rest in his splendid bosom with Isaac, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the holy Spirit be glory, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
NOTICE CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING HOMILY
Savile offers this judgment regarding this homily: "The concise style and thorny argumentation do not savor of the free flow of Chrysostom’s eloquence. However, it is certainly a learned work, and it smacks of antiquity." Dupin thinks it belongs to Severian, bishop of Gabala: if there is anything that could suggest this, it is the frequent skirmishes against the Anomoeans and Arians. But since those disputes raged both at Antioch and at Constantinople, it was as possible for another as for Severian to undertake these arguments. A
ON THE SAYING OF ABRAHAM, "PUT THY HAND UNDER MY THIGH" (Gen. 24.2), AND ON VARIOUS MARTYRS.
1. I marveled with you, O lovers of Christ, at the new mysteries of evangelical grace being preached through the Old Testament; I was enlightened with you in my mind, as I contemplated the apostolic character shining forth in the prophetic utterances. I acknowledge the gain, that I might receive the reward. I saw stupendous mysteries of the Old Testament being preached: Abraham swearing by his thigh, and proposing the thigh, but testifying to the Creator of heaven and earth by his word. For he says, "Put thy hand under my thigh, and swear unto me by the Lord, the God of heaven and the earth." For a question arises. For if it is spoken of on account of the seed that was to bloom from the loins of Jacob, according to that which says, "A ruler shall not depart from Judah, nor a leader from his loins," how then shall the oath be found against the Savior? B Since Isaac had already been born, and the seed had gone forth, and when the oath was made, there was no hope of the seed being in the thigh of Abraham. For Abraham had within himself the saving seed, of which Paul says: "To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made." And considering the letter and interpreting it, he says in the Epistle to the Galatians: "He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many; but as of one: 'And to thy seed,' which is Christ" (Gal. 3.16). It is proven, therefore, that Christ is the seed of Abraham according to the flesh; and reasonably the oath was made by the seed. But the question is, how did he swear by the thigh, as if the saving blossom had already gone forth? But since that member had once been an instrument, and the divine seed had once dwelt there, he swears as if by a temple. C But he who swears by the temple, swears by Him who dwelt therein. Who bears witness to this word? The Savior Himself says to the Pharisees: "Woe unto you, Pharisees, fools and blind, that you say, 'Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.' And what immediately? Fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? Therefore I say unto you: he that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by Him that dwelleth therein" (Matt. 23.16, 17, 21). For just as a royal house, once it has received a king, even if the king should depart to a second or third place, the place is once for all consecrated by having received a king; so too the members of the patriarch, by having once become instruments of the coming dispensation, were a temple of the promised blessing. And the oath is not unjust, but the testimony is true. He swears, therefore, by the seed, and explains what the seed is: "For put thy hand," he says, "under my thigh, and swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and of the earth." Therefore our Savior is the God of heaven and of the earth. D For this reason also in the prophet Zechariah, when various visions were sent and appeared to the holy man, this one thing became a part of a vision: "And I lifted up my eyes," he says, "and looked; and behold a candlestick all of gold, and seven lamps upon the top of it, and seven pipes to the lamps, and seven lamps, and two olive branches, one on the right side of the candlestick, and one on the left." And I said to the angel that spoke to me: "Lord, what are these?" (Zech. 4.2-4). Since it was a vision, showing one thing and producing another for interpretation, and the things appearing were not meaningful of themselves, but indicative of other things, the Prophet asks: "Lord, what are these?" If he were asking about the appearance, he was asking badly. Do you not know what a candlestick is, and what an olive tree is? But the Prophet seeks not the things appearing, but the things contemplated. "What are these?" And the angel [says], "Knowest thou not what these are? No, my Lord." He ingenuously confesses his ignorance, and is instructed by the Truth. He is also a brother to the eunuch who heard from Philip: "Understandest thou what thou readest?" And he, ingenuously: "How can I, except some man should guide me?" (Acts 8.30, 31). "Knowest thou not what these are?" And he says, "No, my Lord." "Who are these two olive branches, which are on the right and on the left of the lampstand?" "These," he says, interpreting the olive trees; he interprets also the candlestick along with the olive trees, what it is. Attend carefully. The candlestick stood, the branches stood by the candlestick; but the angel, interpreting, does not show the olive trees standing by the candlestick, but by God, so that the candlestick is a type of God, or rather of our Savior, and of His incarnate dispensation. "Knowest thou not what these are? No, my Lord." He says: "These are the two sons of fatness, which stand by the Lord of the whole earth," not by the candlestick, according to the appearance, but by the Lord of the whole earth. He introduces a seven-branched candlestick on account of the Lord's incarnate dispensation. For the flesh of the Master was a true candlestick, which showed the illuminations of the holy Spirit with sevenfold grace. For "there shall come forth," says Isaiah, "a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise out of it; and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him" (Isa. 11.1, 2). Which? That which is manifold in its operations, and great in its nature. "The Spirit of God shall rest." Here he interprets the substance, the Spirit himself