THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PSALMS BY CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

And none other say they heard we saying these things: But who is This? For the things done in a type at that time, and why the descent of God upon Mount Sinai was figured out to them, these things they knowing nothing of, received them not as images of spiritual realities, but were imagining that the Divine Nature could actually be seen with the eyes of the body, and believed that He used a bodily voice. But that the Word of the Saviour to them was true, and that they neither at any time heard the Voice of God the Father, nor had any one with bodily vision seen His Form, that is, the Word in all things like unto Him, I think that we ought again to shew clearly, bringing to spiritual investigation and test the things written in Exodus.

It says thus, And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof was going up as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole people quaked greatly. And the voices of the trumpet sounded, going forth exceeding mighty, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

Thus far then the oracle of the all-wise Moses: Come then taking courage in the bounty and grace of the Saviour, let us refine the grossness of the letter of the law into spiritual contemplation: The people then being brought forth by Moses to meet God, as it is written, will be a manifest sign and token as in enigma, that none can unled and uninstructed come to God, but by the law are they led to the knowledge of the things which they seek to learn.

For Moses will be understood to be put for the Law, according as is said by a certain one, They have Moses and the Prophets. But the standing by under the mount, when God had now descended and was on it, signifies the readiness of disposition and resolve of those who are called to serve Him, not refusing in any way to apply themselves even to things above their power and superior to their nature, while God is with them.

Such in all respects are they who are partakers of the Saviour. Wherefore they practising manliness above men say, Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? But God is said to come down, not upon any low ground, but somewhere on high and on a mountain is He seen, that you may think some such thing as this with yourself, that although the Divine Nature condescending to our understandings, brings Itself to our conception, yet is It exceeding far above us, both in words and thoughts. For the height and intensity of the doctrines respecting It, are signified by the mountain, which he tells us was wholly darkened with smoke.

For keen indeed and not very clear to us are words respecting the Godhead, wounding like smoke the eyes of the understanding. Therefore the most wise Paul testified that we see through a glass and darkly: But the Godhead Itself descended in the form of fire, at that particular time, fittingly and of necessity for the nature of the thing. For it behoved, it behoved that He Who called Israel unto bondage and understanding through the law that should be put forth, should appear as an Enlightener and an Avenger. Yea, and the voices of the trumpet saith he sounded, going forward exceeding mighty, that some such effect of ideas again may be wrought for us: Wherefore Moses too called himself slow of speech.

But as time advances, and carries forward the believers in Christ from the shadow in the letter to the spiritual worship, the voices of the Divine trumpet waxed exceeding mighty, the saving and Gospel preaching resounding in a way through the whole earth. For not as the Law, feeble-voiced and petty-heralding, was this heard in the country of the Jews only, or proclaimed from Dan to Beersheba, but rather, Their voice went forth into all the earth, as it is written. Moses spake saith he and God answered him by a voice.

Keen be again the mind of the more studious, accurately let it observe the stability inherent in the Divine Oracles. For Moses speaks, and God answers him by a voice, not surely by His Own Voice, for this it does not say, but simply and absolutely by a voice, wrought wondrously in more human wise by sound of words. For in respect of what work will God be powerless? What that God wills shall He not perform, and that full readily? Therefore Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. Herein is the type, let us see the truth. You have therefore in the holy Gospels the Lord speaking, Father, glorify Thy Son 2 , and the Father answering by a voice, I both glorified, and will glorify again.

The Saviour shewed that this is not truly the voice of God the Father, by saying to those who were then present, This voice was made not because of Me, but for your sakes. Thou seest how He clearly affirmed that the Voice was made, since it is not meet to suppose that the Divine Nature useth a voice with a sound, though It conform Itself to our needs and speak like us, economically. These considerations were of necessity brought into our present discourse: That the Pharisees puffed up unto strange boasting, were wont to pretend that the Divine Word was with them and in them, and therefore foolishly affirmed that they had advanced to marvellous wisdom, the Spirit Itself will testify, since Christ says by the Prophet Jeremiah unto them, How do ye say, WE are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us?

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.

For nought to the scribes became their lying pen; the wise men were ashamed, were dismayed and taken; what wisdom is in them? For how are they not taken rejecting the Living and Hypostatic Word of God, receiving not the faith to Him-ward, but dishonouring the Impress of God the Father, and refusing to behold His most true Form so to say through His God-befitting Authority and Power?

For the Divine and Ineffable Nature is in no other wise apprehended so far as may be by us, than through what It effects and works, therefore Paul directs us to go from the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably unto the contemplation of the Creator, the Saviour again leads us to the apprehending of Himself, saying, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not; but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My works. And with great reason did He blame His own disciple this was Philip who imagined thoughtlessly that he could in any other way attain to the contemplation of God the Father, albeit it was in his power to consider His Uncreated Image, which shews accurately in Himself Him Who begat Him.

The smooth, and passable to the many, and beaten explanation of the passage persuades us to suppose that it was spoken in the imperative mood by our Saviour to the Pharisees, that they ought to search the Divine Scriptures and gather testimonies concerning Him unto life. But since by interposing the conjunction I mean, And He joins on the clause, Ye will not come to Me, He evidently signifies something else, akin to what has been said, but a little different. For if it were to be taken imperatively, how should we not say it was necessary to say the whole sentence in some such fashion as this, Search the Scriptures for in them YE think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me ; but when ye have searched, come to Me?

But He is blaming them for not choosing to come, although led to it by the search, saying, And ye will not come to Me. We will then, looking to what is more profitable and agreeable to what preceded, read it not imperatively, but rather as in connection and with a comma. Of this kind again will be the meaning of the passage before us. For when He saw that they were ever running to the books of Moses, and ignorantly collecting thence materials for gainsaying, but seeking for nothing else, nor receiving what would avail them for due belief: For what tell me saith He is the use of your searching the Divine Scriptures, and supposing that by them ye will attain unto everlasting life, but when ye find that they testify of Me and call Me everlasting life, ye will not come to Me that ye might have life?

Whence then ye ought to be saved He saith ye perceive not that thence ye get the greatest damage to your own souls, ye who are sharpened from the Mosaic books only unto gainsaying, but the things whereby ye could gain eternal life, ye do not so much as receive into your minds. For that in the Law and the holy Prophets there is much said concerning Him Who is by Nature Life, that is the Only-Begotten, will I think be plain to all who are lovers of learning. He perceives again, yea rather He sees in a God-befitting way, that the stubborn and contumacious band of the Pharisees were cut to the heart, and that not altogether at being accused of not searching the Divine Scriptures as they ought, but rather at His saying, Ye will not come to Me.

For what diseases themselves easily fall into, these they think can take hold of the Saviour also. For they imagined it seems of their great folly that the Lord was ambitious, and wished to obtain for Himself honour from all, through His calling them to be His disciples. Having got some such surmise as this into their minds, they expected to be deprived forthwith of their authority over the nation: Wherefore, as far as pertains to their wrath and envy at what is said, they all but say what is in the Gospel parables, Come, let us hill Him and let us have His inheritance.

Taking away then their surmise the offspring of emptiness, and plucking up beforehand by the roots the shoots of envy and evil eye, He says downright, I receive not honour from man. For I do not says He call My hearers to discipleship under Me, as though hunting for honour from you, or from others, as YE do, nor do I receive this as the reward of My teaching, having most full glory from Myself, and not short of that from you, but I said that ye would not come to Me, because I know well, that ye have not the love of God in you.

In order that the Pharisees might not think that the Lord was idly railing at them, from His saying, Ye have not the love of God in you, He immediately adds this also to the above, shewing that the saying is true. That I do not lie says He in saying that ye are bereft of love towards God, I will set before you by one thing.

For I came in My Father's Name for I am persuading you zealously to perform all things to the glory of God the Father but ye shook off from you by your unbelief Him That cometh from above and proceedeth from God: Whence I suppose the blessed Paul too, having understanding, says something true concerning the Jews and the son of transgression, Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might he saved, for this cause God sendeth 3 them an operation of error, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be doomed who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This then which is said is a proof that the Pharisees were not slandered by our Saviour Christ with empty words, for it introduces a prophecy of an event which should come to pass in its time. He accuses the Pharisees of love of rule and of prizing honours from men, covertly hinting that they do exceeding ill, in unadvisedly putting the diseases of their own soul upon God Who can by no means know disease. Next He says that they, fast held by vain glory, thereby lose the fairest prize, meaning faith in Him: It usually then as of necessity befalls those who hunt for honours from men, to fail of the glory that cometh from above and from the only God, as saith the Saviour.

He says only, opposing God to the gods of the Gentiles, and not excluding Himself from the honour of the Only. Having said that the Pharisees cared more to live vain-gloriously than piously, and having taught that hence they turned aside to unmeasured unbelief, He says that they were accused by Moses himself, of whom it was their custom to boast very vehemently. And indeed when the man who was blind from his birth once said to them of Christ, Will YE also be His disciples? Even Moses himself therefore says He shall accuse you, in whom ye put all your hope, and he despised with the rest will denounce before God your innate folly.

And we do not deem that they who believe not in Him will be without blame from Christ, by reason of His saying to the Jews, Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. For what shall we say when we hear Him saying, Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I too confess before My Father which is in Heaven: But I suppose this is clear to every one.

The Jews then are not surely free from accusal who have through long unbelief denied Christ, but this applies to them most naturally. For since they shook off His admonitions, and made no account of His Divine and Heavenly teaching, but are ever about duly keeping the Mosaic law, so as to be seen at length even more nakedly crying out, WE know that God hath spoken unto Moses, this man we know not from whence He is: Having said that the Jews would be accused by the all-wise Moses, and would undergo indictment at his hands for their unbelief in Him; He profitably subjoins these things also, teaching that He was not finding fault with them for nothing, or otherwise repudiating the suspicion of being given to railing, for it is evident that He is making no untrue speech.

Be it then saith He that ye reject My words, I will bear with not being believed: Break off your types which travail with the truth. For I am shadowed out in his books. Therefore will Moses himself also accuse you saith He when he seeth you disbelieving his writings about Me. We ought then perhaps having interpreted what is before us, to proceed in order, committing it to sincere lovers of learning to investigate the images of Christ through Moses. For his books are full of passages, and there is much said by him, yet full of difficulty to understand and replete with exceeding subtle and hidden meanings.

But lest we seem to let indolence have the mastery over us, and unreasonably to shirk so glorious a toil, by simply clothing with difficulty the books of Moses, we will apply ourselves to this too, knowing what is written, The Lord will give utterance to them who evangelize with much power. But since there are, as we have said, many words on these things, and since the all-wise Moses hath through many forms foretypified the Mystery of Christ, we shall not deem it necessary to heap up a great multitude before our readers, but having chosen one out of the whole number, we will essay to make clear proof that the Word of our Saviour was true, which He spake to the Jews, saying, If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for of Me he wrote.

That Moses was indicating the Coming of the Saviour. From Deuteronomy, concerning Christ. The Lord thy God it says will raise up unto thee a Prophet from thy brethren, like unto me, Him shall ye hear; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let us not hear again the voice of the LORD our God, neither let us see this great fire any more, nor let us die: I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put My word in His Mouth, and He shall speak unto them as I shall command Him.

And the man who shall not hearken unto what the Prophet shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him. Deuteronomy is a kind of repetition and summary of the Mosaic books: Yet since we are not accustomed to be without understanding, who in all think rightly by Christ's aid, we will tell our readers and throw open the meaning of the passage in hand: Lo again is the mystery of Christ plainly told us, skilfully moulded by most subtle contemplation from likeness to Moses.

For says he a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me: For he affirms that himself was at that time spoken of as a mediator, the Synagogue of the Jews being yet powerless to have to do with things above nature, and therefore prudently declining things above their power.

For such was the sight of God, surprising the vision with unwonted sights, and the echoes of the trumpets supernatural and intolerable to the hearers. Therefore the mediation of Moses was instituted as medicine of infirmity for those at that time, ministering to the synagogue the things decreed of God. You will transfer again the type to the truth, and will hereby conceive of Christ, the Mediator of God and men, ministering to the more teachable by means of human voice when for our sakes He was born of a woman the Ineffable Will of God the Father, made known to Him Alone, in that He is conceived of as both Son, of Him, and Wisdom, knowing all things, yea the deep things of God.

For since it was not possible for the eyes of the body to fasten themselves upon the untempered and bare Divine and Ineffable glory of the Essence which surpasseth all things for there shall no man saith He see My Face, and live: Therefore as an image of the mediation, Moses of old may be considered a type of Christ, ministering most excellently to the children of Israel the things appointed from God: But He was Man too, in that He became Flesh likening Himself to us, that through Him that which is by nature far separated might be conjoined to God.

When then Moses says, A Prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you like unto me, you will understand it no other wise than we have just said. Since God Himself also sets His seal on the word saying, Well is all which they spake; I will raise them up a Prophet like unto thee, and will put My Words upon Him, and He shall speak unto them according to all that I shall command Him. But if it seem good to any, by other considerations also to attain unto the mode of likeness, he will understand Like unto me as lawgiver, and will bring forward as proof the words, It was said by them of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, Thou shalt not lust.

He will understand again like unto me, saying that He is a kind of leader and master unto the being able to understand the will of the Father, and to the things whereby there is the high road into the Kingdom of Heaven: But since he subjoined to what has been said, And the man that will not hear what the Prophet shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him; let the ignorant Jews, who harden their minds to most utter stubbornness, consider that they are pouring self-invited destruction upon their own heads. For they shall be under Divine wrath, receiving the total loss of good things as the wages of their rage against Christ.

For if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Christ, for of Him he wrote. The verse might appear to a person, and with good reason, to have great obscurity. For he might even without being out of the mark, take to untrue surmises, supposing that the books of Moses excel the words of the Saviour. For the verse hath some such appearance, and as far as one can say, taking it without accurate consideration, it furnishes to the Mosaic writings a more worthy repute than to the words of the Saviour.

For by saying, If ye believe not Ms writings, how shall ye believe My Words, He somehow gives us to understand that the writings of Moses are in a superior position to His Own words. But the very nature of the thing will shew that this so incredible idea is replete with the extremest folly: And it would not perhaps be hard to expend much reasoning hereupon: For why should one waste time making fine distinctions about such things, and mince up what is by no means hard into unseasonable babblings? Some such meaning as this then hath that which is said by the Saviour.

If says He ye who have the Law written by Moses, and thoroughly study his writings, make no account of transgression of them, burying in strange oblivion that which is full often read, how will ye be better disposed to My Words, or how will ye shew yourselves more ready and more obedient to My sayings, since ye have not often nor always attended them, but hear them by the way, and scarce once admit them into the bodily ears?

You shall either clothe the verse in this dress, or you may consider it in another way: The writings of Moses then introduce a kind of preparation for, and typical outline of the Mysteries of Christ, and the elements, so to say, of knowledge of Him are the things limned in Moses, as we shewed more at large by the things already examined.

But the end of the instruction of the Law is Christ, according as it is written, Christ is the fulfilment of the law and the Prophets. They then saith He who received not the elements of the beginning of the words 4 of God, and in their folly thrust away the Law which by its clearer letter leadeth them, how shall they attain to yet more perfect knowledge? That oftentimes the departures of Christ from Jerusalem signify the transferring of His grace to the Gentiles: First I think it needful to tell my hearers, that the Lord evidently did not make His departures from Jerusalem without some most necessary reason.

There is an economy on almost every occasion, and on the nature of things, as on a tablet, He inscribes mysteries. Of what nature then is the intent of the departure, and what is signified thereby, we will make manifest in its proper time, the chapters before us having reached their termination. For having divided every thing into sections, and interpreted what is profitable out of the Scriptures, and so set them before our readers for their understanding, we will offer the final consideration of the whole, epitomising in a summary what has been said in many portions. But I think we ought to speak first on what is now before us.

After these things saith he Jesus departed across the sea of Tiberias. After what things, must be sought not negligently. Christ then was manifested in Jerusalem as a wondrous Physician. He had healed the man who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity, not by giving him any medicine, not by devising any disease-repelling remedy, but rather by a word, as God, by Almighty Authority and God-befitting beck: But since it was the sabbath, the Jews are ignorantly angry, who were sick with the grossness of the letter, who more than he, were bound by the folly that was their foster brother, who were sick of the listless want of all good things alike, who were paralytic in mind and enfeebled in habit, to whom might with reason be said, Strengthen ye, ye weak hands and ye palsied knees.

But they are angry, saying that the honour due to the sabbath ought to be paid even by the Law-giver Himself; they condemn Christ as a transgressor, not admitting into their mind what is written, Impious is he who says to a king, Thou transgressest? For these things they received sharp reproofs from the Saviour, and much and long discourse was prepared to shew that the rest of the sabbath had been typically ordained for them of old and that the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.

But they prepared to no good thing, but full ready for all waywardness, rise up against Him Who teacheth what they ought to learn, and desire to kill Him who would make them wise, rewarding Him, as it is written, evil for good. After these deeds therefore and words, the Lord, as of necessity, departs from Jerusalem, and since the Jews' Passover 5 was nigh as we shall find a little further on He sailed across the sea of Tiberias, or the lake in the country of the Jews so called.

But since what principally drove Him away, and induced Him to withdraw and to go to other places and those so far removed from Jerusalem, was we have just said that the Jews' Passover was nigh, I think it fitting to shew that exceeding well did Jesus eschew being found in Jerusalem at that time. The Law of Moses then commanded that the Jews should hasten from the whole country round about to Jerusalem, there to celebrate in a type the feast of tabernacles.

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And the spiritual person will thence perceive the gathering together of all the Saints into Christ, when they shall be brought together from the whole world after the resurrection of the dead to the city which is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, there to offer the thank-offerings of the true pitching of tabernacles, that is of the framing and abidance of bodies, corruption having been destroyed and death fallen into death.

As far as one can speak as to the fact of history, the multitude of them who went up to Jerusalem knew not number, and it was probable that at that time the Pharisees had great influence, making believe to take the part of the law, and mid so great a multitude crying out against the transgressor, or Him Who seemed to them to transgress. For it is not at all hard to fire up the countless swarm of common people, when one says that they are wronged and endeavours to stir them up even against those that have nothing wronged them. For like water or fire, they are flung about everywhere by unconsidered and random impulses, and advance to everything that can hurt.

These things then the Lord not ignorant of, withdraws privily from Jerusalem with His disciples, and goes across the sea of Tiberias. But that He does exceeding well in shunning the Jews who desire to kill Him, we shall see by these things also. For the blessed Evangelist himself says, And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for He would not walk in Jewry because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.

That He avoids walking in Jewry, in order not to undergo death before His time, I will grant will some one haply say but whether He also avoids the feast, I do not yet know. They then that were reputed His brethren come to Christ in Galilee, saying, Depart hence and go into Judaea, that Thy disciples also may see the works that Thou doest. But the Lord answered them, Go YE up unto the feast, I go not up unto this feast, for My time hath not yet been fulfilled. It is then very plain and clear, that the Saviour had withdrawn from Jerusalem, not only sent into voluntary banishment, so to say, from thence, but also loathing the abomination of the unbelieving, both by His skill eluding the fierceness of His persecutors, and by His prudence thrusting back the dart of envy.

He withdraws again, albeit able to suffer nothing, even though He were present, that He may limn us a fair example, not of cowardice, but of piety and charity towards our neighbour. For we shall know, led as by a pattern to the knowledge of what is profitable, that if our enemies persecute us, even though no harm at all be seen in our remaining, yet by retiring, and thereby evading the broadside of the onslaughts, and retreating from present heat, we may find the anger of those who wrong us beyond its zenith, and may cut away the boldness of their arrogance, profiting those who were not good towards us, and that unjustly, rather than ourselves profited, which is plainly, not seeking our own but also others' good.

The work of love then, is the not wholly withstanding those who wish us evil, nor by being satisfied with not being able to suffer anything even if present, to work in them anger more bitter, from its not being able to attain the mastery over that which is hated. Love then, as Paul says, seeketh not her own, and this was purely in Christ. But if you fix again the keen eye of the understanding upon what is written, you will be surprised to find a most excellent economy in the departures of our Saviour, I mean from Jerusalem.

For He is driven out oftentimes by the mad folly of the Jews, and lodging with the aliens, seems both to be kept safe by them, and to enjoy due honour. Where by He gives judgment of superiority to the Church of the Gentiles, and through the piety of others, convicts them of Israel of their hatred of God, and shews the cruelty that is in them by means of the gentleness that is in these, that in every respect they may be proved to have been well and rightly thrust out of the promise to the fathers.

But the Lord having hastened away from Jerusalem, lodges not at one of the cities round about, nor takes up His abode in the neighbouring villages, but goes across the sea of Tiberias, by a most evident act all but threatening those who blasphemously take up the idea that they ought to persecute Him, that He would so far depart from them and estrange Himself from their whole nation, as even to make the way of their conversion to Him in some sort impassable: Some such thing as this will He be found saying to them in what follows too, Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me, and whither I go, YE cannot come.

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For most smooth and easy and free from ruggedness to those who by faith go to Him is the way of righteousness; rugged and up-hill, yea rather, wholly impassable to them that provoke Him, as is said by one of the holy Prophets, For right are the ways of the Lord, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fail therein. Therefore the intervening tract of sea signifies the toilsomeness yea rather the impassableness by the Jews, of the way to Him, since God declares that He hedges up the ways of the ungodly soul, saying in the Prophets, Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and she shall not find her path.

What then the thorns there signified, this here too the sea in that it separates the Insulted from those who chose recklessly to insult Him, and severs the Holy from the unholy. But the type seems as though it were pregnant to us with yet another hidden mystery.

For when Israel was sent forth from the country of the Egyptians, Pharaoh was following in exceeding exasperation and, maddened at the unexpected well-doing of the nation, was hastening by law of battle to dare his envious and grievous designs; he was following, thinking he should be able to constrain to return to bondage those who had late and hardly slipped away from under his serfdom: But let now too Moses come forward in the midst of us, who lamented beforehand the mad folly of the Jews, and let him in his indignation at their impiety towards Christ say to them, An evil and adulterous generation, do ye thus requite the Lord?

Him that bare thee through the midst of the sea and through mighty waves thou drivest over the sea, and dost thou not blush at persecuting Him? Thine then is the suffering, O Jew: For to the persecutors, not to the persecuted did death belong both then in their case, and now in regard of Christ and of the unholy Jews. The divine David too singeth to us, Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, hinting at the all-dread shipwreck of the Synagogue of the Jews, and entreating not to be swallowed up with them in their depth of ignorance. But in respect of the Egyptians and him that ruled over them, the peril was then of their earthly bodies, but the Jews' conduct being in respect of what is more precious, more severely are they punished; for they undergo punishment of the soul, receiving recompence proportionate to their wickednesses.

For with reason was Pharaoh punished, endeavouring to get what was free into bondage: We must note, that he calls the Lake of Tiberias a sea, in accordance with the words of Divine Scripture, for the gathering together of the waters called the Creator Seas.

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Among profane writers too the word is often indifferently used, insomuch that some do not hesitate sometimes to call the sea a lake. For when Christ had gone forth from Jerusalem, according to that which is said in the Prophets; I have forsaken Mine House, I have left Mine heritage; when having spurned the disobedient and unruly people of the Jews, He gave Himself to the aliens, then a great multitude followeth Him.

But He goeth up into a mountain, according to that surely which He had afore said, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. For He was lifted up from the earth, on ascending the Cross for our sakes; He was lifted up again in another way having ascended as unto a mountain, unto God-befitting honour and glory. For among them He was conceived of as some lowly one and as nothing at all; and verily they would shrink not from calling Him a Samaritan, and with graver dishonour would call Him the carpenter's Son: For you may hear how pious is the purpose of them who followed Him.

For because they saw His miracles upon the infirm, therefore they thought they ought to follow Him more zealously, as being led from the things performed proportionably unto the knowledge of the Performer, and from His God-befitting Authority considering that He who was clothed therewith is by Nature Son. For by this way the Saviour commanded us to advance unto faith in Him.

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As then from the greatness of the beauty of the creatures, their Maker God is seen, so from miracle, by a like process of thought, the Perfecter of signs is seen, and the faith of His followers is rightly marvelled at. But I deem that some more special and not obvious interpretation is concealed in the things said. For we see that the Evangelist says that they who followed Christ were not only glad beholders of miracles, but also of what miracles they were most just admirers.

For he adds, Which He did on them that were diseased, that hence he might shew that the frame of mind of those that followed Him was contrary to that of the Jews. For these because He had healed the sick of the palsy, are impiously angry, but the former not only admire Him for these things when present, but also flock together to Him at His departure, as Wonder-worker and God.

Let us then, who have subscribed 6 unto ourselves Christ as our Lord, flee the ignorance befitting the Jews, let us cleave to Him by patience, as the most wise disciples did enduringly, by no means enduring to depart from Him and be deserters, but by our very deeds crying aloud, that which was valiantly spoken by Paul, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Let us then follow Him, both persecuted and in fleeing from the stubbornness of those who strive against Him, that we may both go up into a mountain and there sit with Him, that is, may spring up into glorious and most excellent grace, by reigning together with Him, according as Himself said, YE which have followed Me in My temptations, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, YE also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Like people well instructed do they that are asked reply. For already do they call Him, Master, thereby clearly signifying their readiness to learn. Then they beg to know His home, as about therein to tell Him at a fit season of their need. For probably they did not think it right to make talk on needful subjects the companion of a journey. Be what is said again to us for a useful pattern. He doth not point out the house, though asked to do it, but rather bids them come forthwith to it: They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: Assiduously did the disciples apply themselves to the attainment of the knowledge of the Divine Mysteries.

For I do not think that a fickle mind beseems those who desire to learn, but rather one most painstaking, and superior to feeble mindedness in good toils, so as during their whole life time to excel in perfect zeal. For this I think the words, they abode with Him that day, darkly signify. But when he says, it was about the tenth hour, we adapting our own discourse to each man's profit, say that in this very thing, the compiler of Divinity through this so subtle handling again teacheth us, that not in the beginning of the present world was the mighty mystery of our Saviour made known, but when time now draws towards its close.

For in the last days, as it is written, we shall be all taught of God. Take again I pray as an image of what has been said about the tenth hour, the disciples cleaving to the Saviour, of whom the holy Evangelist says that having once become His guests they abode with Him: He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

And he brought him to Jesus. They who even now received the talent, straightway make traffic of their talent, and bring it to the Lord. For such are in truth obedient and docile souls, not needing many words for profit, nor bearing the fruit of their instruction, after revolutions of years or months, but attaining the goal of wisdom along with the commencement of their instruction.

For give, it says, instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: Andrew then saves his brother this was Peter , having declared the whole mystery in a brief summary. For we have found, he says, Jesus, as Treasure hid in a field, or as One Pearl of great price, according to the parables in the Gospels. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone.

He after a Divine sort looketh upon him, Who seeth the hearts and reins; and seeth to how great piety the disciple will attain, of how great virtue he will be possessed, and at what consummation he will leave off. For He Who know-eth all things before they be is not ignorant of ought. And herein does He specially instruct him that is called, that being Very God, He hath knowledge untaught.

For not having needed a single word, nor even sought to learn who or whence the man came to Him; He says of what father he was born, and what was his own name, and permits him to be no more called Simon, already exercising lordship and power over him, as being His: Likeminded with those preceding was Philip, and very ready to follow Christ.

For Christ knew that he would be good. Therefore also He says Follow Me, making the word a token of the grace that was upon him, and wherein he bid him follow, testifying to him that most excellent was his conversation. For Ho would not have chosen him, if he had not been altogether good. Exceeding swift was the disciple unto the bearing fruit, that hereby he might shew himself akin in disposition to them that had preceded.

For he findeth Nathanael, not simply meeting him coming along, but making diligent search for him. For he knew that he was most painstaking and fond of learning. Then he says that he had found the Christ Who was heralded through all the Divine Scripture, addressing himself not as to one ignorant, but as to one exceedingly well instructed in the learning both of all-wise Moses and of the prophets. For a not true supposition was prevailing among the Jews as regards our Saviour Jesus Christ, that He should be of the city or village of Nazareth, albeit the Divine Scripture says that He is a Bethlehemite, as far as pertains to this.

And thou, Bethlehem, it says, in the land of Judah, house of Ephrata, art little to be among the thousands of Judah, for out of thee shall He come forth unto Me That is to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. For He was brought up in Nazareth, as the Evangelist himself too somewhere testified, saying, And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; but He was not thence, but whence we said before, yea rather, as the voice of the prophet affirmed.

Philip therefore following the supposition of the Jews says, Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael readily agrees that something great and most fair is that which is expected to appear out of Nazareth 5. It is, I suppose, perfectly clear, that not only did he take Nazareth as a pledge of that which he sought, but bringing together knowledge from the law and Prophets, as one fond of learning he gained swift understanding. Sight will suffice for faith, says he, and having only conversed with. Him you will confess more readily, and will unhesitatingly say that He is indeed the Expected One.

But we must believe that there was a Divine and Ineffable grace, flowing forth with the words of the Saviour, and alluring the souls of the hearers. For so it is written, that all wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His Mouth. For as His word is mighty in power, so too is it efficacious to persuade.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (/) Book 1. pp.

Not having yet used proof by means of signs, Christ endeavoured in another way to persuade both His own disciples, and the wiser of those that came to Him, that He was by Nature Son and God, but for the salvation of all was come in human Form. What then was the mode that led to faith? For knowledge of all things befitteth God Alone.

He receiveth therefore Nathanael, not hurrying him by flatteries to this state, but by those things whereof he was conscious, giving him a pledge, that he knoweth the hearts, as God. Nathanael begins to wonder, and is called to a now firm faith: For very accurate are learning-seeking and pious souls. But perhaps he supposed that somewhat of him had been shewn to the Lord by Philip. The Saviour undid his surmise, saying that even before his meeting and conversing with Philip, He had seen him under the fig-tree, though not present in Body.

Very profitably are both the fig-tree and the place named, pledging to him the truth of his having been seen. For he that has already accurate knowledge of what was with him, will readily be admitted. He knows that God Alone is Searcher of hearts, and giveth to none other of men to understand the mind, considering as is likely that verse in the Psalms, God trieth the hearts and reins.

For as accruing to none else, the Psalmist hath attributed this too as peculiar to the Divine Nature only. When then he knew that the Lord saw his thoughts revolving in his mind in yet voiceless whispers, straightway he calls Him Master, readily entering already into discipleship under Him, and confesses Him Son of God and King of Israel, in Whom are inexistent the Properties of Divinity, and as one well instructed he affirms Him to be wholly and by Nature God.

Thou shalt be firmer unto faith, saith He, when thou seest greater things than these. For he that believed one sign, how shall he not by means of many be altogether bettered, especially since they shall be more wonderful than those now wondered at? Common now to all is the word which seals the faith of Nathanael.

But in saying that angels shall be seen speeding up and down upon the Son of Man, that is, ministering and serving His commands, for the salvation of such as shall believe, He says that then especially shall He be revealed as being by Nature Son of God. For it is not one another that the rational powers serve but surely God. And this does not take away subjection among the angels for this will not be reasonably called bondage.

But we have heard of the Holy Evangelists, that angels came to our Saviour Christ, and ministered unto Him. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. Seasonably comes He at length, to the beginning of miracles, even if He seems to have been called to it without set purpose.

For a marriage feast being held it is clear that it was altogether holily , the mother of the Saviour is present, and Himself also being bidden comes together with His own disciples, to work miracles rather than to feast with them, and yet more to sanctify the very beginning of the birth of man: I mean so far as appertains to the flesh. For it was fitting that He, Who was renewing the very nature of man, and refashioning it all for the better, should not only impart His blessing to those already called into being, but also prepare before grace for those soon to be born, and make holy their entrance into being.

Receive also yet a third reason. It had been said to the woman by God, In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. How then was it not needful that we should thrust off this curse too, or how else could we escape a condemned marriage? This too the Saviour, being loving to man, removes. For He, the Delight and Joy of all, honoured marriage with His Presence, that He might expel the old shame of child-bearing. For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; and old things are passed away, as Paul saith, they are become new. He cometh therefore with. His disciples to the marriage. For it was needful that the lovers of miracles should be present with the Wonderworker, to collect what was wrought as a kind of food to their faith.

But when wine failed the feasters, His mother called the Lord being good according to His wonted Love for man, saying, They have no wine. For since it was in His Power to do whatsoever He would, she urges Him to the miracle. Most excellently did the Saviour fashion for us this discourse also. For it behoved Him not to come hastily to action, nor to appear a Worker of miracles as though of His Own accord, but, being called, hardly to come thereto, and to grant the grace to the necessity rather than to the lookers on. But the issue of things longed for seems somehow to be even more grateful, when granted not off-hand to those who ask for it, but through a little delay put forth to most lovely hope.

Besides, Christ hereby shews that the deepest honour is due to parents, admitting out of reverence to His Mother what He willed not as yet to do. The woman having great influence to the performing of the miracle, prevailed, persuading the Lord, on account of what was fitting, as her Son. She begins the work by preparing the servants of the assembly to obey the things that should be enjoined. And they filled them up to the brim.

Buy for others

And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was but the servants which drew the water knew ; the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

The ministers accomplish what is commanded, and by unspeakable might was the water changed into wine. For what is hard to Him Who can do all things? He that calleth into being things which are not, how will He weary, trans-ordering into what He will things already made? They marvel at the thing, as strange; for such are Christ's works to look upon. But the governor of the feast charges the bridegroom with expending what was better on the latter end of the feast, not unfitly, as appears to me, according to the narration of the story.

Many most excellent things were accomplished at once through the one first miracle. For honourable marriage was sanctified, the curse on women put away for no more in sorrow shall they bring forth children, now Christ has blessed the very beginning of our birth , and the glory of our Saviour shone forth as the sun's rays, and more than this, the disciples are confirmed in faith by the miracle. The historical account then will stop here, but I think we ought to consider the other view of what has been said, and to say what is therein signified.

The Word of God came down then from Heaven, as He Himself saith, in order that having as a Bridegroom, made human nature His own, He might persuade it to bring forth the spiritual offspring of Wisdom. And hence reasonably is the human nature called the bride, the Saviour the Bridegroom; since holy Scripture carries up language from human things to a meaning that is above us. The marriage is consummated on the third day, that is, in the last times of the present world: For thus is the whole of time measured.

And in harmony with this do we see that which is said by one of the prophets, He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His Sight. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord ; His going forth is prepared as the morning.

For He smote us for the transgression of Adam, saying, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. That which was smitten by corruption and death He bound up on the third day: Wherefore He is also called the Firstfruits of them that slept. Therefore in saying it was the third day, whereon the marriage was being consummated, he signifies the last time.

He mentions the place too; for he says it was in Cana of Galilee. Let him that loves learning again note well: For it is Galilee of the gentiles, as the prophet saith. It is I suppose altogether plain, that the synagogue of the Jews rejected the Bridegroom from Heaven, and that the church of the Gentiles received Him, and that very gladly. The Saviour comes to the marriage not of His own accord; for He was being bidden by many voices of the Saints.

But wine failed the feasters; for the law perfected nothing, the Mosaic writing sufficed not for perfect enjoyment, but neither did the measure of implanted sobriety reach forth so as to be able to save us. It was therefore true to say of us too, They have no wine. But the Bounteous God doth not overlook our nature worn out with want of good things.

He set forth wine better than the first, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. And the law hath no perfection in good things, but the Divine instructions of Gospel teaching bring in fullest blessing. The ruler of the feast marvels at the wine: But Christ commandeth it to be given to him first, because, according to the voice of Paul, The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. And let the hearer again consider what I say. The Jews are again hereby too convicted of despising the laws given them, and making of no account the Mosaic writings, looking only to their own love of gain.

For whereas the law commanded that they who were about to enter into the Divine temple should purify themselves in many ways; those who had the power of forbidding it hindered not the bankers or money-changers, and others besides, whose employment was gain, usury and increase, in their lusts for the whole aim of merchants is comprised in these things: For of a truth the Lord's vineyard was destroyed, being taught to trample on the Divine worship itself, and through the sordid love of gain of those set over it left bare to all ignorance. Reasonably is the Saviour indignant at the folly of the Jews.

For it befitted to make the Divine Temple not an house of merchandise, but an house of prayer: But He shows His emotion not by mere words, but with stripes and a scourge thrusts He them forth of the sacred precincts, justly devising for them the punishment befitting slaves; for they would not receive the Son Who through faith maketh free. See I pray well represented as in a picture that which was said through Paul, If any man dishonour the Temple of God, him shall God dishonour. He commands as Lord, He leads by the hand to what is fitting, as teacher; and along with the punishment He sets before them the declaration of their offences, through shame thereof not suffering him that is censured to be angry.

For if it be not so, but the Word be really Son with us, as one of us, to wit by adoption, and the mere Will of the Father: For this I suppose would have been more meet to say, if He had known that Himself too was one of those who are not sons by Nature. For it befits those who are called to sonship and have the honour from without, when they pray to cry, Our Father Which art in Heaven: But if we must, applying ourselves to this passage, harmonize it more spiritually with that above, the lection must be considered differently.

See again the whole scheme of the Dispensation to usward drawn out by two things. For with the Cananites, I mean those of Galilee, Christ both feasts and tarries, and them that bade Him, and hereby honoured Him, He made partakers of His Table; He both aids them by miracles and fills up that which was lacking to their joy and what good thing does He not freely give?

For everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. But the disobedient Jews He shall cast forth of the holy places, and set them without the holy inclosure of the saints; yea, even when they bring sacrifices He will not receive them: For hear Him saying, Take these things hence ; that thou mayest understand again those things which long ago by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah He saith, I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks and of he goats, neither come ye to appear before Me, for who hath required this at your hand?

If ye bring an offering of fine flour, vain is the oblation, incense is an abomination unto Me; your new moons and sabbaths and great day I cannot endure, your fasting and rest and feasts My soul hateth: This He most excellently signifies in type, devising for them the scourge of cords. For scourges are a token of punishment. The disciples in a short time get perfection of knowledge, and comparing what is written with the events, already shew great progress for the better. The multitude of the Jews are startled at the unwonted authority, and they who are over the temple are extremely vexed, deprived of their not easily counted gains.

De Medio Aevo

And they cannot convict Him of not having spoken most rightly in commanding them not to exhibit the Divine Temple as a house of merchandise. But they devise delays to the flight of the merchants, excusing themselves that they ought not to submit to Him off-hand, nor without investigation to receive as Son of God Him Who was witnessed to by no sign. To them who of good purpose ask for good things, God very readily granteth them: Thus the Pharisees demanding a sign in other parts of the Gospels the Saviour convicted saying, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: What therefore He said to those, this to these too with slight change: Nor to those who were in such a state of mind would even this sign have been given, but that it was altogether needful for the salvation of us all.

But we must know that they made this the excuse of their accusation against Him, saying falsely before Pontius Pilate, what they had not heard. Wherefore of them too did Christ speak in the prophets, False witnesses did rise up: But He does not urge them to bloodshed saying, Destroy this Temple, but since He knew that they would straightway do it, He indicates expressively what is about to happen. They mock at the sign, not understanding the depth of the Mystery, but seize on the disease of their own ignorance, as a reasonable excuse for not obeying Him, and considering the difficulty of the thing, they gave heed rather as to one speaking at random, than to one who was promising ought possible to be fulfilled, that that may be shewn to be true that was written of them, Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and ever bow Thou down their backs: For see how foolishly they insult Him, not sparing their own souls.

Therefore when they ought now to deem of Him as Son and God, as shining forth from God the Father, they believe Him to be yet bare man and one of us. Therefore they object the time that has been spent in the building of the Temple, saying, Forty and six years was this Temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days? O drunken with all folly, rightly, I deem, one might say to you, if a wise soul had been implanted in you, if ye believe that your Temple is the House of God, how ought ye not to have held Him to be God by Nature, Who dares fearlessly tell you, Make not My Father's House an House of merchandise?

How then, tell me, should He have need of a long time for the building of one house? For these things the people skilled in the sacred writings ought to have considered. When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them: Acceptable to the wise man is the word of wisdom, and the knowledge of discipline abideth more easily with men of understanding, and as in wax not too hard, the impression of seals is well made, so in the more tender hearts of men the Divine Word is readily infixed: The disciples then, being of a good disposition, become wise, and ruminate the words of divine Scripture, nourishing themselves to more accurate knowledge, and thence coming firmly to belief.

Since the Body of Christ is called a temple also, how is not the Only-Begotten Word Which indwelleth therein, God by Nature, since he that is not God cannot be said to dwell in a Temple? Or let one come forward and say, what saint's body was ever called a temple; but I do not suppose any one can shew this. I say then, what we shall find to be true, if we accurately search the Divine Scripture, that to none of the Saints was such honour attached. And indeed the blessed Baptist, albeit he attained unto the height of all virtue, and suffered none to exceed him in piety, was through the madness of Herod beheaded, and yet is no such thing attributed to him.

On the contrary, the Evangelist devised a grosser word for his remains, saying this too, as appears to me by an oeconomy, in order that the dignity may be reserved to Christ Alone. For he writes thus; And the blood-shedder to wit, Herod, sent and beheaded John in the prison, and his disciples came and took up his carcase 6. If the body of John be called a carcase, whose temple will it be?

In another sense indeed, we are called temples of God, by reason of the Holy Ghost indwelling in us. For we are called the temples of God, and not of ourselves. But haply some one will say: How then, tell me, doth the Saviour Himself call His own Body a carcase, For wheresoever He saith the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. To this we say, that Christ saith this not of His Own Body, but in manner and guise of a parable He signifieth that concourse of the Saints to Him, that shall be at that time when He appeareth again to us, with the holy angels, in the glory of His Father.

For like as, saith He, flocks of carnivorous birds rush down with a sharp whizzing to fallen carcases, so shall ye too be gathered together to Me. Which indeed Paul too doth make known to us, saying, For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible; And again in another place, and we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That therefore which is taken by way of similitude for an image will no wise damage the force of the truth. Christ ceaseth not from saving and helping.

For some He leads to Himself by wise words, the rest startling by God-befitting Power too, He taketh in His net to the faith, by the things which they see Him work persuaded to confess, that the Artificer of these so great wonders is of a truth God. Not firmly established is the judgment of new believers, nor is the mind firmly built upon fresh miracles. And how should they whose course of instruction was yet so to say green, be already rooted in piety?

Therefore Christ doth not yet commit Himself to the novices, shewing that a great thing and most worthy of love is affinity with God, and that it doth not just lie before those who desire to have it, but is achieved by zeal for good, and diligence and time. Let the stewards of the Mysteries of the Saviour hence learn, not suddenly to admit a man within the sacred veils, nor to permit to approach the Divine Tables, neophites untimely baptized and not in right time believing on Christ the Lord of all.

For that He may be an Ensample to us in this also, and may teach us whom fittingly to initiate, He receives indeed the believers, but is seen not yet to have confidence in them, in that He does not commit Himself to them: Divine is this excellence too along with the rest which are in Christ, and in no one of created beings is it. For to Him Alone Who is truly God doth the Psalmist ascribe it, saying, He fashioneth their hearts alike, He considereth all their works.

But if while God Alone understandeth what is in us, Christ understandeth them: For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Though no man knoweth, God will not be ignorant, for neither is He reckoned in the number of all, of whom "No man" may rightly be predicated, but as being external to all, and all things under His Feet, He will know. And Paul too will testify, saying, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart: For as having planted the ear, He hears all things, and as having formed the eye, He observeth.

And indeed He is introduced saying in Job, Who is this that hideth counsel from Me, holding words in his heart, and thinketh to conceal them from Me? In order then that we might acknowledge that the Son is by Nature God, needs does the Evangelist say that He needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. More ready is Nicodemus to believe, but overcome by no good fear, and not despising the opinion of men, he refuses boldness, and is divided in opinion into two, and halts in purpose, feeble upon both his knee joints, as it is written, forced by the convictions of his conscience to the duty of believing by reason of the exceedingness of the miracles, but esteeming the loss of rulership over his own nation a thing not to be borne, for he was a ruler of the Jews.

Deeming that he can both preserve his repute with them, and be a disciple secretly, he cometh to Jesus, making the darkness of the night an aider of his scheme, and by his secret coming convicted of double mindedness. Jesus answered and said unto him. In these words he supposes that he can attain complete piety, and imagines that it will be sufficient for his salvation, to marvel merely at those things which call for wonder: Calling him a Teacher from God, and a co-worker with Him, he does not yet know that He is by Nature God, nor understand the plan of the dispensation with Flesh, but still approaches as to a mere man, and hath but slight conception of Him.

Nicodemus saith unto Him,. Faith consisteth not, O Nicodemus, in what thou thinkest. Speech sufficeth not unto thee for righteousness, neither wilt thou achieve piety by mere words. But the will of the Father is, that man be made partaker of the Holy Ghost, that the citizen of earth reborn unto an unaccustomed and new life, be called a citizen of Heaven.

And the most wise Evangelist again saith of Him, He that cometh from above is above all. But that the Spirit is of the Essence of God the Father we shall speak more largely in its proper place. Nicodemus is convicted hereby of being still carnal, and therefore no way receiving the things of the Spirit of God.

For he thinketh that this so dread and illustrious Mystery is foolishness. And hearing of the birth spiritual and from above, he imagineth the carnal womb returning to birth-pang of things already born, and, not attaining beyond the law of our nature, measureth things Divine; and finding the height of its doctrines unattainable by his own conceptions, he falleth down, and is carried off. For as things that are dashed by mighty blows upon the hard stones again rebound, so too I deem the unskilled mind falling upon conceptions of greater calibre than it, being relaxed returns, and ever glad to remain in the measure that suits it, despises an understanding better and loftier than itself.

In which case the ruler of the Jews now being, receives not the spiritual birth. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Since the man did not understand as he ought, what the need of being born from above meant, He instructs him with plainer teaching, and sets before him the more open knowledge of the Mystery.

For our Lord Jesus Christ was calling the new birth through the Spirit from above, shewing that the Spirit is of the Essence That is above all essences, through Whom we become partakers of the Divine Nature, as enjoying Him Who proceeds from It Essentially, and through Him and in Him re-formed to the Archetype-Beauty, and thus re-born unto newness of life, and re-moulded to the Divine Sonship. But Nicodemus not so understanding the word from above, imagined it was meant that the future birth should take place after the manner of bodies: Of necessity therefore does the Saviour answer yet more mildly, as to one more infirm of habit, and removing the veil that seemed to be thrown over His Words, He now says openly, Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

For since man is compound, and not simple in his nature, being combined of two, to wit, the sensible body and intellectual soul, he will require two-fold healing for his new birth akin to both the fore-named. For by the Spirit is the spirit of man sanctified, by the sanctified water again, his body. For as the water poured into the kettle, being associated with the vigour of fire, receives in itself the impress of its efficacy, so through the inworking of the Spirit the sensible water is trans-elemented to a Divine and ineffable efficacy, and sanctifieth those on whom it comes.

By another argument again He persuades him to mount up to a higher understanding, and on hearing of spiritual birth, not to think of the properties of bodies. For as it is altogether necessary, saith He, that the offspring of flesh should be flesh, so also is it that those of the Spirit should be spirit. For he that walketh simply walketh surely, as saith Solomon. But while the holy Evangelists have a marvellous exactness in writing for it is not they that speak, as the Saviour saith, but the Spirit of the Father which is in them: For course-fellows are they one with, another in the exposition of the Divine dogmas, and loosing as it were from the starting line they course charioteers to one goal.

But a diverse fashion of speech is wrought out by them, and they appear to me to resemble persons, who are ordered to come together unto one city, but care not to approach it by one and the same beaten road. Thus one may see the other Evangelists with great exactness giving the account of our Saviour's genealogy in the Flesh, and bringing down step by step those from Abraham unto Joseph, or again carrying up those from Joseph to Adam. But we find the blessed John not caring to be over-studious about these, but with a most fervent and fire-full motion of intellect endeavouring to lay hold of those very things that are above human mind, and daring to explain the unspeakable and unutterable Generation of God the Word.

For he knew that the glory of God hideth speech, and greater than our idea and utterance is the God-befitting dignity, and hard to utter and most difficult of unfolding are the properties of the Divine Nature. But since it was necessary in some sort to mete out heaven with the span, and to suffer the scant measures of human nature to approach to what is by all unattainable and hard to be explained, that the approach might not be opened out for those who teach otherwise to come against the more simple, in that no voice of the saints who have been eyewitnesses and ministers of the word held in check their ill-surmisings, keen comes he to the very essence of the Divine dogmas, crying aloud, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, was with God and the Word was God: But I think that those who are engaged on the Holy Scriptures ought to admit all writings that are honest and good and free from harm.

For thus collecting together the varied thoughts of many and bringing them together into one scope and understanding, they will mount up to a good measure of knowledge, and imitating the bee, wise workwoman, will compact the sweet honeycomb of the Spirit. Some then of those of most research, say that after our Saviour's Cross and Ascension into Heaven, certain false shepherds and false teachers falling like wild beasts on the Saviour's flocks terrified them not a little, speaking out of their own heart, as it is written, and not out of the mouth of the Lord; yea rather, not merely out of their own heart, but out of the teachings of their own father, I mean the devil.

For if no one can call Jesus Anathema, save in Beelzebub, how is not what we say of them clearly true? What things then are they which these men belched forth against their own head? They ignorantly and impiously affirmed that the Only-Begotten Word of God, the Eternal Light, in Whom we both move and are, was then first called into being, when He was born Man of the Holy Virgin, and taking this our common fashion, shewed Himself upon earth, as it is written, and conversed with men.

On those then who are thus disposed, and who dare to slander the ineffable and eternal Generation of the Son, the word of the Prophet comes heavily, saying thus: But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulteress and the whore, against whom do ye sport yourselves? Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

But since there was no slight disturbance in regard to these things amongst them that had believed, and the ill of the scandal thereof was consuming like a plague the souls of the simpler for some drawn away from the true doctrines by their prattle imagined that the Word was then barely called to the beginning of Being, when He became Man , those of the believers who were wiser being assembled and met together, came to the Disciple of the Saviour I mean this John and declared the disease that was pressing upon the brethren, and unfolded to him the prattle of them that teach otherwise, and besought that he would both strenuously assist themselves with the illumination through the Spirit, 10 and stretch forth a saving hand to those who were already within the devil's meshes.

The disciple grieving then over them that were lost and corrupted in mind, and at the same time thinking it most unnatural to take no forethought for those that should succeed and come after, betakes himself to making the book: That Everlasting and before the ages is the Only-Begotten.

What do they say to this [namely, In the beginning was the Word] who introduce to us the Son, as one new and of late, that so He may no longer be believed to be even God at all. For, says the Divine Scripture, there shall no new God be in thee. How then is He not new, if He were begotten in the last times? For plain is it and confessed by all, that many ages after the blessed Abraham was Christ born of the Holy Virgin.

How at all will the words was in the beginning remain and come to anything, if the Only-Begotten came into being at the close of the ages? See I pray by the following arguments too how great absurdity, this cutting short the Eternal Being of the Son, and imagining that He came into being in the last times, yields. Than the beginning is there nothing older, if it have, retained to itself, the definition of the beginning for a beginning of beginning there cannot be ; or it will wholly depart from being in truth a beginning, if something else be imagined before it and arise before it. Otherwise, if anything can precede what is truly beginning, our language respecting it will go off to infinity, another beginning ever cropping up before, and making second the one under investigation.

There will then be no beginning of beginning, according to exact and true reasoning, but the account of it will recede unto the long-extended and incomprehensive. And 12 since its ever-backward flight has no terminus, and reaches up to the limit of the ages, the Son will be found to have been not made in time, but rather invisibly existing with the Father: But if He was in the beginning, what mind, tell me, can over-leap the force of the was?

When will the was stay as at its terminus, seeing that it ever runs before the pursuing reasoning, and springs forward before the conception that follows it? Astonishment-stricken whereat the Prophet Isaiah says, Who shall declare His generation? For verily lifted from the earth is the tale of the generation of the Only-Begotten, that is, it is above all understanding of those who are on the earth and above all reason, so as to be in short inexplicable. But if it is above our mind and speech, how will He be originate, seeing that our understanding is not powerless to clearly define both as to time and manner things originate?

It is not possible to take beginning, understood in any way of time, of the Only-Begotten, seeing that He is before all time and hath His Being before the ages, and, yet more, the Divine Nature, shuns the limit of a terminus. For It will be ever the same, according to what is sung in the Psalms, But Thou art the Same and Thy years shall have no end. From what beginning then measured in respect of time and dimension will the Son proceed, Who endureth not to hasten to any terminus, in that He is God by Nature, and therefore crieth, I am the Life?

For no beginning will ever be conceived of by itself that does not look to its own end, since beginning is so called in reference to end, end again in reference to beginning. But the beginning we are pointing to in this instance is that relating to time and dimension. Hence, since the Son is elder than the ages themselves, He will be free of any generation in time; and He ever was in the Father as in a Source, according to that which 13 He Himself said, I came forth from the Father and am come.

Nor is it any objection to conceive of the Son being in the Father as in a Source: For in such examples, one may see one thing generated of another, but yet ever co-existing and inseparable, so that one cannot exist of itself apart from the other, and yet preserve the true condition of its own nature. For how can there be sun which has not radiance, or how radiance without sun being within to irradiate it? As then in these, the in-existence of the things that are of them does not take away their co-existence, but indicates the things generated ever keeping pace with their generators and possessed of one nature so to speak with them, so too is it with the Son.

For even if He be conceived and said to be in the Father and of the Father, He will not come before us as alien and strange and a Being second to Him, but as in Him and co-existing ever, and shining forth from Him, according to the ineffable mode of the Divine generation. But that God the Father is spoken of by the saints too as the Beginning of the Son in the sense only of "whence," hear the Psalmist through the Holy Ghost foretelling the second Appearance of our Saviour and saying as to the Son: For the day of the Son's Power is that whereon He shall judge the world and render to every one according to his works.

Yerily shall He then come, Himself in the Father, and having in Himself the Father, the so to say unbeginning Beginning of His Nature in regard only to the "whence," by reason of His Being of the Father. Unto many and various ideas does our discourse respecting the here signified beginning diversify itself, on all sides zealous to capture things that tend to profit, and after the manner of a hound, tracking the true apprehension of the Divine dogmas, and exactitude in the mysteries.

For search, saith the Saviour, the Holy Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me. What then now too will be the nature of the argument in this, it is meet to see. Hazardful have certain, as we said above, asserted that the Word of God was then first called into being, when taking the Temple that is of the Holy Virgin He became Man for us.

What then will be the consequence, if the Son's Nature be thus, or originate and made and of like nature with all things else, to which birth out of not being, and the name and fact of servitude, are rightfully and truly predicated? For what of things that are made can with impunity escape servitude under the God That is Lord of all?

For ready and exceeding prepared unto righteousness is the Throne of the Sovereignty, that I mean which is over all. Ready therefore unto righteousness is the Heaven, that is, the holy spirits in the heavens. For the word was is here put, carrying on the idea of the thinker to some deep and incomprehensible Generation, the Ineffable Generation that is outside of time. For that was, spoken indefinitely, at what point will it rest, its nature being ever to push forward before the pursuing mind, and whatever point of rest any might suppose that it has, that it makes the starting point of its further course?

But if this be true, how is He any longer originate or made? And where the was wholly is, how will the "was not" come in, or what place will it have at all as regards the Son? Having sufficiently shewn that already out of date and astray from the truth is the senseless mind of those who hold such opinions, and having, by saying In the beginning was the Word, closed every loophole to those who say that the Son is of the things that are not, and having utterly stripped off all their nonsense in these words, he goes to another akin and most perverse heresy.

And like as some gardener at once most excellent and enduring, delights much in the toils of the mattock, and girding his loins, and in the working-dress befitting him, gives all diligence to present the appearance of his park free from the unseemliness of thorns, and ceases not throwing one upon another, and, ever going round about, removes the troublesome root, applying the stern tooth of the mattock; so the blessed John too, bearing in his mind the quick and powerful and most sharp word of God and considering with keenest glance and clearest attention the bitter shoots of the naughtiness of those who think otherwise, comes upon them so to speak at a run, and with mighty resolution cuts them off on every side, to those who read his books ministering defence in the right faith.

For see now again I pray, the vigilance of this bearer within him of the Spirit. But since, with the eye of his understanding illumined, he was not ignorant, as we may suppose, that certain would arise, of their great ignorance saying that the Father and Son are one and the same, and distinguishing the Holy Trinity only 17 by name, but not suffering Them to exist in Their several Persons, so that the Father should be conceived of as in truth Father and not Son, the Son again to be by Himself Son, not Father, as the word of truth is: For how can that which is one in number be conceived of as itself with itself, or beside itself?

But that the reasoning of the heretics about these things also will be found without learning, we will teach by the considerations below, making an exact test of the questions regarding it. Proof by demonstration and Scripture testimonies, that the Father is in His Own Person, and the Son likewise, the Holy Ghost being counted with Them as God, even though nothing is for the present enquired into regarding Him.

But even though He be in the Father, and have again the Father in Him, Himself full well, as has been already said, perfectly exact unto the Form of Him Who begat Him, and depicting again in Himself without any shortcome, the Father whence He is: But sameness of Nature will be confessed of Both, yet the Individual Existence of Each will surely follow, so that both the Father should be conceived of as indeed Father, and the Son as Son. If the Son Himself is Father too, what place has the distinction of names?

For if He begat not at all, why is He called Father? How Son, if He were not begotten of the Father? For the Names ask as of necessity such an idea regarding them. But since the Divine Scriptures preach that the Son was Begotten, and the truth is so, He has therefore an existence by Himself.

The Father too is again by Himself, if indeed that which is begotten is plainly one thing from another as regards that which begets. But this is clear and confessed by all. Therefore not one and the same in number are Father and Son, but of distinct Being and beheld in One Another, according to sameness of Essence, even if They be One of One, to wit the Son of the Father. I and My Father are One, said the Saviour, as knowing, that is, that Himself has a separate existence and the Father too. But if the truth of the fact be not so, why did He not, keeping what belongs to oneness, say, I and My Father am One?

But since He explains what He means by the plural number, clearly He overthrows the surmise of those who think otherwise. For we are will not be with sense taken of one. If then the amplitude, if I may so call it, of 19 the Holy Trinity is contracted into a One in number, and they impiously take away from the Father and the Son Their separate Existence: For He ought forsooth to say, if it be as they in their silly nonsense say, Let us make man in my image, after my likeness. But now the writer of the Book, not saying this indeed, but allotting the creation to the plural number and adding Our image, well-nigh with clear and mighty voice proclaims the enumeration of the Holy Trinity to be above One.

For that which is the embrightened, is so in very deed from other, that namely which brightens it, and not itself from itself. How then will He not be Other than the Father in Person and number, when all reason persuades us to conceive of that which proceeds from ought as other than that from whence it proceeded? Not true therefore is the contrary argument. If then the difference of the Names is to contribute nothing to our conception, but when one says the Father, he means the Son, and in naming the Son makes mention of the Father, what need was there of bidding that the believers should be baptized not into Unity but into Trinity?

But since the tale of the Divine Nature runs forth into the number three, it is I suppose wholly manifest to all that Each of those so numbered exists in His Own Person, but by reason of there being no change in the Nature, It arrives at One Godhead and has the same worship. The Divine Scripture says that the cities of the 20 Sodomites were burned by the Anger of God, and explaining how the Divine wrath was brought upon them, and clearly describing the mode of the destruction, The Lord, it says, rained upon Sodom brimstone and fire from, the Lord, since this too is the portion of the cup most befitting those who are wont to commit such sins.

What Lord then from what Lord sent the fire on and consumed the cities of the Sodomites? Since therefore the Lord sends the fire from the Lord upon them, how is not the Father Other, in respect to His own Being, than the Son,, and the Son again than the Father? For the One is here signified as being from One. Moved by prophetic spirit, and through it foreknowing things to come, the blessed Psalmist had perceived that the human race could no otherwise be saved, except by the alone Appearing of the Son of God, Who is able easily to trans-order all things to whatsoever He will.

Wherefore he besought that the Son might be sent to us, as alone able to save those who were under subjection and oppression of the devil, and said, as though to God the Father, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth. For if any imagine that it is not so, but that Father and Son are one and the Same, why does not he who bears within him the Spirit make the fashion of his prayer different and cry, Come to us, O Light and Truth?

The Divine Scriptures say, that through the Son were made all things that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, and thus believing, we the worshippers of the truth go on our way in rightness of conception, 21 and within the dogmas of piety. Let us then scrutinize the expression through the Son, and examine what sense it gives us. It is clear that it would have us conceive of the Doer and Worker as One, Him through Whom all things are wrought as Another. For the expression through the Son gives, as of necessity, a sort of exhibition of two Persons.

Else let them say how the word through the Son in His being said to do anything, will rightly and truly admit the one in number and in the reckoning thereto pertaining, if none other be conceived of with Him and concurring with Him. But I suppose that our opponent will be wholly at a loss. But since both the Divine Scriptures proclaim that the Father hath wrought all things through the Son, and we believe it and I suppose that they too: That the Son is both God by Nature and in no wise either inferior to or unlike the Father.

He who bare within him the Spirit was not ignorant that there should arise some in the last times who should accuse the Essence of the Only Begotten and deny the Lord that bought them, by supposing that the Word Who appeared from God the Father is not by Nature God, but should bring in besides Him some so to speak spurious and false-called god, having about him the name of Sonship and Deity, but not so in truth.

Such do they, who give the Jewish impiety of Arius an abode in their own mind; wherefore they put forth out of a dead heart, no life-giving word of pious thought, but that which looketh and tendeth unto death. Their tongue verily is as an arrow shot out; deceitful the words of their mouth.

As though then some one were already resisting the words of truth, and were almost saying to the Holy Evangelist; The Word was with God, Sir, be it so, we agree fully to what you have written as to this. Be the Father and Exist He separately, and the Son likewise. What now ought one to suppose that the Word is by Nature? What then replies Truth's herald? Not only was the Word with God, but He was also God, that through His being with God, He might be known to be Other than the Father and might be believed to be Son distinct and by Himself; through being 23 God, He might be conceived of as Consubstantial and of Him by Nature, as being both God and coming forth from God.

For it were inconceivable, since the Godhead is by all confessed to be One, that the Holy Trinity should not in every wise arrive at Sameness of Essence and so reach one relation of Godhead. He was then also God. He did not become so at last, but He was, if indeed eternal being will most specially and surely follow on being God: Seeing then that God the Word has Eternity through the word was , Consubstantiality with the Father through being God, how great punishment and vengeance must we needs think that they shall be found to incur, who think that He is in ought whatever inferior, or unlike Him who begat Him, and shudder not to go forward to that height of impiety, as even to dare to utter such things to others also, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm?

But that the Son Who is of Him of a truth is in no wise inferior to the Father, we shall know again from the accompanying considerations. By many and varied names do the Divine Scriptures call the Son. He is called also Righteousness, as, Quicken me in Thy Righteousness: He is called also the Counsel of the Father, as it is said, Thou shalt guide me with Thy Counsel, and again, The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever.

Since then the Son is all these to God the Father, let them tell us who fawn on the error of Arius and are filled with that man's folly, how He is lesser than He. For if they be right, it is time to say that the Father is not wholly wise, not wholly Mighty, not wholly Light, not wholly Truth, not wholly Righteous, yea, not even Perfect 24 in Counsel, if the Son Who is all these to Him, by reason of being inferior is shewn to be not Perfect.

But to think or say thus is impious. Perfect is the Father, because He has all things perfectly in Himself: If the Son having inferiority to God the Father, is worshipped both by us and by the Holy Angels, we shall be taken in the act of serving two gods, since that which lacks perfection will never attain to sameness of essence with the Perfect; but vast is the difference sundering unto alienship things unlike as regards their nature. The charge against the Son then comes to nothing. For how yet will that which is inferior be admitted into unity with the Perfect Father, and be united as to Nature in unity of Essence?

If the Son is fulness for of His fulness have all we received how will what is inferior have a place? If the Son who has the lesser filleth all things, where will the greater of the Father have place? For the argument shall be used in more corporeal form, in the way of example, while the superiority and inferiority in the unembodied is otherwise conceived of. If God is That Which is above every name, and the Son Who is His Heir attains not to be Perfect by reason of the lesser, there is no greatness in that which is above all things, that is God.

But it is absurd either to think or to say this: Perfect therefore is the Son, as being above every name, and God. If the Divine Nature is without quantity, and the lesser is cognizant of degree, how can the Son Who is by Nature God be conceived of as inferior? For He will 25 not be beyond the province of quantity, if they say that He has inferiority to the Father. The blessed John says of the Son that 2 He giveth not the Spirit by measure, to those that is who are worthy.

Since then there is not measure in the Son, He is immeasurable, and surpasses all comprehension in quantity as being God. How then is the not-measured less? If the Son is lesser, the Father greater, differently, it is plain, and in proportion to the measures that Either hath, will they contribute to our sanctification. And the Father will sanctify in a greater degree, the Son in a less and separately.

The Spirit therefore will be twofold, and less in the Son, greater in the Father. And they who are sanctified by the Father will be sanctified perfectly, they who by the Son, not perfectly. But great is the absurdity of reasoning herein. For the mode of the dispensation with Flesh and the humiliation thereupon mentioned, which has the Second Appearance from Heaven as its termination, will not, I suppose, bare the Son of the dignity by Nature belonging to Him.

For He will surely come, as we heard Him say, in the glory of His Father. How then is he at all in the glory of the Perfect Father who is inferior to Him? God the Father is somewhere found to say by one of the prophets, I will not give My glory unto another. We must ask therefore those who impiously dishonour the Son, nay rather through Him the Father too for he that honoureth not the Son, neither doth he honour the Father , 26 whether the Son being, as they suppose, less than God the Father is Consubstantial with Him, or no?

If then they shall say that He is Consubstantial, why do they for nought put on Him the less? For things that are of the same essence and nature, will never have the greater in themselves, as regards the mode of their being: But they will not perhaps agree, nor will grant that the Son is Consubstantial with the Father, He being according to them less: He will therefore be wholly other and alien from the Father. How then has He His glory?

For there was given Him, says blessed Daniel, glory and a kingdom. For either God the Father will lie in saying, I will not give My glory unto another: Others, simple and without connection. For He will be not perfectly free, if He be less in lordship, and have not the full dignity in Himself. For He will be not perfectly Light, but will be in part comprehended by darkness, and the Evangelist will lie in saying, The darkness comprehended it not.

For in us life will not exist in perfect measure, even if Christ dwell in the inner man: But since one must needs put as far away as possible the absurdity of this, we say that Perfect is the Son, being. If the Son be less than the Father, and therefore not Consubstantial; He is as a consequence other by nature and wholly alien: For how will he be called Son who is not of the Father, or how will he be any longer God who is not of God by Nature? But since our faith is in the Son, we are still it seems in error, not knowing the True God.

But this is absurd. Believing therefore in the Son, we believe in the Father too and in the Holy Ghost. The Son is not therefore alien from God the Father as lesser, but has unity with Him, by reason of being of Him by Nature, and is therefore both Equal and Perfect. If God the Word Who beamed forth from God the Father is in truth Son, of necessity must our opponents even against their will confess that He is of the Essence of the Father; for this is what sonship in truth means.

For all things are in perfect degree in God. But if He be not of the Essence of the Father, neither is He Son, but some counterfeit and falsely-called: He Who is of Him by Nature is therefore surely Son: The name of family or fathership not God has of right from us, but we rather clearly received it from Him. And trusty is the word of Paul crying on this wise, Of Whom every family in heaven and earth is named. But since God is that which is most ancient of all, by imitation are we fathers, who are called to His Pattern by reason of our being made after His Image.

Then how, tell me, are we who are made after His Likeness, by nature fathers of our own children, if this be not the case in the Archetype, after Which we too have been formed? How will any one 28 grant that the name of family or fathership passed even unto the rest from God, if He be not in very deed a Father? For, if it were so, the nature of the thing would be wholly overturned and we should rather give to Him to be called Father in imitation of us, than He give it to us.

For this the argument will compel the heretic even against his will to admit. The witness therefore of the truth lies in saying that from Him is every family both in heaven and earth. But to say this is most absurd: He is therefore by Nature the Father of the Word, He begat Him in all respects not unlike Himself, through His having the lesser than whatever Himself has. For we who are made after an imitation of Him, do not so have those that are begotten of us, but altogether equal, as regards the nature. Let not the heretic manifold in arguments deal subtilly with the truth, nor confessing that the Word of God is Son, honour Him in mere words, saying that He is not of the Essence of the Father.

For how is He Son at all, except He be so by Nature? Let them then either, stripping off the mask of hypocrisy, blaspheme openly, confessing that He is neither God nor Son: For how will the Word, being God, admit of the lesser, compared to God the Father? For man will not be greater or less than man, in respect of his being man, nor yet angel than angel, in regard of his being angel, nor ought else of things that are that is con-natural to any-thing whatsoever, and has a share of the same essence allotted to it.

How then will God be less than God in regard to being God? Whence, sirs, did ye get the daring to say that the Son is in lesser condition than He Who begat Him? How will He admit the lesser? As regards the date of being, no one I suppose, even though exceeding silly, would surmise. For before the ages is the Son, and Himself is the Maker of the ages: But neither is He lesser than He in the dimension that belongs to size: How then is the lesser to be taken of Him Who is begotten?

In glory, perhaps one will say, in power, in wisdom. Let them say then, how great and large the Father is herein if one must speak thus , in order that the Son may be conceived of as less, when measured with Him?