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ORIGEN

COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW

PARTS OF BOOKS I-II, BOOKS X-XII

[Translated by John Patrick, D.D.]


FROM THE FIRST BOOK(1)

   Concerning the four Gospels which alone are uncontroverted in the
Church of God under heaven, I have learned by tradition that the Gospel
according to Matthew, who was at one time a publican and afterwards an
Apostle of Jesus Christ, was written first; and that he composed it in the
Hebrew tongue and published it for the converts from Judaism. The second
written was that according to Mark, who wrote it according to the
instruction of Peter, who, in his General Epistle, acknowledged him as a
son, saying, "The church that is in Babylon, elect together with you,
saluteth you; and so doth Mark my son."(2) And third, was that according to
Luke, the Gospel commended by(3) Paul, which he composed for the converts
from the Gentiles. Last of all, that according to John.


FROM THE SECOND BOOK

THE UNITY AND HARMONY OF SCRIPTURE

   "Blessed are the peacemakers. ..."(2) To the man who is a peacemaker in
either sense there is in the Divine oracles nothing crooked or perverse,
for they are all plain to those who understand.(3) And because to such an
one there is nothing crooked or perverse, he sees therefore abundance of
peace(4) in all the Scriptures, even in those which seem to be at conflict,
and in contradiction with one another. And likewise he becomes a third
peacemaker as he demonstrates that that which appears to others to be a
conflict in the Scriptures is no conflict, and exhibits their concord and
peace, whether of the Old Scriptures with the New, or of the Law with the
Prophets, or of the Gospels with the Apostolic Scriptures, or of the
Apostolic Scriptures with each other. For, also, according to the Preacher,
all the Scriptures are "words of the wise like goads, and as nails firmly
fixed which were given by agreement from one shepherd;"(5) and there is
nothing superfluous in them. But l the Word is the one Shepherd of things
rational which may have an appearance of discord to those who have not ears
to hear, but are truly at perfect concord. For as the different chords of
the psalter or the lyre, each of which gives forth a certain sound of its
own which seems unlike the sound of another chord, are thought by a man who
is not musical and ignorant of the principle of musical harmony, to be
inharmonious, because of the dissimilarity of the sounds, so those who are
not skilled in hearing the harmony of God in the sacred Scriptures think
that the Old is not in harmony with the New, or the Prophets with the Law,
or the Gospels with one another, or the Apostle with the Gospel, or with
himself, or with the other Apostles. But he who comes instructed in the
music of God, being a man wise in word and deed, and, on this account, like
another David--which is, by interpretation, skilful with the hand--will
bring out the sound of the music of God, having learned from this at the
right time to strike the chords, now the chords of the Law, now the Gospel
chords in harmony with them, and again the Prophetic chords, and, when
reason demands it, the Apostolic chords which are in harmony with the
Prophetic, and likewise the Apostolic with those of the Gospels. For he
knows that all the Scripture is the one perfect and harmonised(1)
instrument of God, which from different sounds gives forth one saving voice
to those willing to learn, which stops and restrains every working of an
evil spirit, just as the music of David laid to rest the evil spirit in
Saul, which also was choking him.(2) You see, then, that he is in the third
place a peacemaker, who sees in accordance with the Scripture the peace of
it all, and implants this peace in those who rightly seek and make nice
distinctions in a genuine spirit.


BOOK X.

1. THE PARABLE OF THE TARES: THE HOUSE OF JESUS.

   "Then He left the multitudes and went into His house, and His disciples
came unto Him saying, Declare to us the parable of the tares of the
field"(1) When Jesus then is with the multitudes, He is not in His house,
for the multitudes are outside of the house, and it is an act which springs
from His love of men to leave the house and to go away to those who are not
able to come to Him. Now, having discoursed sufficiently to the multitudes
in parables, He sends them away and goes to His own house, where His
disciples, who did not abide with those whom He had sent away, come to Him.
And as many as are more genuine hearers of Jesus first follow Him, then
having inquired about His abode, are permitted to see it, and, having come,
see and abide with Him, all for that day, and perhaps some of them even
longer. And, in my opinion, such things are indicated in the Gospel
according to John in these words, "On the morrow again John was standing
and two of his disciples.(2) And in order to explain the fact that of those
who were permitted to go with Jesus and see His abode, the one who was more
eminent becomes also an Apostle, these words are added: "One of the two
that heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother."(3) And if then, unlike the multitudes whom He sends away, we wish
to hear Jesus and go to the house and receive something better than the
multitudes, let us become friends of Jesus, so that as His disciples we may
come to Him when He goes into the house, and having come may inquire about
the explanation of the parable, whether of the tares of the field, or of
any other. And in order that it may be more accurately understood what is
represented by the house of Jesus, let some one collect from the Gospels
whatsoever things are spoken about the house of Jesus, and what things were
spoken or done by Him in it; for all the passages collected together will
convince any one who applies himself to this reading that the letters of
the Gospel are not absolutely simple as some suppose, but have become
simple to the simple by a divine concession;(1) but for those who have the
will and the power to hear them more acutely there are concealed things
wise and worthy of the Word of God.

2. EXPOSlTION OF THE PARABLE.

   "After these things He answered and said to them, He that soweth the
good seed is the Son of man."(2) Though we have already, in previous
sections, according to our ability discussed these matters, none the less
shall we now say what is in harmony with them, even if there is reasonable
ground for another explanation. And consider now, if in addition to what we
have already recounted, you can otherwise take the good seed to be the
children of the kingdom, because whatsoever good things are sown in the
human soul, these are the offspring of the kingdom of God and have been
sown by God the Word who was in the beginning with God,(3) so that
wholesome words about anything are children of the kingdom. But while men
are asleep who do not act according to the command of Jesus, "Watch and
pray that ye enter not into temptation,"(4) the devil on the watch sows
what are called tares--that is, evil opinions--over and among what are
called by some natural conceptions, even the good seeds which are from the
Word. And according to this the whole world might be called a field, and
not the Church of God only, for in the whole world the Son of man sowed the
good seed, but the wicked one tares,--that is, evil words,--which,
springing from wickedness, are children of the evil one. And at the end of
things, which is called "the consummation of the age,"(5) there will of
necessity be a harvest, in order that the angels of God who have been
appointed for this work may gather up the bad opinions that have grown upon
the soul, and overturning them may give them over to fire which is said to
burn, that they may be consumed. And so the angels and servants of the Word
will gather from all the kingdom of Christ all things that cause a
stumbling-block to souls and reasonings that create iniquity, which they
will scatter and cast into the burning furnace of fire. Then those who
become conscious that they have received the seeds of the evil one in
themselves, because of their having been asleep, shall wail and, as it
were, be angry against themselves; for this is the "gnashing of teeth."(1)
Wherefore, also, in the Psalms it is said, "They gnashed upon me with their
teeth."(2) Then above all "shall the righteous shine," no longer
differently as at the first, but all "as one sun in the kingdom of their
Father."(3) Then, as if to indicate that there was indeed a hidden meaning,
perhaps, in all that is concerned with the explanation of the parable,
perhaps most of all in the saying, "Then shall the righteous shine as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father," the Saviour adds, "He that hath ears
to hear, let him hear,"(4) thereby teaching those who think that in the
exposition, the parable has been set forth with such perfect clearness that
it can be understood by the vulgar,(5) that even the things connected with
the interpretation of the parable stand in need of explanation.

3. THE SHINING OF THE RIGHTEOUS. ITS INTERPRETATION.

   But as we said above in reference to the words, "Then shall the
righteous shine as the sun," that the righteous will shine not differently
as formerly, but as one sun, we will, of necessity, set forth what appears
to us on the point. Daniel, knowing that the intelligent are the light of
the world, and that the multitudes of the righteous differ in glory, seems
to have said this, "And the intelligent shall shine as the brightness of
the firmament, and from among the multitudes of the righteous as the stars
for ever and ever."(6) And in the passage, "There is one glory of the sun,
and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star
differeth from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the
dead,"(7) the Apostle says the same thing as Daniel, taking this thought
from his prophecy. Some one may inquire how some speak about the difference
of light among the righteous, while the Saviour on the contrary says, "They
shall shine as one sun." I think, then, that at the beginning of the
blessedness enjoyed by those who are being saved (because those who are not
such are not yet purified), the difference connected with the light of the
saved takes place: but when, as we have indicated, he gathers from the
whole kingdom of Christ all things that make men stumble, and the
reasonings that work iniquity are cast into the furnace of fire, and the
worse elements utterly consumed, and, when this takes place, those who
received the words which are the children of the evil one come to self-
consciousness, then shall the righteous having become one light of the sun
shine in the kingdom of their Father. For whom will they shine? For those
below them who will enjoy their light, after the analogy of the sun which
now shines for those upon the earth? For, of course, they will not shine
for themselves. But perhaps the saying," Let your light shine before
men,"(1) can be written "upon the table of the heart,"(2) according to what
is said by Solomon, in a threefold way; so that even now the light of the
disciples of Jesus shines before the rest of men, and after death before
the resurrection, and after the resurrection "until all shall attain unto a
full-grown man,"(3) and all become one sun. Then shall they shine as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father.

4. CONCERNING THE PARABLE OF THE TREASURE HIDDEN IN THE FIELD. THE PARABLE
DISTINGUISHED FROM THE SIMILITUDE.

   "Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the
field, which a man found and hid."(4) The former parables He spoke to the
multitudes; but this and the two which follow it, which are not parables
but similitudes in relation to the kingdom of heaven, He seems to have
spoken to the disciples when in the house. In regard to this and the next
two, let him who "gives heed to reading"(5) inquire whether they are
parables at all. In the case of the latter the Scripture does not hesitate
to attach in each case the name of parable; but in the present case it has
not done so; and that naturally. For if He spoke to the multitudes in
parables, and "spake all these things in parables, and without a parable
spake nothing to them,"(6) but on going to the house He discourses not to
the multitudes but to the disciples who came to Him there, manifestly the
things spoken in the house were not parables: for, to them that are
without. even to those to whom "it is not given to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven,"(7) He speaks in parables. Some one will then say,
If they are not really parables, what are they? Shall we then say in
keeping with the diction of the Scripture that they are similitudes
(comparisons)? Now a similitude differs from a parable; for it is written
in Mark, "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or in what parable
shall we set it forth?"(1) From this it is plain that there is a difference
between a similitude and a parable. The similitude seems to be generic, and
the parable specific. And perhaps also as the similitude, which is the
highest genus of the parable, contains the parable as one of its species,
so it contains that particular form of similitude which has the same name
as the genus. This is the case with other words as those skilled in the
giving of many names have observed; who say that "impulse"(2) is the
highest genus of many species, as, for example, of "disinclination"(3) and
"inclination." and say that, in the case of the species which has the same
name as the genus, "inclination" is taken in opposition to and in
distinction from "disinclination."

5. THE FIELD AND THE TREASURE INTERPRETED.

   And here we must inquire separately as to the field, and separately as
to the treasure hidden in it, and in what way the man who has found this
hidden treasure goes away with joy and sells all that he has ill order to
buy that field; and we must also inquire--what are the things which he
sells. The field, indeed, seems to me according to these things to be the
Scripture, which was planted with what is manifest in the words of the
history, and the law, and the prophets, and the rest of the thoughts; for
great and varied is the planting of the words in the whole Scripture; but
the treasure hidden in the field is the thoughts concealed and lying under
that which is manifest, "of wisdom hidden in a mystery," "even Christ, in
whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden."(4) But another
might say that the field is that which is verily full, which the Lord
blessed, the Christ of God; but the treasure hidden in it is the things
said to have been "hidden in Christ" by Paul, who says about Christ, "in
whom are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." The heavenly
things, therefore, even the kingdom of heaven, as in a figure it is written
in the Scriptures--which are the kingdom of heaven, or Christ--Himself the
king of the ages, are the kingdom of heaven which is likened to a treasure
hidden in the field.

6. THE EXPOSITION CONTINUED.

   And at this point you will inquire, whether the kingdom of heaven is
likened only to the treasure hidden in the field, so that we are to think
of the field as different from the kingdom, or is likened to the whole of
this treasure hidden in the field, so that the kingdom of heaven contains
according to the similitude both the field and the treasure hidden in the
field. Now a man who comes to the field, whether to the Scriptures or to
the Christ who is constituted both from things manifest and from things
hidden, finds the hidden treasure of wisdom whether in Christ or in the
Scriptures. For, going round to visit the field and searching the
Scriptures and seeking to understand the Christ, he finds the treasure in
it; and, having found it, he hides it, thinking that it is not without
danger to reveal to everybody the secret meanings of the Scriptures, or the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. And, having hidden it, he goes
away, work-tug and devising how he shall buy the field, or the Scriptures,
that he may make them his own possession, receiving from the people of God
the oracles of God with which the Jews were first entrusted.(1) And when
the man taught by Christ has bought the field, the kingdom of God which,
according to another parable, is a vineyard, "is taken from them and is
given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,"(2)--to him who in
faith has bought the field, as the fruit of his having sold all that he
had, and no longer keeping by him anything that was formerly his; for they
were a source of evil to him. And you will give the same application, if
the field containing the hidden treasure be Christ, for those who give up
all things and follow Him, have, as it were in another way, sold their
possessions, in order that, by having sold and surrendered them, and having
received in their place from God--their helper--a noble resolution, they
may purchase, at great cost worthy of the field, the field containing the
treasure hidden in itself.

7. THE PARABLE OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. THE FORMATION AND DIFFERENCE OF
PEARLS.

   "Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant
seeking goodly pearls."(3) There are many merchants engaged ill many forms
of merchandise, but not to any one of these is the kingdom of heaven like,
but only to him who is seeking goodly pearls, and has found one equal in
value to many, a very costly pearl which he has bought in place of many. I
consider it reasonable, then, to make some inquiry into the nature of the
pearl.(1) Be careful however to note, that Christ did not say, "He sold all
the pearls that he had," for he sold not only those which one seeking
goodly pearls had bought, but also everything which he had, in order to buy
that goodly pearl. We find then in those who write on the subject of
stones, with regard to the nature of the pearl, that some pearls are found
by land, and some in the sea. The land pearls are produced among the
Indians only, being fitted for signet-rings and collets and necklaces; and
the sea pearls, which are superior, are found among the same Indians, the
best being produced in the Red Sea. The next best pearls are those taken
from the sea at Britain; and those of the third quality, which are inferior
not only to the first but to the second, are those found at Bosporus off
Scythia. Concerning the Indian pearl these things further are said. They
are found in mussels, like in nature to very large spiral snail-shells; and
these are described as in troops making the sea their pasture-ground, as if
under the guidance of some leader, conspicuous in colour and size, and
different from those under him, so that he has an analogous position to
what is called the queen of the bees. And likewise, in regard to the
fishing for the best--that is, those in India--the following is told. The
natives surround with nets a large circle of the shore, and dive down,
exerting themselves to seize that one of them all which is the leader; for
they say that, when this one is captured, the catching of the troop subject
to it costs no trouble, as not one of those in the troop remains
stationary, but as if bound by a thong follows the leader of the troop. It
is said also that the formation of the pearls in India requires periods of
time, the creature undergoing many changes and alterations until it is
perfected. And it is further reported that the shell--I mean, the shell of
the animal which bears the pearl-opens and gapes, as it were, and being
opened receives into itself the dew of heaven; when it is filled with dew
pure and untroubled, it becomes illumined and brings forth a large and
well-formed pearl; but if at any time it receives dew darkened, or uneven,
or in winter, it conceives a pearl cloudy and disfigured with spots. And
this we also find that if it be intercepted by lightning when it is on the
way towards the completion of the stone with which it is pregnant, it
closes, and, as it were in terror, scatters and pours forth its offspring,
so as to form what are called "physemata." And sometimes, as if premature,
they are born small, and are somewhat cloudy though well-formed. As
compared with the others the Indian pearl has these features. It is white
in colour, like to silver in transparency, and shines through as with a
radiance somewhat greenish yellow, and as a rule is round in form; it is
also of tender skin, and more delicate than it is the nature of a stone to
be; so it is delightful to behold, worthy to be celebrated among the more
notable, as he who wrote on the subject of stones used to say. And this is
also a mark of the best pearl, to be rounded off on the outer surface, very
white in colour, very translucent, and very large in size. So much about
the Indian pearl. But that found in Britain, they say, is of a golden
tinge, but somewhat cloudy, and duller in sparkle. And that which is formal
in the strait of Bosporus is darker than that of Britain, and livid, and
perfectly dim, soft and small. And that which is produced in the strait of
Bosporus is not found in the "pinna" which is the pearl-bearing species of
shells. but in what are called mussels; and their habitat--I mean those at
Bosporus--is in the marshes. There is also said to be a fourth class of
pearls in Acarnania in the "pinnae" of oysters. These are not greatly
sought after, but are irregular in form, and perfectly dark and foul in
colour; and there are others also different from these in the same
Acarnania which are cast away on every ground.

8. THE PARABLE INTERPRETED IS THE LIGHT OF THESE VIEWS.

   Now, having collected these things out of dissertations about stones, I
say that the Saviour with a knowledge of the difference of pearls, of which
some are in kind goodly and others worthless, said, "The kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls;"((1) for, if
some of the pearls had not been worthless, it would not have been said, "to
a man seeking goodly pearls." Now among the words of all kinds which
profess to announce truth, and among those who report them, he seeks
pearls. And let the prophets be, so to speak, the mussels which conceive
the dew of heaven, and become pregnant with the word of truth from heaven,
the goodly pearls which, according to the phrase here set forth, the
merchantman seeks. And the leader of the pearls, on the finding of which
the rest are found with it, is the very costly pearl, the Christ of God,
the Word which is superior to the precious letters and thoughts in the law
and the prophets, on the finding of which also all the rest are easily
taken. And the Saviour holds converse with all the disciples, as merchant-
men who are not only seeking the goodly pearls but who have found them and
possess them, when He says, "Cast not your pearls before swine."(1) Now it
is manifest that these things were said to the disciples from that which is
prefixed to His words, "And seeing the multitudes He went up into the
mountain, and when He had sat down His disciples came unto Him;"(2) for, in
the course of those words, He said, "Give not that which is holy unto the
dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine."(3) Perhaps, then, he is
not a disciple of Christ, who does not possess pearls or the very costly
pearl, the pearls, I mean, which are goodly; not the cloudy, nor the
darkened, such as the words of the heterodox, which are brought forth not
at the sunrise, but at the sunset or in the north, if it is necessary to
take also into the comparison those things on account of which we found a
difference in the pearls which are produced in different places. And
perhaps the muddy words and the heresies which are bound up with works of
the flesh, are the darkened pearls, and those which are produced in the
marshes, not goodly pearls.

9. CHRIST THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

   Now you will connect with the man seeking goodly pearls the saying,
"Seek and ye shall find,"(4) and this--"Every one that seeketh findeth."(5)
For what seek ye? Or what does every one that seeketh find? I venture to
answer, pearls and the pearl which he possesses, who has given up all
things, and counted them as loss; "for which," says Paul, "I have counted
all things but loss that I may win Christ;"(6) by "all things" meaning the
goodly pearls, "that I may win Christ," the one very precious pearl.
Precious, then, is a lamp to men in darkness, and there is need of a lamp
until the sun rise; and precious also is the glory in the face of Moses,
and of the prophets also, I think, and a beautiful sight, by which we are
introduced so as to be able to see the glory of Christ, to which the Father
bears witness, saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-
pleased."(1) But "that which hath been made glorious hath not been made
glorious in this respect by reason of the glory that surpasseth;"(2) and
there is need to us first of the glory which admits of being done. away,
for the sake of the glory which surpasseth; as there is need of the
knowledge which is in part, which will be done away when that which is
perfect comes.(3) Every soul, therefore, which comes to childhood, and is
on the way to full growth, until the fulness of time is at hand, needs a
tutor and stewards and guardians, in order that, after all these things, he
who formerly differed nothing from a bond-servant, though he is lord of
all,(4) may receive, when freed from a tutor and stewards and guardians,
the patrimony corresponding to the very costly pearl, and to that which is
perfect, which on its coming does away with that which is in part, when one
is able to receive "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,"(5) having
been previously exercised, so to speak, in those forms of knowledge which
are surpassed by the knowledge of Christ. But the multitude, not perceiving
the beauty of the many pearls of the law, and all the knowledge, "in part,"
though it be, of the prophets, suppose that they can, without a clear
exposition and apprehension of these, find in whole(6) the one precious
pearl, and behold "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ," in
comparison with which all things that came before such and so great
knowledge, although they were not refuse in their own nature, appear to be
refuse. This refuse is perhaps the "dung" thrown down beside the fig tree
by the keeper of the vineyard, which is the cause of its bearing fruit.(7)

10. THE PEARL OF THE GOSPEL IN RELATION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT.

   "To everything then is its season, and a time for everything under
heaven,"(8) a time to gather the goodly pearls, and a time after their
gathering to find the one precious pearl, when it is fitting for a mall to
go away and sell all that he has in order that he may buy that pearl. For
as every man who is going to be wise in the words of truth must first be
taught the rudiments, and further pass through the elementary instruction,
and appreciate it highly but not abide in it, as one who, having honoured
it at the beginning but passed over towards perfection, is grateful for the
introduction because it was useful at the first; so the perfect
apprehension of the law and the prophets is an elementary discipline for
the perfect apprehension of the Gospel, and all the meaning in the words
and deeds of Christ.

11. THE PARABLE OF THE DRAG-NET,

   "Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the
sea."(1) As in the case of images and statues, the likenesses are not
likenesses in every respect of those things in relation to which they are
made; but, for example, the image painted with wax on the plane surface of
wood has the likeness of the surface along with the colour, but does not
further preserve the hollows and prominences, but only their outward
appearance; and in the moulding of statues an endeavour is made to preserve
the likeness in respect of the hollows and the prominences, but not in
respect of the colour; and, if the cast be formed of wax, it endeavours to
preserve both, I mean both the colour and also the hollows and the
prominences, but is not indeed an image of the things in the respect of
depth; so conceive with me also that, in the case of the similitudes in the
Gospel, when the kingdom of heaven is likened unto anything, the comparison
does not extend to all the features of that to which the kingdom is
compared, but only to those features which are required by the argument in
hand. And here, accordingly, the kingdom of heaven is "like unto a net that
was cast into the sea," not (as supposed by some,(2) who represent that by
this word the different natures of those who have come into the net, to-
wit, the evil and the righteous, are treated of), as if it is to be thought
that, because of the phrase "which gathered of every kind," there are many
different natures of the righteous and likewise also of the evil; for to
such an interpretation all the Scriptures are opposed, which emphasise the
freedom of the will, and censure those who sin and approve those who do
right; or otherwise blame could not rightly attach to those of the kinds
that were such by nature, nor praise to those of a better kind. For the
reason why fishes are good or bad lies not in the souls of the fishes, but
is based on that which the Word said with knowledge, "Let the waters bring
forth creeping things with living souls,"(3) when, also. "God made great
sea-monsters and every soul of

creeping creatures which the waters brought forth according to their
kinds."(1) There, accordingly, "The waters brought forth every soul of
creeping animals according to their kinds," the cause not being in it; but
here we are responsible for our being good kinds and worthy of what are
called "vessels," or bad and worthy of being cast outside. For it is not
the nature in us which is the cause of the evil, but it is the voluntary
choice which worketh evil; and so our nature is not the cause of
righteousness, as if it were incapable of admitting unrighteousness, but it
is the principle which we have admitted that makes men righteous; for also
you never see the kinds of things in the water changing from the bad kinds
of fishes into the good, or from the better kind to the worse; but you can
always behold the righteous or evil among men either coming from wickedness
to virtue, or returning from progress towards virtue to the flood of
wickedness. Wherefore also in Ezekiel, concerning the man who turns away
from unrighteousness to the keeping of the divine commandments, it is thus
written: "But if the wicked man turn away from all his wickednesses which
he hath done," etc., down to the words, "that he turn from his wicked way
and live;"(2) but concerning the man who returns from the advance towards
virtue unto the flood of wickedness it is said, "But in the case of the
righteous man turning away from his righteousness and committing iniquity,"
etc., down to the words, "in his sins which he hath sinned in them shall he
die."(3) Let those who, from the parable of the drag-net, introduce the
doctrine of different natures, tell us in regard to the wicked man who
afterwards turned aside from all the wickednesses which he committed and
keeps all the commandments of God, and does that which is righteous and
merciful, of what nature was he when he was wicked? Clearly not of a nature
to be praised. If verily of a nature to be censured, of what kind of nature
can he reasonably be described, when he turns away from all his sins which
he did? For if he were of the bad class of natures, because of his former
deeds, how did he change to that which was better? Or if because of his
subsequent deeds you would say that he was of the good class, how being
good by nature did he become wicked? And you will also meet with a like
dilemma in regard to the righteous man turning away from his righteousness
and committing unrighteousness in all manner of sins. For before he turned
away from righteousness, being occupied with righteous deeds he was not of
a bad nature, for a bad nature could not be in righteousness, since a bad
tree--that is wickedness--cannot produce good fruits,--the fruits that
spring from virtue. Again, on the other hand, if he had been of a good and
unchangeable nature he would not have turned away from the good after being
called righteous, so as to commit unrighteousness in all his sins which he
committed.

12. THE DIVINE SCRIPTURES COMPARED TO A NET.

   Now, these things being said, we must hold that "the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every
kind,(1)" in order to set forth the varied character of the principles of
action among men, which are as different as possible from each other, so
that the expression "gathered from every kind" embraces both those worthy
of praise and those worthy of blame in respect of their proclivities
towards the forms of virtues or of vices. And the kingdom of heaven is
likened unto the variegated texture of a net, with reference to the Old and
the New Scripture which is woven of thoughts of all kinds and greatly
varied. As in the case of the fishes that fall into the net, some are found
in one part of the net and some in another part, and each at the part at
which it was caught, so in the case of those who have come into the net of
the Scriptures you would find some caught in the prophetic net; for
example, of Isaiah, according to this expression, or of Jeremiah or of
Daniel; and others in the net of the law, and others in the Gospel net, and
some in the apostolic net; for when one is first captured by the Word or
seems to be captured, he is taken from some part of the whole net. And it
is nothing strange if some of the fishes caught are encompassed by the
whole texture of the net in the Scriptures, and are pressed in on every
side and caught, so that they are unable to escape but are, as it were,
absolutely enslaved, and not permitted to escape from the net. And this net
has been cast into the sea--the wave--tossed life of men in every part of
the world, and which swims in the bitter affairs of life. And before our
Saviour Jesus Christ this net was not wholly filled; for the net of the law
and the prophets had to be completed by Him who says, "Think not that I
came to destroy the law and the prophets, I came not to destroy but to
fulfil."(1) And the texture of the net has been completed in the Gospels,
and in the words of Christ through the Apostles. On this account,
therefore, "the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the
sea and gathered of every kind." And, apart from what has been said, the
expression, "gathered from every kind," may show forth the calling of the
Gentiles from every race. And those who attended to the net which was cast
into the sea are Jesus Christ, the master of the net, and "the angels who
came and ministered unto Him,"(2) who do not draw up the net from the sea,
nor carry it to the shore beyond the sea,--namely, to things beyond this
life, unless the net be filled full, that is, unless the "fulness of the
Gentiles" has come into it. But when it has come, then they draw it up from
things here below, and carry it to what is figuratively called the shore,
where it will be the work of those who have drawn it up, both to sit by the
shore, and there to settle themselves, in order that they may place each of
the good in the net into its own order, according to what are here called
"vessels," but cast without and away those that are of an opposite
character and are called bad. By "without" is meant the furnace of fire as
the Saviour interpreted, saying, "So shall it be at the consummation of the
age. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the
righteous and shall cast them into the furnace of fire."(3) Only it must be
observed, that we are already taught by the parable of the tares and the
similitude set forth, that the angels are to be entrusted with the power to
distinguish and separate the evil from the righteous; for it is said above,
"The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of
His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and
shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and
gnashing of teeth."(4) But here it is said, "The angels shall come forth
and sever the wicked from among the righteous and shall cast them into the
furnace of fire."

13. RELATION OF MEN TO ANGELS.

   From this it does not follow, as some suppose, that the men who are
saved in Christ are superior even to the holy angels; for how can those who
are cast by the holy angels into vessels be compared with those who cast
them into vessels, seeing that they have been put under the authority of
the angels? While we say this, we are not ignorant that the men who will be
saved in Christ surpass some angels--namely, those who have not been
entrusted with this office--but not all of them. For we read, "Which things
angels desire to look into,"(1) where it is not said "all" angels. And we
know also this--"We shall judge angels"(2)where it is not said "all"
angels. Now since these things are written about the net and about those in
the net, we say that he who desires that, before the consummation of the
age, and before the coming of the angels to sever the wicked from among the
righteous, there should be no evil persons "of every kind" in the net,
seems not to have understood the Scripture, and to desire the impossible.
Wherefore let us not be surprised if, before the severing of the wicked
from among the righteous by the angels who are sent forth for this purpose,
we see our gatherings also filled with wicked persons. And would that those
who will be cast into the furnace of fire may not be greater in number than
the righteous! But since we said in the beginning, that the parables and
similitudes are not to be accepted in respect of all the things to which
they are likened or compared, but only in respect of some things, we must
further establish from the things to be said, that in the case of the
fishes, so far as their life is concerned, an evil thing happens to them
when they are found in the net. For they are deprived of the life which is
theirs by nature, and whether they are cast into vessels or cast away, they
suffer nothing more than the loss of the life as it is in fishes; but, in
the case of those to whom the parable refers, the evil thing is to be in
the sea and not to come into the net, in order to be cast along with the
good into vessels. And in like manner the bad fishes are cast without and
thrown away; hut the bad in the similitude before us are cast into "the
furnace of fire," that what is said in Ezekiel about the furnace of fire
may also overtake them--"And the Word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son
of man behold the house of Israel is become to me all mixed with brass and
iron," etc., down to the words, "And ye shall know that I the Lord have
poured My fury upon you.

14. THE DISCIPLES AS SCRIBES.

   "Have ye understood all these things? They say, Yea."(1) Christ Jesus,
who knows the things in the hearts of men,(2) as John also taught
concerning Him in the Gospel, puts the question not as one ignorant, but
having once for all taken upon Him the nature of man, He uses also all the
characteristics of a man of which "asking" is one. And there is nothing to
be wondered at in the Saviour doing this, since indeed the God of the
universe, bearing with the manners of men as a man beareth with the manners
of his son, makes inquiry, as--"Adam, where art thou?"(3) and, "Where is
Abel thy brother?"(4) But some one with a forced interpretation will say
here that the words "have understood" are not to be taken interrogatively
but affirmatively; and he will say that the disciples bearing testimony to
His affirmation, say, "Yea." Only, whether he is putting a question or
making an affirmation, it is necessarily said not "these things" only,--
which is demonstrative,--not "all things" only, but "all these things." And
here He seems to represent the disciples as having been scribes before the
kingdom of heaven;(5) but to this is opposed what is said in the Acts of
the Apostles thus, "Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John,
and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled,
and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus."(6) Some one
may inquire in regard to these things--if they were scribes, how are they
spoken of in the Acts as unlearned and ignorant men? Or if they were
unlearned and ignorant men, how are they very plainly called scribes by the
Saviour? And it might be answered to these inquiries that, as a matter of
fact, not all the disciples but only Peter and John are described in the
Acts as unlearned and ignorant, but that there were more disciples in
regard to whom, because they understood all things, it is said, "Every
scribe," etc. Or it might be said that every one who has been instructed in
the teaching according to the letter of the law is called a scribe, so that
those who were unlearned and ignorant and led captive by the letter of the
law are spoken of as scribes in a particular sense. And it is very
specially the characteristic of ignorant men, who are unskilled in
figurative interpretation and do not understand what is concerned with the
mystical(7) exposition of the Scriptures, but believe the bare letter, and,
vindicate it, that they call themselves scribes. And so one will interpret
the words, "Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,"(1) as having
been said to every one that knows nothing but the letter. Here you will
inquire if the scribe of the Gospel be as the scribe of the law, and if the
former deals with the Gospel, as the latter with the law, reading and
hearing and telling "those things which contain an allegory,"(2) so as,
while preserving the historic truth of the events, to understand the
unerring principle of mystic interpretation applied to things spiritual, so
that the things learned may not be "spiritual things whose characteristic
is wickedness,"(3) but may be entirely opposite to such, namely, spiritual
things whose characteristic is goodness. And one is a scribe "made a
disciple to the kingdom of heaven" in the simpler sense, when he comes from
Judaism and receives the teaching of Jesus Christ as defined by the Church;
but he is a scribe in a deeper sense, when having received elementary
knowledge through the letter of the Scriptures he ascends to things
spiritual, which are called the kingdom of the heavens. And according as
each thought is attained, and grasped abstractly(4) and proved by example
and absolute demonstration, can one understand the kingom of heaven, so
that he who abounds in knowledge free from error is in the kingdom of the
multitude of what are here represented as "heavens." So, too, you will
allegorise the word, "Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at
hand,"(5) as meaning that the scribes--that is, those who rest satisfied in
the bare letter--may repent of this method of interpretation and be
instructed in the spiritual teaching which is called the kingdom of the
heavens through Jesus Christ the living Word. Wherefore, also, so far as
Jesus Christ, "who was in the beginning with God, God the word,"(6) has not
His home in a soul, the kingdom of heaven is not in it, but when any one
becomes nigh to admission of the Word, to him the kingdom of heaven is
nigh. But if the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are the same
thing in reality,(7) if not in idea, manifestly to those to whom it is
said, "The kingdom of God is within you,"(8) to them also it might be said,
"The kingdom of heaven is within you;" and most of all because of the
repentance from the letter unto the spirit; since "When one turn to the
Lord, the veil over the letter is taken away. But the Lord is the
Spirit."(1) And he who is truly a householder is both free and rich; rich
because from the office of the scribe he has been made a disciple to the
kingdom of heaven, in every word of the Old Testament, and in all knowledge
concerning the new teaching of Christ Jesus, and has this riches laid up in
his own treasure-house--in heaven, in which he stores his treasure as one
who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven,--where neither moth
doth consume, nor thieves break through.(2) And in regard to him, who, as
we have said, lays up treasure in heaven, we may truly lay down that not
one moth of the passions can touch his spiritual and heavenly possessions.
"A moth of the passions," I said, taking the suggestion from the "Proverbs"
in which it is written, "a worm in wood, so pain woundeth the heart of
man."(3) For pain is a worm and a moth, which wounds the heart which has
not its treasures in heaven and spiritual things, for if a man has his
treasure in these--"for where the treasure is, there will the heart be
also,"(4)--he has his heart in heaven, and on account of it he says,
"Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear."(5) And
so neither can thieves in regard to whom the Saviour said, "All that came
before Me are thieves and robbers,"(6) break through those things which are
treasured up in heaven, and through the heart which is in heaven and
therefore says, "He raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ,"(7) and, "Our citizenship is in heaven."(8)

15 THE HOUSEHOLDER AND HIS TREASURY.

   Now since "every scribe who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of
heaven is like unto a man that is a householder who bringeth forth out of
his treasury things new and old,"(9) it clearly follows, by "conversion of
the proposition," as it is called, that every one who does not bring forth
out of his treasury things new and old, is not a scribe who has been made a
disciple unto the kingdom of heaven. We must endeavour, therefore, in every
way to gather in our heart, "by giving heed to reading, to exhortation, to
teaching,"(10) and by "meditating in the law of the Lord day and
night,"(11) not only the new oracles of the Gospels and of the Apostles and
their Revelation, but also the old things in the law "which has the shadow
of the good things to come,"(1) and in the prophets who prophesied in
accordance with them. And these things will be gathered together, when we
also read and know, and remembering them, compare at a fitting time things
spiritual with spiritual, not comparing things that cannot be compared with
one another, but things which admit of comparison, and which have a certain
likeness of diction signifying the same thing, and of thoughts and of
opinions, so that by the mouth of two or three or more witnesses(2) from
the Scripture, we may establish and confirm every word of God. By means of
them also we must refute those who, as far as in them lies, cleave in twain
the God head and cut off the New from the Old,(3) so that they are far
removed from likeness to the householder who brings forth out of his
treasury things new and old. And since he who is likened to any one is
different from the one to whom he is likened, the scribe "who is made a
disciple unto the kingdom of heaven" will be the one who is likened, but
different from him is the householder "who brings out of his treasury
things new and old." But he who is likened to him, as in imitation of him,
wishes to do that which is like. Perhaps, then, the man who is a
householder is Jesus Himself, who brings forth out of His treasury,
according to the time of the teaching, things new, things spiritual, which
also are always being renewed by Him in the "inner man" of the righteous,
who are themselves always being renewed day by day,(4) and old things,
things "written and engraven on stones,"(5) and in the stony hearts of the
old man, so that by comparison of the letter and by exhibition of the
spirit He may enrich the scribe who is made a disciple unto the kingdom of
heaven, and make him like unto Himself; until the disciple shall be as the
Master, imitating first the imitator of Christ, and after him Christ
Himself, according to that which is said by Paul, "Be ye imitators of me
even as I also of Christ."(6) And likewise, Jesus the householder may in
the simpler sense bring forth out of His treasury things new,--that is, the
evangelic teaching--and things old,--that is, the comparison of the sayings
which are taken from the law and the prophets, of which we may find
examples in the Gospels. And with regard to these things new and old, we
must attend also to the spiritual law which says in Leviticus, "And ye
shall eat old things, and the old things of the old, and ye shall bring
forth the old from before the new; and I will set my tabernacle among
you."(1) For we eat with blessing the old things,--the prophetic words,--
and the old things of the old things,--the words of the law; and, when the
new and evangelical words came, living according to the Gospel we bring
forth the old things of the letter from before the new, and He sets His
tabernacle in us, fulfilling the promise which He spoke, "I will dwell
among them and walk in them."(2)

16. PARABLES IN RELATION TO SIMILITUDES, JESUS IN HIS OWN COUNTRY

   "And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, He
departed thence. And coming into His own country."(3) Since we inquired
above whether the things spoken to the multitude were parables, and those
spoken to the disciples were similitudes, and set forth observations
bearing on this in my judgment not contemptible, you must know that the
sentence which is subjoined, "And it came to pass when Jesus had finished
these parables, He departed thence," will appear to be in opposition to all
these arguments, as applying not only to the parables, but also to the
similitudes as we have expounded. We inquire therefore whether all these
things are to be rejected, or whether we must speak of two kinds of
parables, those spoken to the multitudes, and those announced to the
disciples; or whether we are to think of the name of parable as equi-vocal;
or whether the saying, "And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these
parables," is to be referred only to the parables above, which come before
the similitudes. For, because of the saying, "To you it is given to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to the rest in parables,"(4) it
was not possible to say to the disciples, inasmuch as they were not of
those without, that the Saviour spoke to them in parables. And it follows
from this, that the saying, "And it came to pass when Jesus had finished
these parables, He departed thence," is to be referred to the parables
spoken above, or that the name parable is equivocal, or that there are two
kinds of parables, or that these which we have named similitudes were not
parables at all. And observe that it was outside of His own country He
speaks the parables "which, when He had finished, He departed thence; and
coming into His own country He taught them in their synagogue." And Mark
says, "And He came into His own country and His disciples follow Him."(1)
We must therefore inquire whether, by the expression, "His own country," is
meant Nazareth or Bethlehem,--Nazareth, because of the saying, "He shall be
called a Nazarene,"(2) or Bethlehem, since in it He was born. And further I
reflect whether the Evangelists could have said, "coming to Bethlehem," or,
"coming to Nazareth." They have not done so, but have named it "His
country," because of something being declared in a mystic sense in the
passage about His country,--namely, the whole of Judaea,--in which He was
dishonoured according to the saying, "A prophet is not without honour, save
in his own country."(3) And if anyone thinks of Jesus Christ, "a stumbling-
block to the Jews,"(4) among whom He is persecuted even until now, but
proclaimed among the Gentiles and believed in,--for His word has run over
the whole world,--he will see that in His own country Jesus had no honour,
hut that among those who were "strangers from the covenants,"(5) the
Gentiles, He is held in honour. But what things He taught and spake in
their synagogue the Evangelists have not recorded, but only that they were
so great and of such a nature that all were astonished. And probably the
things spoken were too high to be written down. Only be it noted, He taught
in their synagogue, not separating from it, nor disregarding it.

17. THE BRETHREN OF JESUS.

   And the saying, "Whence hath this man this wisdom,"(6) indicates
clearly that there was a great and surpassing wisdom in the words of Jesus
worthy of the saying, lo, a greater than Solomon is here."(7) And He was
wont to do greater miracles than those wrought through Elijah and Elisha,
and at a still earlier date through Moses and Joshua the son of Nun. And
they spoke, wondering, (not knowing that He was the son of a virgin, or not
believing it even if it was told to them, but supposing that He was the son
of Joseph the carpenter,) "is not this the carpenter's son?"(8) And
depreciating the whole of what appeared to be His nearest kindred, they
said, "Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James and Joseph
and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?"(9) They
thought, then, that He was the son of Joseph and Mary. But some say, basing
it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter,(1) as it is entitled,
or "The Book of James,"(2) that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph
by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to
preserve the honour of Mary in virginity to the end, so that that body of
hers which was appointed to minister to the Word which said, "The Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow
thee,"(3) might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Ghost
came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it
in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the
purity which consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it were not
pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity. And
James is he whom Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians that he saw,
"But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother."(4)
And to so great a reputation among the people for righteousness did this
James rise, that Flavius Josephus, who wrote the "Antiquities of the Jews"
in twenty books, when wishing to exhibit the cause why the people suffered
so great misfortunes that even the temple was razed to the ground, said,
that these things happened to them in accordance with the wrath of God in
consequence of the things which they had dared to do against James the
brother of Jesus who is called Christ.(5) And the wonderful thing is, that,
though he did not accept Jesus as Christ, he yet gave testimony that the
righteousness of James was so great; and he says that the people thought
that they had suffered these things because of James. And Jude, who wrote a
letter of few lines, it is true, but filled with the healthful words of
heavenly grace, said in the preface, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and
the brother of James."(6) With regard to Joseph and Simon we have nothing
to tell; but the saying, "And His sisters are they not all with us."(7)
seems to me to signify something of this nature--they mind our things, not
those of Jesus, and have no unusual portion of surpassing wisdom as Jesus
has. And perhaps by these things is indicated a new doubt concerning Him,
that Jesus was not a man but something diviner, inasmuch as He was, as they
supposed, the son of Joseph and Mary, and the brother of four, and of the
others--the women--as well, and yet had nothing like to any one of His
kindred, and had not from education and teaching come to such a height of
wisdom and power. For they also say elsewhere, "How knoweth this man
letters having never learned?"(1) which is similar to what is here said.
Only, though they say these things and are so perplexed and astonished,
they did not believe, but were offended in Him; as if they had been
mastered in the eyes of their mind by the powers which, in the time of the
passion, He was about to lead in triumph on the cross.

18. PROPHETS IN THEIR COUNTRY.

   "But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his
own country."(2) We must inquire whether the expression has the same force
when applied universally to every prophet (as if each one of the prophets
was dishonoured in his own country only, but not as if every one who was
dishonoured was dishonoured in his country); or, because of the expression
being singular, these things were said about one. If, then, these words are
spoken about one, these things which have been said suffice, if we refer
that which is written to the Saviour. But if it is general, it is not
historically true; for Elijah did not suffer dishonour in Tishbeth of
Gilead, nor Elisha in Abetmeholah, nor Samuel in Ramathaim, nor Jeremiah in
Anathoth. But, figuratively interpreted, it is absolutely true; for we must
think of Judaea as their country, and that famous Israel as their kindred,
and perhaps of the body as the house. For all suffered dishonour in Judaea
from the Israel which is according to the flesh, while they were yet in the
body, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, as having been spoken
in censure to the people, "Which of the prophets did not your fathers
persecute, who showed before of the coming of the Righteous one?"(3) And by
Paul in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians like things are said: "For
ye brethren became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judaea in
Christ Jesus, for ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen
even as they did of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the
prophets, and drave out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all
men."(4) A prophet, then, is not without honour among the Gentiles; for
either they do not know him at all, or, having learned and received him as
a prophet, they honour him. And such are those who are of the Church.
Prophets suffer dishonour, first, when they are persecuted, according to
historical fact, by the people, and, secondly, when their prophecy is not
believed by the people. For if they had believed Moses and the prophets
they would have believed Christ, who showed that when men believed Moses
and the prophets, belief in Christ logically followed, and that when men
did not believe Christ they did not believe Moses.(1) Moreover, as by the
transgression of the law he who sins is said to dishonour God, so by not
believing in that which is prophesied the prophet is dishonoured by the man
who disbelieves the prophecies. And so far as the literal truth is
concerned, it is useful to recount what things Jeremiah suffered among the
people in relation to which he said, "And I said, I will not speak, nor
will I call upon the name of the Lord."(2) And again, elsewhere, "I was
continually being mocked."(3) And how great sufferings he endured from the
then king of Israel are written in his prophecy. And it is also written
that some of the people often came to stone Moses to death; for his
fatherland was not the stones of any place, but the people who followed
him, among whom also he was dishonoured. And Isaiah is reported to have
been sawn asunder by the people; and if any one does not accept the
statement because of its being found in the Apocryphal Isaiah,(4) let him
believe what is written thus in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "They were
stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted;"(5) for the expression,
"They were sawn asunder," refers to Isaiah, just as the words, "They were
slain with the sword," refer to Zacharias, who was slain "between the
sanctuary and the altar,"(6) as the Saviour taught, bearing testimony, as I
think, to a Scripture, though not extant in the common and widely
circulated books, but perhaps in apocryphal books. And they, too, were
dishonoured in their own country among the Jews who went about "in sheep-
skins, in goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted," and so on;(7) "For all
that will to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."(8) And
probably because Paul knew this, "That a prophet has no honour in his own
country," though he preached the Word in many places he did not preach it
in Tarsus. And the Apostles on this account left Israel and did that which
had been enjoined on them by the Saviour, "Make disciples of all the
nations,"(1) and, "Ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and ill all
Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."(2) For they
did that which had been commanded them in Judaea and Jerusalem; but, since
a prophet has no honour in his own country, when the Jews did not receive
the Word, they went away to the Gentiles. Consider, too, if, because of the
fact that the saying, "I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh, and
they shall prophesy,"(3) has been fulfilled in the churches from the
Gentiles, you can say that those formerly of the world and who by believing
became no longer of the world, having received the Holy Spirit in their own
country--that is, the world--and prophesying, have not honour, but are
dishonoured. Wherefore blessed are they who suffer the same things as the
prophets, according to what was said by the Saviour, "For in the same
manner did their fathers unto the prophets."(4) Now if any one who attends
carefully to these things be hated and attacked, because of his living with
rigorous austerity, and his reproof of sinners, as a man who is persecuted
and reproached for the sake of righteousness, he will not only not be
grieved, but will rejoice and be exceeding glad, being assured that,
because of these things, he has great reward in heaven from Him who likened
him to the prophets on the ground of his having suffered the same things.
Therefore, he who zealously imitates the prophetic life, and attains to the
spirit which was in them, must be dishonoured in the world, and in the eyes
of sinners, to whom the life of the righteous man is a burden.

19. RELATION OF FAITH AND UNBELIEF TO THE SUPERNATURAL POWERS OF JESUS.

   Following this you may see, "He did not there many mighty works because
of their unbelief."(5) We are taught by these things that powers were found
in those who believed, since "to every one that hath shall be given and he
shall have abundance,"(6) but among unbelievers not only did the powers not
work, but as Mark wrote, "They could not work."(7) For attend to the words,
"He could not there do any mighty works," for it is not said, "He would
not," but "He could not;" as if there came to the power when working co-
operation from the faith of him on whom the power was working, but this co-
operation was hindered in its exercise by unbelief. See, then, that to
those who said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said, "Because of your
little faith."(1) And to Peter, when he began to sink, it was said, "O thou
of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"(2) But, moreover, she who had
the issue of blood, who did not ask for the cure, but only reasoned that if
she were to touch the hem of His garment she would be healed, was healed on
the spot. And the Saviour, acknowledging the method of healing, says, "Who
touched Me? For I perceived that power went forth from Me."(3) And perhaps,
as in the case of material things there exists in some things a natural
attraction towards some other thing, as in the magnet for iron, and in what
is called naphtha for fire, so there is an attraction in such faith towards
the divine power, according to what is said, "If ye have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder
place, and it shall remove."(4) And Matthew and Mark, wishing to set forth
the excellency of the divine power, that it has power even in unbelief, but
not so great power as it has in the faith of those who are being benefited,
seem to me to have said with accuracy, not that He did not "any" mighty
works because of their unbelief, but that He did not "many" there.(5) And
Mark also does not say, that He could not do any mighty work there, and
stop at that point, but added, "Save that He laid His hands upon a few sick
folk and healed them,"(6) the power in Him thus overcoming the unbelief.
Now it seems to me that, as in the case of material things, tillage is not
sufficient in itself for the gathering in of the fruits, unless the air
cooperates to this end, nay, rather, He who forms the air with whatever
quality He wills and makes it whatever He wills; nor the air apart from
tillage, but rather He who by His providence has enacted that the things
which spring up from the earth could not spring up apart from tillage; for
this He has done once for all in the law, "Let the earth put forth grass
sowing seed after its kind and after its likeness;"(1) so also neither do
the operations of the powers, apart from the faith of those who are being
healed, exhibit the absolute work of healing, nor faith, however great it
may be, apart from the divine power. And that which is written about
wisdom, you may apply also to faith, and to the virtues specifically, so as
to make a precept of this kind, "If any one be perfect in wisdom among the
sons of men, and the power that comes from Thee be wanting, he will be
reckoned as nothing;"(2) or, "If any one be perfect in self-control, so far
as is possible for the sons of men, and the control that is from Thee be
wanting, he will be reckoned as nothing;" or, "If any one be perfect in
righteousness, and in the rest of virtues, and the righteousness and the
rest of the virtues that are from Thee be wanting to him, he will be
reckoned as nothing." Wherefore, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
nor the strong man in his strength,"(3) for that which is fit matter for
glorying is not ours, but is the gift of God; the wisdom is from Him, and
the strength is from Him; and so with the rest.

20. DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

   "At that season Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus
and said unto his own servants, This is John the Baptist."(4) In Mark(5) it
is the same, and also in Luke.(6) The Jews had different opinions, some
false, such as the Sadducees held about the resurrection of the dead, that
they do not rise, and in regard to angels that they do not exist, but that
those things which were written about them were only to be interpreted
figuratively, but had no reality in point of fact; and some true opinions,
such as were taught by the Pharisees about the resurrection of the dead
that they rise. We must therefore here inquire, whether the opinion
regarding the soul, mistakenly held by Herod and some from among the
people, was somewhat like this--that John, who a little before had been
slain by him, had risen from the dead after he had been beheaded, and was
the same person under a different name, and being now called Jesus was
possessed of the same powers which formerly wrought in John. For what
credibility is there in the idea that One, who was so widely known to the
whole people, and whose name was noised abroad in the whole of Judaea, whom
they declared to be the son of the carpenter and Mary, and to have such and
such for brothers and sisters, was thought to be not different from(1) John
whose father was Zacharias, and whose mother was Elisabeth, who were
themselves not undistinguished among the people? But it is probable that
the fact of his being the Son of Zacharias was not unknown to the people,
who thought with regard to John that he was truly a prophet, and were so
numerous that the Pharisees, in order to avoid the appearance of saying
that which was displeasing to the people, were afraid to answer the
question, "Was his baptism from heaven or from men?"(2) And perhaps, also,
to some of them had come the knowledge of the incident of the vision which
was seen in the temple, when Gabriel appeared to Zacharias. What
credibility, forsooth, has the erroneous opinion, whether of Herod or of
some of the people, that John and Jesus were not two persons, but that it
was one and the same person John who rose from the dead after that he had
been beheaded and was called Jesus? some one might say, however, that Herod
and some of those of the people held the false dogma of the transmigration
of souls into bodies, in consequence of which they thought that the former
John had appeared again by a fresh birth, and had come from the dead into
life as Jesus. But the time between the birth of John and the birth of
Jesus, which was not more than six months, does not permit this false
opinion to be considered credible. And perhaps rather some such idea as
this was in the mind of Herod, that the powers which wrought in John had
passed over to Jesus, in consequence of which He was thought by the people
to be John the Baptist. And one might use the following line of argument.
Just as because of the spirit and the power of Elijah, and not because of
his soul, it is said about John, "This is Elijah which is to come,"(3) the
spirit in Elijah and the power in him having gone over to John--so Herod
thought that the powers in John wrought in his case works of baptism and
teaching,--for John did not one miracle,(4) but in Jesus miraculous
portents. It may be said that something of this kind was the thought of
those who said that Elijah had appeared in Jesus, or that one of the old
prophets had risen.(5) But the opinion of those who said that Jesus was "a
prophet even as one of the prophets,"(6) has no bearing on the question.
False, then, is the saying concerning Jesus, whether that recorded to have
been the view of Herod, or that spoken by others. Only, the saying, "That
John went before in the spirit and power of Elijah,"(1) which corresponds
to the thoughts which they were now cherishing concerning John and Jesus,
seems to me more credible. But since we learned, in the first place, that
when the Saviour after the temptation heard that John was given up, He
retreated into Galilee, and in the second place, that when John was in
prison and heard the things about Jesus he sent two of his disciples and
said to Him, "Art thou He that cometh, or look we for another?"(2) and in
the third place, generally that Herod said about Jesus, "It is John the
Baptist, he is risen from the dead,"(3) but we have not previously learned
from any quarter the manner in which the Baptist was killed, therefore
Matthew has now recorded it, and Mark almost like unto him; but Luke passed
over in silence the greater part of the narrative as it is found in
them."(4)

21. HEROD AND THE BAPTIST.

   The narrative of Matthew is as follows,--"for Herod had laid hold on
John and bound him in the prison."(5) In reference to these things, it
seems to me, that as the law and the prophets were until John,(6) after
whom the grace of prophecy ceased from among the Jews; so the authority of
those who had rule among the people, which included the power to kill those
whom they thought worthy of death, existed until John; and when the last of
the prophets was unlawfully killed by Herod, the king of the Jews was
deprived of the power of putting to death; for, if Herod had not been
deprived of it, Pilate would not have condemned Jesus to death; but for
this Herod would have sufficed along with the council of the chief priests
and elders of the people, met for the purpose. And then I think was
fulfilled that which was spoken as follows by Jacob to Judah: "A ruler
shall not depart from Judah, nor a leader from Israel, until that come
which is laid up in store, and he is the expectation of the Gentiles."(7)
And perhaps also the Jews were deprived of this power, the Providence of
God arranging for the spread of the teaching of Christ among the people, so
that even if this were hindered by the Jews, the opposition might not go so
far as the slaying of believers, which seemed to be according to law. "But
Herod laid hold on John and bound him in prison and put him away,"(1) by
this act signifying that, so far as it depended on his power and on the
wickedness of the people, he bound and imprisoned the prophetic word, and
prevented him from continuing to abide a herald the truth in freedom as
formerly. But this Herod did for the sake of Herodias, the wife of his
brother Philip. For John said unto him, "It is not lawful for thee to have
her."(2) Now this Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and of
Trachonitis. Some, then, suppose that, when Philip died leaving a daughter,
Herodias, Herod married his brother's wife, though the law permitted
marriage only when there were no children. But, as we find nowhere clear
evidence that Philip was dead, we conclude that a yet greater transgression
was done by Herod, namely, that he had induced his brother's wife to revolt
from her husband while he was still living.

22. THE DANCING OF HERODIAS. THE KEEPING OF OATHS.

   Wherefore John, endued with prophetic boldness and not terrified at the
royal dignity of Herod, nor through fear of death keeping silence in regard
to so flagrant a sin, filled with a divine spirit said to Herod, "It is not
lawful for thee to have her; for it is not lawful for thee to have the wife
of thy brother." For Herod having laid hold on John bound him and put him
in prison, not daring to slay him outright and to take away the prophetic
word from tile people; but the wife of the king of Trachonitis--which is a
kind of evil opinion and wicked teaching--gave birth to a daughter of the
same name, whose movements, seemingly harmonious, pleasing Herod, who was
fond of matters connected with birthdays, came the cause of there being no
longer a prophetic head among the people. And up to this point I think that
the movements of the people of the Jews, which seem to be according to the
law, were nothing else than the movements of the daughter of Herodias

but the dancing of Herodias was opposed to that holy dancing with which
those who have not danced will be reproached when they hear the words. "We
piped unto you, and ye did not dance."(3) And on birthdays. when the
lawless word reigns over them, they dance so that their movements please
that word. Some one of those before us has observed what is written in
Genesis about the birthday of Pharaoh, and has told that the worthless man
who loves things connected with birth keeps birthday festivals; and we,
taking this suggestion from him, find in no Scripture that a birthday was
kept by a righteous man. For Herod was more unjust than that famous
Pharaoh; for by the latter on his birthday feast a chief baker is
killed;(1) but by the former, John, "than whom no one greater hath risen
among those born of women,"(2) in regard to whom the Saviour says, "But for
what purpose did ye go out? To see a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more
than a prophet."(3) But thanks be unto God, that, even if the grace of
prophecy was taken from the people, a grace greater than all that was
poured forth among the Gentiles by our Saviour Jesus Christ, who became
"free among the dead;"(4) for "though He were crucified through weakness,
yet He liveth through the power of God."(5) Consider also the word in which
pure and impure meats are inquired into; but prophecy is despised when it
is brought forward in a charger instead of meat. But the Jews have not the
head of prophecy, inasmuch as they disown the crown of all prophecy, Christ
Jesus; and the prophet is beheaded, because of an oath in a case where the
duty was rather to break the oath than to keep the oath; for the charge of
rashness in taking an oath and of breaking it because of the rashness is
not the same in guilt as the death of a prophet. And not on this account
alone is he beheaded, but because "of those who sat at meat with him," who
preferred that the prophet should be killed rather than live. And they
recline at the same table and also feast along with the evil word which
reigns over the Jews, who make merry over his birth. At times you may make
a graceful application of the passage to those who swear rashly and wish to
hold fast oaths which are taken with a view to unlawful deeds, by saying
that not every keeping of oaths is seemly, just as the keeping of the oath
of Herod was not. And mark, further, that not openly but secretly and in
prison does Herod put John to death. For even the present word of the Jews
does not openly deny the prophecies, but virtually and in secret denies
them, and is convicted of disbelieving them. For as "if they believed Moses
they would have believed Jesus,"(6) so if they had believed the prophets
they would have received Him who had been the subject of prophecy. But
disbelieving Him they also disbelieve them, and cut off and confine in
prison the prophetic word, and hold it dead and divided, and in no way
wholesome, since they do not understand it. But we have the whole Jesus,
the prophecy concerning Him being fulfilled which said, "A bone shall not
be broken."(1)

23. THE WITHDRAWAL OF JESUS.

   And the disciples of John having come bury his remains, and "they went
and told Jesus."(2) And He withdrew to a desert place,--that is, the
Gentiles--and after the killing of the prophet multitudes followed Him from
the cities everywhere; seeing which to be great He had compassion on them,
and healed their sick; and afterwards with the loaves which were blessed
and multiplied from a few loaves He feeds those who followed Him. "Now when
Jesus heard it He withdrew thence in a boat to a desert place apart."(3)
The letter teaches us to withdraw as far as it is in our power from those
who persecute us, and from expected conspiracies through words; for this
would be to act according to prudence; and, when one can keep outside of
critical positions, to go to meet them is rash and headstrong. For who
would still hesitate about avoiding such things, when not only did Jesus
retreat in view of what happened to John, but also taught and said, "If
they persecute you in this city, flee ye into the other"?(4) When a
temptation comes which is not in our power to avoid, we must endure it with
exceeding nobleness and courage; but, when it is in our power to avoid it,
not to do so is rash. But since after the letter we must also investigate
the place according to the mystical meaning, we must say that, when
prophecy was plotted against among the Jews and destroyed, because of their
giving honour to matters of birthdays, and in respect of their reception of
vain movements which, though conceived by the ruler of the wicked and those
who feast along with him to be regular and pleasing to them, were irregular
and out of tune, if truth be umpire, then Jesus withdraws from the place in
which prophecy was attacked and condemned; and He withdraws to the place
which had been barren of God among the Gentiles, in order that the Word of
God, when the kingdom was taken from the Jews and "given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof,"(5) might be among the Gentiles; and, on
account of it, "the children of the desolate one," who had not been
instructed either in the law or the prophets, "might be more than of her
who has the husband,"(1) that is, the law. When, then, the word was of old
among the Jews, it was not so among them as it is among the Gentiles;
wherefore it is said that, "in a boat,"--that is, in the body--He went to
the desert place apart, when He heard about the killing of the prophet.
And, having come into the desert place apart, He was in it, because that
the Word dwelt apart, and His teaching was contrary to the customs and
usages which obtained among the Gentiles. And the crowds among the
Gentiles, when they heard that Jesus had come to stay in their desert, and
that He was apart, as we have already reported, followed Him from their own
cities, because each had left the superstitious customs of his fathers and
come to the law of Christ. And by land they followed Him, and not in a
boat, inasmuch as not with the body but with the soul only, and with the
resolution to which they had been persuaded by the Word, they followed the
Image of God. And to them Jesus comes out, as they were not able to go to
Him, in order that, having gone to those who were without, He might lead
within those who were without. And great is the crowd without to whom the
Word of God goes out, and, having poured out upon it the light of His
"visitation," beholds it; and, seeing that they were rather deserving of
being pitied, because they were in such circumstances, as a lover of men He
who was impassible suffered the emotion of pity, and not only had pity but
healed their sick, who had sicknesses diverse and of every kind arising
from their wickedness.

24. THE DIVERSE FORMS OF SPIRITUAL SICKNESS.

   And, if you wish to see of what nature are the sicknesses of the soul,
contemplate with me the lovers of money, and the lovers of ambition, and
the lovers of boys, and if any be fond of women; for these also beholding
among the crowds and taking compassion upon them, He healed. For not every
sin is to be considered a sickness, but that which has settled down in the
whole soul. For so you may see the lovers of money wholly intent on money
and upon preserving and gathering it, the lovers of ambition wholly intent
on a little glory, for they gape for praise from the masses and the vulgar;
and analogously you will understand in the case of the rest which we have
named, and if there be any other like to them. Since, then, when expounding
the words, "He healed their sick,"(1) we said that not every sin is a
sickness, it is fitting tO discuss from the Scripture the difference of
these. The Apostle indeed says, writing to the Corinthians who had diverse
sicknesses, "For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a
few sleep."(2) Hear Him in these words, knitting a band and making it
plaited of different sins, according as some are weak, and others sickly
more than weak, and others, in comparison with both, are asleep. For some,
because of impotence of soul, having a tendency to slip into any sin
whatever, although they may not be wholly in the grasp of any form of sin,
as the sickly are, are only weak; but others who, instead of loving God
"with all their soul and all their heart and all their mind," love money,
or a little glory, or wife, or children, are suffering from something worse
than weakness, and are sickly. And those who sleep are those who, when they
ought to be taking heed and watching with the soul, are not doing this, but
by reason of great want of attention are nodding in resolution and are
drowsy in their reflections, such as "in their dreamings defile the flesh,
and set at naught that which is highest in authority, and rail at
dignities."(3) And these, because they are asleep, live in an atmosphere of
vain and dream-like fancies concerning realities, not admitting the things
which are actually true, but deceived by what appears in their vain
imaginations, in regard to whom it is said in Isaiah, "Like as when a
thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but when he has risen up is still
thirsty, and his soul has cherished a vain hope, so shall be the wealth of
all the nations as many as have warred in Jerusalem."(4) If, then, we have
seemed to make a digression in recounting the difference between the weak
and the sickly and those that sleep, because of that which the Apostle said
in the letter to the Corinthians which we have expounded, we have made the
digression in our desire to represent what is meant to be understood by the
saying, "And He healed their sick."(5)

25. HEALING PRECEDES PARTICIPATION IN THE LOAVES OF JESUS.

   After this the word says, "And when even was come, His disciples came
to Him, saying, The place is desert and the time is already past; send,
therefore, the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy
themselves food."(1) And first observe that when about to give to the
disciples the loaves of blessing, that they might set them before the
multitudes, He healed the sick, in order that, having been restored to
health, they might participate in the loaves of blessing; for while they
are yet sickly, they are not able to receive the loaves of the blessing of
Jesus. But if any one, when he ought to listen to the precept, "But let
each prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread," etc.,(1) does not
obey these words, but in haphazard fashion participates in the bread of the
Lord and His cup, he becomes weak or sickly, or even--if I may use the
expression--on account of being stupefied by the power of the bread,
asleep.

BOOK XI.

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND.

   And when even was come His disciples came to Him,"(2) that is, at the
consummation of the age in regard to which we may fitly say what is found
in the Epistle of John, "It is the last hour."(3) They, not yet
understanding what the Word was about to do, say to Him, "The place is
desert,"(4) seeing the desert condition of the masses in respect of God and
the Law and the Word; but they say to Him, "The time is past,"(5) as if the
fitting season of the law and prophets had  passed. Perhaps they spoke this
saying, in reference to the word of Jesus, that because of the beheading of
John both the law and the prophets who were until John had ceased.(6) "The
time is past," therefore they say, and no food is at hand, because the
season of it is no longer present, that those who have followed Thee in the
desert may serve the law and the prophets. And, further, the disciples say,
"Send them away,"(7) that each one may buy food, if he cannot from the
cities, at least from the villages,--places more ignoble. Such things the
disciples said, because, after the letter of the law had been abrogated and
prophecies had ceased, they despaired of unexpected and new food being
found for the multitudes. But see what Jesus answers to the disciples
though He does not cry out and plainly say it: "You suppose that, if the
great multitude go away from Me in need of food, they will find it in
villages rather than with Me, and among bodies of men, not of citizens but
of villagers, rather than by abiding with Me. But I declare unto you, that
in regard to that of which you suppose they are in need they are not in
need, for they have no need to go away; but in regard to that of which you
think they have no need--that is, of Me--as if I could not feed them, of
this contrary to your expectation they have need. Since, then, I have
trained you, and made you fit to give rational food to them who are in need
of it, give ye to the crowds who have followed Me to eat; for ye have the
power, which ye have received from Me, of giving the multitudes to eat; and
if ye had attended to this, ye would have understood that I am far more
able to feed them, and ye would not have said, 'Send the multitudes away
that they may go and buy food for themselves.'"(2)

2. EXPOSITION OF THE DETAILS OF THE MIRACLE.

   Jesus, then, because of the power which He gave to the disciples, even
the power of nourishing others, said, Give ye them to eat.(3) But (not
denying that they can give loaves, but thinking that there were much too
few and not sufficient to feed those who followed Jesus, and not
considering that when Jesus takes each loaf--the Word--He extends it as far
as He wills, and makes it suffice for all whomsoever He desires to
nourish), the disciples say, We have here but five loaves and two
fishes.(4) Perhaps by the five loaves they meant to make a veiled reference
to the sensible words of the Scriptures, corresponding in number on this
account to the five senses, but by the two fishes either to the word
expressed(5) and the word conceived,(6) which are a relish, so to speak, to
the sensible things contained in the Scriptures; or, perhaps, to the word
which had come to them about the Father and the Son. Wherefore also after
His resurrection He ate of a broiled fish,(1) having taken a part from the
disciples, and having received that theology about the Father which they
were in part able to declare to Him. Such is the contribution we have been
able to give to the exposition of the word about the five loaves and the
two fishes; and probably those, who are better able than we to gather
together the five loaves and the two fishes among themselves, would be able
to give a fuller and better interpretation of their meaning. It must be
observed, however, that while in Matthew, Mark, and Luke,(2) the disciples
say that they have the five loaves and the two fishes, without indicating
whether they were wheaten or of barley, John alone says, that the loaves
were barley loaves.(3) Wherefore, perhaps, in the Gospel of John the
disciples do not acknowledge that the loaves are with them, but say in
John, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fishes."(4)
And so long as these five loaves and two fishes were not carried by the
disciples of Jesus, they did not increase or multiply, nor were they able
to nourish more; but, when the Saviour took them, and in the first placed
looked up to heaven, with the rays of His eyes, as it were, drawing down
from it power which was to be mingled with the loaves and the fishes which
were about to feed the five thousand; and after this blessed the five
loaves and the two fishes, increasing and multiplying them by the word and
the blessing; and in the third place dividing and breaking He gave to the
disciples that they might set them before the multitudes, then the loaves
and the fishes were sufficient, so that all ate and were satisfied, and
some portions of the loaves which had been blessed they were unable to eat.
For so much remained over to the multitudes, which was not according to the
capacity of the multitudes but of the disciples who were able to take up
that which remained over of the broken pieces, and to place it in baskets
filled with that which remained over, which were in number so many as the
tribes of Israel. Concerning Joseph, then, it is written in the Psalms,
"His hands served in the basket,"(5) but about the disciples of Jesus that
they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces twelve baskets,
twelve baskets, I take it, not half-full but filled. And there are, I
think, up to the present time, and will be until the consummation of the
age with the disciples of Jesus, who are superior to the multitudes, the
twelve baskets, filled with the broken pieces of living bread which the
multitudes cannot eat. Now those who ate of the five loaves which existed
before the twelve baskets that remained over, were kindred in nature to the
number five; for those who ate had reached the stage of sensible things,
since also they were nourished by Him who looked up to heaven and blessed
and brake them, and were not boys nor women, but men. For there are, I
think, even in sensible foods differences, so that some of them belong to
those who "have put away childish things,"(1) and some to those who are
still babes and carnal in Christ.

3. THE EXPOSITION OF DETAILS CONTINUED. THE SITTING DOWN ON THE GRASS. THE
DIVISION INTO COMPANIES.

   We have spoken these things because of the words, "They that did eat
were five thousand men, beside children and women,"(2) which is an
ambiguous expression; for either those who ate were five thousand men, and
among those who ate there was no child or woman; or the men only were five
thousand, the children and the women not being reckoned. Some, then, as we
have said by anticipation, have so understood the passage that neither
children nor women were present, when the increase and multiplication of
the five loaves and the two fishes took place. Bat some one might say that,
while many ate and according to their desert and capacity participated in
the loaves of blessing, some worthy to be numbered, corresponding to the
men of twenty years old who are numbered in the Book of Numbers,(3) were
Israelitish men, but others who were not worthy of such account and
numbering were children and women. Moreover, interpret with me
allegorically the children in accordance with the passage, "I could not
speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in
Christ;"(4) and the women in accordance with the saying, "I wish to present
you all as a pure virgin to Christ;"(5) and the men according to the
saying, "When I am become a man I have put away childish things."(6) Let us
not pass by without exposition the words, "He commanded the multitudes to
sit down on the grass, and He look the five loaves and the two fishes, and
looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to the
disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. And they did all eat."(1)
For what is meant by the words, "And He commanded all the multitudes to sit
down on the grass?" And what are we to understand in the passage worthy of
the command of Jesus? Now, I think that He commanded the multitudes to sit
down on the grass because of what is said in Isaiah, "All flesh is
grass;"(2) that is to say, He commanded them to put the flesh under, and to
keep in subjection "the mind of the flesh,"(3) that so any one might be
able to partake of the loaves which Jesus blesses. Then since there are
different orders of those who need the food which Jesus supplies and all
are not nourished by equal words, on this account I think that Mark has
written, "And He commanded them that they should all sit down by companies
upon the green grass; and they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by
fifties;"(4) but Luke, "And He said unto His disciples, Make them sit down
in companies about fifty each."(5) For it was necessary that those who were
to find rest in the food of Jesus should either be in the order of the
hundred--the sacred number--which is consecrated to God, because of the
unit, (in it) or in the order of the fifty--the number which embraces the
remission of sins, in accordance with the mystery of the Jubilee which took
place every fifty years, and of the feast at Pentecost. And I think that
the twelve baskets were in the possession of the disciples to whom it was
said "Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel."(6) And as the throne of him who judges the tribe of Reuben might
be said to be a mystery, and the throne of him who judges the tribe of
Simeon, and another of him who judges the tribe of Judah, and so on with
the others; so there might be a basket of the food of Reuben, and another
of Simeon, and another of Levi. But it is not in accordance with our
present discourse now to digress so far from the subject in hand as to
collect what is said about the twelve tribes, and separately what is said
about each of them, and to say what each tribe of Israel may signify.

4. THE MULTITUDES AND THE DISCIPLES CONTRASTED.

   "And straightway He constrained the disciples to enter into the boat,
and to go before Him unto the other side, till He should send the
multitudes away."(1) It should be observed how often in the same passages
is mentioned the word, "the multitudes," and another word, "the disciples,"
so that by observing and bringing together the passages about this matter
it may be seen that the aim of the Evangelists was to represent by means of
the Gospel history the differences of those who come to Jesus; of whom some
are the multitudes and are not called disciples, and others are the
disciples who are better than the multitudes. It is sufficient, however,
for the present, for us to set forth a few sayings, so that any one who is
moved by them may do the like with the whole of the Gospels. It is written
then--as if the multitudes were below, but the disciples were able to come
to Jesus when He went up into the mountain, where the multitudes were not
able to be--as follows: "And seeing the multitudes He went up into the
mountain, and when He had sat down His disciples came unto Him; and He
opened His mouth and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit,"
etc.(2) And again in another place, as the multitudes stood in need of
healing, it is said, "Many multitudes followed Him and He healed them."(3)
We do not find any healing recorded of the disciples; since if any one is
already a disciple of Jesus he is whole, and being well he needs Jesus not
as a physician but in respect of His other powers. Again in another place,
when He was speaking to the multitudes, His mother and His brethren stood
without, seeking to speak to Him; this was made known to Him by some one to
whom He answered, stretching forth His hand not towards the multitudes but
towards the disciples, and said, "Behold My mother and My brethren."(4) and
bearing testimony to the disciples as doing the will of the Father which is
in heaven, He added, "He is My brother and sister and mother."(5) And again
in another place it is written, "All the multitude stood on the beach and
He spake to them many things in parables."(6) Then after the parable of the
Sowing, it was no longer the multitudes but the disciples who came and said
to Him, not "Why speakest thou to us in parables," but, "Why speakest thou
to them in parables."(7) Then also He answered and said, not to the
multitudes but to the disciples, "To you it is given to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to the rest in parables."(8) Accordingly; of
those who come to the name I of Jesus some, who know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, would be called disciples; but those to whom such a
privilege is not given would be called multitudes, who would be spoken of
as inferior to the disciples. For observe carefully that He said to the
disciples, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven," but about the multitudes, "To them it is not given."(1) And in
another place He dismisses the multitudes indeed, and goes into the
house,(2) but He does not dismiss the disciples; and there came to Him into
His house, not the multitudes but His disciples, saying, "Declare to us the
parable of the tares of the field."(3) Moreover, also, in another place
when Jesus heard the things concerning John and withdrew in a boat to a
desert place apart, the multitudes followed Him; when He came forth and saw
a great multitude He had compassion on them and healed their sick--the sick
of the multitudes, not of the disciples.(4) "And when even was come there
came to Him," not the multitudes, but the disciples, as being different
from the multitudes, saying, "Send the multitudes away that they may go
into the villages and buy themselves food."(5) And, further, when Jesus
took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven He
blessed and brake the loaves, He gave not to the multitudes but to the
disciples,(6) that the disciples might give to the multitudes who were not
able to take from Him, but received with difficulty at the hands of the
disciples the loaves of the blessing of Jesus, and did not eat even all
these; for the multitudes were filled and left that which remained over in
twelve baskets which were full.

       5. THE DISCIPLES IN CONFLICT. JESUS WALKS UPON THE WATERS.

   The reason why we have taken up this subject is the passage under
discussion which tells that Jesus separated the disciples from the
multitudes, and constrained them to enter into the boat and to go before
Him unto the other side until He Himself should send the multitudes
away;(7) for the multitudes were not able to go away to the other side, as
they were not in the mystic sense Hebrews, which are by interpretation,
"dwelling on the other side." But this was the work of the disciples of
Jesus--I mean to go away to the other side, and to pass beyond things seen
and material, as temporal, and to go on to things unseen and eternal. To be
dismissed by Jesus was a sufficient act of kindness bestowed on the
multitudes by Jesus; for just because they were multitudes they were not
able to go away to the other side; and this kind of dismissal no one has
the power to effect save Jesus only, and it is not possible for any one to
be dismissed unless he has first eaten of the loaves which Jesus blesses.
Nor is it possible for any one to eat of the loaves of blessing of Jesus
unless he has done as Jesus commanded and sat down upon the grass as we
have told. Nor again was it possible for the multitudes to do this unless
they had followed Jesus from their own cities, when He withdrew into a
desert place apart. And at first, when He was asked by the disciples to
send away the multitudes, He did not send them away until He had fed them
with the loaves of blessing; but now He sends them away, having first
constrained the disciples to enter into the boat; and He sends them away,
while they were somewhere below,--for the desert was below,--but He Himself
went up into the mountain to pray.(1) And you must observe this, that
immediately after the five thousand had been fed, Jesus constrained the
disciples to embark into the boat, and to go before Him unto the other
side. Only, the disciples were not able to go before Jesus to the other
side; but, when they had got as far as the middle of the sea, and the boat
was distressed "because the wind was contrary to them,"(2) they were afraid
when about the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them. And if Jesus
had not gone up into the boat neither would the wind which was contrary to
the disciples who were sailing have ceased, nor would those who were
sailing have gone across and come to the other side. And, perhaps, wishing
to teach them by experience that it was not possible apart from Him to go
to the other side He constrained them to enter into the boat and go before
Him to the other side; but, when they were not able to advance farther than
the middle of the sea, He appeared to them, and did what is written,(3) and
showed that he who arrives at the other side reaches it because Jesus sails
along with him. But what is the boat into which Jesus constrained the
disciples to enter? Is it perhaps the conflict of temptations and
difficulties into which any one is constrained by the Word, and goes
unwillingly, as it were, when the Saviour wishes to train by exercise the
disciples in this boat which is distressed by the waves and the contrary
wind? But since Mark has made a slight change in the reading, and for
"Straightway He constrained the disciples to enter lute the boat and to go
before Him to the other side," has written, "And straightway He constrained
His disciples to enter into the boat and to go before Him unto the other
side unto Bethsaida,"(1) we must attend to the word, "He constrained," when
first we have seen to the slight variation in Mark who indicates something
more definite by the addition of the pronoun; for the same thing is not
expressed by the words, straightway "He constrained the disciples."
Something more than "the" disciples simply is written in Mark, namely,
"His" disciples. Perhaps, therefore, to attend to the expression, the
disciples who found it hard to tear themselves away from Jesus, and could
not be separated from Him by any ordinary cause, wished to be present with
Him; but He having judged that they should make trial of the waves and of
the contrary wind, which would not have been contrary if they had been with
Jesus, put on them the necessity of being separated from Him and entering
into the boat. The Saviour then compels the disciples to enter into the
boat of temptations and to go before Him to the other side, and through
victory over them to go beyond critical difficulties; but when they had
come into the midst of the sea, and of the waves in the temptations, and of
the contrary winds which prevented them from going away to the other side,
they were not able, struggling as they were without Jesus, to overcome the
waves and the contrary wind and reach the other side. Wherefore the Word,
taking compassion upon them who had done all that was in their power to
reach the other side, came to them walking upon the sea, which for Him had
no waves or wind that was able to oppose if He so willed; for it is not
written, "He came to them walking upon the waves," but, "upon the
waters;"(2) Just as Peter, who at first when Jesus said to him, "Come,"
went down from the boat and walked not upon "the waves," but upon "the
waters"(3) to come to Jesus; but when he doubted he saw that the wind was
strong, which was not strong to him who laid aside his little faith and his
doubting. But, when Jesus went up with Peter into the boat, the wind
ceased, as it had no power to energise against the boat when Jesus had gone
up into it.

6. INTERPRETATION OF THE DETAILS IN THE NARRATIVE.  APPLICATION THEREOF TO
ALL DISCIPLES.

   And then the disciples "having crossed over came to the land
Gennesaret,"(1) of which word, if we knew the interpretation, we might gain
some assistance in the exposition of the present passage. And observe,
since God is faithful, and will not suffer the multitudes to be tempted
above that they are able,(2) in what way the Son of God constrained the
disciples to enter into the boat, as being stronger and able to get as far
as the middle of the sea, and to endure the trials by the waves, until they
became worthy of divine assistance, and saw Jesus and heard Him when He had
gone up, and to cross over and come to the land Gennesaret; but as for the
multitudes who, because they were weaker, did not make trial of the boat
and the waves and the contrary wind, them He sent away, and went up into
the mountain apart to pray.(3) To pray for whom? Was it perhaps to pray for
the multitudes that, when they were dismissed after the loaves of blessing,
they might do nothing opposed to their dismissal by Jesus? And for the
disciples that, when they were constrained by Him to enter into the boat
and to go before Him unto the other side, they might suffer nothing in the
sea nor from the contrary wind? And I would say with confidence, that,
because of the prayer of Jesus to the Father for the disciples, they
suffered nothing when sea and wave and contrary wind were striving against
them. The simpler disciple, then, may be satisfied with the bare narrative;
but let us remember, if ever we fall into distressful temptations, that
Jesus has constrained us to enter into their boat, wishing us to go before
Him unto the other side; for it is not possible for us to reach the other
side, unless we have endured the temptations of waves add contrary wind.
Then when we see many difficulties besetting us, and with moderate struggle
we have swum through them to some extent, let us consider that our boat is
in the midst of the sea, distressed at that time by the waves which wish us
to make shipwreck concerning faith or some one of the virtues; but when we
see the spirit of the evil one striving against us, let us conceive that
then the wind is contrary to us. When then in such suffering we have spent
three watches of the night--that is, of the darkness which is in the
temptations--striving nobly with all our might and watching ourselves so as
not to make shipwreck concerning the faith or some one of the virtues,--the
first watch against the father of darkness and wickedness, the second watch
against his son "who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is
called God or thing that is worshipped,"(1) and the third watch against the
spirit(2) that is opposed to the Holy Spirit, then we believe that when the
fourth watch impendeth, when "the night is far spent, and the day is at
hand,"(3) the Son of God will come to us, that He may prepare the sea for
us, walking upon it. And when we see the Word appearing unto us we shall
indeed be troubled before we clearly understand that it is the Saviour who
has come to us, supposing that we are still beholding an apparition, and
for fear shall cry out; but He Himself straightway will speak to us saying,
"Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."(4) And if, warmly moved by His
"Be of good cheer," any Peter be found among us, who is on his way to
perfection but has not yet become perfect, having gone down from the boat,
as if coming out of that temptation in which he was distressed, he will
indeed walk at first, wishing to come to Jesus upon the waters; but being
as yet of little faith, and as yet doubting, will see that the wind is
strong and will be afraid and begin to sink; but he will not sink because
he will call upon Jesus with loud voice, and will say to Him, "Lord, save
me;"(5) then immediately while such a Peter is yet speaking and saying,
"Lord save me," the Word will stretch forth His hand, holding out
assistance to such an one, and will take hold of him when he is beginning
to sink, and will reproach him for his little faith and doubting.(6) Only,
observe that He did not say, "O thou without faith," but, "O thou of little
faith," and that it was said, "Wherefore didst thou doubt." as he had still
a measure of faith, but also had a tendency towards that which was opposed
to faith.

7. THE HEALING OF THE SICK ON THE OTHER SIDE. THE METHOD OF HEALING.

   But after this both Jesus and Peter will go up into the boat, and the
wind will cease; and those in the boat, perceiving the great dangers from
which they have been saved, will worship Him, saying, not simply, "Thou art
the Son of God," as also the two demoniacs said, but, "Of a truth, Thou art
the Son of God."(1) This the disciples in the boat say, for I do not think
that others than the disciples said so. And when we have undergone all
these experiences, having crossed over, we shall come to the land where
Jesus commanded us to go before Him. And perhaps, also, some secret and
occult mystery with reference to some who were saved by Jesus is indicated
by the words, "And when the men of that place knew Him,"--plainly of the
place on the other side,--"they sent into all that region round about,"--
round about the other side, not on the other side itself, but round about
it,--"and they brought unto Him all that were sick."(2) And here observe
that they brought unto Him not only many that were sick, but all in that
region round about; and the sick who were brought to Him besought Him that
they might touch if it were only the border of His garment,(3) beseeching
this grace from Him, since they were not like "the woman who had an issue
of blood twelve years, and who came behind Him and touched the border of
His garment, saying within herself, If I do but touch His garment, I shall
be made whole."(4) For observe in what is said about the border of His
garment, on account of what the flowing of her blood ceased at once. But
those from the country round the land of Gennesaret, to which Jesus and His
disciples crossed over and came, did not come of themselves to Jesus, but
were brought by those who had sent the tidings, inasmuch as they were not
able because of their extreme weakness to come of themselves. Nor did they
merely touch the garment, like the woman who had an issue of blood, but
they touched after that they had besought Him. Only, of these, "as many as
touched were made whole."(5) And whether there be any difference between
the "They were made whole,"(6) which is said in their case, and the "being
saved,"(7)--for it was said to the woman with the issue of blood, "Thy
faith hath saved thee,"(8) you may yourself consider.

8. CONCERNING THE PHARISEES AND SCRIBES WHO CAME AND INQUIRED, WHY DO THY
DISCIPLES TRANSGRESS THE TRADITION OF THE ELDERS?

   "Then there came to Him from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying,
Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash
not their hands when they eat bread."(1) He who observes at what time the
Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus, saying, "Why do Thy
disciples transgress the tradition of the eiders," etc., will perceive that
Matthew of necessity wrote not simply that Pharisees and scribes from
Jerusalem came to the Saviour to inquire of Him the matters before us, but
put it thus, "Then come to Him from Jerusalem." What time, therefore, are
we to understand by "then"? At the time when Jesus and His disciples
crossed over and came in the boat to the land of Gennesaret, when the wind
ceased from the time that Jesus entered into the boat, and when "the men of
that place knowing Him sent into all that region round about, and brought
unto Him all that were sick, and besought Him that they might touch if it
were only the border of His garment, and as many as touched were made
whole."(2) At that time came to Him from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes,
not struck with admiration at the power which was in Jesus, which healed
those who only touched even the border of His garment, but in a censorious
spirit, accusing the disciples before their Teacher, not concerning the
transgression of a commandment of God, but of a single tradition of the
Jewish elders. And it is probable that this very charge of these censorious
persons is a proof of the piety of the disciples of Jesus, who gave to the
Pharisees and scribes no opportunity of censure with reference to the
transgression of the commandments of God, as they would not have brought
the charge of transgression against the disciples, as transgressing the
commandment of the elders, if they had had it in their power to censure
those whom they accused, and to show that they were transgressing a
commandment of God. But do not suppose that these things go to establish
the necessity of keeping the law of Moses according to the letter, because
the disciples of Jesus up to that time kept it; for not before He suffered
did He "redeem us from the curse of the law,"(3) who in suffering for men
"became a curse for us." But just as fittingly Paul became a Jew to the
Jews that he might gain Jews,(4) what strange thing is it that the
Apostles, whose way of life was passed among the Jews, even though they
understood the spiritual things in the law, should have used a spirit of
accommodation, as Paul also did when he circumcised Timothy,(1) and offered
sacrifice in accordance with a certain legal vow, as is written in the Acts
of the Apostles?(2) Only, again, they appear fond of bringing accusations,
as they have no charge to bring against the disciples of Jesus with
reference to a commandment of God, but only with reference to one tradition
of the elders. And especially does this love of accusation become manifest
in this, that they bring the charge in presence of those very persons who
had been healed from their sickness; in appearance against the disciples,
but in reality purposing to slander their Teacher, as it was a tradition of
the elders that the washing of hands was a thing essential to piety. For
they thought that the hands of those who did not wash before eating bread
were defiled and unclean, but that the hands of those who had washed them
with water became pure and holy, not in a figurative sense, in due relation
to the law of Moses according to the letter. But let us, not according to
the tradition of the elders among the Jews, but according to sound reason,
endeavour to purify our own actions and so to wash the hands of our souls,
when we are about to eat the three loaves which we ask from Jesus, who
wishes to be our friend;(3) for with hands that are defiled and unwashed
and impure, we ought not to partake of the loaves.

9. EXPLANATION OF "CORBAN."

   Jesus, however, does not accuse them with reference to a tradition of
the Jewish elders, but with regard to two most imperative commandments of
God, the one of which was the fifth in the decalogue, being as follows:
"Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that
thy days may be long on the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee;"(4)
and the other was written thus in Leviticus, "If a man speak evil of his
father or his mother, let him die the death; he has spoken evil of his
father or mother, he shall be guilty."(5) But when we wish to examine the
very letter of the words as given by Matthew, "He that speaketh evil of
father or mother, let him die the death,"(6) consider whether it was taken
from the place where it was written, "Whoso striketh his father or mother,
let him die the death; and he that speaketh evil of father or mother let
him die the death."(1) For such are the exact words taken from the Law with
regard to the two commandments; but Matthew has quoted them in part and in
an abridged form, and not in the very words. But what the nature of the
charge is which the Saviour brings against the Pharisees and scribes from
Jerusalem, when He says that they transgress the commandment of God because
of their tradition we must consider. And God said, "Honour thy father and
thy mother,"(2) teaching that the child should pay the honour which is due
to his parents. Of this honour to parents one part was to share with them
the necessaries of life, such as food and clothing, and if there was any
other thing in which it was possible for them to show favour towards their
own parents. But the Pharisees and scribes promulgated in opposition to the
law a tradition which is found rather obscurely in the Gospel, and which we
ourselves would not have thought of, unless one of the Hebrews had given to
us the following facts relating to the passage. Sometimes, he says, when
money-lenders fell in with stubborn debtors who were able but not willing
to pay their debts, they consecrated what was due to the account of the
poor, for whom money was cast into the treasury by each of those who wished
to give a portion of their goods to the poor according to their ability.
They, therefore, said sometimes to their debtors in their own tongue, "That
which you owe to me is Corban,"--that is, a gift--"for I have consecrated
it to the poor, to the account of piety towards God." Then the debtor, as
no longer in debt to men but to God and to piety towards God, was shut up,
as it were, even though unwilling, to payment of the debt, no longer to the
money-lender, but now to God for the account of the poor, in name of the
money-lender. What then the money-lender did to the debtor, that sometimes
some sons did to their parents and said to them, "That wherewith thou
mightest have been profited by me, father or mother, know that you will
receive this from Corban,"(3) from the account of the poor who are
consecrated to God. Then the parents, hearing that that which should have
been given to them was Corban,--consecrated to God,--no longer wished to
take it from their sons, even though they were in extreme need of the
necessaries of life. The elders, then, declared to the people a tradition
of this kind, "Whosoever said to his father or mother, that which should be
given to any of them is Corban and a gift, that man was no longer a debtor
to his father or mother in respect of giving to them the necessaries of
life." The Saviour censures this tradition, as not being sound but opposed
to the commandment of God. For if God says, "Honour thy father and thy
mother," but the tradition said, he is not bound to honour his father or
mother by a gift, who has consecrated to God, as Corban, that which would
have been given to his parents, manifestly the commandment of God
concerning the honour due to parents was made void by the tradition of the
Pharisees and scribes which said, that he was no longer bound to honour his
father or mother, who had, once for all, consecrated to God that which the
parents would have received. And the Pharisees, as lovers of money, in
order that under pretext of the poor they might receive even that which
would have been given to the parents of any one, gave such teaching. And
the Gospel testifies to their love of money, saying, "But the Pharisees who
were lovers of money heard these things and they scoffed at Him."(1) If,
then, any one of those who are called elders among us, or of those who are
in any way rulers of the people, profess to give to the poor under the name
of the commonweal, rather than to be of those who give to their kindred if
they should chance to be in need of the necessaries of life, and those who
give cannot do both, this man might with justice be called a brother of
those Pharisees who made void the word of God through their own tradition,
and were accused by the Saviour as hypocrites. And as a very powerful
deterrent to any one from being anxious to take from the account of the
poor, and from thinking that "the piety of others is a way of gain,"(2) we
have not only these things, but also that which is recorded about the
traitor Judas, who in appearance championed the cause of the poor, and said
with indignation, "This ointment might have been sold for three hundred
pence and given to the poor,"(3) but in reality "was a thief, and having
the bag took away what was put therein."(4) If, then, any one in our time
who has the bag of the Church speaks likes Judas on behalf of the poor, but
takes away what is put therein, let there be assigned to him the portion
along with Judas who did these things; on account of which things eating
like a gangrene into his soul, the devil cast it into his heart to betray
the Saviour; and, when he had received the "fiery dart,"(1) with reference
to this end, the devil afterwards himself entered into his soul and took
full possession of him. And perhaps, when the Apostle says, "The love of
money is a root of all evils,"(2) he says it because of Judas' love of
money, which was a root of all the evils that were committed against Jesus.

10.THE TRADITIONS OF THE ELDERS IN COLLISION WITH DIVINE LAW.

   But let us return to the subject before us, in which the Saviour
abridged and expounded two commandments from the law, the one from the
decalogue from Exodus, and the other from Leviticus, or the other from some
one of the books of the Pentateuch. Then since we have explained in what
way they made void the word of God which said, "Honour thy father and thy
mother," by saying, "Thou shalt not honour thy father or thy mother,"
whosoever shall say to his father or mother, "It is a gift that wherewith
thou mightest have been profited by me," some one may inquire whether the
words, "He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the
death,"(3) are not extraneous. For, granted that he does not honour his
father and mother, who consecrates to what is called Corban that which
would have been given in honour of father and mother, in what way,
therefore, does the tradition of the Pharisees make void the word which
said, "He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death.?
But, perhaps, when any one said to his father or his mother, "It is a gift,
that wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me,"(4) he, as it were,
casts abuse on his father or mother as if he were calling his parents
sacrilegious, in taking that which was consecrated to Corban from him who
had consecrated it to Corban. The Jews then punish their sons(5) according
to the law, as speaking evil of father or mother, when they say to their
father or mother, "It is a gift, that wherewith thou mightest have been
profited by me," but you by one of your traditions make void two
commandments of God. And then you are not ashamed to accuse My disciples
who transgress no commandment; for they walk "in all His commandments and
ordinances blamelessly,"(6) but transgress a tradition of the elders, so as
not to transgress a commandment of God. And if you had held this aim before
you, you would have kept the commandment about the honour due to father and
mother, and that which said, "He that speaketh evil of father and mother,
let him die the death;" but the tradition of the elders which is opposed to
these commandments you would not have kept.

11. EXPOSITION OF THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAH QUOTED BY JESUS.

   And, after this, wishing to refute completely from the words of the
prophets all these traditions of the elders among the Jews, He brought
before them a saying, from Isaiah, which in the exact words is as follows:
"And the Lord said, This people draws nigh to Me with their mouth,"
etc.;(1) and, as we said before, Matthew has not written out the
prophetical saying in the very words. And, if it be necessary because of
its use in the Gospel to interpret it according to our ability, we will
take in addition the preceding passage which is, in my judgment, noted with
advantage by us for the exposition of that passage in the Gospel which was
taken from the prophet. The passage in Isaiah from the beginning is thus.
"Be ye faint, and be maddened: be ye drunken, but not with strong drink nor
with wine: for the Lord hath given you to drink of the spirit of stupor,
and He will close their eyes, both of their prophets, and of their rulers
who see things secret. And all these sayings shall be to you as the words
of the book, which has been sealed, which if they give to a man who knows
letters, saying, Read this, he shall answer, I cannot read, for it is
sealed. And this book will be given into the hands of a man who does not
know letters, and one will say to him, Read this, and he will say, I know
not letters. And the Lord said, This people is nigh to Me," etc., down to
the words, "Woe unto them that form counsel in secret, and their works
shall be in darkness."(2) Taking up then the passage before us in the
Gospel, I have put some of the verses which come before it, and some which
follow it, in order to show in what way the Word threatens to close the
eyes of those of the people who are astonished and drunken, and have been
made to drink of the spirit of deep sleep. And it threatens also to close
the eyes of their prophets and their rulers who profess to see things
secret,--which things, I think, took place after the advent of the Saviour
among that people; for all the words of the whole of the Scriptures, and of
Isaiah also, have become to them as the words of a sealed book. Now the
expression "sealed" is used of a book closed in virtue of its obscurity and
not open in virtue of its lucidity, which is equally obscure to those who
are not able to read it at all because they do not know letters, and to
those who profess to know letters but do not understand the meaning in the
things which have been written. Well, then, does he add to this, that when
the people, fainting because of their sins and being in a state of madness
rage against Him through those sins wherewith they shall be drunken against
Him with the spirit of stupor, which shall be given to them to drink by the
Lord when He closes their eyes, as unworthy to see, and the eyes of their
prophets and of their rulers who profess to see the hidden things of the
mysteries in the Divine Scriptures; and, when their eyes are closed, then
shall the prophetic words be sealed to them and hidden, as has been the
case with those who do not believe in Jesus as the Christ. And when the
prophetic sayings have become as the words of a sealed book, not only to
those who do not know letters but to those who profess to know, then the
Lord said, that the people of the Jews draw nigh to God with their mouth
only, and He says that they honour Him with their lips, because their heart
by reason of their unbelief in Jesus is far from the Lord. And now,
especially, from the time at which they denied our Saviour, it might be
said about them by God, "But in vain do they worship Me;"(1) for they no
longer teach the precepts of God but of men, and doctrines which are human
and no longer of the Spirit of wisdom. Wherefore, when these things happen
to them, God has removed the people of the Jews, and has caused to perish
the wisdom of the wise men among them; for there is no longer wisdom among
them, just as there is no prophecy; but God has utterly destroyed the
prudence of the prudent and concealed it,(2) and no longer is it splendid
and conspicuous. Wherefore, although they may seem to form some counsel in
a deep fashion, because they do it not through the Lord they are called
miserable; and even though they profess to tell some secrets of the Divine
counsel they lie, since their works are not works of light, but of darkness
and night.(3) I have thought it right briefly to set forth the prophecy,
and to a certain extent elucidate its meaning, seeing that Matthew made
mention of it. And Mark also made mention of it, from whom we may usefully
set down the following words in the place, with reference to the
transgression of the elders who held that it was necessary to wash hands
when the Jews ate bread, "For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they
wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders;
and when they come from the market-place except they wash themselves they
eat not. And there are some other things which they have received to hold,
washings of cups and pots and brazen vessels and couches."(1)

12. THINGS CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ACCORDING TO THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.

   "And He called to Him the multitude and said unto them, Hear and
understand," etc.(2) We are clearly taught in these words by the Saviour
that, when we read in Leviticus and Deuteronomy the precepts about meat
clean and unclean, for the transgression of which we are accused by the
material Jews and by the Ebionites who differ little from them, we are not
to think that the scope of the Scripture is found in any superficial
understanding of them. For if "not that which entereth into the mouth
defileth the man, but that which proceedeth out of the mouth,"(3) and
especially when, according to Mark, the Saviour said these things "making
all meats clean,"(4) manifestly we are not defiled when we eat those things
which the Jews who desire to be in bondage to the letter of the law declare
to be unclean, but we are then defiled when, whereas our lips ought to be
bound with perception and we ought "to make for them what we call a balance
and weight,"(5) we speak offhand and discuss matters we ought not, from
which there comes to us the spring of sins. And it is indeed becoming to
the law of God to forbid those things which arise from wickedness, and to
enjoin those things which tend to virtue, but as for things which are in
their own nature indifferent to leave them in their own place, as they may,
according to our choice and the reason which is in us, be done ill if we
sin in them, but if rightly directed by us be done well. And any one who
has carefully thought on these matters will see that, even in those things
which are thought to be good, it is possible for a man to sin who has taken
them up in an evil way and under the impulse of passion, and that these
things called impure may be considered pure, if used by us in accordance
with reason. As, then, when the Jew sins his circumcision shall be reckoned
for uncircumcision, but when one of the Gentiles acts uprightly his
uncircumcision shall be reckoned for circumcision,(1) so those things which
are thought to be pure shall be reckoned for impure in the case of him who
does not use them fittingly, nor when one ought, nor as far as he ought,
nor for what reason he ought. But as for the things which are called
impure, "All things become pure to the pure," for, "To them that are
defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, since both their minds and their
conscience are defiled."(2) And when these are defiled, they make all
things whatsoever they touch defiled; as again on the contrary the pure
mind and the pure conscience make all things pure, even though they may
seem to be impure; for not from intemperance, nor from love of pleasure,
nor with doubting which draws a man both ways, do the righteous use meats
or drinks, mindful of the precept, "Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever
other thing ye do, do all to the glory of God."(3) And if it be necessary
to delineate the foods which are unclean according to the Gospel, we will
say that they are such as are supplied by covetousness, and are the result
of base love of gain, and are taken up from love of pleasure, and from
deifying the belly which is treated with honour, when it, with its
appetites, and not reason, rules our souls. But as for us who know that
some things are used by demons, or if we do not know, but suspect, and are
in doubt about it, if we use such things, we have used them not to the
glory of God, nor in the name of Christ; for not only does the suspicion
that things have been sacrificed to idols condemn him who eats, but even
the doubt concerning this; for "he that doubteth," according to the
Apostle, "is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; and
whatsoever is not of faith is sin."(4) He then eats in faith who believes
that that which is eaten has not been sacrificed in the temples of idols,
and that it is not strangled nor blood;(5) but he eats not of faith who is
in doubt about any of these things. And the man who knowing that they have
been sacrificed to demons nevertheless uses them, becomes a communicant
with demons, while at the same time, his imagination is polluted with
reference to demons participating in the sacrifice. And the Apostle,
however, knowing that it is not the nature of meats which is the cause of
injury to him who uses them or of advantage to him who refrains from their
use, but opinions and the reason which is in them, said, "But meat
commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if
we eat not are we the worse."(1) And since he knew that those who have a
loftier conception of what things are pure and what impure according to the
law, turning aside from the distinction about the use of things pure and
impure, and superstition, I think, in respect of things being different,
become indifferent to the use of meats,(2) and on this account are
condemned by the Jews as transgressors of law, he said therefore,
somewhere, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink," etc.,(3)
teaching us that the things according to the letter are a shadow, but that
the true thoughts of the law which are stored up in them are the good
things to come, in which one may find what are the pure spiritual meats of
the soul, and what are the impure foods in false and contradictory words
which injure the man who is nourished in them, "For the law had a shadow of
the good things to come."(4)

13. THE OFFENCE OF THE PHARISEES.

   And as in many cases we have to consider the astonishment of the Jews
at the words of the Saviour, because they were spoken with authority, so
also in regard to the words in this place. Having called the multitudes
therefore, He said unto them, "Hear and understand,"(5) etc. And He said
this, the Pharisees being offended at this saying, as, because of their
evil opinions and their worthless interpretation of the law, they were not
the plant of his own Father in heaven, and on this account were being
rooted up;(6) for they were rooted up as they did not receive the true
vine, which was cultivated by the Father, even Jesus Christ.(7) For how
could they be a plant of His Father who were offended at the words of
Jesus, words which turn men away from the precept, "Handle not, nor taste,
nor touch,--all which things were to perish in the using--after the
precepts and doctrines of men,"(8) but induce the intelligent hearer of
them to seek in regard to them the things which are above and not the
things upon the earth as the Jews do?(9) And since, because of their evil
opinions, the Pharisees were not the plant of His Father in heaven, on this
account, as about such as were incorrigible, He says to the disciple, "Let
them alone;"(1) "Let them alone," He said for this reason, that as they
were blind they ought to become conscious of their blindness and seek
guides; but they, being unconscious of their own blindness, profess to
guide the blind, not reckoning that they would fall into a pit, about which
it is written in the Psalms, "He hath made a pit, and digged it, and will
fall into the ditch which he hath made."(2) Again, elsewhere it is written,
"And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain, and when He had
sat down His disciples came unto Him;"(3) but here He stretches forth His
hand to the multitude, calling them unto Him, and turning their thoughts
away from the literal interpretation of the questions in the law, when He
in the first place said to them, who did not yet understand what they
heard, "Hear and understand," and thereafter as in parables said to them,
"Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which
proceedeth out of the mouth."(4)

14.WHY THE PHARISEES WERE NOT A PLANT OF GOD.  TEACHING OF ORIGEN ON THE
"BREAD OF THE LORD."

   After this, it is worth while to look at the phrase which has been
assailed in a sophistical way by those who say(5) that the God of the law
and the God of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not the same; for they say
that the heavenly Father of Jesus Christ is not the husbandman of those who
think that they worship God according to the law of Moses. Jesus Himself
said that the Pharisees, who were worshipping the God who created the world
and the law, were not a plant which His heavenly Father had planted, and
that for this reason it was being rooted up.(6) But you might also say
this, that even if it were the Father of Jesus who "brought in and planted
the people," when it came out of Egypt, "to the mountain of His own
inheritance, to the place which He had prepared for Himself to dwell
in,"(7) yet Jesus would have said, in regard to the Pharisees, "Every plant
which My heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up." Now, to this we
will say, that as many as on account of their perverse interpretation of
the things in the law were not a plant of His Father in heaven, were
blinded in their minds, as not believing the truth, but taking pleasure in
unrighteousness,(1) by him who is deified by the sons of this world, and on
this account is called by Paul the god of this world.(2) And do not suppose
that Paul said that he was truly God; for just as the belly, though it is
not the god of those who prize pleasure too highly, being lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God, is said by Paul to be their god,(3) so
the prince of this world, in regard to whom the Saviour says, "Now has the
prince of this world been judged,"(4) though he is not God, is said to be
the god of those who do not wish to receive the spirit of adoption, in
order that they may become sons of that world, and sons of the resurrection
from the dead,(5) and who, on this account, abide in the sonship of this
world. I have deemed it necessary to introduce these matters, even though
they may have been spoken by way of digression, because of the saying,
"They are blind guides of the blind."(6) Who are such? The Pharisees, whose
minds the god of this world hath blinded as they are unbelieving, because
they have not believed in Jesus Christ; and he hath blinded them so that
the "light of the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ should
not dawn upon them."(7) But not only must we avoid being guided by those
blind ones who are conscious that they are in need of guides, because they
have not yet received the power of vision of themselves; but even in the
case of all who profess to guide us in sound doctrine, we must hear with
care, and apply a sound judgment to what is said, lest being guided
according to the ignorance of those who are blind, and do not see the
things that concern sound doctrine, we ourselves may appear to be blind
because we do not see the sense of the Scriptures, so that both he who
guides and he who is guided will fall into the ditch of which we have
Spoken before. Next to this, it is written in what way Peter answered and
said to the Saviour, as if he had not understood the saying, "Not that
which cometh into the mouth defileth the man, but that which goeth out of
the mouth," "Declare unto us the parable."(8) To which the Saviour says,
"Are ye also, even yet, without understanding?"(9) As if He had said,
"Having been so long time with Me, do ye not yet understand the meaning of
what is said, and do ye not perceive that for this reason that which goeth
into his month does not defile the man, because it passeth into the belly,
and going out from it is cast into the draught?"(1) It was not in respect
of the law in which they appeared to believe, that the Pharisees were not a
plant of the Father of Jesus, but in respect of their perverse
interpretation of the law and the things written in it. For since there are
two things to be understood in regard to the law, the ministration of death
which was engraven in letters(2) and which had no kinship with the spirit,
and the ministration of life which is understood in the spiritual law.
those who were able with a sincere heart to say, "We know that the law is
spiritual,"(3) and therefore "the law is holy, and the commandment holy and
righteous and good,"(4) were the plant which the heavenly Father planted;
but those who were not such, but guarded with care the letter which killeth
only, were not a plant of God but of him who hardened their heart, and put
a veil over it, which veil had power over them so long as they did not turn
to the Lord; "for if any one should turn to the Lord, the veil is taken
away, and the Lord is the Spirit."(5) Now some one when dealing with the
passage might say, that just as "not that which entereth into the mouth
defileth the man,"(6) of even though it may be thought by the Jews to be
defiled, so not that which entereth into the mouth sanctifieth the man,
even though what is called the bread of the Lord may be thought by the
simpler disciples to sanctify. And the saying is I think, not to be
despised, and on this account, demands clear exposition, which seems to me
to be thus; as it is not the meat but the conscience of him who eats with
doubt which defiles him that eateth, for "he that doubteth is condemned if
he eat, because he eateth not of faith,"(7) and as nothing is pure to him
who is defiled and unbelieving, not in itself, but because of his
defilement and unbelief, so that which is sanctified through the word of
God and prayer(8) does not, in its own nature, sanctify him who uses it,
for, if this were so, it would sanctify even him who eats unworthily of the
bread of the Lord, and no one on account of this food would become weak or
sickly or asleep for something of this kind Paul represented in saying,
"For this cause many among you are weak and sickly and not a few sleep."(9)
And in the case of the bread of the Lord, accordingly, there is advantage
to him who uses it, when with undefiled mind and pure conscience he
partakes of the bread. And so neither by not eating, I mean by the very
fact that we do not eat of the bread which has been sanctified by the word
of God and prayer, are we deprived of any good thing, nor by eating are we
the better by any good thing; for the cause of our lacking is wickedness
and sins, and the cause of our abounding is righteousness and right
actions; so that such is the meaning of what is said by Paul, "For neither
if we eat are we the better, nor if we eat not are we the worse."(1) Now,
if "everything that entereth into the mouth goes into the belly and is cast
out into the drought,"(2) even the meat which has been sanctified through
the word of God and prayer, in accordance with the fact that it is
material, goes into the belly and is cast out into the draught, but in
respect of the prayer which comes upon it, according to the proportion of
the faith, becomes a benefit and is a means of clear vision to the mind
which looks to that which is beneficial, and it is not the material of the
bread but the word which is said over it which is of advantage to him who
eats it not unworthily of the Lord. And these things indeed are said of the
typical and symbolical body. But many things might be said about the Word
Himself who became flesh,(3) and true meat of which he that eateth shall
assuredly live for ever, no worthless person being able to eat it; for if
it were possible for one who continues worthless to eat of Him who became
flesh. who was the Word and the living bread, it would not have been
written, that "every one who eats of this bread shall live for ever."(4)

15. EATING WITH UNWASHED HEART DEFILES THE MAN.

   Next to this let us see how the things which proceed out and defile the
man do not defile the man because of their proceeding out of the mouth, but
have the cause of their defilement in the heart, when there come forth out
of it, before those things which proceed through the mouth, evil thoughts,
of which the species are--murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness. railings.(5) For these are the things which defile the man, when
they come forth out of the heart, and going out from it proceed through the
mouth; so that, if they did not come out of the heart, but were retained
there somewhere about the heart, and were not allowed to be spoken through
the mouth, they would very quickly disappear, and a man would be no more
defiled. The spring and source, then, of every sin are evil thoughts; for,
unless these gained the mastery, neither murders nor adulteries nor any
other such thing would exist. Therefore, each man must keep his own heart
with all watchfulness;(1) for when the Lord comes in the day of judgment.
"He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make
manifest the counsels of the hearts,"(2) "all the thoughts of men meanwhile
accusing or else excusing them,"(3) "when their own devices have beset them
about."(4) But of such a nature are the evil thoughts that sometimes they
make worthy of censure even those things which seem good, and which, so far
as the judgment of the masses is concerned, are worthy of praise.
Accordingly, if we do alms before men, having in our thoughts the design of
appearing to men philanthropic, and of being honoured because of
philanthropy, we receive the reward from men;(5) and, universally,
everything that is done with the consciousness in the doer that he will be
glorified by men, has no reward from Him who beholds in secret, and renders
the reward to those who are pure, in secret. So, too, therefore, is it with
apparent purity if it is influenced by considerations of vain glory or love
of gain; and the teaching which is thought to be the teaching of the
Church, if it becomes servile through the word of flattery, either when it
is made the excuse for covetousness, or when any one seeks glory from men
because of his teaching, is not reckoned to be the teaching of those "who
have been set by God in the Church: first, apostles; secondly, prophets;
and thirdly, teachers."(6) And you will say the like in the case of him who
seeks the office of a bishop for the sake of glory with men, or of flattery
from men, or for the sake of the gain received from those who, coming over
to the word, give in the name of piety; for a bishop of this kind at any
rate does not "desire a good work,"(7) nor can he be without reproach, nor
temperate, nor soberminded, as he is intoxicated with glory and
intemperately satiated with it. And the same also you will say about the
elders and deacons. And if we seem to some to have made a digression in
speaking of these things, consider if it were not necessary that they
should be said, because that evil thoughts are the spring of all sins, and
can pollute even those actions which, if they were done apart from evil
thoughts, would have justified the man who did them. We have thus
investigated according to our ability what are the things which defile; but
to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man; but if we must say it
with boldness, with unwashed heart to eat anything whatsoever which is the
natural food of our reason, defileth the man.

16. CONCERNING THE CANAANITISH WOMAN. MEANING OF THE "BORDERS OF TYRE AND
SIDON."

   "And Jesus went out thence and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and
Sidon. And behold a Canaanitish woman."(1) Whence the "thence"? Was it from
the land of Gennesaret, concerning which it was said before, "And when they
had crossed over they came into the land of Gennesaret?"(2) But He
withdrew, perhaps because the Pharisees were offended when they heard that
"not that which entereth in, but that which proceedeth out, defileth the
man;"(3) and that, because of their being suspected of plotting against
Him, it is said, "He withdrew," is manifest from the passage, "And when He
heard that John was delivered up He withdrew into Galilee."(4) Perhaps also
on this account, when describing the things in this place, Mark says that
"He rose up and went into the borders of Tyre, and having entered into the
house wished no man to know it."(5) It is probable that He sought to avoid
the Pharisees who were offended at His teaching, waiting for the time for
His suffering, which was more fitting and rightly appointed. But some one
might say that Tyre and Sidon are used for the  Gentiles; accordingly when
He withdrew from Israel He came into the parts of the Gentiles. Among the
Hebrews, then, Tyre is called Sor, and it is interpreted "anguish." Sidon,
which is also the Hebrew name, is rendered "hunters." And among the
Gentiles likewise the hunters are the evil powers, and among them is great
distress, the distress, namely, which exists in wickedness and passions.
When Jesus, then, went out from Gennesaret He withdrew indeed from Israel
and came, not to Tyre and Sidon, but into "the parts" of Tyre and Sidon,
with the result that those of the Gentiles now believe in part; so that if
He had visited the whole of Tyre and Sidon, no unbeliever would have been
left in it. Now, according to Mark, "Jesus rose up and went into the
borders of Tyre,"(1)--that is, the distress of the Gentiles,--in order that
they also from these borders who believe can be saved, when they come out
of them; for attend to this: "And behold a Canaanitish woman came out from
these borders and cried saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of
David, my daughter is terribly vexed with a demon."(2) And I think that if
she had not come out from those borders she would not have been able to cry
to Jesus with the great faith to which testimony was borne; and according
to the proportion of faith one comes out from the borders among the
Gentiles, which "when the Most High divided the nations He set up according
to the number of the sons of Israel,"(3) and prevented their further
advance. Here, then, certain borders are spoken of as the borders of Tyre
and Sidon, hut in Exodus the borders of Pharaoh,(4) in which, they say,
were formed the plagues against the Egyptians. And we must suppose that
each of us when he sins is in the borders of Tyre or Sidon or of Pharaoh
and Egypt, or some one of those which are outside the allotted inheritance
of God; but when he changes from wickedness to virtue he goes out from the
borders of evil, and comes to the borders of the portion of God, there
being among these also a difference which will be manifest to those who are
able to understand the things that concern the division and the inheritance
of Israel, in harmony with the spiritual law. And attend also to the
meeting, so to speak, which took place between Jesus and the Canaanitish
woman; for He comes as to the parts of Tyre and Sidon, and she comes out of
those parts, and cried, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of
David."(5) Now the woman was Canaanitish, which is rendered, prepared for
humiliation. The righteous, indeed, are prepared for the kingdom of heaven
and for the exaltation in the kingdom of God;(6) but sinners are prepared
for the humiliation of the wickedness which is in them, and of the deeds
which flow from it and prepare them for it, and of the sin which reigns in
their mortal body. Only, the Canaanitish woman came out of those borders
and went forth from the state of being prepared for humiliation, crying and
saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David."

17. EXPOSITION OF THE DETAILS IN THE NARRATIVE.

   Now bring together from the Gospels those who call Him Son of David, as
she, and the blind men in Jericho;(1) and who call Him Son of God, and that
without the addition "truly" like the demoniacs who say, "What have we to
do with Thee, Thou Son of God;"(2) and who call Him so with the addition
"truly," like those in the boat who worshipped Him saying, "Truly Thou art
the Son of God."(3) For the bringing together of these passages will, I
think, be useful to you with a view to seeing the difference of those who
come (to Jesus); some indeed come as to Him "who was born of the seed of
David according to the flesh;"(4) but others come to Him who "was declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness;"(5)
and of these some with the "truly," and some without it. Further, observe,
that the Canaanitish woman besought Him not about a son, whom she does not
seem to have brought forth at all, but about a daughter who was terribly
vexed with a demon; but another mother receives back alive her son who was
being carried forth dead.(6) And again the ruler of the synagogue makes
supplication for a daughter twelve years old, as being dead,(7) but the
nobleman about a son as being still sick, and at the point of death.(8) The
daughter, accordingly, who was distressed by a demon, and the dead son
sprang from two mothers; and the dead daughter, and the son who was sick
unto death, sprang from two fathers, of whom the one was a ruler of the
synagogue, and the other was a nobleman. And I am persuaded these things
contain reasons concerning the verse kinds of souls which Jesus vivifies
and heals. And all the cures that He works among the people, especially
those recorded by the Evangelists, took place at that time, that those who
would not otherwise have believed unless they saw signs and wonders might
believe;(9) for the things aforetime were symbols of the things that are
ever being accomplished by the power of Jesus; for there is no time when
each of the things which are written is not done by the power of Jesus
according to the desert of each. The Canaanitish woman, therefore, because
of her race was not worthy even to receive an answer from Jesus, who
acknowledged that He had not been sent by the Father for any other thing
than to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,(1)--a lost race of souls
possessed of clear vision; but, because of her resolution and of having
worshipped Jesus as Son of God, she obtains an answer, which reproaches her
with baseness of birth and exhibits the measure of her worthiness, namely,
that she was worthy of crumbs as the little dogs, but not of the loaves.
But when she with intensified resolution, accepting the saying of Jesus,
puts forth the claim to obtain crumbs even as a little dog, and
acknowledges that the masters are of a nobler race, then she gets a second
answer, which bears testimony to her faith as great, and a promise that it
shall be done unto her as she wills.(2) And corresponding, I think, "to the
Jerusalem above, which is free, the mother"(3) of Paul and those like to
him, must we conceive of the Canaanitish woman, the mother of her who was
terribly distressed with a demon, who was the symbol of the mother of such
a soul. And consider whether it is not according to sound reason that there
are also many fathers and many mothers corresponding to the fathers of
Abraham to whom the patriarch went away,(4) and to Jerusalem the "mother,"
as Paul says, concerning himself and those like to him. And it is probable
that she of whom the Canaanitish woman was a symbol came out of the borders
of Tyre and Sidon, of which the places on earth were types, and came to the
Saviour and besought Him and even now beseeches Him saying, "Have mercy on
me, O Lord, Thou Son of David, my daughter is terribly vexed with a
demon."(5) Then also to those without and to the disciples when necessary
He answers and says, "I was not sent;"(6) teaching us that there are some
lost souls pre-eminently intellectual and clear of vision, figuratively
called sheep of the house of Israel; which things, I think, the simpler who
are of opinion that they are spoken in regard to the Israel which is after
the flesh will of necessity admit, namely, that our Saviour was sent by the
Father to no others than to those lost Jews. But we, who can truthfully
boast that "if we have once known Christ after the flesh, but now no longer
do we know Him so,"(7) are assured that it is pre-eminently the work of the
Word to save the more intelligent, for these are more akin to Him than
those who are duller. But since the lost sheep of the house of Israel, with
the exception of "the remnant according to the election of grace,"(8)
disbelieved the Word, on this account "God chose the foolish things of the
world,"(1) namely, that which was not Israel, nor clear of vision, that He
might put to shame the wise ones of Israel; and He called "the things which
are not,"(2) handing over to them an intelligent nation who were able to
admit "the foolishness of the preaching,"(3) and of His good pleasure saved
those who believe in this, that He might refute "the things which are,"
having perfected praise for Himself, "out of the mouths of babes and
sucklings,"(4) when they became hostile to truth. Now, the Canaanitish
woman, having come, worshipped Jesus as God, saying, "Lord, help me," but
He answered and said, "It is not possible to take the children's bread and
cast it to the little dogs."(5) But some one might inquire also into the
meaning of this saying, since,--inasmuch as there was a measure of loaves
such that both the children and the dogs of the household could not eat
loaves, unless the dogs ate other loaves than those which were well made,--
it was not possible according to right reason for the well-made loaf of the
children to be given as food to the little dogs. But no such thing appears
in the case of the power of Jesus, for of this it was possible both for the
children and those called little dogs to partake. Consider, then, whether
perhaps with reference to the saying, "It is not possible to take the bread
of children," we ought to say that, "He who emptied Himself and took upon
Him the form of a servant,"(6) brought a measure of power such as the world
was capable of receiving, of which power also He was conscious that a
certain quantity went forth from Him as is plain from the words, "Some one
did touch Me, for I perceived that power had gone forth from Me."(7) From
this measure of power, then, He dispensed, giving a larger portion to those
who were pre-eminent and who were called sons, but a smaller portion to
those who were not such, as to the little dogs. But though these things
were so, nevertheless where there was great faith, to her, who because of
her base birth in Canaanitish land was a little dog, He gave as to a child
the bread of the children. And perhaps, also, of the words of Jesus there
are some loaves which it is possible to give to the more rational, as to
children only; and other words, as it were, crumbs from the great house and
table of the wellborn and the masters, which may be used by some souls,
like the dogs. And according to the law of Moses it is written about
certain things, "Ye shall cast them to the dogs,"(1) and it was a matter of
care to the Holy Spirit to give instruction about certain foods that they
should be left to the dogs. Let others, then, who are strangers to the
doctrine of the Church, assume that souls pass from the bodies of men into
the bodies of dogs, according to their varying degree of wickedness; but
we, who do not find this at all in the divine Scripture, say that the more
rational condition changes into one more irrational, undergoing this
affection in consequence of great slothfulness and negligence. But, also,
in the same way, a will which was more irrational, because of its neglect
of reason, sometimes turns and becomes rational, so that that which at one
time was a dog, loving to eat of the crumbs that fell from the table of its
masters, comes into the condition of a son. For virtue contributes greatly
to the making of one a son of God, but wickedness, and mad fury in wanton
discourses and shamelessness, contribute to the giving of a man the name of
dog according to the word of the Scripture.(2) And the like you will also
understand in the case of the other names which are applied to animals
without reason. Only, he who is reproached as a dog and yet is not
indignant at being called unworthy of the bread of children and with all
forbearance repeats the saying of that Canaanitish woman, "Yea, Lord, for
even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters'(3)
table," will obtain the very gentle answer of Jesus saying to him, "Great
is thy faith,"--when he has received so great faith--and saying, "Be it
done unto thee even as thou wilt,"(4) so that he himself may be healed, and
if he has produced any fruit which stands in need of healing, that this,
too, may be cured.

18.CONCERNING THE MULTITUDES WHO WERE HEALED. COMPARISON OF THE MOUNTAIN
WHERE JESUS SAT TO THE CHURCH.

   "And Jesus departed thence,"--manifestly, from what has been said
before, from the parts of Tyre and Sidon,--"and came nigh unto the sea of
Galilee."(5) which is commonly called the Lake of Gennesaret, and again
went up into the mountain where He went up and sat. We may say, then, that
into this mountain where Jesus sits, not only the sound in health go up,
but along with the sound, those also who were suffering from various
disorders. And, perhaps, this mountain to which Jesus went up and sat is
that which is more commonly called the Church, which has been set up
through the word of God over the rest of the world and the men upon it;
whither go not the disciples only, leaving the multitudes as in the case of
the beatitudes, but great multitudes who were not accused themselves of
being deaf or suffering from any affection, but who had such along with
themselves. For you may see, along with the multitudes who come to this
mountain where the Son of God sits, some who have become deaf to the things
promised, and others blind in soul and not looking at the true light, and
others who are lame and not able to walk according to reason, and others
who are maimed and not able to work according to reason. Those,
accordingly, who are suffering in soul from such things, though they go up
along with the multitudes into the mountain where Jesus was, so long as
they are outside of the feet of Jesus, are not healed by Him; but when, as
men suffering from such disorders, they are cast by the multitude at His
feet,(1) and at the extremities of the body of Christ, not being worthy to
obtain such things so far as they themselves are concerned, they are then
healed by Him. And when you see in the congregation of what is more
commonly called the church the catechumens cast behind those who are at the
extreme end of it, and as it were at the feet of the body of Jesus--the
church--coming to it with their own deafness and blindness and lameness and
crookedness, and in time cured according to the Word, you would not err in
saying that such having gone up with the multitudes of the church to the
mountain where Jesus was, are cast at His feet and are healed; so that the
multitude of the church is astonished at beholding transformations which
have taken place from so great evils to that which is better, so that it
might say, those who were formerly dumb afterwards speak the word of God,
and the lame walk, the prophecy of Isaiah being fulfilled, not only in
things bodily but in things spiritual, which said, "Then shall the lame man
leap as an hart, and the tongue of him that hath an impediment in his
speech be plain."(2) And there, unless the expression, "the lame man shall
leap as an hart," is to be taken as accidental, we will say that those
formerly lame, and who now through the power of Jesus leap as an hart are
not without design compared to a hart, which is a clean animal, and hostile
to serpents and cannot at all be injured by their poison. But also, in
respect of the fact that the dumb are seen speaking is the prophecy
fulfilled which said, "And the tongue of him that hath an impediment shall
be plain," or rather that which said, "Hear ye deaf;" but the blind see
according to the prophecy following, "Hear ye deaf, and ye blind look up
that ye may see."(1) Now the blind see, when they see the world and from
the exceeding great beauty of the things created they contemplate the
Creator corresponding in greatness and beauty to them; and when they see
clearly "the invisible things of God Himself from the creation of the
world, which are perceived through the things that are made;"(2) that is,
they see and understand with care and clearness. Now the multitudes seeing
these things, glorified the God of Israel,(3) and glorify Him in the
persuasion that it is the same God, who is the Father of Him who healed
those previously mentioned, and the God of Israel. For He is not the God of
the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.(4) Let us then cause to go up
along with ourselves to the mountain where Jesus sits--His church--those
who wish to go up to it along with us, the deaf, the blind, the lame, the
maimed and many others, and let us cast them at the feet of Jesus that He
may heal them, so that the multitudes are astonished at their healing; for
it is not the disciples who are described as wondering at such things,
although at that time they were present with Jesus, as is manifest from the
words, "And Jesus called unto Him His disciples and said, I have compassion
on the multitudes,"(5) etc.; and perhaps if you attend carefully to the
words, "There came unto Him great multitudes,"(6) you would find that the
disciples at that time did not come to Him, but had begun long ago to
follow Him and followed Him into the mountain. But there came unto Him
those who were inferior to the disciples, and were then for the first time
approaching Him, who had not the same experience as those who had gone up
with them. Observe, moreover, in the Gospel who are described as having
followed Jesus, and who as having come to Him, and who as having been
brought to Him, and the division between those who go before and of those
who follow; and of those who came, who came to Him in the house, and who
when He was elsewhere. For by observation, and by comparing things
spiritual with spiritual, you would find many things worthy of the accurate
wisdom in the Gospels.

19. CONCERNING THE SEVEN LOAVES. THE NARRATIVE OF THE FEEDING OF THE FOUR
THOUSAND COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE FIVE THOUSAND.

   "And Jesus called unto Him His disciples and said."(1) Above in the
similar history to this about the loaves, before the loaves are spoken of,
"Jesus came forth and saw a great multitude and had compassion upon them
and healed their sick. And when even was come the disciples came to Him
saying, The place is desert and the time is already past, send them
away,"(2) etc. But now after the healing of the deaf and the rest, He takes
compassion on the multitude which had continued with Him now three days and
had nothing to eat. And there the disciples make request concerning the
five thousand;(3) but here He speaks of His own accord about the four
thousand.(4) Those, too, are fed when it was evening after they had spent a
day with Him; but these, who are testified to have continued with Him three
days, partake of the loaves lest they might faint by the way. And there the
disciples say to Him when He was not inquiring, that they had only five
loaves and two fishes; but here to Him making inquiry, they give answer
about the seven loaves and the few small fishes. And there He commands the
multitudes to sit down or lie upon the grass; for Luke also wrote, "Make
them sit down,"(5) and Mark says, "He commanded them all to sit down;"(6)
but here He does not command but proclaims(7) to the multitude to sit down.
Again, there, the three Evangelists say in the very same words that "He
took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to heaven He
blessed;"(8) but here, as Matthew and Mark have written, "Jesus gave thanks
and brake;"(9) there, they recline upon the grass, but here they sit down
upon the ground. You will moreover investigate in the accounts in the
different places the variation found in John, who wrote in regard to that
transaction that Jesus said, "Make the men sit down,"(1) and that, having
given thanks, He gave of the loaves to them that were set down, but he did
not mention this miracle at all.(2) Attending, then, to the difference of
those things which are written in the various places in regard to the
loaves, I think that these belong to a different order from those;
wherefore these are fed in a mountain, and those in a desert place; and
these after they had continued three days with Jesus, but those one day, on
the evening of which they were fed. And further, unless it be the same
thing for Jesus to do a thing of Himself and to act after having heard from
the disciples, consider if those to whom Jesus shows kindness are not
superior when He fed them on the spot with a view to showing them kindness.
And, if according to John,(3) they were barley loaves of which the twelve
baskets remained over, but nothing of this kind is said about these, how
are not these superior to the former? And the sick of those He healed,(4)
but here He heals these, along with the multitudes, who were not sick but
blind, and lame, and deaf, and maimed; wherefore also in regard to these
the four thousand marvel,(5) but in regard to the sick no such thing is
said. And these I think who ate of the seven loaves for which thanks were
given, are superior to those who ate of the five which were blessed; and
these who ate the few little fishes to those who ate of the two, and
perhaps also these who sat down upon the ground to those who sat down on
the grass. And those from fewer loaves leave twelve baskets, but these from
a greater number leave seven baskets, inasmuch, as they were able to
receive more. And perhaps these tread upon all earthly things and sit down
upon them, but those upon the grass--upon their flesh only--for "all flesh
is grass."(1) Consider also after this, that Jesus does not wish to send
them away fasting lest they faint on the way, as being without the loaves
of Jesus, and while they were still on the way--the way to their own
concerns--might suffer injury. Take note also of the cases where Jesus is
recorded to have sent any one away, that you may see the difference of
those who were sent away by Him after being fed, and those who had been
sent away otherwise; and, as a pattern of one who was sent away otherwise,
take "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity."(2) But further the
disciples who are always with Jesus are not sent away by Him; but the
multitudes after they have eaten are sent away. Likewise, again, the
disciples who conceive nothing great about the Canaanitish woman say, "Send
her away, for she crieth after us;"(3) but the Saviour does not at all
appear to send her away; for saying unto her, "O woman, great is thy faith,
be it done to thee even as thou wilt,"(4) He healed her daughter from that
hour: it is not however written that He sent her away. So far at the
present time have we been able to investigate and see into the passage
before us.

BOOK XII.

1. CONCERNING THOSE WHO ASKED HIM TO SHOW THEM A SIGN FROM HEAVEN,

   "And the Sadducees and Pharisees came, and tempting Him kept asking Him
to shew them a sign from heaven."(6) The Sadducees and Pharisees who
disagreed with each other in regard to the most essential truths,--for the
Pharisees champion the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, hoping
that there will be a world to come, while the Sadducees know nothing after
this life in store for a man whether he has been advancing towards virtue,
or has made no effort at all to come out from the mountains of wickedness,-
-these, I say, agree that they may tempt Jesus. Now, a similar thing, as
Luke has narrated,(5) happened in the case of Herod and Pilate, who became
friends with one another that they might kill Jesus; for, perhaps, their
hostility with one another would have prevented Herod from asking that He
should be put to death, in order to please the people, who said, "Crucify
Him, Crucify Him,"(6) and would have influenced Pilate, who was somewhat
inclined against His condemnation, his hostility with Herod giving fresh
impulse to the inclination which he previously cherished to release Jesus.
But their apparent friendship made Herod stronger in his demand against
Jesus with Pilate, who wished, perhaps, also because of the newly-formed
friendship to do something to gratify Herod and all the nation of the Jews.
And often even now you may see in daily life those who hold the most
divergent opinions, whether in the philosophy of the Greeks or in other
systems of thought, appearing to be of one mind that they may scoff at and
attack Jesus Christ in the person of His disciples. And from these things I
think you may go on by rational argument to consider, whether when forces
join in opposition which are in disagreement with one another, as of
Pharaoh with Nebuchadnezzar,(1) and of Tirhakah, king of the Ethiopians,
with Sennacherib,(2) a combination then takes place against Jesus and His
people. So perhaps, also, "The kings of the earth set themselves and the
rulers were gathered together,"(3) though not at all before at harmony with
one another, that having taken counsel against the Lord and His Christ.
they might slay the Lord of glory.

2. WHY THE PHARISEES ASKED A SIGN FROM HEAVEN.

    Now, to this point we have come in our discourse, because of the
Pharisees and Sadducees coming together unto Jesus, who disagreed in
matters relating to the resurrection, but came, as it were, to an agreement
for the sake of tempting our Saviour, and asking Him to show them a sign
froth heaven. For, not satisfied with the wonderful signs shown among the
people in the healing of all forms of disease and sickness, and with the
rest of the miracles which our Saviour had done in the knowledge of many,
they wished Him to show to them also a sign from heaven. And I conjecture
that they suspected that the signs upon earth might possibly not be of God;
for they did not hesitate indeed to say, "Jesus casts out demons by
Beelzebub the prince of the demons;"(4) and it seemed to them that a sign
from heaven could not spring from Beelzebub or any other wicked power. But
they erred in regard to both, in regard to signs upon earth as well as to
signs from heaven, not being "approved money-changers,"(5) nor knowing how
to distinguish between the spirits that are working, which kind are from
God, and which have revolted from Him. And they ought to have known that
even many of the portents wrought against Egypt in the time of Moses,
though they were not from heaven, were clearly from God, and that the fire
which fell from heaven upon the sheep of Job was not from God;(1) for that
fire belonged to the same one as he to whom belonged those who carried off,
and made three bands of horsemen against, the cattle of Job. I think,
moreover, that in Isaiah--as if signs could be shown both from the earth
and from heaven, the true being from God, but "with all power and signs and
lying wonders"(2) those from the evil one--it was said to Ahaz, "Ask for
thyself a sign from the Lord thy God in the depth or in the height."(3)
For, unless there had been some signs in the depth or in the height which
were not from the Lord God, this would not have been said, "Ask for thyself
a sign from the Lord thy God in the depth or in the height." But I know
well that such an interpretation of the passage, "Ask for thyself a sign
from the Lord thy God," will seem to some one rather forced; but give heed
to that which is said by the Apostle about the man of sin, the son of
perdition, that, "with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all
deceit of unrighteousness,"(4) he shall be manifested to them that are
perishing, imitating all kinds of wonders, to-wit, those of truth. And as
the enchanters and magicians of the Egyptians, as being inferior to the man
of sin and the son of perdition, imitated certain powers, both the signs
and wonders of truth, doing lying wonders so that the true might not be
believed; so I think the man of sin will imitate signs and powers. And
perhaps, also, the Pharisees suspected these things because of the
prophecies concerning Him; but I inquire whether also the Sadducees
tempting Him asked Jesus to show them a sign from heaven. For unless we say
that they suspected this, how shall we describe their relation to the
portents which Jesus wrought, who continued hard-hearted and were not put
to shame by the miraculous things that were done? But if any one supposes
that we have given an occasion of defence to the Pharisees and Sadducees,
both when they say that the demons were cast out by Jesus through
Beelzebub, and when tempting Him, they ask Jesus about a heavenly sign, let
him know that we plausibly say that they were drawn away to the end that
they might not believe in the miracles of Jesus; but not as to deserve
forgiveness; for they did not look to the words of the prophets which were
being fulfilled in the acts of Jesus, which an evil power was not at all
capable of imitating. But to bring back a soul which had gone out, so that
it came out of the grave when already stinking and passing the fourth
day,(1) was the work of no other than Him who heard the word of the Father,
"Let us make man after our image and likeness."(2) But also to command the
winds and to make the violence of the sea cease at a word, was the work of
no other than Him through whom all things, both the sea itself and the
winds, have come into being. Moreover also as to the teaching which
stimulates men to the love of the Creator, in harmony with the law and the
prophets, and which checks passions and moulds morals according to piety,
what else did it indicate to such as were able to see. than that He was
truly the Son of God who wrought works so mighty? In respect of which
things He said also to the disciples of John, "Go your way and tell John
what great things ye see and hear; the blind receive their sight," etc.(3)

3. THE ANSWER OF JESUS TO THEIR REQUEST.

   Next let us remark in what way, when asked in regard to one sign, that
He might show it from heaven, to the Pharisees and Sadducees who put the
question, He answers and says, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign, and there shall be no sign given to it, but the sign of Jonah
the prophet," when also, "He left them and departed."(4) But the sign of
Jonah, in truth, according to their question, was not merely a sign but
also a sign from heaven; so that even to those who tempted Him and sought a
sign from heaven He, nevertheless, out of His own great goodness gave the
sign. For if, as Jonah passed three days and three nights in the whale's
belly, so the Son of man did in the heart of the earth, and after this rose
up from it,--whence but from heaven shall we say that the sign of the
resurrection of Christ came? And especially when, at the time of the
passion, He became a sign to the robber who obtained favour from Him to
enter into the paradise of God; after this, I think, descending into Hades
to the dead, "as free among the dead."(5) And the Saviour seems to me to
conjoin the sign which was to come from Himself with the reason of the sign
in regard to Jonah when He says, not merely that a sign like to that is
granted by Him but that very sign; for attend to the words, "And there
shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet."(1)
Accordingly that sign was this sign, because that became indicative of
this, so that the elucidation of that sign, which was obscure on the face
of it, might be found in the fact that the Saviour suffered, and passed
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. At the same time
also we learn the general principle that, if the sign signifies something,
each of the signs which are recorded, whether as in actual history, or by
way of precept, is indicative of something afterwards fulfilled; as for
example, the sign of Jonah going out after three days from the whale's
belly was indicative of the resurrection of our Saviour, rising after three
days and three nights from the dead; and that which is called circumcision
is the sign of that which is indicated by Paul in the words: "We are the
circumcision."(2) Seek you also every sign in the Old Scriptures as
indicative of some passage in the New Scripture, and that which is named a
sign in the New Covenant as indicative of something either in the age about
to be, or even in the subsequent generations after that the sign has taken
place.

4. WHY JESUS CALLED THEM AN ADULTEROUS GENERATION, THE LAW AS HUSBAND.

   And He called them, indeed, "an evil generation," because of the
quality arising from evil which had been produced in them, for wickedness
is voluntary evil-doing, but "adulterous" because that when the Pharisees
and Sadducees left that which is figuratively called man, the word of truth
or the law, they were debauched by falsehood and the law of sin. For if
there are two laws, the law in our members warring against the law of the
mind, and the law of the mind,(3) we must say that the law of the mind--
that is, the spiritual--is man, to whom the soul was given by God as wife,
that is, to the man who is law, according to what is written, "A wife is
married to a man by God;"(4) but the other is a paramour of the soul which
is subject to it, which also on account of it is called an adulteress. Now
that the law is husband of the soul Paul clearly exhibits in the Epistle to
the Romans, saying, "The law hath dominion over a man for so long time as
he liveth; for the woman that hath a husband is bound to the husband while
he liveth, to the husband who is law,"(1) etc. For consider in these things
that the law hath dominion over the man so long time as the law liveth,--as
a husband over a wife. "For the woman that hath a husband," that is, the
soul under the law, "is bound to the husband while he liveth," to the
husband who is the law; but if the husband--that is, the law die--she is
discharged from the law, which is her husband. Now the law dies to him who
has gone up to the condition of blessedness, and no longer lives under the
law, but acts like to Christ, who, though He became under law for the sake
of those under law, that He might gain those under law,' did not continue
under law, nor did He leave subject to law those who had been freed by Him;
for He led them up along with Himself to the divine citizenship which is
above the law, which contains, as for the imperfect and such as are still
sinners, sacrifices for the remission of sins. He then who is without sin,
and stands no longer in need of legal sacrifices, perhaps when he has
become perfect has passed beyond even the spiritual law, and comes to the
Word beyond it, who became flesh to those who live in the flesh, but to
those who no longer at all war after the flesh, He is perceived as being
the Word, as(3) He was God in the beginning with God, and reveals the
Father. Three things therefore are to be thought of in connection with this
place--the woman that hath a husband, who is under a husband--the law; and
the woman who is an adulteress, to-wit, the soul, which, while her husband,
the law, liveth, has become joined to another husband, namely, the law of
the flesh; and the woman who is married to the brother of the dead husband,
to the Word who is alive and dies not, who "being raised from the dead
dieth no more, for death hath no more dominion over Him."(4) So far then
because of the saying, "But if the husband die she is discharged from the
law, the husband," and because of this, "so then, while her husband liveth,
she shall be called an adulteress, if she be joined to another man," and
because of this, "but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that
she is no adulteress though she be joined to another man."(5) But this very
saying, "So then while her husband liveth, she shall be called an
adulteress," we have brought forward, wishing clearly to show why in answer
to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were tempting Him and asking Him to show
them a sign from heaven, He said not only "a wicked generation," but an
"adulterous" generation.(1) In a general way, then, the law in the members
which wars against the law of the mind,(2) as a man who is an adulterer, is
an adulterer of the soul. But now also every power that is hostile, which
gains the mastery over the human soul, and has intercourse with it, commits
adultery with her who had a bridegroom given to her by God, namely, the
Word. After these things it is written that "He left them and departed."
For how was the bridegroom--the Word--not going to leave the adulterous
generation and depart from it? But you might say that the Word of God,
leaving the synagogue of the Jews as adulterous, departed from it, and took
a wife of fornication,(3) namely, those from the Gentiles; since those who
were "Sion, a faithful city,"(4) have become harlots; but these have become
like the harlot Rahab, who received the spies of Joshua, and was saved with
all her house;(5) after this no longer playing the harlot, but coming to
the feet of Jesus, and wetting them with the tears of repentance, and
anointing them with the fragrance of the ointment of holy conversation, on
account of whom, reproaching Simon the leper,--the former people,--He spoke
those things which are written.(6)

5.CONCERNING THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES.

   "And His disciples came to the other side and forgot to take
loaves."(7) Since the loaves which they had before they came to the other
side were no longer useful to the disciples when they came to the other
side, for they needed one kind of loaves before they crossed and a
different kind when they crossed,--on this account, being careless of
taking loaves when going to the other side, they forgot to take loaves with
them. To the other side then came the disciples of Jesus who had passed
over from things material to things spiritual, and from things sensible to
those which are intellectual. And perhaps that He might turn back those
who, by crossing to the other side, "had begun in spirit,"(8) from running
back to carnal things, Jesus said to them when on the other side, "Take
heed and beware."(9) For there was a certain lump of teaching and of truly
ancient leaven,--that according to the bare letter, and on this account not
freed from those things which arise from wickedness,--which the Pharisees
and Sadducees offered, of which Jesus does not wish His own disciples any
longer to eat, having made for them a new and spiritual lump, offering
Himself to those who gave up the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees and
had come to Him--"the living bread which came down from heaven and gives
life to the world."(1) But since, to him who is no longer going to use the
leaven and the lump and the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
the first thing is to "see" and then to "beware," so that no one, by reason
of not seeing and from want of taking heed, may ever partake of their
forbidden leaven,--on this account He says to the disciples, first, "see,"
and then, "beware." It is the mark of the clear-sighted and careful to
separate the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees and every food that is
not of "the unleavened-bread of sincerity and truth"(2) from the living
bread, even that which came down from heaven, so that no one who eats may
adopt the things of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but by eating the
living and true bread may strengthen his soul. And we might seasonably
apply the saying to those who, along with the Christian way of life, prefer
to live as the Jews, materially, for these do not see nor beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, but, contrary to the will of Jesus
who forbade it, eat the bread of the Pharisees. Yea and also all, who do
not wish to understand that the law is spiritual, and has a shadow of the
good things to come,(3) and is a shadow of the things to come,(4) neither
inquire of what good thing about to be each of the laws is a shadow, nor do
they see nor beware of the leaven of the Pharisees; and they also who
reject the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead are not on their guard
against the leaven of the Sadducees. And there are many among the heterodox
who, because of their unbelief in regard to the resurrection of the dead,
are imbued with the leaven of the Sadducees. Now, while Jesus said these
things, the disciples reasoned, saying not aloud, but in their own hearts,
"We took no loaves."(5) And something like this was what they said, "If we
had loaves we would not have had to take of the leaven of the Pharisees and
the Sadducees; but since, from want of loaves, we run the risk of taking
from their leaven, while the Saviour does not wish us to run back to their
teaching, therefore He said to us, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees and the Sadducees."(1) And these things then they reasoned;
Jesus, while looking to that which was in their hearts, and hearing the
reasons in them, as the true overseer of hearts, reproves them because they
did not see nor remember the loaves which they received from Him; on
account of which, even when they appeared to be in want of loaves, they did
not need the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

6. THE MEANING OF LEAVEN. JESUS' KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEART.

   Then expounding clearly and representing to them, who were being
distracted because of the equivocal meaning of loaf and leaven, in an
undisguised fashion, that He was not speaking to them about sensible bread
but about the leaven in the teaching, He subjoins, "How is it that ye do
not perceive that I spake not you concerning bread? But beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."(2) And though He had not laid
bare the interpretation, but still continued to use metaphorical language,
the disciples would have understood that the discourse of the Saviour was
about the teaching, figuratively called leaven, which the Pharisees and
Sadducees were teaching. So long, then, as we have Jesus with us fulfilling
the promise which runs, "Lo, I am with you always unto the consummation of
the age,"(3) we cannot fast nor be in want of food, so that, because of
want of it we should desire to take and eat the forbidden leaven, even from
the Pharisees and Sadducees. Now there may sometimes be a time, when He is
with us, that we are without food, as is spoken of in the passage above,
"They continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat;"(4) but,
even though this should happen, being unwilling to send us away fasting
lest we faint on the way, He gives thanks over the loaves which were with
the disciples, and causes us to have the seven baskets over from the seven
loaves, as we have recorded. And moreover this also is to be observed, in
view of those who think that the divinity of the Saviour is not at all
demonstrable from the Gospel of Matthew, that the fact that, when the
disciples were reasoning among themselves and saying, "We have no loaves,"
Jesus knew their reasonings and said, "Why reason ye among yourselves, O ye
of little faith, because ye took no loaves,"(1) was beyond the power of
man; for the Lord alone, as Solomon says in the third Book of Kings, knows
the hearts of men.(2) But since the disciples understood, when Jesus said,
"Beware of the leaven,"(3) that He did not tell them to beware of the
loaves but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, you will
understand that whenever leaven is named it is put figuratively for
teaching, whether in the law, or in the Scriptures which come after the
law; and so perhaps leaven is not offered upon the altar; for it is not
right that prayers should take the form of teaching, but should only be
supplications of good things from God. But one might inquire, on account of
what has been said about disciples who came to the other side, if any one
who has reached the other side can be reproached as one of little faith,
and as not yet understanding nor remembering what was done by Jesus. But it
is not difficult, I think, to say to this, that in relation to that which
is perfect, on the coming of which "that which is in part shall be done
away,"(4) all our faith here is little faith, and in regard to that, we who
know in part do not yet know nor remember; for we are not able to obtain a
memory which is sufficient and able to attain to the magnitude of the
nature of the speculations.

7. RELATIVE MAGNITUDE OF SINS OF THE HEART AND ACTUAL SINS.

   But we may also learn from this, that in respect of the reasonings only
which we reason within ourselves, we are sometimes convicted and reproached
as being of tittle faith. And I think that just as a man commits adultery
in his heart only, though not proceeding altogether to the overt act, so he
commits in his heart the rest of the things which are forbidden. As then he
who has committed adultery in his heart will be punished proportionately to
adultery of this kind, so also he who has done in his heart any one of the
things forbidden, for example, who has stolen in his heart only, or borne
false witness in his heart only, will not be punished as he who has stolen
in fact, or who has completed the very act of false testimony, but only as
he who has done such things in his heart. There is also the case of the man
who while he did not arrive at the evil action, came short of it in spite
of his own will. For if, in addition to willing it, he has attempted it,
but not carried it out, he will be punished not as one who has sinned in
his heart alone but in deed. To questions of this sort one might ask,
whether any one commits adultery in his heart, even if he does not do the
deed of adultery, but lacks self-control in heart only. And the like also
you will say concerning the rest of things which are deserving of praise.
But the passage possibly contains a plausible fallacy which must be cleared
away, I think, in this manner: adultery which takes place in the heart is a
less sin, than if one were also to add to it the act. But it is impossible
that there can be chastity in the heart, hindering the chaste action--
unless indeed one brings forward for an illustration of this the case of
the virgin who according to the law was violated in solitude;(1) for it may
be granted that the heart of any one may be most pure,(2) but that force in
a matter of licentiousness has caused the corruption of the body of her who
was chaste. In truth she seems to me to be altogether chaste in secret
heart, hut no longer to be pure in body such as she was before the act of
violence; but though she is not pure outwardly, is she therefore now also
unchaste? I have said these things because of the words, "They reasoned
among themselves saying, We took no loaves," to which is added, "And Jesus
perceiving it, said, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among
yourselves,"(3) etc.; for it was necessary that investigation should be
made in regard to the censure of things in secret and correlatively to the
praise of things in secret.

8. THE LEAVEN FIGURATIVE LIKE THE WATER SPOKEN OF BY JESUS TO THE WOMAN OF
SAMARIA.

   But I wonder if the disciples thought, before the saying was explained
to them by Jesus, that their Teacher and Lord was forbidding them to beware
of the sensible leaven of the Pharisees or the Sadducees as impure, and on
this account forbidden, lest they might use that leaven because they had
not taken loaves. And we might make a like inquiry in regard to other
things; but by-way of illustration the narrative about the woman of Samaria
sufficeth, "Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst."(4) For there, also, so far as the mere form of expression is
concerned, the Samaritan woman would seem to have thought that the Saviour
was giving a promise about sensible water, when He said, "Whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." And those
things then must be figuratively interpreted, and we must examine and
compare the water of the spring of Jacob from which the woman of Samaria
drew water with the water of Jesus; and here the like must be done; for
perhaps the loaves were not baked, but a kind of raw leaven solely, the
teaching, namely, of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

9. CONCERNING THE QUESTION OF JESUS IN CAESAREA, WHO DO MEN SAY THAT I AM?
DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS OF JESUS.

   "Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His
disciples."(1) Jesus inquires of the disciples, "Who do men say that I am,"
that we may learn from the answer of the Apostles the different conceptions
then held among the Jews in regard to our Saviour; and perhaps also that
the disciples of Jesus might learn to be interested in knowing what is said
by men about them;(2) because that will be an advantage to them who do it,
by cutting off in every way occasions of evil if anything evil is spoken
of, and by increasing the incitements to good, if anything good is spoken
of. Only, observe how, on account of the different movements of opinion
among the Jews about Jesus, some, under the influence of unsound theories,
said that He was John the Baptist. like Herod the tetrarch who said to his
servants, "This is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, and
therefore do the powers work in him;"(3) but others that He who was now
called Jesus was Elijah, either having been born a second time, or living
from that time in the flesh, and appearing at the present time. But those
who said that Jesus was Jeremiah, and not that Jeremiah was a type of the
Christ, were perhaps influenced by what is said in the beginning of
Jeremiah about Christ, which was not fulfilled in the prophet at that time,
but was beginning to be fulfilled in Jesus, whom "God set up over nations
and kingdoms to root up, and to break down, and to destroy, and to build
up, and to transplant,"(4) having made Him to be a prophet to the Gentiles
to whom He proclaimed the word. Moreover also those who said, "that he was
a certain one of the prophets,"(1) conceived this opinion concerning Him
because of those things which had been said in the prophets as unto them,
but which had not been fulfilled in their case. But also the Jews, as
worthy of the veil which was upon their heart, held false opinions
concerning Jesus; while Peter as not a disciple "of flesh and blood,"(2)
but as one fit to receive the revelation of the Father in heaven, confessed
that He was the Christ. The saying of Peter to the Saviour, "Thou art the
Christ," when the Jews did not know that He was Christ, was indeed a great
thing, but greater that he knew Him not only to be Christ, but also "the
Son of the living God,"(3) who had also said through the prophets, "I
live,"(4) and "They have forsaken Me the spring of living water;"(5)--and
He is life also, as from the Father the spring of life, who said, "I am the
Life;"(6) And consider carefully, whether, as the spring of the river is
not the same thing as the river, the spring of life is not the same as
life. And these things we have added because to the saying, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of God," was subjoined the word "living;"(7) for it was
necessary to set forth something noteworthy in regard to that which is said
about God and the Father of all things as living, both in relation to His
absolute life, and in relation to those things which participate in it. But
since we said that they were under the influence of unsound opinions who
declared that Jesus was John the Baptist, or any one of those named, in
saying this let us prove that if they had fallen in with Jesus as He was
going away to John for baptism, or with John when he was baptizing Jesus,
or if they had heard it from any one, they would not have said that Jesus
was John. But also if they had understood the opinions under the influence
of which Jesus said, "If ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah which
is to come."(8) and had heard what was said, as men having ears, some would
not have said that He was Elijah. And if those who said that He was
Jeremiah had perceived that the most of the prophets took upon themselves
certain features that were symbolical of Him, they would not have said that
He was Jeremiah; and in like manner the others would not have said that He
was one of the prophets.

10. THE ANSWER OF PETER.

   And perhaps that which Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God,"(1) if we say it as Peter, not by flesh
and blood revealing it unto us, but by the light from the Father in heaven
shining in our heart, we too become as Peter, being pronounced blessed as
he was, because that the grounds on which he was pronounced blessed apply
also to us, by reason of the fact that flesh and blood have not revealed to
us with regard to Jesus that He is Christ, the Son of the living God, but
the Father in heaven, from the very heavens, that our citizenship may be in
heaven,(2) revealing to us the revelation which carries up to heaven those
who take away every veil from the heart, and receive "the spirit of the
wisdom and revelation" of God.(3) And if we too have said like Peter, "Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God," not as if flesh and blood had
revealed it unto us, but by light from the Father in heaven having shone in
our heart, we become a Peter, and to us there might be said by the Word,
"Thou art Peter," etc.(4) For a rock(5) is every disciple of Christ of whom
those drank who drank of the spiritual rock which followed them,(6) and
upon every such rock is built every word of the church, add the polity in
accordance with it; for in each of the perfect, who have the combination of
words and deeds and thoughts which fill up the blessedness, is the church
built by God.

11.THE PROMISE GIVEN TO PETER NOT RESTRICTED TO HIM, BUT APPLICABLE TO ALL
DISCIPLES LIKE HIM.

   But if you suppose that upon that one Peter only the whole church is
built by God, what would you say about John the son of thunder or each one
of the Apostles? Shall we otherwise dare to say, that against Peter in
particular the gates of Hades shall not prevail, but that they shall
prevail against the other Apostles and the perfect? Does not the saying
previously made, "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,"(7) hold
in regard to all and in the case of each of them? And also the saying,
"Upon this rock I will build My church"?(8) Are the keys of the kingdom of
heaven given by the Lord to Peter only, and will no other of the blessed
receive them? But if this promise, "I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven,"(9) be common to the others, how shall not all the
things previously spoken of, and the things which are subjoined as having
been addressed to Peter, be common to them? For in this place these words
seem to be addressed as to Peter only, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven,"(1) etc; but in the Gospel of John the Saviour
having given the Holy Spirit unto the disciples by breathing upon them
said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit,"(2) etc. Many then will say to the
Saviour, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;" but not all who
say this will say it to Him, as not at all having learned it by the
revelation of flesh and blood but by the Father in heaven Himself taking
away the veil that lay upon their heart, in order that after this "with
unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord"(3) they may
speak through the Spirit of God saying concerning Him, "Lord Jesus," and to
Him, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."(4) And if any one
says this to Him, not by flesh and blood revealing it unto Him but through
the Father in heaven, he will obtain the things that were spoken according
to the letter of the Gospel to that Peter, but, as the spirit of the Gospel
teaches, to every one who becomes such as that Peter was. For all bear the
surname of "rock" who are the imitators of Christ, that is, of the
spiritual rock which followed those who are being saved,(5) that they may
drink from it the spiritual draught. But these bear the surname of the rock
just as Christ does. But also as members of Christ deriving their surname
from Him they are called Christians, and from the rock, Peters. And taking
occasion from these things you will say that the righteous bear the surname
of Christ who is Righteousness, and the wise of Christ who is Wisdom.(6)
And so in regard to all His other names, you will apply them by way of
surname to the saints; and to all such the saying of the Saviour might be
spoken, "Thou art Peter," etc., down to the words, "prevail against it."
But what is the "it"? Is it the rock upon which Christ builds the church,
or is it the church? For the phrase is ambiguous. Or is it as if the rock
and the church were one and the same? This I think to be true; for neither
against the rock on which Christ builds the church, nor against the church
will the gates of Hades prevail; just as the way of a serpent upon a rock,
according to what is written in the Proverbs,(7) cannot be found. Now, if
the gates of Hades prevail against any one, such an one cannot be a rock
upon which Christ builds the church, nor the church built by Jesus upon the
rock; for the rock is inaccessible to the serpent, and it is stronger than
the gates of Hades which are opposing it, so that because of its strength
the gates of Hades do not prevail against it; but the church, as a building
of Christ who built His own house wisely upon the rock,(1) is incapable of
admitting the gates of Hades which prevail against every man who is outside
the rock and the church, but have no power against it.

12. EVERY SIN--EVERY FALSE DOCTRINE IS A "GATE OF HADES."

   But when we have understood how each of the sins through which there is
a way to Hades(2) is a gate of Hades, we shall apprehend that the soul,
which has "spot or wrinkle or any such thing,"(3) and because of wickedness
is neither holy nor blameless, is neither a rock upon which Christ builds,
nor a church, nor part of a church which Christ builds upon the rock. But
if any one wishes to put us(4) to shame in regard to these things because
of the great majority of those of the church who are thought to believe, it
must be said to him not only "Many are called, but few chosen;"(5) but also
that which was said by the Saviour to those who come to Him, as it is
recorded in Luke in these words, "Strive to enter in by the narrow door,
for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in through the narrow door
and shall not be able;"(6) and also that which is written in the Gospel of
Matthew thus, "For narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth
unto life, and few be they that find it."(7) Now, if you attend to the
saying, "Many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in and shall not be
able,"(6) you will understand that this refers to those who boast that they
are of the church, but live weakly and contrary to the word. Of those,
then, who seek to enter in, those who are not able to enter will not be
able to do so, because the gates of Hades prevail against them; but in the
case of those against whom the gates of Hades will not prevail, those
seeking to enter in will be strong, being able to do all things, in Christ
Jesus, who strengtheneth them.(8) And in like manner each one of those who
are the authors of any evil opinion has become the architect of a certain
gate of Hades ;but those who co-operate with the teaching of the architect
of such things are servants and stewards, who are the bond-servants of the
evil doctrine which goes to build up impiety. And though the gates of Hades
are many and almost innumerable, no gate of Hades will prevail against the
rock or against the church which Christ builds upon it. Notwithstanding,
these gates have a certain power by which they gain the mastery over some
who do not resist and strive against them; but they are overcome by others
who, because they do not turn aside from Him who said, "I am the door,"(1)
have rased from their soul all the gates of Hades. And this also we must
know that as the gates of cities have each their own names, in the same way
the gates of Hades might be named after the species of sins; so that one
gate of Hades is called "fornication," through which fornicators go, and
another "denial," through which the deniers of God go down into Hades. And
likewise already each of the heterodox and of those who have begotten any
"knowledge which is falsely so called,"(2) has built a gate of Hades--
Marcion one gate, and Basilides another, and Valentinus another.

13. THE "GATES OF HADES" AND THE "GATES OF ZION" CONTRASTED.

   In this place, then, the gates of Hades are spoken of; but in the
Psalms the prophet gives thanks saying, "He who lifteth me up from the
gates of death that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the
daughter of Zion."(3) And from this we learn that it is never possible for
any one to be fit to declare the praises of God, unless he has been lifted
up from the gates of death, and has come to the gates of Zion. Now the
gates of Zion may be conceived as opposed to the gates of death, so that
there is one gate of death, dissoluteness, but a gate of Zion, self-
control; and so a gate of death, unrighteousness, but a gate of Zion,
righteousness, which the prophet shows forth saying, "This is the gate of
the Lord, the righteous shall enter into it."(4) And again there is
cowardice, a gate of death, but manly courage, a gate of Zion; and want of
prudence, a gate of death, but its opposite, prudence, a gate of Zion. But
to all the gates of the "knowledge which is falsely so called"(2) one gate
is opposed, the gate of knowledge which is free from falsehood. But
consider if, because of the saying, "our wrestling is not against flesh and
blood,"(1) etc., you can say that each power and world-ruler of this
darkness, and each one of the "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places"(2) is a gate of Hades and a gate of death. Let, then, the
principalities and powers with which our wrestling is, be called gates of
Hades, but the "ministering spirits"(3) gates of righteousness. But as in
the case of the better things many gates are first spoken of, and after the
gates, one, in the passage, "Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will
enter into them, and will make full confession to the Lord," and "this is
the gate of the Lord, by it the righteous shall enter;"(4) so also in the
case of those gates which are opposed, many are the gates of Hades and
death, each a power; but over all these the wicked one himself. And let us
take heed in regard to each sin, as if we were descending into some gate of
death if we sin; but when we are lifted up from the gates of death let us
declare all the praises of the Lord in the gates of the daughter of Zion;
as, for example, in one gate of the daughter of Zion--that which is called
self-control--we will declare by our self-control the praises of God; and
in another which is called righteousness, by righteousness we will declare
the praises of God; and, generally, in all things whatsoever of a
praiseworthy character with which we are; occupied, in these we are at some
gate of the daughter of Zion, declaring at each gate some praise of God.
But we must make inquiry whether in one of the Twelve(5) it is said, "They
hated him that reproveth in the gates, and they loathed the holy word."(6)
Perhaps, then, he who reproves in the gates is of the gates of the daughter
of Zion, reproving those who are in sins which are opposed to this gate,
even of the gates of Hades or death. But if ye do not so understand the
words, "They hated him that reproveth in the gates," either the expression
"in the gates" will be held to be superfluous, or investigate how that
which is said can be worthy of the prophetic spirit.

14.IN WHAT SENSE THE "KEYS" ARE GIVEN TO PETER, AND EVERY PETER.
LIMITATIONS OF THIS POWER.

   And after this let us see in what sense it is said to Peter, and to
every Peter, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."(7)
And, in the first place, I think that the saying, "I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven," is spoken in consistency with the
words, "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."(1) For he is
worthy to receive from the same Word the keys of the kingdom of heaven, who
is fortified against the gates of Hades so that they do not prevail against
him, receiving, as it were, for a prize, the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
because the gates of Hades had no power against him, that he might open for
himself the gates that were closed to those who had been conquered by the
gates of Hades. And he enters in, as a temperate man, through an opened
gate--the gate of temperance--by the key which opens temperance; and, as a
righteous man, by another gate--the gate of righteousness--which is opened
by the key of righteousness; and so with the rest of the virtues. For I
think that for every virtue of knowledge certain mysteries of wisdom
corresponding to the species of the virtue are opened up to him who has
lived according to virtue; the Saviour giving to those who are not mastered
by the gates of Hades as many keys as there are virtues, which open gates
equal in number, which correspond to each virtue according to the
revelation of the mysteries. And perhaps, also, each virtue is a kingdom of
heaven, and all together are a kingdom of the heavens; so that according to
this he is already in the kingdom of the heavens who lives according to the
virtues, so that according to this the saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand,"(2) is to be referred, not to the time, but to deeds and
dispositions; for Christ, who is all virtue, has come, and speaks, and on
account of this the kingdom of God is within His disciples, and not here or
there.(3) But consider how great power the rock has upon which the church
is built by Christ, and how great power every one has who says, "Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God," so that the judgments of this man
abide sure, as if God were judging in him, that in the very act of judging
the gates of Hades shall not prevail against him. But when one judges
unrighteously, and does not bind upon earth according to the Word of God,
nor loose upon earth according to His will, the gates of Hades prevail
against him; but, in the case of any one against whom the gates of Hades do
not prevail, this man judges righteously. Wherefore he has the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, opening to those who have been loosed on earth that they
may be also loosed in heaven, and free; and shutting to those who by his
just judgment have been bound on earth that they also may be bound in
heaven, and condemned. But when those who maintain the function of the
episcopate make use of this word as Peter, and, having received the keys of
the kingdom of heaven from the Saviour, teach that things bound by them,
that is to say, condemned, are also bound in heaven, and that those which
have obtained remission by them are also loosed in heaven, we must say that
they speak wholesomely if they have the way of life on account of which it
was said to that Peter, "Thou art Peter;"(1) and if they are such that upon
them the church is built by Christ, and to them with good reason this could
be referred; and the gates of Hades ought not to prevail against him when
he wishes to bind and loose. But if he is tightly bound with the cords of
his sins,(2) to no purpose does he bind and loose. And perhaps you can say
that in the heavens which are in the wise man--that, is the virtues,--the
bad man is bound; and again in these the virtuous man is loosed, and has
received an indemnity for the sins which he committed before his virtue.
But, as the man, who has not the cords of sins nor iniquities compared to a
"long rope or to the strap of the yoke of a heifer,"(3) not even God could
bind, in like manner, no Peter, whoever he may be; and if any one who is
not a Peter, and does not possess the things here spoken of, imagines as a
Peter that he will so bind on earth that the things bound are bound in
heaven, and will so loose on earth that the things loosed are loosed in
heaven, he is puffed up, not understanding the meaning of the Scriptures,
and, being puffed up, has fallen into the ruin of the devil.(4)

15. RELATION OF THE FORMER COMMISSION GIVEN BY JESUS TO THE DISCIPLES, TO
HIS PRESENT INJUNCTION OF SILENCE. BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE CONTRASTED.

   "Then enjoined He His disciples that they should tell no man that He
was the Christ."(5) It is written above that Jesus sent forth these twelve
saying unto them, "Go not into any way of the Gentiles,"(6) and the other
words which are recorded to have been said to them when He sent them to the
apostleship. Did He then wish them when they were already discharging the
function of Apostles to proclaim that He was the Christ? For, if He wished
it, it is fitting to inquire why He now at all commands the disciples that
they should not say that He was the Christ? Or if He did not wish it, how
can the things concerning the apostleship be safely maintained? And these
things also one may inquire at this place,--whether, when He sent away the
Twelve, He did not send them away with the understanding that He was the
Christ? But if the Twelve had such understanding, manifestly Peter had it
also; how, then, is he now pronounced blessed? For the expression here
plainly indicates that now for the first time Peter confessed that Christ
was the Son of the living God, Matthew then, according to some of the
manuscripts, has written, "Then He commanded His disciples that they should
tell no man that He was the Christ," but(1) Mark says, "He charged them
that they should tell no man of Him;"(2) and Luke, "He charged them and
commanded them to tell this to no man."(3) But what is the "this"? Was it
that also according to him, Peter answered and said to the question, "Who
say ye that I am."--"The Christ, the Son of the living God?"(4) You must
know, however, that some manuscripts of the Gospel according to Matthew
have, "He charged."(5) The difficulty thus started seems to me a very real
difficulty; but let a solution which cannot be impugned be sought out, and
let the finder of it bring it forward before all, if it be more credible
than that which shall be advanced by us as a fairly temperate view.(6)
Consider, then, if you can say, that the belief that Jesus is the Christ is
inferior to the knowledge of that which is believed. And perhaps also there
is a difference in the knowledge of Jesus as the Christ, as every one who
knows does not know Him alike. From the words in John, "If ye abide in My
word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,"(7) it is
plain that belief without knowledge is inferior to knowing; but that there
is a difference in the knowledge of Jesus as the Christ, as all who know
Him do not know Him equally, is a fact self-evident to any one who gives
even a very little consideration to the matter. For who would not
acknowledge, for example, that Timothy, though he knew that Jesus was the
Christ, had not been enlightened to such an extent in the knowledge of Him
as the Apostle had been enlightened? And who would not also admit this--
that though many, speaking the truth, say about God, "He has given to me a
true knowledge of things that are," yet they will not say this with equal
insight and apprehension of the things known, nor as knowing the same
number of things? But it is not only in respect of the difference of
knowing that those who know do not know alike, bat also according to that
which is the source of the knowledge; so that according to this he who
knows the Son by the revelation of the Father,(1) as Peter is testified to
have known, has the highest beatitude. Now, if these views of ours are
sound, you will consider whether the Twelve formerly believed but did not
know; but, after believing, they gained also the rudiments of knowledge and
knew a few things about Him; and afterwards they continued to advance in
knowledge so that they were able to receive the knowledge from the Father
who reveals the Son; in which position Peter was, when he was pronounced
blessed; for also he is pronounced blessed not merely because he said,
"Thou art the Christ," but with the addition, "the Son of the living God."
Accordingly Mark and Luke who have recorded that Peter answered and said,
"Thou art the Christ," but have not given the addition found in Matthew,
have not recorded that he was declared blessed for what had been said, nor
the blessing which followed the declaration of blessedness, "Thou art
Peter,"(2) etc.

16. GRADUAL GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE OF THE DISCIPLES,

   But now we must first investigate the fact that they were declaring
other things about Him as being great and wonderful, but did not yet
proclaim that He was the Christ, lest the Saviour may not appear to take
away from them the authority to announce that He was the Christ, which He
had formerly bestowed upon them. And perhaps some one will support an
argument of this kind, saying that on their introduction into the school of
Christ the Jews were taught by the disciples glorious things about Jesus,
so that in due season there might be built upon these as a foundation the
things about Jesus being the Christ; and perhaps many of the things which
were said to them were said to all who virtually believed; for not to the
Apostles alone did the saying apply, "Before governors and kings also shall
ye be brought for My sake for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles;"(3)
and perhaps also not to the Apostles absolutely, but to all who were about
to believe the word, "And brother shall deliver up brother to death,"(1)
etc.; but, "Whosoever shall confess Me,"(2) etc., is said not specially to
the Apostles, but also to all believers. According to this, then, through
that which was said to the Apostles an outline was given beforehand of the
teaching which would afterwards come to be of service both to them and to
every teacher.

17. REASONS FOR THAT GRADUAL KNOWLEDGE.

   And likewise he who holds that the fact that He was Christ had been
formerly proclaimed by the Apostles when they heard the saying, "What I
tell you in the darkness, speak ye in the light, and what ye hear in the
ear proclaim on the housetops,"(3) will say, that He wished first to give
catechetical instruction as it were to those of the Apostles who were to
hear the name of Christ, then to permit this, so to speak, to be digested
in the minds of the hearers, that, after there had been a period of silence
in the proclamation of something of this kind about Him, at a more
seasonable time there might be built up upon the former rudiments "Christ
Jesus crucified and raised from the dead," which at the beginning not even
the Apostles knew; for it is written in the passage now under
consideration, "From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples that
He must go unto Jerusalem"(4) and suffer this and that. But if now, for the
first time, the Apostles learn from Jesus the things that were about to
happen unto Him, namely, that the elders will plot against Him, and that He
will be killed, and that after these things, on the third day, He will rise
from the dead,--what necessity is there for supposing that those who had
been taught by the Apostles concerning Jesus knew them before, or that
although Christ was announced to them He was announced to them by way of an
introduction which did not clearly elucidate the things concerning Him? For
our Saviour wished, when He enjoined the disciples to tell no man that He
was the Christ, to reserve the more perfect teaching about Him to a more
fitting time, when to those who had seen Him crucified, the disciples who
had seen Him crucified and risen could testify the things relating to His
resurrection. For it the Apostles. who were always with Him and had seen
all the wonderful things which He did, and who bore testimony to His words
that they were words of eternal life,(1) were offended on the night on
which He was betrayed,--what do you suppose would have been the feelings of
those who had formerly learned that He was the Christ? To spare them, I
think, He gave this command.

18.JESUS WAS AT FIRST PROCLAIMED BY THE TWELVE AS A WORKER AND A TEACHER
ONLY.

   But he who holds that the things spoken to the Twelve refer to the
times subsequent to this, and that the Apostles had not as yet announced to
their hearers that He was the Christ, will say that He wished the
conception of the Christ which was involved in the name of Jesus to be
reserved for that preaching which was more perfect, and which brought
salvation, such as Paul knew of when he said to the Corinthians, "I
determined not to know anything among yon save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified."(2) Wherefore, formerly they proclaimed Jesus as the doer of
certain things, and the teacher of certain things; but now when Peter
confesses that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, as He did not
wish it to be proclaimed already that He was the Christ, in order that He
might be proclaimed at a more suitable time, and that as crucified, He
commands His disciples that they should tell no man that He was the Christ.
And that this was His meaning, when He forbade proclamation to be made that
He was the Christ, is in a measure established by the words, "From that
time began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto
Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders," and what is annexed;(3)
for then, at the fitting time, He proclaims, so to speak, to the disciples
who knew that Jesus was Christ, the Son of the living God, the Father
having revealed it to them, that instead of believing in Jesus Christ who
had been crucified, they were to believe in Jesus Christ who was about to
be crucified. But also, instead of believing in Christ Jesus and Him risen
from the dead, He teaches them to believe in Christ Jesus and Him about to
be risen from the dead. But since "having put off from Himself the
principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing
over in the cross,"(4) if any one is ashamed of the cross of Christ, he is
ashamed of the dispensation on account of which these powers were triumphed
over; and it is fitting that he, who both believes and knows these things,
should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which, when
Christ was crucified, the principalities--among which, I think, was also
the prince of this world--were made a show of and triumphed over before the
believing world. Wherefore, when His suffering was at hand he said, "Now
the prince of this world has been judged,"(1) and, "Now shall the prince of
this world be cast out," and, "I, if I be lifted from the earth, will draw
all men unto Myself;"(2) as he no longer had sufficient power to prevent
those going to Jesus who were being drawn by Him.

19. IMPORTANCE OF THE PROCLAMATION OF JESUS AS THE CRUCIFIED.

   It is necessary, therefore, to the proclamation of Jesus as Christ,
that He should be proclaimed as crucified; and the proclamation that Jesus
was the Christ does not seem to me so defective when any of His other
miracles is passed over in silence, as when the fact of His crucifixion is
passed over. Wherefore, reserving the more perfect proclamation of the
things concerning Him by the Apostles, He commanded His disciples that they
should tell no man that He was the Christ; and He prepared them to say that
He was the Christ crucified and risen from the dead, "when He began "not
only to say, nor even to advance to the point of teaching merely, but "to
show"(3) to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, etc.; for attend to
the expression "show"; because just as sensible things are said to be shown
so the things spoken by Him to His disciples are said to be shown by Jesus.
And i do not think that each of the things seen was shown to those who saw
Him suffering many things in body from the elders of the people, with such
clearness as was the rational demonstration about Him to the disciples.

20. WHY JESUS HAD TO GO TO JERUSALEM.

   "Then began He to show;"(4) and probably afterwards when they were able
to receive it He shewed more clearly, no longer beginning to show as to
those who were learning the introduction, but already also advancing in the
showing; and if it is reasonable to conceive that Jesus altogether
completed what He began, then, some time, He altogether completed that
which He began to show to His disciples about the necessity of His
suffering the things which are written. For, when any one apprehends from
the Word the perfect knowledge of these things, then it must be said that,
from a rational exhibition (the mind seeing the things which are shown,)
the exhibition becomes complete for him who has the will and the power to
contemplate these things, and does contemplate them. But since "it cannot
be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem,"(1)--a perishing which
corresponds to the words, "He that loseth his life for My sake shall find
it."(2)--on this account it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, that
having suffered many things in that Jerusalem, He might make "the first-
fruits"(3) of the resurrection from the dead in the Jerusalem above, doing
away with and breaking up the city upon the earth with all the worship
which was maintained in it. For so long as Christ "had not been raised from
the dead. the first-fruits of them that are asleep,"(3) and those who
become conformed to His death and resurrection had not yet been raised
along with Him, the city of God was sought for below, and the temple, and
the purifications, and the rest; but when this took place, no longer were
the things below sought for, but the things above; and, in order that these
might be set up, it was necessary that He should go unto the Jerusalem
below, and there suffer many things from the elders in it, and the chief
priests and scribes of the people, in order that He might be glorified by
the heavenly elders who could receive his bounties, and by diviner high-
priests who are ordained under the one High-Priest, and that He might be
glorified by the scribes of the people who are occupied with letters "not
written with ink"(4) but made clear by the Spirit of the living God, and
might be killed in the Jerusalem below, and having risen from the dead
might reign in Mount Zion, and the city of the living God--the heavenly
Jerusalem.(5) But on the third day He rose from the dead.(6) in order that
having delivered them from the wicked one, and his son,(7) in whom was
falsehood and unrighteousness and war and everything opposed to that which
Christ is, and also from the profane spirit who transforms himself into the
Holy Spirit, He might gain for those who had been delivered the right to be
baptized in spirit and soul and body, into the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit, which represent the three days eternally present
at the same time to those who by means of them are sons of light.

21. THE REBUKE OF PETER AND THE ANSWER OF JESUS.

   "And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, God be propitious
to Thee. Lord, this shall never be unto thee."(1) To whom He said, "Get
thee behind Me, Satan; thou art a stumbling-block unto Me; for thou mindest
not the things of God but the things of men."(2) Since Jesus had begun to
show unto His disciples that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many
things, Peter up to this point learned the beginnings of those things which
were shown.(3) But since he thought that the sufferings were unworthy of
Christ the Son of the living God, and below the dignity of the Father who
had revealed to him so great things about Christ,--for the things that
concerned His coming suffering had not been revealed to him,--on this
account he took Him, and as one forgetful of the honour due to the Christ,
and that the Son of the living God neither does nor says anything worthy of
rebuke, he began to rebuke Him; and as to one who needed propitiation,--for
he did not yet know that "God had set Him forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood,"(4) he said, "God be propitious to thee, O
Lord."(5) Approving his purpose, indeed, but rebuking his ignorance,
because of the purpose being right. He says to him, "Get thee behind
Me,"(6) as to one who, by reason of the things of which he was ignorant and
spake not rightly, had abandoned the following of Jesus; but because of his
ignorance, as to one who had something antagonistic to the things of God,
He said, "Satan," which in the Hebrew means "adversary." But, if Peter had
not spoken from ignorance, nor rebuked the Son of the living God, saying
unto Him, "God be propitious to thee, Lord, this shall never be unto Thee,"
Christ would not have said to him, "Get thee behind Me," as to one who had
given up being behind Him and following Him; nor would He have said as to
one who had spoken things adverse to what He had said, "Satan." But now
Satan prevailed over him who had followed Jesus and was going behind Him,
to turn aside from following Him and from being behind the Son of God, and
to make him, by reason of the words which he spoke in ignorance, worthy of
being called "Satan" and a stumbling-block to the Son of God, and "as not
minding the things of God but the things of men." But that Peter was
formerly behind the Son of God, before he committed this sin, is manifest
from the words, "Come ye behind Me, and I will make you fishers of men."(1)

22. IMPORTANCE OF THE EXPRESSIONS "BEHIND" AND "TURNED."

   But you will compare together His saying to Peter, "Get thee behind me,
Satan,"(2) with that said to the devil (who said to Him, "All these things
will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me"),(3) "get thee
hence,"(4) without the addition, "behind Me;" for to be behind Jesus is a
good tiling. Wherefore it was said, "Come ye behind Me and I will make you
fishers of men."(1) And to the same effect is the saying, "He that doth not
take his cross and follow behind Me is not worthy of Me."(5) And as a
general principle observe the expression "behind"; because it is a good
thing when any one goes behind the Lord God and is behind the Christ; but
it is the opposite when any one casts the words of God behind him, or when
he transgresses the commandment which says, "Do not walk behind thy
lusts."(6) And Elijah also, in the third Book of Kings, says to the people,
"How long halt ye on both your knees? If God is the Lord, go behind Him,
but if Baal is the Lord, go behind him."(7) And Jesus says this to Peter
when He "turned," and He does so by way of conferring a favour. And if
therefore you will collect more illustrations of the "having turned," and
especially those which are ascribed to Jesus, and compare them with one
another, you would find that the expression is not superfluous. But it is
sufficient at present to bring forward this from the Gospel according to
John, "Jesus turned and beheld them--" clearly, Peter and Andrew--
"following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?"(8) For observe that, when
He "turned," it is for the advantage of those to whom He turned.

23. PETER AS A STUMBLING-BLOCK TO JESUS.

   Next we must inquire how He said to Peter, "Thou art a stumbling-block
unto Me,"(9) especially when David says, "Great peace have they that love
Thy law, and there is no stumbling-block to them."(10) For some one will
say, if this is said in the prophet, because of the steadfastness of those
who have love, and are incapable of being offended, for "love beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, love
never faileth,"(1) how did the Lord Himself, "who upholdeth all that fall,
and raiseth up all that be bowed down,"(2) say to Peter, "Thou art a
stumbling-block unto Me"? But it must be said that not only the Saviour,
but also he who is perfected in love, cannot be offended. But, so far as it
depends on himself, he who says or does such things is a stumbling-block
even to him who will not be offended; unless perhaps Jesus calls the
disciple who sinned a stumbling-block even to Himself, as much more than
Paul He would have said from love, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is
made to stumble, and I burn not?"(3) In harmony with which we may put, "Who
is made to stumble, and I am not made to stumble?" But if Peter, at that
time because of the saying. "God be propitious to Thee, Lord, this shall
not be unto Thee,"(4) was called a stumbling-block by Jesus, as not minding
the things of God in what he said but the things of men, what is to be said
about all those who profess to be made disciples of Jesus, but do not mind
the things of God, and do not look to things unseen and eternal, but mind
the things of man, and look to things seen and temporal,(5) but that such
still more would be stigmatized by Jesus as a stumbling-block to Him, and
because stumbling-blocks to Him, as stumbling-blocks to His brethren also?
As in regard to them He says, "I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink,"(6)
etc., so also He might say, "When I was running ye caused Me to stumble."
Let us not therefore suppose that it is a trivial sin to mind the things of
men, since we ought in everything to mind the things of God. And it will be
appropriate also to say this to every one that has fallen away from the
doctrines of God and the words of the church and a true mind; as, for
example, to him who minds as true the teaching of Basilides, or Valentinus,
or Marcion, or any one of those who teach the things of men as the things
of God.

24. SELF-DENIAL AND CROSS-BEARING.

   "Then Jesus said to His disciples, If any man wills to follow after
Me," etc.(7) He shows by these words that, to will to come after Jesus and
to follow Him, springs from no ordinary manly courage, and that no one who
has not denied himself can come after Jesus. And the man denies himself who
wipes out by a striking revolution his own former life which had been spent
in wickedness; as by way of illustration he who was once licentious denies
his licentious self, having become self-controlled even abidingly. But it
is probable that some one may put the objection, whether as he denied
himself i so he also confesses himself, when he denied himself, the unjust,
and confesses himself, the righteous one. But, if Christ i is
righteousness, he who has received righteousness confesses not himself but
Christ; so also he who has found wisdom, by the very possession of wisdom,
confesses Christ. And such a one indeed as, "with the heart believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth maketh confession unto salvation,"(1)
arid bears testimony to the works of Christ, as making confession by all
these things of Christ before men, will be confessed by Him before His
Father in heaven.(2) So also he who has not denied himself but denied the
Christ will experience the saying, "I also will deny him."(3) On this
account let every thought and every purpose and every word and every action
become a denial of ourselves, but a testimony about Christ and in Christ;
for I am persuaded that every action of the perfect man is a testimony to
Christ Jesus, and that abstinence from every sin is a denial of self,
leading him after Christ. And such an one is crucified with Christ, and
taking up his own cross follows Him who for our sakes bears His own cross,
according to that which is said in John: "They took Jesus therefore and put
it on Him," etc., down to the words, "Where they crucified Him."(4) But the
Jesus according to John, so to speak, bears the cross for Himself, and
bearing it went out; but the Jesus according to Matthew and Mark and Luke,
does not bear it for Himself, for Simon of Cyrene bears it.(5) And perhaps
this man refers to us, who because of Jesus take up the cross of Jesus, but
Jesus Himself takes it upon Himself; for there are, as it were, two
conceptions of the cross, the one which Simon of Cyrene bears, and the
other which Jesus Himself bears for Himself.

     15. REFERENCE TO THE SAYING OF PAUL ABOUT CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST,

   Moreover in regard to the saying, "Let him deny himself,"(1) the
following saying of Paul who denied himself seems appropriate, "Yet I live,
and yet no longer I but Christ liveth in me;"(2) for the expression, "I
live, yet no longer I," was the voice of one denying himself, as of one who
had laid aside his own life and taken on himself the Christ, in order that
He might live in him as Righteousness, and as Wisdom, and as
Sanctification, and as our Peace,(3) and as the Power of God, who worketh
all things in him. But further also, attend to this, that while there are
many forms of dying, the Son of God was crucified, being hanged on a tree,
in order that all who die unto sin may die to it, in no other way than by
the way of the cross. Wherefore they will say, "I have been crucified with
Christ," and, "Far be it from me to glory save hi the cross of the Lord,
through which the world has been crucified unto me and I unto the
world."(4) For perhaps also each of those who have been crucified with
Christ puts off from himself the principalities and the powers, and makes a
show of them and triumphs over them in the cross;(5) or rather, Christ does
these things in them.

26. THE LESS OF LIFE; AND THE SAVING OF IT.

   "For whosoever would save his own life shall lose it."(6) The first
expression is ambiguous; for it may be understood. in one way thus. If any
one as being a lover of life, and thinking that the present life is good,
tends carefully his own life with a view to living in the flesh, being
afraid to die, as through death going to lose it, this man, by the very
willing to save in this way his own life will lose it, placing it outside
of the borders of blessedness. But if any one despising the present life
because of my word, which has persuaded him to strive in regard to eternal
life even unto death for truth, loses his own life, surrendering it for the
sake of piety to that which is commonly called death, this man, as for my
sake he has lost his life, will save it rather, and keep it in possession.
And according to a second way we might interpret the saying as follows. If
any one, who has grasped what salvation really is, wishes to procure the
salvation of his own life, let this man having taken farewell of this life,
and denied himself and taken up his own cross, and following me, lose his
own life to the world; for having lost it for my sake and for the sake of
all my teaching, he will gain the end of loss of this kind--salvation.

27. LIFE LOST TO THE WORLD IS SAVED.

   But at the same time also observe that at the beginning it is said,
"Whosoever wills," but afterwards, "Whoso shall lose."(1) If we then wish
it to be saved let us lose it to the world, as those who have been
crucified with Christ and have for our glorying that which is in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world is to be crucified unto
us and we unto the world,(2) that we may gain our end, even the salvation
of our lives, which begins from the time when we lose it for the sake of
the word. But if we think that the salvation of our life is a blessed
thing, with reference to the salvation which is in God and the
blessednesses with Him, then any loss of life ought to be a good thing,
and, for the sake of Christ must prove to be the prelude to the blessed
salvation. It seems to me, therefore, following the analogy of self-denial,
according to what has been said, that each ought to lose his own life. Let
each one therefore lose his own sinning life, that having lost that which
is sinful, he may receive that which is saved by right actions; but a man
will in no way be profited if he shall gain the whole world. Now he gains
the world, I think, to whom the world is not crucified; and to whom the
world is not crucified, to that man shall be the loss of his own life. But
when two things are put before us, either by gaining one's life to forfeit
the world, or by gaining the world to forfeit one's life, much more
desirable is the choice, that we should forfeit the world and gain our life
by losing it on account of Christ.

28. THE EXCHANGE FOR ONE'S LIFE.

   But the saying, "What shall a man give in exchange for his own
life,"(3) if spoken by way of interrogation, will seem to be able to
indicate that an exchange for his own life is given by the man who after
his sins has given up his whole substance, that his property may feed the
poor, as if he were going by that to obtain salvation; but, if spoken
affirmatively, I think, to indicate that there is not anything in man by
the giving of which in exchange for his own life which has been overcome by
death. he will ransom it out of its hand. A man, therefore, could not give
anything as an exchange for his own life, but God gave an exchange for the
life of us all, "the precious blood of Christ Jesus,"(4) according as "we

were bought with a price,"(1) "having been redeemed, not with corruptible
things as silver or gold, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot," even of Christ.(2) And in Isaiah it is said to
Israel. "I gave Ethiopia in exchange for thee, and Egypt and Syene for
thee; from what time thou hast become honourable before Me thou wast
glorified."(3) For the exchange, for example, of the first-born of Israel
was the first-born of the Egyptians, and the exchange for Israel was the
Egyptians who died in the last plagues that came upon Egypt, and in the
drowning which took place after the plagues. But, from these things, let
him who is able inquire whether the exchange of the true Israel given by
God, "who redeems Israel from all his transgressions,"(4) is the true
Ethiopia, and, so to speak, spiritual Egypt. and Syene of Egypt; and to
inquire with more boldness, perhaps Syene is the exchange for Jerusalem,
and Egypt for Judaea, and Ethiopia for those who fear, who are different
from Israel, and the house of Levi, and the house of Aaron.

29. THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN IN GLORY.

   "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His own Father with His
angels."(5) Now, indeed, the Son of man has not come in His glory; "for we
saw Him, and He had no form nor beauty; but His form was dishonoured and
defective compared with the sons of men; He was a man in affliction and
toil, and acquainted with the enduring of sickness, because His face was
turned away, He was dishonoured and not esteemed."(6) And it was necessary
that He should come in such form that He might bear our sins(7) and suffer
pain for us; for it did not become Him in glory to bear our sins and suffer
pain for us. But He also comes in glory, having prepared(8) the disciples
through that epiphany of His which has no form nor beauty; and, having
become as they that they might become as He, "conformed to the image of His
glory,"(9) since He formerly became conformed to "the body of our
humiliation,"(10) when He "emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a
servant,"(11) He is restored to the image of God and also makes them
conformed unto it.

30. THE WORD APPEARS IN DIFFERENT FORMS. THE TIME OF HIS COMING IN GLORY.

   But if you will understand the differences of the Word which by "the
foolishness of preaching"(1) is proclaimed to those who believe, and spoken
in wisdom to them that are perfect, you will see in what way the Word has
the form of a slave to those who are learning the rudiments, so that they
say, "We saw Him and He had no form or beauty."(2) But to the perfect He
comes "in the glory of His own Father,"(3) who might say, "and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace
and truth."(4) For indeed to the perfect appears the glory of the Word, and
the only-begotten of God His Father, add the fulness of grace and likewise
of truth, which that man cannot perceive who requires the "foolishness of
the preaching," in order to believe. But "the Son of man shall come in the
glory of His own Father" not alone, but "with His own angels." And if you
can conceive of all those who are fellow-helpers in the glory of the Word,
and in the revelation of the Wisdom which is Christ, coming along with Him,
you will see in what way the Son of man comes in the glory of His own
Father with His own angels. And consider whether you cad in this connection
say that the prophets who formerly suffered in virtue of their word having
"no form or beauty" had an analogous position to the Word who had "no form
or beauty." And, as the Son of man comes in the glory of His own Father, so
the angels, who are the words in the prophets, are present with Him
preserving the measure of their own glory. But when the Word comes in such
form with His own angels, He will give to each a part of His own glory and
of the brightness of His own angels, according to the action of each. But
we say these things not rejecting even the second coming of the Son of God
understood in its simpler form. But when shall these things happen? Shall
it be when that apostolic oracle is fulfilled which says, "For we must all
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the
things dope in the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good
or bad?"(5) But if He will render to each according to his deed, not the
good deed only, nor the evil apart from the good, it is manifest that He
will render to each according to every evil, and according to every good,
deed. But I suppose--in this also following the Apostle, but comparing also
the sayings of Ezekiel, in which the sins of him who is a perfect convert
are wiped out, and the former uprightness of him who has utterly fallen
away is not held of account--that in the case of him who is perfected, and
has altogether laid aside wickedness, the sins are wiped out, but that, in
the case of him who has altogether revolted from piety, if anything good
was formerly done by him, it is not taken into account.(1) But to us, who
occupy a middle position between the perfect man add the apostate, when we
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ,(2) there is rendered what we have
done, whether good or bad; for we have not been so pure that our evil deeds
are not at all imputed unto us, nor have we fallen away to such an extent
that our better actions are forgotten.

31. THE SIMPLER INTERPRETATION OF THE PROMISE ABOUT NOT TASTING OF DEATH.

   "Verily I say unto you there be some of them that stand here that shall
not taste of death."(3) Some refer these things to the going up--six days
after, or, as Luke says,(4) eight days--of the three disciples into the
high mountain with Jesus apart; and those who adopt this interpretation say
that Peter and the remaining two did not taste of death before they saw the
Son of man coining in His own kingdom and in His own glory. For when they
saw Jesus transfigured before them so that "His face shone," etc., "they
saw the kingdom of God coming with power."(5) For even as some spear-
bearers stand around a king, so Moses and Elijah appeared to those who had
gone up into the mountains, talking with Jesus. But it is worth while
considering whether the sitting on the right hand and on the left band of
the Saviour in His kingdom refers to them, so that the words, "But for whom
it is prepared," were(6) spoken because of them. Now this interpretation
about the three Apostles not tasting of death until they have seen Jesus
transfigured, is adapted to those who are designated by Peter as "new-born
babes longing for the reasonable milk which is without guile,"(7) to whom
Paul says, "I have fed you with milk, not with meat,"(8) etc. Now, too,
every interpretation of a text which is able to build up those who cannot
receive greater truths might reasonably be called milk, flowing from the
holy ground of the Scriptures, which flows with milk and honey. But he who
has been weaned, like Isaac,(1) worthy of the good cheer and reception
which Abraham gave at the weaning of his son, would seek here and in every
Scripture food which is different, I think, from that which is meat,
indeed, but is not solid food, and from what are figuratively called herbs,
which are food to one who has been weaned and is not yet strong but weak,
according to the saying, "He that is weak eateth herbs."(2) In like manner
also he who has been weaned, like Samuel, and dedicated by his mother to
God,(3)--she was Hannah, which is, by interpretation, grace,-would be also
a son of grace, seeking, like one nurtured in the temple, flesh of God, the
holy food of those who are at once perfect and priests.

32. STANDING BY THE SAVIOUR.

   The reflections in regard to the passage before us that occur to us at
the present time are these: Some were standing where Jesus was, having the
footsteps of the soul firmly planted with Jesus, and the standing of their
feet was akin to the standing of which Moses said in the passage, "And I
stood on the mountain forty days and forty nights,"(4) who was deemed
worthy to have it said to him by God who asked him to stand by Him, "But
stand thou here with Me."(5) Those who really stand by Jesus--that is, by
the Word of God--do not all stand equally; for among those who stand by
Jesus are differences from each other. Wherefore, not all who stand by the
Saviour, but some of them as standing better, do not taste of death until
they shall have seen the Word who dwelt with men, and on that account
called Son of man, coming in His own kingdom; for Jesus does not always
come in His own kingdom when He comes, since to the newly initiated He is
such that they might say, beholding the Word Himself not glorious nor
great, but inferior to many among them, "We saw Him, and He had no form or
beauty, but His form was dishonoured, defective compared with all the sons
of men."(6) And these things will be said by those who beheld His glory in
connection with their own former times, when at first the Word as
understood in the synagogue had no form nor beauty to them. To the Word,
therefore, who has assumed most manifestly the power above all words. there
belongs a royal dignity which is visible to some of those who stand by
Jesus, when they have been able to follow Him as He goes before them and
ascends to the lofty mountain of His own manifestation. And of this honour
some of those who stand by Jesus are deemed worthy if they be either a
Peter against whom the gates of Hades do not prevail, or the sons of
thunder,(1) and are begotten of the mighty voice of God who thunders and
cries aloud from heaven great things to those who have ears and are wise.
Such at least do not taste death.

33. INTERPRETATION OF "TASTING OF DEATH."

   But we must seek to understand what is meant by "tasting of death." And
He is life who says, "I am the life,"(2) and this life assuredly has been
hidden with Christ in God; and. "when Christ our life shall be manifested,
then along with Him"(3) shall be manifested those who are worthy of being
manifested with Him in glory. But the enemy of this life, who is also the
last enemy of all His enemies that shall be destroyed, is death,(4) of
which the soul that sinneth dies, having the opposite disposition to that
which takes place in the soul that lives uprightly, and in consequence of
living uprightly lives. And when it is said in the law, "I have placed life
before thy face,"(5) the Scripture says this about Him who said, "I am the
Life," and about His enemy, death; the one or other of which each of us by
his deeds is always choosing. And when we sin with life before our face,
the curse is fulfilled against us which says, "And thy life shall be
hanging up before thee," etc., down to the words, "and for the sights of
thine eyes which thou shall see."(6) As, therefore, the Life is also the
living bread which came down from heaven and gave life to the world,(7) so
His enemy death is dead bread. Now every rational soul is fed either on
living bread or dead bread, by the opinions good or bad which it receives.
As then in the case of more common foods it is the practice at one time
only to taste them, and at another to eat of them more largely; so also, in
the case of these loaves, one eats insufficiently only tasting them, but
another is satiated,--he that is good or is on the way to being good with
the living bread which came down from heaven, but he that is wicked with
the dead bread, which is death; and some perhaps sparingly, and sinning a
little, only taste of death; but those who have attained to virtue do not
even taste of it, but are always fed on the living bread. It naturally
followed then in the case of Peter, against whom the gates of Hades will
not prevail, that he did not taste of death, since any one tastes of death
and eats death at the time when the gates of Hades prevail against him; and
one eats or tastes of death in proportion as the gates of Hades to a
greater or less extent, more or fewer in number, prevail against him. But
also for the sons of thunder who were begotten of thunder, which is a
heavenly thing, it was impossible to taste of death, which is extremely far
removed from thunder, their mother. But these things the Word prophesies to
those who shall be perfected, and who by standing with the Word advanced so
far that they did not taste of death, until they saw the manifestation and
the glory and the kingdom and the excellency of the Word of God in virtue
of which He excels every word, which by an appearance of truth draws away
and drags about those who are not able to break through the bonds of
distraction, and go up to the height of the excellency of the Word of
truth.

34. MEANING OF "UNTIL." NO LIMITATION OF PROMISE.

   But since some one may think that the promise of the Saviour prescribes
a limit of time to their not tasting of death, namely, that they will not
taste of death "until"(1) they see the Son of man coming in His own
kingdom. but after this will taste of it, let us show that according to the
scriptural usage the word "until" signifies that the time concerning the
thing signified is pressing, but is not so defined that after the "until,"
that which is contrary to the thing signified should at all take place.
Now, the Saviour says to the eleven disciples when He rose from the dead,
this among other things, "Lo, I am with you all the days, even until the
consummation of the age."(2) When He said this, did He promise that He was
going to be with them until the consummation of the age, but that after the
consummation of the age, when another age was at hand, which is "called the
age to come," He would be no longer with them?--so that according to this,
the condition of the disciples would be better before the consummation of
the age than after the consummation of the age? But I do not think that any
one will dare to say, that after the consummation of the age the Son of God
will be no longer with the disciples, because the expression declares that
He will be with them for so long, until the consummation of the age is at
hand; for it is clear that the matter under inquiry was, whether the Son of
God was forthwith going to be with His disciples before the age to come and
the hoped for promises of God which were given as a recompense. But there
might have been a question--it being granted that He would be with them--
whether sometimes He was present with them, and sometimes not present.
Wherefore setting us free from the suspicion that might have arisen from
doubt, He declared that now and even all the days He would be with the
disciples, and that He would not leave those who had become His disciples
until the consummation of the age; (because He said "all the days" He did
not deny that by night, when the sun set, He would be present with them.)
But if such is the force of the words, "until the consummation of the age,"
plainly we shall not be compelled to admit that those who see the Son of
man coming in His own kingdom shall taste of death, after being deemed
worthy of beholding Him in such guise. But as in the case of the passage we
brought forward, the urgent necessity was to teach us that "until the
consummation of the age" He would not leave us but be with us all the days;
so also in this case I think that it is clear to those who know how to look
at the logical coherence of things that He who has seen once for all "the
Son of man coming in His own kingdom," and seen Him "in His own glory," and
seen "the kingdom of God come with power," could not possibly taste of
death after the contemplation of things so good and great. But apart from
the word of the promise of Jesus, we have conjectured not without reason
that we would taste of death, so long as we were not yet held worthy to see
"the kingdom of God come with power," and "the Son of man coming in His own
glory and in His own kingdom."

35. SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES TO DEATH.

   But since here it is written in the three Evangelists, "They shall not
taste of death,"(1) but in other writers different things are written
concerning death, it may not be out of place to bring forward and examine
these passages along with the "taste." In the Psalms, then, it is said,
"What man is he that shall live and not see death?"(1) And again, in
another place, "Let death come upon them and let them go down into Hades
alive;"(2) but in one of the prophets, "Death becoming mighty has swallowed
them up;"(3) and in the Apocalypse, "Death and Hades follow some."(4) Now
in these passages it appears to me that it is one thing to taste of death,
but another thing to see death, and another thing for it to come upon some,
and that a fourth thing, different from the aforesaid, is signified by the
words, "Death becoming mighty has swallowed them up," and a fifth thing,
different from these, by the words, Death and Hades follow them." And if
yon were to collect them, you would perhaps find also other differences
than those which we have mentioned, by a comparison of which with one
another and right investigation, you would find the things signified in
each place. But here I inquire whether it is a less evil to see death, but
a greater evil than seeing to taste of it, but still worse than this that
death should follow any one, and not only follow him, but also now come
upon him and seize him whom it formerly followed; but to be swallowed up
seems to be more grievous than all the things spoken of. But giving heed to
what is said, and to the differences of sins committed, you will not I
think, be slow to admit that things of this kind were intended by the
Spirit who caused these things to be written in the oracles of God. But, if
it be necessary to give an exposition clearer than what has been said of
what is signified by seeing the Son of man coming in His own kingdom, or in
His own glory, and what is signified by seeing the kingdom of God come with
power, these things--whether those that are made to shine in our hearts, or
that are found by those who seek, or that enter gradually into our
thoughts.--let each one judge as he wills--we will set forth. He who
beholds and apprehends the excellency of the Word, as tie breaks down and
refutes all the plausible forms of things which are truly lies but profess
to be truths, sees the Son of man, (according to the word of John, "the
Word of God,") coming in His own kingdom; but if such an one were to behold
the Word, not only breaking down plausible oppositions, but also
representing His own truths with perfect clearness, he would behold His
glory in addition to His kingdom. And such an one indeed would see in Him
the kingdom of God come with power; and he would see this, as one who is no
longer now under the reign of "sin which reigns in the mortal body of those
who sin,"(1) but is ever under the orders of the king, who is God of all,
whose kingdom is indeed potentially "within us,"(2) but actually, and, as
Mark has called it, "with power," and not at all in weakness within the
perfect alone. These things, then, Jesus promised to the disciples who were
standing, prophesying not about all of them, but about some.

36. CONCERNING THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE SAVIOUR.

   "Now after six days," according to Matthew and Mark,(3) "He taketh with
him Peter and James and John his brother, and leads them up into a high
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them." Now, also, let it be
granted, before the exposition that occurs to us in relation to these
things, that this took place long ago, and according to the letter. But it
seems to me, that those who are led up by Jesus into the high mountain, and
are deemed worthy of beholding His transfiguration apart, are not without
purpose led up six days after the discourses previously spoken. For since
in six days--the perfect number--the whole world,--this perfect work of
art,--was made, on this account I think that he who transcends all the
things of the world by beholding no longer the things which are seen, for
they are temporal, but already the things which not seen, and only the
things which are not seen, because that they are eternal, is represented in
the words, "After six days days Jesus took up with Him" certain persons. If
therefore any one of us wishes to be taken by Jesus, and led up by Him into
the high mountain, and be deemed worthy of beholding His transfiguration
apart, let him pass beyond the six days, because he no longer beholds the
things which are seen, nor longer loves the world, nor the things in the
world,(4) nor lusts after any worldly lust, which is the lust of bodies,
and of the riches of the body, and of the glory which is after the flesh,
and whatever things whose nature it is to distract and drag away the soul
from the things which are better and diviner, and bring it down and fix it
fast to the deceit of this age, in wealth and glory, and the rest of the
lusts which are the foes of truth. For when he has passed through the six
days, as we have said, he will keep a new Sabbath, rejoicing in the lofty
mountain, because he sees Jesus transfigured before him; for the Word has
different forms, as He appears to each as is expedient for the beholder,
and is manifested to no one beyond the capacity of the beholder.

37. FORCE OF THE WORDS "BEFORE THEM."

   But you will ask if, when He was transfigured before those who were led
up by Him into the lofty mountain, He appeared to them in the form of God,
in which He formerly was, so that He had to those below the form of a
servant, but to those who had followed Him after the six days to the lofty
mountain, He had not that form, but the form of God. But hear these things,
if you can, at the same time giving heed spiritually, that it is not said
simply, "He was transfigured," but with a certain necessary addition, which
Matthew and Mark have recorded; for, according to both, "He was
transfigured before them."(1) And according to this, indeed, you will say
that it is possible for Jesus to be transfigured before some with this
transfiguration, but before others at the same time not to be transfigured.
But if you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus before those who went
up into the lofty mountain apart long with Him, behold with me the Jesus in
the Gospels, as more simply apprehended, and as one might say, known
"according to the flesh," by those who do not go up, through works and
words which are uplifting, to the lofty mountain of wisdom, but known no
longer after the flesh, but known in His divinity by menus of all the
Gospels, and beholden in the form of God according to their knowledge; for
before them is Jesus transfigured, and not to any one of those below. But
when He is transfigured, His face also shines as the sun, that He may be
manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of
darkness, and put on the armour of light,(2) and are no longer the children
of darkness or night, but have become the sons of day, and walk honestly as
in the day;(3) and being manifested, He will shine unto them not simply as
the sun, but as demonstrated to be the sun of righteousness.

38. THE GARMENTS WHITE AS THE LIGHT.

   And not only is He transfigured before such disciples, nor does He only
add to the transfiguration the shining of His face as the sun; but further
also to those who were led up by Him into the high mountain apart, His
garments appear white as the light.(1) But the garments of Jesus are the
expressions and letters of the Gospels with which He invested Himself. But
I think that even the words in the Apostles which indicate the truths
concerning Him are garments of Jesus, which become white to those who go up
into the high mountain along with Jesus. But since there are differences
also of things white, His garments become white as the brightest and purest
of all white things; and that is light. When therefore you see any one not
only with a thorough understanding of the theology concerning Jesus, but
also making clear every expression of the Gospels, do not hesitate to say
that to Him the garments of Jesus have become white as the light. But when
the Son of God in His transfiguration is so understood and beheld, that His
face is a sun, and His garments white as the light, straightway there will
appear to him who beholds Jesus in such form Moses,--the law--and Elijah,--
in the way of synecdoche, not one prophet only, but all the prophets--
holding converse with Jesus; for such is the force of the words "talking
with Him;"(2) but, according to Luke, "Moses and Elijah appeared in glory,"
down to the words, "in Jerusalem."(3) But if any one sees the glory of
Moses, having understood the spiritual law as a discourse in harmony with
Jesus, and the wisdom in the prophets which is hidden in a mystery,(4) he
sees Moses and Elijah in glory when he sees them with Jesus.

39. JESUS WAS TRANSFIGURED--"AS HE WAS PRAYING."

   Then, since it will be necessary to expound the passage as given in
Mark, "And as He was praying He was transfigured before them,"(5) we must
say that perhaps it is possible especially to see the Word transfigured
before us if we have done the things aforesaid, and gone up into the
mountain, and seen the absolute Word holding converse with the Father, and
praying to Him for such things as the true High-Priest might pray for to
the only true God. But in order that He may thus hold fellowship with God
and pray to the Father, He goes up into the mountain; and then, according
to Mark, "His garments become white and glistening as the light, so as no
fuller on earth can whiten them."(6) And perhaps the fullers upon the earth
are the wise men of this world who are careful about the diction which they
consider to be bright and pure, so that even their base thoughts and false
dogmas seem to be beautified by their fulling, so to speak; but He who
shows His own garments glistering to those who have ascended and brighter
than their fulling can make them, is the Word, who exhibits in the
expressions of the Scriptures which are despised by many the glistering of
the thoughts, when the raiment of Jesus, according to Luke, becomes white
and dazzling.(1)

40. DISCUSSION OF THE SAYING OF PETER.

   But let us next see what was the thought of Peter when he answered and
said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us make three
tabernacles,"(1) etc. And on this account these words call for very special
examination, because Mark, in his own person, has added, "For he wist not
what to answer,"(3) but Luke, "not knowing," he says, "what he spake."(4)
You will consider, therefore, if he spake these things as in a trance,
being filled with the spirit which moved him to say these things, which
could not be a Holy Spirit; for John taught in the Gospel that, before the
resurrection of the Saviour, no one had the Holy Spirit, saying, "For the
Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified."(5) But if the
Spirit was not yet, and he, not knowing what he said, spoke under the
influence of some spirit, the spirit which caused these things to be said
was some one of the spirits which had not yet been triumphed over in the
cross, nor made a show of along with them, about whom it is written,
"Having put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He made a
show of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross.(6)" But this spirit
was perhaps that which is called a stumbling-block by Jesus, and which is
spoken of as Satan in the passage, "Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art a
stumbling-block unto me.'(7) But I know well that such things will offend
many who meet with them, because they think that it is opposed to sound
reason that he should be spoken ill of who a little before had been
pronounced blessed by Jesus, on the ground that the Father in heaven had
revealed to him the things concerning the Saviour, to-wit, that He was
verily Jesus, and the Christ, and the Son of the living God. But let such
an one attend more exactly to the statements about Peter and the rest of
the Apostles, how even they made requests as if they were yet alien from
Him who was to redeem them from the enemy and purchase them with His own
precious blood; or let them also, who will have it that even before the
passion of Jesus the Apostles were perfect, tell us whence it came about
that "Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep."(1) But to
anticipate something else of what follows and apply it to the subject in
hand, I would raise in turn these questions,--whether it is possible for
any one to find occasion of stumbling in Jesus apart from the working of
the devil who caused him to stumble; and whether it is possible for any one
to deny Jesus, and that in presence of a little maid and a doorkeeper and
men most worthless, unless a spirit had been with him in his denial hostile
to the Spirit which is given and the wisdom, (which is given) to those who
are assisted by God to make confession, according to a certain desert of
theirs. But he who has learned to refer the roots of sin to the father of
sin, the devil, will not say that apart from him either the Apostles were
caused to stumble, or that Peter denied Christ thrice before that well-
known cock-crowing. But if this be so, consider whether perhaps with a view
to make Jesus stumble, so far as was in his power, and to turn Him aside
from the dispensation whose characteristic was suffering that brought
salvation to men, which He undertook with great willingness, seeking to
effect these things which seemed to contribute to this end, he himself also
here wishes as it were, by deceit, to draw away Jesus, as if calling upon
Him no longer to condescend to men, and come to them, and undergo death for
them, but to abide on the high mountain with Moses and Elijah. But he
promised also to build three tabernacles, one apart for Jesus, and one for
Moses, and one for Elijah, as if one tabernacle would not have sufficed for
the three, if it had been necessary for them to be in tabernacles and in
the high mountain. And perhaps also in this he acted with evil intent, when
he incited him "who did not know what he said," not desiring that Jesus and
Moses and Elijah should be together, but desiring to separate them from one
another, under pretext of the three tabernacles." And likewise it was a
lie, "It is good for us to be here;"(2) for if it had been a good thing
they would also have remained there. But if it were a lie, you will seek to
know who caused the lie to be spoken; and especially since according to
John, "When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and
the father thereof;"(1) and as there is no truth apart from the working of
Him who says, "I am the Truth,"(2) so there is no lie apart from him who is
the enemy of truth. These contrary qualities, accordingly, were still in
Peter truth and falsehood; and from truth he said, "Thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God,"(3) but from falsehood he said, "May God be
propitious to Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee,"(4) and also, "It is
good for us to be here."(5) But if any one will not admit that Peter spoke
these things from any evil inspiration, but that his words were of his own
mere choice, and it is demanded of him how he will interpret, "not knowing
what he said," and,(6) "for he did not know what to answer,"(7) he will
say, that in the former case Peter held it to be a shameful thing and
unworthy of Jesus to admit that the Son of the living God, the Christ, whom
already the Father had revealed to him, should be killed; and in the:
present case that, as having seen the two forms of Jesus and the one at the
transfiguration which was much more excellent, being well pleased with
that, he said that it was good to make their sojourning in that mountain,
in order that he himself and those with him might rejoice as they beheld
the transfiguration of Jesus and His face shining as the sun. and His
garments white as the light, and, in addition to these things, might always
behold in glory those whom they had once seen in glory, Moses and Elijah;
and that they might rejoice at the things which they might hear, as they
talked and held intercourse with each other, Moses and Elijah with Jesus,
and Jesus with them.

41. FIGURATIVE INTERPRETATION OF THE SAME.

   But since we have not yet spent our energy in interpreting the things
in the place figuratively, but have said these things by way of searching
into the mere letter, let us in conformity with these things, consider
whether the aforesaid Peter and the sons of thunder who were taken up into
the mountain of the dogmas of the truth, and who saw the transfiguration of
Jesus and of Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory with Him. might wish
to make tabernacles in themselves for the Word of God who was going to
dwell in them, and for His law which had been beholden in glory, and for
the prophecy which spake of the decease of Jesus, which He was about to
accomplish;(1) and Peter, as one loving the contemplative life, and having
preferred that which was delightsome in it to the life among the crowd with
its turmoil, said, with the design of benefiting those who desired it, "It
is good for us to be here."(2) But since "love seeketh not its own,"(3)
Jesus did not do that which Peter thought good; wherefore He descended from
the mountain to those who were not able to ascend to it and behold His
transfiguration, that they might behold Him in such form as they were able
to see Him. It is, therefore, the part of a righteous man who possesses
"the love which seeketh not its own"(4) to be free from all, but to bring
himself under bondage to all those below that He might gain the more of
them.(5) But some one, with reference to what we have alleged about the
trance and the working of an evil spirit in Peter, concerning the words,
"not knowing what he said,"(6) not accepting that interpretation of ours,
may say that there were certain mentioned by Paul "desiring to be teachers
of the law,"(7) who do not know about what they speak, but who, though they
do not clearly expound the nature of what is said, nor understand their
meaning, make confident affirmations of things which they do not know. Of
such a nature was the affection of Peter also, for not apprehending what
was good with reference to the dispensation of Jesus and of those who
appeared in the mountain,--Moses and Elijah,--he says, "It is good for us
to be here," etc., "not knowing what he said," "for he wist not what to
say," for if "a wise man will understand the things from his own mouth, and
carries prudence in his lips,"(8) he who is not so does not understand the
things from his own mouth, nor comprehend the nature of the things spoken
by him.

42. THE MEANING OF THE "BRIGHT CLOUD."

   Next to these come the words, "While He was yet speaking, behold, also,
a bright cloud overshadowed them,"(9) etc. Now, I think that God, wishing
to dissuade Peter from making three tabernacles, under which so far as it
depended on his choice he was going to dwell, shows a tabernacle better, so
to speak, and much more excellent, the cloud. For since it is the function
of a tabernacle to overshadow him who is in it, and to shelter him, and the
bright cloud overshadowed them, God made, as it were, a diviner tabernacle,
inasmuch as it was bright, that it might be to them a pattern of the
resurrection to come; for a bright cloud overshadows the just, who are at
once protected and illuminated and shone Upon by it. But what might the
bright cloud, which overshadows the just, be? Is it, perhaps, the fatherly
power, from which comes the voice of the Father bearing testimony to the
Son as beloved and well-pleasing, and exhorting those who were under its
shadow to hear Him and no other one? But as He speaks of old, so also
always does He speak through what He wills. And perhaps, too, the Holy
Spirit is the bright cloud which overshadows the just, and prophesies of
the things of God, who works in it, and says, "This is My beloved Son in
whom I am well-pleased;" but I would venture also to say that our Saviour
is a bright cloud. When, therefore, Peter said, "Let us make here three
tabernacles,"(1) ... one from the Father Himself, and from the Son, and one
from the Holy Spirit. For a bright cloud of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
overshadows the genuine disciples of Jesus; or a cloud overshadows the
Gospel and the law and the prophets, which is bright to him who is able to
see the light of it in the Gospel, and the law, and the prophets. But
perhaps the voice from the cloud says to Moses and Elijah, "This is My
beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased, hear Him," as they were desirous to
see the Son of man, and to hear Him, and to behold Him as He was in glory.
And perhaps it teaches the disciples that He who was, in a literal sense,
the Son of God, and His beloved in whom He was well-pleased, whom it
behoved them especially to hear, was He who was then beheld, and
transfigured, and whose face shone as the sun, and who was clothed with
garments white as the light.

43. RELATION OF MOSES AND ELIJAH TO JESUS. THE INJUNCTION OF SILENCE.

   But after these things it is written that, when they heard the voice
from the cloud bearing testimony to the Son, the three Apostles, not being
able to bear the glory of the voice and power resting upon it, "fell on
their face,"(2) and besought God; for they were sore afraid at the
supernatural sight, and the things which were spoken from the sight. But
consider if you can also say this with reference to the details in the
passage, that the disciples, having understood that the Son of God had been
holding conference with Moses, and that it was He who said, "A man shall
not see My face and live,"(1) and taking further the testimony of God about
Him, as not being able to endure the radiance of the Word, humbled
themselves under the mighty hand of God;(2) but, after the touch of the
Word, lifting up their eyes they saw Jesus only and no other.(3) Moses, the
law, and Elijah, the prophet, became one only with the Gospel of Jesus; and
not, as they were formerly three, did they so abide, but the three became
one, But consider these things with me in relation to mystical matters; for
in regard to the bare meaning of the letter, Moses and Elijah, having
appeared in glory and talked with Jesus, went away to the place from which
they had come, perhaps to communicate the words which Jesus spake with
them, to those who were to be benefited by Him, almost immediately, namely,
at the time of the passion, when many bodies of the saints that had fallen
asleep, their tombs being opened, were to go to the city which is truly
holy--not the Jerusalem which Jesus wept over--and there appear unto
many.(4) But after the dispensation in the mountain, when the disciples
were coming down from the mountain in order that, when they had come to the
multitude, they might serve the Son of God concerning the salvation of the
people, Jesus commanded the disciples saying, "Tell the vision to no man
until the Son of man rise from the dead."(5) But that saying, "Tell the
vision to no man," is like that which was investigated in the passage
above, when "He enjoined the disciples to tell no man that He was the
Christ."(6) Wherefore the things that were said at that passage may be
useful to us also for the passage before us; since Jesus wishes also, in
accordance with these, that the things of His glory should not be spoken
of, before His glory after the passion; for those who heard, and in
particular the multitudes, would have been injured when they saw Him
crucified, who had been so glorified. Wherefore since His being glorified
in the resurrection was akin to His transfiguration, and to the vision of
His face as the sun, on this account He wishes that these things should
then be spoken of by the Apostles, when He rose from the dead.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (ANF 9, Menzies). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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