that gores be stoned. 31 “For in the image of God I made man.” God
says, “In the image of God I made man.” The image of the invisible God is the Savior. So,
according to the Scripture, the Savior is also God. 32a “Now the sons of Noah who came out
of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.” Why, when the
Scripture has said, “And the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and
Japheth,” did it add, “And Ham was the father of Canaan”? If it had to mention the sons,
it should have mentioned all of them, and not Canaan alone. Canaan himself also became
ungodly, as the history shows. So the Spirit, wishing to show the father’s kinship with
his son, in a way separates Ham from the godliness of his brothers by the addition, “Ham
was the father of Canaan.” All were sons of Noah by birth, but this one was not a son in
character; he was the father of a child like himself. That is why it is stated so
emphatically: “He was the father of Canaan.” The Hebrew who said these things also brought
forward a tradition of this kind, and added a proof for the tradition. According to it,
Canaan was the first to see the shameful nakedness of his grandfather, and he reported it
to his father alone, mocking the old man. Ham, who ought, like his brothers, not to have
approached his father in an ungodly way, but rather to have rebuked the first one who saw
and slandered, was himself persuaded. He went in, saw, and reported it to his brothers.

32b This too would seem a fable if the proof were not strong. For it says, “Noah awoke
from his sleep and knew what his younger son had done to him.” Ham was not his youngest
son, but his second, since the order is “Shem, Ham and Japheth.” If the Scripture had
wanted to point out the youngest, it would have said Japheth. But since grandfathers
always call their grandchildren, and their distant descendants, “sons,” the Scripture says
that Noah learned that the youngest of his descendants, Canaan, was the one who had done
this. That this is how it stands, the divine saying immediately adds: “And he said,
‘Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’” If someone wonders why
Ham, who was himself ungodly, did not receive the same curse as his son, let him
understand this: if it had been said to Ham, “He shall be a slave of slaves,” his brothers
would also have shared in the slavery, just as the brothers of Canaan became slaves under
the curse, since Canaan was declared their slave.

33 “All flesh shall not die again.” He promises that he will no longer bring a flood over
the whole world, even though the mind of men is set on evil from youth. It is no longer so
every day, as it was before the flood. He grants a small measure of pardon to the young
because of how easily that age slips. Therefore he says, “I will not again curse the earth
because of the works of men, because the mind of man is diligently set on evil from
youth.” That is to say, “I foresee that youth will be prone to slipping in the days to
come. So do not be afraid. For this reason I will no longer bring complete destruction on
you.” 34 “And Noah began to be a man of the soil, and planted a vineyard, and drank of the
wine, and was drunk, and was uncovered in his house.” Noah did not know the nature of
wine, that it makes drunk. The Scripture bears witness to this by saying “began,” and “was
uncovered.”

35 Of the same author. Earthly wine strips the mind bare of the knowledge of intelligible
things. 36 Of the same author. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was
like that: like the wine that uncovered Noah. 37 Of the same author. Even if Noah was
drunk and uncovered, it was nevertheless in his own house. For it belongs to a holy person
not to be uncovered outside his own house. 38 “He was a giant hunter before the Lord God.”
The hunter is not now placed among the righteous. And watch whether it is not so at any
other time either. 39 “Now the whole earth was one lip, and there was one voice for all.”
To those who do not understand the words “I and the Father are one,” and who for that
reason deny that the Son has his own distinct existence, we will bring forward the text,
“The whole earth was one lip, and there was one voice for all.” And if we ask what
difference there is between lip and voice, we will say that the voice is assigned to the
spoken language, and perhaps the lip to the thought; or else the other way round.

40 “Come, let us go down and confuse their tongue there, so that each one may not hear the
voice of his neighbor.” The confusing of tongues is a mark of evil. A mark of virtue is
the time when the whole company of believers had one heart and one soul. If you keep watch
in this way as you read the Scripture, you will find that wherever there is a multitude of
numbers, wherever there is schism, division, disagreement and the like, these are marks of
evil. But wherever there is unity and concord and great power in words, these are marks of
virtue. 41 “And Terah lived seventy years, and he became the father of Abram, Nahor and
Haran.” Terah, when he was seventy years old, fathered the father of the nation that keeps
the feast, [the “seven”], that is, the week. But I pause to ask whether he fathered the
three as triplets. Otherwise, being seventy years old, he could not have become the father
of all three by one woman. Yet the text does not show that he had more than one wife.

42 “And Abram went down into Egypt to live there as a stranger, because the famine had
grown strong on the land.” Abraham did not settle in Egypt as a resident; he stayed there
as a foreigner, because the famine had grown strong on the land. 43 “Now the Canaanites
and the Perizzites were then living in the land.” The Canaanites lived in the land as
settled residents, not as foreigners passing through. So the wicked settle in the land;
they do not live in it as strangers. 44 “If you go to the left, I will go to the right;
and if you go to the right, I will go to the left,” and what follows. Although the choice
was granted to Lot out of Abraham’s gentleness, we should notice that the one who chose
did not enjoy what he chose, while the one who yielded found that what was left to him was
blessed.

45 And God said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift up your eyes and look
from the place where you now are, to the north and the south, and the east and the sea,
for all the land that you see I will give to you.” Encouragement from God follows those
who succeed in virtue. After Abraham had yielded the choice to his brother, and Lot had
chosen the finest and most fruitful region, God appeared to Abraham and won over his soul
with words of encouragement and kind promises. It was almost as if he said: “You despised
this earth, the least of things and perceptible to the senses. I will give you the earth
of the meek, the land in the country of the living.” For he says, “Lift up” the eyes of
your mind, “and look from the place where you now are.” The righteous man’s place is
virtue, from which he watches eagerly for the things that are hoped for, and awaits what
is laid up in the heavens. If it were not so, how much land could he be expected to see
with bodily eyes? Or how far could he stare, turning his face round about in a circle?

46 “And they took the horse, all that belonged to Sodom.” The Sodomites are now for the
first time said to have the “horse,” and this is said of them as wicked men. 47 “And one
of those who had escaped came and reported it to Abram the Crosser.” Abraham is called
“the Crosser” because he crossed over from the land of the Chaldeans, passed through
Mesopotamia, and came to the regions of the Canaanites. Aquila and his school also render
the word as “Hebrew.” 48 And he said to him: “Look up to heaven and count the stars, if
you can number them. So shall your seed be.” He says that the offspring of the holy man’s
soul would become so many and of such quality, in both number and brightness, because God
worked with him. These offspring themselves display the divine blessing. 49 And he said:
“Master and Lord, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” and what follows. It was not
the way of the man whose faith was counted to him as righteousness to disbelieve, as
someone might suppose. Rather, having believed earlier, he now asks also for knowledge
about the things he had believed. God does not make a law for Abraham to sacrifice;
rather, the most ancient people confirmed their oaths by such rites.

50 “In the fourth generation they will return here; for the sins of the Amorites have not
yet been filled up, until now.” The 400 years were granted so that Abraham’s seed might
multiply and the signs might take place. How then can it say, “The sins of the Amorites
have not yet been filled up”? To show that they are driven out justly, because of sin. In
the same way, when Scripture says, “I repented,” it does not describe what God himself
feels, and he does not feel what the words say. It shows instead how out of place the
thing that happened was. And a little later: Long ago there were righteous men in
Palestine, Melchizedek and many others. For Melchizedek would not simply have been a
priest if there had been no one to obey him. So “not yet filled up” means “the holy man
among them has not yet died out.” They had not yet been filled up and made complete in
their sins. For ten righteous men save a city, and at that time there were not just a few.

51 “They will afflict them four hundred years.” Why does the Apostle name thirty extra
years, covering the Covenant he made with Abraham, the journey from Egypt in the
wilderness, and the giving of the law? What is said here does not conflict with what is
written in Exodus. There it says, “After four hundred and thirty years the host of the
Lord went out of Egypt,” while here it says “after four hundred.” But we must notice that
it does not say they went out when the four hundred years had been completed, but “after
four hundred years,” and the thirty years make this clear. 52 “And her mistress was
dishonored in her presence.” The text deliberately does not make clear by whom, so that we
might search and discover this: virtue is naturally dishonored when it has given birth to
the preliminary studies. It is not necessarily dishonored by Abraham. It is dishonored
either by the maidservant, or by those who rejoice in her offspring before the better
things are born.

53 “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.” Look up
the meanings of the names, for they were named with real power by the Holy Spirit. And
this too must be known: names indicate a state of character, a settled condition, and
qualities. From these one can see what the person named is fitted for. 54 “Abraham said to
God: Let this Ishmael live before you.” Abraham was asking something exceptional for
Ishmael. He was not content with “let him live,” so he added “before you.” For living
before the Lord belongs only to the blessed and the holy. 55 “Abraham and Sarah were old,
advanced in days.” Perhaps the phrase “advanced in days” is applied only to the righteous.
[If that is so,] no wicked person has advanced. 56 “And Abraham drew near and said: Do not
destroy a righteous man together with an ungodly one.” This is a commendation of Abraham.
It shows how firm his piety was, and that is why he was able to draw near. But “drew near”
must not be understood in a bodily sense.

57 “Lot was sitting by the gate of Sodom.” Lot was not inside Sodom but beside the gate. I
would say that Abraham sat outside his tent, out of hospitality, watching for travelers
even at an unusual hour (for it was midday). In the same way his relative, who imitated
his ways, sat by the gate and urged passers-by to come in, even when evening had already
come. He knew above all the ungodliness of those in Sodom, and that there was no rest for
strangers there. 58 “And he pressed them, and they went into his house.” Lot was not the
kind of man Abraham was. So they were reluctant to turn aside to him, and they needed to
be pressed. 59 “The men at the door of the house they struck with blindness.” It is for
their good that they are struck with blindness, since they used their sight badly.
Blindness hinders them from sinning.

60 “And he overthrew all these cities, and all the surrounding region, and all who lived
in the cities, and everything that grows from the earth.” The Lord destroys not only the
ungodly but also their foods, which are Sodomite and harmful. Among these is the vine,
about which it is written: “Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their branch from
Gomorrah.” 61 “And his wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” It did Lot’s
wife no good to have been taken hold of by the angels, even though she went out of Sodom,
since she turned back. 62 “But Abimelech did not touch her.” The words “did not touch”
carry weight, as in “it is good for a man not to touch a woman.” That means not only
avoiding intercourse but also not being stirred by passion in any other way, whether by
looking at a woman or touching her. In fact God did not allow Abimelech to touch her.
Perhaps he does the same for everyone who is supremely [of sound mind], for such self-
control is a gift from God.

63 “And Abraham said to his servants, ‘Sit here with the donkey. The boy and I will go
over as far as that place, and when we have worshipped we will return to you.’” He said
this because he had reasoned that God is able to raise even from the dead. 64 “Abraham
took the wood for the whole burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son.” In the same way
Christ, with his own cross on his shoulder, suffered outside the gate. He was not forced
into the suffering by human strength. He went by his own will, and by the will of God, the
Father. 65 “Look, Milcah also has borne sons to Nahor your brother: Uz the firstborn,” and
so on. Milcah is interpreted “kingdom” [or “queen”]. Uz: “one taking counsel.” Nahor:
“rest of light.” Buz: “despised.” Kemuel: “resurrection of God.” Aram (the Syrians):
“lofty.” Chesed: “falsehood.” Hazo: “seeing.” Pildash: “fall of one in need,” or “fall of
poverty.” Jidlaph: “abundance of [hand/time],” or “take a hand.” Bethuel: “dwelling of
God,” or “daughter of God.” Rebekah: “patience.” Reumah: “expected vision.” Tebah [or
Tahash]: [something being chewed over, as with the cud]. Tahash: “silence.” Maacah: “empty
bowel.”

66 “Look, I am standing by the spring of water.” So we must make it our earnest aim to
stand by the spring, so that the words “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water”
may not fit us as well. 67 “And the young woman to whom I say, ‘Lower your jar,’” and so
on. This request is fitting for the elder of Abraham’s household, and suits the man who
ruled everything that was his. And notice his wisdom, and what kind of sign he sets. 68
“The man was watching her closely and kept silent, to find out whether the Lord had made
his journey successful or not.” From this we can learn that it is good for the one who
prays not to pray with a voice that can be heard by the senses, but in the heart, to the
one who searches hearts and kidneys. 69 “Isaac was traveling through the desert, by the
well of vision.” This is a fitting journey for the holy man. Because of his deep
withdrawal from the world he travels through the desert, and because of his contemplation
of the things of God he travels by the well of vision.

70 “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening.” Whoever is going to speak
about divine things must go out from earthly things. This is what the text here calls “to
meditate.” It does not add with whom he spoke, and reasonably so, since this kind of
conversation does not take place among human beings. It is either with God, or a person’s
own conversation with himself. 71 By the same author. The words “toward evening” are a
symbol that a person can speak about the more divine things with real understanding only
with difficulty, and only when he has reached old age. 72 “Abraham added and took a wife,
whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran,” and so on. From the children of Keturah came
very many nations. They settled the Troglodyte desert, Arabia Felix and the lands
stretching on from it, including the land of Midian. The city of Midian lies next to the
desert beyond Arabia, opposite Pharan, to the east of the Red Sea. From there comes the
nation of the Midianites, named after Midian, son of Abraham and Keturah. So it is clear
from this that Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a descendant of Abraham and a
relative of Moses.

73 By the same author. Keturah is interpreted “smaller” or “lower” [uncertain]. Jokshan:
“release,” or “he will release.” Shuah: [strong people]. Sheba [or Shaban]: “turning
away.” Teman: “their failings,” or “those being completed.” Dedan: “sufficient judgment,”
or “singleness.” Reuel: “strong friend,” or “shepherding of God.” Nebdeel: “serving God.”
Asshurim: “settled,” or “those making straight.” Letushim: “hammerers.” Ephah: “needy,” or
“lacking.” Epher: “dust,” or “earthen,” or “ashes.” Hanoch: “your grace.” Abida: “height
of my father.” Ephron: “dust,” or “earthen,” or “ashes.” Shaar: “noon.” Dumah: “silence.”
Mamre: “from vision.” Massa: “lifting up.” Ishmael: “hearing of God.” Hadad: “measure
being emptied.” Nebaioth: “prophecy.” Teman: “completion.” Kedar: “darkening.” Jetur:
“banished.” Naphish [Greek: Kaphes]: “refreshment.” Mishma: “attention,” or “hearing.”
Kedemah: “in front.” Massam: “from spices [or sweetenings].” Havilah [Greek: Euilat]: “in
labor.” Shur: “wall.” 74 “Settle in the land that I tell you, and live as a foreigner in
this land, and I will be with you and bless you.” If someone lives as a foreigner in the
place where God’s command says he should settle, God is with him and blesses him. But if
someone settles where he should not even live as a foreigner, God is not with him and will
not bless him.

75 “Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my commands, my ordinances, and my laws.” The
law of Moses had not yet been written, yet Abraham kept what was commanded. He kept it as
the nations do who do not have the law but do by nature the things of the law. They show
the work of the law written in their hearts, and their conscience bears witness to them,
as the Apostle says. 76 “And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley of Gerar and found there a
well of living water.” Everyone who prays to be a child of Isaac should be eager to
understand these wells and to dig them within himself. 77 “Moving on from there he dug
another well, and they did not quarrel over it.” By not resisting those who wronged him,
he shows that he was truly without pretense. So God approved his patient endurance and
appeared to him and promised him the land. He was not to lose heart because, as a foreign
resident, he was exposed to those who wanted to do him wrong. In this he was fulfilling
what is said on every occasion: [“if they persecute you”].

78 “And he said: ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob.’” Isaac recognized the devout voice,
which Esau could never have spoken: “What your God has delivered before me.” Recognizing
it, Isaac said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob.” 79 “And he said: ‘Behold, the smell of
my son is like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed.’” Clearly this was
not a smell perceived by the senses. For what smell could be compared to the smell of a
field? Rather, it was probably the kind of fragrance the Apostle claimed to have when he
said, “We are the fragrance of Christ to God in every place.” I think that each virtue has
its own fragrance, which helps to fill out the virtues. In the same way, on the opposite
side, vices stink, as the one who said, “My bruises stank and festered.” It is fitting for
the Lord to bless the field of virtues that is fragrant to him.

80 “And he said to him: ‘Behold, your brother Esau is threatening to kill you. Now then,
child, listen to my voice: get up and run away to Mesopotamia.’” From this we learn that
we must run away from those who plot against us and flee persecutions, even if we are
counted worthy of visions as Jacob was. One may be comforted by seeing what followed for
Jacob as he fled from Esau. He was counted worthy of visions and became the father of
twelve tribes. And when he came back from the flight caused by persecution, he became
Israel instead of Jacob. 81 “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.” The
daughters of Canaan are evil. They were evil not in Esau’s eyes but in the eyes of Isaac,
his father. 82 “And the Lord God, seeing that Leah was hated, opened her womb.” He opens
the womb for the birth of holy ones. According to the spiritual law, he opens the womb of
a soul so that the one who is to be the mother of God’s Word may bear him.

83 By the same author. For she, the elder in time, was the first to bear to God the
synagogue and the multitude of the Jews. 84 “And Laban said to him: ‘If I have found favor
before you, I would have taken omens; for God has blessed me because of your coming.’”
There is no divination in Jacob. But Laban says, “I would have taken omens,” as one who
was a stranger to Jacob’s way of life, though he was not completely a stranger to it. To
“I would have taken omens” he adds, “for God has blessed me because of your coming.” 85
“And Jacob took for himself rods of storax, of walnut, and of plane.” The three rods are
symbols. They are either the three powers of the soul: the rational, the spirited, and the
desiring. Or they are the three kinds of contemplation: of bodies, of bodiless things, and
of the Holy Trinity. Or, in general terms, the practical life is meant by the walnut, the
contemplative life by the storax, and by the plane tree he hinted at this world and the
contemplation of it. Stripping off its green means renouncing it. The green of the
practical life is the love of pleasure. The green of contemplation is being occupied with
bodies. As for the green in the other two interpretations, examine that for yourself.

86 The Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and to your family, and I
will be with you.” When Jacob had borne fruit and grown rich while living outside his
family, then the Lord told him, “Return to the land of your father.” We should understand
the Lord to say something like this when we come to our departure, as we are about to go
away to our fathers. He also gives a prize to the one who returns to the land of his
father and to his family. I think the Lord was present to him in dreams. 87 “But your
father deceived me and changed my wages ten lambs.” Aquila said “ten in number”; Symmachus
said “ten times in number.” So, as the Hebrew says, Laban broke his agreements with Jacob
ten times, because the offspring born in Jacob’s name were very many and Laban begrudged
him. The two other versions made this plain: “And you cheated me of my wages by ten ewe-
lambs.” But there is no mention at all of lambs that he had agreed to give me. Nowhere
does it appear that he made such an agreement; it is clear from what Jacob himself says.
In the same way, the text does not show Lamech killing anyone, but he is called to
account, so that from the account the deed becomes clear. It is the same here. So
Scripture often reveals, through someone explaining it, things it did not explain when
they were done.

88 “Your sheep and your goats did not miscarry, and I did not eat the rams of your
flocks.” The boldness of a good shepherd shows in these words, and we should be zealous to
imitate it. Let those in the flocks of sheep and goats bear spiritual fruit, and let us
not devour the rich ones of the flock. And since his gods were not found, a covenant was
made with the God-inspired Jacob; and the world, when it threw away its falsely named
gods, became a friend of Christ. 89 Jacob said to his brothers, “Gather stones,” and they
gathered stones. In Ecclesiastes it is also written: “A time to cast stones, and a time to
gather stones.” They are gathered at the command of Jacob, who was a type of Christ, so
that the building may be completed on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with
Christ our Lord himself as the cornerstone, built of living stones, when it becomes a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood. “And Laban turned back and went to his own place.” For
the wicked man, because of his evil, his place is near. But for the one who travels by way
of progress, since his place is far away, the labor is not small.

90 “And the angels of God met him.” The Lord says, “I am the way.” So angels of God meet
the one who travels this way. 91 “And he commanded them, saying, ‘This is what you shall
say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, I have lived with Laban.’” Out of
respect he sincerely calls his elder brother his lord. Moreover, a humble reply turns away
anger. As a man he was afraid; but trusting God, he did not flee, but went on. 92 “And he
crossed the ford of the Jabbok.” The Jabbok is a river of Arabia, now called the Iambikes.
93 “And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him,” and so on. Who else could the
one called both man and God be, wrestling and contending with Jacob, than the holy Word of
God, who spoke to the fathers in many parts and many ways, who is given the titles Lord
and God? He also blessed Jacob and named him Israel, adding, “for you have prevailed with
God.” The men of that time saw the Word of God in this way, just as the apostles of our
Lord said: “What was from the beginning, we have seen with our eyes, and we have looked
at, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life.” Jacob also saw this Word and
life, and goes on to say, “For I have seen God face to face.”

94 “Now Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age.
And he made him a coat of many colors.” The coat of many colors is the best condition of
soul, adorned with the virtues. 95 “And when his brothers saw that their father loved him
more than all his sons, they hated him, and could not speak anything peaceable to him.”
The one who hates is unable to speak anything peaceable to the one he hates. So let us put
away hatred, so that we may be able to speak peaceable words. 96 “The Midianites sold
Joseph into Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s eunuch, the chief cook.” In this place Aquila and
Symmachus give the name Potiphar as “Eutiphar,” and in another place “Eutiphare.” The
interpretation of the present name is set beside the word itself; the explanation of the
other will appear in what follows.

97 “But Onan, knowing that the offspring would not be his, whenever he went in to his
brother’s wife, poured it out on the ground.” Everyone who sows into the flesh, and stores
up the works of the flesh in the earth, is like Onan. That is why he is put to death by
God. 98 “And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.” Like someone shooting
at a target, he stretched his ruling faculty toward its mark, and so he always hit it.
Scripture uses this expression in many places. 99 “And the Lord blessed the house of the
Egyptian because of Joseph.” Because the holy man was in the Egyptian’s house, the house
is blessed, along with the possessions and the field of the Egyptian. But this is not a
spiritual blessing. 100 “And it happened after these things that the king of Egypt’s chief
cupbearer and chief baker sinned against their lord, the king of Egypt.” I think that the
phrase “They sinned against the king of Egypt” can be understood by analogy of the
martyrs: they sin against the spiritual king of Egypt, but not against God. For they seem
to sin against the law of the world, which is opposed to the law of God.

101 “For I was stolen away by theft from the land of the Hebrews, and here too I have done
nothing.” By the words “Here I have done nothing” he hints that he did nothing of the kind
the native Egyptians do. And it was an Egyptian deed to lie with the master’s wife. 102
“Joseph answered and said to him: This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three
days.” It was also said earlier that the three branches are three days. So “three days” is
presented both through branches and through baskets, since Providence made use of both,
with examples fitting each man’s own way of life, to set forth three days. You could find
the same sort of thing in the rest of the Scriptures too: the same thing made clear
through examples that seem different. 103 “And on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s
birthday, he made a feast for all his servants.” One of those before us observed that a
person is worthless who honors the things of birth and welcomes the day of his own birth.
We confirm that account, since we find something similar in the case of Herod, when
Herodias’ daughter danced and John’s head was cut off. And nowhere is a righteous person
shown celebrating a birthday.

104 “And after two years’ time, Pharaoh saw a dream. He thought he was standing by the
river,” and so on. The person who trusts in things that flow away and are unstable thought
he was standing on the river, from which the things that seem to bring prosperity come up,
when his cattle are fat. But these are certainly devoured by worse ones. Compare the word
“he thought” with the words “I thought we were binding sheaves.” In the second dream he
says, “As though the sun and the moon and the stars were bowing down to me.” Again, the
chief cupbearer says: “In my sleep there was a vine,” and so on. And the chief baker says:
“I thought I was carrying three baskets of bread on my head,” and so on. 105 By the same
author. The narrator of the text says, “He thought he was standing on the river,” not
beside the bank of the river. But Pharaoh says, “I thought I was standing beside the bank
of the river,” not on the river. Now the affairs of Egypt, that is, the affairs of the
worldly, begin with better things, of which plenty is the symbol, and end in what is more
bitter, of which famine is the type. The same can be seen in the account of the rich man.
For the seven years of plenty were, so to speak, his: he received his good things in his
lifetime, clothed in purple and fine linen and feasting splendidly every day. But it ends
for him in the opposite, as he receives the evil things after his departure from here. You
could see the same in those who travel the broad and roomy road, whose end is destruction,
while those whose beginning is the narrow and pressed way have life as their end.
Therefore: “Woe to those who are filled, for they will hunger; and to those who laugh, for
they will weep.” “Blessed are those who mourn and weep, for they will be comforted.”

106 “And behold, seven cows were coming up as if out of the river,” and so on. Pharaoh’s
dreams were of cows and ears of grain. The things by which the land is farmed, and what it
produces, became for the king advance signs of plenty and of barrenness. 107 “Pharaoh woke
up, and he slept and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears were coming up on one
stalk, choice and good.” Joseph saw not ears but sheaves, while the Egyptian saw not
sheaves but ears. Again, the chief cupbearer sees the three stems as three days, but the
king sees the seven ears on one stalk as the connected seven years. So the one word
“stalk” receives a different interpretation. If anyone ever explains Scripture
differently, then, he should not be thought to be forcing it. One more thing is worth
noting. In the years of plenty, seven ears come up on one stalk. In the famine there are
seven ears, but no longer on one stalk. Another version says “on one reed.”

108 “When morning came, his soul was troubled. He sent and called all the interpreters of
Egypt and all its wise men.” “Of all Egypt”: how did he call the interpreters and the wise
men? We must ask this at once with regard to the wording. We must also ask, with regard to
the deeper meaning, whether Pharaoh needs Egyptian interpreters as though they were wiser.
We say “of all Egypt” because it follows from “all the interpreters of Egypt and all its
wise men.” 109 “And Pharaoh told them his dream, and there was no one to report it to
Pharaoh.” I do not think they were completely silent. They said everything except the
actual interpretation of the dreams. But someone will ask, “How did Pharaoh know whether
the interpreters and wise men of Egypt were getting the dreams right or not?” To this the
Hebrew used to say that Pharaoh, when he saw the dream, also saw its interpretation, but
that this had slipped from his memory. So as he listened to each man speak, he could not
recall what he knew he had seen. This is why he was astounded at Joseph and at once
advanced him, entrusting to him all Egypt, its grain, and the safety of the Egyptians. For
as soon as Joseph explained the dreams, Pharaoh was reminded that these were the same
things that had been shown to him before.

110 “Joseph answered Pharaoh and said, ‘Without God, no saving answer will be given to
Pharaoh.’” Joseph is right to begin with God. Notice that to the woman he said, “And I
will do this evil thing, and sin before God.” And to the eunuchs in the prison he says,
“Is not the interpretation of them through God?” 111 “And Pharaoh said to all his
servants, ‘Shall we [find] such a man, who has the Spirit of God in himself?’” Pharaoh saw
that Joseph had made clear the solution of the dream, which had slipped from his memory.
He saw that this was more than human, and so he said that Joseph had the Spirit of God in
him. 112 By the same author. Pharaoh too was compelled to speak of one God. This agrees
with what was said earlier about the solution of the dream. 113 “And a herald proclaimed
before him.” The Hebrew has “Abrech,” which properly means “tender father.” It is fitting
that he called Joseph a tender father, since Joseph, though tender in age, showed the
Egyptians a fatherly, saving leadership. The word indicates nothing other than bending the
knee, for the herald’s cry is plain.

114 “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name [Psonthomphanech].” This is interpreted as “the one
to whom the future was revealed.” Aquila has “[Saphamreano].” Symmachus has
“[Daphthphane],” meaning “he revealed hidden things.” 115 “And he gave him Asenath,
daughter of Petephres, priest of Heliopolis, as his wife.” “Putiphar” is the name of the
father of the woman married to Joseph. Someone may suppose that this is a different man
from the one who bought Joseph. The Hebrews, however, do not understand it that way. From
an apocryphal writing they say he is the same man, who became both Joseph’s master and his
father-in-law. They also say that this Asenath accused her mother before her father of
having plotted against Joseph, and said that her mother was not the one plotted against.
He gave her in marriage to Joseph, and he was eager to show the Egyptians as well that no
such wrong had been done against his house.

116 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, “because God has made me forget all
my toils and all those of my father.” That God made him forget all his own toils is
plainly a good thing. But whether Joseph also forgot everything that belonged to his
father Jacob, and God did this to him as well, needs investigation. God does not make
Joseph forget the words of Jacob and of his sons. Perhaps the word “toils” is meant to
serve for both halves, so that it reads: “all my toils and all the toils of my father.”
117 He called the name of the second Ephraim, “because God has made me grow in the land of
my humiliation.” In a mystical sense, spiritual Egypt is the land of the righteous man’s
humiliation. So the Apostle speaks of “the body of our humiliation.” In the Psalms it
says, “Our life has been humbled to the dust.” And again, “You humbled us in a place of
affliction.”

118 Joseph was ruler of Egypt, and he sold to all the people of the land. When Joseph’s
brothers came, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. The sons of Jacob
were not “peoples of the land,” so he did not sell to them. He gave their silver back to
them twice. It was fitting that the sons of Israel should receive their grain freely. 119
Of the same. The text is charming about these same men. When they buy, it calls them “sons
of Israel.” When they bow down to Joseph, it calls them “Joseph’s brothers.” But Benjamin
bows down neither to Esau nor to Joseph. That is why the temple comes to stand in his
portion. 120 “Yes, for we are in sin concerning our brother, because we overlooked the
distress of his soul when he was begging us.” The word “he was begging” comes from what
the text passes over in silence, for it is nowhere recorded how he begged.

121 Reuben answered and said to them, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not wrong the boy’? And you
did not listen to me. See, his blood is being required.” Earlier it was said that Joseph
was sold to the Ishmaelites while Reuben was not there. After the sale Reuben went back to
the pit and did not see Joseph in it, and he tore his garments. He returned to his
brothers and said, “The boy is not there, and I, where am I to go?” He does not seem to
have learned from his brothers that Joseph had been sold. So perhaps he thought Joseph had
been killed, and that is why he now says, “See, his blood is being required.” 122 Judah
said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will rise and go, so that we may
live.” Perhaps he is prophesying that Benjamin was going to be with the tribe of Judah.

123 “I will take him; require him from my hand. If I do not bring him back to you,” and so
on. Judah reckoned that none of the things that can happen to a man would happen to
Benjamin [as a man]. So he makes this promise to his father, in a prophetic way, I think.
124 “Take some of the fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down to the man gifts:
resin, a little honey, incense, storax, terebinth, and nuts.” Gifts are carried to Joseph
from the fruits of the land, things Egypt does not have: resin, honey, incense, storax,
terebinth, and nuts. Earlier too, “the camels were laden with incense, resin, and storax,”
but not with honey, terebinth, and nuts as well. 125 Of the same. The Midianites bring
down three kinds of goods into Egypt along with Joseph. The sons of Jacob add three others
to these and bring them to Joseph. Still, it is the seed of Abraham that brings both the
first set and the second. It was fitting that the lesser goods should come from Abraham’s
illegitimate children and the greater from his legitimate ones, since Egypt had need of
these.

126 They said, “We are being brought in because of the silver that was returned in our
sacks at the beginning. It is so that he may bring false charges against us, attack us,
and take us as slaves, along with our donkeys.” It is implausible that men who thought
themselves in such a predicament would worry about their donkeys, unless the passage is to
be read allegorically. 127 He said to them, “Be at ease. Do not be afraid.” It seems that
the man in charge of Joseph’s house said this, having been helped toward reverence for God
by Joseph. 128 “Benjamin’s portion was made greater than the portions of all, fivefold
compared with theirs.” It was made greater either because of Jerusalem, or as a type of
the apostle Paul. And Joshua, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, divided the land among the
other tribes. 129 “For God sent me ahead of you, to leave you a remnant.” Since God sent
Joseph ahead of his brothers into Egypt for the life of many, it is clear that in sending
him to Egypt God made use of the zeal and the choice of his brothers for the plan
concerning Joseph and the life of many. So there are times when God makes use of the sins
of others, and plans what is his own for the salvation of other people.

130 “So now it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he made me like a father to
Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler of all the land of Egypt.” The one who rules
over bodily things and never yields to them could say, “God made me lord of all the land
of Egypt.” 131 “And do not spare the eyes of your possessions, for all the good things of
Egypt will be yours.” Whatever there is in the land that is called Egypt in a figurative
sense, it does not belong to the Egyptians but to Israel. For this reason, at the exodus,
the Hebrews also stripped the Egyptians and took vessels of gold and silver, and whatever
good thing there was in Egypt. 132 “And I will bring you up to the end.” This is a promise
fitting for God: not only to bring up, but also to carry the one brought up through to the
end.

133 Of the same. To those who look in the Pentateuch for the life after this one, we will
say: since the one who said “I will bring you up” does not lie, he did bring him up later
in this life, and after the exodus he brought him up, when afterward Joseph laid his own
hands on the bodily eyes of Jacob. And God brought Israel up, leading him, after the end
of his life, to the end that is with himself. 134 “And Jacob rose up from the well of the
oath, and the sons of Israel took up Jacob their father.” The one who came to the well of
the oath is Israel, bringing with him, I think, Jacob and all that was his. But the one
who rises from the well of the oath is Jacob; for it was not Israel who needed raising up,
but Jacob. Then after this, it is not the sons of Jacob but the sons of Israel who have
taken up Jacob their father, since he needed to be taken up.

135 Of the same. Pharaoh sent wagons to carry not Israel but Jacob. Jacob went into Egypt,
but he did not go down. For it was to Israel that it was said, “Do not be afraid to go
down into Egypt.” 136 “Jacob went into Egypt, and all his seed with him.” Here it is
called the seed of Jacob, though earlier it was the sons of Israel. Still, if Jacob and
all his seed went into Egypt, yet Er and Onan did not go in, then they were not the seed
of Jacob. 137 “His daughters and the daughters of his daughters.” It is clear that, since
he had his daughters with him, he also brought along his sons-in-law. For he could not
bear to send his daughters out of his house, lest they turn to idolatry. 138 Of the same.
If Jacob has no daughters, how do his daughters go down into Egypt? So let it not be taken
allegorically. The text goes on to say that thirty-three came from Leah, and that a
daughter was named Dinah.

139 “And these are the names of the sons of Israel who went into Egypt.” These names are
of the sons not of Jacob but of Israel, and they went in, not down, into Egypt. 140 “The
firstborn of Jacob, Reuben,” and so on. Though he said above that these were the names of
the sons of Israel, now he says that Reuben is the firstborn of Jacob. 141 Of the same. It
should be noted that along with the sons born to Jacob in the land of Canaan, he also
counts the sons of Joseph who were in Egypt. For this contributes to the later passage
near the end, where he says: “Ephraim and Manasseh are mine, like Reuben and Simeon.” 142
“And Israel said to Joseph, ‘I will die from now on, since I have seen your face, for you
are still alive.’” It is a wonder that one who lived in Egypt was not harmed by the
Egyptians and remained in a life according to God. That is why Jacob, marveling, said to
Joseph, “For you are still alive.”

143 “Your servants have been shepherds of sheep from childhood until now.” ... “And they
said to Pharaoh, ‘We have come to live as foreigners in the land.’” They speak boldly to
Pharaoh about being shepherds. Then, so that Pharaoh would not be disturbed, they say, “We
have come to live as foreigners in the land.” 144 And Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Let them
live in the land of Goshen.” In the Tetrapla, from which the copy was also taken over to
agree with the sequence in the Hebrew and the other editions, it is shown that the
Septuagint has in some places been rearranged, so that what came first became last and
what came last became first. This is what happened here, and for that reason we have set
out the proper order. It is this: “We your servants will live in the land of Goshen” is
joined to “And Pharaoh said to Joseph: Let them live in the land of Goshen.” Then: “And if
you know that there are among them...” and so on.

145 “And if you know that there are capable men among them, appoint them rulers over my
cattle.” Pharaoh wants to appoint the capable men of Israel as rulers over Egyptian
cattle. But if anyone in Israel is a capable man, let him flee the wish that lies behind
such an offer. “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from him.” Having blessed a
righteous man, he would not have gone out from him. We must ask whether anyone who blessed
a holy person ever went away from him. Here Jacob goes out as the one who has blessed; but
earlier Jacob goes in as the one who has obtained blessings. 146 “And Joseph brought all
the silver into Pharaoh’s house.” And where else should all the silver of Egypt and Canaan
have been, if not in Pharaoh’s house? 147 “And they brought their cattle to Joseph, and
Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and the sheep, and the oxen, and the
donkeys.” Joseph does this not out of harshness, but so that the people would not wear
themselves out feeding the animals, and so that afterward they might receive the animals
back as a favor from Pharaoh. “And nothing is left to us before our lord except our own
body and our land.” Of sinners it is said, “because they are flesh.” So here too the
Egyptians, being flesh, say that what is left to them is not a soul, but their own body
and their land. We should understand that this is what all who are strangers to God would
say.

148 “So that we may not die before you, and the land be laid waste, acquire us and our
land.” The Egyptians want to live before Pharaoh, not before God. 149 By the same author.
The Egyptians want to become Pharaoh’s possession, as the saints are God’s. 150 “For the
famine had prevailed over them.” Clearly this means the Egyptians; for it is never said of
Israel that the famine prevailed over them. 151 “And Jacob, having strengthened himself,
sat on the bed.” He sat after being strengthened so that he could speak the God-inspired
words. For I think Jacob was the one who was troubled, but Israel was the one who was
strengthened, who also blessed the sons of Joseph, and what follows. In that passage the
name Jacob is not used in connection with the boys. 152 “And he said to me: Behold, I will
increase you and multiply you.” Either the ungodly man does not increase, or he does not
increase from God. You may say the same about the word “multiply.” For it is God who says
these things when he blesses.

153 “Ephraim and Manasseh are mine; they shall be mine like Reuben and Simeon.” Ephraim is
like Reuben, for both are firstborn. Manasseh is like Simeon, for each was second son to
his mother. “And the offspring whom you father after these shall be under the name of
their brothers; they shall be called in their inheritances.” He means that Joseph’s other
children, who will be born later, will be placed in the distribution of the inheritance
under the tribes named after their brothers. 154 “And Israel, seeing the sons of Joseph,
said: Who are these to you?” and what follows. The phrase “Israel, seeing the sons of
Joseph” will seem to contradict “Jacob’s eyes were heavy with old age,” unless perhaps the
eyes’ inability to see and Israel’s seeing the offspring of Joseph are the same thing,
since God had shown him what was going to happen. 155 “And Israel stretched out his right
hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim.” This is because the prophets followed along,
understanding what they were prophesying. Indeed, afterward the tribe of Ephraim took the
lead over the ten tribes. For from Ephraim descended the blessed Joshua son of Nun, who is
mentioned in Numbers and was a true type of Christ. For this reason Joseph’s blessing is
carried over to him.

156 “May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.” And he put Ephraim ahead of
Manasseh. You will use this text well on the point that in prayer the more honored person
stands in front. “Bending down you lay down like a lion and like a lion’s cub.” “You lay
down” signifies the death that came by the plan of salvation. Christ is a lion to those
who have become completely wild like beasts, but to those who are still beginners he is a
cub.

NOTES ON GENESIS

NOTE 7

4a “I am bringing rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. And I will wipe out
every living thing that I made from the face of the earth, from man to beast.” Why did he
destroy the multitudes of people with the flood? He wanted to wipe out the race of Cain.
But the tribe of the godly had become mixed with it, and so it shared in the punishment.
Wishing to make a kind of new beginning for life, he preserved Noah and his sons with
their wives. Noah was godly and righteous, sprung from the piety of his kinsmen, and he
hated the mixing in of lawlessness. He did not do these things, as some say, out of anger
and regret. For these are human passions, and the divine nature is free from passions.
Besides, regret belongs to those who learn the nature of things only after experience.
Then, learning by experience that they planned wrongly, they regret it. But God sees what
will happen after many generations as if it had already happened. Since he sees ahead and
knows beforehand, he governs everything accordingly. Why then does he regret, when he
arranges everything according to his own foreknowledge? So when it is said of God, regret
is a change in his plan. “I regret,” he says, “that I made Saul king.” This means: I
decided to stop him and appoint another.

4b So it is here too: “I considered that I had made man.” He decided to destroy the human
race. But since he loves humanity, he kept Noah as seed for the race. And since he created
the kinds of animals without reason for human use, these were destroyed along with humans,
except those kept safe in the ark with Noah. For God the Master commanded that two of each
kind of the animals considered unclean be saved, and seven of the clean. He was going to
permit people to eat meat, and those he was raising would offer sacrifices of reverence to
him. So he ordered that more of the clean animals be preserved: three pairs for the
increase of the kind, and the one left over for sacrifice. For right after [the ending] of
the punishment, Noah offered a thank offering to God, “from all the clean cattle and from
all the clean birds,” it says. So it is clear that this is why God ordered seven of each
clean kind to be brought into the ark: so that Noah, by offering the one animal from each
kind, would not destroy the pairs.

16 “And the Lord God shut the ark from outside.” The security of the door, once shut,
needed a more than human power.

NOTE 19

“And he overthrew these cities and all the surrounding region and all who lived in the
cities.” “And his wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” The Lord destroys
not only the ungodly but also their foods, which are Sodomite and harmful. Among these is
the vine, about which it is written: “Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their
branch from Gomorrah.” As soon as Lot was brought safely to the city, the fire was brought
on the cities, a sign of the end that is coming. She did not become simply a pillar, but
especially a pillar of salt, because of the words, “You are the salt of the earth.” You
can also apply to the pillar of salt the words, “But if the salt becomes foolish?” Lot did
not go up to the mountain at once, as he had been told, but first went to Zoar, because he
had no confidence in himself about going up to the mountain.

NOTE 23

“Land of four hundred didrachmas.” Note that four hundred is the price of a tomb, because
the four and the hundred are harmful numbers. If you search the Scriptures for similar
cases, you will find them.

NOTE 37

“Shall we really come, I and your mother and your brothers, to bow down to you on the
ground?” Clearly Joseph’s mother had died before the dreams. So might we say that Mary and
Joseph are foretold as going to bow down to Christ?

NOTE 43

(8) Verse 22. “And he said to them, ‘Peace be to you [or: God be gracious to you], do not
be afraid.’” This man seems to have been helped toward true reverence for God by Joseph.

NOTE 46

(9) Verse 34. “We are men who raise livestock.” “Every shepherd of sheep is an abomination
to the Egyptians,” but not to the Hebrews. So if he stands over us as a shepherd, he is an
abomination to the Egyptians. But if he is a hired hand, he may even be a friend to the
Egyptians.

SELECTA ON EXODUS

NOTE 1

“And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And when you go away,
you will not go away empty.” This promise had been given beforehand to Abraham, when God
said, “After these things they will come out from here with their belongings.”

NOTE 2

“And Pharaoh’s heart grew strong, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had
commanded them. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh’s heart has become heavy, so that he
will not send the people away.’” The phrase “Pharaoh’s heart has become heavy,” spoken by
the Lord after Aaron’s rod turned into a serpent and swallowed up the rods of the
magicians, deserves a closer look. Is it something different from “Pharaoh’s heart was
hardened,” which is said many times, and from “grew strong”? For this too is said: “And
Pharaoh’s heart grew strong, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken.” It
seems to me that a heart which yields to divine things is softened. It does not have the
strength to stand against the divine, and it is not weighed down or dragged below to earth
and matter. But a heart which strains against the divine will and opposes it is hardened
and pushes back like a stone. It throws off the word, and in arrogance resists it with a
falsely named strength. Such a heart, dragged down by wickedness, which tends downward,
must necessarily become heavy. Yet these things do not happen to the heart in the same
sense, even though growing strong and becoming heavy both happen to one and the same
wicked heart. For in one case, as it is said somewhere, the heart becomes stony and is
hardened. In the other, it does not give way to the divine nature as to something
stronger. Rather, it takes its stand to fight against God, and so is said to be strong.

NOTE 3

“And Moses said to him, ‘As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to
the Lord, and the thunders will stop, and the hail, and there will be no more rain.’” For
the Maker of all has nature yielding to his command.

NOTE 4

From the same author. It should be noted that Moses does not work all his wonders with the
rod, but also with his hands and with a word, so that the many would not suppose that the
rod accomplished them through magical deceptions.

NOTE 5

“Let each one take a sheep for the households of the families,” and what follows. He says
they are to take the sheep from the tenth day and keep it until the fourteenth. They are
to name it, saying, “This sheep is sacrificed for so-and-so and so-and-so,” with no more
than ten names. On the fourteenth it is sacrificed between the evenings, as the fifteenth
begins. So from the taking to the sacrifice there are five days, when the light of the
moon is full.

NOTE 6

“You shall have a perfect male sheep, a year old.” Christ is the sheep of a year. For the
year shows that he lacks nothing and has nothing deficient.

NOTE 7

“And the whole multitude of the congregation of the sons of Israel shall slaughter it
toward evening.” We are commanded to slaughter the sheep toward evening, because our true
sheep, the Savior, also came into the world at the last hour.

NOTE 8

“And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel,
in the houses,” and what follows. We sacrifice, and we anoint our houses with the blood. I
mean the body, if the anointing is faith in him, through which I believe that the power of
the destroyer is made ineffective. After we have been anointed, that is, have believed in
Christ, then we are commanded to come to the eating. The meat is to be neither raw nor
boiled in water, but roasted with fire.

NOTE 9

“Everyone who eats leaven, that soul will be destroyed out of Israel.” A person will be
destroyed on account of leaven! The God of all, who gives the laws, destroys the man with
leaven in his house on the day of unleavened bread just as he destroys the adulterer, the
fornicator and the corrupter of boys. Is this in keeping with God? Is this in keeping with
the heavenly law? But I would answer that if you have the leaven of wickedness, and do not
destroy every trace of the leaven of evil from your ruling faculty (for this is your true
house), then the God of all lays down by law that you be destroyed, because you did not
throw the old leaven out of yourself. For when you come into the season of new things, you
must become new and keep nothing that is old. “The old things have passed away,” and so
on. See how the feast of unleavened bread had to be kept in the month of new things.

NOTE 10

“You shall touch the lintel and both doorposts with some of the blood that is by the
door.” The lintel, as one of those before us has explained, stands for the rational part
of the soul; the two doorposts stand for the spirited part and the desiring part.

NOTE 11

By the same author. We do not drive out the destroyer by some device once he has got
inside. Rather, so that he may not slip in at all, we set up a guard by means of the law.
The guard and the security is this: the lintel and the doorposts of the entrance are
marked with the blood of the lamb.

NOTE 12

“And it happened at midnight that the Lord struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt.”
God brings these deadly plagues through angels. So too in the books of Kingdoms we learn
how in a single night the angel destroyed 185 thousand of the Assyrians.

NOTE 13

“This is the law of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it. And every household
servant, and anyone bought with money, you shall circumcise him, and then he shall eat of
it,” and so on. Following what has been set out, this is a third law, which the Lord spoke
again in addition to the two laws. Pay attention to the precision of Scripture: the Lord
did not give this law about the Passover at the beginning. For if he had said, while they
were still in Egypt, before Israel departed from Egypt, “No foreigner shall eat of it. And
every household servant, and anyone bought with money, you shall circumcise, and then he
shall eat of it,” the great mixed crowd that came out of Egypt would not have come out. So
he kept this law back, so that after those who wished had come out, another law might be
given. And a little later. If we interpret these things allegorically with reference to
our soul, we shall say that the household-born are the words that have grown up with us
and been cultivated in us, which begin to take their stand from notions born in us. The
bought-with-silver are all those that come to us from outside, from teaching and from
lessons. He says, then, that all are to be circumcised and cleansed, both the household-
born and the bought. But we must receive no foreigner, that is, we must not admit a
foreign teaching. For he does not admit a foreigner who wishes to profane the feast of the
Lord. And a little later. If you eat the words of God in the Church, but also eat in a
synagogue of the Jews, you transgress the commandment that says, “It shall be eaten in one
house.” And if you share in the words of God in one house, the Church, and then leave it
and suppose you are sharing in God in a heretical assembly, when the commandment says, “It
shall be eaten in one house,” you are not eating in one house. Understand, then, that the
Church is the one house. So never eat of the lamb once you have gone outside the Church.

NOTE 14

“And you shall not carry any of the meat out of the house.” A word of the Church must not
be carried as an envoy outside the Church, just as the meat is not to be carried outside
the house. I mean into a synagogue of Jews or of heretics. For that is like throwing
pearls before pigs.

NOTE 15

“No uncircumcised person shall eat of it.” Every offspring of the soul that is
intelligible, and passes beyond material things (and the material things are the female
ones), must be circumcised and cleansed, so that in this way a person may share in the
meat of the Passover. The proselyte also becomes like one native to the land. For God does
not prefer well-born seed; he welcomes the choice of the will.

NOTE 16

From the same. By “uncircumcised in the flesh” he means the person who has not cut away
fleshly things, just as “uncircumcised in the eyes” means the person who looks at what he
should not. From the same. See to it that none of you is uncircumcised in heart, that none
has failed to be circumcised with the circumcisions that the Word teaches we should
undergo. Which ones are these? Some people are reproached as being uncircumcised in the
ears, and all who have not been circumcised in their hearing are unclean. A person is
uncircumcised in the lips when he does not cut away hostile and unclean words. In the same
way one can speak of someone as uncircumcised in the flesh, the one who has not cut away
fleshly practices. One can also speak of someone as uncircumcised in the eyes, the one who
sees what he should not and does not cleanse his power of sight. And a person is
uncircumcised in the flesh when he does what he should not do.

NOTE 17

“Then the sons of Israel set out from Sokchoth and camped at Othom, beside the
wilderness.” In Numbers it is written that the sons of Israel encamped “from Boutha to the
mouth of Iroth, which is opposite Beelsepron, next to Borra.”

NOTE 18

“And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the cavalry of the Egyptians, and third-
men [tristatai] over them all.” These are either men able to fight against three, or men
who in the battle line stand in the third rank, behind the front-rank man and the second-
rank man. Others say that they built large chariots for use against the enemy, big enough
to hold three, so that one drove and the other two fought. Or it may mean men who rode on
three horses; for the ancients in wars, when they went out as charioteers, rode on two or
three horses. Or he calls the “third-man” the one who, when the king is seated, stands
third, or has the third seat. Such was David beside Saul, as you will find in the first
book of Kingdoms.

NOTE 19

“There God set before him ordinances and judgments, and there he tested him.” When God
tests, he tests for a person’s benefit, not to do him harm. This is why it was said, “God
cannot be tested by evils.” The word adds this a little later: “If you listen carefully to
the Lord your God, I will not bring on you any of the disease that I brought on the
Egyptians.” So the one who bears trials nobly is crowned. The case of the devil is
different: he tests in order to put to death those who obey him. God tests without being
ignorant of what will happen, but he gives the person freedom to do what he wishes,
because of free will.

NOTE 20

“This is the word which the Lord spoke: Sabbaths, a holy rest to the Lord, tomorrow.” I am
recording what has been said about the sabbath. First, according to the plain wording, so
that people may see what the letter means. Second, according to the higher sense, in which
I would say that a sabbath day has come upon the righteous person who has put an end to
the works of the world, who glorifies God and is at leisure for him; who does not depart
from the place where Christ stands; who does not light a fire that burns, in that he does
not sin at all; and who does not lift burdens. Every sin is a heavier burden than a
mountain. This is why the Psalmist said, “Like a heavy load they have weighed heavily on
me.” There would also be another recording of the sabbath, according to which “a sabbath
rest remains for the people of God,” a rest that is sacred and holy. The one who has done
all his works is judged worthy of that sabbath, giving his leisure to nothing but the
contemplation of truth and wisdom. We have set these things alongside because Moses here
makes mention of keeping the sabbath.

NOTE 21

“And you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it.” Christ is likened to a
rock because he cannot be shaken or moved. For the divine and supreme nature is firmly
fixed in what is good.


SELECTED NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH AND OTHER BOOKS (SELECTA ON EXODUS – FRAGMENTS ON 1 SAMUEL)
============================================================

SELECTED NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH AND OTHER BOOKS continued

NOTE 22

1a “For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, who repays the sins of fathers upon
children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and who shows mercy to
thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Whom has this saying not
troubled? If the father sinned, and the son, and the third and fourth generation receive
back the sin, then some people accuse even the God who gave the laws. Others do not accuse
him, but sincerely hope for something of this kind, and expect that the sons will receive
back their fathers’ sins. The Jews think this, and they do not set up any other god. The
Samaritans suppose it, since they too believe they share in the one God. Those from the
heresies are not pleased that a God who repays the sins of fathers into the lap of their
children could be good or just. They say that the God of the law is neither just nor good,
since he repays the sins of the fathers on the sons, and that there is some god greater
than he. But the man of the Church neither hears these words in a bodily way, as a Jew
does, nor invents another god, as a heretic does. He stands between the two and says:
“These things are rightly written, but I do not know the meaning of what is written.” So
let all of you lift up your minds and ask that he reveal to you how it is that the one who
repays the sins of fathers upon children is good. Who are the fathers? Bring the
Scriptures as witnesses; let the sacred words be examined. The Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ says to those who sin: “You are from your father the devil, and you want to do the
desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the
truth.” So then, if anyone sins, he is from the father, the devil, and for this reason the
devil’s sin is repaid upon the son.

1b But that one is the first sinner, the one who suggested the sin to me. I am the second
sinner, since I did not throw out his purpose but accepted his working. I ought to stand
armed with the full armor of God and hold the shield of faith, so that all the burning
arrows of the evil one are put out on the shield of my faith. So if I sin, I am doing the
devil’s work. He has cast into my heart the thought that I should commit this sin or that
one. First I accept his arrow, and when I have accepted it, then I accept him as well. For
it is written this way about Judas: Satan did not enter into him first. First the devil
cast into the heart of Judas Simon Iscariot the thought of betraying him, and then, after
the morsel, Satan entered into him. So I have a father: if I am holy, God; but if I am a
sinner, I have the devil as my father. And also, let us say, the one who immediately
worked in me, Antichrist, or some angel of the devil, or a demon, whose working I
accepted. In short, I have countless fathers if I become a sinner. Likewise, if I become
righteous, God is my father, as the Savior says: “Little children, I am with you a little
while longer.” And again: “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” And again: “Child, your
sins are forgiven.” In this way I know of other fathers too, according to what is written
to Abraham: “You will go away to your fathers.” This does not mean his fathers according
to the flesh, for they were not faithful and not holy, as is clear from the history
written about them. For if his father had been holy, it would not have been said to him,
“Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house.”

1c For the word has a bodily sense and it has a spiritual sense. If you have understood
who the fathers are, then see what follows: because you have sinned, you receive your
repayment from the devil, or from one of the spirits under him, since you accepted his
working. So having become a son of those, you receive what is due to you from the good God
who is visiting you. For he is not visiting your father; he is visiting you, and he says
to you, “Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear,” and so on. And he gives to you
as one who is good. For he visits you, the son of the wicked father, and repays the sins.
“So I will visit your lawless deeds with a rod,” says he to you who are holy; “and I will
visit their injustices with whips.” Why? So that “I may not scatter my mercy away from
them.” For when God abandons someone, he no longer punishes him or whips him. For he does
not “whip” everyone, but “every son whom the Lord receives.” And it is said in the prophet
about those who are completely sinful: “I will not visit your daughters when they commit
fornication, nor your brides when they commit adultery.” For all this time, from the
creation and the foundation of the world, the devil has been sinning, and there is neither
fire nor whip for him. For he is not worthy of the punishments that come from God. For the
devil cannot say, “Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,” and so on. So let each one who
is aware of his own sins pray to be punished. For it is good to have done nothing worthy
of punishment. But if we have done something worthy of punishment, let us be punished in
such a way that we receive our due here, and after this find rest in the bosom of Abraham.

NOTE 23

“And these are my ordinances, which you shall set before them. If you acquire a Hebrew
servant,” and so on. It is necessary to examine what a law is, and what a command, and
what ordinances, and judgments, and testimonies, and commandments. An ordinance, then, is
what is said here: “If you acquire a Hebrew servant,” and the rest that is said about him.
A judgment is, for example, that if a priest’s daughter commits adultery, she is burned
with fire. Commandments are such as, “You shall have no other gods.” A command is, “Go
down and testify to the people, and let them wash their garments.” Testimonies are such
as, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today.”

NOTE 24

“Six years he shall serve you; but in the seventh year he shall go out free, without
payment.” The release in the seventh year, and also the rest from works on the sabbath,
signify the freedom we have by grace through Christ.

NOTE 25

“His master shall bring him to the court of God.” Aquila and Symmachus said, “to the
gods.” They call the judges gods, and the “court of God” is the verdict of these judges.

NOTE 26

“Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. Keep the feast of unleavened bread.
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time of the month of
the new [grain]. For in it you came out of Egypt. You shall not appear before me empty.
And you shall keep a feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of your works.” So the feasts
of God, since they have spirit in them, are spiritual. No one who is earthly keeps the
spiritual feasts in a spiritual way. “For what harmony is there between righteousness and
lawlessness?” (I will not go on to the rest.) An earthly person cannot keep spiritual
feasts, just as a spiritual person cannot keep an earthly feast. And after a little: What
is the month of the new? You will say it means the fruits we can see. But the month of the
new has not yet arrived, since the year, let us say, is still late. And if there should
ever be a year in which the land does not bear its fruits, can we then keep the feast in
the month of the new, as God commanded those who keep the feast to do? So the feast would
have to be kept year by year. I am also puzzled again about the second law, the one about
the second feast. For it says, “the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits.” If someone
sows, and the fruits do not come first but last, he could not keep the feast of the
beginning of the harvest of the firstfruits. For you must have produce in order to be able
to keep the feast. And what if I have no land? How could I keep this feast, when the text
says, “And you shall keep a feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of your works, of
whatever you sow in your field”? I did not sow; I am a builder. I did not sow; I am a
weaver. I have no field. How can I keep the second feast? And the same holds for the
third: “And the feast of completion at the going out of the year.”

NOTE 27

And after other things: What does the word want to tell us when it commands us to keep the
feast of unleavened bread in the month of the new? Put off the old man with his practices.
And so that you may keep the feast in the month of the new, become new yourself, so that
the month of the feast of the new may also be your month. For this month belongs to the
new, and not to the old. How, then, must you too become new? The apostle Paul,
understanding the feasts, and the feast of the new, says, “Having put off the old man with
his practices, and having put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge according
to the image of the one who created him.” So in order to keep the feast in the month of
the new, you must become new and put away all oldness. Then what feast do you keep first?
That it is the feast of unleavened bread, learn from the Apostle: “For our Passover, he
says, Christ has been sacrificed for us. So let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.” And gather together at the same time what has been laid down about the feast
of unleavened bread, and you will see the senselessness of those who cling to the letter
as though it were the spiritual meaning, and who despise the spiritual interpreters as
though they were of no use.

NOTE 28

“You shall not appear before me empty.” Know that every person is either empty or full. If
someone does not have the Holy Spirit, has no knowledge of the Creator, has not received
Jesus Christ as life, does not know the Father in heaven, does not live according to the
Word and the heavenly law, is not self-controlled and does not act justly, such a person
is empty. But if he has made room for God who said, “I will dwell in them and walk among
them, and I will be their God,” he is not empty but full.

NOTE 29

“Three times in the year every male of yours shall appear before the Lord your God.” I
would say this is what the text means. What we do is either female or male. If what we do
is female, it is bodily or fleshly. For when we sow to the flesh, we make the offspring of
the soul female, not male: limp, soft and material. But if we look at the things that are
eternal and set our mind on the better things, and bear the fruits of the Spirit, then all
our offspring are male. So what is brought before God, what will be seen by the eye of the
Creator, is male and not female. For God does not think it worthy to look at what is
female and bodily.

NOTES ON EXODUS

NOTE 15

Verse 25. “There God set down for him statutes and judgments, and there he tested him.”
God tests for our benefit. For he cannot be tested by evils himself. He tests so that, if
they obey him, they may obtain good things and be set free from evils.

NOTE 20

Verse 4. “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” An idol is one thing, and a likeness
is another. It is a likeness if you make the likeness of a fish, a four-footed animal or a
wild beast, whether by craftsmanship or by painting. An idol is whatever the soul forms in
its imagination and makes out of things that do not exist, as an original invention. For
example, a creature mixed together from a man and a horse. Verse 4 (continued). “Whatever
is in heaven above, and whatever is on the earth below, and whatever is in the waters
under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them.” To bow down is one
thing, and to serve is another. The one who gives himself to these things with his whole
soul does not only bow down but also serves them. But the one who pretends, and acts out
of custom, does not serve them, yet he bows down. You will find such people in the book of
Numbers, who were gratifying women and bowing down to idols.

NOTE 28

Verse 30. Since it is fitting for the high priest to carry around, both in front and
behind, like a shield, a watchful and protective care, lest some opposing counsel from the
spirits of wickedness wound his reason, throw into confusion the trustworthiness of his
judgments, and, by mixing in evil, make the disclosure and the truth fall away.

NOTE 31

Verse 1. “And the Lord spoke to Moses.” The all-wise God kept Moses for a full forty days
to give the law, though he was able to give the law in three days. But he did so in order
that the time of Moses’ absence might expose the ungodliness hidden in the depth of the
Jews’ hearts.

SELECTA ON LEVITICUS

NOTE 1

“And he called Moses back.” It is named Leviticus because what concerns the priesthood and
the sacrifices, and whatever commands of that kind God gave, are set out in this book of
Leviticus. Exodus also contains laws from God. But how the priests were consecrated by
anointing, how the tent was constructed and received its fitted assembly, and many other
things, Leviticus records. If it also contains some other matters, that is no surprise,
for the title “Leviticus” indicates what is most important in it.

NOTE 2

By the same author. Those who do not look rightly at the teaching on sacrifices either
despise it as a cheap legislation that contains nothing worthy of the Creator, or else
they ungodly condemn the Creator himself for legislating cheap things. But the one who has
understood what David said and what the Apostle said can see that teachings worthy of God
lie hidden in these things. David says, “Uncover my eyes, and I will contemplate the
wonders out of your law.” The Apostle cries out, “The law is spiritual.”

NOTE 3

“A man from among you, if he brings gifts to the Lord.” We have observed in many places in
the Scriptures that “gifts” is said of living animals, while “sacrifices” is said of
things without life, as in what is said in Genesis: “And God looked at Abel and at his
gifts, but he did not pay attention to Cain and his sacrifices.” This also needs to be
said: of living things it says, “A man from among you, if he brings gifts”; but of
lifeless things, “if a soul.” The soul stands for the lifeless thing. The result is that,
of the irrational animal, only the rational part is left, and, with the lifeless thing
overcome by the fire, only the living part remains.

NOTE 4

“They pour out the blood at the altar.” The altar on which the whole burnt offerings are
sacrificed is called the altar of burnt offering. The inner altar is the altar of incense.

NOTE 5

By the same author. Because the Jews, who had grown used to sacrifices in Egypt, delighted
in them, as the making of the calf in the wilderness also testifies, God allowed them to
offer these to himself. In this way he bridled their unruly impulses toward many gods and
toward sacrificing to demons.

NOTE 6

“But if one soul sins unwillingly.” Whatever evil someone does is unwilling. It should be
noted that Scripture calls the unwilling act of ignorance a sin. The blessed Paul also
recalls certain other things when he says, “For the law had a shadow of the things to
come.”

NOTE 7

From the same. “If a soul sins unintentionally,” it says, “and does not do some of all the
commands of the Lord,” this is in keeping with nature. For perhaps there are even some
commands of the Lord that one ought not to do, according to the saying, “I gave them
statutes that were not good.” So a soul sins unintentionally when, under the pretext of
piety, it keeps what it should not keep. Such a soul needs a sacrifice for forgiveness.
The one who acts on purpose does not need a sacrifice. An example is the man who became a
Jew in order to win Jews, and who circumcised Timothy.

NOTE 8

“The soul that touches anything unclean, or anything that has died of itself.” By “that
which has died of itself” he means the person who has died to God, with whom one must not
even eat, for whoever touches him is unclean. This also is unclean: what has been hunted
down by our adversary the devil. The unclean beasts could be those who have come to the
word but remain beast-like, and who have sinned unto death, and have not become worthy to
be saved even along with the beasts, according to the saying, “You will save men and
beasts, O Lord.”

NOTE 9

“Everyone who touches them will be made holy.” Some say that “will be made holy” means
“will be defiled.” I think this is not because of the sacrifice but because of the
boldness of the one who touches. For Haggai says, “Whoever touches will be defiled.”

NOTE 10

From the same. We say that the sacrifices were rather a source of food for the priests,
and a shadow of true piety. The gain from sacrificing is twofold: honor is offered to God,
and a person would not worship what he himself sacrifices, nor think it to be God.

NOTE 11

“And you shall not die.” The word seems to threaten death to priests who drink wine and
strong drink when they go into the tent. For bishops who pray on behalf of the people must
turn away from drunkenness, not only that of wine but also that of worldly affairs and
human reasonings. He does not forbid this as though wine were improper in itself. He
forbids it because he knew the lack of self-control in the Israelites: whenever they
started drinking, they went on to excess. So when they enter the holy things, they should
keep the soul sober and exact, and the remembrance of God fine and clear.

NOTE 12

“Why did you not eat the sin offering in the holy place?” He shows that if the priests do
not eat, the sacrifice is left incomplete and the sin remains. For some of the blood
should have been brought in, and they themselves should have eaten.

NOTE 13

“If today they have offered their sin offerings.” Since it happened, he says, that Nadab
and Abihu died for offending God, at the very time when they should have eaten the
people’s sin offering so that what the people had sinned might be forgiven, how shall we,
who today are convicted in our sins, win forgiveness by eating? For the priest must first
make atonement for himself.

NOTE 14

“These are the animals you shall eat.” Wild beasts are in no way clean, for all are
unclean according to the law which says, “Everything that goes on its paws among all the
wild beasts shall be unclean to you.” In a general sense, all the cruelest of men could be
called wild beasts, about whom the prophet says, “When evildoers draw near against me to
eat my flesh,” and so on.

NOTE 15

“Every animal that has a divided hoof.” The divided hoof stands for the person who lives
devoutly in this present age and hastens toward the age to come. As for the dividing of
the hoof and the cleaving of the claws, it stands for the person who cuts away what is
superfluous and dead from his hands, that is, his actions, and from his feet, that is, his
manner of life. In addition, as for chewing the cud, it means not only taking in spiritual
food but also recalling it and meditating on it continually.

NOTE 16

“This is the law concerning the animals and the birds and every living creature.” He gives
much attention to clean and unclean. First he teaches that the soul is to be holy. For if
what is natural, made as it is by God’s command, can be unclean, how much more can what
comes from a wicked choice and has not come about by God’s command? If someone considers
unclean what God made, how much more what stands opposed to God’s will and does the very
thing he forbade?

NOTE 17

“If a scar appears on a person, in the skin of his flesh.” This is applied to certain
blemishes of the soul. When bodily wounds have been healed, a mark of what the place
suffered sometimes remains, which we call a scar. In the same way a soul that has taken
the wound of sin, even if it receives healing, sometimes keeps what is left behind like a
scar. We must also understand how it is cleansed from this, or how it is not cleansed.

NOTE 18

“For a man or woman on whom there is a stroke of leprosy.” We should observe the
difference in wording. In some cases the text says, “If it appears on anyone, in the skin
of his flesh,” or “For a man or woman on whom there is a stroke of leprosy among them.” In
others it says, “If flesh has a sore in its skin,” or “If flesh has a burn of fire in its
skin.” These are wounds.

NOTE 19

“His garments shall be loosened.” By this the text hints that the one whose soul has been
made leprous must not hide his sins or cover them up. Just as the garments of a man who is
loosened do not cover his shame, so the law wants him to be exposed to all, and not to
become a whitewashed tomb. To have the mouth covered means to have no boldness to open the
mouth. To go outside the camp means no longer to dwell together with the choirs of the
saints.

NOTE 20

“And they shall slay the one bird in an earthen vessel.” The little bird is sacrificed in
an earthen vessel, with living water put into it beforehand, so that the cleansing may
come by water and blood, which came out from the side of the Savior. By “cedar wood” he
means the wood of our salvation. The scarlet thread spun was a type of the precious blood,
by which the whole world is cleansed. I take the hyssop to be the warmth that comes
through the Spirit, and the scarlet cord to show the Word’s union with flesh.

NOTE 21

“He shall shave his head and his beard.” He shaves the head with respect to the principal
and chief points of doctrine. With respect to the beard, which is the symbol of the man,
he puts away the sins of the man. With respect to the eyebrows, he puts away all conceit,
and, if I may coin a word, all “eyebrow-raising” pride. He says these things are symbols:
having grown on and sprouted from the soul, they are called hairs of deadness.

NOTE 22

“He shall take two lambs without blemish, a year old.” The text divides what is offered
into three. One is the release from sins previously committed. Another is that the whole
is offered to God. The other is what is offered on behalf of the one being cleansed,
concerning what has been done by him. Perhaps the three tenths of fine flour are also
taken so that one tenth goes with the lamb that is slain, the second with the other, and
the third with the sheep. So at the fifth cleansing he has not meal but fine flour, which
is a symbol of the material for pure bread, and it is mixed with oil. This oil is taken as
nourishing light, serving the need for light and not for fire. He also has, apart from the
oil taken for mixing the fine flour, oil by itself, which is offered through the priest,
being the measure of a cotyle. And it seems to me that the words “The priest who cleanses
the man shall set the man who is being cleansed” very much require a priest, and that this
happens before the Lord.

NOTE 23

“And the one whose house it is shall come and tell the priest.” We say that the lawgiver
did not mean that someone must go to the priest to accuse his own house. He meant rather
that he goes to ask a physician for a remedy for what has happened. So we say that the
synagogue of the Jews has been made leprous. The person who reports stands for the choir
of the holy prophets. They report to the great High Priest, that is, before his
indignation, the sufferings of the Jews’ folly. They do this not from hatred or enmity but
out of reverence for the benefactor. They acknowledge the Jews’ offenses, and yet they
call upon him to have mercy.

NOTES ON LEVITICUS

NOTE 4

27 Verse 27. “If a soul sins unintentionally,” he says, “and does not do some of all the
commandments of the Lord which it ought to do.” (12) But if it is according to nature.
Perhaps there are some commandments of the Lord which one ought not to do, as in the
saying, “They gave them commandments that were not good.” So a soul sins unintentionally
when, under pretext of piety, it keeps what it should not keep. And it needs a sacrifice
for forgiveness, though the one who acts on purpose does not need a sacrifice. An example
is the man who became a Jew in order to win Jews, and who circumcised Timothy. 28 Verse
28. This shows that even the thing that is offered is itself called “sin.” That is how we
should understand the saying, “They will eat the sins of my people.” So if the one who
sins seems to sacrifice the sin itself by repenting, he ought not to fall into the same
things again, since the sin comes to life again. In this way it is possible to call Christ
“sin,” because he was slain for the sin of all.

NOTE 12

Verse 2. “A woman who, if she is seeded, and bears a male child.” The words “if she is
seeded,” placed before “and bears a male,” will seem superfluous. But I wonder whether he
said the whole thing prophetically. Mary bore a male child without having been seeded. He
may have said it so that she would not be thought unclean for having borne the Savior. Yet
even if the words “if she is seeded” had not been put first, Mary could still be
understood as not unclean. For she is not simply a woman but a virgin.

NOTE 13

Verse 45. “And the leper, in whom is the plague, his garments shall be loosened, and his
head uncovered.” Why does he command that the leper’s head be uncovered and his garments
loosened? So that he may be recognized, and so that those who come near do not share in
the uncleanness. In the same way the Apostle said about those who sin: “Keep yourselves
away from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which you
received from us.” And again: “If anyone who is called a brother is sexually immoral, or
greedy, or an idolater, or a drunkard, or abusive, or a robber, do not eat with such a
person.”

NOTE 23

2 Verse 2. “These are the feasts of the Lord.” Every joyful day on which certain things
are prescribed to be done, as on a holy day, distinct from the other days, is called a
feast. But not every one is a festal assembly. A festal assembly is so called, according
to the name, when people gather in one place from every direction. So a festal assembly is
also a feast, but a feast is not necessarily also a festal assembly. For example, Sabbaths
and New Moons are feasts. But Unleavened Bread, the days of Weeks, and Tabernacles are not
only feasts but also festal assemblies. 40 Verse 40. “And branches of palms.” Through
these we can understand that God again, in Christ, gives us the delights of paradise. The
boughs of evergreen plants signify in themselves the continuance of grace and the unfading
nature of hope.

NOTE 27

15 Verse 15. “But if the one who sanctified it redeems his house, he shall add to it a
fifth of the silver of the valuation, and it shall be his.” Suppose someone sanctions to
God not the value of a house or a field but the things themselves. He shall pay the value
with the fifth when he redeems them, and he shall keep the possessions. But he shall not
sell them to others. And even if he sells them, the buyer will hold them only until the
Jubilee, and after that they shall belong to God. 16 Verse 16. “But if from the field.”
The one who has bought a field by purchase will not take it back for himself. Instead,
having paid the fruit of it to God in due proportion, he will give the field back in the
Jubilee to the one who sold it.

SELECTA ON NUMBERS

NOTE 1

“Our eyes see nothing but the manna.” It was named “Man” because the Hebrews, seeing a
strange sight for the first time, said to one another in their native language, “Man,”
that is, “What is this?” They would not have said that if it had been customary, as some
of the Gentiles say, for the nature of those places to produce such things from ancient
times. And even now, if a little comes down, it is for the sake of remembrance.

NOTE 2

“And they did not add.” The words “to prophesy” are missing. He means that they no longer
prophesied. They prophesy only once, so that they would not be made equal to Moses. But so
that it might be known that they had received a share, they all prophesy together. For in
Christ the Spirit is one, and there is one working through all.

NOTE 3

“And the people did not move on until Miriam was [shut away / cleansed].” The tent stayed
seven days in the place in honor of Mary, so that she, being in such a condition, would
not have to follow along. “Send men for yourself,” and so on. He commands that some be
sent, showing that they were now drawing near to Palestine, [having made clear that the
way out of Egypt had been easier for the Hebrews]. And having exposed their unbelief, he
assigns the wilderness as a tomb to those whose minds remained hard. For the death of the
ungodly is preferable to wandering in life.

NOTE 4

“And Moses named Ause the son of Nave, Jesus.” It should be noted that the son of Nave
became a type of Christ. Christ freed the most pitiable people from their wandering and
led them up into heaven, not into a land that devours its inhabitants.

NOTE 5

“Surely they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers.” Notice that some of
those who came out of the land of Egypt did enter the land of promise, for God did not
forbid this. He destroyed in the wilderness only those who were twenty years old and
above, of those who came out of Egypt and made the calf. He spared the young, who were
related to them, whose time of life had not yet reached twenty years. Much more did he
spare the infants and small children, up to the age of adolescence.

NOTE 6

From the same. This is a type of the truth: “Unless you turn and become like children, you
will not enter the kingdom.”

NOTE 7

“Take up the bronze fire-pans.” Just as the bronze serpent was a sign of their unbelief,
so also were the fire-pans of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, which were put around the altar as
a covering.

NOTE 8

“And to the sons of Levi, see, I have given every tithe in Israel.” It was reasonable that
the firstfruits be assigned to the priests, since the tribe of Levi does not inherit and
does not receive an allotment as the others do. This allotment, a share with the altar, is
what brings about the priests’ lack of possessions. The people gave tithes to the Levites,
and the Levites gave to the priests. “Shall we not bring water out of this rock for you?”
Moses did not give glory to God before the people, and so he was prevented from crossing
over with them. And lest they honor him in death with the worship that belongs to God,
when they had honored him while he lived, God made the place [of his] tomb unseen.

NOTE 9

“Now this assembly will lick up all who are around us.” This took its illustration from
the calf. As the calf has the green grass in its mouth, so the holy people, fighting with
their lips, have their weapons in their mouths, through their prayers. Balak knew that
this had plainly happened in the earlier wars, and he wanted to fight with weapons of the
lips too. So he calls Balaam, who had as his weapons curses on his lips, the weapons of
the opposing power. For the holy angels work together with the righteous toward saving and
good deeds. The evil demons work together with impious, sinful people toward wicked deeds
that harm people’s salvation. The holy fight with the words of prayers, but the impious
and sinful with the words of magic.

NOTE 10

From the same. The history, taken in terms of the events as they appear to the senses, is
also full of great benefit. From the history before us we learn many things. We learn that
it is possible to fight with words, and that great matters are managed and set right
through words. The holy fight with the words of prayers; the impious fight with the words
of magic.

NOTE 11

From the same. The opposing power never does a good work, but works only the worst things.
And the evil that it works, it cannot restore to something better, for it does not have
the standing of the better. But for the better power all things are possible. For our God
causes pain and then restores again, but he has no evil to work. He is good not only by
disposition but also by his very being.

NOTE 12

From the same. Among human practices there are also oracles that are carried out, and
sacrifices, and certain gifts offered to demons, so that those who wish may divine by
means of these offerings. Each such practice is an oracle, for it is not a true
prediction.

NOTE 13

“And [the Lord] came to him.” In truth a divine power came to Balaam, though he had not
called it. It came, then, to turn away the demons that Balaam was calling, and to arrange
the divine predictions.

NOTE 14

“And the angel of God stood up to oppose him on the road.” The angel who opposes Balaam on
the road: could this be the one of whom God said to Moses, “My angel goes before you,
guarding you on the way”?

NOTE 15

“Go with these men.” God had not allowed Balaam to go to Balak. But since Balaam wanted to
go, God permits it. He commands him to say only what is revealed to him, and the angel,
appearing and frightening him, confirms this. “Build me seven altars.” Works are also done
through another body, both on the better side and on the worse. Examples are what happened
in Egypt through Moses and Aaron and the enchanters. But when the divine power is measured
against the opposing power face to face, in the sight of those who were in doubt, the
divine power wins. So Moses’ rod swallowed up the rods of the enchanters.

NOTE 16

Of the same. Balaam used to serve with these same sacrifices and call up the demons. For
sacrifices of this kind were being offered to the demons throughout the world. This is why
God demanded sacrifices of the first people. Offering to God would put an end to offering
to demons, even though the sacrifices were chiefly symbols.

NOTE 17

Of the same. When the Savior became man, he sent his disciples to untie the donkey. That
is, to free it from the bonds with which the opposing power, the spiritual Balaam, had
bound it. They untied it and led it to Jesus. They laid their garments on the donkey, that
is, the virtues of the Gospel. The Savior sat on it and entered the holy city.

NOTE 18

“And Balak took Balaam to the top of Phogor.” Balak supposed that Balaam’s craft was
limited by place. So he took him to the top of Phogor, thinking that Balaam the magician
had power from there to curse the people of God. Phogor is interpreted “seasoning,” or
“skin of the mouth.” That is, the peak of the love of pleasure and the deadness of speech.
From these Balaam tried to curse the people of God.

NOTE 19

Of the same. There are two peaks, that is, the peak of the highest virtue and the peak of
evil. Moses went up to the top of virtue, and Balaam to the top of evil.

NOTE 20

“He did not go, as he was accustomed, to meet the omens.” This Balaam is a symbol of the
people from the nations. They used to follow omens, but they learned that it is
[insatiable] to the Lord, and did not do it again. Balaam is also interpreted “vain
people,” and “son of Beor” is interpreted “made of leather.” “Vain” describes the nations
as they were before. “Beor” describes the one who was in vanity and in deadness, clearly
as he was before.

NOTE 21

“The man who truly sees.” I who was once Balaam, the vain people, have opened the inner
eyes of my mind. I have seen the spiritual Israel of old and the plan of God concerning
him, and I am counted worthy of [the gift] of the Holy Spirit. The words “The man who
truly sees says,” and what follows, do not suit the Balaam of former times. They suit the
Balaam of now. “How fair are your houses, Jacob, your tents, Israel.” The name Jacob does
not belong to the one who dwells there but to the house. The name Israel belongs to the
one who dwells there. For “Jacob” belongs to the bodily thing.

NOTE 22

“Like shady groves.” The groves are spiritual. They give shade to the place where rational
beings are fruitful and thick with leaves of active virtue. The gardens beside a river are
spiritual. They are a place where rational beings are planted, watered either by the
contemplation of created things or by the contemplation of the holy Trinity.

NOTE 23

Of the same. Those who live in tents are among those who travel on the road. Outside this
world there is a great road and many tents. Those who settle in a place are not among the
travelers but among those who stand still.

NOTE 24

“Like cedars beside waters.” The spiritual cedars, planted beside the waters, are rational
souls, watered by the knowledge of the truth.

NOTE 25

“And he will rule over many nations.” A lord is one who gives orders with authority, and a
slave is one who obeys like a slave. A lord is one who acquires by his own labors, and by
his lordship has become free of passion. A slave is one who is ruled by passion, in need
of what is better, and requires the oversight of his own lord. There are many lords, but
blessed are those who have our Lord Jesus Christ as Lord.

NOTE 26

“And his kingdom of Gog will be exalted.” “Kingdom of Gog” is interpreted “gifts.” On one
understanding, the gifts are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. On another, it refers to “Let
the one on the housetop not come down into his house.” So it is a kingdom of such a state
of soul.

NOTE 27

“God led him out of Egypt.” This applies both to the Savior, according to “Out of Egypt I
called my son,” and to Israel. The one he casts out, the other he calls.

NOTE 28

Of the same. The oracle that the Lord would come into Egypt pointed to the carrying away
of our Savior Jesus Christ, which was to take place together with his parents. This world
too is compared to Egypt.

NOTE 29

“His glory is like that of a one-horned beast.” Christ is the one-horned one in a
spiritual sense, by attribute, and from him come many one-horned ones. For from the one
Jesus Christ many have come to share in being christs. Some also say that the deer is one-
horned.

NOTE 30

“He will eat the nations of his enemies.” This is about Christ. We ourselves were once
nations of his enemies. So Christ eats us, as the essential virtue feeding on us, just as
he says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.”

NOTE 31

“And he will crush their fat to the marrow.” He says this refers to the time when he
changes the fleshly condition into a spiritual one through actual deeds.

NOTE 32

“Those who bless you have been blessed.” Here he indicates two kinds of people: believers
and unbelievers in relation to Christ. And after a few lines: In these words, then, both
the attempt of those who opposed Israel and the evil craft of sorcery are overthrown.

NOTE 33

“And the people were defiled by committing fornication.” The plan that the Hebrews should
commit fornication and worship Baal-peor came from the diviner. This is why Moses says:
“These things happened to the sons of Israel by the word of Balaam, to turn them away and
make them disregard the word of the Lord on account of Baal-peor.”

NOTE 34

“And the border toward Libya will be yours.” He promised Abraham the land from the river
of Egypt to the river Euphrates. Why, then, did he not give it to them? For the numbers
show that a smaller amount was given. I think he would have given it, if they had been
faithful like the man who received the promises. This is only reasonable. For often he
threatened evils and did not bring them, because people repented, as in the case of the
Ninevites.

NOTE 35

“Except that wives shall be taken from the people of their father.” God therefore commands
that, apart from the tribes of Judah and Levi, marriage is not permitted from one tribe to
another. The purpose is that the Savior should not be shown to be a stranger, coming from
above: “a king and priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

NOTES ON NUMBERS

NOTE 11

Verse 7. “Now the manna was like coriander seed.” As for “like coriander seed,” the others
read “bdellium.” Another says “from honey.” Aquila and Symmachus read “oil of mastic,” or
“of mastic into fat.”

NOTE 12

Verses 1, 2, 10, 15. Miriam spoke abusively against Moses and was made leprous. She was
put outside the camp and sat there seven days. This happened to put fear into the people.
For if he did not spare his own sister, he would not spare anyone else.

NOTE 14

Verse 36. “And the men...” Those who find fault with the land have, by their own
reasoning, shown God to be a liar (in a pious sense), since he praises Palestine.

NOTE 22

2 Verse 2. “And Balak saw...” “Nations heard and were angry.” Among these words is also
this: “The rulers of the Moabites—trembling seized them.” 4 Verse 4. For they brought the
fee for this, as for a diviner, to bring him.

NOTE 23

Verse 7. “And taking up his parable...” In some places the divine Scripture prefers and
puts first what is symbolic over the historical narrative, in its own subject matter.

NOTE 24

7 Verse 7. “And he will rule over many nations.” There are many lords and many gods. But
blessed are those who have our Lord Jesus Christ as Lord, for they will rule over many
lords. 17 Verse 17. “And a man will rise from Israel.” They say that Balaam had pupils in
his craft, who had studied magic under him. They say that, because of the reputation he
had, they wrote down his prophecies and left them behind, among which is this: “A star
will rise.” Or perhaps the Magi received this from their fathers’ tradition and
succession, and so came to Bethlehem.

SELECTA ON DEUTERONOMY

NOTE 1

“Moses spoke to all the sons of Israel according to everything the Lord commanded him.”
God was revealing the power, and the prophet used his own tongue to set forth what had
been made known. So the prophetic voice is called a “movement,” since it presents what God
has said.

NOTE 2

“And I said to you at that time.” Moses does not say “I told you” without reason. Since
Joshua son of Nun was going to succeed him after he departed, Moses says the matter is not
out of place but fitting. For he says he first encouraged them, and, as you agreed,
appointed judges. So you should also obey Joshua son of Nun, who succeeds me by prophetic
grace and as a guide.

NOTE 3

“I will not be able to carry you alone.” And of those who go ahead.

NOTE 4

“I gave to Reuben and to Gad.” The lesser ones reach the promise sooner, while the more
upright receive it later. The former received their inheritance first, under Moses; the
latter later, under Joshua. But this is said of all the righteous, not of ordinary people.
For as the Apostle says: “All these, though they were commended through faith, did not
receive the promise, since God had foreseen something better for us, so that they would
not be made perfect apart from us.”

NOTE 5

“The sound of words which you heard,” and so on. He does not mean that the voice was
visible, or that God has a voice by nature, for that would belong to a composite nature.
The trumpets and the voices, in the way God himself knows, were produced from the
continuous working of visible elements, I mean the fire and the darkness. So a voice is
heard and not seen. Yet in the case of God’s wonders the voice is in fact seen.

NOTE 6

“And he swore that I should not cross this Jordan.” Moses did not give glory to God before
the people, and he was prevented from crossing over with them. This was so that they would
not honor him in death, with the kind of worship given to gods, when they had honored him
while he lived. For this reason, when he died, God made his tomb unseen.

NOTE 7

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today.” God does not permit those who
worship him to be joined to demons. He commands those who have once come to know him to
keep clear of any attachment to them. He provokes the peoples to jealousy over their
falling away, and he announces beforehand the punishments that are coming on them because
of the wickedness of their practices.

NOTE 8

“Out of the house of slavery.” For in truth bodily and material things are a house of
slavery, just as, by contrast, their opposite is a house of freedom.

NOTE 9

“For you are the fewest of all the nations.” This was well said to those who belong to the
portion of God: “You are the fewest of all the nations.” It is closely related to the
saying, “Few are those who are saved,” and to the saying, “Strive to enter through the
narrow gate.”

NOTE 10

“That man will not live on bread alone, but on every word,” and so on. Again, the manna
was the Word, even though Exodus calls it bread. For it says, “This is the bread which the
Lord has given you to eat. This is the word which the Lord has commanded.” This is also
why the manna “was fine, like white coriander seed, like frost on the ground.” The Word,
of whom that manna was a symbol, is fine in his own nature. He passes through all spirits
that are intelligent, pure and most subtle. Wisdom too is “an intelligent spirit, holy,
only-begotten, manifold, subtle,” and so on. It was also like coriander seed in being
white. They say that the whole nature of coriander, all the way through, has the character
of seed. Even when the coriander seed is chopped up, its power does not vanish, as though
it could no longer be sown. The Word is like this all the way through. Every part of him
is by nature fit to be cultivated in good and fair ground, that is, in the soul. The manna
is white, for the Word is light and bright. In that respect he is white to the one who
understands him and is nourished by him. It is also like frost. For he is compacted,
nowhere soggy or flowing away, but firm. He is indeed the Word of heaven, and he reports
to us the things of heaven.

NOTE 11

“For the Lord your God will bring you into a good and spacious land.” Christ did not
promise to give us these things, but the kingdom of the heavens, and a good and
everlasting land. Christ is the torrent of that land, watering it with the streams of
wisdom. The torrents flow through the plains, through humble and fruitful people, and
through the high mountains, which stretch up to the heavens by the height of their
contemplation. There is the grain, which steadies the heart of a man, and the barley,
which feeds those of lesser strength. There is the true vine, Christ. There is the oil
that makes the heads of the holy shine. Likewise there are pomegranates, which carry
sweetness within and put on the severity of a disciplined life outside. There is the fig
tree, not the fruitless one that is full of leaves, but the one rich in the sweetness of
the Spirit. There is the desirable sweetness of the Savior’s throat, and the lips of the
bride in the Song, dripping honeycomb. There are the holy stones, which have been rolled
over the earth and yield nothing under trials, taking on the nature of iron. There are the
mines of bronze, from which they made the spiritual armor. And the sum of all these things
is to bless God without ceasing.

NOTE 12

By the same author. He says that in the promised land one will not have to toil and suffer
over clay and brickmaking, but will have stones, and very hard ones, not easily broken
down, enough for building and lasting a long time. He says this because he wants their
thinking to turn away from Egypt. By calling the land “good” he showed that it is
fruitful; by calling it “large” he showed its size and breadth. “Where there are torrents
of water” (this is not so in Egypt) “and springs of the deeps”; this is a special mark of
the land of promise. He added also “through the mountains.” Egypt has none of this. It is
not adorned with vines either, and has no abundance of oil. But the land of promise has
everything in rich supply.

NOTE 13

“Take heed to yourself, lest you forget the Lord your God.” After promising good things,
he rouses them to sober watchfulness: they must remember their benefactor, and not grow
insolent from being full, nor look down on the one who gave them these gifts, and who
brought them out of slavery in Egypt into freedom.

NOTE 14

“You shall not do so to the Lord your God.” He blames people for sacrificing their own
children to the gods of the nations, as cruel and inhuman, and as abominable. Those who
urge us to sacrifice to the gods of the nations we must not only turn away from, but also
refuse to lend our ear to their words.

NOTE 15

“You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.” When people sin, speaking generally,
they sin in two ways: either by going beyond the commandments or by emptying them out.
When we do not conduct our lives with knowledge, and do not know the measures of
righteousness, we stumble. And sometimes we go beyond the rule, under the illusion of
doing something better, and fall away from what was set before us.

NOTE 16

By the same author. So those who do not do everything commanded, and those who do
something more, are lawbreakers.

NOTE 17

“Every animal that divides the hoof and brings up the cud.” The dividing of the hoof shows
the path by which we go toward every one of the good pursuits. The chewing of the cud is
turning the words of the God-inspired Scripture up and down, and, as it were, chewing them
over and breaking down the hidden insights by close investigation.

NOTE 18

“All that have fins and scales among them, you shall eat.” Of the winged creatures, I
think, he wants those that have spurs above the feet, lower than the knees, to be clean;
those that do not, unclean. “You shall keep a feast of tabernacles for yourself seven
days.”

NOTE 19

We find in the Scriptures both the name “feast” and the name “festal assembly,” as in the
prophet who says, “What will you do on the day of the festal assembly and on the day of
the feast of the Lord?” We must ask what the difference is between a feast and a festal
assembly. Every joyful day, so to speak, on which certain special things are commanded to
be done as on a holy day, differently from the other days, is called a feast. But not
every one is a festal assembly. That name belongs to the time when the Hebrews gather from
every quarter to one place. So by this reckoning a festal assembly is a feast, but a feast
is not necessarily a festal assembly. For example, sabbaths and new moons are feasts. But
the days of Unleavened Bread, the days of Weeks, and Tabernacles are not only feasts but
also festal assemblies, since then every male is commanded to appear before the Lord your
God in the place he will choose.

NOTE 20

“You shall not move your neighbor’s boundaries.” In many places “neighbor” is used of
every human being.

NOTE 21

By the same author. For one must neither take more than one’s share from those nearby, nor
stir up trouble over the boundaries of the fathers, as if they were not well set. This
would be the cause of all confusion: the neighbors would feel wronged, and those who set
the boundaries would be despised. Some say that “neighbor” means every person.

NOTE 22

“But if an unjust witness rises up against a person.” This was the law for the weak
Israelites. But the Lord, who gave this law, says to his disciples: “You have heard that
it was said, ‘An eye for an eye,’” and so on, “but I say to you, do not resist the evil
one.”

NOTE 23

By the same author. These things apply to what is perceptible and to the affairs of this
world. But as for the sins we have committed, God needs no one. For he himself is overseer
of all, and judge.

NOTE 24

“Who is the man who is afraid?” The person who is bent on earthly things, who builds a
house and plants vineyards, and is overcome by fleshly pleasures, will certainly be
fearful and without strength.

NOTE 25

“If anyone has a disobedient son.” He does not intend that such children be put to death
simply for embittering their parents. It is only when both parents agree against the
child. For if the father is angry and rushes to kill the son, the mother holds him back.
And if she herself is provoked, the father will not allow it. So it will rarely happen
that parents agree against their own child. God commands that when both agree against the
child, then he is to be stoned. The ones who stone him are not those who begot him, but
the rest.

NOTE 26

“You shall not sow your vineyard with a different kind of seed.” This is so that the
ground does not become too weak, and so fail to yield a full return either of the seed or
of the fruit of the vine, but each crop is grown by itself.

NOTE 27

“You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” Do not yoke together the proud and
hard-working part of the soul with the part that loves pleasure and is subject to
passions.

NOTE 28

By the same author. Isaiah writes again: “Blessed are those who sow beside every water.”
What water is it, beside which one must sow the good seed? It would be the baptism of
salvation, the washing of rebirth. Sow upon the mystery of the washing, and you become
blessed. There the ox and the donkey tread: the ox is the clean one, the Israelite, and
the donkey is the unclean one by birth, the one from the nations. Both animals are a
symbol of the word proclaimed to the nations. So, he says, the ox and the donkey tread
this water, where we wish to sow.

NOTE 29

“But if there is a girl, a virgin, betrothed to a man.” He calls a woman who is already
betrothed by this name. The same was said of Joseph and the Mother of God.

NOTE 30

“And even to eternity.” These people also are born of fornication, from the daughters of
Lot. They are not only barred from the assembly of Israel until the tenth generation, but
even forever. In this way he wants the hostility toward them to be everlasting. According
to the meaning and the true cause given in the divine Scripture, it was because they hired
Balaam to curse the Hebrews. They also put forward their own women and daughters, all who
were fair to look at and beautiful in appearance, from their race, so as to give them to
the Israelites for fornication. In this way they brought on the Hebrews a most grievous
fornication, which was to fall away from God and be initiated into Baal-peor. And that is
what happened.

NOTE 31

“You shall not take a millstone or an upper millstone as a pledge.” He says that a single
stone cannot crush the grain, for a mill is made as a pair, male and female. Now the Jews
have only one covenant. In the same way every heresy that seems to hold to this new
covenant alone does not grind in this mill, so as to taste the heavenly bread. For, he
says, unless the grain is crushed and ground, they remain without food. Starting from
this, I myself explain the law before us: “You shall not take a millstone as a pledge.”
That is, you shall not profane the old covenant, and you shall not push it out of your
house. “Nor an upper millstone.” That is, the new one. “For this man takes a life as a
pledge.” That is, the soul is fed by these, enjoying food for the mind.

NOTE 32

“They shall flog him by number, forty.” We have always observed that the number forty is a
number of affliction. So the great Moses fasted forty days, and Elijah after him. Our
Savior also, when he was tempted by the devil, did not eat for forty days and forty
nights. And the great flood came upon the earth when God sent rain for forty days and
forty nights. “You shall not put iron to them.” We must ask why he does not allow iron to
touch the stones that were used to build the altar. Yet afterward, for the building of the
temple, he commands that uncut stones be gathered and built up. If it is improper for iron
to touch a stone fitted for building, how then were the pillars made? How were the planks
and their capitals worked? Or how were the things made of bronze, gold or silver produced
without iron? How could that be? From this it is clear that he does not forbid iron to
touch stones in an absolute sense. What then is the reason? We offer an answer without
insisting on it. Iron is hard. So it is forbidden to put something hard against something
hard and to strike them together, for great evils are usually born from the meeting and
clashing of hard things. Or else the law drives murder as far as possible from the human
heart, and very rightly. For if iron must not be put to the stone that is being built into
the altar or the temple, how much more must we forbid seizing iron and murdering one’s
neighbor?

NOTE 33

“These shall stand to bless the people.” We should observe that those appointed to bless
were born of the free wives, relatives of Jacob. Those set apart to curse from Mount Gebal
were from the maidservants, except Reuben and Zebulun. Reuben is placed with those who
curse, since he was cursed by his father. As for Levi, though he too was cursed, he was
ransomed by the priestly dignity, for blessing the people is above all the priest’s task.
Simeon, too, since he lived in the midst of the tribe of Judah and had become as it were a
part of it, is therefore counted wherever Judah is.

NOTE 34

“And this is the blessing with which Moses blessed.” The prophecies from Jacob were
neither all blessings nor all curses, but those from Moses are all blessings.

NOTE 35

“And he hastened down from Mount Paran.” That is, he no longer gave oracles to Israel but
to those from the nations, and he established the law. For this is the meaning of “he
hastened down from Mount Paran,” or “he ceased,” as another text has it: he will eagerly
leave the shadow behind and reveal the truth to us.

NOTE 36

“With tens of thousands of Kades.” Here “Kades” does not mean the place but the holy ones,
for in the Hebrew language Kades means “the holy.”

NOTE 37

“And he spared his people.” That is, by his coming he saved those who were once not a
people but are now God’s people, those who had not received mercy but have now received
mercy. The apostle Peter says, “In this the love of God was revealed among us.” And holy
John says in his catholic epistle that “God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so
that we might live through him.” And the blessed Paul says, “He who did not spare his own
Son, but gave him up for all of us.” So he spared the people.

NOTE 38

“And all the sanctified ones are under your hands.” For he rules over all, as king of
heaven and earth. They stand before him as before a king, serve him as God, and worship
him as Maker, and they are under him, for “he himself has put all things under his feet.”

NOTE 39

“The rulers of the peoples gathered together.” These are the divinely inspired disciples,
as David also says in their person: “He subjected peoples to us, and nations under our
feet.” And again: “The rulers of the peoples were gathered together with the God of
Abraham.” So this shows the calling of the nations, since God was going to rule over
Israel and the nations together. The Son is called “beloved,” for “This,” he says, “is my
beloved Son.” And for this reason the Father rules over us and reigns.

NOTES ON DEUTERONOMY

NOTE 1

Verse 31. “As a man [carries or feeds a child].” Aquila translated it: “As a nurse lifts
up her son, he carried him.” Origen, in his homilies on Jeremiah, says: “He went about
with you and came down with you, making our weakness his own. He was like a teacher who
lisps along with little children, like a father tenderly nursing his own sons and
daughters. He took on their ways and led them little by little to more perfect and higher
things.”

NOTE 3

18 Verse 18. “And I commanded you.” He says this to the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 27 Verses 27 and 28. He gives Moses more than Aaron: to
see the land with his own eyes. But he does not give him entry. He lays this penalty on
him for his lack of faith. By it he removes both men from life outside the promised land,
though they were able to reach it, since the end is given through faith. This is also a
symbol for the law, which could not bring anyone to perfection or restore the promise,
because “the righteous shall live by faith.” Yet this is also an honor: to know God’s
judgment and to know one’s own death beforehand. By the same author. He sets Jesus
forward. Jesus was already made holy by following Moses and by [constant attendance] on
him. But he was about to receive through Moses the ruling spirit, so that he might also
[establish people as his own in Moses’ place]. In the same way Elisha was present in the
spirit of Elijah to do Elijah’s work, for those who work in the same spirit must
accomplish the same things. As he says in Numbers: “Take to yourself Jesus, son of Nave, a
man who has the Spirit of God in himself, and you shall lay your hands on him.” So too the
apostles had the life-giving Spirit from the Lord’s breathing on them, and they receive
the ruling spirit sent down from heaven. This is not one spirit inside another, one upon
the other, but an activity within the same Spirit, just as Paul teaches.

NOTE 4

Verse 12. “And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of
words.” By the same author, on the same verse. Another says: It is clear that a person
sees and hears thoughts with the eyes of the mind. “The sound of words”: here he has
stated what belongs to nature, that the ear receives the voice. As far as the strict
letter goes, only the Decalogue was written on the tablets, and the rest Moses taught by
God’s command.

NOTE 14

Verse 19. “All the creeping things of the birds shall be unclean.” Of the birds, I think,
he wants those that have spurs below the knees, above the feet, to be clean, and those
that do not to be unclean. So the law rules out the eagle, the griffon, the sea eagle, and
also the vulture. Such birds fly high. They love to exult in the highest places and hate
what is below. “The young of the vulture,” it says, “fly on high.” Such, in a way, is the
person who has raised his brow too high and carries a mind lifted up within himself. He is
accustomed to look down on a gentle and moderate way of thinking, and he is least willing
to be carried along with the lowly. Along with these the law also condemns the kite and
its like. By these it clearly indicates the kind of people who know how to seize and are
skilled in doing harm. The kite is the original type of these, [but not of the other kind,
the very black and deep one]. Those who run toward wickedness are somehow dark, not plain
to everyone, and [unprofitable] to the many, though they bring misery on themselves. Those
who are sick with accursed boastfulness always have a desire to get more than others.
[Whatever comes by chance cannot satisfy them, nor can their many-sided schemes of
wrongdoing and inventions.] So they snatch even this insatiably. For this reason he joins
to it immediately: “And the sparrow, and the gull.” These are insatiable, I think, always
gathering whatever falls in their way. Then he says: “the hawk and its like, and the night
raven, and the [diving bird], and the ibis, and the [προσφορίων], and the pelican, and the
swan.” He would also register against themselves these: the cruel, who plot savagely
against others and fasten without restraint on whatever they happen to be able to get.

NOTE 20

5 ...one who is broken, and who has given his mind over to the desires of the flesh, could
be pictured by betrothal to a woman. For when they come near the voice of the army’s
herald, they withdraw from the holy and most warlike multitude. The herald speaks out
ahead of time what such trapped men would likely be thinking and saying. Is it not true to
suppose this of them? Loving [ease], they are accustomed in persecutions to cherish
freedom from toil, and [to hold back from] following the zeal that comes from love for
God. They reason that if they should suffer anything while contending, they will lose
their houses, their possessions, and the things they honor and desire. 8 Verse 8. “Who is
the man who is afraid and fainthearted?” By the same author. The man who is devoted to
earthly things, who builds houses and plants vineyards, and who is overcome by the
pleasures of loving the flesh, will surely be cowardly and without strength.

10 Verse 10. “But if you approach a city to make war on it.” This is like the saying, “And
into whatever city you enter, inquire who in it is worthy.” The words “with peace” are
like the apostle’s saying: “The servant of the Lord must not quarrel.” 13 Verse 13. “And
you shall strike every male of it with the slaughter of the sword.” By the same author.
The sword of the Spirit would be the word of God. It is the sword of the Spirit, that is,
the word of God, with which the inspired disciples killed every male of the opposing
power, as with Simon and Elymas the magicians, and they overthrew the strong teachings of
such men. But they spared the women, who are souls able to say: “Because of fear of you,
Lord, we conceived in the womb until [we came] upon the earth.” They spared the little
children in the same way, to whom Paul also writes: “Little children, do not be children
in your minds, but be children in malice.” The text says also: “Spare the cattle.” For
“the righteous man pities the lives of his [cattle].” By cattle he hints at those who are
less reasoning. Cornelius also was cattle, according to the vision of the four-footed
creatures that appeared to Peter.

NOTE 22

Verse 6. “You shall not take the mother with the children.” The reason is that the young
cannot feed themselves if the mother is taken.

NOTE 23

1 Verse 3. “No Ammonite shall enter.” Why does the law forbid mixing with the Moabites and
Ammonites, not for a set time but forever? First, because of their unlawful root, for they
were born of an unlawful union. Second, because of the ungodliness they led the Israelites
to share in, when they made their women attractive and through them caught the Israelites
in the worship of idols. But the law commands that the Edomite and the Egyptian be
received after the third generation: the one as a brother, the other as a benefactor who
helped at the right time. For when famine struck, their fathers went into Egypt and were
fed. So the law teaches us not to forget even an old kindness. 2 Verse 14. What does it
mean, “Because the Lord your God walks about in your camp”? He knows that the air, when
filled with foul smells, often breeds plague. So he commanded them, while encamped, to
bury the waste they passed. And so that they would not disobey and suffer harm, he added,
out of necessity: “Because the Lord your God walks about in your camp.” He also teaches
the reason: “to [rescue] you, and to hand your enemy over before your face.” Through this
he teaches them to do nothing unlawful. For he adds: “And your camp shall be holy, and
nothing shameful shall be found in you.”

3 Verse 12. “And let there be a place for you,” he says, “outside the camp, and you shall
go out there.” 4 Verse 13. “And you shall have a peg on your belt. And when you sit down
outside, you shall dig with it, and turning back you shall cover your shame.” 5 Verse 14.
“Because the Lord your God walks about in the camp to rescue you and to hand your enemy
over into your hands. And your camp shall be holy, and no shameful thing will be seen in
you.” Those who want to act like men against their spiritual enemies ought to refuse every
kind of uncleanness. But we all stumble in many ways. Human nature is sick, and prone to
slip into error. As the Psalmist says, no one understands his transgressions. [The sense
of the next words is uncertain:] “Suppose one of the impurities born in us were almost to
break out among you, and we, being sick, were caught in something outside the law and
outside a life fitting for the holy.” For the law of sin dwells in the members of the
flesh. First, then, let the faults that come from our weakness not be committed openly and
in plain view, nor before the eyes of many. Let them be done, as it were, outside,
unnoticed, as far from the camp as possible. Then let them be covered over by corrections.
As it is written, “The wise will cover their own shame.” When we stop our offenses, and by
leanings toward better things in a way set the mind in order to choose what is profitable,
we remove our stumblings from the midst. We overcome the ugly sin with the sweet fragrance
of what follows, and we shall enter again into the camp of the saints, that is, into the
church of the firstborn. This is fulfilled in Christ, if we take up his cross with a keen
and well-girded mind. For the statement that we are to have a peg on our belt, that is,
the wood, hints at this indirectly. So we make the bodily things a pattern of the
spiritual. For we are not [to remain] in impurities, [and to ... ] before the eyes of God
who made us, when we go to the latrines [the Greek of this sentence is corrupt]. We must
therefore bury impurities, “because the Lord walks about in the camp.” For Christ dwells
in us and walks about in us.

NOTE 24

Verse 6. “You shall not take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for in that way he is
pledging a soul.” Another comment on the same verse: a mill or an upper millstone is not a
soul. But it helps in making bread, by which people above all live. Note this, because of
the blood. For it was said about the blood, “The blood of the body is its soul.” So these
words must be understood in a loose sense. For neither the blood nor the mill is the soul.
They are things that contribute to living.

NOTE 27

15 Verse 15. “And he shall set it in a hidden place.” It was likely that some, out of fear
of punishment, would take pains to go unnoticed and practice ungodliness in a corner and
in secret. So, to bring greater fear and threat on those who do this, he puts under curses
those who commit sin without a witness. Such are those who put on a false show of
reverence but bury their passions inside, and in the movement of the mind rave wildly
after every kind of absurdity. These are the ones who set up their idols in a hidden
place. 17 Verse 17. “Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s boundaries.” The one who
shakes a person found within the true knowledge of God and a godly way of life, and
unsettles him from it, also moves his neighbor’s boundaries. And what follows makes this
clear. 18 Verse 18. “Cursed is the one who leads a blind man astray on the road.” From the
same author. Such also are those who draw people from idol worship, and those from the
circumcision, into abominable heresies. These people are blind and have not yet had the
light of truth and the knowledge of God. The heretics deceive and mislead them by showing
them another road in place of the apostolic one.

19 Verse 19. “Cursed is whoever turns aside the judgment of a stranger, an orphan and a
widow.” He puts under the same curse those who likewise turn aside the judgment of a
stranger, an orphan and a widow, saying the same thing again in another way. For if the
plain wording has its benefit, the spiritual insight has something higher still. The
“strangers” are those who come from the nations into the holy Church of God. The
“orphans,” properly speaking, are those who have renounced their own father, Satan, but
have not yet put on Jesus. They are still counted among the catechumens. In the same way
these are also “widows.” They have turned away from the one who sowed in them the seeds of
destruction, but they are not yet joined to Christ as a pure virgin, in the words of the
divine Apostle. So those who turn aside the judgment of these people, and do not hand over
to them the mystery of godliness unadulterated, are under a curse. And anyone who goes
through the other points diligently will be able to see them spiritually, while the plain
interpretation is kept safe.

26 Verse 26. “Cursed is every man who does not abide in all the words of the law.” The
words “in all,” found in the Septuagint, are confirmed by the Samaritan copy, in which we
found the word “chol,” which means “to all” or “all things.” The Apostle agrees with this
when he says, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse.” So those of
the circumcision are shown to be under a curse, because they do not do all things.

NOTE 33

Verse 6. “Let Reuben live, and not die.” Jacob, when he was dying, cursed Reuben, saying,
“Do not boil over like water.” Moses, in blessing, says, “Let Reuben live, and not die.”
Both are right. The father cursed him because he had gone in to his concubine, and by this
he was instructing and warning what followed. And Moses blesses him justly afterward,
because Reuben alone spared Joseph when his brothers wanted to kill him. It would have
been out of place for a curse to go forward against one who had sinned, and yet for no
blessing to be given to one who had done right.

SELECTA ON JOSHUA

NOTE 1

“You, and all this people.” He promised to give what he had foretold to those who keep the
law. It was not given to Joshua son of Nun for himself. For the Israelites did not keep
it, and so did not receive it, as what follows shows.

NOTE 2

“Every place on which you set foot.” The men of Ai stood against them because of the
lawlessness of Achar. And in another way: God handed the nations over into their hands,
but they did not destroy them utterly, and these nations became a stake for them.

NOTE 3

“And they entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, whose name was Rahab.” The spies
entrust their own safety to a prostitute, and quite reasonably. For it is shown from what
the prostitute says that she alone was faithful and feared God. For this reason her family
too is saved through her.

NOTE 4

By the same author. Rahab is interpreted “breadth.” She is a symbol of the Church from the
nations, who says, “The place is too narrow for me; make room for me, that I may live.”

NOTE 5

By the same author. She is saved not by her hospitality alone, but first of all by her
faith and her disposition toward God.

NOTE 6

“And she hid them in the flax stalks.” She hid them in the stalks of flax which she had on
the roof, preparing them to make linen, as though the men were worthy of a high priest’s
garment. For flax stalks produce the linen from which the priestly garment is made.

NOTE 7

“And she let them down through the window.” It should be known that her house was in the
wall. The new things are sisters of the old: for it is like what happened with Paul, when
they let him down in a basket through the wall.

NOTE 8

By the same author. The Apostle was saved a second time from enemies in the same way, as
he says in his second Letter to the Corinthians: “And through a window I was let down in a
basket through the wall, and escaped.” Again in the Acts: “They were also watching the
gates day and night, so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by night and
let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.”

NOTE 9

“And they stayed there three days.” It was not that the journey took three days, for the
Jordan is very near Jericho, but because of the spies’ careful investigation. For it says,
“Those who pursued them searched all the roads and did not find them.”

NOTE 10

“Forty thousand men, lightly armed.” It should be noted that the number four, whether of
units, or hundreds, or any larger number, is associated with affliction.

NOTE 11

“Make yourself knives of stone from a sharp-cut rock.” We must ask why those born in the
wilderness were not circumcised. We must also ask why a man who gathered wood on the
Sabbath in Moses’ time was stoned by God’s command. A very great multitude stayed
uncircumcised in the wilderness and was not even blamed for it. Yet God had declared that
the soul not circumcised on the eighth day should be destroyed, [and no longer had he laid
down this same penalty for those who break the Sabbath]. Already from this it is clear
that circumcision and the Sabbath are not good in themselves. They were useful for a time.
We should also know that God wanted them to be recognized by circumcision, as a sign.
[Since they would not bear to be made visible by faith], he marked them as a sheep without
reason is marked with a brand. Even if it wanders off, its owner finds it easily. In the
same way he wanted the Jews, when they mixed with the nations, to be recognized by
circumcision. The proof is this: they were circumcised in Egypt. But in the wilderness
they were alone, separated from the Egyptians and from the other nations around Palestine,
and they stayed uncircumcised. When they crossed the Jordan and were about to be in the
midst of the nations, they were commanded again to be circumcised. That is why Scripture
says “a second time” that they were circumcised, not at eight days old but already grown
men, and some of them leaning toward old age. The stone knife shows us the Lord, who gave
us the circumcision of the understanding, the circumcision of mind and heart. This is why
the Apostle also spoke to us of the circumcision of Christ, not consisting in the
stripping off of our flesh.

NOTE 12

“I am the commander-in-chief of the power of the Lord; I have come now.” We should
remember what happened when they made the calf. God said to Moses, “Lead this people up,
for I will not go up with them, because the people are stiff-necked. And see, I will send
my angel before your face. So take heed to yourself, and do not disobey.” Moses said to
him, “If you do not go up with us, do not lead me up from here.” By saying this he
persuaded him, and God was with the people until Moses’ death. After Moses died, he
appears and speaks with Jesus son of Nave. After this oversight of the people [was
committed] to Moses’ disciple, he then hands [the people] over to the commander-in-chief
Michael. This Michael was ruler of the people, as another angel is shown saying in Daniel.

NOTE 13

“Going and sounding trumpets.” These trumpets are a symbol of what happens on the last
day. For he says, “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a command, with the
voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” The priests circling the city for six
days would be a sign of this: through the six days of the present age, all the saints
sound the trumpet and proclaim forgiveness of sins to those who are willing to repent.

NOTE 14

“And Jesus said to the sons of Israel, ‘Shout.’” The shout is probably the giving of glory
in words, a voice of praise to God. It fights against the error of the people of Jericho,
and it wins a victory that no one expected, one full of wonder.

NOTE 15

“Thus did Ozan.” This shows that it was not Jesus son of Nave who wrote these things, but
someone else, many generations later. Rightly understood, this is true, and it does not
contradict what we said earlier. Jesus wrote what happened in his own time, or what was
revealed to him, just as Moses wrote what belonged to his own times. After this, Solomon
the wise built the temple. Then the people sank into great impiety, and God left the
temple desolate, so that Deuteronomy was scarcely found, thrown aside wherever it happened
to land. For this reason the people went into the Babylonian captivity. Ezra, who was most
skilled in the law and spoke the whole Old Testament from memory, wrote down the law and
some other things that had happened or been revealed. These things were foretold long ago,
and afterward they came to pass. What we have just mentioned is surely of this kind.

NOTE 16

“I am still strong today, as when Moses sent me.” So the holy man is strong in both kinds
of words. He is strong in the old mysteries and in the new. This is what it means to be
strong under Moses and under Jesus.

NOTES ON JOSHUA

NOTE 3

Verse 14. “And all the people set out from their tents.” That is, [like the filling of a
threshing floor]. For [the water] was not only made firm, as in the Red Sea, but was
heaped up like a pile of wheat. This is evidently a type of the apostles.

NOTE 6

Verses 15–16. “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city.” Why did he command that
Jericho be put under the ban? It was the first city they captured after crossing the
river. So just as he commanded them to offer the firstfruits of the crops, he ordered them
to offer the choicest of the spoils as first offerings. Besides this, through these laws
he trains them to keep the laws that are necessary. He also showed them his own power by
arranging for them to take the first city without weapons or siege engines, and he brought
it down by the sound of the trumpets alone. So when they are defeated in battle, they
would know that they themselves gave the occasion for the defeat, by despising the divine
laws.

NOTE 8

2 Verse 2. “And you shall plunder the livestock for yourself.” This is because it was not
necessary, as at Jericho, for everything to be devoted to destruction. 26 Verse 26. “And
Joshua stretched out the spear, and his hand.” Joshua kept his hand stretched out so that
the men in the ambush, when they saw it, would take the city first.

NOTES ON JUDGES

NOTE 15

Verse 19. “And God split open the wound in the jaw, and water came out of it.” That is: by
the blow of the jawbone he split the ground, and waters came out.

NOTE 20

Verse 21. “And the sons of Benjamin came out.” Why were they defeated, even though they
went out against them justly? Evidently because of earlier causes. The psalm also says:
“When I take the appointed time, I will judge uprightly.” Then he says that after they
were defeated once and a second time, the anger passed over to the wrongdoers, and the
Israelites won a just judgment. It is worth marveling at the multitude of the Israelites.
They attacked the Benjaminites justly and were defeated, yet they thought nothing evil
against God. Rather, they did not stop weeping beforehand until they had exacted justice
on the wrongdoers. They did not blame God, but said, “But this is enough.” They begged to
learn the way [to proceed]. The saying “Benjamin is a ravening wolf; in the morning he
will eat, and in the [evening] he will distribute food” is fulfilled here. For though he
had won earlier, he became the final meal of the people.

FRAGMENTS ON 1 SAMUEL

NOTE 1

1 Sam. 3:11–21. The divine Scripture was about to foretell the destruction of the sons of
Eli, and that the ark of God would be taken by the Philistines. So it first soothes the
hearing, lest anyone think God is harsh. For this reason, as I said, it records that the
wickedness and sin of Eli’s sons were not lessened by the threat and by the prediction
[made against them], but rather increased.

NOTE 2

1 Sam. 4:13. Eli was devout in himself. His great anxiety was not first of all for the
safety of his children but for the ark, that it might never fall into the hands of the
Philistines. And that is exactly what happened.

NOTE 3

1 Sam. 5:3. This was so that the Philistines would know that God had not been defeated by
the Israelites, and that they had not conquered him by their own power. It was the sins
and ungodliness of the Jews that brought about the defeat. And Dagon fell before the ark,
not in order to worship, for he was not worthy, but in order to be shattered. And so it
happened.

NOTE 4

1a 1 Sam. 15:9–11. In human beings, “hand,” “foot,” “eye,” “ear” and whatever else is so
named are signs of the parts of our body. In God, “hand” means the power to create, “eye”
the power to oversee, “ear” the power to hear, and “foot” his presence when he is doing
something. In the same way, God’s “anger” is the name for discipline against those who
offend, and is not a passion in God. And “repentance” is the shift of God’s arrangement
from one matter to another. What we do when we repent is flee the things we repented of
and pursue others that are better. This is what is called God’s repentance. Why is it put
this way? Because the prophets had to speak about God in a rather bodily manner to people
of very dull mind, so that it could be received. For those who thought the images they
carved and cast were gods, and who were indeed irrational, how could they have taken in
what is said about God through spiritual thoughts and words? And again: if God foresees
all things, he does not become angry because of what he knows. So anger or repentance is
not a passion of God. The work of anger is punishment, and likewise the work of repentance
is a departure from the former matter and a shift to another arrangement. The same is said
about the sword: [a sword is “sharpened”], and Solomon speaks of a “hand” of iron: “to
rescue you from the hand of iron,” and, as David says, of a sword: “into the hands of the
sword.”

1b In the same way God’s anger is said to be “angry,” and sin is said, in David, to have a
“face.” God’s wrath too is said to have a “face,” as in the thirty-seventh Psalm, and the
rivers are said to clap with their hands. But rivers have no hands, and sins have no face.
So, because things are said about God in bodily terms (as the ancients could take them
in), let us not suppose that God has a body or that he is filled with passions. {It is the
easy turning of the human mind that explains this. For it is we ourselves who bring about,
in our own case, the changes in God’s dealings that rightly come upon us, showing by our
deeds that we are unworthy of the honor God gave us. So God condemned Saul. He wished to
hand the rule to David and to keep the kingdom for his offspring, because of the one who
would be born of him according to the flesh, the King of all creation. He used human
words, speaking to human beings, and said, “I have repented that I anointed Saul king.”
That means: “I wish to give the rule of the kingdom to another, and to take from this man
his power.” The words “I have repented,” said on account of Saul, mean this: he made
himself so unworthy of the kingdom that, if I had a nature that repents, I would have
changed my mind about him. Why then was he anointed? Because at that time he was worthy.
But he turned, and became unworthy again.

NOTE 5

From this is shown what I said before: God’s “repentance” means a change in God’s plan of
dealing, from one course of action to another. {The passage shows that even when a
prophet, a righteous man, pleads on behalf of others, he is heard only if the one he
pleads for shows his repentance by action. For the prayer of the righteous man is
effective in this way, as it is worked out through the one who sinned. So for the matter
to be brought to its end, both must come together: the prayer of the righteous man and the
work of the one who repents.

NOTE 6

Esau was red, like a skin [text corrupt], having deadness from it and raging murderously
against Jacob. But David was red with beautiful eyes, so that the [text corrupt: the keen-
sightedness] of David might [be shown].

NOTE 7

How could he be a man of valor, how could he be shrewd in speech, how could he be a
warrior, when he was still tending sheep? So the speaker did not speak from himself. He
foretold what was to come as though it were already present, and he testified of David
what he was going to be. But as for “the Lord is with him” and “good in appearance,” these
were true from childhood and remained: the one by nature, the other by grace.


SELECTED NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH AND OTHER BOOKS (FRAGMENTS ON 1 SAMUEL – FRAGMENTS ON EZEKIEL)
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SELECTED NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH AND OTHER BOOKS continued

NOTE 8

Saul was powerful and had a crowd of helpers to do evil against David, while only two were
being hunted, Samuel and David. So God’s grace made Saul prophesy, not only what concerned
himself but also what was in David’s favor. It also cast him down naked, signifying in
advance that he would be stripped of the kingdom.

NOTE 9

Here “common” does not mean the unclean but those that are not holy, in contrast with the
holy loaves set out on the table. For the table always held six loaves, changed regularly,
on behalf of the twelve tribes of Israel. They called these the loaves “of the presence.”
So each loaf was offered for two tribes, and the six together for the twelve tribes. What
good came of this? The tribes of Israel were joined together in harmony. What better thing
was foreshadowed? The blessed apostles were sent out by the Savior two by two to preach
first among the tribes of Israel, so that six pairs made up the number of the twelve
disciples. {”Lay bread” is so called not because those who are not holy are profane, but
because they are being compared [with the holy ones].

NOTE 10

1 Samuel 21:5–6. “Today it will be made holy because of the vessels.” He said this rather
obscurely, but it means the following. “My young men have been made holy and have kept
away from a woman both yesterday and the day before.” This is what his saying that the
young men were purified amounts to. If they had not been, they would certainly have been
made holy by eating the bread of the presentation. The priest believed what was said and
gave David some of the loaves, which no one but the priests alone was allowed to eat. This
belongs to prophecy that speaks through deeds. The royal tribe, that is Judah, was one
tribe and the priestly tribe another. [The text here is unclear: “I mean the one with
which they were going to be joined.”] The priestly dignity and the royal were to be joined
and made one at the coming of our Savior from David, [who is both priest] and king
together, according to the order of Melchizedek.

NOTE 11

1 Samuel 21:7. “The Neessar.” This shows either that Doeg the Edomite stayed there because
of sin, being [attended to] and confessing before the Lord, or that, being demon-possessed
like Saul, he was not [really] pasturing the mules.

NOTE 12

1 Samuel 21:7. Saul bears the type of the evil spirit. Israel had begun by saying then,
“We have no king.” For the people of old despised the Lord who was their king, [and so]
Saul was given to them as ruler. [The Greek here is repetitive and probably corrupt.]

NOTE 13

1 Samuel 25:22. No one urinates standing and against a wall unless he is at leisure. So
this phrase describes the carefree man who expects to suffer nothing, if he belongs to
Nabal.

NOTE 14

1 Samuel 28:11–12. The woman with the ventriloquist spirit did not bring Samuel up, for
that is impossible. Nor did the one who came up speak the truth. Who this was, and by what
power he came up, you should investigate.

NOTE 15

2 Samuel 5:6–8. David was besieging Jebus. Jebus was the name of what is now Jerusalem,
when it was under foreigners. The Jebusites knew that David was a lover of the poor. So
they set blind and lame men on the wall above to insult him. But when David took
Jerusalem, he was so far from treating these disabled people badly that he laid down a law
for his soldiers, with death as the penalty, if anyone tried to kill a blind or lame man.
For he says, “Everyone who strikes a lame or blind Jebusite, let him touch him with the
dagger,” that is, let him be put to death. For even though they hated David’s soul, they
received mercy. Therefore he is thought worthy of honor from all [the text is unclear
here], while those who insulted David, and whom he spared, say: “The lame and the blind
shall not enter the house of the Lord.”

NOTE 16

2 Samuel 5:14. Note that Nathan, David’s son, was born to him after he captured Jerusalem
and settled there. This is the Nathan whose line the blessed Luke traces, while the
blessed Matthew traces the line of his brother Solomon. So from this, I mean from the sons
of David mentioned here, one evangelist gives one genealogy and the other gives another.

NOTE 17

2 Samuel 16:10–12. So from this too it is shown that what God does not do, but permits to
happen, is said to have been done by him. It is agreed, then, that Absalom’s uprising,
Shimei’s abuse, and his throwing stones at David were not God’s work. David’s words show
more plainly what I mean: “Let him curse, because the Lord has told him to, so that he may
see my humiliation. And the Lord will repay me good in place of his cursing on this day.”
For it is clear that what was happening did not please God. And what did not please him,
he would not have commanded to be done.

NOTE 18

If Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, tried to destroy the Gibeonites, with whom
Joshua son of Nun and all the people had made a covenant, and for that reason seven of
Saul’s descendants, born of his daughters, were put to death, why were the tribes not held
to blame? Why did people who had done no wrong pay the penalty? That seems unjust. Unless
someone says that Saul, being king, was unable to stand against his fellow citizens and
the tribe of Judah, and so could not keep the covenant the fathers had made with the
Gibeonites. I would add to this that it was God’s own ordering that the whole family of
Saul should be wiped out, everyone who at any time might be suspected of claiming the
royal dignity and so of rising up against David and his sons. The words “the Gibeonites
exposed them to the sun before the Lord on the mountain” mean that they killed them and
did not bury them, but left them lying under the sun. “And they were loosened,” it says,
“and Dan son of Joash, one of the descendants of the giants, took them.” He surely means
that the giant took up the bodies that had been laid out under the sun, already broken
down by the heat of the sun. {The story about the Gibeonites remains unknown. [Here] we
might say that when Saul was encamped at Gabee to make war, he routed the foreigners and
destroyed the Gibeonites along with them. The account is in the thirty-second, thirty-
third and thirty-seventh [chapters] of First Kingdoms, where it says, “and he fought all
his enemies on every side,” and so on. What the text says is this: Saul did wrong against
[them], and from that same [act] came the vengeance for the injustice [done in the time
of] Joshua. Those who received their being from him are not wronged when they are
destroyed together with the one who stood at the beginning. For they have their non-being
from the same source from which they had their being. But if they were worthy of some good
because of their own conduct, they receive it later.}

NOTE 19

The question is asked how David, who had pardoned Shimei, commands Solomon to kill him.
David was a man who held no grudges and was gentle. He gives the same command about Joab,
who had labored together with him. Why, then, was this arranged in this way? David was
wise, and he knew that Solomon would not let Shimei live, for fear of an uprising. For
Shimei, from a position of royal dignity, would fight Solomon over the kingdom. Nor would
Solomon let Joab live, since Joab had set up David’s son as king apart from David’s own
mind. Joab had also killed Abner, though he had labored together with the father in many
wars and had succeeded. David foresaw all this. So he got ahead of events and ordered
Solomon to do what Solomon would certainly have done on his own. Then, when the men named
were put to death by Solomon, he would be forgiven, as one who had carried out his
father’s wish and had not moved against them on his own account.

NOTE 20

“And he turned back,” it says, “and slept. And the angel of the Lord came back a second
time and touched him.” Perhaps these were symbols of powers serving the prophet with food
fitting for him. He was withdrawing from human affairs and was worthy of being taught by
such beings. After this he would be able to hear, “Arise and eat,” and would find at his
head unspeakable mysteries, of which the barley cake baked in the ashes was a type. And
does he not eat a second time, at the angel’s command, when the angel said, “Arise, eat,
for the journey is long for you”? [...] Now the [food of] the morning they brought to
Elijah [...] in keeping with what the Lord had said to Moses, among which was this: “In
the morning you will be filled with bread, and you will know that I am the Lord your God.”
And [the other food] likewise: “Toward evening you shall eat meat.”

NOTE 21

This is the power of Christ Jesus, which makes men into sons. And if anyone is a man of
power, he is clearly a son of Christ. But at times the powers under Christ cannot make
sons. And if they do, they make not grown men but infants.

NOTE 22

“Spadontes” means eunuchs. He says this about the three young men and Daniel, that they
were descended from this Hezekiah.

SELECTA ON JOB

NOTE 1

Chapter 1. “The horsemen made three heads for us and surrounded the camels.” So he made
the camels fall under the horsemen. The donkeys and the yoked oxen he put under those who
took captives. The sheep he hated, and for that reason he brought fire down on them. He
was also plotting against the sons, and he was looking for a moment to destroy them. If he
had found them reading, he would not have touched the house, and he would have had no
ground to kill them. If he had found them praying, he could have done nothing against
them. But when he found an opportunity, he prevailed. What was that opportunity? It was
drunkenness; it was a banquet. As for the Spirit’s mention of the corners being struck,
take note that hypocrites stand and pray in the broad places of the corners. Everyone who
has not set foot on the straight way makes use of corners. A broad corner is wickedness
that is great and unrestrained.

NOTE 19

1a Chapter 19. “How long will you wear out my soul?” Heavy loads laid on the bodies of
animals make the animals that carry them grow weary. In the same way there are some heavy
words. When someone hears them, he grows weary, as if pressed down by the weight of what
the words can do. These are words spoken with reproach and harshness, or in abuse. So it
is now with the words spoken by Baldad. Job felt them like a heavy burden, and being worn
out in his soul he says, “How long will you wear out my soul?” and, “Will you weigh down
your words against me like a heavy load?” You see that the words of the tyrant of the
Shuhites were tyrannical words, and Job, hearing them, says what is set before us. For
nothing else strikes a person’s soul as a harsh word does. Often someone has endured
tortures inflicted on his body and yet has not endured words. The perfect athlete, though
he grows weary, still endures harsh words. To endure insult is the mark of a great man.
That is why the Apostle, among his own deeds of courage, says, “When reviled, we bless;
when slandered, we appeal.” Here too it is Job, the noblest of athletes, who speaks. His
book contains nothing so remarkable as his courage and his endurance.

1b Even so, he feels the weariness he has suffered from the harsh word of those who came
to visit him. The heaviness of a word is like a burden laid on the soul and makes it
weary. That is why he says: “Why, my friends, do you add the toil of the soul to the pains
of the body, pricking me more with your words than the sufferings prick the body?” “You
speak against me.” Often someone speaks against another when that other is doing wrong.
But when he has lost all shame, he says it to his face, not to expose him or to tell the
truth, but to reproach and insult him. “I will cry out, and nowhere is there judgment.” If
I cry out now, my judgment does not come anywhere. I am still contending. It is as if he
were saying: “I have cried out like an athlete in the stadium, and my judgment does not
arise anywhere, for I am still wrestling. If I do not finish the match, the judgment that
brings the crown does not come.” We say this so that we do not accuse God because Job
suffers so much and “nowhere is there judgment.” That is, there is nowhere any decision
granting him freedom and release from his troubles.

NOTE 20

1a Chapter 20. “If his gifts go up to heaven.” The heretic too: when he prays, when his
sacrifice goes up with lofty speech, when he seems to be firmly established, then in the
end he will perish. For his prayer is counted to him as sin. We who belong to the Church
and know his errors will say: where are such people, who dream and fashion errors for
themselves? In their stumbling they do not rest their mind on the truth. They become like
a dream that has flown away, which will not be found. David sings something similar: “But
the enemies of the Lord have failed. At the very moment of being glorified and exalted,
they failed; like smoke they failed.” And again: “Like a dream of those who awake.”
“Wealth gathered unjustly will be vomited up.” I know of another wealth that is gathered
unjustly, the wealth found in the words of the heretics. They hold teachings in their
bellies that are opposed to the doctrines of the truth. These are not sweet but are “the
gall of asps,” that is, they are evil. It is said in Deuteronomy, in the song of Moses,
about the wine of their teaching: “For their vine is from the vine of Sodom.” But the good
God will not allow them to keep unjustly gathered wealth in themselves forever. He will
make them vomit it up. For by God’s kindness an angel will drag them out onto the very
house that was badly built:

1b That house is the church of the wicked. So Job goes on: “Out of his house,” and so on.
See how much is laid up even for the one who holds other teaching, because of his ungodly
doctrines. Let us therefore watch ourselves, so that we are not robbed by plausible
arguments from heretical teaching and fall away from the mystery of the Church. “May he
not see the milking of the herdsmen.” The one who teaches other doctrine does not see the
milking of herdsmen either. The herdsmen are souls that are pastured under the good
shepherd and find pasture. The doctrines against God have nothing sweet in them; they are
harsh and dense. For “he shattered the houses of many who were powerless.” And if the
teacher of other doctrine finds you anywhere weak in the faith, weak in sound teaching, he
robs you. It is truly said of the teacher of those who hold other doctrines that he
shattered the houses of many who were powerless. He snatches away the way of life of the
easily deceived, and afterward he cannot make it stand, for falsehood cannot make anything
stand. “May a day of wrath come upon him.” On that day the divine judgment is stirred up
against him. Whether it is the man from the circumcision who has acted impiously against
God, or the one who holds other doctrine, or anyone ungodly in whatever way, his portion
is the one shown in what was said above.

NOTE 21

“Why do the ungodly live, and grow old even in wealth?” By saying “grow old in wealth,” he
means that they are not newly rich. From youth to old age they have gone on being wealthy.
“They take up the psaltery and the harp.” Fathers have another kind of happiness, and so
do their children, a joy filled out by pipes, harps and drums. These charm the ears, stir
up the pleasures of the soul, and bewitch those present with undisciplined music. The
children of the ungodly make it shamelessly, laying their hands on the tightened strings
and clapping to the sound of the instruments. “They finished their life in good things.”
That is, they had no break in their prosperity. They went on to the end of a full life,
luxuriating in bodily goods. The end of their life became the end of their happiness,
since their good fortune lasted until death. “And they fell asleep in the rest of Hades.”
That is, resting and cheerful until death, they go down to Hades untroubled. Or it means
that death itself is not bitter to them; they die as though falling asleep. Or it means
that other people suffer and are worn down while they live, and rest only when they die,
whereas these men, of whom he is speaking, spent their whole life in good cheer and so
came to the rest that is in death.

NOTE 22

1a Chapter 22. “Is it not the Lord who teaches?” This is a sound teaching: a human being
cannot be the true teacher of virtue. The one who teaches a person knowledge is, as it is
also written in the Psalms, none other than God. God teaches by shining into the soul of
the one who learns from him, and by lighting up the mind with the true light, his own
Word. So even if righteous men teach us, having received the grace of teaching, it is
still the Lord who teaches us through them. Even the understanding itself, and the opening
of our hearts to receive the divine lessons, comes about by divine grace. “Or will he
reprove you, making an account of you?” To this we would say that God does not reprove the
ungodly because he worries that he himself might be harmed. He reproves him because he
takes account of the one he provides for and does good to. “You took pledges from your
brothers for nothing.” Eliphaz supposes this about Job, because he knew he was rich and
suspected that he had grown rich from sources of this kind. So he says, “You took pledges
for nothing,” that is, when nothing was owed to you. Then, adding to this, he charges him
with another sin: “You stripped the naked of their clothing.” Sometimes one may take
garments from someone who is not naked but rich, who has many clothes laid up. But suppose
someone has only one tunic, and I strip him of that tunic on the excuse of demanding what
is mine, having no pity on that naked man. Then I have taken away the clothing of a naked
man. Many such things happen among us when we lend, when we have people in debt to us.
Often our debtor is desperately poor and cannot repay. And we shut up our compassion. We
do not see that he is feeding a wife and children, and that they are barely fed from the
few small coins he gets. Yet we demand payment harshly, sometimes even when we have more
than enough ourselves. So Eliphaz brings this charge against Job: “You stripped the naked
of their clothing.” Perhaps he also calls it taking away when someone does not give a
cloak to the naked. For the person who does not clothe the naked, and the one who does not
feed the person who needs bread, is a defrauder and a greedy man.

1b “And you admired the faces of certain people.” This too is another sin, for admiring a
person’s face is a sin. Someone is rich, so I admire his face, but I trample on the poor
man because he has no standing. “So the Almighty will be your helper.” Eliphaz states a
sound teaching here. He thinks Job is suffering because of his sins, and that by enduring
he is purified through the suffering itself. Purified like gold in a furnace, he is shown
to be approved, having put away everything foreign and become unmixed with any evil. So
Eliphaz says that if you also endure what has happened to you, God will give you back
purified, like refined silver. And once purified, you will have boldness, as one who has
put away his sins. You will lift your face cheerfully to heaven and make your prayers with
a conscience that does not condemn you. If you vow or promise anything to God, he will
strengthen you to carry out your promises to him. For he is “the one who works in us both
the willing and the working, for the sake of his good pleasure.” Where the text reads “He
will grant you to fulfil your vows,” Theodotion rendered it, “And you will decree a word,
and it will stand for you.” That is, whatever you arrange and set down will not fall
through. To put it simply, God will provide you with a whole way of life that suits a
righteous man. All your ways will prosper, guided by the divine light, or else your deeds
will be bright and glorious. “Because he humbled himself, and you will say, ‘He was
arrogant.’” Eliphaz seems to speak about someone else, but the word is aimed at Job. He
means that these things will come to the one who repents, because he humbled himself and
said that he justly underwent what he suffered, since he had been arrogant. “And he will
save the one with downcast eyes.” That is, the humble-minded man, who looks down because
of a troubled conscience and lack of boldness, like the tax collector who was justified in
the Gospels.

NOTE 27

Chapter 27. Job added this in his opening words: the devil received authority over Job and
tested him night and day. First he did it through things outside him, then through his own
body, and after that through his friends. When he had tried Job through his wife and saw
that Job was not beaten, he brought three friends. They were not enemies, and they did not
hold scheming doctrines. What they said was true, but it was not offered in the right way
or at the right time. Through them he wanted to make the righteous man say something
against Providence, to turn him to impiety because of his labors and to make him lose
heart because of his pains. But look at what this unbreakable man of steel says after the
words of the three. Eliphaz had finished three speeches, Bildad three, and Zophar two. Job
says: “I am not conscious of having done anything out of place.” Paul said the same thing
later, and added: “But I am not justified by this.” The righteous man spoke with great
confidence, both about his former life and about his conduct at the time of his trial, so
that he could say: I am conscious of nothing against myself.

NOTE 29

Chapter 29. “The mighty ceased speaking.” Or, according to the rest of the editions, “the
rulers.” [These words are corrupt or obscure in the Greek; I give the sense.] “...what was
conceived...” The same thing happens in the soul that loves learning. It conceives the
word, and as the word is declared it shapes it and gives it form in order. When, after
shaping and forming it, the soul hands it over complete, then it gives birth. Until it
gives birth, it is weighed down in labor. “I will speak, that I may find rest, opening my
lips.” The one who has an understanding hearer, and is full of words, finds rest in
speaking. He has, as it were, emptied himself and thrown off the excess.

NOTE 35

1a Chapter 35. “Look up to heaven.” The one who looks up to heaven is not the one who
lifts his bodily eyes and sees the sky. Dogs and donkeys have that kind of looking up. No
lover of the world looks up to heaven. Only the one who loves neither the world nor the
things in the world does. Again, the clouds are not simply high above us. But if I look at
the life of Moses and how he pleased God, and then at my own smallness and lowliness, I
see the cloud high above me. If I come to Jesus the son of Nave, and to the lives of the
prophets, and examine their deeds, then I do what is written and learn how high the clouds
are above me. “If you sinned, what will you do?” So he asks: do you know, if you have
sinned, what you will do to undo the sin? If you sinned in words, heal it with better
words. If you sinned in deeds, heal yourself with different deeds. But if our lawless acts
are many and incurable, then it is for the incurable things, which we cannot heal
ourselves, that Jesus Christ came from heaven, to heal what cannot be healed. So the words
come true: “Blessed are those whose sins have been forgiven.”

1b “He who sets night watches.” See how Elihu goes through praises and hymns of God,
saying of him, “He who sets night watches.” Do you want to see how God sets night watches?
This whole age is night; it is darkness. The light is being kept for you. For now you see
through a mirror, but one day you will see the light. So the whole age is night, and there
is need of appointed watchmen, so that the watchmen of the night may guard those who are
in the night from robbers, from wild beasts and from enemies. Who are the watchmen? The
angels who encamp around us. “He who separates me from the four-footed creatures of the
earth.” According to the others: “teaching us above the beasts of the earth, and making us
wise above the birds that fly through the air.” For man alone is honored with reason. By
the account of creation, then, we have been set apart from all living creatures. But if
you are a sinner, a fornicator, inclined downward, you have not been separated from the
four-footed creatures of the earth. You have been compared with the beasts and have become
like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding, and like the stallion mad after
mares.

NOTE 40

1a Chapter 40. “No, gird up your loins like a man.” The full prizes of the contest are
kept for those who have competed well, and they come after this life. Even so, God’s grace
already gives the contestants a down payment. So when Job fought the greatest fights, God
gave him a foretaste and a pledge of the prizes. Job lost his possessions and glorified
the one who had given them. He buried his children and thanked the one who had taken them.
He fell sick, so that worms poured out of his body, and he was still not beaten by his
sufferings. Then God spoke with him out of a cloud and a storm. Job had heard the earlier
words. He ought to have answered God, but he stayed silent, as one who had no boldness to
speak. He did not yet know the saying, “Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice.”
Yet God gives him freedom to speak. His kindness is so great that he takes on the face of
one who is not judging but being judged together with the man. Other passages of Scripture
teach this too, such as “Come, let us reason together,” and “My people, what have I done
to you?” God is already giving Job a prize, because he questions a human being, asks him
for an answer, and gives him authority to reply. If Job had not been victorious, he would
not have received it. If he had not endured, he would not have heard, “Gird up your loins
like a man.” Do not keep silent. Be courageous in facing the questions. For whoever has
loins that are not girded and tightened but loose cannot answer God reasonably. So let no
one answer God until he has become a man, mature in spiritual stature, and has girded his
loins.

1b “Do not set aside my judgment.” Do not suppose that what you endured was decided
against you without reason, and do not set my judgment aside. Let us remember this saying
as a useful one whenever God judges that we should suffer something: to lose a child, to
lose a position of authority, to fall ill in the body, or to undergo anything of that
kind. None of these things can happen to us unless God judges it so. Since none of them
happens apart from God’s judgment, he says to the one who suffers, “Do not set aside my
judgment.” That is, do not disown what I decided about you. He means the present dealing.
“Do you think I have dealt with you for any other reason than that you might be shown to
be righteous?” I make my defense to you: you were righteous, but you were not plainly seen
to be. You had endurance, and I had to give an occasion for your endurance to shine. You
had courage, but it was hidden in you, and the troubles that came on you showed your
courage. Let us remember these things in times of hardship. Let us take it that we hear
God present and saying to us, “Do you think I have dealt with you,” that is, allowed the
trial, “for any other reason than that your righteousness might be made clear to those who
do not know it?” “Take up your height.” The lines can also be understood like this: you
have defeated the tempter. Take back your height. Take back your strength. Be crowned. Put
on splendor. The insolent one marched out against you, but you humbled the proud one and
turned him back far away in shame, together with his battle line.

NOTE 41

1a Chapter 41. “Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him like a sparrow
for a child?” This describes the end of a great, strong and perfect soul. The dragon has
been handed over to such a soul like a sparrow to a child. He cannot even hurt the child,
since the child leads him about bound wherever it wishes and carries him around. In the
same way, by the grace of the Lord, Satan has been bound like a sparrow in the hand for
the little ones and nursing babies, out of whose mouth God has prepared praise. “Nations
will feed on him.” The Lord is food for the faithful, and in the same way the dragon is
food for the ungodly: “You gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples.” That is, to the
sons of darkness, to those who live in ignorance. For with every word we accept, we are
eating either from the dragon, if we accept a vain report, or from Christ, if we accept a
word that builds up and benefits. “And all that sail together will not carry one hide of
his tail.” To say it more plainly: men who use their bodies as ships cannot by themselves
put to death the dragon’s final and last parts. But when divine power watches over us, we
are able both to bring him in whole and to put him to death. Each of us puts the devil to
death, as far as it depends on himself, according to the saying, “God will crush Satan
under your feet quickly.” “Who could enter into the fold of his breastplate?” The
breastplate is also called the chest, where the ruling part is. His breastplate is not
simple. It is deceitful and folded over. But a holy person is able to expose him and show
that it is folded over,

1b for to the holy person it is not folded. “And a spirit will not pass through him.”
“Will not pass through” does not mean that it does not go through and pass on. It means
that nothing escapes him, and everyone must come through him. So let us prepare ourselves
not to be held fast by him. “And his eyes are the appearance of the morning star.” His
eyes are not morning stars, but “the appearance of the morning star.” For he disguises
himself as an angel of light. He pretends to be a heavenly star, and pretends to be a sign
of day. “Like burning lamps.” I think that all the ungodly who bring in godless doctrines
are the mouth of the dragon. But something further can also be understood figuratively
here, namely where destructive words come from. Suppose you have ever heard a speech that
accuses the Creator under the pretext of Christianity. Say it advocates the teachings of
Marcion, Valentinus or Basilides. When they speak evil of the Maker of heaven and earth,
or say anything like it, you will see that firebrands come out of the mouths of such men.
So let us guard ourselves, lest those lamps burn us, lest the coals of their fire touch
us. “Before him runs destruction.” Destruction is like his forerunner and bodyguard.
Wherever he is coming, his destruction runs ahead, and only then does he himself enter.
Unless someone first receives destruction, he does not receive the dragon. For when
someone sins, then, with itching ears, he seeks teachers, since he is on his way to ruin.
In seeking teachers, after he has been ruined he finds the dragon, and receives into his
own soul one who is filled with so many evils.

NOTE 42

Chapter 42. “And the Lord gave double.” Whoever endures every trial receives rewards for
his endurance, all of them double what he had before. But the Lord gives rewards that are
not merely double but a hundredfold. Yet Job would not have received double what he had
before, if he had not shown double the virtue.

FRAGMENTS ON EZEKIEL

NOTE 30

The arms of Pharaoh are evil in the practice of sin, and, in the doctrines of ungodliness,
the mind of the flesh. God, being good, crushes these arms. Pharaoh is a symbol of the
devil, the ruler of sin among men. The Lord crushes the arm of sinners so that they cannot
take hold of a sword.

NOTE 32

6 This especially shows the allegorical meaning of the Scripture. Pharaoh, in bodily
terms, could not water the land from his excrement. Rather, it is the filthy discharge of
the adversary that waters earthly things. 23 The Hebrew has “in the length of the pit.”
For the word *yarekh*, pronounced with the aspirate in the Hebrew language, means both
“thigh” and “length.” [Its application to the assembly, or gathering, is uncertain in the
Greek.] So he calls the depth of the burial a “pit,” and the extent of the burial its
“length.”

NOTE 44

4. Ezekiel, the son of man, describes many gates, and about each one he gave some account.
Here he speaks, to those who have ears, about the gate of the sanctuary that faces east.
Of this gate it is written, “This gate shall be shut,” and so on. It is not only that the
Lord, the God of Israel, passes through the gate and so it is shut. The prince also sits
in that gate to eat before the Lord, by the way of Ailam, which is translated “the porch
of the gate.” The gate is a shut gate: it is the mysteries of God, which cannot be locked
up. Knowledge has a key, as the Lord says to the lawyers. So the gate is shut to ordinary
people, for what lies inside the gate is what “eye has not seen and ear has not heard,”
and so on. The words in Isaiah about the sealed book carry a meaning like that of this
gate. You will find this same book more plainly in the Revelation of John, together with
what is written about it, and how the one from the tribe of Judah, and he alone, opened
these things. For until our Lord Jesus Christ came, the law and the prophetic word were
shut. A covering lay over them: the stone of hardness, which Jacob removed from the well.
For in many places Scripture has opened up the meaning concerning this gate.


FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
===============================

FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 231–250

Origen’s great commentary on John survives only in part. These are 142 fragments of it
that were copied into Greek commentary-chains (catenae), where a later compiler set down
the comments of several Fathers on each verse. They are printed in Preuschen’s edition as
the work of Origen; as with any catena, a fragment may be shortened or reworded by the
compiler. We found no English translation.

FRAGMENT 1

1a On John 1:1. By presenting him as the Maker of all things, John names him with the
title “Word.” Nearly all skilled making depends on reason. So the only fitting way to show
that he is the maker of all things was to call him by the name of something that belongs
to those who make [than as one who has an art] (and an art is a productive state joined
with sound reason). The Son of God is none other than the craftsman of wisdom and skill,
so he is rightly called Word. He is not a being of some other substance, distinct from the
Word, who makes things that exist through the Word. He himself is the one who makes, being
God the Word. Then, because this Word, who is God by nature and by that very fact the Son
of God, became a human being for the salvation of human beings, the Word was also named
“Flesh.” Some have fallen away from the right faith and suppose that he exists only from
the time he came forth from the virgin as a man. Against such people the theologian very
properly writes “In the beginning was the Word.” He also chooses his verbs to fit: he uses
“became” for the flesh and “was” for his divinity. It would have been more exact to say
“is” of the Word of God. But the incarnation took place at a certain time, and the
evangelist was showing the existence of the Word in contrast to it. So he used “was” in
place of “is.” We must not take the strict meanings of verbs over to things that are
eternal. Sometimes the things these verbs signify have an existence measured by time:
“was” refers to what no longer is, “is” to what exists now, and “will be” to what is going
to exist. But the Word of God is eternal, since he is God. So the verbs used of him must
not be taken as adding any notion of time, because what they signify is not under time.

1b We can hunt out the author’s meaning from the theologian’s own words. Right at the
start of his writing he says “In the beginning was the Word,” for in the beginning he was
making heaven and earth. If “all things came to be through him,” and heaven and earth were
among all things, then he was their creator when they were brought into being. Next, John
did not say “in the beginning of some particular thing the Word was.” So we must take it
in the widest sense, so that what is shown is this: the Word was in the beginning of the
angels, and in the beginning of the archangels. In short, the Word was in the beginning of
all created things, visible and invisible, being the beginning and the maker of them all.
For in Christ “all things were created,” those “in the heavens and those on the earth, the
visible and the invisible, whether principalities or authorities or thrones or lordships.
All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him
all things hold together. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.” If all things
hold together in him, and he is before them, being the beginning of them as the cause of
their being, then it follows that we must say he was present when all things were brought
into being. How could he fail to be before them, and at the beginning of their existence,
if he is their creator? Then, since John said that he was in the beginning, he also had to
show how, and in relation to whom, the Word was when he did the making. So to “In the
beginning was the Word” he added “The Word was with God.” When he came to us, born of a
virgin, he had been sent by the Father. Therefore “he pitched his tent among us,” and he
has this very name, “God with us.” But when he created, he was not sent by the Father as a
man to bring all things into being. He was with God, and he was God. The Son of God is
also called wisdom, “created as the beginning of the ways of God,” according to the
writing of Proverbs. The reason is that the wisdom of God, being with the one whose wisdom
it is, had no relation to anyone else. Rather, [having come to be] by the good pleasure of
God, he willed that created things should exist.

1c So this Wisdom chose to take on a creative relationship toward the things that were to
come into being. That is what is meant by saying that she was created as “the beginning of
the ways of God.” On these ways he travels: ordering, providing for, doing good to, and
giving favors to all beings, in this Wisdom that was created. They say, then, that the
Word is the “beginning.” He is not different from Wisdom in essence, but only in our way
of conceiving him and in his relationship. The reality is one and the same, which the
Scriptures now call “essential.” In one respect it is Wisdom, belonging closely to God. In
another respect, if I may put it so, it is the creative Word, who has inclined toward the
things he made. And the Son of God is not called Word only here. One can set beside this
sayings not only from the New Testament but from the Old: “By the word of the Lord the
heavens were made firm.” Also: “He sent his word and healed them.” And Luke says: “Just as
those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and became servants of the word handed them
down to us.”

FRAGMENT 2

2a On John 1:4. “What came into being in him,” that is, in the Word, “was life.” The point
is that, just as God brought all things into existence, so also those things that are made
to live might be given life by sharing in him. So it is fitting that it says, “And the
life was the light of men.” We should not listen to those who take this wording to mean
that the Word is a created being. For what has come into being is not itself life; and
this life did not come to him from outside, for the life came to be in him. Created beings
could not have him as life in his essence in the way he is with the Father. For it is said
to God: “With you is the fountain of life.” This life is with the Father, but it does not
make the Father alive. The Father does not live by sharing in life. Rather, being God who
is life, he begets life, just as one who is wise begets wisdom and one who is powerful
begets power. This life, wishing to benefit rational beings, took on a relationship toward
them, so that they might live by taking hold of it through sharing. And this should not be
said only of their common living, but also of living according to virtue, in which they
happen to live well.

2b This is shown by the wording itself, for it says: “And the life was the light of men.”
That this is how it is here can be confirmed from another point as well. The Son of God
and Word, who is God as Word, is with God, as was just said. He also comes to be with
human beings, as far as they are able to receive his presence. For it is said: “The word
of the Lord came to Hosea,” and “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,” and in general:
“Those to whom the word of God came he called gods.” So just as he is Word with God, yet
comes to be with created beings, in the same way he is life with the Father, and gives
life to those he visits. In him there arises a life-giving relationship, suited to those
who are being given life. But since besides giving life he also produces knowledge of the
truth, enlightening the mind of those who receive him, he is also called the light of men.
And being the light of men, he clearly enlightens the rational beings above them as well.
For if he is the light of the lesser rational beings, much more is he the light of those
who stand higher.

FRAGMENT 3

On John 1:5. The light that is spoken of as divine dissolves every darkness, and all
ignorance and wickedness that has any existence. So when it shines in such darkness, the
darkness does not “overtake” it. This light is the wisdom and righteousness of God. As
wisdom, it looses the mind from ignorance. As righteousness, it sets the steps of the soul
straight. That is what it means for the light to shine in the darkness: it is not hindered
from sending out its own rays to the person being enlightened. So it is not overtaken by
the darkness, since the darkness is dissolved and made to vanish at its coming. For the
darkness does not overtake the light while it stands and is active; it is dissolved and no
longer exists. Take Paul. While he did not know Christ, he persecuted him, out of the
ignorance that was in him, which we have called darkness. But when the light he was
persecuting shone out with its own rays, the darkness was dissolved, and in this way he
was able to lay hold of the light that had been persecuted by it. In the same way the
robber who repented was blinded by the darkness I described and persecuted the light. But
the darkness in the robber was dissolved, and so he did lay hold of the light. To put the
point more plainly: truth is light. When falsehood and all deceit, that is, the darkness,
pursues the light, then it is dissolved and vanishes as it draws near the one it is
pursuing. For when truth appears, falsehood and deceit are dissolved. And I will say
something paradoxical: the darkness pursues the light while it is far away, but when it
comes close to overtake it, it vanishes. For falsehood, so long as it stands apart from
truth, holds sway and works in a person, so as to drive truth out of the mind. But when it
comes near the truth, it is shown not to exist at all. This is why God, though able to
prevent it, necessarily allowed evil to exist: so that the greatness of virtue might be
shown.

FRAGMENT 4

On John 1:6. [He says “a man”] not so much because of the common description of a human
being as because he was made by nature in the image of God and with a likeness to God. It
should be noted that “there was” (or “came to be”) does not always mean coming into
existence. Here “there came to be” refers to “sent from God,” so that what is said is
this: “There came to be [a man] sent from God for a witness.” If these things are rightly
said about John, how much more are the things written or said about the Son of God to be
taken as said or written of one who is spoken of, and written of, and who comes to be.

FRAGMENT 5

On John 1:7. “So that all might believe.” That is, as far as it depended on him, even if
not all did believe. For if not everyone receives the illumination that comes from the
sun, no one would say on that account that the sun does not rise for the purpose of
enlightening everyone. The purpose of the one who sent him was that all should believe.

FRAGMENT 6

On John 1:8. “He was not the light.” That is, not the light that is spoken of as divine.
Some had supposed, because of the advantages John possessed, that he himself was the
Christ. For this reason the evangelist says this, to uproot such an error entirely. Even
if John is a light, he is not that light about which the saints say to God, “In your light
we shall see light.” So even if John was a light, in the sense of what was said to the
disciples, “You are the light of the world,” he was not that true light. “True light” is
not said in contrast to falsehood but to distinguish it from what is only an image. For
“truth” and “true” are sometimes set against falsehood and deceit, and sometimes against
an image and a copy. One may take the perceptible light, and especially the sun, as the
image light, and the intelligible light as the true light. Or rather, the true light is
what gives light to intelligible things, the holy powers. This, I think, is what the
Scripture says: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of lights.” For the light spoken of as divine was “the true light that
enlightens every man coming into the world.” But since the phrase “coming into the world”
is ambiguous, and can refer sometimes to the light and sometimes to the man, it must be
explained both ways. First, we should take it that the light enlightens every man as it
comes, at the time of its visit, since the man is in the world: as has been said, the
light comes into the world to enlighten man. Second, the true light enlightens every man
who comes into the world.

FRAGMENT 7

On John 1:12. Not everyone turned away from him, since many of them welcomed him, above
all the apostles. So the evangelist adds: “But as many as received him, to them he gave
authority to become children of God.” Those who are being brought to faith, and perhaps
also those who have already advanced, have the authority to become children of God. For
the time being they have received only the authority. They will actually become children
when they are made perfect in virtue, faith and knowledge. He shows why they had this
authority by writing that it was given to those who believed in his name, that is, the
name of the light. Believing in the name of the light is not the same as believing in the
light. So authority is given to those who believed in his name. By “authority” I mean a
fitness for becoming children. But if, through progress, they move from believing in his
name to believing him, they would then be children of God no longer in potential but in
actuality. Some give assent to the light with a simpler and not very [thorough]
understanding, and they believe in his name. Others come to him with knowledgeable proof
and well-ordered understanding, and they believe in him and call upon him. That is why
Jesus, after the disciples had made much progress, says, “You believe in God, believe also
in me.” In other words: “You now have the time to pass from believing in my name, so that
you may believe me and the Father.” Indeed, when he had explained to them the greatest
matters of theology, he added, as if speaking to all, “Do you not believe that I am in the
Father and the Father is in me?”

FRAGMENT 8

On John 1:13. Those who are born of God were born of God by believing that Jesus is the
Christ and by doing righteousness. They are not subject to birth from bloods; that is,
their origin is not from material things. Indeed, when Peter believed that the Christ is
the Son of the living God, the Savior said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona,
because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
Consider also, from another angle, whether a man can be a son of bloods while thinking
himself devout and a son of God because he brings the perceptible [sacrifices] commanded
by the law. These people suppose they please God through slaughter and the pouring out of
blood. Doing this was blameless in the past, but it is no longer so for us, because the
blood of Jesus, given for us, is fully sufficient for our justification. Those who do
everything in order to appear righteous to men are subject to the will of the flesh and
the birth from a man. These people set out to please God by the will of the flesh. They
circumcise the flesh and want to live as Jews openly, while taking no care for the heart
and the hidden Judaism. And those have the birth from the will of a man who, under the
pretext of human philosophy, keep away from vice and take up virtue. Higher than all
these, then, is the one who is born of God, because after believing in his name he has
come to believe him.

FRAGMENT 9

The words “as of an only-begotten from a father” lead us to understand that the Son is
from the Father’s own being. For none of the created things is “from the Father.” They
have their being from God through the Word. If other things also had their existence from
the Father, the word “only-begotten” would have been put there for nothing, since there
would be many who have their being from the Father. But this only-begotten from the Father
is said to be full of grace and truth. He is not something other than the things he is
said to be full of. For the only-begotten himself says of himself, “I am the truth.” What
is filled by truth is receptive of truth. But truth, which in actual fact is what it is
said to be, is not receptive of truth. The same could be said about grace. It is not
strange to say such things of the only-begotten, since the same kind of thing is written
of the Father. In the prophet he says of himself, “I am full.” It is likely that this
expression was also used because of what could be observed before the Savior’s coming. The
law given through Moses punished those who sinned, and showed favor to no one for what was
done in breach of it. Moreover, this law handed down the rites of the mysteries through
images and shadow-sketches. It led by the hand those who were guided by them and prepared
them for the teaching of Christ. This is why the law is called a tutor leading to Christ.
Now the Savior has come, not to punish those who have sinned but to give forgiveness for
what was done in that way. He has come to put the finishing touch on the teaching, and to
bring knowledge of the images of the truth, by revealing the truth himself, or rather by
being himself the truth. So it is fitting that he appeared full of grace and truth to
those who saw him. For if he showed favor to some and not to others, he would not be full
of grace. In the same way, if he brought one part of the shadow to an end but not another,
he would not be full of truth. But in fact he put an end to every shadow and image, and he
grants forgiveness of all sins to those who flee to him through repentance. So he is full
of truth and grace.

FRAGMENT 10

10a [The text reads “Kekropes,” probably “he has cried out.”] This is said not about the
sound of the voice but about the intensity of the thought. For the man who announces great
teachings utters them, as he should, with a great voice that matches his thought. The word
“first” must be understood as [text missing]. Still, what John says amounts to this:
Jesus, who was before me and prior to me, came after me and behind me. He did not come to
stay behind me but to be ahead of me. We must understand that he comes “after” John in
terms of the time of birth. John was conceived six months before Jesus was conceived. In
this way Jesus came after him and yet came to be ahead of him, shown to be God and John’s
Maker. It could be put this way too: everyone who learns from a teacher is thought of as
walking behind him, and in that sense is said to go after him. Since the Savior also came
to John, who was baptizing, in order to be baptized, he is said to come after the baptizer
in the sense that he was baptized by John. But in the sense that he had been made holy and
had been testified to by the Father, he came to be ahead of the baptizer, shown to be more
honorable and superior to him. It is also well said, “He has come to be ahead of me,”
since his existence is prior to his having come to be [ahead]. And note how precisely this
is said. It is not written, “He who is behind me was able to be before him.” But it is not
impossible for the one who is first to come afterward. It could also be said another way.
“Because,” he says, “from his fullness we all received, and grace in place of grace.” Here
again John gives the reason why Jesus, who is first, has come to be ahead of him, and he
adds, “Because from his fullness we all received, and grace in place of grace.”

10b For how is he not “before” in the sense of surpassing, and the first of those who are
filled, since he is the one who fills? If he himself brings to completion, and fills with
virtue and wisdom, those who come to holiness, how is he not first and far above them? Pay
attention to the precision of what is written. It does not say “the fullness,” but “From
his fullness we all received.” Those who share in holiness in this life, and in the
knowledge of the truth, who know in part and prophesy in part, have these things from his
fullness, but they do not have his fullness. They might have it in the life of the ages to
come, according to the apostle: “When the perfect comes, the part will be done away.” The
words in John’s catholic letter agree with this: “It has not yet been revealed what we
shall be. But we know that if it is revealed, we shall be like [him], because we shall see
him as he is.” That is, as far as it is possible for created beings to know God. For it is
not possible to take “as he is” to mean as God is in himself. Still, we will have
something more than our present condition, if we no longer know in part, but, stripped of
ignorance, come face to face with the purest truth and see him as far as we are able. So
because John has received from the fullness of Jesus, he says about himself, “He has come
to be before me,” since what he had, he had from that fullness. And the fact that not one
person but all the saints receive from the fullness of Jesus shows the superiority of the
one who fills and perfects. For if all the saints were filled not from the whole fullness
but from some part of it, those who receive from the fullness of the one who gave to them
would be seen to fall far short.

FRAGMENT 11

Some of our virtues we have from ourselves, from our own resources, and we acquire them by
choice. Others come from God. We have believed the Savior and his Father as far as was
open to us, from what lay in our own power. What is left for us is to ask also for what
comes from God, as the disciples of Jesus say to him, “Add faith to us.” The word “Add”
means that they are asking for a faith given by God, in addition to the faith they had by
choice. Paul too says as much when he writes, “According to the proportion of faith,”
meaning that the gifts of the Spirit are given in proportion to the faith that is already
in us from what lies in our power. And again: “To another faith is given, he says, by the
same Spirit.” But if faith is given to someone in proportion to the faith he has, it is
clear that faith sent by God comes to the faith that we have rightly achieved ourselves.
What has been said about faith must be said also about the other virtues. Virtue is a
grace, making the one who has it gracious. So when we have achieved it by our own choice,
then what is from God arrives. And this is what it means that grace is given by God “in
place of grace.”

FRAGMENT 12

The law was given through Moses, but not by him; it was given by God. For the law belongs
to God, as it is written: “The law of the Lord is blameless, turning souls back.” But even
if the law was given through Moses, “grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ.”
Grace, through the forgiveness of sins, prevents the punishment that the law imposes on
sinners. Truth goes beyond the shadows and the types. Consider also what follows. The law
and the prophets continued until John, so that he became the end of the old Scripture,
after which the coming of the Savior took place. So the statement “The one who comes after
me has come to be before me” fits very well. Since the Savior’s coming was announced
beforehand by the law and the prophets, he is said to have come “after.” But even if he
came after, he came to be before them, because he fulfilled law and prophets by making
plain what was divine in them. He was shown to be the cause of all that God-breathed
Scripture, which extended as far as John the Baptist.

FRAGMENT 13

13a On John 1:18. Seeing is of two kinds: by the senses and by the mind. The one grasps
bodies, the other grasps things without bodies. So we call the things that lie before the
mind, and are seen by it, “invisible.” We do not mean that they are not seen, but that
they are not made by nature to be seen. No body is invisible, even if at times it lies
outside our sight and is not seen. For “invisible” does not mean “not seen.” It means “not
made by nature to be seen.” That is why “not seen” and “invisible” cannot be exchanged for
each other. What is invisible is, of course, not seen. But many bodies, though visible,
are not seen, either because they are covered or because they are not [where the viewer
happens to be]. With this distinction rightly made, we must take the statement as being
about something invisible. Not even the highest powers see God. This is not from any
weakness of their own, but because God has no body. Nor is God simply visible to the mind,
but only to a mind set free from all ignorance, all evil and all matter.

13b “Blessed,” he says, “are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” By “heart” he
means the mind. Whoever has become pure in the way described, and has been made perfect in
virtue, reaches out to God as far as that can be done. This being so, the mind that is
still subject to coming-to-be, and therefore to time, does not see God [text unclear].
That is why John did not say outright, “No one has seen God,” but added the word “ever.”
That word points to something about time, so that the meaning is this: for as long as the
word “ever” can be said, as pointing to a state we are under, the mind is [caught up] in a
life bound to matter. So it cannot see God by reaching out in thought. We, for our part,
think of God as far as we can, from the ideas spoken about him in theology and from what
we dimly have. But God himself does not understand himself through anything of that kind.
He has understanding of himself through his own closeness to himself, being himself both
the understanding and the one understood. Therefore only the Son knows him, since he is
understood by the Father and understands the Father.

FRAGMENT 14

On John 1:18. It fits that the word “bosom” is used of the Father, since the Son is only-
begotten God and his Son. Everything about the Godhead cannot be named, and it is made
known to us, who are human, through human words. So the evangelist reasonably wrote, using
what we know to show the Son’s closeness to the Father: “the one who is in the bosom of
the Father.” Scripture says that all who are saved and receive God’s promises will be “in
the bosoms of Abraham.” That means only that Abraham is called the father of the faithful.
In the same way the Son of God is said to be in the bosoms of the one who begot him. And
as faithful people come to be in the bosoms of faithful Abraham, so too the Son is in the
bosoms of the Father. We must understand “the Father’s bosom” as we understand the other
things said about God in human terms. Scripture sometimes says that prophets, patriarchs
or angels saw God. Divine Scripture does not contradict itself here. For no one sees God
by reaching out with his own mind, as we are said to see visible things by directing our
eyes at them. God is seen by those to whom he decides to reveal himself. If someone really
saw God, he would be seeing him, so to speak, as he is and how great he is. But since it
is not the person who sees, but God who shows himself, God gives himself to be understood
by created beings as far as is possible for them. So the Savior also says, “And I will
make myself visible to him.” He did not say, “That person will see me,” but “I will make
myself visible to him.” And this is * * *

FRAGMENT 17

The forerunner stands for the Savior in several different ways. He is a prophet of God. He
is a lamp of the light, giving light beforehand to those who are in the night of ignorance
and training the eye of the soul so that it can run to the great light as well. [[He is
like the morning star, the herald of the sun, marking the arrival of the day that is about
to dawn on us.]] He is also the voice of the Word, for a voice must come before a word.
This is why he says, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” By “one crying” he
means the Word, and by “wilderness” the soul that has no knowledge of the divine teaching.
How could it not be a wilderness, when it is deprived of the word of God and of the voice
that makes him known? The work of a voice is to make clear what is signified, so that
people may grasp the word that is being declared without confusion. And what does the
voice of the one crying command the wilderness? “Make straight,” he says, “the way of the
Lord.” The wilderness stands for all who are ignorant of the one who comes after the
voice. A man who goes ahead of a king orders those to whom the king is coming to make
straight the road for those who are coming to the teaching of the word. [[So John does for
the Word. For as a voice runs ahead of a word, so John, as a voice, runs ahead of Christ,
who is the Word.]]

FRAGMENT 18

18a What does John mean when he says, “In your midst stands one whom you do not know,”
when Jesus was not yet there? For in the following verses it says, “The next day he sees
Jesus coming to him,” which plainly shows that Jesus was not there when John said, “In
your midst stands,” bearing witness to the light. For John knew that he was also God the
Word, and the Word is present to every rational being. Some suppose that the thinking
faculty, which some call the ruling faculty, is in the very middle of us. The Word, by
which we are rational, is there. It is the same as the image of God, according to which
man was made in the image of God. John shows that the Word of God is the one who is about
to come to be baptized by him, and so he says, “In your midst stands” one who is unknown
to you. He is unknown to you because, although you ought to have him in your midst doing
what is fitting, you keep him idle, and, if I may put it this way, inactive within you,
since you do nothing and think nothing rationally. Having said this about the being of the
Word, John goes on to join to it what concerns his coming among us. He says, “The one who
comes after me”, that is, after the law and the prophets; for I am a sign and the end of
them.

18b He comes after me, fulfilling everything that was prophesied about him. For the one
who is prophesied comes afterward, after what was spoken beforehand. “In your midst
stands”, as we have already explained, “one whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”
You should understand “the strap of the sandal” like this. The Word of God does not carry
out what he arranges for human beings with his divinity uncovered. He takes the form of a
servant, so that his journey, as it works out in the plan of salvation, is veiled. This is
also said of him in the Psalms: “And he bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was
under his feet.” [[There is something dark about his journey, because it is unclear.]] So
the strap of his sandal, that is, of the darkness around his feet, is the account of how
hard it is to grasp. It binds and holds the sandal tight around his feet. Untying the
strap would therefore mean making clear, and setting out in words, how God took a body,
covering and hiding the power by which he travels for the plan of salvation. Since no
human being can demonstrate the manner of this union, it is fitting that the man who is
more than a prophet, than whom none born of women is greater, confesses that he is not fit
to untie the strap of his sandal.

FRAGMENT 19

It is also well said, “the one who takes away the sin,” and not “the one who took away” or
“who will take away.” For the taking away of the sin of those who flee to him is always at
work. From this we establish that he took away, takes away, and will take away, the act of
taking away being applied to each time in turn.

FRAGMENT 20

20a “And I did not know him.” He says: I who teach did not say these things about Christ
by nature, or from the common understanding of men. I did not know him. I spoke because
the Holy Spirit and the Father had revealed to me the testimonies about him. I was sent to
bear witness about the light, and I received the beginning of knowledge of the one I
testify to when I was sent. But we must also try to explain in another way what “not
knowing” means. Even when he says of the Savior, “And I did not know him,” he is not
contradicting what he testified. His words show that he was formerly ignorant, but now
knows this very person, because God revealed him to him. This is shown by what is said
immediately afterward. For John himself again says that he saw the Spirit come down on the
Lord in the form of a dove. “I did not know him,” he says, “but the one who sent me to
baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down, this is my
Son.’ And I have seen and have testified.” Now even before the Spirit came down, John knew
him as lamb, as man, as prophet, as Christ, and as the true light. Yet he still lacked the
knowledge that he is the Son of God and the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. He
gained that knowledge when the sign he was given was seen. Since this is so, we must ask
how John says he “saw” the Spirit. It is not right to think that the Spirit, which has an
intelligible existence, is seen by the senses. So we will examine together with the
passage before us, treating the question in general terms, what is said in a similar way
in the prophecies. For many of the prophets, and in short many of the holy men, are
recorded as having beheld visions and sights.

20b For seeing and sight, as in other places, are divided in two ways: into perception by
the senses and perception by the mind. It is impossible for the holy men to have seen God
with the senses, or the Trinity altogether, or the things under it that have an
intelligible existence. What remains is that they beheld the visions with the mind. They
did not see them as they are in their own substance, but as they are able to see them by
means of some analogy. Certainly the Holy Spirit has no shape or form or appearance of any
kind, yet the mind receives the idea of a dove. And although the Holy Spirit does not move
from place to place, John sees a descent taking place from heaven on Jesus as he is
baptized. What follows shows that the grasp of none of these things is by the senses: “The
one on whom you see it,” he says, “coming down and remaining on him.” The coming down of
something can indeed be seen with the senses when it happens to be a body. [The text is
corrupt here:] But what has come down on the one on whom it came down is seen not only by
the eyes but also by the mind. The senses, however, are not able to grasp things that
remain, so as to confirm this vision. And we must also say, by another proof, that the
other evangelists report that John saw the descent of the Spirit on the Son, and that he
saw the heavens opened or torn apart. But the opening or tearing of the heavens cannot be
seen with the senses. It cannot be seen even in the denser bodies, I mean water and air,
and let us include the upper air, if that is something other than the heavens. For when
things pass through continuous bodies that are not hard, they pass through them without
the opening and the passage coming from anywhere else. The things passing through are
themselves what open them, and after those that crossed have passed, the bodies join
together again.

20c One cannot see water divided unless a more solid body has been put into it. If that is
so, the opening of the heavens would not come under sight, since the Holy Spirit who came
down from there is not a body. So the Baptist saw these things with the mind. We should
also notice that the Holy Spirit remained on Jesus alone. If the Spirit had come down and
stayed on someone else too, there would be no sign pointing out the one who baptizes in
the Holy Spirit. This must be shown as follows. The Holy Spirit makes his home in
undefiled and pure souls, and does not stay where there is sin. For “the Holy Spirit of
discipline will flee deceit and will depart from foolish thoughts.” David, who had fallen
into a sin, makes his plea to God: “Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me.” Jesus
alone committed no sin and had no deceit in his mouth (it is said of him alone: “him who
did not know sin”). So it is fitting that the Holy Spirit, having come down on him,
remained. All this, the Spirit’s coming down from heaven on Jesus and remaining on him,
was written for the sake of the saving plan. It is not a historical report but a vision
seen by the mind, as I have already said. For the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the Son.
Neither the Son nor the Father is in a place, so that the Holy Spirit would have to travel
from the Father to the Son by moving across. In general, what is said about the Godhead
should be taken in a way the mind can grasp, even when it is put in human terms, such as
standing, sitting and going up, and whatever similar things are written about the Godhead.

FRAGMENT 21

It is worth asking how Andrew here, on the second day after Jesus’ baptism, immediately
finds his own brother Peter, while elsewhere, according to Matthew, Jesus finds Peter and
his brother Andrew many days after the baptism. It is likely that Andrew first brought
Peter to Jesus, and Peter was helped a little by the teacher. Then, after his brother had
been helped, Andrew withdrew to attend to his own affairs. After this first calling, Jesus
called them to follow him continually, giving them authority to fish for people through
the teaching he gave them. “Come and see,” he says. Perhaps by “Come” he urges them to the
life of action. By “See” he indicates that the contemplation that follows the successful
carrying out of those actions will surely come to those who want it, as they persevere in
them.

FRAGMENT 22

He said that he would be called Peter, a name taken from the rock, who is Christ. The
point is that just as a wise person comes from wisdom and a holy person from holiness, so
Peter comes from the rock * *. This is proved from what the Saviour said to the man so
named: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”

FRAGMENT 23

The words “The next day he wanted to go out into Galilee” are ambiguous, and show that the
one who went out may be Andrew, or may be Jesus. But the statement seems rather to be
about Andrew, who went out into Galilee and found Philip. To this Philip, found by Andrew,
Jesus says: “Follow me.” To follow Jesus is to follow the Word, wisdom and righteousness,
acting and thinking rightly. In the Greek language Bethsaida is translated “House of
hunters.” To such people Jesus said: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
About hunters of this kind, as sent by God, there is a prophecy in Jeremiah, spoken in the
person of God, which runs like this: “And look, I am sending to you many hunters, who will
hunt you down.”

FRAGMENT 24

He does not mean that the prophets wrote that Jesus would be the son of Joseph, from
Nazareth. He means: we have found that this man is the one about whom Moses in the law,
and the prophets, spoke.

FRAGMENT 25

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” He is either doubting (“Can so great a good
really come out of Nazareth?”) or speaking with confidence: the one who has been found is
indeed from Nazareth, and is truly good. Philip answers him, “Come and see” Jesus, the one
who has been found. He wants him to be convinced by sight rather than by hearing about the
one found.

FRAGMENT 26

On John 1:49. Nathanael’s words to Jesus he put this way: “You are the Son of God; you are
king of Israel, the [discerning] race.” To look into the heart and know who has deceit in
himself and who has none belongs to a son of God. It does not belong to one of the many
sons, but to the only-begotten, who is king of the chosen race. This is Jesus, and that is
why he was Son of God.

FRAGMENT 27

On John 1:50. “You saw me then, when I happened to be under the fig tree, before I was
called by Philip.” Jesus heard this and said: “Because I told you that I saw you under the
fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” Now that the plain
sense of the text has been made clear, we must speak of the allegory. Philip, by following
Jesus, who is God’s Word and God’s wisdom, became a hunter of the souls that God gives to
those who are able to benefit them. For “Nathanael” is interpreted “gift of the Lord.” To
this disciple, who had been given to him, Philip did not at once communicate the things
about the divinity of the Son of God. He spoke instead of his coming as a man: “We have
found him whom we Hebrews all read about in common, as one who was to come, in the
writings of Moses and the prophets.” He meant Jesus, born of the virgin without the sowing
of a man’s seed. This Jesus is called the son of Joseph, who had been betrothed to Mary,
and he has his origin from Nazareth in terms of place, for Nazareth was the virgin’s city.
The disciple Nathanael received this from Philip, who had by now become his teacher. He
said to the one who had taught him: “If what has been found is from Nazareth, is it good?”
Philip immediately called him to the very sight of the matter: “Come and see.” He did not
want the disciple always to be a hearer of voices. He wanted him to be a beholder of the
truth, hurrying from the hearing of words to seeing. Jesus saw Nathanael coming, not only
by walking but also by progress toward the vision. He bears witness about him, who was so
eager for the understanding of the truth [the text here is uncertain], and says to those
with him: “Do you see this man coming?” He is an Israelite not only in the senses and
according to the flesh, but also according to the spirit and the understanding. For he has
a mind that beholds God. He is truly an Israelite, and not falsely so called, since he is
free from all deceit and is a friend of the truth.

FRAGMENT 28

On John 2:1. The third day had now come since Jesus was baptized. A wedding took place in
Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus himself was invited together
with his disciples. For Jesus is the maker of the man and the woman, and he does not
refuse to be invited to a wedding. He is the very one who, after forming Eve, brought her
to Adam. That is why he says in the gospel about this union: “What God has joined
together, let no man separate.” So let the heretics who reject marriage be ashamed, when
Jesus is invited to a wedding and his mother is there. The Manichaeans must also be
refuted, who say that Mary is not the mother of Jesus, when the evangelist bears witness
that Jesus had a mother.

FRAGMENT 29

We can see the evangelist’s precision in this very story. He knew that the willfully
wicked and crafty among the Jews were ready to slander the mighty works of Jesus. So he
presents Jesus giving the order about drawing the water, not to his own disciples, but to
the servants of the banquet. Otherwise the slanderers would have said that if the
disciples of Jesus had drawn the water, they had filled the jars with wine and only
pretended to have filled them with water. In the same sequence comes the phrase “they
filled the jars up to the brim.” This was so that no pretext for sophistry would be left.
If the jars had not been filled with water, and wine had been poured in, it might have
seemed that the whole content had not come from water.

FRAGMENT 30

The word “believed” is used in place of “were confirmed.” For the most part he uses
“faith” to mean confirmation. So to these people he revealed his glory all the more. For
changing a substance belongs to a creator, not to a created thing. To become wine from
water is not a simple change of quality but a change of substance.

FRAGMENT 31

“And after this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers and his
disciples.” Many people ask how Jesus had brothers, since Mary remained a virgin until her
death. By nature he had no brothers, since the virgin bore no other child, and he himself
was not born of Joseph. So they were called his brothers by law, being sons of Joseph by a
wife who had died earlier. And this was because Mary was, by common agreement, called his
wife. For the law of Moses teaches this, imposing the penalty for adultery on a man who
has relations with a betrothed virgin. The text goes on: “because he humbled his
neighbor’s wife, he shall die.” So if the law calls the virgin who was betrothed to Joseph
“Joseph’s wife,” then, in keeping with such an arrangement, those born of Joseph are
called brothers of Jesus, even though Jesus himself was not born of him.

FRAGMENT 32

32a Three public feasts were handed down to the Hebrews by the great hierophant Moses. One
of them was the one called Passover. It stood above the other two, since it showed forth
the deliverance from Egypt and the crossing over to the holy land. So at this festival the
whole nation of the Jews hurried to Jerusalem from every city and village, for the law had
handed down that the Passover be sacrificed in this city alone. The three feasts were
called by the name of God, who gave them as law. But the Jews no longer kept the feasts
according to the ordinance, but according to their own appetites and pleasures. So the
evangelist calls it not the Passover of God but “of the Jews.” For they no longer came to
Jerusalem for the sake of worship but for the sake of luxury. Everything was brought into
the city from all the surrounding places for feasting, and it was sold in the house of
God. For the evangelist said that oxen, sheep and doves were sold there as in a
marketplace. But it happened that those coming to the feast did not bring enough silver
with them. So some money-changers thought of setting up tables there and exchanging small
coins, that is, lending, taking gold from those who needed silver. These people had come
to get drunk and live luxuriously rather than to keep a feast.

32b So the whole nation of the Jews was there, giving itself over to drunkenness. Jesus
entered the house of God and drove everyone out of it, with only a whip made of cords.
This would not have succeeded if he had been an ordinary man [† who undertook to do this].
He threw out not only the rest of the crowd but even the very men who were selling goods
for the feasting. Let no one think this is less than his other wonders. It was not
possible, without divine working, for one man to drive out so great a crowd, especially
when they were savage and murderous toward him. In fact the Jews themselves, astonished at
what he had dared, say to him later on, “What sign do you show us, that you do these
things?” They mean: “By what power are you so great, and what kind of godly service can
you perform, that you do such things, daring to drive out a whole populous nation by
yourself?”

FRAGMENT 33

“But they believed, not in him, but in his name.” These people do not have a firm or
complete knowledge, as was also said earlier about them, but a knowledge that can very
easily fall away. So he did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all things, not
from the surface but from the depth of the mind. For knowing people from their actions and
words is possible even for a mere man. But Jesus is not a mere man. He is God who became
man, and he knows everything, grasping what is hidden in the mind. For it is said of God
alone: “He who knows hidden things and knows all things before they come to be.” And since
Jesus is God, and knows what is hidden in the heart, he has no need to receive testimony
from a man, because he knows what is in the man. For it is not said simply that he knows
the man, but what is in the man. And since he knew that they would not remain in the faith
they had in his name, he did not entrust himself to them. For they had believed because of
signs, not from an understanding about God. That is why they could quickly fall away,
being deceived by themselves or by others who reasoned that perhaps the signs had not
truly or rightly happened. But the one who believes in him, having his understanding from
God, is not easily deceived.

FRAGMENT 34

Nicodemus must be counted among the many who had believed in the name of Jesus. He was one
of the Pharisees and a ruler of the Jews. He plainly thought that Jesus was a teacher who
had God with him, but he did not think that Jesus was God. His own words show this, when
he said, “You have come from God as a teacher.” And as if adding proof for his judgment
about Jesus as teacher, he goes on: “For no one can do these signs that you do unless God
is with him.” So the evangelist fittingly recorded that his approach took place at night.
He came at a time when he was likely to escape the notice of the many Pharisees, of whom
he was one. Or rather, and this is beyond dispute, he came at night because he was in
ignorance about the God to whom he was coming and had not yet been enlightened. The sun of
righteousness, who makes the intelligible day, had not yet risen for him. Abraham was
seized with love for that day, prepared himself to see it, and rejoiced when he saw it.
Pharisees are men who follow the leading rank and sect in Judaism. They profess a
strenuous way of life and exactness in the law and the prophets. For this reason they are,
for the most part, bold and proud. This is also how they got their name. For “Pharez”
among the Hebrews [means “divided”]. Since these men separate themselves from every nation
of the Jews, as though they surpassed them in wisdom and way of life, they want to be
called by the name from “Pharez.”

FRAGMENT 35

35a The word “from above” is sometimes [understood from places and ...], as in “The one
who comes from above is above all.” At other times it means [from the beginning], as in
“To which you want to be slaves again from above,” that is, [again from the beginning].
The birth from above, which the Savior teaches about, comes about from taking up virtue
and keeping his commandments. For he says to the disciples: “Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you, so that you may become sons of your Father who is in the
heavens.” Even if Nicodemus responded wrongly to what was said, what he said still holds
something true, even though he did not mean it that way. For truly, no one who stays in
being human, in the sense of growing old in the human condition, can receive the birth
that is of the Spirit and from above. Just as no unjust and unbelieving person, while
remaining so, can be born according to righteousness and faith, so no one who stays in
human ways and grows old in them can receive the birth that makes new.

35b So the teacher of truth writes to those who are eager to come to the divine birth that
they must strip off the old man with his deeds. Once he is cast off, they put on the new
man, “created according to God in righteousness.” Because such a person has been born from
above, it follows that he will walk in newness of life. Urging his disciples toward this
birth, Jesus said, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the
kingdom of heaven.” Pay close attention to this as well. Children do not avenge themselves
on those who wrong them. They do not grieve when pleasant things are taken away. They do
not feel any firm attachment to the things that are agreeable to them. So he wants us to
be, by our disposition, what children are by their age. For they are like this without
reason, but those who become like them at Jesus’ command do so by reason and by the best
settled character, and they strive to be found in that state. So even if Nicodemus spoke
these words in ignorance, there was still something true lying in his words that he did
not understand.

FRAGMENT 36

36a The Savior explains the manner in which one can “be born from above.” Since the aim is
to enter the kingdom of God, and it is impossible to attain this without being born of
water and spirit, being born from above goes together with being born of water and spirit.
A person is born of the Spirit when he is made according to the Spirit, becoming holy and
spiritual by him. Then, since the one who enters the kingdom of God is born not of the
Spirit alone but also of water, it follows that we should look in the Scripture for
something about the water too. And consider whether the water differs from the Spirit only
in concept and not in substance. For the Savior says elsewhere, “The one who believes in
me, as the Scripture said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly. But he said
this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive.” If it is
said of the Spirit that he is living water, flowing like rivers out of the believer, then
the water will differ from the Spirit only in concept. So just as someone is born of the
Savior as wise from wisdom, so also he is born of the Spirit as holy and spiritual. And
one who is cleansed by the water and watered so as to bear fruit is born of water and
spirit. Someone else will say that “water” here means the teaching that cleanses the soul,
which also contributes to being born from above. Concerning this cleansing, which comes
about through divine discipline, the psalmist said to God, “You will wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow.” [[And to the multitude of Israel he says, “Wash your heart from
wickedness, Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will thoughts of your troubles
remain in you?” By “thoughts of her troubles” he means the things done out of wickedness,
for which she is going to be punished unless she washes herself by the instruction of the
Scriptures.]] Then, since not the soul alone is called to salvation but also the body
itself, the instrument the soul uses for its own activities, it is fitting that this too
be sanctified through what the divine teaching calls the “washing of regeneration.” This
is also named divine baptism, which is no longer simply water, for it is sanctified by a
certain mystical invocation.

36b And notice how great and powerful is the rite that the Savior handed down to his
disciples. For he says, “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep” and so
on. A person must first be made a disciple by receiving the teachings of the truth. Then
he must keep what Jesus commanded them about the moral virtues. Only then is he baptized
into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So how can the water that is
received along with these things still be mere water? It shares, as far as it can, in the
power of the holy Trinity, and it is joined to moral and intellectual virtue. Consider
also how great it is, by asking why it is received. If it is received in order to enter
the kingdom of God, and that kingdom surpasses everything, how can the cause of entering
it not be great? By the kingdom of God we should mean the settled state of those who live
in orderly obedience to his laws. This kingdom will also have its dwelling in its own
place, I mean in the heavens. But here it is called the kingdom of God, while in Matthew
it is called the kingdom of the heavens. We must say that Matthew named it from those who
are ruled, or from the places where they are, while John and Luke named it from God who
rules. It is the same when we ourselves speak of the kingdom of the Romans: we point to it
through those who are ruled, showing it either by its place [the text is corrupt here], or
by announcing it as the whole inhabited world.

FRAGMENT 37

37a These words show the following meaning. The Holy Spirit comes only to the earnest, and
stays far from the wicked. But “far” and “near” should not be understood in terms of
place. They should be understood as one can understand them of things without bodies. For
such expressions, often written even about God, do not mean distances in space. Since the
Spirit, withdrawing from the wicked, fills those who have faith and virtue, it is rightly
said, “The Spirit blows where he wills.” This also shows that the Spirit is a substance.
He is not, as some suppose, an activity of God that has no distinct existence of its own.
The apostle, too, after listing the gifts of the Spirit, immediately added, “All these
things are worked by one and the same Spirit, who divides to each one individually as he
wills.” But if he wills, and works, and divides, then he is an active substance, not an
activity. Moreover, the saying in Acts, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,” is
not far from willing and wishing. Besides this, words of the Spirit are recorded in the
divine Scriptures, especially in the Acts of the Apostles: “While they were fasting and
serving the Lord, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work
to which I have called them.’”

37b And again in the same book a prophet named Agabus says, “The Holy Spirit says this:
The man whose belt this is, the Jews will bind in this way,” and so on. Even so, though
the Spirit blows where he wills, Nicodemus does not have him in himself, because he has
not believed Jesus as he should. He hears only his voice, and does not know where he goes
or where he comes from. A person hears only the Spirit’s voice when he reads the writings
of the Spirit without understanding them. But everyone who pays attention to the reading
and searches the Scriptures, by understanding them, knows where the Spirit comes from and
where the Spirit’s way ends, the way he travels through the instruction of the divine
oracles. For whoever knows the reason for which the Spirit’s teaching has been given to
people knows where he comes from. And whoever has seen for what purpose and to what end it
has been given knows where he is going and comes to rest.

FRAGMENT 38

It is worth asking how the Savior could say that he had spoken of earthly things, when he
had been teaching about the kingdom of God, about birth from above, about the Spirit [[and
about being born of him]]. None of these things is earthly; each one is heavenly. One
could answer that Jesus did not say, “If I spoke of things of the earth,” but “the earthly
things.” By “earthly” he means things that can exist and be understood among people who
are still living on earth. For these things are not earthly or heavenly by their own
nature; though heavenly, they have been given to people by God’s gift. [[That what is
given to people on earth is from above and heavenly, James writes: “Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” He said this
because he had learned it from the Savior, who said: “The Father will give good things
from heaven to those who ask him.”]] Next, some of the things God supplies can be brought
to those who know in part, while others are for those who have reached perfection in the
age to come, when what is partial will be done away once the perfect has come. So it was
said, very fittingly: “How, if I tell you the heavenly things, will you believe?” For the
one who does not believe in part will not believe the perfect things either.

FRAGMENT 39

The matter of the serpent was commanded by God so that those led by Moses might know this:
just as they were being destroyed by the venomous beasts because they had not believed
God, who had promised them the land, so they would be saved by gazing at the raised-up
serpent, because of God who commanded it to be done. It was not the nature of the thing
made, but the one who ordered it to be made, who provided the cause of their salvation.
And the spiritual serpents likewise subjected people to death through sins, injecting into
them the venom of their own wickedness. Now when death had become widespread against souls
(this is the death that follows sin), God was moved by entreaty and was pleased to have
his own Son lifted up, so that all who look to him by faith may be freed from the harm of
the spiritual serpents and have eternal life. Eternal life is not the common life that
other living creatures also have, but the life that comes about through faith and the rest
of virtue.

FRAGMENT 40

From the present saying one can also refute those who say that the title “Son” applies
only to the one born of Mary, and not to God the Word. [[For see: the Son of God is the
one in whom people are to believe, the one who was sent. But what was sent into the world
was not what was taken from the virgin (for that came into being there, born of her), but
God the Word, who is truly the true light. For concerning the same one, those who say,
“Send out your light and your truth,” are making a petition to God; and again it is
written, “God sent out his Word and healed them.”]]

FRAGMENT 41

Someone will say that what has been explained is not very sensibly understood, as though
Jesus had not come to judge the world now. He will point to what follows next: “And this
is the judgment, that the light has come into the world.” And in this same Gospel Jesus
says, “I have come into the world for judgment.” So the difficulty raised must be
resolved. Even if Jesus does both things by coming, judging the world and saving it, one
is for the sake of the other. He came into the world for judgment in order to save it (for
he does not save in order to judge). It is like a physician who comes to a sick person in
order to heal him. This is the purpose of the physician’s coming, even if other things
happen, such as cutting or burning. For the first aim is not to cut [[text defective]] but
to heal. Next after this comes: “The one who believes in him is not judged.” For the one
who through faith has reached complete salvation is not subject to judgment. But the one
who has not believed, being self-condemned, has already been judged.

FRAGMENT 42

42a On John 3:19. “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people
loved the darkness rather than the light.” If the light had not come into the world, those
who had not done good could have pleaded ignorance of what is good. Those who practice
wickedness would likewise have had grounds for a defense, claiming they had not known
these things were evil. But the light has come into the world, and every misguided excuse
is driven away. So there will be a judgment that examines the actions and the mind of each
person. It will then be shown that those who loved the light obtain the kingdom of God.
Through their love for the light they have themselves become light, by good works and a
true mind, so that they hated the darkness (that is, wickedness and ungodliness). Those
who turned away from virtue, and from God who supplies it, will be tested by eternal
punishments. They were eager to have evil works, so they hated the light, because by
making things plain it exposed their worthless works. “For everyone who practices
worthless things [hates] the light.” He does not want to come near it at all, so that his
works will not be exposed as evil. He wants to hide them so that he will not be condemned
before others. But even if this man hates the light, the worker of the truth still comes
to the light. He wants the works he does to be made plain, because they are being
accomplished in God. It was well said: “the one who practices worthless things” and “the
one who does the truth.” [The next clause is corrupt in the Greek. Its sense seems to be
that] it is neither the case that one who [practices evil] withdraws from wickedness [and]
looks toward the good, nor that one who professes to rejoice in the truth ever inclines
toward the worse.

42b This is why he said “practices” and “does.” For it is not possible for someone
disposed toward wickedness to rejoice in the good. And the lover of truth is altogether a
desirer of good things. Coming or not coming to the light must be understood not as a
matter of place but of action. Everyone who acts according to virtue is coming to it. The
worthless person, who works wickedness, refuses to be with the light. For good and evil,
light and darkness, cannot exist together. (In these passages light and the good mean the
same thing, and darkness and evil mean the same thing.) But those from the heresies think
that some people are in darkness by nature and love it. Notice what has been said: each of
them is in darkness by choice and loves it. “People loved,” he says, “the darkness rather
than the light,” for their works were evil. They do not have evil works because of the
darkness. Rather, because they have evil works, they love the darkness. And again, they do
not do worthless things because they fail to come to the light. Rather, because they do
worthless things, they do not come to the light. It is up to us either to do worthless
things or [to come to] the light and do the truth.

FRAGMENT 43

On John 3:19. Since it is written, “People loved the darkness rather than the light,” we
should ask whether they loved both, but loved the darkness more and the light less. That
would seem to fit people who are neither very worthless nor perfect in virtue. But I think
this is not what is meant, that they loved both and loved the darkness more, or the light
more. The thought is rather this: human beings are self-determining, because they have
free choice. They ought to have welcomed the light and fled the darkness. Those who have
evil works did the reverse, so that they loved the darkness and in no way the light. “More
than” should not be heard as a comparison, as if they loved the darkness more than the
light. They did not love the light at all, for they hated it. That this understanding is
right is shown by the passage itself. He says they loved the darkness rather than the
light because, practicing worthless things, they hate the light. If they hate it, they do
not love the darkness by comparison. Take in the same way what the apostle writes about
wicked people, that they are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” In that
phrase too it is made clear that they love only pleasure and do not love God at all. They
are called lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God in that sense. And in the Psalms
it is written about a certain worthless person: “You loved evil more than goodness.” He
did not love both and love evil more.

FRAGMENT 44

We must listen with a generous mind to the words “All are coming to him,” taken in the
sense of [“many”]. We must do the same with “A man can receive nothing of himself unless
it has been given him from heaven.” That means: a man cannot have any divine gift unless
it has been given him from heaven. God’s gifts are given to those who have prepared
themselves to receive them by faith and virtue. So learn this. Even if I have received
from the Son of God the power to baptize with water for repentance, I fall far short of
the one who gave it to me. I do not say this only now. I say it because I said it before,
and I have you as witnesses of what I told those who asked whether I was the Christ. You
were present [when I said] that I am the forerunner of the Christ and not the Christ
himself. Let no one stumble as if the words “A man can receive nothing” had been wrongly
said.

FRAGMENT 45

45a The rational being, of which the human soul is a part, cannot of itself bring forth
any good thing, though it is able to receive good things. So, like a woman, it is made by
nature to bear from another the virtues it is able to give birth to, both those of action
and those of understanding. That is why I call it a bride, and the bride not of just
anyone but only of the one who sows good things. That one is none other than Jesus. You
say he baptizes. I have testified to him, and you say all are going to him. If you too
want to bear good things, go away to him. You are part of the bride, since you belong to
the rational beings. Even if he is the bridegroom, I am his friend and a servant of his
purpose, and my aim is to present to him those whom I teach. Though you have become my
disciples, I am not the bridegroom. That is, I am not the perfect teacher. So I urge you,
who are still [pale], to be joined to the perfect teacher and to go to him. I myself pray
to be his hearer, for I rejoice to hear his voice. So it is our joy when those who first
came to me gain such a state of understanding that they can take in the wisdom he teaches
the worthy. For you know that he comes from above, that he is over all, and that he is
king and almighty. If he is over all, he is clearly over me as well. So it is right that
he increase and I decrease. Take in this sense also what Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
which runs like this: “I joined you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ.”
By “bride” he means the whole church, which is a pure virgin through the soundness of its
teachings and its conduct.

45b The same apostle, writing to another church, mentions Adam and the woman and adds:
“This mystery is great, but I speak of Christ and the church.” The point is that as those
two became the parents of all human beings, so Christ and the church are the begetters of
all good works, thoughts and words. John, then, is the friend of the bridegroom, as the
word is interpreted. He stands beside him in firm agreement, because his faith in him is
settled. Standing so, he rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s speaking. So he
goes on to add, “This joy of mine is fulfilled,” as all go away to Jesus. For he says, I
have come to testify to him, so that all may believe in him through me. So he must
increase and I must decrease. We must also observe this with wisdom. The Savior does not
increase by taking on something, and John does not decrease by losing something. Each
remains the same. What is said is to be understood like this. The morning star rises
before the sun, so that the eyes may grow used to meeting a greater light, and it has a
fixed size. At the first glance it looks larger than the sun. But as the sun gradually
appears, the morning star grows smaller. It has lost nothing of its own size. It is simply
being compared with the sunlight now revealed. So John too is great in the fullness of his
holiness. As said before, Jesus came after him, was baptized, and was testified to by him.
After the dispensation concerning these things, when the divinity of Jesus was made plain,
the one was shown to be the servant and the other the master.

FRAGMENT 46

For if he comes from above, from the Father, as the Almighty, it is clear that he is above
all. But those who have a material mind wear the image of the man of dust, and they speak
from the earth. So whenever they set themselves up to teach, the wisdom they have is the
kind James writes about: earthly, soulish, demonic. Isaiah also writes about such people,
as being from the earth and speaking from it. The Word of God, by contrast, comes from
above, is above all, and speaks what he has seen and heard. The prophets too, since the
Word came to them from above, speak heavenly and divine things, what they saw with the
mind and heard with the ears of the inner man. For each of them will say, “Thus says the
Lord,” and, “The word of the Lord came to me.” Solomon speaks of this more plainly when he
says, “My words have been spoken by God.” So it is written: “In many parts and in many
ways God spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets; in these last days he has spoken
to us, to those living at the time of his visit, in a Son.” Certainly, then, what he had
seen and heard he spoke to people as a teacher. But this applies to the saving plan [the
incarnate economy]; it would not be fitting to take these words as being about his
divinity.

FRAGMENT 47

“And no one receives his testimony.” Yet many had received his testimony, as John himself
says again: “The one who has received his testimony has set his seal that God is true.”
How, then, can it be true that “no one receives his testimony” if some are receiving it?
The difficulty is to be resolved this way. Jesus, who has come from above and speaks what
he has heard and seen, gives a testimony about the Father and himself that is exalted and
very great. No one receives this testimony as he himself delivers it, because the hearers,
who are only at the beginning of receiving, fall far short of the greatness of the
testimony. Still, even if no one is able to receive his testimony in that full way, it can
be received as far as those who are just now coming to faith are able to take it in. So
the words “the one who has received his testimony” do not contradict the statement that no
one has received it. It is not received in the other, full way, [text missing here] but
those who have received the testimony of Jesus, as far as they can, seal with firm assent
that God is true. They have learned that the one sent from him speaks the words of God,
since he is not from the earth and does not speak from it. For God does not give the
Spirit by measure [or: in part].

FRAGMENT 48

For even if wise men who had God spoke the words of God, they still had the Spirit of God
only in part, since God says, “I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh.” But the Savior,
sent to speak the words of God, does not give the Spirit in part. He does not give to
others something he himself received; he was sent from above, is above all, and gives the
Spirit as its source. We will also explain in another way the words “no one receives his
testimony.” One who searches the Scriptures finds that they testify about Christ. None of
the Jews who read the Scriptures without examining them received the testimony about him.
Only the one who can say, “We have found Jesus, the one of whom Moses wrote in the law,
and the prophets,” receives the testimony and seals that God is true, because he promised
the gospel beforehand through the prophets. In other copies the text reads, “For he does
not give the Spirit in part.” This reading also shows that the one who was sent does not
attend to measures, so as to give sparingly, in part, and to a few who could be easily
counted. Instead he gives lavishly and richly to all who are found worthy to receive.

FRAGMENT 49

On John 3:31, 34. There are heretics who twist their own minds in every way. They divide
the Godhead. For that reason they say the old Scripture belongs to one God and set the new
covenant under another. They claim that John said “He who is from the earth speaks from
the earth” about himself and the other prophets, and said “For the one whom God sent
speaks his words” about Christ and his apostles. They must be refuted, because what they
teach is false, or rather impious. For the Baptist himself says of himself: “The one who
sent me to baptize in water, that one said to me: ‘On whomever you see the Spirit
descending and remaining on him, that one is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ And
I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” If the one who sent him to
baptize is the Father, who told him about the descent of the Spirit and that the Christ is
his Son, how can John, when he says what he heard from the Father of Christ, be speaking
from the earth? The evangelist writes of him in the same way: “There came a man sent from
God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light.” Even if
the prophets before John did speak from the earth, how could they testify about Christ?
Yet the Savior said of their writings: “These are the ones that bear witness about me.”

FRAGMENT 50

50a On John 3:35. How could God not love, when he hates all wickedness? It is written of
him: “I am God, who loves righteousness and hates robbery that comes from injustice.” God
hates the kinds of wickedness in which the sinner delights. So he loves the Son as the one
who supplies virtue, and who removes and destroys wickedness. This is why it is said, “The
Father loves the Son.” The word “loves” is heard here in a rather human way, though it is
not to be understood that way. For if God, who loves righteousness, does not love it as a
righteous man does, by having it in himself and being shaped according to it, then in the
same way he longs for the Son, who is Word, truth, wisdom and holiness. But the word can
also show the Father’s close kinship with the Son. For it is a natural law that parents
love their offspring. Among human beings, the feeling toward children is natural, and the
feeling toward other people they love arises in some other way. In the same way God loves
the world as God, but loves the Son as Father. This is why it is not said “God loves the
Son,” but “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.”

50b This must be understood with faith and good sense. If “all things came into being
through him,” then all things are under his hand according to the principle of creation
and providence. But through sin they have wandered off, outside the hand that covered
them. So for the sake of their salvation the Father gives them into the Son’s hand. He
does not grant the Son an addition, but grants them an improvement. For he gives them to
the Son as to a teacher and physician, so that the Son may make them free of ignorance and
disease (that is, of wickedness) and may have them sheltered and ruled by him, holding
them now under his active and caring hand. What follows shows the truth of this thought:
“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life.” For if the one who believes in the Son
has eternal life, then being given into his hand is given for that person’s own salvation
and improvement, not so that the Son may have something more. And when is it fulfilled
that all things have been given into the Son’s hand? It is when every knee of those in
heaven, on earth and under the earth bows to him.

FRAGMENT 51

In many places in the Scriptures, the punishments that fall on the wicked are called the
wrath of God. An example is what Moses said about the Egyptians: “You sent out your wrath,
and it consumed them like stubble.” Paul also writes about the Jews: “But the wrath has
come upon them to the end.” By wrath he means the God-sent punishments that came upon
them. He says it too to the one who despises God’s kindness and patience: “By your
hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath.”
But we must not suppose that what is called God’s wrath is a passion in him. How could a
passion belong to one who is beyond passion? Since God does not suffer, and does not
change, we must interpret what is called his wrath in the way I have described.

FRAGMENT 52

Since he had a real body, made up of the same things as all human bodies, his body was
necessarily subject to the common sufferings of the body. I do not mean only wounds and
the like, but also the weariness that comes from strong and continuous movement. He had
made a long journey at midday, when the sun is at its fiercest, and he took on greater
weariness, because the moisture of his body was used up by the burning heat. For it was
the sixth hour of the day. Wanting to rest from this weariness, he sat down by the spring
in the place of Joseph mentioned earlier. At the same time he was looking ahead to the
benefit that would come when a woman came to draw water from the spring.

FRAGMENT 53

Perhaps someone will ask the reason why Jews do not deal with Samaritans. It can be found
in the third and fourth books of Kingdoms, and also in the second of Chronicles. The law
said, “Do not touch what is unclean,” so they did not dare even to touch the flesh of
foreigners, supposing that they would be defiled by it. Perhaps someone will also raise an
objection to the words, “His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.” He will
say: if Jesus fed five thousand in the wilderness, and four thousand, along with a crowd
of women and a great number of children, sometimes from five loaves and sometimes from
seven, what great thing would it have been for the disciples to be supplied with food
without going into the city to buy it, since Jesus could have provided it by his own
power? To this we must answer that Jesus had become man. If he had done everything as God
in truth, it would have gone unnoticed that he had become man. If he had acted in
everything that way, his divinity would have overshadowed his humanity. So whenever there
was need of a miracle, he fed many from a little, not so much to satisfy hunger as to
reveal his divine power. But when there was no urgent need to supply food out of nothing,
the disciples went off to buy bread. For even though Jesus did these things to show his
humanity and reveal his divinity, many stumbled over the gospel. Some declared that he had
become man only in appearance and not in truth; others supposed he was only a man. How
much more would those who read this history without care and understanding have been
deceived, if nothing had been done and written with exactness about the revealing of his
divinity and his humanity?

FRAGMENT 54

54a On John 4:12. The Samaritan woman worked as hard as she could to remove the Jewish
customs and teachings and to put the glory of the Samaritans above them. That is why, when
the Saviour promised to give living water, she answered, “Are you greater than our father
Jacob?” The Saviour knew how to order everything wisely. He knew it would be easy to
strike down the Jewish claims on the spot, and to say “I am greater.” But the woman’s mind
could picture nothing higher than what the senses can perceive. So he let that remark go
by in silence. He chose other words, which could establish the same point just as well but
would soften her hearing, and so he made her mind more ready. He did not bring in a
comparison or a difference in glory himself. He left the poor woman to work out for
herself, from what he was about to say, how great his superiority was. For he said,
“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that
I will give him will never thirst, ever.” Notice the wisdom and force of these words. The
statement “he will thirst again” needed no support from anywhere else, since the woman
herself stood there as an unasked witness to it. But the statement “he will never thirst,
ever” [was raised] by the greatness of its promise, rousing her by the promise itself.

54b By both statements he was bringing her to stop and consider a more divine view of him.
It is almost as if he were saying: “If you hold Jacob in great honour and think his deed
marvellous, because he gave you water from which the drinker returns again to the same
thirst, what must you think of me? I can give water that does not merely quiet bodily
thirst for a short time. It can become for the one who drinks a spring of ever-flowing
water. It offers streams of salvation, which water those who draw from them and win for
them life.” [The text is damaged here.] Water cures thirst and cleans away the dirt on the
outside of the body. In the same way the spiritual and heavenly streams of Jesus’
teaching, and the more divine understanding of him, heal the thirst that comes from
unbelief. They also cleanse the soul from its filth, which the pollution of sins and the
dark reasoning of ungodly opinions had made foul.

FRAGMENT 55

On John 4:12. By way of allegory we must say that Jacob’s well is the writing of Moses.
From it Jacob drank spiritually together with his sons, and the livestock that belonged to
Jacob drank from it as well. In the allegory, “livestock” means those who are steady and
gentle but without reason. These, properly speaking, we must call the herds and sheep of
Jacob.

FRAGMENT 56

On John 4:13. The law given through Moses is the water. So how could Jesus say that the
one who drinks from it will thirst again? We must say that the law was given to people not
so that they should live by it forever, but only until a certain time. In the same way,
drinking from the well, as it is interpreted, was to last only until a greater water was
shown. For the commands of the law were laid down until the time of setting things right.
So whoever drinks from the water of the law will thirst again, because he longs for the
drink of the gospel. Take in this sense what was said in Isaiah: “Drink this first; do it
quickly.” If there were not another drink after that one, it would not have been said,
“Drink this first.” And since the gospel succeeds the law, whoever drinks the teaching of
the law will thirst again so that he may also drink the teaching of the gospel. But the
gospel has no successor, so whoever drinks from it will never thirst, ever. Jesus said,
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” For he says that the
one who drinks this water gets in himself a spring, and not of just any water, but of
water leaping up to eternal life. This water, leaping up to life, lifts up the one who has
it, as a spring within him, and carries him upward to life.


FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
===============================

FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN continued

FRAGMENT 57

When the woman said she wanted to receive water from Jesus so that her thirst would stop,
since she would have the water as a spring within herself, she showed that this is what
she wanted. By these words she admitted that drawing the earlier water was very wearisome,
and in this she spoke truly. For keeping the Law according to the letter is very
wearisome. The Savior then fittingly says to her: since you still cling to the one to whom
you have devoted yourself, living with him as with a husband (the Law), go and call him,
so that what is written in him may be compared with what I say and do. In this way you
will be able to find that the one who drinks from the earlier water will look for another,
because he will thirst again. When she denied that she had a husband, the Savior, gently
exposing her Samaritan way of thinking, says: “You are right to say, ‘I have no husband.’”
For you did not agree with the whole of the Old Testament, which is the Law, about which
it is written, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.” Not having this husband,
you had five, because you agreed only with what is perceptible in the Scripture. For if
you had lived with the whole of the Old Testament, you would have been able to recognize
God the Word, whom it expected after the Law and the Prophets. The words “For you have had
five husbands” must be referred to the five books of Moses, for these alone the Samaritans
accept. But who is the sixth, whom she has besides the five husbands, and who is not even
her husband? We must say it is the teaching that there is a prophet. For she had already
agreed to this, under compulsion from what was said, but not with true agreement. So it
was fittingly said: “And the one you now have is not your husband,” for you have not come
to him sincerely. And since her five husbands were also said to be the senses, after she
had agreed, without precise understanding by any spiritual reasoning, to what she learned
from Jesus’ teaching, it was said most exactly to the mark: “And the one you now think you
have, a spiritual word, is not your husband.”

FRAGMENT 58

When you hear that salvation is from the Jews, listen to what is said about the one who
says this. For he himself was the expectation of the nations, the one born of the seed of
David according to the flesh.

FRAGMENT 59

The question “Surely no one has brought him anything to eat?” shows that he accepted the
services of those who offered them, although he was able to feed others and not be fed
himself. Yet feeding Christ is a work of the greatest effect, and he did not begrudge it
to those who wished to do it. That is why he assigned the same to the disciples. Being men
trained in the Law and fond of learning, they considered that it was now time for a meal.
They guessed that perhaps, as a meal had been brought to Daniel in Babylon by Habakkuk at
God’s command, and as food was given to Elijah on his journey by an angel and by ravens,
so food had been brought to Jesus. Yet even if the disciples supposed this about physical
food, he himself makes clear what kind of food he had told them about. They said it was
the time for his meal for this reason: it was the sixth hour of the day, and Jesus had sat
down at the well and talked with the Samaritan woman, while the disciples had gone off to
buy food, so that one could reasonably guess it was now evening of the day. But this time
for food belongs especially to those who do not chiefly pursue food, but the benefit of
those who come to them.

FRAGMENT 60

He calls Judea his homeland, and for this reason he had left it. For the evangelist,
giving the reason for his coming to Galilee, writes that “a prophet has no honor in his
own homeland.” This testimony is also found in the other Gospels. For the Savior says: “A
prophet is not without honor except in his own homeland, and among his relatives, and in
his own house.” Indeed, all those before his coming were dishonored in Jerusalem and
Judea, for this was their land and homeland, so that the Savior said in general:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her.”

FRAGMENT 61

“Now there is,” he says, “in Jerusalem...” and so on. He did not think it necessary to go
around healing every sick person, whoever they were, so that he would not gain a
reputation for self-love. Instead he healed one person and made himself known to everyone
through him. For this reason he goes to the sheep pool, which had five porches. Besides
the four around it, it had another in the middle. It was called the sheep pool because the
sheep brought for the feasts were gathered there. It was also called that because, when
the sheep were sacrificed, their entrails were washed in that water. So a great crowd of
people with all kinds of illnesses had gathered in the place, hoping to be healed. They
supposed the water itself could do something, since the entrails of animals offered and
sacrificed to God were thrown into it. God worked along with this belief of theirs. At
certain unknown times he caused the water to be stirred. They believed this happened by
some divine working, and so they went down into it and received healing. Many went down at
the same moment without being healed, but the first to go down enjoyed the grace, so that
the ease of the cure would not lessen the wonder. Because they were more sober, and waited
for the stirring of the water with great earnestness, they were taught from this to keep a
fitting attitude even after being healed. Although there were many sick people, he did not
heal them all. To show his own power he chose one, who was held by a very heavy affliction
and, because of the length of time, had no hope of recovery. For there was a paralytic
among them who had been held by his illness for thirty-eight years. When he came to him,
he did not say at once, “Take up your bed and walk.” He began instead with words that
followed on from the man’s own situation. This is also what he did with the Samaritan
woman.

FRAGMENT 62

“What Spirit was not yet?” ... [the Spirit] was not seen in any of the prophets; they were
working wonders.

FRAGMENT 63

63a I think this was said to show that the spittle of Christ had the quality of a healing
power. The blind man himself did not ask to see. Even so, he will be found praiseworthy,
both for offering himself to Jesus as he smeared mud on his eyes, and for doing what he
was told without hesitation, though Jesus had not even said that he would see. Perhaps the
Lord’s spittle was a symbol of a [summit], the furthest point in words, beyond which human
nature cannot take in anything greater. But such a word does not come to people stripped
of matter and bodily illustrations. This is why Jesus spits on the ground and makes mud.
So see whether you can explain the whole Scripture, and the manner in which it speaks, and
say this. On account of its divine thoughts, it is made up of the spittle of Christ. On
account of its account of events and human affairs, it is made up of earth from the
ground. So the whole letter of the law, the prophets and the other Scriptures comes from
such mud. With this the eyes of those who do not see must be smeared. After that they must
go away to Siloam, “of the one sent” by God. By this is shown a kind of swimming in
inquiries and in the perplexities of seeking the truth. For Job also says somewhere, “But
a mortal swims otherwise in words.” So let us wash the mud smeared on our eyes in the
water of the pool “of the one sent,” so that after this we may be able to see.

63b Take the clay to be the beginning of the elements of God’s oracles. By these we are
fed with milk, as infants. But when the ways of the infant are done away and we take solid
food, we throw off the clay, so that we may come back to Jesus with our sight. All of this
turns on the Son of God, for under different aspects he is also “the one who was sent.”
Take the human matters as belonging to the time before Siloam. But apply the water that
was sent, and Siloam, to his more divine aspects. In Isaiah, too, you will understand the
divine and steady word to be signified by these waters. The words of [Mnon?] and of those
who hold other doctrines are signified by Raasson and the son of Romelias. For how is it
that the people wanted kings in place of the water of Siloam? And how is the water of the
river strong and abundant, namely the king of the Assyrians and all his power, unless he
too is some opposing power? Such a power floods with the multitude of its persuasive
arguments the Judea that does not want the water of Siloam, and [it prevails over it].
Jesus did not heal the man while he was present. He told him to go and wash, and gave the
healing once he had washed. This was part of his careful ordering, so that the miracle
would not go unnoticed by anyone. In the same way he told the paralytic to take up his bed
on a day when it was not permitted to do so. Each person who accused him of breaking the
law would then learn how great the miracle was. So also here, the man was far from the
pool, and Jesus told him to go there and wash.

FRAGMENT 64

A beggar begs because he lacks the necessities and cannot provide for himself in a more
respectable way. You could find such people among the Greeks and barbarians who profess
the truth. They are, as it were, asking for help because they lack a fitting supply [. .
.], though the rational side of truth has an abundance of riches without any anxiety. But
the word forbids this kind of search when it says somewhere, “Child, do not live the life
of begging, for it is better to die than to beg.” The steward of unrighteousness in the
Gospels is ashamed to beg. For that reason he said to the man who owed a hundred measures
of wheat, “Take your bill and write sixty,” and to the one who owed a hundred measures of
oil, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” He preferred to receive from his master’s
debtors rather than to beg in shame, and for this he was praised. So Jesus freed the man
born blind not only from blindness but also from begging. Along with sight he gave him the
insight to see how he would provide for himself what is necessary for the salvation of the
soul. Here, then, blindness is the cause of begging. In the Acts it is lameness, and the
person set free from it will no longer beg.

FRAGMENT 65

The Pharisees supposed that a man who does not keep what they thought was the Sabbath is
not from God. But the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and they were from God.
So it was not clear at all that a man who does not keep their Sabbath is not from God. It
follows that the statement was not made by all the Pharisees of that time. As the
evangelist says, it was some of the Pharisees who said this. Pay attention also to the
words “such signs,” which are not put there for nothing. There are different kinds of
signs. According to the apostle, the man in the law does them, and so does the lawless one
whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of his mouth, with all power, signs and wonders
of falsehood. God also does them through the prophets. By “such” it is said that the signs
done through Christ surpass the others, because they are true and great on earth. Someone
may say that the words “How can a sinful man do such signs?” are not soundly spoken [. .
.]. Reading the deeds of Samson, he will say that what Samson did, for example with women,
was not even sin, but that what is shown there is a matter of God’s ordering. For it is
not added that he “did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

FRAGMENT 66

Note the person of the evangelist: he says both that the blind man’s eyes were opened and
that he had received sight. They were opened, in the words, “Now it was a Sabbath on the
day when he made the clay and opened his eyes.” He had received sight, in the words, “And
he washed and came seeing.” We can bring in a parallel for the difference between these
expressions from Tobit. Since white films had formed on his eyes, the book does not record
that his eyes were opened, but that he looked up and saw. Throughout the whole passage
about the blind man you will notice both expressions, some people saying one thing and
some another, and a division arising among them. You will notice also that Isaiah,
prophesying about the coming of Christ, says that he comes to open the eyes of the blind.
Next you can see how the man who was answering replies, and how differently he answers the
first group and the second. To the first he answers more exactly, since they were
neighbors and had formerly seen that he was a beggar. To the Pharisees he told nothing
about Siloam, nor that the Savior made the clay, nor that he had commanded him anything.
Perhaps the man who had been healed saw that the first group’s questioning was honest and
the second group’s malicious, and so answered each as he did.

FRAGMENT 67

Besides lying, they committed another sin, by exposing their own son to an obvious evil. I
think this too has a reason: when Christ opened the eyes of the blind man, he did not open
those of a child but of one of full age, so that he might see as a man. The other blind
people who regained their sight were of this kind too. It is true also that, being of age,
he could speak for himself, and above all when Jesus is the one who makes him see. For
this man needs no other to plead on his behalf.

FRAGMENT 68

Now “You did not listen” is equal to “You did not accept it, you did not want it.” And
“Why then do you want to hear again?” has the force of: “Why, you people, would you now
hear? You want to hear in vain, if you do not believe me when I tell the truth. I summoned
everyone who would learn what had happened to me, to become his disciple, since he taught
things more divine than any human teaching.”

FRAGMENT 69

“In this is a marvel” carries a significant implication. It is indeed marvelous if people
of no account know where Jesus is from, for they do not see his root and his source, the
Father.

FRAGMENT 70

If this had been true, so weighty a doctrine, that God does not hear a sinner, would not
have been passed over in silence. It would have been stated by someone worthy of belief,
say by the servant or by one of the prophets. And if God did not hear a sinner, how were
sinners taught to say, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive our debtors”? Whom
then does God hear? Those who incline toward repentance, even if they have not yet stopped
being sinners. If God did not hear sinners, our Savior would not have eaten and drunk with
tax collectors and sinners. And if the physicians whom the sick need were not heard, they
would not have healed them. This is why the saying, “If you keep watch on lawless deeds,
Lord, Lord, who will stand?” is spoken as of a prayer that is not heard, coming from those
who have sinned but not wholly still in unbelief. But perhaps he is speaking not of
whatever the sinner happens to ask in prayer, but of works as great as the works of Jesus
were. For when sinners ask God for works of that kind, he does not hear.

FRAGMENT 71

71a Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him he said to him, “Do
you believe in the Son of man?” The Jews threw him out, away from themselves, because he
spoke so boldly about the Savior. For that reason Jesus found him. The Savior came to seek
and to save the lost. The goal of anyone who seeks is to find what he seeks. So the words
“when he found him” clearly should not be taken in a simple way. This man most of all
needed to be found at the moment when he was thrown out by those who would not accept the
testimony about Jesus. Once he was outside them, he had become fit to be found. The words
“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out” also call for a more thoughtful reading. Having
heard such a thing, Jesus finds the one he had heard about to be worthy of his hearing.
When he found him, he asked the man who was found, “Do you believe in the Son of man who
has found you?” Perhaps the one who is only beginning believes in the Son of man, but the
one who crosses over goes up further, to believe in the Son of God. Such a man could then
say, “Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, now we no longer know him only
according to the flesh, but also as the Son of God.”

71b But how can he ask a question, when he knows everything? And consider whether you
would answer this by setting beside it the words “The Lord knew those who are his” and “I
do not know you.” For a person is not worthy to be known at the very moment he is found.
The saying is, “But now that you have known God, or rather have been known by him.” After
the introduction, progress is needed, so that a person may be seen and known by God. This
is why the Savior asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of man?” But the man could not yet
say “I believe.” He answered like someone who did not know: “Who is he, Lord, that I may
believe in him?” So he stood on the border, so to speak, between unbelief and faith. For
this reason the Savior says to him, “You have both seen him, and the one speaking with you
is he.”

FRAGMENT 72

For such a tradition and opinion prevailed among the Jews. That is why the disciples asked
Jesus, “Did this man sin, or his parents?” But the Lord declared, “Neither this man nor
his parents.” This was discussed earlier.

FRAGMENT 73

We must not hear this carelessly. “You have seen” refers to past time, but “the one
speaking with you” refers to the present. The one who was seen is the same as the one now
speaking with him. Set beside this the words, “Have I been with you so long, and you have
not known me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father.” For many who saw him
did not know him. So the one who has truly seen him is the one whose eyes of the soul are
enlightened by God himself. The man who was once blind was helped by both, by the seeing
and by the word. He not only said, “I believe, Lord,” but also worshiped him. Not least,
he looks at the drama of the stoning, since he (that is, Origen) tries to interpret this
too as an allegory, and so he falsifies the gospel text. He says, “We did not find at all,
though we searched in the passages before this, that the Jews picked up stones to stone
him.” Then a little later he says, “For if they picked them up again, they had picked them
up before.”

FRAGMENT 74

74a “If ‘again’ they picked up stones, then they had picked them up before.” So if we do
not miss that this is written, we must ask why the word “again” was added. I think that a
person who speaks evil of someone is throwing a kind of stone at the one he slanders. They
had spoken evil of him earlier, when a division arose among the Jews because of his words.
So now they had again taken up the weight of abusive words, like stones to be hurled at
him, and rushed to [strike] him with their slander. This is why Wisdom says, “He who
throws a stone high throws it on his own head.” A man is said to throw a stone high when
he speaks injustice against what is on high. In divine Scripture you will find a mixture
of what is, so to speak, historical with what is meant for training the mind, and
especially in John. Notice in the conversation with the Samaritan woman how “Jesus sat
down at the spring” is a report about a physical spring and a physical body. But it is no
longer possible to understand a physical drink when “Jesus answered and said to her: If
you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have
asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

74b And there are similar sayings: “I have shown you many works; for which of them do you
stone me?” Suppose someone went back to the beginning of the Gospel and collected the
works of Jesus, and then carried them up to their spiritual workings. He would see best
what many works Jesus showed to those who picked up stones to stone him. One of the good
works, for example, was the sign at Cana, when the former wine ran short. This was because
of the saying, “The law and the prophets were until John.” The good thing is that we have
been supplied with wine, we with whom Jesus sits at table. This was the beginning of his
signs, in the calling of the people from the [nations]. For it is also written, “Jesus did
this as the beginning of the signs.” The next work after this was his restoring of his own
house, which had become a house of merchandise, so that it would again be the house of his
Father. And why must I tell all the good works he has done from his Father?

FRAGMENT 75

He did this so as not to make his divinity too plainly visible. If he stayed on longer
with those who were eager to seize him and yet was not seized, he would also falsify the
rhythm of the human order. Consider also whether there is some reason why it is not
written simply, “He went away to the [Jordan],” but “beyond” it, “on the other side.” In
the same way, those who received the land as an inheritance through Moses were lesser than
those who receive it through Jesus, and they were allotted their portion on the far side
of the Jordan. There they built an altar, a symbol of the altar in the holy land, but they
offered no sacrifice or whole burnt offerings on it. But now we hear the words more
figuratively: “He went away across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing
at first.” Moreover, Joshua son of Nun brings the people across from the far side of the
Jordan with marvelous powers. And Elijah, when he was about to be taken up, as it were to
heaven, in a chariot of fire with horses of fire, divided the stream of the river with his
mantle and crossed over from the far side of the Jordan.

FRAGMENT 76

76a “They sought again to seize him; and he went out of their hand.” In the higher sense,
there are some who want to hunt down the word of Christianity, to overturn and destroy it.
These could now be said to be seeking to seize Jesus. But “Wisdom will not enter into a
malicious soul,” and “Power that is tested in the word convicts the foolish.” Therefore he
goes out. When the word of truth seems to those who hold it to be in their hand, it is in
fact outside their hand, since they cannot keep hold of it. So even when they think they
are overturning it, they are not overturning the truth, for they themselves do not
understand. Having gone out of their hand, he comes to the river Jordan, whose name is
interpreted [the meaning is missing in the text]. There the heavens are opened and bear
witness to the Word: “This is the Son of God, in whom the Father was well pleased.” Even
if someone is on the far side of the river, if he draws near he will find Jesus baptizing
better than John. For John baptized first with the perceptible baptism, but Jesus with the
intelligible one, since he baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. This is rather like the
fire seen at the bush, which did not burn it up.

76b Look carefully at the words “where John was at first baptizing.” They are ambiguous.
Once you see both meanings the wording allows, judge which one should be accepted. John
baptized first beyond the Jordan, and second at Aenon, near Salim. So either Jesus went
away beyond the Jordan, where John had earlier baptized, with the baptism that John gave
at Aenon. Or it runs like this: John gave the first baptism beyond the Jordan, and Jesus
the Christ gave the second where John had given the first. The second reading seems to me
more reasonable than the first. Someone might also say the following about the first
reading. John gives the first baptism beyond the Jordan, which is interpreted [“descent”].
He gives the second at Aenon, near Salim. Aenon is interpreted “Eye,” and Salim, “He
himself the [...].” So those who receive the second [washing] (the Greek reads “ransom”)
already see more clearly. They have won the eye of the soul through much testing and toil.
And it was fitting that the first baptism should belong to one going down, and the second
to one going up.

FRAGMENT 77

We find the name of Lazarus twice in the Gospels. The first is in Luke, in the parable of
the rich man and the man called Lazarus, when he died and went away into Abraham’s bosom.
The second is in the passage before us. Is this a shared name belonging to two different
Lazaruses, or is the one the same as the other? Someone who wants both evangelists to be
speaking of one man will say this. In the three days between (for Lazarus rose on the
fourth day), he was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s bosom and found rest. And
because of what the rich man said, “I ask you, father, to send him to my father’s house,
so that they too may not come to this place of torment,” Abraham did not send him, saying,
“They have Moses and the prophets.” But our Savior and Lord raised him up. Perhaps, in
what is left unsaid, it was so that he might report what he had seen, and the arrangements
made concerning souls. But this is nonsense. The one beside the rich man was destitute and
thrown down at the gate. The other had sisters, Mary and Martha, who were well off and
well known among the Jews, so that they could even receive Jesus. And hear what the
evangelist John himself says: “Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with ointment.”
Would she, who had ointment and was loved by Jesus, have had no pity on her brother, who
longed to be filled with the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table? That could not make
sense. He was from Bethany, which is interpreted “House [of obedience].” Perhaps everyone
from Bethany, being at home in obedience, is a friend of Jesus. But human nature is
changeable. So even a friend of Jesus may sometimes fall sick. He may fall sick when Jesus
is not present to him, and not only fall sick but even die.

FRAGMENT 78

It is clear that this Mary is also the one in Luke who anointed the Lord with ointment.
But Luke kept her name silent, and John supplied what he had left out. Who would not be
turned aside by such a testimony of Jesus about Mary, so that he does not despair of
himself because of his former sins, but comes and sits at Jesus’ feet and becomes his
disciple? For she, he says, “was a woman in the city, a sinner.” She “learned that he was
reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, and brought an alabaster flask of ointment.
Standing behind, at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.” Someone
might say that Mary is a symbol of those from [the Gentiles], and Martha of those from the
circumcision. Their brother, who rises from the dead, would then stand for those who have
gone down to Hades because of certain sins, in line with the words, “Let sinners be turned
back into Hades.” And he could say, not implausibly, that it was because of the way of
life under the law of Moses that it was said to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are troubled
and distracted about many things, but few things are needed.” For salvation does not need
the many commandments of the law according to the letter. It needs the few on which the
whole law and the prophets hang, the commands laid down about love.

FRAGMENT 79

79a On John 11:4. Taken as a symbol, let it point to the death in the historical sense.
Taken as a lifting of the mind to a higher meaning, let it present the death into which
people sometimes fall asleep when God has not enlightened the eyes of their soul. Not
everyone who is unenlightened falls asleep into death; it is only one of the
possibilities. [text missing] For this reason the psalmist says, “Enlighten my eyes, lest
I sleep into death.” Pay careful attention to the word “lest.” So Jesus told the disciples
plainly, since the first time he had spoken in figures: “Lazarus has fallen asleep,” and
“I rejoice for your sake that I was not there.” If he had been there, Lazarus would not
have died, for it is impossible for anyone to die when Jesus is present. But for the dead
man to rise from the dead, Jesus must come to him. “For your sake,” he says, “I rejoice.”
He rejoices for them because they believe once they learn that Lazarus died while he was
not with him, and so that they may be strengthened in faith. He alone, then, wakes Lazarus
from sleep. The work of the disciples was to loose the dead man, who was bound hand and
foot with grave-bands and had his face wrapped in a cloth, bound with the bonds of the
dead, and to let him go where Jesus commanded. Thomas says, “Let us go, that we may die
with him.” Thomas had read the prophecies about the Saviour. It is likely too that he had
heard there remained for the Son of God a dispensation concerning souls. He was going to
carry it out by going down into their place, to preach to the spirits in prison, going to
those who had once been disobedient. When he heard, “I am going to wake him,” he supposed
that Lazarus could be woken and raised from the dead in no other way than by Jesus going
down into the place of souls. The Saviour had also said, “No one takes my soul from me,
but I lay it down of myself,” and similar things. So Thomas, as his true disciple,
resolved to follow him wherever he might go. He wanted the other disciples also, by the
grace of Jesus, to lay aside the body together with him.

79b Perhaps he also knew that it would not be possible to live together with Jesus unless
one had died together with him, as Paul also seems to hold. But those who do not want to
say that he spoke for this reason will say that he suspected the coming envy of the Jews
because of Lazarus’s rising, and the danger that would follow, and so said this. “Jesus
therefore came and found him having been four days in the tomb.” The number four is
material and bodily, and it is harmful, since the general kinds of body are four. Hence
those who are enslaved and ill-treated suffer for four hundred years, according to what is
said: “They will ill-treat them and humble them four hundred years.” Perhaps for this
reason, to cleanse away the sins that follow the nature of the body, Moses fasts forty
days, and Elijah likewise, and the Saviour on behalf of our sins. And so now Jesus came
and found Lazarus already four days in the tomb, which is the dwelling-place of the dead.
For to sinners tombs are houses. That is why the demon-possessed flee to the tombs as to a
place of their own. As long as they are inside, no one has the strength to pass by that
road. But when they come out and put off their nakedness, they are clothed and in their
right mind, and they sit at the feet of Jesus. Jesus, however, is laid in a new tomb and
wrapped in clean linen, and he does not reach the fourth day among the dead. Therefore he
was also “free among the dead,” and he is raised in the free and holy number, three. In
that number he also sanctifies us by the washing of water, saying that we must be baptized
into the name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

FRAGMENT 79B

On John 11:14. Beginning: “The slowness of the removal of the one lying upon . . .”
Ending: “. . . they took away the stone.” Catena of Nicetas (manuscripts B and C); see
above, Z. XXVIII, 3, p. 391, line 13.

FRAGMENT 80

Bethany is translated “House of obedience,” and [Jerusalem . . . the text is broken here].
So it lies near, at a distance of fifteen stades, the same as the number of the temple’s
steps. The number fifteen divides into seven, for the sabbath, and eight, for
circumcision. The Preacher advises giving a portion to these two alone: “Give a portion,”
he says, “to seven, and also to eight.” Suppose Mary is a symbol of the contemplative
life, Martha of the active life, and Lazarus of the person who has fallen into sins after
coming to faith. Then it is fitting that Mary and Martha mourn Lazarus, and that in their
mourning they need comfort about their brother. The Jews want to bring them this comfort,
but they are only words belonging to the time before the fullness of time. They also
despair of being able to stop the dead man’s sister [from grieving] over the dead man.
Martha now seems more zealous than Mary, since Martha ran to Jesus while Mary stayed at
home, sitting. Some people, like the centurion, are not fit to receive Jesus; others are
worthy, like the synagogue ruler. So Martha, as the lesser of the two, ran to Jesus, while
Mary waits at home to receive him, as one able to take in his coming. She would not have
gone out of her own house unless she had heard her sister say, “The Teacher is here and is
calling you.” And when she got up, she did not simply get up but did so quickly. She fell
at Jesus’ feet and said what she said, though her sister had not fallen down.

FRAGMENT 81

The Saviour was not ignorant whether Martha believed what was being said. He asks, “Do you
believe this?” so that we, or those who were present then, might learn her state of mind
from her answer. Someone else will say that he is not asking at all but declaring, “You
believe this.” Then Martha completes the Saviour’s declaration and says, “Yes, Lord.” It
is as if she said: “I do not believe only what you are saying. As for your being the
Christ, I do not believe it only now, but I have believed it already. And I believe that
you are the Son of God who comes into the world,” pointing this out for all who believe in
you.

FRAGMENT 82

Someone examining the matter at the higher, allegorical level might ask why she says, “If
you had been here.” Is there some place where Jesus is not? Where two or three are
gathered in his name, he is there in the midst of them. But he also stands in the midst of
others who do not know him. So he was present to Mary and Martha. They had not yet
advanced far enough to know him as present.

FRAGMENT 83

Do not be surprised that “Where have you laid him?” is said as if by someone who does not
know. Scripture says that not only the Saviour but the Father too is ignorant, in a
certain sense, as in the words: “If anyone among you is spiritual, let him recognize what
I write to you, that it is from God; but if anyone is ignorant, he is ignored.” He asks,
“Where have you laid him?” in the same way that he commands the disciples to leave the
dead. And Jesus weeps if any of his friends ends up in a tomb.

FRAGMENT 84

While he was still far from the tomb, he was deeply moved in spirit. But when he comes
near the dead man, he no longer shows his indignation in spirit but holds it in within
himself. That is why it says, “Being indignant within himself, he comes to the tomb.” Then
again he rebukes the emotion, so that we may learn that he became man, without changing,
as we are. “Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.” He was not laid in a built
tomb but in one cut out of rock. Perhaps that is why there is a woe on those who build
graves or tombs. What should be built are houses, a temple, and whatever is useful to the
living. Then he says, “Take away the stone.” Since the cave was a tomb, he did not touch
the stone himself but entrusted its removal to others suited to the task. But in Genesis
there was a stone lying on the mouth of the well and keeping the sheep from drinking, the
sheep from which the marked animals and Jacob’s portion were to come. There Jacob himself
had to take hold of it, go up to the stone and roll it away. So at the well it was
necessary for Jacob himself to come forward, but at the cave Jesus was to stand outside.

FRAGMENT 85

On John 11:51. It is not true that whoever prophesies is a prophet. Rather, whoever is a
prophet prophesies. Balaam, for example, was a diviner, and yet he prophesies. Someone who
does one medical thing is not thereby a physician, and someone who does one piece of
building is not thereby a builder. Some want to say that Caiaphas did not speak by the
Holy Spirit. They point to David, who after sinning says, “Do not take your Holy Spirit
from me.” The Spirit, they say, does not dwell in a body burdened with sin, so Caiaphas
spoke by the working of evil spirits. For they say demons can sometimes foretell things.
An example is the spirit of Python in the case of Paul, and in the case of the Savior the
words, “Ha, what have we to do with you, Son of God?” We learn, then, that people do not
say everything from themselves. Some things they say while moved by a power, either a
better one or a worse one. Still, just as some of the heterodox [distort] the sense of
Scripture, so the Pharisees take what Caiaphas said according to their own way of
thinking.

FRAGMENT 86

On John 11:54. The Word wishes to turn us back from throwing ourselves at dangers too
thoughtlessly and hotly, even when the danger is for the truth’s sake. If we are
overtaken, we should stand firm; if we are only about to be caught, we should withdraw,
because the outcome is uncertain. As for the higher meaning, we must say this. Long ago
Jesus walked openly among the Jews through the prophets, but now he no longer does. The
word of God is not in them, and he has gone away from them into the wilderness. Of that
wilderness it is said, “Many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has
the husband.” He went near Ephraim, a name that is interpreted [as follows: being the
brother of Manasseh, the elder, whose name means “from forgetfulness”]. For after the
people “from forgetfulness” comes the “fruitfulness” of the nations. There he stayed with
his disciples, and so he is present with “fruitfulness.” At the birth of Ephraim, the Lord
himself, [our] dispenser of grain, who humbled himself and became obedient to death, could
say: “God has made me grow in the land of my humbling.”

FRAGMENT 87

On John 12:26. The one who follows him serves him by that very following. The one who
serves him is his servant. For this reason, where the Word is, there the servant is too.
But this announcement must not be understood in a bodily or local sense. Still, suppose
there is, as among bodily places, a region of the upper air among the purest places,
brighter with the fineness of light. Then someone would not be wrong to say that those who
are in the body and who receive at the resurrection, each according to his worth, a body
of surpassing and distinct glory, will be in those regions. Those regions are the most
suitable for leisure spent in contemplating the things of God the Word. In thought, “where
God the Word is, there his servant will be” is one thing. In fact it is the same as being
honored by the Father. For through the honor that comes from the Father, the one honored
comes to be where God the Word is.

FRAGMENT 88

On John 12:27. At the time of the saving passion, all the powers of Satan together with
their leader [alone] marched out against the Savior. When the Savior’s soul saw them, it
was troubled in a human way. It did not shrink from death, though even that would be
human. What it feared was being defeated. For Christ allowed his soul at times to suffer
what was its own. And since he was going to become the cause of eternal salvation for
those who obey him, his soul was grieved and troubled on their account. Nor was it
overpowered by the trouble, as someone might suppose. It was troubled only for an instant,
and that is what the word “now” means. As soon as the trouble began it also ceased, and,
so to speak, it was a mere point of time. Notice also that he himself prays that the
contest against the evil powers arrayed against him might take place not over a stretch of
time but in the “now.” That was enough for the soul of Jesus to conquer the whole power of
the evil one.

FRAGMENT 89

His suffering on the cross was the judgment of this whole world. He “made peace through
the blood of his cross, whether things on earth or things in the heavens.” With a triumph
on the wood he stripped off the rulers and authorities, and he sat down in the heavenly
places, restoring all things to the end that suits and fits each one. The plan worked out
on the cross held together the judgment of every single being. So when the time of his
suffering drew near, he said, “Now is the judgment of this world.”

FRAGMENT 90

The suffering of our Savior took place for the cleansing of [those foreknown], among whom
the world was about to be judged. That is why it was said, “Now is the judgment of this
world.” It is as if he were saying: “This is the time when those who judge the world will
be shown.” Or, since the tyrant was about to be cast down at the time of the saving
passion, the words were spoken, “Now the ruler of this world will be cast out,” or perhaps
this refers to the outer darkness. They convict him [that is, the crowd] of ignorance
about the prophets, and they show that their knowledge of the Scriptures is not exact.
They have taken from such words the idea that the Christ remains forever. But the mystery
of death that comes in between, and the brief separation of the soul from the body, they
neither understood nor examined closely. They ought to have known the reason. Two comings
of Christ were prophesied. The crowd of the Jews hoped for the more glorious one, which
will happen at the end of the age. The one that comes before it they did not understand at
all. This is why their house is left to them.

FRAGMENT 91

To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. So also from the one
who does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken away. Suppose someone receives
the mina and wraps it up in a napkin. He will hear, “The light is among you for a little
while longer.” For the words “Take the mina from him” are just about to be spoken, since
“the one who is unrighteous in little is unrighteous also in much.” One might also explain
the passage in this way. As the kingdom of God was among the Jews, so the light was also
among them. They did not render the fruits that belong to the kingdom of God, and so they
heard, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that produces its
fruits.” In the same way, the light was among them, but they did not walk in it so as to
avoid being overtaken by darkness. So after a short time the light that was in them was
taken away from them. It was given to the nation that produces the fruits of the light,
which has become like the stars of heaven and is called the light of the world. That
nation has received this from the one who said, “I am the light of the world.”

FRAGMENT 92

92a On John 12:39–40. Holy Scripture knows that we have free will. It blames sinners as
people who are at fault through their own doing, and it praises those who keep the divine
commandment as people who deserve praise through their own doing. Listen to what it says
in Deuteronomy: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except to fear
the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and
his ordinances, all that I command you today, so that it may be well with you?” And in
Micah: “Has it been told you, O man, what is good? Or what does the Lord seek from you,
except to do justice and love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?” As
far as these texts go, then, each of us can become righteous or unrighteous. So you will
understand “He blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” as referring to the evil one,
as was said before: he blinded the eyes of some and crippled their heart, so that they
would not see with their eyes, and would not understand with their heart, and would not
turn, and the Lord would not heal them. For the text does not say “that they might not
turn and he might heal them” in the same way it says “He has blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart.” So the one who blinds the eyes and hardens the heart is one person,
and the one who heals those who turn, and those who are broken in heart, and the blind, is
another.

92b The apostle says the same thing in the second letter to the Corinthians: “And if our
gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those among whom the god of this age has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers, so that the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is
the image of God, should not shine through.” It is no surprise that people who have given
themselves over to the evil one through their sins are blinded in their eyes by him, and
have their own hearts hardened at his will, since he does everything so that they will not
see with their eyes, understand with their heart, and turn. As for the words “For this
reason they could not believe,” we must say the following. Take the man blind from birth,
whom our Savior later healed. If someone said of him, “He cannot see, because he is
blind,” he would not mean that it was impossible for him ever to see. It was possible,
since Jesus, who opens the eyes of the blind, grants sight to the blind, so that those who
until then could not see would see later. In the same way, those who at one time could not
believe because their eyes had been blinded by the evil one were not unable to believe if
they came to Jesus, said “Son of David, have mercy on us,” and asked to receive their
sight. As for the fact that the passage in the Gospel is not worded exactly as it stands
in the prophet, that is no surprise. The writers who served the words of the New Covenant
did this in many places, as we have observed elsewhere. In any case, the words of Isaiah
carry the same force as those set down in the Gospel.

FRAGMENT 93

93a On John 12:44. In the passage before us we should notice that two things are said
about the Savior. The first is what comes first: believing in him comes first. The second
is what comes second, and it follows along the way: this goes beyond believing. It is to
behold the Word, and in beholding the Word to behold the Father. Believing reaches the
whole multitude of those who come to him in godliness. But beholding the Word, and
perceiving the Father in him, no longer reaches all who believe, but only the pure in
heart. This is how I understand the saying, “The one who has seen me has seen the Father.”
The person who turns the power of sight in his bodily eyes on the body of Jesus has not
thereby seen the Father, who is Jesus’ God. I think a person also needed time and training
together with him in order to see Jesus in this way, and in seeing the Son to behold the
Father as well. That is why, when Philip said, “Show us the Father, and that is enough for
us,” Jesus said, “I have been with you so long a time, and you have not known me? The one
who has seen me has seen the Father.” Now consider, if you can, the difference between
believing and beholding, and look closely enough to grasp why the saying “The one who
believes in me does not believe in me but in the one who sent me” is not worded like the
saying “And the one who beholds me beholds the one who sent me,” and why the second is not
put in a way similar to the first, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me but
in the one who sent me.”

93b For the one who believes in the Son believes not in the Son only but in the Father of
all, who is God. But the one who beholds the Word, the Wisdom and the Truth does not
behold this alone but the Father also. I think that the mystery being made known is great.
It involves first believing in the Son and second beholding him. To show this, the words
“Jesus cried out and said” were set before “The one who believes in me and beholds me,”
for the voice that spoke of these things was a great and mysterious one. That it is
possible to believe the truth and yet not to behold it, the evangelist will make clear
when he says, “Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you remain in my
word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” Notice carefully that he
says to those who had believed, “If you remain in my word, you will know the truth,” as to
people who had not yet come to know the truth but had only believed it.

FRAGMENT 94

On John 12:46. The true light shone, for the Savior of the world had come. But they were
unwilling to look steadily at it or to walk in the radiance that shines from his
teachings. So the darkness, as one would expect, overtook them, exacting a penalty for the
wickedness that already held them. This may fittingly be called being blinded and
hardened. And just as the one who is willing to walk in the light also comes to know where
he is going, so the one who is unwilling to walk in the light finds himself going on in
the dark, and wretchedly finishes the road of the blind and hardened. It was said earlier
that the lightning flash of the Lord’s saving teaching branded the Jews as blind and
hardened. It made the damage and the blindness that were already in the eyes of their
souls more evident and plain. For just as the visible sun, sending out its bright rays,
exposes those whose eyes are diseased, so too the sun of the mind, having marked out for
the world the light that never sets and knows no evening, and having flashed the
brightness of his own deity through miracles worthy of God and beyond words, exposed even
more fully the darkness that had already seized the eyes of the souls of the senseless
Jews, and their blindness.

FRAGMENT 95

After this you will ask, because the words were spoken together, “What shall I say and
what shall I speak?”, whether saying and speaking differ, or whether they are the same
thing, stated in parallel. So set out the passages where “He said” is recorded, and
examine them alongside those where “He spoke” is used. It may also help the inquiry that
throughout the whole account of creation God is never recorded as having “spoken,” while
“He said” is written of him. Consider too what is said again and again in Leviticus: “And
the Lord spoke to Moses, saying.” See whether you can claim that “said” signifies a
command given from authority, and “spoke” signifies teaching. “And I know that his
commandment is eternal life.” One might ask here why it is not said that God’s commandment
secures eternal life, but that it is, in its very substance, eternal life itself. It is
like knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. So each of these is eternal
life. But if God’s commandment is eternal life, and God’s commandment is in the righteous
person, who lives blessedly because of it, then that life is worth choosing.

FRAGMENT 96

The first one, the one before the consummation, is indeed best … he himself will wash
them.

FRAGMENT 97

But he did not begin with Peter … to remain in what was wrongly judged.

FRAGMENT 98

The words of the prophecy have been paraphrased … because this is what a person does who
lashes out at someone with his heel.

FRAGMENT 99

For he says that this is what is going to happen … and through this the knowledge about
me.

FRAGMENT 100

Note in what way, among the matters under examination … is blameworthy when done with
deceit.

FRAGMENT 101

The morsel given by Jesus … Satan entered into him.

FRAGMENT 102

Not only in the simpler sense did he go out … But let us, being people of the day, be
sober.

FRAGMENT 103

It is written: No one knew the Son … beholding as in a mirror, they are transformed into
the same image.

FRAGMENT 104

From this one can see also the similar sayings … the wisdom of God from such a teacher.

FRAGMENT 105

This seems to contradict what was said earlier. Above he says that there is no need to
prepare, but here he says, “If I go, I will prepare a place for you.” What he means is
this: as far as the abundance of good things is concerned, which the Father prepared by
his foreknowledge so that those who live well and with complete care may dwell continually
in the good things prepared, there is no need for them to be made ready by me. What is
needed is that you show the fitting disposition. Nevertheless, I become the one who
prepares these things for you and secures them for you. For what is “I am coming again and
will take you to myself”? He says, in effect: when I have given you the way up into the
heavens and the opportunity to enjoy the same good things, so that the one who established
the cause of these things is revealed to you, I myself will come again. (He means his
second coming from heaven.) Then I will take you and go up into the heavens, where I
myself am, so that you may be with me and enjoy the same things as I do. For as Paul says,
“If we endure, we shall also reign with him.”

FRAGMENT 106

Thomas seems to have had something exact and carefully tested about him. This is shown by
what he says. I think he said it not because he distrusted those who claimed to have seen
the Lord, but because he was on guard in case it was a phantom. He was remembering the
words, “Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he.’” I think the other apostles felt the
same, but Thomas most of all. That the other apostles also had a similar thought when they
saw Jesus is clear from what is written: “They thought it was a phantom.” He answered and
said to them, “Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see
that I have.” As for how it is said to him, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing,” and as
for the name Thomas, this could be said. Of those who would be counted worthy of a greater
vision from the Savior, at his transfiguration on the mountain and of those seen in glory,
Moses and Elijah, he changed the names. The names of the rest he did not change, because
their own names were enough in themselves to show each one’s character. It is not our
purpose now to speak of the other apostles. We speak of Thomas, whose name is translated
“Didymus” (Twin). The reason is that he was a kind of twin in the word, setting down
divine things in two ways. He was an imitator of Christ, who spoke to those outside in
parables, but privately explained everything to his own disciples. It is not out of place
to say that the true disciples of Christ succeed in this twofold preparation in speaking,
and perhaps Thomas already had it then in an outstanding degree. One might also say that
the translation of this name alone is recorded because the evangelist wanted Greeks who
read the Gospel to notice the particular meaning of the name. It is the only name
interpreted in this special way, so that they might find the reason why his name is also
given in Greek.

FRAGMENT 110

It would have been more proper to say “is” of God the Word. But since he wanted to show
the existence of the Word as distinct from the incarnation, which happened at a certain
time, he put “was” in place of “is.” We must understand that the strict time-meanings of
verbs should not be applied to eternal things. That is, “was,” “is,” and “will be” are not
to be taken that way. For God the Word is the Son of the Father and is eternal God. The
verbs used of him must not be taken as indicating time, since he himself is not under
time. A verb, as Aristotle says, is that which indicates time besides its meaning.

FRAGMENT 111

He used fitting verbs: “became” for the flesh, and “was” for the deity. The phrase
“through him” is used not to suggest service, but to show his working together with the
Father. It also shows that nothing that exists is excluded from being made through him.

FRAGMENT 112

For the life-giving power in him is not only able to give life. It is also able to fill
human souls with knowledge and to drive out ignorance. Paul was ignorant of Christ when he
was persecuting him, but when he was lit up by the light of life he knew the one he was
persecuting. And the robber, suffering on the cross, was enlightened and knew the life.
For the Savior says, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.”

FRAGMENT 113

The purpose of the one who sent him was that all should believe. If not all believed, and
did not receive the illumination, [still no one could say that the light did not rise for
this purpose]. For the prophets before John became witnesses of the light so that the
Hebrews would believe through them. But John, who came after them, bears witness to the
Savior’s coming so that not only the Hebrews would believe but also all those from the
nations. As the prophet says, “I will pour out from my Spirit on all flesh.” And David
says, “All the nations will serve him.”

FRAGMENT 114

“Of bloods” means that they have their birth from material things. To Peter, for example,
the Savior says, “Flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in the
heavens.” (And in another way:) Those are called sons of God who do not offer the
sacrifices of the law “from bloods”. That is, they do not please God through slaughter and
the pouring out of blood. “From the will of the flesh” refers to those who do everything
in order to appear righteous to men. These people are set forth as pleasing God “by the
will of flesh”. They circumcise the flesh and openly want to live as Jews, but they do not
care for the heart or for the hidden Judaism. “From the will of a man” refers to those
who, under the pretext of human philosophy, keep away from evil and take up virtue.

FRAGMENT 115

When he says “He has cried out,” he means that he proclaimed the coming with boldness and
freedom, and without any holding back. The “cry” is not a matter of how loudly he spoke,
but of the intensity of his understanding. For the one who announces great teachings, as
he should, in keeping with his understanding, speaks them out in a loud voice.

FRAGMENT 116

“Has come to be” must be taken to mean “will come to be.” For this is the habit of
Scripture, as we have said. And “did not lay hold of [or: overcome]” must be taken to mean
“will not lay hold of [or: overcome].”

FRAGMENT 117

John is a prophet and a lamp of the light, training beforehand and accustoming the eye of
the soul of the one who wants to be enlightened. In the same way he is also “the voice of
one crying.” The text calls the Word the one who cries, and John the voice. It is
necessary for a voice to come before the word. The work of a voice is to make clear what
is signified. He calls “wilderness” the soul that has been deprived of divine teaching.
What, then, does the voice of the one who cries command to the deserted souls? “Make
straight the way of the Lord,” so that it may be ready to receive him.

FRAGMENT 118

When John bore witness about the light, he knew that the light was also God the Word. And
this Word is present to every rational being. The thinking [part] of us, which is also
called the ruling faculty, is the most central part of us. For there is the inner word, by
which we are rational. Christ oversees it as God and Word, he who was about to come to be
baptized. “This one, whom you do not know, stands in the midst of you,” entering into the
hearts and the kidneys of all.

FRAGMENT 119

All who were present saw, but not all believed. Some say that not everyone beheld the
Spirit, but only John and those who were more reasonably disposed. For even if they saw
with their physical eyes, it was not for that reason altogether plain to everyone. The
prophets and Moses beheld many other things. At the transfiguration on the mountain, not
all the disciples had the benefit of the sight. Nor did all share in the appearance after
the resurrection. Much more, then, the Jews at the baptism did not all see.

FRAGMENT 120

It is not possible to see this with the senses, but only with a mind that looks at the
angels approaching in order to serve Jesus, ascending and descending. The word “Amen” can
be found sometimes single and sometimes doubled. The word is Hebrew, signifying [text
missing]. For “Amen” is the same as “truly” and [text missing]. Many Psalms that have at
the end “Let it be, let it be” have “Amen, Amen” in the Hebrew. So it is likely that the
Savior says, as a prayer, “Let it be, let it be,” that you be found faithful enough to see
“the heaven opened,” and the rest of the promise. “Amen” is also equal to [text missing].
In Matthew, for example, Jesus says, “Amen I say to you, there are some of those standing
here.” In Luke it reads, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those standing there who
will not taste death.” That is, “Amen” is equal to [text missing] and to [text missing],
as in “Truly I say to you” that this will happen.

FRAGMENT 121

The whip made of rope by Jesus stood for the sins of the lawbreakers. By these sins they
were driven out, beaten by Jesus. Scripture names sins “rope” in many places: “Ropes of
sinners have wound around me, and their hands weave injustice together.” And in Proverbs:
“Each one is bound tight by the cords of his own sins,” that is, he is punished. So they
were whipped by Jesus and driven out of the temple with the rope they had plaited
themselves. The just judge could not weave the punishment against the ungodly from
anywhere else. He could only bring it from the very things by which they themselves had
sinned and acted lawlessly.

FRAGMENT 121A

It must be said that water differs from the Spirit only in concept, not in substance. The
Savior says, “He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.” He
said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. If this
was said of the Spirit as water flowing out like rivers, then the water will differ from
the Spirit only in concept. So, just as someone is begotten from the Savior (wise from
wisdom, true from truth, and life from life, since the source and begetting of all is
one), so also from the Holy Spirit one is begotten holy and spiritual. He is cleansed by
the water, and watered so that he bears fruit. In this way he is born of water and Spirit.

FRAGMENT 122

Matthew spoke of the place which is ruled, in which these people receive their
inheritance. John and Luke named it from God who rules. Even in our ordinary usage a
kingdom is sometimes indicated by the one who rules, and sometimes by the place. So we
say, “the kingdom of the Romans,” and “the king of Egypt.”

FRAGMENT 123

The Spirit visits only those who are earnest and have faith and virtue. From the
worthless, who have made themselves strangers to him, he stays far away. “Far” and “near”
should not be understood in terms of place. They refer to the vessels [that have been
cleansed] to receive his illuminations, or have not been. The words “Where it wills it
blows” show that the Spirit is a substance. Some suppose that he is an activity of God,
without a subsistence of his own. That is why the apostle, after listing the gifts of the
Spirit, added, “But the one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to
each one as he wills.” There is also the saying in Acts, “It seemed good to the Holy
Spirit and to us.” And again: “As they were fasting,” it says, “and ministering to the
Lord, the Holy Spirit said: Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I
have called them.” And the prophet Agabus says, “The Holy Spirit says this: They will bind
the man whose belt this is,” and so on.

FRAGMENT 124

This seems to be true of people who are neither exceedingly wicked nor perfect in virtue.
Because they are deceived in both directions, one can see from their doing the works of
darkness that they love the darkness. Human beings have free will, and ought to welcome
the light; but they do the opposite and welcome the darkness, while fleeing the light. The
statement that they loved the darkness more than the light should not be taken as a
comparison. They did not love the light at all, since they hated it, because their
understanding of it is correct. Those who do wicked things hate the light, and if they
hate the light, they do not love the darkness merely in comparison. The apostle’s saying
about wicked people is similar: that they are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God.” And in the Psalms: “The worthless man has loved evil more than goodness, and
injustice more than speaking righteousness.”

FRAGMENT 125

The bride is the human soul. Of itself it is not able to bring forth any good thing. But
since it is by nature receptive from another, in the manner of a woman, it brings forth
the virtues, both practical and intellectual. The bridegroom, the one who sows these good
things in her, is none other than Christ Jesus, to whom I bear witness and whom I baptize.
The friend is the one who stands beside him with firm agreement and steady faith in him.
For none of those who are with Jesus himself is shaken. So also Moses, living in virtue,
heard God say, “But you yourself stand with me.” For God does not stand with us; rather we
stand with him, as he offers us from himself an immovable standing.

FRAGMENT 126

Whoever does not have a heavenly mind but is earthly is called “made of dust,” and is said
to bear the image of the one made of dust. So even if he ever claims to have wisdom, it is
earthly, soulish, and demonic, as the apostle James says.

FRAGMENT 127

On John 3:35. Again we hear “loves” in a rather human sense. But there is a natural law:
one kind of love goes toward what is begotten, and another goes toward what is loved in a
different way. If God loves righteousness, he loves it as God, as in the words, “I am God,
who loves righteousness and hates robbery that comes from injustice.” He does not love it
as a man does, in order to have it in himself and to do something in keeping with it. The
Father also loves the Son as truth, wisdom and holiness, as David says, “For behold, you
have loved truth.” He loves the Son as Father, not as God. But he loves the world as God
and as its Creator, not as Father.

FRAGMENT 128

On John 4:10. It is also possible to speak allegorically. Jacob’s well is the teaching of
Moses given through the law. His sons and his flocks drank from it: the twelve patriarchs
and the peoples born from them. Those who drink from this spring thirst again. That is, as
time goes on they thirst, and they come to the teaching of the gospel, which saves and
which has no successor. “For heaven and earth will pass away,” as the Savior says, “but my
words will never pass away.”

FRAGMENT 129

On John 5:13. For even the mere sight of the one who is envied knows how to throw no small
spark among those who begrudge him.

FRAGMENT 130

On John 6:51. For this reason he would have mixed with us . . . . and with those [who are]
becoming [companions] of the demons.

FRAGMENT 131

On John 9:8. He was a beggar because he lacked the necessities of life and was weak. Such
people you could also find among Greeks and barbarians, begging for the benefit and
provision of Christ’s truth and for knowledge of his rich insights. Jesus freed this man
not only from blindness but also from begging. For along with sight he gave him whatever
was necessary for the salvation of his soul. Here blindness is the cause of begging; in
the Acts it is lameness.

FRAGMENT 132

On John 9:16. If the one who does not keep the sabbath is not from God, then neither are
your priests, who profane the sabbath by circumcision, from God.

FRAGMENT 133

On John 9:21. By making him a credible witness, they [thus set him forward, so that they
themselves might be shown to have been mistaken]. When Christ opened the eyes of the blind
man, he did not open those of a small child but of one of full age, so that he could both
see and, as a man, speak in his own defense. The other blind people who received their
sight were of the same kind.

FRAGMENT 134

On John 9:27. “You did not hear” stands for “You were unwilling to accept what was said.”
And “Why do you want to hear again?” amounts to this: “If you do not accept what has been
said, why do you want it reported to you again, to no purpose?”

FRAGMENT 135

On John 9:31. If God does not hear sinners, how did Christ teach sinners to pray, saying,
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive our debtors”? God hears those who are
inclining toward repentance, even if they have not yet stopped sinning. And if God did not
hear sinners, he would not have eaten and drunk with tax collectors and prostitutes. Or
else it is the case that God does not hear the person who prays that God would accomplish
works like the works of Jesus [if that person is a sinner].

FRAGMENT 136

On John 10:31. If they had picked up stones before, they picked them up again. And I think
that whoever speaks evil of someone is throwing stones at him. They spoke evil of him, and
a division arose among the Jews because of him. So once again these people, having carried
the weight of their slanderous words, threw stones at him, real stones. That is why Wisdom
says, “The one who throws a stone up high throws it on his own head.” And the psalmist
says, “His injustice will come down on his own head.” The unjust man who speaks against
the heights is throwing at the heights.

FRAGMENT 137

On John 11:9. Just as the day is divided into twelve hours, so the twelve patriarchs and
the company of the apostles match the hours of the day in number. They have Christ, our
God, as their sun. He is also the day that the mind perceives, and from him come the words
and the illumination of the knowledge of them.

FRAGMENT 138

And again they were seeking to kill him, as has often been said. Now they had confirmed
their decision and [were treating it as a deed already done]. Again he saves himself in a
human way, and he does this continually. The reason he gave was that his hour had not yet
come. So now he stays in the wilderness, in a city called Ephraim. He remained there with
his disciples, waiting for the right moment and sparing them from destruction.

FRAGMENT 139

The one who follows him serves him, and in this way is his servant. For this reason,
wherever the Word is, there too is that person. The promise must not be understood in a
bodily or local sense. Yet if someone does take it to mean a place, he would not be wrong.
For in the resurrection, those who excel in brightness receive, each according to his
worth, places in the purest regions of the upper air, clearer than the fineness of light
itself. These are the places best suited for leisure to contemplate the truths of God the
Word.

FRAGMENT 140

“That…” The word “one” is used in many ways: by likeness and in many other ways. It is
used of agreement, when Scripture says, “the multitude of those who believed had one heart
and one soul.” It is used of likeness, as when it says, “For we were all baptized in one
Spirit into one body.” This is by likeness of nature. We have Adam as our beginning and
head by the natural origin of our birth, and so we are all said to have one body. In the
same way we also give Christ the title of head, through the divine new birth. That new
birth became for us a pattern of his death and resurrection, since he rose as firstborn
from the dead. We give him the title of head as a foreshadowing of his resurrection. “Of
him we are members in part, and body,” being born again through the Spirit into
incorruption.


FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
===============================

FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 233–250

Origen’s Homilies on Luke survive in Jerome’s Latin translation, but these Greek fragments
come from the catena tradition and give Origen’s comments on the third Gospel in his own
language. As with any catena, a fragment may be shortened or reworded by the compiler.

FRAGMENT 1

“And standing over her, he rebuked the fever.” The Savior comes to Simon’s house and finds
his mother-in-law burning with fever. “He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left.”
Perhaps, then, in the words “the fever left her,” as Matthew and Mark report them, and in
their whole account, nothing suggests a living creature that produces the fever. But in
Luke’s words, “standing over her he rebuked the fever and it left,” I do not know whether
we will be forced to say that what is rebuked and leaves is a living thing, one that
cannot withstand the working of the one who rebukes it. For it is not reasonable to say
that something lifeless, with no power of perception, is rebuked. It is not strange that
there are certain powers that harm the human body. Nor should we always accuse the soul of
those who suffer, as if it were harmed by these things. The devil struck Job with a wicked
sore because he had received authority to test him through the body. But Job is not to be
accused on that account, since he contended and bore the blow nobly. Only let this be
said, if ever we are tried by bodily pains: “but [do not touch] his soul.” In the same way
the Lord, by rebuking, heals those who are sick. [“Rebuked”] is put here in place of
“commanded.”

FRAGMENT 2

“And as the sun was setting.” They brought these people near sunset rather than in the
daytime. Perhaps they were ashamed, or afraid of the Pharisees, or occupied with other
things. Or perhaps they thought it was not lawful to heal on the sabbath, for the
evangelist noted that “he was teaching them on the sabbath.” For this reason their
relatives brought the sick at the setting of the sun, and he healed them.

FRAGMENT 3

“He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.” Why was he standing by the lake, when
according to Matthew and Mark “he was walking by the sea of Galilee”? The evangelists seem
to say opposite things. But anyone who tries to answer from Scripture can say this about
the passage. At the beginning of the making of the world, God called the gatherings of
[waters] “seas.” Rivers too are gatherings of waters, and so these also are seas. So too
the very sweet and most drinkable “lake of Gennesaret,” now called “Tiberias” in the
Gospels, is a sea, especially since it too is a gathering of waters. Gennesaret is a
region in the portion of the Canaanite. As the Lord went along the shore there, he found
Peter and John and those with them, and called them again after the catch of fish. They
had earlier been disciples of John the Baptist.

FRAGMENT 4

“Behold, a man full of leprosy.” In the literal account, after the sending away of the
little bird, the one who was cleansed first “washes his clothes.” Then he “shaves off
every hair” and bathes in water, and after this it is added, “and he will be clean.” The
“clothes” are a way of life not altogether badly woven, since even if he put [it] off
[...]. The “hairs” are the things that have sprouted up dead in the soul. Opposed to these
are the hairs of [...] and of the Nazirites and of the disciples. For of the Nazirites it
is said, “iron shall not come up on the head.” This means all they do prospers, so that
not even a leaf falls from them as they bear fruit. Already he puts the defilement away
from the body with water, which shows baptism. After this he becomes fit for the camp, but
he does not go into his own house until [seven] days have passed. And as to the head being
shaved [...], this is because of the more central points of doctrine. The putting away of
the beard stands for the man’s sins. By the eyebrows he showed [...]

FRAGMENT 5

“He ordered him to tell no one.” The covering of the mouth shows that a man must condemn
himself to silence until he has returned and cleansed himself. It is not out of place to
apply this text to those who are guilty of sins and yet have set themselves to teach about
divine things.

FRAGMENT 6

“Bring for your cleansing.” If you like, take the “living flesh” to mean reason, the Word.
When reason is not present in the soul, whatever happens, the one who sins is not to
blame, since he is in the condition of a creature without reason. But if reason is
present, he is accountable. Why, then, does the disease spreading over the whole body
perhaps indicate, figuratively, frenzies or fits of melancholy, or the condition of
infancy? For when reason gives no help and sense perception is not present, nothing done
or said is sin. It is sin only when perception is present. We should also put it this way:
we please God in two ways. If we live to God, let nothing in us be dead. If we have died
to sin, let nothing of sin be alive in us. For while we live in him, let us refuse the
deadness that comes from sin. Having died to the world, let us not run back to the
passions. We die to sin by putting to death “the members that are on the earth.” “We died
to sin; how shall we still live in it?” So defilement, even if it is slight, is also
unclean according to the law, just as it is clean to be dead to sin altogether. For, he
says, “a little [leaven] leavens the whole.” Some have called “unclean” the deadness that
comes from a wicked disposition, such as licentiousness or injustice. They call “clean”
what makes no [distinction] about anything bodily, provided it does not arise from
wickedness. A foreign [marriage] is not unclean unless it comes from licentiousness. Food
is not unclean unless it comes from lack of self-control. Work on the Sabbath is not
unclean unless it is done for gain. According to some, [again], the law declares clean the
man who is leprous all over. This shows that God hates what is mixed and variegated. As
the law goes on it shows this more clearly: “You shall not sow your vineyard with two
kinds of seed, and a garment woven from two materials is counterfeit; and you shall not
breed your cattle with a different kind.” Everywhere it prefers simplicity, which can be
seen in the man who is leprous all over.

FRAGMENT 7

“And after these things he went out and saw a tax collector.” “He went out,” it says, “and
saw a tax collector called Levi.” This is Matthew the evangelist. Mark and Luke hide his
name under his earlier title. Matthew, however, makes his own name plain, saying, “He saw
Matthew the tax collector.” He says these things so that we, marveling at the skill of God
who healed him, may believe in him with the greatest certainty.

FRAGMENT 8

“Blessed are those who weep now, for you will laugh.” He promises the laughter that comes
from joy and cheerfulness. So it says in Job, “He will fill a true mouth with laughter.”
Perhaps for this reason one of the patriarchs is called “Laughter,” the name signifying
divine cheerfulness.

FRAGMENT 9

“For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit.” The “good tree” is the Holy
Spirit. The “bad tree” is the devil and his servants. So the person who has the Holy
Spirit displays the Spirit’s fruits, which the apostle lists when he says, “The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control.” But the person who has the opposing power bears “the passions of dishonor,”
“thorns and thistles.”

FRAGMENT 10

“And behold, a woman who was a sinner in the city.” The more perfect soul has served the
Word of God well. It has boldness to come to the very head. “The head of Christ is God.”
So it can pour ointment on that head and surround the glory of God with fragrance. For God
is glorified through the fragrance of the lives of the righteous. The less perfect woman,
the less perfect soul, busies herself about the feet and the lowlier things, and we are
close to her. [The text here is corrupt: it seems to say that we do not even reach the
feet because of our sins.] Where are our tears? Where is our weeping, so that we might at
least be able to come to the feet of Jesus? For we cannot yet reach the head itself. It is
a welcome thing, after sins, to bring the fragrance of repentance, so that someone may be
able to be the second woman, the one who anoints the feet and not the head. That is, she
does not touch the more perfect and higher things, but the outermost and last.

FRAGMENT 11

11a Luke 8:16: “No one who lights a lamp covers it with a vessel.” This is not said about
a lamp you can see and touch, but about a lamp of the mind. No one who lit a physical lamp
would cover it with a vessel or put it under a bed; he would put it on its lampstand. The
“vessels” of the house could be the powers of the soul, and the “bed” the body. Those who
come in are the hearers of the one who shares the word with them. The lampstand is the
ruling part of the soul, since it is the place of speech, or rather the mouth, when
someone opens it with the word of God. In either case, those who make their way in to God
will see the light, and the light is the knowledge with which he has lit up himself.
Someone who wants to apply the lamp to the most perfect of Jesus’ disciples will shame us
with what was said about John, that “he was the lamp that burns” and shines. The lamp also
stands for the mind in each person. Yet the saying, “Let your lamps be burning,” was
spoken to all the disciples of Jesus. So a person must not hide the lamp that has been lit
in a reasoning soul. He must set it on the lampstand, of which Moses’ lampstand, which he
“placed in the tent of testimony,” was a symbol. Let fellow servants be measured out their
grain by the “faithful and wise servant” with a measure, but let everyone see the rays of
the lamp that sits on the lampstand, that is, on the church.

11b Nor do people put the lamp “under the bed,” where someone lies down to rest, nor
“under” any other “vessel.” Whoever does that has no thought for those who come into the
house, for whom the lamp has to be set. Those who kindle the mind within them with the
“true light,” with the shining word, and with the rays of wisdom, have a mind with the
nature the Creator gave it. Such a mind needs a lamp, that is, to be kindled from the
Word, from wisdom, and from the truth of the true light. We should hold that the command
“Let your lamps be burning” is fulfilled by those who take care to keep in the soul a mind
of sharp sight, one that shares in the One who said, “I have come as a light into the
world.” For those who burn the lamp and set it on the lampstand to shine for everyone in
the house will also urge those in the house, as they see the brightness of the lamp, to
light their own lampstand too.

FRAGMENT 12

Perhaps the Lord calls himself the “lamp.” By becoming part of the divine plan of
salvation he shines on everyone in the house. He is light by his very being, and like a
lamp he is held, without being limited, in the clay vessel of the flesh, with the soul in
the middle like a wick through which the fire burns. He names the holy church the
“lampstand.” On it the Word of God shines through the preaching and floods with the rays
of truth all who live in this world as in a house, filling everyone’s mind with divine
knowledge. He has used the “measuring bowl” as a symbol of the synagogue of the Jews and
the bodily worship of the law, the symbols of old in the letter. This worship has no
knowledge at all of the light of true understanding in the mind. The Word does not want to
be held down under that measure. He wants to be set on high, on the greatness of the
church’s beauty.

FRAGMENT 13

Anyone held by the letter of the law, as under a measuring bowl, would have been deprived
of everlasting light. He would give no spiritual understanding to those who hurry to strip
off the senses as deceptive. “But he is put on the lampstand.” He means the church, that
is, the reasoning worship in the Spirit, so that he may give light to all and teach those
in the whole world to live and conduct themselves by the Word alone. So let us not light
the divine lamp, the Word who gives light, through contemplation and action, and then put
it under the measure. Otherwise we will be condemned for confining by the letter the
boundless power of wisdom. Rather, I say, let us put it “on the lampstand,” the holy
church, on the height of true contemplation, which sets the light of the divine teachings
blazing for all. [But these things were also discussed in Matthew, so it is unnecessary to
go on at length here.]

FRAGMENT 14

8:39 “Return to your house.” He sends him to his own house. [The Greek here is damaged. It
seems to say: for he did not have so great a measure of power.] There may be some who
become hearers and disciples of such a man. Those who cannot take in the presence of Jesus
any more fully he cared for no less than the one who could, since [that man] proclaims
from the few things he has received. You could also apply the account to the nature of the
man outside Israel. For his sake Jesus sails across to the country of the Gergesenes, and
to meet him Jesus comes out onto the land. “He did not put on a garment,” it says. The man
had not put on what covers his shame. “And he did not stay in a house,” for he was not,
like Jacob, “a plain man living in a house.” So Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to
your [house].” “And he lived in the tombs,” not among the living but among the dead. “Now
there was,” it says, “a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain.” But perhaps pigs do
not feed on a mountain. How then did “the herd rush down the cliff”? Perhaps, then, those
who love pleasure, friends of the belly and of what lies below the belly, feed where the
tombs are, near the legion of demons. In his goodness Jesus destroys the life of the pigs
in the water. Through the demons he cuts off the breath of those wicked lovers of pleasure
and of the body. Perhaps such a man even becomes self-controlled. If anyone is self-
controlled, he is with Jesus. But the one who is only beginning to be self-controlled is
“at his feet.”

FRAGMENT 15

15a 8:41 “And behold, a man came whose name was Jairus.” Such is the history of the
miracle. But perhaps we should also look at it more closely and at a higher level. Let the
simpler and more guileless people marvel at these great works of God, for they build up
faith even when understood in a bodily way. But there are those who can cross over to
seeing that these things happened to those people as types, and that they were written for
[our sake; the text is incomplete here]. Let us pray to God and ask that a word come to
make these things clear as well. How was it that Jesus was going first of all to the
daughter of the synagogue ruler, and not to the woman with the flow of blood who met him
on the road? And how was it that, though he was going first of all to the girl, this woman
was healed first? For the Son of God came first of all to the daughter of the synagogue
ruler, the synagogue of the Jews, and found her sick and dead. The transgressions of
Israel made her die. But the woman with the flow of blood, the one on the road, full of
uncleanness, flowing “not at the time of her monthly separation” but bleeding always and
sick with the blood-red sin, is the church from the nations. She believes in the Son of
God before that other one does. He goes off to the girl, but the woman follows him and
wants to touch at least “the fringe of his garment.” Luke added something Matthew did not
say: that the synagogue ruler’s daughter was twelve years old, and that the woman had been
bleeding for twelve years. So she began to bleed at the same time that the girl was born.

15b For the girl is in unbelief for as long as the synagogue lives. The same limit of time
marks the end of that one and the beginning of this woman’s salvation. The girl dies at
twelve years. And after twelve years of suffering, this woman believes and is healed, she
who “could not be healed by” the physicians. For many physicians promised to heal those
from the nations. If you see those who practice philosophy and profess to teach truth,
they are physicians trying to heal. But she spent everything she had, and “she could not
be healed by any” of the physicians. Then she touched the fringe of Jesus, the only
physician of souls and bodies, and through her fiery, burning faith she was healed at
once. If we look at our faith in Christ Jesus and understand how great the Son of God is,
and whom we have touched, we will see that, compared with the fringes that are in him, we
have touched only a fringe. Even so, the fringe heals us and makes us hear from Jesus,
“Daughter, your faith has saved you.” And if we are healed, the daughter of the synagogue
ruler will also rise. For, he says, “When the fullness of the nations has come in, then
all Israel will be saved.”

FRAGMENT 16

8:45 “And Jesus said, ‘Who touched me?’” The disciples pressed against him and handled
him. But the woman with the flow of blood did not touch him, for she did not dare. Out of
reverence she touched only the fringe.

FRAGMENT 17

“She reported before all the people how she was healed.” Before this she did not dare, out
of reverence, to meet him face to face and ask for healing. But now that she is sought
out, she comes forward as she should, fearful and reverent, and showing the respect that
fits the moment. She makes her confession of healing plain to everyone. She does not make
it for the one who knows all things, but for those who did not know. “She knew in her body
that she was healed of the scourge.” For the bleeding was a scourge. In the same way you
may say that other bodily sufferings are scourges of God, since through them he scourges
those who are worthy of his discipline: “He scourges every son whom he receives.” So he
also said to the paralytic, whom he likewise released from a scourge, “See, you have
become well; sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” Here too the healing the
woman received through touching, the Savior confirmed by his word when he said, “Go in
peace, and be well of your scourge.” And may she be made well first in her soul by faith,
and then in her body also.

FRAGMENT 18

“He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God.” Was it, then, before this, when he sent
out the twelve to proclaim, that he forbade them to confess that he was the Christ? One
may say that he wanted first to instruct, in a rather dim way, those who would hear the
name of Christ from the apostles. Then he wanted to let it be, so to speak, digested in
the minds of those who heard. So there would be silence about proclaiming such a thing
concerning him, and at a more fitting time Jesus Christ, crucified and raised from the
dead, would be built up in those who had been instructed beforehand. In the beginning not
even the apostles themselves knew these things. So it says: “From that time Jesus began to
show them that he must suffer many things,” and die and rise again. If he had been
proclaimed in this way earlier, the things about him would not have been made clear. So
for now he commands them to be silent about him. He is keeping the more complete teaching
about him for a more suitable time, when the disciples who had seen him risen could bear
witness, to those who had seen him crucified, of his resurrection from the dead.

FRAGMENT 19

“To proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” There is a sin of the soul that is death,
which John calls “a sin leading to death.” There is a sin of the soul that is sickness.
And there is a sin of the soul that is loss, as the word “having suffered loss” is used
here, and in the apostle: “If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss.” [Origen
said this but did not add the distinction between them.]

FRAGMENT 20

“It happened, after these words, about eight days later.” Matthew says “six,” counting
neither the day on which the words were spoken nor the day on which he was transfigured,
but only the six days in between. Luke, however, joined them on as whole days.

FRAGMENT 21

Let us ask how Luke says, “It happened after these words, about eight days,” while Mark
says, “after about six days.” As far as the wording “about eight days later” goes, Luke
counts this day as well, the one on which it happens, while Mark counts only the days in
between. So there is no disagreement as to the wording. But carrying the argument to a
higher level, I would say that it was not for nothing that the Savior did what he had
promised, not at once but after six days. The six days are a symbol of the making of the
world, that is, they mean after this world. For then Jesus takes up into the high mountain
whoever is a Peter or a James or a John. No one else goes up except the three, so that he
may see the transfiguration of Jesus, and Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory.

FRAGMENT 22

“He took Peter, John and James and went up.” The transfiguration on the mountain was shown
to the disciples as a preview of the glory the Savior would have in the future. It was
shown in bodily form, so that it could fall within the sight of their mortal eyes, even
though they could not bear the excess of its brightness, [a brightness] so unmixed and
unbearable to our eyes. The glory that belongs to the divine being is unseen and
unapproachable by every created nature. The disciples proved this: they could not even
endure this bodily appearance shown to them on the mountain, but fell to the ground. A
person sees the Word transfigured in glory when he goes up with him, is lifted up with
him, and sees him as the very Word himself and as high priest, conversing and praying to
the Father. But since he had not yet brought his body completely to an incorruption that
could not be changed, he was seen shining along with his perishable garments. For when the
righteous rise in glory at Christ’s second coming, they will not have perceptible
garments, but certain radiant robes will be put around them. Just as the appearance of
those garments was not different from that of the transfiguration, so in the resurrection
the appearance of the saints will be far more glorious than what they had in this life,
though not a different one. Those with Jesus were seen in glory by the disciples: Moses,
showing the face of the law, and Elijah, that of the prophets; for he himself was the Lord
of the law and the prophets. So the person who has understood the spiritual law, and the
wisdom “hidden in a mystery” in the prophets, sees Moses and Elijah in glory.

FRAGMENT 23

“And behold, two men were talking with him.” They converse with one another, that is, they
speak in agreement with each other. He joined those of the old covenant to the apostles,
showing that at Christ’s second coming all the righteous will be joined together.

FRAGMENT 24

“Master, it is good for us to be here.” Peter had heard that Christ was going to suffer,
and he thought he had found an opportunity to say what he did not want to happen. So he
asked the Lord to stay up on the mountain permanently, so that the Jews would not find him
when he came down and kill him. He did not know that all good things were going to come
from the suffering and the resurrection. “While he was saying these things, a cloud
overshadowed them.” The cloud cut short his meddling, his seeking something beyond his own
capacity. By this it also gave an advance picture that all the saints, those before his
coming and those after it, will be together. It also showed that law, prophets and gospel
lead into the same tents. They are counted as three, but look toward one end. And it
showed that in the resurrection the saints will be “caught up in clouds to meet the Lord,
and to be with him” forever.

FRAGMENT 25

“And they themselves kept silent and told no one.” Jesus did not want the things of his
glory to be told before the glory that comes after his suffering. The hearers would have
been harmed, especially the crowds, seeing someone so glorified being crucified. So the
disciples did not hide it out of envy, but out of fear that they would not be believed.
Luke says, “And they themselves kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what
they had seen.” When, then, did they tell? After the ascension, after the coming of the
Spirit. For then they were filled with boldness and counted worthy of the Spirit. They had
the voice of the signs speaking in their defense, and from then on everything they said
was readily accepted.

FRAGMENT 26

26a “But they did not understand this saying.” What he means is this: even if you do not
understand these words now, you will understand them in due time, once you have put away
your ignorance. That will be when you turn to me completely and the veil is taken away. I
will remove it from you in the Passion itself, and the sign of this you will see in the
curtain of the temple torn in two. Perhaps, too, it holds generally for those who are
learning that the words of what is handed on must at first be not understood, and the
sayings must be veiled. Then later, after the hearers have laid the words up in their
ears, the meaning is made clear, as the words are carried over from the ears to the heart.
Notice, then, that he spoke to the disciples themselves at first in parables, which they
heard along with those outside, and afterward, “privately,” he “explained everything” to
them. In the same way we, when we have pondered the words and at first understood nothing,
begin as it were to see again through constant study. The Word shines little by little “in
our hearts” “to give the light of the knowledge of his glory.” The phrase “is about to be
handed over,” in Matthew and Luke, plainly raises the question: by whom? So, as we said,
one person will answer, “By Judas,” and another, “By the people.” But since Judas and the
people were human beings, we should stop and ask whether it is better to follow Paul, who
says of the Father, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.” There
the words “by God” are left unstated.

26b When you come to this point, you will ask whether the word “handed over” means the
same thing when it is applied to Judas as when it is applied to God. Someone who says it
means the same will put the difference in the purpose. Judas handed him over for silver,
with a plot against him, whereas the Father handed him over to do us good. Look further at
how it is said: “so that they would not perceive it.” Just as there is such a thing as
failing to perceive in the senses, which often happens to perceptible things because of
some passion, so also with the ruling faculty of the mind it is possible to be without
perception of a word or saying, or to perceive it only with difficulty. And since “the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of perception,” perhaps the fear the disciples felt was
bad. It arose from their ignorance of the saying, and the veil was hindering them from
learning by asking. For the one who arranged their ignorance and veiled the saying from
them could see that if the Savior were questioned and answered, the ignorance and the veil
would be taken away. At the same time, compare this: with the parables the disciples
“asked him privately” and “were not afraid to ask.” Now they “were afraid to ask him about
this saying.” The one who produced the ignorance and the veiling in them was arranging
something. He was keeping the removal of the ignorance and of the veil for a suitable
time, for he was “about to be handed over into the hands of men.”

FRAGMENT 27

“But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” So if you are ready, my friend, you will
choose, because of my teaching, to live unsettled here, as I do, with nowhere to lay my
head, in hope of the kingdom of heaven. You will not look for rest here, but in the age to
come. For my disciples, who practice righteousness, “will have tribulation in the world.”
But the “evil men and impostors” are compared in this life to foxes and birds of the air,
and “will advance, deceiving and being deceived.” The words Paul spoke, in whom Christ was
speaking, fit especially well with “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”: “we are
homeless.”

FRAGMENT 28

What he is saying is this: unless you rid yourself of the birds and beasts, that is, the
demons, I cannot lodge in you. And being such as you are, you cannot receive the dignity
of an apostle.

FRAGMENT 29

“Let the dead bury their own dead.” There is also a higher sense. When the young man’s
father was dead, then the Savior called him. I think that, just as the world had been
crucified to Paul and was dead to him, because the affairs of the world had died for him
and he no longer regarded them as “things seen” and “temporary,” so for each righteous
person the devil has died, who lived for him while he sinned. For everyone “who commits
sin has been born of the devil,” and for everyone who sins and fixes his attention on
things here, the evil father lives. To everyone for whom the evil one has died, the Savior
may say, “Follow me.” Perhaps, understood mystically, this also means that we must hate
our father if we are to be worthy of Jesus. The words “bury their own dead” are to be
taken only as allegory. For the dead in a way bury “their own dead” within themselves,
becoming their tombs and monuments. But the one who obeys Jesus leaves the dead completely
behind and never touches it again, for he knows that whoever touches a dead body is
defiled.

FRAGMENT 30

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back.” Each of us is his own plowman, and
our own soul is the land. We must break it up as fallow ground with the plow of reason,
after yoking the oxen, the workers, from the pure Scriptures. For then a person will make
new the soul that has grown old through long idleness in time past, which has produced
much wickedness and fruitless works. He will cut out [the old growth] with the plow of the
word and make the ground fresh. Then he will sow seeds from the divine teaching: seeds of
the law, of the prophets, and of the gospel, remembering it and meditating on it. This is
why the God of all also says through Jeremiah the prophet: “Break up fresh ground for
yourselves, and do not sow among thorns.” For it is not [possible] simply to receive the
seed and bear fruit without first cleansing our souls and casting out every passion, and
the cares and pleasures of this life, which are the thorns. Therefore he says: “Turn away
from evil and do good.”

FRAGMENT 31

“After these things the Lord appointed seventy others.” That is what Luke says about the
seventy. Mark says that “he called the twelve and sent them out two by two, giving them
authority over unclean spirits.” This sending “two by two” to serve the word seems to be
in keeping with God’s purpose, and it is ancient, going back to Moses and Aaron when the
people came out of the land of Egypt. God brought Israel out by the hand of Moses and
Aaron. Then Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, both of one mind, quieted the
people when they were stirred up by the ten. Eldad and Modad also prophesied in the tent,
both in agreement. Later he sent Paul and Barnabas out to the nations, and such men were
an example of the “two on earth” who agree. You may also apply to these the words “a
brother helped by a brother is like a fortified city,” and “two are better than one.”
Matthew shows in his list that the twelve also were arranged in pairs, for he ordered them
by couples.

FRAGMENT 32

“Say to them: the kingdom of God has come near to you.” Just as you do good to bodies, so
by teaching save souls. Here he calls himself the kingdom of God, as King and God. “It has
come near,” he says, and he will soon visit you. Become worthy, and prepare yourselves to
receive him. I think the difference between a house and a city is also stated in the
Psalms, in the words: “Unless the Lord builds the house, and unless the Lord guards the
city, the one who keeps watch has stayed awake in vain.” Notice there that what is still
being built is called a “house,” while what is already worthy of guarding and garrisoning
is called a “city.” It is for the greater house, the city, that he set the words “they
receive you.”

FRAGMENT 33

“The dust that clung to our feet from your city we wipe off against you.” This means: “Say
that the dust of your sins may come back upon you.” Notice that the cities that do not
receive apostles and sound teaching have broad streets, in keeping with the words: “Wide
is the gate and spacious the road that leads [to destruction], and many are those who go
through it.” You should also know that a city that does not [receive] the apostles is
filled with stirred-up earth, which makes the air murky and choking. But a city that
receives them either has no dust at all from the beginning, or, if it has some in certain
sins, it lays the dust aside, being cleansed by the apostles.

FRAGMENT 34

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” He wants to reveal as the Word, not
without reason; as Wisdom, wisely; as Righteousness, justly. He knows, according to what
each one deserves, the right times for revealing and the measures of the revelation. He
reveals by taking away the veil lying on the heart and the “darkness” which he made “his
hiding place.” For in this way a person will be able, like Moses, “to enter into the thick
darkness where God was.” The heterodox think they can establish their impious doctrine
from this passage, namely that the Father of Jesus Christ was unknown to those under the
old covenant. We must answer them that “to whom the Son wishes” does not refer only to the
future, from the time the Savior said these things to us. It refers to the past as well.
For the word “to reveal” is of indefinite time, and it can refer to something in the past.
We must also use against them the Scripture that says: “Abraham your father rejoiced to
see my day; and he saw it and was glad.” Those who heard this said, “You are not yet fifty
years old, and you have seen Abraham?” The Savior answers, “Amen, I say to you, before
Abraham was, I am.” So the one who said this showed himself to Abraham at that time, so
that Abraham might then see his day. But if they refuse to accept the word “reveal” as
referring to the past, we must say this to them as well: “to know” is not the same as “to
believe.” For “to one is given through the Spirit a word of knowledge, to another faith in
the same Spirit.” So even by their own reckoning there could be people who believe but do
not also know. Let it be granted, then, according to them, that Abraham did not know the
Father but only believed. For the one who knows him as God does not [necessarily] know him
as Father. Many people, at any rate, have a notion of God as Creator, yet they do not
confess him as the Father of a Son.

FRAGMENT 35

For the awareness of a present lack becomes the preparation for the fullness that follows.
But the one who does not perceive that he lacks what is truly good, because what seems
good to him is already there, is naturally left lacking the true good. This, then, is the
good pleasure of the Father that Christ makes known. God had spoken of it long ago through
the prophet: “On whom will I look, if not on the gentle and quiet one, who trembles at my
words continually?” So God did not honor foolishness above wisdom. He preferred humility
to pride, and he naturally left behind the one who, through his own insensibility, had
shut off the benefit from himself. So the humble and childlike person says: “Teach me
yourself the truth that concerns you. For I cannot learn it from a human being unless I
learn it from you. Who ought to teach about God, if not God?” Revelation, then, comes from
above, after a purpose that is fitting.

FRAGMENT 36

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father.” Close to this is the saying, “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” And the reason “all authority” is
given to him is that he might “make peace through his cross, whether things on earth or
things in the heavens.” He has not yet made peace with all things. This is clear from the
fact that there is still war that comes from evil. But complete peace will certainly come.
It is most just that the Father has handed “all things” over to him, since the Son himself
was handed over “for all.” He “is the Savior of all people, especially of believers”; [he
is the propitiation] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. He
was handed over insofar as he became man, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of beings in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.”

FRAGMENT 37

37a “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.” Why are the eyes of Jesus’ disciples
blessed? Because “many prophets wished to see” what these saw, “and did not see it,” and
to hear what they heard, “and did not hear it.” As for the words “to see,” simpler people
suppose it means this: many prophets, as they prophesied about me, wished to be born in my
times, so that they might “see what you see and hear what you hear.” But they were not
fortunate enough to reach these times, in which you have been counted worthy of these
things. But what is the reason that many prophets desired these things, and not all of
them? Perhaps, as we have already explained about Abraham, who “saw the day of Christ and
rejoiced,” something similar happened with other prophets and righteous men. They were not
many but few, and they had reached the vision and understanding which Jesus’ disciples
heard. Because these few had already seen what the apostles saw and heard what the
disciples of Jesus heard, they did not desire it; they possessed it “as though not
possessing it.” But others became prophets and righteous men who fell short of the vision
and understanding found in the apostles, and these did not obtain what they desired.

37b So now eyes are called blessed, and I think the other members of the saints are too,
so that there is some reason behind the saying, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and
the breasts that you nursed.” And how could the “feet” not be blessed, those that have not
stumbled or been shaken, but are “beautiful” among those who bring good news? Blessed also
are the hands whose lifting up is “an evening sacrifice,” and whose lifting up is victory
for Israel and defeat for Amalek. Blessed is the belly from which “rivers flow of water
springing up to eternal life.” Blessed are the knees that “are bent in the name of Jesus.”
Blessed also is the tongue that “confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.” Blessed too is the “mouth” that serves the word of God, and the nose, for
which it is said, “After you, to the fragrance of your perfumes, we will run.” [These
things were said by Origen. If anyone thinks them excellent, let him think so; they do not
please me, since they are open to objection.]

FRAGMENT 38

“He himself entered a certain village.” The Savior lodged with holy women in a certain
village. Luke passes over its name in silence, but John makes it clear by saying it was
Bethany.

FRAGMENT 39

It would be reasonable to take Martha as standing for action and Mary for contemplation.
For the mystery of love is included along with the practical life, unless someone, besides
contemplating, chooses also to teach and to urge others toward action. For neither action
nor contemplation exists without the other. Better, then, to say that Martha received the
Word in a more bodily way, in her own house, which is the soul. Mary, however, listened to
him spiritually, even while sitting at his feet. In this way, the things handed on at the
beginning, by way of dispensation, are taken away by the one who [puts away] “the things
of the child,” but the things that are perfect are not taken away. Martha may also be the
synagogue from the circumcision, which received Jesus within its own borders and was
distracted by the great amount of service required by the letter of the law. Mary is then
the church from the nations, which chose the “portion” of the spiritual law, [a law that
is being set aside like the glory on the face of Moses]. She picked out the useful things
from the law, or brought everything back to the one word, “You shall love.” For “one thing
is needed” you would apply “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and for “few things
are needed” you would apply “You know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not
murder,” and so on. Again, Martha can be the believers from the circumcision who practice
Jewish ways, keeping the things of the law in a Jewish manner. Mary would be those who
have been set free from these things, “Jews in secret,” who sit only at the feet of Jesus,
who set their minds on “things above, not on things on the earth.” For if you look at it
from different angles, you will find Martha more bodily and “troubled about many things,”
and Mary devoted to contemplation alone and to spiritual things.

FRAGMENT 40

“Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also…” Then, to show that he was still urging him
toward teaching about prayer, he makes this appeal. John, about whom you taught us that
“among those born of women there is none greater than he,” did not neglect teaching about
prayer. We also do not know how to pray as we ought. And you have commanded us to ask for
great and eternal things. Where, then, can we learn these things, if not from you, our God
and Savior?

FRAGMENT 41

This is the same as the prayer in Matthew, which is why it is stated more briefly here. Or
it is better to think of them as different prayers that have some parts in common. God’s
will “is done as in heaven, so on earth” when we do nothing contrary to his will. But how
can the one who said we must ask for heavenly and great things command us to ask for
bread? So “bread” must be understood as the true and spiritual bread.

FRAGMENT 42

“Father, may your name be hallowed.” I think no one could say “Father” to God unless he
were filled with the “Spirit of adoption.” A son who glorifies his father would say
“Father,” and he would also have kept the commandment that says: “Love your enemies, pray
for those who persecute you, so that you may become sons of your Father in the heavens,
because he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and
the unrighteous.” Again, a person is born of God by “doing righteousness.” Being born, and
having received God’s “seed in himself,” so that he is “no longer able to sin,” he could
say “Father.” Again, a person is born of God not from corruptible seed but through the
living and abiding word of God, as it is written. For John says: “But as many as received
him, he gave them the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name,
who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of
God.” He says this not to raise us up to the nature of God, but to share his grace with us
and to give us the gift of his own dignity. For he tells us to call God Father. Then
Matthew adds “in the heavens” to “our Father.” He was speaking about the kingdom of the
heavens, and he was recounting how the Savior taught all who were present the word about
prayer after the beatitudes. Luke, though he teaches about the kingdom of God throughout
his whole Gospel, is silent about “in the heavens.” He is teaching that the divine is
higher than any place. And Christ is explaining the word about prayer privately to the
disciples, as people higher than the rest. Luke also does not add “to be delivered from
the evil one,” as Matthew does.

FRAGMENT 43

Or perhaps it is like this. The name “God” is applied by those who fall away from the
truth to carved images and demons, or even to “the creation instead of the Creator.” So
the name of God has not yet been “hallowed,” and it has not yet been separated from those
things from which it must be separated. He therefore teaches us to pray that the good end
may come more quickly, so that the title “God” may be fitted to the Lord as “the only true
God.” And with this interpretation we can clearly fit the next petition as well. Which one
is that? “Your kingdom come.”

FRAGMENT 44

“Your kingdom come.” Let death no longer “reign” against me, and let it no longer lead me
captive through sin. Instead, “let your kingdom come” upon me, so that the passions that
now rule and reign may withdraw into non-being. One could ask these things also with
regard to the kingdom as it comes about in each individual.

FRAGMENT 45

“Your kingdom come,” so that “every rule and authority and power” may be abolished, and
also every kingdom of the world, and the sin that reigns in our mortal bodies, and so that
God may reign over all of these.

FRAGMENT 46

“Give us each day our epiousion bread.” The followers of Marcion have the wording like
this: “Give us each day your epiousion bread.” Since they flee from allegories and
spiritual interpretations, let us press them with a difficulty: what is the bread of God?
If they explain it as we have given, then clearly they are using allegory. But if they
take it to be bodily bread, how can this belong to their supposedly good God? And “each
day” is necessarily added. For our true life is, as it were, something that must be
repaired [day by day], so that “the inner man” may live according to God.

FRAGMENT 47

“Each day” is more emphatic than Matthew’s “today.”

FRAGMENT 48

“Which of you will have a friend, and will go to him?” The words “which of you” are spoken
to the disciples. “Will have a friend” is meant to say that God is a friend to the saints,
as he was to Moses and to Abraham. Perhaps this “midnight,” which is called “shut in” [or
“cramped”], is the time of this life, when the destroyer enters every house of the Egypt
that is in the world, wherever the doorposts have not been anointed with the blood of
Christ. The disciple asks his friend for “three loaves,” wanting to feed with the teaching
about the Trinity the one who has come to him from the road. As he says: “Apart from me
you can do nothing.” But how is it that the friend answers from inside, saying, “Do not
cause me trouble”? You might also ask whether we who are “weary and burdened” bring our
troubles upon the Savior, which is why “he bears our weaknesses and suffers pain for us.”
Or else, just as God is said to sleep in one case, and in another case, to be angry with
someone who sins, so too he is said to have troubles from the one who brings them to him.

FRAGMENT 49

“Ask, and it will be given to you.” The Savior’s statement, “Ask, and it will be given to
you,” is true, and he confirms it by saying, “Everyone who asks receives.” Still, someone
might ask how it is that some people pray and are not heard. To this we must say: whoever
comes to ask by the proper way, leaving out nothing that contributes to obtaining what he
is eager for, will certainly receive what he begged to be given. But if someone strays
from the purpose of the request that was handed down to us, and only seems to ask, then he
is not asking in the way he should, and he is not really asking at all. So when he does
not receive, the saying “Everyone who asks receives” is not proved false. Consider a
teacher who says, “Everyone who comes to me for lessons will gain knowledge of them.” We
understand “coming to the teacher” in a practical sense: that is, paying close attention
to what the teacher says, and practicing and studying it. To the one who does not come
this way, we must say, “You did not come to him as he urged you.” James makes this clearer
when he writes in his letter: “Some ask and do not receive, because they ask badly, for
the sake of empty pleasures.” Someone will object: “But some people ask for divine
knowledge and for the acquiring of virtues, and they do not receive.” To him we must
answer that they did not seek to receive these good things for their own sake, but in
order to be praised because of them. Taking pleasure in praise belongs to lovers of
pleasure. So these people are not given anything either, since they want to spend on
pleasures the very things they ask for.

FRAGMENT 50

“Which of you, if his son asks his father...” Consider whether “bread” is the soul’s
necessary food in knowledge, without which it cannot be saved, such as the precise
teaching about how one ought to live. And “fish” would be like a relish, the love of
learning, such as “knowing the structure of the world, the working of the elements, the
beginning and end and middle of times,” and everything else that Wisdom goes on to list.
So God does not give a stone in place of bread, which the devil wanted Jesus to eat. Nor
does he give “a serpent in place of a fish.” The serpent is eaten by the Ethiopians, who
are unworthy to eat fish. For there the psalm says: “You crushed the head of the dragon on
the water; you gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples.” Nor, in simple terms, does he
give what is inedible and harmful in place of what is nourishing and beneficial.

FRAGMENT 51

“When the unclean spirit goes out of the person, it passes through…” What does it mean
that the evil spirit “passes through waterless places, seeking rest and not finding it”?
The waterless places were once the people from the nations. Now they have been filled with
water [of mine?], and they no longer give it rest. So Satan turns back to his former
dwelling, those from Israel. When they were in Egypt, the evil spirit lived in them,
because they shared the customs and laws of the Egyptians. When they were set free through
Moses by God’s mercy, it went out. But now they have not believed in Christ. They have
pushed away the Redeemer, and so the unclean spirit has leapt on them again. It found
nothing divine left in them, only emptiness, and them standing idle and open to its
dwelling, and so it settled in with all its power. This seems to be what the text shows
when it says that “seven” spirits are with it. Scripture is accustomed to name such a
number for a multitude, as when it says, “The barren woman bore seven, and she who had
many children grew weak.” For the spirit they had in Egypt is not the kind that [those who
acted against my son] now have. They have been filled with other evil spirits as well, and
“the last things have become worse than the first.” They are now worse off than they were
in Egypt, because they did not believe in Jesus Christ but “killed the author of life,”
and so they were deprived of life. No prophet says to them any longer, “Thus says the
Lord.” There is no longer any sign among them, no wonder, no sign of God’s appearing and
presence. The good things have passed over to us from the nations, according to the word
of Jesus, who said, “The kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to a nation
producing its fruits.” We are that nation, to whom belongs “the kingdom of God,” the way
of life of the gospel.

FRAGMENT 52

“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden place or under the measuring bowl.” Let the
fellow servants have their grain measured out in the measuring bowl by “the faithful and
wise steward.” But let “all those in the house,” that is, in the church, see the rays of
the lamp as it stands on the lampstand and is brought into the open through the word. Nor
do people put the lamp “under the bed,” where someone lies down to rest, or “under any
vessel.” Whoever does this takes no thought for those who are coming into the house.

FRAGMENT 53

53a “The lamp of the body is your eye.” It seems to me that in the words “the lamp of the
body is the eye” he is saying something like this: the faculty of seeing clearly in the
whole soul, in the whole person, is the mind. And so that we would take care of it, it was
said, “Let your lamps be burning.” For we light, as it were, the lamp within us when we
take care of our power of understanding. “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden
place, but on the lampstand” is a saying of the same kind. For those light a lamp who care
about wisdom and reason and training in divine things, so that they may become perfect.
Perfection comes to a person in no other way than through the training of the faculties of
perception, both of the senses and of the mind, in divine matters. Paul made this clear
when he said, “Solid food belongs to the perfect, who through habit have their faculties
trained to distinguish good from evil.” These are the people to whom the wisdom spoken to
the perfect can be spoken, about which he says, “We speak wisdom among the perfect.” By
“eye” he means, properly speaking, the mind in us. In the earnest person only, the source
of this mind is simplicity, with no double-mindedness, deceit, splitting, dissension or
division in it. In the base person, its source is wickedness and every sin. Consider also
whether you can interpret “body” figuratively in a way that fits with “eye.” Either the
whole soul, even though it is not bodily, is here called “the body” (for God made the mind
in the soul of a human being), or else what remains besides the mind, that is, the
composite of the rest of the soul and the body, is what he calls the body.

53b For the whole soul is properly enlightened by the mind. Yet one could say that the
mind’s simplicity reaches even to the body, when the body is led by the mind. Or its
wickedness reaches the body, when the mind uses the body as an instrument for sin. Do not
be surprised if in the saying “the lamp of the body is the eye” we take “body”
figuratively for the soul. The soul is, in its own definition, invisible and bodiless, for
it was made according to the image of the invisible God. But we find that the powers of
the soul are also figuratively called by the same names as the bodily parts, though they
are not bodies. For in the words “enlighten my eyes” bodily eyes are not meant. In “he
added an ear for me” the discourse is not about bodies either, nor when he says, “Let the
one who has ears to hear, hear.” In the Song, the bride is either the soul of a person
brought up to share with Christ as her bridegroom, or the church. There the bridegroom
praises her hair in particular, her teeth, her lips, her neck and her breasts. If these
are explained of the soul, they are referred to its powers. You could also find the words
“my foot shall not stumble” applied to the soul’s power of moving forward. You will find
many such passages yourself if you pay attention to Scripture. They will keep you from
stumbling over how “body” is meant in the saying

53c “the lamp of the body is the eye,” and in similar places. In Proverbs you will find
“divine perception” spoken of as a promise, in contrast to perception that is not divine.
The perception that even the irrational animals share is not divine: they see and hear,
taste, smell and touch. The perception that is divine is one that not even all human
beings share. It belongs to those who have done such things as the verse refers to when it
adds, “you will find divine perception.” So do not be surprised if the name “body,” by
analogy with the names of the body’s parts, which are referred to the powers of the soul,
is applied to the whole soul in the saying “the lamp of the body is the eye.” We do not
say this as though the word “body” is explained figuratively everywhere. We know that the
name “body” is also used of other things, as in “do not fear those who kill the body,” and
“you are the body of Christ.”

FRAGMENT 54

I think the meaning of the next saying is this. If, because “your body has become full of
light,” the body has been enlightened by its lamp, and there is no part in you still dark,
since you no longer sin at all, then the whole body will be so full of light that its rays
can be compared to a lamp in a flash of lightning that gives light, even if it does not
dispel darkness. The enlightenment that comes from the mind is like the brightest
lightning. The light in the body is like a lamp in the flashing lightning. By nature that
lamp is darkness, and it is led wherever the mind wishes. So if the mind of those living
in ignorance and lack of knowledge, though by nature it is light, is darkness, then
certainly the whole body, that is, the passionate part of the soul, which is the spirited
and desiring part, is much more darkness.

FRAGMENT 55

“See to it, then, that the light in you is not darkness.” He says: it was possible for you
to make your mind pure, and through this to make both your words and your actions shine.
But you do the opposite. From the very place where you ought to bring out light, you bring
out darkness, since you harbor envy out of wicked thoughts.

FRAGMENT 56

“Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered.” Either he is speaking about that time
when “God will judge the secrets of men” and “will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness and make plain the counsels of hearts.” Or he means this: however much someone
tries to cover up good things by accusing them, by nature what is good cannot be covered.

FRAGMENT 57

“Are not five sparrows sold for two assarions?” Notice that Luke did not speak of a
sparrow falling to the ground, as Matthew did. Here the five sparrows hint at the five
senses of the righteous person. These senses perceive things above and beyond the human:
they see divine things, hear the voice of God, taste “the living bread,” smell the
fragrance of Christ’s perfumes, and touch “the oil of gladness,” the living Word. Though
they are despised by those who judge “the things of the Spirit” to be folly and cheap,
they “are not forgotten before God.” If the Word himself was sold for thirty pieces of
silver, it is no wonder that divine senses go for two assarions. Compare the passage that
says not even the smallest sparrow “is forgotten before God” with the passages that show
God forgetting some people because of their sins. Taken literally, these words show how
fine-grained God’s providence is, and that his knowledge reaches down to the smallest
things. Taken spiritually, people fall to the earth like sparrows. The mind should be
carried upward, but instead it seeks the things below, caught in the evils of the flesh.
It has been handed over “to passions of dishonor,” and has lost both its freedom and its
honor. Such is the person who was lifted up by the Word and then set his mind on earthly
things. Again, on the literal level, “it will not fall to the ground without your Father”
does not point to his will but to his foreknowledge. Of the things that happen, some
happen by his will, some by his good pleasure, and some by his permission.

FRAGMENT 58

“And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many good things.” “You have many good things
laid up.” He spoke as one who was lying down below, “You have good things laid up for many
years,” and he was mistaken in his judgment about what is good. He did not know that the
things that are truly good are not in the cursed earth but in heaven. There the rest and
joy of the blessed in Christ Jesus last not “for many years” but for endless ages.

FRAGMENT 59

“Let your loins be girded.” The loins of those who live in purity are girded. But since
our life is also a night, we need a lamp. The lamp is the mind, which is the eye of the
soul. And if wakefulness belongs to the “inner person,” it is reasonable that we need to
be awake for much or all of this life, both because of those who lie in wait (I mean
“rulers and authorities”) [the text is defective here, “against which . . .”], and so that
we may find “a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob,” and sometimes so that
we may open to the master when he knocks. Notice that a reward is given for staying awake.
For he says, “He will gird himself,” and he is “girded about the loin” in the sense of the
words, “The Lord has clothed himself with power and girded himself.” In that power he will
“make each one recline” according to worth, and will “serve” each one according to worth,
“rendering to each according to his works.”

FRAGMENT 60

Furthermore, the thief comes plotting against each person’s soul, and the Word of God
appears to guard his own. So stay awake. If “the thief” comes and finds the master of the
house awake, he will not break into “his house.” And if “the Son of Man” arrives, you will
be able to open to him “immediately” when he knocks. For if he finds you asleep and you do
not open when he knocks, he goes away and leaves you. After this life, the one who has
stayed awake in it “will sleep sweetly and will not be afraid of a terror that comes.” So
“David fell asleep with his fathers,” and so did those after him. Up to now I have not
found this written of any of the saints who came from foreign seed. Perhaps that is also
why the apostle says, “We shall not all fall asleep.” If we shall all fall asleep, then
“blessed are the slaves whom the Lord, when he comes, finds awake.” They are blessed
because he gives them their reward without delay, since they are “girded about the loin
with righteousness.” He comes at the time when a person’s soul is to be demanded, whatever
sort of person he may be. For if he came to the one who said, “I will pull down my
storehouses and make bigger ones,” and “said to him, ‘Fool, this night they are demanding
your soul from you,’” how much more will he come to the blessed and holy, who after
“departing” will be with the Lord?

FRAGMENT 61

Luke 12:36: “And you be like people waiting for their master.” There is sleep and there is
wakefulness, in the inner person just as in the outer. We are required to stay awake, as
the Savior says: “Watch and pray, so that you do not enter into temptation.” In Proverbs
it is also said: “Give no sleep to your eyes, and no slumber to your eyelids.” But there
is also a time to sleep, when the Savior says: “Sleep on now, and rest,” and when Solomon
says: “If you sleep, you will be without fear; and if you sleep, your sleep will be sweet,
and you will not be afraid of terror when it comes upon you.”

FRAGMENT 62

Still, for most of this life, or even all of it, we must keep watch. One reason is that
the enemies lie in wait. They are not “blood and flesh,” but “authorities and world-rulers
of this world, and the spiritual forces of wickedness.” By staying awake we may be saved
“like gazelles from snares and like a bird from a trap.” We are also to have our loins
girded and our lamps burning, so that we become “like people waiting for their master, so
that when he comes and knocks, we may open to him at once.” Consider also whether there is
a reason, because of the first, second and third watch of the night, or even a fourth,
that Solomon says, so that we may be watching in all of them: “Guard your heart with every
watch.”

FRAGMENT 63

Luke 12:37: “Truly I say to you, that he will gird himself and have them recline.” I think
Christ “will gird himself” for this reason: he is about to have those whom he finds
watching recline at table, since according to Isaiah “he will be girded with righteousness
around the loins.” What of the words, “he will come and serve them”? See whether you can
name two kinds of service. One is the service in this life, of which he said: “I am in
your midst, not as one who reclines at table, but as one who serves.” The other is the one
he speaks of here: “And if he comes in the second watch, and comes in the third watch, and
finds them so, those servants are blessed.”

FRAGMENT 64

64a Luke 12:42: “Who then is the faithful, wise steward?” It seems to me that here
“faithful” and “wise” should not be understood as referring to one single virtue.
“Faithful” does not refer to faith in the particular sense the Scripture gives that word,
and “wise” does not refer to some other virtue by itself. For certainly the faithful
person is wise, and conversely the wise person is faithful, since the virtues follow one
another. But the name “wise” is sometimes used not for the virtue of prudence that has
been fully established, but to describe someone who is resourceful, who can even be a bad
person. In this sense “the serpent was the wisest of all the wild animals on the earth.”
In the same way here, “faithful” does not mean perfect; it means that the person’s purpose
has leaned toward faith in God. In this sense it is possible that not every faithful
person is wise, and not every wise person is faithful. That the steward too, according to
the divine writings themselves, is wise but not faithful, is clear from this. It was not
the act of a faithful man to squander the rich man’s property, to call in each of his
master’s debtors and reduce the debt. That he was not faithful is plainly seen. But that
he was in some sense wise is also clear: the Lord praises his resourcefulness, while
blaming his unfaithfulness, and for that reason says to him: “You can no longer be
steward.” Perhaps for ordinary people in the crowds, faith, as we said before, is enough
for salvation. But stewards need both, the faithful and the wise. For a steward who is not
like this will not be able to judge the right time for giving out the measured portion of
grain to those under him, or what suits each one.

64b So there are many stewards of the churches who are faithful but not prudent, and some
who are the opposite. For this reason the Lord put his words in the form of a question, to
show very clearly how rare and hard to find are stewards who are faithful and prudent
together. The one who is found, the Lord appointed over his servants. In the same way the
Savior chose Judas. He was not ignorant of what would happen later, but he made use of him
for the work of apostolic service during the time before his transgression, when his will
was still moving toward virtue. The good laid up for the faithful and prudent steward is
[greater] than what is said to the one who multiplied the mina tenfold or fivefold. This
is no wonder, since it is greater even than what is given to others who differ from these.
Fixed cities are handed over to those who worked with the minas, and great numbers to
those who doubled the talents. Much greater than these is to be set not only over many
things but “over all the possessions” of the Lord. This is laid up for the faithful and
prudent steward, who through faith has set himself [worthy] of all his possessions. You
may ask whether, if several faithful and prudent stewards are found, each of them can be
set “over all the possessions” of the Lord. For if it is “over all,” how does another have
a place over the ten cities, and still more over several? Let this be said as an
encouragement.

FRAGMENT 65

“For from now on there will be five in one house, divided.” The persons in the Gospel are
six, so we must say that one person, the bride, is cut in two, into daughter-in-law and
daughter, since the same woman quarrels with both her mother and her mother-in-law. In
this way it turns out that three are divided against two and two against three. Now for
the higher sense. The five senses are like five in one house, the human being. Before the
Word comes to them, they agree together in pleasures, but when he takes up residence they
are divided. Two are the more philosophical: sight, by which we look at the world, admire
its order, and so admire its Creator; and hearing, by which we are taught by the word of
God. These stand against the remaining three: taste, smell and touch. Those are the
slavish senses, not naturally suited to philosophy, and the three work rather against the
two. The saying “father will be divided against son” must be read as a fresh beginning,
not connected with the earlier words. Literally it shows the division of believers from
unbelievers. Symbolically, the “father,” the mind, is divided “against son,” a wicked line
of reasoning, by not agreeing with it. “And son against father” is the one who does not
bury his dead father. “Mother against daughter” is the soul not accepting its own wicked
fruit. “Daughter against mother” is the soul no longer united with matter. “Mother-in-law
against daughter-in-law” is the mother of the Law (the husband of the soul under him), I
mean the Holy Spirit, who has left the people of the circumcision. “Daughter-in-law
against mother-in-law” is the people who, through sinning, were separated from the Spirit.

FRAGMENT 66

“Someone had a fig tree planted.” A fourth way to understand it is as the time of the
incarnation. In that time he pricks Israel and digs around it, warming it, so as to make
them fervent in spirit. But since after so many warnings they stayed fruitless, the fig
tree was cut down and the nations were grafted into their root, for the root remained. Or
else we must understand the vinedresser to be some angel, commanded by God to take charge
of Jerusalem, which is itself compared to a fruitless fig tree.

FRAGMENT 67

“It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid.” There is another way to take it: the
woman as the church, the leaven as the Holy Spirit, and the three measures as body, spirit
and soul. These are made holy by the leaven of the Holy Spirit, so that with the Holy
Spirit they become one lump. In this way “our body and the spirit and the soul may be kept
whole, blameless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as the divine Paul says.

FRAGMENT 68

“When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends.” According to the letter,
then, we are commanded not to call friends and neighbors but “the poor and the maimed, the
lame and the blind.” But suppose he is not saying this as a wise accommodation, as in
parables, so that even the simpler may be helped as far as they can. Then he is turning us
away from our duties. For it is not wise to invite poor people who are not believers, or
to refuse to invite poor people who are faithful friends. Perhaps, then, the meaning is
mystical. “Friends” are those who delight in the word and in the teachings of the truth.
“Brothers” are those who hold kindred teachings. “Relatives” are those who are further off
but want to draw near to us in teaching. “Neighbors” are those whose buildings of doctrine
are not altogether far from ours. Taken generally, then, “rich” is to be understood
[ploysqioyw, the Greek word is corrupt]. But the man who is rich in what he thinks are
true teachings is called to the truly true word. He speaks against the truth and, as it
were, invites the teacher in return. But since “not many among us are wise,” though some
are, we must ask whether these too should be invited. Those who announce lectures invite
the rich and not the poor. But the one who serves the word for true glory is free of
vainglory. “Invite the poor,” he says. That means those who lack words, so that you may be
enriched. “The maimed” are those whose understanding has been damaged, so that you may
heal them. “The lame” are those who limp in the word, so that they may make straight
paths. “The blind” are those who lack the power of insight, so that they may see the true
light. “They cannot repay you” means the same as this: they do not know how to carry on a
discussion by question and answer, or by dialectic. Out of love for humanity, God and
Father is proclaimed as a man for those not yet able to “eat lunch in the kingdom of God.”
As a man he gives a dinner, and a great one, for the dinner surpasses the lunch. The lunch
is the introductory words, or the ethical ones, or the ancient oracles. The dinner is the
mystical words for those who are advancing, or the words of the new covenant.
“Resurrection of the just” he says here, which John in the Revelation calls the first.

FRAGMENT 69

“And they all alike began to make excuses.” They were called as people naturally quick.
But they fall away from the calling in three ways: by the appearance of higher
intelligible teachings, by the pursuit of sensible things instead of intelligible ones,
and by love of pleasure. Those who bought a field, and who therefore decline the dinner,
are those who received other teachings about the divine that have great plausibility and
variety of argument. They also despise the field that has in itself a “treasure” and
powers. The man who has not seen or tested the word he acquired, because he was already
taken up by it out of necessity and not willingly, goes out from the dinner and from the
one who called him, and perhaps even from himself. They say “I ask you,” as if they
respected the one who called only in word. The man who bought five yoke of oxen is the one
who despises intelligible nature and philosophizes about sensible things. He too did not
test from the beginning what he had bought. If the number belongs to matter, this man
honored material things. So he too declined the intelligible dinner. That is why in some
copies, instead of “I ask you,” the text reads “and for this reason I cannot come.” For
those who choose sensible things say that the incorporeal cannot be grasped. The other is
the one who said, “I have married a wife.” He seems to have found wisdom and shared in it,
yet rejects the true one. Or he is the one joined to the flesh, “a lover of pleasure
rather than a lover of God.”

FRAGMENT 70

“For which of you, wanting to build a tower…” The tower, with its height, span and
loftiness, would be the word about God. So he hints through the parable: if you are about
to speak about God, consider whether you are able to finish what you begin. The word
demands that everything be brought to completion for the sake of speaking about God.
Otherwise you may begin the teachings of godliness, leave the word about God unfinished,
and not build a crowning top upon it. For if he has not built the crown on it, someone
will fall from the tower and die.

FRAGMENT 71

You can also understand the prodigal’s desire to be filled with the carob pods in this
way. The rational nature, once it has fallen into irrationality, still desires something,
even if it is not in better reasonings, at least in whatever it has ended up among. Carob
pods taste sweet and fatten the body, but they give the refuse no way out. So they would
stand for the persuasive arguments of those who love matter and love the body, who call
pleasure a good, who have itching ears and turn aside to myths. [And the wicked hand on
nothing that no one has seen, so that they will not be refuted.] Besides, the arguments of
[such people] give no nourishment, and they cannot fill the part of us that receives and
distributes rational food.

FRAGMENT 72

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.” I left the heavenly things behind,
and I added to it the ungodliness against you. The Word shows human misery to be misery by
telling the story of his departure and his strange conduct. But the Word does not bring
him back to his original good fortune until he has felt his present disaster, come to
himself, and rehearsed the words of repentance. For he says “I have sinned” and so on. He
would not have added to his confession the sin “against heaven” unless he was convinced
that heaven was his homeland, which he had left when he went wrong. For this reason the
rehearsing of such a confession makes the father easy for him to approach, so that the
father even ran ahead to meet him and welcomed him with a kiss on the neck.

FRAGMENT 73

If we must look at this passage in a still loftier way, the father begins with ethical
teachings, which are like food, in the words “having eaten.” He goes on to teachings of
contemplation, which are like drink, in the words “let us be merry.” For “wine is the
beginning of good cheer,” as it is written.

FRAGMENT 74

The word “symphony” is properly used for harmonies of voices in music. Among musicians
some notes are in concord with certain notes and out of concord with others. The Gospel
writing also knows the word used for musical harmonies, as it is here. In the book of
Daniel, too, it is recorded that Nebuchadnezzar gave a command. When the assembled people
heard “the sound of the trumpet, pipe and lyre, sambuca and harp, and symphony and every
kind of music,” they were to fall down and worship the golden image. “Because they
received him back healthy”: healthy, because through repentance he had thrown off the
sickness.

FRAGMENT 75

“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away.” The one stroke is not only the iota
among the Greeks, but also, among the Hebrews, the letter they call “yod.” The words “one
iota or one stroke” can be said symbolically of Jesus. The beginning of his name is
written with the iota among the Greeks, and also with the yod among the Hebrews. So “one
iota or one stroke” is Jesus, the Word of God in the law. He does not pass away from it
“until all things have come to pass,” and he does not fall. [For he does fall, for
salvation, so that he may bear “much fruit.”] But if he did fall, it would be easier for
“heaven and earth to pass away” than for “one stroke” to be lost from the law concerning
him. Having “fallen into the earth,” he died so that he might bear more fruit. He was not
defeated. Rather, he “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross.”

FRAGMENT 76

“There was a certain rich man.” In the words of Solomon, “a good name is better than great
riches.” But this man did not think so. He thought it better to have great riches than a
good name. So he is called by what he loved: he is named “rich,” not “holy” or
“righteous.” The poor man, who had nothing in this world, is called Lazarus, a bare name.
But notice how the Savior of all sets out the marks that characterize the rich man. “He
was clothed,” he says, “in purple and fine linen, and made merry splendidly every day.” He
does not even give the man his proper name. He says, “a certain man,” so that he attaches
obscurity to what is common, and in that obscurity brings the common lot of men in for
disgrace. With the righteous it is not so. How is it, then? “There was a man,” he says,
“in the land of Ausitis, whose name was Job.” And, “There was a man in Jerusalem, whose
name was Symeon.” Why? Because of the one he adds, “And that man was blameless, guileless,
righteous, true, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil thing.” And of the other, “And
this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy
Spirit of God was upon him.” Job also was rich. But he did not live in luxury and self-
indulgence. With a loving mind his house was open to anyone in need. He wronged no one;
rather, when others were wronged, he helped them, and he supplied widows and orphans with
what they needed to live. For these are the just acts of righteous rich men.

FRAGMENT 77

“He sees Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” Someone wanted to discredit the
account of the rich man and the poor man. Out of ignorance of the Gospel he raised this
objection: if Lazarus was reclining in the bosom of Abraham, then before he departed this
life another was reclining in Abraham’s bosom, and another before him. And when yet
another righteous man departs, he says, the poor man will have to get up. But the man who
raises this objection did not see what Abraham’s bosom is. He did not see that it is
possible for countless people to rest together in Abraham’s bosom, sharing in what was
revealed to him. John, the beloved, is a parallel. At the supper he reclined “on the bosom
of Jesus,” as the history tells it. He was counted worthy of this honor as one judged
worthy of his teacher’s special love. But the account also points to something symbolic.
John, reclining close to the Word and resting in the more mystical teachings, was
reclining in the bosom of the Word. This corresponds to the fact that the “only-begotten”
Word himself is written of as being “in the bosom of the Father.”

FRAGMENT 78

“You know the commandments.” The madness of the Marcionites [and the Manichaeans] is
refuted by this passage. They say the law is foreign to Christ. Yet Mark says, “Jesus,
looking at him, loved him.” He would not have loved, for his keeping of something foreign,
a man who spoke boldly about that keeping. The passage raises a question: how was he
loved, when he was not going to follow toward life? The answer is that for his earlier
conduct the man who kept the law was worthy of love. But by his faintheartedness toward
what is perfect, he did not allow the love given for his earlier conduct to become
complete.

FRAGMENT 79

“I will judge you out of your own mouth, wicked servant.” We will all be judged for our
whole life, at the time when an account that speaks for us is brought into the middle.
That account will include “every idle word that people speak,” and also the case where
someone once gave “a cup of cold water” only “in the name of a disciple.” These things
will happen when what Daniel wrote comes to pass: “Books were opened, and the court took
its seat.” It will be like a written record of everything we have said, done and thought.
By divine power everything hidden in us will be made plain, and everything covered will be
uncovered. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one
may receive what is due for the things done through the body, whether good or bad.” Let no
one suppose that such a reckoning of everyone, over a whole lifetime here, will need long
ages. God will wish to stir up in everyone’s memory, all at once, the good or evil done
through the whole of life. He will do this by indescribable power, and he will remind each
person of what he did. Then, becoming aware of what we have done, we will understand why
we are punished or honored. We must dare to say that the time of the expected judgment
needs no stretch of time. The resurrection is said to happen “in an instant, in the blink
of an eye,” and I think the judgment will be the same. In this parable ten servants are
found, each receiving one mina. In another parable one servant receives five talents,
another two, another one. Elsewhere there are debtors, one owing five hundred denarii and
another fifty. Suppose someone considers how varied the human soul is. Souls differ
greatly from one another in natural aptitude or lack of it, toward more or fewer virtues,
and toward these virtues or those. Then perhaps he will grasp how each soul has come, and
with which of the householder’s coins it appeared. He will see this together with the
fulfilling of the word, and with the care and training that follow that fulfilling, toward
what is needed.

FRAGMENT 80

The Jews thought and acted like robbers. They had made God’s house “a den of robbers,” and
for that reason Jesus drove them out of it. About the robber Barabbas they shouted,
“Release Barabbas for us.” About the Savior of the world they shouted, “Crucify him,
crucify him.” So to this day the Jews do not have Jesus, because they have not believed in
the Son of God. They do have with them Barabbas the robber, who belongs to “the spiritual
forces of wickedness.” He had already been arrested and thrown into prison, and they
demanded his release to their own harm. This is why Barabbas the robber rules over the
unbelieving Jews.

FRAGMENT 81

This saying troubled some people so much, as though it did not fit with the rest, that
they dared to suspect it had been added to the Gospel by some meddlers: “Today you will be
with me in paradise.” We say, more simply, that perhaps, before he went away to what is
called the heart of the earth, he restored the believing robber to God’s paradise.

FRAGMENT 82

John did not mention this at all, and Matthew and Mark named neither the sun nor an
eclipse. Luke says, “the sun failing.” Perhaps he is describing what happened in our own
experience. It may have been a dark cloud, or clouds running under the sun’s rays and
cutting them off from the land of Judea. Or the air there may have thickened, sharing in
what had happened, as the land around Judea did, and the rocks and the tombs. In many
places Scripture calls all of Judea “all the land.” This happened so that people would
know that the one hanging on the tree is the very one who took creation as his fellow-
soldier. He did the same when “he made war on the Egyptians for their sake,” when the
sun’s light failed and darkness was spread over their whole country.

FRAGMENT 83

“When the sun failed.” Zechariah also prophesied about this eclipse, saying: “In that day
there will be no light. There will be cold and frost for one day, and that day is known to
the Lord. It will be neither day nor night, and toward evening there will be light.” The
darkness is an image of the darkening of those who lay hands on the Light. For as there
was darkness for the Egyptians and light for the sons of Israel, so now there is light for
the church, but for the Jews a darkness of three hours. It is a darkness of the Father’s
light, of the radiance of Christ, and of the shining of the Holy Spirit. Man was made on
the sixth day. So perhaps for this reason the Lord, suffering for the salvation of men,
was hung on the cross at the sixth hour of the sixth day. He did this to call back the one
who was made on the sixth day and fell out of paradise at the sixth hour.

FRAGMENT 84

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” This cry, which he uttered on the cross,
teaches that the souls of the saints are no longer shut up in Hades as they were before.
They are with God, since this has happened in Christ as a firstfruits. The place where
souls were held and confined was below, but the Lord, through himself, moved this journey
from downward to upward. Human nature was found in him to be rich in sinlessness. So he
has made something new for us: souls released from their bodies are sent “into the hands
of the living God.” The holy Stephen knew this when he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit.” The word “I commit” teaches that the passion was voluntary, and shows that the
spirit is not destroyed. [For “I will commit” would have indicated that he would receive
it back again.]

FRAGMENT 85

“Jesus himself drew near and went with them.” The glory of the Lord’s body, which Paul
also mentions, was shown to the disciples at the transfiguration on the mountain. But
after the resurrection he had to appear to the apostles and to the five hundred disciples,
so that they would believe in the resurrection. So he was seen as they were able to see
him, [and] as they knew him to have suffered, and he showed them the scars left by his
sufferings. Notice also that when he was going away he left them peace, as John wrote, and
when he came among them again he gave peace. Peace is a sweet thing and a sweet name.


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.


SCHOLIA ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
================================

SCHOLIA ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 230–250

Brief comments on verses of Matthew’s Gospel ascribed to Origen and preserved in Greek
manuscripts. They supplement his large Commentary on Matthew, of which only part survives.

MATTHEW 1

Verse 18. “Now the birth of Jesus was like this.” Here the evangelist speaks of “birth”
(gennēsis), but at the beginning of the Gospel he speaks of “genesis.” Here he says, “Now
the birth of Jesus Christ was like this,” and there, “The book of the genesis of Jesus
Christ.” What, then, is the difference between birth and genesis? And how are both said of
Christ? The spoken word is by its own nature intangible and invisible. But when it is
written in a book and, as it were, embodied, then it is seen and touched. In the same way
the Word of God, without flesh and without body, is neither seen nor written in respect of
his deity. But since he became flesh, he is both seen and written. So, as one who became
flesh, there is also a book of his genesis. But the question here is not why he said
“book” and not “vision” or “word.” It is what birth is and what genesis is. They differ.
Genesis is the first forming by God. Birth is the succession of one person from another,
which comes from the sentence of death because of the transgression. Again, genesis has
incorruption and sinlessness, while birth has susceptibility to suffering and sinfulness.
So the Lord took sinlessness from genesis, by nature, but did not take on incorruption.
And he took susceptibility to suffering from birth, but did not take on sinfulness. In
this way he bore the first Adam undiminished in both respects. In Christ, then, genesis
would not be a coming from non-being into being. It would be a journey from existing in
the form of God to taking the form of a servant. His birth, however, was twofold: like us
and beyond us. To be born of a woman is like us. To be born not of the will of flesh or of
man, but of the Holy Spirit, is beyond us. This also announced in advance the birth to
come, which he was going to give us from the Spirit.

MATTHEW 7

5 Verse 5. “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, and do not throw your pearls before the
pigs...” 6 Verse 6. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and
it will be opened to you.” So that the disciples would not be ignorant of which of their
hearers are dogs or pigs, he says: Seek earnestly from God, and everything will be
revealed to you. The beginning of virtue is to know the good through prayer. Next is to
know how one must walk the way of virtue. Third is to knock through works so that the door
is opened to him. For knocking with the hands signifies this. The truth of the saving
teachings is grasped in three ways. First, by careful prayer. Second, by a settled state
of the ruling part of the soul in seeking divine things. Third, as regards finding, by [a
perceptive] grasp of the depth and certainty of the hidden Scriptures, through exact
inquiry. For he says that the Scriptures are opened in this way.

9 Verse 9. “Which of you is the man who, if his son asks him for bread, will hand him a
stone?” Verse 10. “And if he asks for a fish, will he hand him a snake?” Consider whether
knowledge is food, [without which] one cannot be saved. An example is the exact teaching
about how one must eat. A fish is like a relish for the lover of learning: to know the
structure of the world, the working of the elements, the beginning, the end and the
middle, and whatever else wisdom goes on to say. God does not give a stone instead of
bread, which the devil wanted Jesus to eat. Nor does he give a snake instead of a fish,
which the Ethiopians eat, being unworthy to eat fish. But how could he call the disciples
evil? Even if they followed by their own choice, they still had the changeableness of
human nature. Only the Son of God was unchangeable, in both his deity and his humanity. He
calls the spiritual gifts “good gifts.” Luke said “Holy Spirit” instead of “good things,”
and there is no difference. For the Holy Spirit is himself the good light, and so he gives
good things to those who share in him. For those who are exceedingly wicked, because they
sin without letting up, wickedness becomes in some way their nature. Satan and the demons
are like this. One may call them evil by nature, though they were not created evil by
nature. They have hardened through wickedness of their own choosing.

MATTHEW 8

“Many will come from east and west, and will recline at table with Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens.” If the way is narrow and hard, and few find it, by
what way will the many enter? For of the broad and roomy way he says that many will enter
through it. We answer that the Savior’s saying was spoken because few from Israel were
being saved, since not many believed in him. That is why he also said, “Do not be afraid,
little flock, because God has been pleased with you.” But “Many will come” was spoken
prophetically, as about those from the nations who would believe in him. He says “many” in
contrast to those who did not believe after his coming: those from the nations who will
recline at table with Abraham and his descendants in the kingdom of the heavens. And in
number these are many times more than those from Israel who confess Jesus Christ.

MATTHEW 11

11 “But the least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he.” 12 “From the days of
John the Baptist until now the kingdom of the heavens is treated with violence, and
violent men seize it.” We say that “least” is spoken about Christ himself [text
uncertain]. He is “least” only in the opinion of those who hear. The words “in the kingdom
of the heavens” show that in spiritual things, and in everything heavenly and divine,
Christ is greater than John. So we will read it this way: “Least.” Then, pausing briefly,
we add: “In the kingdom of the heavens he is greater than he.” The kingdom of the heavens
is Christ himself, urging all to repentance and drawing them to himself by grace.

MATTHEW 12

14 “But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how they might destroy him.”
The closer someone comes to Jesus, the less he takes such counsel. For the counsel of evil
men does not come near to Jesus. But when someone goes outside of Jesus, he takes counsel
to destroy the light, the good way, the life, the treasure, the one who bore witness to
love and peace. Whoever destroys him is called a son of destruction. 15 “But Jesus,
knowing it, withdrew.” For he ought not to stay with the sons of destruction. They lost
[him]; we, who did not seek, found him. For he says, “I was found by those who were not
seeking me; I became visible to those who were not asking for me.” For he himself came to
the lost sheep, but they forgot their own shepherd. He withdraws, not out of fear of the
plot, but to check the wickedness. And so that no one would think he left out of
cowardice, he healed them all, showing his all-powerful strength. Yet he holds back from
being made public, being gentle and free of vainglory.

MATTHEW 13

44a (6) “The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure,” and so on. On another
interpretation, the field is Scripture, planted with many sayings: those of the law, of
the writings, and of history. The treasure is the varied meanings contained in them, both
plain and hidden. And Christ is the precious treasure of Scripture. Or the field is
Christ, in whom Paul says the hidden treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God are
hidden. So the heavenly realities, and the kingdom of the heavens, are written as in an
image in the Scriptures, which are the kingdom of the heavens. And the kingdom is Christ
himself, whose knowledge is in us according to our ability. He is found through faith and
bought through the virtues. So someone who finds this treasure in the Scriptures hides it,
knowing it is not safe to share unspeakable things with just anyone. Having hidden it, he
goes off to buy the field at whatever price he wishes. The Hebrews were entrusted with
this field first. Whoever receives it from them (in another parable it is a vineyard)
makes it his own possession, having sold all that he had. These possessions were evil, in
that he no longer lives by them but has been put to death to the whole world and its
desires. (7) As for those who have written about pearls, they say there are six kinds of
them. The best are those found in shells in India, formed from heavenly dew.

44b The lesser pearls, then, are the inquiries into the law and the prophets and the rest
of Scripture. The person who searches hard and sells off his merchandise is looking for
Christ, the pearl better than all of these. He counts all these things, good as they are,
as loss and as refuse compared with the knowledge of Christ. Again, the dragnet is the
weaving together of the ancient words of Scripture, which seemed incomplete until Christ
came and brought it to completion. This net is thrown into the sea of this present life.
It gathers not different natures but free decisions of the will and choices. So what is
gathered from every kind includes both the praiseworthy and the blameworthy, according to
their leaning toward the forms of virtue or of vice. Besides this, what is gathered “from
every kind” can also point to the calling that comes from every race. The angels will not
drag the net to the shore, that is, to the things outside this life, unless it has been
filled with the full number of the nations. When it is full they bring it up. Each of the
good ones under the net is restored to its own rank, according to what are here called
their “vessels.” The rotten ones they throw outside. The “outside” is the furnace of fire,
as the Savior says in what follows: the worthless fish are thrown outside, but the
worthless among people go into the furnace of fire.

47 Verse 47. Again: “The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet thrown into the sea.” The
woven net that the mind can grasp is the Scripture, old and new, made up of many different
thoughts. The sea is the tossing life of human beings. The whole varied range of human
choices is the calling of every kind of nation. The workers with the net are the Lord and
the angels who came to serve him. The vessels are the different dwelling places. The net
is not drawn up until the full number of the nations has come in. Or take it this way: the
net is the apostolic teaching, which catches without distinction Jews and Greeks,
barbarians, Scythians, slaves, free people, wicked and good. The sea is human life. The
shore is its end. At the close of the age, when the net is drawn up, the good are
separated from the wicked, some to be honored and some to be punished. For not all
believers have the same way of life. And so that no one would suppose that the unbelieving
and wicked are only thrown outside, he made clear that they are sent on to unending
punishment: “And they will throw them into the furnace of fire,” and so on.

MATTHEW 18

5 Verse 5. “And whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” He urges the
faithful to receive, in his name, one such child, or one of such people, the spiritual
ones in whom Christ has taken form, according to the humbling of their own spirit. In
Luke, the child the Savior pointed out is to be received in his name, so that in the child
one receives Christ, who is also in the Spirit. Or “one such” is said because all the
spiritual are one. The word also urges us to welcome, in the word of Christ, those who are
simple and gentle in heart. He is checking the love of winning among the disciples. When
teachers fight, divisions arise and many are caused to stumble, because those who are
offended want to draw the hearers to their own side. So he warns beforehand of the
punishment that awaits them. This was said as a command: even if you cause one
insignificant believer to stumble, the punishment against you will be heavy. By the
millstone and the drowning in the sea he points to the unbearable punishment that will
come on those who treat such people with contempt. For here he calls insult a “stumbling
block.” I say this because the little ones are easily made to stumble, so that we may not
look down on them. The great and perfect person in virtue despises every stumbling block.
By warning beforehand and lamenting over such people, he gives them time to repent. When
he says “it is necessary,” he does not remove free choice. He shows his foreknowledge of
what will certainly happen. That is why he adds “Woe to them,” as to people who stumble
willingly. By “punishment” he means people who live in a shameful way.

20 Verse 20. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them.” 21 Verse 21. Then Peter came to him and said, “Lord, how many times will
my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Two joined together in
the name of Christ: body and spirit, not fighting against each other. The body is
subjected, and the spirit gives it a share in divine life. And three: [the whole person,
spirit, soul and body, he keeps for the coming of Christ]. Or the two may be the two
Testaments, when the one who gathers them, the Holy Spirit, is in them. The three would
then be law, prophets and Gospel. Or the three may be anger, desire and reasoning. Or they
may be calling and election, and the kind of people appointed to first honor along with
us. Notice that he did not say “I will be,” but “I am.” For as God, who is everywhere, he
is in the midst of those who are joined together through godliness. The power of God,
which oversees all things and cannot be divided, becomes divisible for those who are
worthy of it. We have authority to forgive offenses committed against us. We do not have
it over offenses that reach God, only God himself does. That is why Peter said “against
me.” In asking how far one must go in not holding a grudge, he added “seven times” as if
it were a great amount. The Lord, pointing to the limitlessness of patient endurance of
wrong, said “seventy times seven.” That is: as often as he sins against you, if he
repents, forgive him. Christ had set a limit for those who are to be separated from the
community, but not for those who repent. So Peter reasonably asks how far one must keep
receiving the repentant. [See whether it is possible.] The number six is the number of
work and of the making of the world, and seven is the number of rest. The person who loves
the things of the world and of matter, and keeps sinning, has the seventh as his limit.
Peter understood this, and so he wanted to forgive up to seven. The Lord extends it in the
same manner, in proportion, from the unit to tens and hundreds. So the one who has gone
beyond worldly things no longer has forgiveness of sins, for forgiveness belongs to things
here, whether it comes slowly or quickly.

MATTHEW 21

33a Verse 33. “There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around
it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it to farmers, and went away,” and so on.
The parable calls God the Father the householder, who showed great care for the Jews from
the beginning. The vineyard, in the simple sense, is the first people, that is, Israel,
planted by God in the land of promise. The fence is the law, which did not allow them to
mix with the nations. The winepress is the altar, or the place of the drink offerings. The
tower is Zion, or heaven. The farmers are the elders of the people, the wise men, and the
teachers of each age. The householder went away when he no longer appeared to them by day
in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire. Or it means the patience of God,
who did not immediately demand from the Jews the punishment for their offenses. The demand
for fruit is the life lived according to the law. Their season is the demand made by the
prophets. The first and second servants who suffered ill treatment are the prophets sent
at different times. Of these, they beat one, like Micaiah, when Zedekiah struck him on the
cheek. Another they killed, like Zechariah, between the temple and the altar.

33b Another they stoned, like Zariou, the son of Jodae the priest. Perhaps the vineyard is
the kingdom of God, and its mysteries in the law and the prophets and the rest of the
study of nature. The fruits are the virtuous life in character. The fence is the rational
place, and the letter, so that outsiders cannot look in on the hidden mysteries. The
winepress is the depth that receives the fruits of the soul, [and which sets everything
toward battle; the text is unclear]. The tower is also the carefully distinguished
discourse about God. [The temple is that of the divine temple within it; the text is
unclear.] The farmers are those first entrusted with the oracles of God. [He goes away
from them to occupy them with his own affairs,] giving them the opportunity, from what he
himself planted, fenced, dug and built, to bear fruit. The season of fruits, which the
householder knows, perhaps does not mean putting out leaves, or blossoming, or forming
sour grapes, or being harvested. [Such are those of infancy, or of the completion of the
word, or of progress in virtue, or of the beginning.] But the fruits are those of love,
joy, peace, and the rest. The servants are the prophets, who demand that the spiritual
offerings be brought to God as by priests.

MATTHEW 24

Verse 45. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has put in charge of
his household service?” Perhaps he says this to stir people to look for some one rare
person. By the doubt in the word “then” he showed how rare such a steward is. And I think
he knew no other faithful and wise steward than himself, one who is weighed against the
works of the Father, I mean in the matter of humanity. He speaks as if about someone else,
veiling it with the excess of his wisdom. He called himself a servant because he took the
form of a servant. Consider also whether the word does not press on bishops and teachers
who have been entrusted with such things, to deal wisely with each person according to
what he deserves. They are to distribute spiritual food with knowledge, at the right time,
in the right quantity and of the right quality. He said “Who then?” not because he did not
know, but so that people would not pry. The saying also fits anyone who has been trusted
with something by God, whether money, or office, or some other power. Second, the steward
is required to have faithfulness and wisdom, so that he neither steals what belongs to the
master nor fails to manage it properly. Or the servant is the one who has a good
conscience toward God and does not fall away from any of his duties. He calls the one who
teaches rightly “faithful.” He calls “wise” the one who is not carried along by the
foolish talk of the heretics but discerns the precise sense of the word. Or the wise one
is the one who is not tempted into sins, because of the variety and changeableness of
people. He is the one who knows when to refute, or rebuke, or encourage, or teach; and
whom he must give milk to, and whom he must share solid food with.

MATTHEW 25

1a Verse 1. “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps and
went out to meet the bridegroom.” They say the ten virgins are the senses in each soul, of
the inner and the outer person. They have withdrawn from idolatry and worldly desires by
receiving the pure word of God, whether in pretense or in truth, and have been made
virgins. They are the senses commonly understood, and also those set out in Proverbs,
which follow along, as the virtues of the substance of Christ. For this reason, in the
[local passage] it is not that some are foolish and others wise. Rather there is one, and
all of them went out to meet him, those who had received the mystery concerning Christ.
For they go out from the error of the world, hurrying toward the one who is eagerly
hastening toward them. Another comment, from Origen. Virginity is one thing and almsgiving
another, and the mind is one thing and the body another; take this into account for the
ten virgins. The wise ones, then, are the senses of a person who lives according to
reason; the foolish ones are those of a person who lives the opposite way, contrary to
right reason. The lamps are the action that is full of every virtue. The oil is the word
poured in from the soul, from the one who produces good action. Those who sleep are those
who have given up their vital strength. So the wise do not lose their lamps, nor are they
careless about keeping the oil. The angels cry out to the sleeping senses and rouse them;
that is, the ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are going to
inherit salvation. The adornment of the lamps is the gospel use of the senses: of the
eyes, in marveling at the one who made them, and in closing so as not to see injustice; of
the hearing, [in refusing to accept what is vain], neither a judgment of blood, but the
equal word.

1b Taste perceives Christ the Lord. Smell enjoys the fragrance of Christ and of the
ointment that was poured out. Touch lays hold of the Word, as John says: “Our hands
handled the Word of life.” The cry comes at midnight. That was the hour when the sons of
Israel went out of Egypt, and the hour when Christ rose from the dead. The cry is the
trumpet that raises the dead and brings them out of the tombs. The words “Go out” also
have a hidden meaning, for unless we go out, we cannot meet the bridegroom. The lamp of
virginity is the light of knowledge. The oil for the lamps is zeal in the knowledge of God
and the doing of the commandments. This is what keeps the light within us safe, by keeping
the eye single, so that our whole body is filled with light, according to the Lord’s word.
So the virgins who took up careful zeal for doing the commandments are wise. The careless
are foolish, because they spent the time they were given on zeal for empty things. The
words “they slept” mean the sleep of death. Midnight shows what is sudden and unexpected,
and at the same time frightening. For those who have risen, the fruit of their labors is
at hand. But for those who bring nothing with them, because of their indifference toward
godliness, the soul begins to grow gloomy, as if it were being put out, and to slide into
folly, so that they imagined they would be saved by the virtue of others. This is why they
are rejected, when the others say, “Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you.”
Those who sell the oil are the teachers, who sell it for the reward of devoted attendance,
attention, love of learning and love of hard work. Or the sellers are the prophets,
apostles and evangelists, by whom a person is taught and then works virtue.

MATTHEW 27

11a Verse 11. “And the governor questioned him, saying, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’”
Pilate asks him as one condemned on a public charge: “Are you the king of the Jews?” He
asks either mockingly or in real doubt. Jesus answers quietly, hinting at a “yes,” since
he is king of all people, with the words “You say so.” The high priest had questioned him
as a judge, saying, “Tell us whether you are the king,” but Pilate asked in a way that
declared a verdict. Consider whether “You have said so,” spoken to the high priest,
exposes his doubt, which he had not noticed, while “You say so,” spoken to Pilate,
confirms Pilate’s own declaration. For he was king of Israel. Jesus did not say a plain
“yes,” so as not to give Pilate a reasonable ground to condemn him. Because the accusers
were so unchangeable, he does not answer them either. And he rightly did not answer
Pilate, because Pilate was in doubt whether he should defend himself against unjust
accusations, and was of two minds about them. For it was clear that if Jesus had defended
himself and shown himself guilty of no charge, the judge would have released him, having
found a way to give a favorable verdict. So the governor marveled at him, that though he
could have made many defenses, he kept silent. Therefore, as one wanting to release him,
Pilate urged him toward this. For Pilate also knew that he had been handed over out of
envy. Pilate did not simply marvel, but marveled greatly. Perhaps it was because of Jesus’
steadiness and calm in the face of death, and the serenity of his face even in these
things. Or he marveled at his more than human patience. It is likely that, since the Jews
had just entered into a treaty with the Romans, they thought the favor of a release would
be granted to them at the feast. Saul also shows that this kind of thing had happened
before, when he granted Jonathan to the people. Pilate said this thinking they would ask
for either the innocent man or one guilty of countless charges, as though they were
righteous people.

11b For Pilate knew that they had no clear proof against him. In some very old copies I
found that Barabbas himself was also called Jesus. In those copies Pilate’s question read
like this: “Which of the two do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus
who is called Christ?” For it seems that “Barabbas” was the robber’s family name, which is
translated “son of a teacher.” Taken together, then, the name Barabbas means “son of our
teacher.” And whose son are we to suppose this notorious robber was, if not the son of the
man of blood, the murderer from the beginning? Even to this day those who have learned
from him how to murder choose him over the one who gives life to people, our Lord Jesus
Christ. While Jesus was being judged by Pilate, he sent a message to Pilate’s wife. By his
silence he would astonish Pilate with his courage, and by the message Pilate would know
that he was judging not a man but God. [The text is corrupt here.] Pilate himself did not
see the dream, either so that he would not keep silent about the dream, or because he
would not have been believed, or because he was unworthy, or so that he might hear what
the woman had suffered and sympathize. For she not only saw the dream but suffered many
things, and in the night, which made it more fearful. Besides, the dream was a work of
Providence. It did not say what the matter was, but it showed that it was given not to
keep Jesus from suffering but to save the woman. Blessed is the woman who has such
suffering in dreams, so that she may not suffer beyond measure. [The text is unclear
here.] But if this woman is a symbol of the Church that was once ruled by Pilate and is no
longer under his hand because of faith in Christ, then — for the woman was a foreigner.
[The text breaks off here.]

45a Verse 45. “From the sixth hour darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.”
The prophet Zechariah also spoke about this darkening. He says: “On that day there will be
no light. There will be cold and frost for one day. And that day is known to the Lord. It
will be neither day nor night, and toward evening there will be light.” He speaks of the
darkness as the darkening of those who lay hands on the light. For just as there was
darkness for the Egyptians and light for the sons of Israel, so now there is light for the
Church, but for the Jews a darkness of three days: the darkness of the Father’s light, of
the radiance of Christ, of the shining of the Holy Spirit. And since man was made on the
sixth day, it is likely that he also fell in the sixth hour. Perhaps for this reason the
one who suffers for the salvation of men was hung up at the sixth hour. This is the sign
that he had promised earlier to give to those who asked for it, when he said, “An evil and
adulterous generation seeks a sign,” and what follows; and, “When you lift up the Son of
Man, then you will know that I am he.” For it is far more wonderful that these things
happened while he was nailed to the cross than while he walked on the earth. The
strangeness was not only in this. What they were seeking came from heaven, and it came
over the whole inhabited world. That had never happened before, except in Egypt alone,
when the Passover was also being kept.

45b For those things were a type of these. So that they could not say that what happened
was an eclipse, it happened at a time when an eclipse could not occur. [The text is
corrupt here.] It came in the middle of the day, so that all who live on the earth would
learn that it was daytime everywhere in the world. A philosopher among the Greeks named
Phlegon also mentions this darkness, as something that happened marvelously on the
fourteenth day of the moon. At that time an eclipse cannot naturally occur, since the sun
is far away, as far apart as from the beginning of the sky to its end. For eclipses happen
when these two lights come close to each other. An eclipse of the sun happens when the
moon, at the time of conjunction, passes under it, not at full moon, when the moon is at
the opposite side. This happened as though creation were mourning at what had been done,
and so showing that, since this drunken outrage was committed by the Jews, their mind was
darkened and the sun of the mind withdrew from them. For if they thought he had done this,
they ought to have believed and feared. If they thought it was not he but the Father, they
ought even then to have been pierced to the heart. For that darkness was the work of one
who is angry, and a sign of what was going to seize those who fight against God and shed
innocent blood. This is why it happened after the whole outrage, when they were sated with
their mockery and had said everything they wished.

MATTHEW 28

Verse 18. “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Understand the
words “All authority has been given to me” and what follows as referring to the
incarnation. But if you also consider it in relation to the divinity, then you will take
“authority has been given to me” to mean “room has been made for it.” “Given” means
“brought to me”; I have been entrusted with authority over free will. Life first had room
among the things above, and now also among the things below. So baptize them with
confidence into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. There is
one who saves, and one salvation. There is one who lives: the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. He is one, not by a blending together of the three, but in one being; yet
there are three persons, each complete in every respect, and fitting together. The Father
begot by nature, and so the one begotten was of the same being as himself. God is not a
body. Therefore God, who is without a body, did not beget by [ἀσταρεῦσιν: the word is
uncertain, perhaps “emission” or “flowing”] or by movement, or by any such thing as is
seen in bodies. The begetting is real and personal: the Son was brought forth from the
being of the Father.


SCHOLIA ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
=============================

SCHOLIA ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 233–250

Short comments (scholia) on Luke’s Gospel, kept in a Venice manuscript (cod. Venet. 28)
and attributed to Origen. They are brief notes on the verses of the Gospel rather than a
continuous commentary.

BOOK 1

LUKE 1

1a Verse 1. “Since many have undertaken to compile an account of the matters that have
been fully established among us.” Since it was a presumptuous undertaking for a mere man
to write down God’s teaching and words, Luke fittingly defends himself in the preface.
Among the ancient people many claimed to prophesy, but some of them were false prophets
and some were truly prophets. There was a gift, the discernment of spirits, and by this
gift the true prophet was distinguished from the false. So it is now in the new covenant:
many have wished to write Gospels. But the approved money-changers did not accept
everything; they chose certain ones out of them. Perhaps the word “undertook” also carries
a hidden accusation against those who came rashly, and without the gift, to the writing of
Gospels. Matthew did not “undertake”; he wrote, moved by the Holy Spirit. So too Mark, and
John likewise, and Luke. But the Gospel entitled “according to the Egyptians” and the one
entitled “of the Twelve”: their writers “undertook” the task. The Gospel according to
Thomas is also circulated. Basilides, too, has dared to write a Gospel “according to
Basilides.” Many, then, have undertaken it, including the one according to Matthias and
several others. But the Church of God approves only the four. He did not say simply
“believed” but “fully established,” bearing witness that what is said cannot be
overturned. He said “matters” (things actually done), overthrowing the heresy of those who
say that what was done through the Savior happened only in appearance, and his incarnation
too. By speaking of “the matters fully established,” he also shows his own state of mind.

1b He was fully convinced and had no doubt at all whether things were so or not. That he
received his information from eyewitnesses and those who heard with their own ears, he
plainly confessed when he said: “Just as they handed them down to us, who from the
beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.” He asserts that he followed
everything closely from the start, not just some of the things mentioned but all of them.
Some may reasonably suppose that he wrote the Gospel for a certain Theophilus, one of the
believers, so fervent in spirit and so insatiable for the Lord’s deeds and words, whom
what is now written would make more secure. Another says: if we are all such that we are
loved and cherished by God, we are “Theophilus,” that is, God-loved. And no weak person
could be a Theophilus. Every Theophilus is “most excellent,” having the strength and power
that come from God and his Word; and so he will come to know the certainty of the
teachings in which he was instructed. Luke therefore promises firmness of knowledge, so
that what Theophilus received by hearing he may now also meet in writing and so keep his
faith more securely. (40) In Exodus it is written that the people saw the voice of the
Lord, though a voice is not seen but heard. This was to show, paradoxically, that God’s
voice is seen by those by whom it is seen. In the Gospel, however, it is not the voice
that is seen but the Word, who is greater than the voice. Hence: “Just as they handed down
to us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.” For if having
seen the Lord in the body were what it meant to be an eyewitness of him,

1c then Pilate was an eyewitness of the Word when he condemned him, and so was Judas the
betrayer, and all who said, “Crucify, crucify him.” So knowing the Word must be understood
in the sense in which the Savior said, “The one who has seen me has seen the Father who
sent me.” Luke also teaches us here, almost unnoticed, a good lesson: for some matters of
contemplation the end is contemplation itself, but for others the end is action. By
“eyewitnesses” he indicates the contemplative side, and by “servants” the practical side.
You can also take “servants of the Word” another way: either the Word of teaching, which
the Savior handed on, or the very Word of God, whom the disciples served by being present
with him. Luke shows his own state of mind: he was fully convinced and had no doubt at all
whether things were so or not. This happens with those who believe firmly. The Apostle too
says of the firm: “that you be rooted and grounded in the faith.” For nothing brings full
conviction as mind and reason do. Sight does not give full conviction, since matters are
not judged by visible signs and wonders; rather, it is by reason that we judge which
things are true and which are false. He says “matters” because Jesus did not play out his
coming in the flesh merely in appearance, as the children of the heretics claim; being
truth, he carried out these matters in truth.

3 Verse 3. “To write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus.” 4 So that you may know
the certainty of the words in which you were instructed. 5 In the days of Herod, king of
Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abia. His wife was
one of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6 They were both righteous
before God. It is reasonable to suppose that Luke wrote the Gospel to a certain
Theophilus, who was one of the believers, so fervent in spirit and so eager for the
actions and words of the Lord. What was now being written made him more secure still. If
all of us are the kind of people who are loved and cherished by God, we are “Theophilus,”
lovers of God, or loved by God. And no one who is weak could be a Theophilus. For just as
it is written of the people coming out of Egypt, “There was no one weak among their
tribes,” so I would say that every Theophilus is “most excellent,” having the strength and
power that come from God and his Word. In this way a person will come to know the
certainty of the words in which he was instructed, by understanding the word of the
Gospel. Luke therefore promises firmness of knowledge, so that what Theophilus received by
hearing he may now hold more securely by reading it in writing, and so keep his faith. To
be righteous before God is complete praise. For he alone knows the hearts of people. It is
possible for someone to appear righteous before people, and yet in the hidden part of the
heart not to be so, since he harbors evil thoughts lurking within. The Apostle says
something like this: “Their praise is not from people but from God.” For people do not
praise worthily, since they see only what appears. But God makes the judgment of the
blameworthy and the praise of the praiseworthy according to what each deserves. Verse 6:
Walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.

7 Verse 7: They had no child, because Elisabeth was barren, and both were advanced in
years. 8 Verse 8: While he was serving as priest in the order of his division before God,
9 Verse 9: According to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to burn
incense, and he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 Verse 10: And the whole multitude of
the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense. Perhaps someone will ask: why
is “blameless” placed before these people? It would have been enough for them to walk in
all the ways and ordinances of God, unless it is possible to walk in all the commandments
and yet not blamelessly. My answer to him is this: if that were not so, it would not be
said, “Justly you shall pursue what is just.” So when we do the commandments in such a way
that we have in our conscience no stain of vainglory, or of pleasing people, or of
anything else of that kind, we do the commandments blamelessly.

11 Verse 11: An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar
of incense. 12 Verse 12: Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
13 Verse 13: The angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, because your prayer has
been heard, and your wife Elisabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name
John.” 14 Verse 14. “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his
birth.” (44) The angel appeared to Zechariah by way of condescension. For no one can see
an incorruptible body with the eyes of a corruptible body. The angel was seen standing on
the right side of the altar, because he was about to announce good news to him. “Zechariah
was troubled when he saw him.” A dazzling appearance, when it shows itself to a human
being, is hard to bear. Even so, the angel turns Zechariah back from his alarm and revives
him, saying, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah.” (45) Know that God does not appear to
everyone, and neither do the angels. They appear to those who have a pure heart and are
worthy to see. For God is found by those who do not test him, and he shows himself to
those who do not disbelieve him. Of the same. All who saw angels were afraid. They feared
that the angels had come to take their souls, as Manoah also says. So the angel, to
relieve Zechariah’s anguish, said, “Do not be afraid.” For not only will you not die
(where there is grief and tears), but you will live and have children, and you will have
great joy. For Elizabeth will bear you a son, and among those born of women none has been
greater than he. Then he says, “And many will rejoice at his birth.” For even if not all
the Jews did, many rejoiced at the coming of the forerunner, who announced the visit of
the Savior. (46) In the spiritual reading, this is the silence of the Prophets among the
people who belonged to God of old. For God no longer speaks to them, but the Word who was
in the beginning has passed over to us. With us he is not silent; with them he has fallen
silent. For this reason the prophet Zechariah is silent. As for the making of signs, (47)
[the text breaks off here: “remaining mute”].

22 Verse 22. “But when he came out he could not speak to them, and they realized that he
had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them, and remained mute.” 23
Verse 23. “And it happened that when the days of his service were completed, he went away
to his house.” 24 Verse 24. “After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and she hid
herself for five months, saying:” 25 Verse 25. “‘This is what the Lord has done for me in
the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.’” 26 Verse 26. “In
the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,” 27
Verse 27. “to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and
the virgin’s name was Mary.” Why was he making signs to them? Having heard beforehand that
something desirable was going to happen to him, he did not hurry before the right time;
after this he [came] to the husband [the text here is unclear]. In the same way the good
things also began with women, so that women might be ashamed of their weakness, put off
womanish ways, and become zealous for the lives of these blessed people. Verse 43. “And
why is this granted to me, that the mother [of my Lord should come to me]?” and so on. Of
the same. Elizabeth speaks in harmony with her son. She says she is unworthy of the visit
of the Mother of God, just as John said he was unworthy of standing before Christ. “What
great good,” she says, “have I done, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” She
calls the one who is still a virgin a mother, anticipating the outcome in prophetic
speech. By divine arrangement, then, the testimony was brought to Elizabeth. This was so
that John’s testimony to the Lord from the womb might be confirmed through his own mother
Elizabeth. It was also so that Mary, [after] the angel’s voice, seeing Elizabeth and the
marvelous child in her, might through this believe the greater thing, I mean the seedless
birth from the virgin herself. Elizabeth’s word agrees with this faith when she says, “And
blessed is she who believed that there will be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her
from the Lord.” For through these words the virgin was made more certain in faith. She was
called blessed because she believed, with the angel announcing it beforehand and her
relative prophesying in the same way. Of the same. Let us now look at the virgin’s
prophecy.

46a Verse 46. “My soul magnifies the Lord.” We need to understand how my soul magnifies
the Lord. If we live worthily, in the image of the one who created us, and become like the
original as far as we can through good works, then we magnify the Lord in words, in deeds,
and in thoughts. A person makes him smaller in proportion to the evil that is in him. So
Mary’s soul magnified the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. First her soul
magnified him, and then her spirit rejoiced. We should look through the Old and New
Scripture to see whether, when sinners’ births are described, it is anywhere said, “The
time was fulfilled for her to give birth.” No one, I think, would find it. It is said only
where the child being born is righteous. This is also so with the rest (54). Elisabeth was
a prophetess. She had not heard of the revelation given to her husband, yet by the Holy
Spirit she declared that the child would be given the name the angel had spoken, and she
said he would be called John. When people wanted to learn the name from the father too,
they made signs to him, as if he could not hear or speak. He took a writing tablet and
wrote the child’s name, in agreement with his wife, so that everyone was amazed at this.
Then it says, “His mouth was opened.” Evidently, after he had written on the tablet that
“John shall be his name,” the bound voice was released. He received back his tongue, no
longer bound by unbelief as before, but blessing God and prophesying what is recorded. It
is superfluous to say “and the rest.” As I think, our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
and the whole company of his holy prophets and righteous ones, also enjoyed the presence
of Christ.

46b For if he made peace through the blood of his cross, both for things on earth and
things in heaven, as the divine Apostle says, why hesitate to accept that his visit to the
fathers, and his going down to Hades, also accomplished this, because of his unsearchable
mercy? Even if this has happened only now, it was announced long ago. It was impossible
for those words not to come to fulfillment. For he confirmed the promises with an oath,
because of their unchangeable nature, so that they would certainly come to pass. And now
the faithful are delivered without fear from the hand of their spiritual enemies. (57)
Often some are delivered, and the rest. (58) The angel does not go to the synagogue of the
Jews in Jerusalem, to the priests, scribes and Pharisees. Instead he finds shepherds
living in the fields and keeping watch by night over their flock. It is to these that he
announces the good news of the Savior’s birth. They were unpretentious men, who zealously
followed the old way of life of the patriarchs. For these too were shepherds, and they ran
and reported it to others. The others were corrupted by envy and would have hidden the
mystery of the world’s salvation. (59) For he alone opened the womb, born of a virgin.
Nothing had touched that womb before Christ. All the firstborn, even if they are
firstborn, do not themselves open the womb first; the husband does. (60) Perhaps he has
left them? In their distress, then, they looked for the Son of God, and in looking for him
they did not find him among their relatives, for he was above their kinship.

LUKE 2

Verse 49. “Did you not know that I must be in the things of my Father?” As to the wording
itself, let us arm ourselves against the godless heresies. They say that the Creator is
not the Father of Jesus Christ, and that the God of the law and the God of the temple is
not the Father of Christ. Let the followers of Valentinus be ashamed when they hear his
voice saying, “I must be in the things of my Father,” if they accept the text. Were they
so senseless as not to understand what he meant by “in the things of the Father,” instead
of “in the temple”? Or perhaps he hints at some mystery: if any of you belongs to the
Father, does he have Christ in himself? For he sees a living temple of the Father, the
beautiful and good one, as better than that temple. He went out from that temple, saying,
“Your house is left to you,” and he went away to the temple of the Father, the Churches
everywhere. Verse 51. “And he was subject to them,” and so on. In the prophetic book that
was proclaimed among the Jews alone, only [the reigns] of the kings of the Jews are
recorded. For it says, “The vision which Isaiah saw against Judea and against Jerusalem in
the reigns of Uzziah, and Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah.” I know of no other king
recorded in the time of that prophecy than the king of Judea. In some prophecies the king
of Israel is mentioned as well. But when John was about to proclaim the mystery of the
Gospel, the record names not only Herod, king of Judea, nor only Tiberius of the Romans.

LUKE 3

1 If only those from the nations were going to be saved, and salvation were completely
shut off from the sons of Israel, it would have been enough to say, “In the fifteenth year
of the rule of Tiberius Caesar.” But since those from Galilee, and from Ituraea and
Trachonitis, and from Abilene must also believe, these realms are recorded as well. He
also mentioned the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, to show that these men were high
priests from the time when John came preaching. They began at that time and remained in
the high priesthood until the Lord’s passion. By the same author. Never before did a word
of God come to any of the prophets in the wilderness. But since many children were going
to belong to the desolate woman rather than to her who has the husband, therefore the word
of God came to John in the wilderness. Otherwise he would have been preaching in the
wilderness for nothing. “And he came into all the region around the Jordan.” Where else
should the Baptist go than to the region around the Jordan? Then, if anyone wished to
repent, he would at once have the river at hand. For the river of God truly is coming
down: the true water, the saving water. “And he preaches,” it says, “a baptism for the
forgiveness of sins.” Forgiveness of sins for whom? For the one who no longer sins. Then
he brings in Isaiah crying out this very thing. For what? [It says,] “A voice of one
crying in the wilderness.” He says this as though Isaiah himself were hearing John’s
words. For John was chosen for the mission, and was the perfect one among the prophets.
And since John was the forerunner of the Word, he is rightly called a voice, not a word.
For the voice comes before the word. The phrase “Prepare the way” [continues in the next
section].

2 ... on the one hand not containing the whole of the Gospel, but on the other bringing in
the beginning of the New Testament. It brings in three things, and so on.

BOOK 2

LUKE 1

22 Verse. See the type in Zechariah. For they have cast out the word [from themselves],
and they cannot give an account of anything in the word of the law or the prophets. So
they remain mute and without reason. 63 Verse 63. “And he asked for a writing tablet and
wrote, ‘John is his name.’” Zechariah is interpreted “memory of God,” and John “the one
who shows.” A person remembers what is absent, but shows what is present. For this reason
the parents of this child could not bear to call him Zechariah, and wanted to name him
John instead. He was not merely going to remember God as though God were absent. He was
going to point with his finger at God present, and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The
all-holy Virgin knew that he was not Joseph’s child. Yet in front of these people she
approves her betrothed, because of the suspicion of the Jews, who supposed he had been
born of fornication. More simply, then, it could be said that the Holy Spirit honored him
with the title of father, and so on (75), [lest he had left them]. But the Lord set aside
a human answer and gave a divine one, hinting that he was God in the flesh. Or you may
understand it this way. The mountains and hills are the opposing powers, which were
brought low by Christ’s coming. The valleys are people, who have been filled with good
works. “All the crooked things have become straight,” for each one of us was crooked. So
when Christ comes into the soul, the crooked things become straight. Our life was once
rough, and our speech uneven. But when the Lord came, he made everything smooth.

LUKE 3

1 Verse 1. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” In the prophetic word,
which was proclaimed only among the Jews, only the kingship of Judea is recorded. “The
vision,” it says, “which Isaiah saw in the days of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz, who reigned
over Judah.” But the mystery of the Gospel was about to be proclaimed in the whole world.
So the rule of Tiberius Caesar is recorded, since he was thought to be king of the whole
world. If only those from the nations were going to be saved, and salvation were shut off
from all the sons of Israel, it would be enough to mention only Tiberius. But since those
from Galilee, Ituraea and Trachonitis must also believe, these kingdoms, or tetrarchies,
are recorded. Never before did a word of God come to any of the prophets in the
wilderness, but only now, because of a certain mystical vision. For the children of the
wilderness were going to be more numerous, that is, the children of the Church from the
nations, than the children of her who has the husband. I mean the law of the Jewish
synagogue. The statement “A word of God came to John” means a command.

3 Verse 3. “And he came into all the region around the Jordan.” (76) Where should the
Baptist go about, if not into the region around the Jordan? Then, if anyone wanted to
repent, he would at once have the river at hand. Jordan is interpreted “descending.” And
truly the river of God is a descending one: the true water, the saving water. 5 Verse 5.
(77) They say that the viper, when she conceives, kills the male by whom she conceives.
Then the offspring grows and kills the one who conceived it, and so comes out into the
light, tearing through its mother’s belly, as a kind of penalty for the father who was
destroyed. The Jews are like this too, since with their own hands they destroyed their
spiritual fathers and teachers. This is discussed more fully in Matthew.

LUKE 4

9 Verse 9. “And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the wing of the temple.” See how
deceitfully, by using the Scriptures, he wants to bring down the glory of the Lord. He
makes it seem that the Lord needs angelic help, and that he is about to stumble unless
angels help him. But the use of the psalm was not said about Christ. For the master of the
angels has no need of angels. I say the opposite to you, devil: unless Jesus helps the
angels, they stumble. And you fell from heaven for this reason, because you considered
yourself self-sufficient and not in need of Jesus’ help. So that you may know that what is
written was not said about Jesus, but is applied to a righteous man, listen. For it is
written: “The one who dwells in the help of the Most High will lodge in the shelter of the
God of heaven.” This fits a righteous man better than the Son of God. And again: “There
shall fall at your side a thousand, and ten thousand,” and what follows. These words too
are applied to the righteous man.

40 Verse 40. As the sun was setting, all who had people sick with various diseases brought
them to him. And he laid his hands on each one of them and healed them. They brought them
around sunset, either because they were ashamed to do it by day, or because they feared
the Pharisees and were busy with other matters. Or perhaps they thought it was not
permitted to heal on the Sabbath. For the evangelist pointed out that he was teaching them
on the Sabbath. For this reason, around sunset, their relatives brought those who were
ill, and he healed them.

LUKE 7

Verse 22. Taking it historically: after the little bird is sent away, the one who has been
cleansed first washes his clothes, then shaves off all his hair, and after this bathes in
water. After that comes the statement, “He will be clean.” The clothes could be a way of
life that was not altogether badly woven, since he would have put them off anyway. The
hair is the dead growths that have sprouted in the soul. [Samuel’s requests were opposed
to these], and they were also counted among the Nazirites and even their disciples. For
iron never came upon the head of the Nazirites. Everything they do prospers as they go
about it, so that not even a leaf of theirs falls off as they bear fruit. Then he puts off
the defilement from the body with water, and baptism is signified in this. After this he
becomes worthy of the camp, but he does not enter his own house for seven days, and not
until his head is shaved again. [The finer points of doctrines, and to lay aside
knowledge, are the man’s sins; and by the eyebrows is meant every kind of conceit.] Why
must the leper’s head be uncovered? So that he may be recognized, and so that those who
wander may not share in the cleansing. The covering of the mouth shows that he must
condemn himself to silence until he returns and is cleansed. According to some, again,
when the Law has named the man who is leprous all over, it cleanses him. This shows that
God hates what is mixed and variegated. Going further, the Law shows this more clearly in
the words: “You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed.” And, “a garment
woven of two materials.” And, “You shall not yoke your cattle with one of a different
kind.” Everywhere it prefers simplicity, which is what is seen in the man who is leprous
all over.

LUKE 8

16 Verse 16. No one lights a lamp and covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed. He
puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light. 17 Verse 17. For
there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing concealed that will not
be known and come to light. [Something is missing in the text here:] ... has, it will be
given to him; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from
him. Whoever wants to apply the lamp to most of Jesus’ disciples will be put to shame by
what is said about John: that he was the lamp, burning and shining. But the lamp of the
body is the eye, which refers to the mind in each person. Yet the words “Let your lamps be
burning” were also spoken to all the disciples of Jesus. So the one who has lit a lamp in
a rational soul must not hide it, but set it on the lampstand. Moses put a symbol of this
lampstand in the tent of testimony. Let the fellow servants be given their measure of
grain by the faithful and wise servant. But let them see the rays of the lamp that sits on
the lampstand, that is, on the Church of all. Nor do people put the lamp under the bed,
where someone rests, nor under any other vessel. For the one who does this takes no
thought for those who are coming into the house. The lamp must be set for them by those
who kindle the mind within themselves with the true light, the bright Word, and the rays
of wisdom. The mind has the nature in which the Creator made it, like a lamp that needs
[to be kept most sharp-sighted in the soul by those who care for it], and it shares in him
who said, “I have come as light into the world.” For those who light the lamp and set it
on the lampstand so that it shines for everyone in the house will urge those in the house,
as they see the brightness of the lamp, to kindle their own lamps as well.

38 Verse 38. But Jesus sent him away, saying: 39 Verse 39: “Go back to your house, and
tell all that God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole
city all that Jesus had done for him. He sends him to his house. The man did not have the
capacity to sit, clothed, at the feet of Jesus and take it in. And although he wanted to
be with him, since the people of the surrounding region could not bear the presence of
Jesus, he still took thought for the salvation of those there who were able to receive it.
So he sent away the one who had sat at his feet long enough, so that he would teach what
God had done for him. There could be some who would be hearers and disciples of such a
man, who could not take in more but proclaimed from the few things he had received. You
could also apply the account to the nature of the man outside Israel, for whose sake Jesus
sails over to the country of the Gadarenes, and to whom Jesus came out onto the land. “He
did not wear a garment,” it says, the man. For he had not put on what covers his
shamefulness. “And he did not stay in a house.” For he was not, like Jacob, a plain man
dwelling in a house. That is why Jesus sent this very man away, saying, “Return to your
house.” “And he stayed among the tombs,” not with the living but with the dead. “Now there
was,” it says, “a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain.” But perhaps pigs do not feed
on the mountain; [text uncertain: “μετὰ τοῦ κρημνοῦ ὥρμησεν ἡ ἀγέλη” — “the herd rushed
down with the cliff”?] Is it not perhaps that the pleasure-lovers, friends of the belly
and of what lies below the belly, feed where the tombs are, close to the legion of demons?
And in his goodness Jesus destroys the herd of demons in the water along with the pigs.
Perhaps through the demons he also blocks the breathing of the evils of those who love
pleasure and love the body, and such a person comes to his senses. If anyone is of sound
mind, he is with Jesus; but the one who is beginning to be sound in mind is at his feet.

48 Verse 48: Then he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Now the
more advanced soul, which has served the Word of God well, has boldness to come to the
head itself. And the head of Christ is God. So she can pour ointment on it and make a
sweet fragrance for the glory of God. God is glorified through the fragrance of the life
of the righteous. But the less perfect woman, the less perfect soul, turns to the feet and
to the lowlier things, and we are close to her. For we have not even repented of our sins.
Where are our tears? Where is our weeping, so that we might at least be able to come to
the feet of Jesus? For we are not yet able to reach the head itself. It is a good thing,
after sins, to bring the fragrance of repentance, so that someone might be in second
place, the one who anoints the feet and not the head. That is, the one who does not touch
the more perfect and higher things, but the outermost and last.

52 Verse 52: And all were weeping and beating their breasts for her. But he said, “Do not
weep. She has not died, but is sleeping.” 53a Verse 53: And they laughed at him, knowing
that she had died. Such, then, is the history of the miracle. But perhaps we should also
look at it in a finer and higher way. Let the simpler and more guileless wonder at the
great deeds of God in these terms, for even things understood bodily build people up. But
let those who are able to move on to see that these things happened to those people as a
type, and were written for our sake, pray to God and ask for a word that makes these
things clear too. Why does Jesus go first to the daughter of the synagogue ruler, and not
to the woman with the flow of blood, and yet she, meeting him on the way, is healed first?
The Son of God came first to the synagogue of the Jews and found it sick and dead. For the
transgressions of Israel made it die. But the woman with the flow of blood, the one on the
road, full of uncleanness, flowing not just at the time of separation but always bleeding
and sick, she will believe in the Son of God before that one. And while he goes off to the
other, she wants to touch the fringe of his garment. And Luke added what Matthew did not
say: that the daughter of the synagogue ruler was twelve years old, and the woman with the
flow of blood had been bleeding for twelve years.

53b So the woman began to bleed at the very time that the girl was born. For the synagogue
is free from suffering as long as it lives, and the same limit of time marks the end of
the one and the beginning of this one’s salvation. The girl dies at twelve years, and
after twelve years of suffering this woman believes and is healed. She had not been able
to be healed by any of the physicians. For many physicians promised to heal those from the
nations. If you look at those who practice philosophy and profess to teach truth, they are
physicians who try to heal. But she had spent all that she had on them, and she could not
be healed by any of the physicians. She touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment in faith, and
she was healed. If we consider our faith in Jesus Christ, and understand how great the Son
of God is, and whom it is that we have touched, we will see that, compared with the
fringes that are in him, what we have touched is only a fringe. This fringe heals us, and
makes us hear from Jesus, “Daughter, your faith has saved you,” and so we are healed. And
the daughter of the synagogue ruler will rise. For when the full number of the nations has
come in, then all Israel will be saved.

LUKE 9

26a Verse 27. “But I tell you truly, there are some of those standing here who will not
taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” Some apply this to Peter, James and John,
who went up with Christ onto the high mountain. They did not taste death before they saw
the Son of man coming in his kingdom, that is, in the glory of his transfiguration. But if
we must say something more careful about standing with Jesus and about tasting death:
there were some standing where Jesus was, firmly fixed in soul beside him. Their standing
was akin to that of Moses. For Moses says, “I too stood on the mountain forty days and
forty nights,” having been counted worthy to hear; and, “You also, stand there with me.”
Few are friends of God, and these are the ones who have their standing in what is good. So
the Baptist says of himself, “The friend of the bridegroom, standing, rejoices with joy.”
Even those who stand beside the Word differ from one another in their standing. So not all
who stand beside the Savior, but only some of them, as standing better, do not taste death
until they see the Word who made his home among people, and for this reason is called Son
of man, coming in his kingdom. For he does not always come in his kingdom. To beginners,
who might say that he has no form or beauty, he does not come that way. But to the
perfect, in the words of David, he appears fair in beauty beyond the sons of men. So the
Word has a most kingly dignity, and it is seen by some of those who stand beside Jesus and
have been able to follow him as he goes up the high mountain of his manifestation.

26b This is the mountain to which someone is counted worthy to come, if he is a Peter and
has an unshaken faith. Or [sons of thunder] come to it, who also do not taste death until
they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Christ is life. Life’s enemy is death,
whether the death that comes through sin or death understood in some other way. Each of us
chooses one or the other by what he does. So just as Christ is living bread, his enemy,
death, is dead bread. Every rational soul is fed by one of these two. One soul only tastes
of it, and another eats of it most of the time. Perhaps those who sin rarely and in small
ways only taste death. Those who have taken up virtue do not even taste it, but are always
fed on living bread. So for Peter, against whom the gates of Hades did not prevail, it
followed that he would not taste death. For a person tastes death when the gates of Hades
prevail against him. But for the sons of thunder too, [born of thunder, a human
matter(?)], it was impossible to taste death, [since they were] very far from the thunder
that was their mother. Here the word “until” points to the pressing time of what is being
described. It does not set a limit, as if what is described only happens after the
“until”. Compare “And behold, I am with you until the end of the age.” So the apostles
also did not taste the death of the mind spoken of above, after they had seen the vision
of such great goods. It is said in the Psalms, “Who is the man who will live and not see
death?” and “Let death come upon them.” In one of the prophets it is said, “Death, having
grown strong, swallowed them up.” And in the Revelation:

26c “Death and Hades follow some.” Perhaps seeing death is the lesser evil, and tasting it
is greater. Worse than that is death following someone. And it is worse still when death
not only follows, but has already come upon the one it once followed, and overtaken him.
Being swallowed up by death seems to me heavier than everything mentioned so far. If you
consider what is said and the difference among sins, you will not hesitate, I think, to
accept that the Spirit of God, who caused these things to be written in the oracles of
God, had something like this in mind. What is shown in seeing the Son of Man coming in his
kingdom and in his glory? And what does Mark mean by saying “having come in power”?
Whether these things shine in our hearts, or are found by those who seek, or come in under
our reasonings, we will set them out more clearly. The one who sees and grasps the
surpassing greatness of the Word, as he dissolves and refutes all the persuasive arguments
of those who are false but profess to teach truth, sees the Son of Man coming in his own
kingdom. If he also sees the Word’s own things set out more plainly, he would see him in
relation to his kingdom and glory. Such a person would see in himself the kingdom of God
having come in power. He would see this as one who is no longer ruled by sin, which reigns
in the mortal body of sinners, but is always set under the King, the God of all. His
kingdom is in us in potential. But in actuality, as Mark called it, it is found only
within the perfect.

28 It happened about eight days after these words that he took Peter and John and James,
and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And it happened, as he was praying, that the
appearance of his face became different, and his clothing became white, flashing like
lightning. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, who were Moses and Elijah. 31
“They appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to fulfil in
Jerusalem.” Such, then, is the event and the wonder of the transfiguration. But if I may
offer a deeper explanation, it is not for nothing that Mark and Matthew say Jesus went up
the mountain with his disciples “after six days.” In six days, a perfect number, the whole
world came into being. So the person who rises above all the things of the world, and
looks only at what is lasting and eternal, is shown to be taken up by Jesus “after six
days.” For whoever has passed beyond these six days sees Jesus, who is transformed for
none of those below, transformed before him. The Word appears with different forms, to
each as that person is able to receive him. To some he has no form; to others he is
beautiful and lovely. To those who do not climb through the higher works, and through them
to the high mountain of wisdom, he is understood in a rather simple way and known
according to the flesh. To the perfect he is spoken of as God, and by their knowledge he
is seen in the form of God. His face shines like the sun for the children of light and of
day, since he is revealed as the sun of righteousness. His garments too appear white as
light to those whom he has led up to the high mountain. These garments are his words, and
the letters of the Gospels which he put on; and I think they also mean what is made clear
from the writings of the apostles. So when you see someone who gives an exact account of
the doctrine of God concerning Jesus and who makes the whole text of the Gospels clear, do
not hesitate to say of him that the garments of Jesus have become white as light. For the
one who sees Jesus in this way, Moses and Elijah would appear conversing with Jesus: Moses
the law, and Elijah the prophetic word. And the one who has seen the glory of Moses, who
has understood the spiritual law as one word pointing to Jesus, and who has understood the
wisdom hidden in mystery in the prophets, saw Moses and Elijah in glory when he saw them
with Jesus.

35 “And a voice came out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 36
“And when the voice had come, Jesus was found alone.” The voice from the cloud perhaps
says “This is he” to Moses and Elijah, and perhaps also to the disciples. When they heard
it, they could not bear this glory. They fell on their faces, humbled under the mighty
hand of God, and were very afraid, knowing what was said to Moses: “No man will see my
face and live.” When they lifted up their eyes, they saw only Jesus. For I think Moses the
law and Elijah the prophecy became one in Jesus the Gospel. They did not remain three, as
they had been before. Understand this in a more mystical sense. According to the lofty
intention of the letter, Moses and Elijah appeared in glory and spoke with Jesus, and then
went back to where they had come from. Jesus is not seen to have told them the things of
his glory; for those who heard would have been harmed, especially the crowds, seeing the
one so glorified being crucified. So the disciples did not hide it out of envy, but out of
fear that they would not be believed. They therefore reported it later, after the
ascension and after the coming of the Spirit. For when they were filled with boldness and
counted worthy of the Spirit, and had the voice of the signs speaking in their support,
everything they said was readily accepted.

42a Verse 42. “But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back
to his father.” We should look at these things from a higher viewpoint, and note that the
sufferers, or the relatives of the sufferers, are with the crowds. Jesus comes down to
these crowds from the heights, after arranging what concerned the disciples on the
mountain. The sufferers could not go up the mountain to him, because diseases held their
souls fast. So he comes down to heal them. We must also ask in what kinds of illness the
sufferers themselves make the request, believing they will be healed by him or by touching
the fringe of his garment. And in what cases others make the request on their behalf: like
the centurion for his servant, the royal official for his son, the synagogue ruler for his
daughter, the Canaanite woman, and now the man who knelt before him on behalf of his son,
who was moonstruck. And we must ask when the Savior heals of his own accord without being
asked, as with the paralytic at the sheep pool. If these cases are compared with one
another, they will show many teachings to the one who can hear the wisdom of God hidden in
a mystery. These concern the different afflictions of souls and the manner of their
healing. Just as you rightly refer every disease and sickness that Christ earlier healed
among the crowds to the passions in souls, so reason by analogy and examine the lame and
the deaf, and also the case of the moonstruck boy. This affliction comes on at certain
times but departs for longer periods, and in those periods the sufferer is no different
from a healthy person. Some souls, likewise, are perhaps thought to be healthy in self-
control and to live as the Word wishes. Then at times they fall from their apparent
standing, overthrown by the passions, in the deceit of this age and in the remaining
desires. Speaking spiritually, these people are moonstruck. They are struck down by the
spiritual forces of wickedness working through the passions hidden in their inner depths,
and they fall into the fire of burning passions;

42b and sometimes into the water, when the king of all the dragons in the waters throws
them down. They seemed to breathe freely, but he makes them give way into the depths of
the waves of the sea of human life. For this account we may draw on the one who says in
the book of Wisdom, about the steadiness of the righteous man: “The talk of the godly is
wisdom always,” but about those who have been given up: “The fool changes like the moon.”
In such people you can see impulses that are able to draw to praise those who do not look
closely at their instability, so that one might say there is something like a full moon in
them, or almost a full moon. But again you might see that what seemed to be light in them
is only an imitation. It is not daylight but night light, and it wanes so far that what is
seen in them no longer even seems to be light. If then every soul is placed under an
angel, this father of the moonstruck boy would be a man asking Jesus as for a son, because
the boy could not be cured of the affliction by the lesser word of the disciples. The mute
and deaf demon is the irrational impulses toward what seems good, which the Word drives
out. The boy himself produced them by an irrational drive, and those watching thought he
was doing these things in keeping with the teaching of Jesus. This affliction is hard to
cure. What is not done well is strongly held to have been done well. In such people this
working is so great that it is compared to a mountain. It needs to be removed from the
sufferer through the full faith of the one who heals. All faith is compared to a mustard
seed. Faith is despised by men, and is very small, and seems cheap. But when it finds good
ground, that is, a soul, it becomes a great tree. So none of the wingless creatures, but
only the spiritually winged birds of heaven, can nest in the branches of such faith.

43 Verse 43. “And while everyone was amazed at all that Jesus did, he said to his
disciples.” 44 Verse 44. “Put these words into your ears. For the Son of Man is about to
be handed over into the hands of men.” By whom, then, is he about to be handed over? The
Apostle says the Son was handed over by God, when he says: “He who did not spare his own
Son, but gave him up for us all.” He gave him up to suffer for the whole world, so that he
might take away its sin. You will also say that he was handed over by the devil. It was
the devil who handed over Job’s yoke of oxen and his donkeys to the captors, then the
camels to the horsemen, the sheep to the fire, and his sons and daughters to the wind from
the desert. So let it first be said that the Son was handed over by the Father into the
hands of men. Then he was handed over by Judas, and by Satan, who entered Judas after the
morsel and handed him over as the greater authority behind Judas. But the Father did not
spare his own Son, out of his love for humanity and his kindness toward us. Judas did it
out of the wickedness of his own choice. When Christ was put to death, he destroyed the
devil, who holds the power of death, that is, of sin. For sin is properly death, according
to the words: “The soul that sins, it shall die.” The rulers took their stand against
Christ. But we, who have been helped by his being killed, say: “Let us break their bonds.”
For we have become like Christ in his death, and so we are no longer under the bonds of
our adversaries. Rather, they are laughed at by the Father who lives in the heavens, and
mocked by the Lord. For by rising, he has made us like him in his resurrection too. We no
longer sit in darkness and the shadow of death, because the light of God has risen upon
us.

56 Verse 57. As they were going along the road, someone said to him: “I will follow you
wherever you go, Lord.” 58a Verse 58. And Jesus said to him: “Foxes have dens, and the
birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” So if you
are ready, like me, to have nowhere to lay your head, then because of my teaching you will
choose a life without settled comfort here, in hope of the kingdom of the heavens. You
will expect no rest here for anything, but only in the age to come. For my disciples, who
practice righteousness, will have tribulation in this world. But the wicked and the
deceivers, who are compared to foxes and birds of the heaven, will get ahead in this life,
deceiving and being deceived. A loftier reading: when the young man’s father had died and
was dead, then he was called by Jesus. We must understand that, just as the world has been
crucified to Paul and was dead, because the affairs of the world had died to him, since he
no longer regarded them as things that are seen and last only for a time, so for each
righteous person the devil has died, who was alive to him while he sinned. “Everyone who
commits sin has been born of the devil.” For everyone who sins and fixes his attention on
the things here, the wicked father lives. To everyone to whom the wicked one has died,
Christ may say: “Follow me.” And perhaps this is what is meant, understood mystically:
that our father must be hated by us, if we are to be worthy of Jesus. The words “bury
their own dead” are meant only as allegory. For the dead in some sense bury their own dead
within themselves, having become the tombs and monuments of those dead.

58b The one who obeys Jesus leaves the dead man behind completely and never touches him
again, for he knows that whoever touches a dead body is defiled. Luke says these things
about those who are more worthy. Mark says that Jesus called the twelve to him and sent
them out two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits. This practice of serving
the word by twos, according to God’s will, seems to be ancient, going back to Moses and
Aaron when the people came out of Egypt. For God brought Israel out by the hand of Moses
and Aaron. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh were likewise of one mind, and
together they quieted the people who had been stirred up by the ten. Eldad and Medad also
prophesied in the camp, and they were likewise of one mind. Later still, God sent out Paul
and Barnabas to the nations, and such men were an example of “two on earth agreeing.” The
saying “A brother helped by a brother is like a fortified city” also fits them, and so
does “Two are better than one.” Matthew shows in his list that the twelve were arranged in
pairs, for he sets them in couples. Just as a farmer works the land with a yoked pair of
oxen, so the Lord yoked the apostles two by two and sent them out, working the land of
those who hear in truth and believe, together with them.

LUKE 10

10 Verse 10. “Into whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its
streets and say:” 11 Verse 11. “Even the dust that clung to us from your city we wipe off
against you.” For the dust, from your sins, would justly come back upon you. In a simpler
sense, he meant “shake off the dust” either to show that they had taken nothing from them,
or to serve as a witness against them of the long journey the apostles had made for their
sake. Notice that the cities that do not welcome the apostles and sound teaching have
broad streets. Corresponding to the broad street are the gate and the roomy road that lead
to destruction, and many are those who travel by it. 38 Verse 38. While they were
traveling, he entered a certain village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
39 Verse 39. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the feet of Jesus and listened
to his word.

40 Verse 40. But Martha was distracted with much serving. She came up and said, “Lord, do
you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her, then, to help me.” 41
Verse 41. Jesus answered, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needed.” 42 Verse 42. “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not
be taken away from her.” For “One thing is needed,” the commandment “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself” is useful. For “Many things are needed,” you may set beside it “You
shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness,” and whatever else is said in the same
way. You may take Martha as standing for action and Mary for contemplation. Or the one as
standing for Judea and the other for the church from the nations. Or Martha as standing
for those from the circumcision who believed and keep the things of the law in a Jewish
way, and Mary for those who are freed from these things and sit only at the feet of Jesus.
For if you look at it from different angles, you will find Martha more bodily and caught
up in many things, and Mary devoted to contemplation alone and to spiritual things.

LUKE 11

2 Verse 2. “Our Father in heaven, may your name be made holy; may your kingdom come.” I
think that no one can say “Father” to God unless he is filled with the Spirit of adoption.
A Son who gives glory to the Father would say “Father.” But he must also keep the
commandment that says, “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you
may become sons of your Father who is in heaven.” “May your kingdom come”: that every rule
and authority and power may be brought to nothing, and also every kingdom of the world,
and the sin that reigns in our mortal bodies. And God will reign over all of these. 3
Verse 3. “Give us our daily bread.” The words “each day” are added of necessity. For our
true life is, as it were, a provision for us, so that the inner man may live according to
God.

5 Verses 5 and 7. “Which of you” is said to the disciples. “Will have a friend” is said to
show that God is a friend to the saints, as he was to Moses and to Abraham. Perhaps this
“midnight,” this narrowed [or: shut-in] time, is a time of life, when the destroyer enters
every house in the Egypt of this world where the doorpost has not been marked with the
blood of Christ. The disciple asks the friend for three loaves. He wants to feed the one
who has come to him from the road with the teaching about the Trinity, as it is said,
“Apart from me you can do nothing.” But how does the friend answer from inside? He says,
“Do not cause me trouble.” Ask whether those who labor and are burdened pass their own
troubles on to the Savior. For this reason he “bears our weaknesses and is pained for us.”
Or, just as God is said to be angry at another who sins, so also he is said to be troubled
by the one who brings him trouble. [The clause “just as God does not sleep for this one”
is uncertain in the Greek.] Consider this too: bread is the soul’s necessary food in
knowledge, without which no one can be saved. An example is the exact account of how one
must live. Fish, like a relish with the bread, is the love of learning. An example is
knowing how the world is put together, how the elements work, the beginning, the end and
the middle of the ages, and whatever else wisdom goes on to list. So God does not give a
stone in place of bread, which the devil wanted Jesus to eat. Nor does he give a serpent
in place of fish, which the Ethiopians eat, who are unworthy to eat fish. For there, says
the [Psalmist], “you crushed the head of the dragon on the water, you gave him as food to
the Ethiopian peoples.” Nor, in plain terms, does he give what is inedible and harmful in
place of what is nourishing and helpful.

34 Verse 34. The lamp of the body is the eye. So when your eye is single, your whole body
is also full of light. But when it is evil, your body also is dark. 35 Verse 35. Take
care, then, that the light in you is not darkness. 36 Verse 36. If then your whole body is
full of light, with no part of it dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp
lights you with its flash. I think the meaning of the passage that follows is this.
Suppose your body has become full of light, because the body has been lit by the lamp.
Suppose no part in you is still dark, because you no longer sin at all. Then the whole
body will be so full of light that its rays are compared to a lamp in a lightning flash,
which gives light and breaks up the darkness by its brightness. For the illumination that
comes from the mind is like the most brilliant lightning. The light in the body, which is
by nature darkness, is like the lamp in the lightning, and it is led wherever the mind
wishes.

51 Verse 51. “From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias.” So the executioners,
having failed to find Elisabeth and the child, vent their anger on Zacharias; so the
account goes. For this very reason, indeed, they did the same also because of the virgin
Mary, after she gave birth to our Savior. She had come to worship and stood in the place
of the virgins. Those who knew she had given birth tried to stop her. But Zacharias said
to those who were stopping her that she was worthy of the place of the virgins, since she
was still a virgin. So they killed him as a plain lawbreaker, between the temple and the
altar, while he was serving and sacrificing to God, and they mingled his blood with the
blood [of the others].

LUKE 12

6 Verse 6. Are not five sparrows sold for two assaria, and not one of them is forgotten
before God? 7 Verse 7. “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be
afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” Notice that he did not say “the fall of a
sparrow to the earth,” as Matthew does. Here the five sparrows are a hint about the five
senses of the righteous person. These senses perceive things on high, things beyond the
human: they see divine things, hear the voice of God, taste the living bread, smell the
fragrance of Christ’s perfumes and the oil of gladness, and touch the living Word. Though
they are despised by those who judge the things of the Spirit to be foolishness and
[folly], they are not forgotten before God. Compare the apparent sense of the saying, that
not even the smallest sparrow is forgotten before God, with the passages which plainly
show that God forgets some people because of their sin. In the plain sense, then, these
words show the fine detail of Providence and a knowledge that reaches down to the smallest
things. In the spiritual sense, however, the sensible part falls to the earth, like
sparrows. When [you are carried] upward, it seeks the things below, for those caught in
the evils of the flesh. Such a person has been handed over to a passion of dishonor and
has lost freedom along with honor. Such is the one who has been lifted up by the Word and
yet sets his mind on earthly things. Again, according to the plain sense, the words “it
will not fall to the earth without your Father” show not his will but his foreknowledge.
Of the things that happen, some happen by his will, some by his good pleasure, and some by
his permission.

LUKE 13

20 Verse 20. So again he said: “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?” 21a Verse 21.
“It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole
was leavened.” One can take this in different ways: the woman as the Church, and the
leaven as the Holy Spirit. The three measures are body, spirit and soul. These are made
holy by the leaven of the Holy Spirit, so that together with the Holy Spirit they become
one lump of dough. Again, the Savior calls the Holy Spirit “leaven,” meaning the power
brought to completion from the sowing, and he hints at it in this way. The word of the
heavenly kingdom, after the first sowing among people, grows and bears full fruit. It then
supplies the provision of the Holy Spirit to those who have been helped through the first
stages, like leaven leavening a lump of dough. The woman, the wisdom of God, hides this
leaven in three measures of flour. For to those who have gained, through great care and
the labor of the sowing, three measures of flour (that is, teachings, the divine knowledge
concerning the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), the wisdom of God supplies the Holy
Spirit. The same wisdom, in another sense, hides the leaven (the benefit that comes from
her) in the three measures of flour, understood as the whole person who is from God, made
up of body, soul and spirit, through the supply of divine inspiration, until the whole is
leavened.

21b So this person, shaped and leavened by sharing in the heavenly leaven, will be called
a heavenly and spiritual person, and a new lump of dough, since the three flours that were
given have become one mixture, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in them. And so,
becoming a new and spiritual bread, in keeping with the Apostle who says, “We who are many
are one bread and one body,” we shall take on the image and likeness of the life-giving
bread of all things, who came down from heaven and made us like himself. He does well to
compare the wisdom of God to a woman in these matters. Christ is the power of God and the
wisdom of God, in keeping with the example of the leaven. In the parable of the sowing he
introduced the figure of a farmer and sower, and a woman would not reasonably have been
mentioned there. Nor here, where leaven is put into three measures of flour, does the
parable fit by likening the sower named from that earlier parable to a woman making bread.

29a Verse 29. “And they will come from east and west and north and south, and will recline
at table in the kingdom of God.” In Matthew a parable is also woven in. In it, different
workers of different ages are called to the commandments as if into a vineyard: early in
the morning, and around the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hours. Perhaps the whole life
of man is the “day” of the parable. Those called from childhood and earliest youth are the
ones the master hired at daybreak. Those called after boyhood are the ones from the third
hour. Those who are brought to godliness after the heat and burden of youth, the older
men, are around the ninth hour. Those who are already old and right at the point of
departure are shown by the eleventh. What is examined is the choice, not the time, that
is, what a person has done in faith. So those who have done what fell to them from the
moment they were called are given the same wage of salvation. That wage is the denarius,
the coin of the divine and most royal image, which at the beginning was seized by the evil
one through deceit, in the transgression of the commandment, and [choked out]. By this, it
seems to me, the parable hints at the mark of the kingdom itself, because the engraving on
the denarius signifies the image of a king stamped upon it. All who have come into the
vineyard and into the commonwealth of godliness, and have taken up one and the same work,
ought justly to share in the same kingdom. For this reason the denarius, the token of the
kingdom, is fittingly given to all. Of these, some were called in youth, some around the
age of young manhood, some around the middle of a man’s life, and some when they had
already reached full manhood and gone beyond it.

29b Others were called as old men, already aged and near the sunset of life. Someone might
also give another explanation and apply what the parable shows to those who were counted
worthy of the divine call from the very first, from the beginning of life until the end of
the age. On this reading, “early in the morning” refers to those who were saved first, at
the beginning of life, and were called to the work of godliness. The second group are
those around Enoch and Noah. The third hour refers to those around Abraham. The sixth
refers to those in the times of the prophets. The eleventh refers to those after the
saving appearance of God. All of these will be counted worthy of one and the same reward,
which is signified by the denarius, as it is referred to the kingdom of God. All these
intervals are equal in number to the senses. The first call is [touch]. That is why it was
said about the plant, “You shall not touch it.” Smell belongs to the second, which is why,
at Noah, “the Lord smelled a fragrant aroma.” Taste belongs to Abraham, which is why he
set before the angels loaves baked in the ashes and a calf. Hearing belongs to Moses, when
the voice of God was heard from heaven. Sight, more honored than all the senses, belongs
to the coming of Christ, when people saw Christ with blessed eyes. Evening is the end of
the age, when the last workers receive their wage first. For those who were earlier given
testimony through faith did not receive the promise. We who are Christ’s disciples expect
to receive the wage first.

LUKE 14

12 Verse 12. He also said to the one who had invited him: “When you give a luncheon or a
dinner, do not call your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or rich neighbors.
Otherwise they may invite you back in return, and you will have been repaid.” 13 Verse 13.
“But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.” 14
Verse 14. “And you will be blessed, when they have nothing to repay you. For it will be
repaid to you in the resurrection of the righteous.” [So] according to the letter, we are
commanded not to invite friends and neighbors, but the poor, the maimed, the lame and the
blind. Mystically, though, friends may be those who rejoice with us in the teachings of
the truth. Brothers are those who hold kindred teachings. Relatives are those who want to
draw near to us in these things. Neighbors are those who have not pitched their tents
altogether far from our teachings. The word “rich” must be taken as applying to all of
these. Those who advertise lectures invite the rich and the poor. But the one who serves
the word for true glory is free of vainglory. He invites the poor, that is, those without
experience of words, to make them rich. He invites the maimed, that is, those whose
understanding is damaged, to heal them. He invites the lame, those who limp in the word,
so that they may make straight paths. He invites the blind, those who lack the power of
contemplation, so that they may see the true light. The words “they have nothing to repay
you” mean the same as: they do not know how to give an argument, in the manner of
dialectic, in answer to a question or a reply.

16 Verse 18. “And they all began, as if from one mind, to make excuses.” That is, as
though they had agreed on it beforehand. The first said to him, “I have bought a field,
and I have to go out and see it. I ask you, have me excused.” 19 Verse 19. “And another
said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you, have me
excused.’” 20a Verse 20. “And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for this reason I
cannot come.’” In general, people fall away from the calling in three ways: by the
appearance of better teachings, by the pursuit of things perceived by the senses, and by
love of pleasure. Those who bought a field and so decline the banquet are those who have
taken up other teachings about the divine nature, teachings with great persuasiveness and
a variety of argument. They also despise the [field] that holds within itself [field] and
powers. So the man who has not seen or tested the teaching he acquired, because he was
already taken up with it, leaves the banquet by necessity and not willingly. He leaves the
one who invited him, and perhaps even himself. He says “I ask you” as one who shows
respect to the one who invited him in word only. The man who bought five yoke of oxen is
the one who despises the intelligible nature and is fond of perceptible things. He too did
not test from the beginning what had been bought. If the number two is assigned to matter,
this man honored material things. For this reason he too declined the intelligible
banquet. The other is the one who said, “I have married a wife.” He is the one who thinks
he has found wisdom, and by sharing in it he turns down the true wisdom. Or he is the one
who is united to [a girl], a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God. That, then, is
the general sense of the parable. But take the passage in another way as well: so far as
we are human, it is not good for us to know the riches of God’s kindness.

20b Of necessity God is made like a human being, so that he may speak to people as people,
since they cannot have everything arranged for them by God while God remains as he is. And
he will stop being likened to a human being when we have ceased from strife, jealousy and
the other evils, and from walking according to man, and are counted worthy to hear from
God: “I said, You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” He has also ceased
to be called many other things which sinful man needs: panther, lion and bear, as it is
written in the prophets. In the same way I understand the words, “Our God is a consuming
fire.” For to the one who is not worthy to be consumed, he is light, according to John,
who says, “God is light.” And again he says, “It has not yet been revealed what we shall
be. But we know that if it is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as
he is.” For even if we are now counted worthy to see God with the mind and the heart, we
do not see him as he is, but as he becomes for the sake of our dispensation. But in the
restoration of all things, of which he spoke through the mouth of his holy ones, we shall
not see, as now, what he is not, but, as will be fitting then, what he is. So, among us
human beings he was made like a human being. But among those who have made themselves
gods, he is like God. For he says, “God is in the assembly of gods.”

LUKE 15

Verse 23. “And bring the fattened calf, and let us eat and be merry.” If the passage must
be looked at on a higher level, it begins with words that are moral, like food, in the
phrase “let us eat.” Then it moves to words of the higher vision, like drink, in the
phrase “let us be merry.” For wine is the beginning of merriment, as it is written.

LUKE 16

Verse 17. “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the law
to fall.” A single stroke is not only the iota among the Greeks; among the Hebrews too
there is the letter they call “iod.” Iota can also be taken symbolically as Jesus, since
the beginning of his name is written with iota (iod) among both Greeks and Hebrews. So the
Word of God is in the law. He does not pass it by, and he does not fall before everything
has come to pass. Then he does fall, so that he may bear more fruit. He is not defeated;
he humbles himself and becomes obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

LUKE 17

12 Verse 12. And as he was entering a certain village, ten leprous men met him, and they
stood at a distance. 13 Verse 13. And they lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us.” You may well suppose that the laws about leprosy are a kind of varied
portrait of the soul. Who would not be puzzled to see that in one case leprosy makes a
person unclean when it appears on living skin, while in another case it frees a person
from all uncleanness once he has become leprous all over? For a person is counted unclean
when living skin is defiled, after he has become wholly leprous, by what is called leprosy
covering the living skin entirely. [This sentence is hard to follow in the Greek and the
text may be corrupt.] I take leprosy to stand for the irrational passions of the soul, and
living skin to stand for the rational condition. So the passage seems to me to offer a
mystery. In the age of infants the soul is blameless, since its lack of reason frees it
from every reproach. But if living skin appears in it, that is, if the beginning of reason
starts to sprout, then the beginning of sin comes into being. This continues until the
living skin gains the upper hand, that is, until reason grows and is made perfect, all the
skin becomes living, and the leprosy completely disappears.

LUKE 18

Verse 20. “You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal,
do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother.” The passage refutes the
madness of the Marcionites and the Manichaeans, who say that the law is foreign to Christ.
For Mark says that Jesus looked at him and loved him. He would not have loved, over the
fulfilling of something foreign to him, the man who spoke so boldly about these
commandments. But a question arises: how was he loved, when he was not going to follow
Jesus to life? The one who kept the things of the law is worthy of love for his earlier
conduct. But his neglect of the perfect meant that the love given for what came before
could not become complete.

LUKE 19

29 Verse 29. And it happened that as he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, toward the
mountain called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, 30 Verse 30. saying,
“Go into the village opposite. As you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no
human being has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.” 31 Verse 31. “And if anyone asks you,
‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this to him: ‘Its Lord has need of it.’” 32 Verse
32. And those who were sent went and found it just as he had told them. 33 Verse 33. As
they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34
Verse 34. And they said, “Its Lord has need of it.” 35 Verse 35. And they led it to Jesus.
For where there is obedience and a holy place, there the Lord [sends] the apostles to
untie a tied colt, on which no word of Moses or Isaiah or any other of the prophets ever
sat. But when Christ came, who is Lord by nature and alone, the many fall silent, those
who were lords before the Savior became Lord over them. For when someone is a slave to
wickedness, he is a slave to many passions. But once the Lord has come to be his Lord, he
cannot have many lords. Verse 35 continues: And some of them threw their garments on the
colt and set Jesus on it.

36 Verse 36. And as he went, they spread their garments on the road. The disciples take
the word and set it upon the souls of those who hear. The good deeds of the apostles, laid
upon us, also adorn us. For they want us even to tread on their garments, as we examine
the apostolic words.

LUKE 20

19 Verse 19. And the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him at that very
hour, and they were afraid, for they knew that he had told this parable against them. 20
Verse 20. They watched him closely and sent spies, who pretended to be righteous men, so
that they might catch him in something he said and hand him over to the rule and authority
of the governor. 21 Verse 21. They questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and
teach rightly, and that you show no partiality, but teach the way of God in truth. 22
Verse 22. Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 Verse 23. But he saw
through their craftiness and said to them, “Why are you testing me? 24 Verse 24. Show me a
denarius. Whose image and inscription does it bear?” They answered, “Caesar’s.” 25 Verse
25. He replied to them, “Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God
the things that are God’s.”

26 Verse 26. They could not catch him in anything he said before the people, and they were
amazed at his answer and fell silent. A loftier interpretation: as it is written in
Genesis, man was made in the image of God. Later, because of his disobedience, he also
took on an earthly image. Just as a coin bears the image of the ruler of the nations, so
the one who does the works of the Almighty bears his image. The Savior urges us to give
back and put away the earthly image, and to bear the image that was ours from the
beginning. In keeping with this Paul says, “As we have borne the image of the earthly, let
us also bear the image of the heavenly.” This, then, is what is shown by the words, “Give
back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”


SCHOLIA ON THE SONG OF SONGS
============================

SCHOLIA ON THE SONG OF SONGS Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 240–250

Greek comments on the Song of Songs attributed to Origen, collected from manuscripts of
the catena tradition. Origen’s large commentary and homilies on the Song survive in Latin
(in Rufinus’s and Jerome’s translations); these scholia are the Greek remains and are
mostly short.

PREFACE

(From the Vatican Catena, titled: “Epitome of selected expositions on the Song of Songs,
by Procopius, Christian sophist, from the voice of Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril of
Alexandria, Origen and Philo of Carpasia, Apollinarius, Eusebius of Caesarea, and various
others, namely Didymus, holy Isidore, Theodoret and Theophilus.” — Mai, Class. Auct., vol.
IX.)

SECTION 1

1 “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” She says: let him not betroth me through
the prophets, but let him speak with me himself, by spiritual perception. John speaks of
this perception when he says, “and our hands handled concerning the Word of life.” She
says this as one who has heard what the prophets said: “The king desired your beauty”; and
elsewhere: “As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so the Lord will rejoice over you.” So
whenever we search into some divine teaching and grasp it, let us think of ourselves as
kissed by the mouth of the bridegroom. And as long as we are at a loss, let us suppose
that we are clinging to him and saying, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” 2
“For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all
spices.”

3 That is, your virtues surpass the virtues we have, as in the words, “His virtue covered
the heavens.” For he is wisdom itself and righteousness itself, but we are wise and
righteous only by sharing in them, according to our choice and ability, as we come to live
in the sweet fragrance of these. “Your name is ointment poured out. Therefore the young
women have loved you.” 4 Perhaps she is prophesying about the name of Christ, the power
that filled the world at his coming. So that, as Paul says, to some it became “a fragrance
from death to death,” and to others “from life to life,” the bride would say: “Therefore
all have loved you.” But it is not only the young women, who are renewed day by day and
have no wrinkle or spot. The ointment was poured out so that it would no longer be kept
silent, shut up in unspeakable secrets.

5 “The king has brought me into his chamber.” That is, she means that it is impossible
[for any but] the soul worthy of love, or the Church, or the governing part of Christ [to
enter]. Paul, having entered it, said: “But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know
the things freely given to us by God.” And what are these? “What eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, nor has it entered the heart of man; these things God has prepared for those who
love him.” For in the bridegroom’s chamber all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are
hidden. She, going ahead of the young women, was brought in, and stood as queen at the
right hand of the king, in a garment woven with gold, as David says. But concerning the
young women: “Virgins shall be brought to the king after her,” and what follows.

6 “We will love your breasts more than wine; uprightness has loved you.” 7 That is, even
if now, because of our weakness, we love the wine more than your breasts, bridegroom, when
we have improved we will love the breasts more than it. Wine, which gladdens the young
women, stands for the things of the law; but perfection is the bridegroom’s breasts. Then,
as a defense for not yet loving the better things, she says, “Uprightness has loved you”;
but we have not yet made our own paths straight. 8 “I am black and beautiful, daughters of
Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.” 9 The Church from the
nations says this to the souls from Jerusalem, or to Jerusalem itself. She confesses her
blackness, because she does not come from bright and enlightened fathers; for this reason
she is compared to darkness. But she is beautiful because of the word she has received;
and she is like the curtains of Solomon which she had, along with the other things he
possessed in his glory.

10 “Do not look at me because I am blackened, because the sun has looked askance at me.”
11 Or: because I was darkened by sin, Christ overlooked me on account of my unbelief; the
Scriptures proclaim him the sun of righteousness. 12 “My mother’s sons fought against me;
they made me a keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I did not keep.” 13 That is, the
disciples of Christ who teach. They wanted to cleanse me from the evil thoughts [that come
from him], and from the demons who work together with those thoughts. So they fought
against them in me, since they are sons of the same mother as I am. I mean the mother of
freedom. They were taken up into the remnant chosen by grace. I received the covenant that
belongs to the Jerusalem above, and I am born again by promise. They did not first set her
as a guard and then fight. Rather, by fighting first they made her fit to be placed in the
vineyards as a guard... This is Moses and the prophets. Each of them was a full field,
which the Lord blessed... And a vineyard: someone who has come to be among these, and does
not keep his former condition, as a vineyard from Sodom, makes use of the present word.
[The end of this sentence is uncertain.]

14 If you do not know yourself, O fair one among women, go out in the tracks of your
flocks, and pasture your kids by the tents of the shepherds. 15 The saying much repeated
among the Greeks, “Know yourself,” which was handed down to the wise Solomon, has been
taken up here in advance. By this saying the soul is now threatened by her lover and
bridegroom. If she does not keep the beauty given to her in the image of God, she faces
expulsion from within, and being placed among the last, pasturing the perverse kids. “You
will pasture them at the tents of the shepherds,” at one time this man’s, at another that
man’s, like some vagrant woman, until you are taught by experience and turn back to the
knowledge of yourself. The word also fits the Church. A person knows himself when he knows
whether his disposition is good or bad. He may be far short of the road to virtue. Or he
may be stretching forward to what lies ahead, forgetting what is behind. And if he has not
yet received it or been made perfect, he may be drawing near to the borders of beauty. It
is also a task to hold back from each action [and examine] how it came about, in every
thought and word. By “women” he means souls that are not pure and not undistinguished. A
soul that neglects her own knowledge could be tossed by waves and carried about by every
wind of teaching, in the dice-play of men. Everywhere she would pasture her own perverse
kids rather than pasture by the good word. This word is gentle, even if [it is never
smooth?]. From now on she is already fair among women, counted together with the Church of
God and more beautiful than the little ones in it. For the so-called women of the Church
are incomparably better than the souls of the nations, which go after lovers, the opposing
powers, and are called women but not virgins. How is she not better, who has looked up to
her own Creator? “Go out” is like being handed over to Satan for the destruction of the
flesh, when someone is cut off from the Church. This comes after she was, as he said to
the young women, brought in by the king into his chamber.

16 How have your cheeks been made beautiful like a turtledove’s? Paul also says that the
Church, the bride, is members of Christ. Her face, so to speak, is those who surpass the
rest in beauty and think nothing shameful. They bear in her the fruit of the modesty that
belongs to self-control. Perhaps they were not beautiful before, but they changed so much
that it is said to the bride, “How have your cheeks been made beautiful?”, since they have
no spot or wrinkle. Perhaps it is also because she knows only the one God, for the
turtledove too pairs with only one mate. 17 We will make you likenesses of gold with
spangles of silver. 18 This means: “The silver was not plentiful, nor poured out.” Few
things were spoken in secret by the prophets and the wise men of old. But when he came to
stay, the true veil was seen by the one who sees. It was torn from top to bottom, so that
the things inside the temple’s inaccessible places could be seen, when the one who lay
down and slept like a lion and like a lion’s cub was raised. And after these things:

19 For then those who have been conformed to his resurrection will themselves receive gold
in place of the likenesses. For they will be multiplied with silver and gold. 20 While the
king is on his couch, my nard gave its fragrance. 21 She says: my nard, with which I
anointed him, has given the fragrance of the bridegroom. She anointed the feet of Jesus
with her own nard and wiped them with her hair. Then she received it back, changed by the
fragrance of the bridegroom. When it reached her head and she perceived it, she says, “My
nard gave me the fragrance of the bridegroom.” Therefore the woman disciple’s perfume
filled the whole house, as if it came from the very skin of Jesus. 22 My beloved is to me
a bundle of myrrh-oil; he will lodge between my breasts. 23 I have said that the bride’s
nard gave me the fragrance of the bridegroom. Now I say that my beloved breathes the scent
of myrrh that is not poured out and does not give off its scent outside. It is bound up,
and so it gives its sweetness more intensely. The Church from the nations first had a
brother in the earlier people, since Christ, as far as the flesh goes, came from them. So
she calls him the son of a brother, and of a bridegroom. Aquila, however, has rendered it
“father’s brother,” so we must say that the people of old are the father of the Church
from the nations. For the birth in God came from the law and the prophets that were among
them, and from them our advance toward godliness began. With the bride’s father given this
meaning, the Savior is a brother, since like them he was born under the law.

24 “Behold, you are beautiful, my neighbor; behold, you are evil; your eyes are doves.” 25
It seems that the bride has now seen the beauty of the bridegroom more clearly than
before. Through her dove-like eyes she perceives the excellence of the Word and the
surpassing quality of his beauty. Perhaps she also hints that the body is a bed shared by
herself and the bridegroom, in which the soul, while still in it, is counted worthy of
fellowship with the Word. So Paul says, “Our bodies are members of Christ.” By saying
“our” he means that the body belongs to the bride, and by saying “members of Christ” he
means it belongs to the bridegroom. She calls the bridegroom “shady” because of the
density of the insights found in the Word and in wisdom. And if the bed shared by both is
flourishing, it is no wonder that it shows every good action done through the body as
well.

SECTION 2

1 “I am the flower of the plain, the lily of the valleys.” 2 By “flower” he means what is
on the way to becoming fruit. In the earthly place, called the plain, the bridegroom, the
Word, is a flower with regard to what is still to come. For when the perfect comes, the
flower will change into fruit. And since people cannot yet take in more than the flower,
he says “on earth.” For this reason the bridegroom has become like a flower of the plain.
He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, so that afterward we might be able to
look upon his glory. Perhaps for the nobler and level places, called plains, he is a
flower, and for those lower and more hollow he is a lily. Having said this, the bridegroom
compares the one who is near him with other daughters, the remaining souls, who are thorns
by comparison with her. Such are the souls that are not near the bridegroom. But the one
who is near is a lily shining out in the midst of them.

3 “As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons. I
desired his shadow and sat down, and his fruit was in my throat.” 4 It was fitting for the
bride, now wholly formed by the bridegroom’s beauty, to say nothing about herself.
Instead, in addition to what the bridegroom said about himself, she compares him to an
apple tree, and their sons to trees of the forest. Out of the excess of her longing she
even desires his shadow, and passes over the quality of its depth. She seems to say this
to the young women, just as the bridegroom spoke earlier to his companions. By “sons” she
means either the companions, whom she has compared to the bridegroom’s unfruitful trees,
or those who are strangers to him. “In his shadow she desired and sat down.” Jeremiah too
says in Lamentations: “The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was caught in our
corruptions, of whom we said, ‘In his shadow we shall live among the nations.’” How could
his shadow not become the cause of life for us, who have been set free from the shadow of
the law? For the law had a shadow of the good things to come. We are no longer under law
but under grace, even if we are still under a shadow, though one very different. For after
the present life we shall no longer see through a mirror and in a riddle, but shall behold
the truth face to face. The bride will also say, “Until the day breaks and the shadows
flee.” For our life is like a shadow, and the one from the nations sat in the shadow of
death, and those who do not believe are sitting there still.

5 “Bring me into the house of wine.” 6 She says this to the bridegroom’s friends, the holy
angels, or the apostles and prophets. It is almost as if she were saying, “Mix me together
with the body of Christ.” 7 “Support me with myrrh, surround me with apples, for I am
wounded with love.” 8 Symmachus published it this way: “Lay me down among vine-blossoms.”
That means among fragrant trees that bear good fruit and are in bloom, as opposed to the
so-called worthless trees, which are fruitless or bear bad fruit. Some copies have:
“Support me among unperfumed things.” This must be understood either of believers who are
not yet fit to be called members of her who has no spot or wrinkle, or of people outside
the faith who are nonetheless decent. As for “pile me up with apples,” Symmachus makes it
clearer and says, “roll apples around me.” The bride wants to rest with many apples rolled
around her [or: him]. I think these apples are the fruit of the apple tree among the trees
of the bridegroom’s forest, so that she may share in their quality. “For I am wounded,”
she says, “by a love-charm,” according to Symmachus, and “by the chosen arrow,” according
to Isaiah.

9 The voice of my beloved! Look, he is coming, leaping on the mountains, bounding over the
hills. 10 Some have assigned this to what comes before, but the Hebrew sets it as a
separate section. It is clear that the bride is talking with the daughters of Jerusalem
when she suddenly hears the bridegroom’s voice. He is presumably speaking to some people.
She perceives him on the mountains and hills near her place, and nothing about him is out
of keeping with a young deer. Then, in his eagerness for the bride, he came near the house
and appeared behind it. Next he leapt and reached the windows of the house, as though
lovingly wanting to look in at her. Near the house where the bride is, many nets have been
spread out, lying in ambush for the bride and those around her. The bridegroom, being
stronger, tore through them and looked in through them. He calls the bride to come near.
By what he has done to the nets he encourages her to despise them, since they are already
torn. He also encourages her because the hard season has passed through them. He calls it
winter, and it brought useless and violent rain. He urges her on, too, with the good
things of the present season. He speaks of flowers, as in spring, and of the tending of
vines. He describes the voice of the turtledove, the young figs on the fig tree, and the
vines in blossom. He also describes the place where she will rest with him. He wanted her,
once there, to appear to the bridegroom with her whole face, and to let him hear her sweet
voice.

11 “My beloved answers and says to me: Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my
dove. For look, the winter has passed, the rain has gone and has departed on its own. The
flowers have appeared on the earth. The time of pruning has arrived. The voice of the
turtledove has been heard in our land. The fig tree has put out its young figs. The vines
are in blossom, they have given off their fragrance,” and so on. 12 “Arise,” he says,
“from perceptible things to intelligible things, so that we may be together.” “The rain
has gone”: we would say the rain was the time before the Coming, when God commanded the
clouds to rain the word of the law and the prophets. This has ceased, since “the law and
the prophets were until John.” Spring and summer come after the Coming. There is no longer
any need of rains, since the flowers that come through Christ have appeared on the earth.
And since his Coming, the fig tree is not cut down as fruitless, as it was in the former
time. For now it has put out young figs, and the vines are in blossom. That is why he
says, “[as] branches of Christ we are a fragrance to God.” “Arise, come, my neighbor, my
beautiful one, my dove. And come, my dove, into the shelter of the rock, next to the outer
wall. Show me your face, and let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face
is lovely.”

13 He wants the soul to rise above perceptible things. He calls the perceptible world the
wall and outer wall, as of a city. So the soul that shares in the Word must be in the
shelter of the rock, outside not only the city’s wall but also the outer wall. Having come
near in this way, she can behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, with unveiled face,
obeying the one who says, “Show me your face.” He also longs to hear her speaking, and
admires her voice as sweet. The outer wall (proteichisma) is what Isaiah calls the
“perideichon,” saying, “he will set a wall, or an outer wall.” So he wants her to go out
from bodily things and to be not only at the wall, which I take to be the account of the
world, but also next to the outer wall. This is the last principle of bodily things and
the beginning of the incorporeal.

14 Catch for us the little foxes that ruin vineyards, for our vines are in blossom. 15 The
bridegroom says these things to his friends. These are either angels or holy men, all who
are teachers of the Church. The exhortation is given for the salvation of the vineyards.
The crafty powers are to be caught, because they destroy the very beginning of the fruit’s
growth. Then the vines, tended by God, will be able to advance from first blossoming to
the full ripening of the fruit. Because of free will, however, they are able either to
bear fruit or not. Or perhaps the foxes are also people, who by the sharpness of a
different teaching hinder those who have begun to run well. He wants these caught while
they are still small, before they advance further in ungodliness. Once one has become a
large fox, the friends cannot catch him, and only the bridegroom can hunt him down. But
while they are just beginning to practice worse things, they are easily caught even by the
friends. He may also be calling the vineyards “small”, for a fox has no power against
large ones.

16 My beloved is mine, and I am his. He pastures his flock among the lilies, until the day
breathes and the shadows move. 17 Either the bride speaks to the companions of the
bridegroom, as one who has no share with the foxes. “For they shared with us,” she says,
“blood and flesh, and we shared incorruption with him.” Or she speaks this way because God
comes to be in the soul, and the soul moves its dwelling into God. Paul speaks in the same
way: the body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. For the
bride, the Church, is the body of Christ, which is in no way for fornication but always
for the Lord. The Savior himself says, “Remain in me, and I in you.” In the verses that
follow, however, it is written the other way around: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is
mine.” Or perhaps this is because the beginning of the kindness came from the bridegroom.
If he had not shown himself to her, she would not have been devoted to the bridegroom.
When she beheld his divine beauty, she was brought to a saving love, and after that,
devoted to his beauty, she says, “and I am his.” Then she took up the order the other way
round. Before the perfect came, she said, “I am my beloved’s.” But when he is completely
revealed and leaves nothing hidden, she perceives this and says, “and my beloved is mine.”
It is said somewhere in the prophecies, “The Lord himself will shepherd us forever,” but
not as he shepherds us now, among lilies in the midst of thorns. So after saying, “I am
the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys,” he adds, “As a lily among thorns, so is
my neighbor among the daughters.” And [note that he did not say this as if of the bride
(?)]. For this reason he has also come: so that the flock being shepherded would not be
caught on the thorns.

18 Until the day breathes and the shadows pass away. 19 For this reason he also dares to
say mystically in Jacob, “By day I was being burned up by the heat.” For in the heat of
the present life we need the one who shepherds us, because of the noonday demons. For he
says to the obedient person, “He will not be afraid of the noonday demon,” and likewise,
“The sun will not burn you.” The one who bears our weaknesses and suffered pain on our
behalf was himself burned by the heat for us, to buy us out from these things. In the same
way he bought us out from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us. He also
shepherds among lilies, and he does so until the shadows of life pass away, as in the
words, “Our days pass by like shadows.” Perhaps also, before his coming, through the law
and the prophets, he shepherded among lilies while the scorching heat still lasted. After
his coming he still shepherds, but not among lilies. For as if the day had already
breathed out, it is said, “Beloved, you know that it is the last hour.”

20 Turn back, be like, my beloved, a gazelle or a young deer of the stags, upon the
mountains of the hollows. 21 Earlier the bride spoke to the young women; now she speaks to
the bridegroom. So she takes up a likeness that suits the present moment: to the gazelle,
because of its keen sight, and to the fawn of the deer, because it destroys the race of
serpents. She asks him to do these things on the mountains of the hollows. When she says
“Turn back,” she means: turn back from existing in the form of God, and take up these
things, coming among human beings out of love for me. Most of them, because of their
wickedness, spend their lives in hollows. The “mountains of the hollows” are the
righteous, who rise above evils. When the Word has turned back, he is likened to a gazelle
among those who devote themselves to contemplation, and to a fawn of the deer among those
who are more practical and who tear down the opposing powers. The word “or” in “or a fawn”
is a disjunctive particle. Theodotion said, “on the mountains of incense,” which still
points to the saints.

SECTION 3

1 On my bed at night I sought the one whom my soul loved. I sought him and did not find
him. I called him and he did not answer me. “I will get up now and go around in the city,
in the markets and in the streets, and I will seek the one whom my soul loved.” I sought
him and did not find him. I called him and he did not answer me. The watchmen who go
around in the city found me. “Have you seen the one whom my soul loved?” It was only a
little after I had passed from them that I found the one whom my soul loved. I took hold
of him and did not let him go, until I brought him into my mother’s house and into the
chamber of the one who conceived me. 2a Having spoken of the mysteries that come before
the marriage, she now calls him at night to her bed. She wants to share in deeper secrets
and to take part in a more perfect rest, for that is what the bed means. “At night” means
in a time of quiet, far from the sight of those who cannot behold such things. The soul of
the one who seeks the deeper things of the divine Word on the bed must first be wounded
with love. The beloved waits for the longing one to rise, so that, having intensified her
desire, he may show himself at the right time to her who has labored much in seeking him.
For after saying, “On my bed at night I sought the one whom my soul loved,” and, “I sought
him and did not find him,” she adds, “I will get up now and go around.” Let us then put
aside lying on our backs and drowsy closed eyes, and rise, obeying the one who says,
“Awake now, you who sleep.” The whole world is the city that she must go all around,
coming to know it through contemplation, in the teachings of wisdom. For these are the
markets, from which something useful may be taken. But she also goes into the streets, for
wisdom is praised in the ways out, and in the broad streets she speaks with boldness. We
too have been commanded to write on the breadth of our heart. Yet since she is seeking
something greater than markets and streets can offer, she says she has not found him.

2b Even so, she keeps on toward the finding, and is found by those who guard the city and
go around it. These would be the ministering spirits. They are the ones whom the Lord sent
out to go through the earth. She asks them about the one she longs for, but no answer from
them is recorded. We are taught that if we are going to find the one we long for, we must
pass beyond them a little and become better than such angels. Peter seems to speak of them
in his Letter, teaching the surpassing excellence of what is laid up for the perfect:
“things into which angels long to look.” It is enough to pass such beings by only a
little, so that the one longed for may be found; and once found, may be held; and once
held, may be understood. For holding him is of no benefit unless constant meditation keeps
hold of what has been understood. That is why she says, “I did not let him go until I
brought him into my mother’s house.” So after departure from here, she may enter with him
into the house of the Jerusalem above. There she brings in the more ordinary insights of
the Word, but the more secret ones into the chambers of her who conceived the bride. The
same one is shown to be both mother and the one who conceived, because the beginning of a
person’s formation lies in conception. She is called mother after the shaping, and after
the completion of the one conceived.

3 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh
and frankincense, from all the powders of the perfumer? 4 The soul that ascends in life
and in word is very beautiful. It has fled the sins common among the many, which are said
to go up out of the desert. The saying that the righteous person is the fragrance of
Christ in every place, to those who are being saved, is understood in the same way as
being “perfumed with incense”. It is like stalks sending up sweet smoke, which delights
the breathing of those who call them blessed.

SECTION 4

1 “Your teeth are like flocks of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing. All of
them bear twins, and none among them is childless.” They bear twins in another sense too,
because of the twofold understanding, the [literal] and the spiritual. “Your lips are like
a scarlet thread, and your speech is lovely.” 2 That is, let the preparation of the word
be fiery, so that it can win the hearer. Or it points to the blood-filled and life-giving
quality of the words that go out through the lips, as if they were dipped in the true
drink of the blood of Christ. 3 “Your cheek is like a piece of pomegranate rind, apart
from your silence.” 4 To the praise of self-control he adds praise for silence. The bride
knows the times for lovely speech and the times for praiseworthy silence. And since a
faithful spirit hides matters, the bride also hides her insights in the depths. They are
like the seeds of the pomegranate, each in its own rank, [embodied] in the ruling part of
the soul. That is why he added, “apart from your silence”. He means that the doctrines
kept silent are like pomegranate seeds under its rind.

5 “Your neck is like the tower of David, built with Thalpiot. A thousand shields hang upon
it, all the missiles of the mighty.” 6 Aquila has rendered Thalpiot as “battlements”, and
Symmachus as “heights”. It follows from this that the tower above the battlements is
wisdom. From wisdom, likewise, hang the shields, which are the doctrines that have been
believed, which the Apostle called, in the singular, “the shield of faith”. The “missiles
of the mighty” are the arguments that powerfully overturn the persuasiveness of those who
oppose the truth. Instead of “battlements”, the fifth edition has “commandments”,
interpreting the sense rather than the word. For unless commandments have been laid down
first, it is impossible for true knowledge to be built up. 7 “Your two breasts are like
two twin fawns of a gazelle, feeding among the lilies, until the day breathes and the
shadows are moved.” 8 The ruling part of the soul is meant, as the breasts are in the case
of a bride. It is the most keen-sighted part. That is why he compared it to two fawns of a
gazelle grazing in beautiful and fragrant places, signifying things understood by the mind
and things perceived by the senses. He says fawns because now we know in part. But when
the perfect comes, we put away childishness. That will be when the scorching heat of the
present life ceases and a time of refreshment arrives, and the shadow is dissolved as
well, for the present life is a shadow. For then we shall feed as full-grown people, no
longer as fawns.

9 “You have captured our heart, my sister, my bride. You have captured our heart with one
of your eyes, with one necklace of your neck.” 10 The “necklace” is so called from being
put on and fastened around the bride’s neck. But if the bride’s breasts remained as two
fawns of a gazelle, how [were they made more beautiful]? As I said, it would not have been
spoken in wonder about the faculty of the mind alone. The doubling of the wonder also
showed the growth of beauty, as in “you have captured our heart”, said a second time. The
bride’s garments are those who have put on Christ Jesus: bowels of compassion, kindness
and humility. The lips are the teachers, and the honeycombs are good words. The prophets
and apostles made the honeycomb and the honey. 11 “A garden shut up, my sister, my bride.
A garden shut up, a fountain sealed.”

12 A second time “a garden shut up” is said. The first refers to one who is making
progress, the second to the perfect one, when his ruling part, once it has been [seen
through], is stamped with the seal of the knowledge of God. Or else, now the bride is only
a garden shut up, but in the age to come, because of her perfection and steadiness, she is
also a fountain sealed. “For to everyone who has, it will be given, and he will have
abundance.” Now, then, Scripture [says] that she is simply a garden. Elsewhere, as if
speaking of another, it adds also “a vegetable garden”. 13 “Rise up, North wind, and come,
South wind. Blow through my garden, and let my spices flow.” 14 The bride seems to rebuke
the North wind, having received authority from the bridegroom, who rebuked the wind. That
is why it is said in the three evangelists that he rebuked the wind, and the winds simply
obey him. So Christ takes up residence in souls, [driving out] the devil. About him it is
said, “God will come from Thaman”, that is, from the south.

SECTION 5

1 “Open to me, my sister, my neighbor, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is filled with
dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.” 2 The words “to me” had to be added to
“open,” because it is possible to open to opposing powers as well. He seems to speak of
the dew as a nuisance, and likewise of the drops of the night, since he appears to be
looking for rest from them. This fits what came before. After the resurrection he entered
when the doors were shut. He calls Thomas, and through him every unbelieving soul, to open
its own heart and take in the full assurance of the resurrection. He calls him “perfect”
because he said, “My Lord and my God.” The dew points to the resurrection at dawn, when
the dew comes down. 3 My beloved passed by; my soul went out at his word.

4 When the bride reached the bolt, ready to open her soul to the Word, he showed only his
hand and some of his deeds and then passed by. The bride was not yet able to go on to see
more. At the same time he is arranging to increase her love still further. The soul goes
out and leaves its home in the body because of the Bridegroom, the Word, since it has its
citizenship in heaven. 5 I sought him and did not find him; I called him and he did not
answer me. 6 The soul keeps on seeking the Bridegroom, the Word. When it has found him, it
is puzzled about other matters and seeks again. When it has contemplated those, it longs
for the revelation of still others. And when it has obtained these, it prays that the
Bridegroom will visit it again for the sake of yet more.

7 My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out from ten thousands. 8 He is white because he
is true God, and ruddy because of the incarnation. 9 His head is gold, pure gold; his
locks are palm clusters, black as a raven. 10 The locks are compared to the clusters of
the palm trees because of their thickness. They say these clusters take the place of seed
for the female palms, so that the trees bear edible fruit. The locks are called black, and
the word is meant as praise, because of the depth of the thoughts that grow, as it were,
in place of hairs; they add to the Bridegroom’s beauty. The words “like a raven” were not
chosen, I think, simply for the color. The raven is a symbol of the very deep ones, those
filled with dark water in the clouds of the air. Job spoke of them: “Who has prepared food
for the raven? Its young ones cry out to the Lord.” God has prepared much food for those
whose minds are deeper. Their disciples are the young ones; they give themselves to
prayers and cry out to the Lord. They wander about and search for the food that lies
within the things they are puzzling over.

11 His jaws are like bowls of spice, putting forth perfumes. 12 By the jaws of Christ we
should understand those who serve the word of God and spiritual food. Because of the
fullness of fragrance in their good works and words, they are like bowls of spice. Because
of the varied word rooted in them, drawn from every part of the composition of Scripture,
they always bear fruit like a perfumer’s blend. 13 His belly is an ivory box, set upon a
sapphire stone. 14 The belly of the Word means those who can hold the mysteries, that is,
those who are hollow for receiving them. The “box” means those who are fit for keeping
them safe. It is said to be ivory for its brightness and clearness. Such a belly, the
ivory box, has been laid upon a sapphire stone, who is Christ. So all who are the belly of
the Word take the Lord into the womb out of fear, and give birth to the spirit of
salvation. For this reason the belly of the sacrifice in Leviticus is washed, so that
nothing filthy is left in it.

SECTION 6

1 You are beautiful, you who are near me, like good pleasure, lovely as Jerusalem, a
wonder like ranks drawn up in order. 2 The nearer she comes to the Bridegroom, the better
the things she is compared to. To “beautiful,” “lovely” and “near” he added “like
Jerusalem.” He also calls the perfected Church awe-inspiring. She is so in one way among
the opposing powers, who cannot fix their gaze on the beauty of her face. In another way
she is so among those lower than herself, who resemble the ordered arrangements in the
universe. Symmachus reads not “ranks set in order” but “battle lines.” For they are a
wonder, like a formation of armies that strikes terror into enemies. 3 Turn your eyes away
from facing me, for they have given me wings. 4 The Church looks upon the loveliness and
beauty of Christ. With greater progress she is able to perceive his divinity, in that all
things came to be through him. He rejoices in the power of her eyes, whether she is the
Church or the soul that is the bride of the Word. He commands her to turn, on rational
wings, toward the heights, so that she may reach the summit of perfection. Then she may
see him winged, no longer coming down with her for her sake, and she may be able to say,
“Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we no longer know him.” So, he
says, he has gone up together with your progress, since you have become able to look in,
and no longer to seek anything further in the [incarnate] economy.

5 Your hair is like flocks of goats that came up from Gilead. Your teeth are like flocks
of shorn sheep that came up from the washing. All of them bear twins, and there is none
among them that is childless. 6 These things are said to the bride for the second time.
The first time, I think, she appeared like this as far as was possible, while she was
still in this present life. The second time is when she has come to perfection. For this
reason he now only hints at it: “Your teeth are like flocks of shorn sheep.” According to
Aquila and Symmachus it reads, “Your teeth are like flocks of sheep,” or “of ewe lambs.”
It was also fitting for this to be said at the point of perfection, so that “from the
washing” refers no longer to the first washing but to the second. “Bearing twins” perhaps
means that they are fed by the contemplation of things understood by the mind and things
perceived by the senses. It also means that none of them is barren of nourishment from the
word, whatever its subject.

7 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and young women without number. But my
dove is one. 8 The young women have no number. This is not because they fall outside of
counting, but because they are [worthy] to be numbered. Perhaps this is connected with the
same thought: the difference here among the young women who share in Christ resembles what
the Apostle says about the resurrection of the dead, when he speaks of “orders.” For since
death came through a man, through a man also came the resurrection of the dead. As in Adam
all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive, each in his own order. For each
person’s life, word and disposition will cause him to be ranked ahead according to his
worth. 9 Do not be surprised if the bridegroom had a beautiful bride, and perhaps a second
and a third and more. If you also understand his brides, you will not be afraid to say
from the Song: “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and young women without
number. But my dove is one.” The bridegroom is the Word. The bride is a rational living
being. [This is so] if a soul understands and the bridegroom takes the bride. But since
this Word shares himself not with one soul but with many different ones, let him call the
one who shares in a royal and conspicuous honor the perfect dove. To those who are royal
but of lesser rank he gives the name queens, and this is why there are sixty queens. He
also shares himself with other souls who are being trained by the fear of God. These are
the concubines. There are still other souls of lower rank, who have less fear. These are
the young women without number. So here too the bridegroom, [seeking] those who are
beautiful and able to be his partners, came out from the heavenly bridal chamber. He
shares himself with angels and archangels, who are the brides of the Word, and with
thrones and lordships.

10 I went down into the garden of the nut tree, to see among the produce of the torrent,
to see if the vine had flowered and if the pomegranates had bloomed. There I will give my
breasts to you. [It is a land] like my soul. He set me among the chariots of Aminadab. 11
By way of example, the righteous are nut trees. They bear fruit through their priestly
service to God, because they have a hedge around them. The nut has something bitter and
bilious, and something else hard, like the trials. Trial may also be called a torrent, as
in the saying, “Our soul has passed through a torrent.” So the bride wanted to go down
into the garden of the nut tree. That is, having fallen from the [things] of paradise into
this toilsome life, she wanted to see some strange offspring of the winter, while a dark
river flows. Or, according to Symmachus, she went down to learn whether the gorge of life
has [autumn] fruit. She also wanted to see whether the vine had flowered, having escaped
the winter and reached the spring, the time of the Passover and the feast of Unleavened
Bread. For that is when the vine usually blooms in Judea. She wanted to see also whether
the pomegranates had bloomed, whose fruit is abundant and is enclosed in an orderly way by
the rind. The bride’s cheek is likened to this. “There,” he says, “I will give you my
breasts.” That is, the ruling part of the soul. But “my soul did not know,” she says, and
it has failed the promise, being unable to do anything from itself. Yet I was not left
behind in these things. For the father of Naasson, the ruler of my people, Aminadab, set
me to be his chariots for himself. Naasson is interpreted as “serpent-like,” and he is the
ruler of the bride’s people. This Aminadab, in Numbers, is the father of Naasson, the
ruler of the tribe of Judah, who is taken over into Christ, because, “as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness,” so, she says, he set me as his chariots, himself driving
my thoughts.

12 “Return, return, Shulammite; return, return, and we will look upon you.”

SECTION 7

1 “What will you see in the Shulammite? She who comes like dances of the camps.” For she
has come up out of the washing, like the ranks of angels. 2 Aquila and the fifth edition
gave the name as “Soulabitis,” meaning “at peace.” The bride of the Word is the soul, the
Church of Christ, because of the one who made the two one and broke down the dividing wall
of the fence. But if the name is “Soulamitis,” or “plundered” according to Symmachus, the
bridegroom might say to her: “O plundered one, you who came under the power of the one who
took you captive, return to your former noble birth.” Now she receives the down payment,
as the firstfruits of adoption, and the hope of the resurrection. [And if she receives the
garment of the promise and of incorruption, the word “return” is repeated more often, as
encouragement.] For then, he says, it is truly possible to see you. I think these words
are spoken by the companions of the bridegroom to the bride, and the bridegroom answers
them, “What will you see?” She is compared to an army of victors. For the one bride has
within herself a multitude of camps. The members of the bride are many groups: they are
choruses, because they sing praise to the divine in harmony and speak of God to him; and
they are camps of peace, because they have brought down their enemies. But the scene is no
longer one of war. The friends of the bridegroom call back the one who labored for those
in the torrent and was plundered on their account (for “Shulammite” is interpreted
“plundered”). They say, “Return, and we will look upon you.” For they saw that her ill-
treatment was not fruitless but ended in a good outcome. Those in the torrent had been
condemned and handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Now they have passed
through the water of the torrent, and she led them with her as victors. She comes like
choruses of camps, like men returning from war, dancing in various groups, singing songs
of victory and saying, “Lord, you have crowned us as with a weapon of good will.”

3 “The curves of your thighs are like [little necklaces], the work of a craftsman’s
hands.” 4 In many places Scripture uses the thighs to speak of generation. So here it
shows the bride’s orderliness and fine proportion in the region of generation. It is like
necklaces fashioned with virtue. 5 “Your navel is a rounded bowl, never lacking mixed
wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, fenced in with lilies.” 6 Wisdom calls people
together to the navel, the bowl, saying, “Come, drink the wine that I have mixed for you.”
This points to what is spiritual, [the spiritual Spirit]. The text also adds “a heap of
wheat” to signify spiritual food. For “heap” means a gathering of virtues: a multitude
brought together into one in harmony. 7 The lilies would also be the flowers of the grace
of God, which she gathered from among the thorns of life. 8 “Your neck is like a tower of
ivory.”

9 Those who do what pleases the bridegroom were called towers. Their lookout is the
contemplative soul, which watches everything from on high. The tower is of ivory because
of its brightness and smoothness: nothing rough from wickedness is in the bride’s neck. He
no longer said, [concerning the dead], “those who feed among lilies,” for they had come to
be above the lilies in the midst of thorns. He also wants us, as lovers of learning, to
have a soul that is the daughter of many wise men, and to be at the entrances of many
studies, which he called gates. The abundance of the grace of knowledge among the teachers
in you is so great, he says, that not only those near you enjoy their instruction, but
even those outside and far away already enjoy the benefit of it. 10 “Your nose is like the
tower of Lebanon, looking toward the face of Damascus. Your head upon you is like Carmel,
and the braid of your head is like purple: a king bound [in the galleries].”

11 Whoever has pure breathing, and through perceiving the divine Word is able to run after
him at the fragrance of his ointments, is a nose that senses spiritual sweet smell. He
keeps watch to see whether any teaching among the nations seems conspicuous. For Damascus
stands for the nations, and the face is a symbol of what is conspicuous and fine.
Frankincense is carried up to the altar of God. Carmel is interpreted “knowledge of
circumcision.” Whoever can say with boldness, “We are the circumcision,” knows
circumcision. And from the head, that is, from Christ, the knowledge of spiritual
circumcision was born. 12 “Why were you made beautiful, and why made sweet, love, in your
delights? This is your greatness: you were made like a palm tree, and your breasts like
clusters of grapes.” This is because your mind is lofty, and nothing earthly is carried
along with it. 13 The bridegroom says this in wonder at her change for the better. A good
balance of the elements produces health in bodies. In the same way, a kind of health and
beauty comes to the soul from its impulses and aversions. The bride was ugly through
wickedness, but she has changed through virtue into beauty. She was bitter, but she has
become most pleasant and sweet to him. So he says that, as lavish feasting is the desired
thing in bodily delights, love is the desired thing for those who enjoy spiritual delight.
[In the other versions the pronoun “your” is placed differently.] He might be saying: “You
take more delight in love than in the other fruits of the Spirit, so that for love’s sake
you bear all things and endure all things.” Some bodies are small and others large, and in
the same way a soul is great or small in proportion to what it accomplishes.

14 That is, he says, your thoughts are nourishing and good to drink, and not at all sour
like unripe grapes. 15 “Then I will go up into the palm tree. I will take hold of its
heights, and your breasts will be like clusters of the vine. The scent of your nose will
be like apples, and your throat like good wine, going straight to my beloved, [being made
fit] for my lips and teeth.” 16 Because she has been likened to a palm tree, she calls the
bridegroom a palm tree, having understood the height and greatness of the Word. She hoped
to go up to this height at the end of the songs, when the bride is perfect. Then she will
also take hold of the bridegroom’s breasts, which stand for the closely packed teachings.
That is why they are likened to clusters of the vine, of which the Savior said, “I am the
true vine.” What comes out of the hidden things of the Word guides and gladdens so much
that one can speak when he should, to whom he should, and as much as he should. The lips
show speech, and the teeth show restraint in speech. This is in line with the saying,
“Make a door and a bar for your mouth, and a measure and a weight for your words.” In such
people not only are the thoughts secure, but the lips also are bound by discernment. The
good wine is the one brought out of the good treasure of the heart.

17 “I am my beloved’s, and his turning is toward me.” 18 This is said of her who has been
made perfect: nowhere will he find rest of every kind, wherever he turns himself, as he
does with me. “Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field. Let us lodge in the
villages. Let us rise early for the vineyards. Let us see whether the vine has flowered,
whether the henna blossom has bloomed, whether the pomegranates have bloomed.” 19 The
bride makes her appeal on behalf of the lesser ones, asking him to go out from the
innermost, blessed dwelling places to look after them. For these are the field, the
villages, the vineyards and the pomegranates.

SECTION 8

1 “When I find you outside, I will kiss you, and indeed they will not despise me. I will
take you along. I will bring you into my mother’s house, into the chamber of her who
conceived me. I will give you spiced wine to drink, from the juice of my pomegranates.” 2
She found him when he had stepped out from his high place of watching, and she embraced
him. 3 “I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the forces of the field:
why do you stir up and rouse up love until it wishes?” 4 This is already the second time
she has adjured them. But earlier, in her doubt, she put “if” first. Now she has taught
the manner of the stirring, the rousing and the love, and she makes it plain, as it were:
“In adjuring you I adjured you by these things, that you stir up and rouse up.”

5 “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is strong as death,
and jealousy is hard as Hades.” 6 The bridegroom urges her to shape every thought and
action by his own stamp. He says that love, strong as death, does this, for it bears all
things and endures all things. It is strong like a death that puts sin to death. Or
rather, since death has mastered all things, because in Adam all die, and Hades likewise,
he says that love and jealousy are of this kind. This is the jealousy one must have for
God, which is hard against those who sin, like that of Elijah and Phinehas. Or the
bridegroom says this to her: “Set me as a seal, to seal your thoughts and your actions,
and struggle for the truth even to death.” In Hades also the Jews were jealous of Christ,
when they bribed the soldiers. “Our sister is little, and she has no breasts.”

7 The human soul is small. The church of God, while still being built up on earth, is
small too, and does not yet have thoughts (for that is what the breasts are). It grows
toward greatness of life and of thoughts, whenever it makes its thoughts and prophetic
insights clear, or has room for the harmony and working of power. [These souls] also say
these things together with the spirits of the prophets and the righteous. “You who sit in
the gardens, companions are attending to your voice; make me hear. Flee, my kinsman, and
be like the gazelle, or the fawn of the deer, upon the mountains of spices.” 8 The bride
saw the bridegroom resting in the gardens, and saw the companions attending to his voice,
which she herself had heard. She wants him to turn away from the things of this place,
with sharp and penetrating sight. He is to be like a gazelle in speed and keen vision. He
is to be like a fawn in holding his enemies in contempt, as one holds snakes and
scorpions. And he is to go up to those who have risen like mountains and breathe out every
fragrance. Of these it is said, “His foundations are in the holy mountains.” This is the
reading of the Seventy, of Theodotion, and of the fifth edition. Aquila, however, gave
“the one sitting in gardens.” Symmachus gave “the one dwelling,” [so that the first things
are said to the bride, his (?) flowing, listening attentively to her and rejoicing].


SOURCES AND CREDITS
===================

Where each text comes from, and the licence under which it may be reused.

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH Greek text: Erich Klostermann’s edition (Origenes Werke, Leipzig: J.
C. Hinrichs'Sche Buchhandlung, 1901); Erich Klostermann’s edition (Origenes Werke,
Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1901), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and
the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation
made by SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has
not been checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English
translation was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best
reading. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH Greek text: Erich Klostermann’s edition (Origenes Werke, Leipzig: J.
C. Hinrichs'Sche Buchhandlung, 1901); Erich Klostermann’s edition (Origenes Werke,
Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1901), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and
the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation
made by SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has
not been checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English
translation was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best
reading. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

FRAGMENTS ON LAMENTATIONS Greek text: Erich Klostermann’s edition (Origenes Werke,
Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'Sche Buchhandlung, 1901), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and
the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation
made by SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has
not been checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English
translation was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best
reading. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

FRAGMENTS OF THE HOMILIES ON JOB Greek text: Charles de La Rue’s edition (Origenis Opera
Omnia, Paris: J. P. Migne, 1857); Jean Baptiste Pitra’s edition (Analecta sacra spicilegio
solesmensi parata, Paris: A. Jouby et Roger, 1884), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and
the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation
made by SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has
not been checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English
translation was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best
reading. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

SELECTED NOTES ON THE PENTATEUCH AND OTHER BOOKS Greek text: >Erich Klostermann’s edition
(Origenes Werke, Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'Sche Buchhandlung, 1901); Charles de La Rue’s
edition (Origenis Opera Omnia, Paris: J. P. Migne, 1857); Charles de La Rue’s edition
(Origenis Opera Omnia, Paris: J. P. Migne, 1862), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and
the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation
made by SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has
not been checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English
translation was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best
reading. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Greek text: Erwin Preuschen’s edition (Origenes Werke,
Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1903), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and
the First Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation
made by SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has
not been checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English
translation was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best
reading. Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

FRAGMENTS ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE Greek text: Max Rauer’s edition (Origenes Werke, Leipzig:
J. C. Hinrichs'Sche Buchhandlung, 1930), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and the First
Thousand Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation made by
SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has not been
checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English translation
was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best reading.
Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

SCHOLIA ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW Greek text: Charles de La Rue’s edition (Origenis Opera
Omnia, Paris: J. P. Migne, 1857), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and the First Thousand
Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation made by
SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has not been
checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English translation
was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best reading.
Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

SCHOLIA ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE Greek text: Charles de La Rue’s edition (Origenis Opera
Omnia, Paris: J. P. Migne, 1857), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and the First Thousand
Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation made by
SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has not been
checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English translation
was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best reading.
Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

SCHOLIA ON THE SONG OF SONGS Greek text: Charles de La Rue’s edition (Origenis Opera
Omnia, Paris: J. P. Migne, 1857), digitised by Open Greek and Latin and the First Thousand
Years of Greek project (CC BY-SA 4.0). The English is a new translation made by
SermonIndex with AI directly from the Greek, as a first reading version; it has not been
checked line by line by a person and may contain mistakes. No older English translation
was used. Where the digital Greek is flagged as damaged, the English is a best reading.
Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.