From Photius

89 TESTIMONIA VETERUM 90

MONITUM. — I have thought it necessary to use the same caution in citing the writings of the ancients who, in commemorating the works of Chrysostom, have transcribed no small part of them, as I used above in selecting the writers of his life. For if I had woven together his life as it is copiously detailed by so many writers, and had related every testimony of the ancients and the fathers word for word, these surely would have constituted the fourteenth volume—nay, they could scarcely have been comprehended in one volume—and that to no profit, as we have already said above. Therefore, from ^A

EXCERPTS FROM PHOTIUS

I have read the discourses of the blessed Theodoret, which he composed on John, who is among the saints, Chrysostom; of which we have seen five thus far, from which we have transcribed the following selections. The first of these five discourses seems to succeed another prior to it, or to be a part of one. However, it discusses the source from which he came when summoned to Constantinople, and how he became its archbishop, and how he endeavored with all diligence to bring back the priesthood and the episcopal office to the ancient standard; and what he accomplished against Gainas—at once silencing him, that valiant John, and negotiating on behalf of the common interests of the state—and how envy voted his exile. And he passes over some things that occurred to the inspired man until the end of his life, or rather, he passes over most of them. The discourse that follows details certain brief praises, and is itself brief, beginning thus: "Again the memorial of John to us." The one after this also enters into the laws of encomium, but differs from those before it in the beauty of its words and thoughts. It begins as follows: "I see the present subject, needing a trumpet of many voices, now imperiled by a childish tongue, and the beauty of the athlete, described by myriad arts, now weak, set before me, the craftsman, for writing." Such is the prelude. "Another drags him to himself as a helper, being plundered; another calls upon him to be an advocate in a lawsuit; another, hungry, entreats for food, naked for clothing; another strips him; another, mourning, requires comfort; another, in bonds, begs to be released; one drags him elsewhere for the visitation of the sick; a stranger asks for lodging; another, standing by, laments his debt; another calls for him to be an overseer and conciliator of domestic strife. Not even a slave flees to another, lamenting the bitter indignation of his master; a widow cries, 'Have mercy,' another laments her orphanhood. Myriad are the turnings of the father each day toward each one, on behalf of each. Someone is carried off, and the father is the advocate; famine is troublesome, and the nourisher becomes the advocate; someone is sick, and the nourisher is transformed into a physician; someone has fallen into grief, and the nurse is found to be a comfort; the care of strangers has arrived, and he who had become all things is revealed as a host. And what need is there to speak of each one? As much time as measured out his life (not to speak of his episcopate alone), such a variety of saving works, progressing, never ceased among men. O soldier and, even after death, combatant! O formidable to enemies even after the tomb! O harmony of the lyre, loosened by death! O courts deprived of such a regulator! O saving net for men, snatched up to heaven! O tree divided between heaven and earth, providing its body to the one and its soul to the other! The mouth of the Church is enclosed in a tomb. What an eye of piety has been snatched from among men! Thou hast not died, O blessed father, but as the sun hast set; we do not grieve as for one dead, but as for one hidden from us; we do not seek thee as one dead, but as one who has departed to the heavens." But such is the third discourse. The fourth also preserves the type ^B of an encomium, beginning from the necessity of honoring fathers; of which these also are a part: "Of these shepherds, one is also John, the guileless intelligence, the many-eyed mind, the book of evangelical experience, more easily molded than wax for reconciliations, the sea for gifts, the guileless one against the deceits of those warring, the enclosure of the Church; no serpent of hypocrisy escaped him. From whence do you wish that we show John to be precious? From hospitality? And who is more hospitable than John? From the firmness in his administrations? And whom did power overawe? From the zeal regarding the Church? And whose is the harmony of the common folk’s psalmody even until now?" But such is this discourse also. The one that follows weaves the same crowns of praise, but declares the strength of his thoughts somewhat more brilliantly. All five discourses seem to have been composed after his return from exile. The excerpts of the following words are part of the current discourse: "Lend to us, O father, thy lyre, lend unto thy praise thy plectrum. For even if the hands have been loosened by the law of nature, yet the lyre resounds throughout the entire world by the gift of grace. Share with us that immortal tongue; for thy tongue alone is worthy of thy achievements. For this reason John has received John, the bold one the emulator, he who after death reproves him who preaches after death, the citizen of the wilderness the corrector of every city. Thou hast also another kinship with the apostles. Thou first didst plant altars among the wagon-dwelling Scythians; and the barbarian, scarcely leaping from his horses, learned to bend the knee and to be spread out upon the ground; and he who was not softened by the tears of the captives ^C

^A learned to weep for his sins. Nay, you also attacked the Persian archer with your preaching as with an arrow, and those armed with iron adore the Crucified. Your tongue conquered the sorceries of the Chaldeans and Magi, and the parched land of Persia flourished with houses of prayer: Babylon is no longer alien to pious worship. These things joined you to the apostles. The seeds of your tongue still flourish among us; and if anyone names John, a great sound is excited. For the ecclesiastical lyre knows an ancient plectrum, and the syllables of your name suffice instead of fingers. The queenly city saw the veils of the Seres and despised them; it saw the Indian stones and looked down upon them; nor did the flower of Tyrian purple delight it: it longed for the tongue of Chrysostom, pouring forth immortal streams of doctrine. Ancient Ephesus saw you and called you the new John: it saw, and was reminded of the evangelical thunder (Mk. 3:17). ^B Hence, beloved, the flow of speech is roughened. But let us not flee from the roughness, since peace eventually paves a way for the flow. For if, O father, you are indignant against your sailors, if you bear it heavily against your fellow-voyagers, consider that the storm of winter and the surging sea compelled them, even against their will, to cast Jonah into the waves (Jon. 1:15). It was not their hatred, but your exercise: it was not their war, but your struggles that went on; they were not driven away by a brotherly vote, but it was necessary for you to run the stadium of the martyrs. A hidden providence prepared for you the stadiums and places of contest: it was said entirely of you against the common enemy of mankind: *Hast thou considered my servant John?* (Job 1:8). A clear death was indeed owed to a clear life. The devil was fighting against Job, friends also seemed to oppose: therefore at length God heals his friends, and restores the friendly Job to his friends. I think this has happened now too, O father, and I imagine that I see the right hands of the fathers joined together. Job received multiplied possessions: you too have received greater honor from all. The inscription indicates that this final sermon was delivered in the temple of the apostles: the prologue indeed shows that the speaker delivered it after others had spoken: for he says thus: "Since the assembly also stirs me to speak, since I am called by a given signal to the common dance, because it behooves me also to strike the melody for the paternal praises; and many demand the inexorable debt, when there is nothing among us equal to your paternal virtue; lend us, O father John, your lyre."

I read the eulogy of the forty martyrs by John Chrysostom (a). The martyrs are celebrated, not that they may receive praise, but that we may be stirred by their praise to imitation. Both the just and the unjust have suffered hardships; but the former indeed for the exercise of justice, the latter however for the chastisement of sin. Therefore Scripture calls the tortures of the just "tribulations"; but those of sinners, "scourges." *Blessed are your eyes, because they see* (Mt. 13:16), that is, because they learn. For if happiness were from sight alone, the Jews themselves, who saw the Savior with their eyes, would have been blessed. But to see, in Scripture, is to comprehend with the eyes of the mind, and to understand the depths of truth: therefore the ancients called the prophets "seers" (1 Reg. 9:9). The Savior therefore proclaims the organs of virtue blessed, even if in the body they are eyes seeing well, and ears hearing with discretion. For it behooves the hearer to understand, and the one who understands to obey, as it is written: *Hear, O daughter, and see and incline thine ear* (Ps. 44:11); that is, obey, understand. ^C Sicut vas canali fluenti acclinatur, sic auditus justi ad divinæ legis fluenta se inclinat: *Inclinabo enim in parabolam aurem meam* (Ps. 48:5). Why *Inclinabo*? Because every urn receiving water takes the form of the one inclining it; therefore every hearing receiving the streams of the divine word is said to incline itself to them. I declare blessed the ribs of the martyrs, which exhibited the rib of piety as insuperable while they were being lacerated, not casting away piety. For they were beaten for the most part on the ribs, because sin originated from the rib. But sin was not the woman; for she herself is also a creature of God: but because through her, prevarication found a way. The martyrs therefore are beaten on the ribs, whence sin gushed forth. The Savior also for this reason received the lance in his ribs, *And there went out blood and water* (Jn. 19:34), the purgation of the world, and the remedy for that ancient wound. For just as the limbs of the just are celebrated one by one with praises, so the limbs of the impious are marked one by one with infamy and are declared unhappy: *Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the sinner move me* (Ps. 35:12). The foot of pride is the way of pride, but the hand is the action: that is, neither the action of sin, nor the path, nor the progress may befall me. Therefore Moses anoints the right ear of the priest with the blood of the lamb, and the extremity of the right hand and of the right foot (Lev. 8:23): the ear indeed, because it was to be the receptacle of the divine word; the hand, as signifying works; the foot indeed, as a symbol of progress in virtue and perfection. The fountain of the Gospel effects two things: it cleanses and provides drink, it helps those who are thirsty and cleanses sordid souls. *Your reward is copious in heaven* (Mt. 5:12), it is said once in the Gospels. That word, *copiosa*, was said once in the old law to Abraham after he had conquered kings and freed captives, when he would not receive the reward of his labors and the victory he had gained over the captives. For then God said to him: *Fear not, Abraham; thy reward shall be copious exceedingly* (Gen. 15:1). According to the word it was said once and again "copious," but according to the meaning often. For David also said, *Retribution is great* (Ps. 18:12), that is, the reward is great; and elsewhere when God says, *Copious reward*, when you understand that which is promised, understand also that ineffable word, *copious*. For it is one thing to call a reward copious for a farmer, another to call it so for a citizen; greater than both is it to call it copious for a military commander: and that which proceeds from a king is copious, in many parts greater than that which is given by others: but that which is given by God is by far more copious than all, nor can it be explained. Copious therefore is the reward of the martyrs, who are unjustly accused and tortured for God, who suffer evils, and trample upon human glory, like Abraham. For he, when the kings of Gomorrah and Sodom were offering all their cavalry and exhibiting honor because he had freed their wives and children from captivity, spurned their honor, not wishing to receive the reward of his labors from men. Therefore he was held worthy to hear from God: *Thy reward is copious* (Gen. 14:21).

"Σφορωτήρ," he says in Greek, that is, what is called by many the *ligula* ('thong'), and it is called *sphaerotera* because the craftsman often makes it by cutting round leather. Some say the name was given to it because they serve the ankles of the foot."

"Those Twelve *shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel* (Mt. 19:28). Paul also judges the world, the preacher of the world, not only Paul, but also those who feel the same with him: for hear him saying: *Know you not that the saints shall judge this world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?* (1 Cor. 6:2)."

"Another is the vengeance of nations, and another the reproof of the people. For vengeance entirely pertains to the infidels; but to the peoples who do not wish to come to the knowledge, reproofs pertain, not vengeance; for vengeance concerns enemies; but he reproves as Lord, judging sins."

"The soul of the just, when it departs from here, is carried by the hands of angels; who place it in the royal city, which is the heavenly Jerusalem."

On the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.

It is inscribed by the same on the same subject, and is in all respects similar to the one before it. The Jews were permitted to take the wife of a brother who had died without children, which restrained the intermarriage with Gentiles, who were accustomed to run to idols. Since such a marriage was more tolerable for the Jews than idolatry, it was permitted. The daughter of Herodias danced. The price of the festival is worthy of the pleasure of the public celebration. With an oath he promised her whatever she might ask. And this was a heavier addition to the shameful deeds—an unrestricted oath, and this for the sake of a dance! The foolish man subjected the royal authority to the feet of the girl; he gave the dignity of royalty to be trampled upon; by this, he who was a prisoner of desire was made a prisoner by an oath. Unwilling, then, he remains enslaved to the nod of the girl; or rather, man falls again into the snare of Eve. Terrible is the audacity of the request, to take the head of a just man on a platter, and to exchange grief for pleasure, and to make the table a sepulcher. Is it fitting, O miserable one, to give murder as a reward for a dance, and to bestow death as a prize for drunkenness? An oath holds you, but murder forbids it. Does she demand a promise? But it is equal to a dance, not one that even the world is worthy of. Strange is the tribunal of Herod; a table, drunkenness, and dancing were passing judgment. O you who dare unrighteous things under the guise of justice! You pretend to keep an oath, and you are not ashamed to commit murder. Would that you had perjured yourself rightly, and had not sworn an unlawful oath! O banquet of a just man serving up death! O banquet of a guardian of the law being served with blood!

Of the same on the same subject. This discourse seems to be related to the discourses of Chrysostom, but it is not; nor does it show the mind connected to those, just as those two preserve their relationship and continuity with each other, but it proceeds from its own beginning. • "I shall praise John, and make his wisdom known to you all; John, who shared with the Father the proclamation of the Only-Begotten. For the one, from above, bore witness: 'This is my beloved Son' (Matt. III, 17); the other, from below, said: 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world' (John I, 29). And the Father pointed out the beloved through the dove; the other pointed out the Savior of the world with his hand. It was necessary for the voice being born [for the Word, the voice of the Father, to be loosened]. For since Zacharias did not believe that the sterility of Elizabeth was being loosened, the instrument of the tongue was bound, so that no word might proceed from an unbelieving mouth; but when the barren one was being loosened, and the voice came forth, the tongue of Zacharias was also loosened, and the Word proceeded forth. O voice of the eternal [Word], resounding through the world even after death!"

Of the same, Homily 1 on the Holy Spirit. The first homily of Chrysostom on the Holy Spirit was read, the beginning of which is: "Yesterday, O Christ-lovers, the false Christs spoke from themselves, not from the law, not from the prophets, but from their own judgment and impulse. But the Savior did not desist from the law, nor did he abandon the prophets, but he said: 'Now, rightly did Isaiah speak,' and now, is it not written in your law? and ten thousand such things. Since, therefore, those who came before Christ and fraudulently put on his name did not put them forth from the holy Scriptures, but from error, the Savior says: 'I do not speak from myself,' as they do. For to speak from oneself is to speak outside the holy Scriptures. That speaking from oneself is of false Christs and false prophets, God says through the prophet Ezekiel: 'I did not send them; they spoke from themselves, they speak from their heart' (Ezek. XIII, 6). Since, therefore, the false prophets preached from themselves, He, stripping off this suspicion (for the ungrateful nation of the Jews was blaspheming Him as a deceiver, and as deceiving the world), for this reason said: 'I do not speak from myself, but from the Law, from the Prophets; all that I heard from the Father, in the Law, in the Prophets' (He says these things from the perspective of the flesh, and for the dissolution of the impious suspicion); 'but you, all that you heard from your father the devil.' For the things of the father become the inheritance of the children; and for this reason, his things become those of the heirs; so that it is seen as equal here, and they converge on the same point, to speak from themselves and to speak from their father, the devil. Just as Christ, coming, became the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, so also the Spirit is the fulfillment of the Gospel. Christ, coming, confirmed the things said by the Father in the Law and the Prophets; therefore Paul also says: 'Christ is the fulfillment of the Law' (Rom. X, 4); the Holy Spirit, having come, fulfilled the things of the Gospel. All that is in the teaching of Christ, the Spirit fulfills; all that is in the Law, Christ fulfills—not as though the Father were imperfect, but as an interpreter of the things of the Father and a perfecter. And so the Spirit also clarifies and makes plain the things of the Son; for He says: 'I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth,' and so on (John XVI, 12, 13). That He does not speak from Himself; for He does not contradict the Son, but fulfills the things of the Son, in the same way as the Son [fulfills] the things of the Father." How in this discourse you will find at the end, Chrysostom demonstrating that the mission makes neither the Son nor the Spirit lesser than the Father. That even the Father Himself is sent by the Spirit and by the Son, he says in these words: • "If I show you the Creator of heaven and earth being sent by the Spirit and by the Son, what will you do? Either deny Christ, and erase the Scriptures, or, being a servant of the Scriptures, submit to the Scriptures. And where, he says, has this been said? Hear God through the prophet Isaiah saying: 'Hear me, Israel, whom I call.'" And he interprets the whole passage of the place, up to, "And now the Lord hath sent me, and his Spirit" (Isa. XLVIII, 12); he insists that the Father says these things, confirming the discourse from the preceding statements, and making it clear, as if the Father were now the one speaking, and being sent by both the Spirit and the Son.

Of the same, that Christ is the Rising/Sun, and on that: "He ascended and descended" (Luke I, 78; Eph. IV, 10); and that the Holy Spirit is almighty. That God the Word, John says, taking the arm for the dispensation of the Savior and His divinity. • "Though He had done so many signs before them, the Jews did not believe in Him, that the word spoken by Isaiah might be fulfilled: 'Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' (Isa. LIII, 1). Therefore, He Himself is also... to be... He is also Savior, He is also the arm. Justice; for my justice draws near, it will soon come. And for this reason Paul, encompassing all things, refers them to one, saying: 'Who was made unto us wisdom from God, and sanctification, and redemption' (1 Cor. I, 30). This one caused the righteous dawn to rise for us; for 'Behold,' he says, 'I will cause a righteous branch to spring forth for the house of David' (Jer. XXIII, 5). And a righteous king. One, indeed, is the dawn, but many are its rays—rays of loving-kindness, of healing, of peace, of justice, and of countless others. Therefore David also, prophesying, says: 'Justice shall rise in his days, and abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away' (Ps. LXXI, 7). This, then, is the dawn.

^A Exalted ^B, and from the earth; exalted in accordance with his divinity, from the earth in accordance with the dispensation. ›

Of the same, from the discourse on the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that an angel is set over each climate.

‹ The creation served man, not as one worthy—the sun and the moon, the stars, the sea, the earth, and what is in them; not as one worthy, I say, for he was a transgressor and a debtor; but at God’s command it served, in order that the image should not suffer injury from all things, even though it had transgressed. Therefore, when the whole creation was rebelling, God commands the creation not to resist, but for the sun to provide its rays, the earth its fruits, the sea its fish and commerce, and each of the created things its own utility to men. Explaining this concept, the Apostle says: 'For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who made it subject, in hope: because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God' (Rom. VIII, 19-21). That is: as God saw man fallen, and the creation refusing the authority of the sinner, He restrained it even against its will, and commanded it to obey as before, while preserving its royal power by obeying the law. For the creation was ashamed to acknowledge as its lord one who was a captive through transgression, and to serve him whom it saw as a slave to sin. But the Creator commanded it not to deny the transgressor, but to show the immense grace of the common Lord, and the immutability of His beneficence; promising also to the creation that when that corrupt and captive man was renewed and restored to liberty, it too would be renewed. As if he were saying: 'The image has fallen and perishes through the transgression, and is corrupted by the disobedience; yet do not cease serving him who is corrupted by rotting; so that, when I shall renew my image—namely the corrupted man—I may renew you, the creation, as well, and raise you up with glory, you who were his companion in misery.' What does it mean that the creation flees from man's dominion? For he says: 'The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly' (Rom. VIII, 20). To what vanity? From the time man turned away from God, it is called vanity. Hear David singing: 'Surely, vanity is the whole of every living man' (Ps. XXXVIII, 6). Every man is vain who leaves God and follows vain things. God established angels according to the climates, so that they might take care of individuals—as Moses also says, 'of the individual nations' (Deut. XXXII, 8 in the Greek); and He established it so that they might restrain the inanimate creation—the sun, the moon, the sea, the earth, and all things in them—so that they might serve and man might enjoy them. Again, the angels were distressed, serving men who were unworthy and liable to punishment, especially when they saw them showing to idols the worship due to the Lord, and committing abominations. The earth brought forth wine, and the altars received libations. For this reason the angels bore it with difficulty, seeing things that did not exist being worshipped, and not Him who truly is. Hence also another question which is referred to the prophet: 'The angel Gabriel came to him,' he says, 'and said to him: Daniel, servant of God, from the day thou didst set thy heart to afflict thyself in the sight of the Lord, thy prayer has been heard, and I have been sent to tell thee these words. But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me, until Michael came to my aid' (Dan. X, 12, 13). For someone might doubt whether an angel was appointed by God presiding over Persia; and likewise if Gabriel was sent to lead Israel back from captivity, how did the prince of Persia resist him? But the question can be solved in this way. The world was full of idolatry; the angels, however, who were set over the nations, were indignant and distressed. But Daniel, a captive, brought to Babylon with his fellow tribesmen, was preaching the knowledge of God; likewise also the three youths, whom the fire, ^C having changed into a mild breeze by the power of the heat, was cooling; and by this they led many from the error of idols to the true worship of God. The angel, therefore, who had been set over the kingdom of the Persians, rejoiced, seeing in his own parts not idols, but God being worshipped. He saw Nebuchadnezzar, for he who previously was forcing men to sacrifice to idols, and was meting out extreme punishments to those who refused, was now preaching in the manner of a clear theologian, saying: 'Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, servants of the most high God' (Dan. III, 93), and many such things. When, therefore, the blessed Daniel, the seventy years prescribed for the captivity having been completed, asked of God that Israel be led out of captivity, and Gabriel was sent to announce to him their liberation; the curator of the kingdom of the Persians was resisting Gabriel, grieving that the land over which he presided was about to return to its former impiety and error, now that the teachers of piety were being taken away from here. But he was resisting not by fighting, but by stating what was just. 'What,' he says, 'is this haste to return? When Israel was inhabiting its own land, in favorable circumstances, it often lapsed into idolatry; but now, when it lives in a foreign land, it lives piously; and not only does it live piously, but also fights for piety, and converts many of the erring to the true God. Since, therefore, for those accepting grace nothing is to be more useful according to the soul, and those who had begun to worship piety through them are again to be led into the supreme evil, namely impiety; how much better will it be not to reduce Israel from captivity, and to preserve in the same piety those who have been brought to the light of divine knowledge? You were sent, you say, to reduce the people to their fatherland. To what fatherland? Which, while inhabiting it, they defiled, sacrificing to demons and idols? Is it not about these that Jeremiah accuses them, saying: 'According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the crossroads of Jerusalem thou didst sacrifice to Baal' (Jer. XI, 13)? They were then being affected by numberless good things from God, and they did not recede from malice and impiety; now they suffer numberless evils, and they do not recede from God. What, therefore, will be the benefit from their return? The angel's contention, therefore, was not that of evil against good—for the Scripture did not say, 'He fought,' but, 'He resisted.' For a just person often resists a good thing, just as clemency resists law, and law clemency. The law punishes the sinner; but often the king's clemency is moved by compassion toward the sinner, and frees him from punishments. Here, therefore, the struggle was not of an adversary against an adversary, but of kindred against kindred. For neither is justice found without goodness, nor goodness without justice.〉 ^D ‹The creation, he says, as it was told, bearing it with difficulty and being indignant because, even though against its will, it was bringing aid and serving the transgressor, and with the angels grieving at the ungrateful soul of the recipient of benefits, and the whole world being afflicted with evils on account of unrighteous works (For God had seen, he says, that the earth was corrupted; for all flesh had corrupted its way [Gen. VI, 12]. The creation was not such as God had made it from the beginning: the heaven was not shining with stars, as before, without any stain; the earth was not giving, as before, pure fruits, nor the sea, nor anything else among created things. For the transgressor, having entered into it, contaminated and defiled all things, with blasphemies against God and shameful words and murders; the sea with pirates and robbers, the springs and rivers with idolatries, attributing them to nymphs and demons. All creatures were being fashioned by men into gods; but nothing so stains and adulterates the creation as if it were fashioned into God): for this reason the Savior of the world came into it in the flesh, and freeing it from those countless stains, He renewed it, and pulled it away from diseases and affections far more difficult than bodily corruption: He renews the creation by His first coming, so that you may learn that He is the same who created it from the beginning. For it is not for one to create, and for another to renew what is corrupted, but it belongs to the same wisdom and skill to do both.` He renews the creation by His former coming, so that there may be no place for you to doubt that it will not be renewed in His second coming, and that you before it will not be changed into incorruptibility, into impassibility, into ineffable beauty. For if, when Christ willingly was in the infirmity of the flesh, in sweats, in sorrows,

^A when he was slandered as a seducer and a Samaritan, he cleansed the creation of such, so many, and such long-standing sufferings and pollutions; when he shall appear as Judge of the living and the dead, when he is escorted by thousands of angelic orders, when he is Master and Lord of all, when all things shudder and tremble, how is the transformation from corruption into incorruptibility not seen to be the easiest, the most consistent, and the most worthy of God?

That the Savior appears as the prophets foretold, so that no one might think that, in the same way as a man who has missed his first attempt at a scheme and help comes on a second, so also does God. Therefore, that no one might suspect this, the prophets foretold his appearance from above, to show that God is not one who by considering finds what is expedient, but from the beginning foresaw all things. For we human beings do deliberate, and if we fail in our first attempt, we move on to another; but God is not so, but he gave the Law, the prophets, and after these the Gospel—not having learned what was expedient with the passage of time, but knowing from the beginning that it was not possible otherwise for creation and the man within it either to exist, or to be trained, or to receive the dignity of incorruptibility, unless in the way that the ineffable providence and philanthropy ^B of God ordained it.

That they say, if God foresaw that Adam would sin, why did he bring him forth? And there are many and very beautiful solutions to this question, but nonetheless even the wise-in-God John Chrysostom says that, "I do not say only that he foresaw it, but that even having fallen, he would raise him up through the economy. And he did not see the fall first, if not the resurrection. He knew that he would fall, but he pre-arranged the remedy of the resurrection, and permitted man to come to the experience of death, so that he might learn of what he partakes for his own sake, and of what he partakes by the grace of the Creator. He knew Adam would fall, but he saw coming forth from him Abel, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Elijah, the prophets, the marvelous apostles, the nobility of nature, the God-moved, piety-distilling clouds of the martyrs. He saw these, and where was it good, where was it just, where was it God-befitting, that because one man was about to sin, he should not bring him from non-existence, and to cut off the harvest of so many men, of whom the world is not worthy, and to reap root and branch the such-like growth and beauty of the race, and to launch against it the pruning-hook and wrath; and that for the man who later chose the sin, who had neither sinned nor trained himself to sin, inasmuch as he did not even yet exist? For if it is the way of prudent men that having trained oneself to sin, if one has not sinned one is not held liable for the sins, how much more would it be for God to demand the punishments of sinners from one who had not even trained himself to sin? And especially when the sin was serious (for how is the setting aside of a Master’s command not serious?), and yet there followed, by the ineffable philanthropy of the Creator and the first-formed one, the intention of leading him back into his ancient nobility. So if he had not been brought forth because the ^C first-born was about to sin, the Divine would have been shown punishing one who had not yet sinned, and depriving him of the later restoration and salvation, and rendering the creation destitute of so many good and noble men."

That, when the divine Paul says, *Firstborn of all creation* (Col. 1:15), the heretics, he says, not understanding concerning which creation he is speaking, the senseless ones demote the Son to the rank of a creature. But the creation is twofold: for one is that which was made, and the other is that which is renewed; for Paul himself cries out again, *If any one is in Christ, it is a new creation* (II Cor. V, 17). And that he may clearly show that he calls Christ the firstborn of the renewed creation, he adds, *Firstborn from the dead, that he might be preeminent in all things* (Col. I, 18)—preeminent among those being renewed, among those called to incorruptibility, among those being raised from the dead; preeminent not according to his divinity—far be it; for it is an insult to God to be called first of the creatures, he who by an ineffable Word and an inconceivable excellence is raised above and established above every nature; but he is preeminent according to his humanity, having become our leader of the resurrection, and of the transformation from corruption into incorruptibility. For even if Elijah raised the widow’s son, and Elisha the son of the Shunammite, and the Savior himself raised Lazarus on the fourth day, yet none of them did he raise to incorruptibility and immortality: for death mastered them again. But Christ, having risen from the dead, no longer dies, death no longer has mastery over him, and neither over those whom he shall raise at his second appearance. Oh, of your wicked and foolish opinion! Christ came to us, gave us his Spirit, and took up our body, and the exchange proceeded, and having taken our dough he lifted it up and seated it at the right hand of the Father, and ingratitude insults the ^D beneficence. He took from us the creature, and seated it at the right hand of the Father; we received from him the Spirit, and we insult him, numbering him among creatures and servants.

That, he says, petition is said when someone asks God for a thing; but prayer, when he praises God; thanksgiving, when someone for what he has suffered, acknowledges grace to God; intercession, when someone intercedes with God against those who do him injustice, calling him to vengeance. And that to intercede is not, he says, to supplicate, but to ask and receive an answer, God says to Elijah: *What are you doing here, Elijah?* The prophet, being asked, answers: *I have zealously been zealous for the Lord Almighty, because the sons of Israel have forsaken you,* and so on. And there is no petition here, but question and answer, and so the intercession has come about from both. And whence is this clear? Hearken to Paul saying: *Have you not read in Elijah the prophet what the Scripture says? How he intercedes with God against Israel?* (Rom. XI, 2). Therefore, intercession is not petition. But these things are from Chrysostom. It is necessary, however, to examine and contemplate the differences of the said names even more minutely, so that they may be sufficient to be said not by the many, but that they may remain unassailable and unimpeachable for those wishing to test them more rigorously. From the discourse, that the Lawgiver of the Old and New Testament is one; and concerning the garment of the priest, and concerning repentance.

That Paul says: *For I am not ashamed of the Gospel; for it is the power of God for salvation in it is revealed the righteousness of God* (Rom. 1, 16). How then is the righteousness of God revealed in it? How? Since the first law was given to Jews only, and while all other men were of the same creation and nature, the Gospel is equally to all those of the same race; rightly, the righteousness of God is revealed in it, and it is called the Gospel of righteousness. In the Old Testament the calling was not just; for it did not call and enlighten all alike, but the Jews only. Was it not then just, but economical, preparing the way for righteousness? I do not call this just and that unjust, but that one a way to this one, and a preparation for this one. The Jews supposed that the Gospel would also be given to them only, just as the law was; but the expectation turned out contrary to expectation. Wherefore David says: *We hoped* [alt-version omitted]

^A *for our name, O God, so also is thy praise* (Ps. XLVII, 10). *For death reigned from Adam until Moses* (Rom. V, 14), and so forth. And the Savior says concerning the devil: *If Satan cast out Satan, his kingdom is divided* (Matth. XII, 26). Therefore, before the coming of Christ, the devil reigned over the human race, and indeed sin also; for Paul says again: *As sin reigned in our mortal body, so also grace shall reign through Christ* (Rom. V, 21). The Lord has reigned; the empire of sin, of death, and of the devil is finished; let the earth, therefore, exult—the earthly nature that was once wandering, but is now glorious, once in tombs, but now on thrones.

e. *Economies*, he says, there were many in the Old Testament, but the figures and shadows of future things were not entirely acceptable and pleasing to God, but not the things themselves; and one can see in them some figures, and others notions. For example, hyacinth, purple, scarlet, and fine linen are not entirely pleasing to God; for God requires the purity of souls, not the flowers and splendors of bodies, but He depicts the image of the virtues in the elegance of the body. For if He truly rested in those vestments, why did He not clothe Moses before Aaron, but clothed the priests with those things that he himself was not clothed with? And Moses was not washed with water, and yet he washed: why? So that you might learn that these things are not preferred by God; because for a perfect man, virtue is sufficient for his adornment, and because these things were a type of virtue, not virtue itself.

e. On the head, he says, the high priest wore a tiara (Exod. XXVIII, 39); because it was necessary for him who was constituted the head of all to have power in his head, and to know that although he is the head of others, he is nevertheless subject to the Prince, the Lord of all. For absolute authority, and that which is subject to no one's command, is harsh and intolerable. Therefore, in the law of grace, those who are high priests receive the Gospel on their head, so that he who is chosen may know that he receives the true tiara of the Gospel, and although he is constituted the sacred head of others, he is nevertheless subject to the same laws; and although he commands others, he is under the command of the law. For the tiara signified the power which he himself had over the people, and that by which he was carried as subject to God.

e. The golden plate, on which the name of God was inscribed (Exod. XXVIII, 36), was on the breast, bearing the type of the guard of the movements of the heart, and how it behooves those to adapt and refer these to the nod of God. On the shoulders were two emeralds, of which one exhibited six tribes, and the other just as many: they were, moreover, a symbol of the present high priest. For the emerald has both a decent greenness and a resplendent purity, referring to the power of a mirror. For it behooves a priest to be vigilant and sober in his exercises, and to offer his life to his subjects as a mirror. Indeed, the emerald was on the shoulders, because it is a sign of works: for the power of acting depends on the shoulders. Therefore God says to Jerusalem: *Put thy heart upon thy shoulders, O despised daughter, because the Lord creates thee for salvation* (Jer. XXXI, 21). For indeed Scripture accepts hands and shoulders for actions, as when it speaks of David: *And he conducted them in the understanding of his hands* (Ps. LXXVII, 72; Exod. XXVIII, 17). There were also in the rational placed on the breast twelve stones ^B fitted, which signified the twelve tribes. And see: above, indeed, and on the shoulders, there was one nature of the stones, the emerald; but below, and on the breast, twelve: by which it was enigmatically signified that we all proceeded from one nature at first, but in the progress of time were divided by diverse opinions: and it attributes this to opinion, but that to nature. Under the fringe of the priest, which is called the hem, flowers, golden pomegranates, buds, and bells hung. And how were these, as we said before, pleasing to the Lord? But in the vestments of the priest He ordered the virtues to be fashioned; below, flowers and fruits, the works of the virtues: which are almsgiving, justice, and humanity, and the chorus of the rest akin to them.

e. *Do not change*, he says, *the words of the living God*. You have been baptized into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: why do you take away the living names, and induce the names of your own reasonings, saying unbegotten, begotten; always existing, and not always existing? Does God tolerate these empty words? One word, the prophet was once in danger of his life for changing. And see the accuracy of one small word. Some, through ignorance, called the words of the prophets the *burden of the Lord*. The Lord says through Jeremiah: *If the people, or the priest, or the prophet shall question thee, and say unto thee: What is the burden? Say unto them, You are the burden of the Lord: for I will take you up, and I will break you* (Jer. XXIII, 33), do not say, burden. God threatens that one word should not be changed, and you, changing the whole accuracy of the dogmas, think that you can escape the hands of God?

e. Of the same on that (II Cor. XII, 9): *My grace is sufficient for thee; for my power is made perfect in infirmity*. ^C «He came, he says, from the Father, Christ as an ambassador to men; the ambassador was killed, and then there was peace. But ambassadors coming, they both bring gifts, and receive gifts: what gift therefore did He bring, and what gift did He receive? The gift is unexpected, as the ambassador is unexpected: He came bringing His own blood as a gift, and His body as a gift. And what gift did He receive from me? Faith. And what does He give me for it? Grace. I believed, He gave grace: enmity was dissolved. When an ambassador comes to any nation, he does not deign to speak with any commoner or poor man, but immediately approaches the king: but this ambassador came, and immediately spoke with a harlot, a thief, a publican, and a tax collector. Do you see the kindness of the ambassador? For He did not come to one or another, but to the common nature: and He came clothed in my garment, lest by approaching in naked divinity He should terrify the prey.»

e. Of the same on the dictum of the Apostle (I Cor. V, 17): *If any are in Christ, a new creature: the old things have passed away, behold all things have become new*: «The Gentiles and the Jews say, Why does Paul boast? saying, *The old things have passed away, behold all things have become new. If anyone is in Christ, a new creature*. For I, he says, see nothing new. Nor do you have the eyes to see these things: approach, and I will make eyes for you. What do you see? And do you make eyes? Yes. And are you a creator? Entirely. Are you then mad? By no means. Therefore make eyes of the body. By no means; but, what is greater, eyes of the mind. And will you make eyes for me? Yes. For do I not have them? In no way. But you have them? Yes. How? Tell me. When you have gone into the temple, and there see a naked statue, and a dumb stone, and you have said, This is god; do you have eyes? Or does anything useful proceed from the exterior eyes, if the interior ones are blind? Do you see the need for me to make eyes for you, that you may see the stone to be stone, and the wood to be wood? Do you have eyes, when you see a piece of wood and adore it? If I, taking that piece, were to burn it, do you have eyes, you who call that which has been burned, god? When you make passions and vices into gods, do you have eyes? A man is drunk, and is turned around, and is mocked, and instead of a man becomes an irrational creature; you, however, say, Drunkenness is the god Bacchus; theft, the god Mercury. Do you see that you need eyes? The law punishes passions and vices; and do you not notice that you make these into gods? If you wish, however, attend to how all things have been made new. To create is said in Scripture not only to produce from nothing things which did not exist before, but also to change for the better. *God created the heaven*: this is to create from nothing: He creates also when He makes a bad man good: here, truly, creation is the changing of things for the better. And listen to David saying. For when both he and his heart had been created, but had been stained by adultery and murder, and were being carried to corruption, he prays to God and says: *Create a clean heart in me, O God* (Ps. L, 11): not that he did not have a heart before, nor does he speak of the substance of the heart, but of a better condition of life adorning it. Behold, therefore, creation is said not only as a production from nothing, but...

also as a change from an existing state to a better one. Thus, the harlot is created chaste, thus the extortioner merciful, thus the wolf is transformed into a lamb, and the hawk into a dove. Two ^A creations! For this very reason, the laver is also called a creation, I mean the laver of regeneration. For, he says, "putting off the old man, and putting on the new, who is renewed after the image of him who created him." Do you see, then, that there is a new creation? For what use is it to me if there is a new heaven and a new earth, but I have grown old in my sins? The heaven is a house, while I am one living in it and suffering. If a physician enters the house of an invalid and pays no attention to the man, but whitens the walls and gilds the colonnade, would you not say to him, "Man, raise up the sick person; why do you decorate the house? Help him who is lying there." And Christ entered into this world, in which He found my nature lying prostrate and sick, and He accepts the whole struggle for its healing, and He restores and corrects nature. Why, then, do you reproach the physician because He does not do those things, yet again reproach Christ because He does *these* things? Thus the old things have passed away, thus all things have become new, thus it is a new creation. And one could add ten thousand such things.

From the Homily after the Kalends, and against those who are drunk.

^B Christ, having feasted the infinite multitudes in the desert, did not send them away to tents and sleep, but called them to the hearing of divine oracles. Let us do likewise, and accustom ourselves to eat only as much as is needed for life, not as much as would distend and weigh us down. For we were not born and do not live in order to eat and drink, but we eat in order to live; life was not made for the sake of eating, but eating for the sake of life from the beginning. We, however, as if we had come into the world for this reason, consume all things for this end. 276

On the saying of the Apostle: "But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as the others do," etc.

Why is it, when Paul discourses about Christ, he calls His death "death"; but when he speaks of our passing, he calls it "sleep," and not death? For in the same passage, mentioning the passing of men three times, nowhere does he say death, but calls the departure "sleep." He does not use this distinction of terms carelessly, but is establishing something wise and great. For in the case of Christ, he calls it death to confirm the passion, but in our case, sleep, to comfort the pain. Where the resurrection had already progressed, he confidently calls it death; but where it still remains in the realm of hope, he calls it sleep, and by this designation, he comforts us and holds out good hopes for us. For he who sleeps will surely rise again, since death is nothing else than a long-continued sleep.

From the same Chrysostom, from the Homily on Repentance.

The Jews ate manna, and yet they longed for the onions in Egypt; such a shameful thing is habit, and most evil. Even if you succeed for ten days, or twenty, or thirty, I do not love you, I do not give thanks, I do not embrace you; only do not grow weary, but be ashamed and condemn yourself. I spoke again about love. You heard, you went away, and you snatched? Did you not demonstrate the word through works? Do not be ashamed to enter the church again. Be ashamed when sinning, do not be ashamed when repenting. These two things exist: sin and repentance; sin is a wound, repentance is the medicine. In the wound there is putrefaction, in the medicine there is cleansing; in sin there is reproach, laughter; in repentance there is praise, confidence, freedom. But Satan inverts the order, and gives to those who are persuaded by him confidence in sin, and shame in repentance. But do not you be persuaded by him, but strive to assign to each action its proper due.

The vision which Isaiah saw against Judea and Jerusalem.

Tell the vision which you saw. And he says: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken." You promised one thing, and you say another; beginning you said, "Vision against Judea and against Jerusalem," and having abandoned the narrative, you address heaven and earth? Have you left men, and do you address the irrational elements? Yes, he says; since the rational beings have become more irrational than the irrational ones; and not for this reason only, but also because Moses, being about to bring them into the land of promise, and foreseeing the things that were to come to pass, says somewhat as follows: "Hear, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth attend to the words from my mouth." Moses, he says, calls the heaven and the earth to witness for you, O Jews, that if you enter into the land of promise, and abandon the Lord God, you will be dispersed among all nations. Isaiah, then, came, and the threat was about to be fulfilled. He could not call Moses, who was already dead, nor those who had heard him at the time; so he calls the elements, which Moses also called when testifying to them. And yet, he could have called Aaron to testify, and many others; but he would say, I did not call them, because they were about to die, and would not be present as witnesses when Israel deviated into lawlessness; therefore, I rightfully call the remaining elements as witnesses. So also does Isaiah; not only because of what was said, but because, having discoursed to the Jews, he found them not listening to him, he turns to the elements and takes them as his witnesses. Hear, O heaven; for you brought the manna. Give ear, earth; for you gave the quail. Hear, O heaven; for you provided them with things above nature, and you did not disdain the imitation of a threshing floor. Give ear, earth; for you were below, and you set a ready-made table before them. For this reason also another prophet, seeing the king raging, the idol being worshipped, God insulted, the others cowering, addresses his speech to none of these, but turning away, says, "Hear, O altar, hear me." What then? Do you speak to a stone? Yes, he says; since the king is more insensate than a stone. "Hear, O altar, thus says the Lord." And immediately the altar was split, and cracked, and poured out the sacrifice. But the man did not hear, but the king stretches out his hand, wanting to seize the prophet. The

^A faithful man sees the beauty of heaven, and from that beauty praises the Creator. "For I say," he says, "the heavens, the works of your fingers." But the ungodly man, toward Him who is the Creator, does not turn his mind, remaining in the beauty of the heaven; he imagined the Creator from the creation. The godly man does not insult the creation, but he delegates his worship to the Lord, to Him who is the Master of it, not as a fellow-servant; and he does not take away the honor from the Creator to bestow it upon the creature; he praises the diligence, but does not transfer the glory of the artisan to that which he fashioned. But the ungodly man saw it well, but worshipped poorly, and overturned the whole order. ^B "Often Scripture calls the devil a dragon and a tortuous serpent. Therefore the Savior says: Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions (Luke X, 19): and that you may not understand them as reptiles, he added, And upon all the power of the enemy. The dragon and the serpent is the devil, not as the root of wickedness, as the Manichaeans say, but as the prince of demons, and he became to them the author of the fall." ^C From the hortatory sermon on Repentance. On him who said: I will destroy my barns, and will build larger ones (Luke XII, 18), calling to memory the sentence laid down by God, "Open your treasures, and give alms. Make for yourselves treasures that do not fail in heaven, as the Lord commands, you who have collected futile riches from usury and injustice: Make for yourselves friends from mammon, as the Lord commands; that when you fail, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles" (Luke XVI, 9). ^D From the homily on the earthquake, and Lazarus, and the rich man. "I do not cease to speak, even if no one listens. I am a physician, I apply medicines: I am a teacher, I have been commanded to admonish. Do I correct no one? And what is this? But I have my reward. Indeed, I have even spoken with hyperbole: for it is impossible that in such a multitude no one should correct himself. 'I hear,' he says, 'every day, and I do not do it.' Listen, even if you do not do it: for from hearing it comes about that it is done. Even if you do not do it, you will be affected by shame because of the sin; even if you do not do it, your mind is changed; even if you do not do it, you condemn yourself because you do not do it: to charge oneself, however, is the beginning of amendment. When you say, 'Woe is me! I heard and I do not do it,' that 'Woe is me' is the beginning of a change for the better." On that, "Send Lazarus, etc." "And where now are your cupbearers, tapestries, parasites and flatterers (Luke XVI, 24)? Where are the pride and the phantasies? They were leaves, and winter took them away, and all things perished; they were a dream, and the day has risen, and the dream has been dissipated. But why did not the rich man see Noah, or Jacob, or Isaac, but Abraham? Why? Because Abraham was hospitable, and his hospitality is a greater accusation of that man's inhumanity." From a certain homily, That the dead are not so much to be lamented. "Death is a release from anxieties. If death did not exist, we would devour ourselves; if we were not expecting punishment, we would in no way cease from evils. Do you see the kindness of the Master? He made the punishments expected from the transgression an occasion of salvation. If, therefore, he who died was a just man, rejoice, because he has gone to the Lord with confidence: if, however, he was a sinner, do not lament; he has gained this, that he cannot add sins to sins." In the letter to the bishop Cyriacus, which he sent in his second exile, he lashes out at Arsacius, calling him delirious and an adulterer: and he praises those who turn away from his communion, as those who for the sake of God and the injustice brought upon their archbishop decline him: although in other matters he may seem to exhort them not to withdraw from the Church. Later, however, as it seems, he changed his opinion, since those who had unjustly cast him out, not content with the deeds done, were also preparing incursions and traps against those who were attached to him, and were taking care that they be driven into exile. We read Chrysostom’s one hundred and sixty-one homilies on Genesis, distributed into three volumes, of which the first contained twenty, the second sixteen, the third twenty-five. It is indicated, however, in the first that he, when he had begun to preach these from the beginning of Lent, had preached to the people these twenty sermons, and three or four other sermons on Genesis, before it was finished, as necessity it seems demanded. It must be observed, however, that even if the title "sermons" is given in this volume (for thus I found it in those which I read), they seem to be homilies, both for other reasons, and also because in many places, as if seeing present listeners, so he addresses them, asks and answers, and uses promises. Indeed, if the speech had been fashioned in a way other than that of homilies, he could have adorned the discourse with the same figures and tropes, yet not do this so frequently and assiduously, but with a certain temperance. Therefore he himself declares that these are truly homilies. He held them, however, to the people, as we learn from the homilies themselves: often, daily; sometimes, with days intervening. Thus stands the first volume, in which there are twenty homilies. The second volume comprises sixteen sermons, of which he indicates that the first seven were still held in Lent; so that through the whole of Lent up to the great Wednesday he had held twenty-seven sermons on Genesis. The remaining nine sermons of the second volume, and the twenty-five of the third, were not held immediately and continuously after Easter. For after the homily held on the great Wednesday (of the major week), which is the twenty-seventh on Genesis, later he preached about the holy cross, then about the betrayal of Judas, and subsequently as the feast days and the occurring arguments demanded, the homilies were spoken. And after the homilies on the resurrection, he preached frequently on Acts, as he himself indicates at the beginning of the twenty-eighth sermon on Genesis; which sermon, as is plain, and the following ones, he held a long time afterward. For the homilies on Acts are fifty in number: in speaking them he spent almost an entire year. For he did not pronounce them daily, but with five, or seven, or more days interjected: which he declares he had held in the third year of his archbishopric. When, however, he pronounced the homilies on Genesis, we cannot know. Moreover, whether in the twenty-eighth sermon he makes mention of those homilies which he issued in the third year of his archbishopric, or of others on the same matter, I have not yet been able to know. In any case, when he was archbishop, he issued these; namely twenty-seven in the Lent of the second year, the others, however, thirty-four in the fourth year. His diction, however, is clear and pure according to his custom, also splendid and flowing naturally, weaving together a great variety of meanings and an abundance of examples. Yet the diction is so much inferior, having slipped into a humble style of speaking, to the style of the homilies on Acts, as much as these are surpassed by the commentaries on the Apostle and on the Psalms. For everywhere in his works he used purity, splendor, and sagacity joined with sweetness and art; in these commentaries most especially, he shines with ornaments of this kind, with abundance of examples, with a store of enthymemes, and, wherever there is need, even with gravity: and, to speak in one word, with diction, construction, method, thoughts, and the rest of the apparatus, he has famously adorned these expositions. Furthermore, it can be discerned from the commentaries on the Apostle themselves, which ones were elaborated by him at Antioch, because they are more diligently and accurately adorned; and which ones were fashioned while he was archbishop: when, however, he made the commentaries on the Psalms, it is difficult to know: unless someone perhaps should say, admiring the force and excellence of the discourse, that he issued these while living at leisure rather than being involved in public affairs. But if any things were said which needed either interpretation or more attentive speculation, which were not so diligently explained by him, it is not to be wondered at. For he never omitted those things which were accommodated to the grasp of the listeners, or which pertained to their salvation and utility. Wherefore it is natural to wonder at the most blessed