is mutable, inasmuch as it is outside the substance of God, and exists from things that do not exist. Therefore, *every man is a liar*, and *all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God*. But the devil, who was in the midst of the cherubim, and had become a seal of likeness, fell from heaven like lightning. And *we* will judge *angels*, those, of course, who did not keep their own principality. And here: if he does not believe against his own children, and simply speaking, created things are of such a nature that they are changed. But the divine nature alone is immutable.
*Beside the papyrus, and the reed, and the sedge.* Perhaps by the reed and the papyrus, Scripture adumbrates the vileness and the poverty of the devil.
*His inward parts are shields of bronze.* B Athanasius. Formerly, the enemy was very much occupied in devising frauds against men, and with his phantasms he deceived many, and his frauds could with difficulty be detected; so that the Spirit said concerning him: *Who will uncover the face of his garment?* and the rest. For he did not appear as what he actually was, but he assumed for himself, though fictitiously, whatever form he wished to use for fraud. Wherefore many were deceived by him; but when the Savior arrived, then all his imposture was exposed. For his deeds, which formerly lay hidden, are known through the grace of Christ; and those things by which he had formerly deceived men, are now trampled underfoot by men. For faith is stronger than every diabolic assault and the fury of the demons. C
ADMONITION TO THE SUBSEQUENT FRAGMENTS ON THE CANTICLE
Photius mentions the expositions of Athanasius on the Song of Songs in these words: He edited, he says, commentaries on Ecclesiastes, and on the Song of Songs, just as he did on the Psalter and on many other things. These fragments, moreover, come from the expositions on the Canticles published by Johannes Meursius in the year 1617.
*In the flocks of thy companions as one wandering.* D He addresses her thus: Know thyself first, that thou mayest be able to know me also. If thou canst not know [thyself]: if thou hast not known, nor dost thou understand thyself, go forth by the heels and footprints and feed thy kids; and instead of virtues, thou shalt nourish sins. *In the tabernacles of the shepherds*, in the concupiscences of the opposing powers, which feed thee.
*I called him, and he did not answer me. I will rise and go about the city.* Athanasius. I will read the Law, I will read the prophets; I will investigate the Gospels. But she, pricked by divine love, says this: *Upon my bed in the nights.* He calls the bed the more perfect participation in the good, and night…
in nights. A He calls "bed" the more perfect participation in the Good, and "night" the time of that bed. By the name of night, he indicates the contemplation of invisible things, after the likeness of Moses, who was in the darkness in which God was.
Of the same. I did not know who it was that wounded me. The Word instilled the knowledge of God into me as I was reclining. Rising quickly, I seek him who wounded me, and I beseech him that he might appear to me, and I go about seeking my kinsman.
"Go forth and see, O daughters of Zion, at king Solomon." He puts the Jews to shame by saying "Go forth," as if to say: "How long will you sit in the shade? For behold, the Lord has risen from Judah, the brightness from the daughters of Jerusalem." The firmness of thoughts, or the inner holy stones. "In the crown with which his mother crowned him." For you set, he says, upon his head a crown of precious stone.
"Let my kinsman descend into his garden." Breathe upon me, O Word, and teach me your utterances, and write your commandments upon the breadth of my heart. I have become prepared, therefore; I am able, helped by your grace and governed by your invisible and omnipotent hand, both to hear divine words and to become a participant in mysteries.
APPENDIX TO THE FRAGMENTS ON THE CANTICLE
ADMONITION
The following homily, a little work by an idle and unskilled man, comes from manuscript codex number 55 of the Ambrosian Library: it was published, as one may judge, at the time when the Manichaeans were causing disturbances in the East, which occurred especially in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries: for that writer mentions the Manichaeans as flourishing at that time. He also testifies that he had visited Jerusalem, where he affirms the place consecrated by the suspension of Christ is situated to the north of Jerusalem. We present these goods, such as they are, to you, learned reader: for even if they are supposititious, they are not without their own fruit, as has been proven by us elsewhere to many.Of the same Saint Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, on the Song of Songs
C 1. Desirable are the words, and lovely, and leading those who are faithful to heaven, providing them also with wings. For divine Scriptures truly instruct the faithful with wings through the desire for heavenly things. Moved by this desire, some one of the saints said, "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and be at rest?" The desire for heavenly things was drawing him, and that mind of the saints, who forget earthly things and carry only care for heavenly things, was adding wings to him. For since they themselves had given their whole mind to heaven, and were held only by the desire for heavenly things, they were coming to the earthly...
A *“I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling.”* Do you see the saints being given wings? For these words truly give them wings. For whose mind has not been given wings upon hearing such reading? See the desire of this blessed soul, which says: *“Awake, O north wind, and come, O south; blow upon my garden, and let my spices flow.”* See the confidence of this blessed soul, the way she encourages temptations for her own probation. *“Awake,”* she says, *“O north wind, and come, O south.”* What she is saying is this: “I am firmly established upon the Rock; let the winds come and strike against me, one from this side and the other from that side; I fear no one; I have the Rock that sustains and carries me. For I built my house upon the Rock, and when the winds came, I was not afraid.” Do you wish to know who this Rock is on which this blessed soul stood? Listen to how Paul interprets it, saying: *“And the Rock was Christ.”* Standing upon this Rock she is not terrified, but neither does she fear the devil coming from the north, nor yet again the one from the south. For since I have been grounded and stand upon the Rock, I fear nothing. Even if death threatens me, I am not terrified; I do not fear persecution. I am ready to confess: I do not fear famine, because the Word is present with me to add strength; and I say, as the most blessed Paul says: *“I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”* If tribulation comes to me, I endure it; if persecution comes, I undergo martyrdom; if famine comes, I have the Word who feeds me; if the sword comes, I have He who penetrates more than any two-edged sword, B as far as the joints and marrow; if the pleasure of the flesh comes to me, I cut it away with the two-edged sword, and I cast it off and make myself a eunuch—not by applying the sword, as some people do, but as the Lord said: *“There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”* For men make other men eunuchs not for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but for the sake of the supremacy of their wives, that they may guard them; and likewise they do this out of pride. Do you wish to hear who they are who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven? Behold, Joseph made himself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. For when he was seized by his mistress in the bedchamber, and no one was in the place, and she was forcing him to satisfy her lust, he made himself a eunuch by not consenting to her. C found alone in the garden; for the two elders seized her, desiring to commit adultery with her (wicked elders, hateful to the Lord), of whom Solomon was speaking, or rather the Lord through Solomon, that: *“My soul hates three kinds of men: the adulterous old man, the proud poor man, and the lying rich man.”* Do you see D
A how truly hateful those elders were in the sight of the Lord? When, therefore, they set upon the blessed Susanna—with no one else present in that place—eager only to satisfy their own lusts, she, having taken counsel within her own mind, made herself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. For no man can guard another man; nor can a mother guard her daughter, nor a handmaid her mistress, unless the pious mind becomes the guardian of the person. Therefore, O man, having made yourself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, and you too, O woman, having understood the saying more securely, examine and prove yourself, saying: *“Awake, O north wind, and come, O south; blow upon my garden, and let my ointments flow forth.”* For when our Lord and Savior was crucified, when the sun was darkened, and the earth was shaken, when the rocks were being split and the graves opened, fear then seized the disciples, who did not yet know the saying: *“I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.”* At that time, the disciples, by reason of their fear of the Jews, were hidden together in a cell. B Let no Jew who is present here mock, nor let any Greek hearing these things burst into laughter. For in this one thing we have our hope; wherefore I speak with boldness. For He who hangs upon the wood, He is our salvation; for the punishment of the cross which He underwent was the cleansing of our sins. And it was a great spectacle that was then taking place, because, while the body was being crucified, sin was falling away. For if He had not been crucified, we would have been smitten with the stripes and the maladies and the infirmities in our body. For the devil, seeing our weakness, boasted against us, rising up against us. For the enemy said: *“I will pursue and I will overtake.”* Therefore, the Lord, having descended, went to no one except the devil; for he was the one who had inflicted wounds upon us and had corrupted us in our infirmities. Wherefore the Lord says: *“Behold, I am against thee, O corrupt mountain, which corrupts the whole earth.”* Therefore, He says: Let not the Jew laugh because the disciples were hidden and the body was crucified. C For while the body was suspended upon the cross, the Word despoiled Hades, and the gatekeepers of Hades, seeing Him, were struck with terror; at which time the women stood by the body in the tomb, weeping.
3. Then let the disciples of the Lord, while hiding in the cell, say: *“Awake, O north wind, and come, O south; blow upon my garden, and let my ointments flow forth.”* Let the body which lies in the north be raised up, and let the Word come from the south. Did the body of the Lord, then, lie toward the north? Truly, we have been in that place where the Lord was crucified, and it was to the north of Jerusalem. D For this reason, David quite cautiously and thoughtfully said: *“Mount Sion, the sides of the north, the city of the great king.”* And therefore, when we went to that place where Christ was crucified, as we stood facing the east and prayed, we found that the very place where the Lord had been fastened to the cross was toward the north.
A Therefore, let the disciples, who were hiding inside the upper room, say: "Arise, O north wind, and come, O south, blow upon my garden" — that is, "Come from the south to the body." For this is also written in the prophets: "God shall come from Theman." After the body had lain toward the north for three days, the Savior came from the south and took the body which was lying in the north, and came to the disciples in the place where they were. Then, finally, when Jesus B entered, the garden was filled with the breath of air, and the spices flowed out. Then the disciples said to the Lord: "O Lord, when You were fastened to the cross and were plundering Hades, we were gathered together with one accord in the room, seeking Your light; and Your presence is light to us; being deprived of it, we were living in great darkness; and this was then said against us: 'Their soul fainted in evils.' For we were living in evils then, not seeing You; but now, having perceived that the north wind has arisen and the south wind has come, we have seen the garden filled with breath and the spices flowing."
4. Then let Thomas come near to contemplate the body, and see the marks of the nails, and say: "The garden is filled with breath and air, and the spices have flowed out." Now our spices are the incorruption which the body put on; for this reason, indeed, Paul said: "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." When did the body put on incorruption, if not when the Word rested in it? Namely, when the Savior rose, and when the women approached to touch Him, He said to them: "Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father." Wherefore, if you have made yourself a eunuch, O man, or you, O woman, hear the longing of that blessed soul, how, inflamed with desire for the Word, she says: "Let my beloved come down into his garden, C and eat the fruit of his apple trees." For at that time she was urging the Word to come down into the garden and eat the fruit of his apple trees; for she considered the garden to be the world, into which she urged Him to come down and eat the fruit of his apple trees; and she held the 'apple trees' to be men, and the 'fruit of the apple trees' to be the works of the Law, which she was asking Him to come down and eat. So we, too, if we have the fruits of the Law ready to offer to the Lord, let us also urge the Word to come down and eat the fruit of His apple trees; for we are His apple trees and His workmanship, created unto good works.
5. Therefore, let us ask Him. How shall we ask? By supplications and prayers, not by crying out with the mouth, but by praying in our own minds within ourselves. D For why do you cry out with a loud voice in prayer, as if God were sleeping? For behold, "He shall not slumber nor sleep, who keeps Israel." This, too, Jeremiah said: "He has watched over my impieties." The same also says Isaiah...
"While you are yet speaking, I will say: Behold, I am here." A For God does not wait for words produced by the lips. Indeed, the Savior said in the Gospel that God knows what you have need of before you ask Him. For this reason, let us not cry out in prayer as if doing a work; but if you pray with your mouth, pray also with your mind. For this is what Paul said: "I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind." "Out of the depths," says another, "I cried to you, O Lord." For this reason also, when that woman in the Books of Kings was praying and crying out, the priest stopped her mouth, thinking she was drunk; and yet she, praying in her mind, was heard and gave birth to Samuel. Why then do you cry out in prayer, as if God did not hear? Hear Him who says: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear?" For if you, because you have ears, can hear, how much more can the maker of ears! Therefore, let us not cry out to the Lord in prayer as if God did not hear, for God hears even those who are silent. You see, then, the longing in this blessed soul, and how she urges Him with these words: "Let my beloved come down into his garden, and let him eat the fruit of his fruit-trees." B And how immediately the Word says: "I have entered my garden, my sister, my bride." Nothing could be faster; for while she was still speaking, He immediately answered. Do you see what is written: "Because while you are still speaking, I will say: Behold, I am here"? For as soon as she urged Him and said, "Come down, O Word, into your garden, and eat the fruit of your fruit-trees," He immediately answered her saying, "I have entered my garden, my sister, my bride."
6. Why does He call her both bride and sister? For no bridegroom calls his bride his sister. But here He calls her both sister and bride, to show that the bridal chamber is not one of fleshly pleasure. C For when He calls her bride, it is for the sake of the Word, who has betrothed the soul. For Paul said the same: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ." But when he calls her sister, it is because of the flesh which He wore. For one of the prophets, signifying this regarding Him, said: "I will declare your name to my brothers." Therefore, let no one think these words to be carnal. For when that blessed soul urged Him, saying, "Let my beloved come down into his garden, and let him eat the fruit of his fruit-trees," when you hear "soul," do not suppose it is one single soul, but the whole world. For this reason, then, let us urge Him, saying: "Come down, O Word, into your garden, and eat the fruit of your fruit-trees"; and He Himself will immediately answer: "I have entered my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spices." D Did you urge me to come down and eat the fruits? Behold, I have come down; give me the fruits. The discourse of the Jews, for its part, brings forth thorns immediately instead of grapes, and thistles instead of figs.
A When did they offer Him these fruits, if not when He was being crucified? For He asked for a drink from the fruits of the vine, and instead of wine they offered Him vinegar. Do you see their fruit, how it was turned into vinegar? Let the Savior therefore say: "You summoned me to come down and eat of the fruit trees, and behold, I have come thirsty, and you have offered me vinegar; and I came again, hungry, to the fig tree, and found only leaves. Would that I had found even leaves alone, and not the tree dried up; for this reason I also cursed it. For I have come down to eat the fruits of the trees, and behold, upon coming down I found blood mingled with blood, fornicators and adulterers, and innocent blood being shed. I found you carving stones and calling them God; B and finally, instead of the fruits of the trees, I found myrrh, and for your sake I am led to death. I have come down to eat the fruits of the trees, and behold, I reap death for your sake; I reap myrrh with aromatics. But would that, once I had reaped the myrrh, you had been saved and had ceased from your evils, and that what is said in the twenty-ninth psalm might not be said against you: 'What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption?' For I have come down for your sake, and have reaped death and myrrh; but not myrrh alone, rather with aromatics. And how with aromatics? For when I reaped the myrrh—that is to say, death—when I was placed in the tomb and raised the body incorrupt, then the aromatics appeared; and the aromatics were the incorruptibility of the body.
7. Therefore He rightly says: 'I have reaped my myrrh with my aromatics; I have eaten my bread with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk.' Do you see the Word, who is made for every age? And to the Jews, who are infants, He gives honey and milk as nourishment; and when you hear of honey and milk, consider the Law; for as to them, being infants, milk was given; but to the perfect, bread and wine are given. For solid food is bread and wine—that is to say, the Gospel. C For this reason, therefore, the Savior rightly says: 'I have eaten my bread with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk.' Do you see how He says the same thing everywhere? For both the New and the Old Testament are His. Therefore, woe to the Jews who eat honey and milk. Likewise also the Manichaeans eat bread and wine; but the Catholic Church eats both together: it eats bread with honey, and drinks wine with milk. And while we eat the bread, we consume the honey together with the Word. It was also written that the lamb should be eaten at the Passover. I take the lamb and I consume it together with the Word; and I do not eat the lamb alone, but also D the Word, who was led as a lamb to the slaughter. Therefore He rightly says: 'I have eaten my bread with my honey, and I have drunk my wine with my milk'; and he immediately continues: 'Eat, my neighbors,'
and straightway he says: "Eat, O my neighbors, and drink, and be inebriated, O brethren." Behold the Savior speaks; to the children He prescribes to eat, to the greater He says: "And drink"; to the perfect He said: "And be inebriated, O brethren." A Indeed, Paul, being perfect and filled with this divine ebriety, was saying: "For whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for you." Do not think, however, that he was beside himself from wine; for he himself gave the precept: "Do not be inebriated with wine, in which is luxury," but writes to Timothy: "Use a little wine for your stomach's sake." If he prescribes this to others, how much more to himself? For he was inebriated with that good and divine ebriety of the Word. May God grant that we also be numbered with him in the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus. Amen. B
MONITION CONCERNING THE SERMONS OR COMMENTARIES ON MATTHEW
Whether Athanasius gave sermons or commentaries on Matthew, or not, was formerly a matter to be weighed merely by conjectures, since the catenae on the Gospel of Matthew, while circulating certain fragments of Athanasius and noting only the name of Athanasius, mentioned neither commentaries nor sermons nor homilies. And because some things of this kind were excerpts taken from works already printed, it occurred to me that the rest, which did not exist in printed editions, were taken from the lost works of the holy Doctor. But now every cause for suspicion or doubt is removed: for in the codices, both Italian and French, which we have recently happened upon, we find the commentaries and sermons of Athanasius on Matthew explicitly mentioned; indeed, we even provide not a few things from the sixth and ninth sermons according to the testimony of manuscripts. Nor is it surprising that these commentaries are sometimes called *hermeneiai*, or interpretations, sometimes *logoi* or sermons, or more properly, books. For this is the custom of the Greeks, that they distribute prolix works and treatises into *logoi* or books. By which reasoning that interpretation on Matthew was distinguished into many books or sermons. And we see in the following that from the interpretation of the Gospel according to Matthew, the sixth sermon is brought forward. These things certainly show that by those words, *hermeneia* and *logos*, which are placed before the interpretations of Athanasius, the same work is meant.
Therefore, we have already published some fragments of these commentaries, taken from manuscripts and catenae, at the end of the works of Athanasius, but generally they were truncated and mangled. Furthermore, since many more things, long unobserved, have recently come to light from manuscripts, we have restored everything to its native order. I confess, however, that because I am accustomed to study brevity, I hesitated for a time whether I ought to publish these newly extracted pieces separately, omitting others already published, and refer the reader from time to time to those already printed. But then, partly by the persuasion of friends, and partly by my own judgment and inclination, I drove away that tiresome scruple; either because it did not seem sufficiently considerate of the reader’s leisure that he should be sent back and forth repeatedly to various places while reading, instead of having everything at once; or especially because those few things already published are for the most part mutilated at the beginning, middle, and end, and sometimes appear from the manuscripts twice or thrice as long.
But because things that exist in foreign places are wont to smell of the foreigner, we confess that we sometimes doubted regarding the fragment torn from the commentary of Athanasius, *On the Nine Incurable Diseases of Herod*, and conjectured it to be among the Athanasian works where chance had carried it. But when, placed in its proper location, it was permissible to compare it with other interpretations on Matthew, we easily recognized in it the hand of Athanasius. Furthermore, what he narrates here concerning the nine diseases of Herod, he has borrowed almost word for word from Josephus; and he discourses learnedly on the birth of Herod from the same Josephus and from Africanus.
Perhaps another scruple might arise, because regarding the interpretation of that text, "Blessed are the clean of heart," Athanasius [uses] that verse of Job, "No one is clean of defilement, even if his life on earth be but of one day," concerning bodily defilements—