SEC. VI ET VII ANNIS INCERTIS. JOBIUS MONACHUS. NOTITIA.
Fabricius, *Bibliothec. Græc.*, vol. IV, p. 474.
Jobius the monk, a man of note in the East after the Council of Chalcedon and before the times of the Heraclians and the Monothelites, and thus flourishing around the beginning of the sixth century, wrote the *Oikonomikē Pragmateia* (a Work on various questions pertaining to the Economy, or Incarnation, of Christ, and the Christian Church), divided into nine books and forty-five chapters. Photius has preserved long excerpts from this work, which we desire today. That James (the Greater, the Apostle) was called “Iōbē” because of his virtue, see page 332; for the reading *Iobias* in Nicetas and in the codices of Eusebius (History, II, 23), one should read *Hōbias*, the “portion of the people.” See Reinesius, *Var. lect.*, III, II, p. 356; and other conjectures concerning this word in Fuller, III, 1, *Miscell. sacr.*; and in Combefis’ *Auctarium novissimum Bibl. Patrum*, p. 541. The heretics noted by name by Jobius are Manes (p. 300), Arius, and those of the party of Macedonius (p. 311). Of the Doctors of the Church, he praises none save Ignatius “the God-bearer” (p. 321) and Gregory the Theologian (p. 315, 316), and Gregory of Nyssa (p. 326). Photius also mentions another work of this Jobius, *Against Severus* of Antioch (p. 298), but puts forward nothing from it, calling the author (p. 323) “a renowned and fervent lover of divine learning.”
(a) Richard Montagu calls him a writer of elegant intellect, though not of the most ancient times, having lived shortly before the Photian period (p. 27, *Analect.*).
(b) Jobius mixes into his work many other questions on different subjects, such as: Why was man created in such a way that he could fall? Why did Moses not begin the history of creation with the angels? Why are there passages in the sacred books, especially of the Old Testament, that are difficult to understand? (p. 324, sqq.); and how Christ died for all men (p. 330, sqq.), but not for the angels (p. 334); and how the angels are confirmed in goodness, but we are not? (p. 338).
JOBII QUAESTIO: QUARE FILIUS INCARNATUS EST, NON AUTEM PATER AUT SPIRITUS.
A I. In the very beginning and foundation of the economy of the incarnation, the reason ought to be set forth and indicated why the Son and Word was incarnate; since the Word of God defends His own cause almost by the things themselves, and does not permit one to be led into error regarding the question, but carries the solution of the difficulty before Himself. Therefore, that...
manger, more loudly than a herald, as a nurse having received the Word wrapped in swaddling clothes, once received both animals designated as clean by the Law, and the unclean, the ox and the ass; and it is a nurse to those by whom the two parts of the world are signified—by the oxen, Israel, subject to the yoke of the law and ordered to be a worker of the commandments; but by the asses, the multitude of the Gentiles, free indeed from the yoke of the law, but having become a seat and a chair for demons. And Habacuc, foretelling the circumstances of the incarnation, says: *In the midst of two animals Thou shalt be known* (Habac. III, 2); for by the mediation of the Word, both nations are joined, and the partition wall of the fence is dissolved; *For in Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision.* And the witness of these things is the great Gregory, saying: B "Adore the manger, through which, while you were without speech, you were nourished by the Word; and know, as the ox knows his owner, as Isaiah commands you (Isa. I, 2), and as the ass knows the manger of his lord; whether you are one of the clean, and under the Law and ruminating the Word, and fit for sacrifice, or of those who are for a time unclean and unoffered, and of the Gentile portion." And the great Basil also: "Even if the heretic reproaches Him with the manger, through which, while He was without speech, He was nourished by the Word."
II. Since the baptism of adoption is the origin, we have been chosen in a different manner by the Spirit; for indeed, at the beginning and origin of baptism, the Spirit visibly appeared to us in the form of a dove; and with the purification, that which makes pure comes forward at the same time; and just as we celebrate the corporal birth of Christ, honoring the day of the manifestation of God, in which the Son was C seen on earth and conversed with men (Baruch III, 38), so also, honoring the day of lights—that is, of illumination—by the name of the manifestation of God, we celebrate it no less also for the Spirit who appeared corporeally to us. Therefore, to those recently baptized, that they might know and believe the dignity of the Spirit who has purified and consecrated them, the gifts of the Spirit have been given as an earnest, a true pledge of adoption. *For because you are sons,* says the Apostle, *God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts* (Galat. IV, 6); and the Savior: *Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit* (Joan. III, 3, 5); and, *You shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire* (Luc. III, 16); and the blessed John: *In this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because of the Spirit which He hath given us* (I Joan. III, 24); and Paul: *In whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption* (Ephes. IV, 30); and many things like these.
III. The (parable) teaches that debt grows into a greater D amount, not that it altogether happens in the same way as the present debt is. For He said this, as it seems, as a just man and a minister requesting this; although the contrary is found in most men. For all the just, through virtue—even if they have previously sinned in something as men—being purified, and paying their debts fourfold as Zacchaeus did, and the reward of manifold labors
A waiting for them, for, "Your reward," He says, "is great in heaven" (Matt. V, 12), they love much. But the multitude of us sinners, swarming with ten thousand wounds, and, as is likely, cleansed in many ways by baptism and otherwise by the divine kindness, yet sinning day by day, and enjoying all good things from God more than the good themselves do, we think little of the divine love which sustains us and heaps us with many gifts. For Job, being blameless, as indeed ten thousand others were alongside him, loved God supremely, not measuring his love by the things that happened to him; but Judas, being a thief and a murderer in his ways, and having received not only the forgiveness of all his own sins, but even the authority to forgive others, became the slayer and betrayer of his Benefactor. And the Jews, though greatly loved and hearing Him who willed to forgive their sins say, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. XV, 24), persecuted and turned away; but the Gentiles, hearing, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs" (Matt. XV, 26), ran to Him. And quickly the just, treading the strait and narrow way and being put to the test by fire and sword, nevertheless remained, holding more and more to the love of God; but the sinners, though prospering and, according to the Scripture, possessing wealth for an age, show no gratitude to the God who benefits them.
If, therefore, we do not understand this according to the stated purpose, what shall we do concerning the contrary parable, in which he who was forgiven the ten thousand talents, thinking little of the love of the one who forgave him, raged against his fellow-servant B? Through this means he insulted even the Master, if it is true that it is His philanthropy to take upon Himself the injuries done to His servants—He from whom also comes the word, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me" (Matt. XXV, 40). The same must be thought regarding the parable of the prodigal and the wise son, the two brothers: not that the affair necessarily proceeded exactly thus, but that the sequence of events demands these things according to the hypothesis, and Scripture thereby exhibits the greatness of God’s generosity toward us, and leads us, if we have need, to run like the prodigal to the father and, by confessing, to receive the petitions for salvation; and in turn to recognize that God, even if we have not been grateful or have not asked, uses generosity. This parable, therefore, and the narrative of the prodigal's need, proves the magnitude of our wickedness and the ineffable love of God toward men, and calls it to remembrance.
IV. For not through a common and habitual operation did He refashion our nature by the Word, but that which He showed toward none of the others—neither toward angels nor any other creative nature—this He endured for the sake of the salvation of men. For having taken the form of a servant instead of a Master, He reasonably speaks of leaving the ninety and nine sheep, as into another more paradoxical and wondrous D [p. 441] form of operation—
the abandonment and alteration of creation—and uses the innovation of custom as a parable; and how He did not establish the whole as it was from the beginning, but brought about a renovation that is new in its aspect and beyond all our reason.
V. Man, having been deprived of these, recovers the signs of adoption from the good God and Father: the magnificent robe, and the ring on his finger, and the fatted calf that was slain—all of which are the indicators of our adoption. For what would the ring on the finger be, if not the gifts of the Spirit, and grace, and the calling unto adoption? For that which is worn on the finger is a ring, and that the Spirit is called a "finger" is testified by the verse: *If I by the finger of God cast out demons* (Luc. xi, 20). B
And I, Jobius the bishop.
I confess the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Word of God who was without flesh from eternity, but who, in the last times, united flesh to Himself from the holy Virgin, and is one and the same God and man, one composite hypostasis and one indivisible person, being mediator between God and men, and uniting created things that were separated with the Creator; consubstantial with God according to the divinity existing in Him from the Father’s substance, and consubstantial with men according to the flesh united to Him from human nature; and [I confess that He is] worshipped and glorified together with His own flesh, because through it redemption from death has come to us, and communion with the Immortal. For the flesh, being supremely united to the Word and never separated from Him, is not of a man, nor of a servant, nor of a created person, but [is the flesh] of the Word of God Himself, of the Creator, consubstantial with God; that is, C [consubstantial with] the incorporeal substance of the ineffable Father. Those, however, who say or teach that the flesh [which is] supremely united to the Word and never separated from Him is consubstantial with God—that is, [consubstantial with] the incorporeal substance—these we shun as [people who cause] dissensions and scandals contrary to the doctrine which we have learned from the beginning, acting in the Churches according to the apostolic admonition, and we consider them aliens, because they oppose ancient tradition and ecclesiastical peace.