But that God does take likeness and accurate similitude of works or of ways to have the force of kinship, we shall clearly know, if we look closely into the holy words, and explore the Holy Scripture. In the times therefore of Jeremiah the prophet, there was a certain false prophet, Shemaiah the Nehelamite 25 by name, belching things forth of his own heart as it is written and not out of the Mouth of the Lord. And since there was some other great multitude of lying witnesses and false prophets going about among the people, and drawing them away to what was not meet, God the Lord of all was at last rightly indignant. Then after having expended many words upon Shemaiah, and declared more in detail what penalties he should pay for his deed of daring, at last He adds, and I will visit upon Shemaiah and his seed, who do like deeds with him 26. Hearest thou how He sees kindred in like attempts? for how could He who judgeth right punish along with Shemaiah |634 his seed after the flesh, not like-mannered with himself as regards baseness, albeit He says clearly by the Prophet Ezekiel, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. In order then that one may not imagine anything of this sort respecting him, having said, his seed, He immediately added, Who do like deeds with him, defining kindred to be in sameness of action. But that we may see that what is said is true of the very Jews, let us call to mind the words of John (I mean the holy Baptist), for shewing that rotten was their boast of kindred with Abraham, he says, And say not within yourselves, We have Abraham for a father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up seed unto Abraham. For since it had been said unto him by God, Multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, the people of the Jews resting upon the Promiser being surely and of necessity unlying, were thinking big, and expecting that in no wise could they fall from the kinship to their ancestor, that the Divine Promise may be kept. But the blessed Baptist annihilating this their hope, very clearly says, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham: And with these falls in the blessed Paul too thus saying, For not all they of Israel are these Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. It being shewn therefore on all sides to be true that God acknowledges kindred in manners and habits, clearly vain is it to boast of holy and good ancestors, and be left behind and depart far away from their virtue.
With reason therefore does the Lord say to the Jews, I know that ye are Abraham's seed yet do ye seek to kill Me because My Word hath no place in you. Yea (He says) when I look to the flesh alone and consider whence the people of the Jews sprang, then I see that ye are of the seed of Abraham, but when I look at the beauty of his conversation and disposition, I see that ye are aliens and no longer kin. For ye are seeking to kill Me, albeit your forefather, of whom ye now think great things, was no murderer, and worst and most lawless of all, on no just pretexts am I persecuted by you, but ye desire to kill Me in utter injustice: |635 for for this reason alone did ye devise to destroy Me, because My Word hath no place in you, albeit calling you to salvation and life. It hath no place in you, because of the sin that indwelleth in you, and which suffereth not advice and counsel for good to have any room in you. Murderers therefore alike and most unrighteous judges are the Jews, determining that they ought to award to death Him who nothing wronged them but rather was engaged in doing them good and zealous to save them. How then are they any longer kin to the righteous and good Abraham, who are so far behind the good that was in him, and have strayed so far from like conduct with him, as one would admit were distant and say were parted vice from virtue?
> > 38 I speak that which I have seen with My Father, do YE then do that which ye heard 27 from the 28 Father.
How then are they any longer kin to the righteous and good Abraham, who are so far behind the good that was in him, and have strayed so far from like conduct with him, as one would admit were distant and say were parted vice from virtue? > > 38 I speak that which I have seen with My Father, do YE then do that which ye heard 27 from the 28 Father.
Uncontained by the Jews did He say that His word was, and having said that this was the only reason why they were incited against Him, yea rather convicting them of desiring even to kill Him, needs does He add these things also, and why, I will set forth. He was not ignorant, it appears, that some of the Jews would rise up and dispute His words and belching forth from their innate madness, say again, Not for nothing (as Thou sayest) do some desire to slay Thee, for reasonable causes are they stimulated thereto, pious is their motion and their zeal free from all just accusal: for without place in them is Thy word seeing Thou madest it dissonant from God. Thou teachest us (he says) another error and drawest us off from the way of the Law, and removest us to that which pleases Thyself Alone. The Jews then whispering these things privately or imagining them in their hearts, the Lord again meets them, knowing the motions of their imaginations within (for He is Very God) and therefore says, I speak that which I have seen with My Father, I beheld close the Nature of Father, I saw ofttimes of Myself and in Myself Him Who |636 begat Me, and am a Beholder of the Will That is in Him. I saw, by innate knowledge that is, of what works He is the Lover, and these I speak to you, I shall not be found to say ought dissonant to Him, nor have I appointed any thing other than pleases Him. To that was I earnest in calling My hearers, not departing from what is Mine (for in Me are His, and Mine again in Him) but if I Who am thus by Nature and am in all things Co-willer with God the Father, appear to you to be not true and I am adjudged to be leading you astray from the Divine Teachings, let the charge be dismissed, cast away suspicion; do that which ye heard from the Father, He hath spoken to you by Moses, accomplish the command, ye heard Him say, The innocent and righteous slay thou not, how then are ye seeking to kill Me and breaking the Father's commandment?
But in another way again will we take the words, Do YE then do that which ye heard from the Father. He has spoken to you (He says) through the Prophets, ye heard Him say, Rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion, shout o daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee, He is just and having salvation and mounted upon a colt the foal of an ass, and again through the voice of Isaiah, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, o Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift ye up, be not afraid, behold your God, behold the Lord cometh with strength and His Arm with rule, behold His Reward with Him and His work before Him: like a shepherd shall He feed His flock, He shall gather the lambs with His Arm and shall comfort those that are with young. Obeying therefore the commands of the Father, receive Him Who is fore-announced to you; honour with faith Him Who has been fore-preached. Give at least to the words of the Father to prevail in you.
But we must know that He saya that the Law is God the Father's, albeit spoken by Him through Angels 29, not |637 putting Himself outside of the law-giving, but He yielding to the surmises of the Jews who believed that it was so, and economically, does not oppose Himself to their surmise, for ofttimes doth He shame them, since they receive Him not, for He brings before them the Father's Name.
> > 39 They answered and said unto Him, Our father is Abraham.
O great unlearning and mind withered unto unbelief and looking to only wrangling! For while our Saviour Christ consenteth and saith openly, I know that ye are Abraham's seed, they persist in the same, and as though one were holding out and contradicting and saying that they were not of Abraham's seed after the flesh, they again say, Our father is Abraham, and blush not going oft through the same words, who think that they ought not to yield even to Battus i, but are but most excellent emulators of that man's babbling. But perchance they had some most unreasoning plea for this, and what, we will tell. For when the Lord says, I speak that which I have seen with My Father, they did not imagine that He hereby intended God the Father, but thought that He spoke of either the righteous Joseph, or some other of those on the earth, ridiculing and deeming and thinking exceeding little things of Him. For the holy Virgin conceived in her womb the Divine Babe, not of marriage but of the Holy Ghost, as it is written. And the blessed Joseph knowing not at first the mode of the economy was minded to put her away privily, as Matthew saith. But it was not by any means unknown by the Jews that the holy Virgin conceived in her womb before marriage and coming together, yet they understood not that it was of the Holy Ghost, but thought that she had been corrupted by one of the nation, whence they had no right conceptions of Christ. For they deemed that He was a child begotten of some other father who had corrupted (according to their |638 madness) the holy Virgin, and that He was attributed only to Joseph, being a bastard and not son in truth. When then He says, I speak that which I have seen of My Father, they took in no thought at all of God, but that He meant some one of earthly fathers and fancied that He was trying to move them from their honour to their ancestor, and suspecting that He was apportioning to His own kin the honour due to another, and that most ancient glory of the Patriarchate, they meet Him in a more contentious and vehement manner saying, Our father is Abraham. For just as though they were saying, Albeit, sir, you drench us with clever words, and din around us with portentous marvels, and strike us hard with mighty deeds beyond speech, you will not remove us from our pristine boast, we will not register Thy father as the head of our race, we will not attribute such a glory to another, nor will we take new ancestors in exchange for the elder ones. It is no marvel, nor hard to believe, that the Jews should fall into such folly, when they imagined that He is even a bare man and in manifold wise holding Him cheap would call Him the carpenter's son and rank as though nought the King and Lord of all.
But that they had no right opinion as to the holy Virgin also, as though she had been denied, we shall know full well by what follows.
> > 40 Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham; but now ye seek to kill Me, a Man That have told you the truth which I heard of God, this did not Abraham.
Soothing, so to say, by every way and word the boldness of the Jews, Christ speaks to them veiledly, not applying open conviction but mingled with gentle speech, and in lowly wise and manifoldly charming their wrath. For since He sees that they are most exceeding silly and understand nought of what is said, He makes His Discourse free at length from any veil and bared of all covering. For it needed (He says) it needed, if ye believed that being classed |639 among Abraham's children was the highest honour, that ye should be zealous to imitate his manners: it needed that ye should track the lovely virtue of your ancestor, it needed that ye should be zealous of and love his obedience. For he heard God say, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land that I will shew thee. And nought delaying in the fulfilment of what was bidden him, he hastens forthwith from his country, and relying on the mercy of Him who bade him, arrives in a foreign land. And being at the very goal so to speak of life and passing his hundredth year, he heard, Thou shalt have a seed, and nothing doubting, he gave fervent faith to Him That spake, heeding not the weakness of his flesh, but looking at the Strength of Him That spoke to him. He heard that he was to offer to God his beloved for a sacrifice and forthwith he strove against the longings of nature, and made his love for the youth second to the Divine Command. In you I find all contrary to these, for ye are seeking, He says, to kill Me because I have told you things from God, this did not Abraham. For he insulted not by his unbelief Him who spake to him, he sought not to do any thing that grieved Him. How then are ye any more Abraham's children being as far distant from his piety as the difference of your actions shews?
But observe how He arranges His speech: for He said not that they heard the truth from the Father but from God, since, as we just now said, from their innate unbounded folly they were dragged down to untrue conceptions of Him, thinking that He was speaking of some one of earthly fathers. And exceeding well does He making His Discourse about dying call Himself Man, in every way retaining to Himself incorruptibility as God by Nature yet not severing from Himself His own Temple, but as being One Son, even when He became Man, yet says that He spake the Truth. For not in types any more and figures does the Saviour's word teach us to practise piety, but persuades us to love the spiritual and true worship.
But when He says, Which I heard from the Father, we must by no means be offended. For since He says that |640 He is Man, He speaks this too as befits man: for as He is said as Man to die, let Him be said as Man to hear also. But it seems likely that in the word, heard, He puts the inherent knowledge which He has of the will of His own Progenitor, for so is the wont of the Divinely inspired Scripture oftentimes to say of God. For when it says And the Lord heard, we do not by any means attribute to Him a separate and distinct sense of hearing, like as there is in us, for the Divine Nature is simple and remote from all compound, but we take rather hearing as knowledge and knowledge as hearing; for in the simple there is nought compound as we have said.
And to these meanings we will add a third, not departing from fit aim. God the Father said somewhere of Christ to the most holy Moses, A Prophet will I raise them up (i. e. to them of Israel) from among their brethren like unto thee and I will put My words in His Mouth and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. For this reason therefore did our Lord Jesus Christ say that He heard from the Father the Truth and spake it to the Jews, at once convicting them of fighting against God the Father and shewing clearly that Himself is He whom the Lawgiver promised before to raise up to them.
> > 41 YE do the deeds of your father.
For this reason therefore did our Lord Jesus Christ say that He heard from the Father the Truth and spake it to the Jews, at once convicting them of fighting against God the Father and shewing clearly that Himself is He whom the Lawgiver promised before to raise up to them. > > 41 YE do the deeds of your father.
Having shewn that the Jews are utterly of other manner than their ancestor, and far removed from his piety, He with good reason strips them of their empty fleshly boast. And saying openly that they ought not any longer to be enrolled among his children, He allots them to another father like unto them, and affixed similitude of deeds as a sort of bond of kindred, teaching that the good ought to be joined to the good, and deciding that it is meet that they who live ill should have as fathers those who have been condemned for the like. For like as they who have chosen to live excellently, and are therefore even now called saints, may without hazard call God their Father, so to the wicked is the wicked one rightly ascribed as father, seeing that they form the image of his wickedness and perversity |641 in their characters. For not altogether is he who begot of himself conceived of as father by the Divine Scripture, but he too who has any conformed to his own character, of whom he is said to be therefore father. Thus does the Divine Paul too write to certain, for in Christ Jesus through the Gospel did I beget you. As then (as we said) some are conformed both to God and to the holy fathers through likeness in manners and holiness; so to the devil too and to those like in conduct to him are some rendered like-minded, suffering this through their own depravity. Therefore to the saints the saints are fathers, but to the wicked the wicked who betake themselves to them, most befittingly. And the one, who in holiness take the impression (so to say) of the Divine Form on their own souls, and have the confidence that befits own sons, will with reason say Our Father which art in heaven: the bad again will be ascribed to their own father, begotten as it were through likeness unto him unto equal depravity with him. To the Jews therefore Christ allots and names another father than the holy Abraham, and who, He does not as yet clearly say.
> > They said therefore to Him, We have not been born of fornication, we have one Father, God.
To the Jews therefore Christ allots and names another father than the holy Abraham, and who, He does not as yet clearly say. > > They said therefore to Him, We have not been born of fornication, we have one Father, God.
Already now have I said that the all-daring Jews were easily sick with bitter and unholy conceptions of our Saviour Christ. For they thought that the holy Virgin had been corrupted, I mean the Lord's Mother, and that she was taken with child, not of the Holy Ghost or of operation from above but of one of those on the earth. For being wholly disbelieving and without understanding, they either made no account of the prophetic writings, albeit openly hearing, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, or looking only to the flesh and following the order of events usual with us, and not thinking of the Nature which works beyond speech, to which nought is hard to perform, every thing that seems good to Him easy; they deem that no otherwise could a woman conceive in her |642 womb, save by coming together with her husband and cohabitation. Sick of such a suspicion, the wretched ones dared to accuse the Birth through the Spirit of the Divine and wondrous Offspring. But when putting them forth from kindred with Abraham He allots them to another father, very angry are they, and unrestrainedly foaming up their inherent anger, they reviling say, WE have not been born of fornication, we have one Father, God. For they say darkly somewhat of this sort, Two fathers hast Thou, neither wert Thou born of honourable marriage, WE One, God.
But let a man see and consider clearly how great their disease of madness in this too. For they who by reason of the naughtiness and depravity that was in them are by the Righteous Judge put not even among the children of Abraham, advance to such a measure of madness, as to call even God their Father, perhaps because of what is said in the books of Moses, Israel is My son, My first-born, not admitting into their mind what is said through the voice of Isaiah, Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord.
And one may reasonably enquire what it was that induced the Jews at present to say no longer, Our father is Abraham, or, We have one father Abraham, but to go straight up to One God. To me they seem to have had some thought of this kind. For when they, smiting with their railing the Lord, as though His mother had been dishonoured before marriage, were ascribing to Him two fathers, needs did they seek to take the title of one as an ally of their own ill-will. For whereby they affirm that they have One Father God, by the same they indirectly reproach the Lord of having two, setting the One over against two. For they imagined that if they said, We have one father Abraham, they would be altogether denying the rest, I mean Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve who were from him, which if they should do, they would seem to be arming themselves against themselves and to fight with their own choice and boast, estranging Israel from the nobility of the fathers, and thereby to go along with the Lord's own saying. Escaping then the damage that thence seemed to accrue to them, they no |643 longer say, We have one father Abraham, but rather ascribe to themselves One Father God, spell-subdued by only the most unsure pleasures of railing, that they might fall into yet greater blame, craftsmen of all impiety, yet daring to take as their father the Enemy of all impiety.
> > 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father ye would love Me, for I proceeded forth from God and am come.
The Lord does not hereby take away the power of any to be ranked among the sons of God, but shews rather to whom will pertain the boast of it, and that it will be found rather in the saints, and convicts the insulting Jew of being mad. For I (saith He) am sprung the One and True Son by Nature, from God the Father that is; and all are adopted, formed after Me and mounting up unto My Glory, for images are always after their archetypes. How can ye then (He says) at all be numbered among the children of God, who are minded not only not to love Him Who beamed forth from God and transfashions unto His own Form those who believe on Him, but do even dishonour Him, not in one way but in many? and they who receive not the Image of God the Father, how will they be at all formed after Him? Besides it is lawful (He says) not to any chance persons without blame to call God their Father, but those in whom the beauty of piety towards Him shall flash forth,----those I deem and none other will it befit. I have come from Heaven to counsel you things most excellent, and My Word invites you to the being formed after God. But if it be verily your aim and longing to have God as your Father, surely ye would have loved Me your Guide and Teacher on such a path, Who give you the opportunity of likeness to the One and True Son, Who through the Holy Ghost render conformed to Himself those who receive Him. For he (He says) who altogether boasteth of ownness toward God, how would he not love Him That is of God? how (tell me) will he honour the tree who foolishly loatheth the fruit that is its offspring? Either therefore, He saith, make the tree good and his fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. If therefore the Tree (i. e. God the |644 Father) be Noble and ye know how to draw the Splendour thereof on your own heads, why loved ye not the Fruit that is of Him, believing It to be such as He is? The verse before us therefore hath at once a bitter reproof of the Jews (for it shews them to be liars, for when they essay to call God their Father, they are far away from the virtue that pertains to those who are called to this, because they love not Him Who is of God by Nature) and at the same time it profitably brings in the mention of His own Ineffable Generation, that they might be caught in impiety in this too, calling Him ill-born and bastard. For if the saying, I proceeded forth from God, signifies His Ineffable and Eternal Generation from the Father; adding I am come, [He shews] His appearance in this world with Flesh. And surely one will not say that God the Word then first beamed forth from God the Father, when He became Man (for so it seemed to some of the unholy heretics) but he will rather take it as is meet and will conceive of it piously. For not because He joined the words, (I mean I proceeded forth and I am come) will the Word of the Father be co-eval in time with the Birth of the Flesh, but to each of the things indicated will we keep its proper meaning.
For we believe the first Generation of the Word conceived of as from God to be without beginning and above mind; wherefore it hath been set forth first in the words, I proceeded forth from God; the second, i. e. , that after the Flesh, for neither have I come of Myself but He sent Me. I was Incarnate as you, that is, I became Man, in the Good Pleasure of God the Father came I in this world to declare to you the things of God and to tell to those who know not, what it is that pleases Him. But ye loved not (He says) Him Who from the Divine counsel was revealed to you as Saviour and Guide. How then will ye any more be called children of God, or how will ye gain the grace of ownness with Him, if ye honour not Him That is of Him? It is likely that the Lord again means something by this and aims by such words also to silence the people of the Jews who are vainly yelping at Him. And what it is that is intended we will briefly say. |645
Many among the Jews esteeming no whit the Divine Fear, but admiring and accepting only honours from men, and overcome by base lucre, dared to prophesy, speaking out of their own heart and not out of the Mouth of the Lord, as it is written. And verily the Lord of all Himself chid them saying, I sent not the prophets, I spake not to them yet they prophesied; yea, He threatened to do dread things to them crying out, Woe unto them that prophesy out of their their own heart and see nothing at all. Such an one was that Shemaiah who to the words of Jeremiah opposed his own lie and having taken the yokes of wood and shattered them, said, Thus saith the Lord, I will shatter the yoke of the king of Babylon. Since then when our Saviour Christ says, But now ye seek to kill Me a man who have told you the truth which I heard of God, the Jews began to murmur, and not knowing Who He is in truth, to imagine that He is some false prophet and to be therefore hardened, so as to even dare to revile Him, and so angrily desire to kill Him as even to press on to do it:----profitably does He again terrify them, saying that He came not of Himself as was the wont of them who prophesy falsely, but was sent by God, that by the same He both putting aside the reputation of being a false prophet and teaching that they will incur no slight doom, who not only dishonour Him that has been sent by God the Father, but also dare to devise murder against Him, might cut short their unbridled daring.
This then for what is before us. But it is probable that the heretic will make what has been said the food of his innate impiety. He will haply accuse the Essence of the Only-Begotten and will deem that it is in lower case than the Father's because of His saying that He had been sent by Him. But let such an one consider the mode of the economy but now spoken, and remember Paul crying aloud of the Son, Who being in the Form of God thought it not robbery to be Equal with God, but emptied Himself taking servant's form, made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself made obedient unto death. But if He hath of His own will humbled |646 Himself, the Father, that is, consenting and Co-willing it, what accusal will He have, going through the whole mode of the Economy unto its consummation, in any reasonable way? But if because of His saying that He has been sent, you deem that the Son lies in lower case than the Father, how (tell me) doth He That is in lower case, according to thy unlearning, work in all exactitude the things of God? For where does the lesser shew itself in Him who possesses perfectly all that belongs to His own Progenitor and the fullest God-befitting Authority? Therefore He will not be conceived of as less on account of being sent, but being God of God by Nature and verily, since Himself is the Wisdom and Power of the Father, He is sent to us as from the sun the light which is spread abroad from it, in order that He might make wise that which lacks wisdom, and that thus at length that which was weak might be lifted up through Him and strengthened unto the knowledge of God the Father and recovered unto all virtue. For all things most fair beamed on the human race through only Christ. There is therefore nothing at all of servile kind in Christ, but it belongs only to the form of the flesh: but God-befitting is His Authority and Power even all, even though the language meetly conformed to the measure of lowliness take human fashion.
> > 43 Why do ye not understand My speech? because ye cannot hear My word.
For all things most fair beamed on the human race through only Christ. There is therefore nothing at all of servile kind in Christ, but it belongs only to the form of the flesh: but God-befitting is His Authority and Power even all, even though the language meetly conformed to the measure of lowliness take human fashion. > > 43 Why do ye not understand My speech? because ye cannot hear My word.
What we have oftentimes said we say again for profit to the readers: for there is no harm in our discourse going very frequently through what may profit. It is the custom then of our Saviour Christ not altogether to accept from those who disbelieve Him, the word that boiled up from their tongue, but to look rather on the hearts and reins, and to make His replies to the thoughts that were yet revolving in the depth of their hearts. For man who knows not the thoughts that are in another, will needs admit the uttered word, but God not so; for He knowing all things, takes the thought for the voice. When then the Lord said |647 to the Jews that He had come not of Himself, like them who of their own mind and not of the Divine Spirit advance to prophesy, but that He was sent by God, they again imagine, or reason among themselves, or secretly whispering one to another said, Many Prophets have spoken the things of God and brought words from the Spirit unto us, but we find nought among them of such sort as is in this man's words. For He bears us wholly away from the worship after the Law and removes us to some other polity and introduces to us a strange transition of life. Dissonant therefore manifestly and irreconcileable is His Discourse with that of those of old. Since He beheld them thinking (as is likely) these things, shewing that He is by Nature God and knoweth the counsels of the hearts, He takes hold of it and says, Why do ye not understand My Speech? because ye cannot hear My Word. I am not ignorant (He says) that ye cannot comprehend My Speech, or doctrine; but I will tell you the reason and will clearly set before you what is the hindrance. Ye cannot hear My Word. He says, ye cannot, convicting them of impotence unto perfect good, because of their being fore-mastered by their passions. For the love of pleasure unnerves the mind, and the unbridled tendency towards evil yet weakening the sinew of the heart, renders it feeble and most spiritless to the power of performing any virtue. Being therefore fore-weakened by tendencies to vice and tyrannized by your own passions ye cannot, He says, hear My Word. For right are the ways of the Lord, as it is written, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall become impotent in them. Akin to this will you find that too which was in another place said to the Pharisees, How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that, cometh from the only God? for verily in this their not being able to believe shews the voluntary weakness of their understanding or that their mind has been before overcome of vainglory. And we find again that that is true of the Jews which has been spoken by the voice of Paul, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, |648 for they are foolishness to him. Since therefore they were natural, they deemed that He was foolishness Who was inviting them to be saved, and was teaching them the path of an excellent conversation, and directing them full well unto the power of pleasing God who delighteth in virtue, to whom be all honour, glory, might, for ever and ever. Amen.
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They of Jerusalem see rulers' aims. 513 514 People perished through Rulers. Rulers apt to rage restrained by One Mightier. 515 516 A right teacher a door, a wrong destroys. Christ's Generation of the Father unknown. 517 518 Temporal Generation known, Eternal unknown. Christ restrains the rulers raging, His Birth here known. 519 520 Christ True of Truth, they false. Christ God Whose Origin unknown. 521 522 The Son God Who seeth the Father. 524 Christ's Passion willed, bought our salvation. If we he subject to time, God dethroned. 525 526 Time good: if hours rule, no free-will, no praise, no blame, we worse off than beasts. 527 528 Hours given to all alike. Same hour Israel's deliverance, Assyria's overthrow. 529 530 God directs our affairs and cares for us. Christ blesses marriage, His dutifulness, unsubject to hours. 531 532 Hour fit time for anything. People believe while rulers plot against: rulers destroy the people. We know of all. 533 534 Rulers destroy their people. Chief Priests join with Pharisees. Wicked war with saints. 535 536 Good, present, convicts evil. Christ foretells His return to Heaven; His gentleness our Example. 537 538 Christ's tender reproach. Occasion must be seized at once, how painted in S. Cyril's time. 539 540 Those who reject Him Christ parts with, the pious honoured by Him and abide with Him. 541 542 Gentiles' teaching prophesied, of old forbidden. Tabernacles feast of, regain of Paradise, brook, Christ. 543 544 Tabernacles feast of. Faith allowed to help others too. Saints rivers. Scripture cited according to sense. 545 Christ as Man received His own Spirit, It lost gave man back. 547 548 Christ for us receives His own Spirit, why Incarnate, our firstfruits lends us His Stability. 549 550 Them of old the Spirit illumined, us He indwells. S. John Baptist attained bound possible without Baptism. 551 552 Christ for us receives His own Spirit. Two foretold, the Prophet and Elias. People search Scriptures about Christ. 553 554 Jews perplexity. Passion reserved for its time. Rulers anxiety. 555 556 The officers felt Christ's greatness. The rulers despair. 557 558 Deeper punishment of knowledge, real ignorance of Law. Nicodemus pungent reproof, his cowardice. 559 560 Nicodemus' reproof: Pharisees' fault-finding. A Jew one by birth not by upbringing. 561 562 Without Christ they missed of light, He the Light of all, forsook His old people, One Incarnate. 563 564 Teaching of elder Jews pattern to those now. Objection to witness to oneself futile. 565 566 Saints have witnessed to themselves, it does not necessarily involve falsehood. 567 568 Whence I am, God of God; whither, leaving them. Christ a Physician most kind and forbearing. 569 570 The Son the Judge: the Father approves the Son and co-witnesses to Him. 571 572 The Father's Nature in the Son therefore He does nothing of Himself. Father and Son Co-witnesses. 573 574 Jews bowed down dote blaspheme. The Father and Son known Each through Other. 575 576 Son Equal to Father; Joseph taken economically. 578 Christ suffered to save us willingly and when He would, He Life by Nature, and gave us to God. 579 580 After-counsel useless; death in sin eternal death, remorse there. Lesson from loss of health. 581 582 The Saints with Christ; we could not he saved except He had come: I go My way, what. 583 584 From above, said of God the Son, His Generation from the Father. 585 The Son God or a creature. 587 588 The Son God by witness of the Father and of S. Paul.
This world, all creation, not this world, God. 589 590 How devil fell. Angels stand around, Son enthroned. The Son, God. Teachers must not flag. 591 592 Doom & life. The SON the Giver of the Gracious promises in the Old Testament. 593 594 Jews' all-daring. Punctuation of verse. Jews spoken to first though unworthy. 595 596 Jews 'preferred give place to Gentiles. Folly of despising low birth. The Judge despised will doom. 597 598 Christ keeps everything for its time, witnessed to by the Father, Scripture testimonies to. 599 600 Son leads to Father: Jews' mean thought of: if mere man no hope for us; their punishment. 601 602 Threat from Him without Whom a sparrow falls not. After Passion leaves them, goes to Gentiles. 603 604 Christ God Who o'ermasters death. Jews' dread of the Resurrection. 605 The Son God One in Will and Mind with Father. 607 608 If Son not God, Father imperfect. works on earth little to His creation of all. 609 610 The Son God. Of Myself I do nothing does not signify inequality. 611 612 Father and Son distinct in Person: taught implies identity of Nature. 613 614 God the Word imaged in our word. With Me, of Nature; with us is God of our nature. 615 616 The Father's Wisdom knows: made Man veils knowledge as Godhead: God, must do God's Works. 617 618 Choice of evil ours not God's. Persons of Trinity God. Angels could swerve, the Son not. 619 620 Christ God and Man. Scriptures hard. Teachers unwearied gain some as did their Lord. Faith demanded. 621 622 Christ the Author of both Testaments. Value of faith. Christ the Truth. 623 624 Christ brought up out of Egypt. Elder Sacrifices lead on to Christ the Truth, Who justifies and frees. 625 626 Abraham little by birth great by faith. Jews manifold bondage. From slavery rulers, from sin Christ frees. 627 628 God's glory sinlessness. Those who are adopted abide, the bond not. Sheep and goats, 629 630 The created decayeth, the Son, God, abideth. Sitting signifies abidance. 631 632 The Free frees. Saints if mean to be honoured. To Christ kinship bodily and spiritual. 633 634 Seed them who do after. Jews' objections. 635 636 The Son hath one Will with the Father. Olden prophecies. Condescension. Jews knew of Virgin Birth. 637 638 Jews' hard surmises, Christ's gentleness. Praise of Abraham. Heard. 639 640 Heard, knew. Of the good God Father, of the bad the devil. 641 642 impiety yet boastfulness. The Son renders sons and conforms through Holy Ghost. 643 644 Eternal and Temporal Generation of Son. Sent the temporal generation. 645 646 The Son sent, to bring all good to us; answers thoughts. Pleasure and vain-glory unnerve the mind. 647 648 Jews unspiritual, deem the Son even foolishness.
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Praise of Abraham. Heard. 639 640 Heard, knew. Of the good God Father, of the bad the devil. 641 642 impiety yet boastfulness. The Son renders sons and conforms through Holy Ghost. 643 644 Eternal and Temporal Generation of Son. Sent the temporal generation. 645 646 The Son sent, to bring all good to us; answers thoughts. Pleasure and vain-glory unnerve the mind. 647 648 Jews unspiritual, deem the Son even foolishness. ----------------------------------------
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a ἀκράτῳ, sheer, a conjecture of Dr. Heyse for ἀκάρπῳ, fruitless.
2. a ἐν ἀμείνοσι: perhaps οὐκ ἐν ἀμείνοσι, not above is the right text.
3. b πλουσίαν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, S. Cyril appears to have had in his mind a very favourite quotation of his, Isa. xxxiii. 20, where the LXX has πόλις πλουσία, a prosperous or wealthy city.
4. c Thus I have emended, the MS. gives, καίτοι τοῦ νυμφῶνος οὐκ ὄντες υἱοί: what the real text is, is impossible to conjecture.
5. d for holy convocation the LXX has κλητὴ ἁγία, called out (or choice, notable) holy, and S. Cyril below alludes to this.
6. e seventh. So the MSS. of S. Cyril: eighth, both Hebrew and LXX and S. Cyril when citing the passage more at length, De Ador. book xvii.
7. f S. Cyril does not appear to have more than touched very briefly on the subject in any part of this commentary that we have: it is treated at length, de Adoratione lib. xvii. pp. 619, 620.
8. g I. e., not as a literal citation.
9. b S. Cyril with one or two MSS. adds this word.
10. d Thus reads S. Cyril with the uncial MSS. of the Alexandrine family, B. L.
11. e So reads S. Cyril with the MSS. of the Alexandrine family B. L.
12. f τὸ συνειδὸς, often used for conscience, seems here to mean only, the consciousness that tells one that any thing said of another will apply to him too.
13. g The history of the Woman taken in adultery is omitted by S. Cyril from this place as do most of the oldest MSS. also.
14. h S. Cyril joins on the holy at the end of ver. 5 to verse 6; not following herein the LXX as at present punctuated. There is a remarkable citation of the passage in Origen (ii. 515 A) quoted by Holmes. He omits, of the clause ὅτιἅγιος ἐστι, the words ὅτι and ἐστι and joins ἅγιος to verse 6 just as S. Cyril does here; citing the passage thus, worship at His footstool, Holy was Moses &c.
15. a i. e.,. the Arians. Cf. at the end of the Symbolum Nicaenum, " But those who say, 'There was a time when He was not,' or 'He was not before He was begot,' etc., these doth the Catholic and Apostolic Church of God anathematize."
16. b ὅτι because, for ὅτε when. So reads the MS. of S. Cyril in this place, with the Vatican, Alexandrine, Sinaitic and other uncial codices.
17. c S. Cyril has the word say very often, though he also uses the N. T. word write, as e. g. in his commentary upon Haggai.
, these doth the Catholic and Apostolic Church of God anathematize. "
16. b ὅτι because, for ὅτε when. So reads the MS. of S. Cyril in this place, with the Vatican, Alexandrine, Sinaitic and other uncial codices. 17. c S. Cyril has the word say very often, though he also uses the N. T. word write, as e. g. in his commentary upon Haggai.
18. d The MS. of S. Cyril here omits God, as does the codex Vaticanus: Tischendorf has got a few other instances of this in Fathers.
19. e γένους, the people of Israel, contrasted with ἐθνῶν, the Gentiles, like τῷ λαῷ is with ἔθνεσι in Acts xxvi. 23. and a little before, ver. 17: so in Rom. xv. 10, Rejoice ye Gentiles with His people.
20. f S. Cyril transposes the words Cover us and Fall on us again in the last Book of this commentary and also on the Prophet Hosea [x. 8.]
21. g Cf. Jer. xi. 15, Isa. v. 1, and of Benjamin, Deut. xxxiii. 12.
22. a unless ἰδιότητος be an error for θεότητος, of Godhead.
23. b Κατηργήθητε, cf. Rom. vii. 2 and 6, (pointed out by Liddell and Scott) is loosed from the law of her husband, we are delivered from the law.
24. c I. e., in his relation towards God, like S. John xv. 13-15, where our Lord contrasts the conditions of the relations of bondage and friendship.
25. d For Nehelamite, the Greek text of S. Cyril (following the Alexandrian and Frederico-Augustane MSS. of the LXX) has ἐλαμίτην, Elamite, the Vatican text of the LXX, the scarcely differing form, αἰλαμίτην.
26. e τοὺς ποιοὕντας τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ; it does not appear where S. Cyril obtained these words, to explain τὸ γένος, his seed, though he says expressly a little below that they are there.
27. f So reads S. Cyril for ἑωράκατε, ye have seen with the Alexandrine MSS. BCL.
28. g So reads S. Cyril (omitting ὑμῶν, your) with the uncial MSS. BL.: and he takes ποιεῖτε imperatively in his exposition on the present verse.
29. h See Heb. ii. 2, For if the word spoken by (i. e., through) Angels (that is the Law as contrasted with the Gospel uttered through God the Son's own Mouth) were steadfast; Gal. iii. 19, and it was ordained by (i. e., through) Angels in the hand of a mediator (i. e., Moses); S. Stephen's Apology in Acts vii. 53, who received the Law at the appointment of Angels and kept it not. i Battus is explained in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon to be the name of a stammerer, and formed from the continual repetition in stammering in the effort to get out his words.
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